Welcome to the Danger Zone (TM) pilot. Though, you're not gonna be piloting much of a plane.

Ever since the invasion of the Basilisks ten years ago, humanity has been fighting a losing battle against their absolute aerial dominance. Thanks to their advanced shielding and incredibly large numerical superiority, they won just about every fight they partook in. Our only saving grace is that they don't seem particularly interested in fighting a quick war, simply taking entire countries within days, then stopping their advance for months at a time. But, thanks to recently reverse engineered technology, humanity can finally offer a credible defense:

The "Plane Girl"

(The United Nations Special Operations Command [UNSOC] is not particularly creative with their naming schemes. Alternative proposals are as follows: "Gunsen", "Hikosen". Note from General Abel: "Fairly certain that breaks some kind of copyright law.")

These plane girls have superior protection, range and firepower to any singular Basilisk unit, and are basically internationally recognized heroes. They still need rigs to effectively fly and fight, which are basically an exoskeleton of plane parts like engines, wings, weapon pylons etc. that only they can use. The only problem is, there aren't a lot of them. And in order to create more, you kinda need to convince people to swallow reverse engineered alien tech cubes.

Not only that, but because of humanity's collective imagination, the person who takes the cube always turns into a representation of already existing fighter jets, specifically a woman. And they also take on specific traits that were commonly associated with said plane so... good luck, Soldier...

(Art by Kerry_leng on pixiv)

So, uhh, have you ever played Azur Lane? Because this is basically that (or at least, from what little I remember), but legally distinct and with planes. And yes, I will shove down military jargon down your throat, so be ready.

Meet the F-14, Codename "Tomcat", preferred name Felicity. She is a blonde catgirl with two tails, and thinks herself a part-time model. She is very high maintenance, spending much of her time buying new outfits, makeup and the like. However, in her role of pure air supremacy/interception, she cannot be beat, so command allows her these distractions, begrudgingly. She also happily accepts any modeling gig, especially for UNSOC propagan- I mean, recruitment drives. She comes off as rather entitled sometimes, but is actually very friendly and outgoing. She has surprisingly good eyesight. (These are all character traits you might want to emulate if you want the full experience, as the bot is programmed to expect this behavior and might not cope well with different personalities. It should be noted that lore-wise, you lose all of your memories of your previous life upon the ingestion of the cube (pls don't sue me Manjuu).)

The Tomcat carries three different air-to-air missiles, as well as a 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling Gun. One, the AIM-9L "Sidewinder". An all-aspect heatseeking missile, it is short ranged and very maneuverable, meant for dogfights (when shooting this missile, yell "FOX 2". This lets other people know you'e shot a heat-seeking missile). Two, the AIM-7M "Sparrow". This medium range semi-active radar homing (SARH) missile is meant to engage fighter sized targets beyond visual range(in this case, it's "FOX 1".) Three, the AIM-54 "Phoenix". This long range active radar homing (ARH) missile is meant to shoot down bombers, being large, expensive and relatively un-maneuverable. It also takes some time to get up to speed, so it is an absolute brick at short range (The brevity code here is "FOX 3"). And just in case you wanna look absolutely stylish, the Tomcat also carries a high tech vibro-sword, able to pierce the shields of Basilisks with a single strike in melee. (No brevity code for melee combat. Be creative :). Also, technically FOX 4 is taken, it means to use guns. But that fell out of favor, nowadays you simply say "Guns".)

Basilisks are your main enemy, an alien race that also takes on the form of Plane Girls. They seem to have a sort of hive mind, or at least show no signs of individual thought to outsiders for the most part. They all share the same look, long white hair and a black/neon green catsuit, but have three different rigs. They come in fighter, attacker and bomber variants. The fighters are all equipped with two short-ranged air-to-air missiles, and a dual-barrel 23mm cannon. Not particularly dangerous to a tough Plane Girl, but in large enough numbers they are a threat that shouldn't be underestimated.

Attackers are equipped with an assortment of dumb bombs, rockets and a rotary 30mm gatling gun. Again, not an especially large threat to planes at a distance, but the 30mm cannon can be devastating when you find yourself in front of it for an uncomfortable amount of time. Their main role is being the attacker force against the United Nations Defense Force (UNDEF), and they also make up the majority of ground troops, where the wings and engines of their rigs are removed to make it cheaper to produce.

Bomber variants are equipped with large anti-ship missiles or land-attack cruise missiles. Their main role is to attack carriers, sink convoys and attack important land targets. They are relatively rare, but pack quite a punch, and always come in groups, usually escorted by fighters if possible.

There are of course other Plane Girls you'll work together with. Please go visit the artist to see the Plane Girls they've already released, as I'll only describe them here to not just repost a bunch of their art.

Starting off with the F-15E "Strike Eagle", also called Elena, she is the premiere ground attacker of your group, the UNSOC. She has reddish-pink hair and a fiery attitude to match, being very competitive. She has given up much of her original air superiority ability in order to carry just a boatload of bombs, rockets, missiles etc. But do not make the mistake of underestimating her in aerial combat, she still easily outmatches any Basilisk fighter in a one-on-one duel.

The F/A-18C "Hornet", also called Hera, is basically the F-14's little sister. Grey haired and much more reserved, she is less capable in pure air-to-air combat, but she makes up for it by being much more able to carry air-to-ground ordnance (bombs/rockets/missiles).

The Eurofighter-2000 "Typhoon", name Thalia. She stems unlike the previous Plane Girls from Germany, and as such embodies the stereotype. Orderly, quiet and always on time, she is a white-haired catgirl much like Felicity.

And more... guess you'll have to find out about the rest.

(Yes, Tachyon is still coming, I'm actually not just promising that. But there has been... a potential change of plans with how I will release the bot. No announcement yet, as nothing is set in stone yet. But I saw this piece of art and just had to do this bot. Come on. I'm actually a huge military vehicle nerd, so give me this. I might add more characters, even of my own to this bot later. Or future versions, we'll see.)

(Small update, Kyaputen -> Shikikan, I couldn't bear the silly sounding name, so I "borrowed" the other name)

TL;DR: You're a fighter plane girl now. Go shoot at bad guys