The Aces of Razgriz

by Blaze118

Becoming a pilot was a dream for Antonio "Blaze" Castillo ever since he was young, and then it became an obsession when his father died during a mysterious attack on an air show when he was eight. With his goal of becoming a pilot completed, Antonio must fight a war that no one saw coming while fighting to keep his humanity and other dark secrets intact.

24. Rescue Me

Chapter 23 – Rescue Blues

Note: So my college semester started two weeks ago and by the look of things, I'm going to have to start writing more than just this fan fiction. Sorry. Any who, I started work on Antonio's story while he was flying as Mobius 1. It's titled "The Ribbon" so check it out if you'd like. The story is going to take some time to get to the actual Ace Combat 04 missions because I have to set up everything with Antonio's double life. I hope I don't bore you with it if you do read it. Reviewing it would be nice. Thank you all again for following and reviewing this story as well. You guys are awesome.

December 8, 2010 1554hrs Kirwin Island, Osea OSF Kestrel

"You really need a haircut, Kid," said Harkin. "Your hair is longer than military regs allow."

"We've been confirmed KIA, Sir. I honestly didn't think it mattered anymore," I replied.

"The US government didn't confirm your death. You're still alive in my book."

"Well we've been disavowed, Sir. Does it really matter anymore?"

Lt. Colonel Harkin and I were chilling on the stern of the Kestrel. Captain Snow had just landed from his hop and we were just talking with each other as the arresting cable crew members cleared the deck. Once that was taken care of, everyone on the flight deck was just lounging around, waiting for further orders. The Kestrel's fleet was ordered to sit idle in a classified location because it wasn't needed because of the progress the Osean army was making in Yuktobania. The Kestrel's crew had to bring their own entertainment because there was nowhere for them to go. Life on this ship for them was even more miserable than life on Sand Island. A couple of the ship's crew were entertaining themselves by walking around aimlessly or thinking to themselves. Pops was talking with Captain Anderson about something over on the port side of the ship. One guy even started to play some music on his harmonica while Harkin and I continued arguing over the length of my hair because I honestly didn't want to get it cut, though I wasn't sure why. The rest of my team was below deck with Rico trying to become familiar with the new equipment we'd be working with during this whole air operation. Harkin was still arguing with me about the length of my hair and eventually he brought up the little bit of facial hair on my face. It's kind of sad that I have to wait a month for my extremely thin goatee to grow in. I guess that was because of the genes I inherited from my mother's side of the family. Kei didn't seem to mind it though.

"Sir, is a haircut really necessary?" I asked.

"Take some pride in your image, Kid. I bet your girlfriend would agree," replied Harkin.

"I think he looks handsome the way he is. Though, he could use a cleanup." I turned around to see Kei approaching us with Kirk walking beside her. "I could do that for you easily."

"She's a combat pilot, a fighter, a musician, a gamer, and she can give people haircuts. I've found the love of my life, sir," I said as I place my hands over my heart and Harkin snickered.

"Captain Nagase, have you ever seen a picture of him when he had his long hair?" asked Harkin.

"No, but he did tell me that he looked like a serial killer when his hair was as long as mine," she replied with a smile.

Harking reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet to show a picture that he took of me during my first sortie as Mobius 1. Kei's eyes opened wide and she place her hand over her mouth like she was trying not to laugh. I felt a bit of embarrassment over the fact that Kei knew what I looked like with almost shoulder length hair. I tried snatching the picture out of her hand but she kept pulling it away from me. I tried jumping for it but Kei brought her hand down and Kirk managed to take it from her.

"Hey!" I yelled at Kirk and he lowered his head to the ground while he waged his tail in the air. I ran after him and there was no sign that Kirk was going to make this chase easy for me. I chased him almost all the way over towards the bow of the ship and everyone encouraged Kirk to keep going. Man, this is sucks. I kept shouting at Kirk to stop and give me the picture but he just kept going. Pops and Captain Anderson both looked at me while they smiled. "Come on, Kirk, here boy! Wait, wait, wait Kirk!"

Kirk was one hyperactive dog when it came to playing and I thought he was going to run over the side of the ship but he came close a couple of times. I chased him for a good ten minutes before I had to stop and catch my breath. Kirk was looking at me like he still wanted me to chase him but there was no way I was going to get that picture away from him before someone else saw it. Sure enough, Pops saw it when he called his dog over. Pops got hold of the picture and I saw him give me a funny look like it was hard for him to believe that I used to have long hair.

"I was trying to go for the skater kind of look," I said as I tried to catch my breath.

"I think you nailed it, Captain," said Pops as he handed me back the picture. "You really were Mobius 1, weren't you?"

"I still am," I replied with a slight smile.

"You never cease to amaze me, Captain. Next you'll tell me that Cipher was your father."

I chuckled at the thought of Cipher being my father. It would've been kind of cool to be related to the best fighter pilot on Strangereal, but being trained by him was good enough for me. Lt. Colonel Harkin and Kei had finally reached us and we all started to talk with each other. Captain Anderson filled us in on what the 3rd fleet has been up to since the beginning of the war. Captain Snow and his squadron had been conducting some CAS operations, but mostly anti-ship operations to prevent the Yuktobanian fleets from halting the Osean supply shipments from reaching the allies. Unfortunately, the more sorties Captain Snow and his squadron went on, fewer of them came back alive each time. Now, Captain Snow was the only pilot left. The 3rd fleet was ordered to dock in this classified location so that one of the remaining carriers that Osea had remained out of harm's way. The other reason it was docked here was because a ship called the Andromeda, was gathering intelligence that was being sent to Osea and Yuktobania. The thing was that these messages weren't from either country. They originated from Belka. It didn't come as a surprise that Belka was somehow involved in this war, but their objectives were still unclear. We couldn't go to the government officials because they'd more than likely deny the threat or the entire 3rd fleet would come under the same scrutiny as Wardog. We had to do this mission ourselves and that meant going up against impossible odds.

"Sir, I'm all for this idea, but I don't think two F-14s and an F-18 can do much of anything. I mean, we're good, but we're not miracle workers. I need my entire team with me if we're going to do this," I said.

"I know, that's why you're all here," said Captain Anderson.

"Yeah, but I don't think those three planes are going to do much against Su-47s and YF-23s."

"You didn't think we wouldn't go in without some kind of plan, did you?" asked Harkin.

"Well no, but we're going to need planes," I continued.

"Way ahead of you, Kid. Follow me."

Kei, Pops, and I followed Harkin to the hangers and regrouped with the rest of Wardog. From there, Harkin led us to couple of RHIB boats that we boarded and were then lowered into the water. I took control of one boat while Harkin took control of the other and I followed him to an enormous container ship that was sitting away from the rest of the fleet.

"What do you think is in here?" asked Michelle.

"I don't know, but guess we'll find out soon," I replied.

We soon arrived at the container ship and climbed onto it using cargo nets that we hanging over the side. Once we were on board, Lt. Colonel Harkin led us below deck into the main cargo hold where containers upon containers were stacked upon each other. We went down to the cargo hold and Harkin unlocked the first container he saw. Inside was an unmarked MiG-29. We all looked at each other wondering what other planes were inside the other container. We all spit up and started to open more containers to find more aircraft that originated from the US, Russia, France, and other various countries. There were F-14s, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, YF-23s, F-22s, F-35s, MiG-21s, MiG-31s, EF-2000s, Mirage-2000s, Tornados, Rafale Ms, Su-27s, Su-33s, Su-35s, Su-37s, Su-47s, and even MiG-1.44s. Grimm, Kei, and our RIOs were all giggling because there was no limit to what kind of aircraft we could fly. We had opened almost all the containers except for a few towards the rear. Kei was with me as I opened one of the remaining four. When I opened it, I couldn't believe my eye when I saw the aircraft that was in there. Miranda! She was completely reassembled and she looked like she was airworthy. Kei and I could only look at each other, wondering what she was doing here. I called Lt. Colonel Harkin over and when he saw it, he didn't seem all that surprised.

"Oh, you found her," he said casually.

"Why don't you seem surprised?" I asked.

"Because I had Miranda shadowed ever since you told me about her."

"You knew she'd be on this ship?" asked Kei.

"How else would the 3rd fleet have captured this vessel?"

I walked past them and opened the remaining three containers. I was shocked to see that they all had X-02s in them, but Harkin didn't seem too worried about it. The rest of my team joined us soon afterwards and caught a glimpse of the aircraft. Grimm stood there in awe and I could tell that he wanted to get his hands on one of them. However, the carrier based features on the aircraft were missing. The front landing gear didn't have the catapult bar and the tail hook was missing too.

"They might've been able to replicate the airframe, but that doesn't mean that they can fly," said Harkin.

"Why not," I asked.

"They require a specific set of algorithms for the Fly-By-Wire to function correctly. Otherwise it'd be like trying to fly a bucking bronco."

"What if they were able to figure it out?"

"I doubt that. Rico and I are the only people that know about it."

"How long would it take to program everything," asked Grimm.

"Maybe a couple of days, depending on how fast Rico can upgrade the planes you want to take on tomorrow's mission," said Harkin.

"Well, we'd better get started," I said.

We closed up all the containers and got everything ready for the carrier's crew to air lift our planes over to the Kestrel. A CH-53E Super Stallion was in the air all day, airlifting all the carrier based aircraft onto the Kestrel so that Rico could work and get them ready for tomorrow. The F-18 Super Hornets were the first planes to be offloaded and towed below deck. I sat in every single one of them to determine which plane I wanted for myself and I had to argue with Kei and Grimm over the other planes I wanted. Captain Snow and Danny watched as we all bickered over them. The only plane I didn't argue over was the F-35. I honestly didn't like the way it handled. It was less maneuverable than what I was used to and it wasn't meant to be a dog fighter. Its role was to act like as a surprise attacker. The stealth capabilities allowed it to sneak into a hostile AO, destroy its targets, and slip out before it was intercepted. We spent the rest of the day in the aircraft hangers tuning our planes to our standards. Michelle was configuring her controls in her seat while I fine-tuned the engines and flight controls of our F-18. My hands were caked in grease by the time I was halfway done. If Rico was tuning my bird, he would've cleaned every inch of the engines, but he was only installing the modified pylons onto each aircraft. The aircraft maintenance crews offered to help with our planes. I didn't want help while I was working on my bird because I liked it that way, but Kei and Grimm welcomed their help. We had music blasting as we were turning our wrenches and we were all having fun. The Kestrel's crew gave us a lot of sideways looks as we worked while we sang and danced. It might've seemed odd for us to have fun like this after everything that's happened within the past few days, but right now none of it mattered. It was around 2250hrs before I got done preparing my plane for tomorrow. Kei was going to follow my lead and fly an F-18 as well, but Grimm wanted to fly an F-14D Super Tomcat. I guess he and Erica wanted to fly it together that badly. I just wanted to fly my X-02 again, but that had to wait. Everything was set for our sortie tomorrow, even though I had no idea what it our mission was. After I got done taking a shower, I headed for the briefing room where I found Lt. Colonel Harkin. He was sitting in the front row of the room, staring at the numbers on the board and a picture that was being projected in a screen that was covering the doddle that I had drawn the other day. I had no idea what I drew and I was kind of curious to see what it was, but I didn't feel like getting up to check. As for the string of numbers, I couldn't remember how I was able to figure out that logarithms were the key in order to decrypting the message. I didn't finish it completely but the other math nerds on the ship were able to decipher it.

"This was just the latest message we've gotten from Belka. We've confirmed that Song Bird is the Osean president. We were unsure of where site two was until today," said Harkin.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"Well, we sent Captain Snow on recon today. He took pictures of the seven Belkan craters and one of them stood out from the rest."

"And where is that?"

"Stier Castle," said Harkin as he pointed out the projected picture. "I was actually surprised to see the place still in one piece after the nuke exploded not too far from it."

"That's where the XB-O was shot down, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's kind of sad to think that you're picking up where I thought this all ended. I should've made sure it ended fifteen years ago," said Harkin as he sighed.

"There's nothing you could've done about it, sir. Your war ended over Avalon, the politician's war still raged on after it was all over."

"Yeah, I guess. Does your crew chief know about me?"

"I haven't told him anything. He speaks highly of Cipher though."

"That's a relief. I'd hate to have to fight him again," laughed Harkin.

"You'd win again, sir," I replied. "Anyways, I'd better go get some sleep. See you in the morning."

I got out of my seat and headed through the maze of corridors that led to mine and Kei's quarters. Once I got there, I opened the door to see Kei stripping down to her underwear. I was honestly expecting her to already be in bed, but it turns out she was waiting for me. I've seen Kei in her underwear before and I couldn't help but blush every time I saw her like this. In the back of my mind, I kept wondering how a guy like me could've ever hit it off with a woman as beautiful, intelligent, and dangerous as Kei.

"I was wondering when you'd get here," said Kei.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," I replied as I took off my boots and unzipped my flight suit. Kei didn't put on her sweat pants and I found it a little surprising when she crawled into my bunk wearing her black bra and underwear. It was colder on the ship than our room on Sand Island. The beds were a lot smaller, but they were more comfortable. "We should've joined the Navy."

"There's no way I could spend eight months cooped up in a tin can like this," said Kei.

"Life on a ship feels crowded at first. You get used to it," I said as I crawled into bed with Kei.

"I doubt that."

"I did. I hated being in small places like this. Just count yourself lucky that you never have to deal with someone who's cluster phobic," I said. I was stroking Kei's hair and I wanted to ask for her honest to God opinion about this whole operation or if she had any regrets now that everyone she knew thought she was dead. The only regret that I had was not being able to help my sister. I didn't dwell on it for long because Kei had fallen asleep on my chest as soon as I tenderly wrapped my arms around her. Moments like this were rare for us while we were station on Sand Island and now, we had all the time in the world.

December 9, 2010 0430hrs OSF Kestrel

I couldn't sleep at all for some reason, nor did I move since Kei fell asleep. We were spooning under the covers in my bunk and I held Kei for dear life. After what we've been through in the past few months, there's no way I could've done it without this amazing woman or the rest of my team. I wanted to stay like this forever, but my watch alarm went off and Kei woke up. I released her from my embrace and she looked at me. We gently smiled at each other for a few seconds before we both got out of bed to start the day. We only had thirty minutes before today's briefing started so I tried to skip my shower and morning workout. However, after a lot of persuasion, Kei convinced me to take a shower. It only took me three minutes to get ready and I had enough time to grab some breakfast before the briefing started. The food on the Kestrel was surprisingly good. It was like a eating at a five star restaurant compared to Sand Island's food. I couldn't remember the last I had food this good and I stayed in the mess hall until I had to head to the briefing room. Once I got there, I saw Grimm and Kyle sitting away from Captain Snow and Danny. Captain Snow didn't seem like he was too fond of us, but he did seem like he was going to give us a chance. I took a seat next to Grimm and Kyle after I shook both of their hands. I was glad that my friends were on board with this operation. We continued talking with each other until, Kei, Michelle, and Erica walked into the briefing room together, giggling about something.

"How'd you both sleep last night?" I asked.

I saw Grimm shoot a glance at Erica before he answered. "Great, the best sleep I've had in a long while," he said.

"What about you, Nelms?"

"Like a baby, sir."

The women smiled at all of us before they took their seats next to us. Not long after we all took our seats, Pops, Genette, Captain Anderson, and Lt. Colonel Harkin entered the briefing room together. Everyone except for Pops found a seat while he walked towards the front of the room. He picked up a remote that operated the briefing room's projector and took one last look at all of us before he started to talk.

"Alright, if there aren't objections, I'll take command of this air operation," said Pops. Everyone exchanged looks with each other, but no one said anything. "Okay, let's get started."

Pops started up the projector and brought up a map of North and South Belka. He started to zoom in on the boarder of the two countries and eventually, he brought up Stier Castle. Our first mission of this entire air operation was to rescue President Vincent Harling from his Belkan captors. The opposition we'd face was totally unknown and we had to be prepared for anything. Our first objective was to clear out the enemy air defenses around the castle so that Sea Goblin could move in and off load a group of Marines who would infiltrate the castle and secure the President. Our job was to make sure that nothing happened to Sea Goblin while the Marines did their job. The Belkans were going to try their hardest to stop us, but I was determined to stop them. Harkin didn't think I noticed him smiling when he saw how determined I was. Pops dismissed us and we all got out of our seats. I was the last one to head out the door but Pops pulled me aside for some reason.

"You know how important this mission is and you know that you cannot fail," said Pops. "Captain Snow will be joining you on this mission. We need all hands on deck for this operation."

I was nervous at the thought of flying under Captain Snow's command because I was still perturbed about his flying from what I witnessed during the carrier rendezvous at the start of the war. Captain Snow had his own squadron to command at the beginning of the war and now, he was the only pilot the Kestrel had. I wasn't automatically assuming that he was a bad squad leader, because I had no reason to believe that. His wingmen could've been shot down because they were up against heavy odds. Regardless of what the reason was, I was ready to take orders from him once he gave them.

"Don't worry, Colonel. If Captain Snow says 'jump', I'll ask 'how high'," I replied.

"He's not in command of the squad."

"He's not?"

"No, your team needs you to lead them. If Snow took over command, it could seriously throw them off. They trust you, Blaze, and they can't put their trust in the hands of someone who hasn't been through what you've all been through."

"Yes, sir," I replied as I saluted.

We weren't supposed to launch for another three hours so we all just hung out for a bit. I went for a quick run on one of the treadmills they had in the Kestrel's makeshift gym while everyone else mingled among the ground crew. Once I was done, with my run, I met up with the Marine infiltration team. They were wearing civilian clothing under their combat gear so that the Belkan soldiers couldn't identify what country we were from. The infiltration team seemed like a solid group of guys. The camaraderie among them was just as tight as my team's. I looked over their battle plans with them and noticed a flaw in their escape. Their plan called for a quick infiltration and extraction within a total completion time of five minutes. The Intel the Andromeda had gathered didn't specify the exact location of the President within the castle. There were a number of places that he could've been like the towers, the dungeons, or one of the other various rooms. If they were going in with more than eight men, then they'd probably be able to pull it off, but I was very skeptical about this plan. The Marines were still pretty confident of their plans and abilities after I laid out all of my concerns, but then I found out why they were so confident. I felt a hand on my shoulder as I continued to look over their infiltration plans. I turned around to see that it was Lt. Colonel Harkin. He was dressed in a black long sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and black combat boots. He was also wearing a black plate carrier with ammo pouches organized on the front of it. He had a M1014 combat shotgun slung over his shoulder, a KA-Bar attached to his left shoulder, and his custom M1911 holstered on his right thigh.

"You're going with them?" I asked.

"A mission like this requires… precision," said Harkin.

"But what about…"

"I've trained these Marines myself, Kid. Don't worry so much."

I couldn't help but smile knowing that this infiltration was going to go a lot smoother. "You're not taking your M4," I asked.

"Hell no, if things go south like they did last time, I'd rather have a shotgun than an assault rifle," said Harkin.

I left Harkin to speak with his men before we were ordered to launch. I didn't know what to do until then so I wandered all over the Kestrel and lost track of time. When I realized that it was almost time for us to takeoff, I quickly ran to the hangers and got dressed into my flight gear. Everyone had the same look of determination that I had earlier as I watched them climb into their planes. Kei and I were going up in F/A-18Fs while Grimm and Captain Snow were going to fly F-14D Super Tomcats. Kei blew me a kiss before the elevators took her plane up to the top deck. Grimm was the next one to go up, followed by Captain Snow. Michelle was already in her seat as I walked towards my plane. I climbed in and strapped myself into my ejection seat. Rico quickly ran up to my plane to fill me in on what he armed me with.

"Alright, I've loaded sixteen extra sidewinders, eight Mavericks and eight AMRAAMs into the storage pylon. Remember, it takes a bit for the next missile to load onto the pylon before you can fire it," said Rico.

I looked at my wings and saw two sidewinders, four Maverick AGMs, and two AMRAAMs on the wings, and another two AMRAAMs under the air intakes. "I know, man, I still remember how this stuff works," I replied with a smile.

"Good, now do me a favor and don't come back with this bird full of holes."

"No promises, but I'll try my best."

I fist bumped Rico before he climbed down and pushed my F-18 onto the elevator. Once he was clear I started my engines and unfolded my wings. The elevator started to rise and I could hear the Kestrel's crew communicating back and forth with each other, trying to prepare for the launch of my plane. I got to the flight deck just in time to see Sea Goblin's SH-60 takeoff along with Captain Snow's F-14. Oh man, I missed launching from a catapult. I started giggling to myself because I couldn't wait to feel the rush of accelerating from 0 to 165mph in two seconds. I started to taxi towards the catapult when I remembered that Michelle had never taken off from a carrier before. I wasn't sure if she was briefed about it so I had to make sure.

"Rockford, have they gone over SOP for a carrier launch with you?" I asked.

"No, I guess they decided to leave that part out," she replied sarcastically.

"Alright, it's basically the same thing for you when we're taxiing to the runway on Sand Island. The only difference is that we have to work closely with the ground crew to takeoff. When we launch, grab hold of those handles sitting above your instrument panel and lean back, alright?"

Michelle acknowledged as I maneuvered into position. Once I was there, the ground crews were running back and forth trying to hook my nose wheel up to the catapult. From there I had to communicate by hand signals in order to do my preflight check. The air boss told me that I needed to tap the brake and check flaps and stabilizers. I looked over at my wings and vertical stabilizers as I moved the stick around and pressed on the rudder pedals. Everything was set to go and I saluted to the catapult operator as I gave my engines full power.

"Ready in the back, here we go," I said.

The ground crews quickly ran out of the way and one of them knelt down and pointed towards the bow of the ship. I pulled back on the sick and gave my engines full power. I watched as the catapult operator gave me a thumb's up and launched my plane off the deck. I couldn't help but howl in excitement as we sped off the flight deck and into the sky, nor could I fight the urge to do a barrel roll.

"You alright back there?"

"I hope you don't make a habit of doing that," said Michelle.

"Come on, Rockford. It's me," I replied. I raised my landing gear and continued to gain altitude until I was well above the cliffs of Kirwin Island. I could see the rest of my team off in the distance and I quickly caught up with them. Kei took her position on my left wing while Captain Snow and Grimm took theirs on my right wing.

"Captain Snow, I'll be at your six o' clock. It's good to be flying with you, Sir," said Grimm.

"It's been a long time since I've flown in formation…" he replied.

"Back in the first battle when the war began, Chopper…that is, Captain Davenport, told me that you yelled at him for getting in your way. I was still sitting reserve back then…"

"You were reserve? Was our military that desperate for pilots?" asked Captain Snow.

"If it wasn't for Hans, we'd all be dead," I said, trying to distract from the topic of Chopper. I still wasn't used to talking about it. "So Danny, what've you been up to since you resigned from ISAF?"

"Well, first I had to talk to take physical therapy so that I could walk again after you nearly got my whole leg blown off, and from there I had to spend the next two years working my ass off I could pass the PFT. Since then, I've been flying with Marcus. His flying is almost as crazy as yours was," said Danny.

"Wait, so you both know each other," asked Kyle.

"Yeah, he's one of the biggest assholes I've ever come to know," I said.

"And you're the most fucked up person in the world, mate," retorted Danny.

No argument there.

We changed our heading and flew northeast. We couldn't fly through Osea without drawing attention to ourselves so we had to navigate the northern coast of Osea. If they found out that we were still alive, then this operation would be over before it even started. The flight was calm and quiet. No one really said anything as we sped towards the AO. The sky was clear but we could see a lot of cloud cover over Belka. It was strange; from up here, no one could tell the difference between the countries of Belka and Osea, but everyone knew that the boarders were there. Boarders were just another invention developed by politicians so that they could show off their egos. South Belka looked no different from Yuktobania and North Belka didn't look any different from Usea. Land is land, but only ignorant assholes see it as territory. After the war fifteen years ago, South Belka just became another pointless boarder that caused nothing but grief for numerous countries. I thought about what Lt. Colonel Harkin said to me about his philosophy of boarders. His philosophy was that their existence was pointless and that it hindered the potential of a completely unified world. I agreed with him, but whether or not he realized it, division would always exist, even if the whole world was united. People are too ignorant to realize that we, humanity as a whole, are all the same. Race, ethnicity, religion, and gender would always be the things that divided us. The fact that people couldn't see past these differences made it impossible for the world to become united. If only the world were full of people like the pilots I flew with as Mobius 1. We were all different in a way that would make it seem like we were the most dysfunctional group of pilots ever, but we all looked out for each other. My current team wasn't as culturally diverse, but none of them seemed like they were as shallow as most people I've encountered throughout my life. Regardless of where they were from, I trusted all of them.

1611hrs Stier Castle, Belka

We rendezvoused with Sea Goblin a few miles away from the castle. This place looked like a waste land someone would usually see in the movies. The terrain reminded me of Glubina, Yuktobania, but the overcast made everything look post-apocalyptic. The area was still highly radioactive because of the nuclear fallout that followed the detonation of the nuke, fifteen years ago. I was surprised that this place was still inhabited by Belkan forces. Maybe they chose to keep the president here and expose him to the radiation as a form of torture. I don't know, but right now we had to get him out of here. The castle came into view along with six radar signatures of the enemy air defenses around the castle. The castle was located on a hill overlooking a lake and the only way for anyone to reach the castle was by a narrow road on the northern side of the hill.

"Do you read me?" hailed Pops over the radio.

"Loud and clear, Colonel," I replied.

"You should have sight of the castle by now. Sea Goblin's gonna descend for an insertion, so can you take out the air defense batteries for them?"

"Will do, Sir," I said and we all split up to attack.

"Take your time and be thorough. You don't want to leave any standing," aid Pops.

"Yeah, Kid. I'd hate to be shot down before I get to see some action," said Harkin.

Kei and I both gained altitude and circled over the castle at four thousand feet while Grimm and Captain Snow circled two thousand feet above us to provide top cover. Sea Goblin was holding position just outside the reach of the AA defenses. Michelle armed the AGMs and started going to work on the AA defenses with Kyle. One by one, the missiles flew off the rails and destroyed the fortifications with deadly accuracy.

"This is Sea Goblin, is Captain Nagase there?"

Oh, jeez.

"Yeah, your team rescued me from that mountain in the snowstorm," said Kei enthusiastically.

"That helicopter ride was pretty comfy, eh? Hey, you ever want to transfer here, lemme know," said Sea Goblin.

"Hey, watch it," I said.

"Yeah, he gets jealous easily," said Michelle.

"Wait, I thought….never mind," said Sea Goblin. "Hey, what happened to that motor mouth? He's real quiet today."

"He's…not here," said Kei in a sullen tone.

"Valkyrie, how many more targets do you got left?" I asked.

"I count one left. Smokey, you got it?"

"I got it. Missile off the rail," said Kyle.

I looked over at Kei's plane and saw the missile fly off from under her wing. I didn't see the missile hit its target before I noticed a gunboat come out of a stone covered dock and head for Sea Goblin. I called out enemy boat and Michelle quickly locked it up and fired a missile. I looked at the missile pylons that held the AGMs and saw one of them reappear. I smiled to myself knowing that I had another four AGMs left. Kei verified that all the air defenses were destroyed. Sea Goblin was already headed in and we all formed a defensive circle above the castle. We listened in on the Marines as they prepared to deploy. I couldn't help but take in the view of the landscape. The castle seemed like it was a symbol of Belka's endurance. Even after they were defeated in the last war, Belka still manages to endure. The whole reason they started the last war was to reclaim the land they had lost. They hadn't realized times had changed and I figured this castle was also a symbol that Belka was still stuck in the past.

"This is what the end of the world must look like. Even the air over these lands is heavy from the memories of Belka…" said Kei.

"I can almost see the bad vibes circling around that castle…" said Grimm.

"I wouldn't be surprised, after witnessing several nuclear explosions."

Sea Goblin had finally made it to the castle and dropped off the infiltration team. I was surprised that the Belkans hadn't deployed any more defenses yet. There were no enemy vehicles headed for the castle and there weren't any enemy planes on radar either. The guys back on the Andromeda were keeping an eye on us via satellite and they hadn't reported anything out of the ordinary. Sea Goblin was circling the castle and I could see the infiltration team enter the building but as soon as they did, Harkin call out an enemy Type 96 tank rolling out into the courtyard in front of the castle. Kei saw more of them coming up the road to the castle. Grimm and Captain Snow weren't going to do much good since they were only armed with air to air missiles. I ordered Swordsman to cover me and I ordered Grimm to do the same for Kei. Captain Snow followed me as I dove on the tank closest to the castle. One of the crew members was on the mounted machine gun, firing at the infiltration team as they ran across the front balcony. My radar had good tone on the tank and I let a missile loose. It flew parallel to the ground until it was directly over the tank and then it flew straight down so that it impacted the top of the vehicle. The tank was now a flaming pile of scrap that occupied the courtyard with more eager tank crew just waiting to join their friends in hell. Kei dove on a pair of tanks that were coming up the road fired her missiles at them. The remnant of the tanks blocked the road and I figured that they'd delay anymore enemy forces that tried to come up the route.

"We're being spiked by radar!" shouted Grimm. "Birdy, do you see it?"

"I'm no joy. The skies are clear," she replied.

I started to scan the ground and saw puff of smoke shoot up from the ground, east of the castle. I ordered Grimm to break left and he snap rolled over the missile. I wasted no time in swooping in and blowing that SAM site to hell with a strafing run. The infiltration team was making good progress through the castle and by the sound of things; they hadn't run into any resistance from the inside. More tanks, IFVs, and mobile AA defenses were on their way and we were trying our hardest to stave them off before they compromised Sea Goblin. I ordered Grimm and Captain Snow to disperse and help thin out the ground units with their modified sidewinders and it seemed to go well for a little bit. I wasn't really worried until Harkin said that they were engaging the enemy units inside the castle.

"I've got multiple hits on my radar. Enemy aircraft inbound," said Kei.

Oh, I've been waiting for this.

"Fighter jets," asked Pops. "Don't tell me they've got their own fighter jets, too."

"That's affirmative, they're definitely fighters."

"Guess they used the money from Osea and Yuktobania to supply their own forces. Just protect that helicopter," ordered Pops.

"Hey, fighter jets," asked Sea Goblin. "Where were they hiding those?"

"It doesn't matter where they came from. Second element, engage those bastards and protect the helicopter," I said.

Grimm and Captain Snow both acknowledged as they turned to engage the incoming enemy fighters while Kei and I continued to thin out the ground forces. These guys must've known that they couldn't keep the President hidden forever because the ground forces just kept coming. That or they were using this place as staging area to invade South Belka at some point. I had used up all my AGMs within the first minute and Kei was down to her last two. I scanned the skies for Grimm and Captain Snow and saw them engaging the enemy fighters. The Belkans were using their SU-47s and YF-23s. If Rico was able to fix Miranda in time, I would've flown circles around these guys but right now they were making fools out of Hans and Captain Snow. I looked back down at the ground and saw that only foot soldiers were left. Sea Goblin was way ahead of me and the door gunner started laying down suppression fire on the courtyard's only entrance. The Belkan soldiers were pinned down and couldn't advance any further without being cut down. With no more threats coming in from the ground, Kei and I broke away from Sea Goblin and climbed to join the others in the fur ball they had created with the Belkan pilots. Kei was attempting to help Captain Snow while I took care of the guy who was chasing after Grimm. My team counted five enemies in the air and all of them were gunning us. I was able to clear Grimm six before I was engaged by a Su-47. He kept his distance from me so that I couldn't force him to overshoot but he couldn't get a good enough missile lock on me. He was also better than the other pilots I fought over Yuktobania so I couldn't out maneuver him with my F-18. Let's see how good he really is. I led him to a lower altitude and I flew around the castle. The Belkan pilot couldn't pull lead on me with his guns without him slamming into the side of the castle and I thought he was about to break off when I saw him claw for altitude, but Michelle noticed that he reversed his direction and started to dive on us. I quickly turned into him and tried to lock onto him with a missile. My sidewinder flew off the rail and streaked towards the Su-47 but he snap rolled to the left and dodged it. I was expecting him to make a move like that and it screwed up his timing so that he could line me up in his gun sight quick enough. Before he dodged the missile, I maneuvered to the left and pointed the nose of my plane to where I thought he'd end up. Sure enough, he maneuvered into position and I let loose a volley of bullets into the enemy cockpit. I rolled out of the way at the last possible second and saw the plane crash into the water. Once he was taken care of, I looked for another target and saw Grimm being chased by an YF-23 over the lake. He was holding a descending spiral which gave me the perfect opportunity to strike. As Grimm turned to change his heading away from me, I quickly got within gun range of his pursuer and fired into his plane's exposed belly. I didn't do enough damage to shoot him down but he did break off his attack and turn his attention on me. While I led the enemy pilot through a series of sharp maneuvers, Grimm used the opportunity to clear my tail by diving on his target from his ten o' clock high and fill his plane full of lead.

"Great job, Archer, now let's help the others," I said and we peeled away from each other.

Kei was having a field day with her pursuer as she led him through every ACM possible. He was having difficulty keeping up and Kei could've easily counter maneuvered him multiple times, but she just let him follow her. I could tell the enemy pilot was becoming frustrated by the way he was flying and he was making more and more mistakes as he continued to chase Kei. He eventually got close enough for Kei to counter maneuver and pounced by performing a high G barrel roll over him. Once she was in position, she sent a missile up the enemy plane's exhaust. Only one more plane stood between us and air superiority.

"Will you guys get him off me already?" shouted Captain Snow.

"I'm trying to, Sir, but you're flying too erratically for me to get a shot on him," said Grimm.

"You've got to be kidding me, just shoot him!"

"I might hit you, Sir."

"I don't care, just shoot!"

"Grimm, back off I got an angle," said Kei.

I looked over at the rest of my team and saw Captain Snow flinging his plane all over the place in a desperate attempt to lose his pursuer, but the Belkan pilot matched every one of his evasive maneuvers. Kei was approaching from Captain Snow's three o' clock, but he did the stupidest thing and turned into her. I ordered Grimm to reengage and Captain Snow threw his F-14 into a continuous barrel roll that made it impossible for Grimm to get a clear shot. The enemy pilot had sunk his teeth into Captain Snow and he wasn't going to let up. Suddenly, Sea Goblin called out more enemy ground forces coming towards the castle. They couldn't hold off the incoming vehicles and might end up getting shot down if they got close enough. I ordered Kei and Grimm to break off and protect the infiltration tem. I was the only one who could help Captain Snow now and there was no way I could shoot down his attacker with the way he was flying.

"Snow, put that thing into a descending spiral and hold it," I said but he didn't do it. "Snow, do it!"

"Marcus, do as he says," encouraged Danny nervously.

Captain Snow hesitated for a second and I saw the enemy Su-47 land a couple hits on Snow's F-14. Captain Snow didn't waste any more time and went into the descending spiral. He was pulling it too tightly for me to get a shot on the Su-47 so I had to lag roll outside the spiral to get an angle. I had my gun on the guy and fired into his right engine. The whole aircraft blew in half and fell into the side of hill. I looked over at Captain Snow's plane and saw that the damage wasn't that bad. However, in the back of my head, I had the feeling that he was going to cause problems if he didn't listen to me. I changed heading back toward the castle to provide top cover for Sea Goblin while the rest of my team was mopping up the straggling ground forces. The infiltration team had radioed in to give us a sit rep and said that they were making good progress in the castle. Hell, since Harkin was with them, the enemy body count must've been staggering by now. If I was with them, all the Belkans would be dead by now. More ground forces were coming in along with more enemy fighters. I was locked onto by an YF-23 and I didn't see where he was coming from. Michelle had launched a set of flares to confuse the missile and we both started to scan the sky for him. Michelle finally spotted him as he climbed up to meet us from eight o' clock low at high speed. I snap rolled to my left and forced my enemy to overshoot. Michelle watched as he made a climbing left turn and I saw that he was going to use the potential energy he gained in the climb to perform a high yo-yo on me. The Belkan pilots were better trained than the Yukes I've flown against and I knew there wasn't an easy way out of my current position. I couldn't roll away in any direction without exposing myself to his line of fire and I couldn't dive away because I was too low to the ground. My pursuer fired a missile at me which I easily dodged by rolling hard right but I had set myself up to be attacked with his gun.

"Hang on, Rockford," I said as I pulled back on the stick and cut back on the throttle so that I went into a climbing right turn.

"Why are you breaking into his attack?!" she shouted.

I have no idea. My pursuer was diving on me from four o'clock high and he fired his gun at me when he was within range. I was lucky that he didn't land any hits on me and I watched as he pulled back up into a climbing right turn, thinking I was running away. I quickly reversed my direction so that our flight paths were perpendicular. The enemy pilot made the mistake of assuming that I wasn't an aggressive dogfighter, otherwise he wouldn't have tried to turn into me like this. I quickly pulled lead on the Su-47 and fired my gun into his left wing. The entire wing tore off and the aircraft plummeted out of the sky into the lake. The pilot ejected but I thought it would've been better if he stayed inside his plane. He would've frozen to death in the lake.

"Sea Goblin, we need a strafing run at the southwest corner of the castle. Marking targets with green smoke. How copy, over," said Harkin over the radio.

"Roger that, standby," replied Sea Goblin as he flew into position. I looked over toward Sea Goblin and saw it hovering as the door gunner fired his mini gun at the designated target. I could hear Harkin ordering his team to say down until Sea Goblin stopped shooting. The green smoke had subsided and the infiltration team began to move deeper inside the castle. "Dammit, we can't provide any cover for them from here," said the door gunner.

"Colonel, how much longer is it going to be?" I asked.

"We're encountering more resistance the further we go. We should be getting close."

"Geez, gunfight with just a banquet table between us," said a Marine.

"What, they didn't prepare any dinner for us? Keep moving Marines," shouted Harkin.

"The enemy planes are all heading for the helicopter!" exclaimed Grimm.

"Edge, Swordsman; get over there and lend them some support. Sea Goblin, I need you to head back to north side of the castle and cut off the ground troops' path to the castle. Grimm, you and I are going to take care of those incoming APCs," I ordered and we all got to work.

I dove on a pair of APCs and fired my gun into its turret and saw it explode. Grimm followed my lead and fired into the second one, taking out a few soldiers within close proximity to it. Sea Goblin recommenced its suppression fire on the ground troops that tried breaking through and stopped them, but more enemy fighters were still coming after him. I couldn't provide them with any cover because the enemy ground vehicles were still coming. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a lot of mobile SAMs started to mobilize. I could attack the enemy ground forces without running the risk of being spiked by an enemy SAM. I circled the castle in a wide right turn and saw Captain Snow dive on an enemy plane that was gunning for Sea Goblin. Snow could've attacked the enemy fighter from his nine o' clock high, but instead he swung in behind him and shot the Belkan plane out of the sky with his gun. What's worse was when he pulled out of his attack; he barrel rolled over Sea Goblin and knocked it around with his jet wash.

"Ah, dammit, hold on!" shouted Sea Goblin. I looked over towards Sea Goblin and saw it staggering through the sky. The pilot was trying desperately to regain control of the helicopter and he almost crashed into the side of the castle. "Dammit, Swordsman, watch where you're flying!"

Captain Snow was really starting to get under my skin with the way he kept endangering himself and the others around him. Assuming this mission was a success, I was going to let Captain Snow have it. He might've been higher than me in rank, but he was on my team now and I wasn't going to put up with this in the future.

"We've broken into the enemy command post! This is the enemy's nerve center!" said one of the infiltration team members.

"Whatever you do, don't shoot the President by accident," said Harkin.

"Sir, have you found him?" I asked.

"Yeah, we got him. Now we just have to find our way out of here. Everyone on me," ordered Harkin as I heard him fire his shotgun over the radio.

"Roger that. Alright guys, I want the skies clear before Sea Goblin heads in to pick them up," I said.

The sky was still swarming with enemy planes and the ground forces had been stopped dead in their tracks, thanks to Sea Goblins door gunner. We all picked out our targets and I started to chase after a Su-47 flying at low altitude over the lake towards my two o' clock low. I only had eight AMRAAMs and three sidewinders left but I had to save my sidewinders in case there was a ground target I needed to destroy. Michelle locked him up with an AMRAAM and fired, but the enemy pilot broke hard left and put himself in position for me to fill his right wing full of 20mm slugs. The pilot couldn't get out in time and he slammed into the side of the hill where the castle was. Kei was busy clearing Grimm's tail as he led the trailing YF-23 to higher altitude. Kei was trailing further behind him in preparation to spring a trap they had talked about, but Kei didn't see another YF-23 that was diving on her from her six o' clock high. I gunned my engines and tried to catch up with her, but she was too far out of range to shoot down with my gun.

"Edge, watch your back," shouted Danny.

The enemy plane opened fire on Kei with his gun and she snap rolled out of the way. The enemy plane shot past Kei and climbed back up to meet her. She didn't break off her attack and she couldn't see him in his current position. I continued to speed towards him and finally got within range to fire another AMRAAM. The enemy pilot didn't see the missile until the last second, but by that time it was too late. Kei was clear to attack her target as soon as Grimm snapped his F-14 into a stall and fell towards the ground after he led his pursuer into a vertical climb. The enemy fighter turned to follow Grimm but he didn't expect to see Kei to launch a missile and blow his ass out of the sky.

"Zorro, we need your help over here!" shouted Danny.

Wow, I haven't been called by that name in six years. I looked over towards my nine o' clock low to see Captain Snow chasing another Su-47 with an YF-23 tight on his tail. I nosed over into a diving left turn and attempted to get behind the plane, but Snow had gotten to them first. He pulled a high G barrel roll over his pursuer and locked onto him and his first target with his remaining two AMRAAMs. Captain Snow thought he was all clear, but he didn't see another fighter diving right on top of him. I brought my guns to bear on him and fired into his flight path. He flew into my steam of bullets, but I didn't do enough damage to shoot him down. The Belkan pilot broke off his attack on Captain Snow and tried to turn his attention on me, but Kei shot past me and made him chase her. Of course as soon as he did, Grimm joined the fray and finished him off with his gun. I smiled at the fact that my team was working so well together, but I had to get Captain Snow in sync with us.

"Aw hell, we're cut off," shouted a member of the infiltration team. "Colonel, what do we do?"

"…. Blow this wall. The helicopter can pick us up from here," said Harkin.

"We can't blow it with the explosives we brought with us," replied a squad member.

"Shit! This is Sea Goblin; we've run into enemy fire from multiple positions in the castle. We're pinned down over here! Break down part of the wall for us!"

We all circled around the castle, waiting for the infiltration team to make their position so that we could break down the wall. The helicopter crew designated the Southern wall of the castle once they had the infiltration team's position. I was about to head in and attack the target because I was the only one who had any multipurpose sidewinders left, but before I got within range to fire, more enemy fighters appeared on radar and they were headed right for me. My team wasted no time in breaking off to try and support me. I was nervous as all hell because the Belkan pilots' attacks were relentless. I could hear Michelle breathing heavily as she tried to stay calm and deploy our countermeasures at the right moment. The distance from me to my target seemed like miles away when in reality it was less than a kilometer. Su-47 and YF-23s were exploding all around me while tracers and missiles flew by the canopy. I was almost within range when I heard that the infiltration team started taking casualties. I knew Harkin was fighting as hard as he could to keep his men alive, but they wouldn't last long. When I was finally within missile range, I was about to launch two of my missiles when a thought occurred to me. What if I accidentally kill the infiltration team? Time just seemed to stop as I thought about it. If I didn't shoot, the infiltration team would surely die along with the President. If I did shoot, I could end up killing all of them myself. I could kill them but they have a chance to survive if I do shoot. I launched one missile and waited for it to impact the wall of the castle. When I saw the missile explode, the castle wall still looked like it was intact so I fired a second missile. I didn't see the missile impact because I caught a glimpse of an enemy fighter in my rear view mirror. He was coming in too fast which allowed me to barrel roll over him and fill his plane full of lead. He spiraled out of control and crashed into one of the towers of the castle. The impact of the crash was enough to crumble the already weakened wall of the castle. The helicopter wasted no time trying to maneuver into position while the infiltration team prepared to move out. We weren't out of the woods yet. There were still a large number of enemy planes headed our way and they weren't going to let us get away with the President. I turned to engage them and locked four of them up with my AMRAAMs. The missile flew towards their targets and only two of them hit. The remaining enemy fighters scattered and the rest of my team fired their AMRAAMs in an attempt to down the enemy pilots or confuse them. Once they all scattered, Kei and I moved in to finish them off while Captain Snow and Grimm stayed with Sea Goblin. I spotted a straggling YF-23 at low altitude over the nuclear crater to the south west of the castle. He didn't see me diving out of the sun while I fired my gun into the midsection of his plane. As soon as I saw him go down, I applied full throttle and clawed for altitude before the remaining enemy fighters saw me, but I wasn't that lucky. The remaining six enemy fighters all saw me and began to chase me into the vertical. I wasn't all that worried because I knew that Kei would make her move when I gave her an opening. I leveled off at seven thousand feet and began banking hard left and right, in an attempt to draw their attention. It wasn't long before Kei dove out of the sky and fired another four AMRAAMs at the enemy formation, knocking three of the out. The remaining enemy fighters didn't scatter and I used the distraction to barrel roll behind them and shoot down the flight lead with my gun. The remaining two enemy fighters broke away and Kei and I both engaged them. My target applied full power to his engines and began to lead me to higher altitude through a vertical scissors maneuver. I was losing speed rapidly and if this kept up much longer, I would stall and become an easy target for him.

"Captain, please tell me you have a plan," said Michelle.

"Don't I always?" I replied. As the Su-47 and I passed each other, I applied full throttle and climbed into the sun. The enemy pilot soon reversed his direction and tried to follow me but he wasn't sure of my exact location. He did manage to tock onto me with a missile and Michelle managed to break his lock with a set of flares. I pulled a high G split S to reverse my direction so that my target was directly ahead of me. We were coming at each other for a head on pass too quickly for me to lock onto him or line him up in my gun sight. If I couldn't shoot him down in this head on pass, I would be in some serious trouble. "Brace yourself, Valkyrie."

I was going to replicate what I did to Green when I fought him over Apito International. When I was close enough, I rolled above him just enough to avoid his gun fire when he final saw me. He was expecting me to make a knife's edge pass with him but I dipped my wing down just enough to graze the wing root of his right wing. I looked in my rear view mirror to see his wing rip off completely as he fell towards the ground. The pilot ejected over the nuclear crater and I thought that if the freezing water didn't kill him, the nuclear fallout would. My plane only bucked a little to the left but I still managed to maintain control during the impact. Rico's going to be pissed.

"Seriously, Blaze, are you trying to get us killed?!" shouted Michelle.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt to just give me a compliment instead of criticism for once," I replied as I turned back to find Kei. She was at high altitude with an enemy fighter on her tail. Dammit, I should've warned her about that! "Edge, put your bird into a dive and lead him to a lower altitude."

Kei nosed over into a near vertical dive with the enemy plane glued to her tail. I could see that she was flying past Mach 1 when her F-18 broke the sound barrier. I was already on my way to help her, but she had turned the tables on her opponent. Kei snapped the stick back and made her plane go perpendicular to the angle she was diving at. Her airspeed dropped like a ton of bricks and the enemy pilot fired on her with his gun. I felt time slow down as I watched the tracers make their way towards Kei's F-18. I thought they were going to fly into her cockpit and I wanted to scream her name, but before I could, she maneuvered out of the way by applying full right rudder and perform an extremely tight horizontal spin. When she came out of the spin, she continued to hold the stall while her attacker shot past and gunned his engines to get away. Kei rolled over to dive after the enemy plane and got within range to fire an AMRAAM, but before she could shoot, the enemy fighter burst into flames. I looked towards the enemy's nine o' clock to see Captain Snow headed her way. What the hell is this guy's deal!

"Nice one, Marcus," shouted Danny.

"Swordsman, what the hell are you doing here?!" I shouted.

"I figured you guys could use a hand," he replied insouciantly.

"Captain, requesting assistance," Grimm shouted urgently.

I just about had it with Captain Snow. He wasn't following orders, he endangered my team along with Sea Goblin, and he wasn't thinking about the mission at hand. Kei used the speed she gained in her dive to quickly help Grimm while Captain Snow formed up on my right win. I couldn't hide my anger as I Glared over at Captain Snow. I could see Danny staring at me out the corner of my eye and he knew I was mad. I was thinking about how I should deal with Captain Snow and the first thing that came to mind was to beat the shit out of him, but I needed him for the rest of this operation. I'll deal with him later. I looked ahead and saw Grimm attempting to elude a pair of enemy fighters tight on his tail. More enemy fighters were headed for Sea Goblin as he finished air lifting the infiltration team out of the castle. Kei quickly intercepted them and managed to foil their attack run.

"Hurry up and leave the area! The enemy's gonna be here any moment," said Harkin.

"Sea Goblin, we'll take on the enemy planes," said Kei.

"We're defenseless in the air. We're counting on you!"

"Is that you? The lady with the pretty voice, are you there too?" asked the President

"What the...the sky's still swarming with enemy planes!" shouted Sea Goblin.

"We'll take care of them, just get out of there, now!" I ordered as I dive into the fight.

I dove on an YF-23 from his three o' clock as he was making his attack run on the helicopter. Sea Goblin tried to thwart his attack by firing on him with the door gun, but it didn't have that much of an effect. I quickly centered him on my gun sight and fired into his cockpit before he got within gun range of Sea Goblin. The YF-23 wasn't trailing any smoke or fire as he lazily dipped the nose towards the ground and crashed into the castle. Another enemy plane was attempting to attack Sea Goblin from the rear and I wasn't in any position to attack. Grimm saw the attacking enemy fighter and dove after it, even though he had an enemy fighter on his tail. I turned around and chased after the enemy fighter while Grimm shot down his target. I came up from underneath Grimm's attacker and pulled an Immelmann turn to keep him in my sights. I must've hit the missile bay of his plane because it vaporized into thin air after I fired a dozen rounds into the enemy fighter's belly.

"Wardog, don't engage the enemy fighters in a full on fight. Just hold off their attacks," I said.

Sea Goblin was flying as fast as he could out of the AO. The only safe zone was to the south of our current position, the state of South Belka. Unless North Belka wanted to start an international incident, they couldn't follow us into Osea. However, we also ran the risk of getting shot down ourselves if we went too far also. My team was trying to hold off the enemy fighters as best we could and they almost got lucky a handful of times. In one final effort, the remaining enemy fighters regrouped for an attack on Sea Goblin, but my team and I were ready for them. We all formed up and headed right for the enemy formation. They still had to run the gauntlet if they were going to get to Sea Goblin. When the enemy formation was in range, we locked onto all of them with our remaining AMRAAMs and fired. They all scattered and tried to break the locks with chaff, but it wasn't any good. All but two of the enemy fighters were shot down and they dove for the deck to pass under us. Wardog pulled into a split S to get on the tails of the remaining two fighters as they made a run for Sea Goblin. I managed to shoot one of them down with my last sidewinder, but we couldn't finish off the lead plane without running the risk of damaging Sea Goblin as the enemy fighter pulled up for an attack on the helicopter's nine o' clock. Captain Snow started to pull ahead and got into position to fire.

"Snow, don't!" I shouted.

"Why not," he exclaimed

"Sea Goblin, we can't shoot him down without putting you in danger," I warned.

"Give me that!" I heard Harkin yell over the radio from inside the helicopter.

I didn't know what he was thinking and I felt like it was up to me to try and do something, so I pulled up to gain altitude so that I could dive on the enemy fighter. As I came out of the climb and went into the dive, the enemy fighter began to fire on Sea Goblin with its gun, but before the enemy pilot could do any real damage, the plane's cockpit became engulfed in flames. What just happened? We looked around the sky and saw that we were clear of all enemy fighters and proceeded into Osean airspace. I formed up on the left side of Sea Goblin and saw Lt. Colonel Harkin sitting at the edge of the helicopter's doorway. He had an M16 equipped with an M203 in his hands and I could see him smiling at me. Harkin used his teammate's grenade launcher to shoot down the enemy fighter when he got within range. I was actually impressed he was able to do that.

"We managed to make it out of there. Mission accomplished," said Sea Goblin.

"I see you've improved, Kid. You're almost as good as Captain Nagase," said Harkin.

"Very funny, Sir," I replied and I could hear the rest of my team laugh.

"Thank you, everyone, I appreciate your efforts," said the President. "By the way your voice sounds familiar. Are you…?"

"Yes, Sir, what would you do without us?"

"I thought so. Looks like I owe you another one."

I couldn't help but smile knowing that President Harling was finally coming home. The past month and a half must've been hell for him. I wanted to ask what happened to his secretary, Tommy, but I think I already knew the answer. We all fell into formation around Sea Goblin and escorted the helicopter until it was out of range of enemy air attack. I could hear the chatter coming from the infiltration team as they talked about the rescue mission. By the sound of things, they seemed like they had just got done playing a game of paintball. Some of them were wounded but none of them were in fatal condition. They were actually laughing about it. I switched my radio over to 182MHz and began to listen to the music that was being broadcasted over the channel. It was ironic because the song that was playing was called 'Rescue Blues' by Ryan Adams. This whole flight back to the Kestrel reminded me of the ending to my favorite movie.