Ace Combat Equestria: Morgan

Chapters

Intro: ZERO
Day 1: Once Borderless
Day 1: Once Borderless (Part 2)
Day 8: Buddy
Day 8: The Package
Day 15: Going Dark
Day 15: Sixteen Million

Intro: ZERO

The sound of a wild whizzing airflow is all I can hear. I slowly opened my eyes... No, I don't feel my eyelids moving at all, my vision slowly regained as... Hold on... Where the hell are my limbs?! Why can't I feel my toes? Holy shit did I got blown apart by that gas tank I forgot to turn off in my kitchen?! Nah, I wouldn't be here if that happened...

You know what? I'll put that aside... Just...

WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!

In fact...

WHAT THE FUCK AM I?!?!?!?!?!

My POV can be described as in 3rd Person's View, like those in Ace Combat, hang on... This airframe... this shape... That flashlight-looking-ass Laser... red red-painted right-wing...

Holy fucking shit I'm Solo Wing Pixy?! No, there's no one inside the canopy... Okay this is creepy, Am I like some sort of transformer or shit like that? Alright... Let's come to the heck down... (Deep breath) So... I'm a former human, a former F-16 pilot, I just retired a week ago; I was cooking breakfast; but then I got distracted playing Ace Combat Zero... lastly... the gas tank went up, and I... got blown into another world as an ADFX-02 'Morgan'... Now I'm cruising at 30,000 feet in supersonic.

"All riiiight... So I'm a plane now heh... Thank god I'm not those crenchy looking-ass ones from that one 'Plane' movie..." I murmured through my radio. Huh, I got Larry Foulke's voice.

Anyway, back to the base question, where the hell am I? Hmm, looking down I saw... Mountains? Yeah, cliffs, boulders, snowy environment, everything looked white and brown from here... Hmm... Not in the Himalayas.

I continued to wander around the surroundings until I heard an unusual chatter from my radio. I raised my eyebrows (Okay I don't have one) at that. I carefully switched my radio frequency to match the incoming radio chatters. Voices began to appear, and as they got clearer, my eyebrows (Again I don't have them) raised even higher.

"Lancer 3! Break off! I'll get behind him!"

"Lancer 2 I'm going after him! Suport Lancer 3!"

"There! Splash 1 bandit! Shit! I'm loc-"

"No! God damn it Lancer 6 lost!"

"Dangit! I'm hit! Bailing out-"

"Sharko 3! Hang in there! I'm after the good one!"

Heh, what am I hearing? Seems like I'm heading towards an active warzone, so... this world's technology caught up. That's good to hear, at least I get to chat with someone... Hold on, if this plane is from Ace Combat... Let's try the FCS.

In my mind (CPU?), I imagined a PlayStation switch in my imaginary hands, flicking left to the FCS screen. I heard that familiar noise as I selected the TLS, then the MSL, and lastly my gun. Hmm, I wonder if I could switch my special weapon for something else... Just as that thought popped up, two other options appeared next to the TLS; Nice, MPBM, and ECM. Right after I selected the MPBM, the TLS on top of me disappeared as two huge cone-shaped missiles appeared under my wings. I switched back and forth and almost had fun doing so.

Anyway...

"Well well, what do we see here?" I murmured as I intercepted their radio frequency, "Hmm, Griffonian Air Force? Equestrian Royal Air Force? Seems like we got some juicy targets here... You know what? I'll trust these fanfics this time." I thought about it, and since most of the time in those MLP fanfics the Griffons are the aggressors, I'll go with my gut.

I did mention clearly that I'm not a big fan of rushing in to save creatures I don't even know shit about. But thinking long term, I can't keep going solo forever, I guess starting nice and even with the friendliest nation of this world wouldn't hurt. Yeah, no second thoughts, just for my benefit.

I switched my special weapon to ECM and activated it, then I switched back my MPBM.

"It's time."

Griffonian forces were marked green while the Equestrian forces were marked blue on my HUD, began to wait for that familiar whistle, and a few moments later, all five green-labeled targets were marked red. I signaled the first MPBM off the wing.

The moment the MPBM broke off, it marked the new beginning of the legend of a demon ace...

Second Lieutendent Seadroy Mood of the ERAF Lancer Squadron gritted his tooth, it'd been fifteen minutes since he and his squadron encountered the interceptors; the Griffonian Flankers; the newest variants. Their old Hornets were carrying mostly air-to-surface weapons, their only air-to-air weapons were the two small Sidewinders. Plus the enemy Su-27s have superior advantages over their modernized radars and combat systems. Five minutes into engagement, he has already lost two of his pilots.

"Celestia-damn it, I swear when I go back, these intelligence officers are gonna pay for this..." Lancer 2's sneered.

"Focus on staying alive Lancer 2, us, Lancer 3 and 5 are the only ones left." Seadroy sighed, however, his train of thought was cut short by another barrage of missiles from the Flankers on his six.

"Lancer 1 break!" Lancer 3 cried, his breathing relieved as Lancer 1 dove hard while dodging several Fox-2s with his flare barrage. However, he then found himself unable to think positively as his RWR screamed, "Damn it! I'm all out of chaffs-" Then his entire lower airframe was blown apart, "I'm hit! Aircraft going down! Lancer 1, it's over for me! I'm bailing out!" He then pulled the handle between his legs, and he felt a huge force crushing him from the top as the canopy burst open, his seat bounced up before igniting the rocket boosters, unfortunately, one of the boosters malfunctioned. Lancer 3 was horrified, the malfunctioned rocket booster threw the helpless pilot into an endless spin.

"No! My chute!" Lancer 3, despite his desperate effort to open his main chute, his hope perished as he found out his chute malfunctioned as well. As the altitude continued to drop, memories flew into his mind, "I... I'm sorry Sofia... I'm sorry..." he closed his eyes as he impacted the ground. The only good thing is that he died painlessly...

"DAMNIT! Lancer 3! Fuck!" Seadroy held a tear back, he still remembered before this sortie, Lancer 3 would brag about proposing to his marefriend after this mission, Seadroy tried extremely hard not to bang his hoof against the canopy as Lancer 3's voice came into his mind, "Haha! Just wait till I get home later, Sofia's pregnant, I heard from her that it's a girl. Yo, I even got her name; it's either gonna be Blossom or Sakura... hehe, my Niponese blood is calling me..."

"Lancer 5 is down! Damnit he's our youngest colt!" Another devastating report struck Lancer 1 unprepared, "Damn it Lancer 1, another group of bandits approaching from11 o'clock fast!"

"Lancer 2..." Seadroy looked dead, "This is it..."

Suddenly, as if Faust herself decided to step in, their screaming RWR stopped instantly. Everything grew quiet afterward.

"Lancer 1! We're still alive?!" Came Lancer 2's surprised voice.

"What the hell? Their missiles just lost track! All of them at the same time!" Seadroy gulped.

Then it came.

A bright flash, as if there was a second sun, shined from 11 o'clock, the direction of the incoming bandits, Seadroy's visors were barely blocking the light, after a few seconds, a huge shockwave arrived, it shook their Hornets as if they were hit by another missile. Then the faint sound of an explosion came through; Seadroy's jaw dropped.

A HUGE fireball, as if a tanker exploded mid-air, by the time he checked his radar, all the bandits were gone.

"H-Holy fucking bloody shit!!!" Lancer 2 stuttered, "That blast took them all out! I-I don't remember hearing anything about a new MDW being used!"

"Uh... All bandits splashed... RTB..." Seadroy sighed, too many things happened today. He paused slightly at the word 'RTB', there is nopony left to hear it except for Lancer 2 now...

Silence filled the cockpit as the two survivors flew side-by-side. Lancer 2 broke the silence first.

"Say... what's that big bang about?"

"Whatever that thing is, it's friendly, we wouldn't be alive if whoever fired them decided to take us out along with the Griffons..." Seadroy said, still shaken up by the massive destruction.

"W-What if he's on our back right now at this moment?" Lancer 2 asked quietly.

Seadroy felt a shiver running down his spine. As if answering his question, his data link bleeped, which successfully caused his heart to skip a few beats.

"Lancer 1! Bogey's behind you!" Lancer 2 called, "He's... What the..."

Seadroy was about to ask, but his words were stopped dead in his throat as a giant silhouette loomed over his canopy.

Its large engine nacelles, canards, and forward-swept wings... All of these characteristics were known to exist in the Equestrian military. Seadroy had heard rumors about the Russianes' canceled project Su-47, however, it was not the right size to be a major Russian aircraft at that time, which were mostly Mig-29s. That Flanker squadron was an exception.

Suddenly, their radio stuttered, then a new voice popped in.

"Yo buddy, still alive?"

Day 1: Once Borderless

"Unknown rider! ID yourself!" Seadroy, despite being freaked out inside, remained calm on the outside and warned the bogey aircraft anyway. Lancer 2 slowly moved behind the bogey aircraft into an offensive position, Seadroy then switched his radio frequency to contacting Lancer 2, "Put your weapons in check, a Fox-2 shot from this distance will certainly kill him-" His sentence was cut short by a sudden statics followed by that voice again.

"Hey, I heard that."

Lancer 2 snapped, his shaking hoof took over as he pressed the pickle. The last remaining Sidewinder then sprints off the wingtip. However, just as the two Equestrian pilots thought they might've accidentally killed that bogey, the Sidewinder did a sudden negative dive a few yards from the bogey's engines, and went stupid.

"What the-" Lancer 2 gulped, his back hooves began to shake in fear, he might've pissed off the reaper itself.

The bogey aircraft then Aileron-rolled next to Seadroy's Hornet, shook its wings in a friendly term, a whistle blew through the radio, "Hey hey easy man, you should be thanking your god I have my weapon safety on at that time; reflexes can be a scary thing sometimes."

"Unknown rider, identify yourself!" Seadroy continued, he sighed internally, let's hope this guy ain't mental...

"Alright, alright, I'm not spilling the beans though.", the bogey aircraft began, "You can call me Pixy, I'm a mercenary from..." There was a slight pause.

"Belka."

"Cap, you heard of that?" Lancer 2 asked.

"Nah, throughout my career I've never heard that country before, not once." Seadroy hoofpalmed his face, and he then responded, "Never heard that before... Pixy... Is it? Might as well fly back to where you come from, don't wanna enter an active warzone next time without warning."

"That's the problem, captain." The bogey said, "My country is no longer available for my needs it doesn't even have a proper military anymore..."

"Uh... So..." Seadroy started.

"You guys have a base near right? Is it open for visitors?" The bogey immediately changed the topic, as if he avoided any mentions of this 'Belka'.

"Well... Under normal circumstances..." Lancer 2 began.

"What other choice do we have?" Seadroy sighed, it's better to get this demon on their side after witnessing his ability to wipe out an entire fleet of aircraft easily. "We can't risk letting the Griffons get their talons on Pixy."

"Unknown riders have been identified as Belkan Mercenary Pixy, following us to the base." Seadroy then led the formation toward HQ.

Meanwhile, Morgan himself was having a small headache, "Ugh... It's gonna take a while to digest these 'Larry Foulke' memory packs...". He then zoomed out on his radar map; Himself was indicated as a light blue cursor, while the others were smaller blue cursors; their general direction currently is about 3 degrees off the East, hmm... There's a small channel between the continent of Griffonia and Equestria in the Northern region of Griffonia; it's labeled Celestial Channel, down below is where the Celestial Sea opens.

"Lancer 2, what's your fuel status?" Seadroy asked, "Better keep that in check, we still got a twenty-minute flight till we get home."

"One eight-hundred." Lancer 2 replied.

"Good, I'm at One five hundred." Seadroy sighed in relief, "Just enough to make it back." He then switched to Pixy's channel, "Pixy, can your fuel make it in time?"

"Oh, I'm fine." Pixy responded in a cheerful tone, "In fact, I'm not even bothered to check my fuel cell for a while."

"Just what kind of monster are you..." Lancer 2 murmured. It was silent for a few seconds, he sighed, "Poor mare, how am I supposed to explain this whole shit to her... Celestia-damn it..."

"Learn to accept it, kid. This is war." Pixy said in a resigned tone, "There's no mercy in it."

"No shit pal... No shit..." Seadroy said as he lowered the altitude and speed, "Heads up, we're approaching the hen house." Just as he finished his sentence, the clouds in front of them were cleared up, revealing the island of Trottingham, at the end of the cliff was a runway, and several hangers and ammunition storage could be seen as they got closer.

"You guys got some balls exposing those oil tanks and ammo racks out in the open." Pixy ridiculed.

"The Trottingham Airbase is known for its dense AA network surrounding the island, especially after the Griffons bombed it 5 months ago." Seadroy replied, "But what you said is still the top concern of this base. However, we'll just have to live with it. This is the closest we could get to Griffonia outside their long-range cruise missile sites."

"Lancer Squadron, you're cleared to land..." Came the flight tower's voice, "I'm sorry for your losses... Captain."

Both Hornets made a smooth landing with their brakes out, ground maintenance crews immediately rushed up towards the aircraft once it was at the taxiway, however, that strange aircraft they brought with them stole the spotlight.

"Unknown aircraft, you're too fast! Lower your airspeed!" The tower called but was caught unprepared as the strange aircraft's landing gears survived the rough touchdown. The aircraft then went from 160 knots to zero in a matter of seconds, the maintenance group had their jaws dropped at the fact that the aircraft didn't flip over due to the sudden stop.

"Lancer 1, what the hell did you bring home?" After a long period of silence, the flight commander asked, with a slightly alert tone, "And how are you so sure this isn't some kind of Griffonian superweapon?"

"Commander, if you saw what happened earlier, then that'd be your answer." Seadroy sighed in relief.

The commander chuckled nervously, let's hope I don't lose my job for this. "Fine, but if anything goes wrong it's on you."

DATE: 6-09-2019
HRS: 0749 Hours

BELKAN EXPERIMENTAL COMBAT AIRCRAFT 'MORGAN'
NAME: PIXY, LARRY FOULKE
AFFILIATION: ERAF

So, here I am. After the Equestrians led me into an empty hanger I couldn't stop starting to realize my memories are starting to fade away; and Larry Foulke's memories began to take over. Well, people tend to say you can't forget who you are no matter what condition you're in at this moment. So you'll see me writing this digital journal now and then...

Anyway...

I saw the looks on the Equestrian engineers' and maintenance crews' faces; both fear and admiration, also a bit of curiosity. Did I mention how innocent they looked when they were discussing what the Celestia-damn Tartarus am I made of? Heh, I'm not sure how long this Belkan witchcraft thingy's gonna lay down, but until then, I'm at risk of getting taken apart by those Equestrians. You know what, they probably don't have the balls to do so anymore, especially after Seadroy released the combat footage of me clapping those Griffonians.

Now every so often I hear them whispering some myths they made up based on me; something about a Crimson Solo Wing of Tartarus or some shit. Oh well, it's not doing me bad so, I'll let that slide.

Oh, about that Lancer 2's marefriend? Well, yeah, although I didn't see anything about her, I did hear some female sniffing and sobbing passing through my hanger. Nothing I can do about it, this is war at the end of the day.

Seadroy came in to visit; that's when I found out the history of this Equis... Well he wasn't much of a history guy, so I was only able to retrace back to a certain timeline, but it was enough for me to get a hold of this current situation...

Equestria, once upon a time, before they achieved such technologies, was a peaceful land full of friendship... It was a time when creatures from all over the planet, trusted each other... Their relationship was at the peak of its state, especially due to the wisest ruler of Equestria; Princess Celestia, the Equestrian Alicorn monarch of the nation at that time. The elements of Harmony were the key to the peace they'd experienced...

This... Was the world I was seeking for...

However, all goods come to an end.

And the peace for Equis ended violently. So violent, that a spark of war tore the entire continent inside out...

After Princess Celestia's retirement from her reign for thousands of moons, she passed her throne to Princess Twilight Sparkle, her student, and apprentice, as well as a member of the Elements of Harmony. During the beginning of her reign, the new Princess earned everypony and creatures' love and admiration, she helped ease up the tensions between rival tribes, small nations, and individuals. With the help of her students, Equestria, and its neighbors were about to share another thousand moons of peace...

Until one night.

Princess Twilight herself was at the Royal Observatory at Mt Canterlot, even as a monarch, Twilight continued to research the heavens above due to her curiosity and for the science of her nation. It was then that she spotted an unusual object fading in and out of the night sky. At first, the Princess thought it was just one of the planets or meteors.

She was wrong.

It was later proven to be an asteroid, about 1.6 km in diameter. The Equestrian National Aerospace Administration (ENASA) was in a panic, worried that this unwelcomed celestial body would be on a collision course with their planet. Luckily, it was later observed, that this asteroid was in its orbit around the sun perfectly, but with a few intersections with Equis's orbit. No collision risks yet. This asteroid was later named Twilight 1994EF04.

Although knowing the asteroid may not be a threat for a while, Princess Twilight grew concerned for the current technological level of Equis, this kind of luck wouldn't always be present. A month later, Princess Twilight announced the beginning of a huge revolutionary project that changed the fate of Equis forever...

Project Starchaser.

It was meant for the Equestrians and their neighbors to develop new advanced technology for their uses. Especially military/national defense technologies. Her concerns for celestial objects like Twilight 1994EF04 were widely understood and accepted by her allies. Within months, the world changed rapidly; with the help of several elite scientists gathered from around the world, Equestria became the first nation of Equis to acquire Electromagnetic technology. 3 moons after the announcement of Project Starchaser, the first bullet train entered service in Equestria, replacing the old steam train. A moon later, the first squadron propellor-powered aircraft were introduced to the Equestrian Royal Air Force and were quickly sold to the neighboring countries. Five moons later, the Maglev train was built and tested successfully. Several months later, The first missile destroyer and cruiser joined the Equestrian Navy. Jet aircraft were quickly introduced, and the world was quickly getting its new shape...

The world, on the surface, was getting better. Citizens were living their best lives, the economies of each nation were perfect, and international relationships were at their finest.

Then it went downhills.

ENASA brought a devastating report; the course of the seemly forgotten threat, the asteroid Twilight 1994EF04 changed. It was now on a Five Moons countdown collision course with Equis. As for the cause of its sudden change of trajectory, it dated back to the retirement of former Princess Celestia. Since she once had direct control of the sun, her retirement meant giving up that control key to the star itself. The star was still getting used to not having Alicorn magic locked on, the result was disastrous; the hyperactivity of the sun blew out waves of electromagnetic solar storms. Unfortunately, asteroid Twilight 1994EF04 is a metal asteroid, and due to this feature, this celestial MWD is extremely sensitive to any electromagnetic distractions. The solar storm impacted the asteroid and pushed it 7 degrees off its course, which dove into a trajectory towards the fourth planet in the star system.

In response, Princess Twilight gathered the world leaders into an emergency meeting, they brought up the SkyDome Project as their last line of defense against Twilight 1994EF04. It features a line of defense formed by six large-caliber automatic intercept space-defense railgun turrets. Its firepower at full charge is expected to completely shatter the core of Twilight 1994EF04. This project was put immediately into action as six major nations that were at the heads ceased other current projects and threw their economy, stallionpower, and time into the construction of the SkyDome railguns.

The nations' unity was at its peak and its downfall.

One moon before the predicted collision with Twilight 1994EF04, the constructions of five major railguns were complete and went through their final testing stages. The Griffons, one of the strongest nations at that time, suddenly announced themselves quitting Project SkyDome. When questioned by its fellow allies, Griffonia simply responded by having to resume its emergency operation for its economy, which malfunctioned due to its sudden cessation of trade globally. Their ambassador fled its allies nations 3 weeks later as well.

Although confused by the Griffonians' strange actions, their focuses were driven away by the incoming Twilight 1994EF04. Nocreature was aware of Griffonia's quietly fastened development for military technology and weaponry. Finally, the time came. Asteroid Twilight 1994EF04 fell straight toward Equis with its velocity reaching the terrifying speed of thirty kilometers per second. All six railguns were lined up aiming at the incoming celestial WMD. Each of them fired successfully, however, only three shots were able to land on Twilight 1994EF04. It did its job, the asteroid was shattered.

They made a deadly mistake by underestimating the kill radius of its scattered debris.

It was in the evening, and ALL creatures on the Equestrian hemisphere of the planet witnessed the largest meteor shower ever recorded. Unfortunately, they're each space-launched ICBM with the ability to wipe a small town and a portion of a city completely off the map.

Equestria was plunged into chaos.

The debris struck major cities in the inner-Equestrian continent, and Canterlot was struck by one as well. Princess Twilight was fortunately in the underground bunker at that time. After the end of this devasting raid from outer space, Equestria lost 80% of its military power; its cities lost electricity, water, and food supplies. Citizens drowned in the pool of destruction, ruins, and deaths. Millions lost their lives, and billions were homeless. The once Eden fell into Tartarus.

Just as Equestrian and its allies were busy rescuing themselves, the Girffonians made their move.

Equestrians were shocked to find themselves running into incoming armor forces of the Griffons, which ripped through their thin defense lines and quickly occupied their cities. Within 5 weeks, the South Eastern side of Equestria fell into the Griffonian talons. Friendship shattered. Boundaries were built. Hatred grew. And the worst of all, the Elements of Harmony went missing as well. Princess Twilight, during her flight to the Equestrian frontline for a personal visit to the wounded soldiers, was intercepted by the Girffonian Air Force. Despite the defenseless Equestrian plane's desperate call for a cease-fire, the Griffons opened fire and shot down the Equestrian plane. Two days later, Princess Twilight Sparkle was confirmed MIA.

Equestria is at the edge of falling apart. Things were slightly eased up as Princess Luster Dawn took the throne, however, her inexperience in military and leadership led to rebellions against her, but it quickly ceased as they all came to realize their biggest threat was the invading Griffonians.

However, what's lost was never returned.

The once borderless...

Became the borders.

Heh.

What a joke...

Day 1: Once Borderless (Part 2)

The war raged.

However, peace tends to find its way around. Despite Griffonia gaining the uppertalon throughout the war, they seemed to have forgotten that they were alone. Griffons ran out of supplies, rebel fighters from occupied territories fought back, and the Allies were slowly outnumbering the Griffons. The once invincible Griffon military collapsed within a few years. The Allies captured and reverse-engineered the Griffonian technologies and formed their Air Forces; it was known that the Griffonian Air Force during this period was nearly invincible; Tartarus, even brought a super warplane at the end of the war attempting to reverse the tide.

They failed.

Griffonia surrendered after 4 years of war. They were forced to sign treaties, suffered severe punishments, and got their military forces taken apart by the victorious allies.

This marked the end of the first global warfare of Equis. It was later known as the Griffonian War. Sadly, once a fire began, it spread. The aftermath for Griffonia is tough, way too tough for its civilians and its economy; not only did they lose the trust and all trading partners, but their privileges were also stripped from them as well. Everycreature, survivors or not, grew hatred towards the Griffons.

Pretty ironic huh?

Equestria was greatly weakened after the Twilight 1994EF04 crisis and the Griffonian War, however, thanks to the help from its allies, Equestria was able to recover 10 moons earlier than the Griffonians. Princess Luster knew what was coming for her country and the world around her; she knew the fact that this world is no longer the friendly world she knew of like the ones during Twilight's reign. And that the nation needs to prepare itself physically and mentally for it.

While Equestria and its neighbors began their post-war recovery operation, the Dragonlands on the other side of the ocean had other plans. Empress Ember already made it clear that no aggression is to be made against the Griffonians due to the fear that another conflict may occur, the dragons have already lost so much in the war. However, this decision created tension and unwillingness among her subjects, especially the Anti-pony political parties. Ember has already secretly pissed off many of her underground rivals, by establishing long-lasting international relationships and friendships with the Equestrians, many rumored that the young Empress lost her will to fight due to the amount of time she spent with those weak-minded ponies.

The aggressiveness grew significant when a certain incident occurred; A Saddle Arabian Tornado suddenly trespassed the borders of the Leviathan Gulf heading straight towards the inland Dragonland. Dragon Air Defense Force immediately send two Su-27 to intercept. When they got to the Saddle Arabian Tornado, they signaled the reconnaissance aircraft to leave; and of course, instead of leaving, the Saddle Arabian aircraft decided to ignore the Dragons. As the dragons prepared for a warning shot, they suddenly found themselves on a collision course with the Tornado, which banked towards them without any warning signs. The result was; a midair collision occurred with a single Su-27 splashed, the Dragon pilot bailed out in time, however, the Tornado pilot was killed.

The Saddle Arabian ambassador came to a meeting with Ember demanding a reason for the dragons 'purposely' ramming down their Tornado when it was on its 'normal' training routine. Ember, instead of showing her 'aggressive dragon' side as the rest of her subjects wanted, Ember backed off with peace treaties and further investigations. The Saddle Arabians demanded a large amount of economic compensation and other bullshits. Well, of course, some dragons found out the real deal due to some political shifting. And yeah, they're not happy.

That's when the Empress's underground rivals decided it was their time. Rumors were spread all over Dragonland about Ember secretly contacting Saddle Arabian high military officials about exchanging highly classified intelligence for some 'advanced' military gear or some shit. And what's more bullshit? They believed in that crap. As tension continued to boost with more rumors and aggressiveness, active protests and attacks were starting to occur. Furthermore, an assassination plan was secretly operational against Ember by those rival parties.

Fortunately enough for Ember, she had Garble. Yeah, that hero of Dragonland. He joined the military later and worked his way to the top. Became an intelligence officer and secretly became a spy. He was later sent to Saddle Arabia after the Griffonian War; he returned 2 weeks ago and heard about the rumor. The man was in full try-hard mode diving into the core of the rival party, digging up some info, and was able to get out alive.

Ember was then escorted toward her safe house. However, on her way out, she was shot by a rival sniper. With this set of fire, tons of rival members stormed her palace and took over complete military control; including the nuclear-capable ICBM silos. The high ranks that were supportive of Ember were executed publicly, and the rival party named themselves 'Jormungandr'. A week later, the entire Dragonland was taken over by the Jormungandrs, with its leader Styx Grumbler being the dictator leader.

As for Ember? She survived, however, at the cost of an eye. Garble contacted the Equestrian Intelligence Agency secretly to accept Ember into Equestria undercover. She's traumatized though; both due to the betrayal of her subjects and the fact that she just whizzed by with the reaper itself.

Dragonland, no, that time it was called 'Slangerjord', and now owns the entire Dragon military. Equestrians and their allies were terrified, not only the fact that the Dragons had 3 nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing twelfth ICBMs all armed with nuclear warheads, but also that their ICBM silos are ranged to wipe out Manehattan and several other major cities. However, direct military actions were forbidden by Princess Luster to prevent another war; she looked to the other side of honor; the mercenaries.

The Hikiro Mercenary Corp; which was not world-wide known yet. This mercenary corp is a Kirinese military organization, they have the best Mercenary squadron, will at least until they disassembled a few moons later. Hikiro's Peril Squadron was the ones paid to wipe out the Jormungandrs; say, they did make the job easier; although did lose two pilots at the end of the showdown, did save the world though, blew up several silos and sunk their nuclear subs. Ember returned to her throne after this entire mess was completely over, she executed all of the surviving members of Jormungandrs and their families. That set off the alarm for her hidden rivals; Dragonland was finally at their peace.

For another 10 moons, Equis is seemingly at peace once again. There are Surprisingly hardly any huge conflicts around, however, the borders were planted. There's no turning back.

Saddle Arabia and Zebrica lately, are having unusual military actions again, much to the Equestrians' concern; the two conflicts decades ago must've planted PTSDs throughout the continent; Equestria and its allies all had their focused on the two countries which were now considered rogue nations. The Zerbican and Saddle Arabian ambassadors moved out of Equestria two weeks before it happened. They cut off economic trade with Equestria and their allies, now completely into aggressors. They left off the ultimatum for Equestria, their reason being: Equestrians interfere with their national political ideas and religions, and had too much of their military forces dispatched to their country. The part that pissed them off the most, well, massive casualties in the past decades done by the Equestrians on their 'Peace' expedition to clear out 'Terrorists' threats in the Saddle Arabian territory.

Their attack on the Dragon Fleet in the Leviathan Gulf triggered both sides; at least 3 'Gemstone' Class destroyers were sunk, only 1/4 of the crew made it back alive, and their flagship, DNS 'Ember' class heavy cruiser was severely damaged, it survived though, it's now under repair in a classified location. The Dragons weren't expecting such a fierce attack done by the Saddle Arabians, however, it was later known that the Griffons were secretly shipping weapons in support of their war partners. Did I mention the Griffonian politicians were easy to bear a grudge?

There it is.

Yet another war.

Equestrians and her allies; The Kingdom of Hippogriffia, Federation of Yayakstan, Republic of Kirina, Changeling Kingdom, and Chrystal Empire; though not being a big fan of making this even worst, tried their last afford to peacefully negotiate with the rogues. It failed, of course, their negotiator was shot down the moment he entered Saddle Arabian airspace.

Saddle Arabians and Zebricans expanded their territory, taking out every small nation on their way, the Griffonians used their landscape advantages to continuously fire off Long range cruise missiles in an attempt to drag the Equestrian Army down from intercepting their partners. This later became a stalemate for the Equestrians as the Griffonians destroyed their supply routes, the Saddle Arabians and the Zebricans were like flies; every now and then their troops launched small attacks on the Equestrians' outpost; by the end of the year, the Equestrians were down from 500,000 to 120,000 at most.

Seadroy's squadron was formed recently; about four months ago; their job is to locate and destroy Griffonian long-range weaponry launch sites.

Well, I was caught in one of their operations, however, due to intelligence failures, Seadroy's squadron suffered great losses. Then I showed up. You get the rest of the story.

Anyway, that's the current war effort.

Sucks for the Equestrians.

To be honest I'm still not sure whether I'll be with them until the end of the war; seemed like a long way off...

Author's Note

These two chapters were just background information. The real deals start from here! :twilightsheepish:

Day 8: Buddy

A week has passed since Morgan's arrival. The base went from active to... more dynamic. Lancer Squadron had some newcomers, Seadroy and Lancer 2, later revealed as Aakash Skycrawler, which they did not take anycreature from with less than 4,000 hours of combat time. Under normal circumstances, they would directly contact the Air Force Academy for recruits, but with so much at stake, they have minimal choices. Morgan on the other hoof, has been fully acknowledged by the ERAF officials. However, when asked to join their Air Force, the mercenary politely declined. This made some of the officials a bit anxious, of course, not everypony liked the fact that a mercenary capable of the destruction of 1/3 of an Air Force was out of their control. But that's for the officials to worry about.

Morgan was then introduced to the newest holographic projector technology which the Equestrians installed on him; That way during special operation briefings or meetings, he wouldn't miss out. Morgan, although still his old self, took the form of a human, which surprised the Equestrians. This later led to more questioning and well... attracted some unwanted attention for quite a while. His human form? Yeah, it's Larry Foulke.

The mercenary allowed the Equestrian technicians and aerodynamic engineers to study some of his components, not the highly classified ones of course; thanks to that, the Equestrians were set off to their Next-Generation Air Dominance super fighter project, aka the 'NGAD'.

That part is for another time though.

The next day, at about six in the morning, Morgan was woken up by Seadroy, "Hey, Pixy, the recruits are here." He said as he quickly scrambled out of his hanger, "The briefing's in 2 minutes!" Morgan's HUD flashed, and a light beam was shot from the optic rang-finder scope to the spaces in front of the aircraft. The holographic 3D human body was created as the digital figure opened his eyes, in this form he'd be better known as Larry.

"Let's see if they got what it takes..." Larry murmured as he fastened his pace.

The briefing room was smaller than he thought it'd be, to be honest, it was more of a warehouse disguised as some general meeting chamber. It's not that Larry expected better from this base. Despite the size, the equipment was basic enough; the projector was crackling strange noises, a strategic map of the Equis Continent, and some aircraft models for simulation uses.

Four chairs with four creatures were in front of the projector, starting from the left, Lancer 1 Seadroy, Lancer 2 Aakash, and three recruits; Lancer 3 Kiper Moonchaser, Lancer 4 Gallus, and Lander 5 Razornail.

The officers and the two old birds were the only ones that kept their postures upon Pixy's entrance, however, the three newbies were in a state of surprise, before they could say anything, Seadroy made a gesture, which turned the three newbies down for now. Pixy spotted an empty seat next to the blue griffon and sat on it. Gallus couldn't help but take a quick look at Pixy, he was then met by Pixy's eyes.

For some reason, something clicked in Pixy's CPU, this blue griffon... For some reason... Caught his attention. Or perhaps it's his sixth sense...

"Alright, everyone's present, begin the briefing." The briefing officer announced as it activated the holographic strategic map, "The Griffons are planning another attack, not surprised though; however, their target this time is rather... interesting." The officer then clicked open a link and a labeled map of a huge satellite dish-like object appeared on screen, "This is the Vision Electromagnetic Signal and Message Repeater Telescope, aka the VESMERT . The Equestrian National Aerospace Agency once used this structure as a relay station for one of their interstellar space missions. It was deactivated during the Twilight 1994EF04 crisis and remained dead since then. However, 3 hours ago, our radar station near the VESMERT's location detected a group of boogies approaching fast, however, they turned back after circling the area for about 10 minutes, and by the time our fighters arrived they were already gone. We concluded that this is a scout operation by the Griffons, as for the reason behind this we're not currently sure." The officer then switched back to the strategic holographic map, revealing the mission objective, "We've already sent two Ospreys with some special task force colts to secure the area to prevent some sort of infiltration by the Griffons, however, there's a high chance that the Griffons has already sent some of their own towards the VESMERT as well, so expect active combat situation. Lancer Squadron will secure our colts, Pixy will help as well," The officer looked at the mercenary, who nodded in approval, then he continued, "Whatever the Griffons are looking for, it can't be good for us if they get their talons on it. Your mission is to secure the Ospreys at all costs, not one is to be shot down. Any questions?"

Razornail raised her claw.

"Alright then, let's move." The officer said as he shut down the briefing system and turned back on the lights.

The dragoness shrugged as she and the others walked out.

Gallus walked next to Pixy, "Uh, Pixy right?" He asked.

"In the... hologram, yes," Pixy said.

"Well, good to be working with you buddy," Gallus said with a smirk as he went for a talon-shake.

...Buddy...

Seeing Pixy zoning out, Gallus raised an eyebrow, Pixy switched back to reality, "Buddy? We'll see." He said as he walked toward his hanger.

Gallus frowned, "The hell was that? Arrogant..." He then walked towards his hanger.

Pixy's POV

How long ago did someone last call me his 'buddy'? I don't remember, but it has been a while. And yeah, Larry's memory is completely merged with mine, so let's simplify things; call me Larry or Pixy until this fic ends.

Did he call me arrogant? Sure, throw whatever you want at me, I'm sure my victims called me much worse in hell. I read his profile; Gallus, ERAF hotshot, has 30 confirmed kills from the beginning of the war and has 5k plus hours of flight.

Bullshit.

Chick thinks he can just call me his goddamn buddy with 30 kills and 5k flight hours. I'll reconsider that if he can catch up with me. I may be selfish., but I'm not interested in hearing my 'buddy' get his ass shot down 5 minutes into the fight, ruins my reputation.

Anyway, I hope these guys know what they're doing, I'm a mercenary, not a babysitter.

My holographic body vanished as I was back online inside Morgan. Considering we'll be closer to our VIPs during this operation, something with a large kill radius will not be recommended, so I switched the MPBS to the TLS. Hm? You said I could change gears midair? I see your point, but I don't want my hearing sensors blown off by angry AWACS, so I locked the TLS for this operation.

After I opened my hanger gate, the radio began to buzz, "Lancer Squadron, proceed to the operation. Pixy, welcome aboard."

As I glided my way on the taxiway, I saw on my right were five ERAF fighters; (Lancer 1) Seadroy and (Lancer 2) Aakash's Hornets, (Lancer 4) Kiper's F-16, (Lancer 5) Razornail's Mirage 2000, and (Lancer 3) Gallus's F-15C; Hell, Chick even colored his wing tips blue... Hang on, what-

"Lancer Squadron, you're cleared to go, God Speed." With the tower's command, the Lancer Squadron went airborne, and I went after. Seconds after I took off, our AWACS took over the tower.

"Welcome to hell," the AWACS snarked, "This is Hellcat, your AWACS for this mission and the ones that come after; Ospreys were off to their designated area 10 minutes ago, according to our newest intel. the Griffons also sent out their forces, you'll arrive just in time to engage the bandits directly."

"Don't rely on the crap some of you read on the handbook, the only thing I can and must rely on is your instinct," Lancer 1 Seadroy said, "I want you all to come home."

Their formation was suddenly interrupted when my Morgan came sweeping up from below.

"Holt shit! The buck was that for damn it?!" Lancer 4 Kiper yelped as he pulled away from Pixy.

"Get use to it, I've seen worse." Lancer 2 Akash rolled his eyes.

"Apologies fellas, I'm just warming up." I said as I rolled over Lancer 4 Kiper's cockpit, "Heads up newbie!"

"Heh, I like this guy." Lancer 5 Razornail laughed.

As I leveled out, I found myself side-by-side with Chick here. Not a word came out of his beak since we departed. I get it; the kid got some grudge.

My radar suddenly hummed, and almost immediately several bandits were marked red on my HUD, however, I didn't hear anything from Hellcat. Damn, I guess those rumors about 'Belkan Witchcraft' are real after all.

Then came the thought.

"Hey." I switched my radio channel to Lancer 3 Gallus, "I don't take any 'buddy' unless you make it out in one piece, here how 'bout this, you down their ace, I make you my buddy."

"I don't need to prove anything to you," Gallus finally said. From his tone, I could sense his competitive spirit lit up already. "Last time I was called, buddy, I saw their entire squadron going down. I'm no new to war."

If I could smirk, it'd be a cold one right now.

"Those who survive a long time on the battlefield start to think they're invincible, I bet you do too, Chick."

Day 8: The Package

Author's Note

Finally squeezed my brain cells dry for this chapter :twilightsheepish: Hope yall enjoyed.

Day 8: The Package

Gallus's feathers perked up right after hearing Pixy's snark as he opened his beak to spit back, however, he found himself lost as to what to say, these words stabbed him deep; Gallus remembered the day he received his first combat kill, it was an emergency sortie. Gallus's original squadron, the Strikers went head-on with the Griffon fighters escorting their strike fighters on a bomb run. Gallus remembered the exact motion his claws were in, trembling as he heard the shrieking of his Sidewinders. 'Striker 3, Fox-2!' Then there was his first kill. Gallus watched as the back of the enemy fighters was blown off, it wobbled off toward the ground and burst into a fireball upon impact.

There were no chutes.

The rest of the mission was a blur now, their airbase was still hit, hard. Since then Gallus found himself more determined, everything he'd speak the words 'Fox-2' with no hesitation, and a sense of pride as he watched his enemies fall from the sky. He often felt invincible, especially after he evaded a missile or watched triple-A fires streak by. His squadmates would call him 'Lucky Blue' even after he became Striker 1, and he hardly suffered any failures since then.

Then he received an order of transfer from his commander. The next thing Gallus knew, he was faced with someone who slapped some reality sense into him. This Pixy.

"Cut the chatter guys," AWACS Hellcat said, "The Ospreys are 2 Mikes from the dropzone, warm up your weapons, and down anything that shoots at the Ospreys."

"How bout this chick," Pixy said, "we can talk 'buddy' if you can make it back the next several missions. Now, I'd take my head out of your pride-looking ass and work on not getting shot down."

Gallus remained silent, he knew talking back to Pixy wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Lancers, I'll provide long-range air support, Hellcat, any objections?" Pixy asked as he flexed the MPBMs under his wings, "I'll call you guys when I fire an MPBM, I uploaded its burst radius to Hellcat's data link, he'd send you all its burst radius, get outta there if you wanna stay online. Alright, Pixy out." With a roar of the afterburner, Pixy's Morgan rapidly climbed towards the heavens, disappearing into the clouds.

"Lancer squadron, be advised," AWACS Hellcat suddenly said, " Tally six, angels 2, 1 o'clock, bandits confirmed as Griffon Sukhoi fighters, weapons free, take them down."

"Lancer Squadron, fight's on!" Seadroy announced as he switched his FCS on and immediately locked onto the incoming fighters, "Lancer 1, Fox-3!"

All members of the Lancer Squadron fired their loads as they defended the incoming missiles. The enemy Sukhoi fighters quickly broke their
formation and divided into two groups; two fighters broke off and rushed towards the Ospreys, while the other four provided cover.

"Lancer 3, 4, and I will take on the Sukhoi fighters, Lancer 2 and 5 will protect the Ospreys," Seadroy ordered as the squadron broke apart.

Lancer 1
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq.
Lt. Seadroy, Captain

I quickly banked left as I deployed countermeasures, with my RWR screaming in my ears. There was still no visual on the bandits, but they were all over my radar. There was no need to defend as hard as I was providing guidance for my AMRAAMS.

I peeked over at my datalink, the Ospreys were slowing down to hovering, must've hit their LZ, however, the two aggressive bandits were still heading towards the Ospreys. My RWR went dead, and I immediately turned my nose towards the four bandits to reengage. Suddenly, two dots representing the bandits blinked and dimmed down, "Splash 1 and splash 2 Sukhoi!" I heard Lancer 3 shout.

"Lancer 2 engaging!" Came Aakash's voice, "I see flares from the Ospreys, I got them locked, Fox-2!"

I smirked under my mask, "I have visual on the bandits, Su-27s, 12 o'clock dead ahead!" Just as I finished my sentence, I saw the two remaining Flankers coming straight towards me.

Time seemed to slow as we bypassed each other, I looked up at the enemy cockpit, and I saw the Griffon pilot doing the same, I swore I saw his eyes through his visor, and then we merged.

"Merged with Flankers! Fight's on! Fight's on!" Knowing the Flankers' extremely deadly one-circle fighting capability, I banked towards the opposite direction of where the bandit was, he tried to force me into a one-circle and I knew exactly how to counter this guy. The Flanker pilot didn't expect his strategy to fail so quickly as he fired several Fox-2 shots at me.

"Too late fella," I whispered as I flared his missiles off, the distance between our fighters was big enough for him to die, so I turned my nose around and lined his Flanker up.

The Griffon pilot is now completely in panic, "Damn it! Fucking Equestrian scum!" His eyes widened in fear as he saw the deadly nose of the Hornet pointed straight at him, and in a hurry he jerked his nose upward, trying to fly over the Hornet's nose, but it was already too late. The last thing he saw was a whip of tracer rounds ripping his airframe into two pieces... and his flesh as well.

"Splash 1 Flanker!" Seadroy didn't dare to relax, there was one more behind him.

"Lancer 1! I'm on his tail, I can't get a clear shot with you in the way!" Came Lancer 4 Kiper's voice. From the back mirror, Seadroy can see the Flanker rapidly throwing out its flares as Kiper's F-16 glued onto his back.

"Lancer 4 I'll bank right, take the shot when you have it," Seadroy said as he jinxed a stream of 30mm rounds from the Flanker, then he jerked his stick right. The Flanker, however, seemed to know their strategy as it banked left away from him. Seadroy's eyes widened as I saw the Flanker's action, "Shit! Lancer 4 he's trying to force you into one circle! Get out of there! Lancer 3 go support Lancer 4!"

"I got him! I got him!" Gallus immediately dove into action as he fired a Fox-2 at the Flanker, which flared it off.

"Lancer 2, status report!"

"All bandits are down, Ospreys are leaving the LZ, and the special forces are going in." Came Aakash, "Lancer 5 just saved me from the bandits, she took the two down by herself, seems like Lancer 5 got what it takes heh."

"Meh, I have much to learn." Came Lancer 5 Razornail, but from the tone of her voice, it's not hard to tell her little pride.

Suddenly, Lancer 4's panicking voice broke the chatter, "Fuck! I'm hit! No good! I'm losing power!"

"Lancer 4 hang in there, I'm coming, Lancer 2 and 5 go support Lancer 4!" Seadroy ordered as he pushed the bandit, "Got him locked, Fox-2!"

The Flanker banked right, flaring while performing evasive maneuvers as my missile streaked past him, its nose was turning towards Lancer 4's F-16, which was clearly in bad shape; the tail was nearly gone, one-third of the left wing was shredded, and its engine is smoking, leaving a black trail behind as the aircraft is wobbling down.

"I'm out of flare! Flanker still got one more Fox-2 left!" Lancer 4 shouted, "Damn it get him off me!"

"Lancer Squadron be advised, we have a new situation." Suddenly, Hellcat's voice popped into the com, "Multiple bogeys, 10 o'clock, angels 3, 3 Mikes away and approaching rapidly."

"Lancer 4! You're losing too much power, you can't save the jet, bail out when you have the chance!" Seadroy ordered as he fired his last Fox-2, which unfortunately missed its target.

"Altitude. Altitude. Altitude." Came the background warning sound and Lancer 4's heavy breathing.

"Lancer 4! Bail out now!"

"Argh! Damn it, bailing out now, come get me guys!" Then there was a fireball from the F-16's cockpit, the canopy was blown off as the ejection seat rocketed away. A few seconds later, a parachute appeared in the air.

"Lancer 4 bailed out safely, I've got his location, the Ospreys will pick him up later." Hellcat said, "Hang on, what the hell?"

"Lancer 3, Fox-2!" Gallus shouted as he fired his last Sidewinder, the Flanker tried to dive away, however, he ran out of both flares and energy.

"Splashed the last Flanker!"

"Attension Lancer Squadron, bogeys identifies as... Drones." Hellcat's words set off a bomb.

"The fuck? Drones?! Are you shitting me?" Aakash groaned.

"There's an army of them, why the hell are the Griffons sending this much?" Lancer 5 asked, now receiving the data link.

"Lancer 1, I'm Winchester." Came Gallus's voice.

"I got only one Fox-2 left, my gun is Winchester as well." Came Lancer 5.

Seadroy looked at his fuel, "Damn, that dogfight drained my fuel, I'm close to bingo."

"Withdraw is not permitted," Hellcat said sternly, "The special forces are still in the operation area, maintain air superiority until the Ospreys pick them up."

"We can't fight with empty weapon racks and fuel tanks," Aakash argued.

Then a familiar voice popped into the radio, "Seriously, I've been up here for the past 20 minutes and none of you asked for Long Range Air Support."

Pixy
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq (Temporary)
Solo Wing ' Larry Foulke'

"Hellcat, send them the Early Warning Datalink, I'm pre-heating the big guys," I said as locked onto the swarm of drones.

"EWD's out, Pixy, wait for their confirming calls," Hellcat responded.

A few moments later, came Lancer 1's voice, “Pixy, do not fire! Our friendlies are still in the airspace!"

"Hang on, I'm getting some contacts from the special forces," Hellcat said as he switched the frequency.

"This is Delta Team Two, we're under heavy fire by the Griffons, bastards had APCs and Tanks stationed here!" Came the muffled and very pissed voice of the team captain, "Requesting immediate air support! We're getting torn apart here!"

"Tell them to exit the Blast Radius, send me the attack coordinate." I said, "Tell every friendly unit to exit this entire airspace."

"This is Motherbird One, Motherbird Two and I are at the LZ, awaiting for our friendlies to board. We heard about a downed pilot, he's already at the LZ." Came one of the Osprey pilots.

"We got two stallions down, but we got the package, damn it, it better be some good stuff worth two of my best stallions." Came the team captain, "On our way to the LZ." His voice was covered by some explosions and angry Griffonian curses.

"Lancer Squadron has exited the airspace." Came Seadroy.

"MPBM on standby," Pixy said.

After two minutes, both Ospreys called in to confirm the boarding of the remaining special force units and Lancer 4.

"Motherbird One to Hellcat, package secured and leaving highlighted airspace."

"This is Motherbird Two, units are secured and are leaving highlighted airspace now."

"Standby..." Hellcat stared at the radar screen, the moment the two Osprey exited the airspace, he made the call, "Friendlies are out of the Blast Radius, weapons clear, show no mercy."

Pixy rocked his wings, he just detected another wave of enemy fighters chasing them down, just some more victims.

"Rifle." The two huge MPBMs were dropped from the weapon racks as they ignited their rocket engines, and then they streaked into the skies in front, "MPBMs are away, sit back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks."

Lancer 3
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq.
Lt. Gallus

I watched as the Ospreys flew off, along with Kiper inside one of them.

Something felt off about this mission, under normal circumstances, an abandoned scientific site that has nothing to do with the progress of this war. Why would they deploy such a heavy amount of units to protect a low-value target? From what the special forces had gone through, which can only be described as hell on Equis. And that 'package'...

"... sit back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks." Gallus blinked, What the hell does he mean by-

Then there was light.

Gallus immediately switched his sun visor on, but the blinding flash still stung his eyes, as the light dimmed down, it was then engulfed by another bright flash. Gallus found himself unable to say anything, as he looked up, he saw three suns... No, there are two explosions of something...

"Lancer Squadron and Motherbirds, brace for impact." Came Hellcat's... rather interesting tone. Then Gallus knew why.

The shockwave caught up to them, knocking Gallus's fighter off its course as Gallus gripped his control stick tight, barely able to stabilize his aircraft. Then a loud rumbling came, Gallus gulped as he felt the intense vibration upon his airframe, "L-Lancer 1, what the fuck was that?"

"Sheesh..." Came Aakash.

"..." Lancer 5 Razornail was utterly silence.

"Good effect on bandits, we're in the clear." Came Seadroy, rather calmly, "Package is secured, mission accomplished, RTB."

"Holy fucking bloody shit," Came Motherbird One, "You guys used Tactical Nuke?!"

"Yo people, still alive?" Pixy suddenly dove from above and joined the formation flying aside Gallus.

"Damn..." Razornail nervously laughed, "Glad you're on our side."

"I am a mercenary." Pixy's sword sends a chilling silence through the squadron.

"Wait, you said you're a mercenary," Aakash broke the silence, "What can we exchange with you?"

"I've already made the contract with your high command," said Pixy, " as for what was given to me... You'll see."

Before they could ask any more questions, Pixy suddenly accelerated ahead of them, "See ya'll at the base. Pixy out."

A brief moment of silence, then, Gallus slowly spoke out everyone's innermost thoughts.

"How do we keep him?"

Day 15: Going Dark

Pixy
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq. (Temporarily)
'Solo Wing' Larry Foulke

Gallus and I talked.

And the more we interacted, the more I saw who he was. I recalled the time when I mentioned that there are three types of Aces; Not many people match with these three. But this kid here, he is different.

My memories have merged with Larry Foulke completely, with his ideas influencing mine, I found my reason to fight. Gallus here, is the opposite case.

From youth, Gallus was the special one; Back during his chickhood, Girffonstone, his birthplace, was controlled by a group of gangsters. While the other chicks cower before the gangsters, Gallus fights his way out, despite nearly having himself killed in the process. When I asked him why he stood out, his reply was, "I'm just doing my job to stay alive."

There, short and simple.

I like this answer.

Overall, I'm starting to like this kid. Reminds me of someone...

3rd POV

High command has been quiet for the past five days, Lancer Squadron has been busy as well. However, their missions were rather... ordinary; intercepting enemy strike fighters, escorting ground forces, cargo aircraft, retreating units, etc. As for the mission that involved the 'package'? All members of the Lancer Squadron were called to a small dark room guarded by two armed guards, inside the room was an Earth Pony officer, turned out he was from the Central and Northern Equestria Intelligence Agency (CNEIA).

"This conversation," the intelligence officer said with a cold and serious tone, "Begins and ends here, in this room. Not one creature is to know of a single word that comes out of my mouth except for those of you that listen."

"The 'package' is a part of a receiver core once used by the VESMERT, this core contains a rare element called Asmodium. The lab guys figured out how to play with these Asmodium. And unfortunately, the Griffonians knew it inside out. Our satellites detected explosions in the Griffonian-occupied territories multiple times over the past months, and the spectrometers detected about 60% of Asmodium in these explosions. And we came to conclude that the Griffonian Military is in the process of making an MDW using these Asmodium."

The Intelligence officer then swiped up a column of photographs from his touchpad, "These were taken by our surveillance satellites and our Reconnaissance Aircraft. The Griffons had those Asmodium containers stuffed into their An-124 Condor, they had two possible flight routes; the first route was back towards Griffonia, and the other route was towards Manehattan, which is currently under their control. The Griffons built their biggest weaponry factories near the central city, they may be planning to build their MDW there. The An-124 will be taking off from inland and moving outward, and yes, Lieutenant Seadroy Mood, your squadron has been hoof-picked for this operation after a large amount of consideration."

"Is this operation-" Seadroy was cut off by the Intelligence Officer.

"It's considered classified," he said, "That's the whole point of having this conversation, your squadron will be conducting a Black Operation that will most likely never be revealed to the public even after all of this is over. Failure of this operation is catastrophic; these Asmodium are in liquid condition inside the containers for better processing, according to our lab guys, Asmodium in liquid state are extremely, extremely sensitive to pressure and temperature change, any little shift could lead to a detonation. From the clustered Asmodium containers on the An-124, it'd be like an Airburst Tactical Nuke going off on top of Manehattan. We will NOT tolerate anyone, including our allies, to know that an Equestrian Squadron detonated it. Not only would our morality be fucked, but our whole war effort would also be FUBAR as well."

The room is dead silent, with the intelligence officer pausing for the pilots to take all of these in, the room is filled with only heavy breathing.

"Your only objective is to shoot down the aircraft carrying the Asmodium containers."

"What about the civilians? We can't risk any civilian casualties-" Razornail began, but was cut off once again by the intelligence officer.

"How many civilian casualties are there since the war began?" He asked, voice not showing a single trace of emotion, "The smart ones had already evacuated from Manehattan, plus, the Griffonians are all over it. If that means we can send fear into our enemies, we believe it's necessary-"

"These are OUR citizens." Aakash finally burst.

"They should've known to flee when they had the chance, creatures die in war, Lieutenant Aakash Skycrawler, I thought you would know better."

"YOUR operation is going to kill one million six hundred and thirty thousand creatures that are already dying just trying to live through this hell!" Razarnail snapped as well.

"This isn't even a combat mission anymore," Kiper added, "This is a war crime!"

"When did I ever say it was MY operation?" The intelligence officer snapped back, "You can choose not to participate and leave this place, leave the Air Force and live a normal life, but let me make it clear," The intelligence officer leaned towards the pissed pilots, "If you say ANYTHING about this to anycreature, you will be charged with treason and will be executed."

"Son of a bitch..." Aakash murmured.

Gallus, however, remained surprisingly quiet throughout this entire briefing.

"Lancer Squadron and Pixy will sortie in 0200 Hour AM. If Pixy asks anything, tell him it's an interception operation against an enemy VIP target. Guards, escort them out." Thus ended this conversation.

Lancer 1
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq.
Lieutenant Seadroy Mood, Captain

Ten Minutes.

Ten minutes is how long we're in that room.

We are told in ten minutes to execute an operation that will possibly be the end of more than 1.6 million lives.

Being outside in the airfield did not make the atmosphere feel more easy, instead with each step towards our hangers, the atmosphere became more heavy.

Aakash was gritting his teeth this entire time, Razornail even 'accidentally' burned a large section of the grass field near the taxiway, Kiper was cussing with every single curse word he'd ever known, but Gallus on the other hoof, still maintained silence, his feather blocked his face, preventing Seadroy from reading his expressions.

"I suppose they briefed you guys already?" Came the familiar voice of Pixy. However, when the group looked over, they found themselves looking at a stranger; Nope, there's no human Larry Foulke; his voice came out from a dragon. A 5 foot 5 male dragon with crimson and silver colored scale, the silver scales extended from his eyes all the way to near his ears. Silver marks covered his arms and waist. This dragon's eyes are yellowish-orange, with short dark reddish spines.

"What? Can't recognize me with a new skin?" The dragon, no, Pixy said with a smirk.

"What- how?" Aakash is losing his mind.

"So about that contract... Yeah, here's part of the contract." Pixy said, "I do the dirty work for them and they resupply me with ammunition and fuel, well, only the ammunition they have."

"They made you a body?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Why a dragon? Razornail asked, intrigued.

"I may be a mercenary, but that doesn't mean I don't care about appearances." Pixy waved his claws, "A wingless dragon, I don't need no wings, 'Morgan' are my wings."

"Anyway, what's this sortie about?"

Aakash and I shared a glance, I cleared my throat, "We'll be intercepting a VIP target, which will be moving towards Manehattan." I shuddered at the mention of Manehattan.

"Well, let's get going then," Pixy said as he walked towards his hanger, "We don't want to make our VIP wait."

"Seadroy..." Aakash started.

I sighed, this would most likely be the darkest day of my entire career as a fighter pilot, "Lancer Squadron, prepare to sortie."

Pixy
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Combat Sq. (Temporarily)
'Solo Wing' Larry Foulke

A VIP.

That's the best they can come up with.

Since when have we not been killing VIPs all these sorties? Something's suspicious here, and I don't like surprises. I hope they know what they're doing...

I hopped onto 'Morgan' and put on a neuron-linking helmet, which allowed me to link and transfer my consciousness throughout Morgan and my dragon body. I started my engine and slowly glided out my hanger, "Tower, this is Pixy, permission to sortie?"

The rest of the Lancer Squadrons are now on the taxiway and going towards the runway, "Tower to Lancer Squadron and Pixy, take off permission granted, good luck and happy hunting."

As I watched the Lancer Squadron go airborne one by one, I noticed something rather unusual; each of them was carrying only two Sidewinder missiles; yeah, you didn't hear me wrong, two Fox-2 on an interception mission.

This is yet another ridiculous thing I've seen other than flying a straight route during a dogfight.

"Pixy, take off is permitted, happy hunting." The Tower's orders quickly snapped me back to reality.

As I formed up next to the Lancer Squadron, I decided to start digging up whatever these guys were hiding from me.

"Lancer 1, mind if I ask a question?"

"Is it about this sortie?" Seadroy responded, hmm, I could hear the slight nervousness in his voice.

"Related to it," I asked tentatively, "say, you're that confident?"

Seadroy remained silent for a brief moment, then said, "They want it to be quick."

"Hit and run eh?"

Definitely hiding something. As a mercenary, a secret can be a gate between life and death.

Seems like ERAF wasn't a good place for me after all...

Author's Note

We're building up guys :ajsmug:

Day 15: Sixteen Million

Lancer 1
ERAF 141th Special Strategic Comnbat Sq.
Lieutenant Seadroy Mood, Captain

"Lancer Squadron, the datalink for this airspace has been uploaded to your aircraft."Came our AWACS Hellcat. His voice is still the same tone. I guess he was never briefed about this mission except for the 'VIP' part. We're now about 5 Mikes from Griffonian occupied Manehattan airspace, we should be receiving FCS lock from their SAMs.

I looked down at my data link and... hang on... There's... Five targets? No, more like five targets each having four escorting fighters. Shit, they're expecting an interception all this time.

"Lancer Squadron, we have an emergency mission update from the high command," Hellcat said, "The Griffons had four An-124s in the air, one of them is carrying the VIP targets, your order is to down each of them, for the others might be carrying cargos or weaponry for the Griffonian main force."

"Lancer Squadron copy," I replied, "FCS is on, weapons are hot, Lancer Squadron... Attack."

I tried to lock onto the An-124s in the middle, but for some reason, all of their escorting aircraft were clustered together, as if they'd die trying to protect whatever was onboard the An-124s.

I decided to take out the escorts first, "Lancer 1, Fox-3! Fox-3! Fox-3! Three AMRAAMS were launched from my weapon racks.

Then came the RWR warning, as I'd expected, "Lancer Squadron defend!" The rest of the squadron fired their missiles as they banked away.

"S-300s SAM systems! Missiles in the air!" Came Hellcat's warning, "Damn, they're all over the place."

From the datalink, I saw the escorts break their formation, however, they were circling the An-124s, with some distance between them. Then I realized.

None of the fighters are defending. No evasive maneuvers, no jinxing, no nothing. They're simply moving around their cargo plane, as if... They're the ones trying to be targeted by our missiles. I get the Asmodium is the important package, but what about the other planes? What is so important in those planes that are worth ALL of the escorting fighters to willingly risk their lives protecting?

No time to think, I dove down hard as I released countermeasures.

"Lancer 1, SAM evaded, continue to engage," Hellcat ordered.

"Lancer 2/4/5, Fox-3!" Came the others.

Several seconds later, nearly 3/4 of the escorting fighters disappeared from our datalink. They just... Died like that. Killed without fighting back, I doubt they even used any countermeasures.

"What the hell was that?" Kiper's voice is filled with stress and confusion, " Ugh, don't tell me this is another setup!"

"Don't mind the escorts, shoot down the An-124s, you guys are 2 Mikes from Manehattan. Those VIPs are not allowed to be near the city, take them down now!" Hellcat's voice mixed with my racing mind, I knew what was on one of these planes. As Hellcat rushed me, a thought of killing the AWACS came into my mind, but I shook it off, he has no idea what's going on as well.

I locked onto the An-124s, my hooves shaking, if I pressed the trigger, I would become death itself... None of my squadron members is firing, I'm sure they're thinking the same thoughts.

"Lancer Squadron! What the hell are you doing?!" Hellcat's angered voice came in, "Attack!"

"Don't mind if I do." Came Pixy's voice, I jerked my head toward his direction and saw his Morgan fighter with that huge laser on top, it's charging up.

"Pixy wait-" I tried to stop him, but it was too late.

A bright laser beam was fired from his TLS, straight toward one of the An-124s, my heart skipped a beat as I braced for the detonation.

However, there was no light, the sky was still dark and grim.

"One An-124 is confirmed down, good kill Pixy," Hellcat announced.

I gritted my teeth, I shut my eyes for a second before opening them, "Lancer 1... Fox-3!"

I felt my airframe shake as the AMRAAM ignited its rocket engine, speeding towards an An-124.

Suddenly, my communication system began to buzz, as if it was being interfered with by some sort of ECM system, "Hellcat, the hell is wrong with our radio?"

There was a pause from Hellcat, then he spoke with... An alarmed tone, "I'm... getting something from a different radio frequency... Shit, it's from the Griffons."

"Are they signaling for defection?" Razornail asked.

"That's no defection signal..." Hellcat paused again, then said with slight surprise, "They're... Using non-military radio frequency... Hang on, I'm getting something."

The radio continued to buzz for several seconds before a new voice came into our radio.

"...This is Bishop 1 from 1012th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the Griffonian Air Force..." Came a very distressed raspy voice of a male, "...Please! Attacking aircraft cease fire! We request the attacking force to cease firing!"

"Are they surrendering?" Aakash asked.

"Griffonian Squadron Bishop 1, request denied," Hellcat said.

"Our An-124s are NOT carrying any weapons! I repeat, we are NOT armed!" My eyes widened, what do they mean they're not armed?

"Bishop 1, clarify your situation."

"... Me and my Squadron... Our cargo planes... They're NOT armed! We have no weapons onboard..." Bishop 1 said with a solemn voice, "They lied to us... They lied to all of us... They're trying to kill everyone... We knew it all... Some of my guys took over command of the An-124s... The civilians... Griffons and Equestrians... We have to get them out before..." The communication is bad, his voice is blurred and I can barely hear anything.

"Bishop 1! Are you still there?" Hellcat asked.

"What does he mean by Griffons and Equestrians?" Kiper asked, he's starting to freak out.

"..." The communication is dying, there was RWR warning over the background, "No... No, no no! Don't fire! I'm begging you! Please! Don't fir-" Then there was an explosion, and the communication ended violently.

However, the radio frequency jumped to another source, this time, it was from one of the An-124s.

"What the hell is going on out there?!" Came a scared voice of a male.

"... Mommy? I wanna go home...." Came the voice of a filly.

"It's okay kiddo, we're safe." Came a comforting voice of a female.

I stared down at my hooves. There's nothing I could say at this point...

"Shit!" Kiper finally snapped, "These are civilians!!!"

"What?!" Came Pixy's voice, I had never heard him like this, "What the hell?! Hellcat! What is this?!"

The communication continued, "Huh?! Is that explosions?"

"My god one of our planes just got shot down!!!"

"Are they firing at us?!"

"NO!!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"

"HELP!!!"

"Shit! Those bastards! We don't have any weapons!"

Lancer Squadron is completely in chaos.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Kiper is hitting his canopy.

"PLEASE! MOM! DAD! ARGH-" An explosion with a couple of screams ended the communication.

"... Three An-124s are down..." Came Hellcat's voice.

The radio is silent.

"How many can an An-124 carry?" I asked, chills climbing up my spine.

"...88 passengers," Hellcat replied.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." Came Pixy's voice, his tone is... dead.

"One An-124 remaining... It's heavily damaged, losing altitude... It's falling... Towards Manehattan."

"My god..." Razornail's voice is trembling with fear, "Those As-" She paused.

"Lancer 5, finish your sentence." Pixy said with a demanding tone, "That's enough hiding, what the hell is the objective of this... Mission?"

Then everything went white.

Third POV

Everyone was blinded by the sudden burst of light.

"Did they just..." Pixy's voice came, now with both shock and anger.

The light slowly dimmed down, revealing a very, crimson-looking sky and the burning hell below. The city of Manehattan, or what's left of it, is engulfed in fire. Fire everywhere, the once prideful standing Statue of Friendship, a representation of peace and harmony, is now standing over death and destruction. The shockwave that arrived nearly shook their teeth off; At that point, the Lancer Squadron could still feel their body, a soulless body that is.

As the Lancer Squadron flew over the ruined city, None of them said anything.

"... Lancer Squadron, RTB." Hellcat finally said.

"Damn them all..."

"Pixy..." Seadroy started.

"What is your reason to fight?" Pixy suddenly asked, he wasn't expecting any answers as he continued, "Nobody knows why they were fighting anymore..."

"Pixy, you're falling behind," Hellcat said, "We need to get out of here as fast as possible before anything else explodes. Our airframes are near their breaking point."

"Don't worry, I'll catch up."

"This... Mission-" Kiper tried to explain, but was cut off by the mercenary.

"Nah. Not one word... I'm just tired..."

The time is now 0258 Hours.

In less than a day, the world will be shaken.

By the horrors of Manehattan.