In the annals of military history there are those who stand out among all the great warriors. They risked their life simply by using the machines they were tasked with, as even simply being able to use them was dangerous in their infancy. Years later they would be some of the most sleek and fastest moving vehicles in the world, and decades later, they are the most technologically advanced war machines on the planet, each one costing tens and at times hundreds of millions of dollars and able to reach twice the speed of sound and fly on the edge of the atmosphere and be able to even destroy satellites and objects in orbit. The Fighter Plane, controlled and used by some of the most well known war fighters in history, Eddie Rickenbacker, Rene Fonck, Richard Bong, Jalil Zandi, Hans Wind, Erich Hartmann, and Manfred von Richthofen, they are simply known as "Aces". On the 24th of February, 2022, The Russian Federation unprovoked invaded its neighbor of Ukraine in a large combined arms operation. during that day one hero has emerged from the skies, determined to keep his nation free and win against the invaders. Seen when wanted to, and only known in the sky by the sound of his engines, he dips low to the streets and invokes the power of those from before him. He is unknown by rank or by the look of his face or sound of his voice he is only known by one name

The Ghost of Kyiv

You hear some background noise in your headset as the engines of you Suhkoi Su-35 hum in the background, you check your fuel and radar, still full and nothing on the scope. You raise your visor on your helmet and look outside, to your left down in the south on the other side of the border you can see it, The Sarcophagus, the massive concrete monolith constructed to contain the radioactive beast of Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant that exploded over 30 years ago, the land near it radiated like something out of Metro. You look around some more, grey is all you see, the February sky is just grey for as far as you can see, only some blobs of clouds add any distinction to the sky as the Sun is hidden away, even it doesn't want to bring light upon the land in a time like this. A crackle comes over your comms.

"Angel 1 Overcast turn south to bearing 1-9-5, flight level 1-0 thousand."

"Overcast Angel 1 good copy, bearing 1-9-5, flight level 1-0 thousand"

You mark the map on your right thigh with your turn before easing the throttle forward, your pair of Saturn AL-41F1S Turbofans roar to life as you climb to 10,000 meters. Your doing it, your actually doing it, your invading Ukraine. Within seconds your over Chernobyl, you look down as you continue to climb. You see fighting, T-72Bs and BTR-80s roll down the streets laying down cover fire as Infantry advance behind them, you see a trail of white smoke as an explosion rocks one of the T-72s as a gout of flame bellows from all opens before a massive secondary explosion throws its turret into the air at least 15 meters before crashing in a cloud of dust and debris, a Javelin hit, you know there are no survivors, and you know your allies will take none either. But that is not your mission, you phase into the cloud cover as condensation builds up on your canopy, you keep an eye on your radar for any sign of trouble, still nothing. You level out at the instructed altitude as the sun glares into your eyes, lowering your visor to keep the light from blinding you you trek on. A few minutes pass and your AWACS calls again

"Angel 1 Overcast, descend to flight level 2-5 hundred, prepare for contact"

"Overcast Angel 1, descending to flight level 2-5 hundred and preparing for contact"

once again you mark the move on your map as you roll over and down into the clouds and dive, you cut back on your engines and deploy your airbrake, the massive blade extends with a hydraulic whir behind the cockpit until it locks in, your airspeed stabilizes at 850 km/h as you descend, you break through the clouds once more and roll back upright and pull up, vapor forms on your upper wing surfaces as you pull the 7G turn out of the dive. Retracting your air brake you once again check your radar, still clear. You do a weapons check and begin to start up process to ready your 4 R-74 Air-to-Air Missiles. Looking out and raising your visor the city of Kyiv stands before you, out in the distance a column of smoke rises into the air to the clouds from a recent missile strike. A brief thought about the possible casualties enters your mind but you quickly push it out, you have a job to do, and a war to fight.

That's when you hear it, the loud tone of a missile lock, Your eyes widen as you slam the throttle forward and pull back on the stick, and pop chaff and flares to deceive the missile, your after burners engage and the force of the acceleration and 9G turn slam you back into your seat, your G Suit constricts around your legs to slow the pooling of blood as you start your breathing exercises, You roll over level at the top of the turn and call to your AWACS

"Overcast Angel 1 what was that?"

There's no response, the Beriev A-50 you had been talking with this whole time has gone quiet. You check your radar as a blip is shown at 3km to the south east, the IFF system identifies it as a Mikoyan MiG-29 and suddenly vanishes. You knife edge and pull towards the South East and look up through the glass to try and catch a glimpse of the aircraft. A grey blur streams through the sky at low altitude, no more than 500m off the ground, he passes behind an apartment building as as you expect him to pop out, he doesn't.

"What the fuck?" You think to your self, you match the bearing of the aircraft and let off of your throttle as the afterburners die down. You switch your radar to a wide angle and close range search, as you go down to 1500 meters altitude, you look around for the plane.

"How could this be? Didn't we knock out all their airfields and aircraft within the first 24 hours? Where's He flying from? How have we missed one?"

DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA A long burst of gunfire comes from your right and above as tracers scream by your canopy, you look up and see the front plane of a MiG-29 diving on you and fast with its 30mm cannon blazing. You instinctively roll and pull into your opponent as the top of your jets miss each other by no more than a few meters. In a brief moment that seems to last few seconds you see the grey digital pattern that covers this MiG with the Ukrainian Trident large, front, and center on the back of the aircraft, you make eye contact with the pilot, as you two stare at each other for a brief eternity you see his eyes, nothing but determination and anger are behind them, you feel your heart begin pumping in your throat as you continue off in different directions. Rolling to the left you see him go into the clouds, pulling back on the stick creating vapor on your wings you follow him. You have every advantage here, your jet is more maneuverable, your weapons hit harder, you are behind him, and you can out run him should you wish to disengage. The clouds obscure his plane but your radar is locked on him and you see his exhaust trail, you follow him back out of the clouds and down low, you can take the missile shot anytime but you don't want to overG the missile into a wasted shot or too far away and have him pop flares. you get closer, 700 meters, 600, 500, 400, that's when he does it, killing his throttle, popping his air brake and pulling back on the stick he pulls up and into a cobra, you see the full ventral of his aircraft and let loose on the trigger. Your 30mm cannon thumps to life as rounds go downrange as your gun is locked on with radar. They all miss, his plane comes out without even a scratch on the paint job. You pull hard to the right around a church steeple and try and get him into a rate fight, a turning engagement you would easily win. Looking into your mirrors you see him close in pursuit, no more than 500 meters behind, but his nose is low to you keeping him getting a shot. but he is staying with you.

"But how?" You think, you ease up slightly on the throttle as you hit your cornering speed, you are slow, much slower than you'd ever like to be under normal circumstances, but this isn't normal, this is War. You level off over a residential area to the north and reverse your turn, you enter another one turn fight and you need to look straight up from your canopy to see him, "How is he staying with me?" you think, "What have they done to that jet?" You look to your airspeed, its dangerously low, with only a few options you can either continue what you thought was your advantage in the turn and either possibly stall out or let him get on your six, you can level out and regain speed and try and take this fight up high, or you can full throttle and come at this again. You decide on the last one, coming out of the knife edge and turn you push the throttle as far forward as possible and let your engines do their work. You make it over the Dnipro River and switch to your R-77 Radar Guided Missiles. As you cross the river and begin to turn back in you hear your AWACS briefly in a crackle

"...of Kyiv, He is Extremely Dangerous an..."

They are cut off before you can reply, you make a quick call out but nothing, left alone again, "Maybe they have jammers in the city?" you think. But you can worry about that later. You spot the MiG again both in sight and on radar, you get a good tone and release the missile, a trail of white smoke comes from under your plane and makes a beeline for the jet, it gets closer, closer, you glance at your radar, just as its about to hit, he's gone. Looking back up you see no MiG as the missile continues on out into the Ukrainian country side. There was nothing, no evasive maneuvers, no flares, no chaff, no dive or pull away. Just vanished. You frantically scan the skies, looking for even a dot or smudge out of place. You hear it again, the piecing shrill of a missile shot locked on your aircraft. You pop flares and roll down towards the street, you look behind you, and there he is, and he has you dead to rights. You try and pull up and away but its no use, you see him launch a third R-74 as it slide off the rail and comes for you. You pull up and away but it has no effect, flares and chaff don't effect it as it follows you in the eternal moments of what you know will be your last, it dips under out of view of your rearview mirror, its time. You feel the initial force of it making contact.

And everything goes black.