The Ukraine War is shrouded in mystery. But now a decade after the peace accords a portion of the records was finally released. I quickly got a hold of it. There was a reason for my obsession. The roots of the war lie in the Russian Federal law review that took place in 1989. Russia suffering from economic strife, allowed its eastern territory to secede and the Republic of Ukraine was born. But the Russian's economic troubles did not subside. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the situation, The NATO superpowers continued to flourish. Amidst the economic panic, an extreme right wing party took power within Russia, aiming to restore power and stability to the nation. And on February 24th 2022, with the discovery of natural resources in Ukraine, Russia began to invade its neighbors. It was the beginning, of the Ukraine war. Unprepared, half of the country fell quickly before the might of the legendary Russian Air Force, While Russia's main ground force kept getting their tanks stolen from Elite Ukrainian Farmers. In response, the occupied Ukraine military government placed all their hopes on a joint operation between NATO and other foreign mercenary forces. This of course can be found in any history book. But I noticed a strange similarly between the materials I gathered. There was several accounts about a mercenary, all followed by the code word "Ghost" But most of the information was incomplete, Still I was intrigued I decided to peruse the war through this mercenary. I was certain I would find something there. Would it be the hidden truth behind the war, or just another battlefield legend? I was never able to meet the mercenary himself. Actually, it's questionable if he ever did exist. But thanks to some old friends in the military, I was able to track down several individuals who knew him. *Solo Wing*, is one such man. "It was a cold and rainy day." He said
I see this as the "Assault Records" theme. Not gonna lie, the Assault Records was probably one of my favorite parts of the game. As a kid, I spent a LOT of time replaying the missions to try and fill it all. I love how it's such a small thing that actually expands the lore in a HUGE way. You'd get these faceless people who you have shot down along the way, each with an uniquely colored aircraft model and a brief description. It serves to humanize your opponents, as you can clearly see, not every Belkan is a fucking scumbag. Actually, at least 40% of the Assault Records are comprised by people who had loving families and were shot down during their duties as pilots. Some of them even had brothers and sisters in the same squadron/same AO. 20% is comprised the ace squadrons you shot down along the way. Another 20% is made up of AWWNB members, who wished to bring a very loose sense of peace by nuking the world. Some 10% are made up of foreigners, like Yukes, Oseans, the Sapinish and even people from your own country, Ustio, and the last 10% are made up of people who later went on to join some terrorist organization named "Falcons of Dawn" (probably the ones who opposed the peace treaty), and some people whose lives are complete mysteries, because the records have been mysteriously altered and/or falsified.
Assault Records also give a good spin on ace style. Those aces you shoot down in Mercenary route become civilians and find honest work, while those in the Knight path become terrorists (Falcons of Dawn) who target civilian companies.
Cum historia Mutat valde razgriz Revelat ipsum Primum daemon scelestus est Cum potencia Caenum daemon fundet Mortem in terram Deinde moritur Cum somnus Razgriz surget Iterum magnus hero est
For a world building story of Strangereal, it's just so amazing with all those squadron have story tell about the Demon Lord who defined threat and aspiring them when they meet him and at the end, we dance gracefully above skies for that No Boundaries feeling from Border
I like how Wizard squadron's intro clues you in on their tactics. One of their callsigns is Wizard 5, but there's only 4 planes. Then during battle, you got missiles flying in from nowhere. That's when you see other targets on radar: YF-23As, stealth fighters. And then it clicks into place. Four planes act as a diversion, while the other four try to snipe you from a distance. It's a pretty cool detail that i didn't think about until i replayed the game.
Ace Combat Zero is my favorite of the series, and that Lietmotif at 1:27 really captures the feeling you get playing this game. It captures the emoitional high of a mission about the liberation of a capital city, while also carrying a hint of sadness for what is happening to the world at large.
Circum-Pacific War (September 27th - December 31st, 2010). The Razgriz Squadron Blaze, Edge, Archer and Swordsman are began readying for their last stand to put an end of the final conflict, starting at dawn. But they have through the Ofnir Squadron first, before they destroy the SOLG over the sky, they can't let they homeland be destroy.
