"You've got some damn nerve for calling us here to fly with these assholes, Gates," Magnum snapped, shooting a glare at the Nexus Squadron pilots, specifically Eva.
"Slipstream dying doesn't change a damn thing," Crosswind countered. "You're still flying for us, and you're still following Vortex's orders."
"That's enough, both of you," Commander Gates butted in with a hostile tone, more so than Eva was used to hearing from him. "I know things might look great, but that just means we've got to work together if we wanna make it out of this."
Magnum rolled her eyes as she sunk back into her chair. "Don't hold your breath," she scoffed.
"So, what's this about, Commander?" Vortex asked. "Have we finally found this jamming facility?"
Gates shook his head." Sadly, no. Major Tillmin is still working on decrypting the information we pulled from San Salvacion, hence why he's not here," he explained.
"He's been working on it for well over a week now," Dodger protested. "How hard could it possibly be?"
"The data is proving to be more secure than we initially thought," Gates said. "And we don't exactly have a lot of resources at our disposal in that area. Regardless, we still have a mission for you in the meantime." He turned his attention toward the screen, which displayed a map of Usea.
"With all due respect, sir," Magic chimed in. "What's the point of doing these missions?" she asked. "Every time we try to make a move against Erusea, they just send one of the Arsenal Birds at us, and we have to run away."
"Don't worry, that won't be a problem for this mission," Commander Gates quickly reassured her. "Your target is to the north, well outside of the Arsenal Birds' air defense network." He placed a red dot at White Valley and proceeded to zoom in on the location.
"White Valley?" Vortex asked.
"You've been there?" Crosswind looked over at him, tilting his head.
"Free Erusea took the place over during the uprising five years ago," Charger explained. "They did same back in '06 too, but we weren't there for that. Our job was to clear the place out. They had a lotta experimental shit there."
"It's a military factory that, as of late, has been turned into a facility where Erusea develops and manufactures their UAVs," Gates added. "They've also set up a fuel depot nearby, and they began construction on an airbase as well. Your mission is to fly over there and destroy everything you can."
Charger chuckled a bit. "Looks like we're goin' on a trip down memory lane, eh Vortex?" he asked with a smirk as he nudged Vortex with his elbow.
"Just be aware, what Charger said is still true," Gates informed everyone. "Major Tillmin's intel reports that they're using the place as a testing ground for different drones and airframes. Be on your guard while you're up there, and be ready for anything. It's entirely possible that they'll send up whatever they're working on once you attack."
As soon as Gates mentioned experimental aircraft, Eva's mind immediately went to Zero. She couldn't help but be nervous and excited at the thought of facing off against him again. Although, Vortex's words from after their last duel still stuck with Eva, even though she still wasn't quite sure what to think about them. If the time ever came when she had the chance to finish him off again, she wasn't sure what she would do anymore, but Eva pushed that thought aside as everyone stood up and made their way out of the briefing room.
"Alright, everyone," Vortex said as all ten pilots started walking down to the hangars. "This mission could either go easily or be an absolute nightmare, so just stick close to each other, and we'll-"
"Cut the shit, Vortex," Magnum cut him off. "You know the deal we made, and you broke it as soon as Diamond let Slipstream die, so don't try to be all buddy-buddy with us."
"Didn't you hear Commander Gates?" Charger asked. "We stand a better chance at getting out of this by working together."
Axe scoffed as he threw open the mandoor to the hangar. "And why should we give a damn? Once this is all over, we're just gonna get tossed into another jail cell, so what's the point?"
Poet rolled his eyes. "Do you really think Commander Gates is the kind of guy to just toss you into a cell after everything you've done?"
"Well, we thought you'd be the type of people to stick to your word, but we all saw how that turned out," Dodger cut in as he climbed up into his plane. "So for all we care, he's probably no better than you."
"Just don't get in our way," Magnum huffed as she put her helmet on.
Eva couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt as she started working through her flight checks. Before their last operation, it seemed like everyone was finally getting along. Now, though, it seemed like they could barely be in the same room as one another without going for each others' throats. Despite the others telling her not to worry about it, Eva couldn't help but feel responsible for it all. She spent so long dwelling on it that she almost didn't notice the others taxying onto the runway, and she quickly followed them up into the sky.
Just as Eva expected, the flight to their target was extremely quiet. Although, that might have been for the best, considering how hostile everyone was at the moment. Eva passed the time by looking at the ground below or fiddling with her instruments until Crosswind finally spoke up.
"Rogue Squadron, you're coming up on the target. Get set to engage," he ordered. "The enemy will likely send up interceptors shortly, so deal as much damage as you can before they arrive."
"Right, let's split up," Vortex said. "We'll have an easier time doing this if we cover as much ground as possible. Charger, Axe, Trench, and Poet, we'll deal with the AA defenses. Magnum, Lucky, and Dodger, you three target the enemy facilities. Diamond and Magic, you two take care of the fuel depot," he instructed.
Eva turned to follow Magic as soon as Vortex finished talking, and together, the two of them dove down toward the rows of oil tanks. A group of AA guns and AD tanks around the oil tanks quickly turned to face the two incoming fighters, which left them completely exposed as Trench swooped down from the side and took them out. With the defenses out of the way, Eva and Magic fired missiles at their targets, which were divided up into various clusters. As one tank went up in flames, the explosion set off the ones around it, causing a chain reaction. All it took was a pair of missiles from both of them and a strafe from their machine guns to set the entire fuel depot ablaze.
"Man, is it just me, or is it really satisfying to watch those tanks pop off one by one?" Eva asked as she circled the depot one last time to make sure they got everything.
"It's definitely one hell of a stress reliever," Magic agreed. "What next, Vortex?"
"Well, it looks like they're sending up MQ-99s from the factory as interceptors," Vortex noted. "You two wanna run interference on them?" he offered
"Way ahead of you," Eva answered, already turning to face the new radar contacts. "Rogue 10 engaging." She couldn't help but feel a bit of awkwardness as she used her old callsign again. Personally, Eva would've rather taken Nexus 6 over Rogue 10, but as the war continued to drag on, she began to wonder if they would ever make it back to Fort Grays and have a return to somewhat normalcy.
Once she was in range, Eva fired a salvo of 6AAMs at the drones and broke off, waiting for the missiles to hit. Unfortunately, only one of the six found their mark, as the drones all maneuvered sharply just before the missiles could connect. Eva set her sights on one of the drones and pitched up into a loop as it zipped past her. She tried to keep her eyes on it as best as she could while she turned her plane to match her view. Finally, she had a clear shot and took it out with a standard missile.
Suddenly, a radar lock warning started going off in Eva's cockpit, and it was her turn to go on the defensive. She quickly glanced over her shoulder to get a good look at the drone on her tail before pitching up. As she rolled onto her side and banked right to evade the incoming missile, Eva found herself in a perfect position to take out another one of the drones, which she did with a few short bursts from her machine gun. Once the missile behind her lost its lock, she turned back around to dive back into the group of MQ-99s, taking one out as she did.
"Dammit," Magic grunted as she took out a pair of MQ-99s. "They just keep coming. Can you guys take out the containers that are launching these things?"
"Way ahead of you, Magic," Poet told her. "Just deal with the ones they've already launched. We'll keep 'em from launching any more of them."
"Hold that thought, Rogue 5," Crosswind jumped in. "It looks like we've got MQ-101s taking off from inside the factory."
"Magnum, that's your cue," Vortex said. "Hurry up with those facilities."
"Oh, can it," Magnum snapped. "We're doin' the best we can here. It'd help if we didn't have about fifty missiles getting shot at us."
"Don't worry, you two," Lucky assured them. "We'll take care of it."
Eva twisted her plane around to get behind one of the MQ-101s that had just launched and put it right in the center of her gun sights. She scored several hits to the point where it started trailing smoke, but then it suddenly veered off before she could finish it. Eva followed after it with a high-G turn and opted to finish it off with a standard missile. After looping back around to face a majority of the drones, she saw a perfect opportunity to fire off another 6AAM salvo, which she quickly took. All six missiles shot out from underneath the wings of her plane, leaving behind trails of smoke as they flew straight toward a cluster of drones, taking all six out in one shot.
Eva was about to question what targets to after next, but she suddenly saw two missiles coming up behind her on radar. She instinctively pitched straight up to get away from them, and luckily, the missiles weren't able to correct their path fast enough and missed. Once they lost their lock, Eva rolled back down and destroyed the first drone with her guns before dropping into a cobra to take out the second one with a single missile.
Eva grunted as she turned to engage another drone. "There's too many of these damn things," she muttered. "Magic and I could really use a hand here."
"Don't worry, we've got most of the anti-air defenses down here taken care of," Charger told her. "So we'll start giving you a hand. Trench, you want a piece of the action?"
"Sure, I'm right behind you, Charger," Trench answered.
With Charger and Trench helping out with the drones, things went much more smoothly. Although, because of the sheer number of drones buzzing around, it was still quite a challenge. Once Vortex, Axe, and Poet started helping out, though, the skies gradually began to clear up, as did Eva's missile alerts. After a fair amount of time and effort, the drones were all knocked out of the sky, and the facilities were up in smoke.
"Jesus," Magic muttered as everyone flew back into formation. "That was crazy. I didn't even think it was possible for so many drones to be in one place."
"No kidding," Eva agreed. "There were probably more drones than there were on the Arsenal Bird."
"Ah shit," Crosswind cursed. "You might wanna hold onto that thought. Cause it looks like there's a metric assload of drones coming out of the factory."
Eva looked down at the ground and quickly saw what Crosswind was referring to. However, the drones didn't look like anything she had seen before. More concerning than that, though, was that they just kept coming. Eva dove down to engage them and fired a pair of standard missiles at two of them, but they both ascended rapidly and with far more agility than Eva expected them to have. They were definitely more maneuverable than MQ-101s, but maybe not quite as much as the drone she and Vortex fought several weeks ago.
"What the hell are these things?" Magnum asked as she started twisting around to get a clear shot on what looked to be the last drone to exit the factory.
"Not sure," Crosswind answered. "Just take 'em out. I'll run a plane analysis and let you know what we find out."
"Crosswind, there's gotta be at least fifty of these things," Vortex said. "Just saying 'take 'em out' is a lot easier said than done."
"Well, I guess we're gonna have to suck it up and deal with it," Magic presumed. "Let's just do what we can and get out."
"Diamond, missiles coming at you!" Lucky warned.
As if on cue, Eva's radar started tracking four missiles heading her way. She banked left right before the first one would've hit her and straightened herself out. Two more started closing in at pretty much the same distance, and Eva quickly pitched up to evade them. However, it wasn't until she made another high-G turn that they finally lost their lock. Finally, Eva deployed countermeasures to deal with the last missile. After all her evading, she found herself in a perfect position to take out one of the drones. She fired a single standard missile, expecting that to be enough to destroy it like the others, but the drone kept flying, even after taking a hit. Luckily, Eva was just barely able to finish it off with machine guns before turning to evade another missile.
"Come on, Crosswind, tell me you've got something for us," Axe said impatiently.
"Hold on. It's almost done," the AWACS operator informed them. "Just a little bit more aaaaand, there we go! Looks like we're dealing with experimental Erusean drones called MQ-103s."
"Faaantastic," Trench muttered.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," Vortex told everyone. "We're already in this fight, so now we've gotta finish it."
Eva rolled her eyes. She had frankly had enough of dogfighting drones for one day, but she didn't exactly have a choice. Taking a moment to put some distance between herself and the numerous drones, Eva looped around once she was far enough and fired another salvo of 6AAMs as well as two standard missiles. As she dove back into the furball, all but three of her missiles hit their targets. She was about to chase after another one, but her missile alert started going off before she could get a clear shot on her target, and she was forced to evade.
Diving down to the ground, Eva jerked her plane up just before colliding into the ground. The missile coming up behind her, not having enough time to react, crashed into the ground, and the drone that fired it only barely managed to pull up in time. Upon seeing that she was still being pursued, Eva tightened her grip on the control stick and forced it to the left. The MQ-103 fired another missile at her, and not wanting to take any chances, Eva deployed countermeasures to get it off her tail.
"These little shits sure are persistent," Eva remarked as she fired a single 6AAM at another drone and looped around to shake the one behind her.
"And there's too many of 'em," Poet added. "Crosswind, we can't keep this up."
Crosswind sighed. "Alright, alright, all aircraft, break off. Rogue 10, Rogue 11, form an element and cover their retreat."
"Wow, you hear that, Dodger?" Magic asked snidely. "This time, you're actually getting permission to run away."
"Go to hell," Dodger replied as he turned away from the drone he was chasing and started to fly away.
"Alright, you take the lead, Diamond," Trench said as he got behind her. "I'll follow you."
"Right," Eva said as she started looking around to see who all needed help.
Eva started by going over to help out Lucky, who was busy trying to get two MQ-103s off his tail. She started by firing two 6AAMs at them, but neither shot connected. She quickly turned right so she wouldn't overshoot and found herself right behind the drones. Trench fired two standard missiles at one, and Eva did the same to the other. With both drones off his back, Lucky turned to fly back to base.
"Thanks, I owe you two," Lucky said as he hit the afterburner to get away before more drones followed after him.
"Okay, who else needs help?" Eva asked, turning to loop around.
"Uhhh… none of us, apparently," Vortex said in a confused tone. "The drones are all running away."
Eva looked down at her radar and quickly confirmed Vortex's report. Every single one of them was flying south-by-southeast. "Why are they running away?" she wondered aloud. "There's still way more of them than there are us."
"Who knows, who cares?" Axe replied, turning to follow the others who were already on their way back to base. "I'm certainly not keen on sticking around and finding out."
"All objectives complete. Rogue Squadron, return to base," Crosswind ordered. "I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough action for one day."