Skies over Anchorhead Bay, Erusea
October 1, 2019

Thick clouds hung over the skies of Anchorhead Bay as Strider Squadron made its approach toward the city. Without the light of the moon, the skies were dark which thankfully allowed our squadron some extra cover. We were we already flying captured Erusean Su-35s that were painted in dark colors and would hopefully camouflage us further in the night skies. As we made our descent and passed under a layer of thick clouds, I could begin to make out the landmarks of the coastal city. From my vantage point, Anchorhead Bay had a small but beautiful skyline. It had many tall office buildings and the bright lights of the city looked inviting as they reflected off the glass of those buildings. Despite my own bias for my home city, the place almost reminded me of Oured at night. While the squadron slowed down, we waited as our radar returns started coming back giving us our tactical data. Unfortunately, many units within the city were marked with a yellow "Unknown" designation. That would not help matters as I was directing the operation from the skies. Without Wiseman, I was the acting wing commander of the LRSSG so there was a lot of pressure riding on this mission's success.

"Geez, are there really that many unknown targets on the radars?" Count groused unhappily, "This is going to be messy."

"Are you the squadron sent to cover us?" came another man's voice over the radio. The signal was coming from below in the city, "Make sure we're marked as a friendly."

I checked the radar code and saw a blue friendly blip emerge from the transponder of a truck below, "Copy that. This is Strider 1 of the 124th Tactical Squadron, LRSSG. Please identify and confirm?"

"I am Captain Karl of the Osean Army," the man said, "We have General Labarthe here and are moving toward our rendezvous point now."

"Roger. We'll keep you covered," I answered as the vehicle began moving across the city's roadways toward the pickup point. As we coasted over the city, Huxian squinted to look in the distance and see fire being exchanged between units on the ground, "Wait... what did we walk into? Are those Erusean forces fighting each other?"

"Erusea is in a state of civil war," Captain Karl reminded her, "Anchorhead Bay is currently a battleground between Radical and Conservative forces so you need to try and stay out of the crossfire."

As the squadron descended and tried to get a better read on some of the forces fighting each other, Count gave a call, "We're sending you targeting data now Long Caster. Hopefully you can make sense of it."

Our controller sounded distracted at his station as he was probably coordinating with other intelligence officers that were present, "Copy that Strider 2. Transmit those new IDs... oh, and uh, hand me that sandwich."

If my wingmates and I could, I'm sure we would have all looked at each other right now, but it was best to just trust our controller's methods. If that was what he needed to focus, then so be it. I gave a wry smile and quipped, "A little midnight snack? It's gonna be one of those nights, huh Major?

I heard Long Caster give a slight snort of amusement before Jaeger gave another call, "Look out Striders! We're being pinged."

Enemy radars must have picked us up as we heard warning sensors go off. Several SAM and AA units on the ground suddenly turned their attention toward us and fired into the skies. We broke formation to avoid the incoming fire and get better scans of them. Lanza voiced what we were all thinking, "Crap! This is not good!"

"Look at it this way," Captain Karl chimed in trying to sound positive, "As long as you're drawing enemy fire away, they aren't paying attention to us."

He was right. Fortunately, some of those positions which were engaging us seemed to not take notice of Labarthe's escort making its escape. It wasn't long before Long Caster radioed back, "New radar returns coming in. Strider Squadron, you are clear to engage hostile targets."

"Better late than never," Jaeger replied as we split up and dove down on the new targets. Our Flankers buzzed the tops of some buildings and strafed several armored vehicles below which were aligned with Radical forces. Hopefully Conservative forces would see that and think we were on their side. As Labarthe's truck continued to speed along the winding roads, we could see several more enemy checkpoints standing in the way. Captain Karl seemed to realize this too and mused, "This is a wide net they've cast. Are those sentries going to ask us to pay a toll too?"

"I'm fresh out of quarters, but I can pay them with something else," Count grinned as he swooped in ahead of the convoy and pummeled several Radical choke-points with some daring missile attacks.

"Huh... we'll there's something," Huxian laughed in amusement as we cruised over the flaming wreckage of the enemy vehicles on the highway. Jaeger seemed a little more concerned as the convoy drove past and continued on its way.

"This feels a little fishy, Trigger. Maybe the enemy's got some intel on our operation? They seem to be set up in all the right places."

"I agree. Just stay sharp Jaeger," I said, "The convoy should be arriving at the rendezvous point soon."

Huxian and Lanza flew ahead and cleared the way of a few more ground targets while I listened to General Labarthe having a conversation with Captain Karl. "Captain, in case something happens tonight, do you have a way of recording this conversation?"

"I promise nothing will happen to us, but I'm sure the boys upstairs have some way of recording it too," Karl said apprehensively.

Labarthe cleared his throat and began to speak as if reciting some speech that he had planned in his head, "This is something that other Useans and even diplomats from Osea need to hear. The start of this entire war, it's open declaration and the expansion of the frontlines was all done by ambitious officers in our military, ones who aligned themselves to the Radical Party. What they didn't know was that they were being steered by an unseen force."

"Who?" Karl asked.

Labarthe answered gravely, "A leading member of the Radicals in Parliament named Enrico Moretti. He's been pulling the strings, along with his cronies in the news media and the big tech companies that are involved in the drone programs, namely Grunder Industries. They are all to blame for this. When the war began, the performance of the drones exceeded expectations and Moretti profited off his financial investments in the drone tech. The Radical-friendly news media pushed it and got public opinion on the side of the drone technology. They even manipulated Princess Rosa and convinced her to support this war."

"And the drones?" Karl prompted curiously.

"Flight data from one of our ace pilots was used to create the drone AI," Labarthe admitted.

My eyes went wide as I started to put the pieces together in my head. That matched up with what Rosa had told me about Mihaly and the experiments he had been helping EASA with. In a sense, all those drones were based off him so every time I had fought them, it was like I was fighting a small piece of Mihaly himself. Labarthe's confessional was already unsettling but this made my stomach drop as he continued on.

"But there was more to their technology. Faking IFF designations was an astonishing feat. They used it to make drones resembling Osean fighters. I strongly believe that was their ploy to surprise Osean forces and even pin the death of Harling on someone else."

Now I knew he was talking about me without even realizing who I was. It had been one thing being exonerated of that crime by the senior officers of Osea's Air Force, but to hear it from a general of the other side was strangely comforting... in a surreal sort of way. At the very least, I was now convinced that I hadn't killed President Harling by any accident of my own.

General Labarthe finished by giving a deep sigh, "I know many in the Erusean Air Force disagree with the idea of UAV drones supplanting them. I only hope they'd be as supportive of us. The use of drones was supposed to make war more palatable for the rest of us, but our delusions of fighting with drones is what got us into this mess. The Radicals still seem to believe that boosting drone production will make up for Erusean losses. They should be taking responsibility for the capital's fall but they're only prolonging this war. That is why proper Conservatives like myself have to try and regain control of this country. If I can broker an alliance between our loyalist forces and Osea's, we might be able to end this bloodshed after all."

Strider Squadron regrouped in the air as an Osean helicopter arrived at the far edge of the bay. Just as planned, Labarthe and Captain Karl arrived at the rendezvous point exactly on time. 'So far so good,' I thought to myself as we circled overhead in a holding pattern. Despite some minor resistance and confusion, this operation had been surprisingly easy. I decided not to jinx our luck and remained silent until I heard Captain Karl on our comms.

"Evac was successful and we're disembarking now. Thanks for watching our backs Striders."

I gave a relieved nod as the chopper took off into the night while the rest of the Erusean forces remained more focused on fighting each other within the city limits, "Acknowledged Captain. Good luck and godspeed."

"Whew. What a relief," Count sighed, "I guess we should get the hell out of here, right?"

"Negative Strider 2. I'm picking up multiple bogeys entering the target area from the north. As long as Labarthe is in this combat zone, we have to keep him safe."

Huxian gave a mild grumble of annoyance, "There's something. The general must be a real celebrity. Seems everyone wants to meet him tonight, huh?"

"Stay focused Lin. We're not done here," I said changing course to meet the incoming bogeys.

Strider Squadron ascended up through the cloud cover and headed north to meet the incoming bogeys. As they approached, we could see a transport plane escorted by a small group of Gripen fighters that looked to be of Erusean design. Another call came in over our radios and it appeared to be transmitted from the transport, "Attention incoming fighters, we are carrying civilians here. We have escort fighters but we do not intend to engage in combat. Please stand down."

"What is going on here?" Huxian asked in confusion but Long Caster answered with a cautious tone in his voice.

"Unknown. Get a closer look but hold your fire."

It was then that we heard a female voice on the other line, maybe a girl or a young woman? "Dr. Schroeder? What's going on?"

"Hold up. There's a girl on board?" Count asked in surprise as Strider Squadron approached to do a flyby.

"That would be the first thing you'd notice, wouldn't it?" Huxian teased Count with the light jab.

I grimaced slightly as we made contact with the convoy. Although it was dark, I was able to make out markings and a logo identifying the craft as being part of EASA. That was odd, but we were not given permission to engage either. "Well, at least they're not lying about carrying civilians."

What caught me off guard was when I heard another girl's voice speak up. She sounded like she might have been younger and she spoke with excitement, "Hey look! That's him! That's the aircraft my grandfather told me about! The one with the three lines!"

Before I could ask any more question or even try to figure out what was going on, we picked up several more radar contacts. It looked to be a flight of new Erusean Flankers approaching fast. As they neared, their lead plane radioed us, "Unknown Erusean squadron, disengage from the transport convoy immediately."

I decided to play along, "Requesting confirmation of orders. What's going on here?"

The lead plane of the new flight answered me tersely, "The transport plane with the EASA transponder. It's under control of the Radicals. That is one of the planes with the traitors on board."

All of a sudden, the transport and its escorts took evasive actions as they came under radar locks from the new fighters. Count gave a startled gasp and looked around at the chaos unfolding, "Whoah! What the hell is going on here? Long Caster, permission to engage?"

"No! Hold your fire Striders!" Long Caster answered urgently, "Those fighters look like they may be allied to the Conservative faction and..."

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as the bogeys fired some missiles at the convoy which were then scattered by a bunch of flares from the transport. Strider Squadron broke off and retreated to a safe distance as we stopped to watch the fireworks erupting before our eyes.

Aboard the transport plane, Abigail DuMorne cast a stern look to the Shilage girls and snapped, "Silence. This is not the time."

She turned to Schroeder and spoke in a calmer but tense voice, "Doctor, we cannot allow those Conservatives to stop us here. I need you to use our drone escorts."

"These are newer models," Schroeder protested, "You forced us to leave so soon that I can't be sure their programming is completely debugged yet."

DuMorne snarled, "We don't have time for this Doctor. I don't care what it takes. Activate the drones while I tell our pilot to get us out of here."

Schroeder sighed and gave in to the demands as he opened the drone program on his laptop titled "Z.O.E. v2.0" He could only pray that this worked.

All of a sudden, the program activated and the Gripen escorts broke off to engage the new Flankers who were threatening the EASA transport. To our shock, the rest of us in Strider Squadron watched with mouths hanging open as the Gripens fired missiles at the Conservative aligned Flankers and succeeded in shooting one down. Strider Squadron continued to fly in formation and stay off to the periphery as a fierce aerial melee erupted between the Gripen escorts and the Conservative Flankers. Now they were shooting at each other all of a sudden and we didn't know who was on who's side. After a few tense minutes of dogfighting, the Gripens scored two more kills and forced the Conservative Flankers to break off and retreat from the airspace.

"Huh... I have to say, for once it's nice not being involved in one of those kind of fights," Lanza said to us. I almost wished he had kept his mouth closed as we all heard target lock warnings start to blare on our own consoles. Were the Gripens turning and looking to shoot us down too? Jaeger gave an irritated growl to his wingmate.

"Damn it Lanza, you just had to say it, didn't you?"

Long Caster was already interjecting in loud outrage, "What the hell? You've got to be kidding me! Liaison escorts have radar locks? They're targeting you! Escort Liaison, this is AWACS Long Caster, do not engage the fighters designated as Striders!"

The warning sirens continued to escalate until we heard the new dreaded warning drone of "Missile! Missile! Missile!"

"Strider Squadron, break formation! Evasive maneuvers!" I shouted to my people as we all quickly peeled off and rolled clear of the incoming missile volley.

On board the transport, Dr. Schroeder's eyes went wide and he began to gasp frantically as he tried to control the drone escorts, "Wait... no. The escort fighters' drives... they're missing the coding drive..."

Ionela who was sitting nearby comforting her terrified little sister called out, "Doctor! What's going on? Do something!"

Schroeder threw his hands up at the hopeless situation devolving in front of him on his laptop before he opened a comm channel, "Can you hear me on this channel pilots? These escort fighters are experimental drones with new AI subroutines. I... I can't control them anymore! They're operating autonomously and acting on their own volition!"

"What?" Huxian shrieked as she shook off a missile that was tailing her.

Long Caster gave a growl of frustration and called out to all of us, "We have no choice. Strider Squadron, you are cleared to engage and destroy the escorts!"

"Understood Control," I answered as I maneuvered to attack, "Striders, form up on me and prepare to counterattack!"

"Righto," Count answered as he took his place alongside my wing, "Kinda makes you wonder who would create such drones. They'd have to be the king of all dumbasses, huh?"

Schroeder winced as he cut off the channel. Count had stung his pride a little with that insult, but it was justified. All he could do was watch as this strange group of Su-35s took on the drone Gripens. Our squadron roared ahead and clashed with the enemy above the thick cloud banks below which acted as a second horizon. I pulled a hard banking turn and rolled free from a drone before looping around another. They were fast and had some good moves, but they were sloppy. Compared to Mihaly and the drone I had dueled in Bulgurdarest, these guys were manageable.

"Just like Waiapolo, eh?" Count laughed to me as he angled in and sprayed some gunfire at an enemy. "Huxian?"

"On it!" she answered as she followed his mark and cut off the drone at the next turn. She let loose a missile and downed the fighter with a clean shot.

"Good kill Strider 4," Jaeger called as he tried to avoid a Gripen that had locked on to him, "Now if I can get a little help over here?"

I dove into the clouds and accelerated to intercept, "Hang on Strider 3. I've got you."

Jaeger wove and juked to try and shake his pursuer, "Strider 1? Trigger? Where are you? I can't see you!"

At the last minute, I ascended from the cloud bank and caught the pursuing Gripen with a direct missile hit from below. The drone was hit on its underside and reeled before exploding into a million pieces of fire and shrapnel. Jaeger sighed in relief, "Whew! Thanks Trigger. Looks like I'll get to tell my son another story."

"One to go," Long Caster reminded us as we all swept around to look around for the last bandit.

Lanza gave a call as he was already chasing it and harrying it with gunfire, "Found him! I've got a bead on the bandit!"

"What do you say we box him in?" Huxian suggested as Count and I moved to cut off the enemy. We veered close to the drone and criss-crossed our flight paths before rolling clear.

The abrupt maneuver forced the drone to swerve sharply to the right allowing Lanza a cleaner shot as his targeting brackets went red, "Strider 5, Fox 2!"

The missile hit the drone's rear stabilizer causing the Gripen to sputter in the air for a moment and then erupt into a fireball from a delayed explosion. As the last of the drone fighters exploded and rained down from the skies, Strider Squadron regrouped and gathered around me. Lanza leaned back in his seat, "That's the last of em boss. I still don't know what's going on here or who's on what side."

"I agree," Jaeger chimed in, "But what I do know is that the EASA transport has left the target area and so has Labarthe. I think our work here is done."

I turned my aircraft northward, "Jaeger is right. Let's get out of here before we get caught in any more crossfires. We did our job and Labarthe is safe. Time to head back to base."

"I've never been more happy to hear that," Huxian sighed in relief, "Wilco!"

As we roared away from Anchorhead Bay, we were relieved and heartened by the success of this mission. We had hoped that with it, we would ensure a negotiated truce between the forces of Osea and the Erusean Conservatives, along with a speedier end to the war. However, the events that transpired afterward were beyond any of our control and upon returning to base, we would learn with heavy hearts that our hopes of peace would not yet be achieved today.