Ace Combat : Shadows of War
Chapter 3
Alteric's eyes snap open and he sits up quickly as he hears a loud voice shouting outside, through his groggy mind the words sound jumbled together. He shakes his head yawning, he looks out the window as the voice becomes clearer.
"All active pilots report immediately to the main courtyard." The voice is coming over the speakers set up throughout the base, the voice keeps repeating the message with a pause of about one minute in between each message.
Alteric rubs his head laying back down, 'Ah hell...is it that time already?' He looks up at the wall clock seeing the time, "1800 hours until it's time..." He then sits up sliding his legs down over the side of the bed, he yawns again as he sits there for a moment. He stands up moving over to the dresser to pick out some clean clothes since he only had boxers on right now, he pulls out some clothes and slides them on. He then leaves his room and starts to walk off towards the main courtyard.
Along the way Jessica spots Alteric, she runs to catch up to him. "Hey Alteric, do you have any idea what they want?" She asks looking up at him.
He shakes his head some not looking down, "No, but it must be something important if they are calling us like this." He says looking forward.
She nods her head a little then looks ahead at the gathering group of pilots, she can see Andrew, Mark and Kimiko. "Hey guys!" She calls out to them waving her arm.
The three of them along with a few others turn looking at her.
Alteric sighs some as she does that, "You seem to like having attention on you." He says looking over at her some.
She blushes some looking at him, "Well..." She says softly, she then smiles looking at him. "...not really, the only person I want attention from is you." She says smiling as she looks at him.
He's caught off-guard by her comment and he looks away blushing slightly, he's left speechless for a couple moments. He then looks back at her, "Stop goofing around like that." He says to her looking at her.
She smiles looking at him, "Yeah, well you know you love my cuteness." She says smiling.
He's left speechless again looking away from her again, "...lets just pay attention to the announcement..." He says softly looking forward as Jessica and him get over to the others.
She nods her head looking forward as the base commander comes up onto the stage, the commander looks out at all the pilots who have gathered. "You all have been gathered here for one reason, over the last 0600 hours we have been noticing an anomaly on our long range radar. We have also lost contact with several of our bases along the outer rim of the border, we will be sending all of you to investigate this anomaly. You are dismissed." He says as he turns and walks off the stage.
Alteric, his team and every pilot there salute the commander as he walks off. Everyone then runs off to their hangers and get in their flight suits and into their jets.
Alteric rolls out onto the runway, he looks around some as he hits his throttle to full and takes off. The rest of his wing takes off after him, "This is Kaizer wing taking off." Alteric calls back to the base.
"Roger that Kaizer wing, good luck out there." The tower says to him.
Everyone shoots of towards the engagement zone, Kaizer wing leads the way into the engagement zone. Alteric looks ahead seeing the sky full of enemy aircraft, "All fighters pick a target and engage." Alteric says to everyone, everyone responds with a 'Roger'. "I can see at least six dozen fighters escorting six heavy bombers and eight tankers, there is also a jammer in the area." Alteric calls out as he looks around.
Jessica, Mark, Kimiko, and Andrew all call out roger, as they split away from him and target enemy fighters. The six other wings with them, consisting mostly of nuggets and pilots close to getting an ace rank, break off targeting enemy fighters too.
Alteric chases after a fighter firing his guns off at it, the fighter passes in front of tanker and Alteric sprays the side of the tanker with his bullets. He stops and pulls away from the tanker hard, he looks over at the tanker expecting an explosion but is surprised not to see one. 'What the hell...?' He thinks to himself, "All fighters stay clear of the tankers." He calls out as he resumes chasing after the enemy fighter.
The others call out roger as they dodge around the tankers chasing after their targets, the aerial battle continues on for nearly a half-hour until the enemy fighters start moving in an odd pattern.
Alteric looks around seeing the pattern, he can see the fighters and bombers starting to pull away from the tankers. He looks over seeing Jessica's fighter close to one of the tankers, 'Damnit...no...' He thinks to himself as he pulls his fighter in her direction, "All fighters immediately move away from the tankers!" He yells out as he punches his plane to full throttle.
Jessica hears him and looks over seeing him flying towards her at full throttle, she starts to pull away as the tankers start to explode. She looks around some hearing them explode, she looks over just as the one close to her explodes and sends out a volley of missiles. Her eyes go wide with shock then she looks away closing her eyes waiting for the impact.
Alteric looks ahead seeing the tanker next to Jessica explode, 'No.' He thinks to himself as he hits the afterburner and starts dropping flares, he leaves a line of flares leading away from her. The missiles that were going at her are lead away by the flares and lock onto him, he looks back seeing the missiles on him. 'Good...' He thinks to himself as he drops all his chaff in one burst and cuts his throttle down by half, the missiles explode when they hit the chaff. The shrapnel from the missiles rip through his engines, he holds onto the control stick tightly as his one engine is destroyed and the other is close to failing.
Jessica opens her eyes hearing the missiles explode, she looks around quickly realizing that she wasn't hit. She looks over seeing Alteric took the hit, "Alteric, are you alright?" She asks him her voice full of concern.
He lowers his head some smirking slightly, "Yeah I'll be fine...I still have an engine. I'm heading back to base..." He turns his plane back and starts to head back to base.
Jessica nods her head some, "Alright, I'll come with you." She turns her plane and starts to follow after him.
"No, you stay with the oth..." He is suddenly cut off as his remaining engine suddenly explodes, his plane starts to dive back towards the ground at a hard angle.
Jessica looks at him, "Alteric! Bail out quickly!" She yells out.
There is a silence from him for a moment, "I...an't...esca...atch broke..." He says his transmissions broken up by static, there is another few moments of silence from his end. "Goi...to..attem...ash landin..." His transmissions are broken up by even more static, then suddenly there is nothing but static as his plane hits the ground and slides along for several yards. Black smoke starts to rise from his crashed plane.
Jessica watches him anxiously, her heart nearly sank hearing about the escape hatch. She could do nothing but watch as his plane hit the ground, her heart dropped seeing this. "Alteric...Alteric! Please answer me!" She yells out as tears start to blur her vision some, she closes her eyes some as her hands clench tightly onto the flight stick of her plane.
Mark, Kimiko, and Andrew could only watch in silence as this all happened, Mark's grip on his flight stick increases in anger. He looks around at the remaining fighters, "Lets take them down." He says to Kimiko and Andrew, they look towards him and nod their heads. "Yeah." Kimiko says as she takes off after two enemies, she looks down and sees her radar is clear. "The jamming is gone." She calls out to Mark and Andrew, she then locks onto the two in front of her, she squeezes the trigger and her missiles fly off striking the two of them knocking them out of the sky. The three of them continue, taking down nearly all the enemy fighters in the area before they start to run away.
Jessica looks down at the wreckage of Alteric's plane, she reaches up and wipes away some of her tears. "Tower this is Kaizer Two...Kaizer One has been shot down...I repeat...Kaizer One has been shot down..." She says softly closing her eyes.
End Chapter 3