The fighter jet looked to be in good condition as it made a descending turn to line up along the Ten Skies deck. The landing light on the forward landing gear came into view as the jet finished the turn. Ingrid picked at the sleep in her eyes in the morning light. Nearby, a young airman held a platter with pastries and cups of steaming coffee. Elizabeth was already sipping on her cup.
"Well, it flies," Ingrid said.
"And apparently our engineering lead still lives," Elizabeth said.
Vaska's lead engineer, a man named Jack Vail, had such confidence in his design that he demanded to be the first to fly through a lightning storm. In spite of Ingrid's protests, the Admiral had allowed the flight. As such, Jack had become the first human in recorded history to be struck by a lightning bolt from the moon while flying in a fighter jet. That is, unless the Federation engineers had achieved a similar design first.
Ingrid was observing the engineers while they frantically interpreted the data from the flight when an unexpected formation of fighter jets arrived. She stepped out on deck to see no less than six fighters flying in a triangle formation in a traffic pattern directly over the runway. Not too far behind them flew a seventh fighter jet. All the fighters looked identical to Ingrid's own, the aerodynamically unstable design that Vaska and her engineers created. The difference was that they were painted white. Only the tail fin was painted black, and prominent in that black paint was a white raven.
The White Ravens, and their commander, Princess Natasha, had arrived.
Ingrid felt a chill as Natasha marched across the deck in force and began to issue orders to the airmen. Vaska is not awake to stop her, she realized. Indeed the airmen obeyed Natasha's orders without question, and soon she was standing on a podium with Air Elementals amplifying her voice. The crew of the Ten Skies stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the deck under the podium. Ingrid stood below the podium but behind the Princess with the officers and the Feathers.
"By Decree of Emperor Artem of Great House Maryy" Natasha began, "The nation of Taisia is hereby annexed into the Heylin Empire."
This brought gasps from the soldiers on the deck. Natasha paused briefly.
"By Imperial Decree, the Order of the Ten Skies is dissolved. Simultaneously the Office of the Minister of the Imperial Planes Defense Force is established, which has the explicit purpose of implementing the new Imperial Planes Defense Force, for the purpose of protecting Imperial interests in the Elemental Planes. Simultaneously, the former military assets controlled by the Order of the Ten Skies will be instantaneously transferred to the Imperial Planes Defense Force.
"By Imperial Decree, I, Natasha Maryy, have been appointed to the role of Minister of the Imperial Defense Force. The individual known as Princess Ingrid of the Ten Skies is no longer recognized as such by the Emperor. Instead, lands in Taisia fit for the rank of Lady shall be granted to Ingrid, and she will formally be adopted into the extinct House Veronika, which owned those lands. The Emperor and the King of Taisia now recognize her as Lady Ingrid of House Veronika. The informal titles, Ghost of Taisia and Lady Ghost, are also acceptable, according to Imperial Decree."
As Natasha began to descend the platform, she issued rapid orders to Elizabeth, Glenice, and the Captain of the Fleet. Then she turned to Ingrid.
"Take me to my sister immediately."
After briefly holding Vaska's hand and gently kissing it, Natasha promptly began to rifle through her sister's belongings, ignoring the protests of the nurses. She pulled a light crystal out of Vaska's bloody jacket.
"Get a stretcher," Natasha shouted in the face of the doctor who had entered to investigate. "Take her out onto the deck. Ingrid, come with me."
"What are you planning?" Ingrid asked.
"Did Vaska describe her plans in the Plane of Lightning while she possesses this?" the Princess asked. Ingrid looked at the crystal and felt her eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. "This is your spy," Natasha said.
On the deck, Natasha held the crystal above her head while holding Vaska's hand. Soldiers stood in a circle behind them, but in front of them the deck was completely clear.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Whereby I hold this contract, and whereby my sister sleeps, and whereby I am her superior officer, I therefore invoke the right of command. I summon you, High Daughter of the Queen of Light!"
A woman made of pure light appeared on the deck, covered in an oily sheen, and wearing plate armor as Titania once had.
"Fire of my spirit," Ingrid hissed. "Water of my spirit. It is her fault Vaska was led into a trap! She is a spy! KILL HER!"
The two forms of the High Daughters appeared, fire on the right and water on the left. They launched forward at blinding speed and assaulted the Light Elemental. A blazing sword pierced her heart, and waves of water washed away the mother-of-pearl blood. The creature screamed.
MOTHER HELP! I DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE! MOTHER! MOTHER!
Once again Ingrid could see every vein in her arm, every muscle, the insides of her eyelids. Indeed, she could see the ethereal form of Natasha's body standing in front of her. Every bone. Every organ. Nothing could protect against the light that erupted from the Elemental.
Natasha began to walk forward, dazed and wobbling but determined. "Bond me now!" she commanded. Kneeling like a knight, the Elemental had lost her armor, and carried a spear. She bowed one more time to Natasha. Ingrid collapsed on the deck but did not fall asleep.
"Fire of my spirit, water of my spirit, drink no more. I must rest." The two elementals vanished.
Natasha stood before the crew on the deck with her new Light Elemental at her side. It must have been sucking away at her spirit, but the damned woman looked completely unaffected. The men on the deck were busy feeling around, recovering from the sight of their own muscles and veins.
"Ahh, such sweet twilight," said a sensuous voice. Ashe now stood at least as tall as Ingrid would be, if Ingrid had not been on her knees. She had become a slim young woman in a tight black dress, having cast away her child's body somehow. Her raven hair reached almost to her knees. "I think I have an idea of what happened to me," the Queen of Darkness said. "They trapped parts of me inside my sister and her daughters. We just need to get all those parts back."
"And then what will you become?" Ingrid asked.
Ashe licked her lips. "More fun, I think."
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The engineers had finished converting less than twenty fighter jets to the lightning-resistant model before the enemy found them. A dozen Federation fighter jets appeared inside the portal, blissfully ignorant of the lightning that assaulted them. Eight of them aggressively flew through the portal to attack the Ten Skies and were promptly shot down. Ingrid suspected she knew who the eight pilots were.
"They are ahead of us," Elizabeth said as the Feathers sat around the table in the map room. "Even if the Queen refuses to talk to them, they need only prevent us from seeing the Queen and they win. They just need to delay us forever."
"Agreed," Natasha said. "We need to establish air superiority immediately. Jack, have your engineers begin work on converting my own fighter as well as the other White Ravens. I am going out there to fight myself."
"I will go as well," Ivan said. "In a fighter jet, not a warbird. If Bertrand Vike has learned to fly a fighter, then we need to answer in kind."
"I will go as well," Reese added.
"Absolutely not," Ivan said. "You are fine with stick and rudder, but you are the worst fighter pilot I have ever trained. You cannot even tell me the difference between one-circle and two-circle!"
"I want to fly Fat Meg," Reese said.
Ingrid snorted. "Fat Meg!?"
"The unfortunate name given to Vaska's masterwork of engineering," the man named Jack Vail said. "It carries no less than eighteen missiles and can even carry up to four hypersonic radar-guided missiles."
"Hypersonic?" Ingrid said.
"It flies up into the sky to nearly a hundred thousand feet," Jack said, "and then it drops in on their head at five times the speed of sound. It can hit targets that are a hundred miles away. No pilot in the world can react fast enough to avoid the missiles that Fat Meg can shoot."
Ingrid was left speechless. "One hundred miles? Five times the speed of sound? What Elementals does it require?"
"It just needs a green Colored Orb per missile," Jack said. "Vaska is researching a version that uses pure electricity to generate the radar signal. However, our knowledge of mundane electricity, independent of Elementals, is almost non-existent. Our civilization has been relying on Elementals for too long."
"That's enough," Natasha said. "Ivan, is Reese able to fly such a machine?"
"She will be a sitting duck," Ivan replied, "however I suppose that is exactly the purpose of such a fighter. To be a sitting duck that lobs hypersonic missiles at targets from a hundred miles away."
"As you wish Reese," Natasha said. "I must now inform you of additional Imperial Decrees, issued by my father. Previous generations of fighter jets created by the Heylin Empire did not receive explicit designations. They will be lumped together under the HY-1 designation because of their similarity. Ingrid's fighter is designated as HY-4. Fat Meg is designated as HY-7. The other prototypes are not ready to receive a designation."
"What about enemy airplanes?" Ivan asked.
"The Federation of Kanti currently operates what they designate KH-3 and KH-11 fighter jets. The KH-3 is the twin-engine fighter with up to six missiles. The KH-11 is the fighter with twenty-two missiles, however they only carried Dark-Three missiles before, which no longer work."
"Um..." Ingrid said, "I would like to go out and fight too. When the rest of you go, I mean."
Natasha turned her predatory gaze toward Ingrid. "I agree."