A Hunt

February 11, 1943. South-Eastern front, Benevolent City area.

Almost a month passed since the new pilots joined the SMR-296. Since the last week they started going on missions in pairs or groups of three to five fighters as a part of the training.

"Two enemy aircrafts on the horizon", Kates voice on the radio sounded calm.

"Yep, detected them. Wing-leader, should we shoot these birds?", Lily was hyped as always.

"Why else are we here? Looks like one «Jac-9» and one «Wolf» interceptor. Either broke away from their group or are on reconnaissance mission. Seems like they have not caught us yet. Kate, draw their attention, we will hide for now and get them once they are close", Alexis dived into the clouds, Lily followed. They muted the magical auras of their crafts and slowed down to minimise the detection.

Enemy crafts continued to go their way until they caught the sight of Kates fighter flying above the forest. They immediately turned and rushed to her side, preparing for combat. Once they got close but still far enough to properly aim spells, she turned a bit right, accelerated and launched in that direction. Enemy crafts followed, releasing barrages of wind swirls at her. She dodged them with relative ease as the distance was still big enough, but they could catch up soon.

When Lily and Alexis appeared from the clouds above and tailed them. Two «Jac-9s», one with the white lily on a side and one with a plain number 5 on it. Lily released a barrage of fireballs at the enemy «Jac». It grazed the right wing of the plane but the pilot still did a decent job dodging it. She switched to magic icicles for better accuracy but they were not doing enough damage at this distance. Alexis meanwhile occupied the «Wolf» aircraft which did not have as much firepower but was more manoeuvrable. Barrages of small magic boulders barely scraped it, but wing-leader was persistent enough to keep up with the enemy.

"I will use Acceleration to catch up with this guy", Lily informed the commander and her aura immediately started to intensify.

The enemy pilot caught the difference but was unsure how to interpret it. Ten seconds later another icicle barrage launched in his direction. But this time they had a strange light blue glow around them. He continued to dodged as they did not do much damage from this distance before but this time icicles exploded as soon as they hit and shredded his right wing and engine. «Jac-9» swiftly lost height and crushed into the ground.

The second pilot got distracted by this sudden development. It gave Alexis the chance to catch him by surprise and hit him with another barrage. The enemy managed to barely dodge it, suffering minor damage to his tail and right wing, but when two more barrages launched from his sides, as Kate had enough time to turn her plane and join the fight, while Lily, still in acceleration mode, blew up the side of a fighter with her icicles. Second enemy also crushed to the ground.

"One solo kill for me and one group kill. Not bad for the first week", Lily was shining.

"Yes-yes, you probably earned a promotion at last. But don’t loose your focus, we still need to get back to the base and there may be more enemies around", Kate kept her head cool despite the win.

"In fact, there is one at 2 o’clock", Alexis pointed out in that direction. Another «Wolf» was turning around. "Looks like he spotted us and wants to run away".

"Damn, we should get rid of it or he will inform the forces in the area about enemy fighters", Alexis rushed to the enemy.

"I am out of energy, leader. Get him without me", Lily wearily informed him and began to descend to the edge of the forest.

"Kate, let’s go!"

"Roger that!"

They flew in the enemy direction at full speed but he was already far enough and was gaining momentum. Still, they were persistent, flying on his tail. Around an hour passed, the forest ended and small villages started to appear on the horizon.

"Damn, this guy is though. We still have not caught to him", Kate was starting to lose her cool.

"Enemy base is close enough. Also, we do not have that much fuel left. I think we should give up for now. Lets hope they won’t send to many machines to patrol the area, we may get back here in a few days".

Back in the base they reported everything to commander Wheeler.

"Good to hear you shot down two of them, but letting the third one go is concerning. Maybe we should switch to a different area for now".

"I don’t think it is a problem", Lily was self-confident, "the more of them in the area, the more kills for us".

"I won’t be so sure. Even for aces like you there is always to many enemies".

"Do not worry, commander. Luck is on my side".

"I hope so. Ok, I will let you continue in this area. But do not leave the base if there are less than three of you and be careful!"

"Roger that", Lily nodded and left. Kate followed silently.

"I will be going too", Alexis shook hands with his superior and left. But unlike the girls he had a pretty concerned look.

«Maybe it was a bad idea to let her do as she wants», he sat down on a bench and gazed into the distance, «I need to have an emergency plan in case things do not go our way».

He took a notepad and a pencil from his pocket and started writing down some notes.

«Their bases are located here, here and here…», he mumbled some thoughts in the process, «We only approximately know how much manpower or planes they have. Maybe this location is safer for our mission?..». He spent about an hour writing before going back to his cabin.