With the destruction of both the flagships of the Yuktobanian Western and Eastern Submarine fleets - and with them the pride of the Yuktobanian Navy - Wardog's reward was a mere one hour trip from northern Emmeria to Gracemeria to refuel before a three hour flight from Gracemeria, through the Fuscum Sea and across the Ceres Ocean back to Osea, where they refuelled from a KC-10 before flying for another hour and a half south until they finally returned to Sand Island.
Blaze had done several hour ferry trips in the past, she was used to being in the air for long periods of time, but doing a long ferry flight after a mission involving almost bending her aircraft in half had taken its toll on Blaze's stamina. She was physically exhausted and mentally strained. She had heard the others talking over the radio, but her fatigue was muffling the audio. Samurai and Blaze hadn't said anything more than two word sentences to each other throughout the entire trip.
Everything between leaving Emmeria and arriving back at Sand Island felt like a blur. Blaze remembered parking at the flight line and disembarking. She remembered returning to the squadron room and sloppily stowing her equipment. She vaguely remembered Hamilton and Hallaway congratulating them for the success of their mission and telling Wardog that they had three days of leave as a reward. She remembered stumbling out of the squadron room, out of the administration room, through hallways and past the basketball courts in the old dorm blocks, up the stairs to hers and Samurai's dorm room, flopping on the bed and passing out cold.
What felt like five minutes later, Ash woke up in a place that was very distinctly not her dorm room. Instead, she was lying on a rock-hard mattress with no covers in a bedroom with a single bed and an attached kitchen. Ash didn't recognise this place off the top of her head, but she put two and two together. This was a dream. Cognizant of that fact, Ash rolled over and tried to go back to sleep to get out of the dream, but with how solid the mattress that was an exercise in madness, so she relented, standing up, walking to the door, opening it and stepping outside.
Outside was a wooden platform with a man sitting down on the edge. Below them was a thick cloud layer that completely obscured a view of whatever laid beneath it. The man was thin, possessing deeply tanned skin and brown hair the same shade as Ash's.
"Hey, dad." Ash greeted her father, slowly walking towards him. The man turned his head to face Ash.
"Morning, sweetie." Dylan Paige greeted his daughter, Ashley Paige. Now she knew for a fact this was a dream. Like Ash, Dylan was a fighter pilot. Keyword on was. He had passed away in a freak accident at an exercise while Ash was still in university. Ash sat down next to him, swinging her legs over the side.
"Even in death, you have your head above the clouds." Ash joked with the illusion that was her father.
"And even as an adult, you're still an airhead." Dylan joked.
Ash chuckled. "Fuck you, old man."
"O-3, Captain. How's the squadron?" Dylan changed the topic of discussion.
"So far, so good. We've survived god knows how many suicide missions and we're all still alive. For now." Ash answered the question. Even in a dream, it baffled her as to the fact that Wardog had taken zero casualties since Ash took command of the squadron.
"Good, good." Dylan slipped a tablet of chewing gum into his mouth. "How's the girlfriend?"
"How's the girlfri- what?" Now Ash was just confused.
"Oh come on, you know who I'm talking about." Dylan chuckled. "Kitagawa. The fine Sotoan lady."
"I-" Ash sputtered, flustered. "She's my wizzo!"
"And?" Dylan chewed loudly on his gum. "Just because it's against the rules doesn't mean it can't happen."
She rolled her eyes. "If I have to take advice from a dead man I think I'll need to make an appointment with a psychologist."
"Mmm…" Dylan spat his gum over the edge. "Nothing stopping you from making good of it while keeping it out of the public eye."
"The public eye. Right." Ash rolled her eyes. "I'll think about it when this whole mess ends. And if we're all alive by the end."
"Her life is in your hands, kiddo. Wherever she survives is entirely on you." Dylan pointed out. Ash conceded that he was right, Kitagawa was her WSO in her aircraft, entirely at the whims of Ash's abilities as a pilot. That thought stuck with Ash harder than she would have liked to admit. She looked down at her watch. Sure enough, it wasn't reading a coherent number. Nevertheless Ash stood up, stretched and yawned.
"Gotta get up in ten minutes, I'd better take my leave." Ash decided, turning around to head back to the metaphorical bed.
"Duty calls, indeed." Dylan let Ash go. As Ash opened the door, he spoke up. "Ash?"
Ash stopped in her tracks and turned to face her deceased father.
"Yeah, dad?" Ash asked.
"I'm proud of what you've become." Dylan said with a smile. "Keep letting it rip."
Ash beamed. "Will do, dad. Thank you."
Vrrr…. Vrrr… vrrr…. VRR-
In the real world, Ash jolted awake, a vibrating sensation on her wrist. Ash sighed quietly and went to turn her watch's alarm off, which was the exact point where she realised two things. The first was that she was sleeping on her back when she distinctly remembered flopping onto her chest the previous night and falling asleep; the second was Kitagawa sleeping on top of her.
"Good morning to you too." Ash mumbled quietly, slowly and gently shifting her weight from out under Kitagawa until the WSO was the sole person occupying Ash's bed. Realising that she was still wearing her boots and uniform from last night, she did the bare minimum of cleaning up by changing her socks and brushing her hair. When Ash left the bathroom, she noticed Kitagawa was still asleep. Given it was early enough in the morning that the sky was still dark outside, Ash elected to let Kitagawa sleep, stepping outside and quietly closing the door to the dorm room behind her.
As per usual for just about every morning on the island, there was a cool ocean breeze blowing over the base. Walking to the squadron room, as she passed by the basketball courts on the accommodation block, Ash noticed a few people playing an early game of handball, and a fairly enthusiastic game at that, sweat, yelling and all. She snickered, continuing her walk off the block and through a few hallways until she reached the squadron room. Surprise, surprise, there were a couple of people already inside. Unsurprisingly, it was Chopper and Wolf.
"Morning, Blaze." Wolf greeted Ash as she walked in.
"Morning Wolf, morning Chopper." Ash returned the greeting. "Do either of you ever sleep?"
"Only when the caffeine crash hits." Chopper remarked, standing in the kitchenette making coffee. "Coffee?"
"Please." Ash replied, yawning. Chopper finished making a fresh batch, pouring himself and Ash a mug each. He slid Ash's mug to her as he poured sugar and milk into his own brew. Not particularly caring for the bitterness of the coffee on its own at that particular moment in time, Ash practically inhaled the mug whole, drinking it in one giant gulp for all that caffeine goodness.
"Speaking of caffeine crashes-"
WHEER, WHEER, WHEER, WHEER, WHEER!
"INCOMING, INCOMING, INCOMING!" The incoming siren started blaring across the base.
"Oh for fuck's sake." Ash cursed, putting down the mug of coffee. "Kit, planes, now."