Trades46 here,
Continuing from chapter 5,
Enjoy:
Chapter 6:
It is not my first time sleeping inside a military base, but if you ever tried to sleep somewhere else other than your own bed at home, you definitely won't sleep as well as you could. The only reassurance you get is that there's no active gunfire or explosions keeping you up in an active warzone.
It was roughly 6am that I woke up; the skies were still dark. I quickly change and decide to go on a morning run.
I pass many morning crews who also just woke up or arrived. Thankfully, the power appears to have been finally restored and stabilized overnight, so soon the facility would be soon filled with activity.
I arrive back to the hangar where the two prototypes are housed. Unsurprisingly, Grinnell is already sitting on the on the bench just outside the hangar with his breakfast. Unlike the majority of mechanics, Grinnell is surprisingly a morning type of person. He wave to me with an extra cup of coffee, which he offers to me as I sit.
"So you stayed overnight huh? I was thinking you had gone home" Grinnell started.
"There was little sense in doing so." I respond, taking a drink as I wipe down the sweat after the run. "Given the testing and all, the commute would have been terrible way to start the day with even less sleep in between. I also had to sort out a personal matter so it works in my favor.
"…I see. So you stayed late making up with that android girl?" Grinnell gives a light snicker.
"I did say it was a personal matter so I'll just leave it at that"
"…ohohoh. I think I just learned that the great Silverhawk Next test pilot Lt. Col Riga Pratica is a pedo-"
I hit Grinnell promptly in the stomach, which causes him to spill some of his coffee on himself.
While Grinnell was pouting about me not being able to take a joke and wiping his coffee stain, I notice that Corporal Lance arrived donning his full flight gear.
"Mornin' Lt. Col. Pratica, and to you Mr. Coffee pants" he jokes, which causes Grinnell to roll his eyes.
Lance tells us that his 288th squadron is about to be reassigned. He is preparing his squadron for takeoff, but just wanted to say goodbye to us with a thanks for the training wake-up call last week.
"Ti's a real wake up call sir, to be humbled and give them boys something to think'in about and keep their heads together cool." Lance gives a salute to which I respond in kind. "It has been a pleasure sir".
I bless the Corporal good luck in the fight. Grinnell proceeded to do the same, despite Lance jokingly evading his handshake due to the coffee-stain on his hand.
As Grinnell and I turn back around and start on the preparation work again, a small figure appears running to us from the inside the of the hangar hallways.
It is Ti2, uncharacteristically alone at this time and frantically waving her arms up and down while calling to us in serious manner.
Lance turns around and Grinnell looks up from his computers. What I immediately pick up on is that whatever she wants, it is definitely serious.
"Sir Riga, Sir Lance, Mr. Grinnell! They're coming! I can see them! I can hear them! They are coming!" she loudly proclaims.
"Hey, slow down, take a breath." I catch the girl in my arms as she recovers, with Grinnell and Lance exchanging questioning looks.
"It is the Belser, they're here! They're coming for this base!"
"Whoa, hold your horses princess," Lance responded. "We know them monster-fishes are fighting us, but DIA is a top secret facility here! The place is surrounded by sensors and long range radar, we would seem them big monster-fish even from the stratosphere." Grinnell nods in agreement.
"Please, Sir Lance! Mr. Grinnell! You have to believe me! I can feel them coming, they have a big ship with a few hundred drones! Sir Riga, you have to trust me!" her voice is starting to crack, desperation beginning to set in.
Grinnell gives a shrug and asks "OK so suppose a giant Belser fleet is about to descend upon us, but at least can you tell us where they're coming from?"
Ti2 shakes her head but continues, "...no, my communication protocols are not fully active, but even so I can feel they are coming! Please!"
I have absolutely no grounds to which I can trust the android girl on at this point. However, when I stare into her eyes, I do feel that somehow, in an unexplained manner; she is telling the truth.
I quickly ask Grinnell for the radio.
"Oi oi Riga, you're not actually believing this right? Yes I get you and her are closer and all, but there's almost a zero percent chance a Belser attack could happen here out of all the places in Darius..."
I just gave an absentminded acknowledgement to Grinnell and set the receiver channel to connect to the control tower of the facility.
'Control, this is Lt. Col. Riga Pratica. I want to request a radar sweep of the vicinity of the airbase. I have grounds to believe that an enemy concentration may be approaching this facility.'
Grinnell promptly gave me his 'what the heck are you doing' expression at me, and Lance offhandedly remark I wasn't fully wide awake yet despite the morning caffeine. The radio tower controller must also be thinking the same, judging from his tone of voice.
"Umm…Lt. Colonel, I don't think this is the proper procedure nor do you have security clearance to…" I shake my head and gave a stern response.
"Yes I'm well aware of the complications of this request. However, if you must, just please treat it as a favor and if you get questioned, I'll bare all the responsibility. Is that clear?"
The controller let out a very audible sigh and relents with a "…yes sir."
The next minute was possibly one the the longest minute ever. Lance, Grinnell, Ti2 and I didn't move as nervous glances are all that are exchanged.
"Lt. Colonel," the operator continues, "There's nothing really to report, the scopes are clear... wait, there appears to be a fault in the Northeast sector 5." A few tapping and keyboard noises and chatter to other operators can be heard in the background. "A small grid of sensors is offline...curious. Probably from the blackout yesterday. I'm hitting the overrides now… shouldn't be a problem though…standby."
Another minute passes. Lance quietly murmurs "no way, ti's not possible..." as Ti2 stares intensely at the receiver in my hands.
"...sir, the backup sensors are now operational...wait, where is this coming from...hey Jenkins, can you come here and look at this. Henry, these readings have GOT to be a fault of the secondary unit right?" the voice of the controller slowly grows from skepticism to a foreboding sinking feeling in a matter of seconds."...Jenkins, can you swerve your unit to 6-4?"
"..."
"Wait, they're still there? Wait, no stop, you're telling me ALL THESE AREN'T PHANTOMS? OH MY GOD THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! CODE RED! CODE RED! HIT THE ALARM!"
The radio immediately was cut off, and what immediately follows is a base wide red alert scramble warning.
Sirens, loudspeakers and red flashing lights soon fills the darkness of the DIA airbase facility. Spotlights in the perimeter also fires up.
"WARNING! A HUGE BATTLESHIP "IRON FOSSIL" IS APPROACHING FAST! "
"WARNING, CODE RED! ALL PLANES SCRAMBLE, PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE TAKEOFF! ALL FACILITY PERSONNEL, REPORT TO THE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT…"
Grinnell despite his earlier apprehension quickly begins to remove all the testing equipment from the Next. Lance already disappeared to join-up with his squadron. Despite the lack of any mechanics or crew tending to the Legend I'm surprise to see that Ti2 is also electronically removing all the testing equipment through a computer on the side...using an old fashioned CMD and rapidfiring commands into the computer.
I waste no time and rush into the lockers to suit up.
In under 10 minutes, both the Legend and Next were taxiing to the dark runway only lit by the colored guiding lights and spot lights from other Silverhawks. At least 10 others were also pending for take-off in front of us.
"All Silverhawk units, this is control tower. Check all flight functions. Your objectives are to attack the Belser Iron Fossil fleet and the enemy's main battleship. Keep them away from the DIA at all costs! Stay with your squadron leader and don't get left behind. Above all, stay alive! Good luck out there pilots!"
"Alright boys, let's go fry some fish for breakfast!" & "Yeah! Let's teach those small fry some rude-awakening!" are heard over the radio as the first line of fighters took off.
As I prepare my final pre-flight checks, Ti2 comes over my headset.
"Sir Riga, we don't belong in any current squadron right?"
Given these fighters are just prototypes and all that we have done thus far have been test flights, I don't think the DDA have plans to put us into a squadron. I reply to her with a simple 'no'.
"Then, would you mind if we were to form our own squadron, just between the two of us?"
' don't see why we couldn't..."I half-jokingly reply.
"Then…can I choose the name?"
This is coming out of nowhere. I think about it for a second and then quickly picked up on what she probably wants to do.
'I got it. You can call it out.'
"Prototype Next, Prototype Legend" the control tower begins, "You have are to be assigned..."
"This is 301st squadron" I radio back, "Call-sign Phoenix" Ti2 immediately follows up with the latter. "State your orders tower" we both finish.
Since the neither the base's CO nor Kristoph are present, I do rank higher than majority of the base's staff, including whoever is in charge of mission control and the radioman talking to us.
"…uhh…alright, Phoenix team, you are cleared for takeoff." The control tower finished.
"[This is 301st squadron 'Phoenix' taking-off!]" Both Ti2 and I call at the same time, hitting the throttle and leaving the runway to the skies.
See you next update.
-Trades46
