//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Until Fairer Skies Beckon // by totallynotabrony //------------------------------// Rainbow still had not received any actual medical treatment.  If a doctor even existed in this part of Africa, they probably would have been forced to do their work, just like the UTA pilots.  Rainbow fainting in the hangar after her first air-to-air kill was attributed by the others to blood loss and stress. And the rest didn’t even know how much stress it had caused her. Rainbow spent the entire next day in a fog.  The way her stomach felt, she couldn’t tell if she was giving herself an ulcer or already had one.  That was a lot less punishment than she thought she deserved. Stratus Jade was dead, Rainbow had killed him, and she’d gotten credit for his final victory. The moment kept playing on repeat in her head.  She’d known he was joining the fight.  She’d known there were no other enemy planes.  She’d only wanted to kill Lightning Dust.  Instead, she’d panicked. Rainbow tried to sleep.  She tried to play soccer.  Nothing helped. She felt like she wanted to tell someone what she’d done.  The guilt was going to eat her alive.  Who could she talk to? Rainbow considered Angels.  But no.  She respected everything Angels had done for her too much.  Angels was just about to finish her missions.  Rainbow couldn’t put something like this on her mind. Soarin’?  No.  He was as much a neutral party in the aerial fight as anyone, but she couldn’t face his judgement, as she was sure he would pass.  He, the expert pilot, would realize she was just some kid who couldn’t be trusted to pull a trigger.  She needed to retain his respect and guidance more than ever now. Rainbow didn’t even consider any of the others.  They would either think she would get them killed, too, or maybe be moved to revenge. So Rainbow kept quiet.  What would it change now?  Nothing could bring Stratus back.  Her admission would help nothing, and hurt only her. If keeping the secret didn’t kill her first. Rainbow wasn’t part of the next mission.  When she heard Angels was flying, though, she went to see her off.  The jets thundered away, and the base fell to silence once more. Rainbow hated waiting, even on a good day.  With nothing to do, she went by hangar four.  Soarin’ was there.  Rainbow’s stomach turned as she saw a small lightning bolt painted in dark grey below the cockpit.  She hadn’t asked Soarin’ to do that, but she couldn’t say anything without arousing suspicion.. He glanced up from his work.  “You don’t look good.” “Is that any different from how I’ve looked for a week now?” Rainbow asked. “No,” he allowed.  “Most people lose weight here; shit food and stress.  Not to mention what you went through.” “Still going through,” said Rainbow, though in hindsight wished she hadn’t. Soarin’ frowned, but let it go.  “You know, you’re probably the first person to shoot down a jet with a propeller plane since the Vietnam War.” Rainbow didn’t want to continue the conversation, but couldn’t help but ask, “Really?”  To shift the focus off her, she quickly added, “How did that happen?” “A couple of Navy Spads got lucky against MiG-17’s.”  He shrugged and smirked.  “Well, it was probably superior pilot skill, but with the Navy it’s hard to say.” While he seemed to be in a good mood and talkative, Rainbow decided to press on.  “What other kind of crazy stuff have you seen here?  People like Angels are probably among the most successful female fighter pilots ever.” “I heard a rumor that, supposedly in the ‘90s during the Ethiopia-Eritrea war of all places, an Ethiopian pilot became the first female to get an air-to-air kill in the jet age.  Of course, during World War Two the Soviets had a couple of female fighter aces.”  Soarin’ shrugged.  “Either way, any records the UTA sets aren’t going to be reported.  They have a habit of killing journalists.” That turned Rainbow’s brief positive attitude around again.  No matter what she did, she was still under the thumb of an evil organization. Angels completed her ninety fifth mission.  It was almost nonchalant.  Rainbow wasn’t sure what she was expecting.  Had it been her coming to the end of her own missions, she would have been on edge for any hint of impending disaster. There were no flashbulbs or cheering crowds or champagne.  There was barely any event at all.  The Flyers Club hosted a slightly more festive than usual gathering.  Rainbow attended. Pantera was the next most senior pilot, through having flown the most missions - eighty one.  Rainbow thought perhaps Kiel had the most total flight hours, with his former commercial career.  Knowing the two of them, she suspected Pantera was more likely to try and fill Angels’ shoes.  Though, Rainbow also suspected that no one could successfully replace Angels.  She didn’t need to be the standout leader of the motley band of kidnapped mercenary pilots, but she had, and well. As she looked around the room, Pug gave her an unkind glance, but looked away. He’d been avoiding any contact at all with her since she’d punched him. That was fine with Rainbow, but she got the constant feeling that he was about to stab her in the back. Maybe literally. The sound of a jet caught the attention of all of them.  Rainbow glanced around the room.  They were all there, so it wasn’t any of them.  She was closest to the door and went out, followed by the curious others. The plane had landed and was taxiing off the runway.  Based on its nose intake, Rainbow initially thought it was a MiG-21.  However, as it turned, she saw the variable wings. “Su-22, looks like,” Kiel commented. The group walked over to where some UTA soldiers had gone to meet the plane.  A man with a leather jacket and a shock of grey hair was climbing down. “Wind Rider,” Angels said, perhaps not a greeting. He smiled anyway.  “Good to see you.  I hear you’re about to leave?  Too bad.  I just brought this new Fitter by.  One of the Libyan ones.  After they threw Gaddafi out, no one noticed a few of them going missing.” Rainbow eyed the green flag painted on the tail.  She’d heard about the Libyan revolution, a few years back.  It had been on the news far more than anything going on in Talongo. “So are you going to join up?” Wind Rider asked Angels. “No way.” Wind Rider shrugged.  “Well, I’ll go make myself comfortable.  I’ll be riding out of here with the boss.” He walked off, apparently towards the headquarters building where the indentured pilots were not allowed to go. “Who was that?” Rainbow asked. “He used to be one of us,” Angels said. “If he got out, then what’s he still doing here?” “He accepted a paid position.” Rainbow stared at her, mouth frozen open.  “What?  Who could…?” Angels didn’t reply.  It didn’t look like she could figure it out, either, and had given up trying. The group of pilots looked up at the sound of a helicopter.  The only previous time Rainbow had heard one was when Lion Heart had come to visit, and there was no way she wanted to see him.  The others seemed to feel the same way. They were almost back to the Flyers Club when there was the sound of another aircraft, the well-known drone of turboprops that told them the C-130 was inbound. “That’ll be the fresh meat,” said Lightning. An instant shot of rage went through Rainbow at the comment, but she restrained herself to a glare at the back of Lightning’s head. The cargo plane landed, disembarking on the opposite side of the runway.  Lack of rules at the mercenary base or not, during their flight training the pilots had all learned some basic safety and instinctively did not walk across the runway.  Most of them, in fact, turned around to go back to the Flyers Club.  Whoever the new pilots were, they would meet eventually. Rainbow wanted to go greet the new people who had been dropped into her shared Hell.  They could certainly use friends.  Maybe it could be a kind of penance for her, slowly erasing with good deeds the guilt she felt. Though, it would have to be a whole lot of good deeds. But with Lion Heart being around, Rainbow decided to just go back to the bunkhouse.  She told herself it wasn’t hiding if he could probably find her either way. She wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.