-Book One- Ghost of Kyiv, an Azur Lane Story

Chapter 1: Striking The Balance

Author's note: For anyone who wants translations, don't be afraid to ask. I am all ears.

"I am the flail of god. Had you not created great sins, god would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."
-Genghis Khan

0500 Hours
Skies over Zhytomyr

"Ракета сзади ниже! Ракета сзади ниже!" was all Stepan could hear from the RI-65 "Rita" or as it was known by its NATO designation of "Nagging Natasha", and was the Bitching Betty's Russian/Ukrainian counterpart, as his MiG approached the combat area. It was notifying him of a missile that an enemy fighter has released. He pulled up, rolled left, and released his flares. The rocket sped to one of the flares and exploded.

"Serves you right for wasting a missile, your form is sloppy." He muttered to no one in particular as his fighter gained enough space to get behind the enemy. He selected the R-27 on his inner wing hardpoint and fired off one, and broke left, his fighter getting farther away from the enemy as possible. The Russian jet he fired at desperately tried breaking left, but alas, the Su-37 was struck head-on by the R-27 and exploded in a brilliant fireball, splinters of metal falling to the ground, smoking and peppering it as it fell.

"Нічого собі! (Woah!)" He exclaimed to himself as the shockwave from the exploding fighter reached him. Suddenly, his radar and again, the Nagging Natasha started beeping in his ear in a calm and monotone voice. It showed that 5 Russian aircraft were fast approaching. There were 1 MiG-29K, 2 MiG-29Ms, and the big workhorses of Russia's air force, 2 Su-30s.

"Якого біса, ти коли-небудь думав просто здатися? Тільки дайте мені спокійно закінчити свою операцію! (Fucking hell, have you ever thought of just giving up? Just let me finish my operation in peace!)" He muttered as he tightened his grip on the control stick and gained altitude, the enemy's fighters losing his radar signatures and heat signatures in the clouds.

He looked to the left and right of his cockpit and noticed that some Імбецил of an ordnance man has attached 2 Anti Ship missiles on the hardpoints closest to his wing root. Once he got back to Vasylkiv, he would find the ordnance man responsible for this and scold him. He carefully did the math in his head and found out that since 2 of his aircraft's hardpoints were occupied by weapons he couldn't detach over a city because his commanding officer would get very angry at the civilian casualties, he found that he had only 5 missiles, enough to deal with the oncoming threat, assuming that they didn't do any evasive maneuvers. If they did, he would only then resort to the Gryazev-Shipunov mounted on the wing root.

"Okay you imbeciles, let's dance." He said as his fighter turned, his voice warning system exclaiming protests that he was approaching a critical angle of attack. Undetected, he approached one of the -30s from the rear and selected an R-60 from one of the hardpoints. The missile dropped away, activating its engine and speeding to its target. The proximity fuse detonated behind the engines of the -30 and it pulled away from the spread-out formation.

"Haha! Fuck you!" He exclaimed in triumph as he watched the Su-30 pull away. The other fighters scattered, each and every single one attempting to get on his six and get a lock on him. He turned his head to the back and noticed that a -29K was approaching from the rear. The RWR started beeping, notifying him that his MiG was getting locked on. It started beeping faster to notify him that the MiG-29K has launched a missile at him. He pulled up, released flares, and continued flying, rolling left to avoid the missile. It collided with the flare, and he turned again, switching to the Gryazev-Shipunov mounted on the wing root, and squeezed the trigger.

The bullets roared out of the muzzle at nearly 2 times the speed of sound, peppering the rear of the MiG-29K, forcing it to roll out of formation, only to explode miles below. He turned on one of the Su-30s, which was now firing its own Gryazev-Shipunov at him. "Too late, you had your chance." He said in mock pity, pulling up, and lowering the throttle completely. His aircraft entered a cobra maneuver, allowing him to get on the 6 of the poor bastard, as he prepared to fire his guns.