Fliers Above Sagnius IV

Chapter 1

"Morning Vanessa," Sakura said, "You're still going to take a shower? Don't you remember what Operations said, no hot water before 08.00." Vanessa nodded her head, "Yeah, I still take it anyway it wakes me up." Sakura shrugged, "Whatever, I just take my showers before lights out." "I'll keep that in mind," Vanessa said as she went into the women's locker room. Sakura walked out onto the runway and into the hanger next door. She looked at the dusty PDF standard Wolfcubs and Cyclones, "I wonder if these are even going to be used, we're going to need every aircraft we've got." She walked out again and looked out at the Marauders that had nets tightly draped over them. She went into the infirmary to see Johnatan he had received a few injuries when he hit the trees. "You alright?" Sakura asked him. He nodded and gave her a salute. "You're lucky you're alive." Darrow walked in, "Sakura, gather your flight, we have a mission." Sakura pat John's shoulder heartily, "You'll be back in the air soon, I promise."

"Hey Visily, I hadn't seen you since Marauder training back home on Valhalla!" Visily Sloarr looked behind him; it was his old buddy from the academy, Alicia Marovan. She walked over and pat his back, "So how's my buddy been doing for these past years?" Visily shrugged, "Nothing really, just doing bombing runs over the archenemy." Alicia laughed, "Well, we're both in the same flight now since Winter Bird 3 went down; they stuck me and my crew in their place." Visily smiled, Alicia and her 'All Female Crew' of the Marauder Imperial Bomber, The Emperor's Finest, really did a lot of key ordeals to the success on Valhalla, 14 bombing runs they performed, and all were a success. "Welcome to Winter Bird flight 31." Visily said as he began to hop into the cockpit of his Marauder, Red Star, "Alright guys, let's get this party started," Visily said to his crew, Nitaliya, front gunner, Macartan, rear gunner, Timothy, top turret, and Samantha, the bombardier. His flight, the Winter Birds Elite, was to bomb an archenemy base, a few kilometers north of Masost. Thanks to a small flight of Lightnings they found the base through small holes in the cloud cover. "Operations, this is Winter Bird 31, awaiting permission for take off." "Clear 31, once your escort the, White Tigers, are clear." "Yes Operations, beginning our taxiing run."

Sakura slipped her helmet on and tweaked the air-mix, perfect. "Let's get going guys; we can't keep these Marauders waiting." Her wing along with 35's, or Tara's, began lifting off from their mat pads, they were a few hundred feet off of the ground when they kicked in the throttle. Sakura gazed behind her, the Marauders were beginning their take off. "Keep your eyes open, we now know were a lot of those bats are coming from and they're within range of our airbase, if you got a bat on your 6 shake him off!" she heard all of her fighters confirm. Helena Quis flew in place of 36A, Johnatan in other words, she was a fairly new pilot, recruited a few weeks ago and she already had 8 kills, which Sakura thought was impressive. The White Tigers slowed down enough for the bombers to catch up, Sakura felt strangely vulnerable, at the altitude they were flying any bat could just swoop down and gun at the Marauders which were tempting targets. "Lead, I've got 12 contacts, 2,000 feet above us, shit they're bats." Vanessa said. "White Tiger 33 to Winter Bird 31, get your guns live we've got contacts." Sakura said as she flipped her switch up and put her finger on the missile trigger; she thought to herself 'Let's have some fun, shall we?'

Nitaliya moved her turret back and forth, slowly scanning the skies for the bats White Tiger 33 just warned them about, "Visily! I see them! 12 o'clock high!" She jostled her turret into position, she got a lock; the lead bat, a locust spun out of control and blew up in a fiery explosion, she saw the charred body of the locust pilot fly out and his parachute fluttered open; it was on fire. 'Wahoo! First kill on Sagnius!' she thought to herself. The skies began to fill with las fire from both the fighters, and the Bombers, "We're coming in on the target prepare ordnance…" Sam said as she primed the bombs in the belly of the aircraft. Visily struggled to keep the plane level as it shook from flak from below, he heard Sam curse, "What's wrong?" he asked, "The damn flak screwed up my lens, I can't see a damn thing." "What was your last calculation?" Sam thought, "4 kilometers-Wait! I should be dropping the warheads now!" She punched the button down, "Damn!" Visily heard Sam yell, "What is it?" Visily cried, "The button! It's stuck!" Sam ran to the bombing bay, and pulled a crowbar from the wall and began to wrench the hatch open, there was a large squeaking noise and they all yelled out, "What the hell was that?" Nitaliya asked from the front gun. "They're about to explode!" Sam yelled as she finally wrenched the door open and then the aircraft rose a few feet as their payload fell upon the victims below, "Ahh, there's nothing like the sound of whistling bombs." Visily heard Alicia say, "We better turn home guys, this airbase is leveled, and I'm up for some major celebrating!"

Everyone had went to the bar, The High Mount, right after they were cleared by Operations to wander around Visily sat with his crew at a table, they whooped and laughed at long past memories. He wasn't much of a drinker nor did he have such a great sense of humor. He looked around at the other crews and pilots of the recent victory. He saw a young pilot, a female, with her bright pink hair high at the back and long to her chin in the front, she was toying with a shot cup. She was leaning on one arm and she was flipping the cup up and down with one hand. 'She has good hand-eye coordination.' Visily thought as she watched her, "You have your eye on the White Tigers leader, Sakura, ehh?" He turned around and looked at Macartan, who was nudging him in his side. "Wait that was the person who led our escort?" Macartan nodded, "Jeez, she's a damn good pilot; she got half of the kills, 6 to be exact." Visily's eyebrow twitched, "6? In one sortie?" Macartan nodded as he turned back to his cup of sjira red.

Sakura finally put her cup down, Vanessa had gone out somewhere with 38A, Geren Suhra, part of her wondered where she went and part of her didn't. Helena was called out to Operations for some reason she couldn't remember. She reached for the bottle of amasec which sat in front of her. She poured herself a cup, the first she'd had since they began the celebration. 'Uhh, who would have expected that this celebration to be so dull when you have no soul to talk to.' She thought to herself, 'Yeah, it was a good day for me, but it sucks when you have no one to talk to about it.' Sakura saw a man from another table get up and begin to make his way to where she sat; she looked up from her cup. "Hey," ask the man, she didn't respond, 'Was this guy hitting on me, or was he just drunk?' "I said something; it'd be polite if you said something back." Apparently this guy was neither, "Hey, Sakura Markow, 33 of White Tiger Flight." She extended her hand and he took it and shook it gently, "Visily Soarr, the pilot of 31 of Winter Bird Flight." Sakura nodded and signaled him to sit down and offered him a cup of amasec which he accepted. "I hear you have 24 career kills, Sakura." Visily said as he took a sip, Sakura nodded, "I hear you've got 18 bombing runs, 13 successes not including our last sortie." Visily nodded, the two began to talk calmly, their past events and hopes.

Sakura and Visily sat at the at the table well past 23.00. Visily learned that Sakura's life was pretty hard. Her boyfriend was part of the Silver Lightning, the Valhallan equivalent to the Apostles, he was shot down and; a well confirmed KIA. "We were going t-to get married after his sortie, which he didn't know was his last." Sakura looked away, there was a tear slowly rolling down her left cheek. Visily wiped it off with his handkerchief, "It's alright, I'm sorry to hear that, but his death was what the Emperor wills, I have story to tell you." He pulled out a picture of a girl who was popping out of a Conqueror's hatch and handed it to her, "That's my sister, she was leading a convoy through a gorge on Valhalla, she never saw the Ork Rokkit coming. It hit the side armor, right below the side sponson, it turned the tank into a smoldering crater, she and her crew were killed instantly." Sakura gasped, they now knew at least someone had as bad as a life as the other.

Sakura woke the next morning with a little headache, probably too much to drink and the lack of sleep, it was 06.00, 7 hours of sleep. She walked into the hallway; Vanessa wasn't at the door of the locker like she usually was. "I wonder," She thought, she knocked on Vanessa's door, no answer, she opened the door it was unlocked. No one was in side. She walked a little further to Suhra's room, still no answer, she walked in using her lock pick. She walked in, the sheets for the bed were on the floor and it was a mess, there was a pile of clothes over in a corner, "He needs to learn how to clean." She said to herself, something was amiss though, she found a bright blue garment and picked it up, 'A BRA!" she thought to herself, she dropped it and fell over the lump that the sheets had made, or what she thought were the sheets. That's where she found both of them, naked and holding each other in a deep sleep, 'Damn, Vanessa, you went a little over board with the sjira red didn't you?' She got up and kicked the both of them, then Darrow ran in, "Operations need us now! Jeez, a little over exposed aren't they?" Sakura nodded, "Can you help me a bit?" Darrow nodded.