Chapter 3 - One Really, Really Bad Day

*Warning! Certain parts of this chapter and the next few are rated M. Read at your own risk!*

September 2010 - Sand Island

Kei woke up in her bunk on the base and swung her legs off of the side and stood up stretching herself out. After a minute of stretching she jumped down and looked over at Helen who was still fast asleep in her bunk. Helen's hair was a mess all tangled up in knots and basically all over the place. Kei was watching her friend for a second when a loud snore from Helen brought a smile up to her face. Kei had to stifle a small chuckle that had threatened to escape her. After fighting down the chuckle she looked outside of her window and noticed that the sun had just started to peek out above the horizon of the ocean lighting. Even though Kei had been there at Sand Island for the past past two weeks, she knew that she would never grow old of the sunrise there.

The skies up with plethora of colors ranging from the bright yellow shade of sunlight to even the darkest shades of blue and purple. It was turning out to be quite a wonderful morning, that Kei decided to go out on a run. She turned away from the window and went to change into her workout clothes, which basically were just a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Once she was done she turned back to look Helen to see whether or not the woman had waken up, which she hadn't. Kei just turned around and closed the door behind, and after a few minutes of walking throughout the building, finally made outside. She looked around herself and noticed a few of the base personnel were out wandering around the place.

Kei closed her eyes for a few seconds, letting out a low sigh as she stood there in the morning sunlight. She turned off and started to jog around the island and eventually, she started to make her way towards the airplane hangars. Kei slowed down to a walk as she passed by one of the open hangar doors and noticed that there was a trio of F-5E Tigers sitting there in all their glory. As she looked at the beautiful pieces of machinery, Kei's little habit of her working on her machines picked up an itch, so she decided to walk in and look them over. The first thing that Kei noticed were that these Tigers weren't any of the others planes but they were numbers 023, 016, and 007. They were Alex, Helen and her own assigned planes respectively. After she had noticed that, Kei walked over towards her plane and made a quick walk around the fighter. As she walked around the plane she brushed her hand against the fuselage and Kei was brought into a memory.

Flashback, July 2001 - South Osea

Kei had been living with the Nagase's, consciously at least, for the past few months and she had already had a massive case of culture shock with the many differences between Earth and Strangereal. The geography between the two of them were completely different, not to mention the fact that the two world's technology level between them were vastly different. This new world had color TVs that could as flat as a board, more advanced cars, better ways to communicate with one another over long distances with the use of somethings called 'satellites.' That orbited thousands of miles above the surface and bounced signals all across the world. Not to mention the fact that the people had developed phones that could fit inside of your pocket and talk to people on them that could be half-way across the world.

Kei picked the tattered remains of her 501st uniform, her thoughts reflecting on that night. The night that Yoshika had decided to join Martha's family, she had introduced Yoshika as her 'eldest daughter, Kei' to both PJ and James, who played it off as if she had living with them for a while after staying with her 'grandma' for awhile. Kei had to give that bit to James though as he played it off pretty well, considering he didn't know of the plan. After, that night Yoshika asked Martha why she had called her 'Kei.' Martha told her that she called her that, after her estranged younger sister. Who Martha had a falling out with before the start of the Belkan War in '95. The last thing she had heard of her sister, was that she was a mercenary pilot during the start of the Usean Continental War, which had sparked up two years after the Belkan war had ended. After she heard that little piece she gladly took on the new name.

"Kei, come on! We're heading to the airfield, now," James had called up from the stairwell, Kei shock herself from her thoughts as she heard his voice call out.

"Okay, I'll be right down," she shouted back down to him. She turned around and set down the old uniform and made her through the door, closing it behind her, and headed towards the stairs. Flying down the steps and towards the front door, Kei had been moving so quick that she had almost collided with Ariana at the bottom. She managed to spin herself out of the way so that she had barely missed Ariana. Who wasn't even fazed in the slightest bit. The four of them left out the front door and headed to James' old bright, baby blue Jeep Wagoneer he had owned the thing for at least a good thirty long years, and the engine still running like it was fresh off the assembly line. All four of them piled into the jeep and James hopped in the driver's seat, turning over the engine. "Alright, who's ready to go see an air show?" Nobody answered verbally, but James knew that everyone wanted to go.

The trip to the airfield itself took a good hour and a half, and by that time both of the young girls had fallen asleep in the back of the car. The airfield was so jam packed with people, Kei was mesmerized by the thousands of people that had all crowded around the airstrip as various booths and vendors had begun to sell off their things.

"KEI!" she heard her name being called out from behind her, drawing her attention away from the great crowds. Martha and Ariana stood a bit farther back, waving for Kei to come to them. She immediately got the message and ran over to them.

"Kei, I want you to stay close, okay? It's real easy to get lost around here," Martha told her. She immediately understood Martha's and nodded her head, showing that she had both understood and accepted that fact. They wandered around the airfield for a while after that, looking at older planes from Osea's long history. Before an announcer came up on the speakers and announced that the 73rd 'White Angels' Squadron would be taking off soon. The four of them hurried over to the runway get a good look at the nationally adored aerobatic OADF squadron. They managed to find open spot along the fence line that had been neglected by the other sightseers. Kei quickly spotted the large form of huge a plane with two huge holes sitting in the back of the plane. A large flat body with two tall tails, and wide sweeping wings and nearly, pure white in their color. Kei had later come to know as a F-14 Tomcat. There were six of them all moving slowly towards the runway, making sure to show off their planes.

Then after the six fighters had lined up on the runway the incessant whine of the engines grew in intensity as all of the plane's pilots throttled up their engines. The Tomcats screaming out to be let into the air. Then the lead plane jolted forward as its pilot released the brakes the plane slowly gaining speed as it sped down the runway, quickly followed by the other five planes. The planes lifted off, one after another as they gracefully forced their way up and into the sky. One of the planes peeled off from the others as the formed a five-ship V formation. The plane made a slow circle around and head back towards the runway. For a second there, Kei thought that he was coming back in to land but she noticed that the person wasn't even slowing down, in anything he was going faster than he was before he turned. That's when a weird cone seemingly formed around around the plane as it passed by, the hairs on Kei's arms raising up and into the air. She watched as the plane shot passed the cone still on it, suddenly a loud boom cracked through the air, startling both Kei and Ariana, followed by a loud cheer from the crowd as the other five peeled off one by one doing the same thing as the passed by. Kei flashed back into the memory of the 501st.

She had just been brought to the Strike Witches by Sakamoto, nearly two months earlier. The other members of the squadron had been busy with doing their own thing on the base when a neuroi had shown up. Only Shirley, Lynnette and her had been technically on duty that day and took off to intercept. Something with wrong with Shirley's striker units and she shot ahead of the group. Then few minutes later a loud boom sounded off in the distance and the neuroi was somehow destroyed seconds later.

Kei flashed back to the present as the six planes formed back up, and started to perform complex maneuvers, much to the enjoyment of both the crowd and Kei herself. Who stared, wide-eyed, as two Tomcats pitched themselves up and circled around each other in a tight corkscrew as they continued to climb up and up into the air. Splitting apart and pulling away from one another and looped themselves back around and onto themselves as they crossed. Passing by each other at incredible speeds. The pair formed back up with the other four as they all performed intricate and mesmerizing maneuvers as a group.

Kei watched in complete fascination, as two of the planes broke of from the main group and maneuvered around each other as if they had taken dancing lessons. The pair then split apart and flew a good distance away from each other before the circled back around a charged back towards each other at nearly full speed, with no sign of either slowing down or peeling away. The world seemingly began to slow down and get suddenly quiet to Kei, as she watched the planes got closer and closer. Finally when they seemed to be within a couple hundred of feet of one another, the two shifted off to their prospective lefts and passed by each other. The vertical stabilizers just barely passing by one another as the planes glided past. The world speed back as the F-14s passed one another, the crowd bursting into a roar of approval. Kei was so entranced with the show that she did not even notice Ariana standing right next to her, a similar expression plastered across her face as well.

Martha noticed Kei and Ariana's little starstruck looks on their faces and chuckled a little bit, drawing James' attention. As he looked at her oddly, wondering what she had been amused by. Martha noticed his confusion and leaned into to James' ear and said loud enough so the she could be heard over the loud rumble of the jet engines and the cheering of the crowd. "It looks like we got some more fliers in the family's near future," as she gestured to the two young girls. James looked over the pair of them as they avidly watched the mesmerizing acrobatics of the fighters, a small smile cracked open on his face as he wrapped his arm around his wife as he drew her in front of him. "Well," he started out, "since we have to more flyers in the family what do you say we teach 'em. Eh, 'Cipher?'"

Martha just twisted around and him quick kiss before answering, "Sure, I can take Kei in the Tomcat. While you can take Ariana in the Eagle. That sound good 'Pix?'"

James smiled and nodded his head as he turned his attention back towards the the angels that had been dancing across as if it they were in the middle of an intricate act at a ballet dance.

September 2010 - Sand Island

Kei slipped off of memory lane and pulled her hand off the plane as she made her way around the plane and heading towards the engines. As soon as she got there, she noticed that the engines had not been touched at all by the maintenance crews. Kei let out a quiet sigh as rolled up the sleeves of jacket and reach over pulling a cart that had been full of tools towards her, the wheels clattering against the concrete. The right wheel up in the front, spazzing out every few seconds as it moved.

She maneuvered the cart around her and she crouched down to look over the engines. After she reached the plane removing panels and parts of the fuselage of the Tiger to reveal the of the twin General Electric J85-GE-21B engines that the F-5E housed. Kei took a look over the engine a let out a quiet sigh Man, it looks like I have my work cut out for me, she thought to herself as she twisted around and grabbed some tools off the cart and got work. Quickly losing track of time as she tuned up her plane's engine.

"Hey! What are you doing here, Sharpshooter!?" a familiar voice startled her as she was focusing deeply on working on her plane's engine. She turned around and saw Peter 'Pops' Beagle, their old Combat Instructor out from Heierlarck AFB back in the nuggets first year, stand right behind her, his arms crossed and small smile on his face. Pops was transferred out to another unit in the middle of 2009, leaving all of the nuggets with a brand new instructor. Although, it was not like the new instructor was not an incompetent one or just an asshole, he was not as loved as Pops had been by the other rookie pilots over at Heierlarck, that had been been there since the old bird had left. Kei was over-joyed to see him again.

"Hey, Pops!" Kei shouted back, as she walked over a guy the older man a deep hug, "How have you been you old bird!"

"I've doing okay. Now, what are you doing looking at my plane?" he asked her. Kei looked at him oddly for a second before responding.

"Your plane? I believe that this beautiful master-piece of machinery is mine. Thank you, very much," she said, crossing her arms and glaring slightly at the older man.

"Oh, and why is that Sharpshooter?" Pops asked, curiously.

"Because, I'm the one tuning up the engines of the plane that I was assigned to, you silly old bird," Kei shot back at him. Pops just stared back at her for moment before throwing his head back, laughing a warm laugh that seemed to rattle around inside his chest.

"You got me there kiddo!" he remarked as he made his over towards Kei, rolling up the sleeves of his blue jumpsuit as he did. Kei quirked her eyebrow in a hint of confusion as he made his way over.

"Well then, let's see what we can do with this bird. Shall we?" he asked rhetorically, causing her to smile a small as she nodded her head in response. The pair of them moving back around the wing of the Tiger as they headed towards the tail, making small, light talk as they moved. Pops crouched down and looked over Kei's work, watching his expression change from one of confusion to one of slight surprise. "This is some really great work, Nagase. Who taught you do this?" Pops asked as he turned his face up to look at her.

"My dad did, he was a habit of fixing up his own planes back at home. Heck, right now he's working an old TBF Avenger that he found from the old days. Not mention I worked as a mechanic in my home town before I signed up," Kei admitted proudly with a smile, crouching down to his level as he continued to look.

"Really, where did he learn to do this? College or work, 'cause this really well done?" he inquired still looking over the engine

"No, actually he… he was pilot during the war with Belka. Picked up his skills there from working on his own fighter," Kei omitted, hesitantly.

Pops didn't talk his eyes off of the engine, but sounded intrigued, "Huh, no kidding. Where was he stationed at?"

"Valais Air Force Base," she answered promptly.

That surprised the old man, who turned around and stared at Kei with a slightly startled expression. "Isn't that where Ustio's 6th Air Division was stationed? The mercenary one, the that had the 66th," he breathed out.

Kei nodded her head, "Yep, that's the one."

Pops was a little bit surprised by that, but didn't ask anymore questions as the two mechanics/pilots turned back around to the engine that they were working on. The two of them were so invested in their work that the had barely noticed the time pass by. Bonding over their work and over the years that they had missed.

"... and we're all about ready to go to bed so all of us start stripping down to get ready for bed. So Helen does her little, 'We are the Knights of the Air!' speech. And then she's standing like she's some triumphant conqueror. When out of nowhere, Chopper bursts in through the door and starts asking for some help about the ACM exam. And, all three of us are quiet and just staring at him. Then he finally notices that we're not saying anything, and finally looks up from his paper. He turned so red I swear that not even a tomato could beat him! Then he looks over at Helen… then he does the funniest thing, he faints right then and there!" Kei exclaimed as she finished up her story. Pops burst out into laughter from his spot in the cockpit.

"It sounds like I missed a lot, when I transferred out," he remarked.

"Oh, don't even get me started on the prank war that went on between the four us," Kei shot back.

That got his attention as he pulled out of the cockpit and sat down on the ladder. "Oh really, now this one I have got to hear," he said.

Kei put down her tools and twisted around to look over towards the older man. "Alright, so it all started with-"

"Attention, all Wardog Squadron pilots. Report to the briefing room. Repeat, all Wardog Squadron pilots, report to the briefing room," a voice interrupted her story.

"Well, duty calls," Kei sighed out, as she stood up and started to make her way towards the base headquarters, grabbing a spare towel off of the cart along the way. Rubbing the oil stains and grease spots off her hands and fingers. "I'll finish up the story when I get back."

"Sounds good. Oh, and good luck up there today, Sharpshooter," he told her as she walked off. Kei just turned around and nodded her head as she walked off.

Kei made her way inside the main building, dodging people as she walked down the slightly crowded hallway. Heading straight towards the base's briefing room. She turned around several corners as she made her through the corridors, finally seeing the briefing room mere moments after she turned around a corner. Kei walked up to the door, turning the knob and made her way inside with out so much as a break in her step. She looked around the room, quickly spying her three friends seated near the middle of the darkened room. The trio stuck in a light conversation. Kei made her way over towards them, quickly taking the seat next to Helen drawing their attention to her as she sat.

"Where were you, this morning? I woke up at around 0730 and noticed that you were missing," Helen started up, curious as to Kei's whereabouts.

"And, why are you all dirty?" her younger sister finished off, noticing Kei's grease and grimy clothing. Chopper and Helen just now noticing it.

"Yeah, why are you?"

"I was working with a mechanic on my plane, before I showed up. Also, I went out for a walk," she calmly answered. The other three nodded their heads amicably in confirmation, though they did not have time to ask anymore questions as the Colonel came in through the door, closely by Captain Hamilton and another unknown captain. The three of them made their way up to the front of the room

"Alright people, listen up!" the Colonel barked out quickly cutting off all of the conversations that the pilots were having. "Today Captains Bartlett and Baker, along with First Lieutenant Svenson. Will be taking some of you up for some more flight training, maybe even a mock dogfight while they're at it, over Cape Landers today. Also, you will be practicing your gunnery skills, with live ammunition." All of the rookies, Kei included, started chattering excitedly each other at the thought of the dogfight and the live ammo practice. Though although the chatter was quickly cut off as the unnamed captain, decided to chime in, quickly ending all of the murmurs and talks.

"Alright now that that's dealt with, let's go over the flight lineup. There will three fights of four. Cavalier, Star, Barney, your three are in Flight 3 with Lieutenant Svenson. Edge, Jive, Betjet, you three are flying in Flight 2, Captain Baker is in command. Now then, Flight 1 will be lead by Captain Bartlett, consisting of Aero, Mustang and Nemo. Blaze, Chopper, Matchstick… you three are on the ground for the time being, so get some rest and relax. You three are going up tomorrow, the rest of you wheels up at 10:30. Now onto the second piece of business, since this is a training flight you will only be equipped with a full load of cannon ammunition, no missiles asid of two AIM-9 Sidewinders. So, watch out for what you pilots are doing up there. We don't want anyone getting shot down out there. Good luck, dismissed!" the captain finished off, the entire room stood up and quickly saluted smartly the three up front, who quickly returned it as they made their way out of the door seconds later. The rest of pilots quickly followed their example and filed their way out the door. Helen and Chopper managed to get up first and squeeze through the crowded doorway, closely followed up by Kei and Alex. The latter two about ready to follow the main body of the squadron to the locker rooms, though Kei spotted the former pair and headed of in their direction for a second after telling Alex to go ahead to the lockers.

"Hey, Helen, Chopper," Kei called out to the duo, as they were about to break away and head towards the barracks obviously taking the option to sit back and relax, while the twelve of them would be up flying around. The two twisted around to look at their friend. Helen beat Chopper to the punch first, "Yeah, what's up, Kei?"

Kei cracked a small smirk, before answering, "Nothing much, we'll see you guys when we touch back down in a couple hours right?"

The other two cracked a similar smirk. "You can bet on it. See you guys in few hours," Chopper responded this time, raising his fist as he did. The other two quickly got the message and had a three-way fist bump. Kei turned around and started to make her way to the pilots locker rooms.

"Hey, Kei!" Helen called from behind her. Kei spun around, still moving backwards as she did.

"Yeah?"

"Try to fun will ya'."

Kei let out a smile, "You know me, I always have fun."

Helen and Chopper laughed together before they responded, "That we know," in unison, laughter still dancing the edges of their voices.

September 2010 - Cape Landers

Wardog Squadron had taken off less than two hours later, and quickly formed up as they moved towards Cape Landers. The ten of the flying around in relative peace, chattering among one another, making small talk. Kei was just having a fun time looking out at the beautiful blue sky that was sitting outside her cockpit. It was peaceful, and it had reminded her of the many times that she had taken off in her mother's old F-14. After they all came back from the air show, Martha and James decided to come clean with their pasts. And the fact that they were world class aces only sweetened the deal. The two Galm Team members each trained Kei and Ariana separately with Martha taking Kei up in her personal F-14D Tomcat, while James took Ariana up with him in his 'Solo Wing' F-15C Eagle.

The beeping of the radio being for attention brought Kei out from deep within her thoughts and memories. "Gimme break! I'm babysitting nuggets up here!" the captain's voice rang out, as he responded.

"Command room to Wardog Squadron," a air controller back Sand Island answered back, "We have leakers, aircraft type unknown. Crossing the border at Cape Landers, bearing 278 to 302. Captain Bartlett, your flight is the only group close enough to make the intercept," the controller told the captain. Though Kei was panicking in her plane. They really couldn't expect a couple of nuggets to fight in a dogfight, right?! I mean there is no way that we can fight them off, she wildly, hoping that she was wrong. Only for her to be disappointed seconds later.

"Baker, Sevenson, go trail and stay close. The three of us will go high and engage the bandits. All other aircraft stay low and out of the fight," Bartlett calmly ordered. Holy shit, we're really doing this, she thought to herself, as she watched the other two instructors smoothly shift over to take their places on Bartlett's F-4 Phantom. She couldn't watch for much longer though as she nosed the plane over into a dive to get below where the instructors would be fighting the unknown enemy planes. Kei levelled her plane off at around 2,000 feet off the water. She quickly looked around and notice both Alex and another pilot named Adam 'Betjet' Walker, had followed her down and formed up on her left wing. With Adam on Alex's right wing and Kei was on her left. Adam and Kei had been fellow classmates back at Heierlarck and talked with one another plenty a time back during flight school. The two had become pretty close friends in the past two years. Kei yanked her head off of the two other trainees, and from her reminiscing, and started to scan the sky for any sign of the enemy planes. After spotting nothing over and cued up her mic.

"Jive. Betjet, it's Edge. You see them up there?" Kei called out over the radio.

"Negative, Edge. No joy," Alex called back. "Same here, I got nothing," Adam followed up seconds later. Kei was about to call back to but as she looked out into sky, she noticed a slight… glitter and… some black specks, out in front of her plane. She watched the specks for a few moments before she noticed something drop off of three of the dots before, trails of white smoke began to plume from underneath the specks. Then, seconds later her missile alarm screamed into her ears. Kei realized in horror, that her flight had dived directly into the path of the incoming planes.

"Shit! Missiles! Jive, Betjet. Break, break, break!" Kei called out to the other two, as she acted quickly and snapped her stick over to the left. Pulling her F-5E into a tight turn, diving towards the ocean as three missiles streaked clean through the air where the three had been occupying just moments earlier. She spared glance to look over at her friend and follow pilot. Both of them looked to be fine as each of them came out of their turn. However, seconds later, Kei's cockpit was filled with the blaring alarm of yet another missile lock on to her plane. She quickly threw her head around and looked towards the aggressor, her eyes widening in horror. The enemy were flying Mig-29 Fulcrums, and one of them was sitting right there on Kei's six o'clock. Perfectly set up to slam a heat seeking missile right up her tailpipe. Kei's eyes widened greatly, as the world seemed to slow down dramatically. Kei watched on as a missile dropped off one of the Fulcrum's wings, slowly starting to spin, before it's rocket booster ignited in a puff of smoke and fire. Kei was already moving on instinct as she watched the missile begin to fly towards her. She slammed the rudder towards the right and threw the stick off to the right and back into her gut. The world flipped the plane over, pulling into a gut wrenching barrel roll of to the right, and dove aggressively towards the water once more, pumping out flares and chaff to throw off the missile's tracking system. The tight turn and sudden change of the F-5E's flight path, combine with the chaff, threw off the lock as the missile then began to harmlessly fly off. Kei stuck with her tight turn and pulled her plane all the around just hoping to have winded up the other fighter's tail… only to be met with the sight of empty air. She sucked in a breath as she looked all around for the lost Fulcrum. A bright glimmer of metal shined itself into her eye as she looked off to her right, and she turned her attention to it and looked in closer. She quickly recognized that the glimmer was Alex and let out a low sigh of relief, seeing that on her childhood friends was alright.

For only the course of about two seconds, as a bright flash of light off towards Alex's 7 o'clock caught Kei's eye. Twisting her head, she noticed that another enemy Mig, or perhaps the same that was Kei's tail mere moments ago, she could not tell, had dropped in and fired off a missile at Alex. Kei quickly got onto the radio, as she pulled her nimble F-5E into a left turn moving towards Alex's plane.

"Jive, Edge! You got a Mig sitting right there on your six! Break left! I'm coming to you." Alex didn't verbally respond but clicked her mic twice to tell Kei, that she acknowledged and snapped her plane off to the left pumping out chaff to help throw off the missile's onboard guidance systems. It worked as the missile stopped tracking after Alex and shot itself off into the distance, flying off through the chaff and headed towards nowhere. The Fulcrum followed her into the turn, lining up for another shot onto Alex's plane, with Kei following him, lining herself up for a good missile shot on the enemy pilot as well. Alex quickly reversed her turn trying to lose the trailing Mig, but the turn didn't manage to throw the guy off her tail seeing as how he had managed to stick with her in the turn. The Mig pitched up and twisted itself into a barrel roll, pulling enough lead on Alex's plane to squeeze off a burst. Alex reacted instantly by throwing her plane into underhanded High-G roll, rolling her underneath the Fulcrum. However the Mig-29 pitched up once again and cut it's throttle, killing it's momentum and allowing the pilot to spin around quickly and dive right back down onto Alex's tail.

"Edge, where the hell are you? I don't think, that I can keep dancing with this guy for much longer," Alex called out to Kei, panic and stress clear in her voice.

"Just calm down, Jive. I'm lining up my shot on the guy, be there in 20 seconds. Not to mention that it would help, if you stopped driving your damn plane like your grandmother drives her car," Kei sarcastically remarked to her as she applied more throttle, desperately trying the coax some more airspeed out of her F-5, as she made her way over towards the ensuing, dangerous dance.

"Copy that, Edge. I'll try to keep him busy until you get here. Jeez, he didn't even buy me dinner, oh, and don't think that I didn't hear that jab at my grandma," Alex muttered out. Kei smiled a bit despite the situation, Alex had the same of joking personality that Chopper had, though hers was a lot more toned down than his was.

"Heartbreak One, Heartbreak One, this Edge. We have encountered the contacts at Angels 6. I repeat, have contact at Angels 6. Looks like it's a squadron of Mig-29 Fulcrums. Requesting immediate, assistance and intercept, over," Kei didn't pay attention to Bartlett's response as she turned said attention back onto the deadly dance that Alex was having with the Mig. Alex had managed to get the faster Fulcrum into a turn fight with her slower, more maneuverable Tiger, initiating a sort of Horizontal Scissors. Giving Kei a chance to sprint her way up the deformed Horizontal Scissors. She took it, as she throttled up and tried to slip in behind the Fulcrum driver.

Alex reversed her turn yet again to try and throw off the Mig and it's encroaching 30mm cannon, the Mig pilot firing as they came out their own turn. Kei, tried to maneuver herself around to get a clear Sidewinder missile shot. The Mig driver quickly realized what was happening though, and pitched his nose, foiling Kei's shot. She reacted almost instantly, snapping the stick up in her gut and pulling the plane into a steep climb. She rolled the plane over onto its back, frantically looking for a sign the Mig as she pulled back more a leveled the plane out. Then a large explosion sounded out from behind Kei's fighter, who quickly got onto the radio, trying to find out what happened as her eyes stayed focused on the sky search for the lost Mig. "Betjet, you still alive back there?!" she called out to Adam seeing if he was still alive since Kei had lost sight of him after she had dived in to help Alex.

Kei caught sight of the Mig which latched back onto Alex yet again. As she was diving in to interfer, Adam finally responded. "Yeah, I'm still here Nagase," his voice nearly a whisper.

"What the heck, was that?" she asked, still keeping her attention focused on the Mig that was still chasing Alex. Clearly not noticing Adam's quiet tone either, as she floored the throttle, quickly gaining both speed and ground on the twisting pair.

"That was Barney's plane going up, he didn't get out."

"Copy that, Betjet," she said quietly, Kei didn't really talk to 'Barney' much after the rookies had made their way down to Sand Island and didn't know much about the kid, but as far as Kei could tell he had been a pretty okay kind of guy. But, it was still saddening to hear that someone so young had died, Barney, he is… was only 18 years old, way to to young to be killed off in a stupid skirmish. Heck he probably left a girlfriend back at home to go flying. Maybe even take her out for a flight or two. Now he's going home in a casket filled with pictures and memorabilia, not even his own damn body.

Kei shook herself from her wild thinking, as she refocused her attention onto the Fulcrum that was still on Alex's tail and showed no sign of breaking off as it follow her into yet another reversal. "Mustang, you got a bogey moving in on your six!" she heard another nugget, William 'Aero' Foxx, called out to his wingman, one Paul 'Mustang' O'Brian. Kei's attention snapped from the twisting Fulcrum in front of her and quickly spied O'Brian's plane turning just above her own. Another Mig-29 was sitting just a few thousand feet behind him, and with a clear shot at O'Brian. The Mig firing off a missile, seconds later the smoke trail materializing, absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful in it's flight and yet absolutely terrifying at the same moment.

"Copy that, I see him," O'Brian called out in response, mere seconds before the Fulcrum fired off a missile at him. Kei could tell that O'Brian had seen the missile and tried to roll the plane over, popping of flares as the plane flipped itself over, it didn't work though. "Crap, missile! Miss-AHHHHH!" O'Brian started calling out in fear before a burst of static erupted on the radio, cutting him off. She watched, mute with shock, as the missile slammed into the Tiger, the plane disappearing in a flash of flame and fire.

"Mustang! Mayday, mayday, this is Wardog 1-3! Mustang is down, repeat..." Kei ignored Foxx's desperate radio call for an SAR chopper to come in and search for Ben, even though it was doubtful that anyone could have survived that. The missile hit one of O'Brian's own Sidewinders on the wing, in a one-in-a-million shot, and ignited the live warhead. The explosion, coupling itself the impacting missile itself, sparked up the very volatile and flammable aviation fuel in the plane's fuel tanks. Creating a violent reaction that only taken maybe two seconds to go through, and had completely disintegrated the small F-5E and more than likely killed O'Brian, as he literally had no time to get out of the doomed fighter.

Kei's attention snapped back to the Fulcrum as it broke to the left, trying to get a good angle on Alex's fighter, which had been pulled into a yet another tight right-hand turn. Kei immediately reacted with her throwing the stick back into her stomach, opening up the throttle to maintain airspeed as the nose of the Tiger pitched up into a steep climb. Kei's neck straining as she looked towards where Alex had turned off, and was relieved to see that both were still flying flying on the same relative course. She ruddered off to the right and rolled the plane over at the same time, cutting inside the two's turn, giving her a near perfect shot at the trailing Mig. Only for Alex to snap the plane back to the left, spoiling the Mig attempt getting an angle on her and ruining Kei's chance at knocking out the Fulcrum, or at least off of Alex's tail. She quietly cursed, as she follow the other plane into a sharp left turn. Once again trying to pull lead on the other fighter. No matter what Kei tried though, she just couldn't get an angle on the Mig. She breathed a heated sigh of frustration and annoyance as she pulled off of the Mig and went high, looking for an opening. She watched for seemed to be several minutes but had in fact been a handful of seconds.

"Jive. break left, on my mark," Kei called out. Alex clicked her mike twice to show that she understood. Kei stayed high, watching as Alex and the following Mig twist around down below. Waiting for a chance to jump on the Fulcrum, then she saw it. The Mig jock had swung out a little wide when he tried to follow one of Alex's quick snap turns.

"Mark!" Kei barked out to Alex, as she winged herself over diving in to re-engage to the fight. Kei slid back in behind the Mig-29 in a better position than she had been last time. No sooner than Kei slide back in behind the Fulcrum, Alex immediately resumed her dizzying and twisting maneuvers. Somehow, Kei managed to keep her attention on the twisting Fulcrum in front of her and was easily keeping pace with even though she was in a slower moving plane. When she heard one of the other nuggets start calling out frantically.

"This is Wardog 3-3. Svenson's down, repeat Svenson's down! He's gone!" Kei cursed mentally at that. Svenson was one of the instructors and most senior pilots in the sky. If he had been shot down, then the others chances of survival dwindled down even more, with just two trained and experienced pilots, Bartlett and Baker, left in the air right now. Although, Kei, also technically counted in that category as well given that she was experience from her training with Martha and James, and from her time in the 501st all those years ago.

Kei shook herself from her thoughts though as she turned her attention back to the Mig-29 that was still in a tight left turn, trying get his nose around and ahead of Alex's plane. Kei stuck with the Fulcrum in the turn for a few more seconds before Kei realized that it just wasn't going to work and levelled herself out before pitching into a climb. She stopped climbing seconds later and looked back down at the fight. The two plane's, Alex was still leading the Fulcrum into a left turn, but the Mig's angle on Alex had increased and the Mig's nose pointing straight onto Alex's fighter and slowly gaining lead. Kei instantly recognized the danger and called it out to Alex, "Jive, he's going to fire soon! Jink right! Jink right!"

Alex's plane immediately jerked off to the right as she yanked her stick to the right, moving out of the way just as a trail of tracers passed right through where her F-5 had been just mere moments earlier and causing the Mig to overshoot Alex. Kei say her chance and dove in on the fighter.

The Mig driver pulled back on their stick, sending the plane into a shallow climb as he, or she, tried to disengage and extend away from the fight. Giving Kei a clear shot at the Mig in process, and she took it, squeezing off a second long burst from her guns. Releasing a short spray of about fifty 20mm cannon rounds, that was more than enough to do the job though as it walked across the plane's wing and punching holes in it as the trail end of the burst slammed into one of the Mig's air in-tanks for it's engines. Debris flowing through the rest of the engine, screwing up the turbines and the engine itself. The Fulcrum peeled off of Alex and headed home, dark black smoke trailing one of it's engines as it tried to climb away.

"Alright Jive, your clear," Kei told her friend as she pulled off to the left, pumping out chaff hoping to throw off any sort of missile lock that was on her. As Alex stayed in her right turn, pulling herself around and getting back into the fight.

"Thanks Edge, I was starting to run out of tricks," Alex breathed out, clearly glad that she had managed to get out of that situation. Kei just nodded her head in response and flipped her attention towards the skies again as she turned, and quickly spied another one of the Wardog trainees' F-5Es. Mark 'Cavalier' Johansson. Another one that Kei had been on decently friendly terms with at Heierlarck during flight school and training. Though, Kei felt that something was off and her eyes caught a glimmer off towards Mark's right, Kei looked in closer at it and realized another Mig had been sitting right behind Mark. And in the the perfect position to launch a radar guided missile at him. Kei was about call out Mark's attention to it, but before she could the plane launched missile off. Kei immediately switched on her mike.

"Cavalier, you got a missile coming at you. Dive, dive!" she called out, as she watched the missile flying straight towards Mark. He had been well into a tight right hand turn trying to get onto another one of the Mig's tail, when the missile had been fired at him.

"Whoa!" Mark called out as he slammed his rudder to the right and diving the Tiger, mere moments before the missile could slam into his fighter. The sudden movement of the plane had thrown the missile's tracking system off and over loaded with course corrections, causing it to pass harmlessly over Mark's F-5. "Thank's Edge, guess I owe you one," he thanked her, causing Kei crack a small smile as she kept her attention on the sky around her.

"Roger that, Cavalier. You can pay me back by buying me a drink once we get out of this mess," she told him as she watched him level his plane out just off her nose, leveling out her plane herself.

"Hahaha, roger that, Edge. I think I'll take- holy shit!" he shouted out as a Mig-29 came screaming in right at him, diving in from up high, it's cannon blazing. She watched on in horror as a steady stream of tracers and cannon rounds slammed into Mark's plane, causing it to rock as each of the heavy, hard hitting 30 millimeter cannon rounds slammed into his jet.

"Cavalier? Cavalier, you copy? Mark?! Mark, are you alright?!" Kei called out trying to get an answer from the pilot.

"H-h-hey K-Kei, it l-looks like I-I'm not g-going… t-to get… g-get… that… drink… tonight," Mark finished off with a weak whisper as he quietly let his last let out his last breath and left the world. The, now pilotless, F-5 rolled over on it's wing and started it's descent into the water. Slowly twisting and around as it plummeted towards the ocean below.

"Mark! You'll pay for that you son of a bitch!" Julianne 'Star' Kendricks, screamed out as she floored her throttle to full, lighting up the planes afterburner and charging straight towards the Mig the had just shot down Mark.

"No, Star! Don't be stupid!" Kei called out, desperate to gain the other pilot's attention and appeal to her reasoning, before she had gotten herself killed. Kei watched on, fixed in horror as she watched Kendricks' plane shoot towards the now turning enemy fighter. Its pilot still not listening to Kei, as she frantically calling for her trying to get her to turn back and disengage. She watched on in great apprehension as Kendricks' charged straight at the Mig that had killed Mark, cannons blazing. The plane tried around her undirected burst of cannon rounds, but was struck by several of them slammed into the Mig's tail. The rounds sparking off a trail of fire and causing one of the plane's engines to catch fire and igniting the entire tail. The Mig pitched itself up, still brightly burning, and Kendricks broke off. The Fulcrum broke apart as it climbed skyward.

"Alright, good kill, Star. Now get your ass back here!" Kei called out to her fellow pilot.

"Roger that, I'm on my way," Kendricks replied as she pulled her plane around and headed back towards Kei. The two closing on each other rapidly. Kei let out a sigh of relief… just as she saw another Fulcrum climbing up behind Kendricks.

Kei didn't get enough time to warn her as the Fulcrum's left wing root lit up as it's single barrelled. GSh-301 autocannon fired away. The hard hitting 30mm rounds practically shattering the plane itself, Kei also saw the back of the plane's canopy shatter and Kendricks jerk forward violently. The Fulcrum stopped firing and pulled off, leaving Kendricks' shattered F-5E alone as it turned away. Kei was still staring wide eyed and of into nowhere as the two planes passed by each, the woosh of them passing by, snapping Kei back into focus. She threw the stick over far to the left, twisting the plane around as she accelerated to Kendricks. Matching speed with her, as soon as Kei had caught up with the destroyed F-5E.

Kei took a chance to look over the plane. It was wrecked, huge holes perforated the wings and the main fuselage. Fuel, oil and other fluids were leaking from the plane, and the canopy was a complete disaster. Though they were not what had worried Kei the most, Kendricks was slumped over her control stick, unmoving. Kei turned her eyes away from the sight, stinging with unfallen tears, then she saw something twitch off to her right, Kei's head snapped over to look at the plane that was still floating beside her. As she searched the F-5E's destroyed cockpit, she saw Kendricks' arm twitch, ever so slightly but it had twitched nonetheless.

Kei heart leapt up and into her throat as she scrambled for the radio. Once, she finally grasped the transmitter, she hit the button on it and started to try to get through to Kendricks. "Star, Star are you there?! Kendricks, can you hear me?!"

Kei nearly screamed out in joy as she saw Kendricks slowly tilt back up. "Yeah, Edge… I can hear you," Kendricks answered, weakly.

Kei almost immediately went back to business and asked Kendricks to give a report. "Well, it's not good… that Mig knocked out my number 2 engine… and number 1's losing power… I'm losing thrust. The wings took one hell of a beating," she answered, her voice quiet and shaky as if she were struggling to get them out. "Also… I took a round, straight through my left shoulder…it's pretty bad… Jesus, that's a lot of blood."

The other pilot mentally cursed at that, she knew that there was no way in hell that Kendricks was going to be able to make her way back. She would either pass out from the blood loss, or her plane would lose thrust completely and fall do and into the ocean. Not mention, that even if she even made it back to Sand Island, Kendricks was in and would be in no feasible condition to land the plane of the runway. With that being told Kei made her choice. "Star, you still with me girl?"

"Yeah… I'm still here Edge… What's up?" Kendricks asked hoarsely, sounding worse than she had mere moments earlier.

"Star, I want you to punch out. Okay? You'll have a better chance in the water waiting for the rescue helicopters to come in and pick you up, than trying to make a landing at Sand Island. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, I got you… Punch out and wait for the helos to come and pluck me out, I got it…" Kendricks let out a short grunt of pain as she shifted herself around, before calling out, "This is Wardog 3-2, punching out." The remnants of Kendricks' canopy popped off and seconds later a bright flash of light flared up as the F-5Es ejection seat fired off. It's chute deploying moments later as the seat and plane fell down into the ocean.

As soon as Kei saw Kendricks' chute deploy she snapped her Tiger off and circled back towards the twisting and turning dogfight, searching for another target and looking around for her wingmen. But, caught sight of another F-5E being pursued by two more Mig 29s, one of the two fighters fired a missile, the F-5 pilot twisted the plane into a barrel roll, pumping out chaff as he did. It worked as the missile lost its tracking and flew off. However, the second plane fired off a missile as the pilot came out his roll, the thing flew up to the F-5 exploded mere inches off of it's tail. Rocking the plane as it was hit, smoke trailing out from one of the engines. "This is Aero, I'm hit!" Michael, she realized, called out. "Engines losing power and my hydraulics are shot! No chance of recovery! I say again, no chance of recovery! Punching out!" Kei watched his F-5, patiently waiting for him to get clear of his Tiger. Three seconds passed by… then four… then seven seconds had passed, still nothing. Kei realized what was happening, Michael's ejection seat was not firing.

"Damn it, my seat's not firing!" he called out frantically seconds later, suddenly an alarm started blaring off in the background. "Oh God, he fired another missile! I'm not going to make it! Ahhhhhhh-!" the scream was cut off by a flash of light, as yet a third missile fired from the first Mig slammed into the Tiger. And just like that another rookie fell to the Fulcrums. In the span of barely even 10 minutes, one instructor and five nuggets had been shot down. Four of the five dead and the last one seriously wounded in the water. Kei put her head back into the game as she dodged and weaved her way around the other planes trying to avoid being shot down. The remainder of Wardog flight doing the same, their luck holding out as they all did the same. But luck eventually runs out, and when it does it usually never ends out well for the person on the receiving end.

"Crap, this Wardog 1-2, I'm hit," Walter 'Nemo' Miller, called out calmly as alarms were ringing off in the background, Kei's attention snapped to Miller's smoke and flames billowing out from his engines. "They knocked out my engines. Punching out." The frequency filling up with the low sound of the canopy popping of the plane and the loud roar of the ejection seat's thrusters and shotgun shells firing off. She watched as Miller separated from his seat and silk trailed out from behind him, the parachute filling out at catching his fall. Kei reported that Miller had good chute mere seconds before a blur shot past Kei's plane, sounding as if freight train had run right past her, the turbulence rocking the small F-5E as the unknown plane raced past.

She twisted her head back around to take a look at the plane that had just roared past her, and saw the Mig that had shotten down Kendricks, a pair of bright white stripes running down the wings contrasting greatly with brown and green camouflage, passing low underneath her from left to right. She immediately reacted and winged her plane over to get on it's tail. Kei quickly closed in on the Fulcrum trying to make her way at a quick gun pass on the enemy fighter. The damn pilot saw her though as she started to back her dive, and quickly broke off to the left as Kei made a pass at her. Kei saw this, and reacted quickly by going HOTAS, slowing the plane done rapidly as she followed the Fulcrum through it's turn. And coming out on it six o'clock, to far away for guns and quickly she quickly switched over to her two AIM-9 Sidewinders.

The target reticle switched over as the missile's heat-seeking warhead locked in on the glowing tailpipe of the Mig sitting dead ahead, her helmet suddenly growled to life with the sound of a good tone. Kei's finger hovered over the trigger as the Mig in front of was sitting there rocking back and forth, her missile still locked on to it. Then, she felt the hairs of the back of her neck stand up for barely a second before she threw the stick left once more and slammed her foot petals of to the left as a stream of cannon rounds arced their way across her plane, followed closely by the Mig that had fired them. While this happened Kei had lost track of the Fulcrum that she had been chasing and quickly rolled the plane over and pulled up, setting herself up on the plane that had just made a pass at her. The stupid idiot had kept on his same course after he had come out out out of his diving pass on her, but she didn't care as she poured on the throttle and sped back up. The idiot finally clued in that someone was behind him after Kei managed to get a lock on him. He pitched up sharply and off to the left desperate to try and throw her off. Though she was easily fooled as she cranked her plane off to the left as he dove back down to the water, thinking that Kei had followed him up into the climb. The Fulcrum levelled out and stayed moving in a near perfect straight line.

Kei throttled up and closed in quickly not activating her search radar at all yet, allowing her inch in closer and closer to the naive fighter jock. As soon as she got in close enough to see the bright orange plumes of exhaust from his engine's, she flipped on her search radar. The warhead looking onto the Mig's infrared equivalent of a volcano, Kei's finger closed around the trigger. "I got you now, you stupid son-of-a-bitch," she muttered darkly as she pulled the trigger, the Sidewinder lept off of the rail almost eagerly, it's rocket booster touching off a burst of fire and smoke. The missile tracking straight and true, heading up and through the Fulcrum tail section. Blowing it apart in a massive explosion. Kei pitched her plane up and went above the huge fireball and cloud of debris that she was about to slam into. She watched with grim satisfaction and slight pleasure as the remaining half of her adversary twisted and burned as he fell into the ocean.

Kei's eyes stayed on the spot where her adversary had crashed in the surf. A small spot of flame sitting on the water, she was seemingly mesmerized by the sight. Before a burst of cannon tracers raced above her head. Kei instinctively pulled back on the throttle and slammed the rudder to the left, causing the Mig to overshoot and fly clear across Kei's canopy as she passed underneath him.

"Jive! Betjet! Form up on me, they're picking us apart. So, we need to stick together," Kei called out to her two wingmen. Who both quickly responded and formed up on her six. The three of them, spent the next seven minutes dodging missiles and streams of cannon rounds as they tried to stay alive, covering each other as they went around, surviving. After a long while, a loud pair of whistling sounds made itself known from behind the group of three, as the air-to-air missile alarm simultaneously blared to life. Kei acted on her own pure battle instinct, formed from her earlier years of fighting the neuroi, pulling the stick sharply into her gut and pitching the plane up into a steep climb. Then the sound of an explosion from behind, brought Kei back to the present as she rolled plane over and saw something that horrified her. Both Alex and Adam, didn't manage to avoid the missiles and were hit. Alex's plane immediately went into a flat spin, while Adam's plane peeled off after he managed to recover his plane, trailing smoke as he flew off.

"Jive!" Kei exclaimed as she watched her friends planes were hit and dove down, chasing after Alex. Her left engine trailing smoke as the plane was corkscrewing itself down towards the ocean.

"Shit, shit, shit! This is bad, the missile screwed up one of my engines! I'm in a flat, fucking spin!" Alex screamed out as she frantically tried to recover her fighter. Kei looked at Alex's slowly spinning F-5E, the missile did a lot more than just screw up her engine, it made the wing look like a piece swiss-cheese. To make matters, worse however the the plane's spin from Kei's perspective.

"Jive, can you get her to nose down? Try to recover that way," she said trying to help Alex.

"I can try," Kei saw Alex try to move to plane trying anything to get the plane's nose pointed down towards the water, but nothing was working. "No, no, no, no! God-damn it! My control systems are all fried and the hydraulics are shot! I can't recover her," Alex called out, frustration clear in, "Jive, punching out! See you guys groundside." Seconds later the ruined F-5E's, somehow still pristine, canopy's explosive bolts fired off and blowing the large piece of glass far clear from the plane, seconds before ejection seat fired off it's shotgun rounds and severing the seat's connections to the plane. Moments before firing it's jets and rocketing Alex out of the plane and into the air. After a few seconds of freefall, Alex separated herself from the ejection seat and pulled out her chute. The white silk filling out as the wind rushed through it, catching the air and ceasing Alex's plummet towards the roaring waves hundreds of feet below her.

"Edge, it's Betjet. I need you to get up here and check me out. The plane feels like it's alright, other than the fact that the controls are a little sluggish," he request as he struggled to keep his Tiger up in the air. Kei immediately acknowledge the request and pulled up out of her dive, quickly identifying Betjet's damaged plane that had been, still, trailing smoke. As Kei pulled up to the damaged plane she noticed a small flicker of light down on the bottom of Adam's plane. She moved in closer a large flash of light blinded for a second as a massive fire erupted.

"Adam, punch out! Punch out! There's a huge damn fire on you, it's going to to hit the fuel tanks, any second!" Kei called out the him, frantic.

"Fuck. Copy that, Edge. See you on the grou-" Adam was cut off as the fires reached said tanks, and his plane lit up a burst of as it exploded right in front of Kei. The young pilot watching on, helpless and in horror as Adam's plane fell to the cold water below in a heap of twisted heap of metal and fire. A flaming pyre and a watery grave, for one of her friends. Kei faintly heard someone's voice screaming out in pain and anger, a voice that she would come to realize later, was her own.

"This is Heartbreak One. Is anyone still alive, there?" Bartlett called out, wondering if any of the other rookies had made it out.

"Bartlett, it's Baker. I'm alright, sort of. One of those Mig's strafed me with his gun, before he bugged out. Must have hit to generator. Electronics are a little on the fritz, I think I can make it back though," the last of the two instructors reported to the captain.

Kei reached over to the mic and flipped to transmit, "This is Edge, I'm okay. No damage. Jive and Betjet went down, Jive got out. Betjet… Betjet, didn't," she responded in a near dead monotone that she did even realize that she was speaking with. Kei was numb with the shock of seeing eight pilots just… murdered. After all the flight never had a chance, hell, the only reason Kei survived was due to the fact that she had both previous experience in battle with her history as a witch and training with the infamous Galm team while she was growing up. That Kei was numb as she maneuvered her plane up to form up on Bartlett's wing, glancing of towards their right to see Baker's jet flying off their left trailing a path of thin smoke from his engines. Kei tuned herself out for the rest of the flight back, numbly pulling course corrections to stay heading back for Sand Island. Kei started to tune herself back in when she heard Baker starting to request landing clearance.

Kei queued up her own mic, "Tower, this is Wardog 2-2. Requesting landing clearance."

"Copy that Wardog 2-2. Cleared for approach on runway, approximately half-mile after Wardog 2-1," the controller replied almost instantaneously.

"Roger tower, clear for approach, half-mile after Wardog 2-1," Kei responded in a near dead monotone voice.

Kei winged in close half a mile behind Baker's smoking F-5E, as the two of them came in for a landing. It seemed to be going pretty well, until Baker's plane shuddered violently and started to drift down towards the ground. Losing speed rapidly.

"Shit! This is Baker, I've lost power. Fuck, I'm losing thrust! I'm going in! I'm going in!" he called out frantically into the radio, alarms blaring off the background. Kei's eyes snapped over to the Tiger, and watched on as the plane stalled out and rolled itself over and slammed into ground flat on top of it's back, a few mere meters short of the runway. A ball of flame and inky, black smoke erupting from the crash as it's fuel tanks ignited. Kei just let a low sigh as she saw the flaming wreckage as she came in on her own final approach. Just another good pilot that's going home in a casket. If there's anything left in there that is after that fire's done, Kei thought morbidly as she glided her plane down onto the ground, the wheels bouncing along the pavement slightly as she rolled the plane to a stop along the runway. The still burning wreck of Baker's plane sitting behind her, she taxied off of the runway and parked the fighter. After she shut down the twin General Electric J85-GE-21B engines, Kei snapped off her mask and sagged in her seat slightly as she relaxed her sore body from the seemingly long, grueling dogfight and leaned her head against the back of the ejection seat. Kei closed her eyes for a moment and just listened to the ever slowing whine of the engine's turbines and the electronics. A loud wrapping on the windshield woke her up from her short rest, a mechanic was sitting up on the top of the ladder, patiently waiting for her to get out. The mechanic gestured for her to get out of the plane.

Kei nodded her head in response and moved her up towards the harness, unbuckling it and sliding it off her shoulders. She popped the canopy open, slowly letting the canopy rise up as she too rose up from seat, she heard the rotor chop from the pair of HH-9 Helicopters flying out for SAR. She watched the two chopper's fly off towards Cape Landers, in a desperate race to find any survivors from today. Kei slowly lowered herself down to the ladder from the cockpit of her plane. Her arms were quivering slightly from the long 12 minute dogfight and maneuvering her plane near constantly. The ground feeling comforting as her feet touched the tarmac.

"Nagase! You keep on flying like that and you'll die real soon!" Bartlett shouted out at her.

Kei looked up at the man for a second before turning her head away, "I won't die, sir," she muttered out she looked down.

Bartlett just started at her for a second "Are you sure?" he asked before turning around, exasperatedly, muttering, "You look like you couldn't hurt a fly," as he stormed off to the control tower to meet with the Colonel. The man that had been walking alongside Bartlett though looked at Kei, Genette, if she remembered correctly, turned around and pulled up his camera. She staggered slightly and turned slightly to face him, barely managing a smile as he took a picture. Kei turned around as she heard a commotion behind her. Her eyes, widening a little bit in surprise as she saw Helen and Chopper sprinting their way towards her. Oh god, Helen. I… I got Alex shot down. I should have never been the one to lead them. After all everyone I lead gets hurt; Alex, Adam, Lynnette… hell even myself, she thought morbidly as she quickly turned away and briskly made her way towards the locker rooms. Desperate, to try and avoid her friends at the moment. If she had turned around she would have noticed the confused and worried expressions that were written on her friends faces.

The SAR choppers had come back with little success. Kendricks had been found alive in the water but had died from a combination of Hypothermia and massive blood loss during the flight back. Walter's parachute wrapped around his legs, dragged him down like an anchor. The poor bastard drowned before the chopper had managed to get to him. Alex, she almost bought it too. If the helo hadn't gotten there when it did, she would have died from hypothermia like Kendricks had.

Kei inhaled sharply before she twisted down the doorknob and headed on through the threshold of the door. As soon as she walked in, Kei took a quick glance around the break room and noticed that Chopper and Alex were sitting right next to one another. Alex was talking with Chopper about to say something but stopped and looked up towards Kei who quickly turned her eyes away and took a seat up near the front of the room. After Kei sat down she took a look around the room and noticed the Bartlett had been sitting down in a chair up near the wall, his head thrown back clear over the back of the chair. A few more pilots the Kei didn't recognize walked in through the door and quickly found their seats and promptly took them. Bartlett let a low, deep sigh that spoke of a tired, weariness that reminded Kei of Martha and James when the talked about the Belkan War. He made a short glance around the room, looking at the remaining pilots before he started to talk, "Look, I know you don't like this, but we're short on people. Starting tomorrow, all of you nuggets, not including Marcum, are gonna be sittin' alert." Kei sunk a little bit at that notion, but it had made sense after all nine pilots were killed today, that was at least one-half, if not two-thirds of Sand Island's air group. "If we launch, stay glued to me up there," Bartlett continued to the others, before shooting his attention over towards Kei, "Nagase!"

Kei eyes widened a bit as she straightened up a little bit more in her seat, "Sir."

"You're flying Number Two on my wing. Gotta an eye on you, or who knows what you'll get yourself into." Kei didn't bother to either send a retort or answer as she knew it would have been pointless, and that the Bartlett had already known what the answer would be. After all, it was a direct order technically. Although, she could see through his words, Bartlett did want to keep an eye on her just not for her flying. He want to keep an eye on her mental state, Kei internally scoffed at that. She was rattled, maybe even changed a little bit by the whole ordeal, that much she'll admit, but it was not enough to reach the point to where she would go suicidal or AWOL or anything like that.

"Alright now go to your rooms, and get some rest. That's an order," Bartlett finished as he stood up out of chair and walked out of the room. All of the other pilots stood up out of their seats and started to follow the gruff man out. Kei, just stayed sitting in the her seat for a few seconds though kind of staring off and not really registering what was going on around her. Helen noticed it as she was walking over towards the door, and shifted her direction towards Kei. Said person was seemingly stuck deep in thought and obviously not paying attention, seeing as how she jumped slightly when Helen placed her hand on Kei's shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright there, Kei?" Helen asked as she studied Kei's face for a second over two as she waited for her friend to respond. Kei, just nodded her head for a second before answering.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," she said as she brushed off Helen's hand. Helen didn't seem all to pleased with her answer though as she just stared back at Kei with unbelieving eyes. Kei sighed, of course Helen wouldn't believe her, after all they had been close friends since they were in high school. Hell, both her and Alex counted her as another sister.

"Look, Helen," Kei started out softly, "I am fine okay. Really, I am. You, on the other hand need to go check up on Alex. I know that you haven't seen her since the SAR chopper landed." That seemed to get Helen's attention as she turned away from Kei's gaze, confirming Kei's statement. "Take Chopper with you, I'll there later," Kei added.

Helen's head snapped back to look at her. "What are you going to do?" she asked quietly.

Kei stared at her calmly and rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Jeez, I'm not going to kill myself, if that's what you're thinking. I'm not that depressed, damn it. I'm just going to call my family back at home."

Helen sheepishly turned her head away from Kei's piercing gaze, and nodded her head as she turned around and started to walk off through the still open doorway. Helen turned back and poked her head in one last time and was about to say something else but thought better of it and head back out to go and find Chopper.

Kei sighed once again and slouched down in the chair for a moment gathering up her thoughts for second as stared up at ceiling, much as Bartlett had a mere ten minutes earlier. Kei closed her eyes as she stared up at the roof. She heaved herself out of the chair and headed out the door and down the hallway, hands stuffed casually in her pants pockets. Her head hanging low as she stared at the cream colored tile floor.

Just what the hell am I going to talk with them about though. Because I am pretty sure that I can't talk about the massive cluster fuck that we had. After all, the bigwigs confiscated Genette's camera just for taking a stupid picture. Maybe… Kei thought to herself as she walked, not really thinking about where she was walking, just letting her feet take her wherever they had wanted to go. By the time that she had broken out of her thoughts she had realized that she had made her way across the entire base and had reached the base's convenience store. Home to all of the tobacco, cigarettes and snacks on base, not to mention the place to find the only Sat Phone on base that could be used for non-military matters. Like the personal calling their home and families.

Kei walked up to the counter where just a random airman was manning the station, absent-mindedly flipping through the pages of a magazine, the kid couldn't have been at least a year older than Ariana was. Kei waited for the airman to notice her. When he didn't, she cleared her throat loudly to get the kid's attention. It worked as the kid glanced up for a second from his magazine and quickly closed it as he scrambled to place it under the counter, straightening out his uniform. "Yes, hello, Lieutenant. What can I do for you this evening?" he asked quickly.

Kei sighed lowly as she collected her annoyance for a moment, "Sat Phone. I need to contact my family."

The young Airman nodded and moved off towards the back, leaving through the backdoor. Kei glance over the counter and spied the magazine that the airman had been so engrossed with mere moments earlier. The photo of a familiar pair of F-15C Eagles, one with a gray fuselage with dark, almost navy blue trim on the wings followed another gray bodied Eagle with one bright red, right wing. 'Warriors and the Belkan War, by OBC Studios,' it read. Kei scoffed at that, she had already know the story after all they had watched the documentary, not to mention the fact that the were her parents. She leaned over the counter and pulled up the magazine and started to flip through the thing while she waited. Kei chuckled a little as they had kept on calling Cipher a 'he' and thought fondly of how upset that Martha would be about. The backdoor slammed shut as the kid came back, Sat Phone in hand. He started to head back to counter, bur frozen as he saw what Kei was doing.

"You got that damn, Sat Phone yet?" Kei asked irritably, shaking the airman out of his reverie.

"Uh, yeah. I got it right here Lieutenant. So, are you interested in the 'Demon Lord?'" he asked as he moved over towards Kei, as she closed the magazine and set it back down on the counter top.

"No, not really. At least, not anymore," she answered promptly.

That sure as heck surprised the airman as he made a very noticeable double-take. "Why?"

"That is because, I met her," she said, putting in great emphases on the 'her' portion of that. She grabbed the Sat Phone from the stunned kid and walked out of the room. Leaving the completely flabbergasted and wordless airman behind. She stared at the phone, that sat in her hand for a for a moment, before steeling her nerves and dialed in number, pressing call. The line stayed ringing for a few seconds before the tell tale sound of someone picking up the phone rang out. "Hello, this is the Nagase residence," a familiar, yet extremely annoyed voice, answered, "Ariana Nagase, speaking how may I help you."

"Ari, it's me. It's Kei," she said quietly, her voice coming out as merely a whisper. So low that Kei had barely heard it herself.

Ariana's attitude did a complete 180 after she realized who she was talking to, "Oh, hey, Kei! How are you?!"

"I'm… I'm doing okay," she lied, and it killed a little bit of her inside.

"That's good," Ariana said, "You want to talk to Mom or Dad?" Kei smiled at that and felt her eyes moisten a little, she could always count on Ari to think of others before herself.

"No, no. That's alright, Ari. I just wanted to hear your voice," Kei answered after collecting herself, wiping anyway the tears that had started to wet her cheeks with her free hand, stifling a small cry.

"Okay…" Ariana responded, with a near skeptical tone to her voice. Kei could tell that she was confused by that little bit.

"Anyways, I needed to talk with you about something important. Something, really important," Kei said before Ariana could say anything, her voice shaking a tiny bit before taking on a more serious, stern tone, "If you… if you hear anything, and I mean anything, along the lines of an attack or anything like that. I want you to take Mom and Dad and get out of Osea. Head straight to Melissa's and her family. Okay? You remember her, my old friend that moved to Emmeria about two years ago."

"Uhh, Kei are you alright. You're kinda scaring me here," Ari whimpered out at the end, Kei closed her eyes for a second. She didn't like to do this, she didn't want to do this but… she had to. For Martha, for James, and for Ariana

"Can you promise me that, Ari?" She didn't answer.

"Promise me, Ari," Kei didn't ask this time.

"Kei, I think that-" her sister started to say. Kei wasn't having any of it though.

"Ari! Promise me, damn it!"

"I-I…" Ariana started to retort but it held back with little restraint, as far as Kei could tell, before letting a low sigh of defeat. "I promise," she muttered through the phone in response.

Kei on the other hand let out a quiet sigh of relief, as though a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders, "Thank you, Ari. I'm sorry that I yelled at you, but I had to. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yeah…" she answered, "yeah, I do, but what is this about anyways, Kei? What's going on?"

"You remember seven years ago, I told you that I had bad feeling that something was about to happen. You remember what happened?" she asked.

"Yeah, Erusea attacked and seized the Stonehenge railgun network in Usea a few weeks later, and started the Second Usean Continental War. Dad, went to Usea and volunteered in ISAF, about a month later, why?" Ariana answered with a question on the end.

"That feelings back," Kei replied bluntly, but then hesitated for a few seconds "... and some-… something else happened, Ari. Now I-I-I can't talk about it but it was… it was pretty bad, okay. Listen Ari, if… if anything happens to me. I… I want you, to take care of Mom and Dad for me, okay. Will you do that for me?"

"Yeah, of course I will, Kei. Look, don't worry about them, you just make sure that you get your butt home in one piece. Oaky, Edge?"

Kei smiled at that."Ten-four, Tali," using the 'callsign' that they had made up when they were in flight training with their parents back on the farm in the planes. Ariana always had better luck between the two sisters, while Kei could take any plane and push it the knife's edge of it's performance.

"Hey, stay safe up there. You still have to come home and watch me fly Sirena," Ariana told her sister in a quiet voice, after a few seconds of silence.

"I will, on both of those. And Ari, I love you," Kei finished off as she hung up the phone, her hand drifting on the back of it for a few seconds. Before she let out a low sigh and walked off. Heading back towards her room, not even bothering to wipe the silent tears that had fallen from her eyes. By the time the she had gotten into her room, Kei had broken down into sobs and curled herself into a ball on the couch. Barely even registering the fact the her room-mate had wrapped a blanket around her old friend.

A/N: I just realized that I have not done a disclaimer yet. So, before I get frakken nailed for it. I do not own the 'Ace Combat' games or the 'Strike Witches' series. Hope you guys enjoyed it!