Snow… nothing but white for miles around. Fuck, it's cold.
"Hey." Somebody's calling for me. I can barely leave my head to look at the source of the voice. It's cold. It's so cold.
"Hey." The voice isn't going away. I'm sorry, I can't reply, I don't have the strength. I'm tired.
"Blaze." The other person's sighing. Or screaming. I can't tell.
"Ash?"
Ashley stirred slowly. She was face-down on her bed, uniform still on, and goddamn exhausted.
"Mmmph?" Ashley muttered something incoherently. She was only barely awake, and she felt like she was on the edge of falling asleep again with her face buried in her pillow. Ashley felt her mattress dip from weight being dropped on it. A hand gently shook her shoulder. "Mmm."
"Are you alright, Ash? It's 8. You're never asleep this late." Second Lieutenant Kei Nagase, Ashley's roommate, asked with a hint of concern in her voice. Ash was pretty average in terms of size when it came to her demographics, but even by comparison Nagase was small, standing at barely five-foot-six and maybe fifty kilos dripping wet. However, she had sharp looks, with a sharp jawline and short dark brown hair.
Ash rolled over onto her back, stretched out and rubbed her eyes. She yawned.
"Aww…" Ash slowly sat up, perching her lower back against the head of the bed. Her eyes had heavy bags. "I'm… I'm wiped."
"What did you do?" Kei enquired, curious.
"I don't even know, hey." Ash yawned again. "I need caffeine."
"Pretty sure the galley's still open, if you want to go together." Kei offered. Ash nodded as if to agree, swinging sideways off the bed and rising to her feet. Slowly. Her peripherals felt numb and her skin felt tingly. Ashley took a step forward. Okay, she was capable of walking. For now. Kei dashed forward and opened the door for her. The cool ocean breeze from the not-far-off ocean was soothing. Ash tied back her hair so the wind didn't get it in her face and soldiered on.
"I heard about the intercept." Kei initiated a conversation.
"Mmm. Who told you?" Ashley asked. It had to have been Samurai, surely.
"Major Bartlett." Kei said, to Ash's visible surprise. Kei picked up on that. "He mustered us and told us about the intercept. You were asleep, so he didn't wake you."
Kei had Ash curious. "What'd he say?"
"That you shot down a prototype drone after it engaged the flight. A Yuktobanian drone." Kei explained what she knew.
Ash nodded. "That's the long and the sh…" Ash yawned again. "Fucking hell. Long and the short of it, yeah."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kei chuckled nervously. "Seriously, I've never seen you like this."
"Yeah." Ash waved off Kei's concern. "I'll feel better after a coffee or five."
"If you say so." Kei didn't sound so sure, but she chose not to press further. "In other news, Taylor destroyed me on the pistol course. Again."
Ash snickered. "You always go into that competition expecting to get the upper hand on him, and it's funny when he kicks your ass every time."
"Hey, I'm getting better!" Kei defended herself.
"Are you going to get better than him is the key point here." Ash poked more fun at Kei. The latter jabbed Ash lightly in the shoulder. "Oi!"
The pair walked past the basketball court that was a part of their barracks unit. A handful of the people who lived within the fences were playing. Ash and Kei stopped to observe. By the looks of things, it was one versus four. The solo player was a sleek and well-shaped man in OD green pants and a black t-shirt, sporting black hair and a light beard. The other four were trying to get possession of the ball off him. Even with all the manoeuvring in the world, the solo player managed to weave through their barrier and over to their hoop, performing a layup and slamming the ball through the hoop. He then turned to the opposing four players.
"How 'bout that?" He shouted. "How 'bout that?!"
"Oh, come off it Zoomer!" One of the opposing players retorted. Kei chuckled. The solo player turned around to recover the ball, which is when he spotted Ash and Kei. He recovered the ball, chucked it over his shoulder towards his competition and strolled casually up to the two ladies.
"Blaze, Edge." He addressed them by their callsigns.
"Hello, Zoomer." Ash returned the greeting. Zoomer grinned. First Lieutenant Wolf Taylor, the slick bastard that he was, was a member of Wardog Squadron. While average in height at only five-foot-ten, Wolf was insanely fit and it showed in his sleek body form. His callsign, Zoomer, did not indicate his age: at thirty-five, he was the second-oldest member in Wardog Squadron behind Major Bartlett.
"Still abusing the shit out of the other lieutenants?" Kei asked, almost sarcastically, to which Wolf nodded.
"Always Edge, always." Zommer admitted. "Speaking of which, when are you down for a rematch?"
"I would be right now if I wasn't following her to the DFAC." Kei said, glancing at Ash.
Wolf scanned Ash up and down. "Well, you look like shit."
"Feel like it too." Ash chuckled. "Just tired. I need coffee."
"That makes two of us." Wolf put up a knife hand in the direction of the officer's dining facility. "Ladies first."
"I-" Kei began to say something but she was cut off by Ash pushing past her. "What a gentleman you are."
"So…" This time it was Wolf who started a conversation. "How's it feel to earn your first kill, Blaze?"
Ash shrugged. "Indifferent. It's not like I was under any threat at the time."
"No, but fuck knows what it could have done." Wolf cranked his neck. "Either way, fair kill by ROE."
"You are cold, has anybody ever told you that?" Kei poked some fun at Wolf and his indifferent attitude.
"Cannot confirm nor deny." Wolf deflected the question, earning giggles from Kei. Ash rolled her eyes and smiled. The trio carried on to the DFAC: shorthand for Dining FACility. At this time of the evening, the facility was virtually abandoned save for the handful of cooking staff who were spending their time behind closed doors, presumably cleaning for the next wave of hungry AFSEC personnel. Luckily, there was a functioning coffee machine which Ash immediately beelined for. Everything was in stock. Ash pulled out a styrofoam mug from the dispenser.
"And there she goes." Wolf stayed back, placing his hands in his pockets. If it were anybody else who did this, it would have been a death sentence for them from the nearest sergeant-major. Alas, there were no such men of authority in the locality tonight.
Ash wanted to make a white coffee, but after fumbling with a sugar sachet and spilling it all over the bench, she decided fuck it and went for a black coffee. No sugar, no creamer, no milk. Cup in hand, Ash returned to her group, sipping away. Kei directed them to a table.
"I want to hear the conversations that are being had at the high table about this drone shit." Wolf started. Ash listened in while occasionally burning her tongue. Ow, too hot.
"I'd imagine it's a lot of back-and-forth. I also can't imagine that the Yuktobanians are going to be overly annoyed about this whole thing, being a drone and all." Kei voiced her opinion on the matter. She turned to Ash. "Was it a drone? Do you know?"
Ash shrugged and swallowed what she had in her mouth. "Can't say for sure. Sure as fuck wasn't flying like a normal person would."
"If it was flown by a pilot, I think we'd know about it at this point. Let's be real, Colonel Fatfuck would have come out of his office and skull-fucked you and Bartlett if it was manned." Wolf mentioned.
"With that said, it's possible that it was manned and that information hasn't gone down the chain yet." Kei countered Wolf's argument.
"True, true." Wolf conceded that Kei was right on the money. "Give it a couple days, see what happens."
"Nothing. Hopefully." Ash spoke up, catching Wolf's attention. He raised an eyebrow. Ash shrugged. "What? I don't want to be the person who starts a war."
Wolf pursed his lips, shrugged in agreement and relaxed his expression. "Y'know what, I agree."
"That is surprising to hear from you." Ash pointed out.
"Nah, nah, the way I see it, let the pointman start the war, I'll be the one to escalate it." Wolf joked. Ash laughed out loud.
"Remind me to stay behind you." Kei commented, earning a chuckle from Wolf.
"I think that'd suit the both of us." Wolf replied.
Ash felt like she had taken a hit of decaff. Her hands were shaking. Ash clamped both her hands around her cup and did what she could to not spill any. Kei and Wolf didn't seem to notice as they carried on with their conversation.
"Looking forward to this ex coming up?" Wolf enquired.
Kei looked at him, confused, before remembering. "Oh. The red flag exercise? At the very least, I'm grateful that we've got a handful of Belkan War veterans coming down to teach us."
"Not just vets. Belkan vets. Pampered little shits that they are." Wolf mentioned specifics.
"I thought that was just a rumour?" Kei replied, sceptical of that rumour.
Wolf shook his head. "Looked around on the backend. Grabacr Squadron is full of ex-Luftwaffe. The enemy from fifteen years back."
"Ironic." Ash piped up. "Fifteen years ago, they were slaughtering pilots left, right and centre. Now they're the ones training us nuggets."
"Gotta learn from the best." Wolf answered in simple terms.
"Quite." Ash sipped her coffee, both hands still wrapped around the cup.
Wolf picked up on that detail. "Cold hands."
Ash shook her head. "Caffeine withdrawal."
"Ah." Wolf chose not to pursue further. "Try not to have a heart attack on us."
"I make no promises." Ash retorted. One more prolonged sip and Ash had consumed every last drop of coffee in the cup. All it had done was make her more aware of her surroundings. She still felt like shit, still felt tired as shit, and the tremors weren't going away.
Ash yawned. Fuuuuck. "Alright, well, I'm gonna go blow off some steam and go to bed. See you in a bit Kei, and I'll see you in the morning yeah Wolf?"
"Alright." Kei nodded.
"Sounds like a plan to me. See you around, Ash." Wolf saw Ash off. The tired twenty-five year old waddled off, through hallways and out into the courtyard. They must have been talking and otherwise fucking around for a while, because when Ash passed by the basketball court there was nobody there. She made it past the basketball court and to the unit of the building where her room was located.
Alright Ash, don't pass out on the bed this time.
This time, instead of entering the room and immediately passing out, Ash actually had the energy and motivation to stay on her feet long enough to get out of her working uniform and into normal clothing, in this instance gym shorts and a black tank top. It was only after discarding her boots and flopping backwards onto her bed that Ash was rapidly overcome by feelings of exhaustion that pushed her into a deep sleep in the span of a minute.
Whatever the consequences of the shootdown were, she'd find out tomorrow.