Vanguard

A Project Wingman Story

Chapter 1

Introductions

24 days into the Oceanian Conflict

Federation Air Base Brown

417 After Calamity

"Your name is Katrina Wade, right?" The officer peered up from his papers, eyeing the woman in front of him. The woman was built normally, with peppermint-colored hair that fell down to her shoulders. She had violet eyes that burned with intensity every time she spoke. Her chestnut skin was tan enough that she didn't need the sunglasses that were perched on her head. Her flight suit bore many patches. One of the patches was a blue flag overlaid with a star emblem. The flag of the Federation.

"Yep," Katrina said, her eyes glinting. "I have been assigned here by the commander of the regional defense forces to take over a squadron that is short on a squadron leader. I heard he went down covering a retreat."

"Correct," the officer said, passing the papers back to her. "Right this way." He led her down a corridor and led her to the mess hall. It was empty except for two men. One had blonde hair that was slicked back so much that it stuck up in various places. His skin was moderately tan, and his charcoal black eyes swept the room, taking up everything in sight. The other man had icy blue hair and acid-green eyes. He looked adorable if it wasn't for his gaze at her. Sharp and mistrustful. And perhaps even worried.

"Gentlemen, this is your new squadron leader. Katrina Wade, callsign Comet," the officer said. He turned to Katrina. "This Vanguard 2, Hector Corsevsky, callsign Twister." He pointed to the man with the slicked-back blonde hair. "And this is Vanguard 3, Rudolph Bentri, callsign Peppermint." He gestured to the man with the icy blue hair. "I expect much of you three in the days to come. As I remind you, the country of Oceania is declaring withdrawal from us because of their claims that we are putting stress on their geothermal deposits. The news isn't public, of course. We had to cite internal and security threats to allow the Federation to stage the invasion. As you may have heard, the Mercenary Cabal is responsible for orchestrating the conflict, and they have sided with the Oceanians and are pushing us back on multiple fronts. We need a game-changer soon, otherwise, we'll be forced off of the continent."

The officer glanced at the three of them. "This is where you three come in." He glanced at Katrina. "Ms. Wade, you have proven yourself an excellent fighter so far, becoming an ace in less than 48 hours, which is remarkable. We were about to assign you to Peacekeeping Squadron Skeleton when something unfortunate happened, and we were forced to change your posting." He looked back at her new squadmates.

"You are to lead Vanguard Squadron in combat. Not much to say, other than that the entire operation rests on your shoulders." He then suddenly spoke in a more urgent voice.

"Your first operation begins tomorrow at 0700 hours. I would suggest that you get some rest until then." He gave Katrina a nod before turning and left.

"Well," Katrina said, turning to face her squadmates. "That was an interesting first meeting."

"Yeah," Peppermint said, leveling his gaze at her. "We hope you live up to the hype."

"Really?" Katrina said. "What happened to your previous squad leader?"

Rudolph sighed before speaking. "It was during a regular patrol mission. We had just taken off from here when the AWACS called out 4 targets on the radar. We moved to engage them. They were a flight of F/C-16s, and pretty old ones, in fact. But then, Icicle, that was our leader, told us to hold back while he engaged the fighters." He sighed again before continuing. "Apparently, these had to be modified Vipers, because the next thing I knew, he was calling for help. We raced back to help, but then it was too late. We barely managed to repel them." He looked at Katrina. "You see why I was nervous?" Katrina nodded.

"Apparently, these have to be some high-caliber mercs," she said.

"Damn right," Twister said. "They managed to put up one hell of a fight with us, even though we were flying F/S-15s."

"It's just like the saying: Just because it is old, doesn't mean it can kill," Katrina said. Then she frowned. "I hope you have some spare planes for me."

"Why?" Twister asked.

"My old Sk.27 got shot up by those pesky mercs while out on some previous engagement." She pulled up a seat next to Rudolph- er, Peppermint. She would have to get used to calling him by his callsign. "Ironically, that led to me being reassigned here." She blew a stray piece of hair out of her way. "What do you have here?"

Twister smiled. "You are in luck, Ms. Comet," he said. "Apparently, Icicle was obsessed about being ready for anything, and he convinced Commander Mckay to buy a spare F/S-15 for him, in case his old one got too banged up to fly. Well, he won't be needing that anytime soon."

Katrina smiled. She felt sad when she had to part with her old Sk.27 after a sortie clipped the aircraft's right wing and damaged both its engines. It was beyond saving anyway. Hearing that there was a spare F/S-15 lying around this base made her the luckiest woman.

"Show me," she said, getting up.

They led her to the hangar and Twister opened the door and presented her with her new prize.

There, the F/S-15 sat. A killing machine. Twin canards stuck out from the intakes, granting it extra maneuverability. A small gun pod hung from underneath the aircraft. The hardpoints were all empty for now. But Katrina knew she could turn this unused spare aircraft into a lethal killing machine.

The paint scheme of the aircraft was stylish in her opinion. A dark turquoise color covered the aircraft, with some orange stripes running down the body. She reached out and touched the radome with her hand. Already, she could feel the potential in this aircraft.

She turned to her two new squadronmates. "I'm ready," she said. "I'm ready for any challenge those damn mercs throw at us."

"Really?" Peppermint said. "You haven't been out on one combat sortie, and now you are confident that you are able to take on a huge swarm of mercs?"

"Yes," Katrina said, turning to face Peppermint. "We are the vanguard."