SI-9

2:00 PM, seven hours earlier...

Angelo was on his way back to the base, and was cruising along. He had flown 200 miles to the northwest and was 50 miles away from the apex after turning around. Everything seemed to be going well until he glanced at the radar to check for other pilots and bad weather. In case of any emergency, he was clad in a special suit built for extreme pressure in any environment. The suit was also waterproof to keep him from getting wet.

"Got a bogey.", he said to himself upon seeing a Salmonling plane's signal on the display.

The Salmonling pilot, who was flying a smaller plane, came screaming towards Angelo from behind, but was still a fair distance back. He called out over radio, demanding that Angelo surrender and set his jet down.

"Not today, friend. Let's part company.", said Angelo as he worked the controls to break off in a zigzag pattern.

This change in his flight tactic was having little to no positive effect, due to the fact that the pursuing Salmonling pilot was both a veteran who was trained to stop at nothing, and an ace pilot. The Salmonling started flying in sync and keeping a good fix on Angelo's tail fins.

"Whoever you are, you're good!", yelped Angelo in shock.

The chaser called out over radio again. He was presumably informing his Commander that he had a target.

"Squidbeak base, this is SI-9, breaking radio silence.", called Angelo.

"This is Base. Go ahead SI-9.", replied Agent 3.

"I've been spotted. I have a SAL-29 interceptor on my tail. What's worse is that the pilot is both a veteran and an ace.", said Angelo.

He continued trying to speed up and zigzag more aggressively to fly out of the interceptor's range, but he was struggling badly. At the same time, Agents 4 and 8 rummaged through their computer files on the Salmonling planes in order to find the stats for the SAL-29.

"I can't shake the bogey. He's lining me up.", said Angelo in concern.

The Salmonling pilot steadied his crosshairs and fired a missile to knock Angelo off balance. Angelo did a quick barrel roll to dodge the missile. As he leveled out; Agent 4 chimed in to tell him what to do.

"SI-9, climb to 90,000 feet. SAL tops out at 75,000.", she instructed.

"Roger that, Agent 4. Attempting altitude.", replied Angelo.

Suddenly the Salmonling pilot opened fire and shot globs of weighted ink at Angelo. Several globs splattered the fuselage on the rear while others flew fast enough to pierce through. Angelo felt the ink hit the plane hard.

"I'm hit. I'm HIT!", he cried.

Lizzie and Taylor became startled and quickly hit the talk buttons on their headsets.

"CLIMB, ANGELO!", they yelled desperately.

"Climbing!", he replied.

Angelo yanked back on the stick and shoved the throttle as far forward as it would go. The engines roared to life as he sped up and the plane pulled into a near-vertical ascent. During the climb, he radioed his coordinates to the base.

"Latitude 66 degrees, 31 North, Longitude 45 degrees, 39 West. Altitude: 78,000. 80.", he reported.

Moments later, he had ascended by another few thousand feet.

"84,000 feet, and that's it. That's all she's got. All right. Bogey hit her ceiling. I've lost it.", he said in relief.

This relief was short-lived though. He was interrupted by a loud explosion that shook the jet violently.

"Hold it!", he yelped as an alarm went off and a warning light started flashing.

The right engine had become overstressed. It stalled with a loud bang and started giving off smoke.

"#1 engine stalling. Losing power.", Angelo reported.

Seconds later, the engine died.

"Engine #1 out.", he said.

"Hang tight, SI-9. Come on, we'll pick you up.", said Agent 8.

"I can't hold her. I can't hold her steady. OH SHOOT! TROUBLE IN #2 ENGINE!", wailed Angelo in panic as he struggled to keep the jet flying smoothly.

The left engine stalled with a bang and gave off smoke until it died too.

"#2 engine out! Attempting re-ignition.", said Angelo desperately as the plane tipped into a dive and the altimeter readout began decreasing rapidly.

Sadly, the engines would not fire. The ignition mechanism had been shorted out during the point when he was shot.

"Negative, negative. No-go. Can't fire. Setting destruct, now.", cried Angelo as he stopped hitting the ignition switch and pressed a button under a black and yellow cover.

As Angelo prepared to bail out in the jet's egress pod, which consisted of the jet's cockpit and two bilge cylinders for a water landing, he gave Lizzie one last transmission.

"Lizzie, tell Mom. Tell her I love her.", he said as tears came to his eyes and he grabbed two cords behind his head.

He yanked the cords and explosive bolts fired to jettison the egress pod. At that very moment, the radio cut out. As the pod shot up and away from the jet, the fuselage self-destructed and the remaining pieces dropped out of sight. Angelo's parachutes deployed to ensure a safe landing, but the pod drifted into turbulence and he was shaken hard. He had also pulled the cords so hard that his left arm suddenly felt like it was on fire. He was also shaken so hard by the turbulence that his right leg was twisted until it started to hurt. Eventually, he became lightheaded and everything went black. Unknown to Angelo or anyone else, some of the wreckage had landed on the chasing plane, knocking it out of the air.

Seconds after the radio had cut out, Lizzie and Taylor were crying their eyes out and running to tell Callie and Marie the terrible news of what had happened. Callie and Marie hugged each other and started to cry. As Lizzie gave her mom a hug, Taylor pulled his phone out and called Takara to tell her she needed to pray for Angelo. At the same time, Callie dried her tears and settled down long enough to open the distress channel and contact Equus.