Watching and learning history of another world

Chapter 8: Friends In High Places - Act 1

"I have an even better deal.", Eli replied immediately, which narrowly prevented an everyone-minus-Neo versus one verbal fight from going on. "You lose, y'all give me 10 lien cards each. But if I lose.". Eli then leaned in.

"10000 lien cards. Each."

That basically shut everyone up, though some of them a bit begrudgingly. That was, to their minds, the best deal they had ever heard in their lives. So it came with no surprise that everyone immediately settled down and accepted the bet.

What they didn't expect was for Summer of all people to jump out of her seat, dashed towards their Host's seat, grabbed and violently shook the man's hand; her silver eyes had literally stars in them.

"IT'S A PLEASURE DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU, KIND SIR!!!", the Rose matriarch shrieked in great excitement.

"Okay, okay! I get it! Please return to your seat, Mrs. Rose! The movie is starting now!", Eli loudly exclaimed as the woman then released his hand and dashed back to her seat.

As soon as Summer sit down, the screen slowly lit up as the familiar sight of a blue sphere, Earth, began to appear.

"This sight never gets old.", Sun and his friends chuckled as they looked at Earth in fondness.

"Despite the flaws of the people there, Earth still looks beautiful from afar.", Glynda commented with a smile. Unbeknownst to her as well as the rest of the audience, at the back of the cinema, Eli's gaze on the majestic sight of us was more than just fondness. His gaze also contained nostalgia... and grief.

'Wish we just got along in the first place...', Eli thought. He then looked at everyone in the cinema with a sad smile. 'I sincerely hope they'll never find your planet. Almost three decades of war is enough.'

"Before I got to Europe, I had never seen an aeroplane in real life.", a voice narrated as the view very slowly zoomed in on a specific region.

"High above they twisted and turned, like flocks of birds dancing! There was a romance around the pilots – these new swashbucklers of the skies."

"These pilots sound so awesome!", Jaune and Ruby exclaimed with glee. When it came to adventures, virtually nothing could stop those two.

"They also sound like fine gentlemen, too.", Blake commented with a smile. "From what the narrator has said, the way the pilots fight sound like something comes right out from a romantic tale involving knights in shining armors."

However, a certain brawler just had to ruin her faunus teammate's day-dreaming. "Smoking hot aviators in your area~"

The immediate response was priceless for Yang as Blake's face was as red as a tomato. Though they both settled down and turned their attention to the screen.

"But the reality was... most of these brave young men would eventually end up back on the ground in twisted smoking wrecks."

The screen finally finished its zoom on France and slowly turned black. Before long, lines of text began to appear one by one.

VOSGES, FRANCE. SPRING 1917.

The allies are losing the war in the air.

Germany's Air Force dominates the Western Front with a range of superior aircraft and a roster of famed "ace" pilots, each claiming scores of kills. Britain's Royal Flying Corps struggles to compete.

Most replacement pilots have experience of less than 10 hours.

The average lifetime of an RFC combat pilot is 17 days.