Sorry for the long delay. Been busy these last few months so yeah. Anyway, here's a new chapter for you guys. Enjoy.

John looked over his Terminator once more before leaving the hanger, mumbling his greeting to Pops as they prepared for their next mission. Not even on Sand Island for twelve hours and Yuktobonia had already decided to launch their next offensive. This time they were targeting the airfield with a full assault force. Satellite images showed the Yukes less than forty minutes out and now he had orders from the Base Commander to take all available pilots up with him to fight the enemy off. As much as he hated to admit it, Perrault had been right that they need the extra firepower. Mobius had been called back to ISAF for a secret mission, so they wouldn't be able to help. As is, John felt drained. The constant wear and tear he and his pilots had been put through was starting to show. He just hoped they get a break after this to unwind and relax. Even war fighters needed a chance to rest. He sighed as he entered the briefing room and saw his squadron ready and waiting orders. Even reinforced by twelve fresh pilots and one old mercenary did nothing to ease his nerves. This mission would be a turning point and he would be damned if they lost this battle. John took his place at the front of the room and cleared his throat as the projector kicked on and the airspace for their engagement was placed on the screen behind him.

"Alright. I'm going to make this quick and simple as we don't have tome to waste."

Every eye locked on him as he spoke.

"Enemy forces are enroute to Sand Island. Either to take it as a forward launching point into Osea, or just flat out destroy it. Their objective doesn't matter. All that matters is we stop them."

The slide changed, highlighting eight larger ships.

"Our primary targets are these landing ships. Intel believes if we destroy enough of them, we will cripple their advance and hopefully, they'll pull back and leave us be, Secondary targets are the enemy frigates that will no doubt do their best to rain eight kinds of hell on Sand Island." He paused and looked over the crowd. "I plan to prevent this. Three of you nuggets will be under the direct command of one of my pilots. Rosters are as follows; Beemer, Whiplash, and Maverick, you three will be with me. You are Wardog Five through seven. Hollywood, Dagger, and Slider. You three are with Edge. Wardog eight through ten are you three. Iceman, Viper, and Stinger are Choppers problem now." He joked with a grin.

Chopper shook his head, but was smiling all the same. Cipher just stood back and smirked. It was good to lighten the atmosphere before a mission. A tense man makes mistakes, but too relaxed will get you killed. it's a fine line.

"And finally I want Jester, Goose, and Wolfman with Archer." He immediately noticed a look of disgust from Wolfman. "Is their a problem Lieutenant? You have a problem with taking orders from a pilot that has more combat experience than you?"

The kid gulped before he responded.

"N-no sir."

John glared at him.

"Good. Because if I find out you failed to obey him, I will drum your ass right out of my squadron. You all have ten minutes to be behind your controls and be ready to take off. I will issue your following orders once we are in the air. Flight leaders, hold back for load out information. Rest of you, dismissed." He barked.

The rookies filed out quickly as their flight leads made their way to John. He didn't waste any time.

"Alright. Edge, your flight will be strictly air to air. Pops already has your flight ready. I want you to keep the skies clear."

She nodded and saluted.

"I will sir."

He smiled lightly before turning to Chopper and Grim.

"Both of you will be predominantly attacker load outs. Chopper, your guys are to go after the landing ships while the frigates are your targets Archer. Remember, all we need to do is sink enough of them and they should fall back. If not, it'll be a very weak ground force. I really doubt they are stupid enough to follow through if they lose enough."

They both nodded as Cipher looked at John quizzically.

"What about you? What is your flight doing?"

"We're taking a mixed load out." He saw Cipher's look and sighed. "Alright, intel says they may deploy the Scinfaxi to help tip the scale in the Yukes favor. My orders are, should it be here, to sink it."

The shock on everyone's face was clear as day. John checked his watch before he headed toward the doorway.

"Let's move people. We've got a fleet to sink."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Blaze led his flight high, having decided to sit at four thousand to provide additional top cover for Chopper and Archer, who were sitting around a thousand feet. Edge had her flight sitting at two thousand five hundred and was awaiting targets.

"This is AWACS Thunderhead to all Oseian forces. Listen up. Enemy fleet has entered Sand Island maritime defense zone. You are cleared to engage at your discretion."

John looked at his flight before he responded.

"Wardog One copies. What's the ETA to target?" He radioed back.

"ETA is thirty seconds. You are weapons free."

"Ah, I missed that sweet voice. Say…you get that from your mamma's side?"

John chuckled and shook his head as he heard other snickers from over the com channel. He could sense the slight grin on Thunderhead's face as he responded, trying to keep his amusement out of his voice.

"Alright wise guy. Cut the chatter and focus on your mission."

"But what fun is a battle without entertaining commentary?"

"That'll have to wait." Edge cut in over the com. "Enemy Tangos dead ahead. Edge, engaging."

"Archer; engaging."

"Chopper; engaging."

"Wolfman; engaging."

"Hollywood; engaging."

"Iceman; engaging."

"Goose; engaging."

"Slider; engaging."

"Jester; engaging."

"Dagger; engaging."

"Viper: engaging."

"Stinger; engaging."

"Beemer; engaging."

"Maverick; engaging."

John felt a surge of pride as the squadron called in. There was only one thing left to do as he gripped his controls, the eerie calm settled over him as his radar started showing targets.

"Roger. Blaze engaging. Let's get um Wardog!"

What ever approval they shouted was lost as he began to feed fuel to his engines and the true fight began.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Edge slammed her throttle into the firewall as her target tried to climb and bank away. But her fighter was able to keep up with the turn no problem. Only problem was, she couldn't get off a missile shot as with the gees this guy was pulling made it a bad idea to even try.

"Fine. You wanna play that way, I can play." She growled as her hands danced across the HOTAS and switched to guns with a simple flick of her thumb.

The MiG danced around some more in her sights when he made a mistake. The enemy pilot tried to pull a high gee turn in an attempt to get on her six. But Edge wasn't stupid. She pulled her turn tighter than his and her pipper fell right on the MiGs back. With out a seconds hesitation, she mashed the trigger and her fighter spewed red death at the MiG, her rounds peppering it's hull and hitting the fuel tanks. The enemy fighter burst into flames and began it's fall into the ocean. But she wasn't going to sit and watch it. She was already peeling off to assist one of the nuggets that had picked up an unfriendly tail. She was impressed with this rookie who was throwing his fighter every which way to avoid the bogey he had on him. She quickly switched back to missiles and was happy to hear tone. With in a split second, she'd pressed the trigger and an AIM-9 leapt off her wing mounts and knifed through the air and directly into the Su-27 that had tried to evade the missile. The Flanker caught the missile to it's right engine and began spiraling out of control as the canopy blew off and it's crew ejected to safety. She glanced over to see Chopper and his team hauling ass towards their first target. She only hoped they'd be able to pull off a victory here.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Chopper gnashed his teeth as he and his team flew in low and fast at the first enemy landing ship. They'd leap frog as he explained to them. One fighter in front would fire it's missiles and rotate out with the next plane, going until their ordinance was expended. He just hoped it would work. But his thoughts were pushed aside as his targeting computer sounded it had a lock.

"I got tone! Fox Three! Fox Three!"

Two LASMs leapt off his wings and flew straight and fast, smashing into the enemy landing ships open bay doors as the enemy skipper seemed to be trying to deploy hover craft. Both missiles soared inside and detonated right under the tower. He watched as flames shot out of the open door. Additional explosions began running through the ship as fuel and ammo inside began to catch. Chopper and his team continued on to their next target.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Archer was moving quickly into range for his Harpoons and gripped the controls tightly. This was a war alright. He'd already seen Edge engaged with the enemy fighters and watched as Chopper and his team took off after their targets. Now, it was his turn.

"Come on…come on…yes! I've got lock! Archer; Fox three!"

The AGM-84, better known as the Harpoon, streaked off after the target Archer couldn't yet see. But the missile could see the target and was coming in low and fast. He waited for a few moments before his screen marked it as a hit. The enemy radio chattered increased ten fold it seemed as the target had only been hit, not sunk. Archer grinned darkly and decided to fire another one at them. This one disappeared as quickly as it's fellow had and closed the distance quickly before flying straight up into the air and coming back down, smashing into the frigate amidship. This time, the weapon did a lot more damage as the ships captain decided it would be better to abandon ship than sit onboard a burning and exploding ship.

He locked onto his next target and let loose with another Harpoon and watched it sail away toward another frigate.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Blaze was happy that the battle was going so well, but he had a nagging feeling something wasn't right. Edge and her team had pretty much managed to gain air superiority as most the enemy air assets had been helos with two flights of fighters for air cover. And that didn't sit right with him. Chopper and his team had managed to sink or cripple five of the enemy landing ships, which in itself was a good thing, and his team was still hunting for targets. Archer and his men had taken three frigates out of action with five left. Blaze himself hadn't really done anything. He had his orders and that was to hold off unless the Scinfaxi showed up. Once it did, he and his team would blow it to hell.

"Ballistic missile launch!" Thunderhead called out.

Blaze snapped his gaze to the sky, looking for it. It was here alright. And now the tough part was coming as Thunderhead confirmed what he feared.

"Enemy missile is a burst missile with multiple independent war heads. All planes, get above five thousand feet and hold position."

The squadron radioed back and affirmative and began pulling gees to get above the safety line. All but two pilots. Blaze could hear what was going on.

"Iceman and Wolfman! Get above five thousand!" Archer ordered.

"We'll be fine Archer. So shut your yap." Wolfman barked back,

Blaze was not going to allow this.

"Both of you, get your asses above five thousand now! That is a direct order!" He snapped.

Either they weren't listening, or didn't care as the next sound he heard from them was that they'd launched their payload at two different frigates, scoring kills. John's next call to them was interrupted by Thunderhead.

"Stand by…Data link to A-Sat targeting? What the hell is this? Oh…it's counting down by itself." Thunderhead muttered, aware he was transmitting.

John felt a cold ball form in his gut as another enemy frigate was lost. He was sure they would die. He was sure…well, a sudden beam of light falling from the sky and cutting the burst missile if half made him not so sure anymore.

"What the hell?"

"Kid! Did you see that?" Chopper sounded almost speechless…almost.

"I did…it must have come from the Ark Bird."

"Well, it was a good shot as it managed to kill one of my targets so I'm not complaining."

John ordered the rest of the squadron to continue their attack as he and his team began their hunt. If it launched another missile, and they could see it, the Ark Bird would be able to hit the damn thing. He was still going to deal with Wolfman and Iceman. Disobeying direct orders was something he would not stand for. The battle was going well for them as the Ark bird managed to down another missile. At least until the Scinfaxi started firing multiple burst missiles.

"Shit! Everyone! Get above five thousand!" He barked.

"Come on kids! Go! Go! Go!" Chopper urged as he himself angled his own fighter up on full afterburners.

"Follow the flight leads!"

"No! Not yet! I got the shot!"

"Damn it Ice! Break off!"

"Just give me ten seconds!"

"Iceman, break off. Now! That is a direct order!" John snapped into his com.

"Damn it. Iceman, disengaging."

John watched him pull away as the first burst missile was halved in the air. But they were still coming. He could hear Kei calling for the Ark Bird to fire again, but John knew it wouldn't be able to as it need to recharge. It wasn't meant to fire like that. Everything seemed to slow down for John as the next burst missile dropped right past him. There were still three rookies below the safety line as it detonated. The screams coming over the radar as they cried for help as the crippled and damaged planes fell toward the ocean. John punched his console as the Anti Submarine Plane Bluehound began feeding data to the Ark Bird.

"Blow those bastards outta the water." He seethed as the Ark Bird counted down to firing.

The laser beam shot from the orbiting ship and slammed into the ocean. John watched as a massive plume of steam shot away from the impact sight. Not much later, the massive form of the Scinfaxi emerged, it's hull bearing a red angry mark from the impact of the laser. John snarled in anger as he banked his plane on course for the enemy sub, his team forming up on him.

"All remaining planes; reform into attack formation." Kei ordered over the com.

"Negative. All planes, cover my team. Do not, I say again, do not engage the Scinfaxi."

He cut his com and locked both his Harpoons on the submarine and waited momentarily before firing them one right after another. His two harpoons were followed by six more from the rest of his team. He watched as all eight smashed against the hull right on the warped hull plating. John cursed as a slew of anti aircraft fire ripped up at him. John avoided the fire and came back around, preparing his AIM-9 sidewinders.

"Fire everything you got!" John ordered to his team.

Streams of bullets and missiles smashed into the hull. John circled around and waited for the smoke to clear and cursed. They'd only managed to open a hole in the hull with all the weapon impacts.

"Wardog! Does anyone have a missile left?" He called out.

"Got you covered Wardog Leader. Cipher, engaging."

John watched as the blue trimmed F-15 shot past him in a dive and let loose with sidewinders into the hole before dropping a harpoon right into the main magazine of the sub. John watched as the bow seemed to swell before shattering. The sub began to sink as it took on water. Wardog circled overhead and watched the sub slip beneath the waves and vanish from view. After several seconds of nothing, a massive plume of water as the rest of the ammunition detonated under water. Cheers began to ring through the com as John unclipped his mask and let out a sigh. This battle was over, but now the hard part was still to come.