Okhada

Asean Republic, Pacific Ocean

April 11th, 437 AC

11:11 AM Local Time

"All actuals, report in," Alex ordered.

"This is General Alston. We're all positioned outside the city, and we're ready to move in," Alston reported.

"Captain Valner here. We've got the port blocked off, and we're ready to provide supporting fire on your mark, General," Valner announced.

"Cyborg reporting in. We have eyes on the city, and we're moving in now," Cyborg said.

"Good," Alex replied. "Phase 1 of the operation is a go. I sent out the broadcast, and it's playing on a loop, so I should be good to- shit," he muttered. "Looks like I've got company."

"Do you need us to move in, sir?" Alston asked urgently.

"I'll be fine," Alex assured him. "I can't take care of myself for now. After all, I was in the army too back in the day, so just go. I'll be fine."

"You heard the man," Stallion chimed in. "Let's get busy. All ALF aircraft, Loyalist fighters are taking off from the airport. Commence Phase 1 and establish air superiority so our ground forces can move in," he ordered.

"Roger that, Stallion," Jay replied. "Templar Team, engaging," he announced as he pushed the throttle forward and flew straight at the incoming aircraft.

"That's a lotta targets, Samurai," Nyx observed. "Which ones are we going for first?"

Jay's eyes quickly scanned over the incoming aircraft before he pointed out a cluster just a little off to the right of them. "See that group of SK.27s?" he asked. "We'll start with those."

Nyx nodded. "Gotcha, want me to get MLAAs ready?"

"Nah, no point," Jay answered as he shook his head. "They'll just evade. Besides, this is gonna be a long fight. We'll need to conserve our ammo as much as possible." He looked over his shoulder at his three squadmates behind him. "Eagle, why don't you help me out with these Flankers? Mustang, Jolt, take out those MG-21s to the left in case they try to get behind us," Jay ordered.

After another moment or two, Jay found himself diving headfirst into the SK.27s with Eagle right behind him. Jay deployed countermeasures without making any attempts to evade as he flew straight past the enemies. Once he got some distance between them, he pitched straight up and looped around to go at them again. Firing two standard missiles at the first Flanker, Jay dove back down to the ground and looped around the buildings to shake off the missiles he had coming behind him. The first two missiles he fired reported successful hits, and he took that as an opportunity to climb back up to meet the remaining four SK.27s, which quickly became three as Eagle shot one down.

"Y'know you could help me out here," Eagle remarked snidely. "I'm the one who's doing my best to keep all their attention on me while you keep doing that hit and run shit."

"Hey, it's working, isn't it?" Jay asked as he fired another pair of standard missiles at a Flanker, which quickly hit their marks.

"Maybe," Eagle admitted. "But you do have one coming up on your tail, so… y'know, watch out for that."

Nyx rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks, Eagle. Real helpful," she said in a sarcastic yet lighthearted voice. "I wasn't sure why this radar lock warning was going off, so it was really kind of you to point that out for me."

"Hey, I'm just trying to give you a helping hand," Eagle said nonchalantly

Jay released flares and banked right to get his pursuer off of his tail. "Nyx, track him for me."

"Already on it," Nyx replied, looking over her shoulder at the SK.27 behind them.

The Flanker fired another pair of missiles at them, which Jay only narrowly avoided. As he finally completed his turn, he pitched up and gained more altitude before straightening his plane back out.

"He overshot us, and now he's turning right," Nyx called out. "He's probably gonna end up going past us again."

"You want any help?" Eagle asked. "I took mine out, so that's the last one."

"Nah, I've got this," Jay replied.

He made as sharp of a right turn as he could and dropped his speed. Just as Nyx predicted, the SK.27 flew right past them, putting themselves in a perfect position for Jay to put his machine gun sight right over them and hold the trigger down, finishing them off in seconds.

"Hey, y'know how I said that I had company earlier?" Alex suddenly asked over the radio. "Well, turns out they were listening to my broadcast, and they're here to help, so I've kinda got my own little entourage now," he said with a bit of a chuckle.

Gray laughed. "Why does that not surprise me at all?"

"Cyborg, what's the status of Phase 1?" Alston asked, ignoring Gray's remark.

"I'd say about a quarter of enemy aircraft are down," Cyborg estimated. "We'll keep working, but this is probably gonna take a while. You're just gonna have to be patient."

"Templar, it looks like some aircraft are headed for our fleet," Stallion observed. "Shoot 'em down before they can do any serious damage," he ordered.

"We're on it, Stallion," Jay assured the AWACS operator. "Mustang, Jolt, ya with us?"

"You bet," Mustang answered as he and Joly slipped into formation behind Jay and Eagle. "Let's take 'em out."

"All batteries, prepare for anti-air combat!" Janet ordered. "Templar Team has better things to do than babysit us, so let's make sure they don't have to do it for long."

"Hey, Nyx. You see that group of F/C-16s?" Jay asked. "Ready the MLAAs for 'em. Let's try and swat them down in one shot."

"Roger that," Nux replied. "Templar 1, Fox 3!"

Four missiles shot out from under their wings and flew straight toward their targets. The enemy Vipers tried to evade, but they were too close when Jay fired the missiles, so they didn't have much time to do anything before all four of them went down. With the Vipers down, Jay, Eagle, Mustang, and Jolt went to engage a flight of four F/C-15s head-on as they turned around to face the ones that shot down their comrades. It was a test of endurance and reaction time that Templar ultimately won.

"There you go, Captain. All enemy fighters approaching your position are down," Jay reported.

"Much obliged for the support, Samurai," Valner called out. "Now get back out there and give 'em hell for us!"

Not wasting any time, Templar Team did precisely that and looped back around to get back into the furball, which was gradually starting to slow down. After taking a quick look around the battlefield, Jay set his sights on the most crowded part of the skies and switched on the afterburner.

"Come on, everyone," Cyborg said. "There's only about a third of the enemy fighters left. Let's finish them off!"

As soon as they were within range of the furball, Jay and Nyx let another MLAA salvo fly out. The missiles left uniform trails as they stuck in rigid formation with each other until they got closer to their targets. At that point, they branched out, almost in a sunburst formation, and sped toward their targets. Of the six Jay and Nyx fired, four of them hit their marks. The other two whiffed by, speeding off until they exploded in the distance.

Tightening his grip on the control stick, Jay made a hard left turn to get behind the MG-31 trying to get a clear shot on Mustang. The Foxhound quickly noticed Jay and started evading while still keeping himself behind Mustang to try and take him down. Jay fired two standard missiles at the MG-31, but they quickly dodged it and continued their pursuit. Eventually, Jay managed to get close enough where he could take them down with machine guns.

"Lemme guess, I owe you two a drink?" Mustang asked with a groan. "Cause I'll be honest, I'm kinda getting tired of having to buy drinks for you two."

"Don't you worry, Mustang. If we make it through this, then drinks are all on me," Cyborg assured him. "Of course, you do need to be alive to cash in on that, so see that as motivation if you want."

"Look, there's only a few planes left," Nyx pointed out. "Let's finish 'em off."

Jay chuckled a bit. "I'm way ahead of you, Nyx," he said as he turned to engage one of the last Loyalist fighters, an F/D-14.

Jay pitched up, climbing rapidly until he was within range of the Tomcat, which was still higher in the sky, and fired two missiles. However, their missiles lost their mark when the Tomcat deployed flares and dove down to engage. This time, it was their turn to fire missiles, which Jay and Nyx only narrowly avoided as they turned up and to the right.

"They're coming back around from the left!" Nyx warned.

Jay started making a left turn to face the F/D-14 head-on but stopped halfway into the turn. The Tomcat fired missiles again, but Jay deployed countermeasures and turned right again as they flew by. As he straightened the plane out, Jay pushed the throttle forward and got as close to the Tomcat's tail as he could before firing machine guns to finally take them down.

"This is AWACS Stallion to ALCON. Loyalist air superiority is no factor," Stallion informed everyone. "Phase 2 is a go. General Alston, ground forces are clear to move up into the city. All aircraft provide close air support. Captain Valner, make sure the fleet is standing by for fire support but only fire at targets designated by the ground forces. We don't wanna risk any civilian casualties."

"Finally, one step closer to ending this thing," Tux said.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Stallion reminded her. "We've still got a long fight ahead of us."

"Then we'd best get to work," Cyborg chimed in. "The sooner we're done here, the better."

"Samurai, I swear to god if you start flying between the buildings, I might have to kill you," Nyx warned.

"Aw, come on, Nyx," Jay said with a smirk. "Mean to say you don't trust me?" he asked, looking back at her.

"If you think trust is the issue, then I think that's a problem in and of itself." Nyx tried to keep her composure, but eventually, she ended up sighing. "Just try not to crash us into a building,"

Jay smirked as he circled the city and dove down between the buildings. He started by firing two missiles at a tank and gunning down an APC before pulling back up into the sky. Looking around, Jay set his sights on a group of ground targets all clustered together. All it took to deal with them was a quick burst from his machine guns and a missile.

"Alex, are you still at the broadcast tower?" Alston asked. "We're just crossing over 3rd Street, so we could swing by and pick you up if you are."

"Yeah, we're holed up on the first floor, but we're in a bit of a pickle right now," Alex answered with gunfire clearly audible in the background. "We'll hold our own, but if you show up from 4th Street, you should be able to catch them off-guard."

"Copy, we're on our way," Alston answered.

"Jeez, there sure are a lot of Loyalists that are just surrendering without any issue," Gray observed. "At the very least, it makes our job that much easier."

"You'd be surprised how things can change when people know what they're really fighting for," Alex told him. "The people of the Asean Republic have had enough of being a puppet of the Federation, so they're not gonna let Harrow hand us right back over to them after all we've fought for."

Jay suddenly turned his attention to the missile alert going off in his cockpit. He looked down at his radar to see where it was coming from and turned to face it. Deploying countermeasures just before it hit, he angled his plane downward and fired a missile at the two SAM launchers in front of him. With them out of the way, Jay made a hard left turn and sped toward another group of tanks and APCs. He fired two missiles at the first tank and took out the second one with machine guns. Then, he came back around and finished off the rest of the APCs.

"It looks like things are finally clearing up," Jay observed as he circled the city again. "We're almost done." He could feel his heart pounding harder and harder in his chest as the thought of the war finally ending was almost a reality.

"Well, we've linked up with Alex, and we're ready to deal the final blow," Alston reported. "How are we looking, Stallion?"

"Loyalist forces are falling back to the capitol building. It looks like they're going to make one last stand," Stallion told them. "All units, let's finish this."

"This is it, everyone," Cyborg chimed in. "This is what we've been looking for this whole time. Let's end this war."

Jay turned toward the capitol building and prepared to make a pass over the Loyalist ground units gathering at the steps. "Right, here we go!"

Jay was just about to fire missiles when a new voice came over the radio. "All combatants in the city of Okhada, cease fighting immediately!" the man ordered.

"What's going on?" Eagle asked as he went into a holding pattern around the capital building with the rest of Templar Team. "Who is that?"

As if on cue, the man spoke again. "This is Supreme Commander Finn Harrow, Head of the Asean Republic Armed Forces." He paused for a moment, then sighed. "I'm extending my official surrender."

Several soldiers started cheering over the radio.

"Is that it?" Nyx asked. "Is it over?"

"All units, ceasefire immediately," Stallion ordered. "Changing IFF parameters now."

"Commander Harrow, this is General Alston, commander of the Asean Liberation Front's ground divisions," Alston informed Harrow. "We graciously accept your surrender. Make preparations to be disarmed. We're coming inside. I just have one question for you."

"And what would that be, Alston?" Harrow asked with a hint of contempt in his voice.

"Why did you do it? Why were you planning on selling our nation out to the Federation again, especially after everything you'd done?" Alston asked. "Are you really a man who can be bought out that easily?"

Harrow sighed. "You don't understand, but then again, I don't expect someone as naive as you or Alex Maranno to understand. It wasn't just about the money but rather out of necessity. When the Federation comes for our nation, you'll understand," he said spitefully.

"Maybe we will," Alex chimed in. "But it's better to go down fighting than to sell ourselves out to the likes of them. At least then we'll die with our integrity intact."

"Well, hot damn!" Mustang exclaimed. "I can't believe it's finally over."

"It's been a long and bumpy road, but we finally did it," Jolt agreed.

"All aircraft, prepare to land at the airport," Stallion ordered.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Cyborg said with a chuckle. "All Paladin teams, let's collect our pay."