Here's chapter two of Thorns for the Roses! Sorry for making y'all wait, I hit a bit of a brick wall with writer's block.
"Italics with just quotes"- Amelia, the main character, is talking.
"'Italics'" - another character is communicating telepathically with Amelia.
[] or {} - Radio communications
Amelia smiles the entire way to the airport, and that smile doesn't leave even after she'd dressed in her flight suit and stowed her gear in the bomb bay of her F-105D.
While she's waiting for permission to take off she texts Tai telling him to send the girls out in a minute, and he responds immediately.
Finally the passenger plane gets out of the way and Amelia takes off in full afterburner, quickly taking off and looping around so she flies over Tai's house. The white wings painted on the fuselage behind the cockpit glow in the sunlight, and Amelia makes a pass over the house at treetop level, flying just barely above stall speed. The two girls are ecstatic, jumping and waving as Amelia makes a second pass, tilting her right wing towards the ground to show off the decals behind her cockpit.
After hamming it up for the girls she turns towards Vale and throttles up, streaking over the rolling snow-covered landscape at nearly the speed of sound only two hundred feet above the treetops for a cheap thrill. The mountains of Patch give way to the ocean, and Amelia climbs up to five thousand feet before looking at the frozen over water below, the ice pack buckling in places and simply breaking apart in others.
Her sightseeing is interrupted when a FA/18E Super Hornet pulls up alongside her, the purple-clad pilot throwing a casual wave when Amelia looks at her. Amelia Quickly tunes her radio to the old squadron net and a familiar voice crackles over the radio.
[Welcome home Angel, hope you didn't have too much fun without us.]
Amelia rolls her eyes and turns her microphone on.
"Thank you Razor, it was rather relaxing. Anything of importance happen while I was away?"
[That's a negative, quiet as a mouse over here, not even any Grimm calls.]
Amelia grins as she lines up with the runway, the familiar approach being second nature by now as she lowers her landing gear and slows for the landing.
The landing is flawless, the large tires of the aircraft gently kiss the frosty tarmac before Amelia pops the drag chute and decelerates. Kimberly flies over and zoom climbs up into the clouds, disappearing into the wall of gray.
Amelia slowly guides the F-105 off the runway and down the all too familiar flight line, past a pair of bright orange A-4 Skyhawks being serviced by men in bulky winter clothes.
She opens the canopy while she's taxiing, and upon reaching a hangar with a black heart above the door she parks the aircraft and powers down before leaping from the cockpit, falling several feet to the tarmac. She's just finishing up getting her bag out of the bomb bay when four people walk down the flight line towards her. Jackson and Janet falling slightly behind the two teenagers as they sprint over.
Amelia welcomes them with open arms, and they engage in a group hug while Janet and Jackson slowly walk over.
"Welcome back! You're going to love what Neo did!" Jackson cheers, wrapping her up in a hug, shortly accompanied by a kiss on the lips.
"And what would that be? I swear if she cartwheeled another plane down the runway..."
Jackson laughs as the teen stomps on her toes furiously, but to no avail as she's wearing steel-toed boots.
"No, she didn't crash again. She splashed her first bandit! A MIG-21 with Egyptian markings."
Amelia smiles and turns to the girl next to her, who beams with pride before pulling a small book out of her combat vest and showing the tally mark to her.
"That's great kiddo! We'll make a pilot out of you yet!" Amelia teases, poking the girl in the ribs.
The black-haired girl punches her sister in the shoulder before retreating to avoid the return blow.
"And what about you Sierra? Any success with the Hawkeye missiles you've been training with?"
She nods and grins in return, giving a thumbs up to indicate success.
"Let me guess, your semblance is giving you troubles?" Amelia asks, hefting the large backpack onto her shoulder.
Sierra nods solemnly, her emerald eyes downcast in disappointment. Amelia smiles and rubs her head, messing up her hair. "Don't worry about it, it just takes practice, you'll be as good as me someday."
Sierra cheers up and nods before poking Neo in the ribs playfully, causing Neo to chase her down the flight line towards the two A-4's.
"Hell of a household we have, three mutes and a fighter pilot." Jackson chuckles, earning a slug in the shoulder from Amelia.
"Speaking of households, how's Jacques training going? You haven't said much about him." Amelia turns to Janet, who in turn grins and pulls a picture out of her vest, showing it to her. In it is a cat Faunus in camouflage fatigues and a full combat load, including a rifle similar to the Israeli TAR-21 and a large radio pack.
"He's doing great! He's doing indirect fire exercises near mountain Glenn right now." To emphasize what Janet says across the airfield a battery of 155mm howitzers thunder one round each, the sound rolling across the airfield and down into Vale. The guns remain silent for several minutes before the sound of the intercom squelches.
{Jasper this is Mako, good effect on target! Coordinates confirmed, fire for effect!}
The guns thunder ten more times as the Amelia, Jackson, and Janet walk towards the A-4's.
Sierra and Neo have already climbed into the front seats of the aircraft, and are patiently waiting with the canopy closed and their helmets on.
Janet puts her helmet on and nimbly climbs into the back seat of Sierras plane, despite her waning age. Jackson gives Amelia another kiss before putting his helmet on and climbing into the A-4 with Neo.
Amelia stands back while the two planes start up, and she holds a salute as they taxi down the flight line past her.
She watches in satisfaction as the two orange planes take off and turn towards Mt. Glenn, their pylons loaded with rockets and bombs. She grins and reaches into her pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes before putting one in her mouth and lighting it.
After happily watching the aircraft ascend into the clouds she happily walks off towards a quartet of houses on the hill above the airfield, their upper stories in clear view of the airfield over the bald maple trees surrounding them.
The short walk is refreshing, and Amelia smiles the entire way to the small neighborhood that had been built exclusively for her squadron's families. When she reaches the row of houses a young wolf Faunus runs out of the first building and hits her in a flying hug.
"Welcome back Auntie Angel!" The child cheers as Amelia hugs him and scratches behind his gray wolf ears.
"Thank you Lucas, it feels good to be home, is your mom home?"
"Nope! She said she'd be home tonight, she's giving a new batch their wings." Lucas chirps, his gray tail swishing back and forth behind him.
"Ahh okay, is your dad home? Or is he working late tonight?"
Lucas opens his mouth to respond, but a black hummer drives up the road and pulls into the driveway of his house, and he quickly rushes off to greet his dad.
Amelia grins and waves to the muscular wolf Faunus that steps out, his gray and black fatigues neatly pressed.
"Welcome back Angel! Hope you enjoyed your trip!" He yells just before Lucas slams into him, wrapping him up in a hug
"Thank you! Banquet dinner tonight! Same time as always!"
He gives her a thumbs up and picks up Lucas, putting the twelve year old on his shoulders before walking up the steps and into the house.
Amelia sighs happily and continues down the street before turning into the last driveway. She walks up the steps and opens the unlocked door, welcoming the warmth that blows through the door as she enters and closes it behind her.
She quietly takes off her boots and sets them on a rack beside the door before walking upstairs, where the kitchen, living room, and master bedroom are. She then heads into the bedroom and takes off her equipment, stowing her rifle in a rack on the wall beside the bed. Once her equipment is put in its proper place she unpacks all her clothes and puts them in her dresser before hanging her cloak and scarf on hooks by the stairs, where her black cloak hangs, as well as a pure white cloak. She then heads downstairs, where the squadron office is, and sits down at her desk, where there's a small pile of mail.
She pulls her stiletto out of a small box on the desk and flicks it open, grabbing the first envelope and cutting it open before pulling out the letter inside and reading the letter with a grin, once she's done reading it she lays it on Jackson's desk before grabbing the next letter and cutting it open.
She reads it and pulls out a list enclosed, and reads that too before rolling her chair over to a filing cabinet and filing the two papers under 'Desert Rats'.
Amelia continues opening mail for a solid hour before she runs out. Then she reaches across her desk and turns on the radio set there before sliding her desktop microphone in front of her.
She reaches over once more and turns a dial from 'Radio' to 'Base PA system' before transmitting.
"A friendly reminder to all unit members and families, the annual banquet is tonight at eighteen hundred hours! This includes ground crew, flight crew, armorers, guards, cooks, pilots, and paratroopers! Food will be ready at eighteen thirty! That is all."
She slides the microphone back and turns the dial back to 'Radio' before tuning to the combat frequency, which remains quiet.
She spends the next two hours updating the company roster and looking through equipment requests sent in by employees, laughing at some, while approving others and putting them on Jackson's desk. Satisfied with a couple hours' worth of work she turns the radio off and walks upstairs, her long black and red hair gently swaying behind her as she ascends the wooden stairs.
She grabs a cup of coffee and sits down in the living room, overlooking the airfield through the window.
The airfield had been abandoned by Vale in the process of switching between faster airships and the VTOL aircraft they use now, and in turn had been given to Amelia's company by the council as a gift for their service. With the help of some generous donations from the Schnee Dust Company they had managed to change the airfield from a civilian airport into a functioning military airbase, complete with anti-air defenses, firing range, barracks, and training grounds. The surrounding area had also been donated, so anyone who had a family could bring them on base to live there, and the council had even had houses made free of charge for the company founders.
Amelia reflects on the past few years while looking over the white landscape, and she's soon broken out of her daydreaming when a gray and white C130 lands at the airfield, sending the light fluffy snow flying in a white cloud behind it as it taxis.
Amelia smiles and drinks her coffee, waiting for a convoy of trucks to drive in through the main gate, the backs of them being crammed full of freshly trained recruits from jump training. She doesn't wait long, and a convoy of five black MTVR's drive in, led by a single black HMMWV.
Even from a long distance Amelia recognizes the blonde that steps out of the Humvee and addresses the men after they line up. Cassie had given up on flying a few years before, and had instead opted to start recruiting both humans and Faunus for a new branch of the company; Paratroopers.
Since then the stout blonde with the help of Giora had trained over twenty thousand troops, specializing them in search and rescue and all types of ground combat, and the number increased every year.
Janet had taken to training a select few of those to be Forward Observers, whose job it was to call in the air support and direct artillery fire.
The armored and artillery branches had been founded by Kimberly several years back, and seemed to be very successful in eliminating Grimm, as well as providing support to any Huntsmen who dared leave the safety of Vale's walls. In combination with the paratroopers the three ground elements became nearly unstoppable, capable of being moved anywhere on Remnant in a matter of hours due to the lightweight nature of the tanks and armored personnel carriers, which most were designed with aircraft transport in mind.
While only thirty thousand strong, the company made up for their numbers in training, and in training exercises had even beat some of Atlas's best on several occasions.
In the first months of the ground branches lives, there had been multiple problems with racism between Humans and Faunus, but the founders all quickly banded together and smashed the problem before it could embed itself in the units. The co-existence had been their greatest achievement, and Amelia nearly broke out in tears of joy when she heard that a Faunus had been defended by his human comrades when a woman began spouting anti-Faunus propaganda to him.
Atlas military leaders had been the most irritated with the co-existence, which only made the victories sweeter when the company beat them clear across the board, in both air and ground exercises. The Atlas pilots had taken to the skies in droves, expecting the new ally to be a complete pushover, but had incredibly underestimated the training and experience of the pilots, who at times faced 6:1 odds and won against the advanced fighters of the kingdom.
The ground troops had done even better, and on the mock battlefield of Atlas had used the Faunus in their ranks to attack during the black of night on the first night, instilling confusion and panic in the overconfident Atlas's troops, succeeding in winning against the force twice their size in mere hours.
As the now retired Giora had put it 'the swiftness of the action from the company made the six day war seem like trench warfare'.
Shortly after Cassie finishes giving the new batch of paratroopers their jump wings Kimberly lands, accompanied by Neo and Sierra, who both expertly touch down and taxi to their parking areas.
Once they power down a HMMWV comes along and picks them up, as well as Cassie and a few others, and drives them up to the houses.
Amelia knocks back the rest of her coffee and heads to the door, grabbing her cloak to help protect her from the wind before she puts her boots on and heads out to greet everyone.
The HMMWV stops in the middle of the snow-dusted street and everyone piles out, laughing and chatting while the vehicle drives off.
Everyone heads over to Amelia and gathers around, welcoming her in their usual ways.
Jacques walks up to her and gives her a hug, his green and white fatigues contrasting against her gray cloak.
"It's good to see you Angel, you'll be happy to hear that Sierra absolutely smashed a Deathstalker yesterday, she's getting good with those Hawkeye missiles."
Amelia smiles and pats Sierra on the head. "That's good to hear, and how about Neo?"
Jackson steps in and a small airplane appears above his opened palm. It's quickly shredded by the guns of an orange A-4 and the illusion disappears.
"She's doing well, her air-to-air is outstanding, but her ground attack could still use some work. But she's scoring top marks on the rifle range, as well as she's been dominating hand-to-hand."
Amelia raises an eyebrow and looks at her daughter, who smiles, and her differently colored eyes switch sides.
"Are you sure you don't want to be a paratrooper? You'd get to do more of that kind of stuff."
Neo just shrugs and does a hand motion. 'We'll talk about it later.'
Amelia nods and is suddenly tackled by Cassie in a flying hug, knocking the two of them to the ground.
Amelia gets the wind knocked out of her and tries to recover while her sister squeezes her, both of them laying on the icy pavement of the driveway.
"Cassie get the hell off me I can't breathe!"
Everyone else hauls Cassie off her and lets her breathe before helping her stand, but when Jackson helps her to her feet there's a slight clatter of metal and she falls into him, quickly throwing her arm around his neck to keep herself from falling. Jackson catches her and supports her right side, but when Amelia tries to walk on the limb there's another tinkling of metal, and her leg comes off, revealing a metal prosthetic.
Amelia glares daggers at Cassie while Neo picks up the metal limb and tucks it under one arm.
"Now look what you did! You are way too old for the flying hug, so stop doing it!"
Cassie nods and hangs her head before picking up her green and white camouflage helmet. "Sorry..."
With the help of Jackson and Sierra she hops forward and hugs Cassie, laying her head on the blonde's before hopping back.
"It's alright, but you're fixing it this time."
Cassie hangs her head again, and Amelia hobbles around, having Sierra and Jackson help her back up the icy steps and into the house, where they place her in the living room.
"Thank you, could you go get my replacement from the bedroom please? It should be under my side of the bed."
Jackson grins and nods before walking down the hall, disappearing into the bedroom for a few minutes before emerging with another Prosthetic leg. He hands the matte black leg to Amelia, who hikes up her fatigues to reveal a metal plate attached to her leg, less than halfway down her thigh.
She pulls a multi-tool out of her pocket, opens the pliers, and pulls a small circuitry chip out of an insert port on the plate.
Jackson pulls a similar chip out of the prosthetic and hands it to her before putting the leg on and giving it a sudden twist as Amelia pushes the card into the slot. With a quick wince she works the leg, wiggling the toes and bending the knee before standing up.
"That's better, well, everyone should get ready for the banquet tonight, and I've got some important news to give."
She rolls her fatigues down and gives Jackson a quick peck on the cheek before walking down the hall and into the bedroom. She changes out of her dirty fatigues and changes into a new pair with a black and gray camouflage pattern.
She's just putting her holster on her belt when a shy voice squeaks in her head.
"'Hey mom...?'"
Amelia flinches at first, and turns to see Sierra peeking around the door.
"Yes honey?"
"'What should I wear?'"
"Just your BDU's, it's a casual year."
"'Okay, thanks!'"
Sierra disappears around the corner and Amelia finishes putting her holster on, her black synthetic belt proving to be difficult with the black leather holster as she tries to thread it through.
Jackson walks in a minute later, and noticing her trouble helps her with it, finally managing to get it put on right before he changes into similar looking fatigues.
Amelia throws her black cloak on and puts a black officer's cap on her head before heading into the living room, where Neo is ready to go. Sierra walks in shortly after, in her black and gray fatigues with her hair in her twin-tails. Amelia sits down in a black leather chair and engages in casual mental conversation with her two daughters while Jackson gets ready.
Several minutes later Jackson walks in, his trusty Colt on his hip as he places a cap on his head.
"Well then, shall we?"
Everyone nods and stands up, putting their boots on before walking out into the cold.