July 12th, 2019, 0900 Hours

Operation Two Pairs

Yinshi Valley

'So these are the sort of missions you pilots get sent on?' Avril asked Trigger from the backseat of his F-15E.

'What, you thought our operations were glamorous?' Trigger retorted. Somehow he had managed to convince Blaze to let Avril come out on an operation.

POV: Blaze

Leading the mission's formation of seven pilots including Grimm, Mythic, Taipan and Webber, thunderclouds growled and rain poured down over most of the area. Far from ideal conditions for flying, especially in close quarters where the squad would be flying. No regular unit would have been deployed here, so in spite of being ordered to take ten convicts, Blaze had decided to take the advisors and the top flying convicts.

AIRCRAFT

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

Titan 1/Archer - Typhoon FGR.4

Titan 2/Huntsman - F-15E Strike Eagle

Titan 3/Taipan - F-15E Strike Eagle

Titan 4/Mythic - Typhoon FGR.4

Spare 2/Count - Su-33 Flanker-D

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

Spare 15/Trigger - F-15E Strike Eagle

'Oh, you gotta be shitting me.' Keystone said once the formation came into view of the area they would be flying through. Tall stone columns, narrow valleys and a nasty crosswind.

'Keep your wits about and you'll be fine.' Blaze reassured the squadron. 'Spare Squadron, cleared to engage.'

Blaze shot forward into the valleys without hesitation, followed closely by Grimm and Trigger. Everyone else split off to go attack separate targets. The first target was a pair of SAM batteries and a radar vehicle. Blaze, using cluster weaponry, dropped a single bomb on the trio. The individual charges separated from the bomb and detonated in a long strip, catching the entire site in the explosion and destroying it. He checked his tactical display. The closest series of targets was to the north. The other two areas were at the south-west of the AO.

'Grimm, Trigger, go after the AA sites to the south. I'll get the northern one.' Blaze ordered the other two, detaching from them at the closest valley that led to the north site. As he made the short turn to get into the right lane, someone spoke over the radio. Blaze recognised the voice from a squadron he had worked with a month ago.

'Air Force Base 444 Squadron, this is Cyclops 1.' It was Wiseman. 'Cyclops and Strider Squadrons currently contain seven aircraft. Stand by. We'll be arriving shortly.'

'Cyclops 1, Razgriz 1, copy that. We should have the SAM batteries eliminated down here in a hot minute.' Blaze answered the call before Bandog could.

'Heh. Is that a demon I hear? We're low on ammunition. Gonna be hard to take on hostiles.' Wiseman remembered Blaze.

'Worse comes to worse, we'll cover your retreat. Just make sure not to crash into anything.'

'Roger that. We're coming.'

Blaze was coming up on the northern-most AA and radar site. A ZSU nearby was anticipating the attack and started firing up at the skies that Blaze approached from. Refusing to get shot down by a ZSU a second time, Blaze pulled up to avoid the initial burst, dived in on the target and fired a missile first to get the ZSU. His missile hit, destroying it. With no short-range AA threats to worry about, Blaze looped around, turned to face the SAM batteries and dropped a cluster bomb on it. The same series of explosions he had gotten used to with cluster charges had destroyed the target, as expected.

POV: Trigger

At the south end, Trigger flew over the tops of the rock formations. Despite the weight and speed at which he was travelling, the crosswind was still rocking the F-15E from side to side. In the back, Avril was clenching the sides of the cockpit as the aircraft swayed.

'Oh my god, if I knew flying was this unstable…' She said through grit teeth. Trigger laughed.

'Normally fighter pilots don't go head first into a storm. Speaking of which, hold on!' Trigger warned Avril a split second before rolling so that the canopy was facing the ground, and flew into the valley, rolling upwards again once they were inside. There was a clunk from behind the cockpit as Trigger released a JDAM. The explosion from the bomb could be heard as Trigger passed over what he was aiming at. He orientated the aircraft to go for the last SAM site.

'Stand off Trigger, I've got this.' Grimm said to him.

'Copy.' Trigger pulled up and slowed down. Ahead of him, two small grey objects flew by. JSOW-ER glider bombs. They sharply climbed when they got close to the target, then dived right on top of them. The result was two dead SAM sites and a bifurcated radar vehicle. With the JSOW strike, all radar sites and AA batteries had been destroyed, completing Phase I of the operation.

'All radar sites destroyed. Green lights across the board. Recon squadron is approaching now.' Bandog reported. Trigger climbed upwards to get out of the wind that was knocking his plane around.

'I guess that's it. Huh, this operation was easy.' Trigger noted on the climb. Avril shook her head when something caught her attention. The F-15 was facing in the direction of the recon squadron. The RIO seat had a radar display like the pilot did. In addition to the blue triangles indicating friendlies, there were also a lot of white objects. The IFF identified them as MQ-99s.

'We might have crossed the line.' One of the recon leaders was saying. In the distance, Trigger saw a column of seven F-15Cs approaching. They all separated from each other as their interceptors, twenty or so MQ-99s, closed the distance to get in weapons range.

'Hey boss-' Trigger began to say to the squadron leader.

'Already ahead of you, all pilots, engage the UAVs!' Blaze ordered.

'Copy.' Trigger looked back to Avril. 'Shit's about to get bumpy, so hold onto something.' Trigger gave the civilian mechanic a moment to grip something before punching forward to go attack the UAVs.

POV: Blaze

A few kilometres north of the others, Blaze was going hard and fast to hit the first group of four UAVs chasing after one of Strider Squadron's aircraft. At close range, Blaze used a cluster of four missiles to down all of the UAVs chasing Lanza. As he passed over Lanza's shoulder, Blaze saw the former look at his aircraft in recognition.

'Thank you Commander. Strider 3, breaking off.' With his interceptors down, Lanza diverted away from the combat area and towards safety. Blaze's next target were a pair of UAVs that had diverted to chase Count. He approached Count and the UAVs from the front.

'Break left.' Blaze said to the Su-33 pilot. The latter did so, getting out of the way of Blaze's fangs. Using the cannon, Blaze then took out both UAVs.

'That was close.' Count said, also retreating away from the area.

'Hey, we're not done yet Count.' Blaze said when he noticed Count retreating from the area.

'Our mission was to destroy SAM sites, and we've done that.' Count retorted, trying to get out of the engagement. Blaze relented and let him go.

On the other side of the battlefield, Huntsman, Taipan and Keystone fired at every hostile target they could find from long range with AMRAAM missiles. The tactic was quite effective, knocking out ten UAVs, including two that Trigger was about to get into dogfighting distance with. The last four were on the tail of Cyclops 1. The quadrio of UAVs chased down and fired the missiles they had at the F-15C pilot. None connected, the man was a good evader. Grimm found out that the UAVs weren't as he got behind them and shot down three in a row using Sidewinders. Mythic appeared by his side and got the last one with her cannon.

'Spare Squadron, mission is complete, return to base.' Bandog reported once he saw that all the UAVs had been destroyed. Blaze reduced the thrust being produced by his engines and turned to get back to the others.

'Good job, Spare-' Blaze started.

'Wait a minute. Hold it.' Bandog cut Blaze off. 'Titan 2, Titan 3, bogey approaching fast from the rear!'

Huntsman looked over his shoulder. There was a Flanker in the distance approaching at high speed coming for the two Wolf Squadron pilots. Black body, red trimming.

'Fuck.' Huntsman cursed. 'It's Mister X. Taipan, break off!' Huntsman ordered his wingman before pulling a tight turn to face the Su-30SM. Alright you prick, let's see if you've gotten any more aggressive. Huntsman thought to himself as the two approached each other. As expected for a Flanker pilot, Mihaly pulled a Herbst maneuver to slow down and get behind the Strike Eagle pilot. Huntsman was ready for this, rapidly slowing down and pulling up to imitate as best a cobra he could with the F-15E and fired a Sidewinder upwards as Mihaly passed over his head.

The missile missed.

'Oh fuck.' Huntsman suddenly found himself in a very bad situation, with no kinetic energy, the Flanker right behind him and support still a few seconds away. The result, as expected, was not good.

The back of the Eagle disintegrated as Mihaly put two missiles and several dozen cannon rounds up the ass of Huntsman's aircraft. Knowing that he was fucked, Huntsman gripped the ejection handle.

'Titan 2, bailing out. Up to you guys now.' He yanked the handle. The canopy exploded above him and the ejection seat was thrown up with Huntsman in it. The remnants of the Strike Eagle exploded below. Mihaly shot past below him.

'Titan 2, lost. Strider 4, lost. Jesus, this guy is a monster.' Bandog watched the path the Su-30SM pilot took to wreak havoc on everyone else.

'Titan, Spare, get the two reinforcement aircraft. The leader is mine.' Blaze ordered the remaining five pilots to engage the new Su-30s.

POV: Trigger

Trigger had seen the Su-30 shoot down Captain Webber and one of the recon squadron aircraft. Now the Su-30SM was going after the other recon members. He was the closest to intercept.

'Not on my fucking watch.'

Trigger boosted forward, the sudden increase in speed knocking Avril back into her seat. He got on Mihaly's tail and used his cannon to catch his attention. A few rounds caught the tailfins of the Su-30. The pilot quickly realised he was being chased and made an insanely tight turn to evade. Trigger matched the turn, pulling 9s's.

'Trigger-' Avril managed to grunt before she passed out, knocked out by the g-force. Trigger looked back for a split second to check on her before looking forward and firing Sidewinders at Mihaly's exposed engines. He hit his shot as Mihaly didn't have enough energy to properly evade, but the missile didn't do much. Mihaly had caught it in a non-vital area.

'Sol 1.' The ECM flared. The enemy was talking.

'My status is fine. Do not interfer.' The leader spoke.

'Thunder clouds are moving in. We should return to base.'

There was a moment of silence while the leader thought. 'Affirmative. A shame, this pilot is good.' The Su-30s retreated away. Trigger didn't follow. He didn't have the energy.

'Spare Squadron, don't follow. Bandog, scramble a CSAR bird. I can see Titan 2 on the ground.' Blaze requested for a rescue bird.

'I'll see what I can find. This area is fairly deep behind enemy lines.' Bandog replied and went off-comms for a moment.

'Grimm, lead Spare, Cyclops and Strider back to base. I'm going to guard your captain.' Blaze ordered everyone else to return to base. Trigger didn't argue and formed up with Spare Squadron. Strider and Cyclops formed up on both sides.

Avril groaned.

'I'm gonna be sick.' She complained. Trigger grabbed a bag from a container at his feet and passed it back to her. Avril grabbed it and vomited into it.