"Alright, everyone, I'll keep this brief," Knight said as his eyes drifted over the briefing room. "Technically, these aren't official missions, but with how bad the situation is getting, we can't expect to just sit here doing nothing. We need to take action." He turned around and brought up the map of Usea- completely empty until he started plotting points manually. "When we rescued our forces from Expo City, a few of them reported that they knew the location of an Erusean POW camp."
"A few of them even escaped from it, apparently," Garth added.
Knight nodded. "We've wanted to do something about it for some time now. Unfortunately, with how low on fuel and ammo we've been until the Falcon arrived, our hands were tied. Now, though, we plan to act." He zoomed the map of Usea into the east side. "According to those that escaped from this camp, it's located just outside of the Chopinburg Rainforest, but Erusea has the whole forest occupied as well. Kestrel Squadron and Mage Squadron, you'll fly ahead and neutralize any air threats we might face. While you're doing that, Warlock Squadron and other ground forces will be aboard the OFS Falcon as they prepare to land on the coast south of the rainforest."
"I assume it's just a matter of covering them on their way to the camp after that?" Eva asked.
Knight kept his gaze on the screen. "Correct. You'll provide air support to the boots on the ground to make their trip through the jungle easier," he explained. "Once they're out, you should have a visual on the camp. All that's left to do then is storm the place and rescue the prisoners. We'll bring them back to the Falcon so we can keep them here."
"Looks like we'll be starting to get a little crowded here," Clown remarked with a smirk.
"Well, we don't have much of a choice," Boggard pointed out. "We gotta get these guys outta there."
"By the way, there's one more thing I should mention," Knight cut in. "Since we aren't aware of any other Osean presence in the region, all targets will be marked as hostile by default. If you think something's wrong, though, get in close and give us a manual ID. We're not the only ones in eastern Usea, so there's always a chance we might bump into friendlies."
"We seriously don't have any idea where our allies are?" Magic asked.
Knight shook his head. "Not since the satellites went down, sadly. All we can do is act on the intel we have. Now, get moving. The sooner we get this mission done, the better."
Eva nodded as she stood up. "Roger that, we'll get it done, sir." Once the others were out of their seats, they all made their way down to the hangars to prepare for takeoff. This was technically their first proper mission as Kestrel Squadron, so Eva wanted to make sure they didn't mess it up. Especially after everything they'd gone through to get to that point.
Compared to their last takeoff, things went relatively smoothly as they got up in the air. Mage Squadron went up first, and Kestrel Squadron followed. As they left, Eva spotted the Falcon pulling away from the docks and turning toward the same direction the pilots were flying in. She felt a deep feeling of anxiousness rising in her gut after what happened to the Kestrel II, but she quickly dismissed it. She wasn't going to let that happen again, and the others weren't either. The OFS Falcon, and all of its crew members, were safe.
"Sky Keeper, we're entering the AO. Any signs of hostiles?" Eva asked as she glanced at her squadron behind her.
After a brief pause, a reply came back. "Affirmative, enemy interceptors inbound. It's a small number for now, but there could be more coming. Stay alert and establish air superiority. Warlock Squadron and the others will be arriving shortly," he ordered.
Eva looked at her radar to see new contacts. They had all been marked as hostile by Sky Keeper, and they were heading right for Kestrel Squadron and Mage Squadron. Something about the situation still didn't sit right with Eva, but they had no choice. She knew they had to get those prisoners out because if the circumstances had been just a bit different, she likely would've been there with them after getting shot down at Expo City. She would've wanted the others to save her in that situation, so she was going to do just that.
Eva took a deep breath in and out and tightened her grip on the control stick. "Roger that. Kestrel Squadron, engaging."
"Mage Squadron, engaging," Clown added. "Let's just hope things go better than the last time we were here."
"Oh yeah, you guys were here during Operation Dual Wielder, weren't you?" Poet realized. "What happened on your end anyway?"
"Things were fine at first," Boggard explained. "We pretty much had control of the airspace, or so we thought. Then, the damn Arsenal Bird showed up out of nowhere."
Footpad sighed. "That's when we lost all of Skeleton Squadron, Gargoyle 1, and Brownie," he added. "Our luck went on a downward spiral from then on."
By that point, they'd gotten within range of the enemy interceptors and engaged. Eva went after one of the Su-35s. As she approached the Flanker head-on, they both fired missiles at each other and broke away and different directions. As fast as she could manage, Eva rolled onto her other side and turned around to get a look at her target. The Su-35 tried to circle around fast enough to get another shot on her, but Eva had already cut them off and taken them out with machine guns.
"What about you guys?" Clown asked as he deployed countermeasures to get away from the MiG-29 on his tail. "How exactly did things go in Farbanti?"
Eva shrugged as she turned to face another MiG-29. "Honestly, it sounds like things went pretty much the same for both of us," she admitted. "Only before the Arsenal Bird showed up, it was that merc from Expo City."
"Domino and half of Meteor Squadron were down before we even knew what was going on," Charger added. "It was brutal."
"The Arsenal Bird only made things worse," Lucky said as he shot down an Su-35. "Torch took the remaining pilots from Meteor Squadron to try and hold it off while we protected the carrier. They all got shot down, and the Kestrel II followed soon after."
"What a mess," Footpad remarked.
Eva fired two standard missiles at the MiG-29 from behind and pulled away from the wreckage as it fell to the jungle below. Before she had a chance to find her next target, though, a missile alert caused her to pitch her F-35 straight up out of instinct. She could see the Su-35 trailing her out of the corner of her eye, but no matter what maneuvers she made, she couldn't get it off. Tracers flew past, but luckily, none of them made contact. Eva tried making a high-G turn to break away again, but her pursuer matched it with ease. Suddenly, it disappeared from her radar, and Magic pulled around from behind to slip into formation beside her.
"Whew, thanks for the help, Magic," Eva said after letting out a sigh of relief.
Magic replied with a simple, "Don't sweat it."
"Sky Keeper, this is Mage 1. All enemy fighters are down," Clown reported.
"Good timing. Warlock Squadron and the others just landed at the coast and are entering the jungle now. Remain on standby to provide them with fire support if needed," the AWACS operator ordered.
"Truth be told, we can't see shit with all these trees and whatnot," Garth admitted. "If we see hostiles, we'll relay them to you to take out. Sound good?"
"Will do," Eva replied. "Just give the word, and we'll clear the way for you."
"Hold that thought," Sky Keeper interjected. "I've got incoming projectiles on radar. Projected impact zone is being displayed on your radars."
"Projectiles?" Footpad echoed. "Who's shooting at us?"
"Doesn't matter. Just get the hell out," Eva ordered. She had an idea as to what was coming, but she couldn't be sure. If she was right, though, then she had seen its destructive capabilities, and she didn't want anyone to be caught in the crosshairs.
As all of the pilots scattered in different directions, Eva looked down at her radar. The others were slowly but surely getting away from the red circles indicating the impact zones, and now all that was left was for her to get out too. She hit the afterburners and sped away as fast as she could. Eva's heart pounded as Sky Keeper counted down to the impact, and she got closer and closer to safety. Finally, several explosions shook the sky, but they weren't what Eva expected. She initially thought they were Helios missiles, but now that she could see them, only barely at a safe distance, she didn't have a clue what they were.
"What the hell was that?" Magic asked in disbelief.
"I'm still looking, but I think it was some kind of burst missile," Sky Keeper explained.
"No, that was a railgun shell." Eva jumped at David's sudden voice. "I've seen that in action before."
"Well, then that just begs the question: who in god's name is firing railgun shells at us?" Charger asked.
"I'm not sure. It's hard to track where the shells are coming from with the satellites down," Sky Keeper said. "I'll let you know if I see any more shells incoming, but for now, just focus on escorting the ground forces."
"Good timing because we just ran into what looks like a small enemy outpost," Garth reported. "We could sure use some air support to speed things along."
Eva looked down toward where Garth and the others were in the jungle and saw some new targets. There wasn't much, nothing more than a few AA guns and APCs, but as Eva flew overhead and circled back around, she pulled back on the throttle to reduce her speed. All it took was a single salvo of the 8AGMs she had loaded to wipe all of the hostiles off the radar.
"Thanks for the help. We're moving up, now," Garth reported.
"Man, this mission's gonna be a breeze," Eva remarked with a smirk. "It's not even a challenge with these 8AGMs."
"Ah dammit, Diamond. Now, you just jinxed it," Poet groaned.
Luckily, Eva appeared to be right so far. They continued escorting the ground forces through the jungle for at least 20 minutes, and the most they'd have to do would be to take out the occasional patrol or dodge a railgun shell, and even that proved to be easy for them. It was a nice change of pace to have a mission where they weren't exerting themselves to their limit, but having to stay on their toes put Eva on edge.
Suddenly, Sky Keeper broke the silence that had set in. "Four bogies on radar. They're coming from the northeast."
"They must be enemy reinforcements," Boggard speculated.
While the theory sounded right at first, Eva felt an alarm bell going off in her mind, telling her that something wasn't quite right about it. "Hold on," she interjected. "If they were sending reinforcements, wouldn't they wanna send more than just four planes? What if they're friendlies?"
"It's worth a shot," Lucky agreed. "Sure is better than accidentally committing fratricide."
"Alright, flagging the incoming bogies as unknowns. Get in there and find out if they're friendly or not," Sky Keeper ordered.
Eva turned in the direction of the four yellow targets on her radar and sped up. She kept her breath held as she got closer, nervous of the possibility that they were indeed hostiles, and she was just giving them a head start in shooting them down. Luckily, though, Eva managed to recognize the signature hill grey camo Osea used on its F-16Cs as she and the others passed by.
"They are friendlies!" Eva exclaimed as Kestrel Squadron, and Mage Squadron circled back around to fly alongside them.
"Well, let's give 'em a heads up that we're not here to shoot them down," Clown said.
"Good idea," Sky Keeper agreed. "Attention, Osean fighters. This AWACS Sky Keeper for the Fort Grays Island Air Base Squadron. What is your affiliation?"
After a second or two of silence, a reply finally came back. "This is Gorgon 1 of the OADF," they said. "Quite frankly, we didn't think we'd find anyone out here, much less friendly forces." There was a hint of amusement in the flight leader's voice as she spoke- amused by the sheer amount of luck required for the two groups to have run into each other. "We're based over at Los Canas," she explained.
"Los Canas?" Footpad echoed. "I thought the place was overrun by Eruseans weeks ago."
"It was," Gorgon 1 replied. "But we launched an operation to take it back just before things went dark," she explained.
"Well, we're on an operation to liberate a POW camp, so we wouldn't mind a little extra help if you're able," Sky Keeper said.
"Hell yeah. Let's do it!" Another voice said with far more vigor, and enthusiasm than Eva was prepared for.
"Slow down, Gorgon 3," Gorgon 1 said with an amused chuckle. "We'll follow their lead and see what they want us to do."
"Heads up. Another railgun shell inbound," Sky Keeper warned.
"Railgun shell?" Another Gorgon pilot asked. "What the hell did we just get roped into."
"We'll explain in a second. For now, just evade," Eva ordered, already turning away from the impact zone. "You'll get swat out of the sky if you're too close." As the explosion made her plane shudder, she looked around and let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that everyone was still flying. "We all good."
"Yeah. Considering how big of a boom that thing makes, it's not very accurate," Boggard said.
"Normally, they'd be using terminal guidance to assist with aiming, but since the satellites are down and they don't have any planes to do it, they might as well be shooting blind," David explained. "Quite frankly, it's impressive that they're getting as close as they are."
"Hey, this is Warlock 1. We found some more hostiles in the jungle," Garth said. "Wait… hold on a second, are those… the prisoners?" After several seconds of stunned silence, Garth spoke up again. "Jesus… they're forcing the prisoners to march through the god damn jungle."
"Let's get them out of there, then," Lucky said, already turning to fly over to Garth's position. "The sooner, the better."
Eva looked down at the ground and saw new radar contacts pop up. It was the most ground targets they had seen so far, but that didn't stop her from firing a salvo of 8AGMs right away. All eight missiles found their marks, but there were still plenty of enemies who had now noticed them. A SAM launcher fired at Eva, and she pitched straight up. The missile got closer and closer, but just before it hit, she curved back down, flying straight toward the SAM launcher until she fired a standard missile at it and pulled up just before she crashed into the ground. As she passed only a few dozen meters from the ground, she destroyed a pair of APCs with her machine guns and pulled back up to a higher altitude, and launch another 8AGM salvo.
"Hold your fire up there!" Garth ordered. "You've got 'em all. We'll take it from here."
Kestrel Squadron slipped into formation behind Eva as they started circling the area. "How are they?" Eva asked.
"How the hell could they do this?" Garth asked nobody in particular. "They've got sick and injured prisoners here, and they're forcing them through a god damn jungle." Before anyone had a chance to respond, he started issuing out orders to the other troops on the ground. "Alright, let's get anyone that's sick or injured into the APCs first, wherever we can fit 'em. Especially that one in the crutches over there. If some of us have to walk for them to have room, then so be it." He paused and let out a heavy sigh. "Sky Keeper, we're taking a few minutes to load everyone up, and then we'll be on our way back to the Falcon," he reported.
"Copy that, Warlock 1. We'll have Kestrel and Mage keep you covered. Gorgon, do you want to come back with us to Fort Grays?" Sky Keeper offered.
"Can't. We've still got others waiting for us back at Los Canas," Gorgon 1 explained. "We'll try and keep in touch with you guys, though," she quickly added.
"Better than nothing, I guess," Clown said.
"We know we're not alone anymore. That's a start," Lucky pointed out.
Eva nodded to herself in agreement. "Right, let's get everyone back on the Falcon. The sooner we're out of here, the better."