I'm not sure I agree about the MiG-31. It's not suitable for dogfighting, but being a relatively high speed/high-altitude interceptor would make it viable for massed attacks with long range missiles against formations. For X-COM it's not a good choice since it would fare poorly in a dogfight and our fights tend to devolve into that. But for national militaries trying to coordinate a large-scale strategy for whittling down the aliens over their own airspace it could play a useful role.
I'm also a bit confused about how you mix low-performance and "good but too hard to get more of" aircraft in the "Dead End tier." Especially with the idea of the X-02A being out of the question but the X-02S not being.
I'm not sure I agree about the MiG-31. It's not suitable for dogfighting, but being a relatively high speed/high-altitude interceptor would make it viable for massed attacks with long range missiles against formations. For X-COM it's not a good choice since it would fare poorly in a dogfight and our fights tend to devolve into that. But for national militaries trying to coordinate a large-scale strategy for whittling down the aliens over their own airspace it could play a useful role.
I'm also a bit confused about how you mix low-performance and "good but too hard to get more of" aircraft in the "Dead End tier." Especially with the idea of the X-02A being out of the question but the X-02S not being.
It's worth noting that your four X-02As are practically Ace customs held together by the fact of Pops having an exceptionally boring retirement. Even then...
Well, pray you don't have to replace any of them.
Another note: did you know that it is canonical that Grunder Industries somehow had an undeclared V1 nuclear warhead???!!!
Also, Wizard Sorcerer One, after defecting and joining the terrorist organization A World With No Boundaries, found a job as an insurance salesman.
This has...some implications for Osea as a country, chief among them being a horrifically bad intelligence division. Other such implications will probably be covered in the Lighthouse War lore post; today or tomorrow I'll get out the lorepost on the Anean continent: specifically the Estovakian Civil Wars, and the Estovakian-Emmerian War.
It's worth noting that your four X-02As are practically Ace customs held together by the fact of Pops having an exceptionally boring retirement. Even then...
Well, pray you don't have to replace any of them.
Another note: did you know that it is canonical that Grunder Industries somehow had an undeclared V1 nuclear warhead???!!!
Also, Wizard One, after defecting and joining the terrorist organization A World With No Boundaries, found a job as an insurance salesman.
This has...some implications for Osea as a country, chief among them being a horrifically bad intelligence division. Other such implications will probably be covered in the Lighthouse War lore post; today or tomorrow I'll get out the lorepost on the Anean continent: specifically the Estovakian Civil Wars, and the Estovakian-Emmerian War.
My hunch is that Harling had a dead man contingency in case ass hats blocked document releases, so the sealed records might get distributed regardless of what the warhawks want. They'll likely add more fuel to the fire that is the political meld down that is Osea politics right now, which might result in actual lynch mobs.
I dunno. He gave his interview for the documentary (in the cut-scenes for the Knight path of AC0) from a jail cell. And he sounded like he was making his peace with all the radical political insanity he'd gotten up to in the aftermath of the Belkan War.
It's entirely possible that he served, say, eight years in prison and was let out on parole some time in 2012 or whatever, with the Osean equivalent of the NSA keeping him under extremely close surveillance.
I dunno. He gave his interview for the documentary (in the cut-scenes for the Knight path of AC0) from a jail cell. And he sounded like he was making his peace with all the radical political insanity he'd gotten up to in the aftermath of the Belkan War.
It's entirely possible that he served, say, eight years in prison and was let out on parole some time in 2012 or whatever, with the Osean equivalent of the NSA keeping him under extremely close surveillance.
I dunno. He gave his interview for the documentary (in the cut-scenes for the Knight path of AC0) from a jail cell. And he sounded like he was making his peace with all the radical political insanity he'd gotten up to in the aftermath of the Belkan War.
It's entirely possible that he served, say, eight years in prison and was let out on parole some time in 2012 or whatever, with the Osean equivalent of the NSA keeping him under extremely close surveillance.
I meant Sorcerer; point is, mans can straight up join a terrorist group and go back to civvie life when he's shot down, to say nothing of all the other aces from the Belkan War
Possibly he turned state's evidence and sold out a lot of other people? Although in that case I can't figure out why he'd be willing to sit still for the interview; people might come looking for him.
Possibly he turned state's evidence and sold out a lot of other people? Although in that case I can't figure out why he'd be willing to sit still for the interview; people might come looking for him.
He probably had no more shits to give, he went to hiding after the interview or the deal that let him go back to civilian life included protection. Or a mixture of these.
I've updated my list on the last page with better reasoning and my preliminary judgement of available special weapons. I'm still convinced that the Etherials will do something to nerf Burst Missiles, which will impact the ADMM.
The other big war that Long Caster's officer training focused on was the Emmerian-Estovakian War, alternatively titled the Anean Continental War. The Emmerian's eventual victory was the cause of considerable debate among the Osean military strategists; the Estovakians launched a decapitation attack that rewrote the textbooks on decapitation strike, and the Emmerians simply focused on reclaiming ground, yet the Emmerians still won.
The roots of this war, like every single war in the twenty-first century with the sole flaming exception of the Circum-Pacific War, was the Ulysses Disaster. When Ulysses's trajectory was recalculated after a proble landed on its surface, the Anean continent, which had once believed that they would at best only need to prepare for incoming waves of refugees and a distant possibility of higher water levels, suddenly found itself taking significant fractions of the Ulysses orbital debris. Nearly in a panic, the Anean governments raced to build the Chandelier railgun, emplaced in the Arctic Circle, with Nordennavic and Emmerian industry providing the manufactured goods, while the Estovakians oversaw the design:
At least, this had been the case until the Emmerian government noticed that Chandelier was a fixed gun emplacement pointed at their capital Gracemeria. At this point, Emmeria pulled nearly every single diplomatic and economic resource they had to make sure that Chandelier either stopped pointing at their capital or that Chandelier was never finished. By that point in early 1999, there was no realistic way to make Chandelier stop pointing at the Emmerian capital, and the offer to modify the Chandelier railgun to fire cruise missiles that could course-correct was initially accepted, before the Emmerian government decided that wasn't good enough, especially in the wake of the 1998 Usean coup d'etat, where two nominally anti-Ulysses devices were used as military superweapons. With the withdrawal of the Emmerians from the project, there was no real hope of the project completing, and so it was abandoned.
Without any real shielding from the effects of Ulysses, the Anean continent was devastated. Estovakia in particular, which had been counting on the Chandelier railgun to defend against the asteroid fragments as a mighty shield at Estovakia's borders, had its infrastructure and industry pounded into so much rubble and glass, along with whole districts of their cities, and, fatally, the parliment bunker. Emmeria and Nordennavic were, comparatively speaking, hit less hard, though the sheer fact that so much of their population and industry was on the coast resulted in brutal damage to Emmeria and Nordennavic anyway. The destruction left both Emmeria and Nordennavic too busy licking their wounds and trying to repair their own economies and cities to pay too much attention to what was happening to the eastern edge of the continent.
What was happening there was the dissolution of the Estovakian state. The hastily-constructed parliment bunker's destruction destroyed the majority of Estovakia's government; the destruction of huge swathes of Estovakian infrastructure and industry ensured that the scraps of the remaining government would be completely unable to feed or heat or shelter the citizens outside of their local administrative areas, if they could do anything at all. In far too many places, the answer between picking between food, heat, and shelter was "pick none." In the icy cold of the wintry Estovakian mountains, there was only one possible outcome.
Moreover, this extended period where huge portions of the Estovakian populace were cut off from each other and the nominal Estovakian government meant that new ones arose where Estovakian government had been unable to provide aid or unwilling to, due to lack of resources; not even the capital was free from starving or freezing on the nights of bitterest cold, and the nights were far colder than they were supposed to be.
This inevitably led to conflict, when the local governments decided that they did not, in fact, want to pay taxes that their citizens could not afford to bear to a government that had never helped them and yet expected to be paid. The central government tried to resort to military force, but with the Estovakian infrastructure and industry absolutely shattered, along with most semblances of central authority, units of the army joined up with their respective legitimate governments: the local governments.
Just like that, the Estovakian central government's legitimacy evaporated. Soon, the local governments began fighting each other, raiding each other for fuel, food, and supplies. From there, Estovakia only continued to disintegrate, first turning into a collection of feuding states, then a collection of fiefdoms with armies, and then its final state: warlords with territory.
Fifteen years of civil war followed. What the Ulysses War didn't destroy, the fifteen years of civil war did. The Emmerians tried to help Estovakia and coordinate the incoming aid, but Emmeria's own state of disarray and the devastation wreaked upon Estovakia's infrastructure ensured that aid was ineffectual at first. By the time Emmeria repaired their own infrastructure to the point where aid could be meaningfully directed, Estovakia's situation had progressed to warlords with territory - out of a desperate hope to just end the fighting already, Emmeria continued to supply the nearest warlords, the Lyes United Front.
The Lyes United Front, like most of the other warlords, chose to turn around and use the aid to supply their military and to browbeat resisting cities and warlords into submission; one such example was the city of Gledina, whose siege by the Lyes United Front cost over 200,000 civilian lives, and to whose common defense the Eastern Faction was sworn. The Eastern Faction declared war, and then the loose networks of nonaggression and defense treaties all kicked in at once, turning a warm war into the war that would destroy all the warlords but one.
However, the steady trickle of Emmerian aid meant that the Lyes United Front was beginning to win the Estovakian Civil War, in as much as anybody could be said to win a war where all that was left was ash, snow, and craters; one by one, they began knocking off their enemies and assimilating their remains.
Eventually in 2010, the Emmerians decided the Lyes United Front had committed too many atrocities to justify further aid. This was a rude shock to the Lyes United Front, which had grown fat off starving its populace and depending on Emmerian aid to supply their army. In a series of decisive battles, the Eastern Faction began steadily beating back the Lyes United Front before ending the Lyes United Front in one fell swoop; it was rumored that the Eastern Faction had been investing a disproportinate amount of energy and influence into building something, and that something turned out to the the Estovakian Aerial Fleet.
In any case, the twelve-year Estovakian Civil War had finally ended; in the final days, rumor had it that there were children born into the war who died fighting.
For two years, the Eastern Front built up their country from the ruins it had been, ruthlessly crushing seperatists and dissenters. Moreover, Estovakia still could not reliably keep the power on for its citizens, while Emmeria criticized Estovakia and demanded remuneration for seperatist actions.
To the generals of the Eastern Faction, there seemed to be a clean resolution to both problems:
Invade Emmeria.
On August 30th, 2015, that's precisely what they did. The Estovakian forces, the most blooded force in the world, crashed into the Emmerian forces, widely considered to have the best battle system in the world. Initially, it even looked like Emmeria would be able to leverage its better battle system and superior logistics to throw back the Estovakian attack, but then the Aerial Fleet and its attendant Strigon Team
In an instant, huge chunks of the Emmerian Air Force was obliterated from the skies by Nimbus cruise missiles, fired from the airborne "heavy command cruiser" (read: aircraft carrier) Aigaion. The ace Strigon team began to mop up the rest, only to meet Talisman in the rear-guard. Though Talisman managed to shoot down at least one Strigon team member, the Emmerian Air Force, along with the tatters of its general command, began fleeing west.
Osean deep-strike doctrine dictated that the war should've been over by that point: the Estovakian military had captured Emmeria's capital Gracemeria.
The Emmerians disagreed.
However, with most of their air force destroyed, their operations to retake their capital smashed straight into the Aigaion and the Strigon fleet. The attack forces evaporated, reducing an already diminished military. The Estovakians leveraged their advantage to push westward, chasing the Emmerian's command elements as fast as they could move, utilizing the Aerial Fleet's incredible mobility to simply bypass the forces intended to slow the Estovakian's rate of advance.
Within three months, the Emmerian military was driven off the continent and to a singular airbase in Vitoze Island, fleeing from the threat of the Nimbus missiles and Strigon team. They managed to save significant amounts of their forces by running away at nearly every opportunity, but the retreats bled far too much into routs to be able to save much more than the very best of their forces.
Finally, completely out of options, the remnants of Emmerian High Command decided to risk Nimbus fire by contesting air superiority as a bomber force bore down on Emmeria's final city. Luckily, Nimbus fire was nowhere to be seen, and the highly-skilled Emmerian forces swept the Estovakian bomber force out of the sky.
Heady with the rush of not seeing either the dreaded Nimbus missiles or Strigon Team, Emmerian High Command immediately began offensive operations. They engaged the ground forces advancing to Vitoze on Sipli Fields and their diminished forces crashed into and through the overextended Estovakian forces. The offensive continued pushing through Vitoze Island, stopping briefly to gather their forces to attack Bartolomeo Fortress, a fortress that the Emmerians had abandoned without a fight just a few months prior. Finally, in late December, the Emmerians engaged Bartolomeo forces. The operation proceeded smoothly; despite the arrival of two Strigon Team members, Talisman shot them down. No Nimbus missiles were incoming.
The gathering Emmerian forces spent another month partyingpreparing for a landing on the mainland. In late January, they made their landing onto the Anean beaches, and under Garuda Team's Talisman and leveraging their battle system, the Emmerians pushed their way onto the beaches, but the Nimbus missiles and Strigon Team were still missing.
Speculation among Osean analysts is that the Aigaion and Strigon team were away suppressing detached Emmerian units and dissidents within Estovakia itself; the Generals and their Eastern Faction were only barely tolerated, and there were people who hadn't stopped fighting the Eastern Faction even now.
Now pushing eastwards, the Emmerians looked to link up with their other detached forces, fighting on months after the front line had moved past them. The suppressing Estovakian forces, caught between the anvil of the stubbornly resisting Emmerian detached forces and the hammer of the triumphant forces from the west, melted away. During a particularly intense battle over the Rawlins Plains, two members of Strigon Team were shot down, boosting Emmerian morale and their high command's confidence even further.
This changed when the Emmerian forces began crossing the Selumna Peaks. The Estovakians initially aimed to bomb the force out of existence with an aerial attack; the Emmerian Air Force intercepted and were handily defeating them, until the Estovakians decided to withdraw. The Emmerians gave chase, and then the Estovakians deployed the Nimbus missiles and their Searcher drone terminal guidance systems.
Searchers are an early drone prototype, notable for their incredible mobility and lack of any credible weapon packages. Many militaries in need of drone technology adopted the drone for their use; Estovakia in particular used them for Nimbus missile terminal guidance.
The Emmerian air force's immediate response was to order an about-face and evacuate the hell out. Talisman was assigned as rear-guard to cover the retreat, but AWACS Ghost Eye and Talisman had other ideas - ideas like shooting down all the drones themselves.
Suddenly, Emmerian High Command realized that the drones would both predict the Nimbus missile impact, and shooting down all the drones would stop the Nimbus missiles. Armed with this information, the Emmerian forces opened up offensive operations aimed at taking down the Aigaion itself.
With Nimbus missile fire incoming, the Emmerians nevertheless captured the city. From there, the Emmerians launched an offensive operation against the Aigaion, its Aerial Fleet, and the Strigon Team assigned to the Aerial Fleet. Talisman led the all-aerial contingent. Talisman came home with the Emmerian Air Force, and the Aerial Fleet went straight to the bottom of the Fuscum Sea.
From here, the tide of the war had swung too far in Emmeria's favor. Emmeria's war machine continued sweeping east across the sea, crushing Ragno Fortress and fighting one of Estovakia's largest defensive armies on the highlands Moloch Desert. The Emmerian army eventually wins, defeating the reinforcing Strigon Team five plane formation.
Something happens, and a massive aerial battle is fought over the Alma River; Emmeria's victory here strips away huge portions of Estovakia's depleted air force, clearing the way for the liberation of Gracemeria.
Finally, on March 31st, 2016, Emmeria launched the operation. Fighting in one of the largest battles of the war, attacking from land, sea, and sky, the Emmerians used their operational superiority to maximum effect. The remainder of the Strigon Team came to reinforce the city, but by the time they arrived, Emmeria had by and large taken Gracemeria. Changing the Strigon Team's orders, Ilya Pasternak, flying the CFA-44 Nosferatu, ordered the rest of the Strigon Team to flee while Pasternak held off the rest of Emmeria's military.
Aided by swarms of UAVs, Pasternak managed to hold off Talisman and the rest of the Emmerian forces long enough for the Strigon Team to leave the combat area. Pasternak went down with his Nosferatu.
Later that night, as the Estovakian leaders were preparing to sign a ceasefire, Gracemeria came under cruise missile fire from the north. An Estovakian contingent decided to ignore the ceasefire and reactivate Chandelier to destroy Gracemeria. This contingent wanted to ensure that there could be no peace between the Estovakians and Emmerians; by razing the Emmerian capital, they would ensure this outcome.
The Emmerian Air Force, however, shot down the incoming missiles; the next morning, the crippled high-ranking Estovakian ace Victor Voychek defected and gave the Emmerian Air Force the design specifications for Chandelier. The next morning, the Emmerian Air Force sortied for the final mission of the war: destroying the Chandelier.
At the Chandelier itself was everything the remnant Estovakian forces had left, including the last few members of Strigon Team that insisted on continuing the fight. All the forces combined could not stop the Emmerian Air Force from destroying the Chandelier weapon; of special note is Talisman, who repeatedly flew into the loading trench to destroy cruise missile rounds as they were being loaded into the railgun.
After the operation, the Estovakians that had wanted peace launched a "coup" that amounted to declaring that they were the only one with a military and thus were calling the shots with democratic legitimacy. Finally, in April, a ceasefire agreement was recognized between Emmeria and an internationally recognized Estovakian government.
The outcome of this war called into question the Osean deep-strike doctrine; after all, despite being "decapitated" within practically the first day of the war and the Estovakians executing a deep strike backed up by a superweapon, the Emmerians ended up winning the war anyway. However, the older military planners who had originated the deep-strike doctrine pointed out that the Oseans won the Circum-Pacific War, and besides, Emmeria was an untouched industrialized powerhouse while Estovakia was a wartorn hellhole for the better part of two decades; it's a wonder that the Estovakians got anywhere at all, laboring under those constraints. In fact, they only got there on the basis of their superior strategy, despite the Emmerian Armed Forces' much vaunted superior operational and tactical commands, the deep-strike planners claimed.
Personally, Long Caster didn't really buy it; what was important to him, though, was that force preservation was absolutely critical in any strategy of choice; the Emmerians could only win because they managed to preserve so much of their forces when it came time to counterattack.
Ultimately, the long-term consequences aren't clear; it's only been five years, after all.
In lieu of that, have some really off-color jokes from what might be XCOM ANEA:
Emmerian 1: Why can you only have one Stovie on a job at a time?
Emmerian 2: Why?
Emmerian: 1: Because they'll have a civil war!
Estovakian 1: Oh, civil war jokes? We're the best at them. Here, try this one on for size: What does Estovakians' life and their jokes have in common?
Emmerian 1, SUDDENLY SELF-CONSCIOUS: Uh...what?
Estovakian 1: They're both short, not very funny, and they both end when an Estovakian bombs 'em.
Emmerian 1 and 2: ...
Emmerian 1 and 2: Ummm, that's not really funny, is it.
Estovakian 1: Neither was the Estovakian Civil War, but here we are.
However, the steady trickle of Emmerian aid meant that the Lyes United Front was beginning to win the Estovakian Civil War, in as much as anybody could be said to win a war where all that was left was ash, snow and craters; one by one, they began knocking off their enemies and assimilating their remains.
. They engaged the ground forces advancing to Vitoze on Sipli Fields, and their diminished forces crashed into and through the overextended Estovakian forces.
With Nimbus missile fire incoming, the Emmerians nevertheless captured the city. From there, the Emmerians launched an offensive operation against the Aigaion
the next morning, the crippled high-ranking Estovakian ace Victor Voychek defected, and gave the Emmerian Air Force the design specifications for Chandelier.
despite being "decapitated" within practically the first day of the war, and despite the Estovakians executing a deep strike backed up by a superweapon
Speaking of fighting despite being 'decapitated', I always considered Gryphus 1 to be the Best Human Ace, mainly due to the fact that the Aurelian Air Force, Army (Reduced to like 1 Armor Unit and 1 Helicopter Assault Unit) and High Command was devastated enough that a senior, and well-respected Fighter Pilot was the person calling the shots for what remained in the Aurelian Military, and while the Aurelian Navy was in somewhat good condition, the Gleipnir did wipe out an entire fleet during one mission so that didn't help.
So, this is the product of two days and lots of idea bouncing between me and hYGP, which finally allowed me to get this little plot bunny of mine out on paper. If I have the time, I might see about doing more omake in the same vein as this one. Anyways, enjoy an inside look into the Osean Administration that gave Erusea it's glorious white birds of war.
P.S. See if you can spot the easter eggs I dropped to something else I'm working on. First one to get it right gets a cookie. Anyways, enjoy.
P.P.S. Many thanks to @huhYeahGoodPoint for Enemy Skies and all the help they've given me so far for my Ace Combat stuff.
"So what you're saying is that we're basically screwed no matter what option we choose?"
"Yessir," replied the Minister of Foreign Affairs. "Deploying additional forces to the IUNPKF detachments in Central Usea will satisfy our allies' requests for aid in the face of Erusea's renewed threats, but you can kiss any chance of having positive ratings in the midterms goodbye at home." The young minister coughed as he took a glance at the papers before him. "Both the anti-war parties and the small government folks will want your hide, to say a few."
"And if we choose not to deploy troops?"
Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably at the statement - troop deployments were expensive both fiscally and politically, but not helping out an ally? It was a risky proposition at best. After a few seconds of brief silence and paper shuffling, the Minister spoke up again.
"Well, it'd be a boon for the Eruseans - they'd get the political one up on us for the time being, make themselves look big and tough. Best long term result is that they could make the IUN look bad and maybe get a bigger share of the ISEV from the FCU in order to prevent further flashpoints." The man fiddled with his hair nervously. "And the FCU would be pretty pissed as well, to say the least."
There was an auditory groan at this, coupled with some barely muffled curses. The President, himself a powerfully built man in the mid fifties whose chin had probably been used to dig foxholes in his former marine unit, got up from his desk and turned to stare out the windows of Bright Hill. Outside, the winter rain fell in sheets against the glass and out across the vast green lawn of the Capitol Building. A bolt of lightning flashed out across the low lying clouds, briefly illuminating the scene in a stormy glow, as if to highlight the tumultuous political proceedings.
"I don't get the FCU," the President ground out in a voice like two stones rubbing against one another. "One day they say they want us to take our troops and leave, the next they're demanding that we fulfill our obligations as allies and deploy more men to provide for their peace of mind. Peace of mind, I might add, that the Osean taxpayer is covering for!" He slammed a meaty fist against the desk. "And then when I do cover for them every time the Eruseans even glance funnily in the direction of San Salvaction, those damn vultures in Parliament are busy screaming for my head!"
The last statement was punctuated with an angry sigh and the groans of leather as the President settled into his chair once more, stooping over his desk in a picture of brooding indecision. Again, the various ministers and officials in the room glanced at each other nervously. The President was a temperamental man, and no one desired to be the subject of one of his enraged rants, not when said man controlled both their paychecks and the fate of their political careers. At last, a new voice, that of the aging Minister of Defense, spoke up.
"With respect Mr. President," he began, "I think it'd be best to just take the hit and deploy additional troops. Both the Kestral II and Condor are near Cape Landers on the final stage of their three month patrol. We could have them rerouted to Usea within the next five or so days, with Marine Expeditionary forces within the next eight. It'd be contro. . ." He never finished his statement.
With an animalistic roar, the President shot to his feet, a swipe of his hand sending the collection of papers and file folders on his desk spiralling to the floor. "TAKE THE HIT, HE SAYS! FIVE OR SO DAYS, HE SAYS!"
Silence.
"Marcus, do I look like a moron to you?" He barreled on before the rapidly pailing Defense Minister could respond. "Not only will our troops arrive too late, which will give the Eruseans everything they want and make us look bad, the goddamned press and Parliament will have my head! I can see the headlines now!" At this, the President gestured wildly in the air, fingers miming quotations in the space above his head. "'Bright Hill authorizes redeployment of carriers, pushing overworked soldiers to the limit!' 'Federal Budget once again increased to cover the deployment of additional Peacekeepers to Usea!' This administration did not get into office on promises of larger federal budgets or implying that our armed forces are anemic! With policies like that, you can forget lasting to the next election! We won't make it to next fucking week!"
Momentary outburst concluded, the heavy set man returned to his seat, spinning it to face away from the circle of pale and suddenly sweating advisors. When he spoke again, his voice was tinged with some faint, far-off quality, as if reminiscing over some lost love.
"God damn, if the previous administration hadn't been a bunch of penny-pinching peaceniks obsessed with their 'Bridges of Peace,' we might have some sort of rapid response to this, like the SOLG or the Arkbird."
At the oblique reference to the Circum-Pacific War, the various officials shot furtive glances at one another. While few had been in political office in that administration, not a single one had missed the trials of those who had.
"If we still had the SOLG, I'd show those bloody monarchists just how powerless they actually are. I'd make them remember that it was Osea, not anyone else, who won the Cold War and taught the Belkans to stay put in their little northern castles. Hell, everyone seems to have an ace up their sleeve now; some sort of rapid reaction force or airborne fortress. First those damn Belkans in ninety-five, then the Stovies in twenty-sixteen. Hell, even those damn Sotoans in… what was it, oh-three, oh-five?"
The Chief Intelligence Attaché raised her hand, as if to interject, before her colleague in the Ministry of Finance elbowed her sharply.
"Yeah… those damned super-sonic airborne lasers they pulled out of their ass - gave the Yukes one hell of an unpleasant surprise, to be sure. Hah!" The chair creaked as the President laughed, sound seeping out around his desk to fill the room and surround the various advisors in a sea of unsettling noise. "Why does the ass-end of Verusa have a god damned airborne laser system, yet we're stuck sending in carriers to our bitching allies a week after the fact?"
At last, the man turned around and set his elbows on the desk, fingers linked in front of his face in a moody pose.
"You know, if we had some of those or the bloody SOLG, those Erusean upstarts wouldn't be a problem. They'd be too scared to poke their heads out of the hole they call a country, let alone make threats. But instead we're stuck making expensive deployments that don't work and just makes us look weaker. If we had some god damn balls we'd have one of those systems deployed to Usea in the week and we wouldn't have to waste so many men and women and tax dollars protecting the entire FCU! Maybe they could learn to pull their own fucking weight at last." He leaned back in the seat, staring at the ceiling while the various advisors tried their best to avoid making eye contact. "But no. We can't have our honorable allies put some of their own skin in the game - we have to be their lapdogs instead, jumping in when they ask."
No one wanted to bring up the fact that it had been his administration that had greatly expanded Osean military obligations in Usea.
"Those… punks are forgetting who's in charge here, and are content to order us around whenever things get even remotely rough." He glanced towards the storm outside. "We need a fucking permanent solution to this goddamned mess - one that reminds the FCU of who really holds the reigns."
Again, the room was filled with silence - the only sounds the patter of rain against the windows and punctuated by a second rolling crack of thunder.
"Actually, Mr. President," spoke a smooth unflinching voice, "we might have a solution to your problem."
Serena Vasquez had been a particularly controversial pick for the administration's cabinet. The current CEO of the much maligned North-Osea Grunder Industries, she had taken power in the company shortly after various arrests by the State Security Services had decapitated much of the company's upper echelons, leaving leadership of the corporation to the then recently naturalized immigrant. To her credit, however, Vasquez had taken to the position naturally, and managed to maneuver the company out of the freefall it had been in. The intervening years had not been kind, but Grunder was once again top dog amongst the various Osean Aerospace Firms - a status that would have seemed impossible just a few years before. Her mixture of raw cunning, business smarts, and diplomatic prowess had made her an ideal pick for a cabinet position, but her relationship with the formerly treasonous company and murky background earned her no favors with the press - a status that she oscillated between relishing and ignoring in equal measure.
Normally, she was reserved and quiet during cabinet meetings, preferring simply to listen and observe the proceedings with little fan fair. She spoke sparingly and only when addressed, and otherwise spent much of her time looking over reports and quietly conversing with one of her many aides. Now, however, her face was adorned with an expression that looked less like an expression of happiness and more like a cat who had chanced upon a particularly hapless rodent.
"We at Grunder Industries have been working on a program, at the behest of your administration, of course, to develop a series of aircraft that are capable of addressing the issue at hand." She paused, gesturing to her aide and the bundle of papers that she held. "Four years ago, the previous Osean Air & Space Agency commissioned a series of studies on 'long-ranged high-endurance combat support aircraft.' After your administration took office, these studies were expanded into a pair of full-sized prototypes for a pair of aircraft we call Arsenal Birds."
Her pitch was suddenly and deliberately interrupted by the Defense Minister, who's pallid complexion had been replaced with one flushed with embarrassment and anger. "Ms. Vasquez, need I remind you that the aerial battleship prototypes Alpha and Beta are just that! Prototypes! They are not production aircraft, nor are they intended to be, hence why I didn't desire to bring them up!" Vasquez showed no reaction at the omission of her title.
"Minister, while you did not think it prudent to inform him of the status of the prototypes, you of all people should be aware that the vast majority of our company's development aircraft are more than capable of carrying out combat operations as directed." The sheer venom in her voice silenced any reaction, allowing Vasquez to once again direct her attention to the suddenly far more interested President. "As I was saying, both Arsenal Bird prototypes have been completed and were undergoing various combat and flight trials outside of November City for the past six months. In that time, they have shown no signs of faults. They are, for all intents and purposes, entirely capable of carrying out whatever operation they might be needed for. Vanessa here will provide you with the reports."
As the rather mousey looking aide busied herself distributing the necessary documents on the two aircraft, the President finally saw fit to intercede once more.
"Director, while I am certainly pleased with the initiative you and your company have once again demonstrated, I don't quite remember signing off on an… Arsenal Bird initiative. When exactly did this project get approved?"
Sensing the opportunity to add his own input, the designated Finance Minister and sole remaining representative of the previous administration spoke for the first time that day. "Actually, Mr President, you did approve of it." The first few words were spoken haltingly, but quickly built up in speed and confidence. "At the start of your administration, you approved and expanded all previous military development programs that your predecessor had either downsized or canned in an effort to expand and empower the Osean Military." There was a quick glance at the report. "The 'long-ranged high-endurance combat support aircraft' was one of the programs that saw its budget increased massively under your bill."
There was an approving grunt from the executive desk, and the President motioned for Vasquez to continue with an idle gesture.
"Anyways, both Arsenal Bird Alpha and Beta can be fully equipped and ready for global deployment on your orders. They can be armed with an arsenal of 80 MQ-101 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, batteries of surface to air and surface to surface missiles, and the Beta near-production variant could be equipped with a set of heavy laser systems. In addition to these armaments, both aircraft could even be outfitted with a powerful Active Protection System that renders them invulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. Development was stalled due to lack of a fitting power plant, but these can be supplied by microwave receivers that can be powered remotely from the ISEV. In short, they are the ultimate unmanned aerial power projection aircraft, capable of securing both air and ground superiority with equal effectiveness. With these weapons, you could secure several hundred miles of airspace around the ISEV and protect the Usean continent against aggression at a fraction of the cost compared to current IUNPKF and Osean military deployments."
Presentation completed, the woman returned to her favored position against at the back of the room next to one of the large bookshelves, taking in the scene. The various cabinet members were engrossed in their reports, though the Chief Intelligence Attache gave Vasquez an inquisitive side glance from over her papers.
"Director Vasquez, I must admit that you make quite the compelling argument. Total aerospace dominance across the Usean continent at a fraction of the current cost of current deployments. Any gaps can be filled by those damn freeloaders in the FCU, and we can put our soldiers towards more productive affairs like that damn civil war in Leasath." The President now had a shark-like grin. "See that the Arsenal Birds are deployed as soon as possible. I want them in the FCU within the week, and get me ISEV's Director immediately. I want the elevator configured to power the aircraft by tomorrow."
"Mr. President, I hate to say it, but the FCU might not like this sudden escalation of force. Troops that are invited in are one thing, but foreign aerial battleships overflying their countries? Hell, I'm not sure that the IUN or ISEV will allow it under international law, let alone. . ."
There was a sharp crack as the President's fist met the desk once more. " I will make it legal god damnit! I don't give two shits about what those pansies in the IUN think, because at the end of the day they answer to me! They'll go and jump off a cliff if I deem it necessary! As for the FCU, if they didn't want our security, maybe they shouldn't have tried to order us around like their personal guard dogs everytime Erusea even sneezed in their general direction!" Now the President was standing, both arms stretched across the desk as his fiery gaze crawled over the cabinet officials. "They wanted security, so they'll get it, but only on our terms! It's about damn time someone had the balls to remind those bastards who's really in charge around here!"
"But Mr. President, it'll be viewed as a massive escalation of force! The FCU might not accept it, and even if they. . ."
"Minister, you will GET THEM TO ACCEPT IT, or the remainder of your political career will be spent as the head of the fucking PTA for Northwestern Osea! Now get your sorry ass out of my sight!" The foreign affairs minister rightly fled the office post haste, papers trailing from his briefcase. At that, the now thoroughly enraged executive turned his focus to the remainder of his cabinet. "And that goes for the rest of you as well! You will get those god damned Arsenal Birds deployed to Usea and sell it to Parliament, or you'll be out of your jobs! Now get to work before I make you do it!" With a series of nods and hurried acknowledgements, the rest of the cabinet dispersed quickly to carry out their orders, leaving only Director Vasquez, the belligeared Defense Minister, and the Chief Intelligence Attaché.
With a faint smile and a nod to the other two, the Chief Intelligence Attaché half-walked, half-skipped out of the office with an expression far too happy for one who had just faced down two-hundred pounds of angry ex-marine. The Defense Minister deigned to follow her.
"Marcus!"
The Defense Minister paused, icy terror creeping up his spine. Out of the corner of his eye, Vasquez chuckled quietly and shook her head before leaving the office, door closing with a final click. With a quiet gulp, the Defense Minister turned to face the President once more.
"Yes, Mr. President?"
"The names need to go. Alpha and Beta are too functional, too utilitarian… too Belkan. We need something else to replace them - something that reminds the FCU why we put them there in the first place and who's in charge."
From his desk, the President glanced down at the carpeted floor containing the great seal of the Osean Federation - a white dove enshrined in olive branches with a quiver of arrows beneath it. His eyes scrolled across the top of the seal, where the motto of the state stood out in gold against the blue carpet. With Liberty and Justice for all. . .
"Call them Liberty and Justice, Minister." The President leaned back in his seat with a self-indulgent smile. "The press will eat that up, and the FCU will get a good long reminder at what we're there to do, whether they like it or not."
"Liberty and Justice." The Defense Minister bounced the names around in his head. They were as good as any, to be honest. "Of course sir. I'll have it done immediately."
"And one more thing Marcus. If this works out, see to it that the armed services committee approves another one of these Arsenal Birds for construction, understand? Good. Now get out."
The door closed with a clack, leaving the President alone in his office. Outside, the storm raged on unabated.
On which note, let's finally fucking finish this lorepost! Sorry it's taken so long, but part-time jobs have been eating huge chunks of my time.
The Lighthouse War is the war that looms largest in both Long Caster's mind and the world's; it has earned that place by being both the most recent war and the most globally disruptive war, as a result of turning nearly all the orbital satellites into another debris cloud around the Earth. Somehow the Lighthouse continues to provide power, despite that.
The immediate run-up to the war is officially, as per the Osean Broadcasting Corporation's statement, a war over the Lighthouse space elevator complex and its associated effects exerting undue influence over the Usean continent. This is technically true, if eliding over the detail that the "associated effects" mentioned in that statement includes the superweapons Arsenal Birds Liberty and Justice.
Unofficially, the Useans were absolutely not comfortable with the Oseans parking those superweapon Arsenal Birds around the Lighthouse and then bludgeoning their way into controlling the international body that was nominally supposed to possess the Arsenal Birds. Possessing the Arsenal Birds, in practice if not in name, would allow the Oseans to overfly almost every single city in Usea with independent unmanned aircraft that supposedly could not be shot down and which possessed dozens of drones to wreak havoc with. It was an exceptionally unpopular move internationally and domestically. Unfortunately, the current administration, while being generally reviled by nearly everyone who wasn't an Osean militarist, had not technically done anything wrong, and thus could not be recalled before the next election.
(yes, these images are wildly different scales. sue me)
Worsening things were the military-industrial megacorporations, to which Long Caster's parents owe their student debt to and on whose expense Long Caster now serves in the military, eagerly doing everything in their power to encourage the war and to suppress dissent, no matter how widespread it was.
On the Usean end of things, however, while Erusea was the lead party involved, multiple Usean countries joined their "pre-emptive measure against Osean aggression". The actual declaration of war was levied against the Osean Federation and the IUN-PKF-USEA in particular; the media release went to great lengths to emphasize that this was not a war against Yuktobania, or Emmeria, or Aurelia, or any other country. This was a war to get rid of the Arsenal Bird and open up the Lighthouse Space Elevator from the all-choking grasp of the Osean megacorporations, the aggressors claimed.
Erusea was the first country who felt ready to pull the trigger. On May 15th, 2019, Erusea finally took the "statement of protest with threatening undertones" and made the threat the tone. Utilizing bomber forces and the element of surprise, as multiple Usean nations simply failed to inform IUN-PKF bases of incoming bomber waves, Erusean-led forces managed to obliterate nearly every IUN-PKF airbase on the Usean continent, with the notable exception of the Fort Grays Island Base due to the work of a new pilot, TAC name Trigger. Internationally, container-launched MQ-99 drones, hidden inside Grunder Industries shipping pallets, destroyed premarked Osean naval targets, like every single one of Osea's aircraft carriers at port on the Osean continent, built or under construction.
(sidenote: Grunder Industries, as Osean intelligence analysts concluded after the fact, had managed to conceal the drones within shipping pallets because supposedly routine inspections were simply no longer conducted after the megacorporations pressured dockworkers to skip said inspections, under threat of ruinous fees from "violating the megacorps' sovereign right as a signatory state to accept only federal arbitration of interstate commerce". The report, of course, was trashed immediately by their superior, who thought he was being proactive in defending his company's net worth.)
Following up their tremendous opening salvo, Erusean forces, aided by sympathetic Usean forces, captured the Lighthouse in one fell swoop, supposedly without any harm done to either side. A bloodless coup. Utilizing their position inside the Lighthouse and their teams of expert hackers, they began "disarming" Arsenal Birds stationed around the Lighthouse space elevator complex.
Osea's response, following their preestablished "deep-strike doctrine", launched an immediate attack on Farbanti; shocking the Oseans somewhat, Erusea's air force and the Erusean drone forces succeeded in driving back the aerial assault on Farbanti. One Erusean squadron in particular began to distinguish itself, especially the flight lead. Said squadron flew a black Su-30 with orange highlights and a roundel highlighting a sun. Regardless, the initial deep-strike to "bring the Eruseans to the negotiating table" was deemed a failure, especially due to the strike's relative inaccuracy, leading to dozens of civilian casualties in a war. This led to further tilting of international opinion: Osea was seen as the overbearing instigator, callously disdainful of civilian casualties, while Erusea was seen as a justified victim who took care to make sure their retribution attacks were precise, targeted, and failed to injure any civilians.
International opinion, however, did nothing to dissuade the IUN-PKF-USEA's push from their Fort Grays Island Base towards the Lighthouse. Piggybacking off of IUN-PKF stragglers that had managed to escape the sudden Erusean offensive, the IUN forces struck deep, under the aircover of the rising star Mage 2, "Trigger". Their push went closer and closer, only for the Eruseans to reveal, much to their fellow Usean's surprise, that the Eruseans had taken control of the two Arsenal Birds. Worse, the Useans discovered that once again, the Eruseans didn't intend to leave the places their military was now in, and they'd have the two Arsenal Birds to enforce their claim. This, of course, was of cold comfort to the IUN-PKF air force as it was torn to tatters in the same airspace as the Arsenal Bird and its MQ-101 drone forerunner.
In the face of mounting losses, however, the IUN-PKF decided to attempt one last attack aimed at the space elevator - they had received intelligence that former President Harling was at the space elevator. Harling, by this point, was world-renowned for his actions in ending the Circum-Pacific War and encouraging international cooperation, especially the Arkbird and Lighthouse projects. Both projects were unfortunately weaponized, but his great protests only served to enhance his image. The IUN-PKF launched a desperation operation to attempt a rescue, with their ace Trigger sent in low and fast to remove the air defenses around the Lighthouse before sending in the Sea Goblin team to rescue the president. At the same time, the carrier Kestrel II would launch an attack on the Erusean capital of Farbanti to (hopefully) distract the Erusean forces.
In response, the Eruseans launched drone fighters to hold off the assaulting IUN forces long enough for the Arsenal Bird to arrive in the airspace, and long enough to sneak extra aircraft, identified as Osean, into the fray. On the IUN's part, another force followed the rescue team in with the intent to destroy the whole Lighthouse; their attempts were futile, as the missiles aimed at toppling the space elevator were bodily intercepted by the MQ-101 drones. Ultimately, the mission ended in catastrophic failure; not only did the Arsenal Bird Liberty arrive within the airspace in time to obliterate the IUN-PKF's forces, one of the Erusean F/A-18 drones, identified as Osean, flew in close to Trigger while Trigger was defending the president's escape craft and shot down the President. In light of being unable to identify which Osean plane had fired the missile, Trigger was held to be responsible and summarily imprisoned.
Meanwhile, in Farbanti, the Kestrel II was sunk as it made its attack on the Erusean capital. Both ends of the effort ended in catastrophic failure, so the IUN-PKF and Osea retreated to lick their wounds. Erusean would launch multiple attacks and the IUN would launch more counter-attacks, but neither could achieve a decisive victory; the Eruseans would launch endless waves of drone fighters at any IUN incursion, and the IUN's general willingness to take losses and high force concentration allowed them to hold the line. During this period, a squadron of black Su-30s with orange highlights became particularly feared among the IUN forces; the IUN-PKF dubbed the lead, and far and away most skilled pilot, "Mister X".
Now that it was clear that the war could not be won through airstrikes on the capital, the battleplan for the war was upended entirely. The new plan was to send a combined arms force along the northern Usean coast, skirting the very edge of the Arsenal Bird's combined defensive radius. In order to accomplish this, however, preliminary scouting had to be accomplished inside the defensive barrier of the drone networks. Particular attention was paid to any known assets within the north of Usea: the Stonehenge ruins in particular looked extremely attractive as a solution, but as it was all eight guns were nonfunctional; someone would have to go in and fix one, right under the Erusean's noses.
Enter the Long-Range Strategic Strike Group.
Their mission was simple: strike deep into enemy territory, drop off the Osean Army Corps of Engineers unit, and then scout the route. Long Caster, as an AWACS, was deemed to be too slow and too dangerous to take with them; instead, Strider Squadron and Cyclops Squadron were deployed with an insertion team and Major McOnie as the lead engineer. Blasting past the drone unit with the Osean ace Wiseman flying cover, the operation looked set to go smoothly; the insertion went off without a hitch, and Erusea apparently didn't have many reserve forces prepared to stop the Osean scouting forces. On the return trip, however, they ran into trouble. Drones, anti-air installations, and experimental squadron trouble. Fortunately, those issues also met another new thorn in the side of the Eruseans: an F-15 Eagle with three stripes on the tail, capable of battling the experimental squadron's ace leader "Mister X" in an active thunderstorm zone, flying in between rocky pillars as lightning flashed from the clouds. The pilot's affiliation was with the 444 squadron, and was said to be "someone you didn't want to associate with".
Ultimately, the scouting force did manage to mostly return, although with a few losses. With their primary objective accomplished, Strider Squadron and Cyclops Squadron went back to defending the front lines for a while, as another squadron began gaining notoriety for accomplishing impossible missions: 444 Squadron, rumored to be a penal unit. Not only had their ace dueled Mister X to a standstill, they had also managed to destroy critical Erusean supply depots well within the drone's defensive barrier; their ace could supposedly point their nose at a drone and it'd explode, so went the rumor. Then the AWACS from the 444 Squadron revealed an incredible, yet incontrovertible secret:
The Eruseans had spoofed IFF data.
The 444 Squadron had apparently been attacked by a supposedly-friendly squadron over the Waiapolo Mountains on a radar-site destroying mission; due in large part to their ace, they managed to take minimal casualties from a surprise attack of hostiles who were marked friendly on radar.
This revelation sent high command into a panic. The obvious conclusion was that the Eruseans had managed to compromise their satellite-based IFF system, and if that was the case all of their communications were compromised. A lesser but still present conclusion was that one of the recent military tribunals, supposedly about whether a pilot killed the President, may have been wrong all along. The end result was that Osea resolved to execute the strategy as soon as possible, and would stack as much talent into the unit as possible.
The first requirement was that 444's ace, TAC Name Trigger, had to be fished out of the 444 Squadron, along with the other promising pilot, Count. With that intention, Strider Squadron headed to meet them over a Osean-leaning country's border, but was pulled aside to deal with a supermanueverable unidentified aircraft. Strider Squadron tried to chase it down, but was ultimately unsuccessful; Trigger dueled the aircraft as his escort made it over the border, and shot it down.
With that, Trigger and Count were transferred into the Long Range Strategic Strike Group, and the mission began, albeit with significantly fewer planes than ideal.
The LRSSG's first target was the Erusean fleet and its associated platform bases; critically undermanned, with only eight planes in total attacking the two bases, and the fleet, the Strike Group emerged unscathed and victorious. Supposedly, Trigger had even flown within the platforms in order to destroy their cores better.
Their next large target was to defend Stonehenge's eighth railgun, as the Osean Army Corps of Engineers relayed that the Stonehenge reactivation was soon-to-complete. Desperately rushing forces in from the northern coasts, the Oseans had barely established defensive positions before the Eruseans arrived in force; thanks to the aircover of the LRSSG, Major McOnie was able to power up Stonehenge and prepare for firing. At approximately that moment, the Arsenal Bird Liberty arrived on-scene to destroy the Stonehenge battery before the Stonehenge battery destroyed the Arsenal Bird. Under the twin aces of Trigger and Wiseman, however, no drone was able to complete their attack run; Stonehenge's firing sequence proceeded smoothly.
Just as the Oseans were preparing to fire, however, they discovered that Erusean special forces had killed their entire survey team; bereft of other options, they sighted the shot manually, using range tables found near the control center.
One shot, one kill.
With one Arsenal Bird destroyed, the defensive radius of the Arsenal Bird shrunk immensely; now the Arsenal Birds could not range widely, not without leaving significant regions around the Space Elevator open for another attack. Using this opportunity, Osean forces raced west across the northern edge of Usea.
Desperate to halt Osea's blazing-fast offense, the Eruseans attempted to reactivate IRBM silos on Sierra Plata; the attempt was foiled by the LRSSG quickly diverting to destroy all the IRBM siloes and the IRBMs in flight. From there, the rapid pace only intensified; a quick capture of Cape Rainy allowed the Osean forces to quickly resupply before beginning the final leg in their decapitation attack: one invasion of the capital, and launching ASAT missiles against the compromised Osean satellites, used by the Eruseans for communications.
The Battle of Farbanti proceeded smoothly at first; Strider and Cyclops Squadron managed to suppress the Erusean's naval force in the area, and bombed a way straight to the Erusean general headquarters.
Then five enemy planes approached on radar at high speed.
In an instant, an Osean ship evaporated. Strider and Cyclops squadron squared off against the new threat. The eight allied planes fought furiously against the opposing five; Mister X in particular reaped a bloody toll, as Trigger hunted the other four. This was no easy feat; in any other unit, Mister X's companions would have been notable aces, but next to Mister X, Trigger, and Wiseman they couldn't hold up. Eventually, however, Wiseman decided that too much damage was being dealt to the allied forces; he attempted to lure in Mister X so that Trigger could get a good shot.
Among the ruined buildings of Farbanti's sunken downtown, Wiseman, Mister X, and Trigger danced and weaved, each stray shot toppling the rusted buildings. Eventually, Mister X had enough, and shot down Wiseman; Wiseman was unable to eject before his plane exploded. Trigger continued the duel in the ruined district, but was unable to secure the kill before the ASAT mission succeeded.
Too well, in fact; as it turns out, Osea and Erusea both launched ASAT missions to kill each other's satellites in high orbit. The end result was a Ulysses Fragmentation Event, where the orbitals ended up flooding with orbital debris, each impact creating more and more debris until the orbitals were nigh-unusable, much like twenty years ago.
As a result, all satellite communications worldwide were lost. The Osean air forces, unable to differentiate friend from foe with the loss of their IFFs, retreated from Farbanti. Mister X left as well.
In the wake of losing satellite communications around the world, however, long-resentful occupied territories launched rebellions to claim their own sovereignity; nowhere was this process more pronounced than Erusea, whose conquests finally saw a good chance to break free. Moreover, within Erusea itself, a conservative faction wanted to sue for peace, while a radical faction wanted to continue prosecuting the war, leaning even harder on drone warfare.
Long Caster's orders were clear: the extension of the plan, once the deep-strike was achieved, was to find somebody that would surrender, and had the sway to do so. After all, when everybody knew that the Osean forces held the Erusean capital, the Eruseans would surrender, right?
Right.
Alright, so an Osean Army unit reported that there was a General Labarthe in the Erusean Army on the other side of Anchorhead Bay, over Anchorhead. The order was to escort Labarthe through the city to a helicopter, where Labarthe could be taken to a safe location to conduct peace talks, was the hope. Although satellite based IFFs were down, Long Caster's AWACS training had stressed being able to compile visual ID data in order to manually give IFFs based on AWACS.
The city itself was absolute chaos. A sea of unknown targets, all shooting at each other; there was nearly no coordination above the squad level, as Oseans who had depended on the satellite networks to coordinate them suddenly found themselves unable to trust anyone, and as Erusean Conservatives and Radicals all fired on the traitors to their cause. More than a few Osean forces found themselves shooting other Osean units, with Osean penal units firing on loyalist Osean forces to add to the confusion. AWACS Long Caster, bringing the Strider Squadron, was able to bring relative peace to the area by identifying friend from foe, though the airplanes took damage from having to approach enemies firing upon them without firing back. Orders were confused further by another Osean AWACS Argus arriving on-scene who had received intelligence that the Osean agent with Labarthe was actually an Erusean traitor; ultimately, Labarthe was successfully escorted to the evacuating helicopter, in spite of the radicals wielding drone F/A-18s to bolster their already-significant numbers.
Over the radio, Labarthe also revealed his account of the Erusean war: that it was all the act of young Erusean officers, who had been carried away with the potential of Grunder Industries' new drone technology. The whole "no-harming-civilians" was merely a bonus; no one had expected the drone technology to be so effective. Moreover, the self-same officers, conscripting Belkan assistance, were able to spoof IFFs; Labarthe even claimed that the Erusean Radicals were behind the assasination of the Former President Harling, as one of the few world-renowned symbols for why the Lighthouse was ultimately meant to be peaceful. Ultimately, however, Labarthe professed no understanding: "To us, it's no different from magic or alchemy", he said.
Fortunately, under the aircover of the Strider Squadron, Labarthe was able to make it to the rescue point; at that point, however, an EASA civilian transport and escort fighters came in from the north, claiming that they were being pursued by Erusean Conservative forces. A close flyby confirmed this, as did the missile trails from the pursuing aircraft; Long Caster ordered Strider Squadron to defend the civilian transport and its escorts.
However, the fighting did not end when all the pursuers were shot down; the escort F/A-18s locked onto Strider Squadron. The civilian researcher Dr. Schroeder confirmed that not only were the escort fighters were drones, but that Dr. Schroeder could not order them to stop fighting. Moreover, the escort fighters began calling for reinforcing MQ-99 drones; Count proclaimed that whoever could make such a system was the king of all dumbasses.
Dr. Schroeder claimed that maybe that person was looking to build something else; regardless, the drones were missing an all-important drive:
When to stop fighting.
Regardless, Trigger shot all the drones down; upon hearing this, and escorting the transport out of the combat area, Long Caster ordered a withdrawal, declaring a mission success.
The next he heard about Labarthe was when they heard that Labarthe had been shot down and killed. The base commander broke down, crying in his room. Long Caster could only feel a deep tiredness.
After a week without any idea of what to do except wait around the base, Count's constant nagging about security finally moved Long Caster to act. The LRSSG needed to find a safe haven, not a place where enemies could be anywhere without being anyone in the base being the wiser until bullets started flying. The place they considered was Tyler Island, which Osean forces should have captured; it would also have the benefit of being close to stage offensive operations against the Lighthouse, a known Erusean Radical rally point.
Arriving at Tyler Island was a different story. The LRSSG arrived to the island in total disarray; the Oseans were routing, unable to differentiate between friend and foe as, like before in Anchorhead, Erusean Conservatives and Radicals fought each other and the Oseans. Worse, the retreating Osean forces had found ditches with men, women, and children in them, bullet impacts estimated to the back of the head. Some of them weren't even wearing shoes. Probably Belkan, the forces reported.
Due to this, the retreating Osean forces asked the LRSSG to buy them some time for their retreat; thirty minutes, the men requested.
At least to bury the children.
Strider Squadron took to it with their usual gusto: identifying retreating Osean units and destroying their pursuers. In one notable instance, two Osean units were even firing upon each other. However, the majority of the fighting was happening at the mass driver, where Erusean Radicals and Conservatives were fighting over a payload. Strider Squadron destroyed the majority of them, before Long Caster discovered an enemy force from the west heading for the island; Strider Squadron was sent to check. The force was revealed to be an Erusean Conservative bomber squadron, aiming to level the entire island, especially the mass driver, in an indiscriminate bombing campaign. Strider Squadron shot down the bomber squadron.
Then Avril Mead, identifying herself as the Scrap Queen, asked the LRSSG to rescue some civilians in exchange for critical intelligence. Long Caster tried to comply, but without targetting data he was unable to comply, until Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise herself suicidally lit a flare on the two civilian vehicles. In less than a minute, Trigger destroyed all hostiles threatening the civilians; in return, Avril Mead told Long Caster that the Eruseans were attempting to resupply the remaining Arsenal Bird from the mass driver.
Just in time, too; at nearly that moment, the supply ships were launched off the rails for the mass driver. Trigger engaged the supply ships and their escorts in a high-speed pursuit through the looming thundercloud, and destroyed both.
Mission accomplished. Now what?
The LRSSG did not have an answer to this question. So the LRSSG, and Long Caster, waited for two weeks, racked with indecision and a desperate desire to just go home already.
Finally, on October 24th, Long Caster decided they didn't have any better ideas. Running low on food, fuel, and other supplies, as rumors of an Erusean army percolated through the base, Long Caster decided to try for a raid on Shilage Castle.
Strider Squadron was tasked with breaking open Shilage Castle. Long Caster marked all non-Strider Squadron entities as targets. To this day he still occasionally wakes up in a cold sweat, hoping against hope that there weren't any civilians in the targets he marked as tents. Nobody on Strider Squadron was proud to have taken part, and Long Caster himself almost couldn't stand it.
Regardless of their feelings on the matter, Strider Squadron demolished the defending forces; Sol Squadron was mobilized to defend the people of Shilage, yearning to make their own bid for independence. Notably, Mister X was missing.
Trigger shot down all but two of the Sol Squadron before Mihaly finally showed up, piloting an X-02S Strike Wyvern. The product of a ten-year cooperation between Erusea's Air and Space Agency and Grunder Industries, the X-02S boasted a cutting edge railgun along with its incredible manueverability and nearly superhuman pilot. The rest of Strider Squadron, accomplished aces in their own right by this point, could do nothing except form a cordon and pray that Trigger could take the beast head-on.
In the end, Trigger proved victorious, and Mister X identified himself as Mihaly; he proved remorseful of "plunging the world into chaos for the sake of my ego", in his words. "Destroy the drones. They don't belong in these skies," he begged Trigger.
The mission was a success. The LRSSG was able to restock, from a historic landmark that they took supplies from at gunpoint.
Hallelujah.
The LRSSG still had no plan, although it did have supplies and a confirmation that there were no Erusean army units around. That was just a rumor.
Soon after, the LRSSG received a transmission.
"Hey dumbass. Come to the Lighthouse if you want to save the world," it was signed.
The LRSSG decided to sortie. One last battle.
Operation Daredevil's mission aim was simple: defeat the Erusean Radicals holed up in the Space Elevator. Destroy the Arsenal Bird Justice, still under their sway.
The enemy forces were just the Erusean Radicals. Joining the allied forces would be Erusean Conservatives, the Sol Squadron, and any remaining Osean forces. The air battle was wild and intense, the battle of the Erusean Radicals' concentrated forces fighting against Erusean and Osean pilots trying to wipe the skies clean of the Radicals and their drone fighters, as the Arsenal Bird provided long range Helios missile support.
Finally, however, the allied forces were able to overcome the Radicals air forces and ground forces; unfortunately, they were not able to shut down the Arsenal Bird. No such provision had been made. So the combined forces decided to try an all-out strike against the Arsenal Bird, throwing everything in their entire arsenal at the APS. All of a fleet's anti-air missiles, bomber forces' cruise missiles, missiles and bullets launched from aircraft, streaming in from every direction.
The APS negated every last missile, bullet, and droplet of rain.
Then the Arsenal Bird struck back. Its laser burned a line straight down the fleet, destroying ships with a single pass. Its pulse lasers shot pursuing planes to pieces. Its drone fighters wreaked havoc.
And nobody had any idea what to do. Long Caster desperately radioed for an answer from HQ, but no answers were forthcoming except "all air forces, make a direct assault on the Arsenal Bird."
Like that would work.
Except, suddenly, Count started saying that the shield would go down when he said the magic words. "Go away!" he tried. No effect. "Begone!" he said. No effect.
"Away with you!"
The shield went down.
(As it turns out, Count had installed a radio, and could hear the princess smashing the space elevator's cable integrity sensors; with all the sensors destroyed, the Lighthouse would default to assuming that the cable had snapped and that no more power should be transmitted, thus cutting off the flow of power to the Arsenal Bird, along with power to the entire Usean continent.)
No matter how much they shot it, however, the Arsenal Bird continued to stagger on, no matter how much of its drone escort it could no longer computationally sustain.
Finally, Sol Squadron mentioned that if a sufficiently skilled pilot could destroy the supply units attachments, the rectenna should be available to shoot. It wouldn't be possible even for a highly-skilled pilot, he cautioned.
Trigger's no ordinary pilot, Count assured him.
Trigger proved Count right.
Arsenal Bird Justice was shot down.
Then two contacts raced in from the north, as the allied forces were set to head home. One damaged Count's engine, and then wreaked havoc on the rest of the allied forces, shooting down more than 50% of the allied fighters which had remained in the airspace.
Apparently, the war would last one more battle.
The two contacts were labelled Hugin and Munin; they were two drone fighters, built using Mihaly's final flight data, placed in one of the greatest aircraft ever built, the ADF-11F RAVEN. They were staying at the Lighthouse, trying to transmit their flight data into the Lighthouse, where it could be transmitted to drone factories around the Usean continent, ready to continue the war in perpetuity.
The next day, the remaining dregs of the allied forces took to the air. They had one objective: shoot down Hugin and Munin. They followed Trigger, Three Strikes, into battle. Their nation didn't matter. Their squadron didn't matter.
All that mattered was shooting down the twin fighters.
Nobody else could touch the fighters except Trigger; losses were stacking up, and the drones, already perfected by Mihaly, were learning from Trigger to become even more perfect war machines. Fortunately, Trigger eventually managed to shoot down both drone fighters. At which point, the drone fighters revealed that the ADF-11F had only been a shell; there was another fighter, the ADFX-10 buried within the ADF-11F RAVEN. Trigger shot down the ADFX-10 fighter too.
The allied forces were set to celebrate, when the princess radioed that they had missed one fighter.
Said ADFX-10 flew into the tunnel connecting the Lighthouse to Selatapura, thus closing off pursuit to nearly everyone.
Unless your TAC name was Trigger and Count, respectively. Trigger immediately flew into the tunnel; Count flew in as well, to provide backup.
The ADFX-10 proved cunning in the tunnels; using its ability to transmit shutdown codes, the ADFX-10 shut down tunnels and then purposely reduced speed to show up on the tail of Trigger and Count. Count ended up taking engine damage before the ADFX-10 cut off its attack run to race for the space elevator.
500 meters below the earth, Trigger and Count confronted the ADFX-10, flying in a slow circle. They successfully destroyed the ADFX-10 and the repeaters that would have transmitted the flight data and designs across the continent and continuing the war as long as the factories were supplied.
Finally, Count had a brilliant idea to get Trigger and Count out of the cavern 500 meters below the Lighthouse: fly straight up the space elevator. Count would have to make an emergency landing on account of his engine damage, but Trigger could make it.
So Trigger flew directly up the space elevator, as Kei Nagase descended from heaven on the Pilgrim One's seven year expedition to the asteroid belt.
"I salute the pilot who gave us all a future," she radioed.
Mission accomplished, everyone felt.
Yes, Erusea was likely to continue burning. Yes, the LRSSG was asked to stay just a little bit longer to ensure that the Oseans going home would remain safe. That was acceptable, the LRSSG felt. Now that the war was over, they could relax.
In the aftermath, Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise would renounce her title, helping direct aid coming to the refugees around the Lighthouse; eventually, she would become part of the informal government currently titled the Gunther Bay Emergency Administration.
The Erusean Conservatives, desperate for peace, tried to call for a restoration of the monarchy; however, the princess' renunciation nixed that plan. Instead, they rebranded themselves as the Restorationist faction after some confusion, time which allowed the Erusean Radical holdouts sitting atop drone factories to build up drones and thus create a zone of influence. Time which also allowed the Constitutional Monarchy of Voslage to stand on its own right, preparing to encourage further independence movements within both factions. Currently, the war rages on; nobody knows when it'll stop.
If you have any further questions about the current situation, and I feel like Long Caster should know this information, I will answer them. I will also probably answer most other questions inbetween now and the update, and accept customization of currently uncharacterized pilots.
Otherwise, prepare for Mission 04 ACE OF ACES: Second Wave, Reengagement, whenever I can find time to write it!
In the face of mounting losses, however, the IUN-PKF decided to attempt one last attack aimed at the space elevator - they had received intelligence that former President Harling, world-renowned for his actions in ending the Circum-Pacific War and encouraging international cooperation, especially the Arkbird and Lighthouse projects, both of which were unfortunately weaponized.
"they had received intelligence that former President Harling was touring the Lighthouse and had been captured. Harling was world-renowned for his actions in ending the Circum-Pacific War and encouraging international cooperation..."
Most of the commas and spelling mistakes have been corrected. I have elected to leave in the Oxford commas; they're very useful in certain places: take, for example, the news headline of "Osean president humiliated, Diego Gasparro victorious and the first legally permitted gay marriage in Leasath will proceed!"
"they had received intelligence that former President Harling was touring the Lighthouse and had been captured. Harling was world-renowned for his actions in ending the Circum-Pacific War and encouraging international cooperation..."
