report, Captain."
"Gotcha, Colonel! Magnum!"
Eile watched as six HARM air-to-surface anti-radiation missiles, three from under each wing, shot out ahead of the Thunderbolt. The trios diverged almost immediately, each heading for the two closest Pearls.
"We've got an EMP discharge!" Sunny squealed. "Pulse wave imminent!"
"Cowboy! That Warthog's not hardened. Drop behind us, we'll try ta cover ya!"
"Yes, Ma'am! There's no place I'd rather be than pressed up behind two gorgeous gals like yerselves."
Sunny giggled.
"Aw, sheesh!"
The Thunderbolt dropped below them, then slid underneath. Sunny turned to look behind the Intruder. "He's in place."
"Just sit tight, Cowboy," Eile ordered. "We'll get ya through this one."
"Hell, I ain't goin' nowhere. In fact, I think it's gonna work. I kin feel somethin' hardening even as we--"
"That'll do, Captain!"
"Right you are, Colonel!"
"Eile, look!" Sunny pointed ahead. When she did, she saw what appeared to be St. Elmo's Fire and static electrical discharges playing along the lengths the missiles. One sputtered and dropped down out of formation, but the other five kept going.
"How the hell did you harden those missiles, Cowboy?"
"Shoot, I jest told my ground crew ta shut off everythin' except the passive guidance system. Looks like they missed one, though."
"EMP in five seconds!"
"Hands off the instruments. Hold on, Cowboy!"
Eile let go of the control stick and she and Sunny held up their hands. A second later she saw the Elmo's Fires glow and static discharges ripple over the nose and sweep over the canopy of the Intruder. But nothing happened in the cockpit.
"YEE-HAW!" Cowboy shouted in her ears. "Ride 'em cowgirls!"
"You okay?" Sunny asked as Eile took hold of the stick.
"Couldn't be better, Major! I had ta switch to a backup system, but I expected that."
"Backup?" Eile asked.
"Aw, shoot, Colonel, ain't no never-mind. This Old Gal'll get me home just fine, 'cause she knows I gotta date with an angel!"
"Aw, sheesh!"
"We're not out of the woods yet. I'm reading another EMP buildup."
"Jest wait fer it."
"Wait for what?" Eile said, and then fireballs erupted against the sides of the two closest Pearls. An instant later the spheres themselves exploded into clouds of flame before what was left of them dropped out of the ring and crashed to the ground.
"What did I tell ya!"
"It's clear!" Sunny shouted.
"I can see that!" Eile yelled back, peeved. He was getting on her nerves.
"Then, let's go kick alien balls!"
"You got that right, Major!"
"Cowboy, run interference for us," Eile ordered, "but stay outta our way. No one knows what other surprises this Walker's got."
"Right you are, Colonel!"
"Sunny, what's the status of the bombing computer?" She saw the Thunderbolt move into position ahead of them off their right wing.
"Radar's still out, so the computer can only give us a rough solution."
Eile turned to look at her. "Can you do better?"
Sunny's masked face swiveled around to stare at her. "Are you kidding?" Eile could only see her azure blue eyes, but she imagined her grinning from ear to ear.
"Then get cracking."
"Way ahead of you, partner." She punched numbers into her fire control console. Eile saw the navigation information appear in her heads-up display.
"Arm the warhead."
Sunny tapped out the arming code and executed a command. "Pickle going hot."
"Lock on."
"Computer lock is unreliable. I have calculated a manual lock and fed it into the missile's inertial guidance system."
"Time to target."
"Ninety seconds."
"You ladies gonna fire that thing or make love to it?"
"Shaddup, Cowboy! Alright, let 'er rip!"
"Fox three!" Sunny touched a switch and Eile waited for the shudder of the Intruder as the missile launched. Instead, an alarm sounded and a warning light blinked on Sunny's console.
"Misfire, misfire; missile failed to launch."
"Reset!"
Sunny punched a few keys, and the alarm and light switched off. "Ready."
"Go!"
She flipped the switch again, and again the alarm sounded and the light blinked. "Misfire, mis--"
"I got it! Dammit! Run a diagnostic."
Sunny punched a switch and watched the read-out on her heads-up display. "The release catches have been damaged, and the control cable's been sheared away. It probably happened when that Popper went off under us. That whole assembly was a jury-rig anyways...son of a--!"
Eile jerked her head around. That was as strong as Sunny's language ever got, and it meant big trouble. "What?! What is it?"
"The missile's avionics have been fried!"
"All of them?!"
"Just about! It can't track anything, and the engine's out. Had the catches opened, it would have just dropped straight down, and we would have lost it!"
"Shit! Some asshole forgot ta harden it."
"Look out!" Cowboy's voice bellowed over the radio. Eile looked up and saw that the Eye on the Walker had shifted around to stare right at them. Before she could react, the disintegrator beam lanced out, but it passed between the two planes.
"Gaaah! Hang on!" She yanked the stick back and to the left, and the Intruder leapt up and sideways away from the deadly light. She felt herself pushed hard back into her seat as the g-forces from the accelerated turn hit her. She leveled out and banked right so she and Sunny could see the Walker. The beam had cut off, but the Eye came around, tracking them.
"Jesus, that was close!"
"I don't see Cowboy!" Sunny squealed.
Eile banked back left to put some distance between them and the Walker. "Captain Earp, come in. Over." There was no response.
"Captain Earp, do you read me? Over." Still no response.
"Dammit, Cowboy, say somethin'! Talk to us!" The radio only returned static.
"It must have got him!"
"That beam passed between us."
"Maybe it swung on him after we veered off."
Eile frowned. "But why didn't it hit one of us in the first moment?"
"Maybe having two targets confused it. Two planes never got through before."
"Yeah, maybe." She banked right to reverse course before they reached the String of Pearls. As they came around, the Walker appeared ahead of them. Its Eye had faced forward again, as indicated by the beam shooting out to strike some target on the ground.
"Can you fix the problem with the launcher?"
Sunny shook her head. "No way. The launcher isn't a part of our normal systems, and with the cable gone we couldn't send any signals to the catches even if I could figure out a way to make them work. Right now, it's just dead weight. And it's all moot in any event. With the avionics gone, the missile won't fly. The only way to fix anything is to land and work on it from outside."
Which we don't have time for. "Is the warhead still functional?"
Sunny checked her readings. "Yeah, it should detonate on contact." Then she snapped her head around. "Oh, my goodness! You're not thinking of...are you?"
"I don't see that we have a choice. As long as the warhead is intact and working properly, if the only way to deliver it is to crash the plane into the Walker, then that's what we're gonna hafta do. But I'm open to suggestions if you have a better idea."
Sunny shook her head. "Not a one. I'm with you all the way, partner." There wasn't a trace of hesitation or trepidation in her voice.
That gave Eile pause. The determination she heard in Sunny's voice was the same that made all her pilots volunteer for their mission, the same that made Cowboy defy orders and follow them. As much as she needed Sunny at first, her job was finished, but she had no doubt she would stick with
her to the end, even if that end turned out to be the final one.
She glanced to her left, where two levers sat beneath her console. They were the releases for the ejection seats. One was for hers, and it would trigger both seats at once, but the other would trigger Sunny's seat only. Sunny had one of her own under her console, but Eile knew she would never use it, even if ordered to.
She had lost too many of her people already; she didn't want to lose any more. Grabbing Sunny's release, she pulled on it, steeling herself against the concussion of the ejection.
Nothing happened.
"What the--?"
"That won't work without this."
Eile whipped her head around and saw Sunny holding the ejection circuit for her seat.
"Why you little--how the hell did you anticipate that?"
Sunny laughed. "I know you, lady. Once we decided on making a kamikaze run, I figure you'd try to eject me and fly the plane in by yourself."
"And if that's what I wanna do, you'll accept it and like it, Major! Now put that circuit back. That's an order!"
"No." Sunny's voice sounded calm, almost icy.
"What?!"
"I said no. You can court-martial my hiney when we get back, but I'm not leaving you. We go together, or we stay together. End of story."
Eile felt boiling mad, but she had no choice. "Gaaah, sometimes you can be such a butthead! Alright, but only because I don't have time to argue with you. But consider yourself on report, Missy!"
"Gotcha, Colonel," she said in a triumphant tone, and she plugged the circuit back into place.
For a moment, Eile considered pulling the lever anyways, but she resisted it. She had given Sunny her word.
Besides, if the bimbo wants ta stick it out with me, it's her funeral. If the Walker doesn't get us both, I'll throttle her once we're on the ground!
Eile concentrated on the Walker. "Is the warhead still armed?"
"Affirmative."
"Alright, here's the plan. We'll get as close as we can while avoiding the beam, then at