"I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword."
― Napoleon Bonaparte
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: "French Dining"
Date: December 22, 2016
Time: 2210 hours, (10:10 P.M. Philippine Time)
Location: Island of Palawan, Philippines
For a moment the pilots of the Dark Horses remained in their seats with blank stares as they saw Feng. They were all surprised to see him. For his part, Feng could feel his stomach churn, feeling uncertain of what to do next. He had hoped that the Dark Horses would be able to forgive him, but given all that had happened, he knew that prospect was unlikely.
A few seconds of silence passed before Feng decided to walk forward. Before he got within three meters of them Stix stood up from her seat. She walked right up to Feng and slugged him hard across the face. A loud, vicious slamming noise radiated throughout the mess and drew the attention of all who resided inside as Feng's head violently jerked in reaction. Even the Russians took a pause from eating and turned to look where the abrupt disturbance had come from; some were even taken back to see one of the American Dark Horses at the center of it.
When Feng was able to bring his head back to look at Stix there was no surprise on his face, only a look of deep regret. "Ling," he said, using her Chinese name for the first time, "I'm sorry."
This only served to infuriate Stix more. "Your apology means nothing!" Stix yelled back at him. Somehow there was hint of sorrow in her own voice. "You've long sold your soul Feng. Why should anything you say matter now?"
Feng's eyes widened at that. "No, that is not true...!"
"The hell it isn't!" Stix shouted back as she glared angrily at him, the fury in her eyes burning strong. "You bartered yourself the moment you condemned our home and our family to those tyrants in Beijing!"
The other pilots in the mess stared at the scene between the two blankly. The other Dark Horse pilots exchanged glances with each other, trying to confirm if anyone else knew something about the two Chinese pilots that they did not know themselves.
Feng tried harder. "I now know that nothing can change what happened to our home." he tried to explain. "It was inevitable and it was for the betterment of our nation. Sure it was hard on both of us, but the moment you accept what happened was bigger than you and I the moment you are able to realize that it was the right thing."
Annoyance quickly welled up and mixed with Stix's fury. "Very good speech Feng. Dull and unimaginative, as if it were spoken by a real Party mouthpiece," Stix glowered. "Did you just make that up, or did one of your political officers drill it into you before coming here?"
Feng shook his head. "Mock me all you want Ling, but you know what I said is the truth."
A scowl appeared on Pat's face that seemed to radiate the heat of her anger. "What I know is you've become the Party's...excuse me, the 'People's' good little soldier, and that anything you say now is either propaganda or straight out lies." she growled. "Father and Mother would be ashamed if they were here now."
The Chinese-American woman then exhaled through her nostrils and her expression seemed to calm for a moment. "This is my only warning to you Feng," she spoke quietly, almost conspiringly, as she looked straight into the Chinese Major's eyes. "If we meet again, whether on the ground or up there, I won't hesitate."
Feng appeared to be slightly saddened by those words at first. "Very well," he replied flatly. "All I can say is I'm sorry Ling." he continued. "I'm sorry that I've failed you as a brother."
Upon hearing those words the original Dark Horse pilots then froze in place, only exchanging surprised glances with each other to confirm that no one else knew about this in advance.
Seeing that he had nothing more to say about himself, Stix turned her back to him and stormed her way out of the mess hall.
Once she was gone Feng decided to approach his former comrades.
"Well, didn't see that one coming," Bear said casually as he extended a hand to Feng, which the Chinese pilot shook in response.
"You're really Stix' brother?" asked Frost.
Feng nodded, his stoic expression hiding some sorrowful regrets. "Yes, she's my sister." One by one he shook all of their hands. "And you are some of the best friends I've ever had. I wish we could be meeting under different circumstances. I also want you to know that knew nothing about the betrayal my government had planned for you."
Luck shrugged at that. "It's all water under the bridge now." he said. "Compared to all that we've gone through in the last few months at least."
Much to the surprise of Luck, Frost, Bear, and Mozart, they all felt that meeting Feng was simply like being reunited with a long lost friend. It was then that Feng looked at Luck and saw exactly how injured he was. "Wow, Tony, what happened to you?"
"Actually..." Luck responded with a half smile. "You did this."
Feng froze at that. "Oh," was all he could reply with up front, before rubbing the back of his head. "What's that Amercian saying again? 'Crazy shit happens.'"
This caused a light laugh to erupt from them all.
"It's just 'shit happens' but you were close enough," corrected Bear.
(Music: French accordion Medley)
"So, you must be the Dark Horses' original members," a new, greatly accented voice spoke up, causing the group to look up to see a middle aged European woman walking up to them. Looking over each and every one of them closely, Jacqueline confirmed that they were indeed the same pilots she had seen in the files General Yang handed her. "Am I correct?"
The allied pilots all turned to look at her. They quickly picked up on her French accent and noticed her entirely black flight suit and gear. In her royal blue eyes was a deep, frozen void, the kind only a cold-blooded killer would have.
"Yes, we're the founding members," answered Luck. "Who's asking?"
The French woman calmly reached into her flight gear to pull out her smoking set, which included her cigarette holder, her lighter, and a single cigarette. "I am the pilot that is going to kill all of you if hostilities resume." She then placed her cigarette in its holder and ignited a flame to spark a cinder. "My name is Jacqueline de la Cour."
A pause fell in between the allied pilots and their adversaries. Jacqueline took in a whiff of smoke and proceeded to let it exit out of her mouth, briefly concealing her face as the grey mass of air rose to the ceiling. As Tony eyed Jacqueline he could not help but to notice that her level of confidence was disarmingly frightening. Frost slowly crossed her arms and looked right back at Jacqueline's eyes. Mozart looked over at Feng and found him pinching the brow of his nose while shaking his head at his French comrade's lack of tact again. Bear simply placed one hand on his hip before responding in a sarcastic manner. "Nice to meet you too, Josephine," he replied dryly. "Is Napoleon with you? I always wanted his autograph."
"You must be one of those Rafale pilots," Luck stated in realization. Upon hearing this, the demeanor of his comrades immediately became cold towards her.
A devious smirk appeared on Jacqueline's face. "I was wondering when you would figure it out."
Frost immediately looked towards the windows in the mess that faced the tarmacs. Outside she spotted General Yang's Y-12 transport on a brightly illuminated tarmac along with its two escort fighters: a J-20 and a Rafale. Upon focusing on the Rafale she was able to see a personal insignia, a pair of dice painted on the nose.
"She's the one that killed Steel," Frost said as it dawned on her exactly who Jacqueline was.
"I assume you mean the Growler I killed on my last sortie," she said, looking up in thought. "True, he was the first of your kind that I have killed. And he did put up a good fight to the end." The French mercenary then tapped the shaft of her cigarette to drop off an ashy end. "However, he is far from the last."
As Luck watched the ashy bit drop from her cigarette to the floor of the mess he found himself wanting more than anything in the world to reach out and wipe off the smug look on Jacqueline's face. Who the hell did this pompous bitch think she was? Coming in here saying she was going to kill all of them, then having the nerve to smoke in their non-smoking mess hall while dropping ash on the floor.
"We've never met," Frost pointed out, her own voice echoing Luck's feelings. "How do you even know who we are?"
Jacqueline looked back into Frost's jade green eyes and could see that she had a certain amount of tenacity within her. "Feng and I were personally briefed on all of you with files from the MSS."
Bear then exchanged a look with Mozart. "I don't know if I should feel worried or flattered they had a special meeting just to talk about us," he said, earning a nod from Mozart.
Just then, Frost noticed that Jacqueline's gaze seemed to drift off of herself and onto something moving behind her. Frost followed the French mercenary's eyes and turned around to spot Duke walking across the mess with an empty cup in hand. The beverage dispenser happened to be on the side of the mess closer to where the group was. The CAG seemed oblivious to Jacqueline's stare as he filled his cup halfway with herbal tea then the other half with lemonade.
Just as he was raising the glass to his lips to test if he got the mixture right his intense blue orbs fell on the group, looking upon Jacqueline among them for the first time. As he took a sip from his beverage, the CAG's eyes appeared to bore straight into the Frenchwoman's, projecting a certain uncharacteristic ferocity onto the mercenary. After finishing his sip, he made his way over to join the group, his eyes remaining locked on the French mercenary.
"Jacqueline," he said calmly, causing his subordinates to suddenly look at him with surprise.
As Jacqueline looked at Duke the gaze in her eyes changed. She still had the smirk on her face, but the focus she placed on him was intense. "Ryan," she calmly said in reply.
"Wait, you two know each other!?" Mozart let out in surprise.
"I didn't take you for the kind that would work on an op like this," Duke said, not even breaking his eye contact with Jacqueline.
She shrugged in reply. "General Yang pays well and I enjoy the challenge of fighting such..." she motioned to his subordinates "...worthy opponents."
The CAG narrowed his eyes on her. "I know what you're capable of," he said, his voice now low in warning. "If you come after my men, I'll go straight after you."
To that Jacqueline merely scoffed, "I wouldn't have it any other way." She paused for a moment looking into Duke's eyes, trying to read what was going on in his mind, all the while taking in another whiff of smoke and blowing it off to the side. Jacqueline then tilted her head to the side in an inquisitive manner. "Have you told them about the real reason you are here?" she asked, almost innocently. "I'm sure they would be interested in knowing why your service contract with the US Navy was terminated by your government prior to coming here."
This caused Mozart, Bear, Luck, and Frost to look at Duke with surprise once again.
As Jacqueline looked around at their faces her smirk grew deeper. "I see they thought you were still an officer of the Navy." As her eyes scanned around the mess they widened as something of interest grabbed her attention. "Now then, there is only one more person I must speak to before I retire."
As she walked away the original Dark Horse pilots all watched her to see where she would go. Much to their surprise she was walking toward the Russians. In fact she was heading directly for the table occupied by Lena, Vladimir, and Krylov. Next to the Russian ace sat Lena while Vladimir was in the seat across from hers, leaving an open space opposite of Krylov.
Krylov was just in the process of finishing his drink when a woman wearing entirely black flight gear sat in the seat across from him. His eyes rose to meet the woman, whom he did not welcome at first. However, Krylov was surprised to find that this woman was not only a pilot, but an attractive woman with eyes that mirrored the jaded ice cold ones of his own. Her gaze was trained on him intensely, a barely visible trace of desire behind it. Krylov could immediately tell that she wanted something from him.
"No one gave you permission to sit with us," said Lena, quickly getting defensive at the French pilot's rude intrusion.
"I did not ask," she responded before taking in a whiff of smoke and blowing it in Lena's direction.
The Ukrainian immediately began coughing and using her hand to try waving the smoke away from her face.
Vladimir thought what Jacqueline did was amusing to a point, but at the same time he was quickly growing suspicious of this French woman. He looked at Krylov to see how he would proceed.
"You have eyes like mine. You have seen a lot of death," the Russian ace spoke in a low voice.
"I tend to leave a lot of it behind," she responded as a smirk crept on her face.
"As do I," Krylov said in reply. His ice cold grayish blues eyes remained locked with hers. "Tell me, are you one of those Rafale pilots we ran into before?"
"As a matter of fact, I am." Jacqueline smiled back. "Jacqueline de la Cour, former French Air Force."
Krylov's eyes widened for a brief moment upon recognition of the name. "I have heard your name thrown around in mercenary circles. You left quite a mess in Mali and northern Libya."
"I am flattered," Jacqueline said as she cocked an eyebrow. "I know all about you as well, Sergei Krylov. Which is why I want to kill you the most."
To this Vladimir's brow crunched and Lena immediately glared at the French woman threateningly.
"Once I kill you, all the prestige to your name will be added to my own," Jacqueline continued. "If you know who I am then you know that my squadron is more skilled and more capable in air-to-air than this whole Air Wing. I happened to get a taste of what you..." she motioned to the original Dark Horse pilots behind her "...and them are able to do combined. I was not impressed."
Krylov merely scoffed. "You attacked us as opponents low on ammunition and weakened from hours of fighting," he stated, his voice now taking on a threatening tone. "If you think that is an accomplishment or any real measure our fighting ability, you are a delusional fool."
Jacqueline quickly stopped smirking and her face went straight. "We will see."
At that, Krylov then stood up from his seat. Vladimir and Lena did the same. The Russian ace then walked out of the mess with his two compatriots following closely behind, Lena shooting a dirty look back.
As Luck watched Krylov leave the mess, he never thought he would see the day when he would be happy to watch that Russian bring someone else's mood down. He then spotted Jacqueline coming back over to them.
"You, escort." she pointed to Mozart. "Take me to where I may retire."
"Excuse me, I have a name," the Canadian fired back, not too pleased with being called "escort."
Jacqueline looked at him flatly, clearly showing him that nothing he did was going to change her demeanor.
"Follow me and don't call me 'escort," he said as he turned to lead her out. Before doing so he turned to Feng and asked, "You coming too?"
Feng nodded his head. "I think I will. It was a long flight getting here." He looked to the Dark Horse pilots and said, "Until we met again, my friends."
They nodded to him respectfully. As Mozart led Jacqueline and Feng away all of the pilots turned their attention to Duke.
"Why didn't you tell us that your service contract was terminated?" Luck asked, almost disbelievingly. "That means you're now a mercenary just like us."
"I am a mercenary," Duke sternly responded. His trademark serious expression appeared on his face. "But that is classified information that none of you need to know."
This caused Luck, Frost and Bear to now feel slightly suspicious of their CAG's background as well as his intentions. Yes he had stood by them for this long, and they would still follow him and fight alongside him, but all the same they couldn't help but wonder. What else was he keeping from them?
"Tomorrow I'll brief you all on the new CAP schedule. Be ready to go at it one-hundred percent," he commanded. With that said, he left them there and exited the mess.
"Well, I think that's about all the surprises I can take for one night. I'm hitting the sack," Bear said.
"Yeah, us too." Luck responded.
Date: December 23, 2016
Time: 0700 hours, (7:00 A.M. Philippine Time)
Location: Island of Palawan, Philippines
The next morning everyone had finished breakfast and gathered in front of a TV to watch the negotiation process. For the original Dark Horses group they decided to take over the wardroom and switch the TV to the news.
(Music: CoD: Black Ops Soundtrack - The Wall)
On the screen was a scene that defined the conflict. Sitting at a long crescent-shaped table were the ambassadors of the SEAC nations and countries involved: Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan. Each ambassador sat with their name plate, a microphone, and a flag of their respective country in front of them. Sitting at a single table opposite of them was General Yang Hu with a name plate and microphone of his own as well as a Chinese flag in front of him. In the corners were various media and news outlets covering the negotiation process.
On General Yang's face was a professional look that seemed slightly tinged with a bit of smug confidence. Here he was with all of these ambassadors that he brought together because of all the powerful chaos he had caused. Here they were, searching for a way to get him to stop when he clearly had the ability to cause more. Yang had to admit he enjoyed the feeling; now, sitting in that room and facing these men, he had all the power in the world and he was soaking up every bit of it in one glorious moment. Before these men and the entire world, he was not simply a general, but an Emperor.
The moment negotiations began the Vietnamese ambassador immediately shouted into his microphone, "You framed us!" he called out. "You made it look like we attacked your ships as a pretense for this war! You had computer hackers get into our system to match the strikes! Our planes were never there!"
Yang merely shrugged and said strongly, "If all Vietnam can present us with is your word that's not good enough." he stated blandly. "I have citizens in my country with dead family members on those ships. They want justice and so do I."
As the Vietnamese ambassador looked around the room he could see that the other ambassadors were simply looking away. It was clear to him at that moment that, whether they believed Vietnam's narrative or not, they would not back him up. Seeing that, the Vietnamese ambassador slowly backed away from his microphone, showing he had decided not to press any further.
The Chinese General briefly allowed himself to smile for a moment.
"This is outrageous," stated the ambassador of Malaysia. "China should have negotiated a price for those islands if they wanted them so badly. We could have come to some sort of economic understanding, even after Vietnam's blunder."
Eye's fell on the Vietnamese ambassador for a moment to search for a reaction. He sat upright with his hands folded and a stoic expression.
"It's much too late to talk about that now," Yang responded. "I met force with force. Ask yourself, if Thailand had attacked your ships, how would you respond appropriately?"
The Malaysian ambassador then eyed his Thai counterpart suspiciously. Relations between Thailand and Malaysia were strained over several issues before the war had started.
"My country would never do that," the Thai ambassador said in quick reaction.
Accusingly the Malaysian ambassador said, "Thailand has been supplying rebel groups in our northern border with arms for years. I'm not so sure you wouldn't."
Thailand's ambassador defensively responded, "We've had nothing to do with those groups. My nation has spent a lot of money and worked very hard to try proving that to you but you never listen!"
Wanting to return the subject of conversation to the conflict at hand, the Philippines ambassador spoke in his microphone, "I want to negotiate with China for the return of the three hundred Filipino civilians on Thitu Island to us."
Yang feigned sorrowful reluctance. There was no use hiding what had happened on the island. "I would if I could, but those civilians attempted to revolt on my island when Chinese forces took over. I was forced to put it to rest."
At this news all of the ambassador's in the room visibly tensed up. They could not believe what they were hearing. Yang had wiped out three hundred civilians for resisting? Some of them shifted uncomfortably in their seats while others seemed to hold a look of astonishment.
"General, surely you don't mean you killed all of them?" the Philippines ambassador said, trembling slightly.
"Yes, my soldiers killed all of them," Yang said calmly. "I have video footage of the civilians fighting my soldiers. I'll send that to you if you like."
A silence fell between Yang and the representatives. A tense air filled the room. In a few quick arguments, Yang had established himself as the boss of the region. The most his opponents could do was bring up the issues, but ultimately Yang would decide what happens. As the long silence filled the room he raised his hand and feigned wiping his mouth to hide the smirk on his face.
At that moment the Japanese ambassador spoke up, "I have a suggestion. We could-"
The Philippine ambassador immediately cut him off, "Japan has no stake in this and quite frankly we would rather not have any involvement from the likes of your country."
The Japanese ambassador fell silent. It was widely known that Japan was still the least liked country in the region. Japan had occupied most of the countries in Southeast Asia during WWII and the cruel treatment of their inhabitants by Japanese soldiers was something none of them had lost from memory. When the Japanese ambassador looked around the room and found that everyone was looking at him with an emotion that bordered on hatred he decided to slowly back away from his microphone.
All eyes fell on the South Korean ambassador who sat next to his counterpart from Japan. Unlike Japan, South Korea held a relatively good reputation throughout the area.
"Is there anything South Korea would like to contribute to this?" calmly asked Singapore's ambassador.
The South Korean man leaned forward into his microphone and calmly responded, "Nothing thus far."
All of the other ambassador's frowned in disappointment with the exception of Vietnam's, who maintained his stoic expression. Many of the nations of Southeast Asia had been hoping for South Korea to take somewhat of a leadership role in the region against China. China knew this long beforehand and established several economic trade agreements with South Korea. Rather than be more active in this negotiation process, South Korea was making it clear that it wanted to mostly observe and make sure none of its economic arrangements were threatened while it continued the status quo of preparing for a possible war with North Korea.
"Well then, I'd like to bring a matter to everyone's attention." The Indonesian ambassador pulled out two photos. They were both of civilian airliners one Airbus A330 and the other a Boeing 777. Both were from Indonesia's own airlines, Garuda Indonesia. "During this conflict two of my airliners were shot out of the sky."
Several gasps erupted from not just the ambassadors, but the media crews in the room as well. Following the gasps was a silence that was defining. Even Yang looked caught off guard by the news.
"I don't know who is responsible for this shooting," the Indonesian ambassador stated forcefully, "But I would like an investigation to be launched and I want compensation given to the families of those involved."
Yang quickly got on his microphone. "I do not know who shot down your airliners, but I will not oppose an investigation and I will hand over any information I have available."
The Indonesian ambassador calmly responded with, "Thank you, General Yang."
At that moment Bear then said, "I can't watch this anymore. It's too painful."
As Bear got up and left the room Luck decided that he was sick of watching this as well. Mozart, Stix, and Frost soon followed.
As they were walking out Stix said solemnly, "It's pretty sickening to hear about those two airliners."
The group of pilots nodded their heads.
"It's got me worried too," Mozart said. "I've been thinking, between Yang's drones and us we've emptied more missiles into the sky than any of the Chinese forces have by far. We also shot in wide areas trying to get all of them and we told our allies to do it too because it worked."
The mood of everyone at that moment seemed down.
"That doesn't mean anything," Bear staunchly said. "It could just as easily have been them as much as us. So for right now, we'll wait."
Luck looked back at his group. He looked around at all of their faces. He thought it a miracle that they had made it this far considering the odds they had been up against. "I just hope we don't get a second fight right after the first."
Red Crown: Sorry it took me so long to update this. I've been really busy and had a lot on my mind. I'm back to writing now though! It's good to be back! More reviews gives me more motivation and will bring you the next chapter sooner!