Muv-Luv Combat
Wings of a Dragon
Combat area directly east of Farbanti, Near Hive 3.
Erusian Second Lieutenant Marcia Illica breathed heavily as she tried to keep a bearing on her surroundings. She was rightfully terrified as she sat in the cockpit of her Su-37UB Terminator— after all, it was her first time in actual combat with the BETA. "Seven minutes.. thirty eight- thirty nine…" she hadn't made it quite yet— she held some false belief that if she could merely make it past the first eight minutes, the infamous "Eight minutes of death", she'd be alright. She held that belief in her heart— she didn't want to wind up being eaten alive. She winced as she looked on at the stampeding horde of Grappler-class BETA— it was a massive onslaught: BETA from Hive 3 were moving on Farbanti, the capital city of Erusia, the great bastion of human power on the continent of Usea. She knew as well as anyone there, that if Farbanti fell, it was all over for the small wavering hope that humanity would hold onto Usea.
She swung her Su-37 around, narrowly avoiding the swing of a Grappler-class. Her heart raced, plunging the blade motor on her right arm into the body of the Grappler, and opening fire with her other assault cannon, ripping apart another in the same motion. It was insane- just a handful of Eishi and some crazies in M-1 Abrams MBTs to hold off such a large advance.
"What the hell is the ISAF doing?!" A male Eishi called out. "If Farbanti falls, that's the end for all of us on Usea!"
"Damn! Tanks—!" another man cried, "They got my jump unit..! Ah..! I can't move—! No…! Ah, hell! Someone— HELP ME!"
Marcia wanted to puke as she forcibly saw the man die- his image projected across her eyes- the communication link still active, his screams of agony as the Tank-class BETA tore him out of his downed Su-37 filled her ears. This battle wasn't going well— they were undermanned, and simply out done. The Su-37 may be a powerful TSF, and the machine of choice for the former Ace squadron, Yellow- but it had its limits, like all other TSFs. She cringed as she tore apart another grappler. She simply wanted to escape- her life her most coveted in the moment, as she stared death in the face. She screamed out, finally coming to terms with her fear.
"Dammit! These damn rookies— someone get them under control!" Another voice rang out, but she could hardly hear it over the sound of her own screams. "It's bad enough we're lacking Reinforcements— but these damn first timers are going to get us all killed!"
"This is Sky Eye, acknowledged Crimson Rose Leader.. we're initiating Hypnotic Suggestion level 6 now."
"Ages pass. Snow falls. All the earth sleeps beneath a blanket of white. Darkness clouds the sky. Snow falls without end. Recalling our past, we march on," A twisted message was displayed into Marcia's eyes. Her world began to spin, as she snapped into a trance, "Times of turmoil shall pass. Dawn fills our hearts with light. Our hopes rise with the brilliant. Sun rises with faith in tomorrow, we march on," the message continued.
"A hypnotic… suggestion…? It's the one that the…Est…" Everything went black for her as her mind slipped out of reality. The combination of drugs and the message triggering a conditioning implanted in her mind from her training— it worked efficiently at combating her sheer sense of terror, and re-ignited within her a sense of purpose. She had joined the Erusian Military after her brother, First Lieutenant Sergei Illica— and wanted nothing more than to take vengeance on the BETA after she had discovered he had been killed in action during the battle of Stonehenge- the very same battle that had taken the life of Yellow Squadron's number Four, and sent the infamous leader of the squadron, "13" into a downward spiral of despair. Yet, when she had hit the frontlines, during this brutal offense by the BETA, she had lost it.
She took in a deep breath and quickly regained her composure. The screams of agony and bloodied images displayed into her HUD didn't mean much to her anymore, following the injection of stimulants and the suggestion, she only knew one thing: kill the BETA. And that she did— Grappler after Grappler fell before her TSF's Blade Motors, but that didn't change the course of the battle.
"Where are the reinforcements!?" A pained voice called out. "We're going to get wiped out if the ISAF doesn't help us out!" The constant pleas for aid didn't ring in her mind either.
"We're detecting a lone unknown on radar… damn that thing is fast— it's closing in on our position at intense speeds… What the hell— what kind of maniac would pilot a TSF at those speeds…"
However, a sudden jolt brought her out of her trance and back to the dreadful reality she was in— impact of the tentacle of a Fort-class BETA. The acid tore away the armor on her TSF's leg, and the impact shattered more of it. She had something else to be afraid of— sure the Fort took direct artillery fire as it had taken her down, but it wasn't the end of her woes. Warning lights lit up the cockpit block, and her retinal projectors flashed critical damage warnings. Her Terminator was practically finished.
At that moment, no matter how powerful the Hypnosis command tried, there was nothing that would reach her— she looked on in horror as the BETA continued their approach. She was helpless. Tears filled her eyes as she tried to come to terms with her inevitable demise, and at that moment, she simply cried out. "I want to live…! I want to live..! I don't want to die!" She sobbed, terrified as the Tanks approached.
It was then, that she saw it. It looked like a wave of blood, strewn high into the sky— and it was moving closer. Something was tearing BETA to shreds.
"Is that the ISAF's response?! A lone TSF!?" Sky Eye's voice was strange. "Could it be?"
"Jeez. Our Reinforcements are here and all we get is one lousy TSF!?" another Female Eishi shouted.
"Wait… IFF confirms the Unknown. It's the 118th..!? The Ribbon!? Confirmed, the reinforcement is Mobius!"
"Mobius!? ISAF's Ace?!... Isn't he an F-22 Pilot!? What good is a lone Raptor!? He may be an ace, but there's only so much…"
"The TSF is still unknown, but even Raptor combat doctrine doesn't account for the speeds of this… That TSF is engaging BETA at well over 1000 km/h…"
The wave of blood got ever closer— it came much faster than the creeping Tank-class BETA that moved on Marcia's position. She realized if that's Mobius, there was simply no way he'd be in his F-22A Raptor, the TSF that made him famous— no it was something else.
It was then, as the wave broke through the BETA's line, that she saw it. It was glinting white, with blue sensor arrays. "F-23" was her first thought, but those thoughts were quickly swept away- the TSF looked nothing like the F-23. In fact, it didn't resemble any TSF she could think of directly. It had some similarities to the F-15ACTV Active Eagle, and the F-22A Raptor, but it was definitely not either of those. Perhaps though, its most defining feature were two outwardly swept close range weapons, scythe-like in their appearance. She could tell that they would close into wing-like protrusions that replaced the TSF's arm-sheathes. It mounted two XAMWS-24s on its back, and held nothing else. Perhaps though, it was only the image of the Infinite Ribbon, that brought a slight smile to her face as she looked at the TSF as it quickly rotated, stopping for just a brief second in front of her.
"You… Eishi. Can you still fight? Do you still live?" A voice asked. Marcia couldn't tell if it was the voice of Mobius, or merely something in her head, but she tried her best to answer a simple yes to the voice. "Then get up and get out of here… Wyvern will cover your retreat. 'Live for today, and refuse to die.' That is the honor you should abide by."
Marcia soon found herself waking up in a hospital bed looking at the faces of other injured pilots, and asking herself if that TSF really had existed… She looked up, at a TV screen, to see a news reporter answer her question. "Farbanti saved by deployment of EASA X-02 Wyvern in the hands of ISAF Ace Pilot, Mobius 1. BETA offense completely annihilated."
Marcia Illica was later selected for X-02 Wyvern Eishi training. Due to the change in combat doctrine to account for X-02's immense speed, nearly full retraining is required of pilots transitioning from other TSFs to the X-02. She, however, perished in a training accident when she failed at performing a maneuver at supersonic speeds, resulting in an explosive crash. She was given a posthumous two-rank promotion, and her death set the grounds for a new set of rules for Eishi selection for the X-02 Wyvern.