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Captain “Bird Dog” Roy
4 kilometres West of Moscow
2000 hours local
Once I got back to the Kremlin, I told the medical personnel that Tomboy had gotten bitten by something and she went down
hard. I didn’t tell them the whole truth because there was literally no time to explain. By the time we got to where
I left her, her arm was starting to swell.
How the hell did I let this happen? I thought, as the medical team picked her up, and put her onto a stretcher. Why did I
let this happen? I should have killed her outright the second after I bit her…
After we got back to Vladimir Air Force Base, I went into Sick Bay, and said: “I know what this is, so I’ll take
over the medical aid for her.”
They shrugged, and said that as long as I didn’t get in their way, they didn’t have a problem.
I got some restraints, a chair, and a glass of water. It was going to be a LONG night…
Elena Michaels
B7R Airspace
2015 hours local
Falcon 305
“Dammit! I’m out of ammo, returning to re-arm!” Slider said.
“Same here… sorry Silber 5, no help from me.” Baker said
“I’m too low on fuel. I gotta get back to base now, if I don’t wanna end up like the other pilots.”
Sphenson called.
“This is Heartbreak 1, Silber 5; cover us while we get back to base! Keep him busy!”
There I was: I had some new plane to deal with, and I could guess that since he came alone, he was GOOD. My aircraft’s
computer didn’t know what to make of him. All it had was the usual red box with ‘TGT’ on its left, ‘UNKNOWN’
and ‘PIXY’ on the right.
(Author’s note: cue the song ‘Zero’ once again. That’s the last time, I promise.)
“Confirmed enemy aircraft on radar! Silber 5, continue your mission, engage.” The AWACS said.
“Yeah, umm Eagle Eye, I’d really like to know what I’m dealing with here!” I said.
“Stand by! I’ll run a plane analysis and fill you in ASAP!”
I went head-on with Pixy, as his Callsign designated him, and fired two missiles at him from head-on. He survived that, and
we passed right by each other. He decided that I was the one he should concentrate on, and he, believe it or not, started
firing some kind of laser at me. I evaded it fairly easily, as he didn’t seem to be too skilled at using it. I got
behind him, and started to use my machine gun. He sensed this, and twisted away even as I was still firing, missing his aircraft
by a generous margin. I managed to stick with his turn, grunting heavily, and I fired off another pair of missiles. These
two both hit, but he didn’t die like any of the planes I shot down before.
Pixy came out of his turn, and I saw my opportunity, and launched another pair of missiles. This time, something blew off,
and started to fall off his plane, disintegrating. I realised it was the laser when I looked back at his plane. The thing
riding piggyback on it was gone now, and that was where the laser had come from.
“Phase one analysis complete! That craft is capable of carrying a Tactical laser, as well as Multi-purpose Burst Missiles!
Watch yourself, Silber 5!” the AWACS chimed in.
“There’s only one way, buddy!” Pixy said, “you’ve gotta fight for what you believe in!”
Just then, Pixy launched a missile. I easily evaded it, especially considering that it went off on its own somewhere roughly
ahead of me.
Well, this guy can’t aim very well, I thought. Suddenly, the missile exploded in a huge explosion that temporarily blinded
me again. I yanked my fighter away from the explosion, blinking hard, trying to see.
As I was turning around, I fired two missiles when I heard the electronic warble that told me I had now locked onto Pixy.
The two missiles blasted away and missed entirely. I went into a chase.
He fired another super-missile, but I was ready for it this time, and I closed my eyes, and pulled up.
“CHRIST! SILBER 5! WATCH OUT!” the AWACS screamed. I opened my eyes and saw that Pixy was nowhere to be seen…
at least until I looked up and saw myself only a handful of feet from his plane. I was so close that even in the dark, I could
read the lettering on the other plane’s body, and I could see his head tipped back to return my stare.
I pulled away, not willing to have a mid-air collision, and he managed to slide onto my tail and fire two missile shots at
close range. I pulled away, and managed to somehow stall my aircraft, which caused him to flash past me. I fired, and this
time, scoured a hit! He went into another hard turn, launching a salvo of super missiles, but I closed my kept following,
waiting for the perfect shot. I got another hit on him as he pulled out of his hard turn.
“You fired up?” he said. “Come shoot me down!”
I was only too happy to oblige, as I fired off my last medium-range missiles. They all struck home. I went to fire another
pair of short-range missiles, but as soon as they neared, they went off in crazy directions. He went to full afterburners,
almost as if to run away. I was about to follow when the Eagle Eye said: “this is AWACS! Listen up, Silber 5! We’ve
completed analysis of the enemy craft. Codename: Morgan, this plane is protected by an ECM defence system. It’s only
weak point is in the front air intake. You’ll have to attack it head-on! You’re the only one that can stop him!
Good luck!”
So, I went head-on with Pixy. As we approached each other, we both fired our missiles. I evaded his, and mine hit him. Damn!
I thought as we passed each other with only a few meters to spare. Not right on target! I tried again, this time, neither
of our shots connected. We tired again, this time, I was closer to the front air intake, but it still wasn’t on-target.
“Now we find out who’s number one!” Pixy said as we closed on each other for the final time. I fired and
this time, the missiles went in!
“COME ON!!” Pixy yelled, anger flooding his voice. We passed each other again for the last time, passing belly-to-belly
as he trailed smoke. I turned back to see him, and I saw the flash of an ejection seat, then the much larger flash of his
plane exploding.
“Mission accomplished, Silber 5!” Eagle Eye said. “Come on, let’s go back home!”
“Hey, what gives?” Slider said, as I saw him on the radar. “Aww man! We missed all the fun!”
“Goddamn Silber 5! That was the gutsiest move I’ve ever seen!” Sphenson said.
“After that,” Baker said. “We concede, right, Sphenson?”
“Affirmative! We’ll buy the beer!”
“Uh-uh!” I said. “Didn’t we agree to beer and DINNER?”
“Damn…” Baker said. “She remembered.”
All of us laughed as we made our way back to base.
“You all alive?” Heartbreak 1 said. “All right, nice work nuggets! Silber 5, you still following us? Well
to commemorate the fact that we all made it outta that battle alive, I’m gonna give you a Callsign. From now on, I’m
gonna call you ‘she-wolf’, no matter what. Got it? Good!”
“Uhh, yeah... Sorry but I’m going to have to-” I tried to finish, but the AWACS interrupted me.
“Roger Heartbreak 1, confirming Callsign of Silber 5.” Then a few seconds later:
“Callsign confirmed, Silber 5. From now on, we’ll refer to you as ‘she-wolf.” Over.”
That took my good mood down a little, but there was still the prospect of food, and at the moment, I was starving!
When we got back to base, it was almost 2:00 AM, and I was dead tired. I climbed out of the plane I was in for the past two
hours, went into my room (or Quarters, as the base people called It.) and flopped onto the bed, not bothering to get out of
my flight suit, and I fell asleep shortly afterwards.
Strangely though, I didn’t have a problem falling asleep even with the roar of jet engines screaming in the background.
Captain “Bird Dog” Roy
Sick Bay
0700 Hours Local
I didn’t leave Tomboy’s side all night. I wouldn’t even be able to sleep anyways, I would have been thinking
all night, berating myself over what had happened. I couldn’t kill her, but I also couldn’t have let her go through
with the transformation. A medic had suggested that we simply place her in a cryogenic tube (Yuri’s design, naturally)
and keep her there until we could figure out how to reverse the effects of the bite.
That had been over three hours ago. the medic had taken a tissue sample from where my teeth had sank in, and was examining
it.
“Damn it!” he said from his microscope.
“No, don’t say ‘damn it.’” I said “what’s wrong?”
“Well whatever this thing is, it’s not stopping. The tissue gets frozen solid, but this thing just keeps going.”
“DAMMIT!” I yelled as I grabbed my chair and threw it as hard as I could onto the ground. It broke on contact,
and I calmed down. I started to pick up the bits, and asked: “so, what is this thing?”
“My best guess sir; it’s a Prion disease of some sort.”
“A Prion? What’s that?”
“A Prion is an improperly-shaped protein molecule. Most just attack the brain and liquefy it. Nobody knows why exactly,
but it fits. Immunity to cold, and I can just barely see this thing. Here, take a look.” He moved over, and let me look
at the microscope. I peered in, and saw a cell changing slightly. He was right; I could just barely see what was attacking
the cell, extremely tiny specks. They seemed to pass right through the cell membrane, and start to… I guess the right
word is ‘mutate’ the DNA.
I pulled away from the microscope and hung my head. This was completely and totally MY fault…
I started to wonder how I was going to tell the Pack about this.
Chapter Six
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