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Legendary Aces
Chapter 41: Night Sky
-Starry Expanse Above the Clouds-
-Talisman-
Vitoze Bar, Brilliante Heights
2036hrs 27 November 2015
"Another!" Daniel couldn't put it down. Windhover Squadron won the bet, so as promised I had to treat Daniel Pollini, their flight lead, to a little drinking date.
The only bar in Brilliante Heights was only a few blocks from the airport where we were stationed, so Avalanche's flight lead, Freddie Durand, and Marcus ended up coming along with us to the bar. They had to pay for themselves, though.
"Windhover, you're gonna be crawling back to the base," Marcus said. "You've had seven shots already!"
"That ain't nothin'!" He hiccupped before taking his eighth shot. "Tal... Tal... Uhh..."
"Talisman?"
"Yeah, Talisman. Wait what about her?"
"You were..."
"Oh yeah. She's had twelve shots!"
It was true. I already had twelve shots, but it only felt like three at the most. I didn't even have a buzz.
"Windhover, you should take it easy." Marcus's efforts were in vain, though I commended him for trying. He had the least number of shots, being only at two, and he had already swore off for the night.
Daniel leaned forward and laid his head on the bar and his arm outstretched as if reaching for another shot. "Another."
"Are you trying to spend all of my money?" I asked rhetorically, though I did get an answer.
"Maybe."
"Hey, Talisman. How come you aren't drunk yet? You've had so many shots," Freddie asked. He already had five shots, and had a sixth waiting in front of him.
"It's because I'm awesome, that's why." I said bluntly and with a cheesy grin. They merely raised their eyebrows at me. "Yeah, yeah. I have a retarded high metabolism. I'd get alcohol poisoning before getting drunk."
"I don't believe that," Freddie muttered.
"Up to you if you believe it. Daniel, I think you've had enough. I'm done, too. The taste is starting to get bland. Too much of a good thing is bad."
"You're probably right," he said.
"I'm done, too," Freddie added.
Daniel stood up from his stool, but almost fell over.
"Careful," I said. "You're a little tipsy."
"A little?" Marcus retorted.
"Heh. Freddie, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good."
"Will you two help Daniel back to the base? There's something I want to do."
"Sure," Marcus said.
"Thanks, guys." I paid the bartender and left. I took the long way back to the base. The cool air at night was refreshing.
I half expected to get mugged or something on my way back. I was carrying both my sword and my service pistol, a Beretta 90two, so I wasn't worried at all. I ended up not meeting anyone on my way back.
I started to go back to the barracks, but instead climbed to the top of the radio building. I laid down and gazed up at the stars. I reached up, trying to grab one of the stars in the sky.
*I wonder how they are,* I thought. *Kye and Rei are still in Gracemeria. I haven't heard anything about them since the invasion. Are they okay? Are they still alive? What about Melissa and Matilda? I have no way of knowing, and it's eating away at me.*
I felt a tear from each eye roll down the side of my face. I was worried about them. I wanted to see them. I wanted to know if they were okay.
*Kye told me about her time in the last war, how she changed,* I thought. *Would I turn dark like she did? My name itself means darkness in my native language. Maybe I would.*
My thoughts shifted to my family back in Osea. I missed them. They were supposed to come visit on the day the invasion happened. It's good they didn't come. I'm so glad my mother had Yuko at the time. I don't know what I would have done if my little girl had gotten caught in the crossfire that day.
I missed them, but at least I could call. Maybe I could check in with them in the morning. I ended up nodding off on the roof.
Campagne Airport
0730hrs 28 November 2015
I felt the sun on my face. It was warm, despite the air feeling cool. I leaned up and stretched without opening my eyes.
"Good morning." At first I didn't know who it was, but the voice was familiar.
I yawned and opened my eyes to see if the owner of the voice was who I expected, and it was. "Mornin', Marcus. Sleep well?"
"About as well as any other night."
"You haven't heard anything about Laura and Maria yet have you?"
He sighed. "Not yet."
"I hope they're okay."
"Me, too."
He was sitting cross legged near the edge of the roof, looking toward the sunrise. I crawled over and sat next to him.
"Did you sleep up here all night again?" he asked.
"Yeah," I muttered. "The sunrise is beautiful isn't it?"
"Mhm."
"It's beautiful for a while, until the sun gets too bright. Then it gets higher into the sky, and we go about our day. We do the same stuff every day until the next mission. The sunrise that day will bring war and death. I guess I should fit right in."
"Why's that?"
"Are you familiar at all with my native language?"
"I'm not even sure which one that is."
"To be honest, I don't actually know what the name of the language is, or what the native country is. My family has lived in Osea for many generations. As far as I know, the country may not even exist and the language may be a dead language. But, each generation is taught how to speak our native language. My father taught it to my siblings and me, just as we will teach our children."
"Is there no way to find out? Surely you can trace your family tree back."
"It's possible, but maybe it's better I don't. I don't know. But anyway, my name isn't actually a name in my language, it's a word. Yami in my language means darkness."
"Darkness?"
"Yeah. I commonly wonder why I was named after the word that means darkness. Sometimes I feel like just letting loose and personifying my name. My sister turned really dark for a while in the Circum Pacific War. She was a pure and innocent girl that got dragged into war. She was pushed so far that she stopped feeling remorse when she killed somebody."
"Do you feel remorse?"
"Every time I pull the trigger, even if they bail out and survive. I don't like killing people. But there's a silver lining on the other side. If we fight our way back to Gracemeria, we will be able to see our loved ones that were left behind."
"A lot of people made it out of Gracemeria, but a lot didn't. I check the refugee lists every day, and I still haven't seen my wife or daughter's names."
"Where does one find this list?"
"We get an updated list every day at about 0900."
"Do we still have yesterday's list?"
"It should be in the admin building."
"I'm gonna go look, I'll talk to you later, Marcus." I jumped down from the roof and sprinted across the base to the admin building.
The secretary was a young Second Lieutenant. "Good morning, Captain. What can I do for you?"
"I want to see the refugee list."
She shuffled through the papers on her desk and handed the list to me. "Here you are."
"Thanks, Lieutenant." I scanned through the list quickly. It was in alphabetical order by last name. I only found one name I knew, Melissa Herman. Though she was listed as missing since the 24th that was evidence that she was at least alive. Matilda's name wasn't even there. My heart sank. I handed the list back to the Lieutenant and left without another word.
After breakfast, I eventually convinced myself to go call my mother.
-Layla-
Osean Paragon Base
0915hrs 28 November 2015
"Nana! Let's play!" Yuko tugged at my shirt after she found me in my office. I was drawing up a drone aircraft design.
I picked Yuko up and placed her on my lap. "What do you want to do, sweetie?"
"I want to play airplanes!"
We had designed a fighter jet video game, and ever since Yuko discovered it, it became her favorite thing in the world. We had two versions of the game, one was a full on simulator with a cockpit and everything, and the other was a console game played on a TV.
"Okay, sweetie." Yuko was only four years, but she was really good at it. The twins liked to play it too whenever they were here. They weren't as good as Yuko, but Yuko had more time to play it since she was living with me while her mother was at war. I had a feeling this new generation would become fighter pilots, too.
"Yay, airplanes!" Yuko squealed.
I put her back down on the floor, took her hand, and started to lead her to the game room, but someone rushed into my office before we got the chance.
A Lieutenant that worked in the radio room showed up panting hard. "Ma'am, I... have urgent news!"
"Catch your breath, Lieutenant."
Despite my order, he powered through anyway. "Captain Yami Akari is waiting... on screen in the video conference room."
"Momma?" Yuko asked.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," I said. I picked up Yuko and ran to the video conference room without a second's wait.
"Hey, Mom," Yami said as soon as she saw me enter the room through the video feed.
"Momma!" Yuko squirmed out of my arms and ran up to the screen.
"Yuko! Mommy misses you!"
"Can Momma come home?"
"Now, we talked about that, sweetie," I said. "Your Momma is flying airplanes and can't come home for a while."
"But I wanna see Momma!"
"I'll come home as soon as I can, Yuko. I hope you are being good for Nana!"
"I'm a good girl!" Yuko was being so sweet.
"That's my girl!" Yami cheered.
"How are you, Yami?"
"I'm good. How's everyone over there?"
"I'm good. Yuko keeps me on my toes, but it's not as bad as raising you, Kye, and Zen at the same time."
Yami gave me an apologetic smile. "Hehe, we were some rowdy kids."
"You still are."
"Only on Tuesdays."
I raise my eyebrow at her. "Hmm?"
"It's just a joke I heard. I don't know the reference myself. How's Grandpa and Zen?"
"The General is as busy as ever. He's been talking to the President a lot more lately."
"About what?"
"He's trying to convince Harling to let us send a covert team to Gracemeria to find Kye. Professionally he has to be against the idea, but personally is another story."
"Lily had a similar mindset."
"If Estovakia's allies wouldn't come in and start a domino effect, we could go get her."
"I wish that were the case," Yami sighed. "Have you heard anything of her?"
"Not directly, no," I said. "We did get a signal from her satellite phone for a few minutes the other day. Unfortunately, it doesn't really mean much. She could have broken it and is fixing it, which would explain the brief signal, or the Estovakians could have found it and messed with it."
"It has to be her!"
"I sure hope it is."
"How's Chopper, Doran, and Michelle?"
"They're worried but fine otherwise."
"What about Joey and Akira?"
"They're both in Norddennavic with Doran. Joey *ahem* borrowed a plane the other day and broke into Emmerian airspace by the time Grendel caught up to her."
"Wow, really? Damn. That girl is wild."
"Doran and Michelle were so pissed that they let Elizabeth handle the punishment."
"She uh... still alive?"
We shared a laugh, knowing how brutal Elizabeth could be.
"How are the twins?"
"They keep asking where Kye and Rei are. We haven't told them that they are trapped in Gracemeria, yet."
Yami couldn't hold back her surprise. "They don't know?"
"It was Chopper's choice not to tell them. Doran and Michelle agreed. They doesn't want them to worry. They think Kye and Rei are staying in North Point with Allison."
"I see. What about the others? Nagase, Grimm, and Snow? And Pops, Andersen, and Uncle Jack?"
"Mostly, they don't show that they are worried. They have a strong belief that Kye will fine. Nagase, Grimm, and Snow can't hide it as well as Pops, Andersen, and Jack, but they all are worried about Kye and Rei."
"What about Zen? And you? You said you are fine... but..."
"Zen keeps himself busy. He leaves Ren and Kenji with me a lot while he goes out on missions. And like I said, I'm fine."
"Are you really?"
"I worry about them, yes, but I'm fine. I know they will come through this, and I know you will save them."
Yami smiled at him. "Say, Mom? Do you think we could talk alone for a sec?"
"Literally alone? As in nobody else listening in on us?"
"Yeah."
"One sec," I said. I hollered out to the mean working at the computers lined along the wall. "You heard her!"
They filed out of the room quickly.
"Yuko, sweetie, why don't you go ahead and play airplanes? I'll catch up in a minute."
"Okay!" She waved at Yami before running to the door. "Bye, Momma! I miss you!"
"Mommy misses you, too!"
Once she left the room, I locked the door and turned back to Yami. "We're good on my end."
"Okay." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I want you to find Takeshi."
I couldn't believe my ears. "You... what? But..."
"I know. Yuko has never met him, and Takeshi doesn't even know about Yuko. I want you to find him for me."
"And what if I do find him? Are you sure you're ready? You've been avoiding this for almost five years."
"I don't know. I want..." She paused for a moment. "...need to talk to him, although he probably won't bother with me after what I did to him." She paused for a few moments and sighed. "Do you think he'll forgive me?"
I gave her a stern look. "I don't know, Yami. You left him at the altar."
"But that was when Kye crashed in November City and..."
"I know, sweetie. A lot was going on back then. They say time heals wounds, but I don't know. You should still try, if that's what you really want to do."
She nodded.
"Then I'll find him." I felt a vibration in my pocket and pulled out my cell phone. I instantly recognized the number. I gasped and ran over to the secure phone. After forwarding the call from my cell to the secure phone, I canceled the call on my cell and picked up the secure phone. "Kye?"
-Blaze-
Gracemeria
0920hrs 28 November 2015
"Done!" I leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief. I'd been working on it for a while and finally fixed it.
Rei, Matilda, Laura, and Maria gathered around. The other kids kept playing with whatever they were playing with.
"What's that?" Laura asked, eyeing the phone-esque device in my hand. "It looks like some sort of cell phone, but it's different."
"It's a... satellite phone," I said. "Well, not exactly, but it has a satellite phone integrated. It was broken during the invasion. Materials to fix it haven't exactly been readily available, so I couldn't do much with it for a while."
"A satellite phone? Can you call someone and get us rescued?"
"That wouldn't be a good idea. There's too many of us to go very far. We wouldn't be able to take enough supplies to last long enough and get far enough away from Gracemeria for a covert rescue team to get to us."
"What about you? Could you get away?"
"I could, but I won't. I can't leave all of you behind. It wouldn't matter if I did or didn't. Even if I got away, I couldn't turn around and come back with a military force."
"Why not?"
"For the same reason why Osea or Pandora haven't come to get us. It would very likely spark a world war. Estovakia's allies would jump into the fray, then more of our allies, then more of their allies... until it's just a big bloodbath."
"I see."
"It sucks, it really does. But at least with my satellite phone fixed, I can call home and let them know we're okay."
I dialed Mom's number on my satellite phone. She picked up pretty fast. "Kye?"
"Mom! I'm so glad it worked."
"Kye, are you okay?"
"Kye? Kye's on the phone?" I heard Yami on the other end as well.
"I'm fine, Mom. Everything's okay."
"Hold on a second, I'm going to forward this to Yami, too."
I had to wait for Mom to forward the call and for Yami to secure the line. But soon, I heard my silly sister's worried voice on the other end. "Kye?! Are you there?"
"Hey, twerp," I said.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm uhh..." I glanced around and saw the kids staring at me. I got up and moved into the next room, gesturing at them not to follow. "I'm good. I have some rather young company. Rei is okay and Matilda is here, too."
"Matilda's there? That's great!"
"Do you know if her parents are okay?" I asked.
"Can they hear me?"
"No, and I'm in a room by myself, so they can't hear me either."
"Lieutenant Herman was shot down and killed. I don't know if you should tell Matilda about that."
"What about Melissa?"
"She was checked into a refugee camp up until a few days ago. I don't know where she is now."
"If she was listening to Emmeria Independence Radio the other day, she probably heard Matilda's voice. She told somebody to go dance with the angels on the radio. I'd be willing to bet you Melissa is on her way back to Gracemeria."
"That's suicide!"
"Can you blame her? She's a mother that wants to find her daughter. I'd move mountains to find my kids."
"I probably would too if Yuko was in trouble."
"Well I'd leave you both out to dry," Mom said. "Damn hoodlums."
I couldn't help but laugh at that. Yami was laughing, too.
"Well, hey, I can't stay on this thing for too long. The battery I'm using goes to one of our flashlights, so I can't run it down. It was a pain in the ass to fix this thing up to accept regular batteries. I want you to let everyone know that we're okay, and tell my kids I miss them."
"Will do," Mom said.
"Oh hey, Yami. Is Marcus Lampert still around?"
"Yeah, he's my wingman."
"Is he handy?"
"He's waiting right outside."
"Can you go get him?"
"Uhh... sure. But for what?"
"Just do it."
"Okay..."
While she was getting Marcus, I poked my head into the other room and gestured at Laura and Maria. They were confused, but reluctantly followed me.
"Hello? This is Marcus Lampert speaking."
"Hi, Marcus, this is Kye," I said.
"Oh, hello," he said. "Umm... Yami told me you're still in Gracemeria. How are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm okay. Uh... one second. I have a surprise for you." I handed the phone to very surprised Laura.
She took the phone and spoke as if she had seen an angel. "Marcus?"
"Laura? Is that you?"
"Marcus, it's you!"
"Laura, are you okay? Where are you? Is Maria with you?"
"I'm okay. Maria is with me. We're in..." I shushed her before she could answer.
"Home," I said.
"We're home."
"Is Maria okay?"
"We're both okay. What about you?"
"I'm fine, Laura. I'm coming for you."
I gestured at her to hand the phone back.
"I have to go now. Be safe, honey, I love you."
"I love you, Daddy!" Maria added.
"I love you both. Be safe."
I took the phone back. "I'm sorry I can't give you any more time with them. This phone is running on precious battery power."
"I understand, it's okay. Thank you for giving us that. Please take care of them for me!"
"Of course."
I heard the phone being handed off and soon Yami spoke again. "That was nice."
"I'm glad I could do that for them," I said. "But I'm serious about that battery power. I can't stay on much longer."
"You do what you have to do, Kye," Mom said. "I'll pass on the message to everyone."
"Take care, Kye. I will come get you as soon as possible. And hey, raid my house if you have to, assuming there's still anything left there. I have a stash of emergency supplies in extremely hard to find place in the basement. It's hidden under the floorboards under the stairs."
"I know you will and thanks. I'll check that out. Do me proud, little sister. Take care, both of you." I turned off the phone and removed the battery. I poked my head outside the room and gestured for Rei to come inside.
"I just talked to your grandma and aunt."
"Are they okay?"
I laughed lightly. "Well, they aren't the ones trapped here, but yeah, they're okay."
"That's good."
"Matilda's mom is probably headed this way to find her."
"Miss Melissa?"
"Yeah. The last Yami heard, she was at a refugee camp. Her dad, however... Her dad was shot down and killed."
"The Lieutenant?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, no. Matilda..."
"I don't know if I should tell her or not."
"You should," Rei said firmly. "She'll want to know."
"Okay." I walked over to the door and called Matilda into the room. I told her about her mother. She was happy to hear that, but I braced her for bad news before I told her about her father.