Wings

[AztecWarrior]

I was a flight engineer. At least that is what I was studying for. Just as I graduated, rumors started circulating of 'Liberty's Call', this supposedly radical force. Any mention of it in front of guards or staff led to disciplinary measures.

Something went gravely wrong during the last semester of my fourth year. Fifteen students 'withdrew' the same day. Parents came in and everything.

I knew these guys. Some of my smart friends were there. Why did they withdraw? Does it have something to do with 'Liberty's Call'?

The administration at Ceryshen University was sledgehammer-subtle. The next day we were coralled, like hogs (due to increased riots by university students, then the moratorium on riots, riot cops guarded each campus) to the theater, where the principal came up and underlined that Liberty's Call is an unauthorized club, illegal in both the school and all the republic. Anyone caught speaking of it was subject to suspension and Terran law.

Clearly, being the studious alumni we were, it was obvious that there was a connection between the 15 expulsed and Liberty's Call.

On the way to the dorm, I was taken into a dorm. To make it sound as if we were doing a project, books were everywhere. They told me that they knew who Liberty's Call was, that the fifteen students were only the tip of the iceberg, and more. They gave me a small booklet, easily concealed, on Liberty's Call.

I met them a month before final exams. Their faces were veiled. They told me what they stood for. They informed me of the Vanu (also banned) threat. They basically repeated www.newconglomerate.com . I investigated what they said about history, and found it to be true. Except one thing: The group did not exist in the Registry of Approved Clubs.

I joined Liberty's Call.

I took the final exams and passed with flying colors. Free from the watching of the Riot police, we managed to meet. I saw their faces. They were people I knew, the last people you would figure to be radicals. These people managed to get a copy of an old, old book, Two Treatises, that was banned from the Republic.

The book states that the purpose of government is to protect Natural Rights, including life, liberty, and property. The Terran Republic had been doing none of them. It also stated the right to revolt if these rights were not respected.

It did not take a genius to figure out that revolt was on the horizon. To prepare, I joined the Terran Air Corps and became a pilot. Contrary to most, I was better at air-to-air in the heavy Reaver than in the light Mosquito.

I rose to the rank of Captain and led a wing of eight when the war broke out.

To be continued...

[AztecWarrior]

Back to training.

I went up to the desk on Ceryshen and asked to join the Air Corps. There was a lack of pilots on Ceryshen as more and more pilots were needed to suppress riots in the TR Sanctuary.

I filled out the application and then went to the physical exam.

"Damn! An eye chart! I see horribly in my left eye!" was what I thought. Now usually I could just apply for laser surgery but they wanted this unaided. So I had to make a quick choice: memorize or truth? I memorized the chart, and when it was my turn, I recited.

"E-M-F-W-M-E-F-E-E-W-M-E-F-F-W. Made in China."

"Very nice! You have 20/20 vision."

After a few shots and a muscle stregnth and endurance test, they sent me back to the apartment. The next day I took the written test. It was basically an essay asking you to explain your loyalty to the Terran Republic. I did what any self-respecting Terran soon-to-be NC would: BS. And I did it well.

Then I waited a week as various testers gazed over my papers. I was accepted into basic training.

It's hell. Drills every day. Wake up at four. Sleep at twelve. Run here. Swim through this. Rope swing over this sand pit and don't you DARE fall in MY freshly raked sand! every day. I am not the most muscular guy or the most enduring, but I stayed in, remembering Liberty's Call and the need for support in the military.

The dropouts leave and you go to flight school. The first week is all tests. Yes, students. this is drag, this is lift, blah blah blah. I KNEW ALL THIS! I HAD A FREAKING DEGREE IN AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING AND DESIGN! I dozed all week and passed the exam with a perfect score.

Then we got to VR fly. That is cool. We picked the vehicle of choice. The first week is basic flight. I swear, my heart rate hit 140 on the first mission- takeoff, navigation, and landing.

"Alpha VR 1-1, you are clear to take off."

It was beyond simplicity- raise throttle, go forward, gear up, fly behind Hill X, into Valley Y, low in forest Z, and bring it down again. But the instructors were everywhere, taking notes on everything. That's why I hit 140. I was just so damn eager to please them.

Then we went into weapons school. We got to blow up stuff!!11! despite that the stuff was virtual. But it was damn cool.

"Alpha VR 1-1, making a pass"
*FWWW! FWWW FWWW!*
*BOOOOOM!*
"Alpha VR 1-1, tank destroyed!"

We learned air-to-air, missile evasion, CAPs, SEADs, all the good stuff.

I graduated at the head of my class and was about to be assigned when the riots happened. I ran down to my girlfriend's apartment, got her in the Reaver, and we both flew away to the NC stronghold. Up until Marzua, that was the most suicidal mission I have ever flown. AA cannons raged everywhere as I took potshots at passing convoys. I took a few missile hits, but managed to bring it down on the NC Stronghold.

To be continued...

[Sando138]

pretty good... i think i may do a thread like this too.... how does it feel to be a trend-setter?

[Fire_Monkey]

Nice, can't wait to see some arial action!

[AztecWarrior]

The air-to-air stuff that we did was extremely basic. Rumors abounded that we would recieve very little air-to-air training until we had proven to be loyal after training. This was obviously due to the increasing riots. So all we did in training was anti-Galaxy stuff, and even that was head on, easy stuff. Never 'What to do in case of Mosquito escort' or 'What to do if the Galaxies drop anti-aircraft MAXes.' I asked the instructor about this, and he told me to drop the subject immediately. So I did.

I was literally walking from my barracks to the command center at Ceryshen South Air Corps Base (CSACB) when the war began. I knew that my girlfriend, also a member of Liberty's Call, was in great danger, as she had no viable means of transport due to a lockdown. If the dragnet closed, an investigation in all departments could occur and she would be screwed. I ran back to the barracks, grabbed a pistol and all the valuables that I could take. I ran down to Flight Ops. I called her. She was very busy. Planes everywhere were deserting and she was badly needed. So the logical revolutionist leaves. She asked to go to the bathroom as cover. The guard let her, and we ran down to the flight line.

Big problem. Guards. They brought out the MAXes, too. It was clear that this wasn't child's play. The entire flight line was literally LINED with MAXes and there were Lightning tanks around the launch pad.

"Hey Lieutenant! Where do you think you're going?"

"I am going to show this AGN reporter the Reaver for an upcoming interview."

"Look, nobody is supposed to get over here without permission from Control Tower so get your scrawny as..."

The alarms turned on. A grim announcement came over the loudspeaker: ALL PILOTS! SCRAMBLE IMMEDIATELY! INCOMING VANU AIRCRAFT!

Pilots started arriving everywhere, and I got clearance to go to my Reaver. I did so, and she got into another one. The pilot of that Reaver was slow to get out. You can only imagine the look on his face as he sees HIS plane being flown by some civilian. He was too low to do anything about it. She had no prior training, so I just told her to follow my lead. I gave her the most basic flight instructions ever over a secure radio channel.

"Push is down, pull is up, left is roll left, right is roll right, right pedal is right, left pedal is left. If the engines light on fire, press the extinguisher. If you need to eject, pull the handle between your legs. Your callsign is Giant 3-4. I'm Giant 3-1."

After we took off, the squadron soon noticed that two pilots had not bothered to attack the Vanu- they had simply wandered off toward the warp gate. It was a direct link to the New Conglomerate sanctuary.

"Giant 3-1 and 3-3 this is Ceryshen South CT, where the hell are you going?"

"Ceryshen South CT, this is Giant 3-1, we are having some radio problems, can you repeat that?"

"Ceryshen South to Giants 3-1 and 3-3, that's bullshit, we are reading all your systems GO."

What the hell? They had system scanners installed? They didn't even trust their own military. At that point I decided that the game was over. I couldn't think of any good excuses, anyway.

"Ceryshen South CT, we are defecting to New Conglomerate airspace. Kiss my..."

"ALL FIGHTERS: WE HAVE TWO DEFECTORS EN ROUTE TO THE NEW CONGLOMERATE JUMP GATE! Flights Knight and Valiant, engage!"

Sixteen Mosquitoes proceeded to engage two Reavers. Not fun. The warp gate was two miles away. AA started appearing over Ceryshen South City. I emptied my chaff stores halfway and had to tell her how to use chaff. I told her to keep going to the warp gate, that I would hold off the fighters.

I did a 180 and fired off four rockets. Two Mosquitoes were hit and fireballed down to the ground. I pulled behind one Mosquito and flicked my radio on to hear their chatter.

"Sir! What do I do! He's behind me! HELP! TUKTUKTUKTUKTUK! AAAAAAAHHHHH"

That guy blew up right there. The wonders of 12mm chaingun.

I then hit a flak shell. Nowadays, the role of flak is done by tanks which aim up. Bursts of shells look pretty to the civilian. Red bursts of smoke that slowly fade to black and then grey. To pilots it is hell. One of those, in the right spot, can blow you to bits. This one hit me in the fuselage. Shrapnel flew into my engines. They were OK but making less power. More shells came up but the gunners had obviously not trained in the past year, and two Mosquitoes were downed by them. I pulled vertical and cut throttle. The Mosquitoes pulled up but did not see that I was going slower until after a couple of rockets hit some poor guy's engine.

I afterburned straight down over the city. Mosquitoes kept on firing but they were clearly newbies. I pulled out of the dive. One of them did not.

My girlfriend told me that she was about to get into the gate. I soon lost radio contact. My radar saw her go in, a relief from "Oh my God, the shot her down!". The situation was near hopless. I had shot down three and they had lost three, reducing the odds to 10:1. Ten to one? I could not do it.

Then twenty Mosquitoes of the New Conglomerate sprang from the gate and flew straight for the Terran mosquitoes. I was only half a mile from the gate at this point. It was a big relief, considering that the computer analyzed the damage and gave the Reaver a 25% integrity rating. They struck fast and hard. Seldom have I seen Mosquitoes go down that fast!

We all flew through the gate. Despite mountains of AA flak that came up to meet us, we were fine.

"Hey guys. I owe you all one. How about a beer later? How did you know that we were in trouble?"

"Well, your girlfriend here gave us the message. We had some Mosquitoes to spare. Once you land, we'll repaint and repair, and then you have to help us. We're getting defections left and right!"

"Will do. She doesn't fly. She just works in Flight Ops. That must be how she managed to get you the radio message- I didn't show her how!"

We landed. I gave her a big kiss. I owe my life to her. If not, those Mosquitoes would have eaten us up.

NEXT: Assignment to Eureka and blowing away fighters while I'm at it.

[Destroyeron]

It's alright. I just don't like stories that portray the author as immensely good or as the main character. Just my preference though.

[AztecWarrior]

No. You just don't like that Terrans get shot down!

[Destroyeron]

I don't mind seeing the terran get shot down considering you'll be the one kissing our rockets in the air.

[AztecWarrior]

That day, all defectors got a beer, new armor, a new paint job on your vehicle, and they went back to help more defectors. Not easy, but it was labor for the Conglomerate.

The first three days, defections came to us like flies to rotting meat. Command was overloaded. I flew lots and lots of sorties those days. Difficulty was a variable. The missions ranged from 'The entire base has defected but come under attack by Terrans.' (usually ocurring the first few days) to 'We got a party of two wanting to defect from a Bio lab, heavy resistance expected' (more representative of the final days).

The former missions were milk runs. The Terran Republic simply could not suppress all the dissent. Forces to retake the base were groups of attack buggies. Easy meat for even a Mosquito. Frequently, I would get there and the battle would be over.

Missions of the latter type were very difficult. They went like this:
*Freedom: Mosquitoes, Liberty: Reavers, Democracy: Galaxy. I was Liberty 1-4*
The objective was to pick up about 48 defectors.

*Freedom, this is Democracy flight, report on CAP.*

*Freedom 1-1 to Democracy 1-1, we have about thirty fighters ten miles east of the pickup zone, there are ten of us and ten Reavers. We recommend that you remain at waypoint two until further notice.*

*Democracy 1-1 to Freedom 1-1, roger that. Are there any ground units?*

*Positive- we got MAXes and Lightning tanks providing flak cover.*

*Stronghold CT to Liberty flight: engage the ground units. Freedom: Provide air cover over the pickup zone.*

We attacked in a line formation. Liberty 1-1 made a pass, hitting a MAX right in the kisser. He had his gun cameras on, giving us a nice movie to watch afterward.

Liberties 1-2 and 1-3 missed.

I then proceeded to fire at the tanks. I lowered the reticle below the desert horizon. Carefully, I eased the stick over to the right and lined up with a tank. I pressed the pickle button and a rocket fired. I eased upward, and by chance, a second Lightning lay in my sights. I fired again. I then pulled up and jinked to evade the flak. I glanced over my shoulder. Two new tanks burning.

I couldn't believe that I was getting PAID for this!

*Liberty 1-4, two Lightnings destroyed!*

Liberties 2-1 to 3-2 followed. After they had had their fun, we counted twelve of sixteen tanks destroyed and two MAXes out of eight destroyed.

*Freedom 1-1 to Liberty flight: Mosquitoes inbound, engage!*

I unloaded rockets into their formation. They streaked away. I hit one Mosquito and caused a mid-air collision of two as they dodged rockets. Causing someone to crash is 1/2 a kill, so I had two kills at that point. However, we lost one as he and a Terran played chicken. Neither budged.

I made a hard, 4.5 G right which sent blood away from my brain into my torso and legs. The result was a partial blackout. I lost color in my sight and got tunnel vision. I got on the tail of a Terran and gave him a two second burst of lead. He bailed out. And landed in a cactus field. OUCH!

The hunter became the hunted. Two got onto my tail. I pushed down, causing the blood to go back up into my head and cause a redout as my vision faded to pinkish and almost red. I flew, you guessed it, into the cactus field. I smacked cacti which, although not harming the aircraft, slowed me down. The Mosquitoes avoided this and flew above. They retained their speed and overshot me, putting them in my sights. I fired off a rocket for one and chainguned the other one. Two more down.

At this point the Terran Mosquitoes left. They had taken a severe beating and decided to go home. We called in the Galaxies. They arrived. Five minutes later, the troops were seen running down a trail. They got on and we left for home.

WE LOST: 2 Mosquitoes, 2 Reavers
THEY LOST: 16 Mosquitoes

[AztecWarrior]

Everyone has vices. One of mine is smoking. Usually I don't. However, when under severe stress, I light up a cigarette. I have no idea why.

Everyone remembers February 17th in the New Conglomerate. It's the day the Terrans launched a massive offensive. At the time I was stationed on icy Ceryshen. The continent stays snowy all year long, but in the late winter/early spring, it gets really bad. We sometimes cancel flights because it's so bad. Hailstorms abound. We lost an armorer who was hit on the head by a huge hailstone. Snow and fog reduce visibility so bad that you can't see your hand in front of your face. At 0300 hours, in this weather, the Terrans launched the huge offensive.

I was asleep when the red alert came on. We all woke up, took stimulants, and got ready to go. The red alert came due to reports of a large offensive on another continent. We were all in our armor, some standard, some Agile (I have always thought that you don't skimp on armor quality, so I bought Agile), in our barracks, around either the heater or large screen computer watching the latest AGN report.

"Hey Aztec! Time to smoke?" jeered a second LT.

"No. after YOU get shot down, then I smoke."

Everybody laughed. We were all buddies.

Then came a tremor. We thought that it was just another burst of siesmic activity. Then another tremor. Then another. Then the loudspeaker came on: To all pilots: Scramble immediately, we have aircraft inbound. I repeat, we..."

There was a MASSIVE explosion. A rocket had narrowly missed our barracks! We opened the door and ran out. Rockets were everywhere, leaving yellow streaks. Fog was just forming. We all got into Sunderers and drove down to the hangars. Ice was everywhere, so quite a few times we hit some buildings.

Smoke was billowing from the hangar when we arrived. Oil drums lying around had been set on fire. The hangar and Reavers were fireproof and the hangar bombproof. Anything short of a nuke would do nothing. Somehow, a lucky shot had gotten inside the hangar, probably through the maintenance door. I jumped into the dimly illuminated but heated cockpit and flew away.

The radar station was hit first, but before that it had reported about 50 aircraft were on a direct course to our base and about three hundred others were en route to other bases. Clearly, this was no ordinary raid, it was a full-scale offensive.
Of the fifty:
Twenty Reavers
Twenty Mosquitoes
Ten Galaxies

This info was on my MFD when I entered the cockpit. A tactical map was on the other one, showing the Reavers making attack runs, the Mosquitoes providing top cover, and the Galaxies inbound.

How had they gotten this far without detection? They had probably flown very low and then popped up just before attack. 350 aircraft don't just appear.

As we were taxiing out of the hangar and then performing a V/TOL, SAMs and flak started to appear over our base. I took a look at the barracks. They were on fire. Perhaps that hit was not so much off as we had thought that it was...

As soon as I was thirty meters in the air, I began taking rocket fire. It was a head-on against another Reaver. I fired five and three hit. He fireballed. We had about ten Mosquitoes and ten Reavers availible. This was not going to be pretty. I ordered the Skeeters to engage the fighers. I took four Reavers with me to get the Galaxies before they attacked the base. The remaining five would defend the base.

Then I saw a rocket heading straight for me, no time to react...

[AztecWarrior]

I don't remember the explosion. I don't remember the damage. I don't even know if I crashed. All I know is that I woke up in mid-air WITH MY LEGS GONE. Blood was flying out and the pain was beyond anything I had ever felt. I smashed into the ground. The dampeners did kick in, but I was falling on my back, so it hurt massively.

I looked toward the horizon. My vison was blurred from the pain. I could make out Galaxies getting closer, and closer, until they landed about ten feet away from me. Only two were shot down. I read the wing unit: Clan Draconus Lupus.

Oh SHIT. These were the elite Terrans. I started praying. All I asked for was that my DNA would remain safe so that I could respawn. If not, my goose was cooked.

Troops started to exit the craft. One came toward me. It was a female in medium armor. She pulled out a Repeater. She said one sentence.

"Life is a bitch. Her name is {{eMaGyN}}"

I heard gunshots, and my world started spinning. All I saw was the night sky, turning and turning...



















I do not know what happened during the battle. All I know is that I woke up in a respawn tube. WTF? The bad news: I looked at a reflection of me on the glass. Half my head was missing, along with my legs! {{eMaGyN}} had probably emptied the clip into my head. These massive wounds would take nearly ten minutes to fix, an eternity during a battle.

The respawning procedure works like this: Your corpse appears back exactly how it died. You are immersed in a liquid that glows cyan. That is nullifying liquid, it eases the pain. You are hooked up to life support, so breathing is not a problem. Then you wait from thirty seconds (you probably died of blood loss) to fifteen minutes (you were hit by a rocket). It's funny because organs lost come active as they regenerate. People that are sniped in the head can't think until their brain heals, so they sort of just sit there.

I felt no pain due to the nullifying liquid that I was immersed in, but worried a lot. Why? I didn't know. HALF MY BRAIN WAS MISSING! I could not move, think hard, or do anything. As parts of my brain came back, I regained motion, then memory. Eventually I realized what had happened, that I was a New Con, that I was shot, etc. After about halfway, my head was complete and my legs began to come back. Eventually, the liquid drained, oxygen was pumped in, and the hatch opened. I reappeared with armor on but bare legs and no helmet. Armor, of course, does not regenerate as it is not alive.

I got out of medical. At the door, we recieved grim news: The Terrans had besieged us. Medical, Hangar 4, and Hangar 5 were the only NC structures remaining, and they were not interconnected. The armory had been evacuated, so most of the small arms there were salvaged. I jumped into a fresh Agile suit and got ready.

The doors were blown off. Our men were outside, shooting back, but the fog got really bad. You could not see five feet ahead! Doctors were running back and forth, to operating rooms, to respawning tubes, to morgues, etc. Pilots were protecting the doors. Command units were around the radio, talking with Hangars 4 and 5. We asked for help via interlink to the Stronghold, but they were full.

I walked to the radio and listened in.

"Do you have any vehicles remaining?"

"Yes, but we don't have many pilots. If you could send down a few, that would be great. We have a few Reavers, a Galaxy, and a Vanguard."

Vanguard? I was lucky enough to have my second vehicle cert in MBTs. I volunteered to run over there. So did others.

"Listen up! You are all very aware of the situation. You will run down to Hangar 5 to secure the vehicles and pilot them, as we only have engineers over there. Don't go to the vehicle pad, it has been disabled. You are our last hope. Get going!"

[AztecWarrior]

Run like hell. That was the objective. First off, there was ice everywhere. The installation was frozen, so it was VERY slippery. Then there was the fog. If a giant, man-eating monster with dual nuclear weapons stood in front of us, we wouldn't be able to see him until we got within five feet. And there's the small problem of Terran units shooting at us.

That is a huge understatment. On more than one occasion we ducked behind cover to avoid a mini-chaingun. Those things have to warm up but when they do, stay back. I usually responded with a grenade, then we ran to more cover.

At this time the SAMs had been destroyed. Most of the enemy aircraft were gone. "CDL just landed, the battle is over!" Well, it proved to be a little different.

I was running full-tilt when I smacked into a MAX. Not fun. He turned at me. As he was about to blow my head off, all of us opened fire, killing him. Never travel alone.

As we were at Hangar 1, we lost a pilot. Some bastard had a Flechette rifle and gave him one at close range. That guy paid. We all emptied the clip into his torso. When we were done, there was no skin or armor left. His bloody, broken insides came out, leaving a crimson stain on the snow.

We eventually reached Hangar 5. I drove the Vanguard with my buddy FireFlight doing the turret work. Everyone else got the Reavers. I drove out of there, thinking that I was king of the world. I was.

In the dense fog, even with foglights, we could only see about 20 feet. You could see the glow of tracer rounds but not the round itself, nor the gun or person firing. We went for those. My first kills were a group of mediums giving the base hell. They all had chainguns. The noise of their guns masked the huge tank bearing down on them. I ran them over.

Next were two MAXes, one with Pounders, another with Dual-Cyclers.

"Fire!"

A 150mm shell hit the Pounder. He flew back about thirty feet. FireFlight finished him off with the 20mm guns. Dual-Cyclers turned around and started giving US the punishment. We took about ten percent damage but he died in a similar fashon: blown 30 feet away and then fed 20mm.

By now the Terrans had gotten the right message: Six Reavers and a Vanguard are attacking you, run like hell. They began an organized retreat to the Galaxies.

Too late! I followed two light armors to the Galaxies. They were lined up as if they had landed on the President's lawn. Poor them. I caled the Reavers in and FireFlight fed the reavers lead in 150mm doses.

We had gotten two Galaxies when we heard the warning: Missle Launch. The tank could withstand about four missiles. One hit us, reducing integrity to 65%. FireFlight did a 180 in the turret and found the man with the rocket launcher. As he was about to fire, a Reaver swooped down and ripped him in half with the chaingun. That was not pretty.

Suddenly, a Pounder MAX spotted us and unloaded on us. The fuel tank lit on fire. I told FireFlight to get the hell out. I stayed on. I drove next to a Galaxy, then got out. I was about five feet away when it blew up, reducing my armor to nothing and health to 79%.

I saw a shadowy figure advance toward a Galaxy. I soon spotted the red and black, and shot the figure. It fell down, injured. I walked up and discovered that it was {{eMaGyN}}!

"It's you! I killed you over there!"

"Welcome to the future. Your government's killing your dissidents is no longer working due to rebirthing. Your oppression will not last long. Victory is ours."

I pulled out my MAG-Scatter and cocked it.

"You deserve far worse. If it were up to me and we were alone, you would be tortured. I'm going to make this quick. Be thankful I'm not in the mood to use my MAG-Cutter."

I shot her in the face. She died on the spot. She would be reborn somewhere. I knew that. But it was a testament to the fact that the Terran Republic's main weapon, death and fear of it, was no longer valid. She would come back. That's the problem with this war. They come back like ants. You will never get them all.

We held the base. CDL left. We had lost a lot, though. Other facilities had recieved the same fate.

FireFlight tried to look for me. He found me in the cafeteria, busy on a cigarette.

"Well..."

"We did good out there. Maybe we should become tankers."

"Well, Aztec, tanking just isn't my thing."

"Guess it isn't mine either. I still can't believe how severe this attack was. Did you hear the commander? We lost practically all our aerial capabilities for the time being. This place is kaput, FireFlight. With resources stretched as they are now, there's no way were getting anything anytime soon. We're going to be laying bricks for a while."

"What if they come back?"

"We are screwed. I don't see how we can withstand another attack. Control Tower and Flight Ops..."

Flight Ops. Where was my girlfriend?

I dumped the cigarette into the ashtray and ran outside, looking for her. I asked Medical. They pointed me toward respawn tube 22A. I found her there. She was probably somewhere in the tower when the Terrans took it over.

"How long will she be in there, doctor?"

"Not long, Lieutenant. She took a few shots to the chest. This one is new. We've had to delay spawns because there have been so damn many deaths..."

She would be OK. As long as they didn't destroy your DNA or capture you, you would live to tell about it.

The next day I recieved two things: a promotion to Captain and an order: Marzua Air Base, Eureka.

[AztecWarrior]

The base was a temporary write-off. Engineers did what they could, but supplies were stretched and there was not much to be done.

At Eureka, the Terrans had just been turned back. Damage was light, in contrast to the siege at Ceryshen. I was flown over there by H.A.R.T pod.

I showed security my ID when we got off. There were problems. It wasn't registering correctly, or something. Turns out that my recent promotion had not been logged yet. It listed me as a 1st Lieutenant and there I was with a Captain's logo on my armor.

Ok, I'm going to be honest. That's BS. I actually went on a classified mission. Can't say where because I was not told. I won't say any more.

After that, which took about three hours, I landed on Eureka. I flew over from the drop center to Marzua. A lot of my buddies from Ceryshen were there. The whole first month was boring CAPs with only a few minor squabbles. On occasion somebody died and he or she respawned back, fine. The Terrans had fallen back due to their great assault force being destroyed. The Vanu were still hurting badly, as they had fared worse in the offensive.

Something was brewing. I knew it.

On April 9th, the Terran-Vanu axis was created. Eureka was ravaged. My story there can be found here: http://www.planetside-universe.com/f...&threadid=3735

I was offered a two week vacation. I refused. This wasn't a time to rest, it was a time to OWN!

And so I did.

I was transferred back to Ceryshen. We went on the offensive. A small invasion force was gathered there. Target: Clan Draconus Lupus.