June 15th, 2019

OFS Orca

In the pilots berth aft of the hangar, Jaeger opened the door to the room that he and the rest of Strider Squadron shared. Alex was in there talking to Lanza.

'...Nah, I joined the Air Force a couple of years after the war ended. This is my first major deployment.' Lanza was speaking about his time in the armed forces.

'Morning Jaeger.' Alex greeted the older pilot.

'Hey. Commander, Wiseman wanted to see you in briefing.' Jaeger said to Alex while passing in between the two to grab a cold weather jacket out of his locker.

'Rog.' Alex swung out his legs onto the floor and walked out. Once he was gone, Lanza whistled. Jaeger looked at him.

'What?' Jaeger asked in curiosity.

'That man is the real freakin' deal. He knows his stuff.' Lanza replied.


Alex regretted not grabbing a jacket as he passed through the hangar, ducking underneath the wings of stowed F-35s. An older carrier, Orca didn't have the sort of climate systems that supercarriers had. To make that fact worse, the hangar elevator was open, taking helicopters up to the flight deck, so the arctic winds were coming in. Alex shivered until he passed through the hangar, one hallway and into the briefing room where Wiseman, Skald and Huxian were posted.

'Speak of the devil.' Wiseman said when he saw the commander-ex captain enter the room.

'You called?' Alex asked, moving to the front of the room. He rubbed the growing, black stubble on his chin.

'The mission does. Marines got into the base.' Wiseman reported. Alex raised his eyebrows.

'What's the mission?' Alex asked.

'The front door's open. We bust in and hit that super sub hard.' Wiseman said it convincingly enough. For a normal pilot.

'One, I don't think it'll be that simple, and two, is there a catch on this?' Alex was skeptical. From his experiences on Scinfaxi and Hrimfaxi, sinking them was much harder than one would assume.

'If Command wanted us to do something else, they would have said by this point.'

'Fair.'

'Blaze,' Skald cut into the conversation. 'You sunk both of them. You know what hurts them. What weapons would you suggest using?'

Finally, someone asking proper questions. 'Heavy weapons. Anti-ship missiles, two-thousand pound GBUs, bunker busters and basically anything that can penetrate several layers of armour.'

'Big motherfucker.' Huxian swore openly.

Alex checked his watch. 9:30AM.

'Wiseman, when's the operation?'

'Around 11.'

'I'll go grab the guys.' Alex left the briefing room to summon Jaeger, Lanza and Fencer. As he opened the door, he nearly walked into Jaeger. 'Speak of the devil.'

'Figured something was going on.' The trio got past Alex and took seats in the briefing room. Alex nodded and took a seat at the front of the room.

June 15th, 2019, 1100 Hours

Operation Executive Sweep

Ice Creek

'The time has come. The submarine dock has been opened by our friends on the ground. It's now our job to get in and destroy her, along with any other submarines in the dock. If anyone tries to assist, destroy them, too.'


The ready room was a decently-sized shack like structure to the side of the hangar. Alex put a vest on over his uniform. While doing so, an edge on the vest caught Alex's sleeve and pulled it up to his elbow. Standing next to him, Fencer and Huxian saw his exposed forearm.

'Holy shit.' Fencer muttered. Running up to just below his elbow was a long series of warped and black skin. Scars. Burn scars. Alex fit his vest on before bringing the sleeve back down and securing it.

'Oops.' Alex waved the concern off as he put his gloves on. Huxian nodded sarcastically, leaving Alex to his own devices.

'Oops? The hell happened to your arm?' Fencer. Alex shook his head while slipping on his helmet.

'Arms got caught in a fire when I was a kid.'

'And that was it?'

'That was it. Strider, we set?'

'Yep.' All three members said.

'Outstanding. Let's go.' Alex, Jaeger, Skald and Lanza exited the room and went for their respective aircraft. Everyone flew the F-35B, the Osean Armed Force's most capable VTOL aircraft. Cyclops Squadron with Wiseman, Fencer and Huxian followed shortly after. The DSRU aircraft were the standard maritime grey. Alex's F-35 was parked on the flight deck, so he had to go up the stairwell leading into the superstructure and through more hallways forward until he found the door leading to the parking space starboard of the angled ramp. Back in the Belkan War, this ship and most of her sister vessels had a Sea Dart SAM system in that area. Most of them, including Orca, had them replaced with more deck space for aircraft in the early 2000s. Alex's black F-35 was the one closest to the superstructure. The deck crew was busy arming and fuelling the fighter. He passed by all of them and climbed up into the cockpit. The APU was already active, powering the aircraft.

'Tower, Strider 1, checking in.' Blaze keyed the radio and transmitted.

'Lima Charlie, Strider 1. Standby for tasking.' The air boss replied. Blaze strapped himself into the ejection seat, tightened the notepad strapped to his thigh and scratched his nose while waiting for the others to get ready and taxi. One of the crew ran out to a place where Blaze could clearly see him and gave a thumbs up. The former started the engine. One of the mini tractor vehicles came over and attached its tug to the front wheel of the F-35, navigating to the back of the flight deck. He would be the first to take off by the looks of things. A Merlin helicopter with a dome fitted to the side of it took off while Blaze lined up on the deck. Once it was clear of the ship, Blaze started providing more power to the engine.

'Strider 1, clear for takeoff.' The tower said. Blaze punched the engine forward and shot down the flight deck, up the ramp and into the air. Behind him, Strider followed. They went into a holding pattern around the ship, waiting for Cyclops. This didn't take long. The DSRU was airborne and on task.

'Strider Squadron, let's go.' Wiseman, leading Cyclops, indicated for Blaze and the others to follow.

AIRCRAFT
Strider 1/Blaze - F-35B Lightning II

Strider 2-4 (Jaeger, Skald, Lanza) - F-35B Lightning II

Cyclops 1/Wiseman - F-35B Lightning II

Cyclops 2 and 3 (Fencer and Huxian) - F-35B Lightning II

At cruising speed, the flight would take half an hour. There was no talking until the squad got into visual range of the dock they would be attacking. The intelligence was correct. The big stone door that normally concealed the base was wide open. It was wide, easily enough space for a large group of aircraft to fly through.

'Big.' Lanza said.

'The Eruseans continue to amaze me.' Blaze switched one of the screens in the cockpit to the targeting pod he was carrying and zoomed in towards the tunnel. That pod had a tracking laser on it. 'Tunnel is one kilometre long and about 100 metres wide. Target is alongside a pier in the bay beyond the tunnel. No obstructions or air defence.'

'Perfect. Tell Rapier to keep their heads down, because this is about to get loud.' Wiseman. The Oseans had the advantage for now.

'Rog. Rapier, Strider 1, if you can hear me, lay low and avoid the target. We're launching…' Blaze watched the members armed with anti-ship missiles fire them. '...Now.'

'Copy. Get to cover, incoming missile wave!' The leader replied and relayed this information to his men. The LRASMs carried by the F-35 flew over the ocean surface and into the tunnel, followed shortly by their launch platforms. The tunnel was dimly lit by yellow lights fit into the top and sides of the surrounding rock, enough for the seven pilots to see where they were going without hitting the wall. The missiles hit their target, ripping through the hull and exploding. The first wave consisted of nine LRASMs, packing enough heat to cause a fair amount of damage.


Inside the port, hiding behind a catwalk in the side of the bay, Force Recon squad leader Captain Jacob Riley saw the anti-ship missiles quickly zip in and pierce the hull of the Norksoi, as the ship was called according to its crew manifest. Cumulatively the missiles tore open several places in the hull, with one larger hole being formed by the impact of five in the same place. The roar of the explosions near deafened anyone without hearing protection.

'Good effect on target, multiple places in the hull have been opened!' Riley shouted to get past his tinnitus.


Blaze and Wiseman were at the head of the formation, their respective squads leading close behind. There was little room for error. In the confined space of the tunnel, if anyone strayed off for even a second, they would most likely crash and burn. Halfway through, the formation slowed down and went into hover mode. They all had missiles. No bombing runs today, there was not enough space for an aircraft to maneuver in there while evading return fire. Blaze cycled to his Hellfire missiles, ready to destroy the Yuktobanian vessel.

'Strider, cease fire, the vessel is rolling over and sinking!' The Marines announced.

'That was easy.' Lanza remarked.

'Too easy.' Blaze wasn't convinced. 'Rapier, can you see a propulsion pod?'

'Standby.' Captain Riley went silent for a minute before coming back on the net. 'Singular pumpjet on the centreline.'

'Dragonet-class. Wiseman, our intel was off.' Blaze rolled his shoulders and exhaled.

'The image was a Scinfaxi. This is the place. Where the hell did it go?' Fencer. Everyone was confused. Granted, they had sunk a vital asset. But it wasn't the one they had originally intended to sink.

'Let's stay focused people. Orca, Long Caster, has the target appeared on radar or sonar?' Wiseman took the logical route and asked for support to check if anything had moved.

'Crownest hasn't picked up any new contacts. We're too far out to check anything on sonar.' Long Caster replied first.

'Transmitting to NAVSAT. Should have imaging up in a minute.' The intelligence officer on the Orca replied shortly after Long Caster.

'Strider, back out of the tunnel.' Blaze rotated on the spot and tilted forward to get out of the tunnel, narrowly avoiding striking Skald on the way out. All four pilots shortly followed by Cyclops managed to get outside and into normal flight mode.

'Cyclops 1, Orca, no new imaging suggesting a transfer prior to your arrival.'

Blaze flipped up his visor and rubbed his eyes. He needed a moment to think. The water directly underneath the tunnel was too shallow for a sub to go through submerged. No other tunnels out to sea. Couldn't come out from above, nor below-

-Wait. Did they? It's the only way they could get out without us seeing.

'Orca, Strider 1, scramble ASW helicopters and escorts to the waters around the base. The submarine got out through an underwater tunnel.' Blaze requested urgently.

'Strider, Cyclops, return to carrier to rearm and refuel. Anti-submarine warfare aircraft will be deployed.' The operations officer from the Orca ordered the two squadrons. Blaze checked his fuel gauge by instinct. Just over half.

'Strider, return. We'll hit it if we find her.' Resigning to orders, Blaze banked to the north and flew forwards, followed by his three.

'Cyclops, follow.' The formation trailed north for a while before shifting slightly to the west to catch up with the carrier. They passed one of Orca's Merlin ASW helicopters about three quarters of the way through.


The Merlin that the F-35s had just passed, Firefly 5-3, slowed down and dropped to a few metres above the water before ejecting a cylinder out the back of the helicopter. It hit the surface of the water and quickly went under. A sonobuoy. A petty officer in the cabin of the Merlin checked that the sonobuoy was transmitting back to the helicopter and turned up his headset. This was the first sonobuoy dropped in the water, a passive receiver, by the Orca's helicopter squadrons. Almost instantly, the operator started to fine-tune the range of sound coming through the headset and listened in more intently.

'Prop noise. She's close.' Electronics Technician 2nd Class Leffer said to the crew around him.

'Drop an active buoy.' The crew commander ordered the pilot, who had control of their release. The pilot did so and a second cylinder dropped into the ocean. It sunk and started pinging. After a moment of processing a solid contact appeared on Leffer's screen.

'Sierra 1 redesignated Master 1. Three clicks from the buoy, doing 20 knots. Heading is 350.'

'Identified as Scinfaxi-class submarine missile carrier. Firefly 5-3, you are permitted to engage.'

'Leffer!' The commander called out. 'Weapons release on my mark. Mark!'

From a rack mounted on the side of the Merlin, Firefly 5-3 dropped a pair of projectiles. Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes. Two parachutes dragged from the back of them, slowing their descent into the water. Once they hit the water and went under, the active sonar on the torpedoes pinged and locked onto their target. The torpedos accelerated.


'All elements, target has been engaged.'

Blaze looked back at the helicopter they had passed. He saw that it had engaged. He banked around to head towards the engagement. He couldn't help directly, but if the sub surfaced, then he would be able to cause some damage.

'This is Strider 1, requesting CEC link.' Without an answer, Blaze's tracking data updated to show the submarine moving rapidly underwater along with the torpedoes chasing it. Surprisingly she wasn't too far under. One of the torpedoes disappeared as it closed on the sub, a milisecond later throwing up water on the surface. The second did the same, exploding and splashing upwards.

'Scinfaxi has been hit. Ballast noise. She's coming to the surface.' Firefly reported. Blaze was surprised. For a massive submarine carrier, they were surprisingly incapable of remaining underwater once damaged. The shadow of the boat became visible in the water shortly before the entire metal hulk appeared from the depths in a spray of water. Its various defensive weapons popped out from mounts in the hull, a missile shooting out from a VLS port in the middle of the sub's island structure. Uh oh, Blaze thought.

'Firefly, get away from the sub!' He called to the slow and defenseless ASW helicopter as it started getting lit the fuck up by AA weaponry. It didn't last long as the explosive shells swatted it out of the sky.

'Firefly 5-3, mayday-' The pilot transmitted, quickly cut off by the helicopter exploding into many fragments.

'All elements, burst missiles in the air, evade!' The next apparent threat were the dreaded burst missiles. 'Aircraft, get away or climb above 5000 feet!'

Onboard the Orca, the ship's commander, aware of what burst missiles could do to surface vessels, turned to the helmsman.

'Engines all ahead flank, come north!' He directly ordered the seaman. While Orca was small by carrier standards, she was a hell of a lot faster and more maneuverable at sea than her Hubert-class counterparts.

Blaze wasted no time in beginning his attack despite the missile above his head. Hellfires and other sorts of missiles armed, he launched a salvo of ten missiles directly into the port where the burst missiles were fired from. They all hit at the same time, blasting a small but deep hole in the launcher that ran through it and a few decks under. The launcher destroyed, Blaze then decided at that moment to pull away from the AA guns shooting at him and to get above the detonation height. Tracers followed his rapid ascent. Blaze managed to get to a safe height a few seconds before the missile detonated in several flashes of white, sending steel rain in all directions. The DSRU pilots were all above the missile and were safe. Orca barely managed to get out of the missile's detonation range, but escaped unscathed she did.

'Everyone, engage.' Wiseman ordered. Blaze was happy to oblige, diving down again with Hellfires deployed and armed, his target being the AA batteries firing at the attacking F-35s. From a height of just over a kilometre, Blaze released an eight-round salvo targeted for separate weapons. A couple of them were intercepted by the cloud of flak but most made it through and disabled or destroyed the great majority of the guns on deck. Cyclops with their own high volume of Hellfires dived down and did the same, stripping away every weapon that the super sub was armed with, leaving the ship defenceless against aircraft attack. The upper hull of the vessel was peppered with small but deep-reaching holes, courtesy of the HEAT warheads mounted in the Hellfires.

'Strider, anti-ship missile attack, finish them off!' Blaze ordered his squadron to unload on the vessel with their remaining LRASMs. They went down to sea level, came around and released the missiles at short range for anti-ship missiles. A salvo of twelve missiles. They acquired their target on radar and boosted forward to strike the long end of the sub. After a few seconds of flight time the missiles hit between the starboard side engine pod and the central structure in even segments metres apart, the tungsten penetrator punching clean through the external hull, into the pressure hull and detonating the 1,000 pound fragmentation warheads. The effect was devastating for the ship, the metal fragments contained in the warheads tearing through absolutely everything. Electronics, internal systems, piping, crew members, if it was in the way it was now swiss cheese. Water started rapidly flooding into the submarine's ruined compartments.

'Jesus. I wish we had these back in 2010.' Blaze commented on the effectiveness of the LRASMs as the damaged Scinfaxi-class vessel started listing over to one side, flooding on the starboard side. Back in the day, the LRASM wasn't in service and the Harpoon was nowhere near as effective against big targets.

'Big boy is sinking. That was easier than I expected.' Jaeger said.

'I'll second that. Damn.' Blaze agreed and was pushing himself into a more comfortable sitting position when a red light popped up on Blaze's dashboard and a warning sound came through his headset. He recognised the error. Low fuel. 'Ah fuck.'

'What's the problem, boss?' Blaze had said this over the radio, so Lanza heard it.

'Low fuel. Need to return to the carrier.' Blaze reduced his speed to just above stall speed so he could go as far as possible on his extremely low fuel.

'How much do you have left?' Wiseman asked.

'At max conserve, forty kilometres max, maybe forty-five if I glide.'

'That's a death wish at best. Orca, Cyclops 1, we need a tanker in the air ASAP.'

'Last I checked sir, helicopters can't refuel fighters. Best we can do is position for recovery.' The controlling officer was snarky, for a reason. The DSRU F-35s were the only fixed-wing aircraft embarked on the Orca, and they were all airborne.

'Heading on. Strider, what's your fuel condition?' Blaze asked, seeing if he would be able to try something.

'Enough to standby for holding pattern.' Jaeger.

'Same.' Skald.

'Just below half.' Lanza.

'Hmm. Orca, Strider 1, if possible erect a barrier. I'll freeball it onto the deck.' The barrier was a padded metal net designed for urgent recovery of aircraft needing to land onboard. While usually made for smaller runways and CATOBAR carriers, smaller versions did exist on VTOL carriers. Blaze flew for five minutes as his fuel gradually ran out. On his reserve tanks, he boldly decided to put as much thrust in as possible to glide. The fuel ran out and all of the F-35's electrical systems shut down. Blaze now had to freeball his approach onto a runway 200 metres long and about 20 metres wide, moving at ten knots. He turned on the APU and reactivated his radio so he could hear.

'3 miles to carrier. Adjust up.' The landing safety officer, LSO, advised. Blaze did so to keep the approach lined up. He glided through the next two.

'1 mile to carrier. Slow down-' The APU died along with the electrical system and Blaze's fly-by-wire.

'Fuck. Here we go.' Blaze placed a hand on the ejection handle should he need it. Its operation was completely mechanical. The deck was fast approaching. He inhaled as he crossed the stern of the ship and hit the runway. There was a rough bounce as he landed followed by the entire aircraft skidding and starting to roll down the runway. The canopy above his head cracked and broke, crushed under the weight and ground.

'FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!' Blaze screamed before his head was slammed into the back of his seat and he blacked out.