The Privateers

He speaks in bold face

"Patrol Group 4-Charlie to Sword Beach."

"Sword Beach, go ahead." It was Digby's voice over the codec.

"Waypoint Hector is clear. Requesting permission to--"

"Receive thy pounding!!" Whoever this was, they were using a voice modulator to give their transmission a bit of that extra "voice of God" boom.

"Christ..."

"Heidegger, you alright out there?" She'd grown tired of demanding that he get a callsign, and "4-Charlie" wouldn't suffice in a panic situation.

"Christ shall not aid thee, for He is my shield!" The source of the transmission was probably whatever blip on the radar just emitted another eight smaller blips in random directions.

"Patrol Group 4, on me!"

"Renounce space, ye of little Faith, or die by the very weapons you adore!"

The incident report included zero pilot casualties. 4-Charlie's wing sustained one hit from a swarmer missile fragment; the rest of the patrol group received none. The assailant's identity and affiliation are unknown; no pilot was identified in the wreckage, and the blackbox of what used to be a light-equipped Kestrel fighter indicated that they had ejected after takeoff. SLCN Sword Beach filed the encounter under "unexplained." It would not be the last.