There were many places around the world that could be described as nothing short of miserable, but none of them even came close to as miserable as the Women's Wing of the Uluru Military Correctional Facility in Northern Cascadia. It was like the perfect combination of every possible factor to create the worst single place on Earth. Being in prison was already bad enough, but when you added a wind chill from the ass-crack of the north would take your fingers off in under an hour and a complete lack of decent company from both the inmates and guards, and a life sentence would make even the worst of afterlives seem like a tropical vacation.
"Cunningham, wake up!" one of the male guards barked as he whacked the bars of her cell with his baton.
A lump under the sheets of the bottom bunk shifted and stirred until a woman in her mid-20's emerged. A tangled, knotted mess of dirty-blonde hair hung just above her shoulders as she looked around drowsily, wiping the sleep away from her eyes to get a better look at the two guards standing outside her cell, along with the woman in the prison jumpsuit standing between them.
The guard unlocked the door to her cell and swung it open before promptly shoving the woman inside. "New cell-mate," he said, giving Cunningham a glare. "Play nice," was all he said before locking up the cell again and moving on to more pressing matters.
After a long pause, the new woman gave Cunningham an incredulous look. "So… do I even wanna know what happened to your last cell-mate?"
Cunningham shrugged, staring straight ahead at the wall. "Sure, the lucky bitch got out. Apparently some schmuck confessed to the crime she was charged on so she was let out." Finally, she looked up at the other woman. "What about you? Just get in or did they have to move you around?"
The woman shook her head. "No, I just got in- got a feeling it's gonna be a long 2 years. Burglary charge," she explained. "What about you? What're you in for?"
Cunningham's expression darkened. "If you don't already know, then you don't want to."
Her cell-mate looked at her with an inquisitive brow but otherwise said nothing. Finally, she shrugged dismissively. "Fair enough," she finally decided. "I'm not about to go snooping into other people's business."
"In that case, we might get along just fine." She stood up, offering her hand to the new prisoner. "Shay Cunningham," she introduced herself.
She smiled. "Lyra. Lyra Cooley," she replied, shaking her hand and looking almost visibly surprised by how smooth her hands were.
Shay sat back down on the side of her bottom bunk and looked up at Lyra. "So… if you don't mind me asking, what was your MOS before you got thrown in here?"
A slight chuckle left Lyra's lips. "Believe it or not, I was a fighter pilot— Cascadian National Guard, 52nd Fighter Wing."
Shay looked at her with an expression that conveyed some measure of respect. "No shit? Small world, I guess. I was in the 8th Fighter Wing myself. How the mighty have fallen, eh?" She looked out the double-barred window in their cell and sighed longingly. "But by the Dust, I sure do miss it- being up there, I mean."
Lyra nodded in agreement. "I can imagine, being cooped up in a miserable place like this for so long would have to drive anyone crazy- let alone someone like us; someone who can look down at the Earth from the cockpit and feel like they could go anywhere in the world, only to be stuck in a shitty little cube on the ground."
Suddenly, they felt a rumbling in the air- a rumbling that both of them recognized instantly. They shuffled over to the window and peered out, craning their necks to search for the source of the noise until finally, Lyra spotted it. Shay followed her finger out into the cloudy skies, and sure enough, there they were: a full flight of twelve MG-29s, all bearing Cascadian markings, shrieking through the air.
"Looks like they're headed southbound," Lyra observed, watching as the curved gracefully through the sky in total unison. "Although, when you're this far up north, that's not exactly saying a whole lot," she added with a scoff.
Shay narrowed her eyes as the fighter jets passed by the limited view of their one window. "Not often that you see fighters around here. In fact, come to think of it, I think that might've been the first time I've ever seen them fly out this way."
"What do you think brought 'em out here?"
Shay shrugged. "Don't know- don't care. It's not worth the time and energy spent thinking about it. I stopped giving a damn about the military and whatever the hell they're doing ever since they locked me up, and it's been doing me wonders ever since." Suddenly, a single atonal buzzer sounded off, echoing throughout the cell block. Then, all the doors opened in unison. It was a message that Shay understood crystal clear. After standing up, she walked over to the entrance of their cell and turned back around to face Lyra. "C'mon. I'll show you around."

Bit by bit, Shay led her through the winding twists and turns of the cell block, showing her all the places that might be of interest to her along with the places should avoid at all costs. As they were walking through the halls, though, Lyra couldn't help but notice the way that the convicts looked at Shay. Some seemed to know after just one look to give her a wide berth, while others hesitated, ultimately letting their instincts lead them to make the same decision. The only conclusion she could make was that it was a reflection of whatever she did to get sent here. Anyone who know what she did feared her, but those who didn't knew better than to question her. And it was then and there that Lyra thought, for the first time since she'd been found guilty, that maybe she lucked out with her bunkmate if it meant being on her good side.
Finally, Shay opened a door leading to the outside and stopped. A frigid breeze like daggers of ice hit her face, making her eyes well up with tears that she quickly blinked away. "And this, as I'm sure you could guess, is the exercise yard," she she said, gesturing to flat open area behind her. "I'll keep this brief since the sun's practically down already and it's only gonna get colder, but this is probably gonna be your favorite place in the whole cell block. Just as long as-" She stopped mid-sentence, and her eyes, which had been scanning the area, narrowed into slits. "As long as she's not here," she muttered bitterly.
Lyra followed her gaze to see a woman with short brown hair taking a lap around the yard. "And who's she exactly?"
"Sable Rhodes," Shay spat the name with as much venom and contempt as she could muster. "To say that she's a piece of work would be putting it mildly. Whatever you do, try your damned hardest to keep yourself as far away from her as possible at all times." Another gust of wind swept through the air, far colder than the last. "Speaking of which, let's get outta here," she said before leading Lyra back inside.
By the time they got back to their cell, it was nearly pitch black outside, and the cell block wasn't much better, as the two women just barely made it back in time for lights out. Slowly but surely, everyone began nestling deep into their sheets to protect themselves from the bitter cold outside, and Shay was no different. Thankfully, she'd managed to… acquire an extra sheet without any of the guards realizing it, which at least helped to make her somewhat warm- enough to fall asleep, at the very least. She was just about to shut her eyes when she heard a familiar rumble in the sky. Thankfully, she had just enough of a view from her bottom bunk to look out the window without jeopardizing her comfort, and that's when she saw the blinking formation lights from a flight of F/D-14s. In the last light of the waning sun, however, she just barely managed to spot that, unlike the last group of fighters that passed by, these ones bore Federation markings. It was then, she was certain, that something important was going on, but she couldn't care less as to what. She accepted a long time ago that, no matter what happened in the outside world, it was never going to change the fact that she was here for life- or so she thought.

Shay didn't sleep well- wading through dreams and nightmares alike. Quite frankly, she was surprised that she didn't wake Lyra up in the dead of night. Yet as she wriggled out from underneath her cocoon of sheets, her cell-mate had yet to stir. She paused for a moment; something was different today, it hung heavy in the air like smoke- change. That's when Shay heard a commotion from further within the cell block. She peeked out between the bars, scanning around until she saw a pair of guards escorting two men- only these were no fellow prison guards or even MPs. They were dressed from head to toe in tactical gear, and carried rifles to match. These were soldiers, and they were headed straight for her cell.
"Lyra," she whispered, giving the sleeping woman a shake. "Get up."
Lyra gradually stirred, rolling out of her sheets and dropping from the top bunk. "Huh? What's going on?" she asked drowsily.
Shay nodded in the direction of the approaching soldiers. "We've got company."
One of the guards escorting the soldiers unlocked the door to their cell and pulled it open, allowing the men with rifles to step inside. "Shay Cunningham and Lyra Cooley?" one of them asked.
"Yeah? What of it?" Shay replied.
"Come with us," was all he said before dragging them out of their cell and leading them away.
The two soldiers shoved them along, leading them further and further through the prison- eventually taking them out of the Women's Wing and into Inmate Processing. The soldiers kept shoving them forward until they arrived at the suspect identification room. That's when Shay noticed that they weren't alone here. Several other soldiers- all just as armed as the ones escorting them- were present, along with a man in an officer's uniform. There were other convicts, too- three from the Men's Wing that she didn't recognize and, much to her dismay, Sable. All of them were already inside, standing on the line.
"Oh great," Sable groaned as Shay and Lyra were brought inside. "I think I'd rather be back in my cell if whatever this is means I've gotta be near you."
Shay scoffed. "Trust me, the feeling's mutual."
"Quiet down, inmates," the officer ordered from the other side of the glass. "My name is Colonel Ramsey. Now, I want each you to tell me your name, crime, and former station. Number 1," he nodded to the man on the opposite end of the line as Shay.
The man with short dark hair stepped forward, looking as bored as bored could get. "Edward Hawkins, charged with forgery and identity theft, and formerly assigned to Cascadian National Guard, 20th Fighter Wing," he droned on before stepping back onto the line.
The man next to him stepped forward with a grin on his face. "Foster Cooke, formerly 16th Fighter Wing and charged with being too damn popular with the ladies." The other man that had yet to introduce himself smirked, letting out a slight snicker.
"Sable Rhodes, charged with arson, formerly 2nd Fighter Wing. Now do me a favor and kiss my ass," she spat before falling back in line.
The third man stepped forward, glancing at the other convicts to his left and right. "Max Freeman, 35th Fighter Wing, charged with unauthorized disclosure of classified information."
Lyra was next, stepping forward only slightly. "Lyra Cooley, charged with burglary and formerly assigned to 52nd Fighter Wing."
Finally, Shay stepped forward, and as she did, she felt Edward and Sable's eyes follow her. They already knew what she did, she could tell that much. She glared through the glass at Ramsey and spoke. "Shay Cunningham, formerly 8th Fighter Wing, and if you know enough to bring me here, then you already know what I did, so let's cut the bullshit and get to why you brought us here."
Colonel Ramsey smirked. "Fair enough," he replied before meandering over to the door and pushing it open. "Come with me, all of you."
The convicts all looked at each other hesitantly, but Shay was the first to take the next step. The others followed suit. Ramsey led them all into the interrogation room. A second table had been brought in, and enough chairs to seat all of them- six on one side, and one on the other. Ramsey sat at the single seat while the convicts all filtered into the others.
"So… as Cunningham, said, let's cut to the case," Ramsey began. "As of three days ago, war has broken out between the Federation and Cascadia. The National Guard came together to form the Cascadian Independence Force and finally free ourselves from the tyranny of the Federation," he explained, pausing for a moment to gauge the reactions of the men and women sitting across from him. "The fighting has proven to be… more costly than we initially anticipated, especially for our Air Force. If we want to win this war the right way, though, we're going to need consistent support from the air. That is where you six come in- you who have all been incarcerated for one reason or another, yet still possess flight experience."
He nodded to one of the soldiers outside, he stepped into the room with several sheets of paper and pens along with them. He quickly handed one out to each of the convicts and left. Shay looked down at the paper in front of her and looked it over- it was a contract.
"The Independence Force is willing to offer you… a Deal: if you fight for us, aiding in our liberation from the Federation, then once this is all over, you will receive a full pardon, and your criminal records will all be wiped clean. What do you say?"
A second chance- a lifeline… ever since her court-martial, Shay never expected anything good to come her way. She harbored no illusions that she was innocent. Hell, if given the chance, she would do it again without a moment's hesitation. And yet, here she was, being offered a chance to start again. The only question that remained was whether or not it was worth it, which, to Shay, wasn't a question at all. She got to do what she signed up to do, and in return, she would get a full pardon? After all this time dealing with nothing but bad karma, it seemed she was finally getting a taste of some of the good, and she was eager for more. She picked up the pen and signed her name in a heartbeat, and looking on either side of herself, it seemed that the others had reached the same decision.
Ramsey smiled from ear to ear as he stood up. "Excellent. You've all made the right choice today. Welcome to the Cascadian Independence Force, Pariah Squadron."