Windmills...isn't quite what you're thinking.
Seriously, play it. You're not going to be thrown into any cockpits. In fact you won't be in a cockpit at all...
There are very few good, long, story-based campaigns out right now. But in the near future you can check out the anime-inspired Wings of Dawn, TopAce's branching Descendants of Sol, and Axem's incredibly artistic and honed Vassago's Dirge (the last of which is short but will give you more 'whoa' moments than almost anything else.
If you want to go way back, there's 'Sol: A History', from the now-defunct but awesome Inferno R1 continuity. It is long and allegedly has a good story.