“The Larissan Armed Forces unveiled their first mech designs during engagements near the Pozneki border. Pictures of the reported mechs indicate that it is a close copy of Orlish M20 LSS Panthers, except for changes in the main gun, with the gun reportedly being changed into the Larissan 125-millimeter guns used in their main battle tanks. The Orlish High Command has stated that they are investigating the matter, claiming that the Federal Republic of Orland has been leaking sensitive design blueprints to their CFN allies since the start of the Orlish Civil War.”

- Geopol Press

Empire of Asanai

Yamaka Airbase

1st Eastern Air Wing

16th Fighter Squadron

December 21, 2025

Major Bianca Brandt frowned after she gave her squadron a little roll call. They were now meeting at one of the hangars used to house their twenty-four LF-20 Phantoms. Of course, for tonight’s sortie, however, she only needed five people to fly out with her.

Regardless, each one of them tiredly recited their names one by one.

It was quite a sore sight for Bianca. The 16th Fighter Squadron, like many of the newer Air Force squadrons being created, was mostly made up of young female recruits. Many of them were daughters of lower noble houses like her. Due to national conscription, many opted for the Air Force due to its relative prestige.

Unfortunately, Bianca had a lot of work to do. The woman in front of her seemed barely attentive or interested in this whole war thing. It was truly the height of incompetence that they somehow managed to get in and fly a multi-million blancs fighter aircraft.

But we’ll work with what we have.

She picked the five people who seemed to be at least a little bit enthusiastic about anything. Within a few minutes, the rest mostly shuffled out of the hangar, leaving Bianca alone with five other rookies. Unfortunately, if they weren’t such bored and uninterested pilots, these ones seemed a little bit overenthusiastic.

“Are we flying today?” the youngest of the five pilots asked, her eyes almost beaming. “This will be my first time here.”

“Same,” another one smiled. “I bet they won’t expect our planes. I mean, would they even see us?”

“They probably will,” Bianca corrected with a deadpan tone, gaining the attention of the younger girls. “So don’t be overconfident. Due to the nature of our deployment here, we won’t have much time to prepare for the new one. Or learn about each other much. Because we’ll be doing that as we fight—”

One of the pilots coughed a bit, distracting Bianca’s speech. The woman’s face turned slightly red in embarrassment because of that.

“A-apologies, Ma’am,” the pilot squeaked out. “It’s just kinda cold out here.”

Is she from the south? Hmm, I suppose she is.

“It’s fine Lieutenant,” Bianca replied. “Unless you’re having temporary sickness problems?”

“No, no, I’m fine!” the woman smiled. “I’ll be fine to fly tonight. Besides, training and training in Orland isn’t the real deal. If I want to be a real pilot, then I need to get into the real fight.”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this will be everyone’s debut except for me and my wingman. So please do your best,” Bianca said, sighing a bit. Her wingman, Captain Anja Seelman nodded with a graceful smile. She was on the leftmost side of the five pilots. On the other hand, the four newbie pilots just looked at the two with curiosity. “Alright, you know what. Be honest. Raise your hand if it’s your mother who got you here in the Air Force.”

The four young women all looked at each other awkwardly.

“Come on.”

Then, one by one, they all raised their hands meekly. Bianca placed her hands on her waist, shaking her head.

“Well, you all seem to have tried your best in your training at least. Otherwise, you’d have been relegated to other squadrons. Right?”

They all nodded in an equally meek manner.

“At least they’re honest,” Anya quipped.

“Hey! I just did extra well at training how to fly,” one of the pilots insisted defensively. “I didn’t ask to suddenly end up flying Orland’s best aircraft.”

“And I suppose I can’t blame any of you for trying to avoid getting drafted into the Army. But don’t think just because you’re not out there on the field digging trenches and latrines that you’re now in a safe position,” Bianca frowned coldly. “I’ve been in the Air Force since the start of this war. Same with Anja here. And believe me, people die here. Badly.”

The four recruits all gulped.

“And don’t think that your magic means jackshit when you’re flying your plane. It means nothing. I’ve seen enough greenhorn pilots who think they’re better than their brothers out here dying when they overextend themselves. You are the same as anyone else. Even your enemies. Flyers who will die from a single anti-air missile.”

They all further straightened themselves, as their eyes turned ever more tense.

“And it’s the same today,” Bianca continued. “We’re flying out in groups of three. Two sections in total. I want standard formations from the rest of you. Two of you will follow Captain Seelman’s lead here and will be designated Section Bravo. Two of you will follow me, under Section Alpha.”

The newbies all nodded, absorbing that information quickly.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“All you have to do is follow our lead and your training. Our mission today is a basic one. We will be in contact with the 33rd Infantry Division from South Hebei. They are, as of now, active on the frontlines. Their combat units are engaged in moderate to heavy engagements with the North Hebeians. They will be giving us targets to engage, and we will destroy them with our AGM-224 SGBs.”

One of the recruits raised her eyebrows.

“Those glide bombs?”

“Yes, we’ll have two of them each in our internal weapons bay. That and two AMATA-80s each for self-defense. Make note of that. Self-defense. We’re not going on a combat air patrol mission. We will just fire our glide bombs on our designated targets, then fly away.”

“So a pretty safe mission?” One of the newbies asked. Bianca frowned harder.

“I already said nothing is safe. You’re not untouchable just because you’re flying a stealth aircraft. We will be firing these at least fifty kilometers from our targets. While it’s unlikely for us to be detected, there is still a possibility because we will be inside the range of enemy radars. So be on the watch. Clear?”

“Clear!”

+++

Within twenty minutes, Bianca’s two teams were in the sky. It was already night above Asanai’s easternmost island. Down below them, they could see the bustling city metropolises that they passed through. Most of them seemed to be still going with their daily lives undisrupted from high above.

The sea itself was calm in comparison. There wasn’t much traffic tonight in the skies.

Neither her side nor the CFN’s side seemed to be active in the skies at the moment. It was to be expected, as the CFN had reportedly stopped challenging the air dominance that her side had created. Thus, the flight toward Hebei was quite smooth.

They barely talked in their comms except for directional changes or new orders. It was…quite a dry night. But Bianca supposed that it was normal. She remembered that in her past squadrons, she was quite the silent pilot. Especially since the squadrons she joined were predominantly men.

It was only really now that many women flooded the Air Force. Even then, she could feel a certain disconnect between her and the recruits. It reminded her of the sheer disconnect she experienced back in the early days. When it was just her and a few enthusiastic recruits ready to serve their Queen, and her old, cynical, and jaded trainers and veteran squadron mates.

I’m almost at the same point now…

“So we’re killing people for real now?”

“Two-Two, of course, we are,” Two-Three responded. “Unless you miss.”

A cacophony of giggles and laughter came from the other newbies. Bianca almost wanted to interfere and call out the unprofessional chatter. But she supposed she’d let the new pilots at least get acquainted with each other. They were, after all, pulled out just recently from their training bases and dumped here with their brand-new planes.

Bianca herself wasn’t entirely sure yet how to manage a squadron. She was…quite new to this job. Before, she only managed a section of three pilots, back when she flew the LF-12. Then, she took a few months on the administrative side of things and then came back to limited combat roles. She did fly the LF-20 regularly, but quite frankly, she only ever had three combat sorties in it.

She kept a tight hold on her controls, as she took a deep breath. Calmness was the most important thing when flying. And she felt a tad bit shifty about this. Truth be told, she also had never once used a glide bomb. All of her combat sorties were just her lobbing long-ranged anti-air missiles from afar, alongside that one time when she fired a few anti-ship missiles.

It was the tedious job of an LF-20 pilot, she supposed. They were always just supposed to sit at the back and fire their missiles, then come back to base. Sometimes, they’d be relegated to hover near a combat area to act as some sort of forward radar and control aircraft. But that only happened when AWACS was absent. And she never served that role.

“We’re about to enter the Hebeian airspace, over,” Bianca gave her heads-up to her squadron mates. “Again, keep your eyes peeled. We’re going to be climbing at twelve thousand meters now.”

“Copy that, One-One!” came the collective response from her newbies. She almost heard her wingman crack a little laugh at that. Bianca could only roll her eyes as she pulled the nose of her LF-20 upward. She watched as her altitude counter slowly went up. Behind her, the rest of the squadron members followed closely.

Within five minutes into their flight, they found themselves in contact with the Hebeian High Command. Then they were redirected to the administrative staff of the 33rd Infantry Division. She half-expected that they would speak to her in Hebeian, but the speaker instead Orlish in a professional manner. Naturally, Bianca talked to them as politely and cordially as she could. Soon, they were given the description and coordinates of their targets.

“Remain cautious. Potential North Hebeian SAM radars and launchers nearby. Pull out if any of them locks on you,” the man on the other side warned. “Notify us once you’re at the firing range.”

“Roger that, 33rd HQ,” Bianca replied. She then communicated with the rest of her squadron. “Alright, everyone. You’re being given a target now. You’re now free to choose your flight path so long as you do not deviate from the squadron by at most eight hundred meters.”

“Copy!”

“Alright. Let’s do this everyone.”

Bianca continued pushing her aircraft forward into the firing range. She checked her forward cameras and locked into the distant returns in her sensors. The target was a simple, concealed building. Their HQ told her that it was a munitions depot. Bianca wasn’t exactly sure about that, as it was simply just another building on the horizon.

No alerts. Seems like we’re unspotted.

“33rd HQ, we’re now at the firing range. Are we clear to fire?”

“Yes. Things are clear on our end. Good hunting, over.”

“Girls, you heard him. Take your targets.”

A few more seconds passed before they finally began.

“This is One-Two, bombs are now off!”

“I’ve fired mine as well.”

“Two-Three firing as well!”

“W-wait, I’m still trying to lock on to my target. It’s moving!”

“Calm down Two-Two,” Bianca said. Her wingman on the other hand also released her glide bombs, and she barely even spoke on their comms. Bianca tried to focus a bit more on her target, before continuing. “If it’s a vehicle, there’s a homing option. Use that. Clear breaths.”

“Oh yeah,” she breathed out with a nervous laugh. “Um, this is two-two, bombs are off too!”

“Copy that,” Bianca sighed. Then, she pushed the buttons to release her glide bombs. “One-One to all units, my bombs are off. We’re disengaging now.”

“33rd HQ to Sixteen-Actual, we’ve detected that you’ve released your bombs, over.”

“Confirmed. We fired it all. Is there any problem?”

“Nothing. Peel off from the AO now. Have a nice flight back to Asanai. Out.”

Soon, they all turned around, as distant explosions blanketed the battlefield. Bianca’s job wasn’t done, however. She still needed to get all members of her squadron into land strike missions.

They needed to have some experience at least before the big fight.