And with an absence since last year, I've finally returned with a new installment of Hell's Unicorns. Here's to renewed stories!
***
Chapter 19
Vega Sector: Alcor System
A while had passed since the last major engagement, a week or so...Rick had forgot. Nothing had been going on in the Alcor system for a short while. In the meantime there had been an awards ceremony. Rick himself had won an "Ace of Aces" pin, and the applause that came with it. Gray, Ballentine, Cook, and Rokain had all received their 15 mission pins. Griggs, Rorveri, and Glosco had received their 5 mission pins...Griggs and Ballentine and Cook receiving their Ace pins. Covan had come up empty...
...And for Regent, she had also received her Ace of Aces pin. Even though no one had really cheered for her other then Rick, she took the silence rather well, almost grinning at the mouth...most unusual for her. It must of meant a lot to her...as far as he could tell. She had begun avoiding him lately so he couldn't be sure.
Hurt just by thinking of her, he looked over...and found Maegen's Scimitar next to his. Once again they had been called up for Alert 5 duty, the fifth time in a row for each day...always prepped up for a enemy attack...they never came though. The extremely light Kilrathi movements had either been destroyed by patrols off the Exeters Amera and Broadsword, or they had not attacked at all. Either way...being strapped into fighters ready to shoot out into space at any moment was straining on any pilot. Rick took it well but his friend...
"Swordblade, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine..." she answered in a sarcastic voice.
"Alright, just checking..."
"Oui, Rick."
She looked back to his fighter...wondering what it was about him. Something was pissing her off about him but she couldn't figure out why...it was hurting him and her at the same time but she couldn't help it. Maybe it was him leaving her alone out there, letting her fighter get nearly destroyed by the enemy Ralari...then she knew that he had only been protecting her from the Salthi fighters...but then couldn't he of come back to her?
"Rick, do you think we're going to get sent out?"
"Not toda..." A sudden transmission had come over the video comm, interrupting him. It was Commander Mollo.
"Delta, Swordblade, enemy threat has passed. Engineers will take your fighters off the flight tube soon, sorry for leaving you out there for so long." Rick nodded, relieved that they had no reason to worry.
"It's ok sir, thanks for telling us." Mollo responded with a nod and signed off, Rick looking over and watching while several mechanics with zero-g suits on taking them off the tube.
Within several minutes the two had been able to get out of their fighters, Joker and Pilgrim watching on as their fighters were prepped up for Alert 5 status. As Rick and Maegen walked out he looked over to her.
"So..." he stopped shortly, Maegen walking away from him.
"Bye Rick." He stood stunned.
"Bye Maegen." As she walked off Rick once again felt bad, both of the most important people to him were avoiding him. Well, not everyone...he thought back of his girl back home and it eased the pain for a bit...but not much since she was so far away.
He shook off the emotional stir as best he could while making his way to the rec room. Along the way he was stopped by an ensign.
"First lieutenant Eyven?"
"Yes, that's me. What is it?"
"I have been ordered to find you, sir. Mollo's in need of you right away." He paused for a second, wondering what that meant.
"Alright, thank you." As he saluted off the ensign he broke off his trail to the bar and made his way down to the commander's office. As soon as he had arrived the superior had waved him in.
"Eyven, good to see you. How have your command been under the Alert Fives?" Rick wanted to voice his opinion but swallowed in what he really wanted to say with some bona fide lies.
"Never better, sir. Covan has some issues with being out there for so long...but that isn't much of an issue. The others have handled it quite well."
"Good, good...well, that's settled. I have some news for you...we ship out for Brimstone within the next forty-eight hours. Within twenty-four we will be receiving a new shipment of fighters and supplies...along with those fighters several fresh pilots. I expect that we will be able to split the Scimitar squadron into two once we have the new pilots in."
"I see. What are the qualifications of these pilots?"
"At best, varied. There are a couple of old hands, and by old hands I mean much more experienced then you in this field. And then there's some that are on the level of Joker and Stormy, a couple new rookies. Hopefully we won't lose any from the fresh batch like we did Biehn."
Rick thought about what had happened earlier and shook his head.
"Yes...I don't think there was much to be done about that."
"There wasn't. He was fresh...he must of gotten spooked when he saw that missile coming at him with the lock warning beeping at him...there wasn't anything you could have done Rick. Sometimes I wonder how well they train these cherries."
"I guess so. I wonder about Rokain at times too sir, he seems to be shaky..."
"Honeybee has always been like that, at least from what I was told when he was assigned to us. Gets worked up whenever he gets shot at. Not a very good trait but it keeps him alive longer I assume. Some of our pilots are excellent fighters, but...they take more chances then they should. I worry at times, wouldn't want to lose any pilots that we don't have too, especially of that caliber." Rick knew immediately who Mollo had in mind. He worried about himself, more then the commander would ever know.
"I know what you mean."
"That last assault was pretty dodgy itself. I'm surprised that you managed to bring back all of your fighters and pilots alive, Rick. So many of them got lost out there..."
"Everybody got shook up out there. It was confusing..."
"Don't be afraid to ask your pilots for their status, Rick. I noticed that from your flight recorder, that you didn't ask where everyone was at often. It makes a difference when there's alot of fighters out there. Knowing where you are and where everyone else is will definitely work out in your favor when someone's chasing you." The idea sunk in and Rick couldn't help but feel stupid for completely ignoring that simple guideline. He'd done it before...thinking about it Regent had done so too. Kind of amazing they hadn't left anybody to get killed out there.
"At least we didn't have any casualties. We had a scare there when God got shot down, luckily he punched out. A bad crop of Raptor pilots lately off the Amera. Twelve of them and five got shot down, God and another one got out alive. The other three...White Angels were a damn good squadron, I can remember when we've worked with the Amera in the past.." Mollo cut himself off.
"Then Lil' Gremlin squadron lost two Scimms. The Amera took things pretty hard last battle." Rick nodded and remembered a question he had been trying to ask earlier.
"What was that extremely large carrier? Considering we lost many of those fighters trying to take out the capships and we didn't even faze that one."
"To tell you the truth Eyven, I don't have any idea. We all saw it out there though, even if we couldn't stop it. Much larger then what we normally see for enemy carriers... Nobody's sure at the moment, no one I have talked to from either the Broadsword or the Amera have seen anything like it. I can assure you though that eventually we'll know, thanks to Intel...keep carefully if we ever see it again though, something that size is always a threat." Rick had to make no disagreement.
"Yes sir."
"Well, I suppose that's all then...tomorrow it'd be nice if you'd greet the pilots again like the last time."
"No need to ask me, sir. I was already thinking of it."
"Good then, that's all. Thanks lieutenant." The two snapped off the standard salute and Rick walked off.
In the bar he found his usual companions, Ballentine and Rokain. Evan was always present it seemed, but he was still out in the flight tube on Alert 5, as much as Rick was aware of. He took a seat next to his fellow Scimitar pilot.
"Hey Rick, need a drink?" He had joined the gathering just in time for Jack to slam down a beer in a couple seconds and offer him one. He shook his head and watched on as Ballentine continued his binge. As he grabbed a third and slammed it as fast as the first Rokain just watched the view port, smoking a cigarette. Rick had wondered where he had kept getting all these cigs since they hadn't been resupplied with such in a couple weeks now. Figured that Rokain had a secret stash somewhere for all the times he considered an emergency. Leaving the system didn't seem like much of an emergency though.
"Honeybee, can I get a drag?"
"Sure Rick. You run out?"
"Yeah." Rick took a puff and gave it back.
"Didn't know you smoked...at least I've never seen you."
"It's not a habit. Stress."
"Oh...got you. I smoke more then enough of them for that reason alone."
"Which is why I'm guessing you have one now?"
"It seems too quiet out here Rick. And even when we leave here we're heading to some system full of cats eventually."
"Gimle?"
"Yeah! It's some little resort spot for them. I can't really imagine that, a resort for Kilrathi..."
"It's not really a resort…more of a hunting club then a resort."
"I hear that they use whatever humans they capture there and they hunt them down planetside. Wouldn't want to eject out there..."
"Wouldn't want to eject anywhere Rokain."
"That's always true. But at least if you eject somewhere out here there's always going to be some nice Confed chap to pick you up. Out there some Dralthi might get up to you first."
"A Dralthi picking up ejected pilots? They'd rather shoot them."
"Whatever. Bad deal either way." Eric tensed up, sucking in whatever nicotine was left in his short stub. Rick decided to back off before he scared the guy anymore.
As Ballentine was starting to feel the effects of one too many drinks Rick had realized that his companions were limited to a drunkard and a nervous wreck, not much for good company.
Stormy came walking in, alone. He noticed her sitting down at a table by herself, putting her head down. Several minutes passed like that, him staring at her with her head down...after a while he finally got up and took a seat next to her.
"Delta?" She looked up, confused.
"That's me..."
"Something wrong? Or need to tell me?" Her lip was in a quiver; he could tell something wasn't alright.
"No, nothing like that...just checking up on you." The quiver turned to a slight frown.
"Oh." She looked back at the view port and at him again, shifting in her seat.
"So...I guess I'm alright sir. I wouldn't know what to tell you."
"Noted, you don't have to tell me anything."
"Right...I don't know. Want a drink?" Rick shook his head, watching her grab a bottle of vodka from the cooler before she opened it and took a straight swig. He grimaced after wondering how anybody could stand the stuff, then looked over at Ballentine would who most likely be the one drinking the whole bottle eventually. He shook his head and looked back at her, wondering why an apparently nice girl like herself would be drinking such hard liquor.
"Not a drinking type...oh well. So we are moving out tomorrow?"
"Two days from now, we're getting some new pilots as well, also a replacement pilot for Blu..." He stopped in midsentence, the mention of the dead pilot brought a tear from her eye.
"Something wrong?"
"Zack...he was a good friend of mine. Hasn't been the same since he died..."
"I see..." She nodded half-heartedly.
"Yes. We joined together, we were childhood friends...I was hoping that I would have gotten to serve with him...but...didn't turn out that way."
...shit...
"I wouldn't know what happened out there though, hope wasn't too painful..." She was starting to slur a bit, alcohol taking effect on her. The tears were starting to pour down her cheeks, dirty blonde hair getting in the way of her eyes but she couldn't tell. He brushed it and the tears away.
"I'm sure that he didn't feel anything." But he knew it himself that it was bullshit. He remembered that guy's last moments on video just like it was happening. Missile hit, Rick screaming for his status, a second later and an image of a pile of flesh in the cockpit before the Scimm blew up.
"I guess so...ahh." It was obvious that the liquor was getting to her; she was putting her head down again...Rick thinking of what to do. He didn't even know her all that well.
"Do you want to go back to your room?" She nodded again, not even really paying attention to what he asked. He helped her up, finding her to be as tall as him and unable to find her way back since she couldn't walk a straight step, much less a line. He held her up by the shoulder and walked her out, listening to her sniffle as she stumbled about.
"Delta. I want to be your wingman, I want to be a buddy...please...could you be mine?" He looked over to her, she was very much babbling but he could tell that whatever she was going on about she meant what she was saying.
"I will, Stormy..." He wanted to address her by her real name but he couldn't even recall at the moment.
"Call me Jenn! I don't want to be cold I want to be friendly..." Whatever was biting at her it was starting to get Rick as well. Personal demons. He couldn't help but feel relieved that they were finally reaching her room. Becoming closer would have to wait until she was sober since he couldn't make a connection with her...
"We're here..." He helped her in and onto her bed, she gave him a stare...he couldn't help but feel chilled by it since it looked like she was looking right through him.
"Thank you. I think I'll see you tomorrow. Will you have time for me?"
"I will, don't worry...if anything I want you to feel happy." She smiled at him, and he returned it.
"...I love you Delta." He froze at the thought, then nodded to her.
"Me too...goodnight Jenn." He gave her a hug and she let him, she held him back so long he figured it was the alcohol talking to him the entire time.
"Goodnight..." She watched him walk out the door, turning off the light behind him.
As he went out on his way he couldn't help but feel disturbed by what just happened. Whatever attempt at maintaining the morale of pilots up he was making, they didn't seem to do much good. Maybe he was too callous to everyone else. He cursed himself.
Meanwhile Stormy was wrapped up in her blanket shedding away more tears. Whatever she was crying about though, she couldn't remember.
***
Chapter 19
Vega Sector: Alcor System
A while had passed since the last major engagement, a week or so...Rick had forgot. Nothing had been going on in the Alcor system for a short while. In the meantime there had been an awards ceremony. Rick himself had won an "Ace of Aces" pin, and the applause that came with it. Gray, Ballentine, Cook, and Rokain had all received their 15 mission pins. Griggs, Rorveri, and Glosco had received their 5 mission pins...Griggs and Ballentine and Cook receiving their Ace pins. Covan had come up empty...
...And for Regent, she had also received her Ace of Aces pin. Even though no one had really cheered for her other then Rick, she took the silence rather well, almost grinning at the mouth...most unusual for her. It must of meant a lot to her...as far as he could tell. She had begun avoiding him lately so he couldn't be sure.
Hurt just by thinking of her, he looked over...and found Maegen's Scimitar next to his. Once again they had been called up for Alert 5 duty, the fifth time in a row for each day...always prepped up for a enemy attack...they never came though. The extremely light Kilrathi movements had either been destroyed by patrols off the Exeters Amera and Broadsword, or they had not attacked at all. Either way...being strapped into fighters ready to shoot out into space at any moment was straining on any pilot. Rick took it well but his friend...
"Swordblade, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine..." she answered in a sarcastic voice.
"Alright, just checking..."
"Oui, Rick."
She looked back to his fighter...wondering what it was about him. Something was pissing her off about him but she couldn't figure out why...it was hurting him and her at the same time but she couldn't help it. Maybe it was him leaving her alone out there, letting her fighter get nearly destroyed by the enemy Ralari...then she knew that he had only been protecting her from the Salthi fighters...but then couldn't he of come back to her?
"Rick, do you think we're going to get sent out?"
"Not toda..." A sudden transmission had come over the video comm, interrupting him. It was Commander Mollo.
"Delta, Swordblade, enemy threat has passed. Engineers will take your fighters off the flight tube soon, sorry for leaving you out there for so long." Rick nodded, relieved that they had no reason to worry.
"It's ok sir, thanks for telling us." Mollo responded with a nod and signed off, Rick looking over and watching while several mechanics with zero-g suits on taking them off the tube.
Within several minutes the two had been able to get out of their fighters, Joker and Pilgrim watching on as their fighters were prepped up for Alert 5 status. As Rick and Maegen walked out he looked over to her.
"So..." he stopped shortly, Maegen walking away from him.
"Bye Rick." He stood stunned.
"Bye Maegen." As she walked off Rick once again felt bad, both of the most important people to him were avoiding him. Well, not everyone...he thought back of his girl back home and it eased the pain for a bit...but not much since she was so far away.
He shook off the emotional stir as best he could while making his way to the rec room. Along the way he was stopped by an ensign.
"First lieutenant Eyven?"
"Yes, that's me. What is it?"
"I have been ordered to find you, sir. Mollo's in need of you right away." He paused for a second, wondering what that meant.
"Alright, thank you." As he saluted off the ensign he broke off his trail to the bar and made his way down to the commander's office. As soon as he had arrived the superior had waved him in.
"Eyven, good to see you. How have your command been under the Alert Fives?" Rick wanted to voice his opinion but swallowed in what he really wanted to say with some bona fide lies.
"Never better, sir. Covan has some issues with being out there for so long...but that isn't much of an issue. The others have handled it quite well."
"Good, good...well, that's settled. I have some news for you...we ship out for Brimstone within the next forty-eight hours. Within twenty-four we will be receiving a new shipment of fighters and supplies...along with those fighters several fresh pilots. I expect that we will be able to split the Scimitar squadron into two once we have the new pilots in."
"I see. What are the qualifications of these pilots?"
"At best, varied. There are a couple of old hands, and by old hands I mean much more experienced then you in this field. And then there's some that are on the level of Joker and Stormy, a couple new rookies. Hopefully we won't lose any from the fresh batch like we did Biehn."
Rick thought about what had happened earlier and shook his head.
"Yes...I don't think there was much to be done about that."
"There wasn't. He was fresh...he must of gotten spooked when he saw that missile coming at him with the lock warning beeping at him...there wasn't anything you could have done Rick. Sometimes I wonder how well they train these cherries."
"I guess so. I wonder about Rokain at times too sir, he seems to be shaky..."
"Honeybee has always been like that, at least from what I was told when he was assigned to us. Gets worked up whenever he gets shot at. Not a very good trait but it keeps him alive longer I assume. Some of our pilots are excellent fighters, but...they take more chances then they should. I worry at times, wouldn't want to lose any pilots that we don't have too, especially of that caliber." Rick knew immediately who Mollo had in mind. He worried about himself, more then the commander would ever know.
"I know what you mean."
"That last assault was pretty dodgy itself. I'm surprised that you managed to bring back all of your fighters and pilots alive, Rick. So many of them got lost out there..."
"Everybody got shook up out there. It was confusing..."
"Don't be afraid to ask your pilots for their status, Rick. I noticed that from your flight recorder, that you didn't ask where everyone was at often. It makes a difference when there's alot of fighters out there. Knowing where you are and where everyone else is will definitely work out in your favor when someone's chasing you." The idea sunk in and Rick couldn't help but feel stupid for completely ignoring that simple guideline. He'd done it before...thinking about it Regent had done so too. Kind of amazing they hadn't left anybody to get killed out there.
"At least we didn't have any casualties. We had a scare there when God got shot down, luckily he punched out. A bad crop of Raptor pilots lately off the Amera. Twelve of them and five got shot down, God and another one got out alive. The other three...White Angels were a damn good squadron, I can remember when we've worked with the Amera in the past.." Mollo cut himself off.
"Then Lil' Gremlin squadron lost two Scimms. The Amera took things pretty hard last battle." Rick nodded and remembered a question he had been trying to ask earlier.
"What was that extremely large carrier? Considering we lost many of those fighters trying to take out the capships and we didn't even faze that one."
"To tell you the truth Eyven, I don't have any idea. We all saw it out there though, even if we couldn't stop it. Much larger then what we normally see for enemy carriers... Nobody's sure at the moment, no one I have talked to from either the Broadsword or the Amera have seen anything like it. I can assure you though that eventually we'll know, thanks to Intel...keep carefully if we ever see it again though, something that size is always a threat." Rick had to make no disagreement.
"Yes sir."
"Well, I suppose that's all then...tomorrow it'd be nice if you'd greet the pilots again like the last time."
"No need to ask me, sir. I was already thinking of it."
"Good then, that's all. Thanks lieutenant." The two snapped off the standard salute and Rick walked off.
In the bar he found his usual companions, Ballentine and Rokain. Evan was always present it seemed, but he was still out in the flight tube on Alert 5, as much as Rick was aware of. He took a seat next to his fellow Scimitar pilot.
"Hey Rick, need a drink?" He had joined the gathering just in time for Jack to slam down a beer in a couple seconds and offer him one. He shook his head and watched on as Ballentine continued his binge. As he grabbed a third and slammed it as fast as the first Rokain just watched the view port, smoking a cigarette. Rick had wondered where he had kept getting all these cigs since they hadn't been resupplied with such in a couple weeks now. Figured that Rokain had a secret stash somewhere for all the times he considered an emergency. Leaving the system didn't seem like much of an emergency though.
"Honeybee, can I get a drag?"
"Sure Rick. You run out?"
"Yeah." Rick took a puff and gave it back.
"Didn't know you smoked...at least I've never seen you."
"It's not a habit. Stress."
"Oh...got you. I smoke more then enough of them for that reason alone."
"Which is why I'm guessing you have one now?"
"It seems too quiet out here Rick. And even when we leave here we're heading to some system full of cats eventually."
"Gimle?"
"Yeah! It's some little resort spot for them. I can't really imagine that, a resort for Kilrathi..."
"It's not really a resort…more of a hunting club then a resort."
"I hear that they use whatever humans they capture there and they hunt them down planetside. Wouldn't want to eject out there..."
"Wouldn't want to eject anywhere Rokain."
"That's always true. But at least if you eject somewhere out here there's always going to be some nice Confed chap to pick you up. Out there some Dralthi might get up to you first."
"A Dralthi picking up ejected pilots? They'd rather shoot them."
"Whatever. Bad deal either way." Eric tensed up, sucking in whatever nicotine was left in his short stub. Rick decided to back off before he scared the guy anymore.
As Ballentine was starting to feel the effects of one too many drinks Rick had realized that his companions were limited to a drunkard and a nervous wreck, not much for good company.
Stormy came walking in, alone. He noticed her sitting down at a table by herself, putting her head down. Several minutes passed like that, him staring at her with her head down...after a while he finally got up and took a seat next to her.
"Delta?" She looked up, confused.
"That's me..."
"Something wrong? Or need to tell me?" Her lip was in a quiver; he could tell something wasn't alright.
"No, nothing like that...just checking up on you." The quiver turned to a slight frown.
"Oh." She looked back at the view port and at him again, shifting in her seat.
"So...I guess I'm alright sir. I wouldn't know what to tell you."
"Noted, you don't have to tell me anything."
"Right...I don't know. Want a drink?" Rick shook his head, watching her grab a bottle of vodka from the cooler before she opened it and took a straight swig. He grimaced after wondering how anybody could stand the stuff, then looked over at Ballentine would who most likely be the one drinking the whole bottle eventually. He shook his head and looked back at her, wondering why an apparently nice girl like herself would be drinking such hard liquor.
"Not a drinking type...oh well. So we are moving out tomorrow?"
"Two days from now, we're getting some new pilots as well, also a replacement pilot for Blu..." He stopped in midsentence, the mention of the dead pilot brought a tear from her eye.
"Something wrong?"
"Zack...he was a good friend of mine. Hasn't been the same since he died..."
"I see..." She nodded half-heartedly.
"Yes. We joined together, we were childhood friends...I was hoping that I would have gotten to serve with him...but...didn't turn out that way."
...shit...
"I wouldn't know what happened out there though, hope wasn't too painful..." She was starting to slur a bit, alcohol taking effect on her. The tears were starting to pour down her cheeks, dirty blonde hair getting in the way of her eyes but she couldn't tell. He brushed it and the tears away.
"I'm sure that he didn't feel anything." But he knew it himself that it was bullshit. He remembered that guy's last moments on video just like it was happening. Missile hit, Rick screaming for his status, a second later and an image of a pile of flesh in the cockpit before the Scimm blew up.
"I guess so...ahh." It was obvious that the liquor was getting to her; she was putting her head down again...Rick thinking of what to do. He didn't even know her all that well.
"Do you want to go back to your room?" She nodded again, not even really paying attention to what he asked. He helped her up, finding her to be as tall as him and unable to find her way back since she couldn't walk a straight step, much less a line. He held her up by the shoulder and walked her out, listening to her sniffle as she stumbled about.
"Delta. I want to be your wingman, I want to be a buddy...please...could you be mine?" He looked over to her, she was very much babbling but he could tell that whatever she was going on about she meant what she was saying.
"I will, Stormy..." He wanted to address her by her real name but he couldn't even recall at the moment.
"Call me Jenn! I don't want to be cold I want to be friendly..." Whatever was biting at her it was starting to get Rick as well. Personal demons. He couldn't help but feel relieved that they were finally reaching her room. Becoming closer would have to wait until she was sober since he couldn't make a connection with her...
"We're here..." He helped her in and onto her bed, she gave him a stare...he couldn't help but feel chilled by it since it looked like she was looking right through him.
"Thank you. I think I'll see you tomorrow. Will you have time for me?"
"I will, don't worry...if anything I want you to feel happy." She smiled at him, and he returned it.
"...I love you Delta." He froze at the thought, then nodded to her.
"Me too...goodnight Jenn." He gave her a hug and she let him, she held him back so long he figured it was the alcohol talking to him the entire time.
"Goodnight..." She watched him walk out the door, turning off the light behind him.
As he went out on his way he couldn't help but feel disturbed by what just happened. Whatever attempt at maintaining the morale of pilots up he was making, they didn't seem to do much good. Maybe he was too callous to everyone else. He cursed himself.
Meanwhile Stormy was wrapped up in her blanket shedding away more tears. Whatever she was crying about though, she couldn't remember.