"Is everyone here?" Gates asked, looking around the briefing room, then nodding after seeing each pilot's face. "Good, let's begin, then. Major Tillmin." He nodded to the Erusean officer and stepped to the side to give him the floor.
Tillmin cleared his throat and booted up the briefing software. "By now, you've all seen the Arsenal Birds in action, and it's not hyperbole to say that those things are by far the biggest threat to winning this war." A picture of an Arsenal Bird appeared on the screen. "If we want to have even the smallest chance of victory, we need to do whatever we can to cripple those Arsenal Birds. Luckily, Commander Gates, Crosswind, and I have come up with a way to do that." He closed the picture of the Arsenal Bird and brought up a map of Usea. "As I said last week when you rescued me, there are two Arsenal Birds, and one is more advanced than the other. However, Erusea is trying to bring the first one up to spec with the second one. They're starting this process by giving it a new APS unit, which is going to be on its way to the Space Elevator in a matter of hours." Tillmin stepped back and nodded to Gates, allowing him to speak.
"Rogue Squadron, Castor Squadron. Your mission is to intercept this aerial convoy and destroy the APS unit before it reaches the Arsenal Birds' air defense network, which is reduced because Liberty is grounded to receive the APS unit." Gates shrunk the red circle surrounding the Space Elevator to half its previous diameter. "The convoy is leaving San Salvacion in a few hours, as Tillmin said, and will be heading south to Gunther Bay. Make no mistake, though. This will not be an easy mission. Due to the importance of this piece of technology reaching the Liberty, Erusea is not only sending decoy transports but a large fighter escort as well."
"So what you're saying is to expect this to turn into a massive furball?" Vortex asked.
Gates nodded. "Exactly. Paired with the fact that Erusea's auto-intercept system will send more drones to the battle, along with more fighters, this will be a difficult mission." He replaced the serious look on his face with a warm smile. "But I have in every one of you. With so many skilled pilots flying together, there's no way you won't succeed."
Slipstream scoffed. "Right. Whatever," he muttered under his breath.
Gates ignored him, despite Crosswind shooting the pilot a deadly glare. "Now, if there aren't any questions, then get to your planes and prepare for your mission."
As everyone did whatever they needed to be ready to take off, Eva circled her plane. Her eyes drifted up and down as she paced, looking over every detail that she could find.
"You nervous?" Magic asked from the seat of her F-2.
Eva leaned up against her plane. "What makes you think that?" she asked dismissively.
Magic shrugged. "You just seem more jittery than usual," she observed.
Eva climbed up into her cockpit and put on her helmet. "I guess I'm just nervous something's gonna go wrong, and we'll end up right back where we started," she admitted as she ran through her pre-flight checks.
"I wouldn't be," Magic told her. "We've got like, what, 15 planes going into this? If we manage to mess this up, we'd have to be pretty stupid," she said with a smirk.
"You mean like over Farbanti with the Kestrel II?" Eva countered, raising an eyebrow in Magic's direction.
Magic paused for a moment, thinking of a reply. Finally, she spoke. "That was different. We didn't expect some experimental super-fighter to wipe out half a squadron in under a minute."
"Shouldn't we be expecting that to happen now, then?" Eva asked before letting out a heavy sigh. "I dunno. I guess I'm saying that I'm worried Zero or someone else'll show up to ruin things."
"Zero?" Magic echoed.
"The fighter at Farbanti had an emblem on the tail that was a bunch of zeroes," Eva explained. "So I've been calling them Zero."
"Well, the way I see it is this. Zero showed up to keep us from taking the capital, which is pretty essential. Right now, though? We're out in the middle of the desert, not even in contact with friendly forces- quite a difference between the two."
"Rogue Squadron, take-off prep complete. Proceed to the runway and get ready to go," control said over the intercom.
Eva shrugged, switching on her engines. "I guess you're right," she admitted. "Now, let's go deal with this and come home." She smirked as the doors to the hangar opened, allowing sunlight to pour in.
One of the things Eva still hadn't gotten used to was how much different the atmosphere was on the way to a mission compared to the Kestrel II. More often than not, Nexus and Meteor Squadron would fly to their objectives in almost complete silence. It was a bit unnerving initially, but Eva quickly learned to use the time to clear her head before the action started. With Rogue Squadron, though, the talking never ended. The convicts would always be chattering about something. Of course, Eva still tried to use this time to clear her head, but she was a lot less successful. She tried her best to tune them out, which worked for the most part. Although, blocking them out entirely seemed to be an impossible task.
"What the hell is that!?" Dodger yowled, causing Eva to jump in her seat.
Eva looked up frantically, expecting to maneuver at a moment's notice, but froze as soon as she saw what was ahead. At least two dozen contacts appeared on her HUD, a fair distance away. "Holy shit," she muttered.
"Well, there it is," Vortex said. "Crosswind, this is Rogue 1. We have eyes on the convoy. Are we weapons-free?"
"Confirmed," Crosswind answered. "Rogue Squadron, Castor Squadron, engage," he ordered. "I'm getting distress signals coming from the convoy. It looks like they're sending out a request for reinforcements, so expect more company shortly."
"Ah, don't you worry, Crosswind," Neutron said nonchalantly. "We'll be back before lunch."
"Alright, everyone, start engaging the escorts. We won't be able to do this with them in the way," Vortex reminded everyone. "Just remember to watch each other's backs."
"And try not to tail anyone else's target," Magnum added. "There's gonna be no shortage of targets to go around."
As Eva and the rest of the flight got closer, it truly dawned on her just how many escorts there were. It was easy to bunch them up into fewer targets from farther away, but now that she was nearly in firing range, she counted at least thirty. Eva switched to her 6AAMs and watched as the distance to her target got smaller. Even as she got a lock, she waited until all six missiles were ready to fire before pulling the trigger and watching the split off toward their targets.
One by one, they all found their marks, except for one flying straight at an Su-37, which pitched straight up at the last second. The plane spun upside-down before diving back down and heading straight for Eva. They fired two missiles as soon as they were able to and banked right. Eva deployed flares and dove down before turning left to follow them. She got another lock, but before she could fire any missiles, the Su-37 pitched up into a cobra, causing Eva to fly right by.
"Jeez, whoever this guy is, he sure is stubborn," she grunted, going straight up to avoid their machine guns. "I can't get him to sit still."
"Wait, I recognize that emblem on the tail," Threes realized. "It's Draugr 1!"
"He must've bailed out over San Salvacion," Bouncer speculated.
Eva couldn't help but smirk as her admiration of the pilot increased. "Either way, this guy's got some serious skill. It looks to me like he's asking for a rematch. I'd better not disappoint." She switched on the afterburners and started putting as much distance between herself and Draugr 1 as she could.
As soon as Draugr 1 realized what she was doing, he started to go after her as fast as possible. Eva quickly glanced over her shoulder, trying to spot him and see how close he was. Finally, she made the tightest loop that she could manage and turned to face Draugr 1 as the two pilots aimed themselves right at each other. Eva watched the radar lock warning on her HUD intently, waiting for it to inform her of an incoming missile. Finally, Draugr 1 let a pair of standard missiles fly, and Eva took her chance. She deployed flares and maneuvered slightly, but she still went right for the other pilot. She stayed the course until she got within machine-gun range, allowing her to fire a quick burst and score a few hits before pulling away before they collided. Both of them looped around in opposite directions to face each other, but by the time they leveled themselves out, they had already passed each other.
"All aircraft, caution!" Crosswind warned. "MQ-99s inbound from bearing 350, prepare to engage."
"Roger that, Crosswind. Charger, Poet, wanna give me a hand with these drones?" Vortex asked.
"Right behind you, Vortex," Charger answered.
"Ditto! Let's go get 'em," Poet added.
After only narrowly avoiding a machine-gun burst from Draugr 1, Eva flew past him and pitched straight up into the sky. As soon as she heard a missile warning, she rolled onto her side and banked left. She tried to make a full loop to get behind him, but Draugr 1 had already turned too far for her to get a clear shot. He sped up and pitched down, dropping his altitude before looping around and coming up right underneath Eva. As he went in with his guns, Eva dropped into a cobra and came to nearly a complete stop. She and Draugr 1 came within a few meters of each other, but ultimately, Draugr 1 flew right past her as he continued straight up into the sky, giving Eva a clear shot on him. She fired two standard missiles before her plane stalled, and she started falling to the desert below. Eva throttled up as fast as she could and pulled up just before hitting the ground.
"Nice, Diamond!" Lucky cheered. "And here I was about to ask if you needed help."
Eva smirked. "Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing," she quipped as she climbed back into the sky to rejoin the fight.
Lucky laughed a bit. "As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind a hand with these fighters. I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew," he admitted.
"What? You? No, that can't be right. You'd never do something like that." Eva's voice oozed sarcasm as she spotted Lucky dancing through the sky with a pair of Su-35s and an F-14. She fired a 6AAM salvo at the three hostiles, but only the one aimed at the F-14 connected.
"Hey! The transports are getting away," Magic called out.
"The escorts are trying to buy time for them to escape," Neutron replied. "That's why we've gotta finish this up quickly."
"Well, it's a good thing that the enemy's numbers are starting to thin out, then," Crosswind chimed in. "If we don't speed this up, you guys won't have enough fuel to go after them."
Eva shot down one of the Su-35's trailing behind Lucky with her machine guns as she flew past them before she quickly looped around and took out the last one with standard missiles.
Lucky let out a sigh of relief. "Whew. Thanks, Diamond. I owe ya one."
"Oh, I'm sure you owe me way more than one, but I suppose I can let it slide. That's what friends are for, after all," Eva responded with a smirk.
Poet snickered a little. "Uh-huh, 'friends.' Riiight," he said in a teasing voice.
"You implying something, Poet?" Eva asked, ignoring the heat moving up to her cheeks.
"No, nothing at all," Poet replied coyly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Let's cut the chatter, guys," Vortex chimed in. "We're not out of this yet, so keep yourselves focused."
After quickly looking over the battlefield on her radar, Eva decided to help with the drones since they seemed to be causing the most problems. She fired a salvo of 6AAMs, but only two of them hit their targets due to the drones' agility. She followed after one of the drones that pitched up and fired a single at it, which it didn't have time to evade. She was about to look for her next target, but the missile alert in the cockpit started blaring. Eva went right with a high-G turn and craned her neck to find the drone on her tail. After she finally spotted it, she rolled upside-down and dropped down, only to pull up moments later. The drone took a bit too long to correct and ended up in front of Eva, allowing her to take it out with machine-guns.
"One escort left," Crosswind informed the group. "Slipstream, he's near you."
"Yeah, I'm on him," Slipstream replied. "After this, we can finally go home and thank god, honestly. It feels like we've been here forever."
"We still have to deal with the transports," Vortex reminded him. "We're not out of the woods yet."
"How do we know which of the transports is the right one?" Magic asked. "Didn't Tillmin say there are decoys?"
"According to Major Tillmin, the transport carrying the APS unit will have a large explosion when you destroy it," Crosswind explained. "It'll look similar to the explosions that the Helios projectiles produce."
"Scratch the last escort," Slipstream reported. "Let's finish this."
"Roger that," Crosswind responded. "Proceed to the transports and- ah damn, looks like we've got one more fighter- aircraft type unknown coming in at bearing 150. Holy shit, this thing is fast!"
"It's him…" Lucky murmured.
Eva froze and looked down at her radar. As she watched the single radar blip get closer and closer to her and everyone else, she felt fear more than anything. Her mind went back to Farbanti as she watched Meteor Squadron get shot down one by one and the missile that nearly killed her. Eva felt her heart pounding in her chest as the fighter got closer. Finally, she took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "He's mine," she said decisively. "I'm gonna make this bastard pay for what he did to Meteor Squadron."
"Like hell, you are," Vortex ordered. "You barely survived the last time."
"So did you!" Eva snapped. "I won't let him hurt anyone else. You guys take out the transports. I'll keep him busy."
Vortex sighed. "Magnum, you take the lead on the transports. Diamond and I will deal with this guy."
Feeling a sort of determination, Eva turned to face Zero and hit the afterburners, going toward him at full speed. As soon as she had a solid lock, she fired two standard missiles and pitched up before he could fire anything at her. Zero dumped countermeasures before either of the missiles could connect and followed after Eva with remarkable agility. He fired missiles and broke off as Vortex came at him with machine-guns. Eva banked right as hard as she could and turned to follow Vortex and Zero. Vortex fired a missile at Zero, but he turned up and looped around before it hit. However, it did lead him right into Eva's sights, which she took advantage of by hitting him with a brief machine gun burst.
"Holy shit. Neutron, is that what I think it is?" Threes asked.
"It's gotta be," Neutron answered. "The rumors are true, then."
"What rumors?" Magic asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Rumors have been floating around that there's some mercenary ace that Erusea hired to test out experimental fighter," Neutron explained. "I always thought they were just rumors, but…" His voice trailed off as he watched Eva, Vortex, and Zero dance around in the sky.
"Hold on a second. Are you telling me this guy, the bastard that killed half of Meteor Squadron, including Domino, is some petty mercenary?" Eva felt pure outrage at that moment. To think that Domino died to some mercenary working for nothing, but a paycheck infuriated her. She throttled up and banked left, looking over her shoulder to see if Zero was following. "I'm gonna make this guy pay," she muttered, dropping into a cobra and watching Zero shoot past her. She leveled her plane out and fired a single 6AAM at him, but he deployed countermeasures and banked right.
Eva followed after him, but by the time she finished her turn, Zero had already started going up and looping around. Not to get away from her, but to get a shot in at Vortex. Both pilots got some hits in on each other with their guns, but Vortex seemed worse off. He pulled up higher into the sky while Zero looped around to go after Eva again.
"Vortex, are you ok?" Eva asked as her flight lead started to put some distance between himself and Zero.
"Yeah- yeah, I'm fine," Vortex finally answered after a brief period of silence. "Instruments are alright for now, but we can't hang around forever. Magnum, what's your status?"
"We're almost to the transports," she answered.
Vortex let out a small sigh of relief. "All right, Diamond. Just a little bit longer. You've got this."
Eva pitched straight up before turning left partway through to try and get behind Zero. "You don't worry about me." She could feel herself getting short on breath, but she carried on. She fired a standard missile as she finally got behind Zero, and to her surprise, it actually hit him. What was even more surprising, though, was that he managed to stay flying.
Suddenly, Zero performed a rather impressive kulbit and positioned himself right behind Eva. He wasted no time in letting a barrage of gunfire loose, scoring several hits. Eva grunted and pulled away as hard as she could before Zero could fire a missile at her. She looked at her instruments and went over each of them to check for damage before turning her attention back to Zero after seeing that she was in the clear.
"We're taking out the transports now!" Magnum reported. "Just a minute more, and we're out of here."
Eva banked left and looped around to make another pass at Zero. She fired another missile as soon as she had a solid lock, but he pulled away at the last second, heading straight up into the sky before making a high-G turn to face Eva again. Zero fired missiles as he and Eva flew straight at each other, but Eva used up the last of her countermeasures and pulled away before they came close. Eva kept her eyes locked on the fighter until it flew directly over her head, allowing her to pitch up and loop around to get behind Zero. She was about to fire but hesitated as she watched Zero with curiosity. Until then, he had been maneuvering like crazy, but right then, he flew in a completely straight line toward the transports- even though he was too far to reach them before the last one got shot down. Eva didn't hesitate for very long, though. She fired two standard missiles, and while Zero tried to evade them, he wasn't fast enough, and both of them hit. He pulled away and started heading back in the direction he came from.
"Just one more hit oughta finish him!" Eva announced, turning to follow him.
"Diamond, let him go," Vortex ordered. "We're low enough on fuel as it is. You don't need to waste anymore by going after him."
"What?" Eva demanded. "You're saying after everything he did to us, I have him here on a silver platter, and I can't finish him?"
"It's not worth it," Vortex insisted. "Let's just regroup and head back."
Eva's gaze shifted between the retreating Zero and the rest of the squadron. Finally, she took a deep breath and pulled away from Zero. "Fine," she muttered.
"Hey, Crosswind. Didn't you say the transport carrying the APS unit would have a big explosion when he hit it?" Magic asked.
"Yeah… Why do you ask?" Concern started creeping into the AWACS operator's voice.
"Well, we took out all the transports, and there was no explosion," Magic told him.
"What? But that doesn't make any sense. It should've- wait, what the hell?" The concern in Crosswind's voice was replaced by confusion. "I've got another transport on my scopes, heading away from San Salvacion at bearing 160."
"Son of a bitch, the whole convoy was a diversion!" Charger realized.
"Well, let's go get that transport," Trench said.
"We can't," Crosswind told them. "You won't have enough fuel to make it back to base if you do."
"Shit!" Magnum cursed. "So all of this was for nothing?"
Vortex let out a heavy sigh. "Rogue Squadron, Castor Squadron, let's head back to base. There's nothing left for us to do."
Author's Note: Well, it's not really an Ace Combat story if it doesn't have a massive furball mission. I've gotta say, though, this chapter took me like all day and I think it might be the best chapter of Clouded Skies so far.