A Hero

Lily cried all night after Alexis’s craft was found. She still hoped he may survive, but experts said there was no chance to jump from the plane in this case. And he was to close to the enemy lines to survive.

She decided to just plunge headlong into work and fly as many missions as she could. Nine days passed since when. On the morning of May 30th she was called to the commanders office.

"We have a problem on the front. There is a position we need to take no matter what, but they have a lot of artillery and air defence there. If we just try to overwhelm them, we will loose to many troops. Though, it is not the main issue", Alex put the foto on the table, "the main issue is here: they have an amplifying aerostat above the position, so their artillery can pretty precisely bombard our forces with spells. If we can get rid of it, we will manage somehow. So they are asking for help from airforce".

"You want me to take the mission?"

"Yes, you are the fastest ace we have. Maybe you can find a way. But it is very risky, they have a lot of air defence there…"

"I will do it!", Lily did not hesitate. "Just let me know the details".

"Ok, the enemy artillery is positioned here along with a bunch of mobile air defence. The aerostat is here. You can go around them, but they cover enough ground to shoot you down before you get close to get a proper shot…", Wheeler started showing the things on a map.

"You still want to do it?", Inna was concerned. "You are being very reckless since the wing-leader died. But it is not a reason to go on suicide missions…"

"If not me when who? If we do not shoot this thing down way more soldiers will die. And none of our aces can pull this off. Maybe comrade Khalif, but he got injured during the last mission and is still recovering. I need to do it".

"I will not stop you but just… Just do not die, please".

"I will do my best".

May 31st 1943, Benevolent City province.

The sun was shining bright that day. Lily approached the target area and looked at the enemy position. A lot of artillery and enemy troops were defending a large hill on the road to the next town. It was a perfect position for this. There was a forest behind the hill, giving them cover, but from the other sides it was just an open field. The aerostat was floating a few hundred meters above the position, radiating a clear magic aura. A couple of fire correction mages were riding it and used amplifying spells to enchance artillery fire.

"Their air defence is pretty thick. They have effective radius of about kilometre, so they can easily shoot any craft approaching the position", radar crew reported the situation. "There are about two dozens of air defence machines at the perimeter of the hill".

"This is fine, I will come up with something", Lily replied and started going around left of the hill, keeping herself outside of the air defence effective radius.

The sun was just above the enemy position straight ahead, so it was a bit hard to go straight.

Lily flew up long enough to leave the enemy behind and when turned. «My Acceleration can hold for about fifteen seconds. It should be enough to approach their position and get away. But concentrated fire from even four defence pieces will just shred the plane…». She felt the rays of the sun on her back. «Hmm, maybe I can try this?.. A bit risky, but it may work…»

Enemy air defence crews were monitoring the surroundings to defend the position from any intruders. Suddenly a small dark silhouette appeared against the backdrop of the sun. They did not get what it is at first before recognising the sole enemy fighter. They tried to shoot it down, but it was moving very fast and aiming against the sun was quite hard.

Lily accelerated and launched herself down in the direction of the aerostat. Enemy air defence tried to shoot at her, but they were missing most of the time and only slightly scratched her craft with shots. Once she was close enough, she rapidly unleashed a barrage of magic icicles into it. The aerostat was not armoured and had a flammable gas inside, so it bursted into fire and crashed. Lily ascended to avoid the explosion and moved away from the enemy position while the spell was still active. Aiming at her was easier now, but the enemies got disturbed and could not react on time, so she escaped safely.

Next day SSRC forces took the enemy position. The loses were still pretty heavy, but they were way lower than if the amplifying aircraft was still intact. It was a nice day for celebration, but Lily was to busy with missions. She helped escorting a few allied bombers to attack the nearby enemy bases. When she helped fighting a few enemy patrols and went to sleep.

In the morning commander Wheeler invited her to the office.

"Congratulations, comrade Leitis, for you bravery and wit you were awarded an Order of the Banner", he gave her a box with shiny medal inside. "Also, there is a journalist from the capital newspaper, he wants to take an interview if you do not mind".

"I am a bit tired, but I will meet with him later. Things like this help improving moral after all".

"And the last question, comrade Leitis", a short middle-aged man with glasses, who was a correspondent of «Southern front chronicler», finished writing her last reply and asked, "do you feel like a hero of the people?"

"A hero? This sounds pretty nice, but no, I am not a hero, I am just doing my job. Where are a lot of us, who contribute to our victory. I just happened to succeed this time, but I am sure, another ace would have done the same in my place".

"Thank you, comrade, that should be all", The journalist stood up, shook her hand and left her room.

Once he left, Lily opened the top drawer of her desk and took a sky-blue box from it. Inside was a burned piece of white scarf with some green ornament still visible. Her sight was cloudy and sad…