[Wild Goose]

Originally Posted by Alastor Mobius Toth

Them internet connections and timezones.

Hahaha, yeah.
To be honest, I like YF-23, but sometimes I feel like too many people put on pedestal purely because of combat results. Which is fine and all, but as history demonstrated, that's not necessarily everything (American Sherman and Soviet T-34 come to mind); and "The Matter of Honor" segment of TSFiA gives quite a few logical arguments at to why ATSF made the decision it did.

And incidentally, new Comet segment is out. As promised, it has Hogs.

^ Exactly. Well said.

There is no point in having an awesome BETA killing machine, if you cannot deploy your awesome BETA killing machine because it is undergoing maintenance.

Spoiler for That would be the most inglorious death ever::

Lt. Colonel Ken Jackson racked the bolt of his M4A1, a dark look on his face. He was not alone; all around him, the pilots of his fighter squadron were hastily drawing small arms, checking ammo, loading themselves with grenades...

The twenty four men and women had some small hope against Warrior and Soldier-class BETA, and no hope at all against the Tank-classes that were on the move towards the FOB.

The F-23A had seemed like a great idea. It was a tremendously capable machine, a powerful TSF, equally able at engaging BETA at range and in melee. The impressive combat results from the ATSF Project trials were borne out by its performance in live combat. The US Army and Air Force chose it on the basis of those results, ignoring Lockweed-Mardin's competing YF-22 design.

At this point, Jackson was sure the brass had made a mistake.

Yes, it was a wonderful machine. Yes, it was a joy to fly. And yes, it could dance around any TSF in service, especially the F-18E/F Super Hornet, the Navy's pride and joy. He'd done just that four months ago at Red Flag; his flight of F-23As had decimated a squadron of F-18Fs. Add the fact that the squadron XO was his son... well that was icing on the cake, showing his boy the old man hadn't totally lost his touch.

But facing a horde of BETA coming to his FOB, and being told that half of his group's F-23As were down for maintennance... well, it was a most inglorious way to die.

"Colonel?" called one of his pilots. "I really hope nobody tells anyone what happened here. I'd hate for anyone to know we died stupid."

"My son would never get off my case about how the Navy has its shit together more than the Army," groused Jackson. He was still sore that David had enlisted for Aviation Officer Candidate School instead of following his footsteps to West Point. Still, at least being on the Kennedy meant that his son wouldn't be dying here beside him today.

"Alright people, we may be pilots, but we're also soldiers. Our lives are forfeit, but we're gonna sell them as dearly as we can. I intend to shoot every goddamned BETA bastard I see until I run out of ammo. Once those fuckers try to eat me, I'm pulling the pin of every single grenade I'm wearing. Let's regroup in hell."

Also, FUCK YES HOGS. I gather Old Snake is supposed to be Big Boss, though when I saw that I immediately thought of Bruce Crandall instead, probably because I'd just recently watched We Were Soldiers.