In the morning he was awoken by the voice of Veronica "Sebastian, get up c'mon we're having a meeting" the woman was obviously annoyed with him. Groaning, he begrudgingly rose from the mattress and slid out "Thanks for waking me…" was all he could manage to say to her.
"I couldn't leave you here to oversleep" She grabbed a water bottle and poured a bit on her hands and then slapped Sebastian across the face twice. A hard slap to the right cheek and then another to the left as he had begun to recoil from the first slap. His eyes went wide and cheeks flushed red, staring in shock. Veronica looked pretty happy with herself. "See you're pretty awake now, we couldn't let the rest of the guys seeing you looking sorry for yourself, you're the Jäkel remember?"
"How could I not remember at this point" He responded with a huff "Go along, I'll be right behind you I just need to get my boots on" Veronica made an understanding "mhm" and left him alone in the berth. Reaching down he picked up his tall lace up boots and stamped his foot back into each and hurriedly laced them up tight for sure footing on the boat.
It wasn't hard to find the Flight Operations Commander's office, everything near it was near spotless and most meticulously maintained. The office itself looked like any normal office on the mainland with wood paneling, carpet, warm lighting, a heavy spruce wood desk and a high backed leather chair that the Flight Operations Commander or FOC, Daniel Junger sat in. Young for his position, he was the more amicable type of officer, who gained a grin when he saw Sebastian walk into the office. "Take a seat please" he motioned to the one empty folding chair that had been left for him.
"Thank you sir" Sebastian simply responded and got comfortable in the cushion backed folding chair. "I wish not to dwell on the melancholy of the loss of our comrades for too long, we will probably have a drink tonight in honor of them. But for now we have work to do to reform our air forces. We had seven squadrons total going into that battle and have come out with enough aircraft for three." The FOC took a deep shaky breath and looked across all six of them that were in the room "You six will be the new squadron captains and assistant officers for the new squadrons formed of naval and conventional air forces." The man's gaze narrowed in on Sebastian and Veronica who was sitting just to the left of him "Sebastian, you have been promoted to captain and will be the leader of Hämnd Squadron, Lieutenant Veronica, you are to be the second in command. Clear?"
"Clear sir." Veronica gulped and nodded. Sebastian was shocked at this sudden promotion and took him a minute to register it. The commander had pulled out a new set of epaulets and rank patch "Here you go Captain" Only then did Sebastian rise from the seat and take the new rank and give the commander a firm handshake. Veronica looked up at him and put her hand out "It will be good to fly with you Captain, I hope we'll all make it home alright" Taking her hand he shook it more gently "I will stake my life on it lieutenant."
"Before you sit down" She said stopping him from sitting down "I think the guys had something prepared for you up in the hangar" Sebastian was put off by a smile that Veronica had, he was not sure what it meant but it concerned him. "Um.. alright then? Let's go take a look" The two of them dismissed themselves from the meeting and made their way up to the hangar. They found a squadron's worth of men all huddled around Sebastian's plane doing something on top of the airframe. "Shit he's coming!" One of the pilots on watch called out and quickly the men scrambled off the craft and fell into formation in front of it.
"So what is this Lieutenant Veronica was telling me you had prepared?" He questioned the group who were suspiciously quiet "Well? What is it?" He prodded again.
"Climb the ladder sir and see '' A pilot finally spoke up and motioned to the bright yellow ladder that they had left by the cockpit. So he did so and climbed onto the wing of the aircraft and looked down at the canards that flanked each side of the cockpit. Meticulously painted on each canard was a horn, and very clearly a devil's horn. "So I've got horns now huh?" Sebastian mused climbing back down the plane "Who's idea was this?"
"It was Tom's Idea sir" Another pilot offered in response, and the pilot named Tom stepped forward. "Thank you tom, maybe next time you could put the plane's name on the side of the fuselage hmm?" Sebastian gave the pilot a pat on the arm that was met with a grin "If you say so sir." With the subject of the surprise out of the way it finally came time to get a lay of his new squadron. "Now if you may all introduce yourselves to me, I need to know who I'm flying with. We're Hämnd squadron now, revengeance is our name and I want that spirit in the hearts of each and every one of you" His words were astonishing even himself, he never expected to give such a rousing speech and actually lead men "So, I'll start. You may probably know me, I am Captain Sebastian Bjorklund. My callsign is Jäkel, I am, as of twenty minutes ago, the squadron leader for the newly formed Hämnd squadron of the Third fighter group." Finishing up his speech he passed it over to Veronica.
"Good morning guys, I am First Lieutenant Veronica Baker, my callsign is Dutchess. I am in second in command for this squadron for now. Go ahead and introduce yourselves" Of all the men that introduced themselves only four interested Sebastian, The first one was a pilot from a naval ace squadron that had most of its members clipped in the battle the day before, Gabe Newman, callsign 'Icarus' flew a Super Hornet in a grey and light blue color scheme and traditionally had played a support role in his old squadron. The next pilot was a fellow from the conventional air forces, Henry Stark, an older man that went by the callsign 'Duke' who flew a Mirage 2000-5. Like the Gripen it was an excellent multirole fighter, with agility that almost outmatched the sukhoi. The third pilot was a woman by the name of Paula Etendard callsign 'Republic', an immigrant from Osea that flew an F-2A with a livery of green and grey across it, she had shown prowess in the ambush of the fleet and had come up only one kill short of Ace status. The final pilot that Sebastian appraised was a young man named George Wells, another naval aviator that went by the callsign 'swordfish' that flew a brand new Rafale carrier fighter; he had been kept back from deploying in the battle due to his rookie status.
Sebastian nodded in approval once everyone had finished introducing themselves and smiled at the group "I believe in each and every one of you that you have what it takes to fight for our country. You are all dismissed" He waved his hand and the crew dispersed throughout the ship. "I'm glad Marc wasn't assigned to your squadron" Veronica said, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her baggy cargo pants, they walked together back down into the bowels of the ship. "I'd be able to handle him" he simply brushed off, he knew it was just anger in the heat of the moment "He needed to air his grievances and he did. I had no reason to flaunt what I did in that battle."
"And I'm glad you didn't, it would've just made him even more upset…" The woman abruptly stepped in front of him and put her hands out and pushed against his chest "But you have to understand, you are a three times ace soo people are going to be expecting a lot out of you, and this attitude you've had needs to change or more people are going to act like Marc, figuring you are just up there to gain glory for yourself."
"But you heard what I said to the rest of the squadron back there, I made it very clear this was about sventska, and that I wanted them to be prepared to fight for the country…" Sebastian futility rebutted "And those words can simply be rebutted as hollow to try and make yourself look good."
He rubbed his wrinkled forehead and exhaled deeply "Look, I understand. I'll take it into consideration, this is a lot right now." He stopped momentarily and looked down both ends of the hallway they were in "But I need to go find out what happened to my friend Tony on the Aster, alright?"
"Tony? Who's Tony?" The woman questioned, visibly irritated with her new captain's erratic nature. "He's my friend alright, he works the CIWS guns on the Aster." Sebastian did not stick around to hear Veronica rebuke him this time, he turned on his heel and stalked off, finding his way up to the bridge of the aircraft carrier. He found the bulk head wide open and heard the bustle of crewmen plotting a course around a freak storm in their plotted course. Slipping in unnoticed he approached one of the communications guy's that wasn't occupied "Hey there skipper, could I get in contact with the Aster?" He pointed out the large bridge windows to the hulking smoking mass floating on the starboard side of the Karolean."
The radioman eyed him curiously for a moment "Why's that? There's only about a skeleton crew left on the Aster, only bare essential crew are still over there" Sebastian scratched the back of his head and nodded at this "Yeah.. well I had a friend on the boat Översergeant Anthony... Er I forgot his last name, he was in the CIWS control room during the battle, I wanted to know if he survived"
The man nodded and turned to his console, he pressed a couple of buttons and lifted up a hand piece and put it to his ear. He waited several minutes before the other ship finally picked up, the man relayed Sebastian's query. There was silence on the other end as they searched for the man, and when the AsterGotlands radio man returned, he returned triumphant. Sebastian saw the comm officer's face light up. "They got him" the man shoved the hand piece into Sebastian's hands. Putting it up to his ear he heard "Hey Sebs, war ain't over for me just yet. Have more faith in me huh?"
Sebastian was completely elated and couldn't help but burst out into laughter. "Oh man I should, I shouldn't count on anything taking you out… Hey why aren't you over here on the Karolean? I thought all the defenses on the AsterGotland were taken out during the battle?" The sailor scoffed and let out a mighty roar of laughter "Not if I could help it, there's still three guns over here that are still up and running, just a little low on bullet's, y'know?"
"Oh yeah, I know how you feel I just about ran out of ammunition myself during the battle, got down to about fifty rounds fighting that berkut Ace."
"That was some amazing flying, you know? I was watching you from the cameras the whole battle, you really stuck out from the rest up there, hope you can teach the rest of your squadron to fly the same way you do."
"What?! You know about my new squadron?!"
"Well of course captain! It's the talk of the whole fleet right about now, not all of it positive but everyone knows about it!" Tony let out another roar of laughter before, from what sebastian could hear a deck officer on the Aster shouting orders at him "Oops, sorry sebs, I gotta go!" The line clicked and Tony's voice was gone. Sebastian couldn't help but smile as he put the hand piece into its slot in the control panel. "Thanks a lot sailor" he patted the deck officer on the shoulder and shuffled out of the bridge, triumphant and happy that his friend was safe and seemed to be in one piece.