Ch 1
Trigger dove towards the ground, seeing the SAM sites open up on the transport. As much as he was tempted to let them kill the bastard, he knew that would result in mission failure. And if he wanted to escape, he'd have to kill bandog as well.
"Beggers can't be choosers." the Yuke pilot muttered. He found himself oddly at peace as he flew across the mountains, plugging SAM sites when they were found. He couldn't care less if McDickless was killed. One less thing for him to worry about.
"Enemy fighters, take them out." Bandog said.
"Tabloid, Count, take them out. I'm almost done with the SAMs." Trigger said.
"Copy that." Tabloid said, firing at the enemy Gripen's. He already killed two of them, and Count bagged the third. They were about to join McKinsey, but more enemy aircraft showed up, this time Mirage 2000s.
"Damn. These bastards are serious." Count said, as they entered another dogfight. The Mirage's pushed thru and headed to McKinsey, firing their missiles.
"Are you trying to let him be killed?" Bandong growled.
Trigger didn't answer, but instead firing his missiles at the enemy fighters, destroying two and forcing the rest to retreat, being easy picking for the rest of the squadron.
'Can't believe there's only three of us.' the ace thought.
"Look below us. Is that a wall?" Count asked.
"Sure is. They're imposing their independence on everyone else." Bandong said.
"Reminds me of that one anime i watched, attack on titan. Involved giant man-eating humanoids trying to kill a bunch of humans that built giant walls to keep themselves safe." Tabloid said.
"Good anime. Very dark and gory." Trigger said, as he picked up MiG-31s on radar. He and Tabloid turned to face them, taking down two in the first pass.
"Trigger, it's a breath of fresh air having you out here. In our squadron, even the good pilots were criminals. You don't stink like them, Trigger." Bandog said, a hint of admiration in his voice.
"Thank you, sir." Trigger said, as he danced with an enemy Foxbat, eventually taking it down.
"Not all guard-dogs have a good sense of smell. Trigger has the worst crime out of all of us." Count spat.
"Count, you were convicted of fraud. You sure as hell don't live up to your name." Bandong reminded.
"Save your sermon for someone who cares, preacher." Count said.
"You wouldn't understand, Count. Not unless you take a good look in the mirror." Bandong said, dropping the mic.
"It's a good thing we're not fighting titans." Tabloid said.
Suddenly, bright yellow lightning strikes occured, hitting the ground beneath them, several hundred meters away from the wall.
"What the hell was that? Bandong, are we supposed to having a storm?" Count asked.
"We're not supposed to. And even if we did, lightning is white when humans look at it, not yellow. Trigger, descend and see what's going on."
Trigger flew close to the ground, seeing smoke appear from the ground. He first thought it was from the lightning strike, but his gut was telling him no, that this was something else.
A beastly roar was heard, and Trigger's eyes widened in shock as he saw large human-like monsters appear from the impact zone.
"Titans!" he shouted, accelerating away from the beasts.
"What did you say?" Tabloid asked.
"Bandog, we have titans on the ground. Repeat, we have titans on the ground, along with a large drill." Trigger said.
"Speed and direction?" Bandog asked.
"Speed is slow. Direction is…" Trigger started.
"Trigger, report!" McKinsey ordered.
"Bulgudarest. They're heading to the city." Trigger said.
"All fighters, new mission. Stop the titans and drill from reaching the city." Bandog said; the three pilots obeyed his orders and began to fire upon the titans.
"What the hell are you trying to pull?" McKinsey asked, seeing his escorts leave.
A SAM site that Trigger conveniently forgot fired a missile at the now-abandoned transport, and McKinsey was now KIA.
"Roper one down, not that it was a load worth protecting. Continue on the current mission." Bandog said.
The Titans were soon killed, leaving the drill by itself.
"This drill is a marvel of scientific ingenuity and raw destructive power. Once it tunnels through the wall, our troops will storm their city, and we will take Ba Sing Se in the name of the fire nation." the leader said, completely oblivious to their perilous situation.
"What about those muscle guys down there?" Ty Lee asked, looking thru the periscope. She saw dozens of tanks, humvees, and soldiers armed with machine-guns.
"Oh please. The drill is impervious to any known method of attack." the leader continued.
"Five aircraft coming in. They're very fast!" Bandog exclaimed.
Sol squadron appeared on the scene firing air-to-ground missiles, stopping the drill in its tracks.
"Pilot with the three strikes, i come bearing news." Mihaly said, his squadron flying next to Spare Squadron.
"Belay that thought. We got a contact coming in. It's wicked fast!" Bandog exclaimed, not seeing anything like this before.
A menacing futuristic drone appeared, it's forward swept wings helping its fear factor. It began to accelerate toward the large formation of fighter planes, guns blazing.
"Trigger, take out that drone. Tabloid and Count, finish off the drill." Bandog ordered.
"I'll help three strikes against the drone. The rest of you, finish off the drill and be on the look-out for enemy aircraft." Mihaly ordered.
Trigger tailed the drone, firing missile after missile, yet the drone outmaneuvered the missile or shot them down with its machine-guns. Mihaly gulped in a brief moment of fear. He had some idea of how powerful the drones were, but this was beyond anything he could imagine. He was always ahead of the drones Erusea produced, but now it seemed he found his equal.
"Damn it!" he growled, as he and the drone exchanged cannon fire, forcing him to retreat. The drone was on his rear, and Trigger was on the drone's rear as well.
Check that. It seemed he found his perfect counterpart in UCAV tech.
"Come on, three strikes. Take this bastard down before it kills both of us." Mihaly muttered, as he gave the drone a crash course in high-g maneuvering. Pushing himself and his plane to the limit, he strained to keep the drone in its sights. The drone also had to deal with attacks from Trigger in his Su-37, getting hit a few times from the older plane.
"Mister X, i'll act as bait. You take him down." Trigger said, firing a missile to get the drone's attention. The drone fell for the bait and chased after Trigger, firing its guns at close range.
"Fox 3." Mihaly said, firing a quick maneuver air to air missile. The missile chased after the drone, eventually taking off its right wing.
"Not enough. We'll have to finish it once and for all." Trigger said, closing in and firing his guns. The drone was riddled with cannon fire until it detonated in a flash of fire. Mihaly flew next to Trigger, and saluted his enemy.
Saluting the Erusean ace in return, they picked up more planes coming in.
"This is the 444th and Sol squadron. Identify yourself." Bandog said.
"Is that a guard dog barking? This is your old friend, cyclops." Wiseman said.
"What are you doing here?" Bandog asked.
"We were tracking an Erusean drone. I wouldn't be surprised if that dumbass from your unit took him down." Wiseman said.
"This is Sol squadron. That 'dumbass' is a much better pilot than you'll ever be, considering he took down the drone by himself. I helped, but that's beside the point." Mihaly snarled.
"Mister X is here? Shit." Huxian said.
"Calm down, Cyclops 4. They're not killing each other, so something must be up." Wiseman said.
"Correct. I have a message to bring to you pilots." Mihaly said, when Wit radioed in.
"Sol 1, you remember that drill we trashed earlier?" Wit asked.
"Yes." Mihaly said, confused.
"Well, it was holding in a smaller drill. Same length, smaller diameter. And this one is armed to the teeth with AA guns. We can't break thru with the planes we have." Sol 2 said.
"Reinforcements have arrived. Cyclops squadron, help us take down the drill and i'll tell you my message." Mihaly said, diving towards the armed drill.
"Copy that. Cyclops squadron, take out that drill. Mister X, we'll talk when the mission's over."
Every fighter plane lined up and took turns strafing and bombing the drill, braving the intense anti-air fire coming from it.
"Follow my tracers!" Count shouted as he fired his guns at the drill, beyond their effective range. Everyone else collectively facepalmed, embarrassed to see count's bout of stupidity.
"Get in close, and fire at point blank range. It's the only way to stop that drill." Bandog said.
The drill didn't last long against a full dozen fighter jets throwing everything at it, and violently blew up.
"That's done with. Mister X, tell us your message." Cyclops said, as both the Osean and Erusean pilots flew in their own separate formations. Trigger, a Yuktobanian pilot, stayed between both sides as if he were the mediator between them.
"Hold on. I'm picking something up on the news. You guys should hear this." Bandog said, broadcasting the incoming transmissions.
"This is the OBC news. The war between Osea and Erusea has been put on hold for the moment. An island nation was recently discovered in the pacific ocean, calling itself the fire nation. Large oil fields were discovered, and this revelation has led to the president of the Osean Federation to brand the fire nation a perpetrator of international terror in league with Belka." the news broadcasted.
All the Osean fighter jets broke formation and headed to Tylor island to rearm and refuel for the journey to the fire nation, leaving Bandog, Trigger, and Sol squadron by themselves.
"This comes amid territorial disputes with the Union of Yuktobanian Republics, and the Kingdom of Erusea. Both governments had ordered all available military forces to converge in the name of regional stability." the news continued.
"What? That's along the border of the motherland. Mr X, we must annex-i mean stabilize the region." Trigger said, his Yuke accent showing.
"It's nowhere near Yuktobania or Erusea!" Bandog exclaimed.
"It soon will be." Mihaly smirked, as he lead the remaining pilots to Farbanti.