The Let's Play Archive

Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

by nine-gear crow

Part 17: Mission 16 - Operation Thunderbolt, December 31st, 1995

“The Demon of the Round Table”

Mission 16: Operation Thunderbolt – December 31st, 1995


Overview: The Allied Forces launch a final strike on A World With No Boundaries’ headquarters at the Avalon Dam deep inside Belka. Osean Intelligence believes that AWWNB is preparing to conduct a simultaneous nuclear strike against the governments of the world using the V2 intercontinental ballistic MIRV weapon.

Cipher and PJ are dispatched toward Belka’s Valley of the Kings to assault Avalon directly and destroy the V2 before it can be launched. To reach Avalon, they must first cross through Area B7R, the Round Table, one final time…



Guest Commentator: Lunethex returns from the weird and wonderful future of Electrosphere one final time for our last Round Table boss fight video.





SIR LUCAN AND SIR BEDIVERE
After a brief hiatus (AWWNB’s curveball notwithstanding), we’re back to the realm of “HEYGUYSDOYOUKNOWABOUTKINGARTHUR?!!! ” with the callsigns of two of our face bosses for this mission. Let’s start with Wizard 1, Lucan.

In the Arthurian legend, Sir Lucan was one of the Knights of the Round Table, and more importantly was Arthur’s butler. I’m not talking about butler as in Jeeves or Alfred, I’m talking in the medieval sense. Sir Lucan was in charge of the day-to-day operations of Arthur’s royal household and that of the entire court of Camelot as well. He was also one of Arthur’s closest friends and loyalist soldiers. At the final battle against Mordred at the end of the Arthurian legend, where the Knights of the Round Table basically turn on each other thanks to Lancelot’s fuckery with Guinevere being revealed, and then all get slaughtered by Mordred’s army, Lucan is the last of the original Knights to die.

He stays close to Arthur until the very end, eventually dying of exhaustion and having a wound in his stomach burst open as he tries to drag Arthur’s mortally wounded body off the battlefield following Arthur’s phyrric victory over Mordred. Given what we learn about Wizard 1 later on in the game (or further down in this post), it’s highly appropriate that he has the callsign Lucan, given how loyal he winds up being to A World With No Boundaries’ cause.

Sir Bedivere (Sorcerer 1), meanwhile, is Sir Lucan’s brother. So it makes sense that Palmer would get this title as Wizard and Sorcerer squadrons are effectively brother squadrons in the Osean Air Defense Force. Bedivere was Arthur’s marshal, basically his top law enforcement officer in Camelot. He was also a close friend and colleague of Sir Kay, Arthur’s older foster brother from his time traveling Britain as Wart, and eventually his seneschal at Camelot (his Hand of the King, basically).

In many versions of the Arthurian myth, Bedivere is pretty much the sole survivor of the final battle against Mordred that ends the reign of Camelot. Again, that’s highly appropriate here as Sorcerer 1 is one of the few “survivors” of A World With No Boundaries. He’s the only one who gets to go back to a more-or-less normal civilian life when it’s all over. The others end up either dead (Kupchenko, Lopez), or in jail (Bristow), or just as broken human beings (Vasquez).

He is also the knight Arthur tasks with returning Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake at Avalon. He takes the sword to the lakeside, but cannot bring himself to throw it in the water, believing its worth to be too great to Britain. When he lies to Arthur about throwing it in the lake, Arthur sends him back to do it again, which he does this time, and the Lady of the Lake catches the blade when he throws it into the water and disappears beneath the surface with it. He then returns to Arthur for the king’s final moments. He then goes into seclusion at a monetary, living the rest of his days in quiet obscurity as Britain is rebuilt by a new generation of knights and leaders.



SORCERER AND WIZARD
The names of two of the three squadrons in this mission are a reference to Merlin. That’s it.





WIZARD SQUADRON
Osean Air Defense Force 8th Air Division, 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron 1st Flight (Defected)
Members:
Squadron Composition: F-16XL (x4), YF-23A Black Widow II (x4)

An 8 plane air superiority squadron formerly attached to the Osean Air Defense Force and led by Captain Joshua Bristow. At the height of the Belkan War, they were known as the “All-Stars of the Round Table” and every member of the squadron was counted among the OADF’s top aces.

Wizard was routinely fielded along with its companion squadron Sorcerer to form a full wing of 16 fighters just on their own. As the Belkan War raged on, Bristow became dissatisfied with the current state of affairs in Osea and with its treatment of the Belkans, leading him to accept Anton Kupchenko’s offer of a place in an organization that would re-level the playing field for the world and seek justice for the aggrieved of the Belkan War.

Following the Seven Pillars strike on the Waldreich Mountains by Belka itself, Wizard Squadron disappeared from their frontline base and were last seen heading into Belkan territory before the electronic interference from the nuclear attack rendered tracking them impossible.

The squadron then laid low for six months as Bristow helped Kupchenko bring A World With No Boundaries into fruition. In that time, their standard OADF F/A-18Cs were discarded and replaced with two quartets of F-16XLs and YF-23As procured by the South Belka Munitions Factory for AWWNB.

Their last recorded sortie as a full squadron was their engagement with Galm Team over the B7R Round Table during Operation Thunderbolt on December 31st, 1995.

Wizard is yet another pattern breaker because it’s an Osean boss squadron, one of two in the game. I said early that by the time we got to this point in the game that the boss squadrons would fall off the Knight/Soldier/Mercenary slider and they do to a certain extent. Espada squadron from the last mission couldn’t really be categorized with any one of the three Ace Styles, and the same holds true for the three squadrons in this mission. Yes, you could argue that Wizard is the mirror Knight squadron, given that they show up on Knight mode and because Bristow is an idealist of sorts, but at the same time, he also exhibits the ruthlessness and general assholishness of a Mercenary ace and is clearly a Capital-V Villain, so what can you say, really.

He’s also a huge coward, sending his flight of lower-ranked planes at you first (the entirely unsuited to air-to-air combat F-16XLs), while holding back just long enough for them to rough you up a little before charging in with his own flight of YF-23As, the vastly superior planes. He’s also scripted to be the last Wizard plane downed, spawning only after the other planes are taken out. Just in case you might be lacking in reasons to hate him even after everything else I’ve covered or will cover further down.



SORCERER SQUADRON
Osean Air Defense Force 8th Air Division, 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron 2nd Flight (Defected)
Members:
Squadron Composition: F-15S/MTD (x8)

An 8 plane multirole squadron often deployed into the Round Table airspace alongside Wizard Team. As the Belkan War progressed, its squadron members became increasingly disillusioned with Osean foreign policy, though not to the extent that the members of Wizard Squadron did. Following the nuclear strike on the Waldreich mountains, they would also defect from Osea alongside Wizard and join the Belkan-led terrorist organization “A World With No Boundaries” under Dr. Anton Kupchenko.

There’s very little to say about Sorcerer team from an in-universe perspective that isn’t repeating stuff said about Wizard verbatim. They’re the boring, sane, normal people of A World With No Boundaries’ roster, sandwiched in between the more colourful characters like the batshit crazy revolutionaries of Wizard and the cold, precise long-game playing chessmasters of Gault. After the war, the few survivors of their roster go back to leading normal lives as opposed to their fellow pilots for this mission who continue to be terrorists or at least operate outside the law. They’re also functionally a Soldier ace squadron appearing in a Mercenary run, though one could argue that given their more moral nature than Wizard or Gault Teams and the fact that most of them survive and sheepishly slink back to civilian lives after AWWNB implodes, they could be considered Knights, but again this is why I say that the Wizard/Sorcerer/Gault trio falls clean off the Knight-Soldier-Mercenary slider because they’re too complex to be pinned down like the other ace bosses were.

They’re also, tactically, a very boring lot to talk about. OOOooo, woooow, you’re flying concept planes in a boss mission, so is everyone else in this one. The F-15S/MTD isn’t even as interesting as the Berkut or the Black Widow either. The only thing these guys have going for them is their stunt squadron paint scheme and the fact that their flight lead is Ogremon Jet Black. They don’t even do anything interesting when you fight them like Bristow’s last-second spawn dick move or Kupchenko’s Golden Cage. They’re just… there.

The only thing that makes them a viable threat in this LP is my general lack of experience fighting them because they’re the Mercenary squadron, and that the MTD can out-turn the F-15C because of its canards and thrust vectoring, so I’m at a double disadvantage playing as Canon Cipher.



GAULT SQUADRON
Belkan Air Force 18th Air Division, 5th Tactical Fighter Squadron (Defected)
Members:
Squadron Composition: Su-47 Berkut (x8)

Gault Squadron under its flight lead Dr. Anton Kupchenko was, until its defection, the crown jewel of the Belkan Air Force. Flying an 8 plane fight of next-generation fighters, Gault Flight was a force of unrelenting devastation on the battlefield, managed with pinpoint precision and professionalism at all times by Kupchekno.

Kupchenko was named the head of Gault Squadron in 1994, upon his retirement from the Belkan R&D following the shuttering of Project Pendragon. The squadron participated in serval border skirmishes in the run up to the Belkan War to test Osea, Ustio, and Sapin’s defenses in preparation for Belka’s eventual blitzkrieg later the following year. In March of 1995, just prior to the outbreak of the Belkan War, the squadron would disappear on an otherwise routine sortie and never be heard from again, leading the Belkan Air Force to officially list them as Killed In Action.

In the nine months between there and December 1995, Kupchenko and his men worked tirelessly to get A World With No Boundaries and its military assets off the ground, including the XB-0 Hresvelgr (which several members of Gault were on the design board of, most notably Kupchenko’s apprentice Lorenz Riedel), and V2 MIRV weapon. When the Allied Forces launched Operation Thunderbolt, an all-out assault on AWWNB’s headquarters at Avalon Dam, Kupchenko took Gault Squadron into the B7R Round Table one final time to head off so-called “Demon Lord” Cipher before he could reach Avalon and stop the launch of the V2 ICBM.

In the end, all but four members of Gault Squadron died in the New Year’s Eve encounter with Cipher; Egon Strauss was later killed by Osean Special Forces when he and seven other men became involved in a hostage standoff at OWC Communication Company headquarters in an attempt to secure the release of over 100 Belkan POWs; Griswold Veiser is currently serving time in federal prison after refusing to divulge information on Kupchenko and other suspected members of AWWNB to the Osean government; Andrew Barry became an advisor to the Osean Air Defense Force in exchange for clemency; and Lorenz Riedel was listed as KIA originally, but spy photographs later showed him alive and well in Oured, last seen boarding a flight to Pythiopolis, Estovakia.

The signature maneuver of the Gault Squadron, one meticulously workshopped by Kupchenko himself, was known as the “Golden Cage”. Using their overwhelming numbers, the Gualt Team would approach their target head-on in an open net formation, allowing their lead planes to overshoot the target before executing a high-G turn to fence the target in. The rest of the team would then circle around the target in order to make evasive maneuvers impossible for them, leaving them trapped in a figurative cage of planes, while the attackers of the squadron picked away at them at Kupchenko’s command.

Gault is our final pattern breaker in terms of name, emblem, and Ace Style. Nothing about these guys lines up cleanly with any other squadron we’ve seen so far. First up the name, “gault,” you would think that given the colour of them emblem and this talk of the “Golden Cage” that gault would mean “gold,” right? I mean it kind of sounds like a slant on gold, but it’s not. “Gault” is a Middle English word descending from Scandinavian for a specific type of blue clay used in building. So the “Belkan Aces = Colours” pattern is now officially shot to shit. Now, emblem; Gault Team also breaks the until-now unremarked up on pattern of the Belkan squadrons having real birds as their mascots. Gault’s emblem depicts a griffin roosting atop a castle, while the other Belkan ace squadrons depicted non-mythical birds such as herons, owls, swallows, eagles, falcons, cormorants, and vultures. And finally, ace style; yes, Gault is technically a Soldier squadron showing up in a Soldier mission, but they are like hyper Soldiers. Too precise, too calculated, too perfect, and yet there’s a lot of Mercenary in them as well, given their ruthlessness and detachment from state actors. Kupchenko probably sees himself and his men as Knights because of their ideals and their cause and the axiom “everyone is the hero of their own story” and whatnot, but his perception of things is just a little skewed compared to how they really are, no?




WIZARD 1
Real Name: Joshua Bristow
Callsign(s): Wizard 1, Lucan, Blue Magician
Age: 38 (48, frame narrative)
Nationality: Osea
Signature Plane: YF-23A Black Widow II
Voice Actor: Uncredited
On Camera Actor: Uncredited

“A Revolutionary.” Why hello again Mr. Bristow, fancy seeing you here.

Former Captain of the Osean Air Defense Force’s prestigious Wizard Squadron and one of the founding members of A World With No Boundaries. Bristow was one of the first people contacted by Dr. Anton Kupchenko as Kupchenko was forming the initial structure of what would become AWWNB. Bristow used his persuasive charisma and the fierce loyalty he commanded among his squadron subordinates to draw many of his fellow OADF pilots into A World With No Boundaries, including his friend Captain Anthony Palmer and Palmer’s own Sorcerer Squadron.

Bristow was also the one who convinced Larry “Pixy” Foulke, formerly Galm 2 of the Ustio Air Force, to join AWWNB. Bristow and Foulke had known each other from prior encounters years earlier and had become close colleagues, even as Foulke hopped around the world from one mercenary job to the next. Immediately prior to the detonation of the Seven Pillars strike, Bristow and Palmer were tipped off by Kupchenko and were told to make ready for their long-planned defection. As the bombs rocked the Waldreich Mountains, Bristow and his squadron took off from their forward operating base towards Belkan territory, using the chaos of the attacks to cover their escape. He then radioed Foulke with a cryptic order to do the same, at which point Foulke turned and opened fire on his wingmate and flight lead Cipher, and fled the battlefield heading for Kupchenko’s rendezvous point in North Belka.

Once there, Bristow set to work organizing the command structure of A World With No Boundaries with Palmer while Kupchenko oversaw the reactivation of the abandoned Project Pendragon assets such as the XB-0 Hresvelger, the V2, and the [INFORMATION REDACTED]. After AWWNB made itself known to the world with their strike on the city of Lumen, Osea on Christmas Day, its top leadership members were quickly identified by the Osean CIA, including Bristow.

From here on, accounts vary as to Bristow’s exact role in the final hours of A World With No Boundaries’s operations on New Year’s Eve of 1995. Some accounts claim he flew into the Round Table to head off Galm Squadron as they flew towards AWWNB’s headquarters at Avalon Dam, other sources place him at Avalon Dam itself overseeing the launch of the V2 while Palmer and Kupchenko flew out to intercept Galm.

Regadless, following the events of December 31st, 1995, Bristow would once again flee into hiding. He was linked to several attempted terrorist actions against Osea, all aimed at reviving A World With No Boundaries, all ending in failure. In 1999, he was apprehended by Osean authorities after his former squadronmates turned over information on his whereabouts to the Department of Justice in exchange for lighter sentences.

Bristow was placed on trial for his crimes during and after the Belkan War and is currently serving a life sentence in Land Ford Federal Prison. He was visited at the prison in 2005 by Brett Thompson of the Osean Broadcasting Corporation, who interviewed him on his involvement with A World With No Boundaries for his special documentary Warriors and the Belkan War.



Here’s one more fun little piece of minutia about Joshua that tacks back to those three concept games I highlighted in the OP. Second Season 01, the b-movie cop drama game, reused several assets from other Ace Combat games for placeholder purposes (it’s the thing that makes me believe they were never actually being worked on for real and were just tech demos). Among these reused assets, Bristow’s mugshot appears on a police investigation mindmap wall where he’s listed as being the victim of a murder.

Now, of course, this is not canon and is clearly just Project Aces throwing whatever shit they had up there to fill space (President Harling from Ace Combat 5 is listed as one of the witnesses to the crime and I know that sure as shit ain’t realistic, even for a fucking Strangereal game), and yet…

I dunno, it kind of warms my heart to think that after he somehow got out of StrangeGitmo for all the shit he pulled with AWWNB, and for all his high minded talk about changing the world, that in the end Bristow got shot in the street by some nameless desperate thug for the cash in his wallet.

Yes he deserved to die and I hope he burns hell

Plus you gotta admit, that whole “oh shit, our vic’s a wanted terrorist” is like the A-1 perfect b-movie cop drama plot twist, no?



SORCERER 1
Real Name: Anthony Palmer
Callsign(s): Sorcerer 1, Bedivere
Age: 32 (42, frame narrative)
Nationality: Osea
Signature Plane: F-15S/MTD
Voice Actor: Beau Billingslea
On Camera Actor: Uncredited

“The Witness.” Third in command of A World With No Boundaries after Dr. Kupchenko and Captain Bristow.

Anthony Palmer was a pilot in the Osean Air Defense Force and flight lead of its much lauded Sorcerer Squadron prior to his defection to the A World With No Boundaries terrorist organization in June of 1995. Though Palmer joined AWWNB with Bristow for similar ideological reasons, his ties to the organization did not prove as strong as Bristow’s, as following the organization’s defeat he fled underground to avoid prosecution for war crimes and terrorism charges, emerging some years later in an unassuming corner of the private sector back in Osea.

Referred to as “The Witness,” he is suspected by Osean Intelligence to be one of the few surviving members of AWWNB, having stayed behind at Avalon Dam to oversee the final stages of V2 launch on December 31st, 1995* (I’ll explain why this is in the next update, just know that thanks to a bit of mission-to-mission continuity, showing off all three boss runs in his update as “canon” really fucks things up for the finale). As the Allied seized control over Avalon, Palmer managed to evade capture, slipping away into the woods as the Osean Army surrounded the facility while his fellow AWWNB members opened the facility’s floodgates, submerging the V2 launch facility under the Mund River.

Ten years after the end of the Belkan War and the attempted coup by A World With No Boundaries, Palmer was tracked down by OBC’s Brett Thompson for an interview for Thompson’s upcoming Warriors and the Belkan War special designed to reveal the truth about Cipher and A World With No Boundaries to the world. Thompson sat down with Palmer, now an insurance salesman in Oured, Osea, to discuss his encounters with Cipher on the battlefield, but was unable to get him to confess to his involvement with Kupchenko, Bristow, and AWWNB.



GAULT 1
Real Name: Anton Kupchenko
Callsign(s): Gault 1, Dr., The Gold Woodpecker
Age: 48 (deceased)
Nationality: Belka
Signature Plane: Su-47 Berkut
Voice Actor: Uncredited
On Camera Actor: None

“The Guardian.” Dr. Anton Kupchenko, a former commander and ace pilot in the Belkan Air Force, chief engineer of the South Belka Munitions Factory’s Project Pendragon, and founder and director of A World With No Boundaries. Despite his alleged deaths, first in March of 1995, and again in December that same year, he remains near the top of Osea’s Most Wanted list for A World With No Boundaries’ crimes against the nations of the Allied Forces, chief among them the bombing of Lumen.

Kupchenko first made a name for himself in the Belkan Air Force in the 1960s and 70s, after completing a doctorate in electrical engineering in the midst of his time as a pilot. In the 1970s, during the Rectan War, he joined the Belkan Army’s research and development division, eventually being named the chief engineer of the Project Pendragon weapons development project in conjunction with the South Belka Munitions Factory.

Following the Belkan Federal Law Review of 1988 and the continuing economic downturn of the 80s and 90s, however, the Belkan Government shut down much of Project Pendragon’s development avenues, and Dr. Kupchenko resigned from the project before it was ultimately killed by Waldemarr Rald’s newly elected government in favor of the Excalibur chemical laser. Kupchenko returned to the Belkan Air Force, using the political clout he had amassed during his work on Project Pendragon to be promoted to the rank of Commander, while still flying as an active duty pilot.

Near the mid-point of the Belkan War, Kupchenko was approached by Rald with the intent of setting up a paramilitary resistance against a potential occupation by Osean forces if the war turned further away from Belka’s favour. All records of the meeting were destroyed, as were all traces of the back channel funding funneled to Kupchenko by Rald, and backdated paperwork was forged claiming Kupchenko and his entire Gault Squadron had been killed in action in March of 1995 just prior to the war’s outbreak.

Kupchenko, however, took his as an opportunity to sow the seeds of an anti-government coup within the Belkan military. He constructed the command infrastructure Rald wanted him to, but stacked it with soldiers who would be loyal to him and his ideals, not Belka or Rald’s, including with soldiers recruited from the militaries of the Allied Forces. Using the chaos spawned from the Seven Pillars nuclear strike in the Waldreichs as cover, Kupchenko activated his sleeper agents across the Osean continent and A World With No Boundaries came online in all but name on June 6th, 1995.

From there, he hastily scrambled to reallocate his usable assets from the SBMF and the Belkan military before the signing of the armistice treaty on June 20th in Lumen. Using the “peace time” as a breathing period, he oversaw the reactivation of many shuttered Project Pendragon assets such as the XB-0 Hresvelgr, and the V2, and the [INFORMATION REDACTED] prior to AWWNB’s official declaration of operations with the Christmas Day bombing of Lumen.

Kupchenko’s ultimate goal appears to be to wipe out the governments of the nations of the Osean continent using the V2 nuclear MIRV ICBM. The V2’s 8 nuclear warheads are more than capable of wiping Oured, Dinsmark, Gran Rugido, Directus, Cor, Mons, Brunies, and Centrum off the map, thereby plunging North Osea and the world at large into anarchy, and causing a death toll uncountable magnitudes greater than the Seven Pillars attack’s if it were to succeed. If need be, Kupchenko would gladly become the world’s greatest mass murderer in order to see his dream of a world with no boundaries come into reality.

Beyond that, Kupchenko was known to be cold, calculated person in real life. His whittling analytical ability earned him the nickname the “Golden Woodpecker” for his pinprick precision and relentless determination. A strict and controlling man, he was known to be a heavy micromanager across all fields of his life, from his days on Project Pendragon, to his time in the cockpit. He could constantly be heard over the radio directing his squadron’s movements and tactics down to the second.

It is speculated that he actually wished to recruit Cipher into A World With No Boundaries at one point, claiming before they met in combat that he’d wished they’d met under different, possibly friendlier circumstances. It would also explain the presence of a second [INFORMATION REDACTED] recovered from the Avalon Dam site by the Ustio Air Force following AWWNB’s surrender. Kupchenko had most likely had it constructed for Cipher to use had he joined their cause with Pixy. However, it was not meant to be, as Foulke ultimately declined to recruit Cipher into the organization due to either Cipher’s loyalty to Ustio as a soldier, his honorable pride as a lawful pilot, or distrust over his nature as a mercenary.

Regardless, Kupchenko is officially stated to have died in the B7R Round Table on New Year’s Eve during Operation Thunderbolt. His remains were claimed to have been recovered and interred at Holtz Public Cemetery in Dinsmark, Belka, though speculation remains that the grave is in fact empty. Unable reach Kupchenko for an interview due to his alleged death, OBC’s Brett Thompson instead outlined his role in A World With No Boundaries himself for Warriors and the Belkan War, paying a visit to Kupchenko’s headstone at Holtz in lieu of an on camera interview with his surviving family or colleagues.





Aircraft featured in Mission 16, Operation Thunderbolt:

This mission is basically “Revenge of the Concept Planes”.


F-16XL
Manufacturer: General Dynamics
Role: Fighter bomber
Manufactured: 1982
Status: Cancelled
Primary Operators: United States
Quick Facts:



This modified F-16 features a double delta wing for better acceleration and maneuverability at low speeds. Its increased wing area allows for greater weapons payload, ideal for ground attacks.

AMMO
Missile: 68
XAGM: 14
SAAM: 10
BPSD: 8



YF-23A
Manufacturer: Northrop/McDonnell Douglas
Role: Stealth fighter
Manufactured: 1989-1990
Status: Cancelled
Primary Operators: United States
Quick Facts:



Nicknamed the "Black Widow II," this supersonic stealth fighter is known for its unique design, which achieves minimal air resistance and radar observability.

AMMO
Missile: 80
QAAM: 12
NPB: 12
BPSD: 10



F-15S/MTD
Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas
Role: Interceptor (Special Technology Testbed Aircraft)
Manufactured: 1988
Status: Retired
Primary Operators: United States
Quick Facts:



An experimental aircraft with thrust vectoring nozzles and canard wings, developed to research air combat maneuverability. It performed so well in tests that it was deployed for actual combat.

AMMO
Missile: 80
FAEB: 8
XLAA: 14
SOD: 16



Su-47
Manufacturer: Sukhoi
Role: Interceptor (Special Technology Testbed Aircraft)
Manufactured: 1989-Present…?
Status: In development
Primary Operators: Russia
Quick Facts:



The "Berkut" is characterized by the forward-swept wings that enable very sharp turns. Stability is maintained by electronically controlled canard wings, making this a preeminent fighter aircraft.

AMMO
Missile: 82
SAAM: 14
SFFS: 16
BPSD: 12






137
Anthony Palmer
"Sorcerer 1"
32, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

Although he became first lieutenant in the Osea Air Defense Force after joining the air force in the 80's, he joined the coup d'etat forces right before the end of the war. He was shot down in B7R and his whereabouts are unknown.


138
Darren Knowles
"Sorcerer 2"
35, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He joined the coup d'etat Forces with his squadron leader Palmer and was shot down in a dogfight in B7R. He is believed to have died on impact when his parachute caught fire after ejecting from the plane.


139
Gregory Brown
"Sorcerer 3"
32, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He was missing in action after a dogfight in B7R, but was arrested at the Apito International Airport in April of 2003, suspect of passport violations.


140
Austin Winters
"Sorcerer 4"
33, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He first joined the infantry, but transferred to the air force with the rearmament declaration of 1990 and became a pilot. When he joined the coup d'etat forces is unknown, but since he came with a recommendation of his Squadron leader Palmer, it is believed he had early contacts with the group.


141
Mario Valdes
"Sorcerer 5"
31, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He was a natural pilot who graduated the military academy with top honors and sortied over one hundred times during the Belkan War. There are no reports of misconduct during his service in the military and his reason for joining the coup d'etat forces are also unclear.


142
Stephen Edmunds
"Sorcerer 6"
38, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He joined the coup d'etat forces with the ceasefire declaration and was shot down during a dogfight in B7R. He had strong political views even when he was serving in the Air Force and was seen during the Tessel Archipelago Demonstration.


143
Charles Andrews
"Sorcerer 7"
29, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He was vice-chairman of the political group known as the Patriotic Front, which promoted an ideology against superpower favoritism while he was a university student. He left the group after questioning the increasing violence in the group's activity and left the school to join the Osean Air Defense Force.


144
Todd Barry
"Sorcerer 8"
29, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Missing In Action
F-15S/MTD* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Mercenary

He joined the Osean Air Defense Force at twenty-two. His official record shows that he sortied over five-hundred times in his career with thirty-eight confirmed kills. He left his family after the ceasefire and joined the coup d'etat forces. His current whereabouts are unknown.


145
Anton Kupchenko
"Gault 1"
48, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

He disappeared in '95 with his squadron and his body was later found in the out skirts of B7R. There are reports that say that was the beginning of the coup d'état.


146
Franz Speidel
"Gault 2"
38, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

After Speidel's death, his house was investigated, they found that multiple calls were made to other foreign countries. His close relationship with Kupchenko led people to believe he had some part with the coup d'état forces.


147
Griswold Veiser
"Gault 3"
36, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

After the ceasefire, he was captured by The Allied forces and was pressured to release information on the coup d'état force and Kupchenko. He has denied any involvement. He has been in captivity since '96 in the Valdes state Prison as a BC level prisoner.


148
Andrew Barry
"Gault 4"
36, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

Although he was shot down in B7R, he was unhurt and was held prisoner for 3 years. He returned to Osea after his release in 2002, working alongside Professor James Dawkins as an Osean Air Defense Force adviser.


149
Egon Strauss
"Gault 5"
35, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

He led the Attack on the OWC Communication Company, eight men took nine people in the office as hostages and demanded the release of 135 Belkans. After 38 hours, he was shot by Osean Special Ops.


150
Bruno Watts
"Gault 6"
34, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

Even after graduating from the Belka Institute of Technology with honors, he joined the Air Force as a pilot, not an engineer. He joined the Gault Team after Kupchenko saw him at a flight show. He died in battle in B7R.


151
Lorenz Riedel
"Gault 7"
27, Male, Belka
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Missing In Action
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

Shot down by the Galm Flight in a battle at B7R, but his body was not found. There were reports of him being seen at Osea's capital, Oured. Special Ops is investigating. His whereabouts are still unconfirmed.


152
Fernando Perez
"Gault 8"
30, Male, Sapin
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
Su-47 Berkut* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Soldier

He moved to Belka in 1990 after he was accepted to work at the weapons Development Lab. Even though he graduated Sapin University with honors, he chose to fight in the front lines. He joined the Gault Team in '94 and was killed a year later in battle.


153
Joshua Bristow
"Wizard 1"
38, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
YF-23A Black Widow II* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

Some details of the Belkan War are still shrouded in mystery. He was supposedly a member of the coup detat forces. He was arrested after information surfaced which linked him to the foundation of the coup d'etat, and is currently serving time in prison.


154
Carlos Joaquin
"Wizard 2"
34, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
YF-23A Black Widow II* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

Flew as Wizard's number two since its beginning in 1990. Main members of the team included Bristow, Morientes, and himself. He was killed when his plane was shot down and he failed to bail out.


155
Lucio Morientes
"Wizard 3"
34, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Killed In Action
YF-23A Black Widow II* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

After being shot down, he was killed by the Allied Forces for stealing one of their weapons. Others in the Wizard Squadron were either killed or have gone missing from the field of battle. Therefore, no one from the Wizard Squadron has been taken into custody during Operation Thunderbolt.


156
Iosif Beletsky
"Wizard 4"
31, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
YF-23A Black Widow II* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

After the war he was involved in an underground organization along with Bristow. In '96 he was arrested as the mastermind of the assassination attempt on the President of Osea. He has denied any involvement in the attempt but has admitted his involvement with Bristow.


157
Evan Carey
"Wizard 5"
30, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
F-16XL* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

Attempted the assassination of the President of Osea in ‘96. He was killed by the Osean Special Ops when information about their plan was leaked to the Osean FBI.


158
Ethan Button
"Wizard 6"
28, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
F-16XL* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

Attempted the assassination of the President of Osea and was killed by Special Ops. His motives are speculated to be actions based on the revolt against the Yuktobanian Peace Treaty.


159
Kevin Shore
"Wizard 7"
28, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
F-16XL* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

He is accused of being the informant in the assassination attempt on the President of Osea but has denied all charges. The information helped deny the assassination which led to the arrest of Bristow and Velecky.


160
Jay Porter
"Wizard 8"
27, Male, Osea
12.31.95 Operation Thunderbolt - Shot Down
F-16XL* (Special Plane Colour Unlocked)
Difficulty: Any
Ace Style: Knight

Accused of being involved in the assassination attempt on the President of Osea in 1996. Charges were made since he made more than 20 trips to Yuktobania six months prior to the incident and others testified against him. He has denied all accusations and is currently imprisoned.






Tracks featured in Mission 16, Operation Thunderbolt:

DISC 2





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