Through bright-white corridors with blaring damage alert sirens going off across the ship, Air Force Sergeant Jacob Stone dragged the injured and unconscious Kei to a safer area away from the damaged portion of the ship. As he got to a ramp leading to the higher levels, Kei stirred. As the captain regained consciousness, she started groaning which then turned into some controlled screams.

'Hang on Kei, medical is directly above us.' Jacob said reassuringly, dragging her up and around the ramp to D deck. A thin trail of blood followed them. The compartment door opened for that deck, indicating that the local atmosphere here was contained. A pair of other crewmen walked into them. Two of the Pilgrim's four qualified medics. They were both carrying a plastic stretcher for any wounded crew. The leader of the two dropped down the stretcher and helped get Kei onto it so they could move her quicker.

'Jacob, did you grab anyone else on E deck?' He said while lifting up the stretcher.

'Nada, didn't see anyone!' Jacob had to yell to get above the noise of the alarms. 'Most of E deck's been vented!'

'No response from the bridge, power forward may have been cut.' The assembled group of four entered the medbay. Another five were already inside. The other two medics and a handful of engineers were performing checks on equipment to make sure nothing was critically damaged.

'Captain's injured.' The leader of the medics, an Erusean, Warrant Officer Daniel Hubert, said placing Kei onto a proper bench where he could check the wounds. His escorting medic and another joined him in checking. Combined they checked her entire body, having to cut through portions of her uniform to see the extent of damage in some places.

'A dozen odd punctures and lacerations to the legs. One major laceration to the arm, through the bicep, just above the humerus. Some minor contusions.'

'Splint and isolate her arm.' They got out a tourniquet and placed it on Kei's wounded arm, just below the shoulder so blood flow would be restricted to the cut. Kei had passed out from both the shock and an IV directly pumping painkillers into her body.

'Attention all hands, Damage Control Centre. Evacuate frames 1 through 19, all decks. Seal off E deck and make your way to the medbay.' Someone had made it to DCC evidently.

In the DCC itself, four people were kitting up in what looked like firefighter uniforms, with helmets, respirators, oxygen tanks and a heavy-duty uniform. They were similar but were built with thicker, tougher materials and a cooling regulator undersuit to better ward off the effects of being in a vacuum.

'Alright,' Jacob was the group leader of the damage control guys. 'Light board has indicated that damage stems from our belly on E and D decks, with atmosphere venting from the bridge to communications and the resting berths. Electrical forward of communications on all decks is down. We'll conduct a sweep in all damaged areas for survivors, bring them to medical and fix any damage to vital systems. Order is life support, electrical, communications and navigation. Clear?'

'Crystal.' Jacob's men all replied.

'Brilliant, let's go.'

Snow, Mobius, Cipher and Yellow watched from their hangar as Blaze touched down gracefully on the airfield and taxied over to the berth. Yellow was amused that the Razgriz pilot had taken his plane in particular.

'You reckon he got it out of his system?' He said to Mobius.

'Yeah, I think he did.' Mobius replied as they were cut off by the engine noise of the Terminator pulling in. An enlisted ground member waved him down and got the pilot to halt. A gaggle of other crew then ran out to tie down the aircraft. The engines went to idle, turned off and the canopy opened.

'Better?' Cipher said out loud when Blaze strapped out of the ejection seat. The latter shrugged as he came down the ladder.

'Better.' Blaze approached the group and Yellow in particular. 'Yellow 13?'

'Yes.'

Blaze held out his hand to the Erusean ace. 'Alex, but most people call me Blaze. Sorry about your plane by the way.'

Yellow smiled and shook his hand. 'James Roald. It's not broken so I'm not worried.' Blaze nodded and looked up at Cipher.

'Sunk a destroyer. AEGIS vessel.'

'Erusean?'

'Yep.'

Mobius interrupted the conversation briefly. 'You Razgriz pilots haven't had anything to eat since yesterday. Let's go to the cafeteria.' The five ace pilots exited the hangar where their aircraft were stored and went over to the cafeteria, roughly in the centre of the base. In comparison to his frantic and angered pace about 20 minutes ago, Blaze seemed to be in much more control of himself now. Cipher and Snow noticed this but said little of it. The latter tried to make some conversation.

'Colonel Williams?' He referred to Cipher.'

'I prefer Cipher, but what's up?'

'Are you related to Alex here?'

Cipher chuckled. 'He's my nephew.'

Snow looked at Blaze in surprise. 'This where your flying talent comes from?'

Blaze stifled a laugh and shook his head. 'My dad was a pilot as well.'

'OADF?'

'Yes, but no.' Cipher answered the question first. 'You need to understand that the Williams family is Belkan. My brother and Blaze's dad was in the Belkan Navy as a fighter pilot. Guy retired and moved to Osea with his family where he became a pilot for the Osean Air Force. Blaze followed in our footsteps.'

'Before you ask, Cipher was Belkan Air Force himself.' Mobius said from the front of the pilot column. 'Became a fucking merc before the '95 war started. And as we all know that's history.'

'What about yourself, Mobius? How'd you meet Cipher?'

'Exercise Talisman Sabre in '91. We were in the same team and became friends.' The group entered the cafeteria and made a beeline for a table in the far right corner of the room. Being early morning, there were a couple dozen ISAF support personnel eating and having conversations before their work shifts. There was a fruit bowl on the table they occupied. Blaze grabbed an apple and bit a chunk out of it. They all sat down. After the initial conversation through the base hallways, the group was quiet. After a minute of this silent where the two Razgriz members chomped away at pieces of fruit. Mobius decided to break it.

'Blaze, what vessel did you sink?'

'I got two. The first was the destroyer. The other looked like a bulk carrier.'

'Class?'

'DDG-564. Maya-class?'

'Geofon. One of Erusea's newest air-defence warships. I'm honestly surprised you made it back in one piece.'

'Zac, I've had to deal with entire fleets. One vessel, even if it has AEGIS, isn't a challenge.'

'Not to mention the Scinfaxi and Hrimfaxi. Alright, good job.'

Later on that day, in orbit, the sedatives keeping Captain Kei Nagase asleep in the medical bay were wearing off. She muttered a little bit before waking up partially. Her eyes opened about half-way, scanning her environment. She was underneath white covers on a bed, a thick bandage arranged around the middle of her upper arm. A series of needles were pumping painkillers and fluids into her body. Kei groaned, catching the attention of WO Hubert.

'Welcome to the land of the living, Captain.' Hubert checked Kei's vital signs on a monitor. In acceptable rates considering her condition.

'How bad?' She muttered, trailing her head off to one side.

'You lost a litre of blood and your right bicep has been severed, along with some smaller cuts and penetrations to your legs.'

'No, the crew. The ship.' Kei's voice was quiet but gained strength from a moment ago. Hubert inhaled.

'52 confirmed dead, including Captain Davis. Five wounded, three seriously including yourself. The bridge, most of the crew berthings and the port-side wing have been damaged and exposed to vacuum. Damage control is working on repairing the communications array.' Hubert's report was morbid and a hint of sadness was obvious in his voice, even to the drugged Nagase. The latter shut her eyes and shed a single tear. She tried to stand up, but the Erusean chief medic pressed her back down.

'Captain, you're in no condition to walk. I'll assemble the crew here once major systems have been restored.'

Kei understood, nodded and laid back down. 'Carry on.'