Part 11: Mission 11 – Operation Noah's Ark, March 14th, 2005

Escort

Mission 11: Operation Noah’s Ark – March 14th, 2005


Overview: A pair of Air Ixiom 767-200s have defied the Erusean No Fly Zone order and have taken off from Farbanti carrying a group of important Erusean defectors and freed POWs: the engineers and scientists who helped create Stonehenge. Mobius 1 is scrambled on an emergency intercept mission to rendezvous with Air Ixiom flights 701 and 702 above Chopinburg and escort them out of Erusean airspace and into ISAF custody, and defend the airliners from an Erusean intercept flight scrambled to shoot them down.

If the Stonehenge staff makes it out of Erusean territory, the intel they possess on the rail gun network’s inner workings could potentially turn the tide of the war for ISAF.



Guest Commentator: Today I am joined once again by Trizophenie, who very graciously provided the footage for the Assault Horizon Legacy half of the Ace Combat 2 LP. He is currently (very slowly) trying to finish the LP of the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for the Casual LP Thread.





NAGASE
Real Name: Kei Nagase
Callsign(s): Edge, Scarface 3 (formerly), IXIOM 701 Heavy
Age: 27
Sex: Female
Nationality: FCU (Far Eastern Usea)
Signature Plane: 767-200
Voice Actor: Uncredited (possibly Jane Fox)

Kei Nagase makes a surprise return cameo from Ace Combat 2 here in this mission of Ace Combat 04 as the first officer of Air Ixiom Flight 701. Originally, it was just speculated that this Nagase was the same Nagase from 2, but a line from her bio in Assault Horizon Legacy about her wanting to become a civilian airline pilot after the end of the Continental War basically confirms that this is the same Nagase as our wingman Edge from Ace Combat 2/Assault Horizon Legacy.


After mustering out of the FCU Allied Forces after the end of the Usean Continental War of 1998, Flight Lieutenant Kei Nagase received an honorable discharge and commendation for her exemplary service to the FCU in a time of war. When the FCU Allied Forces were restructured into the Independent States Allied Forces, the former mercenary pilots wing, of which Nagase’s Scarface Tactical Fighter Squadron was all but the poster child of, was disbanded. The pilots who comprised its ranks were offered commissioned positions in the new ISAF air force, and while many took ISAF up on its offer, only one member of Scarface opted to stay on. Captain John Harvard, the former Scarface Two accepted a promotion to squadron leader and assumed command of the Stonehenge Guard Squadron (codenamed Shooting Star), stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, directly adjacent to the STN complex. When Stonehenge fell under Erusean control, the STN Guard detachment was overwhelmed by the FEAF’s deadly Yellow Squadron, and Harvard himself was shot down by Captain Dave Jordan aka Yellow 13. Though he survived his encounter with Jordan, Harvard is currently being held as an Erusean prisoner of war.

The mysterious Scarface flight lead Pheonix retired from the air force following the FCU’s victory over the Rebels. It is speculated that he may have accepted a command position within ISAF following the war, though rumour also has it that he may well have retired to civilian life following the war. Accounts vary widely and are highly inaccurate due to his personnel file and service dossier being sealed by the FCU government due to his direct involvement with the illegal North Osea Gründer Industries-developed Zone of Endless AI fighter project, as well as the Gründer ADF-01 FALKEN next generation superfighter—the existence of which is still denied by the Osean government.

As for Nagase herself, she returned to the civilian airline flight school she was forced to drop out of at the outbreak of the war and passed all her qualifications with top marks. With her exemplary skill and distinguished service record from the war, she was headhunted by multiple airline firms upon graduation, ultimately choosing the prestigious Air Ixiom International Airlines to begin her career as a civilian pilot.

In the seven years since the Continental War, Captain Nagase has flow as both a pilot and co-pilot on hundreds of domestic and international flights for Air Ixiom. When the operation to smuggle the Stonehenge developers out of Erusea was formulated by the Erusean Fifth Column, Kei Nagase was at the top of the list for potential pilots with the skills needed to shepherd the engineers and their families to safety.

On the morning of March 14th, 2005, Nagase and her captain aboard Flight 701 helped escort the Stonehenge personnel and families aboard the aircraft (including, as a matter of historical trivia, former Belkan Air Force pilot Dr. David “Ibis” Hartmann, who emigrated to Erusea following the end of the Belkan War and became one of the principle engineers behind Stonehenge) using a falsified flight manifest and travel itinerary forged by the Resistance and took off as usual from Farbanti International Airport bound (ostensibly) for San Profetta International Airport in San Salvacion. Flight 702, bound allegedly for Okchabursk, Yuktobania, followed shortly thereafter.

However, Erusean Intelligence quickly discovered the Fifth Column ruse and scrambled to stop the takeoff. While Flight 702 was able to get away without issue, Nagase’s Flight 701 was strafed by both small arms and anti-air fire upon takeoff, resulting in moderate damage for the 767-200’s airframe and the incapacitation of 701’s pilot.

Nagase was forced to take sole control over the damaged airliner and pilot it out of Erusean airspace. Captain Nagase was officially commended by ISAF command for her skill and composure during the airlift mission, as there were a remarkable few pilots—civilian or otherwise—who could have been able to bring Flight 701 home safely in its compromised condition (leaking fuel from a punctured fuel tank, its flight controls compromised by gunfire, its pilot in critical condition from a bullet wound, unable to climb above 6,000 ft due to bullet holes in the canopy preventing pressurization of the fuselage, all while being pursued by hostile interceptor fighters).

The stories of Nagase’s heroism during both Usean conflicts ultimately inspired her younger cousin (who also shared a first name with her) to join the Osean Air Defense Force upon graduating high school.





AIR IXIOM

The Usean-owned and operated Air Ixiom International Airlines (IXI) is one of the world’s premiere domestic and international airline operators, and part of an alliance of international air carriers that together service virtually every major hub city on the planet. Air Ixiom operates a vast fleet of Boeing 747, 767, and 777 civilian airliners, including the two 767-200s fated to become the renowned Flights 701 and 702.

Following the outbreak of the Shattered Skies crisis, a No Fly Zone was enacted over the Erusean homeland, as well as all territory across Usea ceded to the Eruseans by the FCU and Independent States following ISAF’s withdrawal from the mainland. All international flights in and out of Erusea were cancelled, save from select nations that retained diplomatic relations with Erusea despite AN sanctions (Yuktobania, Verusa, East Clavis, Estovakia, Leasath, and Belka). Given the ongoing war on Usea and the threat of Stonehenge, the international community was strongly encouraged to boycott all travel to Usea in general, and Erusea in particular.

During this time, Air Ixiom functionally split into two distinct carriers, an international carrier serving the rest of the world, and an Usean domestic airline under strict control of the Erusean military government, serving a severely curtailed number of destinations on Usea along flightpaths dictated by the Federal Erusean Air Force.


Air Ixiom Airlines is one of several links between the Ace Combat and Ridge Racer franchises and strongly suggests that Ridge Racer is indeed set on Strangereal too. Air Ixiom iconography and aircraft appear in both R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 for the PlayStation 1, and Ridge Racer 5 for the PS2, in addition to ISAF and Erusean aircraft and logos.



Erusean RESISTANCE

This mission basically implies but never outright confirms the existence of an Erusean fifth column organization operating within Erusean territory against the interests of the Erusean military government itself. The idea being that there had to have been some form of resistance infrastructure in place within Erusea itself to even set up, much less execute the Flight 701 and 702 operation.

The term “fifth column” generally refers to a civilian, military, or paramilitary faction operating inside a nation or organization to destabilize it in favor of its opposition. The term was coined by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General under Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. He recounted to a journalist that as the four columns of his army marched on Madrid, a “fifth column” comprised of the common people would rise up and help them capture it from within. The term saw widespread use in Spain afterward, and came to international attention via Ernest Hemmingway, who wrote the play (and later book) The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories during the bombing of Madrid while serving as a war correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA) alongside Martha Gellhorn (who was writing for Collier's Weekly at the time).

Since then, the term has been used to describe any general seditionist faction, largely unmoored from its original meaning or connotations. For example, The Atlantic columnist Andrew Sullivan once publically described those opposed to the 2003 Iraq War as fifth columnists. He later apologized for the use of the term. In popular culture, the organization known formally as the Fifth Column played a large role the various incarnations of the television franchise V. In the original 80s series, the term was broadly applied to specific members of the reptilian Visitors who worked against the occupying V forces, while their human allies were specifically referred to as the Resistance. On the 2009 reboot of V, the largely human resistance was branded a terrorist organization known as the Fifth Column by Visitor propaganda and the connection to the true meaning of the term “fifth column” was never touched upon at all, because V 2009 was spectacularly stupid—and I say this as someone who watched every episode of it.



THE CANADIAN CAPER

This mission also contained a (heavily punched up) implied reference to another real life act of asymmetrical warfare broadly known as the “Canadian Caper.”

Dramatized in the film Argo, by Ben Affleck, the Canadian Caper (also known as Operation Argo) was a joint covert operation conducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and the Canadian Government to rescue six United States Embassy workers from Tehran after they narrowly avoided becoming hostages during the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979–1981. The plan involved sneaking the six diplomats (who had been in hiding at the residence of the Canadian ambassador to Iran—Canada having maintained strained, but functional diplomatic relations with Iran during the crisis) out of the country on a civilian airliner by having them and a CIA extractor pose as a Canadian film crew who were allegedly location scouting in the Iranian desert for an upcoming Hollywood science fiction film called Argo.

The plan worked flawlessly, and the six embassy workers escaped Iran aboard a Swissair flight on January 28th, 1980—a full year before the remaining hostages held at the US embassy were released by the Iranians following Ronald Reagan’s swearing in as President of the United States (a final fuck you to Jimmy Carter by the Iranians).



NOAH’S ARK
The codename for this mission also further confirms that both Christianity and Judaism exist in Strangereal. The mission takes its name from the eponymous vessel at the center of the tale of Noah’s Ark, from the Old Testament of The Bible. The story recounts how a man named Noah was chosen by God, for his and his family’s uncommon virtue, to build a massive ark meant to house his family and two of every animal on Earth, for God was to flood the world and exterminate the rest of humanity due to its untenable wickedness.

Because OT God was a prick like that.

In this instance, the mission is referencing the purpose of the Ark itself, which was to safely shepherd innocent life through the storm and the flood, which is basically what Flights 701 and 702 do—and, funnily enough, they do it two-by-two.




Aircraft featured in Mission 11: Operation Noah’s Ark


767-200
Manufacturer: Boeing
Role: Widebody civilian and cargo jetliner
Manufactured: 1981–“Late 80s”
Status: In Service
Primary Operators: Worldwide
Quick Facts:

• A rare appearance by a civilian commercial aircraft in and Ace Combat game.
  
• The first production variant of the Boeing 767 line.
  
• Used by airlines around the world as both a domestic and international carrier.
  
• United Airlines was the first airline to roll out the 767-200 into active service.
  
• Construction on the 200 model ceased in the late 80s, but other variants of 767, including the 767-300, 300ER, 200ER, 300F and 400ER are still manufactured.
  
• Despite the development of the Boeing 777, and 787 Dreamliner, the 767 remains in service and one of the most popular commercial aircraft in the world.
  
• The 767-200 served as the platform for the JASDF E-767 AWACS and electronic warfare plane (aka, the plane all our series AWACS operators fly).
  

Neujmin

• Plane: Su-35 Super Flanker
  
• Mission 11
  
• Spawn conditions: Appears over the south east corner of the map. It is recommended that you wait until the fourth wave of fighters spawns before going after him, however, as if you leave Flights 701 and 702 undefended they will be shot down.

NOTE: This Ace also flies the recurrent white-blue-red colour scheme seen on Aces in other Ace Combat games like Zero (shown off by Aces no. 108 and 109, Lynx 1 and Lynx 2), by the elite late-game URF fighters in Ace Combat 2, and by Aces who will be appearing in both Ace Combats 5 and 6 in due time.







Tracks featured in Mission 10:

DISC 1

• 22. Escort
  

Air Ixiom Flight 701 from afar: