5
‘You ready? On my mark ,we will rush them and complete this mission.’
I looked up from Medic patch on the left thigh to her. Cecilia, my wingman is on her haunches ready to pounced across the open range and hit the heavy gun position. I nodded my head as aknowledgement and grabbed my PK-235. I checked the last clip of ammo and re-acknowledged her request. Here we are, two pilots in the large muddy hole created by a conventional warhead. We are the last of the rescue team, and even our rescued personnel has gone to the maker.
And across us is the last heavy gun position belonging to the enemy stopping us from reaching the rescue craft.
It all started at midday when we flew in with the marines. There were six of us, including me and Cecilia, and we are do a pickup of one pilot who has crash landed here. Its not our role to do rescue but Command could not find pilots to go into the Hot Zone, even though the rescued personnel is one of the top commands staff. Whoever rescue him will be accredited and awards could be pinned on, but no one wanted it posted on their body capsule.
But not for Cecilia; she volunteered both of us and here we are.
The Hot Zone is hot with no cover except manmade ones and crater from conventional warhead. The craft is destroyed by self destruct and the Colonel is hiding in the crater. But he is pinned down by heavy enemy fires from two position and they are not letting him go home. We arrived on the cue and landed at the far end but nobody told us the battle lines has moved. We are now behind the enemy lines, and near those enemy position. They were kind to let us run the gauntlet with no shots on us; the marines went in and met the Colonel. Then the enemy took their number on the craft causing major damage and we had to bailed out. Both Cecilia and myself rushed to the crater and met the team.
And from then on, it was a series of firing practice and decoy runs. It was one of these runs, the sargeant of the marines managed to reach one of the enemy position and lobbed in his grenades. It took out that position but we are still down to one more. And we are also down to three personnel; both Cecilia and the Colonel. The Colonel told us he spotted a craft at the back of that position and if we can reach it, we can go home. So we planned and told ourselves we can make it. That was when the Colonel raised his head too high to calculate the required distance to run, and they ran him down with one volley. So we are down to two of us.
‘Go!’ she shout and I raised myself over the crater to run on my injured leg to the left while she took the right. As I was running, I was shooting at the enemy position with every bit of accuracy I could muster. She was doing the same but she has a PK-450 and she is bursting power from her hips. We will trying a pincer move and it seems to work, as the cannons took time to adjust to our plan. It went instead for Cecilia as she has the bigger gun. I stopped and went down my knees, while taking aim at the position. I was aiming at the gunner who was aiming at my love. I shot him at the side of his face beneath his helmet. And then I took my second shot at the other soldier, getting him on the chest before I ran out of ammo. Damned situation to be in, but I heard no shots from the enemy position. I slowly got up and walked over there limping most of the steps, and I looked into the enemy position. There was only dead men in there, and one smoldering heavy gun. It was then Cecilia came rushing in with her PK-450 and she did not released her trigger until the ammo ran out.
We looked at each other and walked onto the area where the craft mentioned by the Colonel was supposed to be. Its but its an old burned out shell of a transport craft. We lost five men for a burnt out metal piece. I took comms to contact for a new rescue pickup, and got aknowledgement of it coming soon. If we had stayed cosy in the crater, maybe all seven of us could have been alive, but we had to play soldiers to showed our courage.
Like this coming mission for the UGLY GETZ.
‘Command, we have a distress call from Transport 350ALPHA on route to Carrier Two Fleet. Do we respond?’ I saw the coordinates and the craft is near the Carrier Two Fleet position.
‘Negative, Ugly. Carrier Two can take care of their own. You are to maintain course.’ Shucks, how can Command said that. Transport 350ALPHA is ours and she is transporting cargo to Carrier Two, so technically placed, that is our boys in trouble there. I know Mason wh pilot that craft; he owes me his collection of BAT’s cards from the last bet which he lost.
I plotted my course and noticed if I shift by one point on the last number, the new course will collide with the coordinates of Transport 350ALPHA. I did exactly that and told the squad to follow me in. ‘We are going to test the new fuel on the thruster. So let contaminate the space with our exhaust.’
We did and we came to sight of Transport 350ALPHA. According to engagement rules, you do not avoid assistance if you see on your visual. So we saw one craft of our being engaged by three Lions. So we provided assistance.
‘Recon, do your sweep from below at 35 degree angle. Apollo, sailed in from the top at 25 degree angle. I want them in a crossfire. I will come in head on but above the 350. Lets put the Lion’s tail.’ We came in like the experts and complete the job within the time frame.
It was then Recon hail us on comms; ‘ Lions on the prowl at your fore. Scanner picked up ten of them coming in fast and fierce. Looks like we hit the cubs and the main pack is out for us.’
‘UGLY GETZ; you are on your own on the floor. Do your dance and come home safe.’ So we flew on ahead in formation for the new pack of Lions. Its the kind of odds we like to play with; the outnumbered ones.
‘Recon, break starboard and Apollo to the port. I will take the strays left behind.’ I am hoping to ease the odds with the Lions split up to take on us. But I was wrong in the numbers. Recon and ‘93 got her tail of two Lions to contend, while Apollo and Zeus got their pair too. But No.1 and myself got five of them on our nose.
‘No.1, we got to break formation. Take what you can get, and we will regroup later.’
Maybe it was his callsign because he had three of them on his sight, and I had only two. I nosed up and turned to port to line for a loop run, but they read my flight plan and kept on flying before they split to turn back on me. Now I have one on my nose and another coming on my starboard. I waited for missiles with my thumb on the countermeasures switch, but they did not fire any. Instead they came in with blazing cannons took some edges off my wings before I swerved off. Its my turn now for the clawing and I came in hot on the enemy coming at my starboard earlier.
My last turn put me on the same runway with that craft and I let loose my cannons. I could see the cannons blast shearing off the right wing on the Lion’s craft, causing it to spiral off on my starboard. But my victory is not defined yet, as I saw the blast across my bow. I had slowed down to take that last shot and it saved my life, because if I had move at my thruster speed, I will be in the line of fire by now.
Now I did a tight turn and lined up the Lion on my cannon sight. I pressed the trigger to let loose my ammo on the oncoming Lion. It tore off the Lion’s right wing, and it lost its flight momentum and went into a spiral. I followed suit with my cannons to give it the coup de grace. I then scoured the scanners for my missing No.1. I found him on my aft starboard, with two Lions’ to contend with. He must had taken one and now there are two left. I pedal down my thruster to come from the rear of the Lions; so fast that they did not had time to react. My forward cannons was doing the introductions and when I flew passed them, my wing’s gun took on the offensive. It must had been my lucky day as both of them got hit from that pass.
‘No.1, you’ okay? We cleared them off.’ I was watching the leftover of our battle when No.1 craft drew abreast to mine. I looked across to see No.1 and all I could see was lowered helmet in the cockpit. It was then I saw the punture holes on the side of this cockpit. They led from his cockpit to the nose, but it did not break the hull.
‘No.1, give me your status?’ But I got no status. He must had drawn his last breath when he came to my line fo sight. He is telling me to take him home for him and his craft. We lost no craft that, but only one very good pilot. Senior Pilot Gery Paul clocked in 129 sorties and 68 kills, but he saved one Scimitar today which is rare. We were never the same from that day. UGLY GETZ became more mean and selfish with their kills from other squad. We flew more patrol and messed up Lions’ attack more than we can count, but we did not lose our next members by flying, it was actually on friendly fire.
Lauren aka ‘93 was flying back from patrol and her engine stalled on the route. So she told me she needed to kick the gauges to kickstart on it. I told her to rush up as supper was on in twenty nodes. And if she is late, she will not get the picks of the dessert. When I landed, I logged in as usual signalling that the squad is back. I forgot to mentioned Lauren is out there. When all crafts are back in the Carrier, the system takes over the defence of the Carrier; in this case it checks for advancing crafts and their signature or callsign. The system detected Lauren’s craft and established her ID, but according to the log records, she should be be in with the rest. So the system takes this is a rogue and initiate defences. The cannons lined her slow moving craft and blew it off the starboard. She never knew why and neither did we until Recon roughed up the Tech.
From then, we fly in and out together and never leave anyone out there unattended. But we took no new recruits as we did not want any.
‘Ian, if I turned out to be different person from what you know of me, would you still love me?’ I disliked it when she is one of those moods to ask me questions I cannot answer. I turned over on my bunk to faced the woman who shared my bunk and flight hours.
‘Cecilia, we are all different person under different circumstanes. Remember the Hot Zone, I was scared to death after being shot, but you were calm and planned the counter attack. But in other instances I was the one who was calm while you ran panicked.’
‘Ian, I am saying what if I am with the enemy like a spy; would you love me?’ I laughed at her remark and pulled her into my arms. ‘If you are with the enemy, then I may joined you there too. I can’t bear to live without you.’ She laughed at my reply and we both dropped the subject.
‘We are flying escort to the frigate Devan One back to her repair base at Trigan Quadrant. Keep your sensors on and those eyes open. Lions are seen in the nearby quadrant.’
Devan One is a Class H frigate 5,000 weight class with eight twin cannons and four missiles launchers, manned by one hundred crews. She took on a major hits in the last battle where her heroic acts saved Carrier One from extensive damages by the Lions. She is now limping into the repair base with only twenty five surviving crews and her Commander Ellen Bain Lane, plus one big hole in her portside where the ammo store was located. The managed to seal and controlled the fire, thus saving the frigate from total collapse of the hull.. Unknown to my squad, I been briefed on a possible ‘fifth column’ in the ranks, and we are to try to flush the traitor out. According to Intel, the traitor may contact his side to arrange for a extraction and we want to be there to take it down. I am flying with Recon as wing man on the starboard while the other pair flies on the port. The sensor picked them up coming in fast.
‘Rhino’s! They got two Rhino, one Transporter and six Lions’, fast on our stern. The Rhino is a big craft with bigger cannons. She is shaped elongated with a curved up cockpit and they are normally called ‘tank ship’ for their formidable firepower . Below the cockpit is are her main cannons; all four of them. If the Rhino shoots at your craft, its possibility you need not be rescued at all. Rhino’s love to hunt frigates especially sick ones.
‘Uglies! Do ye worst....’ I urged in my squad to engaged and then I punched in the coded message. The Intel person will now lead the crew out of the frigate into the Transport 350Alpha on the top deck. It will housed the crew and take off for safety while we intercept the enemy crafts. The frigate will be set for auto destruct upon extraction.
Admiral thinks that the traitor will try to salvage the frigate as its supposed to contain the latest tracking system inside its frame. Admiral has been right so far; he said Rhino’s will come and scared the crew and then take over the frigate. So while Admiral play detective, we are on the way to bite some Lion’s tail.
‘Leave the Lions’; take the Rhino’s. Split them up and take them down.’ I went in the middle of the pack with my cannons blazing causing the enemies crafts to break for cover. I turn port with Recon and chased three of them Lions’ to run decoy. I saw on my scanner that the Recon and Apollo has led the other Lions’ too. That leaves Zeus feigning to run but he just did a sharp turnaround. He is gunning those Rhino’s, which is heading for the frigate. I cut off my thruster to drop the craft to a near stand still. I watched those three Lions over shot me on my port and starboard. Now I pedal in the thruster and went for the one on the starboard. Lone one out of the pack calls for some lessons in survival. My gun tore off his main thruster before I veered off to challenge the other two coming on my port.
I ran a zig zag course heading towards them, evading their cannons. It was then I noted the difference; they have no missiles.They are all armed with cannons like me. I can see the cannons firing on the wings and the nose, that tells me these squad is different. I heard of them; they are named the ‘Gunfighters’; paid mercenaries who took the cause for monetary gains. They have to be trained by my mentor turned professional combat pilot, Clarence Mitt. He was Command best combat trainer, and he fought with cannons. Like that way he taught me, come in close and clinch the deal.
‘Ugly, I see you are here. Been a while, son.’ That was the comms on the open band, for use in communicating with any near crafts; more like chat line.
‘Sir? I mean Commander. I see you work your magic on some new boys.’ I had to swerve to port to avoid those cannons from the Lion. Her mate is coming in from my port too, trying to set me up for a crossfire. I turned the stick to swing out further to avoid the trap.
‘Yup, Ugly. Been a while. See you still got those skills in you. But watch your aft for surprises.. and send my love to Cecilia when you see her. ’ That was when he must had shot off part of my port wing; just enough for me to limped back. I looked at my rear and saw his craft. Its a Scimitar V2.0 and he has called on his boys to retreat. ‘There will be another day, but there may not be a missed call. Be careful, son.’
Zeus clinched the Rhino’s; destroying one and disabling the other. Intel also got their traitor, the navigator assistant with a string of confessions. And me, a date with a long hidden memory.
‘Son, I am leaving Command. I am going to fly professional; join the border wars. Care to join me? You are always welcome as my wingman.’
I looked at the elderly man who taught me how to survive in a Scimitar and saved my wings more than twice. He is my idol as a father and the only one I would allowed to call me ‘son’. But I just lost my wingman in a totally freak manner. Cecilia took my opponent in a suicide crash when I am stranded with no ammo on me. That was the last of the pirate’s and she flew her Scimitar in like a missile. I knew her loads was there, but she told they won’t disengaged on her console. So she is stuck with dead missiles on her rack.
Before she rammed the pirate, she told me on comms that she is love me and to remember her always. I did with my craft named after her and my callsign to Ugly. I also said no to my mentor and told I am staying in Carrier One as combat pilot to make sure I can save more like Cecilia. He left me that day just like Cecilia. I buried two love that day, and one just came to haunt me.
‘Commander, Zeus requested for leave of absence. His wife just died from her long term illness.’
Don;t we all lose someone we love at some time, but we all come back to be with the ones still living.
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