October 10th, 2019

Things were moving along smoothly. Alex drank from a bottle of water as he observed the sun rise over Shilage and her surroundings. With sunrise came a group of Eagles, Typhoons, a single Raptor and a few C-130 transports. The rest of the LRSSG had arrived. Alex navigated through a few buildings and hallways to find his way out to the runway. When he got there, the fighters had already landed and one of the C-130s was rolling up to the tunnel. There had been a bit of expansion done, but the runway wasn't big enough to allow C-17 or god-forbid C-5 operations. The first pilot to greet him was Trigger. Alex waved the hero of the war over. Trigger complied.

'Nice little establishment.' Trigger was the first to say something. 'Where's Commander Snow?' Alex looked around the local area. Razgriz 2 was nowhere to be seen. He shrugged.

'Probably asleep.' Alex theorised.


Marcus was indeed asleep in one of the smaller unoccupied rooms provided by the base personnel. It was not a peaceful rest. It was quite the opposite. Marcus was unconsciously rolling and shaking around as if there was some external factor corrupting his thoughts. He was living out the same nightmare that had been haunting him for the past couple of months. The details always changed, but there were a few constant factors. The space elevator. Strider and Razgriz Squadrons. A number of infamous aces. And two foreign drones.


Marcus peeked over the side of the canopy of his F-14D. Below him were the coastal waters of Selatapura Bay. It was early in the morning and the sun was rising. He was to Blaze's left as part of Razgriz's arrowhead formation, the same spot he was always in. In the distance was the Space Elevator, its white panelling reflecting the rising beams of sun. Alongside Razgriz were a variety of squadrons, some bearing the Osean flag, others the Erusean flag. There were a couple without nation markings but with universally-recognisable paint schemes. The dark blue twin-wings of an F-15C, Cipher. An F-15E with an angel on its tail, Talisman. An F-22 with a variety of ribbons under the lip of the canopy, Mobius 1. Marcus didn't understand what was happening, but he pressed on alongside his squad to intercept two large and advanced aircraft orbiting the Space Elevator.

One dark grey, one bone white, both of the same design.

'Swordsman, engaging!' Marcus called out. There was no reply, or any other noise save for the roaring of his twin engines pushed all the way into wet mode. He went after the bone white aircraft. The latter fired a laser weapon into the approaching fighter formation as if it had sensed interceptors. Marcus moved out of the way of the beam, but the Su-30 behind him didn't react quick enough before his aircraft was swatted out of the air. Unfazed, Marcus fired a missile at the UCAV. The drone saw it and deftly evaded the missile. It also dodged another missile fired at it from a different angle before firing one of its own missiles at a friendly. That friendly evaded the missile but not the pulsed laser beams that melted the F-35 down and destroyed it.

Marcus used his speed to approach the drone and fired a single cannon burst. Most of the shells missed as the UCAV moved out of the way, but a few managed to clip it and cause some damage. The UCAV quickly pulled away and figured out an attack solution to return the punishment. Marcus was then forced to evade in a dogfight he had no hope of winning at close range. He handled his Tomcat as best he could, bringing the dogfight through a series of loops around the Space Elevator. A missile was fired, but Marcus pulled up and out of range of the seeker, forcing the missile to slam into the ferroconcrete of the space elevator. Another F-14D attacked the UCAV from the side, distracting it long enough for Snow to come around and hit it with another cannon burst. Again, most of the shells missed but enough of them connected for damage to be caused. This was enough for the drone to direct its attention towards the fighter that had caused it the most grief. As Marcus was descending from the tower, the UCAV ascended upwards, specifically targeting the Swordsman. A missile came his way.

Marcus pulled away from the space elevator to evade it. A few pulse laser blasts slammed into the belly of his Tomcat. One of the engines sputtered out broken turbine blades. Marcus grunted with the impact and tried to pull away from the drone. It flew towards him, fangs ready to take the kill. Inside the drone's core, there must have been some hard-coding to kill Marcus, for when Trigger came out of nowhere and fired a missile at point-blank range the drone made no effort to avoid being hit. The drone shuddered with a direct missile hit and was thrown off its course by the impact, but it wasn't quite dead. Trigger came in for another attack run flying his F-22A, buying Marcus some valuable time to get away. Unfortunately, the drone also survived the second run and this time it didn't let Trigger get away freely. It turned away and fired a missile salvo at Strider 1. The latter popped chaff and flares while pulling a hard turn down to gain speed and escape. Most of the missiles missed as a result, but one exploded close enough to Trigger's Raptor to damage it with proximity shrapnel. Despite the fact that he was missing one engine, Marcus turned around to go assist. He took aim with an AMRAAM and pressed the firing trigger.

No joy. Marcus pressed the button tighter. Also no joy. His aircraft's fire control system was fried. In the distance he saw Trigger take a couple of laser blasts, one of them melting a streak of plexiglass away from the canopy. Another laser slammed into one of his vertical stabilisers, taking off half of one. Marcus looked around. There wasn't anyone close enough to provide support before Trigger would have been swatted out of the skies. One of their best, one of their youngest swatted out of the skies as if he were piecemeal. Marcus pushed the throttle all the way forward. He cut the fuel lines to the left side engine a moment before it exploded from the damage. Marcus tore off his helmet's mask, the oxygen supply was busted anyway. He took a deep breath and focused, pointing the nose of his damaged F-14 towards the drone. As he approached, Marcus started chanting the OMDF's motto to himself.

'Through hardship, we prevail. Through challenge, we succeed. Through adversity, we strive.' Marcus was about to impact with the drone. 'Per Aspera Ad Astra!'


As had been the case for all of these nightmares, they always ended just before the final moment came. Marcus shouted as he pushed himself onto his feet straight out of bed. Bland green walls, a nightstand and three doors, all on the same side of the building. Marcus took a moment to calm his nerves before proceeding to quickly get changed and walk out of the room to go meet with his newly-arrived squad mates.


Mythic slid down from the ladder of her new Typhoon FGR.4 and onto the tarmac of the improvised runway. She scanned her surroundings. The first thing she spotted was the massive castle that was home to the Shilage royal family. The next thing the lieutenant spotted was the tunnel that the Eruseans were using as a hangar. Not entirely sure where to go, Mythic found Grimm and followed him.


Already in the base's command centre were the mission commanders for the upcoming operation. Blaze, Talisman, Mihaly, Trigger, Jaeger, Count and Wit. There wasn't much discussion, there wasn't any planning, it was just Blaze introducing the various squad leaders to the Eruseans and explaining the situation.

'This is Trigger and this is Count. Squad leaders of Strider and Cyclops respectively. Jaeger, my executive officer. Last and not least, Talisman, Garuda's squad leader of much fame from five years ago.' Blaze was quick with the introductions. Talisman gave a little wave to the Eruseans. 'The situation has changed. We've got our communications back with Osean command. We're launching an all-out assault on the Space Elevator come the 31st of October. All the forces we can muster will be there.'

'You waited until now to tell us this?' Mihaly pondered. Alex shrugged.

'No harm in waiting. We've still got 21 days until H-Hour.' Alex justified his reasoning for not disclosing this information to the Eruseans sooner. 'That's all. My guys, gather everyone else and form up on me. We've got our own building for accommodation.'

'Roger that.' Count confirmed the order. Talisman didn't go anywhere. She was the only Emmerian there. She was the last to exit, but before she left the door Wit called her out.

'Talisman!' Sol 2 called out. Talisman turned around, alerted.

'Hmm?' She asked.

'What are the Emmerians doing here?' Wit asked the lieutenant-colonel, for a good reason. The Emmerians had no reason to be on the continent.

'Classified.' Talisman walked off, taking the words right out of Wit's mouth.


Pilgrim One

Kei entered the command centre of the Pilgrim in a hurry. Two commos and a technician were already in the room with many computer consoles.

'What's the news?' She asked. A minute ago, Kei had been informed of a call from ground control. It was something important.

'It's best if you hear for yourself.' The junior of the commos said, handing her over a headset. Kei put it on over her ears and flipped down the headset's integrated microphone.

'Go for Edge.' Kei reported in.

'Captain Nagase, Basset Space Centre's mass drivers have been repaired. We're sending a supply and repair shuttle to you, anticipate arrival at 0600 Standard Time.' Ground control reported. Kei almost jumped where she stood, but contained her excitement.

'Copy that. Are we going home?' Kei had to ask if they would be finally returning to Earth after seven long years.

'Soon. A military coalition will be retaking the Space Elevator from the Eruseans on October 31st. If all goes well, you'll be able to dock on November 1st.' Ground control gave that information. Again, Kei was tempted to jump in excitement.

'Copy. Anything else?' Kei made sure she had everything she needed to know.

'Nada. Standby on this connection. We'll be in touch with extra information as we get it. Mission command, out.' The ground command crew signed off the radio. Kei handed back the headset. Her extremities were numb, but still she managed to navigate over to the microphone handset that was connected to the ship's 1PA system.

'Attention all hands, this is your captain speaking. It's been a long seven years and an even longer five months. But the end is near. We're going home come November. Stand your ground and be ready. We have a repair shuttle coming in at 0600 tomorrow morning. Captain Nagase, signing off.'