✈ Ace Combat: Nationstates [.:~Open | P/MT~:.] ✈

[Post War America]

Matera

Moreno was one lucky pilot, less than a second after he had gotten airborne a missile slammed into the runway behind him, cratering it. His Typhoon shook violently, and the damage control system reported numerous small failures. Nothing severe enough to force an ejection or a landing, but it was clear to Moreno that he had just had a close brush with death. By his recollection Veracruz was off attempting to intercept the bombers that were now raining missiles down upon the base.

"Sidewinder to Midnight Eye, I'm airborne, point me at a target".

¿"Moreno que pensaba"? "Moreno what were you thinking"? The captain took a definitively cross tone when handling Moreno.

"Pensaba usted necesitó ayudar". "I was thinking you needed help". Moreno's reply was short and frank, as was the captain's return.

¡"Pudo morì! ¡Si estábamos corto dotamos de personal, su nalgas estaría echar"! "You could have died! Were we not so short staffed, your ass would be fired"! Moreno's reply was somewhat sarcastic, as he used his gun to blast a cruise missile from the sky before it could hit one of the fuel tanks.

"Disculpe mi ayudar. ¿Dondè me necesitas"? "I'm sorry for helping. Where do you need me"? The captain sighed in a fit of resignation.

"Ayudé con los bomberderos". "Help with the bombers". Moreno turned his craft up and gunned the throttle to its limit desperate to climb into engagement range with the bombers. A Visaran fighter attempted to intercept but was blasted out of the sky by a Black Typhoon, Veracruz's Typhoon. Moreno walked through the wreckage as it spread apart high over the clouds. The bombers at this rate were finished and that was apparent. Without some sort of miracle the three remaining craft minus escorts. Of course the Visarans were not going to make it easy, in an apparent desperate bid to impress their new ally. Most of the remaining Visran fighters had shifted to impromptu escort duty of the remaining strike craft. Moreno cut one down with missiles. The pilot attempted to bail out but was torn to shreds by cannon fire from an allied F-20. He lined another up who was on the six of a Union fighter that was intercepting missiles and proceeded to blow out an engine. Little did Moreno know that an enemy fighter was on his six. The Radar lock warning came on just has he finished off the enemy fighter in front of him.

¡"Mierde"! Moreno attempted to outmaneuver the enemy fighter, but as his plane was damage it was to little avail. The Typhoon was incredibly sluggish at the controls. Still he did a hell of a job keep the missile lock off of him. Unfortunately it was merely stalling of the inevitable. The humming drone of a radar lock warning become the incessant beeping of a missile actively coming for him. He dropped countermeasures at the last second saving himself from taking the missile to his own backside. Unfortunately the explosion was once again close and caused more damaged. Damage control informed Moreno that he had lost use of his rightmost landing gear. Luckily for Moreno, the other pilot in a spat of overconfidence did not expect him to survive the missile launch, and was now open for reprisal. Moreno took the chance he was offered and blasted the pilot out of the sky, removing another of the escorts for the escaping strike craft. Still they were escaping, and the defenders of Matera were badly licked themselves, this fight was likely going to be over soon.

[The LBP Union]

Scoring hits on the CFA-44, Euphony was far from finished with this bandit. The ISAF designated "Fandance" they called it was still at large, and ready to kill him. Impressed by its maneuverability, he put his bets that it rivaled that of the Eclipse. Giving chase, he was unable to keep up the pace and maintain gun range. He nonetheless gave chase in hopes of catching up and giving him a chance to fire a missile. Moments later, the bandit merged with one of its wingmen in a very close pass. Euphony spotted Reaper on the tail of the other bandit. The bandit that Reaper was chasing fired a missile at Euphony, sending missile warnings blaring. Forced to break, he was extraordinarily lucky to have non critical damage. In aerial combat, if a missile is fired at an oncoming enemy, the true range is actually dependent on the direction the target is traveling in. In this case, Euphony was headed directly for the bandit in front of him. Although Euphony was actually out of range for the sidewinder, his velocity technically placed him right in its range due to his own velocity shortening the distance the sidewinder needed to travel.

He had rolled over immediately and pulled to evade the missile, dropping a flare but he wasn't able to clear the distance in time, shaking his aircraft from the fragmentation impact. Taking more proximity damage could be fatal.

Reaper was left with the unfortunate surprise of greeting rounds of cannon fire from the bandit Euphony was previously chasing. With no missile warning and the exact same physics of the missile tactic employed by the Anowan pilot against Euphony, Reaper actually suffered further damage due to his velocity combined with the cannon rounds' own velocity. He suffered further damage than Euphony, but was still in the fight. Cursing his bad luck, Reaper tried to regain his position.

"Dammit! These guys have way better spec!" Reaper exclaimed.

"Forget it. We need to work together. Follow my lead." Euphony explained coolly. It was a strange feeling for him saying that. He had never shared the thoughts of his rather intricate predictive trance during combat. This survival mode that kept him alive in a sense was quite personal to him. It was contradictory to his principles. Euphony didn't seek to kill others, or fight at all, yet this trance he fell into brought him to defend himself and his allies without relent. The question was, could he share this experience with Reaper to ward off these far more experienced and technologically superior Anowan pilots?

"You've changed, rookie. Let's do it." Reaper acknowledged. And so began their dance through the clouds.

As the bandits that had once been their individual respective enemies passed by, so did Euphony and Reaper in a sense, although not quite as fluidly as they would have if they had not been forced to evade the missiles and gunfire thrown at them. The two pilots turned in opposite directions, choosing a target and turning in the same circle. A ceiling of cloud loomed above them, bearing down on them with torrents of rain which pelted their cockpits and nearly drowned out the soft sound of their engines. A bolt of lightning flashed nearby, striking a plane. Euphony nor Reaper had the time to pay attention to whose plane it was at this point. Euphony raised his altitude slightly in his turn, gradually grazing the layer of the cloud ceiling above them. As soon as his vision was nearly covered by the thick haze, he jerked his aircraft out of the turn and dove into the sea of vapor, submerging into its depths, although rather backwards. The world didn't make any sense anymore. There was no up or down here. No deeper or closer to the surface. Only numbers on an altimeter and the headings on their HUDs. Reaper followed him into the cloud.

"Euphony, we can't hide here. Their infrared and radar can still pick us up!" Reaper warned.

"Relax, I got an idea. Melody to AWACS, which way is the wind blowing where we are?" Euphony requested. He could feel his aircraft shaking from the wind, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from.

"68 miles per hour 300 degrees, Melody team. Keep an eye on your stability, we're about to call a retreat due to the conditions."

Euphony acted before the AWACS could finish.

"Heading 300 degrees!" Euphony directed.

"Wha? But they'll be right on our tail!" Reaper protested.

"We have to get them ahead of us. Don't bother with flares." Euphony instructed. Another bolt of lightning flashed.

"Geh...alright, if you say so." Reaper agreed as they quickly adjusted their heading. In order to evade inevitable missiles, Euphony and Reaper both burned and then made sharp maneuvers. They however, attempted to maintain their course as best as possible, using the blinding fog to mask their visual position to prevent the bandits from closing in on them with guns. Euphony and Reaper then suddenly performed a series of tight barrel rolls to slow them down rapidly, putting on flaps and spoilers and idling their engines to a crawl. The plan was to have the two bandits overshoot due to both the lack of visual aid, only HUD, as well as the wind behind them to maintain their momentum. Atop of this, the wind was blowing so hard in their direction of travel that if they attempted to puff out flares or chaff to evade the oncoming attack, the flare and chaff would simply be so light that it would blow ahead of them, becoming useless. Their own maneuvers would need to preserve them. Euphony and Reaper fired off two missiles in quick succession at each bandit respectively, and Euphony fired off two QAAMs as well, to get a better chance of at least hitting one of them.

"Midnight Eye to all teams, looks like the enemy is going home. Matera has sustained catastrophic damage. Egress West to get out of this airspace and refuel..."

Refuel.

Euphony checked his gauge. 5% fuel.

"Dammit!" He cried, immediately taking his aircraft into a dive, idling the engine and gradually leveling out. "I'm about to bingo fuel."

"Midnight Eye to Melody 2, don't panic. Use your rudder to ride the wind out of here at an angle and preserve fuel as best as possible. We'll have two of our units cover your egress."

"Cyclone 2 and 3 here, we've got your back, Melody." Came another radio call. It was those Hailstorm fighters. Reaper followed Euphony, watching to see if they could confirm hits on the bandits, but it was hard to tell now that they left the cloud. Euphony used his rudder to act like a sort of triangular sail, riding the wind at an angle. It was mildly effective and did require a little bit of thrust to work properly, so he didn't want to waste any energy evading.

Something told Euphony though, that this wasn't going to be their last encounter with Empire Squadron.

[Anowa]

The Bomber wing, after being exposed to the level of fire they had been put through, was mostly wiped out. Only a few attack craft and escorts remained. The two pilots from Empire who decided to aid the bomber wing, now turned away, seeing the inevitability of the wing's destruction. In the mothball above the once pristine airbase, a majority of both sides began diffusing and heading in their respective directions. Including the remnants of Empire's nuggets, whom after seeing their wingmen in trouble joined their flight lead and fellow newbie in engaging the two craft ace team.

The two CFA pilots popped flares and chaff at the incoming missiles, however Kowalski was the unluckier of the two. A single missile managed to detonate within his craft's vicinity, shredding one of his engines, causing it to trail an unhealthy amount of smoke.

The fellow squadron member's immediately tried to rush the two offending aces, only to be stopped by an eerily calm Kowalski. "It's bait, they want you to get close. Disengage and RTB, fight here is over."

An unnamed pilot spoke, "But sir, we could take them out right here and now!"

Winters responded, "Not in the condition we're in, fuel's getting low, and the Major's not doing to well either."

"Contact on our six!" cried yet another nugget. All present checked their radar, to spot two hostile craft incoming, but rather than actively engaging they only seemed to be escorting the two aces. They weren't a direct threat at the moment. Most craft were now headed away from the disabled base, both due to the battle's result, and now forming cyclone forming off the coast.

As the whole of Empire joined back up -all eight remaining- An unknown voice popped into the radio, although he was most likely Anowan. "Hey, the rest of my squadron got wiped, and the Navy's bugging out due to the storm. You mind if I stick with you guys?"

Kowalski turned to the left as he spotted movement, an F-14 labeled 'Hydro-4' was near to the Squadron's formation, "Feel free Hydro-4, we're all headed the same direction anyway."

The voice sounded a bit relieved, "Thanks, Empire-1."

[Armellenia]

Hydra positioned himself behind a cruise missile. He locked on. The buzz filled his cockpit. He fired.

It was getting incredibly repetitive to say the least. The constant chatter in his ears from friend and foe alike was now white noise. His ears only picked up the voices of his own squadron, AWACS and maybe Melody Team. Other than that, he felt wired, almost dead. The attack on the cruise missiles had been, for the most part, somewhat of a lukewarm combat. They couldn't really prevail; shooting down all of them with so limited resources was a rather farfetched idea. He and the rest of Sabertooth had done all that was seemingly possible.

"The cruise missiles are too few to be a worthy cause at this point. Just report over to the furball, maybe we can turn the tide over there. Who knows?" Hydra tried to sound optimistic.

The fall of Matera seemed inevitable. Suddenly, an alarm filled Hydra's earpiece, followed by Lynx sighing.

"Sabretooth Two, report status." Hydra sounded strangely uniform. He figured it was the fatigue getting to him.

"Yeah, almost evac bingo on fuel. Gonna have to ditch if they don't call it off soon."

Damnit.

Hydra gazed down hesitantly at his fuel gauge. Only eleven- ten percent left.

"Not sure if we can make it much further now. Gonna call it out on the-"

"Midnight Eye to all teams, looks like the enemy is going home. Matera has sustained catastrophic damage. Egress West to get out of this airspace and refuel..."

"..Speak of the devil. Lynx, refuel and then meet up with the IL-76 and three. I believe they're on an orbit outside of the combat zone."

[The LBP Union]

Left without runways at Matera, it was a perilous trip back for Melody team. ISAF ground troops designated secure landing zones at the edge of the storm along highways to allow planes with low fuel to land. Planes that had a few miles left in them were guided to aerial refueling or to international airports, which had been militarized due to the heightened state of conflict.

The highway was narrow and very different from landing on a traditional runway, but Euphony and Reaper managed to pull it off nonetheless. Trucks arrived to take the aircraft away, while Euphony and Reaper were transferred to Ramstein. Ramstein reportedly had been attacked as well, but the attack was not as powerful due to the majority of Visarian forces being down attacking Matera, as well as the lack of Anowan forces there to assist them in the Ramstein offensive. It was merely a distraction to keep reinforcements from pouring in.

The trip there was long and tiring due to going by land, but midway through the journey they were transported via air. As they began to land, Euphony eyed the differences in the facility since they had last been here. The atmosphere was filled with tension and unease. The airbase itself hadn't suffered much major damage, but Euphony could tell that it had been damaged in moral. Their enemy had grown strong enough to hit back at them.

---

It was the next morning that surprised Euphony, as there was no sortie for them this time. Command had stated that aircraft from their division were undergoing repairs and they had been under too much stress from the last mission, which required them to immediately jump from one defense to another. Demand for pilots had flipped from Ramstein down to other minor airbases. In their newfound boredom, Euphony listened to a receiver radio while sitting on a short wall near his quarters, looking to the sky. Often he would hear word that the Blue Baron had been sighted, often in two places at once. They had confirmed that the Mandate had more than one Eclipse fighter in their possession. Nobody could touch them, especially with those new laser pods they had.

It wasn't until the next day that the radio went eerily silent for a moment as he sat on that wall. There was a sudden silence everywhere, not just one of audible silence, but that sort of silence one would experience in a moment of fear. Euphony searched the partly cloudy sky. He heard nothing and saw nothing but the clouds and the blue yonder. Why was he afraid?

The silence was broken by a siren, paired with a loudspeaker demand for every available pilot to hurry to briefing.

The room was packed nearly instantaneously, so fast that no one could organize themselves properly. Everyone was intermingled with one another with no regards to rank, team or squadron. Goodfellow was already there, appearing rather flustered. Him and a technician were standing before a laptop that was purposed with running the briefing presentations. As the technician explained something to Goodfellow -- Euphony couldn't tell what -- Goodfellow threw his hands up in exasperation, then picked up the laptop and hurled it at the floor in front of him, stomping on it, turning it into a brick.

"Dammit!" He shouted. Euphony had never seen their commanding officer so frustrated.

The technician seemed rather upset as well, and left the room, gathering another technician. They both dragged in an ancient looking overhead projector, and plugged it into an outlet on the wall. It illuminated the wall in a yellow orange square, rounded at each of the corners.

"Alright, everyone, we have bad news." Goodfellow began. "We've lost nearly all broadband communications with the rest of ISAF, as well as satellite and AWACS control. Anything that was connected to the internet, is officially down."

"The satellites were connected to the internet?" Someone in the room asked.

"No, but the computers that communicated with them were. Even the facilities that had only secure links with other secure facilities have been cut off as well. If there's a path to it, it has been infected and downed. We were lucky to shut everything down before it could get to our missile networks. However, we were not lucky enough to stop the enemy from getting to this." Goodfellow explained, as he laid down a clear plastic page down on the overhead, overlaying what appeared to be the blueprints of some sort of satellite. However, it seemed tubular in such a way that it looked like the end of it was some sort of gun.

"This, is a top secret project under development by Union Space Command, dubbed Project Jupiter. It's a prototype orbital laser, which would be able to conduct orbital bombardment in a targeted area, as well as anti-air attacks from above. Development ceased due to the end of the Axis conflict, but the weapon was essentially completed, just never employed. We believe that the satellite has been compromised. However, we can't just simply turn the satellite off, since we have no way of communicating with it now. The Mandate is likely figuring out how to use it now, and could strike at any time. As such, and due to the catastrophic communications blackout that is forcing us to use alternative forms of communication, we will strike the source of this mess."

By now Euphony could practically feel the heartbeats of every single pilot in the room beating with fear.

"The virus is known as DyOS, which has completely swarmed our systems and ignored our defenses and bricked almost everything. We do not believe our AWACS broadband links have been affected, so you shouldn't encounter any problems with that. They run independent to the network. Furthermore, we have also reason to believe that we know where the server location for DyOS is located, which is the Visarian GHQ in Bucharest, Romania. I'd say it's high time we strike immediately to shut it down before things get worse." Goodfellow explained. "However, we haven't had much time to prepare, and our plans to strike the Mandate GHQ didn't take into account this sort of situation."

The briefing had now turned into a brainstorming session.

"The original plan was to force the Mandate to surrender, and siege Bucharest if absolutely necessary. What we are approaching now is not a siege, but a full on assault. We're going to lose a lot of men if we rush the fortress. How are we going to manage---"

"Commander Goodfellow." Came a voice from the entrance to the briefing room. In came forth four men in suits, the lead man's suit had a sort of blue tint to it. Most of the ISAF pilots were in a state of disbelief. That was the President, which wasn't that much of a surprise, but he was accompanied by the Vice President and the ministers. These were some of the Union Protectors. They always seemed to have a plan.

"Mr. President." Goodfellow acknowledged with a salute, stepping back towards the wall to give the President room.

"Nice to see you all. We think we have a plan." The President stated calmly. He was rather cool and collected, and rather experienced in this sort of situation.

"Sorry to drop in unannounced, but as it turns out, you guys appear to be our best chance at taking out these bastards." The President began as he spoke before the pilots. "We believe that with a little bit of cunning, we can disable those Eclipse pods that eat up all your missiles."

This interested Euphony and the rest of the audience for sure.

"I helped design the fighter, and while I never anticipated that it would be used against us --- especially in this scale --- I do know a thing or two about how those pods work. Looks alot like science fiction, now doesn't it? It's still science. In fact, it's all magnetism. If you want to render their defenses useless, you need to disable that magnetism. The pods are being held in place by a magnetic grip of sorts, and they swivel around 360 degrees to fire their lasers. In order to disrupt this we will use a ---"

"What President Youngling is trying to say is, we're going to shoot the damn thing with a gun and the pods pop off." The Foreign Minister interrupted, giving the President a stare.

"We have the system mounted on a truck as of the present moment, one of our UTF mobile Charlemagne command vehicles. Problem is, we have to make sure that this truck is in range of the target in order for this to be successful." The Defense Minister elaborated. "We're dispatching the Union Task Force First Airborne Batallion for this operation to serve as the ground support. Due to the location of the operation taking place behind enemy lines, we will not have access to ISAF force recon support. Our only supports will be you guys from the air, which will be critical. Our electronic warfare has also been crippled by DyOS, which means this operation practically falls on all of you here today."

"How are you intending on getting the First Airborne into Bucharest?" Goodfellow inquired.

"Well, let us just explain the whole plan to you, shall we?" The Defense Minister affirmed.

---

Mission 7:
Jupiter's Thunder

---

"Alright, I'm your Minister of Defense, Joshua O'Hanlen. We're calling this Operation Jupiter. Here's your more official briefing for today's mission:" The Minister began. He laid down a diagram of Bucharest on the overhead projector.

"We believe that those dirty nazis are hiding somewhere in the center of the city here, in this general location." He pointed and circled the area with a marker on the clear slide on the projector. "The server room is likely underground, so our air strikes will be composed mainly of guided penetration bombs deployed from precise airstrikes. In order to do this, the UTF First Airborne Battalion will arrive outside Bucharest by air and deploy, assaulting the city via the southwestern highway routes. Our artillery will lay down covering fire from the city limits, and tanks will pummel through the air defenses to clear paths for you guys."

"Your job at this point will be to swarm the city and eliminate defenses. We don't need to take out every single SAM site and triple A in the city to accomplish the mission, but we do need to find the server room location for DyOS and bury it. This will require on scene surveying by our UTF Grenadier combat engineers. They will occupy buildings near the supposed location of the GHQ, and will electronically survey tunnels underground to identify the location of the server room. Once the server room is found, bombing targets will be shown on your battlemap, and our Hailstorms will be able to pummel the area with energy assisted guided penetration bombs, which will obliterate the server room depending on depth."

"Your job throughout the mission will be to defend the ground battalion's advance, especially its key units such as the Grenadier teams, which ultimately will determine the fate of this operation. Once the server room is destroyed, the Mandate will lose its ability to utilize DyOS to communicate with our systems, and that includes the Jupiter satellite. We need to move fast before they learn how to use the laser. If they do manage to figure it out, they will be able to fire high energy lasers from orbit at targets at a rate of one shot per minute. This laser is able to damage air targets as well as ground targets. If you're caught in the blast, you're toast."

There was some nervous muttering about this.

"Furthermore, you're probably wondering how the Mandate is going to defend Bucharest. This is probably their most highly defended location, and they would not be afraid to divert every single Eclipse fighter they own for the defense of their GHQ. We are going to use this to our advantage. As we mentioned earlier, the mobile ground command unit for this operation has been modified to carry a weapon that will disrupt the magnetic field of the Eclipse fighters, essentially rendering their pod defense system useless. The fighters will then be able to be attacked with missiles. Beware though, they will retain maneuverability. We don't know how many there will be. There could be up to four or five. If you don't want to deal with their lasers, protect the command vehicle."

The President piped in.

"Time is of the essence. We must complete this operation with great speed and cunning. Expect changes to the plan to react to emergencies." He added. "We're counting on you all to get in there, take out the control room and get back home safe. If the Visarians succeed, they will be able to strike anywhere in the world with a high output laser that if fully charged could wipe out several city blocks. Imagine that kind of power in a heavily populated area like Las Calles. And as for our allied pilots here today, think of what would happen if they decided to strike your own home countries. We must succeed. We're counting on you. Good luck out there." The President concluded.

There was a sort of silence in the briefing room before the applause began. There was hope among the pilots, that they could accomplish this mission and avert impending doom. Euphony felt this as well. These people knew what they were talking about. The President and the other Protectors had a short word with Goodfellow before they exited the room.

"The Protectors will be overseeing this operation personally as best as possible, but it will be more difficult for them due to the lack of internet and satellite connection reliability." Goodfellow explained. "Now, let's get this show on the road." He concluded, and the briefing room cleared out in a matter of minutes. Reaper and Euphony reunited with one another on their way to the hangar.

"This is it. You ready?" Reaper nudged Euphony. Euphony hesitated for a moment.

"Alright." Euphony agreed.

They spotted Zircon team in the hangar bay with their elaborate F-22A Raptors. The looks on their faces no longer seemed to portray very much in the way of vanity. Euphony wasn't really able to tell what it was, but something was different about them.

But now, it was time for deployment. Euphony agreed to equip 4AAMs on his F-16 this time, as opposed to the typical QAAMs. Some short modifications gave the 4AAMs an added punch in strength, which might come in handy against tougher targets. Reaper chose to fly a Typhoon again, this time equipping 6AAMs. The two were ready for an anti-air battle, and ready to give cover to the joint strike forces. Their true goal was to combat the Eclipse fighters, which had troubled them for so long. Post-takeoff, the trip to Romania was a perilous one. In order to avoid outer air defenses, the plotted course was a weave through supposed enemy defense lines that might fire SAMs at them. Their position in the air offensive, which consisted of the majority of the airbase's aircraft, was towards the mid-rear. They wouldn't be the first to encounter any hostiles.

---

Approach on Bucharest
17:00

Some time later, Euphony didn't know how long, Bucharest was almost within reach. He could already hear mission chatter about the operation from the ground. The UTF First Airborne Battalion had begun their attack some time before they had arrived in order to preserve their element of surprise. The air offensive would have been identified on radar first, and they would have moved to expect the UTF forces. Enemy air forces were already on the move, but there wasn't any sign of the Eclipses yet. Reaper and Euphony flew side by side in a half finger four formation. They flew like two members of an orchestral trumpet section, poised and ready to perform with great precision and articulation. When one rose it's readiness to play, the other would do so as well at the same time. They acted as one, bound to a rhythm. Together, they formed a melody.

The sky was cloudy and gloomy, and gray clouds conquered the blue of the sky for control.

"Midnight Eye to all planes. Sending you fire zone data now. Prepare for IFF update." The AWACS informed, and Euphony's screen flashed for a moment as the targets were shown on his display. He spotted some Su-47s preparing to strike a UTF tank division.

"This is Colonel Buro, where's our air support?! My tanks are going to get cut down!" Came a frantic radio call from the ground.

"Hang in there, help is on its way. All units, you are clear to engage freely. Stand by for objective update. We need to clear the way for Buro's combat engineers to get in there and find the server room." Midnight Eye instructed. Euphony sighted four Su-47s with his 4AAM and fired. The angle he was at was poor, and all four of the missiles missed. With a heave of disappointment, Euphony moved in closer to utilize his gun and regular missiles. Reaper followed suit and prepared for combat. His 6AAM was better aimed, and he scored hits on each of the Su-47s, although didn't knock them out completely. Euphony finished them off with missiles and well placed gunfire.

"Thanks, Melody team." Came an appreciative call over the radio from the ground.

Eyeing his HUD, there were lots of enemy air targets, which ranged from Mig-29s to Su-47s, as well as even enemy attack helicopters. There were a mass variety of ground targets, including enemy artillery, which were high value on his HUD and looked heavily armoured. Melody team went into the usual plan of combat, attacking what they could in a systematic fashion. Spending five to ten minutes doing this, an odd panic came across the radio.

"Friendly fire! I repeat, friendly fire!" Came the frantic cry.

"What...? Epsilon 2, you just dropped an UGB on one of our tanks!" Came a stern response from Midnight Eye.

"What? That was marked as an enemy!" Came a frantic response from the fighter at fault. Euphony was awfully confused at this, and decided to investigate by listening further and checking his surroundings.

"Gah! One of our Hailstorms just dropped a bloody missile on our IFV division! The hell is wrong with our air flights?!" Angrily shouted another ground unit.

"...Dammit." Came a hushed curse from Midnight Eye. "All teams, your IFF has been compromised. We've been infecte-!" The AWACS was cut off and Euphony's radio fell into a state of loud static for moment. He observed several divisions of UTF vehicles cease fire and stop moving, allowing themselves to be pummeled by Visarian artillery fire. Once the static stopped, they began to frantically seek escape, but it was too late. Hostile tank divisions had already gotten close enough to finish them off, and they were soon done for.

"All units, report!" Midnight Eye demanded

"Melody 1, roger." Reaper responded.

"Melody 2, reporting in." Euphony followed suit. Other units did the same.

"We just got hit by an electromagnetic pulse. As far as we can tell, it came from one of our own E-warfare stations. DyOS has more control than we anticipated! All units, do not trust your IFF and disconnect from your broadband link to the AWACS. Any active link that the Visarians can get to your craft could be used against you." Midnight Eye ordered. Euphony kept a critical eye on his IFF and targeting systems, fearing that he might accidentally attack one of his allies.

"We're trying to get contact with ISAF command to get them to shut down the E-warfare stations, but it could take some time. We're going to have to manage for now, but we won't be able to advance very far with our armour until those stations are shut down, which could take a while." The AWACS explained.

"Look how serious you all are. Hilarious!"

That voice. It was him.

Euphony saw no new fast moving radar contacts. Where could he be? The Eclipse fighters must have been here somewhere.

"I have no radar contact with the Baron, somebody help me out." Euphony inquired.

"Oh, that's too bad."

"Wha...he's on our channel!" Euphony realized.

"Yeah, clever eh?"

Missile warning. Euphony couldn't tell where it came from, but pulled and popped flares, diving in the turn. After the warning ended, he couldn't tell where the missile had gone or had come from still. It was like he got attacked by an invisible enemy. Rolling back rightside up, he caught a glimpse of the iconic round canopy of the Eclipse behind him, hot on his tail, paired up with a set of rotating pods. Taking another look at his radar, they simply weren't there, even though he was well within range of them to be able to see even a stealth fighter on radar. DyOS must have had time in his plane's system to target his radar display and make it so that he couldn't see them. He would have to rely on HUD and visual. Sharply turning his aircraft towards the UTF offensive line, he progressed towards the command vehicle that was carrying the weapon they had discussed during the briefing.

"Melody 2 here, I've got the Baron on my tail!" Euphony alerted.

"Midnight Eye to Melody 2, you know the drill. We'll be working on restoring secure communications."

Euphony darted straight over the vehicle marked "Charlemagne" on his HUD on the ground, which appeared to be a long sort of truck with a bulky rear midsection, which he saw open up before he flew over and lost visual. Turning to evade an attack from the enemy fighter, he caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the defensive pods falling to the ground.

"Wha...?" Came a stunned response from the pilot. "Oh, you scrubs. You just hate it when someone actually is better than you, don't you?"

Now was Euphony's chance to strike down this monster on a fairer playing field.

"All units, the Eclipse is vulnerable. Strike it now!" Midnight Eye ordered.

And so, Euphony and Reaper met with the Baron at the merge, turning into one another with the same rhythm, the same precision. They were perfectly in tune with one another, ready to strike down their dangerous foe, which threatened to create chaos with the tempo in which they performed.

[Anowa]

Anowan Capital City, Terrenus.
The image of the streets was one of chaos, the inner city, dubbed the old quarter, was in flames. The city was thrown into chaos as active service members and citizens chose sides, either the now deemed corrupt King Decius, or the Minister of Defense and the rest of the cabinet. Both had viable reasons to fight, yet neither could justify the amount of blood spilled.

In the end the confusion of who won and what would happen afterwards would lead to mass desertion in fear of prosecution. And many soldiers would become mercenaries, coincidentally a few would soon be hired to fight against many of the same people they were fighting now...


Empire squadron, enroute to Bucharest.
The scene above the Balkan peninsula was an odd one, The Anowan Ministry of Defense was hesitant to send any more forces than necessary, due to the recently opened maw of a civil war back on the home front. As such they sent a single squadron of CFA-44s, lead by an F-15 with the visage of a skeleton, the signature craft Of Major David 'Tombstone' Kowalski. All armed with either electromagnetic guns, or ADMMs. They also had a drone control unit onboard which had been activated due to the operation. Three missile cruisers off the coast were also participating in the operation, using their cruise missiles as support. The CFAs now served as testing beds for experimental weaponry, and data collection from the blackboxes at the end of the battle.

The flight was also dead silent, and each pilot was rather far away from each other. Far enough away to engage each other if things went south. It was an unfortunate circumstance of the situation back home. The royal palace was under attack by The Minister of Defence's guard and a good majority of Tier one units and army. King Decius had spilled a large cup of grief onto the front page of almost every newspaper in the country, and no doubt foreign countries. And the king would pay with a hanged corpse.

The reason for the caution and lack of noise from each of the pilots, is that they all had their separate views on the situation. It was a powder keg, and no one wanted to set it off. Little did the pilots know, that the keg would ignite very soon. And little did the Ministry of Defence know, that the last surviving GEN 1 CFA would go missing, with the rest destroyed.

---

Almost eighty miles away from Bucharest, the squadron turned effective wing appeared on ISAF AWACS' radar. First as a dozen, then 60, and finally 154, eight of which were CFAs and one was an F-15, the rest were UAVs, very maneuverable, and targeting beacons for air-burst cruise missiles.

The UAVs began speeding ahead, becoming active beacons for incoming cruise missiles. The 3 armed with EMLs however fired on the cobbled mess of IFFs in the distance. The thunderous retort of rapidly firing railguns echoed throughout the skies, alerting those who didn't know of the Anowan's arrival.

Several targets were wrenched from the skies' grasp and sent off at an angle towards the ground. The Anowan pilots cared little for whom they were shooting, ISAF, Visarian, the IFFS were a mess anyways. They just wanted to fight their own war, one that didn't reek of Royal scandal.

[Post War America]

Ramstien Airbase

It had been a hard fight and a hard retreat. Moreno had to belly land his badly damaged Typhoon somewhere in Northern Austria, leaving quite the wreckage trail. Luckily he had managed to not only save his own life, but leave the craft in a repairable, if only just, state. Veracruz thanked whatever deities were watching today for this small victory. After a chain of defeats in recent memory it was a good feeling to finally have something go well for once. Upon finally coming to a rest in the hangar, he, when asked, mentioned that he had managed to score fifteen additional confirmed kills in the rapidly paced combat missions to which he had been exposed. The morale of the ground crews was in a clear sorry state. In spite of Lancero Squadron's small victory the Visrans were clearly making a hard push, possibly a desperate gambit, possibly a show of force it was truly hard to tell. As the groundies moved in to take care of his craft he attempted to contact Sáez.

The first attempt, via email failed miserably. The, his small tablet failing to connect to literally anything at all. He cursed a little, before wandering to the Headquarters for assignment to a barracks. After receiving his assignment slip he walked outside to the ancient telephone booths. He put a small unit of currency into the slot praying that the rickety old machine would accept the currency. Luckily for him it did. He dialed up the VSF Airfield's number. The phone rung briefly before Sáez picked up.

"Estamos Lancero Volares Sin Fronteras" "This is/We Are Lanceros Volares Sin Fronteras"..

¿"Sáez qué es la idea a comprar Dent"? "Sáez what's this idea to buy Dent"? Veracruz was still somewhat cross that his planner of day to day operations went over his head and made a major purchase without his consent.

"Neceistamos la personal Don Veracruz". "We needed the manpower Mr. Veracruz".

¿"Pero Dent? Tiene una histora larga de crímenes de guerra. Aruinarían nos reputación". "But Dent? They have a long history of war crimes. They could ruin our Reputation". Sáez tried to reassure Veracruz.

"Tengo fe Dent estaran bueno para Los VSF y tengo fe ellos no perpertaran crímenes terribles". "I have faith that Dent will be good for the VSF, and I trust that they won't commit horrible crimes". Veracruz challenged Sáez's claims.

"Ellos asaltaron adversarios saltaron en paracaídas. ¡Ellos mancharan nos nombre buena"! ""They attacked bailed out enemies. They'll stain our good name"!

"Necesitaron el dinero. Necesitamos los guerrudos. Intenta un poco de tener fe con mi avanzas Don Veracruz". "They needed the money. We needed the fighters. Try to have a little faith in my moves Veracruz". Veracruz realized he had to accept the purchase whether he liked it or not.

"Comprendo. Pero si su decisión dañaría VSF su cabeza estara en una fuente. Orden de comercio segundo necesitamos una avion mas. Moreno dañó su avion en misión". "Fine. But if this decision hurts VSF, your head will be on a platter. Second order of business, we need another plane. Moreno damaged his on sortie".

"OK. ¿A Dondé su neceista"? "Okay, where do you need it"?

"Ramstien" Sáez typed quite a bit making the arrangements to make sure that the Typhoon could be flown in Ramstien overnight.

"OK. Su tenerá mañana". "Okay. You'll have it by tomorrow".

"Bueno". Sáez typed some more.

"Tengo un poco más nuevas. Las patitas estan lista". Veracruz's reaction was muted.

"Excelente. Lleva sus con tigo en la misión sigiuente".

"Sí Don Veracruz". Veracruz, recognizing that nothing more needed to be said hung up the phone, and exited the booth. He read his lodging assignment. Veracruz was in luck. His posting was in a Private dorm, and not one of the massive tent barracks that had sprung up for the emergency overflow of personnel. More fortunately, he was sharing that dorm with Galvez. Perhaps it was some string pulling by the higher ups, perhaps it was good fortune. Either way, Veracruz wasn't one to argue. He quickly rushed back to his craft to grab his small selection of personal effects from the cockpit of his Typhoon. After retrieving the duffle bag from underneath the ejection seat he walked back to his dormitory. Galvez had not yet come into the room, and Moreno was still presumably being bused up from Austria.

The first thing he pulled out from the bag was his Antique Ruby Pistol. The thing was a relic of a war over a century old at this point, from a time that was at once entirely different and entirely the same. The pistol was handed down to him from one of his uncles, who had himself received it from another family member. Over the years it had seen much cosmetic improvement, and had become almost a work of art with a gorgeous ivory engraved grip and quite a bit of chroming taking over the cheap simplicity of the original weapon. Veracruz felt somewhat ashamed, as it had been quite some time since he last cleaned it, having been very busy with missions over the past few weeks. He resolved to give it a thorough cleaning that night to ensure that it could be properly cared for.

Veracruz then briefly assembled most his remaining collection of personal effects including a small battered photo. He had almost forgotten about the photograph. It was an old family photo from before the War that saw the installment of the "Iberian Republic", perhaps the only physical reminder Veracruz had of life before the war. It was taken at the family residence. Veracruz was a bit troubled when he couldn't find himself in the photograph. He always remembered seeing himself in the top left corner, but he wasn't there at all. In his place a stranger stood, someone who at once didn't belong, but also fit much better than Veracruz ever could. He heard the door start to open and quickly shuffled the Ruby and the photo into his pockets. The door opened and Galvez was suddenly in the door way, her own duffle bag hanging from her shoulder.

¡"Arturo! Pensé reprendas Moreno." "Arturo! I Thought you'd be chewing out Moreno." she said somewhat surprised.

"No. Tienó que Saltar en Austria." "No. He had to ditch in Austria." Veracruz replied frankly.

"Comprendo. Pues no terminaste explicar tu problema". "I see. You know, you never finished explaining your problem". She sat down across from Veracruz. Veracruz tried once more to evade the question.

"Tienemos trés misiones". "We just had three missions". Galvez's voice became more stern, but still had a very clear caring quality to it.

¡"Arturo! Quiero ayudar, pero no puedo si tu no dice la problema". "Arturo! I want to help, but I can't if don't tell me the problem". It was apparent to Veracruz that Galvez wouldn't stop asking until he gave her the whole story, or at least most of it.

"Yo servé en la Gurra Civil". "I served in the Civil War".

"Sí dició este parte". "Yes you told me that part".

"Sí pero no dicé la parte solamente servé a la punta de pistola. Yo quieré quedar nuetral. Pero los revolucionarios me dio la veridad de engañar mi nación mi famila y mis valores o muertía. Yo fui joven y pusilánime. Yo elecié viva. Servé los revolucionarios en su formación de la 'Repulica de Ibera'. Yo maté el príncipe heredero en combate singular. Yo miré la ejecución de la Familia Real. En la termina Los Cabrónes venieron para yo. Pues corrí. Corrí de España. Corrí de mis acciones. Usé casí todo de mi dinero para cambiar mi identidad, mi cara y fundé Los Lanceros y intiendé correr de mi historia. Corrí del dia yo maté Juan Carlos. Odio la Republica, pero odio yo mismo más de todo todo las personas de mundo. I vivo de código éticos pero nunca podero llevar mis manos de sangre de mi engaña". "Yes, but what I didn't tell you that I only served at gunpoint. I wanted to remain neutral. But the Revolutionaries gave me the choice between betraying my nation, my family, and my values or death. I was young and weak. I chose life. I served the Revolutionaries in the formation of 'the Iberian Republic' I killed the Crown-Prince in single combat. I watched the execution of the Royal Family. In the end, the bastards came for me. So I ran. I ran from Spain. I ran from my actions. I used almost all of my money to change my identity, my face, and found Los Lanceros and try to run from my past. I ran from the day I killed Juan Carlos. I hate the republic, but I hate myself more than anyone in the world. I now live by a code of honor, but I will never wash from my hands, the blood of my betrayal". Galvez was aghast.

"Pero solamente un persona pudí matar el principe heredero. Arturo estas..." "But only one persona could have killed the Crown Prince. Arturo are you...", Veracruz cut her short, almost pleading in his response.

"Galvez... Lucia. Yo necesito tu discreción. Si la Republica sabía ellos intiendía me matar. Yo no termino expiar para mis pecados. Nada pueden saber, no ya". "Galvez... Lucia. I need your discretion. If the Republic were to know, they'd try to kill me. I'm not done atoning for my sins. Nobody can know, not yet".

"Tienes mi discreción Arturo. Pero no pudes ocultar con migo. No puedo mirar tu te matas de culpa". "You have my confidence Arturo. But you cannot keep things from me. I can't watch you kill yourself out of shame".

"Comprendo, gracias Lucia". "I understand, thank you Lucia".

"De nada mi amigo profundo". "It's nothing my dearest friend". Arturo perked up a little bit more.

---

Mission 7
All things have a beginning. All things have an end.

---

Hangar after Briefing

"Moreno, how you doing man. Heard the trip from Austria was a pain in the ass.", said one of the groundies that worked on the Lancero Typhoons before the mission to take back Avalon. Moreno looked like a zombie, it had been a nearly thirteen hour trip given all the security. With the internet being down thanks to the Visaran hack attack it would appear he would have no leisure time before he would have to take to the sky.

"Shut up Stieglitz. That ride was hell. Would've given anything to be able to fly back to Ramstien". Veracruz piped up.

"Simmer down Moreno. You can get back to arguing with your groundy boyfriend when we've completed the mission". Veracruz took a more serious tone.

"Alright Lanceros. I was told by the base commander that we will be flying top cover for one of the Union's Tank battalions. Unfortunately, it would appear that most of the communications grid is down. So we're going to need a backup communications system in case things get hairy. That's why each of you will have these. He passed out two small earbuds.

"These little things are not connected to ISAF's main communications network. Sáez checked them just before shipping them out with Moreno's replacement craft. They're clean, and connected to my little hub here. However' they're very short range, so we will need to stay relatively close. The maximum range of these communicators is about 3 kilometers, so no running off on your own".

"Yes sir".

"This is primarily going to be a low level mission for us. However, I suspect that the Visarans will be throwing everything they have at us including those Eclipse fighters. Therefore I won't give you a recommended load out if you think you can just use the basic missiles and guns to kill ground targets go for it. If not, I would recommend you take Air to Ground Ordinance". Veracruz's ground chief ran up and saluted, asking Veracruz what his special should be.

"QAAMs for me Ludendorf".

"Yes sir". Galvez trotted up to her ground crew making sure her craft was ready. Moreno followed suit.

Approach to Bucharest

The allied ground forces had started their attack before Air Support had arrived. They were moving at top speeds to the fortress of Bucharest, under heavy fire. Veracruz saw his assigned battalion on the IFF, and noticed that it was being harried by a large group of hostile aircraft marked SU-32.

"Mourning Dove to Lancero Squadron. You are free to engage. Dent if you're in the Air Space you are also clear to engage".

"Macarena engaging". Galvez pulled away firing a volley of missiles into the pack of Sukhois. Moreno went full burn.

"Sidewinder engaging". He dropped an SOD on an approaching enemy tank company. Galvez's volley made short work of the large pack of SU-32s. About half of them were down. Veracruz engaged one of the remaining Sukhois and removed a wing with precise gunfire, causing another to explode to missiles. Galvez splashed another with missiles. Moreno finished off the last after making short work of the hostile tanks.

"This is the 2nd Battalion. Thak's for the Air Cover friendly aircraft".

"Friendly fire! I repeat, friendly fire"! Veracruz's head swiveled down to the Tanks he was guarding. They were still intact, yet apparently some friendly dropped ordinance on another. Something was wrong.

"What...? Epsilon 2, you just dropped an UGB on one of our tanks"!

"What? That was marked as an enemy"! Veracruz found it hard to believe, but was too busy engaging a flight of Kamovs to actually care too much. He shook it off.

"Gah! One of our Hailstorms just dropped a bloody missile on our IFV division! The hell is wrong with our air flights"‽

What the...

"...Dammit. All teams, your IFF has been compromised. We've been infecte-"! The AWACS cut out. Veracruz's UI went completely nuts. He watched as enemy tanks approached his battalion and opened fire clearing out half of them. He attempted to get missile lock but couldn't.

"What the hell is going on‽ Macarena, Sidewinder, you okay"?

Macarena signing in".

"This is Sidewinder, I'm good".

"Deal with the enemy tanks. I can't get a lock"! Veracruz turned his Typhoon in a sharp dive, firing his guns which, thankfully did not need a lock to fire, cutting open two IFVs but pinging harmlessly off an enemy MBT.

"All units, report"!

"This is Lancero Squadron, we survived, but our ground forces are shot to hell and my HUD got screwed up what the hell is going on"?

"We just got hit by an electromagnetic pulse. As far as we can tell, it came from one of our own E-warfare stations. DyOS has more control than we anticipated! All units, do not trust your IFF and disconnect from your broadband link to the AWACS. Any active link that the Visarians can get to your craft could be used against you".

"Arrgh. Damnit! If my bird crashes because of this you guys will be replacing it. Get me"?

"We're trying to get contact with ISAF command to get them to shut down the E-warfare stations, but it could take some time. We're going to have to manage for now, but we won't be able to advance very far with our armour until those stations are shut down, which could take a while". Veracruz turned his craft towards the friendly 2nd Battalion Tanks. He disconnected from the ISAF Broadband, cursing it's lack of security.

"This is Mourning Dove to 2nd Battalion. Fall back, we can't cover you while you're this advanced. Get to the hill one click West of your position".

"2nd Battalion wilco".

"Look how serious you all are. Hilarious"! It appeared that the infamous "Blue Baron" was here to make trouble. Veracruz figured it was about time that the Visarans pulled out their trump card.

"I have no radar contact with the Baron, somebody help me out". Veracruz was baffled. There were no eclipses showing up Radar.

"Oh, that's too bad".

"Wha...he's on our channel"!

Damn it is there no place the Visarans can't hack?

"Yeah, clever eh"?

"Midnight Eye to Melody 2, you know the drill. We'll be working on restoring secure communications". The Union Pilot turned to engage, briefly going fully on to the defensive before the Blue Baron spoke again.

"Wha...? Oh, you scrubs. You just hate it when someone actually is better than you, don't you"?

"All units, the Eclipse is vulnerable. Strike it now"!

"Lancero Squadron wilco". Veracruz fired some last protesting shots at the enemy ground forces killing a couple of tanks. He joined the massive fur ball erupting around the Eclipse. There were a couple of hostiles attempting to help it out, he splashed both in about six seconds before beginning to fire missiles at the eclipse. Even without its damn super defenses it still proved an impossible task to hit. Galvez spoke over the Squadron comms.

"Captain, I'm picking up a massive bloom of hostile IFF signatures". Veracruz checked his Radar. There were indeed nearly two hundred new signatures approaching the battlefront. Most of them appeared to be UAVs. Veracruz detected fast moving ordinance heading into the fur ball.

"Inbound Ordinance, Break Break"! The Lancero craft fanned out as three railgun shots pass through and obliterated several allied fighters.

"Wizard squadron is down"! Veracruz managed to notice that a very small number of the inbound hostile signatures were not marked UAV. Eight of the new signatures were marked CFA-44, whatever the hell that was, and one was an Eagle. Veracruz figured that one, or some of those aircraft were controlling the drones.

"Damn it! We can't let the new hostiles help out the Eclipse. Lancero Squadron engage inbound signatures, focus on the ones marked CFA-44". Veracruz brought his craft around pulling out of the fur ball, and moving closer to the swarm of hostile contacts. Arming up his QAAMs.

"Macarena roger".

"Sidewinder wilco".

[The LBP Union]

As Euphony and Reaper had begun to circle around to attack the Eclipse, several other ISAF squadrons had the same idea, and a large quantity of missiles from various ISAF and allied flights swarmed the Eclipse while it was in the turn from all different angles. Despite its attempt to zoom away, it was splashed by an unknown ally. Euphony couldn't hear the splash report over the cheering.

...but it wasn't over. Shots from the incoming Anowan reinforcements downed several ISAF planes in the furball, sending Melody team into an erratic evasive maneuver to dodge.

"Clever, but we're not through just yet." Came that chilling voice again. He was still out there, hiding away in his coffin like a vampire. Euphony spotted three more Eclipse fighters on his radar incoming not too far away, and they were all armed with those laser defense pods. Things were about to get messy.

"All units! Incoming hostile reinforcements!" Midnight Eye warned. "Two of those Eclipses are UAVs, and one must be being directly controlled from the COFFIN network."

"Shut up already."

"All units, the enemy is targeting ---" Midnight Eye began, but the transmission was abruptly cut out by a short blip of static before falling silent.

"AWACS, repeat. Did not copy. Over." Reaper requested. There as no response. They lost their AWACS.

"Must have been taken out with an EMP or their systems got fried from being infected already." Euphony reasoned.

They decided to face the Eclipses first, the three looming fighters that had been turned against them. Euphony couldn't guess from the start which one was the one being controlled by the real pilot, but he watched carefully. Each fighter split off as they came into range of the city limits, and split off. One went right, one went left, and the center one in the formation flew straight up and zoomed for altitude at a frightening pace. Euphony tried to guess what they were about to do.

Their next course that they took confirmed that they were indeed after the command vehicle that had disarmed the last Eclipse they shot down.

"Protect the command vehicle!" Euphony shouted, hoping to get the other pilots' attention due to Midnight Eye not being able to give them any instructions.

Each Eclipse converged from a different angle on the command vehicle, including different altitudes, making it difficult for the system to attempt to shoot all of them with its weapon at once, as it could only target one bandit at a time. By the time each Eclipse reached weapons range, the command vehicle had managed to disarm one of the Eclipses from its pods, but it was too late, and no one could stop them all from firing their missiles at the highly advanced mobile control center. Missiles from ISAF pilots not distracted by the incoming CFA-44 and UAV wing were merely shot down by the remaining Eclipses' laser pods. As the bandits' attack kicked up thick black dust around their target, they quickly zoomed away, leaving one Eclipse vulnerable and the other two protected. The IFF marker that had once read "LV-20" showed orange. Crippled.

"Gah! This is Rembrandt! We're screwed! Requesting extraction!" Came the cries from the ground.

"This is Beethoven, in route for extraction." Came another radio call from a nearby support helicopter.

"Dammit!" Reaper shouted in frustration.

"Cool it, we need a new plan." Euphony attempted to ease Reaper. "Look at those pods they've got." He pointed out.

"What about 'em?" Reaper inquired.

"One set is white, one set is red." Euphony explained. "The red ones are faster and can attack, while the white ones can only defend."

"Ah, I see." Reaper acknowledged

"You think you're so clever, but you're just a coward."

"Says the one hiding in a bunker." Euphony retorted. "You've murdered enough people in this selfish conquest of yours, and it's time it came to an end."

"Do you have any idea how stupid you sound right now?"

"He's just trying to make us angry. Keep a cool head, everyone." Euphony advised.

The Eclipse Fighters never converged this time, but rather split their ways. The Eclipse with the white pods picked on another squadron of ISAF fighters, drawing them away from the ground conflict. The Eclipse without pods at all decided to go after the other allied air superiority fighters. The one with the red pods however, set its sights on Melody Team.

"You might as well buy the farm. I'm going to kill you anyway." The voice taunted.

The Eclipse that planned to meet with them dove from high up at blistering speeds. Euphony and Reaper engaged afterburners and refused to climb to directly meet their opponent, but instead climbed a lower angle, and circled around in a wide turn. Once the Eclipse was sufficiently under a certain altitude, Euphony turned hard toward the city and Reaper followed. The idea was that if they allowed their enemy to get too close, the laser pods would make short work of them for sure, but not if it couldn't get a decent line of sight. With missile warnings coming before they were in range for the laser defense to kick in, Euphony and Reaper dove into the city. It was risky, as none of the buildings were very tall, but it managed to save them from death for a moment.

Euphony though, as he found himself flying at extremely low altitude along a long street lined with a wall of buildings on other side, heard a sharp, high pitched noise and felt his plane shake for a moment. He quickly raised altitude to prevent himself from careening into the ground and burned to try and escape the grasp of the Eclipse's laser attack. The attack ceased for a moment as Reaper fired a pair of missiles at the Eclipse, which forced it to take a moment to defend itself rather than attack Euphony again. Reaper fired a stream of gunfire at the bandit, along with a swarm from his 6AAM to distract it so he could momentarily get close. Several shots hit home, and Reaper was able to escape its clutches for the time being. During this time that the Eclipse was forced to defend itself, Euphony curved around and fired his gun as well, not only hitting the Eclipse this time, but also hitting one of the pods with a flash.

"I got one!" Euphony cheered, firing a missile to test the defenses. As he expected, only one laser kicked in to shoot it down.

"Geh...!"

The two ISAF pilots darted away to escape the bandit's next move, finding themselves both with missile locks as the Eclipse retaliated. The fighter gave chase to Euphony, who was unable to outrun it or out turn it at this point, and evaded the best he could while maintaining his speed to prevent the bandit from getting him with its last deadly laser. Popping a flare to evade another missile, Euphony was getting a bit nervous.

"Got your back!" Reaper affirmed, and fired another volley of 6AAMs at the bandit.

"Oh...!"

The bandit knew that he wasn't going to be able to shoot down all the missiles with half his defenses disabled, and broke off from his attack on Euphony to evade the attack. Now in a defensive position, Euphony and Reaper again converged to fire pairs of missiles again once they got into gun range to distract the defense system, and fired their guns again. With a hint of luck, they managed to hit the last pod.

"Got it!" Let's finish this!" Reaper chuckled. The two pilots of Melody team turned, preparing their traditional dogfighting tactics to dispatch the bandit.

"Reaper, is it?" Came the now rather nervous sounding voice. "I know about you now. You're the UTF reject. The one who wasn't good enough. Do you really think you're good enough to face me now? After I've cut down hundreds of other ISAF pilots just like you?"

"...Shut up!" Reaper growled, and nearly broke his turn.

"No!" Euphony warned. "Don't do it!"

"You're pathetic. Not good enough. I should have guessed. Just give up. Even without my defenses I'm far more maneuverable."

"Grragh!" Reaper shouted, and pulled down too far in the turn in a hopeless attempt to gain more energy, allowing the bandit to get behind him easily.

"No!" Euphony warned again, but it was too late. The Eclipse peppered Reaper with dozens of rounds of gunfire. Just as the bandit was about to fire missiles, Euphony caught the plane barely in lead and held down the trigger, blasting a stream of gunfire right into the cockpit of the module. The canopy shattered, and the engines for a moment started to sputter, before cutting out. Just before the fighter completely powered down, it fired a single missile at Reaper, which exploded right near his engines, sending Reaper's Typhoon careening into a set of buildings in a dizzying spin. The Eclipse fell nearby, smashing into the city streets below.

"Reaper! Do you copy?!" Euphony demanded, eyes peeled to the crash site and its near vicinity, searching for a sign that he had bailed out. There was no response, and no parachute. Nothing. He was gone.

"Melody 1 is down. Repeat, Melody 1 is down. Splash 2 Eclipse." Euphony reported. There was no cheering. There was only a collective silence on the operations radio among the ISAF pilots. A willing silence, not as a result of the enemy's tricks.

There were two Eclipse fighters left, as well as the Anowan reinforcements. The UTF battalion found itself unable to advance without air support. Things needed to shape up quick, but with one Eclipse down, the Hailstorms could partially resume their operations in bombing the hostile targets carefully, as to avoid friendly fire. Euphony turned to face the conflict before him, a lone soloist, playing a lonely tune on the battlefield.

[Anowa]

"Black Arrow to Empire squadron, first volley of cruise missiles is inbound now."

The UAVs of the flight merged with the mothball engaging both Visarian and ISAF targets.

The quiet of the flight was shattered by Winters, "This is Empire-6 to Empire lead, shouldn't we be firing solely on the Visarians? It'll end the fight quicker and the treaties won't be as damning."

A pause in response, "Negative, ensure the destruction of all other battle participants."

The space between the craft of the squadron increased. "This is Empire-7 I'm breaking o-" the man was cut off by a lock alarm echoing through his radio.

The unmistakable voice of Empire-2 called through the radio, "You will maintain formation Empire-7."

The tension was palpable, the squadron was closing on the mothball. That's when all hell broke loose.

A burst of gunfire from Empire-3 shredded the canopy of Empire-2, causing every craft in the flight to break off from their unified formation, Winters then quickly realized that the other pilots had changed their IFFs manually, and were now firing on each other. Try as he might Winters couldn't see who was on which side. UAVs began fighting while ignoring certain sides, roughly a third stopped fighting ISAF, and switched to Visarian targets. His missile warning sounded as the squadron merged with the furball. He was targetted by a missile, chaff and flares solved that issue, but only barely.

An Eclipse tearing through the air near to him. That was Winters' target. The 'shoulders' of his craft rose as he persued, and two railguns followed. He fired a volley at the experimental plane, and changed the IFFs of the ISAF pilots to friendly. "This is Empire-6 to ISAF pilots, you've got another Angel to dance with."

Durkov's unmistakable Slavic accent sounded out, "Empire-3, count me in as well."

No one else said anything, and a few UAVs went dead. Empire squadron was split, five to two, the experienced airframe of the F-15 would face the new world development of the CFA-44 this day. Age versus skill would be tested, and what a test it would be.

[Armellenia]

Hydra and his squadron hastily refueled away from the battle zone. Lynx's aircraft had in fact a fuel measuring of 0% as the refueling drogue touched it. Nevertheless, the journey back remained quiet and somber, none willing to share their anger about the seemingly failed mission. Escorting the IL-76 proved to be a problem, considering its slow pace and the growing desire in Sabertooth squadron's hearts to get home.

Ramstein AFB
Rammstein sure was a sight for sore eyes, even though they hadn't been away for too long. His aircraft quickly went under repair; to say the least it was coated in shrapnel from explosions and cannon round holes. Standing back from it, Hydra couldn't again help but notice the pointlessness of his kill marks. He didn't even know how many he had killed anymore, and it didn't matter to him. After the war he ought to replace it with a big question mark. Or a confused dragon, hence his nickname.

Or both.

But it was pointless right now, and the entire bodywork was likely to be covered with patches when he got it back. Maybe the war would come to a halt soon.

Mission 7: Jupiter's Thunder
Hydra had spent most of the briefing mystified by the arrival of all of the high court of the LBPU in one room talking to ISAF and their allies. Nobody from Armellenia, he thought, would risk their lives in an attempt like theirs. Visiting an active warzone. Were they crazy? Or maybe the situation truly called for an action such as this: the ISAF certainly needed the boost in morale, especially against such superweapons.

Hydra, as an afterthought, popped a piece of chewing gum into his mouth and recommended his colleagues to do the same, and memorize the location of their cannon sight on the HUD as well; if this "virus" decided to tamper with his weapons system, he thought, he might as well have a backup plan. The MiG-21 was old enough to operate without such modern optics; that is if Hydra avoided missile use until the danger was no longer present.

Strapping into the cockpit of his living fossil, Hydra came to terms with the severity of this mission- if they did it right, and outperformed the enemy, this may very well be the beginning of the end for the Visarians.

And the last chance to kill as many of the scum as possible.

Approach on Bucharest

Hydra positioned his aircraft for a dive on the nearest MiG-29 as soon as the order to attack was given. He descended like a hawk until he was within one thousand meters of the bandit, and squeezed off a burst on his cannon aimed at the engine nacelles of the aircraft. They exploded, sending the bandit tumbling head-over-heels towards the earth. Lynx fired a missile into another right besides it.

Hydra immediately picked up a frantic transmission from a distraught pilot in the mess of radio communications from his earpiece.

"What? That was marked as an enemy!"

Then came another.

"Gah! One of our Hailstorms just dropped a bloody missile on our IFV division! The hell is wrong with our air flights?!"

This continued until the AWACS was frantically knocked offline.

"Sabretooth, try to maintain radio silence. Do what you have to do to ensure you're not killing friendlies. In fact, if you're in doubt of your aircraft's systems like I am, remember what we talked about earlier-"

A frantic call arrived from Sabretooth Three.
"Jesus, I'm being torn apart, someone get these bastards off me!"

In the confusion, Three had been jumped by three Su-47s. His MiG-31 was smoking noticeably.

Without a word both Lynx and Hydra rushed to his aid. The Su-47s were uninterrupted until one of them was torn apart by a missile from Hydra's MiG.

The other two broke off, but it was not before one was torn apart by cannon fire from Lynx's aircraft. Three managed to pull his aircraft painstakingly into an angle decent enough to fire off two missiles, shredding the hapless Su-47 in mid-air.

The entire engagement found a wounded Three and the rest of Sabretooth Squadron in the middle of the hell, near the conflict between Melody Team and the Eclipses. Radio transmissions from Melody 2 delivered a grim message.

Reaper, Melody 1, one of the few original aces who had seen the war from the beginning to its present state, who challenged Hydra and his MiG-21 so long ago. He was dead.

Hydra's head once again flooded with confusion and anger. Every time someone he knew was killed, he was smacked in the face by the reality that they were at war, an engagement where death and sorrow were commonplace. Three interrupted his thoughts with the call that they were being approached by one of the Eclipse fighters at a rather high speed. Hydra snapped back to reality, quickly issuing the call which came too late.

"Sabretooth Squadron, break!"

Lynx and Hydra turned off immediately. But three was a sitting duck. The Eclipse fired two missiles in rapid succession, which kissed the nose area of Three's MiG-31. Anything after the intakes shredded off, leaving a drifting impression of a headless game bird, before the hulk glided downwards until it slammed into a tall building. Lynx gasped, but neither of the remaining pilots said anything. They both witnessed it. The horrible sight of yet another almost nameless wingman's death.

Three. He didn't even have a nickname. And now he was dead. He was the third pilot in Sabretooth Squadron, and the third pilot that Hydra would lose under his command.

The cloud of confusion was replaced by pure, unadulterated anger.

"Lynx. Break off. I'm knocking his goddamn kite out of the sky."

Lynx quietly complied.

Hydra took the chewing gum from his mouth, placed it in the general direction of his cannon's aim, and pressed a switch which disabled his IFF. Due to the design of his HUD, the weapons systems left as well, leaving him with a mostly blank screen and a piece of chewing gum where his cannon fire was directed.

By this time, the Eclipse pilot had leveled out to the front of him, seemingly unaware of his presence. Engaging his afterburner, Hydra sped into range of the Eclipse.

Hydra angrily growled into the public comms.

"Desk jockey. Drone operator. I know you can hear me. You gonna do something before I wipe your miserable piece of technology out of the goddamn sky?"

The Eclipse dove to the right. The pilot seemed to be aware of Hydra's transmission, judging by his reaction. Hydra kept on the toes of the Eclipse. Multiple opportunities to knock the bird out of the sky presented themselves; No, he wanted to savor this. Maybe taunt the pilot before their pathetic facility would be knocked offline.

He started by firing short bursts into the engine area. He then watched as the aircraft lost power, soon diving for short bursts of speed to keep in the air. The aircraft maintained its maneuverability, then chose to dive steeply to attempt losing Hydra. However, the low power dive was exactly what Hydra was waiting for. Lining up his ragtag sight with the main fuselage of the Eclipse, he pressed tightly on his trigger to fire his cannons. The Eclipse shuddered with every hit from the 30mm stream of lead. A large section completely tore off, and then another. Soon, the aircraft resembled a meteor shower of shattered and burning metal hurdling towards the earth.

Hydra celebrated for just a brief moment. But the tragedy of the day's events collided with him, with the realization that there was still more to do.

He reformed with Lynx and faced the rest of the battle with a grim determination. The two were the last of four Armellenian pilots in the ISAF's fight against the Visarians.

[The Lowlands and Saxony]

Somewhere near Bonn

Arthur's team barely made it out of the mess that was Matera airforce base. Some of the fighters had no chance to grab much fuel, forcing them to make a pitstop on a civillian airport somewhere in Switzerland. It took a day or two to have the whole team together again. Total loss in the fight of Matera: 2 fighters, pride and another slap to the budget.

"It is back to counter insurgency for a while once this finally is wrapped up..."Arthur says to Patrick. "We are taking too many losses against these air forces and it could very well bankrupt me if we are too deep in this."

"Aye. I hear you lad. We still are a business and losing aircraft isn't what I'd call profitable."

"Precisely. So this will be our last stint. After that we grab whatever cash is being offered and we pull out. We just can't endure this kind or hostile force."

"Did you hear anything from the muppets in high command?"

"Muppets...Right. They have assigned us a ground strike mission. This is our forte so there shouldn't be too much faffing about on this one"

"Sounds good. What are we using? Some kind of precision laser guided bomb?"

Arthur chuckles at this as he recalls the briefing he has received from high command.
"Actually, we are going old school on this one. Low tech, unguided high explosives"

The grin on Patrick's face was like that of a kid of a candy store.
"You had my curiosity mate. NOW you have my full on attention"

"There seems to be a virus of sorts crawling through the systems we use. We therefore have to use as little tech as we possible can. This means charts for navigation, visual confirmation of targets and downgrading our flight computers. The birds we fly are cold war stock. We could downgrade them to Vietnam level tech...A virus won't be able to effect anything is it runs on magnetics en basic offline circuit boards.

Our main task is to fight off any ground target we can find. There should be a base nearby the OPFOR operates from. I am sending you with a few escorts to level it. You will pack unguided, drag reduced cluster bombs to level the facility. I will spearhead a SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defences) mission. We will limit to heat seeking missiles for air and dumb bombs for ground targets. Any questions?"

"None at all. I'm going to set things in motion"

[The LBP Union]

Euphony passed by both specters whilst jockeying his Falcon in the confines of its tight bubble atop the nose. The first of the late in passing, the Baron, was defeated again. His craft, no longer intact, spread smoke across the streets of Bucharest, concealing the majority of the numerous pieces that had scattered upon the destruction of the aircraft in its violent combustion. The second, was Euphony's focus in this grave moment. The Typhoon's descent towards the Romanian capital paralleled that of the former subject. Euphony observed the mirror image from within the cockpit of his Falcon with undivided attention. Though both planes had been shot at slightly different times, at different altitudes, with different weapons, they both met an equal fate at the exact same time. The smoke and the many shattered pieces of their winged beasts were eerily similar. Both crash sites seemed to have a mirror placed directly in between the two, in the general direction in which Euphony was flying. It was impossible to tell which crash was which unless one had witnessed the event in its happening. However, Euphony would always remember that it did not matter which crash was which, for they were the same. It made no difference which crash was which, as it was irrelevant. Of what
true value was Reaper to the war? Of what value was the Eclipse to the Baron? They were only numbers to the minds of generals, expendable resources. It did not matter what lives were lost, or what machinery was sacrificed. All that matters in the field of battle is that the objective is accomplished. Man and machine serve the same purpose in war. They are tools of destruction, which other men utilize to shorten the life spans of their enemies by a grand margin. Reaper and the Eclipse were all but the same then through their destruction, as all broken tools are useless unless they can be re-utilized for parts.

The Falcon eventually passed through the line of symmetry, and Euphony turned his aircraft to return to the field of battle, where the fate of the conflict would be decided. He felt an emptiness in his formation as he called the splash and the downed lead pilot. It was unfortunate for Euphony to realize that this was no different than the tens of dozens of pilots that he had slaughtered himself. Even his own life would be just as meaningless if his life was taken. As somber as he felt for the loss of his wingman, he would not allow it to jeopardize his task at hand. If Reaper meant anything, he meant something to Euphony. To everyone else, he was just a number, but not to Euphony. Euphony was not going to allow Reaper to die for nothing, and Euphony vowed to complete the mission. Engaging his afterburner, his Falcon soared into battle once more to strike at their soon to be worthless enemy before them. Euphony was a lone soloist, playing a tune that resonated across the entire field of battle, and the distinct piercing 'pop' of his aircraft breaking the sound barrier turned the heads of many. His instrument streaked across the sky, painting it with his contrails and filling the great globe that surrounded them with the reverberating sound of his powerful engine.

The Union Task Force battalion below, now able to advance due to the lack of the Eclipse threat above, was quite relieved and began to push forward into the enemy positions in the city. Something wasn't quite right though, and Euphony could feel it in the air. Though his cockpit was pressurized, he could feel something, whether it be unusual vibrations or just the predictive intuition of many fighter pilots, he knew something was wrong. A cluster of Union forces below suddenly stopped moving, and Euphony's sensors fell silent as another electronic warfare strike disabled various instruments onboard his Falcon. He jerked his plane to the right pulling Gs that nearly broke his g-loading, which even though it was enhanced, it was still dangerously close to destroying the entire plane, though it was not the closest cause for near annihilation. The responsibility for such a near hit befell upon the screams of the sky. A pillar struck through the high cloud layer, punching a hole through the painted beauty of the evening sunset. Its tranquility was shattered by the far more brilliant flash of light which speared through the enormous globe, crashing down upon unfortunate troops below. The howl of the sky shook Euphony's eardrums, and the vibration traveled throughout his entire body in a sudden shiver. Euphony cried as the cacophonic sound echoed through his memory, permanently finding home within his experiences that he would remember for the rest of his delicate, ethereal life. His aircraft shook from the shockwave of the wide, cylindrical shaped lightning bolt striking the ground, but this was no ordinary bolt of lightning. The pillar sustained itself for much longer than a mere trillionth of a second, but rather for a half second, if not a full second entirely. The bolt disappeared, and as it did, the sky ceased its screams of agony. Below, where the light had fallen, there was nothing but bits of vehicles that had been partially vaporized. The spot was black as charcoal, singed by the intense heat. There was no doubt now, that Jupiter's Thunder had smited these unfortunate soldiers.

"What the hell was that?!" Came another ISAF pilot in bewilderment.

"Regroup! Status report!" Came another, frantically trying to restore order without the AWACS' help.

"God dammit! This is central, give me a damage report!" Colonel Buro demanded from the ground, fear present in his voice.

"This is Vesuvius! We've been sorted, send evac!" Begged one of the few survivors of the mighty blast.

"All units! Project Jupiter is active! I repeat, is active! We need to find that control room, now!" The colonel ordered with high priority.

"Surgeon here! We're suppressed! We need air support!" Cried someone on the ground over the radio. Euphony turned his ear to the call for help, and listened carefully.

"Hey, somebody get in there!" The colonel ordered.

"Melody 2 here. Approaching your position." Euphony acknowledged. He saw the group that had called for help on his HUD engaged with a hostile riflemen team, but visually he was not able
to tell the difference between both groups. Knowing that his HUD might be faulty, he decided to try a different method of identifying friend from foe.

"Melody 2 to Surgeon. Send up a flare. Can't tell who's who up here." Euphony requested. Almost instantly after this, the team marked as hostile sent up a flare. It was the Grenadier team. The other friendly marked team did not respond.

"Roger that." Euphony confirmed, and closed in to sweep the hostile position with rounds of gunfire, raining down slugs from his powerful cannon. The suppression fire slowed very quickly, allowing the grenadier team to advance.

"Thanks, Melody 2! Let's move out!" The grenadiers cheered, and pushed on forward into the city.

"This is Watchmaker. We're in position. Beginning scanning." Came another radio call. That must have been one of the grenadier combat engineers on the ground."

"Hacker here. We're also initiating scanning. Watch our backs, central."

"This is Surgeon, count us in too."

"Yes! Get to work, boys!" The colonel encouraged. It was not soon long after that however, not even a few minutes, that the sky screamed once again, and another bolt of Jupiter's mighty thunder struck one of the groups of artillery pieces in the rear line. Euphony's tears fell in short order as he turned to face the flash of light and its just as destructive and horrifying thunderclap.

"This is Flatbow! We're in shambles! Send evac!" Cried one of the survivors in the great blast.

"They're going to cut us down if we don't do something quick! Grenadier teams, what are you doing?!" The colonel began to panic.

"Hacker here. Triangulation complete. We've located the control room. It's underground at...oh no..." Reported one of the Grenadiers, his tone of voice becoming very grave.

"What is it!? What do you see?!" The colonel demanded.

"They...have it right underneath the central military hospital!" The grenadiers reported back.

"...Gragh! All air units! Hold your fire! We need to get Kommando units into the hospital to get access to the bunker, or if necessary, clear out that hospital so we can bomb the hell out of the control room!" The colonel instructed. "Do not allow fire to fall upon that hospital until we can keep the people inside sa-"

The flicker of Euphony's HUD coincided with the communications cutoff. Another EMP. Euphony knew what would fall next, and the sky screamed once again as a thunderclap engulfed not another set of Union ground forces, but he saw that this time an entire squadron of Hailstorms flying in close proximity for close air support were vaporized in mid air by the bolt. The smite of Jupiter was not only meant for ground forces, but it could target air units as well. Euphony clenched his control stick in preparation for anything that he could do to perhaps protect himself from this more advanced threat. There was nothing onboard his fighter that could predict these orbital strikes, and Midnight Eye was not around to warn them of imminent danger.

"We just lost Typhoon squadron!" Came one of the witnesses of the attack. Could things get any worse? Not only did they have the ultimate weapon pinned against them, but the only way to shut it down was to bomb a hospital full of innocent people. Who was willing to make that kind of call? Not someone who wanted to continue having their leader in office.

"Grragh! Get me Gladius team as reinforcements. I want them on deep strike into that hospital. Air units! Protect their chopper! Stay spread out! If they fire that cannon, we want minimal casualties! If you spread out, they won't be able to deal cluster damage! You will be more likely to be shot at if you cluster up!" The colonel ordered with precise and swift instruction.

Euphony turned to see an EC-220 Gadfly helicopter flying fast deep into the battlespace beyond UTF lines. He watched as air units and ground units alike spread out as if they were trying to avoid a contagious disease. Euphony did the same, though knew that he would need to protect the helicopter somehow. Spotting enemy air units converging on the target, he got in close to these bandits, hoping that he would be a much less likely target for the orbital laser if he was nearby hostile units. This though, gave him another idea.

"Hey! I have an idea!" Euphony shouted. "What if all our units got as close as possible to the hospital? They wouldn't dare strike their own control room, would they? That would take away both of their greatest weapons!"

"...Hell, it's worth a try! Everyone converge on the hospital and backup Gladius team on their entry! Do not all get in their all at once, stagger approach to avoid laser strikes in transit!" The colonel agreed. Cover for the helicopter was successful, and Euphony noticed that the pilot of the Gadfly was very skilled in avoiding enemy fire. Euphony wondered if the pilot actually needed their help due to this skill that was displayed.

The helicopter never actually landed, but rather it hovered above the roof of the hospital and the platoon of Kommandos rapelled down. Seconds later, the helicopter turned away and whisked itself away, out of harms way. The Kommandos stormed the hospital quickly.

"Gladius here, we're inside the building. Looks like we've got alot of patients here. It'll take some time to clear them all out. We're finding a point of entry into the control room. Stand by, central." The Kommandos reported.

It took some time, but the rest of the battalion quickly circled the hospital, though air units still had to spread themselves out, which was rather difficult. The unfortunate part of this plan was that it bunched up the UTF battalion, making them bigger targets for other enemy ground forces. They were going to need to rely on allied air support big time. The artillery piece on the outer line was ordered to retreat due to the lack of protection able to be given to it, as the other artillery had already been targeted. The 1st Airborne was now no longer in possession of artillery support.

There were no orbital strikes for the next 10 minutes, but there was fierce fighting on the ground and in the air.

"This is information warfare command, we have regained control of our electronic warfare stations. Support operations available at your command, Colonel." Came a relieving radio call from abroad. No longer would they have to suffer through hostile EMPs.

"About time! IWC, requesting electronic warfare on those tank divisions eating up our support forces." The colonel ordered. Cheers were heard as a hostile tank brigade was rendered silent, and UTF gunships made short work of them as they hovered around the hospital. The majority of UTF forces had taken cover behind the hospital, where enemy forces would need to circle around the building to get a clear line of sight.

"This is Gladius, we cannot locate a point of entry into the bunker! Repeat, the hospital is not the entrance!"

"Dammit! We need to clear out that hospital, now! Get me some evac choppers in here to get these patients out of here! How long will this take, Lieutenant?!" The colonel demanded.

"Colonel, evacuating that hospital would be too difficult to airlift them all out at once and take far too long. Evacuating the hospital via ground to secured buildings under our control in rear lines would be far more efficient, and would take about twenty minutes." A female voice reported.

"Get it done in fifteen!" The colonel shouted. "The fate of Europe-- hell, the entire world depends on us bombing the hell out of that position! Clear it out!"

"Yes, sir." Affirmed the female voice once again.

"This is Gladius! This facility is crawling with hostiles! Engaging!" Came an alarmed Kommando leader from inside the hospital.

"Sit tight, we've got reinforcements inbound and Grenadiers to help with the evacuation. Medical experience among them should be able to get them out of there." The colonel informed.

The intense ground effort was going to take some time, and the majority of the efforts in the sky were quick bursts of close air support and air superiority tasks. The enemy didn't have much in the way of immediate trump cards to take down the air flights that were helping to make the mission successful. The split up Empire squadron was a threat, but the now allied members of Empire seemed to hold their own against their more advanced former comrades. Euphony detected a new set of bandits on radar to take care of, and quickly moved in to take them out. It was a more skilled team, but not one that Euphony couldn't handle, along with some other ISAF air units.

It was a while later, perhaps seventeen minutes that they had finally cleared the hospital and relocated the patients to buildings southeast of the hospital. Euphony was relieved to hear that they would now be able to level the facility and bury the control room.

...but the sky screamed again. This time, the thunder fell upon no allied units. The sound was not the same as before, and rather Euphony heard it as a sort of dying echo. The low cry of the bolt indicated to Euphony that many had died in this latest strike. Euphony turned to face where the bolt had fallen, and was shocked, if not bewildered to find that the mighty bolt that had pierced the sky had now struck the lives of the innocent. Jupiter's thunder had cut down the crippled, the injured, the sick and helpless patients that had been evacuated from the hospital and the Kommandos that aided them in their escape.

"You poor scrubs forgot we can still hear you." Came that voice again, the Baron. Hiding away in that bunker, Euphony assumed. Anger swelled within him, in response to such an act of unjustified cruelty. They had no need to use such a tool of devastation upon so many innocent lives. They had no need to take those lives away in the first place. It was then that Euphony truly realized the sheer scope of the inhumanity of the Visarian command. For once, he could understand that their death was truly necessary. So long as they could not harm the innocent any longer, it was the best option to Euphony at this point, and he awaited the call for the bombers to raze the control center even farther towards the depths of hell.

"...hit that thing with everything we have! Destroy everything! I want those god forsaken nazis dead!" The colonel demanded, and it was so. Hailstorms rushed over, dropping microwave assisted guided penetration bombs on the hospital, each punching holes into the building, and eventually through the ground. The bombing lasted for quite some time, and all Euphony could hear throughout the bombing was the laughter of the Visarian administration. The Mandate had been beaten, finally. Their superweapon defunct, their control taken away, and their armies crushed, yet they continued laughing. They must have been located somewhere else however, safe from the carnage. The cowardly Mandate masterminds were hidden away somewhere safe. Euphony shuddered to think of what they might try next to initiate further bloodshed, but he was glad that it was finally over.

The wake of the battle left the city to burn. It was not a grand sight, but more of a pitiful reminder of the sheer nothingness that is left after great conflict. Smoldering crash sites from fighters of indiscernible allegiance dotted the city, and many buildings were left collapsed and crumbling. Gazing upon the UTF battalion that remained around the now crumbling hospital, which was unidentifiable due to the ordinance and destruction inflicted upon it in the effort to destroy the target beneath it, Euphony noted that the size of their force had been significantly diminished. What once was an expansive force to be reckoned with, was now only a few vehicle divisions. They had taken heavy losses, yet no matter how justified their campaign to prevent further bloodshed, the death of so many still did not feel justified. Truly war did not have a theme or justification in the first place. Such themes were grasped at by the victors for the history books, but such is merely the winning man's folly. It was perhaps the greatest mystery to Euphony as to how mankind had managed to survive if it continued to partake in the pointless slaughter of so many of their own.

Air flights dismissed from the airspace, Euphony and the others began their trek back, and this was when Euphony noticed that their angels too had been significantly lessened in stature. Many fallen in combat. That emptiness that carried with them on that journey home created a pit in Euphony's throat. The emptiness in his own formation led him to understand the true sacrifice that this campaign carried. Silence carried with them in their solemn passage, and Euphony noticed that many of the reoccurring faces of the campaign were loosely bundled together. They weren't in a formation, but they could perhaps become one. Euphony accelerated and passed them at a moderate pace, as if beckoning them silently to join formation. They were the team that never actively worked together. The survivors of this conflict that were able to see the faces and emblems of one another more than once or twice. Euphony respected their work in combat, though was not aware of their perspective towards everyone else.

"We've done it, at last." Came the indisputable voice of Goodfellow over the radio. "However...it's come at a heavy cost for our side." He added, solemnly.

"Salute to the brave warriors." Came the nearly forgotten voice of Midnight Eye. Euphony gave a salute. The timidity of his hand was not one of shame, or of dishonor, but channeled his solemn thoughts and unanswered questions that shrouded the enigma of the deaths of so many, especially of Reaper, who once was a mentor perhaps to Euphony. He was not proud, however, of his own murder of the enemy, for it did not make him any better than the Visarians who murdered so many. His conflicted perspective of the campaign was the cause of his less than proud gesture of respect for the fallen angels that had once flown among them.

It was a long, silent trip back to Ramstein.

---

Ramstein Airbase
Debrief

"Thanks to you, we have managed to stop the Visarian Mandate from murdering billions. DyOS nearly was able to strike critical civilian locations with Project Jupiter, and easily could have hacked unconventional weapons from any nation should they have gotten desperate enough. We were lucky to stop it before they could get into any nuclear stockpiles." Goodfellow explained. "Our losses were heavy, however, and we are gravely upset that this is the cost of peace." He added with a sigh. "Get some well deserved rest. You'll need it. We're very proud of each and every one of you." Goodfellow concluded. The briefing room began to bustle as many pilots stood up to leave.

"Wait." Came the voice of the president. "There are a few of you we would like to speak with." He promptly called for several squadrons and individual pilots to stay, including Euphony. Among the held back were Sabretooth, the Empire defects, Lancero squadron, and others.

"I don't believe in recognizing aces as simply individual figures of great skill. I believe that while you all have plenty of skill to back yourselves up, each of you relies on one another to keep yourselves alive and accomplish missions, and that's what we believe makes for the best aces. You survived the Visarian campaign and brought peace. We thank you for your service. However, there are more opportunities for you to continue to make the world a safer place." The President began. "We are establishing a new international team of pilots with core logistics and command handled by ISAF, but composed of members and commanders from around the world, mainly from the countries that have assisted in the Visarian conflict. This would be called, Task Force 114, Arrowblades. This is an elite force, tasked with swiftly ending conflict across the world that concerns allied interest and the lives of innocents." The President further explained.

"However, membership is voluntary. You may choose to walk away, or you may continue service. You will be justly compensated either way for your service in Operation Eternal Liberation either way. Membership with Task Force 114 will also compensate you as well for operations, but I know that membership in a task force with a mission of upholding the greater good is not something that can be successful purely with monetary incentive for members. Pilots should be concerned with upholding that greater good, not purely for the money involved. I trust you will make the right decision."

Thoughts raced through Euphony's mind as he processed this choice. He had seen enough bloodshed for any man to bear, yet he recognized how many people he saved from certain destruction through participating in the operation. The murder of the many patients from the hospital would have merely been the beginning of the Visarian genocide that would have occurred if they had been allowed to proceed further. Perhaps this was something that he could be a part of and make a difference in. His legs refused to move to stand up and walk away.

"You have plenty of time to discuss this with your commanding officers if you aren't from ISAF, and we will also speak to the them and a few of them we already have spoken to them."
Goodfellow added.

And so, Euphony stayed, along with several others, and their next mission would await them some time later. It was now time for rest, and time to reflect. In the moments that Euphony did exit the briefing room after his membership with the task force was finalized, he understood that this was not an ending. He had not obtained closure. He had only been given a new beginning.

End of the First Story
Thanks to all who participated, see you in the sequel?

[Anowa]

Epilogue
Over the skies of Bucharest, much happened to the Anowan forces, the volley of orbital lasers destroyed most of Empire squadron in a single blow, and removing the IFF capabilities of both Winters and Kowalski. However the two set at each other with a fervor unseen. They had gone unnoticed by all others, until finally one triumphed, Arlen Winters, the bright eyed patriot had won against a cynical Major, who lacked the spirit to fight for his country any further. His final action as Major was to pass along his callsign to Winters, a tradition spanning back to the First World War.

Winters, finally snapping out of his state of zen, realized what he'd done. Killing a friendly officer was quite an offense back home. However with no where else to go, he returned to his home airbase there he was grounded. He also gained some allies, the F-14 from the prior operation 'Hydro' had doubted whether the new leadership would be able to run the country. This, combined with his fear of imprisonment, convinced both pilots to abandon their past life, becoming soldiers of fortune. However their past would eventually catch back up with them, in the form of the people they once fought against.

[Post War America]

Bucharest

The CFA-44 Squadron seemed to be collapsing. The second Veracruz turned to engage them they immediately began to fire among themselves. The battle as a result turned into naught but a confusing mess, planes tangling into each other firing missiles randomly. The cocked up IFF in this case was far from helpful. Veracruz went all guns to make sure he could see Roundels before opening fire. Another Visaran fighter went down to Veracruz's gun fire. It appeared that the ISAF pilot downed the remaining Eclipse an act which managed to reverse the tide of battle. Veracruz did have to hand it to the pilot, he certainly did have style. He managed to pilot the bird gracefully through the sky, a deadly nightshade in full flower.

Another pulse came from the Visran Virus, screwing with Veracruz's interface. The virus was worse this time, as it cut his engine. Veracruz cursed into the his communicator as he struggled to keep the craft aloft while attempting to reignite the engines.

"Captain! Is there something with your craft"! Galvez made no attempt to conceal her concern.

¡"Mierde! I've lost power, I'll try and fix it but I may have to bail out. Why did I upgrade with ISAF parts? Damnit"! His airspeed was rapidly dropping, and it was clear that Veracruz would stall very soon if the engines didn't kick back on.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon"! The engines roared to life at the last second, allowing Veracruz to get back into the fight. He did praise the luck that kept enemies off his tail while he was stricken. Unfortunately the beleaguered Allies couldn't catch a break, and the Visarans had yet another trick up their sleeve. A massive column of blue light erupted from the heavens to earth shaking thunder. The frantic allied chatter indicated that it was an enemy strike on ground forces.

"All units! Project Jupiter is active! I repeat, is active! We need to find that control room, now"!

More frantic calls for help followed. Most we evac calls but some were calling for Air Support. Veracruz obliged as best he could, however it was virtually impossible to tell friend from foe at these altitudes and he opted to avoid attacking friendlies. More chatter, the ground forces were beginning to trace the location of the assorted Visaran tomfoolery. Another flash as more ground forces were obliterated, more chatter.

"Hacker here. Triangulation complete. We've located the control room. It's underground at...oh no..."

"What is it"?

"They...have it right underneath the central military hospital"!

"Mierde. Is there no low the Visarans won't stoop to"? A third strike from this "Project Jupiter" came down. This time however, chatter indicated that it was an Air Squadron and not ground forces that got hit.

"Damnit! Your eggheads really need to stop coming up with these superweapons. This is going to cost you extra". Veracruz then switched to Squad comms.

"Stay together. I don't want to lose track of either of you. Get me"? Two Typhoons appeared from elsewhere and took up positions at Veracruz's four and eight.

""Hey! I have an idea!" Euphony shouted. "What if all our units got as close as possible to the hospital? They wouldn't dare strike their own control room, would they? That would take away both of their greatest weapons"! Veracruz' chuckled a bit.

"Hey! Not a bad idea kid. Lancero Squadron fly close to their hospital".

"Sidewinder roger".

"Macarena roger". Then there was the waiting period. Sure the "waiting" consisted mostly of bombing the crap out of any enemies that tried to exploit the much closer orders were flying. But it was clear that Visarans couldn't fight without their shiny toys anymore. The combined guns of Lancero's Typhoons cut a bloody swath through the city of Bucharest. However, another bolt of light obliterated a section near to the hospital. Yet more allied chatter indicated that it was civilians that had been slaughtered.

"You poor scrubs forgot we can still hear you". There it was again. The Blue Baron's inscrutable voice. Veracruz's demeanor shifted once again. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, perhaps it was that he was tired of the Visarans and their constant horrific actions. He burst out in a fit of rage, it was a good four or five words before he could form a cohesive sentence of something other than four letter words.

"If you're hearing, listen to this you bastard! I hope there is a VERY special layer of HELL for MONSTERS like YOU"! The Colonel called in the big bombs to hit the bunker which let out not more than a small puff of smoke after being penetrated and obliterated, and with that it was over. No cheering, just silence. The city was in ruins, and burning, littered with the corpses left behind of the Mandate's pointless crusade.

It was a long, silent trip back to Ramstien.

---

Epilogue

The President's offer was on its face, not very tempting. Though the Lancero presence had been small during this operation, the squadron would surely grow, and with it the operating costs. While the Union could afford to saddle the operating costs of a for profit squadron of just planes, he doubted they could justify the expense of paying for twenty mercenary pilots or more repeatedly. Therefore it was not a good deal for the continued operation of the squadron, and on its face Veracruz wasn't quite willing to accept the offer just yet.

However, there was a certain appeal to the offer that transcended logistics. Though many in his company were pure mercenaries, Veracruz and his most trusted compatriots, those in the room with him had not always been heartless killers only in it for the money. All three had been part of the Spanish National Air Force before the Civil War, and all had the experience of fighting for something greater than a paycheck. It would be a good feeling to once again be flying in the name of a cause, even if it be trite.

"¿Que piensan?" "What do you two think?", he asked Moreno and Galvez. Galvez was very quick in responding.

"Tomase". "Take it".

"Bien. Pero necesito mis condiciones encuentran". "Fine. But I will need my conditions met". He took up a pen and quickly scribbled down a preliminary list of his needs before returning to the President. He saluted before speaking.

"Señor. I do not quite promise to sign on just yet. But I am interested in the offer. Here is a list of what I would need to be ready to sign on". He handed the President the list.

"Its nothing formal. But... consider it a start to negotiations".