A story made with no ownership of any material. Namco Bandai owns the game Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and all settings and characters.

You are often told that at the brink of death, your life flashes before your eyes. You are Yellow 4, and you find it different. Your mind spits out clean facts, without hesitation, automatically. All as you spiral.

You were born sometime in April, 1973, in a town in what was to be known as Whiskey Corridor. You are 31 years old as of early 2005.

Despite a prospering Erusea at the time, your parents had nothing to their name. Nothing, that is, except you. You never knew what happened to them.

You were left in the care of a government sponsored foster home shortly before your first birthday. A drought was occurring at the time, perhaps your parents couldn't feed you, perhaps they died of starvation and you were found, but it still doesn't matter. You are left as a ward of the state, with no idea of who you were. No family, no home, and not even a birthday.

You were always quiet, growing up. You grew up in Group Home #6, 385 Fatima Street in Anchor Point City, Erusea. It isn't there anymore, but there was an Army Reserve Airfield three blocks from Group Home #6. You often snuck out to the Army Reserve Airfield. There, you saw ancient MiG-15s take off, but the age of the planes did not matter. Instead, you were enthralled in the power, the roar, and the sleekness of fighter aircraft. This stayed right up until the end…right until now.

When you were 8, you found a wonderful piece of lilac fabric with lace. This was a linen handkerchief. In a normal home, in Farbanti or Oured or Emmeria, this would just be a slightly ostentatious, if nice looking handkerchief. To you, it's something beautiful. You aren't quite acquainted with beauty. You kept it in your pocket at all times. You forgot it today, left behind as you spiral.

When you turned 17, you asked to leave for the Air Force. This was considered a respectable profession. This relieved the caretakers of Group Home #6. Group Home #6 was best known for molding Anchor Point's whores and gang-bangers into who they are today. They let you leave without question.

You were sent to the Air Force Academy in a small town in the Lambert Mountains. The Lambert Mountains are beautiful. They are known for snowcapped peaks, ski-slopes, and clear, crisp skies. Anchor Point has none of these.

You devoured your class material with relish. You wanted to know more, to get ever so closer to finally clutch the stick of a fighter. You were the top member of your class. You excel in Basic Flight Training, then in more advanced flight courses.

You never had any friends while there. This pays off when you are sent to Aquila Squadron when you graduate, summa cum laude. It is there you met Yellow 13.

Yellow 13 never looked like a movie hero. His face is a little too rounded out, his eyes a little too relaxed and wise. Nonetheless, he is still the handsomest man you have ever seen. You dispel those kinds of thoughts as you are honed into a master pilot.

Yellow 13 took a liking to you, liked how you flew, your professionalism, your deadly accuracy. But there was always something in his slight smiles, the way he made eye contact with you. You don't quite know it for a while.

One day, you looked into the mirror for a few seconds longer while brushing your hair back to put into a ponytail. It is then that you realized that you are pretty. Yellow 13's actions made sense at that point.

From then, you smile back at him, look at his eyes for just a little longer. You enjoy it. Yellow 13 enjoys it. You are too cautious to take anything further, as is Yellow 13. This is not a good place for those kinds of thoughts, which drift leisurely into the front of your mind, the ones that take hold of you and make you sigh and fall into a melancholic state. This state is similar to the one you feel now, as you spiral.

The year is 1998. The year 1998 was not a particularly good time for the Usean continent. Erusea is on the Usean continent. The Usean continent is tumultuous. The tumult is due to Ulysses1994XF04. Ulysses1994XF04 is an asteroid. It was discovered in December 1994, and is expected to strike on July 3rd, 1999. This agitates people, despite Stonehenge. Stonehenge is a network of guns covering most of Usea. It only covers half of Erusea.

This causes a coup d'état. The coup is led almost entirely by the collected navies and air forces of Usea. Aquila Squadron is sent to quell the rebellion. You fight the rebels with impressive skill for a novice. You become an ace. You claim 12 kills during the rebellion. You are the pilot with the third highest amount of kills. Number Two on the list is Yellow 13.

He is your squardon leader, but you still cannot dispel your thoughts. He is too handsome, too charismatic, and too wise. He is perfect. You decide to use your prettiness to your advantage. You invite him for a couple drinks one evening. He accepts. You have a long conversation. The two of you laugh. The two of you are smitten. You make love with him at a two star hotel near the airbase, taking too much time to get back. Suspicions eventually died.

You spend more time with Yellow 13; share more of your affections. A few other base personnel knew, but they ignored it. They blamed it on Ulysses. People did irrational things before Ulysses struck.

Ulysses eventually struck on its predicted date. It broke into approximately 3000 fragments, some of which burned up in the atmosphere. Other impacted across the Usean and Anean continents. Stonehenge was not effective. Downtown Farbanti was destroyed. Farbanti is the capital of Erusea. The legislative branch of the Erusian government met in Downtown Farbanti. They were in session around 8 P.M. on July 3rd, 1999. None of them survived the impact.

Your hometown, Anchor Point, is also impacted, if not directly. Anchor Point is in the middle of the desert, on a river. A Ulysses Fragment struck that river. This created a tidal wave, swamping the docks and lower areas of the city. The river dries up after that. Anchor Point was abandoned. You don't feel that bad over it, you never liked Anchor Point.

After Ulysses, there is a governmental panic. The military takes over. The military feels vengeance towards Usea. Usea failed to save them with Stonehenge, which Erusea helped to fund and build. Usea got foreign aid. Erusea didn't.

There was a war over these hard feelings. Aquila Squadron is the best squadron in Erusea. You are sent to newly conquered territory, the city of San Salvacion. With new surroundings and new people, you and Yellow 13 choose to temporarily end your relationship. You regret this. You wish for Yellow 13's touch now, as you spiral.

For the first part of the war, you perform excellently. You bring your total number of kills above thirty. Yellow 13 has sixty-three. He is quite possibly the best pilot in the world.

Then, things change. Usea unites, and regroups. They attack again, ferociously. They have their own ace, their own Yellow 13. He is called Mobius One. He is deadly. Mobius One is deadlier than you.

You learn this over Stonehenge. Mobius One has long since destroyed Stonehenge itself. Your squadron is too late to stop that. Mobius One does not care. He thirsts for blood. It is your blood he feasts upon.

The attack is short. He charges at Aquila Squadron head on at speeds you did not think possible. You squadron begin to break, but he is too fast. You are only operating on one engine, the other long past its time for replacement. As you begin to break left, he fires an AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile at your plane. You are too close to do anything. The missile strikes the underside of your plane, and you faintly see a gray blur, presumably Mobius One's plane, pass by you, only yards away. Then you begin to spiral out of control.

Your plane has lost both of its engines and likely its tail assembly. You do not care. Your ejection handle will not work. You have resigned yourself to your fate. You wish for Yellow 13's touch. The desert spreads wide before you.

"The 1st of April," you think, "That should have been my birthday."

It now seems fitting; your life has been reduced to a cruel joke, so why couldn't your life have started on the day of them.

You appeared on the steps of Group Home #6 as if you had materialized from the desert. It is now time for you to dispel and return to the sands. You take one last breath of oxygen, and close your eyes as your plane hits the ground. You have no more memories to recall after that.

Just something I whipped up after completing the Stonehenge Offensive. Please review.