Aircraft carrier Drachen, FZT.

Winds picked up from the southwest as clouds began to gather. The high winds prompted the creation of high waves that rocked the carrier back and forth. The weather wasn’t optimal, but it was by no means terrible. If anything, not even this slight hiccup in the weather would prevent them from putting their operation into action. One of the pilots, Oberstleutnant Anton Leitz, was in his single-seater Ma-67 "Jauchzer" jet fighter, which was already being prepared for taking off. After the crews attached the jet to the catapult, the blast deflector behind his jet raised before Anton’s jet roared to life. Swinging his head to the left, he saw his friend, Oberstleutnant Joachim Weber, piloting a similar fighter, ready for takeoff as well. Signing to the flight director that he was ready, the flight director then turned and stretched out his arms forward, signaling the jet’s takeoff to everyone. A moment later, Anton felt a great tug pulling him forward as inertia dictated that he remain in place. His fighter was propelled by the catapult at an impressive speed through the Drachen’s flight deck before releasing the jet to fly on its own power. Now clear of the deck, Anton slowly pulled up as he disengaged the landing gear. Some seconds after he was propelled into the air, his friend too was then launched into the air.

15 minutes later

After his entire squadron had taken off from the Drachen, they flew in formation ahead of the attack aircraft squadrons. The Gra Valkan Navy fighters, cruising at an altitude of 5,000 m with a speed of 850 km/h, headed northeast towards their targets. The clouds were seemingly endless, and visibility was close to terribly poor. Still, even this won’t stop them from proceeding with their attack. Anton surveyed his surroundings, content with the peace and calm and wishing that it would stay the same. However, he himself knew that this wouldn’t last. Feeling drowsy, he yawned. When he opened his eyes, he expected to see the same endless cloud cover. However...

“Huh?”

Unfolding before him was a blood-red sky devoid of features and of the cloud cover that was once there. With a dark crimson light shining on his cockpit, he looked around him only to see the ocean below him tinted black. The ocean surface was featureless as well and empty of any noticeable, crashing, white waves. Seeing the scenery, he could only assume that he was now somewhere in the underworld.

No no... Take me back!

The sight of the crimson skies scared Anton to the core. As a superstitious person himself, he interpreted what he was seeing as a dreadful omen and associated it with death. Feeling his heart race from the sinister unfamiliarity of his surroundings, he instinctively closed his eyes. When he opened them again...

“What the?”

The dark, gray clouds were back. The puffiness of the clouds of water vapor was more than welcome sight, despite the fact that visibility was still poor. Looking down, he could see the dark ocean dyed a familiar dark blue. He could now make out individual waves on its surface.

“Got a problem, Kapitel-08?”

His comms roared to life. It was his senior who led their squadron. Shaking his head to try and get himself out of drowsiness upon which he blamed his hallucinations, he replied to him.

“I-I’m fine. Just drowsy...”

“Eyes open! Also, turn off your comms! We can hear you mumbling!”

“Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann!”

Turning off comms for the meanwhile, Anton groaned in his seat. He is wide awake, but he fears that his drowsiness may bring back the scenery he saw a while ago. He then took deep breaths spaced rhythmically in an effort to keep himself from becoming drowsy again. His mind then drifted to their mission: to fly ahead of their attack aircraft and engage enemy patrols. Repeating this in his mind, the memories of crimson skies and blood-red seas drifted in and out. He was trying his best to keep himself grounded as his superstitious self couldn’t help but keep fearing what he had seen. Just then, interrupting his mantras, he heard a voice over the comms.

“Aufnahme aus! Unknown contacts at two o’clock! I count two large formations! At least 20 for each!!”

Hearing this, he checks his radar and sees multiple dots to the left of the center horizontal line. Since they were close to the horizontal line, the contacts were at roughly the same altitude as them. Anton surmises that they were probably at least 20km away since while they were still dots, they had already started to look like lines, meaning that they are way within their radar range.

“I see them! Two o’clock at the base of the storm clouds!”

One of the better-eyed pilots says. Looking over in the designated direction, Anton peered past the occasional fluff of cloud. There, at the other end, there was a towering, gigantic cumulonimbus cloud. Its imposing, dark gray body occupied nearly much of the direction that they were looking at. In irregular intervals, lightning erupted in flashes of light at various positions inside the cloud and turned it bright gray. The massive chunk of dense water vapor contrasted against the blue skies all around, which was interrupted by other, smaller, distant towering cumulonimbus clouds. However, somewhere at its base, Anton saw some conspicuous dots moving towards the left at great speed. Contrasting against the lighter background, there were two swept wings on some of the dots, which now appeared as elongated sticks.

“Kainian fighters! It's a combat air patrol!”

“Positiv! Looks like they haven’t noticed us yet! Form on me; we’re attacking them!”

His commander said over the comms.

As he banked over, the rest of the 49 Gra Valkan fighters followed him and reformed their formation. Anton continued to look at their targets and squinted his eyes. He was finally able to count all 48 of the enemy fighters. True to what he heard, the Kainian fighters hadn't noticed them yet as they still continued to proceed to the north with them proceeding towards their eight o’clock. With the element of surprise on their side, the Gra Valkans wasted no time to eliminate what was likely to be a thorn on their side. Anton felt sensitive all over as adrenaline started to spread through his blood, making him feel the rumblings from the jet engine of his Jauchzer fighter through his seat. He no longer felt drowsy as his eyes continued to stare down his prey.

At that point, they were closing in on the Kainian naval combat air patrol. After some time, at around 14km from the Kainian patrol, their commander gave them the order to ready their Smaragd-M semi-active radar homing air-to-air missiles.

“Mauerblume, Rakete!”

Left to pick their targets on their own, the pilots proceeded to track one of the 48 Kainian fighters. Anton switched on the track mode for his radar and chose one of the blips that represented a Kainian fighter. His radar screen then switched to a single target tracking mode where only the blip he chose remained while the others disappeared. Using his control column, he maneuvered his Jauchzer to the direction of the blip, which reflected on the targeting screen as the blip moved towards the center of the screen. He makes up for turbulence and the Kainian fighter’s movements by controlling his Jauchzer, keeping the blip within the center to maintain the lock. At that point, due to their radar locking, the Kainian fighters seem to have noticed them and have begun maneuvers to shake off the targeting locks. Before they could do anything substantial, the Gra Valkan fighters were now within the effective range to fire their Smaragd-M missiles. Anton subsequently armed one of his four missiles and sent it away.

“Konzert, Blaues!”

Anton’s aircraft felt a tad bit lighter, preceded by the rumbling generated by the Smaragd-M missile leaving its hardpoint. Followed by the distinctive sound of rocket propellant going off, he saw the missile emerge from under his left wing towards the front, disappearing into a cloud of propellant that got smaller and smaller. Mere moments later, his comms erupted into life as the other pilots launched their missiles.

“Konzert, Blaues!”

“Konzert, Blaues!”

The pilots said the brevity code for semi-active radar-guided missiles, followed by the Smaragd-M missiles racing from the Gra Valkan fighters and out towards their Kainian targets. However, that was not the end. Anton continued to maneuver his aircraft to maintain the lock on his target for his missile’s guidance. Precious seconds passed, and he lost the lock on the Kainian fighter as it maneuvered beyond the center of his screen.

“Scheiße!”

Unable to get the lock back, he sees his missile miss wildly off the mark, falling into the clouds below as the Kainian fighter dives to maneuver out of the lock. Unfortunately for everyone, most of the Kainian fighters outmaneuvered their missiles, emerging totally unscathed. Still...

“Hit confirmed! I got him!”

“He’s hit! There he goes!”

Nine distinct flashes come from the skies in front. The flashes then turn into smoke as Kainian fighters emerge from each one. The fighters trailed smoke as they spiraled out of control and fell into the clouds below. The Gra Valkan side, despite each firing one missile, only managed to bring down nine Kainian fighters in total out of the 48. It was a disappointing result, but still within expectations of their still relatively newly developed missiles. Immediately the Gra Valkans moved to target the remaining Kainian fighters with their next missiles. However...

Beep beep beep beep beep!

A repeating beep sounded in Anton’s cockpit. He looks to his radar warning receiver and sees the red light flashing: he is now being locked on. The Kainian fighters maneuvered back and reacted first, targeting the Gra Valkan fighters before they could arm their next round of missiles. At roughly six km and going against each other, they were now nearing their effective gun range. Still, the Gra Valkans did not want to risk getting shot out of the sky.

“I’m being locked on!”

“Evasive maneuvers!”

Detracting from their targeting screens, the Gra Valkan pilots split from their formation, mirroring the maneuvers they learned from the academy and from hours of combat experience. As the Gra Valkans begin to split, the Kainian fighters let loose their own radar-guided air-to-air missiles. At such a close range, there were only mere seconds before the missiles hit them. As Anton dispensed some chaffs as countermeasures against the lock, he skillfully played with his aircraft controls, sloshing across the worsening, darkening Yggdran skies to avoid getting hit by the missile fired against him.

“Fuck... Fuck... Fuck...”

He bit his lip as he rolled, turned, and dived to avoid the missile. He felt the g-forces acting against his body as he fought to maintain consciousness. He then saw a distinctive object fly past him, after which he felt relief as the beeping from his radar warning receiver stopped. Escaping from danger momentarily, he maneuvered to face the Kainian fighters that he saw on his radar screen, which he switched back to search mode some time ago. However, not everyone was lucky.

“Scheiße! I can’t shak-”

Simultaneous with the sound of an explosion rocking his canopy, one of his squadmates got cut off mid-sentence, signifying that he was hit. As he flew, Anton managed to catch a glimpse of a Gra Valkan Jauchzer trailing smoke and on fire, lifelessly falling in a parabola into the clouds below.

“No, no, no! It’s on my ta-”

Boom!

He heard the sound of an explosion both in reality and on the radio before his squadmate got cut off. Another one of their pilots was shot down. Seven more fighters would suffer the same fate. At this point in time, both sides lost nine of their fighters during the engagement. The two sides have now entered within their respective gun ranges, with neither side intending to detach. The dogfighting had begun. Already he heard disorganized, scattered sounds of autocannon fire. For Anton, he had a target in mind.

In front of him, he spotted a Kainian fighter tailing and shooting one of his squadmates. The enemy fighter moved predictably and was preoccupied with trying to shoot down his squadmate. Swooping down from above, Anton went perpendicular to the movement of the two aircraft. Looking at his crosshairs, he prepares his finger on the trigger. His squadmate zips by it. Hardly a moment after, he pulls the trigger. He then felt the rhythmic vibrations coming from both his sides as his 20mm autocannons roared to life, exhausting their rounds onto the empty space in front of his aircraft. Just then, the Kainian fighter, perhaps realizing too late to react, flew into the hail of autocannon rounds, suffering considerable damage. Letting go of the trigger, Anton zoomed past the trail of smoke created by the Kainian fighter he had just shot at and pulled up back to horizontal level. There, he saw the burning hulk of the Kainian fighter he had just shot falling out of the sky in flames. Another enemy fighter had been shot down. Just then, he heard a familiar voice over the radio.

“Danke! You saved my arsch!”

It was his friend, Joachim. He was more than delighted to know that the squadmate he had saved was his own friend. Feeling glee from the depths of his heart, he responded.

“Heh, only I can kiss your arsch, Kapitel-05!”

“Oh shit! It’s you! Go fuck yourself, Kapitel-08! Haha.”

Despite the unprofessional atmosphere in the chatter between two friends, the rest of the Gra Valkan pilots were preoccupied with not being shot out of the sky. During the encounter following up to his kill, Anton already heard six more of his squadmates go down from Kainian fire. The weather had turned for the worse, adding to the already bad situation they were facing.

“Dear Gott...”

Before he knew it, the fighting was engulfed in a thunderstorm. Anton freaked out, sensing that the sudden change in weather felt too unnatural. His superstitious mind kicked into gear, interpreting the darkness that had swallowed them as a seriously bad omen. The darkness inside the clouds was only interrupted by the lights coming from his flight instruments, the occasional explosion and tracer fire, and the bright flashes of lightning occurring all around them. Without much visuals to go about, he could only rely on the blips coming from his radar to ascertain where the other fighters were. Listening to the comms only served to the detriment of his sanity.

“Fuck! They got Kapitel-09!”

“I’m hit! Shit, I can’t stabilize it!”

“Ah cr-”

One by one, he heard his squadmates perish anticlimactically over the comms. He wanted not to mind their seemingly meaningless deaths so that he could continue to focus, but the thought of them being gone weighed heavily on him. So far, they could only account for five kills. While within expectation due to the superiority of Kainian naval fighters in dogfights, the fact that they were losing this air battle still hit hard. As his mind wandered to process the now real threat of dying, his attention was caught by bright green tracers flying above him from behind. His reflexes kicked in and he moved to get out of the crosshairs of the Kainian fighter presumably behind him. As he maneuvered through the dark clouds trying to get back at his attacker, he heard Joachim over the comms.

“Ah fuck! They got my right aileron! Fuck!”

Joachim said with a desperate tone over the sound of autocannon fire. He sounded like he was going to get shot down. Despite the chances of him coming over to save him a second time being realistically low, he couldn’t help but try to find him in the darkness.

“Hang tight, Kapitel-05; I’m coming!”

Anton said over the comms. He then tried to shake off the Kainian fighter that was still firing at him from behind.

“Fuck fuck fuck!!!”

He heard Joachim again, this time audibly more distressed. This heightened his stress levels as he combed the dark skies for signs of Joachim. Knowing he had little time, he frantically looked around as he kept himself from passing out due to g-forces. After a while, he still found no signs of his friend.

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!”

He cursed as he looked from one corner of the sky to the other, frustrated that he still couldn’t find his friend. Even though it didn’t make much sense, he felt a deep urge inside him to save him. For some reason, it didn’t feel as if it was for the sake of saving his friend. If anything, it felt more like he feared the guilt he would feel. Then, he heard Joachim over the radio again.

“Scheiße! I ca-”

At the same time, to his upper right, he saw some tracer fire emerge from the clouds, followed by the burning wreck of a fighter. Judging from what he just heard, it may have been Joachim. However, he also considered the possibility it was someone else, wishing that it wasn’t otherwise. Hoping that it wasn’t his friend, he chimed in.

“Kapitel-05, status?!”

Nothing.

“Kapitel-05, come in?!?!”

Still nothing.

“Goddammit, Joachim, come in!!! Say something!!!”

A tear started to form in his eyes. This was not what he wanted to happen... and yet it did. It wasn’t impossible, but he tried his utmost to make it so. Still, it was too late. He watched the lifeless, burning wreck of his friend’s fighter fall out of the sky. As he lamented, he saw something else follow it. Emerging from the wall of clouds, it was a Kainian fighter, presumably the one that shot down his friend.

“Stück Scheiße!!!”

He cursed as anger and revenge took hold within his heart. He marked the Kainian fighter for death. Pulling his control column and increasing his thrust, he lined himself up with the diving Kainian fighter. He pulled his trigger, intending to eviscerate his target with his autocannons. However, the Kainian fighter pulled away from his crosshairs with godly reflexes, narrowly avoiding the rounds he sent against it. He then maneuvered his fighter to chase after it. There, he saw the Kainian fighter maneuvering through the dark clouds. Whenever he got the chance, he would pull the trigger to unleash 20mm rounds down on the Kainian fighter, who always seemed to dodge his attacks.

As he chased down his prey, lightning flashes occasionally lit up the environment, drenching his target with bright light. In every flash, he saw the Kainian fighter’s dark blue airframe contrasting against the bright white clouds. Looking further, he caught sight of the Kainian roundels on the wings: a circular cyan outline encasing a bright, red disc inside. The religious Kain Divine Kingdom believed in the prospect of Heavenly Judgment raining down on heretics and so have molded their doctrine around overwhelming airpower, to symbolically crush their nonbeliever enemies under the weight of a thousand aircraft raining judgment with impunity. As such, their aircraft are strikingly suited for aerial engagements. To further embed this belief, they dedicated their highest religious symbol, the sun, as part of their roundel. To a superstitious man like Anton, seeing his enemy’s heavenly judgment manifest before him started to convince him that he was lost. For every flash of lightning, the bright light would illuminate the sun on the Kainian roundel a threatening bright red, intimidating him as he began to flounder in the engagement. What had been rage occupying his heart was steadily replaced by fear and disturbance. Maybe he was fighting a lost cause. Maybe the gods were punishing him for his failure to save his friend. These thoughts swirled around his head for the good part of the fight when his control column suddenly jerked towards him. In response, his aircraft climbed directly upwards. Baffled by the aircraft suddenly acting on its own, Anton tried to wrestle control back to him. However, the control column nor his other control mechanisms were frozen and would not budge despite his desperate attempts. As the aircraft unnaturally continued to fly upwards, he flew past the thick, dark cloud cover, emerging in the crimson red sky he saw in a hallucination a while ago.

“Huh? Wha?”

Anton looked around, struggling to understand what was happening. The clouds behind him were now uniform, and the tall, stormy, cumulonimbus clouds were gone. Suddenly, he started feeling hot. The intense heat permeated past his flight suit. As sweat began to pour in droves, he looked forward, only to see the source of the scorching heat. There, in front of him, was a perfectly bright red circle.

It was the sun.

Slowly, his aircraft continued to defy physics as it flew straight for the red disc. All the while, the heat grew more intense, together with his fear and heartbeat.

“No... No... Please... No...!!!”

Anton repeatedly begged for everything to stop as he felt his very skin get roasted. He pushed back on the flight instruments and the cockpit, wishing to put more distance between him and the sun. However, the aircraft, ignorant of his feelings and cries for help, continued to ferry him closer and closer. The sheer redness of the sun was now the only thing occupying the space in front of him. Driven by terror and desperation, he pulled on his ejection seat, which failed to deploy. Stuck in the increasingly hot cockpit, he tried breaking through the canopy, which was still amazingly intact despite the increasing temperatures. However, all of his efforts were met with naught as the aircraft continued to zoom towards the sun. Then, his pain receptors were driven beyond their threshold from the feeling of being on fire.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

He patted and patted all around his body, trying to put out the flames that had not yet manifested. Still, it was hopeless. He closed his eyes, wishing to be away from whatever the hell was happening. With his pain reaching the highest possible level, he jumped.

Then, for some reason, he felt himself released from the seemingly unbreakable seatbelt on his seat. He jumped out and landed on something cold and solid, and began to roll on the ground, trying to kill the flames that were still hurting him. As he rolled on the ground, he screamed from the intense pain he felt as his skin and flesh seemingly began to melt. The cold ground was welcome, but it felt like it didn’t do much. Just then, he heard something different... and surprising.

“What the?! Hey, Anton! Shit, you’re still asleep! Wake up! Wake up!”

Hearing the sound of his friend’s name, he opened his eyes. There, he saw Joachim next to him trying to wake him up. Confused, he swiveled his head around to make sense of what was happening. As his vision cleared, he saw the dark, comfy confines of his shared bunk room in the aircraft carrier Drachen. He then looked down on his own body to see that it was still intact and not burning. Consequently, his burning sensation disappeared. As he collapsed on the ground, seemingly relieved, Joachim patted him on the shoulder.

“Another nightmare? Damn... Why don’t you try seeing a-”

Joachim was interrupted by the sad-sounding sniff of Anton. Then, Anton burst into tears as he sat upright against the cold wall behind him. Understanding what was going on, Joachim stopped talking and hugged his friend.

Anton’s nightmares had been going on for a while at that point. Having served in the Imperial Gra Valkan Navy Air Service for some years, he was part of intense action against the Kainian forces in the last years of the Great Eternity War leading up to the empire’s transfer to Asherah. In one such mission, he was shot down together with another squadmate by the Kainian ground forces during a mission to support a ground offensive by the Imperial Gra Valkan Army. While he was able to eject safely, his squadmate didn’t. Venturing to the crash site to help him out, Anton spotted the intact remains of his squadmate’s fighter. However, before he could help him out, the fighter’s fuel ignited, engulfing the fighter and his squadmate in blazing hot flames. There, he heard his squadmate’s distinct, agonizing screams of “help!” which imprinted itself deep in his mind. Due to the intense heat, which evaporated his own sweat, he couldn’t approach the fighter to help his squadmate out. Within the flames, he saw his own squadmate looking back at him with tearful eyes, begging Anton to release him from his sealed fate. Unable to do anything, he watched in helplessness as the flames engulfed his squadmate. While he continued to serve in the Air Service, the memory has haunted him in his dreams since then. Despite logically knowing that there was little he could have done to save him, the guilt weighed heavily on him. As Anton cried from the nightmare, Joachim continued to console and support him.

Cent. Calendar 09/06/1639, west of the Kingdom of Paganda, aircraft carrier Drachen, FZT., 8:10

After some time to himself and a briefing on the upcoming operation following the declaration of war by the Kingdom of Paganda, Anton climbed onto his trusted Jauchzer fighter. He looked back to see Joachim climbing into another Jauchzer. Noticing Anton looking at him, he gave him the thumbs up, to which Anton responded in kind.

“See you later!”

“Oh, definitely!”

As they were taxied to the catapults, Anton looked around him. Beyond the Navy Air Service airmen and crews working all around the deck of the Drachen, he saw the mighty triple 46cm cannons of the battleship Kaiser Luke Von Granderia pointing grandly towards the horizon as she sailed next to the Drachen. Further out were the guided-missile cruisers, destroyers, and support ships surrounding the four fleet carriers at heart. He then remembers his current mission: escort attack fighters to their objectives on the Kingdom of Paganda. With his fighter ready for take-off on the catapult, he looked over to his right and signaled the flight director that he was ready to go. With the flip of his body posture, the flight director signaled to the crews to launch the fighter. Then, Anton felt a great tug as the catapult pulled his fighter through the deck. He was then let go, leaving him suspended in the air as he further gained lift to zoom towards the skies.

The first part of Unternehmen Donnerschlag had commenced.