Disclaimer: I don't own ace combat
September 11th 2019
New arrows base briefing room no.2
20:22pm
The Lrssg gathered in the briefing room when David came on "We've acquired important intel for the mission." The map appeared again with an outline with the continent and a red ring "For example the shells form long range anti-air fire came in on a depressed trajectories. Look." a schematic of the Alicorn railguns appeared on the screen "The estimated output of each railgun is 500 megajoules or half the total thrust of a single raptor, fired at minimum energy trajectory range is over 3000km, they hid a powerful cannon inside their main guns." David's words startled the lrssg pilots.
"However since brigadier general was in command they're doubting the validity of our findings." David hating the fact that Howard was still making things difficult even while sitting in a cell.
"It's almost like Stonehenge." Count commented having seen the stonehenge gun firing.
"Yeah a mobile Stonehenge with a madman in charge." Trigger told them thinking back to his plan on how to sink the Alicorn.
"And also… this. The Alicorn was in harbour at Anchorhead for approximately 10 minutes which means they couldn't have loaded slbms. They loaded something smaller." David's tone sound not good which Trigger didn't like the sound of.
"Smaller?" Huxian mused as everyone tried to think of what could be smaller than an slbm.
"What is smaller and yet a powerful weapon?" David's question left everyone in the room until Skald had an idea.
"Tactical nukes." He commented thinking that was the only thing small enough since he remembered learning about the seven nuclear detonations at school.
"Close the answer is tactical nuclear shells."David's comment took everyone by surprise since none of them knew what that was.
"Nuclear shells?" the blueprints of the warhead appeared for all of the pilots to see. "Never heard of them what are they?" Huxian asked having never heard of a weapon like that.
"A tactical nuclear shell was a form of a limited yield tactical nuclear weapons that the superpowers developed in the 50s and 60s." Avril explained having asked one of her grandpas war buddies one time.
"No way" Count couldn't believe it "I thought neutron bombs were made up."
Wiseman having spent time studying osean military history "Osea developed several during the cold war all were retired when it ended."
"Hey hey he got that question right." Lanza pat Skald on the back who wanted to be happy but couldn't.
"Nah I missed the shell part." Skald responded but Jaeger wasn't happy.
"Quiet." Jeager wanted to know more about this insane sea captain's plan so they could stop it.
"They'll likely attack our bases on the west coast." Wiseman noted knowing that their bases would be prime targets.
"Makes sense cause if you want to hurt the osean military morale you'd attack the base of their ace team to take them out with radiation." Avril sounded pessimistic but each knew that she was right. David couldn't help but agree with Avril's comment but that didn't fit with Torres's scheme.
"Their target is Oured, the Osean capital."Trigger clenched his fist upon hearing David's words as Laura, Avril and Wiseman noticed this.
"Scott you okay?" Trigger got up from his seat as Laura looked concerned.
"So the plan to nuke Oured but wait." Trigger felt they were missing something "David can you bring up a map of Oured bay with a probable radiation impact radius based on the info acquired from anchorhead?" a red ring appeared on the map covering all of Oured and an area of Sapin including the capital Gran Rugido.
"Don't you see, you don't do you." the other members were taken aback as they looked at the map slow to realise what Three Strikes had seen.
"If this psychopathic madman succeeds Osea will certainly use its nukes in retaliation on Erusea and only take more lives in a stupid act of vengeance and a very pissed of Sapin will join the war wanting Erusea for nuking them too." Trigger's tone was cold since he was seeing the outcome of failing to stop the submarine.
"They want a nuclear war?" Lanza was horrified by what he'd heard since everyone in the room had lived through the seven nuclear detonations despite some not being old enough to remember them.
"Here's a question, what's a situation where nuclear deterrence doesn't work?" David asked them backing into his quiz show host persona since hearing what Trigger said made things feel even more dire.
Huxian was getting sick of David's quiz show persona "Quiz guy I've had enough of this!"
Skald thought about what a nuclear deterrence's job was but having been a former counter insurgency pilot that terrorists would use nukes no matter what "Oh! Only if terrorists have the nukes."
"Correct!" David would have been happy that someone got his question right but couldn't be given the situation.
Lanza felt impressed with his teammate "Damn Skald."
"Hey I'm good at trivia games and I'm familiar at dealing with guerrilla forces when I flew dragonflies." Skald told them thinking back to his time flying the dragonfly counter insurgency jet.
"But we're after an Erusean submarine, not terrorists." Count commented knowing that they were after the Alicorn submarine not its captain.
Wiseman having talked to the higher ups earlier that day "No he's right. Hq tells me, Erusea's justification is that the Alicorn mutinied. As such the Erusean military cannot be held responsible for the submarine's actions."
"Damn." Huxian banged her fist into her chair "So they intend on dropping a nuke on the Osean captial of Oured and nuking the capital of Sapin in the process."
Jaeger couldn't help but wonder something "Here's a question for you analyst. Just exactly who are we fighting?"
David pressed a button on his keyboard leaving a photo of Torres "Correct term is terrorist or irregular military, but I have a different name for them. An enemy to be stopped at all costs."
"Yeah a psychopath who must be stopped at all costs no matter what it takes." Trigger's tone was quiet as he turned to Avril "Scrap Queen we need your best so get to work."
"Jaeger, Avril you and I need to warn our families." Trigger hastily made his way from the room along with Avril and Jaeger.
September 12th 2019
New arrows base hangar no.4
04:30am
Trigger stepped inside the dark hangar up early to check on Avril suspecting she pulled an all nighter like she did after yinshi valley. He pulled out a small torch "Just as I thought."
Avril having fallen asleep after repairing Huxian's number 1 engine which was sitting nearby waiting to be reinstalled by the other base mechanics in the morning. She had Trigger's jet nearby with the cft tanks ready to be reinstalled with its engines on the floor clearly having been serviced.
He could see that she was sitting down and slouching over the desk "Can't have this." Trigger stopped as he felt guilt that he was pushing Avril so hard just so they could destroy a submarine but remembered that she'd do it anyway cause that was her job.
He carefully scooped up her legs wrapping an arm around her back but could smell the soot from the tools and make out oil stains on her clothes.
He walked into the crew room carefully placing her on the sofa then went to get a blanket and came back placing it over her.
Trigger turned to leave but quickly ruffled her oil stained hair "You work so hard for nothing in return all to keep me safe from harm, I'll pay you back for all your hard work some day Scrap queen, good night."
Trigger quietly left the room after he had make sure Avril was comfortable on the sofa and quietly closed the door heading back to his room.
New arrows base lounge
10:30am
The smell of bacon sandwiches and hot coffee wafted over to Avril, her brain forcing her to wake up with the instinct of wanting food. Sitting up straight, she noticed Trigger standing beside the table, placing a plate and mug down and turning to her.
"Hey, morning. I made you some breakfast." He gestured to the plate.
"Damn, that smells good." Her stomach whined, wanting sustenance. She stretched her legs and reached forward to grab one of the sandwiches till Trigger stopped her.
"No, wash your hands first." He pushed the plate back with a smile.
Sticking her tongue out at him, Avril stood up and went to the nearest restroom, coming back after a few seconds and sitting down on the sofa. Grabbing the plate from him, she hungrily wolfed down the sandwiches one by one.
"Mug." She said, her mouth still full of food. Handing her the mug of warm coffee, Trigger watched as she took a big gulp from it, placing it back fown on the table.
"Did you even eat last night?" He asked her.
"No, I was too tired to even go to the mess hall." She told him. Looking around at where she was, she asked, "Wait, how did I get here?"
"I carried you here. You fell asleep in the hangar. You really shouldn't do that, its not good for your back."
"I can handle it, I've slept in worse places. I think you know which place." She pointed the half eaten sandwich in her hand at him.
Nodding, Trigger turned the topic to the mission and task at hand.
"Well, I've told my family to stay out of Oured corner for the moment."
"You too?" Avril said. "My mother's not even in Osea right now. I've told her to stay away for the next couple of weeks, or at least till this all boils down."
Finishing her food, she fell back and let out a content sigh. "You're a pretty fine cook, for an idiot."
Trigger chuckled, shaking his head. "Come on. Lets see what's in store in the hangar today."
The pair stepped into the hangar seeing only Trigger's eagle with its engines.
"I should tell you this right now, I can't bring you along for this mission. Its far too dangerous for you."
"Yeah, yeah. I know..." Avril grumbled, visibly annoyed that she couldn't come along for the next sortie. They were already at work in the hangar, or at least Avril was while Trigger assisted her on his aircraft.
He watched as she attached the first forward pylon to his Eagle, bending down to pick up the next one.
"I gotta hand it to you, this is some mighty impressive work, Avril." He complimented her, watching her bend down.
"You can thank me properly when it's all done." She told him curtly, standing and turning around to look at him. Trigger quickly shifted his gaze to his plane.
Walking around the aircraft to survey her handiwork, Trigger reached out to inspect the wings.
"So..." He began, unsure of how to continue.
"What." Avril said, already busy with the next pylon, grunting slightly as beads of sweat formed on her forehead and arms.
"You know, you're like a dream girl for any pilot." Trigger said, looking under the aircraft's engines at her face with a cloth, she stopped what she was doing as she turned to look at him. "Excuse me?" She asked, leaning over the tool cart, picking up a wrench."Think about it. You're good with all this mechanical plane stuff, you're pretty fit with all this heavylifting, and you're doing pretty good in the looks department if I do say so myself." He told her, appearing in front of her and leaning over the tool cart as well. "Like I said, a pilot's dream girl."
Taken aback by what he had said, Avril stared at him for a full minute before shaking her head and scoffing, a smile showing on her lips. "Well, a pilot's dream girl at least would go for a dumbass who can bring his plane back in one piece most damn flights." She said, tapping his chest with the wrench in her hands, pushing him back. It didn't matter if she was shorter, she knew how to keep him on a leash.
Trigger threw his hands up in defeat and grinned at her. "Okay, that's true. But." He rested his elbows on the tool cart, chin in his hands as he looked up at her with a toothy smile. "I'm betting you were the eye catcher back at wherever you were before, all this, weren't you."
Avril scoffed once more and turned to focus on her work, but unknown to him she was hiding her slightly red face. "I didn't really care about that." She answered.
"So what about you?" She asked as she resumed her task. "Don't you have a girl waiting for you back home? But judging with how you are acting right now, I'm assuming you don't."
"Yeah, I was too busy with my training to really consider that stuff." He answered her. Clearing his throat, he hesitated with growing nervousness as he questioned, "So what about you? Got someone?"
Looking up from her work with a satisfactory smile, she turned to face him and shook her head. "What part of 'didn't really care about that' did you not get?"
"Oh! Right. My bad. Sorry." Trigger said, feeling relieved and smacking his head.
"Dumbass..." Avril giggled with a smile. "Besides, I'm not really the dating type." She told him, her voice slightly faltering as her grin faded.
"Well that's a shame." He said, looking up at her, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Why's that?" She inquired curiously.
"Any guy would be pretty lucky to have someone like you. Someone tough as nails, but still got that caring side to them." He answered with a smile.
Rolling her eyes, she turned away from him, her face now even more redder. "Oh my god, you're an awful flirt, you idiot."
"You know its true!" He laughed, following her as she walked over to the bomb rack, picking it up.
"Oh shut up, you dumbass." Her own chuckle followed soon after, but her leg soon got the best of her as she walked back. Her grip slipped on the bomb rack as it clanged onto the hangar floor.
"Fuck." She cursed under her breath, but it was still loud enough for Trigger to hear.
"Why don't you take a quick breather?" He asked her.
"No, not until this is done." She grunted as she picked it up again, bringing it to his plane.
"Can I ask you a question?" Trigger asked her in a more serious tone.
"Shoot."
"Why do you put so much effort into my plane? Like, more than the others."
Avril stopped what she was doing, and turned to face him, her face more forlorn than annoyed at his question. She took a deep breath.
"I have my reasons. And one day I'll tell you." She told him, her hands on her hips, her thoughts already turning to the one of the two members of her family whom she really loved.
Trigger nodded in understanding, not wanting to pry any further. The air was beginning to get heavy in the hangar, he fiddled with the small radio on her workbench, tuning it to a song to alleviate the tension that had settled.
"Oh this is a good one." He exclaimed, standing up straight and moving to her.
"Hey, come on." Trigger reached his hand out to her, who looked at him with amusement which soon turned to horror as she realised what he wanted her to do."
"No. Absolutely not." She raised her hands up in defense.
"Yes, Absolutely yes." He grinned at her. "Come on, lighten up a bit, you're already working too hard. Dance with me, Scrap Queen!"
"Trigger, I don't think this is a good idea!" She objected, still mortified as he grabbed her hands, her face reddening once more as her ears burned. Quickly trying to come up with excuses, she began blabbering, "Trigger, my leg- I don't know how to dance- you stupid dumbass, do you have to hold my hands?!- "
Trigger just laughed as he pulled her in. "Just one, only to relax. It's not that hard. Think of it as me thanking you." He told her with a grin.
Avril rolled her eyes at him, begrudgingly placing one hand on his chest and the other entwined with his fingers.
"This is so not what I do..." She muttered, jumping slightly at his hand on her back, her face burning red and shooting glances at the hangar door to make sure there weren't any prying eyes watching them.
"See? It isn't that hard." He told her, beginning a simple waltz.
She just pouted instead which made him chuckle, turning her around before leaning side to side.
Avril cursed under her breath as she almost stumbled because of her boots, groaning in dismay. Trigger grinned at her as he twirled her and pulled her in closer to avoid her stepping on her own toes, and she soon matched his own stepping rhythm. To her own surprise, she found herself beginning to enjoy it a little before as soon as it had it began, the song was over.
Letting go of him quickly and panting, she turned to face him.
"See? It wasn't that bad, you just needed to lighten up. You did great for a beginner, too." He smiled at her.
"It was okay. Don't make me do that again." She said, her face a deep red.
"Nonsense." He waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "I'll make a fine dancer out of you yet."
Rolling her eyes at him, Avril turned to his aircraft with a half-annoyed half-playful groan. "You're impossible."
"You like it that way."
"Shut up and help me with this component, dumbass."
Trigger felt fatigue hit him so sat down at a nearby work bench. Both he and Avril were soaked in maintenance fluid and sweat. He looked at Avril who was equally tired and soaked.
"How do you work in these conditions?" Trigger couldn't help but ask since it felt very difficult to work given how hot the hangar got."
"Well I'm close to collapse myself but when you worked several hours a day at that hellhole you get use to it." she slowly walked over sitting down next to him.
She leaned over resting her head on his sweat covered shoulder quickly dozing off. Trigger couldn't help but notice that her shirt was soaked right through and sticking to her sweat covered skin. He leaned forward a bit easily eyeing that her nipples were poking through her shirt.
"Stay there you." Avril mumbled asleep.
Trigger quickly scooped up some grease from his arm into 3 of his fingers quickly dragging them across her cheek. Avril awoke suddenly looking over her shoulder to see Trigger laughing.
Avril lunged forward grabbing his arm but Trigger spun her around grabbing her left thigh pinning her to the floor. She flinched turning her head to look at him "What?" Trigger couldn't see why she was looking at him until he looked down seeing his hand on her thigh.
He pulled back but Avril seeing her chance snaked her leg round his waist flipping Trigger onto his back. She pressed herself down with one hand on his chest while slipping her other hand round the chain that he was wearing.
"Okay Scrap Queen you win." Trigger spoke with a slight laugh as Avril giggled briefly before she burst out laughing. Her grip on his tags tightened and she pulled on the tags pulling his head closer.
Trigger noticed Avril hesitate as she held him there and Trigger's free hand ruffled her oil stained messy hair.
She felt her doubt leaving and crashed her lips into his. The pair relaxed into each other as Trigger's free hand gripped her trousers as she gripped his head deepening the kiss as they moaned into each other.
The sound of a door opening caught their attention and they broke the kiss. "Shit." Count entered the hangar but couldn't see
Avril quickly pulled herself off Trigger "Hey Trigger, Avril you in here."
Avril straightened her shirt as Trigger tucked his tags into his shirt "Damm Count what do you want?"
Count appeared from behind the eagle seeing the pair "Its time for supper guys."
Trigger sighed looking at his wingman "We'll be there in a few minutes."
Count satisfied and left the hangar. Trigger and Avril felt embarrassed that Count nearly caught them making out. Avril was blushing a deep red and was looking at the jet.
"Sorry about that Avril I don't know what came over me." Trigger leaned against the jet.
"Its fine Trigger this shouldn't affect our relationship since it was a heat of the moment thing." Avril stood to face him. Trigger felt a wave of relief and grateful at Avril's words.
"Come on let's get cleaned up and get supper." Trigger said to her as they made their way to get cleaned up although both felt awkward walking next to each other.
'Am I in love with this dumbass, no I can't be cause I should be keeping my distance from him.' Avril wasn't sure what to think any more.
September 13th 2019
New arrows rec room
17:00pm
Wiseman, Count and Huxian were sitting at a table as Skald and Lanza finished up a game "Hey Avril wanna play a game?" Trigger asked her as Lanza handed him a pool cue while Skald set up the balls.
"Uhh I don't remember how to play since its been a while since I last did." Avril admitted having a basic idea what the game was. "I play this with gramps and his friends while we were rebuilding my drag racer.
"Don't worry I can give you a refresher." Trigger said to her placing the white cue ball on the table.
He stood behind her placing his hands on hers as he helped her position the cue, Avril blushed a deep red which didn't go unnoticed by Wiseman.
The two pulled the cue stick back and then hit the cueball which crashed into the triangle of pool balls scattering them across the table.
Wiseman, Count and Huxian watched the pair play when Laura stepped into the room "Hey guys are you betting on something?"
"We're betting on something fun Wiseman and i came up ." Count told her but Laura rolled her eyes. "how close Trigger and Avril will get"
Wiseman picked up a piece of paper that Trigger had put down the table. he looked at the list and thought to himself for a moment.
"Well I think we'll be seeing a side of Three Strikes when you are being hunted and this wolf won't stop until he's got you." Wiseman's words sent shivers down everyone.
Trigger turned to look at everyone "What?"
"You know I'm glad Three Strikes is on our side." Huxian commented having seen Trigger in action several times.
Wiseman leaned against the chair "I guess I should tell you guys I was going to fire the original Strider 1 and replace him with Trigger when he got acquitted cause I'll be honest I wasn't happy with the original Strider 1 since he didn't work well with us but Trigger really bring this team together."
Trigger couldn't help but smile "Well Team let's grab some chow and plan how we'll destroy the Alicorn."
The lrssg pilots left the room but Trigger stopped at the pool table taking one last shot potting the number 3 ball "Game on Captain."
He followed out switching off the lights as he left the rec room.
A/n
well I hope you all enjoyed this fluff chapter before I get to the big one and a thanks once again to k-nack7 for his help and i hope to get chapter 5 completed soon cause i'm currently in a fortnight quarantine with this pandemic and having to reduce my non-essential travel