Not one passing vehicle pays much attention to the convoy as it passes down the highway from the starport into the northern end of Solaris. But then in the midnight hour, no one could care less about a bunch of jeeps and personnel carriers escorting two haulers with a fighter on each trailer, the fighters’ raven-like forms with their wings folded, covered over by a tarpaulin.

One of the jeeps speeds ahead of the others, the extra antennae on its roof denoting it as a command vehicle.

The convoy turns off on to a section of highway that skirts around the outside of Solaris, heading for the Mars Aerospace Force base.

From a distance, two pairs of eyes watched from the hills, eyeing the convoy through a pair of binoculars.

“These guys look a bit too heavily armed to be regular vultures… They look like they’re MASF spooks. You sure this the right target?”

“According to the time, date, shipment schedule and coordinates they gave us, this has to be the correct convoy…”

The red haired mercenary glances over at her spotter before reaching for her sniper rifle, aiming down the scope as she adjusts the zoom, getting a closer look at the silhouettes of the two jets on their trailers. Take out the escorts, hijack the transports, then haul with the two shiny new prototype fighters. A relatively straightforward plan. But then somehow, it felt too easy.

The former MARSOF operator suddenly regretted her policy of no questions asked, but then brushed the thought aside as her nerves acting up.

“Cross-check the recon photos. The aircraft we’re supposed to swipe match the description, but I’ll contact them just to be sure.”

The redhead mutters a few hushed words into her wrist mounted communicator. The reply was quick, confirming that yes, they did have the correct target. Yunru, as the red haired mercenary’s alias was, nodded to her spotter, who then proceeded to bark a few words into his headset.

“Target has entered the trap. Let’s rock.”

-

The drive to the MASF air base where Minji’s squadron was stationed, didn’t take as long as the roads in that area were generally empty at sunrise. Jungeun was driving this time, driving the same way she flew her Fand 2; maximum speed, maximum control, flooring the accelerator, with one hand on the shifter, as Jungeun loved to drive stick, and the other hand on the wheel along with the booming, pulsing beat of a trance track on near full blast. The whole situation made Yerim in the passenger’s seat next to Jungeun feel as if she was in a race from an arcade game she used to play back on Earth. She couldn’t recall what said game was called, but it had the words ‘Midnight’and ‘Maximum Tune’ in the title.

The road leading to their destination was pretty much a straight line, like Solstice Canyon. In addition, there was also the fact that traffic was minimal, which allowed Jungeun to keep the pedal to the floor, her car, just like her aircraft, a blood red streak. Yerim looks up in the mirror, catching sight of Jinsoul asleep in the backseat, chuckling as she wonders how the older girl can still sleep in all this.

As Yerim looks out the window, she catches the sight of flashes in the distance, followed by a series of muffled bangs. And then a pair of gunships, which looked like the newer Venom-class soared overhead with a loud woosh, punctuated by the distinct chugging of autocannons firing in the distance.

“Must be some kind of exercise or something.” Jungeun mutters, somehow managing to catch the action in the distance despite keeping her focus on the road in front of her.

“I don’t recall exercises with live rounds taking place this close to Solaris.”

Jungeun merely replies with a shrug.

“Hell if I know. Our military pals probably won’t talk about it either.”

-

The only sounds in the office were an irritated sigh, as Minji buried her face in her hands, inhaling deeply as she attempted to hold back her growing fury.

“So you’re saying that a group of rogue vultures attempted to raid the convoy?

In front of her desk, Siyeon stood at attention, her expression remaining stoic as she responded with a nod.

“From what I gathered from the debriefings and the after-action reports, yes. Only three casualties, including Yoobin though they managed to recover all their stacks. It seems they were after the Maves”

“You do realise how this makes us look right? I can live with the graft accusations since literally every single person in the Martian Armed Forces from bottom to top is guilty of it including us, but I will not stand to be made to look incompetent. Especially by a group of roving bandits. Someone’s head is going to roll and I’m going to make damn sure it won’t be mine or yours.”

Minji leans back, throwing her head back as she releases an irritated growl. Siyeon then clears before she takes the chance to speak.   

“If it’s any reassurance Commander, the two Maves that were being shipped to us were unharmed while our forces managed to kill almost all of the bandits. Though it does bother me that they’d be daring enough to attack a military convoy.”

Minji opens one eye, her anger half dissipating as the gears in her head start turning. Her wingman was right. It didn’t make sense for bandits to attack a military convoy when there were much easier targets. Unless someone put them up to it. Even the fact that the new Maves were targeted made little sense as plenty of fifth- and sixth-generation fighters comparable in performance to the new prototype Maves were already available on the surplus market.

The thoughts of who and why would be put aside, as Siyeon’s radio crackles. Minji opens her other eye as her wingman replies, as terse as ever.

“What is it now?”

“Our guests have arrived.”

Minji jumps out of her seat immediately, having forgotten about the appointment she’d set up with the three pilots from the Odd Eye Circle team.

“Well then let’s not keep them waiting, shall we? Go fetch Hyejoo. I’m sure your little protégé would enjoy a good fight.”

-

“Our agent’s gone dark, duizhang Han.” A woman with ash-grey hair that fell past her shoulders looked up from the stack of cards in her hand, raising an eyebrow upon hearing her second-in command speak before turning back towards her cards.

“Perhaps it had something to do with that attack on an MASF convoy earlier this morning. The Dragons are smarter than that. No one in their right mind would attempt to with the Martian Armed Forces, especially MARSOF, the Marines and the Aerospace Force, unless there’s an ulterior motive of sorts. And besides, there’s plenty of aircraft on the surplus market which are comparable in performance to the military’s shiny new toys.”

The first speaker, who went by the name Ziqi nodded, as she eyed the growing pile of Martian credits in the centre of the table. “I’ll raise a hundred.”

“She’s one of our best agents. There’s no way she’d let herself get exposed so easily.” Another woman, named Xinwen shrugged as she spoke, then muttered a request to raise the stakes to two hundred credits.

 “A mole perhaps?”

Handong merely shrugs before a grin breaks out across her face at her poker hand. A straight flush with the hearts deck.

“I cannot say for sure. If it’s a mole, it could be anyone that’s not at this table right now. It could also be a of bad luck, as even the most detailed and classfied operation can go awry from a variety of reasons. If my hunch is right, the Dragons never trusted her to begin with, and are purging their ranks, eliminating those they suspect to have ties with us, the MASF or the Martian Federal Police. Or if we apply Hanlon’s Razor, they’re so desperate to be at the top of the ARL, they’re willing to swipe the newest aircraft available, regardless of comparable ones being readily available on the market. Either way, our double agent’s cover is definitely blown and we’ll have to recover her ASAP without troubling our friends in the MASF.”

Handong then turns to Ziqi, who happens to be her second-in command.  “Lieutenant, I want you to put together a crew to recover our missing agent.”

To which Ziqi mutters an acknowledgement.

“How many do you want me to gather?”

“As many as you think it’ll take.”

“Roger that. I won’t fail you, Duizhang.”

“Go now. Time is of the essence.”

 Handong and Ziqi salute each other, before Ziqi bows, turning to leave the room.

“Also, I’m sure some of you have heard of that three-member ARL team, which had one pilot win yesterday’s race. Two of them used to do runner jobs for us every now and then.”

“Odd Eye…something. Can’t recall the full name but their pilot in the blue suit gave that Yves chick quite a run for her money yesterday.”

Xinwen looks up, gritting her teeth at the bad hand she ended up being dealt, before raising an eyebrow, knowing exactly what their boss was thinking at that very moment.

“So you want to see them in the next race and then bet on them?”

“You know me too well.”

“It’s not unlike you to turn down a good gamble, isn’t it, Duizhang?”

Handong chuckles, her sharklike grin growing even wider as she reveals her hand, earning a collective groan from the remaining figures around the table.

Xinwen shakes her head before getting up, throwing her hands up in defeat.

“I swear you’re gonna game us all out of our savings.”

“You’ll get it back soon enough.”

-

The car stops, in the middle of the desert, at a set of coordinates that Minji had sent to Jungeun through a text. Jinsoul had woken up, as soon as the car had stopped, stretching as she gazed over the near endless sea of red sand around them.

“You sure this is the place?”  Yerim steps out, scratching her head. The coordinates they were given for the meeting was literally in the middle of nowhere.

Jungeun shrugs, muttering something about how those were the exact coordinates she was given.

And as if someone had decided to add an answer to Yerim’s query, a gunship with the markings of the MASF appears from behind a dune, circling the three girls before setting itself down in front of them, Yerim, Jinsol and Jungeun shielding their eyes from the dust cloud.

Minji and a couple of marines stepped out of the craft, as Yerim fans away the dust from her face with her palm.

“So uhh Captain, tell us again why you wanted to meet in the middle of freaking nowhere?”

Jungeun raises an eyebrow as a face mask and a strip of cloth is into her hands, with the same going for Jinsoul and Yerim. 

“Security precautions. There was an incident earlier outside the city involving one of our teams so we have to take extra measures. The masks are to keep the dust out of your faces. You’ll have to wear the blindfolds until I say it’s okay to take them off.”

The three girls look at each other before complying with Minji’s instructions as the marines then led the three blindfolded racers into the gunship. The flight to the airbase didn’t take as long as Yerim expected. Within the span of 15 minutes, she felt herself being led out of the gunship, and then as the blindfold was lifted, she found herself in Minji’s squadron’s ready room with Jinsoul and Jungeun nowhere to be found. And then with her reflexes, she catches a flight suit that Minji almost casually tosses at her.

“Get suited up. You’re flying with me in 10 minutes.”

The younger pilot blinks before turning around, slipping on the suit, which was surprisingly form fitting, given its bulk. And then on goes the helmet, Yerim struggling with all the straps as she then glances over her shoulder, watching as the squadron leader effortlessly suits herself up.

And then everything else flashes by as Yerim finds herself being led, down several hallways, and then into the near-blinding Martian sun, Minji beside her and an armed guard (who seemingly appeared out of nowhere) behind the two.

There were two aircraft in the hangar, one was a Super Sylph like Jinsoul’s while the other was a Mave, the same raven-like aircraft Minji had flown in the last race. Minji then motions for the younger pilot to climb into the Super Sylph, which packed a white rabbit emblem on each fin.

“You really like that Mave eh? Can tell by the way you’re gawking at it.”

Minji chuckles, climbing into the backseat as Yerim then climbs into the front seat.

“I’ll be honest, I’m kinda dying to take flight in it.”

“Unfortunately for obvious reasons, I can’t let you into the Mave. Yet. But I think you’ll do good in the Super Sylph. I’m sure you’ve taken flight in Jinsoul’s before.”

And then before Yerim can reply, Minji starts running Yerim through the checklist and the controls of the fighter. Within minutes, a tow hook is attached, and a tractor pulls the sleek fighter out on to the tarmac as the engines roar to life, and then the tractor detaches itself, Minji waiting for a response from the control tower that would indicate they were cleared for takeoff. And Yerim waits. And waits.

Minji’s voice breaks the monotony a moment later.

“Okay, while we’re waiting for clearance, I’ll make this quick before we head out. We’ll be doing an Air Combat Manuvers session because I want to see how good you are and Siyeon’s little protégé is itching for a good fight. I know you’ll do your best so show me what you got, kid.”

“I-uhh… Roger that.”

Minji chuckles in response.

“Hey, relax. I’m not gonna chew you out like a drill instructor. I assume you’ve played videogames like War Thunder, DCS or… or even Ace Combat?”

“Yes, Colonel.”

“Right. Think of this as multiplayer match except there’s no restart button and you can’t respawn either.”

On the other end of the runway, a Mave starts its take-off run. Packing the wolf’s insignia on its fins, the fighter blurs into a dark streak over the unending red of the sands below. Siyeon would be the back-seater for this flight while one of the MASF’s newer recruits was in the front seat, a 2^nd Lieutant Son Hyejoo. Half the pilots in Minji’s squadron referred to Hyejoo as the wolf-cub, in reference to her rather youthful appearance and the fact that her flying style was very similar to Siyeon’s.

Yerim draws in a breath, Minji doing most of the conversion with the control tower. And then Yerim’s headset crackles to life as Minji switches frequencies to the Super Sylph’s intercom.

“Alright. We’re cleared for take-off. Just fly like you normally would, kid.”

And as the Mave circles over the runway, the Super Sylph takes off at full power, climbing up to meet it. Both aircraft slowly circle around the base before they break away, heading for the desert to the west.

-

“Picking up one bogey. Closing in from vector three one five. Angels two-zero.” Hyejoo observes the blip on the radar screen on the left side of her instrument panel before pressing a few buttons, the friend-or-foe ID tag on the approaching fighter changing from ‘FRND’ to ‘TGT’.

“They’re climbing.” Siyeon notes, watching the altitude tag next to the blip blur in increasing number values.

“Then we shall climb.” Hyejoo pulls back on the joystick, raising the Mave’s nose as she applies full throttle to meet their opponent, Minji in the Super Sylph, intending to use Minji’s favourite opening move of a head-on merge to begin the fight.

“Target’s in visual range. Don’t hold back.” What military pilots consider visual range, would appear to most laymen as a barely visible speck in the windscreen.

“With pleasure. Engaging.”

The speck grows larger and larger, morphing into the sleek form of Minji’s Super Sylph, its sleek form a sharp contrast to the alien bird-of-prey looks of Siyeon and Hyejoo’s Mave.

Both aircraft merge in a flash, the pilots rolling the aircraft until the cockpits faced each other. The Mave and Super Sylph flashing past each other, with their fin tips mere feet apart. A nervous Yerim looks up, and as if in slow motion, she catches sight of Siyeon and Hyejoo in the Mave’s cockpit. Siyeon throwing her a salute as Hyejoo remains focused on the controls.

Minji’s voice crackling over the intercom brings the purple haired pilot out of her near-trance as the world flashes back into ‘normal’ speed.

“Hey kid, you listening? Don’t try too hard to impress me, don’t get too distracted by how cool their aircraft looks. Fly as you normally would in the simulators or in the games.”

“Uhh… got it. Engaging!”

“Well then, let’s have some fun.”