A/N: This scene takes place at the same time as the air battle portrayed in Chapter 11 of Commando Wolf's Code: Ascension story. In a nutshell, Commando Wolf jokingly asked me to write her next chapter and I accepted. This part of the story isn't going to be integrated into the Chapter 12 and so I post it separately. Ascension AU is used with the permission of its creator.
"...Repeat this is Desert Eagle one four with target priority alpha requesting immediate close air support. Megatanks are closing on our position..." Tapping a few controls, Angela's voice came out calmly over the radio link. "Roger Desert Eagle, this is Delta Foxtrot Alpha ready to assist. Advise on target type and location." She could feel the fighter-bomber turn to match the vector she provided and listened as she entered the required information into the computer.
Commander Bill Nenharma looked forward and saw what he and the rest of the squad were going to be charging into and it wasn't pretty. Four mantas were harassing the ground troops with mines while hornets buzzed around firing lasers and acid into the teams. Shoulder fired SAM missiles streaked out on occasion, sometimes contacting the enemy fliers and sometimes not. Above that fray was another group of mantas, hunters and dragons circling to protect the airspace they occupied. Without superiority fighters, this looked like it was going to be a massacre. But it was what everyone here signed on for and if XANA completed his cannon, this was only going to be the beginning.
On the ground Ulrich ducked for cover as a mine exploded nearby, the shockwave rattling his teeth as it passed through him. Grunting and helping up a marine that had been tossed to the ground, he poked his head over the crater his squad was using for cover. Hoisting a heavy machine gun over the ridge, he aimed and put a burst of .50 caliber rounds into a megatank advancing on the position of squad fourteen. The tracers ricocheted off of the armored ball, and he cursed loudly. XANA had upgraded the armor considerably.
Weaving in and out of the fire provided by multiple foes, the sizzling sound and light shudders still told both Bill and Angela that the maneuvering wasn't good enough or there were too many opponents. Ignoring that for now, Angela set up the Hellfire missile guidance while Bill shouted "Delta 2 Fox 2" before launching an air-to-air Mica II missile. It streaked away and destroyed the manta it had been fired at. With the formation of defenders broken temporarily, Bill dived down, trusting Angela to have the AGM Hellfire missile ready to launch.
Ulrich squinted and made out the silhouette of an approaching human designed plane. A bright red object flared and then accelerated away from the underbody of the plane, a shrill whine revealing the object to be a missile. Scrambling back into the cover of the crater, he heard and felt the presumed hellfire missile slam into the megatank. When he peeked out of cover the threatening monster was only a collection of burning shards of metal. Silently thanking the pilot, he waved his marines forward and advanced on the complex walls.
Laser fire hit the ground around the advancing marines while above them the pilots of the air group assigned as close air support dealt with XANA's air force as best they could. Two aircraft had already fallen to enemy fire and two more had withdrawn before being too badly damaged to fly home. The remaining fighter bombers plunged towards the ground to give support whenever they could break away from the dogfight. The symphony of sizzling laser blasts, the roar of the jets engines overhead, the screech of pain from the monsters combined with the rat tat tat of machine guns combined to form a bizarre soundtrack.
Ulrich felt a pang of symphony towards the fliers and motioned his squad to deviate from their course. His new target, a nest of tarantulas acting as anti-aircraft artillery. Approaching as stealthily as was manageable, he focused on the set of krabes guarding the emplacement. Wishing he was on Lyoko, where he could simply summon his supersprint and sink his sabers into the monsters, it was suicide in the real world. Private first class Marcus jumped up and dashed away from cover, taking the monster's attention with him. The ground around him erupted in into a storm of superheated concrete as krabes poured fire at the running man.
Not one to lose the opportunity, Ulrich raised his usual rifle and charged with his squad, the armor piercing 7.62 rounds tearing into the relatively light armor of the krabes. One wavered and fell down, sparks issuing from smoking holes in its underbelly. One turned to face the new threat and a hail of bullets shattered the laser focusing lenses that made up its 'eyes'. Disabled, it walked towards the squad, intending to use its underbelly laser. A grenade quickly ended that ambition. The remaining krabes turned their attention to Ulrich, now regarding him and his squad as the larger threat. Marcus stopped and lobbed one of his grenades at the turning red monster and smirked as the blast knocked out its legs and it fell to the ground.
Captain Bill called out for support as three hornets decided to make him their primary target. Cursing under his breath, he pulled his fighter into a steep climb and tapped the afterburners to hold on to his speed. Accelerating through the climb, he quickly rolled the plane to the right and jammed on the rudder to make the plane skid to the outside of the turn. The hornets flew past and Bill lined up on a new target, firing a burst from the nose mounted 15mm cannon to take out a manta that was tailing his wingman. The other pilot waved in thanks and passed by to engage the three hornets.
"Damn..." Angela called over the intercom, "Where are the infantry's heavy vehicles? They can't keep this up without them." Below them, two squads of the desert eagle group were shredded by overlapping fire from four groups of tarantulas. Keying in another series of commands, she wordlessly directed her pilot to the next request for an air strike. Bill saw the vector and adjusted to match but just as they leveled out the plane snapped over into a barrel roll. Two beams of light streaked by, narrowly missing the already battered jet.
Thankful to be rid of at least some anti-air fire, Bill once again brought the plane into a quick climb. This time he continued the to pull the nose up and over, rolling right side up at the apex of the climb. The dragon tailing followed as Bill put his plane back into another climb, repeating the maneuver to trace backwards S in the sky. As the dragon caught up and got into a good firing position it shuddered and screeched before falling. "Thanks," Bill called to the pilot who had shot the dragon down.
On the ground, Ulrich ducked as he heard the crack of a 175mm canon round's sonic boom overhead. The flash of an explosion reached him at the same time, and the pieces of a megatank he hadn't noticed amidst the chaos of battle shattered into pieces. But the battle was far from won. Squads were strewn about the battlefield and the friendly aircraft overhead were running low on fuel and ammunition.
The lead vehicle adjusted its turret and fired another high explosive shell at a nest of tarantulas, watching in satisfaction as pieces of the mechanized monsters flew away from the fireball in all directions. That victory was short lived as a XANAtic snuck up on the armored vehicle and fired his RPG. The ablative armor was really good at protecting the crew from the laser, plasma and electric weapons XANA preferred. Against human made weapons however...
Ulrich screamed at all his squads over the radio, ordering them to regroup and protect the tanks as he watched the husk of Warrior Raptor 1 burn in the smoky late evening light. As he approached a group of XANAtics he emptied the clip of his automatic rifle. After three seconds of sustained fire half a dozen enemy combatants were dead, blood leaking from the holes punched into their body armor. Still more would come as he ordered the heavy .50 cal gun set up near a third burning vehicle whose explosion he felt as a blast of heat.
"SHIT!" Angela screamed as Bill jerked the fighter to the left and dove for the ground. "We can't keep this up."
"I know." Bill snapped. "I can see the damage indicators and fuel gauges just as well as you can." After a short pause and a stomach pounding pull up on the stick he shouted over the groaning structure of his fighter, "sorry..."
"I know." And actually, Angela was impressed that he hadn't snapped like that before. But shy and reserved was a good way to describe him, she'd add professional to the mix." Tanks are asking for fire support, they're in danger of being swarmed, we can strafe them, but that's about it, we're out of AGMs"
"I'll take it, then we fire the last of our AIMs and bug out."
"Sounds like a plan," Angela replied as she set to work coordinating a couple of fighters to make the strafing run.
Warrior Raptor 5's secondary gunner watched as a trio of airplanes swooped low over the ground and raked the incoming group of krabs, kankerlots and humans with fire from their cannons, covering that section of the battlefield in a red mist. With the immediate threat neutralized he switched his station and readied a TOW 4 missile. The wire unspooled at an ungodly rate while the gunner flew it towards a cluster of heavy transports that were going to unload more robotic monsters unto the battlefield.
Without warning, a loud groaning sound rang through the battlefield, the unmistakable sound of rending metal signifying the collapse of a large structure. Deep within XANA's base a plume of fire dissipated into a hanging pall of smoke. Deep rumbling noises and a huge vibration rolled outwards from the center, calling all attention towards the giant silvery structure at the heart of the compound. Troops stopped and stared as the structure toppled over, falling to the ground with a giant crash.
Cheers of victory were cut short by screams as XANA's robots had continued to fire into the stunned human groups. Men scrambled to return fire once again and the momentary silence was again plunged into the noisy chaos of battle. But orders were already going out, all units were to fall back. Slowly the battered regiments of men and machines withdrew, leaving XANA battered but far from beaten. His forces were easily replaced. The men and women lost to the fight and those left behind in the somewhat disorganized withdrawal were nearly priceless to the humans. For XANA, a slow war of attrition was as sure a way win the war as the now delayed cannon was supposed to be.
Definitions:
RIO - Radar Intercept Officer. The second seat pilot who helps the first seat pilot keep track of mission objectives, helps coordinate with other aircraft and keeps track of the larger battle space while the pilot is otherwise engaged, and handles the weapons systems. This person does not actually have to be a pilot.
AGM - Anti Ground Missile. Hellfires and rocket propelled bombs with guidance systems are in this category.
AIM - Air Interception Missile. These are usually short range missiles designed to be used in dog fighting. The Mica is a french short range missile for air to air combat and can have either heat seeking or radar guidance. You can think of it as the French version of the American sidewinder missile.
AAM - Anti Air Missile. These are medium or long range missiles meant to be used outside visual range. Once you're close enough to engage in a dog fight, these missiles are typically useless as they lack the agility necessary to handle close combat.
TOW Missile: Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire command data link, guided missile. It's an anti-armor, ground to ground missile (though helicopters can be fitted to handle this missile) designed to be man portable but can also be mounted unto vehicles.