Yep. Finally you hear from me on this. Now you see why I turned down
prereading. You'd never get the bloody thing out. :)

                          FOX Squadron
                 Episode 9  - Home, Sweet Home
                       By: G.L. Sandborn



     Less than an hour after activation, FOX Squadron
members
were hard at work making final preparations for their move
to
Ozark Base.

Practicing 'Ozarkspeak' by calling food 'vittles', and male family members
'dates'. :)

     Somewhere along the way, Virginia made off with a
treasure
of her own.

It was Santa Claus. They had told her he didn't exist, but she had found him
at last and he was all hers.

  When she heard that her old Sea Sergeant was

just
sitting unused out behind her former squadron's hangar, she
had
her sister drop her off within walking distance before dark.
With no one looking, she calmly climbed in and flew her
prized
helicopter over to be loaded onto a flatcar for the trip to
Ozark
Base.

As long as they were doing maintainance on it. You made it sound abandoned
at first.

 By the time anyone notices or even cares if it's

Tense change. noticed or even cared it if it was

     The next morning, Jeff arrived with his wife and her
one
authorized carry-on suitcase.  She would be riding to Ozark
base
on the same transport as Cindy's office staff

Oh yeah. The kiddie crew.

up and
in, revealing a two-level interior.  Seats occupied the
upper
level, leaving the lower completely free for cargo stowage.

stowage or storage? Never heard stowage before, but I assume it could be a
real term for stowing away things.

Four
heavy fork lifts

think forklifts is one word.

from Base Logistics Command quickly began

loading the squadron's critical supplies and materials.
They'd
need them all until a regular supply situation could be
established.

That might be a bit awkward since so far their 'supplies' have been
basically pilfered from everywhere.

     Jeff was about to ask her another question when they
were
all interrupted by a sudden squeal of recognition.  Samantha
Fox

saw it was Kylie Minogue, who had a hit around the same time.

trotted over, practically colliding with the blonde as she
wrapped her arms around the woman in an impossibly tight
hug.

Breaking her spine.

     "It's been ages," Samantha gasped, switching to holding
the
blonde by her shoulders and looking her up and down.
"Sandi,
you're still the best looking pilot in the group."

Sam: Up for some hot lesbian sex later?

Sandi: Just like always. You better believe it.

together.
"They just seem so... young."
     Kay took her husband in her arms.  "They're the next
generation, Jeffrey.  They're supposed to be young.

Yeah. That's how it usually works.

     "Don't be silly, dear.  I packed all my clothes in your
bag."
     "And my stuff?"
     "There wasn't much room left.  I think I packed you a
change
of underwear,"

Typical woman.

     "Beats me," Daisy said with a sigh.  "I've never seen
her
act like that."
     "I'm sure it's nothing," Ona impassively noted.

Which means it is something. ^_^

The stresses imposed by VTOL flight on the wings shortened
their
life expectancies.  Since rebuild facilities for aircraft of
that
size were hard to come by, the RDF issued orders for the
Tunny to
be only flown as a conventional transport.  Good thing both
Yellowstone and Ozark bases have

Last sentence is all wrong. 'Luckily, both... had'

looking for.  Motioning Dutch and Mad Dog over, he glanced
at
Katherine.  "I think I can solve that problem."
     "What's up?" Mad Dog asked as they arrived.
     "I need two volunteers to ride along with Linda and
Gloria.

They had trainers? It's been so long I forgot. I didn't think any of the
standard VT's were 2 seaters.

     Slapping the coin on the back of his hand, Dutch
grinned.
"Tails.  I get Princess Slow Reactions.  You get the Hyper
Queen."

Heh.

leaving
behind are those junkers in the hangar."
     "Are the hangar doors secure?"
     "Not only that but

that. but

Gloria changed the codes."

     "You guys have a mean streak, ya know that?"
     "Thank you, sir."
     "Call them together.  It's time we got out of here as
well."

Before someone comes along and realizes what all they've 'requistioned' from
the base.

     Climbing into his Veritech, he noticed some of the
girls had
painted their flight helmets.  Gone were the days of the
single
color or red, white, and blue head gear.

Which was done for the ease of the artists in the series. :)

Pilots were now

free to
express their individuality on both their helmets and their
aircraft.

A la Area 88, where no two pilots or planes were alike.

beautiful
day for flying.  With a five thousand foot cloud base and
patches
of white, fluffy cumulus clouds dotting a deep blue
background,
he could almost forget he was in one the most deadly
fighters in
the RDF inventory.

Nice passage on the takeoff.

ravages of the Zentraedi Invasion.  He remembered how some
credited the Grand Cannon with taking out those battle
cruisers
assigned to this part of the world.  The fact that it was
less
populated probably had as much to do with it as a lucky
strike by
some oversized ray gun buried in the Alaskan tundra.

Actually I thought with the numbers they were throwing around it took out
nearly a fifth of the fleet.

     "Look at all the trees," Gloria gasped over the radio.
     "I'd sure hate to ditch down there," Linda replied.
     "That's easy," Daisy called.  "Just pick two trees and
aim
for the space between them."

Heh.

     "Anything we should know about?"
     "Just that the Yorkies scrambled a couple of fighters
but
they turned away at two-five-oh miles.  Looks like we were
right.
They have some kind of advanced tracking system.  We'll know
better once the data is analyzed."

yep. Good  to get a hint of the enemy's capablities.

The reason was obvious.  The lake represented both a source
of
food in its fish and, if they could get the level high
enough to
drive a couple of the surviving turbines, much needed
electricity
for the surrounding area.  The new World Government hadn't
extended their redevelopment plans to the Ozark region,
thinking
it too close to the troubled Arkansas Protectorate to
protect.

And they would probably be right. They have limited resources at the moment.
Have to pick and choose.

ride a natural cushion created by the sandwiching of air
between
his aircraft and the ground until his speed reduced and the
eighteen ton fighter settled onto the long concrete runway.

Nice flow over this part, BTW.

     Shutting down, he noticed a short man wearing glasses
and
dressed in an RDF work uniform standing near the Command
Building
with his arms crossed.  He figured the man must be with the
reactivation team.

Prolly.

     Once on the ground, the man he noticed earlier appeared
nearby.  Through the howls of A Flight's engines as they
taxied
in, the man extended his hand and shouted: "Welcome to Ozark
Base, Colonel Stuart.  I'm Lieutenant Colonel Richard
Lawson,

Cute.

of
what used to be a small municipal airport," Lt Col Lawson
began.
"I'm sure you noticed it's located between what used to be a
large resort lake and the first of many deep valleys.  The
south
end of your runway is less than two hundred yards from the
valley
drop-off."

Heh. Great. Really no room for error.

We've had to install a more modern water treatment unit to
cope
with the elevated lead content of the water but we've got
everything well within the safety levels prescribed by RDF
regulations."
     "What about security,"

security?

     "The mess hall is fully equipped and functional.  It
just
lacks food.  My guys have been living off field rations
since we
got here."

Blech.

to
themselves, send out patrols every now and then, and pretty
much
stay on their side of the base.  I met their CO, Lieutenant
Roger
Bickham.  Pretty intense young man.  I suspect that's
because
they're working short-handed.

Then he has something in common with Stuart. I didn't remember Destroids
would be present for ground support.

I know one thing for sure;

they
have a bunch of maintenance issues.  Their only MAC II is
just
sitting broken down out in the open."
     "Well, maybe we can get them some help,"

Heh. They can barely help themselves.

fence.
     "That's not my department but my guess would be they're
working long hours."

And have big holes in the defenses. :)

his
voice trailing off as a couple more pilots wandered past.
Daisy's impressive dimensions and Karen having unzipped her
flight suit almost to her navel caused his jaw to drop.
     His expression caught Jeff's eye.  "Is there something
bothering you, Colonel?"

Lawson: Haven't smelled a woman in six months and you're bringing in a pack
of them. Makes me wish I was staying.

said
with a sigh.
     "Ripping what out?"
     "Nobody told me you had all women pilots," Richard
lamented,
pulling out his little notebook and flipping through the
pages.
"We installed new urinals in all the bathrooms."

Stuart: They go standing up, I'm sure.

     Jeff glanced at his fighters and back at Richard.  "If
nothing else, my girls are neat.  We'll put our own toys
away."
     "Oh no, I don't mean your Veritechs.  I'm talking about
the
ones we discovered down on the maintenance level of the
south
hangar."

Hehehe. That means he's been fretting about a whole lot of nothing.

     "The WHAT?" Jeff gasped.
     "Eight new Veritechs.  I think they're 'S' models.
Looks
like somebody just shoved them in there and walked away.
Really
strange, if you ask me."

Could be they've been hidden by someone wanting to sell them on the black
market too.

they were shuttled here straight from the factory.  From the
looks of everything around them, they've been down there for
three or four years."
     Jeff grinned at his parked Veritechs.  Eight of the
baddest
boys built for the RDF were abandoned in one of his hangars.
That means they were his for the taking.  He was sure Steve
Friedman had a few spare serial numbers he could have.

Heh. I'm sure he does too.

some
rigid requirement.  Let's get them organized and moved into
their
rooms.  The transports are due in thirty minutes.  I want
all
hands ready to help unload.  We don't have any fork-lifts

It could be hyphenated too. Not sure.

Taking
a deep breath, he recognized the fresh smell of recently
cleaned
floors.

That won't last long.

     "I come all this way and that's the only thing you have
to
say?" she asked with a pout.
     "You didn't answer my question."

Heh. She is being evasive.

the comfortable-looking swivel desk chair.
     Picking her folder up off the desk, she snapped to
attention
and saluted.  "Bobbi Jo Taylor,

Yes. A hick. :)

 Captain, RDF Intelligence

Service, reporting as ordered, SIR."

Wonder if they can kill her and dump the body in a river.

     When she didn't respond, he glanced up to see her
grinning
slyly.  "You used to be much more fun down on the Rio
Grande,"
she said.
     "That was a long time ago.  My advice is to forget it."

Stuart: My order is to forget it as well.

     In a blinding burst of light, the room lit up like a
gymnasium.  Rubbing her eyes, Missy squinted and scanned the
mostly empty interior.  A smile slowly grew as she spotted
what
was stored along the back wall.  Annie soon joined her and
the
two grinned at each other knowingly.

Hmm. I suppose we'll find out what it is soon enough.

     "Maybe your friend would like to join the squadron."
     "No, I already asked her," Samantha said with a sigh.
"She's not looking for excitement.  She has everything she
wants
right now."

Operating flying warehouses. :)

     Liz was the first to recognize the forklift drivers.
"Hey,
you guys!  Where did you find those?"
     Stopping her vehicle, Missy waved and pointed to the
hangar.
"There's all sorts of neat stuff in there.  You ought to see
the
cool little rovers they got."
     "You mean: WE got," Daisy noted with a grin.

Missy: I'm so used to it really being someone else's and us stealing it,
that it's gotten to be a habit.

     He continued searching until he saw Kay emerge from the
transport's belly looking like a den mother who had just
gone
through an overnight camp out with a pack of cub scouts.
Somehow, he got to the ramp's end before his wife.

Actually, I'm not surprised with how tired she must be. :)

     "Something wrong?" he asked as she got closer.
     "I just spent two and a half hours locked up in a large
metal tube with fifty people who redefined the word:
airsick,"
she groused.  "My aircraft smells like --"

That's bad. Sympathetic puking is always a pain.

was slowly nodding agreement with Sandi's situation report.
"We'll help clean it up."
     Sandi just shrugged and turned away.  "I've hauled
livestock
that didn't make this much of a mess,"

Heh.

     Kay could always tell when there was something not
right
about her husband.

She was telepathic.

     "I told you before, there's no truth to those rumors.
She
tried, I refused, and that's all there is to it."
     Kay crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed.  "Oh, I
believe
you.  It's the attempt she made that bothers me."

Fair enough.

     "It won't happen again," Jeff insisted.  "I've made
that
clear to her."  When Kay continued to frown, he shook his
head.
"And don't give me that look.  Bobbi Jo knows these hills
better
than anyone in the RDF.  Like her or not, we need her
experience."
     "YOU may need her but I certainly don't."

Heh. True.

     "Well, she is one of the RDF's best Intel officers.

"Biggest slut too. Heard she slept with a full sized Zentraedi once."

The door was open.
     "Nancy, you in here?" Daisy called as she poked her
head
inside.
     There came a sound from the far bedroom like someone
hastily
hiding something.

Wonder if it's a pet.

     Nancy nervously glanced at the door behind her and
tried to
assume a posture that looked more like her usual confident
self.

Yeah, right.

     A plaintive 'meow' came from the other side of the
door.

Yep.

knew he couldn't charge you, a winner of the Silver Eagle
for
Valor.   And he certainly couldn't charge you on just the
word of
a new flight leader.

Yep.

Katherine
stepped into the room, stopping next to the bed.  She looked
down
at Nancy and her cat with a serious expression.  "Article
thirty-
seven states that pets are not allowed in living quarters.
However, Article one fifty-one clearly permits a squadron
mascot
- if approved by the squadron commander."

Suspected as much. Mascot's still a tradition.

     "I think that would be best," Katherine replied.  "This
is a
big base - at least, to a cat - and since you are going to
be
responsible for Tiger's care, keeping her here would solve
the
problem of control.  We don't want her wandering off and
getting
lost."

Bad for morale.

good
sized dining room.  Probably for entertaining, she mused.
It had
everything she could ask for in a home.  Yes, it would do
nicely.
     Large windows bordered two sides of the living room,
giving
it a light, pleasant atmosphere.  The only thing that gave
away
the fact it was part of a military base were the large red
buttons to drop the window armor in case of attack.

Heh. Yes, that is quite the reminder.

     Dutch and Mad Dog arrived first, followed closely by Dr
Takahashi.  He couldn't help but notice her rub against Mad
Dog's
butt with her hip and wink his way when he looked.  Jeff
reminded
himself to go over the fraternization rules with everyone.

Like that would do any good.

notes
in his little notebook, his glasses pushed back on his head
as he
frowned at what he'd written.  Jeff wondered why he clung to
the
old notebook when there were much more modern electronic
devices
available.

Paper doesn't not turn on if it gets knocked around. :)

an
update on the base activation and anything else he might
think
important.  Richard?"

Is it common to refer to someone like him who he just met by his first name
rather than last or rank?

however, caused even Jeff to lean forward slightly.
     Stepping onto the tarmac, swagger stick under one arm
and a
white silk flying scarf wrapped jauntily around his neck,
the
mustachioed man wore a uniform Jeff had never seen before.

Thankfully. I think that look went out with the bi-plane.

more stills per square mile than anywhere else in the North
American Sector.  They get grain from the Okies in the west
and
corn from farms further north.  I'd warn everyone to avoid
the
stuff.  To the uninitiated, it can rip your stomach out.

Or make you go blind. :)

list of things to post.
     "The worst part of all this is the political
situation,"
Richard continued.  "Just about everything within twenty
miles is
owned either partially or in total by a man named Bill
Kidd - Big
Billy, he's called by the locals.  He's a ruthless bully who
used
to be a petty thief and part-time maintenance man before the
war.

Now he's a big time thief.

train robberies a year ago.  But when he staged a public
capture
of the 'bandits', the government up in Monument City
rewarded him
with the title of governor for the region.  He now controls
an
area between the lake and the Arkansas Protectorate for
about a
hundred miles east and west."

Great

     "My men have encountered that weasel a couple of
times,"
Lieutenant Bickham said with a firm expression.  "One wound
up in
the hospital, another died from injuries.  None of us like
him.

Oh, and the government let him get away with that? How odd.

low
but controlled voice.  "However we deal with Mr. Kidd, we'll
do
it legally.  I have no intention of running a military base
in
World Government territory surrounded by a hostile force
that be
identified from the average civilian."

That reads off. Not sure what the end part was supposed to be.

     "Lieutenant, knowing how resourceful they are, I
seriously
doubt I could stop them if I wanted to.  If there's any
trouble,
Mr. Kidd will quickly discover the meaning of 'being in deep
shit'."
     "Very well, sir."  Lieutenant Bickham still didn't look
like
he was convinced.

But he would be happy to help.

for him.  You will note by my record, I have over ten years
of
experience.  My last posting was with Norge Command in the
Scandinavian Quadrant."
     Mad Dog practically shook with anger.  "Look, you --"
     Jeff stopped him with a raised hand.  Reluctantly, the
burley Major backed down.
     "This might not be such a bad idea,"

Always nice to have a reserve officer, just in case something happens to the
primary.

they
have to eat and sleep sometime, that means I can only put
three,
counting myself, on duty at any one time."
     "How many do you need to do your job?"
     Sergeant Foley thought for a moment.  "I need five on
duty
at any given time."
     "That's six more people."

Yep

     "They're not going to like that," Cindy said as if
talking

Stuart: It's a good thing I'm their superior and can order them to do it,
then.

     "I can put four Excalibers, four Gladiators, two
Raidars,
and two Spartans in the field.

Nice mix. Pity about the MAc, though. Now that's walking firepower.

 > ammunition."

     "Cindy will take care of the spare parts and
ammunition.
Gail, can you loan a couple of your mechanics for a short
time to
help Lieutenant Bickham get his Destroids up to full
functionality?"

Sounds like it will work.

building material?"
     "What?  You mean like headstones?"  Richard looked over
his
glasses at the Colonel.
     "Yeah, like headstones."  Jeff scuffed the toe of his
boot
on the carpet.

Ah,he remembers.

found what he was looking for.  Brushing some dirt from the
clear
plastic-enclosed granite block, his fingers traced the
carved
name: 'Jennifer Stuart, Captain RDF'
     Slowly sinking into the weeds, his fingers still
resting on
the letters, he forced a painful smile.  "Looks like I'm
back,
Jen."

Yep. Hopefully he won't end up staying as long as she did though.

Nice chapter for them settling into their headquarters, laying groundwork
for what to expect and possible future problems. Flowed smoothly and I found
few grammar errors. Got a lot done in the amount of time here. Overall
excellent work.

D.B. Sommer

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