The best airplane that the Empire has to offer, it turns out, was a prototype. In addition to the normal Elementals, there were two dozen additional Fire Elementals that needed to be summoned and placed into canisters. These canisters were carefully loaded into a special rail system inside the body of the fighter.

"Pull on this trigger to start launching the canisters," Glenice explained. "Any Ice-Two missiles have a chance to track the canisters instead of the main Fire Elemental in the engine. By launching the canisters you can confuse enemy missiles. Unlike Dark-Three missiles, the Ice-Two missiles do not pick a target before launching. That is why they can be used at medium range, they pick their targets after being launched and sometimes they change targets while flying."

Otherwise the fighter was the same as the ones she saw on the deck of Elizabeth's ship. It had two bubbles for the ocular demons, a larger size, and more missiles.

"This is almost exactly like the other fighters," Ingrid said.

"These canisters are called flares, they are cutting edge technology," Glenice said.

"Is it possible to create flares to block Dark-Three missiles?"

"There might be some Imperial black sites out there doing some research," Glenice said. "My father might know. Certainly Vaska's father."

Ivan approached the aircraft. He walked around it, looking disappointed.

"It still doesn't have any cannons," Ivan protested.

"You know how these modern designers are," Glenice said.

"In my days the warbirds had eight cannons, four on each wing. In those days, we didn't have missiles."

"Ivan," Ingrid asked. "When I was fighting against that other pilot in the Plane of Wind, he flew straight at me. He barely missed hitting me. Do you know why?"

"That's called a merge," Ivan said. "The other pilot wanted to merge with you, he was probably confident that he would be able to win. Did he fly one-circle or two-circle?"

"I don't know what that means," Ingrid said. "What is the difference?"

"I'll have to show you sometime. After a merge, if your nose faces the enemy nose over and over again, that's a one-circle. If you chase the enemy tail, that's a two circle. But the geometry exists in three dimensions, so there are lots of examples, some of them are unintuitive. In general, a two-circle depends on the shape and quality of the airplane. In a one-circle, you can use the vertical dimension to change the geometry and gain an advantage."

Ingrid was completely stunned by this outburst by the old man. Glenice whispered: "He is always like this, though he did score a bunch of kills as a teenager fifty years ago. So maybe he knows what he is talking about?"

"I beg to differ," an arrogant voice replied. Ambassador Rudolf approached them and regarded the fighter. "This aircraft does not have a cannon because the world has changed. You see, fighter jets are glorified artillery. The commander on the ground points the airplane to some spot and the pilot follows instructions to fire a missile. Through a sound high-level strategy, and through absolute obedience of the pilots, the day can be won."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"And what happens to the strategists when they are wrong?" Ivan asked.

"Yeah," Ingrid said. "What happens if they shoot their missile at the enemy and then the enemy dodges it?"

"What happens if they maneuver in general?" Ivan asked. "By the time the commander on the ground is able to understand the situation and give new instructions, the actual pilot might have found himself in a merge. The other guy might already be offensive."

"Nonsense," Rudolf said. "The best minds in the Empire are hard at work on this problem. It is imperative that we create a culture of obedience for pilots, so that our high-level strategies can be executed."

"The best minds in the Empire don't die if they are wrong," Ingrid snapped. Ivan nodded. "The pilots do! There is no incentive for those people to care about what is actually happening in the sky."

"Foolish," Rudolf said. "Whether or not somebody dies if they are wrong is beside the point! What matters is what is true!"

"True things do not let others die on their behalf," Vaska said dryly as she approached. "Ingrid I will give your feedback to the other engineers and maybe we can design an airplane with a cannon."

"Thank you," Ingrid said. She closed the canopy, and the others left.

Their force had grown to six airships with over a hundred fighter jets. In addition, they had a dozen troop transports with over a hundred Marines. The fighters were also more advanced than the ones they expected to find on the other side.

Ingrid was the first to take off. She flew far ahead of the airships, clasping the three turquoise gemstones against her chest. Unlike her first flight into battle, now she had a two-way communication device using Colored Orbs. She gave regular updates to Captain Elizabeth to distribute to the other airships.

The airships were far behind her, though relatively speaking she had not gained altitude. She was even below the wispy clouds over the ocean. "Wind!" she commanded, "open a portal to the Plane of Wind!"

Her three gems began to glow, and then the elementals appeared in a triangle in the sky. This caused the stones themselves to be summoned into the sky outside. The lines of the triangle formed, and the gems began to rotate, forming a circle. It took a long time for the circle to complete, and even longer for the portal to form. Ingrid flew inside.

Unexpectedly, the sky, with its great turquoise moon and nebulae, was below Ingrid, and the turbulent ocean was above. Ingrid flipped upside down, but still felt gravity facing down towards the "sky." It was as if the Plane of Wind was inverted over the ocean in the real world. Indeed on the horizon she could see the edge of the inverted ocean and the flat surface of the sand dunes.

The six airships and the contingent of fighter jets followed her into the portal. The enemy was not in sight.

As Ingrid passed the threshold of the shore, the ocean above ended in an inverted waterfall flowing up into the sky. The sand dunes below ended in a sand-fall flowing down into the sky below. The Queen decides the rules of this place, she remembered Paranoid saying.

Once the other airships had passed into the Plane of Wind, she turned back and landed on Elizabeth's ship. Soldiers hoisted a ladder up to allow her to exit her fighter. Vaska was waiting on the deck.

"Back already?" she asked.

Ingrid walked up to Vaska, and whispered in her ear: "It doesn't cost me anything. Besides, the airship has certain... facilities that my fighter lacks."

Once the portal was open the others did not need Ingrid anymore. They navigated south through the changing winds towards where Ingrid had seen the enemy fleet days before. The fleet was gone, however there was evidence that they had moved south. There were airplanes flying to and from one of the flying castles.

"There is something at that castle," Vaska said. "Glenice, prepare your Marines. We are going to need them on the ground up there."