The MSO-6's wide open cockpit provided a very nice feild of observation, Nishizawa was currently using it to marvel at the smoke trail Raven #3 was producing, it seemed like clouds almost. Clouds of fear and aircraft oil and violence, but clouds none the less. Watching the zealous pilot U-turn, Nishizawa called in her hits, "Taragettsu hist, rudda dameaged, he iz smroking desu."

The girl began to plot a course to give chase to her target, until she heard an ominous low buzzing noise, the sound of large propellers, the large propellers of a larger bomber. Scanning around, she saw Reggie (and heard his loud ass cussing over the radio) but saw the real issue, the bomber. Nishizawa herself barely had time to curse as she saw the guns line up. In seconds, the local air around her Shenshi Gado was replaced with bullets, not all that accurate, but bullets none the less.

As the bullets struck the metal with loud clangs, Nishizawa grimaced as she pulled the air break and dropped alititude fast enough to get the turrets off of her. Now with relative safety, she examined her plane. They got a good dusting on her, she'd give them that much, but nothing major, a few holes and some dents with scrapped paint jobs, nothing to write home about. She took a moment to collect her thoughts, hoping nothing would distract her in the meantime.

Little Raven #1:
STUPID UNBELIEVER, YOU WILL DIE ON THESE UNHOLY SCOTTISH GROUNDS, YOU SHOULD BE THANKING ME FOR GIVING YOU YOUR ETERNAL WINGS...YOUR STUPID BUNCH OF RAGTAG TEAMMATES DONT REALISE THE ALBATROSS IS IMMORTAL TO YOUR PATHETIC ATTACKS AHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!

The Broken Bird squad leader's insane laughter was shrill and inhuman rattling down the intercom of the sky warriors making everyone slightly uncomfortable. But his mania was not affecting his skill, he was still on hot on the Iron Jackson catching him with short bursts of machine gun fire and doing a further 10% damage to the plane, it was getting pretty beat up now, and Roland was grinding his teeth with every hit, desperately trying to manuver out of this nasty situation, but the little raven craft was just a more agile plane, it seemed to be slightly upgraded too, as was normal for the squad leader. Roland looked out of his window to see his team fighting back well, approaching the bomber The Holy Albatross

First was Kerry Thomas in the New One, pulling off an amazing aerial stunt in the cuban eight vareity, which completely threw off the missile which harmlessly ended up flying in a random direction away from the battle, #3 was furious but still in a slow combat turn to re approach the battle field, once he leveled out, he set his sights on Roland Shaw who he could see was getting chewed up by cannon fire from his leader, hoping to gang up on the canadian pilot while he was still vunerable.

Kerry then pulled a very agressive manuver and started to blast away at the albatross's wing, hoping to take it clean off....the bullets slammed hard against the bomber but the damage was almost unnoticeable, the armor of the albatross was incredibly thick, and almost shrugged off the machine gun fire completely at the wing. The Bomber countered by firing a powerful homing Sidewinder AAM (air to air missile) at Kerry, starting off slow but but chasing the texan fiercly as he swooped by.

Bomber Albatross:
Bwahahaha stupid Texan! the albatross is immortal to your pea-shooter hahahahah... no one can stop me from me from decimating this base.... I'll take out one of thses annoying AA guns first!

The bomber was now approaching the airspace above the first line of AA guns which began to fire wildly in the sky, but the enemy had too much altitude and didn't suffer one hit. The albatross pilot began typing in a bombing attack course to destroy the the first few defense turrets.

Next was the Old Fart who seemed to enter the battlefield on cue, right after the failed attack from the New One, and began blasting its much more powerful 20 mm guns straight at the Bomber's cockpit....the attack was somewhat more succesful because of the power of a hunter class's weaponry but apart from some whisps of white smoke from the from the front of the plane, the bomber kept moving forward and began to blast back at Alfonse, although at not a great angle managed to do 4% to the old fart's sturdy plane.

Reggie jenkins was cursing as he pulled a perfect somersault and got away from the fire of the bomber AND #5's attack landing perfectly behind the left wing of the bomber out of the range of effective attack. Now as a rabbit, the #5 pilot was already enraged by the slick sexy craft but was even more tormented by his flying agility...

Little Raven #5:
Argghhhh you arent the only one who can fly gracefully! you are a lowly ground creature I have the true eternal wings... WATCH THIS!

The anger and andrenaline was cursing through the pilot like an injection to the neck, he attempted to pull off an inverted somersault to get behind the Slick Sexy once more, but this would be his last mistake. The little raven was nowhere near as agile and wasn't able to complete such a tight somersault, but the pilots rage clouded his judgement and halfway through the somersault....the plane stalled,,really badly....

Holy Albatross:
what are you doing? don't try to chase him, break off and reappraoch....where are you flying....ahhh what...nooo!

The Little raven #5 had stalled directly above of the Albatross and began to sink like a rock......directly on top of the Bomber's Left wing.....

CRRRRAAAAHAHBBBOOOMMSSSHHHHH!!

The little raven exploded against the wing of the bomber not even getting a chance to scream before being incinerated in his own cockpit, the plane was was blown to bits by the impact and the debris scattered across the air space like a small fireworks to display!

Little Raven #1:
Noooo what!!!??? how could youuu!! NOOOOO MY SQUAD!

But as the smoke cleared...there was first the sight of a lightly flaming wing.....that was still attached to a Bomber plane...the Albatross was clearly damaged but still unomved from his attack course..it survived the collision!!!!

Roland was in shock, even the the intense danger of being shot down by the leader wasn't enough to stop him from staring at the Holy Albatross in disbelief like a terminator of the skies marching towards its target.

Holy Crap!!! that bomber is still alive!!?!, we cant let it start dropping bombs, Sky Warriors that base is the only friendly HUB we are going to see for a while, and we gotta defend it!!! Ahhh shit! this bastard leader is still on me!! Kerry, fly towards me! That AAM is almost impossible to shake, but my 'True' homing missiles are also anti missles if you can draw the sidewinder in my view I'll blow it out of the damn sky!!!....Reggie, get back in the fight, see what you can do about these last two fighters!!....

Roland looked at his damage gauge, as it went past 55%, he cursed quietly to himself, but decided to not to let his squadmates know just yet, he needed them focused on stopping the bombing run.....

Nishizawa! Get out of the range of the bullets, its time to scan that Bomber! find out its weakness and the second the Codex gets updated I want you and Alfonse to take that Albatross out!......Alfonse, can you hear me? you know bombing runs better than anyone here.. can we take this psycho out before he starts hitting our ground defenses??

Holy Albatross:
I am the messnger... I will deliver the final justice to you all, you will never survive this, unholy ground creatuRes.. I am THE MESSENGER!!!!

The Bombers engines roared loudly as it began to pick up speed......

"Rokai!" Nishizawa listend to Roland's orders and peeled off her chase, retreating to a safer distance, "Kreep dem offu meh ass I scanu!"

The Japanese scanner once again dove and pulled up in something of a blind area (or at least an area where the turrets decided not to focus on her). Confident enough she was in safety, Nishizawa began to start the scan system. Opening covers, flipping levers, tuning knobs and adjusting computer systems. The cockpit echoed with a low whirring sound as scanners booted up. Running the math in her head, Nishizawa began the scanning. The data followed as the pixels began to line up, all of it being sent back and stored in the codex with a copy of it on her own MSO-6.

"Scann strataring!" she yelled into the comms, hoping that people would make sure she didn't get shot at while waiting information on the bomber.

@Dynamo Frokane

Alphonse, by then, was slowly leveling the plane just above the Albatross's altitude. Fast as the Albatross was, the Old Fart's maneuverability was considerably higher than the short-ranged bomber's, so within seconds, it was tailing the Albatross by making a sharp 45-degree turn.

"You have four options with any bomber : hit the bomb bay with some heavy-caliber rounds, hit either wings and make it veer off course, go for the engines from the front, or blast the cockpit. I'll leave the fastest option to you. Just be careful; in case you guys can't get the job done fast enough, I'll be lighting up our bird here from the rear. Try not to cross the main body from above or below the target, unless you wanna get caught. You've got less than four minutes."

With that said, the Vulcans got fixing to scream again, and so Alphonse opened fire on the Albatross's tail.

"Here's for the holes you put in my wings, asshole!"

Given, the holes were more just on the side of the the main body, but hey, it sounded cool. The bullets began to fly out again, this time with much greater volume.

'Another missile?' Kerry leveled out his flight path as the missile gained on him, sighing behind his mask. 'can't be helped, It'll be hard to shake this thing off, but I can do it, hopefully this works.'

Setting the flaps into turning position, Kerry dove down, before corkscrewing and flying back up. Now he was back into position to attack the Albatross. Alphonse's voice came over the radio, instructing him on proper bomber strafing etiquette, Kerry was insulted, she assumed he couldn't do this himself? Bah!

"Never you mind! I can handle myself!" Following that, Kerry focused onto the Albatross' left wing. "Missile coming in, avoid the left wing, don't want any of you being hit by debris!" Afterwards, Kerry sent out a few flares, in an attempt to stop the missile from hitting him, all planes since the seventies came with flares, no different with this one.

With success getting #5 off of him by making him stall out and crashing into the Albatross wing, Reggie was proud of himself to he not only managed to get away from this seemingly skilled enemy but he beat his ass without having to fire at him. "HAHAHAAAAAA That's right! Fuck yo cheap ass plane! You really bullshittin if you think you can catch my black ass."

hearing on the com from Roland, Reggie went to loop around and headed to Roland's location to try and help "I gotcha bossman! Imma piss on the leader pigeon's face and keep his punk ass busy." Reggie responded as he felt that his guns may not do as much damage to the bomber like the others but he was not going to admit it. After surviving a fight with one little raven, he was going to concentrate on the other while the rest deal with the bomber.

Turning his plane sideways he headed towards Raven #1 from 3 o' clock, firing off a few shots to get the leader's attention. I mean, Reggie is a rabbit, why not fuck with the leader?

(Sorry for the late reply. This was a rush post for me.)

Duchess' engines roared to life once again. Izabelle knew she was late to the party; Duchess had been quite the pain to get started again, but Izzy knew that once the old girl's engines started, she was unstoppable. The plane may have been old, but she was anything but weak. Izzy hopped up onto the wings and into the cockpit, Duchess' paint shone brightly in the morning like as Izzy piloted her into take-off position. She sat on the tarmac a moment as Izzy closed her eyes and gripped the controls tightly.

Then, her eyes were open. She slammed the accelerator forwards and the engine responded with the purr of a lion, shooting the plane forward down the runway and eventually into the air. Over the radio, Izzy quietly spoke to the rest of the team, her Ukrainian accent very audible "Apologies for the late arrival, engine trouble. Duchess is in the air, moving to attack the bomber."

Izzy flicked the switch to activate her offensive engines; a pair of turbojets strapped to the back of the otherwise World War One-esque biplane, and the plane screamed towards the enemy bomber. Izzy opened up the throttle and lined up the bombers engines in the very basic crosshairs she had, squeezing the trigger to unleash an iron rain of 30mm machine gun rounds into it's left side wing.

Over the radio, one sentence was heard "Duchess is engaging."

The Senshin Gado's computer had finished up, and sent a copy of the Albatross's file to all of the other Sky Warriors for reference on the Codex

Scanning Complete

******************************************************************************************************************************************
Holy Albatross:
HahahHAHAHAHAHA your bullets do nothing silly pilots! I see you have a new guest joining us? looks like a Ukranian model, it makes no difference you are all helpless, I will complete my boming run.

Unfortunately the Bomber was correct, although Izabelle's Duchess hit the enemy hard and on target the machine gun fire was ricocheting off the planes' thick armour as if it was BB pellets. The Bomber carried on its path with increased speed and managed to Yaw out of the way of most of the return fire from Alfonse at the same time. The Pilot then responded by firing another AAM shot, but this time at The Old Fart! Hoping to knock the rival bombing unit out of the sky.

Roland was getting worried now, the codex was updated but was it too late? he couldn't attack the bomber himself as he was being chewed up by the fire of the leader.....

Goddamnit, I cant shake him! christ is anyone able to throw him off??

Just as Roland spoke the Slick Sexy came diving in on cue and started shooting and taunting the #1 Little Raven managing to land some decent shots with machine gun fire and completely disrupt his chase

Little Raven #1
NOOO THE GEORGIAN??!! I WILL KILL YOU FIRST, YOUR PATHETIC KAMIKAZE LEADER WILL HAVE TO WAIT, COME BACK HERE.

The Little Raven Leader immediately pulled off from the Iron Jackson and began to shoot at reggie with extreme annoyance, the Leader was screaming mad but still incedibly quick and managed to tag Reggies wing for about 11% damage, pulling an immediate combat turn and catching the Rabbit's tail now chasing the The Slick Sexy at a high speed.

Little Raven #1
#3 come in, take out the new ukranian model aircraft while I show this fool that Rabbits belong in the ground!!! TAKE THIS...

The Leader began to re-coordinate and managed to shoot a missile as he engaged Reggie which was locked on and gaining fast. Roland was out of the line of fire finally and pulled a gutsy U-Turn to re-engage though his beloved Iron Jackson was beginning to leak grey clouds of smoke from the engine....

Nice Work Reggie! But you shouldn't have thrown yourself in there alone, this leader is out for blood.....Kerry!! nice work with the flares! Now see if you can support reggie as he tangles with this leader, I'll approach the bomber now that we got some good info from Nishizawa........And good to see you with us Izabelle you and Alfonse can help smash this Albatross to bits!.........Nishizawa....heyyy watch out!!!!!!

Roland cursed himself for not seeing it earlier, #3 wasn't heading for Izabelle like he was told to, the coward had pulled a red herring and swooped back in on the Senshin Gado, with his Flak Gun! The angry pilot started pumping heavy explosive rounds at the japanese pilot for a whopping 45% damage!!! the rounds smashed heavily into the plane and there was red and black smoke everywhere!!!!

Nishizawa!!! No!!!! You sneaky Broken Bird Bastard...shes a scanner!!! come fight me!!!!

It was no use, Roland wasn't a Rabbit Class and wasn't able to distract the vicious pilot's attack on his squadmate, Roland fired up the iron jackson's engines and made an accelerated boost towards the the little raven #3 hoping he wasn't too late.

Little Raven #3:
OOhhhhh don't worry, my pretty little Japanese fool, I'll send you to the eternal sky as quickly as I can...... I'm sure the The rest of the Hayabusa clan cant wait to see you join them in....thats right...we scanned you the moment you entered the fray, we know all about you Kaga!! HAhAHHAHAH

Nishizawa opened her eyes not to the war torn sky, but to peace. All around her, it was serene and felt pure, this was a place not touched by the monstorsities of war, unscathed by the flames of destruction. The area was white as snow and soft as silk, yet felt like home, like she had been out travelling for weeks and was returning to her mother's arms.

Ba-Dunk

Standing up to the sound of a Japanese bamboo water fountain, Nishizawa took the time to look around. The land was pure and clean, serene and calm. Outside of the occasional structure or pond, there was nothing there. To her left was a large mount with a stone foot path and a red torii gate at its peak; by her right was a small waterfall and pond with the bamboo water fountain, the rushing water would fill half of the hollow piece of bamboo until it tipped over, dumping out the cold water and hitting a stone placed underneath it.

"Its been a while Nishi-chan."

Ba-Dunk

Nishizawa spun around on her heels and gasped, "Nii-sama!"

For the first time in forever, she smiled and bolted to her brother, burying her face into the white kimono of her brother, "What are you doing here? Where are we?"

"Have you forgotten dear sister?" Nishizawa's brother lifted up her chin, "This is the Kyōkaisenjōnohoraizon. The horizon in the middle of nowhere. You have been here before, the both of us."

Ba-Dunk

"Now, your time here will be short I'm afraid."
"Nii-sama, why?"

Ba-Dunk

"You still have a war to fight Nishi-chan. Fear not, I will be guarding you in spirit, Nishizawa. As a parting gift, enjoy the new song of the music box."

Ba-Dunk

---

"Nishizawa!" the girl heard Roland calling her name.
"I iz alrightu." Nishizawa snapped awake and yelled into the coms.

Taking a look around, it seems she got hit hard. Much of the cockpit glass was cracked if not completely shattered, the shards twinkling in her lap like gems. The left wing was pretty torn up, the ends of it looking like fabric in the wind, Nishizawa guessed it must have taken a direct hit. The rest of the plane was looking pretty rough, the engine spewed smoke and some of the electronics had seen better days.

"Roran, I vill be engragingu numba tree." And with that, Nishizawa heard the back machine gun open up. It was unknown if she was just hearing things out of delusion or some greater spirit was pulling the trigger, but it allowed her to once again pull her airbrakes and preform some fancy midair flips so she could try and get behind her attacker and let loose a divine storm of bullets.

Izzy pulled off the bomber and looked around, taking inventory of the remaining enemy aircraft before grinning to herself. An idea. She looked over the bomber info that she'd received and then pulled up her radio "Roland, I have idea to take out the bomber. All aircraft, if anyone is able to, follow me."

She proceeded to pulled up rapidly on the stick, engaging the afterburners on Duchess and climbed straight up like a rocket as she watched her fuel gauge drop like a stone from full to 3/4. Once at a significant altitude she pulled back on the stick once again, flipping herself over and pointed straight down at the bomber. With a grin she disengaged the afterburners and screamed towards the bomber, her speedometer shooting up. She flicked the cover on the missile trigger and armed the missiles, placing her finger gently on the trigger, ready to fire them.

Duchess screamed towards the Holy Albatross, shuddering under the speed. It wasn't exactly designed to fly at such speeds but Izzy had faith in the old girl "Just a little longer..." she whispered, now only about 250m above the bomber and closing fast. At 100m she squeezed the trigger on the stick and launched two of the four missiles before pulling hard on the stick and just narrowly missing the trailing edge of the Albatross' wings, slowly leveling off of her dive. Not bad for an old biplane.

Right then and there, Alphonse punched his flare missile and killed two of his outermost turbines, essentially dragging him into a dead drop. He wanted to move out of harm's way, and fast. At least, from a slightly lower altitude, he might've considered hitting the belly, but Izzy was making her intentions quite clear to stay out.

As he stalled, Alphonse pondered the thought and revived the turbines, pushing him to a downwards dive. Here, he clenched his teeth and flexed his entire body as he pulled up, disallowing his innards to be subjected to the G-forces. By the time he leveled himself out, Izzy would have just begun the dive, leaving Alphonse little else to do other than leave the plane automatically at a gentle incline upwards while he crawled over to a little terminal off the the side cockpit.

A fuzzy camera allowed viewing of the tail end, and though it was rather unclear, he could at least get the general make of a given plane. So long as Reggie was in sight, he might get a chance to pitter-patter his pursuant.

"Reggie, I need you to make a quick pass above me. I can use the tail gun to shred the paparazzi behind you."

After some successful hits on the leader and getting his attention, Reggie was looking to end him like he did #5. His confidence was high and a smile came upon his face but usually Reggie was the type that hated when someone messes up his shit. He looked on, turning to the side away from the leader. "How ya doin babay!? Think yo dick is bigger than mine bruh! You sadly mistake-" While in the middle of his taunting, he could feel the rattling of his plane's wing getting hit, quickly pissing Reggie off.

"AAAAAAAAAHH SHIT! stop fucking up my Slick Sexy!! Bossman, you gonna owe me a blunt and a bottle of hennessy after this is done!!" He said after hearing Roland on the radio. Looking over, Reggie could see Raven #1 coming up on him and decided "Catch me now motha fucka!!!" Those words was going to haunt Reggie as his custom made system allowed him warning for any locked on attacks that's threatening him. He realized that a missile was let loose and started to gain on him. He needed to do something as he pulled up, going for a sharp incline near the old fart but the missile was starting to close in quickly. No doubt, he was going to get hit but...he heard Alphonse on his com.

When told to make a quick pass above the Old Fart so his tail gun could tag what was behind him, Reggie was sweating bullets but he couldn't help but smile "Aight, if yo scary ass can get this motha fuckin missile off me, I swear fo' god, that I'll take you to get a pony to lick yo pole and teabag ya!" he said, straightening up and coming up from behind the Old Fart, hoping he'll deliver on the suggestion he made to Reggie. But seeing how Raven #1 want's to play rough, Reggie was going to try and reengage the bitch once the missile's off his ass. No one tries to total his Slick Sexy!

Roland Shaw was not a man who was easily shaken, he had been fighting aerial conflicts his entire adult life, he had no fear of losing his own life anymore, he held on to the causes he felt passionate about, and was directed by his sheer force of will and moral compass. His love of the sky kept him sane, his Iron Jackson protecting his soul in times of hell in the modern war-torn world. He knows that deep down he can make it better. He just needs to keep fighting!

But seeing Nishizawa being nearly blown apart by the flak gun, hearing Reggie Taunting the opponent that was shooting him and saving his life, watching Kerry, Alfonse and Izabelle throw themselves into the jaws of battle without any hesitation for each other, all perfect strangers all fighting to keep each other alive and complete this mission...this made tears push out of Roland's eyes. He picked them all well, they were truly Sky Warriors........These Sky Warriors...I cant let down....I cant let them die....like...

BRAPPPPPEPEPEPEPDRRRRRRGGGGG

Roland's brief internal monologue was cut short by his teammate Nishizawa. She had just pulled out of the flak cloud smoke and pulled a gorgeous U-turn and began raining shots down on to #3 a perfect counter attack, one that Roland never expected from the more tech based scanner class.

Yeahh! Nishizawa keep blasting him!!!....Hey number 3 I've got something for you, call it a gift from Kaga and the rest of the rest of the hayabusa clan!

The Iron Jackson was beaten up but still a tough old bird as the weapon system whirred open and blasted one of its standard unguided rockets at the Little Raven. Roland was dead focused with his aim and let lose as he flew head on just at and angle on the Raven's left flank.

SMMMAAAAHAHAHBSSHHBROOOMMM

The Rocket hit hard against the raven and blew most of the right wing straight off!!, The Senshin Gado's Machine gun fire was now rattling into the cockpit and body of the Raven with terrifying accuracy, the the pilot was literally shredded apart in his seat.

Little Raven #3:
SHhheeeehsss a scannenrrrr nothing butttTtt A Skannerrr.....agggrgrrrkkkkkk.....ak...

What was left of the little raven plane began to sink like a rock and hit the ground at such a high speed it could be mistaken for a megaton bomb. The Explosion was red and black an the gargles of the bullet ridden pilot went silent on the intercom.

Nice work Nishi...you did it....but your....plane it looks ravaged...are you okay?

The Senshin Gado was now trailing smoke that was becoming increasingly dark from the wing, Roland could only wish she was okay.

Little Raven #1: IT DOESNT MATTER, YOU CAN KILL AS MANY AS YOU WANT...WE ARE BROKEN BIRDS WE WILL FLY FOREVER CAWWW CAWWW COME BACK STUPID RABBIT THAT ANCIENT FRENCH BOMBER FOSSIL TEAMMATE CANT HELP YOU!!!!

The mad leader had probably spoke to soon, his missile was flying towards Reggie on target, and his machine guns were lined up to kill, but he under-estimated Alfonse who Reggie lead right on to the attack path. The AAM missile had detonated against the Old Fart's flares but the explosion was fairly large and The Old Fart took 5% damage from the blast radius, but was unshaken, the same flares had also thrown off the missle that was chasing The Slick Sexy which now flew of course and narrowly missed Reggie by a hair. The Pilot was mad, skwaking like a bird over the intercom as his Little Raven increased speed only to fly right into the blazing firing line of the Old Farts Cannons. Reggie and Alfonse had set the trap perfectly.

The Leader Raven was battered with hunter-class machine fire, and the once fierce plane was now trailing black smoke and catching fire....no sounds were heard from the intercom apart from the screams of the burining pilot being roasted alive in his craft.

BLLLLLAMMMMMMM!

The leader was dead, the plane exploded in mid air like a new years firecracker, only the Holy Albatross was left.

Roland switched on his intercom, his hurried breath was filled with excitement
Yeah yeah YEAH Reggie and Alfonse, thats how you do it! Smashed that arrogant bastard into bits! Now we just gotta take care of the bomber. I can see Izzabelle lining up nicely for a diving attack from above, lets hope she.....can.....hang on who's that???

The Duchesss dived down at insane speeds and fired two missiles at the left-top side of the Holy Albatross. As the Missiles Screamed in, out of nowere a hail of perfectly place machine gunfire lit up the bomber, smashing off two of the turbine engines. The Bomber was now no longer on its path it was diving into a crooked spiral.

AHHHH No way....its Ava Falke?! You're here!!!

The german pilot adressed the team over the intercom as the duchesses's missiles followed up Ava's attack and smashed into the now damaged and barely flying bomber....

CRAASSSSSHSHSHHHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH

The explosion was absolutely huge, it looked like nucelar war, the combined attack of the two gutsy female pilots had created a large display of fire and lights for all the sky warriors to see....but the light settled...the smoke and fire cleared.....and emerged and flaming Albatross....STILL FLYING

Holy Albatross:
*Koffff* *Koff* hahahaha...kkk....my legs are on fire.....I smell like a champion meal right now....hahahahhkkkk ugrhk...You infidels dont understand....my...craft....is holy....it cannnot be defeated....by such sinful beings.....*koff Koff* as yourself...I will complete...my.....misssiii.....

The Bomber pilot went silent over the intercom as the Albatross began picking up an insane speed. It was flying on a path almost a nose dive....right for the bases building!!!!

NOOOOOO Fuccckkk NOO!! Its a kamikaze attackkk,,, I gotta patch through to Hobbes....get out of the building hobbes....the Bomber is going straight for the building.....

Roland's tried to thrust the Iron Jackson in an attack path to try and shoot the falling zombie of a bomber, but it was no use, the Dead plane (full of explosives) was like a meteor it was falling to fast to catch....it hit the AA base with force of unholy power that the broken birds spoke of.

MISSION FAILED: THE BASE WAS LOST.
******************************************************************************************************************************

The explosion had killed everyone in the main command center, all of the staff and officials of the AA were disintegrated with that blast. All of the sky warriors landed in the hangar which was still mostly intact, with only 6 mechanics still breathing and 4 badly injured. Hobbes' mangled corpse was spotted near the outer gate as Roland flew into land, he must have been a few seconds away from avoiding the main blast but was crushed by debris. Commander Ryan's body was nowhere to be seen, he was assumed to be obliterated in the blast if he was in his office.

Dynamo gathered to the team in the hangar and addressed them with his face looking solemn and defeated.

You did so well, Sky Warriors...so well, we fought the enemy, and killed them, when they ambushed and struck us off gaurd. I know it must be hard to feel proud with all this death, and I don't feel too great either, but you all know what these wars do to us. They take everything away, and this is just another bloody, tragic chapter. But we are still here, and we can still do something. We can get to Neon Haven like orginally planned. We are going to change all of this mess, so these deaths werent for nothing....so that Hobbes' didnt die....for.....*sniffs* ahhh god..

Roland began to cry, he obviously was fond of Hobbes and felt responsible for the his death, the lingering image of Hobbes's smashed body would never leave his mind, or his nightmares. He quickly did his best to wipe his tears and continue.

...ahhh shit...look, we have to get to Iceland, the hangar is still mostly in one piece and the mechanics here are going to help fix and restock all our planes to 100%, I'm going to stay here and help too. While you are all waiting you can All ask me one question about this War/Situation/Current Events each, and all relevant info will be added to your codex, pick your question wisely.We will then leave for Iceland as soon as the planes are fixed, which shouldn't take long.....so get something to eat and sit down while you can...dismissed...

Roland grabbed a wrench and rallied the mechanics as they began to open up and begin repairs on the planes. Hobbes memory was heavy in the air.

Izzy and Duchess landed gently on the runway as one of the first craft on the ground. After parking Duchess outside the hangar (she didn't need much other than refueling and restocking from the hagnar), Izzy walked over to Roland. Though they had had a very successful fight, the battle had still been lost. Izzy looked almost as sad as Roland, and though she had barely known anyone here she too had felt the strangely high comradery of the team full of strangers.

Her boots clicked on the tarmac as she entered the hangar and approached Roland, giving him a quick salute and respectful nod, uttering a few words to him "I am truly sorry for this loss Roland, I hope they can rest easy knowing the effort we put in to try and prevent this." She took off her beret and held it to her chest in respect for the ones who perished, standing silently beside her leader. She stopped as she was leaving and turned back around to Roland "...Any idea of the enemies we may be flying into on our voyage to Iceland, Capt'n?"

After a few moments of respectful silence, Izzy returned to Duchess and began going over everything to make sure nothing had been damaged. She removed the ammunition from the twin machine guns up front and re-fed it into the gun to ensure it wouldn't jam, before topping up the oil on the main engine. She knew every little quirk on the plane and how to fix it if it began to act up; The flaps for example, had a tendency to lock up on takeoff and sometimes the attack engines refused to start. But it gave Duchess character. Izzy would never want a perfect plane, there would rarely be anything to fix, and that was half the fun.

Izzy finished tightening the flaps up again and jumped up into the cockpit, running her hand along her trusty biplane. Pictures of her kills lined the gauges in front of her and a picture of her father was pinned to the side of the fuselage, it was a miracle it hadn't blown away as the cockpit was open. She sat in the leather covered chair and held the control stick, breathing in a few deep breaths and shutting her eyes. Hopefully tomorrow proved to be better.

Nishizawa leaned back into her now slightly shredded cockpit chair, her breathes heavy as she peered over the side of the Shenshin Gado. Yup, it got pretty roughed up, the left wing was full of black marks and holes, hell she could even see the internal frame of the wing. Right side was a bit better although she had lost an entire flap somewhere along the way. The cockpit glass would need to be replaced and there was a need for a new paint job (black marks wasn't exactly the prettiest thing to look at) and she'd need more ammunition and- there was a lot of things her MSO-6 needed; Kaga hoped that the remaining mechanics could pull it off.

Not even bothering to slide the window back, Nishizawa jumped through the metal skeletons that would hold it and rolled on to the ground, picking up a fire extinguisher from a nearby wall. Casually spraying the fluffy white foam on what flames still danced, she gasped as she remembered about the music box. Dropping the red can and dashing back to her plane, Nishizawa fished out the beautifully carved box. It was unharmed, still in pristine edition as if it never even went into the sky. Opening the fine lid, the contents inside hadn't budged or shifted by the slightest.

Winding up the crank, the delicate planes on the inside once again began to dance to a new delicate song. Unconsciously, Nishizawa slipped back into her seat as she closed her eyes to let the music flow through her. Her fingers danced along to the beat, her foot tapped out the beat as Nishizawa felt the delicate dancing energy through her toes, her finger tips and her hair. Once the final note played, the young pilot sat there, looking down at her feet with one word escaping her lips,

"Nii..."

---

A Few Minutes Later

---

"Shir." Nishizawa saluted as she came upon Roland, "Teh creiws ar ar werurking on mai prane, but mai quessiun is zis whaat well wei being met en de airu on teh tripu desu?

Having such a successful show of teamwork and wanting to talk shit after his teammates kicked the fighters asses, his smiles diminished upon seeing the Albatross destroy the base. In Reggie's mind, after all the hell they went through to fight these bastards, they pulled the pussiest move he's ever seen and witnessed a blazing genocide that was pretty much a kick in the nuts and ass rape at the same time. Reggie headed back to the hangar, landing his Slick Sexy so to gather with Roland and the others. After listening to what Roland had to say, Reggie turned around to take a look at the condition of his plane.

Reggie turned to take a look at the wreckage from what the Albatross did and while staring, Reggie simply shook his head "This shit right here don't make no motha fuckin sense. Basically we done got, got by a bunch of fuck boys." Reggie pulled out his flask to take a drink. Before the top could touch his lip, he stopped while staring at the wreckage some more, making his eyes widen slightly for the fact that the genocide, blazing inferno, and damage reminded him of what he saw in his home town when his entire neighborhood, where all his family stayed, destroyed in nearly the same inferno he was watching now. He could still hear the screams of the women, children, and elders as he lost the majority of his family during the southern wars, basically leaving him alone since the remnants of his family became nomads and have not been seen since.

Reggie, before taking a drink, poured out some liquor for the ones who died and turned to check out his plane. It was like a switch that turned his mood quickly when seeing his plane "Man...................................DAMN!!" he ran over looking at his plane when one of the mechanics came to check it out "Bruh you see this shit man....do you see this shit!? Look like somebody came around the corner, doin a drive by on my plane. Bruh you know how much this shit cost man! look at this!" Reggie grabbed the mechanic, pushing him onto the plane "Look at that, The shit was polished, it was blingin! The wings look like somebody wiped they ass all on it. And and take a look at this!" dragging the mechanic to the other side "See that pic of that butt naked ass snow bunny I have there? you don't even know what the fuck that is right there. The bullet shots on that pic look like the nipples done took over the titties. Now the pic don't look good, that ain't no fine as woman, nah, that look like a butt naked ass mutant! man...don't look at me like I'm speakin Pakistani, fix this shit.... broham!"

Reggie left the mechanic to take care of his plane after letting his frustrations out. He started to head off to cool down "Yeah....and errbody wanna take they asses to iceland...but we got a bunch of crackheads tryna jump us and we lose a damn base....shoulda took my black ass to Africa....they mo' fucked up over there, and I can prolly catch herpes just by shakin they hands but dammit....they my bothas and sistas over there and I can chill with them bush livin zebra bitches and live like a goddamn king..."

Looking over at Roland, Reggie walked over "Hey BOSSMAN!" getting closer "Hey man....gonna say sorry bout that bullshit that just happened to yo homie....that was fucked up...but hey.....just wanna know sumthin, Do we got some allied squads out there that can give us warnin or help us or some shit like that so we ain't gotta run inta anythin' blind?"

Alphonse knew the experience of loss all too well, but for him at least...well, there was always a reason for Fate to flip the bird on him.

Not that it was too personal, at least for him. His daughter was in London, or somewhere along the lines of the isle, probably living a good life or working in a brothel. Either way, he had done all he could on his part. To take care of himself and perhaps others that could still use a good haven, he had a body and a plane to work with, as well as a team of other like-minded people. They'd probably turn on him if they knew what kind of life he lived not a few years ago...

Oh.

It was too bad he forgot to smuggle the coffee...or did he?

Alphonse came back to the hangar in record time, with a cup o' joe in his hands. Call it an airman thing, but coffee never ceased to exist in any place, as far as he knew it. In a world full of change, perhaps coffee was the only constant left. It was the reason why there was an aluminum beaker among his other articles, why he always had a surplus of water. The bonus was that because of his (supposed) leprosy, many hesitated to share a drink. So he drank and drank, waiting for everyone else to leave.

"Roland," Alphonse grunted as he made his way over to his leader, once everyone had asked their questions, "I'm not going to console you. To be frank, their lives were in their hands, and the anti-air turrets had the responsibility of this base. Those who used the turrets failed their job, and paid for it with their lives. Our job was to make a haven to prevent things like this from happening, and I know everyone has their own reasons to do so."

He glanced over at the other pilots trying to get a moment of respite.

"I personally think it's impossible to achieve without scraping the tainted flesh away, if you know what I mean. For a fact, I know that Bram's flock will be looking for retribution, so getting a start to this cauterizing business isn't going to be hard. If the worst-case scenario comes about, and so far it always has, we'll be in the sights of people like the Red Baron one day.

I could be wrong though. Your guilt may actually have some weight, if your vision of the Sky Warriors included us being the shining knights in white armor that lived by seeing things through, not just trying our best.

I'll leave that for you to answer on your own time."

Alphonse took a few gulps, and hacked.

"My only question is this :

Are you going to be our ace or not when this shit hits the fan? If you want to do more, be more, you have the responsibility of turning us into more than the sum of our parts, which means you have to do it when we can't. The ace covers his wingmen's slip-ups, not cheering for what little we are expected to do."

In retrospect, this was nothing close to Alphonse's true feelings about the matter. If anything, he couldn't give two damns less if Roland was still a bad pilot at his full potential, but the truth said otherwise.

He had to push Roland to be something more than he ought to be; that's how Alphonse himself got to where he was right now. Had he congratulated himself for raising a sane girl in the most deplorable place in the world, he would've ended up as some lecher among lechers. Resisting his temptation brought him to the level of "any father that would", meaning he only hit the borderline of "normal".

What if you took a "normal" and pushed him to be something more?

Roland was already covered in grease, he almost forgot how messy mechanics work was, but with only a few able bodied AA staff in the hangar he had to make himself useful, they didn't need to be here any longer than they had to be. Roland sympathised with the anxious energy in the room, a bunch of young strangers all roped into a mission they know almost nothing about and now sitting in a half destroyed hangar waiting to make a hasty trip to Iceland with no ground control whatsoever. They were in the dark, flying blind metaphorically and literally, and it wasn't their faults. They did more than what was asked in the contract for the mission, they weren't the Albion Avenger's security force, they could have all left the battle, but they stayed and fought like real pilots would.

Answering their questions was the very least he could do, he started with Izabelle's Question.

I'll be honest Ms Votyakov, Iceland is one of the countries that is kind of 'off the radar' in terms of occupation or faction activity, as far as I know, its mainly a supply nation for the West European Coalition, not really having a true army or militia of its own apart from security out posts for a few cargo bases, but If I were to take a guess, I would think it would be an attractive spot for some low level bandit groups to scurry around in, but no major factions from what I can tell. Even the Broken Birds haven't been spotted there, so hopefully it should be a fairly smooth ride.

Roland took his pilot hat off and saluted Izabelle.

You really did good today, pilot. You and Ava make a great team too, I'm glad you are watching our backs.

Roland then turned his attention to Nishizawawho asked a similar question

Well I've covered the possible enemies but, expect a lot of supply bases, factories, storage units, docks and even a fair few cities once we get to Iceland. The Country is one of the more less effected places by the wars of recent years, so its still a fairly nice place for normal folks to pass through, on our fuel stops we wont have to worry too much about dangerous groups. However the trip across the sea will be more unpredictable, and at the rate these staff are working, we probably will be crossing the ocean around night time. So we will still have to be on high alert. But we can make it, stay focused Scanner.

Roland gave her the same nod as he did when he first met her, this time in appreciation for her efforts in the sky. He then turned to Reggie and acknowledged his sympathy for Hobbes.

Thanks Reggie, and youre right it was Bullshit, I have no idea why the Broken Birds came all the way out to scotland just to bomb one base, it almost doesn't make sense, but they are bloody and dead now, and that is probably the only thing bringing me comfort. Nice bait and hook with Alfonse by the way, might have to remember that tactic in the future if we have another ace to fight. As for your question there are no AA bases in Iceland, but most refuelling stations will be owned by legitamate Icelandic businesses and contracters from the Western Euro Coalition......now I wouldnt say the WEC are our allies but they arent our enemies either, they are mainly focused on economic growth so by keeping civil they stand to make more money instead of acting like China and blasting everything that comes into their airspace. But essentially in terms of loyal support for our mission, we only really have each other.....but we can do it!

Next was Alfonse who was guzzling coffee and giving Roland a stern tone about the reality about what just happened, and the expectations of him the group. Roland's back stiffened and he responded to Afonse with subtle respect.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, Alfonse, I'm not half the pilot I used to be, too many injuries, possible long term brain damage, and this war has taken a LOT out of me, everytime I get in that cockpit, I'm expecting to be too slow, too beaten up, to make the razor sharp reactions I need for this campaign. I'm no ace, I'm just a chewed up Canadian ex-soldier who refuses to go to waste in some military retirement residence, like most of my army buddies are going to do. I'm not even 40 but I feel a LOT older and I know that Beautiful Iron Jackson is going to be my coffin, but the only question is, how much of my life can I make worth something before I'm killed in battle?

Roland's tone went icy, and cynical, his eyes were flashing the psychological damage from his time in the North American War. He walked closer to Alfonse and squinted his eyes to search for any hint of an expression under the bandages that covered his face. He took a deep shivering breath and and continued.

The strong survive, Alfonse, and in the context of this fucking global situation, that's how it should be goddamnit! Good pilots live to tell the tale of their adventures, sloppy pilots, end up like those Broken Bird psychos we just splattered. They are spared the embarrassment of having to find an excuse. Luck them, I dont have an excuse! I was the worst pilot in the Original Sky Warriors I was a terrified scanner, who would freeze up in mid combat, my teammates: Donnie, Ajay, Phillip, and Li were always saving my ass, I had potential but I would never take responsibility because I knew my team would always save me, they were very invincible to me......life....was good....until they.....and well. Its nothing I need to go into now, but they aren't with us now. Someone killed them all in combat. But you guys, you wont make the same mistakes we did, you will all be each others Ace, each other's protectors, I can see it in the way you all fight together.

Roland's voice was now hushed and introverted, the layers of his psyche were now starting to show, and he realised this so he returned to his Iron Jackson and continued the repairs.

We will leave in 2 hours, we should all have our aircraft at 100% by then.

***************************************************************************************************************************





It was 7:12PM, the planes had taken off and been flying for about an hour now and all in fighting fit condition. They were in a loose formation with Roland slightly ahead leading the way, the sky was beginning to darken but the sea was nice an calm and it has been a fairly pleasant flight since leaving scotland. Some of the Sky Warriors were now talking to each other and spirits seemed high.

Roland opened the intercom channel to all craft flying with him.

Roland Shaw here, All aircraft report!

After a rough take-off, Izzy had leveled off on the leftmost flank and Duchess' main engine hummed smoothly. It was a beautiful time for flying; there was no glare from the sun but it wasn't overly dark either. Izzy flew in silence. She had removed her headset after leaving Scotland as she was still a bit shaken up from the fight and wanted time to recuperate, and what better time to do so then while flying over the calm, flat ocean. She flicked a switch and a small green light lit up in response. Her fairly limited autopilot kicked in, keeping her nose level with the rest of the formation while she leaned back to rest her eyes for a moment.

After hearing the nagging little voice blaring from the headset at her feet, Izzy picked up the headset and placed it on her head, drowning out the purr of the engine. She sighed before opening up her channel, and with a quiet but stern voice, Izzy reported in "Votyakov, flying smooth and level on our port flank. Hearing you five by five. Out." She didn't want a response, nor did she care if she got one anyways and she turned down the volume, leaning her head back on the leather headrest. After muting her mic she began to sing quietly to herself, her hands rested gently on the stick. She adjusted the throttle a bit after realising she was lagging a bit behind the group, but otherwise she was still in her aircraft, glancing to her right occasionally to examine the other planes in the squadron.