After an eternity floating aimlessly towards the Earth, my body hit the ground feet first, followed by the flutter of my parachute. No matter how much we trained, in the classroom and practice, the force of hitting the ground ripples through your body. I winced as I unhooked myself from the parachute and laid on my back, letting the fatigue envelope me as I laid looking at the sky I had just been in.

Above me, my pilots continued the onslaught, and their pilots pushed back. Streaks of smoke from missiles and streams of tracer rounds turned the sky into a war-torn canvas. The autumn air was cool on my skin as I finally stood up and looked over the vast open plains. Above, I heard the distant sound of an explosion, and another ball of fiery wreckage headed towards the hillside.

“There goes Miles I think.” I said quietly as I watched the ball hit the ground, the black smoke rising into the sky. “No chute.”

I looked to my right and saw where my own aircraft had crashed in the distance. I shook my head and pulled out the small device and powered it in. The screen shine dimly, and a faint dot began to flash towards my left. I turn and began to talk towards it, and the pulses grew more frequent. Almost immediately I put it away again, and walked over to the black duffel bag wrapped in the nylon from the chute that brought it safely down.

Quickly I unzipped it, and pulled out the survival beacon, a jet black knife, the black plate carrier loaded with armor and magazines, and the survival carbine with its stock folded to the side. I put the knife on the vest and threw it on, the weight of the steel plates and extra ammunition pulling me down noticeably. I unfolded the stock of the carbine and chambered a round, then zipped up the bag before throwing it on my back.

Slowly, I began my walk East to nowhere. I knew there wouldn’t be anything for a long distance at least, this area was mostly uninhabited with the exception of the stray village, I’d check the map later on. As I walked, I pulled a picture out of my left pocket of my jacket. It was me and Kendrick, smiling next to my plane after graduating flight school before the war kicked off. It had been that night that he asked me to marry him. Little did he know it would start, and little did I know I’d be leading it. As those years passed, the smiles and photos slowly decreased, replaced by unbearing exhaustion, endless arguments about the war and my place in it, and a marriage that disintegrated only to be replaced fully by devotion to the final victory. I shook my head and put the photo away.

“I’m sure he’s happy elsewhere.” I said quietly, scanning the hills and shrubs around me.

In my other pocket, the survival beacon waited to be activated. Upon activation, certainly one of the Air Corps rescue helicopters would come barreling over the horizon, ready to hoist up the nationally-acclaimed “Sky Queen” and whisk her back to an air base to lead our country closer to victory. That was my job anyways. Rain death below while I watch from above. I shuddered thinking back to the many missions I’d flown, all the destruction I saw, and that I caused. The fact of the matter was no one back home, whether watching the news in their homes or the leader in their large government buildings, knew the true cost of the war that ravaged the world. None of them knew the nightmares and the pain that kept me up most nights, plaguing my mind with the screams and shrieks of those who succumbed to the flames. Nonetheless, it was my duty. My duty alone.

Slowly my steps shortened, then stopped, and I dropped to my knees. Tears began to stream down my cheeks as I looked up to the sky, where the air battle had begun to shift away, and the roars of the jets died down immensely. I closed my eyes and sat down the carbine, and put my face in my hands. I just wanted to forget it all. I wished that I would’ve never joined. I wished I had left the Air Corps when Kendrick asked me to. As I sat, my hands soaking up my tears with my knees tucked against my chest, I wished things would change.

“Are you okay?” I heard a man’s voice say, and almost instantly I was up again, carbine in hand and aimed at the chest of a man who wore a similar flight suit.

“Stay back.” I ordered coldly as my thumb flipped off the safety. I could see the different patches and markings on his uniform, he was an Imperial fighter pilot.

“I promise you, I mean you no harm. I thought maybe you were hurt and I wanted to check on you.” He said cautiously, but with a clear disarming warmth.

“Bullshit,” I shook my head and looked around him. “Where are the patrols waiting to ambush me and arrest me? I’m nobody’s prisoner of war. I’ll die first.”

“No Imperial patrols anywhere close, hell not even Federation patrols. Just us so far,” He replied and slowly sat down on a rock while keeping his hands visible. “Hey, you’re the Sky Queen right?”

“Who wants to know?”

He laughed softly and gave a quick informal salute.

“Lieutenant Colonel Humberto Barragán, 32nd Frontal Air Division, 1st Tactical Fighter Squadron, Imperial Long Range Aviation.” He said and smiled holding out his hand. I didn’t move, and kept the sights centered on him.

“I give you my word, I’m not gonna hurt you. Hell, my plane is trashed so my part in this mess is over. I just want to talk, pilot to pilot. Here I’ll give you my sidearm,” Slowly, he pulled out his service pistol and emptied it, then tossed the weapon to me and chucked the bullets into a bush. “Believe me now?”

I watched reluctantly, then slowly kicked his pistol behind me then put the safety back on my carbine before laying it down behind me. After another moment of hesitation, I shook his hand.

“Much better! Also that’s quite the firm handshake you have by the way. Who might you be?” He asked as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

“Major Yesenia Khalid, 2nd Strategic Fighter Division, 32nd Interceptor Squadron, Federation Air Corps.” I told him blankly, shaking my head as he offered me a cigarette.

“Ahh the 232, of course,” he said as he lit his cigarette. “You guys have been causing hell for us for years. The years have been good to you though Major. Are you in your 30?”

I laughed nervously and shook my head. “I’ll be 20 at the end of November.”

Colonel Barragán choked on the cigarette smoke as he looked over at me, in shock by my answer. After a moment, his shock turned into uncontrollable laughter.

“That’s rich. I got shot down by a teenager,” He laughed, but then his face turned grim as he thought about it. “Damn so how long have you been flying?”

“Almost 5 years?”

“Since you were 15?”

I nodded quickly, but he shook his head.

“Geez. I’m sorry kid.” Ge said quietly as he took a long drag on the cigarette.

I looked at him curiously, wondering if I had offended him in some way.

“What for sir?” I asked.

“All this. The burden they...we put on you.” He said.

“It’s fine, it’s what I signed up for.” I tried to tell him, but he shook his head.

“No you didn’t. Do you know how I know? Because the Empire drafted my son for the Army. 16 years old and they tossed him into a motorized infantry battalion. I tried to tell them he was just a boy but they said it was his duty to his homeland. Two years go by and I land one day then they hit me with it. I got the words he’d been killed in combat. Let me tell you this, what do you think we’re fighting for? Honestly? I’m guessing your country said we attacked you and we were evil and this and that? Yep, ours said the same things about you. We’re simply pawns on the world stage. For old men like me it’s fine, nothing I’m not used to, but for you it’s different. You have...had a whole life ahead of you.” He concluded quietly.

I sat, stunned at his words. Was he right? Was it all just a sick game and we’re the pieces in it? Did I waste my years away fighting for a useless cause?

My mind struggled to wrap my head around all of this as I saw him stand up.

“Isidoro!” He yelled and waved, and I looked over to see a scattered group of pilots waking towards them.

“Hey Pops, good to see the Grim Reaper hasn’t caught your old ass yet. We found a town not too far from here and a couple other pilots are there too.” He yelled back as they walked up. Their flight suits were dirty and ripped up, but on all of them I noticed their flags had been torn off.

Before the man spoke, his jaw dropped as he saw my unit patch.

“No fucking way. The Sky Queen?! Awesome!” He yelled excitedly and saluted before offering out a jittery handshake. “As much as it sucks getting shot down, I have to admit you have some amazing moves.”

I smiled and we all chatted for a moment and laughed together. At that moment, there were no nations, no factions, no Federation, and no Empire, just pilots. Pilots drawn into the skies to serve the ill intentions of other. Isidoro and another female pilot flew in the same squadrons, and two guys behind them were flying as mercenaries, and the last two were prisoners of war forces to fly in the Federation’s Air Corps.

“Anyways, some of the guys managed to scrounge up some food, you wanna come eat?” He asked the Colonel who nodded and began to walk but stopped when he saw I hadn’t moved. In my hand, I clutched the homing beacon that would take me home.

He looked at me and nodded as he lowered his head and walked back over, putting his hand on my shoulder.

“You wanna go back huh?” He asked warmly.

I shrugged and looked at it. “I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.”

He nodded again and looked me in the eyes.

“I understand what you feel, trust me we all do, but at the end of the day, we’re expendable. We always have been. If you go back, they’ll give you some more medals, send you out again, and maybe you’ll be lucky enough to return. Maybe you won’t. What I do know is, you’ve done your part. Your duty is done, just like everyone here. You can go back and nobody here will hold it against you. Just remember, and this is the important part, you deserve peace, real peace. Put down the crown.”

I glared back I to his eyes, then looked down at the beacon. I turned away and began to walk, and I threw it as far as I could.

I turned back and the others smiled warmly. I smiled back and picked up my things and walked to them.

“Well let’s go, I’m starving.”