In the next couple of days, on August 22nd, the LRSSG moved away from the Stonehenge facility and back towards their base of operations. Across the continent, the Oseans thrusted into Erusean territory that could no longer be held without an Arsenal Bird covering the region. The Osean Defence Force was gaining forward momentum.

August 22, 2019, 1100 Hours

Operation Black Dart

Roald Fusion Plant, Spring Sea

'Now that the Erusean's primary form of front-line defense has been destroyed, we suspect they'll fall back to their next resort; Weapons of Mass Destruction.'

'The first target of many to come in terms of WMD production is the Roald Fusion Plant north of Farbanti. It's a water-based reactor platform used for the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials. It's also the key facility that powers much of the capital.'

'Razgriz Squadron, you are being charged with destroying this facility. Its destruction will greatly inhibit the Erusean Armed Force's ability to produce and maintain nuclear weapons, and may save thousands of lives down the road.'

Embarked onboard the OFS Orca, Alex, Snow, Grimm and Mythic were preparing for the mission. Because there were no ready refuelling aircraft that could operate that far west, the Orca was being sent into Erusean-controlled waters so that Razgriz and Strider Squadrons could reach their targets. Cyclops Squadron were operating closer to the centre of the continent and as such were not part of the Orca's airwing.

Alex was surprised to find that the original F-35B he had operated a few months ago had been repaired. It still had the flames artwork on it, although some of the black overcoat was missing from areas that had been repaired with new panels. The rest of the squad also had newly-provided F-35Bs. As they were lifted up via the hangar elevators to the flight deck, Alex noted the Orca's escorting vessels, two destroyers and a cruiser. There was also a submarine somewhere ahead of the carrier group, providing ASW support. In addition, it was also pouring down rain. Ignoring the grim conditions, Alex was wheeled over to the flight line. The tail fighter of Strider, Tailor, shot down the runway with a lit afterburner, needing all the thrust he could get to get off the carrier. Strider Squadron was earmarked for a different mission, a strike against a chemical weapons plant on the border between Erusea and the Federation of Central Usea.

'Strider is clear. Razgriz, clear to start flight operations.' The tower cleared Razgriz to launch. In response, Alex pushed the throttle forward until he hit afterburner. The F-35 rolled down the runway, up the ski ramp and all of a sudden Alex was in the air in the middle of the storm. Grimm, Snow and Mythic followed shortly behind him.

AIRCRAFT:

Razgriz 1/Blaze: F-35B Lightning II
Razgriz 2/Swordsman: F-35B Lightning II
Razgriz 3/Archer: F-35B Lightning II
Razgriz 4/Mythic: F-35B Lightning II

They were in for a long trip. The Eruseans had repaired most of their air defence network in and around the capital and established more frequent CAP rotations in the area, so even if their radars couldn't directly target the F-35 stealth fighters, the interceptors could. As a result, Razgriz had been launched from the Cascade Ocean, a few hundred kilometres west of Ice Creek. They would pass Cape Rainy before diverting south-west to attack the fusion plant. Blaze looked at his weapons display screen. Laser-guided one-thousand pound bombs, external fuel tanks and Sidewinders. He was looking to either completely destroy the platform, or at least to disable the main reactor. To that end, Blaze had ordered Snow and Grimm to bring a mix of GBU-16 bombs and Hellfire missiles. Mythic was acting as their missile truck so she was carrying AMRAAMs and Sidewinders should they encounter enemy aircraft.

The squad pushed on through the poor northern weather. The region was in the middle of a tropical depression. A quarter of the way to the Cape Rainy waypoint, the squad encountered a radar emitter.

'Radar spike. Surface vessel to our north running radar in air search.' Snow reported. Blaze looked. He was right.

'Maintain course. They don't see us.' Blaze ordered. They flew away from the area. At no point did the radar switch from search to tracking. From that point they didn't encounter anything. After an hour of flight, the squad reached the waypoint. As intended, the squad turned south-west. If they didn't encounter anything now, they would drop unexpectedly right on top of the target. Blaze checked his GPS. They were 15 minutes away. He made sure his targeting data was correct and checked his fire-control pod. Everything was green.

'Passing Waypoint 2. If you have any issues, now's the time to report it.'

'All green.' Snow reported.

'Nada.' Grimm reported.

'All systems are good.' Mythic reported. Everyone was in the green. There was no going back now. The squad approached in a line formation with Mythic climbing up to provide air cover. Blaze led the formation. He, Snow and Grimm were going to line up GBU strikes at the same time to cover most of the upper levels, where they would hopefully get a successful penetration against the reactor. On the edge of the horizon, the facility became visible. It consisted of three platforms connected to each other in an arrowhead-like formation. The centre platform was by far the biggest, being the platform that had the fusion reactor. The southern supporting platform was used for research and development, but the northern platform was where nuclear warheads were built and maintained. Blaze made absolutely sure that his fire control system was functioning correctly. There were civilians on the platform that he wanted to avoid hitting.

'Drop. Drop. Drop.' Blaze finally gave the order to release weapons as the three pitch-black F-35Bs reached the attack waypoint. Each aircraft released two GBU-16s aimed at varying levels of the reactor platform. The bombs smashed into the unarmoured side of the platform and penetrated through. Two of the bombs passed completely through the platform, not finding anything dense enough to trigger the warheads. The other four detonated, spraying fragments throughout the station. Of those four, one of them managed to find its way into the cabling that provided power to the fusion reactor and exploded nearby, cutting the power. As a result, the reactor shut down. Unlike fission reactors, fusion reactors were not self-sustaining, because they required a power input to keep the reaction going. Once the GBU-16 had severed the power connection, that reaction just stopped. No explosion, no fallout. Blaze, Snow and Grimm shot over the facility. Smoke was billowing out of bomb holes and open spaces. Surprisingly there was no counterfire. The facility had no anti-air defences.

Realising this, Blaze climbed upwards and came shooting towards the floor, his bombsight reticule hovering over the WMD platform. He dropped more GBUs. Both hit the centre portion of the roof of the platform and went straight through without exploding. Blaze cursed as he pulled up to avoid hitting the floor. He had intended to hit the supporting core that held the facility up from above. Having missed, Blaze was now coming around from sea level to hit the core from the horizontal axis. He released his last two GBUs at the core and turned away to avoid the platform. This time he got a direct hit.

The entire platform shuddered from the bomb hit. There was a metallic groaning noise as metal gave away and started plunging the entire platform into the cold waters below. The core supporting pylon then collapsed under its own weight and the weapons development platform fell into the ocean. Blaze thought it was almost graceful. There was little time to watch it fall, however.

'Incoming flight of fighters coming out from Farbanti. Su-37s and Su-35s.' Mythic reported to the ground-attack fighters. She was ready to engage them should the order have been given.

'Head on. Engage.' Blaze indeed gave the order to engage. He didn't want to direct the Erusean Air Force straight to the Orca where they could sink it. Although he, Snow and Grimm weren't armed for anti-air, they still had a small number of Sidewinders and AMRAAMs to use against four enemy fighters. Mythic ended up taking the first shot with an AMRAAM against the lead aircraft. The missile streaked forward for a minute or so, but did not connect. The leader deftly evaded. The Super Flankers and Terminators increased their speed to close the distance.

'Enemy identified. F-35B formation.' One of the Super Flanker pilots reported.

'Black bodies, red-tipped stabilizers.' A Terminator pilot added information.

'It's Captain Williams and his crew. Ghost Squadron, engage. No retreat.' The leader, also a Terminator pilot, coldly ordered her flight. Blaze exhaled. He had heard that voice some time ago, when he had taken part in an assault against the Erusean capital. They were up against an ace squadron.

Tigerfish Air Force Base, Emmeria, Anea

While the Razgriz Squadron was tangling with the Erusean nuclear program, Lieutenant-Colonel Hunter and her cadre of officers were watching a live video feed from the other side of the planet. The feed was coming from a B-21 Raider equipped with an imaging camera and electronic interception hardware. The feed showed four black-painted F-35s tangling with an equal number of unmarked white and grey Su-35s and 37s. At the same time as the video feed, the B-21 was recording radio transmissions between the individual aircraft.

'Ghost Squadron, engage, no retreat.'

'These guys have skill and tech behind them. Watch your back.'

'Splashed the one with the two-face emblem.'

In the video feed, one of the Su-35s was hit by a missile and exploded, spinning the engagement in favour of the Oseans. Hunter was impressed.

'So these are the pilots your country trains?' She asked the Osean OIA liaison, David North. The latter smiled.

'Good, aren't they? But what you told me was that the Ghost Squad were after an experimental drone, not Osea's top fighter aces.' North expressed pride for the Osean aces before returning to the subject.

'There's been no reply from Sudentor or any sub-channels. So I'd say it's best assumed that Ghost are on standby for the Eruseans until orders are patched through.' Hunter gave her hypothesis. She pressed the push-to-talk button to transmit to the aircraft commander of the Raider. 'Gunslinger, Mother, return to base. We've got what we need.'

'Gunslinger reads. RTB.'

Blaze weaved in between Snow and Mythic as they chased down the remaining Su-35 to get on the tail of the leader's Su-37. Grimm had shot down the other Su-35 and was now in a dogfight with the second Su-37. Blaze eventually got onto the leader's tail and gave chase. He fired a Sidewinder. The stubbornly resistant leader evaded the missile and attempted to use all sorts of fighting maneuvers to get behind Blaze and attack him. Blaze was just as stubborn and eluded all of her attempts to do so. One of the last things she tried to do was a high-speed Cobra similar to what Mihaly would do a lot. Unlike Mihaly, her setup was easy to spot so once the Ghost Squadron leader pulled it off, Blaze simply loosed off a missile and blasted her out of the sky with it. The Su-37 started coming apart in air, but the pilot had enough time to eject safely. Blaze looked at his weapons display for the second time that day and realised he had no anti-air weapons left.

'Winchester.' Blaze reported to his squad.

'I'm the same. This is getting closer and closer to that one time off Farbanti.' Snow was also Winchester on AA weaponry. Thus Grimm and Mythic were pitted against the last Su-37, as Mythic had managed to bag the other Su-35. The aircraft was running away from the fight, outnumbered, outskilled and outgunned. A wise decision. Razgriz Squadron had completed their mission. Now they needed to return to the carrier. As they headed out to sea to get out of Erusean radar range, Blaze noticed something above them. An out of place shadow. It appeared very briefly between clouds before disappearing. A large bomber aircraft. He thought about going after it for a moment. Blaze decided not to. No point.

'Grimm.' He asked the longest-serving member of the group currently present.

'Yeah?' Grimm replied. He was ready for the question.

'Where do you get your pilots from?' Blaze asked. He was certain there was a place where all good pilots came from.

'Heierlark. Why do you ask?' Grimm answered.

'Remind me to put a recommendation on Mythic's file.' Blaze said. Although he had only had Mythic in Razgriz for all of two weeks, Blaze had seen enough for the ace to be promoted from Second to First Lieutenant.

The squadron retraced their original path back to the Orca. They crossed the area where they had detected the surface vessel from before. It was no longer there. A little bit after that, they came into contact with the Orca. As usual, Blaze hovered around the carrier while waiting for the other three to land. He was the last to make contact with the flight deck. Blaze noted that in addition to Razgriz Squadron's four F-35Bs on the deck, there were also four other regularly-painted F-35s on the deck, which meant that Strider Squadron had returned from their mission. Blaze saw the Strider pilots watching him land. They had just gotten back by the looks of things. Blaze landed his F-35 and let the ground crew do their thing by moving the aircraft out of the way and tying it down before he cut the engine and electrical power. Alex opened the canopy and got out of the aircraft. On the flight deck near the superstructure, Trigger was waiting for him.

'Mission success?' Trigger asked.

'Mission success. You?' Alex asked Trigger the same question.

'Mission success.' Trigger smiled.