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"Hey ell tee... Ell tee, wake up."

The room, though dimly lit, let enough light in to bathe the six sleeping occupants in an ambient orange glow. Rubbing the bridge of her nose and propping herself up on her elbow, she winced as the butt of her rifle dug into her side.

"What is it?"

"Gunny wants a word with. Said something about Bravo team tomorrow... or something."

Archer ran a hand through her brown shoulder length hair. Sighing, she slung her weapon over her shoulder and tip toed out of the small room that had been converted into sleeping quarters. Closing the door lightly behind her she stretched, rubbing out a few sore muscles. The two started the walk toward the opposite end of the hospitals second floor.

"Nice to know I got a little sleep in today." She said as she yawned.

"I know right? First time in how long?"

"About as long as we've been across the Mexican peninsula, so about that maybe."

Fisk, their resident field medic counted a few things on his fingers and shrugged.

"Around six or seven days I guess. You think that chick's worth enough to get us a ticket outta country tonight?"

Archer looked up at the ceiling in thought.

"I don't know what she's worth, but I'm seriously hoping its more then nothing." Sighing she wiped a sleeve across the glowing red monocular visor. "My optics took a shit half way out here and its been a pain as of late."

He stopped and looked down at the P90 sub-machine gun at her side. The gun's sight looked clean and well taken care of. There was a small aperture for a laser marked red dot sight, but it was removed.

"You know ell tee, I can take a look at that for you."

She looked down at the weapon then back at him with a blank expression. Realizing he had misunderstood her she grinned wide.

"You're a piece of work you know that?"

Fisk stopped walking and gave her an uneasy look. "I don't understand."

"Not those optics boyo, these." Making sure the optics lens could see him the whole time, she lifted the black visor above her eye brows. His face fell, then straightened again as he regained his bearing. A scar ran from temple to temple across her nose. The retinas of her eyes a dulled gray. "I've never showed you this before?" She asked, snapping the visor back into place with an unsettling plastic click.

"No." He started walking again as he thought. "You and the others wear that stuff most of the time I see you, I just figured you liked seeing in more then one spectrum most of the time."

Rounding the corner at the end of the building they passed a window that looked down into the courtyard of the abandoned hospital. Only a large crater remained of what could have been a lush garden. There was an awkward air about them before she changed the subject.

"You know Doc, you and Mac still owe me the winnings from that poker game."

"Awe you know how it is ell tee, us lower enlisted types don't get paid the same as you brass collared guys." He smirked and shrugged, nearly running into a concrete partition in the middle of the floor.

"No fucking shit, but I swept your asses by myself in one game, and I reckon you're obligated to give me paper imprinted with the face of one of your, how did you say it? "dead as fuck" presidents."

"Rodge oh, but your gonna have to wait till payday. I'm broke as fuck right now."

Archer stopped suddenly and flicked her P90 off safe.

"Woah woah! Hold on! Hold on a sec Lieutenant! I'll get your money I -"

Archer snapped her head to him and grabbed the collar of his fatigues. "Shut the fuck up Fisk!"

She stopped and yanked his face down to the floor next to her. Dragging him over to a separation between the dimly lit window panes she held him down as she braced her back against the wall. There was a very distant clap of thunder and a small crack followed by a barely audible whistling. Fucking orbital mortars. Standing up and cupping her hands around her mouth she yelled as loud as she could.

"INCOMING! INCOM-"

The window closest to her was blown inward, cutting her off, as the low orbiting round struck the side of the abandoned hospital. Fisk had somehow dragged Archer down to the floor with him, covering the back of both his and her head as they lay there. Seconds passed, but then the inevitable second round struck, tearing the supports out of the first floor and making the hallway directly in front of them cave into the basement. Archer cursed in a seething hiss. Always on a fuckin' Monday...

"Fisk, get the fuck up and find your team, I gotta back track around this shit."

Trying to stand up, she found her legs too weak to support her body. Using the P90 as a crutch Fisk gasped. A piece of steel re-bar was sticking out of her leg.

"HOLY FUCK! Sit down Lieutenant I'll grab a med kit and-"

Archer grabbed his arm before he had a chance to turn around.

"I gave you an order H.M. 3; test me and you'll see what happens if you don't carry it through."

Letting him go she took a kneel so that her left leg, re-bar buried deep in its calf, was on the floor. Gently she took the end of the steel rod in her hand and closed her eyes.

"Lieutenant you're not serious..."

"DO WHAT THE FUCK I SAID!"

There wasn't even a scream as she pulled near half a foot of inch thick steel rod out of her leg. Tossing the bloodied shrapnel aside she gathered some gauze from her med pack and stuffed it in the wound. Standing up she brought her rifle to the ready and readjusted its strap. She turned and gave the medic an icy look.

"I don't know why your still standing here."

"Sure thing ell tee." he said, his voice shaking.

She watched as he sprinted down what was left of the hallway, kicking debris aside haphazardly. Falling back down to a knee she winced in an incredible bout of pain. Being the hard ass had its drawbacks, that was for sure. Taking a syringe from the pack labeled "Emergency: Alpha" she slammed it into the wound watching as the skin closed almost immediately afterward. Throwing the needle aside she shook her head as a small adrenaline high bounced through her veins. A small pang of guilt twinged in the back of her head; She didn't like yelling at people and Fisk had looked like someone had stabbed him. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Stand, reassess the situation and move on. Where the fuck had that mortar come from?

"ELL TEE!"

The air force operator was feeling his way along the hallway, his face was covered in dust.

"Gomez?"

"Ho!"

"Get over here!"

"Copy" He shimmied past the rubble of the newly created hole in the wall. "What the hell just happened?"

She took a knee and adjusted her optics for low level light amplification.

"Mortar, maybe three or so miles out, spotter somewhere and he's damn accurate too. How's everyone else?"

"Alpha's shaken, beaten the hell up, but alive. Havn't heard squat from bravo though."

Archer cursed under her breath. "No matter, they can take care of themselves. Mortars got me tied up for now though."

He nodded and pulled the receiver from the radio on his back.

"Want me to call it in? Navy should have fast movers on the track anyway."

She leaned around the pillar and glanced off in the distance. There were two more flashes off in the distance on a hill surrounding the small town. Air to ground countermeasures. Flares shot up to confuse AGM missiles. Well prepared and practically snipers with their cannons. This stank of the Mexican PLA.

"Go ahead, by the looks of it, they'll move before they fire again. Gives us a good couple of minutes."

He nodded. "Blood two zero, Blood two zero, this is Wolverine, request support and overwatch, beacon position alpha niner two victor." There was a static filled crackle in his headset before the pilot answered back.

"Rodger wolverine, Ledger one and two inbound. Mark your position with an infra red strobe if you've got it."

"Rodge oh, we'll light up the house for ya."

Taking three dark cylinders from the pack mounted under the radio he chained them together and leaned out the fresh hole. Winding up, he threw them all onto the second floors roof and crept back inside.

***** ***** *****

"Holy shit Shepard, you ask em to decorate the place with Christmas lights down there or something?"

She looked over to her left and and sure enough Echo wasn't exaggerating. The IR probes had been designed to light up the area of a single building... Each. The result was a cluster of bright white illuminators that couldn't be missed through night vision goggles.

"Well, Its better then none at all." Shepard mused.

The flight of two formed an oval holding pattern over the city before breaking off. Flying the "race track" as most called it, they fell in line behind each other at equal distance, traveling in circle race track. This allowed one plane to roll in and attack a ground target, while the other prepped for their own ground attack, or simply provided over watch. The two back seat Weapons Systems Officers, or "wizzos", were busy trying frantically to find a hard moving target, their forward looking infra red pods swiveling under the belly of the aircraft. Shepard with her wizzo Cypher searched the outlying mountains, while Sparks and his wizzo Echo searched the inner city.

Echo zoomed in deep on a shack that had said something strange in Spanish graffiti, an alien grays bulbous head stretched across the side. The image flipped upside down as they passed over it. "No IR hits other then the Christmas tree. I got jack and shit, you got anything Cypher?"

"Nada, still waiting on some type of communication with the guys on the ground though. We had initial contact, but it relies on them to keep the channel open." Redialing in the radio frequency presented on the operations card into the console in front she waited patiently for a response. A loud screeching twang of noise forced Cypher to turn the volume down. Making eye contact with Shepard she shrugged.

"Nothin' doin' on this end. Too much squelch. Receive, but no send capability. Ideas?"

"Yes, hold on." Shepard snap rolled the bird over onto its back and pulled hard watching the ground through the top of the canopy. The jet plunged toward the earth. There was a dull thump and a yelp as the plane snapped back level.

"Mind telling me when you're going to do that? I whacked my head on the canopy again." Cypher groaned. Shepard simply chuckled and checked the altitude. Five hundred feet. They'd clear the tallest building in the small town on a straight bee line for the Christmas tree in the center. Selecting full afterburner the mach reader came up to point nine.

Cypher clenched her stomach muscles unintentionally as the plane bobbled slightly in the air. She looked forward concerned. "Shepard? Mind letting me in on the plan?"

"Plan? Simple. We're going to give them something to call home about." Shepard laughed. The world around them blurred into a streak of buildings and cityscape, buildings rushing only feet away from the wingtips. They passed over the target house, the thunderous crack the sound barrier breaking destroying what glass was left in the building.

As if on cue, a sharp crackle came in over the radio.

"HOLY SHIT TWO ZERO! A WARNING WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE! I ALMOST SHAT MYSELF!"

"Figured you'd like it." Shepard muttered pulling straight up. She leveled them off a comfortable distance above the city. Cypher spoke up.

"Wolverine, coms are no go, your end, need victor one victor, status, tee ack."

This was short for "radio sucks, not our fault, need better communication, target information, and target status". The ground team decrypted the jargon almost immediately.

"Rodge oh, due north our position, grid victor one alpha romeo, foothills concealed armor. Possible surface to air threat."

"Negative wolverine-" Echo interrupted. "I've got nothing on radar or IR anywhere near that area."

"Two zero, active camouflage is a possibility, IR useless if that's the case. Suggest visual NVG search."

"Is he serious? The needle in a haystack theory doesn't hold a candle this!"

Sheperd could see in her minds eye Echo leaning out of the cockpit with a pair of binoculars cursing and waving an angry fist.

"More like a needle in a needle stack." She quipped. "Wolverine give me last known location-" The bright green light marked SAM illuminated above the left display as the simultaneous tone blared in Shepard's head set. "SAM! Ledger two go silent!" She mashed a button in the cockpit dispensing chaff and flare before cutting right hard in a tight minimum radius turn. The tail of the two seater super hornet seemed to slide out from behind itself as the airspeed bled off, before the nose was pulled straight up mid turn. A long tone followed by four beeps repeated itself in her headset over and over again before the tone quickened. A female voice uttered the words that made Shepard's heart nearly stop. Ess Aye Three.

"LEDGER ONE, SA-3 SAM LOCK!"

Pulling hard they leveled off at fifteen hundred feet. There was a small thump against the canopy as she snap rolled the bird over. Dumping more chaff and flare the hornet snap rolled to the left.

"LEDGER TWO STATUS!" She called.

"Angels twenty and climbing, no targets." Spark's cool voice sounded strained as he fought against the g-forces.

Another snap roll and a climb for another two thousand feet or so before rolling over and pulling back down toward the earth. Shepard heard a sharp staccato swishing sound fly by the cockpit. Looking up, she could just barely make out the white trail of smoke and vapor coming from the earth through her helmets night vision. It was there. That was the launch area.

"LEDGER TWO, I HAVE EYES ON LAUNCH SITE! NORTH OF THE CITY, FOLLOW THE-" The green SAM light illuminated again mid sentence as her hud flashed furiously. "FUCK! SA-3 LOCK! KILL THE SIGHT QUICK!"

Shepard mashed the flare button hard for a third time until the buckets were empty, then rolled over so that she could see the edge of the last bright white phosphorus beacon floating downward. There was another frantic beeping in her headset. Amazingly, she watched as a dim white cloud reached its way up toward her, the missile head spinning lazily as it arched through the sky.

"VISUAL! TAKE OUT THAT SAM SITE DAMNIT!" She screamed into the mic. "LEDGER 1 DEFENDING!"

"Ledger two blind, no visual, optics." Echo called out.

"FUCK ITS THERE HIT IT DAMNIT! CYPHER PAINT IT!"

The Super hornet dove like mad toward the ground again, Sheperd aiming for the same "trench", a street wide enough to fit the fighter in. Rolling in quick at the end of a block just adjacent to the IR house, she rolled it upside down so that the canopy was mere feet from the street. The missile followed the hornets swath of heat through the sky and down into the street. Selecting and arming a five hundred pound laser guided bomb, she jettisoned it from the aircraft. It floated in the air relative to the aircraft until it gravity brought it down just behind the hornet, the unfortunate street corner erupting into a massive orange ball of fire. The missile flew through the cloud, but its seeker head melted, wobbling slightly before over correcting and clipping a lamp post. The missile bobbled lazily for a split second before impacting and detonating in an abandoned multi level department store. Pushing the stick forward Shepard's vision turned bright red and she snap rolled the plane back over again. Selecting full afterburner they were once again screaming over the tops of buildings, but on an exit path out of the city.

"Ledger one clear, zero contacts, defending."

The sky turned a bright orange as another five hundred pound laser guided bomb impacted a surface to air missile depot nestled snugly into the hillside. The plume rose up high, before another explosion, presumably from the mortar platforms went up. Secondary explosions proved too much for the polarity filters in her helmets night vision system. The hornet pulled up in a gently arching curve that drove it to ten thousand feet.

"Blood two zero, direct hit, mashed target."

"Ledger two copies your all. Ledger one status." Sparks asked concerned.

"Ledger one is clear, angels twelve and climbing. Four grand of fuel left, she's thirsty." Shepard was barely able to finish her sentence she was breathing so hard. Her g-suit was soaked through and she could feel sweat dripping down her face.

"Christ Shepard... Just-" Echo rubbed the bridge of his nose where his oxygen mask ended. "Jesus."

"Nice to-" * pant * "be alive after all that. I'd ask you to pinch me, but I think I'll wait till we get back."

"We all owe you a beer after that one." Sparks sighed into his mask and relaxed a little. He took another deep breath and cued up a radar cross section Echo had designated. "I'll stay on station with these guys. Kc-30 is ten out."

"Leger one copies, see you again in thirty." Shepard took the plane up to twenty thousand feet and let the engines creep back to flight idle again. Engine readings were stable, and a few mashes of the flight controls reset button stopped the annoying 'flight controls' chant in her ears. "You alright back there kiddo? I haven't heard a word out of you for a while."

Silence.

"Hey, you awake back there?"

The pilot took a look in her mirrors at her wizzo. Cypher's chin was resting against her chest. Her body was bent forward against the loose restraints, a snore just barely audible over the coms.

"You gotta be kidding me..." She laughed to herself as she realized what must have happened. "Poor kid already told me she hit her head on the canopy; must have been the thump I heard earlier. Might wanna tighten your straps next time." Cypher was knocked out cold by their wild missile dodging ride. She'd keep this a secret between the two; small events like these had a habit of creating new call signs for young pilots.

***** ***** *****

Archer watched as the fighter jet made its way off station, small rivulets of smoke billowing from the hillside in the distance. They had just witnessed an incredible airshow, and had it not involved a series of heat seeking missiles, she would have broken out a beer and a lawn chair. The shallow hum of the tilt rotors ducted fans interrupted her revelry. Assessing the damage hadn't taken too long; some had been hit with shrapnel and a few were bleeding from their ears, but for the most part they were in well working order. Her own wound had healed to the point of a small pink scar seen through the hole in her black camouflage utilities. Must have scared the living crap out of Fisk though. She thought soundly to herself. The ospreys ramp fell forward to meet the roof and and the load master greeted them again with an open hand.

"Need a lift?" He smiled to them.

***** ***** *****

Save for a few running lights along its fuselage The massive KC-30's painted black form was obscured almost totally by the pitch dark night sky. The tanker loomed just slightly to the right as the refueling basket hung lazily off the beasts left wing. The refueling probe from the super hornet met the drogue in a feat of orbital copulation that had always seemed to Shepard a bit... Unnatural. There was a rustling sound over the mic, and a low moan from behind her.

"What the fuck happened?"

Shepard looked back into her mirrors and eyed her WSO.

"Have a nice nap sleeping beauty?"

"No..." Cypher's eyes grew wide and then instantly shrunk back down into small slits.

"Yes!" Shepard poked.

"They're going to beat me up over this for the rest of my career."

Shepard stifled a laugh as the hose dipped a few meters in the dark. "I'd be more worried about the inevitable debriefing we'll have with the Captain about this."

"Think he'll hold us a for a few days like he did Dollar and Stretch?"

"I don't think, I know he will. Can't keep an old man from his admiral stars you see."

Cypher mulled over the thought for a second before dialing in a new set of coordinates on the display. "Hey, even with this bit of fuel we're still out of range. Thoughts?"

"We'll wait for the two to come top off before we go anywhere. I've got a few "mission oriented" issues to take up with the air group commander of CVN-86."

"You're kidding..."

"Nope."

"Well, never thought I'd see the USS Thomas Jefferson again."

"She's only a few clicks out in the gulf. CAG owes me a favor anyway."

"Wait a minute, the commander owes you a favor? What the hell did you do to rack up something like that?"

There was a pause

The tanker flashed an infrared light, then stopped fuel flow. "#Ledger one, five grand worth, negative flow. Thanks for not ripping the hose off.#"

"Thought we were over that EXON?"

"Tradition to bust the balls of whatever navy puke rolls through here. Take care."

"Copy." Shepard responded with a chuckle. She let off on the throttle and watched as the lumbering beast pulled away from them. Off to their right she could see their sister super hornet pull in on the tankers right basket. Shepard could see the faint glint of the LPOD sensor array swiveling around and locking onto them.

"That was an impressive show back there, good thing I got it all on tape!" Echo bragged, waving at them.

"Not my personal SAM dodging record, but hey, any SAM dodged is one more paycheck right?"

Cypher looked at the mirror up front catching Shepard's wide grin..

"You think this is funny?"

"Hilariously funny," Shepard admitted.

"Its a coping mechanism." Echo added.

"Not knocking it, just saying that's kind of weird."

"The Iranians don't like to shoot just three missiles at you. They like to multiply everything by twos." Shepard joked.

. Ten minutes later, refuel complete, pulling away gently the two turned belly up and headed for the earth. Off in the distance, marked by a line in their HUDs and a single GPS way point, was the fleet carrier strike force of CVN-86, the USS Thomas Jefferson. The single strip of running lights and the blinking Fresnel lens marked their landing target. They broke off to their left, each slowly completing an ovular circle until they safely caught the the wire.

**** **** ****

Archer leaned comfortably against the tiltrotors steel frame as she twisted slightly to wake up her sleeping leg. She was reclined across the top of a large cargo crate and watched silently as the rest of her team slept silently in what room was left in the cargo bay.

"Wolverine actual, cleared, east pad."

"Copy control, east pad."

The tiltrotor landed gently at the edge of the carrier's flight deck with the slightest of noises as the ducted fans wound down. Twelve operators wearing urban camouflage disembarked, the largest of which carrying a woman in his arms. She was sleeping soundly in a medicated stoopor. Not bothering to acknowledge the rest of the crew on the flight deck they barged their way into the first open hatch. Dropping the girl off with Security (revise name) they headed to the room and nearly fell into the soft seats, most succumbing to a deep sleep soon after. Their mission over, they now had a small break in activity until their ride met up with the HMS Hornet II.

Two women, one with an optics visor and the other with a tight black bandana over her head chatted idly by the duty desk in the back corner.

"What do you reckon intel will do with her now?" Xun asked leaning against the desk slightly.

"Depends really." Archer replied.

"On?"

"How much she knows about whatever shit they want."

Xun put a hand to her chin in thought.

"Makes me wonder though..."

"Yeah?"

"What the fuck was she doing there anyway?"

Archer put a hand up and pointed to the security camera in the far corner next to the entrance hatch.

"Opsec now, bullshit later. I'd like to speculate, but frankly that's something above my pay grade."

Xun nodded and shrugged.

"Wadya gonna do eh?"

"Yup."

The door, nearly removed from its hinges, was kicked in by what seemed to be just a leg floating in the air. A tanned face man waltzed in speaking loudly to a woman a few inches taller behind him, both still dressed in flight gear.

"That was fuckin wild right?"

"For what I remember yeah."

"Bah, coulda woulda, shoulda been a big deal, but Shep doesn't give two shits. I think you're good."

"Doesn't make the embarrassment go away though."

"You two mind shutting the fuck up?"

They looked up toward the back at the Asian woman scowling their direction. Echo started to open his mouth but stopped after seeing the near comatose bodies strewn about the floor and seats.

"Thanks."

Xun nodded and took a seat on the couch furthest back. Not a minute later, Shepard and Sparks walked in, the former with sweat matting her hair and flight gear. Her cheeks were red and sweat collected around the collar of her flight suit. Stepping quietly over the sleeping bodies she made her way back to the duty desk. The lieutenant sitting there was sleeping soundly, his twenty four hour shift nearing its end. Archer, seeing the two walk in tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He woke with a start before jumping to attention and saluting. Shepard nodded to him setting her helmet bag off to the side. Filling out the mission report and fuel status she caught a glimpse of Archer picking thin metal sliver out of the fatigues area's that hadn't been covered by armor.

"Rough night?" Shepard asked.

The operative looked up and over Shepard with her red eye.

"Could ask the same of you."

Shepard chuckled and handed the pen to Sparks.

"Dodged some missiles and probably pissed off a few Mexican PLA's, but we helped out some guys on the ground, so whatever we did was worth it."

Archer's eyebrows went up, and the red monocle glowed a bright red.

"It was worth it?"

"Yeah, they were under." Shepard gave the woman a searching look. "You know where I could find the tough bastards who were down there?" She let a small smile creep through the rough facade.

Breaking into a fit of laughter Archer patted Shepard on the back.

"Mother fucker! You know how hard it is to keep a straight face with you smiling like an idiot like that?"

"That's one more round on you Diane."

Blood, sweat, and the pungent smell of spent cordite mixed as the two exchanged friendly hugs.

"How's Mike?" Shepard asked.

"Same as always. Blah this, blah that, makes me wonder if he's letting the command position go to his head."

Sparks finished filling out the small report and handed it to the groggy Lieutenant.

"Some things never change."

"You're one to talk." Xun added. She held a hand over her mouth, surprised she'd let it slip. "Er, I meant, same long face, same haircut."

"Navy regs kinda limit me there." He added.

"So I'm guessing the loudmouth and the tall one belong to you?"

"You could say as much." Shepard said looking over her friends who had settled onto a couch in the corner. "They're not wet behind the ears though, which keeps me in my comfort zone. Is that Samson passed out underneath that chair?"

"Yeah, big lug was carting the VIP around while we were kicking in doors last night and this morning."

"That big lug?"

"He's just a big pussycat."

"Big deserves some shuteye after the shit that girl put him through." Xun added.

"True." Archer chuckled.

They exchanged small stories through the next half an hour, catching up on what had been a long time separated. Friendly greetings over with, the laughter died down into a comfortable silence.

"So what the hell were you guys doing out on the border? Figured you'd be out on a boat somewhere."

"We were headed back to Arizona, had to make a stop in lower Texas to pick up some gear."

"Gear?"

"New targeting pods- the let us blast that mortar that was blasting the shit out of you. You're just lucky we had ordnance left over from the exercise we were working. I came here hoping the Captain could hook us up with a few Gbu-30's and air to ground missiles so we could finish."

"So it was just a coincidence?"

"Pretty much, but we still would have had about six hundred rounds in the gun to fire off. So you wouldn't have been too shit out of luck." Shepard said with a laugh.

"Gotcha. Gonna have to show me some of that vid though, the crazy shit you were doing almost made me crack open a beer and watch."

"Got some time? I've got the backup right here-"

"Excuse me ma'am?" Both women turned toward the petty officer wearing the side arm at the front of the room. "I need the ankle bracelet from the refugee."

Archer turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay... Do I need to sign over special custody to have you touch her?"

"Negative ma'am, but my partner just signed over custody to your team for transport to the mainland."

"I never authorized..." Archer grabbed the clipboard from his hands and scanned it inhumanly fast. "RGT Newman? FUCK!" Archer grabbed her P90 and cocked it back, throwing the pistol to Xun.

"Ma'am what is-"

"Fuckin' CIA spook, a god damn ghost!" Archer said barging out the hatch past him.

Xun chambered a round and leered at him with a face of anger.

"You, ready your weapon and lead the way, the girl's been taken."

The two followed hot on Archer's heels out the doorway. Shepard looked at sparks and shrugged.

"Can't win at all today can we?"

"Seems we cannot. What can of worms have we pushed our way into this time?"

**** *** ****

Archer made it to the birth of the flight deck first, chaotic jet noise and the blue glow of afterburner overwhelming her senses in the dark night. She scanned the sea of idling fighters, wishing her thermal and infrared visor wasn't being overwhelmed by the hot jet exhaust.

"Where the fuck are you?"

At the opposite end of the deck a small form with a bag over her head was being dragged by her shirt tail by a man in nondescript black fatigues. A blackhawk helicopter loaded them up quickly before rising a few inches off the deck and plunging over the side. Archer sprinted over to the decks edge in front of a taxiing fighter that never even saw her move. Glancing over the side she saw the aging helo hover just above the water. Pulling out her P90 she pointed it down at the top of the rotor blades. Squeezing the trigger the small gun barked in her hands, the sound completely muffled by the roar of a jet fighter taking off. The helicopter nosed down and rose up, the bullet impacts not seeming to damage it all. It pulled away and off into the night, the small white blinking beacon on its tail disappearing under the cover of darkness. Archer cursed and did the only thing she could to relieve her frustration. She unloaded the rest of the clip into the sea. Xun came up behind her with her pistol drawn and read, before glancing over the side. Looking around no one had payed any attention to them at all in the mess of chaotic night operations.

"What now?"

"Nothing. We were played straight up by counter intel on this one. I'm gonna have a talk with the commander when we get back to the Hornet and give him a fucking punch in the mouth for leading us on.

She pushed passed the clueless Navy crewman at arms and back the way she came, fuming the entire way.

---

Fourteen light years away, Rika scanned the indications screen again; ensuring that everything on board was functioning exactly the same as it had been thirty seconds ago... and thirty seconds before that, and thirty seconds before that, and another thirty seconds before that... This mission was turning out to be one of those excruciatingly boring ones where their four man crew zipped across this section of the galaxy for a few days with nothing happening. She almost wished they were training: the excitement of red vessels nearly outweighed the inevitable ass chewing at the end. How did the rest of her crew do it? She gazed back longingly at her indicators. Perhaps she could fake an artificial gravity malfunction? Desperate to find something to do that wouldn't get her in trouble she ran through her checklist again. The main ordinance capacitors were charged to the max, which was no surprise. She had begun charging them this morning when they had left, diverting a little power from recharging the jump ballast and heating the iron in order to fill the capacitors quickly. In a choice between having "tail", or the ability to escape quickly by crossing the light speed barrier, and "teeth", or armed weaponry, she preferred to have teeth. You might not be able to beat all enemies, but then again you couldn't outrun all of them either and she preferred to die fighting. Fortunately for her the vessel's captain agreed with her philosophy, (or he didn't care enough about it either way) and let her handle dispersing the ship's power on her own.But the jump ballast was now full as well, the iron was in plasma, and everything was stable. In short, there was nothing left for her to do. She gave a sigh and looked over the shadowy outlines of her crew. In front of her the captain and pilot, commander Yasoi "Shave" Ungow, was glancing back and forth between his radar and the window outside. How he kept his intensity up she had no idea. To his right captain Yasoi "Smokey" Bagum, the RIO and weapons officer, was resting his chin on a hand, flipping through the spectrum screens looking for any disturbance the computer didn't catch that might be a threat. Behind him and to Rika's direct right the navigator and general ship clerk lieutenant Yasoi "Lost" Niedka, was slouched in his seat staring at a 3d holographic map of the galaxy with an empty expression. The ship shared what on Earth had been known as a last name. All one family, yet none of them were blood related. She, flight engineer and vessel mechanic sergeant Yasoi "Flat-face" Rika, turned back to her own console and allowed herself to drift into a daydream. This long distance ferry was just as dreary as the rest of them always were, despite the destination of Earth being her 'home rock' as her friend Bokkar "Mallet" Gamun had put it. Somewhere in the black void to her left, she was probably doing the same in her own vessel. Despite being bored out of her mind, her current job was beyond anything she had ever dreamed of doing three years ago. Her rank was sergeant was unheard of that fast in other military career fields, and she was due for commissioning into lieutenant in another two years. Her position as an engineer aboard a Farrom class interceptor and the friendships she had forged along the way had all come with an enormous amount of work -some of it voluntary, most of it not- and they all made three years ago feel like another life in a far away time and place. In many ways it was. She smiled as she remembered that basement floor, freshly poured in the construction site of that new development, and wondered if her self portrait that now looked nothing like her was still carved into the concrete foundation.