Chapter Seven: Briefing for War

General Heero Yuy looked at the assorted races of men that stood before him.  It was strange; these different races had fought wars with each other in the past, and now, they were uniting as a single unit.
"Men, we are at war.  Mankind has fought many wars in the past; some of you may have once been enemies.  But now you are allies.  You must put aside your cultural believes and join together as one, or we will go down in this war, and the gods will triumph.  Many of you are pilots and captains under my command.  I have heard a story.  I wish to tell you this story now.  It is a story of war.  One other time in history did mankind go against the gods.  The true cause of the war is still unknown today.  It was known as the War of Althena.  Althena was a goddess of beauty and health.  In many villages, there were statues of the goddess.  One could use the statue to heal completely after an adventure or a fight or if you were just sick.  Althena loved humans.  She loved them because they worshiped her.  One day, a man discovered a new way to heal people.  They no longer needed the statues to survive.  Althena was enraged.  How could the humans simply forget everything she had done for them?  She went to Zeus to plead for war.  He agreed.  Humans of all race, color, and religion banned together to form a great moving front.  Then, wars were fought on the ground, on land.  The gods on one side, the humans on the other, they marched.  When they clashed, the old race of mankind was wiped out.  Althena discovered, on month after the war, that she still loved humans.  So she created new ones.  Using technology that was illegal to the gods, she created us, Homo sapiens.  We evolved, unlike our ancestors of that before the Great War.
"You are probably wondering, why is the General telling us this.  I am telling you this so you have something to think about tonight before you go to bed.  Think about what I have told you and take strength from it.  Look at the soldiers on all your sides, chances are, when we get back, they will be dead.  Dismissed."

I watched as they moved out.  I turned and walked back to my quarters.  I really never got much time to myself anymore.  I lay on my bed and imagined that girl that I saw yesterday on the rock.  It seemed like she lived there, but I saw no houses on the small island.
And what about all those other shapes in the water?  They looked like girls also.  The girl had been naked.  That was another odd thing about her.  Mankind was long past wearing nothing.  We had a sense of modesty now.  I wondered how long she had been out there in the seas.  Her skin had been streaked with salt.
Someone knocked at my door.  I sat up.  "Enter."
Duo came in.  "Sir."  He crisply saluted me.
"At ease Duo.  What do you want?"
"Sir, we still do not know if we are going into the area where the fog was.  We don't know if it will come back.  What should we do?"
"Let's stay where we are for now.  This is a nice spot.  We can watch to all sides and we are radio clear.  The area where the fog was is not radio clear and we would not be able to transmit to home base."
"Sir!"  He saluted me again and walked out.
I lay back down.  "Computer, lights."  The lights dimmed.  I felt my eyes start to get heavy, and I drifted into a dreamless slumber.

"Colonel Maxwell!"  I turned.  Becky was walking towards me.  Becky was our radio officer.  She was the one that sent messages to home base and the other aircraft carriers, subs, tankers; etc. that are part of our fleet.
"Yes?"
"Sir, we got a radio message from the Raider.  They've been attacked."  I stared in silence.
"By the gods?"  I demanded as I turned and headed back to Heero's room.
"Yes.  They say that one of Zeus' great arrows hit the left flagship.  There is nothing left of that ship sir.  No one survived."  I typed the code and burst into his room.  He sat up and grabbed the 40 caliber Glock (type of gun) next to his bed.
"Duo!  What the hell do you think your doing?"  He was pissed.  Oh well.  I've survived before, and it ain't easy.
"The Raider fleet has been attacked!  Left flagship destroyed!  What are your orders sir?"  He was side awake now.  He jumped out of bed and holstered his weapon.
"Get everyone onto the main runway, same place that I gave that damn speech this morning.  MOVE!!!!!"  Becky and I ran.  She headed towards the radio room and I headed for the loudspeaker.
"Attention!  All hands on main runway.  Get there.  Emergency briefing commencing in three minutes!  If you are not there, you must walk the plank!  ARGH!"  I finished in pirate talk.
"Duo!  What did you do that for?"  Heero was staring at me.  I smiled sheepishly.
"Just to get them moving.  And we do have a plank!"  He shook his head at me and ran up the stairs.  People who were doing what I had asked, jumped out of his way as he shot up the stairs.  I followed, telling people to hurry up.
I was amazed when I stepped into the light.  Everyone except for those behind me, which was only twenty or so, were lined up.  Heero was standing in front of them.  The others got into rank.
"ATTENTION!"  Heero's voice cut through the early morning like a bad alarm clock.  Everyone was silent.  I was holding my breath.
"The second attack fleet, The Raider fleet, was attacked at 0500 hours.  We need to get there and help them.  Any questions?  Good, everyone!  Man your battle stations!"  Everyone ran to get where they needed to be.  Heero gathered the pilots and me in a group.
"Boys, start the jets up.  I want you, Rogers, and you, Patrick, to stay behind with your color squadrons.  Everyone else, get suited up.  Duo, stay in COM tower.  I need you to give us directions.  Have the flagships nest to the carrier at all times.  I want the tankers in the back.  Gun ships on all sides.  Got all that?"  I nodded.
"Good."  He ran off.  As I watched him, a sense of pride overcame me.  I can't really say why, but it did.  I grew up in the perfect family.  Loving parents, two great, although awfully annoying, little sisters, and a dog.  Heero on the other hand, had the worst luck of any kid.  You see, his true name is not Heero Yuy, it is Aiden.  Aiden Cloud.  When his mother died, he told me that he was changing his name.  He always wanted to be a hero, so that's what he called himself.
The name stuck.  Of all the people aboard this boat, only I know this.  Heero prefers not to talk about our past.  I guess as I watched him climb into the Titan, I loved him.  Not in that way you pervert!  When his father died, he moved in with us.  He became the brother I never had.  That's why I love him.  I love him as a brother and a teacher, for he truly taught me many things.
I snapped out of my daze and ran to the COM tower.  Private Chang Wufei gave the signal and two F-16's took off.  The rest of the Orange Kites followed them.  Robert Patrick, leader of the Blue Hawks, and Chase Rogers, leader of the Red Eagles, entered.
"Colonel, all our men are ready and waiting."
"Good.  Be prepared to take off whenever the general orders it!"  They saluted me and turned.
"Orange Leader, do you copy?"  Officer Barton said.
"Ten-four Hornet II.  We can hear you and we are awaiting orders."  That was David Mallory, he was a young man with a lot of dreams.
"Change to chameleon mode."
"Ten-four."  One of the few things we had added to the old F-16, was a chameleon skin.  When activated, the skin of the jet turned to match the sky behind it.  If one looks down on the jet when they are over water, all they would see is water.  Pretty neat, eh?  Heero came up with it.
"Pink Flamingo's, ready for take off."  I almost started laughing.  The Pink Flamingos!  Who had come up with that crazy name?  Oh... I did.  The F-18s took off in a blaze of heat.  The remaining squadrons took to the sky.
"Hornet II, this is Titan, ready for liftoff."
"Titan, you are clear.  Go!"  We watched as for the second time, Heero lifted the jet off the runway.  We named our squadrons after birds because of EX-O Quatre's father.  Big bird lover that guy.
"Good luck guys, you'll need it."