Disclaimer:
     Sailor Moon and related characters are the property of DIC and
whoever else owns her. Insert your names here:__________. Tolaris, the
Dragoons, and others are the creation of PFC Troy Stanton. Wolf,
Muzzer, Brasck, and others are from my own imagination.

Note:
     This series is based on the Sailor Moon V series created by PFC
Troy Stanton. Although this is based on his series, mine may not
necessarily agree or even follow the SMV plot (probably the latter). You
will also note that I use a totally different writing style (i.e., I use some
vulgar language. Mostly in my characters, not the others. Okay, Lita's the
exception to that one since it fits her character so well). I saw a whole
side of the SMV plot that I am trying to see what I can do with. Please
keep in mind that I am not trying to add to the SMV series, but running
my own series that branches off from the SMV series. I still hope that
you will enjoy my series, and please send comments, criticism, and
maybe even flames (I probably won't pay too much attention to those) to
TNF927@hotmail.com. You might also want to note that I used metric
measurements to make it easier for the rest of the world to understand.
Hey, the world doesn't spin around the U.S., you know. (Despite what we
all like to think ;)

Special thanks goes to Luna and Artemis for running the Sailor Moon
Romance Archive and forwarding the original copy of SMD1 to Troy.
And most of all I need to thank Troy Stanton. Without his series, or his
understanding and kindness, this would not have been possible.
THANKS TO ALL THREE OF YOU!

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                Sailor Moon D 
               The New Dragoons
                       
                       
                Moments in Time







                By Todd Foster









OTIS AIR FORCE BASE
CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, EARTH


The sound of jet engines running up to speed was deafening. The base
was a flurry of activity as the aircraft there were prepped for an
immediate launch. F-15's, F-16's, A-10's, and various other aircraft dotted
the ramp. Air-to-air missiles were being fitted onto any aircraft that had
an air-to-air capability. Two minutes after the alert had sounded, the first
aircraft were taking to the skies to intercept an incoming air raid.
     The invaders known as the Marauders, had first appeared from
the most isolated regions of the Siberian wastelands. They had swept
across the Russian Republics in a matter of days. What was left of the
Russian military was now spread among other nations so that they could
continue to fight. After overrunning Russia, they began to expand in all
directions. They used superior numbers to swarm their adversaries since
they were about evenly matched technologically. The only advantage the
Marauders had over the people of Earth was the fact that all their mobile
weaponry had defensive energy shielding. Otherwise the people of Earth
would held the advantage in hardware and kept the invaders in a
stalemate.
     As the alarm sounded Scott "Squeezer" Damian bolted from his
bed and ran as fast as he could to the squadron ready room to suit up for
flight. As he ran across the ramp in his underwear, he noticed the two
Russian made Sukhoi Su-35 "Super Flankers" taking off in full
afterburner. The two fighters had needed some small adjustments to
accommodate western weaponry, but the two pilots who flew them had
proven themselves to be two of the best pilots on the base. He figured
that if his homeland had been overrun, he would have an axe to grind too.
Not to mention they were flying in better fighters than anything else on
the base. Twenty seconds later he heard the engines of the first
Americans starting up. For a second he wondered how the "Twin Bears"
got into the air so fast.
     He slammed into the door that lead to the ready room and ran for
his locker. Two minutes later he was in his flight suit and sprinting for
his plane. He made a quick run around the aircraft to make sure that
everything looked secure before bounding up the ladder of his F-15E
Strike Eagle. His plane was maxed out for air-to-air combat.
     His WIZZO, or weapon systems officer, was right on his heals as
he jumped into his seat and plugged himself in. After making sure that
he was plugged in, his WIZZO immediately began to contact the control
tower. What Scott heard did not make him feel very good. It looked like
forty enemy aircraft were headed right for their base. And they only had
twenty aircraft in flying condition.
     He lit the engines and immediately headed for the runway. He
stopped just to the side of the runway and waited for the two birds in
front of him to tear down the runway.
     "Viper six-three and five-two, you are cleared to the runway for
take off. Viking departure procedures in effect. Contact Hawkbat on two-
one-three-point-two upon launch, over," ground control stated over the
radio.
     "Copy tower, Viper six-three with five-two rolling. Out," Scott's
WIZZO radioed.
     "Good hunting, out."
     Following the rules for Viking departures, Scott shoved the
throttles to full afterburner. It felt like a giant hand was forcing him into
his seat as the plane shot down the runway. He watched as his airspeed
picked up at an alarming rate and rotated the aircraft as it approached
flying speed. The second he felt the wheels lift off the tarmac, he flipped
the lever to raise the landing gear and pointed the nose of the aircraft to
the vertical. With two engines putting out over 200,000 lbs. of thrust
each, Scott's F-15 could actually accelerate vertically. He watched as the
altimeter shot up and his speed increased. Two minutes later he was
passing through 25,000 ft and Mach 1.5 when he began to level out. His
WIZZO contacted Hawkbat and got information on the inbounds. He
turned into the oncoming bandits right after his wingman had joined up
on them. His throttles stayed in ZONE 5 afterburners.
     Thirty seconds later he had radar locks on the bandits and fired
off all four of his Scorpion AMRAAM missiles. The radar guided
missiles accelerated to over Mach 4 as they bored in on their targets. All
four of his missiles hit but the shielding that the enemy planes carried
prevented the missiles from doing any real damage. They kept on
coming.
     Thirty seconds after firing his missiles, he found himself slicing
through the enemy aircraft, taking head on shots with his cannon as he
flew past. After passing through the formation he turned around to make
another pass. That was when he noticed his wingman was missing.
     "Where's five-two?" Scott asked his WIZZO.
     "He was blown to hell when we made our run," came the terce
reply.
     Shit.
     As he came around, he heard the radio explode in calls for breaks
and missile shots. He looked ahead and saw a furball of friendly and
enemy aircraft engaged in combat. And he was about to dive right into
it.
     "Keep your eyes open because here we go!" Scott called out to
his WIZZO.
     "Aw shit," came the reply.
     The furball was huge. Over fifty miles at its widest, and Scott was
diving right into the middle of it. He saw streaks from missile trails along
with tracers from cannons and green streaks from the aliens. When each
of the green streaks hit an airplane, it vanished in a fireball. There was
almost never a parachute.
     Scott spotted an alien at the top of a vertical scissors and had a
good look at it in profile. It seemed to be split into two halves with a
central section joining them at the tail.  The sides were shaped like
triangles and cantered downward slightly. And they were heavily armed.
One hit from its cannons destroyed the aircraft that it touched. Only on
rare occasions was the pilot able to eject from his burning plane.
     Scott came in on the alien high and was able to launch two
Sidewinder missiles as it came to the top of its climb and nosed over to
gain airspeed. Both missiles tracked beautifully and hit the alien dead
center. The alien emerged on the other side of the fireball unscathed. Its
shield had absorbed all of the missiles' energy and allowed it to fly on.
     He deployed his airbrake to prevent himself from overshooting
as he rolled in behind the alien. He closed in on the alien slowly and
when he had the alien lined up, he let loose with his cannon. Red streaks
from the tracers on every fifth round looked like a continuous stream of
fire as it poured into the alien. He kept firing for five long seconds and
then ceased because if he shot any longer, the barrels of the cannon
would have burnt out.
     The alien kept flying, but Scott saw that part of the right side had
been destroyed. He launched his last two Sidewinders at it and watched
as they tracked perfectly. The alien fighter vanished in a ball of flame.
This time it emerged as fiery bits of pieces.
     But it had cost him. All his missiles were expended and a third of
the ammo for his cannon was gone. He might be able to down one more.
If he was lucky and every round hit home.
     "BREAK RIGHT!"
     Without thinking Scott jammed the stick to the right and broke
off in a 7 G right turn. His normal 150 lbs. went to 1050 lbs. in the blink
of an eye as he pulled the plane in as tight a turn as he could. He grunted
under the strain of the turn and watched as green streaks appeared all
around him. He spent the next two minutes in a one-on-one duel with the
alien. It ended with the alien plowing into a mountain side.
     Scott looked around him for his next target but found himself all
alone.
     "Where the hell's the fight?!" Scott exclaimed.
     "About fifty miles south," his WIZZO told him.
     "Shit!" he pulled up to gain some altitude and turned to the south
to rejoin the fight. All he could do for the next several minutes was listen
to his radio.
     "Willy's gone!"
     "Huck, break left!"
     "Fox two!"
     "Where's Jon?"
     "I can't shake him!"
     "Jess and Frank just bought it!"
     "Get this fucker off me!"
     "Where the hell is our reinforcements?!"
     "We just lost three more!"
     "F-18, break right! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"
     Scott listened in horror as more and more of his friends and
colleagues were shot down. Then he heard something he never expected
to here in his life.
     "Earth forces. This is Dragoon flight Alpha on GUARD. Do you
require assistance?"
     "Dragoon flight, this is Hawkbat on guard. Say posit, you are not
on radar."
     "We are flying over Albany, New York now Hawkbat."
     Shit, Scott thought, that's over four hundred miles away!
     "Dragoon flight, negative, I repeat, negative radar contact."
     "Dammit, Hawkbat! Let them in! We're being slaughtered out
here!"
     "Earth forces, be advised. We have just launched missiles at the
alien fighters. ETA to targets thirty seconds."
     "What the fuck?!" Scott's WIZZO exclaimed. Scott didn't believe
it either. No missile could fly that far.
     "Dragoon flight, this is Hawkbat. Say again."
     "We have launched missiles at the enemy. ETA twenty seconds."
     "Dragoon flight, we have friendlies in the target basket!"
     "We are aware of that Hawkbat. All missiles have solid locks on
individual enemy fighters."
     "Scott," his WIZZO said to get his attention, "Look at that."
     Scott looked up and could see the furball of the fight in the
distance. Higher up and further behind that they could see the streaks of
the incoming missiles. He counted thirty trails. As he watched, the
missiles began to move around the sky, tracking in on individual targets.
Then they were in the furball and explosions lit up the sky. The next
thing he could see was burning wreckage falling from the sky.
     "Holly shit! Did you see that?!" someone exclaimed over
GUARD.
     "Hawkbat, this is Dragoon flight Alpha. All missiles hit intended
targets except one which failed to detonate due to friendly being inside
the flack basket. Our ETA to fight is ten seconds."
     "He's right, Hawkbat. We've got ET's falling all around us. They
must have taken out half of them!"
     "And here they come!"
     Scott looked across the furball and saw twelve aircraft blasting
into the fight at a speed that put his own F-15 to shame. They blazed
through the furball sending aircraft flying in every direction. Small blue
balls of energy shot from the newcomers and tore through enemy fighters
left and right. Once they had passed through, the enemy had been
decimated by half once again. There was only a handful of alien fighters
left.
     "Break!" Scott's WIZZO called out.
     Scott slammed the stick to the left and felt the G's attempt to
crush his body. He looked over his shoulder in time to see the fighter
shooting at him explode.
     "Viper six-three, your six is clear," his radio squawked.
     "Uh, thanks."
     "Scott," his WIZZO called to get his attention, "Right side."
     Scott looked over to his left and found one of the newcomers
flying in perfect formation. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.
The plane's fuselage vaguely resembled that of an SR-71 Blackbird with
its blended-body design. It had a huge delta wing with a pair of large
trapezoidal shaped canards in front of the main wing. The two engines
were embedded halfway out in the wings with two huge vertical
stabilizers cantered inward on top of them, and the engines were
absolutely huge. With the thrust those engines must put out, Scott wasn't
surprised that it had flown 400 miles in a little under a minute. Scott also
noticed that the outer third of the wings were cantered downward. He
looked to the cockpit of the plane and could clearly see both people that
sat inside. What surprised him was the fact that the canopy rails were so
low that they only came up to the pilot's thighs. It was as though they
were riding on the plane rather than sitting in it. Suddenly the plane
pulled up into tight loop and when Scott turned around in his seat to keep
an eye on the plane, it had already leveled out and was speeding away
chasing another fighter. It must have pulled at least 20 G's to do that
maneuver. These new guys were flying aircraft that out performed
anything previously seen.
     "Hawkbat, this is Dragoon flight Alpha. All enemy fighters
destroyed or retreating. We are now departing the area. Have a nice day."
     As Scott watched every dragoon fighter pulled their noses to the
vertical and shot out of sight.
     Scott's WIZZO spoke for everyone when he asked; "Who the
fuck were those people?"


*                                       *                                      *


NEVEN COMMAND HEADQUARTERS
CENTRAL SIBERIA
FORMER RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, EARTH


"What is the report on the attack we made on the human air base,
Major?"
     The Major took a moment to try to swallow the lump in his
throat. "It was a complete failure, General."
     "What?!" The General glared at him.
     "They were defeated when aircraft calling themselves Dragoons
joined the fight. Their fighters outclassed ours in every aspect. The lone
surviving pilot told of an aircraft whose performance was at least three
times greater than our own. Our pilots didn't stand a chance, ma'am."
     "Any idea who these new players are?" The General asked.
     "I believe they are part of the Dragoon Legion. Our intelligence
on them is still sketchy at best. We don't even have their base of
operations known yet. For all we know, they could be based here on
Earth or in the Negaverse, although the Negaverse seems the more likely
of the two," the Major explained.
     The General gave him a hard glare. "As of this moment you are
relieved of your current duties. You are to head up a team of your picking
to track down these Dragoons and eliminate them. You will have
unlimited resources to complete your mission. I want a report on what
you will be doing within two days. Dismissed."
     "Yes, sir," the Major saluted and left with his new orders. This is
going to get interesting, the Major mussed.


*                                       *                                      *


GUNTHER TOWER
BERLIN
OCCUPIED GERMANY, EARTH

"Does anyone else besides me think this is totally crazy?" Sailor Sol
asked no one in particular.
     "That's what I said," Sailor Moon answered, "But did anyone
listen to me? No."
     The group of six Sailor Scouts was standing just outside the main
entrance to Gunther Tower in downtown Berlin, which was deep behind
enemy lines. All the intelligence reports stated that this was being used
as the theater headquarters of the Neven invaders. What surprised the
group was that they had yet to see anyone, human or Nevenite. It was as
though the whole city was deserted.
     "This whole situation gives me the creeps," Sailor Venus
commented, "Having the whole  city deserted like this just isn't natural."
     "You can say that again," Sailor Jupiter added.
     "I think we should get moving, guys," Sailor Mercury said, "It's
not safe standing out here in the open like this."
     "Then lets go," Sailor Mars said as she headed up to the door,
"Uh, just how are we going to get in?" The door had a steel plate in front
of it to discourage any unwanted visitors.
     "Let us handle that," Jupiter and Sol answered in unison.
     "Jupiter Thunder Clap . . . Zap!"
     "Solar Rays . . . Penetrate!"
     The solid beam of light from Sailor Sol and balls of energy from
Sailor Jupiter combined and flew at the door. The resulting explosion
blew the door all the way to the other side of the lobby.
     "Nothing like the direct approach," Jupiter grinned.
     "If they didn't know we're here," Mercury pointed out, "they do
now."
     "She's got a point," Venus said, "Lets get this over with."
     The group moved through the door and began to spread out to
cover the lobby. It was deserted. There was no one over at the security
desk and they couldn't see anyone in the offices that they could see into.
     "Something's not right," Sol commented, "There should at least
be someone here to greet us."
     "I have to agree," Mercury added, "This is highly irregular. I'm
starting to wonder if we even have the right place."
     "I don't know," Mars said, "I feel something strange coming from
this place. I don't know what it is, though."
     "Where was it that Maze told us to go?" Sailor Moon asked.
          
     "Oh, brother," Mars groaned, "Only you, Sailor Moon, could
forget what we were sent on a mission to do."
     "I know we are supposed to get some information from a
computer, thank you," Sailor Moon said in defense, "I only forgot where
in this building we were supposed to go, okay?!"
     "No, it's not 'okay'," Mars scolded.
     "Shut up, Mars," Sailor Moon spat.
     "Will you two stop it?" Mercury interrupted the two, "We have
a mission to do and having you two fight will only get us in trouble.
Now, we need to get to the thirteenth floor."
     "The stairs are over here," Jupiter called from the far side of the
lobby. She opened the door and took a quick look inside to make sure
there was no one parked in the stairwell. When she saw that it was clear,
she moved in with the others following her up. They sprinted up the
stairs since they didn't want to be caught in this confined space. This was
not a good tactical environment conducive to the health of the attackers.
Stairwells were too easy to defend.
     They stopped short of the landing to the thirteenth floor and
checked to see that it was clear. It was. They bolted up the last of the
stairs and crashed into the hall on the other side of the door. The hall was
deserted.
     "What is up with this place?" Jupiter asked, "No one's even
home."
     "Good," Mercury commented, "All the easier for us to do what
we need to do."
     "You think everyone's on the upper floors messing with Brasck's
team? They were supposed to come in through the roof," Venus asked.
Brasck's special forces team was supposed to break in from the roof of
the building to help distract the enemy and get everyone out through the
roof once they got the data.
     "It's possible," Mercury allowed, "but we would have heard
something by now."
     "Can we just get the data and get out of here?" Mars asked.
     "Sure," Sol said as she lead the group toward their objective.
     Two minutes later they burst into the control room and found
three people inside. None of them were human and the computer
equipment was obviously not of this planet. They quickly took them
down and Mercury immediately went to work trying to download the
information in the computer into a storage device Maze's people had
given her for the purpose. While she worked, Jupiter, Mars, and Sol
stood guard outside the door to the room watching for Brasck's team.
     Just as Mercury was finishing up five minutes later, Brasck and
his team of commandos came blasting around the corner and were nearly
fried by Mars for their effort.
     "You're late," Jupiter commented to Brasck when the two groups
joined up.
     "Sorry," he said between breaths, "We ran into some friends on
the top floors. I think we lost them somewhere on the twenty-sixth."
     "Twenty-fourth," one of his men corrected.
     "Fine, twenty-fourth," he growled, not caring what floor it was.
     "Any other surprises?" Mercury asked as she came up to the
group.
     "Let's see," Brasck said as he started to count off on his fingers,
"Some fool left half his ammo back at base. Someone placed an
unannounced anti-aircraft gun in our flight path on the way in, and some
prick decided to rig the roof entrance with a couple of kilos of explosives
on a trip wire. Am I forgetting anything?"
     "The ambush," the same person reminded him.
     "Oh, and we got caught in an ambush in which three of my men
were wounded including Tuxedo Mask. Anything else?" he asked the
person. He got a shake of the head for a reply.
     "What?!" Sailor Moon exclaimed, "Tuxedo Mask was hurt?
Where is he?"
     "I'm right here and I'm fine," Tuxedo Mask said from the back
of the group.
     After Sailor Moon shoved her way through the people to get to
him, she nearly fainted at the sight of his left arm drenched in blood.
There was a bandage rapped around the upper part of the injured  arm.
     "Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks. The bullet only grazed
my arm. It didn't cause any serious damage," he told her.
     "It's not that bad?! Then why is there so much blood?!" Sailor
Moon exclaimed.
     "Because grazes don't do any real harm except for the fact that
they tend to bleed a lot," Brasck explained to her, "It really isn't that
serious an injury. A broken bone is more life threatening than this."
     Sailor Moon looked over at him with a doubtful expression on her
face. She didn't think it was possible for a broken bone to be that deadly.
     "Don't worry about it," Mercury said from next to the pair, "His
arm will be fine. That graze is nothing serious. I did a scan of it and there
is nothing that could cause any serious complications."
     "If you say so," Sailor Moon conceded, "But you are going to be
careful from now on."
     "No argument from me, Meatball Head," Tuxedo Mask replied.
     When he used his nickname for her Sailor Moon gave him a
warning glance, she still wasn't big on him using it in public.
     "Are we done here?" Brasck interrupted, "We still have to get
back up to the roof and catch our ride out of here."
     "I'm finished here, so we can get out of here," Mercury said. She
pulled out two more of the devices that Maze had given her and tossed
one to Brasck and the other to Tuxedo Mask, "This one's for you,
Brasck, and this one is for the Cape Boy."
     "What's this?" Brasck asked.
     "Additional copies of the computer I downloaded. It's incase one
is damaged or the carrier is injured," Mercury explained.
     "Oh," Brasck stated as he slipped it into his backpack, "Now lets
get out of here. This place is one bad situation after another." He took
point and led the group to the stairwell to start the long climb to the roof.
At the door to the stairs he stopped to address the group, mainly the
Scouts as his team already knew the procedures for moving through
stairwells. "Okay, here's how it's going to be. The person on point will
stop at the first landing he comes to and hand off to the person behind
them. The rest of the team will leapfrog past him and then pick up the
tail. Got that?"
     The Scouts nodded their understanding and made ready to race
up the stairs. Brasck kicked the door open and rushed into the stairwell
with his gun leading the way. He stopped and covered the stairs leading
down while everyone else raced up the stairs. When the last person
passed him, he followed while keeping a watch on the rear. When he
reached the next landing the person guarding it took up his spot at the
rear as the team raced up the stairs, each taking a turn guarding a door at
each landing.
     The only surprise they got was when they reached the door to the
roof. It had been blown off earlier when Brasck's team had tried to enter
it and the group quickly moved out onto the roof to find cover. Instead
they found eighty Neven warriors laying in wait for them. The second the
last person was on the roof, the Neven forces opened fire on the team.
     Four members of Brasck's team were cut down before anyone
was able to find cover. Brasck found himself hiding behind a large pipe
along with the Scouts, Tuxedo Mask, and his second in command. The
rest of the team had spread out on the roof taking whatever cover they
could find. 
     "Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get us out of this
mess?" Brasck yelled over the gunfire.
     "How about tossing a few grenades?" Sol offered.
     "Can't," Brasck's second replied for him, "We used them all on
the ambush we got caught in trying to get inside."
     "How about the next best thing?" Jupiter asked as she started to
lob balls of energy over the pipe. Each one sailed through the air and
landed in the middle of the Neven ambush team. They could hear the
screams of the wounded after the echo of the explosions passed over
them.
     "Not bad," Brasck commented after taking a quick look at the
devastation Jupiter had caused, "Looks like you took out about a quarter
of them."
     "That's it?!" she exclaimed. She had sent some of her most
powerful lightning balls over at them.
     "There are about eighty of them on the other side of the roof.
Taking out as many as you did speaks for how badly their positions are
laid out," Brasck explained.
     "Oh," Jupiter replied, still not impressed.
     "Sir," Brasck's second interrupted, "We got a big problem."
     "Like this isn't one?!" he shot back.
     "The chopper was shot down when they tried to come in and pick
us up. The whole city lit up with anti-aircraft weaponry after we were
dropped off," came the really bad news.
     Brasck swore out loud, cursing the gods who had sent him here.
"How the hell do they expect us to get out of here!" were the next words
out of his mouth.
     "Hold one, sir," his second said as he listened to the radio in his
ear, "They're sending in a different aircraft for the retrieval, sir. They
want us to secure the rooftop if possible."
     "If the Pave Low couldn't get in, how do they expect anything
else to?!" Brasck exclaimed in fury, "And no, we can't secure the roof
because we're being held down by at least sixty enemy troops!" This
mission had gone from bad to worse in the last thirty seconds and he had
no idea how to get out of it.
     "Control copies and tells us to hunker down. Whatever they are
sending in apparently is coming with some serious firepower." And to
punctuate his words, several explosions appeared on the nearby rooftops.
Each explosion announcing the demise of an anti-aircraft battery.
     "What the hell was that?!" Brasck exclaimed as he looked around
him at the explosions, "Did they say anything about any fast movers
operating in the area?"
     "Fast movers?" Sailor Moon asked. She was having a hard time
following the running conversation.
     "Jets," Brasck explained as he scanned the sky for the aircraft, if
there were any.
     "No, sir," came the reply.
     "I think I found it," Mercury called out. She had her visor on and
was scanning the area around them.
     Brasck moved over next to her. "What do you got?" he asked.
     "My computer is talking to Dragoon HQ to see if it can id it,"
Mercury said, "Should get an answer   here it is. HQ classifies it as an
AH-65 Lynx attack helicopter." She looked over at Brasck. "One of
Wolf's modified toys?" she asked.
     "Never heard of it," he replied.
     "What's it look like?" Venus asked.
     Mercury brought up an image of the helicopter on her computer
and showed it to Venus as she continued to scan the area around them.
     "American AH-64D Apache. Most powerful attack chopper ever
made. Are you sure this is it?" Mercury nodded in response, "Whoa."
     Brasck had taken a look at Mercury's computer when she had
handed it to Venus. "Must be the escort for our ride," he said as several
more explosions went off, "Mercury, you see anything that could be our
ride?"
     "I keep getting ghost returns off of something out there, but I
can't get a solid track on it. All I know is that it's close," Mercury
answered.
     "How close?"
     In answer to his question the biggest helicopter any of them had
ever seen rose above the edge of the roof like some mammoth guardian
angel. The helicopter had two huge rotors located on the wingtips of the
huge wing that looked like it belonged on an airplane. The fuselage
looked like that of a small transport complete with the twin tails on the
back. Slung under the right side of fuselage was a huge Gatling gun that
was pointed at the enemy on the other side of the roof.
     "Holy shit!" Sailor Sol exclaimed, "A V-22 Osprey!"
     The whole group looked on in awe as the huge aircraft/helicopter
hybrid began to fire on the Neven forces. The noise that the gun made
was like the worlds largest zipper. A huge gout of flame spewed from the
barrels as they sent forth 1,200 shells of destruction per minute. The gun
swivelled left and right as it swept the roof clear of all Neven troops.
     In under ten seconds it was over and the huge aircraft/chopper
moved over the center of the roof and came to a hover just above it. The
rear loading ramp lowered and two crewmen started to waive for the
Dragoons to get on as fast as they could. Everyone burst from their cover
and sprinted for the ramp. As each person got on the Load Master and his
assistant literally shoved the Dragoons into the hold of the plane. Four of
them had stopped to pick up their fallen comrades and were one of the
last ones on. As Brasck jumped up into the plane after making sure
everyone else got on, he heard the Load Master shout out that everyone
was on.
     Without even waiting for the rear ramp to close, the pilot lifted
off and dove over the edge of the building to get out of there as fast as he
could. The sudden drop caused several people to lift off the floor and hit
their heads on the ceiling before they could strap themselves into a
jumpseat. The pilot rotated the engine nacelles to the horizontal
converting the helicopter into a plane.
     After two minutes of being thrown around the plane they made
it out of the city in one piece and ten minutes later Dragoon HQ opened
a jumpgate for them to get back to Wolf's Lair. And safety. And all three
copies of the computer core had made it out without a scratch.


*                                       *                                      *


MA'GEB ANTEL
HALMIAD HIGHLANDS
MA'JING PROVINCE, NEGAVERSE

"All units report in," Wolf ordered over the command circuit of his
Biomechanical, or "Hacks" as they were referred to. The view in front of
him was of sparsely forested hills. Being raised ten meters above the
ground gave him a commanding view of the soon to be battlefield before
him. He looked to his left and right taking note of where his units were
dug in. He saw the first three on either side of him spread out at one
hundred meter intervals hunkered down in their cover positions. All they
had to do was wait for Wolf's order to attack. 
     "Two."
     "Three."
     "Four."
     "Five."
     "Six."
     "Seven."
     "Eight."
     "Nine."
     "Ten."
     "Copy, all units are go," Wolf replied to his units signing off,
"Watch for friendlies coming over the ridge ahead of the attacking force.
No one fires before I give the word. Anyone who does can look forward
to three weeks in the can."
     Now all Wolf did was keep an eye on the holographic map of the
surrounding battlefield and the other on his own units. The Neven forces
were eating General Rune's  5th Main Tank Regiment alive. Her armored
tanks just didn't have the shielding or firepower to take on the Neven
forces with their hover-tanks and energy weapons.
     But the Dragoons did.
     The Dragoons Biomechanicals looked like something out of
Mechwarrior 2 or Heavy Gear. Giant walking robots that had
unimaginable firepower and agility. You wouldn't expect the larger ones
to be all that maneuverable but the truth was that they were more agile
than even the Neven Forces' own hover tanks even though they were
easily three times the size. Biomechs fell into several different classes
depending on their size and abilities. The smallest were nothing more
than powered suits that the soldier wore. They could carry heavier
weaponry than a common foot soldier and were some of the fastest
Biomechs made. They could often exceed 250 km/h and were often used
for scouting or reconnaissance missions.
     Next up was a series known as Centurions. They were just large
enough for the pilot to be completely housed inside the biomech's torso.
These Hacks were often fitted with heavier weaponry than the power-
suits and were used for the same type of missions. Their superior speed
and armor made them a prime candidate for recon missions against the
more heavily defended targets.  Some models have been known to reach
speeds of almost 300 km/h.
     The Leviathan class of Hacks were by far the most common class
of biomechs. These Hacks were often on the order of 10 - 30m in height
and could carry an impressive array of weaponry. Often fitted with heavy
machine guns, energy weapons, missiles and rockets, these biomechs
were the most commonly seen Hacks on the battlefield. Designs often
ranged from multi legged crawlers to upright walkers.
     The largest class of biomech was the Guardian class. These hacks
were absolutely huge, reaching sizes of almost 60m. They carried some
of the heaviest weaponry ever carried on the battlefield. Some models
even sported 16 inch guns. Imagine hurtling a Jeep thirty kilometers or
more and you have the idea. The shells they used weighed in at over one
metric ton of high explosives. These guys could take out whole regiments
with one volley.
     Wolf's personal biomech was a Leviathan class Mercano SL-63
Attack and Command Hack. It used a reversed-joint leg system with a
central torso that had the cockpit protruding from it. Buried in the torso
on either side of the cockpit were dual missile launcher systems. The rest
of the space in the torso was taken up by eighty Hellfire III antitank
missiles, the electronics for all the systems, and a micro cold fusion
reactor which put out enough power to light the cities of New York and
Los Angeles combined for a whole decade.
     Ten kilometers behind Wolf's forward units was a regiment of
Guardian class Hacks. They were there to deliver a decisive opening
blow to the Neven forces and then provide heavy fire-support in case they
were needed. There orders were to stay at least 5 km behind the front line
since they were not as fast as the forward units.
     "Archlight, stand by for target designation," Wolf told the
Guardians over a different command frequency.
     "Roger that. Sixteen inchers are hot and waiting for target
lazing," came the reply over the radio. The particular shells that they
were using were a new generation of "smart weapons". Each shell had
a seeker on the nose that locked onto the dot that a targeting laser made
on its target. The shell would then use the fins that were deployed after
being fired to steer itself onto the laser dot. The shell's target accuracy
was measured in millimeters.
     Wolf watched as the first of Rune's 5th Main Tank Regiment
came running over the hill. Wolf watched as they raced over the ridge
and came poring down the slope. Every so often one would stop and take
a shot behind them doing little to no damage. Far more frequent were the
explosions that marked the demise of another of Rune's tanks.
     Shortly after Rune's tanks were clear of the ridge the Neven
forces came surging over. Each hover tank sported twin turrets with two
cannons each. This allowed the tanks to fire at two targets
simultaneously. Wolf painted two of them with his laser as the rest of his
squad did the same. Twenty of the lead tanks were about to be erased
from the face of the planet.
     "Archlight, fire at will."
     "Incoming!" came the response over the radio.
     Two seconds later there was a sound that could only be described
as the sky being ripped apart as the shells arched toward their intended
targets. And with the sound of thunder that could be felt kilometers away
all twenty tanks disappeared behind brilliant explosions that left no doubt
that they were destroyed.
     "Acquiring new targets . . . Targets acquired . . . Fire second
salvo."
     With the sound of the shells tearing apart the sky, twenty more
tanks disappeared behind a wall of flame.
     Wolf took a quick look to access the situation and saw that the
Guardians could no longer be used. Rune's 5th Main Tank Regiment was
about to pass through Wolf's own line with a few of them stopping to
take a pot shot every now and then. And with more Neven tanks coming
over the ridge they were already too close to Wolf's Hacks for the
Guardians to use their sixteen inchers with out running the risk of
damaging his own units.
     "Archlight, cease fire," Wolf radioed, "Move back to standby
positions."
     "Roger that," came the reply, "Moving to standby positions."
     "Everyone look sharp!" Wolf called out over his units frequency,
"Open fire when you have a lock!"
     "Copy," came the replies.
     Three seconds later as many as twenty missiles raced across the
battlefield. Several of the Neven tanks had two or more missiles targeting
them and had no chance of survival. Some of the ones that had only one
missile locked onto them survived, but only after taking heavy damage.
Those ones soon fell to fire coming from Rune's 5th MTR since their
shields were gone from the initial attack.
     Wolf saw that Rune's forces had taken up positions behind his
own to pick off anyone that was damaged. They would probably attack
Wolf's own units if given the chance. He quickly switched his radio over
to the frequency used by Rune's forces as their emergency channel.
     "General Rune's 5th Main Tank Regiment," Wolf said, "This is
Wolf, commander of the  Dragoon Legion's 2nd Biomechanical Battalion.
Fall back to a position six clicks behind us so that we may deal with the
Nevenites without having to protect you at the same time."
     "This is Colonel Ra'meth of the 5th MTR. This is a secure
frequency. You are ordered to clear it immediately," came the reply a
few seconds later.
     "Colonel Ra'meth, you will fall back immediately or I will
personally destroy what is left of your division. Is that understood?"
     "I do not take kindly to threats from traitors, Commander Wolf,"
Colonel Ra'meth replied, venom dripping from his voice.
     Wolf brought the left arm up with its four imbedded plasma rifles
and took aim at the nearest of the Colonel's tanks. Sixteen rounds blew
the right track to pieces leaving the tank disabled. Wolf saw the hatch fly
open and it's three occupants jump out of the tank to run for their lives.
They were as good as dead if they had stayed in the tank.
     "Do not test my patience, Colonel," Wolf said over the radio.
     "You have just made an enemy this day Commander Wolf," the
reply came, "You will pay for what you have done."
     "Just as long as I don't see you for the rest of the day, I could care
less," Wolf stated, "Have a nice day Colonel."
     Wolf grinned to himself as he watched what remained of the 5th
MTR began to fall back. Two of them stopping briefly to pick up their
three soldiers who were without a ride. Now, to get back to the matter at
hand, Wolf thought.
     Taking a quick look at the spread of his forces he saw that one
had already gone down. He quickly switched to his units frequency and
got a hold of his second in command for the mission.
     "Da'mel, what happened to Westwood?" Wolf asked.
     There was a short pause before the denizen replied.
     "She took hits from six of the Neven tanks all at once. Her shields
held except for the fact that three of those hit her left hip actuator. Took
the leg clean off. She's ejected and made it to the ground alright . . . Evac
has already been called in to pick her up. ETA ten minutes," Da'mel
reported, "Now, you going to sit there and watch us waste these fools or
do you plan on joining in?"
     " I think I'll join in if you don't mind the company."
     "Always a pleasure to have your help. If you would be so kind as
to help take out those four tanks trying to flank us on the right it would
be greatly appreciated."
     "Hey!" Wolf called out, "Who's giving the orders here?"
     "Why, you, of course."
     "And don't you forget it," Wolf replied as he moved up and to his
right to take on the four tanks trying to out flank them. He quickly
spotted them and took them out with a combination of missiles and
plasma rifles. Soon he found himself moving and shooting constantly as
what seemed to be wave after wave of Neven forces came at them. He
saw that the rest of his unit was doing the same. It dragged on for nearly
an hour. Fighting off one attack after another. Twice they had to pull
back and re-engage since they were in danger of being over-run. At the
end of the battle the wreckage stretched across nearly 10 kilometers.
Everywhere you looked was the burned out hulk of a Neven tank.
     Upon their return to Wolf's Lair, the 2nd BB's claimed 156 kills.
83 confirmed kills were awarded. The score was only marred by the loss
of three Hacks. Fortunately all three pilots got out and were rescued.
They were not allowed to pay for a single drink that night at the bar.


*                                       *                                      *


DRAGOON LEGION HEADQUARTERS
LOCATION CLASSIFIED
NEGAVERSE

Wolf crashed down on to the couch the second he made it into the
livingroom of his flat at Wolf's Lair. He was just about to fall asleep
when he heard the others come in.
     "God, I am wasted," Mina stated as she crashed on the love seat.
     "You can say that again," Lita replied as she landed next to Mina.
     Wolf dragged himself into a sitting position so that the others
would also have a place to sit. "How did it go?" he asked.
     "We managed to get the copies of their computer core, but Brasck
lost four people and Darien got grazed by a bullet," Ami replied as she
took a seat at the far end of the couch. She leaned her head back and let
out a sigh as she let her body relax. "I don't know what was worse; the
mission or the debrief."
     "The debrief," Rei stated as she sprawled out in front of the
fireplace, "Serena even managed to get yelled at for falling asleep a few
times."
     "It isn't my fault I'm so tired," she complained as she took a seat
next to Ami with Darien right next to her.
     "Yeah, whatever," Rei said from her spot on the floor.
     "I take it you were debriefed by Major Locklan, a.k.a. Major
Pain," Wolf surmised.
     "Yeah," Lita confirmed, moving a bit to make herself more
comfortable, "My butt is still numb from sitting in that chair for two
hours. The only way to make those seats anymore painful would be to
glue nails to them."
     "Let's not give them any ideas," Mina added.
     "I've been trying to get personnel to run him through an attitude
adjustment course or see a shrink," Wolf said, "but they keep telling me
they don't have any such course and there is no clear reason for him to
require therapy."
     "Just let me at the prick," Jessica said.
     Wolf hadn't realized Jessica had come in and looked over his
shoulder to see her sitting on a stool at the counter.
     "Why don't you come and sit over here," Wolf suggested,
"There's plenty of room. Push down, Cape Boy." It was a huge couch
and dominated an entire side of the room.
     Jessica was about to tell him no since she still didn't know what
to do about him, but decided to maul it over in her head.
     "Come on," Wolf coaxed her with a jerk of the head.
     After another moments hesitation she gave in and sat down next
to Wolf. She immediately let out a sigh as she relaxed into the soft
leather of the couch. She felt herself begin to drift off as she sat there
listening to the conversation continue around her.
     "How did you do?" Darien asked, "I heard you had something of
an exciting day yourself."
     "Depends if you call bailing General Rune's 5th Main Tank
Regiment, or what was left of it, out of a very well executed ambush by
the Nevenites as exciting," Wolf responded, "We lost three Hacks.
Fortunately all three pilots were able to get out in one piece."
     "Did you really have to come to their rescue?" Jessica asked. She
had heard of many of the things that Rune was responsible for, including
putting a death warrant on every Dragoon member just because the
founder of the Dragoon Legion happened to be Sailor Moon's father.
     "If we let the Neven forces march across the Negaverse then that
would give them one more staging area for them to launch assaults
against Earth," Wolf explained.
     Jessica conceded the point but still felt that they should do the
planet a favor and let the Neven forces wipe that scum from existence.
     "You know," Darien said, "You have told us about these
Biomechs you have, but you haven't shown us them, yet. I would like to
get a look at one."
     "If you remind me tomorrow I'll take you guys down to the Mech
bays and show you around," Wolf said, "Oh, that reminds me. Mina,
Maze called a few minutes before you got here. Said he was leaving
C&C and should be here soon."
     "Thanks," Mina replied. Her right foot was up on the love seat
and she extended it sending Lita crashing to the floor, "Make room."
     "Mina!" Wolf exclaimed, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
     "Don't worry about it," Lita said as she picked herself up off the
floor, "I was planing on getting up and making something to drink
anyway."
     "Tea, please," Rei called from the floor as Lita made her way into
the kitchen.
     "How about a stiff drink?" Wolf called after her.
     "I could use one myself," Darien added. He got a jib in the ribs
from Serena for the effort of daring to ask for liquor.
     "I thought you didn't have any alcohol," Lita called from the
kitchen.
     "I don't," Wolf said, "If I did you would drink it all."
     "I doubt that," Lita called, "I would probably pass out long before
then."
     "Yeah, right," everyone in the living room exclaimed at once.
They all knew that Lita could drink any Russian under the table.
     "Hey!" Lita shot back, "Who was nice enough to come out here
and get you guys something to drink?"
     "Anyway, I'll have a Coke if you wouldn't mind, thank you,"
Wolf called.
     "Okay," she said, "Anyone else want anything?"
     The others called out what they would like and a few minutes
later she came back out with them. Everyone thanked her for the drinks
as she sat down in the unused recliner. She took a sip of her iced tea as
she leaned back into the chair. They all heard the front door open and
someone walk in.
     "Hello," Maze called, "I'm here."
     "We're in the living room," Wolf called out.
     Maze poked his head around the corner and looked into the living
room. He saw everyone lounging around. "Man, you guys look wasted.
What did you do? Hit every mall on the planet?" Maze asked.
     "Not funny," Jessica replied. She would have thrown a pillow, but
didn't have one on hand. Not that she had the strength to throw one
anyway.
     Mina got up from her seat and dragged Maze over to the love
seat. They plopped down in a mass of tangled arms and legs. No one
knew how those two could find that position comfortable.
     "Oh, God," Wolf remarked as he saw them, "Just watching you
two makes my back protest in pain. I don't know how you two do it."
     "Hey, it took us nearly an hour to get this layout right," Maze
replied, "Do not criticize perfection."
     "That is not perfection," Lita stated, "It's a mess."
     "And who asked for your opinion?" Mina asked jokingly.
     "No one," Lita replied, "But since I'm entitled to have an opinion,
I thought I'd share it."
     "God help us if she decides to have an opinion on everything,"
Wolf said to the ceiling.
     "Who says I don't?" Lita replied with a grin.
     "Oh, God," Wolf exasperated, "Me and my big mouth."
     Everyone had a much needed laugh over that before deciding
that it was time to call it a night. There was no doubt that today had
been a long day for all of them.


*                                       *                                      *


NEVEN COMMAND HEADQUARTERS
CENTRAL SIBERIA
FORMER RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, EARTH

"Tell me you have good news, Major," The General said as he came in
the command center.
     "Yes, and no," came the Major's reply. The General glared at him
with a gaze that could turn water to stone.
     "That is not what I wanted to hear," The General sighed, "Bad
news first."
     Taking a breath to gather his courage the Major pressed on, "The
31st Armoured Battalion was nearly annihilated by a division of Dragoon
Legion Mecha similar to the ones the Divonians use."
     "You mean those walking behemoths that nearly crushed three of
our infantry corps by just stepping on them?" The General asked.
     "Yes, except these ones are smaller, faster, more agile, and more
heavily armed," the Major stated, "Also, the main communications nexus
in the city of Berlin was attacked at the same time. We believe the
Dragoons to be responsible for this attack as well on the reports that the
Sailor Scouts were sighted among the attackers."
     "What were they after?"
     "Unknown, the only damage to the facility was on the roof of the
building and the street level entrance had been blown in. Nothing else
appeared to have been tampered with."
     "The central computer there?"
     "Untouched. No one had tried to access it even though the three
technicians on duty were killed. We do not know what the Dragoons
were doing thereat all since they took and destroyed nothing of strategic
value."
     "Is it possible for them to have accessed the computer without
leaving a trail?"
     "Possible but unlikely. The way our systems are made is by using
a trinary programing coding. They would not be able to slice into the
system since they would have no idea how to understand the system. All
of their systems use a binary coding language."
     "Is that all of the bad news, or is there more?"
     "That is all of the bad news," the Major replied. He pulled out a
data pad and handed it over to The General. "Here is the plan I came up
with to find the information we need to take down the Dragoon Legion."
     The General took it and looked it over. "Risky, but we don't have
much of a choice in the matter. It's approved. Head out as soon as you
are ready," The General said in dismissal.
     The Major saluted and headed out of the command center to
prepare himself for what will be the hardest assignment of his life.


*                                       *                                      *


DRAGOON LEGION HEADQUARTERS
LOCATION CLASSIFIED
NEGAVERSE

"Five o'clock high. Coming right to left. If we pull it in tighter he'll
overshoot," Jessica's WIZZO, Mike "Mad Man" Crawler, said over the
interphone. Following his advice she pulled back on the stick causing the
F-1 Vampire to tighten it's already tight right turn.
     The Vampire that was chasing her had thought about that and had
deployed his airbrake to prevent just such an occurrence. He slipped
smoothly in behind her but was unable to come around fast enough to
bring his weapons to bear.
     Jessica stayed in the turn for a moment before deciding that no
one was going to win this turning contest. Fortunately so did her
opponent. She watched as he pulled the nose of his fighter up and went
into a High Yo-Yo. This would allow him to lose some airspeed and
tighten up his turn and bring his weapons to bear if Jessica held her turn.
And Jessica wouldn't give him the chance. She rolled the Vampire
inverted and went into a split-S.
     Caught on the wrong end of the power curve and high the other
fighter dove after her in an attempt to gain airspeed and position on her.
Jessica saw this and instead of leveling off when she was level with the
horizon again, she kept back pressure on the stick and pulled the nose to
the vertical.
     "What the hell are you doing?!" Mad Man exclaimed.
     "Forcing him into a vertical scissors," Jessica replied keeping her
eyes firmly locked on the other plane.
     And sure enough the other plane saw what she was doing and
went full back on the stick with full afterburners. His descent came to a
halt and he seemed to hang in the air for a second before climbing
vertically after her. When he got into range of her he found himself
abreast with Jessica's own Vampire. They were now in what was known
as a vertical scissors.
     As both planes spiraled skyward they each slowly brought their
throttles back trying to force the other to overshoot. The rules of a
vertical scissors engagement were simple. The first person to stall their
plane lost. This happened when the plane's airspeed got so low that the
wings ceased to produce lift and the plane would have to nose over to
regain all the airspeed. All the other plane would have to do is nose over
and follow the other plane down, blasting it out of the sky.
     Jessica kept a careful watch on the holographic projection that
indicated her airspeed as she looked through the top of the canopy at the
other plane not 17m away. She slowly inched her throttle back and
watched the other plane as it kept up with her. Neither one moving out
in front of the other. She watched as their airspeed quickly plummeted
toward the stall speed of 65 knots. All they could do was see who hit the
stall speed first.
     Unfortunately it was Jessica. The second she dropped through her
stall speed she applied right rudder and started to bring her nose back
around. The second the other pilot saw her nose move back toward the
ground he applied left rudder of his own to follow her down and blow her
out of the sky on the way down.
     But Jessica had planed for this and when she saw her opponent's
nose begin to follow her she jammed the right engine into full afterburner
and stomped on the left rudder peddle. Suddenly her nose stopped in
mid-air and actually began to rotate back toward the vertical. Her
opponent was caught totally unprepared for this display of sheer power
and was too far along to arrest his downward fall. All he could do was
point his plane for the ground as fast as he could and get back up to
flying speed before she could come around.
     "Holy shit!" Mad Man called out as the plane began to shudder
from the strain of the maneuver that Jessica was performing. He watched
as Jessica brought the nose of the plane all the way around and came out
behind their opponent. Jessica played with the rudder and lined the other
plane up in her sights. When she was lined up she let loose with the
plasma cannons. Small blue balls of energy shot from Jessica's plane and
turned her opponent into fiery bits of wreckage.

     "Where the hell did she learn to fly?!" the officer in charge of the
Vampire simulator exclaimed after seeing Jessica's piloting skills.
     "Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada," Wolf replied. He was standing
in the control room for the simulator with Megan. In the front of the
room were three huge screens. The one in the middle showed a
wireframe model of the engagement that could be manipulated by the
controller to provide a better view of the fight. On the left screen was an
external view from Jessica's plane to whatever her target was, which at
the moment was a fireball of wreckage. The right screen showed a
similar view except from the point of view of whatever was targeting
Jessica. When she had destroyed the fighter it had reverted to a chase
camera and showed a rear view of her plane.
     "How the hell did she manage that?" Megan asked.
     "At the time her father was head of security and was very good
friends with some of the flight instructors there. She's got two hundred
hours flight time in F-16s, four of which are in simulated combat. Plus
about a thousand hours or so on their simulator," Wolf told her.
     "That doesn't explain where she picked up that last maneuver she
pulled. No Earth fighter has that kind of capability," the controller stated.
     "True," Wolf admitted, "She's been going over the specs for the
Vampire for the last three weeks and has the manual memorized. She
probably has been thinking of new tactics she could use since all
previous ones were designed for planes that didn't have a quarter of the
capabilities this one does. I think we should add that little trick to the
training curriculum."
     "Lets do it," Megan agreed.
     "Was that the best you guys could do?" Jessica's voice came over
the intercom system inside the simulator.
     "Why that little . . ." Megan growled. She didn't like Jessica at all
and the girl's attitude was beginning to annoy her. "Put her up against the
top difficulty level. No one has beaten that level yet."
     "She just did," the controller informed her.
     "What?!"
     "Wolf had me put her up against the Ace Alpha AI. And she just
wasted it," the controller replied to Megan's outburst.
     "Someone needs to cut that girl's ego down to size!" Megan
exclaimed.
     "And who's going to cut yours?" the controller grumbled under
his breath.
     Wolf heard him and tried not to laugh out loud.
     Megan turned to Wolf and smiled sweetly. "Would you mind
helping me burn that girl?"
     Wolf let out a sigh of exasperation. Having Megan and Jessica at
each other's throats all the time was beginning to grate.
     "Alright," Wolf gave in. He turned to the controller. "Bring up the
program for the Phalanx on Sim 2, would you?"
     "Sure thing," he replied and went to work as Megan and Wolf
headed for Sim 2.

"What do you think they'll send after us next?" Jessica asked Mad Man
as she flew the plane in lazy circles.
     "I really don't know. I think you just wasted the top level of
difficulty in the AI. As far as I know, no one has been able to beat it,"
Mad Man replied, "To be totally honest, you're the best pilot I have ever
seen. And I've seen quite a few."
     "Thank you," Jessica replied to the compliment.
     "You're welcome."
     "Are the kiddies ready to play?" Megan's voice came through the
earphones of their helmets.
     "Shit," Mad Man swore, "Megan's up here."
     "Me and my pilot are going turn you two into a smoking crater!"
Megan exclaimed over the intercom which passed as a radio.
     "Wait, if she's the WIZZO, that means Wolf's the pilot. And that
means he's flying the Phalanx!" Mad Man exclaimed, "We're about to
find out just how good you really are, Jess."
     "Tell me as much about it as you can," Jessica ordered as she
began to search the skies with the 360 degree radar.
     "Twin engine forward swept wing design with canards. Same
engines we're using with the plane being half the weight. It has improved
performance in all flight regimes. It can also carry a loadout similar to
ours. Just hope Wolf doesn't pull out all the stops," Mad Man said.
     "Why is that?" Jessica asked.
     "Let's just say you have to see it to believe it," came the reply.
     Jessica was about to ask him what he meant, but was cut off when
she picked up Wolf's plane on radar. This was soon followed be a
message that popped up in front of her and a computer generated voice.
     "WARNING, MISSILE LAUNCH!"
     She made a quick high definition scan and the system picked out
two missiles headed right for her. A box appeared around the two
missiles so that she could pick them out even though they were way
beyond visual range. The data she was receiving told her that the missiles
were still 300 miles away.
     "You had better think of something to do now because those
missiles will be here in about thirty seconds," Mad Man said.
     Jessica had already thought of what she would do in this situation
since she had studied the missiles specs thoroughly. She launched two
bundles of chaff, then turned into the missile and went into afterburner.
The two chaff bundles exploded behind her and clouded the sky with tiny
strips of silvery metal. Each strip reflected any radar energy that hit it
making a huge return on anyone looking in that direction with a radar.
The idea was that the return on Jessica's plane would be lost in the
clutter on the missiles radar scope. And it worked, to a degree.
     "What the hell is she doing?" Wolf wondered aloud. He knew that
the missile would pick her up again in a few seconds since she was
coming right at it. Soon the return on her plane would be the largest
target on the missile's scope and it would head right for it. And sure
enough it did.
     But the missile had picked Jessica's plane up too late. The missile
found itself out of position and had to move the small guidance fins to
their extreme positions if it was to have any chance of hitting its target.
It ended up shooting off into the sky since it didn't have the performance
to follow Jessica which was already past the missile when it started to
perform the maneuver.
     With the missile behind them Jessica and Mad Man bored in on
Wolf and Megan. They shot off two of their own missiles and followed
them in. Jessica knew that Wolf would be able to avoid them but wanted
to catch him out of position when he came out of his breaking
maneuvers. She brought the throttles back to bring down her speed and
move herself into position for the coup-de-grace.
     "Son-of-a-bitch!" Wolf cursed when he figured out what Jessica
had in mind.
     "I don't believe it," Megan commented when she saw it too, "The
little tramp has us cold."
     "Not if we play the game with her own rule book," Wolf said,
"Brace yourself for some maximum G maneuvering."
     "Shit," Megan cursed as she remembered what had happened the
last time she was in a plane with Wolf and he had pushed the
performance to the edge. She had to burn the flight suit because the smell
of her lunch wouldn't come out. She still hadn't lived down the
embarrassment of becoming airsick on that ride. Thank God she had
eaten a light lunch.
     Wolf shoved the throttles into full afterburner and pulled back on
the stick as hard as he could until he was going vertical. The sudden
change in direction caused the accelerometer to momentarily peg at 9
G's. Megan had to strain as hard as she could during that half second to
keep from blacking out since the flow of blood to her brain had
momentarily ceased. When the move was complete blood came rushing
back and caused her head to swim. Some how she had managed to keep
track of where Jessica was during the whole thing.
     Jessica watched as her missiles pulled up to follow Wolf as he
shot upward. She didn't have a clue as to what he was planning so she
thought about breaking off and see how he came out of the maneuver he
was doing. It was when her radar exploded in noise that she realized what
he was doing. He was pulling the same trick she had done two seconds
earlier. She looked over behind where Wolf's plane was and could see
the glint from the chafe clouds that he had launched. She looked back in
time to see Wolf nose over and come boring in on her. He had not only
used her own trick, but improved on it. Now the hunter was the hunted.
     She made a quick calculation and shoved her own throttles into
afterburner. She pulled the nose up and headed strait for Wolf's plane.
The only chance she had was to close the distance as fast as she could.
     "Are you crazy?!" Mad Man shouted from the back. He thought
she was on a suicide run until she started to jink the plane around to
prevent Wolf from having a clear shot. He let out a yelp as he was thrown
around the cockpit since Jessica's moves were so erratic.
     Suddenly the two flew past each other and both of them pulled up
into the vertical. Once again Jessica found herself in a vertical scissors.
This was a game she knew all too well.
     "Don't expect Wolf to fall for this trick," Mad Man cautioned,
"He watched you do this before and he could very well stuff you on it."
     "Why do you say that?" Jessica asked.
     "Because if Wolf is going to pull out the stops, he's going to do
it here," Mad man informed her.
     "I'll believe it when I see it," Jessica said as she looked though
the top of the canopy at the plane that was pacing her only a few short
meters away. Then Wolf did something totally unexpected. He cut his
throttles to idle. Suddenly Jessica found herself moving out in front and
had to cut her own throttles and deploy the air brake to prevent from
getting in Wolf's sights. Her mind began to race as their airspeed
plummeted and she knew that she was going to have to bring the engines
back up soon before she fell too far below the stall speed. Slowly she
applied power until she was almost standing in midair. The only thing
holding her up was the thrust of the engines.
     Wolf on the other hand didn't bother to bring his engines back up.
He let his airspeed go to zero and fell into a tail slide. After a second of
falling backwards the plane caught enough air and snapped the plane
around to point at the ground.
     That was all the time Jessica needed as she went into her
hammerhead stall. As her nose came around behind Wolf she saw
something that caused her to stop in confusion. She looked down at
Wolf's plane and stared in wonder as it began to change shape. The
engines pulled up onto it's back as the wings folded inward to tuck in
over the engines. Two legs extended from the fuselage as well as two
arms. The nose of the plane tucked into the belly of the plane and a head
appeared on the shoulders. Jessica was no longer looking at a plane, but
a giant robot. It was like something out of that Robotech cartoon she used
to watch. She saw that there were three canons imbedded in each arm
and they were pointed back at her.
     "GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Mad Man screamed into
the interphone.
     Since there was not enough air moving over the control surfaces
to make them effective, Jessica engaged the neural-interface for the first
time during the whole flight. She fired the maneuvering thrusters that
were used when the fighter was in space to move her plane out of the
way of the rain of blue energy balls that were suddenly surrounding her
plane. She had the engines in full afterburner to get up to flying speed as
fast as possible.
     Suddenly the firing stopped and Jessica watched as the robot
reverted back into a plane and shot off toward the ground at a speed that
defied the mind.
     "What the hell was that!" Jessica exclaimed.
     "Hell with wings!" Mad Man bitched, "What do you think?!"
     "That does it," Jessica growled, her face turning to stone, "Time
to pull off the gloves. From here on out I fly using the neural-interface!"
     "You mean to tell me you've been flying on manual this whole
time?!" Mad Man asked in shock. His appreciation of Jessica's flying
ability just went up another hundred notches.
     Two handles extended next to her thighs for her to hold onto
since the manual controls over rode the neural-interface if moved. "Hold
on to you're stomach," Jessica said, "We're going all out."
     With a single thought she cut out all the limiters and pushed the
engines to nearly 125%. Both of them were shoved back into their seats
as the engines hurled the plane after Wolf. She closed her eyes and let the
full capabilities of the sensors flood into her mind. In a flash the word
around her exploded as raw sensor data pored into her brain. She could
see and process more information than she ever could with just her eyes.
     She spotted Wolf's plane heading into a canyon and followed him
in at nearly Mach 6. The sonic shockwave from her plane nearly
destroyed the two stone pillars that marked the entrance to the canyon.
She slowed down slightly to prevent from cratering into the canyon walls
but kept her speed well above Mach 3 as she chased after Wolf.
     "She's closing in fast," Megan informed Wolf as he careened
around in canyon. He had the throttles at maximum thrust (afterburners
off) and was burning through at just over Mach 2. At times he was only
missing the walls by only a few bare centimeters as he avoided objects
and made sharp turns. His full attention was on his flying while Megan
kept track of Jessica.
     "How fast?" Wolf asked.
     "Just over Mach 3," Megan informed, "She must be suicidal."
     "She's probably engaged the neural-interface and cut out the
performance limiters," Wolf said as he ducked below an outcropping of
rock, "I say it's time I do the same."
     Megan's eyes went wide at that comment. "I say we don't,"
Megan said. She had never been in a plane when Wolf had used the
neural-interface and didn't think she could survive the ride if he did. She
had a hard enough time with him flying the plane in manual mode.
     Wolf closed his eyes and took his hands off the controls. He
opened his mind as the data from the sensors pored in and pushed the
engines to 100%. He left the limiters intact for the time being. He didn't
think he would need to cut them out but was prepared to do so in any
case.
     The two planes tore through the canyon as their speed steadily
increased. The shock waves of the passing planes were causing huge
chunks of rock to be blown off the rock face. With both pilots pushing
the planes to the edge of the envelope all the two WIZZO's could do was
hold on for dear life as the number of G's steadily increased with each
maneuver the pilots made. Every so often one of the planes would get
into position for a snap shot at the other, but other than that the fight was
going no where. Not to mention they were about to run out of canyon in
a minute.
     "This is getting us no where," Megan grunted under the strain of
the G forces. Neither pilot was going to win down here.
     "Then let's move the playing field to someplace she has never
been," Wolf said just before pulling the Phalanx to the vertical. Jessica
followed him up with neither of them backing off the throttles. With the
power the engines were putting out they continued to accelerate as their
altitude shot through the roof. Both planes were passing through Mach
25 when the left the last of the planet's atmosphere behind them.
     With the friction caused by the air no longer a factor the rate at
which they accelerated nearly doubled. And with the two banking and
yanking nearly constantly, the G's almost never dropped below 7.
Suddenly the WIZZO's found themselves giving up on trying to keep
track of the fight and  just tried to remain conscious. Keeping blood
flowing to their brains became their only priority. When the G's
slackened enough for them to think for a moment they wondered how the
hell their pilots weren't suffering the same fate.
     Soon the two planes entered an asteroid field and had to contend
with avoiding the rocks as well as each other's fire. Since the two of
them weren't making any progress Wolf cut out his limiter and pushed
it to the very edge. With the total absence of an atmosphere Wolf
switched the plane into biomech mode and made use of the greater
maneuverability to it's maximum potential. Suddenly Wolf had all the
cards in his hand since he could use the cannons imbedded in the arms
to fire in nearly any direction he wanted.
     Jessica found herself trying to use as many of the asteroids as she
could for cover. She realized that her only hope was to get back inside
the planet's atmosphere where Wolf would be unable to use the Phalanx
in biomech mode since it would create too much drag for him to
maintain speed. The air would limit him to using only the fighter mode.
     She pulled out of the asteroid field and made her way to the
planet as fast as she could while never holding still for a moment. She
didn't realize it but her WIZZO had passed out some two minutes earlier
from the G's and was doing nothing more than taking up space and
weight.
     And Megan was in the same boat. She too had succumbed to the
G's and was slumped in her seat. Every once in a while her head would
hit the canopy as it lopped around lifelessly.
     Soon Jessica was diving down through the upper atmosphere and
leaving a trail of fire behind her nearly ten kilometers long. Wolf was
right behind her having to switch back to fighter mode before the friction
of being in biomech mode caused him to burn up. They soon made it
down into the thicker air which caused them to slow down and the
flaming trails they had been leaving to vanish as the skin of the planes
cooled.
     And once again the two found themselves in a stale mate as they
moved all over the sky. Neither one was gaining any ground and their
fuel was beginning to run out. Soon someone would lose because they
could no longer fly. The question was whose fuel would run out first.
     As it turned out it wasn't fuel that ended the fight. It was the light
kiss of the two planes wings touching that declared the fight finished. It
had been nothing more than a light tap that the airframe was more than
capable of taking. It was the tremendous power of the airflow around the
wings that was so violent. The blow from the air being disturbed around
their wings caused them to sheer off. With only one wing on either plane
they went spiraling out of control while doing nearly Mach 8. The two
planes began shedding parts before finally colliding with one another that
resulted in a huge explosion.
     "Holy shit," the controller for the simulator whispered as he
watched the fireball on the monitors, "Everyone is going to be watching
this recording for a long time." He got out of his seat after shutting down
the simulator and headed over to get everyone out.
     The first person he came to was Jessica and Mad Man. As he
pulled the canopy back he saw that they were both just waking up after
having passed out.
     Jessica let out a moan. "What happened?" Jessica asked the
controller, "The last thing I remember was our wings just missing each
other."
     "Oh, you didn't miss," the controller informed her as he helped
the two out, "Your wing tips kissed each other and it ended with you and
Wolf shedding parts before colliding with each other."
     "Remind me never to fly with you and Wolf in the air again,
would you?" Mad Man said as he staggered out of the simulator. He was
greeted by Wolf, who was supporting Megan.
     "I see you two are alive," Jessica said when she saw them.
     "Whatever," Megan replied, "That was one wild ride."
     "Did you know you all look like shit?" The controller informed
them as they were all soaked in sweat.
     "At least I didn't lose my lunch," Megan said weakly before she
keeled over and spewed her lunch all over the floor.


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