An idea proposed to me by The Emerald's Edge and Vader23A, we're each doing a crossover between Ace Combat and Vandread. My crossover is Ace Combat 0 so I hope you enjoy.

Avalon Dam, Belka, December 31st 1995.

This was it, the location of the V2 launch facility being used by the terrorist organization A World with no Boundaries.

This massive facility wasn't just a house for the V2 nuke, but was also a massive air base for the terrorist group. Their final base.

The elite fighter pilot Cipher also known as Galm 1 and his wingman PJ, were tasked with the sole purpose of destroying this facility while the allied forces drew the enemy's fire to themselves.

It wasn't going to be easy, but there was no doubt that the only pilot that could accomplish such a thing was Cipher himself.

The Belkan war started earlier that year, in May of 1995.

During an economical strife, the nation Belka allowed its eastern territories to succeed, but this did not alleviate any of the economical troubles for the nation. Meanwhile the neighboring country and world superpower Osea took advantage of the situation and continued to flourish.

During this turmoil an extreme right wing party took power within Belka and after discovering natural resources within the borders of the Republic of Ustio, Belka former eastern territory, the nation began to invade its neighbors.

One by one nations fell to the might of the superior Belkan Air Force and the Belkan war had officially begun.

Belka had quickly subdued all of Ustio, capturing its capital city within only a few weeks of declaring war, and continued to easily withstand and push back any attempt made from Yuktobonia and Osea.

With their own military mostly defeated or destroyed Ustio turned to mercenary pilots for their last defense, two pilots stood far out from the rest.

Cipher and Solo Wing Pixy. These two mercenaries each had their own unique story behind them; Pixy (Real name Larry Foulke) earned his nickname Solo Wing after having the right wing of his F-15C blown off during a mission.

Even with his missing wing Pixy managed to stay in the air and complete his mission before safely returning to base.

Cipher's story however is much different, but just as well known. Originally just a lone mercenary pilot that flew by a specific code, Cipher had more recorded kills than any other recruited mercenary even before he joined Ustio's Air Force.

Cipher's persistence in battle coupled with his knack for sparring enemy targets that could not fight back unless necessary made him something of a legend amongst other mercenaries, however Cipher's name traveled much faster since no one knew what he looked like. Only Solo Wing Pixy had ever seen Cipher without his flight helmet on, but if anyone asked what he looked like, Pixy would just smile and turn away.

In their first mission together Cipher and Pixy, now the two members of the 66th Air Force Unit A.K.A Galm Squadron. The two pilots were to intercept and destroy a massive group of Belkan bombers that were heading toward Valais air base the last remaining Ustio base not under Belkan control.

After successfully intercepting and shooting down each of the bombers the two pilots quickly became friends, even though Cipher never spoke much Pixy always referred to him as "Buddy".

Cipher and Pixy became the center of attention from all sides of the Belkan war after a massive aerial battle in Belkan Airspace B7R, A.K.A The Round Table, where Galm team was sent in as the only reinforcements to a losing battle.

The Allied Forces had already lost 40% of their fighters by the time Galm showed up and that was when the balance of power tipped toward the Allied Forces.

Easily and quickly Cipher and Pixy had shot down more than half of the remaining Belkan forces, and due to a mission a few days prior to that battle Cipher was already well known by the Belkan military for destroying their super laser weapon codenamed Excalibur.

Once the Belkan fighters confirmed that it was Cipher who destroyed Excalibur every Belkan fighter set their priority to him determined to stop him right there, but after seeing Cipher's superior ability they realized that there was nothing they could do to stop him.

The Allied pilots that were also involved with the battle watched as Cipher single handedly managed to shoot down enemy after enemy with no trouble at all, and because of a small legend that was born many years ago Cipher received the nickname Demon Lord of the Round Table.

When Belkan reinforcements finally arrived most of the Belkan fighters were already shot down, leaving only a few left that were fleeing the battle due to excessive combat damage.

The incoming Belkan squad was the 13th Night Fighter Air Division of the 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron "Schwarze".

A squadron of 8 MiG-31 Foxhounds with a bare black and red paint scheme feared even by their own allies.

The elite squadron engaged the Galm team in combat, but even they fell to the superior piloting skills of Cipher. Even Pixy was impressed at this point, but the war had taken a turn for the worst one day.

During an operation into Belka one day to force back the last remaining Belkan military forces, the Belkan officials committed the unthinkable. They set off nuclear weapons on their own soil to stave off the advancing enemy forces, killing thousands on both sides.

Seeing this act firsthand Pixy fled from the current battle after shortly turning on his flight lead and friend Cipher.

After a few minutes of trying to shoot down his own friend Pixy finally fled the battle and thanks to some remaining Belkan fighters, Cipher was unable to follow after him.

After Pixy's defection and disappearance the position of Galm 2 was given to PJ, a young mercenary pilot that was formerly number 3 in the Crow squadron that was destroyed during the nuclear attack.

Cipher and PJ continued their duties as members of the Ustio Air Force and eventually brought the Belkan military down and presumably ended the war, but a terrorist organization calling themselves a World with no Boundaries attacked the peace conference with their massive Heavy Command Cruiser codenamed XB-0.

After the attack the massive mobile HQ vanished and reappeared above Valais air base to launch an attack to draw out the Demon Lord himself.

After the XB-0 passed over the air base the Galm team was sent out to destroy the giant monster for good.

Meeting severe resistance along the way including a squadron from the allied nation Sapin, now allied with the terrorist group Galm team managed to fight their way through before bringing down the massive mobile base.

After the destruction of the XB-0 the terrorist organization revealed their true plan. To use a V2 nuke to 'wipe away all boundaries and borders, to start a new world'.

After hearing this plan the allied forces launched an all out attack to stop the terrorist organization once and for all.

Galm team was to be the final blow in this operation, but before they could arrive they had to fly through the Round Table one more time.

Once the Galm team was halfway through the Round Table another enemy squadron from the terrorist group intercepted them, this time it was the Gault squadron.

Anton "Dr." Kupchenko, the flight lead of the Gault squadron revealed that he was the leader of the terrorist group and it was his plan to erase the world's borders to start anew.

It was a long battle, but Galm team managed to destroy the enemy squadron before proceeding to Avalon Damn where the V2 was located.

Thanks to the battle with the Gault squadron, Galm was late and the operation had already begun and the allies were taking heavy losses.

Realizing that time was something they didn't have Cipher and PJ quickly flew through the valley toward the dam at the far end.

Reaching their destination PJ flew high to draw the enemy's attention away from Cipher while he flew into the dam itself to destroy the V2 controls and generators.

After making several passes through the dam Cipher managed to expose and destroy each of the cores for the launch facility before flying out with his wingman by his side.

"We did it!" PJ cheered "We stopped the launch. We're going to branded as heroes".

After setting himself in formation alongside Cipher, PJ announced that he had a girlfriend back at the base and he planned to propose to her when he got back. Leaning to the side of his pilot's seat PJ held up a bouquet of flowers for Cipher to see from his cockpit, but their moment was cut short when the pilot of their AWACS announced the presence of an unknown enemy heading for them.

"What!" PJ yelled before flying right in front of Cipher just as a red laser shot toward him. "Dangit!" PJ cried just as the laser hit him destroying his fighter.

The force from the impact shattered the glass from Cipher's canopy while PJ's F-16 was sent hurdling toward the Earth below in a smoking wreck.

"So, have you found a reason to fight yet?" a familiar voice asked Cipher from the radio just as the unknown enemy craft appeared far out in front of him "Buddy".

This new craft was a prototype fighter known as the ADFX-02 codenamed Morgan and it was piloted by Cipher's old wingman and friend, Solo Wing Pixy.

After a quick analysis of the enemy fighter AWACS Eagle Eye announced the Pixy had control of the V2 and was just about ready to launch it manually.

Realizing that his only choice was to shoot down his former wingman Cipher entered combat with Pixy for the first and last time.

It was a long and grueling dog fight for both pilots, evading narrow miss after narrow miss in the snowing sky, but as always the scales were in Cipher's favor.

Quickly looping around after each shot he made he got behind Pixy and fired another until he managed to score enough damage to force Pixy to play his final hand.

"It's time" Pixy said as he activated the V2 launch.

With the V2 rocket quickly flying into the sky Pixy turned his fighter toward his buddy and said "Too bad Buddy, this twisted game needs to be reset. We'll start from 'zero' with this V2 and entrust the future to the next generation".

With the final battle still underway and the endgame quickly approaching Pixy looked to his buddy and began telling him what his beliefs were.

"Those who survive a long time on the battlefield start to think they're invincible. I bet you do to Buddy".

"This isn't over yet, Buddy. This is where it all starts. You know what I mean"

"There's no mercy in war, people live and people die. That's all there is to it".

Somehow Pixy had become a much better pilot managing to evade every shot Cipher made at him without even attempting to fire back, he was just buying time until the V2 reentered the atmosphere.

"You fired up yet Buddy?" Pixy asked Cipher "Come shoot me down!"

"Listen up Galm 1" AWACS Eagle Eye said "V2 has reentered the atmosphere this is you're last chance take him down".

There was only a few minutes left, this really was Cipher's last chance he had to shoot down Pixy to stop the V2.

In the heat of the moment Cipher began recalling all of the events in the war, all of the battles he was in. Hearing the voices of allies and enemies alike he began thinking about every battle he had fought in and even though he was just a mercenary his goal was to end this war. He couldn't let the V2 hit, he had to stop it.

"That kind of pilot they call of Demon Lord". He remembered that someone said that during his battle in the Round Table once, during the massive aerial battle that took place.

With all of these thoughts running through his head Cipher pressed his attack finally making hits on Pixy's craft forcing him to finally fight back, but at that time it was already too late.

Cipher fired his last missile scoring a direct hit on the right wing of Pixy's craft, the one painted red sending the craft into its deathrows.

"Come on!" Pixy yelled just after the last missile hit him.

Flying head on toward each other, the two fighters tilted their crafts to where the undersides of each fighter was facing each other as they flew by.

"This isn't over Buddy" Pixy said before he manually detonated the V2 in the middle of Earth's atmosphere.

As the nuke exploded sending out a massive light of destruction that began tearing at everything around it a second light engulfed both pilots while everything around them fell completely silent.