May 10, 2064
18:25
Déjà vu washed over the pilots as Maven shoved the door open to the command center using his elbow due to him carrying two fresh and hot pizza boxes they had grabbed from the cafeteria. While he was grateful that Springfield had provided them boxes for takeaway on such short notice, Maven couldn't help but question where exactly she even kept them, or why there was a 'Kalina Fried Chicken' label on the box.
Did the logistics officer also run a fast food chain on the side or something?
More questions Maven would probably never get an answer to aside.
Gentiane raised an eyebrow at the pizza boxes with amusement evident in her eyes. At least she didn't mind them eating during a mission briefing. Someone he wasn't expecting to be in the room was Earhart who gave the two a smile and a wave. Expulse brought up to chairs next to desk that was used last time and the two pilots took their seat before wasting no time digging into their dinner.
"Now that everyone's here—" Gentiane started before getting cut off.
"Ooo, let me have a slice." Earhart said almost watering at the mouth before she took two slices from Maven's pizza for herself. The pilot mentally noted this transgression down for later.
The female commander cleared her throat, returning the attention back to her. "As I was saying, I do apologize for the inconvenient timing but this is coming from Statesec themselves."
With the three aviators' attention only on her now, she continued with the mission briefing.
"Around thirty minutes ago, a transport aircraft carrying 'sensitive cargo' had an unscheduled take off from a nearby civilian airport. Air traffic control upon contact were unresponsive and when investigators arrived, anyone working at the airport at the time was found dead."
"...fucking hell" Maven muttered out in response, loud enough for Gentiane to hear who sighed.
"Mhm, all of them died via an abnormally large slash to the throat…" Gentiane went quiet for a moment and Maven could see she was deep in thought. Perhaps something about the method used to kill the airport workers reminded her of a past encounter?
After a moment she shook herself out of her thoughts. "Either way, Statesec was able to determine that the aircraft was heading to Germany before they lost signal, the data has been shared with Earhart so she can give you directions. You three will pursue and destroy the cargo plane along with any other threats that might be in the area. If no clarifications are needed then all of you should rush to the airfield now."
Neither of the two pilots nor Earhart had any questions and thus got out of their seats and rushed out of the command center, Maven and Expulse especially as they had to make a quick stop by their room to switch into their flight suits.
With the low humming of the various computers in the command center being the only source of noise, Gentiane was left alone to her thoughts now. It was a hunch but considering how the airport workers were killed, she had her suspicions that her 'friends' from a certain white faction were involved.
Before she could further go down that rabbit hole, the distinct smell of pizza abruptly greeted her nose. Gentiane couldn't help but deadpan that no one had remembered to dispose of the damn pizza boxers.
Oh well, nothing that a couple of minutes with the windows open couldn't solve.
After a quick detour to their room to get geared up, Maven and Expulse were making their way to the airfield. As they were about to exit the building and run over to their jet, Expulse tapped Maven on the shoulder.
"Give me a bit, I need to go pick up something. I'll see you at the airfield." Expulse said before sprinting off without further elaboration.
Maven stared at the retreating form of his WSO in bewilderment before continuing without him. As long as he was back before he ran through the start up procedures.
Like last time, SV-98 and Nova were loitering around where his jet was parked. He suspected Gentiane let them knew what the mission details were ahead of time since there were only air-to-air weapons present.
"Getting screwed over with night ops this early on?" The blonde sniper greeted the pilot with a knowing smile, seems like she's been through her fair share night battles as well.
"Yep, only saving grace is that it's not a close air support mission or something similar." Maven responded, less amused as it was his mission to deal with.
"That aside, requests for your loadout? Not that you have much variety either way…" SV-98 asked, getting back on topic.
Not that there was much thinking for Maven to do here, the only considerations to make were how many hardpoints he wanted to use for sidewinders and if he wanted to use additional pylon racks to mount even more AMRAAMs at the cost of more weight. He wasn't sure how many enemy jets there would be and decided to lean more on AMRAAM usage.
"Have two sidewinders on the inside of the innermost wing pylons, fuel tanks under the innermost wing pylons, fill everything else with AMRAAMs." Maven decided after only a couple of seconds of thought. Ten AIM-120Ds with two AIM-9Xs along with two fuel tanks should be more than enough for this mission, and in the case it wasn't, Earhart could pick up the slack.
SV-98 turned her head towards Nova who gave a thumbs up in response and immediately started skating around and mounting the various ordnance to the jet. As Maven and SV-98 were idly talking in the mean time, Expulse came back holding a fresh hot cup of coffee if the visible steam was any indication.
"You went back… for coffee?" Maven deadpanned.
"Yeah, don't feel like falling asleep mid dogfight or something." Expulse replied.
"…Fair enough." Maven reluctantly agreed the backseater somewhat had a point with that.
Nova had finished with resupplying the pilots' jet and had skated up behind Maven, momentarily starting him.
"You're all ready to go!" Nova said we her usual amount of cheer.
"Damn, still can't get over how quick you work." Maven praised, giving the shotgun wielding T-Doll a quick pat on the head much to her glee before turning his attention to Expulse and more specifically his beverage. "You going to do something about that?"
Expulse stared at his hot cup of coffee before shrugging and chugging it down in one go, leaving everyone in disbelief at the WSO's lack of reaction to having hot liquid go down his throat. When he finished, he placed the cup in SV-98's hands and patted her on the head before walking towards the jet.
"Aight, let's go." The WSO said as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"…I worry for him sometimes." Maven said after a pause before leaving to join Expulse.
"Wait a sec." SV-98 called out, causing the pilot to stop and turn around. "Come back safely alright? All three of you." She finished with a soft smile.
"Hmph, when you all get back, you better start spending more time with us outside of when you need me to lug around missiles and bombs!" Nova said with a cute pout.
She did raise a point that he might have to deal with sooner rather than later, some of the dolls have been getting closer to him and Expulse that was more than just work colleagues. Human and doll relationships was something he was going to have to ask Gentiane about.
But that was a problem for future Maven, present Maven had a cargo plane to go shoot down.
He flashed them both a grin and shot them double finger guns. "We'll be back before you know it." With that one last comment, he joined the backseater in their F-15.
After the two pilots got into the F-15EX and SV-98 folded the ladder back up into the airframe, the two ran through the standard start up procedures as usual. With how many times they've done this, Maven and Expulse often found themselves finishing up everything that needed to be done before the navigation system finished aligning itself, doubly so since there were no air-to-ground munitions that needed to be programmed.
One thing that could be done was asking Earhart to forward the mission data Gentiane mentioned earlier. Expulse made sure his microphone was on before switching to an open frequency to contact Earhart. "Checkmate one wizzo to Earhart, how copy?"
"Loud and clear! What's up?" Earhart responded with her usual liveliness.
"Yeah, could you share the mission data over datalink?"
"Oh right! Uh, give me just a second." Earhart said before a series of waypoints appeared on the tactical situation display page.
"Yeah I got it now, thanks." Expulse thanked the E-Pilot doll. Though a question went through his head. "Hey actually, where are you exactly? Neither I or the dork up front have seen you since we left the briefing room."
"The dork comment is once again uncalled for." Maven grumbled with a hint of exasperation, going unheard by the other two.
"I'm a couple spaces off to your left. Let me turn on the formation lights real quick." Earhart answered as she turned on the small lights present on the wings and airframe, making it easier for the pilots to see her jet in the dark. "Been idling for a bit waiting for you guys to be ready."
"Go taxi and takeoff, we'll be ready in a minute or so." Maven said, tapping his fingers on the throttle, waiting for the flight system to indicate a good alignment.
"Alright, will do." Earhart replied as she disengaged her parking break and started driving towards the runway. "Rolling."
As her jet rolled by theirs, both Maven and Expulse noticed something that neither of them had seen before in their tenure as combat aviators.
"…Are those AIM-120s on your SU-35?" Maven had to ask.
He could clearly see two AIM-120s on the second and third wing pylons with one more attached to the fuselage along with two AIM-9Xs on the wingtip hardpoint and on the first wing pylon. Assuming she had a symmetrical loadout, that would be six AIM-120s and four sidewinders with presumably a fuel tank in the center.
"Huh? Oh yeah, Croque and I did some modifications in the afternoon so that I could also use your missiles. More efficient and doesn't murder the budget as much!" Earhart answered as if none of that was out of the ordinary.
"A Flanker with AMRAAMs… something about that just feels… cursed." Expulse couldn't help but shudder a bit. Maven couldn't help but nod his head in agreement.
The F-15's navigation system had finished aligning by now, flashing an OK status on the HUD. "INS is aligned, we ready to go?" Maven asked Expulse.
"Everything's good to go back here." Expulse gave a thumbs up.
With all of that out of the way, Maven contacted air traffic control for clearance to take off.
"Checkmate one to air traffic control, requesting permission to takeoff."
"Mm, you can taxi but Earhart's still taking off right now." Kalina's voice came over the voice comms. Looks like they caught her right as she was eating.
Earhart went through one last pre-flight check, moving her flight stick around a full circle clockwise and then counterclockwise, making sure the flaps and stabilizers were in working order before going full throttle. The afterburners lit up with blue hot flames which were rather mesmerizing in the night.
"Earhart, airborne."
Once Earhart had taken off, Kalina cleared Checkmate One for take off. Maven throttled up enough to taxi onto the runway, using the brakes when turning as to not tip the plane over. When the jet was lined up roughly enough, Maven throttled up to the maximum, afterburners burning blue hot as well in the night, and pulled back on the flight stick just a bit. The liftoff was slightly faster than last time since they weren't weighed down with numerous bombs this time.
Now that they were off the ground, Expulse set up the auto pilot to follow the waypoints that Earhart shared with them earlier. Maven let go of the flight stick as the F-15 started turning towards the mission area and throttled back enough to disengage the afterburners. All that remained was to have the radar and electronic warfare page up and wait until they got some contacts.
"Sooo we just sit back and wait until something shows up on the radar?" Expulse asked.
"Yep." Maven bluntly replied.
"Riveting."
"Yeah I wouldn't complain if I were you." Maven wasn't interested in having the forces that be make this any harder than it has to be.
It was quiet for a moment before Maven turned on the night vision on his helmet and started looking around to his left and right. "Hey where did Earhart go—"
"Hey dork, look up."
Both pilots looked up and were greeted with a SU-35 inverted above them piloted by none other by the tomboy E-Pilot. She gave a two finger salute and a wink before rolling off to the side and forming up on their left.
"Was that really necessary?" Maven asked, mostly rhetorical.
"Mmmmmm nope." Earhart replied with a grin that was hidden by her oxygen mask.
"Cheeky fucker."
Earhart only laughed in response.
Upon reaching the designated area that the cargo plane was lasted detected, the two jets turned their heading towards Germany. Both Expulse and Earhart bumped out their aircraft's radar screens to the highest distance possible in an attempt to pin point where their target was. The radar warning receiver in the F-15 and later in Earhart's SU-35 beeped as it picked up a contact in front of their position.
"Picking up nails at eleven o' clock. Looks like an AN-26." Expulse announced. "Gonna try getting 'em on radar."
Due to the vastly superior radar in the F-15EX, Expulse was able to detect the cargo plane from a much further distance than Earhart would have been able to.
"...What the hell, I can't get a lock."
Unfortunately that extra detection range wouldn't mean much. Expulse tried locking on the blip on the radar—only working for a few seconds with the displayed range being exactly 99 miles—until it glitched out momentarily, the radar contact disappearing soon after.
"Ah shit, I think we got EW aircraft in the area, radar is shitting out!" Expulse notified everyone.
Both the pilots and Earhart's radar warning receiver started picking up additional contacts alongside the cargo plane they were after.
"Oh joy, looks like we got a four ship of MiG-29s Fulcrums and two F-18s, probably Growlers which would explain the jamming." Maven deduced.
So much for having the range advantage. Not that they really had one to begin with, the limiting factor in most cases was the maximum distance a missile could travel, the radar usually is capable of locking on a target well before they're within fighting distance.
With the radar effectively being useless at this distance, the only options on the table were to close the distance and burn through the jamming, or blindly fire and pray to whatever god existed in this world that the missile would hit it's mark.
"Hold on, I can track them optically." Earhart said, cutting through Maven's train of thought.
"Ah right you can do that." Maven said. "You got enemy contact info?"
Unfortunately, the SU-35's HUD only showed that there was bogey that the jet was picking up with no further information such as what aircraft it was.
"Uhhhhh."
"The Growlers are on leftmost and rightmost sides." Maven relayed his RWR contacts.
"Got it, I can only do one of these at once." Earhart said before locking on to one of the targets she knew was one of the EA-18Gs and launched an AIM-120 at them before defensive and diving downwards.
As a result of whatever black magic Earhart used on her jet and missiles, the onboard radar on the AIM-120 didn't activate, allowing the doll to score a stealth kill on one of the EA-18Gs to the surprise of the nearby adversaries.
"I think got him. Splash one Growler!" Earhart called out, the blip that she had shot at disappeared from her HUD.
"Good kill." Maven praised Earhart. "Looks like they know we're here though."
The contacts on the RWR were beginning to break their formation and presumably mount some kind of counter attack. Earhart quickly deduced which one of the six remaining blips on her HUD was the second Growler and launched another missile.
Despite now being alert to both Checkmate One and Earhart's presence, the sudden attack in tandem with the poor visibility in night time conditions resulted in another easy kill on the second jammer aircraft.
"Ayy radar is clear of jamming and back online!" Expulse rejoiced. They were down to five bandits now, four of which actually fighters and were now nose hot on them. "Alright. Four-ship of Fulcrums, off the nose, range sixty miles, angels twenty. Let's dance with the angels!"
"I like the sound of that. Taking the two on the left." Earhart announced before breaking off towards the two leftmost MiG-29s.
"Taking the two the right." Maven broke off to handle the other two MiGs.
Earhart took full advantage of the Flanker line of jets' ability to still be deadly without the use of radar and temporarily switched it off before diving down as close to the ground as reasonably possible, well outside the enemy MiG-29s' radar cones which at the rate they were closing the distance would be blind to Earhart.
The enemy pilots were greatly confused when a fairly large fighter such as the SU-35 which had no stealth capabilities suddenly disappeared off of their radar. Even with night vision, the lack of a clear indicator such as afterburners made it near possible to visually spot the Flanker.
Unbeknownst to the MiGs, Earhart had managed to successfully sneak her way underneath them. With the element of surprise in her favor, she throttled up to full power, performing a half loop vertically before rolling right side up, placing her behind the unsuspecting MiGs and firing off two sidewinders.
The first heat seeker hit its target, shredding a wing off while also damaging the engines, leaving the other MiG in a state of shock followed by panic only for a few moments before the second missile took the second plane down.
"Heh, Splash two." Earhart announced with a grin.
Meanwhile with the pilot duo, Maven jettisoned the external fuel tanks and started climbing to a higher altitude while Expulse worked the radar, locking both MiGs up. Unlike Earhart who could do more fancier things to get the drop on the enemy, the F-15 didn't have anything of the sort and thus had no option but to dive in head first.
The radar warning started blaring as the MiGs got a lock on the aviators, and they were still not close enough to guarantee a hit.
"Ah shit. Fox-three away!" Maven announced with urgency as he rapidly broke off after firing off two AIM-120s and went defensive, Expulse releasing chaff and flares in case the MiG's had already fired off a shot.
Which happened to be the case as the beeping of the radar warning intensified.
"Missile off of our 10 o' clock man, move it!" Expulse yelled, turning his body around as he tried to visually spot the incoming missile.
Maven continued maneuvering in such a way that would minimize the chance they would be hit and tried recommitting.
"Uhh I think we dodged the missile—Woah! Splash!" Expulse was interrupted by seeing one of the MiG's burst into flames as at least one of the AIM-120s they fired successfully landed. The other MiG-29 had managed to dump enough countermeasures to evade the other missile.
With how close the two jets were now, they were forced into a dogfight, placing Maven and Expulse at a significant disadvantage compared to a MiG-29. Regardless of the close range fighting capability, Maven engaged to the best of his ability, doing his best to make sure he didn't bleed off too much air speed at once. The cockpit was filled with the sounds of rattling as the wings were buffeting from the amount of G forces being exerted onto it.
Despite their best efforts, the MiG-29 was much better suited for a turn rate fight than an F-15EX which still had conformal fuel tanks attached, having little issue getting into a position where it could fire off its own heatseeker.
"He's at our seven o' clock Maven, would be a great time to do some of that pilot shit!" Expulse panicked.
With a deep breath to mentally—and physically—prepare himself, Maven quickly went inverted before slamming the stick back, going into a high-G turn while trading altitude for air speed. The maneuver had taken the MiG and Expulse by surprise, the former taking a second to react to the development. The latter on the other hand…
"SWEET JESUS MAVEN!" Expulse yelled out, mildly annoyed at the pilot for not giving him a heads up so he could brace himself. Regardless, the backseater got his head back in the game and started looking for the MiG-29 that was still refused to roll over and die like the good generic enemy it is.
"Seven—no six o' clock—Five o' clock high." Expulse rapidly updating Maven with the position of the Fulcrum.
The two jets found themselves back into a two circle fight, putting the pilot duo at a disadvantage again, unable to turn as fast the MiG with their current configuration. With the discrepancy in dogfighting capabilities present to the enemy pilot, they cashed in the air speed they had built up to jerk the nose of the MiG-29 upwards and released a stream of 30mm.
A stream of bullets that were aimed to wide and ended up lagging behind the F-15, hitting nothing.
"The motherfucker's slow and open. Go get him, Mav! GET HIM!" Expulse yelled out with only a small bit of bloodlust seeping through into his voice.
The MiG-29 tried its best to regain the air speed it had lost while trying to remain in the dogfight. The enemy pilot's overconfidence had ended up being a fatal error, and one that Maven would capitalize on as he came back around in a high-G turn and fired off a sidewinder. Unable to outmaneuver the inbound heat seeker, the MiG was torn apart in the subsequent explosion.
"Splash two Fulcrums… god damn…" Expulse said with an long exhale. "We should see about getting the CFTs removed for air-to-air operations."
"...Not a bad idea." Maven concurred. The F-15EX may take after the older Strike Eagle as being a bomb truck that was still very capable of protecting itself against aerial threats, but underneath all of the ordnance and enhancements was the airframe that had a kill to death ratio leagues higher than any other. "Remind me when we get back, we're still not done here."
The backseater groaned. "Right, go bully the defenseless cargo plane and then rush home. Understood."
Maven opened the comms. "Earhart, what's your status?"
"Just got done cleaning up on my end." The E-Pilot responded. "What about you?"
"Same here." Maven answered. "Let's link back up and nail this stupid cargo jet."
"Gotcha, forming up on your left!"
The two gave pursuit to the fleeing AN-26 which had managed to cover a fair amount of distance in the time the three pilots were held up with it's escorts. Maven could very easily launch a missile that was guaranteed to hit but he gave into the small part of him that wanted to resolve this without destroying whatever important cargo was on board.
"Checkmate one to cargo aircraft, reverse your course immediately and land at the airport you took off from." Maven said into his radio.
"…"
No response.
"Repeat, turn around now or you will be shot down." Maven put more force into his words.
"…"
Still no response.
With a sigh, Maven locked up the cargo plane and shot off an AIM-120. With no more backup and a lack of any countermeasures due to AN-26 being a civilian cargo aircraft, it had no means of defending itself from the inbound missile. To the surprise of Maven and everyone else however, it was only now that he got a response back, and it was more surprising to hear what sounded like a young female reply to him.
"...This will only be a minor set back in Father's plans."
...What?
Maven wouldn't be able question any further as the missile soon enough struck it from the back. What no one expected was what appeared to be some kind of chain reaction of sorts as the cargo jet violently exploded—more so than what a regular missile warhead could do, sending whatever remained of the plane into a mess of burning debris as it rapidly lost altitude before eventually crashing.
Perhaps it was intentional that whoever responded only did so after the missile was shot, most likely to ensure that they wouldn't be taken alive. Either way Maven, Expulse and Earhart to some extent were left with some questions.
"Uhhh mission complete I guess?" Expulse said with uncertainty.
"Would seem so." Earhart agreed. "I say it's time to pack up and RTB. What do you say flight lead?"
Maven took a few seconds to respond, still wondering who or what was piloting the AN-26 and what the shit were they transporting for an explosion like that to be caused.
"...Yeah, mission complete. Egress and head home—"
The radar warning interrupted Maven as it started blaring rapidly, which meant that a missile was locked onto them.
"M-missile warning!" Earhart cried out. Seems like she was also targeted.
"Missile, eleven o'clock high, hot! Break right, break right!" Expulse panicked out.
"Everyone dive and take evasive manuevers! NOW!" Maven barked out as he yanked the flight stick to the side and pulled into a quick high-G turn towards the ground—into denser air.
Both Checkmate one and Earhart dumped a good amount of chaff and flares as they made their way towards the ground, doing their best to stay as low as reasonably possible once low enough. Eventually the missiles shot their way either ran out of fuel and ended up going long or otherwise collided with the terrain as the RWR went quiet.
"W-what the hell was that? That came out of nowhere!" Earhart said, a little shaken from the surprise attack.
"Wait hold on, got a RWR ping. It's a—huh?" Expulse suddenly stopped.
"Expulse, talk to us buddy." Maven tried to coax out whatever his WSO was saying.
"...Did… you remember that proposed Super Tomcat 21 right? It never went beyond just being a proposal did it?" Expulse asked. There was a certain underlying tone of uncertainty mixed with dread.
The ST-21 was a proposed upgrade to the F-14Ds that would improve the aircraft up to the standards of newer jets such as the newer Block III Super hornets and other 4.5-generation fighters. Enhancements would have included upgraded engines which had the ability to supercruise, upgraded AESA radar, improved maneuverability and thrust vectoring.
And with how formidable the F-14D already was both in beyond and within visual range combat, this would be a fight that they would have no business engaging with.
"No… not as far as I know." Maven replied. "Earhart, you know anything about this?"
Earhart replied with a negative hum. "Nope, never made it beyond the idea stage. Super hornet was chosen instead of it."
...If all of that was true.
Then how…
The radar beeped as it picked up a new contact. A contact that was rapidly approaching the two.
"Bandit, eleven o' clock, eighty—no seventy miles, closing fast, thirty five angels." Expulse gave out the location information. "It's an ST-21, Super Tomcat."
...Fuck.
"Time to go all out then." Maven plainly remarked.
Expulse took that as his cue to brace himself for what was to come, his gut instinct telling him this was going to into the merge. They only had two sidewinders and the seven AMRAAMs they had were practically dead weight in close quarters.
"Right behind you, flight lead." Earhart said. If she had any apprehensions about the chances of surviving this fight, she did a perfect job of hiding them.
Both jets went into afterburner to close the distance and started climbing up, getting ready for a dogfight and giving themselves enough vertical distance in case either one of them would need to recover air speed. Maven took a brief moment to quickly glance at the radar page.
'Forty miles.' He mentally noted.
Maven took a chance to end this before it went to the merge and locked up the ST-21 before firing off an AIM-120 and then another one just to increase the chances of scoring a kill.
Unbeknownst to the pilots, the Super Tomcat was equipped with an ADM-141 Decoy and the quickly made good use of it, popping it off and banking off to the side, letting the AIM-120s go pitbull on the decoy instead of the Tomcat.
The lack of any overt defensive maneuvers was very concerning to say the least to Maven and Expulse. A small part of them was hoping that the pilot of the ST-21 hadn't notice the missiles and wouldn't until it's too late. But the more rational side said that the enemy jet had dodged their missiles.
Another glance at the radar page showed that the distance had closed to ten miles—
Maven's head snapped back up to the HUD and he felt a pit in his stomach form. Among the night sky tinted light blue through the white phosphor tubes of the pilot's night vision, Maven could see the Super Tomcat and it was gunning straight for him and Expulse.
If he wasn't on edge, he probably would've cracked a joke about how the ST-21 was targeting them in specific.
Though it would quickly seem less of a joke and more like reality as without any indication, the Super Tomcat launched an AIM-9X sidewinder at Earhart, despite not even turning to face the E-Pilot's SU-35.
"Ah shit, going defensive!" Earhart cried out before breaking off away while spamming flares in a desperate attempt to preserve her aircraft, temporarily making the battle a one-on-one between Checkmate One and the Super Tomcat 21.
The two merged moments later. Maven noted the direction the Tomcat was turning and towards the opposite direction, opting for a two circle flow. Expulse noted something that was off with the enemy aircraft.
"Is that red? I've never seen a red paint job before, who the hell does that belong to?" The WSO said, though not expecting a response. It would have to wait for later when they weren't fighting someone way above their weight class.
Maven filtered out the question and focused more trying to get the angular advantage, which deep down he knew was a fool's game when fighting against a tomcat that has variable wing sweep and thrust vectoring.
The ST-21 managed to put it's nose on the F-15 and let out a short burst of 20mm. Exactly half a second's worth of ammunition Maven noticed. Fortunately the aim of the Super Tomcat was a bit too shaky to land any direct hits on the less nimble and bulkier jet, though some were just a bit too close for comfort for Maven and Expulse.
The two merged again and Maven decided to trade some of his altitude to regain the airspeed he desperately needed to stand any chance. The ST-21 accounted for the difference in altitude between the two and copied the F-15, also coming down to the same level as the pilots and tried to get in position to gun them down again.
By this time, Earhart had well managed to evade the heatseeker shot her way from earlier and recommitted to the fight, albeit with limited opportunity to help. With how up in each other's business Checkmate One and the Super Tomcat had been up until this moment, using a sidewinder had too high of a risk of resulting in friendly fire, and getting close for guns was also a challenge.
But now was a prime chance to use a heatseeker.
The E-Pilot had positioned herself behind the ST-21 and hit her weapon release switch.
"Earhart, Fox-two!"
One of the two AIM-9X's on her SU-35 shot off, gunning straight for the Super Tomcat. In response the ST-21 dumped a good amount of flares before rolling off to the side, evading the sidewinder with minimal effort.
Like earlier, the Tomcat responded in kind with it's own AIM-9X—shot at what must have been the gimbal limit of the modernized sidewinder's seeker head and once again putting Earhart on the defensive, much to her frustration.
Despite E-Pilot's inability to shoot the Super Tomcat down, it had bought enough time for Maven to get on the ST-21's rear and he wasted no time firing off a sidewinder, confident that this one would land the killing blow.
What no one could've seen coming was the Super Tomcat dumping more flares only to pull off a fucking cobra maneuver, making Maven overshoot and end up in front of the ST-21.
"What the hell—" Maven muttered, watching the Tomcat pass by him.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT BULLSHIT NOW!?" Expulse practically roared in disbelief. "THE ASSHOLE'S WINGS SHOULD'VE FUCKING SNAPPED RIGHT OFF!" The WSO turned around and flipped the ST-21 the middle finger while yelling out more expletives and threats of physical violence.
Maven immediately pulled a high-G turn—yanking the backseater out of his rage—and started flying towards the ground, the Super Tomcat following suit, putting the two into a downwards rolling scissors. And with how both of the jets were positioned, it was outside the AIM-9X's high off bore seeker head, meaning that one of them would have to break off in order to stop jamming the weapon employment zone.
Earhart once again couldn't do anything but keep her distance as she tracked the two fighters on their way down. She only had one sidewinder left and like before, she couldn't use it now without running the risk of hitting the pilots of the F-15EX.
Maven's eyes rapidly switched back and forth between the Super Tomcat and the altimeter that was projected on his helmet mounted display, the number rapidly decreasing as they continued.
15'000 feet.
14'000 feet.
13'000 feet.
Neither jet was willing to put themselves at a major if not fatal disadvantage by breaking off first, determined to bring this down as close to the ground they can.
With the distance between the two only getting closer and closer, Maven could more clearly make out the finer details of the Super Tomcat even behind the somewhat hazy tubes of his night vision. He looked up to see a face that mirrored his own, filled with nothing but pure grit mixed with a look of trying to hold in a big shit that the enemy pilot must have had—
And that's when he saw it.
There was no pilot.
…
Maven was briefly taken back—visibly so if it weren't for the bulky JHMCS he had on his head. There was no other way to word it, there was no one piloting the Tomcat, not in the front or backseat.
What the fuck.
How the fuck.
He was under the assumption that they were up against some battle-hardened ace or something equivalent with the way the ST-21 had been behaving up until this point. Except no, there was no ace, there was no pilot, just an airframe that somehow had been operating without any input this entire time—
[PULL UP! PULL UP! PULL UP!]
Maven instinctively yanked the flight stick back as hard as he could and throttled all the way down without fully shutting off the engines. The voice warning system had torn him out of his mind that been overloaded with questions just in time to make sure he didn't fly nose first into the ground.
[OVER-G! OVER-G! OVER-G—]
The pilots had a brief sense of tunnel vision coupled with hearing loss as they nearly went into G-LOC from the high-G turn, nearly scraping the ground as the altimeter read one hundred feet.
While they were thankfully still alive and not in a plane wreck, the stunt had costed them nearly all the airspeed they had built up on the way down, leaving them without much maneuverability as Maven went into full afterburner in a desperate attempt to regain air speed.
Expulse turned around and to his horror, the ST-21 was already back on their rear, closing the distance quickly as the jet got ready to gun them down.
"Dude he's at out six o' clock! Do something!" Expulse shrieked.
"I'm fucking trying!"
Maven took a gamble and throttled back all the way down, deployed the air brake and rolled off to the side, hoping to make the ST-21 overshoot, a likely scenario with how fast the Tomcat was going relative to them in order to catch up.
The Super Tomcat once again fired a perfect half a second burst of 20mm rounds at the jet attempting to dodge, with the pilot's not being as lucky this time around.
Almost instantly Maven could feel a loss in stability, the jet was veering off the side even though his flight stick was level.
"A-Ah fuck man! Damage in the left wing!" Expulse cried out.
Shit.
They wouldn't last much longer like this.
Maven had to end this and had to end it now.
The maneuver was successful in placing them behind in the tomcat however. All that remained was for Maven to get a steady enough aim for a moment to gun the bastard of a fighter jet down.
"Come on man, gun the fucker down!" He could hear his WSO shout from the back.
Easier said than done when the Tomcat was doing it's best to move in a such way that Maven had a hard time getting the gun reticle on to the damn jet in addition to having a damaged wing mess with his flight controls.
"Get him Maven! Drop the fucking bastard!"
Come on.
Just a split second was all he needed.
"SHRED HIS FUCKING WINGS!"
...
BRRRRRRRRRRRT
A split second was what he got.
Maven probably shot way more rounds than what was necessary but to hell with that. The 20mm rounds of his M61A1 Vulcan lit up the red airframe of the Super Tomcat 21, causing visible damage to the body, engines and part of the wing.
"FUCKING NICE ONE MAN!" Expulse cheered out. "SPLASH ONE SUPER TOMCAT—"
Despite the damage done, the ST-21 was still airborne and banked off to the side, presumably still not done with the fight.
"How the fuck is it still up!?" Maven asked in confusion.
Before anyone else could comment further, the damaged Super Tomcat went to full afterburner and started withdrawing from the air space.
"…It's retreating..?" Expulse mumbled as his eyes narrowed in disbelief. "wait no—HEY ASSHOLE, GET THE FUCK BACK HERE YOU COWARD—"
"Save your breath, it's unmanned." Maven suggested.
Expulse blinked.
"Nah, no way."
"Yep, saw with my own eyes." Maven then let out a sigh. "Let's save further discussion of this when we touch back down and don't have to worry about a damaged wing."
In all honesty the damage wasn't that threatening, Maven recalled that some other F-15 straight up losing a whole wing during a mission, finished said mission and still managed to land safely.
He couldn't fully remember the pilot's name unfortunately, solo wing… something.
Either way, Maven shoved that off to the side for now. "Yo buddy, Earhart, you still alive?"
"Yeah, everything is still in order." The E-Pilot responded, forming up on their right.
"Good, let's get out of here before any other shit happens."
Both jets kicked it into full gear, igniting their afterburners and flew a direct course back to base. Maven having to compensate for the minor but noticeable loss in stability the entire way.
What a night this has been.
Fortunately the return flight back to base was uneventful without much issue, fuel for Maven and Expulse wasn't an issue this time around either. Maybe they should keep the conformal fuel tanks. Earhart on the other hand was fairly low on fuel, and thus the two coordinated and let the E-Pilot land first.
"Checkmate one to Kalina, We're inbound and are letting Earhart land first. We've also sustained some minor damage so we'll need someone to repair that." Maven reported to Kalina.
"Mmm roger that." The logistics officer's voice sounded muffled and the pilots could make out that she was eating something…
Shit, it was way past dinner time.
And they still would have to do a debriefing.
Expulse especially had an issue with this. "Hey uhh Kalina, they still serving food? We're kinda starving here."
"Mmmm." Kalina quickly finished chewing what food she had in her mouth which almost felt like a taunt to the backseater. "I'm sure Springfield wouldn't mind doing a quick order for you two."
"Lovely."
Due to low fuel, Earhart skipped the normal guidelines for landing and went for a direct approach, lowering her landing gear and flaps, doing her best to keep her angle of attack on speed for a smooth landing.
With what felt like a controlled crash into the ground, Earhart landed safely and immediately taxied off to the parking area, giving space room for Maven and Expulse to land.
Sticking the landing this time would be slightly more challenging on the account of a damaged wing, but nonetheless Maven did worked past it. All he had to do was keep a steady hand on the flight stick and run through the same motions he has done countless times in the past.
Airspeed at two hundred and fifty knots, landing gear down, flaps down, line up the velocity vector with the runway, keep a good AoA and everything will be fine.
The final approach was a lot more shaky than either pilot would've liked but either way, they still managed to touch down in one piece, though Maven had to use the rudder pedals to prevent the F-15 from veering off the runway.
"Y'know I'd say that was a pretty good landing all things considered, good job." Expulse complemented, thankful to be back on the ground after all of that.
"Heh, thanks." Maven replied back.
After bringing the F-15EX to a stop, Maven turned off the engines and opened the cockpit canopy, letting out a huge exhale as he took off his oxygen mask.
"As much as I like being in the air, feels good to be back boots on the ground."
"Yep, can't disagree there." Expulse affirmed. "Now come on let's get this shit over with so can eat something and sleep."
The two pilots stood up from their seats after unbuckling themselves, stretching their back for a moment before hopping out of their F-15. To their surprise, SV-98 and Nova were on the field, looking both worried but relieved at the same time. If Maven and Expulse had to guess, it was probably due to the damage they had sustained.
Deciding it would be best to try and bring some levity in, Maven opted for some humor. "Hey, told you we would be back before you know it."
It did little to ease the two dolls but it at least got some chuckles. "At least you're all back safe and sound… and mostly in one piece." SV-98 pointed out, eyeing the damage on the aviators' fighter jet.
"In our defense, there were some unexpected developments and we weren't kitted out for maximum mobility." Expulse tried placating the blonde sniper T-Doll.
SV-98 continued staring at the two with mild disapproval—made only more uncomfortable by the glow that T-Dolls' eyes had in night—before eventually relenting with a sigh and slight smile.
"Either way, welcome back."
Nova was more physical on the other hand, skating over and bringing the two pilots into a tight hug, much to the surprise of the two and SV-98, the latter of which couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit jealous at the shotgun wielding doll getting physical affection.
"Nice to see you too Nova." Maven returned the embrace with one arm. "You think you can put in a good word for us for when your sister eventually catches wind of what went down tonight?"
Nova looked thoughtful for a moment before giving an unconvincing smile. "I'll try, you know how GSh is haha…"
Oh Maven and Expulse knew too well how that medic doll was when it came to their health. Hopefully the extraordinary circumstances would be a good enough excuse for her to not metaphorically (and maybe physically) shove a needle up their asses.
"You all having a party without me?" Came a voice from behind.
Earhart had finally joined back up two the pilots after doing her shutdown procedures and doing a visual check for any damage to her SU-35. Though she hadn't taken any damage throughout the entire mission and she had landed first, so why she only came over now was odd.
Nova had broken off with a minute amount of embarrassment but overall was more happy she got to give a big hug, leaving Maven to jokingly extend an arm out inviting the E-Pilot for a hug as well.
"You wanna join in as well?"
For a moment, Maven could see Earhart wanting to take him up on his offer but stopped herself, instead deciding to simply stand closer to the group.
"...Nah, I'm good." She waved off, trying to appear nonchalant.
"Was worth a shot." Maven shrugged. "Though jokes aside, do we have a repair crew or something? Because y'know… don't really want to be flying in a shot up airframe."
SV-98 was going to say something but Earhart interjected first. "Croque and I can fix it up, no problems."
"Uhh you sure? I'm sure we can get some external help if we asked. You've already done enough work." The blonde sniper said with slight worry.
Earhart dismissed her concerns with a wave of the hand. "Don't worry, I know this kind of stuff like it's the back of my hand, plus Croque will do most of the heavy lifting."
SV-98 looked unconvinced but didn't object. "If you say so."
Maven was picking up something off with the pilot doll's insistence on wanting to do additional work right after getting done with a mission. He could chalk it up to dolls not needed as much rest as humans and being able to exert more energy before tiring themselves out, but something with the inflection of Earhart's voice didn't sound right to him.
But that would have to wait for now.
"Alright, let's pick this up later. We gotta report to the commander after all."
The three fighter pilots found themselves back in command center with Gentiane. K was also in the room but was off in the back, busy with… something presumably work related judging by the slighe exasperation in his facial features.
"Well, it's shame that it had to end like this but didn't seem like whoever was behind this had any intent of backing down… or being taken alive from what it seems." Gentiane stated after already gone through the basics with the three aviators.
"Seems so, didn't get a response until after I had shot at her." Maven confirmed, still confused at the disregard of the unknown female pilot's self preservation..
"...I still feel weird about that, sounded like a teenage girl or something… just anything but an actual soldier." Expulse tacked on, that minor detail still bothering him.
That comment got a reaction out of the pink haired commander.
"Sounded like a teenage girl?" She inquired further.
"Uhh yeah..? Not sure how else to describe it." Expulse responded, somewhat caught off guard by the change in demeanor.
"Said something about this all being a 'minor setback in Father's plans', whoever that's supposed to refer to." Maven recalled the odd statement.
What seemed like out of place and nonsensical statements to Maven and Expulse was an uncomfortable realization for the pinkette commander. Voice of a young female, mention of a 'Father', the airport workers' cause of death being abnormally large slashes to the throat.
There was no chance this was just a coincidence.
"Uhh commander, you alright there?" The WSO's concern brought Gentiane back to the debriefing. "You look deep in thought."
Gentiane only sighed. "I think I might have an idea of who is responsible behind this."
The aviators shared a look of mild confusion at how the commander managed to narrow down a potential suspect based on the sparse evidence present so far. The person most interested in this however, was the Statesec agent who paused whatever he was doing.
"You do?" K asked, staring straight at Gentiane.
"Emphasis on 'I think', I'll give you a quick rundown later." The commander waved off.
"Fine." K was less than pleased at having to wait.
"Actually quick question for the glowie in the back." Expulse quickly interjected. "You happen to know what cargo was stolen?"
"One, I have a codename." K said, not particularly amused at being referred to as a 'glowie'. "And two, no. Not even I was informed what exactly they were carrying."
"Huh." Expulse plainly replied. "Anyways if it's of any help, must have been something explosive because god damn the fireworks that went off when Maven shot it down was far bigger than it normally would be."
K took a moment to digest that information. "I see… noted."
"Anyways... that aside, I heard from SV-98 that you two took some damage, yet it doesn't sound like the escorts gave you much trouble." Gentiane said directly to Maven and Expulse.
"Because they didn't, it was what I believe to be an unaffiliated third party." Maven answered bluntly. "Seems like they had it out of Expulse and I in particular."
Both Gentiane and K looked highly interested now, the latter getting up from the computer he was working at and joined in. The aviators took this as a signal to elaborate further, taking turns to make sure no detail went forgotten.
"It was a Super Tomcat 21 to be exact that intercepted us." Expulse went first, having been the one keeping an eye on the enemy jet the most throughout the battle. "Had a full red livery and I don't remember seeing any icons or emblems either."
"Weird thing is that to my knowledge, that variant of the tomcat never went into production. Would've been one of the first to hear about it if it did." Earhart spoke up for the first time since they entered the command center. Not that she wasn't paying attention, but it did look like she had something else on her mind.
"...A plane that supposedly never went into production, red paintjob with no iconography." Gentiane muttered to herself as she wrote this down on a scrap piece of paper. "Is that all?"
"There wasn't anyone flying it."
Gentiane and K were visibly confused at the statement. Neither of them were exactly well versed in military aviation but it was logical to assume that a plane of any kind needed a pilot present to operate it.
"...Could you elaborate on that..?" K asked.
"It was unmanned." Maven plainly restated. "No one was in the front or backseat of the cockpit. Saw it with my own eyes."
"And that's what damaged your plane?" Gentiane inquired, though she already knew what the answer would be.
"Yes. Despite the lack of anyone on board to pilot it, it still put up a very hard fight."
Expulse pretty much scoffed at the statement. "'Very hard fight'? More like blatant bullshit you mean. No way in hell that an F-14 should be able to pull off a cobra like the way it did without ripping its wings off. Fly-by-wire or not, just not possible."
No one, Maven included, really knew what to make of this piece of information. It was almost unbelievable to think that a fighter aircraft that needed not one but two people to operate the jet was able to dogfight on the level of battle hardened aces without anyone piloting it.
Gentiane sighed and massaged her temples which were beginning to ache. "Well I think that's pretty much all we're going to get out of this so might as well call it quits here."
"Alright, really need to get something to eat anyways." Expulse said, not hiding his desire to chow down on food.
"Yeah I'm not going to hold you up for any longer, get something to eat. Dismissed."
And with that the three aviators exited the command center, leaving only Gentiane and K. Expulse was fully intending on going straight to where ever Springfield was—hopefully in the mess hall—and politely asking her for some food. Maven on the other hand had something else he wanted to take care off first.
Maven tapped his WSO on the shoulder. "Hey buddy, go grab something for me alright? I'll be with you in a moment."
"Sure, no problem. No guarantees I won't take a bite out of your food though." Expulse jested with a grin.
"Uh huh, I'll smack you if you do." And with that Expulse left to go hunt down Springfield, leaving Maven and Earhart alone with no other distractions. The human pilot wasn't well versed in handling interpersonal issues so he went with whatever felt right to ask.
"So…" He began, getting the attention of the E-Pilot doll. "is something on your mind?"
It was a very open ended question, just to see how she reacted.
"Huh? Uh, yeah I'm alright, just a bit tired after that sortie y'know." She said rather… unconvincingly and flashed him a thumbs up with a smile. A smile that did not look genuine.
He hadn't known the pilot doll for that long of a time, hell it hasn't even been a week if his memory served him correctly. But Maven had seen this doll smile multiple times before, if anything she seemed to be in a happy positive mood more often than not.
"You sure? You were kinda… absent ever since we landed." Maven tried coaxing something more specific out.
"Err…" Earhart turned her gaze to anywhere that wasn't the taller human pilot, unconsciously twiddling her thumbs out of nervousness.
Well she wasn't able to give a straight no.
"Hey, you can tell me anything that's on your mind." Maven said, eyes filled with clear concern. "I won't judge, promise."
Earhart let out an exhale and opened her mouth to speak, but no words were coming out. Seems like even androids as advanced as these were capable of choking on their words. It would probably be more fascinating if the context was different.
Regardless, if Earhart couldn't articulate what was weighing down on her, he decided to take a shot in the dark. She was fine before they sortied, and was only acting the way she was now once they landed…
"It's to do with tonight's mission, am I right?" Maven guessed.
Earhart only responded with a nod.
Okay, that narrowed it down a fair amount. But still, he didn't remember anything that would warrant a mood shift like this. There was taking out the escorts where Earhart was of great assistance, then there was the cargo plane which he took care of, and then the run in with the ST-21 which showed more interest in him and Expulse while making sure Earhart couldn't intervene—
"It's to do when the we were fighting that red Tomcat. You couldn't really do much without getting a sidewinder to the face." Maven said in more gentle tone. "I take it that you felt… useless?"
The E-Pilot sighed and leaned against the wall, having managed to find her words now. "Yeah… yeah that's it. I… I should've done more."
Maven could understand where she was coming from. "You know that neither I or Expulse hold that against you, right?"
"Still, the whole point of me working with you two is to provide support and to lessen the workload you have, and I failed to do that tonight." Earhart lamented with a frown, upset and disappointed with herself. "It shouldn't have gotten to a point where you and Expulse were that close to being put in harm's way and possibly killed. I can be backed up, you can't."
She had the point there, he couldn't lie. But at the same time…
"That may be so, but this is what we signed up for." Maven countered. Albeit he and Expulse didn't sign up to get tossed into some strange alternate reality that was four decades ahead of them. "Him and I both know that with every sortie we go on, there's a chance that shit could hit the fan and that's a risk we're willing to take. No need to beat yourself up over it."
"But…I..." Earhart couldn't help but ball her hands up. "I… I just want to be useful…"
"I don't want to be left alone again."
That last comment took the human aviator a second to properly process. He already knew that he should make more time to spend with the various dolls he's gotten to know thus far, Nova reminded him of that. But right now, the doll in front of him was the one that needed his attention.
"You're enough, Earhart." Maven simply said, the short statement grabbed the E-Pilot's attention. "You're more than useful, you proved that today whether you believe it or not. And until Gentiane decides our services are too expensive, you've got a place with Expulse and I, number two." The aviator finished his sentence with a wink.
The E-Pilot just stared at Maven with what looked like some mixture of disbelief with a small bit of hope shining through. Now that he thought about it, this wasn't too dissimilar to looks the dolls were giving him and his backseater earlier today. He didn't exactly like the implications of what he saw as basic decency resulting in this kind of reaction.
"You…" Maven almost didn't hear Earhart with how quiet she was now. "You mean that..?"
"Meant every word I said."
"Then… can you call me that again?" She almost looked cute with how sheepish she was with that request.
Maven couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, you'll fit right in with this dorky ass 'squadron', if you can call it that. Welcome aboard Checkmate Two."
She couldn't explain why, but her core heated up with what her digimind registered as pride in response to Maven's words. So much so she couldn't help but go in for a tight hug, taking the human aviator by surprise, but after the momentary shock had passed he returned the embrace.
The two remained like that for a short while, the smaller E-Pilot burrowing her head into the chest of the Maven who gladly embraced her, one hand going up to pat her head.
Eventually after a minute or two of staying like that, Earhart let go of Maven, now visibly in higher spirits but some of her uncertainty still remained. Small steps he supposed but at least that was sorted out for now.
"Geez I—uh… didn't mean to get all like that haha…" Earhart admitted with a hint of a blush, clearly embarrassed by the way she had been behaving. "...But thanks for the words of encouragement."
Maven shot her a warm smile. "Anytime buddy, you're part of the team now so we look out for each other."
"Heh, gotcha flight lead. But I've taken up enough of your time now and I know you're hungry so go eat. We can talk more tomorrow..?" She asked that last part with some uncertainty.
Maven had to stifle a laugh at how endearing Earhart was unintentionally being. "Of course. Actually no, as the squadron leader I'm ordering you to join Expulse and myself whenever we're eating."
"Roger that, wilco! Rest well Maven and thanks again."
"You too Earhart." Maven gave a quick wave goodbye but interjected one last statement. "Also, next time you get funny thoughts like tonight, you tell me alright?"
The E-Pilot couldn't help but smile warmly. "Yeah… gotcha."
With both parties in a better mood, the two parted and went their separate ways, though it would quickly end up with both of them going towards the dorms as Maven wanted to dump off his flight equipment he still had on before going to find Expulse.
To his surprise he found the backseater already in the dorm, and with food!
"They had extra pizza apparently, lucky us!" Expulse said in between bites.
"Huh alright, guess I could go for the same meal again." Maven said as he stripped off his flight suit and sat down at the desk.
"So what was the hold up about?" Expulse couldn't help but ask.
Maven took a couple of seconds to get a slice down before responding. "Just a quick talk regarding some personal stuff."
Expulse immediately had a shit eating grin and made Maven groan. "Is my man Mav rizzing up another one, eh?"
"One, don't say rizz, you're not in high school anymore." Maven deadpanned. "And two, the hell do you mean by 'another one'?"
Expulse actually lost the teasing grin he had. "You… you haven't noticed?"
"Noticed what, that you're an ass?" Maven shot back.
"Hmm, nah don't worry about it." The backseater waved him off.
"The hell man, you can't just drop something like that on me!"
Expulse did an elaborate show of contemplating whether or not he should elaborate. "Mmmm I think it'll be funnier for you to figure it out."
Maven sighed in defeat, knowing he wouldn't get an answer out of the backseater.
The two finished their late dinner and prepared to fall asleep. Expulse fell asleep near instantly, probably due to both the tasking sortie and having just ate.
Maven on the other hand took just a bit longer to drift off, his mind occupied with various things. The two most prominent ones being Earhart's wellbeing, which thankfully seemed to be under control for now, though he suspect there was some deeper root cause to why she felt the way she did. It would have to wait for a better time however.
The other worry that Maven knew he was going to have to deal with was spending adequate time with the dolls he has acquainted himself with; Grizzly and her squad, GSh-18 (as much as that sent shivers down his spine), SV-98 and Nova, possibly even AK-12 and AN-94 and team Anti-Rain.
Christ thinking about all of that already was exhausting…
Perhaps it would be worry about this when he wasn't two seconds away from falling asleep.
…Later that night, in the command center.
The Statesec agent and the griffin commander after having finished their necessary work remained in the room. In addition to the two humans, another T-Doll was present. Piercing lime green eyes, white hair, purple and navy blue uniform with the words 'BUNDESWEHR' etched on, and carried demeanor that oozed pride and arrogance.
"So you said you knew who was behind the attack at the airport?" K asked bluntly
"Mmm just a hunch." Gentiane corrected. "but I'm reasonably confident that it's correct."
She then turned to the T-Doll beside her who had been given a quick rundown on the airport incident that happened earlier tonight. "Any of this sound familiar?"
"Sounds like a near perfect match of the white doll we fought after the collapse fluid explosion." The Doll answered after thinking about the similarities for a brief moment.
"White doll?" K questioned the rather vague descriptor.
"Maybe doll isn't the right word…" Gentiane mused. "What was it that that they referred to themselves as again, 416?"
416 only gave a one word answer.
"Nytos."
Aaaand we are back.
Don't completely know how I feel about this chapter, mostly towards the end since I feel the combat section was decently written, but I'm getting cold feet with the stuff after. It's probably just me overthinking stuff, though I think it's best I just post this and move on, can't make everything perfect.
That aside, didn't think I would end up saying this considering some of the apprehension surrounding the leaks of it, but god damn I think Longitudinal Strain is probably my favorite event to date, with Shattered Connexion being my previous favorite. That scene with AR-18 especially was pure KINO.
And as a result, it's very tempting to add characters and yoink other shit from future events in now with how well written they are in comparison to what Isomer and GFL in general had at the time. Not completely sure if I wanna mess with canon that much, but I'm kinda scratching my head on how to continue this dumpster of a fanfic as it is so I might end up going full 'fuck it we ball'. Though I'm already kind of at that point and it may have showed towards the end, whoops.
Then again I don't think anyone reading this particularly cares for 100% lore accuracy or high quality writing anyways lol, feed back or thoughts would be appreciated.
Do also want to give a lil heads up to those not familiar with Girls' Frontline, Reverse Collapse Code Name Bakery is a remake of Mica's first game and takes place in the same universe with GFL being a prequel to it. They had an open beta on steam a while back and are doing another demo in a couple of times at the time of posting this so I would recommend keeping an eye out for that.
Anyways slop aside, thank you for giving this chapter a read. Will try to get another one out before the year ends.
Take care of yourself buddies.