'Helm, up bubble 5 degrees, bring us to periscope depth.' In a pressurised metal tube under the tropical ocean surface, a submarine captain ordered his helmsman to change the depth of the sub. They were currently a scarce twelve kilometres off the southern coast of the Usean continent. More specifically, they were just south of Artigilo Port, a place that had been carpet-bombed to the floor some months prior by a particular penal squadron.

OFS Diana's periscope breached the surface of the water, the main body of the sub some 30 feet underneath the water. The captain of the Diana pointed the periscope towards the port, looking for something. They had been given a target. They were to report their findings back to command. Considering the scale of the target, it didn't take long for the captain to spot it.

At 11:30AM local time, the OFS Diana transmitted a message and photographs via VLF transmission to an Osean satellite waiting in high earth orbit. This message was tagged as top secret and would not leave a log in any record book. It was sent directly to the echelons of Osean High Command. The crew of the Diana would deny that this message was sent or that the mission it was based on ever happened. There were three photographs, all depicting a harbour with a massive vessel docked inside.

In the central command centre of the Osean Defence Forces, a panel of high-ranking officers were sitting around a large table in an isolated room with the mentioned photos displayed on projectors. These flag officers all came from a mix of all three services; generals from the Army and Air Force and admirals from the Navy.

'General Shepherd, if I may interject, this plan doesn't sound like a good idea for our war strategy.' At the table sat Vice Admiral Tahir Logan; former commanding officer of the OFS Vulture II. He had an extra star on his shoulder to signify his recent promotion.

'And why do you think this, Admiral?' The lead man of the table, the Chief of Air Force, asked the vice admiral.

'Our top aces are the very people who have defended this nation in times of need. You're suggesting throwing a hundred extremely skilled pilots into the blender.' Logan defended his reasoning.

'Have you not heeded the lessons of the Belkan War? Those aces could very well end up against us in the future.' Shepherd brought up a counter to Logan's reasoning. The latter sighed in defeat and conceded.

'I agree with Admiral Logan's pleads. Throwing all of our aces at a hard target at this stage in the war could end up giving us a disadvantage.' One of the other admirals in the room, Vice Admiral David Keeson, defended Logan.

'Are you saying that we should abandon this plan?' An Army general asked.

'No, I'm saying that we should throw away a couple of aces at a time so we don't completely exhaust our supply before the war ends.' Keeson retorted. General Shepherd seemed to understand where Keeson was coming from.

'Hmm. I admit, you two sailors have a point. We'll test our plan with a small number of pilots. General Clemens, who are the closest to the Alicorn?' Shepherd asked an Air Force general, Brigadier Howard Clemens.

'The LRSSG. Four aces on the list. Captain Kovac, Captain Gregor, Major Grimm and Commander Snow.'

'Should be five.' Logan muttered to himself, quiet enough so that no-one heard it.

'Give them the order.' Shepherd ordered the brigadier.

'Yes sir.' Clemens acknowledged and stood up to leave the room.

'Table adjourned. As you were.' Shepherd dismissed the table.

September 3, 2019

Orca Forward Air Base, Usea

'Brigadier-General Howard Clemens. Hey captain, why does that name sound familiar?' Grimm asked Alex when he heard about the flag officer coming to meet the LRSSG.

'He was Heirelark's base adjutant back in 2010. Looks like he made flag rank since then.' Alex answered the question.

'Guy's a nasty son of a bitch.' Count remarked. Most of the LRSSG pilots were sitting around in the crew room doing nothing in particular.

'You've met him?' Jaeger asked. Count nodded.

'He was an instructor at instructor school a couple of years back.'

'The fact that you used to be a flight instructor worries me, Count.' Trigger commented jokingly. 'Anyway, what's the deal? Far as I know, we don't warrant a flag visit.'

'Wiseman will tell us whenever he gets out of the comms room.' Alex said. Right on mark with him saying that, the man himself entered the room. He didn't seem particularly happy.

'Oh, this is gonna be fun.' Wiseman said to himself as he approached the rest of his squadron.

'If by fun you mean a pain in the ass, then yeah you'd be right.' Alex stretched in his chair. 'What's the mission?'

'A wild goose hunt. We're being assigned to a task force to capture some sort of Erusean superweapon. The general will have more details ready for when he gets here.' Wiseman answered, taking a seat at a wooden table.

'Didn't we destroy most of Erusea's superweapons?' Lanza asked. The LRSSG and its predecessor, the DSRU, had been responsible for taking down many of Erusea's big and scary weapons. Surely they were running short.

'Well, the Eruseans still have an Arsenal Bird running wild.' Huxian suggested.

'I don't think that'd be it. Short of a nuke, we have no way of destroying it.' Snow counter-suggested. 'Didn't they pick up some old Yuktobanian super-sub a while back?'

'They did, but it went missing during refit trials at sea.' Fencer recalled.

'Hmm. Either way, I guess we'll find out come tomorrow.' Wiseman said. There was universal nodding around the room.

The following day

Most of the LRSSG was assembled in the briefing room. One was missing; Fencer. Not surprising, since the poor bastard had cracked his sternum after falling over into a metal table. The doctors hadn't cleared him for flight operations.

'So who's the important guy in the suit?' Huxian asked sarcastically while everyone was waiting for the briefing to begin.

'Some crazy old instructor from the stone age-' Count began to answer as sarcastically as Huxian had started, but he was rapidly cut off.

'How much longer are you going to make me wait, Captain?' The general at the front of the room asked to cancel out the conversation. He sounded annoyed and impatient. Count backed down silently and waited for the general to start. 'Mr North, are we ready?' He asked, seemly to himself.

'Connected and ready.' A voice that sounded like it was going through a radio filter answered. On the screen at the front of the room, a small box came up with a portrait of a person. Glasses, heavily built frame and heavily tanned skin. The general sighed, straightened up some and looked at the pilots assembled in the room.

'I'm Brigadier-General Howard Clemens. I'm in charge of this operation. The objective of this operation is to capture an advanced submarine docked at the harbour in Artigilo Port, which was previously fire-bombed to the floor by a previous operation.' Clemens began. Trigger, Count and Alex all exchanged glances. They had been the people who led the operation that had seen Artigilo all but wiped off the map. Clemens continued. 'However, Erusean forces have repaired the port facilities and are using them to resupply and maintain the aforementioned advanced submarine.'

'Here's a question.' The man on the speakers, Mr North, posed a question. 'How long do you think this submarine is?'

'Two hundred.' Trigger guessed.

'Three fifty.' Alex guessed shortly after.

'Close. The answer is 495 metres. It's also 116 metres wide, and submerged displaces 810,000 tons.' Mr North corrected the two pilots. Alex looked over to Snow, who was directly right of him in the adjacent seat.

'So about Yuke super-subs…' Alex quietly remarked while Mr North continued with the submarine's specifications.

'It's a super-sized nuclear submarine powered by two liquid-metal cooled reactors.'

'Big motherfucker. So who's the quiz show host?' Huxian asked.

'David North. I'm an OIA agent. My speciality is in advanced technology analysis.' David North replied.

'Why aren't you here?' Huxian asked a second question. The people that worked for the Osean Intelligence Agency historically always worked from the front lines.

'I don't need to be. I can do my job from my office. Besides, I've got other projects I need to head up back at home.' David answered. Alex grinned faintly. Any spook given a number of things to work on was a good spook in his opinion. 'Anyway, this super-submarine is called the Alicorn. It's a submarine. But it can stage aircraft operations like a carrier.'

'Woah, woah,' Alex cut off David for a second so he could interject. 'Are you saying this is a Scinfaxi-class sub?'

'Not quite. Alicorn is in a class of its own. It's force projection capabilities are equivalent to an Osean carrier battle group, and it has some mean firepower. Twin railguns for example, with a range of 400 kilometres.'

'Jesus.' Alex muttered. He had fought three Scinfaxi-class super subs, and the worst they could throw at him were a few VTOLs and some fancy burst missiles.

'So where has this thing been anyway? Sounds like a monster if there ever was one.' Lanza asked a question, one that was currently sitting on everyone's minds. Alicorn was indeed a monster. Why hadn't it been fielded against Osea?

'She's only recently been recommissioned. Alicorn spent two years stuck on the ocean floor angled at 15 degrees, losing 30 of her crew of 360 in the process.'

'Oh, that makes sense. So what, we just blow up the damn thing?' Lanza speculated.

'We capture it. Don't make me repeat myself.' Clemens sharply interjected. 'We've had reports from internal sources that there are weapons of mass destruction onboard the Alicorn. If we can secure those weapons, we'll gain advantage in post-war peace negotiations.'

'Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.' Grimm mused. Nuclear weapons? Fun.

'The Osean Navy has deployed an amphibious warfare group to capture the Alicorn. Our mission is to secure air superiority over the AO and protect the task force.' Wiseman took over from Clemens to give the actual mission objective.

'They'll scuttle the submarine if we take too long. To make sure that doesn't happen, you'll be taking air superiority while the fleet goes into action.' Clemens took over from Wiseman to say an additional few words.

'Sir, wouldn't that be risking the-' Grimm began to say.

'That is none of your concern.' Clemens cut him off, disinterested. Grimm sat back and sighed in annoyance.

'So we're risking our fleet for political games.' Huxian kept going where Grimm had stopped. Clemens shot an icy glance at Huxian. Huxian stared back, undeterred.

'They should have taught how to address superiors in boot camp.' Clemens finally said after a tense few seconds.

'An EW squadron will be deployed.' Wiseman broke the tension. 'Their electronics should prove handy. They'll arrive the same time as you.'

'Only Strider Squadron will sortie.' Clemens spoke out loud. Everyone looked at him in horror.

'Woah, we have to sit this one out?' Lanza complained in Cyclops Squadron's sake.

'That's a dumb fucking idea only having one squadron-' Alex complained for Razgriz.

'Commander Williams, do I need to have you reprimanded for insulting a flag officer?' Clemens quickly shut down Razgriz's squad leader. He seemed to ponder the thought of something for a second. 'Actually, on second thought. Razgriz and Strider, you'll both be deploying.'

Alex released a sigh of relief. 'Thank you sir. I apologise.'

'If that's all, dismissed.' Clemens dismissed the briefing and left the room. Everyone else started to leave. Alex stood up as if to leave, but went nowhere. Once the room was empty, he spoke.

'David, you still there?' He asked.

'I am, commander. What do you need?' David's voice rang out.

'This… Alicorn. What sort of history does she have?'

AIRCRAFT

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

Razgriz 2/Swordsman: F-14D Super Tomcat

Razgriz 3/Archer: Typhoon FGR.4

Razgriz 4/Mythic: Typhoon FGR.4

Strider 1/Trigger: F-15E Strike Eagle

Strider 2/Count: F-15C Eagle

Strider 3/Jaeger: F-15C Eagle

Strider 4/Huxian: F-15C Eagle

The pilots of Strider and Razgriz were reviewing a map in the crew ready room. It showed the local topography of the Artigilo region, ocean and all. Alex was annotating the map, marker pen in hand.

'Expect surface-to-ship batteries on the coastline here and here,' Alex drew two straight lines that flanked the main port where the Alicorn was supposed to be. 'There's an airfield out to the west housing first-response interceptors, with inland bases providing a stronger response.'

'Place will probably be covered by an anti-air umbrella. The sub's close-in defences are good but I doubt they'll rely on them.' Jaeger suggested. Leaving a major asset so close to the Osean front lines unprotected was a bad idea in any situation.

'Concur.' Trigger agreed. 'I can carry HARMs and SBDs as a side dish on the Strike Eagle.'

'Grimm, load up with some air-to-ground. We'll carry some as well.' Alex ordered Grimm, who nodded in acknowledgement.

'What about the ships?' Snow, the only actual sailor in the group, asked. The amphibious ready group would obviously be bringing their own baggage as well.

'Puffin, Flycatcher, Babbler, Hamerkop, Kite, Night Jar and Parrotbill. A landing platform ship, two Tico cruisers and four Burke destroyers. That's a lot of all-around firepower packed into one task force.' Count remembered the composition of the task force and summarised its firepower. Of the seven ships, only one didn't have the AEGIS intercept system.

'Alright.' Alex looked over the map to make sure he didn't miss anything. 'We're coming from the south and our primary objective is to protect the fleet. We'll be putting ourselves between the Eruseans and the task force. Drake Squadron will catch anyone that slips through, while Enchanter provides EW support. Strider, you'll cover the eastern flank. Razgriz, we've got the west. Understood?'

'Transparently.' Trigger confirmed.

'Ack.' Snow also confirmed.

'Outstanding. Let's get out there and kick some ass.'

The LRSSG went out to their aircraft. Despite the weather being absolutely miserable with rain pouring down on the base, they were still cleared to taxi and get into the skies. Alex led the formation in his venerable Su-33M3. The others were right behind him.

'Razgriz, launch. Strider, cleared for flight operations.' The tower waved them off as they made it to the runway. Alex kicked his engines into full thrust, felt his Flanker gain speed until he pulled up on the stick and the aircraft entered the skies. A Tomcat, two Typhoons and four Eagles were following shortly behind. They didn't have to travel exceptionally far. Artigilo was close enough that they didn't have to carry external fuel tanks with them.

'Puffin Actual, this is Razgriz Leader. Checking in.' Alex called through the satellite radio network that was connecting his squadron with the navy's task force.

'Reading you loud and clear, Razgriz. We're leaving Seal's Bridge now, should be there in half an hour.' The commanding officer of the OFS Puffin, Captain Robin Airey, acknowledged.

'Roger that, we'll be with you at H-hour.' Alex said. Seal's Bridge was a naval base on the south-east tip of the Usean mainland. It was administered by Triomph, a country allied to Osea.

'Good to hear. We'll be in touch.'

The LRSSG pressed forward. The weather rapidly cleared up as they left the Rocky Island region and flew over the allied territory underneath them. The trip, as was the case for most of their operations, was uneventful as it was boring. Alex took the chance to appreciate the landscape under him as they travelled. He stopped doing that when they crossed over water again. Alex tugged on his sleeves and put them around his elbows, revealing the old burn scars and tattoos on his forearms. He always preferred fire over water.

'Puffin Actual, Razgriz Leader, entering your airspace.' Blaze announced to the landing ship when Razgriz and Strider actually entered the AO. Puffin and her task force were at the southern-most part of the area, roughly twenty kilometres away from the beachhead.

'Welcome to the party. We've already been engaged by surface-based anti-ship missiles, so make yourself comfortable and start intercepting.' Captain Airey ordered.

'Wait, where the hell are the other squadrons?' Count asked. He had a point. Drake and Enchanter Squadrons were nowhere to be seen. Even though they were meant to be arriving on H-hour like the LRSSG had.

'There's been a delay. Enchanter and Drake will enter the AO in five minutes.' All the way back at their base, Clemens reported the situation. Blaze groaned in annoyance. Their job was about to get harder than it should have been.

'Strider, change of plan. There's no fall-back if anyone gets through.' Blaze adjusted accordingly, all the while putting his engines into full afterburner and shooting off towards the enemy F-15Js that were approaching the fleet. 'Razgriz, engage.'

The first person on the Osean side to get a shot off was Mythic. She fired an AMRAAM at the leader of the first F-15J squadron. The leader noticed and evaded, unsuccessfully. The missile slammed straight into the engine compartment of the foreign Eagle, blowing off its rear end and forcing the pilot to eject. Blaze, Snow and Grimm all followed with their own missile launches at the other three F-15s in that squad. Like their own fourth squad member, all three AMRAAMs hit and destroyed the targets on the other side. The first enemy squadron was gone. But there were many more in the skies and ready to engage the Oseans. Blaze's tracking radar registered at least two dozen enemy fighters of all kinds. F-15Js, MiG-29s, Su-37s, even a small squadron of F-4Es.

'Jesus, they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for this sub.' Blaze mused. He hadn't seen or heard of Phantoms being utilised in any recent war. Regardless of technological standing, he went on to engage the F-4Es first. They were the most pressing threat to the surface fleet. His Su-33M3 was much more maneuverable than the decades-old Phantoms and Blaze easily stuck onto the tails of the F-4Es. He noticed they were equipped solely with air to air weapons. The poor bastards were being pressed into air combat. Alex loosed off four Sidewinders at close range at the Phantoms that were trying to get away. At the range he had taken the shot none of the F-4s could have evaded. All four were hit and went death-spiralling into the tropical waters. No ejections. Blaze whipped around and went looking for another target, which he found in a lone Su-37 trying to challenge him. It came at him, guns blazing. Blaze evaded the 23mm cannon shells and let the pilot of the Su-37 overshoot him. Once that happened, Blaze became the attacker and started chasing the infamously maneuverable Terminator. Luck proved to be on the Osean pilot's side for his Su-33 was at Su-37 standards and the pilot of the Su-37 wasn't exceptionally skilled. The Su-37 pilot jinked in every direction to evade Blaze. He even tried slamming on the brakes to shoot past the Su-33M3 chasing him. Blaze denied the maneuver by doing the same so that the Su-37 was still in front of him and with no kinetic energy left to evade a well-placed cannon burst. The resulting 23mm shells shredded apart the Terminator. It burst into flames and exploded, leaving behind no survivors.

While Blaze was on a goose-chase with F-4s and Su-37s, Grimm and Snow were flying right into the air-defence net established around the Alicorn. As the pair approached, Grimm noticed the sheer scale of the submarine docked in the port. It was even bigger than the Scinfaxi and Hrimfaxi, with jet-black paint covering the entire thing. The damn thing even had a full-length runway unlike the two super-subs that had come before it. Those two only had a VTOL pad and UAV bays.

'Big son of a bitch. Grimm, time to hammer those SAM sites!' Snow remarked on the size of the Alicorn while indicating for Grimm to use the Hellfire ATGMs that he had on the pylons of his Typhoon. Grimm complied and quickly released a salvo of eight of the anti-tank missiles at the various targeting radars and missile trucks on the ground. The first salvo was focused on taking out the short-range SAMs that would threaten helicopters launched from the Puffin. The engines on the back of the Hellfires kicked in as they were released from the rails and thrown towards the various close-in air defence vehicles. Snow's F-14D and Grimm's Typhoon roared overhead doing just under the speed of sound. Behind them, there were flashes followed by smoke, sand and dust erupting from the ground. Eight air-defence batteries and vehicles had been turned into scrap by the Hellfires. The two aircraft got a few kilometres inland before turning around and coming in for another run. This time Grimm was aiming for the surface-to-surface missile trucks that would be threatening the task force. There were a couple of black smoke trails leading up into the sky from where some of the missile trucks were meant to be. The destroyers and cruisers had fired back and hit a couple evidently. Grimm set six Hellfires to autolock on the remaining vehicles. They tracked the targets. Grimm fired and the missiles came off the rails heading for the trucks. Much like the SAMs and AAA batteries not even a minute ago, the SSM trucks were all hit and turned into slag by blast fragmentation warheads. A couple of the trucks went up in massive explosions, the warheads contained by their missiles detonating on contact with the Hellfires. Their actions didn't go unnoticed. A squadron of MiG-29s were now on their tails. Snow went upwards, using the power of his Tomcat's engines to get a speed and altitude advantage, while Grimm broke to the right using the superior maneuverability of his Typhoon to get around the Fulcrums.

'Surface-to-surface batteries have been destroyed.' Grimm reported while pulling a 7G turn around the Fulcrums that were trying to get missile shots off at him. They all missed and after some precise turning Grimm was now the attacker. A much better pilot, Grimm quickly shot down the first Fulcrum that had been chasing him with a well-placed cannon burst. The second didn't get much further than the first, this one hit up the tailpipe by a Sidewinder and hit in the cockpit region by a particular Osean F-14 pilot. Both missiles made sure that the Fulcrum was completely fragmented and destroyed.

'New radar contacts, straight from the north. MiG-31s and Su-34s. Take down those Fullbacks before they can target the fleet!' Long Caster reported new Erusean fighters coming to reinforce the air stations there. Flying around chasing after F-15s, Mythic quickly checked her radar display and sighed. She took out an engine on one of the F-15 squad leaders and broke off to intercept the fighter-bombers before they approached the task force. Su-34s were very good anti-ship missile carriers. They were a decent while inland, but still within range of Mythic's AMRAAMs. She fired a salvo of four at the approaching the Fullbacks on a passive setting so they wouldn't be detected instantly. The AMRAAMs quickly flew in, approaching the area where she had fired them. Once they did, Mythic activated their seekers. The Su-34 was a maneuverable fighter-bomber by comparison to the F-15E or F-16V, but not maneuverable enough to evade AAMs at close-range. And unlike their cousin fighter-bombers, Su-34s couldn't absorb direct missile hits. The four AMRAAMs all hit their targets, and in a single large swipe a primary threat to the task force had been taken out. However, Mythic hadn't gone unnoticed. The MiG-31 Foxhounds that were entering the AO went on a bearing heading straight for her. Assuming that there were missiles in the air coming for her, Mythic pulled straight up and climbed. The three Foxhounds - one was bugging out, Mythic guessed mechanical troubles - didn't miss a beat and climbed to follow her up. The leader of the formation locked onto Mythic's Typhoon. The RWR started blaring. Instead of going evasive, Mythic looked in the direction of the incoming Foxhounds and popped off a Sidewinder. The small IR-guided missile traced the heat coming from the giant engines of the interceptor and rushed off to hit it. The lead pilot didn't see the missile coming, so it was a surprise to him when it slammed into the midsection of the Foxhound and gave him a violent shake. Big as the MiG-31 was, the Sidewinder didn't destroy it, but it did force him to drop and turn around while churning out flames and smoke. The other two Foxhounds continued the intercept. Mythic gave the other two a firm warning by firing another two Sidewinders. Unlike their squad leader, the two Foxhounds assumed missiles were coming their way and varied up their flight maneuvers so they didn't take a dead-on hit. This worked for one of them, but not the other, and unlike their leader this missile hit the third man in the flight near the cockpit, killing the pilot and forcing the aircraft out of the fight. Mythic straightened out her flight path but was forced to dive again when the remaining Foxhound fired one of its own missiles at her. The thicker long ranged R-33E missile of the MiG-31 shot overhead and detonated on a proximity fuze. Mythic was luck, only the first few fragments of the missile and warhead doing any sort of damage. She heard an audible sparking noise distincitive of metal on metal contact.

'Shit.' Mythic cursed, using a fourth Sidewinder to lash back at the attacking MiG-31. This time the missile hit, catching the MiG-31 in the belly as they passed each other. The Sidewinder didn't destroy the aircraft completely, but it did cause some significant damage. No longer combat-capable, the MiG-31 turned around for its home base before Mythic could come around and finish it off, and shot off into the distance with smoke trailing. Herself damaged, Mythic looked over her shoulder to check what had happened. She couldn't see anything. Waving it off, she went back into the fray.

Meanwhile on the eastern flank of the battlefield, Trigger was tearing apart the Eruseans limb from limb. He moved from aircraft to aircraft, destroying anyone who was stupid enough to get in his way with close-range AMRAAM shots and mulching apart every Harrier equipped with bombs that he could find. He did all of this while carrying air-to-ground weapons in addition to the AMRAAMs and Sidewinders he already did carry. The F-15E was a beast at carrying weapons, and Trigger knew how to fly the F-15E very well.

'Support is here. Drake and Enchanter, make yourselves useful.' Long Caster reported the arrival of the two squadrons who were meant to be there five minutes ago.

ADDITIONAL AIRCRAFT

Drake 1/Kraken: F/A-18F Super Hornet

Drake 2-4: F/A-18F Super Hornet

Enchanter 1/Phantom: E/A-18G Growler

Enchanter 2-4: E/A-18G Growler

'Apologies for the late arrival. The catapults on the carrier broke down.' Lieutenant-Commander Alan 'Phantom' Eastfield, the squad leader for Enchanter Squadron, reported. Trigger sighed. All four? He asked himself.

'Welcome to the party. Drake, put yourselves in front of the task force and catch anything that slips through. Enchanter, start jamming radio signals.' Blaze quickly gave tasks to the newly-arrived squadrons. Trigger came around for another attack run on a group of Harriers coming after the task force. He loosed off a four-round salvo of AMRAAMs at the fighters. Being earlier ground attack versions, three of the four aircraft were destroyed by the first salvo. Trigger shot over the remaining Harrier, unable to fire a missile to hit the fourth in time. That was what the Eagle behind him was for. Jaeger fired one of his own Sidewinders at the fourth Harrier in the squad. This time the Harrier went down in a ball of flame.

'Long Caster, Strider 1, requesting bogey dope.' Trigger requested a drop of all targeting data for hostile aircraft in the region.

'Strider 1, three Fullbacks, eight Fulcrums, four Felons, twelve Harriers, six Eagle-Js, four Rafale Ms.' Long Caster reported back. A total of thirty-seven remaining aircraft in the area.

'Count, Huxian, get on those Fullbacks and Eagles. Jaeger, we've got the Harriers.' Trigger ordered. He and Jaeger went into a side-by-side formation to meet the quickly-approaching Harriers headon.

'Rog.' Huxian acknolwedged.

'Will do.' Count did the same. Trigger unleashed a six-shot salvo of AMRAAMs - all the long-range missiles he had left - and an extra pair of Sidewinders while Jaeger shot out four AMRAAMs of his own. The combined thrust of all the missiles created a giant smoke trail in the skies which made them easy to see. As a result, only seven of the twelve Harriers that the pair were after were hit and destroyed. The other five continued to press on, unfazed. Surprised that they were still sticking to a formation, Trigger dived in on them with his M61 cannon blazing. The 20mm shells found their way into the wing root of a Harrier, tearing off a wing and destroying it. He adjusted his fire to the right and killed the pilot of another Harrier. Jaeger scored a crippling hit with his own cannon on the leader of the formation, making one of them veer off an attacking path and back towards their base. The surviving two Harriers passed by the two defending Eagles. Neither went back for them. In Strider's place, the surviving attackers were met by a pair of AMRAAMs fired from the pylons of the Super Hornets of Drake Squadron. Both went down into the drink, nowhere near their intended target.

Meanwhile with the other half of Strider, Count and Huxian were chasing after the faster and more dangerous Fullbacks that could cause distress for the fleet. Before they could get to the Su-34s, there were two opposing F-15Js in the way. The Erusean F-15s fired at the Osean F-15s first. The two Oseans flew side-by-side with each other to create a single radar signature for the incoming Sparrow missiles. When they got close, Count and Huxian fired one each of their AMRAAMs at the opposing Eagles before splitting off and getting the Sparrows to fly in between each other. The maneuver worked, confusing the sensor warheads of the Sparrows and throwing them off target and out into the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, the Osean AMRAAMs were not confused by such tactics and hit their targets successfully, destroying both Eagles and leaving the supersonic Fullbacks exposed. Huxian fired an off-angle AMRAAM at the lead Fullback. The missile didn't turn fast enough before the Fullbacks shot past, ignoring the two. Count turned back, Huxian following closely behind, and put his engines into afterburner chasing after the Fullbacks. He popped off two AMRAAMs. The Fullbacks popped chaff and flares, throwing off one of the missiles, but it didn't do anything for the second missile which slammed into the back of the leader. The aircraft shuddered violently and started smoking before exploding mid-air. Count fired another AMRAAM at the second Fullback, sticking to him violently despite the two aircraft breaking off to evade the Eagles. Chaff and flares didn't save him this time, sending him to the afterlife as the AMRAAM destroyed the Su-34 like the rest. Count levelled out and looked for the third Fullback. No need. Huxian had already destroyed it by the time he had looked. The pair went back into formation and went looking for more targets.

'Jesus, there's a lot of them.' Count commented, referring to the massive amount of Erusean aircraft trying to oppose the Oseans.

'You see Trigger complaining? Man up.' Huxian rebuffed him.

'Yeah, yeah.' Count shook his head in amusement.

Flying around over the fleet, Phantom kept an eye on the battlefield while his support officer in the backseat of the Growler jammed any signals that were being transmitted from the port. Or at least what remained of it. There were some scattered supporting structures around the Alicorn, but anything else that used to be there was slag and concrete chunks.

'Transmission coming in from an unknown source. 'Two unknown air bogeys approaching.' In the backseat, Phantom's electronic warfare officer reported.

'Long Caster, the Eruseans have detected a pair of unidentified aircraft approaching the AO.' Phantom reported it directly to the AWACS.

'We're seeing that as well. All fighters, two unknown aircraft approaching. Airframe type, Su-47!' Long Caster reported this to the rest of the Osean forces.

Blaze checked his tactical display for the new bogeys.

'Where the hell did they pick up Berkuts?' Snow asked. The Eruseans only fielded Su-47s in very small numbers, and the squadrons that did have them were mostly used as interceptors around the capital.

'Trigger, those Berkuts are bee-lining straight for you.' Blaze pointed out something he noticed to Strider's leader. Having just made swiss cheese out of an Su-57, Blaze made speed to intercept the Su-47s before they made it to him.

'I'll kill you, Three Strikes!' Suddenly a deranged-sounding woman piped up on their radio frequency. Blaze didn't have to guess that the voice probably came from one of the pilots of the approaching Su-47s. What he did have to guess is how they had access to their encrypted radio frequency.

'Then you'll have to go through a demon first.' Blaze rebuffed the woman right as the two Berkets appeared within identification range. They had a strange paint job for aircraft; dazzle camo. An old scheme used for early 1920s fighters and warships to make it hard for an attacker to discern range. To make things even stranger, the two Su-47s also had low-vis Osean Air Force markings. They clearly weren't Osean. The lady had a Belkan accent. Blaze pressed onwards, putting himself between the Su-47s and Trigger. They seemingly ignored him. Blaze started tracking one and fired an AMRAAM at him. The missile went crazy as soon as it left the rail and shot off in a direction that he didn't fire it in. Blaze sighed in annoyance. He was going to have to do this with his cannon. When the leader of the two got within cannon range, Blaze fired a short and controlled burst. The first round clipped one of the vertical stabilizers, which caught their attention. The two shot over his head but came around looking to fight him.

'Oooh. Rage, you see that emblem?' The lady said, still operating on the Osean radio channel.

'I do. Thought they all disappeared?' A male started speaking, also on their radio. This man sounded like he was much more level-headed. He also had a Belkan accent.

'Doesn't matter. I'll still rip its throat out!' The lady viciously said, and in correspondence one of the Su-47s launched an attack at Blaze in his Su-33.

'Niche heute (not today).' Blaze replied in Belkan, sending his Su-33 into a near-standstill in the air and firing a long burst of his cannon at the attacking Su-47. The pilot was too slow to react and caught the first half of the burst before being warded off, grey smoke belching out from a damaged engine. A missile was fired at Blaze. He pointed the nose towards the sea floor and flew down so that the missile shot out above him.

'You bitch!' The lady cursed in anger.

'Shit, we're out of our league. Scream, we're pulling back!' The male ordered the lady. He definitely had control over his emotions.

'Goddamnit! Three Strikes, I'll send you down so fast you won't have time to piss your pants!' The lady taunted before flying off with her squad leader.

'They're retreating!' Count pointed out.

'Let them go. The mission is more important.' General Clemens stepped in suddenly. Just as well. Razgriz and Strider Squadrons were starting to run out of ammo, and the Erusean presence in the port was thinning out. Blaze reminded himself to ask a tech later how the fuck had a pair of little shits in Berkuts had broken into their frequencies. For now, he went into a holding pattern around the task force. The three fighter squadrons and the cruisers in the fleet had eliminated every Erusean aircraft lingering around the area.

'Puffin Actual, Razgriz Leader, skies are clear. You are ready to begin landing operations.' Blaze reported to the captain of the Puffin.

'Outstanding, Razgriz. Commencing capture operation.' Captain Airey said from the bridge of the Puffin. Blaze sat back in his seat. Mission effectively complete.

'About damn time. I'll be taking my leave. I trust you people can keep an eye on things.' Clemens half-yawned out. The guy was insufferable.

'Mission complete. I can finally eat my sausage rolls.' Long Caster joked from up above. Blaze chuckled. So did Trigger and Phantom.

'You damn AWACS ops.' Phantom joked with the AWACS.

Onboard one of the destroyers, OFS Night Jar, the ship's command information centre was processing information as it came in. Night Jar was steaming aft and to the starboard side of the Puffin at such an angle that if you were trying to find her from Alicorn's perspective she was hidden. This fact would later save the ship and all 330 of the crew.

A fire-control man was looking at the optical view of one of the masts above the bridge of the Night Jar. He noticed movement at the Alicorn. Specifically, on top of the two engine pods.

'TAO, I can see movement top-side on the Alicorn.' The fire-control man reported to the tactical actions officer. The TAO heard this and immediately reported it to the ship's captain.

Blaze was flying circles to the north-west of the task force when he heard it.

'All friendly units, be advised, the Alicorn is moving!' Captain Airey from the Puffin reported. Blaze looked towards the Alicorn. He could see a small wake form behind the super-sub as it started moving towards the port entrance. 'Cruising south, making 5 knots. Wait, is tha-'

Blaze blinked, and in an instance it seemed as if the entire top portion of the Puffin had magically caught fire. There was a deep boom sound that resonated through the air that could be heard even from his position. This anomaly wasn't just contained to the Puffin. The two cruisers leading the task force exploded, hit by some sort of energy weapon. A couple of seconds later, three of the four destroyers were hit by the same thing and exploded. One of them, the Kite, detonated spectacularly. The entire ship disappeared in what was probably a magazine explosion. Once the smoke cleared, there were shattered pieces of what once had been an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer rapidly sinking into the tropical waters. In a scarce few seconds, six of the seven ships of the task force had been vaporized. The lone survivor of the task force, a destroyer called Night Jar from what the IFF was telling him, pushed ahead of the sinking carcass of the Puffin, wake spilling out behind her. There was a small puff of smoke from the forecastle of the destroyer, and a moment later there was an explosion on the Alicorn. Right where one of the railguns would have been.

'This is the Night Jar! I don't know what the fuck just happened but the Puffin is on fire and is sinking!' Someone onboard the last remaining destroyer, probably the captain, reported. 'Exchanging fire with the Alicorn!' A bunch of white trails shot up from the Alicorn's engine pods. Missiles. They arced up and then down coming after the Night Jar. The latter retaliated with a full salvo of air-defence missiles, RIM-66 SM-2 Standard and RIM-162 Enhanced Sea Sparrows. The type of attack she was defending against was exactly what she was built for, and as expected she did the job well. A total of forty-eight missiles were launched at her. None of them came close to touching her. Night Jar and Alicorn passed each other, the former pelting the latter with shells from her Bushmaster autocannons. Against a ship more than twice her size, the shells did nothing but scratch paint off the hull. Recognising this, the gunners of the autocannons adjusted their fire to the much more vulnerable Rafale M fighters that were assembling on the flight deck. Having a large amount of explosive filler, the shells absolutely shredded apart the fighters on the deck then and there. All four exploded, leaving fragments on the deck. Alicorn accelerated ahead away from the port and the destroyer. Blaze watched her go. There wasn't anything he could do about it, not with the weapons he currently had loaded.

'The Alicorn's heading out to sea. Long Caster, we cannot pursue, there are sailors in the water!' The captain of the Night Jar reported.

'Roger, Night Jar, stay on station to rescue anyone in the water. LRSSG, abort operation. Drake and Enchanter, provide overwatch for the destroyer until additional forces arrive on station.' Long Caster ordered the aircraft around.

'What about the Alicorn?' Trigger asked, uneasy with letting the giant superweapon of a sub get away.

'We can't track it when it dives.'

'Long Caster, requesting a field divert to the nearest friendly carrier. Drake won't last for an extended period of time without support.' Blaze requested to resupply at a carrier with his carrier-based aircraft.

'Take Swordsman with you. Granted.' Long Caster permitted him to do so. 'Everyone else, return to base.'