Top Secret Flight (II)

"Hm?"

The sound from the communicator jolted Richthofen out of his daze. He shook his head and forced himself to focus.

Through the canopy, he could see a vast mass of Orks gathering below, surging eastward in three separate formations.

Those had to be the three Ork legions. Richthofen knew their names—Skullsplitter, Blood Fang, and the Blood Skull Tribe.

Led by their warlords, they were going to welcome that tyrant, who was also Richthofen's target.

"Spread out. Be ready to fight at any moment."

They had not encountered any interception from Ork fighters along the way. Richthofen figured the trick he had pulled earlier had apparently worked.

He had deliberately flown toward his old rival's airfield first. The other side would surely have instinctively taken off for the planned interception zone. Once Richthofen's squadron changed course, the commander of that Ork wing would inevitably be left at a loss, perhaps even attacking the airfield Richthofen had departed from.

There had been precedents for that, and a faint smile tugged at Richthofen's lips.

Nothing was more entertaining than playing his rival for a fool.

"Sir! My radar has detected enemy aircraft above us!"

But a voice crackling with electromagnetic noise shattered his fantasy. Richthofen glanced at his radar display, where dense flashes had indeed appeared along the edge.

And those flashes had been tagged, which meant...

"Damn it! They actually caught up!"

Hearing them before seeing them was a trait shared by nearly all Orks, including their war machines.

Richthofen did not even need to remove his headset to hear the rolling thunder in the distance. The roar was so fierce that even the sealed canopy could not completely muffle it.

"Boss! At this rate, we might not have enough fuel!"

"Shut it! Fight first! Attack!"

Wazgub roared and abruptly shoved