Disclaimer: I don't own Ace Combat, Namco does.
AN: This is set during AC Distant Thunder mission 8 Shattered Skies.
The tanker
I'm not very good at stories but I'll tell you about the time I realised just how good that blasted pilot with a ribbon insignia was. We were flying above Comono Island rocket base engaged in the biggest furball I've ever seen and am ever likely to see. Our orders were clear. Secure air superiority over the base until the bombers destroyed it. ISAF didn't intend to let us do that of course and we were busy trying to shoot them down and avoid being shot down in turn. After about 30 minutes of hard dogfighting I was forced to go to the tanker we had sitting on the edge of the battle to refuel. If there's one problem with the Mig 29 Fulcrum it's the lack of range. Of course the tanker had escort fighters. In fact a whole squadron of them, but that didn't make any difference to him. His F-14 Tomcat barrelled through the escorts and despite the fact that we all were all shooting at him and forcing him to jink like mad he snapped off a couple of sidewinders into the tanker at close range. The first missile caused the tankers fuel to explode and the second flew right into the fireball. That's when it hit me. No normal pilot could pull off a stunt like that and live to tell the tale. Hell I doubt Yellow 13 himself could fly that well (although Yellow 13 would never would have gone after a tanker to begin with.). With a scream of rage I threw my plane at him, but in my heart I knew it was already a lost battle. Even if I did shoot him down, without the tanker my squadron didn't have the range to get back to Eursean territory. As you can guess I didn't bring him down. In fact less than 30 seconds after he destroyed the tanker he pumped my plane full of cannon shells and I had to eject. I spent the rest of the war as a POW. When I heard the news at the end of the war about the ISAF pilot who shot down the Yellow squadron single handedly I knew it was him. All I can say to him is good luck, whoever you are.