[center][h2] [color=ec008c]Chaos In Flight[/color] [/h2][/center]

The F35 jet that Samantha was flying was way faster than the gunship helicopters that had been the primary wave dropping troops off onto the island. Flying a helicopter is a completely different style to flying a jet. A helicopter moves slower and is a more stable platform for guns and dropping down to drop off troops and lift off again. Jets are fast and more maneuverable once in the air. They might need more space to take off and land but once in the air they can do things a helicopter can’t. This disparity had allowed her to dominate the skies as she took out one helicopter after another. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. She could strafe the whole line with her heavy 30MM cannons. She wanted to save her air to air and air to ground missiles for when she really needed them. This modified bird managed to carry more missiles than a standard model but only because someone had miniaturized the missiles making them lighter and smaller but still just as effective. She still only had so many missiles. The number of aircraft she needed to take out was staggering. Artemis had thought to overwhelm them with numbers in a shock and awe campaign. The sad part was it was working. They only had so many assets they could throw at them to stop them. This was a war of attrition. It didn’t matter how good your people were if they ran out of ammo to put in the weapons. 

The drones had managed to thin out the initial wave of incoming enemy vehicles. This helped to create the break in the fighting so that the support personnel could reach the small naval cutter masquerading as a fishing boat. They would have been in trouble if she had not prepared her drone cache protocol as a backup to the base’s defenses. She had simply told Tahlia what materials she had wanted. She had not told her what they were for. Skye had trusted her and approved the materials order. She probably thought Sam was building another AI system or trying to improve the one she had. She had developed and built AI systems for the suits she had upgraded such as Chuck’s. Samantha had built hidden caches all over the island that were fiberglass shells that housed the drones and their charging systems. They were camouflaged and designed to blend into the environment. Small solar panels shunted enough power to the drones to keep them charged. When the base alarm triggered it had triggered the protocols to release the drones. The drones were programmed to attack any vehicle or aircraft that was not registering as belonging to Raven Squad. Samantha had worked with Javi to develop a special paint that would designate Raven Squad aircraft and vehicles. The smaller drones were packed with explosives and programmed to magnetically lock to the targeted vehicle and set off their payload. There had been a hundred drones that had taken out boats, armored vehicles, and numerous troop carrying helicopters and gunships. Without that help, Raven Squad would have already been overrun. 

Samantha had ensured that the bases SAM’s (surface to air missile launchers) couldn’t be hacked by providing them with individual AI guided tracking and guidance systems separated from the main base. She was grateful for that insight after watching the way Artemis targeted their computer control area of the base. That led to another disgusting and nasty thought that they knew where Raven Squad was and had enough intel to know what was on base. [color=ec008c][i]Had Rose infiltrated the base prior to this masquerading as Skye?[/i][/color] That thought turned her stomach but made sense. 

Samantha pushed those thoughts away and focused on her task which was getting her friends and family off this base. Her eyes narrowed as she slipped into the zone. She pulled the F35 around and started another attack run on a row of incoming gunships. She fired the 30MM autocannons and strafed their V line formation as she screeched by at high speed. She pulled up and around and was satisfied to see explosions and helicopters dropping from the sky. Samantha’s attention was caught by Bob as he told her [color=fff200]“Chaos the support ships out at sea are firing missiles. Projected target is the hidden airfield. Your take off revealed it.”[/color] Samantha cursed and called out over coms [color=ec008c]“Raven Squad incoming missiles targeting the airfield. Move your asses!”[/color] She flew to intercept the missiles. [color=ec008c]“Bob target the missiles with autocannon targeting and chaf. Let’s see if we can pull those missiles off course.”[/color] Samantha didn’t have long to wait. They managed to take out the two missiles targeting the hidden airfield. She pulled the jet around and started a run on the ship that had fired. 

Samantha seemed to merge with the AI and the high speed plane she was flying as she wove the plane around the incoming fire from other support ships as she targeted the ones firing missiles. She targeted them with the air to surface missiles. Her aircraft screamed past the ships their fire failing to be fast enough to catch her. She pulled around as a pair of MIG fighter jets fell in behind her. She was suddenly on the defensive. Dodging right and left. She dove and then pulled up in a hard barrel roll. The MIGs flew by underneath her as she pulled around. The Gs she was pulling would have caused her to black out if she had not hooked into the onboard oxygen system designed to integrate with her suit. She noticed the new gel ballistic padding she had added helped her tolerate the Gs better. She just smiled as her pulled the trigger and watched the guided missiles find their marks. She pulled back around and headed back towards the island. The firefight had taken her away from the island.