"Exactly where Dren said it would be," Elizabeth said as she sat in the Captain's chair on the command deck of the Ten Skies. Still wearing her white trousers and dark green striped shirt, her only mark of service to the Order was a black patch on her shoulder with the ten colored circles inside.

Ingrid ran to the telescope to get a better view. It was far away on the horizon, a thin hole in the sky that glowed a deep blue color in contrast to the red glow of dawn. A portal to the Elemental Plane of Water.

"Heading two-seven-three, full power," Captain, or rather Admiral Elizabeth said. "Bring the fleet around to the west and approach the portal from west to east."

The process of the airships lining up and changing heading was very slow, and Ingrid stopped watching the portal. Instead she pointed the telescope down to watch the scouts take off in their fighter jets.

"I told you that you are not allowed to fly with the scouts!" Vaska declared.

"I'm not flying with them," Ingrid said. "I'm just watching these beautiful machines take off."

"You are thinking about it though," Vaska said. "I won't let you fly off to die and leave me all alone." She wrapped her arms around Ingrid's waist, preventing her from moving away from the porthole.

"None of that here," Elizabeth snapped. Vaska let go and backed away.

"Why do you design them?" Ingrid asked. "Why do you make these things?"

"The same reason you want to watch them take off."

"So you get it."

"I get it," Vaska said.

"Admiral," the navigator said. "The enemy has sent fighter jets through the portal."

"They are going to see us," Elizabeth said. "Then they will wait inside for us to come through one at a time. They may close the portal behind a single airship as it passes through, then attack it with many airships waiting on the other side. Any fighters we send through will likely not get far without being bombarded with missiles."

Her eyes darted side to side behind those scarred cheekbones. She looked straight at Ingrid.

"Ingrid, get to your fighter," she said. "Take off now."

"Absolutely not!" Vaska said.

"I will not have some damned politician on my deck giving orders," Elizabeth sneered. "Ingrid, we cannot suffer the enemy control of the portal. Bind the crystals and close the portal. We will reopen it on our terms to gain maximum advantage."

Ingrid nodded. "I'll go," she said. Vaska whimpered.

"Ivan will know what maneuver will be best to get inside the portal without being shot at," Elizabeth said.

"I'll just kick the rudder and then loop once inside," Ingrid said. Then she left, sprinting through the hallways and down the stairs to the deck.

The scouts were still busy lining up for takeoff, however they allowed Ingrid to preempt the line and take off from the midpoint of the runway. She tipped the nose off the edge of the airship and dropped straight down to gain airspeed. A formation of six fighters formed up in a ring around her.

"We will go inside the portal with you," the Formation Commander said over the communicator. "Burst formation, protect the Ghost."

"Burst formation, affirmative," one of the other pilots replied.

"It could be dangerous," Ingrid said.

"That's our job," a third pilot said.

They took a long sweeping arc through the sky to line up near-parallel to the portal at an oblique angle. The enemy fighters had fled back into the portal but remained unseen.

"Elizabeth, can you hear me?" Ingrid said over her second magenta Orb.

"I can hear you."

"What happens if they are colluding with their own bank? They could recall the crystals as I get close to them."

"That is a risk I am willing to take," Elizabeth said. "Be quick."

The six escorts flew ahead and entered the portal nose-on. They vanished from sight, and Ingrid continued her approach at a near-parallel angle. Just before crossing the threshold she used the rudder to tip the nose inside. The crimson sky of dawn was replaced with a sky of pale purplish-blue.

One of the glowing blue crystals was straight ahead, and Ingrid passed very close to it.

It is bound, Paranoid reported. Continue to the other two.

Ingrid pulled hard on the stick to face the blueish sky. Far above, deep out in the space beyond the sky, there were dozens of massive, transparent blobs of water the size of planets. They refracted the dark blue light of the single giant moon on the horizon. The nose tipped up and the fighter inverted at the top of the loop. The second crystal passed by just within range to bind.

"Enemy airships, heading one-three-five, distance uh... twenty nautical miles maybe," one of the scouts reported.

The enemy has fired missiles at the others, her ocular demon said. Indeed, hiding behind the portal and high in the sky a squadron of fighters was lobbing missiles down at the scouts as they spread out in the burst formation.

There were a lot of missiles. They were all going to die, Ingrid realized.

That's our job.

The nose continued to flip over and Ingrid faced the ocean below. The nearly-transparent ocean looked like a maze of light and dark. The dark areas were very deep ocean, and the lighter tan areas were made from sand just a short distance under the surface. Where the sand ended, there was a perfectly vertical drop down into the depths. And this pattern of light and dark, water and sand, stretched out to the horizon in all directions in a dizzying and impossible maze.

Ingrid passed the third crystal. The scouts had started defending by flying down towards the ocean. With a final glance at them she rolled over and used the rudder to veer back out of the portal into the crimson dawn outside.

"I can close the portal at any time," Ingrid said. "There are enemies hiding above and behind the portal waiting for anyone to enter. The scouts are being fired upon right now."

"As I expected," Elizabeth said.

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"I've lost my wing, I'm going in!" one of the scouts said.

"Here we go..."

Screams.

"Close it," Elizabeth commanded. "Now."

It will be done, Paranoid said. The portal began to fracture and collapse in the mirrors. Three pale disks of light appeared inside the cabin and pressed gently against Ingrid's chest, immaterial and without momentum. They matched the speed of the airplane before they formed into the three keystones. Lopsided blue and red.

"Ingrid, fly Heading one-three-five distance twenty nautical miles," Elizabeth said. "Approach that location at heading three-one-five and open the portal at five-zero thousand."

"Heading one-three-five twenty miles," Ingrid said. "Spin around and open the portal at five-zero thousand."

Hundreds of fighter jets left the decks of the fleet and formed a huge series of rings in the sky at various altitudes. When the entire force had left the decks, there were over five hundred fighters in the sky, armed with at least two thousand missiles.

"All Formation Commanders," another man said over the magenta Orb, "follow the Ghost through when the portal opens and prepare to drop down onto the airships on the other side."

The Ghost, Ingrid thought. Even our own soldiers have taken to using that name. It must have been those Ayaruans that joined, spreading their own stories. Ingrid pointed her nose at the sky and rocketed up to fifty-thousand feet, then turned south east. At over four-hundred knots across the ground it only took three minutes to reach the location where the portal would be reopened.

"Demon! Remember this exact spot on the ground below," Ingrid said.

I can remember it, the ocular demon replied.

She looped around, pointing the nose at heading three-one-five and crossed the same spot again.

Now.

"Water! Open a portal to the Plane of Water!" The gems began to glow a deep blue color. As with the portal to the Plane of Wind, the three crystals were summoned into the sky in a triangle in front of her, and three lines of blue light connected them. She overshot the triangle and needed to loop around once again, because the portal took a long time for form. Half a thousand fighter jets flew inside in earnest when the blueish sky appeared through the circle.

"Once the fighters are through," Elizabeth said, "close the portal and return to the Ten Skies. Open a portal one nautical mile ahead of our line."

Once again it only took about three minutes to return to the other airships. The airships were only flying at about twenty knots, and Ingrid was flying over twenty times that speed across the ground. She dropped out of the sky as she flew, increasing her airspeed even more, and stopped descending at about five thousand feet to match the level of the airships. They had formed into a long line, with the Ten Skies in the lead.

Only a few dozen fighters remained as escort for the airships as they passed through the third portal. The enemy fighter jets that had previously been hiding behind the portal had moved to engage with the invading allies far above, however they were being overwhelmed. A few stragglers were running away, straight towards Elizabeth's line.

"Dark-Three!"

"Dark-Three!"

Voices began to clutter the communications as the fighters nearby began to launch missiles at the fleeing fighter jets. Twenty miles to the south-east, the enemy airships were surrounded by explosions as volleys of missiles from the allied fighters above lanced down. Ingrid hid in the shadow of the Ten Skies as it slowly turned to face the enemy, however even with her flaps fully deployed it was flying far too slow to be an effective hiding spot for long. She quickly overshot the airship.

A Dark-Three missile has locked on to you, the ocular demon reported. Incoming on your right and above, you should defend.

Ingrid rolled over and began to defend towards the water. The air was normal here, as it had been in the Elemental Plane of Life, so she dragged the missile down into the dense air just above the surface of the ocean. She barely skimmed over the water, watching the burning light of the missile in her mirrors as she flew. The waves were massive, rolling things, like shifting hills as tall as buildings. The water was nearly perfectly transparent, like the pure waters in the pool of a fancy seaside resort. Ingrid watched the waves, carefully timing her turn to hide in the shadow of one as it bulged just behind her.

The missile struck the wave and exploded. Ingrid could see every detail of the explosion through the transparent surface. A flash, an orange bubble, a clear bubble outside of that filled with black smoke, a pillar of white water bursting twenty feet into the sky. Ingrid tipped the nose up to prevent hitting a wave and then began to ascent once again. Just below her, bravely sailing the mountainous waves, Ingrid saw a tiny boat.

It looked big enough to hold a single person, and indeed Ingrid saw the briefest flash of a nude woman holding the ropes. The craft had a single mast, a large squarish sail on a rotating boom and a smaller triangular sail between the mast and the tip. Ingrid made note of the craft but flew onward over the ocean. Missiles lanced out through the sky far above with more explosions appearing in the mirrors.

The endless maze-like pattern began to appear below as Ingrid gained altitude. She flew directly over a large island, and in the center of the island there was a mountain with a tall wooden tower at the top. The tower must have been a thousand feet high, because at that altitude it was just barely below Ingrid and to one side.

No wooden structure should be that tall, Ingrid thought. Though, many things had violated the laws of physics in the other Elemental Planes. A massive red pennant fluttered in the wind from the top of that wooden tower. There were dwellings on the island, a city even. Tiny dots walked through the streets.

Perhaps more of those masked people lived in that city? Ingrid felt it was plausible.

"Ingrid, where are you?" Vaska asked with fear in her voice. "Are you alright?"

Ingrid replied with a description of the boat and the city on the island. As she spoke the ocular demon interrupted her mid-sentence.

One single enemy, away from the others. He sees you!

"Vaska I will tell you the rest later," Ingrid said. "I have a contact here."

Dark-Three missile incoming, from directly ahead at about twenty thousand feet.

"Right now Vaska," Ingrid mused, "I kind of wish I could have some of those canisters with the chopped up criminals."

"Noted," Vaska said. "I'll be sure to remind you of this moment if you continue to protest."

"Tell me when I am in the shadow of the tower," Ingrid said to the demon. Then she turned towards the island and flew low over the peak of the mountain, slowly rotating her heading until the demon told her to stop. She deployed her air brakes and full flaps to fly as slowly as possible over the water. The missile exploded against the wooden tower, however the tower appeared to be completely undamaged.

"Time to run," Ingrid said. She punched the throttle to full and brought the flaps and air brakes back up. Her airspeed increased rapidly as she skimmed the rolling ocean.

Another Dark-Three missile incoming, the demon reported. I do not think there is time to get behind the tower again.

"I agree," Ingrid said. It was also coming at too high of an angle to use the waves again. It was somewhat far away, however. She continued to fly straight away from it.

Curving will not help, the missile is in the middle of a circle and you are on the edge. Just fly straight away.

"I know," Ingrid said. The light of the missile's flame died. Ingrid rolled and pulled up hard on the stick, making a sharp turn, just barely missing the waves. The missile struck the water at a near vertical angle where she would have been flying just moments before. Another pillar of water pierced the sky.

Saved by Vaska's new aerodynamic instability, Ingrid thought. That thing was going very fast.

I do not see any more Dark-Three missiles on his wings, the ocular demon reported. He is flying high still, a little ways past the island.

Ingrid continued her turn and then faced the enemy fighter, pointing her nose up at an angle. "Tell me if he shoots any Ice-Two missiles at me," she said.

Will do.

I CAN HUNT HIM! one of her Dark-Three missiles announced.

"Launch!" Ingrid screamed. The Dark-Three missile left the rail and rocketed off into the sky towards the enemy. Gravity would slow it down, and it was probably doomed to miss.

He is defending, the ocular demon said.

"Perfect, that will give us time to get close."

There is no way that is going to hit, the demon said.

"It doesn't matter," Ingrid said. She was flying straight at the enemy. She saw the flames of his engines. Two engines, a flat airplane like the type that Ervin Dren had flown, but lacking some of its missiles. It must have used more of its missiles against the scouts, she realized.

She barely dodged him.

They merged.

He flew south, and Ingrid jerked the nose to the north to form a two-circle. "I have the better airplane," Ingrid said, "I think. I should win in a two-circle."

She was high above the ocean, caught in a long tail-to-tail two-circle loop with the enemy fighter jet. It had two Ice-Two missiles still mounted on the wings. The enemy pilot must have noticed that Ingrid's airplane was winning the rate fight, because he pulled her into his nose cone with a violent maneuver that cut into his airspeed.

Ice-Two missile incoming!

Ingrid dropped flares. The missile followed the flares and exploded far behind her. The enemy pilot attempted the maneuver again but ended up stalling. His nose drooped and he began to fall into a vertical dive to recover airspeed.

"Ice-Two," Ingrid said. The missile left the rail and rocketed towards him.

She closed her eyes as the man died.

"I think I like the new airplane Vaska," Ingrid said over the magenta Colored Orb. "These other pilots... It's like dogfighting against children."