"Cipher…yo buddy wake up! Cipher?"
Cipher groaned and sat up. He went to stretch and accidentally punched the acrylic canopy of his fighter. He winced and opened the cockpit and saw Foulke standing in his flight suit.
"Yeah?" he murmured sleepily.
"It's half seven in the morning buddy, you better get ready sharpish. Commander wants us in the briefing room at quarter to." Foulke said, suppressing a laugh as Cipher jolted upright and leapt out the canopy on the side without a ladder.
Cipher sprinted into his room at breakneck speed. He quickly changed into his flight suit, sprayed himself with some cheap deodorant supplied by the Air Force and ran back out of the accommodation block and towards the operation blocks. He arrived in the briefing room two minutes late.
"Ah, Cipher…" The intelligence officer grinned. "Are the beds here not good enough for your standards?" The room was filled with two Air Force squadrons and the two mercenary teams, and they all laughed and looked at him as he sat at the back, grinning.
"Y'know what they say, a good pilot lives and dies with his plane…" he replied, running a hand through his messy hair.
"Anyway." The room fell silent as the officer spoke. "There are no planned operations today, but I will be organising some patrol flights around the area, just in case the Belkans decide to do anything. Fenrir Squadron, you'll be up first so prepare your aircraft for air-to-air."
"Yes sir." Henderson replied.
"Everyone but Fenrir Squadron, you can go. I assume you have stuff you need to do. If not, feel free to help the NCO's around the base. Breakfast has already come and gone, but lunch and dinner times will be on the wall outside the mess."
Cipher's stomach growled as he left the room. He headed back to his room to pick up his wallet with the money he'd earned from the intercept mission, ¥800. He made his way to the airbase's shop to buy food. Breakfast sorted in the form of ready-made sandwiches, he went back to his hanger where Foulke was fixing a faulty landing light on his fighter.
"Not spending all your zollars already are you?" He asked as Cipher devoured the first sandwich and began on the second.
"Only when the mess is shut." He said as he retrieved his notebook from the cockpit of his Eagle. "Jeez that jump hurt!" he rubbed the back of his knees as Foulke laughed.
"Teach you to jump out of a plane's cockpit." Foulke said. He threw the wire cutters on the floor frustratingly. "Dammit why won't you work!" he shouted at the non-living object.
"Because…" Cipher finished his mouthful of ham and cheese sandwich before continuing. "You've not turned on your lights so it won't light up."
Foulke stood and stared at the light. "Buddy, I think you're right…" he said, surprised. "How did you know?"
"The other two on the rear landing gear are also off." Cipher gestured to Foulke's plane before something else caught his eye. "Hey, is that one of Crow Team's pilots?"
Outside the accommodation blocks, young man in his early twenties was standing with a smaller girl, the Air Traffic Controller. Cipher and Foulke watched as the two of them hugged and the pilot jogged over to the rest of his flight by their Falcons, who laughed and teased him.
"Little bugger works fast." Foulke muttered as he scaled the ladder to his cockpit. "Next thing you know, they'll be planning a marriage and having kids."
Cipher looked at his wingman and grinned. "Jealous, eh?"
He shrugged and went slightly red. "Possibly." The landing lights on his fighter turned on and Cipher was temporarily blinded. "Yes! We have light!" Foulke shouted out in victory. Cipher stumbled towards the briefing room with his drawing and found the Intelligence Officer speaking with the base commander.
"Sir." Cipher came to attention and acknowledged the ranking officer's presence.
"Relax, Captain." The commander ordered. He clearly didn't like the aspect of mercenary pilots on his base.
"Sir, I was wondering, seeing as I and Second Lieutenant Foulke are an official Team now, whether we could have a squadron insignia?" Cipher asked politely, resisting the urge to tell the commander what he thought of him.
The intelligence officer looked at the base commander. "I don't see why not."
"Yeah, whatever." The base commander said.
"Great." The Lieutenant General looked pleased at the idea. He gestured the Captain over to a bookshelf and pulled a book out. "This might give you some ideas; it's all the insignia's of famous squadrons around the world…"
"Actually sir, I've designed my own." He held out his notepad and the Lieutenant General took it and looked
"You…drew this?" He asked in awe.
"Yes sir, my dad was an artist in his spare time and he taught me." Cipher replied.
"Well, you know how to apply them?" The officer asked, handing the book back.
"Yes sir." Cipher took the book.
"Well, I'll make sure you have one of the later slots for the patrols." The officer said.
Cipher then spent the rest of the day applying the red and orange insignia to both tails of the two Eagles. Foulke offered to help, but quickly grew bored, resorting back to his previous job assisting the mechanics and Fenrir Four repair the latter pilot's damaged fighter. It didn't take long, and Cipher had finished by lunch. He sat with Crow Team and chatted about previous experiences with the other mercenary team.
"Yo buddy." Foulke joined him at the table as Cipher was recalling his first combat experience in Yuktobania flying MiG-21's. "How's the insignia going?"
"Not bad." The younger pilot replied, slightly annoyed by the interruption. "What's the Tigershark like?"
"Ah, bullet damage to the right intake and wing, Jack's lucky it actually stayed on." Foulke sighed. "He screwed up the landing, not his fault obviously, and bent one of the landing gear struts and completely destroyed the front gear meaning we'll have to replace it."
"Are you the guys who went up yesterday?" The older of the Crow Team's members, Crow One, asked.
"Yeah, we were scrambled to take down a Belkan bomber squadron." Foulke answered. "Cipher here managed to shoot down eight aircraft!"
The youngest member of Crow Team stared in awe. "Jeez, you're an ace!"
"A bit more than an ace I think." Cipher shrugged. "I gave up recording kills on my plane because I ran out of space."
The young pilot looked amazed. "How many?"
"Forty." Cipher laughed at the look on Crow Three's face.
"You're not actually gonna eat that, right?" Crow Team's leader asked as Cipher took a spoonful of the lumpy mashed potato.
Cipher made a disgusted face as he ate the undercooked vegetable. "No," he concluded and stood up to take his tray with the uneaten shepherd's pie over to the kitchen. "I'll get something from the shop I think."
The mercenary decided on another pair of ham and cheese sandwiches and a chocolate bar. He then made his way to the station's uniform stores, a large building, where he found a middle-aged woman unstitching staff-sergeant rank insignias from the sleeves of an Air Force ceremonial jacket.
"Afternoon." He said politely to the woman, who looked up from her work as he entered. "I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"That depends what it is." The woman spoke softly; peering through glasses as she carefully conducted her work.
"I was wondering if you could make me an insignia patch for me and my wingman's flight suit." He asked.
"Do you have any design in particular?" The woman put down her work and pulled out a folder from a bookshelf behind her desk. "These are designs I currently have in the storeroom."
"Actually, I have designed my own." Cipher handed over the drawing.
The woman looked at it. "You have a fine eye for art." She commented. "You're a mercenary?"
"I and my wingman are, yeah." Cipher replied. "How could you tell?"
"Only mercenaries tend to get their own insignias." She smiled. "When you work as a store's manager for as long as me, you learn this stuff. I will make you your patches ready for tomorrow."
Cipher thanked the woman and left for the briefing room. It was time for his turn at the patrol.
"Base Command to Galm Team, unknown signal has appeared on radar at bearing 315 at 50,000 feet over."
Cipher checked his radar. "Roger Base Command, signal has appeared on radar. Turning to intercept over." He and Foulke turned to the new vector.
"Roger that."
Cipher increased his speed and put the nose up, swiftly climbing from 20,000 feet to 50,000 feet. He checked his radar and saw that the blip had not changed course.
"What do you think?" Foulke asked.
"Probably either a lost civilian pilot or a bold recon aircraft." Cipher replied. He armed his AMRAAMs. "I'm not taking any chances."
"Me neither." Foulke dropped back a little, in the ideal place for an air to air engagement.
"Base Command to Galm Team, signal is two miles from your position." The ATC said. "It is headed directly for us."
"Understood."
"If it doesn't change course when intercepted, you are cleared to engage."
"Wilco." Cipher said. "Galm Two, use of AMRAAMs cleared."
"This is Galm Two roger that."
"One mile and closing." Base Command reported.
"I've got a visual." Cipher had spotted a sleek white shape in the distance. "That's not a civilian aircraft by the looks of things…"
The aircraft shot by underneath them. Reacting instantly, Cipher pulled a high-g turn, increasing his throttle to keep up. "Jeez, that's fast!"
The aircraft had one large delta wing, and a long thin fuselage with two canard foreplanes. Cipher shook his head with awe. "Target is one XB-70 bomber." He reported.
"Roger, shoot it down!" The Base Commander ordered.
One of Cipher's AIM-9's streaked towards the elegant experimental bomber. It blew apart the left rudder and smoke began to pour from the three port engines. With its left control surfaces damaged or destroyed, the aircraft flipped and entered an uncontrollable spin. Cipher followed it down. Just before the bomber hit the mountains, an ejection pod exploded from the cockpit.
"Base Command, target successfully intercepted."
"Well done Galm Team, continue patrol."
Two weeks passed, and Cipher slowly got tired of the day-to-day regime at the base. The Tigershark was soon air worthy, his Eagle could've passed for a newly built fighter and he could practically fly the patrol route with his eyes closed. So he was relieved when he and Foulke were called into the briefing room one clear day.
"We must regain control over Route 171, which runs through Arlon, to secure a transit route for our ground troops." The Lieutenant General briefed Galm Team and a group of Mitsubishi F-1 pilots. "There are bridges over this route, three over the Aare River, all heavily guarded by the Belkan Armoured Corps. Securing this route is critical to Ustio's attack on the Belkan Forces. Destroy the Belkan ground units blocking passage along this route and secure this supply line between our forces and the Osean Army."
"Sir," Cipher caught the attention of the officer. "I and Foulke fly Eagles, which aren't suited to ground attack. How could we contribute to the success of this operation?"
"Galm Team will engage enemy fighters in air to air combat, allowing the Ground Attack aircraft to engage the Belkan ground forces. However, you will be armed with two bombs so feel free, once air superiority has been acquired, to attack Belkan ground forces."
"Okay." The pilots were dismissed and Cipher and Foulke arrived at their planes to help the mechanics fit and arm their two bombs on their wing pylons, as well as their usual air to air setup.
"Finally, a real mission!" Foulke said happily as he readied his plane. "Let's go buddy!"
Cipher was ready in an instant, and Galm Team were up in the air before the F-1 Squadron was even taxiing. They loitered around as the six attackers had taken off before heading to Arlon in northern Sapin. Along the way, he studied the outdated attack aircraft, and realised the state of which the Ustio Air Force was in. He opened up a private channel for him and Foulke on the radio.
"Pixy, have you seen the aircraft Ustio are sending out on this mission?"
"Yeah," Foulke replied, also sounding a bit concerned. "Do they even want to secure a supply line?"
"You'd have thought that maybe they would've bought in some A-10's just in case." Cipher said, bewildered.
"I know, they were ill prepared for Belka's invasion." Foulke answered. "No-one expected it."
The formation was soon over Sapin territory, and the combat airspace planned for the mission. Cipher looked at the rural plain where Route 171 curved through.
"This fight will sure change the look of this place." He muttered. Foulke agreed.
"Eagle Eye to Galm Team." An AWACS reported in. "The targets are in formation along the highway, take them out."
"Okay Galm Two, cleared to engage all air units." Cipher ordered.
"Roger." Foulke dropped back a little as the two Eagles searched for any enemy fighters around the first bridge. "Keep an eye on us up there, AWACS."
"Belkan ground forces are blocking off our transport route, destroy them all!"
"Hunter One to all Hunter units." The attacker squadron flight lead called in. "You know what to do. Hunter Two, with me." Two Kaizens broke away from the six-plane formation and dived towards the bridge. The Belkan tanks didn't stand a chance as two bombs detonated within their checkpoint.
"Bridge one taken care of." The flight lead reported. "Move onto the next bridge."
"Here they come…three o'clock!" A Belkan army officer shouted.
Cipher and Foulke escorted the attackers onwards to the next bridge. Anti-aircraft fire erupted from a group of houses and a plume of smoke signified a SAM hidden in the area. The Surface-to-Air missile shot towards one of the attackers, which failed to evade the deadly projectile and exploded into flames.
"Dammit, Hunter Two is down." Hunter One reported. "Everyone, watch out for AA weapons." Four clicks were heard over the mike.
"Numerous houses are in the planned range of attack." Foulke observed. "Is that…part of the operation?" He asked the AWACS, unsure of whether to attack. They didn't respond. "I'm not sure if we should, it's up to you, Galm One."
"Those houses may contain Belkan supplies." Cipher answered. "Better not take any chances." He dived towards the SAM site, ignoring the warning sounds of radar tracking, and loosened a bomb on the AA weapon. The blast also knocked out a couple of house walls and flattened several tents.
"Okay, roger." Foulke didn't sound like he enjoyed the idea of destroying civilian houses. Cipher switched to the private channel.
"Larry, we can't take any chances." He explained. "Besides, the civilians have probably been evacuated anyway, and the houses will probably be rebuilt after the war has ended."
Foulke clicked the mike to show he understood.
"Enemy aircraft on radar." Eagle Eye. "Galm Team, engage."
"Wilco." Cipher armed his four sidewinder AAM's and climbed to meet his prey. Four MiG-21bis fighters in a finger four formation popped up as green squares again in his HUD.
"They're passing between us!" Foulke said.
Cipher's gaze followed them as the formations passed. Passing underneath and pulling a high g half-loop onto the rear of the formation, he engaged.
The lead Fishbed pulled away then exploded as Foulke fired his AAM and shot past. The Belkan flight lead's wingman broke off to engage and Cipher followed.
"No-one engages my wingman." He said as he fired an AIM-9 which blew away the enemy fighter's engine outlet. The pilot bailed out.
"Buzzard Two, do you read me? Buzzard One, are you there?" One of the fighters frantically asked.
"They're down; it's just you and me." The other replied. "Engage the attackers!"
The Fishbeds dived. Cipher and Foulke followed closely. Cipher saw Foulke overshoot him slightly, then tear apart one fighter with his Vulcan cannon.
"Galm Two, splash another fighter." He pulled level, leaving Cipher with the last MiG. Faced with the prospect of joining his wingmen in a burning wreak of a fighter, the Belkan pilot callsign Buzzard Four pulled away.
"The last MiG is bugging out." Cipher reported as Hunter Three and Four began their attack run. "Galm Two, cover me."
He chased down the fleeing fighter and destroyed it without mercy. He spotted another group of houses and his radar had spied out three hidden SAMs in the middle. He increased his throttle and dropped his last bomb, destroying the missile launchers before they could lock onto him or the attackers.
"Hunter Six, I'm hit!" the Ustio pilot ejected from his bullet ridden plane. A Mirage 2000D and a MiG-21bis passed by at high speed and overshot Cipher.
He pulled up and switched to his AMRAAMs. The radar locked onto both fighters and Cipher fired both at the same time with a call of "Fox Three!" The MiG burst into flames whilst the Mirage pulled a sharp right turn, its delta wing allowing high manoeuvrability at low speeds.
"Dammit." He muttered, following the Belkan ace. Foulke unleashed a sidewinder, which the ace rolled and climbed rapidly to evade. The latter manoeuvre caused the Mirage to lose airspeed and Cipher was able to use his more powerful engines to close the gap between them.
"Guns guns guns." Orange projectiles from his cannon seemed to caress the enemy fighter, and then the large left wing exploded and tore off, causing the ace to enter an uncontrollable spin. Cipher pulled back on the stick to avoid colliding with the stricken fighter and then pulled level just in time to see the entire Hunter Squadron do a joint attack run and loosen their remaining bombs and missiles at the last bridge.
"Captain there's smoke by the bridge, we're about to enter the battle zone!" A Belkan transport unit driver cried.
"I didn't come all this way to be stopped now!" The leader said. "Hold tight, we'll punch right through!"
Cipher's hawk-like eyes spotted two more flights of Belkan fighters before his short-range radar picked them up.
"Don't let your cargo get damaged." The Belkan Army commander continued. "C'mon Ruchs Transport Unit, let's go!"
"Galm Two, more fighter flights incoming, use your AMRAAMs and take the flight on the right." He ordered his wingman.
"Got it. Galm Two, engaging." Foulke turned from a successful engagement with a blue F-15E Strike Eagle to gain a better angle to fire is missiles, and then let all four off at once. Three explosions appeared in the distance.
Cipher only had two AMRAAMs left, and he used them, but at the wrong time. Only one connected with a small bang. "Splash One." He reported the kill with a hint of frustration.
"Come on then. Let's dance." Foulke pulled a Split-S and chased the enemy fighter. Cipher then forgot about the world and entered his calm flying demeanour. All he focused on was his HUD, the enemy and his aircraft.
He pulled off at 90° and turned to intercept the three remaining Fishbeds. He let loose a burst of gunfire as they passed his nose and one more burst into flames. He pulled sharply onto the rear of the flight, the g's threatening to push him through the seat, and his sidewinder locked onto a second fighter, which exploded as Cipher let loose the missile.
Two left. They split, one going left and one going right. He saw by the silhouette against the sun that these were more Fishbed fighters. Blinded, he pulled vertical, in case any Belkan pilot had taken the opportunity to plant himself at his six.
"Galm One, the enemy's on your six!" Foulke warned him. Cipher performed a stall turn, spinning 180° and letting off a burst of 20mm rounds at the fighter below him. It lost control and began to fall like a brick to the ground below: Cipher had hit the pilot.
"One more." Eagle Eye said. Cipher checked his short range radar and located the last fighter speeding after the Ustio attackers. He dived, using his height advantage and powerful engines to quickly catch up and shoot him down with an AIM-9.
"All enemy fighters down, nice work Galm Team." The AWACS congratulated. "All aircraft, RTB. Looks like luck was on your side once again, Solo Wing."
"Yeah." Foulke replied. "Well I've had my share of going home without wings."
Cipher and Foulke were the first to land, and they entered the briefing room first. The officer was there, ready to give the debrief.
"The mission was a success." He said happily. "Passage along Route 171 has been secured. Thanks to you, Ustio will now be able to launch a counter-attack."
The two mercenaries went back to their accommodation block as the four remaining pilots from Hunter Squadron entered the briefing room. Instead of going to his own room, Foulke followed Cipher into his room.
"I still can't understand why Ustio would send F-1 Kaizen attackers!" Foulke shook his head. "Their air force is out of date; no wonder they were overrun…!"
"I know." Cipher stopped Foulke's rant. "But we can't do anything about that at the moment. It's not like we can go out and buy an entire flight of Warthogs for Hunter flight and then splash out for a squadron of Raptors to upgrade the Tigersharks!" He sighed, and unclenched his fist he was unconsciously clenching. "We've just gotta do our best."
Foulke looked taken aback, then nodded, looking at the floor at Cipher's feet. "You're right."
Cipher looked at the ¥4,000 in his hands. "Although if this keeps up, I'll be buying myself a new plane by the end of the war."
"What would you buy?" Foulke sat on his bed.
Cipher thought for a moment. "Probably a Eurofighter Typhoon". He decided eventually.
"Really?" Foulke grinned "I'd try and get my hands on one of those fifth generation stealth fighters like the Raptor or the Black Widow. Or…" he smiled "An X0-2 Wyvern."
"You wouldn't be able to afford a Wyvern, let alone the blueprints!" Cipher laughed. "The EASA deny everything about the plane!"
"True…" Foulke laughed with him. "Erusia kept it top secret until one crashed and killed the pilot."
The sound of an approaching helicopter shut them up. They jumped up and ran outside to see three pilots being helped out of a hovering Sea-King, which flew away when the pilots were safely off.
"I swear only two aircraft were shot down…?" Foulke wondered.
"And only one pilot managed to bail out." Cipher shared his wingman's confusion. They walked over to the group, surrounded by three armed soldiers.
"That one." Cipher pointed to the smaller pilot in a maroon flying suit. "He's Hunter Six."
"How can you be so sure Captain…?" The soldier began to argue.
"Because I watched him get shot down." Cipher looked at the two other pilots, kneeling in their green flight suits.
"I'm sorry Captain, but I cannot let him go until he passes the security checks." The soldier stood his ground.
Cipher gave the Ustio pilot and the two other pilots a last look before heading to the mess for dinner.
"Those pilots in green, were they Belkan?" Foulke asked.
"Yeah." Cipher replied. "And I think I know who they are."
Foulke raised an eyebrow.
"That Mirage I shot down." Cipher explained. "I saw the patches on their arms.
"The Belkan War is shrouded in mystery." Thompson spoke as the camera showed copies of booklets about the war. "But now, a decade after the peace accords, a portion of the records was finally released. I quickly got a hold of it. Wanting more details, I acquired information from unknown sources. There was a reason for my obsession."
A map of Belka, Osea and Ustio appeared, with Belka's territory highlighted in yellow. As Thompson spoke, it shrank.
"The roots of the war lie in the Belkan federal law review that took place in 1988." He explained. "Belka, suffering from economic strife, permitted its eastern territory to secede, and the Republic of Ustio was born. But Belka's economic troubles did not subside. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the situation, the world superpower Osea continued to flourish." Osea, highlighted in blue, grew and took over some of Belka's western areas.
A clip of Belka's flag, white with yellow and black stripes, showed the flag being raised and blowing in the wind. "Amidst the economic panic, an extreme right wing party took power within Belka aiming to restore strength and stability to the nation. And on March 25th 1995, with the discovery of natural resources in Ustio, Belka began to invade its neighbours. It was the beginning of The Belkan War."
Now the highlighted yellow nation began to expand, taking over most of Ustio and parts of Osea and Sapin. Videos of bombers and fighters of the Belkan Air Force were shown.
"Unprepared, each country fell quickly before the might of the legendary Belkan Air Force. In just a few days, they occupied all territories except for the mountain range. In response, the occupied Ustio government military placed all their hopes on a joint operation between Osea and the foreign mercenary forces."
"This of course, can be found in any history book." Thompson said. "But I noticed a strange similarity in the materials I gathered. There were several accounts about a mercenary, all followed by the codeword 'Demon.' But most of the information was incomplete. Still, I was intrigued."
"I decided to pursue the history of the Belkan War through this mercenary. I was certain I would find something there. Would it be the hidden truth behind the war? Or just another battlefield legend?"
"I wasn't able to meet the mercenary himself," He explained, "Actually; it's questionable if he ever did exist. But thanks to some old friends in the military, I was able to track down several individuals who knew him."
The camera switched back to the pilot in the war torn room. "'Solo Wing' is one such man."
