(Warning, the following article is an fan-fiction created to pay homage to the Ace Combat series produced by Namco Bandai and their prospective partners, some events that occurred in the game's storyline will be purposely retconned to better suited to the flow of the story and thus none of these should be considered canon. Again this is created to pay homage to the Ace Combat story. All character and events that occurred in the story are properties of Namco Bandi and are purely fictional.)

Enjoy

15 years ago...a memoir of the Belkan War by Benjamin McCord

Dedicated to my wife Maria, my mentor Josh, my trusty camera "Crystal", and "Him"

Bastok Peninsula, Yuktobania, 1207, November 2, 2010

Hello everyone, my name is Ben McCord, I've work for the Osean Broadcast Company for almost 16 years and am now a senior field journalist in the documentary division. As of November 2nd I was assigned to cover the ongoing war that was happening in the Yuktobanian frontline. The Yuktobania military unexpectedly declared war on us and tried to invade one of the offshore military base in late September, but thanks to the Osean Defense Force, they've managed to halted the invasion and take the fight back to them thus for. I had a bad feeling about this war because our president - Vincent Harling had never made any official announcement regarding the invasion and it would go against his personal beliefs and policy to authorize such a thing in the first place, but that is something that I will investigate later.

When I arrived in the beach where the invasion took place, it was strangely quiet and peaceful, surely if a huge battle take place here then there will be at least some signs of battle. But it was not so. I heard it was thanks to the Osean Air Force pilots that the operation were carried out successfully. I tried to interview some of the soldiers but they all have different perspective as to the reason.

"We kicked their ass because we have the best pilots in the world!" Said one soldier

"No you idiot it's because the Yuke ran away from the might of our defense force!" Said another

"No because the Paramarines were with us today!" Another solder had said

As soon as I heard the word "Paramarine" An surge of nostalgia rushes through my body. The Paramarine is an selected breed of amphibious infantry soldiers, highly trained and ready to fight.

There's no doubt about it, if the Paramarine is here then so is "he". I asked around if any of the Paramarine unit were stationed here, most of them give me an puzzled look.

"Nope I have no clue what you were talking about"

After asking around dozens of soldiers I've finally one person who knows the answer. He name was private Wagner. Wagner is a transportation specialist assigned to guard the make shift heliport. Because of the type of terrain, they have no choice but to build an make shift port at the top of the plateau, away from the main camp.

"Ya I saw them but they got a new assignment so they packed their gears and moved on already. But hey since you are here can I get an interview? I would love to be in it!" Said Private Wagner

Private Wagner seems like one of those happy-go-lucky type of guy, so I can't help to do an interview and findout a little more about him anyway. Just than a senior soldier came out of the guard post from nearby and confronted Private Wagner in a rather comical way

"Idiot you are still on duty, focus on doing your job"

"But but we were about to do an interview...SIR"

"I know that son but right now you are on duty and it is your responsible to guard this place with your life, how else are we going get supplies if the enemies took out the heliport?

"You...You are right sorry SIR"

"Now you get it, keep doing a good job and you gonna get promoted very soon"

"Thank you SIR"

I was disappointed when I heard that because I thought that I would meet "him" again after all these years. Just then a surge of wind blows at my face and then all of sudden an convoy of military helicopters passes by, there were three large Chinook helicopters following several other smaller, nimble ones called the Littlebird, usually the Littlebird form a circle around the larger helicopter to form a defensive parameter against attack and to act as an small insertion forces for dismount operation. But just then I managed to glimpse the face of one of the soldier sitting the canopy of one of the Little bird. It was sunset so it was kind of hard to see, but I can definitely see that they have different gear than most of the soldiers that I've encountered so far, their equipment were more sophisticated than the ones issued to conventional forces, the right shoulder of the soldier that I've caught an glimpse have really distinctive patch, it was an emblem with a logo of the jolly roger and a roman numerical "VI" on top of it. It's the Paramarine unit that I was desperately trying to look for and only such unit would rock a insignia like this!

But When I caught the face of that soldier my mind instantly went blank. There's no doubt about it, it's "him". After all these years, "he" is still alive and fighting on the battlefield.

The next day I requested an audience with the field commander to set up an interview with the Paramarine that are on the frontline, the field commander - General Howe is an nasty piece of work, he was charismatic but very cautious and by the book at the same time. But after much persuasion I managed to convinced the commander to grant an interview. The excitement of finally meeting him leave me with no room for sleep, all I could think about is what would happen when "he" and I had finally meet again after all these years. The event that we went through in the last war were more than enough to appreciate the fact that I'm still alive, still alive to do documentary, to capture and show the things that people like "him" have to go through everyday.