Date unknown
17:26

To the surprise of neither of the pilots, both of them were stripped of anything that looked like a communications device or a weapon and were escorted to what they assumed was an interrogation room. There was nothing in the room other than three chairs and a table. Maven was fairly certain that that one of the walls was a one way mirror.

Right now, both of the aviators were seated next to each other. The commander had gone off to do… something, she didn't elaborate any further on that to the two pilots. So the two were stuck in the room with nothing to do, almost definitely being monitored as well. Expulse had decided to catch up on some sleep after being rudely interrupted by the events that transpired about an hour ago.

Speaking of which, with nothing else distracting him now, Maven had time to properly reflect on what actually happened. There was the whole fancy blindingly blue light show that happened, which turned into a storm of sorts judging by the turbulence and lightning. Said lightning must have done something to their navigation because they weren't getting any satellite information anymore, nor could they radio the airbase, yet it functioned fine when communicating with those girls on the battlefield.

The battlefield was also filled with oddities. He didn't get a close up of them, but the descriptions of the forces sounded like something out of some near future shooter game. Tanks with railguns and arachno-robots? Railgun weaponry wasn't conventionally outside of a few specific jets. Besides that there was Stonehenge and the Chandelier, but those were on a much larger scale not even meant for combat.

And then there were the girls. Maven still wasn't sure what to think of them. There was no mistaking that there were supposed to be infantry of sorts, but barely any of them looked the part. All of them looked more like the anime girls that were on the liveries on some of the planes at the airbase. Not that he was staring at them or anything, but the girls looked just a tad bit too pretty in his opinion. Not quite uncanny valley but not too far off either.

Moving on from that Maven took a glance at his wristwatch which thankfully they didn't take away.

'15 minutes.' He noted, and the commander still wasn't back.

He would be shaken out of his thoughts as the door suddenly opens and the short white haired woman with a pink fade from earlier walks in wearing the same burgundy coat and beret walks in. She took a seat opposite from the pilots and intertwined her hands with each other while staring at the two with a poker face for a couple of moments.

Maven quickly shook Expulse awake, much to the WSO's annoyance as he grumbled and yawned before stretching his arms. The lady's poker face didn't waver but there was a small glint of amusement in her eyes before she coughed into her hand.

"Afternoon gentlemen, my name is Gentiane Camus and I'm the commander of this base." She began, "Let's keep things simple and civil. May I know your names?"

"Call sign Maven of the Republic of Emmeria Air force, 8th Air Division, 42nd Fighter Squadron." He replied in a calm professional manner.

"Call sign Expulse, also from the Republic of Emmeria." The WSO said with a tired tone, still waking up from his nap.

"I see." Gentiane paused for a moment, internally wondering what this 'Emmeria' place was. "And while I am grateful you helped out my girls, I still need to know what your intentions were when you were… flying over there."

Maven sat back and took a moment to formulate a reasonable enough answer that wouldn't end up with him and Expulse locked up in a dingy cell.

"Okay uhh." Maven paused, mentally preparing himself. "Everything I'm about to say is going to sound crazy but I swear it's the truth."

Gentiane raised an eyebrow but nodded for him to continue.

"So, um." Maven tried getting his words together. "My copilot and I were flying to a new airbase as per orders. However, there was some kind of storm that we flew into and uh." Maven paused for a moment. "We were struck by lightning which I believe might have damaged our communications equipment and somehow left us close by to wherever your… girls were fighting."

If Gentiane was surprised at the quite frankly ridiculous story, she didn't show it.

"And just to make it clear; no, I am not intoxicated and neither of us have hostile intent."

"We just want to go home." Expulse tacked on.

Silence fell in the room with no more further words being exchanged. Maven was starting to sweat a bit, hoping Gentiane wouldn't write them off as clinically insane and have them shipped off for a psychiatric evaluation.

"That is… quite the story." Gentiane said. The two pilots shot worried glances at each other, not sure where she was going to take this.

"Assuming that you're not lying and that everything is true, there's one issue remaining." Gentiane continued. "Namely being that I haven't heard of this 'Republic of Emmeria' before."

Maven and Expulse blinked.

"I, er… suppose we're not exactly the most well known country." Maven started, dread starting to seep into his words. "but there was a whole war about nine years ago. That should've been in the news, no?"

"Can't say I heard about that either." There was a clear look of confusion on Gentiane's face now. "The last time there was a major conflict was World War Three but that was 14 years ago."

It was the pilots' turn to be confused now.

"World War Three?" Expulse asked before shaking his head. "Wait no, hold up. I don't recall having a world war, let alone three of them."

"I take it that events such as the Lighthouse War, The Circum-Pacific War, hell even the Belkan war don't ring a bell?" Maven asked, already having an idea of what the answer was going to be.

"No, none of those sound familiar." Gentiane replied, confirming Maven's doubts.

Gentiane sighed, not expecting the questioning to end up like this. So far the aviators' were being cooperative and it seemed like they were honestly telling the truth. But none of what they saying lined up with what she knew. Circum-Pacific War? Lighthouse War? They sounded fictional events from a game focused on war or something along those lines.

"Okay, we're not going to get anywhere if keep going like this." Gentiane finally said before standing up. "You two, follow me. Don't do anything suspicious."

The two pilots complied and stood up and followed Gentiane out of the room.

Outside the interrogation room was another woman with a stern gaze, clad in some type of french maid outfit holding a G36. She and Gentiane had an exchange that neither of the aviators couldn't understand as the two were speaking in some other language, though it sounded vaguely belkan. But either way, it ended up with the maid hesitantly leaving.

Gentiane motioned for him to follow her which he complied with, assisting Expulse as they walked. Along the way, he noticed that there were a couple of girls from earlier around, shooting the duo confused looks but nothing more than that. They eventually came to a double door entrance, which Gentiane opened for them and ushered the pilots in.

The office was quite well decked out, with more burgundy carpets and an overall dark red motif akin to the uniform Gentiane was wearing, all contrasted with dark oak wood on the floor. There was a decent amount of furnishing, a big comfy office chair behind a grand table that had stacks of paperwork littered all over it. Some bookshelves in the back that looked like they haven't been touched in a while and a couch off to the side.

Gentiane gestured for the two to make themselves comfortable on the couch while she sat on her office chair, more relaxed than during the interrogation earlier. She picked up a cup of coffee which had probably gone cold by now, though that didn't stop her from downing the entire drink in one go.

"So out of curiosity, where exactly are we right now, geographically speaking?" Maven asked.

"Currently you're in Ukraine, specifically sector 09." Gentiane replied.

"Uhhh." Maven turned towards Expulse. "You're better with this stuff, sound familiar?"

The backseater shook his head.

"Hold on." Gentiane reached down to one of her desk drawers and pulled out a world map, unfolding it and laid it on the desk.

The two pilots got up and moved over to her desk, confusion quickly finding its way onto their faces.

"I shouldn't be surprised but…" Maven reached down to his kneeboard, sifting through the various papers he had clipped on until he found his own map and laid it on the desk beside Gentiane's map.

"Also, what is today's date?" Expulse asked.

"April 19th, 2064." Gentiane replied.

"…It was 2024 when we took off." Maven's eyes glazed over slightly as he unconsciously started tapping the desk with his fingers. "That's why we couldn't radio anyone…"

"Shit, guess we really did get sent to some new alternate reality." Expulse mumbled underneath his breath.

Gentiane cleared her throat, snapping the two out of their thoughts. "It's clear now that you're obviously not from here and have no where to go, right?"

The aviators slowly nodded their heads, cautiously curious to where she was going with this.

"I can offer you a contract under the PMC I work for if you would like. You don't have to make a choice right now." She quickly added that last part on. "It's getting late and you should get something to eat."

As if scripted, Expulse's stomach grumbled, much to his embarrassment.

"Yeah, We'll go grab something to eat and uh, we'll get back to you about the offer." Maven said.

"Good, because I need to go write one up. It's not often that we get new human personnel." She gave a small smirk.

The joke got a small snicker out of the pilots. "Alright we'll get out of your hair now."

The two waved off Gentiane with a small smile and left the room. It was only after they closed the doors that neither of them actually knew where the mess hall was.

"Shit, where are we supposed to go?" Maven asked, mentally facepalming at his lack of foresight.

"I think a vaguely remember seeing it on the way here…" Expulse said.


After many wrong turns, the pilots eventually found their way to the mess hall. Unfortunately for them, there were a sizable amount of girls around, most of them taking notice of the two.

Expulse tapped Maven's shoulder. "I'm going to take a leak real quick. Get us something decent."

And just like that, Expulse abandoned his pilot. Maven sighed, trying to forget his abysmal social skills, and walked towards the counter where a woman with brown-orangish hair done up in a ponytail with a big ribbon wearing a barista outfit was cleaning and polishing up a tea kettle.

"Hello and welcome to the official bar and café, can I get you something?" The lady radiated a kind aura.

With apparent unease on his face he raised his hand and was about to speak, however the barista spoke first.

"I take it you want a take away for two yes?"

Maven blinked, wondering for a moment if she could read minds. "Y-yeah that would be nice…"

The barista giggled and went off, preparing two fresh meals for the pilot with speed and efficiency he hadn't seen before in a café. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for the meals to be finished and the pilot was greeted with two bags and a soft smile from the lady.

"Thank you, miss…" Maven began but trailed off.

"You can call me Springfield." The lady answered for him.

"Right, thanks Springfield." Not exactly a name he would expect, but there was worse he supposed. He stood up from the seat with the food in hand and began walking off.

"Oh and one more thing." He turned to the barista whose smile was slightly too wide for his liking "I can't read minds~"

The pilot blinked a couple of times before walking off slightly faster, making the lady giggle. There was definitely something off with the women on this base and he needed to find out. Expulse came back from his trip to the restroom soon afterwards, whistling innocently as he approached his pilot. Maven only shot him a glare.

"Nice timing to ditch me, huh?"

Expulse waved him off. "Hey, I had faith in you that you could at least order something without dorking it up."

"Dorking it up-" Maven stopped mid sentence and shook his head, exasperated with the behavior of his backseater. "Yeah, no I'm not sleep deprived enough to deal with this, let's just go eat."

"Lead the way, flight lead!" Expulse exclaimed with shit eating grin.

They only ended up taking about ten steps before they realised that they didn't know where the dorms were either.

"Guess we're walking around for another twenty minutes." Expulse said with a shrug.

Maven seriously contemplated backhanding him for a good second or two.

By some sort of divine intervention, Gentiane who was walking towards Springfield's café noticed the pilot's and took a detour towards them.

"It only occurred to me that I didn't show you your dorms yet." She stated.

Both pilots nodded their heads.

"Follow me then." She gestured for the two to follow her.

Fortunately the journey wasn't long and soon enough they found themselves in what they presumed to be the barracks, which looked a lot less like barracks and closer to actual dormitories from a university. Stopping in front of a spare dorm, Gentiane took out a key card and unlocked the door for the two.

"And for you two." She pulled out two more key cards, which Expulse took.

"Thank you ma'am." Both of the pilots said.

She waved them off. "It's fine. Enjoy your dinner, hopefully I'll see you two eating with the rest soon."

Maven and Expulse wanted to mention that they didn't really appreciate the looks that they were getting but decided against it in favor of being able to eat sooner.

"Have a nice evening as well ma'am." They both said as they entered their dorm.

The two took a look around the room that they will be staying in for the foreseeable future. The dorm was more like a studio apartment, containing 2 bunk beds, a couch and a chair surrounding a coffee table with Expulse's stuff off to the side and a bathroom. Expulse closed the door behind them and tossed the key cards onto the bunk bed he claimed as his own now.

Maven placed the two bags down on the table and started taking off his flight gear which he only just now noticed he still had on. Whoever designed them really had comfort up there on the priority list. After the two stripped off most of their gear, leaving them clad with just their shirts and the upper portion of their flight suit wrapped around their waist.

The two crashed onto the couch with a groan, physically and mentally drained from the day. Expulse leaned over and grabbed his his food, not wasting any time taking it out of the bag. Maven followed suit soon after. While it did look very appetizing, he oddly wasn't that hungry now. He stuck it back into the bag for later use and leaned further back into the couch, staring at the dead ahead.

"You doing alright Mav?" Expulse asked, already halfway finished with his food.

"As alright as one can reasonably be in this situation." He said with a deprecating chuckle. "How about you."

Expulse didn't respond, making Maven worry more for each second he stayed silent.

He finally let out a small chuckle, though not it was not out of amusement.

"Could be a lot worse I suppose." He started. "You know I uh, I have a girlfriend back in Gracemeria. Though I suppose had would be more accurate now."

The pilot wasn't sure what to say, but the WSO spoke again.

"Ah well, it's no big deal." Expulse said, quickly finishing the rest of his dinner. "I'll uh, sleep it off or something. I don't think it was going anywhere to be honest."

"Don't think long distance relationships work out most of the times anyways." Maven replied.

Expulse nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah I know, maybe I could start again here."

"…You're already thinking about that?" Maven was surprised by the sudden shift.

"I'm just saying." Expulse shrugged. "It's all a numbers game when you boil it down."

"Expulse. No."

"Expulse. Yes."

Maven sighed. "Why are you like this."

Expulse bursted out into a laugh. "Alright that's the entertainment I needed. Thanks buddy."

"Uh huh. You're welcome." Maven deadpanned.

"That aside, I'm going to go crash." The backseater gave a two finger salute before unceremoniously collapsing onto his bed.

Maven stared at his copilot in exasperation, shaking his head before he stood up. He rolled up his meal and left the couch, turning off the light and climbed into the lower bunk bed that wasn't claimed. He shifted around, trying to find a sleeping position that didn't feel awkward, eventually getting tired enough to doze off into the dream world

Except he wouldn't dream.


Maven's eyes shot open and he sat up in a cold sweat. He sat on the bed for a while, trying to recall what exactly caused him to wake up so suddenly, but nothing was coming up. He grabbed his watch which he had left next to his pillow.

'1:13 huh?' He thought to himself.

He already knew he wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon so he quietly got up, put on the top half of his flight suit, grabbed his phone and left the room, careful to make as little noise as possible. Most of lights were out in the base, with only a couple of fluorescent lights here and there. Maven made his way outside where It was pitch black, making him use his phone's flashlight so that he could see where he was walking. He continued towards the airfield, more specifically to where his F-15 was parked.

With no real reason behind it, he walked over to the left side of the nose and unfolded the compartment which contained a foldable ladder. He climbed up and opened another panel which had the canopy opening system, consisting of a switch to open and close and a manual crank system. Maven flipped the switch to open, the mechanical whirls of the Canopy raising itself following after. He climbed into the cockpit where he proceeded to do… nothing.

Maybe it was some sense of homesickness that he wasn't consciously feeling, but Maven felt more at ease in something that was familiar to him. The seats were not the most comfortable things in the world, understandably so when they were designed to be ejected in a worst case scenario, however to the pilot it provided him some much needed comfort. Against better judgment he slouched in the seat and closed his eyes, slowly starting to doze off again, not registering the footsteps closing in on him.

A hand gently shook his shoulder, stirring him back awake to-

Bright glowing purple eyes.

"Jesus fucking-" Maven leaned away from the light source as much as he could within the confines of the cockpit, quickly patting himself down to find his phone.

"Woah woah, relax. I'm not here to hurt you." The pilot saw the hand reach out towards him again. He was not in the mood be taken away by skinwalkers tonight.

Or any night really.

"Yeah no, you stay right there please!" He responded frantically, still trying to fish out his phone.

To his surprise, the humanoid figure complied with his request, retracting it's hand and resting it along the rim of the canopy. Maven finally managed to find his phone and quickly shined the flashlight onto the figure.

It wasn't a skinwalker after all but one of the girls from earlier. She had short brown hair with aviators and was wearing a biker's jacket over some type of crop. He mentally did his best to ignore the fact that she was also really well endowed.

"Hey, I know I'm a doll and all but shining a bright light in my eyes is still unpleasant." The girl raised a hand to shield her eyes from his phone flashlight.

"Right, sorry about that." Maven pointed the phone away, still providing enough light to see the girl.

There was a moment of silence between the two, allowing Maven to calm down from the quick flight or fight response he had.

"Calmed down now?" The girl asked.

"Yeah." The pilot nodded his head.

"That aside, what were you doing out here this late at night?" She asked with a hint of an accusatory tone.

"Couldn't sleep." Maven answered honestly.

"So you couldn't sleep… and decided to come out all the way here?" The girl raised an eyebrow. "And I can tell that those seats aren't exactly the most comfortable of places to sleep."

Maven sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you believe me if I said a mild case of homesickness?"

The girl sighed, almost disappointed. "Why am I a part of border surveillance again?" She mumbled.

"Okay look, it was stupid yes." Maven started doing some damage control. "But at least I wasn't uh… I don't know, stealing classified documents or sabotaging toilets?"

"Yet, you somehow thought it was a good idea to come out here in the dead of night and try to sleep in this thing?" She fired back.

"Excuse me, it's not a thing." Maven snapped back, acting offended for such blatant disrespect.

The girl blinked before snorting quietly at his joke, a soft smile appearing on her face.

"Alright alright, I wouldn't want anyone disrespecting my bike either." She stood up and stretched her hand for a handshake. "Grizzly MkV, but you can just call me Grizzly." She said with a bright smile.

It only occurred to him now that they hadn't shared names during this entire exchange. "Call sign Maven."

"So are you going to stay in there or..?"

Maven stared back at her blankly.

"Come on, it can't be that comfortable in there."

The pilot sighed and got out of the seat, moving over on to the wing on the F-15. Maven laid down, propping his head up against the bump where the wing connected to the airframe. Grizzly sat down cross legged next to the pilot.

"You're awfully laid back right now you know." Maven said, slightly unsettled with how carefree she was being.

"Truth be told, I'm not bothered enough to act all police like right now." Grizzly started. "And besides, not like you were out to do anything malicious so there's no need to get on your ass, no?"

"Mmm I would say bad OPSEC, but then again everyone here is armed so I guess you can afford to be lax." Maven was slightly concerned.

Grizzly shook her head. "Nope, if Helian caught wind of this, I think I might have to get my ears replaced."

Maven snorted, he had his fair share of uptight superiors.

With the conversation ending there, he stared up at the night sky. The base must be a fair ways away from any sort of civilization because the stars were all visible. Back in Gracemeria or even San Loma, the city lights drowned out most of the night so he didn't get to see this view often outside of night sorties which weren't a common thing for him.

Maven let out a yawned and stopped trying to keep his eyelids from closing. Before he could completely knock out though, he felt his upper torso be lifted up slightly and his head was now on a much softer surface.

"Uhh… Grizzly?"

"Shh don't question it."

As much as he wanted to, he really couldn't muster up the energy to do so. Following her words, he let his eyes close and this time, the dreamscape felt a lot more vibrant and inviting.

Before he could fully go unconscious, one last thought ran though his mind.

'Wait, I should have asked about her eyes.' He mentally shook his head.

'Whatever it can wait for tomorrow.'


Yes I'm aware this creates minor continuity issues in the beginning of next chapter. Should be minor enough to ignore, sorry.