The Queen's Tridents
January 19, 2005
HMS Queen Algashire
Atlantic Ocean
LCDR. Colin Hothawin, known as "Mako" to his squadronmates, walked purposefully down the hall towards the briefing room of 272 Naval Air Squadron, The Red Tridents. His face looked a bit more lively than it had in recent days with the ramped-up tempo of air operations against the mainland. Since New Year's Day and that massive battle that had happened, the war had taken a shift. The Eruseans seemed to be acting differently. They seemed a bit more cautious, as if they were now starting to realize they'd lost the initiative. Colin saw it, and it gave him hope. Back in his homeland, the Kingdom of Lenshire, several of his family, including his wife and two children, were in occupied territory.
He opened the hatch with "272 Squadron Briefing Room" and went through. Inside the dimly-lit room there were few inhabitants; in fact the only one he saw was the duty officer for tonight, Lieutenant Munrough. He was pecking away at the keys of a laptop when he noticed the superior officer enter.
"Good morning, Leftenant Commander!" He saluted, standing up. Colin quickly returned the salute.
"You can be seated, Leftenant Munrough." He said in a professional manner, his Comberth accent clear in his words.
Colin went down the center aisle towards the sea chart at the front and sat down in the front row to study it. Currently, Queen Algashire was one of three carriers in the area heading a "super flotilla" of warships. The Clemenceau-class Southwest Territories Ship Beauregard was the farthest to the north, while the Kitty Hawk-class Skully-Aucklin Commonwealth Vessel Fort Grace sat at the center of the armada. Queen Algashire was the furthest to the west, and the main defensive screen against any Erusean raiders. The Fort Grace provided some protection for the other carriers with her F-14B Tomcats and F/A-18C Hornets, but this flank fell mostly to eight Harrier FA2s, eight Harrier GR7s, and half a dozen surface ships with SAMs. The Beauregard, equipped with heavily upgraded A-4 Skyhawks and Super Etendards, couldn't provide much help.
Colin bit his lower lip at that fact. The Harrier was no pushover, but she was not in the same class as several of the FEAF's fighters like the MiG-29 Fulcrum or Su-27 Flanker. He'd fought both before and found that close in he could very well defeat them; it was getting close that was the problem. He looked back at the map as more people entered the room; Lieutenant Ellis "Elly" Carmichael and Sub-Lieutenant Mary Hotchkiss. The later exchanged salutes with Mako when she approached.
"It appears I'm your wingman today, Leftenant Commander." She said. Colin nodded as she sat down.
"It appears that it is, Poppins." He agreed.
Mary was one of the newer pilots in the squadron, but she had proven herself capable; her jet carried three kill markings. Two of them were FEAF MiG-29s. She sat down while Colin, aware of a few basic details of the mission today, told her how things would be done. According to the board, they'd have their cannon pods, two fuel tanks, and two AIM-120C AMRAAMs. Colin wasn't very happy about having no AIM-9M Sidewinders, but those were reserved for escort missions. She nodded as things were explained, but had no questions as of yet. She hadn't been informed on the threats that might be after them. Colin went back to looking forward when he heard a chair being pushed back.
"Officer on deck!" Munrough announced.
The pilots in the room stood up at attention as a stout man with thinning hair marched up to the front in his blue work uniform and a brown jacket with the insignia of the squadron and the wings for a Royal Navy pilot on each breast area. The aviators facing him salute him, and after he returned it they were seated once again.
"Good morning gents, today will be another standard combat air patrol to protect the fleet from any attacks by the Rusies." Commander Roger Ramsey said. He took a wooden pointer stick and tapped the image of the area behind him.
"Our primary concern is the FEAF presence here, at Wiola Air Base. Our latest reports indicate that the Rusies have moved a squadron of Tornadoes with Sea Eagle ASMs. These weapons pose less of a threat to us and more of a threat to the troop transports that are gathering for Operation Bunker Shot. It is very possible that they will attempt to attack us first to make an opening, so you are defending both the Queen Algashire and the amphibious force." He said. The man circled a few symbols that represented ships.
"The Frigates HMS Glory and HMS Dachshund will be your surface support in the sector you're to patrol. A single Sea King AEW.5, call sign "Guardian", will provide you with early warning. Any questions so far?" Ramsey said. Colin raised a hand.
"Will we be close enough to any Tomcat patrols from the Fort Grace?" He asked. Ramsey shook his head.
"Not close enough for them to help immediately, but I have been told they will help in the case of a dire emergency." He replied. Another hand, Carmichael's, rose.
"Can we expect any fighter escort different from F-16s for these Tornadoes?" He asked. His wingman, Lieutenant Adrian "Granite" Peters nodded in agreement.
"Intelligence has given me no updates. As far as I'm concerned expect to face F-16s, though I trust you chaps are adaptable." Ramsey said, smiling at the end. A few others in the room returned the expression.
Ramsey the handed out the call signs of the rest of the aircraft in the area. The patrolling Harriers would be using their usual radio tag: Neptune. Ellis and Adrian would be Neptune 1-1 and 1-2, while Colin and Mary would be Neptune 1-3 and 1-4.
"Right, now any further questions?" Ramsey asked.
No one had anything to add, and thus the squadron was dismissed to put on their gear and man their planes. Colin went into the locker room with the rest of the male members of the flight, where his combat gear was. Over his olive-green flight suit Colin wore special fittings to protect him from G forces in flight, and then a survival vest. Due to the frigid temperatures of the seas at this time of year, he was wearing wool clothing under the suit and had made sure suit was sealed and water-proofed to keep the inside dry if he had to eject over the water. His dark-gray helmet was the second-to-last piece of gear, and finally he slid a FN Five-Seven handgun into a holster and joined the others out in a hall leading to the hangar deck.
"Ready to add a few kill notches to the Harrier, Mako?" Adrian asked.
"Let's see if I can't bring that tally to fifteen today, eh?" Colin said with a small smirk as he sealed his maps in clear pockets. The group let out a collective chuckle.
The pilots walked down the hall and into the hangar deck of their ship. Colin always found himself drawing comparisons between the hangar deck of the Queen Algashire and that of ships such as the Fort Grace. The Oseans believed in big carriers for force projection, so they built ships that carried four times the aircraft of this little Invincible-class carrier. The walk across the hangar deck of a Kitty Hawk-class could take a few minutes, while the walk time was a minute at most on the Algashire. He approached his Harrier as the machine's crew was finishing their part of checking the aircraft's wellbeing. He consulted with the head mechanic for a minute before he inspected the aircraft himself.
Though Colin liked the Harrier very much, he hated its handicaps. The Harrier was not able to carry the same payload as many of its contemporaries and did not have the ability to go into afterburner. These kinds of things meant the FA2 could not get to an area very fast and could also not stay around very long before needing more weapons. In fact if they had intruders most of them would have to be dealt with using the gun pods; the missiles would be fired on by AMRAAMs and surface combatants. The last few days they'd been able to carry more missiles and just use aircraft from the Fort Grace to refuel, but they'd been stepping up air operations in anticipation of Bunker Shot.
Colin climbed up the red boarding ladder towards the open cockpit of Harrier 09 and slid in. He tucked away his helmet bag and strapped into the ejection seat of the light fighter. His ears tuned to the radio the hangar deck crewmen were listening to as he went through checks. The song was "Without Me" by Osean rapper Eminem, though he only found that out when he asked. Rap wasn't particularly his kind of music; he preferred folk. Getting back to the matter at hand, he found that his Harrier was in working order. He signaled a deck crewman and looked forward as an aircraft tug pulled his machine forward onto one of the elevators. The fighter was disconnected from the tug and then lifted up to the deck, where the Sea King AEW was just taking off. Granite and Elly's Harriers were also about to launch.
The lieutenant commander secured his maps and made sure everything was in order while the primary flight launched to protect the group. Colin's primary occupation at the moment was to do occasional systems checks; he hadn't brought anything like a book or newspaper to entertain himself with. He had mixed feelings about leaving the canopy open as the cold, salty air bit at his exposed skin. The deck crew had little better as they ran about in their blue jackets and white balaclavas. He had become so engrossed in small tasks that he almost missed when the radio came to life.
"Neptune 1-3 and 1-4, start up your engines and prepare for takeoff." A voice radioed from the control tower.
"Understood, is there any SITREP available for what's going on?" Colin asked.
"AEW has detected contacts approaching form the mainland; probably a raid on the fleet." The voice replied.
Mako acknowledged the situation and went to work. He flipped a few switches and brought the Rolls-Royce turbofan to life. The pilot looked over at Hotchkiss and nodded as he reached up to pull down the canopy. Once he was completely enclosed, the pilot brought his major systems to life, but kept the Blue Vixen radar off for the moment. A deck crewman with directing sticks waited for him to give the signal the aircraft was ready, then once the aircraft's wheel chocks were removed, he brought the light fighter forward. Colin was directed onto the primary launch area of the Queen Algashire, and then stopped. Crewmen came forward to check his weapons and the Harrier one last time. Colin watched another director as he waited for the FA.2 to be clear, after which he raised a small green flag. With his nozzles pointed back, Colin went to full power, keeping the brakes on. Once the machine was at full throttle, he saluted the director. The deckhand snapped the hand with flag forward, and Colin released the brakes. The Sea Harrier lurched a little as it screeched forward towards the ramp at the end of the deck. Colin rolled smoothly off the ski ramp and into the sky.
"Harrier 09 is airborne." He radioed as he brought up his landing gear and adjusted his flaps.
The pilot moved out of the way of the launch corridor and ascended well above the carrier until Hotchkiss was airborne. He came around on the starboard side of the ship. The two fighters joined in formation and pressed north towards the mainland of Usea.
"Guardian, Neptune 1-3 and 1-4 are airborne, requesting vector on the enemy raid." Mako radioed as he adjusted his radar range so he could fire his AMRAAMs from a good distance away.
Near the northern quadrant of the fleet, a single Sea King helicopter cruised at low altitude. It coordinated with the Type 42 Destroyers and Type 23s Frigates that circled the outer perimeter of the fleet, but as Ramsey had said only two of the latter were on station to help the Harriers.
"Neptune, this is Guardian. I have a force of approximately ten aircraft. Vector is 053, roughly 190 kilometers way. One group, count six, appears to be 5,500 meters above sea level, while the others are 610 meters above sea level." One of the controllers inside radioed.
"Are they attacking the fleet?" Colin asked.
"The targets appear to be attempting to maneuver between our fleet and Fort Grace's. They must be going for the troop transports. We will direct the surface assets to assist." The Sea King reported.
"Understood Guardian. Neptune 1-1, 1-2, what's your current status and position?" Mako radioed.
"We are roughly 112 kilometers to your northwest turning our noses towards the attackers to intercept them." Carmichael announced.
Colin looked at Poppins and signaled for her to loosen up the formation into "loose deuce" as the Oseans had dubbed it. He reckoned the lower-flying aircraft were the attackers, so he placed the priority on them. The surface combatants targeted the higher-flying aircraft while the fighters aimed their efforts at the attackers, believed to be Tornadoes armed with ASMs. He would need to close in to roughly 55 kilometers to effectively use his AMRAAMs, but for now he had a solid track on them. The escorting fighters, F-16C Falcons they'd concluded, had apparently also been alerted to this development and were splitting their formation to engage the Harriers. The Type 23s were well out of range; Colin thought fast.
"Elly, Granite, draw those Rusie F-16s towards the Glory and Dachshund once you've fired on those strike aircraft; we'll close in and kill them if we miss." He ordered.
"Neptune 1-1 confirms."
"Neptune 1-2 confirms."
Colin glanced at his radar display again and the enemy strike aircraft. He banked the Sea Harrier to keep his nose pointed at them and made a shallow dive. On his Heads Up Display (HUD), four green boxes appeared as the Tornados came into range. He had 92 kilometers and counting; Colin clenched his teeth and cursed the Harrier's speed. The Tornados were booking it, and the transonic FA2s were not equipped with afterburners. Either way he kept going at full throttle, intending to suck the wing tanks dry. He kept adjusting the nose to keep on the attackers as he closed in to 70 kilometers away, still to far, but a new voice over the radio changed his mood. HMS Stalwart, a Type 23 Destroyer patrolling the Eastern area of the flotilla, had spotted the intruders and responded with a salvo of four Sea Dart anti-aircraft missiles. The unpleasant surprise forced the enemy aircraft to split their formation, rapidly chopping down their speed and giving the Sea Harriers a plentiful breath of relief. In a minute Mako was within 55 kilometers. He selected the closest two Tornados and depressed the fire button twice upon a lock.
"Neptune 1-3, Fox 3, Fox 3." He announced.
The two radar-guided missiles dropped from their pylons and pressed ahead of their launch platform. Immediately after the weapons were clear of his aircraft, Colin banked away from the Tornados, leaving them to the Type 23, and brought his nose towards the FEAF escorts. Three had pursued Neptunes 1-1 and 1-2 while the other three had stayed with the Tornados. Those same jets were now above Neptunes 1-3 and 1-4 with a full load of missiles.
"Be advised Mako, those Falcons are diving at us!" Poppins called.
"Roger that Poppins split formation and engage one of them; I'll take the other two." Colin ordered calmly as he switched to his guns.
His wingwoman broke right and drew one of the F-16s. A second was about to join, but Mako turned into that one and pulled back his trigger. The ADEN on the left beneath him thumped away as it fired 30mm rounds at the camouflaged F-16. The fighter rolled into the attack with a few scratches, now on Colin's right side. The ISAF pilot adjusted the throttles and set out to use the Harrier's VTOL to his advantage by making as tight a turn as he could manage in his current position. The F-16 was now oriented above him, and the third Falcon had entered the fight, alerting Colin's RWR equipment. He came from his turn into a dive, deploying chaff from his fighter. The Erusean shot past him and rolled inverted to dive after the enemy fighter. Mako dared pull back the throttles as far as he dared to get the Erusean in front of him, though he had to be mindful of stall speed.
The altimeter on his HUD dropped in near-freefall as they went down and down. Mako was forced into a defensive position as again he was painted by an F-16's radar and pulled back on the stick, adjusting his throttles in precision conjunction. The FA2's nose pitched upwards steadily as its nozzles swiveled to change the aircraft's direction of movement. Colin leveled out near 7000 feet and immediately looked for his enemies. He spotted the one he'd dove with moving out ahead of him, while the other he spotted as it fired an AIM-120C AMRAAM at him from his high six o' clock. Colin snapped up and into the direction of the attack, deploying chaff to hide his movements. He pulled his Harrier up and brought himself out of the engagement envelope of the incoming missile. The F-16 adjusted its dive so that its nose was kept on Colin.
The fight slipped into a rolling scissors as they passed by one another and then turned to attack each other. The Harrier had its lower speed on its side, but the F-16 was still plenty agile and able to be quick enough to prevent Colin from getting a clear shot. After a few passes and dodging the Falcon's M61 20mm cannon, the ISAF pilot had formulated a plan on how he could beat the enemy fighter. He gulped down some air and kept a close on on the F-16 as it went above him. As it dove, so did he. The F-16 seemed like it was going to slip behind him, but that was what Colin both had hoped for and needed to get the advantage.
The "Viffing Technique" was something that had been studied, practiced, and talked about since the dawn of the Harrier's time. Colin aimed the nozzles of the Harrier perpendicular to the fuselage of his craft, causing it to go inside the turn of the F-16 as it rapidly decelerated. The Erusean fighter undershot and went out before him, handing the advantage over to Colin. He returned the nozzles to their position for normal flight and followed the F-16 as it moved to reverse and turn back into the ISAF fighter. Colin was above and behind him by the time he'd turned around, and the pilot brought back his right trigger finger once his gunsight was aimed at the space just before the F-16.
The left ADEN thumped away again; the Erusean had no place to run from the bullets. Colin watched flashes run the length of the fuselage in a matter of seconds and the F-16 began to trail smoke as it'd taken hits to some vital systems from a large bullet. The camouflaged fighter fell away and Colin pulled out of his attack run as the Erusean ejected.
"Neptune 1-3 has splashed one bandit. What is the status of the attackers with ASMs?" He radioed.
"This is Guardian, Stalwart confirms that two of the bandits are down and that two of their ASMs are destroyed. No further reports at this time." The AEW radioed as it kept its position fluid.
"Poppins, are you still with me?" Colin asked as he climbed and banked to try and spot the second F-16.
"Yes Mako, I'm still up." A female voice assured.
Colin was coming around so that he could see the smoke trail that marked the F-16's fall to the water, he was alerted to the launch of two AMRAAMs at him. He checked his ECM and noted it was from his five o' clock. He kept up his turn into the attacking FEAF fighter and deployed more chaff. Then two more missiles came off the enemy aircraft; it appeared the Erusean had a sadistic streak in them. Colin was now in dire straits; for all the faith he'd put in the small fighter for the last two years and the years before that, four AMRAAMs was something he had little hope of dodging. Nonetheless, he stubbornly fought the worsening odds. He burnt through all the chaff he had in what soon became desperation.
The first missile left him alone, then the second. Colin groaned and grunted as he threw the FA2 all over the sky. He didn't see em, but the second and third missiles went past him. He gasped for breath as the fourth finally hit this Harrier in the left wing. Colin was thrown against the right side of the cockpit from the impact. He pulled himself back up as the nose began to dip down and the Harrier began to roll. There was no trying to fight it now.
"Neptune 1-3 has been hit and is going down, I repeat, I'm going down." Colin radioed.
He reached between his legs with a grunt and curled his fingers around the handle for the ejection seat. With a grunt he pulled up the ejection handle.
"Mako ejecting!" He called out.
The lieutenant commander felt a force beneath him as the ejection seat rumbled from the doomed jet. As Colin felt himself separate from the seat, the Harrier exploded Colin couldn't see the event, but soon he felt the effects of it. He felt searing heat tear across his back as pieces of the destroyed aircraft came into contact with him. They burned as he floated down, but he couldn't do anything about it. It got worse as he landed and the water and he waited for his flotation device to inflate. Colin screamed in agony as salt water washed over the wound. He couldn't tell how serious it was, but the effects it began to have sent his heart further and further towards his feet. His vision began to get fuzzy as he lay there, waiting for a SAR helo to reach him, and eventually his head became light.
When he finally realized what was happening, he hastily began to make sure that when it was done, he wouldn't be having any regrets. The salt water had ceased to sting after it had lapped at his wounds so many times. It felt numb at this point and he couldn't care. When the end was near, he simply tilted his head back and took a deep breath. The body of LCDR. Colin "Mako" Hothawin were recovered by a Sea Lynx Helicopter from the HMS Stalwart at sunset of that day. His body was mostly intact with the exception of the large gash that had caused the mortal blood loss. When he was cleaned up for his burial, that injury had been cleaned up.
A/N: I tend to portray ISAF as a combination of certain NATO members and UK/Commonwealth of Nations members. I noticed the Harrier doesn't get a whole lot of attention in Ace Combat stories, which was why this came about. Thanks to the fellow fans I hang around for their help.