Blaze

"They'll learn soon enough. Our ace can't be shot down."

- Hans Grimm

The pilot known only by his callsign of "Blaze", is the player character of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, and is internationally renowned for his services during the Circum-Pacific War, formerly with the Sand Island detachment of the Osea Air Defense Force's 108th Tactical Fighter Squadron, more commonly known as Wardog. After conflicting with Osean command, Blaze and his squadron were accused of treason and marked for arrest. With the help of the OFS Kestrel, the Wardog squadron staged their false deaths, and were "reborn" as the Ghosts of Razgriz. With the connotations attached to this name from a famous storybook legend, along with their domination of enemy forces in the Yuktobanian theater of the war, Razgriz became legend once again with the destruction of the Belkan aggressor squadrons Grabacr and Ofnir, and the military attack satellite, the SOLG (Strategic Orbital Linear Gun).

In Wardog
Showing aerial talent rarely seen in so-called "Nuggets", Blaze soon became Captain Jack Bartlett's favorite pupil, thereafter receiving the nickname "Kid". Soon, Chopper also called him by this nickname. As the player character has by tradition been mute and unseen, it is unknown how Blaze reacted to this, though does not seem to mind it.

Blaze's first real mission was Operation: Lagoon, on September 24, 2010. An unknown spy plane had been seen near Cape Landers, and Wardog was scrambled out. As they were trying to get a response on radio from the bogey, four aircraft came in from bearing 280. They started to fire on Wardog, who was ordered not to return fire. Captain Bartlett, however, didn't take kindly to being shot at and and he ordered Blaze and the others to fire back. All four bandits were shot down. Reinforcements appeared, and they fared as well as their comrades did. Bartlett was reprimanded and Blaze was cleared of all charges.

Four days later, during Operation: Gyre, Blaze and Wardog were sent out to destroy enemy UAVs launched from a spy ship - they were ordered not to fire on the ship however. Again, bandits appeared from vector 280 and Wardog shot them down, with Blaze doing most of the heavy lifting. Afterwards, Bartlett was shot down by a SAM from the spy vessel, but safely ejected. Blaze. Edge and Chopper were ordered to return to base; Yuktobania had just declared war.

Succeeding Bartlett
Without time to be properly briefed of the situation, Blaze led the Wardog unit during the defense of St. Hewlett, at the behest of Lt. Kei Nagase who declined command. The OFS Kestrel, a Hubert (the Strangereal name for the real world Nimitz class) class aircraft carrier, the flagship of the Osean Maritime Defense Force Third Fleet, managed to escape destruction at the hands of Yuktobanian aircraft. They broke out of the harbor, entered the ocean, and destroyed a blockade, with the help of Wardog.

When Sand Island was attacked later that evening, Blaze retained command and was given a new wingman; Airman 1st Class Hans Grimm, callsign "Archer". He was finally given full command of the 108th when the current Wardog Leader, Lt. Col. Ford was killed in action during the battle. Blaze then helped escort the Kestrel, OFS Buzzard, and the OFS Vulture to the Eaglin Straits, where they were attacked by carrier-based VTOL aircraft from the Scinfaxi, an advanced Yuktobanian missile submarine. Despite their efforts, however, Wardog could not protect the OFS Vulture and OFS Buzzard from the Scinfaxi's burst missiles. Wardog escaped the missiles but low on fuel, they were rerouted to Heierlark Air Base, in what was known by disgruntled locals to still be South Belka, to rearm and refuel. When there, they were ordered to take some "nuggets" back to Sand Island with them. Because these inexperienced pilots could not refuel in midair, they had to land at every base along the way, including McNealy Air Force Base.

Blaze and the others were then tasked with defending Basset Space Center, and the SSTO containing the laser cannon that was to outfit the Arkbird, Osea's greatest technological achievement. They protected SSTO and Basset from airborne tanks and cruise missiles, and came home without any major damage. For a while, it remained unknown why Yuktobanian forces targeted the Space Center. When they returned, Yuktobania attacked Sand Island again. With the Arkbird's lasers, they destroyed the enemy fleet, and the massive submarine Scinfaxi, though they lost most, if not all, of the trainee pilots.

Things were quiet for several weeks, and then the newly promoted 1st Lieutenants of Wardog were sent on patrol missions on Akerson Hill, where a passenger jet, carrying then-unknown Osean President Vincent Harling, was on a top-secret mission to North Point. As such, the jet could not transmit a friendly IFF signal to the network of anti-air missile batteries below, one of which damaged the jet and limited its mobility. After a surprise attack by Yuktobanian forces, and a struggle inside the jet which killed the captain and injured a few others, Blaze safely guided President Harling safely to the ground, where the mysterious "8492nd Squadron" took over the rescue.

Blaze assisted in the landing of Osean forces on Yuktobania, and his fame started to grow. When Yuktobania began to withdraw, Blaze, Edge, Chopper and Archer shot down a squadron of transports and jammer craft. However, during this operation, Osean forces supposedly attacked a civilian engineering college and killed several civilians. Osea pointed the finger at Blaze and Wardog, and they were ordered back to Oured for an inquiry.

Wardog proved their innocence when they were given the task of defending Apito International Airport from a reprisal Yuktobanian attack. Blaze saved many civilian lives, and was presumably cleared of all charges. On their way back to Sand Island, all of them were exhausted as they completed yet another difficult mission.

The Demons of Razgriz
Upon return, they were sent up yet again to destroy the sister submarine of Scinfaxi, Hrimfaxi, in the Razgriz Straits. They destroyed it, and as it sank a Yuktobanian soldier made a quip about the four planes being "The Demons of Razgriz" - birthing a nickname that caused fear among allies and enemies alike.

They then destroyed ground and air forces at a POW camp in Glubina during a bad storm. Aided by the Marine unit Sea Goblin, they rescued the imprisoned pilots, however, much to Nagase's disapointment, Captain Bartlett was not among them. Edge was shot down, but she ejected safely without any injury. As the Sea Goblin gunship they had been escorting went down to rescue her, it crashed as well. Blaze was forced to return to base without his wingman. They returned to Glubina and rescued Edge as soon as the weather improved. Four once again, Wardog attacked Yuke forces in the Jilachi Desert, with the soldiers beginning to call them "The Heroes of the Razgriz Straits". This is the first time friendly forces realized who the "Razgriz" were after hearing it from enemy soldiers.

Secrets begin to unravel
During a ceremonial flight over November City's football stadium, performed by the now-famous Wardog Squadron, Osean Vice-President Appelrouth enthusiastically tried to rally the audience to back the Osean war machine, but all in attendance, instead of cheering, sang a popular anti-war song. At that moment, Yuktobanian fighters appeared and began attacking Wardog. Reinforcements were called, but the leader of the 8492nd Squadron deployed ECM devices and convinced the incoming reinforcements that the whole emergency was just a drill, subsequently leaving Wardog to stave off the Yuke forces alone. They four pilots fought bravely, but Chopper sustained critical damage to his aircraft during the battle; his systems were failing and he could not eject. He waited as long as he could before dropping his plane into the center of the stadium. Enraged at the loss of their close friend, Blaze, Edge, and Archer seemed to summon incredible abilities to fly their aircraft, decimating the enemy forces, until reinforcements finally arrived, too late to be of any help.

For his heroics, Chopper received a posthumnous two-rank promotion, presumably to Lieutenant Colonel. Swallowing their sorrow, the remaining members of Wardog then captured the "impregnable" Cruik fortress.

Passing through the Vladimir Mountain range as they returned home exhausted, they were ambushed by the "8492nd squadron", and several Belkan fighters. It was quickly determined by Wardog, and concurrently at Sand Island by Pops and Genette, that it was the 8492nd who had kidnapped the president and indirectly resulted in the death of Chopper.

They returned home, and discovered most of Sand Island was against them - the adjutant base commander Allen C. Hamilton, in truth a member of the Belkan nationalist group known as the "Gray Men", had been manipulating the base commander and others against them. Pops, their only remaining ally, provided training jets with which to escape Sand Island, and they disappeared with the help of Marcus Snow and the OFS Kestrel's captain, Andersen. Snow joined the unit as they, with the help of the Kestrel-based Sea Goblin helicopter squadron, liberated President Harling from his prison in Stier Castle(Here,in Ace Combat 5, the player can see one of the craters from the nuclear detonations from the war 15 years ago), where the 8492nd, also known as the as Belkan Grabacr aggressors, had been keeping him. During the war 15 years ago, Belka had been defeated by the allied Osean and Yuktobanian forces, and it was determined that this war was their revenge.

Ghosts of Razgriz
Blaze's squadron was renamed the "Ghosts of Razgriz" by president Harling after they rescued him. Relying upon dates and geological coordinates provided by an anonymous figure, Blaze flew out on a solo reconnaissance mission to Mt. Schirm in Belka, and photographed several Osean and Yuktobanian fighters and workers who were at the mine entrance. As this was to be strictly a recon mission, he was forced to fly completely unarmed. This was ultimately a problem, as Blaze was then forced to retreat from the approaching Grabacr and Ofnir squadrons, and his squadmates rescued him from the west. It was confirmed that the 8492nd Squadron was in fact Grabacr, and that both it and Ofnir were Belkan aggressor squadrons, assigned to act as spies for the Osean and Yuktobanian armies, respectively. Razgriz returned the next day and sealed in what they believed were the nuclear arms in Mount Schirm's mines.

They were directed to a canyon in Yuktobania where a resistance movement, under direction from the mysterious friend of the Ghosts of Razgriz, were dismantling a nuclear weapon. Blaze eliminated all enemies that were searching for the movement, and then shot down the Ofnir squadron, Belkan aggressors in Yuktobania, who had been sent to destroy them. It was then revealed to Blaze that the mysterious friend was none other than Captain Bartlett. The Razgriz then shot down the Arkbird, which had been captured by Belkan operatives, over the Ceres Ocean. They made contact with Jack Bartlett again when they helped him escape with the unconscious Yuktobanian prime minister, Seryozha Nikanor, who, just like Harling, had been a prisoner of the Belkans. Blaze shot down the Grabacr, who had arrived to kill them.

When they returned to the Kestrel, Razgriz destroyed an enemy fleet that had been sent to find them, as well as an Osean carrier group that was sent to kill the "traitorous" Andersen.

Endgame
Afterwards, they discovered that the V2 rocket, a weapon of mass destruction, had been loaded onto an attack satellite, the SOLG. The SOLG's control was in the hands of Belka's South Belka Munitions Factory, posing as Grunder Industries, friend and weapons manufacturer of Osea. The Razgriz were about to launch when Kestrel was hit by two sub-launched missiles. The original order was to abandon ship, as well as any hope of stopping the Belkans, but Captain Andersen overrode this order and launched the four planes into the sky, saying in a life raft:

"I've lost time and time again. But now, I've finally won. ...Look! We launched them off safely, there's my victory. As long as they're in the air, I haven't lost."

Blaze was joined by Yuktobanian and Osean craft after both President Harling and Prime Minister Nikanor made a speech asking both armies to stand down. As they reached Sudentor, where Grunder had chosen to base themselves, they destroyed hostile ground units and the SOLG control by navigating a narrow tunnel while being chased at high speed by Major Hamilton, a Belkan operative within the OADF. It was then revealed the SOLG was programmed to reenter the earth's atmosphere if control was ever cut off from the ground. Based on its descent trajectory, it was to crash in the middle of downtown Oured. Blaze led the Razgriz one final time as they shot down both Ofnir and Grabacr, and then the SOLG.

After the war
All information on Blaze and the Belkan Conflict was classified for 10 years, to be revealed in the year 2020. It is known that wingmate Swordsman, called Blaze the "Ace of Aces" during the final missions of the game, meaning that he showed skill that surpassed all other aces. Not much is known about Blaze after the war.