Shattered Skies; An Ace Combat 04 Fandom Story with Dakota and TB16

[Dakota K5]

"Yes...sir?" Otto was very confused but as the colonel said their wasn't time for explanations, Otto secured it in a pocket on the front of his flight suit before heading out of the room. He followed in the steps of the other mobius pilots reaching the flight deck, he was directed to one of the F16 fighter aircraft on deck with M 1 painted on the side in blue. He put on his flight helmet and saw the others including Issac taxiing to the runway, as Issac passed Otto he gave him a thumbs up. He pulled out the object and sighed. "Well here goes nothing." He said as he flipped the power switch.
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(That's a shame, I was looking at the YF-12 yesterday ((A prototype interceptor based on the SR-71)) and thought "That'd be interesting for the RP." but alas it would only be shot down.)​

 

[Trainbrain16]

(Actually, that sounds like it'd be a great idea for some of the... special things I have planned for later on. And like in the games, we'll be switching back and forth between planes all the time as better stuff becomes available and mission parameters call for different equipment. That's the great thing about having her be an A.I. program, just plug her into a new plane and voilà! New body, same personality and memories! Lastly, if you wouldn't mind I'd like for the craft they have to use for the first mission or two or three to be an F-4C Phantom (the F-16 isn't available in-game until mission 4) because I think that them (mostly her) struggling with a crappy, under-equipped plane would be funny. Especially when she gets in close the first time and tries to fall back to the cannon rather than missiles, only to discover "What the fuck!? This piece of shit doesn't have a gun!? What lemon-headed git gave me a C-model Phantom, and didn't even give me a fucking gun pod!? I WANT AN E-MODEL AND I WANT IT NOW!! *throws massive hissy-fit*. Also, lol, who the hell is Otto? XD)

As Will made his way over towards the waiting aircraft, he'd be surprised to see nobody coming over to take up the position in the rear cockpit as the RIO (RADAR Intercept Officer). In fact, that canopy wasn't even open. As he switched the odd device on, in took a brief moment to warm up before a young female's voice, sounding like that of a teenager of about 16 or 17, made a deep yawning sound before perking up a bit and saying "Hey there, whoever you are. Guess they still haven't put optical sensors in this thing yet, bugger. I'm assuming you're one of the other scientists. Am I gonna be running through another series of test flights? I hope it's with that Wilson kid again, I've really grown to like him. He always just lets me do what I was made to do and he doesn't try to interfere much, and the few times he does it ends up saving my ass."

 

[Dakota K5]

(You should totally start establishing what is being used and when before I make my posts, it'd help mitigate any confusion. Also the F4 did have gun pods that could be mounted on the wings it was called the SUU-16/A by the airforce and the m12 by the army and was a 20 MM cannon just saying)
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Wilson was...not as surprised as one should be by the young woman's voice emanating from the small device, of course this was probably due to the fact he needed to get off the ground or shit was gonna get real bad real fast for them and the rest of the people held up on the islands. "No tests today, we got a fight on our hands. Bombers headed for the last ISAF stronghold our mission is to intercept and destroy or I should say your mission as it seems I am still a glorified delivery boy." He spoke, his voice monotone. Now was not the time for anger. He found a slot in the phantom cockpit for the device. "Designation Mobius one or as you already know me as, Wilson Rheinhart." He spoke as he inserted the device.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

(Alright, of course I can start doing that. Not sure why I wasn't already doing that on my own, lol. And yeah, I know the F-4s without internal cannons could carry gun pods, but I'm implying that, during this first mission, there simply wasn't enough warning time for that to be one of the things that they loaded onto the plane, so they've gotta make due without it for now. Also, I thought his name was Wilson Rheinhart, not Otto Wilson?...)

The young girl's voice let out a surprised gasp when she heard the voice that spoke back to her, and then recognized the name that she heard. "Oh gosh, really!? You're gonna be my pilot, that's awesome!" When Will plugged the device into a software reformatting socket in the bottom of the main control console, the A.I. uttered another gasp, then all the instruments in the aircraft seemed to glow a much brighter green for a moment, and the cockpit seemed to shift and shrink around him until it had become small enough that it was as if Will was about 6' 1" in a normal sized Phantom cockpit. "...Oh yeah, there we go..." the A.I. said, sounding relieved, but the sound coming from below him and a bit around him as well as through his helmet comms. She also made a sound like a person would when they were stretching out hard, and the aircraft seemed to bend and change shape like it was some sort of animal arching its back as it stretched. "This is muuuuuch better... Nice to finally meet you and talk to you, Will, you can call me Ashley. I suppose we're both Mobius One now, aren't we?" She chuckled a little as the Phantom's turbines spooled up and the plane started rolling forwards towards the forward elevator. "You ever flown in real combat before, or is this your first time too?"

 

[Dakota K5]

(I knew that would happen, I use the first name Otto for 99% of my other RP characters so I got to actively make sure I don't type Otto when making a post here. Evidently I was not paying much attention.)
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Wilson scrunched himself to adjust to the new dimensions of the Phantom cockpit, he became concerned when he heard and felt the air frame bending and heard the metal groan in protest. "Yes I am your pilot and no this is my first combat mission so it seems we will both be learning on the go...Ashley." He felt odd calling the plane by a name. "I am going to assume you are some form of advanced AI?" He asked, how the ISAF could develop a pocket sized AI in this day and age but couldn't recapture or destroy Stonehenge was beyond him. "While I would enjoy chatting with you I would suggest we plan for the intercept we are soon to preform." He spoke to AI named Ashley.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

(Ahh, I see)

"Yeah, that's just what I am, Will," Ashley replied as they rolled onto the elevator and headed up towards the flight deck. "And I already have been planning for the mission we've got on our hands. I was fed data about what's going on about a minute ago and I'm already running through viable courses of action." Through a large mirror outside, mounted to allow pilots to see their plane's belly and the deck crews behind them, Will would be able to see that his F-4 now had a set of large green eyes on the nose and a large mouth as well. The plane started flexing around a bit as Ashley tried out her new body, and already the movements were making significantly less noise, like the structure of the plane had somehow adjusted and could better handle it's new flexibility.

 

[Dakota K5]

"Just gonna ignore that my plane has a mouth and eyes now, this is just a acid fulled drug trip." Will thought to himself as he closed his eye's real tight and opened them to see....nope still in a plane with mouth and eyes. He let out a sigh. "Imma be real honest, the whole mouth and eyes thing is freaking me out just a bit but I can deal with it. Now do we have information on enemy escorts?" Wilson asked as he adjusted his mirrors to cover as much air space as possible behind them as he linked his breathing mask to the O2 slot of the plane as the cockpit began to pressurize, he also started to look over the panels and instruments. "Looks like we got a load of sidewinder air to air missiles, full fuel and a hell of a lot of distance to cover." He spoke to the plane as they arrived on deck.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

Ashley frowned a little as they reached the flight deck and she said "Sorry, but this is what happens when I get uploaded to a plane. It lets me see and speak for myself without having to use helmet comms or something else. As for the escorts, we've only got rough numbers in that there's about six fighter-sized contacts, but they shouldn't be anything we can't handle." Soon enough she was hooked up to one of the forward catapult launchers, with Isaac in Mobius Two getting booked up next to them. "Think we could make double ace on our first mission?" she chuckled as the two of them went through the final stages of getting ready to launch.

 

[Dakota K5]

"No need to apologize, just making sure everything is out in the open." He spoke as he went over some things in his head. "Six escorts with a possibility of more..." Another thought reached his mind. "Ashley if you could, inform me if anyone encounters a enemy plane with a yellow 13 along the side." The memory had come unbidden like a searing iron in his mind, the first one he had saw, the first one in all of this. "Also let's focus on making sure everything works correctly, I assume this is your first actual combat mission as well? I think we should handle this with speed and aggregation, let's not give the bastards a chance to know what is happening." Wilson preferred quick and violent, tear them apart and leave nothing to recover.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

Ashley paused thoughtfully for a moment when she heard Will mention an aircraft marked with a yellow number 13, then replied "Yellow Thirteen? You mean Vincent Durell? Don't worry, everyone's always on the lookout for him or anyone from Yellow Squadron. And besides that, they're all tasked with guarding Stonehenge, they're all thousands of miles from here." She grinned as she saw the exhaust deflectors rising up from the deck behind her and Isaac and knew that as her cue to throttle up to maximum in preparation for being flung off the bow of the Enterprise into the wind and up into the air. "Alright Will, you know the drill; hands up on the canopy during the launch, and try not to puke inside me."

 

[Dakota K5]

"Vincent Durel hmm." He said more to himself them for Ashley to hear as he put his hands up. He felt the force of acceleration as the catapult launched them off the deck into the air above the sea, William was not worried as he had full confidence that Ashley would get them going. He put his hands down, rechecking all the interments and gauges to his standard. "Ashley question. Should I need to bail out over enemy territory what is the procedure for you? I assume you are to be kept out of enemy hands by any means but I want to know if their is a specific procedure. I have full confidence that we will make it out of this fight with a victory but I would like to have all my bases covered in the event of the unthinkable." William didn't want it to sound like he was not confident in the AI's skills as a matter of fact it was the complete opposite, he had run enough simulations with her (though unknown to him at the time) to trust in her but he would rather know what is to be done before they were being chased by hunter killer teams.
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(Question, with how you made the character of Ashley could she take over drones?)​

 

[Trainbrain16]

(Yeah, I'm sure she could.)

"Well, that's kind of an interesting question," Ashley said as what seemed like mechanical snakes with little hands on the ends extended out of Will's seat in a number of places and linked together to form a secure, comfortable harness for him as the two F-4's started climbing to reach intercept altitude. "I mean, best case scenario I would download myself back to the storage device, then that would detach itself from the plane and magnetize to your seat before you punched out. Then you would have to reach down and retrieve the device from the seat before you deployed your parachute and, under stardard procedure, protect me at all costs and, if necessary to avoid my capture, force a reformat of the memory to completely erase my existence and leave nothing for the Erusians to reverse engineer. If I couldn't get myself out with you, I would simply be forced to completely destroy myself to avoid capture. It'd be a shame, but you gotta do what you gotta do..."

"AWACS here, callsign Skyeye, do you read me?" another male's voice suddenly said over Will's helmet comms.

 

[Dakota K5]

"Let's try and keep you secret from the others for now. I assume command will want knowledge of your existence kept hush hush for as long as possible." Wilson spoke to Ashley, though how he would explain the mouth and eyes he had no idea. "This is Mobius 1 Skyeye, reading you loud and clear, how copy?" Wilson responded to the AWACS over the radio, he was trying to not let himself get to giddy after all this had been Wilson's dream to be a pilot though he never imagined it would be with an AI but hey you can't pick and choose.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

"Well I know for a fact that Martin in the AWACS knows," Ashley chuckled. "And I'm sure our number Two has been told in some capacity considering he hasn't freaked out yet, but if you wanna try and keep me a secret, we'll see how long that lasts."

"Loud and clear, One," Skyeye came back. "Your element is tasked with intercepting the lead squadron of enemy strike aircraft. Twelve bombers and at least six fighters currently at vector three-four-niner at 200 miles, continue due north to intercept." There was a pause and a nervous chuckle, then Martin added "You know, I'd never have thought that we'd be fighting for the immediate survival of our government and the Allied Powers on my 24th birthday. Seems like a bit of a kick in the balls if you ask me."

 

[Dakota K5]

"Hey as long as no one is screaming over the radio about a plane with eyes and a mouth I think we're good." He said back with mirth in his voice.

"Roger." He replied to the AWACS. "You heard him Ashley plot a course." He spoke to his plane before getting on the radio with the AWACS again. "Never thought we'd be fighting this war in general, we can see this one of two ways in my opinion. One is that we moan and whine about how it's unfair or how cruel our enemies are or we can see it as the great challenge of our generation. A whole generation of men and women setting about defending their homeland from a malicious invader, no this is our time Skyeye, our time to prove ourselves through fires of war and lead our people to greater brighter future should we succeed and if we should fail then we will cast a shadow, a tale of sky knights who gave one last roar of defiance in the face of overwhelming odds." Wilson spoke to the other man.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

There was a moment of quiet before Isaac, always the jokester and the subject of a running gag where it was the mission of the whole squadron to help him reach a mental age of at least 15 or so, teasingly sniffled and started clapping, saying "Wow, Will, that was beautiful, truly moving. Have you ever thought about becoming a speaker professionally or something like that?"

"Oh shut up, Isaac," Ashley scolded, the childish other pilot replying with a fake sound of emotional pain. "Will, that was legitimately very nicely put," she then added.

"Yeah, I guess I would agree," Martin chimed in. "Thank you for the wake up call, Lieutenant Rheinhart, I suppose I should look forwards to a victory as a birthday present instead."

"Yeah, that's the spirit," Ashley chuckled. "Now then, time to make a game plan. Two, when we get within range of the Erusian formation, we're both gonna target the lead bombers in the formation at long range and pickle off two Sparrows at each; I'll take right, you take left. Hopefully we can nail the squadron leader and sow a bit of panic and confusion, then from that point we're gonna pick off as many of the rest of the bombers as we can from long range before the fighters move in to try and intercept. They'll have us occupied for a while, but hopefully we can take care of them in time to mop up the remaining Bears before they hit the Newfield Islands."

"I copy, One," Isaac replied. "I just hope you're ready to get yourself beat pretty badly and for me to become the squadron's newest ace."

"Oh you are so on, Duvall."

 

[Dakota K5]

Wilson stayed silent, again reminded that he was still a glorified delivery boy. He was really only needed to transport Ashley from point A to what ever plane she would be flying that day and it left a bitter taste in his mouth, all the time he spent preparing himself to eventually become a pilot wasted. He didn't feel any anger just disappointment, he was not Mobius 1 Ashley was, he was not the pilot Ashley was and at the end of the day if they succeeded they would praise this new wonder machine not the person in the cockpit.
The plan was sound, his main concern was the fact they both would be taken off the bombers. "I would suggest we split and focus on the bombers while the other focuses on the fighters that would target whom ever went after the bombers, if we can get the bombers to break formation with aggression then they will be easier targets and the fighters will have a harder time protecting them as they scatter." He finished speaking for the moment.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

"Sound plan, Will," Ashley complimented. "But the only problem is that, at best, we would have one of us engaging six Erusian fighters, possibly more, and I'm not comfortable with those odds. How about we try and take out the lead pair from range, then just knife right through the formation and see if we can't bag another pair before we turn the deal with the fighters. That way we might still manage to get the Bears to break off, or at least divert a bit and buy us some time to take care of the escorts."

 

[Dakota K5]

"Eh, it could work. I would possibly suggest either we or 2 climb into the clouds after our first pass to try and drop in and break up and attempt they make to reform." Wilson was running over plans in his head, it was hard though. They had been limited in number and the risk with any plan were increased due to this. "If only we had forewarning about the attack we might of been able to plan better but I don't think the bastards would be willing to transmit their attack for us before it happened." Wilson said in an aggravated tone. "You know we don't got to kill them all, just make sure they retreat." Wilson wasn't sure about the convictions of those bomber pilots and if they were rebuffed with enough resistance then their might be a good chance they would turn tail and run.​

 

[Trainbrain16]

"Yeah, I know we don't have to," Ashley said. "But each one we shoot down today is one less that can come back to hurt us tomorrow."

"Exactly my thoughts, One," Isaac agreed. "I'll get up into the clouds and perch there for a moment when you get yourself tangled up with the escorts, then make a move for them or the bombers when I find the right moment."

"Sounds good to me, Two," Ashley replied as they got close enough for the Erusian aircraft to start popping up on Will and Isaac's HMDs (Helmet-Mounted Display) and in Ashley's visual picture that her eyes gathered. Each aircraft was marked by a green square around it, accompanied by a name for the aircraft's type. The dozen TU-95's were also highlighted by red text that read TARGET, meaning they'd been marked as priority. "Ahh shit..." she muttered as she got a final tally on their numbers. "12 Bears and 8 escort fighters. Looks to be 4 MiG-21 bis' and four F-5E Tigers. That's a bit more than I would have preferred..."

"What's the matter? You wanted to start off playing on 'Easy' not 'Hard'?" Isaac teased.

"Not at all," Ashley shot back as she started analyzing the situation further. "Let's just hope that now they're more likely to get in their own way a bit more."

"Mobius One, Mobius Two, you are both cleared to engage any and all targets," Skyeye chimed in, earning a grin from Ashley.

"Acknowledged, Skyeye, I am engaged," she replied, Isaac confirming the same for himself as Ashley started trying for a RADAR lock on the lead Tupelov for her AIM-7 Sparrows and Isaac did the same for the number Two.

"There's the Newfield Islands," an unfamiliar voice said, apparently not to them. "1 o'clock low. Adjusting heading, keep the formation tight."
"Roger Grey One."
"Roger that Grey One."
"Just remember, this isn't the mainland; be careful about sharks if you go down feet wet."
"I'll be glad just to finally get these tenacious ISAF bastards and just end this stupid war..."

Ashley scowled a bit as she waited for the lock to become more steady, then grinned when she saw the red diamond within the green square over Grey One become sharp and crisp and the whole square turned red, accompanied by an angry, electronic growl sounding both for her and in Will's headset. "I've got tone," she said, briefly pausing to make sure the lock wasn't fleeting, then finishing with "Mobius One, Fox One!"
"Mobius Two, Fox One!" Isaac's voice chimed in as a pair of the big Sparrows dropped from the belly of each Phantom, the automated reloading systems already working on replicating replacement missiles to flip out onto the pylons from inside the aircraft. (That's the best I can do to validate the absurd but necessary number of missiles the aircraft in the game carry, lol. I guess think of them as Star Trek Replicators of sorts.) The four missiles all seemed inert for about a second as they fell away from the planes and their pilots started trying to lock up their second targets, then the solid rocket motors ignited and the AIM-7s streaked off and upwards towards the front of the Erusian bomber formation.

"Missile lock, we've got incoming! Who the hell's shooting!?"
"Must be some ISAF interceptors, can't tell where they're coming from though!"
"Punch chaff now! Initate evasive maneuvers, but don't stray far off course!" By now the two F-4's would be close enough to see the glints of light as the chaff launchers fired off on the lead pair of bombers, the effects of the strips of aluminum interfering a bit with their attempts to get a lock on their second pair of targets. The formation then started to split up, with six peeling off to the right and six to the left, but neither group diverting very much. Ashley watched as their missiles bored in towards the Bears, all four hesitating for a time as they tried to differentiate between the clusters of chaff and the bombers. One of Ashley's bought the diversion and veered off low and to the right before detonating harmlessly when it lost lock completely. The other only took the bait for a moment before knifing back over towards the lead Bear, but it was too little too late and it couldn't make the turn in time to get close enough to do any damage. Isaac got a bit more lucky, only one of his missiles was distracted by the chaff for long enough to miss, and his second missile drilled up into the belly of the number Two Bear. Someone shouted "Grey Two, what's your status? Are you hit?" when nothing seemed to have happened, then just after those words left his mouth there was a huge explosion that completely engulfed the aircraft, nothing more than a rapidly expanding cloud of hot gasses and marble-sized pieces of shrapnel remaining of what was once a four engine strategic bomber. "JESUS!!" someone cried as Ashley and Isaac got their second set of target locks and fired again, then hit the afterburners and gunned it.

"FUCK!! This is Four, there's more of them! They just fired at us this time!"
"Grey Three, we've got incoming as well! Where the hell are they!?"
"Stop worrying about it and leave them to the escorts! Blue group, find those damn interceptors before they take us apart!"
"Roger that, Grey One, we're doing our best but we can't find them right... Wait, there they are!! Five o'clock low, coming up fast, there's two of 'em!"

Again, the two bombers that had been attacked spewed out chaff and broke into the direction that the missiles were coming from, but this time neither of them could manage to avoid both of them. Both bombers had a missile streak past close enough to one wing for it to detonate, one of them losing a fair bit of the end of the wing and the other having a fire break out in the inboard engine and a catastrophic propellor self-destruction occur on the outboard one. Both aircraft started spiralling downwards, one on fire and trailing smoke, as desperate transmissions crackled over the radio.
"Grey Four, we're hit!... Dammit, still have a payload to deliver!"
"Three here, we're going down! Shit, it's not working... Okay, everyone abandon the bomber! I'll try to minimize the spin for a moment, now go!" One of the aircraft started leaving behind a trail of parachutes as it plumetted towards the sea, though was ever seen to get out of the one that had lost its engines, likely because it was just spinning too fast. The entire crew of the other aircraft was accounted for via the number of parachutes before the aircraft had even dropped below 30,000 feet, all except for one, most likely the pilot who'd sacrificed himself to save the rest of the crew.

As Ashley and Isaac sliced right through the middle of the bomber formation from behind and below, the startled gunners on the Bears quickly started spraying long, inaccurate bursts of machine gun and cannon fire at the Phantoms as they streaked up and into the clouds. "Alright guys," Ashley said as she looked down at the mildly scattering Erusian bombers, still able to see them through the clouds thanks to the RADAR data provided by their 'Skyeye' E-767. "Time for us to go tussle with those escorts, Will?"