Ring ring ring
" what's that?" somebody drunkenly demanded out from a position at the bar. The sound echoed in the bar, bouncing off the smooth surfaces of worn wood , patterns had been carved into the worn surface years ago but recently they had deteriorate to a barely noticeable etching on the wood.
"I think it's your phone sir." The bartender responded, handing the patron another shot, the dark brown liquid swishing as it was slided across the polished wood surface. He gazed into the liquid, seeing a reflection of himself , heavily distorted due to the waves of the liquid.
The bar seemed to know everything from his view point , the way he thought about it was a never ending bartender, always there , never forgetting your problems ,your strife, it was so eternal in the ever-changing waves of destiny.
" whatever, what I've been through it doesn't matter, just keep those things coming" The patron ordered, quickly chugging the shot , he quickly slammed the glass down onto the wood, making a shallow indentation and almost shattering the glass, it shaked for a couple of second but eventually stopped, to a deadly stop…
****far across town****
"Fuck, we're on alert and our ace pilot won't pick up his phone!" the Base Commander yelled, slamming the phone onto the table. The conference table shook furiously, almost sending Pixy falling to the ground, he quickly regained his balance and continued to lean against the table.
"I'm crushed, I'm no ace?" Pixy asked, a laughable face appeared on him, nearly sending the commander into laughter but the reality of the situation took it away and Pixy put a more serious look on his face.
"Sir, I think I can go get him, if you can tell me where he is-"Pixy began to offer, taking a seat in one of the conference chairs, giving a solid push of the table he began to roll away, almost slamming into one of the walls he kicked off it , spinning back into his original position he steadied out . He looked into the commanders eyes for a second but then broke contact.
"Go! He's at some bar! Bring him back before we get bombed to the Stone Age." The commander grabbed a piece of paper, warm of a nearby printer and walked up to pixy , shoving it at Pixy; he walked away leaving Pixy staring at the paper, its white crisp lines and the black lettering made him admire it for a second , lines always seemed to be a double edged sword.
Seroku
Northern outskirts
Greenwood 4821
Gin and the seven deadly sins
****10 minutes later****
A man slowly trudged forward through the deep snow , his wool coat covered in a light coat of white , flurries were still coming down and the wind had picked up , making it look like a fully fledged blizzard. The man continued through the snow , a Neon sign began to glow ahead , its snow covered lights stood out in the night , but it was still covered , still covered.
He continued to head to the place , walking past snow covered cars and signs, he continued towards the sign , trudging through the snow. The old wood buildings of the town blended in gracefully with the snow , almost making it serene , but the neon signs and the flashy lights and the concrete walls , industrialization kills the beauty of the world.
Something was escaping the thick walls of the bar , something that was all too familiar , incredibly loud music , music preferred by a specific ace pilot, one that tended to point himself out in a crowed, even if it was not on purpose, he spread his wings and unleashed his presence , but he just walked away.
The solid oak door to the bar exploded open to reveal a man, covered in a light layer of elegantly white snow, he slowly dusted off the snow and walked up to the bar , carefully avoiding drinks and half unconscious patrons.
"Have you seen a man, should have been in here about 5 foot 8, fancies himself some sort of demon lord." Pixy asked the bar tender.
"Ya." He pointed to a pile of clothing on the floor holding up a bottle of vodka, he must have collapsed rather recently, no one had bothered to help him get up but that was the type of place it was.
"Hey you can help me get him up?" Pixy asked a service man, bending over to pick up the pile of clothes of the floor, it weighed a lot more then it looked.
"Why should I do that?" he said standing up, he was about a foot taller than Pixy and was probably strong enough to carry a F22, he was covered in head to foot tattoos, mostly decorated in long dead army traditions, company symbols .Flags, always symbols.
"Were you in the convoy today coming to this wonderful city?" Pixy asked, brushing the final bits of the snow off his jacket.
"How does that matter?"
"Just answer the question."
"Ya, so what?"
"Well he "Pixy began, motioning to the mess on the floor. It was odd how harmless he looked from there, on the floor. In the air he had once taken on a entire battalion single handedly, but now he was not that, he wasn't weak but he was not strong, he was practically invisible.
"He doesn't like being referred to, he is the demon lord of the round table!" the mess on the floor began, taking another swig of the bottle.
"He was the one that saved your life earlier." Pixy announced, beginning to pick The Demon lord up.
"O well thanks for that." The ground pounder announced, picking up the other side of the half up man.
They slowly stood him up, each of them on one side. They slowly let go, the demon lord stood for a second, if it could be called standing up, a bit longer then a standard stagger, but not long enough to be called standing up. He took a glimpse, looking around to take in his surroundings.
"BINGO FUEL!" the demon lord announced as he collapsed onto a table, his weight collapsing the central support of the table onto the floor, leaving a trail of black devastation across the path from the bar to the door.
**** 10 minutes later****
"You have no clue what I do for you!" Pixy announced as they slowly trudged through the snow, it was slowly coming down , it was almost beautiful at this time of night but it was so cold, bitterly cold, deadly cold.
"O common you just ruined all my fun!" The Demon lord drunkenly responded, stumbling though the deep snow, his foot steps only steadied by the reinforcement of Pixy.
They slowly approached the base, the snow covered fighters standing out like a sword on a mountain, concrete edges jutted out from the ground, sharp but beautiful. Like a razor, a sharp edge waiting to be cut.
"Why'd you get me anyway?" The demon lord asked.
"Cause there's a couple of bombers flying towards us and the only thing sent out to intercept them was the 427th.
"The 427?"A face of disgust fell over the demon lord, the 427th tactical squadron was full of failures and rejects, and they only had like 4 successful missions and had lost so many pilots it set a record.
****half a hour later****
"Here he is sir." Pixy announced, barely holding up the demon lord, it was obvious that he was resting most of his weight on Pixy, and considering he was barely able to hold up himself.
"He's a drunk?" the commander questioned, smelling the alcohol on his breath.
"Apparently sir, but he's our drunk." Pixy responded, setting down the demon lord in the chair.
"Well we're on alert so put him somewhere." The commander announced, walking away.
"TO MY FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE!" The demon lord yelled, surprisingly standing up. He slowly staggered towards his room, followed by cipher.
The demon lord slung the door open and walked into the barren room; at the rate the allied forces were advancing they never really had a time to settle down. The demon lord walked up to his bed and reached under, taking out a crate. He slowly opened it to reveal a stack of highly caffeinated energy drinks. He through one at Cipher and cracked on open for himself.
"So we actually got to fly today?" The demon lord asked, seemingly more sober.
"Hope fully not." Pixy responded.
Thud thud thud
"all pilots scramble! Bombers incoming!" a voice boomed over the com system.
"Gota go seeya later!" Pixy yelled over the bombs and the sirens, covering the air.
"I'm coming!" The demon lord yelled back, trying to stagger out of the room, he almost fell over but caught himself. Cipher tried to help and catch him , but it was unnecessary.
"Get the fuck into bed!" Pixy yelled, the bombs steadily growing closer.
"Like hell, go get to your fighter I'll meet ya in the sky." Cipher yelled back, they both knew that there was no time to argue and they had to get airborne immediately. Pixy quickly ran off, taking out a radio and yelling commands to the ground crew.
After for a couple of seconds of searching for his own radio he quickly ran over to the bases communication system and slammed on a button.
"Someone get my fighter ready, focus air defense on the runway and hangers." He ordered, he began to slowly stumbling to the hangar. The white tiles of the floor gleamed incredibly brightly and the light shining through the windows exploding with the brilliance of a thousand stars.
"Who is this?" a voice asked over the system, heavy machine gun fire coming from the other side of the comm. The warzone outside was shining with even more light as Cipher slowly walked on.
"The Demon lord Of the Round Table." He casually responded, pushing the button on a com about 15 feet away, he slowly proceeded to walk towards the exit of the building, he had to get to high fighter and into the air, even if he wasn't an expert ace , it was still a good idea to not be a sitting duck on the ground.
Ciphers pace slowly quickened but at the end it ended up turning into a dead run for the hangar, more bombs were being dropped and the ground continued to shake, worse and worse. The lights on the ceiling rattled the roar of jet engines above sent shockwaves through the building.
He finally got to the door on the side of the base, the hangar was about 50 feet away. Shoving it open he managed to glimpse Pixy at the end of his take off, finally in the air. The red wing of his f-15 blending into the background, the rest of the aircraft shone , the metallic light gave it a brilliance, but it was also a giant target on the aircraft. Cipher quickly ran, to the hangar were his aircraft was held, it was untouched by the devastation, snow covered it, glimmering strangely in the red fiery night.
Cipher slowly approached a door at the end of the hangar and fumbled with his keys as he clumsily, yet hurriedly opened the door, slamming it shut after he had entered the large hallow building. Loud music filled the air, Rock, It was strange but the music overpowered the loud battle outside, he quickly rushed over to his plain which was being refueled and rearmed by a team of mechanics. The rest of the aircraft looked neglected, mangled pieces laying around the hangar and mechanics running around furiously trying to fix the fighters.
"HEY CAN ANY OF YOU FLY!" Cipher yelled, trying to be heard over the loud music, there were a number of aircraft in the hanger and a couple of them looked flyable.
"Sort of!" One of the Mechanics responded, welding on a broken wing to a damaged fighter, trying to make it flyable. The sparks were one of the many sources of illumination that oddly lit the room.
"Sort of?" cipher asked as he ran over to his Wyvern, the experimental aircraft required considerable maintenance and was incredibly difficult to find spare parts but it ended up being more then worth it. Its active-camo system made the fighter a dull concrete grey, but it still stood out compared to the rest of the hangar.
"I'm new." He stated, over the loud music as he finished arming one of the missiles on the wyvern. A missile locked into the internal bay and a engineer appeared from under the aircraft he yelled over the sounds of welding and music.
"He's a nugget sir." The sentence this time was not a insult, just a mere fact.
Cipher, climbing onto a wing and then diving into the cockpit responded "whatever just get in the air and follow me."
"Which air craft should I take sir?" The nugget asked, looking at the aircraft scattered in the hangar. The amount of aircraft inside the massive hangar was staggering, as far as the eye could see were birds of war.
"Just pick one, and stay close to me, Pixy and the AA." Cipher responded, kicking away the unused latter and shutting the cockpit.
Through the glass the demon lord commanded a mechanic to open the door, his commanding presence ruling over the music. He also motioned to one of the chief mechanics the pile of weapons that stood leaning against the side of the hangar, the chief understood and started asking for volunteers at least The demon lord presumed.
"This is The demon lord of the round table, any squads nearby proceed to cover the runway, me and a nugget gona try to get in the air." The Demon lord Announced, using the aircrafts radio to transmit his commands over the battlefield.
"OK, you all heard the man, you 3 in the black windows and the shitty flying, cover the fucking runway!" Pixy yelled, a fighter in the air changed direction and started a nose dive directly into the ground, right before it hit it pulled up, firing a volley of bullets through a Belkan fighter , exploding into a massive fireball, shrapnel littering the ground. He proceeded to fly above the runway at extreme speed, destroying enemy fighters, thwarting the belkan attempted to destroy the base and claim air superiority.
"YOU HEARD THE MAN COVER THE DEMON LORD!"A man shouted over the radio, presumably the flight lead of the 3 fighters.
quickly, the 3 aforementioned fighters followed suit, but with less drastic methods of losing altitude, But they too did protect the sacred runway from the aggressors.
Cipher slowly made it out to the runway, a couple of brave and ferocious mechanics covered him and the nugget with the AA weapons scattered throughout the base. Cipher quickly ran his fingers of the controls, his fighter was different, stronger, sleeker, it always knew what the pilot was thinking and how to react, it used a more advanced control system, dual joysticks and pedals for accelerations and control over every fin and stabilizer. Finally a keyboard gave control over the rest of the systems, greatly reducing the number of controls on the fighter.
He quickly booted up the OS of the fighter and started to pressurize the fighter, although highly impractical and very fragile system, it gave a freedom to pilots that allowed them a greater view over the field of battle.
The turbines on the Wyvern sent a wave of thrust shooting out from the back of the aircraft; it slowly increased speed, followed by the nugget, struggling to get the aircraft off the ground. They slowly climbed, the other aircraft covering them as they engaged into the mass of explosions and metal in the air.
The demon lord continued to climb, eventually rising above the clouds, coming up to where he could finally see the whole battle field, the bombers were turning around, beginning another run on the base, the enemy fighters were holding their own, it was clear that they were only trying to distract the allied fighters as the bombed slowly turned the base into a crater, they only released a few bombs each run so they were almost undetectable.
There was a plethora of chatter among the allied fighters, The demon lord blocked them out of the mind, there was only him and the battle, he was going to destroy his opponent.
"All forces engage the bombers that are heading in from the east; the fighters are just a distraction." The demon Lord commanded, a change in his tone gave him a commanding presence.
All of the allied fighters turned direction, leaving the fighters up to the base defenses; they quickly approached the previously invisible bombers, ripping them to shreds. The demon Lord himself flew in and took out one of the bombers, firing a missile that hit the bomber in the central Bombay, exploding in midair. He closed into another bomber and shredded that one to with his guns, sending it slowly plummeting to the ground. The allied forces quickly engaged the rest of the bombers.
When the last of the bombers were finished off the fighters quickly returned to the base, unloading all remaining ordinance on the Belkan fighters, sending the last remaining fighters retreating at max speed to their base of operations.
"Now if you don't mind I'm going to go in, land, grab a sandwich, and go to sleep." Cipher said, punctuating the sentence with a loud yawn.
"This is control, the runway is not clear I repeat not clear do not attempt to land." The control tower frantically ordered.
"Well then make it clear, my metabolism is like burning at 200% and I haven't eaten for like 12 hours so either clear the runway or get me some food. And it also appears that there is no fuel left and my reactor won't warm up for like 2 hours."Cipher responded, the hunger had just begun to naw at him but it was like a fire, a blaze within him.
"ooo the engines just cut out so I'm coming in."
He slowed his Wyvern, and began to approach the airfield, ground crew scrambling out of the way to dodge the wild jet. He did not need to turn on the brakes; he was already losing momentum and velocity, the systems on the jet cutting out one by one.
"And you said it wasn't clear." The Demon Lord said, pulling the aircraft into the hangar where it had previously occupied. Belkan and Allied fighter littered the ground in burn out shells, a sad byproduct of the battle.
He quickly jumped out of the aircraft, landing incredibly ungracefully on the concrete floor, to his surprise he was confronted by a very angry base commander.
"YOU TOOK OFF IN A MILLION DOLLAR JET WHILE DRUNK AND TO TOP IT OFF NO FLIGHT SUIT OR MASK!" the commander stared the Demon lord in the face, trying to break him.
"One it's my jet, you guys just maintains it. Two it doesn't say Allied forces anywhere on my uniform, hell I'm not even wearing a uniform. Three suits and mask cramp my style,. Fourth and final I never wear the aforementioned shit, Have fun." Cipher began to walk away but the commander slowly stopped him.
"You do notice your wearing an Osean shirt?" The commander stated, the previous hatred gone from his voice, turning into an annoyance.
Looking down at his shirt cipher slowly responded:
"O ya I am." The shirt was had a giant Osean flag on it, the blue and white blended in well to the background. The snow and dull moon light fell over the metal, making it have a almost dull blue shade.
"Well I'm gona go and eat or something" Cipher walked out into the wind and slowly walked to the main complex of the base.
****later****
Cipher slowly stirred the potatoes with the fork, he had been doing this for the last 20 minutes but he was hungry, and the food did look good.
Pixy walked in from the buffet, a plate loaded full with enough food to feed a small army.
"The nuggets still alive." Pixie nonchalantly said as he put the plate down on the table and turned the chair around, leaning on the reversed chair he began to devour the food.
"You're eating habits are as atrocious as usual." Cipher responded as bits of food began to fly everywhere, covering the table and surrounding areas. It was amazing how no one seemed to care, but being a top ace and having the combat skills of a martial artist let you get away with anything , including food covering the mess.
"Unlike you I haven't been on the ground for the last hour or two."Pixy responded, Cipher pushed his plate onto a stack of half finished plates and reached over to take a half a sandwich from Pixies massive plate, Pixie jokingly growled at the approaching hand but continued to eat as the food was stolen.
"Now last time I checked didn't arks squad has 4 plains? I only saw 3 but it was pretty chaotic?" Cipher asked, finally giving in and devouring the half a sandwich, he reached in and stole the other half and continued to eat.
"Ya the chick…." Pixy began.
"Nova?" Cipher inquired?
"Ya, she's on maternity leave-"He was cut off as Cipher exploded into a storm of laughter, he almost fell out of his chair.
"Yup, anyway –"
"COMMANDER ON DECK!" someone yelled and the whole room except The demon Lord and Pixie stood up, the battle of the commanding presence was silent but astounding. Cipher reached over to the table of one of the standing at attention airman's tables. He grabbed another half of a sandwich and muttered a "thanks".
"Relax airman, just hear to grab some grub, power is out in officers mess won't be long, but you all did well up there, keep it up." The commander said, gazing over the men standing at attention, they slowly eased up as he finished his speech.
The men slowly sat down, a shuffling of chairs and tables filled the air. Cipher gazed back at Pixy and the pile of half finished food in-between them.
Cipher pushed all the food related products away from him and rested his head on his arms.
"I heard that the military personnel will have to pull triple getting the base back into fighting order, nice to be mercs." Pixy said as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table.
Slowly, one by one people left the mess hall, leaving Pixy and Cipher the only remainders.
"Good night." Pixy lazily yelled, sitting up, he walked past cipher to the door, patting him on the shoulder.
Before that Ciphers world had been fading in and out but then it turned to a solid black.
Note please review, that's how I make this story better ps thanks Stonehenge.
A/N sorry about earlier but I think I got it fixed, it was just a extrmeley large scale typo