Knock-knock.

"Come in!" Aaron called out from the desk of his estate room aboard the Hammer. The wooden door swung open and in came his Executive Officer, Danfield.

"Captain." Danfield greeted Aaron. "One thousand rounds of main battery ammunition, two hundred Tomahawks and sixty days of sustainment for the crew. We'll be ready to depart by 1300."

"Very well." Aaron chucked a folder into a drawer on his desk. He leant back and sighed. "Knocking on the doorstep of the most fortified country on Earth. Excited?"

Danfield shrugged. "We get to use our big guns for something other than target practice."

Aaron laughed. "Aye. Gonna give some fortifications an ass whopping."

30 OCT 2010

Sand Island

Sitting in a camping chair on the roof of the administrative building, Ash took a drag of a cigarette, looking up at the night time sky in compilation.

"So much for the most progressive president in Osean history…" Ash muttered to herself, taking one long drag of the ciggie and throwing the butt onto the ground in front of her. She let off a large puff of smoke that disappeared into the cool Pacific air. Ash sighed and ran her hands through her hair. She had seen the painting on the wall, she just hadn't expected the operation to come up so fast. Or at all.

The orders had come down the chain of command earlier that day. Make preparations to enact an invasion plan authorised by President Harling. Wardog Squadron's role in the operation, codenamed Footprint, was fairly simple but it would put them right in the middle of contested airspace. Bomb a series of bunker complexes surrounding the landing zones on the Bastok Peninsula, provide close air support for Osean troops and deny Yuktobanian close air support the ability to operate on the peninsula.

This operation would be the largest of the war so far, surpassing even the abortive Yuktobanian invasion of Sand Island. The Osean commitment to their area alone numbered something like ten thousand marines, their associated equipment, a hundred aircraft - including Marine Corps Lightning IIs - and an amphibious assault force composed of almost fifty ships.

Ash sighed again. So many people were going to die because of this invasion. Oseans and Yuktobanians. Ash liked to think she could hold her own as a leader. In the months since she had taken command of Wardog Squadron, she hadn't lost a single wingman. Even so, she wished she could talk to Major Bartlett to ask for advice on how to push forward. Speaking of, there had been no reports about Bartlett since he went into the drink. Ash wondered how he was doing, if he was even alive.

Nevertheless, Ash bottled up all the thoughts bouncing around in her head, storing the camping chair and heading downstairs.

Nagase was in the squadron room, planted on a couch reading an autobiography penned by an Osean president of the late 1970s, when Ash entered.

"Captain." Nagase greeted her commanding officer, sounding dejected.

"You sound less than pleased." Ash mused, making a mug of coffee for herself.

"I'm… annoyed." Nagase admitted quietly. "We have the wartime advantage on our side of the ocean, we could negotiate a ceasefire, why are we going a thousand miles across the ocean to invade? It doesn't make sense."

"I get that." Ash agreed with her squadmate. "Doesn't make any fucking sense to me either."

Nagase slammed shut her book, chucked it onto the coffee table and sighed. "Big mission tomorrow."

"You read the plan yet?" Ash asked.

"Depart at 0400, arrive at 0600 for a time on target against bunkers." Nagase recalled the plan down to the smallest detail. "Provide close air support for Marines and attack enemy fast air and helicopters."

Ash nodded. "Good… Do you know where the others are?"

"Wolf's at the gym, I think everyone else is asleep." Nagase replied, rolling onto her back and resting her head against the lounge armrest.

Ash stood up. "Alright. You know the drill…"

"Rest up because we've got a long day tomorrow?"

Ash giggled. "You know it."

Nagase popped a weak smile. "Good night, captain."

"Good night, Kei." Ash spun on her heels and left the room. She went downstairs, out the front door of the building and out towards the recreational block of the base. Ash could barely recall the last time she had gone to the gym. It had definitely been before the start of the war. She hadn't had the inclination or the interest to actually go out and pump iron. Uniform on as she checked in, Ash wandered further into the gym. It was a lot busier than Ash ever recalled it being, but besides that fact, she quickly spotted Wolf doing laps on a treadmill in the corner of the gym. She strode towards him.

"Getting busy, Zoomer?" Ash called out to the second oldest member of the squadron.

"All day, every day." Wolf replied breathlessly. By the state of his breathing he had been running hard and fast for a while.

"Long day tomorrow, you sure wearing yourself out the night prior is a good idea?" Ash asked the tacky WSO. Panting for air, Wolf turned the treadmill off and let the remaining momentum carry him off the machine and onto the floor.

"If I have to use my legs for anything other than pulling gees, chances are I'm dead anyway." Wolf retorted. He grabbed a towel and patted down his face before taking a swig of water from the bottle on his hip.

"Mmm… yeah, okay." Ash conceded that Wolf had a point. "Moving on. Any thoughts about this campaign we're going into?"

"Is this a moral question or an ideological question?" Wolf stared down at Ash. "I think my views on the matter are clear."

"This is the job we signed up to do, no point bitching about it?" Ash cocked her head sideways.

"Precisely." Wolf nodded.

Ash sighed. "You say that, but given the situation… surely you have some sense of dissatisfaction with the way we're going forward."

"Going naive, Captain?" Wolf said with a wolf-like grin.

"Fuck you."

Wolf chuckled. "No, I don't agree with the way things are turning out. We stalemated the Yukes during the Sand Island offensive. If the Yuktobanians don't back down militarily? Just bomb every munition depot and command centre in the country. Victory by attrition."

Ash sighed. "I dunno. It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe there's something us grunts in the shitter don't know that the brass and top politicians up high do. Yuktobanians giving no quarter, perhaps?" Wolf suggested. Ash shrugged and admitted that she had no good answer to it all.

"I hope it's not a no quarter scenario. We're in for a long fucking war if it is."

"Chin up, Captain." Wolf shrugged. "We'll pull through."

Ash smiled faintly. "Yeah. Yeah…"

"You should get some shuteye." Wolf said. "Gotta be up in exactly seven hours from now."

Ash checked her watch. She hissed audibly. Wolf was right, it was 2000 on the dot and they had to be up at 0300 at the absolute latest.

"Touche. Well, don't sleep in too late, Wolf." Ash bid farewell to Zoomer.

"Likewise, Captain. See you in the morning." Wolf saw Ash off for the night.

Walking out of the gym and towards the dorm blocks, Ash ran her hands through her hair as she walked up the stairs to her room. Or at least the room she had been sleeping in lately. Technically her room was downstairs with Nagase, but in the past few weeks she had been sleeping with her WSO… Ash was hesitant to call Kitagawa her girlfriend. Even with all the lines they had crossed together, having two partners in the same unit was a big no-no in the Air Force's eyes.

Ash slowly opened the door and peeked inside. One of the bedside lights was on, and in the dim light that the nightstand light provided she saw Kitagawa rolled over in bed sleeping. Quietly, Ash stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She saw Kitagawa's gear neatly organised on the table opposite the bed. In classic fashion, the Sotoan weapon systems officer was prepared.

Gently sitting on the side of the bed, Ash took her boots off. She then swung her legs up into bed, snuggled up close to Kitagawa and wrapped an arm around her waist. Kitagawa budged slightly, pressing into Ash's body. Ash couldn't tell if it was a conscious or unconscious reflex, but she decided not to press the matter. She pressed her head into the mattress and before long she was out cold.