"We have to get started on the preparations." I said to Montwik and profus. We were sitting a room which reminded me of the conference room back at Earth. "Yes, we have to." Montwik said. "First we have to take over Base One. They already are searching for us, but they won't find us, and I'm sure about that. And then, we have to weed out all the Vortex Sympathisers and we have to either turn them to our side or must be locked up." He continued. "We have to minimise the killing. We are supposed to be the good guys here." I interrupted him. "That's right. No killing the Vortex Sympathisers on this planet unless they attack us first." He said. "And, what's going to happen to Schrotanic?" I asked. "There's no way he's going to support us in this. He is incorruptible and can't be bought nor convinced." Montwik replied. "What do we do with him then?" Reneesh asked. "He's a valuable asset. It's better to continue keeping him in the holding cells. In one way, he would be safer than the rest of us." Montwik replied.

"How many days would it take to get every base on this planet together?" Reneesh asked. "Five days at most. As you already know, most of the base leaders are with us. We have to take over the rest of the bases and then have to cut all communications with the home planet. We would have two days at most before things get suspicious for them. We will have to plan a strike within two days. We will definitely face resistance in some of the bases. And it's safe to assume that we will have to suffer a few casualties. But, we will have to make sure it is as bloodless as possible." He said. "We will have to hit all the bases at once." I said. "Most of the bases are basic barracks for the soldiers and are not main controlling bases. Our main hurdle would be Base One. We have to concentrate all our forces there. And also, all the communications would have to pass through here. We will sever all communications at the same time." Montwik said. "That's good. How do you plan on taking over Base One?" I asked him. "That's what this meeting is for." He replied.

We spent the next couple of hours drawing up plans for our strike on Base One and the other bases. All the squadron commanders were present in the meeting and it was decided that five squadrons would be assigned to Base One and three to the rest of the bases. It was also decided that we would travel with the five squadrons against Montwik's wishes. There were a total of Fifteen Bases on the planet and total of Forty Seven squadrons were involved in this mission which was codenamed "Operation CleanSlate". It was decided that the strikes would take place at 5:00A.M Central Time.

***
"I'm sorry, Leo." I said, as I shot him in the head.
***
-14 Days to the D-Day-

I woke up the next day, Reneesh's head looking down on me. "Wake up, sunshine. Wheels up in two hours." He said. "Good." I replied, rubbing my eyes. He walked out of the door, leaving me alone in my room. I got dressed up and headed down to the room where we discussed the plans yesterday. Montwik and Profus were geared up and were going through our plan once again. "I'm going to stay here on this base, just in case anything happens here. But I'm pretty sure that won't happen." Profus said. " I'll take you and the rest of the crew to the armoury and you can arm yourself. We are ready for the attack." Montwik said to me.

The rest of the crew walked into the room one by one and after all of us were assembled, Montwik led us to the armoury. "Choose the weapons of your choice." He said, gesturing towards the rows and rows of weapons of all kinds. "Just give us the standard issue." I said. "He pointed out to a bunch of big guns which seemed pretty lethal to me. "These are the laser guns, this is what all the soldiers are carrying today. It's pretty much similar to the ones you use back on earth." He said. All of us picked up a few laser guns and slipped into the army jacket provided to us. "Let's move." Montwik said, and we made our way to the launch pad.

We entered the launch area to find about thirty fighter planes waiting for us to hold on. "Half of these planes are going to destroy any defence system which tries to attack us. The rest of them are going to transport the soldiers and capture the base. The plan is simple, capture the main HQ building and subside any resistance we face." Montwik said. "What if someone pretends to be on our side? Just for saving his life?" Souvik asked him. "We have lie detector machines. Once we capture the base, every soldier's background would be checked and they will be put under a lie detector test." Montwik replied, smiling.
"Wheels up in ten minutes." The voice over the speaker announced. "Come on." Montwik said, walking towards our ride.

***
"This is Alpha One to Base, we are ready for lift off." The pilot said. "Base to Alpha One, please wait for clearance." A voice said over the speaker. We waited for ten minutes for the lift-off clearance to arrive.
"Alpha Team"
"Go"
"Beta Team"
"Go"
"Tango Team"
"Go"
"Bravo Team"
"Go"
"Romeo Team"
"Go"
It took a while for all the fourteen teams to acknowledge and finally the time had come. The ceiling started to slide towards one side and I could see the sky above me. "Alpha One, you are cleared for take off."
"Roger that, Base."

The engines came online slowly we started lifting off from the ground. The other jets followed suit and were taking off.

"All teams be advised, radar system and positioning system will go offline in two minutes."

"Why are the systems being taken offline?" Souvik asked Montwik. "So that the other bases cannot track our jets. By the time they figure out that the system were taken out deliberately, we would have hit them." He replied. "So, you have remote control all over the bases?" Reneesh asked him. "All the systems have their main operating centres at Base Four, as I said before. So we have control over what information comes in and goes out." He replied. "That must come handy at situations like these." Reneesh muttered. Montwik nodded in agreement. It took a few hours for us to reach the base and we were waiting about a hundred miles out as per the plan, waiting for the other teams to reach their bases. "How many jets are involved in the operation?" I asked him. "About four hundred." he replied.

"All teams, prepare for strike in five minutes."

"This is Alpha One to Alpha Eleven and Alpha Twelve, please lead the formation. All units, gear up for attack." The pilot ordered. All of us readied our guns and put our head gears on.

"All teams, all communications will cease in ten seconds. Attack when the count hits zero. Five... four...three...Two...one. communications offline."

Two jets led the formation as the rest of the jets followed. Suddenly, there was an explosion to our right.

"This is Alpha Two, we are hit. We are going down."