Chapter 7
Rhapsody’s engines almost lulled her to sleep. Ditzy was forced to swat the canopy. The sea green ear twitched at the sudden noise, so she tried again. The bang was loud and the pilot bolted upright, nearly sending the Tomcat into a tail spin into the sea. Rhapsody gained control and panted, sweat rolling down from under her helmet.
“Damnit! Ditzy don’t do that!” she hollered.
Ditzy shrank back in her seat. “You were falling asleep, I-I didn’t want you to doze off. We’re almost to the target.”
“You were listing a bit, Wraith,” Sprig called, her F-16 flying a little closer than necessary. The hippogriff then looked back at the rest of the gathered fighters. “We were all starting to worry a bit when you started drifting towards Shade.”
Once she had gained control, Rhapsody set her console to autopilot and looked around at the great aluminum cloud behind her. Her four fighters were flying their usual formation; one F-14A Tomcat followed by three F-16C Fighting Falcons, all four laden with bombs for the coming attack. Windigo had had some pilots transferred in to accommodate their serious lack of personnel. They had also been upgraded aircraft-wise to a pair of F-16Cs, two Tornado IDS’s, and an F-15E Strike Eagle. Following behind Mythic was Timberwolf squadron in their MiG-29s and Rapier with their group of five fighters that were rather diverse; a pair of A-10s, an F-14A, and two F-15Es. AEGIS had outfitted most for air-to-ground, but were intelligent enough to deploy aircraft able to handle a dogfight. They would be contending with Gryphnia's naval air forces today.
Eighteen aircraft in all. This was going to be Rhapsody’s biggest sortie to date.
It had been at least a whole two weeks since their attack on the Habun oil fields, but even in that time, the Gryphnian fleet stationed at the harbor could not leave with the supplies they currently had. They could get halfway to Windbreak Point, but they wouldn’t have enough arms and equipment to support their ground troops, let alone successfully assault it. The consequence? Months of trying to gain ground without naval support. Even an air force pilot could see the trouble with that.
“Sky Gazer here,” a voice through her helmet suddenly called. “Fourteen miles from Habun Harbor. All aircraft get ready for battle. Captains, you’re in charge of leading and coordinating your squadron’s attacks.”
“Wraith, roger,” Rhapsody replied.
“Timberwolf One, roger,” a brash pegasus mare replied. Rhapsody had only met Captain Lighting Dust once or twice; brash, bold, but definitely a good pilot.
“Windigo One, roger,” a strong, but borderline meek voice replied.
“Windigo One, stay calm, you’ll be alright,” Rhapsody told the pilot. The Windigo pilot held up his thumb and made a noise of understanding that could have almost been considered adorable.
The sound of fighter engines drew the sea green mare’s eyes back behind her. Her first thought was Gryphnian fighters until she saw the colors. There were four fighters, but the models were those that were only flown by one group of pilots. The Wonderbolt pilots in their F-15Ss took up an escort position around them.
“This is Wonderbolt Two,” a voice she recognized as Soarin’s break through the air. “We’re under the Major’s orders to provide escort to the target. Over?”
“Hey-hey Soarin!” Lightning Dust cried. “Long time no see, eh?”
“Timberwolf One, keep names to a minimum in the channel,” Rainbow Dash’s voice chided.
“Got it Dash, just wanted to try and catch up,” the brash pegasus replied simply.
“I think it’s Gryphnia wanting to do the catching up!” Mythic suddenly cried.
Rhapsody looked ahead, catching a glimmer of four planes heading their way. “Flight of four Gryphnian naval jets heading right for you. You are all clear to engage!”
“Wonderbolts, engaging,” Soarin cried. The four ACTIVE’s blazed forward to meet the enemy fighters. “Bolt Two, fox 3!” Four XMAA missiles shot off the rails on his wings and tore through the air. There were four consecutive explosions that followed.
“Nice kill, Two,” Dash cried.
“Let’s do this!” Sprig cried. She broke off, a pair of Windigos falling in behind her. With that prelude, the rest of the squadron began breaking off. Rhapsody and Ditzy took Mythic and three from Timberwolf towards the right.
“There are a total of four targets,” Sky Gazer announced. “There’s a battle group that detected us early and are attempting to flee the area. There’s also the western harbor that fuels and outfits the destroyers. Also two more to the east and far north. The farthest one houses the primary ships of their fleet, so somepony go after it!”
“This is Wraith, we’ll go after the battle group!” Rhapsody yelled as she increased her throttle. The five fighters banked right and bared down on a decent amount of ships. The sea green mare flicked the switch on her stick, diving for a Gryphnian Corvette. There were AA guns, which immediately began opening fire. It didn’t do so for long as a pair of bombs slammed right into the hull. Explosions rocked the light ship to the core as it listed to port. It fell back over and started taking on water.
“Corvette Stormer, sunk!” Sky Gazer announced.
“Look at that!” Lightning dust hollered. “They’re pouring off the decks!”
“Can you blame them?” Amethyst asked. “I just nailed a cruiser right on the bridge.”
“Get the medics over here! Fire those AA guns! Shoot them down!”
Fires raged along the decks as firefighters tried to put them out before they reached the lower decks and ignited the ammunition stockpile. The First Officer pulled his Captain out of the wreckage of the bridge of their ship.
“Are we clear to shoot back? This isn’t a drill?!”
The Officer grabbed the AA gunner by his collar and ferociously shook him. “Look around you blasted idiot! Does this look like a drill!?” He threw the young Petty Officer to the deck, letting him scramble to his gun on the opposite side of the ship.
The steel groaned as the heat and strain pulled at it. The heat was almost unbearable, but a pair of corpsmen tended to the Captain. But one shook his head as he patted the Captain’s cheek. The First Officer growled and stood up. He turned his baleful gaze at a Tornado just as it began raking the deck with its cannons.
The gryphon barely had time to turn around before he and the corpsman were both torn apart by the heavy rounds.
“Cruiser Cloud Run, sunk!”
“Nice shot Windigo One.”
The Crystal pony pilot turned towards his fellow crystal and waved. “Thanks Phantom.” He banked and pulled up to chase a Gryphnian F-14A. While not particularly good at dogfighting, the Tornado IDS could hold its own. Still, Amethyst pulled up to help him out.
Sprig pulled out of a dive as two of her missiles struck an oil tanker trying to leave its dock. The missiles hit the bow, causing it to flood rapidly and sent the massive ship into a nose dive for the sea floor. “Enemy tanker, sunk!”
“Yeah, we noticed,” the hippogriff mare commented gaily. This earned a scoff from Sky Gazer, to which Banshee just giggled and banked, turning to engage an F/A-18 fighter that had blazed by her from seemingly out of nowhere.
Rhapsody twisted her large fighter through a storm of flak. Were she to push a little further down on the stick, she and Ditzy wouldn’t need flight suits; they’d need swimsuits. The belly of the Tomcat was just twenty feet from the surface of the water, her turbines kicking up a large amount of it into the air. She kept her thumb above the release button, narrowing her eyes. The Carrier was firing madly to try and get her, but she kept her course… until… the right…
She pressed the button just as she pulled up and into a steep climb. The g-forces threatened to flatten her as she pulled into the air, and once she slowed down and turned, regaining her senses, she could see the damage she caused.
Her bombs had blown a hole clean into the side of the carrier. The stern then blew up, sending a huge cloud of fire into the sky. Rhapsody had to smile, despite her knowing the serious chaos below the decks that would make the mad draconequus himself tip his hat to the pegasus mare. Around her, the two MiG-29s from Timberwolf fired their rocket pods and blew holes in the retreating ships, including the one she knew was already sinking.
The Ensign pulled himself up, forcing his eyes to at least catch a glimpse of what had just happened. His ears rang painfully, he felt blood coming from his eyes. The gryphon knew he had gone def from the proximity of the blast. He was just close enough to the bombs to feel the impact, but far enough away to not feel the death it inflicted. He and his shipmates were in the middle of trying to load a pair of Tomcats with air-to-air missiles when the two bombs hit the hull. The first made a hole for the second to pass through and ignite the stockpile of bombs, missiles, and bullets.
He had been thrown far back, given enough time to see the explosion envelope a few of his mates. They were no longer there, having been vaporized while trying to load their fighters and get them back on deck to launch. He pushed himself almost to his feet, before the stern listed. The pain in his body struck again and he fell, face-first into the deck.
He cried out and raised his head again, only to be slammed into by a crushing wave.
“Carrier Rage, sunk!”
“Seriously that’s getting annoying,” Sprig muttered.
“I’m giving the reports to the squadron, like I’m supposed to do, Lieutenant,” Sky Gazer retorted.
Sprig huffed. “Whatever.”
Ditzy looked down at the wreckage of the sinking carrier. “I can’t help but feel just a little bit sorry for them.” The grey mare sighed. “They’re just doing their jobs, like we are.”
Rhapsody turned her eyes downwards, just as another explosion rocked the flight deck. An F-14 managed to take off before the bow broke off. “We can't risk them leaving port, Specter. They're still the enemy, whether at sea or in port.” She turned hard towards the carrier to pursue the other Tomcat. It turned hard to the left, dodging a burst from her cannons. She kept on the enemy fighter’s tail, matching its movements. It was easy since they flew the same fighter, but it was clear this pilot was an expert flier and knew their plane better than anypony else did.
The Tomcats continued their duel through the clouds, before it finally made a fatal move of turning before banking. Rhapsody was in the process of arming a missile and fired. “Fox two!” The missile soared through the sky and impacted the tail, sending it into a furious barrel roll towards the water. Rhapsody twisted herself around and grazed the water, catching the eye of a destroyer that opened fire with its AA guns.
She twisted and turned, avoiding the AA fire and fired her cannon. The twenty millimeter rounds shrieked as they started pelting the gun-mount. She noticed gryphons falling from the station, indicating she had hit them, and the gun twisted upwards, unusable. A moment later, the second F-14A in the attacking squadron let loose a few bombs onto its deck. The explosions engulfed the upper ship decks in flames.
“Destroyer Height, sunk.”
“That’s getting annoying.”
“Banshee, hush and get to blowing stuff up,” Rhapsody grumbled.
Sprig huffed. “I’m just saying we don’t need a play-by-play of the attack! 'Missile shot trashed!' 'Boat sunk!' 'You missed!'”
“Do I need to pull rank on you, Banshee? She's doing her job, just like you need to!” Wraith suddenly snapped.
“Take it easy Captain,” Mythic warned. Rhapsody blinked and sighed, murmuring an apology. She enjoyed being a Captain, and the perks that came with the job, but… maybe she was letting it get to her a little bit. A number of times she had to stop herself from taking too much advantage of her new rank, with Ditzy’s help. Rhapsody tried, but sometimes things were just too good to let pass up, especially with a new position.
Pushing that particular inner-monologue into the deeper recesses of her mind, where it would most likely gather dust and be forgotten until she was old and grey, she banked her fighter further into the fray. She sent a burst from her cannon into the bridge of a missile frigate that was trying to lock its payload of SAMs onto her. Even though she tore the bridge apart, her missile warning still blared.
“All fighters, be advised. SAMs on the decks are still active!” she informed her fellow pilots.
She saw Lighting Dust tear through the sky under her, a pair of missiles behind her. “Noted Wraith!” she cried as she turned hard to the left. The missiles lost track and detonated under water.
With that, she turned to the north and opened her throttle. “I’m heading for the northern docks. Anypony coming with?”
“Shade here. I'll catch up later,” Mythic announced. "I'm taking these three Timberpuppies to the sub pens."
“Phantom. Bit preoccupied with this carrier at the moment, but I’ll be over soon.”
“Windigo lead here, we’ll head over once we’re done sinking this dock.”
The Tomcat, alone for now, pushed north towards the main docks that were further in and under much heavier guard. But of course, there were much more high-value targets still sitting at anchor. And if Rhapsody was correct, there was one in particular she couldn’t help but set her sights on…
Mythic launched a missile at the submarine. This proved to be ineffective, sadly as it collided with the roof.
"Hit them from the front," one of the Timberwolf pilots called. The grey stallion watched the MiG-29 line up and shot and fired a volley from his rockets into the sub pens. A cacophony of explosions clustered into the pens. The roof supports shattered and landed on top of the submarines.
"Not bad, puppy," Mythic commented as he pulled up and around, sending a missile through the tail of a Tornado IDS trying to shoot down one of the other Timberwolf pilots on his attack run. "Hey, Wraith! Are you at the north harbor yet?"
"Sure am… and I got my sights set on a particular ship."
Sprig banked behind an F-14A and sent a cannon volley through the fuselage. The pilots bailed out before it exploded and flew towards a skyscraper. "This is the Invincible Gryphnian Fleet… you can't possibly mean…"
Amethyst squeaked as she looked north during her pursuit of an F/A-18C. "The Warlord's Claw?"
“Admiral! We’re weighing anchor now!”
Admiral Ba’rne waved for his crew to get aboard. “Let’s go, fledglings! Get aboard or we’re leaving without you!” Many of them didn’t need further urging as they sprinted up the gangway and began running to their stations. AA guns were manned, missiles were armed and posed to strike. The last to be outfitted were the massive guns that rotated back and forth to check their stability.
Once everyone was aboard and the gangway simply kicked off the deck by the Admiral, allowed to crash into the water, the Gryphnian Flagship, the Battleship Warlord’s Claw, steamed towards the open sea. Ba’rne turned to his first officer. He had stopped whining about the loss of the radar station, finally, of course he was now whining about the sudden surprise attack by AEGIS on their immortal fleet. “How soon can we reach maximum speed and get out of the harbor?” he asked.
The Commander checked a nearby console and grimaced, clacking his beak. “It’ll take at least twenty minutes at this speed. The boilers are strained from the sudden firing and we’re only able to make two knots.”
“Work the crews faster! We need to get our tails away from-“
“Admiral!” an ensign cried. “We’ve got a fighter heading right for us!”
Admiral Ba’rne hopped down and rushed to the radar screen. The lone fighter was making a b-line for them. But it was alone. Was this pilot suicidal? Taking on a battleship, loaded to the brim with anti-air weapons, capable of reducing cities to rubble in hours, alone marked the pilot as either brave or stupid. He wondered which one this pilot was.
“Load all weapons, shoot it down.”
Ditzy held on for dear life as a white cone warped around the nose of the Tomcat. She swallowed as best she could as the g-forces pushed her back into the seat. “Wraith!” she cried. “This isn’t brave! Taking on the Flagship alone is stupid, not brave!”
Rhapsody grinned behind her oxygen mask, her eyes glittering with a coming attack she may not survive, but dear Celestia would it be fun. “I think it’s both.” She suddenly pulled up as the flak guns began to open fire. The black clouds burst around her, causing the heavy fighter to shudder. She just needed to maintain this speed while climbing and she could dive-bomb it. She had a few bombs left; she’d have to make them count. The gryphons would fight viciously to save this ship of all of the ones they had.
By the time she reached her third helix into the air, Mythic had arrived, dropping a pair of bombs onto a Gryphnian amphibious landing ship. There were hovercrafts nearby that were caught in the explosion and destroyed along with it. He and a pair of Windigos had arrived and began destroying the nearby docks and fuel tanks. One of the Strike Eagles even dropped two cluster-bombs onto the submarine pens. When the second Windigo dove down, it dropped its own to finally collapse the roof of the pens onto the submarines still sitting at anchor, burying them inside.
“All sub pens destroyed!” Sky Gazer then snickered. “Submarines sunk!”
“Now you’re just doing it on purpose!” Sprig squalled.
Rhapsody laughed and pulled into a backwards dive. The AA guns couldn’t aim directly up, and Rhapsody had a clear shot. She dropped a bomb and blankly fired two missiles, not bothering to let them lock. But the wind carried them away, sending them away towards the bow. Even with this, they still slammed into the top of one of the massive gun turrets, destroying it almost instantly. The bomb also exploded right next to the bridge. It wasn’t enough to destroy it, but it should have caused some significant damage.
The Tomcat pulled out of its dive, the wingtip just barely grazing the water as she pulled back up, this time aiming her cannons at the gun farthest to the stern.
The Admiral sneered, his beak curling back as he watched this lone fighter come at them from behind. It fired its cannon, the bullets impacted hard, but Ba’rne had a new plan. He watched the tomcat fly down towards the water, using it to keep low from the AA guns. But the Admiral had other weapons he could use.
“Prepare to fire the main guns.”
Déjà vu hit as she was once again grazing the water, her throttle open. The wings folded back, allowing more speed for the attack run. She narrowed her eyes, focusing to fire her missiles into the stern. But just as she began lining up the whiskey reticule, she saw something that made her hesitate.
The rearmost turret began turning… towards her.
She cried out surprise and pulled her stick to her as fast as her wrist allowed. Suddenly, she felt the world around her shake as she pulled up and over. The guns fired, lobbing a thick anti-ship shell directly at her tiny fighter, missing though, and destroying a number of containers that sat by the docks. “That thing shot at me!”
“Isn’t that the point?” Amethyst asked. “You’re trying to sink it, afterall.”
“It fired its sixteen inch guns at a fighter? That’s bold. That’s a statement,” Mythic praised.
Rhapsody shook her head and pulled back into a steep dive for the gun. “That’s desperation.” She pulled up after dropped a bomb directly on top of it. The explosion destroyed the turret completely, sending two of the barrels crashing into the deck. She pulled out her dive, raking the command bridge, but missed however and her Tomcat screamed as Wraith pulled up. The flak guns began anew, pelting the air around her.
“Hang on Specter!” Rhapsody cried to Ditzy, who shrieked when the Tomcat suddenly lurched.
“Got ‘em!”
“Good shot, Petty Officer!” the Admiral commended, clicking his beak and slapping the young Gryphon on the shoulder. “Give it another burst.”
Flak continued to force Rhapsody to pull away, making her fly further and further inland to get away. Ditzy craned her head back and frowned. “It’s not bad, but we’ve got a bit of smoke. Looks like it can still operate, though.”
“All we need is for it to still work,” Rhapsody suddenly hissed. “They hit my baby… they’re gonna get it now.”
She banked to the right and pulled the stick back almost too hard. The Tomcat’s engines roared as she put more thrust into them and pushed for more speed. She began another attack run at a breakneck pace. She pulled the trigger on her cannon, firing a thick volley into the side. A SAM turret blew up and the gunner crew for a pair of AA guns fell away from their station. She then targeted one of the forward guns and launched a missile. It collided with the gun mount on the deck, jamming it in place.
“It’s almost down!” Sky Gazer cried. “The other docks are reporting severe casualties, and two thirds of the fleet are sunk.”
Sprig suddenly cried, “Don’t you dare, Scoots!”
Sky Gazer laughed devilishly. “Cruiser Lark sunk, Destroyer Raven sunk, Carrier Rocker sunk, Cruiser Striker sunk, Carrier – “
“Shut up!” Sprig yelled.
Sky Gazer named off a few more ships, but Rhapsody paid next to no attention as she banked left and pulled around for another attack. The remaining AA guns opened fire on her, but Mythic suddenly appeared, raking his guns across the deck and silencing them. “I’m going for the throat,” the pegasus mare suddenly announced. The Tomcat’s engines once again roared their anger as she went straight for the bridge.
“It’s coming right at us!” the ensign cried, pointing a claw at the window.
The Admiral sneered and thrust his claw at it. “Fire everything!”
The remaining sixteen inch guns opened fire on her, lobbing their shells directly at her. Rhapsody pulled up and around two as the third nearly grazed her tail. The world seemed to warp around the massive rounds as the ship’s commanding officer must have sensed the coming blow. The clouds and sky around her turned black as the flak guns found new gunners and began opening up. She pulled to the right to dodge a SAM aimed right for her cockpit. To top it off, several sailors aboard had pulled out rifles and pistols and opened fire on her. She could almost hear the crew of the battleship beginning to scream to try and shoot her down. But when she flew straight, she had other ideas than firing right then.
She hit the brakes and pulled up, the fighter lurching nearly to a stop and stalling.
Rhapsody then fired the turbines again, going straight up into the air. The Tomcat shrieked high into the sky, higher, higher, sending the two occupants past the clouds. White filled the visions of both pilots as they climbed, Rhapsody's altimeter spun like a clock even as her airspeed began to drop. The only thing above her soon was just an endless expanse of blue. Her engines began to whine, choking on the lack of oxygen needed to keep the engines going. It was here where Rhapsody slowed down a bit. The geometric swing-wings of the Tomcat flared out to try and catch more air and keep it aloft, but the speed still decreased. She then looked back and smirked. “Trust me Ditz?”
Ditzy smiled behind her mask and nodded. “Always. Let’s sink this thing,” she murmured, as if sensing the plan. Rhapsody sighed, silently thanking her best friend. She then looked back towards the nose, taking a deep breath.
She shut the engines down and pulled the stick back.
The fighter came to a halt in midair, the flaps catching the fall and turning it over on its back into an almost perfect nose dive. It fell like a dead weight directly into the cloud cover, where they were enveloped in the fluffy white clouds that Rhapsody loved so much. She remembered a time when she slept on clouds, enjoying the wind carrying her wherever. These beautiful beings seemed to have no agenda, just let themselves be carried, whether by pegasus or by the wind. They cared little for the turbulent war they went on around them. She admired them for that. So powerful, able to carry water, lighting, but also gentle, shielding from the sun those below it.
Rhapsody wondered for only a moment at the impact they have on the world. And now here they were, taking advantage and control of the skies the clouds dominated. They were tearing the skies asunder, breaking the clouds that meant so much to the world. She grimaced at the thought, knowing that these fluffy, innocent wisps had nothing to do with this war that took place in their domain, and how much they were suffering for it.
No more.
Rhapsody pushed her throttle open once again. Her turbines roared to life, sounding their charge. The tomcat's wings pinned back at the burst of speed. Rhapsody felt her own wings tighten against her back. She broke through the cloud cover, pulling the trigger on her stick. Her cannon roared as it flung the heavy bullets towards the battleship. She stopped and flipped the switch on her stick, lining up her whiskey reticule and firing two missiles directly towards the bridge. She flipped it again and angled the Tomcat to drop her remaining bombs on top of wherever they wanted.
Bullets tore through the steel, through the decks, through the crew as she continued firing her cannon at it. The missiles tore through the air, slamming into the base of the command bridge. The bombs fell, unimpeded by the gryphons, and detonated against the deck, all four hitting the center of the ship, the last two falling through the hole Rhapsody's first had torn, causing even deeper chaos. The thick naval steel buckled under the serious strain wrought by the terrible barrage it was receiving from the lone AEGIS fighter. Flames licked at the decks and the hull, the magazine kept safely in the center was hit too badly. Too much strain, too much destruction, too many flames and bombs and missiles and bullets.
The steel buckled, cracked, and then tore itself in half.
The Battleship Warlord’s Claw bent inwards at the center. The ship that guided the Royal Gryphnian Navy for almost six decades groaned and cried its death throes, splitting apart at the center. Gryphons spilled off the decks, not even bothering with the lifeboats or life jackets for that matter, let alone taking wing. They just wanted off the ship that was tearing itself apart. More explosions rocked the ship’s lower decks, and any gryphon caught there were vaporized or maimed.
Water rushed in, carrying many crewmembers down into the murky depths. Dozens were still trapped, sealed off from the exits, trying their luck at swimming downwards to try and beat the ship to the bottom of the harbor. Screams echoed through the corridors and bounced off the bulkheads as the crew fought viciously to get off and away from the burning, sinking wreck.
Admiral Ba’rne bobbed like a cork in the water, laying on his back, his eyes turned to the clouds that parted, allowing the sun to gently shine on his face. He suddenly couldn’t help himself and looked forward. The Warlord was sinking. His pride and joy had been lost… to a single fighter. He looked around as more AEGIS fighters dropped bombs, fired missiles, and strafed their guns along the harbor. More ships began to burn, to sink, to explode. It was gone; all gone. The fleet, the immortal Gryphnian Navy, second only to the Royal Equestrian Navy, was gone…
“Help me!” a gryphon nearby shrieked. “Admiral! I can’t swim, help me!”
Ba’rne huffed and gathered himself, swimming to the commander’s side and hefting him up. He struggled and flailed like a fledging in a children’s pool. His wings flapped out of sync as the incompetent commander tried to save his own life futilely. “Kick your- Stop it! Kick your feet and relax your wings!” Ba'rne shouted. "Stop! Kick your feet!"
The Commander did his best, managing to only partially gain control, and bobbed beside the Admiral, who fiercely slapped him, drawing his claws along his cheek for good measure. The commander was silenced and swallowed, further gaining his composure.
A fighter began circling around the sinking battleship. The same fighter, the same F-14A Tomcat that sank his beloved Warlord began flying around like a damned vulture. He narrowed his eyes at the tail, catching the insignia painted onto it. A spectral creature with a horse head was curving itself into a circle, carrying a scythe in its hands. The subtle grey of the fighter itself almost made it seem like a…
“A ghost,” Ba’rne said to himself. He then sniffed disdainfully. “We’ll meet again, pilot.”
Rhapsody surveyed the wreckage, smiling to herself.
“Flagship Warlord’s Claw, sunk!” Sky Gazer cried triumphantly.
Okay,” Sprig murmured. “I’ll let that one slide.”
Mythic guffawed and cheered. “Good going, Rhapsody! That was one in a million!”
“She did that herself! Woo! That’s our leader!” Amethyst cried.
Soarin laughed as he flew by her Tomcat. “Great work everypony, and well done Wraith. The Immortal Gryphnian Fleet is fish food. All aircraft RTB.” Together, almost as one, the remaining fighters from AEGIS gathered into a wide formation, circling themselves around the smoke, the fire, and the sinking ships. Gryphon sailors bobbed in the water, shouting and shrieking their curses at the pilots. Navy fighters retreated from the airspace, desperate to find a place to land since their carriers had been sunk.
Rhapsody sighed, seeing the destruction they had caused, and the more protection they had given Windbreak point to further prepare themselves for the counter-attack. The great flock of steel, aluminum, and titanium kept pace as one single unit all the way towards the exit of the combat area. Rhapsody sighed and closed her eyes, finding herself smiling wide.
She began, “O’er azure skies and emerald plains…”
Mythic turned his head to her Tomcat and smiled. “Where freedom and justice prevail.”
Suddenly, the seventeen other AEGIS fighters chimed in. Voices from all over, Hibern, Saddle Arabia, Equestria, and the Crystal Empire lent their voices to the song.
“With courage and strength, we’ll fight to the end for liberty in our land!”
“Yeahoo!” Ditzy cried, thrusting her fist into the air. Rhapsody performed a victory roll as she took the lead.
The squadron headed home.