One Good Soldier

eject!'

HoundDog's ejection seat cleared the fireball of his exploding mecha. The plasma and debris tossed his chair into a mad, freely falling whirl. In full gravity now, his seat started to plummet. When the sensor found enough air pressure, it would pop his chute. Unfortunately, he would land right in the middle of the fight below.

'Hang on, HoundDog!' Deuce dove her fighter over and straight toward the ejection seat. She hit the mode toggle, pulling into eagle mode. As she pulled up into an even free fall with HoundDog, she backed off her throttle to match his speed precisely and then reached out with her right mecha hand and grabbed the chair gently. 'I got you.'

'Goat, I've got a mission for you now!' Deuce arced back out of the free fall and leveled off. 'Get HoundDog down and check on his wounds. Form up on me and take him. HoundDog, you with me?'

'Barely. I caught something in my abdomen. My suit sealed it off, but I don't feel too good,' Hounddog replied. She did a quick check on his vitals. They were stable enough. Deuce had seen a lot worse come out okay, if they got medical attention soon enough. She wasn't sure why the Madira hadn't QMTed him up to sickbay, unless the medi-AIC doing triage had a whole lot more wounded in worse shape than HoundDog. From the looks of the way things were going in space, Deuce was pretty sure that was the case.

'I'm on you, Deuce. Ready for handoff in three, two, one, drop,' Goat told her. Deuce let go of the chair, and it gently fell into Goat's remaining mecha hand. Then Skinny popped into space.

'HoundDog, HoundDog, where are you?' Skinny shouted over the net.

'I'm here, Major,' he replied.

'Shit, Marine, I thought I'd lost you,' Skinny said. After a brief pause, she added, 'You need to hit the immunoboost soon.'

'My suit is handling it.'

'All right, Saviors, listen up,' said Deuce. 'Several of the other squadrons are popping in and are starting to form up. We're all here minus Goat and HoundDog. Skinny, old girl, looks like you're with me.'

'It'll be just like old times, Deuce!'

'Let's hit the deck and help out the tankheads. Use the DEGs as often as you like, but conserve the ammo on the cannons. Don't know about all of you, but my counter is getting pretty goddamned low. Blue-force tracker shows a small group of marines and tanks making a push to the governor's mansion. Let's help them A-S-fucking-A-P. Maximum velocity with maximum ferocity, Marines!'

'Oorah!'

Fish was glad as hell to get out of that space ball. It was too one-sided with Seppy Gnats and Stingers. They were every-fucking-where. Her squad had been whittled down to seven out of the initial ten. Those were very bad numbers for the Gods of War. Lieutenant Commander Penika 'Hula' Moses was dead. Lieutenant Junior Grade Geoffrey 'Fireball' Julias was out of commission with critical wounds. And Lieutenant Commander Charles 'Stinky' Allen was barely managing to keep his plane in the air. He was also carrying Fireball's ejection chair with him.

She could see in her DTM that the Saviors and the Dawgs had taken some casualties, too. The Dawgs had suffered the worst, losing half their squad.

'Deuce, Deuce, this is Fish.'

'Go, Fish.'

'We're forming up, ready to help out. I see you're on the way down. We'll be right behind you.'

'Roger that, Fish. Looks like Poser is the senior of you squid pilots.'

'I heard that, Deuce!' Poser's voice chimed in. Fish could see her in the DTM, forming up near the Gods of War.

'Take her cues, Fish,' Deuce advised her.

'Roger that, Deuce,' Fish acknowledged.

'Poser, Fish, we need to clear out the enemy line on the south side of the governor's mansion and hold it. And, Fish, the fight is on the ground there for now, but you need to be my eyes skyward.'

'Understood, Deuce.' The FM-12s the Saviors flew were more suited to close-in fighting on the ground and other surfaces, like carrier hulls. The Ares-Ts were designed for top cover and fighting in open space, but that didn't mean that ace Navy aviators couldn't fight on the ground as well. That was the main reasoning for Navy procurement officials to decide on a new Ares model that could transfigure into bot mode.

'Poser, you got the middle ground if we get Gomers. Otherwise, both of you take it to the surface dwellers.' Deuce said. 'We didn't do too good turning the tide up top, but we have to turn the tide down there.'

'Roger that.'

'See you in the shit. Deuce, out.'

'Demon Dawgs, Demon Dawgs, form up on the Gods of War! We are regrouping here,' Poser announced.

Fish and Poser went through the losses and started pairing off