Starbound Ascension: The Next Generation

Chapter Five: Shattered Skies and Demon Legends

Another month had passed and the NGJSF had some time to relax. Prelude was back on the team as he was playing a round of air hockey with Jet. With a deft flick of a hoof he scored a point as the plastic puck clanked on the edges of the table.

“Yeah! I win!” Prelude celebrated, “It's good to be back.”

“Yeah, we missed you dude. Have you met the new recruits yet?” Jet turned off the hockey table and walked down the halls with his friend.

“Nah man. I haven't had time since I got back two days ago. My legs are good as new though.”

Jet smiled, “That healing potion is probably the best thing since sliced bread got up and walked. Anywho, I'm loving these newbs man. I tell ya, Flip delivers as a combat medic. In the sim he's saved our ass almost all the time. He's definitely a keeper and we needed a medic. Water Wings is good to talk to when you're interested in what she's into. I gave her the nickname of Passion or Pass for short. She's been a real help in training the others in underwater operations. Now let's not forget about Red. Ho boy he is a the life of the party and then some. Loves to have fun and hang out with comrades like us especially when there is vodka involved. He loves to fly VTOLs, bombers, and helicopters but mostly for ground attack. He's good too! He has a fine balance of risk taking and calculation. That makes us twenty one but we still have room to grow. Say, I overheard Ship talking about hiring more new recruits.”

Prelude looked to his friend and cocked his head, “Really now?”

“Yeah,” Jet lead him to the mess hall where he grabbed a can of soda and gulped it down, “Ahh! Says we need more fighter pilots for the upcoming wargame with the Federation.”

“Oh shit! How could I have forgotten all about that?” Prelude sighed.

“Oh don't worry. It's an air superiority mission this time. We're in charge of a simulated defense of Comona Base off mainland Equestria!” Jet walked past a trash can and dunked the empty tin inside.

“Comona Base? THE Comona Base? That is where Applebloom Engineering launches all their private spacecraft and testbeds. A lot of the planes we fly now were tested there you know,” Prelude went on.

“Yeah, I still remember the day when the F/A-38 Lightning II went into service. It was hard to say goodbye to my last F-35A but I am loving the VTOL thrusters of that plane. Heheh, that's another thing different about me from my father. I actually enjoy shooting up ground targets.”

“Hard to believe we were only flying prop planes forty five years ago. Once the aliens started to invade our tech just sky rocketed.”

“I know right?” Jet knocked on the door to Flip's room, “Say I gotta talk to Flip. Catch you later Prelude.”

“See ya dude,” Prelude went off as Flip answered his door.

“Heya!” Jet greeted, “Mind if I come in?”

“No not at all sir!” Flip smiled weakly.

“Oh come on dude. Call me Jet when we're around here. We're all friends.”

“Yes sir,” Flip saluted.

“Are you just doing that to fuck with me?” Jet glanced at Flip, amused.

“Sir no sir...” there was an awkward pause before Flip and Jet started giggling like idiots, “Okay, so I was.”

“Haa! So how you settling in Rookie?” Jet made himself comfortable on a bean bag chair.

“See for yourself!” Flip extended one of his wings to show off his room. He felt very trusting of his new commander, “Plush furniture, sky blue nano-pigments, and a cloudy theme to boot. I grew up in Cloudsdale after all.”

“Yeah, same with my mom. Did I tell you that I was actually the second one born in space?”

“What, no way!” Flip sat down on his bed.

“Yeah, I was an experiment to see if the pony species could reproduce outside our home planet. Obviously it worked. Say, is that a model of an F-35B on your desk?”

“Oh why yes!” Flip carefully showed it to Jet, “It's what I used to fly. Now I fly a Fenrir. I've always loved VTOL air superiority fighters.”

“Hey! Me too! I fly that F/A-38 Lightning II in the hangar!” Jet got up and sat next to Flip.

“I was wondering who flew that. Tell you what, I've learned a special maneuver that can only be done with certain VTOL aircraft. The reason why I like the F-35B, Fenrir, Shinden II, and Lightning II is their extremely high thrust to weight ratio. With their ratios over one to one it is possible for them to so something called a Reverse Maneuver. I've practiced it many times with the Fenrir and it's best suited with that aircraft. However, I know that the F/A-38 has a better thrust to weight ratio than the Fenrir so that is something I have not tested.”

Jet's eyes widened, “Ooo! Teach me!”

“Alright. You wanna boot up the simulation?”

Jet hopped off and trotted to the door, “Meet you in the hangar!”

Inside the hangar of the EMS Sky Buster were rows of fighter planes all docked in their sections. Jet's F/A-38 was locked in place by metal arms that secured the fighter for safe storage like the rest. He climbed the deployable ladder and entered his cockpit. SUSAN was there to guide him.

HELLO CAPTAIN JET. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO WITH YOUR FIGHTER?

“Run a simulation, free flight and clear weather. Link me up to Flip's Fenrir so he can join in the training.”

ROGER CAPTAIN JET. BOOTING UP SIMULATION.

The cockpit canopy of Jet's fighter slid closed as the holographic projectors replaced the hangar bay with a clear blue open sky simulated onto the glass. Jet flew on for a few seconds before getting a notice from SUSAN.

FIRST LIEUTENANT FLIP FLASH HAS JOINED THE SERVER.

“Yo!” Jet pulled up to Flip's Fenrir and waved.

“Hi Captain. Alright let's start the training,” Flip pulled away to gain some distance from Jet, “Stay there, we are going to go into a merge.”

“Roger, SUSAN designate Flip's fighter as hostile on IFF. We are proceeding with dogfight!”

YES SIR CAPTAIN.

With four rapid beeps the HUD icon for Flip turned from a friendly blue to a hostile red. Jet pulled away and got into position for a head on merge.

“Angels four! Bandit identified!” Jet's missiles growled with their lock on tone, “Fox two! Fox two!”

Jet ripple fired two sidewinders and rolled as he performed a break turn to turn back into his opponent. Before he knew what happened the radar blip of Flip's fighter pulled a complete 180 almost instantly and Flip was right on the tail of Jet.

“Shit! He's on my tail!” Jet punched his throttle backwards and pulled his fighter sharply up to perform his father's signature cobra maneuver. Flip kept pace as he performed his Reverse Maneuver to counter Jet's cobra stall, “What the Tartarus?!”

“Gotcha,” Flip engaged Jet with his guns and ripped him apart. Jet's fighter exploded in a flurry of fire and debris and his screen displayed a message.

YOU ARE KILLED IN ACTION. ONE POINT GOES TO FLIP.

Jet respawned far away from Flip as his simulation rebooted, “Holy shit! I have never seen anyone counter a cobra stall like that!”

Flip pulled up to Jet as his plane caught up, “You wanna know how I do it? Watch me!”

The Fenrir turned over onto its belly while simultaneously vectoring its VTOL thrusters downwards. Flip then firewalled the throttle while pushing the stick all the way down to recover his fighter in a horizontal stance. Jet looked at his moves with wide admiration.

“That is something I've never seen before! Now I understand how you countered my cobra stall! It's a cobra stall in reverse. You used gravity to help you turn!”

“Exactly! You know what I noticed though. This move can only be performed by pegasi. It pulls a lot of negative Gs and some of my earth pony or unicorn squadron mates suffered from severe red outs from pulling this move,” Flip explained.

“I know what you mean. We're built to handle that kind of G force.”

“Wanna give it a shot Jet?”

“You bet Flip!” Jet was quick to roll onto his belly, reverse his thrusters, then push the throttle to full while nosing down to recover his fighter. He was now facing in the opposite direction from where he started, “HO HOO! WOO! Now that is a neat trick!”

“Yeah, great to see you quick to pick up. You actually turned a lot tighter than me,” Flip waved to him.

“You wanna test it? Let's pull it in sync!” Jet gave him a zealous smirk.

“Let's!” they rolled at the same time with Jet's craft completing the half roll before the Fenrir. The thrust vectoring nozzles of both jets shot downward with a bright plume of afterburners as they pulled up to recover from their moves. Jet was the first to finish by a mere three quarters of a second.

“YEAH!” Jet cheered, “Nailed it!”

“Like I predicted! The F/A-38 is actually better than the Fenrir in performing the Reverse Maneuver. Well done Captain!”

“I gotta say Flip. You really live up to your name.”

“As do you Captain,” their simulation ended and their cockpits slide open.

The intercom announced with Ship's voice, “Attention all ponies. Please report to the hangar bay to welcome our two new members! Remember: be formal and be friendly.”

“Well, no need for us to change,” Jet and Flip were already in their flight uniforms. Brainstorm and Rush were the first to arrive to the hangar as they guided in a stealth version of a Hornet fighter dubbed the F/A-18U ADV to land with a tractor beam. The fighter landed gently as it was placed inside the hangar bay with the zero point energy manipulation ray. The canopy of the aircraft was all metal with tiny camera nodes all over that projected images into the cockpit. This was reverse engineered UPF technology handed to Equestria to use in their fighters. The canopy slid open and two ponies climbed out and onto the deck. All of the NGJSF stood by to greet them.

Ship came forward with the formal introduction, “Everypony, I'd like you to meet Oliveros Hornet and Blue Circuit. Hornet is an ace pilot who volunteered to assist us in the upcoming battle. As you all know: we needed more pilots like him.”

“Hola mis amigos! Second Lieutenant Hornet reporting for duty!” the white earth pony with blue mane saluted to his new unit. There was a stripe of yellow running down the middle of his messy mane and flowing tail.

“Ace huh. We'll see what you got in the sim before we let you in on the wargame with the Feds. It's great to have a fellow flier on the team,” Jet shook Hornet's hoof.

“Gracias me amigo,” Hornet smiled and got back in line with the other new recruit.

“Hornet, Establecirse y relajarse ,” Ship talked to him in Spanish.

“Si senora!” Hornet saluted again and walked down the hallway out of the hangar.

“Blue Circuit step forward!”

“Yes Captain Ship!” Blue was a grey unicorn with black and single blue striped mane and tail stylized roughly the same as Rainbow Dash. He was clad in a heavily modified Federation Exo Suit.

“Whoa, is that?” Fragarach looked with awe.

“Eeyup. This is a ponified Mark Three exo suit used by the United Planetary Federation. It's a lot better than our pulse jump tech in open areas and it weighs half as much as our 3D maneuver gear with our jump packs like what you guys are used to,” Circuit showed off his piece of advanced hardware.

Jet noticed his flank, “So, with that cutie mark of yours I see you play a lot of video games?”

“Hell yeah! Mostly Call to Duty and Harry's Mod. I got a gaming channel on the internet if you wanna check it out.”

“Sweet! I love those games! So how'd you end up in the military?” Jet continued.

“I first joined to pay for my college tuition and from there it just kinda took off. I was assigned to study UPF weapons, Earth United Force weapons, and shit like that when I served so I can get you some stuff if you need be,” Circuit checked his exo suit.

“Very well! Welcome to the team buddy!” Jet shook his hoof and saluted back to Blue.

“Alright everypony at ease! Show our new guys around and help them get settled in,” Ship ordered to all her crew, “Dismissed!”

They all scattered to do their own things and welcome the new recruits. They had two days to relax and get ready for the fight with the Federation on Equestrian soil.

With a new sense of calm that radiated the ship the crew of the EMS Sky Buster settled down for the night. Aside from the usual night owls like Brainstorm and Mac Book the rest of the crew went off to their private quarters for a good nights sleep. Jet and Nelly were bunked in the same room as the happy couple they were.

“Coming to bed dear?” Nelly purred as she wiggled into the blanket and pillow.

“One second sweetheart, something is horribly wrong here,” Jet continued to type away at his computer.

Nelly sat up, “What is it?”

Jet continued to type, “Somepony is WRONG on my internets...”

Nelly rolled her eyes and hopped off the bed to nuzzle her boyfriend's chin. Jet started to melt and giggle.

“Ookaay,” Jet placed his computer in shut down mode and trotted over to the bed. He softly lifted up and landed on the right side as he put the blanket over him and his girlfriend. Nelly squeaked.

“I love you Jet,” she squeaked again as Jet pulled her closer. They were face to face and nuzzled noses all the while giggling to each other.

“You are just the most adorable thing ever,” Jet embraced her smaller frame. Nelly was always the shorter one among her friends due to her premature birth. That didn't stop her from joining the military with Jet and his sister right out of high school though. Nelly flicked her flowing and fluffy cream tail and snuggled into Jet's arms.

“Can you-” she purred again meekly, “Wrap your wings around me Jet?”

“Mhmm,” Jet caressed her in a loving embrace of his wings and arms. Nelly took one of his wings and covered her eyes with it, “Just like how your mom does it?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, “Whenever I was scared as a little filly I'd hide in my mom's wings and pretend nothing bad will ever happen to me. I was always so small that I could fit under her wings.”

Nelly continued to nuzzle Jet's loving wing. She blushed as the warmth of her lovers body comforted her. Jet shared with her a deep and intimate kiss. They broke off and Jet gently stroked Nelly's mane.

“Sleep tight Nelly girl,” Jet ran a hoof to her ear and took off her bow. They settled in and slept in each others arms.

A few days later and on the eve of the operation the Next Generation Joint Strike Force gathered in their war room to sit down for the briefing. Ship was at front of the board and presented to them using the holograms.

“A large combined force of Federation vessels and aircraft will be advancing west from the ocean directly toward Comona base. Intel is vague but we do know they'll be trying to land forces on the shores to capture the base. Your job today is to engage the enemy, disrupt landing operations, and suppress both their air superiority and naval gunfire directed at our forces ashore.”

SUSAN took over with her mechanical voice.

THE FEDERATION WILL ATTACK IN TWO WAVES. FIRST IS AN AIRBORNE ASSAULT THAT WILL TRY TO LAND AIRBORNE TANKS AND PARATROOPERS TO SOFTEN UP COMONA DEFENSES. THIS ASSAULT WILL BE ESCORTED BY FIGHTERS BUT WE CANNOT CONFIRM THE PRESENCE OF TASK FORCE FROSTBITE EITHER IN THE AIR OR ON THE GROUND. THE FINAL WAVE WILL BE AN ASSAULT FROM THEIR AMPHIBIOUS LANDING CRAFT. CURRENTLY EQUUS AS NO INTELIGENCE ON THE ARMAMENT OF UPF SURFACE NAVAL SHIPS. EXPECT HEAVY RESISTANCE.

“Thank you Susan,” Ship nodded once, “There will be a lot of new pilots flying out there today from the mainland. We're launching every nearby aircraft capable of anti-ship warfare regardless of combat experience. This concludes your briefing! Saddle up everypony!”

They rushed to the aircraft hangar bay and gravitated to their fighters. Automated maintenance and preflight checks were conducted on each craft as the pilots climbed in. Jet, Avia, Tough Heart, Night Petal, Morning Shine, Scratch, Piggle, Flip, and Hornet were all selected for the mission.

Jet's plane was an F/A-38 Lightning II. Based off the F-35 design copied off human blueprints this Equestrian modification gave the craft a larger fuselage with more weapons capacity, twin 3D thrust vectoring engines, and streamlined it into a delta, roughly hexagonal, wing configuration. It was also a vertical take off jet capable of sustained hovering as it runs off magic instead of fossil fuels like the rest of the advanced aircraft the NGJSF flew.

Another Equestrian modification was the Panavia Cyclone. This was the plane that Avia flew and is an enhanced stealth fighter derived from the Panavia Tornado from which her father named her after. It was modified with twin tails, thrust vectoring, holographic cockpit displays, and an advanced avionics suite to boot.

Tough Heart's was the bastard child of an F-22 and an F/A-18E. Rightfully dubbed the F/A-40B this aircraft was a modified F-22 with F/A-18 air intakes, anhedral winglets, and the aircraft has the ability to adopt a low-drag cruising mode, in which its rear vertical surfaces and virtually every external piece of equipment folds down to minimize drag, increasing the aircraft's overall mission range in supercruise. It was a tough fighter that was hard to take down thanks to Tough's modified armor plating.

Petal had a plane unique to Equestria. The F-32 Umbra was a creation by Applebloom Engineering ordered by Princess Luna. This swept forward wing plane was designed from the ground up to be a completely stealthy aircraft with planform alignment used on all surfaces and edges that could give away the aircraft. Coated with more radar absorbent material than the other fighters the NGJSF flew the Umbra also has a built in optical camouflage that renders the plane nearly invisible. Its canards and ruddervators could also move up and down with variable geometry.

“All wings check in!” Jet formed up with his squadron as they flew on in the bright blue skies of Equus.

“Halo squadron on standby,” a flight of twelve F-14X aircraft pulled up next to the NGJSF.

“Viper squadron is ready,” another squad pulled up off Jet's left wing. This time they flew twelve MiG-21Xs.

“Look at those planes. They're so ancient they could be in a museum,” Morning looked to the two allied squadrons from his XFA-27. It was a sleek, angular design with variable geometry wings and magical, high-output engines, giving it an extreme level of maneuverability and acceleration. A distinguishing feature of the jet is the Scarface Missile Bay System (MBS), a software upgrade that disables weapon launch limits, allowing it to release four missiles in quick succession. Morning's fighter also used cameras on the bottom of the plane to ensure maximum visibility while retaining a conventional glass canopy with integrated holographic projectors.

“I know right? Applebloom Engineering is putting a lot of money into keeping these oldies flying,” Flip commented as he touched the side of his canopy. His Fenrir is distinguished by its unusually large body. It uses a polyhedral cropped delta configuration with bent wingtips, a V-tail, canards and dual air intakes. The frontal landing gear is housed within the mouth-like pod beneath the cockpit. It uses dual thrust vectoring engines, aided by a smaller powerplant between both, which give it V/STOL capabilities. Like most aircraft of the NGJSF it was equipped with camera nodes to view the outside of the plane in real time and in almost 360 degrees.

“Hey, you guys are gonna provide some CAP for Piggle and I right? We've only got ground attackers here,” Scratch flew an aircraft called the A-164 Wipeout. It was a single-seat aircraft used for close air support and ground attack. Derived from the A-10, it was a reduced radar cross section aircraft that was a result from a limited development budget for Equestria. The previous A-10 airframe was improved with better shape, engines and armaments to give this fighter a better chance on the modern battlefield.

“Please guard us while we stay out of the fight and await their ships to come in,” Piggle looked up as Scratch sailed past his To-119 Neophron. Based off the Human Yak-130 it had a longer fuselage, wing, and control surfaces than its predecessor and was able to carry almost twice as much armament.

“Do not fear my amigo. Just keep back and we will handle the incoming flight! You just remain guarding Comona Base from low altitude and under our SAM umbrella!” Hornet's plane was more standard issue. Like most Equestrian aircraft it was a modified human design passed down to them from Earth. It was an evolved model of the F/A-18E using the standard camera mounted cockpit and updated with new radar absorbent materials and a stealthy airframe.

Their radios beeped to life, “Attention all aircraft. This is Comona Base! The defense of this facility is critical. Maintain air superiority until the simulation has concluded!”

“Hey, wasn't that Applebloom?” Flip asked Jet.

“Yeah it was. Enemy formation bearing 2-8-0! NGJSF is cleared to engage!” Jet gave the order to commence the fight, “I sure hope these new countermeasures work Brainstorm.”

“Halo 10 engaging!” One of the Aparling pilots said over the radio.

“Glad to see the Aparling pilots apply themselves. They really boosted our air power for this op,” Avia commented as she broke away and up past the clouds.

With their cockpit displays augmenting reality the simulation was now in full effect. The virtual explosions and steel carnage were mixed with the reality of their full intensive training.

One of the UPF pilots radioed out on an open channel as he engaged Jet's fighter, “I'm in position! Engaged!”

“He's on my tail! I'm in a break turn!” Jet pulled his fighter in a downward turn to try and evade the Federation Fi-2 on his tail. Capable of hypersonic speed and supreme maneuverability, the Fi-2 is the mainstay of all UPF fighter squadrons. It has standard generation six features like the integrated flight system that enables the pilot to see any adversary from range without a HUD thereby increasing combat awareness. With the aircraft's plasma fueled turbines, it is able to go without refueling for years using a chunk of uranium the size of a pebble. The fighter’s odd forward swept X-wing does give it some drag, but with such powerful engines it is no problem for the Fi-2 to go hypersonic without failure and the arrangement of the wings gives it almost godly powers in a close range dogfight, being so maneuverable that without the fly-by-wire systems, enhanced life support, and G suit nanobots the pilot would die from lack of oxygen to the brain within a matter of seconds in high-G turns. The stealthiness of this aircraft has been upgraded over the years and can now evade all but the most sensitive radars. 3-D thrust vectoring also contributes to the fighter’s remarkable prowess. Among the major space powers the Fi-2 was the most agile aircraft known to date.

However, Jet had a few tricks up his sleeve. Being a pegasus he was able to out turn even the legendary Fi-2 in his rapid twelve G snap turn. This caught the Federation pilot by surprise as Jet pulled in for an easy kill.

“Vertical! Fox Two! Fox Two!” Jet depressed the button on his joystick twice to fire two virtual missiles that closed in and detonated. It was a confirmed kill and the enemy pilot was taken out of the simulation as he egressed from the combat area. Another Federation Fi-2 came in behind Jet to close in for a missile launch, “Shit! Got one on my tail!”

The enemy fighter launched two missiles. These were the dreaded electro-optical missiles hated by the Equestrian pilots. Jet turned into the missiles to try and get them to overshoot. It was no joy as the missiles kept pace.

“Vertical! ECM deployed!” Jet popped off an EMP pulse from his modified engines which caught the missiles in an aura of magic and short circuited the electronics within. The simulation was doing well to factor in the real life EMP pulse with the imaginary projectiles in the programming matrix, “Missile evaded! Missile evaded! HAHA! Brainstorm your ECM worked!”

On the EMS Sky Buster Brainstorm and Mac Book high fived as they orbited above the combat zone, “Good deal Jet! Glad to see my invention leveled the playing field!”

On the enemy side the pilot of the Fi-2 looked on as the Equestrian plane dodged the missile, “What the hell? Command, my electro-optical missile failed to connect! I'm breaking!”

Admiral Ghost Robert Lee shrugged, “Missile failure, try it again.”

“Swellow five! Vulpix Two! Vulpix Two!” the enemy plane launched another volley at Jet. The two missiles were fried by the magical EMP of Jet's fighter and fell into the ocean harmlessly, “Confirmed! Equestri-”

“Swellow five! Respond!” Ghost sat by, “Well he's dead. Back to the boat for you Swellow five. Do not finish that report. We can't have any metagaming.”

“Solid copy command. I'm KIA'd.”

Tough Heart flew in with his F/A-40 and shot down that Fi-2 with a well aimed EML shot, “Tough Guy confirmed kill on a bandit!”

“Thanks for the save!” Jet formed up with his friend, “Sis where are you at?”

“Nowhere special. I detected a UPF AWACs flying at angels 3-6. I'm engaged!” Avia threw her fighter into a near vertical climb up to thirty six thousand feet to intercept a Federation radar plane. Unknown to them that they could not escape the fast climb rate of Avia's Cyclone fighter. Their last calls were broadcasted on open mic.

“Bandit's right on me!”

“Radar lock!” Avia announced, “Fox Two! Fox Two!”

Her missiles slammed into the recon plane. This disabled the Federation's sensor fused technology.

“What's going on?! My radar went dark!” one of the enemy pilots got his radio call intercepted by the Aparling pilots.

“Equestrian command, this is Queen Chrysalis. My soldiers have decrypted their radio frequencies and are relaying them all to your command and control teams,” the Aparling queen announced to the Equestrian pilots.

“Nice to hear from you regal queen!” Morning Shine smiled, “Your pilots are doing well out there!”

“I am proud that you gave us a chance to live in glorious combat. My subjects couldn't be happier,” Queen Chrysalis stood by with Celestia, Luna, and Applebloom as they watched the battle unfold. QC looked to the two princesses, “No hard feelings my new friends?”

“None at all. I thank you for your assistance in our endeavors. This battle is critical for our foreign relations with the UPF. If we fail to impress them, like always, they will retract their support and recognition as a foreign power. Personally I do not agree with the current president's ways,” Celestia sat stoic.

“My sister, have faith in our Joint Strike Force. They will turn the tides of battle for us no matter what the Federation throws at us,” Luna put a hoof on her sister's wing.

“I have faith in them. What do you have to say about this situation Miss Applebloom?”

Applebloom smiled and looked up. Her executive business suit well groomed as the CEO of the largest engineering company on Equus, “I reckon they'll pull through. Ma company needs the money and trade from them Federation folks. It's a real shame that they all ain't so friendly to us ponies.”

“Inferior our technology may be, but our hearts are stronger as the meek among space empires. Fight on soldiers of Equus!” Celestia called out to her pilots which filled their hearts with fire.

“Yes ma'am!” the whole NGJSF shouted in unison.

Morning Shine launched a volley of four individual missiles that tracked different targets, “Dawn Light, Fox Three! Fox Three!”

Two of his four missiles connected to some Type 10 Cazador fighters like the ones flown by Frostbite earlier. The fighter itself is a multirole platform capable of both interception and ground suppression. The sleek design and robust engineering of the fighter enables speed and agility that far outmatches the earlier Type 1 Wasp it replaced. It still has the standard integrated metal cockpit of previous Federation fighters as well as passive stealth and various other features common in generation seven type fighter craft. The baseline model can be upgraded to suit the senior pilot's preferences but these Cazadors were stock aircraft and not painted in the blue and cyan trim of Task Force Frostbite.

“Splash two Cazadors! Be advised, they weren't Frostbite!” Morning radioed out.

“That's strange. Frostbite should be here by now,” one of the enemy radio messages caught the ear of Jet.

“Don't worry. They'll be here soon enough. Just cover the transports so they can land the airborne tanks!” two enemies were caught with their radios.

Jet vectored his radio to his team, “Guys! Ship did you hear that?”

“I heard it Jet,” Mac answered, “Confirmed on intel. Frostbite is here! Somewhere. Use extreme caution! They might be mixed up with the others!”

“Copy that Mac! I'm sneaking up on their transports now,” Petal used her stealth to slip behind the enemies and pick off the Bo-1C cargo planes and Pelipper dropships. Her Umbra fighter dipped in and out of cloak to confuse the enemies around her.

“What was that?! There was a shimmer of light and a missile came out of nowhere shooting down that Pelipper!”

“It's an optical cloaking craft! Try and locate that shimmer to take it down!” the enemy pilots talked back and forth.

“I don't think so,” Hornet flew into the enemy formation to disrupt them, “Usted no está consiguiendo lejos! Hornet! Fox Two!”

Another transport was downed by the NGJSF. Hornet bagged the kill as he flew up to bait some planes onto his tail.

“Flip! I've got the banditos on my tail! You engage!”

“Roger that 'Net! Madman, Fox Two! Fox Two!” Flip shot two missiles and juggled two targets that were chasing Hornet, “Guns! Guns! Guns!”

Flip finished off another two fighters trailing Hornet to total his kill count of four. Jet flew near him as he chased a Cazador fighter.

“That's your callsign Rookie?” Jet chuckled, “Guess it fits you huh Madman?”

“Call me whatever you want sir!” Flip pulled away to follow his flight leader, “Sir you got bandits on your tail! I'm engaging!”

“Solid copy! Breaking!” Jet broke off from his target and turned into the Fi-2s chasing him. The rest of his squadron was engaged with the enemy transports.

“This is Tough Guy! Half the transports have been shot down but a few slipped through our defenses! They've parachuted their tanks and we are trying to shoot them down before they land!”

“Copy that Tough,” Avia descended from high altitude.

“If we shoot the parachutes before the tanks detach, we'll smash them into the ground. Are we gonna do it Tornado?” Shine looked to Avia off his left wing.

“Yeah, it's the fastest way to do it.”

“I guess we have no other choice. It's kind of a cruel strategy if this was real,” Morning accelerated to the base as the tanks started to drift downward.

“Be advised! Airborne tanks are dropping off from the transport planes!” Tough Heart shot at a parachute of one of the tanks. On his screen the parachute deflated and the tank plummeted to the ground. The tank crew however was unharmed and popped up a white flag to signal their virtual death.

“Dammit! They shot out our parachute. I told those fighters to mop up the air forces before we landed but they didn'st listen! Where the fuck is Frostbite?” the UPF tankers landed softly on the base and got out of their tank to stretch and watch the beautiful air battle above.

On the other side one of the Delcatty officers of the UPF intercepted some encryptions of the Equus forces, “Admiral Lee! The Equestrians have tapped into our radios!”

“It doesn't matter. I order all units to switch to psyonic comms!” Ghost gave his order and the radios of the UPF pilots fell silent. No other calls could be heard from their frequencies.

An Aparling operator inside the control center for Comona base turned to his queen and the two princesses, “Queen Chrysalis and Princesses! All radio communications of the Federation have gone silent! Yet their combat effectiveness has remained unbroken!”

“Well you heard their last call. They are using some sort of psychic power augmented by technology. I want you to decrypt it and feed our allies the information!”

“Yes my queen!” the operator typed furiously as his pulsating cobalt circuits melded with the computer to hack into the UPF network.

Meanwhile back in the air Jet and the others worked their radios to hear the UPF chatter, “Hey! Where'd the chit chat go?”

Mac Book worked with the Aparling operator on the base, “UPF switched to some kind of mind reading tech! It's gonna take some time but those Changelings are cracking their network! Won't be long until my cheat codes work again!”

“Can you count all those parachutes? I gave up already!” Morning Shine felt overwhelmed by the swarm of enemy tanks, “Scratch! Piggle you're up!”

“Finally! Some action!” Piggle smiled, “Our planes are great against those ground targets!”

“Kitty and Warpig are engaging hostile ACVs! Guns! Guns! Guns!” Scratch and Piggle used the 30mm cannons of their jets to kill off the advancing tanks. Their guns and anti tank missiles made short work of the enemy ground forces that landed at the base.

“Good effect on target Kitty and Warpig!” Mac Book zoomed in with his satellite view, “I see a lot of UPF armor with white kill flags! You know those guys probably got the best seat in the house.”

“That and the base personnel. I hope somepony important is watching this!” Scratch had a face of crazed fury, “Meow meow!”

“Great, she's gone crazy again,” Piggle rolled his eyes as the growling from his cannon took out another row of tanks with virtual explosions, “Times four ACVs destroyed!”

“Solid copy! All fighters have been shot down!”

“Done with the hack my queen! I've tapped into their signals!”

Static came before the sound of a familiar voice, “...All UPF fighters leave the NGJSF to us.”

“Alright! It's Frostbite! You heard the Buizel guys! Deal with the minnows so TFF can hunt the whales!” the enemy thought patterns were vocalized on the Equestrian radio.

“Alright team! Form up! Form up!” Jet ordered all of his squadron together, “bring your A-game! Reload all weapons!”

They took a moment to activated a magic spell that reloaded all the weapons in their internal bays. Missiles and belts of cannon rounds replenished their depleted supplies.

“All weapons fully loaded brother. Let's take on Frostbite two to one. I'll take Mitch with you!” Avia nodded to her brother.

“I've got a score to settle. Shine, you and me are on Quincy,” Tough washed over with zeal. The orange heart on his chest puffed up as adrenaline flowed in his veins.

“Roger that,” Shine saluted.

“Night Petal, you go after Alyssa. Rook, 'Net I want you to go after the stupid panda girl with the spiral emblem. Copy that?”

“Yes sir!” Flip nodded once to Jet.

“Battle now, party later amigo!” Hornet's hairs stood on ends, “Woo!”

“Petal, affirmative,” Night took a deep breathe, “It's go time.”

“First round volley! Fox Three! Fox Three!” Jet and his squadron launched their long range missiles first at Frostbite. The four fighters had no trouble evading their missiles as they drew in closer, “Another volley! Fox Three! Fox Three!”

Another wave of missiles shot out from the NGJSF planes. None connected.

Frostbites thoughts were intercepted and Alyssa was the first to ready her weapon, “Marksman, DRIVE DRIVE!”

Jet instantly knew that code word as the massive pods attached to Alyssa's fighter opened up to launch hundreds of micro missiles at the NGJSF, “ADMMs! ADMMs! BREAK BREAK HARD!”

They all scattered the formation and kicked their EMP magic. Several missiles exploded but none of Jet and his friends were caught in the blast. The enemy fighters merged with the Joint Strike Force. Jet caught a glimpse of a brand new Federation prototype being used by Frostbite.

“Jet did you see that?!” Avia turned with her brother to try and get onto one of the enemy aerospace fighters. The sleek blended delta of the new fighter could be seen as it pulled a sharp turn with Jet and his sister. They could see canards built into the leading edge and miniture thrusters mounted on the wingtips that vectored downwards with the main engines. The enemy fighter bled its speed in an instant with a cobra stall aided by VTOL thrusters and a giant lift fan in the center of the fighter.

“Blue and grey, Cyan trim, it's them alright! Shit! He's on our tail Avia! Break away! He'll be forced to chose!” Jet and Avia split away to try and perform a thach weave to cover each others tails. The fighter seemingly split in two as a hologram projection made a doppleganger.

“What?!” Avia glanced back trying to evade, “Is that a glitch?!”

“Shit! I'm getting locked! Are you Avia? Ah! I'm dumping ECM!” Jet fried a missile launched at him from the enemy fighter.

“I don't know which is which!” Avia was getting lock on tones as well from her pursuer. Whether it was fake or not she could not tell, “ECM dumped!”

“Hey, these new holographic hacks are doing wonders. I'm juggling Jet and Avia and I've got them wrapped around my finger,” Mitch's fighter was hacking into Jet and Avia's avionics to falsely display two enemies chasing them both. It was a cyber attack that sowed confusion among the two.

“Which one are you tailing Mitch? I've got some rookies I'm messing with!” Strella snickered as her own plane hacked into the sensor fused technology of the Equus planes. Flip and Hornet were shooting at each other as their IFF was altered and their planes replaced with 3D models of enemy aircraft.

“I'm tailing Jet right now. He's all mine!”

Jet's pupils widened, “Avia! The one chasing you is the phoney! Hit Mitch!”

“Roger! Tornado, Fox Two! Fox Two!” Avia ignored the false missile locks and got one of her missiles to impact onto Mitch's fighter. One of the engines gave out and his VTOL mechanism was shot out.

“What?! How did they know! And how are they dodging our missiles?!” Mitch's mind was clear as an open book over the open channel, unknown to him.

“It was a lucky guess! Can you reengage?” Quincy the Glaceon had his plane hack into the master arm of Tough and Morning. They could not launch missiles and were only forced to use guns.

“Negative! Negative! I'm losing thrust!” Mitch was trying his best to keep in the fight. His thrust vectoring was no longer operational and Jet slipped in right behind him.

“Vertical! Launching Sky Buster missiles!” as an act of overkill Jet launched four long range missiles at short range into the tail of the enemy plane. The four missiles impacted one after the other and Mitch's plane was blown into a thousand pieces as a simulated confirmed kill, “WE GOT HIM!! SPLASH ONE FROSTBITE BANDIT!”

“Mitch is down! I repeat! Flight lead is down!” Quincy reported to his squadron, “It's three on seven now!”

“Roger! I'm done toying around,” Strella stopped her hack and accelerated to form up with her squadron. Flip and Hornet were aimlessly trying to pursue themselves.

“Flip! I'm on your side!” Hornet's plane returned to normal and so did Flip's.

“What?! My IFF was inop! That enemy plane was hacked into my avionics!” Flip pulled up next to Hornet, “Are you okay?!”

“I have to RTB! I've suffered simulated damage on my ailerons and I've got holes in my starboard wing thanks to you,” Hornet glared at Flip.

“Sorry buddy. RTB to fight another day. I'll cover for you,” Flip escorted Hornet back to Comona Base but another Federation prototype jumped him from above, “I've got a hard enemy spike! I'm breaking!”

“Oh it wasn't you I was aiming for,” Alyssa switched her targets and went for Hornet. With a quick burst of her pulse plasma vulcan she shot off Hornet's damaged wing and it died trailing smoke in the virtual space. Inside Hornet's plane there was a simple: You are killed message that displayed on his screen.

“Hornet is down!” Flip climbed to chase Alyssa.

“That makes it a little more fair,” Alyssa smirked, “Marksman splash one JSF.”

“They sure are putting up a tougher fight! New countermeasures and more team members. I'm glad to see them evolve like this,” Quincy smiled as he tried to engage Jet and Avia.

Night Petal used her optical cloaking to sneak up on Quincy as he was turning with Jet and Avia, “You forgot about me! Shadow! Fox Two! Fox Two!”

The close range missile launch wasn't fooled by the flares launched by the UPF prototype. With a solid impact Quincy was forced into a virtual ejection.

“Wahoo! Shadow splash one Frostbite!” Petal pulled up into the clouds.

“Ally! You are I are the only ones left! Time to double team!” Strella suggested to her wingman.

“Roger! You and I stick together! We'll fill the skies with our holograms!” the two prototypes started to split off into multiple fake fighters.

“Alright! NGJSF listen close to their transmissions to see which one is real and which one is fake! They said they'll stick together so watch for any suspicious behavior!” Jet order to his friends.

“Roger that. I've got four bandits on my tail! Evading!” Flip was using his crazed moves and erratic flight style to duck, dive, and weave past the Macross grade missile storm coming right at him. What he didn't dodge was deftly countered by blast from his EMP pulsing engines, “I can't tell which is real!”

“Strella, go after Jet. We take out the flight lead and this will be all over!”

“Bingo!” Jet listened close to Alyssa's thoughts, “They're after me! Two of my bandits are real! I repeat! Two of my bandits are the real deal!”

“Copy that Jet! Tough Guy! EML fired!” Tough Heart landed a clean shot with one of his railguns which impacted the correct prototype. As a result half of the holograms faded away and Strella was left to her own, “Tough! Splashed another UPF prototype! She's all yours Captain!”

“Alright!” Jet was a swirling mass of adrenaline as he kicked his fighter into the Reverse Maneuver. This caused Strella to overshoot and Jet recovered to pull into her turn, “Your ass is mine! Vertical! Guns! Guns! Guns!”

Jet tore into the last fighter and filled it was holes from his twin 25mm cannons. With the final TFF member shot down the team rejoiced in victory.

“WE GOT EM! WE BEAT FROSTBITE!” Jet flailed in joy, “Did you hear that Princesses! We shot down all of Frostbite!”

Princess Celestia and Luna were overjoyed, “Good work! But the invasion is still not over! We are detecting a large amphibious force coming in to land bearing 2-8-0 speed... Three hundred fifty knots?! This doesn't make sense! No watercraft is that fast!”

“Hold on! I'm getting something on the UPF channels,” the Aparling operator next to Queen Chrysalis patched in the UPF command frequency.

“Ekranoplans proceed with the invasion! Skies have not been sanitized of fighters but you are cleared to land your troops!” Ghost came through to order his advanced water skimming seaplanes. These were unlike any other surface navy of the other nations as the UPF used something called a ground effect craft or ekranoplan in place of conventional boats or ships. These behemoth planes with stubby wings were the size of battleships, cruisers, and landing craft and were more capable than conventional sea going vessels.

“What ARE those?” Avia looked with awe at the massive invasion force of the boat-planes.

“It doesn't matter! We need to kill them! There's way too many for us to take on though!”

“This is Blossom callsign Inferno. Would you like me to join in?” Blossom squeaked cutely over the radio as she flew in with a giant Mach three bomber coming in from low altitude, “I brought in my B-170 Valkyrie II. I've got times twenty Advanced Cruise Missiles loaded with Trinity warheads! How copy?”

“Copy that!” Jet grinned to the overkill of his squad mate, “Blossom I swear.”

“Hehehe!” She stuck her tongue out and looked to a TU-160X off her right, “What you got Red?”

“Glorious Stalliongradi ATBIP. Also known as the Father of All Bombs! Are we cleared to engage?”

“Red, Blossom! You are cleared to engage! Go nuts!” Jet gave the all green.

“WOO! Inferno launching cruise missile volley!” Blossom released all twenty of her missiles armed with magically enhanced thermobaric warheads. Try as they might the gatling guns of the enemy seaplanes could not intercept all of the missiles as the ACMs impacted all at once to engulf the whole fleet with massive yellow and orange sporadic explosions that crippled half of the enemy fleet, “Now that was a fireworks show!”

“Red October, callsign Chernaya bombs away!” Red dropped his single bomb from high altitude. The satellite guided weapon impacted the rest of the fleet and all UPF landing craft were rendered destroyed in the simulation. The massive explosion overlayed on everyone's HUDs were a sight to behold.

“Mission complete! We've defended Comona Base!” Jet formed up with his squadron at six thousand feet. The whole Equestrian military rejoiced as they finally usurped the Federation from the top of the wargame scoreboard among the space empires, “WE WON! WE WON!”

On the Federation side Admiral Ghost was not the one to give up, “We will proceed with the reserve landing craft. Initiate the Razgriz!”

“Initiating Razgriz protocol sir!” his officer relayed to an unknown unit.

Static came over the Equestrian radios, “Ballistic missile inbound!”

“WHAT?! They said we wouldn't use nukes in this simulation!” Night Petal gasped.

“Ballistic missile impact NOW!” Mac Book yelled to them. The giant yellow and orange cloud was strikingly similar to the ATBIP that Red dropped. It wasn't a nuke but an airburst MIRV of thermobaric warheads, “This isn't good! All our planes below five thousand feet have been vaporized!”

“Where did they launch that?!” Jet scanned the seas, “I don't see any more UPF ships!”

“That's...” Avia paused, “Because it's a submarine!”

“That makes sense,” Jet thought for a moment, “Blossom! Red! Head back to the EMS Sky Buster and pick up Water Wings for an underwater operation! Have her and her team ready!”

“Copy that Jet! We are RTB for retask!” Blossom and Red pulled away and returned to the carrier.

“This is the anti-sub plane Blue Hound. Sound pattern analysis confirms enemy submarine in the area of operation. We are detecting another missile launch!”

“Everypony! Get your altitude above five thousand feet!” Mac radioed out.

“Climb kids! Go go go!” Jet scanned for the surviving Equestrian pilots.

“Jet! Piggle and I can't climb that high!” Scratch and Piggle were struggling to get their slow ground attack planes above the threshold.

“Climb Kitty climb! You and the rest of the nuggets too!” Avia urged on.

“Three! Two! One! Impacts-NOW!” Mac announced another explosion that rocked the whole area. Piggle and Scratch were caught in the kill zone and their planes leveled off and automatically egressed them out of the combat are.

“Scratch and Pigs are down sir!” Morning reported, “What do we do?”

A minute or so later Blossom came back flying in from low altitude with a swimmer delivery vehicle inside of her dropship. She radioed out to Mac.

“Mac and you confirm the approximate location of that enemy sub?”

“Hold on, get the coords from Blue Hound. I'll patch you in!” Mac typed on his console to contact the anti-sub plane, “Blue Hound requesting coordinates of enemy submarine!”

“Hold on, we are dropping a new sonobuoy,” a sonar pod dropped from the low flying plane to detect the enemy sub, “Sub detected! Sending coords now!”

“Roger! Passion are you ready back there?” Blossom looked at the four combat divers in the back. It was Water Wings leading them with Nelly, Simon, and Prelude all geared up for an underwater attack.

“Ready and on standby!” Wings gave a good nod as they boarded the minisub. Blossom hovered mere inches from the water and dropped them into the sea, “Good release! We are running deep!”

Ship came over their visors, “Wings your job is to disable that enemy submarine using the limpet mines attached to your sub! You've dropped off nearby so follow the sonar pings until you reach it!”

“Roger command. We are en route to attack the enemy submarine,” Passion piloted the minisub and followed the source of the sonar pings. As they closed within visual distance they could see the imposing figure of the massive Federation submarine, “This is massive! This is the largest submarine I've ever seen! We're deploying now, everypony attach the demo charges!”

Water Wings ordered her team to slap on the magnetic mines to the ballast tanks of the sub. They retreated back to their minsub and swam away to a safe distance.

“Okay! We're detonating the charges!” Water Wings blew open a simulated hole in the side of the submarine. She took off her visor to make sure the explosion wasn't real. Sure enough it wasn't and it was just a virtual explosion.

UPF channels lit up, “Command! The Scinfaxi's been damaged by a limpet mine! We cannot launch missiles underwater due to battle damage!”

“Captain, surface immediately and continue launching the missiles! Clear the skies so we can pull in the reserve landing craft!”

“Roger Admiral Ghost!” The large aircraft carrier submarine surfaced magnificently like a graceful whale. The massive ship was unlike anything Equestria has ever seen.

“Looks like it's lost diving ability. It's floating like a cork. All units, commence attack!” Ship ordered to all the NGJSF pilots.

“Jet look!” Petal flew by close and saw VTOL fighters launching from the submarine, “Aircraft launching from enemy submarine!”

“Roger! JSF engage enemy aircraft if you see an opportunity!” Mac ordered out to all of them.

“Do we have any surface to air attack capabilities?” Jet assessed his team.

“I do sir! EMLs can dent a hole in that thing!” Tough Heart came forward.

“As do I bro! I've got some ALARM missiles that can destroy their SAMs!”

“Rookie here! I got anti-ship missiles just for this job!” Flip aileron rolled right by Jet's cockpit.

“Good on you guys! The rest of you target the planes that go after Avia, Flip, and Tough!

“Roger Jet!” Morning and Petal covered the multiroles with Jet. The attacking UPF fighters were no match as Avia, Flip, and Tough dealt a massive blow to the enemy submarine.

“Direct hit! It ripped a massive hole! The sub appears to have lost the ability to launch additional aircraft!” Ship was wide eyed and at the edge of her seat, “NGJSF! Finish it!”

“Rookie! You wanna do the honors?” Jet returned with a barrel roll around Flip's Fenrir to form up on his right wing.

“With pleasure Captain!” the last two anti-ship missiles from Flip's payload were launched into the simulated hole inside the ship. With the final blow the Scinfaxi was forced to dive to give the impression of it sinking. The wargame was over and the Equestrian forces have won as the Scinfaxi suffered a secondary explosion that sent a virtual plume of water up into the air.

“We-WE WON?!” Sagittarius looked on at the battlefield below. The whole Equestrian force was cheering with glee as the remaining NGJSF flew in a V formation to buzz the control center of Comona Base.

“Salute the aces of the JSF!” the soldiers on the ground were ecstatic, “Can you hear these cheers? Don't tell me you can't hear them!”

Frostbite came back to form up with the squadron, “Well well well! You finally beat us at our own game!”

“Annnd you know what that means!” Jet poked a hoof vigorously at the side of his cockpit, “YOU have to buy the drinks for us! Pony up assholes! WOO!”

“Aww! These new toys my mommy and daddy built for me didn't work that well,” Strella crossed her arms in her jokingly spoiled manner, “I honestly thought these new Black Jacket fighters would kick ass.”

“I dunno what you just did back there. But how did you tap into our mind reading frequencies?” Alyssa pulled up next to Jet and looked to him.

Jet smirked, “We just had some help from a few friends.”