Ch 15 Ice cage

Unknown Location, Yuktobania

A woman picked up a phone, and made a call.

"Yes, it's me." She said.

"I know what I'm doing. Now you know Blaze, what he's capable of doing." She continued to say into the phone.

"Well, you're the man who can get things done, 'Pops'." She said.

"Hey, your secret is safe with me. Get Blaze and his squadron the new fighters. They'll need it. The hurry? Well, this war isn't ending anytime soon." She said, before she put the phone away.

Briefing Room, Sand Island

Osea

November 17, 2010

"Our ground offensive is continuing its fast-paced push into Yuktobanian soil. A POW camp was discovered during the offensive, and a team of marines has attacked and captured the camp. The marines have secured the camps radio room, and a flight of helicopters is enroute to retrieve the prisoners." Started the briefer.

"Your mission is to provide close air support for this rescue mission. The radio room could be retaken by the enemy at any second. If it is, the enemy will report the attack, and the mission will end in failure. Find and shoot down all enemy aircraft in the local airspace, and secure air superiority across the entire area. Dismissed."

Blaze stood up and walked to the door, when Pops appeared.

"Guys, you got some new planes." He said.

"We didn't order any new aircraft." Grimm said.

"Must have friends in high places. Come on, I'll show them." Pops said.

At the closed hanger doors, Pops opened the door, and 3 F-22 Raptors sat in the hanger, ready for combat.

"Raptors?! You got us Raptors?" Chopper asked, ecstatic at flying one of the most advanced aircraft in the world.

"Damn straight. Blaze, I got a special order for you. Funny how I got it." Pops said.

"Tell me when we come back. What is it?" Blaze asked.

Pops opened the next hanger, and there sat the ADF-01 Falkan.

"What, is that?" Nagase asked.

"The ADF-01 Falkan. Tell em, Pops." Blaze said.

"During the Belkan war, the Belkans were trying to produce powerful weapons to use against their enemies. You heard of Excalibur and the XB-0, right?" Pops asked.

"Yeah. We have." Grimm said.

"The Belkans also produced a super-fighter, the ADFX-01 Morgan. A second was also produced, but was then destroyed at the end of the war. The first went to Osea for reverse engineering. And this, is the final product. The ADF-01 Falkan. It's much faster and more maneuverable then anything you've flown or encountered." Pops said.

"It can carry a wide assortment of weapons. It can carry normal missiles and bombs, and up to FAEBs, QAAMs, and a tactical laser system. You can thank the Belkans for that." Blaze said.

"Wow. This will tear the Yuks wide open." Chopper said.

"Damn straight. Pops, when we come back, I'll need a paint job." Blaze said.

"Sure thing. What kind?" Pops asked.

"Nothing but red." Blaze said.

Glubina

November 17, 2010

The COFFIN system helped blaze see thru the blizzard that was raging over the POW camp. There wasn't any standard equipment in the cockpit of the Falken, no joystick, throttle, or rudder pedals. He was sitting in a chair, with two armrests that apparently transmitted his thoughts to the jet. He had to fly by mind.

This reminds me of that movie, Firefox, where Clint Eastwood has to steal a Yuktobanian fighter jet, that uses its weapons by thought control.

"Captain, you see the POW camp?" Grimm asked.

"I see it." Blaze said, arming his QAAM missiles.

"You think the captain…captain Bartlett…you think he's there?" Grimm asked.

"He's probably cussing out the prisoners and taking charge right now. Right, Nagase?" Chopper asked.

"Don't get your hopes us. As a squadron leader, he wouldn't be put in with the rest of the prisoners. Probably put somewhere else. You separate the prisoners by ranks to maintain order. I'd do that." Blaze said.

"You're not still blaming yourself, right?" Chopper asked.

Nagase didn't respond.

"Fighters, I hear the roar of your engines approaching. This is sea goblin. Man, and if I thought I joined the marines, I'd get to work on tropical beaches all the time…We've safely recovered the POWs. Our chopper isn't here yet." Said one of the marines.

"You'll have to babysit them for a while. We got enemy fighters coming in." reported Chopper.

"Roger. You're that squadron from Sand Island, right? Can't wait to see you do your stuff."

Looking at her radar, Nagase saw the large blips of contacts disappear, and one blip of contact remained.

"I see it to. We'll have to take them out one by one. Disperse and locate each cluster. There should be four fighters in each cluster." Blaze said.

Locking onto a cluster, Blaze activated the TLS and pulled the trigger, so to speak.

A blue flash of light was seen, and the cluster of four fighters ceased to exist.

"What was that?" a Yuke pilot asked, clearly terrified of the Osean superweapon.

Blaze only chuckled and went to find more clusters.

"Holy crap!" Chopper said, having witness Blaze cut thru the Yuke fighters.

"We can check the number of enemy planes we have left from our pre-flight data. Lets see…we have ten planes left."

"Better hurry." Blaze said, as he accelerated to another cluster, and killed the lead fighter in the first pass.

"This is sea Goblin. Does it seem like the enemy aircraft have noticed our infiltration?"

"No. You're good." Grimm said, as he gunned down an Su-30.

"You heard him. Just relax and wait at the camp."

"We've cut off the enemy's line of communication here, but it's unsettling not being able to tell what the situation is."

"We're almost done mopping up the Yuke aircraft." Nagse said, as she fired a pair of missiles and brought down a pair of MiG-31s.

"That's weird. Zudak hasn't come back from the bathroom yet." A Yuke soldier said, unaware of the infiltration by sea goblin.

"I got more aircraft coming in." Grimm said, as he spotted a cluster of 4 Su-34s.

"You know, I can't help but feel we're being watched…Hey, did you see a figure behind that window over there?"

"I don't think they found out, do you?" a marine asked.

Blaze and Nagase picked apart the group that Grimm found, then moved to find another group.

"Anyone spot the last four fighters?" Blaze asked.

"I found them. Blaze, make it quick." Nagase said, as she hung back away from the 4 MiG 29s.

"Nagase, pull back. Don't know how precise this laser is." Blaze said.

Blaze selected the laser, and pulled the trigger. The blue laser was seen for two seconds, and all 4 MiGs were destroyed.

"All targets destroyed." Nagase reported, only to be responded with rifle shots.

"This is sea goblin. Gunfire has broken out in the camp! You got control of the airspace, right?"

"We do." Chopper said, as they flew over the camp, and spotted the rescue chopper heading towards the camp.

"This is sea goblin. Our ride's here. The ground's still crawling with weapon installations though. Could you take them out?" one of the marines asked.

Blaze activated his laser and strafed the AA guns surrounding the camp.

"Clear out those AA guns, and be quick about it." Blaze said.

"Sweep building B with gatling fire." One of the marines, the Osean gunship hanging over the camp as its gatling fire swept across the entire front of the building.

Soon, all defenses were destroyed, and the prisoners were being broken out of the cells.

"Thanks for taking out the trash. We're taking the POWs outside. Can you see their smiling faces?" asked the marine from before.

Looking down from their jets, they saw the POWs heading towards the rescue chopper, but they were running out of time.

"Make it quick. We're running out of time." Blaze said.

"We're almost done here. Those people…wish I could see their faces." Nagase said.

"Nagase's going down for a look." Chopper said, as Nagase flew downwards to get a look at the camp.

"Sea goblin, is captain Bartlett there? Check for a captain Bartlett." Nagase said.

"Nobody here. What about you?"

"Nope. Not here. None of the other POWs heard of him either."

"But that can't… look, just check one more time." Nagase urged, as she flew over the camp, not noticing a SAM tracking her.

The SAM site fired its missile at Nagase.

"Damnit, Nagase!" Chopper growled, as she swerved left and right to avoid the missile.

"After the captain said to me, I…" Nagase muttered, as the missile collided with her Raptor. The left side of the jet torn right off.

Blaze looked in horror as his wingman was shot down right infront of his eyes. To his relief, Nagase parachuted out.

"Nagase!" Chopper shouted.

"I'm fine. My plane's trashed, but those are always replaceable." Nagase said.

"Sea Goblin to gunship. We're taking our guests home now. Can you rescue her?"

"Roger. Weather conditions are getting worse, so we better step on it." Responded the gunship pilot.

Blaze watched as the gunship moved towards Nagase's position, but the strong wind forced it to crash into the mountain.

"The gunship crashed!" Grimm exclaimed.

"No shit. Saw it myself." Blaze retorted.

"Damnit! The storm's too strong!" Sea Goblin growled, as he struggled to keep his chopper in the air.

"We can't leave her behind." Chopper said.

"Look, I hate it too, but we have to wait for weather conditions to improve." Grimm replied in a gruff tone, not pleased with leaving Nagase behind.

"Damnit! Is there nothing we can do?" Chopper asked.

"Nothing right now. Once weather conditions improve, we'll be right back here, regardless what brass says." Blaze said.

Briefing Room

"None of the rescued POWs saw Bartlett in the internment camp. Now where could he be, I wonder? Upon favorable weather conditions, we will carry out a rescue operation for captain Nagase. That's right. You've been promoted again. You guys are burning thru the ranks, you know that? You can thank high command for that." Perrault said, before dismissing the pilots.

Crew break room

"If Bartlett wasn't in the camp…" Grimm started.

"He's probably in another camp. That's not the only prison camp Yuktobania has. The only other option, is he's dead." Blaze said.

"That's a grim thought." Chopper said.

After the pilots went to bed, Gennette walked into the darkened room and flipped on a switch. The lights turned on and showed a red book sitting on the couch by the window, Nagase's spot. He walked over and picked up the book, reading the title.

"A blue dove for the princess."

That was the title of the book she left behind. A favorite from her childhood. The pages have been torn off over the years and she has been writing down the words that were on those pages, trying to remember every sentence.

He couldn't help but wonder: did she crash on purpose, rather than having to take part in the invasion of another country?