Soarin’, once again, provided answers.
“Maybe the people on the radio, if they were actually trying to make a rescue, didn’t want you to give away what you knew on an open channel,” he suggested. “Your name, or some of the information on the search and rescue card, could have compromised whoever left those things.”
“Well, it’s already compromised,” Rainbow pointed out. “The UTA have the card and the map now.”
“True, but whoever was on the radio doesn’t know that.”
Rainbow’s stomach fell. If they were potential rescuers, she might have increased the danger to them and reduced the potential of her own rescue.
There was nothing she could do but harden her resolve to make friends and get herself and them out of here. It was the only choice Rainbow saw.
They flew again. Pantera wasn’t on the mission, leaving Kiel to lead. His style was much different, though at least he and Rainbow weren’t sniping at each other.
Rainbow sought out the channel where she’d had the brief, frustrating conversation the day before. It had stopped playing music, but no one answered her call.
Disappointed, though unsure what she would have said, Rainbow glanced at the sky around her plane. The six of them held a loose formation.
The mission today was in support of a heavy ground assault by UTA. As the approached the target area, Kiel called the ground controller of the day, Warthog. Based on the conversation, it seemed like they would be going home with empty pylons.
The fighting today was along a deep wash, where water probably ran after a heavy storm. It was bush fighting, but the high embankments and debris from floods provided cover. With the narrow and sloped terrain, it was going to be difficult to get angles for strafing. Well, that’s what bombs were for.
Kiel rolled in first and planted his weapons on Freedom Army positions ahead of the advancing UTA, throwing smoke and dust into the air. Taking a high overwatch position, he then directed the others in fulfilling Warthog’s requests.
There had been a few pops and cracks of ground fire. Rainbow could see the tracers reaching into the sky, but they were disorganized. Kiel next directed Rainbow to escort Vapor in.
“I-I’d much rather do it with Five,” said Vapor.
“Yeah,” put in Sky.
“Acknowledged, but we need someone with more experience,” Kiel came back. Rainbow and Vapor started down.
Rainbow felt good about her bomb release. They hit forward of UTA advances, allowing them to keep rolling forward down the dry wash. As she pulled off the target, she craned her neck to see Vapor’s effort.
The Tucano seemed to rock a lot, avoiding either real or imaginary tracers. It was still steady enough when the bombs came off. It wasn’t a perfect hit, but still effective. Vapor was a better pilot than her attitude implied.
“Three, Five,” Kiel ordered.
Sky flubbed it. His bombs didn’t actually hit UTA troops, but based on Warthog’s angry screaming, it was a near miss. Fortunately, Striker had actually hit the target.
“Next time, bring pilots who can actually fly!” Warhog shouted.
“Oh, there won’t be a next time,” said another voice, one that none of them recognized. Though the radio made it scratchy and hard to identify, the words were clear enough and the tone wasn’t friendly. “Patriot, I’m putting you on notice: I’m coming for you.”
“Get off this channel,” said Warthog tersely. “Who is this?”
The voice laughed. The evil kind, not the happy kind. Rainbow would know.
Once finished laughing, In response to Warthog, the voice replied, “This is Death.”
“Two, get on it,” Kiel broke in, his tone annoyed more than anything.
“Have your fun today,” said Death. “None of you know the peril you are in. Don’t worry. When we meet, I’ll show you.”
Pug finished his run. The planes hung out for a few more minutes, but the fuel ran low and they turned back for base.
On the way, Sky spoke up. “What the heck happened back there?”
“It’s hard to use encrypted radios, what with the many different kinds of planes and ground radios. So we don’t use encryption. But that means anyone can hear what we’re saying,” explained Kiel. “So that’s why we use callsigns. Maybe it’s time to retire Patriot, though changing it won’t fool anyone for long.”
“‘Death,’ really?” said Pug. “What kind of superstitious idiots does he think we are?”
“I thought it sounded like a woman,” said Striker.
Rainbow wasn’t sure who to agree with. Then again, Rainbow herself wasn’t exactly known for having a feminine voice.
“They might be trying to bring back the reputation of Freedom Army’s best pilot,” said Kiel. “But they’re gone. Pan-pardon me, our friend in the Alpha Jet would know more, though I think it’s still before her time. All I know is Death - the original at least - is dead.”
Back at base, Pantera confirmed the story. “It was before my time, but the rumors were still fresh when I arrived here. The Freedom Army had somehow gotten their hands on a few MiG-23’s. They were the hottest fighters around and the pilots must have thought highly of themselves. They used the callsign Death. They tried to play it up, to say that Death was an ace pilot. They would claim Death themselves was flying even when they weren’t.”
“What happened to them?” Rainbow asked.
“It was a fierce battle. We lost several people. But we won, and since then the Freedom Army hasn’t really challenged us in the air.” Pantera nodded to Rainbow’s inherited Fishbed. “Our top pilot was Angels. She carried the day.”
“Any idea if this new Death is for real?” Rainbow asked.
Pantera looked grimmer than Rainbow had ever seen her. “We’ll find out.”
It was only after Rainbow had walked away that she realized she had made the jump to candid conversation with Pantera. They’d both apparently decided that it was better to have a friend. Well, that was one down.
That just left the hostile Pug and the potentially untrustworthy Lightning to make up with. Both of them, though, were probably more likely to accept the reality of the magic of friendship than old man Kiel. Rainbow would have to figure out how to get Sky with the program. Vapor should be easier.
With that in mind, she went to see the two of them. Or tried to. Alarms suddenly blared all over base. Rainbow had never heard them before, but logically assumed it meant danger. Caught in the open, she hesitated, but ran for the hangar.
The roar of a distant rocket motor caught her attention. She had never heard that before either. One of the SA-6 units parked outside of base was firing. The missile streaked away, vanishing into the distance.
Soarin’ stepped out of the hangar, looking at the smoke trail. Rainbow stopped beside him, catching her breath.
“Do you know anything about that?” he asked.
“Not a thing.”
Soarin’ was quiet for a moment. “The last time the Freedom Army tried attacking us here, they actually had a functioning air force. They had some MiG-23’s.”
“Death?”
His eyebrows went up. “How’d you know?”
She told him the story. Soarin’ contemplated it. “Well, that’s a coincidence, sure enough, but not proof.”
“Still, what if we have to fight MiG-23’s?”
Soarin’ tilted his head in the direction of Rainbow’s jet. “You have a little higher top speed, though the Flogger might accelerate a little better. The Flogger also doesn’t handle as well as you might think, even with the swing wings. The biggest threat is going to be if they have long range missiles to go with their radar.”
The alarms abruptly stopped. Soarin’ lowered his voice appropriately. “Jump them if you can. That’ll be hard to do because their radars are better. Use your numbers, because we probably have more than them.”
“I heard last time there was a big fight.”
Soarin’ nodded, catching her drift. “There was a lot of turnover then. The Tucano wasn’t my first airplane. You weren’t my first pilot.”
There was a silence.
Awkward question that it was, it would be more awkward to let the silence grow. Rainbow asked, “What would you do to fly again?”
“Anything but fight for the UTA.”
Soarin’ might be the hardest to convince about magic, but Rainbow got the feeling that he would be a pegasus variant of ponying up, like her. That was slightly amusing to picture. It also reminded her that even if she got the others’ friendship magic working, not all of them might have wings. She’d have to plan some other way to get them out.
But first was the all-important step of just getting the magic working.