Disclaimer: Ace Combat does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owners, namely Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Sand Island Air Force Base, Sand Island, State of Canaforna, Osean Federation.
November 10th, 2010.
Sand Island. A small island on the West Coast of Osea in the Osean state of Canaforna.
Home to the Sand Island Air Force Base, which was an important fighter base during the Second World War and through much of the Cold War, until relations between Osea and Yuktobania started to thaw in the early 1990s in the lead-up to the Belkan War, resulting in a peaceful co-existance between the two countries.
And plus, despite Osea herself coming under invasion from Belka, Sand Island Base was much too far away from the action.
Thus since then, the Osean presence on Sand Island was mainly consisted of the 108th Fighter Squadron, as well as detachments of support helicopters and training aircraft.
Originally an auxiliary squadron, the 108th Fighter Squadron had been one of the Air Force's very few units that was still equipped with the F-20 Tigershark, and had merely been a very quiet squadron, the most exciting thing to ever happen to them was usually air combat manoeuvre training (with visits from not only aggressor squadrons from all over the Osean Air Force and the Osean Navy, but the 4554th Aggressor Squadron, the principal aggressor squadron from the Osean Air Force's equivalent to Top Gun, the 'Dog Pen' at James J. Olsen Air Force Base, and F-21 Kfirs of the Osean Marine Corps' own aggressor squadrons, VMFT-505 "Sharpshooters", VMFT-707 "Jaegers" and VMFT-747 "Venators").
Up until incursions all across the coast by spy planes, UAVs and groups of fighter jets, brief aerial engagements and when the Yuktobanians raided Sand Island Air Force Base.
The last event made it apparently clear to the Air Force that the Sand Island flight needed a much more up-to-date aircraft for future operations as it became a much more integral part of the war against Yuktobania.
And so, through the acting commander of the 108th, Major Casey P. Salvatore (who had taken command after Lieutenant Colonel Ford's death on September 27th), pulling some strings, they were given the F-15E Strike Eagle, which necessitated having other 'nuggets' being drafted in as Weapon Systems Officers.
The flight leader, the now-First Lieutenant James "Blaze" Franklin, had chosen Second Lieutenant Edwin Brodowski, known as 'Clown' (a nickname that originated back in basic training apparently), to be the first of the 'nuggets' to be chosen as WSO.
And from that day onwards, Clown was proud to have been that very one (or particularly, was very proud to be his WSO). Sure, he had much to learn, but Blaze found that he was not a slow learner.
Good for him, then, Blaze added in his mind.
Second Lieutenant Miguel Perez. Known as 'Tip', he was the flight's only 'family man', married happily to wife Sonia and father to 4 kids (three daughters and a 9-month old son), the then-Second Lieutenant Kei Nagase had personally handpicked Miguel to be her WSO, officially due to wanting to make sure he gets more experience being under her wing, but unofficially?
It was her desire that Miguel would come home to his wife and kids, and she reckoned that with him as her WSO, she could ensure that.
Second Lieutenant Ryan Sands. Known as 'Sandy' due to his sandy-blonde hair, Ryan was the straight-man to Chopper's cheeky, sarcastic, and chatterbox nature, but still got on well with him and would often accompany Chopper to nearby bars.
In fact, Sandy had a lot of patience, putting up with Chopper and his infamous 'motormouth'.
Second Lieutenant Francis Connor. Known as 'Oddball' for his nervous demeanour during his tenure at boot camp, he managed to overcome it in order to successfully pass through training. He had the dubious honour of being Hans "Archer" Grimm's WSO. Now, the two together were a fully functioning team.
Now, four F-15E Strike Eagles taxied towards the runway, fully laden with a full load of M61 Vulcan ammunition, two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, two AGM-65 Maverick missiles and two Mark 84 unguided bombs. Painted on the conformal fuel tanks was the emblem of the 108th Fighter Squadron, a Black Labrador Retriever, originating from when the squadron's founder, Colonel Matthew Barton, brought his pet Labrador Tiberius along with him when he gained operational command of the 108th, back in 1941, during the Heierlark War.
Coincidentally, Chopper owned a black Labrador himself, called Kirk, after the Squadron's original mascot, a Labrador named Jim, had died a few years, and thus they were left without a mascot for so long that, when Chopper revealed that he owned a Labrador himself, the Squadron allowed him to live on base at Sand Island with Chopper, as long as they could make him the Squadron's official mascot.
They were enroute to undertake a close-air support mission for a platoon of Osean Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines that was tasked with taking the small Yuktobanian town of Cisnerik, where apparently, a company-sized force of Yuktobanian troops was holding defensive positions, for the town was a prime position to launch artillery and rockets at the Yuktobanian towns of Brosechza, Grapuleysk, Yezhatti, Paryezitov and Severtala, where the 3rd Marine Regiment was holding positions.
Latest intel on Yuktobanian defences indicated that there was ZSU-23-4s, ZSU-57-2s, SA-6s and SA-7s providing air defence, and T-55s, T-62s, BMP-1s and BRDM-2s, AT-3s, AT-4s and AT-7s providing a formidable defence against ground assault.
With this difficult defence in place ahead of such a formidable town, Blaze was constantly running through strategies into his head as to how to tackle the task at hand with all these defences, but then, his thoughts ended as his craft came to a stop at the end of the runway, fully loaded and ready to launch.
He got into contact with the control tower,
"Sand Island Control Tower, this is Wardog One. Wardog is ready for takeoff upon your clearance, over".
A few short moments and then, "Wardog One, this is Sand Island Control Tower. Wardog is clear for launch".
"Roger. Wardog is go for launch".
"Acknowledged, Wardog One. Safe travels for you all. Control Tower out".
Pushing the lever to full power, the Strike Eagle's twin F100-PW-229 engines propelled it down the runway and in just a few seconds, Blaze was pulling on the stick, causing his Eagle to rise up and ascend.
Soon enough, his Eagle was moving away from Sand Island, with Edge, Chopper and Archer following suite after taking off, themselves.
Cisnerik, Yuktobania.
It had been a few hours, but they managed to cross the Yuktobanian coastline and make their way deep into Yuktobanian territory.
They had managed to join up with the KC-135R Stratotanker operating from Forward Operating Base Hogan, near Volna Beach on the Bastok peninsular and one by one, they topped up their tanks before descending on a vector that would take them to Cisnerik.
Blaze had everyone at a set altitude, close enough to be low-level, but not so low as for a MANPAD to make their day a bad one.
Even though the Strike Eagle was notable for it's ability to keep flying even when damaged, Blaze knew that he would rather prefer to have no damage whatsoever.
So he kept his bird at a fast speed (his teammates following suite) until he managed to get to around six miles from Cisnerik.
Once there, he slowed down, everyone else doing the same, and Wardog was now iching closer and closer to their battle-zone.
Wardog scanned the skies, to see for themselves if the skies were clear of any Yuke aircraft.
Even though intelligence reports stated that the Yuktobanian Air Force was neutralised in this sector as a major fighting force, Blaze knew that intelligence was capable of being wrong, and did not want to take the chance of being jumped by a lucky Yuke pilot, so he was ever vigilant of Yuktobanian skies, which passed down right to his wingmen.
Eventually, they reached a close-enough distance that they soon got a call from the Marine platoon.
"Wardog, Wardog, this is Freeze Three-One. What is your ETA? We need close air support and we need it now! Come in, over!"
"Freeze Three-One, this is Wardog One. We are within the battlespace, on station and available for CAS. Mark your targets and we'll take care of it".
A moments pause, before the call came in, "Wardog One, Freeze Three-One. We are now marking armour closing in near our positions".
After a few seconds of checking over the designated target, which turned out to be around ten T-62s coming from Cisnerik, Blaze then positioned his Eagle on a approach corridor and went, "Freeze Three-One, Wardog One tallies your target".
"Roger, Wardog One. You are cleared hot!"
Blaze then got on comms to Clown, "Alright, we're enroute. Targets are marked. Work your magic, Clown".
The WSO, soon got to work on selecting the two Mark 84s and began prepping for the bomb run, as Blaze piloted the craft towards the Yuke armour.
Clown looked on his screens and began, with practiced moves horned over simulators, training exercises and a few actual missions, working on aiming the two unguided bombs.
And in a few seconds, Clown pressed the button and the two bombs were dropped, propelled by gravity as well as momentum as it fell from their aircraft.
Clown said shortly, "Bombs away!"
Within a span of around 7 seconds, as Blaze accelerated slightly, the two bombs slammed directly within close proximity to the target, and was clearly successful, due to Freeze Three-One calling in to Blaze, "Good effect on target, Wardog One. Good effect on target!"
As Marines were heard cheering in the background of that call, Blaze then circled his craft around to the left, trying to be mindful of that Cisnerik held significant triple-A defense, and continued to scan the horizon for any potential air threats.
Soon enough, the Marines made another call, "Wardog One, this is Freeze Three-One. They're still coming, we need you for another run! Marking enemy armour as we speak!"
Then, Blaze stated to Clown, "Alright, Clown, job's not over yet. We've definitely got more targets out there. Let's check in on our friends, shall we?"
"Sure thing, Blaze".
As Blaze got the Eagle into position, Clown armed and readied the two AGM-65 Maverick missiles. And as soon as Freeze Three-One marked their targets, a pair of T-55 tanks, Clown launched the Mavericks, shouting "Magnum!"
The two missiles, dropped from their pylons before their rocket motors kicked in, propelling themselves towards their targets (guided by the Marines' laser-designators). It was only for a full minute, but both missiles struck the tanks, utterly destroying them and their crews in a ball of flame.
Freeze Three-One called in, "Wardog One, well done. Delta Hotel!"
Blaze smiled but then, the Marines called in for more support against the tanks that were, and Blaze called in for Edge, Chopper and Archer (who were hanging back) to do their bit.
But as his wingmen confirmed the order and went in, Nagase soon called in an new development.
"Blaze, this is Edge. We've got four helos inbound, heading on a northwest approach to the Marines! Around four Ka-50s, all looking armed and ready".
The response was immediate, and he got on the horn with Chopper and Archer as well.
"Alright. Chopper, Archer, you go in against the tanks. Edge, deal with the helos".
And just as everyone confirmed the order, Clown soon brought Blaze's attention to a new set of contacts.
"Blaze, we've got two fast movers in close formation, on a northeast approach!"
Immediately, Blaze then headed straight on an intercept course, and flicked a switch to use his M61 Vulcan.
Going on afterburner, Blaze was soon in a position to see that the two fast movers were MiG-29s.
And as he was bringing up the gunsights to bear, in order to fire his Vulcan, he had absolutely no doubt that they were armed, when his threat warning alarms went off, indicating that the Yuktobanian pilots were beginning to ready to fire their own air-to-air missiles.
Within 5 seconds, Blaze aimed his gunsight where he wanted it, ahead of the MiG to his left, and gently squeezed the button, which sent a burst of 30mm straight out.
And before he knew it, he struck true, with the MiG trailing smoke as it veered off from the other MiG, which had undoubtably broken it's concentration on trying to get a missile off, due to that the threat warning alarm went off.
Quickly, Blaze kept his focus on the other MiG, and angled his craft to get a better shot, while switching from 'GUNS' to 'MISSILES'.
Soon enough, he and other MiG were nose-to-nose, as the threat warning alarm went off once again.
But Blaze also began locking on to the MiG, and idly, he noticed that Clown was muttering under his breath, "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon..."
Eventually, Blaze managed to achieve a lock-on, but at the same time, so did the other MiG.
"Blaze, watch out! He's got a lock on us!"
Relax, though Blaze, even though he did brace himself to fire off flares even whilst waiting for the appropriate time to fire his Sidewinders.
Then, just as the other MiG fired his missile, Blaze squeezed the trigger, sending a single AIM-9 Sidewinder on a direct path towards the oncoming MiG.
It was only a matter of time, before a missile would hit.
The question was, whose missile would hit first?
Well, so sorry for the long delay everyone, but I was also having much trouble with this one-shot, trying to work out everything from start to finish, and that took quite a bit of time. For my upcoming Ace Combat 5 story, I'll explain my choice of aircraft for the Wardog Squadron.
And even then, I was struggling on how to end this one-shot, so I elected on a cliffhanger.
The F-20 Tigershark, well given that in the game, it was the F-5E Tiger II, but I felt that they needed an upgrade from that, so the F-20 Tigershark was chosen. Plus, I am planning on ensuring that I give the spotlight on the F-20 Tigershark and it's capabilities, as it is quite a formidable aircraft that sadly never got it's chance to prove itself.
As for the F-15E Strike Eagle, well, it's parent aircraft (the F-15 Eagle) is the closest thing to the Tomcat in the Air Force arsenal, even though I have already established that in my earlier fanfic, Vipers in the Skies of Oured, the Osean Air Force operates the F-14C Buzzcat (basically a modified F-14 for Osean Air Force needs to replace the F-106) as an interceptor.
So, in order to have Wardog perform both air to air and air to ground missions, the Strike Eagle was the clear choice, not to mention that I already envision Galm Team operating the F-15C Eagle, so I needed to give the Strike Eagle it's due.
But don't worry, the F-14 will definitely make an appearance, being flown in the hands of Blaze, Edge, Swordsman and Archer!
The Dog Pen, is the Strangereal version of the Osean Air Force's version of the Osean Navy's Top Gun (The real USAF having the USAF Weapons School, Exercise Red Flag and USAF Aggressor Squadrons).
And James J. Olsen is the Strangereal equivalent of WW2 and Vietnam veteran Robin Olds (with a little bit of WW2 and Korean War veteran Francis Gabreski thrown in as well).
There are plans in the works for James J. Olsen as the main character for a fic based in the Strangereal equivalent of Vietnam, in which the history and origins of the Dog Pen will be explained. Either way, I am certainly looking forward to it.
By the way, VMFT-505 combines both the actual VMFT-401 "Snipers" and the VMFAT-101 "Sharpshooters", in terms of purpose of the former and nickname of the latter.
The Wardog Squadron's WSOs are definitely something I'm also looking forward to including as well as getting into the perspectives and motivations of all of Wardog and it's members, expanding a bit on what the game gave and giving them more dimensions.
Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!