Hey y’all, so this took longer to update than I anticipated so I’m sorry for that. I forgot to mention in Chapter 23: Ancient Walls that some of the dialogue was given to me by LaZardo because Geller is LaZardo’s character in this.  So I thank you for that :) Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy the chapter!

Quote of the Chapter:

“Fail, and your friends feel superior.  Succeed, and they feel resentful.”

~Mason Cooley

___________________________________

Ghosts of Razgriz

Blaze 

December 13, 2010…

            I headed to Geller’s room with my tea and his coffee in hand.  It was about eleven in the afternoon.  I had majorly overslept but it had felt good to catch up on sleep because I had seriously been deprived of it.  I asked Genette why no one had bothered to wake me up and apparently there had been no reason to.  I didn’t complain but I’ve certainly never heard of any soldier being allowed to sleep in.  I guess this was a first.  Hell, my whole career as a pilot had been full of firsts.  I was the youngest pilot to ever become a captain of a squadron in Osean Air Force history.  I was the first pilot to ever beat an instructor my first time at a ‘hop,’ which are practices at the Air Force Academy.  I was the youngest pilot to be accepted to Sand Island.  Most pilots went to a different base before being transferred to Sand Island.  I was also the first pilot to stand up to the damn Base Commander at Sand Island.  That boy needed a good slap in the face… now if only I had actually slapped him.

I had hardly realized that I had entered Geller’s room until he broke me out of my thoughts by saying, “You look deep in thought.”

I looked up and shook my head as if to clear my head. “Yeah, just following my labyrinth of a mind.  I brought you some coffee.”

I handed him the coffee and sat down in the chair opposite his bed.

“So, did you have a good night’s sleep?”

“I did,” Geller responded in his usual formal, monotone voice.

“Have any weird dreams?”

“No.  Why do you ask?  Did you?”

“Well, if you call dreaming about being changed into a vampyre with a ‘Y’ instead of an ‘I’ and then meeting a hottie adult vamp named Erik Night, then yes, I would say I did have a weird dream.”

“… House of Night series?”

“How did you know?”

“My sister was telling me about the series,” Geller said nonchalantly.

“Did she tell you that the main character has a majorly screwed up love life?”

“She mentioned it, yes.”

“My god, three boyfriends at one time.  It’s hard enough keeping one in line.”

“You act like men are your equals.”

“They are.  This isn’t Belka.  This isn’t a patriarchy.  Even if it was, I would still have the habit of bossing people around.  I guess you could call it a fault in me.”

“You would not survive in Belka… but then again, the men would respect you at the same time although they would not show it.”

“Do you ever use contractions?” I suddenly asked.

“Do you always ask whatever question pops into your head?” Geller retorted.

“Geez, I didn’t mean any offense, it just sort of came out.”

“For your information, I do, but only in situations I am sure of.  These contractions confuse me.”

“I see.  So tell me about your sister.  Is she your twin?  Or is she an older or younger sister?”

“She is younger than me.”

“How many years?”

“Five.”

“Not too much of a difference.  Were you excited when you found out you were getting a baby sister?”

“Yes… during my teenage years, we fought ferociously.  I swear we annihilated our rooms once in a while.  Then when I went into the Belkan War, our relationship changed and we became very close.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“What about you and your brother?”

“Well, we got along when we were younger.  We had regular brother and sister fights but that’s normal.  I don’t think we annihilated our rooms though.”

“Tell me about this Chopper guy.”

His words made me look down into my tea.  I had used so much milk that the once dark brown tea had turned almost as white as the milk.  I wasn’t sure how long I stared into my cup of tea before saying, “He was my best friend… and my fiancé.”

“I am sorry.  What was he like?

“He was the biggest smart-ass on the planet.  He called it ‘smart-ass-ism.’  He came up with the weirdest stuff but it was why we all loved him.  He somehow got away with shooting his mouth off to our superiors.”

“I bet you did, too.”

“Uh, the only reason I got away with it is because we were under some precarious situations,” I explained. “That was the only reason I got away with some of the things I said.”

“An example, please?” Geller prodded.

“Um, well, probably the worst one was my seventeenth mission,” I said somewhat solemnly.

“That was the mission your Chopper crashed.” It wasn’t a question, but I nodded.  I noticed Geller had a freaky way of knowing things.  I realized I was going to have to really watch my expressions and keep my emotions in check when I was around him.

“It was a fly-by and there weren’t supposed to be any enemy aircrafts.  We were armed just in case there were but I trusted our defenses and believed they wouldn’t be able to get through without being detected.  I was so wrong.  We were swarmed.  Our AWACS, the stupid pig-headed moron that he was, decided to announce that we were going to deal with the unknown enemy aircrafts and that they needed to escort the crowd and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Well, I was pretty short-tempered at the time and I started to say ‘no shit,’ excuse my French, and he told me to watch my language.  I wasn’t necessarily thinking clearly and I told him to go screw himself…”

“That is bad but it is not terrible.”

“Yeah, well, uh, then I said ‘oh wait, you already have.’  My comrades thought it was hilarious.  Our AWACS started to rant at me but I told him off some more.  He didn’t really bother me after that.”

Geller grinned. “You have guts Miss Blaze.”

“That’s what everyone says.  I do things without thinking and that happened to be one of those times.”

“I would not want to make you angry.”

“Smart boy,” I complimented, taking a sip from my tea. “So I have a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Why did you jump on that helicopter when we rescued Harling?”

“Come to think of it, I am not sure what the hell I was thinking when I jumped on the helicopter.  I was so caught up in trying to keep the President there and make sure I was not punished along with all my other comrades for letting him get away that I decided to try and get him… and that meant jumping on the helicopter…  I also wanted to ask him why he is so dead set on keeping our country divided.”

“I think it’s more because Congress won’t let us give up the territory.  It’s rich in natural resources and with the size of Osea they believe it’s better handled by them and not by Belka.”

“Although I think it is a bit conceited, I understand the concept of the idea.”

We talked for a little while longer before I got up and headed to lunch.  Surprisingly, Pixy was there, and I struck up conversation with him, mainly about his time as a pilot.

I didn’t have time to go talk to Geller afterwards because we started talking to Pops about what was going to happen.  He and the crew were figuring out what those numbers meant.

The next couple of days, we were completely preoccupied with discussing what the Belkans were going to do with the nuclear weapons.  We had multiple theories but none of us actually had any proof. 

Then, on the fifteenth, we received a new radio transmission.  We were all put together to try and figure it out.  It was rather tedious and this wasn’t my strong point, nor was it a strong point for Snow, Grimm, Nagase, or Cassie.  My brother, on the other hand, was reveling in it.  He is a mastermind at this kind of stuff.  We convinced Pops to let us go back to our rooms because it was late and I told him I had a feeling we would be going on a sortie tomorrow.  Pops finally agreed and we left, quite ready to go to bed.

___________________________________

December 16, 2010…

Snow 

Well, it appears Blaze was right about us having a sortie.  We were ordered to the briefing room at a whopping four in the morning.  At least it was a whopping four in the morning for Blaze.  Early wake-ups don’t really affect me all that much.  Blaze came in looking like a zombie.  She didn’t say anything to anyone.  She merely plopped down in her seat, bent over, and with her head resting on her knees, went back to sleep until everyone else arrived.  Ten minutes later, everyone was set to go.  Blaze looked up and it was obvious she was forcing herself to keep her eyes open.  Pops came to the front of the briefing room and stood to the left of the computer screen.

“We’ve intercepted another mysterious radio transmission,” Pops began.  I heard Blaze whisper under her breath that we already knew that.  I tried to stifle a laugh and masked it by coughing. “This time it specifies a location within Yuktobania.  It’s probably… well, this is just a hunch on my part, but I bet that’s where the nuclear weapon sent into Yuktobania is located.

“And there’s another set of numbers.  This time it’s a radio frequency.”

Pops cued the actual briefer to begin. “You next mission is a reconnaissance flight above a canyon in the northern highlands of Yuktobania, the place described in the unidentified radio transmission.  The highlands are completely covered by the Yuktobania air defense system, so the only safe place to fly is within the canyon itself.  Fly down the canyon and reach the target area.  Once you’re there, set your radio channel to the directed frequency and begin gathering information.  You may be engaged by local Yuktobanian forces, and depending on the contents of the transmission, you may also find yourself engaging in other combat as well.  You are permitted to fight the enemy as necessary, but you must try to keep your altitude below the rim of the canyon.”

Operation: Riverbed

Area: Payavlenie Ravine

Date: 2010/12/16

Time: 0847 HRS

We headed to the crew room while we waited for the crew to get the catapults ready.  Blaze crashed on the couch.  None of us asked her what plane she was having us take because we knew either she had already chosen them, or she was going to choose them when we got to the hangar.

Finally, at half past eight, we went to the hangar.  My first guess had been correct and as usual, we took the SU-47.  It seemed to be one of Blaze’s favorites lately.  I couldn’t blame her.  It was a useful aircraft for all kinds of situations.

When we had all gotten in our planes, we took off one by one.  And at 0847 hours, we were all in the air heading towards Yuktobania.

___________________________________

We reached Yuktobania about mid-afternoon.  The sky had a lot of clouds but none that threatened rain.  You could still see the bright blue sky above.  I noticed the canyon was narrow in parts and wide in others as we flew above it.  That was going to make it tricky to fly through if that was how it went at our destination point as well. 

When we neared our destination, we flew into the canyon and switched radio frequencies.

Almost immediately, a transmission came through. “Oh wow, it’s true!  They’ve come!  Fighter jets!  I can tell because I’m intercepting enemy alert signals as well.  Can you hear this?”

“Who are you?  Identify yourself,” Nagase ordered, not unkindly.  I could tell the guy was young.

“A great number of students and intellectuals are staging a resistance against the military government of Yuktobania.  You can call me Alyosha… that’s not my real name, of course.  I’m so glad you actually came… it’s just like he said.”

“He?” Blaze and Nagase asked at the same time.

“We have no time.  Let me explain the situation.”

Our briefer came on almost right after Alyosha stopped speaking. “We’ve received contact from an apparent resistance group that seized and captured one of Yuktobania’s nuclear weapons.  Intelligence believes that it’s one of the nukes taken from the mine before we sealed it off on the twelfth.  Furthermore, our radar has detected numerous enemy fighters entering the canyon and flying towards the local airspace.  The force includes Yuktobanian fighters and armed helicopters.  Their mission is most likely to destroy the resistance’s hideout.  The enemy fighters are spread out throughout the canyon, so we believe that the Yuktobanians still don’t have the exact location of the hideout.  Destroy the enemy forces before they can find and wipe out the resistance.  As mentioned previously, the local airspace is blanketed by Yuktobania’s air defense system.  Watch your altitude, and whatever you do, don’t fly above the rim of the canyon.”

The briefer stopped and Blaze went to the right followed by me while Grimm and Nagase headed to the left.  Two helicopters were already there to greet us.

“A physics graduate student from Yuktobania Central University is currently dismantling the nuclear bomb so that it can never be detonated again,” Alysoha explained as Blaze shot down the first helicopter while I shot down the second.  We continued on through the canyon, watching our altitude.

“We need you to hold off the Yuktobanian forces from entering the ravine until he finishes the task,” Alyosha requested.

“Roger that,” Blaze said. “We’ll take care of them.”

We rounded a corner and Blaze made a sharp turn so she could fire a missile at the gunship.  It didn’t take her long to destroy it although she flew dangerously close to the blue-gray waters that seemed very uninviting.

“This is Varyag Four.  We’ve sanitized the drop point,” A Yuke announced as she and I continued on our course.

“It feels like the cliff is closing in on us.  Flying here is nearly impossible.  Don’t you think so?” Grimm inquired.

“No, not really,” Blaze admitted sheepishly.

“Well, sure, maybe you’re all right, but…” Grimm didn’t finish his sentence because Blaze cut him off.

“I’m not thinking about the cliffs and how close they are to me.  I’m thinking about Luke Skywalker and how he did something similar to what we’re doing right now,” Blaze said as she fired at a helicopter that was flying near the face of a red cliff.

“Wasn’t that in the first one, A New Hope?” Nagase asked.

“Yeah, but technically it was the fourth one seeing as how there was The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith,” I said.

“Well, Mr. Technicality, I’m sorry.  It was the fourth one,” Grimm muttered, but I could tell he was joking.

“Thank you,” I said. “Besides, all we have is helicopters.  We don’t have Tie-Fighters or psychopaths like Boba Fett chasing after us.”

“If all they have are helicopters, then we can take them on,” Grimm declared happily.

Blaze and I headed towards two enemies: two helicopters once again.

“We’re now dismantling the bomb.  This is a pretty tiny bomb.  Maybe it’s a tactical nuke,” Alyosha said, seeming more to be talking to himself. “Hard to believe something like this can wipe out an entire city…”

Blaze and I each took one helicopter and in a matter of seconds, the only thing remaining of them was burning metal falling towards the water.

“This is gonna be a real test of our flying ability.  Let’s do our best,” I encouraged.  Blaze flew from side to side; I knew she was scanning her surroundings and making sure that it would be hard for enemy planes to get a missile lock on her.  There was another helicopter in the distance and I flew in front of Blaze to shoot it down.

“I don’t see anyone here.  Have they already escaped?” A Yuke questioned.

“Hurry up and find them.  We have no idea what they’re up to,” Another Yuke said as Blaze shot past me, aiming for a gunship while I shot down the helicopter.

“Hey, Alyosha, can I ask you something?” Blaze inquired, leveling out.

“Sure.”

“How did you know where to send those coordinates to us back at our base?”

“I didn’t.  He did everything.  Our job is just to dismantle the bomb.”

“He?  Someone who knows us? Could it be…?” Nagase left the question hanging but two people came to my mind immediately: Bartlett and Chopper.  No one had heard or seen Bartlett since he was shot down in September.  It was very probable that it was he who had sent us all those numbers and coordinates because let’s face it, Bartlett never did anything the practical way… or at least it seems that way.

However, although from what I had heard about Chopper’s crash, there may have been a miracle where Chopper had been able to bail out… but I highly doubted it.

I stopped my train of thought.  Even though I had never been close to Chopper in my life (and might have cussed him out a few times), I hated the sadistic manner that he had died in.  If not for the Belkans and their clandestine activities of pitting Yuktobania against Osea, Chopper might never have died and Blaze might not be in the emotionless state she’s been in ever since.  Sure, she laughs and acts happy around us but you can tell in her eyes that she’s hiding things… it’s just what she’s hiding that I’m worried.  I’m worried that she’s bottling everything up and one day, she won’t be able to take it anymore; she’s a volcano, holding as much magma as possible until she can’t hold it anymore and let’s out an astronomical explosion, or in her case, a break down.

“I just heard another jet engine… Are you managing to keep the enemy outside at bay?” Alyosha questioned suspiciously, which sort of annoyed me.

“Yes, we’re keeping them at bay,” Blaze replied, and it seemed to me that she was having to keep her temper in check as well.

“That’s great… we better do our best, too!” Alyosha chirped.  This guy seemed unnaturally cheerful in a situation such as this.  I nearly crashed into one of the red canyon walls because I had been so distracted with my thinking.  I hate it when I do that.  Blaze had taken over shooting down the enemies while I had been lost in my thoughts.  I immediately got back on track though.  I wasn’t going to lose any more of my wingmen.

“You back, Snowman?” Blaze said with amusement prominent in her voice.

“I’m back… and Snowman?  What are we?  In Smokey and the Bandit?” I joked.

“We can, but I call being Bandit because he gets the awesome cars.”

“Well, if you just nicknamed me Snowman then I drive the truck… why can’t I get a cool car?”

“But you get his dog.  Wasn’t it a Basset Hound?”

“I have no idea; all I remember is the song East Bound and Down and the policeman going ‘don’t use foul language in front of my son’ and then when a horn honks or something he tells the other policeman to F-off but you can’t hear him actually saying it.”

“That was my favorite part in the whole movie.”

“I think mine is when the girl ditches the smokey’s son and hitches a ride with Bandit.”

“Didn’t he call her a frog?” Grimm jumped in.

“I believe so.”

“I would be offended if someone called me that,” Nagase said.

“Well, if I was sick and my voice was croaky, I’d probably agree with the person but if I sounded normal, well, let’s just say they would have the imprint of my hand on their cheek,” Blaze said.

“I will never call either of you a frog; I’m too damn scared of what you would do to me…” Grimm admitted.

“Don’t forget Cassie.  Her revenge would be worse than even Nagase or I could think of because she knows you better than we do,” Blaze pointed out.

“God, don’t give her any ideas.”

“Too late because she’s probably listening to this right now,” Nagase said.

“Crap…” Grimm muttered.

We laughed as we continued shooting down enemies.

“HQ to Special Forces.  Report your status,” A Yuke ordered.

“This is Special Forces.  There’s no one here.”

“I’m just praying they don’t blow up that thing by accident,” A Yuke said.

“Let’s start with that cave.  Go in on my signal,” Another Yuke commanded.

“No, don’t go in the cave,” Blaze muttered.  If only they could hear her…

“I feel like we’re being lured into a trap,” A Yuke admitted.

“It’s pitch black.  Give me night scope.”

Two helicopters and a gunboat came into view.  Blaze took care of one of the helicopters while I took care of the other one and the gunboat as a small reparation for my spacing out earlier.

“Wha… it’s powering up the trigger circuit!” A member from the resistance shouted.  My heart started racing at the announcement.  So pretty much this place was about to become a burning hell… lovely.

“What?!  You mean it’s gonna…” Grimm left the question hanging, obviously not wanting to say anything else.

“… Oh no, never mind, it’s fine.  We shut it off,” Alyosha assured.

“Oh… Okay… Whew.” Grimm chuckled nervously.

“This thing won’t be set off by an enemy attack will it?” A member of the resistance asked.

“I don’t think so but let’s not find out, deal?”  Blaze asked.  There were multiple agreements.

“If they raid this room, it’s all over for us!” Alyosha said grimly, talking more to himself than anyone else, as Blaze and I flew under a bridge and destroyed some more enemies.  These guys were dead set on finding the resistance.  I have never seen so many forces in one place that’s so compacted.

“The enemy’s behind us.  Didn’t you secure the area back there?!”

“They probably did but we shot them down.  Any more stupid questions, stupid?” Grimm asked.  I was rather shocked.  Grimm didn’t usually talk like that.

“Uh oh, we have a bad ass over here,” Blaze said with a laugh.

“Well, it was a stupid question,” Grimm answered sheepishly.

“I never said it wasn’t.”

“There’s no place to hide.  Now what?!” A Yuke demanded, sounding frantic and angry at the same time.

“We have the terrain advantage.  Don’t rush!” Another Yuke warned.  I wondered vaguely if he realizes that Blaze, Grimm, Nagase, and I are having no trouble traversing the terrain.  Hopefully, they would get overconfident and start making mistakes because they thought the terrain was difficult for us and giving us opportunities to attack.

“This is Varyag Two.  Our sqauds are being cut off from each other!”

“There they are!  They’re shooting and running inside!” A Yuke announced excitedly.

“Well, hell,” Blaze grumbled.

“Are they trying to take us all out in the explosion?” A Yuke inquired.

“The ceiling just collapsed!  The passageway is blocked!”

“Boo ya!” Nagase hollered.

“That’s from Kim Possible,” Blaze observed. “Ron Stoppable said it.”

“I remember that show like it was yesterday,” Nagase said.

“I remember I was Kim Possible for Halloween one year.  I am never going ginger again.  Being blonde is too much fun… not that I have anything against gingers…” Blaze added hastily.

“HQ to all Varyag squads.  Report.”

“Nothing yet.  Every place we’ve searched was empty!”

“I’m cutting the wires to the spark plugs.  Stand back,” A resistance member warned. “There’s thirty two wires… this’ll take a while.  These are all the tools I have.  They’re all we’ve got.”

Something was unnerving about having this guy dismantle the bomb but I couldn’t lay my finger on it.

Blaze and I passed a few more enemy helicopters and a couple of gunboats but that was it.  We were almost done taking out enemy forces and I was grateful for it.

“Do you have an experience handling explosives?” Nagase asked warily.  She had spoken what had been nagging at me.

“The best we’ve ever managed was making Molotov cocktails,” A resistance member replied shyly.  Lovely, so we had amateurs dismantling something that could theoretically blow us all up.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nagase inquired.

“Sure.  I’ll have it all figured out.  In theory, anyway…” Alyosha added.

“Well you better make sure you theory is correct because I have some unfinished business with some Belkan fighters and I don’t plan on dying today,” Blaze said.  Her voice appeared to be joking and since the resistance didn’t really know her, that’s how they would perceive it as: joking.  But I knew better.  I heard the underlying, burning hatred in her words.  She was definitely out for blood.  I’m so glad I have her on my side.

“Watch out!  My hand’s slipping!  It’s gonna drop!” The bomb-breaker-man (which I now deem him as) announced frantically.

“Hey, what’s going on?  Answer me!” I demanded.

“Uh… we’re okay.  We caught it just in time.  Whew…” The bomb-breaker said, relief evident in his voice.

“Look, stop scaring us like that, okay?” I sounded like I was begging.  Hell, I think I was.

“It’s just we’ve experienced some unimaginable stuff lately and we’re very jumpy.  We tend to shoot first and then ask questions in the state we’re in right now,” Blaze explained.

“And you have no idea how true that is,” Nagase added.

“Well, this is nerve-racking.  I say we change the subject,” Blaze suggested, sounding hopeful.

“Not to sound rude or anything, but uh, are you sure you can do it?” Grimm asked hesitantly.

“We’ve got to do it.  We can’t afford not to…” Alyosha responded determinedly.

“Stay calm.  You can do it,” Nagase assured.

“Nagase, only you could sound that calm in this situation,” Blaze said.

“No I’m not.  You’re doing it, too,” Nagase retorted.

“Am not.  I just naturally speak like this all the time… unless Thunderhead ticked me off.  Then I would lose it.”

Grimm and Nagase cracked up, obviously remembering something that I hadn’t been a part of.

“Well if he hadn’t said to watch my language I wouldn’t have had ‘screw you’ and then I was already so mad that all rational thought flew from my mind and that’s when I said it…” Blaze said sheepishly.

“What did you say after?” I queried, navigating the canyon walls with Blaze, searching for more enemies.

“Um…”

“She said he already had,” Nagase said.  I laughed heartily.

“That’s brilliant.  I never did like the guy,” I said after regaining my composure.

“Me neither… come to think of, I don’t like many top brass,” Blaze admitted.  Nagase and Grimm added in their agreements.

A helicopter came into view and Blaze let me take care of it.  After destroying that one, I glanced down at my radar and saw another one; I hit the afterburners and took care of it.

“HQ to Special Forces.  Report your status.”

“We found some garbage inside the cave.  Believed to be left behind by the resistance.  They were here recently.”

“All enemies destroyed,” Nagase informed.

“Heck yes,” Blaze said cheerfully.  We regrouped in the middle of the canyon which we had figured out was where the resistance’s hide-out was.  We flew out of the center and flew through the canyon, beginning a sweep to make sure no enemies had slipped between our fingers.

“This is Ofnir Two.  You sure it’s them?”

I heard a quiet, sharp intake from Blaze.

“This is Ofnir One.  I said that’s what I heard.  The ghosts of the ‘Demons of Razgriz’.”

“You’re kidding me,” Another Ofnir member said. “They all sunk to the bottom of the ocean.  Didn’t the guys from Grabacr tell you that?”

“We’ll found out if they’re ghosts or not… when we take them on in combat,” the leader growled.

“Enemy aircraft.  The guys from the surveillance photo!” Grimm announced as the first two shot past us.  Blaze had already done a one-eighty degree turn and was chasing the two planes down.  I turned around as well while Nagase and Grimm chased after the other two.

“Be careful.  Remember what Pops said… these guys are Belkan aces,” Nagase warned.

“A Belkan ace is nothing compared to a ticked off Blaze,” Grimm said.

“… Agreed,” Nagase said.

“Damn Ofnir…” I don’t know who said it because it had been mumbled so quietly but I was pretty sure it was Blaze.

“Ofnir fighters… so they’re the Yuke aggressors?!” Grimm asked in amazement.

“Yeah, and Grabacr were Osea’s aggressors.”

“Dammit, of all the places… I feel like they’re hunting us like animals,” Grimm muttered.

“Switch to special weapons,” Blaze ordered.  She was way ahead of me along with Ofnir.  I saw two SAAMs fired from Blaze’s plane and hit one of the Ofnir’s planes.  It crashed into the water but I was pretty sure I had seen the pilot bail out before he was hit.  The bastard…

“Ofnir Squadron, flying through this ravine is extremely dangerous.”

“Ofnir One to all planes.  No obstacles to our flight observed.”

“Uh, I see an obstacle.  YOU!” Blaze nearly shouted.

“Hey… didn’t you hear me?  Turn back!” A Yuke yelled.

“This isn’t like those guys.  What’s keeping them?” A Yuke demanded.

I had finally caught up to Blaze in the center of the canyon where the resistance’s hideout was.  My aim was to help her take out the other Ofnir guy that she hadn’t shot down yet but she had already taken care of it.  Right as I got sight of her and the Ofnir pilot, she fired two SAAM missiles and the plane was as good as gone.

“So there really is someone out there that can give Ofnir a hard time, eh?”

“They aren’t Osean military planes.  The emblem’s different.”

“Well whoever they are, they aren’t your typical pilots, that’s for sure.”

“Oh no, we’re completely typical.  It’s not as if we’ve been branded traitors and have witnessed best friends dying and are believed to be dead and now we’re being called ghosts which I don’t really appreciate because I’m nowhere near death; I just keep knocking on its door and running away.  No, we really are typical pilots; we’re just in extraordinary circumstances.”

“You okay, Blaze?” Nagase asked hesitantly.

“Yes, sorry,” Blaze apologized, although she honestly didn’t sound that apologetic.

“You’re the Demons of Razgriz?”

“Nope,” Blaze lied.

“No matter.  We’re going to turn this place into your graveyard,” An Ofnir pilot growled satisfactorily.

“Yes,” Blaze said as she got behind the two remaining planes.  They had easily avoided Grimm and Nagase’s multiple missile attacks.

“Yes, what?” The Ofnir guy inquired, sounding confused.

“We are the Demons of Razgriz.”

“But you just said you weren’t!” The guy bellowed.

“Temper, temper.  Tsk, tsk.” I could just see Blaze’s silhouette shaking her head.  I grinned even though I knew it was a bad idea to tease the Ofnir guys.  I was going to let Blaze have some fun.  They thought we were the prey.  It was an amusing thought.  They hadn’t expected Blaze to be so… well, pissed.  Now she was the predator.  She was toying with them before she shot them down, and I let her.  If I was in her position, I’d be doing the exact same thing.  Grimm and Nagase must have had the same idea as me because they kept their mouths shut.

“Sorry guys.  Our captain’s really good,” I noted.

“Thank you, Swordsman,” Blaze said.  It wasn’t often that my callsign was used but my guess is Blaze didn’t want Ofnir founding out my real name.  I’m surprised they didn’t know hers.

“Look, the enemy’s running down Ofnir!” A Yuke barked in shock.

“There’s only one squadron I know that could shoot down Ofnir…”

“I was just thinking the same thing… Razgriz…”

“Geez, Ofnir, the guys on the ground knew it was us and I didn’t have to say anything.  Slackers!” Blaze proclaimed.

“We are not slackers!” The leader of Ofnir roared.  I knew it was him because he had the deepest voice.

“Are too!”

“These guys are just plain crazy!” A Yuke declared.

“In what way?  Flying through this canyon or insulting Ofnir?”

“I don’t know; they’re both equally dangerous.”

“The terrain doesn’t matter to those guys!”

“Dude, we’ve flown through caves.  I don’t think this is that bad,” Blaze retorted.

“Keep your eye on your surroundings, not just the enemy planes,” I warned.

“I will,” Blaze said.

“We’re this close to crashing into the valley!” Grimm muttered.

“If we’re in a valley right now, does that make me a valley girl?” Blaze asked innocently.

“No Blaze, we’re not in Hollywood right now,” Nagase said with a sigh.

“I don’t get it,” Grimm said.  I seconded this thought.

“It’s from a movie,” Nagase informed.

“An 80’s movie which means it was really corny and cheesy but really, really good,” Blaze added.

“Say no more,” Grimm said.

“It’s dangerous flying here, even for a helicopter,” A Yuke observed.

“That’s because of those psychopath Razgriz fighters.”

“We’re proud of it,” Blaze retorted.

“You’re going to crash into each other flying that fast!” The man countered.

“We’ve flown this fast before and we’re still alive,” Blaze pointed out, still following Ofnir.  She was waiting for the prime moment to shoot them down.

“Not all of you!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot.  Chuck Norris ain’t with us right now.  He’s too busy helping out the resistance.”

“… What?”

Leave it to Blaze to completely confuse the enemy.  I believe it is now a military tactic for her.

“Exactly”.”

“They’ve lost so many planes, and they still keep coming!” Grimm sounded exasperated.

“Well that’s because they can’t shoot us down,” Blaze chuckled.

“Agreed,” I said.

“This is the Belkan force that’s mixed in with the Yukes!” Grimm exclaimed.

“I thought we already established that?” Blaze questioned curiously.

“Grimm must not have gotten much sleep with Cassie being in the same room as him,” Nagase giggled.

“Hey!” Grimm protested. “We have been sleeping!”

“For what part of the night?” Blaze teased.

“You two have perverted minds…” Grimm mumbled.

“Did you just figure that out?” Nagase asked.

“So does anyone know how old these guys are?” Grimm questioned, changing the subject quite skillfully.

“They’re old farts,” Blaze said. “That’s all I know.”

“These guys are seasoned veterans,” I said.

“The enemy’s flying so tightly… it’s almost beautiful,” Nagase murmured.

“I’m sure glad these guys are on our side,” A Yuke admitted.

“Rumor has it those pilots aren’t even human.”

“They are but since they’re old farts, you probably mistook them for something else,” Grimm said.

“Grimm… you’re my hero,” Blaze declared.  Grimm laughed.

“The counter’s in the danger zone,” Alyosha whispered.

“Pardon?” I asked.

“Sorry, talking, to myself,” Alyosha replied. “Ignore me.”

“We’ll just have to deal with a little radiation exposure,” A resistance member said.

“Listen, y’all be careful.  I might think you’re a little off your rockers for pulling such a stunt but I don’t want y’all to get hurt,” Blaze told the resistance.

“We won’t.  And you think we’re off our rockers?  Have you seen some of the maneuvers you’ve been pulling?”

Blaze laughed good-naturedly as she got a good missile lock on an Ofnir plane and shot it down with one swift swoop.

“They keep flying like that, and they’ll break apart in mid-air!” I thought aloud.

“If they did, it would make our job a whole lot easier,” Blaze replied as she shot two more SAAMs at the last Ofnir plane.  It hit the plane in the engine.

I realized that never once did her missiles miss the Ofnir planes when she shot at them.  I also realized she had taken them on all by herself…

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 

“All Ofnir fighters shot down.  Looks like the other enemy forces bugged out on us, too,” Nagase announced.

“Smart,” Blaze acknowledged. “All right everyone, regroup in the center.”

Since we were all within close proximity to each other and the center of the canyon, it didn’t take long for us to regroup.  We flew in circles around the resistance’s hideout but we flew above, happy to get out of the claustrophobic canyon.

“Okay, we’ve dismantled the bomb.  Did you fend off the enemy forces for us?” Alyosha queried.

“For now,” Nagase answered solemnly.

“We’re going to the ocean to discard the bomb, piece by piece.  Nobody will ever be able to use it as a weapon again.  If you can, please protect us until we make it into the ocean.”

“We will.  But what about…” Nagase began but Alyosha cut her off.

“Don’t be surprised, but our ship… it’s a submarine.  There’s nothing we can’t get our hands on.  I told you, we have a lot of allies.” Pride was evident in his voice.

“All right!” Nagase sounded exasperated, probably from being interrupted from before. “But who told you that we’d definitely be coming to you?”

“I don’t know his name… but he left a message for your Captain.  I’ll read it.  It says, ‘Hey Kid, I hear you’re a helluva Squad Captain now…’ Do you get it?”

I heard a mixture of reactions from Grimm, Blaze, and Nagase: a gasp from Grimm, a half-sob half-chuckle from Blaze, and a squeal from Nagase.

“Yes!  Perfectly!” Nagase exclaimed.  We waited until the submarine had left its hiding spot and had entered the ocean before heading back to the Kestrel.

___________________________________

When we reached the Kestrel, Pops and Andersen were there to greet us.  Blaze hugged him before Nagase and Grimm hugged him as well, as well as each other.  I just stood there, allowing them their secret celebration since I had no idea what was happening.  Blaze saw me and she jogged over to me.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” I said.

“No you’re not.”

“Fine, I have no idea why you guys are celebrating,” I admitted.  A look of shock registered on Blaze’s face as I said it.

“Crap!  We didn’t tell you what the meaning of ‘Kid’ is did we?”

“Nope.”

“It was Bartlett’s nickname for me.  Only Bartlett’s,” Blaze explained, her eyes sparkling.  Now it was time for my shock to register.  No wonder they were celebrating. “Well, Chopper called me it too but no one else so now the only other person on earth who calls me that is Bartlett!”

“Bartlett’s alive?!”

“Yes!” Blaze nearly shouted.  I hugged her out of pure joy.  It was the best thing that had happened in a while and the happiness was so new that none of us were able to stop smiling and laughing for a least half an hour.

It was when President Harling and Pixy came out that we became serious although Blaze, Grimm, and Nagase were fidgeting.  The two of them requested for Pops and Andersen, leaving the rest of us to go to the briefing room.

“Mission accomplished,” The briefer said, beginning his result briefing.  I never did get these things. “The information we obtained, as well as the physical damage we caused, dealt a significant blow to the enemy.  Judging by our analysis of the information, there seems to be a highly organized resistance force acting against the Yuktobanian military regime.  It is likely the nuclear weapon, which Yuktobania acquired, was safely dismantled by the resistance.”

We left immediately when the briefing ended.  Blaze headed off to who knows where while Grimm and Nagase went to the crew room with Cassie and Genette.  Me?  I went to my bedroom to take a long, nice nap.

___________________________________

Blaze 

I was in high spirits as I headed towards Geller’s room.  I was hardly paying attention to where I was going when I literally ran into Pixy.

“Oh!  Sorry!” I apologized.  Larry smiled.

“You’re fine.  Where are you off to?”

“Geller’s room.”

“Oh yeah, Pops and Andersen told me about your plan.”

“Yeah.  He’s really sweet once you get him talking.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.  Hey, where are you when dinner’s ready?  I never see you in the cafeteria… well, except for that one time but…”

“I feel strange in there.  I don’t think people, besides you, like me much on this ship.”

“They’re just wary with Belkans in general.  Ignore them.”

“Easier said than done.”

“I know.  You can sit with us anytime you want, okay?”

“Thank you, Blaze,” Pixy said.

“You’re welcome.” I waved goodbye and continued to Geller’s room.

___________________________________

Genette 

The President broadcast his voice repeatedly in an effort to reveal the truth to his citizens and soldiers.  However, the central government, now run by the Vice President and his Generals, censored all of it, calling it “enemy propaganda.”  And Yuktobania, their enemy, wasn’t about to stop fighting, either.

___________________________________

December 17, 2010, 900 Hours… 

The next morning greeted us with dark gray, overcast skies.  It was probably going to snow.  Today was the day the President was leaving; Pixy was tagging along.

The President needed to enter the capital himself, with his Marine Force.  But entering the capital meant risking his life.

I had to admit, while the Air Force is my favorite branch of the military, the Marines look dead intimidating with the masks covering their faces and their massive guns in their hands and ready to be shot.

The five of us and Pops and Andersen stood in line next to the helicopter as Harling and Pixy walked up to board the helicopter.  Pixy got on first.

“President Harling!” Blaze called out over the rotor noise.  Harling turned to Blaze with a curious expression.  Blaze ran up to him, handed him a piece of paper, and whispered something to him.  The President’s face turned to one of shock before he smiled.  I couldn’t hear him over the rotor noise but I understood that he mouthed “I will.”  Blaze shook his hand before standing next to me again.

As he boarded the helicopter, the President turned around to face us, smiled, and said, “Here goes.”

We waved at them as they took off.  I was about to ask Blaze what she had told Harling but before I could, a crew member interrupted.  We had received another encrypted message.

The third encrypted message from Bartlett had come shortly after the President had boarded the helicopter.  This time there were no coordinates.  All it showed was a time and a radio frequency, reading: >>>18007130.

At the appointed time, everyone gathered in front of the radio speaker.  Nagase was closest.  I was behind her with Blaze and Grimm and Snow was just behind me.  Pops and Andersen were on the other side of Grimm.

Right when the second hand and the minute hand struck the twelve, Bartlett’s voice came over. “Hey, it’s me!”

Grimm and I looked at each other, grinning like maniacs.  Blaze was smiling with sparkling eyes.  I grabbed her hand.  She looked at me and I hadn’t seen so much happiness in her face since Chopper had died.

“Get the wax outta your ears and listen up.  We found Nikanor, the leader of Yuktobania, and we broke him outta prison.  This war wasn’t his doing at all!” Bartlett announced.  We already knew that but since we decided not to ruin the moment.  Bartlett cut off the message and left us standing there in a happy stupor.  It was finally when Blaze murmured ‘he’s really alive’ that we randomly started clapping and hollering.  It was time for another celebration.  We had some cookies that the cooks had whipped up on Andersen’s orders.  We were up until eleven, talking and eating before we finally got the bright idea that it might be a good idea to get some sleep.

As I reached my room, I realized I had never asked Blaze what she had told President Harling.  She happened to be walking right by me so I grabbed her by the arm.  We were the only ones out in the hallway but I still asked quietly.

“What did you give Harling?”

Blaze grinned and said, “Uncle Jason’s number.”

“Why?”

“For Pixy.”

“You mean Pixy’s going to-”

“Call Uncle Jason? Yes.  Uncle Jason knows Pixy’s going to call…” With a sly smirk, Blaze added, “But Pixy doesn’t know he’s going to be calling Uncle Jason.”

___________________________________

All right, there’s the newest chapter!  I hope y’all enjoyed.  It was quite literally a pain to write because I, uh, pulled a muscle… playing Star Wars… on Kinect… it hurts really bad.  And for some reason, typing on my computer made it hurt even more but I prevailed just for y’all!  This has also been a really weird night… Anyways, please review!  No review=no update! The picture is of Geller by the way :) He's hot if I do say so