"Mister President, I just got off the line with OSECOM. It's been confirmed. One of our fighters shot down a Yuktobanian aircraft." The Osean Secretary of Defense, John Mayton, a sharp jawed and dark skinned man well presented in a suit, confirmed to the President of the Osean Federation.
Vincent Harling put his head down to think about the situation. First the Yuktobanians had surged a good portion of their surface fleet in the Pacific and Ceres Oceans, and now one of their aircraft had been shot down by an Osean. The brown-haired president was concerned. Wars had started because of incidents like this, and with his equivalent in Yuktobania currently in a medically-induced coma in Yuktobania, anything could happen.
"What about the pilot who made it happen?" Harling asked about the OADF pilot who had shot down the Yuke.
"Released from questioning this afternoon. She complied with the rules of engagement. The Yuktobanians fired first." Mayton clarified. Harling glanced at him. Mayton merely shrugged. "I'd want to scapegoat somebody for this too, sir, but the pilot had every right to shoot back."
"No, no, I'm not worried about that." Harling said. "A Yuktobanian pilot shot first?"
"Correct, sir. Reportedly there was a terrorist wanted in Yuktobania aboard the airliner and they waned them back." Mayton explained what he knew about the situation. "Naturally, our boys and girls didn't let that happen."
"Good." Harling was happy to hear that their pilots were standing up for themselves. "Now… who was the pilot who took the shot?"
Ash was sitting out the back of the hangars on a bench with all of her gear still on, whiffing every thirty seconds or so from a lit cigarette. Her hands were shaking. Telling herself that it was just an adrenaline rush wasn't helping.
From the back door that lead through the aircraft shelter came Wolf. He was also kitted up, g-suit, vest and all.
"Two days, two kills. Already halfway to being an ace." Wolf joked when he saw Ash sitting on the bench.
Ash chuckled. "Lucky me, eh?"
"Quite." Wolf took a knee in front of her, where he noticed the cigarette. "I didn't know you smoked." Wolf then produced a packet of his own cigarettes, drew one and lit it.
"You smoke too?" Ash was surprised. She had never seen Wolf smoke.
"I asked first." Wolf took a puff.
Ash shrugged. "I smoked every once in a while when I was in uni. Help with study stress, test stress, y'know. Haven't touched it since I was twenty."
"Yeah, well, every once in a while there's a shitstorm, one guy in your team offers ciggies to everybody and before you know it, everybody's hooked." Wolf gave his answer for his smoking habit once Ash had given hers. "I don't smoke much to be honest, I've had this pack since 2002, 2003, thereabouts."
Ash nodded. Then, recalling something from earlier in the air, her mind drifted to a different topic.
"You were in the Navy in the Belkan War, right?" Ash asked.
Wolf nodded. "I was."
"Did you ever meet any Belkans there?" Ash was curious. Corvus's understanding of Belkan had gotten her interested in something.
"I was an ordnance handler on a carrier back then. Didn't join the teams until a year after." Wolf answered, truthfully Ash figured. "There a reason you ask?"
"Oh, Pops said something in Belkan when we were airborne, call it morbid curiosity." Ash replied.
"Fair." Wolf took a long drag of his cigarette, puffed, stood up and crushed the butt of the cigarette under his boot. "Coming back in?"
"Two secs." Ash took one last puff before discarding the butt and following Wolf back into the hangar. Three people were crowding the ladder next to Ash's Mudhen. Kitagawa, Chopper and Archer, all fully kitted up and ready to go.
"Hey Sam, your pilot's back." Wolf called to Kitagawa. She looked at him, then at Ash, grinned, and turned her head back towards the conversation. Wolf and Ash packed into the semi-circle the group had formed.
"-flew in, but I missed the shot." Archer had been saying. Chopper was nodding.
"Where'd the other two bugger off to? I was too absorbed in the fight." Samurai asked.
"The two in the opposite group? They kept their distance and retreated when the ceasefire was called." Archer said.
"So what do you think, the aggressor was the only one being aggressive in the group?" Ash posed a question.
"It'd explain why he was the only one slinging lead." Wolf thought it was a good explanation. "And just plain unlucky for the guy who you clapped."
The sudden arrival of Major Bartlett from the open hangar door drew their conversation to a conclusion.
"Motormouth Chopper, Zoomer, mount up, we're going!" Bartlett loudly declared to get everyone's attention. The aforementioned pilot and weapon systems officer left the group and ran for their Mudhen. Bartlett then strode up to Kitagawa, Ash and Archer. He sighed.
"The big three. How are you feeling?" Bartlett was concerned for the wellbeing of the people under his command.
Kitagawa shrugged, the first to answer. "Don't look at me, sir, I'm just the one checking the scope."
Archer chuckled. "Just about ready to pick a fight."
"That makes two of us." Bartlett grinned at Archer's willingness to get back into the air. At first, Ash said nothing, forgetting she was part of the conversation.
"And of course, our new number one. Two shootdowns in two days." Bartlett directed his attention towards Ash. "You good, kid?"
Ash nodded dumbly. "Always."
"Alright, well, you three are relieved. Get some rest. I've got a feeling things are only going to go sideways from here." Bartlett was granting the trio a most likely brief period of rest before what was probably going to be a major incident.
"Thank you, sir." An almost in-sync response from the trio. Bartlett merely nodded before spinning around on the spot and running towards his aircraft, leaving Kitagawa, Ash and Archer to their wits.
"I'm grabbing something to eat. Want to join?" Archer proposed.
"Sure." Kitagawa was down with that suggestion.
"In a bit. I've got to sort out some personal administration." Ash had other things she wanted to do, both work-related and personal.
"So be it. See you at lunch?" Kitagawa prosed.
Ash smiled. "Always. See you then."
"See ya, Blaze." Archer replied. He and Kitagawa took off for the galley. Ash followed them up to the crew rooms, where everybody split. Ash and Kitagawa stowed their gear. While Kitagawa went to get something to eat, Ash retreated to her dorm room, somehow managing to avoid everybody minus the occasional enlisted rushing to their stations. Once she was in her dorm, Ash laid down for a couple of minutes to decompress before scavenging around for her laptop, a well-kept notebook, one of the new slim factor models.
On the login screen was a photo of Blaze's core OADF friends at a bar. Herself and Kitagawa drunkenly kissing in a booth. Wolf lifting Chopper above his head like the latter was a dumbbell. Kei looked like she was giggling on the other side of the booth while reading a book. Lammy looking like he was stoned off his ass and staring off into the distance.
Good times.
Ash typed in her password and was met with the same image as her background. Opening the browser, Ash navigated to her emails. There was a document related to coursework that she had to fill out and send back. She spent twenty minutes filling out that form. Overhead she heard the roaring of aircraft. Bartlett and his flight were departing now, Ash guessed. After sending the form back, Ash then looked at what else she had to do for work. Incident reports for the drone and the aircraft she had shot down. These took an hour because of the sheer amount of detail Ash was required to fill in. Once that was done, Ash had effectively done everything from an administrative standpoint that needed doing.
Ash then opened a new tab and opened Facebook. She had a single message. One from a pictureless profile with the name JACOB. Ash opened the chatbox.
JACOB: I hear there's some shit being slung your way. Having fun?
Ash giggled.
ASHLEY: Legally I can't disclose that information.
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To Ash's surprise, Jacob was online.
JACOB: LOL. Touche.
ASHLEY: It's been busy. Jumped from an exercise right into a shitstorm.
JACOB: That is the way it goes. A little bird tells me that two Yuke aircraft were shot down in your area.
ASHLEY: You gonna say anything?
JACOB: I can always refuse contracts if it breaches OPSEC.
ASHLEY: I shot down a prototype drone and a Flanker. Both fired first.
JACOB: Shit, really? Good going.
ASHLEY: Thanks.
JACOB: What happened with the Flanker? You don't hear much about Yukes that side of the pond these days.
ASHLEY: Escorting a damaged airliner. They really didn't want us doing that. We all got away safe.
JACOB: Yeah right.
JACOB: Gotta dash. Stay safe.
ASHLEY: Will do, see ya.