Jacob followed Doctor Francis out from the main base and into the hangar. However, instead of seeing his usual white and orange plane, he saw a new dark gray one in its place. It was a lot sleeker than the one he had flown previously, which was partly because there were no missile pylons on the wings, unlike before.
"This the new Skyshard model?" Jacob asked, circling around the plane. "Gotta admit, it looks damn fine. What's new about it?" He didn't look up from the plane as he spoke. He felt as if he needed to observe every detail there was to see.
"The most significant change, as I'm sure you've noticed, is that we've internalized the weapon storage, which should help with maneuverability," Doctor Francis explained. "We haven't made any changes to the actual weapons it carries yet, but we plan on amending that with the next model, which is hopefully the final product. Some other changes we made were in the balance of the airframe, the thrusters, and a new experimental engine." He gestured to the general area of each upgrade as he listed them off."
"So, by the next model, our work here is gonna be done?" Jacob asked, finally taking his eyes off the Skyshard and looking back at Doctor Francis.
"Yours is," Doctor Francis answered. "I've still got a long road ahead of me."
Jacob shrugged as he meandered over to the ladder to the cockpit. "Well, how about we take this baby for a spin, then?" His impatience was on full display.
Doctor Francis nodded. "That's why I brought you out here, isn't it? Last time I checked, there's not much work that we can do by just sitting around and gawking at it."
Jacob brushed off the doctor's dry remark and climbed up into the cockpit, slipping his helmet on and putting his oxygen mask up to his mouth. As soon as he sat down, he noticed that the seat seemed far more comfortable as well- a change he definitely appreciated considering how bad the last one was. It felt like he would always be sitting on a pillow filled with rocks.
"Alright, let's get this baby up in the air," Jacob muttered to himself as he went through his pre-flight checks. While he looked over his plane's systems, the thought of finishing his contract soon lingered in the back of his mind. It had only been a few months since Erusea employed him, but it felt like so much longer, especially the period where he was grounded thanks to the pilot in Farbanti.
Finally, he switched his engines on, and a smile spread across his face as the sound of the engines humming filled his ears. It was a sound that he would never get tired of. Although it did sound different from before, he expected as much on account of the new engine. All the same, it was still a beautiful sound.
Suddenly, a new sound filled the air: a siren coming from outside the hangar. "Zero. Do you read me?" General Shay's voice crackled to life over the radio.
"Loud and clear, sir. What's going on?" Jacob asked. He tried to look outside the hangar to answer his own question, but his efforts proved unsuccessful.
"An air convoy carrying vital cargo has come under attack by Osean forces. The escort fighters are reporting that the Blue Kestrel is among them," General Shay reported.
Jacob's heart started racing as soon as he heard mention of the Blue Kestrel. Based on the rumors he caught wind of, he doubted that they even existed. After all, he knew how rare a pilot of that caliber was. With their existence all but confirmed by General Shay, though, Jacob now hoped that they would put up a good fight.
"I take it you want me to get up there and save the convoy?" Jacob finally asked after collecting his thoughts.
"If you can save the convoy, fine, but your primary objective is to help the escort fighters," Doctor Francis butted in.
"The escorts?" Jacob echoed. "I thought the convoy was carrying important cargo. Wouldn't I want to help them first and foremost?"
"That's classified information, mercenary." Doctor Francis uttered that final word with so much disdain that it made Jacob flinch a bit in his seat. "Now take off, and if you see the Blue Kestrel, engage them. I want to see how this fighter performs against a skilled pilot."
Jacob took a deep breath as the hangar doors slid open. "Roger that, sir. Taxying onto the runway now," he reported.
As his plane slowly rolled onto the runway, he felt himself jittering with impatience, or perhaps nervousness. Although, he didn't know what he had to be nervous about. He was in an experimental superplane. He had basically nothing to worry about. Yet, the thought of the Blue Kestrel nagged in the back of his mind. He was likely about to go up against a legend amongst the Erusean Air Force, and from the way they told it, their skills might've even come close to the infamous Demon Lord of the Round Table.
The Demon Lord was something of an inspiration for Jacob. Of course, most mercenaries looked up to him after his feats during the Belkan War. What stood out to Jacob, though, was the compassion the Demon Lord showed on the battlefield. Considering how mercenaries got paid for every kill, most took every kill they could get, but not the Demon Lord. He chose to spare the pilots he incapacitated mid-battle—Jacob based so much of his career around the ace, including his honor. Every once and a while, he considered modeling his livery after the Demon Lord's, but he never actually did it.
"Zero, takeoff confirmed," the tower operator reported, snapping Jacob from his thoughts.
Jacob retracted the landing gear and climbed up higher into the sky, breaking through the clouds in only a few seconds. He adjusted his course to the vector specified on his radar and started increasing his speed, but as the Skyshard began to get faster, he noticed that its acceleration was far slower than before. Not only that, but its top speed seemed lower as well.
"Hey, Doc. Is this thing supposed to be slower than the last model?" Jacob asked.
"No, it's supposed to be the opposite, actually. How much slower is it?" Doctor Francis replied.
Jacob looked down at his instruments. "About a few hundred klicks an hour," he guessed. "Acceleration was a lot slower as well."
After a brief moment of silence, Doctor Francis finally spoke up again. "Alright, you'll have to continue on mission. We can take a look when we get back."
Jacob nodded, even though Doctor Francis couldn't see him. "Wilco, I'm Oscar Mike," he reported before looking back up at the empty skies ahead of him as he sped toward his objective.
As he got closer to the area marked on his radar, he repeatedly tried to raise any Eruseans on the radio. Each time he tried, though, the only thing that greeted him was radio static. He kept trying every few minutes, growing more and more frustrated with the lack of any response, until finally, he heard someone's voice.
"Please, help us!" they pleaded. "These Osean pilots showed up and shot down all of our escorts. They're coming for us!"
"Don't worry," Jacob assured them. "I'll get you guys out of here."
As the enemy radar contacts showed up on his HUD, he found himself staring in disbelief at how many there were. He counted 15, all various aircraft types. They all broke away almost immediately, all of them except an Su-35 and an Su-37, which turned straight for him. Even from a distance, Jacob could make out the blue on the wingtips of the Su-35.
"So you are real," he muttered. "Let's see what you've got."
He waited until he was within range to fire missiles, but before he could fire anything, the Blue Kestrel already got a lock on him and fired two missiles before turning straight up into the sky.
"You're quick," he said as he deployed countermeasures and turned to follow them. "But not quick enough." He shot two standard missiles at the Blue Kestrel but broke off as soon as he noticed the Su-37 barreling toward him with machine guns. "Two on one, eh?" he asked as he watched the Su-37 pass by and make a loop around to follow him. "Fine. Let's dance."
The Su-37 sent an HPAA flying toward him, so he pitched up and looped around to evade it. Unfortunately, he didn't realize until it was too late that his maneuver put him right in the Blue Kestrel's sights. He braced as they strafed his plane with machine guns, and he quickly looked over his instruments to make sure nothing was too severely damaged. Once he confirmed that his plane was still alright, he banked left as tight as he could try and get on the Blue Kestrel's tail.
"You two have coordination," he admitted. "But that'll only get you so far."
Jacob accelerated to get a sure shot on the Blue Kestrel, but just as he was about to fire, they angled upward into a cobra, dropping their speed causing him to fly past. As the Blue Kestrel came to a near-complete stop mid-air, Jacob took the time to inspect the plane further. He looked up and down the Su-35, but he froze as soon as his eyes saw the tail. Sitting just below the image of a kestrel that made them so infamous, there was a personalized emblem- the same crystal the pilot in Farbanti had on the tail of their plane.
"So you lived," he said, smirking slightly. "I'm impressed." He kept looking at their plane as his admiration for the Blue Kestrel increased significantly. After the damage that he did to them, Jacob expected them to crash for sure, but now that he saw them here after all the time that had passed, he had nothing but respect for the pilot of that plane, whoever they were.
The Blue Kestrel fired a missile at him as soon as they leveled out from their cobra, and Jacob made as hard of a right turn as he could, launching countermeasures as he did so. He quickly glanced down at his radar and spotted the Su-37 coming in to get another shot at him. Not wanting to be caught off guard like the last time, he pitched up and looped around to face them straight on. Jacob rolled his plane onto his side to make sure he didn't collide with them and started firing his machine guns. The Su-37 did the same, and while both of them took some hits, Jacob seemed to do more damage.
As the Su-37 began to break off, Jacob pulled away to distance himself from the Blue Kestrel before coming back around to engage them again. Before he knew it, though, the Blue Kestrel came up behind him and fired a missile before he had time to react. He quickly surveyed the damage before looping around in a kulbit maneuver to get behind them. As soon as he leveled out, he set the Blue Kestrel in his sights and hit them with a barrage of machine-gun fire.
The Blue Kestrel broke off and looped around to fire another missile at him as they passed by. Jacob waited until the missile was about to hit before outmaneuvering it with a high-G turn as he pitched up straight into the sky. He climbed to a higher altitude before making another high-G turn and looking directly at the Blue Kestrel. He fired another pair of standard missiles, but the Blue Kestrel launched countermeasures before any of them connected. Jacob was about to loop around and go for another pass, but a cry for help caught his attention.
"They're here!" One of the transport pilots called out. "We need help. They're picking us o-" Their voice was replaced by static.
Jacob looked down at his radar frantically and saw that the other Osean fighters had gone toward the transports. "Shit!" he cursed, breaking away to try and help them. "Hang on! I'm coming," he assured them, but in the end, all he could do was watch as one by one, each transport plane, and all the people in them, fell out of the sky. As the last transport plane went down, Jacob barely noticed the missile alert blaring in his cockpit. Two missiles crashed into his plane, shaking the frame and causing a new warning to start up. "Goddammit," he muttered as he broke off and started heading back to base.
As he got farther away from the Osean fighters, he noticed the Blue Kestrel tailing after him from a distance before breaking off. Jacob let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the enemy fighters withdraw from the AO, but he still felt a lump in his chest as he thought back to all the pilots aboard those transports. He might've been able to help them if he was just a bit faster, but he wasn't, and now they were dead.
By the time Jacob landed back at the base, he was just about ready to lose his mind after listening to the warning in his cockpit for so long. He taxied into the hangar and, as he expected, Doctor Francis was waiting for him, looking about as furious as he was when Jacob came back from Farbanti.
"Again!?" Doctor Francis asked as Jacob climbed out of the cockpit. "I thought the reason we hired you was that you were the best of the best?"
"I am the best," Jacob assured the doctor as he took off his flight gear. "But the Blue Kestrel… they've got some serious skill." He thought back to their duel, watching their moves play out in his mind. "They're the same pilot I faced off with over Farbanti, the one who trashed up the last model," he explained.
Doctor Francis grumbled something under his breath. "Well, whoever this Blue Kestrel is, they've seriously set Project Skyshard back, and for that, they're on my bad side." He started pacing around. "I'll have some intelligence officers see what they can find out about them, but for now, what happened out there?"
"Well, because of the engine, the escorts were all downed by the time I got there," Jacob explained. "I tried to stop them from shooting down the transports, but… I wasn't fast enough."
Jacob expected Doctor Francis to be furious with him, but instead, he seemed disinterested. "Well, the loss won't set us back too much. Especially since the cargo made it to its destination safely."
"What do you mean," Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow with confusion. "The transports were all shot down. How could the cargo arrive at its destination?"
"That convoy was a diversion," Doctor Francis explained. "The real one headed off in the other direction with no issues."
Until then, Jacob had been on the defensive, keeping himself from getting lectured, but after that, he couldn't bite his tongue anymore. "You mean you sent all those people out there just to die?!" he demanded.
"That's why they enlisted, to die for their country," Doctor Francis countered. "Besides, they weren't meant to die. You were supposed to save them."
"Why leave it up to chance?" Jacob asked. "Are they all just pawns on a board for you?"
Doctor Francis narrowed his eyes, glaring at the pilot. "Please, you kill people for money. You should be the last person to try and claim the moral high ground." He leaned in right up in Jacob's face. "Don't forget that I'm the one who decides whether or not you get paid. You're expendable. If you die, we can just hire another pilot, so do yourself a favor and know your place." He spun around and made his way out of the hangar, leaving Jacob alone with his damaged plane.