The "Ambrosia" - Colonial Bar on Sabah Shipyard

[[GBS]Cherry2Blost[COL]]

Finally, it was good for the squadron to relax after arriving at Sabah.

The past years had been a hell; months at a time travelling from system to system, all duties rotating between flying escort and ship maintenance, repairing and rearming where they could before having to move on. The constant travel had taken its toll on their small fleet; the squadron’s carrier limped into Coronado, its cruise engines finally collapsing as they we welcomed by their Colonial brethren and it was now moored in the yards for extensive (and expensive) repairs.

The pilots, finally able to relax and drink something other than recycled fluids and whatever water they could find had hit the bar and hit it hard in the traditional squadron way; drink now and worry about the hangover tomorrow.

“Yeah yeah yeah Marv, we all saw it!”, Major Daviel “Spades” Montaan said, cutting off the eager second lieutenant as their latest round of drinks arrived. “You’ll get your Ace’s pin for it, don’t worry.”
It was the third – or was it fourth? It was getting a little fuzzy – time that the story of how he had strafed the gunboat had been told, with each version getting slightly more embellished as more drinks were had and different people listened. It had already gone from being partly disabled and distracted by their cruiser to fully operational and targeting just him; no doubt after a few more rounds it would be two gunboats and he was flying solo.

“Drinks!” roared the squadron’s 2IC, LTC “Wildcard” Dwyer, arriving with another full tray of glasses and putting it on the table as he sat down and the others helped themselves.

“A toast!” the Major offered, raising his glass “To our new home, and old acquaintances!”

Looking around the pilots could see an altercation taking place between a fine looking young female Colonial Officer and an older officer in sunglasses, "Lively in here tonight" observed Spades.

There was a round of “Here here!”s from the other pilots, before their attention was drawn to an angry cry of “Hey, that’s my wife!” from the bar. Looking around, Daviel saw their other First Lieutenant - Monty “Pieman” Wittington - stood next to an attractive girl and a rather irate looking miner.

“Shall we?” He asked Wildcard, who nodded as the two of them got up and headed over to the bar in an effort to resolve the situation.

“Is there a problem here?” the Lieutenant Colonel asked as the pair of officers approached, moving to stand between them.

“Your pilot was hitting on my wife!” the miner angrily replied, pointing at the lieutenant past Wildcard with an accusing finger

“I didn’t know she was married!” Monty tried to defend as he held his arms up, but couldn’t help but smile at the attractive blonde as he did so.

“Well, he does have a point, she is hot!” Daviel responded. It was meant to be a joking compliment to appeal to the miner’s ego, but the fist that contacted with his face and sent him reeling into the LTC said otherwise.

The punch was a spark that set off a powder keg; Wildcard leaped at the miner with a return punch, Spades was back on his feet to tackle another miner who had taken a bottle and was advancing on the brawling pair. Across the bar the rest of the squadron and the miner’s companions were on their feet too, a few choice words exchanged before they too exchanged communication via fists.

The room was a scene of chaos for a few minutes as the squadron and the miners went at it, the other patrons retreating out the door or the around the edges of the room to avoid the flurry of swearing, fists, kicks and glasses as the brawl went on.

The end finally came as the Squadron’s commander, Col. Cassidiac, arrived with a squad of Colonial guards, fresh from a meeting with the station commander after hearing about the brawl.......

"Weapons hold gentlemen !" barked the squadron commander, "Wildcard, what is occuring here? What have you started?" he enquired.

As he spoke, a wistful expression crossed his fatigued face, as he looked upon his pilots and knowing the trials and tribulations that they had been through he thought to himself "mustn't be too hard on them...".

"All of you out into the hangar......NOW !" he bellowed to his pilots, "While I work out what to do with you all", He then walked to the bar and silently threw down a bundle of credits for the damage caused. With this he followed his pilots out of the bar, closely followed by 3 burly Colonial security officers.

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