ACES Online

Chapter 9 - Escalation of Commitment, Pt.1

The 1st of January 1969 had began much the same way as any other day in the world of Strangereal. It was a cold, but otherwise pleasant morning, a crisp coolness in the air that shook away the cobwebs from the celebrations that had been the night before, with surprisingly little frost at Rechlin, though the snow from the evening prior still coated the fields around the base, as members of the 23rd Fighter Squadron's Twilight Flight checked over their aircraft, before their possible mission.

She thought back to the briefing that they'd undertaken before everyone either went to bed, or went off to celebrate the New Year...

''As you are all aware, Belkan radar trucks have been jamming our primary radar, and we've been using airborne radar to try to circumvent that for almost a week now. Needless to say, this is far from a permanent solution, and we've been given authorisation for a mission to destroy the radar trucks across the border. Targets have the codename Headache...'' Diavel explained, before pulling down a chart with the operation name on it... ''This mission will be... Operation Aspirin.''

Koharu hadn't thought it was possible for people to act in complete synchronization before that meeting, but she did after it - having watched an entire room of people place their heads in their hands and groan, all in complete unison, did tend to change your opinion on things like that...

''We'll be performing a surgical strike with only a small number of aircraft at dawn, to lessen the chances of them being aware of us.'' A map was placed down of the targets, and the timeline for it, and suddenly, she wondered if the radar trucks weren't the only Headache around. What was the saying about plans, and enemies again?...

''YAWWNN-Morning!'' Yuuki said, in her familiar cheerful tone. The twins had come up to her whilst she was off in her own little world, and no doubt they were as tired as she was. As it turned out, a base full of pilots, all of whom had a reason to celebrate - and quite a lot of alcohol - were more than slightly rowdy. She'd felt some sympathy for Asuna there, especially as she'd looked as if she was going to throw the nearest object to her, at the next person who disturbed her efforts to sleep...

''Yuuki... you did actually sleep, right?'' Ran asked, her voice conveying concern, and giving off the impression that she was older than she actually was. If not older, then certainly more responsible, she'd reminded herself.

''Of course I did! It's just...'' Yuuki defended.

''It is really early...'' Koharu admitted, fighting a yawn herself as she checked over her Hunter. ''And everyone was really loud last night...'' Koharu trailed off as she continued to check over the Hunter. Lisbeth had made some modifications for her over the Christmas period; not least to the weapons she could now carry. The two outer rails had been refitted to allow carriage of air-to-air missiles, namely Firestreak or Sidewinders. She knew from Asuna that the Firestreaks were... not exactly reliable, often deciding that the sun made for a more opportune target than the dummy aircraft in front of them, so she'd settled for carrying Sidewinders instead, alongside four 1000lb bombs.

The other major change to her Hunter was the colour scheme, the usual two tone grey and green camouflage replaced by a deep, all over maroon colour, one that could almost pass for champagne red in the right lights. The maroon was broken up by the 23rd's insignia on the nose, alongside the usual Osean markings and a newly added Black Blade insignia under her cockpit, with her information and her normal position as Black Blade Three. This morning though, she wasn't flying as Black Blade Three, but rather taking Siune's position as Twilight Four, whilst the older girl's Lansen was being repaired by Lisbeth.

Had it not been for the distinct lack of pilots around Rechlin, she wondered if she could be forgiven for forgetting what day it was - New Year's Day, the 1st of January 1969 for them. She couldn't help but find that a little unsettling, that she was about to fly a strike mission some 36 years before she was born, in a completely different world; one that felt like Earth at a first glance, until she looked at it more closely. During her few days off following the Kestrel incident, she'd taken the time to familiarise herself with the world she now found herself living in, and Strangereal certainly felt as if the name was justified. The planet Earth, but with the continents shifted, and different countries replacing the ones she knew... and yet, despite the different nations, war was still as prevalent. The World Wars had still happened, even though the circumstances had been very different on Strangereal, and...