On the Job Training

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An Ace Combat 5 story

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This mission should have honestly just been a turkey shoot. In some ways, it was. But it wasn't a turkey shoot without losses. With the other 'non-existent' incident off the coast with the SR-71 and the Fishbeds, not to mention the Fulcrums that wiped out most of Wardog before that, our mission load had been changed. When I had made my first two kills, I had been carrying a pair of AIM-9M Sidewinder infrared-seeker missiles on my wingtip rails. That and roughly twelve seconds of 20mm cannon fire at a low cyclic rate on my two single-barrel nose guns…eight seconds at high rate…that made up my entire load of weapons. That figures to perhaps five kills in near-perfect conditions. Well…eight. That's both Osea and my record in simulated yet flying combat. But that was after the war. Back when I was at the top of my game. Needless to say, I wasn't there yet.

In any case, Colonel Perrault showed a rare moment of wisdom, likely motivated by Hamilton suggesting that it might be a good idea to arm our planes well, and let us mount double ejector racks on the underwing pylons, bringing our total missile load to six. He did not, however, authorize the use of ATM-9X missiles. The 9X was supposedly Osea's standard arm missile. Though originally an improvement over the 9M heat-seeker, somewhere in development it was fitted with an extraordinary lidar seeker head that could be used against both air and ground targets. Hence the AT, or 'all target' designation, rather than the AI, or 'air intercept' in front of the M for missile.

In truth, however, the OADF still had plenty of 9Ms hanging around, and Perrault was only too happy to get rid of them like this. It would cost us in my second combat mission.

The situation was fairly normal. It was a simple recon denial. A ship had penetrated our territorial waters and launched a flight of nine UAVs. Ground camera footage had told us that the model launched did not transmit its instruments' data back to the control station, only having a video feed so a pilot could fly it. Therefore, it was our job to shoot down the UAVs before they could be recovered by the ship that launched them. Simple enough, really.

Our restriction was the fact that we weren't allowed to fire on the intelligence trawler. That was the reason that we carried 9Ms, I'm convinced. He wasn't too keen on our track record for following orders to the letter, and decided that we wouldn't get anything suitable for attacking the ship outside of our internal guns. If that boat mounted any sort of weapon, it would leave us very vulnerable on our attack run.

Bartlett promptly ordered Pops to load his F-4G with four 9Ms, two AIM-120s, and a pair of AGM-88 HARMs, making sure our flight would have at least some strike capability against SAMs. I imagine that stuck in Perrault's craw a bit, but not enough to make a difference. When we ascended, the HARMs ascended with us.

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The air was smooth as we proceeded at Angels 8, or 8,000 feet, towards the fleeing recon drones. Our airspeed hovered at about 520 mph, and the sky was fairly clear, with scattered high wispy clouds to the north.

"Alright, nuggets, this one's gonna be easy. Why don't you show me what you can do with your guns, huh? I'll just sit back and watch while you play with the toys."

I gritted my teeth. Play with the toys? We did have a mission to accomplish. No matter how much like target practice shooting down the drones would feel like, it was still our job to blow them out of the sky. "Roger, Captain," I responded with Chopper and Edge as we advanced our throttles to full power without burners, flying ahead of Bartlett's F-4. Oddly enough, I found myself in the lead position for the first time, Alvin and Kei hanging off my left and right wings, respectively.

My radio beeped for attention. "Hey, Blaze," came Chopper's voice. "Guess this is a good time for a contest of kill scores, huh?"

I smiled. Leave it to Alvin to find a bit of fun in boring and insulting orders. "You're on." I focused my eyes forward then, after checking the other two's positions. Three little dots were in the blue sky directly ahead of us. "Tally-ho! I have the first formation of UAVs on the nose. Waiting for orders to engage."

"This is SkyEye. Wardog is cleared to engage aerial targets only. Do not attack the ship."

"Blaze, engaging."

"Edge, engaging."

"Chopper, engaging."

I keyed my radio to talk to the other two. "Let's do this clean. I'll take the one in the middle, Edge, you take the one on the right, and Chopper, you clean up the one on the left."

"Sounds good," replied Chopper. "Nice of you to leave me something to toy with."

"Just get to it." I suited action to words, selecting my target, toggling over to GUNS, and placing my pipper on the now locked up target. I let the range drop a bit then…

NOW! I squeezed the trigger, then let up quickly, hoping not to expend too much ammo. It worked. My short burst was on target, and ripped the remote controlled craft apart. Edge's was a little longer, and a bit after mine, but the shot was still on-target. Her target fell from the sky as well.

Chopper, however…his shot wasn't so good. His gunfighting had been somewhat of a joke at the time of the loss of the majority of the squadron, and it hadn't gotten miraculously better after that one 'non-existent' mission. His shot wasn't too far off, and I think that a couple of bullets might have nicked his target, but it didn't go down.

"So, what do you guys think?" asked the captain. "Pretty easy, huh?"

"Yes sir," replied both I and Nagase.

"Good, good. Just don't get too cocky. These guys don't shoot back. You two go on ahead. Chopper, take another pass on your target."

"Dammit…yes sir." Chopper heeled over into a wide turn that also gave him some extra altitude, setting up for his next run as Edge and I flew towards the last two formations.

"Edge, go trail. I want to see if I can get more than one in this pass. Clean up what I don't get, alright?"

"Roger, Blaze. Dropping back to trail." Kei cut throttle some and eased into position on my five o'clock. There was still a good deal of range between my guns and the second group of drones before she matched airspeeds with my plane, holding position so that she would have ample chance to take the stragglers I might, and probably would leave still flying.

"Got him! I'm coming to join you guys!" Chopper's second pass was apparently successful. "Make sure to leave me some, Kid."

Him too? My teeth gritted yet again. This unwanted second callsign was bad for my enamel. Just for that, I wasn't leaving him any. There! I had extreme range on them. The gunsight pipper didn't show up, and wouldn't for a little while longer, but I knew that I was within range. Three trigger pulls and three small motions of my plane's nose sent the 20mm fire flaring at my targets.

Three UAVs fell from the sky as I streaked through the airspace they had occupied, heeling over into a barrel roll in exultation.

"No way…Blaze, you got them all!" came Nagase's awed voice over the radio. "And at extreme range!"

I gave a little smile behind my mask. "Heh…just lucky, I guess." Luck? Sure, there was more than a little of it there, but there was real skill behind those shots too. I hate to sound as if I'm bragging, a decidedly un-pilot-like trait, but the basic fact is that I am Osea's best fighter pilot. I don't know who is the best in the world, but I know that I'm up there somewhere. You have to be a hell of a natural pilot to wax even one target at extreme range like that. "Your turn, Edge."

We traded places, and altered course to intercept the final flight of three. On instinct I checked the tactical map. Chopper was still catching up to us, Bartlett was on my five o'clock high, and all that was showing up in terms of enemies was the final UAV flight and the intelligence trawler. It looked to me as if the final flight of UAVs would be descending to be picked up by the ship soon.

And then Kei was firing. To give you an idea of how good she is, she took two of the UAVs down on her pass. No, she's not me, but Kei Nagase is a superior combat pilot. "Missed one. Clean it up, would you, Blaze?"

"Come on, Edge…couldn't you two leave at least one for me?"

I pulled the trigger, letting another quick burst off to shred the last target. "Nope…afraid we can't, Chopper." I brought up the tactical map in my HMD again. New contacts, ten of them. "Holy…Captain, we've got bogeys incoming from 215, speed around, say, .6 Mach."

Bartlett gave an exasperated noise. "215? Same attack axis as before?"

Thunderhead's voice cut in. "Affirmative. It's the same vector as the last two times."

"Again? How many planes do they have lined up on the border? There's a grand total of four over here, what with the 596th off getting the combat planes. We'd better abort. Think you can stick to my tail, Kid?"

"Yes sir. No problem at all."

"Don't get too cocky, Kid. Confident is good, cocky isn't."

I gave a quiet sigh as we turned tail, as well as keeping an eye and ear out for lock-on warnings. I remembered the slaughter the SARH missiles had wreaked on the rest of Wardog during the first incident. If these guys had the same loadout…we could be in some real trouble.

Especially Chopper. "I can't make it! They're running me down!"

I'm still not sure why he didn't advance the throttle further than he did that day. I was flying the same model of plane as he, and had no trouble getting away. I never asked him, either. I can only suppose that he panicked. In any case…

"You're taking the trail position today, rock and roller? Hold on, we'll clear your tail. Wardog, weapons free to all aerial targets! Burner in and engage!"

I bared my teeth behind my mask, following Edge and Heartbreak 1 in an Immelman before lighting our afterburners. Raw fuel sprayed into our exhaust, forming large cones of flame behind us that boosted our speed greatly, along with draining our fuel at a prodigious rate. Speed was, after all, of the essence. But it also meant that we had much less time to dogfight. A second wave of enemy fighters would be…troublesome. Not that we didn't have plenty of trouble on our hands here. An element of three trying to save a single plane from ten was in pretty bad shape. About the only blessing was the fact that the enemy fighters were working in elements of five. When it comes to dogfighting, even-numbered elements are better than odd-numbered elements. They are quite a bit easier to coordinate, and offer the Thatch Weave as an effective tactic.

That didn't mean this wasn't a BAD idea. We were flying in an odd-numbered element too. My mind ran through tactics as the range dropped. What would Bartlett order? As it turned out, I guessed correctly. "Edge, Kid, you two support each other. I'm going to save Motormouth. Kid, you have the lead."

I blinked. Well, that was some sort of a vote of confidence. And it certainly made sense keeping the light fighters together, exploiting their abilities in the tight turns while Bartlett exercised his Phantom's brute thrust for the engage-disengage fight that it was suited for.

Then it was time. It almost felt as if I had melded with the plane, just like that first training flight with Bartlett. We were one. My targeting systems reached out, painting my first target. "Blaze, engaging!" The green diamond of lock slid over the green box of the target and the beeping changed to a solid, comforting tone. "Good tone…Fox 2!" I squeezed the trigger and the Sidewinder shot off the most inboard right wing rail.

I can only imagine that the pilot of the Fulcrum in front of me was surprised to have an IR missile fly right into his port engine and detonate. "Splash one," I called even as I retargeted, moving to the next one to the now dead leader's right. The pipper came up and my thumb pressed the top button on the stick, the quick-fire button for the guns.

Two seconds of 20mm fire raked the second Fulcrum before Edge and I flashed past the element, my two kills falling from the sky. The five were now three, and going for altitude as they turned back towards us. That was disappointing. I had hoped against hope that they wouldn't use their superior thrust generation to gain the altitude advantage, but I knew it was likely to happen. What was going to come next would be nasty.

I wasn't the only one on the killboard. Bartlett had made good use of his two AIM-120s, scoring a pair of BVR kills in the element that was working Chopper over. Even better, the break in the pattern had allowed Chopper the chance to disengage, along with a beauty of a gun snap shot that had a Fulcrum trailing smoke and fuel. As Chopper joined up with Bartlett, the pilot of the damaged MiG ejected, leaving that fight two on two and giving Alvin his first combat kill.

That wasn't really my concern, though. I was aware of it, but my focus was much more on the three planes that were working to blow Kei and myself from the sky. They had gained altitude and spread out so that each of them covered a way we could go if we reversed back into them, all except down. And down was a bad idea. Over the ocean, there's no ground clutter to lose your pursuers in. Granted this does eliminate the 'running into a hill you didn't expect' threat, but I think that Wardog's credentials at low altitude flight are pretty damn good.

We were, sad to say, boxed in. Continuing straight was a losing proposition, and reversing into them was hardly tempting. Interestingly, they didn't seem keen to lock us up with missiles, instead closing to guns range and pulsing out bursts of fire at us. Arrogance, I suppose, and the wish to score a couple of easy guns kills. I've already said that ego's a bitch. Well, arrogance is her sister, and they're twins.

"Edge, Thatch weave!" It was an old tactic, dating back to the days when propeller planes were at their zenith and aircraft carriers were decked with wood. Back in those day, guns were the only weapon for dogfighting, so everything occurred in visual range. Though of more limited application, the tactic still had its uses.

Kei and I threw our planes into opposite banks, opening the distance between us and splitting the enemy element. One stayed on me, while the other two followed her. Our next move was to reverse our turns, cutting back on a course that would have us crossing. The pilot on my tail saw what was coming and disengaged, leaving me free to drop my speed and cruise in on the two on Kei's. A quick missile shot took the trailing Fulcrum, and got the lead to break off. "Splash three!"

Edge then reversed her turn and got a lock on the one that had been on my tail. A long-range missile shot actually paid off, and gave Edge her second combat kill. "Bandit down! Hey, Blaze, you just made ace!"

I gritted my teeth as I tracked the final Fulcrum from our opposing element through a steep arc, gradually pulling my nose ahead of his plane. Lead pursuit…and…angle for guns! I flipped my weapons over to guns and squeezed the trigger, sending 20 mm slugs flaring out at the MiG.

The MiG driver might have been arrogant, but he was also good. He had enough presence of mind to start jinking about, making my gun shot a pain. Unfortunately for him, I was outside minimum missile range. I relished the idea of shooting him down with guns, in an ironic reversal, but I was going to be practical about these things. Box and diamond met in red doom, and another missile sailed off my rails to bring my 'official total' to four. "Not yet, Edge. I've still got one more kill to make before it's my turn to buy the drinks."

"You know exactly what I mean, Blaze," she grumbled as she formed up on my wing. "Are we going to go help the Captain and Chopper?"

"Of course," I replied, banking in tandem to head us towards the fight. "And I know what you mean." I brought up the tactical map on my HMD as I scanned the sky Chopper and the Captain were fighting in. "I doubt Heartbreak 1 really is going to need our help…oh Fates…dammit all. Captain, we have another flight of six bogeys incoming from 215, airspeed Mach 2.0. IFF squawk is negative. Looks like they've really got it in for us. Please advise."

"Damn…and we'd just finished up our share here."

"I got two now, man!"

"Shut up, Chopper. Alright, we don't have much chance. We don't have the fuel or the thrust to run from these guys. We're going to have to engage. How are you guys for loadout?"

"Down to a third of my gun and three Sidewinders."

"Winchester on gun, five missiles."

"Two missiles, half the gun."

"And I've still got three missiles and plenty of 20mm," finished Bartlett. "Let's take them down fast. We really are cutting it close. Form up on me."

We followed orders and came about in a turn towards what we would see were MiG-29s as well. I gave a nervous flick of the eyes to my fuel gauge. Bartlett was not kidding when he said we were cutting it close. We'd be lucky to get seven minutes of dogfighting time before we went bingo fuel.

The head to head went well for us. Kei, Bartlett, Chopper, and I all made a missile shot. Suddenly, we had double the enemy's numbers. Aside from a somewhat scary moment when one got onto the Captain's tail, they were easy meat, the one that got onto the Captain's tail falling to a missile shoved up its right tailpipe courtesy of Edge, and the other falling from the sky, riddled with the last of my 20mm fire.

And then…we lost him. It was such a quick series of events. We were getting ready to exit the area, as we were so obviously low on fuel, heads on a swivel, as ordered. Suddenly, there was a puff of white smoke from behind us, low down on the water, and a SAM was racing up towards Kei's Tiger II. She shoved the throttle forward and tried to evade, but in her panic, wasn't choosing the right tactics. She didn't even pop chaff and flares. But there was Bartlett, providing a much brighter target by sliding in between her and the missile before drawing it off…but too late to evade. Shrapnel ripped into his wing, and there was suddenly no way that he was making it back to Sand Island. Leaking hydraulic fluid and fuel, he gave us a morale-boosting bit of wisdom before punching out.

We all wanted to stay and cover him, but we were bingo fuel, and 3rd Fleet needed fighter cover. The war had started, and Captain Jack Bartlett was the first on the MIA list.

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A/N: Well, that's that. Another chapter bites the dust. Hopefully a pretty good one, no? Anyway, I've decided to add a translation section for all the pilot slang and acronyms that crop up in this story. I realize that some of them are common knowledge for Ace Combat players, but just in case.

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OADF: Osean Air Defense Force

Angels: Altitude of friendly aircraft in thousands of feet.

UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Tally-ho: "I have visual contact"

HMD: Helmet Mounted Display

Bogey: Unidentified aircraft

SARH: Semi-Active Radar Homing

Engage: Commence BFM

BFM: Basic Fighter Maneuvers

Immelman turn: Inside half-loop followed by a 180-degree roll.

Fox 2: IR missile launch (also lidar missile launch for the fic's purposes)

IR: InfraRed

Lidar: laser radar

BVR: Beyond Visual Range

IFF: Identify Friend or Foe

Winchester: Out of ammo

SAM: Surface to Air Missile

MIA: Missing In Action