Hey. Been a little while since I last updated this story. Updates on this story may be a little less frequent than some of my others, but I'll still try and get them out.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 8- The First Ace
Hermione watches out the side of the cockpit as the ground crew are finishing fuelling up her jet. After a few more moments, the man in charge takes a step back so she can see him better and gives her a thumbs up as the team snakes the fuel pumps away from the Flanker.
"Alright, Victor. Let's finally get going," Hermione says.
"Yeah," Victor replies as Hermione starts revving up the engines, and the Flanker begins moving along the taxiway. The other three Flankers of her flight follow behind her.
It's been a week since the fall of Tokyo. The Free Forces have used this opportunity to build up their forces on Japan. In addition to the Marines who landed, the Army has deployed 2 field armies, 400,000 strong, to reinforce them. Additional fighters have been deployed to the airfields around Tokyo. The forces in Japan are all under Bill's command, and Bill is preparing to make the push out of Tokyo.
Extensive airstrikes have been happening during the last week to weaken Voldemort's war machine in Japan. There has been surprisingly little resistance from enemy fighters, which wasn't too surprising, given how many fighters Voldemort had lost in the first two days of the war.
This is Hermione's third mission this week. The first two had been bombing missions against air-defense networks surrounding Osaka and Nagoya. Today, she and her flight, as well as two other flights of Su-30s are providing fighter escort for a strike force of 20 F-4 Phantoms and 10 Tornados that are going to be striking a major rail yard and fuel dump in Hiroshima. For that, they'll be carrying a full load of 10 air to air missiles in addition to external fuel tanks.
The mission is extremely long-range, so they'll be refuelling from KC-10 tankers over the ocean 300 miles south-east of Hiroshima. This mission is particularly important, as the destruction of the rail yard will largely cut off forces on the eastern end of Honshu and the island of Kyushu from some of the major cities near Tokyo, such as Osaka, Nagoya, and Kyoto. It will also result in the destruction of a major amount of Slytherin fuel stores, seriously hampering forces on Kyushu and the eastern end of Honshu.
Hermione continues taxiing and takes her position in the takeoff cue. Since the Flanker has one of the longest ranges of any fighter, they'll be the last to take off.
Hermione watches the Phantoms and Tornados take off ahead of her. Then, she pulls her Flanker onto the runway, her wingman right beside her, and the two Flankers throttle up and take to the skies.
Hermione waits for the rest of the Flankers to join up. Once they're all airborne, the entire strike force, 42 aircraft in total, form up, and head south. Once they're 300 miles from the coast, they turn west towards Hiroshima.
It's a relatively brief flight. Within an hour, they're rendezvousing with the tankers south of Hiroshima. The Flankers are relatively okay, so they just briefly top off their tanks. The Phantoms and Tornados fully refuel, then the strike force turns north towards Hiroshima.
As the strike force nears the coast, Hermione radioes the entire strike force. "Alright. Everyone, listen up. We're deep in enemy territory. We're more likely to encounter enemies here. So, everyone keep your head on a swivel. Pay attention to your radars, but make sure to keep your eyes outside the cockpit too."
"Strikers. Hit the target fast and hard. Make sure and hit the rail yard before focusing on the fuel tanks. Lion, Kingfisher, and Tiger flights, establish a defensive area around the target area," she continues.
"Copy that, Colonel," one of the Tornado pilots replies.
The Phantoms and Tornados descend to 5,000 feet, while the Flankers maintain their altitude of 12,000 feet, pulling ahead of the strikers.
Hermione leads her flight past the target area to set up a defensive patrol on the northern part of the city. The other two flights of Flankers move towards the eastern and western parts of the city.
Hermione listens on the radio as the lead Tornado pilot calls out over the radio, "Starting our run on the train yard."
The Tornados separate into pairs. The two lead pairs, equipped with 1,000 lb bombs, make their runs on the station facilities and platforms themselves. A third pair bombs the maintenace buildings. The remaining two pairs, equipped with 500 lb bombs, bomb the rail lines themselves, striking the lines throughout the city. The Tornados
The Tornados pull back as the Phantom prepare to start bombing the fuel dumps. Hermione listens to transmissions as the Phantoms begin their runs.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a missile lock warning blares in Hermione's helmet. "What the...?!" she exclaims as she banks her fighter hard to the right. Looking down, she sees several air to air missiles heading up towards her and her flight, and four F-15 Eagles, maybe a hundred feet off the ground, and now climbing up towards them.
"Eagles! Lion flight, scatter!" Hermione calls over the radio as she banks her fighter to the left and snaps the stick into her gut, deploying chaff and flares to decoy the missiles. Luckily, the missiles lose lock.
"Where did they come from?" Hermione mutters under her breath as she continues her turn. Turning her head to look back, she sees that her flight has scattered. Two of the F-15s have turned to pursue Lion 3 and Lion 4. The other two have turned to pursue her wingman.
Hermione reverses her turn, cutting her engines back slightly to decrease speed, enhancing her agility.
Hermione pulls in behind the two Eagles. She calls to Victor, "Lock up the trailer."
Victor works furiously to gain radar lock on the rear Eagle. After a few moments, he says, "I got lock. Shoot."
Hermione pulls the trigger, and an AA-10 Alamo launches. The Eagles apparently notice it, because they split up, deploying chaff.
Hermione banks after the one she targeted. As the distance closes to just 2 miles, she decides it's too close for an Alamo. So, she switches over to her Archer heat-seeking missiles, gains lock, and fires. The missile streaks out. The Eagle deploys flares. But the Archer is a missile that is not easily fooled by flares. The missile only briefly hesitates, but ultimately ignores the flares and impacts the Eagle right at the base of its right tail fin, taking off the tail.
"This is Lion 1. Splash 1," Hermione calls over the radio with a grin on her face. She has again made history. With this kill, she has became the first ace of the war, and the first ace in the Su-30.
She grins broadly as the magnitude of this fact hits her. But, she quickly returns her attention to the battle as she turns in pursuit of the other F-15 that had been pursuing her wingman. But, as she turns towards him, she sees that Lion 2 has initiated a flat scissors manuever. She watches as Lion 2 and the opposing F-15 weave in and out several times. Then, Lion 2 cuts back on his engines as he prepares to turn back into the F-15 again. Caught off guard, the F-15 ends up right in front of Lion 2, who tears apart the F-15 with his 30 mm. cannon.
"Lion 2. Splash one," Lion 2 calls over the radio.
"Good job!" Hermione says cheerfully as she pulls her Flanker into a climb.
"Hermione! Multiple contacts inbound from the north-west!" Victor calls out.
Hermione instantly turns her Flanker in that direction. "Identify them," she orders Victor, who furiously goes to work trying to identify them.
After a few moments, he calls out, "Picking up no friendly IFF codes."
That's confirmation enough for Hermione. She says, "Lock them up." Victor works furiously to gain missile lock. After just a few seconds, he says, "Got it. Shoot."
Hermione pulls the trigger, sending an Alamo on its way. The missile tracks straight to its target and impacts right on the nose.
"Splash two," Hermione calls as she throttles up her engines, speeding to intercept the incoming aircraft. Lion 2 pulls up beside her and throttles up.
Within a minute, they spot the targets incoming. 6 F-16s.
"Definitely hostile. Engage," Hermione orders her wingman.
Both of them gain radar lock, and fire. The F-16s scatter, but Lion 2's missile hits home, for his second kill of the day.
The 5 remaining F-16s, and the 2 Su-30s, pass in a classic merge, then start turning hard to try and get on their enemy's tail. It's a 21st- century version of a classic dogfight.
Hermione soon finds herself right behind one of the F-16s, only about half a mile behind it. Realizing she's too close for her missiles to be truly effective, she throttles up and closes in even closer. The F-16 tries desperately to shake her, twisting and turning randomly. But Hermione sticks with him, slowly closing in. Soon, she's just 400 yards behind the F-16. She tries to line it up in her gunsight as she arms her 30 mm cannon. But, the F-16's violent jinking prevents her from getting a good shot.
Then, the F-16 rolls wings-level, and flips over to pull into a Split S. But this manuever temporarily slows it down. Hermione noses down slightly, and pulls the trigger, firing her cannon. Already in the midst of its manuever, the F-16 dives right into the stream of cannon shells. Several shells slam into the fighter's single engine, which catches fire. The Slytherin pilot ejects.
Hermione snaps her fighter into a tight turn, looking for a new target. But, tracer fire past her nose changes her priorities.
Looking behind her, she sees an F-16, around 500 yards behind her. And worse, it's nose is pointed out in front of her. The Slytherin pilot has lead on her.
Hermione reverses her turn, now banking left, though not turning as hard. Sure enough, the F-16 stays on her tail.
Going through her options, she draws on her lessons under Israeli ace Moshe Melnik, and pulls an Israeli manuever simply called, "Let him pass". She levels off, then pulls right, popping her nose up. The F-16 shoots beneath her, and she rolls over and descends onto the F-16's tail. Being only 600 yards behind her opponent, she lines up her gunsight and fires of the rest of her ammunition from her cannon. The F-16's fuel tanks catch fire, and the jet soon explodes.
Hermione dives for the deck, then levels off at 6,000 feet. She extends out a mile, then pulls into a hard turn to re-enter the fight. She sees Lion 2 trying to get a good shot at an F-16. The only other F-16 still in the air is heading right at her.
The F-16 fires a radar-guided missile at Hermione. She noses down slightly, and the missile flies right over her canopy. Soon after, the jets pass in another classic merge, then they turn hard to get on each other's tail.
The F-16 and Su-30 have comparable turn rates, and Hermione finds herself in a fierce turning fight with her opponent, neither one really gaining any ground on the other.
For nearly a minute, the two jets continue their turning fight, neither of them able to get a clean shot. Hermione is getting rather frustrated at her inability to get an advantage.
Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Lion 4 comes blazing in, firing his cannon. The F-16 dives to avoid it, then turns to run, igniting the afterburners. Hermione quietly guesses that facing two Su-30s was too much for this pilot.
But his attempt to run for safety gives Hermione a perfect shot. She locks him up with her Archers and pulls the trigger. The missile laucnhes and streaks after the retreating F-16. Even on full afterburner, the F-16 can't outrun an Archer, and the heat from the afterburner is giving the missile an even better target. The missile strikes right at the base of the tail fin and shreds the fighter's tail. The pilot never ejects.
Hermione pulls up to 10,000 feet, breathing a little more heavily after that fight. She glances back and asks, "Any more contacts, Victor?"
"None. All bandits down. Only radar contacts remaining are our friendlies," Victor says.
"Copy that," Hermione says. She then gets on the radio and calls out, "Diamond 1, do you copy?"
"Copy you, Lion 1," replies Diamond 1, a young German captain, and the leader of the Phantoms.
"Status report," Hermione demands.
"Strike successful. All targets destroyed," replies Diamond 1.
"Copy that," Hermione says before broadcasting to all the strike force, "All Free Forces aircraft. Targets hit. Mission accomplished. Begin egress."
The rest of Lion flight forms up with Hermione, and they begin heading south.
The strike force forms up with each other over the southern part of the city, and heads out over the ocean. Two F-4s were damaged by anti-aircraft fire during their bomb runs, and one of the Su-30s from Tiger flight suffered slight damage from cannon fire in a dogfight with a MiG-29. But none of the aircraft in the strike force were shot down.
The fighters head south for another tanking. Then, they head back towards Tokyo.
As Hermione lands her fighter and taxis it towards her assigned spot, she sees a large crowd gathered at the spot, all cheering and clapping.
Hermione taxis her Flanker into position and cuts the engines. The canopy comes up, and Hermione and Victor stand up, holding up their helmets in triumph. The ground crews are all cheering and clapping. And right in the front is General Eliyahu himself.
Hermione beams broadly. Another 4 kills, making her total 8. She is an ace.
The Third World War's first ace.
I'll end there.
I hope it was good. I've watched a lot of documentaries on air combat, so I felt this was a chance to nerd out.
For clarification on a few terms that most people probably won't know. First is the term flat scissors. It's one of two versions of the scissors manuever, a dogfighting manuever in which two jets basically swerve back forth, crossing paths over and over, trying to get an advantage over the other.
The Split S is another dogfighting manuever, where a jet rolls over onto it's back, then pulls down into a dive, reversing course in the process.
I'll have the next chapter up within the next few weeks. Until then, please review.
