These are the ideals your entire life is based upon, your Honor in life, your Duty to command, your Loyalty to your nation. Anything less, is not acceptable, nor is it affordable. You are the first and last line of defense of the people you protect, the nation you protect. That is your sole purpose.
You, have failed your purpose, your actions have betrayed those ideals you swore to follow and protect. You, have failed. Your punishment, death.
A single gunshot, a man hitting the ground lifeless, banners of flaming skulls adorning the walls, the voice of men and women rising..
For Those We Left Behind.
***
"Westridge, Kyle...service number 43002-4403.."
"Westridge, Kyle, service number 43002-4403"
Kyle woke up with a jump, breathing heavily and uncontrollably, his eyes darting left and right looking for danger, his body bathed in sweat. The torture still hadn't ended, his memories never faded from his dreams and nightmares.
It took him a full minute to get to his senses, his heartbeats slowly eased and he started breathing deeply. He looked down between his legs to his bed, his sheets were wet with perspiration, he jumped down and noticed that his fellow officers were still asleep. Kyle walked to the sink and turned the faucet and splashed the ice-cold water on his face and looked up at the mirror to see his reflection, he jumped back as the reflection he saw was twisted, his face lined with crinkles, a grin at the tip of his mouth, his dark abysmal staring back with malevolence, a face of evil. Kyle splashed another handful of water on his face and looked back, this time his own eyes staring back at him, he let out a sigh and put his hands to his face and left them there, thinking. No, it wasn't the time to think, he had a duty to perform. He turned for his locker.
The Hades' hangar bay was fairly quiet, his shift's cycle hadn't began completely just yet. A few technicians dotted the area, working here and there on ships or equipment, the flight deck officer was examining Kyle's own Nyx before take off. He noticed another pilot 2 maintenance bays to the left, who also had a technician with him, performing checks on a Nyx. The pilot noticed him and smiled, raising his arm in greeting, Kyle noticed the flaming skull emblem emblazoned on the pilot's flight suit, the emblem of the 44th Battlegroup.
..your punishment, death.
Kyle shook off his trance and returned the gesture with a crisp two-finger salute and a smile. Vanguard pilots frequently visited the Hades, Kyle had no idea why, perhaps it was to show that they were still there in the shadows, watching. He knew for a fact that two Kronos warships were in-system, not too far from Hades itself.
"Right, everything looks ok, she's clear to fly, when's your briefing?" "No briefing, I'll take her out for a spin, didn't put on my flight suit for nothing."
"Yes sir."
A few technicians walked to the ship as Kyle climbed the ladder to his cockpit and slid in, a technician handed him his helmet and checked marks on his data pad as Kyle did his pre-flight checks. The technician gave him a thumbs-up, Kyle nodded and toggled the cockpit windscreen to slide back. The hangar's automated systems took hold of his ship with clamps under the wings and started towing him to the launch tube. Kyle clicked on the engines, he heard the sound of his reactor come to full energy with a buzz, his turbines spinning up as his engines came to life. A quick control of his weapon systems, everything was green, his ammunition topped off, energy feeds to the guns were OK.
The Nyx was placed onto the launch bay which turned 180 degress to fit him into the launch tube, his comm system clicked and an officer's voice was heard.
"Patriot, confirm callsign." "Confirming, Patriot on duty, pre-flight checks complete, I'm ready to roll."
"Roger that, mission parameters?" "Stroll in the park, Tau patrol, solo."
"Roger that Patriot, mission accepted, you are cleared for launch, good hunting." "Roger that Hades, keep frosty, Patriot launching."
Kyle keyed the ignition, the Nyx's engines roared to full power. His hands darted to the control sticks, the Nyx accelerated with a force that drilled him into his seat, half a second later the Nyx flew out of the launch tube into the misty asteroid belt of Tau 39, Kyle slid the Nyx into a sharp turn and clicked his cruise engines online, flashing by Hades as he made for the 23 hole.
The missile alarm was was screaming at Kyle, tirelessly beeping to make sure he knew that death was but a single mistake away. He saw yet another asteroid lazily floating in space -just like the other hundreds of thousands in Tau 23- and turned his ship towards it, launching countermeasures and rolling to the right whilst spinning around the thing..the missiles impacted, detonating on the asteroid's surface, harmless...until several large energy bursts hit the asteroids while tracking Kyle, turning it into fragments of molten rock-juice. The Ranseur was always there with its impossible range that encompassed the entire battle.
Kyle's hands were a blur on the control sticks and surfaces, his Nyx rolling, turning, doing flips and high-G spins around asteroids, evading the angry red tachyon bolts sizzling a hairbreadth away from his hull, his shields never had a chance to charge up.
"Frak frak frak, where the frak are you Jackson!?"
"Coming up on your four right now, hold on."
The large skirmish had started when Intel had picked up a possible heavy patrol consisting of Storta-class destroyer and several snubs that were at the edge of the 23 asteroid belt. The heavy patrol turned out to be a Ranseur and a support Storta along with several snub-craft. Kyle's wing was joined with two others of the 49th, a total of two skirmish wings consisting of Nyxes and a single bomber wing had engaged the Outcast combat group. Backup was on it's way, the Athena and Asteria had been deployed and even the Vanguard Olympia had sniffed out the emergency call as well, all three cruisers were en route to the combat zone, but it would be a while till they got there. In the meanwhile, the fighter combat had split into several groups, and in the unfortunate outcome, Kyle had been caught alone against 3 Sabres, drifting a bit away from the Ranseur yet still in its weapons range.
Kyle was running out of asteroids.
"Got you, weapons hot." "About time."
"Nuke them on the asteroid."
Craig Jackson, Eagle, had arrived just in time and unleashed a wall of firepower from his Nyx with pinpoint accuracy, Kyle had dropped several mines on the asteroid he was spinning around, as they detonated on the surface, the explosions caught one of the now-unshielded Sabres and turned it into a radiating glob of molten metal. At that point Kyle clicked off his engines and maneuvered to do a 180 degree turn, then slammed on his engine and thruster controls, accelerating from a negative speed relative to his direction to full velocity, under half a second. He didn't mind the Gs pounding him into his seat or the shots that blistered his hull and heated up the cockpit, all he needed was a few direct shots. Kyle flipped a switch, the extra shield batteries depleted themselves as they charged the shield back on, giving Kyle enough time to squeeze his trigger to shoot a volley of shots and launch a mine while thrusting head on into the Sabres. The time had been short, the speed was high, but not fast enough to escape the mine's detonation, Kyle's shields went down instantly and more high-powered shots blasted onto his hull, several parts of his Nyx bubbling as the armor was evaporated, alarms blared in his cockpit.
But he got what he wanted, coupled with the mine and his volley of fire, one of the Sabres had been heavily damaged, Eagle had finished him a second later. But one of the Sabres was still flying, only lightly damaged with its shields down. The Outcast turned around, ignoring Eagle's fire, focused only on Kyle, whose Nyx had one of its engines shut down, a reactor leak and almost half of the armor burnt off. Not much of a problem if under a non-combat situation, though that wasn't the case. But the Nyx would keep up, it was designed to keep its speed under any situation. Kyle rolled to the side and thrusted foward, starting a spin around an asteroid, the Sabre was nowhere to be seen, the shots he had predicted coming from his six weren't there. Jackson's voice piped through comm line, he was yelling.
"Swerve away, he's in your face!!"
But it was too late. Time slowed down for Kyle as the Sabre appeared in front of him, coming around the asteroid, its weapons lit with a hellish glow. They were almost at point-blank range heading for each other at terminal velocity. At this range, the Outcast wouldn't even need to aim, Kyle could see the grin on the pilot's face. It was over.
Until a bright red light appeared behind the Sabre, a blast of Razor plasma burned through armor, hull, reactor. The ship started to disintegrate just as Kyle's Nyx slammed into it, he crashed forward and hit the top of the cabin, his world went black.
***
Beep...beep...beep...beep...
Kyle was counting the heart-monitor's consistent beeping, he was at 672, he probably would stop trying soon. He had woken up in the Hades' med-bay, the last thing he remembered was Death incarnated as a Sabre, his scythe in his hands, Krakens, and ready to take Kyle to the other world. Or that's how Kyle would be telling the story in order to make it sound cool, he was still working on the details.
Craig had visited him, promptly telling how much of a retard Kyle was before thanking him for the free kills and then wishing him a quick recovery. Cheeky bastard. The battle had been won from Craig's description of the battle, the trio of cruisers came in at the last second and leveled down the opposition, they had won the fight, but at the cost of a wing, Kyle had been extremely lucky. The doctor had come in to tell him that he'd broken his leg somehow as well as fracturing his skull, but he'd have a full recovery and would be back in the cockpit soon.
He hated the med-bay, mostly since he was always in bandages whenever he was there and had nothing to do except talk with doctors and nurses who just kept on blabbering about being more careful, the last one had left half an hour ago. Kyle was fidgeting with a holo-projector, switching from news channel to news channel.
The door opened, and he saw Susie almost rush in, a worried look on her face. Kyle's smile was priceless.
Kyle woke to the sound of sirens screaming into his ears, running footsteps could be heard, it took his brain a fraction of a second to process the danger and send a signal to his adrenal glands. Two seconds later adrenaline was running through his body, his heart beating at full pace by the time he got out of his bunk, something was wrong. He saw other flight officers hop out of their beds, the speaker on the wall came to life.
"All personnel we have hostiles, general code red, priority emergency, this is a full mobilization, get to your posts, birds in the air now!"
"All personnel, I repea-"
Code Red, the highest and most dangerous color that could've been shouted through the speakers, it generally meant everything had gone to shit, it was a last resort call. Kyle looked to the other pilots, they all were also looking at each other, a second later they were at their lockers taking out their flight suits and dressing up as fast as they could. It was all reflex, dog tags, arm in sleeve, zip up, sidearm in holster, dog tag check. They all burst out of the room together, running through the corridors, the whole base was like an ant's nest, sirens blaring outside, red lights throughout the whole base. After a few seconds they came to one of the hangar bay doors that were already opened, other pilots were already running for their ships. Kyle ran down the bays to his own Nyx, a flight deck technician was already standing by, doing last checks on Kyle's Nyx, he climbed up the ladder and put his helmet on and started up the Nyx's systems, quickly doing his emergency pre-flight checks, the technician gave him a thumbs-up and Kyle toggled his cockpit's windscreen to lock. His comm line crackled and then piped up.
"Scramble scramble, Scream and Lightning roll call!" "This is callsign Patriot, Scream One reporting in, Screams are ready to roll."
"Roger that Scream One, we are authenticating foxtrot delta at time 0500, proceed to Killbox Alpha Two." "Roger that, Screams rolling." "Screams launch, atmospheric flight, prep for combat, status check."
Kyle keyed his ignition, the Nyx's reactor buzzed to life, his engines roaring, several other Nyxs' did the same as he lurched the ship upwards to do a a full vertical climb, the top hangar doors had already opened up, snow was already falling inside. The moment he cleared the rim of the hangar doors, his view was filled with snow, the blizzard was shutting his visibility to zero. He clicked on the Nyx's infrared scanners and view ports, his HUD turned into a neon red glow. He could see FOF tags pop up as other Nyxes and even Pythos raised into the air, his comm line clicked.
"Scream Two to Lead, status green."
"Scream Three to One, I'm ready to roll."
"Scream Four is good to go."
"Five to Lead, hot and ready." "This is Lead, all callsigns form up and proceed to Killbox Alpha Two, mission parameters unknown, presume hostile."
Kyle turned his ship around to the way-point on his HUD, the four other Nyxes of his wing in tight formation with him, another wing was close by heading for the same area, it was a full Pytho strike wing. Normally his squadron would be fit with TEW guns for space combat, however he had been pulled back from the front line just like other pilots as temporary defense in order to train in atmospheric combat. Since Tachyon based weaponry wasn't as effective in the atmosphere as it was in space, the Nyxes were fit with varied types of missiles in order to act as air support. Normally in a real situation, drones would be dealing with anything in-atmosphere but it seems command had pulled all the stops on this one, whatever it was, it was important enough to send two wings of space-craft in an atmospheric operation, including Pythos, which had enough space to carry enough firepower to level entire cities. His comm line came alive.
"This is Nest to all callsigns in-air, at 0450 we picked up multiple unknown contacts in the outer-Pecos grid, by the time we could understand what was going on the unknown contacts had breached the Pecos Defense Grid and deployed a large force of multiple armored contacts on ground and assaulted one of our northern outposts, we are awaiting further intel at this time."
How was that even possible, the Pecos Defense Grid was consisted of several orbital defense cannons, Kronos class warships, multiple wings of fighters and bombers and enough sensor probes to track an entire fleet without any electronic delay at long range. Was it the Nomads? Kyle knew that the gate deep in the Coronado nebula wasn't just an inactive wreck...but even then, they had the technology to detect Nomads, no, this was something different. He checked his control panels for a second before lifting his head up, his wing was flashing above the clouds heading for their target at Mach 15, even though current ship technology had made it possible for both atmospheric and space flights, the Nyx's aerodynamics allowed for extreme speeds even while in an atmosphere, they would be at the target destination under a minute.
"This is Nest to Scream Lead, new orders, proceed to Killbox Alpha Two and engage all targets, repeat, you are cleared to engage all targets, targets will be lazed by SATCOM, no NFAs at this time. Lightning wing will standby as backup if required." "Roger that Nest, confirming engagement order on all lazed targets at Killbox Alpha Two, no NFAs."
They were almost on top of the way-point, he revved his engines down, the other Nyxes following suit, they slowed down as the gravity brakes kicked in, Kyle clicked off his weapon safety, targets started appearing on his HUD at extreme range, there were easily sixty of them, maybe more than a hundred, there were things that SATCOM wouldn't be able to track.
"Lead to wing, weapon safeties off, cleared to engage all targets at Killbox Alpha Two, fire when in range."
Missiles rolled out of the Nyxes and launched forward at an impossible speed, still carrying the momentum of the Nyxes themselves, Kyle saw the volley of ballistic ordnance head for the red blips on his HUD, and watched them light out one by one, suddenly he saw flashes on his HUD, energy was discharging all over the ground, they had AA systems online, a missile alarm started blaring in his cockpit.
"Evasive maneuvers, they have AA platforms, try and single those out first, use HE warheads."
"Roger lead, switching to high impact HE warheads."
Kyle was cycling through his missile control and launching countermeasures while evading at the same time, although the missiles weren't hitting, his shields were dropping rapidly, flak bursts were hitting him, he looked up and saw that the majority of the flak screen was coming from ahead, deeper in the enemy wave, not enough range on their missiles, he had to take those targets out fast. Kyle clicked his comm line.
"This is Scream One to Lightning Lead, confirm standby."
"Confirming Scream One, Lightning is on site standing by at safe distance, not engaged." "Requesting immediate assist at Killbox Alpha Two, enemy AA fire at extreme range deep within enemy wave, I need them gone."
"Roger that Scream, weapons are online, we're coming in." "I'm authorizing strike package RAINSTORM on all viable long range targets, go live."
"Confirming package RAINSTORM Scream One, we're bringing in the rain, TOT 12 seconds."
The Pythos were already locked on their targets and with a few short commands had launched a volley of extreme-range MIRV missiles that would disperse into even more guided missiles when in close range. A few seconds later Kyle could see the ground light up with light and fire through his infrared sensors, half of the red blips downrange disappeared.
"Confirming hits Lightning One, good shots, targets are down, cleared to disengage, we'll take the rest."
"Roger that Scream Lead, Lightning is disengaging, yell if you need us again." "Scream Lead to all Screams, AA and SAMs are down, cleared to mop everything up, let's make it short."
It didn't take long to wipe out the remaining targets, there weren't many left after Lightning had destroyed half of them with a single salvo, this wasn't right, the enemy didn't even have proper anti-missile systems or electronic warfare suites to cover them. Any atmospheric drone wing could have completed the mission without taking a scratch...unless...
It all clicked in Kyle's mind just as his comm line went active.
"This is Nest to all active wings, targets confirmed destroyed, all units disengage, this drill is over, good job, calculations show 100 over 100, perfectly done." "Roger Nest, Scream is standing down and returning to base..you really got us going there."
"Lightning is confirming disengagement, heading back to base...should've known."
Kyle grinned as he clicked his weapon safeties on and set his shields to a high-velocity flight, his wing formed up with him and they sped up back home. He almost never fell for the reality of drills but it had been a while since he had actually seen anything other than real engagement.
"Alright Junker nice turn nice turn, Splash, let's see if you can do better, I want a perfect one-eighty flip and a beam turn 10 meters off my starboard and end with a muzzle flash. Remember to watch out for the asteroids."
"Yes sir, getting into position."
It had been going on a for a while, Kyle was now serving as a "part time" flight instructor for the 49th, apparently he was good enough both in combat and smart enough to beat in basic combat into nuggets fresh out of the academy. This latest batch of 3 had been one of the good picks, most of the nuggets Kyle was sent really had no idea what was going on. They were flying in Nyxes deep in asteroid fields. He had been covering advanced flight and 23's asteroid belt was the perfect place to do it. They were far enough from the usual routes and somewhat safe from any pirates, Outcasts or the Royal Navy. The nuggets were just that, nuggets, not even warrant officers and had no combat experience. He watched as the sole female pilot of his wing, callsign Splash, came up to his starboard side and killed her main engines, using her maneuvering thrusters to do a perfect 180 flip and turned on her beam to course correct and finished off with an energy charge to her weapons.
"Nicely done Splash, you lot might actually become proper Colonial pilots...in a million years if you keep up like this. What the hell was that? I said a one-eighty, not a one-ninety. You wanna spin in place all day while the 'casts shoot the living shit out of you Splash? Do it again."
"..yes sir." "Don't give me that lip, nugget, I said do it again. You know what an order is?"
"Sir, yes sir."
Again Kyle watched as Splash repeated the maneuver perfectly again. He saw her course correct even after she had started the turn in order to evade an upcoming asteroid. Kyle grinned and wondered just how much he could push her until she flipped out on him. He was about to give another maneuver for the nuggets to do when his scanner gave out a shrill alarm, his eyes darted to his instruments, it showed 4 red blips on his scanners at 14 clicks and closing, Outcast IFF.
"Sir..." "Oh frak me, cease training, weapon safeties off, shields and reactors to full power, now."
"This is Patriot to Athena, come in Athena."
"This is Athena actual, are you done with the recruits, Patriot?" "Negative sir, I have a full 'cast Sabre wing closing in on us fast, requesting immediate support. I'll intercept the hostiles and hold them off while the nuggets get back to 37"
"Roger that Patriot, Colonial forces within the system have been alerted, we're moving to your position right now. Sit tight."
The Sabres were closing in now, 9 clicks, they had already started taunting him over the local comms, Kyle hadn't thought there wouldn't be any hostile patrols at all this far away from usual flight routes, these Outcasts seemed to be the exception. The Athena was inbound but was too far off, he doubted he'd last that long, his nuggets wouldn't even last a minute.
"Nuggets I want you to engage cruise and RTB to Falkland at best speed, now."
"Sir, they'll catch us anyway." "No they won't Junker, just move the frak out of here right this instant, that's an order. Reinforcements are inbound, I'll hold them until then.
"Sir..." "GO!"
Kyle had already been moving towards the Outcast group at thrust speed, he saw his nuggets activating their cruise engines to fly off. Kyle targeted the five Sabres and launched a volley of cruise disruptors to make sure they weren't going after his nuggets. He clicked open local comms.
"Well here I was, sightseeing, and now you retards show up out of nowhere, oh well, looks like I'll have to kill the lot of you first to get some peace around here." "A Colonial with a death-wish? Si, this is going to be fun."
The Sabres opened up the moment they were in range, a red wall of fire moved towards Kyle's lone Nyx with blinding speed. He fired his maneuvering thrusters to max and swerved away, the wall of fire followed him as he maneuvered behind an asteroid which took the hits for him. The moment he left the asteroid's shadow Kyle cut his engines and turned around banking into a slide while opening up on the first Sabre he saw, its shields went down after a few shots and the Outcast strafed and swerved away to dodge, his wingmates opened fire on Kyle again, forcing him to stop his slide and give full power to his thrusters, evading the angry red tachyon weaponry, his comm unit buzzed and Commander Anders' voice piped in.
"Patriot what's the situation?" "Not looking so good, I got four bogies on my ass and they don't look like they're going to give up."
An alarm blared as Kyle's Nyx's shields went down and he felt his hull getting puckered by gun shots, he cursed as he tried to find more asteroids to use, although it wouldn't really help that much, these guys were good.
"Frak, yeah this really isn't looking any good, where the hell are those reinforcements Athena?"
"Two strike wings have been deployed and are en route to your position at full speed now, they'll be there in six minutes." "Six frakking minutes? We both know I don't have that long sir, just make sure those nuggets get back home safely. Oh and, if you can, tell Susan I'm sorry that I wasn't able to make it to Curacao."
For a few moments there was no reply, Kyle only heard the sound of his reactor running at critical power and the shots that were blasting into his armor, the Nyx's nanobots were trying their best to repair damage but it wasn't going to be enough, Krakens were tearing through his armor.
"I'll make sure she knows, Patriot." "Can't believe I'm getting shot down in a freaking training exercise." "You won't." "Who the frak is on this secure channel?" "This is Commander Randy Orbit of Vanguard Special Operations, callsign Reaper, I'm coming up on your six now Patriot, check your strafing and turn them around to me." "What the hell...roger that, get ready to take them in." "Weapons online."
Kyle knew of the infamous Vanguard ace, he had been one of his father's top pilots. But even with Reaper they were still outnumbered, but Kyle felt confident, the Commander's voice had been cold, lacking any emotion yet reinforced and sure. Kyle spotted an asteroid and used it as a shield while he accelerated to full speed and turned around back the way he came, he saw the Nyx moving in front of him, closing the distance. By then the Sabres had completed their turn over the asteroid and were headed straight for them, Reaper wasn't slowing down, he roared passed Kyle's own Nyx, heading straight for the Sabres. Kyle killed his engines and spun around, following Reaper head on into the Sabres. He was expecting the Commander to slide to the sides and strafe while shooting and was prepared to do the same, but Reaper's ship wasn't slowing down and kept on a collision course with the Outcast wing. The moment the Outcasts were in range they opened fire, a wall of flame buzzed towards Reaper, he still didn't slow down and instead started a sharp roll to the right while using his maneuvering thrusters to strafe his ship. In the split second of fire, the Sabres had cleanly missed the Nyx just before Reaper's guns erupted with a flash of purple fire and speared through one of the Sabres without any resistance. The Outcast's shields were down instantly and the Sabre torn to pieces as the Nyx flew through the wreck at blinding speed, which had also dropped a mine, taking down the shields of another Sabre that hadn't been fast enough to swerve away, the Sabres were flying in random directions trying to turn around while Kyle shot down the unshielded Sabre that was heading straight towards him, easy.
The fight had ended quickly after that, the Outcasts had tried to flee after the initial contact with this new enemy. Though nothing they did could change change the outcome, Reaper and Kyle followed the last two and shot them down. Reaper had then promptly and ruthlessly gunned down the Outcasts' escape pods. Kyle didn't object.
"This is Reaper, is Athena still on this line?"
"Yes, we're here, 2 minutes from your position." "Negative Athena, hostile targets have been downed, Patriot's Nyx looks fit enough to RTB"
"Patriot confirm." "Yeah..yes sir, we're clear, all hostiles destroyed, my engines and reactor are undamaged, I can make it to 37 for repairs...but where the hell did you come from?" "I was in system tracking communications for a mission, I was in close proximity when I heard your distress call while tracking Colonial communications." "Right..spying on our comms is considered a hostile action against the Republic..but uhh, I guess it shouldn't be a problem." "I don't care either way, Kyle. Look out for yourself, your old man wouldn't want you dead on a training mission. Good hunting." "Right..thanks by the way."
Reaper didn't reply as he charged his cruise engines and quickly disappeared into the asteroid field. Kyle activated his own cruise engines and plotted a course for Falkland, by the time he made it to the 37 hole he was still trying to wrap his head around how Reaper had basically disintegrated four outcast ships under two minutes, those guns weren't your standard class Vanguard or Colonial weaponry. Kyle couldn't help but feel that he'd be seeing Reaper more often in the Taus.
![[Image: SecondPhoenix.png]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10917450/Online%20Images/CR/SecondPhoenix.png)