July 22, 2019 08.00

"Look….you're…cute and all."

Avril's eyebrow rose quickly. "But?"

"Well…." Cyclops 4, or Húxiān as she had finally introduced herself as a few days ago, was staring at her own F-15 outside the hanger, engines clicking slightly as they cooled from a recent test flight. "Something doesn't look right…I can't really figure it out though."

Avril chuckled as a wide smirk covered her face. "Really now, is it that bad?"

Húxiān blushed slightly and turned back ground. "No! No! Fuck no! It looks way fucking better than before, before it looked like shit! It definitely looks way better, even without the paint."

Prez scoffed as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "Yeah, take that up with the base commander. He took all the paint a while back. No one has seen it since." She sat back down on the top of her ladder, leaning forward. "Hey Trigger can you hand me the those pilers?"

He nodded as he reached down, lifting up the pilers to Prez as she triple checked their new wing fin. Never taking his eyes off of Húxiān and Avril. He guessed it was the protective brother in him that made him act like that, but ever since Húxiān introduced herself, she had been trying to spend as much time as possible with Avril.

He had pointed it out to Avril a few times, along with the possibility that the Osean pilot might have a crush.

She waved it off, saying 'Not here, not now, hopefully another time.'

He really wondered when that time would come, but for now, Avril was having a hell of a time teasing Húxian. Especially right now.

"You can't figure it out?" Avril was smiling oh so innocently, like she hadn't done a thing.

"No! I cannot!" Húxiān pouted as she crossed her arms, visibly blushing. She knew something was up, over the last few days she had gotten used to Avril's teasing nature and hot temper. Strangely enough they got along very well.

Birds of a feather as they were. Prez's words, not his.

"Here." Avril wrapped an arm around Húxian's waist, "I'll show you." She gave her a light tap on her butt. "Come on."

Húxiān jumped as her face went bright red, distracted enough to allow Avril to lead her over to the rear of the F-15.

Trigger shook his head slightly, he tapped Prez's leg, motioning towards the two with his head.

"Oh yeah I know, I feel like our dear Cyclops pilot is going to pass out from blood loss with how much she's blushing."

Trigger raised an eyebrow, shaking his head before putting one open palm on it's side on top of the other, before sliding it off and making a fist.

She rolled her eyes, then tossed a gum wrapper at him. "Shut up you know what I mean."

He grinned back.

"Wait what!? HOW?!" Húxiān's voice carried over the tarmac, causing a few inmates across the base to look up or lean out of their hangers. "How the hell did you do that?!"

"Pretty easily actually, you'll barely even notice." Avril was grinning ear to ear.

"Barely notice?! Those are MiG-31 Engines! They're probably some of the most powerful engines out there." She pressed a palm to the side of her face. "Wait, wait, wait, where the fuck are the original engines?"

"Well…" She points to a scrap pile that had slowly been building up next to hanger 15. "One is mostly there." She pauses, her hand slowly dropping to her side, her other arm was still wrapped around Húxiān's waist. "Okay…I lied…about, and I'm spitballing this, forty percent of your old damaged engine is over there."

"Well where's the other one Avril?!"

"Pfft, easy." She turned them around and pointed to another F-15. "There."

Húxian looked at the F-15, then back to Avril, then back to the F-15. "Why is my engine in Wiseman's plane?"

"Well it's his engine now." She waved her free hand. "Plus his was wrecked, both of…" She pointed to the third F-15 which had been in her care for the last ten days.

"Jäger."

"Jäger's engines had damage, so with your wrecked engine, and Wiseman's I was able to get enough parts to fix up the last F-15."

"But you gave mine the engines of a MiG-31?" Húxiān stared at Avril for a moment, expecting a response of some kind.

She got none.

"Why MiG engines Avril?"

"It's what I had. I'm not going to give you an F-16 engine and a Su-33 engine. That might honestly rip your F-15 in two." She pauses, then looks to Trigger. "How'd it handle anyways?"

He tilted his head, he was the one who did the test flight, and Avril said she had everything she needed before. Why she needed more info now, he didn't know, but he went with it. "Fine really. It's fast, but not as fast as ours. So I was used to it. Might want to take it easy for a bit, so you can get used to the speed Húxiān."

"Oh yeah, you will. I had to do the test flights for our X-02, never realized how powerful these things are." Prez patted the wingfin, then looked up from her work. "Wait, now I'm curious. Avril, what engines do we have?"

"Actually…I'm curious now as well." Even Húxiān had joined in. "I saw what kind of moves they were pulling, if that was me I would have been a fucking mess."

Avril pursed her lips slightly, then shrugged. "Oh, alright, they're heavily modified SU-30 engines, and I mean Heavily. I maxed out the speed and maneuverability as much as I could." She chuckled. "I'm really proud of it honestly. Way better than my drag racer I got shot down in. Though that did have a modified F-22 engine…shame there are none of those here."

Prez's face flickered into a grumpy frown for just a second at the mention of the F-22, but it switched back to a pleased smile. "So thats why Trigger is able to do all those fancy moves."

Trigger smiled slightly, sipping water from his canteen.

Avril chuckled. "Yes, you can one hundred percent blame me, thats why you're such a screamer every time you two get going."

He sucked in a breath mid drink, choking and hacking as the water went down the wrong pipe, his face burned slightly.

Prez dropped the pilers in her hands as her face went bright red. "Hey!" She jumped slightly as the pilers clattered to the floor. "I…I….I dunno what…you…mean by that! But you know what I was asking!"

Avril giggled slightly. "Oh yeah, yeah I know, come on it was funny!"

Húxiān put a hand over her mouth and held back a laugh.

Trigger thumped his chest slightly, coughing still, glaring slightly at Avril.

Prez glared for a moment, "Well I'm glad to see you two are getting along well like us.", shaking her head, she climbed down the ladder.

Húxiān's face went red, "Like you? Wha-what…what kind of relationship do you two have?"

"Ah…" Prez bit her lip, stopping her climb down, her mouth opened. "Well if anythi-"

A crackle of static came over the intercom. "Attention, your attention please, Spare Squadron, report to the briefing room, double time. You have five minutes, or solitary will be handed out the moment you return." Another crackle, then silence.

"Fuck!" Prez hopped down, "Five minutes!" She grabbed Trigger's hand, pulling him up to his feet. "Come on! Come on! This is absolute bullshit! We're not getting put in solitary again!"

Trigger growled slightly at the memory of the recent session of solitary, even if it was a day or two ago, he didn't want to be left alone. He let Prez keep holding his hand as she started to lead him away.

Prez paused, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head.

A familiar thumping sound of someone running down the tarmac could be heard.

"Húxiān! Húxiān!" An OADF pilot with a receding hairline staggered into view, he was in full gear, panting slightly.

"Jaeger? What the hell is going on?" She crossed her arms

"We've got to go. Wiseman said we're leaving along with Spare, so we've got to get ready, HQ wants us back for debriefing, sorry. I tired to give us more time, but apparently it's important, and here I thought I would get a chance to call my son." He sighed, then turned, running over to his F-15 to climb up.

Avril frowned, sighing. "Well…shit…" She looks to Húxiān. "I guess you've gotta head out huh?"

She nodded. "Yeah…I…we…" She motions to the F-15s. "We've gotta get back the data. Or…things will be a mess. More of a mess than it already is, so…I guess…" She runs a hand through her hair.

Avril shakes her head. "Nah, don't say it." She holds out her hand, "We'll meet up again someday. I have a feeling." She winked.

Húxian stood there for a moment, then gently took the offer hand. "Thanks…I hope so."

The two shook hands, smiling slightly, but after shaking hands they didn't let go. Until Húxiān pulled Avril into a tight hug. "Thank you…again…for…everything. It was really nice, these last few days."

Avril chuckled sightly, her voice slightly muffled by the taller girl's shoulder. "It was nice, wasn't it? We'll do it again sometime, promise?"

"Promise." She froze up slightly. "Oh…and…Um..sorry for…calling you a bitch."

Avril laughed heartily, giving the Cyclops Pilot one last squeeze before letting go. "Water under the bridge Hot Shot."

"Hot Shot? What's that supposed to mean?"

The Mechanic winked with a grin. "It's a nickname. Now get going before you get in trouble."

Húxiān rolled her eyes before nodding and turning away, she waved to Trigger and Prez as well.

Prez finally tugged Trigger hard enough to get him moving, waving back as she did. "Come on dude! I am not having us get thrown into solitary for something stupid again!"

"Right, right." He quickly followed after, a smile on his lips. He sped up as they ran through hangers, hallways, and the base until they arrived at the briefing room.

Tabloid was waiting outside, holding the door open, "Come on! Come on! In, in, in!"

Count was to the right of him, checking the clock down the hall. "You've got thirty seconds."

Prez pulled Trigger into the briefing room, still holding his hand. It seemed like everyone was there. High Roller was leaning back in a chair, shuffling a deck of cards that he got from who knew where. A few of Avril's crew were scattered around, and the other pilots. Even Full Band, who had been basically missing since they returned from Yinshi Valley. He gently released his hand from Prez's.

She immediately paused and turned around. "Whats up?"

He pointed to himself, then made a barely open palm with his thumb parallel then moved it to the right quickly, closing his fist, but pointing up with his index finger up, middle finger pointing forward, and with his thumb out.

Prez paused, then nodded.

He made his way over to Full Band, kneeling down next to him.

"Fuck you want Trigger?"

"Well…I just wanted to s-"

"If you're going to say anything about Champ, do not. You did barely anything to save him, you and your little…" He jabbed a finger out. "Tomboy Girlfriend didn't do shit I saw it, are you happy? The one person who was better than you is gone Murderer."

Trigger's mouth snapped shut, he shook his head a little, trying to process what was being said to him.

"So you got what you wanted didn't you? Don't come over to me with fake apologies and other bullshit like everyone else. Well I don't want to hear it, Champ died for some massive attack that Osea has cooked up, and no one will remember him. No one will remember us at all. We're expendable remember? I'm sure even you think that, we're all shields for the great pilot. The one who killed Harling." Full Band panted heavily, his hands balled up into fists. "Just leave me alone." He flipped him off, then went back to sulking in his seat.

Trigger stood still for a moment, he had never seen Full Band this upset. He honestly couldn't get a read on what was going on, or what caused that reaction, they were the first ones to move in to support Champ…weren't they? Before turning away a frown covered his face, he made his way over to Prez.

"The hell happened?" She tilted her head slightly looking between him and Full Band.

Trigger shrugged as he sat down next to her. "I think…he's going through a lot."

Tabloid ran up and hopped into his usual seat. "Who?"

Prez motioned to Full Band.

"Ahhhh, yeah, from what I've been hearing he's been pretty down, don't let him get to you, he and Champ got along well….apparently?" He shrugged as Count sat down next to him.

Count huffed slightly. "We all miss the guy, but it's no reason to start a fight." He frowned. "Grief does weird things to people."

Prez raised an eyebrow at that. "Yeah…it does." She frowned as well. "Do you thi-"

The doors opened once more, silence filled the room as Commander McKinsey entered.

Her mouth snapped shut as she quickly looked forward.

Trigger glanced over to High Roller to make sure he didn't get in trouble. But the deck of cards was gone.

The commander made his way over to the Tac Screen, then turned to face them all. "Attention! If you disobeyed orders in the previous mission, line up over there." He pointed to his right.

There was a pause, but one by one a few pilots got up and moved to the other side of the room. Count included. Full Band didn't move, even though he was already on that side.

"You won't disobey a second time. Do not test my patience." McKinsey pointed at them and glared, annoyed, but just throwing his weight around. "Alright, The biggest threat to our forces is the enemy's enormous swarm of drones." A map of Usea pulled up on the Tac screen. "So, in order for our forces to penetrate deep into Erusean territory we'll need to clear a path."

Trigger sighed, another bombing run, hopefully nothing to dangerous.

"You will destroy the enemy's fuel plant."

Tabloid's eyes widened. "Oh…oh shit."

Prez frowned deeply. Looking at Tabloid.

Count's brow furrowed as he looked over the tac screen from where he stood.

This place was deep in Erusean territory, not to far away, but with how the war was going that was normal.

"HQ has found evidence that fuel is being moved intermittently inland from a refinery at the harbor in Artiglio. It's likely they're supplying fuel for the various drone bases." McKinsey pointed to four points on the map, then smiled cruelly. "Those of you whose food privileges were taken away already know how this goes: We silence the drones by taking their fuel."

Everyone frowned at that, some even gritted their teeth. Every inmate and squadron member here knew what that was like. Starving for an entire day.

Prez felt her stomach growl slightly at the thought. Even though she had eaten breakfast.

McKinsey slapped the tacscreen at the mouth of the harbor. "Enter via the estuary, take out their AA, destroy the fuel points on both sides of the river, and their oil tanks. Remember you're not bona fide military: You're expendable."

Everyone was quiet, grumbling slightly.

Trigger raised his hand.

"What Trigger?"

"Any tactical info on what kind of AA we'll be dealing with?"

McKinsey shook his head in astonishment. "Did you not hear me? You're expendable. Expendable. I don't need to tell you shit, get out there, get in your planes, and work off your crimes." He shut down the Tacscreen, then turned. "Dismissed." He walked out, slamming the door behind him.

Count looked at Trigger. "The fuck was that for?! Are you trying to get in trouble."

He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "I like having more intel than, 'Bad guys here, go shoot them.' The last time that was the briefing, we lost a whole squadron and some other pilots." He sighed. "Also, we're going to be right in the Arsenal Bird's range. We're going to need to be fast."

Prez's eyes went wide. "Oh motherfucking Bull and shit! We have to put our asses on the line and possibly deal with an Arsenal Bird?"

Fullband stood up and left, slamming the door behind him.

Everyone jumped at that, looking between each other.

"My bet is that we won't have to." High Roller slowly approached the middle of the room. "They'll want this to work like Roca Roja, right? So…in that case, I'm sure they planned around the Arsenal birds, plus, from what Full Band told me a while back. Since there are only two, they are on a set pattern. So our oh so wonderful commander would have planned a certain timing around that." He puts his hands out, palms splayed. "Sound good?"

Tabloid shrugged. "Can't argue with that honestly." He slowly stood, "Lets get going, the longer we wait, the less time we'll have."

Count frowned slightly. "Alright…fine. But the moment an Arsenal Bird shows up, I'm out."

Prez nods slowly. "The moment it shows up we're all out. I don't want any more loses guys…"

Everyone was silent for a moment.

There were twitches, frowns and other signs of low moral. A few of the newer pilots looked absolutely terrified. Usually…this is where the squad leader would give orders to get people focused in and moving, give a boost in moral, but they didn't have a plan, nor any time to come up with one. No Squad leader either…

Trigger slowly stood up, taking a deep breath. "Alright you heard her!"

Spare Squadron jumped slightly, and stood at attention.

"We're doing this, I want everyone coming back, no excuses. Tabloid, take High Roller, head over to Avril, tell her to find as many bombs as we can put on High Roller's new F-16." To be fair, it wasn't really an F-16, it was more of hogpoge of parts from an Actual F-16, a Mirage, and a MiG-21. Avril called it an 'XL' which confused everyone, but High Roller loved.

Tabloid nodded quickly, motioning for High Roller to follow.

"Oh boy…I bet this'll end well." High Roller chuckled. "I'm trusting you Trigger."

He nodded back, "Count, get your plane armed with LASM's."

"Really? You want me on anti-ground duty." He scoffed.

"Yes, you're going to be our hit and run. Fly in low, hit the refineries, fly away. Rinse and repeat until you're out of LASM's. Go." He motioned towards the door.

Count grinned back. "Well…don't be mad when my kill count is higher." He quickly made his way out the doors.

Prez tilted her head. "Was that a pun?"

Trigger squinted slightly. "I…I don't know."

"I think we're corrupting him." She grinned brightly. "Alright, rest of you!" She motioned to the remaining Squadron members. "We need bombs, explosives, missiles, anything you can get your hands on. We're hitting this place hard and fast, record time people!"

Trigger waited until everyone was out of the room. Letting out a breath in a huge sigh. "Fuck…"

"Well…that was awkward…but necessary, any more of this and we'd be in the shit." She frowned slightly.

God damn it, he didn't want to be squad leader…but he didn't want more loses, Prez was right. They really couldn't take more. He had to keep stepping up like this though, or else they would have issues.

Suddenly, he felt eyes on him.

He slowly turned to his left.

Prez was staring at him, eyes slightly squinted. The blonde dye in her hair had almost faded away, now she had her natural dark hair with the occasional tip or streak of blonde. It looked good on her. She brought her hand up to her chin in thought, then slowly pointed at him.

He pointed at himself, shaking his head in confusion.

"I think you'd make a good squad leader."

He quickly shook his head, giving a thumbs down.

She giggled, "No really I mean it!"

He groaned, seriously! He was never a good people person in the past, now here he was trying to lead people. Of course Wiseman was leaving today too. Could have asked for some tips and tricks, but it was much to late for that. He really wished they could get updates from command, let them know when a mission is actually coming up. They're lucky they finished checking everything on all the planes today. He took a deep breath.

Prez smiled more, "Hey, you did good."

"I feel like I made a mess of everything…"

"Well…" She elbowed him lightly. "They listened to you, didn't they?"

To be honest, he couldn't argue that at all. He looked around the room, it was just Prez and himself. How the hell did he get here? He was supposed to be a teacher? A teacher? Thats what he studied isn't it? Yet he could barely work up the courage to address a room full of adults for a few seconds. Hell his stomach still felt like it was full of butterflies and bricks. "I guess…"

She rolled her eyes, hugging him from the side. "I mean it, you did a good job. I know this isn't your thing but…we're going to need someone to help take the reigns a bit. Cuz I'm sure as hell not leaving them in McKinsey's hands. Plus, we've done it a few times before already. We're just looking out for our squad."

He scoffed, then pursed his lips. She was right…he couldn't argue it at all. If things were left to their own devices, they'd have a lot of problems. It was strange, Roca Roja, Yinshi Valley, and now here. They kept having to step up and lead a bit. It wasn't official by any means, but it made sense. "Fine…I guess I have done a good job…but that doesn't make it easier." He pouted.

Prez smirked. "Look I'll take it. As long as you understand, you help me work on…not…blaming myself for everything that goes wrong, I'll help you with making things easier when it comes to shit like this."

He looked her in the eyes for a while, then smiled slightly. "Alright…sounds like a deal to me." He hugged her back finally.

Her smirk grew even more. "Fuck yeah!" She squeezed him a little tighter, then slowly let go. "Well, come on." She moved over and opened the door. "We need to get our gear."

He shook his head as he made his way out the door. Prez's somewhat supernatural ability to read him so well was…honestly invaluable. She made things so much easier. No random misunderstandings, no misheard tones, no awkward conversations. It was nice to talk to her too, he didn't get nervous or anxious. Though…it was strange that he would get so angry lately, it was like he was in a…

Prez was grinning ear to ear at him, walking alongside him.

He raised an eyebrow, glancing at her.

"No no, continue please. I know I'm pretty amazing." She smirked back at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Stop…" A blush covered his face.

"Ohhhh so you were thinking about how amazing I am huh?" She tossed her hair.

"Oh my god…please." He covered his face as he made his way into the barracks.

"Wait, wait! Are you blushing?" She chased after him.

"Nope! Nope! Definitely not!" He quickly made his way to his locker, opening it and moving as close as possible.

"Come on let me see!" She giggled slightly, tugging on his arm.

"Nooope." He chuckled as well, putting on his helmet and oxygen mask.

"Awwwwww. Thats just mean." She pouted, trying not to burst out into giggles.

"So this is what you do?"

Prez jumped slightly, hand reaching for a holster that wasn't there.

Trigger froze, slowly looking towards the noise.

Full Band was standing there next to his locker, glaring daggers at them. "This is what you do when Champ has died? Murderer, Tomboy, have a cute little meet and greet in the lockers?" He scoffed. "Typical, everything here is just bullshit anyways." he slammed his locker closed. "Not like our two heroes would be any different. Oh no Trigger didn't kill Harling, he's just misunderstood."

Prez frowned at that, her hands balling up into fists. "Heroes? Wait no…" She shook her head. "The fuck you want Fall Band?"

"Just wanted to get a good long look at the pilots who let Champ die…" He frowned deeply. "Half tempted to thank you. Got the loud mouth out of my hair finally." He made his way out, purposely bumping into Trigger as he did.

She went to chase after him, give him a good smack upside the head, but Trigger stopped her, she growled slightly, but backed off. "The hell was that all about?"

Trigger shrugged, he honestly couldn't understand it either. He'd seen Champ and Full Band work together while flying a few times at least, right? Count's comment on the situation earlier bounced around in his head.

Prez nodded as she got her gear and flight suit out.

Okay so he wasn't the only one who saw that at Roca Roja, good.

She looked over to him, her head tilted, she then made a fist and a cupped hand, touching them together, then twisting as if she was ringing out a towel. She frowned slightly, shrugging as she did it.

Mourning? Hmmm…it was possible. He zipped up his flight suit, checked his boots, and took a deep breath. "We'll have High Roller talk to him after this mission." He sighed. "Hopefully Full Band won't get into to much trouble."

"Why High Roller?" Prez tilted her head, pausing as she secured her helmet.

"Because he seems to be the only one Full Band isn't pissed off at." He took a deep breath. "Come on, lets get going."

Prez nodded, then followed, they fast walked their way through the base, out the doors to the yard, then down the tarmac. Barely a word was said between them. She at one point waved to Tabloid, but kept on walking.

"Prez! Trigger!" Avril waved them down quickly, she was watching as her crew fueled up their X-02, checking off a list on the clipboard in her hand. "Best of luck, come back safe, please." She was frowning slightly.

Trigger nodded, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We will."

Prez smiled, winking at Avril. "Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it."

"You better be, I'd rather not be constantly worrying about you guys." She sighed. "I'll deal with the bullshit here, you deal with the bullshit in the sky, deal?"

Trigger chuckled slightly as he let go of her shoulder. "Deal." He started climbing up the ladder to the cockpit. "Oh, and Avril."

"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow. "What you want dumbass?"

He rolled his eyes behind his visor. "Ask Húxiān out next time, seriously. You two looked heartbroken earlier."

Avril's face went bright red, she froze up. "Ask out?" The pencil in her hand snapped in half. "Trigger! You dumbass! You can't just say shit like that!" She chuckled the clipboard at his head.

He sucked in a breath as he ducked into the cockpit.

Prez groaned loudly. "Oh my god we're never going to hear the end of this…"

"The fuck you mean 'Never hear the end of this'?! Trigger's just going to drop that bomb on me and run! Of course I'm going to give him a fucking earful!" Avril huffed, crossing her arms and pouting as her face got redder and redder.

An evil grin covered Prez's face as she watched Avril's crews finish fueling, detaching the hose and closing everything up. "Well…I mean you two were pretty cute together, and you weren't doing a good job of hiding it sooo…" She didn't even finish her sentence, she nudged Avril with her shoulder then quickly scrambled up the ladder and hopped into the cockpit. "Go, go, go go go go!"

Trigger nodded, closing the canopy and starting up the engines. They slowly rolled out onto the tarmac. He watched as Avril just stood there, mouth slightly agape, her face a deep red. "She's going to kill us later."

Prez giggled. "Worth it, in my opinion. Even if she trades out our Strike Wyvern for the F-14." She got her oxygen mask in place and gave a thumbs up.

He nodded, returning the thumbs up. "Right…that is almost finished."

Their coms crackled to life, "Convicts, stand by at the front. Once you are ready, proceed to runway."

There were a few moments of silence as they checked and double checked everything to make sure it was all in working order. They were at the runway before they realized it.

"Spare Fifteen…cleared for take off, best of luck you two." Tower was actually being nice for once. Though the voice did sound different than normal. "Rest of the squadron is waiting on you."

"Copy that tower, thank you!" She double checked her restraints.

Trigger did the same and gave a final thumbs up.

"Awesome, Spare Fifteen, Trigger and Prez, taking off."

He maxed out the throttle, letting the speed carry them into the air. It wasn't long before they were joining everyone else. High Roller was talking everyone's ear off about his new plane, which Trigger could see was loaded with enough bombs to level an entire country.

"Seriously though, this this is amazing, we've attached bombs to every single hardpoint we had, and it still flies like a dream!" He did a little loop to show off, "It's amazing! Just, hope we never have to fight at night."

"Why? Thats oddly specific. Unless you're scared of the dark? What about it High Roller?"

"Well Count, I'll have you know it is simply because all of my instruments are analog, and I have no backlight….yet…Avril said she couldn't find anything to work as a light. So if it's dark, I can't see shit."

"Oh….Ohhhhhh, well that's bad." A pause. "She's usually really good about finding that kind of stuff. Isn't she?"

"Base commander is hiding more and more stuff."

"Motherfucking control freak."

"I have you on record saying that Count, might want to keep your mouth shut unless you want to end up in solitary."

"Fuck off Guard dog!"

Bandog snickered. "Alright everyone, form up and start heading west. We're on the clock here."

Trigger paused as he noticed a flight of F-15's approaching them, It was surprising to see Cyclops and Strider still around, Cyclops One quickly came nearby, using hand signals. Trigger recognized numbers, and punched them into his old radio. "Cyclops One? Wiseman?"

"Spare Fifteen! Good to hear from you, we're going our separate ways for now. I just wanted to thank you again for looking out for my people. I would say goodbye…but, well, you'll see one day. Till we meet again!"

Prez gave a small salute.

Trigger gave a slow nod.

Wiseman saluted back, then rolled slightly and banked away, rejoining his own squad to head north.

Slowly but surely, Cyclops and Strider became dots on the horizon.

"Well…I'm willing to bet we'll never see them again." High Roller chuckled slightly, starting up a betting pool as all the Spare pilots started to chip in and argue.

Trigger didn't, not with the odds he was seeing…he had a feeling they would run into Wiseman and his team again.

A smaller chapter this time around as we head of to pipeline destruction, got hit with some bad writers block this time around, so it took a while, but I'm excited to see what everyone thinks of everything, and our first, kinda sorta ship. *shrugs* don't worry you'll see more of them later.

Other than that, loving the reviews I've been seeing so far. QQ You guys are all amazing. The support here is amazing and I love hearing what you all have to say about each chapter as it comes out!

Ghostly: New plane for High Roller, as you can see, modified F-16 XL.

Curious Person: We shall see, I have a general plan for the Sicario characters, and they will show up at a few points. But I don't have it fully planned out how much we will see them.

Anywho! Thank you all for reading! See you next month!