"What the hell, Chief? I thought we were doing a second wave deep into the mountains past Elysium." He returned the salute to the maintenance chief climbing the ladder on the other side of the fighter and then stepped down another rung of his own ladder. Jack pulled the seal ring on his gloves and removed them with a pop swoosh. He tossed them beside his helmet as an afterthought.
"Yes, sir. It appears that the Madira and most of the fleet has been called to the Tharsis Mons region. Mons City has been overrun by a large invasion force and we are pulling out to there."
"No shit?" Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. Mons City under attack? Those Seppy bastards have got some kind of balls.
I agree, sir, his AIC Candis commented.
"Well, pull that backseat hardware out of my fighter and reload it with standard gear. I suspect I'll be going back into the mix when we get there along with the rest of the Gods of War." Jack nodded to the chief. "Meantime, I'm gonna get some chow."
"Yes sir! I'd avoid the meatloaf sir. The stuff gave Hull Technician Third Class Joe Buckley the worst case of the shits I ever saw. He literally almost shit himself to death. Doc says he's gonna make it though." He laughed but his warning was serious. After all, it was the chief's job to make sure his pilots and their gear were always running top-notch and ship shape. He had to do his part in taking care of the men. Sure the CAG would say the pilots were his men, and the captain of the Madira would say they were his, but the chief knew different. He looked out for his men.
"Thanks, Chief. Has double zero reported in yet?" Boland asked.
"You haven't heard?" The chief turned three shades of pale.
"Heard what?" Jack stood still. He'd seen that look on the chief's face before. Even through the smut, oil, and other grime covering the chief's orange coveralls from head to toe he could tell the chief was hurting inside.
"Lieutenant Commander Tyler was shot down south of Elysium about fifteen minutes ago. She and her AIC were lost." The chief looked at his boots for a brief moment.
"Shit!"
"Yes sir. Seppy motherfuckers! Some of the pilots were saying there was a new Seppy mecha out there that got her. Did you see any new vehicles sir?"
"No. But I didn't engage them as long. I did see a whole shitload of mecha on the ground though."
"Remember sir, don't eat the meatloaf."
"See ya later, Chief. I can't believe it. And get that backseat out of my plane."
Jack couldn't believe it. Sarah Tyler, call sign EvilDead, good ol' double zero, the CAG, was shot down. Jack had known Sarah for years. They went through flight school together. Shit!
Yes sir. Shit! Candis agreed. Jack, the XO's AIC has ordered us to see him ASAP.
Tell him we're on our way. I guess the meatloaf can wait anyway.
"Lieutenant Commander Boland, sir!" Jack snapped a quick salute as he stepped into the XO's office. The chief executive officer looked up from his coffee cup and glanced to his right at his office couch. Captain Wallace Jefferson nodded to them both as well as a man that Boland had seen only one other time—the briefing where he met Nancy Penzington.
"At ease, gentlemen," the captain said. The man with no name was wearing a lieutenant's insignia, but Jack doubted that the man was in any branch of the military, since the last time he saw the man he was wearing an army colonel's uniform.
"Sir." Jack stood at ease with his hands behind his back.
"Have a seat, son," the XO said, waving to an office chair. Jack just nodded and took a seat.
"First things first." The captain started. "Was the package delivered?"
"The package was delivered coincident with the ordnance, sir," Jack said in a low, quiet tone. All the cloak-and-dagger stuff tended to make him lower his voice subconsciously.
"Good enough?" Captain Jefferson asked the "lieutenant."
"Excellent. Thank you, Captain, Colonel Chekov, and thank you, Lieutenant Commander Boland. Your country owes you a debt of gratitude. There will be a sealed classified commendation added to your personal records." The man offered to shake Jack's hand. Jack rose and gripped the man's hand firmly.
"Thank you, uh, Lieutenant." Jack smirked.
"Captain." The man nodded and made his exit from the XO's office.
"Is that all, sir?" Lieutenant Commander Boland asked.
"One more thing, Jack. Your new flight number is double zero again. Try not to blow up any civilian domes this time."
"Yes, sir."
"We'll expect you to say a few things at the service," Colonel Chekov added. "Sarah will be sorely missed."
"Yes, sir. She will. She has a daughter but she's grown. Still, she'll miss her mother." Jack straightened himself up. "Other orders, sir? What about this Mons City thing?"
"Well, Jack, it appears as though you'll be going to work in a couple hours or so. No rest for the CAG. Mons City has been overrun and the Churchill has been completely destroyed by sabotage as far as we can tell. Also, our long-range communications into the area have been completely jammed. Even the hardlines have been cut, but we're getting data out from daisy chained QM coms and from the Mars News Network AIC feeds."
"Jesus," Jack muttered.
"My sentiments exactly, son." The captain paused for a second.
"How did they sabotage the Churchill, sir?"
"We have zero intel or BDA at this point. We have no idea how they managed to get onto the ship and with ordnance. Maybe they used some ordnance already on the ship, but then how did they get to it? We could go nuts trying to figure that out without any data. So don't, that's an order." It was clear the CO was unhappy with the situation.
"Yes, sir."
"Just know that we are upping the security on all the ships in the fleet as we speak."
"Makes sense, sir. What do we do about Tharsis?" Jack was certain there was a big fight coming. Seppy bastards can't just blow up a U.S. Navy supercarrier and attack a city and expect to get away with it, he thought.
Absolutely not! Candis agreed.
"The air and space over the entire Tharsis region have been secured by the Seppies," the CO continued. "Initial drop tanks came in a large cargo freighter and dropped on the city at the same time the Churchill was destroyed. Then the freighter evaded the rest of the fleet over Tharsis just long enough to lure them in and detonate itself. The thing went off with the energy of a gluonium bomb and took out most of the local fleet."
"Holy shit, sir. Gluonium? Where did they get that?"
"Good question. There's more. Only minutes after the freighter's detonation, six carriers dropped out of hyperspace from somewhere out past Kuiper Station. Drop tanks and other Seppy mecha have been scattered across the region. The bastards can only hold the space for a few more hours with just six ships. We are going to bring all eighteen supercarriers and more than ten lesser-sized vehicles of the fleet in and crush them if the president gives the go-ahead. Unfortunately, there are over five million hostages in the Olympus Mons area, and more than twenty-five million spread out in the other Tharsis mountain cities, all assumed captured with many thousands dead. We've received no terms from the Seppies, so who knows what they are planning."
"Where did they get six carriers from, sir?"
"Your guess is as good as any right now. And Jack, there is one more glitch here."
"Sir?"
"We just got a courier from Earth in a small ship capable of hyperspace. The courier brought us this data straight from the Pentagon. Since the long-range coms are jammed we're sending messages back and forth the old-fashioned way." The CO tapped a few keys on a console at his desk and spun the monitor around for Jack to see. "Read this intel. It is quite alarming. The Seppies have a new fighter mecha that appears to be a poor man's copy of the FM-12. Analysts' details are in there, but if you haven't heard yet, we encountered a squadron of them after you had gone past the engagement zone. They are formidable and there are eyewitness accounts and computer analyses of them in there as well. All I can suggest is that you read this intel and plan accordingly."