Ace Combat: Frieben Rising

F-14 Ace · **Reply #40 on:** August 24, 2012, 01:14:27 AM

After getting clearance from the tower, Danial applied full throttle, roaring down the runway and climbing into the darkening sky, his wingmen right behind him.

Turning to the east, the three Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes crossed into Remertian border, bound for the Ardval occupation zone. The flight took about three hours and soon Danial had to switch on his panel lights to see. Up ahead, he could see an occasional flash of lightning. Just as they were briefed, weather conditions at the strike zone were poor. They were now just a few minutes from the rendezvous point with the Remertian strike squadron.

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High above the combat zone, the white E-767 with the Remertian roundel on the wings and tail soared above the storm clouds at an altitude of 35,000 feet. Major Tom Bigbee sat in front of a computer display showing a radar map with the locations of the fighter squadrons and the strike zone.

Bigbee was a man who took his job seriously. He didn't mind joking around and having a bit of fun with his subordinates, but he knew his duty came first and foremost.

Keying his headset, the Major addressed the incoming aircraft. "Attention all incoming aircraft, this is AWACS, callsign Stargazer. You are now under my command. After rendezvous, maintain an altitude of 500 feet AVG. That should get you past their early warning radars."

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"Understood, AWACS." Danial responded. He now had visual contact on the A-10s they were supposed to be meeting up with.

Fyn16 · **Reply #41 on:** August 24, 2012, 02:47:29 AM

"Affirmative," Feisler replied. "Stargazer, Nightbird Squadron reporting in. Nightbird 1 present."

"Nightbird 2 present," Shadal said.

"Nightbird 3 present," Sarelson finished.

"Nightbird," Feisler ordered, "switch on radios and dive to below 1000 feet. It's time to start this. Frieben squadron, we're ready when you are. My squadron will attack on the President's declaration.

He rolled and set his Tornado screaming towards the terrain below. The A-10s followed, armed to the teeth, like angels of death. Marcus waited to hear what the Friebenese pilots were planning.

F-14 Ace · **Reply #42 on:** August 25, 2012, 03:59:12 PM

As soon as he had the Remertian strike group in sight, Danial dived for the deck, As he passed through the cloud layer, heavy drops of rain began to splatter against his canopy. Danial promptly switched on his terrain-following radar and leveled off at 500 feet above ground level.

"Alright, split off and engage the primary targets at will." he ordered his wingmen.

"Roger that!" Max replied.

"This is gonna be fun!" Freeman chimed in.

Danial checked his GPS map and saw that he was coming up on the first target. Arming his unguided drag bombs, he waited until he had visual on the target. The heavy rain and darkness made it difficult to see the target but the bright spotlights lining the bridge gave away it's position. Danial flew his Su-25 to line it up lengthwise with the bridge and once he had it in his bomb sights, he released two of the freefall bombs. One struck each end of the bridge, blowing it to pieces and sending the chunks of metal and concrete tumbling into the raging river below.

"AWACS, this is Gryphon, bridge one has been destroyed!" he radioed in. An instant later, tracer rounds from anti aircraft guns lit the sky around him, accompanied by the unmistakable buzz of a SAM locked onto him.

Fyn16 · **Reply #43 on:** August 25, 2012, 05:10:19 PM

"Damn rain," Feisler muttered as the president's declaration came over the radio

"In the face of this attack and insult against our country..."

Marcus angled his plane towards the border. His wingmen did the same.

"I, President Harold Schweiz, on behalf of Remertia, declare war against the country of Ardval. May the righteous be the victor!"

The border whizzed by below on the President's last words. The act had been timed to avoid any political repercussions. Now any target on the Remertian side was fair game. Marcus received his and his squadron's attack coordinates on his aircraft's MFD.

"Alright," he said to Nightbird 2 and 3, "here's our job. You two will be using your HARMs to knock out the SAM installations ahead, to clear a path to the bridge systems deeper inside the border. I'll provide support, and try to handle any helicopters or aircraft that are giving you trouble. When we finish, we'll head inland farther and attack ground targets at will. Shoot for targets with strategic importance, if possible. Factories, hangars, command centers, anything that looks valuable.

A sudden burst of flak appeared in front of Feisler, rocking his plane.

"Drop another 100 feet," he ordered.

The other aircraft acknowledged, dropping to 250 feet AGL.

"Here we go," Feisler said, as the gunfire opened up.

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High above the area, Gheist was orbiting, waiting for action. Hyerich, in his Bird of Prey, was growing impatient. Impatient for many things, he knew, but some things could not be revealed... yet. Soon, many things would be revealed to these Mercenaries and Remertians. They were smart, he knew. They would find out eventually, but until then, it would be wise to lay low.

A cluster of blips appeared on his radar screen, inbound from the North. Perfect. Hyerich turned to acknowledge, watching as his squadron follow.

The pride of Frieben was at stake here, and he was not about to sacrifice it.

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In his A-10, Henrik Shadal selected his HARMs for use, waiting for the telltale missile lock alarm. Ripping through the sky at treetop level and dodging AA fire was exciting, but he had a more serious task at hand- a personal task.

The alarm sounded. Henrik's head snapped up. The SAM appeared to be dead ahead. Immediately, he loosed his HARM, watching its smoke trail as it headed for a concealed SAM battery, riding the weapon's radar beam. The projectile connected with the target, producing a large fireball. Henrik smiled grimly.

"That's one for you, Ayel," he whispered.

F-14 Ace · **Reply #44 on:** August 25, 2012, 06:04:16 PM

Reacting quickly, Danial released flares and dived into the ravine, skimming along the raging river. Explosions erupted on both sides of the canyon as the A-10s destroyed the anti aircraft guns. Danial quickly climbed back above the rim of the canyon as he came up on the second bridge. Max's Su-15 rocketed across the sky in front of him and the bridge exploded, sending shrapnel and debris everywhere. Danial pulled up to avoid the explosion. Another explosion billowed up in the distance and Freeman said over the radio, "Alright, I got the third bridge!"

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Bigbee contacted the pilots and relayed their next orders to them. "This is Stargazer. Primary mission objective is achieved. Now, move on to your secondary targets."

Glancing at the radar screen, he saw something out of the ordinary. There were multiple contacts closing in from the north. It closely resembled the missile attack from last time. Keying his headset, Bigbee shouted over the radio, "Warning! Multiple contacts are inbound from the north! This may be another missile attack! Stay alert!"

He sent the data he was receiving to the other pilots.
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Danial acknowledged the alert from Stargazer, keeping an eye on his radar. The missiles were still a ways away. He switched to rockets and closed in on his secondary target. There was a supply depot directly ahead. Danial lined the Pipper up on the supply crates and fired rocket after rocket. Numerous explosions rocked the area as the rockets tore into their targets. He had destroyed ten stockpiles of crates. With those out of the way, he banked hard and lined up the storage buildings and lit them up as well, claiming three more ground kills.

Max roared toward a tank depot, arming his rockets and preparing to fire. A bolt of lightning tore across the sky, followed by a crash of thunder. Ignoring the worsening weather conditions, Mad unleashed his payload, destroying five tanks on the first pas. Freeman flew in behind him and released several freefall bombs, destroying six more.

Danial glanced at his radar and saw that the incoming contacts were almost upon them.

"Missiles inbound! dive for the deck!" he shouted, hitting the throttle and speeding back toward the canyon. As the missiles separated and began hunting for targets, Danial flew parallel to the canyon and then flipped over, descending upside down into the canyon before leveling off just above the river.

Fyn16 · **Reply #45 on:** August 25, 2012, 06:24:49 PM

"Contact at 2:00 low," Hyerich said, spotting the nine SU-27s heading for the Mercenaries, "let none escape!"

His weapons bay snapped open, releasing six missiles, each targeting an individual fighter. Before the jets could react, they practically disintegrated. Several pilots escaped. A few did not. Two of the Sukhois dodged the missiles, and led the rest in a counterattack, swooping up towards the incoming Frieben aircraft.

"So it's a dogfight, then," Hyerich said, surrounded by the exhaust trails of missiles fired at the incoming planes by the rest of his squad. "Perfect." He rolled over and engaged, using his aircraft's superior maneuverability to rake the side of a Flanker with gunfire. Fire blossomed from one of the aircraft's engines, and it went into a tight spin, ripping itself to shreds. Hyerich checked his radar. More planes were inbound.

"Bring it on then," he said with a strange smile.

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Feisler followed the Mercenaries through the canyon, picking off the odd helicopter with his anti-air armament. His wingmen were using their GAU-8 Avenger cannons with devastating precision, raking the ground with deadly fire and chewing up everything left over by the Frieben forces. Feisler noticed the air battle above, and wished he still had some AA missiles left. He loved the Tornado, and even though it wasn't built to fight aircraft, he was confident in his abilities. Ahead, the canyon was leveling off. They had no choice but to pull out.

He skimmed above the canyon wall, rolling to avoid another SAM. A massive power station came into view.

"All planes," he radioed, "Nightbird is commencing an attack on the power station. Please move to support."

The skies lit up with bursts of flak as Feisler lined up for a bombing run, coming in at just over 100 feet AGL.

F-14 Ace · **Reply #46 on:** August 25, 2012, 06:58:54 PM

Danial weaved through the canyon until he came to the end.
"Damn!" he shouted, pulling up just in time. Dead ahead was a power plant. It was a tempting target but Danial knew he had other business to deal with, so he left it to the other pilots.

Spinning back toward the supply depot, he saw twelve tanker trucks set up as a makeshift fuel depot. Switching to his freefall bombs, he rocketed back toward the trucks, releasing a bomb dead in the center. A massive explosion ripped through fuel depot, destroying all twelve of the trucks and damaging the surrounding vehicles.

He was about to search for more targets when Stargazer suddenly alerted them over the radio.

"Warming all pilots! We have another contact inbound!" Bigbee shouted. "It appears to be another multi warhead missile! All aircraft, break and evade!"

The AWACS was far enough from the combat zone that it wasn't in any danger, however, the other planes were in the direct line of fire.

"Crap! Why now?" Danial shouted as his missile alarm screamed wildly in his ear. Launching more flares, he jinked hard to the right and managed to shake one missile off before another locked onto him.

Fyn16 · **Reply #47 on:** August 25, 2012, 07:06:26 PM

Feisler was about to release his weapon when the call from Stargazer patched through. He cursed and rolled his plane out of the pattern.

"Sir, what are you doing?" Sarelson asked, confused.

"Another one of those strange warheads inbound," Feisler replied. "Fire off countermeasures, use evasive maneuvers, I don't care. Abort the mission and shake those missiles off!"

Feisler climbed sharply above, he saw the telltale "flower blossom" release pattern as the warheads separated, targeting their aircraft. He banked left, releasing chaff as he did so. A missile streaked right by, detonating just out of range.

"Too close," he thought, then he looked up. Above, he could see a dark shadow through the cloud cover. It was faint, perhaps just a cloud, but he didn't think so. Was that what had fired the missiles?

He dodged another one, as the attack continued. The missiles seemed to have a long burn time, long enough to give a fair amount of chase. He wondered how the Friebenese were doing.

Fyn16 · **Reply #48 on:** August 28, 2012, 02:43:18 PM

Hyerich also spotted the dark shape in the clouds. He was about to investigate, when several more missile trails appeared in the sky. They were in for a massive attack.

"All aircraft, retreat!" he called, diving for the deck and turning back towards home as his squadron followed.

F-14 Ace · **Reply #49 on:** September 11, 2012, 02:55:56 PM

Danial struggled to shake the missile, releasing three more flares. Finally the missile alarm stopped screaming. It appeared that all the other missiles had either run out of fuel or were no longer tracking. Danial sighed in relief. The bridges and supply depot had been destroyed. His squadron's primary objective was complete. The enemy forces were in complete disarray down below. It appeared that the missile attack had let up as well.

He pulled raised altitude and said, "Stargazer, Whirlwind Squadron has completed the primary mission objective. Requesting permission to return to base.at.

Bigbee replied, "Understood. Permission granted to return to base. We're sending a tanker plane your way to refuel you for the return trip. Chance course to heading 090 east."

"Copy that." Danial said. "Alright, wing, form up on my six."

Fyn16 · **Reply #50 on:** September 11, 2012, 03:07:00 PM

"Thanks, Whirlwind and Gheist," Feisler said, radioing the other aircraft, "looks like you saved our bacon again. We owe you a few drinks."

A light began blinking on Feisler's panel. A red light.

"Dammit," he swore, "why does it always have to be a red light?"

He turned to look out his canopy and saw the problem: smoke was pouring out of his right engine through numerous shrapnel holes. "Nightbird," he radioed, "I'm not going to make it back to base. We're diverting to the Frieben base to land."

"Roger, Nightbird lead," the others replied.

"Friebenese aircraft," Feisler said, "it sounds like you'll be getting my drinks a lot sooner than either of us thought."