Anniversary

By: Wildfire

Flynn turned in early that day, not even bothering to go into the lounge and play, talk or have that rematch game with Lynx on the Air Hockey table. She had put up with a very pissy Yuy all day. She had forgotten to even eat today. Many other things were on her mind. To everyone else, she had tried

to seem happy and friendly as always. Ever cheerful and energetic. Beneath that mask however, she silently wished to be flat out drunk.

Today wasn’t a day to have fun with new friends. It wasn’t a day to be happy or sober for that fact. It was a day to remember those lost....

~*****~

"Ok, Angel.. just one little sip and we’ll let ya’ go free." An old pilot said, looking down at the 13 year old pilot that just joined his group.

"Promise?"

"Yeah.. just take a sip, Kid." another pilot said, pressing a glass filled with B&B into the girl’s hand. She took a gulp and gasped for air. ~This shit burns!~

"What ‘cha think, Kid?"

"S’good." she squeaked out, gulping down the soda she had ordered originally. The older pilots all laughed and jabbed at the girl. She seemed to be much older then 13. Acted like it though. She was defiantly a child in their eyes. But, Dozer remembered one thing from their first day with the

girl. She was a damned good pilot.

~*****~

"It was good stuff. Just didn’t know it yet." Flynn mused, pulling out a wooden box from her half of the closet. She opened it and pulled out the old rusted flask filled with B&B. When she had first gotten here, she had withed to drown out her bad day in the spirit. But this was a one time a year thing. Only once a year did she ever drink from this flask. And only today was she going to again.

~*****~

It was about 3am and the bar was empty for once. At this time in the morning most of the pilots of the Rough Necks was in here getting plastered off their asses to forget. Forted lost friends, lost battles, lost

loves anything worth forgetting in the bottom of a shot glass.

"Rough Necks stand down. Good fight people." the PA said, relieving the squadron from their duties of covering cargo vessels though Pirate and Rader infested systems. Thirteen men and women left that morning to defend a Stellar Corp. cargo envoy on its way to the Vega system. Only ten came back. Flynn now being the wingman of the squadron leader after her competition had been ‘taken out’.

"They never existed. Remember that Angel. When you loose some one.. they never existed." Dozer had said while Flynn drowned her sorrows in some Rum and Coke.

"They were there. I’ll remember all of them. If no one else will, then will. " She vowed.

~*****~

"2,974 people were lost in the last 5 years. Our own private war that we can never win. I have seen them all before, will see them all again when I go. When I stop existing. And what did the Corporation do? Send their condolences and a money sum to the families. We were family. And we are going extinct." Flynn stood out on a cliff, overlooking the sea. Behind her the barrier fence hummed. It protected the compound from the predators on the island.

She had never before remembered them on a planet before. Never been on planet before in her life. She pulled the flask out and took a sip, savoring the sweet taste before the bite hit her thought. That’s the

way life was.

~*****~

"Dozer got one on your tail!" Angel shouted over the comm. A Rader ship, guns blaring tried its damndest to shoot her Wing Leader down. She came up behind it, targeting her latest victim.

The Rader dove suddenly and came back up under Angel. She felt the shots rip through the hull, felt that one blast take out the back wall of the cockpit. Felt the air start to rush out before she could get the

emergency sealant out and eject. She watched her fighter blow up. Thinking she should

have gone too.

"You all right Kid?"

"Daijobu Dozer. How many left?"

"All the enemy is gone. We lost Hobby and Stryfe."

"Wakatta."

~*****~

"Now where are you guys? Are you up in Heaven? Are you still trying to kick the shit out of those Kisama that took you from me? Are you still singing off key? I swore that I’d remember each and every one of you. And I’m keeping that promise every day of my life. There is a war coming. I can feel it. Dozer, you one said that not even God could keep me from flying. I met god that day you left. And all I wanted to do was break his nose."

~*****~

It was a blood bath. 500 Renegades and Pirates that had formed an alliance to get then convoy coming from earth. And there was only about 150 of them to stop the oncoming army of outlaws.

"Angel, take Red wing out to the port flank. Gold Wing go with Attila. Green Wing come with me."

"Yokai Dozer. Lets go you apes! You want to live forever?!"

The wings broke apart, taking on as many of the enemy MS and fighters as they could before going into oblivion. The stars seemed to weep for those lost. Remembering only the War from long ago that cost so many lives.

~*****~

"There were so many screams. So many explosions. I could hear them all. I can feel them all running around in my head. I see your faces, remember the way you went out with a bang. 150 of us went out to fight. 150 of us went to kill as many as we could to take them out and protect out lively hoods. 150

of us fought that day...."

The flask fell from a slack hand. Azure eyes glazed over from the drink finally reaching her head. Those eyes locked on to the sea far below, just watching the waves rise and fall, like the arms of her comrades reaching out to her, calling her to join them in the Great Beyond.

"And only one came back."

~*****~

The fight was over. The enemy had run off, finding their losses too many. The sky was filled with the wreckage and bodies of both sides. And one ship still remained. If sound could have traveled through space like is does on earth, the stars would have been defined by the screams of a child lost.

Inside the Jetty fighter, what was once Flynn Angelina Masters curled up in the seat, holding her left arm and talking into the comm. She had stopped shuddering from tears and pain. Stopped thinking that it was still going to happen to her. She was a lone again.

"Hello?...... Is there anybody out there?...... anybody?...... Please... comeback..... answer me....... come back......."

She was now 18. Most of her life was gone now. All her friends were lost. No one remained to comfort her out there in the battle field. Death had passed her over yet again. It left her to remember, and fight, and lead, and fight, and get drunk but never die. That’s all Flynn had left.

~*****~

"Will you burry me when I am gone? Do you teach me while I’m here? Just as soon As I belong. Then Its time I disappear." Flynn whispered. The lights from the base went out just then. Only the stars and the Moon’s light illuminated the figure alone on the cliff.

"Death is indeed a cruel person. He took my life from me. He left me to rot in this existence and watch all those I care for die. Such is the cost of war. I will remember you. Even If I am forgotten. I will emember you all. This is our anniversary of death. The last day you all lived and the day I died among the heartless stars. "

Flynn stumbled back to the fence, over it and back to the base. She’d wake up, not remembering a thing from the night before. She never did. Only a major hang over and another day in her own private Hell she felt she so rightly deserved. They were gone. But she was still alive. And It was all her fault.