Pinkish-orange light poured into Eva and Magic's room through the window, and Eva's eyes were practically forced open. She looked over to her side to see Magic hop down from the top bunk and start getting dressed. Before long, Eva threw the sheets off of her and did the same.
"Hey, do you wanna come on a run with me?" Magic suddenly asked as she finished making her bed.
"I don't know… It'd be good to get a bit more exercise, but it's just so damn hot here," Eva replied as she finished getting dressed.
"Well, it seems to not get that hot during the early mornings, so we should have a decent amount of time before we get cooked alive," Magic said with a slight smirk.
Eva chuckled as she neatly folded her sheets back onto her bed, tucking them in under the corners of the mattress. "Alright, let's go. You got a route in mind?"
Magic shrugged. "I don't know. We can just loop around the runway a bunch of times, I guess. Seeing as how this place is basically a prison, there isn't exactly a lot of running space."
"Yeah, you've got a point there," Eva agreed. While the prisoners may be given free rein, for the most part, there were still strict rules for them, and the nature of the penal unit was still quite apparent, despite what seemed to be Gates' best efforts. Luckily, though, Eva and the other Nexus Squadron pilots didn't face most of these issues. She paused for a moment to stretch out her arms and legs, waiting until she heard several satisfying pops before standing up straight again. After Magic finished doing the same thing, the two of them made their way out of their room and through the halls of the command building.
After staying at the base for a week, Eva finally felt like she was getting the hang of making her way through the halls. She also felt like she was getting into a rhythm in her life, which she felt was also important. After the war broke out, she felt like she couldn't be sure of anything, and she only felt more strongly about that after the Kestrel II sank. Now that they were back on land, though, some small part of Eva's mind thought that things would start to return to normalcy soon. Suddenly, Eva and Magic rounded a corner and bumped right into Crosswind, who just barely managed to keep a mug of coffee from spilling on him.
"Oh! Sorry about that," he quickly apologized. "I've got a lot on my mind right now."
"Don't worry about it," Magic said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Her eyes gravitated to the coffee mug in his hands. "Did they finally fix that coffee machine?"
Crosswind nodded. "I did. Nobody else was doing it, so I just decided to take care of it," he explained. "Apparently, the outlet it was plugged into was shot, so I just had to move it."
"Well, as long as it works," Eva added with a shrug. "I'll have to stop by and grab a cup after our run."
Crosswind raised an eyebrow. "You guys going running? Do you mind if I join you?" he asked. "I've been slacking recently, and I wanna get back into the swing of things."
Magic looked at Eva, who's only response was a shrug before turning her attention back to Crosswind. "Sure. The more, the merrier I guess."
A small smile appeared on Crosswind's face as he finished the last of his coffee. "Great! I'll need to stop by my office really quickly, though. I want to change first." He started walking past them and made his way up the stairs.
Eva and Magic followed behind him all the way over to his office, where they waited for a moment until Crosswind re-emerged with his flight suit off. Instead, he now wore a simple white t-shirt.
"Alright, let's go," he said.
Together, all three of them went back down the stairs and through the hallways until they finally made it out the door of the command building. Eva was surprisingly caught off-guard, as she expected to be hit by a wave of dry heat, but instead, she felt a gentle breeze blowing on her face. Once they got started jogging down the runway, they were all keeping a good pace. However, Eva immediately regretted her decision to go along. With nothing holding it down, her hair started bouncing all around, mostly into her face.
"All right, that does it," Eva finally said. "As soon as we get back; I'm going to get this cut."
While they were still getting settled into the base, a few days back, Crosswind explained that to make the convicts feel more equal, Gates tried his hardest to make the base feel less like a prison and more like an actual base, which he did by putting in many facilities one wouldn't expect to find in a penal base. One of which was a barber and that was something that Eva intended to use to her advantage, as she was already formulating an idea on what to do with her hair.
"You know, I could probably do with a trim myself," Magic admitted. "My hair's getting a bit long for my taste."
"Well then, I guess we could drop by together," Eva suggested.
Magic nodded, and after that, they continued running with an awkward silence. They made their way all the way around the runway without saying anything. Eva glanced over at Crosswind as they all ran together. It was hard to make conversation with someone you barely knew.
"So, did you want to be an AWACS controller when you enlisted?" Eva finally asked Crosswind to break the silence.
Crosswind shook his head. "Not really, even if it is what I enlisted as right off the bat. I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but my parents said it was too dangerous, so we compromised. I guess I enjoy it well enough, though. Even if the pilots I watch over are terrible human beings." Once again, his contempt for the convict pilots was put on full display, which made Eva even more curious as to what it was that made him despise them so much. She didn't ask, though, since it seemed to be a sensitive subject.
"How did you end up here?" Magic asked. "I can only assume that you're not a con, so what's the deal?"
"Well, originally, I was part of the IUPF as part of the force stationed around the Space Elevator at Selatapura," Crosswind explained. "A few months ago, Air Force Base 262 was established, and Gates himself put in a transfer order for me. He was part of that same garrison at Selatapura as well, so I'm guessing that's how he knew me." He paused for a moment before turning his head over to Magic. "What about you, guys?" he asked. "Where were you from before you were on the Kestrel II?"
"Fort Grays Island," Magic answered. "We left on the Kestrel II a little more than a month ago. We were conducting a two-pronged attack with them when we hit Farbanti, but we never heard how they did. Considering what we know about the Arsenal Birds, I can't say I'm holding out much hope," she said grimly.
Crosswind paused for a moment, the look on his face expressing his sympathies. "Well, I hope they're all ok."
"If I'm honest," Eva chimed in. "I didn't really know any of them that well. I had only just arrived from Osea about a week before we left, so I didn't get much of a chance to meet them. Although Magic did introduce me to one of the other pilots, Brownie, I think was her name."
Magic nodded. "Yeah, I hope they all made it out. At this point, we're gonna need all the help that we can get."
Once again, silence fell upon the group as they continued running. By now, they had gone around the runway several times, and the sun was beginning to rise higher up into the sky. Eva's mind went through several different topics that she could make small talk with before settling on something she had been curious about. "Hey, Magic. Do you know what the deal with Poet and Trench is?" she asked.
"I tried to ask Poet about it the other day, but all he told me was that he and Trench knew each other in flight school," Magic explained. "He didn't seem to want to talk about it more than that, so I didn't ask."
"Well, in case it matters, Trench is probably the best out of all the convicts," Crosswind said. "He's the newest one, and on top of the fact that he's not an asshole, he seems to regret what he did to get sent here, unlike the other four."
Eva glanced over at the AWACS controller. "What did he do to get sent here?" she asked.
Crosswind shrugged. "Not sure, honestly. I don't really make a habit of snooping around in the convicts' lives. All I know is that he did something that warranted him getting two sin lines."
"Sin lines?" Eva and Magic both echoed nearly simultaneously with the same confused look on their face.
"They're the scratches on the tails of their planes," Crosswind explained. "The more scratches, the worse the crime they committed."
"What about the orange on their planes?" Eva asked, glancing into the hangar the convicts' planes were in as they jogged by it. "What's that all about?"
"It's sort of a symbol," Crosswind answered. "Like their 'prison jumpsuits' for the air."
Magic scowled. "Isn't all this branding a bit unnecessary?" she asked.
The look on Crosswind's face hardened as he turned his gaze toward the building where all of the convicts slept. "No. Trust me, they deserve every bit of this," he growled. "The only one I feel bad for is Trench. If any of them change like Gates suspects, it'll probably be Trench."
Nobody said anything after that. They went for another loop around the runway before stopping at the entrance to the command building. Everyone took a moment to catch their breath before heading inside. Crosswind gave the others a brief goodbye and thanked them for the run before splitting off and heading up to his office while Eva and Magic went back to their room. After taking a moment to collect themselves, the two pilots went down to the showers, which were lukewarm at best and freezing at the worst. Eva couldn't really complain, though. After everything that happened, it just felt nice to be able to feel at least semi-normal. Neither Eva nor Magic took very long, though. As the two of them made their way through the halls and over to where Crosswind said the barber was, Eva was surprised that they hadn't run into anyone else yet. Although it was still fairly early in the morning, so she wasn't all that concerned about it. After the crazy month that the six of them had, she didn't blame any of them for wanting to get some extra sleep while they could, especially Vortex. It was clear that the stress from the whole situation affected him, so a bit of rest seemed like just the thing he needed.
Magic was the first to come out from the room that the barber had made into his workspace since all she got was a simple trim. After another fifteen minutes, Eva stepped out as well. Before she got it cut, her hair went down all the way past her shoulders when it wasn't tied up, but now, it barely went lower than her chin. She also decided to shave the left side of her hair just above her ears and move the part in her hair all the way to that side.
Magic smiled as she saw Eva walk up to her. "I like it."
Eva nodded. "Yeah, I think it turned out really well," she said, running her fingers through her hair. She couldn't even remember the last time her hair had been this short, but she really liked it. "Where do you think the others are?"
"I'm not sure. We could check the mess hall, though," Magic said with a shrug. "That's probably where they are."
"Yeah, let's head down there. I just hope we don't run into the other five again," Eva replied. After the last confrontation they had with the other pilots of Rogue Squadron, she wasn't quite sure she wanted to see them again, even though she'd have to sooner or later.
As they made their way back through the hallways of the command building, the spotted Vortex, and Charger, who were just walking out the door. Eva and Magic called out to them and broke into a light jog to catch up.
"I see you two made your way to the barber," Charger observed as they walked alongside him and Vortex.
Eva shrugged. "Well, I desperately needed mine cut. It was getting in the way of everything without being able to tie it back." She felt a wave of heat wash over her the moment they stepped outside.
"So, where are you guys headed, the mess?" Magic asked, looking at Vortex.
Vortex nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure Poet and Lucky are there already since they weren't in their room."
"Good. I'm starving," Eva remarked. "That run really worked up my appetite."
As soon as the four pilots entered the mess hall, Eva's eyes scanned the mostly full room. She quickly picked Lucky and Poet out of the crowd and made her way over to them. Thankfully, Magnum and the others didn't seem to be around. As soon as Lucky spotted Eva and the others walking over to him, he briefly had a look on his face that Eva couldn't quite make sense of. His eyes widened, and he looked as if he was surprised to see them, but the look didn't last long.
"Hey, Diamond. I like your hair," he said, a bit quieter than his usual voice.
Eva smiled as she sat down across from him. "Thanks." She glanced down at the space in front of Lucky and then back up at him with a smug grin. "You're actually eating breakfast today?" she jested.
"Oh, piss off," Lucky shot back lightheartedly. "I'll eat when I feel like it."
"Hey, turn the TV up!" Someone else called out.
Eva and the others turned their attention to the one TV on the left side of the room, and as if on cue, the volume increased so the whole mess hall could hear it. "…Sad news for the nation today," the reporter onscreen began. "Yesterday, the International Union Peacekeeping Force launched an operation to seize control of the Space Elevator and rescue former President Vincent Harling, who was rumored to be still inside when the war broke out. However, the operation was a total failure, as it's being reported to us that former president Harling was killed during the operation." Several pictures and videos of Harling appeared on the screen. "It's being reported that rather than being killed by Erusea, the aircraft Harling was shot down in was an Osean fighter. Although the Fort Grays Chief of Staff is declining to reveal the identity of the alleged killer, he is saying that an inquiry is already underway and will likely lead to a court-martial."
"Holy shit," Poet said. "That's absolutely crazy."
Charger nodded in agreement. "Why would any of them kill Harling? It doesn't make sense."
Eva could barely believe it. She remembered her mother telling her all sorts of stories about the Circum-Pacific War as it was ending, including the rumor about the Ghosts of Razgriz, which Eva used as the inspiration for the story she was writing back on the Kestrel II. It felt like he was untouchable. Despite such a huge revelation, nobody had much time to process it, as a deafening shriek cut through the air. Eva took a moment to process it before realizing that it was an air raid siren.
"All pilots report to the briefing room immediately. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill!" The urgency in Gates' voice was crystal clear, even over the intercom.
All six pilots looked around at each other for a moment before standing up, heading back to the command building in a sprint.
Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm so so sorry that this chapter took so long. I've been super busy with school recently, plus I've been playing a lot of Watch Dogs Legion (which I'll probably end up writing a fic for later). Tomorrow I'm going to really sincerely try to sit down and write a ton of stuff, my goal will be to finish at least two chapters tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!