James could hear the pounding of his heart in his ears as his plane approached the AO. He wasn't scared,or nervous but rather numb. It was hard for James to try and figure out what had happened. The Black knights squadron had been ordered to link up with friendly units to push back the air assault. Half way to the rally location Enemy forces had engaged. Samantha had been the first to be killed as heavy caliber rounds tore through her canopy, she had died nearly instantly. Her Wing-man Jones was alot more lucky, The rounds tore though the body of the plane leaving him enough time to eject. James didn't have time to find out what happened to Jones as the enemy forces engaged him and his wing man Andrew Mcknight.

The fighting had been short but brutal. The enemy forces had taken the black Knights by surprise. the squadron had been nearly wiped out. of the three flights that were the black knights, James was the only one still in the air. Those who hadn't been out right killed were either badly wounded or had bailed out. Had it not been for support from The cowboys who, after hearing James would most likely be dead. McKnight being shot down by enemy missiles. McKnight had been one of Jame's closest friends, The thought that he was gone hurt him incredibly. What would James tell Andrew's wife? how would she explain it to their child. James may not be the best pilot but he would be damned if he didn't make those fuckers pay for each and everyone of the Black Knights that died.

As he approached the Angel flight James switched to the same squadron radio frequency
"This is Bla..." He said coming to sudden realization he was the last Black night before he continued "Black Knight-3 here to...Ah... Assist you in the defense of this air base, though from the look of it we weren't needed." James said bitterly. Jame didn't hold any hate of disgust with the angels, but he couldn't but think they were responsible for the deaths of his squadron. James knew that was stupid, that hey didn't have anything to do with them being sent there, But it was so much easier to deal with the loss if he could blame some one. James was alone now, All his friends were either dead or badly wounded. The black knights were effectively dead as the few survivors that would fly again would be assigned to new units and the Black Knights would be reformed later on down the line with new faces. for the first time in his life he had found a place where he belonged, a home to where he didn't need to sleep worried that the people in bunks around him would slit his throat for his shoes. only to have it all ripped away from him. 'They should pray they die before I find them' he thought grimly "I'm moving to assist.

The two were engaged in a duel of chasing each other's tails for a while it was only a matter of time before Lancer got up behind Winkoop and that's exactly what he had done. No one had mentioned Emilia for a while and even then Winkoop wondered what had became of her daughter, but the time for such thoughts were past. The battle at hand was Lancer, once he was turned into a pile of scrap he find out what she was up to. Winkoop albeit estranged was her biological father, her actions in the private military company 'Providence' had been questionable but only someone like Lancer would know of it.

Devil-1: "Hmpf, keep my daughter's name out of your mouth dog."

Within a matter of moments, Lancer had pulled off his maneuver and the missiles were flying in front of him before detonating - charring his Su-27 at the same time 20mm fire hit his rear-engine causing it to sputter. Despite this Winkoop pulled himself into a steady climb, gaining altitude as his Su-27 spit out smoke he turned right around gaining speed ahead of Lancer and flew towards him head-on. Of course, his intentions weren't to fly into the man's F-14 and explode but to finish him off with one last desperate attack.

Devil-1: "You think you can beat me!?"

Winkoop locked on and fired from his 4AAM, four separate missiles broke off and threw themselves towards the F-14C as they trailed infront of Winkoop.






Devil-1: "For Vlhakia!"

---

Somehow, Zarkev was paying attention then entire time - to everything. When Carter jumped on his frequency to taunt him he continued to fly but the F-14 simply would not let it go, do Antrean's have no concept of respect? When the 20mm fired from Carter's air craft Zarkev in a super-human reaction rolled out of the way of the shots. It would of stunned anyone who would of been watching such a spectacle, the Su-27 quickly pulled a immelmann maneuver having him at a higher altitude than Carter, but he quickly nose dived into the cocky pilot's rear.

Devil-1: "The Ant falls for the trap."

The 2ic quickly gets up behind the F-14C firing a burst of 20mm towards it's rear, in a mock fashion the precision strike would be going right for Felix's bad engine.

---

While Scott tried to pull up and see the markings of the Su-47s, he was unable to get a good look as the unit quickly re-activated its active camouflage. Only becoming bending light before the eyes of the pilots, but for Teale, this was the worst outcome as a local bird was flying at the same heading as Teale. In a few seconds, it became a squished red mess on her cockpit, causing some maneuvering delays for sure.

Kingslayer-1: "Time for us to leave."

The three aircraft slowly but surely, vanished into thin air as if they were never there.

---

Lancer was going up against the man who knew how to make dogfighting, no, flying in general seem like a dance, or part of a song, or a routine. They were flowing with one another as if a waltz was playing and they were emulating the beat, dancing around each other. It was a clash of their differences, while Winkoop was an ace emulating the dance of the Waltz, it felt as if Lancer was dancing to the beat of Jazz. The clash continued until they reached the climax of the cacophonous concert-- The climb and chase. As soon as the Devil began to rise, Lancer followed behind, up until he flipped around and began to play chicken with his F14D. It was a life or death situation, Captain Rose jammed his joystick to the far right, stepping on the respective pedal to begin a spin as soon as the smoke trails of the missiles came into sight.









It was not the smartest maneuver to perform in a panic, two missiles skirted past his craft, but two missiles hit a mark, and did their damage. One missile fragmented right into his left wing, technically scalping it and leaving Lancer with half an aileron on the left side. The other, slammed against the tail, taking a one of the upright rudders with it. The plane was in no condition to go for another target. It was taking out Winkoop or crashing and burning at this point.

All Lancer could manager was to get his cockpit antiparallel with Winkoop's in order to aim the 40mm gun right at the cockpit of the man. He wanted to have fun and take this man out on the ground, but there would be no better end than in the sky, it seems. There was a contingency in the case he missed.

Lancer: "I'll take care of her for you. Rest easy old man. You were backed into a corner to fight and you know it."

Lancer began spraying 20mm bursts at the cockpit belonging to Winkoop, if he didn't take him out, he'd take out his electronics making his plane useless and at risk to plummet right into the Earth. That wasn't good enough, he wasn't going to give Winkoop a win in the game of chicken either, he was pointing the nose right at the fuselage of Winkoop's craft. The explosion would take him out. The only escape was his ejection seat, he'd hate to lose his lucky craft, but there is one code that always holds true: The pilot is worth more than the machine.

---

Felix was chuckling as he knew what he was dealing with. He was no amateur either, he had thoroughly planned the entire encounter and thought through every possible maneuver that Zarkev would've done. He knew this pilot earned his title with respect from his military, and that his taunt was just words thrown together to make Zarkev feel like he had a amateur ace on his ass. But Felix was nothing along that line, he had plans in his head on how the duel would proceed and it was scary that Felix, the 'White Knight' given by Captain Lancer, could think that much ahead.

The pilot watches the maneuver done by Zarkev, anticipating his movements and when seeing the nose of the SU-27 dip back down to be back behind him, he quickly twirled his plane as he hears the thundering thuds of some more holes through his tail. He growls at this and practically began to dip his F-14D downwards. He was pretending to be dead for Zarkev, like he went unconscious from intense amounts G-Force, but after a moment of faking and being lower altitude of Devil-2 he slowly pulls up to be behind the SU-27 now.




As he was behind Devil-2, he spoke over their radio frequency as his voice was more stern and less amateur sounding. He meant what he spoke of, he wasn't going to be giving Devil-2 any form of respect to his enemy that ambushed his home country by bombing both their bases and the innocent towns. People who would steep low just to start a war doesn't deserve Felix's respect during dogfights and/or duels. Felix was a man of morals, which the Captain on his team did get right. But Felix wasn't really the type to take others' words or titles they gave him to heart. He wanted to keep being himself, and wanted to protect his country and squadron, even just his fellow man in Antrean Military, safe.

Felix Carter says,"Like you said, the Ant always falls for the trap."

Right after speaking this, he flips the cover off one of his weapons now as he began to utilize both his 20mm Cannon and his LRAAM missiles. He first sends a quick 20mm burst towards the rear end of Zarkev, more at his left engine. While doing his burst, he was locking on with his LRAAM and after his short burst of 20mm, he proceeds to release one LRAAM from one of his canisters towards the fuselage.

---

Teale leaned forward, narrowing her eyes. What the hell were these guys? Could they turn invisible? She turned on her comms to talk with Scott who she was flying in formation with.

Teale: "I dunno if we're gonnaAAAAGH! Fuck's sake!"

The woman cursed and jumped in her seat in surprise as a meat pinata exploded across her windscreen. Throwing up one arm in exasperation, she fruitlessly tried to wipe it away with her hands despite the fact it was on the other side of the window. Of course that wouldn't work, but it was better than doing nothing, right? She was powerless to get rid of this stupid bird corpse? Her face was turning red under her mask as she realised the entirety of Angel squad just heard her shout out in terror over a bird. Clearing her throat she stubbornly pounded the comms button with her finger and reported in.

Teale: "Angel Squad, this is Angel-2. A bird went splat on my window. Limited visibility for me, over."

Now she couldn't even tell what happened with those so-called Voyeurs. Most likely they got away as Angel-4 next to her wasn't looking to get into a dogfight. Fortunately as she was flying just underneath the speed of sound the bird was getting blown away by the wind. But it wasn't going away any time soon. Gross. So, so gross. Frowning, she glanced over at Valentine's plane in real life to try and see if he could see the bullshit that just happened. Upon making eye contact she gestured incredulously at the crimson smear on her windscreen. Sighing, she turned and flew back to the main fray. After a moment she started to make sense of what was happening. Both Felix and Lancer had gotten into one one duels with the other enemy pilots. Same issue as before- when two exceptionally skilled fighters got locked into combat it became difficult to interfere. Still, she scanned both fights for an opportunity. Her eyes widened and she clenched her jaw as she saw Lancer literally jousting with the Vlhakian imp he was engaged with. "Jesus Christ!" She exclaimed to herself, her comms off. Other than watch on, she wasn't sure what to do. More than anything she wanted to double team these fuckers but that might just make things worse. Any more of this and she would jump in, but for now she was hesitating.

Two out of the four missles had hit it's mark and it was almost game over for Rose, but what Winkoop didn't expect was the bold move that he was about to pull the 20mm ran through the cockpit taking him out in an instance, it was dark and simply over. His plane started to veer down but was caught by the crippled Tomcat which collided with the plane - now causing a collateral explosion the sky lit up orange for a moment before it died down, raining scrap metal all over the plains below.

A sign of what's to come.

Devil-1: "..."

---

While Carter had the upper hand on Zarkev's back, he fired but Zarkev evaded with a sharp turn - the LRAAM locked onto him and tracked his Su-27 which Zarkev responded to with a few flares. The LRAAM chased after one of the them now flying off in a different direction, Zarkev turned his head towards the explosion nearby, seeing it he cursed. Nothing was going according to plan today, but he would be the one to change the tide.

Devil-2: "It's over ant."

With that he pulled a loop right behind Felix and fired off his 20mm guns towards his rear, in an attempt to take him down and pull off into the sunset with his tail between his legs.

Scott looked on with disbelief, sliding the visor on his helmet up to get a better look as the planes in front of him just... disappeared, literally, into the sky around them. Had they not been confirmed on radar a moment earlier by the AWACS, then he would've worried for his own sanity or his eyesight, but instead he simply marvelled at the sight and felt a sense of frustration. His gloved thumb rested on the arming switch for the GAU-8 in the A-10's nose for a moment; he considered firing a burst and hoping he got a lucky hit; but it didn't seem worth it. The mess he'd get into if he hit something else by accident wouldn't be nearly worth the satisfaction of just blatting off a few rounds, or the sliver of a chance he'd hit something anyway.

Teale: "I dunno if we're gonnaAAAAGH! Fuck's sake!"

Teale: "Angel Squad, this is Angel-2. A bird went splat on my window. Limited visibility for me, over."

He looked over to Teale's plane in alarm as she called in the bird strike. Flying at low altitude most of his career, he'd had a few of his own, and had known other pilots that had bad run-ins with them. Infamous was the story he'd heard of an F-111 that had gone down with both crew killed after getting a pelican through the windscreen.
"Roger that, Angel-2. I'm with you, don't panic. Looks like your canopy is intact, and you're flying fine. Closing up formation on your starboard".
He slid the A-10 into position off of her right wingtip, waggling his jets' wings a little in acknowledgement, and nodding in understanding as she gestured to the splatter of red on the aircrafts' canopy, returning an encouraging thumbs up before contacting the AWACS.
"Gravestone, this is Angel-4. Bandits have... well, uh, disappeared. Literally, right in front of my eyes. No sign of them visually, and could not get positive ID on their markings or nationality. Can confirm that I have not been drinking while flying and that I am actually awake and well-rested. May also request appointment with the flight surgeon after landing, over".

Felix eyed the professional ace's evasion, grunting out in slight frustration as his burst goes off in to the Antrean hillside and even his rocket being locked to one of Zarkev's well-deployed flares. His Tomcat speeds through the black smoke of his rocket, looking around for the missing Zarkev before looking behind himself to find the same Su-27 having looped around him as he suddenly moves his jet in twirls, the burst being sent through each loop and right in to the ground below to avoid the large caliber burst.



Felix Carter says,"Son of a bitch, really scared me there!"

The Angel Ace chuckled to himself within his single-seated cockpit, before preparing himself as he performs a barrel roll within the air in the horizontal loop. He ends up once more coming down on Zarkev from behind like before, his right thumb pressing down on the 20mm cannon as he brings it to life and large red tracers gun towards from the back of the Su-27 to Zarkev's cockpit.



Felix Carter says,"Should've surrendered when you had the chance, Vhalkian scum!"

And once giving his cliche Antrean taunts, he proceeds to send his second LRAAM towards Zarkev's chasis of his jet, his aim practically near the cockpit of his lock on but betting it'd most likely hit the engines due to the heat signature being mostly produced by the engine.

---

Jamie listened in curiously over the radio as Scott explained what he saw. "Vanished?" she murmered under her breath. That's impossible. Still, no reason to engage in a debate with what he saw over the comms. It would be a distraction and a waste of time. Plus, it's not like she could say anything one way or the other. It would make sense, though. She should have been able to see them fly away, at least. But as soon as the bird went kersplat, it was like they were gone. But if Scott couldn't see them either, then maybe they really had disappeared. Like some kind of cloaking tech? Jamie was suspicious to say the least, she would have see it to really believe it. But there was no reason not to take Scott at his word for it. Either way, they were gone, Jamie could tell that much.

Jamie could also tell that Lancer's crazy ass plan worked out. The tension released, and she pouded the window above her with her fist victoriously as Lancer's daredevil stunt allowed him to light up that scumbag and send him falling to the ground below, his precious Vlakky jet shattering into a billion pieces.

Teale: "Fuck yeah! Great splash, Angel-3! Over!"

Grinning, her smile faded a little as she turned the nose of her plane toward Felix and Zarkev's duel. Wouldn't it be great if no more Angel's had to fall? One was enough, she thought. Felix looked to be doing well, but the guy he was dueling wasn't messing around. Either way, Jamie circled her jet around the outskirts of the duel, preparing to leap in at any moment. Particularly if Felix's plane got hit one more time, she would have to jump in and make this Zarkev guy disengage for sure. But there was a chance Carter could blow him out of the sky in the next few moments, so she waited, anxiously, to see what would happen.

The rounds hit his engines as they began to cry and stutter a bit from the damage inflicted by the 20mm, Zarkev cursed as he tried to move himself away from the notorious and mean Felix Carter. However, an LRAAM simply appeared and hit the back of hit near his cockpit almost taking him out of the fight. He turned around his Su-27 and charged towards the Tomcat that was so eager to try and corpse the ace pilot however he had one more federal notion up his sleeve. He fired a burst of 20mm towards the Tomcat, he hit his after burners and took off the plane was coming straight for Carter - a kamikaze maneuver. It seems Zarkev was paying attention to the fight nearby him. . .

Devil-2: "Ejecting."

With a swift pull from his right side he unleashed the ejection pulley switch, which shot him up into the air - his parachute soon erupting as he began to fly crazily downward to the ground below.

---

Jamie's eyes widened and she tensed up, hunching her shoulders in anticipation. What the hell was up with this kamikaze bullshit? Fucking amateur hour! This was NOT in the god damn training manuals! Missiles, bullets! Use them, people, please! She knew some of the people in these armies had some pissing contests but this was just a whole other level. Just throwing your plane at the other guy? It didn't even really work for Lancer. And her supervising officer had the nerve to tell her that SHE could get carried away sometimes!? In disbelief she watched as the planes began to near their collision.

Honestly. Who thinks of this shit? Apparently not Zarkev, he was just copying. Because it worked oh so well last time. Great, she can't wait to fight an army of pyschos who thinks throwing their planes at people is a good idea. Here come the Vlhakians! They don't even have guns or cannons anymore, just an army of jets strapped with dynamite. God forbid her squadmates keep this up. No way was she gonna let Lancer get away with this bullshit again. It set a very, very bad example. One thing Jamie knew for sure was that she was literally never going to kamikaze her plane into anybody. She'd use her guns and missiles like a regular, normal, not insane person, thanks.

Scott's reaction was much the same as Jamie's own. He was following the dogfight from a distance, and had anticipated moving in shortly, as the aerial ballet was drawing out far too long. But the last development was... beyond belief.
They were less than an hour into this undeclared war which was all of one brief engagement old. The stakes were minimal at best; there was no superweapon to defeat, no 11th hour desperation, no civilian population under threat or held to ransom. But here it was: using desperation tactics in nothing more desperate than an unnecessarily personal duel. It was a tactic of the desperate, not that of a professional, experienced, ace of a pilot.
And if their enemy had already sunk into this level of desperate, dire circumstances in their first engagement, already being willing to throw their aircraft at their enemy, all of one engagement old, rather than run. What madness was this? Were they all this level of fanatical? Was this the real face of the enemy they were fighting, a nation of fanatical mad men, equipped for the machinery of war, but resorting to the tactics of the damned and the desperate insane?
Well, fuck that.

He hauled the nose of the A-10 around, feeding thrust to the twin turbofans and his one channel for his comms.
"Angel 2, this is 4. I dunno about you, but I'm pretty fed up with watching this shit-show. Going for guns on that unmanned Flanker. Follow me up for a second pass on it if I don't take it. Over."
Using the A-10's maneuvrability, he pulled into a steep banking turn twisting the nose of the powerful ground-attack jet onto the unmanned jet. He trusted in his helmet-mounted sights' cues, and bought the GAU-8's gunsight pipper into the course of the plane, curling his gloved finger against the trigger on the joystick between his knees.


"Angel Four, Guns"
Scott felt the reverb through the airframe as the massive GAU-8 fired a brief burst. Seven barrels, firing milk-bottle sized shells, the recoil was enough to noticably slow the jet, and he could feel the gun firing through his seat. Black smoke streamed back from the nose of the plane on his brief pass; merely a heart-beats moment of firing, before the moment passed and he was turning in an arcing bank back toward the engagement.

He saw the parachute descending toward the earth spiralling as it went, and hit his comms.
"This is Angel 4; enemy pilot ejected. Request SAR in the area, looks like the ejection went bad. Better have the medics on standby, over".

Felix was somewhat eyeing the maneuvers that Zarkev just pulled. He seen the rocket hit, he seen his 20mm rounds connect. He thought he'd won, and that Zarkev's plan was scrapped. His eyes widen as he finds Zarkev's jet fly towards him. He pulls his Tomcat to lower and spiral, avoiding Zarkev's bursts of hell with ease. The Ace Pilot however didn't expect the cocksucker, pussy Vlakian to literally make his plane a giant ass missile. Felix goes to pull up and spin left, but his entire left wing gets clipped. This is when shit gets real. Sirens inside his cockpit are flashing red, he's flipping switches and trying to ease the spinning aircraft. He found no ease, he had to keep calm and time his ejection right.

Felix eventually pulls his ejections, being able to have himself ejected in his seat and then moments later the parachute pops out. He sighs slowly, he watches Scott fly by as he missed Scott's attempt but could figure what he was doing. He gives a thumbs up towards Scott as he moves his hand up to his radio, speaking in to it.

Felix Carter says,"Gravestone, this is Angel-2. Tomcat got clipped, left wing taken off. I ejected...Tomcat soared down in to the mountains. How copy, over?"

It was all over.

The skies that had been orange with flames had finally withered to nothing more than smoke and dust, all lost to the wind of old as the battle settled down and the victors remained high in the sky. It was official the 450 had won their first sortie, there was time for celebration and then there was time for mourning. The Major was MIA after he was taken out, that was just another body for the SAR to find. While a majority of the squad had survived, there were some that failed to stay in the air. Lancer & Carter respectively, they simply could not beat their aces without going down.

Zarkev's plane slammed into Carter's also exploding but it was turned into little bits of rubble after the A-10 strafed it. Buh-bye. The air space was clean except for a few parachutes that were going down. The ones that were near the base or ontop of the base were intercepted by the security forces below therefore ending the reign of terror that the Vlhakians had over the skies of little AFB Vlasko. For now there was silence, but the threat wasn't gone - it wouldn't be gone, this was just a reprieve of a sign of what's to come.

The fire crews on the ground were putting out some of the fires, while alot of people were being processed by the military and civilian medical personnel. The people of Hammond were safe as that bomber over them stopped just short, however killing a few cattle with the wreckage. The town was confused by the attack aswell as some military units from Henderson, they arrived at the town and started helping out with their small plight. The Cowboys were heroes, and the Angels were aswell. Meanwhile the Angel's radios turned on and a familiar old man voice came over it.

AWACS Gravestone: "Angels, RTB - SAR is on the way for you sorry folks on the ground."

"Roger, Gravestone. Angel-4, RTB"
Scott eased the A-10 into a gentle bank toward the base. As he turned the straight-winged attack jet onto the runway approach, the gear came down and locked and the wingtip airbrakes split to slow the jet for a smooth approach with the nose high.
"Tower, this is Angel-4; three down and locked and on the approach, over"
The plane sank gently toward the runway, and Scott put the jet down smoothly with a minimal squeak of rubber, right on the piano keys among the numerous rubber smears from previous landings.
Landing lights blinking, he popped the canopy as he steered the jet along the taxiways. The smell of smoke and fire lingered in the air, a sobering reminder of the attack as it drifted from the areas that had been bombed or where aircraft had crashed.
Scott used the toe pedals to guide jets' nosewheel into position, parking up on the apron. He shut the engines and systems down, the twin turbofans winding down to a halt with a vacuum cleaner whine and the jets' ladder extending.
The jets' maintenance chief came over, reaching up to take his helmet as he passed it down. She looked over the jet with a measured nod. "Managed to bring my jet back in one piece then, eh?"
"Yeah," he replied with a grin. "Managed to put her to good use too. Get yer paints out; half a bomber needs to go on the side of the nose"
"No fucking way," she said with an eyebrow reaching into her hairline. "Are you serious?"
"Absolutely," he said, swinging over the lip of the cockpit and down the ladder, hopping to the ground. "TU-160, hit it with a Sidewinder. Didn't kill it in one hit, but definitely hobbled it. If Gravestone can confirm the hit, then heck yeah; paint it on there." He frowned. "Also strafed one of those ace bastards planes into confetti with the Avenger, but they'd already ejected... no idea what the heck that counts as..."

---

Teale: "Angel-2 comin' in for a landin'."

Jamie visibly relaxed in the cockpit of her fighter jet. The adrenaline coursing through her veins was finally beginning to fade. How many imperials did she just kill? This was her first time killing another person. Turns out it wasn't too dissimilar to the simulations. Press a button and the enemy explodes. There was no regret, or even shock. Those fuckers had it coming. Recounting the battle in her head, Jamie had downed two bombers and a fighter. One exploded, and the other two had parachuted out. Not bad. Three splashes, one guy dead. She wondered what his family would think. Probably BOO FUCKING HOO, that's what! They killed Jackson, so they deserved it. If they wanted to stay alive they should have stayed home. Whatever. It was over, for now.

Slowing down and turning around, Jamie frowned at the dead seagull matter still stuck on her window. Fortunately autopilot made landing quite a bit easier. Once again connecting herself to sweet mother earth, her Starfighter came gently and gracefully to a stop on the airfield. An engineer appeared and hosed the dead bird off of the window in a display that made both of them queasy. Ugh. Poor bird.

Taking the mask of her face and popping open the window above her, Jamie emerged triumphant from her plane and hopped the wind of her Starfighter and onto the ground. For now, most of her friends had made it out alive. They repelled the attack, and that's what counted. The thrill of victory felt good. It almost erased the stinging loss of a comrade. Almost. Smiling over at Scott she began to head inside to finally finish her fucking breakfast.

---

Lancer tuned back into the Angel overhead radio channel as he drifted in his ejection seat down to the tarmac below. It was a long, peaceful, drift downwards from where he ejected and that would take some time. So he would love to pass the time with some chatter before he hits the ground, calm himself down from what he went through.

Lancer: "Howdy Angels. I'm floating down to Earth like the arc-en-ciel I was born to be. Good work out there folks, sorry for the mess, though."

Lancer sat leaned back to be as comfortably as he could while fastened to his chair, praying to anyone that could hear him way up above not to let him land sideways. Talking to those who were not out to get him was incentive enough to calm himself down, in reality, being able to know someone else was receiving him over comms without a black marker to line out what he says was the calming factor.

While Felix thought he was safe when the security team simply approached him, he was dead wrong. As they processed his credentials a camo-tarp was thrown off about 50 meters away from the poor Carter. It was a squad of special operations Vlhakians also known as Spec-Vlhaks. While the team's name didn't matter, the AT rocket that was just fired hit the truck and took out the two guards that went to pick up Felix Carter. They were now, corpsed for all intents and purposes. Now small arms fired down on him as he was faced with returning home safely, or becoming a corpse.

For Lancer he flew down onto the tarmac in his invisible chair, safe and sound for the most part. He landed down into CHAOS, everyone was running around doing something. There were medical teams tending to the wounded, the security forces dealing with the downed pilots and of course the fire department which dealt with Hammond and the base itself. Vlasko was simply fucked, but for those that survived they would see another day.

The team that was there would be rallied into one of the classrooms for a briefing from Gravestone himself, the old man has appeared outside of his super AWACS plane to brief the group on simply what had happended in that hell flight. "I have good news." The old man croaked, holding onto his cane as he looked over those that were in attendance. "Jackson survived, the SAR teams got to him. He's in a medically induced coma though. Angel-6 was a spy for Vlhakian and took off during the fight, we don't know where he is now. Also where the fuck is Carter?"

---

Or not. She didn't get to enjoy her breakfast for long. Jamie was quickly hurried along to meet Gravestone and she grumpily complied. Sitting lazily in a chair she picked at her teeth as the Old Man talked. But she sat up straight, slamming her fist on the desk and smiling as Gravestone announced Jackson was alive.

"That tough son of a bitch. I never should have doubted him. I'm sure he'll get outta bed any minute now," She coughed and was grinning from ear to ear. God damn...she was getting a bit emotional! Then she frowned and glanced around at everyone else to see what they had just heard what she heard.

"Wait- what? Angel 6 was a spy and- you guys- what do you mean where the fuck is Carter?" Jamie was on her feet now. "We gotta go find him! Also, what? Robins? Fucking what- a spy? Jesus!" Visibly flustered Jamie wasn't sure what to do with her hands or where to walk. Putting both of her hands on her head she turned her back on the group. Why hadn't Felix come back yet? Last time she saw him he doing some kamikaze shit. Or having it done on him? Either way his plane was destroyed and the Old Man hits them with the 'where the fuck is Carter' as if they're supposed to know? He was in friendly territory, someone should have gone to pick him up already! He could be fucking dead impaled on a tree or something! And Robins- a spy? Jamie couldn't even register that bullshit. No way.