We took to the air together and had to wait for the others to take off. They flew us around some mountains and we were shown some peak maneuvers. The flight training lasted for several days. It worked for everyone involved in it. They got a vacation of sorts. All they had to do was show up, run some basic patterns and goof off with some trick flying and racing. We got to soak up their experience and learned some new things. When we landed at the end of the 8th day, we were excited. It was late at night. The officers had said that we had trained enough. Because of the time spent out there, they needed to see that it was worth their time. A special group from the base to the south were going to come up and challenge us to a series of trials. It was a pretty good way to advance ourselves and get needed experience. We waited for all of the humans to land and park their planes. They were going to go to the barracks and sleep. As they were about to leave, we heard a series of gunshots ring out. It was loud. The humans crouched and we encircled them. "We'll cover you." I said to them.
Helping them get to their barracks was our top priority. All of them had sidearms, but no one was going to get to them without getting through us first. Sirens rang out and the base was once again on red alert. We saw Bouncer barrel down the runway and take off in a hurry. Wideload followed after him. Siegebreaker was shaking his fists and screaming "When I get my hand on you, you'll wish you were dead, kid! Fucking hell!" He then noticed us and said "Bring your asses over here! We've got an aero down!" They humans told us to go handle it. The could take care of themselves. We all rushed over to the vet's hangar. Wallbuster was lying on the ground. Oil and fuel were leaking from under him. There was also some gray on there. He was cursing up a storm and calling Bouncer all sorts of names. When he was not doing that, he was groaning loudly and holding onto his DDM. The massive, girthy pole had several bullet holes in it. One of the modules were the nanite data paste was held was fully punctured. A leak was spraying out the paste like a faucet. I could guess what happened.
Confirmation came from Ace. Bouncer refused to bend over. Wallbuster began humiliating and groping him. Eventually, Bouncer had enough and snapped. He aimed his guns at Wallbuster. At that point, everyone stopped what they were doing. Wideload tried to calm Bouncer down, but he would not listen. Wallbuster dared him to fire at him. Bouncer could not do it. Just like I said would happen, the older bomber then beat the shit out of Bouncer. That was probably a serious beatdown. When he was close to being knocked out, Bouncer thought he was going to die. It was then that he fired from the ground on an approaching Wallbuster. His dark armor plating was very tough and thick. The actual DDM was the most sensitive part of an aeromorph. Therefore, he was in tons of pain, but not in any danger of death. The engineers and mechanics on the base were going to have to patch him up. It was nothing they could not fix. Wallbuster was good as new within a week. It was a large patchwork of fine titanium and steel welding. Bouncer and Wideload were both considered to be deserters.
Desertion from the armed forces was considered treason. For aeromorphs, that meant that you were to be destroyed on sight. I lobbied the officers to give the seek and destroy mission to the Dirty Pansies. Wallbuster wanted a chance to kill them as well. Eventually, we got a transmission from Wideload. He followed Bouncer southwest for a few hours before Bouncer crash landed from his grievous injuries. He landed in the desert of a country that had no aeromorphs. That country was L'bajo. He tried to give aid, but there were no parts and his DDM was also damaged. That meant he could not use his nanites to fix all the structural damage done to his body. After seeing that there was nothing that could be done, he went west. He entered the airspace of a country with aeromorphs in Skuriva. They tried to detain him, but he fought them off. Luckily, he was not registered as a part of our country's military yet. He downed an aeromorph and got out of their country. He was now hiding in the high mountains of Quailim Kingdom. They did not have any decent military grade aeromorphs either.
