Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan - Year 2

XVI

It wasn't a meteorite, but at three in the morning, in the middle of the night, it was hard to tell the difference.

What we saw was a trail of fire accompanied by a loud roar.

What it was was a Valkyrie in flames, losing altitude.

A Valkyrie is a combat aircraft, successor to the Mistral, itself successor to the Rafale, a multi-mission jet plane, hyper used at the beginning of the 21st century. And it was not Dassault Aviation that designed it but, yes, you guessed it, ATS.

Erk called the Ops room and as soon as we found it was a plane and the pilot was female, from the R&R, he raced back to base, leaving his post 2 minutes before the end of his watch, picked up an emergency kit from the infirmary, jumped on a motorbike and drove off following the trail of fire. That's what Lin told me afterwards.

- Erik! Damn it, brother!
- It's Elise, he answered by radio.
- Elise? How?
- Kris, Lin interrupted him, prepare the truck with your patrol, Tito, wake up Alex, he's leaving with you. Wilha, catch up with Erik, protect him, accompany him. Bear, wake Jude up, he'll drive. You will follow Erik and Wilha to help him and bring back the injured guy. Well, girl, if your brother is right. Erik, you have my blessing, hálfviti.

We obeyed her orders. While we were preparing the pick-up, Kris continued to grill his brother over radio.

- How do you know it's her?
- There is only one female pilot, in the R&R. And there... Shit!
- What ? Shit what, Erik? Answer, damn it!
- The plane just crashed...
- Oh... Do you see a parachute?
- At night ? I am neither Lin nor the Admiral...
- The Admiral! Fuck, Erik, you're a genius!
- I knew it but...
- Lin... No, Fatso, is the Admiral up?
- Difficult to sleep with this ruckus, said the Admiral coming out of his room. But anyway I was almost up. Alright, so what should I do?
- Look east and tell us if you see a parachute.
- Too dark for that, Kris, sorry. However...

He squinted, fiddled with his headset.

- Viking, do you read me?
- Three... five... miral.
- Shit, the signal is bad, Lin said.

She turned to find someone to send to wake Jo. But in fact, with the shouting, we had awakened a good part of the troops and he was already up. He went to join Phone in the Ops room and they tinkered with the radio.

- Admiral, do you copy?
- Better, Viking. I didn't see a parachute, but I did see a flare, a degree or two south of the plane's path.
- Th...x

Jo and Phone tinkered the radio again and then we could hear the giant breathing as if he were next to us.

- Bróðir, you should have Wilha breathing down your neck, if she hasn't already joined you. She's supposed to escort and cover you while you take care of the pilot, so wait for her.
- We'll see, little brother.
- Erik!
- I'm not far away, Viking, said Wilha.
- Okay, but I'm not waiting for you. I can't afford it.
- You forget that I am a champion of trial biking, Viking. I'll catch up!

Erk chuckled, we smiled. A little crooked, but smiles nonetheless.

- Wilha?
- Yes, Lin?
- When you two get to destination, send the coordinates to Kris, will you?
- Yes Ma'am.
- Lin, should we wake up Doc and Nanny? I asked.
- No. Alex leaves with Kris and until Erk makes his diagnosis, there's no need to wake them up, especially if... Let them sleep. Go join your patrol, Tugdual.

In the truck, there was Jude behind the wheel, Alex and the rest of my patrol, and Song, who was to return the motorcycle borrowed by the giant.

- Kris, you're Go. Heading east, not too fast to get the coordinates. Erik, are you close?
- I don't really know... ah, wait, I think I saw a light. I'm cutting the engine and my headlight.