CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

Exhaling slowly and pushing the pain to the back of his mind, he stepped in to the
briefing room to find the other 73 pilots of the rag-tag sea wing already in their seats. The
Aquarius pilots - those that were left of the Thunderbolts, Crusaders, Widowmakers and
Banshees, dominated the front rows. Richards ran his eyes over them twice to be certain he
hadn't made a mistake, but moving between the sea of squadron patches, he didn't see a
single member of the 97th Fighter Squadron, the Cobras, anywhere in the crowd. His heart
sank with this realisation, recalling the two, lonely and canopy-less Raptor IIIs that were
tucked away in a quiet corner of the hangar when he had arrived, the battered iconography
of a coiled snake still visible amidst the shattered tail fins. A quick run of the numbers
present, compared to the numbers of squadrons on the Aquarius flight deck painted an even
more desperate picture. Of the forty eight possible members of the four squadrons, just
twenty one were present. Making up the rest of the numbers behind them sat the twelve
pilots of the Ghosts, with Dark Angels and Rapiers sitting uncomfortably at the rear. How
Mackenzie's group had escaped without losses like those present throughout the rest of the
room, he didn't know.
Corinn Roderick entered the briefing room through a door that directly adjoined the
Wing Commander's office at the side of the auditorium. Shuffling without much enthusiasm,
the pilots all stood as she took her place behind the lectern and eyed the pilots in the front
rows. Her eyes appeared to soften as she noted their numbers, just as Richards had, and
she cleared her throat.
"Good morning," she said simply.
There was a chorus of unenthused replies which she didn't fuss over as she laid out
her notes. "Be seated..."
Richards still stood at the back of the room, leaning against the back wall next to the
stairs as a shadow fell in beside him. He turned to find Gavin Mackenzie give him an
encouraging smile with an extended hand. Despite his own, decidedly non-altruistic
inclinations at that moment, he couldn't help but give a half smile to the man as he took the
offered hand. He could no more begrudge Mackenzie than he could Roderick... Someone
they both, incidentally, held very dear. "Good to see you, Ed."
...Ticonderoga stank of death. Richards was reached the hangar deck as the last of
the stores were loaded into his Raptor. All around him were the sounds of technicians
turning fighters around, making them as ready as possible to dive into hell once again. He
couldn‟t help but notice the amount of holding bays that were conspicuously empty. As
usual, the ground crews scurried about in a state of organized chaos; preparing what little
remained of the ship‟s fighter group for combat against what everyone knew was now a
vastly superior enemy. He shuddered at the thought of how many pilots had already been
lost, and how many more were likely to be dead by the time the Chaodai finished with them.
He turned around as he heard footsteps coming across the EVA deck. Kate Stephenson
stood in her flight suit with her helmet tucked under one arm, and returned his smile – albeit
a forced one. Richards saw through it.
“…Ed,” she began, and then faltered.
“I know, Kate. Save me the water works.” He shrugged helplessly. “I feel sorrier for
the Commander…” he said, referring to Mackenzie.
Stephenson nodded. “Yeah. Brother-in-law.” She choked up again. Richards was a
stone, and felt little. The loss had hit him hard, but he knew this wasn‟t the time to grieve. He
wrapped an arm around her shoulder and felt her lean into his chest, and the tears that she
had been holding back for several hours flowed. Richards just held her. He looked up as the
sound of something rumbling across the gratings reached his ears. He smiled weakly as
Commander Gavin Mackenzie rolled to a stop next to him and Stephenson.
“Sir,” he said simply.
“Ed…” Mackenzie said, looking round, like Richards had, at the empty bays of the
hangar. “Good work out there. Thanks for staying alive.”
Richards nodded. “Seemed to be the popular idea...”
- 216 -