Wild Blue Yonder Ch.6

Response to Gargoyle One- Noted. I'll do what I can for the future chapters. Thanks for telling me ^^

The Ace Combat franchise does NOT belong to me. It respectfully belongs to Namco Bandai and Project Aces. The plot in this Fanfiction is obviously non-canon and was written by me.

In this story, I'll be making it like what I think will happen when the story of Ace Combat Infinity continues. Except I added ReaperxCamilla in it. Also, I'm not sure about the real names of most of the characters (Omega, Viper, Reaper, etc.) So I'll keep using their callsigns instead. Hope you don't mind.

Note: There might be some possible errors due to autocorrect or it was missed during proofreading.


Chapter 6: Returning to the Sunrise.

Off to Japan yet again!

-(*The Next Day* Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates)-

(Reaper's POV)

It turns out today is going to be a busy one rather than just relaxation in the base.

After having breakfast with my team, Edge called me and told us that we were to report to our Commander, Goodfellow, after we have finished our meal. Omega was disappointed by our day off being removed off our schedule, but was willing enough to get back to work without any further complaints. We got up and headed to the briefing room where Edge and her Ridgeback members were seated with not that much pilots inside with us.

When I sat down with my team, we waited for around three minutes until Goodfellow entered the briefing room and corrected his glasses. He probably just finished breakfast as well before getting here. However, he eats in one of the offices instead of at the cafeteria since he prefers a more peaceful place to eat.

"Alright. Let's start the briefing." Goodfellow said as he cleared his throat while turning on the projector, displaying the map of the world. "The UN has informed me that the middle eastern front is no longer in need for one of our best pilots due to the amount of reinforcements arriving here. With the other invasion on USEA happening in Eastern Europe, the UN has proposed another invasion force should be sent to the Far East." He said while zooming in at Japan. "After the enemy failed miserably on taking Tokyo, the UN now has a good chance of hitting them back while more of the USEANs are mainly focusing on the Middle East and Russia."

We continued to watch as Goodfellow zoomed in at South Korea and at the city of Busan. Considering he already said something about us striking the USEANs back, I could already tell Busan was the city we were going to attack.

"I'm guessing we're attacking there then?" Omega asked.

"I did say that the UN is about to strike back, didn't I?" Goodfellow chuckled and zoomed closer to the city. "We're not only going to attack the city. This will be the first city we will liberate in the eastern front, and use it as our base of operations on liberating China, Eastern Russia, and Mongolia. The invasion force we will have is much more larger than the one back at the Adriatic Sea. So you'll be expecting a fleet of ships on a large scale."

"Hell yeah!" Omega cheered.

"But don't think it's an invincible fleet or anything. You'll never know what we'll come across once the invasion force is commencing attack." Goodfellow reminded us.

"There goes my hopes, Goodfellow. Thanks." He sighed.

"Well, it'll be hard for the enemy to sink one ship, since Reaper will be participating in defending the invasion force. However, Edge and her Ridgebacks will be part of it too. Just in case our ace is a bit too busy on taking down enemy ships or aircraft."

"You know I never need help." I smirked.

"Don't be so arrogant. You'll need all the help you can get." Edge smirked back at me.

"How hypocritical of you." I chuckled.

"Yeah. I still remember that time when we first met in southern Russia." Omega glared at Edge while giving smirk. "Superiority complex was written all over Slash and your face."

"That was the time before you pirates proved your worth." Edge said.

"Now it's time to prove your worth. All you need to do is keep up on our kills." I took out my hand and shook hers.

"I don't do this for money. But competition is what I like to do." Edge smiled.

Goodfellow chuckled. "Anyway, we've gotten reports that the main enemy fleet is currently docked in Hainan Island, China. Which means this will be our only doorstep to invade the Far East without dealing with the large enemy fleet. If we pull this off, this war might end a lot more faster than we can hope. So don't disappoint me and the rest of our bosses. Dismissed."

I got off my chair with my squad as Goodfellow closed the briefing while collecting his papers on the podium and turning of the projector that displayed the map of Asia. And just like that, we all knew where to go as I led my team and Edge's outside the main building, knowing we were now leaving the UAE along with the beautiful cities and the scorching heat. I'll admit I was going to miss it, but we had better places to go where not only the UN needs us, but our fellow soldiers.

It still feels weird to hear these words coming from a mercenary like me. But look at me, I'm just that plain soul that has a little bit of innocence to hope that Earth will become the same way it was before. If I live or die to see that future happen, I'll accept either of them. And if I see Camilla again, well, I'll be more happier.

"I'll miss the UAE and its skin peeling heat." Omega said as we walked to our hangar.

"The only thing I won't miss is the weather." I sighed and shielded my eyes a little from the bright sun. "Too hot for me."

"Agreed. It's also been getting into Omega's head a little bit lately." Edge said.

"What can I say? I run by solar power thanks to the sun giving me this gift!" He laughed at his jokingly false statement.

"Yeah? And I had a staring contest with the sun, and it blinked first." I said my own lie.

"This is why you're better than Viper by a country mile." Omega smiled. "Don't tell him I said that." He added.

"He's right there?" I pointed my finger.

"Crap! Where?!"

"Gullible." I chuckled.

"Hey, I thought we were in the same side."


-(Above the Indian Ocean)-

After taking off and flying east, there was nothing but the blue ocean below us. Not even a single ship was seen either. It was all we could look at during the few hours of flying. Since Iran to Vietnam was taken by USEA, we had to keep our distance from the mainland and fly over friendly airspace in Indonesia and the Philippines. Hell, we might run into some of our flyboys or ships belonging to the UN.

"Nothing but ocean." Omega whistled at the view.

"You better not run your mouth too much. I'm already busy as it is." Goodfellow said while onboard his E-767 AWACS he was given during operations at Japan. "Stupid paperwork…" He mumbled in annoyance.

I looked at Omega as my F-22 Raptor was flying next to his EuroFighter Typhoon closely along with Bronco's F-16F and Zebu's MiG-29. "So, what's the plan if you get shot down and bail out?"

"His emblem has a crab for a reason. He's meant to stay in the ocean. So just leave him if that happens." Goodfellow teased.

"Belt up. I know you'll miss my sense of humor once I actually do get killed." Omega laughed.

"You always think of responses like that." I chuckled.

"You just don't know the brain of mine handles humorous replies and what to say. You should know by now, Captain."

"Brain? What brain?" I smirked under my mask.

"Okay, that is just an insult."

"Hey, cut the chatter." Goodfellow said sternly. "I'm detecting bogeys on radar, coming from the north."

"Oh come on. Did they really have to interrupt our relaxation?" Omega sighed in annoyance.

"At least we have something to do while we're bored." I shrugged and banked my aircraft to turn towards the north where the enemy flight was approaching us. "Bone Arrows, clean up the skies from any enemy fighters."

"Copy!" Omega along with Bronco and Zebu acknowledge as they began to engage.

"Ridgeback Leader to flight. Engage all hostiles and protect Goodfellow." Edge ordered as I saw her squadron head towards the enemy planes too.

"Where's SkyEye? Wasn't he supposed to be here with us too?" Omega asked.

"SkyEye immediately flew over to Japan as soon as Kuwait was liberated by the UN. So we'll be seeing him again as soon as we get there." Goodfellow replied. "For now, clear a path from any enemy planes."

"Roger that, Goodfellow!"

Before the enemy squadron in front of me could bank away from my aircraft, I rolled my plane upside down and pulled the stick after launching a load of missiles straight at the enemy planes. I did this in order to avoid head on collision with any of them. Instead, my missiles all hit them before they could take evasive action. Their planes were now smoked as it all plunged into the ocean below. I leveled my aircraft as Goodfellow whistled from my first bloods.

"Better catch up, Edge. Reaper is already in the lead." Omega chuckled as he was pursuing only one SU-33 Flanker.

"Don't think I'm not going to just let him win that easily. Ridgebacks, break!" Edge ordered as her squadron got out of formation and spread out, attacking any bandits in their twelve.

"Bone Arrows, let's show 'em how we roll, shall we?" I smirked and pulled up again, beginning to pursue another SU-33 Flanker.

"Didn't need to tell me twice, Cap'n. Let's get 'em!" Omega shouted enthusiastically and flew around like crazy as he easily evaded missiles.

I looked up as Omega was after another plane from the enemy squadron, but sighted another that was stealthily sneaking up on his tail. I took action and fired my guns instead of my missiles due to it locking on too long. It's wings fell off as I banked right to avoid the debris, only for it to hit another bandit that tried to pursue my aircraft. It's stabilizers were struck out as it fell to its end.

"Alright, Zebu, Bronco, cover Omega. I'll handled any ones that try to go on your six." I ordered.

"Yes, sir." Zebu followed.

"You got it, boss." Bronco acknowledged.

"Ridgeback 1! Behind you!" Ridgeback 3 called out.

"Wha-…? WHOA!"

I saw Edge make a sharp turn as a heat seeking missile barely hit her tail. Her squadron was busy with their own chases, so it was up to me. I pulled the stick and headed towards the SU-33 Flanker that was after her. My missiles locked on to him as I saw my AIM-9 launch and head towards my target. It rolled and evaded my missile, but it wasn't over yet. I fired my guns as it shredded and unfortunately ruined the top as bullets punctured holes and shredded metal fell out. As a finishing blow, I launched another missile as the body exploded and the cockpit fell to the ocean, unaware if the pilot bailed out or not.

"These guys aren't even trying." Omega chuckled. "They always fly smoothly instead of aggressively."

"Reaper probably took down most of the experienced pilots already and they're just sending in their nuggets or misfits after him." Goodfellow said.

"Sir, we got a problem here. Half of our planes have been shot down." An enemy pilot said.

"Damn it. All units, aim for the Reaper! Evade every shot the other planes send to you! Our top priority is taking that pirate out of our skies!" The enemy squadron leader ordered.

"UN dogs. You're all going down." One of the enemy planes laughed and fired a missile directly at Omega.

"Hey! On your six, King Bailout!" I shouted out.

"Can you stop calling me tha-…HOLY HELL!" Omega rolled instantly as the missile barely hit him on his left wing.

"Gotcha!" Edge fired one at the plane that tried to take down my wingman, taking him out of the sky.

"You would've been King Bailout if I didn't warn yah." I chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah. Least the name isn't that bad anyway." Omega sighed.

"Goodfellow," I called out, "are you good on your part?"

"You worry about yourself, Reaper. The rest of the Ridgebacks have my back while you and your team will be the ones on the offensive."

"Just like how the Bone Arrows play, eh?"

"Remember, you gotta be hungry."

I nodded to myself and pushed the afterburners to max as I charged towards one of the enemy planes that was trying to get on Bronco's tail. My missile locked onto it as I quickly launched it from close range, making the enemy plane unable to have enough time to evade. Same goes to another enemy plane that was flying towards me head on. I fired another missile as it barely hit my plane from it's shredded metal and ball of flames from the fuel it had.

"We lost two planes already?! What the hell is going on here!" The enemy squad leader growled frustratingly.

"Sir, we already lost 80% of our planes! We need to retreat!"

"Our orders are to take down the Reaper. And I want that order accomplished!" He shouted.

"Affirmative!"

In my rear view mirror, I could see two bandits on my six as I was already spiked form an enemy lock-on. I rolled my aircraft around before making a quick and sharp pull downward to do a flashing split-s maneuver. Two missiles were launched and almost hit my aircraft, but the sharp turn managed to make them miss.

"Hang in there, cap'n!" Omega dived in as he fired a missile at one of my pursuers. He broke off the trail as I now had to deal with one plane.

"Dumping speed." I said as my air brakes slowed my craft down as soon as it was at the right moment to do so, making my pursuer break away. I immediately hit the throttle and turned to chase him. I locked on and fired a missile, striking his tail before he had a chance to evade.

"Aircraft damaged! Bailing out!"

"Alter 4, take down the Reaper!"

"Negative. I'm being tracked down by one of his wingmen."

"I'll go get him for you."

I looked around and saw Omega now dealing with two bandits chasing after him while he himself was pursuing one enemy plane.

"Bone Arrow 2, two bandits on your six." One of the Ridgebacks called out.

"What?!" Omega broke hard as I saw the enemy plane that he was trying to track was now turning the tables on him, now having three bandits trailing Omega.

"Hang in there, Omega!" I said while chasing after the three bandits. Realizing I had an open chance of firing my multi-lock missiles, I switched my weapons to the 4AAM and easily locked on the enemies tailing Omega. Then, I saw another bandit approach me from head on, trying to stop me. Little did he know, he filled in the extra slot for my missile lock. "Gotcha." I fired.

As the missiles dropped and dashed towards the enemy planes, the four bandits tried to break away from Omega's tail, but failed as all four enemy planes were shot down at once. I pulled up to avoid going to a head-on collision with the destroyed aircraft that was flying towards me.

"Whoa! Sweet!" Omega chuckled.

Goodfellow whispered, showing a sign that he witnessed what I did. "Nice one."

"Damn Grim Reaper. You're going down!" The leader growled.

All of a sudden, I saw a missile warning on my HUD. Before I could do any evasive maneuvers, I felt my plane get struck by a missile, making my body slightly paralyzed to pressuring pain from the shockwave it produced.

"Boss! On your tail!"

"Reaper, report your damage."

"Nothing major. Panel is good and the stick is working fine…" I grunted and looked behind me to see the enemy flight leader on my tail.

"Fox 2 launched!" Omega called out as he launched a missile at my pursuer, only for it to miss as the flight leader rolled out of its way. "What?! How did that miss?!" He growled.

"I got him. Don't worry."

"Your flying ends here!" The enemy leader roared.

"Damn it!" I growled and did a tight kulbit maneuver as my nose pointed directly behind me where the enemy flight lead was. I could feel the rough feeling and adrenaline going through from the high g turn, but I managed to stay conscious, thanks to my training. Knowing I didn't have enough time to lock on, I used my guns as my rounds didn't miss at all. They bit the front air intakes and the cockpit, utterly destroying the front of the SU-33. It started rolling around as the engines were on fire and extinguished when it hit the ocean.

Omega whistled as he saw what I just did. "Boy, Cap'n. When I said you were better than Viper, I really did mean you were BETTER than him."

"Don't let him hear you say that." Goodfellow chuckled. "Looks like the skies are all clear. Nice work everybody."

"You Ridgebacks okay?" I asked as I flew around to test my plane out, even though my F-22 could handle those advanced maneuvers.

"All green. No hits taken, and we're still good on fuel and ammo." Edge told me.

"I've taken one missile hit, but things are looking pretty good right now. I'll be in formation later after testing my plane out." I notified my team.

"Affirmative. Take your time." Goodfellow said.

"I'm surprised I didn't take a hit from that furball." Omega chuckled.

"You'll still always be remembered as King Bailout for getting shot down too much." I reminded him.

"Oh come on. At least make me feel good about myself."

Before I could reply, my comms started to act up a little bit as I was receiving nothing but static. I checked my panel and electronics to see what was up, but noting seemed wrong except for the frequency I was in. It changed to a different connection by itself, which had me worried that the missile that hit my plane actually caused enough internal damage from the wave it created.

"What the-? Come on!" I groaned annoyingly and tried to change the comms, but to no avail as it stayed into one and the same channel. "What's up with this thing? I thought you and I have been through many battles before." I sighed, talking to my plane.

"We sure have."

My eyes widened as my body froze from what I just heard.

Did it just reply to me?!

"Am I crazy, or did my plane just reply to me…?" I mumbled quietly.

"Well, we have been through many battles together. But I'm not the F-22 Raptor you fly." The female voice said with a hint of a giggle. "It's me, the Butterfly Master."

Hearing the voice reveal herself made my heart jump as I replied back immediately. "Camilla?" I was just very surprised to hear her voice again. "Wait, how did you get into my frequency?"

"Well, Kvasir did all of the work." She gave a small chuckle. "I just watched him do his magic."

"Must've been boring to see how hacking works."

"You know I can hear you, Reaper." Kvasir said over the comms Camilla was in.

"Not really. It was pretty intriguing to look at it."

"Never was into computer science much. But hey, you'll never know." I shrugged. "Wait, can anybody else hear us?"

"You are in a different channel that your friends can't hear or have access to, thanks to Kvasir linking to your radio only."

"Well, okay…?" I shrugged my shoulders a bit. "So, why are you contacting me at this time?"

"There are two reasons why I came on to talk to you. One, I was just testing this out if Kvasir actually made this work, since I actually didn't believe he could."

"Does my master have zero faith in my efforts…?" I heard Kvasir whisper to himself.

"Then second,…well…I…I want to help you." Camilla told me.

"Help…me?"

"Yes. Help you. First off, I want to tell you this." She cleared her throat. "The USEAN Federation is starting to become a lot more worse than before. Kvasir gave me reports of civilians getting publicly executed for being accused of rebelling, increase of forced labor and concentration camps along with children working in dangerous conditions, production of nuclear weapons that are meant to aim at UN cities, and even sending more of their ace pilots to solely focus on your elimination."

"I can take care of the aces they send me. But why mention those other problems? I understand they're pretty screwed up, but how does that involve into help me?"

"Ever since you told me the truth onboard the satellite, that moment was when I was starting to not trust the USEAN Federation for lying to me like that. For not telling me I was killing actual people. Then, when I faced you above Kuwait City,…I couldn't do it. If I fought back, your life would have been at risk." Her voice was choked on that sentence, which made me frown a bit. "And now Kvasir has told me more about the amount of atrocities the USEAN Federation has committed while this is all going on. I can't support those monsters anymore!"

I then realized what she was trying to say. "So you want to help me in order to make the USEAN Federation lose and the United Nations win."

"Yes." Camilla replied. "This is for the greater good. USEA needs to be defeated in order to make Earth go back to the way it was before. I bet that's what you always wanted, right?"

She was right. I remember that I told her back when we first met, and told her how much I just wanted things to go back to the way it was again. Before the Ulysses disaster, I had the most wonderful life I could have ever imagined with my parents taking care of me as a child. Unfortunately, the drops of the meteors from the sky left behind their scars on Earth that everyone will see as a reminder that the skies aren't always safe. For me, it was a reminder of destroying not only my world. But my innocence.

"Yeah. I do…" I nodded

"Are you okay…?" She noticed the saddened tone of my voice.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I sighed. "Listen, I probably don't have enough time before my Commander starts yelling at me for not responding to him. Maybe we can talk another time, I guess."

"I gotta go too." Camilla said. "Listen, I…" She paused for a moment, but hesitated to complete her sentence. "…nevermind."

"Well, okay then. Stay safe, Camilla."

"No. I should be saying that to you." She told me. "You're the one risking your life unlike a coward like me."

"You're not a coward. Come on." I tried to cheer her up and let out a small chuckle.

She didn't chuckle back and just let out a saddened sigh. "Bye, Reaper."

"Yeah…bye…" I responded awkwardly, which I felt stupid for.

The frequency that connected both me and Camilla suddenly went dead as my radio was back to its normal state. I tweaked it a little and fixed the volume before tuning into the channel I was in with Goodfellow and my squadron.

"You okay, Reaper?" Goodfellow asked. "Something was wrong with your radio and I couldn't get anything out of it."

"I'm fine. That one missile probably screwed the thing up a little." I made up an excuse.

"I'll be sure to tell the boys to fix it all up while you land in Fukuoka. Right now, just stay in formation and be cautious if any more bogeys show up."

"Gotcha." I nodded while leveling my plane and moved it next to Goodfellow's aircraft plane with my squadron.

"Bone Arrow 1, try to stay on the same frequency. You'll never know what will happen next if we don't get any word out of you." Edge told me.

"Noted." I nodded and relaxed a bit, back to the smooth flight heading to Japan.

While my body took a break while I was smoothly piloting my F-22, I began to think about what Camilla told me about what the USEA Federation is doing to its military and their own people. If that Cohen guy wants to save humanity and get them back on their feet, he has a funny way of showing it, since I bet even their workers under slave labor couldn't even get on their own feet. Especially the children, which I shuttered by disgust by which kind of cold meat would force them into working in horrible conditions.

Camilla made the right choice. Hell, it's pointless to try and help USEA as they're starting to fall apart and are becoming desperate enough to do those kinds of things.


(I know what you're saying. FINALLY! A NEW CHAPTER! I know, I know. I'll post another chapter sometime this month :). )

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