Disclaimer: I don't own ace combat

July 1st 2019
Zapland
East Usea
07:55am

Trigger stepped off the ex-military penal hercules transport plane seeing a run down airport"So this is Zapland?" He pulled on a pair of sunglasses that he brought with him despite it being morning a cool Atlantic breeze filled the air.

The prison guard thought about pushing him with the rifle but Trigger had been so co-operating that he decided against it. "The Colonel will want to see you Trigger."

Trigger could see a row of jets some he wasn't expecting since most were either retired form decades ago or recently retired jets but a two tone green and grey fulcrum caught his eye. "Familiar aircraft Trigger?"

"Yeah this was my fulcrum after i was assigned to the Metis squadron." He watched as a flanker-b jet was towed out. "Sir I don't wish too sound crass but what idiot thought this was a good idea?"

The guard had thought about the whole set up and had questioned the logic of this whole idea. Trigger looked around but his attention was drawn to an e-3g sentry awacs plane "A sentry awacs jet I thought Osea retired them after the belkan war."a tomcat, eagle and fighting falcon loaded up with sparrows were being towed down the flight-line "Just how many old aircraft are stored here.

The pair stepped inside the exercise as Trigger saw other prisoners who could see he wasn't chained "So these must be my prison mates."

McKinsey's office

Colonel Dwight McKinsey was reading Trigger's air force file wanting to know more about their new pilot "Bandog look at this."

Mckinsey slid the file over to Bandog who looked down at file. he was slightly impressed at Trigger's service record. "Well the new guy is highly experienced but what's he doing here if they don't know for sure that he did the crime?"

"Its very simple Bandog, the Iun needed a fall guy to take the heat for the failed rescue and Trigger is the one who took it but if it turns out he's innocent then the Iun are going to be hit with a lawsuit cause Osea's legal system over the last several years has taken false convictions very seriously all thanks to war at the start of this decade and if this is one of those then its going to be hell for them."

Trigger stepped into the room seeing despite being cluttered looked organised "Ahh Captain good morning welcome to the 444th squadron Trigger, I'm Bandog your new awacs."

"Nice to meet you Bandog." his gaze turned to Mckinsey "So you must be the guy in charge." Trigger looked down to see a belkan shepard sitting next to Bandog "Who's this?" he waited as the dog sniffed him. The dog stood up on its hind legs licking him.

"Its my pet dog you have a dog Trigger?" Bandog inquired sounding curious. His pet hadn't reacted to other spare convicts leaving him to wonder if Trigger was even a criminal.

"Actually I do." Trigger's words surprised Bandog. Trigger's gaze turned back to McKinsey "Colonel may I ask you a personal question." Trigger having seen the jets outside and thought to himself that prisoners could easily rebel with those if they wanted to."Who's questionable idea was it to give prisoners fighter jets?"

He knew the Zapland express would be due soon but McKinsey scowled at him. Trigger shut his mouth since the look form McKinsey that screamed keep talking and you'll be in trouble captain.

"Dismissed Captain go to the hangar and get your jet from our mechanic." Trigger gave a quick salute and made his way out.

Zapland hangar no.2
08:05am

Walking into the hangar, Trigger quickly noted how much of a mess it was. Hunks of unrecognisable metal and various parts of machinery were discarded all around the floor on one side, quickly registering those as components for aircraft. Low music echoed throughout the dim hangar, and he saw an eagle in the middle of the hangar, with a ladder on its side and a tool cart beside it. The radio playing the music was on that cart.

Maybe he really was clumsy or reckless, he never could tell. He had always been one who would sometimes dive into situations without assessing his surroundings, so maybe it could be both. So when his foot hit the toolbox on the floor, he was reminded of these thoughts once again as he tripped and stumbled onto the tool cart, knocking over the radio as it crashed against the floor. Trigger exclaimed in surprise and cursed under his breath, looking at the radio and praying that he didn't break it. Whoever's it was would surely not let him live if that were the case. Leaning down to see whether it was damaged or not, he exclaimed in surprise once more as something whizzed dangerously past his head, clanging on the far side of the hangar wall.

Looking up with fear rising in his throat, he looked in the direction from where it came from. He wondered who this person must be and how strong they must be, whom he angered to throw a tool at him with such fierce velocity to have it fly across the hangar itself. Bracing himself for this person, he was taken aback when rather than a man, it was a petite brown skinned woman who walked up to him. An eye catching figure which was more or less thinly veiled within her tank top, he took note of the limp she had as she walked with the help of a leg brace.

He had already dropped his guard a bit when he saw it was a woman, so it took him by surprise for the third time that morning when she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her eye level, anger flaring in her brown eyes.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She yelled at him. "I didn't have that radio fixed to be broken by some dumbass already!"

Stuttering, Trigger answered the woman, "I'm sorry! I didn't know, I didn't see the toolbox!"

The woman scoffed as she tugged his shirt. "What are you then, blind? What are you even doing here, anyway?"

"I was told to come here! They said the mechanic in charge of the planes here would tell me which one I'm assigned to fly! You... you're my mechanic?!" Trigger answered quickly, not wanting to get on the woman's bad side this early.

"So you're the fresh meat they tossed in the slammer?" She said, letting him go and wiping her oil stained chin by pulling up the front of her tank top. Looking down at her, he noticed the telltale lines of abs on her midriff, barely concealed within her top.

"So what's different about this eagle?" Trigger asked her wondering what this jet could do. It may have been wearing osean markings that Trigger's falcon had but something told him this wasn't built for osea's needs.

"Well this eagle can do multi-role air supremacy and ground strike." Trigger looked at the jet but thought that something didn't add up about that.

"So were the other jets I saw outside your handy work?" Trigger asked her.

"They are." Avril responded as the penal transport plane took off.

Meanwhile in the briefing room

Spare squadron had gathered with Mckinsey and Bandog "Alright guys, I'll let you in on some new juicy info. The new guy that arrived this morning was found guilty by the international union peacekeeping force's court martial. He is Harling's killer in the flesh. His tac name's Trigger and as of today he'll be attached to the osean 444th squadron but that is symbolic bullshit. It doesn't really matter if he's Harling's killer or not. every single one of you cons have been incarcerated for one reason or another." some of the spares murmured amongst themselves.

Unlike Mckinsey, Bandog couldn't help but notice Trigger's absence.

"A few of you in the penal unit know how to fly and headquarters need to plug the deficit in our air force. The higher ups had proposed sending you guys on a reconnaissance flight to the Waiapolo mountains but that idea was flat out rejected. You'll be atoning for crime here at Zapland and as members of this base you'll be taking the hits from the enemy so this will allow our forces to safely prepare a counterattack."

Over in the hangar

"So what are you in…." Air raid sirens echoed across the base "Shit air attack I'm going to have curtail out conversation but this eagle may I?" Trigger ran over to the hangar door. He knew jets needed to be airborne.

He reached for the nearby pa and pressed the button while hitting the button to open the hangar doors "Control Tower what's going on?" He needed to know what was going on.

"Trigger we're under air attack! Scramble!" the controller wanted jets airborne immediately.

"Do you have a flight suit?" he asked hurriedly. He wanted to get airborne quickly.

"Sure!" She handed him a flight suit and watched as he raced behind some boxes.

Back in the briefing room

A base personnel burst into the room as alarms filled the base "Incoming!"

Mckinsey hated the alarms "Switch off that alarm! It's just the usual. I thought Zapland was supposed to be an isolated area. Okay, I'm gonna need a few aircraft to scramble."

Champ sighed "Again?!" as much as he liked to fly he wanted to fight. Tabloid looked for Trigger but couldn't see him.

"I wonder how many we'll lose today." he scoffed as they waited for orders.

"Better than solitary." Spare 4 commented as he wondered who will be going up "So who's up today."

"How many can actually fly?" Spare 5 asked as the base personal was talking to the tower.

"Enemy aircraft detected over the dummy runway." the tower controller responded as they tracked the planes.

"We just need to make it look like we can put up a fight. Some of those piles of junk can at least take-off." The alarms filled the room once again. "Let's get the guiltiest cons in the sky first.. We'll start with Harling's murderer. We don't expect you to down any bombers. But what we do want is to make them think that we've got an active base here."

Everyone looked around the room for Trigger "Uhh McKinsey, Trigger's not here." Bandog facepalmed as the other spares hurriedly vacated the room.

Back in the hangar

Trigger having changed into his flight suit "Avril come with me if you want to live."

After getting Avril to a safe area. He climbed into the jet as it was towed out in a hurry.

Outside 10 minutes later

Trigger was quickly going through his procedures as the ground crew quickly armed the jet with sidewinder and amraams. He watched as the sentry took off and climbed out trying to get beyond the enemy.

Trigger looked over his shoulder seeing the other Spare starting to move. He watched as the flanker-d, mirage and fulcrum moved ahead of him. "Trigger check your altimeter and wait in front of the runway." Trigger started up the engines and lined up behind Count with an a-model f-16 and f-15 behind him.

"Control would you kindly send me up first?" Count scoffed over the frequency

The tower controller looked back as Champ taxied ahead of Tabloid "Spare 8 Champ you are not clear for take-off obey orders!"

"Got to hell!" Champ scoffed as got onto the runway.

"All aircraft preparing for take-off, watch out for Spare 8 he's forcing a take-off!" the tower's caution was heeded by all of spare squadron who were yet to get airborne.

"I'll take up command. Any objections?" Count announced as he waited at the taxiway exit.

"That'll get decided in the skies." Tabloid's words weren't lost on Trigger who had every intent to win.

"Touche." Count chided

Trigger sighed to himself. "I wish I was still with Mage."

He lined up on the runway in his eagle "Trigger your callsign is Spare 15, consider it your prisoner number for the air, commencing deception and interception, you have permission to take off go now!" Trigger reached over for the throttle but his hand pulled a handle. He looked at the fcs seeing it was active as he checked back to the handle. He quickly realised he had pulled some kind of manual override on the fcs.

Trigger pushed his eagle to the firewall easily getting airborne when he pulled back climbing vertically going past 10000 feet "Spare 15 quit showing off." Bandog wasn't amused by what Trigger was up to. his eagle had turned around in the climb and was now over water.

Count tried to activate his weapons but they didn't respond "So no missiles again the fcs is locked." Trigger quietly asked himself how they expected to win if they couldn't use their missiles.

"Damm." a man who went by Full band groaned. Trigger didn't know why but something told him

"You're good." another man by the name of Tabloid jumped in.

the guy who the tower called Champ joined in "Let's make this more interesting."

Bandog who had been watching the aircraft's movements "Prisoners use nothing without supervision not even a pencil." Bandog's keen eye had noticed the direction of Trigger's jet "Spare 15 no time for sightseeing.

He brought it around bringing his weapons to bear on the bombers and its escort but just as he waited for them to get closer. High Roller came back "Here's comes Harling's murderer."

Those words confirmed to Trigger just who they saw his as when Spare 6 decided to add his two cents "He shot two missiles right between old Harling's eyes."

Trigger knew he was innocent and knew his cousin had come so close to proving it as Count seemed to want in on the fun. "Always in the know aren't you?"

"In this war intel is a life or death matter." Full band' s words stung as Trigger remembered how bad intel has cost an old friend her life.

A grey body flanker-x-2 that had a shark mouth design flew low over the sea leaving Trigger to wonder why a Verusan navy jet was showing up as Verusa had no business being in Usea. Trigger had no more time to think as Bandog came in over the radio "Settle down. Excited to have another murderer with you? The only response he could hear were cheers.

"This is Bandog, Spare 15 I'm handling surveillance. The bombers that attacked the runway are coming back for another round. I know its just a dummy runway. You guys just need to make them think there's fighters at the base." Trigger stopped as he took in Bandog's words.

"Anyone got a smoke? I'll owe ya one." Count's asking for a cigarette only soured Trigger's mood as it reminded him of his uncle who'd died of lung cancer years ago.

"If any of you die, just think of it as atoning for your crimes." Spare 5 seemed to like that idea "One more thing any aircraft leaving the operation area will be shot down do you hear me?" Trigger wanted to ask how they planned to stop them as far as he could see the base had no surface to air missile defences. "Spare 15 work off your crimes."

Trigger looked out seeing the blips of three aircraft approaching "Erusean Aircraft this the Osean 444th squadron you are in violation of our airspace turn around immediately. Failure to comply and you will be shot down, you have 10 seconds before I open fire!"

Trigger waited for the bomber crew to respond but they continued their path "Bandog three bombers on radar heading for base. I already ordered them to leave but they ain't listening." Trigger falling back on his air intercept training "I have radar lock on them if you want this base to be safe then i guess missiles better start flying." Trigger waited for the bear bombers to clear the clouds.

"You don't get it Spare 15 your fire control system is locked." Bandog expected that Trigger may have been bluffing.

Trigger got good tone from his amraams and pressed the button sending three missiles from his jet.

Spare 11 couldn't believe what he saw as the three amraams flew towards the bombers taking each one down. "Trigger what the hell are you doing?" two of the three bears promptly crashed into the ground being reduced to nothing but fireballs and burning debris.

"My job!" Trigger responded turning to engage Garm 4. he was on its tail very quickly "This thing turns very well for a mothballed jet. He downed the fishbed easily with his cannon.

"Shit does Trigger not know?" Spare 9 called as it dawned on Bandog that Trigger was trying to protect the base instead of deceiving the enemy.

Trigger was already on the hunt for his 4th kill of the day he lined up his fourth amraam shot on Gram 5 and fired destroying the blackjack "Woah look at Trigger go he's already an ace." Tabloid who had watched how easy Trigger made that kill with the mothballed eagle.

Trigger quickly turned onto Garm 10 easily tearing apart the fulcrum with his cannon. "Well what are you waiting for?"

Noli 3 despite losing an engine and suffering damage to the wing opened his bomb bay doors releasing the remaining munitions which exploded in a line as the wounded bomber limped over the field. To Trigger's horror one of the munitions hit the control tower. "Shit the enemy just the control tower!"

Trigger quickly rolled onto the limping bear's tail and unloaded a burst into the wing which separated with the 4th engine sending the bomber into the water.

The radio burst into frantic chatter as ground personal tried to get a handle on the situation as Mckinsey's voice could be heard "Hey what's with all the shaking?!" Trigger wanted to say to him to get to cover as ground crew knew a fire had broken out "Don't let the enemy get closer! are you trying to kill me?"

Bandog looked at the radar seeing the next wave of bombers and escorts approaching "Shall I order them to shoot down all?" he tried to call Mckinsey for orders but got nothing "Spare Squadron listen up, shoot down everything carrying bombs! Weapons free. You're cleared to engage. Show no mercy."

The fcs activated on all the spare jets as Count responded quickly "Righto." he pulled up looking for a bomber arming his alamo missiles. High roller planned to recalculate the odds and ask who'd get the first kill.

Bandog came back on having grown irritated by some of Spare "This is the penal unit I decide when you die."

"All right I'm assuming command. All aircraft, support me." Count called trying to act tough but Trigger felt he was all bluster.

"Who's gonna dance to your lyin' tune." Trigger felt Champ had just burned Count and he wondered who'd be next.

"Yeah I'm betting that report will get dressed up real pretty." Tabloid's comments made Trigger wonder if Count didn't manipulate something

"Spare 15 six bandits splashed good work." Bandog's confirmation of his kills gave a trigger an idea to try and make double ace in a day.

Count felt confident as he caught sight of "Trigger, keep an eye on your head count, the one with the highest score wins."

"Trigger you have a bandit on your tail!" Tabloid called having seen a grey with white and dark blue eagle closing in.

He added power descending towards the hills with the eagle in pursuit "So let's play. He weaved over the low hills trying to lure the pilot into a mistake. He noted the ridgelines ahead and advanced the throttles but the erusean eagle continued its pursuit. Trigger quickly pulled up steeply as the erusean eagle crashed into the hillside.

"Seven aircraft down I think Trigger should be squadron leader." Tabloid commented much to Count's displeasure. He fired an alamo at noli 4 which blew off the tail of the bear along with its ring with

"So Spare 6 since we have reprieve from the enemy what are these marks ruining my tail." Trigger was curious as to why they had been painted.

"Allow me to educate you, in this unit you get your tail marked with scratches. The more scratches the more heinous the crime. There're called sin lines. You have three scratches Trigger? Well you are Harling's murderer!" Full band's explanationas spare 5 downed Skoll 1 quickly followed up by high roller destroying garm 6.

Garm 3 was hot on Tabloid's heels but a sparrow fired by Spare 1 blew off the left rudder sending the fulcrum into a spin but the erusean pilot bailed out.

Tabloid's mirage closed on a pair of fulcrums but Tabloid chose his mica ems and rippled fired destroying both fulcrums very quickly.

Tabloid spotted the 3rd wave and went on the attack firing off his 30mm cannon fatally damaging the tail 6 nosed over into a dive which ripped it apart.

Trigger meanwhile had closed on another bear noli 6 and fired a missile destroying the bomber immediately "Trigger don't get shot down now. I got good money riding on your survival. Some guys have got big money riding on you going down, so watch your back." Trigger quickly switched to noli 7 whose tail turret was firing its cannon but Trigger quickly fired a missile into the tail sending the nose down and forcing the aircraft into a right bank which the pilots of noli 7 couldn't recover from and smashed into the hillside.

30mm cannon shells arced over his canopy but he rolled inverted as skoll 2 was obliterated by spare 17.

Spare 4 had chased Skoll 3 across the storage area firing her 20mm cannon which wrecked Skoll's right wing sending the plane crashing into a pair of omdf p-3 orion maritime patrol planes which were engulfed flames.

Trigger turned to the where he could see a pair of blackjack bombers. He check his missile count and cannon ammo. Count on the other hand having seen how many kills Trigger had taken fired two alamos into the bombers destroying noli 13 who broke into two.

Spare 4 dropped to lower level firing 2 missiles into noli 14 whose belly scraped the crest of a hill. The blackjack slammed into the ground skidding to a stop at the base of the hill completely on fire.

"This is a pretty nice ride. It's been serviced pretty good. Can't believe these things used to be scrap. Just what kind of magic does she have up her sleeves, anyway?" Trigger wasn't sure if Tabloid was talking about his jet.

"I don't know what her problem is, acting like she's royalty or something." High roller scoffed having seen how the girl acts. He could never understand why she acts like that.

"That's because she's the Scrap Queen." Count chimed in laughing slightly. Trigger leaned back in his seat thinking to himself about the woman he met earlier. She sounded familiar to this Scrap Queen woman.

"Queen? More like a bad tempered tomboy." Champ joked thinking that the queen title didn't suit the woman. Trigger realised that everything that Champ just said matched the woman he ran into when he stopped by the hangar.

The radar on the sentry worked to the final wave which was made up of three bear and one blackjack bomber escorted by three flanker-d and four fulcrum fighters.

Spare 4 and 5 had formed up closing on the bombers each firing a missile with spare 4 using a 2nd one to down the last bear bomber.

Tabloid looked around seeing only fighters "Trigger got most of them. Maybe even all of them."

"That was dumb luck, Tabloid!" Count scoffed sounding jealous.

"Spare 15, don't take the fun away from all your comrades." Bandog watched as spare 5 shot down gram 12 while Spare 4 was pursuing garm 11 who was trying to make a run for it but a sparrow from her tomcat sent the fulcrum into the hills.

Champ was chasing Garm 13 quickly finishing him with a missile but Garm 14 had positioned himself behind champ who pulled a cobra taking the Erusean pilot by surprise who flew right past and was hit by 30mm cannonfire and crashed into the sea.

Trigger had swung around the formation and was closing on the blackjack and its flanker-d escort. He selected his missile and fired two but the bomber decoyed the missile with flares.

Trigger switched to his firing every round he had into the bomber's right engine box along his last missile which erupted into flames "We're on fire, we're going down. as the front pilots ejected know they'd be taken as pows but the crippled empty bomber continued on shedding debris until it crashed into a prison building.

A fiery mushroom cloud consumed the plane and the prison building.

Trigger banked to see what had happened "Control tower we have an emergency down on the field." the base fire crews quickly scrambled

"All targets confirmed eliminated." Bandog called having been told that the skies were clear.

"Hell yeah! Still alive Harling's murderer?! Then dinner's on me tonight!" High roller felt confident that Trigger would survive.

"Cut the chatter Spare Squadron. Mission complete. Rtb. Trigger's still with us. Must have the devil in his corner." he remembered that he had bet he had "Spare 7, what happens if the one you bet on dies while landing?" Trigger felt a surge of anger that High Roller and Bandog were betting on him living or dying.

"Then you win. So what, you're not done?" Trigger knew he'd land safely.

"Just checking." Trigger felt more determined that Bandog would lose this bet and money.

09:50 am

Trigger brought his jet into visual of the base runway. "Spare 15 cleared to land, we don't want a wreck blocking the runway." the Zapland controller spoke harshly over the radio. Trigger dove the jet down 10 degrees while throttling back but he noticed that the gauges were not showing much of a reduction in engine thrust but he checked his hud noticing he was 300 feet over the sea and still going 275 knots, without even thinking he pulled back on his stick trying to get the eagle up to 1000 feet.

The f-15 despite being fully configured for landing respond instantly climbing to 1000 feet before Trigger decided to make for the dummy runway since the Zapland runway wasn't going to be long enough to stop in time.

"Zapland tower spare 15 is going around, will attempt land on the dummy runway." the controller in the tower was struggling to believe that Trigger would even attempt something so foolish.

He banked the airplane getting it lined up for the dummy runway while descending again pulling back the power to bring his speed down but still it was slow to bleed off excess airspeed when he felt a thump as the eagle touched down further than Trigger had expected so he pulled the throttles to reverse, pressing on the brakes as hard as he could while kick the rudder to try and stop the plane in time but alas he had run out of runway as the jet ran across the dirt careening past some mothballed super hornets when his plane at last stopped inches from a hill "I lost a lot of money for that Trigger you will be going to solitary for that."

Trigger didn't care at that point consider how a plane made from scrap nearly put him in the sea. "Then I hope that teaches you not to make stupid bets Dumbdog."

After the long taxi back he brought the eagle back into the hangar parking it up and shutting it down.

"Well this eagle is very good thank you ma'am." he opened the canopy and climbed out of the jet "I'm sorry for disturbing you earlier I'm really new with this place."

Avril rolled her eyes "Its no big deal cause you just saved me and the hangar from being hit with munitions from the erusean bomber force so I'm cool but could you please keep out of my way but I never got your name…"

"Trigger ma'am." he responded as Avril pulled her maintenance log book noting in the log she was making for who will be flying it."

"Avril mead." she responded as they shook hands but Trigger realised he still had a leaned against the toolbox thinking about the rumours buthad a gut feeling that Trigger didn't even know about the rumours." Hey Trigger tell me something are the rumours about you killing Harling true?"

Trigger was taken back slightly "Firstly how did you know about that I was suspected of killing Harling? He looked at her with a jaw dropping look of surprise.

"It was announced by Enn from the guard's room that Harling had been assassinated and a pilot had been suspected of doing it."

Trigger remembered all the problems that came afterwards but he knew he didn't killing Harling "The rumours are not true I didn't kill him, a missile of unknown origin killed him but the iun needed a scapegoat and I happened to be the closet so I was the one who took the fall."

"Stupid shitty Osean laws." Avril groaned slamming her fist into the metal tool box.

"Umm Avril where do they do the de-briefs here? Cause I missed the briefing for that mission." Trigger was sheepish to admit that he had was not sure where to go. Avril thought nothing about Trigger could surprise her until he said that.

"You're kidding me you idiot." She retorted surprised at what Trigger just told her "Trigger did none of the convicts give you a tour of the place?"

"No I only arrived this morning actually." He said to her catching her completely by surprise.

"You must be an uninformed idiot not to know. How long was it since you arrived before the bombers showed up?" she asked not believing what she was hearing.

"Umm about 15 minutes." Bandog who'd come looking for Trigger when he didn't show up to the de-brief room after landing was stunned.

"Trigger why didn't you say something you idiot?" Bandog chided as Trigger turned to face him.

"Cause Bandog I didn't know who to ask." He said to his awacs operator "So do you know where the briefing rooms are cause I'm totally lost?"

"Sure follow me." Bandog started making his way to the door but Trigger had one more thing to do.

"Scrap Queen there is a problem with the throttle system could you check that for me?" Avril stopped as she had checked those and they were working fine.

"Sure thing Trigger." She noted the problem in her book so she'd fix it

Zapland debriefing room no.1
10:05am

The Spare pilots were gathered in the room "So will Mr murderer miss the debrief too." Count scoffed.

"I doubt it Bandog's been sent to find him." Tabloid commented seeing a classic lack of familiarity problem as being the likely reason.

Bandog and Trigger entered followed by Mckinsey a moment later "Ahh there you are Trigger did you sleep through the briefing?" Count scoffed know Trigger's not following orders meant they'd be going to solitary.

"No actually would you believe I got lost." the other Spares couldn't believe it.

Trigger could read that McKinsey looked upset "Did I say you could take down the enemy? Throw anyone who disobeys into solitary." Trigger felt that was more aimed at him than the other spare members who were grabbed by the guards.

"Trigger wait there you're not going to solitary. In fact I've decided that You'll be helping the Scrap Queen given the mechanic experience you have and despite downing the bombers and disabling the fcs lock you made the base more convincing with your radio calls. I'm willing to let it slide that you missed the briefing cause Bandog told me you've not been given a tour of the base yet."

Trigger as much as he didn't like the idea of solitary confinement "Colonel you're going to throw the people who save your sorry ass from being a statistic of this conflict but the bigger problem I have with this whole setup is how certain I am that Erusea will see through your strategy and once they do they'll send a bigger strike force and I bet they'll use cluster munitions and they level the place and kill us all do you want that? Well do?"

One the guards grabbed Trigger intending to take him to solitary "No but you cons are nothing more than criminals." he turned to Trigger "Listen here Captain you may or not be innocent of the crime that sent you here but the cons here have no right to complain about anything."

The guards took the spares away followed by Trigger who went in the opposite direction.

Zapland hangar no.2

Trigger stepped in as Avril was working on air superiority grey phantom 2 jet Avril slid out from under the jet "Trigger what do you need now?" she hadn't expected him to be back so soon since the base colonel usually threw people into solitary.

"I uhh…" Trigger stumbled on his words as Avril presence felt very intimidating to him. Avril slid her way over to Trigger standing right in his face. Trigger felt her glare was unnerving as he remembered the same looks he got from his first squadron.

He tried to look away from her but unfortunately realised that he couldn't look down since Avril short size meant beneath him was her chest. "Uh…."

"Come on spit it out?" She wanted to know what he was trying to say.

"McKinsey wants me to help you in the hangar." Avril felt herself getting annoyed slightly.

"So...What do we start with first?" he asked sounding very nervous as Avril glared at him making him shrink a bit.

"Well you can help me with the phantom centreline pylon." Trigger picked it up holding it against the attachment point. "Have you ever flown phantoms?"

"Yeah the military use them as combat trainers. But I'd like to fly one in combat." he has felt that the f-4 was a good combat platform but had never had the chance to find out."

"Well you'll have to make do whatever jet you get."

"You know I bet I could turn this old lumbering phantom into a lethal killing machine." Trigger knew he could given that during ground attack training it had been noticed that he was capable in ground attack sorties.

"Hold your horses Trigger the jet needs some work doing before I let you use in your next ops. Beside we still have that base tour." Avril and Trigger spent the next few hours installing the pylon racks.

"Avril you're to give me a tour so I'll be familiar with the place." Avril looked away growing miffed.

Avril rolled her eyes and thumped the air and flashed an angry scowl "Seriously why do I have to babysit you?"

"Cause without someone who knows their way around I'd get lost." Avril's angry scowl didn't fade but had to concede that he had a point since thinking back to earlier this morning.

Several hours later

After she had shown Trigger around the base but Trigger could see she wasn't happy with as her look of disdain only got worse. They stopped back the solitary cells to visit the other spares who were languishing there for their actions on the morning sortie.

The sun had gone down and they'd had their dinner "So where's my cell?" Trigger asked not knowing where he'd be sleeping.

Avril who had seen all the cells that were occupied quickly felt her frustration getting worse as it dawned on her that Trigger was also now her cell mate."So I'll be sharing a cell with You Avril."

"So what are the other members of Spare in for?" Trigger didn't have time to make any introductions

"One's a great pilot but a lousy thief, ones a gambler with no luckand one's an anarchist with no balls." Trigger couldn't help but wince slightly at the descriptions she gave "Then there's you. One who was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

She looked over the jet "Before you came here all Spare squadron did was engine run ups to fool the Erusean spy satellites and as you saw it worked a little too well."

The rumble of their stomach broke the silence as they looked at each other "So maybe we should wash up and get food."

In the mess hall

Trigger and Avril walked into the prison mess hall seeing Count, Full band, Champ, High roller, Tabloid sitting at a table when High Roller noticed them "Ahh there's Harling's murderer."

"I'm not Harling's murderer High roller I didn't fire the missile that killed him wasn't from me." he and Avril sat down and pulled out a picture he had handing it to Avril.

"Did you make those mods Trigger? I must say that's clever of you to find a way to take both amraams and mavericks." she asked about to hand him back the picture.

"Yes me and the fort grey greys ground crew made those mods for the Harling rescue op." He explain but Count just glared at him snatching the picture from him.

"I beat he killed Harling with those missiles or guns what do ya think Full band." Count scoffed sliding the photo to him.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't use the laser cannon to down him." Full band passed the photo over to Tabloid.

Tabloid couldn't see how he could used the missiles to kill Harling "Umm hold on wouldn't he have run out of missiles after a while?" Champ snatched the photo from Tabloid.

"I had saved my air missiles for covering mother goose one. In fact I made it to the erusean border on fumes and had to refuel several times to make it back to fort greys." Trigger recounted as he remembered that disaster.

"Well it doesn't matter how he killed Harling we know he did it." Champ tossed the photo aside but Bandog picked it up.

"Scrap Queen can you configure Spare 7's falcon to have these pylons?" Bandog studying the pylons quickly worked out how it was used.

"I might if you have the launcher racks and Trigger's help." she liked a challenge and a diy weapon load out was a fun one. "I'll do it tomorrow."

The squadron quickly got down to having their dinner.

Later in the cell

Trigger climbed onto his bunk "Good night Avril." he wanted to be polite and not get her bad side anytime soon given what she did with the wrench.

Avril was quiet for a few minutes "Good night Trigger."

A/n

I hope everyone liked this fic now I have an nsfw alternative scene that I might do at some point and I'm eager to see what dlc jets we get on skies unknown once Project aces are able to announce them