Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H that privilege belongs to Elizabetta Gnone and Disney. Ace Combat belongs to Namco. If I did own Ace Combat, the storylines would be much better, or at least have more realistic character dialogue.
AN: Set twenty years after Susan's war, this story has far more interaction with the Ace Combat game Ace Combat Squadron Leader. Hay Lin, Irma and Cornelia know each other from their schooldays and ditto Will and Taranee, but the two groups don't know each other yet.
Will gritted her teeth and looked behind her. An enemy fighter was on her tail and as she threw her plane sharply up her adversary followed her. But rather than be worried about this, she simply smiled to herself. "Lets see how you handle this." She murmured to herself. Deliberately stalling her engines, she let her plane slide backwards, past a clearly very surprised enemy pilot. Knowing that she only had a few seconds to make her shot, she pressed the firing button for her cannon.
But her cannon did not fire. Instead of the sound of 30mm cannon shells, all Will heard was a bleep in her earphones. Grinning, she pressed the transmit button and called the other plane. "Bad luck Flower, you loose."
"Looks like it doesn't it." Sighed her 'enemy' pilot. "Guess that means you'll be squad leader then. By the way, nice trick. I thought only Mig 29's could pull that off."
"You'd be surprised by what an Su 27 Flanker can do." Will replied. She didn't know the other woman well, but she had seemed pretty friendly. Especially as she was competing against Will for the right to lead the flight. A female voice interrupted her musings. "This is Colonel Nerissa. Flower, Heart return to base. Now that you've completed your little face off, you need to meet the other members of your flight. Although I believe that Lieutenant Hale knows one of them already." With that final cryptic note she left them in silence.
"Heart to Flower. Who do you think it is?"
"Hmm. Its not my best friend Elyon, she's been posted to Meridian base up north. Irma's in the naval air service, so unless she's gotten herself into major trouble it can't be her. Maybe my old pal Hay Lin. If it is her, I'd better warn you. She's one of those people who are always cheerful and more than a little hyperactive. Lets go find out shall we?" And with that Cornelia turned her fighter towards their base.
Will turned and followed. Most pilots didn't want to be posted here, but for Will this place had an important connection. It was where her parents had been stationed twenty years ago.
Flight Ensign Irma Lair stood to attention in front of Colonel Nerissa. She was still a little shocked she was here. After all she had only buzzed the frigate Poltemy once. Or twice. Ok she was warned that her long history of infractions was going to effect her military career but she never expected this.
"Flight Ensign Irma Lair." Began Colonel Nerissa in a sharp voice. "Do you know why you are here?"
Irma was tempted to give a sarcastic retort, but decided that it wasn't really a good idea to aggravate her CO on her first day. "Yes ma'am. Your squadron is a pilot short and I was picked to fill that gap."
Colonel Nerissa smiled at her. "And of course having a NAVAL PILOT on an air force base is of course perfectly normal isn't it?" She asked in a sarcastic voice, before continuing "No, don't bother to answer that, it was a rhetorical question. You Flight Ensign Lair have a disciplinary record as long as my arm. If your father wasn't Captain Lair of the missile frigate Gumrak then I have no doubt that you would be in a military prison by now."
That wasn't true but she was enjoying herself too much to tell her THAT. "In short Ensign Lair you need to straighten out before you're kicked out. You only have fifteen more months of national service to do, so don't worry, you'll be out soon enough. However until then" Nerissa fixed her with a steely gaze that would terrify a lesser pilot "YOU aren't going to give me any trouble now are you?"
"No ma'am." Irma replied quietly, while thinking about just how much Colonel Nerissa was going to wish she, Irma Lair had never come to her base.
"Good" Nerissa smiled. From the airfield outside came the sound of two planes landing. "Ah, that'll be the two candidates for flight leader landing now. Go into the pilots lounge to meet them." She smiled "One of them you happen to know. I'm going in there in a few minutes to announce the leader of Guardian flight."
Irma felt a slight glimmer of hope. Maybe it was her best friend Hay Lin. When she had last heard from her friend Hay Lin she was still awaiting posting. With a slight smile she left Nerissa's office.
Will and Cornelia walked into the pilots lounge and sat down. Scanning the room, she saw a familiar dark skinned face. "Taranee!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
Taranee looked at her and squealed in delight as she recognised her old schoolfriend. "Will!" she cried "I haven't seen you since basic training. Well I was just beginning my training as a strategic bomber pilot when someone found out who my dad was. So I got transferred to fighter-bombers and got rushed through so I'd complete my training on time. Sorry I didn't write but I just didn't have any time to spare."
About thirty seconds later however a conversation of a different nature began. "Irma Lair. What are YOU doing here? What's a naval pilot doing with real flyers?"
"Like you would know anything about flying Corny. If you must know I was called in to make up for you."
They continued to argue amicably for the next few minutes until Colonel Nerissa cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention. "I have an important announcement to make. From this day onwards Flight Lieutenant Will Vandom or Heart as she's known in the air is your new flight lead. Understood?" They all nodded. "Very well. That is all" she said and left the building.
"Ha! Someone beat you Corny! But with a codename of Flower what do you expect?" Irma crowed. But it was Will who reacted first. "Hey leave her alone! She's a good pilot."
Taranee opened her mouth to back up her friend, but Cornelia held up her hand. "Relax please. Irma and I have always been like this, but it's nothing personal." Looking at the disbelieving faces of Taranee and Will, she added "Honest! Besides it takes more than a little fish to worry me."
"Little fish? Why you…" and they continued to argue. Will and Taranee just looked at each other with expressions that clearly said 'we have to WORK with these nutters?'
Hay Lin stood back to admire her work. Ok a tornado was hardly hardest thing she'd ever drawn, but it was her name in the air. Still she thought to herself, I've finally gotten to where I'm to be stationed. Her friend Irma might tease her about choosing to fly the short ranged lightweight fighter that was the Mig 29 Fulcrum, but she loved the planes responsiveness and manoeuvrability. Sure the Su 27 Flanker was good, but to Hay Lin it always seemed so heavy by comparison. Speaking of which, she had a letters to write. Both to her family and her friends Irma and Cornelia.
Her squadron leader, a man named Andrew Swift watched as the newest addition to his squadron skipped to her quarters. She was certainly an energetic girl. He hoped she didn't lose her cheeriness or was killed under his command. He looked at the memo on his desk again and sighed. Everything had to be stepped up in preparation for war. That wasn't any guarantee that war was coming but he could feel it coming in his bones. He had been just like her back in 1995. The war against Belka had been hard and he had seen many friends die in that conflict.
AN: Yes I know that W.I.T.C.H is meant to form at the beginning but a flight consists of four planes, not five. Not to worry Hay Lin will join them soon enough. I've also done a bit of guessing about the Su 27 Flankers ability to perform the manoeuvre Will used to beat Cornelia. It is a real manoeuvre and the Mig 29 Fulcrum is famous for doing it at airshows. After the plane slides back, its nose falls downward. Western fighters can't do this manoeuvre at all.