//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15 
// Story: Ace Combat Equestria: Shattered Clouds 
// by Cpt Celti 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 15

I stood on the sidewalk as a convoy of trucks rolled down the street. They were delivering bombs to the base. I was young, but I knew enough that an enemy that had to be fought by those means was close to the town indeed. The filly that I had started to grow more comfortable around was tense, as was her father. As members of the resistance, I could tell that things were getting more precarious for them and their operations.
A few short days later, the resistance blew up the runway. I was in Meteor Six's quarters, cleaning my harmonica when I heard the first one go off. The second was closer, knocking me from my chair and forcing me to look around outside. A third explosion cracked the windows, forcing me back down. When it sounded like things had quieted a bit, and the fire crews were rushing out to repair the damage, I stepped outside the trailer and peered around at the carnage. A gunshot to my left caused me to look and stare, and I watched a stallion fall to the ground. A pair of Gryphnian soldiers grabbed his arms and hauled his lifeless body away; no doubt the bombers, or at least one of them, had been caught. That's when I saw just how much damage had been done.
Meteor Eight had suffered light shrapnel wounds to his wings and left arm. Though the runway could easily be fixed to good as new in a matter of days, I noticed that the containers holding reserve supplies was in a smoking ruin. That was a heavy blow to them. Support from Fyrick's Logistics department had become infrequent following AEGIS's offensive operations to the south. I knew this as Meteor Squadrons crew chief was bellyaching it to me after he had dismissed a number of his subordinates to continue salvaging what could be.
"I don't mind buying a farm while I'm in the air," he had said once he stopped spilling the beans to me. "But I can't stand being taken out while I'm on the ground. A gryphon warrior belongs in the sky." I looked over at the runway when he finished, watching as Meteor Six came around the corner, scratching a puppy behind the ears. The thing looked happy as could be, before she set him down, telling him to go home. It didn't move, instead looking around. Suddenly it caught sight of me and ran all the way to my lap, licking my face.
As Six and I shared a smile and tried to come up with a name, a shockingly familiar siren blared through the base. And then the gryphon I recognized as Prince Carde, Meteor Seven, landed with a hard thud next to us.
"Six!" he cried. "AEGIS is launching on Sky Breaker! Command wants us airborne yesterday!"
Without another word, Six and Seven took wing to the runway. I couldn't blame her; she had a job to do now: fly her jet against allied pilots. The puppy and I ran to watch them take off, but then I realized something about their formation. Meteor Eight was on his way up with the others. With no bombs, and only a few missiles, his plane was rather light. It also was in bad shape, his engine needed to be replaced badly.
I frowned, finding myself wishing them a safe return.



"Attention!" the guard announced.
Lieutenant General Twilight pushed open the door, and the room almost immediately went silent, the gathered soldiers standing at attention and snapping to crisp salutes. "Carry on," she called, allowing them to return to their previous positions. Dressed in her typical violet uniform, but decorated in a multitude of medals and ribbons, Twilight was imposing in the analysis room of Canterlot Castle. While she may have been the focus of the room, the violet unicorn was not the most out of the ordinary sight in the room.
It was the three gryphons. 
They were guarded by a pair of Canterlot Royal guards. Their grip on their M4s tightened every time somepony stepped by them, causing a few awkward glances. But when the General stepped up, they allowed her to approach. The lead gryphon stood up straight, eyeing Twilight intently. His beak fell a bit to a sort of frown. "General," he murmured, acknowledging her presence.
"Doctor," the unicorn replied simply. She looked around the room where they were starting to acquire odd looks, rather uncomfortable stares from different members of AEGIS. The most hostile came from the crystal ponies, but they were otherwise keeping quiet. She gave the gryphons a cursory glance, noticing how tense the three were. She felt some pity for them. They had come to AEGIS with an offer of information and they were still treated like war criminals. Understandable, but the last thing Twilight wanted was for their potential informants to feel so unwelcome as to take back their offer, and just return to the enclave.
Clearing her throat, Twilight gestured to a door on the far wall. "Let's speak in there. That way we can speak in private. I can call up the rest of AEGIS's leaders and we can further discuss this proposition of yours."


Rhapsody set the block down as she aimed her cue stick at the triangle. Squinting, she pulled it back and forth, correcting her aim where she needed to. Finally, she pushed hard, sending her stick into the cue ball and breaking the tight formation. "I'm calling stripes this time," she announced to Amethyst with a smile.
The Crystal mare shrugged and grinned. "Fine by me. The solids, I swear, had some defect that makes them roll farther."
Rhapsody chuckled and waved for her to make her move. She had to admit, Amethyst was a timid thing, but dang it all if she couldn't play a game of pool. The young mare had been a champion on her school's billiard team, and was starting to resurrect that old fire she had during her matches.
Amethyst bent down, aiming her stick at the cue ball, angling in her strike to hit dead center and sink a pair of solids. Her tail flicked a few times as testament to her concentration. This in turn caused a few stallions to peek at her. Mythic tilted his neck at her, earning a sharp elbow from Sprig. Finally, sticking her tongue out, the crystal mare str-
A sharp whistle resounded through the recreation room. Amethyst let out a 'Meep!' as her strike went totally off. The cue ball struck one of the solids, sending it into the wall at high speed and causing it to roll over the barricade and onto the floor, rolling swiftly under the bar by the tender's hooves. A chuckle was shared by everyone in the room. "Wow Amethyst," Rhapsody said. "You were right. They do roll far."
"Oh shut up."
They turned to see where the whistle came from, and it was none other than Major Soarin. "I need all the wing leaders in the briefing room, on the double!" And with that, he was gone. Rhapsody shared a look with a number of her squadron fellows, before shaking her head and tossing her cue stick to Sprig. Soarin looked flustered, and the sea green mare needed to know why.


"An agreement has been met, and command up in Canterlot has issued an order for a full-scale aerial assault on Sky Breaker."
Whistles and mutters of disbelief bounced off the walls. Even Rhapsody shared a look of shock with Wheatfield of Windigo Wing. They had already discovered days ago that the airliners Ghost Wing had rescued were carrying the engineers for Sky Breaker, as well as their families and a number of warriors who worked against the Crown of Gryphnia. But they didn't realize that, after only a few short weeks after their arrival, they would be launching their attack.
Rhapsody exhaled and her wings tightened a little in her edgy state. "We've granted them their offer of amnesty in exchange for information on how to bring Sky Breaker offline and destroy it for good," Soarin continued. As usual, the projector screen came down, and all twenty miles around Sky Breaker was highlighted. "Thanks to the defectors, we now know about a sizable flaw in Sky Breaker's design. We-"
The door suddenly burst open, forcing a silence as Captain Dash rushed for the podium. Soarin quirked his brow at her. "Dash, I'm in the middle of-"
"The Lieutenant General would like to give this herself." Soarin's eyes bulged, and the room burst into murmuring. He immediately nodded, forcing the projector screen to shut off. He then held the remote out to the screen, changing the frequency and the output. Finally, the screen switched to static and then the picture cleared out. The royal seal of Canterlot flashed onto it and finally, Rhapsody got her first good look at the Lieutenant General, and the Element of Magic herself, protégé of Princess Celestia herself, and Commander of Intelligence Operations in Canterlot.
Everypony in the room immediately stood and saluted. Twilight returned it swiftly and put her arms behind her back. "At ease. As you know, a group of gryphons have defected to AEGIS and, in exchange for amnesty, have given us a remarkable amount of data concerning Sky Breaker's strengths and weaknesses. Gryphnia knows about this, and are working to reinforce the installation." She pulled out her own remote. Her screen shrunk to the corner and pulled up a three-dimensional map of the Sky Breaker complex.
"They are adding to the number of SAM sites and AA guns, as well as another squadron of fighters. It is incredibly well-guarded from a ground invasion, and has its eight cannons aiming every direction, and, as we recently discovered, a powerful jammer in the center of the complex." A red circle encompassed the circular building at the ground level. "It has a strength of about five miles, making any guided munitions and missile strikes inert. You will be unable to lock onto anything with this active.
"However, we have a slight advantage. We already know that Sky Breaker cannot engage anything below two-thousand feet, and it's located within a vast expanse of desert with few mountains and hills. Not only that, but during our last strike, despite the reels of Gryphnian victory, we were able to destroy one of the towers with a lucky cruise missile, leaving them with only seven fully operational cannons; the eighth wasn't able to be repaired swiftly before the war broke out."
The screen then shifted until Sky Breaker was at the right of the screen and there were three light blue arrows coming left towards it. "The plan is much simpler said than executed, but just bear with me," she continued. Rhapsody folded her arms, her ear twitching a bit and her tail waving back and forth. She was anxious to get this underway. Still, the Element of Magic had an air of authority that said 'Shut up, I'm talking!' So shut up she did. "The 14th will rendezvous at a point here, in the west, just outside Sky breaker's effective range. Once you all have gathered up, get yourselves into formation and start dropping your altitude between seventeen and eighteen hundred feet. Dangerous, I know, but necessary, and that isn't the half of it.
"Because time is of the utmost essence, you'll be approaching the complex at high speed. Low altitude, high speed, break for nothing, and keep your course's unpredictable. This will make you a more difficult target to track and hit." As the arrows on the screen performed a weaving pattern and reached the circle representing Sky Breaker, they began to form a circle within. "Once arriving, you all need to fight your way through the SAM sites and the AA guns while maintaining low altitude. After that, you'll need to find a way to destroy the jammer at the center. 
"Afterwards, sufficient communication will be reestablished and your electronics will work normally. But don't get cocky; these cannons are heavily armored and standard missile strikes won't cut it on their own. You'll need any sort of ground attack munitions you can get your hands on. But once you're within the complex and the jammer is destroyed, focus everything you have on downing those cannons. Afterwards, we're expecting the remaining enemy forces to bug out, but deal with them as necessary."
The screen then shifted back to the purple unicorn General occupying the entire screen. Soarin and Rainbow Dash exhaled and several other wing leaders joined them. They all had looks of skepticism, but otherwise, there was a sufficient air of confidence in the room. "Are there any questions, pilots?" Twilight asked. No hands were raised, to Rhapsody's surprise, so the General continued. "In that case, I've been reviewing the tactical data concerning the 14th, and I've decided that... 'Ghost Wing' will lead the attack."
A pin drop could have been heard as eyes suddenly focused on the sea green mare. Rhapsody's eyes bulged out of their sockets. Ghost Wing had never really led an attack of this caliber. A pilot of an outdated fighter was going to be leading an assault on the world's most powerful anti-air weapon. Four fighter wings would be under her command, including the Wonderbolts... Equestria's most elite squadron.
"Captain..." Twilight looked at a folder nearby. "Rhapsody 'Wraith'. Am I correct?"
Rhapsody stood up and nodded. "Yes ma'am. But... with respect, wouldn't the Wonderbolts be better experienced for commanding an attack of this magnitude? My Wing is mainly dogfighters."
"Be that as it may, Captain, the numbers from the tactics and logistics department, while often ludicrous, don't tend to lie about these sorts of things. They double check then re-double check their results. Especially this time considering how imperative this mission is." She then adjusted her bangs and turned to the sky blue mare and stallion giving her an incredulous look. "Major, Captain, Ghost Wing has proven themselves immeasurably useful in past sorties. If there are any objections to my decision..."
"I doubt there will be ma'am."
There was a collective gasp in the briefing room as a familiar gold-coated mare entered beside the Lieutenant General. "I knew Ghost Wing would rise up high on the ladder, as would the rest of the 14th."
"M-Major? You're..?"
"Out of the brig? Finally, too." Spitfire negligently waved her hand. "You heard the General. The plan is already in motion. Get your flanks to the flight-line and bust some gryphon skulls!"
The assembled pilots gave a light cheer and Rhapsody received a slap on the back. "You got this, Captain," Shavul commented. 
Rhapsody smiled and looked around at the confident faces, growing into a grin. She and Spitfire locked eyes. "We won't let you down ma'am," Rhapsody announced, with a salute at the end. Spitfire returned it promptly.
"I know."


Six tapped her fuel gauge, grimacing to herself. "We're getting low."
"I see it too," Seven announced.
"Hey Eight," Six called. "You doing all right over there?" She looked back at the damaged fighter. It was keeping sufficient pace despite its previous damage. They had managed to repair it as best they could in the time they had before taking off. Despite this, there were still a number of replacements and repairs that needed to be done once they returned to Glacier. That, and Eight himself was hurt still. His wounds were bandaged and his wing wrapped and yet he still insisted on going up with his mates.
"I'll be fine, ma'am," he assured her.
Six frowned behind her beak and looked back ahead. "I hope so."


"Commander Ga'el!"
The elder gryphon turned to the Warrant Officer approaching him. The officer landed hard on his feet and snapped to a salute and tried to catch his breath from the long flight. "What is it?" Ga'el asked impatiently.
"Meteor Squadron is on the way to our defense, but they won't make it in time. AEGIS is closing in fast!"
Ga'el sneered. "How fast?" he demanded.
The officer held out his arms. "Recklessly fast. We're counting at least fifteen fighters heading this way!"
The Commander snarled and, in his frustration, shoved the younger officer out of his way. Taking off into the sky with him in tow, Ga'el made for the Sky Breaker control center. Once landing, he shouted, "Get the guns charged up! Fire up the anti-air defense and launch fighters! AEGIS is on the way and we're going to prove to them that they can't strike here twice!"
The other gryphons began to blaze around the room, scrambling to their stations to relay their orders to the others. Ga'el then turned his eyes to the direction the AEGIS fighters were coming. Grabbing his binoculars, he adjusted them, keeping a look out.
"You're not destroying this facility, AEGIS... never..."
Four of the Sky Breaker cannons aimed low, and once they had stilled, fired.


Ghost. Wonderbolt. Timberwolf. Windigo. Saber.
Fifteen strong, they tore the dunes apart as they made their way through Gryphnian air space. They had encountered little to no interceptors, merely close calls, and soon, after what seemed like hours, the 14th had arrived at the Sky Breaker's valley. Pulling back her throttle, Rhapsody took a deep breath and the rest of the wing pulled up over a large mountain chain. It took them over two-thousand feet, but there was no way to go around with the time they had left. They just needed to go faster over them and back down into the valley.
Finally, they regained a sufficient formation, arming their weapons, and prepared for the strike.
"Here we go," the mare murmured to herself. "It'll soon be all over..."
"Sky Breaker is responsible for the loss of many aces," Sky Gazer announced. "We're in need of new heroes. You all know your objectives, do your best, but... Come back alive."
Rhapsody winced slightly, and she heard Ditzy murmuring something to Dinky and Time Turner. She took the time to murmur a message to her own parents, and her little brother, Bolero. This mission was a wildcard. The battle would be unpredictable, and no doubt their moves would need to be seriously calculated. And when they cleared the mountains, it was time to start calculating.
"Incoming from Sky Breaker!" Rainbow Dash, Bolt Three, announced. "Descend to lower altitude if you don't want to get hit." The sea green pegasus turned her F-14A onto its side, the rest of the attack formation following suite. Already, she saw the streaks of color heading right above them, detonating just past their tails. The explosions of rainbow colored the air, darkening the sky for a moment. Rhapsody took a look above her, noticing the lack of clouds. They must have sensed the battle ahead, knowing the destruction that was coming, and left quickly. Rhapsody couldn't blame them.
Throttling up, the lone F-14A led the formation of MiG-29s, Tornado IDSs, F-15Ss, F/A-18Cs, and Typhoons all the way to the target. Allowing a grimace, she pushed down into an attack angle, raking her guns along an AA gun. It burst into flames and she resumed her course. Then, she blinked, gazing forward. 
She could see seven cannons with her vision, though it was blurred from the distance and there was a very light fog. But it was enough to enhance the size of the target. Four had been aimed in their direction whilst the other three were in a rested position. Even from here, she could see the large dome in the center. That had to be the jammer. The turrets then lowered, but could not hit the low flying fighters. Still, Rhapsody was in awe of the size. 
The turrets were easily a hundred feet high, and the cannons themselves eighty feet long. They had a full rotation capability and she could only guess at how long it would take to load them. The cannons were held up by a pair of pylons that began at about seventy feet up which allowed them to be aimed upwards to strike just about anything above two-thousand feet. She doubted even Equestria's SR-71s would be safe from their range. There was a full air force base to the turret network's right that was already starting to scramble their planes, as well.
All in all, it was a massive piece of construction. And she now had to destroy it. "Is- is the distance to the target correct?" she asked.
"Vector 3-5-0. Four miles," Sky Gazer confirmed.
"Holy - That thing is huge!"Amethyst exclaimed.
"So that's Sky Breaker." Sprig then let out a small chuckle. "No witty comment, Shade?"
"Not this time... Frankly, too easy." He then laughed. "I'll think of something later. Need to be drunk first."
"Won't be drunk if you don't look out!" Ditzy cried. Mythic yelped and rolled out of the way of a SAM. A MiG-29 from Timberwolf unleashed a hail of rockets from its wings and destroyed it a few seconds later.
Suddenly, Rhapsody's HUD began wavering, she couldn't lock onto anything with the IFF. "All planes, you've entered the effective jamming radius. You'll need to destroy the jammer with your gun."
Rhapsody throttled up, narrowing her eyes. She had reached the complex. Flak and other AA ordinance opened fire on her. The Sky Breaker cannons fired again, trying to turn and hit her with their fire, but they turned too slowly. Her Tomcat rattled and shook with each miss as she weaved through it. Finally, when she at least felt a clear point in her flight, Rhapsody pulled up and over the massive wall, aiming her whiskey reticule at the dome. Without a moment of thought, she opened fire.


Bullets struck the thin skin of the dome, tearing it apart from the inside. Gryphons shrieked as they were either hit, or were caught in the falling debris. A series of explosions formed within, destroying many vital components.
"Get those fires out!" the Captain called. But as he looked back, another volley from the attacker shredded through him and further into the power supply.


Rhapsody pulled up as the explosion rose into the sky, causing her fighter to rock from the blast. She grit her teeth and leveled out, surveying the damage to the jammer.
"Jammer's down! All wings get in there and attack!"
"Roger that!"
"Saber engaging!"
"Wonderbolt engaging!"
"Timberwolf engaging!"
"Incoming fighters!" Mythic cried.
A dozen fighters suddenly popped onto radar, with more beginning to take off from the runway nearby. Rhapsody disengaged from an attack run on the turrets and pulled up, switching to her missiles. Banking sharply, she pulled up behind an Su-35 Super Flanker, a fighter she had yet to encounter in her entire career. They were superior to her fighter in every way, but they were not 37s. They were not the best. These were average pilots scrambling out of fear to counter their attack. They would not be thinking.
"Don't be afraid, everypony," Rainbow Dash called out. "Just remember your training and engage!"
The Super Flanker caught her behind it, and started pulling into a sharp helix. Rhapsody narrowed her eyes and pulled up, keeping pace. But still, it had a tighter turning radius and was more agile, and soon it had pulled into a sharper circle and left Rhapsody behind. Ditzy gasped as the Su-35 pulled into a shortened version of the cobra maneuver and was now chasing them. "He's got us! Break!"
"One step ahead of you, Specter!" Rhapsody cried as she pulled into the opposite direction. The Super Flanker gave chase, forcing the sea green mare to break from her left to a very sharp right. The enemy pilot was hot on her tail as Rhapsody thought quickly of a plan to shake the more agile fighter. She dove low, increasing her speed. The wings of her Tomcat folded back and she careened along the ground as tracers began falling around her. She could see the tennis ball sized tracers shoot by her canopy as every gryphon on the ground worth their salt tried to shoot her down. With a sharp pull upwards, Rhapsody and Ditsy soared high into the sky.
Ditsy looked back, watching the Su-35 continue pursuit, only to have an F/A-18 force him off. "I got your back, Wraith!" Amethyst called out. "Mythic is heading for the airfield. Think you can back him up?"
"No problem! Ready Specter?"
Ditsy grinned behind her mask. "Born."
Throttling up, Rhapsody rendezvoused with the sword-painted Typhoon. He had already begun an attack run, a full bomblet dispenser being dropped onto the hangars. Fighters were already starting to take-off, and Rhapsody took the opportunity to begin her strafing. Using her cannon, she fired in bursts at the enemy fighters.


Giving a squawk of surprise, the Rafale pilot covered his face as a torrent of bullets from the strafing fighter hit his own plane. Taking a look back after the Tomcat had passed, he swore violently and tore his helmet off.
"I can't take-off! My engine's damaged and half my wing is gone!"
"What about me? I just lost my pilot!" That same gryphon looked back and saw the Strike Eagle behind him had been riddled with holes along the canopy as he pulled his friend from the cockpit, his suit stained red and body unmoving. Throwing his helmet as far as he could, he roared at the Tomcat as it flew away.


"Enemy runway destroyed!" Mythic announced. "Shade and Wraith returning to battle."
A volley from Sky Breaker shattered the skies above the AEGIS fighters. Though it was short and the rounds went too high to hit the fighters, it served as a reminder that they still had a larger objective to hit than the airfield. "Sky Gazer to all planes, begin dropping your payloads on the turrets! We need to get this place destroyed quickly! Enemy reinforcements could be here any minute!"
"Wraith, Bolt 2 here," Soarin cried out. "You've still got your bombs. Get started on your attack run! The rest of you begin destroying the nearby facilities!"
"Roger that! Wraith engaging!"
Beyond, Rhapsody could see her squadron begin their attacks. Buildings were being destroyed by unguided bombs or rockets while enemy fighters were engaged and kept off her tail. AA guns and SAM sites were destroyed, likewise, and her route was cleared. Pushing back down, she switched to her bombs and her reticule shifted. 
Ditzy kept scanning the skies as the AEGIS fighters kept watch for her.  Flying over the already destroyed turret, she angled herself carefully, unable to miss this shot. The lone Tomcat stared down the nose before pulling up, dropping a single bomb onto the joint of the turret. It slammed into the side, the impact causing a much larger explosion than she expected. The turret jerked to a halt and the barrel split apart from the rest of the weapon. It crashed into the ground and threw dirt and sand high.
"First one is down! Moving to the next." Rhapsody tilted her fighter, moving in a clockwise circle around the entire complex. She pulled hard into the right turn, angling each bomb impact. The results were the same for the next two. A bomb slamming into the side or even the bottom, the turrets rattled and collapsed from the impact, sending up fire, debris, and sand high into the sky. She could just barely see the gryphons scrambling to get out of the way.
"Get every last one of them," Soarin ordered. "Or this war will never end!"
She continued dropping bombs, and when she ran out on the fourth turret, Rhapsody fired her missiles. The missile struck, tearing a hole in the joint and forcing the turret to jam halfway through firing. She must have struck a nerve too, as the barrel exploded in a fiery explosion in a rainbow of colors. It seemed the shell had exploded in the barrel.
She had to pull up from another attack run as a pair of AA guns unleashed a torrent of lead right for her nose.


"Shoot down that ghost!" a commander yelled over the radio.
Ga'el sneered as he stared at this lone fighter through his binoculars, watching the remaining cannons fire at random to hit something.
"What's going on, sir?" asked his second after he returned from the armored bunker below.
Instead of giving a smart response to the stupid question, Ga'el exhaled slowly. "There's a lone fighter out there. A tomcat with a Ghost insignia... It's a tough one. Single-handedly destroying Sky Breaker."
He pulled down his binoculars and looked back at his second, who was holding a piece of paper. Ga'el took it and read it closely. Frowning and furrowing his brow, he looked back up at the Tomcat and sighed. 
"They won't make it."


The Tomcat kept its circle, making several passes on the turrets. Rhapsody was now grinding her teeth as she aimed carefully for supposed weak-points in the turrets. She had tried using her gun and was impressed that it worked well in certain areas. She aimed low, towards the base of one of the turrets as it turned. The thick tracers impacted what she assumed was a reactor, for the base detonated in a flash just before the turret practically split in half, the barrel dropping to the ground on top of a mobile SAM trying to get out of the blast radius of the reactor.
She had been forced to break off her attack runs by the ground fire shooting at her. A number of her munitions had been wasted to destroy them, but luckily the rest of the squadron soared in to destroy them, and she was able to resume her attack.
"Go for it, Wraith! Take it all out!" Sprig shouted.
"Look at her. She's taking all the glory."
"Oh shut up and cover her!" Rainbow Dash countered.
Rhapsody leveled herself out, arming her last missile to destroy the turret. "This is Wraith, making my move on the last turret."
"Wraith, behind you!" Soarin shouted.
Ditzy looked back and yelped. "Su-35 on our tail! He's firing!"
Rhapsody abandoned her attack run and pulled up high, throttling up, causing the missile to fly under her. It missed the turret but the enemy Super Flanker kept her within view. Rhapsody weaved left and right, avoiding the rounds tearing through the air around her. A pang on her right caused her to jerk to the left, narrowly avoiding a volley into her cockpit. "It was a glancing blow," Ditzy reported. "Chipped off a piece though."
Rhapsody snarled and dove back down towards the complex. Darting by Sprig and Amethyst jointly chasing a Rafale, she headed for the ground flying at what many would call unsafe altitudes. To her, it was just another day on the job for an ace pilot. She weaved through the Super Flanker's fire, Ditzy continuing to call out what he was doing and Rhapsody acting accordingly. She soared over the wreckage of the Sky Breaker turrets she had already destroyed, trying to maybe cause him to falter and make him crash. But the nimble fighter matched her every move and surpassed it. The pegasus mare began feeling a sensation she hadn't since her very first combat sortie.
Desperation.
This fighter pilot was good and flying a better fighter than her. She needed a plan and fast. Suddenly, Rhapsody's eyes fell on the one remaining Sky Breaker turret. She saw how it swung, aiming for the AEGIS planes, how the barrel dropped and adjusted itself. A crazy thought entered the mare's mind, but that thought seemed like a damn good plan.
"Hang on Specter! We need to get that thing focusing on us."
Ditzy looked ahead and saw the turret. She frowned deeply behind her mask. "Have I ever told you that you're crazy?"
"Thirty-six times."
"Consider this thirty-seven." Ditzy braced herself.
The Tomcat's turbines flared as Rhapsody pushed her throttle further up and flew just beyond the complex, carrying the Su-35 with her, narrowly dodging his attacks in the process. "Specter, keep an eye on that gun! See if it's pointing at us!"
"Got it," Ditzy replied, doubt lacing her words. Rhapsody could understand and relate; she wasn't too sure about this either. Gritting her teeth hard, she pulled into a wide circle. 
Catching sight of one of the F-15Ss pulling up towards her, Rhapsody couldn't believe what she was about to say. "This is Wraith to all aircraft! I have an enemy fighter on my tail. Do not engage!"
"Bolt 3 to Wraith, repeat your last."
"Do not engage the fighter on my tail. Repeat, do not engage."
A gruff sigh was heard. "Wraith, you better know what you're doing, mate," Sprig replied low.
"Yeah... me too."
"Wraith! It's aiming at us!" Ditzy cried, fear replacing the doubt in her voice.
Suddenly, after a quick prayer, Rhapsody pulled a hard left and angled her whiskey reticule and pushed her throttle to the maximum, her afterburners screaming as she descended towards her target.
The Turret.


"What is that pilot doing?" Ga'el asked no one in particular. Pulling his binoculars back down, he scratched the top of his head before raising them back to his eyes. The turret had locked onto the Tomcat that was barreling towards it. 
Was it making another attack run? Was the pilot suicidal? It had an Su-35 from the Sky Breaker air defense squadron behind it, who was angling for a lock. But what was- 
The realization hit him like a freight train to the groin. Ripping his radio from his belt, Ga'el shouted. "Turret control! Do not fire! Repeat, DO NOT FIRE!"


"It's getting ready to fire!" Ditzy shouted, sinking into her seat.
Rhapsody narrowed her eyes, her wings tightening to her body and her tail wrapping around her leg. Sweat rolled down her body as she let out a long exhale. Timing was everything, and the wrong jerk of her hand would kill them both. And possibly the pilot behind them. But either way, Rhapsody was hoping her intention held merit. Her afterburners continued to shoot flames out as her Tomcat tore through the sky like a comet.
Peering closely, she saw a faint light at the base of the barrel. The trigger was pulled!
"NOW!" she screamed.
Her hand slammed the control stick to the right and her hooves shoved themselves into the rudder controls and her other hand pulled the throttle back. The Tomcat shook violently and the g-forces slammed into both mares while they began their descent towards the ground.


The pilot of the Super Flanker had been so intent on catching the Tomcat that he had been momentarily stunned by the drastic maneuver. Something like that was a trick only a more nimble fighter could truly execute without the pilots nearly blacking out.
But that moment was his last.
Looking back forward, he cried out as Sky Breaker fired.


A rainbow of colors exploded across the sky just above her and Rhapsody felt the entire world around her shake and blacken as she fought against the forces to pull back into a level flight. Once she felt the g-forces ease up on her body, and her chest had returned to normal size, Rhapsody jerked her head towards the turret to see the results.
The Super Flanker was a fireball as it careened violently down towards the last turret. Finally, it impacted the center, where the barrel met the base, directly in the joint. It had gone better than she expected, the last enemy fighter in the sky had been used as the last shot fired. The turret rocked and listed. The barrel fell from the joint, slamming into the base and causing a large explosion, sparks shot into the air, as if launching its own fireworks display as a death knell. Finally, after it had calmed, all that remained was a burning husk.
All of the turrets shared a similar death and the only thing standing was the rubble and the flames licking at the twisted metal.
Both Rhapsody's and Ditzy's breathing was labored, hard to gain, but they still managed to catch some air in their lungs. The grey mare slammed herself back into her seat and exhaled. "Rhapsody... don't... don't ever... do that again. That's twice."
Rhapsody gave a pathetic chuckle. "Don't worry, Ditz. I am never doing that again."
"Target destroyed! I repeat, Ghost One has destroyed all the targets! Sky Breaker is down!"
"Sky Gazer here, we've got the report! Now this is what I like to see!"
"Yahoo!" Sprig cried. "Now it's our turn!"
Shouts and cheers were heard all over the radio. Rhapsody allowed a smile to grace her lips as she reached her arm back to Ditzy, who gave her a high-five before the pulled up to circle the damage.
All turrets had been destroyed. Rhapsody and Ditzy had been the ones who took them all out and put Sky Breaker out of commission for good. She couldn't believe it. She had done it. Rhapsody had taken an obsolete fighter and had taken out a weapon that had been plaguing the skies of Equis for years. It had shattered the skies, destroyed her comrades, broke the clouds apart. She gave a softer smile as it dawned on her. The clouds were safe now. The wisps of the air, the best bed for pegasi, the most under-appreciated rulers of the air. They were safe now.
An alarm suddenly broke the cheering completely.
"The hell?" Mythic exclaimed.
"Sky Gazer here, we've confirmed via radar that Sky Breaker has been destroyed," Scootaloo reported. "But... it looks like we've got company." Rhapsody's eyes widened. Who could be coming at them? "Five bandits coming in at mach 2!" 
"Mach 2? They must be desperate to get here," Creg replied nonchalantly.
"Yeah, but five bandits could only mean one thing."
"And you're right. Not to worry though, our aces are faster than they are. You are all cleared to engage!"


Six glared at the damage they had been too late to respond to and prevent. She sighed heavily.
"Damnit, we're too late!" Seven snapped vehemently.
"Calm down everyone, we knew we weren't going to make it." She exhaled deeply. "Let's at least take down as many as we can before we run out of fuel."
"I second that," Eight replied.
"All Meteors... ENGAGE!"