Chapter 1: Earning New Wings
"Hngh." A voice complained as a boy opened his eyes, he forced himself to a sitting position on the bed he was sleeping on and started to scratch his brown hair, a loud yawn in response to just waking up. 'Heh, the same dream about that night again, eh?' He thought as he smiled while remembering the events that transpired nine years ago.
"Seems so long ago now." The boy said as he yawned, turning his head to the window in his room he was greeted by the morning sun caressing his face. The young man chuckled as he started to remember what the ever loving general he met that God awful night said.
'I can only imagine the shit storm of paperwork because of your little stunt. And how they'll have my ass served because all this mess was the job of a kid.' The boy laughed while getting up from his bed. "So I basically got a free 'get the hell out of here' pass if I never say anything about the beach, the planes or wasting a military vehicle." He stretched his back and then started to make his bed. "When I woke up the next morning I saw on TV how the bastard covered the whole disaster up by saying a piece of debris from the satellite crashed on top of the truck".
This boy is Jack Hunter, a twenty years old Airman class serving in the Osean Air Defense Force. "Waking up extremely early again?" The young man thought out loud as he scratched his head while looking at the empty bed of his roommate. 'Guy sure likes being the first on everything.' He thought as he sighed.
Looking out of his window a smile adorned his face. "Well, at least it's sunny most of the time here. The first time I flew a storm came out of nowhere."
Ah yes, his time as cadet at the known base in North Osea was hell on Earth. Heierlark is not a fond memory for most Osean pilots as some of them hated it, Jack included. The base is situated at the farthest north place in Osea, the weather itself is why most people refuse to join the Air Force since they don't want to endure the subarctic climate as well as the long winters or heavy snowfalls.
His first time touching the sky was met with a heavy storm the weather officer failed to inform in time. Not only heavy winds started to rock his plane from one place to another but snow and ice was everywhere on the runway, it was a miracle he landed safe and sound.
"I got lucky there wasn't much ice on the runway, but it sure was scary to do it with the winds rocking the plane. God I hated flying the Tiger." He started to shake his head as he recalled the first aircraft he took to the skies with, the F-5E Tiger II. Small, compact and pretty maneuverable he could see why they used it for training pilots.
It didn't mean he liked it, but he had fond memories with it because of being the first aircraft to fulfill his wish of taking to the skies.
'Should've joined the Navy, I bet they learn on a tropical island while drinking margaritas and playing volleyball or something.' Jack joked while opening the door from his room, heading out.
"Heading out?" A voice broke him out of his thoughts as he turned around. Resting next to a wall was a girl looking his way.
"Ah, good morning to you too, Rose." The boy responded. The girl in front of him was his colleague and squadron member, Carly 'Rose' Durtman. She's a girl with short, brown hair serving under the Osean Air Force as an airman just like Jack, her pilot jacket open to reveal a white shirt.
"Already saw Connor heading to the briefing room, thought you were going there too." Rose told him as she joined him on his walk. "Your hair's a mess." She added.
"Ah." Jack quickly brushed it with his hands, trying to give it some formal shape, this made the girl laugh in response.
Both Jack and Rose knew each other for a while, having spent most of their training together in Heierlark helped them to develop a friendly relationship with each other; another lucky coincidence was for both of them to be assigned to the same base and squadron soon after.
'At least having a friendly face helped for the first days here.' Jack thought. "Why didn't you go with Connor? He's probably there by now."
"For one, I can't stand his ego and how he talks." Rose complained as she crossed her arms and looked to the side. "Also knowing him he's probably hitting on some girl by now."
Ah yes, his good bunkie partner with his reputation following him everywhere, Jack sighed as he heard once again his antics. "You know what we might do today?"
"Nope." Was Rose's response. "Target practice maybe? I want to keep adding points to my score."
"Oh? Still trying to beat me?" Jack joked as he laughed. "Hey! I'll beat you, just wait and see." The girl responded as she pointed to him in a challenging way. "Remember our bet."
"Yeah, yeah. Loser buys the other drinks for a week." The young airman resumed his walk as looked at his company. "Better have that wallet ready cause I'm drinking all I can when I win."
"Knowing you, you'll just drink one beer and be done for the day, Mr 'Lightweight'." Rose taunted as she got ahead of him while laughing.
"H-Hey! I told you that was a one time thing!" Jack complained as he almost stumbled when the girl mentioned his unfortunate day at the bar.
"Yeah yeah, you didn't sleep well enough and didn't eat anything before. Whatever lets you sleep at night." Rose closed her eyes as she kept walking. "One thing's for certain, if I lose at least it will be my cheapest bet."
"Argh! You'll see!" Jack ran past her to get to the briefing room faster. Picking up the challenge, Rose followed him in the same way.
"Babylon 6, this is the control tower. You're cleared to land."
"This is Babylon 6, roger."
An F16C Falcon cruised by the runway once again, this time slowing down whilst preparing to land.
"Okay, let's pull this bird down." Commented the pilot of said aircraft. Hitting the landing gear switch he felt the wheels deploying, the same way the flaps slowing the plane down. 'All right now, easy does it.'
Several hours of taking off to the sky and flying may give him the confidence he needs to know he'll land safely, yet every pilot knows to always be careful when doing so. One wrong move or calculation and it'll destroy the aircraft and worse, even kill you in the process.
Lifting the Falcon nose up, he readies the aircraft to touch down, a few seconds later he felt the wheels touching the hard concrete of the runway and pulling the nose down for a full landing.
Having the hardest part of landing done correctly, the pilot sighed as he relaxed more on his seat. "Nicely done Babylon 6." The radio suddenly comes alive as he hears the control tower praising him for another job well done.
Slowing the plane down he started to head to his hangar, some crew members already waiting for his arrival to do maintenance on the jet, some of them making signs for him to stop the aircraft there.
As the F16 fully stopped, he started to turn off the engine and lift up the canopy. Taking his helmet off, the pilot combed his brown hair before looking down; he could now hear the crew members more clearly as they rushed to check on the jet.
Finally jumping out of the aircraft he saw a familiar face coming his way, "Well well, you managed to land without crashing again Jack, congratulations."
"Oh shut up Angie." Commented the young pilot as he chuckled at the girl's comment. The girl in front of him is Angie Walkers, one of the ground crew members assigned to the F16 he flies.
He doesn't know everyone that works on the jet that much, he does know this girl more than anyone else because of her rash and upfront personality. The first time they met she was close to beating him up because of pulling a risky stunt and almost crashing the plane. Several people had to restrain her while she screamed a stream of colorful words at him.
"I can only pray for you to one day stop flying like a reckless daredevil and actually take care of your plane." Angie sighed as she crossed her arms while looking at Jack. "Seriously Jack, flying like that is going to get you killed sooner or later you know."
The pilot chuckled as he grabbed his helmet with his left hand. "Well then I hope I still have you to fix my plane and have her in top conditions." The girl's response was to smile proudly because of the compliment. "You better believe I'll be there to keep you up in the sky all you want."
The pair then laughed together. Jack was grateful that Angie was assigned to him, sure he could have a better crew member or at least one without a sharp tongue but he knows the girl is honest with what she says.
"If it isn't the man of the match right here." As they both turned they saw a guy dressed in the standard pilot outfit walking towards them. Resting his arm on Jack's shoulder he looked back to the F16 next to him. "One day this bird is gonna lose a wing because of your flying man."
This pilot is Connor 'Cupid' Townsend, Jack's roommate and squadron member. He is a guy with chestnut hair and a face that looks out of a model magazine. His combination of green eyes and a perfect jaw while always sporting his signature smirk gave him the 'lady killer' status in no time. It is not uncommon for rumors of him picking up girls everywhere to be heard, hence why 'Cupid' was picked for his call sign.
He once told Jack that he used to be a model when he was in high school as a side job to get some money, if it wasn't because he always wanted to be a pilot he would still be modeling to this day.
"What's wrong Cupid, angry that I still have the top score?" Jack turned to face his teammate while putting a hand on his hip.
"Pfft, yeah sure, that's some crazy flying you do for those points. We wanted to use 'crazy idiot' as your call sign but it was rejected." Cupid laughed while remembering the famous voting the group did for Jack's TAC name.
"So that's how the famous 'Trigger' came to be, huh." Angie thought out loud while looking at both pilots in front of her.
Ah yes, 'Trigger', his lovely TAC name. One he still hasn't got used to that much.
"We tried 'Dumbass' as well, got rejected too." The trio turned around to see a girl approaching them. "Daredevil too but there was already someone with that call sign on the base."
"Ay Rose, at least Trigger sounds good." Cupid greeted Rose as she joined the group. "It has a cool ring to it."
"Well, I still have an aircraft to take care of. See you later, Jack." Angie waved her goodbyes before returning to work, the trio of pilots started to walk out of the hangar to let the crew members start their job.
"I'm still the top scorer, Rose. Better get that money ready." Trigger joked as he fixed his hair.
"Yeah, only by one point now. I'm getting closer to you day by day." Rose talked back by also remembering what their bet was about.
"Heh, good luck trying to surpass Trigger here. He'll always get the top score out of nowhere everytime." Cupid added his two cents to the conversation.
The three of them are part of the Babylon squadron, this squadron is stationed on the coast of Salvador city in Osea. The Air Force base located there is next to the sea with most of the runway close to the shore. Everyone working on this base is at least glad they got deployed here with how nice the weather usually is.
"Trigger!" That voice stopped the trio right on their tracks, they knew that voice better than anyone else's.
"Captain." Rose was the first one to turn and salute their superior, followed quickly by both Trigger and Cupid.
This man was none other than Joe 'Cobra' Vaugier. A bulky tall man with short, black hair; he is the captain of the Babylon squadron stationed on the Salvador city air base and Trigger's flight instructor.
Known for his experience in the Circum-Pacific war, he took the job to shape the next generation of pilots to get the best out of them.
Everybody that had to work with him knows his extremely short temper when they decide to not listen to what he orders them.
"Trigger what the hell did I told you up there!? Remain in formation!" Cobra shouted at Trigger while pointing at him with his helmet. "Stop flying so recklessly!"
"B-But Sir, it was easier for us to just split and engage on our own." Trigger tried to explain his sudden decision on the drill they just had.
"I don't care what your gut tells you, stop playing like this is a shooting game and listen to my orders or I'll have you return to Heierlark and shovel snow for the rest of your days!" Towering over Trigger, Joe used his height to its full while ordering the young airman.
Using their time on the base, Cobra has his squadron perform on the standard training and also some 'unorthodox' ones. This time he decided to use drones to recreate a drill of several unknown aircrafts flying over the base, said unknowns would then turn to be hostile.
Babylon would be dispatched into two separate squadrons to these targets, getting a visual on them and recreate a surrender request to force them to land.
Trigger, being the hot headed guy he is known for, decided just when they turned out to be hostile to separate from his given squadron for the drill and engage on his own. Even though he succeeded in shooting down the targets and passing the training his captain disagrees with his reckless decisions.
"When I tell you to stay trail and follow, you stay trail and follow. You don't move on your own until I say you can!" Cobra reprimanded his trainee.
"Understood, it won't happen again, sir." The young airman decided to just drop his head and apologize to his captain.
"It better be, this is the last warning I give you." Cobra then looked up and nodded to the rest of the trio, then turned around and left.
Once they made sure he was out of hearing range, Cupid started to chuckle. "Sheesh, you sure have a way to make that man mad, buddy." He joked as he shook his head.
"You're gonna make his hair go gray before he hits his fourties at this pace." Rose decided to join in on his teammate's banter. "Ah, just cut it out you two. I feel like I'm gonna get yelled at again later." Trigger sighed as he scratched his eyes.
"Well, you better start to follow that scrawny guy's orders and save us the shouting session next time." Cupid commented as he patted his friend's back. "Seriously, I'm gonna go deaf before the end of the year."
"Try not to pick up the nurse while doing so." Rose crossed her arms while remembering the rumors around the air base.
"Aw man, you too? C'mon, that's not true." Cupid dropped his head in disbelief, even though most of the rumors of him flirting were somewhat true, some of them were exaggerated. There were even rumors of him hooking up with the base commander!
"Seriously, from three of us I'm the normal one." Rose pointed to herself, at that point both guys stopped and looked at each other and then they looked back at her with a deadpan stare. "What? It's true."
"You? Really?" Cupid was the one that decided to break the silence. "Rose, you literally told me the full story of a rifle when we met back then, even with details of where it was made!" Trigger added his two cents to the conversation.
Rose blushed at their remark while looking away. "W-What, can't a girl just like guns then?" She pouted as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah, one thing is to like guns, another one is to just know everything about every single one." Cupid sighed as he recalls his friend's addiction to firearms.
When they met at Heierlark, Trigger and Rose started to form a friendship while talking about what they like and so on, when they got to talk about hobbies Rose's face light up when she told him about the history of most weapons and how they were used. When Cupid joined their little group he also got a taste of what her craziness for them is like.
Coming from a small village outside Osea's capital, Rose's family owns a shop with some gear used for hunting; rifles, knives, even some airsoft handguns locals buy to use on the airsoft field they have on the outskirts of the city. While growing up she inherited her father's addiction for war history and also got to use some historic relics they used back then.
"I couldn't believe it when you told me the exact caliber you can use to fend off against a tank or a helicopter. Or even worse, that you tried it in your backyard." Trigger laughed while recalling that memory of them both sharing stories.
"Jeez, stop bullying me because of it!" The girl complained as both guys laughed by the face she was making. While she enjoys talking about the subject, she gets embarrassed when someone mentions her addiction to it.
"Well, for what's worth we're a couple of misfits here." Cupid commented while pointing to Trigger. "We got a crazy idiot-"
"-A girl with a gun fetish-" Trigger added while pointing to Rose.
"-And a womanizer." Rose pointed to Cupid.
The three of them then shared a laugh while walking towards the base. One thing's for certain, the little group is grateful that they get to share their stay on this base together.
"Ah, what a day." Rubbing his eyes, a tired Cobra complained while thinking about what happened during the day, he was sitting down on a small bench in front of a hangar facing the sea.
Apart from the usual stunt Trigger pulls every time he can, the debriefing of the training drill and some reprimanding from the base commander was enough to tire him for a while. So he decided to take a break on his usual spot away from the rest of the people.
Reclining more on the bench while extending his arms on both sides of it he let out a deep breath. "At least it's peace and quiet here." He commented as he enjoyed the calming sound of the sea waves crashing mixed with the wind.
At least he can enjoy the peace and serenity the Air Force base here provides.
"You're still the same lazy ass as ever, slacking every time you can." Suddenly his alone time was cut short by someone sitting on the other side of the bench. Opening his left eye a little he recognized immediately who he was. "B-Bolt!? The hell are you doing here!?"
"What a way to salute your superior." Bolt joked as he turned to look at his companion. "It's been a while, Cobra."
This man is Jackson 'Bolt' Callahan. He's a tall man the same age as Cobra, he has a scar crossing his right eye. Dressed on the usual Osean air force attire condecorated with several medals from his work on the front line.
Both of this men served in the Circum-Pacific war, they were on the same squadron back then. They first deployed together on operation Morning Star, an all-out deployment of Osean ground forces into Yuktobanian territory. They were the air squadron selected to cover them and maintain air superiority.
For the most part of the operation everything went on smoothly until several burst missiles exploded on top of them, destroying a vast majority of their ground forces. They learned by some interrogations in the middle of the operation that those attacks were by the Hrimfaxi, a Yuktobanian nuclear class submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles from a long distance.
Their AWACS told them to continue maintaining air superiority all they could, that an Osean squadron was already doing their part on that problem. Soon after a while the missile alert stopped and the operation was a great success.
After landing and chatting with the rest of the troops the subject was brought up instantly, about who was crazy enough to go head on against that thing and actually destroy it. 'The Four Wings of Sand Island' was the biggest rumor, then it came out as true.
This squadron was the spearhead of the Osean forces, they were deployed everywhere the situation was dire and actually accomplished the mission. Word got around of such four aces and everyone was actually fired up on thinking about meeting or flying with them.
Both of them got to actually fly with them on operation Desert Blitz, an Osean campaign to occupy and airfield and oil facility in the Jilachi desert.
Of course that was easier said than done, the whole operation was a mess of support request and enemy fire everywhere you looked, things didn't get easier when the Yuktobanian forces pulled a battleship out of nowhere.
Somehow the Sand Island squadron, or the 'Demons of Razgriz' as they were called lately, pulled the entire ground and air forces through with minimum casualties and they both succeeded.
They even got to talk with them on the ground when they landed. Ah yes, the ever talking motormouth they had with a 'rock 'n' roller' hairstyle, the shy but charismatic wingman, the serious looking only woman in the team and their captain.
'Blaze', the Razgriz' captain. A down to earth guy, he appeared extremely serious when giving orders to his team in the middle of the operation but when they got to talk to him they found out he was pretty chatty and liked to keep a low profile when possible. Even when he got praised by everyone because of his continuous support and protection he just said his squadron made most of the work.
They all knew that was a lie, hell, if it wasn't by him being practically everywhere flying from one place to the other his squadron would have failed.
He was an ace, there was no question about it. They all knew he could single handedly turn the tide of the war, but they respected how humble he was in giving praise to his teammates.
Bolt took inspiration from him to achieve even greater heights after the war, he got eventually promoted to Major and decided to keep pushing untill he could make Blaze's story an Osean role model for newer pilots.
That wasn't the case for Cobra. No, he was captivated by his flying, by his calls in the middle of the fight, by his leadership, by him. Blaze was the best pilot he have ever seen, he had every quality one would ask for when talking about an 'ace'. He had leadership, skills, agility and wouldn't break even under extreme pressure.
That was why even if Cobra was the best pilot and overall best candidate to reach even greater heights in terms of ranks in the Air Force from both him and Bolt he decided to be a flight instructor. He had a personal mission, he needed to shape the next generation to be like Blaze. He thought both Osea and the world needed someone like him.
"If everything goes to the drain, we need a new ace to take the mantle that guy left." Was what Cobra once told Bolt when he decided on not being promoted to Major or anything else.
Both of them got inspired by the same person, their resolution may differ but the message was the same.
The world needs a new ace, a new hero.
"What are you even doing here Bolt, thought you would be kissing someone's boots for a new promotion by now." Cobra joked while relaxing his body. His company didn't look hurt by his comment, instead he chuckled. "Well, we got calls about a bad-mouthed bastard that can't control his underlings and might need a replacement."
Even after all this time being apart they can enjoy a little banter between them.
"You heard about what's happening in Usea?" Bolt suddenly asked while straightening himself on the bench. "What they say in the news basically, tensions with Erusea and so on. Thought it was an everyday thing for them by now." Cobra commented.
Ah yes, they both knew about the wars that happened on the other side of the world a couple of years ago. Twenty years ago there was an asteroid named Ulysses 1994XF04 heading to Strangereal, noticing that a collision with earth was unavoidable Usea developed the Stonehenge rail gun to combat the potential impact.
Their attempts failed, several cities were destroyed by the numerous asteroids hitting earth and half a million lives were lost. The most affected by this was Erusea, a country located on the west of the continent.
Rising tensions between his neighboring countries and instability by the wave of refugee because of the Ulysses disaster led Erusea to wage war upon the rest of the Usean continent. The Eruseans used Stonehenge as a weapon and nearly won the war, pushing Usean forces all the way to the east coast; The Continental War was an all-out war that spanned two years ending with the victory of Usea.
"Yeah well, no one's crazy enough to use that big cannon now at least." Bolt commented as he pulled out a metal box from his pocket, opening it up he pulled out a cigar and offered one to Cobra, the latter waving his hand to say no. "You see Cobra-" the Osean major pulled out a lighter for his cigar. "-There are rumors going around."
Bolt took a second to exhale some smoke before continuing. "Some say Erusea is rearming itself again, something's fishy."
Cobra took a moment to think about what his company just said. "So? They're just rumors, never took you as one to take that stuff seriously."
"No, I don't need gossip going around me. I hate it honestly." Bolt admitted while smoking some more. "But these are not your everyday gossip, higher-ups are giving weird orders for a reason."
"You see, from what I heard is that we can't say for certain but something is going on with Erusea. They are at odds with us since we built that elevator back in the day." Bolt commented as he reclined more on the bench.
The international space elevator, a space elevator located in Gunther Bay in Usea. Proposed and built by former Osean president Vincent Harling in 2010 it was meant as a peacekeeping effort with Usean countries to help distribute solar energy to power plants on Earth. A colossal project but a successful one at the end.
The space elevator, or commonly known as 'Lighthouse', was and still is humanity's biggest project. For security purposes in terms of its own defense, the Lighthouse has two aerial warships known as Arsenal Birds. They are state of the art unmanned aircraft carriers that contain UAVs, missiles, a massive shield and so on.
With these two massive birds flying around the Lighthouse 24/7 one would have to be insane to try and do something.
Cobra just sighed as he listened to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. "They're just rumors, Bolt. How many times have we heard that the Yukes were going to pull like seven more of those massive submarines they have into Osea after the war ended."
"They might be rumors and a waste of time, but we have new orders to follow; hence why I'm here." Bolt commented as he turned off his cigar using the surface of the bench. "Osea is assigning new people into IUN, they want to have solid ground on Usea in case anything happens."
The International United Nations, or IUN in short, is an international peacekeeping organization. It comprises the Earth's superpowers and another great part of countries, they were involved in trying to end several conflicts since it's foundation and with the Ulysses disaster.
After the Continental War the IUN Peacekeeping Force, or IUN-PKF, was founded. It comprises another Usean organization, the ISAF, and a vast majority of Osean military.
"So? Just move people there and get the job done. We don't have a lot of good personnel here but they might work for what you want them to do." Cobra just waved his hand as he closed his eyes.
"Easier said than done." Bolt admitted while sighing, his friend just opened his eyes a little to see him better. "You see Cobra, after the war with the Yukes Osea lost a good amount of personnel."
Ah yes, everybody knows by now how the Circum-Pacific War left both Osea and Yuktobania with a great shortage of military personnel. There are rumors of Yukes rushing their nuggets to fill up the empty spots and still look as a strong nation, with Osea the problem is better known since the former president Harling came clean in terms of its numbers.
"We don't have that many people to fill in the gaps of another move to Usea, hell, half of that thing has our best men." Bolt admitted. "So we are sent to check on the nuggets that are showing good results on their training."
"You see Cobra, higher-ups have been paying close attention to the results of your 'tests'." The Osean major continued. "They have seen a pilot of yours pulling good numbers time and time again."
"What are you getting at, Bolt." Cobra straightened himself on the bench, not liking where the conversation was going.
"There are orders to take your best pilot, the one you keep praising on your tests and take him to Usea." Bolt finished as he looked straight to his friend.
"...What?" Cobra had to double check as he thought he listened wrong to what his former teammate said. "Are you out of your mind!? You want to take one of my younglings to the front!?"
This subject of forcing inexperienced people to the battlefield is extremely sensitive for Cobra. His little brother was a young airman when the war with Yuktobania started, he was forced to the front lines to fill up numbers because Osea was losing a lot of pilots.
He died on his first mission on Operation Vanguard, the powerful Scinfaxi submarine launched several burst missiles and he couldn't escape in time.
From that day forth he developed a resentment for being unable to save his brother, a pain he still suffers when he sees his trainees not perform up to standards to prevent that same result from happening to them.
"They need the best Cobra, that kid you have keeps showing promise." Bolt tried to calm his friend down.
"I don't care how much promise he shows, he's a nugget! No, even worse than that, he hasn't even got his feet wet!" Cobra stood up and lost the little temper he had left.
"Listen Joe, I'm following orders okay?" As Bolt called his friend by his name, Cobra took a deep breath and sat down; putting a hand to his head and trying to recompose himself. "I've asked to take this trip myself to see you and explain to you how it it's, you know better than me that someone else would just grab him and tell you to shut up."
After that both men remained silent, the sound of the waves being the only one thing that was heard.
"Is he good?" Bolt suddenly commented.
"He's not just good, he's a natural." Cobra admitted. "He's the best young pilot I've seen, I don't know how he does it honestly."
Again they resumed their silence.
"So you think you found it? The one you've been looking for?" Bolt asked with intrigue and a bit of hope in his tone while looking at his friend, the other just sighed.
"I don't know, he is not the same." Cobra just sighed as he kept watching the sea. "This one is reckless, extremely aggressive when flying, he's a hot headed idiot that just jumps the gun without thinking."
Bolt started to chuckle after that confession. "I see he has the same attributes as his teacher then, he only needs to start insulting everything." That comment made both of them laugh.
"Why don't you take me in, then? I'm more experienced than him." Cobra asked as they stopped laughing. "They need you to keep training new people, there's no use to move you just for a rumor I guess." Bolt quickly shot his idea down.
Cobra sighed as he rested his head on the bench. "I sure hate how this day is turning out." This earned another chuckle from Bolt. "Believe me, I do too."
"Jack!"
"Hm?"
As a boy was walking to a hangar he was stopped by a girl walking out of it. She was sporting a shirt dirty with some orange stains and other colors.
The day after Bolt told Cobra that one of his pilots was going to be transferred, Trigger got informed it was him the one that he chose. The next few days they let him pack his things up before doing so.
"Angie? What's wrong?" The young pilot asked as he turned around.
"What's wrong? One of my pilots is going away, that's what's wrong!" The mechanic pointed her finger at him. "Weren't you gonna say goodbye at least?"
"Oh, I forgot. Sorry." Trigger made an apologetic gesture as he scratched his head.
After he was told he would join the IUN-PKF his entire squadron jumped on him with praise and cheers. The next few days were quite hectic everywhere he went on the air base, even the base commander came to his room to personally congratulate him!
'Something about being the first airman she ever saw getting this kind of promotion so fast.' The boy remembered.
"You sure take your time to think about the one keeping you up there." Angie crossed her arms as she made a 'humph' sound while puffing her cheeks, this made the boy sigh. "You got everything ready?" She asked.
"Yeah, as ready as I can be. Honestly, I don't have that much stuff to pack though." Trigger shrugged as he decided to rest on the hangar wall. "Most of my time was wasted on Cupid and Rose basically forcing me to party at the bar.
Angie sweat dropped a little as she remembers rumors of all the pilots gathering every day to celebrate because of Trigger's promotion, some of them were wild to the point of saying they played darts with one of them having an apple on his head as the target.
"Aww, and here I was fixing your bird so you could take her with you in excellent shape." The young crew member tried to sound hurt by his confession, this made the Osean pilot apologize because of it.
To his surprise his F-16 was also being transferred with him to Usea. He thought they would give him a new aircraft there but Bolt told him he would use the same one he has on Salvador.
'At least that bird will follow me there.' He thought while trying to cheer himself up.
Noticing how sad he looked, Angie decided to rest next to him. "Something the matter? I thought you would be happy to be promoted with all the honors you did."
Trigger sighed as he crossed his arms. "It's just, leaving this place after all this time feels weird honestly."
"You didn't leave yet and you're getting nostalgic already?" Angie chuckled trying to lighten up the mood. "Tell you what, let's swap places and I'll go instead of you."
Trigger laughed a little. "You? I'd be surprised if you don't crash trying to pull up." This made Angie puff her cheeks red in anger. "Hey! I can be a good pilot if I put my mind to it, you know!"
"You're the one that told me you couldn't play a simulator because you crashed every time." Trigger turned to enter the hangar while the girl kept shouting colorful words at him after that.
Faster than him, the girl caught movement inside the hangar and got in front of him.
"Hey hey, no need to check on your plane. I told you I already have it in good shape." Angie tried to stop him. "But I just want to see it before I leave, I'm flying that thing with me there." Trigger responded
"Ah, but you know, the hangar's a mess, a lot of stuff is thrown around. Mechanic stuff, come back tomorrow and you'll see it better." The young girl still extended her hands in a way to make him leave. This time Trigger got curious at what she was hiding from him.
"C'mon Angie, what are you hiding?" The boy put his hands on his hips while looking straight at the girl, the latter just made a 'gulp' sound.
"H-Hide? Don't be ridiculous Trigger! What would I hide? A crowbar?" Angie tried to sound as real as she could. Obviously she failed and Trigger got even more curious.
"All right, now you got me looking at what's there like it or not." Trigger said as he walked past the girl, he heard a heavy crash sound before opening up the hangar doors.
Empty.
Just an empty hangar with his F-16 in the middle, there were several buckets of what he thought was paint around and some big tool boxes and other stuff lying next to it.
Laughing quite nervously, Angie popped behind him. "See? Empty as your head, now get out of here so I can clean in peace."
Deciding she was right, Trigger turned around to leave the hangar.
That was until he saw some hair behind a desk next to him.
Angie, realizing the same thing, tried to stop him but it was in vain. Moving the desk he saw a wide eyed Rose with a surprised face in front of him. "Rose?"
"A-Ah, hi Trigger! Fancy meeting you here! Hahahaha!" The girl suddenly jumped while scratching her head. The boy just crossed his arms while looking at her.
"Now what is going on here?" He turned to look at Angie, the latter went pale as he waited for answers. "Well, we were chatting about girl stuff, why?"
Of course that lie didn't work on Trigger, his eyes not leaving hers. "Really? Behind a desk?"
"W-Well yeah, that's how us girls talk." Rose decided to join in.
Trigger just looked at Angie, then he turned to Rose, then again to Angie. "Well then, you don't mind me joining in on the talk right?"
"What?" Rose got caught off guard by his question.
"Y-You don't want to hear the gossip we talk about, right? Like the air base' hot boys and all that." Angie tried to talk him out of it.
"Like who?" Unlucky for both of them, Trigger crossed his arms and waited for an answer.
"Uhhh….Cupid…?" Rose's jaw dropped at Angie's answer.
"...That's it, I'm turning on the lights now." Before both girls could react, the boy walked to the switch and the hangar lights were on.
He was expecting a prank the girls pulled of some sorts, he was not expecting to see Cupid trying to hide behind his hands and one of the Falcon's wheels.
"Cupid?" Trigger suddenly asked.
"Oh, hi Trigger! Fancy meeting you here." The other male pilot gave him a thumbs up with one of his signature smirks. He had a bruise in his left cheek that looked to be recent.
"Ok now, can someone tell me what the hells going on for once?" Trigger looked at the trio in front of him, before the girls could react Cupid coughed and got his attention.
"You see Trigger, after all this time I've come to terms that I like both Angie and Rose and we all planned to tell you about it before you left." Cupid suddenly admitted.
.
.
.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Do you want me to shoot you right now?"
As Cupid's confession backfired in the way of both girls thinking of killing him right then and there, Trigger sighed as he looked at Angie. "Can you please be honest for once today?"
"Okay okay, we had a plan and we have something we wanted to show you tomorrow as a parting gift." The girl admitted. "An awesome plan if it wasn't for these two airheads making a ruckus while you were outside!" He turned to face both pilots.
"Me? Tell that to Mr. Supermodel here that can't hide without making a sound!" Rose pointed at Cupid.
"Me? You're the crazy chick that pushed me behind the jet! I could've broken my nose dammit!" Cupid responded as he also pointed at Rose.
"Guys, guys, chill. What's going on?" Trigger tried to calm everyone down while trying to think what was happening.
"Ah, there's no point in beating around the bush now, is it?" Angie decided as she sighed.
Walking to the back of the jet, Trigger decided to follow her. "We didn't have that much time for a parting gift since well, you know, it was kind of out of nowhere."
"So we all thought: what would this knucklehead want anyway?" Rose joined in on explaining as she walked next to him.
"That's when we heard you're taking your plane with you, we came up with an idea." Cupid raised his finger to point to their surprise.
Looking up, Trigger saw what the trio was working on. Right on the Falcon's tail next to the jet's number there was an insignia painted; a fox with a revolver on his mouth and a ribbon with his TAC name on it.
"You guys….what's this?" The confused young pilot asked.
"Ta-da! Do you like it?" Angie cheerfully exclaimed as she extended her arms to the tail. "With how little time we had this came out better than expected honestly."
Rose nodded as she decided to continue. "Well, thinking about what to give you we realized you would be flying your plane around a lot so we came up with your own logo on it!"
"I remember you telling me you like foxes so we kinda started with that." Cupid added. "Rose wanted to draw it with a gun because it 'will look more badass'- " The girl scratched her head as they mentioned her "-And Angie was the one who actually knows how to draw so we gave her the final product."
Angie giggled at the explanation. "Yeah, your friend Cupid here tried his best and he gave me something that looks like what a child would draw."
As the trio explained their idea, Trigger remained there looking at his new logo. As he stood in silence they started to get preoccupied that he didn't like it "Well Trigger, do you like it?" Asked Rose with a sad tone.
"You did all this for me?" Finally the Osean pilot breaks his silence. "But why? You didn't have to go this far."
"Aw c'mon man, we're your friends. It's the least we could do to say goodbye to our reckless idiot as he crosses the pond to who knows where." Cupid added as he rested his arm on top of Angie, this made the girl look at him angrily.
As Jack turned around, he could see Angie fed up with Cupid and slapping his hand off her head, which ultimately made him lose balance and hit Rose while trying to regain it. This made the trio once again argue.
Trigger remained there looking as Cupid was threatened in more ways than one, he then started to laugh. This caught the trio as they turned to see him.
"You…you guys…" As he tried to regain his breath, he ended up laughing more. 'Ah, I think he finally lost it.' Thought Angie.
Recomposing himself, Trigger headed where his friends were. He then extended his arms and grabbed them all in a hug. "Thank you, guys. Really." He calmly said.
Rose was the first that grabbed him tighter to her. "Hey, don't get so emotional now. You're gonna make me cry here."
"Don't be so sad man, I'm sure we'll meet again someday." Cupid said as he once again sported one of his signature smirks. "You better be ready then, 'cuz I'm coming for your score." He said while pointing to himself.
"This bird got the 'Angie special treatment' now so you better don't go and crash it on the first cliff you see." Angie joked as she scratched Trigger's hair. "You better be full of stories when you come back."
The four remained there, not letting go of their group hug. Even if it wasn't for long, Jack enjoyed their company, if they ever asked him to leave the base he would reject it because of not having his friends with him.
Sadly that wasn't the case, he got orders from high above to move somewhere else.
"Argh, I can't do this emotional thing man." Cupid decided to break from their hug first, cleaning his eyes to hide his tears. "Look at you, trying to make me sad and all."
Following him, Rose did the same, although more evidently that she was crying a little. "You better come in one piece, you hear?" She pointed to Trigger.
"All right, that settles it!" Angie, trying to hide her teary eyes, jumped as she grabbed Trigger. "We're having a party today! Off to the bar we go!"
Turning around with Trigger still captive by her rather strong hold of him, Angie almost fell because of dragging his friend around. "W-Wait, I have to prepare some things yet." Jack tried to free himself from her, only to fail on doing so.
"Nah ah, you ain't walking out of this one." Rose commented as she grabbed Trigger's other arm. "Dammit, since when are you two so strong!?" Trigger complained as he tried to free himself.
Enjoying the scene in front of him, Cupid decided to spice things up a bit. "You know, I heard it's common for the one leaving to pay for the bar's drinks."
"What!?" Trigger almost stumbled as he processed what Cupid just said. "No way! You want me to go broke!?"
"Aw c'mon, just our drinks then." Angie tried to negotiate her way of getting free drinks.
"No! I still remember how much you can drink!" Trigger still tried to free himself from their hold on him.
"Well sorry Trigger but we're not all as lightweight as you when it comes to drinks. Tell you what, I'll pay for yours since it's going to be only one anyway" Rose joked as she walked faster, dragging the young pilot with her.
"Stop bringing that up, dammit!* Trigger was now losing his temper as his friend kept bringing his unfortunate day at the bar.
"Haha! So the rumors about you drinking half a pint and blacking out were true!" Cupid started to laugh at the sudden declaration. "Damn buddy, you sure can't handle it."
Trigger got embarrassed quickly by how even Cupid was making fun of him. "T-That was a one time thing! I didn't eat anything before and was tired!" He then turned to Rose. "And you! Stop bringing that up, dammit!"
"Whatever makes you happy 'Mr. Lightweight'." Rose kept making fun of him. "All right! Trigger pays the first round I hear!"
With the trio cheering because of that declaration and Trigger complaining about it, the small group of friends of Salvador Air Force base decided to spend their last night together enjoying each other's company all they could.
"Princess Cossette, is everything all right?"
"Hm?"
As a girl turned away from the mirror to her room's door, she recognized the voice she could hear from the other side. "Yes Margaret, everything is fine." She elegantly responded.
This girl was none other than Rosa Cossette D'Elise, the princess of the Kingdom of Erusea. She is an eighteen years old girl with blonde, short hair and blue eyes. Right now she was dressed in an elegant blue dress, tailored for her exclusively for the meeting she will participate in.
After the Continental War that Usea fought against Erusea, the country's provisional government saw fit to reinstate the monarchy they once had. This made Rosa's uncle the new king of her nation. After her uncle and his family were killed in a car accident, her father became the flagrant king of Erusea, making her the new princess.
This sudden turn of events shifted the way she was living, having to abruptly leave the school she was attending to be one of them.
Coming from a 'commoner' family, she still wasn't used to much of the life of a member of the royalty, she occasionally liked going on long walks on the capital of Erusea, meeting with people and talking to them. This made her the most likable member of the new monarchy because of her attachment to her people.
When she wasn't strolling around the city she was attending meetings or other political events, she eventually asked her father if she could take part in more of them.
She would like to call herself a pacifist, this was reinforced on her various journeys throughout Erusea where the Continental War strucked the hardest.
Although that wasn't the case for some time. No, after having several meetings with higher-ups from various branches of her military she was taught the true meaning of why the Space Elevator was built.
Having the Lighthouse close to her kingdom and several economic shifts happening because of it, she was told how Erusea is now silenced on their constant sovereignty claims over the Gunther Peninsula, one of their former cities. Cossette was one of the voices on several United Nations meetings, still claiming sovereignty over these lands and to stop Osea's participation over the Usean continent.
They never heard her claims, Osea still having the bigger voice in the matter while saying the people there decided to be independent. Cossette never believed that since Gunther never had any representatives and there never was a voting there to see what the people living in the city believed was the best for them.
Years and years of negligence and economic problems her country was suffering made her father, the King, and several Eruseans to plan the next move.
They had enough.
As Cossette stood up, she sighed. 'This is not easy after all.' She thought. Looking at the mirror one last time to check any imperfections on her makeup, she exited her room, several maids and security personnel already waiting for her.
"This way your highness." One of the guards said as he started to guide her to the room that is being used for this meeting.
Cossette nodded as she started to follow him, her mind somewhere else. 'I wish this could be avoided.' She thought.
They were currently walking through the castle the Erusean monarchy lives in. Looking around, Cossette once again lost herself contemplating the beautiful decorations and old paintings. She already knew the place and could walk alone there but decided to play along with how royalty works.
As they stopped in front of a door, the guards reached the door knobs. Cossette once again closed her eyes as she inhaled air to mentally prepare herself, exhaling she opened them and nodded to both guards. Complying with her they opened both doors to the large hall.
There she saw a large, oval meeting table surrounded by chairs, as she examined the room she could see how every one of them was already occupied by someone sitting there. This room was being used frequently by her father, the King of Erusea, on several meetings lately because of how secluded with the rest of the castle and away from 'unwanted ears' it was.
As everyone stood up to greet her, she bowed her head a little to return their salute. She could see on one end of the table her father waving a little at her and pointing with his eyes the vacant chair next to him. Noticing what he was trying to say she then walked to his side, a guard already walking ahead of her and pulling the chair a little for her to sit down.
As everyone was already on the room, the guards nodded and exited the place while closing the doors so no one could hear what's being said inside.
"Now that everyone's here we can begin." Said one of the person's in the room, standing up Cossette could clearly see how he was an old man dressed with a military uniform with several badges adorning his blue jacket.
As he walked to the front of the table he pressed a button, a white screen rolling out on one end of the room's wall and the lights turning off. He then turned on a projector as an image was shown to the rest of his audience.
"We've been planning meticulously, as His Majesty was told we've been sending out our 'packages' to the vital points we've talked about in our previous meeting." He then touched a button on his controller to show several containers stocked throughout Osean naval ports in the world.
"These 'packages' are prepared and ready for when we decide to start, they have been programmed to carry on with the operation with as little margin of error as possible." Clicking a button again then several images of drones appeared on the screen. "They are programmed to fulfill their mission and then head to open waters to destroy themselves with a self-destruct mechanism implanted on them."
"What about our main priority?" The King asked as he played close attention to what he was being told.
"The Lighthouse has been infiltrated already, its defense mechanism is already hacked and several blind spots have been exploited for an assault to occupy the city." The general responded.
Cossette flinched at that word, she knew what this was all about but she hated how bluntly he talked about it.
"Vincent is also there, he's doing a visit as we speak." The screen changed to show the photo of a known Osean former president, Cossette felt how only his photo alone angered her to the point of just wanting to leave the room. For her he is the sole reason why this meeting and all that will happen next is taking place. "The operation couldn't have a better timing than this." The general continued.
"Miss Cossette." As she was cut out of her thoughts, she turned to the one that called her.
She knew this person, she was Anastasia, a woman who's been working with her for her public image. Talking with her she learned that she was a school prodigy with a bright future for college but decided to pursue the army because it was her passion, after several years she became the head of the Erusean army's public affairs.
Knowing she got the girl's attention, Anastasia cleared her throat as she stood up to speak. "While we advance with our plan you will board a plane already prepared for you, we will have you travel throughout Erusea to meet with the citizens there."
As the image on the screen changed she could see a white transport plane, her country's rose emblem on its tail. "This will be your home for a while, it's already modified to have the best accomodations you could ask for. We have prepared it so you can also take your dog with you."
Cossette nodded, she already knew most of this because of being previously informed. Knowing she would be away from her family for a period of time made her sad but at least she could have her dog's company to enjoy the journey.
"With all of this said and done, we just need your approval to continue." The general ended his speech as he turned off the projector and sat down on his chair, the white screen rolling up as the lights of the room turned back on.
"Hmm." The King of Erusea then looked at his daughter sitting next to him, as Cossette nodded he then returned to look at the general. "This is the only solution we have left, may it end as swiftly and fast as possible."
The general nodded, turning to the side he commanded one of the soldiers guarding the room to grab several folders on a desk. As the soldier did as instructed he started to handle one to each person on the table.
As Cossette grabbed the folder she read the name it had written on it, gulping she knew now there was no turning back. Everyone was doing their part and she must do the same for the sake of her country and her people.
As another general stood up and started to talk about the folder's content, she just stared at the name stamped with a 'confidential' mark.
Operation New Dawn.