Before The Offensive

"We are departing at the beginning of May", commander Wheeler informed the pilots, "higher ups finalised the details of operation and want us on the front as soon as possible".

"What about the new fighters? Are they ready for action?", it was Martinson.

"Not yet, but our engineers are doing their best to get a few ready before the offensive starts. I personally don’t like the rush, but some generals push us to use them as soon as possible".

"Hope there won’t be any issues…"

"I hope so too, Ahmet-Pasha will do the test flights once we arrive on front. Everyone is free for now. Comrade Gruel, comrade Leitis, we have a hunt today, be ready".

"Yes, sir!", and they left.

They arrived to a different location in the Benevolent City province today. It was closer to the area where allied forces gathered for offensive, so enemies were cautious approaching it. Still, reconnaissance patrols were surveying the area and hunters’ job was to keep them at bay.

"Enemy patrol on the horizon, three «Jac-7» and two «Jac-9», have not spotted us yet", Wheeler was in the vanguard of the formation, followed by Lily and Alexis a bit behind and above him, "We don’t need to kill them all, just to shoo them from our positions so they could not get much intel. You draw their attention, I will try to sneak from the other side meanwhile".

"Roger that!", our duo launched in the direction of the enemy, while Alex dived into clouds.

Enemy fighters spotted them soon and tried to encircle them, but Alexis and Lily scattered in the opposite directions. The enemy group divided and began to tail them, launching magic barrages in hope to wound their prey. But both pilots were skilled enough to keep their distance and dodge the spells. They made pretty chaotic loops, drawing enemy attention.

Lily had two «Jac-7» and one «9» on her tail. She went up and down, left and right while avoiding fire. She lured the pursuers closer to a big cloud cluster and dived into it. They cautiously followed, keeping their formation. Visibility was pretty bad but they still could see lieutenant Letitis’s aircraft silhouette ahead.

They opened fire again but then, unexpectedly, a barrage of magic icicles launched from behind. It was Alex, who ambushed them, while they were focused on a pursuit. One of the crafts sustained serious damage to his left side, the other two were just scratched, but it was enough to scare them and they turned around and fled. The damaged enemy tried to follow, but could not keep up and he was finished by the next icicle barrage from Wheeler, crushing to the ground.

"Lets go help Alexis now", commander asked Lily to follow.

"Roger that!"

Alexis was focused on keeping the last two crafts busy. They still have not noticed that their comrades fled and continued the pursuit. But when they saw the allies joining the fray and immediately turned away and fled in their base direction.

"Should be enough for now. Is everybody fine?"

"Yep, just a few scratches on my craft, should not be an issue", Alexis was in a pretty good mood despite the intense fight.

"Same here. Boss, was it the tenth one this month?", Lily followed.

"Yes, seems like I reached my goal on this babe. Hope the next month will also be good".

"Eh, and I had no kills this month. It becomes really frustrating".

"Do not worry, once the fighting on the front starts, you will have a lot of chances".

"I hope so…"

"There do not seem to be any more spies in there area, let’s go back".

The remaining day was pretty uneventful, our heroes spotted a couple more enemy fighter groups, but they fled as soon as they saw Wheeler’s aircraft. Seems like he got some reputation here.

Next morning Alexis was returning from the practice and decided to check the commanders office but it was closed. «Odd, where could Boss be now?», he thought and headed towards cantina.

Where he spotted Martinson having a breakfast.

"You also got morning practice?", Alexis approached him.

"Yeah, need to replenish my energy, these new manoeuvres are really exhausting".

"Yeah, yeah", Alexis took some food for himself and joined Alex. "Do you know where our commander is?"

"Oh, he got a day off today so he went to visit Mary. Do not expect him to get back till tomorrow. You know…", Martinson smirked.

"Oh yeah. Apparently, we are departing to the front in eight days, no wonder he wants to see her while he can".

"Lets hope we all survive this ordeal and have another chance to see our loved ones".

"Yes, lets hope for it".

After breakfast he went to the hangar and started practicing his teleportation skill.

"What are you doing?", he heard a familiar voice from behind, turned, and saw Lily.

"Oh, just a little practice. Parachutes may be reliable, but it takes time and effort to jump from the crushing plane, so I thought I may hone my skill a bit. Still takes to much time to prepare the incarnation and not get moved in like next town".

"Parachute seems to work better", Lily smiled, "but good luck. I will go to a shooting range, practice my spells a bit".

"I will join you a bit later if you are still there. Lets have some more flight practice when. We are departing soon, so no time to rest".

"I don’t mind, will be waiting for you there".

They practiced for a few hours and when went for dinner.

"…And when I saw Inna singing some silly love song with a stupid smile on her face, while maintaining my crafts gun. I really wanted to just come and tease her about getting all dreamy after finding a boyfriend".

"And how she reacted?", Alexis put a piece of cutlet in the mouth and asked.

"Oh, she got red head to toes and started making excuses that it is nothing of the sort. She is such a sweetie sometimes".

"And what about you? Found someone at last, miss Popular?"

"Don’t tease me! You know I have a lot of admirers. But I am still searching for the right man".

"Yeah, yeah, maybe…", Alexis wanted to add something but stopped himself.

They got some rest after the dinner and then practiced again. Remaining days passed almost the same: busy with practice and hunts. And soon it was time to depart.