Pixy
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq. (Temporarily)
'Solo Wing' Larry Foulke

Gallus and I talked.

And the more we interacted, the more I saw who he was. I recalled the time when I mentioned that there are three types of Aces; Not many people match with these three. But this kid here, he is different.

My memories have merged with Larry Foulke completely, with his ideas influencing mine, I found my reason to fight. Gallus here, is the opposite case.

From youth, Gallus was the special one; Back during his chickhood, Girffonstone, his birthplace, was controlled by a group of gangsters. While the other chicks cower before the gangsters, Gallus fights his way out, despite nearly having himself killed in the process. When I asked him why he stood out, his reply was, "I'm just doing my job to stay alive."

There, short and simple.

I like this answer.

Overall, I'm starting to like this kid. Reminds me of someone...

3rd POV

High command has been quiet for the past five days, Lancer Squadron has been busy as well. However, their missions were rather... ordinary; intercepting enemy strike fighters, escorting ground forces, cargo aircraft, retreating units, etc. As for the mission that involved the 'package'? All members of the Lancer Squadron were called to a small dark room guarded by two armed guards, inside the room was an Earth Pony officer, turned out he was from the Central and Northern Equestria Intelligence Agency (CNEIA).

"This conversation," the intelligence officer said with a cold and serious tone, "Begins and ends here, in this room. Not one creature is to know of a single word that comes out of my mouth except for those of you that listen."

"The 'package' is a part of a receiver core once used by the VESMERT, this core contains a rare element called Asmodium. The lab guys figured out how to play with these Asmodium. And unfortunately, the Griffonians knew it inside out. Our satellites detected explosions in the Griffonian-occupied territories multiple times over the past months, and the spectrometers detected about 60% of Asmodium in these explosions. And we came to conclude that the Griffonian Military is in the process of making an MDW using these Asmodium."

The Intelligence officer then swiped up a column of photographs from his touchpad, "These were taken by our surveillance satellites and our Reconnaissance Aircraft. The Griffons had those Asmodium containers stuffed into their An-124 Condor, they had two possible flight routes; the first route was back towards Griffonia, and the other route was towards Manehattan, which is currently under their control. The Griffons built their biggest weaponry factories near the central city, they may be planning to build their MDW there. The An-124 will be taking off from inland and moving outward, and yes, Lieutenant Seadroy Mood, your squadron has been hoof-picked for this operation after a large amount of consideration."

"Is this operation-" Seadroy was cut off by the Intelligence Officer.

"It's considered classified," he said, "That's the whole point of having this conversation, your squadron will be conducting a Black Operation that will most likely never be revealed to the public even after all of this is over. Failure of this operation is catastrophic; these Asmodium are in liquid condition inside the containers for better processing, according to our lab guys, Asmodium in liquid state are extremely, extremely sensitive to pressure and temperature change, any little shift could lead to a detonation. From the clustered Asmodium containers on the An-124, it'd be like an Airburst Tactical Nuke going off on top of Manehattan. We will NOT tolerate anyone, including our allies, to know that an Equestrian Squadron detonated it. Not only would our morality be fucked, but our whole war effort would also be FUBAR as well."

The room is dead silent, with the intelligence officer pausing for the pilots to take all of these in, the room is filled with only heavy breathing.

"Your only objective is to shoot down the aircraft carrying the Asmodium containers."

"What about the civilians? We can't risk any civilian casualties-" Razornail began, but was cut off once again by the intelligence officer.

"How many civilian casualties are there since the war began?" He asked, voice not showing a single trace of emotion, "The smart ones had already evacuated from Manehattan, plus, the Griffonians are all over it. If that means we can send fear into our enemies, we believe it's necessary-"

"These are OUR citizens." Aakash finally burst.

"They should've known to flee when they had the chance, creatures die in war, Lieutenant Aakash Skycrawler, I thought you would know better."

"YOUR operation is going to kill one million six hundred and thirty thousand creatures that are already dying just trying to live through this hell!" Razarnail snapped as well.

"This isn't even a combat mission anymore," Kiper added, "This is a war crime!"

"When did I ever say it was MY operation?" The intelligence officer snapped back, "You can choose not to participate and leave this place, leave the Air Force and live a normal life, but let me make it clear," The intelligence officer leaned towards the pissed pilots, "If you say ANYTHING about this to anycreature, you will be charged with treason and will be executed."

"Son of a bitch..." Aakash murmured.

Gallus, however, remained surprisingly quiet throughout this entire briefing.

"Lancer Squadron and Pixy will sortie in 0200 Hour AM. If Pixy asks anything, tell him it's an interception operation against an enemy VIP target. Guards, escort them out." Thus ended this conversation.

Lancer 1
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq.
Lieutenant Seadroy Mood, Captain

Ten Minutes.

Ten minutes is how long we're in that room.

We are told in ten minutes to execute an operation that will possibly be the end of more than 1.6 million lives.

Being outside in the airfield did not make the atmosphere feel more easy, instead with each step towards our hangers, the atmosphere became more heavy.

Aakash was gritting his teeth this entire time, Razornail even 'accidentally' burned a large section of the grass field near the taxiway, Kiper was cussing with every single curse word he'd ever known, but Gallus on the other hoof, still maintained silence, his feather blocked his face, preventing Seadroy from reading his expressions.

"I suppose they briefed you guys already?" Came the familiar voice of Pixy. However, when the group looked over, they found themselves looking at a stranger; Nope, there's no human Larry Foulke; his voice came out from a dragon. A 5 foot 5 male dragon with crimson and silver colored scale, the silver scales extended from his eyes all the way to near his ears. Silver marks covered his arms and waist. This dragon's eyes are yellowish-orange, with short dark reddish spines.

"What? Can't recognize me with a new skin?" The dragon, no, Pixy said with a smirk.

"What- how?" Aakash is losing his mind.

"So about that contract... Yeah, here's part of the contract." Pixy said, "I do the dirty work for them and they resupply me with ammunition and fuel, well, only the ammunition they have."

"They made you a body?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Why a dragon? Razornail asked, intrigued.

"I may be a mercenary, but that doesn't mean I don't care about appearances." Pixy waved his claws, "A wingless dragon, I don't need no wings, 'Morgan' are my wings."

"Anyway, what's this sortie about?"

Aakash and I shared a glance, I cleared my throat, "We'll be intercepting a VIP target, which will be moving towards Manehattan." I shuddered at the mention of Manehattan.

"Well, let's get going then," Pixy said as he walked towards his hanger, "We don't want to make our VIP wait."

"Seadroy..." Aakash started.

I sighed, this would most likely be the darkest day of my entire career as a fighter pilot, "Lancer Squadron, prepare to sortie."

Pixy
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq. (Temporarily)
'Solo Wing' Larry Foulke

A VIP.

That's the best they can come up with.

Since when have we not been killing VIPs all these sorties? Something's suspicious here, and I don't like surprises. I hope they know what they're doing...

I hopped onto 'Morgan' and put on a neuron-linking helmet, which allowed me to link and transfer my consciousness throughout Morgan and my dragon body. I started my engine and slowly glided out my hanger, "Tower, this is Pixy, permission to sortie?"

The rest of the Lancer Squadrons are now on the taxiway and going towards the runway, "Tower to Lancer Squadron and Pixy, take off permission granted, good luck and happy hunting."

As I watched the Lancer Squadron go airborne one by one, I noticed something rather unusual; each of them was carrying only two Sidewinder missiles; yeah, you didn't hear me wrong, two Fox-2 on an interception mission.

This is yet another ridiculous thing I've seen other than flying a straight route during a dogfight.

"Pixy, take off is permitted, happy hunting." The Tower's orders quickly snapped me back to reality.

As I formed up next to the Lancer Squadron, I decided to start digging up whatever these guys were hiding from me.

"Lancer 1, mind if I ask a question?"

"Is it about this sortie?" Seadroy responded, hmm, I could hear the slight nervousness in his voice.

"Related to it," I asked tentatively, "say, you're that confident?"

Seadroy remained silent for a brief moment, then said, "They want it to be quick."

"Hit and run eh?"

Definitely hiding something. As a mercenary, a secret can be a gate between life and death.

Seems like ERAF wasn't a good place for me after all...

Author's Note

We're building up guys