-1Ace Combat: Restitution
An Ace Combat (fanfic/short story) brought on by
playing Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat Zero until
six o' clock in the morning for three days in a row
(Written by The Great and Powerful Keski)
- - -
Part Two
- - -
Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
- - -
"Buddy… I've found a reason to fight."
…And again, Larry's words chased me through my own mind. No matter how I tried to get away from them, they kept coming back to me as I sat here, late at night, inside one of two lounge areas at Valais Air Base. Everything he said those fifteen years ago—and everything he'd said yesterday.
"This is where we go our separate ways."
Why had he ever gotten involved in A World With No Boundaries? If he'd never thrown his lot in with them, we might still be flying together. Of course, it wasn't as if they'd stolen him against his will.
And the motives of that organization weren't all that malicious, either. They'd been sick and tired of all the conflict, the war, the fighting, the chaos that sprung up from all the lines between countries. They'd thought that if those lines were erased, if the entire world became united under one flag, perhaps…
…Perhaps what? Even if the lines were wiped off of a map, they'd still be there in peoples' minds. North Osea—what we called North Osea—was a prime example of that. During the Belkan War, that land had been captured by Osea, though it used to be Belkan territory. But any local today would still tell you that it was South Belka.
The lines on a map wouldn't change anything. Not for the better, anyway. What A World With No Boundaries didn't understand was that the lines they needed to erase were the lines in peoples' minds.
But it did nobody any good to reminisce over the past. Whatever was going on now was new, fresh, and I had to be ready for it.
"Hey, Cipher," Kei said as she came up behind me and set a cup of steaming tea on the table beside my chair. She was holding another cup, and took a sip from it as she took a seat several paces away.
It felt strange for her to be using my old call sign, here on the ground. But what else was there? Even at the time of the Belkan War, I hadn't remembered if I'd ever had a name.
What was I? Would I ever know?
"Thinking hard?" Kei said. I looked over at her. She was beautiful, but far from innocent. One look at those eyes, and it was clear that she had seen indescribable horrors.
"Yeah. Just… Remembering the war."
"Which one?" she said, and I smiled.
"The Belkan War, at the moment. The man I was talking to over the radio yesterday… It was Larry Foulke. He was my wingman for more than half of the Belkan War. Then he left. Just flew off at the end of a mission, and we didn't hear from him for six months." I picked up the tea and held it in both hands, letting the heat seep into my cold flesh. "He turned out to be the boss character in that game. The war ended after I shot him down. Nine years later—that's six years ago—there was the war between Erusea and Usea. I fought for ISAF, the Usean Air Force. All those years, I'd thought Larry died that day, after I shot him down. Turns out he's still alive. And he's still a bad guy."
"I see," was all she said. I put the cup of tea to my lips and managed to swallow a bit of it. Then I put the cup down and closed my eyes.
I was tired. I couldn't see clearly anymore, could barely think. "I've got to go to sleep," I said quietly. I stood up and took a deep breath. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Nagase."
She didn't respond.
- - -
"Ah! It feels good to be up in the air after a day of loafing around on the ground." I smiled at her words.
Nagase was on my right wing in her F-16C, while I now flew my personal favourite plane, an SU-37 I'd been flying since the Belkan War. This plane had seen one of the seven Belkan nuclear attacks, and it had witnessed the destructions of Excalibur, Hresvelgr, V2, Stonehenge, Megalith, the Scinfaxi, the Hrimfaxi, the Arkbird, the control facility of the SOLG, and finally, the SOLG itself.
Both of our planes were fully armed, of course. In a way, we were only up in the air in hopes of eliciting some action from our unseen enemies.
"Yes, it certainly does." I pulled a few manoeuvres for the fun of it; nothing too extravagant, but enough to get the rush of speed that I had always loved when I flew.
"We've plenty of time," she said, "since it isn't as if we're attacking anything. Let's head west, across the ocean, to Cruik Fortress."
"We'll have to refuel along the way, and more than once."
"And? Like I said, we have time."
So we went. And I was right; we flew first to Eaglin and stopped at a military airport there to refuel, then continued on southwest to Sand Island. Ah, more memories, and these ones were fresh—only a few months old. But we refuelled and continued our journey across the Ceres Ocean. We were passing over a cloudless Glubina when I noticed something strange. There were dark clouds on the horizon before us, and as I stared, I realized that the clouds blanketed the horizon all around us. I figured I was getting tired, because I was beginning to hear things: faint whisperings. Nothing discernable, but still, it sounded like voices.
"Nagase," I said.
"Yes?"
"Look at the horizon. There's a storm brewing."
"I see it."
"Do you know where we are?"
"Glubina. We're practically on top of the POW camp we liberated last November."
The clouds were encroaching upon us, and fast. Impossibly fast. They would be above us in a matter of moments.
"If we can just get through this…" I thought it had been Nagase, faintly over the radio, but she said nothing else. I attributed it to my imagination and forgot about it.
I took in a deep breath. "This is where you were shot down, Nagase."
The clouds all around had finally come together and blanketed the area. Rain flew in all directions, and the wind was fierce. Just moments ago, the sky had been perfectly clear. My hands were stiff on the flight stick.
"We're taking the POWs outside. Can you see their smiling faces?" It had been weak and there was a lot of static, but I'd definitely heard it. And I remembered hearing that voice before. More whispers, but it was difficult to pluck individual voices out of the noise.
"Nagase—" I was cut off by her voice, but she wasn't talking to me.
"Is Captain Bartlett there? Check for a Captain Bartlett." Nagase's voice. I saw her plane pull away from me and head toward where the POW camp had been.
"Hmm, no… nobody named Bartlett here. Hey, what about you?" I knew that voice. It belonged to the pilot of a Sea Goblin helicopter. And I'd heard those exact words a month and a half ago.
"Nope, not here. None of the other POWs ever heard of him, either."
Nagase's voice again, still faint and difficult to hear properly: "But that can't… look, just check for me one more time!"
Then Nagase's plane jerked and pulled up sharply.
"…Missile alert!" I heard her say clearly, with barely any static. I swung around, but there was nothing I could do except watch as, in a cold re-enactment of what had happened last November, a missile erupted as if from nowhere and, despite her efforts to evade it, Nagase was shot down. I saw the brief flare of fabric as a parachute opened, but I knew I couldn't do anything. That, however, is where the resemblance to Operation: Backhaul ended.
"…It's winding down, Blaze. Soon there will be nothing left." It was Larry's voice over the radio again.
"What's happening?" I demanded. "You did this, somehow!"
"I didn't do this. You're doing it, Blaze. You're doing all of it."
I snarled. Larry could go to hell, for all I cared. Nagase was in danger and…
…and this was all insane. This was exactly what had happened here last November, after we'd liberated the POW camp. Chopper and Archer weren't here now, but…
I heard voices again. I listened carefully and was able to pick out a few individual voices louder than the rest. It was Chopper and Archer. They were frustrated that they couldn't help Nagase until weather conditions improved. The Sea Goblin team agreed. But none of them were anywhere in sight.
"I've got to get back to Valais," I muttered, and turned around to head in that direction. "Something's gone horribly wrong."
"If you think it'll help," Larry chuckled. His voice was frighteningly clear over the radio. "If you think it will really help," he said, "you go ahead and fly wherever you please. It won't be long now. It won't be very long at all…"
"Nagase," I said over the radio. There was a burst of static, but she didn't respond. "Nagase!"
"She's dead," Larry said.
"But that's not—Look, when we were here before, during Operation: Backhaul, on November 17th of last year, she was shot down by an enemy SAM and survived the crash. Damn it, we rescued her the next day! This is exactly the same, so—"
"It isn't the same, Blaze. It isn't the same at all! You had three wingmen, and the Sea Goblin choppers were here, and—"
"Yes, but it's still the same. The voices, and the angle of the missile, it's all the same."
"Blaze, the SAM didn't kill her. You did."
"I—That doesn't make any sense, Larry. And why are you calling me Blaze?"
"It will make perfect sense soon. Just try to go back to Valais, Blaze. Just try. Fly as fast as you can. I want to see how far you actually get before you are completely consumed."
He began to laugh again. I wheeled my plane around eastward. I pushed the throttle up to the maximum and leant back in my seat, letting my eyes drift shut.
There was an airfield in Dresdene, not too far southeast of here, on the way back to Valais. I would stop there and refuel, maybe rest a bit, and then head on back to Valais, refuelling at the same stops as before—Sand Island and Eaglin.
I didn't know it yet, but I was never to reach Dresdene. My nightmare would end soon, but as of yet, it was only beginning. First, I had to revisit the war of six years ago.
