Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

Upon Their Wings, We Fly

"..." A nine-year-old Zeldri silently watched Peter sleep on the floor surrounded by his plastic army men. Peter was clutching a toy Mig-33 in his hands as the two had ended their battle game with Zeldri's win. All the games he'd played with his dad and his dad's friends made him a force to be reckoned with on the plastic and toy block battlefield. Zeldri gently held a toy Su-35 as he got up and quietly crept toward the door of his room. It was dark outside his window and the clock on his nightstand said it was almost midnight. Yet, he couldn't sleep.

"I don't know when I'll be back." Cracking the door open, Zeldri saw his father trying to comfort his mother. Peter's mother was sitting on the couch with her face in her hands while the father stood near the front door of the house ready to leave; though he looked none too pleased to be. "Be strong, my Sofia."

"You come back," Sofia said through her tears. "Don't you dare do that to our son. You'd better-!"

"Shh, I will." Artyom held Sofia close and kissed her on the forehead. "...I will."

"Artyom," Peter's father spoke in a somber, yet firm tone as he checked his watch. Zeldri heard an SUV pull up outside their house.

"It's time." Reluctantly, Sofia let go of Artyom and stood in the living room watching her husband leave. "With luck," Artyom said as he turned to her one last time, "We should wrap this up in no time. Stay safe."

"..." Zeldri, from the cracked open doorway, watched his father leave with Peter's dad before the front door closed leaving the two wives silently sobbing in the living room. Unfortunately, unlike what Artyom predicted, it would take nearly six years for Zeldri to see his father again. Peter's never came back.

***

"Hostile confirmed!" one of the Mig pilots said as they brought the nose of their fighter around towards the Su-73D. "Fox Two!" A heat-seeking missile shot off from the Mig and rocketed toward the enemy jet.

"We got incoming!" Skorpion's voice echoed within Makarov's head as the jet's warning system started screaming about an incoming missile. "Scrambling radar's not cutting it."

"A heat seeker?" Makarov looked over her shoulder out the rear of the cockpit and saw the missile racing towards her. "Flares!" Rotating and yanking on the flight stick, Makarov sent the jet into a fast dive. The metal frame of the jet groaned and Makarov was pushed down into her seat because of the 14 G's the turn forced on her.

"Lighting up the sky!" Skorpion declared as the flares arced out of the Su-73D right before the dive. The heat-seeking missile got confused and followed one of the flares.

"No hit," the Mig pilot bitterly muttered as he watched his missile harmlessly explode next to a flare. "Is it a UAV?"

"Negative," the other pilot responded as he formed up with his partner, "I saw a pilot when they almost crashed into me."

"Then what the hell was that dive?" The two Migs raced after the Su-73D as it leveled out and started skimming the tree line of the forest. "Alright then, try this one! Fox Three!" A radar-guided missile rocketed off the Mig.

"Incoming, again!" Skorpion announced. "This one's radar locked."

"Use it!" Makarov gave her order as she started turning the jet back towards the Ural mountains. The electronic warfare module on the back of the jet hummed to life.

"Tiss, begin combat!" OTs-12's voice echoed within Makarov's head. The electronic warfare module on the jet acquired the lock information from the defense system and adjusted itself to focus on the rear of the jet. "Allow this secret weapon to shine!" An invisible pulse erupted from the module and connected with the missile. "Almost... Got it!" Suddenly, the missile reared away from the Su-73D and started heading back toward the Migs.