A/N: Welcome to the first chapter! I'd really appreciate reviews and thoughts to help me on my little quest :] A glassary of any terms that you may not know the meaning of can be found at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

-XxX-

It wasn't hard to tell that things had changed at the base. The atmosphere was tight, planes were constantly being checked, then checked again, and the officers were all on edge, all except for Grace. She stood in the open hangar with a brand new Eurofighter, looking it over with her hands idly resting on her hips. Her olive-drab green overalls bore rank patches, and the stripes of a Squadron Leader upon her shoulders. She walked along the fuselage, still tingling from the trill the machine had given her not long ago.

"How's it handling McKenna?" Jimmy, her Wing Commander popped his head around the giant hangar door.

She smiled at his mildly informal comment and turned to face the tall copper haired man. "Well, she needs breaking in a little, other than that it's a fine machine." A few twists of light brown hair danced about her face as a sudden small gust of wind swept through the building. She wrangled them between her fingers, pulling the now restrained hair up into a loose bun.

His eyes whisked over the plane as he walked towards her. "Tell me Jim, why do we need another one? We barely get any attacks as it is…"

"Dunno, you know what it's like here. Crazy." His eyes remained fixed upon the plane, though widened at the final comment. It was wonderful that they could talk in a slightly colloquial manner together, especially since he was her superior. They had both enrolled into the RAF the same year, and throughout training and promotions they were never far apart, then five years ago both pilots were enrolled into NEST International pilot division, England.

"You're not wrong..." Grace sighed under her breath. It was a crazy place. Reports came in from all over the world about the missions that were about to take place, what was happening at headquarters, whether they needed immediate backup in any way…which was usually never. The only time their Squadron had been scrambled was when something went down in the south of England near London. At this rate the base would be decommissioned. Grace's fingers traced over the rivets in the planes body, caressing the tepid carbon fiber body. ".....crazy..."

.....

Major Lennox rose from his bed wearily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His daughter had once again foiled his plans of a lie in on his day off. He could hear her squeals of delight as his wife played with her downstairs. He grunted, but smiled. He may have never got to experience this after that episode at Soccent. Walking to the bathroom, he was halted by Sarah who came trotting upstairs.

"Will I just got a call-" she was cut off by her dreary eyed husband.

"Bathroom first…" He briefly grasped her hand, then waddled off to the bathroom, knowing today's rest had already been replaced by his work duties.

As he finally walked down the stairs, washed and dressed, he picked up the phone. No sooner had he done so than he heard an all too familiar horn sound outside. He craned his neck to look out of the front window. It was a good job that they lived a few miles from any other houses, the rate of speed that truck hurtled in and out of their drive, anyone would think the world was ending.

Will's shoulders slumped at the sight of the black truck. "Lemme guess…General Morshower called me in?" His face was blank and unimpressed as he looked at his wife. He rolled his eyes as she confirmed his guess with a nod of her head. "Great, juuust great." He picked up his jacket and credentials. "I'll see you two beautifl ladies later."

He laid a kiss upon Sarah's lips and Annabelle's forehead. "You need anything?" He asked on his way to the front door, grabbing his wallet and keys. She nodded a no.

The large black Topkick stood rather silently on the drive. A few slights metallic clicks became audiable as Will came closer.

"You know Ironhide…I had plans" Will moaned absently as he climbed into the drivers side. Only when he was secure in the cab of the truck did he get a reply.

"My apologies Will. I was ordered to collect you. That and those twins are frying my circuits..." His usual deep booming voice spat out the last part of his sentence.

"Aahhh cheer up buddy. It might never happen." Will playfully patted the steering wheel.

"What might never happen?"

"Uh…figure of speech…forget about it." Ironhide grunted as he turned another corner and headed out onto the highway. "So, whadd'ya got for me this time?"

-XxX-

Glossary

Eurofighter= Eurofighter Typhoon: Fighter/Bomber jet plane used by the RAF

Squadron Leader= Rank of RAF officer. Ranks directly above Flight Lieutenant and directly below Wing Commander.

Fuselage= The body of a plane