0300 – Eastern border of Poland
The entire eastern horizon lit up in a blinding white flare. A sun more magnificent than the one that rose in the east heralded the war that had returned to European soil. Under CINC-WEST's order, the ASAT rockets were launched simultaneously with the fixed artillery batteries and rocket launchers in a massive volley that rivaled the brightness of a nuclear explosion all over the eastern border of the European federation. Two hundred short range ASAT rockets fired from revamped FROG cold war missile launchers lanced straight into the air all across the new front and continued toward the heavens and beyond to strike at the European laser defense satellites that floated above.
European Satellite Command had begun their evasive burns as per orders several hours ago and had angled their weapons toward supposed sights located along the border. A Russian STAR (Satellite Tracking Aeronauta Radar) had for the past three weeks catalogued the exact position of the European satellites that would be closest to the border. Even as their positions adjusted, the STAR kept track and logged twenty such orbital laser platforms along with a dozen or so scanning and GPS satellites which were locked in as well. For two hundred missiles, modified to home in via the STARs signals, it looked to be an easily overwhelming kill.
Upon notification of launch however the European Satellite command, placed at uplink sites across the continent, warmed up their laser generators and unleashed a volley.
Rather poor planning on the Russians part had left some of the FROG missiles grouped up, enabling the massive lasers to vaporize several of the launchers and crewmen just as they had fired. One laser's onboard computer failed to adjust to the rapid change in trajectory via evasive maneuvers and mistracked with favorable results, the laser plowed a trench a half mile wide and three long right in the middle of the 14th Motor Rifle killing a brigade of tanks and self propelled artillery.
The missiles struck ten minutes later, twenty minutes before the satellites finished cooling down for their second shot and evasive Delta V burning. All European satellites in the general area of the eastern front were destroyed, and the remaining missiles were directed by the STAR to seek out targets of opportunity over western Europe. But the satellites there had reoriented and fired, destroying what was left quickly and efficiently.
Below them the artillery bombardment had begun and what little border units there were immediately notified their base and retreated under the roar of falling shells, missiles and the scream of fighter planes that had charged in. Resistance was light, the Europeans had been unable to mobilize troops so quickly, and 0300 was catalogued to be the time when human reaction times were at their worst. It was both sides air forces over Poland where the real opening battles of the war were fought. Polish fighter pilots were quick to respond to the new threat, during war warnings it was normal for all pilots to sleep with their planes and their fighters preloaded with munitions and fueled. Within ten minutes of the first Russian fighters, mainly Su-37 Flanker attack craft, screaming over the border, the Polish planes were already forming up in their old Eurofighter Typhoons. The real Enforcer interceptors were a bit slower off the mark but five minutes later, newer Tyhpoon-Es, equipped with more advanced radar tracking systems and the newest Hailstorm equipped with the first Hydrogen laser to fit on a fighter joined them.
Here the Europeans had a decisive advantage. The Russians, although their fighter planes and pilots were good, were not expecting to see such a determined resistance. Their AWACS type craft were a little slow to follow, the TU-98s converted for such things were one of the few planes in the Russian military that had undergone no such upgrades and was therefore rather weak in this day and age. Also, there were no known countermeasures in the world for TV-aimed lasers. It only took a few of the SAAB-71 Sentinels, which was what the federation used for its AWACs, to illuminate their big bulge air search radars and catalogue the mass of Russian planes vectoring towards them. The Hailstorms then aligned themselves and engaged at a range of over 80 miles. Even at that range laser hits were instantaneous and in the night sky, fires appeared spontaneously from lookers on the ground as Russian planes fell victim to a weapon that they could not counter. The SAAB-71s began jamming enemy radars as well so that the Russians could not shoot back at the fighters. The air war had resulted in horrendous losses on the Russians part, with the European pilots generally scoring an incredible five to one kill death ratio.
The ground war, the war that really mattered was heavily weighted towards the Russians. Although the Type 100 Ogre was not accredited for speed and maneuverability. Modifications which included laser guided missiles and alongside napalm type weapons gave them incredible kill power over the Enforcer's Panther tank most of which were just assembling and were already savaged by heavy artillery and rocket fire, the infantry were no better against them most of them roused out of bunk by officers who barely understood the situation. But they were smart enough to realize it was hopeless to stand and fight so many Enforcer groups withdrew thirty miles to fall back positions where reinforcements would be arriving. Resistance on the ground therefore was light.
By morning the Russians had pushed their front twenty miles.
Things were much different in the Holy Land. 800 attack aircraft lifted off at midnight from all of Israel's air bases, split into five groups and vectored off towards their respective targets where they soon after split into smaller groups and branched off towards their individual strategic targets. The Artemis pilots were in the lead echelon, the spearpoint heading north and east towards Turkey, which was a hostile country with the largest air force and man power. Were the Israeli's sure that it was hostile? Well, if it wasn't before it would be now, Bronco groused. It would be a grueling four hour flight both ways, made possible by the buddy storage tanks his F-35 Lightning had been thoughtfully given. He was maybe about an hour ahead of the main attack force, which would be composed of F-15I Ra'am multirole attack craft, and Jesus there were a lot of those too. Bronco had no clue the IAF had so many fighters.
The IAF had promised an extended contract in addition to a better pay for participant in their war, that would be good for the wife and kids at home. It wasn't as if Winters was heading home anytime soon though, not with the Europeans cutting off the Mediterranean and Africa with their Navy and Air force.
The beeper chimed in Bronco's cockpit.
"All right, Reapers, we have just entered Turkish Air space, keep your radars off and make sure you stay on course. Ten minutes to the checkpoint." And he punched the timer again to reset it. the night sky here was a ghostly green glow courtesy of the IR vision on his HUD.
Too bad they'd be going in with radars off but someone down there might pick up the emissions and what was the point of a stealth fighter if someone could detect you?
There were 16 Reapers flying tonight but what few other F-35s the Israeli's had were performing the same mission across all the groups, first strike against the enemy air defense nets. The timer beeped again.
"Alright here we go." He breathed and switched on the squadron channel. "Isaac Isaac Isaac. Execute and good hunting."
And the sixteen fighters paired off and vectored towards their respective targets. The Reapers were loaded up with four five hundred pound cluster bombs and a single sidewinder for air defense. The four Queers had just two Joint Strike Munition missiles for targets of opportunity but there probably wouldn't be any. At the word Isaac they switched on their electronic jammers and peeled off individually, flipping their radar tracks on at the same time.
"Got bogeys at three five zero your position lead and heading east." Reaper nine said. "They ain't turning."
Bronco concentrated on his flight pattern, checked the timer again and when it beeped the third time, switched to autopilot and activated his look down camera and laser target designator.
He had to be four thousand meters above the largest air base in Southern Turkey right now, he couldn't remember which but it definitely was a doosie. The IR camera detected lots of heat signatures, meaning a lot of craft warming up meaning that they really were getting ready to fly somewhere, probably Israel.
Good call.
"Got my eyes on them." Reaper two, "Jackass" said. "I'm on target."
"lets give them two passes, one on the hangars, and a second from the North hitting the runway." Bronco decided.
"Sounds good lead."
Bronco depressed the rudder pedal slightly to the right, autopilot only maintained level flying and one could initiate yaw changes any time he wished, and centered the crosshairs on a particularly warm spot that was probably a tanker fueling up. Well the cluster munitions would set that thing up in flames along with a lot of the other planes. He pressed the gel touch screen arming two of his cluster bombs and looked down again, adjusting the crosshairs one last time. At the last second he flipped open the bomb bay doors which would light up the enemy radars because it broke the stealth cross section…
"Bombs free." He said quietely as if the enemy might actually hear him.
"Bombs free." His wingmate seconded and two pairs of clusterbombs sailed to the ground.
Bronco didn't wait to see the explosions, they were high enough up that it would take maybe a full minute for them to hit and by the time they hit he wanted to be already dropping on that runway and bugging out of here. He flipped off the autopilot, retracted the bomb bay doors and made a hard right to bring the fighter on a long turn towards the north end of the runway and leveled out again to repeat the process.
"On target."
"On target."
"Bombs free." His wingmate replied again.
The Israelis had developed wonderful cluster bombs, each single submunition, really a grenade the size of an overly big baseball, was capable of punching through T-95 tank armor and more than enough to kill a grounded fighter. More to the point however, they were "smart". Each submunition had an infared heatseeker and computer that would home in on large heat sources. It only took one of these to kill a tank, and a canister carried twenty of these.
"Woah!" Bronco said as the sky lit up, the sound of the exposion was muffled because of the height but damn it must have sounded a lot worse on the ground.
"Jesus, talk about stir fry!" Jackass replied.
"Bugger out!" Bronco said and hit the afterburners as he prepared to run long and hard south-
"Lead those bandits are heading straight for you now, call them four fast movers. Bearing one nine six at angels thirty three from your position." Reaper 9 called the warning-
Just as he began hearing a warning tone that told Bronco someone was trying to paint him with an air search radar lock, probably wouldn't work but it was good to take precautions.
"Come left jackass." He ordered and swerved hard to bring his fighter out of the search cone.
"Whoo boy looks like you really pissed off the beehive tonight lead." Reaper 9 called again. "count them twenty plus bandits heading straight for you at your six o'clock. F-14Ds it looks like by their heat sigs.
"Pheonix missiles." Jackass warned. The Tomcat's Pheonix missiles could be launched via its powerful TV cameras without radar lock.
A puff of light appeared off of Broncos right wing and suddenly the sky was full of explosions.
"Flak weapons!" he called and instinctively climbed another couple hundred feet to avoid it. "Reaper flight check in."
They all reported no hits then-
"Tallyho, bandits on your six lead, they don't have radar tracks." Reaper 3 added. The Artemis E-2 Hawkeye, a prop aircraft with an AWACS dish, was coming on station now and illuminated its radar and began distributing the information amongst the pilots. Now Bronco's HUD lit up with "bad guy" markers, red boxes, and not all of them were in the air…
"Got a lot of SAMs warming up down there." Reaper nine said.
"Reaper flight, this is Oracle we need you to clear the lanes for the next wave, take out what you can."
Bronco acknowledged, all he really had left was the sidewinder and cannon. He could take out the air assets but that was it. the Queers however, were loaded with Joint strike munitions, heat seeking missiles that could hit ground and air targets. He'd get those on the SAMs. Oracle was taking a big risk with them though, they'd strip the fighters to the bone without so much as a stick to defend themselves.
Bronco ordered the Queers to take out the SAMs directly beneath them and in a ten mile killbox then requested vectors from Oracle to get him behind the Tomcats.
"they're going straight for us Reaper Lead, come right one eight zero and splash me those fighters."
As Bronco turned, he could see the friendly HUD markings of the second wave of fighters. Bronco understood very well, Reaper flight was only sent in to disrupt the Turkish air force long enough for the Israeli's to fly in the holes and make the kill. Unfortunately there were a couple fighters up here that might ruin the IAF's day.
He was only a mile away from his target, twin orange afterburner tracks in the night…
"Good tone, Fox two!" he said and loosed his only missile. The other ten Reapers did likewise sending ten heatseekers into the midst of the enemy formation which immediately broke popped flares and scattered. they evaded very well, the twenty F-14D tomcats broke into two plane elements scanning a specific zone of the air for targets. Only two missiles made hits, which sent two of the Turkish Tomcats spiraling down to the ground. but the Reapers were right behind the missiles and therefore, behind the Turkish pilots. The F-14D was a good plane, Bronco admitted as he sighted the pip up, leading his specific target as it made a radical 6 G turn, but the F-35 definitely outmaneuvered it in tight quarters.
"Guns guns guns!" he called and squeezed off a burst which stitched the fighter diagonally from starboard wing to port afterburner. The Turkish pilots died in a fireball that Bronco dove under and he immediately reversed his right turn into a hard left searching for his next target.
"They're running Reaper lead!" Oracle shouted. "Going back to three six zero good kill good kill!" Bronco steadied off.
"Anyone hit?" he asked.
A chorus of negatives.
"Alright then." He said and activated his running lights as the distance between the second wave of fighters and his own Reapers closed. He could see the faint outlines of A-20 Razorback ground attack fighters in the lead echelon. That would be Captain Michael Sullivan leading Artemis corporations "Rodeo flight". He waggled his wings and saw one of the far off planes waggle them in return before shutting off its running lights as it passed into the combat zone.
Explosions in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine heralded that the Endwar had arrived to the Middle East.