When The Sky Burns

Chapter 2

"Sir we have a distress call from base, here listen" the comms begin to flare with sounds of explosions and screams "Mayday! Mayday! This is Union (screaming) AirBase Jupiter we are (explosion) under attack!, imperialist forces have crossed the border (screaming) and are invading Union territory!" The feed cuts off. "All fighters use afterburners as we return and Echo Squadron is weapon free!" Ichika shoves the throttle all the way as the jets speed increasing traumatically "copy that sir!" the jet rockets through the sky breaking the sound barrier with the others close behind. As they near the airbase they could see that it was a raging battleground "dammit they caught us by surprise!" Echo-3 furiously yells into the comms. "Sir there's the two transports from earlier!" Ichika zooms in on the two transports and notices that one is  loading up civilians, military personnel and the injured while the other loads up supplies. "Echo's lose formation and switch to HARM air to surface missiles, we need to protect those transports!" He pushes the joystick forward causing the jet to plummet towards the runway "sir HARMs are locked!" Jenkins gives the okay, "die Imperialist scum!"  Ichika pulls the trigger as ARM-88 missiles blast from the wing soaring towards their targets. Fireballs erupt across the ground as the missiles hit their targets "contact!" Ichika jerks the joystick back as the jet tries to regain altitude. The jet soars over the hangars still erupting into flames "they'll pay for this...Echo squadron form up" noticing that the transports were now heading for the runway he begins to circle over them. Jenkins looks over the radar screen "looks like th-..enemy fighters seven o'clock!" Ichika looks over his shoulder noticing multiple fighter jets heading for them "Echo squadron engage at will!". They soar toward the incoming fighters, "air to air now!" they open fire as the enemy returns fire. Sidewinder missiles race towards the imperialist jets making contact with some of them, giant fireballs erupt from the enemy squadron "haha got'em!". Jets begin to soar out of the fireballs "dammit engage at will!" Ichika pulls the jet behind one of the fighters as he open fires with the gatling, bullets rip across the jet igniting the fuel tank sending the plane in spiral towards the ground. "Right behind us!" He hears Jenkins and pulls back the throttle then the joystick, the plane flips over the enemy jet "now!" Ichika opens fire on the jet causing it to erupt into a huge fireball. He turns to see that Echo-3-4-5 soar towards the border after the retreating imperialist "Echo-3! Echo-4! Echo-5! Return you're going to far!" the comms are silent as the 3 Echo's disappear into the enemy territory "dammit what are they thinking!!". Ichika turns back towards the airport, suddenly the plane is rocked by an explosion then is sent spiraling towards the ground. He pulls the joystick back hard as the jet barely pulls out of the spiral leveling itself "Jenkins..what happened!??!" he looks behind to see smoke pouring out of the thrusters "*cough, cough* si-sir...we've been...h..it". Ichika looks over to see a barrage of missiles heading towards them "incoming!" Echo-2 appears out of the smoke and opens fire on the missiles, missiles explode as the gatling rips through the barrage. "Squadron leader are you all alright!?" Ichika notices Echo-2 approaching them "yeah just got banged up, she'll hold for now...looks like we're the only ones left" his comms begins to flare up "this is buffalo-1 to fighter squad, we'll need escorts to the Union territory" he looks over noticing the two transports heading southwest "copy that buffalo we'll be approaching on your left, over" he boost towards the transports. As they approach the transports Ichika feels something trickling down his visor "what th-" he jerks around to see blood splattered across the glass dome, he notices Jenkins hunched over in his seat "Jenkins answer me!". Jenkins slowly starts to sit up as blood drips from him "Jenkins your hit, Echo-1 to transports my copilot is hit we need to get medical  treatment for him immediately!" Ichika sets the jet to autopilot then unhooks his buckles, he turns around hitting his helmet on the glass dome "hold on, this will have to do for now" he pulls out a small medical kit. He injects him with a needle that prevents him from going into shock "alright just hold on" Ichika turns back then buckles back up, "buffalo-2 to Echo-1 we've located a good size island with a airport" he switches the jet back to manual "alright let's head there". Ichika looks down at the cracked monitor "wonder if it still works" he presses against the screen and the monitor flares to life "alright let's see" he scrolls over to the status tab of the screen, the screen shows that the internal systems are critically damaged. "Systems show signs of heavy damage with fuel leakage, let's hope she'll hold" Ichika looks up to see the island coming into view as the sun begins to set, Ichika here's a voice coming through the comms "this is Angel Island national airport, please state your intentions" he signaled to the transports to stay their course. "Squad leader of Echo for the Union Air Force, please let us land we have civilians but more importantly we need medical treatment for the wounded" the comms were silent then he noticed that the runway was flaring to life "tower to Echo leader you have permission to land" Ichika gives a thumbs up to the transports pilots, the transports begin their descent "Echo to tower ha-" he's cut off as the tower operator interrupts him "medical and fire staff on standby, waiting for the transports to land" Ichika wipes the blood and sweat of his visor as the he circles overhead with Echo-2. Suddenly the dials on console begin to flash "oh crap its overheating!" He slows the jet letting the air cool it down, he notices that Echo-2 has landed "alright let's la-...what the heck?" Ichika notices a laser moving towards the back of the jet "oh sh-!". Ichika is jolted into the dashboard as the back of the plane erupts into a huge fireball "ahh-" he pulls back hard joystick but the jet won't budge and continues to plummet towards the ground.