ACES Offline

One Night at Avalon

Author's Preamble

I've had this in the works since I put up Chapter 11, but I had no idea how I was going to use Offline – whether it would be the same vein as An Englishman's Side Quests, where it just ended up being snippets I didn't want to kill but couldn't keep either... or smut, or whether it would actually have a proper story focusing on the world of Strangereal in the 1960s/1970s.

I'm still not sure which it'll be, but I think it'll be more structured than the Side Quests: still focusing on stuff going on outside the confines of the airbases, but also showing the members of the cast in less life-or-death situations, and more personal stories that would just bloat the main story.

Either way, this one isn't quite explicit, but... it's certainly a bit more NSFW than the main story.

Also for anyone keeping track, this takes place between Chapters 11 and 12 in ACES.

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The first evening at Avalon had been spent getting accustomed to how things worked around here, and trying not to get lost, not to mention allowing the adrenaline to wear away.

The second evening however, felt as if there was an entirely different atmosphere. It was strange how, despite having only met them the day prior, he felt quite at ease around the Rectans.

It was strange, Jet thought, just how at ease he was around them, considering that the Belkans had described them as barbarians, terrorists, monsters and lunatics.

In retrospect, maybe believing the enemy's propaganda wasn't quite such a good idea...

Commander Herlentz was genuinely a hero, in his opinion, the man having all kinds of war stories from his time in the League of Nations Army Air Force during the last war and having saved whoever he could during the retreat from Cor, as well as being an honestly impressive commander, even offering him plenty of advice about being in charge. Liena's comment about him feeling like a father figure to the pilots he commanded felt a bit off, more like a cool uncle, perhaps.

Then there were the girls of the group. Liena had a sort of cool, composed vibe around her, in a hard to explain manner - almost like the girl at the top of the leaderboards, but still willing to stop and help anyone who needed it, whilst Eydis was... Eydis. That really was the best explanation in his eyes, he'd never met anyone quite like her before, and probably never would again.

He'd not really had much time to talk to Captain Fanatio, but both Eydis and Liena had told her that she was very much a woman of action, rather than words, so in lieu of his own experiences, he'd take theirs as gospel.

Even the two mercenaries, Pito and LLENN, seemed alright - okay, maybe that needed rephrasing: LLENN was alright. The smaller girl clearly acted as the "common sense" in their friendship, he reckoned.

Pito, on the other hand, was a madwoman with a wicked sense of humour, and a penchant for ignoring any orders if she found them inconvenient to her current conquest.

Still, after Bercouli's training flight earlier, he'd worked up a hell of a sweat, pulling G against the rapidly approaching mountains, and that close call with an Osean F-8 hadn't exactly helped his nerves either!

By the early evening, he'd decided that a nice, long and relaxing shower was absolutely what he needed to unwind, and so, he found himself stripping off his his shirt and trousers, folding them neatly, and placing them in a neat pile alongside his boots, socks inside them, with his underwear on top.

Turning on the shower, he let his thoughts wander as the water poured over him. He couldn't help but think about what had happened at Rechlin, and the people his strategy had killed, before his morbid thoughts were interrupted from behind the wall.