A panicked pounding came at Colonel Surprise’s door. She rolled over and looked at the clock. 0415. They had been running night flying until 2300, which meant after it was done, she wasn’t done. 0030 was when she finally got to bed.
“I’m awake!” Surprise yelled as loud as the morning would allow her.
She stumbled to her door and opened it.
“Ma’am!” A Corporal snapped to attention with a salute.
Surprise might be in pajamas and a mess, but she still was the Colonel. Just a very tired, hard worked one.
“Orders Ma’am. For the 45th Flight Wing.”
That kicked Surprise’s mind into full gear. She grabbed the orders and ripped them open. She speed read them.
“Get this copied and to each of my Majors. I need a copy back. Get that to my crew chief, Glowsticks.”
“Ma’am, the Majors are each getting their own copy. And so is every crew chief.”
“Then I will get ready. Let my crew chief know I am taking off ASAP.”
Surprise slammed the door closed in her haste. She didn’t even wait for confirmation from the Corporal. Surprise flicked the lights on to help wake up and pulled out her special flight suit. It had her new position, identifying her as the Colonel over the 45th Flight Wing and the 126th Squadron.
But it was her combat flight suit and a mixed one. It held a 5th Squadron Patch, yellow with a dragon head snaking in from the top. The 126th Squadron’s Squadron patch was the same yellow, but the dragon head came in from the bottom. Below was the squadron number molded to the curve of the patch, was supposed to be the 126th Squadron. But it was a 5th Squadron patch and she wasn’t letting it go, despite it’s honorable retirement. There was no denying the link between the two squadrons.
Surprise went to the mess haul and filled up a travel mug with coffee, downed a regular mug and headed to the hanger. She smiled as she arrived. Not because the coffee had kicked in, but because the plane was ready.
“There you are,” Glowsticks said. “The transport is gassed up and will be taking off before the planes. Once we are done with the pilots, its safe to pull us and get into the air.”
“And I can see you like the decals. It took all nights, but yes. We got them done.”
Surprise shoved her coffee mug into Glowsticks’ chest and hopped up onto the wing’s walking points. She touched the nose art. ‘Dragon Shade.’ Beside it was an expertly painted two dimensional dragon phantom. Outlined with black, it used the yellow for the creature. The creature was just enough to recognize it as a dragon, but enough was removed or faded to tell it was a ghost.
The night flight coined the name for Surprise. After she killed Garble and Fume, she was known as The Equestrian Dragon, and its what was painted on the nose of her P-1. It would be the name that was solidified as the 5th Squadron’s nickname. Each plane had held some special meaning revolving around her and dragons. Since they figured Surprise was dead after downing her and not seeing her for over 3 years, shade was a great name for her plane.
Glowsticks smiled at her childish wonder. “Your 5th Squadron symbol is on the wingtips and under the tale number. But, Surprise, did you catch the tail number?”
Surprise looked at Glowsticks. She hadn’t noticed a change. She jumped down and walked to the back. Above the insignia was her plane ID number. Every plane had their own. It was how they kept track of things. And it always followed the same format. Because of the yellow background, theirs were black letters.
126-SDS-1401
1401 was the ending numbers of her P-14, The Dragon Lady. 5-EAF-1401. The first part was Squadron. EAF was the standard letters, standing for Equestrian Aviation Force. It was rare to not have EAF on it. 1401 was her insistence. 14 for the model and 01, because she was the first pilot flying the P-14s. First pilot since she lead the 5th Squadron. And the other, hidden, meaning; 1 for her P-1 that she loved dearly.
“Alright,” Surprise said coming back to reality. “I need to get flying. I need to get to that airfield first. Know anything about it?”
“I made my calls,” Glowsticks said. “But nopony seems to know it exists. DMA is the code of it. Full name appears to be Dragon Marauder Airstrip.”
“Airstrip sounds bad,” Surprise said as she jumped into her plane. “Airstrips are always small and crude.”
She was skipping the visual inspection. It had just been inspected after the painting was done. Glowsticks jumped up onto the wing and passed Surprise her mug.
“Thanks,” Surprise said. “See you in a bit.”
Surprise slid the glass forward, sealing herself in, and fired up her engine and after it had settled, Glowsticks pulled away the chock blocks. She taxied out to runway and took off properly. She got up high and set her path. For now, she could stay high. But the location of their airfield was very close to the front. She would have to drop in low for her final approach.
Surprise saw the sunrise. She had personally seen Celestia raise the sun as Luna brought the moon down. And not in a ceremony, on a regular day with no ceremony. They had business at that time, what turned out to be naming the 5th Squadron the Equestrian Dragons. A quick fly in, and a quick fly out and back to the war.
Now, She wished she was back in Canterlot, not on the front. But duty called and she absolutely loved killing dragons. Canterlot was safe, and this mission was a nasty one.
Surprise held in a curse as she finally caught sight of the airstrip. It was easily within view of the mountain and it was short. Its location and design was dangerous. And worse, the short strip was all dirt. Compacted dirt, but dirt. Dirt was horrible to land and take off at. It was a very big problem.
She dove and pulled up right above the trees. She dove hard again and put on the breaks. Surprise skidded to a stop right before the tree line. Several soldiers came running out and helped turn her around so she could taxi over to one of the parking locations. She was in a spot to readily take off if a dragon attacked. Her spot was quickly covered by camo netting to cover the bright plane up.
Surprise jumped out of her plane, angry. “Who’s in charge?” Surprise barked.
“I am,” A major said running over. “You’re early.”
“Early?” Surprise stammered. “I was given orders 6 hours ago to proceed here.”
“Here! I, we, what? No!”
Surprise narrowed her eyes at him. “Why am I landing at an extremely short dirt airstrip so close to the dragons we are about to attack! They can easily find and burn this place before we can get a single plane in the sky. Getting planes in here safely is going to be impossible!”
“I didn’t pick it!” The Major fired back. “General Fire Ruby chose it.”
“Fire Ruby! That dunce! No wonder why! She knows soldiers, not aviators! Why are we not at Clover Air Base a few hours north?”
“Because,” The Major paused. “Well, they burned four days ago.”
Surprise’s flank slammed into the ground as she sat down in shock. “How… how… how?”
“The three dragons attacked it. Two were adolescents. General Fire Ruby believes they know we are targeting them, and came from the mountain. She sent us forward to make a new airbase here. Its all gone. And its ripped up so bad that we can’t fix it in time.”
“The fool!” Surprise spit. “We can’t land here. I have a flight wing coming. 76 more planes! And a transport with aviation crew members! We can’t park here! Few can make this landing. At least twenty are not ready for a dirt strip with with the powerhouses we have. Do you even have fuel for us?”
“Uh, no. Its coming. Any hour now. A long train is coming to expand here. We don’t even have a kitchen. Its field rations. That tent holds everything! Housing, logistics, every crate of supplies. The bathroom is there. That is little more than a few buckets in a tent with privacy screens. We have no running water either.”
“I… crap. No radio?”
“Not reliable,” The Major replied. “We didn’t know you were coming yet until you dropped right on top of us.”
Surprise stepped up onto her wing and pulled out her headset. “I’m going to need to reroute the planes. My radio will pick them up. But its not going to be fun. I think they need to go to Aurora Forward Airbase.”
“That place hasn’t been used in over a year! Its been abandoned!”
Surprise sighed. “But they can’t make it back to our launch point, Luna Airfield. And they can’t go to Clover. At least Aurora is safe and can house them. And, Aurora should have aviation fuel. I doubt they drained the tanks.”
“In the meantime, get to drawing up a plan. We can’t launch from Aurora. Or, shouldn’t unless forced. We need to quietly house each plane. Plan to build zig zag cuts into the ground that we can pull them into. Its not optimal, but those sharp angles will look less open and can more easily be camouflaged.”
“Yes Sir!” The Major said, saluting.
Surprise replied with a quick salute with her wing and then hopped back into her plane. It was more comfortable than standing and she didn’t have much reach for the radio unit. Half an hour later she heard an engine. She tried the radio, but her channels were dead. There was no response on the open channels either.
Surprise hopped out and got out from under the camo netting to spot the plane. It was a single engine plane, with no others following it. That was clear. The Major and several others joined her. The plane was finally spotted and Surprise grabbed her small binoculars she always kept with her.
The plane’s tail tag was easy to read. LNCR-03-FS. Surprise held in a curse. She knew the tail tag. She knew the pilot. She hadn’t ever seen the plane though.
It was a phenomenal monstrosity and eyesore with the engine half exposed and other panels barely welded back on in different spots. A light pastel orange with a blue tale. It was the same as the pilot. The side of the fuselage was painted with a blue shield with a lightning bolt on it. Three red dragons were under the cockpit, and six green dragons were behind them. Each had a silver X in the center.
The plane ducked down to above the treeline, disappearing. A minute later it came low, right over the airstrip. It was setting up for its landing. It was a bumpy landing and the plane’s wing dipped on a bump and almost hit the ground. That would have ripped it off.
Like Surprise, it stopped right at the treeline. Others rushed out to get it turned around. It taxied its bouncing way to the parking spot on the other side of the area just off the airstrip and the camo netting was quickly thrown over it.
He jumped out and walked over to them. “Is that you, Colonel Surprise?”
Surprise scowled. “You better not be here for my job.”
“What! No! No no no,” He scrambled. “I am here to protect this airstrip. That’s all.”
“What is a Lancer like you doing protecting an airstrip?”
“Eh… well… Its all they will let me do. Everypony but the 45th Flight Wing is grounded. But what are you doing here?”
“We were ordered to deploy here.”
“Here?”
“I’m just as thrilled as you are.”
“Who gave that order?”
“Apparently General Fire Ruby did. We were supposed to use Clover.”
“You didn’t hear it got burned, did you?”
“Not until I landed here. And the rest are on their way.”
“Oh boy.”
“Uh huh. Yeah.”
“Well, the support troops for here are half an hour out. So, they have to work fast.”
“Colonel Surprise’s orders for the design are being plotted out right now.”
“Is fuel coming?” Surprise asked.
“I could see them moving, not what they were moving. The trees were blocking them.”
A dragon’s roar in the distance turned their attention to the other problem. They didn’t need binoculars to see one soaring around the mountain, guarding the cave.
“Oh yeah, they know we are coming. Colonel, how long can you stay in their air? I assume you have ammo?”
“I have about 45 minutes. You?”
“Then you are up first. I have about 30 minutes. My warning light is on.”
“Of course it is,” Surprise grumbled. “How can you protect a place with no fuel? I have a mission to fly.”
“I didn’t expect it to be barren! I didn’t know it was this bad until I flew over it. The packed dirt needs more packing.”
“Working on it Sir. But you are?”
“Lancer Flash Sentry. The last of my kind!”
“Lancer?” The Major asked.
“Yeah,” Surprise spat. “The Lancers are a bunch of hot heads who turbocharged and overhauled their planes. It was never an official program, but by the time the first one was to be reprimanded, they solo killed a dragon, because of their plane.”
“Instead of working in a Squadron, they are solo Dragon hunters. Usually mechanical geniuses who heavily modified a platform to carry heavy guns and boast high speeds. Their planes have killed their pilots at least six times because something went wrong. Its why a pilot shouldn’t fly a plane into battle that hasn’t been through the rigorous testing process.”
“I don’t even know what platform he used.”
“What, her? Its the JI-61. The Jetstream Incorporated 61, a plane that was working to take the P-34 slot. It was given great marks, but they went with the other design. They gave me her after my P-32 needed to be retired.”
“The Lady Lancer already has a solo kill to her name. And she is packing some pretty heavy guns. Each wing as a Warbird 50, and then two Aviation 30s. Also in the nose is two Aviation 30s that I can turn on our off. I can carry 4 HVAR Rockets and a 250 pound bomb. Her solo kill was from dropping a bomb on the dragon.”
“It may be short, and carrying a lot of weight for her size, but she has extended fuel tanks to balance it. The Engine is a Jetstream original V-61 that originally put out 1000 wingpower, but now it puts out 1400 horsepower.”
“There is tension between you two,” The Major said. “Anything I need to know?”
Flash Sentry waved it off with a wing. “The Colonel hates Lancers. She wants them to just sit tight in the basic aircraft and play in a Squadron.”
“Shut up,” Surprise growled. “You are thrill seekers wanting to make a name for yourself. You have no qualifications as to what makes a Lancer and what skills you need. You don’t understand the delicate balance and what it takes to really down a dragon. Firepower isn’t everything. The engine and guns must work together with the plane to create the best thing available.”
“Your own engines have exploded and their own planes have killed more Lancers than dragons. The few of you lucky enough to not have their plane kill them die by dragons before they can do any real good. And then the rare few like you actually get there and kill something.”
“But a real DH Squadron will down more than your solo career and injure or drive off ten times more dragons than you have ever faced. You say the fight is only won when the dragon is dead. I’ve experienced the reality that its always good when the fight ends, even if that means they were only driven off. That is the real victory.”
“Because at the very basics, that is what keeps Equestria alive. We do not know how many dragons there are. And it doesn’t matter. This war won’t end with the death of the Dragon Lord. We need better aircraft to get there. Once we do, we will gain the upper hoof, but killing yourself in pursuits that give no benefit except for personal glory is a failure. We learn nothing from your planes. Not even what not to do.”
“A lone Lancer won’t do us any good in defense.”
Colonel Surprise trotted off to her plane to get back to the radio.
The engineer crew arrive twenty minutes later and immediately got to work smoothing and expanding the airstrip. They also got to work cutting the storage lanes. Fuel trucks arrived and refueled both aircraft. Ample ammo was brought for the 45th Flight Wing.
The 45th was finally picked up on the radio they had erected as part of the short, single pony air traffic control tower. They had pushed back the departure time and had an hour in between each departure.
The 126th touched down first. Motherboard swung his plane right next to Surprise’s. He hopped out while the propeller blades were still swinging.
“I finally heard that Clover was burned. So we held back a bit. Which was a good call from what I can see.”
“Yes,” Surprise said flatly. “It was.”
“I’m afraid to asked, but is that Flash Sentry’s plane?”
Surprise just gave a single nod. She then sighed. “At least he is here to be the field’s aerial defense. Nothing more. He is as grounded as the others.”
“That is an ugly plane.”
The 129th Squadron landed next. Their pursuit pilots pulled their planes into ready positions as well and they all converged to cover defensive tactics.
“Alright,” Surprise said, looking them over. “The Dragons know an attack is coming. We have to have three by their planes at all times so we can get in the air immediately. We will run in 4 hour shifts. Even at night. We are too close to run a flying defense. Patrols would take us right to them.”
“Save the location comments. General Fire Ruby made the call. That is all that needs to be said.”
“Is that a Lancer?” Captain Split Cherry asked.
“Yes,” Surprise said, trying to not break her teeth.
“Oh don’t be like that,” Flash Sentry said joining them.
“Ah, its you?” Split Cherry groaned. “I hate you!”
“Yeah yeah,” Flash Sentry said, waving it off with his wing. “Split Cherry, you always were a drag. A good pilot, but I found a better calling. I actually have kills.”
Split Cherry was shocked and offended. “The day after you left we took one and drove off three. All 17 of us because you couldn’t play nice! I have 6 Squad kills, and two more that are final kills. When Squadron 83 went down, I finished off the last dragon solo. She had been shot up and kicked hard, but a half hour solo fight. So don’t try flashing some fancy stickers you slapped on your plane. All of us have high kills.”
“Yeah, but the 83 was never able to get a solo kill on her books.”
“We don’t, didn’t, need a solo kill. The final kill count is what matters. If you want solo kills, five of the other pilots in the 129th have one or two. We have a job to do and we did it. Now we are going to knock out another few. Stay out of the fight!”
“I’m not allowed,” Flash Sentry said, annoyed. “I’m grounded. Just here for direct defense. And you guys are talking about taking over my job if the base is attacked.”
“Cause you can’t defend. Lancers don’t do that stuff. You don’t know how! Otherwise you would be called shields. So get out of here. You are not welcome! And you are just a second rate Lancer! I know Thrust is the genius behind your planes. He was your crew chief. You were a soldier, not a mechanic!”
Flash Sentry huffed and walked away, annoyed that he wasn’t wanted. Nopony had time to talk with him. Their either were busy, or pilots who didn’t want to talk with a Lancer.
And Split Cherry was right. It was always Thrust behind the engine, not Flash Sentry. He had learned to do a lot, but maintaining and modifying were two different things. Most second generation Lancers had somepony backing them with the plan modifications.
“He’s going to attack,” Split Cherry warned Surprise.
Surprise shook her head slowly. “If he does, leave him to me. No sabotaging his plane either. Not even harmless things. No nicks, scratches, or markers even.”