Anthony
Wesson, Osea
December 20, 2005
I cleaned up the remaining pieces of plastic wrap off of the floor and placed them in the supply box, just in case they had another use. Most of the plastic wrap I needed was used to wrap boxes filled with supplies. These supplies were going to go to the Usean continent, which was reeling from the Continental War between Erusea and the ISAF coalition. Three years of war had damaged much of the continent and left many people homeless. This was in addition to the damage caused by the Ulysses asteroid, which broke up in Earth's orbit and slammed into Usea. The two events combined left much of the continent in shambles. Although from what I heard, the Continental War wasn't nearly as brutal as the one I fought ten years ago, which I might have taken as a blessing if I had been in Usea. Unfortunately, given what I had seen and what others saw ten years ago, the people who had been fighting recently have no idea what war is.
I got up and walked over to my desk where there was a newspaper. On it was the image of an F-22A Raptor with the number 118, a ribbon insignia, and the word ISAF on the tail. Above it read the headline, "SINGLE FIGHTER PILOT ENDS THE CONTINENTAL WAR." The article told of how a pilot who was known only as Mobius 1 singlehandedly turned the war around for the ISAF, from near defeat to victory, even putting down an attempt by some of those who lost from using a superweapon to rain death on Usea as retaliation for their loss. As I thought about what Mobius 1 had accomplished, I began to remember my glory days. It seemed just a few years ago that I did what Mobius 1 had done: turning the tide of the war for a nearly defeated country and ending said war. But I wish it had been simple. In reality, things were more complicated, and after everything went to shit, I decided that I couldn't fly anymore. The crazy part about it was that while everyone in the world knew the things I did ten years ago, they don't know me. I chuckled at the thought, before pulling myself together and deciding that perhaps my actual history should stay hidden. Besides, the past contains too many painful memories. Better to keep them buried under the events of the present.
"Honey!" I hear a voice from downstairs. It was from Laurie, my wife. She and I had met back in 1994, a year before I went off to war. We got engaged in 1997 and were married in 1998. Ever since then, we have lived a comfortable life. But even she didn't know everything about my past. It hurt that I had to hide part of my life from her, but as of now, I couldn't bring myself to confront my past. But maybe sometime later I would reveal everything, but now is not the right time.
"Are you done with the packaging?" I hear her ask.
"Yeah, I'm all done," I answered.
"Alright, I'm waiting downstairs, and grab your drink before the documentary starts."
I ambled down the stairs and into the kitchen to grab a beer, the TV already on the OBC (Osean Broadcasting Corporation) Documentaries channel. For the last several days, my wife had been dying to see a documentary called Warriors and the Belkan War. But with my aid work and her teaching job, we haven't had much time for each. But I had finished sourcing and packaging the supplies for the Usean refugees, and Laurie had finished grading whatever science work that Osean eighth-graders do these days. And with Christmas and the New Year around the corner, we finally had time for each other, time that normally would be hard to find. I got what I needed and headed over to the couch were Laurie was waiting for me.
"So," I asked Laurie as I sat down, "what is this documentary about, and why are you so obsessed about?"
"It's about people who fought in the Belkan War ten years ago," she answered. I noticed that while she tried to keep her voice monotonous, there was a hint of excitement hidden beneath it.
"I know, but that is a broad topic. You gotta narrow it down to something," I told her.
"I'll give the actual answer," she said mischievously, "only if you answer a question I have."
"Okay," I responded smiling. "I'll play along. What question do you have that is so important?"
"This," Laurie declared, holding up a medal. The wide ribbon on top was red with a black border, while the gold medal on the bottom had a triangle in front of a trapezoid with three lines on it. The moment I laid my eyes on it, my smile melted off my face like candle wax. "Where did you find that?" I asked in a deadly serious voice.
"I found this in our room, hidden at the bottom of a drawer, and somehow, I didn't see this medal until now," she told me.
"Why is this medal in our house anyway?"
"Well, you said you served in the Ustio Air Force and fought in Belkan War. Am I correct?"
"Yes," I nervously said, hoping this conversation wasn't going the way I think it's going.
"And top brass decided that you were so good that they gave you three medals, right?"
"Yeah, but-"
"Well, you forgot to mention they gave a fourth medal. But not just any medal; they gave you the Medal of Valor, the highest honor given to anyone in Ustio's military."
"Okay, but several people in the Ustio military have earned this medal."
"But only one person in the Ustio Air Force has earned this medal: the Demon Lord."
"That's insane. No one knows who the Demon Lord was, and even if someone did, the Demon Lord has never been seen for ten years."
"But, everyone does know that the Demon Lord was given the Medal of Valor by Ustio's government. I'm neither a history teacher nor a military expert, but I know a Medal of Valor when I see one. Oh, and it came with a certificate."
She took out a sheet of cardstock bordered with gold filigree. Placed front and center on the certificate in ornate letters was my name: Anthony Štepánik. Beneath it was a few words saying that I got this certificate and the Medal of Valor for "heroic deeds as part of the Ustio Armed Forces." There it was in black and white. My name on a sheet of paper saying that I got Ustio's highest military honor, which along with my UAF medals, could only mean one thing.
"I knew it," Laurie declared triumphantly. "You are the Demon Lord!"
Realizing that there was no way of hiding my past anymore, I decided that I might as well reveal everything. "Yeah, it's true," I muttered. "I am the Demon Lord. I would have said that sometime later, but it seems that you beat me to it."
"I can't believe it!" Laurie yelled. "I've been married to you for seven years, and you never told me that you were the most famous pilot that flew in the Belkan War! I knew you were a mercenary, but you never said anything about being the Demon Lord. How could you hide something like that from me?"
"Did you know what I went through back when I was the Demon Lord?" I responded defensively.
"Well, you said you saw people close to you die. We arranged therapy sessions to help you get over their deaths."
"It's more than that. I saw some of the worst things that people are capable of and-"
"Don't worry," Laurie said, suddenly sounding supportive and losing the hint anger from before. "You don't have to say anything."
"Really?" I asked, now getting pissed. "You were just yelling at me for not saying anything, and now you don't want me to say anything about my past? What is wrong with you, Laurie?"
"Because," she said smiling, "the documentary we are going to watch is about the Demon Lord. And now that I have confirmation that my husband Anthony Štepánik is the Demon Lord, this documentary by Brett Thompson is going to be all about you."
"Great, as if that's what I wanted: a documentary about me done by one of OBC's top journalists."
"Shut up, Tony," Laurie said with excitement in her voice. "The documentary is starting."
The TV screen went black and everything went silent, with the only sound being the wind and distant gunfire. The words "25 NOV., 2005 NEAR A DISPUTED BORDER" faded on to the screen. The silence was broken by a very familiar voice. "Oh, him? Yeah, I know him." The screen faded to reveal a man dressed in an ISAF combat uniform, sitting down and leaning on an AK-47 assault rifle. The camera didn't show the man's eyes, but I would know that voice and posture anywhere. "Larry," I said as I sucked my breath. Laurie turned her head to me with a confused look on her face. Meanwhile, Larry continued speaking. "It's going to take a while ... It happened years ago. Did you know ... there are three kinds of aces? Those who seek strength. Those who live for pride. And those who can read the tide of battle. Those are the three. And him ... He was a true ace." Then came Thompson's voiceover. "He was a fighter pilot they called 'Solo Wing Pixy.' He was a colleague of the man I seek." The screen cut to black as Thompson continued. "10 years ago, there was a war that engulfed the world. The Belkan War." The screen faded to reveal a grainy image of three books, two of which I recognized as FRONT LINE and GAZE magazines. Thompson continued the monologue. "And in that war was a pilot who trailed across the sky, and disappeared from history." The screen cut to another grainy black and white photo, this one taken from the cockpit of a fighter jet. It showed two F-15C Eagles equipped with drop tanks. The one in the back looked pretty standard, but its right wing was gray. If this had been in color, one could have seen that the wing was painted red. On the other hand, the lead plane's wings were black, but I remember clear as day that the wings were blue. Not only that, but there were two contrails coming off of the wingtips. It was my plane. "He was a lone mercenary who inspired both fear and admiration," Thomspon said as the screen zoomed in and focused on my plane. "He is the man I seek. And so ... with the words of 'Solo Wing,' the curtain rises." The screen cut back to Pixy, still not showing his eyes. "It was a cold and snowy day...," Pixy said as he began to recount our first mission.
"Wow," Laurie wondered aloud. "There is so much that I don't even know about you."
"Yeah, people say that about me a lot," I replied.
"Really? What are you hiding? I want to know."
"Alright, Laurie. It's finally time I told everything about my time as Demon Lord."
So this is my first Ace Combat fanfic. I hope you enjoyed it so far. More will be coming. If you want, leave a review, and I will see you next time.
