July 4th, 2019

Operation One Pair

Roca Roja

Your mission is to atone for your crimes by attracting the enemy's attention. First, I want you to head from the base to the desert region of Roca Roja to the northwest. And then second you'll attack the large Erusean base there. We've been unable to verify that base's ability to deal with fighters. You will attack and provoke the enemy into revealing their AA strategy. Get them to fire at you as much as you can. That way we can confirm where they're firing from. Then, it's a case of sending in our regular force to clean them out. For this mission, we've prepared a frontline base that can be used for ammo replenishment and aircraft repairs. However, this is not for you guys. Only the regular force and your advisors have permission to use it. Even if you run out of ammo, don't forget that you're just decoys. You stay out there as targets for the enemy.

In the advisor's ready room, Alex held out a fistful of straws.

'Draw a straw. Only two of us are going out today.' He said to the four pilots around him. Everyone drew one at the same time and compared them. Whoever drew the short straw would be going up with Alex and ten convicts. Hunter had the shortest. Alex nodded towards her.

'Congratulations Mythic, you're with me.'

'Very cool.' Hunter said, going to her locker and pulling her gear out. Alex was already wearing his gear, including the helmet with red and orange flames painted on it. Before leaving the room for his aircraft, Alex grabbed a kneeboard from the locker and strapped it to his thigh. It had photos of three separate bases in a desert, the words Roca Roja drawn in bold above each photo. Their targets. He checked his watch. 1500.

'Tower, this is Blaze, Spare Squadron is clear for takeoff. Myself and Mythic will be up in a minute.' Alex said on his personal radio as he walked out of the crew room to the HAS. Hunter was quick to catch up to the 12-year older commander.

AIRCRAFT:

Razgriz 1/Blaze - Su-33M3 Enhanced Flanker-D

Titan 4/Mythic - Typhoon FGR.4

Spare 2/Count - Su-33 Flanker-D

Spare 6/Full Band - F/A-18E Super Hornet

Spare 7/High Roller - F-16A Fighting Falcon

Spare 8/Champ - MiG-29A Fulcrum

Spare 9/Keystone - F-16CJ Block 52 Viper

Spare 15/Trigger - F-15E Strike Eagle

Everyone else - irrelevant

POV: Blaze

Blaze cracked his neck as he rose up into the air, chasing after the formation that he had permitted to leave the runway. Mythic was by his side. They afterburnt to catch up with the convicts.

'Good evening pilots, this is your chauffeur speaking. You already heard the mission objective. Roca Roja is an hour's time away by aircraft, so get comfortable and head on this bearing. That is all.' Blaze said to them while taking the lead position and matching speed with everyone else. No-one said anything throughout the flight, so the travel to get from Zapland to the target area was uneventful. In theory the mission was simple. Hammer the AA defences in three different locations to soften the base up for an assault from the regular military. In practise, it probably wasn't going to be that easy. Blaze expected losses.

After an hour of flight, the 444 Squadron were arriving at the edge of the area of operations.

'Some welcome.' Bandog said, noticing that their approach had been unnoticed by the Erusean air defence teams. 'All aircraft, spread out and attack.'

'We're clear to attack right?' Count asked. 'I heard that regular forces were going to clean things up.'

'Attack everything that's not us, and be a target for the AA if you run out of ammo.' Blaze answered the question. 'Spare Squadron, engage.'

'Boss, I think Trigger's a step ahead of you.' Keystone saw the F-15 pilot already over the airfield in front of them pounding ground targets with AGMs and bombs. Blaze himself looked at the guy. Indeed, Trigger was in the thick of things, shredding away the AA guns and gas storage tanks with Maverick AGMs and hitting the Tu-160 bombers with unguided but deadly 500lb bombs. On the runway, Erusean F-16Cs were scrambling to intercept the squadron that had suddenly appeared. Black puffs of smoke started appearing in the skies but were quickly silenced when the Osean pilots dived in to attack and destroy the AA guns that were firing the flak rounds. Blaze arrived over the top of the airfield, armed with a Sniper XR targeting pod and laser-guided 1000lb GBUs, and started dropping them on any armoured targets that Trigger either missed or couldn't swifty destroy. There weren't many. Blaze destroyed the control tower and a couple of the hardened aircraft shelters before moving on to destroy the F-16s that were climbing to meet Spare Squadron. Armed with the ever-useful Sidewinder, he swatted two away with the AIM-9. A third flared away the missile intended for him, forcing Blaze to use the cannon to get rid of him.

Somewhere above him, Mythic was running air cover with a couple of the convicts. The F-16s and F-4s defending did not stand a chance against the Typhoon in the hands of a skilled pilot. Mythic shot down four F-16s in quick succession from across the area of operations. She then closed in on a pair of F-4Es, taking both out with precisely-aimed Sidewinders. The F-16 and Mirage 2000 following her could barely keep up.

'Do you think she needs our help?' High Roller remarked to Tabloid. He had only shot down a single F-4 while Mythic had bagged six, which rose to eight as she took down another pair of F-4s.

'Do you think we could do anything to help her?' Tabloid answered sarcastically. Knowing the answer, High Roller split off to go attack ground targets.

POV: Trigger

While Mythic dealt with air targets, Trigger rushed through the canyons of the north-eastern facility, releasing Maverick AGMs at every AA weapon and tank that he passed by as he flew through at supersonic speeds. His attacks were lethal. Anything and everything in front of him died. Even a bridge that crossed two of the plateaus was severed when its foundations were destroyed by Trigger's missiles.

'Targets destroyed. Trigger again?' One of the convicts was surprised at the ferocity of Trigger's attack. At the end of the F-15E pilots attack run, a trio of AV-8B Harriers were taking off in VTOL mode. Two were stopped then and there by Trigger's 20mm cannon. The last he moderately damaged but didn't quite destroy. Blaze picked up on this fact.

'Break right. I've got him.' He said. Trigger breaked right as instructed, a split second before a black Su-33 appeared from above one of the plateaus, shot past Trigger at high speed and nailed the Harrier with a blind-dropped GBU. Not a missile. A bomb. Blaze then rushed along the route that Trigger had taken to get in and using his own missiles destroyed a few AA guns, some AH-64 attack helicopters and the remaining SAM sites that were sitting on the tops of the cliffs surrounding the valley. With the destruction of the AA, the only thing left in the base were storage warehouses which were dealt with by the Super Hornet flying members of the squadron in a large boom.

Trigger saw the accomplishments of his squad leader, whistled to himself and shot off for the north-western base. The other two had virtually been eliminated. And to think that it's only been five minutes, Trigger thought.

POV: Blaze

Blaze got out of the valley and was met quickly by Champ coming in with a low-level bomb run and wiping out a convoy of supply trucks heading to the base that Blaze and Trigger had just destroyed. The MiG-29 pilot turned away from the now-burning convoy and went west to engage in combat with the last remaining base and its defenders.

'You guys are doing well,' Bandog said to Blaze over private radio. 'We may not have to deploy the regulars at this pace.'

'If Trigger keeps doing his job, this entire region is gonna be blanketed in smoke.' Blaze replied in kind.

'Speaking of smoke, incoming fighters, bearing 280. Drones, MQ-99s.'

'How many?' Blaze asked. He had dealt with them in the past when he had entered the war at Oured. Individually they were easy to destroy. In swarms, it got more complicated.

'A dozen. Should be easy to deal with.'

'Rog.' Blaze switched to the Spare channel. 'Heads up, 12 drones coming in from 280.'

'Great fuckin' timing.' Champ said with grit in his teeth.

'Now what?' Full Band.

'The mission stays the same. Eliminate the base.' Bandog.

'Mythic, High Roller, Count, Trigger, intercept the drones. Everyone else, keep hitting the base.' Blaze ordered.

'Roger.' The answer was unanimous. The four pilots rose into the skies to chase the drones that were incoming to kick their asses. Blaze joined the counter-intercept formation. Forming a line, the five approached the drones.

'Bag them at range, drones are not fun to dogfight against.' Blaze said to the others, leading with example by launching sets of AMRAAMs at the drones. He bagged two. Mythic got three, Count and High Roller got two each and Trigger got the last three. Minimal effort, all drones down.

'Well that was easy.' Count was mildly disappointed.

'Too easy. Commander, are there any other fighters in the area?' Trigger was also disappointed. Blaze checked his radar. The only aircraft in the area were south-east, a trio of F-4s, and a single F-14D coming from the west.

'You could go chase the F-14 or the F-16s. Your choice.' He looked down at the ground. By the looks of things, the last remaining base had been hammered by Spare Squadron.

'Okay. You've hit the enemy base enough. Head back.' Bandog ordered. Blaze looked around himself. It's only been ten minutes. Christ.

'So, I think this unit would work fine with the advisors and Trigger alone.' Tabloid said.

'I don't think so. Ground targets are easy to destroy.' Count replied. While he wasn't wrong, there had been a lot of them and between the three they had all been destroyed in a short amount of time.

'Yeah, but did you see Trigger? He blasted an entire valley at supersonic speeds. Mythic bagged every fighter that got anywhere near us.' Tabloid countered.

'I just want to know who they are and where they came from. Hey Full Band, can you look into that for us?' Keystone. There were a few seconds of silence from the F/A-18E pilot.

'Sure. I'll see what I can dig up.'

On the command net, Mythic spoke. 'That Trigger guy is good.'

'Very good.' Blaze replied, looking over at the man's F-15E. 'Very good.'