He knew. She was either clean or slow on the intake because she kept trying to push the issue. "But sir!" she objected. The CO glared at her and she shut up. "You have your warning. Keep your noses clean from now on. You are dismissed!" he said. I saluted him and I left to find Gamma. He was waiting outside for me like I was for him. I pulled him into a hug. "They were right. The higher ups are all in their pocket. We don't leave each other's side for anything. Siegebreaker or Wallbuster will be waiting like hawks for one of us to slip up." I said directly to him. He nodded. "They wouldn't even let me finish my report of what he did." Gamma hissed. The base's other 2 aeromorphs approached. 1 was around the same age as Siegebreaker or Wallbuster. The other was much younger. The elder one looked us up and down. "Hey. They call me Blue Rocket. What's your names?" the younger of them introduced themselves. We gave them our serials. "So you 2 are the newbies. I'm sorry that I wasn't here to welcome you. I was module deep in this one's exhaust." he said with a lewd chuckle.
Blue Rocket's mouth was left wide open in a mixture of shock and horror. That had to hurt. "Oh. That true. Sorry to hear that." I said as I looked down. "Don't worry about me. I had my fun." Ace said. He was a large F-22 Raptor and Blue Rocket was an A-10 Thunderbolt II. Ace was a similar color and patchwork scheme as Wallbuster. He probably was on some of the same theaters that the bomber was on, Blue Rocket had his missiles painted a baby blue. That was not the only blue parts to him. His DDM and his rounded engines were a deep blue. It was probably how he got his name. The rest of him was a dark gray. Ace said "It looks like something happened. You were supposed to be railed by Siegebreaker and Wallbuster. I have my own sleeve here, so I wasn't bothered." I stepped up. "Neither of us are bitches. They're going to have to wait for easier targets." I said firmly. He chuckled. "You can say that, but we'll see soon enough." Blue Rocket said "It looks like you got off scott-free." I shrugged. "The humans here want fighters. They don't care about any unmanned crafts. So we got out."
Time moved on. Since we were indeed on a close watch and tight leash, there was nothing Siegebreaker or Wallbuster could do to us. Siegebreaker did pull us aside to chat after the first set of drills we had together. "I've found myself in a bit of a sweet position. I was there in the thick of everything, but I haven't even been looked at. Why is that?" he asked with a smirk. "You didn't touch me or Gamma. You can't win a war if you split your forces and attention in half." He whistled in amusement. "So it's war, huh?" he asked. I shrugged. "You're smart. You have to be to have survived this long. If you stay out of it, you can watch thing unfold and swoop in at the end if we lose, right?" He said "This is a dangerous game you're playing, son. But you didn't snitch on me, so all's fair." "Thanks, Siegebreaker." Gamma said in pure relief. "Yeah, kid." he teased before walking off. 2 more rookie aeromorphs came to the air base the following 3 weeks. They were also both male fighter crafts. 1 of them was a dark red and snow-white F-105 Thunderchief. The other was a bright orange and brown F-16 Falcon.
As soon as we could get them alone, we introduced ourselves. The Thunderchief was named Boomie. The Falcon was called Mistcloak. Those were some cool names. I told them that and they puffed out their chests. Pride was becoming of young flyers. We warned them about Ace, Siegebreaker and Wallbuster and the nasty shit they got up to. Neither of them believed it. "Listen. You can't just go around hazing the rookies like that." the Thunderchief said. Boomie looked upset. "I'm sure a pair of prototypes like you wouldn't get it, but aeromorphs seeing combat need to stick together." Mistcloak chastised. "Listen. There are 6 of us now. You don't have to believe us, but if you want to avoid getting raped, you can sleep in our hangar. If not, rest up with them." I said. That was all the warning I felt that I needed to give. If they did not believe me and Gamma that was on them. Wallbuster called us all over angrily. They went over quickly and we followed. We got through the drills for the day and it was time to go the hangars. The officers on the air base had us on opposite ends of the base.
