Helenna ate another chocolate as Olephia passed her another sketch of what could be used for a propaganda shot. The Goddess of Chaos and Uncreation could paint like no other and that skill transferred to imagining and structuring photos. There was no doubt of that. This would be another fantastic shot, from straight above, looking directly over a drone, with flames from napalm and artillery burning underneath it. That conveyed exactly the sort of emotion Helenna wanted to convey, and it was exactly the sort of thing Arascus wanted in his pictures too.

But whilst Olephia was busy drawing yet another photo. Helenna had to take a few moments pause. She had not forgotten, she had merely decided to ignore the fact that today, Doschia Today had an interview scheduled. Helenna sighed and looked at Olephia earnestly draw another picture, then the Goddess of Love looked back down onto her paper.

Maybe it could work. It would be a risk, but-Actually no, soldiers would end swearing on national news or something like that. That would be a bad look. But… Helenna smiled. Soldiers were far too gruff and rough and jaded and cynical and hardened to make for good unscripted propaganda. Their sort of humour either appeal or repelled, and they were the sort to talk of missing home even though none of them had any intention of taking a step away from the battlefield. They practically lived in a different reality compared to civilians.

Helenna needed someone with a more refined touch. Someone who could talk into the camera and be funny. Maybe even a little haughty. It wasn’t about patronizing to the civilian population, it was about making the men at home want to join part of this elite club. The Goddess of Love saw her own hairs go a satisfied, deep crimson as she worked out who exactly to send Doschia today to.

Alice watched the news with Stanley. Both students in university, both soon to graduate, the former had been journalism and writing, the latter mechanical engineering. Alice tucked her legs onto the couch as Stanley put her arm around her. They sat in Stanley’s dormroom, it was far better than the one Alice rented out. When Allia had joined the Empire, both of the students had been against it. Then the Empire started making changes.

The Imperial Bureau of Infrastructure had arrived to pave over the roads. The Imperial Bureau of Manufacturing had jump-started the factories that had collapsed during Alanktyda’s Blockade of Allia. The Imperial Bureau of Business, Trade & Investment had come in with loans. Just three months before, Alice had been staring at a job market which consisted of waitressing and packing boxes, Stanley had didn’t even have the first one. Now, there were four different Imperial Bureaus looking to hire out war journalists and a dozen grants for sponsoring anything that fell under the rather broad category of what Arascus declared ‘High Culture’. And Stanley? Stanley had the pick of the litter. With the dozens of new start up companies looking for engineers and with his own pick of Imperial Bureaus to choose from, he had actually started to turn down job offers.

When the Empire took over, Alice had even thought of going to a student protest against it. Now, she supposed the least she could do as a good Imperial citizen was to watch the news on what was happening the world.

Doschia Today was running a report on the Rancais front. A pretty blonde in a suit that Stanley pretended not to be looking at was walking around an airfield and talking into a microphone. “Here we are, at Rancais North Airstrip. This is an exclusive interview opportunity we have with pilots. There is none other like it.” Below, some text scrolled from right to left: Goddess Helenna, of Love, finally gives Doschia Today permission to record on the front lines. Live interviews with pilots.

“Doschia Today was talking about this bit for the past week.” Stanley said.

“It’s the first time we get front line footage.”

“Didn’t we get it in Kirinyaa?” Stan asked and Alice rolled her eyes. Her boyfriend was lovely, but he could be a bit dim sometimes.

“This is live from the front. This is like, they could be shot at any time if a battle starts.”

“Oh.” Stanley said. “They’re in an airstrip though.” Alice only sighed to voice her displeasure. The man really was dim. Rancais North everyone in her class new was part of the airfields organised by Iliyal Tremali. There had been a whole debate on whether it was right to seize private land in order to transform it into airfields.

“It’s a mile from the front. If they turn the cameras, you’ll be able to see the trenches in Rancais.” Alice said, she liked showing off her knowledge on the subject.

The blond journalist kept on talking as she walked past huge hangars that had planes in them. Fighters and bombers being maintained and refuelled by crew members. Men that had to be pilots in grey jumpsuits were sat around in circles. They were good looking, Alice had to give them that. All skinny with muscle in their arms and with thick necks, but most had little to say to the journalist. “I am Sasha Trissbaum!” The woman would approach. “From Doschia today, here on an exclusive interview to record your experiences with the war.”

What the woman learned was that the pilots had little to talk about. A few had stories of flying missions over Rancais. A few were even willing to share what they did in the Epan War and one man even talked of hunting down White Pantheon planes during the Kirinyaan Invasion, but the majority of the men simply shut up and refused to answer. Pretty faces all, but it was obvious that the denials and constant dodging was starting to wear down Sasha’s morale.

The camera panned away to show off the entire airport. Helicopters were taking off from near the gate. Two planes were circling the skies. Behind the gate, a convoy of trucks was slowly rolling towards the frontline, and then the camera settled on a man who was walking with a cigarette in his mouth. Alice and Stanley both squeezed each other’s hands when they saw him. Before, the pilots were obviously handsome. Alice had researched techniques in her studies and had seen how public perception could be affected. But this man? He was good looking, but he wasn’t anything special in the face compared to those that Sasha had just interviewed. However it was the way he carried himself. In a black jumpsuit with stripes of yellow that immediately identified him as someone unique. A helmet was in his hands, with a huge visor and a rebreather fastened under the black glass. A silver watch on his hand. Sunglasses over his eyes, cigarette in his mouth and a stride that claimed the tarmac under his feet.

Sasha saw him, she ran and waved for her team to follow. “Sir! Sir!” She shouted as the camera followed. Alice found herself smiling at the sheer earnestness of the interview. Whether planned or not, it was undeniable. The pilot in the black and yellow jumpsuit stopped and turned. He was taller than Sasha by a full head and the reflection of the camera crew were visible in his sunglasses. The sun slowly kept on crawling upwards behind him.

He blew a cloud of smoke away from Sasha before speaking. “Who are you?” Alice pressed tighter around Stanley. The way that pilot carried himself was just incredible. Even his voice was a low rumble that was just the complete opposite of the pilots before.

“My name is Sasha Trissbaum! I am a journalist for Doschia Today, we’ve received exclusive…” Sasha trailed off as the pilot looked to his watch, turned around and walked off. “Sir! Sir!!”

“I’m busy.” Alice found herself smiling. She didn’t even know why. She had nothing but sheer sympathy for Sasha after doing field exercises herself. The journalist had obviously struck gold, but the gold had decided to walk away. Or rather, it decided to saunter away.

Sasha turned to cameras and motioned from the follow. After a few steps, she caught up to the pilots. “Sir! May we walk and talk then?” The pilot lifted his hand up to the hangar in the distance.

“You have until we get there.” Alice silently found herself cheering for Sasha. And for the pilot, whoever he was. She thought men like that only existed in stories.

“What is your name?”

“Classified.” The pilot replied, Sasha didn’t let that stop her.

“Then your code name?”

“Classified.” The man replied.

“Are you in the Imperial Air Force?”

“Yes.”

“What is your rank sir?”

“Captain.” The man gave his answers swiftly and immediately, as if there was nothing for him to answer. Sasha wished Stanley had the same aura this Captain did.

“What do you fly?” Sasha asked and the man sighed, he finished his cigarette in one long drag and flicked the butt away, then pulled out his phone, held it away from the camera and rang someone. Someone picked up instantly. Of course they did.

“Hey yeah, it’s me.” The Captain said as he turned to Sasha and the camera crew. “I have a bunch of kids from… Where were you from again? What station?”

“Doschia Today.” Sasha answered loudly and clearly. “Doschia Today, the first to receive an exclusive interview with active Imperial military. “

“Doschia Today, can I show them her?” The captain asked to his phone. “It’s her.” Then another moment. “The bird.” Then a sigh. “Yes. Alright. Thanks. No, I’m not. Should I?” He sighed. “Alright, yeah, that’s all.” He switched the phone and it quickly disappeared into the man’s pocket.

“That was cool.” Stanley whispered quietly to Alice. Alice only nodded, her head resting on Stanley’s chest. A man like this was a diamond in journalism. She tried to imagine how she would approach the issue. Obviously Sasha herself wouldn’t be able to show everything on the base, and she must have had her talking points already prepared, but how would she get the man to talk?

“So Captain?” Sasha asked with a grin. “Would you be interested in sharing what you fly? Or if you can’t, then maybe you could share your experiences?”

The man smiled and chuckled. He didn’t even look at Sasha as he kept on walking to the hangar at the far end of the airstrip, instead pulling out another cigarette. “I fly Raptor One.” The man said. “And my stories?” He smiled, took a long drag of the cigarette. “I do everything. I fly lost babes to their mothers and I hunt down Divines.”

What an answer. What a man. Alice was impressed and Stanley was too, both were fully engrossed in the report playing on the TV. “Did you hear that?” He said.

“He hunts down Divines.” Alice replied. “Do you believe that?”

“I don’t know. He said it’s the Raptor though.” Stanley said. “I’ve been reading up about it actually. That plane is a monster.”

“Is it?” Alice asked.

“Only two exist, they’ve been around since before the Kirinyaan Invasion, we don’t know when they were built either. Arascus found them or something, but they do speeds and distances nothing else does. There’s report from White Pantheon pilots facing the Raptors in Kirinyaa and they all say they’ve never gone up against anything like that.” Stan finished. “One of our class projects was to theorize what was done on it, but it must be some new model of engine or something. Honestly, we don’t know how it even works. Theoretically, it shouldn’t.”

“Maybe it’s got magic or something?” Alice asked. She didn’t know either. The Raptors were featured in most conflicts, but rarely was anything actually reported on the planes themselves. Now that she thought about it, wasn’t that odd? How did planes that seemed to play a role almost everywhere have so little information on them?

“What are you planning to do today then Captain?” Sasha asked. “What does a day look like when you’re one of the most elite pilots in the Empire?”

And once again, the Captain of Raptor One answered in the same way someone from a movie would. “I wake up, I have breakfast, I go to work.”

Sasha was obviously loving the performance. The journalist stepped closer to the pilot of the Raptor as if she was some impressed girl at the bar. Alice could almost believe it was staged. Was the man trying to impress? “And what does a soldier of the Imperial military eat usually?”

“Standard Epan breakfast.” The captain replied. “A coffee and a smoke.” Classic. That had to be staged. No one was so smooth. Alice hugged Stanley again.

“And could you tell us about the Raptor? Anything that isn’t classified of course?”

“She’s a beauty.” The man said. “She screams every single time I have to turn her on and she moans every time I have try and get her to do anything but fly straight. But there isn’t a plane out there she won’t beat.” The man laughed to himself. “She’ll just hammer any second generation fighter into the ground. Easy. Just batter them, if it was a crime, it wouldn’t be abuse or manslaughter, we’d just be going straight to first degree murder.”

Un-staged. Un-planned. One hundred percent. There is no journalist on this world that would allow that as an answer. Sasha’s shocked expression was confirmation she didn’t know the man was going to say what he just said. And yet… Stanley leaned forwards as he listened in. And Alice too. What the man was saying was terrible, but he said it with such ferocity and confidence that she couldn’t not believe him. “And…” Sasha was taken aback. “If we may, is there any mission you can tell us about that isn’t classified?”

“Nothing specifically but I’ve carried every Divine in this plane. Goddess Fer, Goddess Olephia, Goddess Anassa, Goddess Kassandora of course. All of them. I hot drop them onto battlefields.”

“And what are your thoughts on the current conflict with Rancais?”

“I just do my job Miss.” The captain said. And one again, Alice found herself crossing her fingers for Sasha to get the man to open up. When the man had spilled about the plane, it was a mere hint at what sort of gold he actually possessed.

“How certain are you that Rancais will be retaken within the year?”

“I just do my job, once again.” The captain said. “It’s not for me to decide, I’m just a soldier.” What a reply again.

“That’s a proper soldier.” Stanley said, his voice filled with respect.

“You can just tell looking at him.” Alice added. “Look at how he’s walking.” And they watched as the soldier approached his hangar. Sasha asks a few more questions, but the captain of the Raptor didn’t give any more detail. Everything was either classified or something he knew nothing about or something he couldn’t comment on. It wasn’t until they turned into the hangar as the camera turned to the massive Raptor jet.

“If we may ask, what mission are you going to be flying today?” The plane had four engines, two on its back, two built into the main chassis next to the wings. Missiles were strapped underneath its wings, engineers and technicians were scurrying around it, making sure to run final tests as the plane’s captain finished cigarette.

“Today?” The man asked as he looked up at that machine. From this angle, it looked huge. The plane was… Alice had never seen anything like it, it took up the entire on her tv like a black monolith. The front was painted yellow, underneath the cockpit a pair of angry red eyes.

“Today.” Sasha replied.

“Today, we’re flying to kill a God.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep