Disclaimer: I don't own Ace Combat.

"What the hell is going on here?!" I hear someone said from behind me.

I turned and find it was Victoria or I guess I have to exclusively call her Brownie now. She has a look that I have seen so often that it surprised me that it was not her usual expression. It was like several angry related expression all at once mixed with a healthy dose of disappointment thrown in. It was quite stupid really, not that I'll say it to her. I'm not feeling sleepy yet.

"I leave you alone for like five minutes and already you tried to kill someone." I looked at the clock, something's not right.

"Seven," I corrected her. She looked even angrier now even though I help her fixing her mistake. Really, some people just can't be satisfied.

"You better got a good explanation for this," she said. Why would she even angry at me in the first place, I wonder? I didn't do anything wrong.

"I was trying to carve this guy's head open so I can sacrifice his brain for the zombie gods," I said truthfully, pointing at the man that I've been holding by the neck as we speak.

"Yeah? And those guys?!" she said pointing at the people laying on the floor.

"I assume they wanted to sacrifice their brains too, but they're getting too impatient."

"So you decided to kick the daylight out of them?!"

"Not really but I do kick them several times…" wait a minute, "They have daylight inside them?"

"Put. Him. Down," she said. While her tone seem to indicate she was upset, she's still said it politely so I decided to comply.

She walked up to me and grabbed hold of my arm as she walked past, dragging me along with her.

"Hey! You can't just—"

"Shut your fucking mouth before I feed you your balls," she said, with a harsh tone I noticed. The 'hero' shut his mouth and promptly let us go.

"That's not nice," I told her.

"Shut it."

I waited until we're away until I started asking her about her current mood.

"You look angry."

"Really? What gave it away, genius?!"

"You don't walk on the right side of the road." She suddenly turned to face me, so fast that I'm a bit surprised she didn't get a whiplash.

"Trigger, Shut. The. Fuck. Up," she said. She sounded angry as well I noticed.

After we walked a few distance away from the place, she dragged me into an alleyway and push me into the wall. She then tried to look intimidating at me, which might've worked if I don't have to look down at her. It succeeded in annoyed, because this is the tell-tale sign that I have to clear up my schedule for the next hour because she's going to waste it.

"I'll ask you once so you better choose your answer carefully. What. Are. You. Doing?" she said, poking me in the chest with each punctuation.

"Talking to you." That was obvious.

Despite my truthful answer, she grab hold of my finger and do something to it. I don't know what exactly she did, all I know it looks like she's squeezing it. What I'm sure about is that it feels painful. Almost as painful as that one time when I got indirectly kicked in the face. That one was so painful, I still got the scar as a memento from that day.

"Ow."

"I'm being serious here," she said.

"Reciprocated."

"Then tell me what the hell was that back there?"

"I told you, the zombie gods—"

"A more sensible excuse! Please!"

"But that's the truth. Just ask him."

"What, did he told you to rip his brains out and use it as a sacrifice?!"

"Pretty much."

She took one deep and long breath, no doubt being unnecessarily angry like this is quite tiring.

"All right, explain to me what happened from the very start, as detail and as short as possible," She said.

"You see, today is—"

"Starting from when it happened, you idiot! Ugh, just tell me what happened after I've gone to the bathroom." I thought long and hard to try to remember what happened, but despite my superior quality brain, I don't remember.

"I forgot." She doesn't seem to be expecting that kind of answer, since she looked like she just got gutted like a human.

"…What?"

"It was so insignificant and happened so long ago that I no longer remember."

"It's only been like 2 minutes ago!" I searched for a clock to check on the time but she doesn't seem to be interested in being right as she throttled me. I can't focus if she does that.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! Stay. Away. From. Trouble! Which part of it that you don't understand?!" she said while poking me in the chest with each punctuation again. I raised one hand to let her know that I want to answer but she interrupted me again.

"Don't answer that!"

I lowered my hand back to my side. Guess this'll take some time after all.

"Look, I know you don't like strangers but that doesn't mean you can be a violent asshole to them."

"I'm not that petty."

"Then explain to me why, whenever I leave on your own when there's strangers nearby, I always returned to see you beating the crap out of those strangers?"

"You tell me, you're the one that nicknamed me Trigger."

She looked as if she was about to keep wasting my time but decided against it at the last second. She took another deep and long breath and then she look at me with a more softened gaze this time.

"I know a losing battle when I saw one, I'm in good mood today and thankfully the damage weren't as bad as usual so this time I'm going to let Uncle deal with you." She then took a step closer and force my face down to her level, "But no more of this violent crap. You ever do this sort of thing again and you'll be sorry, understand?"

"But the zombie gods—"

"Promise me." I don't really feel like promising but if its mean getting out of here quicker then why not. I nodded.

"Look me in the eye and say it again." She can be really pushy sometimes.

"Sure." She took another seconds to check for any form of deceit as if she can see that sort of thing until she let go.

"All right. Now let's go back, before I gave in to my better judgment and hand you over to the authority," she said, while starting to head for the base, I think.

"What about the s—"

"If you ever said one more thing about a goddamn zombie gods, I'll take your candies and burn it with full afterburner, got it?!"

"Sounds like a waste."

"I don't care. Now shut up and let's go."

I did as she told. These people, just wait until the zombie outbreak finally happened, then we'll see who's laughing then.

Fort Grays Air Base, Southeast Usea

16 May 2019

Trigger

"Fuck!" I hear someone screamed at the top of their lungs as I walked past the hangar area.

I turned to the source. Footpad is fuming after his outburst, his fist is connected to his locker. Well look at that, no dents in sight. I would be impressed if not for the fact that those lockers weren't made in Osea.

He's probably angry at how the mission turned out to be. Can say he's exaggerating, I too feel somewhat miffed when the AWACS said the building I was bombed was just a school and not the 'important' military institution that CC claimed it was. If only they told me that earlier I could've saved myself a couple of bombs, those things aren't exactly cheap.

And there's also the matter with how I was ordered to continue fighting on my own. Mage was supposed to be an undermanned squadron, not a one-man show. I'm not complaining, it's just that had I know I'll be mostly dealing with aerial threats I would've packed myself some anti-air weaponry, using my missiles to blow the 'military institution' instead. Those things are useless against anything faster than a bomber with a full payload anyway, regardless of what they claimed.

Those penal squadron as well, what CC expect anyway when they decided to have them joined in? That they will behave professionally? And why do I have to be the one to shoot them down? Sure I was the only regular left and people like them were used to be what my meal comprised of but that doesn't mean I have no problem wasting precious bullets just because some brass have a change of heart regarding how much carnage they want us to make.

It's a good thing that the Eruseans decided to let their drones do the heavy lifting later on or I'll ended up wasting even more ammo than I already was, and I might consider being annoyed at that. I was forced out of my thought when I feel a hand on my shoulder. Judging from its size, I deduced that it was Brownie.

"You're okay?" she asked. I nodded at her.

That was… the sixth time she asked that. For some reason against all logic, she saw fit to disobey an order to retreat to come back to the battlefield to… check up on me, I think. She's lucky that the battle is over by the time she returned. She is skilled but her inexperience and aversion to killing means against merciless drones backed up by veteran pilots of one of the best air force in the world she's as useful as Osean-made missiles.

I tried to pry her hand off me but she held on to me like her hand was glued to my shoulder with a particularly sticky glue. I looked at her, she has her gaze transfixed to her feet.

"A lot of people died today." Ah, I can see where this is going. Looks like realisation has come bearing down on her.

She, despite her attitude and sometimes violent temper hated seeing someone got hurt. The fact that she probably never killed and never been in any sort of combat situation like today, or even never at all, didn't help. I've seen how she deliberately aiming to not harm the pilots she faced today like she did yesterday. I would say it was noble if I didn't find it stupid. Why would you show mercy when you don't even know whether your opponent share the same sentiment or not? That sort of nonsense will only get someone killed, if not yourself.

Still, to see that her efforts did nothing to reduce the body count and her friend responsible for most of it might be a bit too much for her. Now that I think about it, maybe I should've thought of that.

I never once thought about what others might think with me killing people. Mostly because in the past, I worked mostly alone even when I'm a part of a squadron and when I have to cooperate with people, they were mostly either already used to it or have no problem with it like I was. Only a few of them are averse to violence or green, or both like her. Even then, they're strangers so I don't care much about what they think the same way most of them don't care much about me.

I gave her a pat on the head. It seems to be enough to make her happy yesterday, maybe it will work now as well.

"How did you do it?" she asked, still looking at her feet. I withdraw my hand.

"They're your countrymen. You killed so many of them and yet you act like it's no big deal." I only shrugged in response.

How did I do it? I'm not sure myself. Inflicting pain and causing destruction are always an easy endeavour for me as far as I remember. Even the first time I claimed a live, I didn't bother myself with brooding over it like those bleeding hearts. No 'this hands have killed' or 'I have become a monster' nonsense like those drama queens.

It's not like it's a big deal in the first place. Even in peace time, conflicts are still a daily occurrences. It just happened that most of the time it got suppressed or outright ended and then kept under wraps before the big-mouths can make a fuss out of it. I know that better than anyone.

And the death, it even less of a deal in my opinion. People die all the time, they were just happened at separate places, making it seems like a rare occurrences.

But I suppose that's exactly why those who are not in the know like her see this as a big deal. She probably never thought things like today will ever happen, at least not when she's still a 'hatchling'. Just two days ago, the most intense thing she ever been in were probably dealing accidental trespassing. And then suddenly, yesterday happened and it affected her more than I thought. Before she can compose herself, today happened.

I scanned the area, the others have started to leave for debriefing. Knocker and Clown didn't seem to be affected by the mess. Well, they're veterans so I guess they're used to it. Boggard and Footpad on the other hand looked like they were about to explode, something which I secretly hoped will actually happened. I never seen it happened but I imagine seeing a couple of guys literally blow up to tiny pieces due to sheer rage would be hilarious to watch.

And then I looked down at her. She's still looked like a little girl whose toys was confiscated by her parents. At least she didn't cry. I'll be in serious trouble otherwise.

I shook her, as gentle as I can to get her attention. As much as I don't feel like attending the debriefing, I need to. It's important after all. I also don't want to stand here all day.

She didn't respond, or more like she didn't even notice. I took a deep, loud, and very long breath so that the world can hear my exasperation. Great, what am I supposed to do now, I wonder? This sort of thing is way beyond my area of expertise. Where is a therapist when you need one?

After several more minutes of just standing there like a couple of organic stones, I finally decided to head for debriefing, dragging her along with me. She can figure things out herself on the way. If not, well, a good sleep never fail to make me feel better.

It feels odd walking like this. With her hand on my shoulder, I feel somewhat unbalanced when I walk. It's starting to get annoying, to be honest. I turned toward her once we reached the room.

"Vic." Still no response.

"Victoria." I shook her with a bit more force for good measure. That seems to gain her attention, though she still refuse to look anywhere but her feet. Really, can she be shell-shocked later?

"Look at me," I said with a bit more emphasis than I like. She raised her head a bit, that'll do.

"What happened today is only the beginning. More people will die and there's nothing you can do about it. Accept it, or be prepared to join them."

That's the best that I can come up with. I don't know if it works or not but at least she finally let go of my shoulder now. I didn't wait for her to respond before I get inside. Like yesterday, we're the last one. I took a seat behind everyone else as usual. I prefer to have a good view of everyone else, where I can see clearly what they are doing, a habit I've picked up after too many balled up paper in the back. Those idiots clearly regret the times they annoy me after that. After a few seconds, she finally entered the room as well. She took a seat on the same row to me but on the other side of the room.

I'm starting to worry that I have to do something drastic to be alone. I have little patience for people and slightly more for those that I knew. My personal space is a luxury that I'll not trade for anything.

"As you know, the attack… didn't go exactly as planned. We underestimate the strength of their forces. We failed to capture or damage any of our supposed objectives. To put it bluntly, it was huge waste of time and resources," the Base Commander, or Emperor as I called him, said.

Underestimate? Pfft, you can't underestimate something when you don't even estimate it in the first place. Those idiots at Osea know nothing about what the Eruseans are capable of. Regardless of what they claimed, their plan were to simply send some forces with the intention to either capture Farbanti or cause as much damage as they can and then hope for the best. If the forces ended up killed, then oh well, their primary reason for authorising the attack was to get back at the Eruseans for accusing them, a bunch of 'upholder of peace', of wanting the continent for themselves anyway.

No matter whether we succeed or not, we'll cause damage as long as we manage to reach the capital. It's not enough to actually satisfy their lust for revenge but it's enough to cause something that can.

"Any word regarding the intel?" Knocker asked.

"No, but I was assured that we'll never have to suffer this sort of trouble again."

"An assurance huh? Guess that makes everything better," Clown remarked.

"Look, I know that it has caused some… unwanted and unnecessary losses. But what's done is done. Besides, there is more pressing matter that needs to be addressed."

"Something more than the fact that we've accidentally killed innocent civilians?"

"About a couple of hours ago, Erusea has declared war on Osea and all countries on the Usean continent stationing the IUN." Huh, who would've thought?

"We weren't at war already?" Boggard said this time.

"We're officially at war now. Osean and IUN bases all over the globe suffered major damage from surprise attacks carried out immediately after the declaration was made by drones. So does naval ports all over Osea, aircraft carriers docked, including those under construction suffered severe damage. Forces aligned with Erusea are appearing all over the continent and rapidly overwhelming the continent, as we speak."

Heh, surprise indeed. I didn't see any drones or even Erusean forces on the way here. To be able to cause this much damage in such a short span of time, I admit I'm impressed.

"What about the carriers currently at sea?" Knocker asked again.

"Kestrel II thankfully was spared from the attack. No reports regarding the rest."

"Any comments about today's attack?"

"Many, including neutral countries have condemned us for it. Some, as you might have guessed have pledged to assist Erusea."

People these days, when Erusea attacked IUN bases all over the continent yesterday, no one cares. But when Osea attacked Farbanti today, suddenly everyone in the world are into politic. Not that they're wrong for doing that.

As I thought that, the adjutant of the Emperor entered the room and whispered something to him. His expression turned even grimmer.

"Listen up. We just received words that the multi-national space elevator has been seized by the Erusean military." Even the space elevator too? They really caught us with our pants down huh?

"Ships moored around the space elevator and near Gunther Bay have been hit hard. Numerous ships have been sunk and abandoned. Thankfully, the aircraft carrier Vulture managed to escape Gunther Bay safely. However, it lost all its aircraft, so it's sailing empty. No concrete reports regarding the unmanned aircraft carrier, the Arsenal Bird as of yet, but since its task was to provide support, we're going to assume the worst." Ahh, the unwanted escalation of things, how delicious.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to this critical situation. Whoever has control of the space elevator will have enormous influence over the entire continent. The Fort Grays Air Base Squadron has been ordered to stand by for further orders."

Hmm, the Arsenal Birds. It was supposed to be the guardian of the space elevator. With it being seized by the other side, no way those oversized drones survived the attack unscratched. They must either been destroyed or got seized as well. Knowing the Eruseans penchant for drones and their proficiency in electronic warfare, and also how much lady luck hate me, it's probably the latter.

Emperor dismissed us after the, I'm guessing mandatory, Q&A session is done. I looked toward Brownie, she quickly turned her head away from me the moment we made eye contact. Has she been looking at me? I didn't notice. Fascinating.

She quickly exit the room to go somewhere. Well, after everything, a bit of an alone time will do her good. Before anyone can get too friendly, I too leave the room. There's only so much overfriendly strangers that I can tolerate and this base is chock-full of them. I decide to head toward one of the edges of the island.

Man, what a dump. Water as far as the eyes can see. This is why despite the good quality of this place, I can't help but hate it. Back in the mainland or Osea, the base I was assigned to was barely enough to be called one and the surrounding area wasn't exactly beautiful either, but at least no matter where I look there's only solid ground to greet me. Not that I got a phobia of water or can't swim, but humans are land mammals, we're not meant to live in water. If we did, we'll be called fishman instead.

I change my thought to the situation at hand. We're at war now. I wonder how bad things will turn out, with how it got started. Who knows, maybe the world will got nuked to bits for real this time. Unlikely, but one can hope.

I was brought out of my musing when I heard someone approached. Whoever it was doesn't seem to be interested in coming close, content with just hiding behind one of the trees. Who is it, I wonder? A spy? Some random personnel? Well, it doesn't matter. As long as they didn't bother me, we're good.

I took my bag of 'goodies' out of my pocket. With the scarceness of sweet things around here, I've been rather mindful in consuming them. Let it not be said that I have no control over my snacking.

Eating some of them, I looked inside it. With the pace that I've been eating, these should be enough for three days at most. Hmm... well, that sounds like a problem for my future self.

Having enough of glaring at the sea, I decided to head back, purposely heading for the person hiding. I noticed the pony tail poking out of the spot. Heh, she always somehow manage to track me down no matter where I go. It's a bit unnerving to be honest.

Still, why would she hide? Did she scared that I would get angry if she disturbed me? That sounds like way too much effort and it's not like her to be shy. When I walked past the tree, she rotated around it to try to stay hidden.

"You're embarrassing yourself," I said, not looking or stopping for her.

I hear a sigh and the rustling of leaves behind me. Looks like she has realised that she'd been found out.

"Why are you here?"

"I was… worried." I turned toward her. Worried? Whatever for?

"You've been gone a while, I thought something happened," she said.

I looked up to the sky above. It already gone a bit dark. Wow, time sure is fly when you do something you love.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Showing my hate toward the sea." She looked annoyed for a moment before her expression turned back to normal.

"It's almost time for dinner." I know that now, but I didn't move. I feel like she wanted to talk about something, might as well deal with it now.

"I've been doing some thinking." I motioned for her to come along. We'll miss dinner at this rate.

"What you said, about getting used to these… mess. How long for you to get used to it?"

"Always did," I said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, surprised.

"I'm among the lucky few that didn't affected by the horribleness of killing."

"But how?"

"Because I've lose a lot, I think. Or because logic help me dampen it."

"Which logic are we talking about?"

"Mine. In combat, either you beat your enemies or they beat you. I always assume they're out to kill, so I did the same."

"That's it?"

"Yep." She looked to be deep in thought, so I decided to focus on her path, just in case there's something in front of us that she was too preoccupied to notice.

"You don't think that maybe they're just trying to force you to surrender?"

"If that's the case, they won't fire a missile at me."

"What about collateral damage?"

"I can't control that. No point in worrying about it."

"But you killed innocents!"

"So? Here's how things works. If you do something with the intention to hurt or kill, someone will got hurt or killed. If you don't want that, then don't do it in the first place." She doesn't seem to be impressed with my answer. What does she expect? I'm no philosophical genius.

"I'm not the right person for this kind of talk. I can't tell you about the morality of things. What I said to you earlier is all I can tell you."

"It's just that… I can't wrap my head around it. I thought yesterday was bad but today? How one was supposed to get used to that?"

"You just need to accept the fact that people will die, you don't have to get used to it. I heard it was a good thing even. Something about it shows the purity of your soul or something." That's what I heard anyway. I personally have no idea what aversion to killing had to do with one soul but hey, they're the wise ones.

"I… have to think about that."

"Don't take too long. War wait for no one." Hope that's settled.

We reached the mess hall to find Footpad shouting something about how suck everything was. I don't pay attention to any of it. You know nothing, Footpad.

Thankfully, his antics stole the attention of everyone so no one noticed our arrival. We took a seat further away from the crowd. He sure know how to shout. How Boggard can deal with him, I wonder?

"Pipe down fellas, the news in on," someone said. I looked at the TV, OBC.

It talked about the declaration of war and the attack by Erusea. Funny how they didn't mention anything about our own attack, or maybe they already did. Hmm, minimum casualties huh?

"It's terrifying how everything can go from peace to shit so fast," Brownie said.

Not quite, it already went topsy-turvy for a while, but only a few knew about that. Hmm, I wonder if I should tell her. …Nah, she doesn't need to know.

An announcement for Mage and Golem blared while we ate telling us to report for a briefing, just like yesterday. What's so important that it has to be done now, I wonder?

We go to the briefing room once we're done. They're lucky I decided not to eat much tonight. When we reached the room, it turned out the place was still empty save for Emperor and his adjutant. Well, this is a waste of time.

I turned around to go back to the mess hall but Brownie, who was standing behind me, grab hold of my shoulders and forcefully turned me around and then pushed me into the room. Guess I can eat later then. I sat in my usual spot, this time she's sitting beside me.

"You two are early," he said.

"Just happen to finish quickly, sir," she said. The Emperor smirked at that for some reason.

"Eating," she added, putting more emphasis to it. I looked at her, red. She can't really be angry at him for that.

Sometime later the rest finally arrived. Finally.

"We have received orders on our next course of action. In the span of a few hours, Erusea has managed to push our forces and seized the majority of the continent. They are now encroaching on us in the east. We cannot allow this to go on. Command has gave a statement that reclaiming the space elevator is crucial in turning the tide against Erusea. Forces has been assembled to take part in the battle to reclaim it. The Fort Grays Air Base Squadron has been entered into the order of battle... as an advance element."

Ah, so that's why. Command wants the mission to start quickly but with how things are going, assembling forces and preparing them for something like this would take a while. We're probably the ones that got assigned because we manage to repel the attack yesterday and spared from the surprise this afternoon.

"Tomorrow at 1000 hours, you will attack all hostiles coming in the east of Scofield Plateau to stop any interference with the allied ground troops. Details of the mission will be discussed at 0600 tomorrow. Ready yourself everyone, there's no turning back now. Dismissed," he said.

Scofield Plateau. Hmm, it's within our territory. Still, there's no telling what sort of support their forces got and if the speed of their conquest is anything to go by, even if they don't have any they could easily be reinforced at the drop of a hat. Not to mention that if our forces at the other front crumbled, everything would be as a huge waste of time as the attack today. Guess we'll see what sort of plan the strategist brewed up tomorrow.

Heh, No turning back indeed.