"Alright, everyone, listen up!" Gates ordered with an amount of vigor in his voice that Eva rarely had, if ever, heard from him. "You all know why you're here. The time has finally come to find out where the Erusean jamming facility is. Make no mistake, though. This mission is going to be dangerous, more than any we've done yet. Resistance will be strong, and this won't be easy by any means, so more than anything, take care of yourselves and come back safe. Now for the plan." He took a step back and nodded to Tillmin.
Tillmin cleared his throat as Gates logged into the briefing software. "Firstly, San Salvacion, and the Military Headquarters specifically, is a high-value target for Erusea. As soon as we launch our attack, they're going to send everything they've got at us." He moved a blue arrow to San Salvacion on the map and showed several red arrows encircling them. "To counteract this, we'll be using the same strategy we did last time. This time, though, Castor Squadron will be the ones performing the diversion. There's an airfield to the southeast of San Salvacion." Tillmin marked an area that was roughly an equal distance between San Salvacion and Sierraplata. "You'll fly there and create as much chaos as you can, hopefully diverting attention away from Rogue Squadron in San Salvacion."
"So, what's our plan for infiltrating the HQ?" Vortex asked.
"The crucial part is clearing the way for Deviant Squadron," Gates told them. "You'll approach the Olde Towne district and clear out any anti-air in the area to allow them to land. After that, it's all about clearing a path on the ground and taking out threats in the sky. However, even though Castor Squadron will be diverting attention away from the city, you'll still be facing pretty severe resistance. In all honesty, I'd expect an Arsenal Bird to show up at the very least. It's also possible that you could be dealing with MQ-99s or that experimental fighter. You'll need to stay on your toes at all times and make sure that you watch each other's backs." He looked over to Castor Squadron. "Especially you six. Remember, you'll be on your own out there."
"Ah, you worry too much, Gates," Slipstream said dismissively. "We'll be fine."
"Don't worry, sir," Neutron assured the commander, ignoring Slipstream. "We'll be careful out there, and we'll be back before you know it."
Gates smiled and nodded approvingly. "Good. Now, are there any other questions?" He looked around the room, making eye contact with each pilot, who all shook their heads. "No? Then get ready to go," he ordered. "And best of luck to you all."
"Rogue Squadron, Castor Squadron, prepare for takeoff," the voice on the intercom ordered.
"Hey, Diamond!" Lucky called out as Eva climbed up into her plane. "Hang on a sec."
Eva sat down in her cockpit and put her helmet on. "What's up, Lucky?" she asked, looking down at him as he stood almost directly underneath her.
Lucky paused for a moment as if he was looking for the right words to say. Eventually, he let out an exasperated sigh. "Just… be careful out there. Okay? I don't like you not having any of us to watch your back."
Eva laughed a bit, hoping to put him at ease. "Don't worry, Lucky. I'll be fine. Besides, it's not like I'm going up there alone."
Lucky, not looking very convinced at first, scratched the back of his head. "I don't want you to die, is all, so… stay safe out there."
Eva's smile turned to a more genuine one, and she felt her cheeks turned red under her helmet. "I will, I promise," she assured him. "But don't forget to take care of yourself as well. After all, you guys are gonna be the ones flying straight into the hornets' nest." She flicked on her engines. "I'll see you after the mission," she called out to Lucky before her engines drowned her out completely.
Lucky nodded and climbed up into his plane to prepare for takeoff. As the doors to the hangar slowly slid open, Eva slipped on her oxygen mask and went through her pre-flight checks one more time before moving onto the runway to take off.
"Crosswind, we're almost in- oh, that's right, he can't hear us," Neutron quickly realized mid-sentence. "Well, there's the base, so let's get to it. Remember: our goal is to cause as much chaos as possible, so let's make some noise." He dove down toward the airfield in front of them and switched on his afterburners.
"Are we really only gonna be taking out this one little airfield?" Threes asked as he followed close behind Neutron. "This is gonna be easy. I don't know why Gates and Tillmin were making such a big deal out of it."
"It's not the base itself that's the problem. It's the reinforcements that are gonna get sent our way," Bouncer reminded him.
"With everything we've dealt with up to this point? I doubt there's anything Erusea could throw at us that would surprise me at this point," Slipstream said as he passed over the base with his machine guns.
"By now, I've learned to just not set expectations for the mission," Eva said, destroying a tank with two standard missiles as she flew by the base and looped around to make another pass. "If the mission is less work than you expected, then you get a pleasant surprise, and if the mission is more work than you expected, then you're not caught off-guard by it," she explained as she fired another standard missile at a SAM launcher and took out an AA gun with her machine guns. "Trust me. It works wonders."
As Eva circled the base again, she noticed several planes taking off- F-16s and Su-33s. Without another word, she pitched up into a loop and dove back down to engage them. She fired two missiles at one of the Vipers and tried to gun down another one, but both of her missiles smacked into the ground due to the angle she fired them at, meaning only the plane she fired her guns at got shot down. By that point, Mesa had noticed the enemy aircraft as well, and he turned to engage the Su-33s. With them distracted, Eva twisted and turned to get behind one of the F-16s, shooting it down with two standard missiles before breaking off as another one fired at her. She broke off with a high-G turn only moments before the missile would've hit her and turned to the point where she had a clear show on the other remaining Viper, which she used to take it out. The final Viper, still on Eva's tail, fired another missile at her, but she broke its lock with countermeasures and turned up and to the left, looping around to get behind and finish it off with machine guns.
"Does anyone else see any new radar contacts?" Bouncer asked as he fired two missiles at the control tower and gunned down an APC.
"Nope. Nothing from me," Threes answered. "At least, not yet," he added hesitantly.
"Don't worry, you'll get your fair share of action soon enough," Neutron assured Threes, clearly smirking based on how his voice sounded. "In fact, you'll be wishing you never wanted as much action as you got."
"You know what, I think you and the others are just saying that, so we'll stay on our toes. When, in reality, this mission is gonna be a breeze," Slipstream speculated.
"Even if that is what he was doing, which I highly doubt, would that really be a bad thing?" Eva asked.
"Oh, no. Slipstream hit the nail right on the head," Neutron said sarcastically. "In truth, I was actually just playing mind games on you this whole time."
Eva tuned out the conversation and rolled onto her side as she made another pass over the base. She fired two missiles at two separate SAM launchers, and broke right, using her guns on an oil tank until it exploded, which blew up the one next to it as well. She pulled and circled the airfield again, only to realize that except for the targets everyone else was engaging. They had already taken everything out. She glanced down at her radar absentmindedly, just to see an additional eight hostile blips near the edge of her radar's range.
"Heads up. Hostiles on my radar, bearing 300," Eva reported, already turning to engage them. "Looks like the reinforcements are finally here."
"Yep, I see 'em," Mesa confirmed her sighting. "They look like MiG-31s," observed.
"Well, let's not waste any time, then," Neutron said. "Castor Squadron, engage."
Eva switched to her 6AAMs and prepared herself to fire as soon as she was within range of them. She briefly looked to either side and saw that the others had the same idea, and she speculated that the enemies did too. As soon as she was within range, she fired a full salvo and pitched up, rolling upside down so she could watch her missiles look for their targets.
Four of Eva's missiles hit their targets, which was more than usual in her opinion, but the other two ended up missing entirely. Without wasting another moment, she dove back down and looped around, but the MiG-31s were proving to be quite a pain to catch.
"Shit, missile coming at me!" Threes reported, grunting as he tried to evade it. "I can't… shake it- damn it. I'm hit!" he cursed.
"Threes, look out! Another one!" Mesa warned him.
"Threes, break right!" Bouncer ordered. "I'll try and get the lock off of you." He turned and accelerated straight toward Threes, who did as he instructed. Bouncer flew right between Threes and the missile and actually ended up getting the missile to lock onto him instead. "Alright, now to just get it- wait!" His voice was cut off by static, which was something Eva was getting all too familiar with.
"Bouncer? Bouncer!" Neutron cried out. "Eject dammit!" he ordered.
"It's no use. His plane exploded," Mesa replied solemnly. "I can see it from here."
"Damn it! Threes, how are you holding up?" Neutron flew next to Threes to give him cover, taking out one of the MiG-31s closing in on him.
"My plane is a little bit worse for wear, but I think I'll be fine," Threes reported.
Eva was caught off-guard by a sudden radar lock alert coming from behind her. She tried to evade, but eventually, it turned out she didn't need to, as Slipstream silenced it by taking out the Foxhound on her tail, which she responded to by looping around and taking out the one closing toward him. They both turned toward the last enemy aircraft, but Mesa took it out before either of them got close. With all of the hostiles down, everyone took a moment to collect themselves. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and Eva still wasn't sure if she had fully processed it. However, the peace didn't last very long.
"Heads up, everyone," Neutron warned. "Looks like we've got more enemies inbound straight from the north, and it's a hell of a lot more than last time."
Eva turned in the direction of the new incoming radar contacts and felt her heart sink as she saw 15 MQ-99s speeding toward them. Once again, she made sure her 6AAMs were primed and readied opened fire as soon as she was in range. Slipstream, Neutron, and Mesa hit the drones head-on as well, but Threes stayed back and fired missiles at them from a distance on account of his damaged plane. After three of her 6AAMs hit, Eva made a sharp high-G turn to the right and looped around to get behind the drones. She fired two standard missiles at a pair of drones, but one performed a quick maneuver just before her missile hit to shake it off. Eva throttled up and followed after it. She tried to take out with machine guns, and she did get a few hits in, but it wasn't enough to destroy it. Eventually, though, she got close enough to finish the drone off with another standard missile before it could evade.
Taking a look around the battlefield to see what target to go after next, Eva saw an MQ-99 creeping up behind Neutron, who had just taken out another drone and was engaging another one. Without a moment's hesitation, she headed straight for it, firing a single 6AAM at it. The missile missed its mark, but to evade, the drone had to break off from Neutron, which allowed Eva to chase after it without having to worry about him going down. Luckily, it wasn't quick enough to evade the standard missile she shot at it. Eva felt a bit of satisfaction as the drones started to fall one by one to her and the rest of the squadron. She couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, they were soon approaching the light at the end of the tunnel, and it'd all be over soon. Once the last drone was down, Eva straightened her plane out and took a moment to catch her breath, and, looking around, it seemed like the others were doing the same thing.
"Thank god that's over," Slipstream said, taking deep breaths as he spoke. "Do you think we'll finally be able to head back now?"
"Not yet," Neutron told him. "We've gotta stay here a little bit longer. I wanna make absolutely sure that we do all we can to ensure that the mission goes as smoothly as possible for the others."
Slipstream groaned. "There's not even any hostiles here. We're just flying around wasting fuel," he protested.
"Hey, uh… do you guys see that on the radar?" Mesa cut in.
Eva quickly looked down at her radar, and to her surprise, she saw eight friendly aircraft entering the AO. Although, it ended up leading to more doubts than any sort of relief. Her mind went through a thousand questions all at once, but she didn't have answers for any of them.
"Do you think it's Major Wiseman and the others?" Threes asked.
"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out," Neutron said. "This is Castor Squadron of the Air Force Base 262nd Squadron. Major Wiseman, is that you?" The only reply he got was silence.
"Maybe they can't hear us because of the communications jam," Eva speculated.
"Good thinking. Let's get closer," Neutron agreed as he turned to fly in the direction of the incoming friendlies.
As soon as they got close, though, Eva quickly realized that they had made a mistake. "Shit, they've got a radar lock!" She jerked her plane to the right to try and break the lock.
"These guys aren't allies," Neutron realized. "Break now!" he ordered.
Threes grunted as he tried his best to turn. "I can't get-" Eva didn't even have to listen to the static as she watched his plane explode in mid-air.
"Threes!" Mesa called out. "Crosswind, if you can hear this, you need to mark these guys as hostile, please!" he begged.
"It's no use. He can't hear us," Neutron reminded him. "We're on our own."
"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Slipstream asked as he evaded a missile. "Our missiles won't lock onto them."
"We've still got machine guns," Eva said, turning to get away from one of F/A-18's. "It's our only chance."
Another missile alert went off in Eva's cockpit, and she deployed countermeasures instinctively. She looked around for the nearest Super Hornet and turned to get behind it, ignoring the one on her tail for a moment. She tried to shoot quick bursts at the one in front of her, but it evaded too much for her to get any hits. As the Super Hornet behind her fired another missile, Eva dropped into a cobra and only narrowly evaded the missile. She quickly straightened back out behind the F/A-18 and held her finger on the trigger, which sent it spiraling to the ground.
"Got one!" she reported. "How are you guys doing?" She looked around for the others to see if they needed any help.
"I just got one, too," Slipstream announced. "But I still say this is a pain in the ass."
"It's better than being dead, Slipstream," Eva reminded him.
"Mesa, you've got a bandit on your tail. Shake it off!" Neutron warned the pilot, turning away from the Super Hornet he just shot down to help.
"Hang on, I've almost got this one," Mesa replied as he sped up to get closer to his target.
"You don't have time!" Neutron cried out. "Evade, now."
"Got it!" Mesa shouted. However, by the time he took out the F/A-18, the missile closing in behind him found its mark, and he met the same fate as the others.
"Damn it, Mesa!" Neutron cursed. "This can't be happening."
Eva felt her heart starting to beat faster and harder in her chest like it was trying to break through her ribcage. After everything she had gone through and everything she had done, she was going through the same thing all over again. Eva's body was basically on autopilot as her mind tried desperately to make sense of what was going on. She thought that it couldn't possibly get any worse, but, as usual, she was quickly proven wrong.
"No, no, no, shit, I'm hit!" Panic quickly crept into Neutron's voice as he spiraled down to the ground. "The ejection handle won't budge. I-" Just like all the others, his voice was replaced by static.
"Oh my god, Diamond. Is it just us?" Slipstream sounded just as panicked as she was.
"Just stay calm, Slipstream. We can do this!" She was trying to convince herself of that fact more than him, but she wasn't sure how effective it was proving to be. "Look, there's two left- one for each of us. We've got this."
"God damn it!" Slipstream cursed as he and the F/A-18 he was dogfighting both passed each other with guns. While Slipstream was still flying, the Super Hornet wasn't so lucky.
"Slipstream? Are you ok?" Eva quickly asked. "How's your plane looking?"
Concern quickly crept up Eva's spine as she was greeted by a few seconds of silence, only for it to all be released a few seconds later by Slipstream's voice. "Yeah- yeah, I'm fine." He breathed heavily as he spoke.
Eva let out a sigh of relief. "Good, then let's finish this."
She throttled up and made a high-G turn to the right, heading toward the last enemy aircraft. She went for quick machine-gun bursts on the Super Hornet, but it wasn't at the right angle and flew past, unscathed. Luckily, though, it flew right into Slipstream's line of fire, and it exploded mid-air, falling to the ground in a fireball.
"Well… that was something," Slipstream cut himself off with a nasty coughing fit.
"Are you ok?" Eva asked once again. She sounded like a broken record, but at that point, she didn't care.
At first, the only response Slipstream gave was heavy breathing. "Honestly… not really." He coughed again. "I uh… I got clipped by that Super Hornet."
"What?!" Eva asked in disbelief. "You got shot, and you didn't say anything?"
"Relax… I'm only leaking a little bit." Slipstream sounded like he was trying to put her mind at ease, but he wasn't doing a very good job if that was the case.
"Damn it, you idiot. Come on. We're pulling out," she ordered. "We've gotta get you back to base ASAP."