Trades46 here,

A long chapter, but I've been struggling to make this chapter as interesting as I pictured it. Hope it doesn't bore you out.

Enjoy,


Chapter 7:

In the midst of the peaceful night sky, squadrons of Silverhawk fighters streaked across the darkness heading towards the attacking Belser fleet under the capital ship 'Iron Fossil'. The radio on each of the planes crackled as a new voice was heard.

"All planes, this is the DIA control tower. We're passing the mission monitoring to a new ship occupying your airspace: AWACS 'Sentential-hawk'*, callsign 'Amnelia'. This is the last transmission from the ground as evacuation requested us to evacuate the tower, good luck pilots."

A brief pause is heard over the radio. I wondered why DDA would field another AWACS plane now after a major accident in the previous war led to the disbanding of all AWACS flights thereafter.

"This is Amnelia calling to all allied Silverhawk fighters in vicinity of the DDA airspace. We will be monitoring the battle with our radar monitors and give you sitreps. We'll be on the perimeter of the battlefield to avoid conflict. Keep us posted on your radios."

I take a quick look around Ti2 and my own Silverhawk to see what other squadrons are with us in this operation. We were the last to take-off hence I have a clear view of all the fighters in front view of my HUD.

I recognized the front flying fighters as Corporal Lance's 288th Sundial units, and the left side with Sergeant Rexton's reformed 172nd division 'Lightning' with the new trainees we've worked with in the mock mission couple of days ago. The right side was a group of fighters identified by radar as the 156th squadron 'Aquila', which I've recalled is an experienced group of pilots who have many sorties in the civil war era of Darius. Directly in front of us are the 244th squadron 'Hammerhead', whom I've never heard of.

"Enemy in sight!" called Aquila 1, Major Jean Treizz. "All planes, be ready to break formation."

"First wave of enemy drones are inbound, they're heading straight for us!" called Sundial 5.

My Next's HUD quickly started to register the Belser attack drones by green boxes and dots on my radar screen. I flip the switch to my radio, and call the order.

'All units, this is Lt. Col. Pratica, Phoenix 1. Engage the enemy!'

A series of acknowledgements are heard over the radio as the Silverhawks broke formation towards the oncoming drone's weapons.

I pull to the right and switch to my laser guns. Pulling the trigger as soon as the drone slips up his heading and aligning him to my scope, the Belser plane quickly exploded in midair. After dispatching one, I immediately look around my canopy for the next target.

The Belser employs unmanned attack drones as attack craft which is controlled by the capital ship in vicinity. This is why they don't appear without the presence of the Belser capital ship. Because they're meant to swarm enemy targets, they're relatively weak, easy to outmaneuver and easier to destroy. Soon, most of the drones in the airspace were cleaned out without a single loss to our side.

"Belser drones have been eliminated, sir!" a series of radio calls confirmed.

"Nice job pilots, but the enemy capital ship 'Iron Fossil' is approaching the operation area fast! The real fight is yet to come," announced Amnelia.


It wasn't long until a large warning appeared over the HUD and a larger radar signature picked up Iron Fossil. Over the years, the Belser has been revising their battleships the way they do best; make it bigger. Compared to the 'King Fossil' in the simulators with the last war as a reference, this thing was more than another hundred yards longer.

"High energy signatures detected on the top cannons! Watch yourselves!" called Amnelia.

A series of cannons above the Iron Fossil fired its laser beams towards Hammerhead squadron. The series of explosion that followed were not a good sign.

"Hammerhead 3 to 5, you're lost from radar, please respond!" reported Amnelia.

"This is Hammerhead 1, my shield is down to 10% but I'm still flightworthy. I saw 3 of us go down in that last attack, but I only see one chute…dammit!"

I quickly regain composure and hit the throttle, also reaching for the radio.

'Attention all allied fighters, you seen what that ship's cannons are capable of. Stay clear of the blast radius and hit him at close range, use your weapons to go for the gills. The 'Fossil' class battleships are weak in the mouth area, that's you goal.'

"You heard the man Aquila team, watch the cannons and get below those cannons!" radioed Maj. Jean.

"You got it man' I'll keep them fish busy here, you' all keep reeling 'er in" responded Corp. Lance.

Each squadron continued to do their respective jobs, and once every few minutes Amnelia calls out the warning for the next barrage of laser cannon fire so that we all have a chance to evade before the cannons fired. Ti2 and I continued to lead Aquila on the attack on the giant fish's hull, pounding away at the layers of protection and the AA guns on the sides.

To avoid the chance of the laser cannons and laser flak from locking on, we have to fly dangerously close to the Iron Fossil's hull, and the laser fire was only scratching the scales of the fish at best. Fortunately, someone beat me to address the problem.

"Lightning 4 here, I can't line up a decent shot underneath the laser flak guns!"

Amnelia quickly piped in.

"Affirmative Lightning 4…I've just received word that the radar facilities on the ground are now operational. I'm connecting ESM** to all allied fighters, use missiles to hit key targets."

After receiving the transmission, I switched to my Chaser missiles to follow the ESM's curving attack pattern. Locking onto the Iron Fossil's gill plates from afar, all missiles began a following a curving attack pattern onto the surface. Ti2 also started to drop bombs directly onto the plates directly.

At first I'm slightly worried that Ti2 might not be able to perform at her maximum ability due to her fear of the Belser battle 'fish', but ever since my talk with her; I think she really believe that they would probably eat me first before her.

With our continuous attacks on the plating of the battleship, it was soon apparent that the Belser are being pushed when small explosions begin to appear on the superstructure and their AA fire intensifying. The Iron Fossil also began to swing widely back & forth, shaking off the loosened armored 'scales' on its body at us. They were easily evaded or destroyed by Aquila's combined attacks.

Eventually the gill plates gave way with one final attack run, revealing the ammunition cache in back of its head. Seeing this, I reached for the radio controls.

'All units, let's finish this thing off now! Focus fire on the revealed ammunition hold!'

The Belser may have read into this; for it immediately started to swing a complete 180 degrees at us, putting its tail pointing into our general direction. The tip of the tail started to glow as it opened up. I instantly knew what it was up to.

"Everyone break formation! That's ugly thing is trying to fire its energy cannon at us!" Sundial 2 called.

Then I see Ti2 gesturing me with her hands at the control panel. She was pointing to the Burst Unit computer in our prototype units. Then I remember that the Burst Unit can also absorb enemy heavy energy weaponry and convert the power to fuel its own attack power.

As the Iron Fossil releases its immense energy burst at us, I summon the Burst Unit directly in front of the Next. The circular ring formed directly in front of my view as my front canopy immediately deploys the blast shield to save my eyes from the glaring light of the oncoming attack.

I pray that Grinnell did his work properly because if the Burst Unit doesn't perform as it is intended, I would have been incinerated as microscopic particles.

As the wave gun hit the plane, the Next shook violently as everything around me was covered in the blast. However, my computer reads that the Next's Burst Unit is indeed charging itself. So it works, much to my relief. As the enemy attack subsided, the Burst Unit releases back the charged beam back towards the Iron Fossil, the energy beam making a clean sweep across the body of the battle fish.

A large explosion soon occurs immediately after that, shaking my plane violently as a loud chorus of cheering can be heard over the radio.

"Woohoo! Did you all see that s go? That was amazing!"

"Those prototype energy sapping cannon rocks! Makes them eat their own medicine!"

"Great finishing attack Lt. Colonel!"

"Nice finish, Phoenix 1," called Amnelia. "Enemy capital ship confirmed destroyed. Ground teams are beginning to scavenging the enemy remains now. Enemy drones are losing power, so mop up the rest of them and we're done her… wait a moment…"

Amnelia suddenly changed his tone midsentence. The radio goes silent for the next moment as all squadrons waited for Amnelia response.

"All Silverhawk units, 6 bogies are entering the airspace. You do not have permission to engage until HQ has given confirmation or fired upon. We're now in the process of sending IFF*** to bogies."

One of the surviving Hammerhead units asks over the radio.

"Don't tell me that the Belser have another battleship coming this way. Can you tell us what they are?"

"HQ is still trying to see if they're prototypes from another airbase. The radar shows they're relatively small, possibly new scouting drones or one of ours…"

Sergeant Rexton asks over the radio.

"I've been in the frontlines for a while, and HQ there already confirmed that Belser don't use fighters. I think they're probably just scouts…"

"All Silverhawk units, bogies are identified as Belser origin. However, they're a new type of drones as we have no indication of what class they are. You are cleared to engage the enemy aircraft."

As Amnelia announces this into the radio, another voice comes onto my headset. It is Ti2.

"Prati…Phoenix 1, my fuel has just gone into reserves. I think my engineer didn't fill the tank before the battle. Gomen, but I'm going to have to pull out of this battle."

I acknowledge my wingman as she starts to turn around and head back to the DIA facility for refueling. I call into the radio after seeing Ti2 leave the airspace.

'Alright, there is 6 of them and at least 20 of us. Don't get overconfident; we have no idea of the enemy's combat capability. Keep your eyes on your backs, and take them out as a team. Let's go get them!'


Notes:

*The Sentential hawk is essentially a generation one Silverhawk with its weapons removed and the top trademark 'hook' replaced with an AWACS radar. 'Amnelia' refers to the original planet of the Darians before they moved to Darius 1000+ years ago.

**Ace Combat 6 fans should be familiar with this term; you can refer to the Ace Combat Wiki for information. In this story, it is used to as guidance for missiles and attack runs.

***IFF = Identification Friend or Foe. Use Wikipedia for more information.

See you next update!

Trades46