Col. Holt's message waited for me when I arrived on the tarmac, the morning air still cold enough to sting. Blackbird-9 stood in their loose semi-circle, helmets tucked under their arms, already watching me.
Enzo jerked his thumb toward a sleek jet parked behind him. Its silver-black hull reflected the floodlights, the wings swept back like a bird diving for a kill.
"The new guy finally gets his upgrade," he said. "ACI F-7X Aeris Talon. Holt sent it this morning."
Eze let out a low whistle. "Yo. Holt sent it himself?"
"Personally approved," Enzo confirmed.
Jae-Seong raised an eyebrow at me. "You and the Colonel close or something?"
I shook my head. "No. I know him as Blackbird Division's Operations Commander. Nothing more."
Sofia clapped her hands once. "Good. Now that introductions and fanboying are out of the way, time for training. Standard combat simulation protocol. Radar lock counts as a kill. You're hit, you're out. Don't embarrass yourselves."
We moved.
The Talon felt different the moment I touched the ladder. The system reacted—small motes of blue reading-light scattering across my vision.
[ACI F-7X Aeris Talon]
Status: Operational
Calibration: Required
Pilot Sync: Pending...
I pretended not to react and climbed in.
The cockpit sealed with a smooth hiss, and for a second, the world narrowed to the interior glow of the Talon. Panels hummed alive. The HUD formed on the glass, merging seamlessly with the system's own overlay.
I took a slow breath. The old jets felt like machines. This felt like something else, like it leaned toward me.
"Falcon to Blackbird-9, check in," Enzo said over comms.
"Nighthawk, ready."
"Burner, ready."
"Siren, ready."
"Raven, ready."
I answered last. "Frost, ready."
We launched into the sky.
Training took place over a wide slice of restricted airspace, clouds cut open by our contrails. On Enzo's command, the simulation activated. Red indicators flicked on each of their HUD signatures. Targets.
"New guy's the first one we hunt," Eze said. "Tradition."
"Tradition my ass," Hana said. "He looks too calm. I don't trust it."
They broke formation, scattering like shrapnel. I tightened my grip on the throttle.
That was when the HUD twitched.
A faint pulse crossed my vision, like my eyes were syncing with something buried deeper in the jet.
[Warning: Relative velocity imbalance detected.]
[Recalibrating visual feed.]
[Adjusting time perception index…]
Everything slowed.
Not the jet, my... sight.
The world seemed stretched, each detail sharper, almost crystalline. I saw Raven diving at me before he even finished his roll. I saw the faint tremor in Burner's rudder from two kilometers out. I saw the pressure ripple in the clouds where Nighthawk cut through.
Raven locked onto me first. I caught the ping on my rear sensors a second before his fake missile tag lit up. Burner and Siren closed the distance from both flanks, boxing me in tight. No climb. No dive. No roll clean enough to slip out. It was the kind of trap that usually ended with someone calling you dead over comms.
I tightened my grip on the stick, already bracing for the hit—and then the HUD flickered again, brighter this time, almost intentional. A new window expanded across my vision.
[Unit Detected]
Designation: ACI F-7X Aeris Talon
Status: Unlinked
Compatibility: Analyzing…
The Talon's outline rendered itself in blue wireframe, rotating in front of my eyes. The system wasn't just reading it. It was studying it.
[Structural integrity mapping… complete.]
[Neural interface absence… irrelevant.]
[Link feasibility… acceptable.]
Then everything folded into a single line of text:
[Primary Vessel Identified — Locking Link]
My pulse hit my throat. A soft hum—almost like an inhale—passed through the cockpit. It wasn't the Talon's engine. It was something beneath that.
[Link Established]
Pilot: Lucas Stratton Paige — Frost
Vessel: ACI F-7X Aeris Talon
Integration Sync Level: 4%
Status: Incomplete — expanding
The HUD dimmed back into its usual position as if nothing had happened. But I felt it—some subtle shift, like the Talon and I were sharing the same rhythm.
Then the Talon responded. Not mechanically—instinctively, almost like it was alive.
A surge traveled from my palm into the stick. The jet snapped to the side with inhuman precision, as if the system had rewired the response curve in real time.
I slipped past Raven's lock.
Dodged Burner's trail.
Cut under Siren's sweeping arc.
Warnings from them filled the comms.
"What the hell—how did he break all three locks?"
"No, seriously, what jet did they give him?"
"Enzo, he's on you!"
Enzo tried to shake me. He was good—too good for anyone else to tail without effort—but the HUD mapped every micro-adjustment before he made it. My jet moved before my thoughts fully formed.
I tagged him clean.
"Falcon, down," Sofia's voice said flatly.
The rest fell one after the other, each hit clean. Not a single lock landed on me.
When the simulation ended, the sky returned to normal speed. My heart thudded, catching up to the world.
Enzo spoke first.
"…What did Holt put in that Talon?"
I swallowed, staring at the HUD still hovering at the edge of my vision.
[Sync Level: 12%]
[Integration expanding]
[Further capabilities locked]
I forced my voice steady. "Guess I just had a good day."
No one believed it. They looked at me the way pilots look at something they can't explain. I kept my helmet under my arm and pretended not to notice, even though the system's glow still pulsed quietly in my vision, waiting for whatever came next.
We taxied in and rolled onto the line. Engines down. Canopies up.
Eze whistled as he climbed out of his jet. "Damn, Frost… you sure you're not some top tier Senior Ace Officer pretending to slum it with us?"
Jae-Seong laughed as he hopped off his ladder. "No wonder Holt shoved him into Nine. Man came in hot."
Hana pushed her visor up and smirked. "Either you're insanely fast, or you're insanely lucky."
Enzo stepped past her, wiping his gloves. "Either way, I'm impressed. Hell of a first run."
I nodded, trying not to look as rattled as I felt.
Then there was Sofia. She said nothing. She just stared at me for a second—long enough to make it uncomfortable—then turned away and walked off with that stiff, perfect posture of hers.
One by one, they drifted toward the elevators, laughing and talking. Before following, I turned back to the Talon.
The HUD rippled to life across my vision.
[Sync Level: 100%]
[Vessel Link: Complete]
[PRIMARY HOST VERIFIED]
[System Compatibility: Exceptional]
[Functions… Expanding]
The words hovered over the Talon's frame, faint but unmistakable, like the jet wasn't just my aircraft anymore.
I let out a slow breath.
Because for a moment up there, when everything slowed down and the air folded around me… it hadn't felt like I was flying the jet.
It felt like my Talon heard my mind, and... moved before I could think.
And that thought alone was enough to make me wonder what the hell I had become linked to.