The FAF | Grimmverse | Volume I

Chapter II | Flight of the Tanker

 I stood on the airfield, holding my slouch hat on my head as a pair of F4U fighters took off, carrying a one-thousand pound bomb each. I watched as a group of airmen pushed my ME-410 onto the runway.

"Alright, look Neo," I said, clearly trying to refrain from calling her Politan, "That is a ME-410 A-1 Strike fighter. Your job is going to be to watch our back. You'll be seated in the gunner's seat, right behind me, controls are simple. You'll have control over a stick with a trigger, pull the stick to aim the turrets and pull the trigger to shoot. Keep the Nevermores off our back and I'll keep us flying." I explained. She tilted her head and crossed her arms,

"What is it?" I asked, watching her before she pointed to a tank M-51 that was driving by. "We'll be put in a tank once we soften up the target, but until then, command needs us to run the bombing missions." I explained, she shook her head with an unamused look. "I told you we're multi-role, so that's what we're doing. Now stop being a pain and grab a g-suit." I ordered, pointing to a rack with several g-force suits on it. She stuck her tongue out and rolled her eyes, but complied with the order nonetheless. I sighed, watching her with a soft expression as I zipped up my own g-force suit before climbing into the cockpit of my ME-410. After a moment she climbed in after me, one each side of me as a BF-109 G-14 with a pair of FW-190 D-13s in front and behind me.

We all began to launch after a moment, only taking us about five minutes to get above one thousand meters. "Look, Neo, I know this isn't what you signed up for. But I need to be able to keep you and check," I paused, "And we need all the hands we can get. I understand this life isn't what you're used to, it takes time to adjust to such a strange way of life, especially going from criminal to assassin and now a soldier. I know you're hurt. I can see it deep in your eyes, Roman was your father. I get it, I get losing someone so close to you. I lost my father and mother to Salem when we landed in Vacuo. They were soldiers, like me, but we have to keep pressing, or everything they fought for would be lost." I paused, taking a moment to breathe. "And you might be thinking, who do I think I am ranting about a family I never met before, and why should I care about what you have to say? But I'm not telling you to do what I do, it's not healthy, or at least I've been told so. But right now, all we need to do is stay alive, otherwise you'd be letting Roman down, and before you start ignoring me, do understand, I knew Roman, not through meeting him or stories about him. I know him from watching him for so many years, my father would constantly ramble to me about how I should learn from him what not to do... Even if Roman had some good parts to him."

I looked out the window, reminding myself that Neo couldn't speak, although my mind wondered if my words made it to her. I took a deep breath as the smoke pillars from Vacuo came into view. "Show time." I called over the radio, several fighters further ahead had already engaged the swarm of airborne Grimm in the sky, a mix between Nevermores, Lancers, Razorwings, and Sphinx all trying to keep control of the skies against our fighters. The FW-190s broke away from me as I began to descend towards the city. I frown at the sight of grimm spires forming despite the constant artillery bombardment. I got just above the remains of a few buildings as I opened up my bomb bays before a manticore lunged at me from an office building. I tilted the wing up slightly as I let it dart out past us, I heard a quiet, but sharp gasp as the manticore targeted us from behind. I tilted the 410 up so Neo could get a shot at it, I didn't flinch as Neo fired the turrets, the rattle of the rear cannons shook the tail a bit as the grimm was cut to ribbons by the cannons. I pulled the nose down before unlocking the first bomb lock, releasing one of the two bombs we carried. There was a loud clunk before a thud echoed from the street below. I looked in the rearview mirror as I started pulling up, an explosion shot into the air as a pillar of gray smoke with sparks, dirt, concrete, debris and dust from grimm caught in the blast before they slowly drifted into the air. I jumped a bit as another manticore lept out in front of us, my crosshairs above the grimm, but it was too close for me to fire with the nose this high above the grimm. I continued to chase the grimm, training the nose of my 410 onto it.

"Come on, come on." I whispered under my breath, squeezing the trigger for a moment, releasing a hail of 20mm cannon rounds onto the grimm, destroying it as the cannons shredded the Grimm. I relaxed a bit as I pulled up, flying through an explosion as an artillery shell blasted the side of the building. I flew through the dust, my ears were filled with a light, raspy, breath of air that sounded like giggling. I tilted my head as I flipped us upside down and diving before flipping us rightside up before pulling up and releasing the second bomb into a grimm pool. "Shit," I cursed under my breath before it exploded, splattering the grimm solution everywhere around the pool. I sighed as I pulled up and out of the city. The BF-109 G-14 fighters returned to my side and continued to gun down anything that targeted me. Eventually we made it back to the airfield, and landed.

I climbed out and took off the g-force suit and tossed it into a washing machine, Neo doing the same behind me. I turned to face her, she looked conflicted.

"Look, I don't know if you were listening, but-" I was cut off as Neo put a finger up in my face, she looked angry, yet somewhat like she was holding back a smile. I sighed, "That's our only mission for the day." I stated. Watching as she walked away, grabbing her bowler hat off a rack, I ran up behind her,

"You kept your old outfit, didn't you?" I asked, she nodded, although not meeting my gaze. "There's nothing wrong with that." I stated, pausing, "I could try and patch it up for you." I offered. Neo stopped in place, putting the hat on her head as it dawned on me, she was wearing Roman's hat. My heart sank as my words were caught in my throat. I took a moment where we just looked at each other for a moment before she nodded.