Aerial Conflict

by mobius32

No direct ties to Ace Combat, just some names that may sound familiar. Some scenarios may also be connected to Ace Combat.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:The Beginning

Chapter 2:First Flight

Chapter 3:The War Begins

Chapter 4:Surprise Attack

Chapter 5:Explosive Mentality

Chapter 6:Jailbreak

Chapter 7:The 8392nd Squadron

Chapter 8:The True Enemy

Chapter 9:Unexpected

Chapter 10:Grimm's Uprising

Chapter 11:Yurope's Final Actions

Chapter 12:Remnant Forces

Chapter 1: The Beginning

The war started on February 22nd 2012. Yarvin invaded my country, Reilia, in hopes of taking over and captivating all of our natural resources. They pushed deeper and deeper into our territory, taking over all military stations. They soon reached our capital, November City. There was a massive fight between our Military and rebellious citizen forces and the Yarvin army. The Reilian forces pushed back the Yarvin forces, little by little. The entire Reilian army joined together and pushed the Yarvin forces all the way back into Yarvin. We then went into Yarvin to neutralize their army. "We could not afford to keep the Yarvin army at bay, they may attack again," is what our president, Friedreich Davenport said. We successfully neutralized all of Yarvin's forces.

The Yuropeans had set up their own bases near the border between Yurope and Yarvin. The Yuropeans had sent requests to Yarvin to join forces with them. The Yarvinese rejected their requests. The Yuropeans still continued to make requests. The Yuropeans even threatened to invade Yarvin soil if they Yarvin continued to decline requests. The Yarvin forces saw this as a perfect time for rebellion. They drove all of our Reilian forces out of Yarvin and back into Reilia. The Yuropeans, seeing no response from Yarvin, invaded. Yarvin was caught by surprise. The Yuropeans had launched a large scale offensive against Yarvin.

Yarvin, though very surprised by this because they had been distracted by Reilia, repelled the attack. They pushed back all the way into Yuropean soil. The Yarvin forces attacked all military bases in Yurope and left their infrastructure crippled. Yurope was barely able to keep military presence only because of the small militias in each city. The infrastructure of Yurope was left a mangled mess. You could literally see that when you flew over the country. Each military base was slightly on fire and abandoned. It was as if it were the end of the world. Out of all this destruction, neither of the two countries had found victory in the small conflict. Reilia was the victim. That's what most people say. Others say Reilia was just a distraction and the real victim was Yurope. I think this is true. Only time will answer though.

Thirteen years later…

May 21, 2019

Starke Air Force Base

I had just gotten out of the training room. I was going through some dog fighting simulations. As usual, I ended up shooting down all of the enemy planes. My name is Konrad Schmidt. I am one of the best pilots of the Reilian Air Force. Though I haven't ever fought in a real battle, I had been the most successful trainee in Starke AFB and in the entire RAF. Well, I can't forget my rivals. Yes, when we were training we had rivals. I mean we were all trying to show off our talent and match everyone else's moves. The two trainees that stood out above the others were very annoying at times, like gnats on a hot sticky day. I had great respect for them of course, but they were so good at flying that we all basically fed off each other's skills. We matched each others moves. I found myself attempting maneuvers I had never even been taught. I'm sure they felt the same.

The two trainees were Manfred Fleisher and Amy Speidel. When I first saw Amy I was surprised to see a female face under the flight helmet visor. We were flying side by side after chasing each other through the air, daring each other to try things we had never done before. She flashed me thumbs up and banked away from my plane. I won't ever forget how her face looked. It seemed so bright, brighter than the sun in the middle of the day.

Anyway, the base commander had just called me up to the briefing room. I entered the briefing room slowly and hesitantly as always. I'm always expecting him to brief me on my first mission. It hasn't happened yet though. Starke AFB hadn't been active for thirteen years, since the last conflict. I stepped in and to my right someone said, "There's our captain." It was Manfred, Amy by his side. She gave me the same thumbs up as she did in the air. I smiled humbly and wondered what Manfred was talking about.

Our base commander, Herrick Netzer, was standing in front of the screen at the front of the room. It seemed as though all of the trainees from the whole facility were in the briefing room. As I walked up to the front of the room, where Herrick was standing, the trainees were slapping my shoulders congratulating me as if I knew what was going on. I still hadn't the slightest clue.

I saluted Herrick when I reached him. "You called me here earlier sir?" I asked.

"Yes Konrad, I did. I need to give you something." As he said that, the room quieted down. I didn't look behind me to see everyone's faces. I could feel them glued to my back. He gave me a certificate. 'Promotion to Squadron Captain' it said on the top along with some other stuff on it, mostly signatures of people. I looked up at Herrick. He nodded back at me.

"This is our first real icon of Starke Air Force Base in years. We had never had someone so skilled that he could represent our base. Schmidt has shown his skill and has proven that yes, skill does still exist in Reilia here at Starke Air Force Base. Congratulations Konrad Schmidt." Herrick pulled me around behind his desk and spun me around. I saw all of the smiling faces of the trainees and staff and others I've never seen before. I looked at Herrick, the crowd, my certificate, and back at the crowd. I held my certificate high above my head and the room erupted in cheers.

After a minute of seemingly endless cheering, Herrick held up his hands. The cheering stopped immediately. He grabbed a box from under his desk and set it in front of me. It had the Captain's insignia on it. I whispered to myself, "No." I knew what it was before I had even opened the box. I opened the box carefully. It was a black flight uniform, complete with the pants and everything. It had the Captain's insignia on the side of the left sleeve and on the right shoulder. My name was printed in gold letters: 'Captain Konrad Schmidt'. The cheering started again.

Herrick put his hands up once more. "I have one more announcement to make. It has come to my attention that there are two other pilots that were always fighting with Schmidt and each other for glory during the training. I won't be mentioning their names just yet. I will let those who saw the three training pick the two wingmen of Konrad Schmidt." Everyone immediately turned towards Manfred and Amy. I looked towards the two. They were looking back up at me too.

"Get up here you two," I called them up to the stage myself. Herrick looked at me and whispered, "Boy, you already know how to take charge over someone else." I smiled back at him. Manfred and Amy walked up to the desk. I shook hands with both of them and stepped back, letting them take the show.

"How does 'First Lieutenant Manfred Fleisher sound?" Herrick asked Manfred.

"Very good Sir."

"I expected that." Herrick pulled out two boxes similar to the box I got; only difference was the First Lieutenant's insignia. The boxes contained their certificates and their uniforms. The cheering started once again. I stepped in between the two and the cheering got louder.

Chapter 2: First Flight

After the ceremony, we went back into our quarters. The crew quarters' hallway was crowded with staff members waiting to meet Amy, Manfred, and I. We pushed ourselves through and we reached the end of the crowd. The hallway emptied out and the three of us were left standing at the end of the hallway.

"It's just gonna be the three of us most of the time now," I said.

"Yeah, I know," Amy replied.

"Well, I need some rest. I'm going back to my room," Manfred said as he walked down the hallway. Amy and I watched him until he walked through his room's doorway. I looked at the ground and then back up at Amy. I found her looking right into my eyes.

"Congratulations on the promotion," she said.

"Yeah, you too." She smiled and walked past me to her quarters. I couldn't wait to get up in the air again.

"Air raid! Air raid! All pilots, get up in the air immediately!" Control Tower was yelling through the PA system. It was late and the sun was deciding whether to set or not. The days were getting longer. I quickly put my flight uniform on grabbed my helmet and ran out into the hallway. It was as if an angry mob was running through the hallway.

"Hello sir!" one of the trainee pilots greeted me.

"Hey."

"What do you think is going on?"

"I wouldn't know. Hey, what are you doing anyway? You're only a trainee."

"Well Control Tower said all pilots, didn't he?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I am a little nervous, aren't you? None of us have any battle experience, not even you guys, the three of you."

"Yeah I'm nervous. What's your name?"

"Hans Grimm sir." I've heard that name before.

"Aren't you with the Lynx Squadron?"

"Yes sir. Two planes is more of a team if you ask me though."

"Hmm, I see. You are aware that you aren't an official squadron or team or whatever. They use Lynx just to identify groups."

"Yes, sir. I am aware of that." Grimm said as we entered the hanger.

"Good. Keep yourself safe up there Grimm. Don't wait to long for your buddy. You know base command won't like that. My guys are already here, they just went into their planes."

"Yes, she's here too," he pointed at this good looking female climbing up into her F-15.

I tried not to show interest. "Good luck up there Grimm."

"You too sir." We split up and ran towards our own planes. Manfred and Amy started up their engines and were heading out to the runway. As soon as I was settled into my F-15 I went on the radio. "Hey guys, we're gonna get shot at as soon as we head outside the hangers. Do all of your preflight checks inside the hanger that way you don't slow the takeoff process. Good look out there." I ran through all my preflight checks. As soon as I was done, I went on the radio again. "Manfred, Amy, how are things going out there?"

Manfred responded first, "It's pretty rough out here sir. Explosions everywhere! Missiles, bombs, gunfire, they're throwing everything at us! I'll be surprised if any of the trainees get up in the air!"

"Fleisher, you just make sure you get up in the air. Speidel you do the same. Don't worry about me, I'll make it."

"Roger, sir." I looked outside and there really were explosions everywhere. I was barely edging out of the hanger when there was a huge explosion right near the hanger. The roof near the exit of the hanger caught ablaze and embers started falling onto my wings. I made it out before my plane was covered in embers. I turned my plane and towards the runway and I saw Grimm heading out of the hanger right behind me.

"Grimm, you okay?"

"I'm fine sir. I'll make it up." I wasn't too sure of that, but I liked his confidence; I didn't want to spoil it. I looked at the control tower, which was right near our hanger and it was on fire.

"Control tower, I need clearance for takeoff!" I knew I would get no response. "Agh! Base Command, I need clearance; Grimm is right behind me!" I wasn't sure if I would get any response from him either.

"This is Base Commander Netzer. I cannot give you clearance, I can't see much from here, there's too much smoke. Take off at your own discretion."

"Roger that sir." I put the turbines up to max thrust and my plane started moving forward. I was soon moving at one hundred miles per hour.

"Grimm, start up your turbines. Don't worry, I won't get hit. You'll make it up."

"Grimm, roger that!" I looked at the radar and Grimm's plane started moving right behind me.

"Lynx 2, where are you?" I yelled into the radio.

"I had some trouble with my plane sir but its okay now, just a small delay." I wanted to make sure Grimm had someone to fly with. I didn't think he would survive alone. My plane reached two hundred miles an hour and I started pulling my flaps up. My plane lifted up. I wasn't done yet though. There was an enemy plane hot on my tail.

"Schmidt, watch your tail! Your tail!" I took a quick turn to the left and a missile and then a plane flashed right behind me.

"Fleisher, Speidel, get over here and cover my six!" I yelled. The two quickly came up beside me and perfectly. "Well it's good to see that you know how the formation looks.

"Schmidt this is Speidel; were we ever assigned a squadron name?"

"No Speidel. Not until now. I think we could be the Spatz squadron."

"All planes this is Manfred Fleisher; our Captain, Konrad Schmidt, decided that we'd be called the Spatz squadron. All planes refer to us as Spatz 1, 2, and 3."

"Spatz 1 to all Spatz planes. Let's shoot down that last enemy plane. I see it on the radar."

"Spatz 2 roger."

"Spatz 3 roger."

"This is Grimm! I'm up in the air!"

"Spatz 1 to Lynx 1; take out that last enemy plane."

"Lynx 1 roger." We accelerated towards the last enemy plane on radar.

"This is Spatz 1, missile locked on!"

"Spatz 3, Fox 2!" Amy launched a missile. I saw it was going to miss though; the enemy had generated good angles. I positioned myself behind the enemy plane the way I did in the simulations.

"Spatz 1, Fox 2!" My missile was launched and the enemy plane just froze. He was totally fooled. The missile found its mark, right between the two engines. I had just then realized that it was an SU-32 I had shot down.

"Hey guys, the enemy seems to have impressive craft with impressive pilots in them. Be careful. You won't shoot them down by yourself." Manfred and Amy formed up quickly again.

"Your first kill Konrad," Manfred informed me.

"I know, it feels great."

"Any more enemy planes?" Amy asked.

"I don't know. Spatz 1 to Base Command; anymore planes?"

"Yes, second wave of planes bearing 180. We can't abort, all planes, attack the second wave of planes!" There were only five planes coming in. Three B-2 bombers and two SU-32 escorts.

"Lynx 2 here; there are only two enemy planes coming in. This shouldn't be too hard." I looked down at the radar. Three of the planes disappeared.

"Spatz 3 to Lynx 2, there are three stealth bombers. Those are harder to detect."

"Oh, so there are five planes?"

"Yes, five planes."

I was looking around and I saw no other planes besides Manfred, Amy, Grimm, and his buddy. "Spatz 1 here; what happened to all the other allied planes?"

"Base Command here; all of the other planes were grounded, they couldn't take off, there was too much going on."

"Uh roger that. We'll take on the next wave ourselves." We accelerated closer to the wave of enemy planes. As we got closer, I decided to tell everyone what to go after. I am a Captain now after all.

"Spatz 1 here; my guys will go after the escorts. The bombers shouldn't be a problem, so Grimm, you'll be going after the bombers short handed. If you need help, just ask for it and I'll send Amy.

"Lynx 1 roger that."

"Lynx 2 roger."

"Spatz 2 roger."

"Spatz 3 roger." We made our separate headings towards the group of planes we were assigned to.

"There they are." I saw two small lights ahead of us. It was getting darker, which didn't help. The sun was setting on the opposite side of us, to the west.

"Manfred, Amy; go pick a target, I'll follow one of you."

"Spatz 2 roger."

"Spatz 3 roger." They went ahead and I stayed back and followed. I couldn't see too much, so I had to rely on the radar to see which way the enemy planes were going. I decided to follow Manfred, since he had already managed to generate good angles.

"Spatz 1 to Spatz 2; I'm right behind you." Manfred shot at the enemy plane with his machine gun and missed wide.

"Spatz 1 to Spatz 2; try to strafe across his wings, these planes have wide wings surfaces. Yaw though. Don't try to make a complete banking turn. You'll miss and you'll over turn the target." Manfred adjusted his position and Swiss cheesed the enemy plane.

"Nicely done Spatz 2. Don't ever aim at the cockpit though. That's one of those unwritten rules." He was obviously concentrating to get the kill, because he had stayed silent throughout my whole tutoring session.

"Spatz 2 Fox 2!" Manfred launched a missile that landed right on top of the enemy plane, splitting it in two.

"Good kill," I complemented.

"Captain, enemy plane on your six!" Amy yelled suddenly. I looked quickly at the radar and saw a red triangle pointing directly through the center of the radar.

"Amy, shoot him!" I said and quickly did a quick barrel roll that disoriented the enemy.

"Spatz 3 Fox 2!" The missile blew right through the target.

"Wow, that guy's got hands of gold!" someone said on the radio. Probably someone who was watching the fight with Herrick.

"Heh, you like the move Manfred?" I said, bringing back memories of our training flights.

"Lynx 1 to Spatz 1; could you come over and help us out? Not that we're having trouble, I just want to speed up the process and get back to base already."

"Spatz 1 to all Spatz planes; help out the Lynx team. Grimm, is the bomber you're chasing heavily damaged?"

"Yes it is. Shouldn't be a while before it goes up in flames."

"Roger. Everyone leave Grimm alone; he'll finish it off. Amy, you help out Lynx 2. Manfred, you're coming with me."

"Just how I like it sir. Just you and me." We sent volleys of bullets right onto the bomber.

"Manfred, you're hitting too close to the cockpit."

"Yes, I know sir. I'll bring it back." Manfred brought his aim back down to the engines. I decided this was taking too long. We could have finished already.

"Spatz 1 Fox 2!" I launched a missile that hit right on the rear of the bomber. The bomber's engines first went up in flames and then the entire plane itself.

"This is Lynx 1; I've shot down the bomber! That's my first kill!"

"Good job Grimm."

"Lynx 2 Fox 2!" Her missile went into the bomber and blew it up upon impact.

"Lynx 2 here, my first kill too!" We were all so happy for each other. I knew Base Command would be happy.

"Herrick this is Lynx 1; all planes confirmed destroyed. Airspace is clear right now."

"Alright. All planes stay up in the air just a little longer. We need to confirm that the airspace has been sanitized."

"Spatz 1 roger."

"Lynx 1 roger." Well, although it was very boring flying at night, it could have been worse if we were alone.

Chapter 3: The War Begins

Our base was heavily damaged from the enemy attack. No one was hurt though and all of the other trainees survived. Our runway was still operational but we couldn't do much without a control tower. When we landed, we had to park our planes in another hanger. Our hanger was damaged by fire from an explosion. The destroyed control tower was sitting there, as if it were trying to scare us. We went inside the base and surprisingly, Herrick didn't ask anything of us. I went straight to my quarters and went to sleep.

I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria the next day. The PA system then called me up to the briefing room. I quickly ate what I could and walked to the briefing room.

"Good morning Sir," Herrick greeted me. "Take a seat. I have some important news to tell you people." I took a seat next to Manfred. Amy was there on the other side of Manfred. Grimm and his buddy were in the row in front of me.

"The planes that attack us yesterday were from the Yarvin forces. Their intentions were obviously to destroy this base. Of course, this is understandable because we are the closest Reilian military base to Yarvin. We don't know exactly why they attacked us. We know what they wanted to do, but not why. We are going to send you on a mission closer to the coast. For that, we have to send you to Aqua Air Force Base. It'll only be for a few days. I don't know any details of the mission though, so I can't help you out. Don't worry, it shouldn't be more than you can handle. There's already a refueling craft that just took off from here. The tanker will meet you on the way to Aqua Air Force Base. You'll be taking off in two hours. Good luck."

We took off two hours later as planed. We set our headings to Aqua Air Force Base and just cruised along. I decided to ask Lynx 2 a question.

"Lynx 2 this is Schmidt, what is your name? I never picked it up."

"Sarah Davenport Sir."

"Hmm okay thanks. Your buddy there didn't tell me."

"I knew you'd figure it out sometime Sir."

"Yeah well couldn't you have made it easier?"

"Well, fighting in these battles isn't like that Sir. I have a feeling we're gonna be up in the air a lot now."

"Yeah me too."

"Aqua Air Force Base Control Tower, this is Spatz 1 here; can we have clearance to land?"

"Control Tower to Spatz 1; you're the guys from Starke right?"

"Yes Sir."

"Roger that; land in your regular sequence Sir. Marti will be so happy to see you."

"Who's he?"

"Oh him? He's the Base Commander. I'm telling you, he's wanted to see you for so long."

"So, you're the 'emblem' of Starke Air Force Base? You guys seem pretty small. It's hard to believe that you guys are their best pilots. I guess talent there must be running really short." That was 'Marti'. He really shows that he wanted to see us. We aren't that small, so I wondered if he was trying to find something to insult us or if he were used to seeing bigger men. Also makes you wonder how big the soldiers are here. Manfred elbowed me and then whispered in my ear, "Hey, I thought he really wanted to see us."

"Hey! Cut the chatter. You weren't sent here to talk!" Marti barked.

"Yes Sir!" Manfred immediately responded.

"That's more like it. I guess you guys there at Starke Air Force Base really are trained the right way. Anyway, my Name is Estavio Marti. I will be your Base Commander here if you haven't figured out already. Which one of you is the captain of this group? I can't read your uniforms from here. I need my glasses." One of the staff members in the back of the room quickly ran out of the room. Wonder what was up with that.

I stood up from my chair. "I am Sir. We have another uhh leader here too. He's not a captain, he just leads his team."

"Where is he?" Grimm stood up.

"Right here Sir." I could see that Marti was confused.

"Sir, we haven't organized ourselves into squadrons yet. My squad is the only real squadron in our base. We're only made up of three people including myself sir. Grimm is with her and that's it."

"Grimm? Who's that him?" Marti pointed to Grimm.

"Yes Sir." I said

"Sir my name is Hans. Hans Grimm Sir." Grimm told Marti.

"Mine is Konrad Schmidt Sir."

"Manfred Fleisher Sir."

"My name is Amy Speidel Sir."

"Sarah Davenport Sir."

The same staff member that went running out of the room earlier ran back into the room with glasses in hand and gave them to Marti. Then he quickly ran back to his original position.

"Okay, now that I know each of your names, I can Command you better. Now, on to the mission details.

"We have a group of carriers that we must escort to the St. Hewlett Naval Port. These carriers are of great significance so you cannot let any of them be destroyed. After hearing what happened yesterday at your base I would be on my toes if I were you. The mission will begin in three hours." He looked up to the staff members in the back of the room. "Show them to their quarters men."

"Yes Sir!" one of them said. The same one who retrieved the glasses for Marti.

Our quarters—or rather cells—were not very comfortable. They weren't cared for too much it seemed. The paint was basically falling off of the walls. I was happy they had given us beds. I went out to the café where everyone else was just beginning to eat lunch. It was only 1140 hours which translated to 11:40am on a 12-hour clock. Our escort mission was to begin in an hour or so.

Ten minutes before we were to leave on our mission, Marti called us up to the briefing room.

In the briefing room there were several other pilots, somewhat larger than us. They weren't as big as I thought. I took a seat beside Grimm. We were waiting for two more pilots. When they came in Marti started barking, "You all know what your job is up there. It's simple. Just make sure none of our carriers get sunk on their way to St. Hewlett. That is all." Marti paused for a second. He looked at me or at least towards me and said, "Good luck people."

"This is Spatz 1 do I have clearance for take off?"

"Yes Sir, you are cleared for takeoff. Good luck Sir."

"Thank You," I started up the turbines and lifted off.

"This is Flagship Aircraft Carrier Bistrov to all friendly aircraft; we ask that you please keep us safe on our way to St. Hewlett port. We can't afford any losses here." No one answered.

"Uhh this is Spatz 1; we'll keep you safe."

"Hey aren't you the guys from Starke Air Force Base?"

"Yes Sir."

"Wow it's a pleasure to be escorted by you. Isn't this out of your range though? Starke is farther inland right?"

"Yes Sir. Didn't you hear about the attacks on our base though? As a result of those attacks they wanted us to move to Aqua Air Force Base for a few days."

"Oh I see."

"I assume you are the captain of Bistrov?"

"Yes; Captain Alvin Listor."

"I am Captain Konrad Schmidt Sir."

"First Lieutenant Manfred Fleisher here Sir."

"First Lieutenant Amy Speidel Sir." There was a pause after Amy introduced herself.

"Uhh, weren't there five of you?" Listor asked.

"Yes Sir. They aren't part of our squadron though. They are actually still trainees. They haven't been promoted yet."

"Uhhh Trainee Hans Grimm Sir."

"Trainee Sarah Davenport here Sir."

"You even got trainees Schmidt?" Alvin asked me.

"Well yes, but when you see them fly, you'll wonder why they're still considered trainees."

"Alright then; please keep us safe. What is your squadron name anyway?"

"Spatz sir. Grimm is part of the Lynx team with Amy."

"Okay. Just something we need to know. I'll relay the information to all of my other ships." There were a lot of ships. There were the three carriers, three frigates on the right and left flanks of the fleet, and five destroyers.

We flew in formation above the fleet for about ten minutes. It was so quiet. The radar was showing no aircrafts. It was swarming with friendly craft. It was as if we had the air around us and the fleet below rapped around or fingers.

"Hey where did that come from?" Grimm suddenly yelled out. "Spatz 1, plane right on your six! Break left!"

"What?" I was confused. The radar didn't show anything and my alarms were all quiet. Then the missile alert alarm started blaring, beeping faster as the missile got closer. "Agh!" I yelled. I yanked the flight stick to the left and pulled back on it. The turbulence was violent. I hung in there though and turned out of the way. I thought I was safe, but I had underestimated the enemy pilot.

"Captain, break right!" Manfred yelled. I thought of something else though. I rolled my plane to the right until I was upside down. I broke my speed dramatically and my plane started stalling. I kept my speed up just enough so that my plane was still in control. The enemy plane seemed paralyzed after that maneuver I pulled my plane back upright. I put my right thumb on the missile launch button. My thumb flinched though. I saw a white flashing dot emerge away from on of the blue triangles on the radar.

"Lynx 2 Fox 2!" The missile flashed by and impacted the target sending it spiraling all the way down to the water in flames. There was suddenly an ominous slow beeping. The lock on warning alarm.

"Where's it coming from?" Manfred asked.

"You're getting the warning too?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Keep your heads on a swivel guys. Listor, do you see anything?"

"No I don't see anything," Listor responded.

"Wait! Nine o'clock sir!" one of the men said. I looked to the right of the carrier Bistrov. Seven dots were appearing in the sky.

"Seven planes incoming. Lynx, you stay here. Everyone else, go out to intercept. Keep the enemy planes away from the ships."

"This is Grimm, I disagree. It looks like you're gonna need some help. You only have planes to match the enemy without us." Grimm was right. This is the first time I counted myself. We only had another four plane squad with us.

"Grimm, you stay here. We can't allow any more surprises."

"But Sir—"

"That's an order Grimm." There was a small pause after that.

"Roger that Sir." Grimm replied.

"All planes this is Spatz 1; do not attack two-on-one. We only have enough to match their forces. If we attack one-on-one, we won't have to worry about our backs."

"Spatz 2 roger."

"Spatz 3 roger." There was no reply from the other squadron. They haven't said anything actually.

"Hey you got that guys? I'm not getting a response."

"Pixy 1 roger." Pixy? I was wondering if Marti gave them that name. Well if he did it must be for a reason.

"Alright everyone, find your own target." I split off and made a beeline right to one of the enemy planes. I suddenly saw a volley of four missiles coming from my right and left. My hands froze. I didn't know what to do.

"Spatz 1 break!" Which way? I asked my self that for what seemed like an hour. I hit the 'panic button'. Well, it was really just the afterburner button, but it was my only choice so there was no difference between the two. The missiles all missed to my sides.

"Hey, my shot missed to the side what kind of maneuver is that?" someone said. It was the enemy. The radio was picking up the enemies' voice!

"Hey someone go after him, don't let him sneak up on us. Swat him down." I smiled to myself. I could tell this was going to be fun. One of the enemy planes broke formation and came directly after me. He was at a higher altitude than me since I was angling downwards to begin with. I decided to do the most dangerous thing possible. I was going to pull up and fly right pass the enemy's nose, giving him the biggest scare of his life. If I was too slow though, he could ram a missile right between my wings or we could crash. I decided to take the chance. I pushed the throttle up to max and pulled up. I saw him coming from behind me, or above, or something. The enemy was flying a MiG-21. That's when I realized my mistake. There was a long refueling probe sticking right out of the plane's nose. I had to continue flying upwards though. I would crash if I didn't. I flew right up in front of me. I heard a big crunch and the crack of glass. I went into a loop and saw the refueling probe flying through the air. My cockpit window was cracked as well.

"He hit me with his plane!" the enemy said.

"Man, that guy's nuts!" someone else said. The enemy plane was still recovering from the hit. I completed the loop and the enemy practically gift rapped himself for me.

"Spatz 1 Fox 2!" I launched a missile at the enemy plane. The pilot easily ejected before his plane was skewered. Too bad it close too our territory. The plane burst into flames as the missile impacted the plane.

"Man we lost him." The enemy said.

"We better abort. We'd better go with plan 'B'." One of the enemy planes started heading away from the battle zone.

"Everyone disengage. Let the enemy go. Don't waste your time." I alerted everyone. "Looks like they're going with plan 'B', whatever that is. You guys heard, didn't you?"

"Yeah I did." Grimm said. I looked up at the sky. I saw a shadow of some triangle. It was huge, even from down here. It was very hi up, maybe above the atmosphere. Then it started glowing in several places at once.

"Hey what's that?" Amy asked.

"I don't know," I said. I was getting chills. There was suddenly a volley of laser bursts that came falling from the sky into three of the frigates.

"The three frigates on the nine o'clock flank have been sunk! What was that attack?" on of the fleet personnel yelled. The lasers came down again, this time sinking carrier Yelön and three destroyers.

"What is this?" Grimm yelled.

"What do we do?" Manfred asked. There was nothing we could do.

"Abort mission guys. This way!" I set my headings towards Aqua AFB and hit the throttle up to max. On my right I saw the four planes from Aqua AFB. The triangle started lighting up again. The lasers fell down, this time, on the four planes. The planes were immediately vaporized. It was so stunning, no one said a thing.

"All planes hit the deck! We need to get as low as possible. Maybe it will help distort its tracking!" I yelled. I pulled down to a mere fifty feet above the water. Everyone else was also skimming across the water. The laser came down on us, just barely missing. "Change your position after each shot!" I yelled again. We all spread out and weaved around each other. The lasers came down yet again. This time, one hit right in front of me sending a huge column of water in front of me. I turned barely out of the way of it. The lasers then seized to fall any longer afterwards.

"Spatz 1 to carrier Bistrov, please respond."

"Captain Listor here, we managed to make it alive. Looks like Atlas made it too. We only have three frigates left."

"Roger that. We're returning to base. Can you handle it from here?"

"Yes we can."

"Roger that. Good luck." The nightmare was finally over. I couldn't believe what had just happened.

The five of us landed at base. I was wondering what would the Marti's reactions would be when we told him what happened.

We steeped into the briefing room. He was already there of course.

"I just received a message from the flagship carrier Bistrov," Marti informed us as we settled in. "Captain Arvin Listor said that they had suffered heavy losses. He also said that four of our planes were shot down." The air in the briefing room was suddenly heavier. "It looks like it was our squadron." He looked around at the five of us. "I guess you guys have more talent than I really thought at first. Schmidt, I heard you got your third confirmed kill today?"

"Yes sir."

"It is now clear why they chose you to be captain. I think I can trust that you tell me exactly what happened during the battle. How were my pilots shot down?"

"The triangle Sir."

"The triangle." Marti repeated.

"The triangle sent laser bursts that fell from the sky. The ships in the fleet were sunk by it. After I had shot down an enemy plane, I heard the enemy say that they would go with plan 'B' and then retreated. That's when I saw the black triangle above. It was so high above us. We could only see the shadow. It looked as if it were above the atmosphere. It released it lasers upon us again and took your pilots right out of the sky. We retreated and the lasers came down on us a few more times. We somehow managed to stay out of the way though."

"Hmm I see. Alright then; I also received another message while you 'heroes' were in battle. Yarvin has declared war."

Chapter 4: Surprise Attack

May 25th 2019

1020 hours

Aqua Air Force Base

"All pilots, report to the briefing room! I repeat; all pilots, reportto the briefing room! This is an emergency!" The PA system blared. I quickly went into the briefing room.

"Oh, so you're the first one here today," Marti said when I walked in. "Where's everyone else?"

"I don't know sir. They just called us up here. You did hear didn't you? They'll be here in a minute, as always." I replied. Marti kept staring at me blankly. I took a seat and waited for everyone else to come. They came within a few seconds actually. Almost all at once.

"We've got an emergency here. The fleet you protected at sea is being attacked at St. Hewlett. The only protection they have is from their ships and the carrier aircraft. Get up there and protect our ships." Marti briefly described the situation. I looked around and saw that only we were in the briefing room.

"Are we all that are left?" I asked Marti.

"The rest of the pilots are trainees. They just started training. They hands full just keeping their planes in the air."

I took a deep breath and headed for the hanger.

"Alright guys, once you get in the air, head for St. Hewlett. Don't wait for each other. Head straight for St. Hewlett." I said into the radio as everyone boarded their planes. I quickly ran through the preflight checks and started taxing out of the hangers. Grimm's plane was parked near the front of the hanger. It looked as if he were ready. He was motioning me to go first.

"Grimm you go first! I'll go right behind you." I told him.

"Okay!" his plane moved in front of me and I followed. It was dark outside, even though it is was somewhat early.

"Control Tower to all planes; the weather is gonna get rough. We got a storm heading in it's gonna be here shortly. Hurry up and get in the air!"

"Lynx 1 to Control Tower; I need clearance."

"Control tower to all planes, you are cleared for launch unless I say otherwise."

"Lynx 1 roger." I heard his turbines start up. The plane rolled up the runway. Suddenly the sky lit up. There was a sharp piercing noise and lots of static on the radio. All of the instruments in the plane started going crazy. The missile alert was blaring. Then there was a sudden strike of lightning the hit the runway in front of Grimm.

"Whoa!" Grimm yelped.

"Grimm!" I yelled. He pulled his plane up and off the runway.

"Grimm, get above the clouds!"

"Got it!" he yelled back. A heavy downpour started. It was going to make takeoff hard, but I couldn't leave Grimm alone.

"Control Tower, this is Spatz 1; I'm taking off!" I yelled. I knew he probably couldn't hear because of the lightning, but he still responded.

"Okay! Be careful!" I barely heard him yell through the static.

"I'm going to hold everyone else though. I'll wait a little to see if the weather clears."

"Okay."

"Schmidt!" Amy said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Take care of Grimm for me."

"I will." I took off and headed for high altitude. I could still see Grimm on the radar. "Grimm, how's your plane?"

"Good Sir."

"Control Tower is gonna hold everyone else until conditions get better. It's just you and me now."

"Okay Captain. I'll follow you!" His plane moved closer to my left and flew in the support position.

"This is commander Detlef Eckmann of AWACS Moewe; all operational planes this is not a drill. Intercept all planes over the St. Hewlett."

"Hey, isn't that our AWACS?" Grimm asked. I thought for a second.

"Yeah. I guess he came down to help. I think we're gonna need it." I said. "Let's go." We powered up to full thrust and flew closer to the battle.

We were ten miles from the battle when I asked, "AWACS Moewe this is Spatz 1; I'm here with Lynx 1. Where do you want us?"

"Moewe here; are you all of the reinforcements?"

"Yes, everyone else got caught up in a storm. We were in it too but it got worse after Lynx 1 and I got up in the air."

"Alright. All allied forces that were here before you were shot down. The remaining enemies were shot down by our ships but there's another wave of enemy planes is incoming. You're the only ones close enough to intercept."

"Alright I got that. So where is the enemy coming from?"

"They're coming from the east." I turned my plane towards the east and met the rising sun.

"Man, we can't see that way, the sun is right there."

"Yeah, that's the problem. You're gonna have to wait unless you can still manage to see the enemy."

"Roger that Moewe. Radar works right?"

"Yes, these planes are not stealth so it should work."

"What planes were they flying?"

"Last wave was a group of F/A-18s."

"Okay roger that. Grimm, you got that?"

"This is Grimm, roger that Schmidt." We kept heading into the sun.

"Grimm, they have the advantage, so watch out. They can probably see us right now."

"You think we should turn around Captain?"

"No, we're gonna meet them head on!" As I said that, the missile alert sounded.

"Whoa!" I did a quick barrel roll and just barely avoided the missile. imitated me. "Good Grimm. That's what I like to see." My missile had a lock; I heard the small beeping that lock alert made. I fired blindly. "Spatz 1 Fox 2!" I turned my plane as soon as I fired. The missile missed.

"Lynx 1 Fox 2!" Grimm fired a missile and skewered an enemy plane.

"Yes!" He yelled out.

"Nice one. We'll finish these guys in no time." I said. I turned back around and saw the planes charging towards our ships.

"Grimm, don't let them get close to our ships!" I was right behind the enemy planes. I let go of a large volley of bullets. The enemy planes did the smart thing and broke formation.

"Moewe, there's too many we need reinforcements!"

"Roger that. I'm contacting Aqua Air Force Base."

"Roger." I went after an enemy plane. The planes were F-35s, not F/A-18s. No wonder I couldn't hit it. I shot at him with my machine gun. The bullets pelted his wings. Finally, one of his wings was blown off and his plane spiraled down into the water. The pilot did manage to eject though.

"This is the 8932nd squadron. Boy those guys really had us going. Anyway, drill's over. All planes return to base." Someone on the radio said.

"What?" Grimm said.

"Wait! What are you talking about?" Detlef said frantically. Suddenly there was static on the radio. I could barely hear anything besides the static.

"Restore communication links!" I managed to hear Detlef yell to someone on his plane.

"Grimm we're on our own now. Stay with me."

"Okay Captain." Grimm pulled beside me. We went after the enemy planes.

"This is Eisvogel 1 to…Spatz 1 is it?"

"Yes." I saw two planes coming up from a carrier.

"Good. We're here to help you out. We just took off from the aircraft carrier Bistrov."

"Well get over here then, we're gonna need all the help we can get!"

"Roger that sir!" The two planes swooped in and Swiss cheesed an enemy plane.

"Nice kill guys!" Grimm complimented. I looked up at the sky. I didn't see any triangle looming above us.

"Hey at least there's no Black Triangle above us today." I said to myself.

"The Black Triangle? You mean that thing that shot at us before?" Eisvogel 2 asked.

"Yes that thing."

"Hmm. 'The Black Triangle'. I could have thought of a name like that."

A plane suddenly snuck in behind me. "Agh! Where'd he come from? Someone shoot him off me!" I turned hard right.

"I'm on him Captain." Grimm started shooting at the enemy plane. The plane suddenly burst into flames right behind me.

"Thanks for that Grimm. Moewe! Where are the reinforcements?"

"Ahh, none of the bases are responding to me!" He yelled back in frustration. I was getting anxious myself.

"Aqua Air Force Base this is Moewe, we need those reinforcements!"

"They just called off the drill. I don't understand."

"What don't you understand? There's an air battle over a civilian harbor city!" Eckmann replied. He was furious.

"All right guys you heard what's up. Just drive the enemy away." I said. As if the enemy heard me, they started retreating. They broke away in the same way they did last time.

"Uh-oh." I said to myself. I looked up and saw it; 'The Black Triangle'. "All planes break! Break!" The lasers came down, barely missing us. "Follow me guys! We've got to get out of here." I set my heading back towards Aqua AFB.

"But that's my carrier!" Eisvogel 1 yelled.

"We can't do anything. I'm sorry."

"Alright. I'll follow you sir." He accelerated towards me and flew by my side.

"Spread out. Don't give him an easy target." I commanded.

"This is Grimm, I have an idea!" Grimm turned towards the city. "If we're over the city, they won't be as likely to shoot us."

"Good thinking Grimm." Eisvogel 2 said. I looked up and saw 'The Black Triangle' light up again. Then the lasers fell; right onto the allied carrier fleet. The laser took out all of the ships in the fleet and left them in pieces. 'The Black Triangle' started to light up again. This time it targeted us!

"Whoa!" I turned and barely avoided a laser." When it was over I looked down at the city. There were fires in several places and people were running around the city frantically.

"How could they?" Grimm said.

"I don't know Grimm," I said. "I just don't know."

Chapter 5: Explosive Mentality

After what seemed like hours, we finally got back to base. Our base accepted the Eisvogel team. Marti asked us a few questions about what happened during the battle. We went to a large dark room. Grimm, Eisvogel 1 and 2, and I were all isolated from each other. Marti went to the front of the room. All of the lights then shut off.

"What happened during the battle today captain?" Marti's voice echoed throughout the room. A single spot light shined on me.

"Archer and I set off to intercept the enemy planes that were attacking our ships. When we got there, we attacked the enemy. AWACS Moewe was there. He told us reinforcements from here would be on the way. Then, after Grimm and I fought outnumbered for some time, an ally, identifying himself as 'the 8932nd squadron' said: 'Boy those guys really had us going. Anyway, drill's over. All planes return to base.' Then, the long range communications went out. AWACS tried to restore communication. It didn't work and we didn't get reinforcements from here. Then, the Eisvogel squadron came up and helped us out. The enemy planes retreated. After the planes were out of the way, 'The Black Triangle' shot at us. It destroyed the allied carrier fleet. Then, "The Black Triangle" shot at us. This time, we were over the city. "The Black Triangle had destroyed pockets of the city. Then, we retreated."

"Who is this '8392nd squadron? We don't have any squadron with that name." Marti asked.

"That's what they called themselves sir." I said The light shut off.

"Grimm," the spot light shined on Grimm, "Tell me your story."

"Well, sir, it's not too different. We were sent up to fight the enemy planes who were flying in to destroy our ships. We intercepted them. AWACS Moewe made contact with this base and asked for reinforcements. After a while, someone came on the radio and identified themselves as 'The 8392nd squadron'. He said that this was a drill and ordered everyone return to base. Then, the Eisvogel squadron came up from the carrier Bistrov, something the captain didn't mention, and helped us out. The enemy soon retreated. Then, we were attacked by that "Black Triangle". We flew over the city, in hopes the enemy would back down if we were over the city. But they didn't care and just fired at us. They missed and hit the city, setting it on fire. Afterwards, we retreated."

"8392, 8392! Is that all you people have to say?" Marti yelled menacingly. Grimm's looked like he wanted to dig a hole and hide. Then, Eisvogel 1 got a little angry: "Dammit! What the hell is going on here?" he yelled out of the darkness. The light turned off and shone on Eisvogel 1.

"And who are you?"

"Blair Eckenns sir."

"Hmm. Did you hear about the 8392nd?"

"No sir, I was still on my carrier at the time."

"What about you. What's your name?" The spot light moved onto Eisvogel 2.

"Friedrich Pingel sir." He replied.

"Okay." Marti said. The spot light turned off and then all of the normal lights were turned on. We all joined back together.

"So you're all sure you didn't attack the city?"

"Yes sir. Where did you hear that from?"

"We've gotten reports that you attacked the city. The reporters were unknown, but they were the only ones who saw you."

"But sir, that wasn't part of our objective. We did not attack any civilian facilities."

"Konrad I am aware of the 'Black Triangle', but I highly doubt that they would attack you while you were over the city with such a powerful weapon."

"But sir that's exactly what happened. They almost shot down the four of us over the city!" I was getting a little anxious now. But, as if he didn't hear me, he called in the rest of my squadron.

"You people are going to be sent up on another mission. There is a weapons factory in the Yarvin port city Yella. The factory is within the city and the port. You're job is to bomb these two main points of the city. However, you're objectives will place destruction over accuracy. We cannot allow the enemy to take advantage of us. There is an enemy air field within a hundred miles of your zone. They will most likely send up their planes to fight you. Do not fight them unless you have to." The commander's eyes moved onto the four of us, Archer Blair, Friedrich and me. "This is a chance for you four to prove how innocent you really are. Especially you captain." I lowered my eyebrows at the captain. I did not like this at all.

"Dismissed." Within a few minutes, we were all out into the hangar. Within an hour after the first mission, we were all up in our F-15s again.

"Schmidt," Sarah called upon me. We were heading for Yella. We were all silent until then.

"Yeah?" I replied

"Thanks for taking care of Grimm for me."

"Yeah. Grimm did pretty well actually. I was surprised." The Eisvogel team was told to keep an eye on the air while Lynx and my squad focused on the ground.

"Eckenns, is everything okay up there?"

"Yes sir. You can call me by my first name sir."

"Okay Blair. How's Friedrich doing?"

"Good as always. You know, he just enlisted in the navy a few months ago. He wasn't expecting to be in a battle like yesterdays, much less meet someone like you."

"A few months ago? Yeesh, he must learn quickly."

"He's a little shy though. He'll loosen up when he sees you five in action."

"Yeah. Okay guys, one hundred miles until we reach the target area; nows the time to head back if you need to. I don't want any complaints when we get to the battle area." All of my systems were showing no signs of malfunction. I was good to go. We flew fifty more miles without any complaints.

"Okay guys, everything is going good I assume. Everyone drop to your bombing run altitude. Remember, destruction is placed over accuracy. Don't worry about what you hit. Just hit what's on the ground." Lynx flew in front of us as planed. They went downwards to about 1500 feet. We stayed behind at the same altitude.

"Eisvogel, stay at 5000 feet. We'll tell you when to drop down and finish off the target."

"Eisvogel 1 roger."

"Eisvogel 2 roger." We were a few minutes away from the target now.

"Ten miles to target. Line yourselves up now."

"Hey captain, look how pretty the target is! It's lined up in a straight line for us."

"Yeah, well just remember, destruction over accuracy."

"Roger that captain." The factory seemed as if it were buried within the city. There were civilian buildings on all sides of it. I can't believe we were going to do this. By now, we'd been flying over the city for about a minute. The air raid sirens started warning the citizens.

"They know we're here. Alright Lynx, make your shots count."

"Grimm, roger."

"Lynx 2 roger." Their voices seemed a bit shaky. They couldn't believe this either. They dropped their bombs. The bombs hit only near the factory. They all hit closer to the civilian buildings. I saw the civilians running around frantically. Some were looking at us, trying to hurl beer bottles at us. Others just ran, as if the world was ending. I dropped my bombs without even looking at the target. Lynx had just dropped their bombs and was heading upwards to take Eisvogel's position.

"Okay Eisvogel, follow in behind us." I said. They dropped down to 1500 feet. More debris was thrown up from the crowds among the city, not nearly hitting us but it sent the message: They really hated us.

We dropped bombs on the civilian port. I had just then realized that the port was not nearly large enough to supply even a small fleet of naval ships, something Marti had left out. It was too late to pull out anyway. Eisvogel followed close behind, copying our moves.

"Okay guys, mission complete." I said. I heard the angry voice of the crowd, even as I increased my throttle to get up to a higher altitude. The enemy still hadn't sent any planes it seemed.

"AWACS Moewe to all planes. Marti sent me to spy on you guys. Just to make sure you don't do anything barbaric. He told me not to tell you until after you completed the mission."

"What? The pig doesn't trust us at all." Grimm said. There were some small laughs.

"I guess not Grimm," Moewe replied.

"You believe us, don't you Moewe? We didn't attack that city. Why would we attack our own city?" I asked.

"I can't say anything Konrad."

"But didn't you see us from up there?"

"No...The cloud cover was too thick. You know how high up in the air we fly. It was cloudy. You can't even see us now." I tried desperately to spot AWACS. Even with mostly clear skies, I couldn't spot him.

"I'm just looking for answers now."

"Me too sir. I was confused more than you were. I'm on your side though captain. I doubt that you attacked that city. I didn't see anything though, so I can't be sure."

"Okay." I said. I looked up at the sky again. I still couldn't see Moewe.

"Wait, five fighters coming in at high speed. Their aircraft have different signatures than Yarvin." AWACS said suddenly. I heard small voices on the radio.

"All 8392nd planes, you have permission to shoot down those planes." The planes suddenly flew by us at amazing speed, guns blazing. When they flew past us, the civilian crowd cheered. I tried to get behind one of the enemy planes, but he slipped right through my fingers. I couldn't get on anyone's tail.

"Guys, I think we've been outmatched. Retreat. We'll get them another time." I started running. The enemy planes had SU-37s. They're planes were faster, but I used that against them. I slowed down every time they tried closing and they shot right past my plane and ended up in front of me. I scared them off with my guns when they were in front. They soon backed off.

"AWACS, you heard them? You heard what the enemy said?" I yelled.

"Yes, I did."

"That's the second time!" The radio went silent, except for my heavy breathing.

"Do you believe us now?" I yelled again.

"Yes I do." He said. We flew silently all the way back home. I couldn't help thinking if maybe Marti had something to do with this.

"So, maybe you people really are innocent. According to AWACS, he said that you attacked the enemy city and destroyed everything close to the targets. That was exactly the result we wanted. Revenge must really feel good. You're all done for now. We won't be deploying you any more today. Dismissed."

It was 1430 hours when we got out of the briefing room. Grimm wanted to meet with me though. He came into my quarters. I got us some water bottles and we sat on the rotting wooden table.

"Konrad, this base reaches way back." Grimm started.

"I can't tell." I said looking around the room.

"Ha, funny. But seriously now. This base goes way way back."

"What do you mean?"

"I found out from the control tower operator that this base was the base that the 8392nd was stationed at. They were deployed from here and did everything on this base, including training."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm not laughing sir. Control Tower also told me that the 8392nd squadron was actually owned by Yurope. This base was actually one of bases that the Yuropeans set up. I mean, that makes sense, we're right off the border."

"That's true Grimm."

"You know who the captain of the 8392nd squad was back then? Estavio Marti. The 8392nd said they worked for Reilia. This was so that Yurope could have connections with Reilia. They wanted this connection so that they could also have connections to what Yarvin was doing. We did have the best Intelligence at the time. Control Tower said that he thinks that Yurope still has connections to here and consequently, to Yarvin as well. Yurope's reason for this is most likely to get revenge against Yarvin."

"So why did they attack us while we were attacking the city? Wouldn't they want us to do what we were doing?"

"Don't you see it? If we were to defeat the Yarvin army then Yurope would miss out on the chance to do it themselves. They want to get their revenge themselves. If someone else overpowers Yarvin, Yurope won't get their chance for another ten years. That is way too long for them. We are the best squadron in the RAF, you do know that."

"Yes."

"So if we go away, the entire RAF falls apart. Then, the entire Reilian Military looses momentum, exactly what Yurope wants. If this happens, then Yarvin will easily occupy the country, the same way they did in 2012. Then, the Yuropean forces will occupy Yarvin, destroy them or whatever it is to get their revenge. We are the only obstacle standing between Yurope and Yarvin."

"So why are we even fighting this war?

"I don't know maybe Yarvin wants revenge also."

"Hmm. We have to tell the rest this."

"No we can't. Wait until we get back."

"What if we don't get back? Then what?"

"Ahh fine. If anyone knows we know this, then we'll most likely be executed."

"Yeah." I called the rest of the group. Grimm retold what he told me.

"Wow, I never knew," Manfred said after Grimm had finished.

"None of us did," I said.

"We've gotta do something," Friedrich said.

"Well look, I have an idea. If we could escape from here, then we could make it back to Starke Air Force Base. By now, all they're doing is repairing the hangars and stuff like that; the runway should be operational and also the control tower. We need to escape here at night. During the middle of the night, at 0000 hours, we will go check out our planes. It most likely won't be guarded at all because of how far into the base you have to go to get to the hangar. That makes it easier for us. We'll all meet in the most isolated part of the base: our hallway. At 0000 hours guys remember that." Everyone walked out of the room soon after I had finished talking.

"Oh yes, Konrad," Grimm stayed after everyone else left and pulled out a recorder. It had recorded exactly what the Control tower operator said.

"Grimm, where did you get that?"

"I have my sources."

"We aren't allowed to have those."

"Yeah I know, but look what I used it for. That'll outweigh the fact that I broke the rule."

"Hmm, okay. Make sure you're ready to get out of here at midnight."

"I'll be waiting sir," Grimm said and walked out of the room.

The jailbreak was set to happen. I was actually excited to get out of this joint.

Chapter 6: Jailbreak

May 26th, 2019

0000 hours

Aqua AFB

The breakout started at midnight, exactly as planned. We all met at outside my room.

"Okay guys, let's go."

"Hey wait." Manfred stopped us. "We all got our handguns?" I reached into my pocket slowly. It was there.

"Yeah but, we're not really gonna use them." I said actually questioning my own statement.

"We might," he said.

"Okay let's go." We all walked out. When we got to a corner, I stopped and looked back at everyone following.

"Grab your handguns. Shoot anything that moves, we can't afford to be seen." Everyone pulled out their handguns. Grimm was right behind me. "Grimm, go back and be sure our backs stay clear."

"Okay." He went to the back of the group. As soon as he was there, I turned the corner. No one was there. We ran quietly to the hallway. When we got to the café, we all spread out and made sure the café was secure. When we got out of the café, I heard a door open around the corner. I stopped the group. I drew my handgun and stepped out in front. The security walked around the corner.

"Hey!" I yelled. He pulled the trigger. I heard the bullet buzz by my right ear. I took a shot and the guard went down. I rounded the corner with my gun drawn. It was clear.

"Okay guys, we gotta hurry. They probably know something's going on." As I said that, I heard shots coming from behind.

"Go go go!" Grimm yelled. We ran but were stopped by two more guards in front. We outnumbered them though and took them out quickly. The exit was just around the corner. I ran, with all of the others following. I burst through the door and ran for the hangar. The rest followed. Except Grimm. He still hadn't come through the door. I imagined him still inside the building, shooting at the guards around the corner.

"Grimm's still not out!" Sarah yelled.

"Don't worry about him he'll take care of himself." We continued to run to the hangar, still a long way away. Then, I started to hear some gun fire. The sound seemed to surround my head. They were even throwing grenades at us. They really wanted to get rid of us. We got into the hangar and didn't even rest. We went straight into our planes and out of the hangar onto the runway.

"Hey, Grimm stayed behind." Manfred said into the radio.

"He'll get out of here, just wait." I said. I raised the throttle and took off, everyone hot on my tail. The AA guns and SAMs that operated for our base started shooting right away.

"Gain altitude as soon as you get up in the air." I said.

"Grimm here, I just got into my plane. I'm taking off."

"Jeez Grimm, what happened? Amy asked.

"I got caught up with guards. I caught them reloading so I ran for it."

"Good. He's tough Sarah. Told you he'll make it."

"Yeah. I knew he'd make it."

"Okay Grimm, just relax. They're gonna be shooting at you as soon as you get up in the air." I warned.

"Okay sir." He replied confidently. His plane began moving up the runway. When his plane got up in the air, the same flurry of AA weapons that shot at the six of us was focused on Grimm.

"Ahh! Missile right on my tail!" Grimm yelled. I looked down on Grimm and saw a missile heading straight for Grimm.

"Grimm, break left! Hard left!" I advised. Grimm took a very hard 7G left turn and barely avoided the missile. "Good job Grimm, now get up here!"

"Okay!" Grimm made it up to us without any more hassle.

Then, I heard a voice: "So we finally meet. I've heard of you Spatz 1. People in Yarvin call you the "Shocker" because of your paralyzing moves in the air; time to see if you can live up to your name." The voice said. There were three planes closing in on our position

"There's seven of us and only three of you, you won't stand a chance!" I yelled back.

"You don't belong in the history books! There will be no place in history for you!"

"You're skill is great, but it is smothered by your blind hatred!"

"Aim for the cockpits! Don't let them get out alive!" They really hated us.

"Swat them down!" I said and closed in on the lead plane. "Leave this one to me guys," I flew right by him, and lured him away from the rest of the battle.

"So, you wanna solve this problem one on one? You might as well be on a suicide mission," he said.

"We'll see," I said. I dove down into the mountain range under us. There was a large cave somewhere. I figured I would scare him off with it.

"A little cat and mouse? This should be fun." He said. I flew faster and took a hard left turn. The cave was right there. He pulled up and started to climb. I pulled up also and followed closely behind.

"Now the tables are turned!" I yelled at him. Then, he stalled his plane and his plane fell. I was going to fast to follow right behind, so I shot right by him. I kicked the floor of my plane in frustration. Then, when I started diving down, I saw him heading straight up towards me! I heard the missile lock beeping, so I took a blind shot.

"I never knew you'd be this good," he said. He had plenty of time to try to get out of the way of the missile, but he just kept flying straight up into the missile. He ejected though, just before the missile hit is plane. I looked back among the group and saw two fireballs heading towards the ground.

"This is Grimm, I shot one down. Fleisher downed a plane also."

"Good job guys. Let's get to Starke now." I said. It didn't take long to escape, it was only 0030 hours. We were free, and on our way to Starke AFB.

"Starke Air Force Base this is Spatz 1. We need clearance to land." I said into the radio as we flew over Starke AFB.

"What? What are you doing here?" Our Control Tower said.

"Hey, it's a long story. Just give us clearance so we can land and tell you what happened.

"Okay wait a minute," Control Tower replied. We waited in silence for a minute or two.

"Okay, you are cleared to land." We landed and were mobbed by a whole bunch of people.

"Hey, who are they?" Someone asked. He was pointing at Blair and Friedrich.

"Oh them? That's the Eisvogel squadron; Blair Eckenns and Friedrich Pingel." I said.

"You mean the Eisvogel squadron? The one that fought in the war thirteen years ago?"

"Uhhh…" I trailed off and looked at Blair.

"Yes, we are the Eisvogel squadron. Well, what's left of them." Blair said.

"The other three of our members were…shot down. They ejected but were never found. We believe that they were taken as POWs, but never released after the war," Friedrich said.

"Aren't you the ones who shot down the 8392nd squadron?" someone asked. All of the mumbling immediately stopped. The room was in silence. You could literally feel the anxious vibes of everyone around you.

Then, Blair spoke: "Yes. We shot them down."

"Why didn't you tell us before? Maybe you were the ones they were going after not us!" Manfred asked while we walked back to our quarters.

"I didn't think it would matter this much. Friedrich and I knew it was important, but not this important," Blair said.

"But you should have—,"

"Hey, that's enough. There's no way they could have known this was gonna happen," I spoke up from the front of the group. I didn't even look back, but I felt everyone's eyes change focus from the ground to me. "Grimm has a tape of the conversation. I know we already heard what the story was, but we haven't heard the recording. We're gonna let the base commander listen to it. We need to make sure there's nothing we missed." Everyone agreed. We piled into my room and listen to Grimm's recording.

"Okay, I think its fine, we can let Herrick listen to it," Grimm said. Everyone looked up at me.

"You heard him. But…" I looked at Grimm. "You take it yourself. We'll stay here," I said to him. He looked back at me confused, but then he understood. It would mean more if he went himself. After all, he was the one who "interviewed" Control Tower at the other base. Too bad we never found out his name.

Grimm got back from the interview. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"Netzer wants us to go and take out Aqua Air Force Base. He said that there were probably still some pilots there. The ones we faced were cherries compared with the actual aces of the 8392nd. We have to take them and the base out."

I looked back at his pale face. He was really serious about this. I guess we should have gone along with Grimm.

"Did he say when?" I asked.

"Right now. He wants us to go to the briefing room in about two minutes actually."

"Two minutes?" It was never that specific. "Well, we better start going now then. Two minutes will be up before we get to the briefing room. Everyone got up slowly. I looked at Manfred who was at the door. He held the door open for everyone. I was the last one out, except for Manfred.

"You ready for this captain? This is our battle," Manfred said.

"Manfred this will most likely be our toughest battle of the war."

"Well, we can't make assumptions. The wars not over you know."

"Yeah I know." I almost whispered. He slapped my back and we went into the briefing room. As soon as we walked in, he basically said the same thing that Grimm had told us: "You are to destroy Aqua Air Force Base and everyone within it. Don't let anyone escape."

Chapter 7: The 8392nd Squadron

May 26th, 2019

0200 hours

Aqua AFB Airspace

"You all ready?" I asked over the radio. I looked to my left at Manfred's plane; thumbs up. I looked to my right at Amy; thumbs up. I smiled and looked straight ahead. It was cloudy. We soon got through the clouds. When that happened, Aqua Air Force Base was in full view. I looked at the Control Tower. Then I thought about something. We can't kill him.

"Schmidt we can't do this. Control Tower is still there," Manfred said as if he read my mind.

"I know. I want to radio him, but they'll know that something's up as soon as they hear one of us," I replied. Then I heard the base commander come up on the radio: "It's them! Get up there and shoot them out of the sky!" I figured they already knew what was going on, so I radioed Control Tower.

"Control Tower this is Spatz 1! Can you hear me?" Waited for a response.

"It's you again? I thought I would never see you again. What are you doing here?" He asked.

"We're gonna destroy the base, we need you to get out of there!" I told him.

"Well, I know how to fly some. I could steal a plane and get out of here." I was unsure about this; I didn't know how well he could fly.

"Okay, look, your not gonna get into any engagements, just escape and head to our base! Don't get caught up in the confusion we're causing."

"Argh, the only plane I can find quickly is a Phantom."

"What? Those things are ancient! We still have those?"

"Apparently so sir. Your planes are somewhat ancient too you know."

"Yes I know." Our F-15s were certainly outdated; we are the only ones who still fly them. "Is that the only thing you can get up in?"

"Unless you want me to steal an 8392nd plane sir."

"No, we can't risk you being seen. Just take the Phantom and get out of here."

"Okay!" I heard him drop his head set and run out of the Control Tower. At the same time I looked down and saw a group of seven pilots come out of the main building. They were heading for the hangars! I had no communications with Control Tower right now, so I couldn't warn him. Instead, I swooped down and fired my machine gun at them. They all split apart like little ants and started running for cover. I didn't hit anyone though, but at least I scared them off!

"I'm in the Phantom!" I saw the Phantom start rolling out of the runway.

"Okay. What's your name anyways?" I asked.

"Heh, just call me Eagle sir!" he replied.

"Okay, you got it guys? Eagle is on the runway, make sure he gets all the cover we can give him when he gets up here." As I said that, I saw a lone person heading out of the main building. The same building as the others.

"This is Eagle, I'm taking off!" His plane started moving. It was off the runway soon, but another plane was right on his tail. I wasn't sure if he knew who was in there, but I wasn't gonna take a chance. I swept down and started shooting my guns at the enemy plane. I pelted his fuselage, but it didn't do too much, as he continued down the runway and into the sky.

"Spatz 1 to all planes; swarm the enemy plane! Don't give him any room to escape!" I yelled. My six allies all swooped in and closed on the enemy plane. They all lit the midnight sky with gun fire.

"Spatz 3 Fox 2!" The gun fire continued as the missile went right into the enemy plane. "Spatz 3 here, that's a confirmed kill!" The enemy plane was heading straight for the ground.

"Alright guys! That was great. The next plane will be up in any minute, destroy it as soon as it gets off the runway!" I looked at the runway and actually saw three rows of two planes on the runway. They were preparing to all take off at once! That's when I noticed.

"Hey, those guys are all flying SU-47s!" I said to everyone. We were totally outmatched. Even if we were to even their forces, we would still be out flown. "We still need to fight them! Don't back down!" The three rows of planes started moving down the runway at the same time. They even took off at the same time!

"Wow, look at that!" Grimm said. Then I realized something. They were flying all clumped together now. They haven't broken formation yet. That gave me a perfect target.

"Spatz 1 Fox 2!" I shot a missile into the group of planes. The plane I was locked onto managed to get out of the way, but another plane was caught in the wrong place and was hit by the stray missile.

"Splash one!" I yelled. The plane was breaking apart as it headed down from where it came from. The other planes were still there though, and they were furious! I then saw a lone plane on the runway taking off.

"There's still one more! Grimm and I will take care of it! The rest of you take care of the rest!" I ordered. Grimm immediately pulled up to my side.

"You ready?" I asked him.

"Ready as ever sir!" he said back. We closed in on the enemy plane.

"So, you are the 'Shocker'?" That voice sounded so familiar.

"Marti?" I said into the radio.

"Yes it's me! I never did like you people. No matter, you people will be forgotten as you burn in hell! There's no place in the books for you! You cannot tamper with destiny!"

"You have so got to die," I said softly. I closed in behind me. As soon as I was in range to fire a missile, he pulled up hard. I couldn't keep up. "Grimm, you take him!" Grimm was following farther behind, so he was able to keep up.

"Okay!" Grimm said and closed in.

"You think you can stop the 8392nd squadron? We are superior to whole armies, and you think you even stand a chance?" He did another 7G turn and shook Grimm off of his tail. Then, Marti was glued to mine!

"Looks like this is the end 'Shocker'!" he said with a toying voice. Then I saw a white dot on the radar.

"Spatz 2 Fox 2!" The missile barely missed Marti, but it bought me some time.

"Thanks for that Manfred."

"I just had some spare time," He laughed.

I saw Marti turn back. He was hot on my tail.

"All that did was buy you some time!" He snarled. I decided I have had enough of this. It didn't matter what kind of plane he had. It was still only a plane. And he was still only human. Planes and humans have limits.

I rolled my plane upside down and stalled my plane. My plane was gliding slowly toward the ground upside down; something no one was ever trained to do.

"What?" Marti said. His plane went right above mine. I couldn't see it, but I heard it. He ended up right in front of me.

"Spatz 1, let me take him down!" Grimm yelled. I lowered my plane and gave Grimm a clear shot. Marti still hadn't moved, but I saw his plane shaking. I could picture his hands shaking in the same way.

"Lynx 1 Fox 2!" The missile hit the plane. Marti couldn't even eject. I didn't feel bad for the traitor though.

"Grimm, let's go help the others!" Grimm and I turned and headed for the battle. "Grimm, you can split off now."

"Roger." He turned and headed straight for Sarah. I Looked ahead of me and saw Manfred right on someone's tail.

"Spatz 2 Fox 2!" The missile hit the enemy plane and it exploded violently. "Yeah one down!" He yelled. I flew by and confirmed the kill. Then I looked to my left and saw an enemy plane. Amy was flying just overhead.

"Amy, that one's yours!" I yelled. She knew exactly what I was talking about. She headed down on the enemy plane.

"Spatz 3 Fox 2!" The missile was heading straight for the enemy. He flew upwards trying to evade the missile. But he failed, the missile just clipped the rear of his plane, but it was enough. The missile detonated and the plane was sent into a flipping motion. The flipping never stopped, so he couldn't eject. The plane broke apart with the pilot still in it.

"Three planes left!" Amy said. I turned my plane. Sarah and Grimm were right on an enemy plane's tail. I decided to help out the enemy plane. I hit the afterburners and headed for the enemy plane. I was heading in from his nine o'clock, so I decided to try something.

"Lynx don't shoot! I'm gonna try something," I said to Grimm and Sarah. I kept closing and closing. Then, when the time was right, I shot an unguided missile at the plane.

"Spatz 1 Fox 2!" The missile, with me following, flashed right in front of the enemy plane. The plane broke left, exactly what I was planning. He put himself right in the sights of Sarah and Grimm.

"'Lynx 2 Fox 2!" The pilot had no where to go and was hit by the missile.

"Nice one guys!" Eisvogel 1 said. I hadn't heard anything from him until now. Then I saw him, right on someone's tail.

"Eisvogel 1 Fox 2!" The missile impacted the target with ease.

"Eisvogel 2 Fox 2!" I saw a flash of light pass right over my plane. The missile hit the target. I turned out of the way so that the plane wouldn't land on top of me.

"Alright, area sanitized!" Grimm said.

"Eagle, you still with us?"

"Yes sir!" I'll be at your base in thirty minutes, according to the in flight information.

"Roger that Eagle," I said. "Alright everyone, let's get rid of this place. Turn it into a crater!" We ran our bombing runs and left nothing but a mess. We headed back to base with Eagle.

Chapter 8: The True Enemy

May 26th, 2019

0250 hours

Starke AFB

We told our Herrick who "Eagle" was. Herrick then decided to put him in the control tower, we did need better control tower personnel, after the last group of people was killed. Eagle would certainly help out with that, as he was the head of the control tower. As for us? Well, we were just given another mission, as usual.

"Yurope is planning a massive air strike against Yarvin. We've been fighting against the Yarvin forces for so long, but we now need to realize that Yurope is our common enemy. Everyone knows what happened yesterday, or rather this morning. We are going to go into Yarvin Airspace and request that they team up with us to destroy the common enemy. If they go along with it, you will be fighting along side with the Yarvin forces. If not, you will not attack any of the Yarvin forces unless they are hostile. The mission will commence in fifteen hours from now, but I decided to give you a briefing now while I have your attention." Herrick looked at me, then at Grimm. "Konrad, I think you got your fifth kill today? You do know what that means," Herrick said. I thought about the past days, and counted up my kills through my memory.

"Yes sir. Five kills sounds correct," I replied.

"Grimm got his fifth today to."

"Yes I did sir," Grimm said contently.

"You're both aces now; our aces. Sarah, Manfred, and Amy are well on their way to, with three kills." Herrick said.

"I'm gonna get those two today sir," Manfred said confidently.

"Heh, I'd really like to see that," Herrick replied. Manfred looked back at Herrick.

"Honestly!" Herrick said. We all laughed and went back into our quarters. It was gonna be a tough mission today. We haven't gotten any sleep. I told everyone to get some; we have fifteen hours to do so.

May 26th, 2019

1700 hours

Starke Air Force Base

Mission Briefing

"You will all be going over Yarvin airspace. There are three squadrons. Spatz will be leading squad and will be sending request to the Yarvin forces. The Expo squadron will be on Spatz's east flank, and the Cyano squadron on the west flank. We will be giving Blair and Friedrich a rest today. You won't be seeing each other too often, so Konrad, your job is to make sure you know how all of the other squadrons are doing. Good luck."

May 26th, 2019

1800 hours

Near Yarvin Airspace

"Alright guys, we should be in Yarvin airspace in a few minutes, split off and head to your designated areas," I said.

"Expo 1, roger."

"Cyano 1 roger." Everything is going smoothly so far.

Once we entered the airspace, I issued the request: "Yarvin forces this is Captain Konrad Schmidt of the Reilian Air Force. We have reason to believe that the Yuropeans are up to something, they're sending a massive air strike. We would attack them, but our forces are not sufficient, nor are they skillful enough. In order to defeat the common enemy, we must turn to you. We've been fighting with each other, but the real enemy is the Yuropeans. We need you to cooperate if the Yuropeans are to be thwarted." I waited for a response.

"This is Base Commander Julio Martinez of Lynx Air Force Base. We heard what happened this morning. Was your squadron involved?

"Yes sir, we are the reason this was happening," I said.

"Roger, I'm sending three squads up to help your squad. You're right; we must defeat the common enemy."

"Roger, we'll be waiting here for your forces."

"Expo 1 here, I see planes on the runway! They're sending up enemy planes."

"Spatz 1, roger. They'll be helping us out."

"Blue 1 here. Are you the 'Shocker' everyone has been talking about?" It was one of the Yarvin pilots.

"Yes, that's me."

"It's an honor to be able to fly with you sir."

"Blue 1, are you the leader of your pack?"

"Uhh yes sir. The other squads go by the name White and Black. Pretty simple, I know."

"Heh, okay. We'll start heading for the Yuropeans and surprise them as soon as your planes get up in the air. By the way, the planes on my east flank go by Expo, while the ones on my right go by Cyano."

"And you?"

"Spatz; Spatz 1."

"Ah, I see. I'm up in the air now; we just have to wait for my two wingmen. We only have our three three-plane squads heading up here, including my own."

"Roger that." As soon as his wingmen were up in the air, we headed off; the Black and White squads were to bring up the rear of our counter attack."

"Okay, Cyano and Expo squads, you can tighten up our formation now, we've got the Yarvin forces with us," I commanded. Cyano 1 and Expo 1 both brought they're squadrons in from their wide supporting positions. The Blue squadron was over head, maybe a thousand feet above us and five hundred feet in front of us. The White squadron was a mile behind while the Black squad was three miles back. We were all set up to attack.

"This is Blue 1; I see the enemy." The enemy was showing up on radar. It was a massive formation, maybe twenty planes. We had our forces matched.

"Spatz 1 here; Blue squadron, break the enemy formation; we'll go in right behind you. White and Black squads, attack any stragglers you see when you come." The Blue squadron accelerated towards the enemy. I brought my squadron up a thousand feet.

"Hey, who's that?" I heard the enemy's voice on the radio.

"I'm getting mixed radar signatures. Yarvin and Reilian forces coming in! All planes; attack!" It was too late though. We had already penetrated and had great position on the enemy planes.

"Blue 1, Fox 2!" The missile headed right up the enemy plane's nose, tearing it apart. "Alright that's one down!" My squadron and I maintained perfect formation and penetrated right through the enemy formation.

"Spatz 1 to all planes; find your own targets!" the Cyano and Expo squadrons were just coming in from the East and West. We had the enemy planes cornered

"Everyone, find your own target!" I barked. Manfred and Amy fanned out immediately. There was suddenly an enemy plane right behind me.

"Hey, is this the 'Shocker' we've been hearing about?"

"Yeah that's him."

"Roger that, I'm on him!" It was the enemy plane. I figured I would turn the tables. I went into a loop. When I reached the top of the loop, I shot at him.

"Spatz 1 Fox 2!" The enemy had nowhere to go as he few straight into the missile.

"Man that guy's nuts!" The enemy said.

"All planes, the 'Shocker' must be shot down! Don't let him escape!" As soon as he said that, I saw bullets buzzing right by my cockpit. I shook off everyone who was shooting, but then there was someone suddenly right behind me!

"Ack, get him off me!" I yelled for support. No one was even near. I broke left, and then back right. He was still latched on. I heard more bullets buzz by my plane. Then I slowed my plane dramatically. The enemy plane went flying by, but then there was another plane that flew right over also. I read the name of the pilot off the plane; it was Manfred!

"Spatz 2, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I don't know, just get him off me!" He replied. I shot at him with my machine guns and sent him spiraling downwards.

"Hey Konrad, you gotta teach me that move!" Manfred said. I laughed and we split off again.

"White 1 here; we've arrived; engaging!" Out of no where, I saw three planes come flying from the sky with their guns blazing. They damaged one plane severely.

"I'll get rid of him," Manfred claimed the enemy plane and shot him down.

"Sixteen planes left!" I yelled.

"Expo 1 to Spatz 1; are you sure we're gonna be able to take care of all of these planes?"

"I don't know, we're just gonna have to see what happens." Suddenly, there was an enemy plane coming up from under me. Someone else was chasing him down though.

"Cyano 1; don't worry, I've got you're back Spatz 1." I broke downwards to avoid any stray fire. "Cyano 1, Fox 2!" The plane just barely got out of the way. "Man I missed it!" Then, out of no where, another enemy plane came behind up behind Cyano 1.

"Watch your back Cyano 1!" I warned. He turned and the enemy plane flew right past him.

"Spatz 3; I got him." Amy got behind the enemy plane. Amy missed the first shot.

"Amy, I'll support," I said, and got behind the enemy plane with Amy. We cornered the enemy plane. I started shooting at him with my guns. Then, Amy fired a missile. "Spatz 3, Fox 2!" The missile impacted the enemy plane. Then, another plane suddenly appeared right behind us!

"Amy, remember the simulations?" I asked.

"Yeah!" she said.

"Alright! Pull up!" I yelled, and broke left. The plane took the bait and went after me. Amy then swept in and ended up right behind the plane.

"Alright, you got him Amy!" I said. Amy shot at the plane with her machine guns and took him down.

"Black 1 here, we've arrived. We even brought someone with us."

"Lynx 1 to all planes; give me a target!"

"Grimm, what the hell are you doing here?" Manfred asked.

"The base commander said it would be a good surprise for the enemy."

"It surprised me more!" Manfred yelled. Then, there was an enemy plane right behind me.

"Grimm, get over here!" I yelled. Grimm swooped in from high above and tore apart the enemy plane.

"Thirteen planes left!" I pulled up and saw a plane heading straight down into me. I knew I was screwed when I saw him. He was diving down at ninety degrees and was going way to fast. I pulled on my stick desperately.

"Ahhhh!" I yelled as I pulled the stick. I just barely made it past the enemy plane. His plane continued downwards. He was going down way to fast at ninety degrees. His plane continued all the way down to the ground.

"Twelve planes left!" Manfred yelled. Then he yelled again. "Spatz 2, Fox 2!" I heard a soft explosion off in the distance as Manfred downed another plane. Then I saw Sarah with an enemy plane right behind her.

"Lynx 2 here, I can't shake him off, he's too quick!"

"Spatz 1 here, I'll shoot him off."

"No this is Grimm, I got it!" I saw Grimm come up from under the enemy plane. "Lynx 1 Fox 2!" The missile barely missed off to the left. "I missed!" Grimm yelled in vein. Sarah broke right. The enemy plane followed. I merged in line and ended up right behind the enemy plane.

"Spatz 1, Fox 2!" I fired a missile at the plane. The missile was heading straight for the enemy plane, but the enemy tilted his right wing upwards and the missile missed right under it! I heard the others release breaths of disappointment.

"Come on Amy, you're on you're own. Shake him off!" I yelled. She broke up and then to the left. The plane and I were still following closely, but I couldn't get a good shot off.

"Amy!" Grimm yelled. Amy reversed her turn, but the enemy was smart. The enemy fired a missile right before she reversed her turn. The plane hit Amy.

"Amy no!" Grimm yelled again. Amy's plane was spiraling downwards. I never saw her eject. I got a good angle and pelted the enemy plane with bullets. I sent him spiraling right behind Amy. Then I heard a voice come on over the radio. It was Amy's voice: "Take care of Grimm for me Schmidt." Then, Amy's plane exploded and disintegrated.

"No!" Grimm screamed.

"Come one guys, keep it together. Twelve planes left. Grimm, stay close to me." I said. Grimm pulled right behind me. I couldn't bear to look over to his cockpit. Then out of nowhere, I saw a triangle looming high above us. 'The Black Triangle'.

"Uh-oh, all planes retreat!" I yelled. Everyone disengaged and started flying east. The enemy flew opposite of us, which was west. The lights on 'The Black Triangle' lit up. The lasers came down, but not on us this time. They came down on the enemy forces, taking all twelve planes out of the sky!

"Hey, what was that?" I asked.

"Black 1 here, our base commander told the guys on 'The Black Triangle' what was going on. Despite all of the attempts to take you down, they understood exactly what you said about the 'common enemy' and all that stuff."

"Wow. Well, tell him I said thanks!"

"You're welcome, 'Shocker'." It was the captain of 'The Black Triangle'.

"Wow. You tried to shoot me down a few days ago."

"I was following orders sir." I knew that wasn't really the truth. All of our new allies really did hate me and maybe still do. They just wanna make a good first impression.

"Grimm," I said.

"Yes Captain?" Grimm replied, a little shaky.

"Sorry about what happened back there. I know I could have saved her."

"Sir it wasn't your fault," Grimm was tearing up right about now. "She just got caught off-guard." There was a long silence.

"We'll miss you Sarah," Manfred broke the silence. No one said anything. There were whimpers and deep breathes over the radio. Even from our Yarvin allies.

"Manfred, Sarah, congratulations on your two kills today. They were your fourth and fifth kills; you've earned your ace wings," I broke through the silence this time.

"Thank you," they both said at the same time. I heard clapping on the radio. The clapping got louder and louder. I ended up clapping for Manfred and Amy myself. I looked up at the skies and whispered to myself: "You take care of yourself too Sarah."

We got back to base. Herrick and the staff greeted us and were very sad. They had already heard about what had happened. They congratulated us and Herrick promised he would send out a rescue crew to see if Amy had survived or to just recover remains alone. I wasn't able to think about whether Amy made it through or not, partly because I didn't even see her eject.

Grimm had actually rushed out very quickly. He went straight to his quarters, but no one was able to notice. While Herrick was congratulating Manfred and Amy, I walked out of the briefing room. I knew Manfred would want me of all people to see him during this day, but we weren't planning for Sarah to go the way she did. I hope Manfred was able to notice that Grimm was gone and understand what I was doing.

I walked up to Grimm's quarter. I knocked on the softly on the door.

"Grimm it's me." I said. I heard no response. I felt the door shift towards me. I stepped back, but Grimm just started talking through the door.

"Yes Konrad?" He said softly.

"You okay? You disappeared as soon as we got here." He stayed quiet after I asked that.

"No Konrad, I'm not feeling to good right now."

"Uhh, I'll see if I cheer you up some. Can I come in?"

"Not right now Konrad. I need some—"There was a lapse in Grimm's breathing. "I need some time. I'm still in shock."

"Okay. If you want to talk or just have someone over, call me. I'll come."

"Okay." Grimm said. I started walking away. "Konrad." Grimm called me back before I was out of earshot.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for being here for me, for supporting me since that first flight I had taken with you."

"Yeah. You're welcome Grimm. I promised Sarah I'd take care of you. I'll be there for ya buddy. Always."

"Yeah, I'll be there too," Grimm's voice gave away the fact the he was crying. I walked back to my quarters. I didn't even go back to the briefing room. I didn't want to talk right now.

June 1st, 2019

1300 hours

Starke AFB

A few days had gone by since Sarah's death. We haven't been sent up to battle since then. It seems as if the war was dwindling. It also seems like the only war we were fighting was the one in our heads. I still haven't gotten over the death of Sarah. I hadn't slept as well as I had been. I'm sure everyone else was feeling bad too. But it just couldn't be the same. I could have saved her. That's what has been sticking to my head. I've been waging a large scale war in my head trying to get that thought out of my head and let it go. None could have felt worse than Grimm. I hadn't seen him much, in fact only once in the last six days. I've really been worrying about him.

Amy said Grimm had called her over just so they can talk. They didn't talk about Sarah. She said they had just talked about what has been happening during this war so far. I guess she might have been tutoring him. She said Grimm told her about the on battle when our carrier fleets were surprised attacked; the one where everyone else got bogged down on the runway by storm. Amy said that Grimm told her about how impressively I flew and how all of his six kills so far in the war were because of me. She couldn't understand what he meant. Grimm didn't tell her but Amy didn't ask what he meant either. I was impressed of how much he really looked up to me. The way it sounded, it seems like he loves me like I was his brother. I couldn't imagine how he'd handle all of what has been happening on his own.

During the past six days, we had some transports come in and give us some supplies. We also did get some extra planes. The rescue crew did retrieve some remains of Sarah's plane just yesterday actually. They even recovered the plane's serial number. Grimm actually asked if he could keep that. He was allowed to, but was suggested to let his family keep it until the war was over. Grimm complied, and I'm glad for that. I'm sure Grimm would have fallen apart if he kept the serial number from the plane she was flying. They were able to recover a mangled strip of her plane that had her name on it. It was barely legible, but I was able to read it anyways: Trainee Pilot Sarah Davenport. The strip was right next to her cockpit glass. It seemed to mean so much more that that was the piece that was probably the closest to Sarah at the time of her death. I actually decided to keep it. The rest of the remains were given to Amy's family. As Grimm did, I decided to let the strip of her plane go to my family for now. I didn't want to have anything that would remind Grimm of Sarah. Well, at least not visually anyways. We won't ever forget about what happened that one day. That's especially true for me.

Chapter 9: Unexpected

June 3rd, 2019

1200 hours

Starke AFB

I had heard a little earlier today that there was going to be a peace ceremony today at around 1800 hours. Herrick had just called me over to the briefing room. I was guessing that maybe it had something to do with the ceremony.

When I got to the briefing room, the Blair and Friedrich were not there. Only Amy, Manfred, and Grimm were in the room, along with Herrick.

"You will be doing a simple flyover today at a peace ceremony in Yarvin's capital city, Gantor. They will announce your names before you fly over, so make sure you show your manners," Herrick said. There was small laughter. "All this is is a flyover. Just flyover and stick around until Moewe calls you back. That's right; AWACS Moewe will be monitoring you. By the way, Grimm will be joining the Spatz squadron.

You will be armed, but I don't expect you to need to shoot anything. Just hang around until Moewe calls you back to base. You will take off for Gantor at 1700 hours. Dismissed."

June 3rd, 2019

1200 hours

Starke AFB

"Spatz 1 here; are we all ready?"

"Spatz 2 on standby."

"Spatz 3 on standby."

"Spatz 4 on standby."

"Good, we're just gonna fly over the stadium and hang around until Moewe calls us back. This should be easy." I said. "Spatz 3, you'll branch off when we pass the stadium the second time. This will symbolize Sarah's death. We had a simple diamond formation. We would have gone with the traditional V-formation, but the diamond would look better with the four of us.

We flew over the stadium. We saw many camera flashes coming from all over the crowd. We were even able to hear the cheering. We looped around to do one more pass. This time, as planned, Amy broke off and the cheering had gotten louder. They had obviously heard what had happened. Grimm started rolling his plane. It was the first time I've seen him happy. Then Manfred branched off, and I was left alone. I did my signature stall-out move, the one I had shocked so many enemies with. That's where I got my name I guess.

"Okay guys, this marks the end of our flight. Form up and stay together. We just need to stay until we're called back," I reported. I saw the "Black Triangle" suddenly looming over head. Well, overhead isn't the best way put it since it was high above us, barely into our atmosphere.

"Hey, was that thing supposed to be part of the ceremony?" Manfred asked.

"I hope so," I responded, looking down at the large city and its skyscrapers. Then, another squadron flew right over the stadium at a blistering rate. We didn't even have a chance to see them!

"Surprise!" A familiar voice said on the radio.

"Blue 1?" I asked.

"Yep, it's me buddy. Our base commander figured that we better come and represent our country. After all, this is our country. By the way, you see what we put up on our ceiling?" He was referring to the "Black Triangle".

"Yeah, I saw that. That's gotta be an awesome thing for the crowd to see."

"Hey 'Shocker', show me some of your moves! I've gotta see your signature move! I mean, you do have one right? All great aces do."

"I had just done it before you got here." I said, and then Blue 1 got behind me. I turned hard right then hard left. I pulled up on the stick some and stalled-out. Blue 1 ended up right in front of me and, just like others, was paralyzed.

"Man, I can't move my hands," He said. I smiled. He recovered and turned left. I kept flying straight.

"Spatz 1, behind you! Break right!" I heard someone say. I was confused. Then, the missile alert siren came on, and was beeping way too fast for comfort. I turned right and barely got out of the way of a missile. I heard a plane fly past following the missile. I turned back around and got behind him, but there was another plane right behind me!

"Spatz 1 break!" Manfred yelled. I could have done the stall-out move, but there were two more planes following in support. I broke the only way I could, and that was down. The plane had good angles, but didn't shoot because the missile would have hit the city. Instead, he tried tearing me apart with his machine guns! I decreased throttle dramatically and broke left. The enemy plane shot right past me, along with two more enemy planes flying support.

"Hey, what was that? You guys were supposed to be keeping watch!" I yelled.

"They snuck in! I don't know how!" Manfred yelled. Then, I looked at their planes. They were F-22s, the same planes we had. F-22s are stealth.

"Those are stealth planes," I said. They then disappeared from radar. I looked back up from the radar; they were gone.

"Hey, where'd they go?" I asked.

"Sir, this is Blue 3; twelve o'clock high." I looked up at the sky in front of me. I saw six F-22s.

"Hey, where'd the other three come from?" Grimm asked.

"They were probably planning to finish you off. You shook them off to well though," Amy said.

"Okay, keep them at high altitudes so we don't have to worry about hitting the city." I said. I pulled up on my flight stick and started closing in on the plane that had shot me first. Everyone else followed. I pushed my throttle up to max and headed straight for the enemy plane.

"Spatz 1, Fox 2!" I yelled. The plane had no time to react and the missile tore through the back of his plane. "This is Spatz 1, one enemy plane down!" I looped back around and started diving in on my next target. But Grimm had already called that one.

"Captain, that's my plane!" Grimm said. He was going to get there first anyway.

"I'll fly support Grimm."

"Alright. Spatz 4, Fox 2!" Grimm shot a missile at the plane and destroyed it. "Whoo one down!" He celebrated.

"This is Blue 2, I need help!" I heard over the radio. I looked for Blue 2. I couldn't find him, I lost his location.

"Blue 2, this is Spatz 1, I've lost you, where are you?" I asked.

"Uhh, southeast of the stadium sir," I heard the missile alert blaring in the background. "Hurry!" Somehow, everyone else had gotten caught up and I was the closest to Blue 2. Grimm was right behind me though.

"Blue 2, I see you, closing in on enemy craft." I said.

"Spatz 4 here, I've confirmed location also. I'll fly support!"

"Spatz 1 roger."

"Hurry, I can't dodge these guys much longer," I saw another missile go by him, barely missing.

"Just hang in there!" I said.

"I'm gonna blackout!" He yelled. I thought quickly. I was too far to launch a close-range missile. I switched to long-range missiles.

"Spatz 1, Fox 3, Fox 3!" I launched two missiles, one at each plane. The enemy broke right, but they turned their backs to the missiles. The missiles easily impacted the target.

"Spatz 1, enemy plane on your six! I got him," Grimm said. The lock-on warning alarm started beeping softly. I turned hard left. The enemy then launched a missile.

"Spatz 4, Fox 2!" The missile impacted the enemy plane as he was flying past me. Then, I saw Manfred and Amy flying towards us, hot on the last enemy plane. Manfred was firing away with his machine gun, but Amy seemed to have a better idea.

"Spatz 3, Fox 2!"

"Spatz 2, Fox 2!" Amy's missile missed to the side, but Manfred's was able to hit.

"I missed to the side!" Amy said. We all started laughing. It was interesting to see us laughing after we just killed six people.

"Blue 2, this is Spatz 1; are you okay?" Blue 2's plane had been flying in a straight line ever since the last transmission.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm still recovering, but I'm mostly okay right now." He turned his plane and came back towards us. Blue 2 eased his plane into his formation.

I heard cheering coming from under us. I looked down and saw the stadium, buzzing with people. More camera flashes as the Blue squadron flew with us. We were representing separate countries. Countries that have waged war against each other, but against all odds realized the true enemy: Yurope.

We headed back to base, and were congratulated by Herrick, Blair, Friedrich, and the other staff, including "Eagle", our control tower. He seems to have settled in. He's gotten along with the other control tower staff pretty well. I'm glad to see that he's settled in easily.

Friedrich, Blair, and the other few pilots stationed at our base have not flown a mission since about a week ago or more. The closest they've been to flying since then has been simulations. All of the other pilots were still only trainee, besides Blair and Friedrich, anyway, so I don't think it really mattered. The trainees did congratulate me from time to time, when they got a chance, and did say they wish they could fly more often. It is fun actually. It's our job, so you'd think we have to like it at least some, even if we do have to kill others.

I don't feel bad about killing others. It's part of my job and I'm defending my country because of it. Others would be less aggressive. I think I'm the only reason that we are all as good as we are. We all learn from each other, feed off each other. And, they don't feel bad about killing others too much because they see me do it every time I go up into battle. We did have some people from the media ask for interviews of us. We were given a day off, and they let us go into the nearby city and Reilian capital, November City. There, they brought us into a room and interviewed us. We were interviewed. Afterwards, our interview records were released. We all knew what we said about each other. We didn't know they would let us know what everyone said, so I can be sure that the interviews were honest.

Interview 1

Manfred Fleisher

Spatz #2 Wing

Ace

Media: What do you think about your captain, Konrad?

Manfred: I think he's done pretty well. He is the most feared by other non-allied forces. He has a paralyzing move that I can't even keep with. I love flying his number 2 wing, but it's hell trying to fly with him. They guy's got hands of gold I swear. When we were still trainees, we picked on each other and tried to match each other's moves. He always outmatched everyone. I do remember him doing his "Signature move" what he calls the "Stall-out" maybe once while we were in training. It wasn't against one of us; it was a pilot who is still in training up to this day.

Media: What about Sarah's death, how does it affect you four?

Manfred: Well it's sad. I think, of all people, it hurts Grimm and Konrad the most. Sarah was like his sister I swear they loved each other. They didn't show it, but they always seemed together. They were tight tight friends. I'm sure he feels real bad. Konrad was right behind her when she died. He missed an easy shot, which doesn't happen to often. That allowed the enemy plane to shoot Sarah right out of they sky. As for me, I feel bad about what happened, but I'm not kicking myself about it. I felt bad about it. I felt especially bad for Konrad and Grimm, but I let it go somewhat easily actually. Don't get me wrong, it was still a tough loss.

Interview 2

Amy Speidel

Spatz #3 wing

Ace

Media: Do you feel confident in having a captain like Konrad?

Amy: Yeah I do. I wouldn't pick anyone else as my captain. I would rather fly his number 2 wing. Well, I guess it's the same when there's only the three of us in the squadron. Now that Grimm is with us, I have him flying by my side. I actually miss flying wingman support with him. He would never let me during a battle. If he asks us to split up he means it. That is a good thing I guess, that's what captain is supposed to be like. He isn't always stern though. When he's not in a battle, he can be a very charming guy. If it wasn't for this war, I'd probably ask him out to dinner some time.

Media: How does Sarah's death affect you?

Amy: I feel bad and all, but I feel bad for Konrad thee most. I don't know how he sleeps knowing that he let that enemy kill Sarah right in front of him. He had the chance to kill the enemy, but he just got unlucky, which has been very rare for him lately. Grimm was feeling pretty bad to, but I don't see how Konrad doesn't kick himself everyday.

Interview 3

Hans Grimm

Former Lynx Captain, Transferred to Spatz #4 wing

Ace

Media: You and Konrad have some close ties, being that you were both captains at one point. What do you think about him?

Grimm: He's a good person; a good captain. He'll take charge whenever he needs to. He's always there for everyone, especially me. I remember when we first had a real conversation with each other. I saw him while we were running to the hangars during our first battle of the war. I recognized who he was, so I talked to him. I remember telling him that I was a little nervous. He said he himself was just a little nervous. He was very surprised that I was going up to fight with him, and rightfully so, I was not the very best when we were trainees. But I've learned, and the credit all goes to Konrad.

Final Interview

Konrad Schmidt

Spatz Captain

Ace

Media: How do you like flying with your wingman?

Konrad: Well, they're a good bunch fly with. I'm actually glad I didn't get stuck with a bunch of slower rookies, although we did have the same skill back then, I think Grimm and I have excelled past Manfred and Amy just a bit. They're all still great pilots though; I wouldn't want to fly with anyone else. Manfred brings smiles whenever he can. Grimm is like another captain for me, and ironically he is, or rather was. Amy is just a good all-around person. I think I might even ask her out for dinner tonight, before we have to head back to base.

Media: Amy and Manfred said that you and Grimm had to be feeling really bad about what happened to Sarah, but they said you probably felt especially bad. I didn't ask Grimm anything about Sarah, I wasn't sure if he had the composure to talk about her. But, I'm sure we can hear from you, how do you feel about what happened.

Konrad: I feel really bad. I could have saved her, I just got unlucky with one shot, and it was a bad time to get unlucky. I don't understand how I missed. I don't show it, but I do kick myself every time I think about it. I can't imagine how Grimm feels though. I feel really bad for her and her family, but I guess it's just part of the job, and I just have to let it go.

After the interviews, I did ask Amy if she wanted to go out somewhere to eat. She said yes, but the others had no where to go. We took them along with us. I didn't have much cash on me, since we were in the middle of the war, I wouldn't really need much, so we just went to some fast food restaurant. I paid for Amy and I, while everyone else paid for themselves.

"You know, I have wanted to ask you out to dinner," Amy said.

"Yeah, I saw that in the interview records," I replied.

"Well, this isn't what I was thinking," she said looking around. I laughed.

"I don't have enough cash on me."

"That's okay, I wouldn't expect you to." At that moment, we locked eyes for a few seconds.

I looked down at the table and said, "I still haven't gotten over what happened to Sarah. I keep kicking myself when I think about it." She put her hand on mine.

"It wasn't your fault Konrad," she said.

"I know, but I had the chance to stop it," I started tearing up. I think she noticed.

"You seemed so easy going compared to Grimm. Now you're starting to fall apart. Is something wrong?" I thought to myself 'no kidding there's something wrong, Sarah died right in front of me.' I knew what she meant when she asked me. I still couldn't bear to lock eyes with her.

"No, I'll be fine; it's just really sinking in right now." I felt her tighten her grip on my hand.

"You'll be fine, you're our captain. You know this as well as I do, if you fall apart, Grimm falls apart, and everyone else falls apart. I know it's hard, but you gotta hang in there." Amy said. I managed to look up into her eyes. "You know I'll be here for ya." She winked at me and got up. She walked over to the others. "Okay guys, I think we're ready to go." I walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder. She was actually shorter than I thought.

"Let's go guys, we gotta be back before ten o'clock," I said.

"Aww, you lovebirds wanna go already?" Manfred said. Grimm and Manfred smiled. Amy looked up at me and smiled to.

"Come on Manfred let's go," I gave a slight smile.

"Sheesh, we even have a bed time?" He said.

"It's more of a curfew," I said.

"Well, same thing to me." Grimm and Amy laughed. Then Amy grabbed my hand. We held hands all the way back to the armed vehicle that was going to take us back to base. I don't remember, I as too dazed at the time, but I think I let Amy fall asleep on my lap.

Chapter 10: Grimm's Uprising

We got back to base and went to sleep. Well, I did anyway; I was beat for some reason. The next day was relatively quiet; at least until Herrick had to call us to the briefing room. It was around 1600 hours when he called us in.

"We have discovered that Yurope is storing large nuclear missiles in a large facility. We don't know too much, but we do know that a large air force base exists five minutes away from the base. You will be seeing a resistance. Anyway, your job will be to make the missile un-operational. You will do this by destroying a large fuse that is located within the facility. There are two ways to do this. The easiest way to do this would be to destroy eight generators located outside the base. The other way to do it would be to fly a plane inside the facility itself and destroy the fuse form the inside. The facility has a very large tunnel, large enough to fit a plane through easily. Someone would have to fly through the tunnel, destroy the fuse, and come back out through the other side of the facility. This might be a tough assignment, but I don't think you would have to resort to flying through the tunnel; the generators would be able to be destroyed. If you have any problems, tell AWACS Moewe and he'll relay the information to me. Also, all of our pilots will be flying with you today. Good luck people."

"All squadrons, this is AWACS Moewe; squadron leaders, report."

"Spatz 1 on standby."

"Cyano 1 on standby."

"Expo 1 on standby."

"Falco 1 on standby."

"Okay, ETA to facility: five minutes."

I looked around at all of the planes we had in the air. I counted them all: we had thirteen planes in the air. I was hoping I didn't have to baby sit the Falco squadron; I haven't yet seen them in action yet. I knew Cyano and Expo could handle just fine, but they were still just trainees. We were about to come in contact with the facility.

"Spatz 1 to all planes; my squad will go in and destroy the generators. Cyano squad, you'll fly direct support for us. Cyano and Falco, keep an eye on the air around us." I started downwards, and Cyano followed. When we got through the cloud cover, I saw the facility. It was huge, the tunnels were all visible. At least they had no ceiling, which would make it somewhat easier to fly through if we had to.

"My God," someone said.

"Relax guys, we can do this," I said. As we got closer, I saw how many generators there were: there were four generators oddly enough.

"Spatz 1 to all Spatz planes; pick a target and head for it. We should be able to get rid of them in one pass." I kept going straight, and the others lined up beside me as they picked their targets. Then, we were finally close enough to fire a missile.

"Spatz 1, Fox 2!"

"Spatz 3, Fox 2!"

"Spatz 4, Fox 2!"

"Spatz 2, Fox 2!" We waited anxiously to see the missiles hit. When they did though, I just realized something. They had pulled shutters over the generators! The missiles all hit the shutters.

"That is a negative impact, repeat, negative impact!" I said.

"Moewe what do we do now? They pulled shutters over the generators!" Amy said.

"Hold on, I'll relay this to Herrick."

"Yeah, hurry up with that, I think they know we're here now," I said.

"Expo 1 here, five enemy planes heading in from the Southwest!"

"Spatz 1 here, we outnumber them, we should be able to get rid of them! Swat them down!"

"This is Falco 1; I see them! Moving to intercept!" At least their lead sounded confident. The enemy squadron was coming fast. They flew right through as if they didn't even see us. They looped upwards, my eyes followed them. I saw the 'Black Triangle' looming above us yet again.

"Man, that thing is everywhere," Manfred said.

"You see it too?" I asked.

"Yep it's there alright." I went up to intercept the enemy planes. I then realized what my mistake was. The planes were coming head on, and I had no immediate support, everyone was disoriented. Then one of them fired a missile.

"Spatz 1, break left!" someone said. I turned my plane sharply to the left and just barely avoided a barrage of missiles coming head on. Then I looked at the radar, there they were again! The same five planes, right behind me!

"Come on guys they're only five planes!" I yelled. I broke right this time. Then I did my "Stall-out" move. I had all the planes fooled. It was as if we were floating, suspended in mid-air. I saw everyone else right behind me on the radar. I was to close to do anything myself, so I turned out of the way.

"Spatz 3, Fox 2!" everyone else went in with their machine guns blazing. All but one plane evaded, the one Amy shot at. His plane was blown apart by the missile. The other enemy planes were being chased mercilessly by the others. They had no where to go. They somehow outran everyone though and were able to bug out.

"Let them go guys," I said. We all formed up and flew over the facility once more.

"AWACS, this is Spatz 1, what do we do?"

"You're gonna have to destroy it from the inside," he said grimly.

"Roger. All planes, this is Spatz 1, I'm going in. All others cover me. I swooped down and got into the tunnel. It was huge. You could fit more than one plane side by side in here! Then, out of no where, the missile alert siren started blaring. I pulled up on the stick and just barely got out of the way of the missile. I flew right back out of the tunnel.

"I thought they bugged out!" Amy said.

"They snuck back, they were bluffing it!" Grimm said. I looked around. Everyone else was tangled up with the enemy planes. Only Grimm and I were separated from the battle.

"Grimm, we have to fly in together! I saw ahead in the tunnel, it's a tough shot, I need you to fly in behind me just in case." I said.

"Captain, I can't, I'm not sure you can handle that," he said.

"You have to it's the only way!"

"I can't!"

"Grimm nothings gonna happen to you!" There was a pause.

"How do you know that?"

"Sarah asked me to take care of you, I promised I would!" I hated bringing up Sarah's name right now.

"Okay sir, I'll trust you."

"Hurry, we don't have much time," I saw the enemy planes branch off and get away from the battle. We flew into the tunnel. I looked ahead, to the inside of the facility, and there was a large shutter closing! Then the missile alert siren started blaring again.

"Captain, we're gonna get hit!" Grimm yelled.

"No we're not!" I yelled back. We made it inside the facility. The missiles hit the shutter behind us. We couldn't communicate with the others now; the tunnel ceiling wouldn't allow us.

"Captain, are you sure there's a way out?" Grimm asked.

"Yes there is, but we've gotta be quick, the shutters will be closing any minute," I said. As if the enemy heard me, the started closing the shutters.

"Come one Grimm, you gotta keep up now," I said. I increased throttle.

"I'm right behind you!" We got passed the shutter, but there was still another closing in front of us. We went over the shutters like hurdles until we finally got to the fuse. It was a huge box mounted on the ceiling. I wasn't sure if we could destroy it, but we had to at least try since we were here. The only light we got was from the orange ceiling lights, so I couldn't see the target as well.

"Grimm, be ready."

"Missile locked sir," Grimm said. I fired a missile. The missile impacted the target. I wasn't sure if it was a negative impact.

"Grimm, shoot it!" I yelled. He launched a missile. The missile impacted. This time, the box exploded.

"I did it!" Grimm yelled. I heard an alarm start blaring. The alarm was outside of the plane this time. I looked ahead, and the shutters were closing faster than before.

"Uh-oh, we better push it up Grimm!" I said. Grimm pulled his plane right beside mine. He glanced at me then back in front. I increased throttle even more. There was a large, sudden vibration that shook everything.

"Grimm, don't let that get to you! Fly straight!" Grimm's plane had taken a downward angle after the vibrations, but he was able to pull back up.

"You think we set off a chain reaction? Maybe the explosions from the fuse got to the missiles," Grimm said. The fuse was only to launch the missile, but I guess it was possible for the vibration of the explosions to go through the fuse connection to the missiles.

"Maybe Grimm, let's hope it's not though." I said. We'd get fried if a missile that was close to us were to blow now.

"Push it up Grimm," I was talking about his speed this time. I increased throttle more and we were flying through the tunnel so fast it was scary. Then I saw a fork in front of us. The tunnel branched off into two smaller ones, only big enough for one plane.

"Grimm, you're on your own," I said. "See you on the other side." We took our separate routes and at that point, lost connection with each other as well. More vibrations shook the air around me. I was struggling to keep my plane flying in a straight line. Then I saw light coming from in front of me. It was blinding, but was also getting smaller. There was still one more shutter left. I pushed my throttle up to max. My chin was over the flight stick. I felt as if I was pushing my plane faster by leaning forwards. The shutter was almost closed just before I reached the outside, I closed my eyes. The echo from the engines had stopped bouncing off the tunnel walls. I opened my eyes. I was outside the tunnel. Grimm was flying a few hundred feet beside me.

"Konrad! Grimm! Look, you did it!" Falco 4 said. I looped around and saw the facility. It was ablaze with fire in several areas, most likely where the missiles were. Then, there was one larger explosion. The last shutter had just closed, but then it was blown open by fire and debris. The facility was steaming smoke and fire out of giant holes left by explosions.

Amy and Manfred then flew right beside us.

"You did it guys!" Manfred said excitedly. I looked over to Amy and saw her smiling. That same bright smile I saw when we first flew with each other.

"You guys got rid of the enemy planes?" I asked.

"Yeah, Amy practically mopped them all down herself! She downed three of the four planes that were left!" Manfred said. "Falco 1 got his first kill, and I got another to."

"AWACS, this is Spatz 1," I looked down at the facility. I laughed at what I was going to ask. "Is the enemy facility confirmed down?" Everyone else laughed to.

"Moewe here; yes, mission complete, return to base." There was cheering coming from everyone. I hadn't felt so happy in a long time.

The echo of my plane soaring through the tunnel was still echoing in my head. I couldn't manage to get it out. I actually liked the challenge. I knew Grimm was nervous. I was surprised at how well he did once he was inside the tunnel. The war was soon going to be over. Yarvin was invading and getting their own support from their squads. I thought of the Blue squad along with the Black and White squads. They were probably flying in the air right now.

Chapter 11: Yurope's Final Actions

June 5th, 2019

1700 hours

Starke AFB

Herrick had called us down to the briefing room. As usual, I was expecting the unexpected. But even this I didn't expect.

"The Yuropeans have decided that they've had enough of this madness. They are planning to drop a nuke right in the center of their country. You will be launching a massive air operation. Your job will be to disrupt the enemy plans. There is a way to stop this. It does involve yet another tunnel.

"The missiles will be launching from underground facilities, however there is an opening that would lead you straight to the nuke. There are three large vents around the missile. All of them should lead straight to the missile. The only problem is that you'll have to come extremely close to the ground and to the vent in order to get a missile lock. This'll be tough. I know you can do it. Eisvogel will be launching with you, in fact everyone will. I've received reports from Yarvin that they to are sending their best pilots. Make sure you don't shoot down one of our allies. AWACS Moewe will be commanding so be sure to listen to him. Dismissed."

As we went into the hangar, Manfred walked up beside me, "Man, do you think this can get any crazier?"

"I don't know anymore. And what is it with these people and tunnels with missiles?"

"I don't know, but you won't be doing any tunnel flying today."

"I certainly hope not." Then, Manfred slapped my back and said, "You're the man," and walked off to his plane. I got in my plane and ran through the preflight checks. When I drove my plane outside of the hangar, I saw three F-22s fly over our base at supersonic speeds.

"Hey, was that one of ours?" someone asked.

"Those were Yarvin planes, don't worry about it," Control Tower, or Eagle, or whatever his name was said. I wondered what the Yarvin planes were doing around here. I guess they were planning to surround the battlefield. That's when it sunk in: this is really happening.

When we got to the battle field, everything was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The only planes that were even here were ours and Yarvin's. We had the airspace secured. I thought they would have put up a nasty fight just to keep this place under their control.

"Hey, this is Arrow 1; I'm getting something on radar." I looked at the radar and there was nothing there.

"Twelve o'clock high!" Grimm yelled. I looked straight up and saw an enemy plane coming down on us. Then, he shot a missile that split right through the middle of our diamond formation.

"Missile!" Falco 3 screamed. It was too late for anything though. Falco 3 was shot down from right under my nose; literally. He was flying just a few hundred feet under my plane. More planes were coming from above us.

"Hey, watch the ceiling guys!" I said. Everyone swarmed around the skies. There were maybe forty planes flying in the air, and about twenty from each side.

"This is Spatz 1; I have a lock on an enemy plane!" Then he broke left. I swerved to the left following him. When I finished the turned, I fired a missile. The enemy tried breaking right, but the missile followed him and blew his plane to pieces.

Then, I saw a plane right behind me. I saw one of our planes to my left.

"Hey, this one's yours!" I said. I hoped he would recognize my voice as the 'Shocker's' voice. I turned right and the enemy plane followed. I put the plane right in front of the allied plane.

"Raven 1, Fox 2," The allied plane recognized my maneuver. The enemy plane didn't realize he was trapped and was hit by the missile.

"AWACS Moewe to all planes; remember your objective and don't stray from it! Enemy planes take second priority!" I remembered that to. I headed down and saw the facility. The vents were actually very large, easy to shoot straight into. I couldn't get a good angle, because some nut was right behind me. I shook him off easily though. I got back to the vent. I had to get so close to the vent. I got as close as I could, but I got no lock on!

"Moewe, what's going on? I can't get a lock on the missile, I got as close as I could to going inside the vent," I asked.

"Hang on, I'm getting strange readings. There is something that it reflecting the radar waves away from the missile, you're gonna have to shoot at it manually." As he said that, I saw a shutter closing the vent!

"Uhhh, that's kinda hard now, they're closing the vents!" I was starting to get annoyed. He didn't say anything, not that there was anything to say.

"Spatz 3, Fox 2!" I saw a flash of orange light pass by and destroy an enemy plane.

"Spatz 2 to Spatz 1, enemy plane on your tail!" I looked at the radar and saw a triangle pointing straight at me. I pulled my plane up and the plane followed. Then, I did my stall out move, which I've never done while going vertical. When my plane stalled, it allowed me to do an impossibly tight loop. The enemy plane tried to follow but froze after that. I even saw him in the cockpit looking around for me.

"Spatz 2, Fox 2!" I saw a missile heading up from under me. It flashed by and hit the enemy plane.

"AWACS Moewe here; five minutes to missile launch!" It had a demoralizing effect on everyone. Everyone just froze when he said that. The enemy planes had a bead on us. There were suddenly planes blowing up everywhere; all of them were allied planes.

"Come on guys, we can still fight!" I yelled.

"Another plane went down!" Grimm said. I saw it get hit to my left.

"There goes another," Manfred said. The plane was exploding above me.

"All remaining squad leaders, report your status!"

"Falco 1 here, I'm still here! The rest of my squad was not so lucky."

"This is Blue 1, you didn't say hi to me when you got here Spatz 1."

"What? I didn't even know you were here," I said. I waited for more responses.

"Is that it?" Grimm said.

"There has to be someone else; all remaining planes respond!"

"Spatz 2 here."

"Spatz 3 here."

"Spatz 4 here."

"Blue 1, I'm still flying."

"Falco 1, I managed to stay alive also."

"That's it? We still have a bunch of planes to deal with!" I yelled.

"AWACS Moewe here, I don't see anyone else, only six planes, and that's you guys." Three planes suddenly appeared above me. They were all after me.

"Spatz 4, Fox 2!" I saw one of the planes break from the flight, but he was hit anyway. That caused enough distraction for me to make a move. I pulled up and headed straight for the planes.

"Spatz 1, Fox 2!" I shot a missile head on. The pilot had nowhere to go and went into the missile face first.

"This is Moewe; I'm getting more strange readings. It's the 'Black Triangle'!" I looked up above at the sky and saw the lights shining from the 'Black Triangle'.

"Hey, you think that thing can avoid hitting us?" Manfred asked.

"We're gonna have to trust that it can Manfred," I replied. "All planes stay away from the enemy planes, that'll at least help the 'Black Triangle' some. Then, the lasers came down. I was startled because I wasn't expecting them to come down so quickly.

"AWACS here; all planes confirmed down! Yes!" We all started cheering. I was the only one that was quiet though. There was a shutter opening up from the top of the facility. The nuke was going to launch.

"Spatz 1 here. The missile; it's gonna launch," everyone stopped cheering. The missile started up its rockets.

"This is Moewe; I just got word from North Yarvin; they were hit by a nuclear missile."

"What?" I said.

"The entire northern area of the country was decimated, and a third of the population was lost.

"So what's this then, a decoy?"

"I don't know." I looked at the missile again. It was coming out of its hole. The smoke from its rockets was blowing up out of the opening. The missile disappeared behind the white smoke. Then, it reappeared, high above the clouds though.

"All planes, we've gotta run, we're already done here anyway. That thing is going do detonate sometime soon. I don't wanna be here when that happens," I said.

"Too bad we couldn't stop this Konrad," Amy said.

"We didn't know that there was another missile."

"Yes but we could have stopped this one."

"Moewe here, that missile is heading straight for the 'Black Triangle'!" There was silence. I watched as the missile kept flying upwards.

"I just found out something else also. There is still another missile heading straight for you. You still have enough time to get out of the area. They're actually launching multiple missiles from a site we didn't even know about. Reilia is gonna get hit too if this keeps up," Moewe told us. Then, I realized something. The Eisvogel squadron had been quiet all this time.

"Spatz 1 here; did anyone see what happened to the Eisvogel squadron? They never said a word."

"No, I didn't see them. After we got tangled with the enemy, I didn't know where anyone was," Manfred said.

"They were probably shot down," Blue 1 said. That's the only thing that could have happened to them. I felt so bad for them. Then I looked up at the sky; a big ball of light expanded and then exploded. The 'Black Triangle' was destroyed. I was glad they didn't try shooting the missile down; we would have been destroyed if that happened. I guess they knew that, and sacrificed themselves.

"AWACS Moewe here; two minutes before missile impact. You'll be out of the blast area before then."

We stayed silent, waiting for the missile to hit. Then, after two minutes went by, the missile impacted. I saw the light bouncing off the clouds. The explosion was so large it was hard to believe you could escape it. We managed though. Blue 1 split off and went back to base. He wasn't sure what to expect when he got back to his country he said. Falco 1 and my squad did find our base intact and landed. There was no missile impact yet. I wouldn't be surprised if there was one.

June 6th, 2019

1100 hours

Starke AFB

The missiles had decimated Yarvin and Yurope. Reilia was the only country still able to sustain itself. We did however get hit. The port city that we defended while we were at Aqua AFB was destroyed. The remains of Aqua AFB were also destroyed by the missile. By now, I couldn't imagine a reason to fight in the war. We were told that we had to go through one more mission tomorrow. There were a few enemy bases still intact and operational in Yurope. We had to go there and ask the forces to surrender. If they didn't, we would have to fight them, as usual. The mission was to commence in three days at 1500 hours.

Chapter 12: Remnant Forces

June 9th, 2019

1510 hours

Yuropean Airspace

The single Falco pilot was with us today, making us a five plane squadron. We found out his name, which was Larry Perez. I told him I would call him Perez. He took our number five spot now, a spot I'm sure Sarah would have been.

"Spatz 5 this is Spatz 1; how is your plane today?" He had previously been flying an F-15. He was flying an F-22 now, prematurely though.

"I feel great about today sir!" He replied.

"Good, at least you're confident." I saw the Yuropean base that we were heading to.

"Alright, I'll start the surrender transmission," I said. "This is Captain Konrad Schmidt of the Spatz squadron. You might know me as the 'Shocker'," I looked to my left. Manfred was looking at me, smiling and shaking his head. "We ask that you surrender. There is no purpose in fighting the war. I'm sure you've gotten you're revenge against Yarvin and Reilia. Surrender now or we will be forced to take action.

Four F-22s then came out of a hangar and went out onto the runway.

"Yuropean planes please comply with our request; surrender now," I repeated. Instead, they started moving down the runway and took off.

"Okay guys they obviously don't wanna play nice. All planes engage," I commanded. Everyone fanned out into attack positions. "Spatz 5, you stay with me. Grimm, you stick with Amy. Manfred, you're on your own today buddy." Spatz 5 flew supporting position beside me. Manfred was left alone. "You'll be able to handle them Manfred."

"Of course I will Captain!" He turned and went right after an enemy plane. I only saw two of them though.

"Spatz 1, look! Twelve o'clock high!" I looked up. There were two F-22s! I don't understand how they sneak away from us and come from above. That seemed to be how Yurope trained their F-22 pilots. I was in no position to counter the attack, and I had to keep in mind that I didn't have experience behind me.

"Perez, stick to my tail!" I said. I pulled up and to the left. He followed nicely and the enemy planes shot passed us. "Good Perez, you might have a future with the Air Force."

"That was tough sir," He said.

"No one said it was easy," I said and turned to the left. The enemy planes were still latched on.

"Perez split off and get behind the enemy plane," I said.

"Roger!" He made a quick turn to the left and started looping around. The two enemy planes stayed latched on to my tail, just as I thought they would. I turned hard right and headed in a downwards angle. The enemy planes had followed, forgetting about Perez.

"Spatz 5, Fox 3!" I was confused. I looked behind me and saw that Perez had actually fired two missiles at each of the enemy planes! Both planes were swatted out of the sky!

"Wow that was smart!" I said. Perez pulled up beside me as if nothing had happened. I looked around and found Manfred all tangled up with an enemy plane.

"Let's go help out Manfred," I led Perez down to Manfred. Then, I saw that we had the enemy plane trapped.

"Spatz 1, Fox 2!" I fired a missile. The enemy had good angles against me the missile missed, but the enemy had put himself in front of Manfred. Manfred gunned him down easily.

"Thanks buddy," Manfred said. Grimm and Amy had a bead on the last enemy plane, but he wasn't going down without a fight. Grimm and Amy had barely been keeping up with him. Then, Grimm had a golden opportunity to take a shot at the enemy plane. Then, as if he had heard me, he fired.

"Spatz 4, Fox 2!" the missile blew the wing off the enemy plane. His plane then started spiraling crazily downwards.

In the next few days, we took out a number of bases like this. We shot down their aircraft, and only then were they willing to surrender. When all of the remaining Yuropean forces surrendered, the war was over. The fighting had stopped and everything was at peace again. The scars left on the land by the nukes were left alone of course. Just the air around the areas would be dangerous for a long time. The war was 'officially' over on June 15th.

I managed to get five more kills before the end of the war. My total was eighteen kills and that gave me the title of triple ace. Manfred did get six more kills himself, giving him a total of fifteen. He was also a triple ace. Amy got three more kills before the end of the war. Her total was 13 now, and she was a double ace. I'm impressed with Grimm and Perez the most though. Grimm had five more kills before the end of the war and that brought his total to fifteen, like Manfred, giving him the triple ace title. Perez grabbed three more and had gotten five kills total. He was an Ace, which was impressive being that he was just beginning his career.

I wish Sarah was here. She'd only grabbed three kills. It seemed as though here time with us was very short. I did fulfill my promise though. Grimm was taken care of and survived the war.

The five of us had stuck together after the war. We had gone out to dinner just about every night and just had fun. On some days Amy and I did go out alone. I had gotten to know Larry real well and we became good friends. Well, all five of us are good friends. Some nights, we were even able to grab "Eagle". He finally told us his name which was Nestor Jacobson. We got to visit our families for a few days. After we were called back to the base, I showed everyone some of my moves. Everyone was able to learn my stall-out move. I hoped I didn't have to use it in war though. I like the peace we have right now.

The war was over. The cleanup had begun everywhere. Everywhere that was not near the radioactive scars was cleaned up and quickly rebuilt as if nothing had happened. During the time being, it didn't look like there could be another war. Of course, everything was always unpredictable.