Unlikely Union

[Rodent]

Katie launched from the planet, passing through the ring as she went to meet her wingmates in orbit.


Robert D'Souza was already waiting in orbit, along with 4 other fighters, Katie completed the 'Zeta' recon squadron.
"We read you Corporal, Zeta wing, let us proceed", said Robert over secure communications.
"Aye, powering up primary systems.", was the response.

The 6 fighters turned and proceeded for their initial waypoint, the delta jumphole.

The flight was uneventful, and as the last fighter jumped, they began travelling again toward the Iota jumphole.
"Alright pilots, initial briefing. I have a recon probe in cargo of my ship, we will attempt to plant it somewhere where the nomads cannot detect it, for sometime hopefully"
"That is all", said Robert as the Iota jump hole became visible.
"Hold up"
Katie's words surprised the wing, and waited to hear what she meant by this.
"Brace your--what?"
"Lemme go first, I want tah make sure none of ye get hurt ya know?"
"Better some corporal than an officer!" Katie chuckles.
"Hold it Corporal. Higgins, come with me." Katie sighed.
Just before he initiated docking procedures, Robert said reassuringly, "I have done this before, do not worry "
"On yer tail!" Katie prepared to dock, 3rd in line.
"We will send you signal as soon as we are in Iota and clear, Hibito, bring up the rear, and keep us covered", said Robert, and with that, initiated the phase align sequence
After Robert and Higgins had jumped, Katie pushed into the hole.
The lights faded, and Robert, along with his wingmate, was in Iota. He knew what to do, shouting "Dodge, Higgins, dodge!", he pushed his throttle to the right as far as it could go
the first salvo from the platform missed, Higgins was hit by a few and his shields went down, but with hull intact, he joined Robert.
"Alright, all clear! be ready to dodge as soon as you enter Iota!", was the shout from the Commander. Katie's fighter screamed through the jumphole, dodging fire from the weapons platforms, as she continued to dodge, Higgins screamed as shots peirced his cockpit, and his ship exploded in a marvelous ball of red flame.
"Lost a wingman!", was the shout. Robert sighed...another comrade lost.
"Got 'im!" Katie yelled as she slowed down to pick up the pod, allowing several shots to slam into her hull, peircing the docking bay.
"Corporal! out of there and on my tail!"
"Alright wing! follow my lead and we will turn these platforms over and kick them in the rear!"
"Roger!" Katie fell into battle formation behind Robert, and prepared to open fire.
Robert passed under the nearest platform, and released nuclear mines, which exploded and stopped the fire for a brief moment. "That is the way!", he shouted. He then speeded his way out of range of the platform.

Katie grinned, and pushed her fighters engine to its limit, screeching past the platform, firing off the sunslayer she had jury-rigged to the side of the top wing, along with a nuclear mine.
Robert turned his ship around, and just grinned as the pilots joined him one after another.
"Good work pilots!", he said.
"Sir! Nomad ships inbound! We should get the HELL out of here!"
"Caray! On my six! Let's speed!"
Katie entered formation to the left of Robert, and began to fire up her engines when a missile impacted on the bottom most engine, rocking the ship violently
"Argh! I'm hit! But I'm alright!"

"Actually, scratch that, let's whoop these squid's arse!"
With that, Robert turned his ship around in a tight turn, and eyes and crosshairs locked on the nearest target, unleashed his shield busters, which burst the voil of the nomad, followed by the mini razor which vaporized it

Katie spun her ship as best she could with one engine down, and unleashed hell on the Nomads, grinning as her guns tore holes in the fighter, and it seemed to whine in pain as it exploded.
Robert, pleased from his last salvo, put in another turn and saw his wing hard at work, already 3 nomads were down, with no losses, Amelia was faring poorly though, and Robert rushed to her, "I will take it Amelia, try to survive", he said.

"Sir..." Katie yelled, a hint of fear in her voice. "Nomad BATTLESHIP inbound! We can't take them!"

Robert launched into a torrent of hispanic. "Pilots, retreat!", but he himself rushed towards the battleship.
Katie widened her eyes, and dumped all her extra fuel into the engines, speeding to catch up to Robert, and assist him.
"Corporal! Back off! I know what I am doing!", shouted Robert, who was all nerves.
"Negative! Ye cannae take him by yerself!" Katie let out a battlecry as the battleship entered weapons range, opening up with all it had.
Robert sighed, and with a flick of the hand, enabled the weapon known as "Marker-2", he quickly took aim, and fired. The projectile hit the battleship, and stayed there.
Katie was busy dodging turret-fire, and as she spun her ship, a battleship salvo slammed into her wing, tearing it clean off. Katie screamed in terror.
It's boosters would keep it abreast of the battleship, and this would hopefully reveal the whereabouts of the battleship for sometime before it was destroyed, satisfied, Robert turned around and ran, The computer had signalled shield failure.
"Corporal, outta here!", He screamed.
Katie was trying to engage her cruise engines, as more and more energy slammed into her ship, console panels were exploding around her cockpit, and guns were falling off all over her ship.
"Katie! Eject!", was the call as the Commander turned his ship around for the last time, his hull was at 50%, he quickly applied the last of his batteries and went for the smoking Nephthys

"No! I can do this!" Katie was almost crying as she said this, she knew she couldn't make it, but she couldn't deal with the guilt of leaving Higgins to die in the Nephthys.

"Eject, damn you!", and here Robert lost control and started blabbering in Hispanic.

Katie roared ferociously as she forced all the power the little fighter had into its engines, blowing them out and sending her on a haphazard course toward the jumphole, at around 200 m/s

Robert, still shouting in Hispanic, turned his ship around a final time, the computer was screaming at him, "Hull breach Imminent".

He used the last trick he had, he launched all his countermeasures at once, the large flare would hopefully create a distraction
Katies ship slammed into the jumphole sideways, leaking oxygen, causing fires to erupt around the ship as it flew through the hole.
The commander was now the last man left in Iota, he quickly prepared his giant flare and launched it, and, closing his eyes, went for the jump hole....
As Katies fighter exited the jumphole, all was quiet in Delta, and the sight of her ship caused a good few of the wing to gasp.

When he opened his eyes...his ship was smoking, and he had lost a wing, and his cockpit was close to destruction, and he saw...his wingmates.

Katie was shivering, not of cold, but of uncontrollable waves of emotion. She could have died there, and she knew it.

He tried speaking to them...but the computer simple said, "Communications failure". He was glad of it, time was needed to get over that experience.
He pointed his ship in general direction of the Freeport, and the crippled ship limped towards safety.
Katies ship was leaking oxygen, and the damaged computer had finally realized. "Oxygen levels critical" Chimed the female voice of the computer.

One of the wingmen noticed Katie's predicament, and shared oxygen with her as the ships made the long flight to the Freeport.

The freeport was amazed, seeing a line of battered, smoking and mutilated ships coming in.
As the ships arrived at the Freeport, Katie was the first to dock. she sat in her cockpit, waiting for the others.
Robert's ship slowly stumbled into the hanger, and, unable to support levitation, collapsed on the ground.
The cockpit opened slowly, and the Commander came out, seemingly unruffled, but his eyes...were wild.
Emotion slowly overcame Katie, and she broke down into tears in the cockpit, not even making an attempt to cover her eyes, she simply sat, slumped in her cockpit, crying.
Robert slowly limped over to each ship, and asked the pilot briefly if he was alright, last of all, he reached Katie's ship and saw her there, crying.

His eyes glazed over, and he knocked on the cockpit...then quickly went away. "Let the emotions flow", he thought. The Hangar official was nearby, he walked over to him, and pointing to Katie's ship, said "There is an escape pod in there, take it out and revive the pilot"
The official quickly nodded and signalled to an aide, who called in a medical team.

One of the wingmen came over to Katies ship, and quietly told her to meet eveyone in the bar.
An hour later, Robert was seated at a table in the bar. His leg had been tended to, and he had recovered somewhat from the fright. As he watched, his wingmates slowly filed in, and took seats beside him.
Katie slowly strode into the bar, her cheeks red from all the crying.
When all of them had took seats, Robert said slowly, and with difficulty, " The mission has failed. We have, however, achieved something else, which might be useful. I tagged the nomad battleship with one of our marker weapons, this could give us useful intel"
"Any Questions?" he looked at the despondent faces around him.
Katie sniffed, her nose had been running due to the crying, and she was trying to hide from everyone by sitting on a seat at the back
No one asked any questions, so Robert said, "End of Debriefing, we will wait here till our ships are repaired, all disperse except Corporal Katie McDonald". They all filed out, some of them shooting looks at her.
Katie looked up, still upset by the days events.
Robert started speaking in a slow voice, "Why did you disobey my orders to retreat?"
"I... I..." Katie simply looked at the commander, her auburn hair was a mess, and tears were welling in her eyes again.
He continued,"You really should have obeyed my order...we lost Higgins"....His eyes glazed over again.
"Tell me, was my life more important than Higgin's? You were taking care of 2 lives while you were on your fighter, your first priority was to save yourself, and the pod"
"I know! I just... Please... I didn't mean.." Katie buried her face in her hands and cried.
"listen...", he said in a softer voice.."Calm down"
Katie kept crying.
Robert leaned over, and raised her face gently with his hand, so that he was staring into her eyes.

Katie stopped crying, and stared into Roberts eyes.
He looked into her eyes for some time, once he was assured that she was ready to listen, he began speaking softly.
"I had taken my chances by trying to mark that nomad battleship, by all accounts, it was a stupid and suicidal decision. You could, and should have left me there to face the consequences..."

Katie whimpered at this, hating the idea of abandoning a comrade.

"Listen, it was a choice between me going to do something suicidal, and the sure chance of you saving yourself, and Higgins...Why did you choose to join me?"
Katie herself was unsure, and simply said "I don't know." "To be sure, I don't know either", He replied. Suddenly, breaking down, he buried his face in his hands.
Katie wasn't sure what to do, but improvised, wrapping her arms around him, embracing him as she began to cry again.
Robert looked at Katie...and stood up, shaking her off. Then suddenly, pulling her to her feet, he embraced her tightly, trying to forget the past.
Katie simply enjoyed the hug, and uttered a low "Mmmm..." Robert, finally unleashed his pent up emotions and began crying silently..
Katie rubbed her hand up and down his back, trying to comfort both him, and herself.
They stood like this for a long time. Finally Robert pulled back, and said, "Sometimes I wonder why this world is so crazy" and...smiled.
Katie simply nodded, and stood back a bit, relaxed by the hugging.
"The past is past now Katie, but I suppose we could become friends?"
Katie chirped up at this, and nodded.
"That is settled then. Once we get back to Minor, we will dig up some free time and go surfing on the snows of Toledo ok? "
"Sounds fun. You'll need to teach me though!" Katie laughed.
"Sure thing", said Robert, still smiling