Journey Home is the seventeenth mission of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. It is one of the most famous missions of the game, as it reaches its climax with the death of a main character.

BriefingEdit

Perrault: We're holding a peace ceremony at a stadium in November City. Our Vice President will be giving a speech to rally the citizens. Now...uh...you've been asked to do a fly-by above the ceremony. Don't screw this up! You should consider this an honor, and do your part to boost citizen morale. This is the Vice President we're dealing with here, so consider this a guard detail as well, and be prepared for anything out there.

Briefing Officer: Your mission this time takes place above November International Stadium--a gigantic, 70,000 seat arena located in the centre of the city of November, on the southern coastline of Osea. Vice President Applerouth is giving a speech there, and you will be conducting a fly-by above the stadium as part of the production. You can return to base at 1730 hours, the time the speech is scheduled to end. After the fly-by, remain in formation and conduct a combat air patrol in and around the stadium until that time. This is a ceremonial flight, but you will be fully armed in case of an emergency. Don't forget to patrol the airspace surrounding the stadium, too.

ObjectivesEdit

The mission starts off with the player flying in the trail position while Nagase is leading, Chopper takes the player's left, and Grimm on the right. In the first part of the ceremonial flight, the player must match the wingmen as they increase or decrease altitude while flying directly towards the stadium. There is no need to yaw or roll as the heading is static. Once the player passes over the stadium, the wingmen will turn around, and the player must match Nagase's flight path while Chopper and Grimm fly between in diagonals. The ceremonial flight will then end, and Applerouth's speech will begin.

Mission Update 1Edit

As if it wasn't hinted at by Perrault, the Briefing Officer, and the fully-armed planes, Yuktobanian aircraft suddenly appear on radar. The ones appearing at first don't seem like many, but many more will come into the area. The player needs to shoot down as many aircraft as possible and defend the stadium from attack while Thunderhead attempts to call for reinforcements from nearby bases and the stadium evacuates. A few minutes into the dogfight, the 8492nd Squadron will show up and halt all reinforcements. Soon after, a flight of F-117A stealth fighters show up inbound to the stadium. These fighters are labeled as TGT and must be destroyed before they can approach the stadium and being their bombing run. However, Chopper gets hit by a missile in the middle of the stealth fighter attack. By the time the player shoots down all stealth fighters and the reinforcements are coming back, Chopper loses the ability to eject, and smashes his plane into the center of the largely-evacuated stadium in order to not harm any civilians.

Mission Update 2Edit

After Chopper's death, multiple enemy reinforcements show up and continue to spawn. The player should shoot down as many of the remaining planes as possible. Once a certain number of planes are destroyed or an unknown time is reached, allied reinforcements finally arrive. The enemy retreats, and the mission is a success.

Rank RequirementsEdit

• C:
• B:
• A:
• S:

Enemy AcesEdit

• FB-22 Proteus - Appears in the south-eastern part of the map after Chopper crashes (Normal difficulty or harder)

DebriefingEdit

Vice President Applerouth escaped the stadium in his personal vehicle. Despite the late arrival of reinforcements, civilian casualties were kept to a bare minimum. The Yuktobanian fighters' ingress route is currently under investigation. Captain Alvin H. Davenport, who lost his life in the battle, is no longer with the team. He has been granted a posthumous two-rank promotion.

TriviaEdit

• This is the first appearance of many of the song The Journey Home, where the audience sings it in complete defiance against the pro-war Vice President. Interestingly enough, Chopper, a die-hard rock-n-roll fan, is a huge fan of the song and is caught singing it along with the audience.
• This is one of the only missions where a wingman no longer responds to the Wingman Commands.
• Before the mission briefing starts (when in campaign mode), the mission is labeled as taking place at 1700 hours. However, the combat map states 10:30 for the time. The reason for this is not known, but the 1700 time is better suited for the speech (meaning the speech would take half an hour, rather than 7 hours with the 10:30 time).