Toward Revival
April 20th 2064
7:30
The morning began with Maven shooting out of his bed with the look of pure dread as the missile warning was wailing in the background. It took him a solid 5 seconds to realise the warning was just his phone alarm that he forgot he had set. Miraculously, Expulse was still knocked out on his bed, which mildly worried the pilot.
But missile warning alarms aside, Maven got out of bed, lazily making the bed sheets and entered the bathroom. It wasn't large as to be expected, but it contained the usual toilet, sink and a shower. And much to the pilot's surprise, there were some basic skincare products on the shower rack. Then again he was on a base that seemingly only had female operatives so he should have expected it.
He took off what clothes he still had on and turned on the shower. As with all showers, many deep philosophical and existential questions were asked. Should the two accept the contract? Will they ever be able to go back home and see their families? Is the F-35 the worst thing to ever have been created by man or does that title belong to the Gripen? Life's deepest questions aside, Maven's mind drifted back to his late night encounter with Grizzly. In hindsight, the ordeal felt like some dream sequence, especially since he remembered falling asleep on her lap and not in his bed. The thought made the pilot blushed, and definitely wasn't because of how hot he had the shower on.
He shook his head and turned off the shower, banishing the memory out of his head for now. The pilot dried himself off and moved to the sink, grabbing one of the toothbrushes provided and a tube of paste. His mind went on autopilot as he brushed his teeth, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Even after the shitshow that was yesterday, he was still himself.
Having had enough time to himself, he spat out the toothpaste and washed his mouth out, gathered the clothes he stripped off earlier and walked back into the main room. Expulse, the sloth he was when off duty, was still dead asleep. Maven stared at the man as if he were looking at garbage before an idea crossed his mind. A rather devious idea, one might say.
He got dressed in his flight suit, making a mental note to ask Gentiane if they had any clothes they could borrow, and walked next to the sleeping WSO. Maven cupped his hands together and got up to Expulse's ear and took a deep breath in.
"DUDE, STOP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE SUBMISSIVE AND BREEDABLE AND START ACTING LIKE YOU'RE EVASIVE AND MANEUVERABLE," Maven yelled right into the backseater's eardrums, startling the poor man awake. "WE GOT 17 BANDITS ON OUR TAIL, DUMP ALL THE FUCKING CHAFF AND FLARES NOW!"
"FUCK YOU MAVEN, YOU FUCKING ASSWIPE!" Expulse smacked Maven in the face with his pillow.
The pilot was on the floor laughing his ass off, to the point that his sides started to hurt.
"Man I wish I recorded that, the look on your face was just-" He bursted out laughing again.
"Dickhead." Expulse grumbled in response. "Could have woken me up like a normal person you know."
"Well I had a whole loud ass missile alarm for my phone that went off and that didn't stir you awake."
The WSO only pouted in response, getting a chuckle out of Maven.
"Anyways, get your ass up. It is now…" He glanced around for his wrist watch, which was on his bed and grabbed it. "7:43 and I don't want to miss breakfast, I'm starving right now."
"Maybe because you didn't have dinner last night perhaps?" Expulse got up and headed for the bathroom. "Also, you missed out. That was the best food I've had in a while." He peaked his head out of the bathroom to add that last sentence on before closing the door.
Maven winced a bit, remembering how he didn't eat the dinner Springfield made for him.
Oh well, she didn't have to know.
With everything else out of the way, he lazily slouched down on the couch, taking up over half of the sitting space, and closed his eyes, making a mental checklist of stuff that should be done today. His hands found themselves slipping into his empty flight suit pockets-
His eyes shot open as his hand pulled out a pack of gum and earbuds. Those definitely were not there when he went to sleep last night. It had dawned on him now that last night had indeed happened, and he had indeed gotten a lap pillow from a pretty girl.
Maven's face soon turned something that resembles a tomato, making him bury his head into his hands, desperately thinking of literally anything else but that moment.
The door to the bathroom opened and Expulse was greeted with a Maven that looked less like an ace pilot and closer to a teenager who just fumbled a pick up line.
"Uhh Mav, you good there?"
The pilot in question shook his head and looked up. "Yeah don't worry I'm good."
Expulse stared at him for a moment.
"Uh huh, sure."
He wasn't buying it.
The WSO got dressed in his flight suit like Maven and did quick pat down to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. Maven finally calmed down and walked out, holding the door open for his backseater.
Maven thanked what ever deity existed at this point that Expulse didn't inquire further into what had him bothered a moment ago. The walk to the cafeteria was silent between the two, both of them still coming to terms with everything that has transpired. Thankfully that would be put on pause for the time being as they reached Springfield's café. Much to the horror of the pilots, the place was packed.
The duo quickly secured the last empty table for themselves and looked what was on the menu for the morning. They were distracted by trying to decide what to eat that the two didn't notice a certain brown-oranged haired lady maneuvering her way towards the pair.
"Nice to see you again Maven, have you and your friend decided on what to get it?" Springfield said with a smile.
Maven and Expulse were momentarily startled by the barista, making her giggle quietly at their expense.
"You know her Mav?"
"What, you thought I made the food myself?"
The WSO didn't have a reply.
Maven sighed, turning back to Springfield. "We're not too sure what any of these are, so if you could give us a recommendation that would be nice."
"That's fine, I'll surprise you." She turned to leave. "I'll also bring some coffee, you two look like you could need it." She said before walking off.
"Thanks." Maven said, getting more comfortable in the chair before stiffing up.
"Mav?" Expulse questioned.
"I never gave her my name."
Expulse blinked before looking at the woman leaving for a second then turning back to the Maven with a grin, worrying the pilot.
"So it seems like someone already has their eyes on you, no?"
Maven shot the backseater a glare. "Cool it you horndog."
Expulse snickered. "I'm just saying man, might do you some good."
"Shut up."
"If I recall correctly, you also haven't been a relationship before…" The WSO put his hand up to his chin as if he were thinking.
"Expulse, I swear to god."
The backseater finally got off his case, laughing at the pilot's reaction. "Alright I'll stop, for now."
Maven gave him a dirty look.
"It's my job as the older brother to keep you line." Maven really did not like the smug aura radiating off of his backseater.
"You little sh- You're only 2 years older than me." Maven pointed his finger at the smug backseater. "And we're not related by blood."
"Lol," Expulse said. "Lmao." He was just blurting out the acronyms now.
Maven gave up, waiting for the coffee and food to arrive. Thankfully Springfield was already making her way over.
"Here's your food and drinks, just some simple scrambled eggs with a side of toast." She said, handing the plates to the pilots. "And your coffee, they're hot right now so be careful."
The two pilots thanked Springfield and she went to tend to the other patrons, leaving the duo to dig into their meals. Expulse was already used to the high standard of cooking by Springfield, but for Maven, this was his first time actually tasting the barista's cooking. Expulse really wasn't joking when he said he missed out on her cooking.
"Jesus, this is amazing."
"I told you so, you dork."
The two shared a laugh before finishing their breakfast. The coffee had cooled down to a reasonable drinking temperature now, so they were taking large sips out of their cups. It was relaxing to be able to kick back for a bit like this.
Expulse started smirking at Maven and put his cup down. Although it might be more accurate he was looking behind the Pilot.
"What the hell are you laughing at now-"
"Heyy, I thought I'd find you here. " A very familiar voice comes from behind Maven as two hands are now on his shoulders. "Oh and hello, name's Grizzly."
"Expulse, I'm the dork's WSO." His grin got wider, much to the displeasure of Maven.
"Cool, you two mind if I sit here for a bit?"
"Of course not!" Expulse spoke before Maven could get a word in, not that he would have said no, but he knows the backseater is using this as an opportunity to get more material to harass him with.
Grizzly happily pulled out one of the unoccupied seats at the table and sat down, albeit Expulse noted that she sat a bit closer to Maven. Of course this didn't have any deeper meaning other than the backseater wanting to bully his flight lead more.
The bear and WSO started talking about the usual mundane stuff that people talk about as an icebreaker; if they've been doing alright, if the living accommodations are suitable, or what's up with the huge hunk of metal that you were in yesterday. The usual standard things well adjusted people ask a stranger.
Maven was silent as the two talked, still finishing off his cup of coffee. Nice and warm as any coffee should be, just like the lap pillow last night-
The pilot started having a coughing fit as the hot liquid went down the wrong pipe as the spicy memory found its way back into his mind, startling the other two. He waved off their concerns with his hand before pounding his chest a couple times in an effort to make it stop. Not that it really helped.
"Sweet Jesus Maven," Expulse commented in concern. "you've been off ever since we woke up."
Grizzly didn't say anything but stared at Maven in deep worry.
"Shut up I don't want to hear any of it." The pilot finally got rid of the coughs and fixed his composure, only now realising how intense Grizzly was staring at him with those bright purple eyes.
Unnaturally bright purple eyes.
He needed answers, now.
Maven's head snapped towards the girl. "Grizzly, if isn't too rude of me to ask-"
"Already making a move?"
He shot Expulse a death-glare, making the backseater snicker before returning his attention back to Grizzly. "what's up with your eyes? They glow unnaturally bright for a human."
The girl in question blinked before laughing into her hand. Maven turned to Expulse, who at this point was also lost, neither understanding what warranted the laughing.
"Jeez you two," She started, still snickering a bit. "it's like you've never seen an android before."
A look of worry crossed onto the faces of the two, making them laugh nervously along with Grizzly.
"I'm sorry but uh, could you elaborate on that?" This had to be some elaborate prank.
Grizzly's laughter died down, turning into a more bewildered expression. "Really? You do know what dolls are, right?" Both of the pilots had a thousand-yard stare. "T-dolls? A-dolls?"
Well, at least that explains the underage looking ones.
"Well you see…" Expulse spoke up first. "there weren't exactly many of these 'dolls' where we lived…"
"Ahh I see, you lived in one of those doll free zones." Grizzly replied in understanding. "Makes sense why wouldn't know."
"Yea… doll free zones…" Expulse confirmed her assumption. Technically speaking it wasn't a lie in a way, after the Lighthouse war, a majority of people were heavily skeptical about the use of AI and drones in warfare, including the Maven and Expulse.
An awkward silence fell upon them now, no one sure what to bring up next. Thankfully Springfield came over to collect the plates.
"Surprised to see you here miss Grizzly," Springfield said as she began taking the plates and cups from the two aviators. "Getting to know the newest gossip on the base, I see."
This caught the attention of the pilots.
"Uhh, is there something that we don't know?"
Springfield merely smiled, not answering the question. Before she walked off, Maven started pulling his wallet out, but was stopped.
"No need to pay for now."
"Oh uh, thanks." Springfield left the group. Now that Maven thought about it, Emmerian currency most likely wouldn't be accepted here. He wondered if Springfield somehow knew that.
He suppressed a shudder.
"So… what's the plan for today flight lead?" The WSO asked, twiddling his thumbs.
"Hmmm," Maven hummed out loud, giving the question some thought before remembering what he had in mind earlier. "We should probably give the Eagle a quick maintenance check."
"Right, but where are we going to get maintenance tools for a fighter jet that's pretty much a relic now?" The WSO made a good point.
"Shit." Maven said underneath his breath, forgetting that detail.
"We do have a bunch of tools and equipment for maintaining the humvees and Jeeps we have." Grizzly spoke up. "But you'll have to ask the logistics officer for them-"
The brunette yelped as the pilot quickly took her hands into his much to her surprise. "Can you take us there now?" Maven stared right into her eyes.
Grizzly blushed at the sudden contact before nodding her head, making Maven stand up, ready to go.
Expulse chuckled at the antics of his pilot before also getting up. Grizzly had unknowingly solved the aviators' biggest concern with being in a new reality. As fancy as the F-15EX was, like any other piece of equipment, it would need a lot of care and maintenance to keep it ready and combat viable.
The group walked to another wing of the base, Grizzly taking the lead as she guided the pilots to the warehouse and storage area room. They entered the depot where a young lady with bright orange hair and a rather unique outfit was sorting out ammunition.
Grizzly waved a hand and called out to her. "Hey Kalina!"
The lady turned around, looking visibly tired but still maintaining a relative happy facade waved back. Her face shifted to confusement and then intrigue as she noticed the two unknown faces behind her.
"I assume there's something you need." She replied back, eyeing the two aviators from the peripheral vision. "And I'm assuming it involves those two?"
"Guilty on both accounts." Grizzly chuckled, raising her hands before dropping them. "The two behind me need maintenance tools."
"For that odd plane of theirs? We might have something for that." She went into one of the backrooms.
Grizzly turned towards the aviators. "Anyways, I've got to go do training with my squad now, so you two have fun. I'll drop by later." She said be with a smile before walking off.
Expulse nudged Maven with a knowing grin. "Dude, did you see the way she was looking at you?"
The pilot stared at his backseater before giving him a hard slap to the back of his neck. "We've been here for two days, this isn't one of your harem mangas you dork."
Expulse laughed, rubbing where Maven had slapped him. He really didn't hold back, even against his own copilot.
Kalina came back with a large box of tools, dumping it onto a nearby table. "Here's a bunch of things that might be useful."
The aviators took a quick look through the box, deciding it'll be better than nothing.
"Alright Expulse," Maven said as he shoved the box into his wingman's hands. "You take these to our jet, I'll be with you in a moment."
The backseater grunted in mild annoyance but complied, lugging the tools with him out the room.
Maven turned his attention back to the orange haired woman, but she spoke before he could.
"Is there something else you need?"
"Yeah, I don't know if you would be the correct person to ask though." The pilot rubbed the back of his neck.
Kalina sighed, it was barely past breakfast and she needed more caffeine. "Don't worry, I can always just forward it to someone else."
Maven piqued back up. "Okay firstly, my wingman and I desperately need a change of attire."
Kalina nodded, writing it down on the clipboard she had.
"And secondly, is there a chance we can requisition aircraft armaments?"
She looked up from her clipboard. "If you have specifics, we might be able to get a hold of some."
Maven nodded his head. "Specifically we need AIM-120D AMRAAMs, AIM-9X Sidewinders, GBU-12 laser guided bombs, CBU-99 cluster bombs," He looked up in thought for a moment before adding on one last order. "And maybe AGM-65E mavericks, if it isn't too much trouble."
Kalina's expression went shifted neutral to confused as she wrote down the requests, shooting a look at the pilot.
"…Did I ask for too much?"
Kalina shook her head. "No not that, it's just that all of these are American weapons. I take it you come from there then?"
Maven hesitated answering her, settling for a non-answer. "It's… complicated."
The orange haired lady stared at him for bit, making the pilot smile involuntarily as he got nervous before she let it go.
"I won't pry, it's fine."
Maven felt slightly bad for having to dodge all these questions, but he wasn't comfortable just yet with telling everyone that they most likely not only are from the past but also come from alternate world.
Though before he left, he had one last question he wanted answered.
"Kalina…"
The lady in question hummed in response.
"I noticed that your eyes weren't as bright like Grizzly's-"
Kalina's head snapped towards Maven, making him stop. She slowly closed the distance between them, clipboard in hand. The pilot only just realised that like Gentiane, Kalina was also a fleshy human like he was. The lady stood in front of him, noticeably shorter than Maven but no less threatening right now, and bonked his head with her clipboard, making the pilot yelp in pain. She hmphed in satisfaction at the pain she caused.
"Just because I'm a young youthful maiden doesn't mean I'm a doll you dork!"
"Understood ma'am, I won't repeat my mistake!"
She chuckled at the pilot's response, she wasn't actually that mad but rather just wanted to blow off a bit of steam that came from her mundane but tedious work. Maven thanked Kalina, to which she smiled and shooed him off before getting back to sorting the ammunition again, dampening her mood. She still had combat reports to fill out later.
The pilot on the other hand had already left the depot, heading towards the airfield. Midway through his journey, he had a thought cross by. Him and Expulse were going be out for a good while, and they forgot the most essential part of long, boring and tedious tasks such as maintaining their jet: refreshments! Maven took a quick detour to the café, which was a lot more barren now compared to earlier, much to the aviator's delight. Predictably, Springfield was behind the bar, cleaning the coffee maker as the washing machine was doing it's work cleaning all the plates, cups and utensils.
And like a damn psychic, she turned around and focused her attention on the pilot as approached her, greeting him with her signature warm smile as he leaned an arm on the bar-top.
"Do you happen have a lot of canned or bottles drinks I could have?" Maven asked. "I promise to payback when I can."
Springfield giggled. "No need for that." She turned around and walked to the fridge, pulling out a six-pack of soda and giving it to the pilot. "Food and refreshments are free for employees anyways."
"But… I'm not employed here."
"Yet." She added on, smiling again. Again there was a glint in her eyes that suggested something but Maven couldn't put it together.
"We'll see, thanks for your hospitality." He took the drinks and left the Café.
After all of that, he finally made his way outside, pulled out some aviators from his flight suit and walked towards the airfield, specifically to where his aircraft had been parked. In the distance he could see Expulse setting everything up, already having the top half of his flight suit zipped down and wrapped around his waist. The WSO spotted Maven walking towards him, wanting to give him a couple of choice words for making him lug the heavy supplies by himself, but that quickly faded away as the pilot held up the six-pack of soda.
"Sorry for the delay but," Maven pointed towards the beverages. "got us some soda pop ayy!"
He set down the six-pack and picked up two bottles, opening them both with a wrench from the tools and handed the bottle to Expulse.
Before the two got to work however, both of them felt like one last thing was missing.
Expulse facepalmed before rubbing his chin in thought. "You think you can hook up your phone to the radio?"
Maven stared at his backseater in bewilderment.
"What? You know, to blast music so we don't fall asleep here?"
"…Let me see what I can do."
It had been a good while since the aviators had began checking over the F-15. They couldn't get much done with the basic tools but it was better than nothing. The two were now starting up the plane to do a quick systems and avionics check. To their surprise, the plane was back to full fuel capacity. Maven mentally noted to ask around for who was responsible so that he could thank them. The pilot switched on the power began cranking the engines of the F-15, moving the throttle from off to idle.
"Comms check, can you hear me?" Expulse's voice rang out from the intercom set.
"Loud and clear."
"Alright, beginning inertial navigation system alignment."
To the WSO's surprise, the INS was actually working as it began a countdown. Despite that however, he had a feeling that their stored heading wouldn't be of much use now.
"It's working but I'm probably going to have to update the stored heading."
"Do it just to be on the safe side." The pilot responded.
Maven focused his attention back to his part of the start-up procedure. Both engines weren't displaying any issues thankfully, allowing him to proceed further on. He pulled up the flight control system page on one of the sub-displays, several failures were present as indicated by the amount of crosses everywhere, most likely caused by wing droop. But as per training, Maven ignored this and held down the FCS reset button to his left, removing all the cautions.
But just to make sure, he moved the flight stick around in a circle, testing to see if the flaps were functional. Seeing no issues with the wings, he moved on to the radar warning receiver and counter measures system. The RWR turned on with a series beeps before going quiet as expected, there weren't any other airborne vehicles around or anti-air installments, the latter concerning the pilot just a bit.
That aside, it seemed to functioning fine so he moved on to checking the counter measures dispenser. Swapping the flight control system page for the electronic warfare page, the dispenser went into self-test mode for a couple of seconds before switching to standby, indicating it was ready for use. However there was the glaring issue being that they were low on both flare and chaff count. Maven wrote another reminder to request more supplies of counter measures.
Next was making sure the helmet mounted display was correctly functioning. Maven twisted the knob for the HMD brightness on the up-front controller, making a series of images flash up in front of his eyes as the display went through a self-test before finishing. Now in his field of vision were the airspeed, altitude and aircraft heading, the last one being linked to reference the heading he was facing rather than the aircraft's.
Last item on the itinerary was to check if the weapons systems were functional. On another subdisplay, Maven brought up the stores management page which showed the various armaments mounted onto the F-15's hardpoints. Six AIM-120Ds were on the wings with two AIM-9X's on the outer most hardpoints, so they were covered on the air-to-air side of combat.
Air-to-ground armaments were mostly the same, six GBU-12s and four CBU-99s were mounted onto the airframe. Two of the hardpoints were empty from their previous engagement. It wasn't major concern unless his armaments request got denied.
Three fuel tanks, now full, were mounted onto the inner most wing pylons and center underneath the fuselage. In hindsight he was thankfully that they hadn't dropped those earlier. Even though they now had reliable access to fuel, additional tanks greatly extended their operational range which would likely come up in the future.
"Everything is good to go on my end." Maven said to Expulse through the comms.
"INS finished aligning, everything works on my end as well." The WSO replied back.
"Well if there's an unannounced air raid in the future, at least we know we're ready."
"How about you don't start raising flags now?"
Maven laughed as he got up from the cockpit and made his way down to the ground, Expulse following him soon after once he finished inputting the new stored heading. The two sat on the floor and took off their helmets, grabbing the last two remaining bottles of soda and chugging it. Sadly it had gone warm as the two were working, but it didn't bother them.
Once they were done downing the beverage, the aviators laid down on the asphalt, both letting an arm rest over their eyes to block the sun, taking a moment to rest up after the hours of maintaining their jet with the tools they were given. This left the pilots oblivious to the figure approaching them with two takeaway bags in hand.
"I thought I would find you two here." Rang out the familiar voice of the brunette doll that had been spending time with the aviators.
"Grizzly?" Maven asked, raising his arm a bit to look at the girl.
She pouted at the rather neutral response. "Who else would it be?" She shook her head. "You two dorks almost missed lunch by the way."
This was news to the pilots. Expulse quickly got his phone out and checked the time.
"Jesus, it's ten past one."
"It's been that long since we started?" Maven's arm dropped back onto his face as he sighed.
He sat up and sat cross-legged, the lack of food was starting to hit him now. Grizzly gave him a bag and then gave the other to Expulse, who also sat up, gladly accepting the food. The two all but wolfed down the sustenance, the only factor preventing them from doing so being the presence of another person. That didn't stop them from eating as fast as possible, even Grizzly was mildly surprised at the time it took for them to finish their food.
"So what had you so busy that you couldn't get lunch?" Grizzly asked.
"Maintenance." Expulse had to hold back a burp, putting a hand over his mouth. "Checking systems and weapons, we do it after every flight if we can."
"Ah, makes sense why you didn't notice the time then." Grizzly nodded in understanding.
"Yep, but that's done now." Maven stood up. "By the way, do you happen to know who refilled our jet?."
Grizzly shook her head, "Sorry but no, might want to ask Gentiane."
"Ah alright."
The brunette doll had a thought cross her mind.
"So just wondering…" She began, catching the aviators' attention. "Are either of you trained with firearms?"
"Yea we are." Maven replied.
Expulse groaned as an unpleasant memory surfaced. "It was part of that survival course we had to take." The backseater shuddered.
Grizzly smiled. "How about you two train up on that then?"
The pilots turned to each other before shrugging. "We probably should, it's been a bit."
The duo gets back up into the cockpit, pulling out a compartment from their ejection seat. Inside was a GAU-5A assault rifle along with four magazines. It was nothing more than just a modified M4 carbine that could be broken down into two parts.
The pilots got their rifles out, sliding the barrel into the upper receiver and stuffed the magazines into the pockets of their flight suits and got back down.
Grizzly shot them both a thumbs up before gesturing for the duo to follow her. The trek was short and they quickly ended up at the Griffin shooting range, there were a couple of other dolls present but two in particular noticed Grizzly and then the two aviators behind her.
"Maven, Expulse," Grizzly began, pointing towards the respective pilot as she said their names. "This is M590," She gestured towards the tanned shotgun, who smiled in return and gave a quick wave to the pilots. "And M82." The pink haired doll in question also waved back, albeit more discreetly than M590. The two concluded that she was probably just shy.
"So these two are what's gotten even talking lately?" M590 asked Grizzly, not noticing how the aviators shifted uncomfortably. They had gathered that the girls- or dolls rather, were talking about them, but no exact specifics about what was being said, placing a bit of worry into the pilots.
"Yep!" Grizzly smiled proudly. "They're cool people, I don't know why everyone's acting so weird about it."
M590 chuckled. "Well if took what Micro Uzi said at face value… it does make them sound a lot scarier than they are." She gave a soft smile towards the pilots. "Uzi didn't mean any harm, she was just very excited and may have exaggerated some details…"
The pilots sweat dropped at that.
"Didn't help that MDR said some things as well…" M82 spoke up quietly. "I don't know what she said, but I heard her say some stuff."
Both Maven and Expulse sighed.
"Potential rumors about us being bloodless, mute and potentially bipolar schizos aside," Maven raised his GAU-5A with a hand. "We're a bit rusty when it comes to firearms."
Grizzly grinned wildly before taking Maven's free hand, dragging him to the one of the unoccupied shooting stalls, much to the amusement of the others, but none more than Expulse, who M590 offered to assist.
The dolls had been assisting the pilots for the better part of an hour now, helping with their shooting stance, correcting their grip on their GAU-5As and giving tips on how to shoot more accurately. Their help had noticeably improved the pilots' aim. Where early paper target sheets were filled with bullet holes that only occasionally landed near the center, now the aviators could fire off 3-round bursts towards the center with a lot more ease.
Grizzly shot Maven a proud smile, giving him a thumbs up and a very strong pat on back as she showed him his latest results. M590 was less energetic but no less earnest with praising Expulse. Even M82, who wasn't that involved, picked up on a couple of tips that helped her, gaining praise from both Grizzly and M590.
Maven smiled as he looked at the sheet that was filled with bullet holes clustered towards the center. "Thank you Grizzly, you didn't have to do this for us."
The doll rubbed the back of her head and waved him off. "It was nothing, part of being a team leader."
"Still, you have our thanks." He patted Grizzly's shoulder before walking over to Expulse, unknowingly making her blush a tiny bit.
Expulse was also happy by the amount of progress he had made. "Thanks a lot M590." He gave the doll a thumbs up.
She smiled and nodded in response. "You're welcome mister Expulse."
Expulse opened his mouth, wanting her to drop the honorific, but was interrupted as his flight lead wrapped an arm around his neck, peering over to see his results.
"Hey, show me what you got."
The WSO showed Maven his results, which proved to be a mistake as the pilot laughed as he showed him his results.
"I beat you!"
"By a singular point!" Expulse fired back with, only making Maven laugh more.
"Still did better than you hah!" The pilot gave his backseater the finger guns, making Expulse groan.
The dolls looked amused at the antics of the two aviators. Maybe they might be a well needed addition to the roster.
However, the moment would soon be ruined as the PA system came online.
"All personnel are to report to the briefing room immediately, this is an emergency meeting." Rang out Gentiane's voice through the speakers. "This includes Checkmate team."
The dolls were initially confused at who Checkmate were but quickly assumed it was the two pilots, who had now quit their horseplay. The two simultaneously zipped up their flight suits in preparation and unloaded their GAU-5As. The pilots turn towards the group of dolls who began quickly walking towards the briefing room.
"What do you think the meeting is about?" Expulse asked, though he had a good guess.
"Don't know but something tells me that we're going to be involved heavily."
I'm finally starting to understand how to use this website lol.
Anyways apologies if the last two chapters were mediocre and rough around the edges, some formatting was also lost. I'll revise them one day. This one should be better hopefully.
Edit: switched software and I didn't realise how many errors I had, sorry for that.
