Tokyo Bay

1900 hours

Current Conditions: Light Fog

Both Andy and Prez had arrived back in the Sakura Empire hours ago and were pushing their plane into the hangar it now called home. The girls were being examined and quarantined to make sure they had in fact been freed of the Neural Link. 

Prez: "So, Bullet, which part of this place do you wanna explore first?" she asked. 

Andy: "Well, I dunno bout you, but since it is currently 7 PM, I'd like to explore our bunk first." he replied, yawning a little as he helped push. 

Prez: "What...?" she asked, "C'mon Bullet, enjoy the night life a little!~" 

Andy: "Prez, the last time we enjoyed the night life I was out of it for 2 days." he deadpanned, "I'd prefer we get a good night's rest and then have some fun in the morning." 

Prez: "Hmph, killjoy." she pouted. 

Andy: "You can still go on your own." he chuckled, covering the jet's sensitive pitot tubes. 

Prez: "I know, but it's less fun without you." she pouted. 

Andy rolled his eyes at Prez's insistence, but before he could finish sealing the plane up for the night, Ayanami ran up to them, barely managing to catch her breath as she reached them. 

Ayanami: "Bullet! Prez!" she yelled, screeching to a halt behind them, "You have to sortie now!" 

Andy: "Whoa whoa, slow down kid, what've we got?" he asked. 

Ayanami: "The Manjuu manning the RADAR station report a...skunk on their screens." she replied. 

Prez: "An unknown vessel?" she questioned, "Have you tried raising it on Radio?" 

Ayanami: "Mhm, everyone has, nothing replied." she said, "Alpha told you to handle it but she's needed to do something important so she couldn't tell you in person." 

Andy: "I wonder what she's busy with." he muttered. 

Prez: "Well, in any case, more time to fly, let's go Bullet." she said, beginning to get their plane ready for flight. 

Andy groaned and began helping his WSO. 

Mirror Sea

???? Hours

Current Conditions: N/A

Observer entered the Mirror Sea, nervously floating in front of a throne and bowing. 

Observer A: "Y-you wished to see me Empress?" she asked, shaking in her proverbial boots. 

The sound of slippers hitting the floor is heard as an imposing figure much bigger than Observer stands from her throne and stares down at her loyal scout/scientist. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "Yes Observer, I wish to speak with you about the...dimensional incursions." she said, floating down to Observer. 

Observer A: "E-Empress, I-I assure you, Crimson 1 was but a miscalculation, O'Hare, Strider 5, and Strider 6 are-." she started. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "What? Oh no no no no no, not those." she said, calmly, "O'Hare did his best and I understand where both of Strider 5's hearts are, I know they alongside Strider 6 shall help you. No, that is not the incursion I speak of." 

Observer A: "It...it isn't ma'am?" she questioned. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "No," she said, bringing up footage, "recently on Earth 5555, this....Strangereal Universe has been entering rather volatile states of Dimensional and Temporal unrest, these events have been relatively harmless for now with each fit only extending to radiation and small bits of debris as of right now, but there are signs that it should grow in strength and reach." 

Observer A: "And...this concerns us how?" she asked. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "As you know Observer, the Transdimensional Stage is ever changing, time between universes, time taken to travel from one universe to the next, what universes can safely interact with each other, and so much more changing and shifting as the dimensions maneuver around and away from each other, some universes partner up and stay with their sibling universe like 024 and 007, others like 8447 and 330 drift away and towards each other like planets." she explained. 

Observer A: "Yes, I remember you giving this talk years ago my Empress, what of it?" she asked. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "5555 is among these free floaters, aimlessly drifting through the transdimensional stage. If the freak transdimensional occurrences continue to intensify whilst 5555 drifts closer and closer to 8447 and 330 then it may cause for a very unfortunate circumstance of Crimson 1 joining forces with Sol 1, Galm 2,  Hugin, Mugin, Yellow 13, Abyssal Dision, Gustav Dvornik, and so many other skilled and capable aces of various eras." she stated, showing film and pictures of the enemy aces in action as she went on, "Now, this is the worst case scenario of course but there is a very high likelihood of this happening and if it does then your champions will not be anywhere close to being able to face all of them." 

Observer A: "This is...troubling news..." she trailed off. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "Troubling but the least likely scenario which may happen, do just get ready to call for more champions." she instructed, "But you best hurry, the estimated time of this event well precedes the needed time for Earth 330's SCP Foundation to create a working transdimensional device." 

Observer nodded at this, nervous on the implications of having so many singularities on the table. But, before Observer could excuse herself, Empress spoke up once again. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "But, there is a second reason I called you up here Observer." she said, regaining Observer's attention, "It involves Prez." 

Observer A: "Strider 5's WSO ma'am?" she questioned, "What about her?" 

Arbiter: Empress III: "Well, there was something intriguing I found out while scrolling through the classified documents of Earth 330's United States, apparently Robin Kuo never existed before 2027." she said, "Doing further digging, I found that her dimensional signature doesn't match that of her pilot." 

Observer A: "What? Then...where'd she come from?" she demanded. 

Arbiter: Empress III: "I don't know...not yet, I have suspicions but I cannot act on them quite yet." she said, "I'll update you as soon as I can." 

Observer nodded and excused herself as Empress continued looking for where Prez came from and calculating the likelihood of what may happen when 5555 brushes against 8447.

20 Nautical miles away from Tokyo Bay

1940 hours

Current Conditions: Clear

Andy and Prez's F/A-18 roared through the clouds at Mach 2, afterburners blazing, with Napalm Bombs at the ready. The duo soon had the unknown ship in their crosshairs and Andy easily identified it. 

Andy: "That's a Yorktown Class Aircraft Carrier." he said, banking left as they passed over the ship, "What in the world is this motherfucker is doing?" 

Prez: "No idea Bullet." she shrugged, "But it looks like she's looking for asylum or going in for a fight." 

Andy: "Well, it should have a working radio to some degree, let's see what she's got." he said, flipping on his radio, "Unknown Vessel, Unknown Vessel; state your purpose for entering Sakura Empire territory." 

The ship didn't respond...at all and just continued sailing forwards. 

Andy: "Repeat, what is your purpose." he demanded. 

Still nothing from the Carrier, but after that final demand the Carrier veered left and began firing at the F/A-18. Prez, thinking quickly, dropped flares while Andy jerked his aircraft to the right, the CIWS targeting the Chaff while the aircraft dodged the tracer. Andy brought his Super Hornet around on an attack vector and aimed directly at the Carrier's bridge. 

Andy: "Get ready Prez!" he called. 

Prez: "Way ahead of ya!" she called back, "Laser on....Paveway! Paveway!" 

The Laser Guided Napalm Bombs fell from the aircraft and glided 400 feet before they both  crashed...into the sea. 

Prez: "Shit!" she cussed. 

Andy: "Going in again, this bastard's a slippery one." he grumbled, circling around. 

The F/A-18 made a hard right turn to re-acquire the Carrier and get ready for another attack run. The Carrier's CIWS opened up once again, trying to shoot down the Super Hornet, but most of the shots missed and what shots actually did hit simply ricocheted or glanced off the Fighter Jet's strengthened hull plating. 

Andy: "Pickle pickle, pickle pickle." he called. 

At about 300 feet away from the ship, 2 unguided Napalm Bombs fell from the jet's hardpoints but the Carrier proved even more slippery as it proceeded to dodge these ones as well. Frustrated, Andy kept going in for attack runs with Prez also growing annoyed. For 2 minutes the F/A-18 and the Carrier furiously danced trying to kill each other with whatever weaponry they had. But as Andy and Prez were about to go in for their 10th attack run that night the comms crackled as someone finally answered their hails. 

Alex: "Strider 5! Blue on blue! Blue on blue!" he yelled, "Cease Fire! Cease Fire!" 

Andy cussed in surprise and suddenly pulled up from his attack run, barely missing the Carrier's superstructure and beginning to circle. 

Andy: "Who the hell is this!?" he demanded, "How do you know that name!?" 

Alex: "This is Strider 6, TAC Name Phenix." he chuckled, "Calm your ass down Strider 5." 

Andy: "Strider 6?!" he yelled, shocked.

Prez: "How the hell did you get here Phenix?!" she demanded. 

Alex: "Save the questions for when I land Strider 5." he said, turning his Carrier towards Tokyo Bay, "I've got an injured Kansen aboard." 

Andy: "Copy 6, I'll meet you on the ground." he nodded, turning his aircraft towards the air base. 

As Strider 5 disappeared into a cloud towards the air base the sky shifted around into a similar but at the same time very different night sky. 

30 Miles away from the Space Elevator

2300 hours

Current Conditions: Mostly Clear

Earth 5555

In this similar night sky a single F-22 burst through the clouds followed by a squadron of F-15's and SU-30's with the Russian Fighters sporting red flower like emblems on their wing tips as opposed to the red star of the Russian Air Force, the F-15's also sported weird emblems that looked similar but not quite the same as the USAF's emblems, the F-22 also sported this emblem but on its tail was a really familiar sight 3 slash marks and an orange wolf holding a revolver. These 2 squadrons are Strider and Sol squadron, they were heading for the Space Elevator because they were escorting a Kawasaki C-1 belonging to Erusea that was carrying the Princess. 

Wit: "Sol 2 to Strider 1, do you read?" he asked. 

Trigger: "Strider 1 here, go ahead Sol 2." he replied. 

Wit: "Trigger, I'm picking up strange readings on my RADAR, please confirm." he said. 

Confused, Trigger looked at his RADAR and saw an unidentified target coming in from their aft-left quarter, it was moving quickly, descending quicker, and it looked disproportionately large to be moving at that speed. 

Trigger: "Um...confirmed Wit, I see it, does everyone else see that thing on RADAR?" he asked. 

Count: "I see it Boss, what the hell is that?" he replied. 

Long Caster: "Sol 5, you're closest to the target, can you visually identify?" he asked. 

Roald: "Um...nothing, I think it's in the clouds." he replied. 

Huxian: "Whatever it is, it's on a parallel course to ours, and it's descending too quickly to hit anything near the Space Elevator." she reported. 

Trigger: "In any case, we can't be too cautious, Count, form up on me and let's check this thing out." he ordered. 

Count: "Righto." he nodded. 

Wit: "Sol 3, form up on me, we're following after you Strider 1." he stated. 

Seymour: "Copy Sol 2." he saluted. 

The F-22 broke off from the formation followed by an F-15 and 2 of the SU-30's. The squad of jets formed up on each other and climbed, setting an intercept course for the descending object. Aboard the Kawasaki C-1, the princess looked out her plane's window and saw Trigger leading 3 of the other planes away and towards an unknown target above the formation. 

Princess Cossette: "Pilot? Where are those planes heading off to?" she asked, tapping her pilot's shoulder. 

Erusean Pilot: "I heard something about an unknown blip on the RADAR falling from space off our starboard aft quarter," he replied, "they said it shouldn't hit us so they're just going to check out what the heck it is." 

Princess Cossette: "I-....I see." she said, worried. 

The pilot, sensing the princess's worry, turned and smiled reassuringly. 

Erusean Pilot: "Don't worry Princess, Three Strikes hasn't met a single jet that could beat him in a fight, I'm sure a little look-see isn't gonna take him down." he stated. 

Princess Cossette: "That's what they said about Blaze, Talisman, and Mobius 1...." she trailed off. 

The pilot had no words and simply looked back forward and continued flying straight. 

Just above the formation Trigger broke through the clouds, followed by Count, Wit, and Seymour. As they leveled off they found themselves flying alongside a massive triangular plane painted bright white, trailing smoke and descending at high speed, as if it was an asteroid dropping from space. 

Count: "An Arkbird..." he trailed off. 

Long Caster: "Count, confirm you just ID'd the craft as an Arkbird?" he requested. 

Count: "Oh yeah, it's an Arkbird." he replied. 

Trigger: "Yeah, I recognize her from the magazines, she looks beautiful....wish I could've seen her flying." he added. 

Wit: "I didn't know they made more of those." he commented. 

Long Caster: "They didn't." he stated, "The only one ever built was destroyed by Razgriz Squadron during the Circum-Pacific War after the Grey Men hijacked it and attempted to nuke Yuktobania with it." 

Seymour: "Well, what're we looking at out our cockpits then?" he asked. 

Long Caster: "Not sure, will have to run it through with Osean High Command later, for now, get back to escorting the Princess." he instructed. 

Trigger: "Well, you heard the AWACs." he said, breaking off and returning to his spot in the formation. 

The other pilots followed his example as the Arkbird descended through the clouds itself. The low orbit ship continued its descent, roaring into view of everyone else escorting the Princess before crashing into the water and exploding. 

Tokyo Bay

1945 hours

Current Conditions: Clear 

Both Andy and Prez had already put away their plane and were on the pier, watching as the Yorktown limped into port and was tied up, allowing Alex onto Sakuran soil. Behind the pilots, a massive group of Kansen had gathered in pure curiosity of what had happened. 

Andy: "Well Alex, it's great to see a friendly from Strider Squadron." he said, "But, how in the world did you get here?" 

Alex: "Well, from what I remember, I was in a dogfight with 12 SU-33 Flankers and ended up going through this portal made up of red lightning of some kind." he replied, "Then, when I finished the fight, I engaged some kind of futuristic fighter with a black paint job and glowing red highlights." 

Nagato: "That....that was most likely the Siren Fighter that went missing a few weeks ago..." she winced, "They are allies of ours." 

Prez: "Speaking of allies, where'd you get Yorktown? We literally just towed her into drydock!" she demanded. 

Observer A: "I think I can answer that." she replied, appearing from a portal. 

Alex: "Whoa! Which hentai did you crawl out of?" he joked. 

Immediately, the girls all blushed collectively while Andy slapped his forehead. 

Andy: "Alex....just....why?" he asked, slightly dead inside. 

Observer A: "A-anyway..." she stuttered, regaining her composure, "there is a rare occurrence when transporting damaged kansen who had been affected by the neural link in which a copy of the Kansen's Hull Form will be taken with us and the Kansen herself will be dropped off in a random place along the direct, conventional path from there to the destination. It's a very rare occurrence and we have no idea how it happens." 

Alex: "Well, that's cool and all, but where can I put Yorktown over here?" he asked, "I've repaired and upgraded some of her ship and taken care of most of her injuries alongside the chip thing on her neck but I have no idea where to put her." 

Observer A: "Just, follow us to the infirmary." she said, "Then we can start discussing where you got the Neural Link Controller." 

Alex nodded, carrying Yorktown away while following Akashi. As he did, Andy yawned and turned to Prez, grabbing her by the scruff of her shirt for a change and dragging her away. 

Prez: "Wha-!? Bullet! Hey! Let me go!" she yelled, flailing her arms around. 

Andy: "No, I am taking us both to the dorms and keeping both our sleep schedules intact." he deadpanned, not budging. 

Prez harrumphed at this before reluctantly allowing Andy to drag her to the dorms. 

Sakura Empire Operations Room

0500 hours

 Current Conditions: Foggy

The day after Alex's sudden appearance, the trio of pilots alongside Bismarck, Sovetsky Soyuz, and Tester B were in the Ops Room with the map of Iris Orthodoxy, Ironblood, Sardegna Empire, Northern Parliament, and Royal Navy was laid out for all to see. At the moment, Iris Orthodoxy and the Royal Navy's territory was highlighted in red with the rest being highlighted in blue. 

Tester B: "As Prez and Bullet are aware, you are being assigned to an airfield on the Southernmost Tip of Ironblood." she said, an airbase on said tip of Ironblood territory being highlighted, "This airfield houses squadrons of ME-262's, ME-263's, Ho-229's, and a few stolen F-104 Starfighters, these early jets have held their own so far but our pilots have been getting increasingly overwhelmed as newer and newer fighters take to the scene, prime examples being the Mirage which has just been given to the Iris Orthodoxy and the Harrier Jump Jet that was recently delivered to the Royal Navy." 

Alex: "Nothing we can't handle in our planes." he said. 

Andy: "Aye." he nodded, "We can make mincemeat of Jump Jets and I'm confident I can take out some Mirages." 

Bismarck: "Good to hear." she said, "And you will be able to prove those claims soon, we shall transport you to Airbase 1701 in a few hours, when you're there you shall get used to the base for about 2 days and then fly a sortie to probe Iris Orthodoxy defenses, if all goes well, we should be making some progress towards the Bastille in the Southernmost tip of Iris Orthodoxy." 

Sovetsky Soyuz: "Then it will be on to London, from there we look for where the Eagles hid Enterprise." she added. 

Prez: "I'll get the plane ready!" she said, excitedly running towards the hangars. 

Andy chuckled and followed Prez out, the screen fading to black as they left. 

A/N: Done! I am slowly building more and more plot onto this thing, it's getting really fun to write this. I have a whole plan for when we get to Ironblood, have the worst case scenario play out but also have the protagonists of all the Ace Combat games to assist our heroes. dieHero, it's your turn, just write a few shenanigans that happen after we get to the base, maybe a bit of truth or dare with some Ironblood U-Boats that ends up with me and Prez drunk or something, I dunno.