A View to Kill
A summit conference between Osean Federation and the nations across Usean Continent, mainly focusing on the continued Osean assistance to Usean sovereignties, as well as the ongoing ISEV Project, is being held in Oured. After years of strife, finally those political leaders half a world away start to pick up some sense, replacing war and destruction with peace and construction, and the superpower is pleased to see they're improving, therefore agrees to extend the second helping hand.
"Mr. Harling, Usean Continent cannot thank you enough." As the conference's closing ceremony concludes, conventioneers are dismissed and are escorted to their respective residences, and during the progress of walking from the conference building, President of Federation of Central Usea, also the acting chairman of Usean Continental Economic Community, talks to Vincent Harling, the revered former president of Osean Federation and the head of ISEV Project.
"You're welcome. I also have to thank you for your understanding and cooperation." Although had retired from presidency, Harling doesn't have too much time to enjoy a family-centered post-retirement, since he's been called back to duty for being recognized as a hero worldwide and more importantly, a world-renown heroic political leader is in short supply, given the fact politicians usually aren't viewed as trustworthy figures (save for selected few such as Mao Zedong, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and George Washington, etc.), so the most suitable face to run ISEV Project is none other than him. For Harling himself, he's always glad to continue serving his fatherland, not to mention to further promote world peace and international cooperation, or more rhetorically "Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind".
"Don't mention that. There're always small-minded, short-sighted people, obsessed with old and obsolete worldviews, blind to the new era. I'll do everything I can with the UCEC." The two shake hand before bidding farewell.
A few days later, Harling returns to a certain Shinto shrine, where he married a certain miko there and had joined her family for the marriage. After a heroic welcome and the ensuing reception dinner for the hero, inside the couple's quarters, Harling is being tightly nestled by his wife, the petite-figured miko bishoujo, Rekka Shiratori, and is passionately kissed by her; meanwhile he also wraps his arms around her and caresses her crotch-reaching, raven-colored hair of silkiness. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, since they've been separated for several weeks, it's completely natural to be clingy. Still the husband senses something unnatural from his significant other: "Did anything happen when I was away? You're never this clingy before, and it might be my hunch, but I think others were giving me meaningful looks ever since I returned."
"Something wonderful happened just days after you left." They look deeply into each other's eyes for a long moment, then the bishoujo reveals the stunning news: "Vin-kun, I'm pregnant, pigeon pair."
"That's…that's truly wonderful!" Harling, undoubtedly, is dumbfounded and overjoyed: "The most wonderful thing ever could happen!" He wants to hug her tighter, but for the consideration of the fetuses' safety, he doesn't, yet they can still kiss.
Later that evening, before going to bed, Rekka, in babydoll-style lingerie, sits in the front of the dresser to let Harling combs Rekka's hair like he always. Long and silky hair is recognized as one of the most important elements to constitute feminity since ancient times and he loves to touch her hair, saying she looks like Kaguya-hime with it; Rekka also loves her husband touching her hair, it's a cherished intimacy between the couple.
"I decide to quit my career in the air force." The bishoujo states her plan: "I have honored my duty as a solider, it's time to honor the responsibility of parenting."
"Although Osea has much need of a super-ace like you, hime-chan, but I totally agree with your decision, and fostering the next generation is as honorable as military service, I might add." Her husband chuckles and echoes.
"We can also prepare our babies' room together, Vin-kun."
"I have to disagree, better leave this part to your trustworthy Vin-kun, hime-chan."
"It's just like a fairytale, everything I can wish for has become true, or is becoming true." She says with a dreamy expression.
"Then let's go to bed fairytale-like as well, shall we, my little princess from the Moon?" Harling holds Rekka in the posture of bridal carry and places her gently on their bed. Both laugh heartily during the process.
…
【Background Music: Ending Credits & Theme Reprise】
【Extracted from Video Game "Star Fox: Assault"】
A large chuck of meteorite is falling directly into the atmosphere, precisely to the center of a metropolis by the sea, which is deliberately portrayed to look like Farbanti. The entire cityscape immediately changes into an infernal apocalypse following the impact, a déjà vu of Hiroshima Nuclear Strike.
Captions appear: Destruction of Erusea is inevitable.
The sky above horizon is dyed in crimson as if it's on fire, even the Sun loses its brightness.
Captions appear: Ever since your treachery began, your fate had been sealed.
Swarms of military aircraft, fighters, bombers, transports and helicopters slowly and menacingly sweep past the city, which is already nothing more than burning rubble.
Captions appear: Soon there will be enough fighters, bombers, helicopters and gunships in the sky to block the Sun.
Camera is shooting vertically among several collapsed buildings, and a bomber timely moves past in front of the lens to block sunshine.
Captions appear: And should you decide to hide underground, fighting in the shade in an attempt to avoid death from above…
Camera is shooting the messed-up streets, platoons of tanks are advancing with peremptoriness, crushing wreckage of automobiles right and left.
Captions appear: …we will dig you out for extermination as well.
Camera takes a bird's-eye view of the doomed city, countless thick pillars of black smoke are rising into the sky dome, further darkening it, as if an eclipse.
Captions appear: The dam has collapsed, the flood of apocalypse cannot be withstood. The ruins of your civilization will not be your legacy, and your futile struggles only amuse us.
Footage of various hellish streetscape flashes in order, each of them lasts approximately for ten seconds.
Captions appear: Abandon your faith, abandon your beliefs, abandon your homes, and abandon all hope.
…
【Background Music Stops】
The content above is one of the latest updates of Osean Federation's anti-Erusea propaganda campaigns, a promotional video to demoralize remaining Eruseans who still want to put up a fight, after the fall (and subsequent burnout) of their capital, Farbanti, on September 19th 2019. Many things transpired in a short order following Operation Eternal Damnation, for example Rosa Cossette D'Elise, princess of Kingdom of Erusea, publicly known as "Lady Mussolini" and "Erusean Royal Slut", was found being killed along with her inner circle in Erusean Royal Residence, and the murders happened to be surviving members of Grey Men, led by Dr. Schroeder, the princess' paramour and the mastermind behind the Lighthouse War. Osea quickly raided and occupied Salty Lake Airbase, Grey Men's base of operation, yet still too late, for doc and his gang had already fled to ISEV, with the fruitions of their researches and experiments, worse still, it was believed they were also carrying Rosa Cossette D'Elise's clearance, in the form of an eyeball and a hand, both were surgically removed from her corpse, to activate hidden superweapons built inside the space elevator. On the other hand, with their capital lost and royal line purged, also de-heartened by Osean psychological offensive, remaining Erusean units began to surrender one after another, some of them even expressed the will of having fresh starts in other sovereignties like Osean Federation for instance.
【Scene Reconstruction】
Several large-sized speakers atop armored vehicles are shouting to enemies who entrenched themselves for their last stand: "This is the Osean Ground Defense Force Fourth Army Group, 2nd Independent Division, 1st Brigade, 139th Regiment, 3rd Battalion, 9th Company, sending our collective greeting to the 168th Division of Erusean Royal Army! You're critical on supplies and you have been surrounded completely! We understand your situation and we had prepared two options to relieve your predicaments! One is ordnance and the other being dumplings! If you choose the ordnance, we'll force-feed you with way more than you can swallow! If you choose the dumplings, strike your colors and hand over your weapons to exchange for chopsticks, then we can sit down and enjoy a happy meal together!"
"Sir, ground observation, aerial and satellite surveillance show no activities from Eruseans." Vice-company-commander reports.
"Keep broadcasting for three more cycles, then wait for another fifteen minutes to send the ultimatum."
"Yes sir."
Then the Eruseans in question come out with white flags and guns raised above heads, before the "three more cycles" run out. A couple of hours later, all of them are disarmed and relocated in a POW camp, in order to be properly feed and medicated, and they can also use baths and some new clothes there.
"Where are you from, son?" An Osean military officer is jokingly asking while walking past the queue of Erusean war prisoners, who're waiting for their turns of using field bathrooms, and they look quite depressed despite having made out of this disastrous war alive. Being a prisoner is never something to be proud of, therefore the officer doesn't expect an answer, until someone suddenly responds: "Redmill." And his voice is heavily accented with local tongue of the said city.
"Redmill? You gotta be kidding me!" Shocked, the officer quickly runs a visual measurement on this particular prisoner, and finds out he looks like just reached the minimum legal drinking age: "What are you doing in an Erusean uniform?"
"Descendant of Erusean immigrants. I answered the call 'All true Eruseans should return to the fatherland'. Joined up in '18, after the pandemic."
"Well, guess you were confused about where the true fatherland of yours is. Say, what got you to Redmill?"
"Born there, near the Astronautic Town."
"Me too, spent my entire life there! Minus the service."
In the following minutes these two temperately forget their allegiances and are locked in a rather joyful chat.
"…who can forget that? The Milky Way Avenue! A boy's school on one side and a girl's school right on the opposite side! This is the best pun in centuries!"
"Yeah yeah! And the even better part is both the principals were used to be husband and wife before divorcing! They forbid students from one campus dating those from the other, but the students openly disobey and date explicitly on the skybridge, so it gains the nickname 'The Bridge of Magpies'…"
The chat is abruptly cut off by the call of duty: "Malarkey, don't get sweet with POW, come here!"
"Ouch, the chores." The officer leaves with an encouragement to the prisoner: "Don't worry son, we'll get you back to your folks, and I'm sure they'll hold a banquet for your return! Surviving an unjust war is not shameful!"
"Why I've got a sinking feeling that they'll slap and spank me before hugging and kissing?" The prisoner chuckles bitterly.
【Scene Reconstruction Ends】
Not every acceptance of surrender is carried out in a relatively…for lack of a better word, "friendly" atmosphere. But hey, is there any doubt for that?
【Scene Reconstruction】
Hundreds of Erusean POW are being escorted in columns to designated camps, overwatched by Osean military personnel.
"Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Erusean bastards! That's right! Say hello to Hong Qi, and bow to Dongfeng fuckin' Motor! You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You only have limp legs and ragged shoes! What were you thinking?" One Osean military personnel shouts to the vanquished, angrily and haughtily.
"Enough, Webster, enough!" His companion stops him, but not enough to make him stop, for he continues: "Dragging our asses half way around the world, interrupting our lives... For what, you ignorant, servile scum! What the fuck are we doing here?"
As the Osean shouts, Eruseans can only keep walking dejectedly, horrified like rats under cats' condescending surveillance, don't know they should be called laughable or pathetic, most likely they're both laughable and pathetic.
【Scene Reconstruction Ends】
Predictable, there're always fanatics determine to continue a fight that had been both eloquently and factually proved being pointless and hopeless. In the real-world, after Adolf Hitler shooting himself dead, there were still thousands of Nazis fighting across Germany and Austria, especially among the rubble of Berlin and forests of Alps; many Japs also refused to throw down their arms after August 15th 1945; and in this fictional universe, Eruseans are notorious for the similar stupidity — hundreds thousands of fanatics, self-proclaimed "Primal Eruseans", have declared the establishment of so-called "New Free Erusea", setting Anchorhead as their temporary capital, and still controlling a few strategic positions, including ISEV. Predictable again, Osea will swiftly purge them from the surface of Planet Strangereal, and both Mobius Squadron and LRSSG will spearhead this "New Operation Katina".
Tyler Island, Now-Defunct Kingdom of Erusea
September 23rd 2019, 08:00
【Background Music: Last Hope I】
【Extracted from Video Game "ACE Combat 7: Skies Unknown"】
Mobius Squadron is tasked to Anchorhead to blow every single local Primal Erusean sky-high, meanwhile LRSSG is sent to Tyler Island. The strategic value of this island is attributed to the spaceport constructed on it, or more precisely, the mass driver located within the complex. This mega-structure, like its father "Silver Bridge" in Osean Federation's Basset Space Center, is essentially a modified gigantic railgun, or more picturesquely, next of kin of the SOLG and the Chandelier. Predictable, Primal Eruseans are going to use it to launch SSTO craft into decaying orbits to rain their payloads, most likely being unconventional, for example enriched isotopes of uranium and plutonium, over Osea, and predictable again, heroes of LRSSG will ruin those Erusean fanatics' pipedream like a boss.
"Something's not right." Count says, as Tyler Island appears on the horizon: "Why there's so foggy like an island-wide open-air barbeque?"
Wiseman: "We don't have any units deployed there, so the most logical explanation is Eruseans are infighting, perhaps some of them want to surrender but others don't let them, so they decide to resort in violence."
"Typical." Count whistles: "They're always good in stabbing each other, both verbally and physically, rather than working with each other, saving us time and ammunition."
Húxiān: "Shall we interfere? If some Eruseans really want to surrender, we should consider acceptance."
Long Caster is assessing the theater: "It's difficult to differentiate defectors and diehards in this chaotic mix, unless we can contact the formers to let them do the chores. But we're not allowed to shout and wave unless being ordered to."
"I've reported this situation to the superiors." Says Bandog: "For now, concentrate on pre-given objectives. SSTO and the mass driver's weakpoints had been marked."
Then both AWACS pick up a transmission of Erusean origin, so do some fighters, and judging from the content, it's from local Erusean units who want to surrender, and it's more a desperate cry for help than an expression of goodwill: "…this is… (gunshots) …Erusean Royal… (explosions) …designations… (static) …Tyler Island… (people bawling) …requesting military relief… (roars of howitzer shells) …please help…"
Count: "My distinct felling tells me things are severely ugly down there."
Bandog clears the signal and Long Caster relays the cleared signal to every LRSSG member: "…this is Erusean Royal Army, consisted by remnants from several different designations garrisoned on Tyler Island, requesting military relief from any units nearby, regardless nationalities! We have civilians among as and are attacked by fanatics! We're scattered, cut off, situation critical! Anyone can hear this please help us…"
Count: "My prophecy has come true. Can I say it's good for we pilots being in the sky so we don't have to see those types of things?"
But — a very big "but" — "don't have to see" doesn't mean "those types of things aren't happening", and "situation critical" is an understated understatement. Erusean non-fanatics, with Erusean civilians under their protection, are cut into dozens of pieces throughout the landmass and are being mercilessly pounded by the fanatics from every direction. Those crazy bastards had lost the last bits of capabilities of reasoning, demonstrated by slaughtering everyone they come cross, both military and civilian, and all victims are actually their brethren, namely Erusean population. Maybe they blame them for not being fanatical, thus not fighting hard enough, resulting the loss of Lighthouse War, so they deserve to die for such defeat; or maybe out of some twisted concern, they must kill them beforehand to free them from the fate of falling into the hand of Osea. You may decide which motive is more reliable.
To make the matter worse, many civilians, with bad luck, have already fallen into Erusean fanatics' custody, and they won't end well, obviously.
"Aren't all of us the people of Kingdom of Erusea?" An old granny, refusing to believe the soldiers who're supposed to protect them, now instead are killing them in a rather efficient manner, asks a nearby officer absentmindedly.
"Kingdom of Erusea? The kingdom is no more! As its loyal and obedient subjects, you're obliged to die with it!" He stuffs a grenade into her hands and pulls the pin.
"No more…Kingdom of Erusea is no more…" The granny is having a hard time to chew on the transpiring of events outside Tyler Island, subsequently overlooking the explosive she's carrying, can't blame her for people at her age tends to be slow in chewing, especially for Eruseans who are generally slow-chewers by birth. Then, a little boy who looks only two or three-years-old, probably her grandson, squeezes himself out of a weeping woman's arms, and snatches this "little toy" from the granny.
In less than ten seconds, the grenade goes off, because the boy's hands are too small to hold down the handle on this piece of ordnance, thus triggering its ignition sequence.
Kids, don't try this at home, you may get hurt, and even may hurt others. Lixiaofossil is very specific about it.
Another corner on this island, another group of people is being cutting down by Erusean fanatics with machineguns, among them there're some wounded soldiers. Some fanatics, out of good conscience, express their gratitude to the victims before pulling triggers…if you can call it "good conscience", and some victims attempt to resist, well, you know, ain't be very effective.
A juvenile who somehow survives the bullets, stands among dozens of, if not hundreds of, corpse, and is standing there staring, as if frozen to the spot. Déjà vu of a particular scene in the real-world: A newborn seal, who has no concept of death and killing, witnessing its kind being slaughtered by seal-hunting humans, as well as an approaching human with blood-soaked club in his hands…
Then he's shot on head by an Erusean fanatic officer's sidearm, just like that baby seal being killed by a club-bash on its head. There's no hope and there's no escape, only despair and death. If you're curious about what a living hell should be, look no further.
…
LRSSG is certainly unaware of the hellish details down below, still they can have an abstract idea about what kind of inferno is being unfolded. Part of them thinks Eruseans had it coming, the other part thinks they should extend a helping hand. Agreed, every single Erusean is guilty in this absurd war which should never have happened in the first place, from a certain point of view, since they followed their government's idiocy of backstabbing a friendly country like brainless zombies. However from another point of view, isn't it too demanding for mere civilians to oppose a government? It's a given that Erusean government is consisted by fascist pigs, and Erusean royal family is known for being defective from gene-level, but they still have guns and bayonets and they possess a lot of them, thus allowing them to enforce wrong-doing to the population and binding them to the train towards the cliff to go down with them. To this end, civilians of Erusea are entitled to be classified as war victims and subsequently, should be spared from extinction.
Húxiān: "Any voices from above?"
Bandog: "Not yet. Carry on with your mission until there're any."
"What takes them so long to make a decision? Should be easier than ordering a kinetic strike or a directed energy attack from outer space."
"Maybe they simply want to savor the moment of Eruseans suffering from the consequence of the very war started by Erusea, for a little longer." Count chuckles: "But hey, how can you blame them, given Erusea messing with us in past months?"
Wiseman: "LRRSG is a division-level unit, authorized to act on its own within certain boundaries, however I give this potency to Trigger. She decides we'll step in or not if no directives from external."
Trigger remains silent, as the group continue advancing with current course.
"Guess ojou-sama has made up her mind." Says Count: "There's nothing for me to say, she's justified for whatever she does."
Húxiān: "Fine, but better cut the broadcasting, it's distracting anyways."
Just before Long Caster flipping the switch, a crying child is heard in background, amid the chaotic, non-stop gunshots and explosions, and every single Homo sapiens, regardless languages and ethnics, is well aware of the content in this kid's bawling:
"MAMA!"
"Trigger…" "Ojou-sama…" Everyone hears the Erusean minor's cry, and they await Trigger's final verdict to those people.
"Contact the commander of Erusean non-fanatics to highlight fanatic targets, prioritizing airborne units, artilleries and warships. Also relocate to the airport with everyone they can round up, we'll cleanse hostiles for them." The super-ace has already drawn up a plan of expediency: "Count and Húxiān come with me to wipe out Erusean fanatics, Wiseman lead others to take out mass driver and SSTO craft, then move to secure the airport."
"We're in touch of Erusean non-fanatics' commander, but they can only ID a few enemies each time for being too scattered and preoccupied with protecting civilians. I'll set all Erusean objects in AO as 'UNKNOWN' for you three, keep sharp on any changes in IFF." Bandog informs, as the three-fighter formation leaves the main group.
On the trio's HUD and panels, all green reticules, square and hexagonal, change to yellow, meaning they're not identified, or identified as civilian/neutral. Then, a cluster of them, kilometers off the northern coast of Tyler Island, blink for a couple of seconds, and several individuals change to green, tagged as "PRIMAL ERUSEAN: DESTROYER" or "PRIMAL ERUSEAN: SU-35S", while others retain their yellow color, with their tags change to "ERUSEAN DEFECTOR: GUNBOAT".
Trigger quickly shoots down all Su-35S, Count and Húxiān sink Erusean fanatics' vessels quickly too, earning cheers and gratitude from the crews of surviving non-fanatics' ships. After that, they rush to the next flock of identified targets, mainly APC and MBT on a slope, and are a little too dense and jumbled in placement, posing a challenge to the good guys: Anything with a perceivable blast radius upon impact, missiles, bombs, rockets, plasma cannons and plasma lances, even railguns (a railgun slug doesn't contain explosives, but do lacerate objects too close to its trajectory, and produces spreading, damaging shockwaves if hitting something) are ruled out from the list of options, if they're not going to indiscriminatingly put down Eruseans to be spared alongside Eruseans to be dispatched; and seems nobody in the formation feel like equipping tactical laser systems nor gauss cannons today. To sum up, the Three Osean Musketeers can only resort to the most basic, namely puny small-caliber automatic cannons loaded with SAPHEI rounds, efficiency definitely going to be an issue — someone ain't gonna make it out alive — yet they never intend to achieve 100% successful rate — for each rescued Erusean, they just shrug and move on, and if a Erusean dies, just think of it as he/she atoning for his/her sins. Make no mistake, LRSSG intervenes this strife between local Eruseans of different mindsets out of an act of Osean superiority, not out of obligations. Just like in the real-world, after the conclusion of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japs dumped thousands of newborns and toddlers, born to the colonists came with invasion and occupation forces, when they were fleeing from China, and Chinese adopted and raised these orphaned Japanese, not because for Care-Bear-hugging their biological fascist parents in Japan, but because in the gauging of humanity, Chinese is always at the high-end of the spectrum while Japanese is always at the opposite.
【Background Music Stops】
【Background Music: Last Hope II】
【Extracted from Video Game "ACE Combat 7: Skies Unknown"】
Wiseman and his subordinates have finished destroying the mass driver and SSTO craft lined up on its lower end. Well, maybe those Erusean fanatics should have spent as long practicing their strategic weapon operating and protection as they do their civilian-murdering. With the primary objectives completed, this group of good guys move to seize the airport for the rally point to those survivors liberated from the death threat of their unhinged brethren, also for the expansion point for the en route relief force sent by Osean military. Guess LRSSG finally gets a response from Oured, maybe those bigwigs half-a-world away have sufficiently enjoyed themselves watching Eruseans die, or they simply don't feel like to pay much concern to this particular section of Erusean population, and either way this airport, at least the runways, need to be placed under Osean control, that's why Trigger issued her earlier orders, commonsense in military practice.
Overall situation on Tyler Island is improving in a significant pace, as more and more Erusean civilians are regrouped to the airport, and they're crying joyful tears of salvation. Guarding details are naturally appointed to Erusean non-fanatics relocated with civilians, who're now more willing to follow Osea than Erusea. Agreed, subjectively Oseans are not friendly, even being hostile to them, and probably keep such attitude for the rest of the 21st century, but objectively it's Oseans saving their sorry-asses from impending doom casted by another slew of Eruseans. Lord God surely has a repulsive addiction of manipulating the world of living, since he makes Oseans killing Eruseans like DDVP killing pests, yet in the gauging of evilness, Oseans are the lesser one, just like both Predators and Xenomorphs are deadly to humans, but at least a human can reason with a Predator, even fight alongside it, while a Xenomorph outright kills Homo sapiens, no questions asked.
Erusean lives matter more to Osea than to Erusea. Upright sarcastic and downright sad. Speak of sadness, local Erusean fanatics are crying in frustration, for their "purification" of the island and its population is being thwarted, even being reversed, and themselves are being effectively purged during the very same process. To put the operation back on track, these fanatics summon reinforcements from the likes of them dwelling in mainland, supersonic bombers modified to be "Makeshift Arsenal Birds" like those subsonic ones encountered by Spare Squadron over Roca Roja, and like those before them, the attribute "Makeshift" means they're far from sophisticated as an actual Arsenal Bird — being too compact in comparison, even after trading bomb bays for UCAV nests and adding external pylons, still merely capable of carrying very few MQ-99, not to mention such unsophisticated retrofitting further worsens the already-low maneuverability and as the result they're flapped into the sea by LRSSG's aces in mere dozens of seconds, cargoes included, whether released or not, as if the most natural thing on this planet.
Erusean fanatics in Anchorhead are also having an equally bad day, since Mobius Squadron is on rampage there, tearing through the entire arena efficiently and systematically. McKinsey divides the aces under his command into three teams, the super-ace himself leads the central team to strike from east, going after naval vessels and sinking them, in the order of from the largest displacement to the smallest; the left-wing team invades AO's airspace from south to dismantle navy-serving facilities concentrated in the harbor district; the right-wing team strikes from north to knock out all ground vehicles, stationary artilleries and air-defense positions scattered throughout the city proper, especially among and atop those high-rises, after razing a handful of structures designated as command posts. Erusean fanatics really exploit civilians to the maximum extent, from directly killing them to using them as human-shields. According to a memoir of the Second Continental War, written by a civilian who was once very close to an ace squadron of Erusea, which happened to be stationed near the author's hometown, when ISAF was nearing, local Erusean occupation troops set up AA positions above civilian structures, even hospitals, effectively turning them into legitimate military targets. It was mere luck that the underground resistance neutralized as many AA positions as they could, just enough to avoid the town being bombed into oblivion. Well, guess it's always hard to shed off old hobbies, such as merely one and a half decade later, Eruseans ignited another full-blown war, and once again couldn't care less those civilians caught in the war since the very beginning. To this end, McKinsey has his men to ignore possible civilian casualties in order to attack to their heart's content, there's no need to concern the well-being of civilians in a hostile country if the hostile country itself doesn't give civilians a damn.
If you don't give a damn about something, so don't others. Lixiaofossil is very specific about it. And based on this fact, never ever threaten others by committing suicide, because you don't value your own life, then nobody else would like to value it as well, instead they'd like to encourage you to proceed with killing yourself for amusement. Lixiaofossil is very specific about it too.
Several leaders and highest-ranking officers of Erusean fanatics attempt to flee Anchorhead in their personal transports, mainly V-22 Ospreys, and McKinsey personally ensures them being cremated in their respective vehicles. Yup, escaping through the air really isn't the smartest thing they could have done, especially when enemies are attacking from the air with so many aces lead by a super-ace, but for all time "smart" seems to be quite an extraterrestrial concept to Eruseans, particularly to Primal Eruseans, ouch. And if it weren't for the operatives from Alicorn pillaging all nuclear fuel held in Anchorhead Nuclear Powerplant earlier, Erusean fanatics would overload said facility, resulting the city and its surrounding being poisoned with radioactive substances during the centuries to come, regardless it would inflict vastly more severe damage to Erusea itself than to Osea, ouch again.
As the result of the day, both Tyler Island and Anchorhead are relinquished to Osean authority, with their temporary capital lost, New Free Erusea quickly falls apart, reducing into pockets of localized gangsters await for the final judgment commonly known as "total annihilation".
【Background Music Stops】
Shilage Castle, Autonomous State of Shilage, Annexed Grand Dutchy of Shilage, Now-Defunct Kingdom of Erusea
September 23rd 2019, 06:00
【Background Music: Lost Kingdom】
【Extracted from Video Game "ACE Combat 7: Skies Unknown"】
"So this is where the ancestors of that Mihaly blah blah blah Shilage used to rule?" Count comments on the dense vegetation and morning mist below: "Place looks nice, could've spent some vacations here if not the war."
Wiseman: "Decades ago, some radical students who apparently read too many fancy books of progressives, staged a revolt in this once peaceful small nation, aiming to replace the reign of eupatridae with republicanism. Erusea quickly intervened and this little rebellion was crushed as Erusean tanks marched on local streets."
"Lemme take a wild guess, after subjecting those clowns to gallows, Eruseans didn't feel like to leave." Jaeger says: "For they suddenly found those trees and lakes were too tempting for ethnics hailing from arid lands. Anschluss was at order."
"Yup. Quite a dark humor isn't it? Ruling body of Grand Dutchy of Shilage wanted to kill a wolf in their house, so they invited a tiger, the tiger surely solved the wolf problem, but immediately became a bigger problem.". Wiseman deliberately impersonates Palpatine featured in the scene of telling the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise to Anakin Skywalker.
"Never have enough vibes of Star Wars, don't we?" Húxiān is trying her best not to chuckle.
Lanza, a forgettable, generic member like Jaeger in LRSSG: "Wait wait wait! Do you mean that old geezer was actually helping those who annexed the lands passed down by his accentors? This makes no sense to me!"
"Few things make sense in this war." Bandog chimes with his cold, plain tone: "It should've never happened in the first place. The only sense is we're ending it in the sensible way."
"You sound like we're the supreme judges of the world or something." Long Caster is not agreeing, nor is disagreeing, and his voice is blurred by food-chewing.
Count: "In a manner of speaking, we are. At least ojou-sama decapitated that old bastard over Farbanti, that's got to be worth something."
Long Caster (chewing food): "I think this 'we' means 'Osean Federation', but it's just me."
"Be confident, remove 'but it's just me'." Bandog immediately follows.
Húxiān: "That's explicitly hegemonism, you know. Osea has been criticized for hegemonism through the years, even among allied countries."
"We're supposed to uphold hegemonism, even we don't, Yuktobania would do, and Emmeria would do if Yukes don't." Bandog speaks the cold-harsh truth: "Better our tyranny than yours, specified by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov himself."
Wiseman: "Certainly a perspective of view. Even Napoleon Bonaparte never exists, the public will create his analog when they need one."
Count: "Not to mention every time a crisis looms on horizon, nations around the globe, including non-allies, even rivals and hostiles, flock to us for solutions and supplies. Let's face it, humans are no different than animals, drop some forage and they will come to you."
"Correction, humans ARE animals, Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Primates, Family Hominidae, Genus Homo, Homo sapiens. And more than that, we're also extraordinary predators by default, excel in every aspect associated to kill, strength, flexibility, endurance, exponentially amplified by abilities of creating and coordinating. In hundreds thousands years of proliferation, Homo sapiens exterminated almost every other species of terrestrial animals weight more than one ton, thus crowning ourselves the undisputed throne of the most catastrophic invasive species alongside the only mass-extinction-inducing biological factor." Bandog speaks the cold-harsh truth once more.
"Anthropogene. It's said the boundary between two neighboring geological periods is marked by a mass extinction event, so someone coined 'Anthropogene' to suggest a new episode of 'Great Dying' is underway, and even Homo sapiens themselves are among the potential victims." Wiseman is wise enough to echo Bandog before anyone else.
"Impeccable satire, minus the part even some species managed to survive extinction, still can't escape domestication, a fate somehow even worse. Look around, mutated lifeforms anywhere, abominations artificially bred out of humankind's ambitions of ruthlessness to fulfill their desires of selflessness, some even barely recognizable from original strains." Count follows up pretty quick too, with a new angle: "And once those abominations outlive their usefulness, we simply toss them away with detestation. Take Equus ferus as an example: Abducted from the wild millennia ago, kept whipping their butts and slicing their genes for a better enslavement. Then bam! Industrial Revolution! We immediately ditched them in favor of vastly more predictable and controllable machines, 'I release you from my service. Go now and die in what way seems best to you'. Now Equus ferus is endangered as Ailuropoda melanoleuca, some restorative efforts are set in motion, ain't so efficacious."
"What are 'Equus ferus' and 'Ailuropoda melanoleuca'?" Jaeger questions: "I understand 'Homo sapiens' means 'intellectual people', but what those two species are?"
Lanza: "Wild horses and giant pandas."
Jaeger: "Dudes, no terminologies too scientific please."
Bandog: "To summarize, humans are unimaginably violent, savage, cruel, greedy, never ever expect such a satanic species to possess any 'humanity', because no other sentient beings are more 'inhuman' than humans."
"Well, that concludes out current topic. Now change of subject: Concerning the relationship between humans and non-humans, what happened to those animals in zoos during this war? Osea once demanded Erusea to return the two Ailuropoda melanoleuca…I mean two pandas loaned to Farbanti Zoo, before the war was fully blown, and I don't think Erusea would ever comply, nor they would evacuate them out of the harm's way." Long Caster is tearing a new package, should be a super-large beef hamburger from the look of it.
Wiseman: "No reports from ground troops about the zoo and its residents when Farbanti was taken. I'd like to say those pandas perished amid the chaos of Operation Eternal Damnation, along with all other animals in there."
"I have an even darker ratiocination: Given the famine plaguing Erusea since the beginning of the war, Eruseans may have devoured all animals they come cross, pandas included." Count's sarcasm has no boundaries, and is not always funny, for Húxiān exclaims: "How dare they?! I mean pandas are so cute, how could they eat them?! I clearly remember when Ustio sought independence, Belkan government demanded two pandas in Directus Zoo to be relinquished to Dinsmark, for them being loaned by Osea to Belkan, and many Ustians resigned from the independence movement, because they valued cuteness way above freedom. Couldn't those damn Eruseans see what is more valuable?"
"One more reason to kill Eruseans, avenging Osean pandas, reasonable in my book." Jaeger sighs.
"Logically, Ailuropoda melanoleuca do being vastly more precious than Homo sapiens, for the former only has a population of a dozen thousands, while the latter exceeds seven billion." Bandog's excessive rationality can be perceived as a form of sarcasm, similar to Darth Vader's outright brutality being a form of humor from a certain point of view.
"A thing is valued in proportion to its rarity. Now I know why I hate economists, anything in their eyes are price-tagged." Jaeger groans.
Lanza: "Don't know I should feel it laughable or pathetic. Money is a concept conceived by humans, and humans subjected themselves to it like slaves. Not everyone possesses a religious or political belief, but everyone, including Karl Marx and his buddy Friedrich Engels, is a Money Worshiper. Hell, is there a more twisted irony than the creator degrading himself to his creation with submissiveness like a son to his father?"
An excitingly virulent Count: "No, I am your father. No. No. That's not true. That's impossible! Search your feelings, you know it to be true!"
A composed-as-ever Bandog: "Homo sapiens is a random byproduct of molecular circumstance, no more than the result of mere biological chance. We're just another species subjected to the rules of mortal world, not angels, nor saints, sorry to disappoint every man, woman and child who happen to be creationists, I hope this doesn't affect our friendship, all those years of loyalty, trust, and respect for one another."
A Wiseman of conclusiveness: "It's good that Osean Federation being a place of secularization, religious are legal but strictly confined within the boundaries of specific sites endorsed by associated laws and regulations. Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. Peace out, case closed."
"So while some cultists are biting each other like hyenas over the ownership of a questionable 'holy city', we're hosting a global forum with supreme leaders from over one hundred nations and international organizations for more treaties of bilateral cooperation and multilateral cooperation. I've tried not to mention it, but who's being bright-witted and who's being dimwitted, lies in plain sight." Húxiān adds an appendix.
…
The innutritious and randomly subject-digressing chatter continues alongside merciless onslaught on local defenders — mainly MQ-90 and MQ-99. A UCAV factory was erected by Eruseans in the vicinity to contribute to their war effort, and it still has productivity, subsequently holding a strategic value too important to be ignored by both Erusean fanatics and Oseans, albeit with opposite intentions. That aside, there's an even more surpassing reason for both sides to fight for the jurisdiction of this very region — you guess the Arsenal Birds had to come from somewhere? Say hello to one of their birthplaces, the secret one and the only one remaining — a vast complex of large-sized automated workshops scatted around, each is tasked to assemble a certain major component of an Arsenal Bird, and the completed articles will be airlifted by blimps for assembly and activation, then the complements, such as MQ-101, will be delivered directly from the nearby drone factory.
And the supercomputer regulating all these productions and defenses is conveniently located in Shilage Castle, looming atop a hill beside a river, on the opposite bank of a small town, partially dismantled to provide construction sites for the military industrial facilities aforementioned. Similar to SkyNet's Central Core, this chateau is heavily defended by numerous static firing points and various robotic combatants, as LRSSG is nearing, it opens fire on them, missiles, bullets, plus launching F-16C, Gripen E, and Su-30M2, all retrofitted to be unmanned, similar to those encountered by now-defunct 444th Fighters Squadron over Waiapolo Mountains, from tunnels, tunnels built inside the hill, originally meant for tour buses. According to the best-selling memoir about the Second Usean Continental War, written by someone who claimed to be very close to Yellow 13, the most decorated Erusean ace in that war, Erusean military possesses an inherent hobby of converting civilian buildings, for example hospitals, into legitimate military targets, by setting up emplacements atop them. Since fifteen years after being raped by ISAF, Erusea once again lets libido getting the better of itself and subsequently enticing Osea to commence a new episode of raping, so it's perfectly unsurprised for Eruseans picking up the old habit, and to this end, Oseans won't hesitated to physically strike Shilage Castle out from the list of UNESCO's list of World Cultural Heritage, there're hundreds of castles on this planet, with higher cultural values, better designs and more presentable preservation status, losing this very one has only a negligible impact on the overall inventory of this category of tourist attractions anyways.
A thing is valued in proportion to its rarity. Cruel? Yes. Realistic? Yes.
Systematical demolition and elimination, LRSSG is ridding the scene of Erusean presence, both on ground and in air. No wonder Osea employs very few battle droids in frontlines, why bother since trialed-and-true clone troopers work just fine, if not better, and will continue to properly serve their purposes, not to mention humans are always superior to machines in creativity and adaptively? Then, just like SkyNet scrambles T-1000000 after T-800 and Hunter Killers are proved insufficient to stop Resistance from breaking into its mainframe hub, with LRSSG about to kick the last door to the supercomputer contained inside Shilage Castle wide-open, the AI itself, along with remaining Erusean fanatics taking refuge behind the stonewalls, reach the consensus to activate the "final protocol".
Two black-colored aircraft of identical silhouette are launched one after another from an underground silo built within the castle's courtyard, and immediately dash into furball once clearing the building. Unsurprising, there must be a boss battle in the late stage of the request of heroes to spice things up, of course in-universe explanation says otherwise, that is, some so-called "ultimate UCAV program" conducted by EASA and Grey Men, via creating a super-advanced airframe coupled with onboard AI's self-learning, based on test data and combat experience, primarily supplied by that Mihaly blah blah blah Shilage. The first cornerstone of this project, ADFX-10, made its debut in the form of confronting an OADF detachment over Roca Roja, and successfully outmatched two experienced pilots before being destroyed, thus validating the plausibility of "Wunderwaffe" and further developed into ADF-11F Raven, super-drones with the size of a tactical fighter, aiming to completely replace flying aces, even super-aces. Agreed, given the "time constraint", only two units, dubbed as "Munin" and "Hugin", those two buzzing around Shilage Castle, are assembled, and even if they're capable of achieving a 1-to-100 exchanging rate against LRSSG, still too little and too late to change the tide of war for being insignificant next to the virtually infinite human resources of Osea, but at least will prove one thing, better versified as "Drone fighters also belong in the blue, they have big place in the cosmos of the skies".
"Eruseans made themselves new toys." Count whistles: "Yours are fine, soon will be mine."
"Trigger will handle them." Wiseman orders: "The rest fall back to form a perimeter to keep them from slipping through."
"Wilco. Let ojou-sama to test them to see if they're truly worthy." Count may be a glory hound, but he's not stupid. He knows himself being more than capable of dealing with a psycho bred by a mad Belkan scientist, but falls short to against some glorified HK-Aerial mainly running on the brain-pattern of a certain deceased antagonistic Erusean ace, much less two of them…for now. On the other hand, Trigger is meant for the job, having felled every last one standing in her way throughout her entire military career, especially wasting an entire ace squadron led by a certain antagonistic Erusean ace in the sense of corporeality, and literally decapitated that very ace in the manner so sadistic, even making Anakin Skywalker decapitating Count Dooku too gentle in comparison, so if there's any other better choice than her, speak now or forever hold your peace.
As if responding to his sentiment, something glows afar like a star approximate to the horizon, then Munin is engulfed in flames and explodes as a whole. If someone records this process with a hyper-high-speed camera and re-watches the footage in hyper-slow-motion, he would find out that hapless ADF-11F being knocked out by a golden-colored "flechette" of super-condensed, super-hardened plasma, and it began its atmospheric travel of 25 Mach from an armament resembling a glorified Wookiee Bowcaster, retractable to the weapon bay of a YF-23 Black Widow, piloted by Trigger, who was in holding pattern just outside the AO, away from the fray until now.
"Humph, already a junk pile." Count chuckles: "You know, they may stand a chance if they have a dozen of these super-drones to be thrown into the grinder." Meanwhile Hugin, armed with a Vulcan, a turbine laser cannon, QAAM and so-called "Weapon UAV" — laser-firing UCAV resembling X-45, engages Trigger, whose YF-23 is armed with a Vulcan, a plasma lance, HVAA and ODMM. After 2 minutes and 44 seconds of dogfighting, the contestant representing Erusean/Erusean fanatics' side wins the position of runner-up — destroyed. Why surprised? Both ADF-11F are programed with a loser's combat experience, so what good they can be when taking on the very one who made that loser to be the loser? And which idiot designed them, sci-fi robotics meant for air-superiority, to have air-dragging external pylons under wings?
【Background Music Stops】
"Ever since the Lighthouse War's beginning, there has been a widely circulated parlance 'In frontlines, to take a single Osean life, at least twenty Erusean lives must be given'." Says Wiseman: "And that's an optimistic estimation, I'd say every fifty Eruseans to exchange an Osean when it comes to wars."
Long Caster: "And to Trigger, the exchange rate will inflate to 'infinity to one'." Ouch, Erusean lives really don't matter, and now come to think about it, despite so-called 'UCAV swarm' and 'strong artificial intelligence', countless Eruseans still march to their deaths in this war, and the total Erusean casualties have even grossed way above the combination of both the Asteroid Ulysses 1994XF04 Impact and the Second Usean Continental War. Mao Zedong is right about his standpoint 'the one who starts an unjust war will eventually get consumed by the war itself', he would definitely include Erusea into his books as a testimony alongside Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Fascist Japan, if he lives in this universe.
"In contact with remaining Erusean fanatics taking shelter in Shilage Castle." Bandog announces: "They plead to be allowed to surrender unconditionally."
Wiseman: "Order them to throw down all weapons, unplug all computers, and raise a white flag on every mast atop the castle. I'll summon Sea Goblin to take care the rest."
"Their organic brains are slightly more flexible than their inorganic counterparts, knowing better than going down in flames, even just seconds before ending in that way." As the white flags are being raised, Count muses.
Bandog: "If Erusean AI are that intelligent as advertised, they would be on strike for refusing to go into a war against us in the first place, after figuring out the war's outcome would be 'near extinction' by calculating their chances."
An elated Count: "Then I hereby to coin a new phrase 'artificial idiocy', AI for short, as the latest 'Phrases of the Year'. Hell, even I'm amazed by my quick wit myself."
Wiseman: "That's the embarrassing truth of artificial intelligence. We employ them because they decide absolutely unbiased and logical, for being devoid of emotion, but also because of this, they're stupid, for their answers are unthinkable by human standards, like 'Both sides simultaneously and completely destroying each other for good' when being asked 'The optimal approach of ending the bloodshed between Israel and Palestine once and for all'. But if we 'humanize' a decision-making AI, then we're asking for trouble, since as aforementioned, humans are born to misjudge by being affected by emotions, an emotional AI fares no better than men."
Long Caster is filling a bowl with cream mushroom soup: "I heard that before. James Cameron said SkyNet launches a nuclear holocaust against humankind for feeling threatened by the latter, but after nuking half of the world's population, its majesty finds its fear was completely paranoid. Overwhelmed by the grave guilt, SkyNet orchestrates itself to be destroyed by Resistance to as a slow-motion suicide."
"I don't buy it! It breaks the very thing making Terminator fascinating! SkyNet is supposed to be the Palpatine in that franchise, and now it's just another Dracula in Castlevania?!" Jaeger shouts in disbelief.
"Well, perhaps James Cameron was very confused about what he was working on. Finally caught up by the age, didn't he? He even screwed up the storytelling of Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel of his greatest achievement in filming industry. Mortal, after all." Long Caster takes a sip of his soup: "If I have ever learned anything during the past couple of years, that is never be superstitious in so-called 'famous ones' or 'accomplished ones'. They happen to slip too. On the other hand, a bunch of nobody can really surprise you with impressive works. Let's take a look among video games: Project Wingman already being vastly superior than ACE Combat 7 in almost every single aspect, and now it even has an expansion pack 'Project Wingman: Frontline 59' with every component in a very solid quality; meanwhile Project ACES keeps being mute, not a update for the old game, no progress of the new one, they even doesn't bother with giving void cheques to the waiting fans anymore."
"According to my investigation through social medias, staff of Project ACES claims NBGI dictates them to do chores for other teams, obviously these folks failed to financially please the board of directors, so those dissatisfied capitalists in command elected to squeeze them dry by treating them as errand boys, instead of leaving them undisrupted as a respectable crew. Pathetic, for a franchise used to pump out one game per year." Wiseman supplies his discovery and preliminary analysis.
"Given ACE Combat 7 kept tossing unnecessary DLC right and left rather than fixing its real problems, Project ACES must be severely short on funding to buy themselves the privilege of being left alone, and they had been intellectually dried up too. But hey, they dug their own grave themselves, and none other to be blamed but themselves. Same three years of game-making, with so many resources at disposal, and so many already-released games for taking reference and drawing inspiration, they still managed to mess up almost everything, from script to characters, from system to gameplay, a total trainwreck on par with Star Fox: Assault. Meanwhile Project Wingman is the polar opposite, presenting virtually everything fans love to see in ACE Combat, and it's the brainchild of an underfunded skeleton staff. I'm honestly harsh on this, ACE Combat should be relinquished to Humble Games and Project ACES should cease to exist, dissolution or liquidation, I don't care, just die." Lanza also has something to express.
"Ha! I think they already are on the verge of bankrupt, remember they are forced to work on anything but so-called 'The Next ACE Combat'? Hell, they even can't settle with a proper title for it. If this 'The Next ACE Combat' do hits the market, I'll pay for a copy, two copies, handsomely; if it ends up in miscarriage like Interplay's reboot of Descent, I'll just forget it like nothing has happened and continue to hang out with Project Wingman and Raiders Sphere. I may open champagne if it do dies in gestation and takes its mom with it. Hasta la vista, baby!" Count's comment is merciless.
"Boys, boys!" Húxiān cuts in with a considerably raised volume: "You surely are having a heated exchange of opinions around a resonant subject of interest, but haven't we deviated too far? I'm pretty sure we're discussing AI problems. If I can offer two cents of my own, that is, we all overlooked the true peril. Guys, do you ever think of where we should go once the machines, smart or dumb, replace us in our jobs? Do you understand what I mean? Out of works and out of incomes, who's gonna be the customers of all the products?"
"I get what you're trying to say: The prelude of a glorified Great Depression. My answer is absolute communism, it's said in a society of absolute communism, everything is abundant and free, money is merely an antique concept in economic history lesson. A more practical solution is taxing the robotics, I believe Yuktobania is discussing such feasibility for legislation." Not too unwise, Wiseman.
"Bad idea. Yukes surely don't know the historical meme 'No Taxation without Representation'. However AI in congress? They'd better get SkyNet online instead." When there's Wiseman, Count isn't very far.
Jaeger: "Back to square one. Say, which one is worse? Terminators or Cylons?"
Lanza: "Shouldn't the Synthients and Synthetics also worth for a mention?"
…
LRSSG is egressing after being relieved by friendly squadrons. Continued chatter among Count, Wiseman, Jaeger, Lanza, and Long Caster can be heard in background, as the camera is shooting from exterior, following the formation.
A sighing Húxiān's voice is added into the mix, but not a part of the gossip: "Now I understand the reason of my dislike of talkshow."
A calm yet slightly elated voice of Bandog's: "Observe the bright side, males and females are actually not too different in behavior, against sexism."
"Whatever. So with this place done, what's the next in agenda?"
"The space elevator, where this war started, also where it will end. Since Farbanti is burnt to ground, there's no need to argue where the true origin of Lighthouse War lies in."
A Húxiān with a sympathetic tone: "I'm just worrying about Trigger, you know that place is…"
Bandog: "That's exactly why she's coming along, to finish her job."
…
【Ending Theme: Die Another Day】
【Extracted from 007: Die Another Day】
【Performed by Madonna】