//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: The Truth // Story: Ace Combat - Battle for Equestria // by Lonewolf78 //------------------------------// Whitemare AFB 5 October 2017 21:00 hours The group was waiting in the situation room when Tex came in. "Bad news folks. The storm up there isn't going to subside until late afternoon tomorrow, which means no rescue until then." "Terriffic," Sunfire said disgustedly. "So when will the planning for the mission be?" asked Ice. "According to Moonstone tomorrow at noon. So try and get some sleep guys. You'll need it." "Alright," Dahlia replied. "We can only hope they will be alright until then, and that the LoD doesn't find them first. I'm sure Discord would love to get ahold of some of the ponies that have been screwing up his plans," added Sunfire. _________________ Discord's palace 21:22 hours. Discord was almost ready for bed when his 2inC came in. "What is it?" he asked. "We have just got word that the POW camp in the Blue Mountains has been destroyed by the NLR. All of the prisoners were rescued." "You decide to give me bad news before I go to bed?" he asked with a growl in his voice. "But there's good news. Two members of that Lunar Squadron including the commander were shot down over it." Discord's eyes lit up. "Excellent. Have our forces located the pilots yet?" "No. There's a major snowstorm up there right now. It won't subside until late afternoon tomorrow." "Very well. Get as many personnel looking for them as possible once it breaks. And have them brought here. I'd like to meet them personally." "Yes your Excellency." __________________ Valley West of Rhone LoD Griffin Empire 23:10 hours Maverick and Glory had made it down to the small river that ran between the two mountain ranges. Instead of snow it was now raining. "Hey look", Glory said as the outline of a small building came into view. It turned out to be an abandoned fishing cottage next to the river. They went inside, and despite the holes in the roof it was mostly dry. "Well at least we don't have to sleep on the floor", she said pointing to a worn out bed. "That'll work. We might as well get some sleep. We'll leave as soon as it get's light". Glory looked at it again. "You don't mind, do you?", she said looking a bit flushed. "No. It says to do that when it's cold in the manual", he replied. And both got into the bed and settled into sleep. __________________ Whitemare AFB 6 October 2017 12:00 hours. The squadron had been waiting in the situation room for 30 minutes when Tex walked in and started the feed. Soon Moonstone was on. "OK pilots here's the story. The rest of you and Eagle squadron will be joined by a Marine rescue force, and the Shadow and Ocelot squadrons, who pretty much demanded to be included in this operation. You will began your search for their beacons here, West of Rhone. We're pretty sure they're following the river to some point around here. You guys will crisscross in a grid pattern to try and locate the beacon and take care of any enemy activity. Once you find them, contact the Marines. They will land with their Ospreys and rescue them, then all of you get out of there." "How's the weather?" Ice asked. "It's still socked in up there. It's scheduled to clear around 17:30, and we need to be in the air and in the area before then. We've gotten intel that indicates the LoD is launching a pretty large search party for them, so timing is critical." Dahlia looked nervous. "Damn I hope we get them before Discord does. We can't lose any more pilots." "No we can't, but at least you've gained one." "BLAZE!" The three of them tackle glomped him, shoving him back through the door. "Damn take it easy!" "It's great to have you back," cried Dahlia. "Are you going to be Lunar one again?" asked Ice. "Yep. At least until Maverick get's back." "Oh?" Ice said. "He's got you this far. And from what I've heard while in the camp he's done stuff I might not have been able to do. I'll be Lunar Nine." "Uh meeting guys?" Tex said from the situation room. "Oh yeah", and they went back in. __________________ 25 miles Southeast of the Crystal Empire border. LoD Griffin Empire 14:45 hours. Glory and Maverick were now three miles from the highway. They had already hid from three LoD choppers and just had to hide from a 4th. "Dammit I figured this rain would have grounded them," Glory said. "It's too risky to keep going this way. We'll follow this little stream through the woods. It's a mile further but it will all be wooded", he replied. and so they headed deep into the woods. Sometime later they saw a glint through the trees. "What's that?" Glory asked. "It looks like a light. Get your gun ready." And they headed for it. As they got closer it was clear it was a light inside a small office trailer. Finally it came into view. "W-W-Wwhat?" Glory said quietly. Not far from the office trailer were two huge tents covered with camo netting and branches from the trees. Outside were some aircraft parts, drop tanks, and a couple of shipping containers. The tarmac in front of it was also covered by a false canopy of trees. The taxiway ran out to the highway. A generator was running near the trailer. "A secret airbase?" "It looks like it," Maverick replied. They could see it was guarded by a few Minotaurs and Satyrs. "Shall we spy?" He asked. "But of course," Glory replied. Several minutes of neck slashing and breaking later all of the guards were dead. Once they were gone they unzipped the door to one of the tents and stepped inside. What they saw made their jaws drop. "Maverick?" "Son of a bitch." There before them was a Flanker fully dressed in NLRAF colors. They went over and looked at it. It had the markings for the Venom squadron. "But all of them were destroyed in that attack by the Empire's Excalibur." "I know. I think I know what's going on." Maverick opened up an access panel to check something, and his suspicions were confirmed. The paint on the inside edges of the hatch was black. Another one near the tip of the wing was red on the inside. "It's an LoD plane painted to look like ours." "Could they have been responsible for the bombings?" "And that little trap that got Angel killed". They then checked the other hangar tent. Inside it was another Flanker. This one was painted in Solar Empire colors. "That confirms it right there," Glory said. "We need some hard evidence though. Let's check that trailer," replied Maverick. They went in and started looking. Imeadiately Glory found a laptop on a desk. It was still on so she touched the pad to get the monitor to turn on. She was greeted by an image of two female minotaurs in a "situation". "UGH MY EYES!" she yelled. "Not your thing eh?" Maverick said with a smile. "No it isn't," she replied as she took the image down and started searching. Not only did they discover correspondence about the plans, the computer was still logged into the LoD's inelligence agency. There was also a couple of flash drives next to it. "I think we hit the jackpot," she said. "Same here," replied Maverick as he put the contents of a small file cabnet on the desk. As they looked through the stuff it was crystal clear. The bombings, distrust, and all of the things that led to the Republic returning to war with the Empire was an operation to weaken the two sides and make an invasion of Equestria easier. They also found the planes could squawk both LoD and NLR/SE IFF codes. "That little bastard," Glory growled. "So what now?" "Obviously we've gotta' get all of this evidence back to Base," replied Maverick. "If I can keep this laptop on we should still be able to access the stuff on it. If the battery goes dead we will have to have Microchip hack into it. But how do we get out of here in time?" "How else? I said we have to get all of the evidence back." Glory grinned. "Guess they won't have to rescue us then." The planes were already prepped for a flight that was due in 6 hours, so they opened the hangar doors, fired them up, and taxied out onto the highway. Glory took the Empire one and Maverick the other. Before getting on the highway they tested the IFF's. Maverick looked at his radar and it was showing Glory's plane as LoD. "Throw the switch," he said. She did, and it started squawking a SEAF code and went from blue to red. "OK throw it back. That confirms it." They lined up, one on each side of the highway, and took off. "Stay below 200 feet. We've gotta' remain hidden for as long as possible." "Roger Spade" she replied. They had few choices for a direct path to NLR airspace. To the left was Leftwyne and a LoD Army base. To the right was Trottingham and the Solar Empire's Neighagra Air Force base. They would have to fly South, then roughly follow the border to the NLR. Hoping they didn't fly over any ground troops along the way. They also had to worry about the planes. They would have to keep it set to LoD until they got near the border, then switch. But no matter what Glory would still show up as enemy to NLR radar. The weather was clearing as they headed South. Not far from the border their plans went the same direction when they passed over a LoD platoon. "DAMN!" Maverick yelled. "What now?" "Keep going!" The LoD platoon commander recognized the planes as the fake ones, but contacted the air controller about them as the low level pass scared the crap out of the troops. "Air command why did our two decoy planes buzz us at a hundred feet?" "What do you mean? They aren't scheduled to fly for 5 more hours". "Well they passed us, heading for the Solar Empire border." "WHAT?" The controller directed a nearby squadron to the area, then tried to contact the secret location. There was no answer. "We've got a problem. Shoot down those aircraft!" The radios in the planes were still set to the LoD frequency so Maverick and Glory heard the calls. "How much further Maverick?" "43 miles. Keep your eyes peeled." ___________________ Near the LoD/NLR border 15:09 hours. The rescue party was circling 40 miles from the LoD border, waiting for the Marines to show up. "The weather cleared up earlier than expected", said Ice. "I know. I hope it didn't affect anything", Whiteblaze replied. Dash chimed in. "Don't worry. We're not going to let them get their claws on them." A short time later the Marines linked up with the group. "Alright guys, let's get them back!" Blaze said as they headed North. Maverick and Glory were 35 miles from the border when they heard an unwelcome transmission. "Control this is Trinity squadron. We have the planes on radar 16 miles out". "Roger. You're clear to engage." "Now what Maverick?" "Just keep going. If they get a lock on us evade. And switch to the other IFF's now." Despite their best flying, the Flankers couldn't out run the LoD MiG-31's. Soon they were well within missile range and the warnings started going off. "Evade!" Maverick yelled. Blaze and the others were now less than 20 miles from the border when Carrot Top contacted them. "Sentry Two to all planes we have multiple aircraft inbound from the North." "How many?" Blaze asked. "A flight of two and then six more... What?" "What is it?" "The pair. Both were squawking LoD IFF's. Now one is squawking a Solar Empire code, the other a NLRAF one." The radio went silent. "Is your radar messing up Sentry?" Dash asked. "No it's fine." " Sentry One this is Ocelot One. I'm picking them up now". Sentry came back on. "They keep changing course, like they're dodging something." "The other planes are firing on them maybe?" added Ice. The radio went silent, then erupted with 3 words. "MAVERICK AND GLORY!" All of the planes hit the afterburners and headed for them. The pair were now down to their last flares and bundles of chaff. "We've got enough for one more dodge. After that we have to bail. Make sure to take the evidence with you." "I will Maverick." Then, 12 miles from the border, they picked up multiple contacts on their radars. It was the group. "Is that?" "Has to be. I hope they don't fire on us". The LoD planes also picked them up. "Damn. We've got over 20 aircraft approaching. Let's get out of here," the LoD squadron commander said, and they turned around and left. Glory let out a sigh of relief. "They turned around. We did it Spade." "I know. That was a close one. Now let's worry about our own interceptors," he replied. Then a few seconds later they got an unusual message over the radio. "There's a coded message on the radio," Glory said. "Can you decrypt it?" he replied. "Yeah, hold on," she said as she began the process. "Yo, Spade. You still alive?" Fear suddenly came over Glory. "IT'S..." The two started looking around for any sign of her. "Too bad I didn't know it was you until now," the commander of the LoD squadron said to herself as they continued to leave the area. "The 2nd group of planes is fleeing," Sentry announced. Dash sighed. "That's a relief." "Now let's identify these two," replied Sunfire. The pair continued to fly straight for the group. "Slow down so they can get a good look at us. I'll contact them on our short range radios when we get close enough," Maverick announced. The planes passed. "Hey guys can you hear us?" he said. "Maverick and Glory?" Blaze asked. "It's us," They replied. The radio erupted into chatter. "How can we be sure?" Dash asked them. Glory had the perfect answer. "Dash. Do you remember that one night at that bar in Baltimare three years ago, when you..." "OK OK it's you!" Dash said with a red face. "How.. Where did you get those?" Derpy asked as the planes turned around and formed up with them. "From a secret airbase we came across. We've got evidence that is going to blow the lid off of this war." "Like what?," Blaze asked. "Those civilian and other bombing incidents between us and the Empire? It was all Discord's doing. These are LoD Flankers painted to look like ours and the Empires'. The goal was to spread distrust between us and them so we would fight ourselves. We've got a laptop and tons of paper evidence. We even have the orders signed by that piece of shit himself." Everypony was stunned. "We've gotta' get this information to Luna," Dash replied. "Let's all get back to your base." "I'm contacting command as we speak," replied Carrot Top. And they returned home.