1995.
Once again, war has broken out. The Principality of Belka has begun invading their neighbours, including the smaller country of Ustio, who have joined forces with the much larger and more powerful nation, Osea, who borders Belka to the west. Together with the other nations Belka has attacked, they all combine into the Allied Forces, and their Kansen force is codenamed as the Azur Lane Project.
The Kansen in question are Osea's 3rd Fleet, made up of Kansen of three Aircraft Carriers, one Cruiser, three guided-missile Destroyers and an intel vessel. They are accompanied by a few non-Kansen, human-crewed warships. The youngest of the 3 Carrier Kansen is on her first voyage and mission, and is quite nervous. The fleet is sailing to a vital canal the Belkans have taken over and they are going to take it back.
Not being able to have her fellow, elder Carriers with her for this mission as Vulture and Buzzard are needed elsewhere, the newer Kansen feels her nerves starting to get the better of her, but luckily she has her Commander with her, who puts his hand on her shoulder to calm her. He says, "Don't worry, Kestrel. Galm Team are with us."
"Galm… Team?" Kestrel looks at him.
"Yeah, the two funky looking F-15s taking off right now? They're a couple of mercenaries Ustio hired to help them. They racked up quite a kill count even before fighting the Belkans. With them on our side, I'm sure you'll be just fine. They even had the choice of three operations in this campaign, and they chose to protect you and the rest of the fleet."
His reassurance seems to work as Kestral takes a deep breath and smiles at him "Thank you, Commander Weeker. I feel a lot better now. I'm sorry for being scared."
"It's alright, Kestrel. It's okay to feel scared, especially on your first mission." Weeker comforts her further.
"Do… do you feel scared in battle?" Kestrel asks.
"Of course I do, but these days, I'm more scared of failing my comrades rather than myself dying. Instead of letting that fear paralyse me, however, I use it to motivate myself to protect them, no matter what. Your allies come first. Remember that, and you'll make it through." He smiles.
"Yes, sir!" Kestrel salutes.
Weeker chuckles. "Once we make it through Futuro Canal, we'll get these "sea trials" of yours properly underway."
Kestrel lets out a small laugh. She knows that she hasn't been officially made a part of the Osean Navy yet, and her being used in this operation was more coincidence than anything. Still, she feels like a secret agent considering Belka probably didn't even know about her being completed recently until now. She suddenly turns her head to the skies, "It looks like we've begun. Focusing power to CIWS and AEGIS. Preparing fighters for immediate takeoff."
Proud of the new Carrier, The Commander grabs the radio and informs his pilots and mechanics, "This is Commander Weeker on the Kestrel. All personnel, don't stop working, but listen up good!" He glances at the blockade the Belkans have put up. "If we can break through, it'll have a huge impact on this battle." He looks over at Kestrel and gives her a wink, making her smile, "Let's make our flyboys proud." He says to her directly and over the PA system at the same time.
"It's time to make those bloody pillocks pay for what they've done thus far." The Kansen of the OFS Excalibur calmly annnouces on the radio while resting her hands on the pommel of her sword. The rather refined Cruiser contacts Kestrel and says, "Don't you worry, young one. Leave the defence to us and the Galm Team. You just focus on support as we clear the path through this canal."
"You got it!" Kestrel responds as she keeps launching her own controlled fighters to help the human pilots.
Through the Allied Forces radio chatter, Kestrel hears one pilot say, "Two Ustio fighters… that Eagle with the red wing… that's…" but the voice fades back into the rest before she could hear more. She looks for the plane in question and she sees it. The same red-winged F-15 that took off from her flight deck along with the blue-winged one. If that pilot is so revered, then she feels honoured to have had him take off from her ship. She's snapped out of her distraction by an enemy missile just barely missing her deck.
"You okay, Kestrel?" Weeker asks, seeing her get shaken a little.
She looks at him and feels calmer again. She nods and answers, "My CIC reports the enemy missile hit the water, point of impact confirmed. We're within range now."
Just as she finishes, one of the human-crewed vessels of the 3rd Fleet takes a nasty hit from another anti-ship missile. One of the crew reports, "We've suffered a direct hit to the bow! This is it! We're going down!"
Another crew member of a different ship yells, "Just keep firing! Make sure we don't hit our allies!"
Kestrel watches the sinking allied ship and can't help but feel sorrow, but she shakes her head to clear her thoughts and turns her attention to making sure that doesn't happen again. She hears the Allied Forces AWACS report, "Our fleet has made it through half way! Keep it up, Galm Team! We're counting on you!" She finds herself glancing up to see the two fighters dancing around, effortlessly taking down any aircraft threatening her, acting as her guardian angels. Just who are these two mercenaries? Again, she's snapped out of it by a massive splash of water shooting up from a missed attack.
Weeker, accidentally keeping the radio on, assures her, "Don't worry about that water column, we haven't been hit." Kestrel nods and gets back to it, having to slow down as her hull is in shallower water.
The young Carrier can't help but glance up occasionally to see the two mercenaries chasing down and obliterating the Belkan air forces. She wonders what it would be like to fly a plane. She'd be able to, she is a Carrier, after all. She doesn't control the planes not piloted by humans, but to actually sit in the cockpit and fly manually? It's safe to say she's very nervous about doing it.
Eventually, just as the last few Belkan aircraft are shit down by Galm Team, the 3rd Fleet makes it through, earning another whoop from Excalibur and a massive sigh of relief from Kestrel. The Commander pats her on the shoulder and nods in approval. He announces on the radio, "This is Commander Weeker on the Kestrel. My fleet has managed to pass through the canal." After some cheers from the human-crewed vessels, he continues, "We took some damage, but nothing too serious. Thanks to the gentlemen providing air support!"
Excalibur radios, "Are you alright, Lady Kestrel? Most Kansen can get easily shaken by their first battle."
Kestrel replies. "Don't worry, Miss. I, fine." She hangs up as she watches as the two planes turn back towards her to come back in for landing. She prepares her deck for them, unable to dispel the big and goofy but grateful smile on her face. She makes her way down to her flight deck with Weeker. She walks up to the two mercenaries as they exit their aircraft. The pilot of the plane with the red wing sees her approach and takes his helmet off. Tucking it under his arm, he smiles and waves at the Kansen he and his teammate had protected, who waves back and says, "Hey! Good job out there!"
The pilot nods, "No problem."
"So, uh… I'm Kestrel, but… you probably already knew that… so, uh…"
"Larry Foulke." The pilot helps her out and answers the question she was about ask, "My codename is Pixy."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Pixy. Who's your friend here?" She points her head to the other pilot with his helmet still on and arms crossed.
"Oh, my buddy here? We call him Cipher." Pixy says casually.
Kestrel gasps, "Cipher? The Demon Lord of the Round Table? You're Solo-Wing Pixy, aren't you? You two are the ones who cleared out Area B7R?"
Pixy chuckles, "Yes, yes and yes. It was nothing, really." Cipher shakes his head and walks off silently. "Yeah, he doesn't say much."
Kestrel looks at Pixy's plane and asks, "So… what's next for you?"
"I guess that's for our employer decides if they continue to pay us." Pixy shrugs.
Commander Weeker cracks a smile as he sees his Kansen making friends, a little surprised she was brave enough to speak to someone with such a reputation. He'd heard of how Solo-Wing Pixy got his name. He was on a mission and took a hit, shearing his entire wing off, yet he managed to win the fight and get back home and successfully land. He had his wing replaced with a red one and never had it repainted. Rumours say he keeps it red to remind himself of his luck and to not have it happen again. Cipher, however, he'd never heard of before the B7R battle days ago, ow he's a legend that most other pilots fear and respect. We watches the quiet one walk into the Carrier's tower, helmet still on.
Solo-Wing and the Demon Lord. With nicknames like that, he's confident that they'll defeat Belka, even if the two of them have to do it by themselves.
"So… Mr. Foulke…"
Pixy looks at Kestrel with a raised eyebrow, "Hmm?"
"Do you think you could… um…" Kestrel hesitates.
"Could I what?"
"…Could you help me fly a plane?"
Purity observes the ADFX-01 charging up its Tactical Laser System for its test firing. It shoots the familiar-looking laser as it flies around and leaves a melted line along the ground of the test area, annihilating the targets along the ground as well as the target drones in the air.
"That looks cool on an aircraft." She casually says.
Morgan agrees, "It looks amazing, and equally terrifying. I can just imagine the mere sight of it in action would scare the enemy to retreat."
"Well, that's no fun, is it? What about the fuel-air explosive bombs? We can't let the enemy get away, now can we?" She say with a sadistic grin.
"Well… umm… no, we cannot. I suppose we'd better test them." She gets his radio, "Archange, please test the FAEBs now." At his command, a squadron of drones bunch up together and fly in formation.
The test pilot, Mihaly A. Shilage, responds, "Affirmative." He switches weapons and targets the formation. "Targets locked. Firing now." He fires the missile and turns away, having heard what this warhead does.
Purity and Morgan watch as the weapon flies right into the middle of the formation and detonates, completely deleting them from existence. When the massive explosion dies out, there's nothing left of the drones. "I miss doing shit like this…" the girl says.
Morgan looks at her, "Where did you come from where this kind of thing is common?"
"A girl has to have some secrets, silly." Purity smiles.
"Alright, alright." Morgan switches to the pilot, "Archange, well done. Another successful test. Please come in to land now, EASA needs to test the other plane."
"Affirmative." Mihaly responds and makes his way back to the runway. As soon as he was out of the ADFX, he went and gets into the next plane to test. Its swept-forward swing wings fold into themselves for maximum speed and lift and he takes off. He notices this one isn't quite as fast as the ADFX, but it does handle slightly better. Apparently this one was designed in Erusia, the country on the western-most part of the Usean continent. They developed it here for testing, but to him, it's just another fancy new plane. He didn't care listen to the specs of the aircraft as he always feels more at home in the sky, anyway. He can learn about the plane first-hand up in his own kingdom.
Purity looks up at the other plane and says, "Where did that one come from?"
Morgan looks sees it too, "Well, I'm officially not supposed to know about that one, but I heard someone mention the name. The X-02 Wyvern."
"X-02? I'm guessing the X is for experimental again?" Purity smiles at him.
"I can only assume. That's Erusia's new plane. Apparently Albastru-Electrice is planning on making their own new plane at some point." Morgan remembers.
"Albastru-Electrice? Where are they based?" Purity asks.
He looks into her glowing, yellow eyes and answers, "Estovakia."