Layla Eahira

Leftenant **Layla Eahira** is a naval aviator of the RKN, flying the KAF-23 Armala aboard *RKN Eanqa* of Carrier Group 5. She flies under the callsigns of **Lioness 1-5** and **Alraedilha** (Thundergoddess).

She is not related to Sarina Eahira, the Personal Handmaiden of Princess Aurelia bint-Damir.

## Biography

Layla was born in 1993 in Marat, as daughter of a Kyrenaian soldier and a liberated slave. Her Mother had been captured and enslaved in Kupandukira in 1971, at the time six, during the time of the Humanitarian Mission of the SDF, and had been sent to the Fawadawiana Islands for training as a Handmaiden in Kyrenaian Style. After that was finished in 1980, she had been sold and smuggled elsewhere for work, but a patrol of the RKCG captured the vessel and liberated her and six other girls. With no papers or origin, she was naturalized as a Kyrenaian Citizen and brought into a haven for former slaves run by the Beyeha of Marat, at the time Yasmin bint-Fara. She grew up more or less normally there and lived in the haven until 1985, until she was 20. She decided to use her skills, which had been hammered into her, and became a waitress in a small restaurant in Rusadir. There, she got to know a charming young officer in 1990, the two having a few dates, which soon developed into more.

In 1992, Layla's parents married, her father giving up his spot as first officer on a Frigate in order to be transferred ashore to stay with his family. A year later, Layla was born and she was the first of a total of four children. She had a happy childhood until she was 8. In 2000, her Mother suffered from a mental breakdown, nine years of untreated abuse resurfaced as she, by coincidence, saw a documentary about the Fawadawiana Islands and the company operating there, the report heavily accusing the Kyrenaian Government of inaction in the face of such inhumane acts.

Her mother was brought into a mental institution for treatment, but hung herself in 2002. Her father tried the best he could to give his children a happy life, but Layla quickly had to quickly take on the role of older sister.

With 13, in 2006, she applied for the Al-Khansa Girls' Academy in Megido and was taken. Her request to not be used as part of the Tribute or to even be in the selection pool was granted after a short review of the case. She had a school career with good to excellent grades, was good in sports and was one of the go-to persons of her year for problems in Mathematics. In 2012, she graduated as the best of her year.

With the world open to her, Layla surprised her peers by not only doing her Service, but volunteering as an officer for the RKN and the Naval Aviation. She wanted to fly. Graduating from the Navy's Officer's Academy in 2014 with flying colours, she went into pilot training for jet fighters, graduating from that in 2017 as the second-best of her year by one point.

In 2018, now ranked Leftenant, she was trained for her new workplace, the cockpit of a Kyrenaian Aircraft Factories KAF-23 Armala Stealth Interceptor, flying from the deck of a Mirfae-class Heavy Aircraft Carrier - *RKN Eanqa*, the phoenix. When she was commissioned as part of Carrier Group 5 in 2019, Layla was part of the first flight to lift off from her flight deck, the wingwoman of Commander Katakut.