Ugly Part 10

10

‘Red Drag, this is ridiculous.’ I argued with the woman on her order, and she reprimanded me to address her properly as Flight Command and not by her callsign.

‘Flight Command, you asking me to put the Uglies to undergraduate of Pilot Combat. This is absurd and do you realised the risk involved? We could all be killed out there on some half baked commands.’ I wanted to add that to her current order, but I held back my tongue. I know Flight Command Rebecca Lane is trying to impress her Admiral on his son’s coming graduation but the old man’s son is not due for another six months and even if he passed the academy colors, to us he is a fragging novice in the Scimitar.

And now she wants me to let him lead on this next patrol. Talking about suicide missions, this is ranked No.1.

‘Commander Ian, if I may remind you I am your superior officer and the Admiral need to see how confident is his son in the combat craft. As this is a patrol, and within this quadrant, we do not  anticipate to meet Lions’; I would strongly suggest you take my order and do it. Do I need to repeat myself, Commander Ian.’

If I had get her to repeat herself, it would her PK-325 at my mouth. I just nodded at her request and took my salute of her as my superior officer.

‘Commander Ian, make sure he comes back intact and not a scratch, or you are scrubbing launching bays for the rest of your career.’ I be damned if I am going to scrub any floors, and since its his command, let him do the fragging commands and orders.

‘Commander Ian, thank you for letting me fly with your team. I heard of the Uglies and they are not pretty to hear.’ I liked the young pilot sense of humour, but he has no common sense to tell his father off on this senseless action. I can see the old man; Admiral Bradley Marlin in his pressed clean uniform standing at the observation deck, proud of his son’s; Pilot Steven Marlin first flight into danger.

And there is mama too, with her equally smart uniform as Senior Intel Officer. I am sure she’s done her work on the quadrant and is cleared of any pesky crafts.

I got Hot Stuff to be his wingman, and instruction to run on sign of any trouble. Recon and myself ran alongside them on their port while Oldman and Spitfire played to their starboard. It s a routine patrol and nothing does happened on routine patrol. But there is nothing routine of roque Lions’ to come out and prowl.

Today was no exception, we got on our returning flight the warning of Lions on our tails. There are about eight of them and they are coming in fast.

‘Hot Stuff, cover your rear and do as per instruction.’ But the comms came from him; his callsign is ‘Checkmate’. And he is countering my order.

‘Ugly, this is my command. I want to tackle those Lions’. We are going in for the fight.’ That was his call as Commander today, and I had to comply with it. I told Recon to fly near them so she can do the needed.

‘Ugly, what is yoru status?’ That was Flight Command and she is mad. I told her Checkmate taken command as agreed and now calling for engagement.

‘Are you fragging mad, Ugly? Get his craft out of there. I am sending the Barracuda to assist now.’

But I did not answer as I veered off to the portside. I can see the distance between the Lions and my team, and I am not running away. I am just vectoring in on their portside to break their flight formation. I did a sharp turn and pedalled down my thrusters, and I am shooting across those Lions like a mad man. I opened fire at them to catch their attention so they will break their oncourse towards the team.

I did it; they broke the formation and now flying on solo courses.

'Uglies, picked your Lion and burned up their tails.’ I got mine in sight and now tagging her in twist and turns. She could not get far before my cannons stopped her flight. She went up in a ball of flame and I am on the reversed loop for my next Lion. I see Checkmate on the run from a Lion, but Recon managed to cut in to deter that one off. Hot Stuff swung to picked up the Lion and took its tail off. I was concerned on Checkmate so I pushed for his portside. So was a Lion coming in at his starboard.

‘Nosed down, Checkmate. I will take the Lion.’ And for once he listened and my cannons ripped the Lion’s back to the thruster. She also took her last prey that day. I swing back in another sharp turn to see Checkmate has hightailed back to the rear, with Hot Stuff. I thanked my Gods he saw the light to sit out as the rest of us played infield. Recon got her Lion and at the same time as Oldman’s and I am chasing mine now. But they had enough of us and retreated to their own space area.

‘Time to go back, Uglies and another day is over.’ We landed to a party of medics and a set of anxious parents. I did not see it, but Checkmate was hit in the left leg. The shot must had came from under to the left and pierced his armour plate and went through the cockpit cover. He got away with a nasty gash on the leg, and is now treated. I saw Flight Command walked up to me and took me to the side.

‘Commander Ian, the next time I do this, shut me up, will ya?’

I nodded my acknowledgement to her request. I saw the Admiral looking at me and gave me his nod. Somehow I felt lost inside and I was glad my team came back alive. Checkmate recovered in time and was send to 350Alpha Transport. I also heard that he is with Hot Stuff on those break times, but who is counting and looking when we got a war on.

Then I got the shock of the day; Recon and Oldman’s calling it a day and will be retiring their commission. They decided to call it quits before they ended up like Grateful and now is leaving for a far out colony to settle there. That was my surprise as I never did see the two coming on strong before or maybe I am too pre-occupied with my command to see it.

But the second shock came when I got my new recruits. They are fresh from the combat training.

Pilot McGregor aka Lucky; newly graduated and thinks he is a cardplayer first and combat pilot second. He joined to avoid the collectors for his debts. And the next was Pilot Marilyn Anne Thames; also newly graduated and is the niece of Cecilia. She does not have a callsign or can’t agreed on one which she can hold onto.

Then there is Checkmate. He re-joned combat against his father’s wishes, and he got it in the end without his father’s knowledge. And it was the father’s choice to push him to me, as he knows I can take care of Junior.

‘Hi Ian, its been a while since I last saw you. Cecilia spoke you often but its sad she died when I was in training.’ I don;t know how to do this, but I told her get some rest and we will talk later.

But we never did; a mission came up and its simple one. We just have to sneaked in on one moon and do a recon and come back. I loved these missions as most times, we have Lions’ to contend with. We had our briefing and then we took off on the Scimitar’s. I told Marilyn that her callsign is Sister Love, so she will be safe from Lions’ as protected by the Gods’.

The moon we came on from a distance out from space looks quiet and serene, but looks can be deceiving. I told Spitfire and Sister to do orbit recon for any surprises. I know I am playing nanny for Cecilia’s niece but she is too green to go down. I got Hot Stuff and Lucky to fly just above the clouds when we go in. 

‘Checkmate, fly on my portside, and watch those scanners. And avoid any comms until we cleared the topside.’ I did that to tell him to buckle down for mission and stop thinking about Hot Stuff. We went down to the surface and scout the coordinate given. I know Hot Stuff is doing top cover and watching our flanks. For some reason we came clear back to the orbit with no encounters of any Lions’.

‘Okay its time to hit for base. It’s been a long day.’ I hit the coordinates to go back to Carrier One. I was the last hit the thruster when the call came in. It was on the emergency band and its weak and there is static in the transmission. A call on that band normally means downed pilots so I kicked up the band volume and listened in hard. I tuned out the static and adjust the receiver direction.

‘Pilot in need of assistance. Callsign Grateful, Carrier One. Over.’ And it was repeated over and over again.

Damn! Grateful is alive, and here. But we are light years from the quadrant we were fighting in. So it can’t be, but then this is against all protocol to ignore distress calls.

‘Grateful, who is your squad commander?’ I was feeling tensed now as I am the only craft here. The rest are already on their journey back to the Carrier.

‘Ugly! Ugly Darkling. Is that you, Ugly?’

‘Who is your wingman and what is his name?’ I hate to do this but I had to be doubly sure.

‘Senior Pilot Anderson Main aka Old man. Used to be 350 pilot.’

Now I know I got my man back.

I radioed the team and Carrier. We stayed until the 350Alpha arrived and a rescue effort was mounted for Grateful.

Later he told us, he landed on the surface and survived for three days before the enemies found him. He was send to the Brig and later to some moon nearby for questioning. It was hell to be there, waiting at stretch and then being questioned for days. Finally they let him off on a transporter to some prison colony but they were set on by pirates. The Transporter was attacked and the main system went dead. He found his cell unlocked and in the confusion, he jumped into a escape pod and landed here. Its his twelve day there when he saw the Scimitar. He raced back to the pod to activate the emergency band. And prayed for rescue.

And I got my whole squad back to full strength. He asked about Oldman and Recon, and I told him. That kept him silent for two days and finally he spoke. ‘I have still a reason to fight and until then, I am keeping that reason to myself’.

I was relieved at his decision. I needed good pilots now.

‘Ian, meet Thomas Thames, my brother. Actually my half brother; his mum was married to my dad and she died and he re-married my mum. And that’s why we looked so different. And he looks older.’ I saw the Comander insignia and I immediately saluted.

‘At ease, Senior. I am here in my personal capacity to see Cecilia, and you too. So Cecilia tells me a lot about you and how both of you met. So shall we have a drink while we talked.’ I did just that and had my limit over before I could come to the part on why Cecilia is in my bunk. But Commander Thames was not keen to know my personal details. He was just here on a routione check and was leaving soon for his own base. It was then Cecilia asked about Marilyn; apparently they stayed together for a while before Cecilia went for Combat training. The brother told her Marilyn is thinking of joining Combat too unlike he father who is in Support & Logistics.

But soon we bade him farewell, and he was last heard two months later to had died in a raid on his base by some sabotuers. Cecilia did not attend his funeral as she was too distraught to do so, and was crying when we are not flying. I had to console her and kept her from the Flight Command or she will be grounded for emotional instability.

‘Is it that boring in combat? I only fly recon and patrols and nothing else.’ I looked at my young niece and smiled. Its true that in the last two weeks, we had not seen any combat activities and that is uncomfortable to think of. I checked with NAV and they confirmed all the quadrant swept are cleared of hostiles. So we just got to sit back and relaxed.

Maybe the war is over. And we just don;t know it yet.

Or we are dead and we do not know that too.

Or there is something big happening and we don;t know that too.

Or maybe we all needed to buckle in for more action as we come to wrapping up Season 1 of UGLY SQUADRON.