Chapter Text
1999.
The year that the world fell into the abyss.
Humanity had pinned its hopes on superweapons such as Stonehenge and Chandelier, and those hopes fell short with delays.
The Ulysses asteroid devastated Erusea, and fragments would impact most of the world - but the resulting humanitarian crisis was just the beginning of humanity's woes.
In the days and months following the impact, a new element would be detected in the Earth's atmosphere; a new and volatile element known colloquially as Ether.
Large ether concentrations in the atmosphere would condense, clumping together to form... things known as Hollows.
The world had survived one catastrophe, if only barely, but it wasn't ready for the Hollows, and large portions of the Earth would be engulfed in Hollows by 2005.
Now, a hundred years later, Earth is recovering, and the Hollows have retreated from large parts of Osea and Yuktobania, allowing for the gradual rebuilding of civilization outside the city state of New Eridu...
Aces of Phaethon
Chapter 1 - The Hare that Flew Too Close to the Sun…
November 21st, 105 AD (November 21st, 2105)
Sotoan Hollow Exclusion Zone, Yuktobanian Continent
Nicole had always been a dreamer.
The children she'd known had said that her dreams were always the same dreams - money, wealth and financial stability - but she had dreams that didn't relate to money as well. Not many of them, she’d grant you, but at least one in particular…
There'd been a poster in the orphanage, one from the old civilisation of a pair of planes flying through blue skies, and that image had captured her attention as a young woman with few other opportunities.
Such was the fate of an orphan in the system of New Eridu - forgotten and left to fend for herself, and so, when the Demara Defence Company showed up recruiting, she had faced a difficult choice:
Join up, and lose what little stability she did have, but make her own way in life, or stay here, and continue to dream up plans to escape...
To her, the answer was a no-brainer, and so, she'd joined up with the mercenary force. That had been her first mistake, and one she hadn't immediately noticed.
Oh, for the first time in her life, she could actually say she was making a living - able to afford nice things, such as clothes, perfume and jewellery... but what she did to earn that money?
There were nights when she wondered whether her past self would even be able to look at her anymore, and worse still, if she could, what was she looking at?
The pink haired, 18 year old woman who had signed up to escape the orphanage she had spent her life in, or the mercenary who took lives for a paycheck, and earned bonuses for the men and women she killed...
And unlike most militaries, Demara made sure you killed your prey. Not immobilised, and not allowed to eject, but outright murder.
"Hare, you have two bandits at one o'clock off your nose. Aircraft are rebel 737s carrying defectors. Our employers are paying us a handsome amount to ensure they're dealt with." The AWACS called through, and she nudged the nose of her MIG-29 towards the targets...
She wasn't thrilled at the idea of shooting down defenceless airliners, much less ones that likely weren't military at all, but rather humanitarian flights carrying food and medicine into the contaminated zone near Sotoa, but orders were orders...
And here, you disobeyed orders only if you wanted a bounty on your head.
"Cleared to fire as soon as you have them on radar." The AWACS told her.
"Understood." She read back, sighing to herself. She readied herself for what would almost certainly be an indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, all on her watch...
"Belay that order, Hare." Huh? "Two new bandits entering the AO; looks like you've got a pair of Raptors incoming."
She was dead then. Her aging MIG-29 was no match for a pair of F-22s, she knew that much without even thinking about... but something felt off.
Those Raptors should've taken the shot and killed her by now, and yet, they hadn't.
Why?
"Huh, that's strange." The AWACS muttered. "Hare, new bandits are identifying themselves as Defence Force aircraft. They're shooting at each other… Wait, no? What?"
"Rebels?" She asked.
"Maybe. Exercise extreme caution against them." The AWACS warned. "Two more Defence Force signatures coming after them. What are they even looking for?”
Nicole scanned her aging N019M radar to see if she could work out what was going on, but failed to obtain anything more than a few blips on the radar.
Despite the advice to exercise caution, she decided at that moment that she was going to get a closer look. If it killed her, then perhaps it was preferable to the slaughter of civilian airliners…
At least her conscience would be clean. Dead, but clean.
/-/
From the seat, Belle was doing her best to monitor the outputs coming from Eous, as it raced back towards the pursuing Defence Force fighters, whilst Wise kept the signal stable amongst the communications jamming.
“Captain, we have the signal open and Eous can disrupt them, but you’ll need to handle the fighters yourselves.”
“Understood, Proxy. Eleven, with me, strategy number 6.” The captain announced, and the two F-22s broke back into the attack.
“Affirmative, Captain.” Her wingwoman confirmed, and Belle looked down at the incoherent data coming back from Eous, as the little FQ-99 launched off an AMRAAM into the distance at the pursuing Flankers.
“Visual on one more bogey. Looks like a… bright pink Fulcrum?” She asked in confusion. “Captains, did you have anyone else with you?”
“Negative.”
“Of all the times for someone to be flying blind, dumb and happy…” Wise sighed. “Two more signatures flashing civilian idents! That Fulcrum must be their escort!”
“Redefining combat parameters, Proxy.” The Captain said. “Eleven, the additional MIG is friendly.”
“Understood, Captain. Ready to fire.”
“Silver Squadron, I know you can hear us. This is not a warning, but a promise. Continue on this path, and you will be terminated, just like your sisters.”
“Go to hell!” Eleven shouted back.
“I concur.” The Captain agreed, and through the Agent Teaming System built into Eous, she could sense the missile lock on the Flankers in the distance.
“Silver… Squadron?” An unfamiliar voice broke through the ATS, and back to the siblings in the hotseat back at the Academy. “As in, the Silver Squadron? The ones that are damn near legendary…?”
“Wait, how the… never mind that, run!” Wise shouted back to them.
“I never run!” The new pilot shouted back. “And you’ll need all the help you can get, by the looks of it. Fox Three!” A new signature showed up on the ATS - that of an aging MIG-29 Fulcrum, with a signature matching that of the Demara Defence Service. Whatever she was doing out here, it didn’t matter anymore - she was in the fight, and for three of the five fighters, it was a fight for freedom and for their lives…
For the proxies Belle and Wise, it was their job to handle the battlespace for the pilots fighting up here.
And right now, they’d both need each other to ensure they all returned from this mission…
/-/
The retreat from Silver Squadron had been suboptimal.
Their escape had been compromised by a poorly timed air raid from a mercenary group, one of many known to the authorities as Hollow Raiders; a catch-all term intended to distinguish the illegal mercenary clans set up by unrecognised kingdoms and opportunists, from the legitimate ones registered in New Eridu.
That had been only the first problem, however, as Silver Company had caught onto their intentions when they had not attempted to return from the interception mission that herself and the still recovering Harin had been assigned to.
The Silvers could not care less about Harin - she was a defect to them, after all, and had survived the purge only through injuries sustained in pursuit of a Raider, that had left her unavailable for the mission that had taken the lives of her other sisters.
Silver had ordered her to terminate Harin, and to report for what they called Debriefing. She knew that even if she complied with their orders, both sisters would die anyway. They were too valuable to keep alive, a clue as to the experiments undertaken by Silver to create them…
“Captain, two more aircraft.” The Proxy they had hired called out, and she found herself impressed by them. Both had demonstrated exceptional awareness on the battlefield, and assisted where it had been possible for them, delaying the approaching Su-37s from engaging them. “Looks like the Defence Force again.”
“Affirmative.” She acknowledged, checking the radar on her Raptor for any other targets. “Four targets now in the area.”
“I have a lock, Captain.” Harin confirmed.
“I have an idea.” The new pilot in the bright pink Fulcrum stated confidently. “They can see me, yeah, but you guys can maneuver relatively safely?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll drag them into position, and you shoot them.”
“That’s suicidal against this many adversaries!” Harin responded angrily. “You’ll die for people you haven’t even met yet?!”
“I’m dead when my AWACS figures out I’ve gone off mission anyway!” She snapped back. “At least this is better than bloody slaughter!”
“Bloody… slaughter?” Harin asked, in quiet horror as she pieced together why the MIG was all the way out in the HEZ.
“Why’d you reckon I was all this way out here? To shoot down those airliners!” She responded, but with a tone of genuine remorse in her voice.
“She’s right - it’ll work.” The Proxy called in, interrupting the brewing discussion, and shutting it down at the root. “New girl, can you drag them towards Novorsk? We can trap them more effectively there.”
“Understood Proxy, pulling them towards Novorsk.” She responded. “And call me Hare, please.”
“Captain, Eleven, move to the positions I’m sending you and wait for the go signal.”
“Affirmative, Proxy.”
“I understand.”
The two Raptors flew towards the waypoint marked on their screens, and she scanned the skies around them, spotting the trails of the Fulcrum as it acted as bait for the Terminators chasing them down.
“They’ve taken the bait, and are in full burner after me!” Hare called out.
“Not all of them, Hare.” The Proxy stated. “Looks like two of them are moving to cut you off. Which is right where we want them.”
“Activating missile defence systems now…” The other proxy stated, as her radar warning receiver lit up momentarily, before falling silent again.
“What was that?” Harin asked. “My RWR just went haywire.”
“I imagine that is the Proxy’s plan.” She stated. “To use the defences around Novorsk to engage the Su-37s.”
They couldn’t hear the radio chatter coming from the Terminators, but she imagined it had gone from a feeling of an apex predator hunting their prey on the plains, to the reaction of someone realising that they were no longer the apex predator, and that a much larger creature was now out there, stalking them too…
Such was the nature of the food chain - there was always a bigger fish.
In the distance, the first pair of Su-37s disappeared from radar, amidst clouds of black smoke and missile trails from missiles launched by the ground based S-300s around Novorsk, whilst the second pair chasing Hare broke off quickly - the pilots having realised that they were now easy pickings for an enemy who had them exactly where they wanted them.
“Sorry boys, but you fell for my charms… again.” Hare joked, turning the MIG-29 around to chase them now, as the aircraft raced back towards the two Raptors. “Better luck next time!”
“Eleven-”
“Targets locked. Waiting on your orders, Captain.” Harin answered before she could finish.
“Proxy?”
“Trap’s set, girls. Let them have it!” The Proxy answered.
No one was quite able to confirm exactly who shot down which aircraft, such was the number of missiles in the air towards the unfortunate Terminators, who failed to live up to their name, and were soon terminated instead; the first aircraft exploding from a missile towards the centre of the aircraft, and plummeting towards the ground below in three pieces.
The second did their best to escape, even successfully dodging an R-77 fired by Hare, but failing to dodge the three AMRAAMs that all struck home, obliterating the Su-37, and leaving nothing but trails of smoke and falling debris where the jet had been…
“Scope’s clear. All bandits destroyed!” The Proxy responded happily. “Nice work everyone, I’d say that dinner’s on everyone else tonight!”
“Heh, about that…” Hare asked, a clearly nervous tone to her voice. “I’m pretty sure that my boss will actually kill me now, if I go back… so… umm?” Her tone trailed off.
“Hare, follow the Raptors back to our base. We’ll sort something out when you get back.” The proxy answered.
“Underst-All aircraft, break immediately!” She pulled the Raptor into a tight left turn as a flash of light blitzed past her into the distance, almost beyond human reaction times. Just how had Hare spotted that, and she hadn’t, she wondered…
“What the hell was that?” Harin asked, her aircraft unscathed by the light show.
“It’s an Ether Pulse. One of those hits your aircraft, and you’re toast.” Hare answered quietly. “Hits a person, and they never existed.” She added, and her request to join them started to make more sense…
Whatever her employer was doing out here, it wasn’t legal, and it certainly wasn’t ethical, she knew that much - especially if Hare was telling the truth about being ordered to target airliners…
“Hare, how do you know about that?”
“Because DDS fitted them to a handful of their aircraft. My aircraft - my usual one - is one of them…”
“Which means…”
“Get ready for a fight.” Harin answered. “Eleven moving to mutual defence. Hare, Captain, Proxy, standby.”
“I have nothing on my radar.” She added. “What do you fly?”
“I see it!” The Proxy shouted. “It’s… that’s… what is that thing?!”
“Honestly… I have no idea, and I fly it.” Hare admitted. “They call it the Advanced Stealth Fighter.”
For the first time, Anby got a good view of their target, and to call it unusual was an understatement. The aircraft had two sets of intakes - two side mounted DSIs and an intake buried into the spine of the aircraft, presumably in some kind of S-duct arrangement - as well as forward swept wings and canards, with a v-tail of some kind…
And now, a cannon that dropped out from the underside of the aircraft - which must have been the Ether Pulse that Hare mentioned.
“You should know better, Nicole…” A voice came from the mystery aircraft. “The family doesn't tolerate disobedience…”
“Yeah, well, maybe I’ve had enough of you…” Hare replied with a disinterested tone.
“Ungrateful brat! We saved you from a life on the streets!”
“You talk too much!” Harin shouted, as a Sidewinder flew out towards the ASF. The missile failed to connect, but it did succeed in surprising the pilot of the fighter, who threw the aircraft into a split-S to evade the missile.
“Oh good, the brat found friends…” The pilot groaned. “Regardless, I will put you all down!”
/-/
Even when she flew the thing, Nicole had never much liked the ASF.
It was too twitchy, and the fact they'd removed almost all armament on the craft to allow for that Ether Cannon to be installed had made it essentially a knife fighter, should the pilot miss with the cannon…
Not that it was an easy opponent to fight - the forward swept wings and thrust vectoring made for an extremely agile fighter, when a pilot could tame its more awkward handling characteristics.
She never had, but apparently her successor had gotten the hang of the aircraft… much to their chagrin.
As the MIG and Raptors danced through the skies, each jostling against the agile opponent for a firing solution, she'd spotted something…
“Above me! He's charging up again!” She called out. “Proxy, can you warn us when he's ready to fire?”
“Counting down thirty seconds.” The Proxy stated.
“We need to end this.” Eleven called out.
“Agreed.” The Captain stated, as her Raptor slid around on its tail, dodging tracer rounds as she forced the ASF to bleed airspeed to pursue her, whilst herself and Eleven tried to get back into position.
In the end, it was herself that pulled just tightly enough to get the cannon on him; without hesitation, 30mm tracer rounds flew true from her cannon, pummelling the lightly built ASF and forcing it to turn away.
“Got him! He's turning away!” She shouted out in relief. As she turned to keep track of her old fighter, she spotted something alarming…
The ASF was on fire.
Purple and green flames trailed behind the stricken jet, and she made an instinctive call as she yanked the Fulcrum into a steep climb... “Everyone, climb like hell! That thing explodes near us, and we all die!”
“No! No! You bitch! I'll kill you!” Clearly, the ASF pilot was a gracious loser, and not psychopath, she thought sarcastically as she watched the damaged jet attempt to turn back towards them, before it began to fall away, a trail of purple and green behind it as it disappeared into the clouds…
Seconds later, the clouds flashed purple, and the contact disappeared from radar in the seconds before the shockwave hit the remaining aircraft.
She did her best to keep the plane level, and after a few seconds, the MIG levelled itself out, now a little bit singed and definitely a bit covered in ether…
As she checked her wings, Nicole laughed quietly to herself before checking in. “Proxy. I'm still here. Captain, Eleven, are you still-”
“We are still alive.”
“If only thanks to that warning.” The Captain stated. “Proxy, we request vectors for your homebase.”
“Understood girls, updating the ATS… now.” the Proxy told them. “Head for home, and we'll see you on the ground. Good work out there though!”
For the first time, the unlikely trio of aircraft - a pair of F-22A Raptors, and a MIG-29 formed up for the flight back to the Proxy’s home field.
An airbase to the south of Novorsk, known on the ATS as “Helios”...
/-/
The flight back to Helios had been more tense than the actual dogfight, Nicole thought to herself as her Fulcrum rolled onto a taxiway, past a number of parked drones.
The MIG-29 was never a particularly long legged aircraft, and the modifications made by Demara Defence had made the fuel economy even worse - giving the jet a better thrust to weight ratio, and somewhat better kinematic performance thanks to the increased thrust, but also reducing its already poor range.
Which would've been fine, had she not discarded her drop tanks as they entered the fight with the Su-37s…
She checked her fuel gauge as she reached the taxiway - completely empty now. “Hare to Ground, is there any chance I can get a tow? My engines have just died…”
“A tug is en route, Hare.”
It was a rather ignominious way to show up - literally on the back of a tow truck essentially, but she was just glad that the engines had lasted until now… and not five minutes earlier, as she was trying to land.
It did, however, mean that the two Raptors simply drove past her as they taxied. “Ughh… I need a new plane…” She grumbled as the tug drove towards her.
/-/
“Yeah, you need a new plane. The wings aren't even level anymore…” The silver haired boy told her as he poked at the wings of the Fulcrum.
Nicole would admit that it was entirely possible her standards were either a bit high, or a bit strange - years of military training tended to do that to a teenager - but the boy was actually quite handsome… in a more plain sense.
He didn't go around peacocking, he just sort of got on with it, and that had a charm all of its own, she thought.
“Luckily, we have an ace in our hole!” The blue haired girl, the younger sibling, beamed.
Nicole did her best not to snigger at the phrasing there, and watched as one of the weapon pylons simply dropped off the MIG in front of them. “Yeah, that's a write off, isn't it?”
The others nodded, before one of the two Raptor pilots spoke up. “I think introductions are in order.”
“I'm Belle, and that's Wise. Callsign, Phaethon.” Belle introduced herself and her brother.
“What, both of you?” She asked, looking the two siblings over. Neither of them were any older than herself, and Belle looked to be younger than herself by a noticeable amount…
“Yup, we both go by Phaethon.” Wise explained. “It's just easier operationally.”
“Anby.” The white haired girl with the bob cut introduced herself.
“Eleven.” The other white haired girl introduced herself, and Nicole realised something…
If it weren't for their haircuts and demeanours, she couldn't tell the two apart at all. If they were sisters, they had to have been twins… surely?
“My turn, I guess. Nicole Demara, though you can call me.” She gave Wise a flirtatious wink as she said her bit.
“Call you what?” Eleven asked blankly.
“I believe that is what they called “flirting”.” Anby stated, a completely neutral tone in her voice.
“A-anyway!” She stammered, a flush at now being the centre of attention. “We're here… but where exactly is “here”?”
“Helios Academy. A school for gifted children and young adults.” Wise explained. “Or at least, it was. Got attacked by bandits years ago, and most of the students and faculty disappeared.”
Nicole bit her lip at that one, well aware of the fate that probably befell them. If they'd been lucky, they'd have been killed by the bandits.
If not, then out here in the Exclusion Zones, it wasn't like the authorities came knocking very often, and so, disgusting habits had become all too normal.
Slavery being amongst them, and a school full of gifted children and adults?
Well, that was like Christmas had come early for a slaver gang…
“Some of us survived though, and we set this place up. Helios, a safe haven for the diaspora attempting to find a place.”
“A noble goal.” Anby agreed. “And we appreciate you taking us in.”
“So, what happens now?” She asked them.
“I think we have to replace that Fulcrum of yours, Nicole…” Wise stated, and almost as if to agree with him, the wing of her plane started to visibly sag. As frugal as she was when it came to aircraft, even she had limits, and flying a plane where the wing was now held on by a wing and a prayer was well past that limit…
“Yeah…” She sighed. “But where am I going to get a new plane from?”
“Don’t worry, we know a woman…” Belle grinned, as if she knew something that they didn’t…