One-six
"Pilots," the general pronounced with his deep voice, his deep-set eyes casting a menacing shadow over his face. "From today, you will dedicate your lives to serving this city. You will dedicate your lives to protecting those within these walls from the ever-present danger of New Asia. You are warriors. You are protectors. Make us proud, pilots. From today on, you listen to the orders of the Council. From today, you live to serve the Council, to serve humanity. Good luck, pilots. For the future of Mankind!”
That was the speech they were given during their graduation ceremony at the annual military parade.
The Council members stood atop a high balcony, dressed in glistening white robs decorated with silver and gold, looking down upon them like gods at mortal beings.
The crowd roared, congratulating the new pilots on their graduation. Loud orchestral music played, and together they sang the lyrics to their anthem.
That day changed One-six. It felt as if his whole life lead up to that single point. He swore like he was made to do many times before, to dedicate his life to serving the city and the future of Mankind.
But now, as they ran through the corridor of their dorm complex, not caring much about where it would take them, he didn't know what to think anymore.
“What do we do now?” Cried Two-six as they ran down the hallway leading to their common room.
“We do nothing! Okay? We pretend like we saw nothing,” One-five snapped back.
They had made it back to base in the nick of time after excusing themselves from the recycling facility.
What was supposed to be a light-hearted sightseeing trip into their city had just turned their lives upside down.
Everything was beginning to unravel as the first hint of truth peeked through the thick cover of lies.
“They’ve lied to us this entire time, haven’t they?” Two-six asked again.
“Maybe this is just a one-off. Maybe…” One-six began, more so trying to comfort himself than anything else. But Two-six cut him off.
“No, it’s not!” She shouted. “Did you see how nonchalantly that man spoke to us? They’ve been doing this since the very beginning.”
“The beginning of what?” One-five shouted.
“The beginning of…”
“You two!” One-six roared, his authority as commander causing the other two to quiet down immediately. “Let’s think this through first.”
“Think through what? We broke a lot of rules, you know?” One-five sneered.
One-six held up his hand as a gesture for One-five to remain silent. “Think through what to do with this piece of information.”
“If you ask me, I think we should do nothing. Keep serving our duties until our time comes,” said One-five.
“Really?”
“Yeah, really…”
“Doesn’t it seem pointless? That we fight and fight and fight, just to be thrown away like that?” One-six asked.
One-five opened his mouth to object, but another voice spoke first.
“I want to go to New Asia,” Two-five, who had stayed silent the entire time, raised her hand. “I want to see what their soldiers are like, how they live, and how they die.”
One-six, One-five, and Two-six exchanged glances.
The New Asians are devils, inhumane beings polluting the Earth. They deserve nothing but annihilation, yet Two-five was making this insane proposal.
In the past, One-six would have recoiled at the mention of their enemies.
But now, their enemies seemed no less terrifying than his own city. It’s death either way.
“Well… that seems…”
“Reasonable?” One-five exclaimed. “No, it’s not reasonable at all!”
“I’m in,” Two-six muttered. “And don’t tell me you’re not curious too, One-five.”
“I am curious. But what does that change?”
“Come with us.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Just no. We’ve already gone too far. I won’t say a word about this to anyone, but keep me out of whatever adventures you get up to.”
One-five turned around and walked away, leaving just the three of them there.
There was a long moment of silence, the tension still thick in the air.
“So what now?” Two-six asked. “How are we going to get to New Asia?”
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“This is crazy, totally crazy. We dug a hole for ourselves and now we’ve jumped in it,” said One-six, scratching at his hair. “Maybe we should just do what One-five said. Pretend like nothing happened.”
“I won’t,” Two-six mumbled.
“That’s insubordination.”
“I don’t care.”
One-six glared at Two-six, who did not back down one bit.
“I have a plan,” Two-five mumbled, cutting through the tension. “Not a complete one, but a plan nonetheless.”
The team members exchanged glances.
“Let’s hear it then…”
*****
“So… you want to infiltrate New Asia, see the city, ask about what life as a soldier is like, then come back?” One-six mumbled after listening to Two-five explain her idea.
“Yes.”
“How… do we do that without being court-martialed for treason?”
“I can write a bug into our flight computer so it would appear as if we were damaged during an engagement,” Two-five explained. “At which point we can land near a trading center, shut down uplink, then hitch a ride aboard a trading plane to New Asia.”
“We’re not trained as spies, you know?” One-six reminded her.
“This isn’t spying.”
“Then what is it?”
Two-five stayed silent under One-six’s intense gaze.
“Sounds fine to me,” Two-six said after thinking silently. “Which trading center are we heading to?”
“I don’t know yet,” Two-five replied.
“One-six?” Asked Two-six, seeking approval from her commander. “It’s up to you.”
One-six wanted to object, but he couldn’t find a good reason for it.
Soon, they will be retiring. Soon, they too will be thrown into those incinerators.
One-six thought hard about it, before finally opening his mouth to speak.
“Our next routine patrol is in two days. I think we can get this plan underway by then,” One-six added. “I want the mission plan to be ready by then. We’ll meet after dark in the common room.”
“What about One-five?” Two-five asked.
“I’m sure he’ll come back to us in time.”
Two-five nodded slightly.
They have always operated as a team of four, and they would be going nowhere missing a member.
“You know if we get caught…” Two-six whispered.
“Court-martial and sent to those incinerators, probably,” mumbled One-six.
“And if the New Asians find us…”
“Death both ways.”
“That’s not exactly great odds…” Two-six muttered.
One-six fell silent. Their recent discovery had already left him in shock, and his mind was swirling with bemusement.
“But that’s the only way I want it. If I die on the battlefield then so be it. But I don’t want to die at the hands of the people I swore to protect,” Two-six spoke again, this time with a defiant tone. “Don’t you remember our initiation? How we swore to live for the city… We’ve always lived on the edge, right? We’re not fighter pilots for no reason…”
She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts.
“Besides, some adventure would be a welcome change, don’t you think?” She asked.
“Adventure?”
“Yeah…”
*****
One-five
“…Unauthorized trespassing of the perimeters?” Captain Steiner asked, his icy blue eyes staring down One-five.
“Yes, sir.”
Though One-five had promised One-six to say nothing, something inside him had been constantly nagging at him. So he decided to go to Captain Steiner, not to report One-six, but hopefully to have some of his questions answered.
“Well, I commend such honesty from you, and since this is your first minor offense, I’m sure you four will get off relatively light. This isn't quite important enough for me to report it further up, but come to me at eighteen hundred, and we’ll discuss disciplinary actions.”
“Yes, sir.” One-five turned to leave but halted his steps. “May I ask one more thing?”
Captain Steiner stopped tidying the papers on his desk and looked up at him through his thick spectacles. “Sure.”
“What happens after we retire?”
“Well, you go into the city, buy a house maybe, find a job maybe, and live out the rest of your lives,” Captain Steiner replied.
“And also… where do we come from?”
“The Earth?”
“No… I mean…”
“That’s not a question for me to answer,” said Captain Steiner, cutting him off.
One-five opened his mouth to ask more but closed it when he felt Captain Steiner's icy gaze. It communicated without words that this topic was not something he wanted to speak more of.
“You may now leave, code One-five."
One-five nodded and swiftly exited the spacious office.
He was hoping he could get something out of Captain Steiner. Yet the answer he was given seemed natural and truthful.
There was no hesitation, no time for thought, just a fluid, unassuming answer.
His mind was now even more of a mess than before, and he realized that his team was the only people he could go to to untangle this mess. But he wasn’t sure if One-six would still be willing to cooperate, since he had rather rudely dismissed him.
Maybe I should start with an apology first…
*****
One-six
“…Settlement number 53, Valkyria. Not counting New Asia, it’s the largest population center out there. Latest estimates place the population at around ten thousand people, and they appear to have some aerial defenses and security forces,” Two-five explained, the holographic map before her displaying a village deep within the vast mountain range.
“So that will be our destination?” One-six asked, looking at the map projected before him.
“Yes.” Two-five zoomed in further. “Latest aerial photography indicates a radar dead zone along here, which we can use to land at this little clearing. From there, we make it to Valkyria on foot, and hopefully find our way onto a trading plane.”
“It’s going to be a tight fit,” One-six mumbled, scrutinizing the map. “That little clearing is barely big enough for our fighter.”
“But is it doable?” Two-six asked.
“Should be.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
Two-five shrugged. “We’ll figure it out along the way.”
They all looked at the lone figure sitting at the corner of the empty common room, deep in thought with his chin on his hand. It was well past their curfew, so the room was completely devoid of people.
“One-five, you’re joining us on this, right?” Two-six waved at the unmoving One-five to get his attention. “One-six already said he accepts your apology, so get over here.”
With a grunt, One-five stood up, then dragged himself over to the little table that the others were standing around. “I can’t believe I agreed to this,” he grumbled under his breath.
“Well, it’s too late to back down now,” said One-six, switching off the little projector and handing the cube-shaped device to Two-five. “No word about this until our patrol flight tomorrow. We’ll discuss further once airborne.”
“Understood.”
They nodded to each other and swiftly headed back toward their respective rooms.
They have always operated like this. Brief and concise.
The past few days might be the most they’ve ever spoken.
“One-five, why did you decide to come back?” One-six asked as they quietly strolled down the hallway.
“Because I’m too loyal, or maybe because I’m a traitor at heart,” One-five answered after a moment of thought.
“I see… that’s fair enough.”
*****
With a thump, the catapult shot them into the air.
It was time again to fly an almost 24-hour-long patrol flight around the southeastern border.
But this time it would be a little unusual.
Instead of a patrol, they were on their way to discover.
Unbeknownst to the pilots, the war would be coming to an end soon, and this is just the beginning.
The beginning of the end.