Jacob couldn't help but feel impressed at how fast this new model could go. Whoever it was that was making these planes, they were doing a hell of a good job. The speed and maneuverability were top notch. Although, it would be nice if it carried more missiles. They were still working out the weaponry of the plane, so they went with a low count of missiles and some QAAMs, a rather standard setup. Of course, despite Jacob's grievances, he was probably putting in a bit more enthusiasm than normal, since he was finally going to see some actual combat instead of just flight tests.
"To any allied units, this is Zero of Project Skyshard. Does anyone read me?" he asked into the radio. He wasn't picking any allies up on radar yet, so he hoped he wasn't too late.
"I guess the rumors of the Mercenary Ace are true then," a voice replied. "I'll admit, you sound younger than I expected. This is the Erusean Military HQ."
Jacob blinked. He wasn't sure that he would consider 25 to be young, but he digressed. "I'm nearly to the AO, what's the situation?" he asked.
"An Osean aircraft carrier came in not too long ago, launching two squadrons of carrier-based aircraft," HQ explained. "They already took out all of the ground units in the area, so you'll be on your own. I'm sure you can take them all out, though."
"Sorry, but I've got orders, and they're not to shoot them all down. I'm just here to buy some time and to test this aircraft. Don't worry, though, I won't let the capital fall," Jacob replied.
No reply came from HQ, so Jacob simply took that as an acceptance, and just in time, as the enemy aircraft started showing up on his HUD. As they said, it was two squadrons, both comprised entirely of F/A-18s, although one was farther away than the other. Jacob set his sights on the closest group of fighters. Just because he wasn't there to shoot them all down doesn't mean he couldn't shoot some of them down. Besides, the eggheads back at the base would probably have a field day with the flight data. He switched to his QAAMs and set his sights on what appeared to be the lead bird. The missiles found their lock almost instantly, and Jacob fired two of them. To the pilot's credit, they did manage to evade one of the two QAAMs, despite being taken completely off-guard. However, they weren't able to evade the second. With their lead bird down, the rest of the planes scattered, which gave Jacob the perfect opportunity to deal with the rest of them. One plane decided to make a 180 degree turn and fly away, so he accelerated to close the gap between them. Once he got right behind the pilot, all it took was two standard missiles to bring them down. After that, he turned straight up into the sky and rolled onto his side to make a sharp left turn toward the next closest target, who was going right for him. They already had a lock on him, and fired a missile, but they weren't quick enough to dodge Jacob's QAAMs. Jacob made a high-G turn to the right to evade the missile, which didn't have nearly enough maneuverability to keep up with him.
"Man, this thing works like a charm. Three aircraft down in under two minutes, maybe I should take them all out," Jacob pondered.
However, he didn't have long to dwell on it, as machine-gun fire shook his plane. None of it did any significant damage, it was done simply to get his attention, which it did. The pilot who shot at him flew right over his head, and Jacob immediately turned to follow. The plane he was now pursuing twisted and turned several times before breaking off, and it was then that he realized this pilot was acting as bait. Jacob looked down at his radar and saw the other squadron of fighters heading straight for him, with two planes flying much faster toward him than the other four. He shrugged and turned to face them head-on, deciding to humor them. After all, none of them would be flying for very long anyway.
After a few minutes or so, Jacob was actually impressed by these pilots. Although they were both skilled, one was clearly more experienced than the other, and the second pilot was much more aggressive than the first. Suddenly, Jacob put the pieces together. The more aggressive pilot must have been trying to avenge the pilots that he just shot down. Jacob felt a flicker of sympathy inside of him. At one time, he was in this pilot's same situation, so part of him felt bad about pulling the trigger. But he didn't dwell too much on it. After all, this was war, not to mention he wasn't going to let anything or anyone stand between him and his paycheck. Impressively enough, however, the first pilot managed to stay flying after taking a missile hit, although he broke off right after. With their wingman gone, the second pilot was much easier to deal with, although they still put up quite a fight. All Jacob could do was get in quick machine-gun bursts, but they seemed to be doing quite a bit of damage, as smoke started pouring out from the pilot's thrusters. Suddenly, Jacob was caught completely off-guard by a missile warning. Another pilot had crept up on him and fired two missiles. He only barely managed to evade the first missile, but the second one crashed into him, shaking his plane. Jacob quickly scanned over the displays in his cockpit for errors and let out a sigh of relief when he saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Damn, I didn't think this would be able to tank a missile shot like that," he said, impressed by the capabilities of his plane. "Let's see if this one can push this thing to its limits."
Jacob accelerated straight up, and to his surprise, the new pilot followed right behind him. He made several twists and turns through the sky in an attempt to get them off his tail, which worked for the most part, but they did an admittedly good job staying behind him, not for long, though. He made a high-G turn and looped around the F/A-18 with ease to get behind them, and as soon as he had a lock, he fired two QAAMs. The pilot was quick to respond, though, as they deployed flares and made a sharp turn to the left. It was what happened next, however, that caught Jacob off-guard. Their plane dropped speed dramatically as they pitched their nose upward, almost coming to a complete stop and allowing Jacob to fly right past him.
Jacob turned around and looked back with a sort of admiration. "You're quite the pilot," he muttered to himself. "I'll admit, it's going to be a shame to have to shoot you down."
However, he had bigger concerns, as they had just fired a missile followed by a machine-gun burst. Jacob tried to evade, but both attacks hit their marks. He once again looked down at his HUD to check for errors. His plane was showing minimal damage, but it would add up if he kept this up. He needed to finish this. He made the same maneuver that the pilot had just made, lowering his speed. As the F/A-18 soared past him, he quickly studied the plane. It didn't look too out of the ordinary, but there was a personalized emblem on the tail; some sort of crystal. Jacob didn't think too much about it, though. As soon as he straightened his plane out, he fired a standard missile at them. It quickly found its target, although the plane was remarkably still flying. However, its right wing had fallen off. Jacob looked down at his radar. The Arsenal Bird was just about to enter the AO, which meant it was his time to withdraw, and just in time too, as another F/A-18 had come back and landed several significant hits with machine guns.
"Erusean HQ, my mission objective is complete, I'm pulling out," Jacob informed them. "But I'm leaving you in capable hands," he added with a smirk.
He broke off from the two F/A-18s and turned back the way he came. As he flew away, he felt a bit of regret. It was a shame to have to shoot down a talented pilot like that, but even if landing with one wing didn't kill them, the Arsenal Bird surely would. It was safe to say that they weren't going to be making it out. This almost disappointed Jacob, but he shook the thoughts out of his head and headed home.
Deep inside Erusean territory, a small airfield in the clearing of a forest remained largely hidden from the world. While the airfield itself was small, its facilities definitely were not. Quite frankly, it was nothing short of a miracle that it was able to stay hidden the way it did. Up in the control tower, there were several people performing various tasks, except for one. An older man, with thinning brown hair and glasses dressed in a lab coat, stood with his hands in his pockets looking out the window. On his coat, there was a badge with a picture of his face that read, "Doctor Adrian Francis." Suddenly, Adrian's eyes flicked over to a white shape cutting through the clear blue skies.
"There you are," he muttered under his breath.
As the white shape came closer, its features became more apparent. It went from nothing more than a white blob to an advanced fighter plane prototype, Adrian's pride and joy. While a small, ever-increasing faction in Erusea's military believed they could win the war simply with their advanced drone technology, some were skeptical. In order to keep them in favor of the war, this radical party started Project Skyshard. Erusea wanted this war to be a sure win for them, so in order to ensure that, they wanted to develop a new fighter that would give them a technological edge; the Skyshard, as Adrian called it. Although, its proper name was the XFA-30. Based on the designs of the XFA-27 built by the Usean Allied Forces many years back, the XFA-30 Skyshard had turned out better than Adrian could've ever hoped it would, and it was still just a prototype. Perhaps someday his creation would grow to rival even the infamous X-02 Wyvern. Although, Adrian owed a great deal of the success in the Skyshard's development to their test pilot, Zero. Without such a skilled pilot at the controls providing such detailed data, the project wouldn't be as far ahead as it was. However, as Adrian watched Zero come in for a landing, concern flashed in his eyes as he saw smoke trailing behind his plane. Adrian walked out the door of the control room and down toward the runway without hesitation.
By the time Adrian reached the runway, Zero had already landed and taxied over to the hangar. After following the pilot inside, Adrian saw him climbing down from the plane.
"What happened?" Adrian asked, looking at the plane while he approached Zero.
Zero jumped off the last rung of the ladder onto the stone floor where lowered his oxygen mask and took off his helmet, revealing his black, slicked-back hair and green eyes.
He scowled as he saw Adrian was clearly worried about the plane than him. "Gee, it's nice to see you too," he said dryly.
"What. Happened?" Adrian repeated, clearly not in the mood for Zero's sarcasm.
Zero rolled his eyes. "There were quite a few skilled pilots. I took care of them, though, so there's nothing to worry about," he explained.
"Nothing to worry about?!" Adrian echoed in disbelief. "Look at the plane!" He gestured to the bullet holes and blast marks from missiles.
"I completed my mission and acquired data in the process. You're making it sound like that's a bad thing," Zero replied.
"It is a bad thing if it means screwing up the plane. This could take weeks to repair." Adrian sighed. It was pointless to argue. "You said the mission was complete," he asked, changing the topic.
Zero nodded. "Yes. I bought time for the Arsenal Bird and it was engaging the Kestrel II as I left," he answered.
Adrian couldn't help but crack a small smile. "Excellent. This'll send a clear message to those pompous Osean bastards that we're not to be messed with."
"I don't give a damn about your politics," Zero snapped. "Just give me my money."
"It's already been transferred to your account," Adrian said. "Now in your opinion, how do you think this new model performed?"
"Well it was fast and maneuverable, definitely more so than the last one. The only thing I think it's lacking in is weapons," Zero explained.
Adrian made a mental note of Zero's comments. "Excellent. We'll review the flight data and make adjustments as needed. For now, get some rest."
Zero nodded and stepped out of the hangar, and Adrian watched him leave. When his superiors first said they wanted to hire a mercenary pilot to be their test pilot for the Skyshard, he was strongly against it. It made no sense to him that they would hire someone driven by money for such a secret project, but then he took a look at Zero's record. Apart from his outstanding combat record for someone his age, Zero was remarkably dedicated to those who hired him. On a previous job, his entire squadron defected except for him and one of his wingmen. The two pilots shot all three planes down and completed the rest of their job. Zero's wingman apparently got shot down during another operation, so he was flying solo now. Adrian sighed, looking back over to the damaged plane.
"Well, I guess the mechanics are going to have some work to do," he said to the empty hangar. "So am I," he added.
He climbed up into the cockpit of the plane and started putting the data from the flight onto a USB drive and waited, sitting in the empty hangar in the cockpit of the plane he designed.