• Published 10th May 2020
  • 243 Views, 2 Comments

Sky Aces: Aerial Combat - Yellowtail



Trooper, a pilot with almost no experience under his belt, is placed under a veteran to learn how to fly and face off against enemies. In the end, he must prove himself to be just as capable a pilot as anyone else!

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Mission 01: Interception

Eastern Equestria, off shore, 1400 Hours

I keep the aircraft steady, following the lead of Half-Shield, who flies as Scar’s wingman. Scar is flying an MiG-31. To the right of Scar, is a pilot I haven’t met yet. The HUD labels him as Topper. His plane is the same type as Half Shield and mine. On his tail, I can see a top hat with a target on it. From the self-made conversation he had so far, I’ve gathered that he’s a bit of a loudmouth.

“For Celestia’s sake, I’m sick of all this silence!” Topper says through the radio.

“With all the talking you’ve done, I don’t know what you mean by that,” Scar replies. It’s true, Topper has been chatting us up this entire mission so far. At least he’s relatively friendly towards me. Turns out, he’s also pretty new, but he’s flown a couple more missions than I have.

“Cut the chatter and keep your eyes peeled Spade Squadron,” Our AWACS, Bird’s-Eye, says. “Reports from the last patrol suggest enemy presence in the area. It may have just been reconnaissance, but given the state of the war with Griffon Stone, brass would like to know for certain if they’re planning something here.” I keep checking my radar, trying to find something. “Spade 4, do you copy?” I nod to myself.

“Yes sir,” I respond. Scar is Spade 1, Half-Shield is Spade 2, and Topper is Spade 3.

“Good. At least you know your identity during the mission. You’re so quiet, I thought you crashed already,” the AWACS responds. I resist the urge to retort, only keeping my focus towards the radar. Suddenly, a blip shows up, an arrow. An aircraft.

“Guys! Something popped up on radar!” Topper calls.

“Affirmative, I see him. He is in vector 285. Fly up and see if you can identify them,” Bird’s-Eye says. Scar grunts over the radio.

“Alright, don’t open fire until my say so, got it?” Scar asks. I can feel that he was specifically talking to me.

“Wilco,” I say calmly. Scar rotates his plane to the left to turn, and we all follow suit. My IFF picks up the aircraft after we fly for a bit. We each turned around, getting behind the unknown aircraft in formation

“This is Spades Squadron in affiliation with the Equestrian Air Force. State your business and affiliation,” Scar says. The aircraft doesn’t move or respond, leaving us in silent suspense. “... This is Spades Squadron, we request your identification and affiliation, do you read me?” Scar asks again. I feel anxious as the radio silence continues. “... If you do not respond, we will be forced to shoot you-“ Suddenly, the radar pings several aircraft, all heading towards us from behind.

“Multiple bogeys in bound!” Half-Shield exclaims. The moment she says that, a warning pops up on my HUD. They’re locking on us with missiles.

“Damn, break off!” Scar yells, immediately turning upwards. I break off formation by turning left, just as soon as the bogeys behind us fired missiles. I feel the pressure of the high-g turn against me, making me struggle to breathe. It’s like someone’s pushing all of me against my seat.

“Spade Squadron, return fire on all hostiles!” Bird’s-Eye says.

“Roger, Fox Two,” Scar says. I look up just in time to see one of the bogeys burst into flames, and Scar flying past them. Damn, that’s fast. I grunt to myself and look at the radar. A hostile is on my tail. I feel a smirk naturally form on my face as I do a barrel roll and slow down. The hostile behind me overshoots, flying past me.

“What the-“ the enemy’s radio chatter cuts in. “Where did he-“ I lock on and instantly fire two missiles, destroying the aircraft quickly.

“Two enemies splashed, who got the second one?” Bird’s Eye asks.

“Wasn’t me- Dammit!” Topper says.

“It was Grunt, I saw it,” Half-Shield responds. I pull up some more, going up into the air to chase down another hostile.

“A bogey’s on my six,” an enemy says. I fire a missile, but the aircraft shoots out some flairs, making the missiles miss. “Damn, he’s fast.” I frown and keep chasing the bogey as he starts trying to shake me off by doing loops and spins. I finally lock on again and shoot two missiles. The enemy does a barrel roll, before immediately turning sharply to the right. I rotate the plane to follow him, doing a high-g turn. “I can’t shake him off!” I finally get tired of relying on missiles and start trying to aim carefully with my aircraft’s machine gun. I start firing, and manage to take out a wing from the enemy and making him spin out of control.

“Another one splashed!” Bird’s Eye says.

“Fox Two,” Half Shield says. On the radar, I see an enemy disappear. “Target splashed.” I notice an enemy trailing an ally on radar. I look up as I level my plane, and see a hostile chasing Topper.

“This guy’s on my ass! He’s not letting up!” He yells. I narrow my eyes and pull up, beginning my chase for the hostile.

“Heheh, easy pickings,” an enemy says. I get a lock on, and I fire two missiles. “What the-“ the enemy is interrupted as my missiles collide with his aircraft, taking down the enemy.

“Geez, thanks man, I owe you one!” Topper says. I don’t reply, instead focusing on my next target, who gets behind me.

“Fox Two,” Scar says. Immediately, the aircraft behind me bursts into flames, and Scar’s plane flies straight through the wreckage. “Watch your six Grunt.” With that, he breaks off and chases another target. I give a slight glare and turn around to chase some other enemy. I lock onto one almost immediately and fire my missiles instantly. The aircraft tries to outmaneuver them by turning sharply, but it was too slow and got hit nonetheless.

“Spade 4 has already taken down four bandits!” Bird’s-Eye says. “Maybe he’s worth his salt after all.” I notice an enemy chasing down Half Shield. I feel conflicted about whether she needs help or not. However, that question is answered when she makes a high-g turn and gets behind them, quickly taking them out with missiles. I look at the radar to see that only a few bandits are left. One of which, however, is a bit further off than the others. I narrow my eyes and feel a bit of adrenaline rush through me. What is this feeling, this excitement? I look towards the direction of the bandit, and see an oddly colored plane. It looks like the F-4E, but black with yellow tipped wings. I immediately turn to it, putting a lot of thrust into my engines. The IFF system labels the aircraft as ‘Hawk’. I feel a grin come across my face as I see him speed up as I get closer.

“Ah, a fledgling,” the pilot says. “I can tell you’re a little new to this. I see the hesitation.” A chuckle can be heard. “You’re nothing more than an over eager newborn chick, but I’ll play along.” A missile fires, coming towards me. I do a barrel roll, shooting my machine gun as I dodge the incoming missile. We pass each other, barely nicking each other’s wings. I notice Scar is close, but he keeps his distance. Good. The pilot coughs. “Damn, I admit, that was good.” I quickly turn, chasing the aircraft. “But I’m better.” As I gained speed, he suddenly pulls up, but doesn’t move forward. Instead, he seems to stall and makes me overshoot before he regains speed behind me. I panic a bit, as the warnings pop up again before the missile alarms start blaring. I quickly shoot out some flares and pull up. The missiles miss, but the pilot is still glued to my tail. “You can run, but you can’t hide,” he says, laughing as he starts shooting his machine guns at me. I spiral and turn, trying to dodge all the bullets, but I can almost feel the tinks of the bullets that hit. I need to think of something, quick.

I turn again as the pilot keeps chasing me, firing missile and guns. I turn to look at the air craft as I turn towards the sky again. My eyes widen as I see that he’s struggling to keep up with my sharper turns. That’s it! I grimace as I realize I’m gonna have to turn a lot sharper than before. It’s probably gonna hurt, a lot. I grit my teeth as I suddenly make a high-g turn, pulling back with all my might. “What the- how is he-“ the pilot stumbles over his words as I finally manage to outmaneuver him. I ease up on the turn as he is struggling to keep his speed up to be able to get behind me again. If he keeps turning, he’ll stall. I can hear him growl. “Dammit!” I smile as I realize I’ve got him. He levels his plane, starting to regain his speed. However, I’m already on his tail. I hear him give a chuckle, and see him start going up. Not this time. I instantly fire two missile. “Shit!” He yells, speeding up almost instantly to avoid the projectiles. The aircraft makes a sharp turn towards the sky to dodge them, but I follow him closely. I get a lock on and fire missiles again, but they miss when he spirals in place, barely dodging them. “Damn it! Damn it all!” He turns right, and I follow suit. He twists and turns, and I match his moves at every point, trying to get another lock on. However, my impatience gets to me, and I fire off my machine gun. He can’t keep spiraling forever, it’ll make him dizzy, no matter how good of a pilot he is. As I predicted, he doesn’t spiral again.

The bullets fly towards him, and suddenly, the plane’s engine catches on fire. The pilot wheezes and coughs over the radio. “... It looks like you’re not so childish after all. Very well, I commend you, though I doubt you’ll last long.” The voice gives a tired laugh before the aircraft explodes, and the radio goes to static.

“Damn, this isn’t going as planned, we need to call off the bombers, this is too risky,” the enemy’s radio chatters. “... Affirmative. All Red-Claws! We’re pulling out! This area is not as unguarded as previously thought.” All the enemy aircraft start pulling off, going east. I start to follow them, but AWACS stops me.

“The enemy is retreating! Break off and continue patrol. RTB when your course is done,” Bird’s Eye says. I frown and pull off, heading towards Scar. Not long after the order, Half-Shield and Topper return to either side of Scar, whereas I stay on Half Shield’s left. “Well done everyone. Spades 4 wasn’t too shabby either.”

“Hm,” Scar replies, continuing his flight. I silently stayed near Half-Shield’s aircraft, scanning the radar every now and then.

“I have to admit, I didn’t think Grunt could pull off half of those moves!” Topper says. “You know what, Grunt! I’ll buy you a beer later! How’s that?”

“... Sounds fine,” I reply. I look at my radar one last time, wondering what that adrenaline rush I felt was. I sigh and regain focus on where I was flying. This shouldn’t take too long now...

Equestrian 375th Air Force Base, 1840 hours.

Scar, Half-Shield, Topper, and I sit in a small conference room, around a wooden table. Topper, now that I can see him, is a light green pegasus with a black mane, highlighted with a dark green. A unicorn stands at the front of the room clearing his throat. He’s sharply dressed, like a business man. His dark grey fur almost makes him blend with the wall, if it was for his blue mane. “Is everyone accounted for? Good. You all managed to stop an ambush from enemy Griffonian forces. In doing so, you managed to aid Bird’s Eye intercept a bit of their radio’s communications. The information we gained from it follows close in line with intelligence we gathered recently. Thanks to you four, we managed to stop a bombing run in a different part of Equestria,” the dude says, smirking a bit. “Everyone, except Scar, is dismissed.” I didn’t hesitate to get up and shuffle out the door with everyone else. Hopefully, I can get far enough away before-

“Hey, Grunt, wait up!” Topper says behind me. Half-Shield looks behind her to see me gimace as I stop and turn to Topper. “I owe you one, c’mon! I know a good bar around here!”

“It was a lucky shot,” Half-Shield calls, before continuing her walk. I shoot her a glare, but Topper sighs.

“Don’t mind her, she’s a bit... sore, about our recent loss,” he says. I scoff.

“Oh yeah, she’s sore alright,” I say distastefully. “She doesn’t have to be such a bitch about it.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it. I was totally prepared to hate your guts!” Topper says blatantly. I blink in surprise from the honesty. “But dude, your flying’s pretty good! You’re alright in my book!” I frown and cross my arms. “Like, to think an earth pony could pull that off! We gotta have a drink, come on!” Topper gets behind me and starts shoving me down the hall as I try to resist. “Man let me tell you, there’s this cool drink that has a mix of soda and vodka, you’re gonna love it!” I finally stop resisting and just start walking.

“Sounds fine,” I say.

“Gee, not much of a talker are you? That’s alright, I talk a lot,” Topper says cheerfully.

“I noticed,” I mutter.

“The name’s Patch, Rough Patch!” He introduces himself.

“... Trooper Dent,” I say, relaxing a bit.

“Nice, now we’re getting somewhere!” Patch says, getting in front of me to lead the way. “Come on! Hurry up! The bar’s gonna get crowded soon!” I smile slightly, picking up the pace behind him as we head out...


Scar, still sitting in the conference room, clears his throat as the unicorn walks up. “Scar, it’s about Grunt.” Scar sighs.

“Yeah, I saw it too Joker,” he says. The unicorn gawks at Scar.

“You saw who he was up against and didn’t bother to step in!?” He asks incredulously.

“The kid already had his ass saved when I took out that bandit that was behind him. I wanted to see if he could get by. Besides, he lived, right?” Scar asks.

“That’s not the point! He has shown considerable promise on his flight scores, we need to see his potential!” The unicorn replies.

“The last guy to die in my squad was the one I wasn't hard on enough. I’m not going to make the same mistake,” Scar says, standing up. “He was too loose of a cannon, I’m going to make sure Grunt doesn’t go down the same road. I knew he had the skill, but now I want to see if he has the attitude.” With that, he walks out of the debriefing room...


Patch and I sit at a bar, he’s drinking some sort of booze as I drink a soda. “... and I said, bro, I’m gonna knock the lights outta ya!” He continues. I give a slight smirk and quietly sip my soda. “The commander wasn’t too happy with that, so I was placed in the brig for a bit.” I give a chuckle, nodding.

“That sounds about right,” I say. “Every time I disrespected an officer, I was always tossed into a brig to cool down.” Patch hums in thought.

“Say, that emblem you had on your aircraft, why did it have a Royal Guard Helmet?” Patch asks. “I mean, most emblems tend to have a bit of meaning behind them, so...” I glance at the guy, who has been friendly to me ever since we met, and grimace at his pleading look. I sigh, sip my soda, and look up in reminiscing.

“... I used to be a regular Royal Guardsman, like my father. However, I didn’t want to join the Royal Guards, I’ve always wanted to be in the air.” I frown, clearing my throat. “Everyone has always told me how earth ponies like me should never be in the air, we’re more attuned to the earth. Given how ‘unnatural’, ponies viewed it, you can imagine how I was seen within the ranks.” I give a slight chuckle. “The spear going through the helmet is my way of sticking it to the ponies who tried to talk me out of it.”

“Damn, that’s deep,” Patch says. “My emblem came from the string of luck I had on my first mission. I managed to take down some ace the griffons had.” He sips his booze and laughs. “You know, I think you and I’ll be good buds!”

“So, you made it,” a voice cuts in. Patch and I look behind us to see the changeling I met before the mission started, still wearing a green flight suit.

“Flik!” Patch says, raising his arms into the air. The changeling, smirks and fist bumps the pegasus. He looks at me with a calm and chilled expression.

“Hey dude, looks like you’re still in one piece,” he says. I quirk an eyebrow at him, but Patch just order another soda for his friend.

“My guy, can you get me a Pepsi for my main man!?” Patch asks. Flick sits next to Patch as a drink is served.

“Hey, Patch, did you hear what this dumbass did?” Flik asks. As I glare, Patch pays no mind and take a big slurp of his booze.

“No, what?” He asks, putting his glass down, allowing the bartender to refill it.

“Apparently, according to Scar, he shot down an Ace,” Flik says, sipping his soda. Patch and I’s eyes go wide.

“What? No way!” Patch turns to me with excitement. “Bro, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I uh, didn’t know,” I said.

“Well, you did take out an Ace. His TAC was Hawk, he commonly flies an F-4. He’s not the brightest star, but he’s still up there in the Griffon Air Force,” Flik continues.

“Damn, that’s pretty cool!” Patch says. “Think Scar’s gonna go easier on him, now that he’s taken that guy down?” Flik laughs.

“Buck no! If anything, he might put more pressure on the guy,” he says. I grunt, sipping my soda as the two start chatting away. I look on as the two of them seem to chat about how bad the next mission will be for me, in terms of our captain’s attitude towards me. I smile a little, liking how I’m not being treated like an outcast, but like a friend. I haven’t felt this for a bit of time, ever since I went to the flight academy...

Author's Note:

I hope y’all enjoyed!