4/25/2019
10:35 PM
Dallas, Texas
Julius slowed his F-15 down. Downtown Dallas was ahead, so he steered to the left, heading to Fort Worth. There was one reserved military airbase. Carswell Field was west of Downtown Fort Worth, and he had only one chance to get a good view from the air.
About a few seconds away after a full turn to the left. He tried slowing down as much as possible without dropping. Julius steered the stick slightly, tilting the fighter jet to get a better angle.
“Nothing much here, but it’s huge for a reserve,” Julius said, tilting the jet back straight and speeding up. “Tower, I’m heading to the Grand Prairie.”
“Roger, Aetos. But why do you need to fly over an abandoned base? You've got to make it quick and fly to Houston. The alerts just went off.”
“I just want to fly over it. An empty field can’t hurt.”
Julius pushed the throttle back to maximum, and he nudged the stick forward. The engine whined. He thrust forward as the seatbelts retracted, pulling him back to the cushions. Quickly, he pushed for Mach 1 and went for a hard steer to the left. Pulling in multiple Gs, he felt nothing. No effect.
He flew over the Grand Prairie. Only for the unexpected to happen. There were planes on site. His eyes saw people in uniform sprinting on the tarmac. Oh, crap. They ain’t fucking abandoned. Son of a bitch. Julius grunted, then steered the fighter jet away. “Tower, I’m heading enroute to Houston. Grand Prairie is occupied. The abandonment is not a valid status.”
“Roger, Aetos. Get out of there.”
His F-15 boosted away from DFW.
About a minute later, the blinking markers appeared on the radar. It was heading fast, and Julius looked at both shoulders. There were two fighter jets. One at each side.
“Welp, we got company,” Julius said.
A slight distortion disrupted the comms.
“Unknown pilot, you had flown over a restricted area. We order you to follow us back to base for a debrief,” a voice said.
The two fighter jets flew right to the side. Julius looked left and right. He tried changing the radio signals to no avail. It kept going back to the current signal hijacked by the two fighter jet pilots.
“Again, we require you to follow our lead and head back.”
The left pilot gave a few hand signals. Then, the plane moved away. He saw the second plane drop back. “Great.”
With his grip on the stick and the throttle, he had a few seconds to think about his next move. Colemond’s skyline was in sight. I guess we are doing this.
Julius pulled a hard left, dived, and pulled back. When he was right underneath the left fighter jet, he pulled up and opened fire. The bullets ripped open both engines, and the plane descended in flames.
The plan of heading to Houston for a view was changed. Julius tried switching the radio again while flying like a maniac.
“Ae-tos!”
“Tower, I hear you. I might have brought a gathering,” Julius said as he went for a brief vertical climb, moving away from Colemond.
As he leveled the plane at 20,000 feet, he continued south with the right pilot on his tail. He gave a glance and went for a dive. A flick on a switch, and the F-15 shot off the flares.
Kaboom!
Julius breathed as the reflections showed the right pilot’s decapitated jet descended. “Tower, are you still there?”
“Yes, Aetos, we’re still here, but you can’t turn back home yet.”
“Why. What happened—”
Boom!
“Shit!”
Alerts beeped everywhere on the panel. Julius lost both engines as plumes of smoke burst. He pulled the handle, opening the canopy, and he ejected from the jet. Once he was off, Julius unleashed a burst of qi, tearing the seat in half. He grabbed his F-15 by the wing and tossed it aside. He fired one blast at it, creating a shield around the jet.
Pew pew.
“Gah.”
Smoke spewed out of his left shoulder. Julius looked at a fleet of fighter jets. “Holy crap. What are they doing?!”
A fleet of fifteen fighter jets was coming. All F-15s. The robust, rectangular frame gave it away. To Julius’ horror, they weren’t surrendering. He remained floating in the air. Turn around. Please, turn around.
Pew!
Both of his shoulders were now covered in smoke, leaving him with no choice. “Alright, fine. You had your chance.” He cast 千稻雨輪血液. A ring of rice swords summoned and revolved around his body. Raising his right arm, he opened his hand, and a sword flew right into his grip.
The wheel spun immensely as Julius began to move. He pointed the blade right back in the direction of the fleet. Immediately, multiple portals were summoned to his left and right. In rows of five and columns of ten. He unleashed his qi over his entire body. It was completely golden. No trace of blue.
Despite doing all of this, he was only buying time so that the fighter jet pilots had the opportunity to turn away from death.
He realized that it was all a waste. Dropping all considerations, he jerked his shoulder blades, letting the qi out through his back, and the one hundred portals opened. A vast number of swords passed through the portal from an unknown void.
Water was generated at the tip of the sword Julius wielded. He gripped the hilt with both hands and swung it around until it got heavy. Quickly, he launched it in a horizontal slash, unleashing a wave of cold water at plane speed.
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Goodbye to them all. Not even a thought of saving the fighter jets. By the time the wave struck, a hundred swords dashed to the fleet, ripping frames, wings, and engines apart.
All that effort for something to be wiped in a blink.
How the airbase they came from would react remains to be seen.
Julius disabled all of his rice swords, and he quickly flew away, heading to the spot where he had thrown his fighter jet. It was parked on the tip of a steep hill, and the plane’s body was positioned like a balance scale. So, he went underneath the plane through the rear. He angled his feet and legs to give him better leverage, and finally, Julius lifted the damaged fighter jet over his shoulders.
He took off, heading back to Saint Moon Airbase. However, he didn’t recognize his current area. Julius then looked up and sped to high altitudes. Relax. He told himself that this was the highest he ever been. Space was right around the corner if he wasn’t careful.
All that was a waste of time because he forgot he had a minimap feature of the Skoltor System. Oh, stupid me…For goodness sake.
The minimap opened, revealing he was hovering over the Mexico-Texas border.
“My goodness. I need to get back,” Julius muttered. He turned a little to the right and sped at a rapid descent.
He went faster than Mach 2, inflicting a supersonic. Rumbling sounds erupted from his boots. Colemond was speeding up to view. Julius heard the rattling from his damaged jet as he maneuvered. As the buildings and the city got closer and closer, he went for a sudden brake, straining his arms and jolting his lower body forward.
His hand slipped, almost dropping the jet. Phew.
“Julius?!”
He turned to the voice. “Lian! How did the conversation go?”
“It went great until your situation that I had to cut short.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine. The good thing is Skylar is in.”
Julius nodded. “Great, but first,” Julius looked up, “I have to get this back to the base.”
4/26/2019
Although he didn’t get to go to Houston, a significant amount of data was saved. Yesterday, ten fighter jets were sent out. All made it back to Saint Moon, while Julius was the only one to return in a wrecked fighter jet. Many of its reports were copied to multiple local servers at the base.
Although modifications were made to the ten fighter jets before the test flights and data collection process, it was clear that structural changes had to proceed. From the top to the wheels, everything and nothing excluded.
Julius looked at his fighter jet with Lian. He observed the busted dual engines and damaged horizontal stabilizers. Lian touched the damaged nozzle.
“They shot pretty good. It’s toasted,” Lian commented, rubbing and cleaning her hands. She turned back to Julius with a deep sigh. “What you did caused a little frustration down here if you haven’t figured it out already.”
“I guess so,” Julius muttered. “An earful?”
Lian bobbed her head. “I’m sure you can handle it.”
“In that case, I want to hear your opinion first. What do you think?” Julius asked.
Lian strolled away from the fighter jet and walked to him. She then put her hand on his shoulder. A firm grip. “Listen…Just take it easy, okay? The craziest thing I’ve done is when I accidentally destroyed a continent with a meteor. Based on my experience, you are only starting. And starting now, you’re not going to do things without me. Deal?”
Is she really that crazy? Julius thought while staring back at her. “Do I have a choice?”
“No,” Lian responded while shaking her head. “You’ll see why.”
4/26/2019
3:20 AM
It was an earful. Julius sat through the meeting, enduring all the yells and critiques. Two hours of verbal exchanges. Everyone present debated with each other on a diverse number of issues. Julius almost lost control twice, but he focused on his breathing when he was near the limit.
Empress Cai knew Julius was crazy, but his earlier behavior caused her to scold him to becareful. It reminded her of Lian. Hilde and Gertrud said something similar relating to Lian. Julius had to look at Lian a few times. Both exchanged glares at each other.
Once the scoldings and tense conversations calmed down, the meeting was over.
So…Lian is someone who will keep me accountable for my craziness. I’ve done bizarre things in life, and to find out that meant nothing in comparison is such an enigma. All it took was flying over the Grand Prairie. Gosh…my head freaking hurts. Julius reflected, standing up from his chair.
“Are we finished?” Julius asked.
“Yes, we are done,” Solomon said.
Lian stood up, and Julius pushed the chair into the table. The two dashed out of the room into a wide, open hallway surrounded by bright lightning and cold AC. Julius began pacing.
“Hey! Wait up!”
Why am I angry at this? Julius couldn’t understand why he was angry or emotionally affected. What Empress Cai said about him was true. It wasn’t a lie, only a blunt truth.
“Calm down, Julius,” Lian said, catching up to pace. “Don’t let that meeting turn you off.”
Julius continued and turned right, heading into a small lobby that led to a different hallway. “That’s why I want to get away from that room. Otherwise, I could go crazy, and I don’t want any trouble.”
He and Lian walked into a darker hallway. Unlike the lobby and the rest of the building, this area was designed in a minimalist style with matte black walls, hidden lighting, and quietness thanks to soundproof paneling.
“You’re heading to your office?” Lian asked.
“Not yet. Terrance is waiting in Alan’s office. Both are expecting me right now,” Julius answered, while wiping the sweat off his face. “We’re going to do a budget.”
They arrived at Alan’s office. Julius knocked on the custom, bulky door. Then a beeping sound whirred with mechanical clanks. He opened the door when the handle’s touchscreen flashed green.
Terrance, who was sitting on an armchair, stood up. “Finally. How did the meeting go?”
“I got an earful. Since I'm here, I made it,” Julius said with a shrug. “So…Are you guys ready for budget planning?”
Alan moved the balance sheet to the other side of the table. “That depends. As long as it doesn't strain our cash flow.”
Julius gestured to Terrance and Lian to sit down. “I’m thinking one billion.”
Alan raised his eyebrows. He looked at Julius with a questionable look. “For all the possible demands? One billion? It had to be more than that.”
Turning through the page in his notebook, Terrance pointed something out. “We might be lucky. Julius has gotten us many discounts with the locals…Read this.” He pointed at the spot on the page.
Alan scanned through the page. “Hmm…So, it's eight hundred and fifty million dollars rounded up.”
“I made the calls hours earlier. They're waiting for the verbal confirmation, and I need to tell them before 11 PM.”
“Do you think it's feasible?” Julius asked Alan while the latter was calculating the numbers.
“If there are no extra fees or any hidden costs after confirmation, then yes,” Alan said, then looked at Lian. “Do you have any more cash opportunities?”
“Did none of the guys call you?”
“Which one?” Terrance and Julius asked.
“The Xian Family. They haven't called any of y'all?”
Julius shook his head. “I haven't heard anything from them. Did you, Terrance?”
Terrance said the same thing.
Alan wiped his glasses. “Give them a call. Ask them if their package is ready. We can do a local sale in two days.”
“You think they'll take it?” Julius asked Lian.
“I'm sure they will. We will have demonstrations prepped up to get sales.”
“Good,” Julius said. “Call them now. We need them and the companies that agreed to work with us on a budget. I want this done by noon.”
Julius stood up from his seat and snapped his fingers, changing from his black T-Shirt and khaki pants into white, battle robes. "Let's get to work."
