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444th Air Base, Zapland, Usea.
July 22nd, 2019.
1315hrs.
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Honestly, Avril didn't know what to think of this situation. Standing on the side, she watched as one of the new engines was lowered into the F-14. The first engine was toast from cannon fire and it was amazing that it still worked when they returned to base yet they still needed to refurbish a second one as the dumbass burnt it out. She can give Trigger some slack since he was fighting quite the monster out there according to Tabloid, but that doesn't mean he can just go around burning engines out like this. They don't grow on trees and they aren't being sold at the local market either. Swear to God, if that F-15 comes back all shot up, he's gonna wish he was shot down, Avril thought as she got the all-clear that the crane was secure and the mechanics could begin bolting the engine in.
"So why are we even bothering fixing this old bucket up?" Puff, one of the youngest mechanics in the group asked.
"Well, think about it this way, Puff Ball," Bondo began. Would you rather fix a few patches and swap an engine on a plane we've already gone through and checked every last piece of wire and hydraulic line, or do you want to go through the trouble of refreshing something from scratch?"
"Well... Uh... I mean who's going to fly the plane? All the pilots got a plane and you'd need Hotwire in the back in order for the radar to work. She's with Lamp now and we've got no other WSO to just jump on in."
"Ah, thanks for volunteering then, Puff!" Oiler laughed while Puff just groaned.
"Look, I'm just saying, why not grab another F-16 out of the pit to work on."
"We've already got another F-16 being worked on in the back. We don't need another project to divide our effort," Wizard sighed as he waddled back to grab a wrench. "Plus, knowing these assholes, they might have come back filled with new holes we will need to patch up."
As if on cue, the low rumble of jet engines could be heard through the hangar door. The junior mechanics took pause to look towards the hangar door. As annoyed at how distracted these kids could get at any small noise, she couldn't help but compare them to a bunch of monkeys all stopping what they were doing at the noise of a helicopter. She couldn't complain either as she also found herself looking towards the hangar door all the while Wizard let out a chuckle.
"Well, speak of the devils, guess they're back from their field trip," Wizard said while Avril huffed in annoyance. Looking out the hangar door, she wondered what type of work they'd created for her from this mission.
"Finish up securing the engine in the plane so we can move it away from the crane in case we need to use it. I'm gonna quickly scope out any damaged plane that's returned," Avril ordered and received a slew of 'yes ma'am,' and 'got it Chief,' before she limped towards the hangar door. Putting a hand above her head to shade her eyes from the Zapland sun, she began to look at the planes circling above. Counting them out, her brow scrunched up and she squinted her eyes harder as she went to recount them. Chewing on her lower lip, she was coming up short on one plane. Going through the list of planes she could see, one of the F-18s seemed to be missing so it could be anyone. Turning back inside, Monkey was the first to approach her.
"Guessing a few of the planes are shot up?" he asked while packing his tool kit.
"Well, no one is trailing any fluids so that's a good sign... They're just running race track at the moment," Avril said, leaving out her own findings. "As for you Nuggets, finish up your work and head off to your hangars for inspection."
A mixed response of "'Kay," and, "will do's," was sent towards Avril as she limped over to clean up her own tools. One by one the junior mechanics filed out to their respective hangars while the screech of tires hitting the tarmac echoed in the hangar. Avril had finished putting her tools away when Wizard stopped behind her.
"Something bothering you?" Avril looked back at the older gentleman who had a rather fatherly aura to him. His large graying bushy eyebrows furrowed a bit in worry while her eyebrows scrunched ever so slightly which only made him smirk. "Don't give me that look. What's eating you up?" She pursed her lips as she thought of her response as she leaned against the wooden crate.
"We're down a pilot," Avril explained, "An F-18 from a quick glance."
"Shit," Wizard cursed under his breath. "Let us just hope they're as lucky as High Roller. Otherwise, we'll need to make a new plate for the list... I'm sure the pilots will have more info about what happened."
Nodding, Avril left the hangar limping her way down to hangar four to wait for the pilots to arrive. The hum of jet turbines filled the air as a few had already rolled up outside of their respective hangars, Pick, Utah, and Full Band had already parked their planes and the ground crew were doing their checks while Weasel and Count were taxing on over. Keeping her distance, Avril watched the sky as each plane came in to land listing each of them off in her head as they came in; an Hornet, a Flanker, a Mirage, a Falcon. Glancing over at the planes that had already landed, she felt her stomach almost do a flip as it dawned on her who was missing.
Damn it Wire... You too Lamp, Avril thought as her hand clenched up into a fist. She always knew it was a possibility that it could happen but for it to actually happen was another thing entirely. She watched as Count was sluggishly going through the motions of shutting down and he still wasn't out of his cockpit when Trigger was pulling up. Tabloid was busy with his power down and it was finally safe for her to approach. Hobbling on over, Count was the first to start stepping down the ladder. Walking on up to him, she opened her mouth to say something to him and he just walked past her.
"Count!" she spun around and called out to him just for her words to fall on deaf ears as he stormed off into the hangar. Scowing at him, she went to the next pilot she laid her eyes on which happened to be Tabloid. Limping over to him, he glanced back after hearing someone walk up to him and gave Avril his usual hello of a tiered smirk.
"Avril," he curtly said as he climbed down the last wrung.
"Tabloid, what happened out there? Where's Hotwire and Lamp?"
"Those two are safe. I can guarantee you that. Drones got them but they managed to escape with only minor injuries... Well, at least Lamp did."
"And Wire?"
"Don't know. Took some shrapnel but that's all I know," Tabloid sighed as he ran a hand through his sweaty hair. "At least we don't need to add another name to the wall..." Avril nodded in agreement and some relief came to her knowing that the two were fine. If anything, things are slightly more annoying since they're down their wiring expert yet Avril was more pissed that they lost one of their new planes. It didn't even last more than one mission and now they'll need to pull yet another one from the pit. She was hoping that it would have been simple maintenance work for a few weeks but this is how the cookie crumbles. Glancing over at the F-15, Avril's eyes studied the plane before glancing back to Tabloid.
"I need to go check up on Trigger's plane to see how her shake-down went. But before I go, what's up with Count?" Avril's head suddenly snapped over to the hangar where a loud metallic thud echoed out. Peering in, she could see Count's arm extended, seemingly punching his locker when he stormed off back towards the cells. Looking at Tabloid again, she saw that Trigger was approaching the two. Pointing a thumb over her shoulder, she gave him an inquisitive look. "Fucks up with his Highness?"
"Something about his FCS and HUD being messed up. He couldn't get the drone that shot down Wire and Lamp," Trigger explained. His eyes were tired and she could feel some sense of shame before looking at Count's Su-33. She's lost count of the number of times Wire had to go through that plane to fix some electrical gremlins. Honestly, it would probably be best to retire that plane at this point. If Hotwire's magical touch isn't enough to save that plane then might as well burn it down and shelve it.
"Well, changing to a different topic, Trigger, how was your plane? No issues there?"
"No issues here. She's felt great up there," Trigger said, glancing back at his Eagle. "Might be a bit full of sand but-"
"Sand?" Avril's gaze hardened on Trigger causing him to flinch.
"Uh... Well..." Trigger backed away from Avril a bit before glancing to Tabloid for help. "Hey Tabloid...!"
"Huh?" Tabloid distractedly looked at Trigger before looking at Avril. "What, smoke? Oh, sand! Yeah uh... Bandog had us fly through a sandstorm."
"A sandstorm- Why the fuck did you guy fly through a sandstorm?" her gaze darkened into a scowl learning this new bit of information. Placed a hand on her hip she leaned forward to interrogate Tabloid. "Why the fuck, were you flying through a sandstorm!? Do you know how much work you suddenly just dropped in our laps? Sand, that stuff gets everywhere and we now have to clean it out and check the engines! God, not only do we have to start on a new plane we also- ... Wait, what do you mean by smoke?"
"U-Uuuh, Count's plane!" Tabloid pointed past Avril at the Su-33. Turning around, Avril saw puffs of smoke rising from the cockpit of the Su-33 when the smell of burnt plastic burned Avril's nose.
"Ah, shit, electrical fire!" Avril yelled, catching the attention of the other ground crew. Word spread quickly as the alerted yells of, "Fire!" spread as the situation in Count's plane deteriorated. More and more smoke began to rise out of the cockpit while the ground crew scrambled to get the firefighting equipment while Avril looked at the surrounding planes. Trigger's and Tabloid's planes were currently the closest to the Su-33 while Waldo's was parked further away. Looking around, she spotted Bondo and Thud standing around like their heads were cut off. "Bondo! Thud! Get over here and help us push these planes away from the Su-33!" Avril yelled over at the two who quickly complied. Even though he was exhausted, Trigger urged his body forward and helped push the Mirage away to what seemed like a safe distance before they directed their attention to the Eagle. By now, visible flames were licking out of the cockpit as the situation continued to deteriorate. Some of the mechanics ran over with fire extinguishers but weren't able to do anything as the fire was a few feet above their heads. Climbing the ladder would be too dangerous and they'd have to wait for the fire engines to come over. By then, the cockpit was fully in flames and it was best to push the planes further away for safety all the while the fire engines rolled up spraying foam over the burning plane. Here's hoping they're just in time to prevent the live munitions in the guns and suspended on the wings from cooking off.
"Well... Talk about the unexpected," Tabloid chuckled a bit running his hand through his hair as they observed the burning plane from a safe distance.
"Wire's right, that thing is cursed," Trigger mumbled while Avril sighed as she now had to go and explain what the hell just happened to the base commander. She can already feel the work pile up higher on an already stressful schedule.
"Cursed huh..." Avril started to rub her temples as she was feeling a migraine coming on. "Well, can't be worse than whatever Wire and Lamp are going through..."
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Arpione, Usea
July 23th, 2019.
1203hrs.
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The city of Arpione was a lot livelier and larger than what Mere had originally expected. For being a town in the desert and fairly close to the front lines, everything seemed peaceful. It was as if the war didn't have an effect on them at all. Frankly, if you woke up with no memories at all in this place, you wouldn't know that there is a nationwide conflict going on. Sipping on some coffee, Mere relaxed trying to enjoy the pleasantries that a normal person would have access to. She is gonna enjoy the small time of freedom that was given to her. Taking a bite of her sandwich she peered over the table at Lamp, or T-Ray as she's calling him now, who was busy rhythmically tapping his fingers against the table while his eyes darted around at the people passing. Putting the sandwich down she let out a light huff.
"T-Ray."
"Wha-" he flinched before looking at Mere. "What?"
"Jeez, you look like you're a teen on his first date with a girl. Lighten up a bit will you?"
"Calm? I'm very calm. Don't need to worry about me, I'm very, very calm," he rattled off crossing his arms. His eyes studied Mere's doubtful face as she raised an eyebrow before he let out a breath. "Yeah... Got it. You know you could seem a bit more on edge."
"And for what? Being overly nervous isn't going to change much."
"Yeah but... How are they even gonna identify us as the package? We've got no way to communicate with them, no way of knowing if they know we're here, and a finite amount of money."
"We've got enough cash for two more days at that motel and enough for food if we ration it out. Not likely that two people come to the same cafe at noon every day... Well, okay, maybe there are a few people out there who can and will do that but... C'mon, that's low..." Mere tried to assure T-Ray as she took a sip of some coffee. "Besides... I'm sure they've got a picture to go off of. Unlike us, the regular forces, and definitely the special forces, aren't as technologically limited as we are," Mere tried to joke, which seemed to make T-Ray relax a bit. "Honestly feels like we're a caveman with the shit we're given."
"You're right... Still, it's strange to think we're even at war right now... You could hardly tell with how little the military presence is in this city," T-Ray nodded as he looked around more calmly. "Just people going about their day under a new leader... Not like they can really do much against Erusea as is... Best to continue life and hope that the war doesn't come knocking here..."
"I doubt it would come here. What's the strategic advantage of staging a battle here? Artiglio is a few hours' drive from here and that's been smashed to shit, there's no major airport, or big industry that would affect the war. Just continue on and hope the lines get pushed back past this area..." Mere went to take another bite of her sandwich when out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone approach the two.
"Hey, is this chair taken?"
"Ah, no that one is free," she quickly glanced up at the person and then back down to her sandwich when she paused mid-bite to look back at the person, her eyes widening. T-Ray's brow furrowed reading Mere's expression while his hand started to move to his waist band when the man put his hand up.
"Ah, no need for that," he dismissively stated as he pulled the chair back and took a seat with them. He had short orangish brown hair with olive green eyes with a rather large and broad build. He was in his late 30's, early 40's yet Mere's reaction was the most surprising and confusing T-Ray the most.
"Wha- Uncle? What are you doing here?" Mere's brow scrunched up as she put her sandwich down and looked at the man who sat down with a smirk.
"Ouch, I thought you'd be happier to see me. Come on, at least give me a bit of a warmer welcome. I'm the first one to come to visit you since you've been convicted." the stranger leaned back in his seat seemingly hurt by her words.
"Uncle...? Mere, who is this?" Mere looked back to T-Ray to explain when the man cut her off.
"For now... Call me.. Hmph, Archer. We've been trying to reach you about your plane's extended warranty that just expired," he joked as he reached for one of Mere's chips which she promptly smacked away. Archer let off a light chuckle as he rubbed his hand as his original playful demeanor shifted a bit. "Anyway, this isn't the place to be discussing these types of things. What matters right now is for us to get together with our friends tonight for a night out on the town."
"Can we stop at the motel we're at? We've got to grab some of our stuff in our room."
"We can arrange for that. I can get someone to pick you up for the meet-up," Archer said as he scooted his chair back. "Oh, and one last thing... Glad to see you're doing fine Kiddo." he smiled as he got up and promptly left. T-Ray's face was still scrunched up as he was processing the events that just transpired before he looked back at Mere.
"Archer huh... So much for worrying about how we'll get in contact with them... SF people just confuse me," T-Ray shook his head as he tried to look for the man they just met to find that he's already disappeared into the crowd.
"Well... we should get going too. We can talk a bit more in the car." Mere began to wrap up the rest of her food in a piece of paper seeming a bit happier. Her face and eyes held a sparkle he hadn't seen before. Throwing the rest of his sandwich into his mouth T-Ray nodded and got up as well following her out of the cafe.
"Honestly though, I kinda wished it would have taken a bit longer for them to find us," T-Ray sighed while Mere let out a light chuckle.
"What, you wanted a longer vacation out here?"
"I mean... If we could have gotten a few more days away from Zapland, the better," T-Ray rubbed the back of his head as the two walked up to the jeep. "Just wanted another day of 'normal' before going back to that God-forsaken place..."
"Leave it to Osea and their logistics systems. They can get anyone anywhere in just a matter of days," Mere smirked as she got in the driver's seat before looking at T-Ray in the passenger seat. "As for your earlier question, Uncle... heh, Uncle Archer is related to one of the pilots my Mom used to fly with."
"Quite the family... Pilots and Special Forces? Just who are you even..."
"Just a WSO in a military family... Nothing much," Mere dismissed as she started the jeep up and pulled out into the street. Making their way back to their motel, the two quickly went inside and packed their duffels. Heading back outside, a black SUV was waiting for them. Leaning against it were two men in plain clothing, baseball caps, and sunglasses trying to be as non-descript as possible. Glancing at T-Ray, he just shrugged as he walked towards them. Mere took a second to toss the jeep's keys through the open window bidding it a silent farewell and jogged over to the SUV.
"Come on, we don't have all day," one of the men urged Mere to get in the vehicle and into the back row before following behind her sitting in the second row. "Package secure, moving to the first rally point." The driver nodded his head as he turned out of the parking lot and into the street. Looking out the window, Mere's eyes tracked the jeep they borrowed watching it disappear behind a building. This whole situation would soon be far behind her.
"Well, you two have had quite the journey," one of the men commented looking back at them. "I'm Staff Sergeant McKinnon, the unit's medic. Are any of you injured?" Gingerly raising her hand, Mere scooted a bit forward undoing the buttons on her arm before rolling up the sleeve showing the gauze to the man. She replaced the gauze earlier that morning and took some painkillers but it still hurt to flex it. "Gunshot or shrapnel?"
"Shrapnel. Specifically weird darts. One stuck in the arm, another poked through completely," she informed him as he turned her arm over. Wincing a bit, he quickly looked it over before releasing it.
"Good news, we won't need to do a new field dressing. Doesn't seem like it's still bleeding but we'll probably need to keep you a few extra days once we're back at base."
"And I get sent off early back to the base?" T-Ray asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Injured ladies get special treatment around here," the soldier in the passenger seat said looking back. "Especially the pretty ones. Speaking of pretty ladies, would you-"
"No," Mere flatly said, trying to sound as uninterested as she could. The driver let out a laugh while the passenger just groaned a bit as he slapped a few 20s into the driver's hand. T-Ray looked amazed between all the members of the vehicle and all of his initial impressions of the cool high-speed operators just crumbled before him.
"Well, talk about the emphasis on Special in these Forces... You all are quite relaxed being this deep behind enemy lines," T-Ray expressed his own worries while the guy in the passenger turned around to address him.
"It ain't as deep as you think. This is more of a walk in the park with how close we are to the front lines. Military presence is surprisingly weak in this town and the surrounding area. The biggest concentration would be closer to the North of us or West of Artiglio Port. There isn't much to the South since the Big Bird has that area covered for the most part," the driver explained. "As for Sergeant Megraw here, he's the exception for our squad."
"Fuck you, Stevenson." Megraw flipped him the bird. "Though I have one question, how are you and the Major related? For a married man, he seemed extra amped to go on a CSAR mission to get a pretty lady when we were about to be pulled back to friendly lines. Didn't even get your names, just tac-names, and a mugshot."
"The Major? Ah, my mom used to fly with his lil' brother in the OADF. Hans is a close friend to me and my mother."
"With the Lil' Grimm Reaper? And your mother so that would… Ah, I get it now," McKinnon chuckled.
"Better start treading lightly Megraw if you don't want those demon's air striking your house later," Stevenson joked again. The idle conversation continued between the small group to the point that Mere hadn't noticed the other two vehicles that had joined up in this small convoy with their vehicle centered in the convoy. It was a bit surreal with how smooth everything was going as they drove out of the city and into the desert. She had a slight expectation that things would become more exciting, maybe even a checkpoint drive-through but… Well, boring is good. Boring is safe. A short drive later, they abandoned the vehicles continuing on foot to who knows where. Several miles later and after a few hours of waiting, the two were ushered into the back of a V-22 Osprey that came to pick them up. As quickly as it landed they were soon back in the air flying out of enemy territory. Peering out one of the port windows, Mere watched the arid terrain rush below them and hoped that their good luck wouldn't end in a fiery crash if some lucky-ass Erusean pilot just happened to spot the V-TOL. Playing with one of those darts that nearly took her life, she came up with a small plan for them once they made it back to Zapland. For now, she just needed to relax and enjoy their extended vacation.