Until Fairer Skies Beckon

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 10

Rainbow entered hangar four, walking fast. It hurt, but that had become normal over the past few days. She’d stopped bleeding, and it looked like this latest set of scabs would hold. Or at least they probably would, if she took it easy.

She wasn’t fully healed and shouldn’t be flying, but they’d told her to go. There was no way Rainbow could refuse, of course.

The mission today was escorting a UTA cargo plane. Somehow, the Freedom Army had developed a plan to intercept it and apparently had enough intel about its route and schedule to worry the UTA.

Rainbow wasn’t sure if it was the same C-130 that had brought her to Talongo. She’d seen the plane a couple of times since then. Apparently it made a regular route, carrying supplies and personnel in and probably the plundered wealth of the country out to sell.

Soarin’ was by the Tucano as she arrived. He glanced at her, seemed to want to say something, but turned away to begin preflight.

Rainbow held out the Wonderbolts bandana. “Thanks for this.”

He looked at it, a few drops of her blood dried on the cloth, and some other stains besides. “You keep it. It probably matters more to you.”

For just a moment, Rainbow was transported back to when she was just a little girl, getting his autograph after the air show. “R-really? Thanks!”

That was tempered by the Soarin’ of the present. He was broken. He couldn’t fight. Great pilot he had been, but, well, “had” was the keyword. Somber, Rainbow climbed into the cockpit. She tied the bandana around her neck, tucking it under her flight suit.

She did the preflight and the tug pulled her out of the hangar. This was the beginning of her...eighth mission. Rainbow frowned as she strapped on her mask. Why had it taken her so long to remember the number? She shook her head, attributing it to being out of the cockpit for so long.

The Tucano was pulled out of the hangar. Rainbow saw the others getting their own jets ready. Six were going this time. It was Angels’ ninety-fourth. Rainbow wondered why all eight of them were never sent at once. Probably, that would be too easy for them to desert en masse.

Pug and Striker had not been ordered onto this mission. Rainbow wondered why she wasn’t being deliberately held separate from Lightning but dismissed it. Lion Heart wouldn't have told her Lightning sold Rainbow out if he cared what she did with the information. It was in his best interest to keep the pilots from organizing.

Answering to Six, as usual, Rainbow took off with the rest. Her seatbelts were loose, and she leaned forward into them to keep her back off the seat.

They flew west by northwest, carefully timed to intercept the C-130 and escort it. Angels worked the primitive radar in her MiG, apparently finding what she was looking for. “This is Patriot.”

“This is Mercury,” came the authentication. Within a few minutes, the C-130 came into view. Despite being propeller-driven and much larger than any of the fighters, it was still faster than the Tucano and had to slow down just a little to let Rainbow keep up.

"Six, fly low cover, " said Angels. "Two, Five, head back east and patrol along the route."
The Alpha Jet and the Hunter broke off. “The rest, follow me.” Angels, Kiel, and Stratus gained altitude, establishing top cover.

As she descended to her ordered postion, Rainbow flew close and waved to the C-130 pilots, though in sudden hindsight was disgusted with herself for doing so. These pilots were not her friends. They had played more than a small role in her abduction.

She flew beneath the cargo plane, hiding herself against its belly. Any Freedom Army fighters would likely not suspect her being there.

Rainbow grimaced. The ambush might work if the Tucano was an actual threat to a jet. Why was she even here? Maybe to help with pop-up ground threats, if that was how the Freedom Army was planning to shoot down the C-130.

Or, a darker part of her mind thought, because they had intentionally put her propeller plane up against supersonic jets. Was Angels trying to use her as a decoy again?

No, Rainbow decided. Angels wouldn’t care for her while she was hurt and then sacrifice her.

Unless she was getting desperate to complete her missions and not die within sight of the finish line. Tending Rainbow’s wounds on the safety of the ground was one thing. Flying in combat was another.

None of these thoughts, though, helped Rainbow herself stay alive. She glanced across her gauges and then quickly back up. The Tucano’s turboprop was redlined to keep up with the cruising C-130 fifty feet above her. Rainbow looked up at it, wondering what, or who, was aboard today. She would find out back at base.

“Tally-ho!” called Angels. “Inbound from the north and high! Two, Five, we need you back!”

Rainbow hesitated. Should she reveal herself now and act as close defense for Mercury, or wait and hold the surprise? Could the others fend off the incoming bogies?

“I count four,” said Kiel.

Without Rainbow, the three UTA MiGs were outnumbered. She gritted her teeth and thumbed the release for her bombs. The suddenly-lighter Tucano began to rise, and she darted out from under the C-130.

“Enemy Fishbeds,” Angels called. “Be careful with your ID’s.”

Rainbow looked skyward, squinting. She caught a flash of sun as the two sides clashed.

Almost immediately, Angels called, “Splash one!” The swirl of fighters began to descend towards the rapidly-departing cargo plane. Flares, tracers, and a lone parachute popped all over the sky.

“Five’s here!” called Lightning.

“Two’s here!” added Pantera.

Even if they had been a few miles away, they’d managed to join the fight quicker than Rainbow, who was still struggling to gain altitude. However, it looked like the fight would instead come to her.

“We’re diving!” called Kiel. The group of jets headed for the deck, the distance making it difficult to tell whose MiG was whose. Kiel called again, “Splash one!”

Two Freedom Army planes remained, and Rainbow was getting a chilling déjà vu of the last time she’d faced a much more powerful enemy jet. She should disengage and get away. The others had a decisive numbers advantage now and wouldn’t need her.

Just as she was banking into a turn, Angels called, “They’re making a run on Mercury!”

“Fox two! Splash one!” called Pantera.

“Who is covering Mercury?” Angels demanded.

“Six!” Rainbow replied.

“Five!” Lightning added. She was? Rainbow thought.

“Three on the way,” Stratus chimed in as Rainbow looked around, spotting Lightning’s green Hunter a quarter of a mile to her left and accelerating rapidly. Where were the others? Rainbow twisted in her seat to look behind, ignoring a stab of pain. She could only see a streaking Fishbed coming at her.

Instinctively, she rolled, tracers lancing past her cockpit. It wasn’t Stratus, then. The Freedom Army Fishbed pulled up towards the sun, apparently deciding that eliminating the C-130 was less important than protecting itself from the half dozen UTA fighters.

Rainbow saw Lightning give chase and she herself pulled into the turn. With only one enemy plane left, she could concentrate fully on the battle right in front of her.

Whoever the Freedom Army pilot was, they’d gotten this far on luck rather than skill. They let their jet slow, turning hard. While the Hunter wasn’t much better in maneuverability, it could at least keep up. The Tucano, of course, turned inside them both.

Rainbow’s finger caressed the trigger. Lightning was trying to line up a shot on the MiG, but Rainbow realized how inviting a target she was.

“Fox two!” A missile came off the Hunter, but went wild without coming anywhere near the MiG. “Ugh! No good!”

Lightning pulled into another turn, trying to aim her last missile. Rainbow closed the gap.

“I have you in sight,” Stratus said.

Rainbow’s finger rested on the trigger. It would be so easy. How could she frame it? Could she tell the others the MiG had gotten lucky? She squinted as the others turned past the sun. Just a little closer...

“Take it!” said Lightning, pulling away suddenly.

Rainbow blinked, starting to pull the stick to follow. A blast of tracers filled her view from nowhere, brighter than the sun, and she panic-jerked, clenching up in her seat as a shape lanced past her cockpit and a sonic boom nearly broke her eardrums.

It was all going too fast to comprehend, though Rainbow’s mind had seen every detail. A second passed as she put it together. Ahead of her, she saw two fireballs spinning to the ground, jets ruined like wadded up paper balls. The gunfire that had gone over her plane had gotten one and her own guns had hit the other.

Rainbow blinked. She didn’t even remember pulling the trigger or hearing the guns, but did recall seeing her own tracers shooting forward. Had she…?

“Splash one,” she said automatically.

But…

It suddenly felt like she was pulling ten g’s even while she was flying straight and level. The second jet…

She only gradually and vaguely began to hear voices in her headset. Part of it was her deafened ears. Part of it was the enormity of what she had done.

Even inside her mask, Rainbow was gasping for air. She looked around. Lightning was flying off her left wing. Angels was off her right.

“Six, are you okay?” Angels asked. “What happened? You got one?”

“Two o’clock, low!” Kiel called, indicating the two falling meteors of wreckage.

“Three…” said Rainbow.

“Did he overrun the bogie and get hit?” asked Kiel.

“I-I…” Rainbow tried, but didn’t know what she would say.

“But you got the last one?” said Angels.

“Y-yeah,” said Rainbow. What else could she say?

No one responded. Rainbow looked around. They all flew to her sides. Did they buy it? Was their silence solemn over a lost comrade, rather than accusing of her story?

Suddenly, another pang hit her, impossibly even harder than the first. The gun camera!

Now there was nothing that could distract her from the trepidation. Not the mission, not the pain as she slumped in the seat. It felt like acid was burning in her stomach as the group of them drew closer and closer to base.

Angels encouraged Rainbow to land first. She did, almost automatically. Part of her wondered why. What did she have to lose by trying to escape now? Sure, she would be easy prey for the other five. Maybe that was what Angels was thinking.

Touching down and rolling to the end of the runway, there was nothing Rainbow could do now. She taxied to hangar four and shut down the engine.

Soarin’ walked over and glanced at her plane. She could see his eyes note the missing bombs and smoke on the muzzles of the guns.

Rainbow’s limbs felt like lead, but she tossed off her belts and threw open the canopy. She needed air.

Lightning taxied in. She got out and stood beside her plane, looking at Rainbow.

Rainbow didn’t know what to do with herself. She turned away from Lightning’s look, crossing her arms protectively across her chest. To her horror, she realized Soarin’ was already inspecting the camera.

The gun cam on the Tucano was a crudely rigged, point and shoot digital camera. One of the only benefits was that it was easy to see the pictures after a flight. Soarin’ looked at the small screen on the back. “Wow.”

Before Rainbow could slap it out of his hand, run, or have a heart attack, he turned it around and showed it to her.

It was clearly the silhouette of a MiG-21 against the sun, however the dark shape was washed out with the glare and no details or markings were visible.

Soarin’ caught Rainbow as she fainted.

Comments

[Profesionalac]

Soarin’ caught Rainbow as she fainted.

Now now don't let the tropic thunder get to ya.

[terrycloth]

Is 'FishBed' another name for MiG? I'm not sure I followed what happened at the end there. Did one of the UTA pilots get shot down or not?

[totallynotabrony]

8291366
Yes, Fishbed is the nickname of the MiG-21. Sorry, I thought I had covered that earlier in the story.

Also, yes. To put it bluntly, Rainbow accidentally a teammate.