Greetings comrades,

You may remember the Red Opponent/Eliminator aircraft recently released. If so, you know the SCOURGE, the topic of the CSV's newest war. So, who or what is the SCOURGE, and who are the jets we'll be facing?

What We Know

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The SCOURGE is an entity shrouded in mystery; they keep as much stuff as possible confidential. Despite this, when you have a presence as large as the one they've developed as of recent, some secrets slip through the cracks:

-Not all fighters are equal, they do have ranks. So far we only know of Ranks I-IV (1-4), with Rank I being the most mass-produced and expendable fighters, and value increasing with ranks. Red Opponents and Red Turners have been confirmed to sit at Rank I, and Red Eliminators at Rank II.

-The SCOURGE likely resides on the location known as "Continent Castle," due to its strange nature of being both a fortress and a landmass.

-The SCOURGE's favorite color is red. Ask us how we know...

-Their tactics are clearly ones of attrition; while each individual aircraft is fairly easy to take out, the SCOURGE possesses thousands of even their least produced known units. Their most produced unit is the Red Opponent type with at least 130,000 Red Opponents known to exist, excluding a handful of intruders which were destroyed upon showing aggression in restricted airspace.

-The SCOURGE is believed to be both one being and a collective of entities. We call the single being the SCOURGE, and this collective the "Scourge Syndicate."

-The SCOURGE owns an air fryer.

Enemy Aircraft

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Red Opponent A-F

Red Opponents are the primary frontline fighters of the SCOURGE's air force, and the absolute pinnacle of Scourge Jet design philosophy, given its simple yet decently effective airframe which can be mass produced at alarming speeds. Red Opponents A/B aren't very common, seeing as they are outperformed by the C+ variants in just about every way. However, C and D variant Red Opponents are incredibly common, with E variants being a little more scarce, and the F variant currently just being a single prototype. Red Opponents will never travel alone unless their squadmates have already been destroyed, so don't go into this battle expecting a 1v1.

As we said, Red Oppoenents never travel alone- here a flight of 4 patrol over Wright.

A Red Opponent mid-turn to face an enemy as one of its allies goes down in flames in the background.

One of only two currently existent pictures of the Red Opponent F. By the looks of it, the F variant aims to boost the Red Opponent type's maneuverability heavily, making it a serious contender for our current aircraft.

The second of two aforementioned pictures we currently have of the Red Opponent F.

Several Red Opponents chase an LF-5 over Wright. Note the aircraft lowest in the picture, that being a Red Eliminator A.

An A-351D Annihilator faces a swarm of Red Opponents head-on. Even with its tough armor, facing a horde of angry Red Opponents is never a pleasant experience.

Red Opponents aren't just numerous, they're fearless and adaptive. This Red Opponent threw itself into the A-351 upon seeing it was out of missiles and its guns were ineffective. This didn't do much to the A-351 either, especially given it struck the cannon rather than the aircraft, but despite this, it can remain a testament to the threat Red Opponents can pose in numbers.

Red Eliminator A/B

The only known Rank II aircraft for now, Red Eliminators are easily the most threatening Scourge Jets to our aircraft at the time. Surprisingly, they're slower than Red Opponents, and in fact are the second slowest of the currently active Scourge Jets (with Red Turner being the slowest). However, they make up for this with superior turn rate and firepower when compared to just about any other Scourge Jet in the air.

Though they use autocannons as opposed to the miniguns of Red Opponents and Red Interceptors, they have four of them mounted in the wings, allowing for a high bullet spread which makes dodging them a nightmare. On top of that, the Red Eliminators showcase the SCOURGE's capability of utilizing captured weaponry, sporting four missiles seized from a Calliope that thought it could best the SCOURGE up close.

Another thing worth noting about Red Eliminators is their status in the "Scourge Hierarchy:" Red Eliminators will usually be found leading squads of Red Opponents and/or Red Turners. We believe Red Eliminators to have a higher place in the Scourge Hierarchy than Red Dash-Strikes and Red Interceptors, but due to the nature of these two, Red Eliminators are rarely seen guiding them aside from flights in SCOURGE territory.

So far, we only have to worry about Red Eliminator As, but we have heard rumors of a Red Eliminator B being in planning.

A brave PEA-F-86H goes head-to-head with a Red Eliminator. These legends from different eras have so much in common, yet just as much different...

*Two Red Eliminators travelling over the ocean. This is actually a pretty rare sight, as Red Eliminators are normally backed up by Red Opponents and Turners rather than each other.

Ditto, but from a frontal angle. One must admire the brave cameraman who got this close to the most dangerous active Scourge Jets.

A much more common photo of the Red Eliminator, leading its Red Opponent allies into battle against an enemy aircraft.

Ditto, but at a different moment and angle which shows the LF-5 Aerowing being pursued by the Scourge Jets. Note the yellow-tracer gunfire is coming from an out-of-frame PEA-G aircraft (which we learned was an F3H), as all Scourge Jets use white and green tracers.

The F3H in question as it engages a Red Eliminator in close-quarters combat. Will this be the next major plane-to-plane rivalry of the Combined SimpleVerse? Probably not lol

An MDA LF-4A with severe damage being flanked by a Red Eliminator A. Surprisingly, the Aerojet was spared, simply because the Red Eliminator was impressed to see it fly with one wing. The LF-4 would land at Yeager safely, and would be the center of several memes, most comparing him to Solo Wing Pixy.

Red Interceptor A

They say speed isn't everything, but if you have enough of it, it certainly can be. The Red Interceptor A isn't a very good turner, and would lose a dogfight to just about any aircraft we have in service today (and even some retired aircraft). However, this doesn't matter too much given that it can also outrun every aircraft we have in service today, even the A-40D with a top speed of roughly/over 2,300 mph.

Besides, to make matters better for the Red Interceptor A, it's not even supposed to deal with fighters; that's why they have the Red Opponents, Turners, and Eliminators. The Red Interceptor is, unsurprisingly, an interceptor, designed to tackle bombers which usually won't be able to do much against such a fast target. The Red Interceptor also has four minguns and six missiles which can be lobbed at enemies. Truthfully, its missiles are quite underwhelming, but an unsuspecting or even briefly unaware aircraft can prove an easy target for these speedsters. Keep an eye out, and you just might see them coming.

A Red Interceptor in a climb, something you won't find a rare occurence should you actually manage to see a Red Interceptor before it zooms away at Mach 2-3.

An LF-5 banks hard to avoid being in the path of a Red Interceptor. Some say that the Red Interceptor is so fast that even letting it pass too close to you can damage your aircraft. This has yet to be proven, but nobody wants to be the one to find out.

Red Turner A

Maybe an uncreative name, but it gets the point across. Red Turners are the SCOURGE's ace dogfighters, basically the Zero of the Scourge Jets: slower than most, lightly armored, but a very good turner. Avoid dogfighting them at all costs, use your speed to escape or catch them off guard. Do be cautious of one final problem, though: while dogfighting is their specialty, they carry the same Calliope missiles used on the Red Eliminator.

A Red Turner. Plain and simple. Not much going on here, just a Red Turner flyin'.

A Red Turner showing off its maneuvers. Note its four under-nose autocannons and flares.

Interestingly, we know of a tailless Red Turner, or at least one that lacks a vertical stabilizer. This has raised many concerns, seeing as the SCOURGE may be more advanced than we initially believed...

The "Tailless Turner" in question, pulling a sharp maneuver to showcase its ability to do so without losing control despite lacking a vertical stabilizer.

Red Dash-Strike A-B

Scourge Jets come in different shapes and sizes, but aside from their alarming red color, they've all shown one trait in common: air superiority. Every Scourge Jet I've shown you so far is designed for air-to-air combat... except this one.

The Red Dash-Strike, the newest variant of Scourge Jet which we can confirm the existence of, and thus the last one we'll be discussing, is strike aircraft by nature. Its payload is a bit small and its maneuverability too great to truly be considered a bomber, but it still has a slower turn rate and greater air-to-ground armament than any other Scourge Jet so far. It carries several light bombs along with 35 FFAR rockets, plus two 30mm AT autocannons. It's also quite fast for its size, and is the only two-engined Scourge Jet right now. However, most dangerous about the Red Dash-Strike is its missiles.

Dubbed AGM-25s, the Red Dash-Strike's missiles aren't very useful against air targets... but against ground targets? Much more so. Their explosive warhead can decimate vehicles, tanks, buildings, and some fortified buildings. So far we know of Red Dash-Strike A and B, which can be told apart due to the B variant's longer nose and 4 missile capacity (as opposed to the short nose and 2 missile capacity of the A variant).

A Red Dash-Strike A fires one of its AGM-25 missiles over the ocean. While labeled as air-to-ground missiles, they can be used against naval targets and SOME air targets.

The same Red Dash-Strike A from a different angle. Note the four engine-mounted pylons, which are usually used for air-to-air missiles.

A Red Dash-Strike B viewed from the side, showing off its longer nose and a slight glimpse of the added pylons for AGM-25s.

A terrified M49A3-A launches flares wildly as an AGM-25 fired by a Red Dash-Strike explodes dangerously close to the Shock tank.

A Red Dash-Strike B flies over the smoke of an explosion caused by its immense firepower.

Two Red Dash-Strike Bs fly over Wright in the morning. While Dash-Strikes can operate at any time of day and any weather, they usually like to attack early in the day, with the earliest known strike from these jets being at 4:15 AM. These tendencies have earned them the name "Sunrisers."

How Should we Proceed?

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The SCOURGE doesn't want and will not negotiate peace, so that's not an option. Prepare your weapons as soon as possible if you want a chance against this enemy.

Each Scourge Jet has different strengths and weaknesses, like the Red Turner's slow speed or Red Interceptor's low turn rate, but regardless of what you choose, the one thing you must beware of is their numbers. The Scourge Jets outnumber every aircraft we have, so be careful and move with caution. Good luck out there, comrades.