JULY 6 0900

ZAPPLAND

"Oh come on Brownie it's not that bad."

"No, don't you start, it's your fault in the first place, Trigger." was all Brownie said as she slammed the hanger door in my face.

"Well shit." was all I could say as I looked around catching sight of Tabloid walking back to the main building. "Hey Tabloid, where are you going?"

"Ah hey Trigger i'm heading to the mess to meet the others for a game of cards,"

"Mind if I join you Brownie kicked me out of the hanger for the day."

"I heard you two shouting what was it about?" he asked as I jogged over to him.

"Um well I kinda let her forget about my birthday."

"Oh when was it and why is she so mad about it."

"It was the fourth when we hit Roca." I said with a shrug. "And well birthdays have always been a big thing for her."

"Ah well good luck and sure we could use a new player."

The trip to the mess was quick and once we got there Count, Champ and Fullband were sitting around a table shuffling cards while some of the other pilots were sitting around talking to the new pilot Spare 10 if I remember right.

"Ah the great Trigger decides to join us it seems." Count snarked off as me and Tabloid sat down.

"Nice to see you too, Count." I said, giving a nod to Champ.

"Now now lets play nice you two and lets play cards." Fullband cut in starting to pass out cards. After a couple of games the other pilots made their way out to do their own things. "So who wants the new gossip I found out today."

Looking around the table I decided to bite "Sure what did you hear."

"Well I will need some payment in exchange."

"I don't exactly have any cash on me, you know."

"Nah I just want some info on your callsign, we all got ours here you and Brownie got yours elsewhere what do they stand for?"

"Well Brownies is cause her aunt kept sending her brownies in flight school, but mines kinda classified so sorry."

"Aw come on man what are they going to do arrest you." Champ said.

"Huh I suppose you're right, well two years ago when I was still at Cranston I was part of a ground attack training flight. We were hitting old coastal bunkers from the last war and on our way back one of the others had to make an emergency landing at another airport due to an electrical problem and our flight lead went with him."

"Wait,what where you guys flying?" Fullband asked.

"We were in A-10s."

"A-10s then why the hell are you flying a fighter now."

"Originally I was part of a CAS squadron but after this story I cross-trained out to a fighter squadron."

"Ok then."

"So it was me and my wingmain on our way back following the coast when we got buzzed by an F-14 with no markings, and then before we could figure out who they were they proceded to lock-on to my wingman."

"Did you ever find out who they were?" Count surprisingly asked.

"Yeah they were a rogue merc left over from a group that had recently tangled with the OMDF and got wiped out. I guess they were out for revenge." I said "well they took out my wingman and set his sights on me now remember I had no air to air on board so I went defensive."

"Wait, why didn't you have any sidewinders at least?"

"We were in mainland Osea in peace time on a training flight."

"Osea is nothing if not stingy on their supplies." Tabloid threw in.

"Any way all I had was the main gun and they would not sit still so I ended up dumping all my flares and praying as he kept trying to shoot me down I accidently in my panic hit my rudder hard right and lost more airspeed than expected and they ended up right in my gunsites so I let loose with the entirety off my ammo."

"Did that get em?"

"No they recoverd pretty quick and rolled away, but it fucked them up enough that they bugged out."

"So they got away."

"Not exactly some new experimental squadron shot them down but the Brass wanted to cover up losing a pilot over Ocean soil so they classified the whole thing, and the only thing I had to prove my first fight was my new callsign."

"Damn that's a cool way to get callsign, but I suppose it's my turn for storytime." Fullband said after I finished my story. "So the new guy is the last prisoner they are going to send here, apparently some higher ups are growing some morals and are giving some flack about this airbase."

"So if we lose a pilot we lose that manpower permanently?" Count asked.

"Yep.'' After that slightly alarming news we ended up playing for a couple of more hours playing well after lunch when our local mechanic The Scrap Queen came up and told me Brownie wanted to see me back at the hanger. So I made my way back to the hangar waving bye to the others. The walk back was silent and thankfully uneventful. "Hey Brownie, I'm here." I called out into the hanger as I walked in.

Looking around I couldn't see her anywhere till she popped up from behind me. "There you are, took you long enough."

Turning to her I replied flatly "Sorry I was under the impression I was banned from the hanger for the day."

Nervously chuckling, she said. "Yeah I may have slightly over reacted, but I did manage to get your birthday present."

"What, how did you get a present here of all places?"

"Oh you know I'm pretty resourceful when I need to be, sides its something super simple."

"Ok then what is it?"

"Well I noticed you were a tad bit upset about not having your emblem so I painted it with a small additional touch."

Looking quickly at the tail of our Phantom I saw she had indeed painted my emblem on there but like she said there was an extra detail on there, an additional ribbon was under the one with my tac name where she had put hers. "Holy Crap I didn't know you could paint."

"Yeah well those years of private tutors did something at least, so how do you feel about the extra parts to it?"

"It looks great honestly." I said, giving her a warm smile.

"Good now then I heard that the guards are having poker night tonight so you know what that means right?"

"Uh there's going to be some pissy guards in the morning?"

"No I mean.. yes that too but also that means we have an extra two or so hours before they send us back to our cells."

"Oh sweet I can work on that new idea I had for in the cockpit." I said starting to walk toward the plane.

Smacking her forehead she stopped me. "No me and you are going to have some quality time alone till then," she said, dragging me off away from the plane "And I intend to make every second count.

Looking back years later I can say for certain Zappland was a hellhole but there were some days that did make it feel like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.