Part 8: Mission 7 – Operation Sledgehammer, May 22nd, 1998

Escorting Our Attack Operation

Mission 7: Operation Sledgehammer – May 22nd, 1998
Mission 9: Operation Acid Rain (Legacy Version)

We’re skipping over Mission 8 of Legacy because it actually lines up with 8A of Ace Combat 2. Look for it in the following update.

Overview: Scarface Squadron flies as an escort wing for an Allied bombing run on the URF-occupied shipyard facilities in Axel Bay, just south of Ugellas and encounters a mysterious red fighter among the city’s defenders. Later that same day, Scarface is scrambled back to Anchorhead, Erusea to defend the port city against a URF retaliatory strike.

|
Guest Commentators: The Mad Welshman, JamieTheD joins me for Mission 7 of Ace Combat 2. Jamie is still in the midst of his massive series-wide LP of the Wipeout games, and their various franchise-aping knock offs, spiritual successors, and assorted pretenders.

In the Legacy version, I am joined by FPzero. FP is still in the midst of his Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc LP, and has just recently began work on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes with Faerie Fortune.





AXEL BAY

We caught a glimpse of Axel Bay City in Lunethex’s Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere side LP, but this is its first chronological appearance in the Strangereal timeline.

Before it was the victim of a terrorist strike by Ouroboros in the 2030s, Axel Bay was home to a thriving civilian and military shipbuilding industry, servicing nations from all across the globe in addition to the FCU. Beyond that, Axel Bay City was also known for having the largest Asian demographic population in Southern Usea.


ZOE
Mission 7 of Ace Combat 2 marks the first appearance of the ZOE fighters in the game. While they were rewritten with a stronger plot connection in Assault Horizon Legacy, in the original game, the ZOEs were simply additional Named Aces who could be shot down for bonus cash and a cumulative endgame bonus for downing the entire “squadron” across the game. Legacy ties them in a little closer to the plot by, 1) acknowledging their actual existence in missions, and 2) tying them into Ace Combats Zero, 5, especially 3 through background lore details.

As you may have noticed in the last update, Assault Horizon Legacy turns ZOE into the acronym Z.O.E., and while I will reveal what that stands for eventually, I will let the mystery persist for a little while longer until we’ve encountered a few more ZOEs in both games.

For now, just take a little while to ponder the mystery of the ZOEs, and think back to what you’ve seen in Electrosphere already, because the seeds of that mess of bullshit have already been planted…



Aircraft featured in Mission 7: Operation Sledgehammer


AJS-37 Viggen
Manufacturer: Saab AB
Role:Attacker / reconnaisance
Manufactured: 1970–1990
Status: Retired (2005)
Primary Operators: Sweeden
Quick Facts:

• Called the SF-37 in Ace Combat 2.
  
• An enemy-exclusive plane in 2, but appears in Ace Combat X and Joint Assault as a player craft.
  
• Developed by Saab AB to replace the J35J Draken (seen in Zero).
  
• Was replaced itself by the JAS 39 Gripen (also seen in Zero).
  
• The first fighter aircraft with forward canards to be manufactured in bulk.
  
• Known both as the "Thunder Bolt" and the "Tufted Duck".
  
• The Saab 9-3 Viggen executive compact sedan was named after the plane.

[AC2]


Medal: Z.O.E. Captain
Awarded for: Shooting down the Z.O.E. Captain in Mission 7.
Description: N/A

Z.O.E. Captain

• Plane: F-14A Tomcat
  
• Game: Ace Combat 2
  
• Mission 7
  
• Spawn conditions: Spawns by default, will hunt and attack the player when sighted.

[LEGACY]

Leonid

• Plane: Landing Craft
  
• Game: Assault Horizon Legacy
  
• Mission 7
  
• Spawn conditions: Appears with the third wave of enemies near the island in Anchorhead Bay.

AC2


Tracks featured in Mission 7:

DISC 1

• 11. Rising High

ACAHL


Tracks featured in Mission 9:

DISC 1

• 11. The Crisis