The air blew past her open cockpit, creating a whistling sound, while her aviator cap and scarf fluttered about. Through her goggles, she looked around. The sky was a clear blue colour, with not a cloud in sight, while a featureless desert loomed below. She then looked back to her own airplane. The dials had not changed, nor had any of the switches. Peering through the mounted telescope, she could only see a single plane in front of her, a CW-21 in an ocean of blue and orange.
"Why do we have to be stuck with this Fiona?" she complained.
"You told everyone that you had nothing to do when we landed in Aleshema, remember Liana?" replied her squadron leader.
"Yeah, but I thought we'd get at least one good job," Liana grumbled, tipping the wings of her plane in frustration.
"What's wrong with escorting a couple of postal planes?" Fiona responded, looking to the formation of converted Ki-32 light bombers off her right wing.
"Well, there's nothing to fight," Liana complained, eyeing the trigger for her cannons, ready to let loose when the opportunity strikes. "Plus, I don't get to fly however I want."
"Take the good parts of life when they come," Fiona replied.
"What's so good about escorting a bunch of slow transports?"
"If you didn't take the job, then you wouldn't be able to fly. Remember Aleshima's laws?" Fiona reminded her.
"That's what I'm saying, why couldn't we take a job hunting pirates or something?"
"Aleshima's a safe place," Fiona responded. "If you want to hunt pirates, you should have taken a job in Rahama or somewhere like there."
"But we're not in Rahama,"
"Exactly, so stop complaining."
The two fighters flew parallel to the group of converted Ki-32s as the air group continued flying over the featureless desert, away from Aleshima. Flying at high altitude, Liana took out more items of clothing to wrap around her to keep her warm. Suddenly the radio crackled to life across the squadron with Fiona's voice blaring through it.
"Aleshima Postal Services, this is Fiona of Azari Squadron. Our drop tanks have nearly run out, and we will be switching to our internal fuel tanks soon. That means we can go on for another 120 kilometers before we have to turn back. In another 50 kilometers, we should be meeting up with a squadron from Rahama who will cover you from that point on."
Silence followed Fiona's voice before the radio crackled again.
"This is Aleshima Postal Services, we understand. Do keep a vigilant eye, this area has been known to be a hotbed of pirate activity."
"Understood," Fiona replied while Liana silently cheered in her cockpit.
"Liana, be on alert, we lose one of these transports and our pay gets cut in half."
"Don't worry, if any pirates dare to approach us, I'll punish them for making me so bored."
"That's my girl," Fiona said with excitement in her voice. "Sweep behind the transports, you guard the rear, I guard the front."
"But that's where pirates always come from, I won't get to fight any if I'm stuck with the transports."
"Don't worry, if pirates do attack, the transports know to dive down to avoid them, and you'll be with me."
The convoy streamlined its formation as Liana swung her plane left to right in excitement at the rear. Poking her head out of the cockpit, she was struck by a rush of passing air as it tried to push past her. Looking down, she could see a massive plateau approaching as the convoy continued, jutting out of the ground like an island in the oceans she had read about. The ground level rose and now the plateau was the ground, as streaks of clouds began to form beneath her. Looking forwards, a large cloud suddenly appeared in front of her. Following standard procedures, the convoy dived to fly below the clouds, before several glints of light reflected off her windscreen. Her radio crackled to life again.
"Six planes approaching from two o'clock!" Fiona shouted through the radio, her voice ringing in Liana's ears.
"Roger that," the transports replied. "All transports, dive down to 800 meters and ready defensive gunners."
Looking out of her cockpit, she could see the Ki-32s bank left before turning to dive at a shallow angle, away from the two fighters.
"Liana, behind me!" Fiona ordered.
"Wouldn't it be better for us to split up? Take multiple on at once so they can't reach the transports?"
"No, otherwise neither of us will be able to support each other. The enemy has Shidens, they're fast and well armoured, but they can't maneuver like our planes."
"Wait, what?" Liana exclaimed. "How do the pirates have Shidens?"
"Doesn't matter, here they come!"
The CW-21 locked its guns on the lead Shiden, firing a short burst before banking sharp left to avoid returning fire, as Liana followed her in her I-153. Engaging at high speeds, the Shidens zoomed past them, pulling back up to engage the two planes. Liana saw Fiona turn into a dive, pursuing the climbing planes while they were vulnerable, and followed her. The fabric cover of her plane began to rumble as she reached close to her maximum speed, before opening fire. The combined salvo from the CW-21 and her I-153 ripped through the wings of the lead Shiden, before Fiona turned away to pursue the other fighters. Looking through the telescope, she lined up her plane on the climbing Shiden, desperately trying to escape her but failing as it had lost all its energy, an effort she ended by pressing her trigger. A burst of 20mm rounds fired from her plane rocked the light monoplane, slamming into the wings of the enemy and tearing the left wing off, as the plane began a rapid uncontrolled descent while leaking a thick cloud of oil and smoke. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted another plane that had gotten on her tail, pulling up before rolling right and turning the light plane around to avoid the incoming fire. Looking around, she spotted Fiona tailing a Shiden, firing short bursts, before one burst finally connected, tearing a hole in the tail and causing the plane to spiral out of control. As soon as this happened, a burst of shells flew off the right side of her wingwoman's plane.
"Liana, Shiden on my tail," Fiona reported.
"Aye aye, I saw it," Liana replied, pulling up to lock her guns on the enemy. Fiona continued to evade its gunfire, pulling a turn to try to shake it off, as Liana reached altitude. Completing the turn, Fiona locked her eyes at Liana coming the other way. As the Shiden got its guns aimed at the tail of the CW-21, Fiona jerked her stick violently to the left, causing the plane to roll to the left, revealing Liana flying directly at the confused pilot, firing a burst of her cannons, tearing through the engine and wings of the Shiden. The pilot fired a desperate burst at the Liana, but failed to hit her as she went back into formation with Fiona.
"That was a piece of cake!" Liana said in a cheerful and adrenaline fueled voice. "Even the mighty Shiden is no match for Azari Squadron."
"Battle's not over yet," Fiona reminded her. "Look, there's the last Shiden."
Liana could see the distinct outline flying away from them towards the transport bombers.
"If that's able to get to the transport, they're done for, and that means we're done for," Fiona said. "We've got to catch it!"
Fiona pitched her plane downwards into a dive in order to gain speed as Liana followed her. Despite the Shiden having a much higher top speed, Fiona and Liana began to catch up using the speed gained in the dive. The wings of Liana's plane began to rumble as it approached it's maximum speed, before she pulled out of the flat dive and started to spiral down to lose speed. As Fiona rapidly approached the enemy fighter, it suddenly began turning away, hoping for her to overshoot. Recognising this, Fiona made a barrel roll, keeping her eyes on the target.
Liana, now at the bottom of her dive, reoriented her plane to pursue the Shiden, as it began its turn towards her. She fired a burst, but missed and began to bank left to avoid the turning plane.
Now with the Shiden firmly in her sights, Fiona pressed the trigger, firing a burst of .50 cal and .30 cal ammunition, however the enemy fighter suddenly pulled up, a few rounds striking the wings but not enough to put it out of action. As it pulled up, it rolled to its side before going back down, appearing behind Fiona. She attempted to shake the plane off her tail, but failed to do so as they were at low altitude. Now, Fiona can only wait as the Shiden locked onto her and her plane.
Liana could see the Shiden as it rolled behind her flying buddy, ready to shoot her down. She banked sharply to the right, aiming her plane directly at the Shiden, before firing. The burst struck the enemy plane, forcing it to descend uncontrollably, but not before the burst meant for Fiona hit the tail of Liana's I-153, tearing massive holes into it and putting the plane in an uncontrolled spin.
"Are you okay?" Fiona shouted over the radio, receiving only silence as an answer. Eventually, the radio crackles to life again.
"I'm in an uncontrollable spin in a plane known for not recovering from spins, what do you think?!" Liana responded angrily. She wasn't angry at Fiona for putting herself in a situation where she had to save her, but at herself for being shot down.
As the plane continued to spiral, Liana looked for ways to recover from the spin, but with her tail shot out, there was no chance of keeping the plane relatively intact. Clipping on the final straps on the parachute, she grabbed hold of the side of her cockpit, before rolling out, falling for several seconds. Liana made sure that she was clear of the spinning wreck before pulling the cord of her parachute. She sighed a breath of relief as the chute's canopy spread open, giving her ample amount of time to think. It was only here, while she was floating around the blue sky, that she remembered something important.
"Fuck! I left my special choccies in the cockpit!" she said angrily to herself, angrily descending to the surface while Fiona regrouped with the transport planes.
"We've lost a fighter," Fiona explained to the transport planes. "Once I'm finished here, I'll move to recover her."
"It's all fine, Azari Squadron," the lead transport plane responded. "We should be receiving our new escorts right about..."
There was a long pause, before she finished. "Now,"
Looking up, Fiona could see a squadron of six Hayabusa fighters approaching the convoy. Looking closer, she could see the distinctive paint job of Kotobuki Squadron, as the new guests dove down to greet her and the convoy.
"What happened to the fighter escort?" Reona asked on open comms, looking at Fiona's sole CW-21 among the convoy.
"Is that how you greet your host Reona?" Fiona replied.
"Ah, it's you. Long time no see old friend," Reona replied.
"Who is she?" Chika asked.
"Maybe an old squadmate?" Kyrie speculated.
"Reona hasn't told us anyone before Zara joined her," Kate responded.
"So this mysterious girl knows Reona from somewhere else," Emma thought.
"Oh my, she indeed is an old friend, we flew together during the Rinouche Air War," Zara responded.
"It's good to see you again Fiona," said Reona as she and Kotobuki Squadron pulled up beside Fiona and the convoy.
"Indeed it is," Fiona responded. She continued. "As much as I would love to stay and chat, I have a downed pilot who needs rescuing."
"Oh, you go do that," Reona said.
"Look after the convoy for me, will you?"
"Of course," Reona responded.
"And one last thing," Fiona said. "Tell Madame Loulou I said 'hi',"
"Aye."