Location: Valais Airbase (VAB), Tyrann Mountains, Ustio; Date: April 2, 1995
Background Files: Valais Counterattack, Pilot Journals and VAB Personnel.
The Blitzkrieg had taken many nations by surprise because of its speed as the Belkans quickly overran all opposition in their path. They put up every plane available to begin their massive preemptive strike and nobody knew what was going on until it was over. The preemptive airborne campaign hit the Republic of Ustio the hardest of all. Ustio is a small country in comparison to many of its neighbors so it didn't take long for the Belkan Army to follow up the BAF strike force. The lightning aerial attacks rapidly whittled down the meager Ustian Air Force and only its far flung air fields had any chance to shore in preparations for the attacks that were sure to come there before long. The occupied Ustian government capitulated to the Belkan Army that came directly to Directus, but they had in secret authorized the UAF to contract mercenary fighter pilots regardless of cost.
It didn't take long to draw the mercenaries in once word got out. They were not from any one nation, but multiple countries that had fared better during the Blitzkrieg or had not been affected at all as far as the Valais paymasters knew upon meeting the pilots. National and political ties were secondary to the pilots' ability to do whatever is asked of them. It is debatable to wonder what really motivates mercenaries. Some would say its pride in the rules that keep them alive, some call it precognition that reverses the flow of combat outcomes, and for others it is confidence from ability that ensures that only they will fly away every battle alive. This is how aces define aces regardless of whether the aces are allies or enemies because such twists only matter when they are made to matter at all.
A weather beaten yet well kept F-5E-II Tiger rests besides its presently more famous or infamous counterpart, a F-15C. One would wonder what prompts a pilot to fly a certain plane, but this is where one cannot understand except perhaps when airborne in the frenzy of aerial combat. The plane is only an extension of the pilot's essence, the pilot's marksmanship's, and perhaps what the pilot believes in or fights for up there in the realm where you either return or you do not, not to say one should believe in such absolutes. What records have shown is that Cipher had flown a range of planes except there were a few defaults and virtually all the money paid to Cipher is given away though enough is kept to live on as well as maintain an array of acquired planes. She did not profiteer off her exploits yet she did have a legend, a ghost chasing her for the rest of her years in the cockpit.
The story is relatively well known about Pixy's F-15C or more specifically why one wing is entirely red, even Cipher had heard the story, Pixy or Foulke had flown the F-15C or Eagle back to base on one wing hence Solo Wing Pixy. The new wing took plenty of time to fit to the rather beaten up plane yet once attached, Foulke spent hours coating the wing in red paint. The act seems perplexing to most even among the pilots yet Cipher could see why, it is a reminder and a warning though some might see as it arrogance and flipping off other pilots. Cipher is already in her flight suit by the time word comes down that a Belkan bomber squadron is inbound on with a deployment of fighters for escorts. She carries her helmet and of course to Foulke's surprise, his new wingman, is not a man at all, something that he'll admit later to be a shock until he saw what she can do with a plane impresses him more. Both climb into the cockpits after pacing to the hangar, the ground crew directs them to the runway, the snow is making it hard to see the runway lights, so Foulke takes the lead using the afterburner on lowest setting possible to guide Cipher to the takeoff point.
The alert had come down quickly about the approach of Belkan aircraft plus this is one of the last Ustian holdouts. There is a sense of desperation in the air as some are afraid yet there is a defiance even with Ustians having mercenaries flying off to fend off this assault. Winters seem forever in Tyrann yet having an airbase near mountainous terrain does that except of course nothing could quite rival the weather common to Heierlark, which is an almost endless winter like conditions for most of the year.
The crews however were not content to resign themselves to waiting for the bombs to drop, for the base to fall down on their heads, if they were going to die today, then they would face it with whatever made them different from the Belkans despite the political technicalities that had followed them out of breaking away from Belka in 1988.
"It is starting to come down," notes Pixy.
A snow storm would be one of those wonders to behold under other circumstances, but still he had to wonder what did Cipher see when she saw these snowflakes fluttering down towards the ridges below them.
The Galms continue on course towards the vectors where the bombers are expected to pass through on their way to Valais.
"Cipher, you are now Galm 1 and Pixy is Galm 2, you will follow the flight lead's orders," radios Valais Actual.
"Understood Actual, whenever you are ready Cipher, here they come now."
"Tag 'em and bag 'em, by the numbers."
The Galms had some backup yet they were more or less on their own once the control tower indicates their flight name and call numbers. Cipher barrels towards the escorts snipping out two F-5s in less than a minute. She gone Fox Two on the two planes before they had much time to dodge the shots. One explodes, the other limps away, and she moves on like a precision instrument or something else that lacks a definitive description. She hammers the escorts yet the bombers continue onward, and some wonder why she is not going after the real targets, the bombers. Nobody had foreseen that one bomber had already turn tail with all the escorts getting shot down or having to leave themselves due to mechanical failures due to the weather or battle damage. She had been trying to show them they were not invincible in these skies anymore and one by one she slags the bombers. Vague hints in enemy craft to craft broadcasts indicate a mounting fear of who is shooting them to pieces in a supposedly well covering snow storm.
"We are losing too many bombers, we should..."
She had shot that one before he could finish his message, range to Valais is shrinking, Foulke starts going after the bombers once working out her method, and the number of enemy IFF signals drop in pairs once she and Pixy attack in tandem. Seven bombers had been shot down in the space of ten minutes leaving less than half their starting number still pressing for Valais. The Tiger does a barrel roll after ripping into the remaining bombers anti-fighter defenses, all they have left as she dares them to turn back are their bombs, but of course they are not turning, she had given them the chance to run. Multiple Fox Two calls are made, the IFFs decrease rapidly leaving only two bombers as they near the periphery of the bombers' predetermined drop spot. She tilts the fighter one way, fires off two missiles, then quickly tilts the other and repeats the move just as Pixy catches up again. The bay doors just barely open as the bombers explode when the missiles make contact, drawn to the heat signatures of the bombs, it is unreliable idea that missiles in cold weather will possibly lock onto the nearest heat source in the targeting vectors. The design while not perfected, it still has a higher target destruction ratio then the older designs. The bombers erupt in flames then drop disintegrating like the other planes that were torn to pieces during the counterattack/defensive cordon.
Location: Valais Airbase, Tyrann Mountains, Ustio; Year: 2005
One of the remaining old control tower staff describes the elation of making the RTB call for the Eagle and the Tiger. At the time, there is a hope that Valais thanks to this would hopefully not see another attack for awhile, maybe even the rest of the war, but no one knows how long this war will drag on for aside from Ustio finally being brought into an alliance between all the nations facing attacks from the Belkans. The defense of Valais by the mercenaries had given Ustio an edge to compensate for the occupation. Cipher had shot down more fighters in a single time up than Foulke made in a week yet a numbers rivalry is not that important, not now, maybe in hindsight, but even Larry would later tell me that such things were common among pilots no matter what side you were on, rivalry comes with the skies. It had been a victory, albeit a small one, but as usual size is typically deceptive in this conflict, in any conflict perhaps. I recall again the words of Pixy about their first landing together after shooting down the Belkan bombers.
One word had it all crystallized together... potential.
I could hardly disagree and somehow I knew I would never be the only one. Those at Valais old enough to remember meeting Cipher, let alone talking to her, never saw just a woman when facing her, for many she can become the embodiment of the Goddess of War if you believe in that, and for others she had become a harbinger of death to those who she had decide between shooting down, crippling for spares, or leaving alone altogether. Her ace style would define her razor sharp path through the last year of the Belkan War. Some would swear she carries around a locket that she kisses by ritual, some would ask why, she told them, it contains my purpose to be up there, for her it is never about the money even though she would be paid quite well for her service. The tide shifts ever so subtly with this not-so-small victory for the Ustians. They would soon have new allies including the Osean Federation and the Yuktobanian Union.
A/N 1: This chapter is meant to be a retrospective omniscent style entry aside from the last section which is again Brett Thompson's commentary on the first battle after meeting the Valais Airbase personnel after his first visit there after his first encounter with Larry in the previous chapter.
A/N 2: Some the battle described is really short mainly because well you can't write whole segments around dogfights. I wrote it from my own perspective while playing the game, I may not be the best marksman in Ace Combat, but I'd like to think I'm fairly good at it. I chose to hammer away at the fighter escorts first then maul the bombers.
A/N 3: I started off in the F-5E II and gradually bought more planes like anyone else. Referenced Heierlark as a weather contrast to Tyrann.