Crystals (The Navy of Humankind: Wasp Squadron Book 2) by Jonathan Brazee

Author:Jonathan Brazee [Brazee, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-21T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Commodore Ophelia LaRue stood silently as the pilots filed past her to their fighters. Tall with jet black skin, she could almost be the commander’s sister—almost. She was a norm with no visible mods, but she had something that their commander didn’t have, and that was a cold, calculating presence the chilled the room when she entered. The commander might be a GT with all the typical mannerisms of one born into power, but he obviously cared about the squadron. With the commodore, no one knew where they stood.

Her callsign was Ice, and never was there a more appropriate name. Gollum had served with her in VF-52 when he was a JG, and he’d blanched when the commodore had stepped off the shuttle to take over.

Technically, she’d already been in charge. As the commanding officer of the sector special ops wing, she controlled all the recon scouts, stealth drones, SEAL Teams Two and Eight, and VFX-99. There was probably more in her arsenal as well, classified systems of which Beth knew nothing. As soon as the Stingers were certified, she moved her flag to Sierra Station.

She’d been a foreboding presence, never introducing herself to the squadron. She’d stood silently at the back of the ready room while the mission was briefed, and now she watched as they left for their fighters. Even the commander seemed a little nervous about her presence.

Joshua was all smiles, though, standing alongside the Tala as she approached.

“She’s purring like a kitten,” he said, patting the fuselage. “She’ll do you right.”

“I know she will,” she said as she started her inspection, her plane captain at her elbow.

She trusted Josh completely, but standards were standards, and she went through each step. As expected, she found nothing wrong. She signed for the fighter, and he pulled up the step box he’d had made for her.

A few of her fellow pilots had snickered the first time she’d used it to get into her Wasp, but that rolled right off of her. They were all the same height in the cockpit.

She controlled her excitement. Being too keyed up for extended periods of time could exhaust a pilot, so she ran through her calming techniques. It was difficult, however. This was a real mission, not a training exercise, not being a target drawing enemy fire to be analyzed. They were going out there to kick some ass.

She ran through her pre-flight ops, and everything was green.

“Fox-Four, going hot,” she said, miming kissing the cross that lay under her flight suit and against her chest.

“Roger, Fox-Four, going hot.”

She gave Josh a thumbs up, and he powered up the initiators. The Tala came alive, becoming tumescent, as Mercy used to say in much cruder terms.

She gave a quick look to the next fighter where her ex-roommate was running through her pre-flight ops. They did not speak anymore unless it was work-related, in which case Mercy was the ultimate professional. Beth had finally broken down and told Capgun that there’d been a falling out and asked him if she should transfer to another flight.

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