Rondo in the Endless Sky

Prologue: In the Dark Blue Skies

"What makes an Ace?" Hmm… I think that's not so easy to pin. They say there's three kinds of Aces: Those who seek strength. Those who live for pride. And those who can read the tide of battle. Those are the three. A true Ace would be somebody who embodies all three types. And, I suppose I'm one of them. But that's just according to what the others tell me.

All I know is, when I'm up there in the sky, I just forget about things. Not anything important but… my mind just clears. I forget about everything they teach us in training and just fly. No thought for numbers, no mind for calculations, just clear thoughts on simply flying. I accelerate, decelerate, climb, bank, dive, roll, and fire on instinct alone. I only realize how crazy I can get up there when I'm on the ground and everyone else is telling me about it.

What color is the sky that far up? That's easy: It's a deep, dark blue.

"Dammit this swarm is huge! That wasn't the projected numbers!"

"Rather than panicking just kill 'em! Whoever gets the most kills wins!"

"Keep in formation Kitty! You're going too far out!"

"Garm 1, new alert on radar! Four Sloop Classes just entered the AO!"

"FOUR?! Just one is troublesome enough!"

The 18-meter-tall, light blue humanoid machine turned to the direction of the alerts, four shapes moving so fast they were just blurs as they shot by. Gunfire filled the air as several other similarly sized but of many different colors machines weaved around over the island the combat was above, screeching dragons charging and falling to the gun fire to the ground of the arid area below, the land bordered by two mountains. Amid it all, a white and blue machine then shot by the light blue one, the pilot clicking her tongue.

"Princess, don't chase after the Sloops!"

"Don't tell me what to do. Villkiss can keep up with them, so shove it!"

"Dammit, follow my orders will you?! And even if it can, you can't catch four of those types you idiot! Everyone, form into an element, get back to formation!"

It was seven machines versus a swarm, and with the high-speed dragons there now, odds were not in their favor from the looks of it. But, the crackling of their communication lines made all seven pilots in the area stop their chattering from a simple sound. Whistling.

"New friendly IFF! Attention Garm Squadron, Mobius 1 has entered the AO! I repeat, Mobius 1 has entered the AO!"

"They sent out Trigger?! You're kidding me, we don't need him!" The pilot of the red machine snapped, the blue machine's pilot sighing.

"Oh quit whining Count!"

From higher up than their machines were for combat flight, the pilots saw a streak of white appear in the air as something sharply redirected and shot downwards. And that was when they heard the engines roaring.

The machine that shot by was plane like. Its body showed other mechanisms in its form, and from the nose, rather than a clear cockpit, the segment was solid and colored black. From the shifting back-swept quad-wings spreading out from the center of the long body, the thrust of the engines was also coupled by thick streams of green particles coming from other ports on the frame that left a flowing trail behind the machine. Its body was ghost grey in color, and every section that was for flight control was colored dark blue. And marking the canards was an emblem colored bright blue and white: A mobius strip. While at the tail fins that sharply angled up was another marker: A stylized red phoenix.

As it passed, the gun slung under the body of the machine shifted a bit, blue bolts of energy arcing from the barrel and piercing through a few of the small dragons in the swarm, then banking away as others charged.

The movements of the craft were almost ridiculously fast in comparison to what the others were pulling. It's turns were sharp, evading charging foes with pinpoint corrections in the air that veered it around before blasting off in the other direction. The small dragons didn't have a chance to keep up with it.

"Teach, it's Trigger. Keep your focus on the swarm." The voice of the pilot of the new machine, unlike the other one, was male. The light blue machine turned to his as he spoke, watching as he rolled through the air before shooting down more of the dragons. "I'll get Princess away from the Sloops. Leave them to me and swat the rest of these flies, alright?"

"Got it Trigger. Alright everybody, form up! We're leaving the Sloops to Trigger! The Schooners are our prey!"

"Oh come on Salia! Those are a way bigger payout, we're just gonna hand them to him?" A red machine drifted over, the girl within voicing her complaint… and in return the light blue machined whacked hers on the head. "Hey! Don't scratch my paint job!"

"Count, save it for later. And remember to use TAC names when we're on a mission. Swan, Edge, Stingy, Ghost, form up on me and Count!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"And now for Princess." Trigger's machine came up next to the white and blue machine, which had gone from a humanoid form to something more plane-like as well. She'd been keeping pace with the fast Sloop-type Dragons despite their better speed, but they weren't taking so much of a scratch as her machines gun fired off in bursts at them. "Princess reform with the rest of your squad! The Villkiss is fast but you're never gonna catch those Sloops if they start flying for real."

"Bite me Trigger!" The young man in the cockpit could only sigh as she saw the girl on the machine raise her middle finger at him on the communication screen before she went right back to firing.

"Alright, hard way it is."

With the flick of a control stick, part of the airframe on Trigger's machine shifted, a robotic arm moving out and promptly shoving the Villkiss out of the way, sending it careening downwards while the arm retracted.

"HEY! What the hell?!"

"I'll pay for the damage later!" Trigger's attention turned to the four dragons now in front of him, which had gone into formation as vapor trails followed them. "So they can fly like that too eh? Neat… Wyvern, Pursuit Mode!"

"Roger."

An electronic voice replied to him. Following it, the wings of the machine locked down to effectively flatten the frame. As the engines began to roar even louder, streams of particles flew out from between the wings, forming structures like feathers within the gaps.

As the machine began to catch up to them at a suddenly blinding speed, the four dragons split off as they climbed. That only got Trigger to snicker as he pulled back on his controls, sharply angling his craft upwards to follow after the dragon that was no doubt leading the others.

The dragon roared as it saw it was being pursued, glowing lines coming across its body. Bolts of energy then arced off and back at the pursuing machine, which angled sharply and rolled repeatedly to avoid the shots.

"Hehe… come on come on! Ya gotta fire faster than that to hit me!"

"Don't forget about the other three."

"Ah lay off Wyvern. I didn't forget about his friends!"

The other three dragons were coming up from behind him, energy arcing from their wings as they attempted to get a hit in, all the shots being rolled pass. And with another pull as the pilot also slammed the brakes, yhe wings moved out of their flat position and the machine angled upwards. It rose and looped around as the dragons passed under it. Once it had leveled out behind them, ports on the nose opened up, small missiles firing from them, two of the dragons taking the shots right past their tails and falling with smoke and blood trailing from the wounds, the again active thrust causing the fighter to blaze past the falling bodies.

"That's two!"

"Kills confirmed. Signatures for the Sloops terminated."

"Alright… now I'm in my groove. Let's fly!"

As the machine and dragons began chasing each other through the sky, taking sharp turns and braking to try and get a chance to get a shot in, an onlooker would say it looked like a dance as ribbons of both particles and vapor followed the three in the air with every move, bolts of energy flying past and missing hits by a hair, micro-missiles firing and being dodged with fast breaks. The flight went from on high to low, the flyers arcing clear over the water and shooting over the island, streaking past the mountains and through the clouds.

Eventually one of the dragons did get behind the machine again. As it was charging a large blast at its maw, the pilot of the machine smirked. He angled the control sticks to be perpendicular rather than horizontal, the screen before him flashing with two simple words: Destroyer Mode.

As the machine began pulling back, parts were rapidly moving. Arms folded out against the cockpit area that now formed a torso as the nose section was pulled off, revealing it to be a shield that locked onto the left forearm, and legs spun forward while locking down to a waist formation, the wings angling to the back, and while still falling, an item shot into the right hand, a bright blue blade of energy bursting from it, the machine spinning and driving the energy blade right through the pursuing dragon. The other hand grabbed the rifle as it locked off of the shield and dropped forward, and a head unit rose up, fins locking down into a twin v-formation, and the face of the machine like a mask. Once the head had locked in, the "eyes" glowed bright blue, and as the wings finished locking into place, their engines burst to life as particles flowed from their ports again.

"That's three." The pilot adjusted the scarf around his neck, the targeting data on his visor tracking the last dragon, which was veering around in the air, specks of energy beginning to form across its body. "Ah that's just gonna be too easy!"

The now humanoid machine tossed the beam sword into the air, the blade retracting as it was released. The rifle was swapped into the right hand, the hilt of the beam saber being caught by the left, and then being rammed into the side of the rifle, forming a secondary handle. Then, ports near the end of the barrel opened up, rails shooting out and locking into place, vents opening on the body as arcs of electricity began running across the rails as power charged within the barrel. As the air began rippling from the output of the charge, the wings of the machine also angled to be parallel to the rifle, starting to roar as their thrust was kicked up.

While this was happening, the dragon was charging downwards right for the machine. The lights across its body shot out all at once, focusing right on the machine as the dragon sped downwards.

The pilot's smirk didn't even fade as the reticle in his vision locked on.

"Full power, full release!"

"Wave-Burst Blaster, 100% charged. Ready to fire!"

"Blow away!"

When the trigger was pulled, a dark crimson beam arced by lightning fired from the rifle. The air around the shot pulsed out in rings from the sheer force. As it arced through the shots fired by the dragons, the air filled with explosions, and the shot punched right through the dragon, blowing away it's body as the beam burst into an even larger state. From below, one could say it looked like the sky had been split open. The rails and barrel of the rifle were left a molten red for a few moments, and steam spewed from the opened vents as the weapon began cooling off, the rifle being lowered as the machine reoriented to be in a basic float, and the cockpit hatch slid open.

"Whew! Never gets less impressive!"

A thin hand covered by a fingerless glove grabbed one edge of the cockpit. As he rose up, messy deep blue hair with the nape tied into a loose ponytail started waving about in the air, the ends of the white scarf covering the lower half of his face flowing with it. A blue, black lensed visor wrapped around his head and covered his eyes, a quick raise revealing his eyes to be sharp, and as bright blue as the sky around him, also marked with a grey tint to them. And near the right eye was a notable, thin and faded scar no doubt earned from battle.

The young man leaned up on the edge of the cockpit and sat up on the lip between the hatch and the head, giving a chuckle as he adjusted his scarf, his pale face bearing an excited smile as he leaned back.

"Ahahaha! And the girls have finished up too! Nice drive Wyvern!"

His face made him look more like a tomboy than what he was, and rather than some kind of flight suit he was wearing military fatigues and a currently closed, white and black, blue marked flight jacket with three-quarter sleeves.

"The praise all goes to you Alain. I'm merely your humble tactical advisor." A smooth but electronic voice came from the monitors below, Alain giving a chuckle as he leaned back to look at the image on the monitor, a pulsing series of colorful lights and lines.

"Hey c'mon Wyvern, it's Trigger when we're on missions remember?"

"Hmhmhmhm. Of course. So, shall we join up with Garm Squadron and head on home?"

"Well they are about finished up." Alain lowered the visor and got it to zoom in on the finishing up engagement, and of the machines flying around, a bright pink one carrying a metal half blade turned and waved to him, Alain waving back. "Yeup. Let's get back to base."

-Only doing this because Salia recommended I do it. A journal sounded useful, I guess.

The name's Alain (full name Alain Pasternak), TAC name Trigger, callsign is Mobius 1. Leader and sole member of Arzenal's Mobius Squadron. In this world, we do one thing: Hunt and kill dragons. We fight for a people who hate us, and don't have much of a choice in the matter, and barely any of us know anything else in our lives.

Norma. Humans who are incapable of using mana, the force that drives the society we were cast out of. It's a bit more complicated than that, believe me, but that's where the basics are. I should also add that by what can probably said to be either a divine joke or trick of the devil, I'm the only male on an island full of women.

It's… somewhere between hell and heaven I suppose. Just so long as you keep yourself on the top anyway. My case is a bit different, though not unique. I was born on Arzenal, and this kind of life is the only one I know.

My best friend is an AI on board a mech too. Wyvern, the name of the mech and the AI in it. He's an old thing, a machine my dad found when he wasn't much older than I am right now. Lucky me Wyvern ain't some hunk of junk para-mail like what everyone else has to use. Wyvern is smart too, really smart. I was never able to find out where he's from or who made him. He doesn't know either, apparently because of damages to like… memory banks, or something, I dunno. I'm not good with technobabble.

All I know is, that's how life has been for me for years now. Go out, hunt dragons, come back, rinse and repeat with few breaks in between. I have friends, tentatively speaking or even further would be more common to say. I'll uh… leave it at that.

But, this is more complicated than just that. It's never that simple. No matter how much we wish it could be. Fate's a bitch, ain't it?