Training in ten meant moving now.
We headed to the tarmac as a unit, the morning air cold enough to bite. My tablet chimed—a message from Holt. I ignored it.
Enzo led the way. He stopped next to a jet parked apart from the others. Sleek. Silver-black. Wings swept back like a blade.
"Your upgrade,"he said, nodding at it. "ACI F-7X Aeris Talon. Holt had it delivered this morning."
Eze let out a low whistle. "The Colonel sent it himself?"
"Personally approved." Enzo replied.
Jae-Seong looked from the jet to me."You two that close?"
"No,"I said. "He's the Division CO. That's all."
Sophia clapped 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 second my boot hit the ladder. The HUD reacted—blue motes scattering in my sight.
[ACI F-7X Aeris Talon]
[Status: Operational]
[Calibration: Required]
[Pilot Sync: Pending…]
Pilot Sync?
I didn't know what that meant. But like everything else since yesterday, I ignored it and climbed in.
The cockpit sealed with a hiss. The interior glowed to life. The HUD painted itself on the glass, merging with the jet's own systems.
I took a slow breath. Old jets felt like machines. This felt like it was waiting for me.
"Falcon to Blackbird-9. Check in."
"Nighthawk,ready."
"Burner,ready."
"Siren,ready."
"Raven,ready."
"Frost,ready."
We launched.
★ —. —. —. ★
Over the training sector, Enzo's voice cut through. "Simulation active. You're all red."
Eze chimed in."New guy's first. Tradition."
"Tradition my ass,"Hana said. "He looks too calm. I don't like it."
They broke formation and scattered.
That's when the HUD twitched.
A pulse crossed my vision. Not a glitch. A sync.
[Link Stabilizing]
[Processing Hostile Trajectories…]
[Predictive Engram: Active]
The data didn't slow the world, it flooded it. My sight didn't change; my understanding did. Raven's dive vector painted itself across my vision half a second before he committed. The stress signature on Burner's port rudder glowed amber. A faint pressure-wave model showed where Nighthawk would slice through the cloud layer.
Raven locked me first. The ping on my sensors was just a confirmation of what I already saw coming. Burner and Siren closed from the flanks, boxing me in. A textbook kill box.
I braced for the hit.
Then the HUD flashed, brighter. Intentional.
[Unit Detected – ACI F-7X Aeris Talon]
[Status: Unlinked]
[Compatibility: Analyzing…]
A blue wireframe of the Talon rotated in front of me. The system was studying it.
[Structural Integrity: Mapped]
[Neural Interface: Absent – Irrelevant]
[Link Feasibility: Acceptable]
Then a single line:
[Primary Vessel Identified – Locking Link]
My pulse hammered in my throat. A soft hum vibrated through the cockpit. Not the engine. Something deeper.
[Link Established]
[Pilot: Lucas Stratton Paige – Frost]
[Vessel: ACI F-7X Aeris Talon]
[Integration Sync: 4% → 9% → 21%...]
[Status: Incomplete – Expanding]
The HUD dimmed. But I felt it—a shift, like the jet and I were sharing a nervous system.
Then the Talon moved.
Not from my input. From instinct.
A surge traveled from my palm into the stick. The jet snapped sideways with impossible precision, like the controls had been rewritten.
I slipped Raven's lock.
Dodged Burner.
Cut under Siren.
Comms erupted.
"What the hell—how did he break three locks?"
"What jet did they give him?"
"Enzo, he's on you!"
Enzo tried to shake me. He was good. The best I'd seen. But the HUD mapped every micro-adjustment before his muscles twitched. My jet moved before I thought.
I tagged him clean.
"Falcon, down," Sophia's voice stated, flat.
The rest fell. One after another. Clean hits. Not a single lock touched me.
The simulation ended. The sky snapped back to normal speed. My heart thudded, catching up.
Enzo spoke first.
"…What did Holt put in that Talon?"
I swallowed, staring at the HUD hovering in my sight.
[Sync Level: 52% → 60%...]
[Integration Expanding]
[Further Capabilities: Locked]
"Guess I just had a good day," I said.
No one bought it. They looked at me the way pilots look at something they can't explain.
Back on the line, engines dead, canopies open.
Eze whistled as he climbed out. "Damn, Frost. You sure you're not some Senior Ace slumming it with us?"
Jae-Seong laughed."No wonder Holt shoved him in here. Came in hot."
Hana pushed her visor up,smirking. "Insanely fast or insanely lucky."
Enzo wiped his gloves."Either way. Hell of a first run."
I nodded, trying not to look as rattled as I felt.
Then there was Sophia. She said nothing. Just stared at me a second too long, then turned and walked off, posture perfect.
The others headed for the elevators, laughing. Before I followed, I looked back at the Talon.
The HUD rippled alive.
[Sync Level: 100%]
[Vessel Link: Complete]
[PRIMARY HOST VERIFIED]
[System Compatibility: Exceptional]
[Functions… Expanding]
[Directive: Awaiting Convergence]
The words hung over the jet's frame, faint, like it wasn't just my aircraft anymore.
I let out a slow breath.
Because for a second up there, it hadn't felt like I was flying.
It felt like the Talon heard my mind…and moved before I could think.
And that thought was enough to make me wonder what the hell I'd just been linked to.