Search and Rescue

Chapter 3

Visily gazed at the plains below, they were completely empty. It had been a few months since Visily had been sent to the hospital. Macartan was replaced by a young girl named Lena, and Sam was replaced by this former Lightning pilot named Johnatan. He's seen John in the Marauder sims and he seems to be good at bombing the shit out of things. He let out a big sigh, 'Aren't there supposed to be land carriers out here?' he asked himself as the clouds began to clear up. He never realized what was below him, until the flak began to shake his formation, "Where's it coming from?" He asked, "I don't know, Visily, I can't see the muzzle flash!" He heard Alicia say over the vox line, "Shit," Visily heard her say, "Engine one down, rudder 2 lost control. This is 32, we're going down, repeat, we're going down." Visily looked over to his right, and he saw his wing mate descend with a smoking engine and burning tail. He angrily yelled into his radio, "Winter Bird flight, on me." "Winter Bird 31, disengage, I repeat, dis.." he turned off the Operations' frequency, war has its costs. He flew in low and level, and scanned the flat, dreary landscape. Then he saw it, a huge land carrier, painted white and flak was leaving its cannons on the side of the huge moving vessel. "Alright guys, come in low and hot, our target, that carrier. "Comin' in hot." Yes sir!" "For the Emperor!" Visily held the stick tight, his eyes were fixed on the target in front. He saw the aircraft to his right, Murderer, burst into flames as a flak shell hit her payload. His canopy cracked as a shell exploded centimeters in front of him, 'That was close,' he thought. He gazed to his left at the remaining formation and he saw his right hand girl, Lisah Zamarov, keel over and a huge puddle of blood appear on the canopy. The Hopeful began to dip and spin out of control, acting as a huge bomb and crashing into the side of the carrier at an amazing speed. Visily and the remaining bomber pulled out of their approach as the carrier exploded in a giant mushroom cloud, Lisah's plane must have hit the weapons cache. "Alright, let's head home guys." Visily lost a lot of good comrades and pilots, but it was surely worth the loss. One carrier down, a lot less aircraft to put up with.

Alicia crawled across the snow. She rolled over and clutched her bolt pistol, she yelled out in pain as the biting, cold, wind blew across her face. Now she wished that she hadn't left her helmet back at the wreckage. "Oh Emperor, have mercy," she thought to herself as she pulled a piece of metal out of her shoulder and yelled out. 'Just a few more kilometers up the mountain.' She said as she looked back at the flaming wreckage of her Marauder behind her. She had stalled the plane's descent long enough for her crew to bail out, but she had no idea were the rest of them were. Alicia rubbed her gloved hand across her forehead, her white-gray glove turned into a deadly looking red. As she dragged herself up the mountain even more, she felt a hand on her unwounded shoulder. "Alicia, are you alright?" asked the voice of her top turret gunner, Marahian Nonvaner, a Krieg flier and her best friend. Marahian flipped Alicia over and stroked Alicia's hair back, "Oh Throne of the Emperor," She gasped, Alicia hadn't realized the large blood gushing wound running across her forehead and continuing into her scalp. Marahian took off her long-sleeved field sweater and wrapped it around her head in a makeshift field bandage, Mara slung Alicia's arm around her shoulder, "C'mon we've got to get you some serious medical attention.

Visily strode back and forth in the empty briefing room his eye brow was furrowed in deep concentration. He stopped and leaned against the table. Visily jumped as he felt a hand rest on his, "Oh Throne, God Sakura, you scared me." Sakura could sense how tense he was, just by the vibes she was receiving from him. She's had the power to tell how someone feels for as long as she could remember, but never really put it to good use until she joined the air corp. "Calm down Visily, they've already sent out the second search party." She said as she took off her helmet, "I've personally flown a Valkyrie out there and found something you might want to see." She handed him a black and white photograph of a crashed Marauder. Visily tapped the photograph, "Heh, this is the Emperor's Finest, Alicia Marovan's aircraft." He sat down and threw the folders off of the table and rubbed his hand across his head in frustration. Sakura sat beside him and held his hand, "We'll find them, I promise."

Alicia had long since fallen unconscious, and Mara had dragged her all the way to a nearby abandoned church. She draped a thermal blanket over Alicia's body and sat in silence, praying to the Emperor. She jumped at the noise of an opening door. She turned to the entrance, her K-SMG solid slug tightly clasped in her hands. Surprisingly to her, the entrance was closed; Mara stepped back, and cocked her weapon. A hooded figure, with his back to her, rose from behind the last pew and turned. He raised his arms in fear as he saw Mara with her gun pointed straight at him, "Don't shoot, please!" he yelled out as he took his hood off, he was a young priest. Mara sighed as se lowered her gun, "You scared me father," Mara said as she sat down and munched on a cracker. Father walked over and sat beside her, "Are you trooper, my daughter?" He asked, Mara looked at him, "I'm a flier, Father…" "Macroth," "I see you have an injured comrade, follow me." Mara picked Alicia up and saw Macroth open a secret door beneath the last pew. "C'mon, it's my secret home."

Junior Officer Gwen Tenison gazed down at the mountains at what seemed to be an abandoned church she brought the Valkyrie down near the dreary building she and her co-pilot, Marie Mayer, jumped down and flipped their visors up, "Follow me," Gwen said while clutching an M4B solid slug, and Marie who was carrying her favored street sweeper shotgun. They opened the door of the church; so far there weren't any sign of life until Gwen stumbled on a thermal blanket, Imperial issue. She threw it down and raised her gun even higher after seeing the blood on the floor, she heard a door open and turned a heretic was at the door, the two pilots opened fire and killed him instantly. Aroused by the gunfire, Mara, Macroth, and Alicia came out of their hiding spot, Gwen yelled out, "Hurry you tree, it's not zafe to zstay here any more!"