Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat
September 4th 2019
Artiglio port
Southern usea
8am
Captain Matias Torres stood on the Alicorn's deck watching through binoculars as a San Antonio class landing ship accompanied by a Ticonderoga Aegis Cruiser and six Arleigh-Burke class Aegis Destroyers came into view in the distance.
The rumbling of a helicopter caught his attention as an OMDF Seahawk helicopter came over "Must be doing recon before they try to capture the ship." Torres watched as the number two small railgun emerged. He put on the ear defenders he carried form his quarters as the gun fired splitting the sea hawk helicopter in half.
Torres removed his defenders while his hand was at portable radio ″its a requiem, set off as soon as we are ready.″
New Arrows air base
East Usea
8:30am
A dark grey Strike Eagle was parked up as Trigger and Avril stepped into the hangar holding breakfast "So Avril briefing for Sighthound is in half an hour." Avril was more focused on the jet. Trigger's claw lines had been painted on the tail.
"So why are the LRSSG using Eagles for anti-surface which they aren't designed for? and why aren't you using the e-model strike eagle cause they can do both ground attack and air to air operations?"
Trigger sighed as Avril looked at him while he quietly ate his breakfast."Frankly I've been wondering the same thing cause my Eagle can do that cause as best as I understand it was modified to do that role. Its one of the C-models that was built in the pre-belkan war years."
Avril leaned against the crates "So its a 2nd hand jet."
"Well apparently the eagle you rebuilt for me was used by Sapin as a multi-role air superiority and ground attack aircraft then Osea used it but seems they forgot to remove its ground attack capabilities and the manual override on the FCS system." Trigger had climbed onto the crates.
"Frankly Avril the war is pushing our planes hard but its probably good thinking to order it to be grounded cause it probably should have been done weeks ago." Trigger looked over the tarmac seeing the Navy Clippers and Air Force Nightingale 2s being unloaded with base supplies.
Unknown airbase
8:55am
Otto and Elke van Dalsen better known as Rage and Scream of GRGM were sitting at a table enjoying breakfast when a file placed next to Rage. "So this is the Trigger we've been hired to kill?" He flipped the file to show Scream who looked at the picture of Trigger.
"Is he good?" Scream asked her brother who read through the file as Scream enjoyed her breakfast.
"Oh he's good alright and is experienced on multiple Yuketobanian and Osean fighters." Rage looked up from the file "Foxhound, Sea Eagles, Fulcrums, Phantoms, Fighting Falcons and Eagles."
Scream put down her breakfast "So we'll have a challenge." The 2 mercs tucked into their breakfast.
New arrows briefing room no.1
9am
Trigger, Avril and Eagle stepped into the room but Howard Clements looked at him "Trigger why did you bring that dog into the briefing?"
Eagle sniffed the air around Howard growling sharply her tail dropped between her legs "I don't know why but Eagle doesn't like you sir."
Trigger and the Scrap Queen sat down with Eagle next to him as Long Caster standing in front of a projection screen as ineligible info appeared on the screen "Fencer still hasn't recovered?" Count asked Lanza as the outline of the usean continent appeared in front of them with the LRSSG logo.
"He has but the doctor won't let him fly." Lanza replied sounding not happy that one of his squadron mates was out of commission for the last 16 days.
"Guessed as much." Count chuckled to himself as he hoped Fencer would learn something from this.
A new voice that none of the LRSSG knew. "How much are you going to make me wait?" the mystery voice said sounding annoyed at the delay leaving everyone puzzled as to who it was.
"Who's the self important stiff? Huxian asked wondering just who was sounding annoyed. The outline the continent changed to show the allied and erusean territory as a technician placed a laptop on the nearby table.
"He'll hear." Lanza responded as the technician typed in a few bits of info while plugging the laptop in as Jaeger relaxed wondering what was going on.
"He's really quite important." Jaeger mused quietly as the rest of Cyclops squadron were taking their seat but he could see Serpentina was seated next to Trigger although as he had observed over the hour since Serpentina had arrived at their base. They seemed to watch the other's back.
"We're connected, ready now sir." a 2nd mystery voice replied as the 1st mystery spoke again but for some reason Trigger didn't trust something in his gut was telling him that this mystery person was hiding something.
"I'm Brigadier General Howard Clements. I'm in charge of this operation." the LRSSG were all surprised that a high ranking officer was involved in this operation "Our objective is to capture an advanced submarine in harbour at Artigilo." the map zoomed into the location that Count and Trigger both knew well.
Trigger looked at Howard, something was telling him that Howard wasn't to be trusted but he couldn't place it. "about 2 and a half months ago the port of Artigilo and the surrounding oil facilities were mostly destroyed by another air operation." Trigger, Avril and Count knew that mission well as they had been there before.
"Oh that port seems like such a long time ago." Count mused remembering the raid by Spare squadron like it was yesterday.
"You've been there?" Skald asked wondering how Count knew the port but Count couldn't get his answer in time before Howard resumed talking.
"Yeah we were it should have been a simple raid except for a monster sandstorm making things more difficult." Trigger replied as he thought about the mission he took Avril on in a phantom.
"Yeah that one was a nightmare for me with sand in the engines." Avril hated having to clean the sand out of the spares turbines after returning from the raid.
"However, Erusean forces repaired the facilities and used them to resupply and maintenance a massive submarine." Howard explained but Trigger had thought the Eruseans would repair the facility when the 2nd mystery voice returned to the room.
"Okay I'll make time to destroy the facilities." Trigger said but David could tell Trigger was looking at the wider picture something he knew from people in his line of work.
"Here's a question how long do you think this submarine is?" he asked but before any of the pilots could answer "If you guessed 495 meters, you're right. It also has a width of 116 meters and a submerged displacement of 810,000 tons." David explained as a 3D image of the sub came up onto the screen "Its a super sized submarine powered by two liquid cooled metal reactors.
Trigger and Serpentina looked at each other realising that their plan would make things much worse than they had naively thought. "Fuck." Laura cursed as her plan to disable the sub was a bust." Trigger looked at her as he knew the plan was out too.
"So Sis new plan we try to disable the engines if possible." he said as Scott and Laura quickly worked out what they will do. Their discussion hadn't gone unnoticed by Wiseman.
"So if we sunk the sub then." Laura began as it dawned just how stupid their plan was.
"One mighty big bang if the ship goes boom, it makes the v-2 look like a water bomb in comparison." Trigger whispered but the brigadier general stopped talking as information about the sub appeared on screen.
"That's spot on Trigger and why we can't blow it up in port especially since the radiation would cause an environmental disaster." David had talked to the ship designers and was told how bad the radioactive contamination would be if the reactors exploded.
"I guess it is really huge, so who's the quiz show host?" Huxian asked having never heard the other person before. She wondered if this was a game show or a mission briefing.
"David North." he said introducing himself "I'm an OIA analyst from the advanced weapons analysis. It's a pleasure to meet all of you especially the famous Three Strikes." David had read the reports on operations that Trigger had been in.
"Why isn't he here?" Cynthia immediately felt that she had asked a stupid question.
"Because he doesn't need to be. He can perform his analysis at his home office." Wiseman jumped in to clear up Huxian's confusion who patiently leaned back and listened.
"We've got ourselves an armchair detective." Jaeger couldn't resist saying as the 3D image rotated around showing the flight crews more of the ship.
"Continue." was all Wiseman said as David took over again.
"I've come to call this super submarine the Alicorn, I believe the only one ever built by the Yuktobanians."
"The Alicorn is submarine… and yet it can stage aircraft operations like a carrier, It also boasts some serious firepower with two main railguns" Trigger and Laura mentally started thinking up a tag team attack to knock out those railguns. "their range is over 400 kilometres. A real monster if their ever was one."
Trigger and Laura without even saying a word began thinking of how to bring out and disable the submarine railguns while the 3D image showed where the railguns were located that Trigger and Laura made a mental note to hit first if the opportunity allowed.
"The sub's force projection are equivalent to a carrier strike group, furthermore it can approach from underwater or use aircraft and railguns to attack outside the enemy's range."
Trigger felt the room go cold since he's served on a carrier strike group during his 9 months in the navy and knew how much firepower they could pack.
A female computer voice took over from David allowing him to catch his breath as pictures of the sub and a newspaper article displayed "It has an unusual history. Befitting such a ship; it was launched four years ago, however it went MIA while it undergoing a sea trial after being outfitted in November 2016. It was later found at the bottom of the ocean by chance, and of the 356 crew, 330 were rescued."
"Here's the question. For how many days was the Alicorn underwater?" David asked the Strider and Cyclops pilots slipping back into being a quiz show host. "It was 698 days."
"Woah." Lanza said he sounded very surprised since that didn't seem possible "They were down there nearly two years." Lanza knew that the submarine would have run out of oxygen but Trigger was more concerned about what happened amongst the crew who were stuck down there for 2 years.
"So long as the nuclear reactors intact they would be able to make oxygen still its incredible piece of yuke engineering." Everyone else in the room silently agreed on that.
"You're not wrong Jaeger I mean has any of you seen the jet seaplanes." Trigger turned to his number 3.
"The Yukes built like the Altair I remember my foxhound squadron was deployed to Yuketobania for training exercises once but thanks to some blunders by Osea we got sent to a seaplane base but luckily the Yukes sent an Altair to ferry us over to the right base." Trigger couldn't help himself but think back to that day.
"If we can get back to the mission briefing now gentleman." Howard wasn't amused by Trigger's irrelevant chit-chat.
"They were on the sea floor, at 15 degrees but how they survived is let's just say not for the faint of heart." David continued but paused as he knew a question was coming.
Jaeger knew something didn't add up so posed a question to him "Why are they deploying it to the front lines now?"
"I suspect it has to do with the loss of an Arsenal Bird and the IRBM cluster." he responded which told Trigger he had read up on their previous missions that they had been on over the last 2 weeks.
"Huh. Okay so we blow up the damn thing?" Lanza said unaware that Trigger and his sister had the same idea but had aborted that idea.
"No we capture it don't make me repeat myself." Howard responded with anger but when he said next sent a chill down everyone present "We've had reports from local sources that there are weapons of mass destruction aboard the Alicorn."
"Source?" David asked the brigadier but Howard didn't even respond to his query before he resumed the briefing.
"Let just say their are channels the intelligence agency is unaware of." Howard despite being a brigadier general had served with the oia decades ago and had connections on the ground that he could trust.
"If we can secure that evidence; we'll gain advantage in the peace negotiations post war." Huxian, Avril and Trigger scowled not liking how the general seemed to care only about political side and not what was at stake.
The Osean Navy has dispatched a fleet including a landing ship to capture the Alicorn." Wiseman who had taken over from the general "Our mission to secure air superiority and protect this capture and assault task force. Laura watched as the general stepped in but Trigger was musing to himself that told her something wasn't right about all this."
"If we take too long, they'll scuttle the sub, The fleet will commence its actions while we seize the skies." Trigger didn't like the sound of the plan since it reeked of a disaster in the making as he had flown the Sea Eagle in the OMDF for 9 months and knew that you never send in the fleet without air superiority.
"Wouldn't it be risky to bring the fleet in before we secure air superiority?" Trigger asked but the general just glared at him like he had insulted him or something.
"That is none of your concern." he sharply retorted at the strider flight lead who wanted to let Howard know just how shit this whole plan was but Huxian beat him to it.
"Actually it is my concern since Cyclops are still on standby so Strider are likely going to be scrambled and I've flown in the navy and one thing they taught us navy pilots is you never send in a fleet without air superiority." Trigger knew that Howard couldn't be trusted.
"So basically you're putting out fleet in danger for political games." Huxian's tone was clear for all to hear that she didn't like how the general was playing god with people's lives for political gain.
"They should've taught you how to address superiors in boot camp." was all he said sounding more angry than he was before but Wiseman could feel the tension in the room between the General and Trigger. He made a mental note to ask Trigger what was bothering him.
"An EW Squadron will be deployed, their ESM will be a valuable asset. Stay within their range and you'll have a significant advantage over your enemies, the eta for the ew aircraft is the same as h-hour." he explained as arrows indicated who was who and how many enemy fighters they were up against.
"Let me guess Enchanter Squadron right?" Trigger had flown with enchanter during combat exercises. He expected they'd have gotten the new growler by now.
"You know the EW Squadron we'll be flying with today?" Count turned to his flight lead who leaned back in his chair putting his feet up.
"Yeah i flew in naval training exercises with Enchanter who were using the bulky prowler at the time and we became good friends."
"Precisely." Long Caster butted in unaware of the tensions between Trigger and the brigadier general.
"Why the navy used the old Prowler until late 2017 is beyond me." Trigger mumbled quietly as the outline of the mission area appeared.
"Only Strider Squadron and Serpentina will sortie." Howard's words caught all of the plots off guard having expected the most of the LRSSG to go on for the raid.
"Woah I have to sit this one out?" Tailor said, surprised that such a vital mission would only have Strider squadron taking part.
"Wait, Wiseman, you're not coming?!" Huxian said sounding surprised that the Cyclops squadron would be sitting out such an important mission out.
"I'll be assisting the Brigadier General at HQ." he explained to his team who grumbled that they were having to sit out a mission. Wiseman hated that as well cause he wanted to help the team in the field.
"This is by no means a difficult mission, your squadron commander's absence shouldn't change that." Howard said as the briefing came to an end but David knew that Trigger would be thinking how to stop the sub which he could understand given the firepower it had.
The squadron members all got up as the lights came on "Trigger, Serpentina a moment." Wiseman knew that Trigger and his sister were scheming and he needed to let them know whatever they were scheming was a no go. "I couldn't help but notice you were up to something what were you planning?"
"We were planning on how to destroy the Alicorn but after we heard about the reactors we postponed that plan but now we were thinking of attacking its engines to leave it dead in the water or to destroy the railguns since they pose the biggest threat to the fleet." Trigger having heard that the ship could attack with railguns so they had to be destroyed.
Howard Clements scowled at him "General you want the ship captured, so why not send a special ops teams in the middle of the night."
Trigger had seen the OADF fleet online and knew they had special ops aircraft in the fleet. Avril couldn't help but not agree with Trigger's point.
"The special ops aircraft needed were badly damaged during the surprise attack in the opening days of the war and only 1 is operational which I believe was at North point." Wiseman had asked the same question when he had been informed of the operation the night before.
"Damn it. I don't know why but I have a bad feeling about this mission, that its going to be a disaster. Despite there only being 12 enemy aircraft I feel this is too easy I would have expected more than 2 squadrons." Trigger couldn't help but feel something telling him the operation was going to be a disaster.
Avril's radio buzzed "Wiseman we have a problem with Skald's eagle's elevator control cables so we have mark it as unserviceable."
"Damn it alright Trigger who will take Skald's place?" Wiseman felt a little annoyed that they were down a plane before they'd even gotten off the ground.
"I think I'll have Jaeger fly cause there's this strider formation I've been wanting to try myself, Count, Jaeger and Huxian." Trigger had spent days working on what who he'd have in a squadron with him.
"Pinching the best from both squadrons." Wiseman chuckled curious to see how that line up might work.
New arrows hanger no.3
Trigger was putting on his flight suit as Avril pulled her helmet from the locker "So Scrap Queen you look good in the flight suit." Trigger zipped his up as he opened his locker getting his helmet.
"Shut up." she was feeling eager to get into the cockpit.
"Avril are you scared about sortieing with me?" Trigger suspected that Avril was not scared in fact was the opposite.
"Nope in fact I'm excited." hearing that confirmed what he suspected.
"Now I know you're more crazy for coming along. Trigger despite knowing how dangerous and how much trouble he and Wiseman would be in if the higher-ups found out about him taking a civilian into a combat situation.
The pair stepped into the hangar seeing the strike eagle loaded "So its a four hour flight there." he helped her into the seat buckling her harness then climbed inside the cockpit himself closing the canopy.
Trigger started up the plane's two F100-229s and followed the other F-15s to the runway. Skald and Wiseman watched the jets depart. "I got a bad feeling about this mission." Wiseman couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking into a disaster.
Artiglio port
Southern Usea
14:00pm
a flight of three grey-blue Eagles and a dark grey Strike Eagle and one marine blue Super Viper Zero streaked into the airspace with the landing ship Puffin, a lone aegis and six destroyers below.
Without any thought Avril armed every weapon on the Strike Eagle. "OFS Puffin do you read me?" Trigger waited for a reply as the flight could see the sub in the distance.
"OFS Puffin to Strider 1 go ahead." A female voice responded over the radio.
"Captain Robin Avery is everyone ready down there." He asked the landing ship captain looked at the sub seeing its size and was amazed that a sub like it could exist.
"Everyone is ready but I just have a bad feeling that we needed more ships for this and that its too easy." Robin felt slightly scared given how much firepower the sub could pack from what she was told in the briefing for the operation.
"Yeah I have the same concern well good luck Captain Robin Avery." Trigger wanted to give the crews hope that they'll survive the op.
"You too Three Strikes oh say hi to Long Caster for me." she looked at her shipmates who were just as nervous as she was.
"Captain How do you know our AWACS?" Trigger was curious as to how Robin knew their AWACS.
"Well he and I are old flames we dated in high school." Robin had liked going out with Long Caster but it never worked out between them Robin had been eager to rekindle her romance with him when she learned that they'd be working together.
"I couldn't help but notice your accent a mix of Nordennavic and Osean." Trigger had learned form one of enchanter on how to read accents. It came in handy on more than one occasion.
"Yeah my dad's from there." Robin could hear what she could tell was south east belkan that she knew from history class became the republic of Ustio "from your accent a mix of osean and belkan right."
"Yeah my mom was Belkan actually anyway here we go." Trigger shifted his focus to the mission ahead.
"Hey Trigger you want to give the order?" Robin asked him who thought about it thinking to himself why not.
"Gladly, all hands to battle stations." the sound of the general quarter klaxons blared throughout all the ships.
Trigger scanned the area with his HUD as eight blips appeared on his radar. He noted the eight F-4E Phantom 2s knowing despite its age it was a tough and rugged jet. "Understood shit." major concern rang through Wiseman's voice which Trigger quickly figured that things were about to go awry.
"What's up?" Count asked the AWACS who didn't have good news for them.
"Friendly aircraft and EW aircraft will arrive 5 minutes late." Long Caster's news was not good for the squadron.
Jeager had a hunch that things were only going to get worse "I guess Trigger's misgivings about this mission being a disaster are coming true hopefully we can turn it around."
"Retreat and wait for backup." Wiseman knew that they need drake and Enchanter squadron to push their number of aircraft to out number the enemy fighters.
Howard on the other hand wanted them to get to work since he had been told that the LRSSG were elites "Retreat no authorized. Gain air superiority at once."
"Trigger what now?" Count asked him having no idea just what was going on since things were going wrong.
Trigger got a buzzing on his radio and reached over to adjust the frequency to clear the buzzing when he heard something chilling 'I hereby swear that i will be a proud, brave and vigilant solider. to uphold the honour of our nation and its military. to submit to the orders of my superiors.'
"Captain. They're ready for take-off sir. They're prepared to sacrifice their lives to carry out salvation on the city of east coast capital." the command duty officer watched as the Rafale taxied onto the deck.
"Beautiful. Don't you see? A million lives are about to be snuffed out in senseless cruelty." Trigger pushed his eagle into a dive seeing the alicorn in dock but his HUD showed four Rafale M carrier jets preparing for take-off.
Trigger felt his instinct tell him that those Rafales had to be destroyed "Fox 3." Trigger called ripple firing his four of the eight AMRAAM at the Rafales which were readying to take off."
"Patch me in There's a possibility the cruise missile is a WMD." David called as the Rafales got airborne.
Everyone waited as the four AMRAAMs streaked towards the Rafales who were climbing "Trigger ho...yo...ire" Howard's voice was so faint that Trigger could hear him.
Trigger's missiles easily caught up to the sacs planes destroying all 4 jets instantly.
"Salvation." the lead Rafale called as the four airborne Rafales were engulfed in a huge explosion. Trigger had expected a large nuclear explosion that would likely have killed them all from being vaporised but he saw no bright flash or mushroom cloud.
Trigger was stunned that the pilots never ejected since he had expected that Erusean pilots to be smart enough to bail out when they had the chance. The second Rafale spun uncontrollably till it crashed into the ground disintegrating into several pieces.
"Seems he was downed by Three strikes just moments after take-off too." the command duty officer noted as the Rafales disappeared from radar.
"That dammed bastard ruined it. The captain said sounding very pissed and Trigger couldn't understand why.
"Captain?" the command duty officer sounded concerned as the two other Rafales hit the water.
"Don't you see? He walked all over it with his dirty boots! Over the crisp, white sheets of my bed that I had just made!" Matias shouted clearly fuming with rage.
"Let's have him assist in the next plan…it'll make a fine sideshow for our scheme to kill a million people. Or was it the plan to save ten million lives, Command Duty Officer?" Matias asked the CDO.
"Trigger do not attack the Alicorn." Long Caster called but Trigger couldn't hear him as he was trying to get back on the Osean frequency.
"Long Caster sp...four nega...WMD...Storm Shadow." Trigger said quickly as his radio cut out.
"Say again Strider 1." Long Caster called but got no response "I've lost radio contact with Strider 1!"
"The lead Rafale wasn't armed with a WMD just a regular Storm Shadow." David who had been listening to Trigger faint radio transmission.
Wiseman and Long Caster just looked at each other both coming to the same realisation."Shit Something's wrong."
"Trigger's already kicked off the game." Count throttled up as he charged into the fight.
"We're going in after Trigger." Huxian said as she broke formation engaging one of the Phantom 2s 'Glamrock 4.'
"Strider 3 engaging." Jaeger called turning to help Huxian.
The rest of Glamrock squadron scattered as the explosion from the Rafales had thrown their formation all over the place.
"All aircraft, engage, weapons free!" Long Caster called as Trigger's eagle charged ahead at high speed flying over phantoms as Laura who had wheeled around the enemy forces destroying two AA guns with short bursts of laser and cannon fire.
Trigger having turned around behind the Phantoms "Normally I'm not one for hunting but I'm declaring open season on F-4 Phantoms."
He fired his first sidewinder followed by a brief burst of cannon fire destroying Glamrock 8 whose burning wreckage exploded beneath Trigger's eagle.
"Look who we've got here! This plane and I may be past our prime, but we're no pushovers. Yee-haw! Here we go! Cowboys! Surround' im!" Glamrock 5 called but before he could do anything Trigger's Eagle quickly got onto his tail of Glamrock 5.
Trigger fired his second sidewinder with some gunfire for good measure. The Phantom exploded shedding debris till it hit the water.
Trigger's eye caught the glamrock flight lead off his left wing, he quickly pulled eagle around getting into position for a gun kill. Without any hesitation he pulled the trigger spraying down the glamrock flight lead whose left engine spewed black smoke but Trigger quickly re positioned himself and fire a second burst which destroyed Glamrock 1 "Was fun flying with you guys for one last time-" Glamrock 1 crashed into the water near one of the destroyers.
"That was a fine last flight brother." Glamrock 4 spoke while trying to shake Jaeger and Huxian.
Trigger spotted Glamrock 6 and dispatched him with pulse lasers "Gotta love these lasers." he said to himself as he rolled inverted spotting two Phantoms down low 'Glamrock 2 and 3'
"Drones this, Drone that… but flying calculators will never be enough to take down Three Strikes." Glamrock 3 retorted unaware that Trigger was right above them.
Trigger dove and rolled towards them selecting pulse lasers but Glamrock 2's RIO spotted him and tried to run so he could get into a position for a Sparrow shot but a quick pulse laser burst dispatched Glamrock 2.
Glamrock 3 turned hard right trying to get behind Trigger but unfortunately for Glamrock 3 Trigger's more agile Strike Eagle easily got inside the older phantoms turn and a short stream of pulse lasers sent Glamrock 3 down in flames.
Trigger was so focused on the two Phantoms ahead of him that he didn't see Glamrock 4 slipping in behind him "Got Three Strikes in my sights. Gonna take 'im down for one last moment of glory." Glamrock 4 called but Huxian's first AMRAAM struck his phantom "..See ya later, cowboys! I'll be wait-"
"You won't be waiting for long." Glamrock 3 called positioning his burning aircraft towards the fleet. The burning phantom flew over the Kite and Nightjar spraying exposed areas of the ship with burning jet fuel then crashed into the water.
"Nice shot Huxian thanks." Count calmly told his teammate.
"Anytime." she replied as Count formed up with her as Trigger broke to find more targets as Glamrock 7 turned towards the Super Viper Zero.
"One F-4 to go kill him." Count watched Jaeger effortlessly get behind Glamrock 7.
"With pleasure." Jaeger fired an AMRAAM which destroyed Glamrock 7 before he could get into range to fire on Serpentina.
"All Phantoms have been excised Long Caster. Downed a few but I was expecting more." Count groaned as he looked for a target but could see no aircraft.
"Shut up do you see Trigger complaining." Huxian said with a scowl as she kept a watch on Count and her surroundings for hostile aircraft.
"Well he doesn't talk much, but fine, here I go." Count said as he spotted four Su-57 Felon jets above them. "Trigger I'm seeing advanced stealth fighters."
"Su-57 Felons highly capable planes. Stay on your toes if you engage them. Long Caster updated everyone's HUD while another operator was trying to restore contact with Trigger to no success.
Count pulled hard into the vertical as the four felons broke and Count rolled to pursue Siguard 2 "I don't need no Wiseman to fly!"
"Then prove it Count!" Wiseman responded calling Count's bull.
"Righto!" he said firing a sidewinder that obliterated Sigurd 2 instantly.
Laura flew over the destroyed oil facilities dropping four of her eight cluster bombs that destroyed half the aa guns. Trigger quickly caught sight of Sigurd 4 and firing another burst of laser fire followed by 20mm cannon fire "Trigger shot down a felon." Sigurd 4 smashed into rocky hills and exploded.
"Damm you he was the youngest pilot!" Siqurd 1 shouted turning to gun down the Super Viper Zero but Laura spotted Sigurd 1 and pulled vertically and rolled inverted diving as Sigurd 1 flew below her.
"Oh don't worry I got this." she responded getting lead onto Sigurd 1 and let her lasers rip pumping laser after laser into the Felon which couldn't handle the punishment.
"Sigurd 1 eject." Siguard 3 called as the felon dove towards the ground engulfed in flames.
"Curse you Serpentina-" Sigurd 1 dove into a destroy oil facility near the Ailcorn being torn apart on impact.
"Splash one felon." Laura called quickly getting missile lock on Siguard 3 and fired her first AAM-3 which exploded severing the cockpit from the fuselage "Splash two Felon actually." the second part of the Felon crashed into the dirt disintegrating into bits.
Trigger tuned to what he thought was the Osean Frequency "Can you hear me? No okay I'll try another frequency."
"Trigger was talking on the enemy frequency." The Brigadier General quickly started thinking of ways to use this against Trigger.
Trigger tried tuning his radio again trying to get onto a frequency that Long Caster could hear but got nothing "Damn it."
"What about the international civil frequency shouldn't AWACS be able to pick that one up." Avril suggested knowing that it was his best bet at restoring communication.
Trigger continued adjusting the frequency "This was too easy I think we have air superiority right now cause all 12 enemy fighters are all splashed."
"Finally!" Long Caster was happy to hear Trigger's voice.
"Radio has broken am on international civilian frequency." Trigger manoeuvred his jet back towards the fleet.
"Serpentina how many AA guns?" Trigger asked wondering how big the ground defences were.
"Only 12 AA guns and I've destroyed them all." Serpentina's info left Avril to wonder that the forces they were up against were so small in fact too small to defend a powerful submarine like the Alicorn.
"Trigger I couldn't help but think 12 aircraft and 12 AA gun seem woefully inadequate to defend a high value asset doesn't it."
"Yeah I'd have expected serious resistance not eight 50 year plus relics and four stealth fighters."
"So Three…" Howard began but Wiseman pulled the mic away from him.
"Zip it Brigadier didn't you hear him his radio has broken." Wiseman spoke up quick to stop Howard from trying to use this against them.
"You said it feels too easy Trigger well I agree it was too easy. Enchanter Squadron has arrived finally." Long Caster responded sounding relieved that Trigger was speaking again.
"Long time no see Enchanter let's get to work although you might have wasted a trip all enemy fighters are down."
"Trigger good to see you again we can catch up later." Enchanter 1 was quite eager to chat with Trigger given how long it had been since they last saw each other but knew that could wait.
"More bogeys inbound two YF-23A Black Widow 2s and two Mig-31s" one of the Foxhounds quickly turned around as one of the Black Widow 2s made a run for the Puffin but a RIM-66 missile from Flycatcher took down the first Black Widow 2.
A radar officer noticed blips approaching form the west. The radar officer quickly worked to id the jets and pass the info onto Long Caster "Four Su-17M4 Fitters approaching they're heading for Serpentina."
The Fitters released volleys of Karen and Kerry missiles which flew towards the fleet but the flycatcher manoeuvred itself ahead of the fleet firing its CWIS that destroyed all of the Karen missiles but two of the Kerry struck the CWIS guns knocking them out "CWIS failed."
Laura dropped two more cluster munitions on another set of AA guns turning them into scrap metal then her last two on the remaining AA guns "Laura you have bogeys heading for you Huxian, Jaeger go give her a hand." Long Caster called as he noted Trigger heading back towards the fleet.
"Fitters must be a nearby Erusean penal unit being sent on a suicide mission to stop us." Avril mused as Trigger spotted them closing on his sister.
"Wilco." Cynthia replied altering to intercept the bogeys.
"Gladly family is important after all." Jaeger said knowing how much Laura meant to Trigger.
"You have no idea how right you are." Trigger quietly said to himself.
"Drake Squadron cover Enchanter and help your allies." Long Caster sent the vectors of the enemy jets.
"Wilco." the Drake Squadron pilots replied as they moved to engage the Fitters when two F-5A Freedom Fighters came in but the Flycatcher fired two more SAMs dispatching the Freedom Fighters easily.
Avril carefully scanned the sky looking for anything when eight objects appeared from behind the hills "Trigger eight aircraft are coming this way."
Trigger looked over his shoulder seeing the eight jets "Multiple aircraft approaching this airspace! They're Harriers. Any moves to attack our fleet must be stopped! Trigger, take out the Harriers!" Long Caster said knowing that harriers were going for the fleet.
Trigger spotted the two flights of four grey white Harrier 2s which overflew the destroyed oil facilities "Way ahead of you Long Caster fox 3."
Trigger's remaining AMRAAMs descended towards the Harriers destroying half of them instantly "Harrier destroyed! Nice work! Those fighters are after the fleet! Take care of them." Long Caster said after four destroyed Harriers hit the water.
The Harriers opened fire launching a volley of Harpoons which destroyed the Flycatcher and Babbler's 5 inch guns and half of the Puffin's VLS launchers.
"Landing ship has been hit." the captain of the flycatcher called as Count fired his first and second AMRAAMs while Jaeger shot off his second and third AMRAAMs destroying the harriers before they can fire their 2nd harpoons but the four harrier pilots bailed out.
"Harrier 2s have all been destroyed! Great work!" Long caster said only to see three blips giving off tons of electromagnetic static "Shit detecting hostile barrage jamming! They brought ew aircraft three EA-18G Growlers."
"Enchanter crank up the ESM and fire an AMRAAM." Trigger announced as he spotted the growlers on radar. The ew officer turn the pods up to max power knowing it might burn the pods out as both enchanters fired an AMRAAM which struck the 2nd YF-23 and lone Foxhound but the pilots ejected.
"Damn it those jets got in the way sorry Trigger." Enchanter 1 called as ESM filled the area but Trigger had already closed with the 1st Growler unleashing pulse laser fire which ripped the Growler to pieces.
"Enemy Growler has been destroyed their jamming should be reduced." Long Caster spoke as a Growler disappeared from his radar.
Count pumped several 20mm cannon rounds into the second Growler which despite a reinforced airframe broke up giving the two aboard no chance of escape.
Trigger closed on the final Growler putting more laser fire into the ew aircraft which lost its elevators and dove into the water disintegrating on impact.
"All enemy EW aircraft confirmed destroyed!" Long Caster was hoping the enemy would begin to ease but unfortunately for the AWACS controller luck was not on their side today.
Avril noticed a flight of four Fullback off Trigger's right wing "Umm Trigger we have company."
"All aircraft be advised! enemy strike fighters are on approach! their Fullbacks, definitely faster than the ones before!" Long Caster called now getting hungry cause the mission was dragging on.
"Wiseman can I get a snack?" Long Caster asked much to Howard's scowling look.
"Sure Long Caster have a quick snack." Wiseman told him as another AWACS operator took his seat.
Count fired his third and fourth AMRAAM and with enchanter's ESM covering the airspace his missiles couldn't miss and destroyed the 1st and 2nd fullbacks as Huxian fired her second and third AMRAAMs which gave the same result as Count's attack.
"Three more Fullbacks entered the airspace" Count called spotting them on his HUD but before anyone could engage them, the three Fullbacks were quickly shot down by the Kite and Babbler's SAM battery.
The skies seemed clear but Trigger noticed a glimpse on the horizon "I see three strikes." an unknown voice that Trigger could make out as male. Two white nosed black with stripe marking berkuts with white Sorbtsyia ECM pods streaked into the airspace.
"I'll kill you." another voice who Laura could tell was female. She formed up with Trigger and switched to her quick manoeuvre AAM-5s.
"All aircraft two bogeys approaching type are Su-47s" Long Caster having finished his snack spotted them on radar.
"Berkuts? Last I checked Erusea don't have many of those so where are they from?" Laura asked as the female voice came over the radio again.
"Hey Rage can I kill him now, I've waited long enough." she said but Trigger's HUD revealed her TAC name Scream. He quickly looked over his remaining ammo seeing he only had two sidewinders left and 400 rounds of cannon ammo left and his pulse laser batteries were still good.
"Use the confusion to get on his tail." the male called as the HUD told Trigger that the male was called Rage.
"Like a true villain huh? I like the way you think!" Scream fired an AA-10ER Alamo-C that annihilated a Skyhawk that was heading for the osean fleet.
Mimic 1 passed by the destroyed Skyhawk which had already broken up "You idiot! I told you to ignore the Eruseans!"
"Don't call me an idiot! I'd kill you if you weren't my brother! She retorted the anger was clear for Trigger and Serpentina to hear as
the berkuts pulled a rolling scissors till they were canopy to canopy.
The two Berkuts rolled again until they were diagonally positioned and lit the afterburners "There are no more enemy reinforcements they must be hostile cleared to engage don't hesitate." Wiseman told them.
Trigger started firing pulse lasers at Rage's Berkut but Scream broke formation as he fired two Alamos however Trigger and Laura broke the Alamo's lock pulling hard g.
The ageing Strike Eagle groaned under the g-forces.
Huxian fired her final AMRAAM but the HUD glitched out and her missile missed when the blue energy partially disappeared from her radar "We've lost ESM is Enchanter down?" Huxian wanting to why the ESM had disappeared.
"We're still here Strider 4 but two of out ECM pods are non-functional I guess sometimes even Three Strikes's plan don't work out." Enchanter said as Scream came around gunning for Trigger.
"I'll kill you." she said as Trigger and Laura saw multiple berkuts appear on their HUD. Laura got radar lock but the HUD glitched like what happened to Huxian.
"Get em" Rage called observing form a distance as Scream charged on the eagle who pulled into a slicing turn.
"I'm going to screw you up so bad!" She said confidently but a loud shriek in her headset made her look behind her to see Laura on her tail.
"Fat chance lady if you want to get to my brother you have to go through me first." Laura called back determined to protect her brother. She fired her second AAM-3 but Scream deployed her flares.
"They're neither Osean or Erusean they're just filthy bats." Huxian commented who tried to assist but wasn't able to.
"Rage Three Strikes and the Viper Zero are mine I going to make them pay for the sins of 24 years." Scream said with a creepy dose of laughter as her two archers dropped from her forward weapons bay and headed for Trigger who popped flares to decoy the missiles.
"Don't forget the contract Scream kill him." Rage told her as the four Su-17s came into attack but Laura fired her last AAM-5 destroying the lead Fitter-K as the other three came back round firing their gunpods but Rage fired a salvo of his Alamo-C destroying the second and third Fitter-K but the fourth Fitter-K dropped to 100 feet and gunned it for the Puffin but the Nightjar's RIM-66 destroyed the Fitter-K easily.
Trigger flew over the port seeing the beached oil tankers knowing that they had to be from the first raid when he saw two rocket truck launchers towing two howitzer each "Strider 1 we're detecting surface to ship weapon teams around the sub destroy them before they can damage the fleet." Long Caster highlighted them on his HUD but the shriek of a missile lock draw his attention back to the Berkuts.
"Damn it I can't focus on protecting that with this bitch on my back." Trigger knew he'd have to come around but Scream was not giving up. Count who had been observing what was going on charged at Scream.
The Kite and Nightjar opened up with their 5 inch naval gun obliterating the howitzers as Trigger came around destroying the rocket trucks with laser fire. She fired her 30mm cannon hitting the tail but Trigger kept flying. "Damn it Three Strikes why don't you just die already?"
Trigger descended with Scream on his tail as he brought the plane around seeing the open deck of Alicorn quickly devising a plan "Come on Three Strikes you've got a hot chick in front of you." Trigger was more focused on trying to lose Scream.
Avril sat up in her seat "What?!" Trigger rolled his eyes at Scream's poor attempt at flirting while his hand was at the throttle and pushed it all the way up.
Avril felt the jet starting to accelerate "Trigger what the hell are you doing!?" Avril could hear the F100s powering up as the plane accelerated on the deck near supersonic. The jet passed through the Alicorn's open deck.
"Are those filthy bats still chasing Trigger?" Huxian and Count looked over to see Trigger on the deck with the Berkuts hot on his tail but was slowly pulling away neither seemed to be able to hit him "Better help him out." Trigger eased back the power.
"Avril you okay back there?" he saw a thumbs up breathing a sigh of relief. The Strike Eagle turned around as he spotted Count charging on Scream from on high.
"You're the only man I need Three Strikes." Trigger was not pleased with Scream's attempt at charming him.
Avril decided to not even respond but was feeling very pissed at Scream but disturbed that she was openly flirting with a pilot during combat.
"Hey You idiot bitch how about you tangle with me for a bit old friend." Count recognised their flying styles anywhere. Scream broke off from Trigger turning towards Count.
"I'll kill you Count for calling me an idiot." Scream fired again with her 30mm cannon but Count's eagle easily rolled into a turn that caused Scream's cannonfire to pass underneath him.
"Scream stay focused take down Three Strikes!" Rage had been watching Scream but had lost sight of Trigger when he disappeared into the clouds.
"All ground targets have been destroyed." he could only blue on his radar. He quickly checked with the other AWACS operators could only see the blips of the Berkuts.
"That takes away the enemy's surface to ship capabilities. Fine work Trigger." Wiseman was quite impressed by what he'd seen "Now Count needs his ass saving so take down those bats."
He looked up seeing Count and Scream in a turning fight. "Hold on Count I'll give you a hand." Trigger pulled up climb quickly getting on Scream's tail but she pulled a cobra followed by a roll flip and was back on Trigger's six.
She moved to fire her gun. "Ammunition zero." Scream clenched her fist knowing she had 1 shot left before being defenceless.
Trigger pushed the Strike Eagle into a descending slice turn as Scream prepared her Alamo-C.
"You're dead." Trigger quickly looked back to see Scream on his six who fired her last Alamo-C but despite the sharp bank the Alamo-C hit the tip of the strike eagle damaging its right wing "I hit him damn it he's still flying."
"Damn Three Strikes just die!" Scream was growing more angry as Trigger tried to shake her but Serpentina was closing in on Scream.
Avril watched as Trigger rolled the jet into a slicing climb with Scream in pursuit. "Trigger I see the other Berkut behind us but likely out of ammo so…" a cracking noise caught her attention as the right tip broke off striking Scream's jet damaging the hydraulics. Scream broke off.
"Sis Tag team attack." Trigger switched to his lasers.
"Okie dokie bro." Laura responded. She and Trigger pulled into the vertical with the sun behind them and opened fire with Trigger and Laura both unleashing a burst of cannon fire but Trigger added some pulse laser fire for good measure.
"They hit me dammit! Those bastards hit me!" Scream shouted as alarms filled her cockpit with Rage coming along side her damaged Berkut with its number 2 engine trailing smoke and leaking hydraulic fluid. The navy vessels fired RIM-66s at the Berkuts but missed.
"Shit Scream we're pulling out We can't fight Three Strikes with damaged planes." Rage called but Trigger fired his third sidewinder at Rage whose left wing took a hit damaging the hydraulic lines.
The two Su-47's banked hard right going full afterburner making for the erusean border "Goddammit Three strikes, Serpentina, I will have you both, you will both die."
"You'll burn so fast… you won't have time to piss your pants." Scream scoffed while laughing hysterically as the Berkuts dropped off radar.
"What?!" Count couldn't believe that these were his old squad-mates. "What happened to you two?"
"Am I hearing things?" Jaeger wondered just what the hell was going on and how Count knew them.
"Nah I hear it too." Huxian was just as lost as Jaeger was as to what was going on.
"Hey those filthy bats are on the run." Count wanted to turn and give chase. He knew they'd have to land somewhere before they lost the hydraulics and had to bail out.
"Let them go. Secure air superiority and protect your allies." Howard could see that chasing the two Berkuts was only going to bring more Erusean jets and Count quickly came to the same conclusion.
The fleet closed in on the Alicorn as Matias was ordered to scuttle the sub but he had other plans. Armourers loaded shells into the small railguns.
Wiseman breathed a sigh of relief "Well done Trigger despite the mechanical problems."
Puffin this is Long Caster. Enemy's resistance is gone and we have achieve air superiority." Long Caster could see no other enemy aircraft.
"Puffin copies! Commence capture operation!" Robin pulled a mic "Launch assault LCACs."
"The rest is all yours captain. Now I can finally have my sausage rolls." Long Caster was feeling hungry.
"Is that the kind of food you eat up there?" Robin couldn't help but smile as Long Caster was very nice and seemed to care about his job over eating.
"Of course. Anything other than finger food would get in the way of my duties although Captain there is a nice Italian restaurant near the base that whenever you're in Expo City sometime wanna go."
"Of course Long Caster I'll have dinner with you old friend." she had wanted to have dinner with Long Caster before but a tight schedule had wrecked her plans the last time.
Trigger couldn't help but smile as Long Caster was going on a date.
"Took longer than I expected. I'll be leaving now. You take command from here on. Howard seemed pleased with how the operation was going. But he didn't make it to the door when he and Wiseman heard a call come in.
"Trigger should the submarine be moving?" Avril inquired as she watched the Alicorn leave its port.
Trigger raised his visor to see the sub moving "I got movement on the water the Alicorn is moving."
"Landing ship Puffin to all ships the Alicorn is moving." The puffin launched remaining LCACs it could but unfortunately for the osean fleet it was already too late.
"Fools This boat no longer belongs to the Erusean military." Matias announced unaware that Trigger had given the Erusean frequency to Long Caster and they were listening in.
Two small railgun emerged turning to target the Osean fleet "Captain permission to fire."
"Fire." The gunner slammed his fist down the button. The Alicorn's two railguns opened fire which tore through the Puffin as submarine launched missiles obliterated the other ships.
"Alicorn fired on her! with the railguns! The landing ship is on fire! Its gonna sink!" one of the LCACs called as the others started pulling survivors from the water.
"Long Caster we need SAR now!" Trigger shouted as Alicorn sailed past the wrecked ships.
"Damn it Three Strikes there will be hell to pay for this!" Howard was not sounding happy that the mission went from near-success to a total disaster.
"How about I give my assessment when we get back." Trigger wasn't in the mood to deal with the Brigadier General right now since he was more focused on his damaged jet.
"Trigger there is a transmission coming in on the open frequency I think you should hear it."
"Patch it through Long Caster." Trigger waited as the transmission came through.
"This boat has the means to end this hideous war, in a definitive and elegant manner. The world shall be horrified by the number of lives we will take. Only then will they let go of their weapons…Weapons that would have taken the lives of ten million." Everyone was silent as they took in what they had just heard. The submarine slipped beneath the water.
"Captain using nuclear weapons is against international law. If you don't end this insane scheme then we'll have to stop you!" Trigger said as his damaged strike eagle, Strider Squadron and his sister's Super Viper Zero formed up.
"Operation is complete all planes RTB Count Serpentina escort Trigger home!" Wiseman knew Trigger's jet had a damaged wing.
"Long Caster I'm sorry that my ability wasn't enough to save your childhood friend." Trigger slammed his fist against the canopy angry that he couldn't save everyone.
The four aircraft and the damaged Strike Eagle left the airspace as IUN SAR Sea Kings, ships and fighter protection entered the airspace.
Over Expo city
After a few hours of flying Trigger and Laura overflew the outskirts of Expo city "Scott what the hell did you do to these two pilots?" Laura asked baffled trying to understand what had just happened.
"Search me sis, I have no fucking clue as to why these two Berkut pilots want me and now both of us dead but what did he mean by 24 years ago." Trigger responded as New Arrows controller contacted them asking where Trigger was.
Laura could hear the frustration on her brother's voice that told her that Trigger wasn't happy "You know they are going to blame us for this disaster of an operation." Trigger said as Serpentina flew on his wing. She could see that the damaged Eagle was limping home.
"I have to wonder if there isn't a cult onboard the sub. I heard the pilots recite a pledge of allegiance." Trigger felt very disturbed by what he heard making a mental note to ask if its possible a cult could have formed on the ship. Trigger was quiet for the rest of the trip back.
New arrows air base
Eastern Usea
18:00pm
The Strike Eagle touches down using up most of the runway. Trigger taxied the damaged jet back the hanger.
Trigger shut the plane down as Avril disconnected her mask and undid her harness. He released the canopy quickly pulling himself from the seat and climbed down to help Avril get out. "I don't need help dumbass! I can do this myself." Avril pulled her helmet off.
He reached into rear cockpit lifting her out of the cockpit "Avril need I remind you that you have a leg injury so you need help." he placed down on the steps. Avril instinctively griped the railing.
She stepped down the steps "So lets get to the debrief. The pair went to get changed.
New arrows air base briefing room no.3
18:15pm
The rest of Strider, Cyclops, Long caster, Wiseman and Howard were waiting for Trigger, Avril and Laura to walk in.
Wiseman could tell something was bothering Trigger "The operation has been completed. Stand by for further orders." Howard said but Trigger's anger finally got the better of him. Unbeknownst to them all someone else had joined the call.
"This operation was a complete disaster form start to fucking finish and I've been on Dual Wielder and Lighthouse Keeper but this takes the fucking cake." the other Strider and Cyclops Squadron quickly turned to Trigger surprised to see a flash of anger from their flight lead.
"Scott." Laura was growing concerned at her brother's outburst.
"Sis please shut up this mission should have been easy cause we had more that enough weaponry even with me in a Strike Eagle." Wiseman thought it best to let Trigger vent his anger. "I mean 7 ships is woefully inadequate for such a mission..."
"Whoa Trigger calm down man." Count said trying to tell his flight lead to stop shouting.
"Calm down you expect me to calm down when someone is going to have to tell the families of the sailors lost that their Mum, Dad, Brother or Sister isn't coming home." Trigger said his voice was laced with venom since he knew that he'd failed to get everyone home alive.
"Trigger I'll deal with that. Trigger despite the loss of the ships more sailors managed to survive." Wiseman said wanting to let Trigger not have to deal with that.
Howard wanted to say something but Trigger's anger filled gaze sent shivers down him as he felt like he'd angered a wolf. He wondered if this was what the erusean forces felt when he was around fear that they may not live to see another day.
"Howard I already anticipate you trying to pass the blame for this disastrous mission onto us at the inevitable inquiry into how this mission went so wrong."
"Hold on we still don't know who those bats were! Why were they after Trigger?" Jaeger noted having seen how the Berkuts were focusing on Trigger only.
"Yeah I want to know to why they were after my brother since they were using osea's radio frequency." Laura felt anger that someone was trying to kill her brother and that someone had their frequency.
"You mean they are on our side?" Skald questioned but none of the others thought that made any sense given what had happened.
"Impossible they didn't respond to our IFF or maybe...they were there to settle a personal score." Howard mused unaware that he had hit the nail on the head "There's nothing unusual about being shot in the back by an ally."
"Guess it might've been the way where we came from but… you know I'm sayin, Trigger." Count commented looking back at his flight lead who was still pissed.
"Yeah I do." Trigger responded looking at Howard with a death glare.
Count and other LRSSG members immediately started speculating on what the motives of the two bats were "Maybe they want Trigger dead for what happened to full band and think Trigger did it when I was the one who shot him down but Bandog flagged him as a hostile."
Trigger thought about Count's hypothesis but it didn't match up with the time "No Rage said that I and my sister pay for the sins from 24 years ago which means its something that someone else did in the Belkan War that those bats want me and her dead for but what.."
"Anyway our aerial forces are to blame for this failure." Howard Clements was expecting the mystery person on the line to agree. But what Wiseman said next blind-sided him.
"Bullshit Brigadier General the LRSSG are in no way at fault for how the mission turned out." Wiseman knew that Trigger's hunch that Clements would try to shift the blame and he was proven right.
"Oh I know where the blame really lies, it lies with the planning and who planned this op?" Trigger asked but the mystery voice knew who it was.
"It was the Brigadier General." David felt pleased to throw Clements under the bus.
"Howard I wonder how you made Brigadier general when you ignored advice form the experienced air crew especially one whose flown in the navy and told you that it was a bad idea to send the assault fleet before air superiority was achieved." Unbeknownst to Trigger the mystery person listening had heard every word and knew that the air crews shouldn't be blamed.
"Everyone, here's a question." David began cause he's realised something about the mission.
"That's enough. Remove him from the call." Brigadier General didn't want to hear any more of the analyst.
"Wait, wait don't hang up on me yet. How did they know we had intelligence on their weapons of mass destruction? They never would've taken such actions if they didn't know." David's comment quickly made the LRSSG members ponder where they got the information.
"They have a spy." Trigger looked at Howard remembering that Eagle didn't like him.
"Better to be suspicious than not, I suppose after all you did communicate on enemy radio Trigger." the Brigadier General couldn't help but agree with Trigger that someone was leaking intel.
"Hey don't go accusing me of being a spy when I was trying to get radio communication back stupid Osean tech never reliable when you need it to be." Trigger started towards the door.
"At the very least, we'll have to assume from here on out that they know everything that we do." David knew that their next move would be known but had to find out who was leaking intel.
"I'll take Eagle for a walk and get Trigger something to eat." Laura softly as Eagle growled at Howard. Laura attached the lead to eagle's collar and quietly departed.
"Good idea." Trigger was thinking to himself as the other LRSSG personnel filed out leaving only him, Wiseman, the brigadier general.
"Trigger why did you attack the Alicorn when you were ordered not to?" Clements wanted to know why Trigger fired on the Alicorn.
"I know Alicorn was off limits but the Rafales that were taking off weren't and my gut feeling told me they had to be destroyed although the cruise missile wasn't armed with a WMD since I saw no secondary explosion."
"Well that matches up what IUN forces reported while you were flying back, they found no signs of weapons of mass destruction from the downed aircraft." Howard Clements had gotten a call from the IUN teams at the port who had checked the wreckage of the destroyed Rafale.
"Hmm that means the Brigadier General's intel was incorrect." David realised which left him wondering why Clements would give out false intel.
"David call me in my office." Wiseman walked out of the room with the Brigadier General in tow. "Trigger despite being right you were out of line don't do it again you got that?"
"Crystal clear Wiseman." Trigger wasn't happy that he got reprimanded by Wiseman over highlighting the incompetence of his superiors.
In Wiseman's office
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Metcaffe was sitting in his office with Brigadier general Clements and the Vice Chairman Jason Edwards of the Osean Joint Chiefs and David North on the videophone "So you both heard Trigger's very angry filled assessment of the mission."
"Yeah this mission was a total disaster and if Trigger's expecting an inquiry into this disaster well he's not wrong about that." Edwards having watched the battle through the spy satellite in orbit knew mistakes had been made.
"He was very concerned that the higher ups would put most of the blame on the air crew and he's not wrong to think that." Wiseman understood Trigger's concern given that when the mission to rescue Harling went wrong Trigger was the one who got blamed instead of the higher ups who botched the planning.
"I'm already discussing with the higher-ups about looking into the mission to understand what went wrong." Edwards felt that there had to be a deeper look into the planning and execution of the mission.
"Aren't we going to deal with the fact that Three Strikes talked on the enemy radio!" Wiseman had expected Howard to try and use this but Edwards was having none of it.
"That's not important." Edwards responded willing to overlook what Trigger did cause he was trying to restore radio communication.
"Why is he still flying that ancient Eagle?" The vice chairman had thought that when Trigger was reassigned to the LRSSG he'd fly a newer F-15 not a junked penal unit jet.
"We didn't see the need to change the aircraft he was flying since he was flying an F-15 when Trigger joined us but now it's come back to bite us also his ancient Eagle was grounded yesterday he was using Strike Eagle today." Wiseman hated that keeping Trigger in his retired Eagle instead of switching to the newer one was now biting him.
"I'll see about getting extra help for you guys." The vice chairman disappeared from the call while David disconnected to try and figure out Torres's motive.
15 minutes later
Trigger picked up the videophone "Operator I'd like call the OIA's advanced weapon analyst David North."
He waited for the call to connect "Good evening Captain is there something wrong?"
"Yes i saw on the news this evening about an OIA drone strike and frankly I'm concerned cause when you have someone form your own country wants you dead i'm not sure if the OIA might try something. so I want assurances from your superiors that no-one in the OIA will try and kill me or any of my family using a drone cause if they do when I'm airborne I'll gladly turn those drones to scrap metal."
"Trigger why are you worried that the OIA will try and kill you?" David asked wondering why Trigger would be worried.
"Well you know the shady shit the OIA has done its past paints them in a bad light so we'll see you at the next operation." Trigger's tone concerned Wiseman and Avril who had entered the room.
"Sir do we have any plans to assassinate Three Strikes?" David asked the head of the OIA who was lost as to why he was being asked.
"No not to my knowledge why?" the OIA head sipped his coffee looking at David who sighed trying to think of the words.
"Well sir Trigger wants reassurance that we won't try to kill him or his family with a drone strike." David told the man who was taken aback such an idea.
"We won't cause why would we kill someone so vital to saving us all and killing family is something I would never authorise." Trigger felt his worry ease but still couldn't shake his anxiety.
"Well that's reassuring but my trust has to be earned." Trigger hung up leaving David lost at what had just happen.
"Trigger you alright?" Avril asked the pilot rubbing his right shoulder who turned to look at her.
"I'm just a bit doubtful that someone won't try to use a drone to try and take me out." Trigger could understand why the Eruseans wanted him dead cause they were at war but now that his own country wants him dead.
"Trigger you're better than any of those unmanned tin cans." Avril remembered how many he destroyed over Artigilo "You took on several drones in a junked Phantom mud mover and destroyed 9 of them while in the middle of a sandstorm with me in the back-seat."
Looking up at her, he gave her a close lipped smile. "Thanks."
"You can do this. I know you can." She rubbed his shoulder.
Both stared at each other until the sound of someone clearing his throat made them snap their heads to the source. Seeing Wiseman smiling, Avril quickly removed her hand from his shoulder and moved back, her face flaring red as Trigger straightened up and looked away, clearing his throat.
"So she's your personal massage therapist too, Strider 1?" Wiseman smirked, leaning against the door frame.
"N-no, sir." Trigger stammered out, avoiding looking at both Avril and Wiseman in the eyes, becoming suddenly interested in the floor tiles.
Meanwhile Avril looked away at the window and lowered her head, her brown face tinged a darker shade of red.
"Relax, you two. I was joking. And she's right, Trigger. You've no need to worry. We've all got your back." Wiseman reassured him. 'Especially her.' He glanced at Avril who was now toying around with her fingers. 'I'll tell Count about this... we can definitely have some fun with this…'
"Well, I'll leave you two here. Get some rest." Wiseman finally said, standing straight and turning to walk away.
2 hours later in the hangar
Trigger slipped into the hanger seeing Avril was sitting in the cockpit. "Hey Scrap Queen I brought you some dinner Long Caster ordered food from the Italian bistro near the base I got some Tagliatelle Marinara and Tagliatelle Polto which do you want?"
Avril licked her lips "Thanks Trigger." he handed her the food. She noted that he had 2 trays. "So is the other tray yours?"
"Yeah its mine and I thought you might want company while you take a break from fixing up my fighter jet."
"Dumbass." Trigger chuckled quietly as Avril tucked in "Oh this is good."
Trigger quietly watched as Avril wolfed down her food 'She must have been ravenous but still very cute' he quickly opened his box tucking into his dinner. You know I might call this our first date."
"Shut up Dumbass this isn't a date." She scowled at him as he swallowed part of his meal.
The pair leaned back enjoying their meals neither knowing the worst is yet to come.