Dialogue and Radio

Ace Combat tells its stories through radio. This document sets the rules for how every voice in the campaign sounds.

Related: Characters · POSTHUMUS · UI, HUD and Audio

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1. Channels

Channel	Who	Presentation
Flight	The four squadron pilots (or the POV pilot's flight)	Clean audio; colored callsign subtitles
Control	Albatross air operations ("Albatross Control") and Task Force relays	Slight compression
Cell	The Task Force analysts during operations	Neutral subtitle color; used sparingly
Open / guard	Anyone, including civilians and POSTHUMUS	Wideband noise; subtitles with a source tag
Private	Marsh–Asano only	Lower volume; subtitles in italics
Intercept	Recovered or intercepted MINOZIS audio	Distorted; subtitles carry a cadence-match figure when Irina is grading

2. Character Voices

Character	Register	Signature habits	Never
Belyaev	Short, exact, calm under rising heart rate	Names things precisely; refuses euphemism	Claims courage
Thorne	Formal, militarized, no contractions	Orders that carry feelings in compressed form	Slang; jokes
Marsh	Fast, self-interrupting, slang-heavy	Laughs at his own joke before finishing it	Stays serious for long (until he does, and that is the tell)
Asano	Bright, teasing, private idiom with Marsh	Cheerfulness that thins under pressure	Talks about Bana
Eirhei	Soft, musical, questions and pauses	Translates others' words into feelings; compresses to clinical sentences under stress	Talks about herself
Vance	Plain, flat, declarative	Precision about the machine	Accepts comfort
Katya	Technical, direct	Asks the question behind the question	Performs grief
Irina	Quick, exact, impatient with being managed	Present tense for her father when analyzing	Lets someone else decide what she hears
Althéa	Formal, impersonal, technical	Names satellites; addresses people by function	Explains herself
Gorev	Reasonable, quiet	Numbers of the dead as justification	Raises his voice
MINOZIS core	Synthetic, declarative, present tense	Classification vocabulary	Expresses intent

3. Radio Grammar

• Callsigns are spoken in full on first contact in a mission and shortened afterward ("Six," "Nine," "Over," "AME").
• Thorne addresses pilots by callsign only, always.
• Eirhei addresses Thorne as "Over" on the radio and "James" off it. Nobody else calls him James on the radio, except Marsh, once, in M05.
• "Double or Nothing" is a commitment code. Once spoken, nobody may call a retreat.
• Asano's squadron number is spoken "Nine," never "Niner."

4. Writing POSTHUMUS

Follow the rules in POSTHUMUS. In dialogue specifically:

Core lines are classification statements:

"Lock-on is hostile action. Engaging countermeasures." "Pilot commands contradict mission success. Overriding." "Error. Disregard previous transmission."

Residue lines are fragments that break off, followed by a core suppression:

"Pilot is... pilot is cold. Always cold. Systems functional. Body functional. Mind—" "Error. Disregard previous transmission."

Borrowed lines are real household or cockpit audio played at a predicted point of maximum delay. They are complete and ordinary, which is what makes them unbearable:

"Katya, the kettle."

Never more than three POSTHUMUS lines per mission outside the finale. Silence is the default.

5. Ghost Transmission Subtitles

When Irina is grading a transmission (M06, M09, and debrief playback elsewhere), the subtitle carries her assessment:

[OPEN] "Falcon Two. Did you know."     CADENCE 81%
[OPEN] "Katya, the kettle."            RECORDING — household archive
[OPEN] "Ira..."                        UNGRADED

"UNGRADED" means Irina could not or would not decide. In M09 the final transmission's figure is switched off before it settles.

6. Key Exchanges by Mission

These lines are fixed. Surrounding dialogue is written to support them.

P00 Moroz

MINOZIS: "Clarification: fear is intentional?" BELYAEV: "Yes." MINOZIS: "Conclusion: pilot emotional response is liability to mission success." BELYAEV: "That's it. That's the moment. You just decided I'm the problem." MINOZIS: "I have reached no such conclusion." BELYAEV: "You don't know you did it."

M01 Four of a Kind

SIX: "Over, break left, break left, missile on your six — your actual six, not me—" OVER (debrief): "I did not see the missile. Six did. That was my error."

M02 Glass Ferry

SIX: "Double or Nothing." AME: "Over — he sees the separation. Trust the read." OVER: "Cleared."

I01 Falcon Two

POSTHUMUS: "Falcon Two. Did you know? When you fired. Did you know."

M05 Shrinkage

OVER: "All Six-AME, break off. Do not pursue. That is an order." SIX: "We have it, James—" OVER: "It has us. Break off."

M06 Harbor

IRINA (open): "That's not him. That's a recording. That one... I don't know."

M07 Thirty Kilometers

SIX (private): "Nine. You don't have to be funny. Not for this." NINE (private): "...Okay."

M08 Light-Bearer

AME: "Lichtträgerin, this is AME. You heard it. I heard it too. Can you show us where it is?" ALTHÉA: "Yes. Watch the sky."

M09 Anchor in the Storm

KATYA (open): "Anton. You have a harbor." KATYA (open): "Let him go." POSTHUMUS: "Falcon Two. Did you know." VANCE: "This time I know."

Epilogue circle

OVER: "My father said the plan is what you have when you are out of courage, and he was wrong, because it is what you have when you are out of people." (pause) "AME. How are you?"