Fandom Ace Combat: Rebirth Of Razgriz

[Commissar Darman]

As Amelia followed A.J. She saw the crafts chasing him. "Some Party." She replied. As they leveled just below the clouds, Amelia decided it was time to entertain their guests. Pulling sharply into the clouds. Amelia used them to obscure herself as she let the three planes who wanted A.J. so bad. Doing this of course prevented her from seeing Johan get shot down so she was unaware of her friends death. Descending from her cover. Amelia noticed that as hoped, the three crafts on A.J.s tail did in fact ignore her and was still chasing him. But she did seem to catch the attention of an F-14. Lining up behind A.j.s pursuers. Amelia also was attempting to avoid a missile lock while trying to get one of her own.

As Wildcat and Windshear talked about basically playing chicken. Amelia realized she was most likely going to be in her Flight leads sight when the Maneuver was executed. "As long as someone get the Asshole off my tail. I'd gladly take out the survivors." Amelia responded and she rolled her craft while a line of tracers flew past. "Fuck it. Cap Be advised. I'm riding in hot behind Wildcats chasers with one of my own."

 

[ChoShadow]

As A.J. and Amelia both raced through the skies with bandits on their tails, Charlie kept a close watch on his own six while occasionally glancing about the battlefield to judge what was going on elsewhere. He had to make sure that the rest of his nuggets were doing all right. For the time being they were holding their own, but he was worried nonetheless. They were already down one plane and the enemy was down two, but that was no cause for celebration yet.

Charlie whipped around, lining up with A.J. and Amelia as they streaked towards one another nose to nose. The maneuver in question had been a joke by A.J. which Charlie had told him never to do again because of the danger it posed to his own teammates. However it was the best option they had for surprising their enemies today, and surprise was about all they had. The rest of the nuggets were either scared shitless and didn't realize it by drowning the fear with adrenaline or anger about Johan's death, or they weren't scared but didn't have the practical skills to keep up in this battle since they'd never flown any real combat sorties.

Charlie was scared too, if he was being honest with himself. But if he let that show now then everything would fall apart. His first priority was getting the rest of his nuggets home safe.

"Pass in seven seconds." A.J. called.

"Cap, be advised. I'm riding hot in behind Wildcat with chasers of my own." Amelia added.

Sure enough there they were. Paired up one behind the other with bandits at their six.

"Understood. Maintain flight path. No veering away." He replied.

"Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Light them up!" He yelled.

Charlie pulled down hard on the trigger of his gun unleashing a barrage of bullets right past A.J.'s canopy to the left of his tail where the first bandit was. The hail had the intended effect as they all smashed into the cockpit and front of the wings of the first plane behind A.J.

At the last second Charlie pulled up ever so slightly and soared over A.J.'s plane and pulled the trigger again on the first plane behind Amelia which he almost missed. Thankfully the enemy veered the wrong way as Charlie jerked his plane up and left which put his bullet stream right into the path of the oncoming enemy. The second enemy behind them managed to veer off successfully and avoided getting itself shot full of holes, but that was two more down which they didn't need to worry about.

Eight nuggets still in the air, nine enemies still flying by his count. Hopefully A.J. and Amelia would take it down to seven by taking out the two behind Charlie.

Meanwhile Kasumi looked back as Aryl managed to shoot down one of the two bandits on her tail, which was a great relief. But she still had one very persistent bogey on her tail and she needed to get rid of it ASAP. That was when she thought back to something she did in the flight sims during training, and she knew she'd get in trouble for this.

She was engaged in some frantic turning to keep her enemy off balance as it glued itself to her six, and she only knew of one way to shake such a persistent foe. Without warning she slammed the stick throwing her plane down left at a horribly sharp angle which nearly put her out cold from the G forces she accumulated. Luckily she managed to stay awake and the maneuver had the intended effect as her enemy didn't try to keep up with the move.

Kasumi dove lower and lower until she was nearly skimming the water before leveling out and looking up to check the battle above. It seemed the Captain had managed to shot down two more with A.J. and Amelia opening fire on two others. With luck those two would go down as well.

But there was a problem...

Kasumi looked over just in time to see another plane go down, and it was Calamity's.

Whisker LoneSniper87 Commissar Darman SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz ((Just so everyone knows there's no set posting order, so if I have to slow down again you have my permission not to wait for me. Just drag Charlie and Kasumi along and I will catch up when my schedule clears up a bit. Thanks.))

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1050 Hours



AJ did not deviate from his flight path even as Amelia informed him about the bandits breathing down their necks; his eyes remained fixated upon his Captain’s plane. His target, a blue and white SU-37 with a painted nose, was hovering just back from the portside wing in a ditch effort to try and line up Charlie’s plane in his gun-sights.

“No, you fuckin’ don’t,” AJ snarled just seconds before his flight lead sounded the call.

“Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Light them up!”

“Eat lead, you sons-of-bitches!”

And he burst the trigger, once, twice, and a third time to send his bullets cascading right by Charlie’s canopy towards the pursuer. His first torrent hit them dead on in the nose, but the second missed. The plane swerved upwards sharply causing the third volley to take it dead on at the bottom of the right wing, severing it completely from the main-body of the plane and knocking it into a 360 spin straight down through the clouds.

When Charlie’s plane was clear, he dropped altitude low and brought his plane around in a tight turn. Explosions and bits of flotsam in the air told him Charlie’s fire had hit its mark on some of the remaining bandits. He smiled.

“Gotcha, baby.”

Then he turned on his mike.

“Splash one, Wildcat. Splash two, Windshear.”

“Amelia, your six is clear. I’m riding back up to meet you.”

But as he tilted his plane up and started to raise altitude, his alerts started going off for a second time. He checked the radar just before rolling his plane and jinking her to the right.

“Long range missiles. Damn!”

And apparently, he wasn’t the only one who was being targeted. He could see Calamity a few miles out riding hard with two behind him. Judging by the radar, the missile was coming at an angle he couldn’t see.

And it was too late to do anything about it. Even before AJ could open his mouth to warn Justin, he saw it take him back square in the engine block, the whole plane going down in a bundle of flame.

Goddamnit …

Tearing his eyes away from the painful sight, he began lurching and zig-zagging in a rolling scissors to free up his six. Strangely, Calamity’s end had deadened his fear of the missile; it had instead made him more determined than ever to make it back to Amelia and mop up the rest of this trash.

He glanced at his radar.

“Dragon, we’ll regroup on the asshole closing at your 3’ o clock.”

And then, he decided, it would be time to give the others a hand. Kasumi and Church looked like they were struggling hard with a whole group of them, and he didn’t think he could handle it if they suffered anymore losses in this battle. His hands were already shaking enough.

ChoShadow Commissar Darman LoneSniper87 SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz

 

[Commissar Darman]

As the Captain counted down, Everything seemed to slow down. Looking ahead of her, She could see A.J. with his two bogies and further ahead. Was Windshear flying straight towards them. As Both Wildcat and Windshear past. Amelia thought they were gonna collide. It wasn't until the enemy craft in front exploded she realized that they were able to maneuver past each other to engage their respective targets. But now she had a different problem. That those wreckage are directly in her flight path. Watching Windshear fly past. Amelia had to roll to the port to avoid all the clutter that blocked her way. Luckily for her though that as she received weapons lock moments before she had to pull away.

"Manticore 5, Fox 2" She announced through gritted teeth as She pulled hard on her stick. As her craft narrowly dodged the wreckage of the craft that was in front of her. She caught a glimpse of the last Craft chasing Windshear disintegrate in a large ball of fire and smoke. It seemed that her Sidewinder found its mark and hit its target right on the canopy. A lucky shot if there ever was one. As Amelia realized her six was clear, She let the Realization of her first kill sink in. It was exhilarating. She felt she could do anything in the cockpit. But, As her Confidence and Ego rose. Something had to knock it back into place.
Banking to the right, Amelia felt her heart sank. In front of her, She watched as A Familiar Black painted F-14 fell out of the sky. She sat there in her own F-14 praying that a Parachute would deploy but none appeared. Her closest friend and partner in crime was just shot down. Holding back a scream, Amelia realized that Calamity was alone. Him and Hammer should have been together. Searching the sky, Amelia couldn't Find Hammer anywhere. As she frantically scanned the area around her. Amelia, in her state didn't realized the Missile warning till it was almost too late. Instantly Dumping flares and pulling away. Amelia felt her craft shake as the missile exploded on of the flares, Peppering her right wing with shrapnel. Other than a few small holes, she was fine.
Finally coming to her senses, Amelia realized Wildcat was talking to her. "Roger that Manticore 2!" Was all she said. Right now, She was trying to come to terms with losing two, if not one of her closest friends.

 

[LoneSniper87]

Aryl watched as Kasumi practically nose dived at a very sharp angle, leveling out near the water. He checked back in front to see the bogey had not followed, which gave him a chance to take them out. "Go to hell..." He muttered as the missle lock finalized and he launced a missile thier way, only for them to dump flares. "Damn it! Fine." He said, gritting his teeth as he sped through the remaining flares and started shooting his machine gun at them, peppering the tail end with holes. The enemy craft afterward had become a lot shakier and turbulent, and he took the advantage and released another hail as they tried to keep control, missing the intended target of the cockpit due to a sharp roll, but managed instead to shear off the right wing, sending the plane in an uncontrollable death spiral to the ocean below. "And another bites the dust..."

 

[ChoShadow]

Kasumi had lost the bogey on her tail, and it looked like someone had shot it down as well which was good. She was a whiz at the simulator, but this was no simulator. Her nerves were wound so tight she could barely keep her thoughts straight.

"C'mon nuggets! Only a handful left! We can do this!" Charlie yelled over the comms.

Kasumi took a breath and got her mind as focused as she could while getting a good eye on a bogey above her. It seemed to be chasing after Charlie at the moment so the pilot wouldn't likely see her coming, and that gave her an idea.

Kasumi kept her plane low and hugged the water to prevent as much radar signature as she could and lined herself up with the bogey above her. She disengaged her missiles at first to prevent a missile lock and the possibility of the enemy getting an alert about her approach, and then hit the afterburners as she raced along the water below Charlie and his bogey.

"Charlie, I'm going to come up danger close to your tail. My plane's reflective coating should blind the bogey at your six long enough for you to loop around behind him and take him down before he can recover. Got it?" She asked.

"I got it, but I don't like it. Be careful Angel." He replied.

Kasumi waited until she felt she was far enough ahead of Charlie and the bogey's position before pulling back on the stick and lurching her plane straight up on what looked like a collision course with Charlie's nose. She pulled back hard and her alignment was near perfect as she closed in on Charlie. Thanks to the plane's nose being in the way the enemy had no idea she was coming until it was too late when she finally appeared on radar.

The world stood still for Kasumi as adrenaline rushed through her body the closer she got to Charlie and the bogey. His plane just barely missed hers. The flame exhaust of his own plane's afterburners raked the underside of her plane's nose as she came up across his path, burning the underside slightly and singing it a dark grayish coloration. But it would all be worth it as her plane tilted slightly at the last second reflecting all of the sun's light across the canopy of the incoming enemy plane and it had the intended effect as Charlie began a full loop to get behind them. It was as tight a turn as he could manage, and once in position he launched one missile which struck home in the engines of the plane in front of him causing it to explode completely sending debris into the ocean below.

"Good job Angel. You all right?" He asked.

Kasumi had to take a moment to reply as her heart was in her throat.

"... I think so." She replied softly.

Whisker LoneSniper87 Commissar Darman SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1100 Hours


As AJ pulled around through the clouds, he saw the low-flying aircraft fire again. He watched as the missiles sailed upwards in a flash of white and streak towards Amelia’s F-14.

“Manticore 5, Missile! Missile! Get out of there!”

Amelia was late to respond. He saw her craft jerk suddenly, drop flares, but then lurch as though it had taken a beating.

Damnit!

“Just hang on, alright? I’ve got him in my sights. Just keep your plane up and I’ll look for a spot to engage.”

But how? That was the question now. One look at the radar told him the advantage was about roughly 50-50 following Church’s splash. The enemy, however, were still better equipped and flying better planes than they were. They’d managed to get them by dumb luck, and take them by surprise, thus far. Yet, could that see them all the way to the end without any further deaths?

And there was still the enemy ace’s raptor hanging out on the radar, hovering, watching, circling, but refusing to engage no matter how many of it’s allies went down. It gave him chills just to watch the pilot at work. But it also made him feel deeply, deeply unsettled … as though they were sparrows being observed by a starving hawk.

Just what was he waiting on?

“Jesus, these bastards are getting on my fucking nerves ... ”

Pulling his eyes away from the battlefield, he looked straight ahead towards the gathering storm clouds rolling in off the Yuktobanian border. An idea slowly began to form in the back of his mind.

“Hey, Amelia. You see that big ol’ cloud bank up ahead? The black one there with all the wind clusters? If your plane is still good, see if you can lure our friend out that way.”

With any luck, he could loop to the other side of the clouds, hit the throttle, and burst out the other end in a visual blind spot with a sonic boom, missile launch combo special. Of course, he wasn’t going to assume it was that easy, but it was the best plan of attack he could think of at the moment.

As he hurried towards the rendezvous point, he caught a glimpse of another plane going up in an explosion alarmingly close to Kasumi’s Viper and Charlie’s F-4. He studied the pattern for a moment, then grinned outright as he passed overhead.

“Hot damn, and I thought I was the crazy son of a bitch! Sweet move, Angel.”

And now it’s our turn, he thought as he hurried to meet up with Amelia.

Mentioned: LoneSniper87 Commissar Darman ChoShadow

Other (if you guys are still in this): SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz

 

[ChoShadow]

Kasumi was breathing hard after what she had just done. She knew it could be done, but she didn't think she'd have the confidence or the guts to actually pull it off before she started. Now that she had done it, and now that she had come that close to having her plane shot full of holes or colliding with Charlie taking them both out, she was shaking in her cockpit fighting desperately to get a grip on the stick again and steady her plane as it struggled to maintain a level flight path.

Meanwhile Charlie was busy taking notice of the clouds that A.J. was talking about.

"Take care getting too close to those clouds A.J. You too Amelia. If your instruments get fried by any electrical interference then your plane is going down like a rock. If that happens you won't be repairing it before you swallow a lungful of sea water from inside your locked cockpit." He warned.

At the same time he was noticing that another plane had gone down somewhere, but luckily it wasn't one he recognized.

Another enemy down... Only a few left now. He thought.

As he glanced upwards he saw that F-22 still circling overhead watching what was going on down below. He could tell they were watching because the plane was tilted sideways so the pilot could look right down on everyone.

I don't know who's in there, but I already know I don't like them. He thought.

Whisker Commissar Darman SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1100 Hours


"Take care getting too close to those clouds A.J. You too Amelia. If your instruments get fried by any electrical interference then your plane is going down like a rock. If that happens you won't be repairing it before you swallow a lungful of sea water from inside your locked cockpit!”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, AJ couldn’t help but laugh.

“You worry too much, Captain, y’know that?” he said once he got himself under control. “I trained at Hierelark. If you think a puff of cloud and a bit of stray lightning’s going to knock my baby outta the air, you got another thing coming.”


That’s right – that’s my sky, after all . . .

He grinned briefly to himself, but sobered instantly as he studied the battlefield from his position at 7000 feet. The enemy had sustained heavy losses and their air superiority was on the brink. If he could pull this off and nail the rhino hungrily charging down Amelia’s Tom Cat, their offensive capability would drop even more, potentially forcing the enemy to think about buggering the hell off.

There could be no mistakes.

“Okay,” he muttered to himself. “Time to get serious.”

Jinking hard on the stick, he broke his pattern abruptly and turned hard away from the course Amelia and her pursuer was flying. His plane whined as the speed steadily increased, and sharp white contrails spiraled from his Viper’s wing-tips as he turned it in a wide-loop and brought it back around to face the clouds.

He couldn’t see Amelia’s plane anymore. He couldn’t even see Kasumi, Charlie, or Church’s planes either, though he knew they were close by as they still remained displayed on his HUD. Exhaling through his teeth, he hesitated. Then he pushed the throttle to full power at once and his plane rapidly accelerated in a straight line.

400 … 500 … 600 … 700 …

The clouds in front of him thickened. Then he caught a momentary blue blip on his HUD as Amelia came back in his sights.

“Gotcha.”

There was a thunderous crack as his plane burst through the clouds in a thick trail of vapor at a speed faster than that of sound. He could see his target visually now, the blue-grey F-18’s emblem was so close it was practically in his face.


“Fox 2! Fox 2!”

His first shot went wide, jolted away by a thick band of turbulence rolling off the dark cloud. His second shot, however, exploded next to the wing, causing extensive damage but not enough to knock the rhino out of the air. The pilot, in a display of extraordinary reflexes had reached their flares in time.


“You lucky SOB …” AJ hissed as the Rhino trailing smoke swerved off of Amelia’s tail and back towards the formation. He brought his plane around, eager to pursue the enemy.

ChoShadow LoneSniper87 Razgriz Commissar Darman

 

[ChoShadow]

Charlie flew to Kasumi's wing, having shaken off any and all pursuers.

"You all right Angel?" He asked.

Kasumi was non-responsive for a solid ten seconds before replying.

"I don't know," she said softly.

"Buck up Angel. You need to stay focused to stay alive. Now shake it off and get back in the fray. We need you out there." He ordered.

With that he banked off to reengage one of the last handful of enemies who were in sight. It seemed like there were only three or four planes left which was a miracle of all kinds given how fresh and new the nuggets were to combat. The planes they were up against were top notch, but it seemed that the enemy made a classic mistake similar to what you hear about with cars on the freeway.

High performance vehicle, low performance pilot.

Charlie wasn't going to question it or ask why it was that the enemy wasn't flying well and getting shot down against his nuggets. He'd lost two of them already, and he wasn't about to let it happen again.

Kasumi took a moment to collect herself before letting out a forced breath and following Charlie, gluing herself to his six. She didn't yet have the confidence that most of the others did outside of the simulation and practice flights. The weight of this battle had hit her much harder and she was unprepared for it. She was shaken and hurting emotionally right now which wasn't going to put things in her favor. She pulled off an amazing maneuver, but it seemed already like a distant memory and did nothing to bolster her confidence as yet.

She decided to stick to Charlie's tail as he began to reengage and stayed there not only to protect his six, but to help trap the planes he began to shoot at.

Whisker LoneSniper87 Razgriz

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1110 Hours


Once he was confident that Amelia’s tail was free of pursuit, AJ banked his plane around and pursued doggedly after the retreating enemy aircraft. Typically, if it had been any other battle, any other situation, he might have let the craft go and escape the combat zone. He wasn’t bloodthirsty, after all, and the thought of downing enemy aircraft and making any more fatherless sons, or weeping widows did not appeal to him in the slightest. But this was war – he understood that much. And if he let his emotions get in the way now, even the slightest hesitation, the mere semblance of thought could be the difference in life or death for those precious friends who remained in the air. Once again, he could feel the pressure melting down onto his shoulders as though something cold and dreadful had cracked just above his head.

We’re almost there! If we can just get one more plane, one more … they might retreat … and we can go home …

Home. His throat constricted at the thought. Up until that point, the base had seemed like nothing but a bore somewhere at the edge of Boringville smackdab at the edge of Central Osea. And now it was like a beacon – a beacon that meant they could claw through another day … even as Manticore ended up decimated by the ambush.

But first things first, he had to survive. Survive and see the rest of the squad go home, too.

He was gaining hard on the smoking F-18, but the pilot – equally determined – seemed to be pushing the plane to the absolute limit to keep itself out of his F-16’s gun sights. It never lingered in a straight line for long and even while he tracked the plane closely, it seemed to be jerking all over the place – up and down and up again - to prevent a hard lock.

He was so focused on his pursuit that AJ hardly even realized how close to the border they were. It was only when he came with about a quarter-mile, the edges of the authorized zone flashing in his HUD, that he hastily moved to drop his air-speed.

And it seemed that was exactly what the pilot was anticipating. Even as AJ bled knots to try and prevent from flying anywhere near the bug-out zone, the other pilot ignored it entirely and increased speed before sharply maneuvering around to try and fire at him quickly.

AJ jerked his plane away, the bullets just sailing past his plane. But even he was aware of the shitty position he was put in as the pilot’s F-18 streaked past and attempted to scissors behind him. Throwing caution to the wind, AJ dived to pick his speed back up … but where would he go? He couldn’t risk going back to Osean territory with this asshole chasing him the entire way … and he couldn’t stay here where the bandit had the territorial advantage.

AJ gritted his teeth.

“Captain, it's AJ. I got a little bit carried away pursuing the Rhino, and he's managed to pin me down against the wall," he sighed. "I damaged his craft, but he ain't down and I can't get a tone on him. I'm going to transmit my coordinates in fifteen seconds. Please advise a course of action!"

As he spoke, he shifted his maneuvers immediately to the defensive, preparing to attempt a sudden vertical climb to a barrel roll as a means to displace his damaged attacker.

ChoShadow Commissar Darman LoneSniper87

 

[LoneSniper87]

"AJ, this is Church, I am inbound. Keep him busy and I will get your tail off." Aryl says, looking around as the transmission comes through. He glances down. "Damn, you went far." He said, accelerating to reach AJ and his tail. "Alright AJ, I'm on your tail, pull up on my mark and I will light up your Rhino." He said. Luckily he had gone unnoticed by the bogey thus far, but he knew that wouldn't last.

"Mark!" He said, giving it a second before firing a volley of machine gun into the Rhino, which attempted to veer off, but still got hit. The plane was crippled further and started nosediving, when a silverly white object came out of the cockpit. A black parachute unfurled and the pilot gently floated down into the ocean, his plane having already crashed. "And another bites the dust, ladies and gentlemen." Aryl remarked.

 

[Commissar Darman]

As Amelia stayed relatively close to A.J. An F-18 got behind her. Once again she was the mouse and the Enemy was the cat. As she maneuvered constantly to prevent the enemy a lock-on, She realized her flying skills have dropped and was panicking. She didn't want to die. Luckily though. A.J. had a plan. Dragging her pursuer near some dark clouds. Amelia took a few more hits and she felt a shuddering from her right engine. It seems it took some damage but was managing to stay active somehow. But the feeling did scare the crap out of, Thinking she just died. As she continued to fly. Amelia slowly realized two things. First, she was still alive. And second, A warm sensation started to form on her right thigh. Out of that half second of pure terror, the only thing she could ask herself was whether or not she just pissed herself.

The answer to that question would have to wait though and the Enemy was still hot on her trail. Not wanting to test her luck again, Amelia was about to scream at A.J. to hurry up but was cut off by the familiar sound of a sonic boom and A.J. appearing out of the clouds at Mach 1. His sudden appearance caused her heart to stop as he appeared out of nowhere. Reacting, Amelia shoved down on the stick and her craft went into a dive. Doing so, Amelias vision started to go red as the Negative Gs forced all the blood in her body to rush to her head. pulling back on the stick, Amelia began leveling her craft and was slowly getting her vision back when once again her craft shook, this time more violently. Looking over her instruments, She realized her right engine just died, Probably a mixture of the damage it took recently and the unnatural stress it received when she dove like that. flying low, Amelia now watched as both her pursuer and A.J. zoomed off in a new game of cat and mouse. Unable to join because of her engine, Amelia angled her craft back towards the others so as to not be an easy target and was now going to attempt to make it to safety. "thanks A.J."

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1110 Hours


“AJ, this is Church, I am inbound. Keep him busy and I will get your tail off."

AJ turned in his chair to track the bandit's progress. Thanks to the bubble canopy of the F-16, he had an unrestricted view of the bandit turning and closing fast on his six o’ clock.

“Copy that,” he said before turning to the front. “I’ll try and tie him up for you.”

With the bandit moving at a high rate of speed, he was close enough for guns in no time at all. Remembering his training, AJ barreled rolled into the attack itself and attempted to drop his speed even further to cause the attacker to overshoot and pass him overzealously.

It came so close to working that for a moment AJ suspended upside down in mid-air had a view of the Rhino’s pilot in his cockpit, but the moment he righted himself, the attacker broke hard and he lost any attempt at a lock.

This guy is pretty good. He’s not giving me any chance to fire at all …


In no time at all, the Rhino and it’s superior low-altitude turning speed was behind him again and attempting to goad him into giving up a shot. With no choice remaining to him, AJ powered towards the Yuktobanian border and at the last moment pulled another wing over wing and dove into a steep dive the opposite direction. Blood rushed to his head. His pulse was pounding even more wildly than any of the other simulations. Then he leveled out and the gut-wrenching feeling in his chest abdicated but left the sweat behind. Heaving a heavy sigh of relief, he started to turn back towards the Osean border and make a run for it when he saw two tiny pinpricks of light up ahead.

“Aryl, that better be you or Santa Claus up there. I don’t think my baby can handle any more than just one asshole in this shape.”

He was rewarded seconds later when Church’s voice came back to him over the radio just as the lights passed high overhead: "Alright AJ, I'm on your tail, pull up on my mark and I will light up your Rhino."

“Copy. Turning to 230, Angels 8. He should be following.”

Though AJ wasn’t about to check. He merely kept his heading, waiting impatiently for the call to come through.

Come on … Come on …

“Mark!”

Without question or hesitation, AJ pulled up hard and hit the speed brake. As his plane leveled out again, he heard the explosion behind him and whirled around in his chair. He watched somberly as the blue-grey Rhino with the Heron insignia pitched nose down and disappeared under a wave of smoke. Then for the first time in the entire battle, a parachute blossomed from the smoke and hovered in the air. AJ watched as it hovered and then gradually blew back towards the Yuktobanian border.

“And another one bites the dust, ladies and gentlemen!"

AJ pulled up and came off to Church’s starboard side.

“Good thing, too. That’s the pilot who shot down Calamity. We’ll probably be seeing him again.”

There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them before AJ spoke up again.

“Let’s go back to the others. Can’t leave Angel and the Captain to do all the heavy lifting for us.”

As he turned back towards the battle-zone and increased his speed, he suddenly heard Amelia’s voice for the first time since her partner and friend had been shot down.

“Thanks, AJ.”

Despite feeling as though he’d been hit by a bus, AJ managed a thin smile.

“Don’t thank me yet. Those assholes are still flying around up there. Just keep your plane flying t’ill we make it all the way in. We’ll talk once we get everyone back on solid ground," he assured her.

LoneSniper87 Commissar Darman ChoShadow

 

[LoneSniper87]

"Yeah we'll see him, but death is something everyone is tired of now. Enemy pilot or not, I'm glad I saw the chute." Aryl said, angling out back toward Kasumi and the Captain. "Let's just finish them up and get back to base, I don't want to be here any longer than we need to." He finished up, keeping his eyes locked on the air in front of him. He shot down two people, two real people with familes. He widowed two spouses, made two children lose a parent. The thought hit him hard and it made him lose his edge for a second.

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1110 Hours

“Yeah,” AJ agreed. “I just wish it was on our side though.”


Forcing his gaze away from the border, he checked his instrumentation, brow furrowed.


“I can’t find fault with that. We’ve been pushing our planes to the absolute limit in this fight. I just hope we have enough gas left in the tank to make it back.”


As he had reminded Justin earlier that day, the F-16 pilots, as well as Church's Tiger, weren’t equipped to perform carrier landings. And if an alert team hadn’t been stationed, the chances of setting up a mid-air refueling plane and getting out there before they ran out of gas was virtually slim to none.


He gazed anxiously at his half-empty fuel gauge before sighing and maneuvering his camo-patterned F-16 to the lead dash alongside Church’s starboard side.


“Captain, this is Wildcat, again. Negative on that assistance request. Church handled it. We’re currently inbound at your 9’o clock at Angels 8. It will be about five minutes before we arrive!"

LoneSniper87 ChoShadow Commissar Darman

 

[ChoShadow]

Charlie and Angel had managed to double team two of the final remaining planes, taking them down in tandem once Kasumi finally managed to shake it off and put her fear and everything else on hold in the back of her mind. She had no doubt it would all come flooding back soon, but for now she'd finally forced it away.

"Roger that A.J." Charlie replied.

The skies were mostly clear, and luckily for Charlie and his nuggets what was left of the enemy seemed to be in retreat. One or two planes were now racing back towards Yuktobania.

"Head's up nuggets. The enemy seems to be in retreat. Form up on me and we'll do a head count." He ordered.

"This is Angel. I'm here." Kasumi replied.

Charlie nodded and looked up and about trying to locate that F-22, but it was gone. He couldn't see it anywhere. It wasn't above them like before, and to the best of his knowledge it wasn't hiding beneath them either. It was just gone.

"Looks like the vulture bugged out on us too. The F-22 is history." Charlie said to everyone through comms.

Whisker LoneSniper87 Commissar Darman

Razgriz (You can bring in your character now.)

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1110 Hours



“Copy,” AJ said and then went into radio silence. As he flew, his black-and-white F-16 streaking through the mottled afternoon clouds with Church’s Tiger in tow, he couldn’t help but feel a heavy sense of dread about the incoming headcount. Hammer and Calamity, he knew for a solid fact, were down and no thoughts, prayers, or wishes would ever let them touch sky again. But what about the others? He hadn’t heard from Mikel since before the initial ambush and Amelia’s plane was just barely hanging in there. No matter how hard he tried to shake it, he knew deep down that even if they all made it back from this, this would be the last time he flew with some of them.


Manticore Squadron, as they knew it, was utterly decimated.


Sighing gloomily, AJ continued to brood in silence until the lights of the allied planes flickered in his vision.


“Tally-ho, this must be you guys up ahead of us. We’ve made it back,” he announced as calmly as possible to disguise his thoughts. If there was one thing AJ couldn’t stand, it was to kick his comrades while they were down with his own problems.



ChoShadow Commissar Darman SirDerpingtonIV LoneSniper87 Razgriz

(Got time to get a post up finally xD)

 

[ChoShadow]

Charlie saw the two incoming planes on his radar and checked over his shoulder to confirm it was them.

"Confirmed. I have eyes on you both. Welcome back." He said calmly.

Once everyone had returned Charlie gave a nod.

"Okay, so we've got all who survived back in action... Welcome to war nuggets." He said rather grimly.

Kasumi was silently crying in her cockpit thinking about those who'd been shot down, and she could barely manage a response.

"We signed up for this, but-... *sniffle*... That doesn't make the loss any easier." She said quietly.

Her voice was barely a whisper, but it came through the mics just fine.

"Agreed Angel. Hang tough. The best thing we can do is return to base and report this incident immediately. I can almost guarantee that news of war will have reached the ears of command by the time we touch down again. So let's-... Wait, do you hear that?" Charlie suddenly asked.

There was a rather soft, yet high pitched whistling noise reverberating throughout the airspace.

"Yeah, I hear it. But what is it?" Kasumi asked.

Whisker Razgriz Commissar Darman LoneSniper87

 

[Commissar Darman]

Amelia just flew straight, It was really all she could do to keep the craft in the air. With her right engine all but useless, Flying became an uphill battle. Going over the gauges one more time, Amelia reassured herself one more time that she could keep her bird in the air. But something felt off, Something that she was missing. Checking again Ameila couldn't find that little detail she was sure she was missing. "Fuel, check! Engine 1, check, Engine 2, dead, control surfaces, check, air supply, check. what is it then?" growing more frustrated, Amelia took her hands off the controls to rub her arms. It has surprisingly gotten colder.

As time continued, Amelia saw the rest of her flight above. slowly forcing her craft into formation Amelia. "this is dragonball, I'm still here. somehow, but..." she wanted to say something else, but didn't know where to start. there was just too much she needed to know and she couldn't keep her thoughts straight. which was probably due to the headache she was developing.

 

[SirDerpingtonIV]

Mikel let out a huff, grinding his teeth as he entered a series of evasive maneuvers. He turned his head, angling his aircraft to check on the other planes in his squadron, only to face the realization that he couldn't recognize them in the midst of the massive hairball the fight had evolved into. It was all simply too much to take in. He couldn't help any of his allies in there, even if he knew who was who. A single aircraft followed him, roaring its afterburner to catch up, loosing a missile in his direction. He yanked on the stick, urging his aircraft upwards. He eased the throttle down until the engines were nearly off, letting out some a flare behind his craft. The missile exploded behind him as his plane entered a stall. He held the stick with an iron grip, steadying his craft as the other jet tore past him. He pressed down with his thumb, a tide of bullets slicing through the wing of the other jet, dropping it to the ocean below in a spiral.

As Mikel fired the engine up again, he saw a parachute open. He turned away without a second glance, wheeling his jet back towards the battlefield. He activated his own afterburner, preparing himself for the fight as he eyed the silver streaks of aircraft, trying to identify his allies. He reached for the radio, hoping for a clue as to whom needed help, only to hear the scream of metal on metal as tracers passed his cockpit. He was not wholly lucky, as the glass shattered, tearing through the cockpit. He yanked the stick towards him, feeling the G's as his plane rapidly ascended. He looked around, checking the skies about him for the foe, only to find nothing. Presuming that the opposing craft was in the clouds, he dove down, only to find his craft rather poor to respond. He inhaled sharply, trying to tug back up on the stick again, slowly leveling out his craft. "Shot up bad," he grumbled, eyeing the horizon for his squadron. He couldn't hear anyone over the radio anymore, nor any more combat. So... what the hell happened? "Lost it seems, unsure if the others are flying still..." he sighed, raising a gloved palm to rub his face. "At least I'm not..." he looked down, seeing the blossoming scarlet surrounding a tear in his clothing. "Shot," he sighed, feeling the pain searing through as the adrenaline faded. It had grazed him it seemed, or else he might have lost the whole damn leg. He turned his jet, heading back in the direction they had came from, hoping that someone else had made it out.

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1120 Hours


With the squadron back in his sights, AJ sighed with relief and slowly allowed his cloud-patterned F-16 to drift away from the tight lead-chase formation he had been flying alongside Church. The latter had been silent through the duration of their flight, though perhaps it was ultimately for the best. Unless AJ was mistaken, Church had bagged a decent number of kills that day. His first kills in battle. And that feeling wasn’t something to be shared with anyone.

Squinting through the visor, AJ carefully nosed his plane down through the clouds and began to decrease his rate of speed. He could see that not everyone had made it back yet. Scanning the clouds around them, he finally spotted Amelia some thousand or so feet below them and only identifiable by the smoke trailing from its dead engine. His bright green eyes narrowed.

“Hey Church? Carry on without me, willya? Looks like my wingman’s in trouble.”

Then without another word, he broke from their formation entirely, his black and white Viper trailing sharply left and then descending rapidly to meet up with Amelia’s plane.

When he arrived, he would pull up some 100 feet behind her and flash his signal lights, ignoring the minor turbulence from the wind at his back.

“Dragon, it’s Wildcat, you copy? You think you got enough juice left to make it back?”

His green eyes roved over the length of her plane with some concern. She was slowly increasing altitude, but far too slowly. Was the damage more serious than he had originally thought? At any rate, one way or another, she’d come to his defense in the battle, and it was due to her efforts he hadn’t joined Hammer and Calamity at the bottom of the Ocean. He wasn’t going to leave her now.

His scrutiny of her plane was so intense, he scarcely noticed the funny humming that was crescendoing over the combat zone.

ChoShadow Commissar Darman LoneSniper87 SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz

 

[ChoShadow]

Charlie heard A.J.'s comment over the comms about Amelia's plane being in bad shape, so he led Kasumi towards them a ways to the point where they could see both pilots clearly ahead.

"Keep your head in the game A.J., Amelia. I don't think this battle is quite over yet." He advised.

Charlie's instinct for combat was second to none and his word was highly trusted not just among his own nuggets, but among all his friends and other comrades back at base. Even those in other branches of the Osean military respected him for his wit, instinct, and courage.

Kasumi trailed behind a bit giving Charlie and the others some space as she tried to keep herself calm in the cockpit. Her fear of heights had been triggered during her stunt with Charlie, and her heart was racing again as she recalled the moment. Her plane pointed straight up, her engines roaring, and the horizon line clear as day as she looked off to the left side of the cockpit which had been a big mistake at the time. She had been trying to see the missile and the enemy pilot, but she saw nothing but open sky and the line where the sky meets the sea.

She tried to breathe and meditate the image of the horizon line out of her mind to get her heart rate under control. Her hands were starting to shake again and she was still sweating as the soft humming sound began to grow louder.

"Have you ever heard a sound like that before Charlie?" She asked.

"Not that I recall." He replied.

However whether he'd heard a sound like this before or not, it no longer mattered.

The soft humming rapidly shifted to a shrill ringing before the sound of a thunderous *BOOM* erupted throughout the skies like a thunderclap. And all at once a massive pulse of energy was sent from the open sky above them down through the heart of Charlie's plane. Destruction was near instantaneous with the fuel catching and exploding and Charlie's plane was practically vaporized in a cloud of fire and smoke as thousands of pieces of what were once a proud aircraft flew in every direction. You'd barely tell that all that metal shrapnel was from a plan given how small most of them were.

Kasumi's eyes widened as his plane exploded in front of her from that massive pulse of energy, and her face drained of all color as she slowly looked skywards.

It was the F/22 which had been circling overhead before. It was back, and apparently it was using some kind of new cloaking technology which bent light beneath the plane all across the belly. It was no wonder they hadn't seen it before. Kasumi couldn't see it until it turned off its initial flight path and veered off towards the border with afterburners at full blast.

The plane let off a sonic boom as it broke the sound barrier, and raced off into the horizon.

Kasumi looked forward again as her field of view was engulfed in smoke from the destruction of Charlie's plane. She veered off a bit and circled around trying desperately to spot a chute or some sign that Charlie had made it out in one piece. But in the back of her mind she knew there was no chance of that. Not with what had happened to the plane in that moment. It happened right in front of her. The heart of his plane was first vaporized by the pulse, and then the fuel caught fire from the heat and the entire plane exploded from nose to tail flying apart into millions of pieces of shrapnel.

There was no chance he lived through that... None at all.

Kasumi put her plane on auto-pilot and shut off her mic. She was stunned beyond words or even coherent thought. Charlie was gone, leaving her and the other nuggets alone to find their way back to base.

... Alone.

That was all she felt in that moment. Her face was completely ashen. Her mouth hung slightly agape. Her face was stained with tears. And she couldn't even form a sentence or make a sound because her vocal chords had been paralyzed from fear of that pulse which had destroyed Charlie's plane.

Whisker Commissar Darman SirDerpingtonIV Razgriz LoneSniper87

 

[LoneSniper87]

The explosion and boom shuck Aryl's craft and he quickly shifted his plane to see the Captain's plane... but it was gone. "What the hell was that? Captain? Captain!?" Aryl shouted, then smashed his fist into his legs, not wanting to break anything on the console, but it was still audible. "Cowardice bitch!" He shouted, his fury soon turning toward a depression. "I... Fuck, man. He's gone..." He said quietly. "We need to head back, now, before we burn through all our fuel, or worse." He mumbled. Whatever just hit the Captain's plane surely wasn't a projectile, What was it? "Someone take lead, I'll watch our six." He said to the remaining pilots.

 

[Whisker]

AJ Riley

Inflight – Osean Border

1125 Hours

Upon hearing his Captain’s gentle rebuke, AJ jerked with a start, looked around, and then shifted in his seat to rid himself of the strain from his concentration. The man was right, of course, and he’d always had that bad habit of getting caught up in the moment and focusing on the details. But now that he was paying attention again, a swift glance at his radar told him that the Captain, Church, and Kasumi had abandoned their heading and had looped around as well, their planes slowly coating towards their six o’ clock. He watched their dots move for a moment, then smiled sheepishly for a few seconds.


He was relieved it was Charlie flying in that cockpit than the old mutton chop from his training; he’d be scrubbing floors for a week (and had more than once) if he’d lost sense of where he was back then.

“Yeah … Yeah, my bad, Cap,” he said at last before shifting in his chair and looking out his cockpit again where Amelia’s F-14 continued its course.

And that was when he heard the noise – the godawful bastard child between a hum and a screech. It was louder than any owl he’d heard hooting out his window at night back home but quiet enough to make his eardrums tremble under the strain.

“What the hell is that?” he mumbled, one hand coming up and quickly adjusting his helmet in case his HUD was causing the issue.

He stopped, however, when he heard Kasumi’s voice over the radio as well as Charlie’s reply.

“It sounds a lot like ...”

He trailed off, unable to continue as the sky around them lit up. It was brighter than lightning, brighter than the sun it seemed. He couldn’t keep his eyes open, and he threw up a hand to protect them.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

The shockwave hit him from behind. His plane tossed like a ship on a stormy sea and dropped several feet rapidly. His body was slammed against his restraints and he could feel the straps biting into his neck. The worst part though was the blood … and the pain. He’d bitten his tongue and he could feel the stabbing sensation all along his mouth. It kept him quiet. That and then the spasm of fear and shock that had jolted up his spine at the sudden powerful explosion.

And then he heard Aryl’s voice over the ringing in his ears.

“What the hell was that? Captain? Captain!?"

There was a crackling of static but no response. No reassuring, good-natured baritone always quick with guidance and confidence.

Just silence.

It took him almost a solid minute after that to realize he wasn’t breathing and that he’d gone numb. He couldn’t even feel the weariness anymore, and the whiplash he’d gotten was merely an afterthought, a faint throbbing that didn’t seem to matter next to the void inside.

Charlie was gone.

He didn’t need to turn and look at the ruined plane in person to know that much was true. In fact, he couldn’t look. It was all he could do to keep his plane flying without crashing into the back of Amelia’s or reverting to autopilot.

Unbidden, flashes came back to him of the first time he’d joined the squadron. He’d been out of basic fighter training for a long time. Passed with flying colors, but his reputation for laziness and trouble had preceded him and he was shunted from one squadron to the next for almost an entire year. But it was Manticore squadron that had broken him. That and Charlie’s refusal to give up on him. His refusal to let him turn in shoddy paperwork, to sass the higher ups, to get into trouble or drink too much, or goof off during training. He’d even gone so far as to make him his number 2 – his official wingman.

And for that, though he would never admit it, AJ had loved the man as the father he’d never gotten to experience.

Now he was gone.

"Someone take lead, I'll watch our six."

AJ stirred again at that, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill if he let them. He could hear Charlie’s last words to him in his head.

Keep your head in the game A.J., Amelia. I don't think this battle is quite over yet.

Only the battle now was as critical as it had ever been. With a few deep breaths to calm himself again, AJ finally turned his coms back on.

“I’ll do it,” he said softly. “We’ll fly back towards Sand Island and we’ll use it to orient ourselves directly home.”

As he spoke, he shot beneath Amelia’s plane and then righted himself a few hundred yards ahead of her before slowing.

“We’ll keep formation exactly as it is for now. Hopefully …”

He started to say more but caught himself. A faint blip on the screen forewarned him an aircraft had appeared on the edge of his radar and was closing on them dead ahead. He watched it for a moment longer, then his eyes slowly widened …

“Manticore 06, do you copy? Mikel, it’s AJ.”


ChoShadow LoneSniper87 SirDerpingtonIV Commissar Darman