Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mercenaries.

The scum of the Earth to some, untrustworthy to anyone with more than one active neuron…

…But to the young woman confusedly driving in a half-broken rental car down a rural road deep in the uninhabited Yuktobanian tundra, mercenaries were just the kind of people she wanted to meet.

Not just the façade of those mysterious, romanticized figures in the media…the real men and women who sold themselves out to armies around the world, fighting in hell for a day’s pay- Men and women like her father.

All she had of him were flashes, blurry snapshots of early childhood memories, as they vanished over time like footprints in the breakwater sand, from her mind, and the few who remembered a man who was officially last seen alive in the 2005 Continental War.

Her mother insisted he was long dead, but a long-time friend of his said otherwise, and he’d pointed her in the direction of an abandoned Yuktobanian military camp.

“You wanna know where your father went? Well, I can’t tell you much of what he did after the war ended- but I can tell you someone who’ll definitely know better. I’m warning ya though, it’s a long way away from Sapin.”

As the sight of a barbed wire fence and a long-abandoned checkpoint appeared on the horizon, she couldn’t help but be filled with doubts. What if this was the wrong place? What if nobody even is there anymore?

But, all those thoughts were removed with all the subtlety of a quartet of 23-millimeter anti-air cannons opening fire into the sky, she watched incredulously as for a split second, the firmament in front of her was split in twain by a pillar of white burning lead, and her ears were assaulted by the raw power of the Shilka ’s guns firing.

She slammed her foot against the accelerator pedal- She couldn’t believe it, she got the right place! She was ignoring all of the GPS’ systems instructions as she sped down the road and finally reached the barbed wire gate.

A yuktobanian man, bearing no patch in his uniform, prepared his assault rifle and and knocked on her car’s window. She rolled it down, and all the words that came out of his mouth were: “Here to see who?”

She took a brief moment to think what she had to say now.

“Here to see Miller.” Rusty, you’d better have not lied to me…

“Go through.” The yuke coldly replied, signaling to a man behind the gate to slide it open.

She parked her car and got off as fast as her body allowed, she was shaking in excitement as she entered the hangar that another guard had pointed her to, as she walked through rows and rows of old tanks, BMPs, BTRs, every variety of ground vehicle she couldn’t remember, and the odd helicopter or two.

She stood, with her hand on the doorknob for a second, and took a deep breath.

Calm down Ana, you can do this.

She stepped through the door, and was greeted by an older man that towered over her, wearing a bomber jacket, aviator sunglasses  covering his eyes, and much of his long, blonde (though graying) hair was covered by a black beret emblazoned in the Ustian Armed Forces emblem. She presumed this was Miller in the flesh.

“Well, well well…if it ain’t old Neujmin’s kid. Rusty told me you’d swing by eventually, make yourself at home.” The merc said, lighting a huge cigar in his mouth, right next to a bunch of military equipment, and presumably live ammunition.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this.

“Ye- yeah, it’s me. You’re Miller, right?” She said, nervously.

“In the flesh. But, you can just call me Shinobi, I think you’ll need to get used to my callsign.” He said, having to take the cigar out of his mouth to speak clearly, filling the air around him in misty smoke, all the while he extended his free hand out for a handshake with the young woman.

Ana shook hands with the arms dealer, who smiled as he looked at her.

“God, you look just like him.” He remarked, as Ana just stared at her own reflection in his sunglasses.

“Thanks, I guess?” She stammered.

“Anyways,” Shinobi began to walk through the large hangar leaving a tray of cigar ash as he went, Ana right behind him as he finished his trip standing next to a plain gray Su-35. “Let’s get straight to business, I ain’t gonna waste your time.”

Ana remained silent, waiting for the merc to continue.

“Your father’s damn near unreachable. I’m a good friend of his so he’ll send me messages every once in a while, only problem being, they’re encrypted to hell and back.” He begun.

“Unfortunately for him, I’m a sucker for cryptography, and I’ve found myself with a lot of free time as it’s been a slow business season- not that many wars going on ‘round these parts nowadays. So I took some time to crack the code.” He smiled slyly, Ana smiling alongside him.

“I only managed to decode one from a while ago, it’s an older code I recognize that was used by the South Belka Munitions Factory. My theory is, he’s a test pilot for Gründer.” He said, taking a last puff of the now almost extinguished cigar before letting it fall to the floor, stomping on it to put it out for good.

“Your dad landed himself a damn good job. A clandestine one at that.”

“And with that, comes a lot of security measures, I imagine.” Ana remarked.

“Exactly! It’s why the most recent message I decoded was from 2015, his location, somewhere in Emmeria.” Shinobi revealed.

“That’s where the trail goes cold…but you can fill out the gaps yourself.” He said, patting the under-wing hardpoint of the Su-35 behind him.

“You mean I’m going to fly as a merc now to find him?” Ana spoke with as much excitement as there was doubt in her mind.

“Yeah, weren’t you a dropout from the sapinish air academy? Rusty said so. You should know how to fly.” He said.

“Uh, yes.” She replied, not wanting to remember what’d made her a dropout in the first place.

“Well then, time for a little refresher course. You heard all that anti-air fire a while ago? Well, I want you to help me test some new toys of mine, and impress some possible buyers while you’re at it.” The arms dealer grinned.

Ana couldn’t help but smile. This’d been the best day of her life in a long time- not only was she closer to seeing her father, she was following in his footsteps as a fighter pilot for hire.

“Wheels up in how long?” She eagerly asked.

“As soon as you’re ready. There should be some spare flight suits lying around here somewhere…” He said, trailing off into thought.

Maybe this merc gig won’t be so bad…

Chapter Text

It hadn’t taken long for the young pilot to find a flight suit, as she scrambled from the cargo container where she’d gotten it and hastily put over her regular clothes towards the Su-35, now in the process of being fuelled and armed.

“Good luck, and don’t forget to put up a nice show- you’ve got an audience to impress!” Shinobi reminded her as she climbed up into the cockpit and lowered the canopy, rushing through the pre-flight checklist as she was accustomed to while her aircraft was dragged over into a runway; Next to her the airframe of an F-16 sat parked, its engine on, and nothing where the cockpit should’ve been- a UCAV opponent.

She awaited eagerly for take-off clearance as the drone took off into the air, racing ahead of her down the runway and soaring into the air, afterburner roaring.

In the meantime, Shinobi stood a few hundred meters away in front of a small crowd of military officers- his clients.

“Gentlemen, what I am going to offer you is the latest in air defense fighter technology at a fraction of any of my competitors’ prices- but I’ll let the fighter’s performance speak for itself, I was never a fan of long-winded adverts.” He spoke with pride as he gestured to the  Su-35 awaiting takeoff.

He produced a walkie-talkie from his pocket and brought it close to his face. “Permission to take off is granted. Don’t fuck it up, new gal.”

Wow, that sure inspires confidence…

She sighed slightly as she spooled the engines up to full power, her dual-engine fighter rocketing down the runway, their noise adding to the already powerful roar of the autonomous F-16 circling above.

The Su-35 rolled as it took to the air, swerving upwards, afterburners propelling the fighter higher and higher on a pillar of flames and smoke. Ana paid little mind to the G-forces pressing her into her seat, as she turned back to level flight upside down, as she turned to face the contact on her radar; the Viper drone.

Her flanker soared through the air as it engaged the armless Viper head-on, firing an active radar-guided missile at it from afar, which the drone promptly and expertly dodged, taking the young pilot by surprise.

Oh, you’re not a normal target drone…This is gonna be fun.

She grinned as her Flanker turned on a dime trying to chase the Viper’s tail as she switched to a heatseeker- a low growl drilled into her ears from her headset, the missile’s IR seeker looking frantically for a target.

The pilot and the drone were locked in a deadly chase -well, only deadly for one of them- as the Viper and the Flanker fought and maneuvered.

God damn, you’re slippery…

Ana groaned in frustration as the UAV maneuvered and flared to prevent her heatseeker from ever locking on. Groaning with annoyance, she switched to guns and the growling ceased as an aiming reticle appeared on her  HUD.

All it took was a few seconds for the sight to align with the enemy, and she let loose a volley of tracers that slammed into the drone fighter’s left wing with a burning flash, tearing it to blazing metallic shreds as they fell to the ground below.

“You’ve put on a good enough show, new gal. Feel free to land.” Shinobi spoke through the radio.

“Copy all, Shinobi…” She said, watching as the wrecked drone slammed into the barren land below. “...How do you even run this place without getting the cops on your ass?” She asked.

“Bribed the right people, so as far as anyone who matters is concerned, this base and the area surrounding it is a military testing site. You can guess what happens to the people who dig into this place’s history too much...” The mercenary laughed it off like it was nothing.

… Why was I not expecting that? He’s an arms dealer, of course he’s fucking unhinged.

Let’s focus on making sure I stay on his good side.

Ana took a deep breath, and before she knew it her Flanker had touched ground. She felt the rocking of the aircraft as it slid down the poorly-maintained runway, and the harsh force of the fighter’s parachutes deploying, finally bringing it to a stop.

She opened the canopy, taking her helmet and mask off, the cold air welcoming her back on the ground- it was then she realized just how tired she felt. The road trip through Yuktobania had already been exhausting, and a dogfight just after that made her want to die.

Comes with the job, I suppose… I better get accustomed to this.