Disclaimer: I don't own ace combat, aircraft or characters other than the ocs.
New arrows air base
Usea
8:30am
Venus was laying in her bed dreaming about finishing a mission.
Over the Chopinburg forest
"Mission complete return to base." Sabine called as Venus's super eagle climbed but Celeste could see what was ahead of her.
"Vee pull up." she shouted over the radio as the super eagle overflew the nanobyte mound.
Venus pulled up as a swarm of silver particles went into the right engine which erupted in fire as the skin of the super eagle bubbled "These nanobytes are eating through the plane."
Venus could hear the sound of panels of the skin breaking off as the nanobyte hit the other engine sending it up in flames too. "Mayday mayday double engine failure."
The super eagle's right tail separated sending the super eagle into a spin "Strider 1 bailing out!"
Venus hit her ejector button launching herself from the aircraft before the wing separated and the super eagle falls out of the sky breaking up and exploding.
She raised her visor to see the nanobyte mounds collapsing as she drifted down towards the forest.
In her room
Her eyes snapped open as she steadied herself. "Not again." she had the same dream for the last week.
After a quick shower and getting dressed she stepped into the mess hall seeing the members of Sarf squadron and the number 2 of the lastochka squadron who would be leaving to be stationed at new ark airport along with Destiny who had been assigned to the sarf squadron.
Venus knew that Cyclops squadron would be arriving this afternoon to be stationed there like the squadrons were during the war that usea had seen 20 years earlier. She also knew that her father had been based here during that war.
Celeste noted her sister's distant look "Morning Venus you okay?"
Celeste could see that her sister looked very troubled. She suspected it was the same dream.
Venus sat at the table with Rena, Erich and Fiona sitting opposite "Just a strange dream that's all!" she said as Destiny and Celeste sat next to her.
"What was it about?" Fiona asked her wondering what made her so distant since she was very sociable in the morning.
"I had this strange dream that I was finishing a mission to destroy nanobytes when they infected and destroyed my super eagle forcing me to eject over the forest."
Trigger listened to his daughter tell her friends about her dream. He made a mental note to ask the o.i.a if neucom or general resources were experimenting with nanobyte technology.
"So Fiona I hear you'll be flying fulcrum-fs from now on." Erich said as Trigger sat down at the table next to them.
"Yeah better than those old a-model fulcrums that upeo operate." Fiona didn't like the outdated fulcrum but Trigger quietly ate his breakfast.
"So your mom flies a starfighter that right Venus?" Erich asked as Rena eagerly listened in as Trigger watched the flight radar tracker on his tablet seeing the starfighter was already airborne.
"Wait she's an astronaut." Rena responded surprised that they had an astronaut as their mechanic. Trigger rolled his eyes but could understand why Rena was confused.
"Avril is a starfighter driver on the airshow circuit here take a look." he said handing her a tablet with pictures of Avril and her drag racer. Rena looked through pics showing Avril with the grendel and garuda team and her starfighter in several different liveries.
"Nah I wanted to see some sci-fi things." Rena sighed feeling disappointed but Fiona wondered why the plane was called a starfighter if it couldn't go into space.
"My dad talked a lot about this hotshot pilot who he served during the war in late 2010s and if I'm not mistaken Trigger you were my dad's flight lead weren't you?" Erich mused as Trigger sat next to them.
"Yeah I was." Trigger told the younger pilot as Venus quickly got up taking her sandwich with her.
"You want to see mom's drag racer?" they nodded "Well follow me." Erich, Fiona and Rena got up after her.
In the hanger
Venus pulled the cover off revealing the starfighter which Rena, Erich and Fiona looked over seeing the fuselage forward of the wings was in very good condition despite the bullet holes in the wings, cockpit and both the air intakes.
"This is her drag racer?" The three were baffled that a mechanic had a relic form an era of flying that was long gone but couldn't help but notice the state of the airframe.
The airframe beyond the cockpit was a blackened soot covered skeleton with the only recognisable part being the leading edge and t-tail which was buckling downwards."So Scrap princess is this actually the drag racer your mom owned?"
"Its her first one but be careful the wing is razor sharp and the crash has compromised the internal structure as you can see with the tailplane." A voice Venus recognised as her father.
"Wait did you say this aircraft had a crash?" Fiona hadn't expected that the aircraft was in a major accident.
"Hi Dad when is mom getting back since Erich's typhoon need inspecting." Venus asked him immediately knowing what she was talking about since he'd seen airworthiness directive that had arrived on his desk earlier that morning.
"Well she's half hour away." he said as Fiona looked at the destroyed engine. It looked like someone had shot up the plane with a 20mm cannon and set the rear section on fire.
"How did it end up like this?" Rena asked wondering how such an old jet ended up like this.
"Well when Avril took this drag racer up on her maiden flight, she got shot down by Count's wife long before they met and managed to crash land but the crash injured her leg and destroyed the airplane." Venus told them having seen the documentary made on the accident that her mom had been involved in.
"So how about we watch the drag racer come in?" Trigger said knowing the other might be interested to see it.
Outside on the tarmac
The four pilots and squadron commander walked out onto the field, trigger easily noted the two super eagles and a fighting falcon "Qra scramble right with Celeste right?" he asked looking at Venus who nodded but had quickly put on sunglasses.
Destiny and Celeste were looking over the super eagles "Hey Celeste any problems with the jets?" Venus shouted easily getting their attention who looked up from her super hornet lifting her sunglasses up.
"The planes are good to go in case we get attacked by either side." she told them as Trigger looked around seeing a fighting falcon, typhoon, terminator and fulcrum-f parked up near the globemaster 3 cargo planes. He had been warned of small clashes between neucom and general resources and the iun and upeo had been trying to settle the tensions before they get ugly.
An older blonde woman was walking from a 2nd mig-35s fulcrum-f that had touched down minutes earlier who Fiona recognised as her older sister Cynthia "Cynthia over here!" Fiona called as Cynthia looked at her.
The pair raced towards each other hugging briefly and walked back to where the others were "Morning Major." Trigger couldn't help but be reminded of his sister who he missed despite her being in ustio.
"So Priest any problems?" he asked wondering if either megacorporation had made any moves."
"None but I did see a small 2nd generation jet approaching about 5 minutes out." Trigger smiled slightly knowing Avril was almost home.
He looked over the airfield as the familiar roar echoed through the air. "Well there she is." Trigger spotted the smokey starfighter on approach.
they shielded their eyes as the sunlight bounced off the jet which had a bare metal livery with the osean air defence force markings and the number 951 and the initials fg "Ahh she went with the retro livery form this time." Celeste, Trigger and Venus had helped Avril design the stencil for the aircraft.
To Fiona and Cynthia it looked like the jet was coming in too fast for landing "She's coming in hot isn't she?" the 104 turned onto final approach.
"No the starfighter needs high speed on final approach cause of the small stubby wings." he explained to them as the 104 touched down with a puff of smoke form the rear tires.
Trigger quietly watched as the speed brakes and the drag chute deploy form the warbird.
"A drag chute." Fiona looked confused as to why a parachute was deployed from the back of the warbird.
"Well older aircraft like the starfighter need a drag chute to slow down on landing and reduce the landing distance." They watched as Avril slowed to stop and jettisoned her drag chute.
The 104 taxied down as the ground crew got to work collecting the drag chute while Avril opened the canopy during her taxi from the runway. "Hi Venus, Celeste and you too Dumbass." she said leaving a smile on Trigger's face as the others confused as to why was she insulting Trigger.
"That's mom's nickname for dad, she calls him that as a means of affection." Venus told them as Avril parked up the starfighter and did her shutdown while the ground crew did their checks the put covers on the inlet and leading edge.
"So Trigger what needs doing?" Avril looked at the typhoon.
"Well honey the typhoon need an inspection of its ej200 turbofans." she climbed out of the warbird with her helmet in hand kissing Trigger who returned the brief kiss while the ground crew put covers on the leading edge.
"Well after I have my post flight nap I'll get started on them." She handed Trigger her helmet as the ground crew towed the warbird to her hangar.
Four hours later
Avril had finished installing the ej200 turbofans back into Erich's typhoon when Venus and Celeste walked in.
"Mom I've been meaning to ask how did you and dad meet?" both had often wondered how her parents met up but never had the chance to ask them.
"Well it all started with that wrecked starfighter I and your great-grandfather and his war buddies rebuilt which lasted 8 years although in my adrenaline filled rush to take to the sky I'd forgot to install a radio or transponder aboard and got shot down by an osean fighter but after I managed to crash land I was arrested for violations of wartime aviation laws and sent to Zapland."
Avril was occupied telling the story that she didn't notice Trigger had entered the hangar. "Only a month later your dumbass father was sent there after being falsely convicted of killing the former osean president Harling and what do you want dumbass?"
Trigger walked in carrying a water bottle. "Hey Scrap queen catch." Avril looked up seeing her husband throw the bottle which she caught very quickly.
"So Scott the Typhoon's engines are fine I could find no problem with the compressor blades so Erich can get his jet later on."
"Well Avie honey I'm taking you out for dinner tonight." he had planned this weeks ago but due to all the paperwork and meetings and Avril going to air shows he hadn't had the time to tell her.
"Go Mom you and Dad should have some alone time me and the others can handle things here." Celeste and Venus watched as c-17 prepared for take-off.
"I'll pick you up at 7." He told her as the roar of the c-17 filled the air as the osean transport took off.
An hour later
Venus and Celeste were standing on the new arrows tower as the Sarf squadron taxied to the runway "So Vee did anyone in Cyclops catch your eye?" Celeste looked over the field seeing four super eagles on the tarmac.
"Cel stop." she playfully thumped her sister's shoulder as the Terminator and Typhoon took off. The fighting falcon got into position on the runway.
Trigger and Avril were watching on the ground as the f-16 took off "So there they go."
Venus looked at Celeste "Sis if my dream becomes reality…." Celeste placed a finger on her lip.
"If you get shot down I will do my damnedest to get you home alive." Celeste hugged her sister tightly.
"Vee's been having dreams about a mission to destroy nanobytes and gets shot down by them." Trigger explained to Avril as the lastochka squadron fulcrum-fs got airborne.
Later that evening
Trigger and Avril were seated at a window table enjoyed their dinner "So how was the air show?" Trigger wondered although he and Venus had watched a live stream of the show at the base.
"It was great I got to see a load of neucom and general resources planes I think my favourite was the proposed three delphinus aircraft that neucom were developing to replace the ageing generation 4 and 5 combat jets they currently use but they suffered a major setback when their chief researcher Cynthia Fitzgerald up and quit."
"Well I had asked her why she left and she said that she left cause she felt disconnected with neucom when they started pushing her to develop more r-series planes but in the rush to develop more aircraft the prototype Sepia crashed."
Trigger had seen the accident on the news and the fallout form the crash had been hard on the team and it was big news when Cynthia resigned from neucom in the wake of the crash.
"Did any of neucom or general resource engineers look over the drag racer?" Trigger knew the f-104s were hard to maintain and last he checked Avril's spare parts supply was good enough for a few more years.
"Yeah they were surprised that a gen 2 jet was still flying." Avril looked at Trigger with a raised eyebrow.
"Really?" Trigger who was not surprised since Avril's starfighter was one of the last privately operated starfighters.
"What else was there?" Trigger wondered what else she had seen since she hadn't gotten her photos from the show developed yet.
"There was a general resource kc-777 tanker and lancer bombers and a pair of raptors and felons." Avril had gotten the chance to look inside the tanker and do a flyby with it during the air show.
"Neucom demonstrated a tank drop with an mbt with a candid transport." Trigger wasn't expecting that a candid would be sent since they were old yuke transports that neucom had bought and neucom were developing a replacement for the old yuke cargo planes.
"So how about we enjoy our meal?" Trigger could tell Avril was hungry after all the flying and maintenance work she'd done during the day.
The pair quickly got down to eating their meals.
Several hours later
Avril stepped into her bedroom seeing Trigger laying in bed she pulls her clothes off slipping into bed next to Trigger "Good night my dumbass."
A/n
I hope you all enjoyed this oneshot cause I'm not sure where to go with the Ac3 characters since Ace combat 3 has no in canon events due to it being a simulation so I can't be sure if its even canon or not and this one shot is not connected to the post ac7 timeline I'm doing from meeting of aces
so I'll see you all next time