Three Strikes [✓]

Coming Storm

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Coming Storm

|...|...|...|

New Arrows Air Base, East Usea.
September 8th, 2019.
0933hrs.

|...|...|...|

It was early in the morning and Wiseman had asked everyone to come to HQ. At least, everyone except for Clemens, that is. They'd somehow managed to avoid getting found out and Wiseman and Hawkins had organized a bit of a briefing. They'd even managed to get their analyst, David North, to agree to a video call just for this. No one was sure what the meeting was for, just that it was obviously important for everyone that would be flying. Looking around the room, Pixy could see that everyone, Tailor and Fencer included, were seated in the room. He stood at the front, beside Wiseman and Long Caster. The base commander hadn't joined them yet, and everyone had realized that Clemens had been keeping him out of the picture as much as possible.

He glanced towards the door as they waited for their call to Oured to connect, then over at Wiseman with a curious expression. "Colonel Hawkins isn't joining us?" Pixy asked him. Wiseman looked up and seemed to hesitate for a moment, and Pixy could already guess the answer. He frowned, feeling as though something wasn't right without the base commander himself being there. "So, he won't be joining us, then? Is there any reason why he's been hiding off in his office, or is he just trying to keep a low profile?"

"We figured that bringing everyone here without getting Clemens' attention was tricky enough as it was and bringing the base commander would only raise more suspicion than we'd already be facing," Wiseman replied, offering a reassuring smile. "I spoke with the commander, and he said that he's alright with sitting back and focusing on a bit of paperwork. He's considered getting in touch with someone to try and warn them about Clemens, but so far he's just been looking into active mercenary units to track down those bats that engaged Trigger. It's not like he's completely out of the picture, just working behind the scenes so we can keep the brigadier general off our backs for a bit."

Pixy nodded slowly. "Right...if you say so. I just hope that we're not going to have more trouble with base commanders." He looked over at where his daughter was sitting, talking with her wingmen. Count, as usual, was sitting right beside her. Pixy was keeping an eye on him. Naomi seemed to trust him and his loyalty was surprisingly admirable. He was always right by her side. Then again, so was Tabloid. In fact, on Naomi's other side, he sat with his usual grin on his face. At least they were all happy for now. No telling how bad things could get, though. Pixy sighed, crossing his arms. "Everyone who used to be from Spare is probably tired of dealing with leaders who would sooner sell them out then risk anything to save them."

Long Caster spoke up next. "There's no need to worry about that, sir," he said, also looking towards where the pilots were sitting. "Commander Hawkins has always been on our side. He's as loyal to Osea as it comes. He'd never endanger his men. Same goes for Wiseman."

"I don't doubt Wiseman. Your judgement hasn't been wrong yet, though, so I suppose I'm being a little unfair on Hawkins," Pixy said. He wasn't a bad guy, by any means, and he'd seen service for some time now. This wasn't his first war, and it likely wasn't his first time in charge either. Pixy only worried that he might lack the stomach for a war on this scale, where loyalties were being questioned left and right within their own command structure. He might very well be wrong, but only time would be able to tell that. "Just worried about a repeat McKinsey, that's all."

"The only person that we should worry about that with would probably be Clemens," Wiseman answered, focusing more on the computer screen than he was on the conversation. With one last click, he finally stood back and looked to the larger screen on the wall. "We'll get to the bottom of this. Now, that should do it. David said he'd be ready around this time. The call's going through, so provided everything connects like it's supposed to then we shouldn't run into any issues." He turned slightly to get a clear view of the others and raised his voice a bit to be heard over their own conversation. "Hey! Quiet down! This is important, so I want you all to pay attention."