Chapter Text
Chapter 28 - Runaways and Reunions
The next day had arrived, and the weather had gone from summer… to absolutely miserable with no warning whatsoever, surprising even the weather service… though if she was honest, the idea of an inaccurate weather service was nothing particularly surprising.
An accurate weather service would be more surprising, Asuna thought to herself as they were called to the "war room" for an advisory.
As it turned out, that advisory was far less advisory than it was made out to be - after yesterday, a conclusion had been arrived at by those in charge:
They were changing the parameters so that they were A: no longer competing, and B: they were having missions set for them, in order to prevent a rerun of yesterday. Initially, there had been some discontent at having the rules changed almost at will, but after being gently reminded of the utter chaos that had been generated over the Bennion Sea yesterday… Okay, yes, Asuna could completely understand where they were coming from there.
Not that it sated Alice, mind you, who was positively livid at the loss of her chance to… actually, she had no idea why Alice was upset. She put that down to Alice being Alice.
"If we are all done with the debate, you do still have a mission to do." Shasta interrupted the bickering between the squadrons, and all fell quiet. "Good, your mission will be to stop a runaway train."
"Huh?!" There was an almost universal sound of confusion amongst the gathered pilots at that one - wasn't that more of a railway job than a fighter pilot job? "Sir, is this a training exercise, or a "oh bother, OR have lost a train" job?" Jet asked, and Asuna found herself wondering what OR was…
"The latter, I'm afraid." Shasta sighed. "Here are all the details we have at our disposal at the moment - I will be updating the AWACS squadrons with more details when we know them. For now though, we need people in the air, and preferably armed for ground attack. We may need to destroy the unit, rather than just monitoring it."
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Leaving the room, there was a quick discussion of who would get the job to handle this one - sending an entire squadron after a single runaway locomotive was probably overkill, but knowing how things could change on a dime up there, it was decided that having at least some of the squadron flying CAP for the train hunters was not a bad idea.
Then it came to who would be hunting the train itself - Jet had already found himself volunteered due to being able to actually read the signalling diagram, something that made him unique in that regards - much to his embarrassment when he admitted he was also a bit of a train spotter, and so knew the technical details of the unit they would be hunting.
They'd agreed to take a second aircraft, both to confirm targets and also observe what was needed, and so, for the first time as a member of the 303rd, Philia found herself in combat - well, simulated, but it counted to her - for more than just a recon mission.
She had had her RF-4E modified to carry a weapons load alongside its camera fit at an earlier point, so she would provide the additional boom if the Jaguar proved incapable of disabling the lightly armoured (read: unarmoured) train; carrying around 5000 lbs of ordnance normally, though she would only take around six Mk82 Snakeeyes for this one.
"Black Blade Eight, passing the ORL beacon." Philia called out as she climbed away. "So, Jet, talk nerdy to me." She joked, and could just sense the deadpan look of mild annoyance at the comment…
An annoyance he didn't show audibly though, as he began to recite the targeting information. "Target is an electric locomotive and Mk.2 carriage consist. Should've been en route as 5M02 to Rutherford High Level, where it would've formed 9M02 to Oured Queens Bay. Train would've been formed of ten coaches, led by a DBSO. Locomotive is on the Rutherford end, so that rules out trying to blow the crap out of the front of it." Jet explained as the Phantom and Jaguar climbed out of Fairhaven and passed over the town of Orrell.
Philia was both impressed by the fact he remembered all of that - she sure as hell didn't - and grinning at the massive display of nerdery here, when it came to trains. Boys and heavy machinery, she supposed… "You so have a miniature train set at home, don't you?"
"I plead the fifth." Yeah, he really did then... "But can we be serious now? That train might be unladen, but it's also got no one at the helm, and it's going onto one of the busiest lines in the country… with trains going 100 miles an hour. That hits something else, and-"
"Yeah, it'll be a mess, got it." She didn't need to imagine the mess of a 200 miles an hour head on collision, and then add 1950s era train build quality to that equation - they would be identifying bodies from teeth in that case, more than likely… "So where are we heading first?"
"Estimated time of arrival at Rutherford was 08:39 for an 09:00 departure. Track signalling and the signal box at Cricket say that the train is moving at 97mph and between signals 109 Lima and 115 Lima on the up fasts."
Philia found herself blinking rapidly at the info dump - yeah, there was a reason he was handling this stuff, she thought to herself, because she understood none of that. "And in human?"
"Between Cricket and Long Hillford." He summarised. "Turn to heading 150, and we'll intercept it past Lemster."
"Roger that, turning to 150. How long have we got till we get there?"
"About 25 minutes."
"You guys got all that?" She asked Kirito, Argo and Asuna, who would be trailing behind them flying top cover. "150 and head for Lemster."
"I'm amazed ya understood any o' that, Phi-chan…" Argo laughed.
"So am I…" Jet agreed. "I only barely understood it, and I said it."
"Filling us with a great sense of confidence there, oh wise pathfinder of ours…" She replied sarcastically.
"I can let you navigate if you want…" She could sense the smirk on his face there.
"Err, nah, you're alright thanks." She backpedalled quickly enough to win the Tour De France in reverse there… This was one time where she was quite glad to not be navigating for once. Rail maps were confusing, and much more so when you were having to try and follow them from the air…
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Those twenty-five minutes felt surprisingly long winded when you were having to constantly update the NAVWASS, Jet thought to himself (and considered just ripping the stupid thing out when they got back, and replacing it with something that didn't just drift out of alignment because a gnat hovered within a nautical mile of it… ), and even then, he'd begun to rely on visual navigation rather than the unreliable mix of gyros and valves that made up the system…
As a result, he'd developed a different plan for them…
"Watchdog, this is Solitaire, confirm our position over Cricket" He called out. Knowing there was a town below them, he had them circle over the town until they could confirm a visual on the railway, and then chase after the train.
"Solitaire, this is Watchdog. Confirming your position, mission is a go."
"Gotcha." He called as he spotted the tracks heading to the south of the town - Cricket was a major railway junction where a pair of mainlines converged - the Great Central, and the Western Coastway; the latter of which being their flight path for today. "Eight, follow me."
"We're with you." Philia called back as the Jaguar and Phantom descended through two thousand feet to around five hundred feet above the railway, and began their pursuit.
"Watchdog to Solitaire, Black Blades, traffic report from the signalling centre - all trains between Cricket and Kings Magna have been diverted away from the mainline. Only train in the block should be the runaway."
"Understood sir, we're in pursuit now." Silica, a young recruit who usually helped out Liz in the hangar had been roped in to fly as Philia's backseater for this, and he couldn't help but feel like this was setting up some expectations for her of missions they would likely never end up flying…
"Watchdog to Black Blades, you have bogeys on heading 080. Presume hostile, though weapons safe."
"Understood Watchdog, we're movin' to intercept." Argo called out, and he saw the F-14 and F-15 break away in the distance behind them.
"Okay, if they're the only train in the block, then I've got an idea." He thought aloud to himself. "Solitaire to Watchdog, have the OR guys tried cutting the power to the knitting?"
"Uhh… we'll ask?" The very confused controller told them, though he didn't seem too sure what he was even asking…
"In simple terms?"
"It's an electric loco. I was asking if they've tried turning off the power to the overhead wires."
"Watchdog here - they already have. Train is a Class 73 locomotive - whatever that means."
What it meant was that someone had cocked up on the development staff, as whilst the Class 73 was a bi-mode locomotive, it drew its electrical power from 750V DC third rail, not the 25Kv AC overhead lines above the locomotive…
Either way, it meant this was going to be a lot more difficult than he'd hoped it might be.
"It's got a diesel engine as well as the electric motors." He told them, ignoring the rather confused Class 73 - this was an aviation game after all, not Train Sim World. "Which makes it a lot harder for us to deal with."
"Umm, sirs, something occurs to me? Is the switch between the two modes automatic?" Silica asked, and it dawned on him that, no, it wasn't… and if the train was continuing on in diesel mode…
Oh shit.
There was someone on that train, and they didn't want to be stopped!
"No, no it's not, which means there's someone aboard the train that's keeping it going…"
"Watchdog to all aircraft, we've confirmed the train stopped just after it was reported runaway - only briefly though, so we think they picked someone, or something up…"
"I'm guessing this isn't a runaway train anymore then…" Philia sighed. "Why are we always cursed with the interesting jobs…"
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Argo couldn't help but think that something in this whole situation just felt… off.
The runaway train was automatically unusual, and especially given the call they had just received that said train had stopped to pick someone up too, as well as the fact that the train had swapped power source as it supposedly ran away…
She'd have thought this was too unusual of a circumstance if it weren't for- "Bogeys off our nose, Kii-bou. Pair of F-5s." She reported, looking at the radar in front of her.
Aggressors, no doubt; meant to simulate a realistic threat to them, and she followed the normal procedures, acquiring a target lock with the AIM-54s in order to really make them worry…
"Black Blades, aircraft are not aggressors. We have no records on them…"
Okay, that certainly met the definition of unusual, Argo thought to herself. If they weren't aggressors, who the hell were they?! "Unknown aircraft, this is Black Blade Lead of the Osean Air Force. Identify yourselves, or you will be fired upon."
"Osean Air Force pilots, we are Blackguard operators. We are conducting operations against Yutari dissidents on behalf of our employer, and have no qualms with you."
Like hell they didn't! They were attacking allied forces inside Osea itself, an extremely brave (in the sarcastic sense) mission in itself, let alone telling them to get lost…
"Watchdog, you heard that, yes?" Asuna asked.
"Understood. Just waiting on orders now." The operator told them.
"Any day now…" Argo whistled to herself as they closed in. "Kii-bou…"
Kirito nodded from upfront. "Yeah, lock them up. Don't fire till we're cleared though."
"No problem, I wanna give these clowns a really bad day already…"
"Command says they've got no knowledge of their operations." The operator informed them. "Cleared to fire on them if they don't turn tails."
"Good." Kirito answered, switching the safeties off their weapons. "Blackguard aircraft, turn to heading 050 and land immediately. This will be your only warning. Turn and land immediately, or you will be fired on."
Argo waited about ten seconds, checking to see if the pair of Tigers banked away to the designated heading. No dice, which meant it was game on for them…
"Go to hell, you stupid runts!" One of the pilots shouted, and at that moment, he had sealed their fates with a nice wax seal.
"Now those are fighting words…" Kirito gave a sly grin in the mirror. "Argo, you good?"
"Ya haft'a ask?" She returned the grin, and released a Phoenix from the underside - the missile shaking the aircraft as it dropped away from the belly and flew skywards… "Black Blade One, Fox Three."
In the distance, about ten seconds later, she saw an explosion, and watched as the first F-5 disappeared off their scopes. "Boom, splash one F-5."
"Asuna, Fox One." A Sparrow dropped away from the underside of Asuna's F-15, and screamed forward, detonating next to the second F-5, and crippling it; black smoke and fluids poured out of the lightweight fighter as it descended. "He's damaged, should I press the attack?"
"Black Blade Two, is he still combat capable?"
"Doubt it, Watchdog, he's leakin' like a colander, and we can see the smoke trail miles back…"
"Negative then." The operator told them. "Hopefully they learned their lesson though."
"Who the heck were they though?"
"Watchguard - they're a mercenary company that got hired by a few more… savvy countries." Philia explained. "We were tracking their movements before Adamas, but with everything that went on…"
"Yeah, they were able to hide in the chaos, weren't they?"
"Pretty much. Though it's odd for them coming from that direction, Belka aren't exactly in the mercenary game normally… too dishonourable in their eyes usually." Argo wasn't sure she'd have ever called the Belkans honourable - attacking on a day when everyone would be hungover certainly wasn't that in her eyes, but Phi-chan was right about the honour bound culture that hungover Belka like a sword of a knight they so idolised…
It seeped into their entire culture, and mercenaries were viewed as the lowest of the low in combat - both in the real world, and in ACES; she only had to ask LLENN and Pitohui on that one to know that they weren't exactly welcomed with open arms in most places…
"Still, who the hell are the Yutaris?" Jet asked an understandable question - she only knew the name in passing, and not in any real detail other than they were a part of Leasath that formed the Osea-Leasath border, and were sitting on an extremely valuable source of minerals and rare earth materials, if speculation was to be believed…
"Officially, they're the northern province of Leasath."
"It isn't that simple, is it?" Young Silica asked, having picked up on the obvious double meaning of the word "officially".
"Nope, because that's only what the Leasathis claim. Everyone else either shrugs their shoulders, or ignores that they declared themselves independent."
"Oh good, that doesn't sound like a ticking time bomb at all…" Jet sighed, and she couldn't help but agree - that was almost certainly where they were heading next, once Red Rider was over…
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"Okay, I have a visual on the train." Jet called out as he descended as low as he dared to do in the Jaguar.
Any lower, and he'd be picking bits of high tension overhead lines from his intakes later…
"Confirmed, that's the runaway train." Silica confirmed from the backseat of the Phantom, using a pair of binoculars - a rather low tech solution to a high tech problem… but still a clever one, nonetheless. "We'll have about five minutes before it's out of the signalling block according to the GCI."
"Watchdog, confirm that we have clearance to stop the train?"
"Confirmed. Try to avoid any civilian casualties though, so no engagements near any stations."
"Let's see if this works then." He led the reticle in his gunsight, aiming just ahead of the 100 mile an hour train, and fired a short burst of 30mm from his DEFA cannons. The shells hit the tracks, sending sparks flying everywhere, but not derailing the train immediately… though he could definitely tell some of the bogies on the train had derailed as it began to slow down. "Yeah, that's working."
"Bridge incoming." Philia called out, and he yanked the stick back into his crotch, pulling the Jaguar skyward before he kinetically derailed the train by crashing into it, instead of using his guns…
As he began to level out after the near bridge strike, he spotted the train coming out the other side of the portal… pouring out smoke and sparks.
"Yup, he's probably not going to be-"
"Someone's just jumped out of the train!"
"Can't say I blame them like that…" He admitted under his breath, before realising that there was now an ablaze train careening down the line, completely uncontrolled, and with the commuter belt stations beginning in about five miles… "I'm making a second run, so if I can derail it fully before it hits the station at Shepdreth."
"Understood, Solitaire. We're getting the emergency services on the line now." He thought about making a joke about keeping them off the line, else they'd be hit by the derailed train, but thought better of it given the circumstances.
Swinging the Jaguar around, he readied for a second gun run - lead pulled, reticle on target, trigger pulled…
And nothing at all happened.
"Of all the times for the guns to jam! Now!?" He grumbled, before thinking of another way to fully derail the train. From head on, trains were designed to be somewhat aerodynamic (though his definition of the term, and British Rail's were evidently completely different, based on the slab fronted nature of most of their designs), but from the sides?
They were not at all aerodynamic, and in fact, functioned more as an airbrake, given the massive surface area available on the side. Continuing his descent, he aimed for the side of the train, and closed the throttles momentarily - he'd have a split second to open the taps, accelerate out of danger, and allow the turbulent air behind him to slam into the train… and if he got any part of that wrong?
It wouldn't be the air slamming into the train, it'd be him instead…
Which was probably the best motivation to get this right, he thought to himself as the Jaguar dropped into position, and he opened the throttles of the twin Adours, the Jaguar rocking as it was caught in its own wake this close to the ground and it continued to sink, rather than climb…
"Oh fu-" By nothing short of a miracle, the twin Adours picked that exact moment to kick in fully, the afterburners propelling the attacker back into a climb, and kicking up enough dirt, dust and gravel that he could no longer see the train behind him… "Uhh…"
"It crashed! The train has derailed and…" He didn't catch the last words Silica said as an explosion rocked everything around him, tossing the Jaguar inverted as he fought for control, and pelting it with sand, gravel and shrapnel from the train….
He wondered what it said about him that his first thought at that moment was "Oh not again!".
"Solitaire, come in!"
"Still here, Watchdog… barely." He admitted as he righted the Jaguar and levelled out at 1000 feet, catching his breath as he released his hands from the stick to remove his mask and visor… "What the hell was that?"
"We're not sure, but it's suspicious as hell." The operator told them. "We're assuming the train was hijacked, rather than a runaway, and that explosion pretty much sold us on that one."
"Yeah, I'd call that suspicious too - those locos are diesel, so it shouldn't have blown up like that!" And by that, he meant like a small atom bomb had gone off behind him. He was definitely going to be picking bits of Class 73 and Mk2 carriages out of his Jag when they got back, wasn't he?
"Upside, that footage was spectacular."
"You were filming all of that?" He asked nervously.
"Nope, but I did have Silica point a video camera at you as you made that pass." He could hear her grinning at that, and in the background, he could hear Argo tittering at his misfortune.
"Hey, Sil-chan, how much d'ya want for that footage? There's gotta be a good action scene in that, somewhere!" Argo asked, and had they not been thirty odd miles apart, he would likely have flipped her off…
"Umm, it's just for my record, that's all." Silica, evidently not used to dealing with the notorious rat that was Argo, answered nervously.
"Argo, stop messing about with her." Asuna, ever the voice of sanity, shut down that conversation as soon as she could, and he returned to scanning his plane to ensure he wasn't about to fall out of the sky, explode, or do both.
All readings broadly normal other than the- "Work, you stupid piece of-!" NAVWASS.
Yeah, he was beating it to within an inch of his life with a sledgehammer when they landed, and Liz had finished chewing him out for being on the receiving end of an explosion like that…
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Returning to base, Philia had immediately gone into investigative mode, and with her, she'd dragged Argo and Silica.
First things first, working out who had hired Blackguard - it was almost certainly someone in Osea or Leasath, but that didn't narrow that down too much. Mercenary companies were something she didn't really have much experience in dealing with, even as a reconnaissance specialist - they weren't really a thing in Osea most of the time, though a few did exist, but they mostly handled base security and catering, and small things like that.
Not bombing runs on other nations usually.
The thing was that every answer she came up with had more questions attached to them. One of the first suspects in her mind was the former head of the Leasathi state, a dictator who had fled from the country when a revolution had taken hold in 1959, but some further digging had pretty much guaranteed that he was innocent this time around…
He'd died a few weeks ago; leaving just his daughters, who lived in Osea, and were now part of the Osean military.
So unless they had a really vengeful poltergeist trying to start a war, it was a good shout that he was probably innocent on this one - not on the many, many other atrocities he'd committed, but this one he was.
The problem she'd then encountered was actually getting information on the Leasathis - even her reliable sources had told her that looking into that would be dangerous, and even then, there was no guarantee that the information she'd asked for existed anyway.
Which was impressive, given she'd been looking for the people in charge - though according to one of her sources, that changed on a weekly basis anyway, so she could guess just how unstable things were out there.
So, with that as a dead end, unless she fancied trying to find a source inside a very unfriendly dictatorship, she moved onto the Osean side of the coin, and found even more issues, namely that everything was routed through every kind of shell company imaginable…
"Great, so we still have no idea who tried to kill us." She groaned to herself as she rubbed her temple.
The train had been a rather easier task to do some digging though - the person who'd jumped out had been arrested, and was a Leasathi immigrant - at least according to the paperwork she had been sent.
She wasn't sure why, but the paperwork just looked off to her; almost like someone had overwritten something else entirely, but hadn't done quite as good of a job as they perhaps thought they had.
"Wait, what the-" She looked over a transcript that had been sent to her, coming from the interrogation of one of the Blackguard pilots who'd survived his F-5 being turned into confetti… "Operation Clockface? What's that?"
She didn't like not knowing things - the curse of a reconnaissance pilot, she supposed - and so, she kept digging…
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"You wanted to see us, Sir-Ma'am, even?" The look on Jet's face was one of mild frustration at the slip of the tongue, and he didn't blame him for the slip up - the voice in his head was constantly going "Don't say sir, don't say sir, don't say sir…" too.
"I heard about your heroics out there, captain…" Fanatio smirked, and now he was worried. Being chewed out for recklessness was one thing, but being teased for it was another entirely! "As did someone else, who is… well, let's just say, her exact words were that she would be having words with you."
He gulped, knowing exactly what that meant, and feeling a twang of sympathy for his fellow captain at the thought of an angry, and clingy Eydis… "But that isn't why you're here." Fanatio carried on. "I had an application to join the 303rd, and I believe you in particular will be interested in the applicant, Kirito."
Huh? He wasn't exactly a people's person, so why would he be interested in the new person? That wasn't to say he didn't like new people around, but handling recruitment wasn't something he'd ever really been involved in - if anyone handled that, it was Asuna, and it was notable she wasn't here by that standard…
So who was this new person, he wondered?
Fanatio handed him the manilla envelope containing their file, and for a few moments, he glanced over the picture of a blonde girl with a long ponytail and green eyes, before looking at the details of them - currently with the 85th Air Defence Squadron, based out of Bana, no major operations under her belt, although she was listed as an exceptional pilot with an excellent work ethic, and who had requested transfer to their squadron no less than four times already, only to be turned down by the stupid rules that had been implemented when the 1st Eagle Wing had been established…
Then he read the name, and nearly had a heart attack: Suguha Kirigaya.
"The hell is she doing here?!" He exclaimed, half in shock and the other half in terror. How the hell had he never noticed Sugu was here?!
"I think that'll be one to ask her when she arrives tomorrow…" Fanatio told them. "Captains, I trust that you two can show her the ropes of how we operate here in the Eagles?"
"She's in good hands, ma'am."
"Dismissed."
"I think I've seen expecting parents less shocked than you right now…" Jet joked, breaking the tension in the air after Fanatio had left them to their own devices. "You two close or…"
"It's complicated." He admitted, and Jet gave him an understanding nod.
"Ahh, I get you." He patted him on the shoulder. "One complicated sibling relationship to another, sort it out else it'll eat you up. Don't ask me how I know." Jet looked away with a morose look on his face, and something told him he was speaking from experience there…
"I've spent the past five years or so pushing her away, and… I kind of thought she hated me." He admitted. "I wouldn't blame her if she did - I would."
"Story of my life, mate." Jet acknowledged. "Been there, done that, got the scars."
"I don't get why she'd risk her life like this though. Suguha's always been, well, headstrong, but I always thought she was more sensible than this!"
"Family do weird things occasionally, what can I say?" Jet threw his arms up in defeat, now very much talking from experience, he sensed. "But look at it this way. If she's here, and actively trying to get transferred to see you, it means she doesn't hate you, right?"
He thought about it for a moment, and ignoring the anger at her for doing something so utterly reckless and headstrong as logging into a death game voluntarily to find him, he felt a sense of pride at how his little sister had developed into a brilliant pilot in her own right.
Maybe she wasn't an ace like them, but they'd been thrown into the deep end and told to swim or sink - they hadn't had much choice but to learn to overcome the odds.
If they'd been thrown in though, Suguha hadn't, so much as she'd jumped in of her own volition, and learned to swim (he briefly wondered if that wasn't just metaphorical - she'd never learned to swim when they were younger, and maybe she'd overcome both sets of odds there…)
"Uhh, earth to Kirito… calling Major Tom? Anyone in there…" Jet asked, waving his hand in front of his face.
"Sorry, I was thinking about what you'd said. I'm proud of her, but at the same time… I'm not happy about this, at all." Kirito admitted, before realising they weren't alone anymore; Philia stood at the door, a confused look on her face at what he was saying…
"Not even gonna ask what he's on about there, but you might want to see this, both of you." Philia told them, placing a piece of paper on the table in front of them. "Came across this whilst looking for whoever hired our would be attackers…"
The piece of paper looked to be a transcript of some kind, and Kirito took care to read everything in there, trying to work out what it related to, before realising exactly what it was:
A transcript of a meeting with the Chief Officer of Blackguard Military Services, discussing operations in Yuta - operations that he was sure he should have read about by now - and the possibility that it could lead to an escalation between Osea and Leasath, should they attack from either direction.
The most likely scenario, they agreed, was an escalation between the Leasathi security forces, and Yutari troops in the breakaway state, leading to the intervention of Osean forces, on the side of the Yutaris, as a way to remove the Leasathi dictatorship from the equation; an aim Osea had had since the Revolution around 10 years prior…
"Crap." Jet summed it up pretty well with a sigh. "How'd you get this though? Conspiracies aren't usually stupid enough to incriminate themselves… well, not unless it's signed by a , anyway."
"Take a look who's name is on there." Philia pointed at one of the margins - and they both looked at it, before going wide eyed and looking at each other with a sense of disconcertion.
"Shasta." They both said, almost in sync. "But how's he still here if you got that?"
"Dated June 14th, 1964. Part of a plot called Operation Clockface to overthrow the government, and install a military government to prevent a coup."
"Launch a coup… to prevent a coup." Jet asked with a blank look on his face. "Absolutely flawless logic there." He answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he did. "But still, he should be rotting in prison, not at a training centre, right?"
"Done his time 'parently." Argo shrugged, having joined them at some point. "But knowin' what Blackguard were up t' back then? Don't fill me wit' much confidence that they ain't up to their necks in it again…"
"Great, so what do we do then?"
"Keep an eye out for anything odd - more so than usual, anyway - and we'll try to build our own picture of what's going on." Philia sighed, frustration clear in her voice there. "Anyway, you two were discussing something before we got here?"
"Oh, just a new recruit joining you guys." Jet told them, adding in as little detail as possible, thankfully for him. "She should be arriving tomorrow, so we'll be showing her the ropes."
Argo gave a teasing look to him. "Tut tut, what will Aa-chan say? Kii-bou showing another girl the ropes…" She wiggled her eyebrows teasingly, not knowing how much that joke was hurting him physically…
He did his best not to physically hurl at that, but he was sure Argo could see that he was going green just thinking about it, and would probably have more questions to ask about that reaction than just an embarrassed one… "Sister…" He mumbled under his breath.
"Eh?"
"The new girl's his sister." Jet clarified whilst he held his dinner down.
Now it was Argo's turn to go green at her own insinuation. "The new girl… is Kii-bou's sister… and I just suggested he was going to tie her up and- 'scuse me." Argo scurried off outside, and after a brief moment, he heard a scream somewhere between horrified and mortified by what she'd just said coming from outside, before she came back inside...
"Better?" Philia asked with a smirk.
"Better." Argo agreed. "Sorry 'bout that, Kii-bou, I, uhh… yeah, let's never speak o' that one again, yeah?"
He nodded, happy to never, ever think of that thought again for as long as he lived. "Din't know ya had a sister though? 'Least, ya never mention her…"
"It's… uhh, complicated." He explained without explaining. "She isn't my sister. Not really, she's my cousin, but we were raised together, so…"
Rather than teasing him though, Argo gave him a sympathetic smile - an unusually kind look on her face. "Ah, I get'cha. So, when's she arrivin'?"
"Tomorrow." He told them. "So we'll be sitting out of ops tomorrow. "
"I think ya'd be out for a few days anyway, knight-boy…" Argo joked. "Ya seen what you bought back from the train… honestly, reckon we could rebuild the train from it, ya know!"
"Yeah…" Jet looked away awkwardly, and pretended that he wasn't going to be brutalised by Liz for the damage he'd caused to his Jaguar.
Damage that had included coming back with half a transformer from the locomotive lodged in the air brakes of his plane…
That was very much a Jet problem in his eyes, not a problem for him. His problem was going to be explaining that his little sister was joining them… and why she currently looked nothing like… well, him.
Regardless, tomorrow was going to be… an exhausting day, he reckoned.
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The weather had again changed from fog and damp, to a sunny day, and Kirito found himself seriously wondering whether the rendering engine was a little bit broken in this game, after months without maintenance, because that was the only explanation he had for the bizarre weather they found themselves in…
Or more importantly, he found himself in.
Where the bloody hell was Jet, he thought to himself, as he waited impatiently for not only his sister's arrival, but his colleague's too!
"I'm here, I'm here… something, uhh, came up…" He really hoped that wasn't a euphemism for his and Eydis' sex life there, but based on the fact he seemed completely bewildered still, he reckoned it wasn't.
"Like what?"
"Well, you know we were chasing the train yesterday? Well, one of the stations we should have passed had closed, but was still there… apparently."
"You got sidetracked focussing on a closed station." He asked with a blank look. He thought he could be bad sometimes, but… actually yeah, he probably was that bad too.
"Kind of, but I realised it wasn't there."
"Out of date map?" He thought of the most likely explanation.
"Well, apparently OR didn't know it wasn't there anymore either. That's why I'm late - I got called into a meeting with a bloke from the railway, asking for more details." Jet explained, wiping the sweat from his brow as he did. "Yeah, turns out someone stole it."
"Someone stole… a train station? How!?" He asked, an incredulous tone to his voice, and Jet simply shrugged.
"That's for them to answer, not me. Still, I doubt they just walked off with it - don't think it fits in any kind of pocket, y'know? Except maybe a pocket dimension, I guess…"
"This world never ceases to amaze me…" He said with an amused look on his face, before looking out into the distance for any approaching aircraft, and checking with a pair of binoculars. No signs of anything, other than Alice and Eugeo checking in as they reached the rendezvous with Leafa, as Suguha called herself now.
It had been a slightly concerning realisation for him that he could, and without a second glance, have actually walked straight past his own sibling without even realising they were there, and worse still… that he might actually have done so at Bana, when they were there during Operation Diamond!
That thing that told him he hadn't done that though was very simply the type of person Sugu was - she would have immediately made herself known if she'd realised who'd walked past her, and she hadn't done that.
"Captains, looks like they've met up. ETA back at Bana is 8 minutes."
"Understood Tower." Jet responded. "Eight minutes till they get back, looks like we'd better get our game faces on."
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Eight minutes was a surprisingly long time for a person prone to overthinking things, Kirito had soon realised.
Even with reassurance from Jet and Asuna - who'd sent him a good luck message, as she was controlling the operations for today - it hadn't helped all that much, until he spotted a trio of aircraft in the distance:
The two Mirage 4000s of Alice and Eugeo, and a Mirage F1 in standard Osean camouflage, but with a bright green fin flash…
Yeah, that was definitely her.
He had to admit, it was quite a sight to see the three Mirages landing, the two 4000s glistening in the sunlight and as they taxied to the hard stands. "Well then, let's go welcome our new guest, shall we?"
After a brief walk to the stands, Kirito found himself face to face with someone who, by looks alone, should've been a complete stranger… even though he knew it was his sister, and for the first time in the entire campaign, he found himself completely overwhelmed by everything. "S-sugu?"
The smile on her face faded slightly, becoming a look of shock, before returning. "It is you! I hoped it was, but…"
"Yeah, it's me." He told her, standing back a little out of awkwardness. It had been nearly a year since he'd last seen her, and back then, she'd been a kid.
If anyone still called her a kid now though, he'd have assumed they needed glasses… or had a very warped definition of the term! She wasn't much shorter than he was, and she had grown up a lot in that year too - if anything, he found it hard to believe he was the older sibling now…
"I didn't recognise you, you know…"
"Heh, yeah… I didn't think that one through, did I?" Leafa ran a hand through her ponytail in a brief moment of awkwardness.
A moment that lingered, as the two siblings looked away from each other, trying to think of the next words extremely carefully - it had been years since they had really spent time together, and other than her kendo, he honestly didn't know much else about his own little sister… how bad at being a sibling was he?
That awkwardness was eventually broken by the frustration of another blonde… Alice. "Oh for the love of god, just make up, will you?" She told them, running her hands against the bridge of her nose.
There was a look of mortification on Eugeo's face at her outburst, whilst Jet was silently laughing to himself, meaning neither of them were going to be much help here… "Sugu-"
"Mom told me." Wait, mom had told her what, he thought for a split-second, before it dawned on him exactly what she'd been told. "Just before everything. I never knew how to say it, but…"
"You know I'm not your brother then, I'm your cousin-"
"Give it a rest, Kazuto. We grew up together, we did kendo together all those years ago, and I never knew life without you there. Maybe we aren't brother and sister like that, but I still think of you as my brother."
He felt a tear come to his eye at that - all those years of hiding away, pushing his mom and Sugu away, and it really had been for nothing. It had been the anger of a small child lashing out and trying to escape into a world where he could be more than he thought he was…
He'd gotten exactly what he wished for in ACES… and he absolutely hated it sometimes. Sure, the flying was amazing, but he just wanted a peaceful life sometimes, not to spend an eternity fighting for his life…
Except he'd realised something with Sugu's words - family was who you spent time with, people you couldn't imagine your life without… and that meant the 303rd especially.
"Umm, I think we should be going, don't you, Alice?"
He hadn't failed to notice the tear in Alice's eye at the reunion, and the re-forging of their relationship as siblings… "I do enjoy a happy ending…"
"So… they're in our squadron, yeah?" Leafa asked as they walked across the apron.
"Alice and Eugeo. They're probably the people I'd call my best friends-"
"You made friends!" Okay, now he could believe he was the older sibling again.
"I wasn't that bad… was I?" Leafa didn't actually answer other than an enthusiastic nod of her head, enough so that her ponytail was physically whipping the unfortunate Jet. "Oh come on, Sugu, I had friends at school!"
"Yeah… but when was the last time you hung out with them outside of school?"
He went to respond, but realised that she was entirely right - he couldn't even remember one occasion that he actually had hung around with them. Wow, he really was on course to become a shut-in before, wasn't he?...
"I hate that you're right about that." He said quietly, to an amused grin on her face. "Can we please get back to the business at hand? Jet, anything to add-"
He went to respond, before Kirito realised exactly what was about to happen. "-that has to do with this briefing, please?"
He rolled his eyes, and made a zipping gesture across his mouth. "Fine, briefing talk. Leafa, welcome to Canaveral - and yes, I know we aren't at Canaveral right now, shut it Kirito - and welcome to the madhouse. Trust me, you'll learn to just accept that things happen to us, regardless of whether we want them to or not…"
"That sounds a bit ominous, doesn't it?" Leafa raised an eyebrow at that.
"He's a bit fed up that he got called in over a missing train station." He explained to his sister, who made a humming noise as if she immediately understood exactly what he'd said…
Before then making a confused noise when the actual words processed in her mind. "Missing… train station? How do you lose a train station!?"
"Someone stole it."
"I guess that- did you just say someone stole a train station!?" Leafa asked in complete bewilderment. "You weren't joking about things just happening, were you?"
"Nope. Unfortunately not, we kind of get-"
Before Jet could finish his sentence, the briefing alarm went off - a call to all aircrew who were needed for the day's exercise to head to the briefing room; only this time, the alarm sounded slightly different, and both captains gave each other a concerned look.
"All aircrews - report to the briefing room. Exercise suspended - Code Black."
"Guess you're in for a trial by fire, Sugu…" He tapped his sister on the shoulder as they started sprinting towards the briefing room…
"Lucky me…" She smiled, a grin that he very much recognised on her face - even if it was a stranger's face, essentially.
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"Good, all of you are here." Unusually, the briefing wasn't being held by Shasta, but rather by Lipia, who seemed less than impressed at having to do so. "We can get going. As of 20 minutes ago, we received reports that Aurelia and Leasath are at war."
"What's that got to do with us?" One pilot asked.
"In short, we share a land border with Leasath, and the breakaway state of Yutar." Lipia explained. "It is very likely that we will be called to move in order to assist the Yutaris, should actions be sanctioned, and so, we will be moving to a war footing for your training as of this moment. In addition, we will now be arming you for your missions, as the Security Council have agreed on the implementation of a No-Fly Zone across the Osea-Leasath border, in order to deter any hostile actions against Yutar."
Kirito sighed, knowing that those words would be the ones that triggered an update in their mission objectives, and as if the universe had a sense of humour, it did exactly that in that moment…
Mission Update:
Southern Watch - protect the airspace of the southern border, and the breakaway state of Yutar.
There went any chance of a quiet life, he guessed…