Chopinburg
'Looks like the other squadrons are already down to business.' Grimm noted from his radar display. Ahead, various Air Force and Navy fighters were dogfighting opposing Erusean fighters over the jungle region. His 242nd Titans and Wolves, along with the 508th Mages, were slightly late to the party. 'Titan Squad, Wolf Squad, free to engage hostile fighters.' The formation split, all pilots going to intercept. Grimm went straight down the middle in the Typhoon, flanked on both sides by another Typhoon and an F-15E. One was Captain Thule, the other was a new addition to the squad.
'Welcome to your first warzone kid.' Grimm spoke over radio to the rookie. 'Shit's gonna go south quick, so stick to your instincts and follow me.'
'Copy that sir.' The voice was barely a whisper. A female. Grimm chuckled to himself.
The three dived into the middle of combat. Thule detached quickly to chase down some F-16s. The rookie stayed close to Grimm as he loosed off missiles from extreme range. From the side came an Erusean fighter, looking for the squad leader. Using the extremely agile Typhoon, the rookie pulled a high-g turn and swatted the enemy fighter out of the air with a missile. She then returned back to Grimm's wing, all in one smooth movement. The latter was impressed. Not many new pilots could pull off maneuvers like that. The pair dived deeper into the core of the combat.
'Go hunting. See what catch you can bag.' Grimm strayed away from the rookie looking for a fight. She said nothing and elegantly flew off to intercept a pair of F-16s. Grimm was occupied with an intercept on a stubbornly-evasive F/A-18A. This lasted for a minute until suddenly the F-18 was blown out of the sky. The rookie pilot shot out in front of Grimm, rolling off to suddenly destroy two more aircraft. Now Archer was seriously impressed. His newest addition to the 242nd had managed to catch an ace in under five minutes in her first mission. 'You had my interest, Lieutenant, but now you've caught my attention.'
'Save the fancy shit for the AAR, sir. We've still got to take this airspace.' In a voice that could actually be heard audibly, the rookie replied. Grimm laughed.
'Rog. Titan, Wolf, let's clean up.' Grimm looked to go hunt down more targets. This came in the form of a trio of Su-27s. One wasn't paying attention to his radar and went up in a ball of flame when a missile smacked into his midsection. Another one attempted to evade but was also sliced open by a missile. The third and last was smart and started using its high maneuverability to evade the quickly approaching Typhoon. Grimm shot past, unable to slow down fast enough to get behind the Flanker. Suddenly the archer was the one getting chased. He banked rapidly to the side, tracer fire coming off his shoulder. The RWR started blaring as the Flanker started to track Grimm. The latter dived down to gain speed while dropping chaff and flares. The Su-27 was right behind him. At that range, even with ECM and flares dropped there was no way he was avoiding a missile to the ass. Grimm dived and waited for something to hit him. The RWR stopped blaring and he waited silently for a missile alert warning. Nothing. The cockpit was silent. Grimm looked behind and up to see what the Su-27 was doing. It was a fireball. An F-16 zipped past the fireball surprising the Razgriz pilot briefly before he saw the Osean markings. Friendly. He recognised the icon on the lip of the canopy. Mage 2, Trigger.
'Cheers for the assist.' Grimm leveled up and started climbing again.
'No worries, Major.' Trigger trailed Grimm for a moment to make sure that his aircraft was intact and then detached to hit up some other Erusean fighters. Not that there were many left. Between Grimm's 242nd and the variety of other OADF and OMDF squadrons in the air, almost all of the Erusean fighters had been blown out of the skies. All in 10 minutes after operation start. Some of Titan Squad formed up behind Grimm. Thule was the closest off the former's right.
'So, was that it?' The captain asked.
'Our radar shows no signs of bandits. You're in the clear.' The AWACS operator, Sky Keeper, reported. Grimm let out a sigh of relief with no pilots lost.
'I haven't even broken a sweat.' Mage Squadron's leader, Clown, remarked.
'They have to be crazy to pick a fight with us! A rabid dog would know better!' A Skeleton Squad member said, somewhat cockily. There were bouts of laughter following that statement.
'All squadrons hold. Large aircraft detected at long range!' Sky Keeper had noticed something with his AWACS radar. 'It's an Arsenal Bird.' In the distance, a flying-wing aircraft appeared from the clouds. The thing was massive, wider than it was long. Triangle shapes started falling from bays imbedded in the Arsenal Bird's wings. Those shapes deployed fully and suddenly everyone's radars started detecting a lot of new enemy aircraft. MQ-101s. Drones.
'Those bastards. They had that thing combat-ready this whole time.' Sky Keeper.
'Sky Keeper, this is Skeleton 1. What do we do about that monster?'
'We're just waiting for mission command.' Grimm groaned and shook his head, arming LAAMs and firing at the incoming swarm of drones. Everyone else in the squad armed with LAAMs did the same. Wolf Squad's F-15Es charged to a distance where their cluster AA missiles would be effective.
'Titan 1 to all aircraft, push and engage the Arsenal Bird!' Grimm kicked his engines into afterburner mode and shot forward towards the gigantic airborne aircraft carrier. Titan followed along with Trigger. Many of the other pilots initially hesitated to intercept but decided to after a few seconds. The group of roughly 60 aircraft zipped towards the Arsenal Bird. Swarms of MQ-101s intercepted them. The Oseans retaliated by sending missiles at point-blank range into the unarmoured bodies of the drones. Dozens fell out of the skies in fireballs. Yet the drones managed to catch and destroy a few Osean fighters in return. Thule was one of them. The rookie pilot squad was the aircraft originally targeted but the captain pitched up and banked in the way to catch the missile. His belly took the brunt of the blast and directed away the shrapnel. The F-15 shook in air but managed to remain stable. On the other end of the radio, Thule swore.
'Titan 2 losing airspeed and altitude. Need to withdraw.' Thule turned away from the battle and headed towards friendly airspace, no longer able to contribute to air operations.
'I'll escort you back. Wolf Squad, take care of the rookie will ya?' Grimm also turned away to escort the captain back to base. 'Will do sir.' The squad leader of Wolf Squad, Captain Michael Webber, acknowledged.
'Titan 1, Golem 1, can you escort Golem 2? She's out of the fight.' Knocker asked, strain evident in his voice from pulling a high-g turn.
'Will do.'
'Cheers. Brownie, follow Archer.'
An F/A-18F trailing smoke slowly caught up to the group. Grimm eased off to the back of the group in case UAVs went after the wounded pilots. The group of three flew west for a couple of minutes. Over the radio the situation with the Arsenal Bird got increasingly desperate. Skeleton Squad by the sounds of things had been completely destroyed. A few members from Titan and Wolf were shot down. No parachutes reported. Then the proper retreat order was given.
'Brilliant observation! If they'd noticed earlier, more of us would've survived to hear it!' A Gargoyle pilot stated near-angrily.
'Golem 2, Titan 2, keep going. We'll be out of here in a hot minute.' Grimm reassured the wounded pilots he was protecting.
'Retreating pilots, heads up. Single incoming enemy bogey.' A pause. 'Su-30. Titan 1, Golem 2, engage.'
Grimm saw the target on radar several kilometres away, approaching at supersonic speed. 'Golem 2, ignore that and run. I've got this.' He diverted and headed straight for the Su-30. Grimm saw the black paintjob of the aircraft before actually recognising the airframe. Orange wingtips. Why does that look familiar?