Charles Taylor's Story

A bright flash lights up the night sky above Yukikaze City for a split second. Any observant passerby that happened to be looking up and wasn't temporarily blinded would notice stars being blackened out, in a directly straight line coming from the origination of the flash. It seemed there was a single, small aircraft, flying across the night sky.

Aboard the aircraft.

"-procedures for that?" Taylor says, looking down at his control panel, then back up as he notices a lack of light. "What the frakkin hell is this?" He says to himself, utterly confused. "Base? You there? What the hell just happened?" He tries to comm his aircraft carrier, unknowingly in vain. He tries over and over to reach AC-226, his fighter flying almost silently under the night sky.

Charles Taylor decides to send out a radio signal on all frequencies. Any Taiyou citizen or soldier would find only a few words identifiable, if they picked up the signals at all. The language resembled Terran, but was very differant in many ways.
This is the broadcasted signal.
"This is Charles Taylor, pilot and member of Aircraft Carrier 2-2-6. I am in need of assistance. My fuel is running low and my Positioning System is not able to tell me where I am. My compass has switched directions from what it was 52 seconds ago, and I have not made any deviations from a straight line. I do not know where I am. I am in need of assistance."

Alongside Charles Taylor's unidentified aircraft, moved two radar signatures that seemed to move faster than any known aircraft, once alongside his plane, they wouldn't resemble any known aircraft design, or have any known markings.

There was one on each side, on the left, and the right side, their identification lights flickering as one of the aircraft began transmitting a simple binary message that could be translated by even the simplest of computers to text.

"Identification, and point of origin."

Each Type 99 Cosmo Falcon was armed with two 7.62mm machineguns, six 30mm autocannons that were capable of linked, and alternate fire, as well as missile hardpoints, and sophisticated avionics. However what set these particular aircraft apart from Taylors, was that they were capable of going into space.

Every three seconds, the binary transmission repeated.

Below, the cloud cover gave way, and blackness slowly began to turn into a dazzling cityscape below, with massive neon billboards, and flickering holographic advertisements.

The cityscape stretched for as far as the eye could see.

Taylor decides to respond using the same interface the mysterious aircraft did, through a binary transmission. This is the message he broadcasts in response:
"Identification, Lt. Charles Taylor, Aircraft FT-28, United States Naval Air Force. Origin, US Aircraft Carrier 2-2-6, Southern Atlantic Ocean. I mean no harm. I am lost.

And then he breaks the clouds, seeing not a reflection of the moonlight on the ocean far below, but many lights, the lights of a city, where there used to be just water, as far as the eye could see.

And in that moment, he recalls a story from his childhood, one of a person being taken away from all they found familiar. He remembers just one phrase.


"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." he whispers.

Taylor pulls down under the clouds, following the escort of the two much more advanced aircraft, doing a quick look over of his readings.

Taylor scans over the controls of his aircraft and then looks out to his sides at the two unfamiliar aircraft escorting him, then asks, "Permission to land, uh... What do I call y'all? Wait- Uh, Requesting Identification for further reference. Low on fuel, I really need a place to land."

He's started sweating, as he feels that what little training he had gone through had no protocol for this. He was over open ocean not two minutes ago, and about to pull in to land on USAC 226. Jesus, where was he? He's never seen anything like this, an utterly alien city. He flinches as a massive holographic advertisement flickers in the sky not too far from him.