Disclaimer: I do not own Ace Combat.

And spoiler warning.

Blue Skies Unknown

Prologue

Tales of Old

A young, 13 year old Toby Rosario was sitting next to his uncle, Tobias Wilpert, a Belkan living in a house in North Osea.

"Hey… Uncle Wilpert, is it true that you are the Demon Lord of the Round Table?"

"Yes… that is true indeed, but I've discarded that name when I stepped off the battlefield." Tobias said, "Back then, I was a mercenary, hired by Ustio to drive the Belkans back into Belka and hopefully bring the war to an end. Then, when those seven nukes went off, my partner tried to kill me, then when that failed, he killed my new partner, and then I shot my old partner down and stopped a paramilitary group from nuking Osea to oblivion."

"Huh…"

"Yes, war is like that. It challenges your own sanity. It changes you deep down." Tobias said, "War leaves scars no matter what happens to you. Remember that."

"Huh… I never thought of it that way…"

"So then, you still want to join the Osean Air Defense Force?"

Toby chuckled.

"Damn right I do." Toby said, "I want to be like you when I grow up and do my part, just like dad did when he signed up for the military!"

Tobias wheezed before going into a belly laugh.

"You're serious?" He asked.

"Totally!" Toby said.

Tobias sighed.

"Well then… if you really want to be joining the military, it's only fair that I teach you all there is to know about aviation and aerial combat." Tobias said, "Of course, you can't skip out on the lessons, and no chasing girls either."

"Awww!"

"No, I'm serious. Girls will just muddle your thoughts and break your concentration." Tobias said.

June 6, 2019

Gunther Bay

Trigger couldn't believe what had occurred in front of his eyes. A missile had just streaked below the wing of his F16 and struck the Erusean V22 Harling was in. The craft went down hard before exploding into a ball of fire one last time like a firecracker. He stared in horror, ignoring all the radio chatter. That missile… that couldn't have been his. His finger wasn't on the trigger. He looked back.

Then he saw it.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet… wait… how long was that thing here? Who was piloting it? Golem is in formation, Gargoyle was only flying F14s…

So where did that one Hornet come from?

He looked to his radar and saw that it was there on his radar, labeled as a friendly.

"Mage 1, was it Trigger?" He heard Sky Keeper speak.

There was silence.

"Trigger was the closest…" He heard Clown said.

'No! You're wrong!' Trigger thought.

He looked at that Hornet.

'I didn't do it! I couldn't have fired that missile! I know I didn't fire that missile!' Trigger thought.

He tried to speak, but not a word came to him.

'Damnit Clown! You know I didn't kill him! You know I didn't do it! You know I'm innocent, right?!' Trigger thought, 'I didn't… I couldn't… Come on Clown, don't let them do this to me!'

He ignored the radio chatter. It didn't matter anymore. That unaccounted Hornet… it didn't matter that it was there. He was the closest and no one else could have made that shot with all those UAVs buzzing around Mother Goose One. He… he knew he was being framed…

He knew he didn't do it.

But he can't do anything about it.

All the evidence pointed to him. Even if he didn't have a motive, he had no alibi.

'Damn… is this… is this how it ends for me? Court martialed for a murder I didn't commit? Tell me this is a joke. I would never… no… no way… I… I only wanted to… damnit… Damnit!'

Meanwhile… in Farbanti…

"Former President Harling was assassinated?" Rosa Cossette D'Elise asked.

"Yes, your highness, it's just been confirmed. We don't have an ID on the assassin, and we have barely any details." The man said.

"I… this is… I never…"

"Like I said your highness, we don't know who killed him. All that we know is that during a rescue attempt, the craft turned around and headed back for the elevator, only to get shot down." The man said.

Her dog, Prince, whimpered and nudged his head against her leg, trying to calm her down.

"We'll launch an investigation to find out what happened." The man said, "We'll know who it was shortly."

Rosa was shocked by all of this. Why would Harling just get assassinated while the Oseans were trying to help him escape? It made very little sense. The Oseans regarded Harling as a hero, a man who brought Osea and Yuktobania towards peace during the Circum-Pacific War, so they would never think about killing him, that is unless Harling actually wanted to destroy the elevator and that action did not sit well with Osea. She made it clear to the forces in Gunther Bay to only apprehend Harling, not to kill him if he tried to escape. It had to have been an accident. That had to be it. There was no other explanation for this.

She got into a chair, her Golden retriever was whimpering out of concern.

"I don't know Prince… I… this is…" Rosa said, "I never wanted the man to die. He didn't have to die…"

Yes… She had no intentions of killing former Osean President Harling. She only wanted to defend her country's sovereignty after that damned Space Elevator was plopped down by the Oseans who believed that the elevator was meant to help the many people of Usea, Erusea included, rebuild after the Ulysses Impact Event when in actuality, it was more like the Oseans wanted a monopoly of resources on Usea so they could try and control all of Usea. That elevator was a violation of Erusea's sovereignty. If the Oseans really valued that elevator above Harling's life, then that must be why they would have killed him.

In any case, the man who wanted peace has died and the only path out of this war was forward. Hopefully, this war will come to an end and the Oseans will know the error of their ways.

A/N: And now we journey into Ace Combat Skies Unknown. Yes I've played the game so I think I know what I'm doing.

Uncle Cipher

I mean... wouldn't it be cool to have the Demon Lord of the Round Table as your uncle?

Trigger's Suspicions

I mean... was I the only one who immediately suspected that one Hornet during that scene? I mean it was behind Trigger's plane. How could anyone not suspect that something is wrong with the picture here? I mean it was there! It was RIGHT there! I would have suspected that Hornet on the spot if I were Trigger. That Hornet was behind him and it may have been closer than anyone else, surely the pilot would definitely say whether or not Trigger had fired that missile. By not saying anything, that means one thing: unless there was some sort of malfunction in the communicator in the cockpit, this guy probably killed Harling and is trying to frame Trigger for it. Trigger knows that he doesn't any proof that this Hornet could have done it, but still would be suspicious about it and everything that just happened.

Rosa's shock

It's no surprise that she went along with the war because of how she was convinced that the Oseans are trying to control Usea like they tried to with the Spring Sea Treaty which led to a coup in Usea. Believing the speculations about the Space Elevator is true, she wholeheartedly believe that Osea was violating Erusean sovereignty, thus supporting the war believing that Osea should be forced out of Usea so Usea no longer has to put up with Osea screwing things up. She never thought that anyone would kill Harling unless it were the Oseans who were pretty pissed off at him making a sudden 180 during the rescue operation and just killed him for realizing that he may have actually wanted to destroy the elevator (but anyone who has played AC5 and have gotten into the fourth story arc of AC7 that neither of those things are true).

To be fair though, Osea did inadvertently started conflicts when it tried to secure a military alliance with southern Usea which resulted in the Usean Coup d'etat and when it made a joint company with Belka and tried to to get more land out of Belka using fabricated financial reports, which resulted in a political scandal which then led to Rald and the DLP's rise to power and the Belkan War. But in Osea's defense, Osea and Belka had gone into a war with each other and then there was Yuktobania and they did not think that Belka would seriously go to war again after what happened in the Osean War. Also, Osea didn't know that Belka had nuclear weapons to begin with and never thought that Belka would use them in an act of defiance. Osea didn't know a coup would happen in Usea and was confident that the signing of the treaty would go smoothly, only for it all to result in a coup. Seriously, they had no idea what was going to happen until it was too late to go back.

Basically, uncertainty is a bitch.

Until next time everyone, "Stay with Trigger and you'll make it."