Aurelian War

Aurelian War is featured in Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception and Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion for the Playstation Portable(PSP) and IOS. The war takes place in 2020.

Background
In 2019, a civil war broke out in Leasath when their economy collapsed at the time when the government were planning to export future arms industry markets all over the world. The result of the civil war was unknown, but General Diego Gaspar Navarro managed to unite the remaining troops. Its neighboring country, Aurelia aided the country's people with vital supplies.

Invasion
In October 2020, the Democratic Republic of Leasath invaded the Federal Republic of Aurelia. Aurelia's border defenses immediately fell to the Leasath forces. Within just a few days, 60% of Aurelia was under Leasath control. Phuku Lagolla Air Force Base, located to the south-west of Griswall, was one of the last military bases still under Aurelian control. To defeat Aurelia once and for all, Leasath dispatched several bombers to destroy the base. But they were intercepted and destroyed by Falco Squadron, an experimental aircraft testing squadron, the leader of which, Falco 1 quickly gained the nickname, the southern cross. After, Leasath launched an attack on army base Sallqa, which the Aurelian army had made their field HQ, but it was defeated by Falco Squadron. Leasath then launched a naval invasion on the port of Challwa, located to the south of Griswall, but it was defeated by Falco Squadron.

Counterattack
Leasath's invasion was now running out of steam. As revenge for their previous defeat, the Leasath Air Force attempted to destroy a army base Sallqa, but they were defeated by Falco Squadron. By now the Aurelian's war strategy was maintaining a supply line between Sallqa and Griswall. Giving up on trying to destroy Sallqa, the Leasath Air Force instead decided to cut off this supply line. They sent a number of fighters, including the legendary Chimera Squadron, but they were all shot down by "The Southern Cross".

The Tide Begins To Turn
With Leasath's invasion running out of steam, Aurelia decided to go on the offensive. Falco 1 was sent to destroy several supply warehouses protected by an anti-aircraft system and succeeded. Aurelia then decided to move a fleet of undamaged warships from Port Patterson, where they would defend Griswall. Leasath sent a huge fleet to stop them, but with the help of Falco Squadron, the Aurelian fleet made it out of port. With defeat now starring them in the face, Leasath high command decided to make a difficult decision. They deployed the Gandr, an experimental prototype of the Gleipnir, to detroy the fleet. Intercepting the Aurelian fleet, the Gandr fired a single SWBM, which destroyed the entire entire Aurelian fleet. Falco Squadron immediately engaged the Gandr. Despite having to fight through the Chimera Squadron, and dodging numerous SWBMs, Falco Squadron destroyed the Gandr. Despite that, the loss of the naval fleet was a crippling blow that Aurelia didn't manage to recover from until the end of the war. For unknown reasons, Falco Squadron was suspended. Not long after, Griswall fell. Things seemed bad for Aurelia.

Skies of Deception
The Leasath Forces were led by Commander Diego Gaspar Navarro, during their full scale offensive against Aurelia.The Leasathians were not only large in numbers but also possessed large numbers of state-of-the-art unseen equipments,vehicles and weapons.By October 10, after only 10 days when they declared war, they now invaded 95% of Aurelia.



A large Leasath bomber group was launched in order to destroy one of the last Aurelian Air Bases at Cape Aubrey peninsula in North West Aurelia. Aurelian ace Gryphus One was scrambled with an entire Aurelian Fighter Squadron and successfully managed to intercept the bombers. After the Leasath aircraft were shot down, however, the Gleipnir over the Puna Plains launched an SWBM shortly after coming out of Optical Camoflague and wiped out most of the Aurelian aircraft with only Gryphus One, Five and Six in the skies afterward. The last stand against Leasath's brutal blitzkrieg was deemed 'futile' by several newspapers.

Counter-Offensive
When the news of the near decimated Gryphus squadron at Aubrey Air Force Base, it was claimed resistance was futile by some newspapers, as Aurelia's final troops surrendered. However, not long after Gryphus One and two Aurelian fighters were launched for a surprise attack to Puna Base, which was a great success and the Aurelians managed to get hold of vital supplies. An Aurelian Army assault team then moved to retake Port Patterson for their forces, in an attempt to mount a counterattack with the help of the Gryphus Squadron. Despite a Leasath amphibious fleet preparing to land vehicles and tanks, it was sunk thanks to Gryphus squadron. The Gleipnir had returned to a supply facility in Terminus Island, Southern Aurelia. The Aurelian forces managed to retake Port Patterson, destroy front line Leasath air bases and facilities and began a ground offensive with their outnumbered forces. The Gleipnir began to fire upon the Aurelian Davis Unit from Terminus Island, with its deadly SWBMs. The First and Second Aurelian Fleets, along with support from the Gryphus Squadron went to Terminus Island in hopes of shooting down the Gleipnir. They were ambushed by Gleipnir, thanks to its Digital Optical Stealth (DOS) Technology and the Aurelian 1st Fleet was damaged. Gryphus One engaged the Gleipnir every time it de-cloaked and managed to destroy it's SWBM launch ports and heavily damaged it's DOS. Gleipnir's Crew quickly brought the fortress high into the atmosphere and flew to a Repair Facility in Santa Elva.

The Aurelian Forces responded quickly and attacked the Gleipnir at its repair facility. The Leasath Forces were caught completely off guard. The Gleipnir was launched by emergency whom Leasathians hoped it would destroy the one who damaged its own at the Terminus Island. Gryphus One attacked Gleipnir and managed to destroy all of its conventional defensive weaponry. As Gryphus 1 began to attack the Gleipnir's engines, the Gleipnir's Captain implored his crew to use the Gleipnir's Shock Cannon (built facing straight-down and made for ground attacks) against the Southern Cross. Due to battle damages the crew did not want to risk ripping the Gleipnir to shreds, attempting to fire the Shock Cannon. The Gleipnir's Captain took the controls of the aircraft and in an unbelievable feat of the aircraft's maneuverability, rolled the Gleipnir upside down and flew it inverted. The Shock Cannon was fired multiple times in desperation, but Gryphus One soon destroyed the Gleipnir's Shock Cannon and shot down the large aircraft. Things were beginning to turn around for Aurelia, and a new "Southern Cross", this time taking the form of Gryphus 1 was inspiring Aurelian forces and leading them to victory.

With the loss of the Gleipnir, Aurelian forces began to push the Leasath forces back on all fronts. Sachana Air Force Base, the largest Aurelian air base was re-taken, and the Nevera Jammer at Mount Nevera were destroyed.

However, this was at the expense of defenses at the captured Aurelian capital, Griswall, being fortified, by technology airlifted from Monte Breeze Industrial Area. Despite that, the Aurelian forces, headed by Gryphus One, now known by the Leasath Military as "Nemesis", launched an operation to retake their capital city, Griswall. The Leasath forces had set-up 'Meson Cannons' on Atmos Ring within Griswall; the plasma particle Cannons fired upon the Aurelian Forces relentlessly. During the attack Commander Diego Gaspar Navarro had fled Griswall and fled to nearby Leasath Territory. Meanwhile, the Meson Cannon Defense System, along with all Leasath Forces were destroyed. The Aurelian Capital City was retaken. Soon after this all Leasath Forces were pushed out of Aurelian Territory.

After a few days of regrouping and reestablishing their flow of supplies, the Aurelian Military was on the move again, this time to stop General Navarro, once and for all. General Navarro and his remaining forces had fled to the nearby Danern Straits. It was confirmed that a secret Leasath super weapon was under development there. Though no details were known at that time, it was believed that this weapon could be mass-produced and posed to be a large threat to all Aurelian forces.

End of Deception
Gryphus One and an Aurelian Fighter Wing flew to the Danern Straits and destroyed a large facility there, called Cobalt Cave, which was developing technology to make this new Leasath Super Weapon even more powerful. The Technology would've used microwave Energy to target an Aircraft's fuel tank and force it to ignite. Unfortunately, this let the Leasath's Ace Squadron known as the "Alect", to fly to Archelon Fortress in S-32s (Su-47 Berkut prototypes) within the Danern Straits, where Navarro and this new super weapon were waiting.

When Gryphus One and the Aurelian forces reached the area, they were attacked by the Alect Squadron, in an aircraft known as the 'Fenrir' equipped with microwave weaponry and Digital Optical Stealth. The Fenrirs were Navarro's reason for initiating a war between neighboring Aurelia. It was found that the point of the war was to gather battle data from the Gleipnir, steal funds and resources from Aurelia, and develop the Fenrir in order to sell it to nations around the world.

Gryphus One was attacked by the entire Alect Squadron at once, and in an amazing feat of bravery, he destroyed all Alect Squadron's Fenrirs. Diego Navarro then activated a reproduced version of the Shock Cannon seen on the Gleipnir and attacked the Aurelian forces. Gryphus One destroyed the Shock Cannon, flew into the Archelon Fortress, destroying the Fenrir prototypes and Navarro's hopes of exporting the fighter.

Aftermath
Leasath was now very much devastated could not rebuild its government, military and its cities. Its building, roads and bridges were no use. Leasath believed to have taken over by large corporations.

In December 2020, days before Christmas, Aurelian troops and civilians were united to enable to rebuild the devastated country. Unlike in Leasath, Aurelia was decorated by the colors of the Christmas season and almost everyone forgot the devastated war that happened mere days ago. However, this war was set the stage that would occur for another 25 years. In 2021, Aurelia became a member of the Allied Alliance alongside Osea, Yuktobania, Ustio, FATO, Recta, Ratio and Sapin. During the age of corporate reform, these countries would not be taken over by corporations; and would retain their sovereign status.