//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty-Two: Collision // Story: Heroes and Allies // by LewisClarke //------------------------------// A/N This installment of Heroes and Allies is brought to you by... Chapter Thirty-Two: Collision ` A small group of F-16's cruised over the jungle canopy of northern Laos. ..."Rider Three, you're listing off to the right. Hold formation."... ..."Trying, sir. I think I might have a slight flight control problem. I can't keep it straight."... ..."Try wiggling the control surfaces. With all that gum you chew, some of it might be jammed in the hydraulics.."... ..."Funny, Four. Somehow I doubt that's the problem."... ...."Go ahead and try it. I certainly don't want you to walk home from here. We'd be picking bugs off of you for months. We're only about thirty minutes away from Tall Sau- Uh- Tell soo-"... ..."Tan Son Nhut Air Base, sir."... ..."Thank you, Three."... ...."That's a fancy name, but anyone know why the Air Force is moving back into the place?"... ...."Apparently that's above my pay grade, and subsequently, all of yours. No one seemed to be at all against the re-militarization, and that in itself is odd. My guess is the top brass in 'Nam and back home know something we don't, and they ain't willin' ta share."... ..."Because that's not suspicious or anything."... ..."Quiet down, Four. Three, back to you. How bad of a malfunction we talkin' about here?"... ..."It's not a safety problem, it's a maintenance problem. I have control. I've got this, sir."... ..."Good. Cause I don't want you splashin' a jet on your first trans-continental flight, or scuffing up that pretty face of yours."... ..."Your concern is noted, Chief. Why do get the feeling you wouldn't be saying that If I was a m-"... The jungle below erupted in a fiery shock wave, tossing nearby trees into the air like confetti. The surrounding clouds almost appeared to ignite, and a fallout of smoke and fire blanketed the surrounding area. ..."What in the Sam Hill?!"... ..."Rider Flight, this is Long Ear AWACS. Standby for course change and new orders."... ..."Rider. Acknowledged. You mind telling me what's going on?"... ..."Stand by for new orders..."... ..."Copy. Right..."... Fire continued to descend on the wooded terrain like a hellish hailstorm. ..."That was quite an explosion..."... ..."Ya think, Robby?"... ..."Settle down. That wasn't some farmer lighting a trash fire, so who has an idea of what that was? It wasn't a nuke. None of the trademark signs are there. Could it be some kinda conventional weapon?"... ..."Conventional or otherwise, why is- was, anything like that there in the first place?"... ..."Good question, Three. I marked the coordinates, so someone's going to find out.".... ..."Hey One, I know that blast signature anywhere. It's some sort of thermo-explosive."... ..."You suggestin' a farmer with a fuel air bomb?"... ..."Who in this part of the world would even know what that is?"... ..."Who knows, it's like I was saying. Whole world's going to sh-".... ..."Two, Four, that's enough from the peanut gallery. We got a report to make. Three and Four land at Tan Sun Nut."... ..."That's Tan Son Nhut, sir."... ..."Yes. Focus on getting that shaky bird on the tarmac, Three, and I'll worry about names. Two, you're with me. We're gonna get a closer look. Kiss that landing, Three. Good luck."... ..."Will do. I'll try to settle this thing down so I can- Wait. What's that?!"... An ominous tone rung out from all the cockpits of Rider Flight. ..."Sam launch! Jink! Jink!"... ..."Three! Break right, now! Gerri!"... Lieutenant Gerrianna Reed watched as a large surface to air missile flew up to eye level a thousand yards out and exploded, creating an aerial version of the devastation she'd just witnessed. A literal sphere of fire engulfed the air around Rider Flight, with Reed right in the very center of it. ..."She's breaking up! Chief! I gotta punch out! I gotta pouch ou-"... Her canopy disintegrated as if it were made of cheap plastic, the air around her burst into flame. The world melted away into blackness. "Wake up, Gerri! We gotta move!" "Uh, Chief?" "Come on, get up!" Alarms and the sounds of hundreds of shuffling feet filled Lieutenant Reed's head, accompanied by the face of a friend. "Captain! What- Did I pass out?" Greene lifted Gerri to her feet. "You fell asleep during one of the more obscure parts of crazy face's little story, but we don't have time to worry about that right now." Greene began to climb a deck ladder to a window, with Gerri close behind. "Okay, seriously. What's going on?!" Gerri asked loudly from below. She reached the top of the ladder, then quickly began to piece the scene together. "Well," Greene began, "It seems our friends from the other side decided to pay us a visit." ******************** "It has begun, sister," Luna solemnly spoke. Celestia looked up from her desk. "I know." ******************** "Move faster! They're gaining on us!" From the rear of the long line of evacuees desperately trying to traverse the new anomaly, Praetor Phalanx could only watch as the sickly, almost undead appearance of Hircus's Banded Army closed in on them. If he squinted, his sharpened eyes could almost make out the Dread Lord himself, riding on a vortex of dread energy. Stragglers and Liberation Alliance civilians had already begun to flee for their lives up into the crimson, horizontally floating gateway ahead and above. "Humans first! They have to know this isn't an attack!" Following his orders, the pandragon minors piloting mounts with human survivors moved to the front of the line, their passengers either riding aboard a suspended battle wagon, or on the pandragon mount itself. As if almost anticipating this, Hircus's forces began to take aim at the forward escapees. Dread energy blasts began to rain down on the survivors. On board one of the rearward suspended battle wagons, Vhesk, Salsiva, Berhal, Locklear, and few other members of Matchbox Battalion held off any approaching enemies. Sitting at the back of the BW, the general couldn't help but notice a very odd looking rotating object mounted to the back of the vehicle. "Locklear! General, use the turret!" Flockleader Wingroot yelled out from the retreating firefight above. Remembering the reload method from the fire-bolt caster that he still had slung over his back, he cocked the fire-bolt cast-turret and began to unload a torrent of flaming metal at Hircus's airborne troops. On another pandragon just above, Rover and his pack of Diamond Dogs lifted Flare Spear Launchers and did the same. "We are almost there! Fight dogs!" Holding a steady pace, the flying wagon train neared the anomaly. "Just a few more minutes!" Phalanx bellowed over the sounds of wings, energy blasts, and weapons fire. The first few wagons passed through, along with most of the human refugees, though this did not in any way seem to deter Hircus's forces, who pursued them even harder. At the back of the line, a energy blast caught one of the BW's carrying a load of weapons, and lit it aflame. The fleeing soldiers could only watch as its volatile cargo detonated, blowing the wagon apart and sending shrapnel in all directions. Reeling from a searing pain in his left wing, Phalanx dropped from the sky. Locklear watched as most of Hircus's approaching army darted after the flailing griffin, rather than keep the chase with them. The general watched as Phalanx fell, unable to do anything about it. "They keep going for him. What is it that makes him such a valuable target...?" _________________ Falling through several branches and tree limbs, the weary praetor crash landed onto the forest floor to the best of his ability. Clutching his wing and desperately trying to evade the what must have been an entire army of Hircus's timberwolves and banded Caprastian rams, the praetor's luck began to run out. Energy blasts arced past him at blinding speeds, and now without a weapon of his own, it was all Phalanx could do to stay out of point-blank range of their attacks. As the last of his will began to drain, the griffin officer collapsed to the ground. He could hear the enemy soldiers catching up to him. He lifted his head to see the face of those that would slay him, then reeled back in horror as the faces were not at all what he expected. Instead of the snarling maw of a timber wolf, or the stern lower jaw of a ram, his eyes met that of a human, rather a small task force of humans sporting the wild, glowing, dark blue eyes of Hircus's Banded. One of them shoved a M16 rifle in the praetor's face, then opened his mouth as if finding words to speak. "Did I not tell you there was no escape from me?" The human spoke with the Dread Lord's voice. "Hircus," Phalanx groaned. "Then it is true. This is no magic. Hircus has gained power over a whole new source of energy and no one is safe from it, not even the humans," he thought to himself. "You could have been king in my domain, to preside over your kind in the glorious Sapphiron Reborn, yet you defy me." "A king? What would that have made you?" "You would have been a king, and I, I would have been your god." "So the arrogance has come full circle then. I'm going to tell you the same thing my ancestors told the alicorns..." Hircus's human analog snarled in anger. "YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A PETTY TYRANT!" Phalanx drew his griffin war knife and tossed it into the soldier's chest, surprising the Dread Lord and giving the tired griffin leader enough time to summon enough strength to jump to his paws and dart into the blackness of the forest. "Destroy him!" Hircus commanded through a possessed pegasus nearby. "He got the ponies too..." Phalanx thought once more. Several blind volleys of energy blasts, Equestrian explosive arrows, and automatic gunfire ripped through the trees as Phalanx knowingly delayed the inevitable. His mad dash came to an end as he reached the lip of a large chasm at the edge of the woods. Turning to see the enemy surging out of the foliage, Phalanx knew his bid for escape had come to an end. "If I die, it will not be by your your sword, Hircus." The tired griffin's legs gave out, and with a defiant smirk, the praetor fell back and dropped over the edge. "No!" The Dread Lord roared though his possessed soldiers at the loss of his greatest quarry. A kill he'd never make. Just as one of the possessed humans reached the cliff side to look over, the sounds of beating wings could be heard from below. "What is this?" A blur of brown and yellow rushed from below right past Hirus's army on the ground. Two griffins climbed toward the heavens, one being held by the arm, as none other than Gilda pulled Phalanx away from certain destruction. As they rose, Phalanx offered one last mock salute to the Dread Lord. "You can flee to the furthest corners of either Earth, but I will find you! There is no place in my universe you can hide from me!" "I say again, his arrogance really has gone full circle, eh Gilda?" Phalanx spoke over the rush of the wind. "That's two you owe me, Phal! If you don't start saving my life more often we're going to have to reevaluate the nature of our relationship!" "That was almost humorous! Just fly us out of this place!" Phalanx paused to look around for the group of fleeing allies ahead. After he realized that he could no longer see them, he looked back up to Gilda. "Did they make it!?" "Yeah! Just about everyone is through, but there are a few stragglers trying to make it in!" "We must find a place to hide! Perhaps we can survive until they come back to liberate this place!" "We're one of the last ones out! They're holding open the window for us!" "What?! But Hircus's forces will get though right behind us!" "Not if we hurry! As an old friend of mine once said, there's nothing you can't win with the right application of SPEED!" "You better hope so! Can Vhesk close the gateway once we've passed?!" "They were going to try blowing up the weapons wagon we lost! So I don't know!" "Then it's time to find out! Do you have a caster on you?" "Yeah! Here!" Gilda passed down her fire-bolt caster with her free arm. "You focus on flying, I'll cover you!" As the two of them closed on the anomaly, possessed griffins, pandragons, and pegasai fired everything they had to keep them from escaping. After downing quite a few of them, the flying pair finally reached the swirling reds and blues of Vhesk's creation. Rising up from below, the Dread Lord made his presence known, his massive pandragon wings easily keeping him close behind. Hircus roared like a lion pouncing on a baby deer. "I cannot let you live!" Phalanx unleashed every last round from the fire-bolt caster into Hircus's enraged form, slowing him but not appearing to do any real damage. A close energy blast seared off the feathers on Gilda's right wingtip. "You will die for your transgressions, traitorous worms!" "I can't get him off us! Do you have anything else?!" Gilda handed him a small orange sphere. "That's all I got! Make it count!" As time seemed to slow, Phalanx armed the magma orb and lobbed it toward the twisted form of the pursuing dark king. The orb shattered as it had been designed to do, drenching their would be killer in molten lava. Phalanx watched as Hircus writhed in unholy agony, his screams of torment and malice echoing throughout the land. The Dread Lord began to burn. "I will kill every last one of your kind for this! Your suffering will be tenfold of mine!" Phalanx threw the fire-bolt caster, striking the already excruciatingly afflicted Hircus square on his face. "Be quiet," Phalanx muttered as he and Gilda reached the anomaly. More enraged than what might be considered possible, Hircus consolidated all of his power into a single blast of dread energy, a beam of pure horror that could seemingly level a small city. As Phalanx and Gilda watched the world fade away into a blinding light, the blast struck the anomaly. "What did he just do?!" Gilda yelled out as they fell into the gateway portal. "Vhesk's job," Phalanx answered with a smirk. "NO!" Hircus bellowed as the anomaly almost collapsed right after Phalanx and Gilda entered its threshold, allowing only his sizable early invasion force through. "RRRRRRRAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The Dread Lord regained his composure and turned to his troops. "Regroup. We shall enter the human realm on our own time. We will break the barrier with sheer might!" Hircus turned to the destabilized anomaly. "You have not won yet." ********************** Inside the temporary shelter the Georgia Dome had been turned into, humans and ponies alike scrambled around on various emergency tasks. Below most of the dome's structure, a small group of ponies once known as the "Bearers of the Elements" took shelter. ..."Twilight, are you all in a safe place?!"... "Yes, princess. I am here with the others. Most of the soldiers went to fight. We're just waiting for- Speak of the devil..." Sergeant Steven Mace entered the crate garage with a small team of marines and a much larger group of ponies and human civilians. ..."Alright. I'll get back to you with more information later. Don't leave that building, stay safe, my little ponies."... Twilight nodded. "You too." "Hello again," Mace called out to them. "This level and the ones below are our cover levels. Stay away from anything heavy and protect your head if the ceiling starts to fall apart." Almost everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Mace stepped up to the crate wearing his full combat gear and cradling an M16. "Any news?" "Not much," Twilight answered. "We haven't exactly been anywhere other than here." Rainbow Dash angrily shook her head. "I don't like this. What's going on up there?!" "We'll find out as soon as we hear back from the first wave of pilots they sent in," Mace answered quietly. Applejack trotted over to a nearby grate in the floor, which Pinkie had just gone down, and tapped on it three times with a hoof. "What are ya doin' down there?" "I almost got it!" Pinkie's voice echoed from below. "Got what?" A pillar of water surged from below, blasting the grate right off of the hole. "Pinkie!" her friends called out all at once. The surge receded, and Pinkie hopped out of the hole and shook herself dry. "There we go! Water for everypony!" "Wait. You made a well?" Lime Tree inquired from his position high up next to one of the crate garage's windows. "I hope that wasn't a sewer line..." Mace thought out loud with a unsure expression on his face. "Oh no problemo! I tapped the water main!" Mace nodded. "It's better than dieing of thirst down here, but I hope that doesn't come back to bite us later." "Silly! Water can't bite you! Well, unless it's ice... or frost..." Rarity put a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder. "Settle down Pinkie, conserve some of that youthful energy for when you might need it. Wait, what am I saying? I'm sure you have plenty to spare." A marine walked over to Sergeant Mace. "Sir, General Highlander is waiting to speak to you on frequency twelve. Over here, sir." "Wait. Did you say, General Highlander?" Mace questioned. "I'm sure he can explain it better than I could." Mace nodded and walked away with the messenger, leaving Twilight and her friends to think to themselves for a moment. "So..." Twilight chuckled. "How does this rank on our list of adventures?" "Too high," Fluttershy mumbled. "She's right," Rarity added. "How do we always manage to find ourselves in these predicaments?" "Unlucky, I guess," Rainbow commented. "Nah, we jus' lead very intrestin' lives," Applejack added. "Yeah, but this time it's not about us," Twilight spoke as she dragged a hoof down the side of her face in exhaustion. "We're talking about two worlds in jeopardy now, and we're powerless to save either of them." Fluttershy gazed down at the floor. "Ah wouldn't say that, we jus' have to fight harder this time. We ain't got the Elements to cover our backsides. We gotta win our homes back th' hard way." Rarity obsessively pawed at her mane. "But it's like Twilight said before, we're not soldiers. We're cold, tired, hungry and homeless. Without the Elements..." Rainbow Dash got in Rarity's face. "Without the Elements, we're six girls with a mission, and a lot of friends! And a bunch of them are out there trying to save us all, so just maybe you could stop complaining!" Rarity and Rainbow Dash stood face to face, scowling at each other, while Fluttershy retreated to a small corner and sobbed quietly into her hooves. "Look, ah know we're all a bit rough 'round the edges right now, but we gotta keep it together now!" "And why should we?!" Rarity began to comb through her mane in a more manic fashion. "We've lost everything." "Not everything." Mace entered the room once more. "I know we're all on edge. But we're not unprepared this time. I've been informed that we have reinforcements from multiple military outposts and bases already en route. We have help coming from all over the region, maybe even the world. Seems your princesses' pleas to the United Nations have payed off. We're pretty much guaranteed help if this escalates into a global drama." Rarity seemed to calm down a bit. Fluttershy lifted her head. Twilight, nodded in response. "That's good to hear. What is the condition of-" "Have you heard from Greene?" Rainbow butted in. "Captain Greene? He should be up by now. I'll listen out on the comm for any updates, but I would be surprised if any of them have time to relay information to us." "Oh. Okay." Rainbow answered. ..."Crate-Com, this is Major Classified, can you hear me?"... Mace let his rifle rest on its straps and began to type on of the Crate's keyboards. "Sergeant Mace here, we read you." ..."Good. I've already told your superiors this, but I thought you'd want to know. What's left of the Equestrian armed forces here is headed your way. We've managed to construct a few battle wagons as well, but that's about all we have to offer you."... "You built a battle wagon in the span of a day?" ..."Multiple battle wagons, in the span of two days. They're not very hard to manufacture when you have engineers with a good century's worth of technological advancement to help. Besides, they're pushers. They didn't have time to fabricate our vapor-suspended steam engines."... "More the merrier I suppose. What's your infantry looking like?" ..."We have two platoons of Earthfantry forces to deploy at this time, along with, and this is good news, a small squadron of pegasai that have managed to gain flight readiness."... "I suppose that is good news." ..."The bad news is that Unicorps forces are virtually useless here, though they are reevaluating their tactics. With a few re-specializations they should work well with the Earthfantry."... "Alright. I need to go. Just let us know when you have new information." ..."Well... there's something else I need to tell you, in private."... Mace looked over to Twilight and the gang, who took the hint and left the crate. Mace locked the large steel doors behind them. "Alright. Spill it." ..."Do you remember what we and some of the others talked about that one night at the rec tent back at Zero Base?"... "Yes." Mace paused. "You know who the traitor is, don't you?" ..."I've narrowed it down to three. I'll show you their identification sheets."... Mace watched as a human marine turned the camera down at a desk in front of the major's stack of files. ..."These three."... Steven's eyes widened. Before him were three identifications sheets with the faces and names of none other than Sergeant Sky Blade, Corporal Star Sabre, and Private Crescent Skies. ..."Do you know them?"... "Yes," Mace answered quietly. ..."Well I'm here to tell you, one of them is a traitor."... ********************* Lenard pushed open the door to the main hanger's men’s room and walked over to the sink. He splashed a few handfuls of cold water into his face and stared intently at his own reflection. His face had a few more bags than he was used to, and his eyes seemed a little more tired than what would be expected of someone his age. “Who is this guy looking back at me? That can’t be me...” A flood of memories entered his mind: his first flight into an anomaly, the strange dreams he’d been having recently, and the very first time he’d splashed water on his face in this room, years before. All the anxiety he was trained to ignore tended to bubble up before and after flights, and now was no exception. “Did I really trade clean-up patrols over Laos for this?” “Green!” Major Cavere’s voice rung out from outside. “Get whatever crisis you’re going through together and report to your station! You’re no good to anyone down here!” Internally, the man known on late night TV as ‘Lean Mean Lenny Greene’ felt like throwing up, but he knew he was needed, so he straightened himself up and marched back out of the bathroom toward a very overstressed Air Force major. ..."All personnel report to assigned stations immediately! This is not a drill! Repeat this is not a drill!"... Major Cavere turned away from a stack of monitors to find yet another winded pilot running toward him for assignment. "Greene! Get over here! NOW!." Captain Greene dashed over to where the major was standing, already half into his full flight gear. "Sorry sir! I just had to deal with something real quick. What's the situation here?" "The 94th is already mobilizing, and most of your squadron is already up. We're having to deal planes like cards with all the confusion right now. Your aircraft is prepped and ready outside on the tarmac as we speak. Figures they'd attack right before the Project Intrepid aircraft were completed. We're short fourteen planes and we can't even find a quarter of our pilots! Look, you're one of the few guys we got that's even seen these things before. They need you up there!" "How did the Alliance even get through?! The arrays were fried days ago!" "Take it up with Commander Stuart when the Minnesota gets back! In the mean time, you have a plane to catch!" "Yes sir!" Greene gave a quick salute and sprinted toward the open hanger doors, bounding around a corner and readying his flight suit as he made his way. Grabbing his helmet from a desk and attaching all of the associated wires and tubes, Captain Greene prepared himself for combat. "Sir, she's ready!" a tech yelled from outside the hanger. "On my way!" "We took care of most of the pre-flight checks for you. Just get in there and test the flight surfaces and you're good to go!" Greene stepped out into the light to find an almost mint looking F-22A Raptor sitting ready on the tarmac, with techs closing up the service panels and moving out of the way. "Stop staring and get in the saddle!" Cavere shouted from the other side of the hanger. "Kid acts like he's never seen a Raptor before," Cavere muttered under his breath. Greene climbed the ladder into the cockpit, where most of the cockpit had already been set for low altitude combat conditions. One of the techs climbed up to help fasten the harness. "Captain!" the tech yelled over the engines spooling up, "In case you missed the briefing, you got four Sidewinders and your gun. We were told not to bother with the AMRAAM's. Get out there and give em one for us, okay?" "You got it." The tech gave him a thumbs up and backed up as Greene pulled the canopy lever. As the transparent glass shroud surrounded him, Greene became acutely aware of the radio chatter racing back from pilot to pilot and other forces in the area. ..."Here they come! Through the portal!"... ..."Hold formation! If they get mixed into the civilian population it'll get a lot harder for our boys and girls down there!"... "To all aircraft, this is Captain Greene. I'm about to take off. Listen to me very carefully." He looked over to see the marshaller directing him not to taxi yet. "Hold back until I get up there. Put yourself between them and the city!" ..."Cap? Kaiser here. Reed and I are forming up with the rest of the squadron. Get up here as fast as you can!'... The marshaller began to pull his wands back toward him, signalling for Greene to begin moving toward the taxiway. "Rolling..." As the jet slowly turned onto the main taxiway, the marshaller stood back, gave Greene the signal to proceed onto the runway, saluted, and moved away. "Tower. Captain Greene here in Raptor 4194 on runway 29. Requesting permission to take off." ..."Roger, Raptor 4194. Captain Greene, your call-sign is WarSparrow One. We're still organizing the squadron into teams. Stand-by for assignment. You are clear for take off."... "Roger. Launching..." Greene pushed the jet to full throttle and the engines roared into action. The Raptor lurched forward and quickly reached take-off speed. Lifting into the sky, Greene could see the anomaly beginning to surge. Greene pulled the '22 up to altitude, and barreled straight toward the blood-red anomaly. "This is WarSparrow One to all forces. Follow my lead." ..."Cap? This is Reed, er- WarSparrow Two. Good to see you made it."... "Well it's good to be flying with you all again, WarSparrow Two and Three. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have guests to greet. Form up on me." ..."Yes sir. It's me, Kaiser above you, Cap. Hmm. WarSparrow. I could get used to that."... "It'll do," Greene answered. Greene craned his head toward the disturbance, then shook his head as he took in the incredulity of the situation. "It's bonafide alien invasion. It just figures I'd live to see something like this." Kaiser and Reed formed up on Lenard's left and right wings. ..."The rest of the squadron is already forming a defensive formation, boss. Major Cavere is supposed to join us up here soon."... "Roger that, Two. We'll need everyone we can get." ..."What do you think they're trying to pull? I mean we managed to beat them back at that landship while we were severely outnumbered. Surely they don't think they can take us on a good day, right?"... "I don't know what they're playing at, Kaiser. I just know we are here to stop them." ..."Hmm. Maybe tenacity, or desperation of some kind. Maybe it's some desire to conquer everything in their path."... "Maybe. Something is off about all of this, though. Our arrays are down, and as far as I know, Earth- our Earth, has never been invaded by talking animals before. So either there are forces we don't know of yet taking shape here, or the Alliance is far more advanced than we thought." ..."Well, Star Sabre and I were talking not too long ago about the significant cultural differences between the two of our societies, completely drunk no less, and he said that to them, magic is their technology. Maybe we were wrong to consider ourselves more advanced."... ..."You considered them less advanced, Kaiser?"... ..."You telling me you didn't, Gerri?"... "Settle down, you two. We have a possible Earth-shaking crisis to deal with here. At least pretend like you're concerned." ..."I am. Star told me all that he could think about the last few nights was his family. They lost their homes in Cloudsdale on the day of the first attack, then in Ponyville the very next day. I don't even want to think about allowing that to happen here."... Gerri could be seen looking around her cockpit. ..."We won't. We were mixed up in someone else's war before. Now it's personal."... "Personal or otherwise, it still doesn't make sense. What I'm starting to piece together from the big story here, is that this war was never about us. It's about taking something back. It could be land, dignity, or something else entirely, but they're trying to regain something. What possible reason could they have to come here?" Kaiser could be seen shrugging behind the canopy of his aircraft. ..."Maybe they're coming after the ponies? Or revenge? Maybe our fast food?"... "That's possible, but to just storm in here, into the unknown? They spent decades, if not centuries planning this war with the ponies. They know next to nothing about us, and they think they're ready to just charge right on in?" ..."That does seem a bit fishy, Cap, but the waypoint is coming up sir. We don't have the time to discuss it. Time to clock in."... "Heh. Roger that. You're about to get a taste of what I saw on the other side." Gerri shook her helmeted head ..."With all due respect, sir. I hope not."... "Well then hope it goes better than what I saw." ..."Understood. Pulling into circular formation."... Ahead, multiple fighter squadrons had been arranged in a loose holding formation around the anomaly, with a steadily increasing number of creatures from the "other side" forming in the middle, appearing not to be in any hurry to attack. Around that, a massive formation of AC-130 gunships and C-130 transports from the 94th Airlift wing operating from Dobbins flew in a counter clockwise pattern, bringing their weapons to bear and waiting for the call to deploy their onboard infantry units. Below, the newly reformed Matchbox Battalion stood at the ready, prepared to unleash unholy revenge on those that had nearly destroyed it. Humanity would not be taken by surprise again. "If this is an invasion, why haven't they opened fire yet?" Greene thought aloud. ..."No clue." Gerri thought aloud. "Maybe we scared the fight out of them."... ..."Nah." Kaiser added. "They didn't come all this way just to- *ahem* chicken out."... ..."I swear Kais-"... "Stay focused, you two." ..."Two, copy."... ..."*Sigh* I'll do my best, sir."... "That's all I ask." Greene lifted his helmet visor, squinting to make out single forms in the mass of creatures flooding through into the realm he'd called home all his life. "Just what are they planning?" ******************* "Major, I've known Sky Blade and Star Sabre since literally the moment I climbed out of the shuttle capsule that took me to your world, and you're telling me one of them could be a spy?!" ..."What about Private Skies? What have you seen of him?"... "I don't know much about him, but Lieutenant Cleaves told me he fought bravely alongside one of the last tanks we had in Equestrian territory before we were forced back here." ..."Alright, let me explain. Our plan, tracking down the special 'suicide herbs' we found with one of Hircus's Equestrian double agents led me to this lead. The three of them helped escort a group of Equestrian civilians, a small family I believe, to the shelter here. All three of them left their packs in lockers in the makeshift barracks. Trouble is, I have no clue as to whose is whose. Other than the incriminating herbs, they all have standard rations and equipment in them."... "And I suppose we can't just ask because that could tip off the spy?" ..."Exactly."... Mace somberly put his head in his hands, then looked back up with a expression cold, detached look chiseled onto his face. "Tell me what I have to do." ..."Alright. Listen very carefully."... ******************** Phalanx and Gilda watched as reality itself seemed to come to a standstill as the pair fell through the inter-anomalous abyss. There was no sound, only brilliant nearly supernatural color. Their motions slowed to a crawl, as if in slow-motion. Then, just as suddenly as they found themselves in this strange realm, reality returned, and they now found themselves on a totally new Earth. The griffin pair could now see that the escaping military and civilian refugees now found themselves completely surrounded by human forces. A multitude of strange machines with spinning wings hovered around them, forming an airtight perimeter. Squinting, Phalanx could see that further back, more of the faster flying machines like the one his reoccurring human adversary flew, held a more distant circular flight path, sealing them in. Finally, below, the two griffins could see that an even larger number of human ground forces had already converged below, complete with more war machines and human infantry than either of them dared to count. "What happens now, Phal? We're stuck!" Phalanx looked back at the anomaly, which hadn't seemed to collapse fully yet. "By the ancestors, they don't know there are humans with us!" "But that means..." "That means it will not take long for them to come up with a reason to sho-" Phalanx grabbed for his human communication device. "Locklear, do you hear my words?!" All Phalanx got in return was a high pitched crackling noise that seemed to coincide with the anomaly's pulsing form. "Curse of black stars! The gateway must be interfering with this blasted device! Everyone! Put down your weapons! Do not make any threatening actions!" A massive blast of dark energy shot out from the anomaly, and came within inches of shooting down one of the larger flying machines. Hircus's early invasion force emerged from the collapsing anomaly, energy blasts blazing. Phalanx's head sunk. "No... Everyone, pull back! Use Hircus's forces as cover. We must survive or no one on either planet will!" _______________ WarSparrow Squadron looked on as energy blasts began to rain down from the anomaly. ..."To all forces, they have opened fire! Repeat, the invading forces have opened fire on our assets in the area! All forces return fire! Take them down!"... Greene armed his onboard weapons. "You heard that, flight! Press the attack!" The surrounding fighters from other squadrons rolled and dived down towards the chaos as the new, glowing Alliance forces began to swarm the perimeter. Greene, Kaiser, and Reed descended in formation. "Stay with me! Help me blast a hole through that formation other there!" Greene ordered. Energy tracers streaked overhead as the three fighters brought their guns to bear and ripped through a small group of glowing blue pandragons. Dozens of them began to fall from the sky as the three pilots and other allied fighters began to engage the enemy forces. ..."Sir, enemy flyers flanking us from the left!"... Gerri called out A pair of pandragons from the formation they'd just attacked took to the chase, bearing down on them from behind. The afterburners on all three fighters lit up, quickly carrying them out of harm's way. "Keep an eye on the anomaly, they might have airships on the way!" ..."Roger that,"... Gerri answered. ..."Understood! Sir! Something's following us!"... Kaiser warned. "Seekers! Evade!" ..."What?!"... "They're like missiles! Break left! Break left!" The three F-22's banked sharply to the left, dodging the seekers, but giving them an almost perfect shot at one of the AC-130's. Two of them missed, but another tore through the starboard wing of the 130, violently lurching it to the right. The craft stubbornly refused to roll completely over, but was clearly headed for the ground. ..."This is Vulture 927! We are going down! Repeat we are going d-..."... The large aircraft pulled sharply upward right before it hit the deck, making for a very hard landing. "Command! This is WarSparrow One! An AC-130 just crash landed near my coordinates! Scramble SAR to their location! That looked survivable!" ..."Copy, WarSparrow. Sending SAR teams now..."... Greene slammed his fist on the cockpit frame. "Those things are supposed to track using some kind of magic energy! How are they working here?!" ..."Captain! Greene is that you?"... "Dr. Harrison?" ..."Yes! Yes it's me! Listen! I can't answer your question, but I can bring you news! Something is seriously wrong with that anomaly!"... "We noticed, Doctor. Can you tell us what's going on?" ..."Yes! Whatever or whoever opened that anomaly did so with a completely different method than we. I'm getting some unbelievable signals from it! They match up with the strange ones I received just yesterday! It's clearly collapsing, but not in a closing sense, more like a really small star going into supernova!" "You're telling me it's going to explode?!" ..."Yes! And it could very well take this entire city with it!"... "You wouldn't have contacted me if you didn't have some plan! Tell us what can we do about it!" ..."We're working on an answer for that as we speak! We believe some sort of missile strike may be in order, but they would have to be very powerful weapons indeed to outright kill an anomaly of that size."... "Sorry Doc, we're not carrying anything that remotely matches what you need!" ..."I might have an idea,"... another voice called out over the radio. ..."Who is this?"... Dr. Harrison asked. ..."This is Commander Stuart aboard the USS Minnesota. We are off the coast and well within cruise missile range. Our skipper, Admiral Graham, has instructed me to tell you that we have been authorized to fire if we have too."... "Are you nuts?! We're in the middle of a heavily populated city!" Greene yelled over the radio as he dodged a flare spear from above. ..."It's our only option,"... Harrison answered. ..."The anomaly could rupture the very second a weapons detonation occurs, killing anyone near it! We don't have time to bring any manned vehicles into weapons range. A missile might be our only option!"... ..."I agree."... Stuart continued. ..."I've studied these things long enough to know that this one is one home-wrecker of an anomaly. We can detect it from here! We are arming all non nuclear cruise missiles and preparing to receive targeting information for missile guidance."... "We don't have any launch sites closer than your sub?" the captain wondered. ..."Long story short: This sub has been outfitted to hunt down anomalies in locations that may or may not be permitted to travel to. Although we barely had time to leave port, we can use our data from previous scouting missions to make our missiles more effective."... "Wait wait wait. Previous missions? Are you saying you've detected anomalies in other locations in the past?" ..."We can explain it later! Focus on the task at hand! We'll need the exact coordinates of the newly formed anomaly before we can launch our cruise missiles safely. Captain. We're running out of time. Do you think-"... "I'll do it. Squadron, cover me, but disengage once I get within range of the anomaly!" ..."Two, Copy!"... ..."Three copies!"... ..."WarSparrow. Watcher One AWACS. We have confirmation of civilian evacuation around the anomaly's position, and we are prepared to perform electronic support to clear up the signals. WarSparrow Lead, get your data and relay it to us. We'll take care of guidance."... "Understood." WarSparrow One broke formation and turned toward the surging anomaly. Kaiser shot a glowing blue pandragon off of Greene's tail as a small flock of similarly colored griffins met their end from Reed's guns. Gerri squinted from the cockpit of her F-22. ..."They've spotted you gunning for the portal, captain! Get the coordinates before they converge on you!"... "Copy! I'm making my run now!" the captain declared through the radio. For what was definitely not the first time, Captain Lenard Greene bore down on the dimensional anomaly. As he dropped toward the fierce ground battle raging below, a round from an Abrams tank disintegrated a dark pandragon-battle wagon combo right as it was about to ram him. "I don't know who made that shot, but thank you!" ..."WarSparrow One, Lieutenant Cleaves with Matchbox Battalion here. You're welcome. Now go get those coordinates before we all fry!"... The shifting vortex of reds and blues grew larger in Captain Greene's HUD, invoking an unerring sense of Déjà vu. This time, however, Greene made a hard left banking turn before entering the anomaly's event horizon, lingering just long enough for the onboard instruments to record the anomaly's position. "Watcher One, do you have the data?" Greene yelled as fire-bolts from a Hircus-possessed pandragon minor arced overhead. ..."Affirmative. Minnesota, confirm acquisition of target."... ..."Affirmed. We read optimal targeting location as exactly 33.981517 North, -84.649773 West. We'll get back to you with the course."... ..."Copy, Minnesota. Standing by. WarSparrow, Watcher One is now running ESM for all allied forces."... "I'm- uh, sure that'll help, Watcher. I'm getting back into the fur-ball. Warn me when the missiles are on the w- I don't believe this. It's him... again." ..."Say again, One?"... ________________ Phalanx and Gilda rocketed through the swirling torrent of weapons fire now localized around the dimensional anomaly. As they finally caught up with the front of the pack, Vhesk's pandragon-battle wagon caravan could be seen attempting to fend off human aggressors, on which Berhal and General Locklear could be seen holding onto to the vehicle for dear life. "Locklear! I have finally found you! They have us outnumbered and surrounded! We'll die if they don't relent soon! Use your device to order your comrades to cease this attack!" "I'd love too, but your bootlegged radios aren't even close to powerful enough to cut through all this interference!" Vhesk shook his head in agreement. "The gateway. I have been tampering with my designs but I cannot make contact due to the gateway's resonance field." Locklear shook his fists in rage. "I can't believe this! We're going to have to get close enough for someone to spot us from a window before they know they're shooting their own guys!" Berhal held his possibly fractured leg. "I'm guessing that would be well within weapons range of their vehicular weapons?" "You better believe it! One of the helos will nail us with a door gun before that!" Gilda nested her head in her arms. "Fantastic. I always knew this is how I'd die!" Phalanx stood up on the back of the Pan-wagon. "Blast it! We have civilians with us! Thousands of them! We can't risk them simply killing us all! We have to warn someone of Hircus's intent!" The griffin praetor began to quickly survey the area then hardened his face. "I need a mount." Gilda's eyes widened. "What?! You can't be thinking of-" "Gilda..." "But you have a hole the size of a crest coin in your wing!" Gilda's voice, along with the thunderous sounds of battle slowly began to fade. Time seemed to slow once more. Tracers and blasts moved at a snails pace around the griffin praetor, and an ethereal voice spoke for the distance. "It is your time, warrior. Will you prove your worth this day? Will you show your foe the ultimate strength?" "Hircus?" "No. Though I am of his time." "Who are you?" The voice chuckled. "Heh. We met once before!" "Wha-" The world at war came alive again. "Phal! Can you hear me?!" "Gilda! Pull the General as far back to the rear of the line as you can! I think- I think there is something I have to do." Defiantly, and with a blood-curdling scream, Phalanx threw himself into the air, bullets and anti-air fire surrounding him. ************************ Celestia and Luna watched the battle from multiple screens from an undisclosed location. "Sister, I can almost feel his approach. The gateway is not closing." Celestia nodded. "They are running out of time." One member of a group of human agents monitoring the nearby systems looked up. "It's time to leave. Come with us, please." Celestia bowed her head with stress. "Very well." ********************* Cruising at low throttle, Captain Greene watched as a very familiar griffin leapt off of a flying contraption attached to a pandragon mount. The clearly wounded griffin shoulder-tackled a glowing blue pandragon minor off of his saddle, and commandeered the flying beast. Greene banked to the left, momentarily loosing sight of his adversary of two previous duels. "Incredible. How did I just know I'd run into you here?" ..."Perhaps it was destiny."... "What-" Greene snapped his head to the right, finding the griffin leader flying alongside him on his stolen mount and clutching a radio-looking device in his left talon. "How did you find this frequency?!" ..."I do not know what you speak of, but listen to me! You must stop this attack!"... Greene shook his head angrily. "That's a nice joke. I heard about what you did to Matchbox Battalion! Do you do standup comedy when you're not moonlighting as a murderer?" ..."Human! There is more occurring here than you can comprehend!"... "Alright, I'm done talking to you. This is my city! You and your people are done!" Greene pulled down his visor, barrel-rolled over the the enemy griffin flyer, and climbed for superior altitude. Tracking his opponent below, Greene reached the top of his climb, then dumped the stick over for a killing dive. Bearing down on the enemy bird, Lenard Greene opened up with the Raptor's cannon. ______________ Phalanx watched as the human flying machine swooped down on him like a hawk preparing to steal away a baby mouse. As fire-bolt like objects rained down from above at impossible speeds, he pulled sharply on the control bars attached to the reins, turning toward the enemy human pilot to force him to overshoot. "Human! You must hear me! The Dread Lord is coming!" ...."....".... There was no response. "Vhesk's hypothesis must be correct. Under these conditions these devices can only work at extremely close range," Phalanx thought calmly as tracers tore into the webbing of his pandragon's wings. The mount, clearly under Hircus's nearly hypnotic influence, did not seem to notice. "He is getting better..." Phalanx thought to himself. Taking advantage of the pandragon's superior maneuverability, Phalanx just barely avoided the hostile flying machine as it roared past him, its wake spinning the mount like a rag doll. "No! Hold steady!" He arbitrarily shouted to the beast. The mount and its jockey began to fall uncontrollably toward the ground. ______________ From the cockpit of his F-22, Captain Greene could clearly see the griffin and dragon fall into a flat spin, tumbling out of the sky. "Nothing less than you deserve." ..."Cap... What was that about?"... "Nothing, Kaiser. Just dealing with a very small prob-" A pillar of blue fire erupted from below, blackening the underside of Greene's Raptor. ____________ As Vhesk's dimensional gateway began to surge, the pandragon seemed to find a new strength to fight on. Beginning to glow an even bright distinctive blue hue, the mount angrily speared upward, breathing a blue fireball the size of a small house toward the human aggressor. "The irony. Hircus's strength has become my own." Following Phalanx's guiding talons, the mount rocketed upward on a wave of dimensional energy, zipping past the human and his flying machine. Phalanx looked down at his adversary below. "If I must fight you to stop this, I shall." ______________ Greene watched astonished as the now bright blue dragon almost out-climbed him, passing him by as if strapped to a rocket. ...."...f....ou....st....is...all...".... the radio crackled. Greene ignored the fractured message and took to the chase. The two fighting pilots rose into a classic rolling scissors maneuver, each trying to pull behind the other as they climbed upward into the clouds. "Oh you are not pulling that one on me again!" Greene shouted to no one in particular. Making sure not to take his eyes off his enemy for a second, Greene avoided losing his prey in the cloud cover. The dragon appeared to be losing steam, slowing in its ascent. Riding his jet on the knife's edge of stall speed, Greene slowed enough to finally get a shot. _____________ Knowing that his mount could not out climb the human contraption, Phalanx brought the pandragon into a labored hover before pitching over toward his climbing foe. "The tables have turned, human! If you will not hear my words, then you will receive my bolts!" Phalanx pulled the lever to arm the mount's onboard fire-bolt casters, streaking down fire on the human flyer while simultaneously taking fire from his weapons. "This will end today. One way or another." _____________ ..."..h.is..en...oda..ay...ano..."... Projectiles of the flaming variety struck true on the Raptor, peppering the airframe with small holes, but not doing any critical damage. The flying monster zoomed past him once more. "You're going to have to better than that!" ..."Greene! This is Dobbins Air Command! What are you doing!?"... "Command, I am engaging an enemy ace over the anomaly! I can't chat right now!" ...."Ace?! What are you talking about?! Greene! We're preparing for the missile strike! Our forces are retreating to escape any secondaries from the anomaly! You need to vacate that airspace, now!"... "Retreating?! We can't brake the line now! The Alliance might get into the city!" ..."We're holding close enough to box them in! When the missiles enter the airspace we'll let them do their work!"... Fire-bolts traced past the canopy. "Copy! I'll leave the airspace! Right after I finally take care of this guy for good." ____________ Phalanx leveled out the pandragon mount, putting him on a flight path away from the human flying machine. The anomaly seemed to grow weak momentarily, lending Phalanx a small window in which to speak with his arch-enemy. "This has gone on long enough! We have human survivors with us! End this pointless struggle!" ..."You're bluffing. You can't possibly have hostages."... he could hear the human flock leader speak. "Hostages!? No! That is not what I me-" The anomaly grew strong again, cutting out his ability to communicate. ____________ ..."Greene, this is Stuart on the Minnesota. We're at launch depth and ready to go ahead with the strike. You have about ten minutes before impact with the anomaly. You'd best get out of there ASAP." "Copy that, Minnesota." ..."WarSparrow Lead, Intelligence suggests you put at least a five mile radius between you and the anomaly. We can't know what to expect when detonation occurs. You're wingmen have already left the area. You are to rejoin them immediately." "WarSparrow copies! Just give me a minute to finish this fight!" ..."Get out of there, Greene! Now! That's an ord-!"... As the anomaly intensified, the signal dropped out. From just ahead, Lenard could see the object of his hunt literally in his sights. The bird must have been trying to escape, as his dragon appeared to be taxed to the limit, flames spewing from its mouth. "And that, was your last mistake." A tone sounded in Greene's ear, indicating that the onboard Sidewinder missiles had gained a lock. Lenard smirked. "Fox two." _______________ Two large projectiles streaked out from the human flying machine, bearing down on Phalanx and his dragon. Having seen this weapon used on one of his more unfortunate wingmates before, he knew good and well what they could do. As one of the deadly tubular weapons approached, Phalanx twisted the rein controls to force the dragon to roll away from it's predicted path. The weapon continued to bear down on him, adjusting for his change in course. "Blast!" Just as it flew to within just a few mount-lengths away, the deadly pointed tube exploded, sending large pieces of shrapnel into the mount. "Don't die on me now, creature..." Bleeding, but steadfast in its purpose, the mount refused to fall. As a second projectile rocketed toward him, Phalanx gritted his teeth and swung the pandragon around 180 degrees to face it, still carrying his forward momentum. Just as it entered lethal range, Phalanx stamped on a small wooden metal pedal attached to the mount saddle, which in turn depressed a muscle in the creature's back, coaxing it to breath a plume of blue flame into the incoming human rocket. The offending flying weapon disintegrated in the extreme heat, and Phalanx rocked the dragon to the left to dodge the flying debris. "Ha ha! Excellent!" Phalanx turned the mount back around to avoid loosing his forward speed, finding himself still at the human's mercy. He turned his head and stared down the helmeted human in his cockpit. "Make your move." ____________ Greene could not deny his adversary's skills. Amazingly, the griffin had managed to avoid both of his missiles, and now his dragon had cooled enough to no longer hold an IR lock for the onboard missiles. "Alright, see how well you can dodge this!" Greene went full throttle once more, effortlessly catching up with the griffin assailant and putting him into a point-blank position to fire his guns into the clearly exhausted dragon. ..."And here we are. What will you do?"... he could hear his adversary speak through the com. Greene held his finger on the trigger. "I know what I should do." ..."I see. You do what you must. I will do what I must."... The griffin did not attempt to pull away. The pandragon remained square in his sights. "What I must..." Greene spoke aloud. Greene pulled the trigger. _______________ The human had made his choice. Phalanx made an almighty tug to the rein controls of the pandragon mount, pulling it upward sharply enough of flip over entirely. The world slowed once more as the two passed each-other. The human looked up at the griffin, the griffin looked down at the human. Phalanx watched as the glass canopy of the human's machine passed just under the the glass lenses of the goggles on his own head. The pandragon pulled forward once more and leveled out just behind the machine's flaming tail end. As the saddle sights lined up, Phalanx pulled the latch for the fire-bolt casters, bathing the enemy vessel in flaming metal. In that split second, the praetor's casters were lined up perfectly at the pilot in his seat. Time still seeming to move at a crawl, the ethereal voice returned. "Can you show your foe the ultimate strength?" Phalanx closed his eyes and sighed. "Yes." Phalanx lowered his aim away from the canopy. ________________ Greene looked back in horror as enemy fire struck the tail of his aircraft. The electronic components began to die down and a black cloud of smoke began to billow from what was left of the engines. "This is WarSparrow One! I have sustained heavy damage! I'm- I'm punching out!" There was no response. Knowing that there was little time left to act before the aircraft would be consumed, Greene reached for a small handle below his seat. _______________ In an instant, the human seemed to burst from the saddle of his machine and into the sky with a small jet of flame. His mount rolled over and careened into a row of pan-wagons below, completely destroying them. After watching him fall for a few seconds, Phalanx squinted to see the human deploy, for once, a device he was familiar with: a parachute. Phalanx dived down toward his human sparring partner, hovering with a slight descent to keep up. After a rather coordinated fall, he was now eye level with his greatest foe. The two descended in silence, staring at each other, until the human finally spoke. "So this is how I die. I was the guy in the 200 million dollar jet, and I lost to a bird on a flying lizard. This just figures." "Are you ready to listen?" "I don't see any way not to at the moment. Oh, wait..." Greene grew his pistol and fired, missing most of the shots, but sinking one of them into a vulnerable spot the pandragon's head, free of its usually protective scales. The mount dropped from the sky. Unable to muster the will to fly with his injured wing, Phalanx would have fallen with it, had Captain Greene not grabbed his arm. Holding the griffin with one hand and pointing a pistol at his face with the other one, Lenard's popped his neck and narrowed his eyes. "Now, what was it that you wanted to tell me?" ******************* The two mortal enemies descended toward the long caravan of refugees and survivors from the Liberation Alliance and beyond. Using his good wing, Phalanx guided them toward a rather large pan-wagon, still dangerously close to the churning anomaly. "Phalanx!" Gilda shouted from the wagon's defense fire-bolt caster. Greene released the praetor over the wagon, letting him fall to the wagon's deck. "I thought you were dead, Phal! And- You..." Gilda stopped to look up a the Captain. "You were with Dash..." "Where's the general?" Greene asked as he touched down unceremoniously on the deck of the pan-wagon. A middle-aged man climbed out of the wagon's lower cabin. "Right here, and let me just say it's good to see you." "With that blast... We thought you were all dead! Doesn't matter now. We have to get all the survivors out of here before the missiles get here!" "Missiles?" the general asked with a worried expression. "The anomaly's going critical! It could take out who knows what down there! We have cruise missiles on the way to kill it as we speak!" The general sat back. "My God... Then- They really don't know we're here!" "No! They don't! Can we get this group moving to- anywhere but here?!" Locklear shook his head. "From what we've seen they've been ignoring us in favor of utterly destroying the attacking Hircus forces. If we make any kind of advancement, they'll shoot us down like the rest." "I keep hearing that name! Who is Hircus?!" Phalanx rolled his eyes. "If we survive, I will tell you. For now, living is our primary concern." Gilda began to scratch at her crest feathers. "Okay, Brilliant plan time! Someone? Anyone?!" From the jockey's seat at the front of large dragon's back, Vhesk turned. "The dragons are exhausted! They'll drop out of the sky if we keep waiting." The general turned to the captain. "Greene, do you have a radio? The ones they whipped up aren't working. Something about interference. Anything would help right now!" Greene shook his head. "Already tried on the way down! Nothing!" "Well I'm not going to take your word for it when we're all about to die! Try it again!" Captain Greene deployed his field radio and began feverishly adjusting the knobs and switches to no avail. "See?! I'm not making this stuff up!" Vhesk fluttered over to the group, leaving the mount to fly itself. "Might I have a look?" Greene could swear he could make out the tell-tale contrail of a cruise missile in distance. "Give it a shot!" Vhesk pulled the case off of the device and began to attach the internal components to a small ceramic pot. The pilot shook his head. "Not that I doubt your ability to work with technology you know nothing about or anything, but what are you doing?" Vhesk continued on without a word. Then, as he made one final connection, the radio sprang back to life, with a faint conversation in the background to boot. Locklear and Greene stared at the bookish pandragon minor in bewilderment, then the general grabbed the radio and dialed it in. "Can anyone hear me?! Anyone?" ..."This is Dobbins Command. Can you identify yourself please?"... "This is General Johnathan Locklear! Call off the missiles, now!" ..."Confirm, did you say General Locklear?"... "Yes! I'm with the aliens near the anomaly and so are the survivors from my battalion! CALL OFF THE MISSILES!" The radio was silent for few seconds. "I can see them!" Greene shouted. "Dobbins Command, did you hear me?!" The missiles could now be seen streaking toward them. "Command!?" Greene dropped to the deck of the wagon. "Get down! Everyone get down!" Everyone else followed suit. A spread of three Tomahawk missiles bore down on the anomaly and the pan-wagon train hovering near it. "We're out of time! Incoming!"