A Thief's Honor [Book 2]

Ch.17 OP: Turbo Dominant Eagle

"Thanks to our combined efforts, we are now ready for the final round of the ACES dogfighting competition. Put on your helmets, 'cause it's time for Operation: Turbo Dominant Eagle! In just a few hours, Team Iceland and Team Belgium will begin fighting it out in the B-Team round. This will provide the perfect coverage for step one of my plan. Rae, use the catapult and your paraglider to get access to the local gunships, plant some tracking devices, and head back to the team hangar with Sly to suit up for the finals. Murray, you're up next. Use your row boat to pull down the aircraft communication antenna. With it out of commission, the Baron will have to use an unscrambled radio frequency to call in the gunships for backup. If that happens, I'll be ready with our secret weapon! And with the tracking devices installed, I'm guaranteed not to miss. In the end though, it'll be up to you two. This is a sudden death competition, so the first team to take out last year's champ wins, and that's if the Black Baron doesn't take out all the competition first." Bentley explained.

"So where do you want me in all of this?" Sly asked.

"Knowing our track record, I'm sure that once you take out the Baron's plane, things are bound to go sideways, as they usually do. If worse comes to worse, I'm sure you'll know what to do, though I'm hoping it doesn't come to that."

"And again, knowing us, it probably will." Rae chimed in.

"Yes, but I can still hope that everything goes according to plan..."

"Hey, when things don't go as planned, just start swinging." The fox cracked a grin.

"That's not helping..." Bentley sighed.

"No, but she's not wrong either. Agree or disagree, eh, pal?" Sly gave a small smirk as well.

Again, Bentley sighed. "Let's just...cross that bridge when we get there..."

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Rae pulled out her binocucom once on top of the Baron's castle. "Excellent! The B-Champs dogfight is beginning! With these guys going at it, no one will notice as you slip onto the gunships and plant the tracking devices."

"Sounds straight forward enough, but uhh...where'd you get these tracking devices? They look kinda strange, if you ask me."

"Best I could do on short notice... However, they're sensitive to extreme changes in altitude, so you're going to have to pull this off at high elevation or it's a bust."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Rae said. "After all, it's not like this is my first rodeo."

Bentley rolled his eyes. "It's like I always tell Sly, save the jocular comments for later... We have work to do and we're on a time crunch."

"I know, I know, I'm on it, don't get your shell in a bunch over there." Rae joked before disconnecting.

After stuffing her binocucom away, she waited for one of the guhnships to come around. When it was close enough, she hopped onto the catapult, launching her into the air. She quickly deployed her paraglider, helping her land on the first gunship. Once safely on the ship, she planted the first device, but noticed something ahead of the control panel. "What's this thing?" She wondered aloud. "Hmm... I wonder..." Rae hopped onto the strange looking thing, which ended up launching her into the air.

Rae suddenly smirked, deploying her paraglider again. "Heh, I figured as much. It's a pressurized air vent. That'll be useful." She said, heading for the second gunship.

The fox managed to plant two more trackers without any sort of problem. However, when it came to the last ship, she misjudged the distance. She ended up being a few meters short, her eyes widening. She began to fall, and in that moment knew she had to do something, and fast. "Urgh! Shit!" She cursed, quickly whipping out her grappling hook. Without a moment's hesitation, Rae fired, latching onto the edge of the platform of the last gunship. She quickly pulled the trigger again and reeled herself in, flipping onto the platform with a sigh of relief. "Damn, that was close... Had I fallen any further, the tracker would've become useless, and with this height, I wouldn't die, but...I'd sure as hell break something, which I can't afford to do right now."