Act 1, Chapter 11: Firestarter

2000 hours, 18 July 2004…

Jasmine squadron. 57th division of the Royal Valusian Elite Air Force. One of the deadliest air force squadrons that ever operated since 1945 during the 10 Years War to fight against the ever-growing threat of Conzi.

Led by none other than the notorious General Emmanuel Pepin Bouquet with the callsign “Jasmine” is how he formed the Jasmine squadron.

I slowly approached those 5 Jasmine's Cyclonus in front of me like prey that was lured by Lamia’s singing. However, AWACS Capricorne blared through my comms channel with a stern warning.

"Wyvern-1! Retreat immediately; avoid any engagement if you wish to come back in one piece!"

And thus, Beck and Ambriel also warned me the same with a worrying tone.

"Ray, buddy! Let's get outta here together!"

"Come on, Ray! We don't want you to get hurt any further!"

But there is just something about Jasmine's squadron that I can’t just let go like that. It was as if there were some hidden message about their arrival, instead of merely avenging their fallen forces.

"Wyvern-1? Can you hear me? Are you muted?!"

I loosen my grip on the stick and answer while reaching my right hand into the comms channel button.

"I'm sorry… I have to do this!"

"WHAT ARE YOU—"

And then I turned off the comms channel and severed the connection. Because I wanted to find out if they're such a worthy opponent or not.

However, there is one question that's begging through my mind. Why the hell does Jasmine's squadron prefer to engage the enemy lately, instead of doing it immediately? Probably an intimidation tactic.

I charged toward Jasmine's squadron quickly as I pushed the throttle to the maximum. Suddenly, I got a missile lock on the leader of that squadron.

"Fox-2!"

I sent my very last Fox-2 missile toward the Jasmine leader. But it is such a shame that they evaded it by dispersing at lightning speed right after dumping flares. Suddenly, one Jasmine pilot got a lock on my plane and sent one of his missiles.

"Missile warning! Missile warning!"

However, I've evaded it by dumping several flares and countering it by shooting some guns.

Unfortunately, he’s agile as hell. And it doesn't matter how many times I get a perfect lock; they always get away from it really quick.

Struggle after struggle, as I tried to lure him into a 2-circle merge. But it always backfires on me, where he easily tailed on my six as if I'm fighting against ghosts.

It was such a gratitude that the latter 4 of Jasmine’s aircraft were taking care of the retreating Zalanthia’s IETFS instead, to make this fight seem fair. One versus one of the best ace pilots.

But during the gritty fight, as I had to endure the brutal Gs, the gruff, old voice suddenly hijacked my comms channel.

"Can you hear me? A young pilot with a blue wyvern insignia?"

It surprised me to death, hearing that Jasmine-1 was hijacking my communication channel. In which I stuttered my grip, as if he was not a pushover.

"How… did you?!"

"Judging your flying skills, it seems like you're still young and unstable. You have a potential but you’re lacking something."

"That's none of your business, old man!"

I tried to lure him into 2 circles and apply some pressure to turning back the tide. I even increase the throttle slightly and lift my nose as hard as I can to get a perfect gun aim.

Suddenly, I'm getting closer to his six and almost get a perfect aim for my gun. And when the crosshair was pointing right at his tail, I quickly pressed the shoot button.

And that was a huge success! A trail of smoke spread across that Jasmine Cyclonus' engine after the tracer round ripped through that old man's aircraft as it plunged into the ground with a brutal fireball.

"Splash one Jasmine fighter!"

I thought to myself it'll be a tricky mission, considering that old pilot using a. But it ended up like breaking a toothpick. Maybe because that pilot was too old and his body can't tolerate higher Gs than mine.

When I made a minor celebration by dumping several flares and rolling left, I heard a sinister laugh from my comms channel. And it originated from Jasmine-1!

Wait, didn't I already shoot down his plane?! How was he still able to contact me through my comms channel? Although I've destroyed his plane?

When I glued my mind to the downed Jasmine-1 plane. I've got a missile lock in a sudden.

I tried to find him in any direction. But he's nowhere to be found. My heart's beating so fast, my head felt dizzy, my hands felt sore, and my body felt numb. Maybe because of how scary Jasmine-1 is, which makes my flying style unstable.

Despite the pressure he's put on me, I took a deep breath, loosened my grip, cleared my mind, and relaxed my body for a second. And when I've taken off the pressure, I'm getting more confident and automatically detecting where the missile is gone.

Suddenly, I saw his Cyclonus appear from behind. And then Jasmine-1 said sinisterly.

"Pathetic."

He shot down the left wing of my plane, causing my plane to lose control. Not just that, he also damaged my radar, EOS, and the electricity systems from his gun projectiles.

That causes my plane radar to be offline, and that also makes me unable to communicate with any upcoming comms channel. Nor checking any enemy existence through my radar.

"Can you hear me, blue wyvern kid? If you wish to defeat me, skill and strength are not enough."

I flinched as I heard him calling me through my comms channel, despite the damage he's done. And that makes me wonder, how is he able to contact me despite my problem?

"Recklessness is not courage."

Afterwards, he and his squadmates left me damaged, without giving me any goodbye signs. Whilst the downed Jasmine pilot that I’ve shot previously safely ejected.

When I straighten my flying position and press the eject button, it doesn't work at all. Considering Jasmine-1 shot down all the electricity on my C-16.

Something is wrong… and I could feel it. I feel the imbalance from my plane wings, as if my wings are about to pop out from the damage I've inflicted on. I wanted to descend any further, but I can't do it rapidly. Because I don't want to break my damaged wings from the turbulence that's affecting my damaged left wing from a rapid descent.

Everything went smoothly as my plane is at 400 feet. Until… an unexpected tragedy struck before my eyes.

My left wing disintegrated in midair, and my plane is losing control, where I can't recover it in any luck. Besides, I saw a small fire on the broken part of my left wing. It looks negligible, but it'll be scorching through my plane body if I'm out of my focus.

The deafening alarm and the warning sound are ringing through my ears inside this cockpit. It's annoyed me to death, but it's also brought me a bad omen in the latter time.

Suddenly, my plane is rolling right by itself where I can't recover it straight. As my plane altitude is decreasing into the ground rapidly.

The alarm rang throughout this cockpit as I could feel the shock inside this cockpit.

I have crashed. And my plane is rolled from the ground countless times. Several body parts of my plane were thrown away from the impact of the ground. I could feel the Gs torturing my body from the crash, which makes me want to puke.

After a countless roll, it's finally stopped rolling. And I'm stranded in the middle of this empty, scarred refinery, right after I massacred countless poor enemy soldiers. As if this is my time to receive judgments from the atrocities I've made previously.

I thought to myself that these temporary atrocities were over after this plane stopped rolling, where I could stand up and try to get away from this crashed plane. But suddenly, a small fire engulfed the whole plane body and scorched through this cockpit at around 1000 degrees.

Not just that, I also smelled burning gasoline throughout this scorched cockpit. And I could feel the toxicity of the burning gasoline could damage my lung. If I keep sitting in here, like an idiot.

I cried out loud, begging for help, and tried to get out from this scorching hell. Unfortunately, I realized that the belt was broken. And I see a metal debris, stabbing my chest deep into the backseat.

The pain in my chest is too much for me to bear. As if a million swords were stabbing my chest. And what would I expect in this situation when I'm stuck inside this scorching crashed plane while stabbed in my chest?

Henceforth, I have no other option left but to force my way out of this scorched plane by cutting the seatbelt with my pocket knife. After I cut it, I pushed my back as hard as I could to stand up, despite the wound on my chest.

After I stood up, I smashed the window harshly with my safety hammer and jumped my way onto the ground.

I dropped my body onto the ground harshly while crawling my way out from the burning area from my crashed plane. After I got out from the crashed area, I saw my beloved C-16 engulfed in flames. As the result of my defeat against Jasmine-1.

Despite the fiery flames that scorched through my body, my fireproof suit repelled the fire from burning my body.

Afterwards, I took off my helmet and my respirator mask. And then I grabbed the metal debris on my chest, clenching it firmly and pulling it out as hard as I could. Despite the pain, I have to take it out really quick. After I took out the metal debris, I coughed blood from my mouth. Because of the infection from the burning gasoline air that's exposing my lung.

My vision was blurry, and my body is weakened after this incident. Therefore, I am lying down on the ground. Looking at my burned C-16 while contemplating my life choice.

It was such a shame that I was too naïve to think that I could beat Jasmine-1. Unfortunately, I underestimated his flying skill, where he's using his wingman as bait.

This might be the end of my life. My vision was getting darker, and I felt the heartbeat on my chest beating slowly. However, I do not know whether I'm still surviving from the crash or about to die. Because all I could do was to beg for an absolution.

Note: My greatest apology if I somewhat released this half-baked chapter, as I was also had to focus with my college. (┬┬﹏┬┬)人

But worry not! I won't stop on fixing and tweaking each and every chapter to make it easy to read, but still had depth to it. ヾ(≧▽≦*)o