Author's Note

Finally squeezed my brain cells dry for this chapter Hope yall enjoyed.

Day 8: The Package

Gallus's feathers perked up right after hearing Pixy's snark as he opened his beak to spit back, however, he found himself lost as to what to say, these words stabbed him deep; Gallus remembered the day he received his first combat kill, it was an emergency sortie. Gallus's original squadron, the Strikers went head-on with the Griffon fighters escorting their strike fighters on a bomb run. Gallus remembered the exact motion his claws were in, trembling as he heard the shrieking of his Sidewinders. 'Striker 3, Fox-2!' Then there was his first kill. Gallus watched as the back of the enemy fighters was blown off, it wobbled off toward the ground and burst into a fireball upon impact.

There were no chutes.

The rest of the mission was a blur now, their airbase was still hit, hard. Since then Gallus found himself more determined, everything he'd speak the words 'Fox-2' with no hesitation, and a sense of pride as he watched his enemies fall from the sky. He often felt invincible, especially after he evaded a missile or watched triple-A fires streak by. His squadmates would call him 'Lucky Blue' even after he became Striker 1, and he hardly suffered any failures since then.

Then he received an order of transfer from his commander. The next thing Gallus knew, he was faced with someone who slapped some reality sense into him. This Pixy.

"Cut the chatter guys," AWACS Hellcat said, "The Ospreys are 2 Mikes from the dropzone, warm up your weapons, and down anything that shoots at the Ospreys."

"How bout this chick," Pixy said, "we can talk 'buddy' if you can make it back the next several missions. Now, I'd take my head out of your pride-looking ass and work on not getting shot down."

Gallus remained silent, he knew talking back to Pixy wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Lancers, I'll provide long-range air support, Hellcat, any objections?" Pixy asked as he flexed the MPBMs under his wings, "I'll call you guys when I fire an MPBM, I uploaded its burst radius to Hellcat's data link, he'd send you all its burst radius, get outta there if you wanna stay online. Alright, Pixy out." With a roar of the afterburner, Pixy's Morgan rapidly climbed towards the heavens, disappearing into the clouds.

"Lancer squadron, be advised," AWACS Hellcat suddenly said, " Tally six, angels 2, 1 o'clock, bandits confirmed as Griffon Sukhoi fighters, weapons free, take them down."

"Lancer Squadron, fight's on!" Seadroy announced as he switched his FCS on and immediately locked onto the incoming fighters, "Lancer 1, Fox-3!"

All members of the Lancer Squadron fired their loads as they defended the incoming missiles. The enemy Sukhoi fighters quickly broke their
formation and divided into two groups; two fighters broke off and rushed towards the Ospreys, while the other four provided cover.

"Lancer 3, 4, and I will take on the Sukhoi fighters, Lancer 2 and 5 will protect the Ospreys," Seadroy ordered as the squadron broke apart.

Lancer 1
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq.
Lt. Seadroy, Captain

I quickly banked left as I deployed countermeasures, with my RWR screaming in my ears. There was still no visual on the bandits, but they were all over my radar. There was no need to defend as hard as I was providing guidance for my AMRAAMS.

I peeked over at my datalink, the Ospreys were slowing down to hovering, must've hit their LZ, however, the two aggressive bandits were still heading towards the Ospreys. My RWR went dead, and I immediately turned my nose towards the four bandits to reengage. Suddenly, two dots representing the bandits blinked and dimmed down, "Splash 1 and splash 2 Sukhoi!" I heard Lancer 3 shout.

"Lancer 2 engaging!" Came Aakash's voice, "I see flares from the Ospreys, I got them locked, Fox-2!"

I smirked under my mask, "I have visual on the bandits, Su-27s, 12 o'clock dead ahead!" Just as I finished my sentence, I saw the two remaining Flankers coming straight towards me.

Time seemed to slow as we bypassed each other, I looked up at the enemy cockpit, and I saw the Griffon pilot doing the same, I swore I saw his eyes through his visor, and then we merged.

"Merged with Flankers! Fight's on! Fight's on!" Knowing the Flankers' extremely deadly one-circle fighting capability, I banked towards the opposite direction of where the bandit was, he tried to force me into a one-circle and I knew exactly how to counter this guy. The Flanker pilot didn't expect his strategy to fail so quickly as he fired several Fox-2 shots at me.

"Too late fella," I whispered as I flared his missiles off, the distance between our fighters was big enough for him to die, so I turned my nose around and lined his Flanker up.

The Griffon pilot is now completely in panic, "Damn it! Fucking Equestrian scum!" His eyes widened in fear as he saw the deadly nose of the Hornet pointed straight at him, and in a hurry he jerked his nose upward, trying to fly over the Hornet's nose, but it was already too late. The last thing he saw was a whip of tracer rounds ripping his airframe into two pieces... and his flesh as well.

"Splash 1 Flanker!" Seadroy didn't dare to relax, there was one more behind him.

"Lancer 1! I'm on his tail, I can't get a clear shot with you in the way!" Came Lancer 4 Kiper's voice. From the back mirror, Seadroy can see the Flanker rapidly throwing out its flares as Kiper's F-16 glued onto his back.

"Lancer 4 I'll bank right, take the shot when you have it," Seadroy said as he jinxed a stream of 30mm rounds from the Flanker, then he jerked his stick right. The Flanker, however, seemed to know their strategy as it banked left away from him. Seadroy's eyes widened as I saw the Flanker's action, "Shit! Lancer 4 he's trying to force you into one circle! Get out of there! Lancer 3 go support Lancer 4!"

"I got him! I got him!" Gallus immediately dove into action as he fired a Fox-2 at the Flanker, which flared it off.

"Lancer 2, status report!"

"All bandits are down, Ospreys are leaving the LZ, and the special forces are going in." Came Aakash, "Lancer 5 just saved me from the bandits, she took the two down by herself, seems like Lancer 5 got what it takes heh."

"Meh, I have much to learn." Came Lancer 5 Razornail, but from the tone of her voice, it's not hard to tell her little pride.

Suddenly, Lancer 4's panicking voice broke the chatter, "Fuck! I'm hit! No good! I'm losing power!"

"Lancer 4 hang in there, I'm coming, Lancer 2 and 5 go support Lancer 4!" Seadroy ordered as he pushed the bandit, "Got him locked, Fox-2!"

The Flanker banked right, flaring while performing evasive maneuvers as my missile streaked past him, its nose was turning towards Lancer 4's F-16, which was clearly in bad shape; the tail was nearly gone, one-third of the left wing was shredded, and its engine is smoking, leaving a black trail behind as the aircraft is wobbling down.

"I'm out of flare! Flanker still got one more Fox-2 left!" Lancer 4 shouted, "Damn it get him off me!"

"Lancer Squadron be advised, we have a new situation." Suddenly, Hellcat's voice popped into the com, "Multiple bogeys, 10 o'clock, angels 3, 3 Mikes away and approaching rapidly."

"Lancer 4! You're losing too much power, you can't save the jet, bail out when you have the chance!" Seadroy ordered as he fired his last Fox-2, which unfortunately missed its target.

"Altitude. Altitude. Altitude." Came the background warning sound and Lancer 4's heavy breathing.

"Lancer 4! Bail out now!"

"Argh! Damn it, bailing out now, come get me guys!" Then there was a fireball from the F-16's cockpit, the canopy was blown off as the ejection seat rocketed away. A few seconds later, a parachute appeared in the air.

"Lancer 4 bailed out safely, I've got his location, the Ospreys will pick him up later." Hellcat said, "Hang on, what the hell?"

"Lancer 3, Fox-2!" Gallus shouted as he fired his last Sidewinder, the Flanker tried to dive away, however, he ran out of both flares and energy.

"Splashed the last Flanker!"

"Attension Lancer Squadron, bogeys identifies as... Drones." Hellcat's words set off a bomb.

"The fuck? Drones?! Are you shitting me?" Aakash groaned.

"There's an army of them, why the hell are the Griffons sending this much?" Lancer 5 asked, now receiving the data link.

"Lancer 1, I'm Winchester." Came Gallus's voice.

"I got only one Fox-2 left, my gun is Winchester as well." Came Lancer 5.

Seadroy looked at his fuel, "Damn, that dogfight drained my fuel, I'm close to bingo."

"Withdraw is not permitted," Hellcat said sternly, "The special forces are still in the operation area, maintain air superiority until the Ospreys pick them up."

"We can't fight with empty weapon racks and fuel tanks," Aakash argued.

Then a familiar voice popped into the radio, "Seriously, I've been up here for the past 20 minutes and none of you asked for Long Range Air Support."

Pixy
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq (Temporary)
Solo Wing ' Larry Foulke'

"Hellcat, send them the Early Warning Datalink, I'm pre-heating the big guys," I said as locked onto the swarm of drones.

"EWD's out, Pixy, wait for their confirming calls," Hellcat responded.

A few moments later, came Lancer 1's voice, “Pixy, do not fire! Our friendlies are still in the airspace!"

"Hang on, I'm getting some contacts from the special forces," Hellcat said as he switched the frequency.

"This is Delta Team Two, we're under heavy fire by the Griffons, bastards had APCs and Tanks stationed here!" Came the muffled and very pissed voice of the team captain, "Requesting immediate air support! We're getting torn apart here!"

"Tell them to exit the Blast Radius, send me the attack coordinate." I said, "Tell every friendly unit to exit this entire airspace."

"This is Motherbird One, Motherbird Two and I are at the LZ, awaiting for our friendlies to board. We heard about a downed pilot, he's already at the LZ." Came one of the Osprey pilots.

"We got two stallions down, but we got the package, damn it, it better be some good stuff worth two of my best stallions." Came the team captain, "On our way to the LZ." His voice was covered by some explosions and angry Griffonian curses.

"Lancer Squadron has exited the airspace." Came Seadroy.

"MPBM on standby," Pixy said.

After two minutes, both Ospreys called in to confirm the boarding of the remaining special force units and Lancer 4.

"Motherbird One to Hellcat, package secured and leaving highlighted airspace."

"This is Motherbird Two, units are secured and are leaving highlighted airspace now."

"Standby..." Hellcat stared at the radar screen, the moment the two Osprey exited the airspace, he made the call, "Friendlies are out of the Blast Radius, weapons clear, show no mercy."

Pixy rocked his wings, he just detected another wave of enemy fighters chasing them down, just some more victims.

"Rifle." The two huge MPBMs were dropped from the weapon racks as they ignited their rocket engines, and then they streaked into the skies in front, "MPBMs are away, sit back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks."

Lancer 3
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq.
Lt. Gallus

I watched as the Ospreys flew off, along with Kiper inside one of them.

Something felt off about this mission, under normal circumstances, an abandoned scientific site that has nothing to do with the progress of this war. Why would they deploy such a heavy amount of units to protect a low-value target? From what the special forces had gone through, which can only be described as hell on Equis. And that 'package'...

"... sit back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks." Gallus blinked, What the hell does he mean by-

Then there was light.

Gallus immediately switched his sun visor on, but the blinding flash still stung his eyes, as the light dimmed down, it was then engulfed by another bright flash. Gallus found himself unable to say anything, as he looked up, he saw three suns... No, there are two explosions of something...

"Lancer Squadron and Motherbirds, brace for impact." Came Hellcat's... rather interesting tone. Then Gallus knew why.

The shockwave caught up to them, knocking Gallus's fighter off its course as Gallus gripped his control stick tight, barely able to stabilize his aircraft. Then a loud rumbling came, Gallus gulped as he felt the intense vibration upon his airframe, "L-Lancer 1, what the fuck was that?"

"Sheesh..." Came Aakash.

"..." Lancer 5 Razornail was utterly silence.

"Good effect on bandits, we're in the clear." Came Seadroy, rather calmly, "Package is secured, mission accomplished, RTB."

"Holy fucking bloody shit," Came Motherbird One, "You guys used Tactical Nuke?!"

"Yo people, still alive?" Pixy suddenly dove from above and joined the formation flying aside Gallus.

"Damn..." Razornail nervously laughed, "Glad you're on our side."

"I am a mercenary." Pixy's sword sends a chilling silence through the squadron.

"Wait, you said you're a mercenary," Aakash broke the silence, "What can we exchange with you?"

"I've already made the contract with your high command," said Pixy, " as for what was given to me... You'll see."

Before they could ask any more questions, Pixy suddenly accelerated ahead of them, "See ya'll at the base. Pixy out."

A brief moment of silence, then, Gallus slowly spoke out everyone's innermost thoughts.

"How do we keep him?"