158 Main Base: Part 1

Monday, 24th of June 2021. -66.3385610, 21.5409845, Southern Ocean. 1300 Hours.

Three planes were flying in formation. The Blue Sea was the only thing around the horizon. If the weather wasn't clear, clouds would appear, replacing the blue ocean below them.

The contractors had flown across the South Pacific to the Southern Ocean. The contractors wanted to avoid the borders of any country. Meanwhile, inside the cabin of the C-5, the passengers were messing around.

"We have been flying for seven hours, is it going to take anymore longer?" Patrick called Nathan though the radio.

"Well, prepare another ten hours. Nathan out," Nathan put the headset back to its place on that cockpit. Aiden switched the direction of the plane to 2-9-0. The plane started heading to the north direction.

Nathan went back to the cargo bay of the C-5 Galaxy. Eva held a clipboard on her hands. She walked around the cargo bay while marked some of the boxes on that paper. "Six grenade machine guns, well, what else?"

Nathan walked around Eva. "Excuse me." Patrick walked to the back of the cargo bay which was mostly empty. Well, if not for the appearance of four people sitting down on the back of that cargo door.

"What games are we playing again?" Alex asked.

"Poker?" Victor said.

"I see." Henry put his card on the floor of that cargo plane. A seven-hour flight in a military cargo plane was quite an experience. Julia groaned as she went downstairs. "For fuck sake, for why are we flying on top of the southern ocean?" Julia asked Nathan.

"Because we don't have to fly on top of any high-intensity conflict zone," Nathan answered. Julia went back upstairs. She went back for a sleep in the passenger compartment. Nathan looked at his PDA and looked at his current location.

[Southern Ocean]

The planes were located right on top of the ocean that was located north of Antarctica. Their main base aka the VLFS was located on the North Atlantic Ocean. It would take their plane another ten hours until they arrived at the main base.

"I'll go for a sleep." Nathan walked upstairs to the passenger compartment where the others were sitting down. There was an empty seat right beside Laura.

She was looking at the ceiling of that cargo plane with a headphone on his ears. She was closing her eyes and produced a very loud snore. Nathan put his butt on the empty cushion located right beside of her.

Meanwhile, the fighter jet pilots experienced far worse than the passengers of the cargo plane. "I swear my arse is sore," Clara said.

"That's why you have to have a good cushion on the jet," Patrick said.

Patrick pushed a button on the jet. It was the autopilot button. He changed the direction of the plane heading so it followed the C-5 from behind. Lynn and Clara were in front of the C-5 as a lead flight.

Patrick: "Delta to Lima. What's the ETA?"

Patrick: "I see."

'Gosh, my arse.' Patrick's arse was sore as hell, and another ten hours of flight wasn't the thing that he wanted all along.

Monday, 24th of June 2021. 28.4076588, -40.7259076, North Atlantic Ocean. 2100 Hours.

The time had fooled them. They might only have traveled for twelve hours according to the clock, but they actually had traveled for seventeen hours straight. Lynn was looking at the doppler radar and Clara was looking at the screen of the F-15 since it was equipped with a Sniper targeting pod.

"Where is it? It should be somewhere," Lynn said.

"Well, with this kind of rain, I'll be surprised if we're able to find the thing with thermal." Rainwater was hitting the glass of the fighter jets. The rain created a small mist on the wings of every aircraft.

The fighter jets were flying low while the C-5 was flying high to avoid the storm. The floating structure that was supposed to be very big was very hard to be found in the middle of the dark ocean.

"I found it!" Patrick shouted on his radio. He lowered his altitude and lowered the landing gear of that aircraft so he could use the lights on his aircraft to see the runway.

Patrick flew above the VLSF. He had a visual on the runway. It was dark, and the VLSF was very empty. There wasn't any structure there. "I have a visual on the runway. Lynn, Clara, you go first!"

"Copy that Patrick." Patrick retracted the landing gear of his fighter jets and he pushed the throttle of his fighter jet forward. He would act as Lynn's flight assistant. He would help her in her landing.

Patrick flew his plane in the sky without affecting his altimeter. "Ok, initiate landing, Lynn."

The F-15 lowered its landing gear. It turned off its afterburner and the airbrake of that plane opened. The wheels touched the ground and the plane slowed down. It made a quick stop and Lynn turned her plane right into the empty space.

"Alright, Aiden, it's your turn," Lynn said as she observed the runway from her fighter jet.

"Copy that." Aiden lowered his plane nose and entered the wild storm of the Atlantic. Patrick observed that giant plane landing in the VLSF on the Atlantic. The plane parked right beside Lynn's jet and the cargo door of that plane opened. A bunch of contractors with their night vision goggles got out of that plane.

It was Patrick's turn to land on the VLFS. All of the pilots had gone out of the aircraft, the fighter pilots were also included. They would assist the crew in moving to the VLFS.

"Your nose is too low. Pull a bit," Lynn said.

Patrick retracted his nose a bit and he landed on the VLFS. The wheels touched the ground of that VLFS in the middle of the stormy night. The jet slowed down until something didn't feel right.

Patrick felt a collision as the jet moved across the runway. Suddenly, the left-wing of his aircraft scratches the ground and made a very huge spark. It didn't set Patrick's plane on fire, but it sure made the plane out of control.

'Keep it together!' Patrick tried controlling the plane, but it simply didn't work. His plane spun out of the runway and stopped on an empty space located far enough from the cargo plane.

"Requesting evac, shit," Patrick said from his radio and Nathan rushed the contractors to get the Humvee out of the jet to rescue Patrick.

"GET THE SAW AND THE FIRST-AID!" Nathan commanded as the contractors rushing to release the Humvee from the cargo plane. They released the straps from that car and drove it on the reverse.

Aline opened a container inside of the cargo plane and carried a bag of first aid kit that was very complete. Aline rushed to the Humvee and Nathan entered the driving seat.

Alex and Lynn accompanied them to rescue Patrick which was located very far from that cargo plane parking spot. They drove to the crash site and they were surprised when they saw the broken jet without anyone occupying it. It turned out that Patrick had been waiting for them right beside the jet. He had worn his combat loadout with the night vision goggles on top of his head.

"Bastard! You make me worried back there." Nathan got out of the car and he immediately ran to Patrick.

Patrick was looking at his jet that was in ruin. "My jet!" Patrick shook his head many times. The cockpit was shot by Patrick's MP7 so he could get out. He was looking at the ruined jet. The left-wing of his aircraft was disintegrated from that crash.

Patrick had identified the cause which was a broken landing gear, but he couldn't find the reason why would the landing gear broke apart. He might have hit something, but he was sure that it wasn't a living thing.

"The most important thing is that you're safe," Nathan said as he helped Patrick to clean up.

"Yeah." Patrick walked to that Humvee and the car drove away from the crash site. They did a quick briefing since they still had the next big task about moving out.

Nathan gathered the contractors inside of the cargo plane. He briefed them about the VLFS on that ocean. They still hadn't figured out why the VLFS didn't have any light source nor any navigational beacon. Nathan knew that the VLFS must have its own power source. They just had to open the blueprint that the previous owner had given to them.

Nathan displayed the blueprint on his PDA. It turned out that the VLFS was very big and consisted of multiple floors. The contractors' question was the same. They were wondering about where should they start since any wrong move could be potentially hazardous for them.