August 18th, 2019

Hatties Desert

Stonehenge Turret Network

Freshly dressed in a g-suit, Talon stepped out of the cockpit of her F-35C onto the tarmac of the airbase that was located next to the Stonehenge facility. She saw the guns as she got out and marvelled for a moment. They were big in the surveillance images sent back by the security squadron, but they were even bigger in person. On the ground, Snow was waiting for her.

'Happy to have your wings back?' He asked the green-haired commander as the latter walked over, helmet in hand.

'Trust me, you have no idea.' Talon replied. Her arm had fully healed, which allowed her to lose the cast that she had been carrying around since June. Surprisingly, she had also been given her wings back which allowed her to transfer from the Phobos to the station. Snow guided her to the building where the pilots resided.

'For a facility this age, the place is in good shape.' Snow commented as the two walked over to the crew building.

'It's also fucking hot. Jesus.' Talon counter-commented. Her heat tolerance had been lost as a result of being in and out of air-conditioned command centres and medical facilities for the past few months.

'It's a desert, what were you expecting?' Snow retorted. Talon smiled and shook her head.

'Dragon Breath starts tomorrow.'

'Yeah. Has the execution plan been set up?'

'It has. The Air Force will be launching a major assault across the Erusean's radar network. If things go to plan, the Arsenal Bird will come right to us.' Talon summarized. That was the plan, anyway. The engineering battalion still had to finish setup of the remaining turret, and then that assumed the thing would fire accurately, if at all, in the first place.

'Which squad is getting assigned to the defence?' Snow asked. One of the Air Force squads would be assisting the Menhir companies in the ground and air defence.

'Special unit. The LRSSG.'

'Huh. Weren't those the guys who dealt with the Erusean fleet up at Snider's Top?'

'Yep.' Talon suddenly remembered something. 'Oh. Alex is part of the squad.'

Snow stopped in his tracks and stared. 'He is?'

'According to their roster, yeah. He's leader of the Razgriz Squadron.' Talon briefed the older commander. Snow had not heard of this, and he hadn't heard from Alex since the latter transferred to a penal unit in June.

'Razgriz Squadron? Do you know who else is on the list?' Snow probed Talon for more information.

'Major Hans Grimm and Second Lieutenant Sara Hunter. They're your guys.' Talon gave it. Snow caught up to her, also caught up in his own thoughts. Alex, you cheeky son of a bitch.

Later that day

Orca Forward Air Base

Back at the LRSSG's base of operations, Alex and Wiseman looked over a bunched-together set of papers. A map of the Usean continent, transcripts, the lot.

'...so the 3rd Air Force is dealing with the northern strikes across the continent. A combination of long-range fighters and carrier aircraft will be dealing with the southern regions. We're going to be right in the middle of the crossfire.' Wiseman was briefing Alex. The latter nodded in agreement.

'We'll be working with some of the best. Trident, Razor and Poseidon are all blooded, and I can personally atest to the skill of the two commanders on scene.' Alex said. The three squadrons he mentioned had been in the thick of it from the very start of the war, and they had dished out their share and then some.

'You've flown with them?' Wiseman asked.

'I had Marcus as a wingman in the Razgriz, and I flew with Zoe in Panther.' Alex said. Both were good pilots.

'I hope they're good then. We're looking at a division of ground troops and a bomber wing coming after us if this goes south.'

'They won't let us down.' Alex slapped the table in summary.

The following day

August 19, 2019, 1400 hours

Operation Dragon Breath

Hatties Desert, Usea

'All hands on deck. The time has come for one of the mighty Arsenal Birds to fall. 14 years ago, ISAF destroyed seven of the eight Stonehenge guns.'

'The eighth one was disabled by the Ulysses impacts. The Army has been working on an initiative to reactivate the last remaining Stonehenge turret.'

'However, the team on the ground will be vulnerable to ground and air attack. That's where we come in. We'll be flying in to cover the ladies and gentlemen on the ground. We only have one shot at this. Don't fuck it up.'

And so the LRSSG moved inland. It was going to be a long trip. The Hatties Desert was roughly in the middle of the Usean continent, while their base was at the very east of the continent. A tanker squadron covered them about halfway to the AO. Strider and Cyclops refuelled first. Blaze let Grimm and Mythic refuel before he refueled himself. The two topped up their tanks and fell back into formation. Blaze lined up behind the tanker and pushed the engines forward gently to catch the basket of the refueling probe. He caught it, first try. Blaze smiled and waited for fuel to transfer between the two aircraft. Once his tank was full, Blaze retracted from the tanker, saluted the boom operator and fell into formation with the fighters.

AIRCRAFT

Cyclops 1/Wiseman: F-15C Eagle

Cyclops 2/Count: F-15C Eagle

Cyclops 3/Huxian: F-15C Eagle

Cyclops 4/Lanza: F-15C Eagle

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

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

Razgriz 2/Archer: Typhoon FGR.4

Razgriz 3/Mythic: Typhoon FGR.4

Razor 1/Swordsman: F-14D Super Tomcat

Razor 2/Luna - F/A-18E Super Hornet

Razor 3/Dagger - F/A-18E Super Hornet

Razor 4/Halberd - F/A-18E Super Hornet

Trident 1/Zeus - F-35C Lightning II

Trident Squadron - F-35C Lightning II

Poseidon 1/Scorpion - F-14D Super Tomcat

Poseidon Squadron - F-14D Super Tomcat

Panther 1/Talon - F-35C Lightning II

By the time that the LRSSG had arrived on station, the battle had already begun. The defending squadrons already on station were heavily engaged with Erusean fighters, bombers and ground aircraft. The Oseans were kicking ass, but the assault wasn't letting up.

'Stonehenge ADIZ, we're entering your airspace.' Wiseman reported to the defenders.

'Welcome to the shitter colonel, now get your boys in here!' Swordsman greeted the reinforcements and quickly ordered the LRSSG to get stuck into the enemy. Blaze obliged and started chasing down the Erusean Tu-95s that were on an approach vector to the base. He acquired a lock on radar and launched AMRAAMs at the lead bomber. The missile struck the Bear, knocking off one of its wings and destroying the aircraft. He did the same with the second bomber in the line, for roughly the same results. It wasn't until the second bomber went down that the escorting fighters, a mix of MiG-29s and F-15Js, decided to chase after the fighter shooting down all of their bombers. The Eruseans were not showing the same level of expertise that they had at the start of the war.

'Grimm, Mythic, take the bombers.' Blaze ordered his two wingmen, himself charging the Eagles and Fulcrums head-on. Before he could engage the escorts, one of them was hit by a missile while the second one evaded. An F-14 shot into Blaze's field of view and destroyed the second fighter with its cannon. The Swordsman was in action.

'I think I can deal with my own targets, Swordsman.' Blaze joked to the Tomcat pilot.

'Oh, can you now?' Swordsman retorted. Blaze shook his head while chuckling and diverting to the next best target, a long column of Mirage 2000-5s approaching from the north-west. Blaze locked the target, switched his radar to the TWS (Track While Scanning) mode and launched a barrage of his AMRAAMs at them. More maneuverable than the earlier Tu-95s, some of the Mirages popped chaff and evaded. Some of them still got shot out of the sky. The other ones did some fancy turns before dropping to the ground and roaring towards the facility. Blaze tried gaining a lock with his Sidewinders. Surprisingly he got a lock. He fired one, two Sidewinders at the Mirages. Unaware that they were being shot at, the two surviving Mirages from the first attack were both destroyed. Blaze looked off his shoulder at the wingtip-mounted Sidewinders. The last time he had fought other aircraft in a desert, the Sidewinders had been criminally ineffective.

Elsewhere, Trigger started one of many bombing runs against the mechanised and armoured battalions that the Eruseans were throwing at the Menhir bastions. He slowed down to just over Mach 0.5 and dived down on one of the formations, cluster bombs armed. He dropped two bombs and regained altitude to avoid being hit by the shrapnel from his own bombs. The two bombs separated over the target and covered the area in a wave of explosions. Trigger's attack was lethal to the ground forces. Anything that had been in the blast zone had been shredded or mangled, or both. Jaeger followed closely behind and released Maverick missiles at the leading tanks in the formation. The missiles struck from above and behind, destroying a line of four Leopard 2A5s.

'Menhir 5 has been cleared, rotating to Menhir 7.' Trigger reported. He only ever spoke if he needed to point something out. He and the rest of Strider moved around the facility. Menhir 7 was taking the brunt of a combined helicopter and motorised assault. Trigger shot over the nearby dunes at high speed and dropped more cluster bombs on the enemy targets. Explosions and dust resulted in a large cluster of the infantry turning into paste. Skald, Tailor and Jaeger, all following Trigger, did work with the helicopters, firing a large number of Sidewinders into the Apache attack helicopters. Most went down in balls of flames. The ones that didn't were subject to gun runs, which finished off the survivors.

'Heads up, enemy bombers approaching the base from the north!' Long Caster called out. It was up to Swordsman and the rest of Razor Squadron to carry out the intercept. Swordsman checked his radar display. The bombers were a combination of Tu-95s and Tu-160s. He switched to AMRAAMs. Strangely for a Tomcat, Swordsman didn't have the usual Phoenix loadout for long-range engagements. Instead he had two encapsulated missile pods mounted underneath either wing which contained AIM-120D AMRAAMs, the long-range version of the C-model AMRAAM which was more effective than the Phoenix. The Super Hornet pilots had the same pods. They all fired a series of the missiles. In between them there were 16 missiles in the air. The bombers and fighter escorts saw the missile wave and tried to evade. For all except a single F-15J, this was a futile gesture. The bombers exploded with full loads, creating masterful artpieces of fire in the skies. Luna chased the surviving Eagle and managed to shoot it down. Not far behind the Blackjacks and Bears were a cluster of black-painted aircraft. They looked like triangles and weren't coming up on radar. Swordsman saw them via the Mark 1 Eyeball.

'Long Caster, Swordsman, the Eruseans are utilising stealth fighters.' He pointed out, directing the squad to chase after them. Once they got close enough, Swordsman identified the little black triangles as F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers.

'Looks like the Eruseans brought out the Nighthawks.' Swordsman reported. As long as there weren't B-2s firing cruise missiles from range, the inclusion of stealth bombers shouldn't matter. Razor Squad got close to the Nighthawks. They couldn't get a reliable lock on them with missiles, but that wouldn't stop the formation from using guns. The Tomcat and three Super Hornets came head-on and fired. Swordsman, Luna and Halberd killed their targets. Dagger damaged his but didn't shoot it down, forcing him to come around and finish off the smoking Nighthawk. This time he got it.

On the ground, standing in an open-air control centre next to the last remaining Stonehenge turret, Warrant Officer Jason Leahman was reading the display off one of the supporting power units while NCOs, officers and Major McOnie were physically doing handwork with the cabling. Around them was a fireteam of infantry. McOnie finished doing something and came over to the terminal that Leahman was reading from.

'Power level at 40 percent. 42 percent. Come on, damn it!' McOnie racked her knuckles on the side of the terminal.

'Come on baby, be good, we need you.' Leahman said to the machine. A few metres behind him, there was a series of three sounds. The first sounded like something hitting flesh very hard. The second was a body falling to the ground heavily. The third was a scream of pain. Leahman whipped around. One of the infantrymen protecting the command group had been hit by something. There was blood forming in a pool below the man's upper leg. He had been shot by a sniper. A second bullet hit him in the head, ending his screaming.

'Sniper!' Leahman called out, kicking up the man's M4A1 and firing in the general direction of the enemy sniper. He retreated to cover. Wisely, so did the other personnel surrounding the area. A bullet sparked off the crate that Leahman had retreated behind.

'Major, we need someone to deal with him!' Leahman called out to the lady with the radio, referring to the sniper team that now had them pinned down. McOnie nodded and withdrew the radio.

'We need air support, there's a sniper pinning us down!' McOnie mentioned on the radio. Up in the air, Talon looked around the local area on her thermal targeting pod. She saw the ground crew pinned down near the power trucks. She adjusted to the east. There were two people lying prone in the sand. One had a long rifle, the other possessing what appeared to be a set of rangefinders or binoculars. One of the two. Either way, sure that she was attacking a hostile target, Talon lased the target, circled around and came in for a bomb run. She dropped one of her GBU-12s. The bomb shot downwards for the target and scored a direct hit on the two. They disappeared in an explosion. When the dust cleared the two were gone.

'You're clear.' Talon reported to the people on the ground. The ground forces scurried out of their cover to resume their tasking.

High up in the skies, Blaze and the Razgriz Squadron were out intercepting scores of fighter and interceptor aircraft; Flankers, Eagles and Fighting Falcons, among other sorts of aircraft. It felt like the Eruseans were throwing everything they had at the defending garrisons instead of focusing on warding off the other Air Force and Navy fighters that were attacking elsewhere. Even now, the assault wasn't letting up. Blaze got into a dogfight with an Su-35. The two tangled for a little bit, diving and jinking in every direction. The Su-35 cobra-ed behind Blaze. The latter denied the Cobra by doing the same thing in his Su-33, wasting the energy of the Super Flanker and blasting him out of the sky with a Sidewinder. An F-15J jumped him. Blaze pushed the throttle to max to climb, gained some altitude and then let gravity push the nose downwards, hitting the Eagle on the dive with his cannon. Grimm was forced into a dogfight by a very aggressively flying F-16C. The aggression did him no good as Grimm simply utilised his Typhoon's superior maneuverability to do a loop around the Falcon and slam it with an off-vector fired ASRAAM. Flying at a lower altitude, Mythic got stuck in with a pair of Super Flankers. She killed one straight off the bat with a well-placed burst of cannon fire and used the second Su-35's maneuverability against it by waiting for it to bleed energy before whipping around and shooting him down with missiles.

'Enemy rocket unit coming from the south-west, and enemy helo assault unit approaching from the north-east!' Long Caster reported. 'They're planning a direct attack on Stonehenge. Stop them!'

'Razgriz Squad, engaging the choppers.' Blaze reported. He, Grimm and Mythic stopped shooting down fighters long enough to turn north towards the enemy helicopters and intercept them. There was a large squadron of Chinooks and Apaches, roughly 16 strong. The squad lowered altitude and fired AMRAAMs at the assault units. The various missiles destroyed most of the helicopters, but miraculously one or two of them survived. A second pair of missiles fired by Mythic made sure that there were no survivors.

At the opposite side of the AO, Cyclops Squadron went after the rocket artillery trucks. The four-ship of F-15Cs were all armed with anti-ground missiles like Mavericks and Hellfires. Perfect for the target they were chasing. Wiseman and Count led the formation in. They acquired IR locks on the MLRS trucks despite the heat below. They fired the Hellfires first. Eight trucks were hit. Eight trucks were either destroyed or disabled. The leaders shot over the remaining trucks, fired at by the ZSUs they brought with them. Some distance behind them, Huxian and Lanza lined up their own attack run with Hellfires. Another eight missiles were fired, and another eight vehicles were destroyed, among them all of the MLRS trucks. Some ZSUs and supply vehicles survived the attack. The latter fact wasn't the saving grace for the fourth man in the squad, Lanza. As he and Huxian passed over, the ZSU that had fired at Wiseman and Count fired at them. Unlike the previous attempt, the ZSU actually hit something, in this case clipping off Lanza's left wing.

'Ah crap. I'm hit.' Lanza reported calmly. His aircraft started shaking in the air, but Lanza managed to hold it steady. 'Little shaky, but I've still got control.' The squad formed up again. Count looked over at Lanza's F-15C. Oil, fuel and hydraulic fluids were spitting out of the severed left wing, if it could be called that. Lanza had no left wing at all.

'You're missing a wing man, you should land.' Count urgently advised the younger pilot. The latter looked off his shoulder and saw.

'That's… charming. I'll put her down at the airfield near the gun.' Lanza said, pulling off from the squad.

'I've got your back. Count, Huxian, continue as before and try not to get clapped.' Wiseman said to Cyclops 2 and 3, also pulling off from the formation to escort Lanza down to the nearby airbase.

'Power level at 90 percent. We could fire now.' McOnie reported from the ground.

'Not advisable.' Trigger pointed out on the radio. Any error in the firing parameters could result in a fouled shot and a mission failure.

'Agreed. We don't want to mess this up.' Leahman agreed with Trigger.

'Yeah, you're right. Leahman, check the fire-control system one more time before we fire.' McOnie conceded.

'Long-range radar warning. The Arsenal Bird is closing. Ten minutes until it's within visual range.' Long Caster pointed out. The plan was so far going well. Swordsman and Razor Squad were idling to the west of the station, waiting for something to approach from their vector. Considering that they and Trident Squadron were currently not occupied, the assault was starting to let up as the Eruseans were running out of defensive reserves. And for only one damaged aircraft. The plan was going exceptionally well.

'So,' Luna asked. 'What can this Arsenal Bird do, anyway?'

'It's a flying aircraft carrier. Carries eighty drones and a plethora of air defence weapons.' Swordsman answered. The answer was more complicated than that, but as a naval aviator Swordsman could see all the resemblance.

'It also has an energy defense field, so I'd advise not getting close to it.' Trigger pointed out. He had practical experience fighting one.

'Charming.' Luna sighed. The man was a classic Marine.

In the south, Trigger dropped one of his remaining cluster bombs on surviving enemy infantry from one of his previous attack runs. He looked at his pylon readings. That was his last dedicated anti-ground weapon.

'Strider 1, winchester anti-ground.' He reported. Now he was only useful as an interceptor, and even then he wasn't carrying much in the way of anti-air. 'Returning to base for resupply.' Trigger flew around the facility before lining up the runway of the airfield and coming in for a landing. He landed smoothly, slowed down and taxied over to the hangars where the FARPs were set up. As he came around, he noticed one of Cyclops's F-15s already on the ground. It was missing a wing. Landing accident? Trigger thought as he pulled over to the ground crew. He saw Lanza among them. He set the engine to idle and opened the canopy, unstrapping and getting out.

'Lanza,' Trigger called out to the pilot. 'What happened to you?'

'A ZSU.' Lanza called back. He was uninjured.

'Get in back, I need a support officer.' Trigger said, motioning with his thumb towards his F-15E's RIO seat. Lanza nodded in approval and joined Trigger in the backseat. The ground crew reequiped the aircraft with air-to-air missiles and in five minutes they were back in the air. By this stage there was little pressure being applied by the Eruseans. They had exhausted their reserves trying to take the facility, and they had failed hard.

'Arsenal Bird, five minutes out.' Long Caster reported to the Osean forces.

On the ground near the power trucks, McOnie was at a terminal waiting for the power to reach 100 percent. It did, and the entire circuit lit green.

'Power is at 100 percent. Leahman, is the fire-control system set?' She asked the warrant officer. There was no reply. 'Leahman?'

McOnie turned around looking for the warrant officer. She was met by a fist flying at her face. McOnie ducked by instant and kicked forward, hitting the attacker in the knee. The attacker was wearing an Erusean Army uniform. McOnie struck forward at the man before he could restrain her, smashing him in the nose, rupturing a blood vessel there. The man stumbled back, dazed. McOnie started to unholster her M9A3 pistol to finish the attacker off, but before she could a pair of prongs hit her in the chest and zapped her. A second Erusean had appeared, and this man had a taser. McOnie convulsed and fell to the ground, unable to take control of her body. The first Erusean, the one with the bleeding nose, unsheathed a knife and prepared to take the kill. McOnie waited for a plunging blade into her neck. Instead, there was a gunshot from behind the two attackers and the attacker with the knife fell forwards, a bullet wound in his head. The one with the taser brought his SIG P226 around in defence but was met by a bullet severing his brain stem, killing him instantly. He released the taser and McOnie regained control of her body. She ripped off the taser probes and sat up. Leahman was standing there with a rapidly swelling eye, M4 in hand.

'Fire-control is fried. Those guys overloaded it.' Leahman answered McOnie's previous question. McOnie cursed.

'Damn it. We needed that. Without it-'

'We're not out yet. We've still got the oldest sensor in the book. Our eyes.' Leahman pulled the major to her feet.

'They're too unreliable…' McOnie brushed the sand off her uniform.

'Not with a rangetable. Come on, we need to set it up.' Leahman reassured her. He keyed his radio.

'Air Force, we're gonna need your help. Our electrical fire support system is fried, so we're going to do this manually. Destroy the Arsenal Bird's main propellers to slow it down. That'll give us a better chance.' Leahman gave the new briefing to the various squadrons in the sky.

In the air, Blaze scoffed. 'Oh, this just got a whole lot better.'

'You heard them. The Arsenal Bird is approaching. Take out its propellers.' Long Caster ordered. Blaze checked his radar display. The big fat fucker was close. Close enough that he could see it in the distance. Little specks started dropping from the bottom of the uber-carrier. The dreaded MQ-101 drone wave.

'Here they come.' Blaze muttered under his breath. 'Razgriz, head on.'

It was 30 manned Osean fighters against 80 unmanned Erusean drones. Because of the numbers disparity, the Oseans did the best thing they could have under the situation.

A missile barrage.

All squadrons fired their medium and long-range missiles into the incoming bastion of drones. ARMAAMs, Phoenixes and Sparrows shot forward. 80 missiles were fired into the metallic cloud. The drones recognised that they were under fire and tried to evade. But there was no space for them to evade to. The first wave of drones was completely destroyed. All 40 of them. The second wave had more space to move, so the effect wasn't as devastating, but it still caused major damage. In a single attack, well over half of the Arsenal Bird's offensive airwing was gone. Only 15 drones were left from the original 80, which tipped the scale in favour of the Oseans.

'Strider, Razgriz, engage the Arsenal Bird. All other forces, destroy the remaining drones!' Long Caster ordered. Blaze pushed the throttle forward and climbed up to meet the quickly-approaching Arsenal Bird. Grimm and Mythic followed to either side of them while Strider was directly behind. Trident, Poseidon, Cyclops and Razor hit what remained of the drones in a dogfight. The Arsenal Bird activated its close-in defences and started firing missiles and gun batteries at the attacking aircraft. The two attacking squadrons evaded the flak bursts and missiles, passing over the Arsenal Bird. They then turned so that they were directly behind the big fucking thing.

'Make it quick. Engage.' Blaze ordered as he readied his Sidewinder missiles and cannons and started unloading into the port-side main engine. Grimm and Mythic followed suit while Trigger, Jaeger, Skald and Tailor dealt with the starboard-side main engine. The engines were tough, tougher than the engines of the Arkbird from years back, but between the seven aircraft they managed to destroy both primary engines and even some of the secondaries before the Arsenal Bird started to activate its active protection system. Grimm recognised this.

'Get back, it's turning on its energy field!' He said. Razgriz collectively backed off. So did Strider. They did so just in time as a bubble shield activated and surrounded the Arsenal Bird in an eery white light.

'Now's a good a time as ever, Major.' Blaze called out to the ground battery. This was the best shot they were going to get.

'Roger. Gun loaded, releasing battery.'

Down below, the Stonehenge turret turned to face the Arsenal Bird. Mechanisms moved in the gun to prime the shell.

'Fire!' The gun fired. The firing noise was loud. The shell visually disrupted the air around it as it traveled doing hypersonic speeds.

'Hit, damn it!' The shell slammed into the Arsenal Bird's shield, bypassed it without breaking a sweat and slamming into the Arsenal Bird's hull. There was an explosion as the shell hit, bifuracating the bird and splitting it in half. Hull compromised, the two halves of the Arsenal Bird started falling towards the surface. Blaze watched it fall from up above.

'Those guns are scary.' He remarked. He definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of one.

'And for only one casuality. That went off as well as it could have.' Long Caster.