William Bishop

William Bishop, callsign Warwolf 1, is the main protagonist of the video game Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. He is a United States Air Force lieutenant-colonel dragged into a war between NATO and Russian rebels. During the conflict, he is plagued by nightmares about a Russian pilot by the name of Andrei Markov, and has to face his fears.
He was voiced by Paul Mercier in English and by Hiroshi Tsuchida in Japanese.
== Biography ==
=== Past ===
William Bishop was born in California. He first saw combat in Bosnian War as a pilot of Wolf Squadron. He later commanded his own squadron during conflicts in Iraq and Libya. At some point in 2010s, he was assigned as a test pilot for Righteous, and upgraded model of F-22A Raptor, until he was transferred to Task Force 108 in Eastern Africa to curb an insurgency there.
=== Assault Horizon ===
One night, Bishop had a nightmare about fighting enemy planes over Miami, which ended with an aircraft with a shark painted on its nose killing him. After waking up, he talked to his wingman Guts about the nightmare, and eventually left for a mission to defend Hamada from rebels. During the mission, several pilots from the Russian squadron, led by Ivan Stagleishov, turned on their American comrades, forcing Bishop and his men to shoot them down. He also encoutnered the aircraft from his dream, piloted by Andrei Markov, who almost killed Bishop for real but ultimately deemed him not worth it.
Stagleishov and Markov were revealed to have been leaders of Russian rebel forces, the New Russian Federation, who had by that time taken over Moscow. Task Force 108 then left Africa and focused on fighting the NRF. During the conflict, Bishop at one point shot down an ICBM aimed at Washington, D.C. During the battle of Moscow, which saw the city getting nuked by the Trinity warhead, Bishop had to chase the bomber carrying another warhead and encountered Markov once more, successfully shooting him down.
While Russia was liberated from rebels, Markov escaped capture and gathered forces to attack the United States in revenge for his wife's death. Bishop and Guts engaged the renegade Russians over Miami, just like in the former's nightmare. As William was about to be shot down, Guts took the hit for him, and couldn't activate the ejection system. By miracle, Bishop managed to shoot the canopy off Guts' plane, allowing him to parachute to safety. He continues to pursue Markov's forces all the way to Washington, D.C., where their leader attempts to drop the last Trinity warhead on the White House. The two engage in a dogfight, which ends with Markov shot down once again, but not before he dropped the Trinity. Bishop, however, made sure that it didn't reach its target and detonated without killing anyone. He then landed at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where Janice Rehl informed him that Guts' emergency beacon had been detected, and reflected on having faced and defeated his fears at long last.
== Gallery ==
File:F-22A Bishop.png|William Bishop's F-22A 
== Trivia ==
* William Bishop's signature plane is F-22A Raptor.
* Bishop is the only main Ace Combat protagonist so far to have a known physical appearance and a full speaking role.
* In initial promotional material, Bishop had facial hair, which were removed due to real life USAF's regulations forbidding pilots from keeping them.
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