Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft mentioned
Trigger was sitting at a cafe which has a view of the space elevator which had a little bit of sea fog was obscuring the base and a slight breeze was blowing through the area which felt cold as it touched Trigger's face when he saw a white Caucasian woman who was wearing an astronaut's uniform and next to her was a white male wearing a white shirt covered by a green jacket and dark green trouser "Excuse me can me and my wife sit at your table?" the man asked and Trigger calmly and politely replied "Sure" he begun to get up when the man raised his hand "Please don't get up the table has enough seats for all 3".
Trigger sat back down as did the man and woman who then said "The space elevator is beautiful isn't it" Trigger recognises the voice from the radio transmission "Pilgrim one" the man looked at Trigger like a shark closing in on its prey but his demeanour changed "I guess introduction are in order "I'm Blaze and this is my wife Kei Nagase or as you know her pilgrim one" Blaze calmly said as Trigger realising who was sitting at his table and saluted "Its an honour to meet a legend like you sir" which Blaze said to the strider squadron leader "no need to salute captain just call me Blaze" when a waitress came over to the table.
"Can I get you anything sir, madam" which Blaze replied "Yes 2 teas on second thought make that 3" who took down the order "Sure I'll make those right away" and as she was heading to prepare their order "So Blaze have you told Kei what happened to former president Harling?" which Blaze realised he hadn't told Kei about Harling's death "Trigger I heard you were accused of killing President Harling but later acquitted?" Nagese hearing what Blaze had just said felt sad at the news "Yeah that's actually what happened I was trying to shoot down some drones that were surrounding mother goose one but the iff was hacked so a drone shot Harling down and I was the one who got blamed cause of how close I was to his aircraft" Trigger said as a squadron of 4 f-4e phantom 2 combat trainers lead by an f-15c eagle flew over the cafe.
Blaze picked up his tea cup watching the fighters fly off into the distance "I had heard before I left the Osean air force that the Osean air force was going to retire the f-5 tiger 2 and the f-4e and f-4g phantom 2 from frontline service and relegate the f-4e and g to be UAV targets, weapons trainer jets or sell them to other nations while the f-5 were to be sold to other air forces".
Kei continued where Blaze had left off "yeah that's what you told me while i was undergoing astronaut training" Trigger who was remembering his early pilot training in the f-4e "but for some reason they didn't do that cause of the rebuilding effort after the war that osea fought in over half a decade ago" Blaze who was calm yeah my old flight instructor captain jack bartlett told me that the Osean air force had to use f-4 and f-5s to train pilots to replace the pilots they lost during the war" but Trigger wondering how Blaze knew this "Umm Blaze how did you hear about what the osean air force was going to do with the phantom and tiger 2" Blaze who was sipping his tea "Before I left the Osean air force I was a flight instructor flying f-4x training nuggets on the f-5e".
Meanwhile out over the bay
The 4 Orchid squadron f-4e are flying at 2000 feet while the Orchid squadron flight lead in f-15c is 500 feet above and behind them "Okay nuggets the first lesson today is to practice a bombing run on those oil tankers on the water" but Orchid 2 spotted a carrier in the distance "Captain is there an osean carrier out today since I see an aircraft carrier 10 miles from our present position" but before the eagle pilot could respond to Orchid 2's question multiple streams of pulse laser fire rain down on the phantoms tearing them apart sending them down in flames.
The f-15 pilot could only watch in horror as the nuggets destroyed aircraft disintegrated upon hitting the water 'what the' the pilot thought to himself frantically looking for the bandits that had killed the nuggets when the missile warning tone sounded the eagle pilot took evasive action but another stream of pulse lasers sprayed the aircraft send it down in flames which only seconds later hit the water sinking to the bottom of the bay.
Back at the cafe
Kei who was leaning on Blaze's shoulder asked the pilot sitting in front of her "Trigger did you run into any superweapons?" which Trigger calmly said thinking back to the arsenal bird "Well there was the arsenal birds and shooting one down was exciting since I had heard that at least every major war since the 90's have had these superweapons appearing" but Nagase asked "What does this Arsenal bird look like?" Trigger trying to think of how to describe the arsenal bird when a brown haired hazel eyed woman who was walking with a limp come over carrying a model of the arsenal bird.
"Hi Scrap queen" Trigger said as Avril took up a seat next to Trigger while saying to trigger "Hello to you too dumbass" but Avril not recognising the other 2 people at the table "Uhh Trigger who are they?" which Blaze and Nagase calmly looked at Avril when Trigger spoke up "That's Blaze and Nagase" whereafter Blaze calmly said "It's a pleasure to meet you miss miss scrap queen" Avril stopped him "Please call me Avril" Trigger then asked "Nagase I'm curious to know how you and Blaze met?" which Nagase calmly sipped her tea before speaking "Blaze and I were members of osean air force squadron where Blaze was flight lead and I was his wingman during the last war 9 years ago "but Avril trying to hide her shock that she was talking to legends who had fought in the same war as her father "My dad died in that war" which caught all 3 pilots by surprise "I'm sorry for your loss Miss Mead" Blaze said sombrely as he remember the ones he lost during that war.
"So Trigger by chance did you ever launch off a carrier during the war?" Nagase asked as she drank her tea which after 7 years away from Earth she had missed "Yeah I launched off the Admiral Andersen"
Blaze pouring another cup of tea "We know the man who that ship was named after but sadly he died weeks before Nagase completed her astronaut training, we attended his funeral but Nagase there is something else I need to say" which Nagase sighed before asking "What happened?" Blaze composed himself before speaking "Nagase Kirk passed away 4 years ago but from what Pops told me he went peacefully and we buried him next to Chopper" Nagase was sad to hear the news that a dog that they loved had passed on while she was away but Avril placed a model of the arsenal bird down on the table which Blaze carefully picked up studying the design "I have to admit the design is very impressive but who built it?" Trigger and Avril just looked at each other "Osea created both arsenal birds and the eurseans stole them".
Blaze and Nagase both facepalmed "Seriously Osea let this happen again" Avril with a look of surprise and confusion on her face that this wasn't the first time that Osea let some of their weapons get stolen "Wait this happened before" Nagase sighed "Yes this happened during the war that we flew in".
"Trigger I'm curious what aircraft did you fly during the war?" Blaze asked while Trigger finished his 2nd tea cup "before the harling rescue mission I flew the f-16c but i switched to the f-15c eagle after the fight over the chopinburg had damaged the f-16 so badly that on landing it crashed but after switching to the f-15 I was sent to the spare squadron only switching to the strike eagle when the mission needed it and stuck with it till now but I've been told that I'd be transferred to a new aircraft of my choosing" Trigger said while he was thinking which aircraft he could choose but 1 aircraft he had recently seen was top of his list but Avril broke his thinking "Dumbass thinking over what aircraft you want to fly" Trigger leaning back in his chair "Yeah I mean the f-22 is a good aircraft but the Adf-11f is an appealing aircraft".
Trigger was staring at the space elevator "I wonder what its like to see the earth from up in space" Nagase who had seen that softly tapped trigger on the shoulder "It was absolutely beautiful seeing the earth form space, seeing the earth form space made me realise how small we are" Blaze knew in his heart that Nagase's view of the world will have changed after his space mission but deep down wanted to experience that with her.
"So Scrap queen how did you end with the 444 squadron?" Trigger asking the 444th squad's mechanic since he never had the chance to ask Avril how she ended up at the penal unit "Well me, my grandpa and some friends spent 8 years restoring an old osean air force interceptor and I flew it on its post restoration maiden flight but due to lacking an Iff and radio, I got shot down by an Osean f-15 eagle although I did manage to make an emergency landing but according to the doctor at the airbase that I crashed landed at that the force of my crash has fractured my femur in my right leg".
"So Trigger what are your plans now?" Nagase asked with a hint of curiosity "Well the Lrssg will probably help with the Aid flights but after that is over I'm honestly not sure what my plans".
"Well you've been given the option to upgrade to a new aircraft so I say you take it but a choice between an f-22 or an adf-11f wait where did Osea get their hands on an adf-11f" Blaze asked after having thought about the aircraft choices the aircraft choices Trigger had "well apparently the osean military have found a flyable adf-11f raven aircraft at cape rainy only last week and came to an arrangement with erusea to buy the aircraft from them".
Nagase was thinking about the plane she flew when Blaze turned to face Kei "The aircraft that we flew in the Circum-pacfic war together is in the Osean air force museum" which Nagase was surprised since she had expected the aircraft would have been given to other pilots "I even have pictures of the aircraft" Blaze said cheerfully pulling out some photos he took only a week before Kei had returned to Earth which he handed to Nagase who passed them to Trigger and Avril but Trigger started at Blaze's aircraft "Wait I faced an advanced model of this jet over shilage castle" Blaze looked up from his tea "Wait there is an advanced model of the x-02 wyvern" Trigger who was thinking back to his battle against sol 1 "Yeah the leader of sol squadron flew it in the battle over shilage castle".
Avril then looking at Trigger who Avril could tell that Trigger hadn't heard "Cosette told me that Mihaly survived the fight over Shilage" Trigger was very surprised at the news "I don't understand how Sol 1 survived the crash of his aircraft I saw it dive into a hillside and I never saw him eject" but Avril interjected "Mihaly isn't even sure how he survived that crash" Blaze poured another tea for Kei "Kei honey I think that we have some catching up to do who was looking out towards the bay.
"Yeah I've been meaning to ask how have Marcus and Hans been doing while I was away "Well the salvage company that captain snow joined found the yoke battleship Upor that was sunk during the battle in the desert 9 years ago but the yuke government declared it a war grave cause people died when the ship was sunk, last I heard Grimm completed his training to become a commercial airline pilot" Trigger having finished his tea looked out towards the sea "say Blaze what have you been doing for the last few years?".
Blaze looking at Nagase "Waiting for my blue dove to return so I can take her away to visit the place she has always wanted to visit" Kei blushed heavily at Blaze's words when Avril smiling at how much that Blaze and Nagase loved each other "Where did you want to go Nagase?" she stuttered for moment when Blaze put his hand on hers "I want to see Gracemeria in the kingdom of Emmeria".
"Kei I'm thinking of joining the Ise after we come back from holiday but" Blaze was going to continue but Nagase silenced him with a finger on his lips" Oh Blaze" Nagase whispered what she wanted him to do to her into his ear then passionately kissed him but Trigger and Avril looking in shock "I guess more than 5 years apart leads to this" Trigger joked as Avril just smiled when the radio burst to life 'IUN environment secretary will be holding a meeting with the president of Osea over the oil spills in the port of Artigilo and Snider's top after the Erusean oil company that owned the oil facilities that was destroyed filed a compliant against the Osean government to the IUN for the destruction of its oil facilities' Blaze and Nagase were still kissing each other but did break for air' the radio announcer continued but Kei chuckled for moment "well its a good thing we're retired since I'd not want to deal with that" Blaze chuckled at her wife's comment "I heard the Osean environmentalists were protesting on the streets of Oured".
Nagase who was looking carefully at the arsenal bird model "It must be since pops told me weeks before I left for the deep space mission that the South Belka munitions company was still active, I wish that in the 7 years that I was in space we could have had peace" Nagase looked sad after she had read while in quarantine that there had been a civil war in Estovakia, a war between Emmeria and Estovakia, an uprising in Erusea and now the lighthouse war, Blaze could see in Nagase that being someone who wanted peace not war placed his hand on her shoulder "oh Nagase my blue dove peace is something we both strived and fought hard for and won" Nagase tried to hide her blush at what Blaze had said but Nagase's stomach grumbled loudly and Avril decided at that moment to speak "i think your blue dove wants some food and after how long she's been away earth food will taste so good" Nagase scowled at the scrap queen wanting to scold her for using the nickname that only Blaze could call her but knew that the scrap queen had a point "Blaze want to order dinner?".
"Yeah I suggest you go to the restaurant that an Italian restaurant near the airport that I saw on my flight here" Blaze said to his blue dove but looked at Avril having noticed the leg injury as she was walking towards the table "so Avril what will you do now" Avril who was looking at the space elevator "I do not know I need to see if there is a way to restore my leg" Blaze thought for a moment then remembered something the osea 6 pm news had reported "The Emmerian ministry of health and science has developed a procedure to restore injured pilots's ability to use limbs injured in battle or an accident".
Avril hearing what Blaze had just said felt hope swelling inside her that she could fly again but Blaze smiling "our old mechanic Pops told me recently that the osean air force has an ex ustio air force f-104g in storage up for sale but he also recently go to look at a the wreck of an f-104c that had crash landed at an airbase before the recent war and he was very impressed at the handiwork" Avril quickly looked at Blaze her attention drawn to what he just said "The famous pops was impressed by my restoration of a starfighter".
"Well Kei pops and Bartlett will be here tonight" Blaze said to the astronaut who smiled "I've been wondering how Jack and Peter have been doing since I was away" but Trigger could see a ship in the distance "Hey Blaze do you see a ship out there" Blaze pulled out some binoculars "Yeah I see it and if I'm not mistaken that's a midway class ship which is odd since I thought they were retired nearly 3 decades ago"
Blaze could see aircraft on the deck "unless I'm mistaken there are 4 f-4 phantoms on the deck" Blaze handed the binoculars to Trigger who used them seeing the f-4s "Yeah you're right there are phantoms on the deck" Kei curious at this sighting of a mystery aircraft carrier "I wonder if the belkans are up to something since they were involved in the recent war maybe Pops will know something" Blaze poured a tea for himself and his wife "Yeah he is knowledgable on Belka so maybe there is something connected to this carrier".
"Trigger I have to ask did you see any aircraft that you didn't expect?" Nagase asked with a curious tone "Well there was 1 aircraft that I did not expect to see were f-117 nighthawks" Blaze and Kei looked at Trigger with a look of surprise on their faces "Seriously you're joking" Blaze said in disbelief but Trigger shook his head "I'm serious the eursean air force sent f-117 nighthawks to bomb Stonehenge" Avril was listening quietly when Blaze said still trying to understand what Trigger had just said "why would the Eursean air force would send obsolete stealth fighters to a major raid when every advantage the nighthawk had been overcome" but Nagase was thinking about Blaze's question "well the Yuktobanian air force deployed a pair of 1950s era Vulcan bomber that were outdated by 2010 but officially according to the history of the Yuktobanian air force book that I got in 2008 when I visited cinigrad the Yukes retired the Vulcan in 1984 but it seems 2 were clearly kept for possible return to service".
Avril was patiently listening "I think air forces don't think before doing something dumb like what happened to me" Blaze and Nagase both knew how incompetent the osean military could be "Yeah they are pretty incompetent to have 2 arsenal birds" but Nagase interrupted "and the arkbird".
Blaze looked over his shoulder as a Yuktobanian air force c-5b galaxy was coming over gunther bay with an emmeria air cargo Il-76td behind in it "More aid flights coming in" Kei, Avril and Trigger looked behind them to see the aircraft Blaze had spotted "So you 3 flew the hawk trainer jet when you learned how to fly" Avril asked the 3 air force pilots who all nodded but Kei quickly thought to ask "What aircraft did you learn to fly in?"
"I learned to fly in an f-104d starfighter" Avril sheepishly said but the guy who taught me was grounded when the f-104d lost engine power on my final flight but he told me to bail out so I did but the starfighter hit the ground moments after I ejected but he had survived the crash".
Blaze, Trigger and Kei were silent as they took in what Avril had just told them that she had narrowly avoided death during her flight training "Avril if you want I can see if the Isev's astronaut training squadron will allow you to train on their tf-104g starfighter if you get take the procedure to repair your leg" but Avril quietly raised her hand "Thank you Kei i'd appreciate your help" but then Trigger chimed in "I'll see if I can get your first flight in the new starfighter from new arrows and i'll see if I can get the strider squadron to help with the money for the jet" Blaze smiled at seeing his wife and his new friend Trigger helping an injured pilot to get back into the sky.
"Avril has this f-104g caught your eye" Blaze asked knowing from just looking at Avril that flying is her passion "Yes I am definitely interested in that starfighter" the scrap queen's mind was thinking over how good it would be to fly again after hearing strider 3's stories "Jaeger's stories are entertaining" Avril spoke only realising seconds later that she had said that aloud "oops did I say that outloud" Blaze, Nagase, and Trigger were all looking at her with surprise on their faces "Well Strider 3 does know some good stories I mean he told us a story of a pilot who fought a 6 man squadron with a throttle that couldn't add power from his engines" Blaze knowing he had some stories of his own "I would like to meet strider 3 so I could trade stories with him".
Avril staring at the space elevator "Osea built the elevator on top of an asteroid crater" Trigger was thinking over the craters he had seen during the war "There is a crater like the one that the space elevator is built on top of near fort greys air base but i've seen the laker crater in farbanti, a crater in the chopinburg forest and one in roca roja" Nagase who had seen asteroids on her deep space mission "i saw asteroids that were way bigger than the one that struck earth 20 years ago" but Trigger remembering what he saw in the Stonehenge mission "If there is one thing that i'll always remember from this war is seeing the last stonehenge railgun firing for the final time" Blaze and Nagase looked at each other since they both thought stonehenge was inactive "Umm Trigger wasn't stonehenge inoperative after the war in 2005" Nagase asked curiously Trigger who had drunk more of his tea "It was but the osean army got the 4th railgun working again but after firing the railgun no longer worked".
Trigger who could see the sun setting "i was only 10 when the asteroids fell but I only heard about the asteroid impacts on the news" Kei was thinking to where she was on the day when the asteroid fell "I was only 12 when I saw the night sky rain down with shooting stars while my family were on holiday in Gracemeria". Edge silently stared into Blaze who sighed "I was 13 stargazing at my house on the outskirts of oured on the night the asteroid hit the flash of light of the asteroids that hits erusea were visible from Oured" all 3 turned to Avril who composed herself "When I was 5 my dad took me up in an f-104d that he owned and we were at 50,000 feet where I saw the asteroid fragments fly above us".
"Wait what year were you born Trigger" Avril cheekily asked the three strikes "Well I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours" Trigger with a snarky tone well "I was born in 1994" Trigger felt like he'd ruffled a hornet "I was born in 1989" but Nagase dropped her tea cup on the table "That's 2 years after me since I was born in 1987" Nagase quickly looked at Blaze "1986" Blaze leaned back in his chair "if my math is right I'm 33 my wife is 32 so Avril is 25 while Trigger is 30".
Blaze's mind was thinking about what Pops had told him about the workmanship of the f-104c "Avril you started your f-104 restoration in 2011" Avril nodded "8 years of hard work destroyed in a few seconds" but Blaze wondering about what the heck happened "Avril do you remember what happened after you were hit by the f-15?" who put her hands in her face "I only remember the minutes up to the crash landing and what happened after I came round I don't remember the crash".
Avril's mind wandered back to that day several months ago
Avril frantically looked at her gauges as the fire bell was ringing but Avril unsuccessfully tried to block the noise searching somewhere to put the damaged jet down when another alarm joined the fire bell that Avril's eyes quickly looked at which told that the hydraulics were failing.
Avril's mind raced through her options as the starfighter dropped through 3000 feet she could try to ditch the plane in the desert and face certain death or crash land at the air base she had seen ahead of her but she raised her visor to see smoke coming from the base however given how long she had before the fire consumed the aircraft or she hit the ground, she quickly looked at her speed and alititude which showed 312 knots and descending at 2500 feet per minute but she tried to pull back on her stick but the nose only rose 15 degrees however the f-104 clipped a small 500 foot sand dune that pushed the nose down sending the f-104 into the runway, Avril felt the deceleration hit her like a bullet as the burning starfighter careened while a trail of smoke & fire and sand followed until the interceptor finally came to a rest where the fire started to consume the rear of the plane.
Avril having blacked out at impact momentarily came round hearing sirens but felt pain surging up her right leg but she blacked out again as the foam was sprayed over the burning aircraft.
In the base hospital
Avril awoke in the bed still wearing her flight suit, she tried to move when a doctor entered the room "Ahh you're awake" the doctor put Avril's chart in the bed holder and put a chair "Miss mead you gave us a scare with that crash landing" Avril looked around "Where am I?" the doctor sat back in the chair "You're at an osean air base being treated but officially you're to be arrested for violating wartime aviation regulations by flying unlicensed jet fighter" Avril growled in anger but was wondering about her drag racer "What about my drag racer?" the doctor sighed "Well half the airframe was consumed by fire and the wreck is being sent to the 703rd maintenance squadron for examination and inspection".
The doctor got up from the chair "I suggest you get some rest miss mead the transport will be here in a few hours to pick you and the remains of your drag racer up" Avril laid back on the hospital bed closing her eyes to the last sleep she'd have on a comfy bed for a long while.
Back in the present
Nagase finished up her 6th cup "So Blaze shall we get that meal" Blaze looked at Trigger "Trigger how about we go to the same place for dinner with you and your squadron and welcome to the club" Trigger confused at what Blaze had just said "what club" Nagase who had wrapped her arms around Blaze resting her head on his shoulder "The club for aces who end a war and save the world me and Blaze and the other members of our squadron are members as are the aces who ended the war before and after the one form 2010".
Avril looked up to the sky with a new joyous excitement but remembering what Blaze had said "I'll have to take a look at that f-104 and the procedure that the Emmerians have developed since I'd love to get back into the dark blue sky and fly again".
Trigger finished his tea and along with the scrap queen got up and left the cafe with Blaze and Nagase.
A/n
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new fic since i've been on break from the ongoing projects i've been working on and I got the idea for this story after I finished Ace combat 7's campaign and saw the ending for the first time and I honestly loved the game it was fun and very enjoyable and I would say it is as good as Ace combat 4, 5 and Zero which 5 i've been enjoying replaying on ps4 as I got the deluxe edition of 7 for a good discount cause I had traded in several games, got 3 giftcards and had my reward card credit to get the deluxe edition at £33.98 but Ace combat 3: Electrosphere will be interesting to play and so far it is fun although without a ps1 memory card I can't save my data but i'll look into sorting that out now this story was supposed to be a one shot but I had to make it into a 3 parter since it got too big for a one shot but I hope you'll join me for chapter 2 where old and new friends meet and I show what I think happened with some characters from ace combat 5 and speaking of Ace combat I have played 10 of the 20 games in the franchise recently I went and replayed Ace combat zero with a broken R1 button which meant I had no way to accelerate the aircraft which I made into a story that Jaeger knew now the adf-11f raven is awesome, the weapon uavs are a lot of fun to use and thanks to the adf-11f raven I s-ranked mission 19 and before I go I have 3 fics to recommend the fires of liberation by xswisschrisx, a night in san salvacion and ace combat 7: three strikes which are all very good fics
so I'll see you all next time