Low Earth Orbit

Pilgrim 1

Kei held her breath in an EVA suit as Jacob soldered together a pair of wires. The two were both on a spacewalk trying to repair the Pilgrim's main engine. Jacob released the solder.

'Bring the radiator down.' He said to Kei. The latter pressed a few buttons on the wrist of her suit and an arm above them came down to sit on top of the hatch they were hanging around at. They waited ten seconds.

'Should be enough.' Kei said, retracting the radiator mechanism to its previous position. 'Control, ignite engine 3. Short burst.'

There was a brief vibration that could be felt if anyone had been touching the hull of the Pilgrim 1. Kei looked eagerly at the engine port that was ahead of the two. The vibrations stopped. Kei's heart skipped a beat. There was a blue afterglow visible from that port.

'I'll be fucked.' Jacob mused. He chuckled. 'We're going home, captain.' Kei said nothing for a few seconds.

'Shut down engine 3.' Kei said, and a few seconds later the blue glow disappeared. She looked to Jacob. 'We're going home.'

Grunder Bay

OFS Admiral Andersen

As the daylight waned, Trigger and Grimm both sat at the front of the carrier looking for anything that wanted to approach them. The sun was reflecting off the water surface, so nothing would be sneaking up on them too easily.

'Direct north, you see that? Two civilian boats.' Trigger pointed out. Grimm looked. The former was right; two motorboats were approaching the carrier. And they weren't crewed by civilians. Grimm took a look with his binos.

'Those are soldiers. Question is, whose?' Grimm said. Trigger couldn't tell, they were too far out. 'Forward lookout, I've got two civilian boats approaching the carrier straight from the north. Military crew, can't tell who the occupants are.'

'Army uses that weird forest pattern, yeah?' Trigger asked.

'Mmm-hmm.' Grimm answered. 'Not Army.'

'Desert uniforms, desert vests, black helmets. Could be Navy.' Trigger suggested. Grimm lowered his binos for a moment, raised them to his eyes and dropped them again.

'There were amphibious ships in the task force.' Grimm said. Trigger nodded.

'You thinking marines?' Trigger guessed. He raised his own binos to his eyes and looked now that the boats were closer. Most of them wore helmets except for one. He - rather, she - had a bandage around her head, but black hair was showing over it. Trigger's eyes widened. Avril.

'They're ours.' He whispered. Grimm looked at Trigger with eyebrows raised. 'Commander, two small boats approaching the carrier. They're ours, Osean Marines.'

'Let's welcome them with open arms.' Blaze had heard.

Of the marines and civilians that were embarked, Avril was the first sent up a rope ladder to the deck of the carrier. When she reached the top of the ladder the shoulder tab of her vest was pulled on to assist her getting up. She looked up to see a welcome face.

'Eric.' She whisper-yelled. Trigger pulled her up onto the rear deck of the carrier and embraced her. Avril welcomed the hug despite a dull headache thumping in her forehead.

'What happened to your head?' Trigger had noticed the bandage wrapped around her head. Avril chuckled softly.

'Caught a bullet. Don't worry, I'm fine.' Avril reassured her boyfriend of an ace. Trigger nodded, let her go and went to help up the first proper marine. There weren't that many of them, only ten or so, and Trigger figured out that the most senior member present there was a master sergeant. The latter, when he saw Trigger and his unit patches, froze.

'Wasn't expecting to find the LRSSG here, of all places.' Jester said.

'Situation's fucked, this was the safest place we could access.' Trigger explained.

'Ah.' Jester looked around. Three pilots, Grimm, Trigger and Skald. He decided to address the senior of the trio. 'Major, are you this unit's commanding officer?'

'No, but I can go find him. Got something for us?' Grimm inquired. Jester nodded. 'Follow me.' Grimm did a 180 degree turn on the spot and started walking. Jester and his fellow marines followed. They were taken from the rear of the carrier, through the gigantic aircraft hangar, up several flights of stairs up the superstructure until they reached the bridge. In there was Alex, silently observing a gagglefuck of sailors do their jobs. If one were to look across the starboard side bridge windows they would see the OFS Drake lying at anchor a few hundred metres away.

'Alex, I bring friends.' Grimm called to his friend and squad leader. Alex looked in his direction to see the major and, behind him, Marines.

'What's the occasion?' Alex approached the group.

'Can we find somewhere less crowded?' Jester asked, aware of the limited space present on the bridge. Alex agreed, shouldering past Jester and heading down the bridge, below the deck again and arriving in the ship's CIC. Only Grimm, Jester and a couple of more senior-ranking marines had entered the core of the ship.

'Before we get to the meat of this shit, what happened on the ground?' Alex asked for a backstory of some kind. Jester took off his helmet - he was on an allied ship, he wouldn't need it - and slung his rifle.

'We deployed to the Space Elevator via Osprey with a couple of civilian techs. Our primary objective was to breach and shut down the Space Elevator's power generation and transmission systems, with a secondary focus on taking and holding the ground around the Space Elevator.' Jester explained what his platoon's mission had been.

'I don't see an officer anywhere, so either your mission went lopsided or you've got guys holding back on the ground.' Alex guessed. 'So, which one is it?'

'Ahh, it's a bit fucky. I've got two thirds of my platoon holding their ground in a drone production complex. The lead engineer there... ' Jester trailed off. Alex tilted his head in anticipation.

'The lead engineer?' Alex pressed for more information.

'Those two aircraft that came in at the end of the operation? Drones, hyper-advanced design. Their project name was listed under a directive called Odin's Ravens.' Jester said it. Alex exhaled through his nose. He had never heard of the aforementioned directive, but he had figured from the way they looked, flew and fought that they were pretty fucking advanced.

'Go on.' Alex ushered the sergeant to continue.

'That's the good news. Bad news is, those drones are now loitering around the Space Elevator, waiting for it to come out of standby mode so that they can transmit the technical and combat data they're carrying to drone production facilities across the continent.' Jester finished his statement. Alex stiffened up, while Grimm looked on in horror.

'Those aircraft shredded a lot of good pilots. If they get that information out-' Grimm began, understanding the implications of what Jester had told them.

'-we'd be looking at a continent-wide resurgence with forces spread far too thin.' Alex understood what was at risk. 'We lose if those UAVs stay there. Sergeant, any idea how long we've got before the Space Elevator's data transmission comes back online?'

'If I remember the technical specifications right, the failsafe will be automatically overwritten sixteen hours after it is triggered. I think we got it down at three which would give you…' Jester checked his wristwatch. '...until roughly seven in the morning.'

Alex checked his own watch. It was 9PM. Eleven hours.

'Thank you, sergeant. Anything else you've discovered that could be helpful for us?' Alex asked. Jester gave it some thought. He shook his head.

'No, sir.'

'You're dismissed, then. Mess hall's open if you want to get yourself and your guys something to eat.' Alex dismissed the marine. The latter nodded in approval, picked up his helmet and left the CIC. Alex leant back against a table in the middle of the room and sighed. He stretched, straightened up and looked at Grimm.

'This suddenly evolved into a big fucking problem.' Alex mused.

'You don't say.' Grimm was well aware. 'Want me to get the guys?'

'No, I want you to find out how much aviation fuel we've got on this ship. There'll probably be a reading somewhere under flight control.' Alex gave Grimm instructions.

'Finding JP5, gotcha.' Grimm acknowledged, leaving the CIC. Alex followed him out, but not towards flight control. He was going for the flight deck. Alex arrived upstairs through the superstructure where he went forward to the various aircraft parked there. He had a little bit of work to do there.

Count laid down on the starboard aft sponson and lifted his left leg above the rest of his body. He strained after reaching a certain point. There was a dull aching pain, a distant reminder that he had been struck in the leg a month and a half ago by shrapnel.

'Count, what the fuck are you doing?' Huxian had appeared from nowhere. Count looked in her direction.

'What does it look like?' Count slowly stretched his leg more and more up.

'If I didn't know better I'd think you were preparing to be a gymnast.' Huxian joked, approaching her squad leader. 'Does it hurt?'

'Only a little bit.' Count slowly released his leg back to the floor. 'Just stiff, is all.'

'Numb?' Huxian asked. Count pressed his head against the deck and chuckled. He stood up to face Huxian.

'I can still feel fine, if you're worried about shrapnel blocking bloodflow in my leg. I'm good, Huxian.' Count wrapped his arms around her. Huxian just stood there for a few seconds before returning the embrace.

The next few hours were a blur.

While Alex had been cataloging the damage that some of their aircraft had incurred throughout the battle, the crew of the Drake had been attempting to get the Admiral Andersen off of the reef it was stuck on. One of the carrier's anchors was released. A small group of divers went down, recovered the anchor, and brought it to the destroyer. The Drake lined up in front of the carrier with the anchor haphazardly strapped to her rear deck. Coordination between the destroyer and the carrier got the engines from both ships working at full speed. There was some metallic groaning involved. But after a minute of hard effort, the carrier was freed. The OFS Admiral Andersen and the OFS Drake both turned south and made slow speed away from the area.

Grimm did a bit of searching and eventually found what he had been told to find. A fuel gauge, more specifically for the JP5 fuel stores held on the carrier. The results weren't promising but they were certainly better than nothing. There was enough jet fuel onboard to fill fifteen aircraft for a single combat sortie. The same could be said for weaponry; the carrier's aircraft magazines weren't full, but there were easily enough air to air missiles for any combination of aircraft that they could send up.

Later on in the night, Alex found himself outside the captain's cabin looking at a pair of murals. The first was of the first OFS Kestrel, the original vessel. The second was of the Kestrel's captain, Nicholas Andersen. One of the finest fleet commanders the OMDF had. Alex was reminded of the last time he was in this situation, during the Circum-Pacific War.

'Hey, I know him.' Avril had shown up without Alex noticing. Alex glanced at her. 'He was the captain of an older aircraft carrier, in the last war. Gave the order to launch her last four aircraft.'

'I've heard the story.' Alex let her go on.

'They say the deck was listing so bad, the last aircraft barely made it off.' Avril said. Alex chuckled warmly. He remembered. Grimm had just got catapulted off the ship. A wave crashed over the bow, knocking one of the deck crew over. That kid got right back up and gave Alex the all clear. Alex saluted to whoever had been in the bubble and shot the catapult. If he hadn't been pulling on the stick as soon as he was shot down the deck, Alex would have slammed into the ocean surface.

'Those fighters ended the war.' Avril finished her story.

'Gives the rest of us a little bit of hope, don't you think?' Alex said. 'We've got one more mission before we go home.'

'The drones. I was there when the drone guy talked.' Avril knew what the deal was.

'Go down to the rear hangar. I'm going to get a briefing started.' Alex gave an order to Avril. She acknowledged wordlessly, spun and went for the hangar. Alex went up to the bridge, where the system's PA system was located. There were a handful of sailors present. Alex pressed forward through them, getting to the rear of the bridge and grabbing the 1MC system. Commander Averson, captain of the OFS Drake, looked at him.

'Looking to announce something?' Averson asked, curious. Alex shot him a side glance. He grabbed the handpiece. Across the ship, speakers lit up.

Sitting in one of the ship's many mess halls, Trigger looked up when the speaker was triggered.

'Attention, all pilots, LRSSG staff and mission commanders. This is Commander Williams. Report down to the rear hangar for a situation briefing. I will be starting in ten minutes. That is all.'

'Wonder what the deal is.' Lanza said. Trigger tilted his head back.

'A sortie, I guess. Better go and find out.' Trigger said, standing up from the seat that he, Lanza and a marine had been at and moving up a deck to the hangar.

Alex put the device back. Averson had his eyebrows risen. Alex looked at him.

'You should come, Commander. Could get an insight from it.' Alex suggested. Averson left his chair.

'Chief, you've got the bridge.' Averson told the senior non-commissioned officer on the deck.

Ten minutes later, everyone was assembled. All surviving pilots, LRSSG personnel and critical commanders of all branches. Mostly Air Force and Navy, with a couple of Marines present. Alex was at the very front of the formation, as the LRSSG's commanding officer and functionally speaking the highest-ranking officer amongst the Oseans.

'As you probably know, the situation is a mess. We're all disorganised all the way out at sea, and we're lucky to have any support at all. Unfortunately, disorganisation is the least of our problems. Our manpower is as depleted as is physically possible, and now we've got two advanced drones stalking the Space Elevator.' Alex took a breath. 'To make things worse, if we don't act on what I'm about to tell you, all our effort, all our dead comrades, all that would have been for nothing. Intel from Master Sergeant Goodwill suggests that those drones are storing a bunch of schematics and technical data with which they could theoretically transmit to every drone production facility on the continent to make more of themselves with.'

There were a few murmurs from within the crowd.

'I'm sure you can imagine what that entails, but if you can't, let's put it this way. If we don't put a stop to their plan, we lose. We've got seven hours before that happens. And throwing a wrench in all of this, we're low on fuel. To that end, I need thirteen volunteers. Be warned, this may damn well be the fight of your life, and there's a very good chance some, maybe even all of you won't come back alive.' Alex paused for a second. 'Don't feel too pressured. I will do this alone if I have to.'

Grimm and Marcus both stepped forward as soon as Alex was done talking. Alex wasn't surprised in the slightest.

'Been with you from the start. Be damned if I got off now.' Grimm said to his CO and close friend.

'I've got your back, captain.' Marcus echoed that sentiment. Mythic was the next volunteer up, half a second after Razgriz 2 and 3.

'You're my squad leader. I'll go wherever you go.' Mythic was quiet but proud with her words. There was a little bit of discussion between Strider and Cyclops Squadrons, but in the meantime, Mihaly, Wit and Seymour all put themselves forward.

'I'm responsible for enabling the drone situation to climb as high as it did. I'd like to help shut down those drones.' Mihaly said, well aware of the role he had played in assisting the war effort. Alex noticed that Count was glaring at the Sol trio, but thought nothing of it. Next, Trigger, Count, Jaeger and Huxian all volunteered.

'We're the best from our respective squadrons, and at least half of us aren't afraid of death. Surely that's worth something.' Trigger put it in simple terms. Including Alex, that made eleven. In theory he could get two more, which to his surprise, he got in the form of Shadow and the man, the myth, the legend, Mobius 1.

'I owe a lot of misplaced oaths, bad acts and a life lost to this whole Belkan revenge bullshit. Fucked if I'm not gonna go kick their teeth out in return.' Shadow was bitter over how she had been misled for the longest time.

'Defended this continent for longer than everyone else here combined. Eruseans, terrorists and now drones. They're the newest annoyance on my long list of a shitlist.' Mobius's reasoning was much more simple. To him it was his sworn duty. In less than a minute Alex got his thirteen volunteers. He was about to convene the briefing, but one more pilot cut him off.

'I'll join you.' Raven, the oldest man on the ship, volunteered to get out there. Alex tilted his head.

'I can run on half a tank-' Alex was happy to have another man and made some plans to get him some jet fuel.

'No need.' Raven cut him off. 'I can siphon off JP8 fuel from the aircraft that we won't be using. Won't touch the carrier's fuel stores.'

'I hadn't thought of that.' Alex admitted. Now no-one else volunteered. 'Commander Averson, I need to borrow any of your sailors who can help get our logistics sorted out. Any of you present here with a background in aircraft maintenance and repairs, let's get our aircraft down here and sorted out. If there's no space, dump what we don't need. We will be departing the carrier at 0600. Work hard and fast. Dismissed.'