Disclaimer: Elizabetta Gnone and Disney own W.I.T.C.H. Ace Combat is owned by Namco and as far as I can tell Versua is owned by Johnny Frost.
AN: The term splash refers to an air to air kill. Splash one is a missile kill and splash two is a kill with a cannon. Pilots who achieve five kills or more are classified as aces.
The attack came without warning. Six Mirage III's and four Hawker Hunters screamed in at low level and began strafing the airfield. The airbases sole anti-aircraft weapon, a ZSU 23 began to pepper the sky with shells and pilots rushed to their planes. A bomb from a Mirage III hit the aircrew lounge, destroying it completely. Susan's plane was already in the air, flying a standard combat air patrol (CAP) with Charles. Pulling her plane into a turn, Susan's fighter came up behind the final Mirage III as it finished its bombing run. As it floated into her sights, her 23mm cannon spat and the Mirage exploded.
"This is Lightning. Splash two." She called over the radio.
"This is Pulse. Splash one, splash one" Charles called out a second later.
Susan grinned to herself. She didn't know where these hostiles were from, but between her and Charles you could bet that they wouldn't be here long. Switching her radio to transmit she said "Well done Pulse. Care to place a bet on who's going to get the most bad guys?"
"You're on! Loser buys the beer" he replied, and with a laugh he pulled his into a hard 9g turn, turning the tables on the Hunter that was on his tail. Suddenly a new voice boomed over the radio "This is Judgement. I'll take that bet. I'll have a Budweiser."
Susan frowned briefly. She didn't know any pilot on her squadron with the codename Judgement, but before she could ponder this any further an Osean F-5 Tiger II flashed past her and she realised who Judgement was. "Well hurry up then, or there'll none left" she called. Without further ado, she pulled her fighter onto the tails of two Mirages and the familiar diamond shape of a missile lock glided across her HUD (head up display) and onto the tails of the Mirages. With a brief shudder, two R-60 missiles left her wing pylons and tore the Mirages to pieces. Out the corner of her eye she saw Judgement shoot a sidewinder into the tailpipe of a Hunter. This Osean guy was good she'd give him that.
The remaining two Hunters and the sole Mirage III started to flee, but they reckoned without Susan's anger at having her base attacked. Hitting her afterburners, Susan caught up with the Hunters first. The rearmost Hunter never saw her until his plane was riddled with cannon shells. His partner pulled up, but it was too late, cannon shells riddled his plane to. The final plane, the Mirage looked set to get away as Susan's guns hissed empty, but a sidewinder missile from Judgement dealt with that.
"Right, this is Lightning. All fighters, return to base."
The situation on the ground was not good. Most of the pilots had been relaxing in the pilot's lounge when the attack came. The trouble was, no one had expected the Versuans to have any sort of airborne capability, much less the ability to launch an attack like this. Out of a squadron of twelve pilots, only five remained, one of whom was injured badly and unable to fly. "So you are sure that our attackers are Versuans then?" Susan asked her intelligence officer Peter Ryan. "Without a doubt" he replied. "The planes that you shot down bore the insignia of a Versuan warlord who calls himself General Ali. More importantly" he continued "they were led by one of General Ali's trusted men, a man named Shian
A-Shinju, a man notorious for his atrocities across the region."
Susan came to a decision quickly. If the Versuans were planning to attack en masse then reinforcements would be needed and fast. Walking into her office, she called General Azeridge, the supreme commander of all the forces in this area and informed him of the situation. Then she collapsed into her chair, crying salty tears for her dead comrades. It was then that Charles came in and held her in a gentle hug until she finished, gently comforting her, while she cried.
It wasn't until she finished that she realised that she had just officially become an ace. A grim smile played on her face. That term sounded so much more hollow now.
