Ugly 1 Part 3

3

I counted twenty five technicians and fifty guards, on two rotations. Four towers with heavy armaments and twenty alert sensors at the entrance of the cave and near the cave. There is two Missile Launcher; some distance away but one on each side of the cave. Those are the bastards who took Cecilia. The Launchers are guarded by two guards each on the rotation basis.

The accomodations of the men are inside the caves next to the crafts, and the technicians hardly ventured out to the forest. I reckon my best chances are either to walked into the cave and surrender, or go in guns’ blazing. That way they can main me, captured me, interrogate me, and maybe allowed me to demonstrate on how to fly the craft. Or I can take out the guards one by one, allowing for them to move into my gun sight position. That assuming I killed half of them by daylight and the other half by night time, I might make it there before their reinforcements arrived.  

But I think I got a better one. And this is how I will do it.

I went to the nearest Launcher and watched their routine. The two guards are relieved at near dusk by the two new guards. The relieved guards walked back to the cave. When they reached the sensors, they raised a receiver on them to clear the sensors. But the sensors are near the Tower which has one guard. Sometimes I see the guard on the Tower talks to the returning guards. So its tricky to walked just like that. I needed a diversion.

And I got it.

I took the first guard down at the Launcher with a head shot. When his friend turned to what happened, I shot him too in the head. I had to wait for the right moment to shoot, and that moment came when the guard went over to the nearby tree to released himself. When he came back, I shot him down from behind. I removed the bodies to the side and changed into the uniform. I could not find the receiver, so I assumed it is with the other guards; the one relieving them.

I then proceeded to work on the Launcher unit. I rigged it to fire at a certain time, and I was ready. The relieved guards came on time, and started asking for the missing man. I fired my PK-235 at his head and also to his surprised friend. I took the receiver and walked back to the cave. I stopped before the Tower to wait my timing. Then I saw the opportunity when the guard was facing to the other side. I quickly walked up and passed the Tower. I saw him looking down so I holler out; ‘wait...’ as if the other person has walked into the cave. “wait’ was one of the few words I knew. I was hoping that the guard on the tower cannot see far into the cave due to the dark shadows in the cave at this time. I know the lights will be turned on soon when its get darker.

I walked up the crafts to see them clearly. In my uniform the technicians were ignoring me and moreover it was near to their meal times. And they were leaving for their accomodations.

Its the Carrier Five Fleet crafts and they all showed marks of fire and damages. I noticed some of them had their parts removed and they willl not fly. It was then I saw the fitted one with the cannons intact. She has  fuel and ready for flight. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see a technician talking to me, I know he is asking me what am I doing here, and I gave him my answer.

I lowered his body to the nearest pile of discarded parts in the near corner. I made my way back to the craft I saw earlier. I climbed in and sat on the familair seat I know of. I punched in the codes and the plane slowly rumbled to life. I checked the indicators and levels. Its low in fuel but I can fly it. Its low in ammo and only one gun is working. But it will fly.

By then the whole cave was lighted up and guards and technicians were running around. I pedalled out the craft and turned it towards starboard. As I did the turn, I pulled the trigger as I used to do always. I swerve the craft from there to port, strafing the other crafts. Some of the bullets must had hit fuel tanks because they are some explosions. It was then I rolled the craft out to the entrance and nosed up the craft. She took off on her own inertia and it was then the rigged Launcher fired its missile. I set the Launcher to fire its missile in a straight direction and the launcher was positioned to face the cave entrance. When I took off in the craft, I swung to the other Launcher which was calculating its countdown and arming its missile. I took my cannons to it, causing a massive explosion when I hit the missile itself. 

Then I was flying off the forest into the clouds and onto the open space. I am flying with no more ammo and low on fuel, but I have a working comms set. I called in the reinforcements and was rescued within the moment. The Carrier One made sure there are no more hidden bases there on Q101M1.

‘Lieutenant Commander Stone, welcome back to the fleet. Your report has been reviewed and we did find debris of Scimitar crafts in the area, and we acknowledge the return of one which is badly damaged. But we found no more new enemy bases. So it could be a clandestine operation of some pirates who is trying to salvage our crafts, and not our real enemies. But we are holding you in disobeying an order. You were supposed to fly recon on Q101 and why did you go to Q101M1.  We are not keen on your reply as during your absence, we lost five more pilots. So you are suspended on your charges if you return to active duty.’

Do I have a choice?

I did not care as I see my ‘Cecilia’ in her new body.

The markings of APPOLO has been replaced with STRIKER. And so are her missiles launchers,

Now a new set of cannons are in place. The rest are still the same; salvaged parts of some lost squadrons’. But to me, she is still my ‘Cecilia’ and I am married to her.