Ace Combat: Beneath a Shattered Sky

An Introduction to the World of Strangereal

Part I — Another World, Another Sky

In another world, humanity gazes upon the same stars.

There are nations, cities, oceans, and civilizations much like our own. People travel through crowded streets, aircraft cross vast continents, and humanity dreams of reaching beyond the atmosphere.

Their technology is remarkably familiar. Their fighter jets resemble ours. Their missiles, warships, and military doctrines could almost belong to our own history.

And yet, their world has followed a very different path.

This world is known as Strangereal — the fictional universe of Ace Combat.

Here, the hatred between nations can endure for generations. The end of one war often plants the seeds of another. Gigantic flying fortresses, extraordinary weapons, and engineering projects beyond imagination have become part of its history.

But what truly defines this world is not its technology. It is the endless struggle between human ambition, tragedy, and hope.

To understand why its skies are filled with such extraordinary machines, and why individual fighter pilots can become living legends, we must first return to a time when the world began to tear itself apart.

Our story begins in 1995.

Part II — The Flames of Belka

In 1995, a devastating war broke out on the continent of Osea.

Once a powerful nation, Belka had suffered years of economic decline, political instability, and territorial losses. As extreme nationalism rose to power, its leaders sought to reclaim their country's former strength through military conquest.

Belka invaded its neighboring countries, beginning what would become known as the Belkan War.

At first, its formidable air force overwhelmed the opposition. But as neighboring nations formed a coalition, the tide of battle gradually turned. The coalition pushed deeper into Belkan territory.

And on June 6, 1995, the Belkan military made a decision that would scar history forever.

They detonated seven nuclear weapons on their own soil.

Not to conquer another nation, but to prevent their enemies from advancing any further.

Seven nuclear explosions illuminated the sky, leaving wounds upon the land and the people that could never truly heal.

The war officially ended later that month. But the hatred it created did not disappear.

Defeated soldiers, displaced citizens, and those who refused to accept their nation's humiliation would carry that resentment into the future.

Some wars do not truly end when the fighting stops.

Part III — The Day the Heavens Fell

But humanity had no idea that an even greater catastrophe was approaching.

Far beyond the atmosphere, an asteroid named Ulysses was heading toward Earth.

Faced with a threat that no nation could confront alone, humanity attempted something extraordinary: international cooperation on an unprecedented scale.

Governments invested enormous resources into defensive systems designed to protect the planet from the approaching celestial body.

Among these projects was an immense network of railguns known as Stonehenge.

Its purpose was not to wage war against other nations. Its guns were built to fire into the heavens, destroying fragments of the asteroid before they could reach the surface.

Yet even these extraordinary preparations could not completely prevent the disaster.

In 1999, fragments of Ulysses descended through the atmosphere like burning stars.

The sky erupted in fire.

Cities were devastated. Vast regions were destroyed. Countless people lost their homes, and waves of refugees fled toward whatever safety remained.

The continent of Usea suffered particularly severe destruction.

And as the survivors struggled to rebuild, the disaster began to reshape the political balance of an entire continent.

The asteroid had fallen. But its consequences were only beginning.

Part IV — The Weapon That Was Meant to Save the World

The destruction caused by Ulysses did more than reshape the land. It shattered political stability.

Millions of displaced people needed food, shelter, and somewhere to begin their lives again. Nations already struggling with their own losses were forced to confront a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions.

Old rivalries deepened. Borders became sources of conflict. And the extraordinary technologies developed to defend civilization began to acquire new purposes.

Stonehenge became the most tragic example.

Originally constructed to protect humanity from the asteroid, its eight enormous railguns were among the most powerful weapons ever built.

But during the Continental War, the Erusean military seized the complex and transformed it into a strategic weapon capable of dominating vast regions of airspace.

A machine designed to defend the world from destruction had become an instrument of conquest.

Humanity had turned the very weapons built to save civilization against itself.

And Stonehenge was only one example of the extraordinary military technology that defined this world.

The catastrophe of Ulysses did not create every superweapon, but it profoundly accelerated the transformation of society, politics, and warfare.

The world had survived the heavens. Now it would have to survive itself.

Part V — The Legend of Razgriz

Throughout the long history of this world, there exists an ancient legend.

It tells of a mysterious being known as Razgriz.

According to the legend, when history undergoes a great transformation, Razgriz appears.

At first, it descends as a demon, bringing death and destruction upon the land.

After fulfilling its terrible purpose, the demon falls into a long slumber.

But when Razgriz awakens once more, it does not return as the same creature.

This time, it emerges as a hero.

The legend plays a central role in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, where its symbolism becomes inseparable from the fate of a group of fighter pilots.

Yet when we look back across the wider history of Ace Combat, something remarkable becomes apparent.

The same pattern seems to repeat itself across different generations.

Whenever nations collapse into war, whenever the world approaches the edge of catastrophe, a particular kind of figure emerges from the chaos.

Not a king. Not a general. Not a politician.

A pilot.

Someone whose actions in the sky will eventually become far greater than their individual identity.

And once again, the boundary between demon and hero begins to disappear.

Part VI — The Birth of an Ace

Sometimes, this pilot is a mercenary feared by entire enemy squadrons.

Sometimes, he is an ordinary soldier who becomes the last hope of his nation.

Sometimes, he is falsely accused, abandoned by his own country, and forced to fight beneath the weight of disgrace.

Their names are different.

Cipher. Mobius 1. Blaze. Talisman. Trigger.

They come from different nations, fight in different wars, and carry different burdens.

But their stories share something extraordinary.

At first, they are simply pilots. Individuals inside machines, facing enemies who seem overwhelmingly powerful.

Then, their victories begin to accumulate.

Enemy commanders learn their callsigns. Soldiers recognize their aircraft. Entire formations begin to fear the possibility of encountering them.

Meanwhile, their allies begin to see them as symbols of hope.

To one side, they are demons. To the other, they are heroes.

One person. One fighter aircraft. Enough to change the course of a war.

These pilots are not all literally Razgriz within the official story.

But their journeys echo the same mythological pattern: ordinary individuals becoming extraordinary symbols during moments of historical crisis.

A human being becomes a legend. And that legend begins to shape history itself.

Part VII — The Age of Aces

This is the world of Ace Combat.

A civilization that resembles our own, yet has been shaped by extraordinary disasters, devastating wars, and ambitions that reach far beyond the limits of ordinary technology.

Here, science can create miracles, but it can also bring destruction.

A nation can lose everything in a single war. A hero can become an enemy in the eyes of his own people. And those who once fought against each other may someday find themselves standing together.

Yet throughout all these changes, one pattern continues to emerge.

When the machinery of war begins to move, when entire nations are pushed toward the abyss, a solitary figure appears somewhere in the sky.

At first, he may be nothing more than a tiny symbol on a radar screen.

Then the enemy begins to remember his callsign.

Soon, entire squadrons fear his arrival.

And eventually, people stop speaking of him as merely another pilot.

He becomes something greater.

A symbol of terror to his enemies. A symbol of hope to his allies.

A legend written across the sky.

An Ace.

And these are the stories we are about to explore.

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Editorial note: The connection between Razgriz and protagonists across the franchise is a thematic interpretation, not a claim that every ace is canonically Razgriz.