The ride was mostly silent, save for the continued pounding of hammers as it raised her up to the bridge. She would have preferred taking the stairs but she got the impression Reyes needed her there ASAP. The lift finally came to a stop at the top though not inside and she had momentarily forgotten which one she had taken. She once again passed the lounge area, glad to see it had been cleared of casualties. Though, evidence of the pop-up clinic remained. The puddles of blood had already dried, making the only way to clean them up was to scrap them off the floor. Soiled gauze, wrappings, and towels pilled up along the wall along with plastic bags that once contained IV bags. Devon did her best to ignore the sight and continued onto the bridge. One would have thought with the amount of death and destruction she had witness during her time in the SDF would have made seem like an everyday occurrence to her. True sometimes it was, but other times… Other times she found it hard, especially when she took into account the kind of people they were and the fact they had families waited for them back in Earth. Devon pushed down hard on the lever-and her thoughts- and opened the door.
When she walked in, she found Gator had already pulled up the map of their next mission: an Earth Orbital checkpoint and from the looks of it, it was already in serious trouble. There were several ports orbiting around Earth, each one strategically placed over a major Earthen hub. They were an added layer of protection against potential attacks and served as immigration and customs checkpoint. Some were built to accommodate a specific task: Checkpoint Alpha was the main immigrations hall; Checkpoint Bravo was for cargo; Checkpoint Charlie was primarily for Military purposes.
"Hey, Dev." Salt greeted, looking up momentarily from the console to her.
"Hey, Salt." Dev sighed, coming to stand beside Reyes. "What do we have?" She saw Reyes' look out of the corner of her eye, hearing the exhaustion in her voice. She wondered for a moment if he was going to say anything to her.
He didn't.
"SetDef destroyers engaged a critical Port Operations outpost." Reyes began, "A squadron of friendlies is defending, but they need reinforcement. We loose that outpost…"
"We can't get resources in." Devon finishes looking to Reyes. He nodded.
"So we got hit at three different locations on the same day." Yetide commented. "How is that possible?" Devon braced herself against the console as she thought.
"They must have lowered the drafting age again." she mumbled.
"Again?" Salt asked. Devon nodded.
"It was sixteen when I left."
"What do you think it is now?" Reyes asked, turning his body so he partially faced her. She shrugged.
"Fourteen, fifteen." she said. "Hell, maybe twelve again." Salt's eyes widened.
"Twelve!" she practically screeched. "When the hell was that?"
"The War." Devon replied, nonchalantly. "Jargo fought in it and he was only ten." She had never really thought of age when it came to military service until she arrived on Earth. She had thought they were recruiting too young and even mentioned so to Reyes and Salt. But, she steadily noticed that there was a difference in attitude: Earth was comfier and the people less prone to premature death, thus military recruitment started much later. As the case with Mars and other SDF colonies, life was a bit harsher and the lower classes were subjugated to rationing for the majority of the military. It was also engrained into SDF children from birth to always served the Front.
"Shit." Salt breathed.
"How does this affect our chances?" Reyes asked. She shrugged again and pushed off.
"Even more manpower against us. But, it'll probably be down on the ground instead of up in the air." she paused. "Which means we'll be fighting children at some point."
"Great." Salt sighed angrily. "That's all we need."
"Let's deploy and disable those destroyers." Reyes commanded, bringing them back on task. Devon nodded to him before turning and heading to the lift. Once the doors closed and they began to move, Reyes confronted her. "There's more to it, isn't there?" Devon looked over at him with a raised brow, knowing full well what it was. She sighed.
"Yeah. A lot more." she replied. "Though not all pertinent to the mission"
"Overall or this one?" Salt questioned. Devon rocked her head from side to side as she thought.
"This one." she answered.
"You mentioned child soldiers." Reyes reminded. "Is there anything else?
"Yeah." Devon replied, reluctantly.
"You hesitated, you never hesitate." Salt commented.
"We'll be dealing with the Filii bello." Devon said, answering much quicker this time. She knew if she hadn't, they would've just pressed her for more information.
"The filii-what?" Salt asked.
"Filii bello." Devon repeated. "Its Latin for 'Children of War'."
"SetDef has a special unit for child soldiers." Reyes commented. Devon nodded.
"They're the best of the child soldiers." she said. "Trained in espionage, sabotage, ambush, you name it."
"So, they were like a spy network." Reyes commented.
"Kind of." she replied. "They served both behind enemy lines and on the battlefield. Children are able to move faster and the enemy doesn't suspect children trying to gather intel."
"And your brother was part of this during the War?" Salt asked.
"Unfortunately." Devon replied, pushing herself off the railing as the lift came to a stop. Salt took point and lead them to the armory. Devon had a standard load-out on her jack-30mm mounted gun and 50mm Pathfinder. There really wasn't much to choose and it was more of a welfare check on their jacks than a load out. "I don't understand why we needed to come here."
"Redundancies, Dev." Reyes replied as they walked to the hanger. Devon sighed and rolled her eyes as she seated her helmet. The hanger was loud as ever as they jogged from the lift to their Jacks. Devon listened absently to Salt and Reyes converse as she worked through the motions of powering up her jack.
"Captain, Lieutenants, be advised-SATO Jackals are taking heat." Gator informed. "Jumping directly into the fray."
"Copy that." Reyes replied. "I'll need fire support from Retribution."
"Aye, sir."
"Tell them the calvary's coming." Salt said.
"SCARs tower advises caution due to stray debris." the Tower Mini-boss advised.
"Check 1-1" Reyes replied.
"1-2." Salt echoed.
"1-3" Devon said, following behind.
"All for one and one for all!" Salt loudly cheered, as they were loaded onto the runway.
"The last I remember there were four in the musketeers." Devon reminded her.
"That's where Ethan comes in." she replied.
"Ethan's not here."
"Yes I am." Devon jumped slightly in her seat as Ethan's mechanical voice filled her ears.
"Where the hell are you?" she asked, looking around in the cockpit and in the runway for any sign of him.
"On the bridge." he replied.
"Great." she huffed. "What do you have access to?"
"Everything." he replied
"Shit." Devon blurted out.
"Hey," Salt yelled, "that's my line!"
"Well I'm borrowing it." Devon said, as the engines began to whine.
"Can you even do that?" Reyes asked with a half-hearted laugh.
"I just did." she mumbled. Devon turned her attention back to the runway as engines' muffled whining filled her ears. She heard the tower countdown as she thought on Filii. She wondered if they had the age lower than twelve and what that could mean personally for her-and she knew even if she didn't want to admitted it, even to herself. She was taken slightly off guard as her Jack thrust forward and down the runway. The signal lights of the runway blurred passed her on either side in reds and mustard yellows until finally she was met with the dark blue hue of space and its twinkling stars.
For a moment at least.
Devon followed suit with the others and turned the nose of her jack up and to the right, almost immediately coming into sight of the station. She looked behind it to Earth to gauge which station they were fighting for. She could the red sandy grounds of northwestern Australia, contrasting deeply with the blue of the ocean and the various islands that made up Indonesia and Malaysia. That meant that this was Outpost Bravo. She had never visited either of the three and didn't care to. She saw no need and it unless to her. She had said as much to Salt and Reyes when the two had previously talked of places they would like to eventually visit. They had turned the question to Devon, curious if she was interested. But, she had given an unconventional answer: watching her family burn. She hadn't meant it in a literal sense but more in destroyer the legacy her grandfather had built up. They had taken her answer as literal and reported her to the psych. She had been mad at them for several afterwards as she had been grounded pending another evaluation.
"Multiple SDF capital ships." Gator's voice brought her back to the present as she gazed at the three circular outposts, one of which was halfway destroyed.
"We got skelters." Salt announced.
"Retribution, hit their destroyers with everything we got." Reyes ordered Gator. "SCARs, Iron's hot, let's strike." Devon had begun to turn the jackal to the left when a flash of red shot out in front of her. She heard the high pitched screech as metal scrapped against metal.
"Oh, its on you fucker." Devon gritted, as she turned tailed and chased after it. As soon as the skelter was in her crosshairs, she engaged the lock-on sequence and tried to hold on to it. But, the skelter turned up and towards her, trying to pass over her head. The movement was typical SDF flight maneuver and one that every pilot-no matter their job-knew how to do. Devon anticipated it and jerked her nose down and around so she flew under the skelter with the jack's belly pointing up. She corrected herself and rode the skelter close enough to keep a lock but far enough that her jack didn't take any burn damage from the thrusters. She shot off a 50mm round just before braking off, not staying around long enough to watch the fireworks. Though it wasn't long before alarms went off. She looked down at the console to see a skelter had locked on to her. She immediately shot out flares and rolled left to try and shake them.
It didn't work.
Devon jerked the jack around wildly, trying her damnedest to break his sight on her. The skelter was not letting up. She tried to fly haphazardly through the debris, hoping their wing would hit a piece of debris and send it spiraling into another. Again, it didn't. But, she got an idea as she exited the debris field and decided to act on. She would have to execute as exact or it could spell disaster for her and any else around her if she wasn't careful. She waited until the skelter was right on her ass to jerk the joystick. The resulting movement made the jack flip up and over the skelter. She jerk the joystick in a circular motion which spun the aircraft as if the nose had been held in place, almost like pin-point on a wheel. She came back to righting herself behind the skelter and was able to watch as the skelter collides with the port side of a SetDef ship. The entire maneuver made it look as if some had kicked the rear of her jet while holding down the nose. Not wanting to stay around and be fired on, Devon did a hard barrel roll to the right before righting herself and scanning for her next target. She found it nearby and raced off to catch up.
"Never seen you use that one, Satan." Salt commented, through the comms. Devon smirked.
"New move. I think it scares the skelter pilots." she replied.
"You ain't kidding. Scare me."
"Thank God neither of us fly with you." Reyes joined in.
"Are you trying to say something, Raider?" Devon asked, accusingly.
"Not to your face. I would like to live past this battle." he replied. Devon heard Reyes suddenly curse.
"What?" she asked. "Reyes, talk to me." She looked out the cockpit and saw Reyes take off with a skelter on his tail.
"He's gotta a lock on me." Reyes replied.
"On it." Devon responded, pushing the joystick forward harshly. She followed the skelter further back than the last but still close enough that if he did a sudden change in direction, she could compensate for it and be back on his tail. "Raider, I'm firing an missile. Be advised."
"Roger, Dev." he replied. Devon did her best to keep her jumpy target within her HUD's target field. The bastard made it difficult, but she managed. She fire once he moved into her crosshairs. The skelter shot off his flares and broke his lock on Reyes, knowing she would give chase. She chased the him in between the steel column bracers. The bracers acted more like anchors so the the terminals surrounding the hub at the middle didn't float away or cause strain on the walkways. She hadn't realized Salt snuck up on their left until the skelter exploded in short fireball. Devon had to jerk the jack into a nose dive to avoid her wing scraping against Salt's.
"Hey!" she yelped. "You could have warn me."
"Sorry, Dev." Salt apologized. "I saw the shot and took it."
"Ugh." Devon rolled her eyes.
"Dev, do a gun run on a destroyer and get it started." Reyes order. "The rest of us will mop up the remaining skelters."
"Copy that, 1-1." she answered. Devon scanned the battlefield for one and found a destroyer too close for comfort near one of the undamaged ports. She opened up the throttle and gunned for it. She swung around its stern, taking care to avoid its fire before pulling back to just out of range. The silos opened, however, despite her attempts and the jack's alarms wailed. She pulled the joystick towards her, causing the jack to jerk back a few kilometers while she fired off the flares.
"Careful, Dev." Reyes warned.
"Aye, I know." she groaned. Devon set about blasting each gun and cannon the destroyer had with her own, hovering around the destroyer as she went. She took satisfaction in seeing the flames erupt as another one was destroyer. When she was sure there were enough was destroyed, she began making passes on the engines. It only took two shots before the destroyer's back-end exploded, setting off a chain reaction that raced to the bow. Through the deafening of the explosion, she could hear Salt cheering.
"Yeah! Now, thats what I call fireworks." she said.
"Well, anything that does explodes is technically." Devon replied.
"I need back-up." Reyes called out. Devon looked over in time to see Reyes shoot off flares a dodge several missiles.
"Coming to you, Raider." she replied, cutting across to him.
"I advise you pull back to a safe distance, sir." Ethan said. "At least until your system cools down."
"Roger that, Ethan." Reyes replied.
"I'll stay with you, Raider."
"Thanks, Dev." Devon turned to look out her cockpit and gave Reyes a subtle nod, letting him know she wasn't leaving his side. He returned it, acknowledging her commitment. It didn't take long-maybe a minute at most-before everything went back to normal. "Let's do this."
"SCARs, be advised, 1-1 and I are re-entering the fight." Devon said, as she and Reyes flew back in.
"Copy, 1-3." Devon found her target as it zipped several meters in front of her and took off. It was instantaneous that the skelter tried to turn tail and fly right at her as soon as the system had locked on. She, too, turned tail and followed it, opening up her 30mm to let out a barrage of bullets. Several found their mark on the skelter's rear thrusters, causing a stream of flames to come out the side. Devon put some distance between them to ensure she was not caught in the blast.
"They're on me again." Reyes called out. Devon glance out the cockpit and saw Reyes being chased again. Devon cursed but broke off her pursuit for Reyes' chaser.
"SCARs, provide cover for 1-1," Devon ordered. "I'll get the skelter."
"Roger, 1-3." one of the pilots replied. "2-2 and I will provide cover."
"Solid copy." Devon answered.
"Damn, they're really on it today." Salt mentioned. Devon gunned it for the side of the skelter and fired off warning shots to get it to loosen up. Once, it did she locked on. "Raider, pull back I got him."
"Roger, 1-3." Reyes replied. Devon chased the skelter through the wreckage, its tail wiping from side to side as it took sharp turns. It was difficult to stay on him and every time she let a round out of the barrel, the bastard would turn the opposite direction.
"Fuck." Devon breathed.
"Having a hard time?" Salt asked.
"Bastard turns just as I fire." she replied. "Its like he knows when I'm about to do it."
"Go at him at a different direction." Salt suggested.
'That wasn't a bad idea.' Devon thought. She followed the skelter again, lining up the shot and waited until she thought he would turn. When he did, she turned too and let the 30mm. The bullets ripped into skelter's side, tearing the body and leaving little holes where oxygen leaked out. The skelter rolled uncontrollably until it spiraled into the remains of the SDF destroyer.
"I see my idea worked." Salt said smugly.
"I never said I doubted you-." Devon replied.
"Ah, fuck." Salt cursed, cutting Devon off.
"What?" she asked, scanning the are around for Salt.
"He's got a lock." Salt replied.
"I got you, Salt." Reyes replied. "Dev, get with the other SCARs and help Gator take out that last destroyer."
"Roger, Raider." Dev said. Devon zipped off to the last destroyer, the flamers already spurting out of some of what had been its guns. She took stock of who she had left and how many before formulating a plan. "SCAR 2 and half of SCAR 3, I want you firing on its cannons from afar with Ret."
"Roger 1-3." Yazzie replied, taking his team and spreading out.
"The rest of SCAR 3, you're with me to make gun runs on the engines and bridge."
"Yes, ma'am!" SCAR 3 team leader leader replied. Devon came within firing distance of the destroyer before she issued the command.
"Alright, let's finish up and get back to Ret!" she yelled. She could hear the others cheering as she pushed the joystick forward. She positioned half of what she had to make passes on the engines while though with her, made a bee-line for bridge. Devon flew over the silos, heading straight for the bridge. She cut is close as got within a just a few meters before she fired off the missiles and flew upwards. It didn't take long for the skelter's alarm systems to go off, warning her of an impending explosion.
"SCARs, I advise an immediate pullback." Ethan said. "The destroyer is going to blow."
"Roger, Ethan." Devon replied. "All SCARs pull back to Ret. Gator finish them off."
"Aye, 1-3." he said. Devon brought up the rear of the group and watched for a moment as Ret.'s silo opened up and let out their own missiles. She saw the explosion in t he reflection of the jack's cover, the short burst of colors illuminating the inside of the cockpit for a fraction of a second. The roar drowned out the celebration of the pilots with a defining roar.
"Dismissed!" Salt cheered, once the noise had subsided."
"Final destroyer is down." Gator announced. "Zone is clear of enemy aircraft. Station is secured."
"Outpost is still in allied hands." Reyes said.
"Thanks to you, 141." Salt thanked.
"We have some Aces of our own up here." Gator replied.
"Sure do." she said. Devon sagged in her seat and let out a breath. They were done. For now, at least.
"Mission accomplished, let's get off the X." Reyes ordered. "Fever, takes us out." Devon watched the others go before her, even waited for Reyes and Salt before she angled towards home.