Ugly Part 8

The battle scars seldom cures by itself. You may need another to do it. And time to allow it.

8

If there is any commendation to be given, it should be to the Intel Officer who led us walked into the trap where we lost so many friends. That way we know who to shoot at the next target practice. The rollcall that day was three thousand five hundred and three officers and ensigns, with the wounded at about eight hundred. A total of five hundred and four cannot be found their remains. The Admiral was kind to release the drinks limit in the bars at the mess halls. I drunk more than my share and in the process took down an officer for rude remarks on Cecilia. We both got thrown into the Brig which was also cramped with others. All in we drown our fears and sorrows for two days while the fleet was in the docks for repair. Later we were back on active duty flying with the new recruits; honing their skills to matched ours.

I checked on Cecilia and saw she been given the refurbishment from Techs. They cleaned her insides and rubbed her hull with this new refractory paint job, and then slapped on her the new prints. Her cannons was stripped down and serviced with care, and so was her ammo packs. I could swore if I licked her wings, I would had tasted the pretzels left by the Tech but I won’t do it to him. I climbed into the cockpit and start her engine up. I can see the gauges are reporting normal and she is one new baby now. Or re-done in her parts. I took her out for a test flight; did some twist and turns; drove her thruster to maximum and watched her rattle her hull. And then cut off the engine to see her drift. It was like old times with Cecilia.

It was after our failed rescue mission in the Hot Zone, Command decided that we needed break from active duties. So they send us off to a breezy sea rushing sandy establishment on some far out outpost. We were kept in this infirmary for combat pilots; rescued or in need of some rescue. But both Cecilia and myself are fine except some occassional late dreams of fighting Lions’. By the third night, we had sneaked out of the place and crash the local drinking hole. And then it was back to the vast compound of the infirmary, but we slept outside in the compung watching the skies and the waves creeping up the sandy beach. We did not speak a word since we came back here, as words will not describe our acts in details.

We were awakened by the guards coming in to check on two possible intruder into the compound, which caused us to get up and run for cover. We decided to play our training role in stalking and evasion with the guards. For over three hours, we out run and out smart ten guards looking for us until we hit the wrong walkway. We walked right into the Flight Commander Rebecca Long in her infirmary dress and smoking her cigar. And that end our training and rest in the establishment. We were posted to active duty the next day and left on the next flight; leaving two recuperated pilot to wait for the next shuttle.

We loved Red Drag since that day; she knows our preference better than anyone else.

Carrier One is back to active status and full complement of vessels and crafts. So is UGLY GETZ as we got four new recruits.

Lieutenant Gratz Mon aka Grateful; previously Bronco now with us. He asked for the transfer when Bronco was given a new commander. He is good but temperamental. And fragging choosy of his commander.

Senior Pilot Anderson Main aka Old man; previously from 350Alpha, just passed Advanced Combat so he is assigned here. Used to fly Scimitar 1.5 but moved to transport on short good pilots. Now back in combat and he is older than me. He’s ancient by combat age.

Pilot Peterson Spits aka Spitfire; newly graduated and thinks he is a descendants of pilots when combat pilot was introduced. But he is poor pilot as he just graduated ebcause there was not enough pilots to full the quota.

Pilot Joan Pierre aka Hot Stuff; newly graduate and darned good in her class, surpassed all her instructors in sumulated combat. She is also Flight Commander’s niece, so that makes her extra special. Reckon I will take care of her niece. So frag it, Flight Commander; she flies like any others.

I took them out on three flights and came back with their pairings; Grateful and Oldman; Spitfire to cover Hot Stuff. The later blew his disagreement, and we settle that on a one on one between them. He lost to her in three straight simulation tests. But like Cecilia and me, they found each other to be very comforting.

‘Okay, Uglies. We are playing decoy to lure some Lions out of the moonbase. Then New Bronco; renamed by the new commander to make it his, will take our flanks to assist. Remember this, we are decoy and played like one. No heroics acts as this is your maiden mission, and I want to see all of you at the bar.’

I disliked when emotions get to into your system, which is what Grateful did to himself. He flew slighly out to port ignoring Oldman’s call to formed in. I intervened and caution off Grateful on private channel. He took the warning and settle in with us. Its a fifteen minutes flight before we hit their scanner range and from there to Lions’ arrival, we got another five minutes. New Bronco with their full strenth of fifteen Scimitar’s riding our exhaust at ten minutes lapse and will be our flankers. So we cruise in slow and steady, with lots of chatter to attract them Lions.

‘Ugly, we got boogies coming in fast. I counted twenty of them and they are split in two packs; I repeat two packs of ten Lions’.’ I checked my scanners and confirmed her findings. I rouse up the squad to swing back as discussed. But not Grateful; he went in to meet these Lions’ in full thrust. Bastard earned his courtmartial date, but I am not leaving anyone behind. I retract my command and told them to follow Grateful. The maidens are going to be uglies or die trying.

‘Ugly, one pack leaving while the other is onto us.’ I can understand that, as we are only six to ten of them. But I got a plan,a nd it involved ‘Grateful’. ‘Grateful, this is your do good deed now. Fly for the second pack and bring them to roost. If not don’t bother to come back. Ugly out.’

Grateful slammed his feet on the pedal I think as I can see the red hot flame on his thruster. He turned to port side to gain on the second pack. He is even shooting some tracers to them, even though they are too far to be deadly. ‘Oldman his trusted wingman followed suit, although I can hear him mumbling his prayers on the comms. I saw the secondpack turned to faced Grateful who is still coming on. It was then, the first pack came onto us, and a dog fight was underway.

‘Squad, clear the runway. Do as discussed.’ I turned my craft to head for the coordinates which we discussed. I held my stick and hoped New Bronco is listening in. All four Scimitar turned tail and ran, like we planned and pursue by ten Lions’. I watched my scanner to see Grateful still on collision course with the second pack. He is either crazy or he is a genius as the second pack is really rolling to take the kill.

‘Five seconds to the rendevous and this is my new command. On my call, we break and convene on the second pack. We do not leave our people alone.’ I hear them acknowledgement like reliefs to the ears. On the cue of our coordinates, we broke for the sides as New Bronco came into our flanks, and caught the first pack of ten Lions’ on the tail. I pressed my pedal down and fly in to assist Grateful and Oldman. Upon arrival, I can see Oldman being chased by four Lions’ and Grateful got three on his tail. They been playing with them Lions’. The remaining Lions are on the drift near them and now sees us.

‘Spitfire/Hot Stuff, Grateful yours; while Recon and myself will take on Oldman’s’ We took our flight and moved in on the flanks.

‘Ugly, the three pigs are loose from their shed.’ I know that from my scanners but I have to eased off the pressure from Oldman and Grateful. ‘I copy that, Spitfire. I will get Oldman off the hook first.’

‘Oldman, once you are cleared; double back on those pigs. Grateful you copy.’ I got my Lion in the sight and I am tearing her hull, but she got cleaned away. Not from me she won’t, as I pursue her down but i got one on my tail, but Recon swept in to clear the pest. She is turning her nose to starboard with one Lion on her tail. I can see Grateful taking his Lion before he hit the pedal to hit the three piggies.

Okay, here is my cue to do this trick; I shut off the thruster and let her drift and then threw the switch on. But frag my Tech, the engine won’t start and I can see the Lion turning to hit me. I pressed and pushed the fragging switch but it won;t kicked in. The other Lion is on the rebound and I am shooting my cannons to deter her, but darned engines still won;t start. I let go off my start button and took my concentration on the gunsight. I want the Lion to come in and be in my line of fire, but she is evading it well. I pressed the start button again, and this time she spurted out her excess fuel in the engine and slowly kicked in, But that was a good push as the cannons hit the Lion in the nose. I am not let og of the opportunity as I keopt my trigger down. There she goes in a ball of flames and so was my thruster, and I am flying again. I turned my Scimitar to see Recon took care of her tail in a rear loop turn onto her pursuer. I checked on the rest and see they are alright as three Lions’ roared back to their base.

‘Let us assist New Bronco now.’ We took flight to our last coordinates and saw the extend of New Bronco damages. They lost two Scimitar’s piloted by good pilot, but was not in the lucky draw today. The enemy loss was eight Lions’ but it did not go well with the new Commander. He felt the crafts were not tune to battle readiness and that caused his loss of two crafts. No one wants to say the Commander is wrong even though he can be wrong in his report. We will never know except the ones who flew there that mission.

‘Ian, did you check the last service log? It said I had a faulty left thruster and it needed to be replaced.’ I looked at Cecilia and smiled at her. ‘So what’s the issue if they need to change the part? Its for your good and she will fly better the next you are out there.’

‘But she is flying well out there. I just took her for a routine test flight and she is handling well. So why do they need to repair my thruster? Do you know out there, we need that more than our guns. We need the extra push to hump our hull out of the mess. I am talking to Main Tech to halt his repairs until they double check my log.’

I watched her hump her beutiful body down to the Launching Bay to find Main Tech. We are all combat pilots and we know our crafts like our own body. If we feel she can hump and jump, we know she can hump and jump, or we won’t fly. And today is no exception.

‘Red Head, did Tech do anything on your Thruster?’ She told me yes they did, and removed a lot of parts too. She is not too happy and wants to do some flight test now. I said she can as we are recon and there is nothing here at all. Her craft flew as smooth as any Scimitar’s I seen, and soon she is back at my portside.

‘Red Head, you happy’ I spoke to her and punched in the return coordinates. I got no answer from her and neither did she speak about it for the next two days. Guess, she is too proud to swallow her mistake on the thruster. But she got Tech to adjust her thruster for the next three flights until she is satisfied with her thruster sound and feel.

Never can tell how one feels in the only thing that can mean death or alive to them in battle. I would double check the same if its my Scimitar.

Briefing was brief as expected for all eighty Scimitar pilots on Carrier One. We are on a ‘need to know’ basis, and this is one need to less basis. All we were told was to fly to a particular coordinate and rendevous with the Mission Leader, Madhatter. There our orders will be given, and the vines tells this is a biggie. More than the last fight we had with those darned carriers. We cross referenced the coordinates and its showed us some asteroid field at the Menot Quadrant. Mission time is 0400hrs and we got three hours sleep for now.

I was lying in my bunk when Recon came knocking. I told her to come in and she did with a bottle and two glass. She wants to talk and I could not sleep, so we did the drinking and she talked. She told me of her family and her boy. Her husband died a year before her son, from a freak accident in the working place, leaving her and her son. He was groomed by the father to be a pitcher in the BAT’s game, but both of them will never realised their dreams.  She told me she was on mission when they strike her home planet and the boy died in the shelter. She was teary and as for me, I was on my fifth glass.

It was then she asked if I could hold her like her husband. I reached out and held her tight and we slept in the same bedding for one hour. We did nothing but held each other in the arms and slept. It was the alarm who woke me up and recon excused herself to freshen up. Sometimes in moments like these, we need to get our emotions sorted out before we fly or we lose it all out there.

‘Uglies, I got new coordinates. I am punching them over. Ignore your last given coordinates and take this new set. I repeat, ignore the last set and take this new set.’  The last time we did this, it was a real biggie mission and the coordinates was only given on takeoff.

Our new coordinates took us to a moon in Terma Quadrant. And we are not alone, as I see more than ourselves there. Squads of Scimitars are taking off as we drifted in, plus there are Herveys’ and Bombardiers’. This is a major op setup place and we just arrived. Our orders came and we are flying off to the new coordinates. It landed us on the inner rim of the Terma Quadrant behind a small moon. Next to us are some Scimitars from New Bronco and I can see like two squads here all from Carrier Two. There are about fifty of us here in drift mode. And we are reporting to Commander Jason of Predator from Carrier Two. Jason callsign is Predator One.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, we got our orders. Keep in these coordinates and be ready in two minutes. Our mission is support on Herveys and Bombardiers from Lions’. Happy hunting.’ We broke atmosphere cover to meet the oncoming Lions. Scanners picked up sixty five of them in our sector. Scanners also picked up surface missiles coming at us before the Lions. Countermeasures are launched for them missiles, while some drones are launched from the Herveys’ behind us for counter attacked on the launchers. Its a series of explosions as the missiles are countered or the heavy blanket cannon shots from the Bombardier took off some missiles in flight.

Then the Lions came in roaring, and we break formation to tackle these Lions’.

Before we snapped at the Lions’, Grateful was out of commission by a lucky shot of the cannons from the Lions’. His Scimitar went spiral as the shots took off his right wing. I saw Grateful ejected out and his parachute opened. But my attention was onto the Lions and they are upset at the intrusion on their morning sleep. We are flying in with the sun in our stern and that is basic training. Its a slammed into their formation as we swept past them, while our cannons blast the way open. I loved my own designs on the cannons as it keep my option of range open. Both my nose and wings are firing and I see some damages done. We are through the defences but we are turning back to get at them. And so are they in their rebound. I see some of the crafts has levelled off and doing their twists to unlodged aft pursuers or matching their prey on the moves in front. Its a mess up there with tracers everywhere. My wing got hit twice for passing by foes and friends, but I am still operational. I got my first Lion in the first two minute of fight and got chased by one in the next minute before Recon took it down. I did try to return her favor but I was pre-occupied by the Lion on my starboard.

Twice I evaded this Lion and both times she is back onto my sight. I agve up on her and did a clsoe reversed loop and tore of her left wing. Like Grateful, she is spiralling of control but no pilot appeared to eject out. I could not watch long as I have to save Hot Stuff from her pursuer. I took that ‘amorous’ Lion in the next run and signal Hot Stuff to cover Recon on her wing. I am going in solo to take on those missile launchers. I know its not in the mission but they are still operational. I spotted the Herveys doing their runs on the launchers but there is a lone Lion on the prowl here. So he is mine to contend with. The Lion just raked the Hervey on my port and its going down hard. The Lion passed by my gunsight and I gave it a short burst to let her know I am in the game for her.

The Lion veered to the starboard and then swing back in a tight arc towards me. Good move, but i anticipated that, so here is my contribution to your act; some cannon blast on the hull to the thruster of the Lion. That put her out of commission and will be landing soon. Meanwhile I went down near to the surface and raked in the missile launchers. There are about ten of them in a row and I scattered the people operating it with my cannons doing low level straffing. A Hervey followed me on the job and wrecked those launchers.

‘All crafts report to Carrier. We done our mission.’ That was news to me, and I pulled my stick up to fly her out of the battlefield. We landed on our assigned Carriers and was told the news. Our mission was partly successful but we missed the main target, the new Y-Carrier. The Y-Carrier as she is doubled the size of the Carrier like ours, and she can hold up to two hundred Lions plus other crafts. She was undergoing final checks here alone when we came into the planet, and she escaped on the hour of attack. She has hit the jump sequence before our crafts could hit her.

So she will run for another day.

They found ‘Grateful’ homing beacon on the roundup, but he is not there. He is either captured or escaped to somewhere on the surface. As the place is still hostile, the 350Alpha withdraw with its rescued pilots to safe space, and was escorted home by Scimitars’. Damn! I hate to lose pilots in this war. We did not get a replacement as there are short of combat pilots now, so we hung on with the numbers. I told Recon to fly with Hot Stuff while I fly alone.