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The Unsung War
After our previous mission, we landed in front of Avalon, one of the best hotels in the City of Sudentor. I decided to share
Nagase’s room, and the air still had the scent of our lovemaking when we woke up at around 5:30 AM to the sound of the
phone ringing. We woke up groggily and I picked it up.
“Hello?” I said, still half-asleep.
“Hello Blaze, its Pops, listen, could you come downstairs into the lobby for a few minutes? We need to talk to you about
your next mission.”
That snapped me awake in a second. “My next mission? But we blew up the control facility!”
“Yes I know,” he said. “And you did a good job with that, but there’s just one last mission you guys
need to do, okay?”
I sighed and said: “okay… okay… I’ll be down in a minute.”
Nagase was now waking up, and said: “who was that?”
“Get dressed, Nagase,” I said, tossing her flight suit her way as I walked towards the bathroom. “We have
one last mission to fly.”
“What?” she asked, now awake as I was. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“I wish I was, but I’m not. Sorry.”
She groaned, and got out of bed and started to get dressed. Once we where both finished, we went downstairs to the lobby where
Pops and the briefing Officer where showing some photographs to Swordsman and Grimm.
As they saw us, they ushered us over to them and we had an unofficial briefing in the lobby of Avalon.
“The SOLG's descent was detected by our radar at 0445 hours. We believe it was programmed to automatically descend if
control was ever cut off from the surface. We have calculated the SOLG's course of descent from its previous orbit. Its estimated
landing point is downtown Oured, the capital of Osea. Get to the SOLG's descent point as quickly as possible and destroy it
before it hits Oured.
You must complete the mission and come back alive. Anything else is not acceptable. Razgriz, we wish you the best of luck.
Launch.”
We got into our X-02s and took off on a closed off highway that was closed off just for that purpose.
“Your final sortie...it's almost kinda sad, huh?” the ‘controller’ said over the tactical frequency.
“All right, launch preparations complete.” He said and I went to full power and took off.
“Good luck out there, Razgriz!” he said as I set my course for Oured.
We had to refuel in mid-air a couple of times, but eventually, we where pointed directly towards the SOLG Decent point. As
we approached, Oka Nieba, who had launched a few seconds after we did, said: “This is Oka Nieba. Hurry to the target
area. The later you get there, the less time you'll have to attack the SOLG. The SOLG will descend to a vulnerable altitude
in thirty minutes”
“The SOLG is falling!” Grimm yelled.
“We have to get the SOLG, fast!” Nagase cried.
Everyone was lagging behind me as I gunned my afterburners to full power, and I asked them to come along with me for this
mission. Yes, that’s right, I ASKED them. They didn’t have to come with me on this mission if they didn’t
want to. But they did.
“Everyone, arm special weapons, commence attack formation.” I ordered.
“Right, I got it, sir! Here I go!” Grimm said.
“Roger that, it’s do-or-die time!” Swordsman seconded.
“Roger, I’ll trust and follow your orders like I’ve always done before.” Nagase said.
We continued for a while in silence, until we where about half-way from the SOLG Decent Point when I heard: “These fighters
are definitely the Razgriz.” Grabacr, again.
“Blaze!” Nagase yelled as I saw a missile coming towards me.
I yanked my plane in a hard Immelman turn to the right, and killed my speed. The missiles flashed past, and out of the fight.
“Oka Nieba to the Ghosts of Razgriz. New enemy planes on the radar. It's a double Belkan formation --Ofnir and Grabacr.”
“We will restore the pride we had 15 years ago!” Grabacr’s leader yelled out, just before his squadron went
to engage.
“It's time to settle this, evil ravens!” Ofnir’s leader yelled out as he did the same.
They where coming head-on now and I fired off a salvo of Phoenix missiles, and watched helplessly as they all started to uselessly
follow flares. I tried to get behind one of them, but two more went onto my six and fired at close range. I broke off from
my target, and flipped around to fire at one of the two.
DAMN! I thought as I saw that the missiles was simply too close for an effective lock on, and I had fired it too soon without
a lock in the first place.
“Eight tough enemies... My heart's racing! My whole body's shaking!” Grimm said.
“Keep going! Our mission is clear!” Swordsman yelled.
I went to try and shoot down a bandit that was on Nagase’s tail, but again, those dammed two enemy planes on MY tail
where constantly putting me on the defensive. I couldn’t do a damn thing without letting them have the advantage!
I took a glance behind me, and saw that both squadrons where in S-32 aircraft. Deadly planes that where the bases for the
Su-47 ‘Berkut’, but because of their tendency to fall out of the sky at low speeds, they weren’t used. Maybe
that was something! I could use that to my advantage, but I had to hide my plane’s disadvantage.
It was a subtle one, but it could easily give these guys an immediate and powerful advantage in this furball: unless I hit
the override, my aircraft computer controlled the wing shape of my plane’s variable geometry wings, folding them in
at supersonic speeds, opening them up for better lift at low speeds. A pilot who knew what they where looking at could glance
at an X-02 and made a very good guess as to how much speed it was putting out.
I set the override, and slowed down as hard and as fast as I could. The two enemies following me soon followed, and suddenly
dropped out of the sky! This was my chance; I got a lock on the plummeting fighters, and blew them both out of the sky.
“We’ll return to haunt you for eternity!!” one of the two planes yelled as his plane exploded in a fireball.
“Aaagh!”
“This battle is over!” Swordsman yelled. “Accept your defeat!”
“We will never give in!”
I then heard another triumphant cry of “Splash one fighter!” as Grimm managed to take down one of the two planes
that was on Nagase’s tail, but he had to turn away preventing him from taking down the other one that was firing at
her.
“You're the ones who built the SOLG to use against us!” one of the remaining Grabacr fighters yelled.
“And now, you're sitting under your own dagger! Taste the irony!” the leader yelled out.
I turned hard to the left, and fired my gun purely by instinct. The rounds went wild and only a few rounds hit the target.
I went to follow him, using my gun on him to save my missiles for later. The enemy plane went into a low yo-yo, and I countered
by diving on him from above. He tried to pull up, and work back the speed he had lost, but I was too fast for him, ad my gun
smashed against his plane, opening it up like a can opener. Fuel from the wing tank gushed into the air, and then ignited
in a fireball. Then his weapons went off in a far more powerful secondary explosion.
“The damn Razgriz ghosts!” one of Ofnir’s planes roared.
Swordsman managed to fire on the two planes that where firing on Grimm with his Phoenix missiles, and killed one them with
a lucky shot to the canopy. That pilot didn’t have time to scream, or do anything else except die.
Now, the odds where evening up. We had downed four of the enemy planes, two Grabacr, and two Ofnir. Now, the enemies where
adjusting their formation so that there was one plane on each of our tails. I think I had the Grabacr leader on my tail, but
I couldn’t be sure.
He started firing at me wildly, but I managed to evade all of his shots by climbing vertically, causing his missiles to go
in a corkscrew and miss me by a generous margin. I was now at the limit of my ceiling, and I started to dive straight down,
G-forces pressing me down into my seat. We closed form head-on, him losing speed, while I was gaining it from my dive. I we
both fired as soon as we came within range of each other, and we went into a hard turn to try and evade.
I managed to shake the missiles off, but he wasn’t so lucky because of his low speed. I heard a scream of frustration
as his greedy air intakes swallowed the missiles, before exploding in a fireball.
“Don't think you've won. This isn't over yet!” the last plane of Ofnir yelled out as he exploded.
Now it was just us and the Grabacr leader, not a fair fight, but then whoever said that a dogfight was fair? We ganged up
on him, but this guy was REALLY good and he managed to evade all of our fire, at least until we simply gave up trying to catch
him and launched 16 Phoenix missiles at him from short range.
“I...I never thought you would be this good...” he said as his plane trailed fire for a few seconds before exploding.
“All enemy planes destroyed!” Oka Nieba declared.
We went back into formation, and went to finish the last part of our mission: Destroy the SOLG and come back alive.
“I see light to the east...morning's coming.” Nagase said. I looked back, and I saw the sunrise too. Funny, I
had never seen a sunrise from high altitude before. I took out a disposable camera I had carried for occasions such as this
one that I wanted something to remember them by, and I snapped a photo of the sun rising.
“Our night flight is over. I can't wait to see it. The most beautiful sunrise ever!” Grimm said.
“And the sun will continue to rise, now and forever.” Swordsman replied.
“I just remembered...my birthday's coming up next week.” Grimm said after a few seconds.
“See? Aren't you glad you're still alive?”
“I bet my mom will be happy to see my brother come back home from Yuktobania.”
“You oughta go make her happy, too. We're almost done here. Captain, I want to thank you.” Swordsman said.
“...Captain Snow?”
“Flying as a wingman again, I now know how my men felt.”
“I vowed to myself that I would never lose another flight lead...” Nagase said. “And that's kept me flying
up to now. So please... Please, Blaze, let me fly as your wingman just a little while longer.”
“Roger that, Nagase. And I have something I want to tell you to.” I said. “When we get back, I want to marry
you. Will you do that? Make me the happiest man in the world?”
“Blaze…”
“We may not get another chance to talk, so I just wanted let you know how I feel.”
“Oh, Blaze, of course I’ll marry you!”
I felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted off my chest. I had loved her ever since I first saw her on Sand Island,
and those feelings had grown from simply gazing at her, then pulling myself away to this.
*** Author’s Note: I found this link for some background music for this part of the chapter. It’s the song that
is used in the main game at this point, so if you want to listen to it, here’s the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sxNKE9UeRCE
***
We got to the SOLG Decent Point just was we saw it falling. Once we could target it, Oka Nieba said: “The SOLG has fallen
to an altitude to enough for you to attack. I know you can do this. Destroy it! I've received a data link from your guy ‘Pops’,
with the SOLG's structural details. The SOLG's outer shell has a rotating accelerator. The only way you can attack its core
structure directly is through the gaps in this accelerator. That's bad news. This'll be tough.”
“We gotta stop that thing, Grimm!” Swordsman yelled.
“I know! Captain Nagase!”
“Yeah! Blaze, let's go!”
“The SOLG is 80 miles from the capital city Oured.” Oka Nieba said, counting off the distance to Oured.
“It's falling... It's so huge.” Grimm said.
“We gotta destroy it! Don't let it hit the ground in one piece!” Swordsman yelled again.
I started firing at the SOLG, aiming for one of the four parts of it’s core, but all I managed to his was a few of the
solar panels, causing them to break off and fall into the ocean. We all started to attack the solar panels, getting them out
of the way before we started to attack it.
As the last solar panel fell away, I heard: “All SOLG solar panels destroyed!”
“Well, this is getting a little more encouraging now.” Swordsman said, not very happy with how this was going.
We got into position, and fired our remaining Phoenix missiles at the Core, now cleared of the panels, but the missiles didn’t
hit it! Damn!
“Everyone!” I yelled. “Shoot the loading unit and the warhead accelerator! Use your guns!”
“I'm going to push ahead!” Nagase cried. “Further! Further! Further!” and she started to fire her
gun at the loading unit, eventually blowing a piece off. She turned hard to evade it as it fell towards her. We all started
to copy what she had done, and eventually, the AWACS said: “SOLG loading unit destroyed!”
“Watch out for falling parts.” Swordsman reminded everyone.
“It's still not enough. Keep attacking it.” Nagase said, almost taking charge.
“I'm not through yet! This is for all my men who fell before me!” Swordsman said as he fired at the warhead accelerator.
We went to destroy that, now, the one thing that was preventing us from destroying the Core.
It came away little by little, until it was finally gone, falling along with the rest of the pieces into the ocean.
“SOLG warhead accelerator destroyed!”
“All right, the core's wide open.” Grimm said, as we all finished off what was left of the SOLG. Essentially,
now a big, ugly, falling tube. As the last Core section was blasted away, we went to full throttle and got out of there.
Meanwhile, in Oured, the people of the Capitol where now waking up to the light of the morning sun. Some looked to a section
of the sky where the Razgriz had finished off the SOLG as if waiting foe something to happen. They got what they where looking
for because without warning, that section of the sky exploded in a massive explosion that was the trigger for the V2 MIRV
missile detonating as well as all the complicated electronics it had blowing up.
I was flying back to Oured, remembering the time we where in Sand Island about to attack the Hrimfaxi.
‘When history witnesses a great change, Razgriz reveals itself. First, as a dark demon. As a demon, it uses it’s
power to rain death upon the land, and then it dies. However after a period of slumber, Razgriz returns, this time, as a great
hero.’ The children’s storybook character applied just as well to us too.
We where the Razgriz. This was especially true because I heard cheering from the ground.
“YES! THEY DID IT! YAAHOOO! SALUTE THE ACES OF RAZGRIZ!”
And everyone on the ground started cheering ‘Razgriz’ in unison. We all basked in that glory, then I heard: “do
you hear these cheers!? Don’t tell me you can’t hear them!”
After we landed, I bought a wedding ring, and properly proposed to Nagase. Everyone was there, and I thought I saw tears going
down Mobius 1’s face as he applauded.
The next day, Supreme Commander Romanov came to us and asked if we wanted to continue to fly. He told us everything, who he
really was, where he had came from, what he and his people where fighting against, and what would happen if these new enemies
succeeded in their plans.
We had agreed, and so had everybody else. Mobius 1, Yellow 13 and Yellow Squadron, and Heartbreak 1.
To be continued in ‘Operation: Dark Strike’
Click here to continue to Operation: Dark Strike
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