Archive of Our Own ^beta

Which option should Monika take? Choose wisely, as the lives of the fleet and her fellow Dokis may be at stake...

Alternative chapter title: "It's Mobius Time; Truly One of the Videogames of All Time"

This is the longest chapter on record, and actually had to be split because Reddit has a 20-image limit. We're almost through with this particular arc, and plans are already underway for a brief interlude, the next mission, and whatever comes next!

There's actually now a general idea for where the series will go after this; it will continue to take place simultaneously with the Lighthouse War, but it would be pretty boring if we were to simply rehash the entire AC7 plot but with the Dokis. With that in mind, we'll be seeing MC, Monika, and their friends in a variety of adventures throughout Usea as the war goes on, and maybe a couple more familiar faces along the way. Stay tuned!

So many planes, so many sprites, so many possibilities...

MISSION COMPLETE

Monika needs another plane. Come to think of it, all the Dokis probably need new planes...

SkyEye later found Mobius One completely hungover the following morning, having clearly spent the entire evening drinking and celebrating with his fellow pilots.

Don't mind the weird-ass MS Paint edit for Sayori and MC's character files; I just made a last-minute revision AFTER already finishing the comic. To be fair, this was right when I was making the briefing and initial engagement.

There are NO Monika shenanigans here, so don't worry.

Introducing our first new character: Robin! Does she sound familiar? Hmmm, maybe...

*quietly updates AO3 tags*

...I'm not very happy with how this scene panned out. Kinda feels more of OG!Monika screwing around instead of the sweet interaction this was supposed to be.

Oh yeah, and I nearly commissioned a CG for this particular scene as well XD

Time for another important choice! We'll be having another one with Sayori and Robin's new ride, but let's take care of this one first—choose wisely, as it may decide what happens to Doki Squadron later on...

I feel like I should do at least one more hangar post with Yuri and Natsuki before we deploy to the actual mission. What do you think?

"We're launching with this formation, then?"

[LAUNCH] [CANCEL]

A little experiment with the chibis while we try to set the scene. Screenies with our planes at night ought to be coming soon!

EDIT: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE ONE PANEL GOT THE WRONG DIALOGUE

Sayori was supposed to ask: "How long do we have until the Arsenal Bird arrives, MC?"

I need to find more ways to start each chapter that doesn't have MC's face on it...

Quite a while since I last posted, huh? Here's another chapter in San Salvacion!

Two more chapters in Anchorhead Bay San Salvacion, and we'll finally start progressing further with the plot.

Damn, swapped MC and Monika's names by accident.

Alright, I've completed all the remaining panels for this particular arc and will begin working on the interludes. I'm really excited to get this new storyline going!

Dialogue for the next arc's almost finished. Feels good to have solid details laid down instead of general story beats!

MISSION COMPLETE

Well, all objectives have been completed and the Dokis are still (more or less) alive! Next mission shouldn't be this complex—just three more episodes, and we'll be off to the interludes.

A successful sortie!

As the story progresses, the decisions the Dokis make will have a greater impact on what happens to them and the war in general. There are also trade-offs and consequences for each actions, which will affect what resources and paths are available in the near-future.

Exciting stuff, indeed...

One more chapter to go, and then we'll finally be in the interludes. Let's gooooo!!!

A new character appears! If you know, you know...

Credit for the original character (who was created a few years back, apparently) goes to u/Azrathas, u/MorteNexus, u/SlightlySimple, and u/Meddy-sin. Our new logo also comes from u/Leomonade33; many thanks to him for his work!

Hmmm...not sure if this was as good as I could have made it, but it kind of works, doesn't it?

We'll be resuming our main storyline shortly.

EDIT: On a related note, this is now our 50th post. Thanks for sticking around, and hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

> looks at panels right before posting

> notices some areas that could be improved upon

> briefly contemplates ignoring them

> eye_twitch.gif

> goes and fixes comic on DG despite the extra work required

Anyway, new plane for Cookie and Prez inbound!

And so the arc gets underway...

Man, was this weekend a busy one. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program of Dokis on planes!

I actually ended up skipping a chapter that I felt was just letting things stretch out a bit too long. I've finally completed almost all of the remaining dialogue for this arc, and it should be a simple matter of making the actual CD panels; just a bit more, and we'll be seeing more Doki action elsewhere in Usea!

Happy Birthday, Monika!

...I should probably say something here, but I got nothing.

Make your choice, and help Monika buy some time for MC!

You would NOT believe how much effort it took me not to add an “Ask about their mom” option to the previous chapter. Maybe next time.

[MISSION COMPLETE]

I've finally started fleshing out the dialogue for the next arc; let's just say we'll be seeing a bit more of the distant future and the not-so-distant past, once the Dokis get a long and well-deserved break!

On another note: this story now has more than 2000 hits on AO3. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Inoue will return. Maybe also Orestes.

All the interludes for this arc are now done, and I'm currently trying to wrangle the briefing and hangar episodes for the next mission into a legible, coherent format. Once that's done, then it'll simply be a matter of getting everything into the CD panels!

Late post? Late post, sorry.

I'm starting to notice that posting at a specific time usually results in more attention from this subreddit. I think I'll try and start making a consistent time window for the upcoming chapters, and then see what happens.

One more debriefing post.

And that concludes the debriefing! We just have one last post before the interludes again...which probably means I should start working on finishing the briefings for the next arc.

And that concludes this arc! Three more interludes as per usual before the next one begins; fortunately, I'm almost done writing the dialogue for the first few chapters. Might as well get some of them into CD form sometime next week.

We will be seeing more faces in the next arc, and maybe you might even recognize a few of them. I've also got something special planned as well, so stay tuned.

More campaign break Doki shenanigans inbound!

Monarch, in the...er, bandages?

This series is now apparently the fifth most popular fic I've ever written. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Two big things to announce:

First, yesterday was the 3-month anniversary of this series. How do I know? Because our very first post was archived by the DDLC subreddit and can no longer be upvoted or commented on T_T

Secondly, this fic is now my third most popular story of all time on AO3!

Thanks to everyone for reading and sticking around! Hope you all enjoy the upcoming stories!

Previously in Operation Clubhouse:

• Doki Squadron, based in Emmeria, is redeployed to Usea after a surprise Erusean invasion of the continent causes significant damage to local IUN forces. They’re rescued by Mobius One at the last second after being intercepted by enemy fighters, but North Point soon declares its neutrality—preventing the famed pilot himself from joining the fight.
• The Dokis are then joined by Robin, MC’s sister who works as a WSO and mechanic for a PMC unit; the six pilots head to San Salvacion to help local resistance efforts. The mission is successful and the IUN gains the country’s gratitude, but Monika takes a direct hit and is forced to land with her squadron behind enemy lines.
• En route back to IUN territory, the Dokis are tasked with escorting a possible defector—it turns out to be a trap, in the form of a ZOE drone controlled by a young Yoko Martha Inoue. The Dokis take multiple hits, but succeed in shooting down the drone.
• The Dokis return home to find the situation has deteriorated—President Harling is dead, the Arsenal Birds reign supreme, and the IUN is running out of ideas on how to turn the situation around. But with the confirmed presence of a ghost from the past, the Dokis are now tasked with spearheading a new offensive into the unknown…

We'd also like to introduce a new character; he's an OC, so don't expect to see him in any of the original games or lore.

Credit for the original character goes to u/Azrathas.

History time...

As a newcomer to the Ace Combat series when I first played Skies Unknown, the backstory involving Belka and its role in helping Erusea in its war against Osea and Usea came across as rather vague and disjointed; it took quite a while for me to fully understand the wider history of Strangereal even after I completed 7's main campaign (props to Ace Combat Fan's vids for eventually sorting that out, by the way).

Oddly enough, it seems that based on many other people's reviews of the game back in the day (AC7 came into my radar only last March, for reference), this was indeed an actual problem regarding how the story conveyed this overarching narrative; for Operation Clubhouse, this is my (hopefully less confusing) way of rectifying that.

Anyway, here's some background into the Belkan War and why it's relevant to our Dokis' shenanigans!

We now conclude our brief tangent into Ace Combat lore and return to current events!

Reviewing the comics I've made so far, I can't help but realize that Yuri and Natsuki aren't exactly getting a lot of screentime; we need more comics with those two.

I love the flowchart I made between Belka and Erusea.

I've completed the comics leading up to the hangar episode. Got some special stuff lined up as well, pendng some important chapters :)

Sorry, late post. Emotional DDLC moments hard to write.

We return to hangar episodes shortly.

Make your choice, Sayori!

It's that time again: leave a comment for which ones the Dokis should use!

And so the next mission begins...

And so we unveil two new additions to the Operation Clubhouse series: a new paint scheme for Doki Squadron, and MetalMC himself as a young Abyssal Dision!

• The new skins for Doki Squadron were made by myself with Unreal Engine 5, GIMP and MS Paint; quite the learning experience, but very rewarding! I'll be working on getting the designs I made available online, but I haven't sorted that out yet.
• MetalMC was created by u/PrezesBocianow and used with his permission. Thanks, man!

Kept you waiting, huh?

Sorry about the week's absence; a combination of a nasty fever and several college assignments meant this had to be put to the side. That, and a little project related to this series turned out to be a lot harder than I expected, which caused a little burnout on my part. Anyway, I'm back; here's a comic for you all!

StormMC was created by u/StormBlaze; Tiffany was created by u/halibabica; and ChadMC by u/Cylent-Nite, u/SlightlySimple, and u/Meddy-sin.

This story now has over 3,000 hits; thanks to everyone who gave this fic a read!

And here we are: a little surprise that I hope you all enjoy! This took me a while to make, but the end result is definitely something I'm happy with :D

Also, Monika's YF-23 livery is now available for whoever wants to use them for their own projects; please remember to give credit. Thanks!

The other Doki's liveries will be made available later.

Man, was this week a slog. Anyway, Sayori's Super Hornet is now available to download!

Natsuki's custom F-22A is now available to download!

Two things to announce:

• Yuri's Su-57 is now available to download! That's basically all of the Dokis' main planes done; maybe I'll get around to posting Sayori's other planes as well in the near future.
• Operation Clubhouse is now officially my most popular story on AO3 as of yesterday, by my reckoning; to everyone who's read this series and stuck around, thank you so much!

Ronin's adventures underground were made with modded Arma 3.

I need to list down where I find the sprites I use before posting the chapters where they first appear...

Kiyomi was made by u/StormBlazed76, Elena by u/Elenathebullimom, and FeMC by u/Meddy-sin.

This chapter was a bit odd for me to write. Figuring out where in this arc the chapter would fit turned out to be a bit of a challenge; this would have alternately happened right after Dision offered his wager to Monika, but two choices in a row in the middle of the action might have kept things in suspense for a bit too long. Now, though, it also feels like a sudden break in the action as well...I dunno, what do you think?

Anyway, Wingman Command! Make your choice, Monika, and be quick about it!

One hundred chapters. Somehow, this chapter didn't feel as special as I thought it ought to be no matter how many times I rewrote the latter half...or maybe I'm just overthinking it at this point.

More details about that walking spoiler in the next update ;)

A bit of context

The sounds I like to think Monarch makes when he talks:

• The trombone from the Peanuts animations
• Minecraft villager noises
• Lego minifigure mumbling

Any other ideas?

Ok, one more chapter and we are done with this arc!

tfw you get so engrossed with something you were playing with that you end up missing the regular time you post

Anyway, interlude time!

Man, does the Ridge Racer Type 4 OST slap...

We now have over 4,000 hits for this story. Thanks, everyone!

I have not posted in a while. Sorry about that.

I've currently working on a long-delayed side project (Summoning Osea) as a brief change of pace, which took a bit of my time this week. Lots of fun, and definitely engaging in its own little way. Anyway, here's a new interlude!

We resume our normal Doki programming tomorrow.

A little special event: Doki's splitting in half to deal with multiple events in the frontline! Two will be going to one, while two will be headed to the other.

Make your choices, everyone!

Not sure about how the execution for this one went, but yeah: things might be changing once again for Doki Squadron...

Man, is Sayori going to have a tough time as squad lead.

Sorry for the late post; just came back from watching Minus One in the cinema. Great stuff.

Anyway, hangar episode! Monika and Yuri will be going behind enemy lines on a highly classified mission, with no knowledge of what they'll be facing. Sayori and Natsuki, on the other hand, will be establishing air superiority while Sicario and the GRDF eliminate ground targets.

Choose your weapons wisely!

Updates may become more sporadic leading up to New Year's; more consistent posting will resume this January.

Anyway, here's a new chapter!

And SCENE!

Operation Clubhouse will be on a quick Life Day break while stories get planned and fleshed out. There may be a few extra surprises between now and the New Year, so stay tuned.

Remember Mission 2, where Monika took a hit on her Nosferatu after sticking around to help take out the Erusean HQ for the resistance forces? Well, here's a direct outcome of that choice which now affects our current mission!

In my imaginary idea for a DDLC x AC7 mod, the choices Monika and her squadron made would impact how future missions pan out: certain actions would result in penalties for Doki Squadron or determine how many enemies would be around for future missions, or maybe even how certain characters would react to their presence. I'd imagine an actual mod would make this far more complex, so...well, here you go!

We now go over to Sayori and company in Scion, where other things are now in play...

There will be a slight delay while I work on several other projects that got delayed thanks to an ill-advised videogame binge. Chapter 121 will be something special!

Kamuko was created by u/chychydapotats and u/BlueGodXD.

There was supposed to be another animated segment here, but I realized that it wasn't really going to contribute a lot to the overall story. So, just listen to Ace Combat 3D's "Schizophrenic" for your enjoyment!

Make your choices, everyone!

Near-simultaneous technical difficulties with AO3 and Reddit delayed the updates for Operation Clubhouse; expect multiple chapters to be posted for today.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and hope you enjoy the updates!

I've finally managed to complete the general plot of this story all the way to the end of the Lighthouse War! All the major story beats have been completed or sketched out, and it'll just be a matter of actually getting there.

Thanks for sticking around, and here's hoping you stay around until the very end!

Nothing needs to be said.

Well, apart from a quick apology for the lull. Sorry, uni's a bit mentally taxing.

Late update? Yeah, sorry about that; had some other commitments today around my normal posting time. That said, this is a bit of special one that I decided that couldn't wait for tomorrow—if you've ever played Mission 6 of Project Wingman or their equivalents in AC4 and AC5, you probably know where this is going :)

Make your choices, everyone!

We're approaching the final stages of this particular arc (wow, was this a lot longer than I expected), and the basic ideas of the next mission is already more or less sketched out. Let's see how these two storylines wrap up, shall we?

Early post; got some things that will happen roughly during the regular posting time.

Anyway, Doki One and Four have wrapped up their side of the mission!

MISSION COMPLETE

Would be people be interested in trying out at least the first mission as an actual mod? I've been thinking about planning out a basic demo, before asking around for people who might be interested in coding or working out that kind of thing.

Nothing official yet, just testing the waters at this point.

Anyway, make your choices, please! :D

There will be one more comic before we go into the interludes. Guess I'd better start making more panels!

I bought a copy of Helldivers II last Saturday. This then proceeded to consume my whole attention for the next three days. Sorry about that.

This concludes this particular mission, and we will now be going once more into the interludes!

The custom skin in question by StrikeFreedomX2

A special announcement:

I'm currently working on adapting this series into an actual DDLC mod! I have a basic plan for a demo consisting of the first mission, but I have no modding or coding experience whatsoever; therefore, I'm now looking for modders and writers who can help me in this area. This is a personal passion project of mine (budget is limited to custom artwork, see below), so do take a look at the proposal and please hit me up on Discord (#manila9930) if you're interested!

Screenshots are from Kerbal Space Program 1.

Hi! Sorry for the lack of updates; had a slight bit of burnout over the past week. Here's what's been going on so far:

• I'm going through the long process of accumulating screenies from AC7 by repeating missions with individual planes and loadouts, which can be a bit of a time-consuming process. On top of that, I have to find the individual images I like and then transfer them to the Dialogue Generator folders, and then create the panels in question; with quite a few characters showing up, it's fairly tedious on top of managing IRL stuff.
• I'm currently looking for writers and musicians (artists would also be welcome but are not currently the main priority) who would be interested in turning this story into an official mod for DDLC. Unfortunately, it's rather hard to find people who are interested when you don't have any money for commissions...
• I'm also working on Summoning Osea, which is significantly longer and more content-heavy than the average chapter of this series. It's surprisingly popular amongst the fandoms the fic encompasses, so I'm currently trying to at least churn out a decent chapter a month; it doesn't help that I seem to keep making each installation longer and longer than the last T_T

So, yeah, Operation Clubhouse might not have another update until at least next week pending more IRL stuff. Don't worry, though: this series isn't getting abandoned anytime soon!

We will return to Sayori, Natsuki, MC, Robin, Monarch, Pallas, Dision, and company in the next update. Stay tuned!

Sayori's turn to make her choice! What should she pick? Choose wisely, we will come back to this later on...

One hell of a revelation inbound!

pls send help, have been consumed by new game instead of writing T_T

Sayori's decision at the start of the op had its consequences, that's for sure.

Anyway, make your choices, please!

Next chapter will be posted tomorrow.

Next chapter will probably be next week.

*mumble*

Sorry for the absence; had a bit of writer's block and some important IRL stuff to deal with. Guess I really should try taking things one step at a time more often, huh?

Welcome to Mission 12 of Ace Combat 7!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—

Ok, slight error with Yuri’s plane. Her Su57’s weapons are as follows: 4AAM, GPB, PLSL. Let me know if there are any more errors, thanks!

Don't mind if the weapons appear off; I'm just reusing some of the screenshots from the last mission so I don't have to redo Mission 12 three times just for some more photos for one more arc.

Anyway, let Stonehenge Defensive begin!

Sorry, it's been a while since I last updated; uni has officially started, and I've only just figured out when I'll be able to start updating this series again. Updates for now will most likely arrive at the following days:

- Tuesday at 5 PM GMT
- Saturday at 5 PM GMT
- Sunday at 5 PM GMT

Anyway, hope everyone's doing all right! Do pick what Sayori and Natsuki should choose to do!

MISSION COMPLETE