Chapter 6

Reconciliation

Forward Operations Base "Catalina"

"Vanguard 1, this is the tower. You guys are cleared to land…wait." There was some clicking in the background, and Katrina knew that the radar operator was checking for signs of Aquila 2. "Where is Aquila 2?"

"She didn't make it," Katrina said, sighing deeply. She lined up her approach and lowered her landing gear. The control tower choose not to respond, which was good because she was lost in her thoughts. Thankfully, the sound of the wheels hitting the tarmac and the jolt of the impact pulled her head into the situation. She taxied over to the hangar and shut down her engines.

After ripping off her oxygen with a little difficulty, she popped the canopy and hurried down the ladder rungs, her legs shaking all the while.

As soon as her foot hit the floor, Peppermint came up to her. "I heard what had happened," he said, running his hand through his hair. It looked mattered in some places as if he had been pulling it to calm himself down when he heard that Aquila 2 had gone down. "It's not looking pretty." he glanced at her fighter.

"No shit, it isn't," Katrina said, as she inspected her fighter. The centerline gunpod was still smoking, as if it had been overtuned when she fired at that mysterious Flanker. The other gunpods had some small hairline fractures on them, and a missile rail had been bent. Well, machines could be replaced, but humans couldn't. "When a mysterious plane comes out of fucking nowhere and obliterates your wingman, that is."

She turned to look at Peppermint and saw movement behind him. "Uh-oh," she muttered. "Here comes the guard dog." Meteor was storming up to them, with a look of disgust on his face. Katrina noticed that he was by himself as if he wanted to settle the score personally with her and that he wasn't in the mood for talking. His blonde hair was ruffed in several places, and his eyes had a dangerous leer to them. Peppermint seemed to have noticed her glance and grimaced when he saw Meteor come towards them.

"As soon as I landed, he had got the news that Nectar was down," he said, rubbing his head. "Doxxed me for it, said it was my fault that I led her into that death trap and that I should have been there with the rest of Vanguard."

Katrina took his hand and squeezed it. "I'm going to settle this." She walked up to Meteor and almost immediately, he swung his fist at her. Katrina saw it coming and ducked, but Meteor had pinned her against her fighter before she could respond.

"You," he snarled. "This is entirely your fault!"

"Meteor," Peppermint said, trying to defuse the tension. "She didn't do it. She-"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Meteor said. "Nectar is dead because of you!" he said, as he suddenly reached into his flight suit and pulled out a crooked dagger. "You got my squadmate killed in that suicide attack against that damn merc! You led her to her death! I'll kill you!" He raised the dagger and at the same instant, Peppermint tried to pull the arm away from her, but Meteor shook him off. He raised the arm and pressed the dagger to her throat…

"STOP IT RIGHT THERE, METEOR!" a booming voice echoes from across the tarmac. Commander Mckay and a man Katrina assumed to be Alamo came charging across and forcefully removed Meteor from her, the dagger falling to the ground with a clink.

"Let go of me!" Meteor shouted, attempting to shake off Commander Mckay and failing. "She got my squadmate killed! I'll make sure she never flies again in these skies!"

"Enough!" Alamo said, and Katrina could detect a hint of a Cascadian accent in his voice. "That will be enough from you. Get your head in the game, Meteor. We should be fighting the mercs, not ourselves. Besides, you are dreaming if I will ever let you do something like that again. Otherwise, it is the brig and a court-martial for you."

That seemed to do the trick. Meteor finally calmed down and Mckay let go of him. He then shot a glare at Katrina and marched off, not even bothering to reclaim his dagger. Katrina reached for her throat and rubbed it, all the while thinking. This wasn't the first time Meteor had done something like this? Then why didn't the Federation Military give him a court-martial or anything like that? While she was pondering her thoughts, Mckay spotted the knife and picked it up.

"This is dangerous," he said, eyeing the crooked blade. "Better lock this up so that he doesn't get it back."

"Honestly, where else could he have gotten the knife?" Alamo said. "It's not like he could have smuggled it in."

"He got it from the survival kit," Peppermint said. "Just peeked inside his plane and found that he ripped the satchel open, and he looks like he did it in a hurry." He tossed a ripped brown canvas bag to Mckay, who took one look at it and groaned.

"Really?" he said. "That bastard just cost us a day's worth of medical supplies just for some cynical revenge." He sighed. "I'll put out a call to HQ. Tell them to check on the latest medical shipment." He looked at Peppermint and Katrina. "You two, report to the briefing room for a debrief. I'll be with you shortly." He turned and walked off towards the base. Alamo nodded at the both of them and followed Mckay in.

"Well, that was something," a voice cut in. They both turned and saw Twister come towards them, his flight helmet in his arms. Now that it was up close, Katrina could see that he had a small tornado sticker on it, coupled with multiple vector drawings of the same tornado.

"Where were you?" Katrina asked, rubbing her throat from where Meteor had clenched it. "You really had the balls to watch me get pounded, did you?"

"I couldn't risk escalating the tension further," Twister said matter-of-factly. "Besides, he would have gone for it had Mckay and Alamo didn't show up." He smiled. "C'mon. Let's get to the briefing room. See what Mckay has to say."

They trotted through the base and entered the briefing room, where the rest of Aquila Squadron was gathered. Meteor, having recovered from his violent outburst, sat at the very back, ignoring Vanguard as they sat down along the front row.

"Everyone here?" Mckay said, entering at last and closing the door behind him. "Good." He started up the briefing software. Katrina noticed that the blue area of Oceania was far greater than the red. She smiled. At least Nectar's death wasn't in vain.

"You would be pleased to note that the ground forces we rescued launched an operation deep into Cabal territory and carved a significant corridor towards Sydney. However, the offensive isn't over yet, and we still need to get rid of the Cabal's air superiority over the capital, as well as eliminating their navy, if you can call it a navy."

He paused to wipe his glasses. "Federation High Command sent me a message regarding the position of Task Force 1 and the First Battle Group, and here is the good part." He cleared his throat. "They are only a couple of hours due now. Soon, we shall wipe this pathetic cabal and their pathetic mercenary state off of the face of the Earth!" There were cheers throughout the briefing room.

"Until then," Mckay continued, "we gotta kick up the pressure on these damn lowlifes if they want to play rough. But all of you deserve some rest until we can kick up the pressure."

Another round of cheers ensued, and the pilots all headed towards the exit. Meteor, however, blew past everyone else and was the first to leave, followed closely by Aquila Squadron.

"Someone's in a hurry," Twister said, as Vanguard filed out.

"Relax," Peppermint said. "He just needs to blow off some steam."

"You think they'll just shove the rest of them up the ranks?" asked Twister, as they walked towards the mess.

"Of course," Peppermint said. "Now that Nectar is gone, the squadron will probably have to do some rearranging, and that's if the pilots are experienced enough to keep up the pace."

Katrina ignored them both and watched the squadron leader disappear into the hallways. If she was going to get Meteor or even Aquila on their side again, she had to do it sooner rather than later, before they both ended up tearing themselves apart.