Blue Fighters

 is the fourty-fifth offline mission and the fourty-eighth online mission in Earth Defense Force 2025 and the fourty-seventh offline mission and the fiftieth online mission in Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair.

Objective
2025: A large Ravager transport ship is located over the city, and is dropping Hectors. The report says that this is the same new type as that seen in Europe yesterday. The troops sent in were defeated. It is protected by an electromagnetic shield, so it is not easy to defeat. Good luck.

4.1: A large Ravager transport ship is located over the city, and is dropping Hectors. The report says that this is the same new type as what was seen in Europe yesterday, and the troops initially sent in were all defeated. It's protected by an electromagnetic shield, so it won't be an easy target. Good luck!

Storyline
Storm Team and a Ranger team are on top of a hill overlooking to a town, with two Large Transport Ships above it. They start dropping Hectors and a soldier reports it.

The Tactics Officer then tells that some data was sent from Command Headquarters (not HQ) that says that the new type of Hectors have an electromagnetic shield that protects them. She says that it's not as strong as the Shield Screen, but the new Hectors are still harder to destroy.

When the ground troops destroy one of the ships two more Hectors appear carrying a shield on their right arm. The TO explains that it's a small shield screen and is impenetrable. HQ then advices his soldiers to flank the Hectors since the shields only protect them from the front.

A second Ranger team appears on the battlefield and when HQ reminds them about the shields they offer to be bait so Storm Team can attack the Hectors from behind. HQ then reminds people of his strategy a few times just to make sure everybody heard his spark of genius.

Once only one Hector remains Aurora Situation Report can be heard reporting about the Earth Eaters. When Storm Team destroys the last machine the mission ends.

4.1 Changes
No changes.

Both Versions

 * A team of 3 Rangers with Rocket Launchers appears at the beginning of the mission near the players.
 * A team of 6 Rangers with Rocket Launchers appears during the second wave on the road leading up to the hills near the players' spawn point. They cannot be recruited.

Both Versions
Bring high damage weapons preferably with high rate of fire that are accurate enough to shoot down the ships and hit the uncovered areas of the shield bearer Hectors. A decoy might be useful to make the machines show their back, but not necessary.

The top of the hill where you spawn provides a good vantage point, so try to stay there unless you want to go to loot or get overwhelmed. Concentrate your fire on the ship and it's passengers that is closer to you first and then destroy the other ship. The Hectors are the same as before just with more health and they deal more damage.

The shield wielding ones are new, however. They carry a yellow oval shaped screen in front of them that protects them from attack. Just like when they are holding other guns they can move their arms to "aim" at their enemies and can slightly rotate their hips to make hurting them from the sides more difficult. However they can still be hit from the front as their other arms and their feet usually sticks out from under the shield.

If you want to attack them from the back in single player, let them approach the second wave of Rangers and flank them in a wide area so they prioritizes them over you.