"Potentially, yes."

Miles gets his first long-range scans of Angband itself, which they are fast approaching; he sees no reason to make this a leisurely trip. He checks first of all for whether there is still an Elf chained to that cliff.

"Is he still alive?" he asks. It's surprisingly difficult to get the words out.

"Yes. And if the Enemy would like to get him out of our reach, the Enemy has," he checks estimated flight times, "one and a half more minutes in which to do so."

Also, there are structural scans of the fortress. Lovely, lovely structural scans of the fortress.

"So: we arrive, I rain assorted destruction upon Angband, I open the hatch so you can all shoot at Balrogs if necessary, I fly by that cliff at the first opportunity and you retrieve your brother from it. Sound like a plan?"

"Yes," he says fervently. 

"Good."

Miles spends the next one and a half minutes studying the scans, calculating his bombardment, and keeping an up-to-date view of the cliff visible to Tyelcormo at all times.

And then the shuttle dives toward the fortress, and Miles hits it with a gravitic imploder lance. Stone crumples like paper. The sound is absolutely incredible. He fires the plasma cannons, opens the hatch, and corkscrews away from what would otherwise have been a collision course with the falling fortress, aiming to make a pass at the cliff if possible and at minimum avoid getting within whip range of the flying Balrogs rising to the defense.

He wishes there were some way more reliable than memory to capture the sight of Melkor's fortress dissolving on the point of Miles' invisible weapons. It's extraordinary. They lurch in the air and he watches Miles for cues about whether that was the Enemy striking back or the recoil from the discharge of yet another weapon. Miles looks exhilarated, but that doesn't answer the question. 

Maitimo's going to be so impressed if there's anything left of him at all.

The shuttle jinks through the air, working completely off of grav thrusters now, no fueled boosts at all. Compensators tame the forces involved so that the interior of the shuttle experiences no more than gentle tugs this way and that.

...That lurch was unexpected. He wrenches at the controls to keep them from slamming into the cliff face. "Interference," he says. "But I can still make it. Rescue opportunity coming up... now."

The shuttle slides past the sheer cliff, open hatch facing into the stone, dangerously close to the prisoner hanging in chains. It's an absolutely stupid stunt, and if killing Maitimo weren't explicitly preferable to leaving him there, Miles would absolutely not be trying it. But with those priorities taken into account, it's genuinely the best plan.

He has about two seconds. Certainly enough time to use a plasma arc to slice through the chain, which is the important part of this operation; it means Maitimo is no longer a prisoner. It also means Maitimo will immediately plummet several hundred feet to the ground below, unless - 

He fires the plasma arc. He leans out as they blur by. He grabs Maitimo by one emaciated arm. Maitimo weighs nearly <i>nothing</I> but pulling him in when they're moving this fast is like lifting something twenty times the weight. Maitimo's body is scraped along the cliff face for an instant, and then he's on board. Celegorm drags them both backwards away from the hatch. The shuttle lurches again, more forcefully, and they both smash against the opposing wall.

"Miles," he gasps, "get out of here."

If this was bait, they've just bit down. But his brother is breathing.

There are rather a lot of flying Balrogs to contend with by now.

Miles aims the next spike of the gravitic imploder lance through a cluster of them. The shuttle shakes itself like a dog; the hatch clicks shut. There are at least two Balrog explosions along the central force-line of the lance, and the rest of them are crushed in toward their detonating brethren, which is sure to do them no good at all.

They could get out of here with their prize right now. But the stated purpose of this mission was for Miles to do his best to level the fortress of Angband, and there are parts of it still standing.

He flies in a jittering half-circle around the remaining architecture, hitting it with the lance and the plasma cannons. The number of flying Balrogs able to give chase has decreased significantly, but there are still enough to bring the difficulty level of the mission from 'easy' to 'harder than it looks'. After the lance incident they're spreading out more, trying to blanket him.

Evasive maneuvers, or see how the Balrogs hold up against his mass shielding? He isn't sure how the mass shielding will hold up against the Balrogs, and he doesn't want to show off all his tricks just yet. Evasive maneuvers it is, and a few more discouraging strikes with the lance, and then he activates the main engines and blazes up into the sky.

Maitimo is conscious. Maitimo does not appear to recognize him, because to the extent there's any expressiveness on  a face this badly disfigured Maitimo is looking at him like he's a stranger. The shuttle is rocking and shaking but Miles still looks delighted, which probably means everything is fine. 

"Nelyo," he says. 

His brother's tendons strain as if he'd like to be shaking his head, or looking away. 

Miles is delighted. It's so very rare that an engagement goes almost exactly as planned. Okay, so if he had slightly slower reflexes they would all be dead - five times over - but he doesn't, and they're not, and that's enough to be going on with.

The probably-magical turbulence can stop anytime now, though. Please. It's making it really annoying to plot his trajectory back to the camp, and if he keeps having to use up the shuttle's power on stabilizing its flight, there may be yet more stupid flying stunts in his near future.

This mind-game of the Enemy's includes the illusion of movement, which is new. He hopes that doesn't mean they've learned to get farther inside his head. The not-Tyelcormo is holding him and assuring that he's been rescued, which is typical; the others are unfamiliar. The setting is unfamiliar. He tries to close his eyes and ignore it all, but the movement is getting more intense, jostling him painfully, continuing to pull his attention back into the illusion.

"...I may not have enough power left to land neatly inside the walls when we get back," says Miles. He pulls up scans and holos of the lake and its surroundings. "Safest landing spot if we run out of power is... there."

Celegorm looks up. "You mean you're out? That's all for the shuttle, it's not going to be able to run anymore? And no, you can't land there, pick somewhere outside the walls but on our side."

"The thing I'm going to run out of is the thing that's easiest to make more of; I've barely run down the main fuel supply at all, but the grav thrusters, which run on electricity, have been badly overtaxed dealing with what I believe is the Enemy trying to pull us out of the sky or slam us into a mountain. Are you sure I can't land there? The options are landing there or risking damage to the shuttle. Damage to us, if we crash particularly badly."

"Landing on their side of the lake is also risking damage to us. They don't like us very much."

"I distinctly remember hearing their emissary tell me that their resources are at my disposal for as long as we share a foe. A corner of the lake they don't seem to be using is not much to ask, in my view. Also, we have stunners and they don't."

He relaxes slightly. "Fine. Don't open the door when we're down."

Their flight begins to steady. "I think we're out of range of whatever the Enemy was doing to us. Either that or he would like us to think we are. Good enough for me; it'll be more of a landing than a crash, which is always nice, and I won't have to use any more of the main fuel supply making sure we don't hit the ground too hard, which is even nicer."

"I'll take your word for it. Should we, uh, brace ourselves?"

"Yes, I'll tell you when. You might want to get your brother on the grav stretcher; it'll be the most comfortable spot in the shuttle when we land."

Someone passes it towards him. Maitimo seems aware he's being lifted, but disinterested. He tells himself it's probably because Miles is present, and Maedhros is too careful to say anything when he's not sure of the situation, not when he has the ready-made excuse for silence of being tortured-nearly-to-death.

They approach the lake at dangerous-looking speed.

"Brace yourselves," says Miles.

He extends the landing gear and taps the grav thrusters. The ship descends toward the lake in a series of jarring bounces, ending in a final splash, then scoots sideways toward the shore with all the grace of a mortally injured waterfowl. When it finally comes to rest, the floor is noticeably tilted, but the hatch is completely above water.

"I've made worse landings," he declares, sitting back in the pilot's seat. "The fun is now over. Everyone all right?"

Everyone nods. Except Maitimo, who still isn't moving and who probably is not all right. 

Alive, though. Safe. There's vague unease flickering in the back of his mind, but this can't possibly have been a trap. The Enemy simply underestimated Miles and his miracles; they got lucky. All right. 

"Uh," Celegorm says, "You should probably be the one to go remind Irissë about her promise? I don't really think I should talk to her."

"Seems reasonable," Miles agrees.

He goes to the hatch and opens it, surveying the stretch of water that remains between him and the shore.

"Despite appearances, this is perfectly safe," he says, and hops into the lake. Fully armoured, he sinks like a stone. The hatch closes itself behind him.

Shortly afterward, visible on the external vid feeds and also to anyone in the nearby settlement who has line of sight, he wades out onto the shore.