Sudentor,Osean Federation,right after the Treaty of Oured was signed
"Welcome,Mr.President,it was a pleasure meeting you,please take a seat."
"Whatever,now tell me,why are you calling me here,Mr.Heinrich?"
Following the invitation of one important figure among the military,after 6 hours of flight,president Ander himself,along with secretary of defense Johnson,had made their way to North Osea,arriving at the headquarters of the infamous North Osea Grunder Industries.After the transfer,Grunder and the government,despite still remain a close trading relationship,have been fighting to decide whether to nationalize the corporation or not.But every war has its final result:
"I have noticed that you aren't in a good mood today,Mr.President?Or because you hate to look at the Belkan holding the arm market?"-A high class looking man sat down opposite on the table with a cup of coffee on his hand-''My name is Heinrich Gollnitz,as you can tell,I am the CEO of North Osea Grunder Industries.First,I have to admire you mister,your way of cornering us are truly creative,all the foreign citizens have been granted Osean citizenship,except for one,and that's Belkan.You hatred to us Grunder Industries are truly invincible"
"Yes,and those hatreds are reasonable I might say.Now,go straight to the point,I don't have much time to spend with a Belkan like you"
"Calm down"-the Belkan CEO takes a deep breath and takes out a document from the desk drawer-"I invited you here purely for business,and as the ODF requested earlier,an exceptional aircraft,capable of air to air combat,ground attacking,even very high recon,but due to the cost,we've only made a single prototype of it.And here is the contract"
Johnton receives the document from him and takes a look,the general seemed impressed,but the president doesn't:
"So?You haven't answered my question:Why am I here?"-Ander glare at the Belkan CEO-"Anyone among the high-ranking military officers.Even let them aside,Mr.Johnson is here,I don't see any point of my present in this building"
"Not really,some of the terms here...must be discussed with you...."-Heinrich picks up the document and move his finger toward a line near the end-"Aside from a billion zollar on the prototype,60 billion for the order of 80 units,I..."-he paused for a second before continues-"I demand Osean citizenship for all Belkan"
"Belkan?Why do I need to grant Osean citizenship for Belkan?Why would you think that I would..."
"I think you should consider,I have significantly lowered the pric-..."
"No"
"Look,Mr.Ander"-Johnson said to him with a pursuing voice-"You can hate Grunder Industries,or him,or anyone participating in this corporation,but how about innocent Belkans?I don't see anymore reason to continue your plan,and they are even inhumane"
"But..."
"History is hard to forgive,but..."-Heinrich stood up and walked toward the Osean president-"Time changed,Mr.Ander,we have no reason to wage war against the Osean Federation.This is a whole different world,Osea is the only thing we are familiar with,and people tend to have better relationship with things that they knew.Beside,Grunder Industries has made a step down,and I think you,Mr,president,you should,too"
"No is no,Mr.Heinrich,put my name out of your plan.And you too"-Ander stands up and pushes his finger against Johnson-"You are a military officer,not a humanitarian reformer,do your right job.If you dare to bring me to Sudentor anytime in the future,even just once,you would have to prepare to pack your belongs in the office first.I am leaving"
Said done,the Osean president stands up and left the room,leaving Johnson and Heinrich behind in disappointment:
"Sorry,can't help much."-said Johnson-"I didn't even expect him to reject that."
"I guess that I have to admire his hatred for us"-the Belkan CEO finished his cup of coffee-"It seemed like we can't extract more money from our enemy for our project.Anyway,this scapegoat tech demonstrator is still a proper working fighter."-Heinrich throws away the contract from the desk-"You can bring Fairchild with you,no need for money,just keep her as a gift from your friend,and don't give it to someone that would disturb our plan..."
Vladivostok,Russia
"Huh?What do you mean when you say that I'm bad?"
After coming back from the forest and returning the guns back to the owners,plus an extra 15 minutes on taxis,the two hunters had returned to their home.Sitting quietly on a benches at the corner of the outside of the hotel,Mobius and Trigger recount all of their static for the today's trip:
"I have 5 kills,you have 1,and you missed two whole magazines"-the female pilot chuckled-"I spend two thirds of one magazine to have that kill count.Jezze,if that isn't bad then what it is then?Even Milika and Leonardo last time did better"
"Fine"-Trigger replied in embarrassment-"But you are good because you have done that a lot.In the opposite,I've never done,actually,this is the first time I go out hunting with someone.And this is better than I've expected,one kill isn't that bad afterall"
"So,do you want to go with me next time..."
"Maybe-"
Mobius leans her head on the shoulder of Trigger:
"Hey...oh,I guess that the winter huntress still have to rest"
Seeing his captain dozing by his side,the pilot of Three Strikes takes a light breath and looks up to see the stars slowly rising from the horizon.A quiet space,like there is only him,a bench,the sky,and of course,Mobius,like they are the whole universe,or it just because his awareness has been shrunk into just a few meter from the right of the bench where he sits,to the left,where his captain is.The cold wind blow into his face with a whistle,the dripping sound of water from the pipes,and the sound of their breaths,all sound so clear to Trigger,yet,all of those are so silence,like the insignificant factors of the space-time,but those little factors are the things that made everything so significant.And to him,the significant thing here is nothing else,than the girl by his side:
(A/N:Should've had an illustration for this scene,but I would have to sell my lifespan for that)
"So,we are here,at the same place,at this very moment,I guess that this is fate,right?For me to meet you?"
"Hmm~"
"Yeah..."
Trigger leaned his back onto the bench,as his eyes desperately called to be closed.The pilot had tried to fight back the sleepiness for his whole trip back home,but now,as the warm heat on from the sleeping pilot next to him slowly spread along his arm into his body,and the lullaby of the breathing of the air alluring him into the world of dream.Trigger can't help,but slowly accepted for his eyes to rest:
"A nap...is fine..."
Suddenly,just right before the eyes of the pilot close,from the skyline,a ray of light has caught his attention:
"Oh,is that a shooting star?"
"Huh..?Shooting star?"-Mobius slowly opened her eyes-"Oh,no,that should be a comet.A comet at dawn?Quite a rare opportunity to see them"
Follow the pointing finger of Trigger,the female pilot look up to her right and see as a white light flying from far away starting to stripe its mark on the darkening blue.Among the sky are a F-15 and a Su-30 flying in pair,they seemed to have noticed the shooting star too,because the Eagle tried to get a better look by driving toward the the comet' coming direction:
"So fast"
But the star has fly through the fighter in instant,leaving a strange smoke trail behind and not even a second for the F-15 pilot,nor the two person on the ground to get the jet within their sight with the speed.Seeing that,Trigger tried to takes a photos,but as he takes the phone out of his pocket,the light of plasma emitted from the "comet" has disappeared,revealing a giant machinery in the disguised:
"Is that-"
"Oh my God,that is an aircraft?At that speed?"
Leaving no time for the eyes of the two to keep up with,the jet finish a round trip around the outside of Vladivostok in less than 12 seconds,of course not without the fierce clash between streams of plasma releasing from the three engines and the composite-made air brakes.Clearly,the jet is trying it best to decelerate,as it quickly reduce its speed and altitude and reheading the nose toward the airfield of the city,but still at Mach 0,6:
"Holy hell,the runway,is the runway still fine after that landing?"
"I don't think the problem here is the condition of the runway,Ameri"
3 minutes later
"Albert,what the hell is this?"
"How am I supposed to know,I wasn't acknowledged about this"
Landing proudly in a part of the runway,if people could ignore the debris being splitted out all the surrounding area where the three-four pairs of the plane rolled over,then,the ADFX-04 would standing like a titan on its stage.And that's likely true,the aircraft's size surpassing all the Wyverns parking along the hangars far away,which is already the largest fighter in the airport:
"Dear the divine angels,it's huge..."
The ADFX-04 continued to move a little of eighteen meters before coming to a full stop near the end of the airfield.Wherever the aircraft flew past,the ground got lifted up a little bit,leaving a bunch of work for the runway repair team.
"Welp,they should have a fat paycheck after this"-Pixy joking-"Aside from that,Albert,why you didn't know why it is here.At least the HQ would have notified us earlier,if they intended to send any allies here"
"As I said,I don't know-"
"Then at least check her condition and purpose"
"But-"
Seeing the pressuring eyes of Cipher,Long Caster has no choice but obey his recommendation,walking toward the aircraft with very cautious steps,like that the plane could just vaporize him at anytime it wanted,but return and facing Cipher is scarier idea,so the man could only walks on:
"Right,Osean aircraft,what is your identification?"
<<Affirmative,Mr.Henderson,sorry for my manner,let me introduce myself.My name is->>
"Skip,skip,what is your purpose when being here?"
<<Mr.Henderson,my name is ADFX-04,other than that isn't available,you are not allowed to access highly secret data while having too much non-Osean combatant in the area.The HQ would send you a different message when you get back in your room>>
"Okay,that's good enough."
Long Caster takes some note into his tablet and left without a single word,leaving ADFX-04 and the rest of the squadron,and a few more curious people tended to approach the new plane.Unlike Eliza,the curiosity surrounding the aircraft has overcome the hatred of them for drones.First Koshka,then Mobius and Trigger,then Talisman,then Maiden,step close and get their hand onto the airframe:
"May I get a hand o-"-Koshka tended to approach,but Maiden hold him back and point his finger at Valentina,whose laser gun pointed toward her pilot:
"I don't think your wife allow you to do so,maybe next time"
Pushing the Russian pilot aside,Maiden come close and touch the aircraft:
"Beautiful,I must admit,my X-02S is nowhere close.Hey,do you think I could replace that Wyvern with this one?"
"No,but you're right,this one is good ''-Talisman commented-"Big airframe,like that CFA-44 from Estovakia,triple engines,no glass canopy but sensors?!Hell,if only I could fly this aircraft by myself.It's a pity that a Z.O.E has occupied the seat"
<<She isn't Z.O.E aircraft>>
"What?!"
Eliza said while rolling out from the inside of her hangar.Of course,being a Z.O.E of herself,the ADFX-10 could acquired intel in very high speed compared to Long Caster,the only drawback is that Long Caster has better access into HQ's data warehouse.But surprisingly,this time,the role being switched between the two:
<<HQ has decided to promote me into higher rank Z.O.E,from now on,I will take over Long Caster's job of giving very high secret information.Therefore,All non-Osean,please leave the area immediately>>
Sensing that the Americans had went far away,and Osean pilots had pay closer attention to her,the ADFX-10 readjusted her nose toward her sister,before emitting a blue-color ray onto the logo of the Grunder Industries.Five seconds later,the aircraft turned to the pilots:
<<Grunder Industries ADFX-04,codename:Fairchild.The aircraft was transfer to the 297th Tactical Fighter Wings as an experimental aircraft,include combat data gathering,and speed testing,the rest are classified>>
"Just that?"
<<The aircraft would need two pilots to operate aside from the Z.O.E,which would be assigned to two highest static pilots during the war within the squadron,according to my record,those are:Hawkeye 11,Ameri Lockhart,callsign:Mobius:117 kills and Hawkeye 4,James Wilson,callsign:Trigger:111 kills.And the Osean 297th Tactical Fighter Wings has been renamed to:Osean 242th Experimental Fighter Wings>>