Nightmare Fuel / Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception

• The Gleipnir, an absolute monster of an airborne fortress. With its Shockwave Ballistic Missiles capable of decimating entire squadrons from long ranges, an optical camouflage system to render it undetectable until it attacks, a Shock Cannon for vaporising ground forces below, and to top it all off, a terrifying theme that sounds like it came straight out of a horror movie.
  • Its first appearance is right at the end of the very first mission, where it straight up annihilates the Gryphus squadron at Cape Aubrey with just one SWBM fired from the Puna Plains, leaving Eugene "Crux" Solano absolutely devastated.
  Crux: This...there's no way anyone could call this mission a success...I'm sorry.
  • The captain of said airborne fortress. So determined in his cause to destroy the Southern Cross, that in one version of the battle over Santa Elva, Standoff in the Skies I, he flips the Gleipnir upside down just to try and kill you with the shock cannon!
  • In the Standoff in the Skies II version of the Santa Elva battle, you face off against the Gleipnir at full strength. Worse, during the Gleipnir's death throes, the captain pulls off one last ditch attempt to destroy the city with the shock cannon, just to spite Gryphus One.
• The Fenrir superfighter is no better. Equipped with the same cloaking technology as the Gleipnir, this hellspawn of a plane can turn invisible during a dogfight, making you wonder where the thing went, until suddenly you hear your missile alert blare out. Combined with the ability to VTOL in midair and COFFIN cockpit you will understand why Diego Navarro was certain it would be his trump card.
  • The Gleipnir mentioned above? It was designed to collect battle data for this beast.
  • In End Of Deception I, Fenrir gets equipped with a high powered microwave weapon system to boil your jet's fuel tanks until they explode. Seeing a ball of lightning chase your plane around relentlessly unless you fly fast enough is nothing short of terrifying. And that's on top of the Fenrirs occasionally turning invisible mid air to throw off your radar lock on.
  • You'd think at first in End of Deception II, since there's no microwave weapon to melt your plane, it would be easier right? Wrong. The Alect Squadron, Leasath's elite pilot team, are behind Fenrir's controls this time around, and they fully exploit Fenrir's optical camouflage and VTOL abilities, making this fight absolute hell.