Ace Combat: Shattered Friendships
Operation Crossblade
Author: Draconis187
The dark, cloud covered sky over Valiant Airbase only added to the mood of the pilots as they scrambled to their various jets, having gotten out of the briefing over an hour ago and had finished prepping their aircraft. The Wonderbolts jumped into the cockpits of their JAS 39C Gripens. They were light blue with the same twin sided lightning bolt running down the plane’s length that the pilots wore on their jackets.
Their rudders had a yellow lightning bolt with a pair of white wings along with a number inside the bolt, coloured black to indicate which part of the Wonderbolts Squadron they were a part of. A second symbol was on each of the main wings: a large triangle with two smaller triangles and a diamond visible within due to their differentiating colours: black for the diamond in the centre, blue for the right triangle and a red triangle on the left. On either side of the large triangle were three white stripes of increasing length.
As the eight planes headed for the runway, their eye in the sky was waiting for take off clearance. A Boeing E-767 AWACS, (Airborne Warning and Control System) coloured as black as coal with a white stripe running down the radar system that was attached to the top of the fuselage. The wings had a strip of silver colouring running along the flaps and ailerons. At the pilot’s seat was a dark grey Pegasus with a sky blue mane and tail with light blue streaks known as Thunderlane. A lilac coloured Pegasus known as Flitter sat in the co-pilot seat. Her pale green mane made her headset seem nonexistent as it hid inside.
As Thunderlane adjusted the headset he wore he called out to the control tower. “This is Eagle Eye to Valiant Control Tower, are we cleared for take-off?”
The voice of a mare came over the communications, it had an air of royalty to it but it was hardly surprising since it belonged to Princess Luna. “This is Valiant Control Tower to Eagle Eye, you are cleared for take-off.”
“Roger that.” Thunderlane responded as he turned his head to the Unicorns in the back. “Strap up ladies, we’re taking off!”
In an instant the hum of the Boeing’s twin engines turned to deafening roars as Thunderlane commanded their cooperation with the throttle. As the brake was released, the plane slowly built up speed before taking to the air. On board the AWACS, a purple Alicorn was holding onto her seat for dear life, this being the first time she had ever flown in any aircraft. She always preferred using her own wings.
“You alright back there, Twilight?” Thunderlane chuckled as the AWACS levelled off. Twilight nodded her head slowly in response, causing everypony in the plane to chuckle. “Well, they say the first flight is the hardest so I guess it is smooth flying from here on out.”
Twilight breathed in deeply before turning her attention to her headset in front of her as she began to call out to the only two squadrons at Valiant: The Wonderbolts and The Galm Team.
“Wonderbolt One, are you airborne yet?” Twilight called over the radio channel. She would be giving them assessments of the operation as all the Unicorns check their radars and relay the situation to her so she can relay it to each squadron.
“We were waiting for you to hurry your giant metal ass up there first since there is only one airstrip!” Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Wonderbolts Squadron said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “You only just got airborne for the love of Celestia’s giant flank!”
“That’s enough about my sister’s flank no matter how large it may appear to be, thank you very much.” Luna called out, monitoring the communications and the radar in the Control Tower with a bunch of Earth Ponies. “Focus on the mission of stopping the bombers and their escorts.”
“Yeah, yeah. I heard all about that in the briefing. I still don’t know why we have this ‘Galm Team’ flying with us.” The cyan Pegasus complained as she lined up on the runway, looking back at the two mercenaries. “Wonderbolt One requesting ready for take-off.”
“The runway’s clear Wonderbolt One, you are clear for take-off.” Luna’s voice responded as the jet shot across the runway before lifting off, the rest of her squadron not far behind.
**** **** **** ****
Earlier that day…
“Would somepony tell me what is going on?” Dash asked as the eight Pegasi (including herself) that made up the Wonderbolts, an Earth Pony, a Unicorn that refused to remove her helmet and three Alicorns sat down in the briefing room. “I hate waiting.”
“We need to make this quick anyway.” A tall white Alicorn with a polychromatic mane and a stylised sun Cutie mark, Princess Celestia began. “As you know, the Griffon Empire invaded a month ago and have been taking over our territory. This was due to the fact that their natural resources had run dry and instead of negotiating trade, they attacked, expanding into the Crystal Empire as well as Equestria.”
“The news has already reported all of this so far sister, it is already common knowledge.” Luna, a dark blue Alicorn with a white crescent moon on top of a black ‘cloud’ for a Cutie Mark objected. Her star-like mane shone brightly in the dark briefing room.
“Correct but this actually brings us to our problem: this is the last operating airfield in Equestria. Our other airbases as far as Appleloosa and Germaney had not responded after we received reports of their attack.” Celestia explained. “There are 4 Bm-335, 6 B-52H along with escort planes consisting of 3 F4-E and F5-E respectively.” Celestia explained as a projector showed the map of the airspace around Valiant Airbase. “They will be coming from the northwest. If so much as one gets past you, we lose and Equestria is doomed.”
“Ok, so no pressure then?” Dash joked as she prodded Spitfire in the side with her elbow.
“I still don’t understand how you got to be my captain.” Spitfire facehoofed as she addressed her superior. “Who are the two mares behind us?” She pointed to the two mercenaries behind them.
“That’s Pinkie Pie.” Twilight explained with her voice heavy with guilt and sadness after seeing her friend after seven years.
“It’s Pinkamena Diane Pie, or ‘Solo Wing Pinkie’. Nothing else.” The flat manned, dull pink pony responded without even looking up at them, more interested in the combat knife in her hooves.
“Sorry, and the other one won’t tell us her name, or remove her helmet so we only know her by her callsign: Cipher. The two of them are being designated as the Galm Team. We are attaching them to the 6th Air Division, 66th Air Force Unit.” Twilight continued to explain. “Any other questions before we begin the operation?”
As she looked around the room, none of the Wonderbolts or the mercenaries responded. “Ok then. Get your planes ready, they will be here in two hours. Operation Crossblade is a go.”
**** **** **** ****
Present time…
As the Galm Team took off into the sky, Cipher went over her instruments and surveyed her surroundings from her cockpit. She had a voice distortion device built into the radio so she could speak but keep her anonymous persona. As her F-15C Eagle flew through the cloudy skies, Galm Two could be seen maintaining her position behind her, on her left.
Cipher’s F-15 was the normal metal colour with dark blue markings on the main wings and the horizontal stabilisers as well as both rudders. Solo Wing’s F-15 had its right wing coloured red, a reminder of how she got her nickname when she flew her plane home with only a single wing. The rest of her plane was the colour of the metal alloy that was used to build it.
“Contact, the first flight of bombers are twenty miles out from the base.” Twilight’s voice rang out on the intercom.
“Roger that Eagle Eye, moving in to engage the bandits.” Dash called out.
“Galm Two, follow all orders from Galm One. Free engagement is prohibited during this operation.” Twilight reminded Pinkamena as she was about to break from Cipher.
“Understood. You hear that Cipher? I’ll await your orders. You are Galm One after all.” Pinkamena called out, addressing the F-15 next to her as it remained dead level at intercept velocity. “You know I heard stories about you. They say that you’ve got what it takes to win. It looks like its snowing, try not to crash everypony. Nopony wants to bail out in a landscape of ice.”
“As if that’ll happen to us!” Dash heartily remarked.
“This is Galm One, Galm Two engage the closest F5-E escort and I’ll take out the other before moving onto the two bombers.” Cipher’s distorted voice rang through Solo Wing’s cockpit but she was still able to hear her leader correctly.
“Roger that.” She responded as the two planes broke formation and went for the escorts.
“Right then, Wonderbolts. Let’s show them what the Equestrian Air Force can do!” Dash cried out over the radio as her group broke formation to engage the other four escort planes.
“I’ve got a tail!” Soarin cried out as an F5-E chased behind him, bullets ricocheting off the left wing as small trails of black smoke began to pour out. “Damn him!”
“I’ve got you Wonderbolt Six!” Dash’s plane flew directly towards Soarin’s own plane, seemingly on a collision course. “Climb now!”
He complied and flew straight up, allowing Dash to get a lock on the attacking F5-E. “Wonderbolt One, Fox 2!”
The missile left its rail and sped off towards the F5-E as Dash banked to the left. The missile collided with the cockpit as it detonated, creating a huge fireball of metal and jet fuel as it fell to the ground like a meteor.
“That’s a kill!” Twilight confirmed as the other unicorns and she kept an eye on the battle from their seats on the AWACS.
“Aw yeah! You ok there Soarin?” Dash called out.
“I’m ok but the wing is losing hydraulic fluid, I need to bug out.” He responded as his plane headed for base.
“Go for it, we can mop up everything here no problem. Drinks are on you tonight though!” Dash laughed as she engaged an F4-E.
As Dash’s laugher rang over the radio, Cipher chased an F5-E. The plane tried to feint banking to the left and Cipher made her plane twitch in response, seemingly falling for the ruse. As the plane banked right, it fell into Cipher’s own trap as her chaingun opened up and ripped through the engine’s casing, causing the plane to ‘bleed’ fuel before igniting, leaving a massive smoke trail behind. Cipher pulled up and banked to attack one of the Bm-335s. It tried to get Cipher to back off with some gunfire from a rear turret.
It seemingly worked for a moment as Cipher pulled up but instead of breaking off completely, she flew upwards with her engines going full blast, climbing higher and higher with each second before pulling a 180° flip while engaging her air brakes and lowering the throttle, bringing the plane close to a stall. The plane shuddered as it began to fall down towards the two Bm-335s. She pressed a button on her cockpit and her display showed a different screen with four missiles, all lit bright green: her XMAA, also known as AIM-120B AMRAAM.
“Galm One, Fox Three, Fox Three!” Cipher’s distorted voice called out as two XMAA missiles fired out from their railings and headed for their targets.
Cipher turned up the throttle on her F-15C and began to level off, after she shot past the space between the two bombers as her missiles collided. The missiles collided in the middle of their fuselages and detonated their bomb bays, the resulting explosion tore their wings off and one had its cockpit eject itself from the rest of the plane as the both of them fell to the ground below.
“Two bombers down, eight are still in operational airspace.” Twilight confirmed as she relayed the current status of the mission to the rest of the planes.
“Roger that, Pinkamena on me. We are going to take them out.” Cipher’s voice rang out over the radio.
“That’s a kill for Wonderbolt Five!” Twilight said over the radio as Blaze shot down an F4-E while another F4-E was being chased by Wonderbolt Two, Spitfire.
“Join you now Cipher, I just need to get this Celestia damned ass!” Pinkamena cried out, trying to gun down the last F5-E.
“What did Luna say about using Celestia’s name?” Twilight protested.
“It must have completely slipped my mind. Now come on. I've got a cupcake for you, I made it myself.” She teased the plane as she achieved lock-on status. “In Hell!!” She shouted as she pressed the trigger, pelting the F5-E with bullets until a round penetrated the fuel tank, causing the plane to detonate.
“Confirmed kill for Galm Two.” Twilight called out.
“This is Wonderbolt Two.” Spitfire’s voice called out over the radio. “Looks like one of the bombers are turning around.”
“Getting cold hooves this far out? It doesn’t make much sense.” Dash said thoughtfully as the F4-E she was chasing got nailed with a sidewinder missile straight up its tailpipe.
“Confirmed kill for Wonderbolt One.” Twilight said as she thought over it before shaking her head. “No use trying to understand it now, we have seven bombers- confirmed kill for Galm One. Five bombers remaining.” She had to correct herself as Cipher fired two more XMAA missiles at the last two Bm-335 bombers, flying straight between them as the missiles collided and flying out of the combined ensuing fireball with nary a scratch.
“Understood, continuing the attack on the bombers. Watch this!” Pinkamena called out as she fired all four of her XMAA payload on four of the five bombers. “Fox Three, Fox Three, Fox Three, Fox Three!!”
Three of the missiles collided with their targets as the fourth flew past harmlessly before running out fuel and plummeting through the cloud cover and into the ground below.
“Damn it! Well it looks like there’s one for each of us Galm One, take your pick.” Galm Two said as she pulled back to make one more pass with her Sidewinders.
“I've got the right one on my side while you take the one on my left.” Cipher replied as she lined up her plane in front of the bomber in question.
“I got you Cipher!” Solo Wing called out as she came up from behind the formation.
Each plane locked on to their respective targets and as the computer on board gave them that divine ringing noise indicating lock-on, they pressed the button on their joysticks. Cipher’s bomber received its missile through the cockpit while Pinkamena’s got its missile shoved into the rear turret.
Cipher’s kill slowed down somewhat as it fell, its wings tearing off as the engines tried to continue forwards. Solo Wing’s kill actually lurched forwards as the shockwave gave it ‘a kick up the tailpipe’. As the two final bombers crashed, Twilight’s voice rang over the radio.
“That’s it everypony, no more hostiles in the area and the fleeing bomber has already left our airspace. Good job, we may just turn this war around for us.” She sounded genuinely surprised instead of happy.
“Right, drinks are on Soarin!” Dash called out with glee as the remaining Wonderbolts got back into formation for the short flight home. “You know Pinks? You and Cipher there are alright… for a couple of mercs.”
“Thanks, you’re not so bad yourself… for a stick in the mud.” Pinkamena retorted as the planes set themselves on the ground one by one. As Pinkie and Cipher were landing, she spoke to her flight leader. “You’ve got some potential Galm One, good work.”
**** **** **** ****
“A toast! To our overall success of Operation Crossblade!” Everypony had a pitcher of Applejack’s Premium Cider as everypony celebrated their victory. The sound of dancing, loud music and the odd chant of some Wonderbolts having a drinking contest ensured that everypony was enjoying themselves.
Everypony, save for one that was still holed up inside in the barracks. Cipher locked her door and placed one of the heavy steel cabinets to block it. She hated anypony coming in to disturb her when she wanted to be alone. The sounds coming from the mess hall were still rather audible as Cipher removed her helmet.
Her dark cerulean mane had various holes in it and yet it refused to fall apart. She unzipped her flight suit, revealing her very dark grey coat. As she walked up to her washbasin in her room, she looked at herself and sighed as her attention was brought to her gnarled horn and moderate harlequin eyes. She had a pair of fangs and dagger-like pupils. She looked down at her hooves and stared at the holes in them. The crown she usually wore on her head was missing.
“A Queen turned mercenary. Oh how the mighty have fallen.” Chrysalis muttered as she spread her tattered bug wings, gently moving them up and down, stretching them due to the fact they weren’t very comfortable in a flight suit.
A small tear fell down her muzzle as she brought her forehoof to brush it away. It ended up rolling through on of the holes in her legs before becoming acquainted with the floor. Her blue-green chitinous plating became completely visible as she finished removing her flight suit.
Her room had a steel frame bed with a mattress that felt as if it were made of concrete with blankets too thin to be of any proper use. The bathroom was a cubicle just large enough for her to fit in if she were at the height of a normal pony. There were three small windows that showed the outside world. It felt like a prison rather than a room for a pilot. But she was nothing more than a mercenary for hire to them so in the end it mattered little.
“Maybe I should… no it’s probably best I don’t join them. I'm best off on my own.” Chrysalis mumbled once more as she turned the glass of her windows to that of a one-way mirror.
There was a knock on her door with Dash’s voice boisterously shouting for the entire base to hear. “Hey, come on Cipher! Let your mane down and live a little! This victory was partly because of you! Well, I was the best one in the air today but you pulled off some half decent manoeuvres yourself!”
Chrysalis gave in to the Pegasus’ demands as she placed her gear back on, changing her body structure to more of a unicorn’s as she finished and placed her helmet on. She removed the cabinet and opened the door large enough for Rainbow to see her ‘face’. She was sure she would be regretting her decision sometime soon.
“Aw yeah! Come on, we never formally introduced you to everypony. This is going to be sweet!” Rainbow exclaimed as she downed the rest of her pitcher’s contents in a single gulp before dragging Cipher to the party.
The party was still going strong by the time 12pm hit. Luna was plastered and still kept going while Twilight had passed out after drinking halfway through her first pitcher of cider. Dash and Spitfire were having a Drunken Darts competition to see who was better when drunk while Soarin and Blaze were snoring loudly. Cipher avoided partaking in any of the beverages offered to her as alcohol and shapeshifting never mix well.
Celestia sat down next to her, making the former Queen rather uneasy until she saw the red in Celestia’s cheeks. The prissy Princess was no less sober than her sister but at least she had some restraint as she refused another pitcher.
“Save the *hic* rest for when we *hic* actually win the war.” Luna said before passing out on top of Twilight’s prone form.
“She may be younger than me but she still can’t hold her alcohol like me.” Celestia muttered loud enough for Cipher to hear. She looked up and saw the Sun Princess wink. “I believe hiring your services was the best decision I made this entire war. Tomorrow we start our counter attack against Griffons. I won’t let Equestria fall to the likes of them.”
Cipher’s disguised voice piped up as she asked. “But Princess, why now? Why would they just attack you before considering negotiations?” She knew she had room to talk, considering her actions years ago that stripped her of her title and position.
“Griffons were never great diplomats. Hit first and never bother with questions.” Celestia explained, swaying slightly from side to side. “They are also the most prideful race in the world. Dragons are just plain greedy while ponies tend to be the most accepting. But Equestria isn't the true target of the Griffons’ campaign.”
This really got Cipher’s attention. “They are actually planning on getting into Saddle Arabia, so we are caught in the middle. The Crystal Empire didn’t fare any better as they are to the north east of Equestria with the Griffon Empire to the west. They were taken out in an attempt to scare Luna and I into submitting but we refused.” Celestia continued, sticking out her tongue.
“So we got invaded and Saddle Arabia is refusing to assist as they believe we antagonised the Griffon Empire. They were just looking for excuses to stay out of the war while innocent ponies suffered.” Celestia sighed. “Now with you and other mercenaries coming in with their own planes over the next few days, we may just push the Griffons back towards their homeland and free Equestria.”
“Thank you for telling me Princess.” Cipher said after she processed this information but Celestia didn’t respond. She looked around and saw she fell asleep while Pinkamena was sat on her own, in a dark corner with six empty pitchers stacked on top of one another while she still had three full ones and a half empty one in her hooves.
Preferring to leave the murderous looking mare to her own devices, Cipher went back to her room. Placing the cabinet in the door’s path once more, she placed a special barrier that refused entry to any creature larger than a fly, other than herself obviously. She basically adapted Shining Armor’s shield spell from all those years ago as she took off her clothing and changed back to her Changeling form.
This war had only just begun and their saviour would be the one they’d least expect.