Out beyond the water's edge
Far out past the coral ledge
Underneath the diamond dancing light
Chase the world from far below
Silent sleeping in they go
Drifting down into the endless night...
Eun looked over at the beautiful girl as she sung the hypnotic melody. She was engulfed in light. The girl walked over to him, smiling.
"Eunice Vesperia..." She said soothingly, sitting beside him, leaning over him, her inky, livid hair cascading over him softly.
***
The boy awoke with a start, gasping. As he sat up, he felt a stabbing pain in his side. He looked down, and found his entire side bandaged, his left arm in a sling, and right leg in a cast. He quickly laid back down, gasping in pain as he felt his forehead. His head was partly wrapped in a bandage.
His eyes spun around, scanning his surroundings. He found himself in a dark, cozy room, cluttered with all the common fixtures of a teenage girl's room-- pictures of groups of cheerful girls, pictures taken in photo booths, stuffed animals...
He heard footsteps coming towards the room. Thinking quickly, he jumped from the bed, instinctively grabbing for the survival knife in his left pocket but finding nothing. Instead, he grabbed a gel pen from the table beside him and hurried into the closet to hide as the door creaked open.
A young girl walked in, who couldn't be any older than 16. Her auburn hair was done up in a pony tail, the ends of which frayed outward. She was carrying a tray with a small ham sandwich complete with olive and toothpick and the middle. She smiled, knowing the boy she and her mother had taken in had finally woken up, albeit shaken enough to hide from her. Her eyes scanned the room, acting as if she didn't know he was hiding in the closet behind her.
The boy leaped from the closet, his arm around the thin neck of the girl, threatening her, albeit vainly, with the cute flower decorated gel pen.
"Who are you!? Where am I!?" He demanded, pressing the pen into the girl's neck. She just scoffed at him, rolling her eyes.
"Planning to dismember me with my flower pen?" She joked. The girl then spun around to face the dismayed boy.
"The least you can do is thank me. But I'm happy you're finally awake, Soma!"
"Err.." The boy paused, confused.
"You really should be thanking me," A woman's voice in the doorway behind them said. The boy turned around, seeing a woman, possibly in her mid 30's leaning in the doorway. Her arms were folded and she wore a pea-green turtle neck under a worn lab coat.
"Mama!" The girl said, running to her. She turned and pointed.
"This stupid boy tried to kill me with my flower pen, see?" She lifted her tiny chin to show the laughable hot pink line of ink on her neck. The boy held up the flower pen and looked at it. It said, "Love Love Power" on it.
"Um..." He dropped the pen and bowed modestly, "I'm sorry."
The woman in the doorway chuckled as she pushed up her black framed glasses.
"Sit down and eat, please" She said.
***
Stella stared off blankly at the sky through the window in her quarters. Her mind constantly playing over the scene in her head-- the F-22 Raptor, the fuel tanks, Eun's plane exploding. She held up her hand to the sunlight. It shook involuntarily. The wound she sustained from the shrapnel in her last dogfight against the Southern Cross had permanently damaged the nerves in her arm. Her flying skills would forever be hindered.
It had been 3 weeks since the memorial for Eun had been held. Since then, the Aurelian armed forces had scored a string of victories all owed to the efforts of the Southern Cross. Now, Fort Patterson and Puma Base had all been taken back by the enemy forces. It was just a matter of time until Aurelian forces made their way to Terminus Island to fight the Glepnir.
The door creaked open slightly.
"Stella..." It was Violet. The pink haired girl sitting in the light of the window didn't seem to respond at all. The pink locks of hair, normally long and cascading freely over her narrow shoulders were now cut short, frayed, and lifeless. Violet looked down at the ground around Stella's wheelchair and saw the lifeless pink locks of hair scattered all around the floor. A pair of scissors lay with them.
Violet sat on the bed. "Alex is here," She said, trying to be cheerful.
"Alect-1." Stella said, listlessly.
"That's right." Violet said, scooting closer to the girl at the window.
"He wants to see you're doing."
"I'll go later." Stella said. Violet nodded sadly and left, shutting the door slowly behind her.
***
The boy named Soma took small bites of the ham sandwich, which, to his distaste, was too salty.
"Is it okay?" The girl across from him asked, fidgeting in her seat with her hands in her lap.
Soma nodded.
"Good!" She said happily.
"You don't have to lie--" Her mother said, smirking, "I'll get you some water."
The red haired girl puffed up her cheeks.
"Whatever. Oh! I forgot! I'm Mirillia. Mirillia Seol." She held out her hand to shake, then realized Soma's arm was in a sling. Soma stared at the outstretched hand awkwardly.
"Err--" Mirillia retracted her hand and scratched her head.
"That's my mama, Edith". Soma nodded.
"Thank you for the meal," Soma said, sliding his chair back and got up. He forgot his leg was in a cast and immediately fell.
"Be careful!" The girl said, dropping her fork and catching him. The fork clattered against the porcelain plate as it fell. Edith popped her head in from the kitchen to check on the two in the dining room. Soma leaned against the smaller girl, holding her shoulder for support. Edith smiled.
Mirillia helped Soma back into the chair.
"Stop trying to overexert yourself, okay?" She said, checking Soma's bandages.
"S-sorry." He said, looking over at the floor. He shut his eyes, clutching his aching forehead.
"I... can't remember anything..." Said Soma.
"Why don't you go back to bed?" Mirillia urged soothingly as she patted Soma's shoulder. Soma nodded, and Mirillia helped him onto his good leg.
***
Sun's eyes darted back and forth over the horizon frantically.
"Where the hell is he!?" He cursed to himself, turning the stick and banking sharply.
"Warning!" The HUD yelled at him. Sun turned to see him-- Nemesis himself, in his F-22 Raptor. 2 streaks of smoke trailed from the Raptor straight into the tailpipe of the Su-32, igniting it instantly.
"Mission Failed."
The screen died down to black, and the door to the simulation pod opened.
"That makes 42 losses and 2 wins." Louise said over the speaker. Sun looked up at the slender indigo haired woman in the window above him.
"Run it again!" Sun commanded, and slammed the pod door shut.
"He's been at it all day..."
"He can't handle the way he lost to Nemesis." Louise said, leaning over the console controlling the Flight Simulation Pods. She looked over at the blond haired man leaning on the wall behind her. He smirked.
"Perhaps you should give it a try." Louise said, addressing the man.
The man's ears perked up.
"After all, you're Alect Squadron's lead, aren't you? Alex Vanderburen."
Alex opened the door and went downstairs, into the training room with all the simulation pods lined up in rows. After he left, Louise exhaled sharply, shutting her eyes.
"If only..." She said to herself, her eyes watering. She slammed down hard on the console with her fist.
"Why did I have to be such a weak AWACS officer!? If only I was stronger... Eun and Stella would..."
She fell to her knees, sobbing, her shiny royal blue hair flowing like liquid through her fingers as she grabbed tufts of her hair.
***
"See, my mama and I are part of the Aurelian Liberation Forces here." Mirillia said, sitting on the bed beside Soma.
"I see." He said, staring up at the ceiling.
"The ALF people are a little light on manpower." She continued, "So sometimes we help. Mostly with humanitarian stuff. Evacuating war zones, tending to the wounded, that kind of stuff. We found you beat up pretty bad a little outside Puma while we were helping some people escape the battle zone."
Soma looked up at the girl.
"So you know who I am?"
Mirillia turned away from him.
"Well..." She said. Soma sat up attentively.
"We figured you were an Aurelian fighter pilot who got shot down during the battle there."
"Is Soma.. my name?"
"That's what your uniform said anyway." Mirillia said, shrugging and got up to leave. She turned the lights off and shut the door behind her. Soma shut his eyes, trying hard to remember anything of his past.
***
The head scientist of the Danern Straits' Archelon fortress shifted in his seat nervously.
"Sir," He said, addressing the man known as Diego Navarro on the screen. "It is my honest opinion that we will not be able to adapt the Digital Optical Camoflauge to the secret weapon within the time line as planned."
The wrinkled corners of Navarro's face twitched.
"Damn you," Navarro cursed, "The Aurelians are going to catch up to the Glepnir any day now! You mean to say you've worked for this long and haven't achieved anything yet!?"
"Well sir that is just not true," The scientist said, "We can implement the DOS on the experimental aircraft, but it won't work without an external power source... And we don't have to manpower or the resources to duplicate the power source we have here on this island and implement it in other operation areas..."
"So you mean to tell me that we can only use Fenrir to its full capability within the confines of the Danern Straits?!" Navarro's voice boomed. The scientist flinched.
"Yes..."
The screen went dead. The scientist sighed.
***
"Let's go, Soma!" Mirillia called from the driveway.
"Ah, okay!" Soma called back, struggling to balance himself on his crutches while reaching for the doorknob.
Edith reached over him for the doorknob, brushing up against him. She opened the door, momentarily blinding the two with the bright glare of the morning Aurelian sun. Edith smiled at Soma.
"Ready to go?" She said, squeezing his shoulders. Soma nodded, smiling weakly.
"Yeah" He said, and Edith guided him out the door to the rusty red pickup truck in the driveway.
It had already been 3 weeks since he had first woken up in the Seol's house. Since then, he had grown quite accustomed to the two.
"I can't believe you're already going to take your cast off!" Mirillia beamed as she sat between Edith who was driving and Soma, in the passenger seat.
"It's not like he broke his leg..." Edith said, as she put the truck in drive.
"I know it was just twisted and all.. It's just I'm happy for him, okay?" Mirillia smiled as she looked up at Soma.
"Just wait until you meet the other girls at the base! They're going to be so jealous!" She squealed.
"W-what do you mean by that?" He said, confused. Mirillia elbowed him.
"You're hot, duh..." she said. Edith rolled her eyes.
"I'm surprised," Mirillia continued, "A little haircut, a shower... you clean up nice."
"When did he take a shower!?" Edith asked, raising a brow. Soma gulped and looked out the window.
"I sorta helped him last night!" Mirillia said with a wink, hugging his arm.
"Uh huh..." Edith said.
"Don't worry!" Mirillia laughed, waving her hand, "He was a perfect gentleman." She mockingly imitated his voice--
"He was all like, 'Why are your clothes off' and 'Is it okay to look now?' He kept saying that! It was so funny!"
"Err..." Was all Soma could say.
The truck came across a city ravaged by war. Citizens were in the streets helping with the rebuilding efforts. Soma looked around somberly. There were elderly people sitting on apartment stoops, head in hand, overwhelmed by the destruction. Children, alone, cried in the streets or played among the rubble. Adults scolded them and went back to replacing broken windows, or clearing streets of debris.
The truck rolled to a stop in front of a rusted warehouse. At the entrance surrounded by shoddy barbed wire fences were two men dressed like civilians, around their shoulder, a strap from which hung an AK-47. Edith stuck her arm out and waved to them. The two men acknowledged her and opened the gate for her.
"Oh boy... you gonna behave yourself?" One guard said, grinning at Mirillia, who stuck her tongue out at him.
The truck headed into the complex.
"So this is the ALF's base..." Soma said to himself. He frowned. Something seemed off. He felt daggers in his chest.
----------------------------------------------------
[Next episode preview:]
The fate of the amnesiac survivor of the battle against Leasath is inevitably tied to the sky, and the death of a fallen comrade profoundly alters the destiny of the Alect Squadron.
Next time, on Ace Combat X: Sky of Ashes, "The Changing Wind"
Fly along the winds of fate, Ace pilot!