Sunset Shimmer collapsed onto her bed after completing her duties for the day, playing over the briefing she and her fellow trainees had received earlier from their commander.
"I know you don't like this, but we're short of people. Starting tomorrow, all of you nuggets are gonna be sittin' alert. If we launch, stay glued to me up there."
Somehow, she hadn't quite expected this so soon when she attended Canterlot University through the ROTC.
She was finally able to get authentic documentation to allow her to attend higher education and get a proper job, paying taxes and all, but the process to do it properly so no one would catch onto the fact her background was falsified took so long she had missed the deadlines for all of the possible scholarships she could have qualified for, except for the ROTC program.
She had always dreamed of flying when she was a young filly back in Equestria, having always been jealous of the pegasi and the freedom that their wings provided them, so she applied for the pilot's program. To her surprise, she was able to pass the screening for it and thanks to her grades in the program, she was able to qualify for a fighter pilot position.
She was under no illusions that her time as a fighter pilot, even in the Osean Self Defense Force, would be one without the possibility of war, but even she didn't expect it so quickly and with only a couple of years of training under her belt, especially here at such a remote base as Sand Island.
The door to her shared dorm room opened and her roommate, Kei 'Edge' Nagase, entered and made her way to her own bed where she collapsed.
"You alright Edge?" Sunset asked the other woman.
"What do you think Blaze?" Nagase shot back.
Sunset shook her head at her callsign. One of her instructors at Heierlark had called her that thanks to her unique, but natural, hair color and it had followed her all the way from the frozen north to the sunny sands.
She was about to reply when the sounds of rock music began to blare through the wall next to her head.
"Damn it Chopper! I appreciate good music as much as the next person, but turn that down!" She shouted at the wall, causing the volume to be lowered to a much more reasonable level.
"I swear, he says he is an adult but I think he is still a kid." Sunset groused before turning back to her roommate.
"If you want to talk, I'm here alright?"
Nagase looked at her curiously before nodding.
Sunset gave a small, sad, smile. "We all lost friends yesterday and while it hurts for me, for you and Bartlett, it will be way worse since you were up close and personal with the fighting. The least I can do for my teammate and roomie is to lend a sympathetic ear and a shoulder if you need one." She said gently.
"Thank you." Nagase replied quietly.
Sunset nodded, having said her piece. "I'm gonna go grab some dinner. Up for at least a little something to eat?" She asked Nagase.
"Not really, but I should eat." The other woman replied. "Need to keep up my energy."
Sunset gave a small smile at that and headed out of the room and towards the exit of the barracks.
Stepping outside and putting her cover on, she looked to the skies above Sand Island, though instead of the usual wistful feeling of the freedom that being in the air gave her, trepidation filled her as she sighed.
'Stay safe back home girls. Hopefully this will be over soon.' She thought as she and Nagase walked to the chow hall to attempt to eat dinner.
The anticipated alert scramble happened a few days later when a spy plane strayed into the Osean ADEZ* and a lucky shot by the SAM crews damaged it enough that it had to slow and descend to a point where Wardog Squadron could intercept it and force it to land.
The only hitch to what should have been a milk run of a mission was the fighters that tried to stop them from forcing the recon plane to land at Sand Island.
By the end of the fighting and they had returned to base, Sunset was numb.
She knew that she was only defending herself and her flight mates, but she had killed three people today.
"Why, why is this happening?!?" She thought to herself as she emptied her stomach into a trash can in the hanger.
"Kid?" Captain Bartlett said from behind her.
"Just nerves sir. I'll be ready for the next sortie." Sunset replied, wiping her mouth on her sleeve.
"No it isn't." Bartlett replied, arms crossed over his chest. "I know because I was in the same place as you are after my first combat mission during the last war."
Sunset looked at the man. A hardass for sure, definitely lower ranked than he should have been given how long he had been in the military, but she could tell he cared about those under his command.
"Does it get easier Sir?" She asked after a moment.
"No, not really. The coming down off the adrenaline does eventually, but the taking of another life should never get any easier. If it does, then you become the monster that every single human has sleeping inside them." Bartlett said firmly, before softening slightly. "That guilt at taking another life, even in self defense, means that you are still a good person."
Sunset nodded after processing that statement. "I, I understand Sir. Thank you." She said quietly.
Bartlett nodded and sent her to the barracks with a 'Dismissed'.
Sunset reached her room and after a quick shower and change of clothes, collapsed into bed, her dreams haunted by the screaming of alarms and the cacophony of radio calls that had filled her ears during that short dog fight.
Author's Note
Almost forgot this bit, will be doing notes down here for relevant terms that aren't in the normal lexicon for people reading.
ADEZ: Air Defense Engagement Zone. An area within a nation's borders, usually a few dozen miles to a couple of hundred miles from the shoreline. Unidentified aircraft in this zone will be intercepted, and depending upon their reaction to such interception, will be forced to land or will be shot down if hostile. This area is usually within groundbased radar coverage and can have SAM (Surface to Air Missile) coverage depending upon the security posture of the nation in question.
Three days after Sunset's trial by fire, she once again found herself sitting alert and once again, Wardog Squadron found itself responding to the call to action.
An unknown vessel was launching drones into the airspace off of Sand Island and they had been sent to intercept and destroy the drones and to keep an eye on the mothership while the navy scrambled a couple of frigates to intercept it.
Unfortunately, the unknown enemy that kept attacking from the same bearing, 280, showed up again and they were forced to once again defend themselves, the controller aboard the AWACS, Thunderhead, ordering them to stand down while incoming missile warnings and the sound of her own missiles locking on as she returned fire mingling together in a cacophony that she had begun to start ignoring outside of the important details.
"Blaze, Fox 2!" Sunset called out as she let loose a missile at the final target, the other pilot being unable to evade in time thanks to Chopper's previously dodged missile. "Splash One!" She added as the enemy aircraft exploded into flames and wreckage.
<> Thunderhead called out.
Suddenly, Bartlett called out a warning to Nagase.
<>
Sunset's head whipped around as she rolled her plane inverted and she saw the plume of a SAM come streaking up from the boat, her stomach plummeting as she saw, and heard via the radio, Edge began to make evasive maneuvers.
Sunset jerked her controls and made towards her teammate, but even as her plane began to dive and the engines spooled up to afterburn, she knew she wasn't going to make it. She was too far out of position to do anything.
Then Bartlett, the beautiful bastard he was, threw his big Phantom into the path of the missile, its seeker head locking onto the more powerful engines, pulling it away from Edge.
Sadly, he wasn't able to evade the missile either as it detonated near his plane.
Immediately, Sunset called out.
"Thunderhead, Wardog 4. Wardog 1 has been hit, scramble SAR helos. We have good chute, say again, good chute." She reported.
<<Warning! Warning! Wardog Squadron, return to base immediately!>> Thunderhead suddenly shouted over the radio.
<<But the rescue helicopter hasn't arrived yet!>> Edge protested.
<<Leave that to the rescue team. Refuel and rearm at the base and get back in the air immediately! The enemy has declared war on us!>> Thunderhead replied tersely.
Sunset's eyes widened as she formed up with Edge and Chopper to return to Sand Island.
The trio was on the ground shortly and they proceeded to the hot pads to refuel and rearm.
"What's going on?" Sunset asked her crew chief as they oversaw the reloading of missiles and cannon rounds.
"Not sure. Just got orders to turn y'all around fast. Any issues with her?" The crew chief asked.
"None surprisingly. Still purring like a kitten." Sunset replied.
"Good, keep it that way while don't ya. I want my bird back in one piece, ya hear?" He responded with a chuckle as the last checks were done.
"I hear ya chief. We good?" Sunset inquired.
"We good. Clear to turn." The crew chief replied.
Sunset nodded and went through the start up procedure and soon, the three remaining aircraft of her flight were taxiing to the runway and lifting off.
None of them were to know it until later, but Captain Bartlett was nowhere to be found by the rescue helos. All they found was a discarded parachute floating in the water, with the spy vessel retreating at speed to the west.
But right now, Wardog Squadron was heading towards the mainland, where the naval anchorage was under attack.
Author's Note
Shorter chapter this time, some missions will have shorter than average ones, because the missions themselves are relatively short in game. So yes, Sunset is Blaze in this story, alternate realities and all that letting me play around with things. Some of the chapters will be a bit more dialogue heavy compared to the action, but this is telling the story through Sunset's eyes and showing her thoughts as she becomes one of the heroes of the Circum-Pacific War as it is known in the game.
