Ingrid grinned slightly at the sight of Solo flying upside-down in a mirror maneuver directly under Opposing Solo. The bellies of the two airplanes were only a few feet apart. The number on the belly of Solo was painted upside-down, so that it appeared correct while the plane was inverted. Lead pulled in to follow them, and they split apart to loop back around and join the quad to form a delta. They began to line up in a long, thin row with six airplanes.
"Altitude fifteen-two-eight-one," Lead said. "Left Wing!"
"Fifteen-two-seven-nine," Ingrid said. Glancing to the side, she looked to be just a few feet lower than Lead. She pitched up ever so slightly, and her altimeter matched his. He ignored the problem. One by one the other four airplanes called in their altitude.
"Looks good to me," Commander Matvei said as he trailed behind.
"Ravens, break off! Lead altitude fifteen-two-eight-zero heading zero. Left Wing fifteen-two-six-three heading ninety. Right Wing fifteen-two-nine-seven heading two-seven-zero..."
Ingrid, along with the other Ravens, followed their assigned headings for a very precise count of time, far below her assigned altitude. Then she did an extremely aggressive vertical turn followed by a roll to level. She knew she was slightly too fast, and deployed the air break for a few seconds to restore her relative position. Trimmed to hold exactly fifteen-two-six-three, her nose was pointed directly at Right Wing in the distance. He was only thirty-four feet above her. She punched the throttle to full.
Ingrid always felt a tinge of panic in the moment just before the six fighter jets converged over a single point, just over the town square of the city below, in a maneuver the Ravens had named the Wheel Cross. Right Wing flew directly overhead in a blur, and the other four airplanes crossed each other below or above a few fractions of a second later. The timing and distance between the airplanes created the illusion, from a viewer on the ground, that the six airplanes converged in a massive head-on collision. The trails of airshow smoke left behind created converging lines in the sky, like the spokes of a wheel.
"Hold heading, vertical climb," Lead said.
Ingrid pulled on the stick until the nose of the fighter was pointing straight up. At five thousand feet up, a second pull on the stick brought the nose back to level except inverted. A quick aileron roll brought the craft upright, exactly five thousand feet up, at altitude two-zero-two-six-three. They repeated their Wheel Cross maneuver except at a much, much lower speed, with air brakes out and throttle to idle. The six fighters meandered past each other in the sky, and began to depart in opposite directions, very slowly.
"Throttle idle..." Lead said. "And... kick left."
A swift kick to the rudder brought the fighter into a flat spin. All six fighters entered into flat spins at the exact same time, and with a few adjustments to the throttle and nose, this further developed into a Falling Leaf maneuver. Six fighters in the Falling Leaf, centered around a single point in the sky, opening and closing like a flower.
"Well done," Matvei said. "Recover and bug out. The show is over, we have new orders."
"Affirmative," Lead said.
"Glenice, how is the recruitment going?" Matvei asked.
After a brief silence she replied. "The masters attempted to summon Fire Elementals and stop us, but they have since been executed. We have... overwhelming numbers of recruits. There is not enough space in our tilt-rotors for them all."
"Return to the fleet with the ones you can carry. Meg Squadron, stay for escort. Ravens, we need to escort Left Wing to the enemy portal to claim the keystones."
The Ravens flew low, barely skimming the snowclad treetops as they approached the enemy portal. The airspace above was mostly clear by the time the Ravens arrived. Dozens of Kanti airships were in the process of sinking or lay in pieces in burning forests far below. Great claws of flame raked the landscape, boiling away the snow and sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. Thousands of wrecked fighter jets littered the forest floor, and many were still in the process of being shot down. The Heylin fleet had fared better. Three ships were sinking, two ships had been completely destroyed, one of which Ingrid recognized as being the flagship Ten Skies, but otherwise twenty-five of the airships were in good condition.
"They do not have ocular demons or radar," the Commander said. "Our white paint will make us hard to see from above. Solo, Opposing Solo, fly in a pair ahead and do a quick loop around the portal. Warn us of any danger."
The two fighter jets outside the formation to either side pitched up and banked. The engines lit up brightly as the thrust vectoring angled the flames directly toward Ingrid.
"Radar contacts," Solo said. "Lots of contacts. There are fighters from both fleets dogfighting near the portal... merging!"
"Merging! It's hot up here!" Opposing Solo said.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Ice-Two!"
"Good kill!"
"Up we go," Lead said. He started to pitch up and Ingrid reluctantly held formation. Their noses pointed to a sky filled with long trails of smoke, lights of burning engines, bright flares and exploding missiles. The portal itself loomed above like a plate on edge, surrounded by a crimson fog.
"Ice-Two... splash!"
The formation pointed directly at the glowing red orb of the keystone on one side of the portal. "Titania get ready to claim!" Ingrid cried.
I'm ready.
"Diamond formation, hold flares the entire loop" Lead said. Ingrid snapped her thumb down on the flair button on her stick. Eight sets of flares rocketed out in all directions behind them as they began the loop. The flares continued as they passed the first crystal and entered into a vertical climb. Lead pulled the nose over and they continued to invert, crossing over the second crystal at the apex. Forty-eight fire elementals had been summoned, filling the air around the ring of the portal with orange light. A precaution, to protect against the only missiles the enemy was using, the short-range Ice-Two.
The wings jostled and flexed. Ingrid held position well enough as they passed the third crystal.
They are claimed, Titania said.
Over one hundred fire elementals needed to be summoned during that one maneuver, and missiles fired by both sides were drawn to the ring of flaming flares. Lead pointed the nose at the ground to exit the battle.
"Vice-Admiral Oleg," Ingrid said to her emergency Colored Orb. "Keystones are claimed and ready to be summoned."
"Close the portal immediately," Oleg replied. "Then open it again at altitude three-five-zero-zero heading one-seven-zero distance sixty nautical miles."
"Confirm?" Ingrid asked. "Reopen it at three-five-zero-zero heading one-seven-zero distance sixty nautical miles?"
"Affirmative, that is your order."
"Titania, summon them to me," Ingrid said. The outlines of the three glowing crystals began to form in front of her. They fell back, pressed against her chest and matched her momentum. Then they fully formed into the same type of lopsided red-blue stone that Vaska had given her. Great red fractures began to appear in the portal. The Lead began to fly them to the area where the portal needed to be reopened, skimming over the snowfields along the way.
"All soldiers, this is a message from Vice-Admiral Oleg. Admiral Elizabeth is confirmed killed in action, the Ten Skies has fallen. The instructions she left us are clear. We begin the second phase of our attack. A new portal is going to open, and all surviving aircraft are to fly through that portal. We have a second wind of thirty heavy bombers and additional fighters just miles behind the fleet as I speak to you. Our new mission is to lay absolute waste to the enemy capital city of Kanti. You have your orders. Press the attack!"
"The enemy capital?" Ingrid gasped.
"Elizabeth did say she wanted to bet everything on this attack," Ashe said.
"Pitching up to three-five-zero-zero," Lead said. They leveled off. It had taken just over seven minutes to cover the distance of sixty nautical miles. "Open it now!"
"Fire! Open a portal to the other side!"
The crystals began to glow red and then they vanished, appearing outside in a triangle behind them. They continued in a long arc at full power through the snowy sky. A volcano just ahead was erupting, spewing huge plumes of lava into the sky, creating avalanches on its slopes.
"Radar contacts," Lead said. "Eight airplanes, straight ahead. They are coming for us."
"Um..." Ingrid said.
"It looks like we are not the only ones with a second wind," Lead said. "Solos, where are you?"
"We are following above," Solo said.
"I am here as well," Commander Matvei said. "A little ways behind, with Ivan."
"I hope it's that bastard again," Ivan said.
"All Ravens, fire all radar missiles at the enemy as soon as you have a lock!" Lead said.
Whatever Commander Matvei wanted to say, it caught in his throat and he silenced himself. Then he said: "affirmative."
The remaining radar-guided missiles rocketed off the wings of the White Ravens. Even Ivan's airplane launched a pair. They flew off into the distance, leaving long white trails behind them. After a pause they exploded, barely visible flashes on the broken gray-orange horizon.
"Five kills, three remain," Lead said. "Diamond, use all remaining flares."
They only had two sets of flares left in the diamond formation, launching eight glowing orange orbs into the sky. The Solo jets had many more flares, and Ivan still had a full set. Lead veered off, away from the enemy at a slight angle. Ice-Two missiles rocketed past them and chased the falling flares.
"Prepare to merge," Lead said.
A single fighter jet rushed past, followed by a pair. Lead began to merge with the pair, and Ingrid followed in a tight formation. She desperately craned her neck around to try and keep track of the enemy fighters, however much of her vision was blocked by the other Ravens. She was mostly blind, and completely dependent on the decisions Lead made.
"Our formation is one-circle with theirs," Lead said. "Select guns, get ready... FIRE!"
Ingrid pulled the trigger, and a massive cloud of bullets exploded from the four fighters. There was nothing in the sky in front of them. Then, both enemy fighters flew in tandem straight through the cloud, and promptly exploded.
"They have thrust vectoring," Lead said.
"Wait... what?" Ingrid asked.
"Back again you bastard?" Ivan screamed. "I'll just keep..."
Silence.
The nose of the formation rotated around just in time to see Ivan's unpainted Falling Leaf airplane explode in a ball of fire, a long stream of orange bullets cutting through the wraiths of black smoke.
"IVAN!" Ingrid screamed. She immediately broke formation and pulled very hard on the stick to bring the lone enemy into her nose. "Ice-Two! Ice-Two!" she cried. Her last two missiles left the rail. The great, red-hot engines of the enemy fighter attracted them like moths to a flame. He tried to flare, but too late.
Ingrid rushed past the wobbling tube of flaming metal as it began to fall, wingless, toward the snowy floor of the Plane of Fire. The rest of her formation had drifted away. Commander Matvei loomed above her nearby.
"I am taking command of this squadron!" Ingrid declared. "Your crystals are bound to Titania, I can order them to explode. Follow my orders or I will kill you!"
Matvei chuckled. "Natasha warned us this would happen, and she gave us very explicit orders."
"Thank the goddess," Lead said. "We get our old Left Wing back."
"What are your orders, Commander?" Matvei asked.
Ingrid hissed through her teeth. "They had thrust vectoring on those airplanes, which means they have a workshop here in the Plane of Fire. Spread out, and find anything that looks like it might be a landing strip or a workshop. Those are your orders. Now go!"