Rouen Air Base

Normandy, Europe

May 1st, 437 AC

1:35 PM Local Time

Jay sighed as he kicked his feet up onto a table in the mess hall. "Well… I'm stuffed," he decided, glancing down at the now empty plate on the table in front of him.

Nyx, who was sitting beside him, nodded before folding her arms across the table and resting her head on them. "Yep. That hit the spot," she agreed.

"E- excuse me?" Jay looked toward the source of the familiar-sounding timid voice to see a young woman with messy black hair down just past her shoulders and blue eyes.

"Hey," was the reply Nyx gave as she sat back up, smiling and giving the girl a small wave. "I feel like I know you from somewhere…"

"You were one of the pilots from the attack on Dalarna," Jay finally remembered. "Alt, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah… Sous-lieutenant Amélie Leclair," she gave her formal introduction with what seemed to be her best attempt at a rigid salute.

Nyx smirked. "No need to salute us, kid. We're, as your squadron leader would call us…" She cleared her throat and proceeded to speak in one of the worst Normandic accents Jay had ever heard. "Lowly mercenary scum, not worthy of respect in any form."

Alt glanced between the two mercenaries and one of the open chairs for a moment before finally sitting down. "Uh… s- sorry about him," she quickly said. "He's been through a lot recently; we- we all have."

Jay nodded somberly. "Right, we heard about what happened with your squadron. Sorry about that."

The look on Alt's face shifted, and she looked sad more than anything else. "There were only a few planes, b- but they did so much damage," she explained. "We tried to fight them off… but in the end, we, um, we didn't stand a chance. The last thing our squadron leader told us before she got shot down was to run and not look back."

"If it's any consolation. We've both lost people before," Jay told her. "So we know what you're going through."

"Out of curiosity," Nyx spoke up, trying to change the topic. "Where'd the name Alt come from anyway?"

"It's an acronym," Alt answered. "It, uh, it stands for Anxious Little Twerp."

Nyx smirked, trying to contain her laughter before failing and letting a snicker out. "I can see why."

"By the way, I don't think we've been properly introduced yet," Jay chimed in. "I'm Samurai, and this is my WSO, Nyx."

Alt raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "What about your, uh, your… actual names?" she asked.

Jay shook his head. "Mercs like us don't use our real names. Bad for our health, if you catch my drift." Jay paused for a moment, amused by the irony in him saying that when nobody in Paladin even knew his real last name.

Alt shook her head. "I… don't," she admitted.

"When you're a merc, people want you dead more often than not," Nyx explained. "Bounty hunters are damn good at their jobs. They're like bloodhounds. Give 'em even the slightest scent, and they'll track you down. A name's all they need. That's why we stick to tac names."

"Templar Team, report to the briefing room immediately," a voice over the speakers rang out through the room.

Jay and Nyx glanced at each other before looking back at Alt. "Well, looks like that's our cue. We'll talk later," Jay said as he stood up, already moving toward the door.

Alt gave them a meager nod as they left. "S- sure. Later," was all she said.

By the time Jay and Nyx arrived, everyone else was already present and in their usual spots, minus Cyborg since he and Knight Team were out on a sortie. Without saying a word, the two of them sat down in their regular seats next to the others.

"Time is of the essence here, so I'll keep this brief," Verreaux said, zooming the map in on Scania. "It seems things have taken an unexpected turn as a result of the capture of Dalarna," he began. "We're still not entirely sure what the Federation's plan is, but from what we can gather, it seems they've assumed we're pushing into Scania as part of a proper offensive. As a result, they're making some unusual moves."

"Like what?" Mustang asked, studying the map intently.

Eagle smirked, nudging him on the shoulder. "If you listened, then I'm sure he'd tell you."

Verreaux cleared his throat to silence them. "The Silesia Cordium Facility is one of the most extensive cordium storage locations not located at or near an exclusion zone," he explained as he highlighted the area he was referring to. "In the last few days, our reconnaissance has indicated that they've been preparing to ship all of the cordium out of the facility." He paused. "Needless to say, the Federation and cordium aren't a good combination, especially after Cascadia. We don't know what they're planning, but it can't be good."

There was a very subtle look in Verreaux's eyes that Jay only narrowly picked up on. After spending so much time as a Peacekeeper, being good at reading facial expressions was pretty much a requirement. At that moment, Verreaux seemed… scared, only slightly, but scared nonetheless. As far as what he was scared of, Jay didn't know. The most likely deduction would be that he's scared of a repeat of Cascadia, but with how much Jay continued to grow distrustful of the Normandic Colonel, he couldn't be sure.

"Most of our other combat groups, including your other squadrons, are unavailable since they're helping with other evacuations, so we need you to get over there and stop them from getting that cordium," Verreaux ordered. "If you need to, you can destroy it. Just make sure they don't get it. Dismissed."

Silesia Cordium Facility

Scania, Europe

May 1st, 437 AC

3:15 PM Local Time

"How're things looking, Stallion?" Jay asked as the facility appeared on the horizon.

An extended silence came from the AWACS operator before he finally started. "Shit," was all he said at first. "Well, that's not good."

"What is it?" Eagle asked with a hint of concern creeping up through his voice.

"The evacuation is already in progress," Stallion explained. "Looks like they've already gotten a bit out, but they're still moving it out via transport planes."

"No time to waste then," Nyx chimed in with a shrug. "Let's get to work."

"Not so fast," Stallion stopped her. "This still won't exactly be a walk in the park. Those transports have a lot of escorts, not to mention they'll probably call in reinforcements. Plus, there are still quite a few ground defenses as well."

"Well, what's the play, Samurai?" Jolt asked.

Jay looked down at his radar and studied the different groups of enemies as he began to formulate a plan. "Eagle, you and Mustang start picking off those escorts, and if you get a shot at any of the transports, take it. Jolt, we'll go for the AA and any transports still getting loaded up."

The other three pilots only gave brief acknowledgments to the order before splitting off. Jay's eyes skimmed over the facility as he tried to pick out what targets he should go after first. Eventually, he picked out a group of cordium tanks. After that, four MLAGs flew straight out until they reached their targets and dipped straight down.

"Ugh, I can't believe we're stuck doing air-to-ground again," Nyx grumbled.

Jay smirked her perceived annoyance. "Aw, come on, Nyx. Someone's gotta do it," he pointed out. "Besides, at least we get to make some big explosions," he noted as he watched the four cordium tanks that they hit go up in flames.

As Jay passed over the central part of the facility, he strafed a group of five ground vehicles with guns, taking out all but one by the time he flew over them. AA fire came shooting up from the ground toward Samurai and Nyx, but Jolt quickly silenced them before they had a chance to land any hits.

"Hey, Samurai. Look over there on the right," Nyx said, pointing in the direction she was referring to. "Looks like some transports are getting ready to take off."

Jay turned toward the transports Nyx was referring to. "Well, looks like we're gonna have to smack 'em down," Jay said with a shrug.

The two C/T-17s rolling onto the runway didn't stand much of a chance against the F/F-18. Jay fired a pair of STDMs at the first one, followed by a quick burst from his guns. The plane erupted into a fireball, blocking the runway so the second one couldn't take off, making it a sitting duck as Jay circled back around to finish it off.

"Man, we really caught them off-guard, huh?" Mustang observed as he danced around in the sky, evading a pair of missiles on his tail. "I thought they'd be more prepared than this."

"I don't trust it," Eagle said bluntly. "This cordium's gotten be important to them; otherwise, they wouldn't be taking such drastic precautions like this."

"Could be they're just waiting on reinforcements," Jolt suggested.

Nyx scoffed. "We've only just gotten here, and we've already done all this damage," she pointed out. "If they're banking all their hopes on reinforcements, then it's a miracle the Feds have gotten as far as they have."

"Let's just focus on the job at hand," Jay said decisively. "If reinforcements show up, we can take care of them like we always do, but there aren't any reinforcements right now, so let's just do what we can so we can get out of here."

Suddenly, Jay heard several cautionary beeps start to go off, along with two missile warnings. Acting purely on instincts, he yanked back on the control stick and pulled the plane straight up. However, the missiles were far enough away at the time that they were able to process the maneuver and act accordingly. As they got closer and closer, Jay decided to just deploy countermeasures and break left toward one of the SAM launchers that shot at them. He dove down and hit it with a quick burst from his guns before pulling back up and looping around to hit the second one with a missile.

"Seems like things on the ground are finally starting to clear up," Jolt observed as he pulled up from a group of cordium tanks he destroyed. "How we looking on those transports?"

"We've managed to pick off one or two of them, but there's still quite a few in the air," Eagle reported. "They're starting to get farther away, but we can't really do anything with these damn escorts still getting in the way." His voice was very clearly annoyed as he made one move after another to take out the fighter he was chasing.

Jay chuckled. "Don't worry, Eagle. We'll be there in just a little bit." He turned toward the withdrawing transports and the escorts protecting them. "You ready, Nyx?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

Nyx gave him a thumbs up from the back seat. "Always," she answered as she switched them to MLAAs.

Jay set his sights on the nearest escort fighter and hit the afterburners. Nyx fired a single MLAA at the SK.27 as soon as they were in range. Unfortunately, the enemy fighter turned away before the missile connected. Jay pitched up to follow before the cockpit even displayed the message telling him the MLAA missed. He got in close for guns, but the Flanker broke away before he could finish them off. Jay tried to follow after them, but they were already in the middle of another turn. Instead of turning after them, Jay decided to go after a second Flanker headed straight for them. It tried to go for guns on them, but Jay broke away after firing two missiles at them. With some distance between them, Jay looped back around to face the first Flanker, finishing them off with a single missile.

"Those transports are getting away!" Mustang called out. "They're nearly out of the AO."

"We're gonna have to hit the burners if we wanna catch 'em," Jay said. "Let's hurry up and make this quick."

"I'll calculate the remaining distance until they're out of- wait, what the hell?" Stallion cut himself off. "Enemy reinforcements are inbound, but… it's only four aircraft. They're moving fast, really fast." The concern in his voice was clearly present.

Jay felt his heart skip a beat. It was only four, so there was still a chance it wasn't them, but they'd gone out without the entire squadron before. "Stallion, can you get a read on those bandits? Where'd they come from?"

"Already working on it," Stallion answered. "Looks like… Oh shit. I've got a confirmed ID on these hostiles. They're marked as Peacekeeping Squadron Violet."

'Son of a bitch!' Jay cursed internally. At that exact moment, his fight or flight instincts kicked in. His grip on the control stick tightened, and he turned in the direction of the four radar contacts, already pushing the throttle as far as it would allow him. "Templar Team, disengage," he ordered bluntly. "Break off and fall back to Rouen. I'll cover you. We won't be getting those transports with them here."

"By yourself?" Eagle demanded. "Samurai, that's god damn crazy! You won't last two minutes against four Peacekeepers."

"Not to mention I'd rather not die here!" Nyx added aggressively. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What I have to," he answered, raising his voice. "We'll be fine. The rest of you, get out of here now!" He took a deep breath as he stared down the four-person formation. 'There's a 50/50 chance she's not here,' he told himself before focusing on the lead plane. 'All right, Cap. Time for that rematch you owe me.'

As soon as the thought left his head, he was already engaged with them. All four fired MLAAs at him before breaking off in different directions, but he didn't care. He didn't even recognize his fingers moving to deploy flares as he chased after the lead plane, dropping his speed to grant himself a bit more mobility against the much more nimble SK.37.

Jay took a deep breath and went in close for guns. 'Make it nice and clean,' he told himself. 'He deserves that much, at least.' Before he had a chance to pull the trigger, though, the SK.37 dropped its speed and zipped away with the help of its AOA limiter. He tried to get a good look at the tail to see if it was Cap or not but couldn't see clearly.

Jay tried to pull away to put some distance between himself and the Peacekeepers, but one of the VX-23s dove down, practically right on top of him, with guns. Jay only narrowly had enough time to evade the full force of the attack, although he didn't come out of it unscathed.

"Damn it!" Nyx grunted as she looked over the damage to see if it was anything serious. "I told you this was a bad idea."

Jay ignored her. He had no other choice. He was fighting for his life and hers, and that meant he had to tune out any distractions. More than anything, though, he was curious. As the VX-23 pulled away, once again climbing to a safer altitude, Jay managed to catch a brief look at the markings on the tail. 'FP-06'

'Let's see… since I was gone, the others probably got moved up a position,' Jay thought as he yanked the control stick toward himself, pulling the plane around in as tight of a loop as he could manage. 'So that was… Wires.' He took a deep breath and popped countermeasures to avoid the missiles coming from the other SK.37. Jay tried to land at least a few hits with his guns as the two passed each other but to no avail. Although, he did manage to identify the pilot as Hammer, meaning the only two planes he had yet to determine the identity of were a VX-23 and the lead SK.37.

Up until that point, Jay was fighting solely out of desperation. Now, he was fighting out of curiosity. By now, he was reasonably confident Natalie wasn't part of the formation. Whether she wasn't there because she had already been shot down or because she just wasn't part of the formation, he didn't care. All that mattered to Jay was that he wanted to know who he was up against. Unfortunately, the four Peacekeepers weren't making it easy for him in the slightest. When he wasn't twisting and turning to evade a missile, they were doing that same thing. Although, Jay was admittedly on the defensive far more than any of them were.

"Missile on our ass, evade it!" Nyx warned moments before Jay rolled them on their side, only narrowly avoiding the incoming missile.

Jay grunted as he looked around for the nearest Peacekeeper and turned to get behind them. He fired another pair of STDMs, but as they tried to curl through the sky to reach their target, the SK.37 darted away. Jay cursed under his breath as he attempted to follow them to go for guns, but another one cut him off, forcing him to go defensive to evade a missile. Jay and Nyx had fought with the numbers against them before. Many times they had won easily, but this was different. These four were more coordinated, more agile, and more skilled than any other pilots they had faced before. Even though he was painfully aware of that fact though, Jay kept flying. He kept firing. He kept slipping back and forth through the net they tried to catch him in. By now, the others were probably outside of the AO. That was no longer Jay's concern. He was going to end this here and now.

The missile alerts didn't seem to end, but Jay hardly even noticed them. In fact, he was tuning them out at that point. He already knew there was at least one missile trying to end his life flying toward him at any given moment in this dogfight. Hence, the alert was nothing more than a distraction- an inconvenience as he sought to finally end it all; the nightmares, the regrets, the sleepless nights, lying awake and thinking about what he could've done differently. All of it was going to end right now.

Jay heard pushed the throttle as far as it would go and straightened his plane out to put some distance between himself and the Peacekeepers for a better shot. Unfortunately, one of the VX-23s came up behind and landed a few hits with their guns before Jay was forced to pull back toward the other three. He grunted in frustration as the other three all came at him from different directions. Jay fired an MLAA salvo point-blank and dove downward. He didn't expect any of them to hit, which they didn't, but it at least gave him a bit of space.

"They're trying to box us in!" Nyx realized as the three aircraft broke away from the flight lead in different directions.

Jay didn't say a word. The only things that seemed to exist to him at that moment were himself, the controls in front of him, and the lead SK.37. He fired another pair of STDMs, knowing full-well they were going to miss, but as the bandit slowed down to activate their AOA limiter, Jay finally managed to get a good look at the markings on their tail: 'FP-05.'

'That was my number," Jay thought as he turned in the opposite direction of the lead plane. 'So with me gone, that means the next person to get it would be… Natalie.' At that moment, any confidence about this fight Jay once had was gone, shattered like spring ice. Instead, a new emotion crawled up from his gut to take its place: fear, terror even. No matter how hard he tried, no words formed in his mind to try and process the information. All he could think about was ending this fight in any way he could.

Suddenly, one of the other Peacekeepers gave him an opportunity to do just that. As a VX-23 came at him full-speed, Jay turned to face him head-on. Thus, the game of chicken began anew. Both pilots could do nothing but wait until they were in range. Once they got a lock, they both fired a pair of STDMs at each other and broke off as hard as they could. Jay's hand nearly missed the button to deploy flares but found it in the knick of time. Fortunately, the Peacekeeper that jousted him wasn't so lucky. They were still flying, but now they were trailing smoke. The other three seemed to notice this as well and slipped in to cover them as they all turned back the way they came.

Time seemed to blur for a moment, but after Jay snapped back into reality, he finally started to regain control of his body from the adrenaline. It was then that he noticed everything: his heavy breathing, along with Nyx's, how tight his grip on the control stick was, and the faint shudder of the airframe. He didn't know how much time actually passed, but for at least a minute, he sat there in silence as he turned to rejoin the others.

"…Holy shit," was all Stallion said as he broke the silence. "Samurai, did you just… take the Peacekeepers on alone one to four and win?"

"What the hell was that?" Nyx asked, just as annoyed and angry as she was confused and surprised. "You've never fought like that before. Never."

"Fight or flight kicked in," Jay explained, only partially telling the truth. "I did what I had to."

"Well, let's get back to base," Stallion said. "I, for one, have had enough action for one day."