[ZeroXSEED]

Spoiler for Final Ace 04 Part 1:

24 September 2004, Saint Ark Airspace

“Break! Break!”

A trio of lightweight fighter clashed in the sky, ten thousand feet above the ocean, ISAF’s F-20C Tigershark screamed trying to get out of Erusian Mirages’ chase, which is not that hard to do thanks to the great difference of power output.

However, being outnumbered will press any aviator into the state of panic most of the time, especially when they’re young and inexperienced.

Ran 'Hinagiku' Gotanda is no exception.

Even though she donned her mask, she felt like her lung crushed by the sheer mental pressure. Cold sweat dampened every inch of her skin, felt like her still-delicate fingers will slip out of the control stick and mess with everything.

Her eyes can’t even blink, and it hurt like no tomorrow. But the numerous mental images of failure and blunder haunted her all the way, made her keep awake.

She looked at the radar instrument; she did manage to escape their ambush and took extra distance from the cluster of bandits. Nothing like thoughts of counterattacking them ever came, she wasn’t that stupid.

Her RWR blared; no less than three missiles came from the enemy’s direction, rushing like birds of prey trying to pick a helpless rabbit. Ran execute the standard maneuver: Banking hard aside, waiting for the missile to come close. Then, she released countermeasure and jinked on the opposite direction.

All three missile exploded midair, far enough for her plane to came almost unscathed.

She had enough decoy to fool one or two more salvo, but would that be enough?

Eighteen miles from her position, the other member of Hanagumi is having a problem of their own. They fought a flight of three Typhoons, which apparently manned by professionals, unlike the Mirage pilots they fought before.

That’s not to mention the amount of Mirages they found today, fighting decently enough that it gave the Hanagumi trouble even before the typhoons arrived, her seniors barely managed to critically damage two, scaring them out of battlefield.

“[Still alive, baby?]” Madoka’s voice was heard “[You should just retreat]”

“No” Ran’s voice went through her rattling teeth, “I...I am an official member of hanagumi, we will fight together as team no matter what”

This is a test, from here on; the extremely undermanned ISAF will press forward marching for victory. She won’t let everyone’s sacrifice become vain.

“[I’m so touched, but that’s kinda stretching]”

“I’m betting my future the moment I accepted the assignment” Ran screamed, kicked the rudder pedal so hard her plane seemingly flip horizontally on the spot, g-force hit her body like a massive, crushing wave.

Blood drained out of her head, her vision become blurry, and then, the world lost its color for a second or so.

It’s well known that Tigershark is one magnificent plane with one of the worst luck, ever. The first two out of three prototype Tigershark units crashed, killing their pilots due to G-LOC. In fact, it was ISAF who saved the plane from sinking into obscurities, bought the third prototype and fixed their flaw using more advanced, fully integrated FBW control and slight modification on its aerodynamic profile.

And now, while still a lot less forgiving than the much weaker tigers; Tigershark formed the bulk of ISAF Air force until the early stages of war, where their number has been reduced greatly thanks to Stonehenge’s relentless attack.

“ORAAAAA!!!”

She pressed the missile button hard and launched a pair of Sidewinder, full brunt of explosive force punching one of the Mirages right on the cockpit and left intake, shredded the front section of the aircraft into pieces of burning, tiny aluminum scraps and everything else.

“Come here to mommy” Ran smiled, licked what little blood off her soft lips (she bit her lip just now).

She had only her guns left, but if it’s only one, there should be no problem at all. It’s not like they can shoot backward.

Right?

Oh, how false the accusation is, a missile made a circular, sharp turn outward as they’re launched, and she is the target.

The accumulating velocity and her lack of experience made it too late. Burst of metal fragments smacked her canopy and bashed the rest of her side. The resulting turbulence shook her body violently.

“Everyone… sorry”

“[Good job, Hinagiku]”

A single BVR missile already there within her radar but she doesn’t realize it due to Python-induced panic, blasting the bandit to smithereens, chaff field only help a little due to the missile’s angle of attack, and the fact that the bandit probably distracted.

A sea blue Fulcrum dove out of the blinding shade of the sun, rapidly descending and cut the path of a pair of Erusian Kfir, Ran recognized that maneuver and skill.

“Mobius One…” she mumbled, though her mind instead said “Ichika-san”

“[I’ll handle it from here]”

“…Roger that, Hinagiku will return ASAP”

Her heart told her she wanted to fight, but the smoking right side of her aircraft and the cracked canopy made her think twice, she’s fighting for victory and/or survival, not meaningless death. She’s going to wait.

She looked behind, and Ichika’s situation clearly mirroring her own, and yet, he’s most definitely less hard-pressed than she is. His maneuvers are unpredictable, and yet, something about it is plain amazing, he’s just plain better.

When her right side landing gear tumbled on the airstrip, her canopy’s cracks spread even further, but miraculously stood in one piece. She’s thankful to God that it can hold out so long, if it breaks completely when she’s in supersonic condition, all sort of nasty stuff can happen.

And then, the canopy break as she opened the lock, she can’t help but laugh weakly.

Houki’s plane already shown some damage, which hindered her Eagle from performing at maximum efficiency. Likewise, Madoka’s Fulcrum lost one of its rudders, practically miraculous that she still able to fly and kicking around.

The Typhoons are hardly unscathed as well; everyone realized that the conclusion of this brutal fight is either a futile deathmatch or a tactical draw. But so far, neither side is willing to take initiative

“[This is tower; Hinagiku has arrived safe and sound]”

“Roger that, waiting for further orders” Maya confirmed, it’s a lie if she said she didn’t want a victory as outcome, but first thing first is the strategic value of everything, the completion of objective and ESPECIALY the survival of her squad members, become the priority.

“[Taichou, seems like Navy had send them at last]” between laugh, Madoka informed “[This might be sounds cocky, but victory is ours]”

A two-seater flanker going past the battlefield, intercepting a pair of Kfir at full speed before they can join the fray. The ensuing fierce battle only last for a little more than thirty second, as one of the delta wing aircraft befell upon the might of superior Yuktobania manufactured plane.

“Hmm, I see the Navy began to actively deploy the experimental support team” the young Squadron Leader contemplated, certainly odd configuration. But if the timing is right, it’ll be very effective method in increasing total manpower, especially in a small, high demand mission.

Finally, it’s seems that the enemy noticed their disadvantage, having lost four planes in total, they decided to retreat swiftly.

Ran and kick ass shouldn't even belong to the same sentence, but now they did. But of course, Tatenashi and Ichika totally stole the spotlight... again.

The three Typhoons? That's a major characters as well, specifically: Charlotte, Cecilia, and Chelsea. Anti-villain? Yes. Lawful? Yes. Selfish? Yes. Evil? hardly. Next draft will have Erusian POV