Airwolf And I, Vice Versa

Chapter Fifteen

The desert sun had set and the evening air began to bring a chill to the night darkness. Hawke looked over at Airwolf where Kristien was still working on the laptop. He brought over some ice cooled orange juice. Archangel had sent over a lot of information that she had requested including various formulas for the various alloys that Dr Hockley-Matthews had worked on when he worked for the RAF and the British Government. Kristien had discounted a lot of information as not needed, her interest was in the formulas and how alloys could make polymers. It hadn’t taken her long to get what she needed.

“You need a break.” Hawke offered the glass to her.

Kristien looked up and realised it was dark. “When did the sun go down then?” She drank the orange down in one go, so much for keeping rehydrated she thought.

“A couple of hours ago.” Hawke told her. “You nearly finished?”

“I’ve found where blackwolf is.” Kristien told him knowing what he was going to do next.

Hawke looked at her, how the hell had she managed to find a stealth aircraft in the middle of the Libyan desert. “Is it at that base we saw?”

“No it’s somewhere else, try another hundred miles from there.” Kristien told him.

“Let’s go then.” Hawke told her getting into Airwolf.

Airwolf cut through the Libyan desert at over Mach one. The sand dunes behind them were blown about in the wake. Kristien was glued to the screens in Airwolf at the EDCC keeping an eye on any readings she was getting. He looked at the monitors and saw the compound that housed the blackwolf.

“Coming up to the blackwolf in 15 miles.” Kristien said. “It’s there ready and waiting.”
Hawke disengaged the turbos. Airwolf slowed down to 300 knots. “Give me combat mode.”
Kristien deployed the Chain and cannons and the ADF pod. “Combat mode. And I suggest you use a bullpup.”

“You have been busy haven’t you!” Hawke complimented her on her planning on programming a missile already with Blackwolf’s configuration. “bullpup then.”

Kristien already programmed the missile with its target.

Hawke pressed the red button on the top of the cyclic releasing the bullpup missile. The missiles rockets launched it forward hungrily eating the air to its target.
“Missile is 5 miles from target, 4 miles, 3miles, 2 miles. Missile is detonated.” Kristien counted off watching the scope. In the dark sky a huge firebomb went up, blowing up the Blackwolf.

“That hit the mark.” Kristien said quite satisfied that her programming had worked but felt it was all too easy.

“Let’s go after the other place that’s downloading the Airwolf information.” Hawke told her.
“May as well leave a good calling card.” Kristien replied.

Airwolf cut through the sky at around Mach one, eating up the dry desert air. Hawke was pleased that so far the Blackwolf had been eliminated and now they were on the way to eliminate the base where the computers were downloading from Airwolf.

They were coming up on the coordinates. “Give me combat mode and hellfires.” Hawke requested.
Kristien deployed the ADF pod and the Sponsons for the chain guns and cannons. She selected the hellfires. Outside Airwolf sprang into life as a tactical weapon.

“Hellfires.” Kristien confirmed now looking at the various monitors.

Hawke hovered the deadly machine over the building where the computers were housed storing the Airwolf database. Hawke pressed the trigger releasing the first Hellfire. The missile went straight for the first building, blowing it and its contents forty feet in the air in a huge fireball. Two more hellfires came from Airwolf and blew them up in the same way. Hawke looked at the scene of devastation very satisfied.

“Well let’s go home.” He sighed heavily, pleased that he could now leave Libyan airspace and try to deal with the solace that he was feeling just at being back in Libya.

“Oh shit.” Kristien replied looking at the monitors. “We have the blackwolf on our six, five miles and closing fast, real fast.”

“How the hell……?” Hawke turned Airwolf round to face the oncoming blackwolf. “We destroyed it.”

“No Hawke you destroyed our number two.” Charles Hockley-Matthews voice came over the radio.
“Having two is just being greedy.” Hawke replied waiting for Blackwolf to come into view.
Blackwolf screamed over the top of Airwolf doing just a little below Mach 2. Hawke was ready for the Blackwolf thanks to Kristien’s early warning system. Instantly he used the turbos not even waiting for the air turbulance to hit their position.

“Well?” Hawke queried.

“I need him to make a shot.” Kristien replied working on Airwolfs EDCC.

“You’re kidding me?” Hawke said rhetorically.

Kristien knew that when she explained what she was doing Hawke probably didn’t understand a quarter of what she had said. She hoped it was due to the head injury and the broken ribs and the wonderful cocktail of drugs she had given him from the infirmary at the Algerian base, but she doubted it. She always tried hard to speak in laymans terms but as one of her Professors told her when she was about fourteen, ‘even Einstein would have had difficulty understanding you’, she often just gave up and continued to speak as if everyone had the same abilities that she had.

“Alright slowing up.” Hawke released the turbos and Airwolf started to decrease from over 700 knots. He watched the blackwolf do a hammerhead stall and return coming head on towards them. Hawke knew that the blackwolf would not fire on them unless provoked.

“Give me a redeye.” Hawke instructed.

“Redeye.” Kristien replied after deploying the correct missile.

Hawke pressed his helmet and the visor lowered and the Target Acquisition and Designation kicked in. Hawke counted off the seconds under his breath and let off the redeye with surefire accuracy it went towards the Blackwolf hitting its starboard sponson, exploding on contact enveloping the blackwolf in a huge fireball.

Like a phoenix the blackwolf emerged from the fireball unscathed and aimed its foreward laser on to Airwolf in retaliation. Hawke was just about to take evasive action when Kristien’s passive deflectors made the unique Armoured Glass opaque just for a fraction of a second reducing the laser to just a child’s toy. Hawke was impressed with his visor down he could still see what was going on through the opaque glass. Confident that Airwolf could stand up to a direct hit, he pressed the turbo’s and Airwolf lurched forwards onward towards the on coming blackwolf.

The blackwolf took evasive action not wating a head on collision and as it made a right bank over Airwolf it let off its aft laser at Airwolf. Hawke was ready for this manoeuvre and had already swung Airwolf around with knee jerking speed and the passive deflectors took on the laser successfully again.

The blackwolf engaged its turbos and tried to leave Airwolf standing. Airwolf followed and kept up with the blackwolf.

“You had better land that copy.” Hawke advised the pilot.

“Not until we discuss your Airwolf and your surrender of it.” Charles Hockley-Matthews replied. “Let’s land and talk.”

“Well what do you want to talk about?” Hawke questioned not really caring about what the son of a crazed inventor could even interest him in conversation.

“You would be surprised at what I know.” Charles Hockley-Matthews replied. “Take your lady of the wolf, Professor Kristien Adamas.”

Back in Airwolf Hawke looked back at Kristien in horror, how the hell did he know her name? Kristien looked back at Hawke and shrugged her shoulders.

“Well every decent Airwolf has a professor in it, shows its class from all the imposters out there.” Hawke started to antagonise the pilot of the blackwolf.

“Well I am bloody impressed how you have managed to find passive deflectors especially in Libya considering you had none.” Hockley-Matthews ignored the bait.

“I invented them using velcro and sticky tape.” Kristien replied knowing that Hockley-Matthews had been listening in on every conversation of Airwolf.

“Well one day I will have you in my Airwolf helping me.” Hockley-Matthews promised Kristien.
Hawke didn’t take lightly to a direct threat to Kristien and ended the conversation with Hockley-Matthews. “Sidewinder.”

Kristien pressed the weapons selection for Hawke. “Sidewinder.”

Hawke used the TADS again and let off the sidewinder and this time hitting the same starboard sponson and this time when it exploded black smoke poured out of the blackwolf disabling the starboard turbo engine on the blackwolf. The redeye had obviously weakened the sponson.
The blackwolf, tried to continue its retreat away from the victorious Airwolf, leaving a thick trail of black smoke coming from its wounded starboard side. Hawke went after the blackwolf.

“Land that copy now.” Hawke demanded.

“Never.” Hockley-Matthews spat back.

“Fine I will do it for you.” Hawke replied to Hockley-Matthews noting his refusal to submit. He turned to Kristien, “You got our special delivery ready?”

“Phoenix.” Kristien deployed the preprogrammed missile for Hawke and he aimed at the retreating wounded blackwolf. He pressed the trigger and the missile took flight from Airwolf and made its way to the Blackwolf, hungrily eating the air towards its target. The phoenix hit exploding on contact deep in the EDCC of the Blackwolf. Blackwolf instantly took a nose dive down, spirralling out of control from over one thousand feet. Hawke followed the definitive flight of the blackwolf down to its ominous final resting place. Kristien’s time at the laptop had been spent working out the unfinished formulae that Archangel had sent over. Preprogramming the missile with the frequency that would wipe out the copy once and for all.

With immense potency the final grave of the mach one plus chopper was made. A huge fireball reaching over six hundred feet mushroomed in the sky followed by other smaller explosions as the onboard missiles all ignited due to the collision with the sand dunes of Libya, the shockwaves flattened the other sand dunes around the epi centre. The helicopter debris lay buried deep into the sand dune still on fire, the aviation fuel allowing the sand dune to burn with an intensity of a furnace.

Airwolf floated in the air over it’s fallen prey, victorious.
Hawke looked over at the scene of devastation.

The radio broke the silence.

“Round one to you Hawke.” Charles Hockley-Matthews said. “And don’t forget my promise.”
Hawke’s shocked face said it all and a knot tied itself deep in Hawke’s gut. “Trace it.” Hawke shouted as he could not believe that Hockley-Matthews was not inside of the doomed blackwolf.

“There is no way on that short transmission.” Kristien replied already pressing the buttons futilely.

“Damn it.” Hawke muttered under his breath. Hawke could not believe that even though they had downed the Blackwolf, blew up their second copy and their base that downloaded everything, the pilot, Charles Hockley-Matthews, Moffet’s son had got away. Hawke’s blood ran cold when he thought of the sick promise that Moffet’s son had made to Kristien, that he would have her working on his Airwolf, that would be over his dead body.

“Let go home.” Kristien broke Hawke’s chain of thought.