Ace Combat: Stricken Soul

The Hunt II

Mihaly engaged his first target. A Spare Squadron MiG-29A and yet to the surprise of his wingmen he didn't open fire on his opponent, he just toyed with the bandit like a predator stalking its prey. The enemy banked left and right and rolled until he switched on the airbrakes and performed a Cobra maneuver. Mihaly overshot the bandit and was now at a disadvantage as the enemy locked onto his SU-30SM. Thinking that he was an easy kill, Mihaly suddenly performed a Kulbit maneuver and fired a missile at the MiG-29 obliterating it.

"You could've done that sooner..." Sol 2 said.

"I want to understand the enemy," Mihaly replied.

After the Osean AWACS informed the enemy pilots of the shoot down the gloves came off. Sol Squadron quickly formed an element and engaged the bandits that were attacking Sol 1. Sol 6 finally caught his first glimpse of the infamous pilot that he had heard so many rumors about. The pilots plane was an F-15C with three lines on its tail. Three Strikes as they called him and he was the only one with the guts to fight Mihaly. During the battle, Sol 6 witnessed a missile strike Mihaly's plane and quickly moved in to provide support.

"sol 6 moving in to defend!"

"Do not interfere!" Sol 1 ordered.

Sol 6 reluctantly complied and focused on the other threats with Sol 2 and Sol 3. The weather made their job next to impossible with the constant lightning strikes and strong winds pushing their aircraft around like wooden gliders.

"A Morgan! How the hell did the Eruseans get their hands on one of those!?" Spare 9 asked shockingly.

"Less questions and more fighting!" Ban Dog ordered.

"That Morgan is mine then! Wait till the boys hear about this back at base!" Spare 9 replied.

Spare 9 had an altitude advantage over Sol 6 and used it to ambush him by diving at him and opening fire with the Mirage's twin 30mm cannons.

Sol 6's instincts kicked in and he quickly performed a barrel roll to dodge the tracer fire and then an Immelmann turn in hopes of shaking off the Mirage. Suddenly his plane was hit by a direct lightning strike which caused his HUD to go offline briefly. Purely on the defensive, Sol 6 dove towards the pillars and used them to his advantage to try and shake the Spare Squadron pilot off.

With Spare 9 on his six again, Sol 6 performed a high yo-yo maneuver careful not to exceed the seven G limit on the Morgan's Zoisite pod and found himself on the Mirage's tail. He then fired a missile but the bandit had deployed flares which spoofed the missile. He selected the TLS and took aim and waited for the Mirage to pass through the clouds. Once through the cloud cover, he had to guess where the laser beam would hit without the help of the HUD. He pressed the trigger and a bright red ray of light emitted from the TLS pod, guiding the beam towards the bandit and ripping the Mirage to pieces. With the mirage down, Sol 6 breathed a sigh of relief and checked his instruments. The multifunction displays were still functioning and the HUD Finally came back online after the fighting had ended.

"Sol 1, Sol 6, the clouds are moving in. Let's return to base."

"Copy that." Sol 6 sighed.

"Affirmative..." Sol 1 said.

"That was a pretty quick fight..." Sol 6 sighed in annoyance.

"Yeah...Who knew the weather would be this bad? And that pilot that Sol 1 fought against...he wasn't your average Osean fighter jock...that guy had skill." Sol 3 replied.

"I think the day I face Three Strikes is the day that I die." Sol 6 said.

"Holy hell you're such a pessimist!" Sol 3 sighed, "Lighten up, kid! Maybe Mr. Three Strikes just got lucky today..."