AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry for the week's delay on this, folks-I ended up getting hit with midterms and got busy with election stuff here in the US. Anyway, hopefully I'm back on track now, as we enter the final story arc for ORW VII.

Originally, this chapter was going to have Salem and Dr. Merlot show up, but the bad guys will have to wait until next time.

Peterson Air Force Base

Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States of Canada

9 May 2002

Ruby Rose touched the toe brakes a little too hard and Crescent Rose III jolted to a halt a foot short of the stop line painted on the tarmac. "Yikes," she said aloud, and looked down the row of Ruby Flight, all stopped as well. She had ruined the alignment. Oh well, she thought, not like I'm ever going to be selected for the Thunderbirds anyway. Close enough for government work. She shut down the engine and raised the canopy. Crisp spring air flooded into the cockpit, and Ruby had seen snow on the Rocky Mountains' Front Range on the approach, betraying that winter had not yet completely retreated from Colorado. It was still a rather beautiful day, with just some fluffy cumulus clouds around: a perfect day for flying. A ladder was placed on the canopy rail as Ruby unstrapped and disconnected all the various hookups that connected her to the F-16. Ruby climbed down the ladder and took off her helmet as the ground crew finished chocking her aircraft. The crew chief helpfully held out her helmet bag, and she put it in as Yang sauntered up to her. She ducked under the nose and ostentatiously kicked the F-16's forward landing gear. "You can't park worth a shit, sis."

"Screw you," Ruby replied.

"Ooh, incest."

"I never know what's going on," Weiss sighed as she joined them, followed by Blake. "Of course, none of us know that at the moment."

"Something's up, that's for sure," Blake said. After returning to Luke AFB from California, they had made their report by secure radio to Rissa Arashikaze. The DDI of the CIA had been silent for most of the conversation, then told them to enjoy a few days in Arizona while she talked to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That had turned out to be almost a week. They had taken advantage of it, going to the Grand Canyon, sunbathing at Lake Pleasant (Ruby had bought a far more modest swimsuit for that outing), and going to the Pima Air Museum, where Weiss had observed dryly that Oscar would never be able to quite measure up to old aircraft when it came to Ruby.

Then, the day before, a courier had delivered orders for 1st Lieutenant Ruby Rose, Captain Yang Xiao Long, 1st Lieutenant Marrow Amin, 1st Lieutenant Nora Ren, and Major Pyrrha Nikos, USAF; Captain Blake Belladonna, USMC; Hauptmann Weiss Schnee, Luftwaffe; and Captain Lie Ren, Chinese Unified Air Force. Ruby Flight was ordered to report to Peterson AFB by 1200 Hours 9 May 2002, while Pyrrha and Marrow were ordered to return to Europe to rejoin Ace Flight. The real surprise was that Nora and Ren had been sent to Dingxin, China by civilian transport—Dingxin was the CUAF's flight test establishment. So they had first said their goodbyes to a happy Nora and an exhausted Ren as they boarded a 747 in Phoenix that afternoon for China, then to Pyrrha and Marrow for their flight back to Europe. Then they got a few hours of sleep, rose far too early for Ruby, and flew to Peterson. More mystifying was that they were ordered to bring or purchase their formal uniforms—usually they wore the uniform of the day without ribbons, or flight suits.

They waited for a few minutes, but there didn't seem anyone there to meet them, so Ruby shrugged. "Guess we'd better go check in at Personnel," she said. The other three women nodded, and Ruby Flight began to split up again to unload the luggage pods.

An Air Police car came out from by the control tower and squealed to a halt not too far from Ruby's F-16. She turned as the back door opened up and Riana Arashikaze scrambled out. "Sorry, sorry!" she was yelling even as she jogged towards Ruby. In her business suit and sunglasses, Riana looked like a taller, younger version of her grandmother. "I'm running late! Damn traffic!" She came to a halt in front of Ruby. "Whew! Sorry!" Behind her, a confused looking Air Policeman had gotten out of the police cruiser. Riana thumbed back at him. "Pulled me over for speeding."

The policeman walked forward. "Lieutenant, this woman says she's CIA. Can you verify that?"

Riana whirled around on him. "I showed you my ID! I showed the gate my ID too!"

"Ma'am, we pulled you over doing 60 in a 30 mile an hour zone," the policeman patiently explained. "The only reason you're not in a holding cell is because of that ID."

"I'm running late!"

Ruby put up her hands. "Sarge, she's okay. She's CIA. She's with us. Or we're with her. Something like that."

"Yes, Lieutenant." He nodded to a fuming Riana. "I'll have your car brought to the flightline parking lot, ma'am. Next time, slow down. Like my mama used to say, better late to the pearly gates than right on time in hell."

"Yeah, yeah." Riana waved off the policeman, who returned to his cruiser. She grabbed both of Ruby's hands. "Anyways, hi! Been a bit." She shook hands with all of them. "Hi, Yang—Weiss. Blake."

Blake smiled. "Hi, Riana. Want to go flying again? There's some interesting looking canyons over there around Pike's Peak." She motioned to the Front Range.

Riana laughed, but Ruby noticed she turned a little pale. "No thanks. Though I found out that I'm not afraid of rollercoasters anymore." She took a deep breath and a step back. "Okay. Well, good to see everyone again. Grandmother couldn't make it, but she sends her regards."

"So we're doing more CIA stuff?" Yang sighed. She was getting tired of being a mix of fighter pilot and spy.

"Not this time. Grandmother just sent me because it's less people in the loop…and she figured you might like a friendly face. I'm basically just the messenger this time around…and the chauffeur."

"Where are we going?" Blake asked.

Riana turned and pointed roughly southwest. "There."

Weiss was now the one who looked confused, and Yang and Blake were slow to understand what Riana was pointing at. Ruby wasn't. "The Mountain?"

"There's a lot of mountains," Weiss said with heavy sarcasm.

"That one's not just a mountain, Weissy." Yang finally realized what Riana was pointing at. "That's the Mountain. Cheyenne Mountain. Whoa. Cool."

Ruby soured. "I don't know. Uncle Qrow said to avoid the place like the plague. It's SAC. Spit and polish, regs, bullshit like that. No wonder we had to bring our uniforms." SAC stood for Strategic Air Command, once the crown jewel of the US Air Force. Since the Third World War, SAC had been somewhat superseded by TAC—Tactical Air Command—which did most of the GRIMM killing. Ruby and Yang belonged to TAC. SAC, as far as they were concerned, was the sole purview of fat-bottomed bomber pilots, even if their opinion of bomber pilots had gone up since Poland and Beacon. SAC was known for its emphasis on ironbound regulations, hard checklists, and ridiculous attention to detail. In the minds of Ruby and Yang, TAC's more freewheeling attitude was a lot more comfortable, and they wanted to stay as far away from SAC as possible. Cheyenne Mountain was technically NORAD's headquarters-the North American Aerospace Defense Command-but SAC oversaw most operations there.

"I don't know of anything like that," Riana said, "but that's where we're going. Before you get changed, I do need to make a quick side trip."

"Bathroom?" Yang grinned.

"No…orders. And all of you are also ordered, by the authority invested in me by the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States government, to follow me." Riana walked towards one of the hangars. This one had several Air Police around it. Unlike the cop that had pulled over Riana, these men and women were dressed in camouflage and had slung M16s over their shoulders. Each had to show their ID cards, but they were then allowed to proceed into the hangar. Peterson was home to a C-130 squadron, so the two Hercules transports in the large hangar were not a surprise.

The F-23A Black Widow II sitting between them was.

Yang's mouth fell open. Blake and Ruby laughed and hugged her, and Weiss slapped Yang on the back. There was no doubt who it was for. She turned to Riana. "Mine?"

Riana nodded happily. "All yours. Though Grandmother wanted me to tell you if you lose this one, you'd better walk to California, because Raven Branwen will be the only person that will take you."

Yang shakily stepped forward to run her hands over the pointed nose—painted yellow. "You got Celica out of the lake?"

Riana shook her head. "Afraid not. A team did go in and dived down to it, but it was just too badly damaged to salvage. So, Grandmother and the Air Force got together, pulled this one out of the Air Force Museum, and reconditioned it for you. The Air Force wasn't too happy about it, since you're kind of on their shit list, but apparently General Calavera vouched for you, along with some other people. You've got friends in high places, Yang."

"It's my stunning good looks and big boobs." Despite her flippant reply, Yang was actually fighting back tears. It was like shaking hands with an old friend, thought forever lost. Blake and Weiss joined her, but Riana held Ruby back for a moment, dropping her voice. "Trivia was actually the one who suggested it. She said Yang was one hell of an opponent in that airplane." Ruby nodded, then turned in shock when she realized what Riana was implying. Riana returned the nod. "She got total recall, Ruby. She knows she's Neo Politan—was Neo Politan. And she's pretty torn up about it."

"God, Riana." Ruby remembered Neo grinning satanically at her as the kerasine took hold, when Ruby wasn't sure if the insane assassin was going to skin her alive or rape her. Her hands began to shake.

"Trivia almost killed herself, Ruby. How would you feel if you woke up one day and realized you're a mass murderer?" Riana looked at the concrete floor, stained with oil and hydraulic fluid. "She says she doesn't expect forgiveness from you and doesn't deserve it, but for what it's worth…she's sorry Neo did that to you." Ruby stared at her. "She doesn't consider herself Neo any longer. She's Trivia. And she's also my best friend, weirdly enough."

"So you trust her?" Ruby couldn't keep the hate out of her voice.

"Do you trust Raven? Did you trust Emerald?" Riana shot back, loud enough that the others turned to look at them. "Sorry. Anyway…" She shifted her feet uncomfortably. "I'll meet you in the parking lot in about thirty minutes. Go ahead, get changed and grab a shower. I'm told there's going to be some brass at this briefing, so don't be stinky."

"Briefing?" Weiss asked. "What about?"

Riana hesitated, clearly considering if she should tell them just yet. "You're being assigned to Operation Tsunami."

Ruby Flight did as instructed—they showered, changed into their uniforms, and met Riana in the parking lot, squeezing into a rental car. Riana tore out of the parking lot with a squeal of burning rubber, then remembered and slowed down. They left the base, drove across the southern part of Colorado Springs and past Fort Carson—Ruby thought of Karelia Bighorn-Vlata, the M1 tank commander that had helped save Yang's life, and hoped she had survived Poland. Then they took a side road and stopped at a rather innocuous gate with a few Air Policemen, nothing different than would be found at any other USAF base. They showed their IDs and were let through with a sharp salute.

Riana drove the car further up the winding mountain road, and were quickly surrounded by sweet-smelling pine trees and scattered snowdrifts. A few more curves and they came to another gate, this one with a pair of HMMWVs and more Air Police, but these were no longer in the blue uniforms worn by those at the first gate. Just like the ones at the hangar, these were unsmiling guards wearing camouflage, with assault rifles slung over their shoulders. It wasn't enough to show ID cards here: they had to get out of the car and were searched by a female officer, and the car itself was thoroughly searched as well. After twenty minutes, they were allowed to drive through and park in the lot. They were then transferred to an open-topped jeep and driven into the mountain, entering under a curved portal with the simple legend CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX.

"Whoa," Yang commented. "Always wanted to check this place out." She brushed some of her hair out of her face as they drove down a wide tunnel lined with pipes and more guards. "Wonder if they'll let us see the Big Board like in the movies?"

The airman driving the jeep couldn't resist a laugh at that. "Sure, ma'am, we can go by there real quick."

They stopped in front of a titanic blast door and dismounted. The airman showed them through the door. "How big is that?" Ruby asked.

"25 tons," the airman answered. "We can survive a detonation of a three megaton nuclear device from a mile away. 'Course, they started building this place before the Big One in '62, and nobody has nukes anymore…" The airman's voice trailed off, as he remembered that someone did, and that someone had detonated one only half a year previously. "In any case, let me show you the main command center."

Ruby, like Yang, expected something out of a James Bond movie, with a giant wall of screens bigger than a movie theater, with rows of computers lined up rising up to a main command center, with polished floors with the NORAD emblem worked into it. The hallways would, of course, be painted black, cut out of the living rock, with guards at every door. When they actually entered the command center, the floors were carpeted, the monitors were arranged in several rows on the same level, and while there were monitors on the wall, they were relatively small ones. The walls were painted the same dull color as most administrative hallways in USAF bases. Raven's mission control center at Vandenberg had been more impressive. The hallways were the same color, and there were no guards inside the complex itself, just men and women walking around in fatigues as they would be at any other base. The only real difference was that there were no windows, and the fact that they were two thousand feet underground.

"Well, hell," Yang sighed. "I'm underwhelmed."

"Sorry to disappoint, ma'am," the airman said, stifling a laugh in front of the officers. "Please follow me." He led them out of the command center, down another boring (if narrow) hallway, and to a briefing room. This room at least looked the part: a square table with a glass cover that clearly could have a map projected onto it, with monitors on the wall and comfortable looking chairs around the table. The room was empty except for a woman dressed in a US Army uniform, who was watching one of the monitors tuned to CNN. She turned when they walked in, and her face lit up in a huge grin. "Well, I'll be damned! Suds!"

"Princess!" Yang ran over to Otome Higurashi, and hugged the shorter woman so hard it lifted her off the ground. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Same reason as you." Otome managed to pry Yang off. "Captain Belladonna, Hauptmann Schnee—good to see you again." She walked over to Ruby and put a hand out. "Capt—er, Lieutenant Rose, I'm Major Otome Higurashi. Delta Force. We met in Bohemia, but I don't know if you remember."

"We met at the airfield in Romania," Ruby reminded her. "When you killed Neo Politan." She couldn't resist a glance at Riana, who was taking a great and utterly synthetic interest in the television, which was showing a commercial about car insurance.

"Oh, that's right," Otome said. "Sorry. That was a long couple of days." She winced. "As you know only too well." She looked at the three rows of ribbons over Ruby's left breast, topped by the French Legion of Honor and silver pilot's wings. Ruby returned the favor: Otome had three rows as well, but they were mostly ribbons she didn't recognize, along with some foreign looking awards she didn't either—but she did recognize the master jump wings, Combat Infantry Badge, and the Ranger and Special Forces tabs on her shoulders. And the Silver Star atop her ribbons. Otome noticed her gaze and smiled. "Got that one for the Warsaw mission. Where did you get the Legion of Honor?"

"Algiers," Ruby answered.

"We've both been around the block, haven't we?" Otome slapped her on the shoulder. "Good to see you doing better, Lieutenant. Sorry about the demotion."

She opened her mouth to say more, but the airman at the door suddenly barked. "Attention! General officers present!" All six women—including Riana—snapped to attention, and Ruby resisted her jaw dropping like Yang had seeing the new Black Widow. The three men who entered were an Air Force Brigadier General, a Marine Brigadier General, and a Navy Rear Admiral. They wore their uniforms as well, and their ribbon rows made both Ruby's and Otome's look paltry. The Marine general wore an eyepatch, and she saw the pockmarked scars on his face. Holy shit, did he jump on a grenade or something?

"At ease, ladies," the USAF general said. He was a tall African-American with a mustache, and Ruby suddenly recognized him: he was an ace with 65 victories, the first American to break the so-called Bong Limit. "Have a seat. I'm Brigadier General James Hollingsworth." He motioned to the other men. "Brigadier General John Ryan and Rear Admiral David Dyson." It fell to Ruby to introduce her flight, after Riana had introduced herself as the CIA liasion and Otome as the representative of JSOCOM, the Joint Special Operations Command of the military. Dyson gave each woman a friendly nod, while Hollingsworth looked noncommital to each of them. Ryan gave Riana a look that would freeze a nuclear reactor, and the looks he spared Ruby Flight were not much better—even Blake, which meant it wasn't the usual scowl Marines reserved for non-Marines. The airman left the room and closed the door behind him.

All of them sat, except for Hollingsworth. "Ladies, the reason you've been asked here comes at the request of the CIA. To be honest with you, I wasn't very enthusiastic about the prospect, given your recent court-martial. However, it must be said that you did save Las Vegas from further damage, and this operation is based on intelligence that you provided. Perhaps you can make up for past mistakes here." Ruby thought Ryan's expression said that wasn't very damned likely. "Miss Arashikaze, if you don't mind…"

"Yes, sir." Riana found the controls for the map, fiddled with them for a moment and apologized, then brought up the map she wanted. The table lit up, and they all instantly recognized the Seattle area—a satellite composite map. In the center of the table was Puget Sound, with the ruins of Seattle to the right and the Cascade Range to the far right, with Mount Rainier dominating the lower right corner. In the middle of Puget Sound were the various islands that filled it, turning the body of water into scattered bays, narrow straits, and meandering channels. The Olympic Mountains rose in the middle of the peninsula of what had been Washington State to the left, and Vancouver Island—formerly part of Canada—was in the upper left corner.

"Ladies, this is Operation Tsunami in a nutshell." Hollingsworth took out a collapsible pointer. "Our initial objective for this operation is here." He put the pointer on the largest island; Ruby realized it was actually a huge peninsula jutting into Puget Sound. "The old naval base at Bremerton. Back when we had to abandon it in 1967, we blew up what the GRIMM didn't destroy. However, it's still the best deepwater port in the area, and provides us easy access to Seattle across the bay. Zoom in, please." He pointed to a small airfield southwest of Bremerton. "This is an old municipal airport. Not much, and we doubt the runway is in good shape…but it's good enough to operate Harriers out of." He smiled. "As much as I hate to admit it, most of this operation's air support will come from the Navy. Admiral Dyson, if you'd like to take over…" He handed the pointer to Dyson, who stood as well. Ruby noticed that Dyson wore the gold wings of a naval aviator.

"Ladies, good afternoon," Dyson said with a winning smile. He showed no apprehension or disgust at them. "Our plan as it sits now is to use two carrier battlegroups centered around the Theodore Roosevelt and the Ronald Reagan. The Reagan was due to be transferred to the Pacific anyway, and they've already faced Kobolds. They will be over here, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca." He gestured roughly between Washington and Vancouver Island. "They will launch an Alpha strike on Boeing Field and any other airfields or structures in the Seattle area that seem threatening." Ruby's heart leapt at the mention of the Reagan. That's Oscar's ship! "For you Air Force types, an Alpha strike is everything we've got on the carriers. Hornets for the main strike, Tomcats on high cover, with S-3s on tanker duty and E-2s providing raid warning and AWACS support. We'll even have S-3s up in case there's any Sea Feilongs in the area. Once they have neutralized Boeing Field, then we clear the way in for the Marines. General Ryan?"

It was Ryan's turn. He didn't bother with the pointer. "Along for the ride with the Roosevelt and the Reagan are the Saipan and the Guam—assault ships for you Air Force pukes." Everyone snickered at that, and even Ryan cracked a small smile. "They're carrying the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Under cover of the Navy fighters, we'll move the MEU by helicopter assault to Bremerton, securing the airfield and the port. Once that has been accomplished, we'll immediately move Major Higurashi's Delta Force and my Marine Force Recon elements across Puget Sound and land at Boeing Field. At that point, they'll assault and take this Dr. Merlot's facilities and secure them. At that point, we'll fly in Seabees from Hawaii and rebuild Bremerton." A short, sharp nod. "This operation is not just to take out Merlot and the Kobold factory—it's also to reoccupy this section of the Washington Dead Zone. President Shawcross thinks it's high time we started retaking ground from this Salem bitch. For once, I agree with the politicians…even if I think they're just doing it because it's an election year." He sat down. "Back to you, Jim."

Hollingsworth stepped forward as Dyson sat as well. "As I said, the Air Force's role in Operation Tsunami is a bit limited…unfortunately. Personally, I wanted to send in the B-52s, paste Boeing Field, and drop Delta in like we did in Warsaw…but the President and the CIA nixed that. They said they might start trying to resettle Seattle, and we can't do that if we've turned the place into the Moon rather than an overgrown jungle. Same reason why the Navy won't be allowed to pump Tomahawks into Seattle until the whole thing falls into Puget Sound.

"So…our job is going to be taking out that ground station at Mount Rainier. The trick is to do it without alerting Merlot. If he knows we're coming, that Alpha strike is going to run into a world of hurt. If the ground station is taken out, we can assume the Kobolds and whatever other GRIMM might be there can operate under local control, but it'll be a lot tougher for them. Who knows, we might even catch 'em on the ground."

"That would be nice," Dyson put in. "Payback for what they damn near did to us in Florida."

"So," Hollingsworth continued, "we will be launching a small strike from here—" He used the pointer to go off the map, almost into Blake's chest "—Vulcan in Alberta. This strike will consist of six aircraft, all stealthy. With luck, Merlot's radar—we have to assume he has some—won't pick up this strike force until it's too late. The force will consist of three F-35s, one Typhoon, one F-22, and one F-23." He saw the smiles across the table. "I can see you know who I'm talking about. The F-35s will be Lieutenant Marrow Amin, Oberleutnant Elm Ederne, and Flight Lieutenant Harriet Bree. Naturally, the F-22 will be flown by Major Pyrrha Nikos, the Typhoon by Hauptmann Schnee over there, and…Captain Xiao Long, I understand you've just 'acquired' a F-23?"

"You bet your ass…sir," Yang grinned. Hollingsworth returned it, as did Dyson, and Ryan just scowled.

"The F-35s will be loaded with JDAMs, with the Raptor, Typhoon and F-23 groomed for GRIMM. If Merlot spots you, the job of the last three will be to keep the GRIMM occupied while the F-35s get warheads on foreheads. Once that's accomplished, egress back to Vulcan—or if you get hit, head for Bremerton and we'll pick you up there. One pass, haul ass. Major Nikos is briefing Ace Flight as we speak." He folded up the pointer.

"As for you, Captain Belladonna," Ryan growled, "you'll be rejoining your squadron aboard the Reagan." He pointed to the Navy Cross ribbon she wore. "You got awarded that for a reason. Try to be worthy of it. No more fuckups like you pulled over Poland." Blake's cheeks went red and her ears laid back, but she only muttered "Yes, sir." She carefully put one foot on Yang's under the table, because it looked like her friend was about to tell a Brigadier General exactly where he could put a Navy Cross.

"Where do I come in?" Ruby asked. She wondered if she was going to be left behind. They were already breaking up Ruby Flight again. Well…guess that couldn't last forever.

Dyson smiled at her. "You'll be accompanying Captain Belladonna to the Reagan, Lieutenant. Your bunch is the resident expert on the Kobolds. We'll need to brief both carrier air wings about them, and that's too big of a task for just Miss Belladonna. So you'll be going too. The Reagan's air wing has faced Kobolds, but just once, and you've faced them many times." His smile widened. "We'll give you a trap and a cat shot. You can brag about that to the other zoomies." Ruby was glad for Oscar's explanation of Navy slang: she was going to get at least one arrested landing and one catapult shot. That was less important to her than seeing Oscar again, and telling him her decision to marry him. She had a feeling that was the other reason she was being sent to the Reagan: Rissa Arashikaze had a heart, after all. She wondered if Dyson knew.

"Will I be going along with the strike, sir?" She didn't want to sit on the carrier while all of her friends went on the mission.

"I suppose that could be arranged," Dyson replied. "Backseat only, Lieutenant, unless you know how to fly a F-18."

"Yes, sir." Holy shit, he does know about Oscar and me, Ruby realized.

"That was the main reason why we briefed you," Hollingsworth said. "Before you get all puffed up that two generals and an admiral brought you all the way to the Mountain just to talk to the famous—or infamous—Ruby Flight, it's mainly for OPSEC. We don't want too many people knowing about this. Even the Marines and carrier crews won't be briefed until the night before the strike. As far as they know, this is an exercise and they're headed for Alaska.

"The other reason is…whatever else you may have done in the past, you do have a reputation for, shall we say, unorthodox tactics. From what Miss Arashikaze tells me—both of them—no one on this planet has more experience with the GRIMM than you four do. Captain Xiao Long, you've actually met Salem."

"If punching her in the ti—I mean, the chest is meeting her, sir," Yang told him.

"All the same, no one else has been that close, aside from Lieutenant Pine, Major Higurashi over there, and Lieutenant Sustrai—and the latter, I understand, was killed at Groom Lake last week. My condolences, by the way. Whatever she did in the past, I think she redeemed herself." Hollingsworth sat down. "The floor is yours, ladies."

Blake stood. "Admiral Dyson, what will the strike be configured with, ordnance wise?"

Dyson paused. "We're still working on that. We assume Merlot will have ground defenses, so at least half the Hornets will be configured as Wild Weasels with HARMs and Rockeye cluster bombs. That will take out any SAMs or flak. The strike force will probably have laser-guided bombs and JDAMs as well, maybe dumb bombs to take out any infrastructure targets."

"Thank you, sir. I was just curious." She resumed her seat.

After a moment of hesitation, Ruby got up next. "Sirs, can I make a suggestion?"

"That's what you're here for, Lieutenant," Ryan said. "Supposedly."

Ruby was acquiring a poisonous dislike of Brigadier General John Ryan, USMC. "There's a problem with JDAMs and Paveways. If you can't keep the target illuminated or the strike is jinking all over the place because of SAMs and flak, they're not going to take out the runway. One or two bomb hits won't do it; Merlot will have those repaired by the time the Marines start hitting the beach, or whatever." She saw Ryan frown and didn't care. "So we've got to put that runway out. The taxiways too, maybe—the Kobolds don't need a lot of runway." She paused again. "Damn…I just remembered. The ones at Area 51 were launched vertically."

Riana cleared her throat. "No evidence of silos in the Seattle area."

"They didn't show up in satellite pictures at Area 51," Blake pointed out. "Hell, we didn't even see them at 500 feet and 500 knots, either."

"We've been running SR-71s over Seattle for the past three days," Riana explained. "At 70,000 feet and Mach 3.5 plus, it's doubtful Merlot has detected them."

"When were you planning on telling us this, Arashikaze?" Ryan exclaimed. "For fuck's sake, woman, you might've just given away the goddamn ball game!"

Riana stood her ground. "We at CIA believed the risk to be worth it. Your Marines and strike packages will have very detailed photos of the area. Again, it's very doubtful Merlot has detected the SR-71 passes. And you can always cancel the operation if you deem it too risky, sir." Ryan subsided into his seat, glowering at her. "In any case, whatever GRIMM are at Seattle are using runways. The SR-71 pictures also show that Boeing Field's runway is not only intact, but well-maintained. In fact, we have reason to believe that the GRIMM that attack the Eberle Line and the Mississippi River Barrier are based here, maybe even built here."

"That's a good enough reason for me," Hollingsworth said. "Cut them some slack, John." He turned back to Ruby. "Continue, Lieutenant."

"Well…do we have any Durandals?" At the questioning look on most of the faces around the room, including Dyson and Ryan, Ruby explained, "Durandals are runway denial weapons. They go off under the runway after you drop them. They will wreck a runway hard. My uncle Qrow—er, Major Qrow Branwen, our uncle—told me about them. We used them in Desert Storm."

Hollingsworth shook his head. "Nice idea, but I think they're out of the inventory, Lieutenant."

Ruby started to sit down, then stopped herself. "Um, General…what if we added a few more strike birds to this mission?"

Riana had been gazing at the map, but her head came up at that. "Lieutenant, that's going to violate OPSEC—"

"Continue, Lieutenant," Hollingsworth said, overriding her.

"Well…it's a crazy idea, but…" Ruby took a deep breath and continued on. "So the British have this runway denial cluster bomb dispenser—the JP233. You fly over at low level and you drop like 30 little bombs out of it. The bombs are like smaller versions of Durandals. After those are out, you drop 200 submunitions that are antipersonnel mines, so if anyone comes out to fill in the runway, you kill 'em with the mines. Basically they will shut down a whole airfield."

Dyson rubbed his chin in thought. "Nice idea, Lieutenant, and you're right, but nothing we have in the inventory can carry the JP233. The only thing that can carry that, as I recall, is the Panavia Tornado."

"I know, sir," Ruby smiled. "So I was thinking…what if we borrowed a couple of Tornados and their crews from the RAF? Say, three or four of them? That puts that whole base down, and we'd have a spare in case one goes down."

Dyson slowly nodded. "If we could do it, that would work. That would free up the Alpha strike to have more Weasels and allow us to hit any targets in Bremerton if the Marines need it…or Rainier in case the Air Force strike fails. Better to have more and not need it than not enough, I always say."

Ryan was leaning forward, intrigued despite himself. "Okay, Lieutenant, where would we find these crews? We'd have to find them in the next 48 hours."

"No problem." It was Weiss who spoke. "Marrow—Lieutenant Amin—told me that at least two crews with people we know are in Europe…the same base as Ace Flight, as a matter of fact. They just got back from the Middle East for training in case NATO decides to take the offensive this summer."

Yang smirked at Weiss. "Are you talking about Coffee Flight? Coco, Velvet, Fox and Yatsu?" She caught herself. "Wait, Coco's at Signal."

"I don't know about Yatsu, but Fox and Velvet are there. Velvet's in the front seat now," Weiss replied. "Anyway, there's your Tornado crews. They're Huntsmen and Huntresses, and they were at Beacon. They could fly over with Ace Flight." She pointed to Rainier. "That solves another issue with the plan, too. My Typhoon isn't that stealthy. I mean, it is, kind of, but nowhere in the class of the F-35, F-22 or F-23. Instead of me making Ace Flight more vulnerable to early detection, I'll fly top cover for the Tornados." She looked at the map. "Of course, the Tornado is about as stealthy as Yang is tactful—"

"Hey!" Yang protested, forgetting they were in a room with three flag officers.

"—so if we flew with Ace Flight, we'd negate their stealth."

Hollingsworth grinned now. "I think I can solve that issue, Hauptmann." He pointed to Vancouver Island. "This doesn't leave the room, but we have one of our secret Huntsman bases up here at Comox. It's an old Canadian Air Force base. I imagine Merlot or Salem don't know about it—they would've already hit the place. We use it now and then, kind of like the ones we have in old North Dakota or Montana. You and the Tornados could stage out of there. You take off out of Comox about the same time as the carriers launch their strike. Merlot's going to pick up the Alpha strike—we figured that—but you use all these islands in Puget Sound for terrain avoidance, and Merlot won't pick up your force. He'll be looking west at the Navy. You should arrive over the target at the same time. The Navy covers the Tornados from GRIMM and SAMs and such, they drop their JP233s, we take out the field, and it's God bless us, every one."

Ryan shook his head. "I don't know…it'll take good timing. If the weather's bad, or Merlot detects us early…"

"Can't anticipate everything," Dyson told him. "Besides, isn't the Marine motto adapt and overcome?"

"Something like that." Ryan let out a long breath. "If it keeps those fucking GRIMM off my Marines, I'm for it. We get one Beowulf loose in the middle of Ospreys and Frogs, and I'm writing a shitload of letters home." He looked up at Ruby. "Well, Lieutenant, looks like you're good for something after all."

Ruby gave him a small smile. "I try, sir."

Hollingsworth stood. "That should do it then. Any other questions? Major Higurashi, you've been very quiet."

"Nothing to add, sir." The Delta Force commander was clearly checking the map, looking for egress and ingress points.

"Very well. Miss Arashikaze?"

Riana was quiet for a moment as well. "Just one thing, sir. My grandmother wants to emphasize that we have to take Merlot alive. We should also make the maximum effort to rescue any prisoners and hostages he might have. She was very adamant about that, sir. That's why your proposal to flatten Seattle was denied. She wants him alive." Ruby saw something in Riana's eyes. There was something personal there—not with Riana, but with her grandmother. Blake glanced at her as well. She's making this personal, Rissa is, Ruby mused. Then again, I guess I'm making it kinda personal with Salem.

"Very well. No guarantees." Hollingsworth looked around the table. "All right then. Lieutenant Rose, Captain Belladonna, you'll be heading out for the Reagan within the hour. You'll leave your F-16 here, Lieutenant—you'll have to ride backseat with Captain Belladonna. The rest of you will depart for Vulcan as well. Sorry to break up the band, ladies…though it might be only temporary."

Yang laughed. "Well, General, we might be breaking up the band…but we're putting together a damn orchestra."

ADDITIONAL NOTES: I figured it was high time Yang got her groove back with the F-23. After all, there were two of them built. It also gives me a place to put her with Ace Flight.

The JP233 dispenser did exist and Tornados did use it in Iraq; the Durandal was used there as well. I'll admit that the JP233 mention was an excuse to get the rest of Team CFVY (or at least Velvet and Fox) back into the story. I've actually been thinking about the upcoming strike chapter with the Tornados since I started ORW, but never had a place to really use it. That keeps Weiss in the story too. Blake was easy, but Ruby was a bit harder. Technically, she doesn't really need to be on the carrier, but what the hell-that's going to trigger a story idea I've had for a long time too.

Originally Rissa Arashikaze rather than Riana was going to be in this chapter, but 1) she would be senior to the military generals, and 2) I think I'm in danger of overusing her as a OC. Riana fits the "hired help" a little better here, and telling Ruby about Trivia sounds better coming from her. The three generals-Hollingsworth, Dyson and Ryan-were stolen lock, stock and two smoking barrels from the GI Joe comic book, where they were investigating the Joe team. That was one of my favorite issues when I was a kid, so I stuck them in here. Ryan was a Nick Fury expy, so that's why he has the eyepatch. As for why he and Hollingsworth aren't too fond of Ruby Flight-remember, Ruby, Yang and Blake have a reputation for being insubordinate, which would not sit well with two career officers. And we also get Otome Higurashi back for a bit!

Finally, Cheyenne Mountain does exist, though these days, it's rarely used. I tried to describe it as accurately as possible. Sadly, the "Big Board" room is kinda boring in real life; WarGames got that wrong. (Then again, as fun as that movie is, it's horribly inaccurate. Which brings up the point that neither WarGames nor Dr. Strangelove would probably exist in the ORW universe.)

Anyhow, next week, we get to see what Salem's been up to these days, along with Merlot himself. And maybe some other "old friends" will show up too.