After flying east for a fair bit of time, Nexus Squadron and Rogue Squadron finally arrived at their destination. Despite being in a desert, the base seemed to be fairly large. It was lined by a fence with barbed wire on the top, and watchtowers were in each corner. Crosswind was the first to land, followed by Nexus Squadron, and finally, Rogue Squadron.
Eva was guided into one of the hangars where the others were already climbing out of their planes. She popped the canopy open and jumped down onto the hangar's stone floor, where she took off her helmet and flight gear. She made her way over to the others, who were gathering near the hangar's entrance. "Am I the only one getting some weird vibes from this place?" she asked.
Magic shook her head. "Nah, I don't like it either. Something's off," she said. Her eyes wandered around both the hangar and the runway outside.
"Let's just be glad we found allied forces at all," Vortex reminded them. "No matter how this base is run, we'd be dead without them." He shifted his gaze outside as he watched Rogue Squadron taxi into the next available hangar.
Eva brushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "I don't know. Something about this place just doesn't sit right with me," she said. "But if you trust it, so do I," she added with a shrug.
At that moment, someone a young man in a flight suit with tanned skin and short black hair approached them. "So, Nexus Squadron, is it? I'm Crosswind," he introduced himself. He looked fairly young for an AWACS controller.
Vortex nodded and shook Crosswind's hand. "Your help was much appreciated. We weren't sure if we were going to make it," he admitted. "My name's Vortex, Nexus Squadron's leader. This is Charger, Poet, Magic, Lucky, and Diamond." He gestured to each pilot as he told Crosswind their name.
"Pleasure to meet you all," Crosswind said with a rather pleasant smile. "If you don't mind me asking, where did you come from? We don't have any intel on friendlies out west." He paused before adding, "Although it's not like we have much intel on anything, to be fair."
"We were stationed aboard the aircraft carrier Kestrel II," Vortex explained. "It's… kind of a long story."
Crosswind nodded. "I understand. Well, in the meantime, I think you should come with me to meet the base commander and debrief him on your situation." He turned toward the hangar's doors and started heading outside. "Come on, I'll bring you to him."
As soon as Eva stepped out of the hangar, she was greeted by intense heat. She made an attempt to fan herself with her hands, but it was quite futile. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw five pilots leaving the other hangar, but she couldn't see them very well from where she was. The one thing that did stand out to her was that each of them had a red armband on their left arm. Eva didn't have long to dwell on it, though, as Crosswind led them into the command building, where she was blasted by a wave of cool air. A sense of relief and comfort washed over her, despite the rather loud fans and air conditioners.
Crosswind navigated through the winding halls and staircases with ease, leading Nexus Squadron down a hallway on the top floor and toward the one door at the end. He held his hand out behind him, signaling for the pilots to stop as he approached the door with a plaque labeled "C. Gates" on it. He gently knocked a few times. "Commander, are you busy?" he asked.
"Come on in, Crosswind," an older male voice replied from inside.
Crosswind opened the door and led the pilots into what looked like some sort of office. The whole room looked remarkably organized, and even the desk didn't have anything out of place. Sitting at the desk and looking at a computer screen was an older man in his mid to early forties with short black hair. He looked up, briefly smiling at Crosswind before tilting his head at the sight of Nexus Squadron. "Who's this?" he asked in a rather pleasant tone.
Crosswind looked as if he was about to answer, but Vortex stepped forward. "My name is Captain Lucas Haynes, but most people call me Vortex, and this-" he gestured toward the other five pilots. "Is my squadron, Nexus Squadron."
The commander nodded as Vortex spoke. "I see…" His voice trailed off for a moment. "Well, I'm Base Commander Gates, commander of the penal unit known as the 262 Squadron," Gates explained.
"Penal unit?" Magic echoed, raising an eyebrow.
Gates let out a heavy sigh, averting his gaze from the others. "Osea took convicts with military backgrounds and sent them here to serve instead of going to prison. I can't say that I agree with the practice, but in all honesty, there's not much I can do about it." He paused for a moment before looking back up at the others. "Anyways, what are you doing here?"
"Well… we were originally stationed on the carrier Kestrel II," Vortex explained.
Gates' eyes suddenly lit up at the mention of Kestrel II. He looked at Vortex with a sense of impatience. "Kestrel II?" he echoed. "My nephew was a crew member aboard that carrier. What happened to it?" His tone shifted to display a sense of urgency.
"We were sent into Farbanti to take the capital," Vortex began, his expression darkening. "And we almost had it, but then… one of the Arsenal Birds showed up. There's no way anyone on board could have survived, I'm sorry."
"Damn," Gates muttered. "He was a good kid." An awkward silence filled the room before Gates broke it. "Anyways, a lot has happened, so I should probably fill you in." He gestured the pilots over to his computer, where he was pulling up the briefing software. "First and foremost, we're not doing too hot," Gates said as the enemy and friendly forces appeared on the screen. However, the Sandbury Desert was firmly in the red. "We're cut off from allied forces, and we can't contact them. It seems Erusea has some sort of communication jammer somewhere that's keeping us in the dark. The only intel we get is from the satellites." A huge red circle appeared on the map, covering most of the continent, and their base was only barely outside its range. "The Arsenal Birds are protecting this area," Gates explained. "I'll be honest, you guys have guts to have flown right through their defense network."
"Honestly, we didn't even know about that," Charger admitted. "We just kinda flew east. We weren't even sure we'd run into any friendlies."
Gates shrugged. "Regardless, it's still an impressive feat. Anyways, the Eruseans know we're here. They've sent bombers on multiple occasions, but our fighters have intercepted them every time. We've tried to carry out operations, but the aforementioned Arsenal Birds make it difficult." A sudden realization seemed to hit Gates and he turned his attention to Crosswind. "Speaking of which, that reminds me, how did things go?"
Crosswind cleared his throat. "We were able to make contact with the target, and your suspicions were right. He said he wants to defect, but that we should give him a week or two so he can gather as much intel as he can," he answered.
Gates nodded. "I see. Well, we'll give him two, just so he can be as prepared as possible and so we don't risk jumping the gun." He noticed Nexus Squadron's confused looks, so he decided to explain. "One of my close friends is an officer in the Erusean Military, Major Tillmin," he began. "He's always been on the conservative side, so I had a theory he wouldn't like this direction Erusea was going. When I heard he was in San Salvacion, I knew I had to act, so I sent Crosswind and Rogue Squadron to try and make contact and see if he wanted to defect, which he did." He paused for a moment, and his gaze shifted between Crosswind and Nexus Squadron. "Listen… I know we're probably not what you were expecting when you set out to regroup with allied forces, but I have a request to make."
Vortex looked at the other five pilots and nodded. "Name it, sir."
"I'd like to ask you to join Rogue Squadron. Since you were able to survive an encounter with an Arsenal Bird and fly through enemy territory, it's clear that you're very skilled. Plus, I had a little skim through your records while we were talking, and that reinforced my belief in you. He paused for a moment. "I know Crosswind has his reservations about Rogue Squadron," he said, flashing an understanding look to the AWACS controller. "But all five of them are skilled pilots. And maybe, just maybe, if they fly with you guys, they'll change for the better."
Crosswind scoffed. "With all due respect, Commander, you're crazy if you think they'll ever change," he said bitterly.
"Maybe so," Gates replied. "But it's my job to try." He turned from Crosswind to the pilots. "So? What do you say?"
"Well, it seems like we don't have much of a choice," Magic admitted.
Gates cracked a small smile. "I didn't want to phrase it like that, but I guess that's true."
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm in. Any chance I get to stick it to the Eruseans after Farbanti, I'll take," Charger said.
Poet nodded. "I don't care who I'm flying with, convict or not, winning this war is what's important."
Lucky looked over at Eva, who nodded, and he did the same.
After seeing the reactions of his squadmates, Vortex smiled and nodded to Gates. "We'll do it," he finally answered.
"Excellent!" Gates exclaimed. "I'll have to do some rearranging, but Vortex, I'll be redesignating you as Rogue 1. For now, Crosswind will take you to meet the other pilots, and I'll try to make some room for you all to sleep in here." He looked over to Crosswind and nodded.
Crosswind dipped his head and escorted the pilots out of Gates' office.
"Just for the record, this is going to end badly," Crosswind warned as they stepped out of the command building.
"Why's that?" Eva asked raising an eyebrow.
"These people are nutcases. I don't think I'll ever understand why Gates lets them anywhere near fighter jets, let alone actually fly them," Crosswind growled. "So, when they find out that they're flying with you, I'd expect some harsh words." He opened the door to the main base, which was significantly more humid than the command building. "Throw in the fact that your assuming command and Magnum will probably freak out on you."
"You don't seem very fond of them," Charger observed.
"Yeah well, I have my reasons," Crosswind grumbled without taking his eyes off of the hallways in front of him.
Before long, they arrived at an archway that led into a much larger room that Eva could only assume was the mess hall. Sunlight poured in through the windows, shining on the metal tables scattered around the room with no rhyme or reason. Eva quickly spotted the five pilots from earlier thanks to the armbands on their sleeves. It seemed Crosswind noticed them too, as he was already making his way over to them.
The first one to notice him was the only woman in the group. She looked to be in her mid to early thirties and had short brown hair, green eyes, and a scar on her left cheek. She narrowed her eyes and stood up, marching over to Crosswind. One of the other pilots, about the same age as her, who had dark skin and was bald with blue eyes, followed her over to the approaching group.
"Well, well, well if it isn't our favorite guard," the woman said. Her voice oozed disdain and sarcasm. She looked past him at the other pilots. "Let me guess, you're the ones we bailed out earlier. Well? What do you want?"
"He's probably here to send us on another suicide mission," a younger pilot with ginger hair down to his ears, some slight stubble, and green eyes, sneered from the table.
Crosswind ignored the remark. "Cut the shit. They're going to be staying with us, since they don't have anywhere else to go, and they'll be flying with you from here on out."
The woman scowled at the AWACS controller and got right up in his face, as they were both the same height. "And what gives you the right to put them in my squadron?" she demanded.
Crosswind didn't even flinch and looked her dead in the eye. "It's not your squadron; never has been, and never will be. Especially now that Vortex here is taking command." He gestured to Vortex as he spoke.
The look on the woman's face went from annoyed to angry. "What did you just say?" she demanded.
"Magnum's always been number one," the man next to her said. "What makes these guys so special anyway?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Crosswind scoffed. "Well, for one, they're not convicts," he retorted. "Gates thinks that you'll learn something from flying with them, even though I tried to convince him that you're all beyond saving."
The other pilot still sitting down feigned an affectionate expression. "Aww, I'm touched."
The woman's gaze went between Crosswind and the other pilots before she shoved past the AWACS controller and stormed off. The man next to her shot Crosswind a glare before following her.
"Assholes," Crosswind groaned, rolling his eyes. "Well, the one who was probably ready to kill me on the spot was Magnum, and the guy following her everywhere she goes is Axe." He nodded to the table where the remaining three were sitting. "The guy who thinks he's a comedian is Slipstream and the one who looks like he washed his hair with grease is Dodger." He pointed to the pilot sitting next to Slipstream with greasy, slicked-back golden hair and brown eyes. "And finally, there's-"
"Trench!?" Eva felt herself jump a bit at Poet suddenly finishing Crosswind's introduction. She turned around to see him walking over to the youngest of Rogue Squadron's pilots, who was distancing himself from the other two. He was definitely the shortest out of all of them, and he had messy dark brown hair and blue eyes.
Trench looked up at Poet as he walked over. "Poet?" he asked in disbelief.
Poet knelt down so they were at eye-level with each other. "Trench, what are you doing here?" He gestured to the entire room as he spoke. "How did you…" His voice trailed off.
Trench stood up and looked away. "It's… a long story," he replied. "I just- I didn't try to…" he struggled to put the words he wanted to say into his mouth. Eventually, he just gave up and walked away. Poet looked as if he wanted to go after him but didn't.
Slipstream stood up and smirked. "Well, it looks like we're gonna get along just fine," he said sarcastically, and with that, he walked away.
A few seconds later, Dodger stood up and walked over to the pilots. "Don't get in my way, or I'll make you regret it," he mumbled.
Crosswind laughed. "Quit trying to sound tough you spineless coward. You're the first one to run away every time trouble shows up," he said with a smirk. Dodger frowned, but he didn't say anything; he just walked away. With everyone gone, Crosswind turned around to face the pilots again. "Well, I'm sure it'll take some time to get used to putting up with their bullshit, but for now, just worry about getting settled in. In the meantime, I've got some reports to write, so if you need me, my office is a few down from Gates'. Look for the one with Morrow written on it." He nodded to the six pilots and made his way out of the mess hall, leaving Nexus Squadron there alone in a new base they still knew so little about.
Author's Note: Wow, this chapter ended up being way longer than I thought it would. Anyways, I had to make a bit of a retcon this chapter since I goofed up in the last one (I already fixed it there, though). Basically, last chapter I said the gang headed west when they were really headed east, so it has been fixed. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.