When Dylan Cook said shipping out, Alex thought he meant that he would be sent via vessel. To the mercy of the ace pilot, he was permitted to fly over come morning. Alex left in enough of a hurry that he didn't talk to Grimm or Snow before strapping into his Su-33 and zooming off the airfield. Alex's flight to Zapland and the 444 Squad's airbase was uneventful. As he flew over, he noticed the wings worth of equipment and aircraft stored on the ground. A lot more than you would find on a regular airbase. Alex came in for landing.

'444 Tower, Lieutenant-Commander Williams, requesting landing permissions.'

'Granted, sir. Runway is clear.'

June 9, 2019

Zapland Air Force Base

Alex was directed to a half-buried hardened aircraft shelter isolated from the rest of the base. As he taxied over, he noticed that many of the vehicles and planes he had seen from above were either dummies or made from pieces of scrap. Well-crafted in the latter. A deception operation. Very nice. A ground crew was waiting for him in the hangar as he came down the ramp into the hangar. There was also a pair of officers flanked on each side by armed security guards. As the crew secured and locked down Alex's Flanker. The latter got out and walked over to the officers. One was a pilot of some sort, the other was probably McKinsey, the base commander.

'Colonel McKinsey?' Alex asked as he approached.

'I take it you're our new advisor.' McKinsey nodded, offering a hand. 'Welcome to the penal unit, commander.'

'Happy to be here.' Alex shook his hand and stood at attention. McKinsey nodded towards the pilot.

'This is Major Caleb Wilde, or Bandog, our second-in-command and AWACS operator.'

'Hi.' Bandog said. Alex smiled and shook the hand of the AWACS man. Straight off the bat he seemed at least a tad more respectable than McKinsey.

'So, you have a pilot looking after mere criminals from what I've been told?' Alex said, curious.

'Correct. They're not an impressive bunch.' McKinsey replied, eager not to piss off Alex.

'Hmm. May I go meet them?'

'Sure. Follow me.' Bandog said. They left McKinsey behind for the place where the prisoners were held. 'Be warned, some of the prisoners we have here are less than sane.'

'Shouldn't be an issue.' They came up to a heavy metal door protected by a group of guards. At the sight of Bandog and Alex, they opened the door for them and then shut it behind them. On the other side were another pair of them. Beyond them was a gate that a guard had to unlock and then a long series of cells. The doors on most were open save for some rusted down cells.

'Prisoner's galley is down this hall, along with the recreational areas and other superficial facilities.' Bandog gave Alex a general guide to this part of the facility.

'I take it everyone is in the mess hall?'

'Yep. You need a guide in there?'

'Nah, I think I've got it from here. Cheers.'

'No worries.' Bandog left Alex to fend for himself for a moment, retreating to the support personnel side of the base. Alex himself walked down the hallway, navigated around a few corners and suddenly found himself in the mess hall. A large group of people looked at him as he entered. Judging by their appearances and uniforms, the prisoners. Alex was unfazed and walked around, scanning the area.

'You lost pal?' One of the prisoners with a square face and neat, light brown hair, called out to him.

'Just looking around.' Alex replied warmly.

'Well will you look at that, it's the jailer's new guard dog.' A stocky man from the same table said loudly. Alex walked over to that table. It was occupied by five people.

'The official title is advisor, but close enough. May I take a seat?' Alex stood next to him. The first man to have spoke shuffled over. 'Thank you.' Alex sat down amongst the gazes of the table.

'Hey, I've seen that patch before.' Another man with long, messy blond hair said to him, looking at a patch on the right of Blaze's uniform. 'The Ghosts of Razgriz. That one squadron from ten years ago. The hell sort of squadron are you from?'

The fourth with cropped black hair looked closely at it, and then at the nametag and rank insignias. 'Huh. Looks like the Razgriz really were Navy.'

'Air Force, actually, but that's a long story for another day.' Alex brushed off his squad emblem. Back at the entrance, Bandog and a guard walked in looking for Alex.

'Commander, a word please?' Bandog asked loudly to make sure that he was heard.

'Yep.' Alex stood up, nodded towards the people he was just talking to and walked over to Bandog. They exited the mess hall and walked into the hallway. Once out of sight of the prisoners, Bandog pulled a card out from a pocket and gave it to Alex, along with a single key. Alex looked at the card. Magnetic strip but the rest of it was plain white. He looked up at Bandog.

'Security access to the base.' He tapped the card in Alex's hand. 'The key's for your room for the other section of this building. There's a meeting for your introduction in an hour. Go explore until then I guess?'

'May as well.' Alex slipped the card and key into the pocket that had his phone in it. Bandog and the guard went back to whatever they were doing. Alex decided to go see what the secure side of the base contained. He went through the gate and the security door. Opposite the prisoner's side was a less reinforced wooden door. Alex opened it and walked in. In contrast of the rough hewn concrete of the cell hallway, in here the floor was made of smooth laminate with dark, plasterboard walls and roof. It extended all the way to a stairwell that went up to the higher levels. Alex drew the kew from before and read the tag on it. 51. Alex proceeded along the rooms, reading the number and names on each one. He didn't find 51 on the first floor so he went up the staircase to the second floor. 51 was the first room next to the stairwell. On the door was one of those cheap labels you could get from a supermarket in packs of a hundred. LCDR A. Williams.

'Hmm.' Alex said to himself, using the key to unlock the door. He turned the doorknob. It turned a tiny bit but then stopped at a certain point. Alex had locked the door by accident.

'Fuck.' He said to himself, actually unlocking the door and walking in. The room was lavishly decorated with a carpet, office desk and computer, a bed with related sheets, pillows and blankets and a connected pantry and bathroom. An officer's room. Alex took a moment to check the dimensions of the room before sitting down at the desk and turning on the computer. A notepad sat next to the keyboard. It had writing on it.

Alex Williams
PW - blaze

You can change your password on the portal if you wish.

-MSGT Walker

A login screen popped up. Alex typed in both the username and the password. It loaded for a second before the main screen came up. The default Osean Defence Force background was loaded, along with a tab open on the internet browser and a Notepad open, again with writing. Alex tabbed onto it and read it.

Evening Commander,

This computer contains all the programs, folders and other files that are relevant to your position of advisor at the 444 Squadron Airbase. Our portal works the same as the regular ODF portal with some extra links. Username and password are the same as mentioned on the note I left you.

Ongoing reminders and announcements will be posted on this portal, so keep an eye on it. It is more than likely that any flight rosters will be uploaded there as well.

Enjoy your stay.

-MSGT Walker

Alex nodded, saved and closed the notepad and then tabbed over to the portal. He logged in and a bunch of notifications hit him right in the face. Staff meetings, general meetings, a flight roster for today's air defence, even a list of all the prisoners that were currently held at the base. Alex clicked onto the general meeting notice. It was in an hour, to be hosted in the mess hall and attended by all prisoners, officers and any relevant enlisted personnel. Alex soaked in all the details. The next thing he opened before getting off the computer was the flight roster. It was going into effect in two hours and had six pilots assigned to it. Count, Champ, High Roller, Full Band, Tabloid, Blaze. Alex assumed that he was on that roster. He switched the computer to idle mode and went into the pantry. He got out bread, cheese and a can of tuna to make a sandwich, and complimented it with a bottle of water.

An hour later, Alex walked down to the mess hall. There were 15 guards now instead of the two from before, and all the officers were there, including Colonel McKinsey. His arrival drew the attention of the entire room. Alex paid no mind to it and walked over to the front of the room.

'Alright convicts, as mentioned yesterday, this is the official introduction of your new advisor in the skies.' McKinsey kicked off the meeting. There were some laughs from around the room.

'You get some two-bit reservist from the rear echelon to fill the position?' One said. Everyone else laughed. Alex smiled despite the insult.

'Keystone, if I recall you were a two-bit reservist yourself.' Bandog delivered a burn to the man. Through all that, Alex noticed a woman in the back of the ground staring at him, hard. Alex stared back. She diverted her gaze towards the other officers.

'In light of that, I would like to introduce Lieutenant-Commander Williams.' McKinsey.

'You can call me Blaze.' Alex interjected.

'He's just come off a deployment on the front lines. His words carry the same authority as myself and Bandog. You will obey his orders.'

'Hang on, hang on,' The guy with the long and messy hair from before spoke. 'What kind of deployment are we talking about here?'

'Well, he's-' McKinsey started to reply.

'I can answer that.' Alex cut off McKinsey. 'I fought in the Circum-Pacifc War. I helped fight off the drones attacking Oured Bay. Flying from the Vulture I sunk an Erusean supercarrier and her fleet. Flown various patrols to counter bombers. Destroyed an airfield deep in enemy territory. Sunk a submarine in a plane. Attacked Farbanti, shot down every last member of Erusea's top ace squadron. I've got the experience, the know-how and I can assure you that if any of you try to shoot me in the back, you will die.' Alex took a step back and nodded. There were whistles from some of the prisoners.

'Well spoken, commander. That is all. You may return to your duties.' As quickly as the meeting had started, the meeting ended. Alex stayed behind for a moment.

'Also, flight operations begin in an hour. Count, Champ, High Roller, Full Band and Tabloid, you are the pilots for today.'

'Sky time? Hell yeah.' The long-haired man said, walking off.

'I kinda want to see how this new advisor guy flies.' An orange-haired man said after him. From the back, he looked like Grimm. Alex cracked his neck and went looking for the hangars. Didn't take long, they were directly across from the buildings that he was standing in. Inside were a variety of aircraft, from Flankers, Fulcrums to Super Hornets and Mirages. Alex's own Flanker had been towed over there to his surprise, finding the black plane with flames around the nose in the middle of the formation. Around his own plane were the aircraft that were going to be used by his convict wingmen. Alex was looking at the aircraft when a single mechanic appeared from behind the Mirage in the group, surprising the former. Alex recognised the mechanic as the lady he had stared down in the meeting.

'You admiring my work?' She said something before Alex could.

'Yep. You're a mechanic?'

'Grudgingly.'

'Grudgingly?'

'Well,' The mechanic checked the landing gear of the blue Su-33 they were standing under. 'I'm not an officially qualified mechanic.'

'Passion?' Alex stepped back towards his own Su-33.

'Yep. You know, I built an F-104 with my bare fucking hands.'

Alex nodded. 'From scratch?'

'From scratch. But then the war started, I got blasted out of the skies and accused of aviation violations and here I am.'

'Sounds like you drew the short straw.' Alex turned his head out to the runway and saw a group of five people entering the hangar under the escort of an equal group of guards. They had pilot gear on, helmets slung under their arms or mounted to heads.

'Oh, so the advisor is actually flying with us.' Count said as he approached in the centre of the group. Alex walked over to the ladder of his Su-33.

'It would be bad form if I didn't.' He started climbing up until the last step. The others zipped over to their planes.

'What the hell are we doing upstairs anyway?' High Roller asked as he put on his helmet and went up the ladder to the cockpit of his F-16C. Alex didn't answer immediately, waiting to get into the cockpit and powering up the engine and everything else on the plane. He slipped on his helmet, tapped the mouthpiece.

'Spare Squadron, can you hear me?'

'Yep.' Count said first followed by everyone else.

'High Roller, in all honesty I have no idea. Guess we'll know once we get up.' Alex boosted his engines to roll out of the hangar. The convicts followed shortly after.

'Well, that's reassuring.' Tabloid was right behind Alex's Su-33. He flew a Mirage 2000.

'Tower, Spare Squadron, requesting take off permissions.'

'Granted, Commander, clear to taxi and take off.'

'Follow me people.' Alex turned onto the taxiway, went down a little bit, turned onto the proper runway and took off from there, a heatwave emitting from behind the aircraft. Another Su-33, a MiG-29, an F-16, an F/A-18E and a Mirage 2000 followed the black and flames Su-33M3 into the clear blue skies around the Zapland region. Alex switched his HMD on to make sure that his tracking data and IFF was working.

'Commander Williams, this is Bandog, can you hear me?' Bandog was contacting Alex.

'Loud and clear. What's our mission?'

'Do some laps around the region. It is expected that Erusean bombers will be attacking the base.' Bandog was speaking on a private channel exclusive to Alex and other ranking officers.

'Copy, running CAP.' Alex switched to the channel that his wingmen were operating on. 'Good evening Spare Squadron, this is your advisor speaking. Today's aerial operations will be protecting this base from hostile bombers and attackers.'

'Did nobody tell him?' Full Band said jokingly.

'Apparently they didn't tell me a lot of things. What did I miss this time?' Alex sighed. Guess I'll be learning as I go.

'The jailer doesn't trust prisoners like us with weapons. Our fire-control systems are locked.' Count answered Alex's question.

'Well that's fuckin' unfair.' Alex took a moment to think of something. 'Have you guys gone up before?'

'Yep.' The reply was universal.

'Doing what? Acting as fancy targets?'

'Yep.' Again, the reply was universal. If Alex could reach through his canopy, down to the control room back at base and strangle the base commander, he absolutely would.

'Fuck.' Alex banked over to see the wings of his wingmen. They had armed missiles. 'Do what you can for now and try not to get shot down.' The squadron split off from each other to cover a broad area above and around the base. From a distance, Alex watched the movement and actions of the men he was meant to be watching. He noticed that the Su-33 pilot, Count, moved more fluidly than the others even at normal pace. One of the better pilots, he assumed. After a couple of boring hours in the skies with the sun going down, Alex had almost zoned out.

'All Spare Squadron fighters, new series of contacts bearing 350, altitude 150. Appears to be a group of Erusean fighter-bombers.' Bandog piped up. Alex woke up from his stir and started moving to the north.

'Copy, Spare intercepting. Let's go.' Blaze dived towards the ground until he was almost kissing it with the bottom of his air intakes. The others followed closely behind, if at a higher altitude.

'Huh, the leader likes to take things risky eh?' Champ was looking at Blaze from up above.

'Probably an intimidation tactic. Anyone want to bet that he crashes?' High Roller.

'By all means, you're welcome to lose money.' Blaze weaved through lightposts and trees before popping up at a short range of five kilometres from the Erusean attackers. The enemy group appeared to be flying a mixture of MiG-29As and F-15E fighters. Blaze switched to and armed a full set of Sidewinder missiles. While the others had their fire control locked and shut down, Blaze had no such restrictions. Two pairs of missiles rapidly shot off rails into the front fighters, the fighter escorts. All four connected with their targets, sending the fighters smashing into the semi-arid floor. As the Fulcrums burnt, Blaze shot over the Eagles before they could register their escorts being shot down. High Roller and Full Band had followed him through on the attack, roaring overhead. Blaze turned in a 180 to get on the ass of the Eagles. They all spread out to get away from the defenders. Blaze went after the closest. While a nimble fighter, the Eagle pilot couldn't evade the Flanker. A Sidewinder tore off one of its wings, quickly followed by a second that dealt the killing blow. He quickly switched to the second out of six Eagles, blasting through the canopy with a cannon burst. The remaining four Eagles were all spread out from each other but still heading towards the base. Blaze found a use for his longer-range AMRAAMs here, firing from a distance at the Eagle the furthest away. A killing blow as the F-15E failed to evade and took a missile in the midsection, exploding into two pieces. F-15s number four and five suffered the same punishment. Number six managed to evade the two AMRAAMs that Blaze fired at him.

'Count, Champ, cut off his attack!' Blaze was racing after the enemy at max speed. But at only Mach 2.3, he was unable to catch up to the F-15E's Mach 2.6 in a straight run.

'On it.' Ahead of him, an Su-33 and a MiG-29 cut across the path of the F-15. By instinct the pilot banked off to the side to chase the fighter that almost hit him. Blaze saw this happening on radar.

'He's on your tail, bring him back towards me.' Blaze could actually catch up now. Champ turned his nose towards Blaze. The latter cycled to Sidewinders and waited to catch a lock tone. He gained one quickly. 'Break!' Champ cobra'ed and flew in a different direction. In the nanosecond after that Blaze loosed off a Sidewinder. At such a close range, Blaze wasn't surprised when the missile connected and crippled the Eagle. He pulled off to make sure he wasn't rammed. The F-15 exploded just before it hit the ground below.

'Nice one.' Tabloid saw the kill and complemented him.

'So, our new advisor isn't a useless pilot.' Full Band followed after.

'All observed targets destroyed. Waiting for orders.' Blaze gained some altitude and leveled off at around 2000 metres.

'That was quick. Remain on station until relieved.' Bandog replied quickly. Blaze checked his watch. They still had half an hour. He sat back as much as he could in the seat. That time passed quickly and around that time the squadron was called back to base. Blaze was the last down. It was dark by the time they landed and there were jets preparing for takeoff on the ground when he pulled into the hangar. Guards were waiting for the convicts who just got back. Alex pulled off his helmet, powered down and got out of the aircraft.