The Anglo-Soviet Pact, August 20th

"Trevor, it's been a while." I clapped my brother's shoulder as he stepped off the ramp of the Hercules. He gave me an annoyed look as his British paratroopers filed off the plane.

"You know. I wasn't sure what to expect… but was this a little overkill on your end?" Trevor asked, nodding at the dozen aircraft lined up near the tarmac getting refueled for the flight to LAX. I glanced at the VDV in the distance digging defensive positions to the south and west of the airfield.

"Not really, this is about the minimum we need, besides, the rest of the division will be coming along in the next few waves." I replied as another Hercules taxied off the runway and started heading over to where the first was parked.

"You slotted a whole division for this? Fuck Andrew, I could barely scrape two support battalions together for this." Trevor grumbled.

"Shit, is everything good back home?" I asked, a bit of worry creeping into my mind.

"I wouldn't have come if it wasn't fine. No, there just so many small pockets of zombies roving the countryside, it's kind of forcing me to slow down, you've probably had it relatively easy, back to the sea, just have to clear it block by block."

"Easy? Shit, it's constant problems, particularly with the system giving me all these extra missions, got to be diplomatic with the government in Hawaii, expand to several cities along the coast, man it's nothing but a series of different problems." I complained as the two of us started walking towards the terminal.

"Hawaii?"

"Yeah, the pacific fleet abandoned San Diego, got a good collection of navy, marine, and army units out there." I replied.

"Shit, I guess I'll tell my guys to start clearing Alexandria, see if we can find anyone in DC to make their problem." Trevor joked.

"The last thing they need is more politicians, let's get as many as we can over to them." I chuckled.

"Jokes aside, how the fuck does the system want us to operate a joint base?" Trevor asked as we walked into the western terminal.

"Not sure, but those credits are tempting enough, let me get some support units I've been desperately needing to get." I replied.

"You haven't been filling out your support units Andrew? That's a lot of wasted potential, how the hell did you even beat me in the rankings?"

"Ships and aircraft are expensive bro, maintaining my naval assets…" I whistled, recalling the price I'd paid for just a single reload of the Slava's missile complement.

"You got a navy? Let me guess, a couple frigates?" Trevor asked, I laughed and shook my head.

"I've lost a frigate to a leviathan, but no… I have far more than a 'couple' frigates." I emphasized the word couple, my brother's exasperated look nearly gave me a hysterical fit.

"You've lost a frigate? That's fucking expensive man." He replied.

"No shit, I told commodore Gena to deal with not having the ship for now, I'll probably replace it once this quest is complete though." I replied while we walked up to the impromptu command center at the end of the terminal.

"Alright, you want to start hashing out details?" Trevor asked as we took seats near the edge of the command station. I nodded.

"Alright, I have a pair of airborne battalions, and I figured I'd buy a mechanized infantry battalion once I got here. What kind of forces are you thinking of stationing here?" He asked.

"There's currently a whole regiment of VDV here, with three more on standby to come once the aircraft return to LAX." I replied.

"The hell you think this airport will need that many soldiers for?" Trevor asked.

"Securing the airport?" I replied.

"Shit you trying to have this place crawling with soldiers? Shit, just keep those other three regiments, this doesn't have to be some massive, sprawling base." Trevor replied.

"I guess not, but what's the point then?" I asked.

"Just enough to satisfy system requirements? Doing the bare minimum?" He gave me a confused look.

"You're the one larping as a communist, shouldn't you know all about that?"

"Hey, communism and what I'm doing in California have about as much in common as salt and diesel fuel." I shot back.

"But your state owns everything, doesn't it?" Trevor asked, his tone prodding.

I opened my mouth to counter but stopped, running through the list of everything. Shit, I owned it. Either the state or the military. Nothing public was owned, at least not on a scale that mattered. I'll have to look into that when I got back.

"Alright, let's sort out this place before we get too lost." I said.

"The forces we've brought should be more than enough, so we need to fly in supplies to feed a base of almost two thousand…" Trevor mused.

"Bi weekly supply runs? I'll fly in Monday, you fly in Thursday…"

"Sounds good… I can't think of anything else, you?" Trevor asked.

'Quest Complete! User alliances. Establish contact with a user and create a jointly operated camp. Reward, 100,000,000 credits.'

I glanced at Trevor, seeing him smirk. "Guess we're done then?"

I nodded, standing from my chair. "Yeah… I got a lot I need to do back in LA still…"

"Fair, I'm getting ready to cross the potomac, get into Maryland and start surrounding the pit."

"I know it's a bit selfish of me… but try to preserve the museums." I asked.

"I'm not going to make promises." Trevor replied.

"It was good seeing you in person, tell mom and dad that I'm doing fine, I'll visit when things calm down." I said while shaking my brothers hand. He nodded, a sly smile on his face as we parted. No overly long discussions or boring talks, straight to the point and within the hour both of us were back in the air headed back to our own headquarters.

I walked the length of the ilyushin, speaking with the wounded soldiers being transferred back to LAX for medical care. Offering quiet praise to the soldiers as the medics tended to them. I'd done quite a bit for a day's work…

Ivanov would likely be greeting me on the tarmac, ready to brief me before the plane was even off. I settled into my seat, I'd try to enjoy some of this flight. It was just so unlikely that something had come up that they couldn't handle. The majority of the corps was pushing into northern Los Angeles, those marine regiments scattered up and down the pacific coast were battling to establish their fobs… I glanced at the slates that were still ticking up.

Oh? San Francisco had just spiked up and taken the lead, 230,000 credits to Ensanada's 220,000. Aurora was trailing far behind, but… the fob there was located well outside the city proper, though the noise seemed to continue drawing more. But regardless the tracker for the main offensive… LA was sitting pretty comfortably at 470,000.

There was a lot of credits waiting for me… or whenever a pause or lull in the battles raging across the pacific coast for me to get those credits and xp… i was in no hurry though. It'll come sooner or later…

I nearly jumped as the interior of the aircraft suddenly turned red, the emergency lights flickering on. The massive ilyushin started sharply banking to the left. I stood from my seat, running quickly to the cockpit. 

"Where'd that come from?" the co pilot shouted, straining to look to the right as he pulled the yoke as far to the left as he and the pilot could. Lights flashed across the display, alarms blaring incessantly.

"Flares!" the pilot shouted, muscles straining. The copilot jammed at the controls, the massive airframe shuddered briefly. The loadmaster stumbled into the cockpit behind me, a parachute in hand.

"Sir! Put this on." the loadmaster practically forced the parachute onto me as i demanded a report from the pilots. The straining pilots didn't answer, so engrossed in heavily banking the aircraft. I looked out of the window at the Migs that were casting their drop tanks off and turning the other way, chaff and flares flying every which way.

I caught the briefest glance of a metallic shine, then one of the Migs turned into a fireball. I watched as the aircraft's fuselage disappeared as it went into a spin, its right wing flying off… 

The loadmaster forced me into a seat, buckling me in behind the pilot as another missile flew a few dozen feet in front of the aircraft. By some miracle not turning the massive ilyushin into a fireball. The missile raced away, exploding a ways in front of the aircraft.

"Fuck! Where's the General?" the pilot shouted as he caught sight of the loadmaster.

"He's here!" he shouted back.

"LAX tower, this is Raven one niner, we are under attack by an unidentified foe, we have Seria 6 aboard." the copilot keyed the radio, flipping the mic to the cockpit instead of his headset.

"Raven one niner, say again last." came the reply after a few long seconds. I looked at the radar display watching as another one of the Mig's signature started rapidly descending.

"LAX tower, we are under attack! We have Seria 6 aboard!"

"Raven one niner, confirm hosties…"

"LAX, scramble Leopard!" I shouted over the pilot.

"Raven one niner, we don't have any bandits on radar." The pilot's knuckles were turning white as the alerts started again.

"Raven one niner, this is Hotel 5. You are under attack?"

"Ivanov! Scramble Leapoard!" I shouted before the pilots could speak as they banked right, firing off more flares.

The whole aircraft shuddered, a massive thundercrack reverberated through the cockpit. The display showing the plane had the whole right wing past the first engine colored red. The heavy Ilyushin beginning to tilt harder right. "Fuck!"

"Mayday, mayday. Raven one niner is going down… Charles, get him out of here!" the pilot screamed at the loadmaster. The man grabbed me from my seat, dragging me down the stairs. The passengers were tumbling around as the plane was rolling over, quickly angling down. The load master, knuckles white on the railing dragged me to the door at the base of the stairs.

"This is where we part ways sir!" he shouted while ripping the door open. For a moment we stared at each other, the determined fearful look in his eyes. The sudden whistling of the wind as I was ungraciously hurled from the aircraft. The wind stung my eyes as I fumbled ungraciously with the parachute, ripping the cord. The parachute quickly billowed out above me.

I looked around, seeing the transport aircraft tumble towards the ground. I waited, softly praying, hoping… it seemed to stretch on and on. Spinning over and over. The rest of the right wing ripped off, making a large gouge in the rear fuselage as the rest of the plane tumbled past. I closed my eyes, burying my face into my shoulder as the echo of the explosion raced up to meet me. There hadn't been any other chutes…

Another explosion in the distance drew my attention. Another parachute, it seemed like they were angling towards me. Not like we could do much. I glanced around, seeing a small fireball in the distance, rapidly spiraling to the earth. I looked below at the ilyushin now decorating the side of a hill. Eighty seven… eighty seven souls now gone forever.

I gazed down at the world below, there seems to be a large mine not too far away, a small airfield and town. I'll regroup with that other pilot, buy a car then figure it out from there.