It had been a few weeks since Lieutenant Young joined our Battlegroup. She was immediately transferred to the administrative staff and always close to the Rear Admiral. At the beginning I had found it weird but Knight didn't hesitate to reveal the reasons for Young's apparent blitz career. When I had asked her carefully once she told me that Young had always been serving under her command and that after the attack on Harmony she had requested everyone she deemed capable and trustworthy.
How could I have argued with that? The Rear Admiral even went so far to list me Young's qualifications and history. She apparently even was with the LSF for a short time. It was surprising that she told me all that but it all made sense. A bit too much maybe but I didn't care too much. Nonetheless it took me little convincing to accompany Young on a planned scouting mission.
At 0600 our squadron got ready to depart. Iota squad consisted of mainly heavy fighter craft and two bombers. At this point it was clear to everyone that this wasn't going to be a normal scouting mission. We got our briefing when the Lieutenant arrived and she told us that her team had analyzed the bombs and got to the conclusion that it had been an inside job. By checking the available information she assured us that she knew where to find some of these defectors.
Now everyone was wide awake and we were all ready to get out there and fight back.
Harmony cleared the area and soon we left the battleship into the mine protected Zone 21. The battleship had been waiting here on Young's suggestion, keeping it safe after the just finished repairs. And if they finished this mission the Harmony could probably step down an alert level.
We engaged our cruise engines and set our course for the exit and towards the Trade Lane Network. Our route would lead us to the Cortez system and the gates and lanes shortened that travel significantly.
After passing the Cortez jumpgate, Lieutenant Young was leading us away from the Trade Lanes a bit and into the cloud. When suddenly panicked distress calls reached us we were all on edge. Unsure if this was what we were aiming at but still eager to help we followed Young towards the origin of the calls. A Yacht with OSC identifiers was under heavy fire by what looked like two LSF fighters. The Yacht was heavily outgunned and too far away from any friendly installation to hope for anything else but someone to respond.
Now our own comms burst with people yelling to help them and confused people replying we couldn't attack allies. Neither my comrades nor me had any idea what was going on. But apparently Young had one. Her voice was calm when she ordered us to engage the LSF pilots and to protect the Yacht. Most of us were glad for that. And when she then told us that these were the people we have been hunting for, we all punched our engines to get there fast.
When we got closer we switched to impulse speed and activated our weapons. My systems were having problems with the clouds most likely as the targeting system wasn't working properly. But I had a visual on my target still and was ready to open fire when my aft shields took heavy fire. In surprise I dodged too strong to the right side. Apart from Young and a bomber nothing should have been able to get behind me. My sudden maneuver made me nearly crash into an asteroid and I had to change directions again quickly. Quickly my ship was spinning away into the cloud and I had a hard time getting it back under control. When I eventually managed I was looking at an unidentifiable mess of Navy and LSF ships shooting each other. I wanted to raise my voice and ask for orders when I blacked out.
"Thank you for coming O'Brien." said Lieutenant Emilia Young and smiled at me with that emotionless smile. If it weren't for her talents and loyalty I would've hated her.
"Of course." I said and smiled, hoping she wasn't disliking me as much as I did her. "But why am I here exactly? Aren't I getting briefed tomorrow? With the others?"
She gave me another smile which made me nearly drop my own. It was that devious kind of smile I remembered from the bullies at school whenever they found something else to torture us with. I guess I really hated her. There was more to her though than just me disliking her for her behaviour or skills. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"The normal mission briefing will be for everyone tomorrow. But I wanted to give you something on the way that will make it easier for us all. But first things first. You are one of the best pilots this battlegroup has." she then started but the way she said it didn't make it sound like much of a compliment to me. It was more like she was stating facts.
I still gave her my most grateful smile. "Thank you. That means much to me." I replied.
"Knight trusts you a lot do you know that?" she asked and I wondered where she was going with this. She got up before I answered and walked to a little sideboard, picking up a datapad, before looking at me again.
"Just doing my job." I told her, not knowing what else to say.
"Oh don't be like that. It is people like you who keep the Navy together. Stable, effective and loyal." She specified and walked a bit closer. I tried to peek on the datapad to find out what she wanted to show me.
"Thanks again but... where exactly is this leading?" I carefully asked.
She gave me another disgusting smile and stepped right next to me, bowing down a little and showing me the datapad. It had the Battleships movement schedules written down in detail. It would leave Zone 21 relatively soon.
Before I could ask her for the meaning of this she put her hand on my head. "Don't worry and remember this well. You will need it soon."
I cannot remember what happened then or if I replied anything. My memory from that point was black and the last thing I saw was the fading vision of a battleship exploding.
I woke up to the screams of the bomber pilot. My whole body was trembling as I relentlessly fired on my comrade until the Upholder's hull wasn't able to hold anymore. I had critically hit the antimatter compartment which destabilized and quickly cut off his screams as the ship was ripped apart.
Now everything was quiet. I could hear my own breath only and tried to make sense of what happened. I checked the scanners. It was only Young and the two LSF pilots left. The debris of their destroyed squad was still drifting about but at least it looked like the Yacht managed to escape.
"What have I done?" I whispered.
"Only what we needed you to do." A voice in my head answered.
Startled and frightened I wanted to call for help but I wasn't able to reach for the console. My arm wasn't moving anymore. I panicked and wanted to scream but the voice calmed me down quickly.
"Shh. You have been doing good Kelly." I heard the familiar voice speaking.
"H-how?" I asked wondering how this all was possible.
"Don't worry. Calm down. You will see the truth now. Not many humans receive this honor." The voice said and now I knew who it was. It was Young. My dislike for her was fading swiftly and I could calm down completely. She was my friend after all. She had picked me for this to become something so much more than a Navy pilot.
"Thank you." I said in my head but it felt wrong to me. But even this feeling was fading quickly.
"It was a pleasure, Kelly. We have a mission to do."
This story is at its end on the forums. The conclusion, however that might be, will be happening ingame. Thanks to @Shiki for playing D9Agent Emilia Young.