Part 6: Friends in High Places

The ride was unstable, Bombutachakua was diving in and out of the sea. This was the results of having too many missiles fired at it. The winged whale was bleeding severely.

“I don’t get it.” Asrar thought. “Why was it waiting beneath us the whole time. What’s more confusing is why it reemerged again while it could’ve stayed underwater until the planetary alignment is complete. That way it could have gotten what it wants without the risk of dying.”

‘BOOM!’

Another missile from a F15 hit the whale. The F15 pilots were giving it one hundred percent since their guts told them that this is one fish that should have remained underwater. Lieutenant Arbocke was especially the one who was doing all the daredevil acts such as take a dive right beneath the whale while attacking with the machine-gun and launching missiles.

Gwinn was also there that night, she was acting like all the rest of the units. She could hear the general cheering on her lieutenant for his excellent performance. Unlike Arbocke, Gwinn was deprived from nice words from the general, and this lead to jealousy. Without permission or giving notice, Gwinn took a dive beneath the whale, attacking the target like a pro.

“Gwinn, what the heck are you doing?” Belquad shouted after seeing her insane performance. The general knew that she wasn’t qualified to take these kind of leaps.

Gwinn ignored Belquad and flew ahead of everyone else to take a better shot at the target. Once ahead from the target by at least twenty meters, she turned upside down to fire in the mystical beast’s face.

“Gwinn! Get out of there!” The general ordered, but the fighter refused to back off.

“Star Fox listen to the general!” Arbocke called her by her military name. “You are to aboart immediately!” he ordered her as her superior lieutenant.

“.. I missed!” Gwinn realized that the target was no longer in sight. To her surprise, the whale took a dive right after she fired the missile.

‘BERJ!’

Suddenly, the huge whale came from underneath Gwinn’s F15, blowing her up.

“No!” General Belquad shouted over the microphone, not believing his eyes. “Not her.” the general added as he fell on his knees.

Asrar got up from her seat, and placed her hand over his shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss.” she said meaning it.

Asrar knew how Belquad felt. Gwinn was still a child in his eyes, thus his responsibility. Asrar knew that the general thought of Gwinn’s death as his fault for letting her fly in this weather, but the truth was there was nothing he could do.

Asrar managed to steal a peak through the general’s lowered face, and saw tears in his eyes. Asrar didn’t know what to say, so she just waited by his side until he needed her. Belquad got up, putting his grief aside. He knew that the whale had claimed many lives, but unless he does something about it, it will only take more.

“Listen up men!” Belquad addressed the nearby F15 units. “This monster is just beginning. If we don’t stop it, it will get all of us. Don’t let our fallen comrades’ death be for nothing.”

“Belquad ..” Asrar said helplessly, hoping that he will be alright.

“And fish,” Belquad added, addressing the winged whale, “if you can hear me, then mark my words; I will make you wish you were never born.”

●●●

The weather was bad enough, but at the peak of nine o’clock, it got even worse. The blazing storm threw everyone off track. The F15 units, along with the general’s helicopter, were having difficulties navigating and locking on the target, so the general had no choice but to issue a painful order.

“All units retreat!” Belquad made a wise call. It was too dark for them to see, and the fact that it was pouring like doomsday made it even worse. Belquad didn’t want to let the orca get away, but at the same time he didn’t want to sacrifice any of his men.

As the F15s retreated, Belquad saw that one of them was doing the opposite.

“Arbocke, are you deaf? I ordered you to retreat!”

“What’s that general?” Arbocke lied: “You’re breaking up, I can’t read you!” Arbocke ignored the general’s call and went for the kill. He was determined to take down that being for his fallen fighters.

“Damn it Arbocke, back off! That’s an order.” Belquad insisted, not wanting to loose his friend as he lost the others to this unstoppable force.

“What is he thinking?” Belquad said with an angry tone. “I am going to suspend him for this!”

Then Asrar recalled something. “General,” she asked: “how many missiles did Arbocke fire?”

“Huh?” Belquad didn’t understand what Asrar was getting at.

“Because I counted four.” she said worried.

Belquad immediately understood what Asrar meant. Arbocke was out of ammo, and since machine-gun bullets weren’t going to do much on this abnormal being, Belquad and Asrar had a pretty good idea of what Arbocke was thinking.

“Lieutenant, don’t do it!” Belquad shouted as he saw Arbocke’s F15 drive right into the whale.

‘BOUJ!’

Arbocke’s plane crashed into the beast’s mouth. The whale was in more pain than before, but so were the general and the anthropologist.

“Arbocke ..” Asrar said sadly as another good fighter went down because of this unfair war. But as she raised her head again she saw something in the air. “General look!” she got up pointing.

The general got out his digital binoculars and took a look. “it’s Arbocke!”

Arbocke managed to eject in time, he ejected only a few seconds away before crashing his F15 into the monster. Although the cost was high, it was worth it since the whale was in more pain, and was starting to fall. It struggled to keep alive. Arbocke was out of danger for now, as he landed safely in the ocean. A nearby military lifeboat came to get him.

Asrar learned something from Arbocke’s attack. The whale is hurt more if the attack was on its mouth. The mouth of the beast was like it’s weak point.

The whale was losing, but the fact was the general had already lost. With no more firepower from either sky or ground units, the general had no way to take down his target. The general, along with Asrar and Schott were the only ones tailing the wild whale with wings.

“Great, What now?” The general said frustrated.

“General,” Asrar spoke up announcing: “I have a plan.”

●●●

“What?” Belquad shouted in Asrar’s face, “Negative! Permission declined!”

The anthropologist had just finished explaining her plan to the general, but he refused to go with it. It was eleven o’clock, and the planetary alignment was due within the hour. Belquad needed a plan, any plan, but what Asrar was asking for was something he couldn’t allow.

“Be reasonable General, that’s the only way we could save humanity.” Asrar argued, then crossed her arms and added: “Besides, if you have a better plan I’m game.”

“Setting yourself as bait is not a plan.” Belquad continued to protest.

“If it’ll get it to open up its mouth, then it’s a perfect plan.” she argued, “besides, you’ll be right behind me to pick me up before I become his midnight snack, right?” She smiled as if this was an everyday thing.

Belquad had no choice but to agree. Schott flew ahead of the flying fish, and lowered the helicopter to a huge stone pointing out of the Pacific Ocean. Asrar grabbed a hold of a rope tied to the chopper and lowered herself safely to the mounted stone. Belquad told Schott to get out of the way. Asrar knew that she probably would die, but she knew if she just sat in the helicopter she would definitely die, along with everyone else on the planet.

It was eleven twenty one pm, only forty minutes remained till midnight, and Asrar was standing alone on a stable rock in the Pacific Ocean. It was dark and raining harder than ever. She stood as the wind blew harder and harder, and the waves raged like there was no tomorrow.

“I think I’m gonna catch a cold!” Asrar said as she crossed her arms to keep her self warm.

Asrar knew that she was going to get sick, but that was the least of her problems. As she stood there, the gigantic whale reappeared in front of her, and opened its enormous deadly jaws for a mid-night snack. The only words that came to Asrar’s mind was: ‘here we go!’

“Schott, now!” the general gave the signal for the pilot to dive in and take Asrar as planed. Right before the whale ate her, Schott lowered the chopper and Belquad fired the Bazooka into the whale’s mouth. The whale fell off balance and back into the ocean. The last hit it received was the most painful one in the whole day.

Schott lowered the helicopter as Belquad gave a hand to Asrar.

“You did great!” Belquad congratulated her on her performance.

“I’m just glad you didn’t miss.” Asrar said, knowing that they had only one shot. If he had missed it would’ve been a whole different story.

“Let’s get out of here.” Belquad told Schott. “That’s the end of that freak. I’m buying!” Belquad offered free drinks to his friends.

Schott turned the helicopter around and head back home.

●●●

Out of nowhere, Bexis reemerged swiftly, this time targeting the helicopter. It was too fast and sudden for Schott to avoid. The chopper’s tail had broke off, and it was falling fast.

“Ahh! I thought you said we got it!” Asrar panicked as she barely hanged on.

“I’m not the expert on calculations, you know!” Belquad replied.

Above only ten feet from sea level, they stopped falling. Apparently the helicopter was stuck on Bombutachakua’s tail. The chopper was too small and light compared to the whale that it didn’t even noticed them.

The winged whale continued to fly above sea level north, as the helicopter was stuck tilted.

“Everyone stay calm,” Belquad instructed, “whatever happens, don’t let go. Just hang in there until I think of a-”

“General,” Asrar shouted panicking, barely hanging on: “I’m slipping .. Generaaaaalll!” She screamed as she fell off.

“Eisenhower!” Belquad shouted as he took affirmative action. He grabbed a hold of the rope and jumped after her.

Eisenhower’s lab coat acted as a parachute and reduced her falling velocity, while Belquad’s ’skydiving arrow’ formation allowed him to get to her faster than anticipated. Once he reached her, he grabbed a hold of her arm and they stopped falling. The rope had reached its maximum length.

Asrar immediately wrapped both of her arms around Belquad’s body so that she wouldn’t fall. Belquad used both of his hands to grab on the rope. As they hanged on to the rope of life, they realized that if they fell, they would end up with a body full of broken bones.

“Pull us up! Pull us up!” Asrar said panicking as she was afraid of heights. She was becoming hysterical.

“I can’t!” Belquad told her. “Too heavy.”

The two panicked for the next ten minutes, but after that, they learned that they were doing nothing except getting weaker. Schott was out of reach, and out of sight. They didn’t know if he was still up there or had fallen. With that kind of weather raging, no one could see anything beyond a couple of meters from their own eyesight.

“Nineteen minutes remaining general,” Asrar stated, still having both of her arms wrapped around the general. “what now?”

“Trying to sound professional-like on your last minutes on Earth? Well it’s really hard thinking of you as professional with your arms wrapped around me like that!” The general said smiling while Asrar was a bit angry. Then he decided to provoke her some more: “I mean come on, I had fantasies about us but nothing like this. I had no idea that you felt this way about me.”

“When we get out of this I’m going to kill you!”

“Would you wake up for a second Eisenhower, there is no getting out of this! This is it! We are gonna fall, it’s just a matter of time!” Belquad shouted as hard as he could. “I’m shouting as hard as possible to get the message through your scientific skull!”

“Thumbs up on keeping it together, general.” Asrar mocked the general for what seamed to be for the last time. “This .. can’t be the end, general! If there’s a will, there’s a way, I always say.”

“I don’t like it either, the fish gets to win. What can you say, but hey .. at least we get one heck of an exit!” The general said laughing, then his laugh morphed into a cry.

●●●

“General, look!” Asrar shouted as she spotted something coming from behind him.

“Ya it’s a beautiful night, ain’t it?”

“No,” she said as she put her feet on the body of the whale next to her, then gave a huge boost to spin the rope around. This way the general was able to see what she was seeing. “It’s Xentio,” she explained, “it’s back!”
“Wha .. how?” Belquad was surprised to see it. “Not that I’m complaining, but I thought it was dead!”
“Actually general, I had a plan B.,” Asrar said, then explained her actions: “you see, from what I studied about the Qi people is that they believed in one kind of energy as absolute, and that was the sun. I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I opened the ceiling above Xentio for a little sunshine in the afternoon.”
“Eisenhower, your a genius! I could kiss you!” Belquad said out of excitement for seeing Xentio.
“Let’s not get carried away now, general. We’re still not out of the bush yet.”

Xentio came and picked them up from the rope, and delivered them back safely to the helicopter. Once aboard, Xentio picked up the helicopter and flew off with it to safety.

“Much appreciated soldier,” Belquad saluted the Qi warrior “no hard feelings right?” But Xentio just continued flying.

Asrar gave Belquad a strange look as he scratched the back of his head laughing saying: “I’m sure if he had a mouth he would say ‘your welcome’!”

Belquad scanned the exterior of the helicopter quickly, and spotted Schott lying under a piece of metal. Belquad ran towards him, and examined him.

“He’s injured,” Belquad stated, “but he’ll make it.”

But Asrar didn’t replay, she was lost staring at Xentio as he carried the helicopter away from the wild whale. She couldn’t help but wonder: “why is he helping us?”

Xentio placed them on the nearby recently abandoned battleship, and flew off to fight the whale. The battleship was abandoned when the whale struck it earlier, resulting in terrorizing the soldiers on board. They took lifeboats and left soon afterwards. Asrar watched helplessly as Xentio took on the whale on its own.

“Something wrong?” Belquad asked her.

“Bombutachakua gets his strength from the planetary lineup,” Asrar said looking at the two archenemies fight, “the closer they are, the stronger it is. Xentio, on the other hand receives its power from the sun, more the light, more the strength.” Asrar turned and told Belquad what she was trying to say: “At this point, the whale is extremely strong and Xentio is …”

“is as weak as we are .. we gotta help.” Belquad understood what she was getting at, and knew that it was up to them to take down the whale and put an end to the apocalypse prophecy.