Why is he on fire?

*salute* T_T

It was more than just a mission at that point; it was g*dd*mn personal. I shot them all down, even with my guns after missiles were used up. Never have I ever been that emotionally invested in a video game character after this mission. He was more than just an NPC; he was a friend.

R.I.P in rock n' roll heaven buddy!

Probably about 95% of my playthroughs of this game were made with my mom watching; she really liked watching all the Ace Combat games including and since 4. She didn't have a good enough memory to remember what specific order all the missions happen in, but it was pretty entertaining noticing how with each playthrough gradually less and less of the sentence "We're holding a peace ceremony at a stadium in November City" would go by before she said "Oh no..."

MacGuffin said:

And no one cares about the RIO he took with him.

yeah, that bothered the heck out of me, Especially because I equipped him with a EA6B during this mission so 4 pilots died essentially.