Three Strikes [✓]

The Calm Before

"Righto," Count said, perhaps a little bothered by the fact that their bomber friends seemed to entertain the possibility they might fail. Even Naomi was a little concerned, what with the high expectations placed on them all. They all circled around the first site on the radar, trying to find the best place to approach from, with Lanza having destroyed their anti-air problems and was currently moving onto the next. Count took a deep breath before he hesitantly and awkwardly asked, "Long Caster, just so we don't forget, you wanna...er, remind us how to use these things?"

"Let me guess, you're asking because you actually did forget?" Naomi asked, teasing him slightly in hopes to ease the tension between them. If you could hear someone roll their eyes, then she was pretty sure that it was the only sound she'd have heard from him.

Long Caster patiently answered his question, sounding mildly amused in spite of the overall seriousness of their mission, "To use the targeting pods, you'll need to switch weapons first. Try to align the missile silo as best you can with the circle that will appear in the center of your HUD. Once you're lined up, all you have to do is hit the firing switch and the bomb will drop. But you'll have to keep it aligned until the bomb hits, otherwise it'll miss its mark. If you do miss, it's not too big a deal, but firing another one will take some time, so you'll need to aim carefully if you want this to go by faster." Everyone said that they understood. After a pause, Long Caster spoke again, sounding embarrassed for not pointing it out sooner, "Also, they've set up a lot of anti-air weapons, but I guess you already knew that."

"Yup!" came the enthusiastic response from a rather excited Lanza. At least he was enjoying himself so far, and Naomi couldn't help but chuckle a little bit.

"Well, we're going to have to work together to take care of everything," Jaeger pointed out, mostly to Naomi as if to remind her that he and Count were awaiting her orders and that they all needed to work together.

Naomi checked her radar and figured out how they'd be doing things within a matter of seconds. Alright, let's try this. Trying her best to think like a leader and get things under their control, she started to give the rest of the orders to them, "Jaeger, I want you to watch the skies. Any enemy aircraft that show up and come after the rest of us or the bomber are your responsibility. I need you to help me make sure we all stay in the air. Lanza, you keep it up with the AA guns and keep 'em off of our backs." She paused as both men gave her a quick 'roger', her eyes flicking over to Count who was still on her wing while Jaeger broke off from them. Praying that he wouldn't put up a fight and they'd actually be able to work together, Naomi finally called out to him, "And Count?"

"Yeah?" he asked her quickly and more than a little defensively. He was probably preparing himself for an order he wouldn't like.

"You and I are going to work together to target the missile silos," Naomi said at last with a nod to herself. With a more careful and quiet tone, she asked him, "So what say you work with me on this, huh? 'Stick with Trigger'?"

Count didn't answer her at first, and she was worried that she'd accidentally upset him again without realizing it. But after a pause he finally agreed, "Sure. Whatever you say. Let's just hurry this up, alright?"

Not the most enthusiastic response she'd ever gotten, but it was a step in the right direction. She smiled a little to herself. "Righto," she chirped, making use of his own favorite word. He let out a surprised 'huh?' at hearing the word coming from her mouth, and it did sound a little unusual when she stopped to think about it, but she had other things to worry about. Naomi pulled up, and when Count moved to follow her, she said to him, "Count, why don't you do the honors of destroying the first missile silo? There are five of them, and your score honestly has been lookin' pretty pathetic, so here's your chance to catch up to the rest of us."