Today was the day.

The beginning of the end.

Cape Rainy was buzzing with activity. The paratroopers stationed at the base were getting their briefings and preparing their equipment. Warships in the port were leaving to join the venerable armada of ships approaching the Erusean capital. Transport aircraft, support aircraft, fighter aircraft, all sorts of aircraft were preparing for the big day ahead of them.

At the crew ready room, the pilots of the LRSSG were kitting up before heading to their briefing. Every single member - Alex, Snow, Grimm, Mythic, Wiseman, Count, Fencer, Huxian, Trigger, Jaeger, Lanza, Skald and Tailor - from all three squads were in there, regardless of any prior injury. Mythic was sliding into her gear despite the two stitches she had in her lip from being punched in the mouth on Operation Werewolf. She still had an aircraft to fly, too. Count still had a cut in his leg from when he had been hit by a stray bullet, but that wasn't stopping him from flying.

Grimm lightly jabbed Mythic in the shoulder as the two kitted up.

'How's your lip?' He asked. Mythic shrugged, fitting on her survival vest.

'Nothing that some paracetamol won't fix.' She answered, grabbing her blank helmet and sliding the chinstrap around a loop on her vest so it wouldn't go anywhere. Grimm scoffed in amusement. On the other side of the room, Trigger and Count were having a similar conversation.

'I'm no medical expert, but I don't think going out with a busted leg is a good idea.' Trigger was saying to the injured Count.

'Well damn Trigger, I'm not missing out on a war-ending opportunity.' Count rebuffed Mister Three Strikes. Count dismissed the fact that he had explicitly been told by the doctors not to fly. Trigger chuckled.

'If you're so insistent, go ahead. But I'm not responsible for you breaking your leg a second time.' Trigger gave Count a word of warning. Alex checked that all his kit was intact before exiting the room with his squad in tow. Cyclops followed them out, with Strider's members exiting the ready room last. Razgriz led the three squads into the briefing room, where Alex saw a particular man he had first met on the 24th of September, 2010, at Sand Island's mission control room.

'Major Tom. You son of a bitch.' Alex said out loud. The man he had just said the name of turned around, recognising the voice that had called out his name.

'Captain Williams. It has been some time, hasn't it?' Major Frank Thomas welcomed the leader of the Razgriz Squadron to the briefing room. Thomas was the briefing officer that served Wardog Squadron. He was also the briefing officer that had served the Razgriz back in the day. Neither of the two spent time reminiscing on older days. They both had jobs to do.

September 19, 2019, 1500 Hours

Operation Giant's Step

Farbanti, Erusea

The operation to capture the Erusean capital of Farbanti is beginning. This is the culmination of our work. We need to capture the Erusean Force's General Headquarters in the south of Farbanti and end this war. The plan is for ground troops to attack Farbanti from both the east and the north, and a task fleet will attack from the southwest. We will secure air superiority over the capital, while providing air support for our allies on the ground and in the water as required. By all accounts, we expect this to be an intense full-scale battle across land, sea, and air. Should you need to replenish your ammunition or make necessary repairs to your craft, forward replenishment stations have been set up to the north and to the east. For those of you who are flying carrier-capable aircraft, carriers will also be available to the west. Once the capital falls, the Erusean military will be isolated and thrown into chaos, making it easier for us to end the war. However, that can't happen until after the capital falls, so you guys are the stars of this battle. Erusea will fight like a tiger, but we cannot lose. We must seize the capital and end this war.

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: F-35B Lightning II

Strider 1/Trigger: F-22A Raptor

Strider 2/Jaeger: F-15C Eagle

Strider 3/Skald: F-15C Eagle

Strider 4/Lanza: F-15E Strike Eagle

Cyclops 1/Wiseman: F-15C Eagle

Cyclops 2/Count: F-15C Eagle

Cyclops 3/Fencer: F-15C Eagle

Cyclops 4/Huxian: F-15C Eagle

As Trigger and his pilots in Strider walked up to their hangar, Trigger noticed that there was a nose pointing out of the hangar that didn't belong to an F-15. He squinted, trying to focus on the nosecone of whatever he was seeing. That didn't help identify it, so he quickened his pace so he could see what the hell sort of aircraft was in the hangar. It was an F-22A, a Raptor.

'How in the fuck?' Trigger asked himself. He had no idea how a Raptor had managed to get into their hangar. There weren't any F-22 squadrons based at Cape Rainy. Trigger and the rest of Strider entered the hangar looking for an explanation.

'Woah.' Lanza said once he saw the F-22 in the hangar. Trigger noticed that Avril had a ladder propped up against the back of the Raptor, paintbrush in hand with a bucket of white paint nearby. She noticed that Trigger had entered and smiled while dropping down the ladder. From that smile, Trigger quickly realised what was going on.

'Is this-' Trigger began to ask.

'For you? Yeah. Someone back home is watching your progress and got this shipped in.' Avril answered what Trigger was about to ask. 'I hooked it up overnight with some more modern avionics. Painted your sin lines on as well.'

'Oh.' Trigger didn't know what to say at first. 'Thanks, I guess.'

Avril patted Trigger on the shoulder and left to go attend to other aircraft. Once she left, Trigger turned to Lanza and Tailor.

'New plan. Lanza, you're qualified on the Strike Eagle right?' Trigger asked the second-youngest of the squad.

'Yeah? Why, you need an attack pilot?' Lanza answered quizzically. Trigger pointed at his modified F-15E, still sitting in the hangar with its desert camo that he had painted on back when he was in Spare Squadron. Conveniently, it didn't have the three sin lines on it anymore.

'You and Tailor get to take the best F-15E in the Air Force.' Trigger briefed him and the even younger Tailor.

'Oh hell yeah.' Lanza liked the sound of that as did Tailor. The two dashed towards the Strike Eagle. Trigger chuckled to himself. Jaeger did as well. Those two were kids in adult bodies.

Over at Razgriz's hangar, the only thing different from their regular deployment schedule was the lack of a second Typhoon. Instead there was an F-35B in place of that second Typhoon. Mythic hadn't been able to get her hands on a spare FGR.4, so she was subbing in with the VTOL aircraft she had only flown once.

'Did you end up confronting the two survivors of that ace squad?' Grimm asked Blaze as they approached their assigned hangar space.

'That's a job for the intelligence branch.' Blaze answered. 'Besides, what would I ask? Why are they chasing us down?'

'It would be an answer at least.' Mythic pointed out, placing her helmet on her head. Blaze conceded that Mythic had a point, but it was a day too late to ask that question.

Ten minutes later, Razgriz, Cyclops and Strider found themselves idling behind the bombers and transport aircraft, waiting for them to take off before they themselves took off. Blaze checked the clipboard strapped to his thigh as he waited for the tower to clear them. The Oseans were throwing a hell of a lot of ordnance at the capital. The Ground Defence Force was throwing two divisions into the blender plus Spec-Ops teams. The Air Defence Force had numerous wings flying into the airspace of all types. The Maritime Defence Force was throwing the entire 2nd Fleet at Farbanti, and Blaze had heard they were even drawing from the mothball fleets to bolster their forces. Overall, the Eruseans had one hell of a fight coming up.

'LRSSG, clear to begin operations.' The ATC informed the three fighter squads that they were clear to take off. Blaze looked back up at his instruments and pushed his throttle forward. In the span of a few seconds he was lifting off and heading for Farbanti. The others followed behind him.

Unlike the trip from the Rocky Islands to Cape Rainy, the trip from Cape Rainy to Farbanti wasn't as much as a drag as the distance was much shorter. The LRSSG found themselves escorting a battalion of paratroopers embarked onboard C-17A Globemasters for the first half of the trip, before passing off that duty to Navy F-35Cs. The LRSSG then turned inland and went for the route that would take them to the outskirts of the engagement zone. Blaze checked his tactical display one more time before entering the AO. A large force of aircraft were approaching from the same vector as they were. To meet them was an equally large force of Erusean fighters.

'This looks like one hell of a party.' Wiseman commented once he saw the aerial forces opposing them. Blaze scoffed. The number of aircraft between the two sides were the same, but a third of the Erusean aircraft were attackers which tilted the air-to-air advantage in favour of the Oseans. The city of Farbanti became visible in the distance. Smoke was already rising up from certain vital points in the outskirts, and there were very few radar emitters on the surface. The Navy had done a good job of clearing out the major threats in their SEAD and DEAD attacks. In the far distance the sun was shining as it approached sunset. Blaze flipped down his tinted visor to keep the glare down.

'Razgriz, head on and engage hostile aircraft confronting our ground troops.' Blaze ordered his black-clad squadron to divert from the formation and to go and attack the enemy A-10s. They were the ones armed solely with air-to-air missiles for the first sortie. They approached the front-lines. Strider Squadron peeled off from the formation and headed out to sea, while Cyclops went towards Silver Bridge.

Of the four Razgriz aircraft, Blaze took the first shot, aiming and firing a four-shot salvo at a squadron of A-10Cs hunting the first line of Osean tanks. His AMRAAMs slammed into the slow and heavy attack aircraft. The missiles only took down one of four. The other three were damaged but were able to keep flying. Blaze reminded himself that the Warthogs were very heavily armoured before going after them and finishing the survivors off with his cannon. The Razgriz divided into two pairs. Blaze and Grimm went after the heavily-armoured A-10Cs and Su-25s while Snow and Mythic pounced on the more agile F-15Es and Su-34s. Blaze and Grimm gunned down the surviving A-10s, and then diverted to a second group of A-10s that were approaching the Osean vehicle columns.

'Aim for the canopy.' Blaze said to Grimm, himself aiming at the cockpit of the leader's A-10 and firing a short burst. While an A-10's canopy was effectively immune to small arms fire, the 23-millimetre shells fired by the cannon of Blaze's Su-33 were not small. They broke clean through the canopy and shot into the pilot, tearing him into bloody chunks. Blaze quickly banked to one side and did the same to the closest wingman, taking down two without wasting too much ammo. Grimm followed Blaze's example and quickly took down the other two Warthogs with his own 27-millimetre cannon. Four more aircraft joined the scrapyard.

The Lightning II/Tomcat pair intercepted a group of F-15Es doing bombing runs on the tank columns from high altitude. Climbing up from below, Mythic took the lead in firing on the enemy Strike Eagles with Sidewinders. The Eagle pilots weren't paying attention and so none of them saw the four IR-guided missiles that shot all four of them out of the skies. A nearby F-15J squad saw their fighter-bomber brothers get shot down and turned to engage the offending aces. Snow fired on them with AMRAAMs from his wing-mounted weapon pods. The leader and the pilot in the trail position evaded. The other two did not. The two surviving F-15Js split away from each other, firing at the F-14 and F-35 in the process. Snow and Mythic both turned out of the way of the missiles, evading them, before turning back and chasing down the offending Eagles in a close-quarters dogfight. Mythic went after the leader and after a very brief dogfight managed to catch him with an off-bore Sidewinder and shot him down. Over with the Tomcat, Snow started firing AMRAAMs from just out of dogfighting distance at the surviving Eagle. His first two missed as the pilot desperately tried to evade, but after using all of his kinetic energy dodging, the third one caught him right in the cockpit and destroyed the aircraft, killing the pilot in the process. Snow and Mythic joined back up and went after other fighter-bombers in the area.

Off of Farbanti's coast, Trigger didn't even think the OMDF's fleet needed their support. The scale between the Osean and Erusean fleets were so out of proportion it wasn't even a fair fight for the Eruseans. The Erusean fleet consisted of three Kirov-class battlecruisers, two Slava-class cruisers, five Udaloy-class destroyers, two Atago-class destroyers and four Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates. On the other hand, the Osean fleet consisted of three Iowa-class battleships, two Alaska-class battlecruisers, a Vulture II-class carrier, two Hubert-class carriers, six San Antonio-class LPDs, three Wasp-class LHDs, five Tarawa-class LHAs, ten Ticonderoga-class cruisers of both Flight I and II builds and thirty Arleigh Burke-class destroyers of mostly Flight IIA subclasses. That was sixteen ships against sixty-two in the vanguard. By the time Strider Squadron had arrived on station, that number was dropping.


Onboard the battleship OFS Maya, gunnery officer Lieutenant-Commander Ronald Hunter was guiding the combined fire of the three main gun turrets against one of the Erusean Kirovs. There was chatter from the other crew members in the CIC, tracking and intercepting threats that approached the fleet. Through the hull and over the overpowering voice of the crew, Hunter vaguely heard one of the CIWS turrets spin up and engage something.

'Missile incoming, brace for impact!' A radar operator reported. Everyone in the CIC held onto something, preparing for the shock from a missile impact. There was a light shockwave that went through the ship followed by a muffled boom. A missile had slammed into the Maya's armoured broadside. However, the bulk of the force was absorbed by the armoured belt and very little damage was sustained. In reply, Hunter checked the fire-control data being handed to him by the ship's surface tracking radar. A destroyer was charging their gunline. Sighing in disappointment, Hunter locked in the tracking data, confirmed with the TAO he was clear to fire and on the press of a button, nine 16-inch shells left the barrels of the main guns and flew towards the destroyer heading towards them.

A few seconds passed. The TAO reported to Hunter on the status of those shells.

'Target has been destroyed!' The TAO called out. The battleship's main guns had completely destroyed the ship coming after them. 'Switch fire to the AEGIS destroyers.'


Strider Squad beat them to hitting one of the Atago-class DDGs. Trigger, flying along in his F-22, came along at very low altitude aiming for the midsection of the ship. As he got closer, Trigger opened the weapons bay containing a mixture of AMRAAMs and GBU-39 SBDs, pulled the nose up slightly so that the bombsight lined up with the forward quarter of the ship and fired. Trigger released four SBDs before pulling up sharply to avoid smashing into the side of the ship. Trigger looked back as he climbed. The bombs slammed into the hull, broke through and exploded inside. To finish off the ship, Trigger then pushed his nose back and fell down towards the destroyer, dropping the remainder of his SBDs as he got close and leveled out. The destroyer shuddered as parts of its superstructure were blown outwards. The command deck went up in flames.

'AEGIS destroyer Talifen has been crippled. Nice work, Strider.' Long Caster congratulated them on a mission kill. Not answering, Trigger targeted an Su-34 that was flying around the Erusean fleet looking for an opportunity to strike at the Osean ships. He didn't find one before Trigger came up behind him and quickly sent him spiralling into the sea with the Fullback's engines gone, hit by a Sidewinder. Trigger was now left with some AMRAAMs and Sidewinders in the internal weapons bay and Mavericks on external pylons.

'Lanza, your turn to shine.' Trigger said to the pilot flying his previous aircraft, the modified F-15E.

'Roger.' Lanza acknowledged, going after the other AEGIS destroyer. He went in on a dive, evading a missile that targeted the F-15E as he did so, and dropped four cluster bombs on the ship. Against a ship with no armour plating, the bomblets shredded straight through every external structure that the ship contained. Radars, weaponry, metal and anything on the deckhouse of the ship was destroyed. The bomblets then peeled away the hull and damaged a lot more internal structures. Smoke from the explosions covered the ship for a few moments. When that smoke cleared, the ship was a mess. It wouldn't sink, but it was no longer combat capable. At least, it wouldn't have sunk until one of the battlecruisers, Alaska, slammed it with a full salvo of twelve-inch shells. The destroyer exploded, the shells absolutely shattering the hull of the ship. It broke in half and rapidly started sinking. Trigger felt bad for the crew of the ship. Did they really deserve to get hit when they were out of action?

'Trigger, we've got incoming fighters.' Jaeger pointed out the eight-man squad of Sea Harrier FR1s approaching Strider. Trigger pointed his Raptor towards the Harriers. The Eagle pilots did the same. The Harriers fired first, launching radar-guided missiles from medium range. The Strider aircraft evaded successfully. Trigger saw one of the missiles shoot past him, barely out of detonation range. Whistling to himself, Trigger took the opportunity to fire back, launching his own AMRAAMs at the enemy Harriers. Skald and Lanza fired back in sync with Trigger. It took Jaeger a few seconds to get back into a firing arc. The AMRAAMs streaked forward towards the VTOL-capable but slower and less maneuverable Harriers. Six of eight were downed. The other two moved back into position to take another shot at the Oseans, but Jaeger's missiles arrived just on time to slam the remaining two and turn them into fireballs. All eight Harriers down, Strider fell back into formation.

'Strider, move towards the Reconstruction Park.' Trigger ordered his squad. 'We'll support friendlies on the ground.'

'Copy.' Strider acknowledged.

Back on Razgriz Squad, Blaze and his crew were tangling with enemy fighter bombers and interceptors. There were many intense dogfights that didn't last very long as the pilots of the Razgriz shredded every enemy they came across. Blaze took on a pair of F-14Bs at once, destroying one with his cannon and hitting the second with a Sidewinder, destroying it as well. He then split from the burning coffins of the Tomcats and stuck to a Gripen-E, chasing it for a little while before shooting an IR-guided missile right up its tailpipe and destroying it. In the same general area, Snow was using the large amounts of missiles he had to his advantage and took long and medium-range potshots at the countless numbers of enemy fighters. A trio of Tu-142 ASW aircraft were blown out the air the moment they lifted off from the airport. Four F-16Cs gunning after Osean armoured transports were shot to shit when AMRAAMs peppered their bodies with molten shrapnel. A pair of AH-64Ds that decided to expose themselves were punished for it when Snow swatted them with missiles.

Also operating nearby were Grimm and Mythic in their pair, flying side by side to destroy anything that got in their way. F-15s were blown away. Su-35s and Su-37s quickly found themselves without living pilots if they got in the way. A four-man squad of what appeared to be some sort of ace unit flying specially-painted Su-47s tried to get around the two, and Mythic destroyed all four of them in one salvo. She was absolutely vicious in the F-35. However, that salvo exhausted her of her remaining air to air missiles.

'Razgriz 4, Winchester on AAMs.' Mythic reported this to the team. Nearby, Blaze used up one of his last remaining Sidewinders to take down an Su-37. He was out of air-to-air missiles as well.

'Razgriz 1, Winchester for missiles. Long Caster, requesting a divert to the nearest friendly station.' Blaze called this out on the radio.

'Copy. Blaze, Mythic, change bearing to 2-2-0. The carrier Hubert is open.' Long Caster answered the ammo call of the two fighters. Blaze and Mythic broke out of combat and headed out to sea. Not too far out beyond the horizon, there were carriers launching aircraft and providing rearmament and refuelling support. Hubert, one of the carriers that Blaze and Snow had flown off at the start of the war, was one of those carriers.

That left Snow and Grimm as the only two Razgriz currently in combat. Grimm, ever the confident pilot, took an enemy Gripen for a ride around the submerged city district. The enemy aircraft tried to take a missile shot, but Grimm entered the maze of destroyed buildings and turned sharply around a corner, making the missile lose its target and slam into a building. The Gripen refused to play Grimm's game and ascended above the building layer. This played into his favour as Grimm did a loop to get out of the buildings and ended up right behind the Gripen. The latter never noticed that he had been outplayed until a Sidewinder found the tailpipe of his aircraft and in one fell swoop killed him and destroyed his aircraft. Done toying around, Grimm went off to go annoy some ground attack aircraft. Snow joined him on that adventure.

'Do we take on the Strike Eagles or the Warthogs?' Snow asked, referring to which set of aircraft they should attack. Grimm looked up. The four-man of enemy F-15Es were closer and a more pressing threat to the ground forces.

'Eagles. The others can deal with the A-10s.' Grimm said, turning around and banking upwards to catch up with the F-15s. Snow and Grimm approached the fighter-bombers from below and behind.

'Hey Marcus, you want to know what I've noticed?' Grimm asked his wingman while they flew up to give chase.

'What?' Snow asked.

'There aren't any drones here.' Grimm answered. Snow thought about that for a few seconds.

'We haven't seen any drones since the Stonehenge operation, period.' He mentioned. Grimm thought about that. Snow was right. The LRSSG had not encountered any MQ-99s or MQ-101s since Operation Dragon Breath, on the 19th of August. Almost a full month ago.

'Think that's a bad thing?' Grimm broadly asked as he took a potshot at the leader of the F-15 formation. At the range he had fired, there was no way for the missile to miss. One of four down.

'I think we'll have some cleaning up to do after this mission.' Snow admitted, following Grimm's missile strike with a three-shot burst at the survivors. Two were destroyed, one evaded successfully.

'So much for this being the final mission of the war.' Grimm mused, sighing afterwards as he shot down the last Eagle in a short dogfight with his cannon, hitting both the pilot and WSO with one burst and sending the aircraft to its final grave.

'At the very least the rest of the war should be easy going.' Snow was positive at least. Without organised resistance from the Erusean armed forces, any sort of military push would be a lot easier.

Further out to sea, onboard the Vulture II, Talon slid the visor of her helmet down to block out the glare that was staring her down in the cockpit of an F-35C. The carrier was facing directly into the sun. She looked at her weapons display panel. On her wings were four AGM-135 anti-satellite missiles. An old relic of the 1980s, they were still very capable of knocking things out of orbit and the abundance of the weapon meant that it was being deployed wherever it could be carried. Talon's squadron of F-35s was one such unit as they could carry them under the wing pylons.

'Panther Squad, clear for takeoff. Call it.' The bubble operator, one of the flight crew sitting in the little glass canopy between the catapults, called out to Talon and the other three pilots in her squad. Talon saluted the operator and as per protocol she found herself flying down the deck and into the sky. Panthers 2, 3 and 4 weren't far behind. They flew away from the carrier and started heading towards their assigned firing zone. Panther's target was a group of military communication satellites.

Back in the Farbanti war zone, Strider Squadron was assisting the Osean troops occupied in the Reconstruction Park. Namely, they were going around eliminating any source of major resistance. For Trigger, this involved doing laps around the various suburb streets and hitting armoured vehicles with Maverick AGMs. That Leopard 2A5 in the street? Gone. A convoy of troops trucks? Eradicated. A pair of ZSUs lighting up the aircraft and helicopters that passed it? One blew up as its ammo was compromised by a Maverick, but Trigger noticed that he was out of air-to-ground weapons as he flew over the surviving SPAAG vehicle. That survivor didn't get to celebrate its life for long as Jaeger hit it with one of his own Mavericks.

Out of any meaningful weaponry for the job, Trigger looked around on the tactical map to check the progress of the various fronts. The army was steadily pressing inwards, supported by naval gunfire support from the ships quickly making steam towards Farbanti Harbour. The major designated points of resistance were being hammered by the big guns from the battleships and battlecruisers, which made things easier for the support aircraft. In the skies, there was nowhere safe for Erusean aircraft to hide as the destroyers in the water and the overwhelming number of aircraft in the skies had the entire area covered. That said, the Eruseans weren't letting up in the air and casualties among other squadrons were starting to mount.

'Strider 1, detaching to rearm.' Trigger reported, splitting off from his squad for the short term to go pick up more weapons. As a pilot of an Air Force aircraft, he had to fly out to a field a little ways away from the city.

While Trigger was leaving the AO to grab some more weapons, Blaze and Mythic were returning to the AO after having grabbed more weapons. They were both loaded for a large air-to-air engagement. Razgriz 1 and Razgriz 4 entered the area of engagement into a place where the Oseans had stirred the hornet's nest. Over the Silver Bridge area, there were dozens upon dozens of close-range dogfights happening between various aircraft of all types. The proximity of this fight between the two sides was denying any support from the OMDF AEGIS-equipped destroyers. Blaze and Mythic both joined in on the action, looking to assist the exhausted OADF and OMDF fighter aircraft.

'New enemy reinforcements coming in from the west. Hornets and Tomcats.' Long Caster pointed out to the LRSSG. Blaze looked. Sixteen aircraft, four squads of F/A-18Cs and F-14Ds.

'Razgriz, divert to intercept those reinforcements.' Blaze ordered his squad. He and Mythic turned away from the giant fight to head back out to sea and gain altitude. Snow and Grimm broke out of the big engagement to come along with the other two. Flying in a column formation, the four black-bodied aircraft ascended to meet with the enemy fighters. Blaze was wondering where they came from. They clearly came from a carrier, but where?

Ignoring that question for a moment to focus on the aircraft, Blaze was the first from the squad to fire at the enemy, in this case firing a single AMRAAM at one of the Tomcats. The Tomcat didn't evade and just took the missile without a fight. This alerted Blaze. Fighter pilots didn't just take missiles for no reason. The various surviving aircraft formed a ring around one of the centre F/A-18Cs. Blaze saw a white bomb-looking object on the centre pylon of that Hornet. He quickly recognised the shape of that bomb and recalled that specific bomb's purpose.

'All elements on this channel, NUCFLASH, NUCFLASH!' Blaze called out urgently on the radio. NUCFLASH was the keyword used by the Osean Defence Forces for the enemy deployment of a nuclear weapon. The Erusean F/A-18 had a B61 GPS-guided nuclear bomb, a weapon that had a maximum destructive capability of 400 kilotons.

'Come again?' Count asked, making sure he had heard that right.

'Razgriz, intercept and destroy the carrier before it gets into drop range!' Long Caster ordered the closest squad to the nuclear carrier. Blaze, Snow, Grimm and Mythic all pressed their aircraft to full speed to close the distance. They all volley-fired a lot of AMRAAMs at the enemy fighters, looking to take all of them out so that the bomb didn't get close. A wave of twenty missiles from the four aircraft went forward and out towards the formation of fighters. The fighters that weren't carrying a nuclear weapon all surged out in front of the target Hornet and blocked the missiles. There was a giant collective fireball as all of the missiles exploded in roughly the same area and took down most of the escorts with it. The Hornet carrying the nuke appeared from underneath the fireball of death. Three other Hornets and a Tomcat were still following it.

'Jesus christ.' Blaze muttered to himself, getting in nice and close to fire a Sidewinder. Unfortunately, the Tomcat's pilot did something suicidal and threw himself at Blaze. The latter rolled out of the way, evading the Tomcat but losing the lock on the nuke Hornet at the same time. Cursing, Blaze used that Sidewinder on the Tomcat and damaged it enough to keep it out of the way. Grimm took Blaze's spot and fired one of his own Sidewinders at the nuke Hornet. The escorts couldn't get in the way quick enough to block it, but they didn't have to. The nuke Hornet had some sort of electronic field surrounding it that could scramble the sensors on their missiles. Grimm's Sidewinder went crazy and went spiralling off in a random direction. It went in a random enough direction to hit the already damaged Tomcat, destroying it with the second hit.

'The target's got a disruption field affecting missiles. Hit it with your cannon.' Grimm reported this to the other members in the squad. Snow was the closest to taking the shot. The Super Tomcat pilot wasted little time in firing a long burst. The 20-millimetre shells shot out of the barrel of the M61 Vulcan and headed towards the nuke Hornet. They did nothing. As if stopped by some sort of invisible barrier, the various shells suddenly stopped on that field but then started falling after they left the proximity of the aircraft. Snow noticed that the nuke Hornet wasn't taking any damage from the cannon shells. He got onto the Hornet's tail and fired both an AMRAAM and a short cannon burst at it. The missile was affected by the same thing that Grimm's Sidewinder had and went flying downwards, scrambled, and the cannon shells stopped just before hitting the aircraft.

'It's got some kind of magnetic field as well. Can't touch it with my cannon.' Snow calmly reported, although the aircraft was getting too close to the city for comfort. Blaze came around to Snow's position and fired at the aircraft with his bigger 23-millimetre cannon. The gun roared, but the magnetic had the same effect on the shells, nullifying them. Blaze cursed. Razgriz couldn't touch it with their missiles or their guns.

'Now what, captain?' Grimm asked. They were all out of options.

No, Blaze thought to himself. We've still got our aircraft.

'Grimm, form up on his left wing. We'll push him into the ocean.' Blaze ordered him.

'Doing.' Grimm moved to the position that Blaze had ordered him to.

'Snow, Mythic, take care of the escort fighters.' Blaze directed the other two. They both acknowledged before breaking away to shoot down the unprotected Hornets. Blaze took up position on the nuke Hornet's right wing. Once he was close enough, Blaze started inching towards the Hornet until he could make contact with the aircraft's body with his own wings.

'Grimm, now.' Blaze spoke to his wingman. The two made contact with the Hornet's wings with their own and pulled down. The two had more thrust and power than the Hornet and so they started pointing the aircraft towards the ocean. Blaze looked into the cockpit of the nuke Hornet. No point. The canopy was tinted with some sort of one-way material. Something else he noticed was that the Hornet had no external markings of any kind. It had the paint scheme used by the Erusean Navy, but it didn't have a country marking, no unit markings and no other sorts of unique identifiers. Grimm and Blaze were slowly bringing the Hornet towards the ocean. A few seconds ago they had started at level flight. Now they were at a 25-degree incline and still descending. Blaze checked his altimetre. Three thousand metres and dropping rapidly.

'Captain-' Grimm had seen how quickly they were dropping as well. They were now at a 40-degree incline and the drop was starting to get faster.

'I know.' Blaze cut Grimm off. 45 degrees. 50 degrees. 55. 60. Blaze checked the altimetre. Five hundred metres. Blaze and Grimm only had a second or two to pull up before they would end up hitting the deck.

'Grimm, up, NOW!' Blaze guessed when that moment would be and pulled away from the Hornet, an orange-haired Typhoon pilot in tow. Five hundred. Four hundred. Three hundred. Two hundred. Time seemed to get slower as the altimeter started reading double digits.

Come on, you ungainly bitch, Blaze cursed internally as he levelled out his aircraft. It was a close one. At the speeds they had been going, manuevering wasn't gainly. Blaze and Grimm levelled out at a bare thirty metres above the surface. They were lucky to be in hypermanuerable aircraft. The nuke Hornet didn't have that advantage and found itself hitting the ocean surface at supersonic speeds, shattering the aircraft along with its 400-kiloton payload.

'NUCFLASH threat down!' Blaze called out. There were a few sighs of relief over the radio. Blaze silently let out a breath. They had been dangerously close to the coast of Farbanti.

'NUCFLASH? What in the fuck did I just miss?' Trigger asked. He had just gotten back from quickly rearming.

'Let's just say we came very close to getting a nuke dropped on our heads.' Blaze summarised quickly. 'Razgriz, form up and move to Silver Bridge. We've still got a battle to fight.'