Chastised in a world of hate
Buried in an unforgiving grave
Come to the place
Where dead men rest
Tigerfish Air Force Base, Emmeria
If there was a more insignificant base in the world, one would have to go pretty far to find it. Located far south of the Emmerian capital of Gracemeria, Tigerfish Air Force Base was a small support airfield formerly owned by the Emmerian Air Force but recently transferred over to the Emmerian Intelligence Service as a base for their inventory of SR-71 Blackbirds and TR-2S Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft. Unofficially Tigerfish was also the base where the B-21 Raider bomber was developed and tested, but that had concluded some years ago.
In the primary building, inside one of the many derelict offices of a 60-year old base, Lieutenant-Colonel Lucy Hunter read over one of the many documents she had to decide if it was worth it to spend resources on investigating. After approaching the end of the stack, she sighed and stretched her back and arms. 40 years old, Lucy was a veteran of the Emmeria-Estovakia War where she had served under the callsign Talisman or Garuda 1. A major at the time, she had transferred to the Intelligence Service after being promoted to lieutenant-colonel. Now she was the commanding officer of the 3rd Recon Wing, based at Tigerfish.
Someone knocked on the door to her office.
'Come in!' Lucy called out. The door opened and in came the 3rd Recon's executive officer, Captain Wayne Powers. He had a document in his left hand.
'Apologies for interrupting, but this just came through the cable channel at Sudentor.' Powers handed Lucy the document. She opened it and read it.
SUBJECT: REDEEMER Test Report
FROM: Schroeder, S.
TO: OPOFF, Drone Development, Grunder Industries
SEC: O3 Staff Restricted
Grimnoff,
The REDEEMER mating test with an ADFX-11 drone was completed today. Results exceeded expectations; the drone successfully destroyed an entire fighter squadron. However, an unforeseen glitch in the inhibition software caused the drone to go haywire and lose contact with the control centre. The drone was last seen heading to the Hatties Desert, but reports from Erusean fighter aircraft indicate that the drone may have gone as far as Snider's Top.
Due to the nature of this project, I strongly recommend deploying the Ghost Squadron to recapture and if necessary destroy the drone.
Regards,
Schroeder.
Lucy placed the document on her desk.
'Get Lieutenant Woods in here.' Lucy ordered the captain. Powers nodded and left the room. A few minutes later he returned with another intelligence officer; Lieutenant Paul Woods. He had a briefcase with him.
'Ma'am?' Woods stood at attention.
'Take a seat, Lieutenant. You too, Captain.' She said to the two officers standing in front of her. Both compiled. 'Tell me what you know about the Redeemer project currently in the hands of North Osea Grunder Industries.'
The lieutenant nodded before speaking. 'Redeemer was an experiment started by Grunder to implant the digital memory and skills of deceased pilots into aircraft or drones to boost their combat lethality. The project was started in 2002 but no progress was made until 2010 when Grunder acquired the deceased body of Captain Alvin Davenport, who met the genetic requirements for the program.'
'Was Davenport's implementation successful?' Lucy pressed Woods to give the rest of the information that he knew.
'The project stalled in 2016. Davenport's replication couldn't be sustained for long enough periods.'
'According to this, it would appear that they found a loophole.' Lucy slid the transcript to Woods. 'Read.'
Woods read it. As he got into the juicy content of the document, he went wide-eyed. 'Ma'am, if Grunder managed to contain the prowess of dead aces, there'd-'
'-most likely be a mass Belkan retaliation across all fronts.' Lucy finished the lieutenant's sentence. 'Does the OIA know about the existence of this program?'
'Unlikely. Grunder's been wary of Osean intervention since the Circum-Pacific War.' Captain Powers answered the question.
'Get our liaison on the line. Tell them that we'll need their help.' Lucy ordered the captain.
OFS Orca
Alex opened the bulkhead door to the aviator's crew room that he had first met the members of the LRSSG in some months ago. Huxian was the only one in the room when he entered. She saw Alex enter.
'Hey commander. Thought we'd be seeing you again at some point.' She greeted him while reading a book. A murder-fiction book, Alex noted.
'Didn't think I would be coming back, if I'm wildly honest.' Alex admitted. He walked past Huxian to the ready room where he could store his stuff. After clearing Count, Trigger and Avril of their criminal records, the crew had embarked onboard the Orca, along with their aircraft and equipment. The carrier would be taking them to a remote island that had an airfield on it. From there, they would be staging an attack on the fleet that was currently parked up at Snider's Top.
Alex dumped his kit in the locker. He felt tired and depressed. While he thought that the aircraft he fought a day or two ago was fake, some of the things that the pilot said were still bothering him.
On the flight deck, Grimm stood near the edge of the stern, looking down into the water below. The water was a dark grey, typical of that of the colder regions of the continent. He thought back to the Kestrel from years back. He had never been on an aircraft carrier since that supercarrier had been sent to the bottom of the ocean by a Yuktobanian submarine. Grimm shook his head and headed inside.
August 10, 2019, 0900 Hours
Snider's Top, Usea
Okay, time for your briefing. For a long time, our counteroffensive has been overpowered by the Erusean drones' auto-intercept system. If a craft enters their airspace and doesn't respond to their IFF, drones automatically take off and move to intercept their target. However, we've discovered that the system has a blind spot. We have acquired this valuable information by sending our other squadrons on dangerous missions to scout in the whole area and initiate combat. Of all the pilots assigned to us only two managed to survive the mission. If we don't act now before the enemy can fill in the blind spot, those pilots will have sacrificed themselves for nothing. So, we've been ordered to carry out a long-range strategic strike. Operating separately from the main forces as the Long Range Strategic Strike Group, we've been developing a strategy in secret. Cyclops Squadron, Strider Squadron and Razgriz Squadron will sortie deep into Erusean territory and will be carrying out... specialized long-range attack strategies. You will carve your way through the territory from the north to the capital of Farbanti, attacking important targets along the way. The first operation will involve striking the enemy's main naval force, the Njord fleet, which is gathered in Northern Usea. We've known for some time that there's a large supply base utilized by the enemy fleet in the waters around Snider's Top. At present, the enemy fleet is concentrated there. Naturally, they intend to attack Eastern Usea where Osean forces are stationed. If we can surprise the enemy with a long-range attack, we could potentially do devastating damage to them. Still, it's highly likely that their advanced fleet is prepared and has started to move, so combat with the enemy is probably unavoidable. We've verified the existence of a large supply base in the sea, as well as a medium-sized one in a valley by an estuary. It's a wide operation area, and there are a number of places you can expect large-scale combat, so we've set up a return line for replenishing supplies. Use it proactively. Any time you feel the need to stock up on ammo or make repairs to your craft, it's there. While aircraft and ammo can be replaced, the lives of our pilots cannot. We don't want any casualties out there. Remember that. The counterattack has begun. Brace yourselves!
Blaze picked up his helmet and looked at it for a moment. Similar to his aircraft, the helmet had his signature flames insignia painted on it. He put it on and headed out to his Su-33. The squadrons he had commanded were getting closer and closer to his original group. Now he had Grimm and Mythic under his command.
AIRCRAFT:
Razgriz 1/Blaze - Su-33M3 Enhanced Flanker-D
Razgriz 2/Archer - Typhoon FGR.4
Razgriz 3/Mythic - Typhoon FGR.4
Strider 1/Trigger - F-15E Strike Eagle
Strider 2/Jaeger - F-15C Eagle
Strider 3/Skald - F-15C Eagle
Strider 4/Tailor - F-15C Eagle
Cyclops 1/Wiseman - F-15C Eagle
Cyclops 2/Count - F-15C Eagle
Cyclops 3/Huxian - F-15C Eagle
Cyclops 4/Lanza - F-15C Eagle
As Blaze started to taxi out of his hangar, he noticed that much of the LRSSG were using variants of the F-15. Mostly the air-to-air variant, which he found funny considering they were going to be on an anti-shipping mission. Then again, most new F-15Cs have the E-model hardware, Blaze remembered as he led his squadron past the taxiway to the runway. Once he was lined up, Blaze lit up his engines and shot forward down the runway, two Typhoons not far behind him. He raised his landing gear and cycled around the island waiting for Strider and Cyclops to join them in the air. As he approached the southern side of the island he saw the Orca sitting at anchor. She was the LRSSG's oversized ferry now. Blaze looked over at Grimm and Mythic - the two had the classic Razgriz paint scheme, full black with some red trimming at the vertical stabilizers. Strider Squadron joined them in the air; Trigger was leading them, which some found odd as the man was only a captain while the next senior in the squad was a major.
'Cyclops is airborne. Head on.' Wiseman toned into the radio channel they were using for inter-squad communication. The three squads merged and turned north, heading for Snider's Top. Blaze had been there many times. He hoped this would be the last time.
'This is your local AWACS Long Caster, checking in.' The voice of their mission commander popped in about half-way through the trip.
'Welcome to the party.' Wiseman greeted the AWACS. Blaze said nothing. Neither did Trigger, to the amusement of the former. Second time being a squad lead and already he appreciated the art of silence. Wiseman and his squad talked backwards and forwards with the AWACS while the other two squads ploughed on silently. Eventually the icy waters of the northern regions became apparent, which meant that they were getting close to the area they wanted to be. There were no long-range radar alerts. The Eruseans hadn't replaced the SA-21 and SA-10 sites that Spare Squadron had destroyed last month.
'Grimm, Mythic, we'll hit the primary fleet from the east. Divert.' Blaze ordered his wingmen, turning to the right and heading out further to sea. The two followed. They all had radar-guided anti-ship missiles on top of their anti-air weapons. The F-15-based squadrons would ingress to the valley platforms and bomb the ever-living shit out of them. Razgriz did a half-circle around the region, skirting on the outsides of the fleet's radar detection range until they reached the desired approach vector.
'This is Cyclops, we are entering the AO.' Wiseman reported.
'Strider, reporting the same.' Trigger reported.
'Razgriz, engaging.' Blaze reported. He looked back to Grimm and gave the hand-signal for the three-man flight to engage. Grimm nodded and gave that symbol to Mythic. They were in sync. The Typhoon pilots had RBS-15F cruise missiles, big things meant for sinking larger ships. Blaze's Su-33 was carrying GBU-10s and GBU-12s, laser-guided precision bombs. Blaze ordered the Typhoons to fire their missiles. Blue-coloured jet flames erupted from the RBS-15s as they dropped and shot forward towards the fleet. Blaze boosted ahead of the missiles. He wanted to hit the Kuznetsov-class carrier in the centre of the fleet at roughly the same time that the anti-ship missiles hit the cruisers and destroyers on the outer ring of the escort circle. Blaze got closer. He armed his GBU-10s; two-thousand pound bombs based on the Mark 84; and dropped them as he shot over the conning tower of a destroyer. The bombs streaked true, slamming into the midsection of the carrier just above the waterline. The hull buckled inwards before venting the force of the explosion outwards, creating a giant hole in the skin of the carrier that allowed water to spray into the internal compartments. A second hit further down the stern with the same effect. CIWS and gun mounts started lighting up the skies as Blaze passed over the fleet. Behind him, one of the cruisers was shaken by missile impacts. The same happened to a destroyer before a catastrophic explosion ripped off its bow.
'Good effect on target.' Blaze reported, gaining altitude and turning back towards the fleet. Both of the AEGIS frigates were focused on him. All the better for Grimm and Mythic to strike at them from the original attack vector. The two also had bombs. As Blaze evaded the SM-2 missiles fired at him, Grimm and Mythic struck at the two AEGIS vessels. Grimm got the one closest to the east while Mythic crossed over the top of the carrier and struck at the vessel to the west. They both dropped three bombs each. One of Grimm's missed the frigate but the other two slammed into the superstructure where they felled the conning tower and exploded in the hangar. Mythic's three all hit in the same spot near the middle of the ship. This blew out the bottom of the frigate's keel, effectively breaking the ship's back. Both ships were now rendered near-inoperable.
'AEGIS frigates done for.' Mythic reported. In reply, Blaze launched another attack on the carrier. He dived down at a 90-degree angle, aiming for the two blast shields and take-off ramp. Two GBU-10s were dropped. They hit with a combined total of 222 megajoules of energy, passing straight through the blast shield, the shield's internal workings and three decks before exploding, rocking the carrier. Blaze pulled up before he hit the ground and flew off to strike from another attack vector. In the meanwhile, Grimm opened up on the damaged cruiser. It was smoking from its port side but still had functioning gun and missile CIWS. As he spiralled to evade, Grimm utilised his GBU-12s to land a series of hits on the cruiser's starboard side waterline. At the same time Grimm used his remaining RBS-15s to attack a frigate. The bombs detonated near the bow and midships. One of the bombs went straight through the ship without detonating, creating a clean hole through the hull. The second exploded on the bow, fouling the ship's hull, while the cruise missiles sped up, climbed and dived through the top of the unarmoured superstructure, shattering the small escort ship.
Mythic attacked the carrier using all of her remaining munitions. Cruise missiles, bombs and her Typhoon's gatling gun all ripped at the carrier. Bombs hit the flight desk island, cracking open the bridge and destroying the flight control centre. Missiles picked away at the waterline of the carrier, causing flooding in internal compartments. The carrier started to keel over to port. She was listing and taking on water.
Blaze flew over the formation of mostly burning or sinking ships. Out of the eight ships that had composed the fleet, only two were still undamaged, and Blaze was about to make sure those two were going to the bottom of the ocean. The second cruiser and a frigate were steaming away from the rest of the fleet, trying to get away from the attacking fighters. Blaze ran up on the stern of the frigate and dropped a GBU-10. The massive bomb entered through the hangar of the Perry-class frigate and detonated underneath the front of the superstructure, splitting the frigate in two. The cruiser was firing at him with its frontal gun, missing every shot. Blaze flew around the ship, evading its gun systems, while waiting for Mythic and Grimm to hit it. The two came in, flying side by side, and hammered the cruiser with everything they had left - a few bombs and cannon rounds. The five GBU-12s between the two of them slammed into the side of the cruiser. The vessel recoiled for a moment before a larger series of explosions started rippling through the hull. A moment after that there were several large fireballs that shot into the skies. Some of the ship's magazines had been ruptured, crippling the ship.
'How are we doing for munitions?' Blaze asked his wingman and wingwoman.
'Winchester on air-to-ground weapons.' Grimm reported.
'What he said.' Mythic reported.
'I'm the same. Cyclops, Strider, this is Razgriz, we're RTB to rearm.' Blaze reported to the other two squads, turning away from the battlefield to head to the forward air base they were using as a supply field.
Meanwhile, Trigger and Strider Squadron were focusing on the northern airfield platform. They had already destroyed half of it; the fourth man in their squadron, Tailor, had found out that if the central support cores were compromised, the platform above and below it would collapse. Trigger took action on this and directed the rest of the squad to target the cores.
Trigger dived through a heavy flak screen to attack the central platform that had most of the anti-aircraft weaponry on it. Once he was within the right attack margin, Trigger loosed off a pair of CBU-105 cluster bombs towards the platform and pulled away from the heat of the AA fire. A Phalanx CIWS mount intercepted and destroyed one of the bombs, but the second one successfully broke open and released its payload. The platform was covered in explosions and dust, followed by oil smoke from many of the AA guns and SAM batteries that had been destroyed in the explosions. He dived down to sea level, turned around and pointed the nose of his aircraft towards the supporting core of the central platform. Trigger hammered it with a Maverick, which snapped the core and started the process for the platform to tumble into the icy waters below. Trigger waved through the ruins of the platform as Jaeger and Skald started an attack run through the long end of the facility to bring down what remained of the runway. They flew through, hitting each remaining core with Mavericks, while also avoiding slamming into any of the structures inside the tunnel. The two shot out at the end, the runway platforms collapsing behind them. With the runway gone, that rendered the entire facility destroyed, the rest of the platforms already sinking beneath the waters.
'Cyclops, Strider, we're coming to ya.' Trigger reported, eager to go destroy something else.
'Don't bother, there's nothing left down here.' Wiseman answered. Trigger chuckled. Between the three squadrons, everything of value had been destroyed. Trigger directed Strider Squadron to Cyclops' location. The two squads met up before leaving the AO.
'Hey Trigger, what are those three lines on your plane? Scratches?' Skald asked, referring to the three claws Trigger had on the vertical stabilizers of his F-15E.
'I don't like 'em. Reminds me of sin lines.' Count pitched in.
'What are those?' Huxian asked.
'Nothing.' Trigger and Count both said at the same time. They weren't exactly looking to discuss the details of their origins.
'Well, that went better than expected. In celebration, who says we check out that Italian bistro near the base?' Long Caster pitched in.
'Why does a little island in the middle of nowhere have a fancy restaurant?' Blaze asked the real questions. He was still in radio range. 'Still, nothing better to do.'