As soon as his F-5 gained a missile lock on the Fishbed, Husein fired two SDMs at it, which is a standard procedure. "Mold, fox two," he said over the radio, dropping the intonation of the last word as he remembered that those two missiles were the first real missiles he fired at real enemies. He then pulled his aircraft to the right, and searched for another target. "In case I got home with a kill, please motivate me to carry on with life. I think it's gonna be a tough period," he told the team.

Husein soon noticed an Su-27 flying behind him, in firing position. A split second later, the missile alarm rang and he executed a well-timed high-G turn to defeat the missiles fired by the Flanker. It took a while before the situation turned into Husein in firing position and the Flanker as the potential prey. Without any delay, he fired two of his SDMs at the Flanker. "Mold, fox two," he radioed in a similar tone to his first fox two.

With the entry of the pilots of Peace Sparrow into the battle, the tables had started to turn in the direction of the defenders, despite being heavily outnumbered, with most of the fighters succeeding in downing a few fighters. However, the significantly less maneuverable Phantom found itself struggling to keep up in the furball of fighters and instead decided to go for the Harriers that had completely bypassed the dogfight and were attacking targets on the ground. They all sat in a row of six, staying at low speeds and strafing military vehicles on a freeway, making for easy targets, even for the flying brick. Charles brought the F-4E onto their left flank and with an order to his WSO, four SDM's were fired at once, outright destroying one of the Harriers and sending one into a drop. The remaining four Harriers, noticing the danger, throttled up and set their thrust vectoring engines forward to escape. As Charles prepped to pursue, the AWACS took to the radio.

AWACS
<<Confirming kills! Scratch one MiG-21 for Meteor, scratch one MiG-21 and one Su-27 for Mold, one MiG-21 for Romeo, one Su-27 for Angel, one MiG-21 for Slypheed, one Su-27 for Drake and two Harrier's for Anemi. We now outnumber the enemy.>>

"Rim-Light, could we get an ETA on the bombers?" Charles asked, repeating the question of the other pilot who hadn't been answered earlier.

AWACS
<<Bombers arriving within ten kilometer radius of the city now! Four Tu-95's and four Tu-22M's and one unknown bandit at very high altitude and speed, unreachable for any of you. Engage and destroy the bombers before they reach the city! I will attempt to identify the unknown bandit.>>

Sure enough, Charles could see the glint of metal far away and above, along with the eight bombers approaching at a lower altitude. Erika scoffed. "You couldn't have told us earlier?" Shrugging, the Belkan turned the Phantom away from the retreating Harriers and went towards the bombers. There were still a few fighters left in the air, but it seemed the bombers were of more importance.

The Phantom Natasha had been chasing had been a more tough chase than usual. As the other members of her squadron successfully fired off their missiles quickly against the fighters they were chasing, Natasha had had to loop around the Phantom pilot a number of times, expecting less resistance from an F-4. She eventually drew a good bead on the twin-seat aircraft, but before she could fire the AWACS came on the radio and indicated that eight bombers were approaching the city. She still had a lock on the Phantom and quickly fired off two SDMs at it. "Yellow, Fox Two," she called as she peeled out and engaged her afterburner barely after the missiles had left the aircraft. "Angel, move to engage the bombers," she called out to her number two. Flying full speed at the incoming bombers, she stayed well below them until she was behind them, and initiated an Immelmann turn to get in attacking position behind the bombers. The eight bombers were spread out, with the four Tu-95s grouped and the four Tu-22Ms grouped. Noticing the bandit high above speeding away from her and the bombers, she wondered why the bombers were completely undefended save for their own defensive turrets. She moved to attack the four Tu-95s to her left, taking care to stay out of range of the bombers' tail-mounted 23mm cannons. Switching to her two long-range R-27Ts, she was now in firing position. Locking on to the leftmost bomber, she fired, calling out "Yellow, Fox Two" as the missile left its place on the fuselage. Adjusting slightly to lock on to the next bomber in the group, she fired again, with a "Yellow, Fox Two". Now out of her long-range missiles, she would have to get closer to attack the rest of the bombers.

Scott was still snaking through the furball as the AWACS sent the message informing of the bombers ingress to the target area, and their speed and heading.
"Roger, AWACS. Vectoring to bandits now, over!"
Rolling the A-7 into a gentle turn, the naval aviator set the stubby plane on an intercept toward the bombers. Ahead, and looking to the radar, he saw Natasha angling in on the prop-driven mammoth bombers, her MiG carving an arc through the sky, and sprouting a pair of white contrails as she scythed on an attack. Changing his own course, he fed in power, slamming the Corsair into a hard bank and climbing high to intercept the formation of TU-22M's, the Backfires currently cruising in a less than their supersonic maximum, spreading out on their course for a bomb run.
Carefully and precisely picking his course, he selected SDM's from his planes' armaments panel. Judging the distance and speed, he continued deliberately climbing higher than the bombers, before cutting down across their path, approaching at an oblique angle to the lead bomber. Striving to avoid the tail guns, he kept his speed up diving in. The buzz of a lock-on sounded in his ears and reflexively he thumbed the firing trigger on the stick. "Romeo, Fox Two!" he called as a brace of SDM's left the launch tubes, one per side. Diving below the level of the bombers and behind them, the big, blocky shapes flashing past, he hauled the stick hard over, grunting against the G's as the plane left contrails through the air from both wingtips, and he was flattened into the seat. Tracers slashed through the air around the Corsair and he fought the stick as the plane bucked and jumped, a thunderous rumble jumping through the airframe as the rounds hit home. Warning lights lit up, but the jet was still under control. A glance told the tale: He was losing fuel, and there was possible damage to hydraulics. The plane responded to his controls with no real lag; heavy as it always was. And that meant he could continue his attack.
Levelling out and stepping on the pedals, he lined the nose up on another Backfire, this time from below and engaging in the climb, and triggered off a second pair of SDM's at one of the big slate-grey bombers. "Fox two," he growled again, nosing up slightly. If the missiles didn't hit this time - he had no idea what'd happened to the pair he'd stabbed out at the phantom earlier in this battle - then he'd go to guns and saw them apart with 20mm rounds, and test the remaining SDM's on the armourers' shack at base to see if they were duds.
Rolling out into a hard sideways bank, he aimed to rejoin the squadron to line up for a second attack - he'd taken damage, and there was safety in numbers, and attacking in force.
"Romeo here, I'm hit. Nothing too serious, I've lost fuel and my hydraulics are a little mushy. Gonna form up for another shot at the Backfires, over".

She barely acknowledged that she had scored a kill beyond the reassurance that there was on less enemy to worry about. She fired another missile at a Flanker before breaking off as the bombers were called out by AWACS. Leaving the faster TU-22Ms to the fighters that could match the speed, she fired her last pair of long range missiles at a TU-95, not sure how tough it was and wanting to ensure a kill.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Corsair take hits. Not watching to see if her own missiles landed, she headed in his direction, hoping that her ECM pods would prevent the radar controlled guns on the TU-95 from engaging.

"Then don't fall behind Romeo" Elizabeth said over comms as she darted at the TU-22Ms from below. An A7 was already sluggish, why it was engaging the TU-22s was baffling. She had been hearing the lock-on tone for a few seconds now and fired two SDMs at one of the craft that hadn't been fired at by the A7 "Fox Two, Fox Two" and pulled away from the attack angle to make sure she didn't collide with parts of the backfires. She flew out some distance before pulling back hard and throttling back, allowing her to do a tight turn and came back to the untouched TU-22. Elizabeth switched to the air-bursting rockets, knowing how nasty these things were. Once she had a lead on the target, she fired off 4 rockets, all set to detonate within a 1-2 meter proximity. The target locations were random, but one was noticeably aimed for an area in front of one of the air intakes. If enough shrapnel went inside that intake, it would cause some serious damage, and loss of thrust. She pulled off the attack run and leveled out, other aircraft would be almost done with the TU-95s.

She was just thankful that the MiG-21 that had come up behind her earlier hadn't taken her out of the battle.

Earlier
Elizabeth nodded when AWACS confirmed her kill, and while the reassurance that her missile didn't go to waste made her feel better, she was still in a world of trouble. After she had flown away from attacking the MiG-21, an enemy fighter had come up behind her and fired a missile. She barely managed to avoid the missile, hearing it rocket past overhead. She'd have to loose this enemy fast, or at least get on his tail and return the favor. She banked hard, trying to confirm what the enemy was flying, and saw it was a fishbed. Something that the Draken could, at least, out-run. Out-maneuvering would require some finesse.

After what seemed like hours, she finally pulled it off, she had pulled into a rather sharp turn which threatened to stall her as she had bled off quite some speed. But she was at last on the Fishbed's tail. It had punched holes into the edges of her wings, and came close to riddling the cockpit full of holes, her maneuvers had kept it from locking her, but that didn't mean the pilot couldn't use his guns. She decided to return some of the bullets to him, and clicked down on the trigger, unleashing a burst of 15 rounds into the fishbed, then switched over to the SDMs, waited for the tone-lock, and fired. Once she saw the impact of the missile, she pulled up.

"Alex, think you could engage the TU-95s? I'll go after the TU-22s." And with that, she rocketed up towards the bombers.

AWACS
<<Six bombers down, one of each type remaining. No WMD's confirmed.>>

Since they had been taken a slight distance away chasing the Harriers, Erika's and Charles' Phantom took a bit more time in arriving than the other planes, even the relatively slow A-7E. Thus, by the time they had arrived, most of the bombers had been destroyed. Charles made a split-second decision of finishing off the remaining Tu-95, as quite a few of his allies seemed to have dibs on the final Backfire. "Let's go for the Bear. Get ready to fire, Lieutenant." He ordered his WSO and she replied with an energetic nod. Engaging afterburners, it took them only a few seconds to reach the turboprop bomber, which kept an impressive pace despite its antiquated look. "Use two of our SAAM's. I want to keep the remaining SDM's in case we get into another dogfight."

"Got it. Keep the nose pointed at the bomber, please." Now it was Erika's turn to give an order. Charles confirmed this and continued to climb towards the bomber before flattening out behind the bomber and holding the nose towards it. The indicator began to beep as it picked up a lock and Erika held her breath as she did her part of the work. Finally, the beep became one continuous sound and Erika hit the button to fire. With a characteristic 'phmt' of the missiles being fired and the sound of the Semi-Active homing system in the cockpit, the missiles streaked ahead at a steady pace before colliding with the tail of the bomber. A fireball erupted from where the twenty-millimeter turret was before the rest of the plane burst into flames and began to dive.

Charles continued to watch the plane as it descended, accelerating the Phantom only enough to keep the Bear in his sight. Interestingly, Charles didn't see any signs of pilots ejecting from the cockpit and it seemed that Erika had remarked the same thing. Even moreinterestingly, however, was the explosion when the plane crashed into an open area in a suburban golf course; the explosion had a look as if only the plane had exploded and no bombs or weaponry had even been in the plane to begin with. Erika decided to report this as Charles brought the plane around to cover his allies as they went for the final Tu-22M. "AWACS, this is Ribbon. Have any weapons been confirmed on the planes to begin with? And has there been any sightings of crew ejecting from the bombers?"

AWACS
<<Ribbon; we cannot confirm payloads on the bombers as of this time. It also seems like all of the bomber-crews went down with their craft. We'll update you as news comes in.>>

Erika nodded reluctantly. "Got it AWACS..." she muttered, the suspicion of something fishy going on clear in her tone. For a moment after this, the situation seemed strangely calm as Peace Sparrow defeated the final bomber. Strangely enough, the AWACS didn't immediately acknowledge this. For a moment, there was almost complete radio silence; until Rim-Light came onto the radio with an urgent tone.

AWACS
<< Peace Sparrow, this is Rim-Light. High-altitude bandit has been confirmed as an XB-70 supersonic strategic bomber. Some of our men checked the bombers that were shot down, it seems that they were just unarmed drones, probably as a distraction so the XB-70 can get into our airspace.>>

Erika gasped as her suspicions were confirmed. Charles only clicked his tongue as he realized the situation.

AWACS
<< Based on the bearing and altitude of the bomber, we have been able to confirm that it is most likely armed with a nuclear weapon. None of your planes or allies in our airspace are capable of intercepting the bomber. You are all required to evacuate the airspace immediately! It seems the Yukes and Stovies are doing the same, so don't pay any mind to them and leave as quickly as possible!>>

Charles gulped at this and a drop of sweat came down his brow. He wiped it off before pulling the plane's nose away from the city and out towards the bay. Taking a deep breath, he repeated the order. "You heard him... Get away from the city NOW!" Erika remained deadly silent.

"Then don't fall behind Romeo"

"Roger, Mirage," grunted Scott as he coaxed the wounded and limping Corsair into another attack profile. "I might have to get out and push, though, over".
As he steered the jet toward the bombers, he saw the arrowhead shape of the Draken overtake him, and angle toward the bombers. Discretion was the better part of valour, and he'd gathered enough feathers for his cap today. Fighting the wounded A-7 into another attack wouldn't bring him back to his wife and son alive, so he nosed up for altitude and to plot his next move. Then the AWACS call came in, and he strained an ear as he listened.

<< Based on the bearing and altitude of the bomber, we have been able to confirm that it is most likely armed with a nuclear weapon. None of your planes or allies in our airspace are capable of intercepting the bomber. You are all required to evacuate the airspace immediately! It seems the Yukes and Stovies are doing the same, so don't pay any mind to them and leave as quickly as possible!>>

His blood turned to ice-water in his veins as he heard the words and he gulped, throat suddenly dry. He, like all of them most likely, had read the reports from the veterans of the Belkan War of flying in the Nuclear Environment. It hadn't been something he'd ever anticipated, but then what sane person would? But then, this likely wasn't the actions of a sane mind.
Uttering a tight-voice 'roger' at the command to reverse direction and escape from the area, he coaxed the Corsair, trailing black smoke, into a shuddering turn, fighting the plane to gain as much altitude as possible - if the engine gave out, and the blast was nuclear, maybe he could ride the wave and glide part of the way back. Either way, he didn't want to be too close to the ground if the plane was tossed about like a leaf, or his systems gave out through sheer abuse from the forces unleashed.
"This is Romeo," he reported nervously. "Aircraft isn't looking so good, those hits really did some damage. I'm trying to get altitude to keep it clear of the ground. Bracing for shocks, over".
Making sure his course was away from the predicted impact point, he slid the shaded visor of his helmet down into place, locking it. He didn't want to be blinded by the flash, either. Grimacing against the bile in his throat, he gripped the stick tight and prepared for the worst.

As her targets began to fall out of the sky, Natasha was about to prepare for an attack on the remaining two Tu-95s. Meteor and Border Boy's planes soon came into view, the Jaguar and Phantom on an attack run. Soon two missiles came streaking from the Jaguar, downing one of the remaining Bears. Natasha decided to leave the last one to Border Boy as he approached, and throttled up to assist with the remaining Tu-22Ms. They were all downed before she got there, though, and it was then that the disturbing AWACS order change scythed through the airwaves. Natasha desperately wanted to do something, but the XB-70 was out of her plane's league and she was powerless to intercept it, as was everyone else. Wrestling with her own emotions, she threw the plane into a high-G turn and hit the afterburner once she was pointed towards the bay. To her left she saw Romeo's A7 climbing with whatever it had left; it didn't look like much, judging by how much black smoke was pouring out of the back. As her own MiG-23, in significantly better condition, rapidly sped up to over Mach 2 and away from the predicted nuclear blast, she had many thoughts in her head - things like there must have been something we could have done, we should have figured out that the bombers were drones..., and When/if we land, Romeo had better be given a new aircraft. As she pulled away from the rest of Peace Sparrow, having the highest top speed, she fervently hoped that everyone would make it out. She didn't want to lose her entire squadron again.

As Angels MiG got closer and closer to the Tu-95's, she noticed that one of them had been hit, and the other soon to join the same fate by the Phantom. She banked right intending to help with the rest of the bombers, but also noticed they were downed as well. Thinking that all was well now, She met up with her flight lead. but as she formed up on Natasha's left wing, the AWACS order came in. knowing that since this air wing was mostly comprised of 'rusty tin cans', they couldn't do anything but either watch or flee. and she didn't want to be brought back in a casket. As she accelerated and followed Natasha, she looked back at the city once more.

From the beginning, Husein went towards the Tu-22Ms since initially no one was targeting them, yet he seemed to have problems handling the bombers for some reasons, that he didn't get any kills. Not long later, the AWACS warned the whole team of the bombers carrying nuclear weapons. In rapid succession, he turned away from the city and went in full afterburners. Then he said over the radio. "This is Mold. Shall we go in high or low altitude?" For the moment, he was flying flat at his previous altitude, attempting to get as radially far away from the predicted ground zero as soon as possible.

"You'll be fine Scott."

Kate held a position near the corsair, matching his speed despite the looming threat of a nuclear attack. She knew that on afterburner it was likely that she'd be able to outrun the blast wave but she couldn't stomach the thought of an ally having to eject alone. A downed pilot would be low on the priorities with an entire city destroyed. She did some quick math in her head.

"That things a bomber, we'll be long gone by the time the nuke can fall from that high."

She thought more on that topic. It was strange to use a lone bomber to attack a city, even under fighter cover. The Bear and Backfire bombers could both carry cruise missiles. The amount that approached the city could have thrown enough firepower at it to ensure success.

When AWACS reported that the high flying bomber was carrying a nuclear device, Elizabeth didn't hesitate to retreat. As she initiated the Draken's afterburners, she saw other aircraft doing the same, both friendly and enemy aircraft were running, all fearing a similar death.

As she sped off, she noticed the familiar smoke trail of the A7, she flew by over head, and briefly spoke "Don't go down, I need you to return the favor" She said, mentioning the the earlier business with the TU-22Ms.

Once she was some distance from the A7, she started thinking. Something about this whole engagement didn't seem right. If a nation wanted a reason to go to war, then why would they drop a nuke on another city? Would the retaliation really be worth while? So many thoughts coursed throughout her head, trying to figure out the reasons to drop a nuclear device at the beginning of an obvious war.

TheFake said "You'll be fine Scott."

Scott strong-armed the bucking stick into a steady line between his knees fighting the aircraft's desire to roll over and die. Grimacing under his mask, he felt a pang of thanks as he saw Kate keep pace. "Roger. I'll bring this bird back. Just keep an eye out for me, over"
Like her, thoughts about the attack fought for attention in his head with the thought that he might have to eject. Though thinking about almost anything was better than that. He looked up as the shape of the Draken cruised past, and clicked his Mike in acknowledgement of Elizabeth's words. "Roger. Get the first round in for me at the bar"
Another series of red lights came to life, fire in the protrude electrics. Pulling the extinguisher handle, he felt more power and control drop off. The A-7 was almost a dead stick, but the distance was opening up.

Meanwhile, at twenty-thousand meters above Oured.

In the cockpit of the XB-70 Valkyrie, the two pilots felt almost suffocated by the number of meters, gauges and other indicators on the dashboard. Built before the era of glass-cockpits, the XB-70, with it's once state of the art design that still held up today, was a complicated beast to fly, but effective. Through the tinted glass of the cockpit, the pilot, dressed in a Yuktobanian Air Force uniform, could see only the blue skies. "Opening bay." his co-pilot, sitting to his left reported as he hit a switch. The pilot himself nodded as he held the black yoke, with a overhead view of the XB-70 on it. He refrained from speaking. At this altitude, speaking was difficult, even with an oxygen mask.

He heard the sounds of the bay opening, with a mechanical shudder. This Valkyrie, salvaged from a boneyard and refurbished just for this mission, had somewhat faulty sound-dampening, and the pilot could thus hear the sound of the aircraft's six engines rather well, but their roar steadily grew somewhat weaker as the pilot slowed the plane down to prepare to drop the nuclear bomb. Even with a high-speed endurance bomb such as the one they had been given for the mission, it was unsafe to drop the bomb at speeds over Mach two-point-six. After a minute or two, the plane had slowed down to the safe speed and his co-pilot readied to drop the bomb. "Dropping in thirty seconds." The pilot acknowledged this with a nod once again. As he counted down in his head, he let his eyes drift across the dashboard, checking that everything was ready.

He kept a calm scan as he looked over the indicators, but his eyes freezed when he looked at the radar screen. The man tilted his head quizzically as he noticed two green dots headed straight towards them. As he reached over to tap it, wondering if it was broken, his co-pilot reassured him. "They're probably below us. No one can get up this altitude." Though his mask was covering his mouth, the pilot could see that the other man was grinning. He chuckled then nodded, before sliding down the tinted goggles in preparation for the blinding flash when the bomb would destroy the city. His co-pilot began the count-down, "Five. Four. Three. Two. One-"

CRASH

The Valkyrie shuddered as it was impacted with what was most likely a missile. Immediately, it began to dive. "What the hell?!" This time, the pilot was the one to speak. As he recovered from the impact, he heard the roar of engines different to those of the Valkyrie and he looked up. Two MiG-31's, with black, white and yellow triangle roundels on their wings zoomed past, their gigantic engines spewing fire.

"Belkans?!" His co-pilot exclamed. The two planes flew off at a blistering speed away from the crippled Valkyrie before turning around. "Sir, we gotta eject. The bombing mechanism is toast. If we're lucky, the thing will explode with the bomb upon impact." The pilot nodded and readied himself by getting a better position before pulling the ejection lever. With a clang, the ejection capsule closed like a clamshell around him, almost crushing his right arm and a blast sent it flying upwards. Through the tiny window of the pod, he saw the Foxhounds fire their missiles and the Valkyrie explode. The nuclear weapon, unarmed, was sent flying off and would hit the ground to little effect...

---

Seven minutes earlier, Oured Bay.

A F-15S/MTD flew close to the water as it sped towards the Osean capital. Alongside it flew a mismatched formation of other F-15S/MTD's and Su-35's, along with an odd pair of MiG-31 interceptors readying to fly upwards to meet the supersonic bomber. Looking to his left, Major Dustin Zondervan, the pilot of the centermost F-15's eyes met with those of the closest Su-35's. The female pilot gave him a thumbs-up and he took to the radio to give orders to the Belkan Air Force flight. "Alright. We've discussed what we'll be doing here on the way, but I'll recap. Lili, take Wichianmat Squadron and take down the enemy still in the city." The female pilot gave a polite 'roger' in confirmation. "Wolf Team, head up and destroy the XB-70 before it can drop its payload. Finally, Templar Squadron and I will head off to clear the fighters around the flying antiques. Understood?" The radio was saturated by confirmations and Zondervan smiled before giving the final word. "Let's do this! Operation, begin!"

The formation then broke up. The two Foxhounds roared upwards, their afterburners creating streams of flame behind them and the Flankers, all painted white with grey accents and lightly blue tinted cockpits, similar to the colors of Siamese cats rolled over to head towards the city. The white and grey colored F-15's triggered their afterburners to get over to their allies in Peace Sparrow, who as of yet had no idea they had been reinforced. Within moments, the formation had split up and fire had once again opened up in the skies above the Osean capital. Far below, those who hadn't yet gotten to shelter stood in the streets, watching in awe as the Flankers chased down and easily destroyed the stragglers and as the Foxhounds rocketed upwards to meet the deadly sparkle miles above them.

It only took a minute for Templar Squadron to reach the enemies that were considered a threat to their allies; a group of ten Su-27's that had arrived right as the order had been given to retreat and were as such not included in Peace Sparrow's briefing. Zondervan kept his distance from the smoking A-7, as to not bring it into danger and set his sights on a close-flying pair of Flankers. Switching to SAAM's, he kept them within the aiming circle displayed on his HUD and fired and his allies did the same. With a bang, the formation was ripped apart, leaving only four Flankers to fight their own Eagles. However, it was clear that the Belkans had the advantage as the Yuktobanian aircraft moved to retaliate, with their thrust-vectoring engines and canards making it easy to outflank the somewhat basic fighters.

At the same moment, Captain Liane Suchenwirth, or "Lili", as her comrades preferred to call her, finished off a crippled MiG-21 that had been left heavily damaged after the dogfight with Peace Sparrow. She fired the thirty-millimeter cannon and the Fishbed burst into flames within seconds. Counting "one" in her head, the Belkan woman then moved to chase down a group of Harriers that were slowly attempting to escape. Another plane of Wichianmat pulled alongside her and she gave its pilot a nod before the pair moved in to finish off the Harriers with their missiles. Each destroyed two of the four Harriers before turning around to look for more targets. When their search turned out fruitless, they reported over radio to the rest of the BAF flight. "This is Wichianmat-One. The city is clear. How's things with you, Templar?"

Over the suburbs to the east, Dustin nodded before answering. "Peace Sparrow is safe. Wolf, I hope that bomber's down? I'd hate for this all to be for nothing!" As if response, an explosion could be seen high above and flaming bits of shrapnel and debris came falling down.

"We're good. We'll stay up here for awhile just in case there's more and then we'll meet up with you for refueling." A rough voice, that of Wolf Team's leader, Captain Franz Chattam responded and Dustin let out a breath of relief. Setting his radio to the frequency that he had been told Peace Sparrow would be on, he then spoke to the weary pilots.

"Peace Sparrow, this is Major Dustin Zondervan, of the Belkan Air Force, Seventh Air Division, Twenty-first Tactical Fighter Squadron "Templar", with Fortieth TFS "Wichianmat" and Tenth Interceptor Unit "Wolf", all under NUN orders. The airspace is secure, nuclear threat eliminated. We shall escort you to get refueled and we'll lead you to new basing. Can you refuel alright? We can land at the nearby CAC base if repairs are essential, but I'd prefer not to waste anytime. The new base is a bit far."

Scott was as prepared as one could be for the nuclear detonation. Seeing the bright flash high above and behind, he instantly squeezed his eyes shut, fearing he'd seen the detonation of the bomb, or whatever it was. But when it wasn't immediately followed with eye-searing brightness or the slamming turbulence of a blastwave, he cautiously an curiously opened both eyes. Instead of the apocalyptic image of a mushroom cloud claiming Oured, there was instead a patchwork of contrails and tracers, and of wreckage falling to earth, glimmering in the sunlight.
Feeling the hand around his heart relax a little, he rechecked the radar-scope, and was relieved to see reinforcements had arrived. And moreover, they were seriously clearing house.
As he watched, the aircraft scythed hostiles out of the air, left right and center, before forming up around the Peace Sparrows' loose formation.

"Peace Sparrow, this is Major Dustin Zondervan, of the Belkan Air Force, Seventh Air Division, Twenty-first Tactical Fighter Squadron "Templar", with Fortieth TFS "Wichianmat" and Tenth Interceptor Unit "Wolf", all under NUN orders. The airspace is secure, nuclear threat eliminated. We shall escort you to get refueled and we'll lead you to new basing. Can you refuel alright? We can land at the nearby CAC base if repairs are essential, but I'd prefer not to waste anytime. The new base is a bit far."

"Major, you're a welcome sight," replied Scott, with some relief in his voice. "Your squadron must have a good sense for dramatic pacing, too. Unfortunately, I gotta say that my bird is on her last legs. I'm losing fuel and hydraulic pressure, and my engine power is dropping. I'm either gonna need a local field to make an emergency landing, or a safe area to bail out. I hate to say it, but my Corsairs' had her last party".

It all happened so fast. One moment Natasha was in near despair as she flew away from the city, knowing that there was nothing she could do, and the next everything was safe. The Belkan squadrons made quick work of...well, everything. The bomber, the fighters, the bomb. It was all taken care of in the blink of an eye. Soon the apparent squadron leader got on the radio, calm as can be. Refueling and a new base was just what the squadron needed, though Natasha was quite sure that Scott's A-7 wouldn't be able to make it to the new base. As if on cue, Scott came on the radio in reply and explained his aircraft's condition. Natasha took a quick look around at the other aircraft in her squadron, who came back into view as she slowed her MiG's airspeed. She had learned in Erusea to always be suspicious of everything, and the impressive speed in which the Belkans dispatched the enemy was something that could easily be scrutinized. In this situation though, despite her reservations she was too relieved that the city was safe to care. "Thanks for the save, Major. We owe you one," she chimed in once Scott had finished his explanation. She hoped the group would find a solution to Scott's problem, but other than that she could finally breathe easier.

The anticipated imminent ground-shattering blast didn't happen, to the complete surprise of Husein. Still though, he maintained his course just in case the detonation happened to be a bit late. A bit later, he received a transmission that confused him even more.

"Peace Sparrow, this is Major Dustin Zondervan, of the Belkan Air Force, Seventh Air Division, Twenty-first Tactical Fighter Squadron "Templar", with Fortieth TFS "Wichianmat" and Tenth Interceptor Unit "Wolf", all under NUN orders. The airspace is secure, nuclear threat eliminated. We shall escort you to get refueled and we'll lead you to new basing. Can you refuel alright? We can land at the nearby CAC base if repairs are essential, but I'd prefer not to waste anytime. The new base is a bit far."

Who are these guys to give us orders? Husein thought. And where's our AWACS? The fact that Belka has a bad reputation in the global politics discouraged him from trusting Zondervan. At first, however, he tried not to directly state it directly, and instead waited for his squadronmates to make the first move. That first move was made by Scott, and to Husein, Scott had not positively trusted Zondervan although he didn't antagonise Zondervan on the radio. He waited for another squadronmate to clearly state his or her trust in Zondervan, but the only other response that came couldn't convince him enough. With a bit of hesitation, and some delay due to trying to pick the right words, Husein asked to his mates on the squadron frequency.

"This is Mold. Does anyone know what happened to Rim-Light so that Zondervan seems to be in charge?"

Alexander throttled up to chase after the TU-95 but as he closed in another plane had shot it down as its engines spurted out black smoke and flames. Late to the party again.. Man I need to speed things up! However, something doesn't feel right... the bombers my squad engaged were almost flying alone without any major support. Why would they fly alone? Did they really think their fighters would be enough to--
He was caught mid thought when he heard AWACS over the comm system ring in news.

<< Peace Sparrow, this is Rim-Light. High-altitude bandit has been confirmed as an XB-70 supersonic strategic bomber. Some of our men checked the bombers that were shot down, it seems that they were just unarmed drones, probably as a distraction so the XB-70 can get into our airspace.>>

"Well shoot, I figured something was up with--" he was caught mid sentence this time.

<< Based on the bearing and altitude of the bomber, we have been able to confirm that it is most likely armed with a nuclear weapon. None of your planes or allies in our airspace are capable of intercepting the bomber. You are all required to evacuate the airspace immediately! It seems the Yukes and Stovies are doing the same, so don't pay any mind to them and leave as quickly as possible!>>

Minutes passed quickly as thoughts of losing his squad mate Elizabeth flooded his mind and quite frankly they horrified him. He couldn't stand to lose another close friend, though they may not have grown up together as he did with Jacob their previous experiences in the war brought them both to a close friendship he couldn't imagine losing. He knew there was nothing he could do to stop it as it would be almost instantaneous. He turned to look at his radar indicator to see Elizabeth's aircraft flying away from the city.
I really hope we make it out of this one...
Alexander throttled up and applied his afterburner. As Alexander turned on the afterburner he felt the sudden kick of the G-forces increasing; pushed into his seat he held onto the joystick and the Draken pushed to its max speed almost instantly.
He sped up and started to close back into his squads formation taking notice of a damaged A7 in the back of the scattered formation.

All of a sudden another group of fighters flew in and to his dismay they were friendlies. A squad of F-15S/MTDs, SU-35s and a pair of MiD-31s rocketed past his plane and back into the fray. The group flew in as a cleanup squad shooting down the remaining sparse enemy flankers from the previously ensued battle.
What in the world are they doing!? Didn't they hear that there was an inbound nuclear bomb? he worried that they we going to be incinerated by the explosion that was about to follow. Merely a few seconds later he heard a very muffled explosion, faint and far away but it was there. He closed his eyes and prayed it wasn't the nuclear payload.
All was quiet and calm as their formation was still flying straight and true. There was no explosion nor bright blinding light that generally follows a nuclear blast.
He turned off the afterburner as to not waste fuel and he looked over his gauges, everything was fine. They had made it and the battle had been won... For now.

The arrival of the Belkans seemed to be quite a welcome event for most of the pilots, though distrust seemed to emananate from the Emmerian pilot as he spoke, after one of the Yuktobanians and the older Usean. Erika and Charles both felt a slight weight come off their shoulders as the leader of the Belkan flight spoke, but Charles couldn't help but feel a strange familiarity in Zondervan's voice. They must have met before, somewhere, but Charles decided to not distract the other Belkan from his duties as it seemed he had some more important questions to answer.

"...Romeo, is it? Alright. Wolf, once you two are done up there, escort our friend to the nearest base, alright?" Zondervan said and the rough voiced Captain of Wolf gave a short roger, as he set his aircraft into a descent to meet up with Scott.

"Don't worry. We'll get you down safe, yeah? Boss, we'll catch up with ya later. 'Course, it won't take long for us to get to y'all, ha!" Barely a minute had passed before the Foxhounds were at the damaged plane's altitude. The two large fighters took their places near the Corsair and began to escort it to the nearby Capital Air Command base. Erika clicked her tongue.

"It's a bad day to be a Corsair pilot, huh?" Charles raised an eyebrow, but he realized what she meant when he saw the OMDF pilot's loaned F-16 and remembered the earlier events of that day.

"Mm." Charles acknowledged her comment without a word. He was exhausted.

"Thanks for the save, Major. We owe you one." The Yuke pilot spoke up and Anemi's pilots could feel the gratefulness emanating from her tone, but the Emmerian's comment sounded significantly less friendly.

"This is Mold. Does anyone know what happened to Rim-Light so that Zondervan seems to be in charge?" Since it was on the squadron frequency and thus unheard by the Belkans, Charles decided to give his opinion.

"No idea. Probably bugged out. But think of it this way; they destroyed a nuclear bomber, cleaned up the remaining enemies and covered us out of here. A bit too much trouble to go into just to betray us later, no?" Erika scoffed, but refrained from speaking her comment over the radio, instead leaning slightly and joked at the pilot.

"Is that some Belkan bias I smell, sir?" She had a playful tone, despite the situation, which greatly surprised Charles. He refrained from responding to it.

At this moment, Zondervan, who hadn't heard any of the conversation spoke up. "Peace Sparrow, you there? We need to get going. Follow us up and keep with us. We should be there in about five hours, if we keep around Mach 1. Can you all keep up at that speed?" He had a sly, calm tone, like that of most Belkans and Charles still couldn't shake the idea that he knew the man.

---

About five hours later, the pilots and their Belkan escorts found themselves in a northern part of the Ceres Ocean, a few dozen kilometers west of the Osean city of Fairwether. They had all refueled with little problems, from an Osean Air Defense Force KC-10, hopefully silencing Mold's worries for the time being. Most of the journey had once again been in silence, with only a few short conversations every now and again breaking the monotony of the sounds of the aircraft. Charles felt stiff in his seat and his WSO seemed to have fallen asleep. Finally, he broke the silence. "If I may ask, where are we going? A new base, of course, but where? I don't see anything on the map, radar, anything."

This time, the female leader of Wichianmat Squadron responded to him. "I read your file on the way here, 'Border-Boy'. Being a GRDF pilot, you of all people should know." Charles was about to argue when he noticed a formation of islands breaking the orange tinted gradiant of the sea. Surrounding it were large towers coming out of the waves and he could see lines of blinking lights linking each one. On the main island, he could barely see a rather large airfield near a beach, with many rusted and broken ships ranging from tankers to fishing boats lying abandoned on the damp sand. To the south of the airfield, a few wind turbines dotted the hills. The most notable however, was the fleet of old, dead aircraft that lied to the north of the airfield. Charles murmured in recogniton of the obscure General Resource Defense Force base.

"Solo Island..."