Prologue - The First Casualty of War
Alendal, Democratic Republic of Leasath, South Osea
October 1st, 2020
0940hrs
Albert Genette took a quick sip from his glass of water, frowning at the sight of the city below him. He should have been expecting this ever since he set foot on Leasath's soil, but what he had seen since the journey from the airport still left him uncomfortable nonetheless.
Even though Alendal is Leasath's capital city, there's a frightening amount of slums and shantytowns that stretched as far as eyes can see – practically covering the surrounding hillsides on the city outskirts, and even then they're not enough to cater to the city's impoverished populace. He had seen homeless people taking up refuge under bridges or at bus stops, delinquents harassing outsiders before snatching their belongings, and even kids dumpster-diving just to find scraps of food. If this is how things are happening in the country's most developed city, then Genette shuddered to think about how the rest of Leasath would be like.
And yet, here he was, standing on the top floor of a building over sixty-floors high in the middle of the city – one of the few skyscrapers in the heart of Arendel reserved exclusively for the Leasathian elites. The contrast between Diego Gaspar Navarro's private penthouse and the broken city outside didn't leave much to the imagination of the Osean journalist. The self-proclaimed 'Supreme Leader' of Leasath apparently didn't seem to care as much about the state of his country – even though it had just been through a violent civil war – as the various luxury furniture and decorations in his room. Genette has seen the likes of him before. It was obvious that Navarro is an ineffective leader at best and a corrupt dictator at worst, and Genette has a good reason to believe that he's the latter.
But now is not the time to dwell on it. Not in this place. Not right in the tiger's den.
He sighed, silently pitying the poor Leasathians down below, before pacing away from the windows towards the reception area in the middle of the room and made himself comfortable on one of the fancy couches – which was surprisingly very pleasant to sit on. At least the man has a fine taste in his furniture choice.
He put the glass down on the desk and booted up the laptop in front of him – which was put on standby earlier – and checked today's news on the GAZE website. He shook his head slightly while chuckled lightly to himself: even though there are so many news websites out there he could pick, he had already made it a habit of always checking the GAZE website ever since writing a story for them a few months ago.
Apparently Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise's Usea Restoration Project ran into multiple roadblocks and isn't gaining as much international support as she had hoped. Considering Erusea's role in the Lighthouse War, Genette isn't surprised why the other nations would think twice about trusting them, the Princess's heartfelt unity speech at the ISEV notwithstanding. Erusea had started two major wars, after all. The whole nation and its people probably gained as much infamy as the Belkans by now.
One name in the news article caught Genette's eyes: Andre Olivieri, the eccentric CEO of Olivieri Life Insurance, was mentioned to have been trying to get into contact with the young princess to talk about the 'private war insurance' that he claimed could help Erusea making a faster recovery from the damages it suffered during the war. With most of the world's nations being somewhat apathetic to Erusea's plights and won't lend them the support they so needed, Genette figured it won't take much for Olivieri to convince the desperate young leader of Erusea to sign the offer. Something about Olivieri rubbed him in a very wrong way, though, and Genette found himself hoping that Princess Cossette won't sign that deal no matter what Olivieri might have offered to her.
Genette couldn't help but pity the poor girl. At the mere adolescent age of 19, she now has to face challenges that even statesmen with years of experience over her would struggle with, and now she's probably hated by millions because of her role in escalating the conflict during the initial phases of the war, even though she's also a victim in a large web of conspiracies planned by her own military officers. Now, with no one else left to blame, she became the convenient scapegoat as the perpetrator of the war. A war criminal who should be held responsible for the atrocities committed by her soldiers, whether or not she was directly involved in them.
It's how it always is. People always wanted to see things in black and white, good guys and bad guys, us and them, when the reality is far more complicated than that, and nothing's ever as simple as deciding who's right or wrong. Genette's senior Brett Thompson taught him that lesson a long time ago when he made a documentary about the Belkan War.
If only Vincent Harling was still here.
The creaking sound of a door opening interrupted Genette's train of thought. He instinctively raised to his feet as his eyes diverted from the laptop to greet the newcomer. It was General Santiago Garza, Navarro's right-hand man. Garza is dressed in his full dark-green and red military uniform. His almost balding black hair hidden beneath his red beret, his more than a little pudgy form reminded Genette of a certain OADF colonel that he knew. Garza let out a huff of both annoyance and frustration once he stepped into the room, his pale yellow eyes fixated at Genette as if he's looking at the undesirables hanging out on the streets outside.
"Well, if it isn't the pesky journalist from yesterday," Garza said impatiently, not even caring about the hostile tone toward his guest, "What the hell do you want now? I already told you that Navarro is busy. He doesn't accept visitors. Are you people too stupid to understand that or do I have to spell it out for you!?"
"Actually, it was the day before yesterday, sir," Genette corrected, taking Garza's insults in stride. He's used to men like him before. "And I fully understand by now that Mr. Navarro currently has important matters to attend to elsewhere…"
"That's Supreme Leader to you, civilian," Garza immediately interrupted, pointing a finger at Genette with a threatening glare, "Official visitor or not, I won't hesitate to lock you up for a week if you don't address him as such. There won't be a next warning, understood?"
"Crystal clear, sir," Genette continued without missing a beat, making a mental note to be careful about his words later, but he also won't let this little threat to stop him, "And as I was saying, I fully realize that the Supreme Leader is currently busy elsewhere, so I do not intend to request an audience with him today."
"Why are you wasting my time and patience, then?" Garza sneered as he dropped himself on the couch opposite of Genette before lighting his cigar.
"Actually, I was planning on interviewing you, general," Genette replied as he formed a friendly smile in an attempt to calm Garza down a little. Forget about trying to stay on the general's good side. There isn't any to begin with.
"What, me?" Garza frowned, surprised at Genette's comment, "What about?"
"Your story, sir." Genette continued, his smile never fading as he made himself comfortable on the couch once again. He had to get on the general's good side somehow, and playing to the man's ego would be the best way of achieving that, "I did some research about the civil war in your country a few months ago, and how your brilliant leadership skills finally brought it to an end and united the long-divided country under the Supreme Leader's banner. I find that…very inspiring, sir."
"Well, what do you know? A journalist that actually knows his stuff," Garza smirked with satisfaction as he puffed a cloud of smoke from his cigar into Genette's direction intentionally as an act of intimidation. Genette turned his head away a little and held his breath to avoid breathing in the smoke, but he otherwise remained calm in front of the general. If he played his cards right, then Garza would've bought into his own legend and gave Genette anything he wants, so he'd just have to endure this a little while longer.
"Of course I'm the guy who ended the civil war, and you know why? Because I'm the only one who had the balls to do whatever it takes to win it!" Garza chuckled, "Those rebel scum tried to discredit me and Navarro with their lies and treachery, and there are actually fools that are dumb enough to believe them! Heh, those imbeciles needed to be taught a painful lesson, and I was the one who gave it to them."
"Wouldn't applying force to the rebels incite more unrest than it already was?"
"Heh, since when did those idiots ever learn about fighting?" Garza cackled as he motioned his cigar-holding right hand around with a smug grin on his face, "As if the unorganized, untrained militias would be any match for the elite Leasathian Military. We know how to fight as a functional army, they can barely keep it together under intense gunfire. Even a child can tell who would win in a straight-up battle."
Genette took another sip from his glass of water, can't help but agreeing with the man on this. As arrogant Garza was, he has a point that civilians would stand no chance against a trained military force.
There's still one thing that remained unexplained, though: if the Leasathian Military is that effective, then why did it take so many years before the civil war was finally resolved? Genette figured that the question might hit too close a topic that would piss Garza off, though, so he decided to keep it to himself for now.
General Garza puffed out another smoke before putting the cigar on a tray, much to Genette's silent delight, before getting up from his couch and walking over to a minibar and fixing himself a drink. As if being able to read Genette's current thought, he continued:
"It doesn't take a military genius to win against a bunch of idiots who don't even know how to hold a gun," Garza said as he walked toward the window and gaze at the sight outside, "It's the ones who gave them the guns in the first place that are the pain in my asses."
"You mean to say that there's someone who's funding the rebel forces? They're not just operating on their own?" Genette decided to humor the general a little, asking a question that at first glance seems to paint the loyalists in a positive light. General Garza turned to look back at him with a half-amused, half-mocking expression.
"You really think a civil war would last this long without some other forces at work, huh? Don't be naïve," Garza chuckled, "A typical insurrection would have been crushed easily within a year at most, not three years long. Someone has been supplying those rebels with weapons and brainwashed them with delusional ideas, that's why the war dragged on for so long."
Garza paused for a moment as he stared outside the windows, the once smug expression was replaced by one of contempt and disgust. "I lost a lot of good men under my command in that blasted war. Good soldiers who died pointlessly because of those ungrateful bastards! But I suppose I shouldn't blame them, right? In the end, they're just fools who didn't know any better. The true enemy is still at large in the south. They thought us weak and sought to divide us, to exploit us, to take over us! Those sons of bitches!"
Garza's growling voice in his rant actually made Genette feel a bit uneasy, and he's not someone who got nervous easily. For a moment, the buffoon Leasath general that Genette dismissed as just yet another glory-seeking, a know-nothing-know-it-all armchair officer actually looked genuinely terrifying as a ruthless commander of an elite armed force. The man can be pretty intimidating when he wanted to. Gotta watch his words carefully from now on.
"Aurelians," Garza spoke the word with venom in his voice, as if the very name offended him personally, "Those degenerates are the ones who supplied the rebels with weapons and money to keep the war going. They exploited us for years while we're too busy killin' each other. The satellite disaster last year only helped make their thievery easier than ever since everybody was freaking blind!"
"I thought the Aurelian government had sent several humanitarian aid operations to Leasath. Are you implying that it was all a lie, sir?" Genette asked. Garza snickered loudly as he turned around and faced Genette once again. Suddenly, he just slammed the glass of whiskey he's holding onto the ground. The sounds of the glass breaking startled the young journalist, but he kept his composure.
"Typical Oseans…Harling had poisoned your little minds with that dangerous sentiment that there's good in everyone, and look where that got him. The world is better off without that idiot," Garza scoffed, "Welcome to the real world, kid! It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. The Aurelians would have you believe that they're the good guys, the saviors who are trying to save us from ourselves when in reality they're just capitalistic bastards who want nothing more than to strip my homeland bare!"
Genette listened to the general with the blank expression on his face, continuing the naïve journalist façade. Of course, he knew that everything Garza said about Aurelians couldn't be more wrong. Everybody knows that Aurelia had been trying to help Leasath recover from the civil war through multiple humanitarian aids. He was sure because Vincent Harling himself supported the Aurelians in this endeavor in his last year in the office. For some reason, though, the supplies never reached the poor civilians, and Leasath's situation only got worse and worse. It isn't too hard to imagine what the Leasathian government did with them.
"Navarro and I knew the truth. We're the only ones with any goddamn sense to see the Aurelians for what they really are: two-faced cowards who deserved nothing less than a bullet in the head," Garza continued gleefully, his face forming a smirk that barely concealed his excitement, "Well, that'd be rectified soon enough. Today is the day that Aurelia will be taught a painful lesson, to learn how it feels like to be oppressed and taken advantage of."
A sense of dread ran down Genette's spine. He knew this day was coming for a few months now, but he never actually expected that it would happen this soon…not just after the crisis in Usea had just been resolved.
"Are you saying that the Democratic Republic of Leasath is…" Genette began, each of his words spoken slowly and with much weight. He didn't even have to finish the line before Garza cut him off with the answer he was afraid to hear.
"…formally declaring war on the Federal Republic of Aurelia!" Garza announced loudly with a prideful grin on his face, "For every Leasathian soldier who died in the civil war, I'll make sure to send ten Aurelians to the grave in return. Today, Leasath will finally have its revenge."
As if on cue, Genette heard the thunderous sounds of jet engines. He got up on his couch and slowly walked toward the windows, his eyes widening as he tried to process just what he's seeing outside: a large fleet of Leasath Air Force planes was flying overhead – their presence filled the skies above as they flew westward. In the middle of that fleet were two massive aircraft of immense size that cast their dark shadows over the city below, where Genette could also see dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers marching through the streets of Alendal – all of them heading into the same direction.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Garza asked in a surprisingly calm and friendly voice in contrast to his aggressive tone earlier, which took Genette aback for a moment, "Good soldiers, every single one of 'em. They are the pride of Leasath and represent the best qualities every true Leasathian should have, and now they finally have a chance to fight a meaningful war for their homeland, fight for their people instead of against them, and fight for the glory of their supreme leader."
"They...indeed they are, sir." Genette hesitated for a second before forcing himself to speak out, even though he'd rather be anywhere else than this place right now.
"You want a story, journalist? I just gave you one." Garza walked over and gave a pat on Genette's shoulder as a 'friendly' gesture, "Tell the world that Leasath will no longer tolerate Aurelia's exploits any longer. Tell them that our superior military prowess should make anyone think twice before messing with us. If it's a war they wanted, then we will give them a bloody one, and we shall win. You do that, and I might just get you an audience with Navarro himself."
Genette turned to see Garza's pale yellow eyes – almost like the eyes of a wolf – staring at him with a stern expression, almost as if wordlessly sending him a warning: Mess this up, and you won't live long enough to regret it. I can assure you. Genette felt a chill run down his spine as the realization hit him of just what did he get himself into.
"I must go see to my men now. Don't overstay your welcome." Garza finally said as he adjusted his beret into place, "Consider my offer, and then we might have a chance to talk again. Adios."
And with that, Garza left the room. As soon as the door closed fully, Genette let out a sigh of relief. Talking with Garza had to be one of the more unpleasant interviews he's ever done, but he had to do it because Garza is his best shot at getting close to Navarro. He never expected to be a witness to a war declaration once again, though. This is going to complicate things up a lot.
It's the Circum-Pacific War all over again.
Genette shut down his laptop, figuring that he should take some time to process all this before he decides to do anything. Right now, the people of Aurelia should be his main concern, not Navarro. They're about to be steamrolled by the Leasathian blitz without any warning, and even if Genette could somehow inform anyone in the Aurelian Government about this right now, things are going to get ugly nonetheless, and he'd be exposing himself to Garza's wrath when he learned about it.
General Garza…something about the way he spoke about Aurelians rubbed him in a very wrong way, and it's not just because of what atrocities he planned to do to them: Garza seemed to genuinely believe that the Aurelia really played a part in screwing Leasath over during the civil war, even though the rest of the world knew otherwise. Two possibilities manifested in his mind: either Garza was lying through his teeth, or he actually believed it to be the truth, and Genette didn't know which was worse.
They often say truth is the first casualty of war. How many people involved in a war actually know how or why it started in the first place? The many wars that happened throughout history saw countless soldiers being sent to die en-masse fighting for something they didn't even understand. Worse yet, the victors ended up writing the history anyway, so even the very thing they died for might be lost to history by the time the winning side is done with it.
Such is the tragedy of the human race.
Genette picked his belongings up from the desk, resigning himself to the inevitable fact that a lot of people are going to die, both Aurelians and Leasathians, for some causes that they don't even know or care about. The best thing he could do right now is hoping that by some miracle, someone could step up to the challenge and put an end to the conflict before it can escalate any further.
Someone like the heroes of Razgriz – his old friends, or the pilot with the Three Strikes, or all the other ace pilots out there who almost single-handedly brought an end to their respective conflicts. From his many years of experience covering war news, he can say with certainty that an extraordinary pilot could not only turn the tide of a war, but also change the course of history itself.
And if his instincts are right, then he might know an Aurelian pilot who would fit the criteria. He's just hoping that she would be ready for the tough battle that lies ahead of her.
Author's note: Finally! My new AC fanfic after a long hiatus! Sorry for disappearing for so long lol. A lot of things happened recently and life being unpredictable causes me to lose interest in writing for a long while, but now I'm back again, and with this, I present to you an adaptation of Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception!
Since the story of this game took place just after AC7, I would love to expand more on it in a way that connects it to the lore established in AC7 as well, and I also plan to include elements of Ace Combat X2: Joint Assault into the story as well, and it might just be the sequel to this fic should I decide to write it.
Anyway, I'm planning for Gryphus One to be a lady in this one, though. Figured it should be a nice change of pace from all the other male ace pilots I've set up in my previous fics. I'll properly introduce her in the next chapter as well as her first sortie as depicted in 'Skies of Deception' mission in the game, so look forward to it!
Special thanks to MontyMarten, a fellow AC fanfic writer, whose story 'Ace Combat 7: Three Strikes' is brilliantly written that it inspired me to write something similar based on Ace Combat X as well. I highly recommended any AC fan to look her story up! And Monty, thank you again for all your contribution to the AC fandom with your story. Cheers!
Have a great day everyone! Keep yourself healthy and be safe!