Chapter 22 – 100 Hours, pt.2
T – 2 hours…
"Solitaire One to Magic, we're airborne and on heading one-eighteen." Sierra called from the backseat as the Tornado lifted into the air, and he retracted the undercarriage.
"Understood Solitaire. Sorry for the short notice, but we've got actionable intel that the Adamasians are going to attempt to launch one of their Scuds. We need you to interdict the target and destroy it on the ground."
"Understood Magic, any ideas where this Scud might be?" He asked, though he had a bad feeling he knew the answer already – the Adamasians, or more likely, the Jesters, had hidden the missiles next to very obviously civilian targets; hospitals, playgrounds, schools and the like, and that had made them difficult to hit accurately, if not impossible without more advanced weaponry than they realistically had access to.
"Unclear at this time. Batcat is doing their best to search for it, but we think it's inside the city boundaries."
What a surprise, he thought sarcastically. The Jesters had only survived this because they used human shields, and whilst the Yuktobanians weren't shy about blowing up whatever strayed into their gunsights, they at least aimed for military targets – not hospitals and schools – as well.
"Cap, are we the only people out here?" Sierra asked, having looked over his shoulders.
"Nah, Alice and Eugeo are supposed to be escorting us to the AO."
"Can I just say how much I hate night missions?" His WSO told him, and he couldn't help but agree a little bit – he wanted to be lying in bed, not flying on instruments across a featureless ocean!
"This one's a bit more important though."
"Yeah, I know." He answered. "We pull this off, drinks are free all week, and you get to put some actual nose art on our plane for once…"
"You complained about the last lot." He reminded Sierra.
"Only 'cause the girls would have torn us limb from limb for it!" He had to admit, he had a point there. As much as he loved Eydis, she did sometimes assume that because she didn't have a problem with something, no one else would, and even in silhouette, he would agree that was probably a little too risqué…
"I presume you are talking about that pornography you call nose art." Alice interjected. Okay, they might still get torn limb from limb still, he thought to himself, but it wouldn't be from fighters or anti-aircraft weaponry, but rather Alice.
"Blame Liz on that one, she's the one acting as my agent." He shrugged. "I just do the drawings off what people ask for…"
"Classy." Sierra rolled his eyes. "I draw porn, but in my defence, everyone asked for it anyway."
Before he could answer, Alice interjected. "Ahem, you are one to talk. I have seen those magazines you pass around, pervert." She spat.
"I'm guessing you guys are as tired as we are?" Ignoring the verbal sparring that was going on between Alice and Sierra, he asked Eugeo.
"Yeah, we didn't get much rest before the call came on." Eugeo answered. "Still, all we need to do is destroy those Scud launchers, and we can get some rest again."
"Famous last words, buddy…" Sierra told him…
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T + 39 hours…
"So that was our mission, we were to destroy the Scud they found." Jet found himself explaining to their newfound ally.
She seemed… nice, a complete contrast to what he'd have expected of a soldier in the Yuktobanian Army, if he was honest. Truthfully, she reminded him a bit of Sortiliena, but with less of a formal manor… and bright ginger hair.
He had thought about joking they were now Gingers United, given her hair was almost the same shade as his was, but given Alice was here, he thought better of it, knowing she would accuse him of flirting with someone that wasn't Eydis.
"It went wrong, I'm guessing?"
"When doesn't it?" He snorted…
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T – 8 minutes…
"Magic to Solitaire Lead, we've identified the first possible Scud launcher." The controller aboard the Hawkeye told them. "Junction of Indigo Avenue and Costa del Cruz, it does not appear to be ready to launch at this moment."
"Understood, Solitaire is approaching the final nav beacon. ETA is two minutes to the combat zone." He informed them, before looking back to Sierra, his RIO having bought a rather low-tech solution for the mission… an A-Z. "Any ideas?"
"Junction of Indigo and Costa del Cruz… got it. Cap, look for the big building with a dome atop of it, and follow the street it's on."
That was a difficult task in broad daylight – the streets of Tulau weren't exactly Milton Keynes, but more like those in the city of York. Narrow, twisting streets that finished at random, darting off down alleyways to become proper streets again only after they had irritated every single cartographer present…
Still, this was a do-or-die mission, and it was them that would make the difference between life and a volley of thermobaric Scuds slamming down somewhere.
No pressure then, in other words, he thought sarcastically.
"Heading please, Sierra."
"Try 165, plus or minus five degrees." Sierra replied, and he adjusted their course to approach a heading of 165 degrees.
He really wished they had a set of laser designation pods aboard the Tornado tonight, because this would be so much easier with Paveways. As it was though, they were left with the options of dumb bombs or cluster bombs; neither of which being great options for fighting within a city and when precision was needed most of all!
Thankfully, Liz had wired up two of the shoulder pylons to be able to carry Mavericks, so they at least had some kind of precision strike capabilities tonight. Now he just had to hope they didn't miss more than once, or that the Adamasians only had three Scuds in total…
"Magic to Solitaire, reinforcements will be arriving in thirty-five minutes, should you need support."
"I suppose late is better than never…" He heard Alice sigh, and he didn't blame her – chances are that they would have been done or done for by then!
A beeping caught his attention, telling him that he was approaching the combat zone, and he descended through the low cloud cover above the city to attempt to spot the dome that Sierra had mentioned. "Bingo!" He exclaimed, catching a glimpse of it to his left. Unfortunately, the speed they were at meant… "No way we'll make that turn." He threw the Tornado into a climbing right-hand bank in order to drain away some of their airspeed, and to allow them to line up their attack run a little bit better than they would have otherwise been able to do on their original course.
It was now that he realised something; the winds above the city were surprisingly high that night, and the Tornado was buffeted from each direction as he descended back into the storm. "Christ, it's like going through Iron Acton on a pushbike!" He exclaimed and readied the armament switches in his cockpit. "Sierra, your shot."
"Got it!" He called, having put the crosshairs on the large truck at the intersection, and he watched as they were both briefly blinded by the ignition of the rocket motor through their night vision gear. "Gah!"
"Let's not look at it next time, eh?" He joked, keeping hold of the Tornado to prevent them from losing any more altitude in the attack.
"Agreed. I feel like someone just seared my retinas…" Sierra nodded as he rubbed at his eyes.
"Batcat to Solitaire, missile hit home. Target's on fire." The observation aircraft called, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the wall of flame shot up in front of them… before he quickly yanked the Tornado into a zoom climb to avoid being caught in it… "Solitaire, I think you might just be getting a medal for tonight…"
"Reckon they'll be kind enough to give us dress uniforms to go with those medals, Batcat?"
He rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief wash over him, that at least one Scud was now completely destroyed, which meant one less threat to everyone else…
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T + 39 hours…
"So you destroyed it?"
"We thought we had. Hadn't expected the lunatics to try and launch it anyway… despite, y'know, being on fire…"
"That does sound about right for the Jesters."
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T – 90 seconds…
"Solitaire, Alice, Eugeo, they're attempting to launch the Scud! Stop it at all costs!"
"What on God's Earth are they playing at?!" Alice exclaimed. "They will merely blow themselves and everything around them up!"
"I don't think they care anymore; they just want to see everything around here burn!" He pointed out angrily. "Sierra, ready with the Mavericks!"
"Negative, I won't have time to line it up." He could tell there was a sense of frustration in his backseater's voice, and he came up with a solution. "Cap, that's the "I'm gonna do something reckless" look…"
"Only option we've got… I'll go for guns on it." He flipped the switch to arm his cannons and began to line up an attack run. "Magic, Batcat, this is Solitaire, commencing our attack run."
"Alice, following them."
"Eugeo, on the attack."
He'd lost sight of the other two in the tight turn, but he had a visual cue on the burning Scud – the fire around it – and he set his sights on it. Lined up, he pulled down and held the trigger until he heard a clicking noise, the sign that he had released all 360 rounds from the twin BK-27 cannons…
"Solitaire, guns are out. No joy!"
"Eugeo, guns!" He saw the fire still glowing behind him as the Mirage tore through the fire, the missile still being ready to launch...
"Alice, guns!" The fire continued, and much like the silver Mirage ahead, her Mirage broke through the flames into a climb.
"Crap, they're launching!" Sierra shouted, as the Scud launched away from its launch vehicle, the missile broken and aflame, but now airborne…
"That's it then, we've fail-" He sighed, before the sky shone orange around them. A light brighter than almost anything else he'd ever witnessed and a vibration that threw him around the cockpit uncontrollably, as if he were a ragdoll.
He tried desperately to regain control, but whatever had just happened had sent the Tornado into a ballistic path; wildly veering around as if he were trying to get control of a bucking bronco… "We're getting out of this!" He shouted, and pulled the controls for the ejection system, thanking god for the Tornado's command ejection…
Sierra was shot out of the destroyed Tornado first, and he followed a few seconds later, being battered by the high winds around them… and watching as the fires consumed the wooden city below.
That was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.
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T + 39 hours…
"The missile blew you up then."
"It blew us all up. We were thrown around the sky as if held by the hand of god." Alice explained, and despite his religious bent (or lack of), he couldn't help but agree with her there – something was in control of the Tornado as it bucked around wildly, and it certainly wasn't him…
"We're here." Sam explained, and they looked at the unremarkable farmstead that they were about to make their base of operations. "Better get comfortable for now, and I'll try and get the radio up and running…"
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T + 49 hours…
"Good morning, pig!"
Eugeo felt the world burn around him as he woke up. The air was hot, oppressive and with a foul smell carried in it, a feeling made no less awful by the water poured on him to wake him up.
"Wh-where am I? Who are you?"
"I think you'll find we are asking the questions here, not you." Someone responded, and he realised his neck was buckled into some kind of trolley, as were his limbs. It was in that moment that he realised exactly where he was – he'd been captured by the Jesters.
A group of complete monsters who would brutalise and torture anyone unfortunate enough to be captured by them… and he was now in that position.
"So, you don't want to talk then. That's okay, we know how to make you bend to our will…" The fat man in front of him said with a blasé shrug. "Twist one rotation. See if he's more compliant then."
Twist? Twist wh-"Ackhh!" He found himself struggling to breathe as something pushed his neck from the back, forcing it against the metal ring in front…
The fat man looked at him with a sick grin on his face. "Please don't talk yet, I haven't got to the fun part!" He did his best to glare defiantly at him, between the ongoing fight for each and every breathe…
"Uhh, sir, there's a phone call for you." Another one of the Jesters interrupted them, and the fat man almost threw a temper tantrum at being interrupted. The sight would have almost been funny and disturbing at the same time, watching an aging man scream like a toddler having his toys taken away from…. had it not been in the current context of him being tortured.
The other Jester gave a blank and umpiressed look that would put Alice to shame, he thought, before interrupting the temper tantrum… "Uhh, it's her, sir."
"Why didn't you tell me, you moron!" He shouted, before punching his subordinate square in the face. Said subordinate merely took the punch and handed the fat man the phone before he left. "Ah, ha hah, Your Eminence, what can I do for you?"
"Chudelkin, you have in your possession an Osean pilot, do you not?"
"Ye-yes, your supremeness!" Even he rolled his eyes at snivelling weasel in front of him, and he was the one being tortured! In a way, this was worse – the second-hand embarrassment was palpable…
Precisely what was said, he wasn't sure, but it sounded almost like he was being spared for some reason – at least, that was what he figured from the look of anger and disappointment in Chudelkin's voice, anyway. But why would they want to spare him, anyway?
What made him different from the other downed pilots that had met brutal ends at the hands of the Jesters?
"Well, aren't you lucky? Her Eminence wants you taken to her, alive…" Having that situation confirmed to him hadn't helped matters at all, and if he was honest, it might have made the welling anxiety increase faster. Chudelkin looked over to another subordinate and bellowed his orders before leaving. "Throw him in with the Orthinanos bitch. They're both going the same place anyway…"
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T + 53 hours…
After some more beatings for good measure, the two Jesters had gotten bored and thrown him into what looked like it had once been a barn of some kind. It was dilapidated, and the wooden beams above them looked like they could give way at any moment, but it was at least safer than being tortured, he supposed.
On the other side of the barn, there was a single young woman glaring at him, her eyes full of hatred. "It's alright, I won't hurt you!" He tried to keep himself upbeat and calm, despite everything going on around him.
"Says the Osean pig bombing us." The woman responded; her tone full of venom. He couldn't blame her, he supposed – he still winced at Jet and Alice exchanging jokes and jibes about his family history, and that was a lot less recent…
"Yeah, that's fair." He admitted. "We aren't doing it to kill you though, we're-" He stopped to think about it a little bit more… why were they here?
He'd thought it was to try and remove the dictators of the island, and prevent them from doing any more damage, but the more he thought about it, the more he doubted that. They had essentially bombed the island back to the Stone Age, regardless of what outcome the intervention had, and left many, if not most of the island's inhabitants dead or displaced…
"And the penny drops." She said smugly. "Perhaps you aren't as brainwashed as they think you are. Still, no comment about only following orders?"
"Who are you?" He asked, now somewhat confused by this woman. She wasn't one of the Jesters, he was sure of that – she wasn't amoral enough and did seem to genuinely care for the island… even if he was on the opposite side to her.
"Group Captain Medina Orthinanos." She told him. "And you must be Osean, given the lack of respect. Do you not salute a superior officer…"
"Not when they're on the opposing side, no." He told her bluntly. "I'm Eugeo."
"Hm." She huffed. "I suppose you do not know why you are here either, then."
"Not a clue. All I could work out was that someone is calling the shots above Chudelkin, and that she was after me for some reason."
"I knew the former myself. The man is not subtle about it at all, but… why would this mystery woman want us both? Other than perhaps as leverage, I suppose…" Medina thought aloud, and he could agree with that assessment. Didn't make their situation any less awful, but at least it clarified some of it…
Maybe.
"So, why are you here then?" He asked the most pressing question on his mind.
"I have never agreed with Chudelkin since him and his miserable lot arrived." She explained, and her venom seemed far more aimed towards them for once. "They bought war to this island, for their own gains. A bunch of fat, repulsive monsters who care only for lining their own pockets, and would happily damn us all to hell if it means more money…"
"At least we can agree on that one." He told her. "Whatever they want us for, it can't be good, can it?"
"I would imagine not, no." Medina agreed. "So I suppose you have a plan to escape, then…"
"Not yet, but we need to get out of here somehow." He said, trying to convince a part of his mind to actually come up with a plan! Between himself, Alice and Eydis, he had always been the one of them to come up with plans, whilst the girls were far more capable of adapting to the situations thrown their way, so this should absolutely have been his wheelhouse...
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T + 68 hours…
As night came around for the third time, the mood at the farmstead could be described as hostile. A less diplomatic person might have called it downright toxic, and a place where, if they didn't escape soon, someone was going to kill someone else.
After their debate earlier about what they needed to do, he expected it would be him strangling Alice for her damn high and mighty attitude!
They were fighter pilots – soldiers, not knights of the air, and seeing the battle for what it truly was, a brutal and lightning quick war, hadn't been something Alice would do, spending her time trying to berate him for wanting to go and find Eugeo in the valleys below the farm. She had pointed out that they were not well armed, not well trained, that she was currently blind in one eye, that he could only walk short distances due to serious bruising on his left leg, that they had no idea where he was… and more importantly, that it was, in her words… "a suicide mission."
Which meant that, despite the frigid air outside, he was sat on the grass, staring down the valley to the bright lights in the distance. Not the lights of the city, but rather the light of the city, still lit up by raging fires from bombing raids, both day and night…
Next to him was also a scarecrow that he may have tried to punch a couple of times… it hadn't helped, and it was still standing, almost as if it were taunting him.
And speaking of taunting him…
"So, is the fresh air helping you?" Alice asked, her tone somewhere between sarcastic and serious, as it always was. "I know this is not an easy time for either of us, but we both need to keep ourselves together if we intend to survive out here."
"I forgot you just lost your best friend too… oh wait." He replied in kind. "He's still out there, and you seem to think lecturing me is going to get him back from those bastards… well, it ain't, and nor's taking the moral high ground in there. We aren't some knights of the air, Alice, we're soldiers… as shit as that is."
Alice, for the first time since he'd known her, fell quiet, her voice barely a whisper. "You think I don't know that? That my entire belief system hasn't been systematically destroyed piece by piece out here, and now I start to realise that not only is my entire ethos predicated on lies and propaganda, but that now my body is breaking too, and I may be about to lose the most important person in my life? Not only that, but that I am almost completely powerless to prevent that? I am sorry for Sierra's death, I truly am, but you are not the only one struggling out here, Jet!"
He rolled his eyes and began to walk off. He really wasn't in the right mood to be given one of Alice's lectures right now… "So that's your solution, is it?" She shouted after him. "Walk away and pretend you are in the right? I was right about something at least, Eydis doesn't deserve you!" He stopped and turned back towards her, glaring as he did so – something of a taunt, given her current situation.
"Then we're in the same boat, aren't we?"
Her eye went wide, and he noticed her take in a deep breath, as if she was trying to calm herself down, and he chose not to let up. "Because I'll tell you something Alice, you don't like me because you see some of yourself in me, the worst par-" He carried on, before staggering backwards with a ringing in his ears, almost as if…
She'd slapped him.
Without a single word, he returned the favour, shoving her back as far as he could. In her current state, she didn't fight back, but rather fell over into the mud, and instead of standing back up to beat the crap out of him… she just sat there.
Her legs were drawn back to her chest, with her arms wrapped around them, and she was now softly crying. He'd pushed her hard, but it surely wasn't that hard… was it?
"I just want to leave here and never come back." She mumbled, wiping her eye with her sleeve. "To have things go back to the way they were."
Seeing Alice like that, someone he… okay, he had no idea what he considered her most of the time, but at very least, she was his equal, broken down like that; not by the enemy, but rather by his arseholery… well, it didn't take long for most of his senses to return, and to give the cruel and nasty part of his mind the beating of its life, forcing it to hide away again.
Never mind that, he could only imagine Sierra, the person he was upset about, giving him the beating of his life for acting like that – as much as he was a complete joker sometimes, he was arguably the one person that kept his worst instincts in check, and right now, it showed.
Alice hadn't deserved anything he'd said there.
Despite everything he'd just said and done, he couldn't just leave her here like this though, and so, he sat down in the mud next to her, doing his best to ignore the squelching beneath him. "Alice… I shouldn't have said that stuff, and you're right, I need to get that damned stick out of my arse…"
"We were both out of line though, weren't we? I slapped you first, and you merely retaliated…"
"Yeah, well I shouldn't have been provoking you. That's on me, not you." He answered bitterly, knowing that was true. It was like poking a bear with a stick, and then getting mauled by it – it wasn't the bear's fault, so much as it was the stupid prat who thought it was a good idea to jab it with a stick.
Without thinking, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, the one he'd retrieved from Sierra's body almost three days ago and handed it to Alice. "Here, he'd make some dumb quip about his last action being to help a beautiful lady out, but I really don't have it in me to do that." It bought a little bit of a smile to his face to imagine Sierra doing that, as short lived as it was.
"Small mercies I suppose." She said, with the faintest trace of a sad smile as she did. "I should have never resorted to violence, much less over something as petty as that."
"Doesn't change it shouldn't have been said in the first place." He admitted and hung his head in shame. He was grieving, sure, but that didn't give him the right to go and be an utter arsehole to everyone around him, and even in that state, he knew Alice was going through as much as he was… and yet, that part of him didn't care.
She wasn't him, and in that state, that made her okay to insult and jibe at, seemingly not expecting repercussions…
"Neither of us are really in our right minds now, are we?"
"Are we ever?" He laughed mirthlessly. "I point myself at airbases at 100ft ASL, and you get into spitting distance of other fighters…"
She snorted and shook her head. "I suppose it could be argued that we are both a special breed, yes." She agreed and closed her eye. "Was this always going to happen, or did we screw this up somewhere?"
He thought about it for a moment and then came to a realisation… he didn't actually know what Alice was referring to; Adamas, themselves, their situation…
"What does happen now though? It is not like we can simply ignore this, can we?" She asked, and he detected a small bit of hope that they could both pretend that none of this had ever happened, and things could be the same as they were before…
"I'd like to think we're both mature enough to have a proper conversation about all of this." He said, before he thought about it himself. "But I don't think now's that time. We're both completely exhausted, and if we try right now, we're either going to end up talking past each other…"
"Or we say things we deeply regret afterwards." Alice finished, agreeing with him for once. "Yes, I think that may be the most sensible thing either of us has said all day…"
"Alice, what I said earlier…"
Much to his surprise, she had no retort for him. "I forgive you." She told him, and he blinked in surprise. "I do not doubt I would be just as vitriolic if I were in your situation."
"Yeah, well it doesn't make what I said right." He told her, before he sighed loudly. "It's just… I'm supposed to be in charge, I'm supposed to keep everyone safe and be a good leader, and… what do I do? I go and get not just my best friend killed, but because of my stupidity, a city is on fire, and Eugeo is out there somewhere…" He explained, running a muddy hand through his hair, before he realised that. "And even if we do get back, I've got to break that news to Kureha that her best friend, someone she's known since they were kids, is never coming back. How… how do you do that?"
Alice looked away, as if she was the one now ashamed of herself. "I suppose I never thought of it that way." She answered quietly. "For as much as it is worth, I don't blame you for our current situation. Should you not have destroyed that missile, it could have been catastrophic…"
"Maybe." He answered, before something caught his attention – a noise being carried around the hills, almost like someone playing music in the distance. "I'm not going mad, right?"
"No, I hear it too. What is it?" Alice confirmed.
He started tapping along to the distorted beat, trying to work out what was being played in the few seconds before the lyrics kicked in. A nasally voice, but one he recognised quickly… "London Calling, by The Clash."
"And that means?"
Before he could answer, Sam had rushed out of the barn to them and tapped on their shoulders. "Uhh, I think your friends are nearby! The radio's suddenly become a radio station!"
"Oh, you clever girls!" Probably the first genuine smile he'd had in the past few days came across his face… "I know what it means! They're trying to send us a message!"
"How?"
"Long story, but Kureha always used to use London Calling as her ringtone for me. Apparently, all of England is London in her mind…" He rolled his eyes. Still, it wasn't as bad as Sierra suggesting he was Scottish, purely because he was ginger.
"So… what message are they trying to tell us?"
The smile now faded from his face, replaced by a blank look. "No idea. I think we'll kind of need to listen a bit longer to see…"
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T + 70 hours
A "little bit longer" quickly turned into nearly two hours, as the girls played what felt like the greatest hits albums of the 1970s and early 1980s, but by the end, he had a pretty good idea of what they were trying to tell him – that they would bring in some kind of support on Saturday night, and to be ready to leave by then, all whilst explaining that they were being monitored by the Jesters out here.
Enough to develop some kind of situational awareness, but enough to really do anything about it though, he thought to himself.
"Certainly an… interesting kind of code, I will grant you that much. I imagine the Jesters will assume it was nothing more than a way of infuriating them, rather than a coded message." Alice admitted. "Whose idea even was that?"
"Honestly, I don't remember, and I was there when we came up with it." He admitted as well. "Originally, it was supposed to be a fudge using the stupid music player whenever our radios broke. Then Seven discovered you could link it into a jamming pod, and well… you were there for the rest."
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T + 96 hours
Twenty-six hours was a remarkably long time to wait for rescue, especially when you had no idea where the rescue would be coming from, much less where you needed to wait. She was thankful they knew where they were, as she wasn't sure she could manage the hike back down the pass after the past few days…
"I see aircraft, and unless the Jesters got an old Skyraider out, I'm pretty sure that's us."
"How they plan to evacuate us in that, I do not know…" Alice muttered to herself, before spotting something else climbing above the top of the pass, a biplane climbing quietly over the hills… "Is that a…"
"It's an An-2?" Sam said, somewhat confused at the antiquated, and not to mention, Yuktobanian, aircraft approaching the fields beside them…
"I think we should probably move back a bit… quite a bit actually!" Jet told them, and for once, Alice agreed wholeheartedly with that assessment. They had survived long enough to be rescued, and being cut to ribbons by a landing Antonov biplane would just be adding insult to injury…
Having avoided the probable landing trajectory of the biplane, the group prepared for their exfil. As long as nothing went wrong in the next few moments, they would be home free…
A violent crack came from the hillside below them, and the twilight sky lit up…
"Get down!" Sam called, throwing her straight to the ground as tracer fire tore above their heads and straight through the An-2, the smaller plane bursting into flames before its wings folded atop one another and the craft plunged straight into the fields next to them…
"Where the hell did they sneak up from!" Jet shouted out angrily.
"Wherever they did, they are here now!" She shouted back.
"I'll try and take out the ZSU's radar, stay put!" Deciding that putting her head above the very little cover they did have was a bad idea given the 23mm fire now howling through the skies above them, she couldn't do much to stop their newfound ally from trying to find a sniping position.
Thankfully, the ZSU had found a new target instead of them, that being the Skyraider above them, and unfortunately for the ZSU's crew… they could shoot back and shoot they did!
A barrage of rockets crackled through the air, interspersed with 20mm fire from the attacker's four M3 cannons, with the fire from the 23mm AA gun ceasing as the rockets and gunfire hit home, leaving just a crater and a smouldering wreck of a hull where it had once been…
"I believe that might have been my fault." She admitted, as they all popped their heads above cover, the tracer fire having fallen silent…
"How?"
"I may have thought we were home free, as long as nothing went wrong…" She looked away like a scolded child, though no rebuttal came from them. "Still, what do we do now?"
"We need to get in touch with someone. The radio's still up in the barn, and I don't think we can afford to be picky about letting them know we're here anymore…"
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T + 98 hours…
After some percussive maintenance on the radio to remove some hay that had become lodged in the receiver, Jet had managed to get it to work properly, and contact the circling A-1…
"Okay, Philia's not far behind me in a Bronco, but the plan has kind of failed. Did any of the guys onboard the An-2 survive?" Liz explained.
"Doubt it, it slammed down hard. We only saw a fireball." They hadn't really had chance to go and check for survivors either, what with being pinned down by an anti-aircraft gun!
"Liz, I may have an idea!" He could hear Yuuki's voice, but he had absolutely no idea where she was. "The OV-10 can carry passengers, right?"
"Well, yeah… but… how many of you are there?" Philia answered, albeit a little hesitantly.
"Two." He heard Sam say before he could process what she'd just said. "I'll stay behind if I have to. Find the rest of my unit. Besides, someone has to cover you guys as you take off…"
"It's doable, but you better not expecting a comfortable ride." Philia half-joked. "I feel like I'm flying my dad's station wagon here…"
"Anything's better than nothing right now." He admitted. "What's your ETA?"
"30 minutes, but I've got to drop off the restless cargo back there." Restless cargo? What exactly was that Bronco carrying – a bear?
"Forgive me for sounding mad, but what cargo gets restless?" Alice asked the same question as he had thought of…
"Five members of the Osean special forces." She answered without missing a beat. "Five angry members of the special forces too."
"What exactly were they planning?" Alice muttered to herself, and he couldn't help but agree with her on this one. This had all the hallmarks of one of his plans, and in this case, that wasn't a compliment…
"Beats me. I thought the An-2 was the rescue aircraft, but I can't imagine you'd use an An-2 instead of a chopper." Sam shrugged, as she picked up her rifle. "Are these guys your "special" forces, or are they special forces, anyway?"
"Yes." He answered unhelpfully.
/-/
T + 99 hours…
For the second time that evening, an aircraft made its approach to the fields of the farmstead. Unlike the ill-fated Antonov however, the path was swept of potential threats very thoroughly, as the A-1, and much to his confusion, a Sea Harrier of all things, tore up the ground below them, destroying anything that looked as if it might so much as cast a shadow on them, let alone shoot them…
"Well, looks like this is goodbye." Sam told them, before giving them a salute. "I'd say it's been fun, but uhh… it really hasn't." And wasn't that the understatement of the century, he thought. Still, he couldn't help but feel some guilt welling up for leaving her behind.
She'd saved their lives, and yet here they were, leaving her to continue to fight for her life in enemy territory – it didn't feel fair at all!
"We both owe you our lives." Alice told her. "Please try not to die."
She laughed a little. "I should be telling you two that, if you will insist on throwing yourselves into battle in flying contraptions… but yeah. I'll try."
About a minute away, the OV-10 touched down in the field, with the cargo door at the back popping open as it slowed down, in order for the "restless cargo" to get themselves out as fast as possible.
And exit as fast as possible, did they! Even he admit, it took balls of steel to jump out of an aircraft that had come to a complete stop yet, and that was coming from the man who'd once jumped out of a moving train…
Calling it a jump might have been a bit charitable – it had been more falling with style, he supposed as he ran over to the waiting Bronco… before he started to run a lot faster as gunfire began to bracket them!
Dammit, they had a sniper too, and to make matters worse, Alice was falling behind as well!
"Sorry about this!" He told her, before wrapping his arm around her and bolting it as fast as his wounded legs would carry them both, only barely making it to the Bronco, before the sniper had dialled in on them…
Throwing themselves both into the back of the waiting Bronco, he heard a dull ping of a round that had pierced the door they were behind… "Way too close…" He grumbled, as he pulled the door shut behind them, and the OV-10 began to roll across the fields on its take off run.
The seconds it took to lift off into the night sky felt more like years, but eventually, they began to climb above the fields… though they had no way of telling that, the OV-10 lacking any kind of windows for them to see out of.
"Okay, whew! And breathe…" Philia started to laugh to herself a little bit, and he found himself concentrating on getting his breath back after the mad sprint… "You two okay back there?"
"Been…" He panted hard. "Better…"
"Yeah, you both look worse for wear." She stated bluntly. "Philia to Liz and Yuuki, I've got them. We're climbing out now. ETA back at Bana is in about three hours."
He looked back over to Alice, who it seemed had finally had the full brunt of the past few days hit her at full force, quietly weeping against the handkerchief he'd given her earlier in the week. Deciding to be better than he had been – though it wasn't even a decision now, more of an instinct – he sat next her, and tried his best to comfort her.
They had escaped the damned island, but Eugeo hadn't.
They had no idea where he was, and they had no idea if he was still alive for that matter. For all they knew, he'd ended up in the same way as Sierra had, and they were none the wiser. Hell, it could've been worse, and he'd ended up with the Jesters… and they'd just left him there.
"I should have listened to you…" She mumbled against the tears. "You wanted to go rescue him, and… now…"
"It's probably best you didn't." Philia told them from the cockpit. "You'd have been torn to shreds."
"Why?"
Philia explained from the front. "The Jesters got him, and we think they're moving him somewhere. Kirito and co are chasing after him now, which is why you've got yours truly."
Despite everything they'd gone through, all the anger, all the sadness, all the horror… and even attacking one another, the sense of relief was so palpable between them that they found themselves hugging again, this time with tears of joy…
They had survived for almost 100 hours in a warzone, against all odds and with no resources…
{Author's Comments}
Anachronic order is really hard to write as it turns out. Especially when you're having to keep track of all the elements ongoing at once.
The next chapter is technically part 3 of this, but given its taking place from the other members of the 303rd's perspective, it won't be listed as part 3.
Signing off for now,
Midland 2541.