That gave us 2 separate seek and destroy missions. Wideload obviously followed out of impulse. They were both going through some rough times. He was too naive. He was not aware that he would be killed for his desertion. I just shook my head when he was given orders to stay at his current location until an "extraction" team could retrieve him. "Yes sir. I will stay at this location." he said before ending the transmission. "What an idiot!" Wallbuster said in disgust. "At least he made it easy for us to get him." Ace spat. "Well, no good deed goes unpunished." I said. There were 2 ready squads of aeromorphs in the base. It was up to us decide which of our squads would go after the obedient Wideload and which would chase down the injured Bouncer. It was clear that Wallbuster was still itching to get his hands on Bouncer. He looked at us and said "We have unfinished business between us. I'm the one taking him out." Babybird and Hatchling had a different point of view. "He's in our clutch. If anyone has the right to kill him, it's us!" Hatchling said. Babybird said "We'll do it quick and easy."
It honestly did not matter to me which one we did. It was clear that this country did not value us at all. All we were doing here was acting as backup to the bitches that the veterans captured. Once we were out of the country, I was going to ask them to defect with me. We could meet up with the target we were assigned and recruit them as well. Wideload was perfectly fine. At most, he would probably need some fuel to travel farther away to where this country could not reach us. Bouncer could not heal himself, but his clutchmates were in the group. They could us their nanite paste to fix the surface damage. Anything needing critical repairs would have to be attended to by some mechanics and engineers. Once we defected we would be marked for death. I was sure that we would be chased by aeromorphs that wanted to kill us. We would be able to take them. That was why we all needed full tanks. Then we could leave the continent. If we went to a region where there were several countries with no aeromorphs, we could become very good mercenaries. I would allow things to play out.
Eventually, the officers had to step in and make a decision. Neither side was going to back down on this. Tempers were running too hot for that. The next day we were all called in and given a new briefing. The officers were on the raised platforms so that they would be face to face with us. We were given the task of getting Bouncer. That was fine with me. Babybird and Hatchling were cheering the decision. Wallbuster roared in anger. "This is bullshit and you know it! I'm the one that needs to fucking kill that brat!" he screamed. "Stop bitching. You're needed in the mountains to kill Wideload. He can actually fight back. Get the fool and you will all be rewarded nicely." the commanding officer said. Siegebreaker said "I'm going to miss that ass of his. Tight and knew how to milk ya." That got a laugh from the aeromorphs on their hangar. We were not amused by that. It was their abusive behavior that caused this to happen in the first place. They were far off and needed to be dealt with right away. Who knew what trouble they could get themselves into all alone? I did not want to find that shit out.
