Heavy Command Cruiser (Ace of Aces)

"Heavy Command Cruiser" is the fifth and final mission of the downloadable Ace of Aces mini-campaign in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. It was released in July 23th, 2008 at the price of 350 MS Points. Its hard drive size is 18.07 megabytes.

Plot
In this mission, the player and their allies embark on a mission at the Glaiva Islands in the Fuscum Sea to locate and destroy Estovakia's heavy command cruiser, the P-1112 Aigaion, and her escort fleet.

Part 1 (Naval assault)
The mission opens with a different situation. Instead of heading straight towards the Estovakian Aerial Fleet, the player must first engage a massive naval fleet, formed by many destroyers, aegis ships, cruisers, as well as a single aircraft carrier north of the main island. Accompanying the naval fleet is a small number of Rafale M fighters. Through the first part of the mission, the player will have to endure constant Nimbus missile attacks from the AIgaion.

After the fleet is annihilated, a small flotilla of container ships (marked Red) wll spawn south-east of the island. Following the Red ships, four Green ships will appear, which are followed by three Blue ships. These ships cannot be tracked by homing weapons, leaving machine guns or unguided weapons as the only ways of sinking these targets.

Part 2 (Aigaion)
When the eleven container ships have been eliminated, a mission update will take place. Shortly afterwards, the Aigaion and her fleet will enter the mission airspace from the east, greeting the player with a large Nimbus barrage, The P-1112 is escorted by the Strigon Team, which is already airborne. The Kottos and Gyges ships remain unchanged, with their engines and cockpits being their weak spots.The mission will become relatively easier at this point if the Strigon pilots are taken out, leaving the airships' gunfire as the only threat; even then, their fire is easy to see coming and evade. Like in the main campagn, the P-1112 will fire Nimbus missiles at the player if they fly too far away, however the size of the "safe" radius is reduced in Ace of Aces. As well, the number of missiles fire is increased. When only a few targets remain on the mothership, a pair of Rafales will appear, which are easily disposable of.Once the first batch of targets on the Aigaion is taken care of, the ship's engines and AA guns will become targetable.

Once the engines are eliminated, the Aigaion's cockpit will become vulnerable. Furthermore, a number of ace pilots will appear to defend the ships; all of them are named after player & minor characters from the Ace Combat series. Despite what their appearance suggests, their aircraft bear their respective Estovakian SP paint schemes, as opposed to their signature paintjobs. As well, they are not mission-critical targets. A mission update will occur when the cockpit is destroyed.
 * Mobius 1 flies an F-22A.
 * Blaze flies an F-14D.
 * Galm flies an F-15E.
 * Yellow 13 flies an Su-33.
 * Jean-Louis and Gene fly Su-47s.
 * Gryphus flies an F-22A.

Part 3 (Final battle)
After the mission update, the heavy command cruiser will begin to randomly fire Nimbus missiles all over the surrounding area. As well, Ilya Pasternak will spawn over the cruiser, accompanied by a swarm of UAV-45 combat drones. When Pasternak is killed, the player will have to target and destroy the Aigaion's core with a frontal attack. When the core is eliminated, the mission will finally conclude.