First things first… other than an all too short "career" in StarCraft and Star Wars fanfiction writing ("Hitting the Beaches" and "Mysteries of the Sith" posted in their respective categories, incomplete and regrettably permanently incomplete) this is my third attempt ever at writing a fanfiction piece. I love Ace Combat, hell I bought a PS2 strictly for when Ace Combat Zero came out… however I did not like the story nearly as much as AC5 (which I had played at a friend's house) so I went out a few days ago, bought AC5 for $20, and have happily played through a few levels since…my love for real-life flying, expensive toy-… er… I mean jets, and fantasizing of modern fighters mixing it up in the close, knife-range styled dogfights of a bygone era has urged me to put my…well, what I call talents (you may not agree, that's fine) to use…
I'm breaking a few rules of writing with this fan fic…first of which, I don't know where this is going to go or lead to, I haven't planned it out, or feel the desire too… and second of all, despite this being a fan fic I will not be involving Blaze, Nagase, Chopper, Snow, or anyone else prominent in the game as my main characters… heavily supporting role? Sure, of course, yes, but not as main. Too many difficulties with those kinds of stories, too many limitations, too many people crying because their views of Blaze or Grimm doesn't fit mine. And thirdly, despite what Namco would have you believe, a F/A-18 (I still like to call them CF-188's, hint hint, trivia time, which nationality am I?) can not carry a load-out of 60+ missiles (I will occasionally leave reality and perhaps stretch the number of missiles from say 4 to 8 in order to make longer, more interesting battles), and nor, unfortunately for Air Force's around the world, can one missile "do-it-all" and attack both ground and airborne targets…
Right now, if you've read this far, you're probably asking, well does this story have anything to do with AC5?
Yes.
I will be keeping the overall theme/plot, the geographic world, and the game's characters will play heavily supporting roles… but by now this "brief" introduction has turned into multiple paragraphs, so on with the story.
Please, enjoy.
I do not own Ace Combat 5 nor any of their trademarked characters or plots.
I also (regrettably) do not own any of the mentioned aircraft or munitions used in this story.
This story is written strictly for entertainment purposes and is not to be edited or redistributed without my expressed permission.
(Oh BTW, There is no reference to AC5 characters in this first chapter. This is so that I can build my sub-plot and introduce a few of my characters. Don't worry I promise I will relate closer to AC5 in Chapter 2 and on.)
the following fanfic contains violence and coarse language, reader discretion is advised
Ghosts of War
CHAPTER 1: "Unknown Bandit"
-off the Osean coastline, North Sea-
"Lynx Flight, bogey-dope." God announced.
God today however, was personified by a young voice over a hundred miles away through the dark, gray, overcast sky.
"Overlord, Lynx Lead, go ahead." An older voice called back with an audible humming in the background.
"Intermittent contact, type unknown, angels six-zero. Estimate eight-zero miles. Estimate speed six-zero-zero plus knots. Turn to heading two-five-six for intercept." The younger voice spoke again, energetic and dragging out the numbers. Without hesitation the third party, another young male sealed up in three layers of olive drab twisted his right wrist, and the dark blue world turned beneath him. Fifty feet away, Lynx One, or rather Lynx One's F-18A also dipped its right wing as the two Osean navy fighters assumed their new course through the cold, snowy skies.
"All right Two, let's get these wasps a'humming. Just make sure you flip the right one this time, okay rookie?" The older voice jabbed as both fighters leveled their wings on their new course. With a quick glance to his right, "rookie", just recently christened as 'Switch', could see two beady eyes staring back at him, sarcastic smile all but visible underneath the slate gray oxygen mask. The black, italicized writing right underneath the pilot's cockpit read Major T. "Top Hat" Hiccoks, Commanding Officer, 188th TFS(N), clearly visible through the fifty feet of snow filled air, of course, not that the snowflakes looked anything other than thin white lines while moving at over five hundred knots.
Focusing back into his cockpit, Lynx Two took his left hand off the throttle and turned his attack radar into standby before raising the black and yellow striped cover over the small "master arm" switch. He paused just long enough to stare at the canary-yellow post-it note which exclaimed "RIGHT HERE!" in thick black felt, escorted by only about half a dozen penciled-in arrows. Switch had the left his squadron-mates idea of humour up when he strapped into his Hornet an hour earlier, but had seen fit to take down the red post-it note right beside the first, which had redundantly proclaimed "NO! NOT HERE!"
The painful jab from his superior made him wished he had removed both.
"Lynx, steer correction two-eight-zero. Contact track unchanged, still intermittent, two-zero miles to intercept." God spoke again.
"Roger that, anything lit up out there?" Lynx One queried as the two fighters once again settled in on a new track through the frigid artic air.
"Negative, the contact is flying blind." Switch sighed a little in frustration underneath his oxygen mask. Whatever God, Switch's personal nickname for Osea's AWACS birds, was tracking sounded like just another ghost. Intermittent contact signature, no IFF, and no radar whatsoever over a featureless ocean was just the kind of phantom "bogeys" that routinely sent the 188th on wild goose chases all over North Sea.
"Damn, they actually had me going there for a second, boss." Switch mumbled over the inter-plane frequency as he un-strapped his oxygen mask.
"We burned just enough fuel coming out this way to require another tanking too… still think this is better than the army, rookie?" Top Hat answered, voice hinting at the same frustration Switch was feeling. The younger pilot quickly jumped at the chance to joke around with the CO. After all, the man actually sounded like he had a personality in the air, too bad it never showed on the ground.
"Oh yes Sir, I still prefer these four fucking hour long patrols through the snow than sleeping in it. Besides, I never heard of no trooper playing with a thirty-million dollar rifle."
"Lynx, bogey should be in visual range." AWACS Overlord echoed through Switch's helmet and fifty-feet away Lynx One waved his left hand in an offering gesture. Again, Switch jumped at the opportunity,
"Don't you worry Overlord, we'll find that nice pretty ghost of yours-"
"JINX NOW!" Top Hat's voice barked through Switch's helmet.
Without thought, Switch's right hand snapped forward and his stomach instantly snuggled up to his adam's apple as angry, dark waves replaced the solid grey cloud through the view of his HUD. Directly overhead two black silhouettes ripped by from right to left in an instant, followed a second later by the low, loud rumble of turbine power plants heard clearly over the whining hum of Switch's own engines. With training giving his body the orders, Swtich's right hand now snapped back and left swinging the fighter from pitch down into a rolling nose up attitude. Near instantly moving from negative into high positive G, Switch forcefully squeezed every muscle in his body grunting with exertion as darkness began to close in around the edges of his vision. Only then he realized he wasn't able to breath.
"Overlord! Tally-ho! Two bandits heading eastbound, engaging!" Lynx One's booming voice registered faintly off in the distance of Switch's mind which was just now catching up to the rest of his body. As the view in his HUD rapidly shifted from dark blue back to grey, two bright orange dots became centered in his sight. A third orange dot burned much closer and higher up to his right side. Instantly relaxing back pressure, Lynx Two coughed and sputtered as an impossibly heavy weight lifted off his body and Switch suddenly realized he could breath again. Fucking mask doesn't work when it's off dumbass! His conscious criticized as Switch's left hand fumbled to clip the mask back up to his helmet. With the darkness quickly retreating back to the edges of his vision, the two bright orange dots divided themselves into two clumps of two engine exhausts. With the blink of an eye, the four burning suns jumped to new intensity as raw kerosene was dumped into the mix.
"Negative Lynx Flight do not engage, I say again, do not engage- wait, contact is rapidly picking up speed-" Overlord stuttered over the radio as Lynx One cut him off,
"Confirm contact as two MiG-31's! They've gone to burners! Confirm white ones one the rails! Request permission to fire!" Top Hat boomed back as Switch's brain jumped into overdrive. White ones? Shit, real missiles? The young pilot thought as the two black MiG's started a shallow climb, rapidly pulling away from the pursuing navy fighters. Sparring only a second to reach up and turn his attack radar to 'active', Switch's left hand dropped right back down and slammed his throttle full forward as two lime green and one blue box blinked into existence on his HUD. After a split second delay Switch felt himself pushed roughly back into his seat as raw kerosene was dumped into the exhaust of his own two engines, igniting into a five meter long plume of fire. But to Switch's dismay and despite his own rapid acceleration, the two MiG's continued to pull further away faster and faster, still arcing skyward.
"You are over international waters Lynx! You are not to fire unless fired upon! We need identification, insignias, roundels, something!" A different, deeper voice yelled back from Overlord, struggling to compete with the ferocity of Top Hat's voice. Finally, it was Switch's turn,
"We're not going to have time to ident! They're going for the cloud!"
"Black Foxbats with weapons on the rails, what more do you want! If they aren't hostile why are they running!" Lynx One bellowed again, ahead and above of Switch, also visibly losing the race with the MiG's.
"Lynx Two can you confirm weapon payload?" The deeper voice asked, calmer, somewhat. Squinting through the snow to the rapidly climbing bandits, Switch could just barely make out the small grey-white shapes tucked under the wings.
"Negative Overlord, they are packing, but it could be anything, although confirm no blue paint."
"Not being training munitions doesn't mean a thing, they could be cameras or more likely drop tanks in order to make it all the way out here. You are ordered to identify and send them home! Weapons safe!" Came the definitive order as both black fighters disappeared, punching through the cloud ceiling.
"Bandits just went IFR! We can't get a close visual now, I'm still in range to fire!" Lynx One's voice boomed through Switch's head as his CO's fighter also disappeared into the cloud.
"Pursue until they break out! Weapons safe!" echoed the order as the snow, sea, and horizon vanished into a grey cocoon as Lynx Two ripped into the cloud ceiling, the three empty boxes on his HUD remaining as his only orientation as to where this chase was leading him. Despite his airspeed indicator just passing through nine hundred knots, the distance to the two MiG's continued to increase rapidly.
"Pursue how? Those Foxbat's will be mach three in under twenty seconds, we can't catch that! We got one shot now, we won't get another one!"
"Lynx! WEAPONS SAFE!"
"FUCK!"
"FUCK!"
Could be heard clearly through the white wooden door as Switch sat quietly outside the CAG's office, still in his flight gear as the only slightly muffled screaming continued, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING COMMANDER!" across the oak paneled room a young brunette Ensign looked up from her desktop computer,
"If it makes you feel better you're not in any actual trouble Lieutenant." She smiled faintly as Switch looked quizzically up at her.
"What do you mean?"
"He knows you were just following your flight lead. CAG just wants you here so you know what to expect if you ever disobey orders personally." She continued with a faint smile as an audible whump echoed through the door causing both Switch and the Ensign to cringe.
"You'll probably just get a strict reprimand. At least that's the kind of thing I usually see."
"HARPER! YOU TELL THAT KID OUT THERE IF HE EVER ASSISTS IN CHALLENGING ORDERS AGAIN HE'LL HAVE HIS ASS DROWNED FASTER THAN THE BELKAN NAVY! HE IS GROUNDED FOR THE NEXT WEEK! CLEAR!" The intercom clicked into life as if on cue and the CAG's voice boomed both through the loudspeaker and through the door, intercom clicking off again before the ensign had a chance to reply.
"Oh… grounded too, you must have done something really stupid up there…but I guess that means you're free to go." Slightly bewildered Switch leapt to his feet, wanting to use any excuse to get as far away from the CAG's office as possible.
"Oh, and Lieutenant!" The Ensign called as Switch was just getting through the outer door, "since you won't be flying for a while, how about you look me up sometime?" She continued to smile as another audible whump caused Switch to hastily move out of sight down the corridor without reply.
"Well, well, well, you've been in for a rough week there haven't you flyboy?" Another young blonde haired man in olive drab flight suit laughed out loud as a showered and refreshed Switch entered the forward Officer's Mess onboard the aircraft carrier Vulture.
"Can it Jester." Switch mumbled as he collapsed into a leather armchair.
"No really, you came at just the right time." Jester continued, leaning forward to look at two rather attractive Lieutenants sitting on the other side of a coffee table from him.
"I was just getting to the story of how you got that new moniker of yours." This prompted a small chuckle from the two ladies and caught the attention of three other flight suit clad men playing pool nearby.
"Hey Jester, we get to hear about Switch's brilliant night ops skill again?" One Captain asked as he walked over, adding chalk to his cue tip. Despite getting a look that could freeze fire, the pilot named Jester continued, his green eyes sparkling with anticipation.
"Aw common there Jeff, it's a quality story," he smiled leaning over and patting Switch's knee as the brown haired pilot just leaned back again in defeat. Seizing the moment Jester didn't miss a beat,
"Well as you know, most of the pilots of the 188th just upgraded to active duty last week, you know, the end of our training." Lieutenant Kyle Perry beamed as a few more patrons of the O-mess walked up to the quickly growing crowd.
" Now, despite several months of training, some of us," Jester smiled and thumbed towards Switch, who was now covering his eyes with his hands, "had yet to do anything stupid or ignorant enough with which to be honoured as their new callsign."
"Yeah, not like you hey Kyle, you had Jester from what, the first day?" One of the smaller and lankier boys at the bar called across the room.
"Second day I'll have you know, and that's enough from you Butch, this is my story time." Jester fired back before continuing and making an apologetic face to the two ladies, "As I was saying were at the end of our training, on our last trial, a real-live night exercise in which me and flyboy over here are to bomb a shore-based facility."
"I'm going to need a drink." Switch grumbled, trying desperately to hide the faintest tinge to a smile of his face, as he got up and walked over to the bar, it was after all, he thought, a very interesting night.
"Yeah, yeah sure hotshot… anyways so there we are, ripping down low-level, six hundred knots,"
"It was five hundred last night Jester!"
"What did I say to you Butch?"
"You told this story last night too! How much are you spreading this?"Switch spun around from the bar.
"Easy there flyboy, besides it's good with the ladies," Jester defended with a wink, "now where… Right, so seven hundred knots, low-level, the rest of the squadron is keeping the red team busy way up above us, and we're coming close to our target, managing to slip through the spider web of SAM's and AAA without detection. So it's time to arm, right? Now I reach over and flip the master switch, and we must only be like five miles to the target by now… my weapons light up, all ready to drop, and that's when flyboy over here reaches for his master… but oh wait…" the blonde pilot pauses, extending both index figures in suspense as the mess goes quiet. After milking the desired effect, he continued,
"He misses… and instead… flips three lighting switches. Now you picture this, dead of night, no moon, three hundred feet off the deck, eight hundred knots, missile trails and dogfights going on high above us… and Switch over here lights up like a freaking Christmas tree! We're talking nav lights, ident lights, even the goddamn strobes!" Jester made blinking motions with his hands as the room burst into roars of laughter.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! It gets better! Now for about three seconds nothing happens, I mean nothing… I don't even think I breathed. And then in his infinite wisdom flyboy here mutters "ohhhh sh-" and as if on cue my threat warning receiver goes wild as what must be every AAA, SAM, and grunt with a rifle this side of Ustio opens up! The sky goes wild with tracer fire and dummy rockets whizzing all around like fireworks! So off we go splitting up roaring for cover, him still blinking away like its Federation Day-"
Over at the bar, Lieutenant Jeff "Switch" Kroener took swig of his beer before nodding the mass of laughing officers now looking at him, most with tears in their eyes, this is going to be a long week, was the only thought that came to mind…
he coudln't be more right...but off onboard the Osean CV Vulture in the cold North Sea, Switch had no idea what fireworks were about to engulf the world around him...
So there you have, Chapter 1… didn't include all the scenes I wanted to, mainly since that last scene ended up being far longer than I had planned, anyways the real, solid links to AC5 plot/characters will happen next chapter, promise. Please R&R, I'm always open to criticism, it leads to improvement, but on that note, no outright flames please, thanks.
"keep 'em flying"
-silverphantom