A/N: Yeah, okay, it's not A Little Bit of Monika; said fic is still not dead, I promise. But I was reading a series of posts on /r/acecombat, in the style of a -chan-like greentext, about Trigger doing a NG+ run and clearly knowing too much. I've said before I'm not a fan of harem-style stuff and I also thought they made Trigger a little creepier than he needed to be, so I decided to take a crack at it myself. Not that I'm dumpstering the guy who's making the post series. It's excellent. Wiseman's and Full Band's final posts really sold me. I just decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world (which is why I've also got a crossover rolling around in the back of my head that I really wish there were more of and is currently in draft stage for the first chapter), so this is a more serious take on the concept, from either a completely Trigger POV or a mostly Trigger one.

I'm filling in bits and bobs of information here and there to make the world a little more full, in much the same way I filled in gaps in DDLC lore in A Little Bit of Monika - emphasis on making it mesh well and add to the story and not stick out like a sore thumb, only doing it to make the world more complete or add a little bit of depth to characters. There will be a minimum of new characters, and I'm certainly not going to do some kind of "Trigger is secretly Mobius 1/Cipher/Gryphus 1/etc" twist.

I'll be sort of glossing over the insane missile counts in the Ace Combat series. The plot doesn't make too much sense without them - neither Trigger nor any of the aces before could possibly do what they've done without having 100+ devices strapped to their planes - so I have to leave them in, but we're just kinda gonna leave it hanging there and not draw attention to it.

I am a slut for feedback, so hit me with that shit immediately.

/

Wade "Trigger" Francis

The alarm on my phone next to my bunk went off with all the subtlety of a foghorn. I reached over to shut it off. "Ughhhhh, Avril, why do we need to…"

I stopped dead.

May 15 2019 0630

Excuse me what.

/

Mage 2 "Trigger," Federation of Central Erusea NAS Fort Grays Island

Think, Trigger. You've started all over again. You're not dreaming, this is real. Which means you've got a chance to do everything differently this time.

A slide show of the friends I lost in the senseless Lighthouse War paraded past my mind's eye. Brownie. High Roller. Champ. Full Band. Wiseman. Wit. Not to mention Harling. None of them deserved what happened to them. War isn't Hell. War is war and Hell is Hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse. Sinners go to Hell; there are no innocent bystanders. But war is chock full of them. Little kids, cripples, old ladies - in fact, except for a few of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

But with another shot… I've got a whole list of people to save. Hell, maybe I can end this war a whole lot faster.

The briefing went exactly the same way I remembered it going. A general readiness instruction and situation report about the increasing tension on the continent and reports of attacks on IUN installations, interrupted by the pancaking of several sticks of bombs on the installation, at exactly the same point in the briefing.

"Not your first rodeo, eh, Trigger?"

Making a good half-running pace towards the hangars, I heard my flight lead, Clown, behind me. He caught up to me and matched pace.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, shoot, you didn't even flinch when those bombers hit."

Oh, yeah. People aren't stupid. They're gonna notice if I'm too… prescient.

"Tell you the truth, boss, I was expecting something to happen. The carrier in the harbor is a major asset. As soon as I heard about bases getting hit, I just knew we were gonna get some ourselves."

Clown nodded. "Fair enough." He clapped me on the back and made for his plane. "You're a smart man, Trigger. I think you'll go far. Let's blow these bastards out of our skies."

I got my second heart attack of the day when I peered inside my hangar. I'd been pondering what plane I'd want to take on a sortie like this, before coming to the conclusion that I just missed my old Sukhoi 35; unfortunately, I was probably gonna get stuck with the same F-16 I flew on this same sortie before. But lo and behold, immaculately parked in the center of the hangar, loaded for bear with R-60Ms and long-range R-77-PDs, there sat my beautiful Su-35S, tuned exactly the way I'd left it.

ExcusemeWHAT.

/

"Hurry, Mage squadron!" the controller in the tower urged Clown and I over the radio. "Trigger, your callsign is Mage 2. Verify and read back."

"Copy, tower, this is Mage 2 Trigger."

"Mage 2, cleared for takeoff."

I didn't even wait for the tower to finish before I gunned the engine to full takeoff power and barreled off the runway, probably a little faster than I really needed to - but lives were at stake on the ground, so, scratch that.

"Whoa there. Mage 2, altitude restriction's lifted. Good luck!"

I switched frequencies to match up with Sky Keeper, our AWACS craft, and the others already in the sky. Immediately, their voices came through. Including one that singlehandedly brought me more joy than anything had in years.

"The carrier… Whoa! Looks like the harbor's taken a lot of damage…"

I don't think I could ever explain what it's like to hear the voice, alive again, of someone who you literally watched die. But here was Golem 2 Brownie's tones coming loud and clear over the radio. I had to bite back my urge to say anything on the subject.

"Yeah," I replied, "I just flew past it. I'm no expert but the Albatross looks like a loss." Albaloss? my internal monologue cut in. "We've just gotta keep these bastards from doing any more damage, or we won't have a runway to get back to."

"You're right. Can't let the base take any more damage. Time to stop the bullshit," Knocker, Brownie's Golem flight lead, cut in. "Mage 2, form up with Mage 1. It's go-time."

I had no such plans. I was the best damn pilot Usea had seen in at least fifteen years and I knew it. Arrogant of me? A little. But the faster the intercept got handled, the better. Less IUN deaths was my goal, and I knew from experience I could deal with it.

"Clown, enemy bomber bearing 350. I'm closing to missile range," I told my lead by way of warning, and blasted off at full burn. The fuel consumption be damned, the Flanker's tanks could handle it. "Trigger, fox three," I called, almost immediately.

Then, a new voice over the radio. "This is AWACS Sky Keeper. Take down all unidentified bombers, not many escorts on my scopes." A brief pause; the Erusean Tu-95 never stood a chance. "Mage 2 just bagged one already. Good job, keep it up. Be advised we do not have ground-based radar at this time, so be careful."

Hmm. I suppose it's to be expected, they're not saying quite the same things this time around. I mean, I'm not acting the same or saying the same things either, so that follows nicely. Still. Proof that the timeline isn't fixed. That's good news.

"Hey, Trigger," Clown broke in. "You're flying with me now. That's what it means to be an element, you got it?"

Guess that line makes a lot more sense when I'm halfway to the other side of the operation space.

"Copy that. Just looking for that bomber's friends. We gotta get these a-holes away from the harbor," I said, trying to come up with some excuse that'd let me fly off independently. Clown wasn't a huge stickler for protocol, so I was hoping he'd roll with it given the situation.

Clown sighed. "If you say so, Trigger."

AWACS pinged the location of another bomber and a pair of escorts to my northwest; again, they were nearly already in range. "Trigger, fox three, fox three, fox three!" I reported.

Three Adders blasted off the rails and found their targets - not maneuvering, must be at the edge of their range? - without difficulty.

"Targets confirmed down. Good shooting, Mage 2."

Two more bombers and an escort each registered due south, and were dispatched almost instantly.

"Jesus, Trigger, that's eight kills!" came Brownie's voice over the radio.

"And I'm just getting started." Another bomber and another escort. This was too easy.

More flights of enemies joined the fray, but perhaps more importantly, IUN headquarters broke in on the radio. "This is HQ. Are there any drones? Verify."

"HQ, Mage 2 of the 508th at Fort Grays. Possible but unlikely. No specialized drone craft here, just some MiGs and bombers, unless they're being remote-controlled."

I snapped off a pair of R-77s at two more MiG-21s in the east, out of three in the group. Miraculously, one of them managed to shake it and closed the distance, so I launched an Adder at the Tu-160 with them before switching to R-60s and splashing the remaining MiGs with a pair each. The bomber was still maintaining altitude, though. I cursed myself for forgetting that there wasn't enough punch in a single weapon to knock down a Blackjack before finishing it off with another Adder.

"Fort Grays, HQ. I copy no dedicated drones. No reports of remotely-controlled full-sized assets at this time, but keep an eye out, we'll have someone check the footage when you land."

Nothing from Knocker. Guess I forestalled his little outburst about HQ this time.

"Mage 2's bandit confirmed down," Brownie reported over the radio. "That's… fourteen."

"Damn, Trigger, save some for the rest of us!" Clown laughed.

"Early bird gets the worm, my friends. Better punch it!" I shot back, punching it myself. The last enemy formation was due about 220 from my location and on the other side of the operation space. A full five MiGs and four bombers. Easy prey. Five Adders at the fighters. One of them popped chaff but didn't pull enough Gs; the others just ate it. Four Tu-95s and five missiles later - one missile seemed to have a malfunction of some sort and flew off to follow its dreams in the next solar system over* - and the airspace was empty. Calling them fish in a barrel was a grave insult to fish.

Twenty-three kills in one sortie. Most fighter jocks would be lucky to get that in their careers. I'd done it inside of ten minutes.

Damn, I'm good.

"Golem and Mage, AWACS here. All bandits splashed. Job well done."

Aaaaand here comes Princess Rosa over the airwaves, right on time. Ugh. Fucking Belkans, bamboozling a poor girl like that.

/

1700 hours, NAS Fort Grays mess hall

"So Trigger, where the hell did you learn to fly like that?" Knocker asked incredulously over a plate of what pretended to be pizza. Unfortunately for us, the chow hall had survived the bombing.

I just laughed. That wasn't a question I was even going to risk answering.

"And where on earth did you get that Flanker? Isn't the 508th an F-16 unit?"

That I might be able to shrug off. "It was waiting for me in the hangar. I ain't gonna complain. Beautiful machine." I smiled. "I'm just glad we all made it back in one piece. Not bad for a first flight."

"Damn straight, Trigger," Clown cut in. "But it looks like it's gonna get worse. I see what HQ was on about today. Those drones look like serious work. Almost all of our carriers are mission-killed. Goddamn Eruseans."

"But why would they do this?" I asked, deciding to nudge a little. "The Space Elevator is good for them economically, and their government isn't exactly unstable, so it's not like they really need to go to war to get the population behind 'em. Plus, they know Osea can kick their asses in the long run. It doesn't make sense. I feel like there's something else going on here."

"Like what?" asked Brownie.

"I don't know, Belka?" I gave an exaggerated shrug.

Clown and Brownie laughed - at this point, Belka being behind everything from world wars to your refrigerator breaking a week after the warranty expired was something of a national joke - but Knocker actually thought about it for a moment. "Honestly, you might be onto something there. Not exactly our job to figure these things out, but it would make some sense. Belka's always had amazing aerospace tech, and if Erusea was getting help from them on the side, it'd explain why those drones are apparently so damn good and how they thought they could take us in a fight."

"Huh," I thought aloud, hopefully convincingly. "You really think so?"

"Maybe. It's just a guess, but stranger things have happened. Either way, we still gotta fight Erusea. I mean, they did just bomb us to hell."

"True enough," I replied. "Just so long as everyone stays safe out there. I don't wanna have to knock on somebody's mom's door. No unnecessary risks out there. If they just savaged our carriers like that with drones, I hate to think what their real air force could do to us. If they're not at the end of their range like those chumps today were."

"Yeah, sure, 'no unnecessary risks,' says the guy who probably wasn't within ten klicks of his flight lead for 90% of the sortie today!" Brownie shot back.

"Okay, I deserved that. Still, I did it because friendly lives were at stake on the ground and the airspace was desaturated. Yeah, I'm good, but I'm not that cocky. I don't think I can protect my lead from the other side of the planet or anything, Brownie."

Clown spoke up. "Oh, don't worry too much about me, Trigger. You just do your thing. I can't argue with twenty-three kills."

"Seriously, what the hell did you feed your engines," Knocker asked, "rocket fuel?"

"Allllll skill."

I paused for a moment.

"But seriously, safety first out there, guys," I said, looking right at Brownie. "I've got a bad feeling about the days ahead."

/

0230

"He's a predator… the weak get eaten!"

"Mage 2! Support!"

Mihaly's Su-30 took that moment to fire, and with that, Brownie's life was snuffed out after a solid minute of screams and abject terror.

I awoke in a cold sweat. Fuck.

/

A/N: So there's Operation Deer Horn down. Short, sweet, and to the point. As simple as an Ace Combat opener can be, in the long tradition of "your first mission is always a bomber intercept with minimal fuss." Except maybe 6, kinda sorta. Anyway, this is the general structure we'll be dealing with. Trigger's efforts to avoid some of the deaths that really hit him hard in the campaign - by my imagining anyway - and maybe see if he can end this senseless Lighthouse War sooner rather than later. Will he succeed? Not always, spoiler alert. Trigger is still a god of flying, but some things will always be out of his control. It's not like he's gonna be bagging an Arsenal Bird in Operation Dual Wielder, for example (even though he knows how to do it, he'd never have enough time before the APS system went off).

Feedback is life.

*Legitimately, this happened when I was playing through the mission. I have no idea where the fuck that missile went. "I have to go now. My planet needs me."

Glossary of technical terms and designations:

Su-35S Super Flanker: The most modern current version of the venerable Sukhoi-27 Flanker. Extremely maneuverable and with a ton of engine power behind it, the Su-35S is a terrifying machine.

F-16 Fighting Falcon/Viper: The US (and presumably Osean) Air Force's predominant multirole fighter aircraft. Maneuverable and capable of just about any mission, it's a very solid aircraft.

MiG-21bis Fishbed: The definitive model of Mikoyan's classic supersonic light fighter design. Highly outdated, from a technical perspective, but dangerous in the right hands. Like a multiplayer pilot going ham with the gun pods.

Tu-95MS Bear: A modernized variant of a Soviet turboprop-powered heavy bomber.

Tu-160 Blackjack: A swing-wing supersonic Soviet heavy bomber.

R-77-PD / AA-12 Adder: A mostly post-Soviet-era (so, Yuke?), fire and forget air to air missile with midcourse inertial autopilot and course corrections from the launching aircraft and terminal phase active radar homing. The PD variant has a ramjet engine for greatly increased speed and range. This is the in-game model for the Su-35S's LAAM.

R-60M / AA-8 Aphid: A Soviet short-range, infrared-guided, fire and forget air to air missile. The 1982 R-60M version introduced a better seeker head and had limited all-round capability. It was largely replaced by the R-73/AA-11 Archer in Soviet and later Russian service, but in-game, as the R-73 fills the role of the QAAM on Russian aircraft, they still carry the venerable R-60 as their standard missile.