'Finally, some fucking orders.' Alex said openly at a command squad meeting. Around a prefabricated table stood Trigger, Count, Jaeger and Long Caster. On the table in the middle of all of them was a dossier filled with three sheets of paper dictating their mission tasking.
'These are the vaguest orders I've seen in my time. Seriously, no friendly or enemy forces listed, no operational time, no codenames.' Count pointed out how barebones the briefing package they had been given was. Alex, Long Caster and Jaeger agreed. All they had was a place to be, what they were doing and the identity of the person they were meant to rescue.
'We're meant to rescue an Erusean general. The definition of friendly and enemy forces is going to be blurred here.' Jaeger thought, something that Alex also agreed with.
'One thing's for sure. We'll only be sending out one squad. We've got enough fuel to last a few battles, but I don't want to waste any supplies that might be needed down the track.' Alex ordered.
'Who's going?' Trigger asked. Alex gave it a few seconds of thought.
'Myself, Trigger, Archer and Lanza. We'll keep everyone else at base on quick-response.'
'Alright.' Count said. Alex looked around to make sure there were no questions or complaints.
'That's all. Trigger, Count, gather your guys and bring them to the briefing room.'
October 1, 2019, 2100 Hours
Operation Gorgon
Anchorhead Bay, Erusea
'When the war began, Osean Regional Command started receiving transmissions from an Erusean flag officer in secret. This officer is none other than General Labarthe of the Erusean Army. He's their equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.'
'The powers that be want Labarthe brought over to our side for peace negotiations. The Osean Army's already dispatched a unit on the ground to recover him at Anchorhead Bay. Four of us, myself included, will be flying out to help. We'll be providing air support to get them to the designated evac zone. The rest of you, you'll be covering air defence for this base.'
'Trigger, Archer, Lanza, check your targets before firing. We'll be relying on FLIR imaging in lieu of the normal IFF system. It's not as fast, but we know it works.'
'So, what are the chances of getting out of this mess alive?' Trigger asked Alex later when the pilots selected for the operation were kitting up. The latter made sure that his issued sidearm had a loaded magazine in it, racked the slide and forced it into a holster on his thigh.
'Stick together as a team and we might just make it out without any casualties.' Alex reassured the younger squad leader. Trigger nodded in acceptance, putting on a helmet over his recently cut hair. His symbol, a wolf with a gun in between its teeth was painted onto the side. Grimm appeared from behind a set of lockers, fully kitted. Lanza popped out a second later, also ready to go. With all four pilots kitted, they walked out of the crew ready room and went for the hangars.
Count and the rest of the LRSSG pilots watched the Razgriz/Strider detachment depart the base from a covered area near the hangars. Once the four jets were off the base and out of sight of the remaining pilots, Mythic immediately departed from the group and went over to the hangars, ready for the first patrol. Snow followed her shortly after, as did Skald and Tailor. No-one was in the mood for small talk.
Two weeks earlier
'Shit.' Talisman cursed as she flew past a now-burning and rapidly flooding transporft ship. She had seen that it was an Osean-flagged vessel, but basic self preservation kicked in when the vessel had started firing at her with its forward-mounted CIWS. Talisman dropped a bomb on it in defence. That bomb had hit something vital because from there half the ship exploded.
'I see you're busy.' Raven popped up. He was following closely behind Talisman in her F/A-18E Super Hornet with his own Su-57. Talisman grimaced and keyed the radio for the ships in the carrier battle group.
'Silverfish, Garuda 1, I can see sailors in the water.' Talisman mentioned. Raven said something that was intended for his own ship that Talisman ignored. Even from a hundred or so metres above the water she could tell that some of the people in the water weren't OMDF. Said group of people were wearing orange prison jumpsuits. She had heard of the usage of penal units in the Osean Defence Forces. Had she just bombed one of their transports?
The present day
Silverfish
As it turned out, no. They were exactly the people that Talisman wanted to run into.
In a previous life, Lilli Gregori was a fighter pilot and distinguished First Lieutenant in the Belkan Air Force. She was an Iron Cross, First Class recipient and was on the path to being promoted to captain. None of that had meaning these days. Now she was a squad leader of a secret squadron seconded to the Grey Men. Callsign, Shadow.
'Why are the Emmerians interested in us of all people?' Sitting in a small two-person room somewhere near the aft of the Emmerian CVN, her wingman and friend asked her. Fred Gallick had a similar story to Shadow. The two had served in the same squadron just before transferring to Ghost Squadron. Shadow shook her head, throwing around shoulder-length black hair and shrugged. Gallick, callsign Xeno, scoffed. Right on cue with him scoffing, the door to their room opened and two Emmerians entered. One was an armed guard with a Type-89 assault rifle, the other was a woman that had been visiting them very frequently.
'What now?' Shadow asked wearily. The Emmerians hadn't treated them with direct hostility, but she and Xeno had been locked in that room for two weeks and the cramped size of the room was starting to wear on them both. The woman had a set of keys in one hand. She used them to unlock the cuffs that were holding the two to a rail at the side of the room. Shadow's first thought was to punch the woman in the mouth and rush the armed guard. When the woman removed hers and Xeno's cuffs from their arms, Shadow decided otherwise.
'Follow me.' The woman directed, walking out of the room. Shadow glanced at Xeno. Xeno met her line of sight. Shadow looked between the woman now waiting outside the room and Xeno, before locking on the latter and nodding. The two Belkans stood up and started following the two Emmerians. The four proceeded to walk through a short series of hallways before ending up at the tailend of the carrier. The guard opened a bulkhead door and suddenly the group found themselves staring at the open ocean as the sun was setting. Shadow squinted, natural light hitting her in the face. She welcomed the cool breeze that rustled through her hair. She hadn't been outside for two weeks. The guard took a few steps to the side away from the group, but he didn't leave line of sight of the now-trio. Shadow and Xeno stood in their places. The woman leaned out over the guardrail before turning around to face the two.
'You're not Oseans, and judging by your appearances you're not Erusean.' The woman deducted. She crossed her arms and leaned back. 'Who are you? Mercenaries, contractors, foreign troopers?'
Shadow and Xeno both exchanged glances and hesitated to answer.
'Foreign legio fighters. Ex-Belkan Air Force.' Shadow feinted. The woman nodded, a skeptical look on her face.
'What's your name?' The woman asked next.
'Lilli.' Shadow replied. She was caught off-guard by the question. The woman hadn't asked within the first day or two that she and Xeno had been onboard the carrier, so she thought she'd never ask. The woman smirked. She walked forward and offered her hand.
'Lucy. Emmerian Air Force.' Lucy introduced herself. Lilli hesitated for a moment and then returned the handshake. Before she could let go, Lucy forcefully pulled her forward so that her mouth was near Lilli's ear.
'I don't believe you.' Lucy whispered. Lilli gulped silently. Her cover was blown.
Anchorhead Bay, Erusea
'To the unidentified Osean craft, this is Captain Karl of the Osean army. Are you here for the escort?' An OGDF officer asked the four aircraft that had just shot over an unmarked black vehicle. Blaze looked down at the highway as he banked over. Their objective's vehicle was moving quite quickly.
AIRCRAFT:
Razgriz 1/Blaze: Su-33M3 Enhanced Flanker-D
Razgriz 2/Archer: Typhoon FGR.4
Strider 1/Trigger: F-15E Strike Eagle
Strider 2/Lanza: F-15C Eagle
'Erusean vehicles at the waterfront.' Avril said from the WSO seat while Trigger focused on flying.
'This is Long Caster, airborne warning and control for the Long Range Strategic Strike Group. Captain Karl, they're on our side.' Long Caster spoke with the captain on the ground. Trigger flipped his helmet's visor up. It was too dark to have it down even with the fire and street lights on the ground.
'Then you must have those three pilots we've been hearing about.' Captain Karl admitted that he had heard of the three aces of the LRSSG. Trigger grimaced. He glanced at Avril via the mirrors in the top of the cockpit.
'If there's anything moving down there, designate it.' Trigger said. Avril looked around the area with the F-15E's nose-mounted IR camera. It was utter chaos in the city. Urban warfare combined with unorganised and confused forces never mixed well. Sitting in the cockpit of his Su-33, Blaze gazed over the amount of targets they would have to identify and act on. Trigger and Avril were processing the targets as fast as they could. Grimm took action towards the first group of hostile targets, firing a cluster of three AGM-114 Hellfires at them. The APC column never saw the missiles come in before they were hit and utterly destroyed. Grimm then chose to also destroy the two AA guns that the APCs had been firing at. It registered with him that both sides had been Eruseans, but that didn't matter when both AA guns got hit by anti-tank missiles.
'Take out anything along the VIP's route. Ignore everything else.' Blaze ordered.
'Copy.' Grimm acknowledged.
'Wilco.' Lanza also acknowledged. Trigger said nothing, but his role was as support so Blaze didn't mind. Blaze dived into the buildings and followed the highway that would take Captain Karl and the Erusean general to the designated landing zone.
'Crosswire, this is Razgriz 1, requesting authentication code.' Blaze requested of the rescue team on the ground, assuming they were around and kicking.
'Razgriz, Crosswire, affirm. Sunray, Alpha-Five, Papa.' Crosswire responded with the correct authentication.
'Echo, Hotel-One, Echo.' Blaze transmitted his unit's code.
'Authentication confirmed, welcome to the party Razgriz. The primary LZ is clear, but attack aircraft and helicopters are making the area a little risky for takeoff. Request that your squad clear the skies before lift.' Crosswire made the situation clear for Blaze, a first since the sat system went down. He saw a tracer round pass by his canopy as he flew along the highway. A Humvee with a mounted weapon was firing up at him. Blaze increased his altitude to make sure he wasn't going to get hit.
'Copy that Crosswire, we'll do what we can.' Blaze accepted the request. Before he went off to go hunt down enemy fighters, he pulled up and around towards the vehicles that had fired at him earlier, looking to destroy them. Then he noticed that the VIP vehicle had stopped in front of them. Blaze held fire for a moment. Labarthe was out of the vehicle talking with who he presumed was the vehicle column commander. ID data came in from Trigger. Those vehicles were indeed Erusean. Blaze's mind pondered for a few seconds. It was possible that Labarthe still had allies on the ground. Labarthe and Karl moved over to the Erusean party's vehicles and mounted up in those.
'Long Caster, the negotiations were a success. The Eruseans will escort us through the city.' Karl transmitted. Blaze was right. The Erusean vehicle column started moving. A decent length up the highway were two hostile APCs approaching the friendly column. Blaze flew out to meet them with Hellfire ATGMs. A missile into both removed the threat. As Blaze ascended away from the now-burning BTRs, his RWR started blaring warning him that a hostile aircraft was after him. Blaze looked around while turning around to break the lock. He found the hostile lighting him up, an Erusean F/A-18F. Blaze gained a lock of his own and fired a single IR-guided missile at the enemy Super Hornet. The missile slammed into the nose of the attacker before the latter ever got a shot off.
'Wait, the Eruseans are helping us? Who the hell are we meant to shoot at then?' Lanza asked. The situation was getting more and more complex.
'Captain Karl, Razgriz 1, can you ask the platoon leader if they have any allies in the city?' Blaze provided a solution while pursuing a pair of hostile gunboats in the remnants of the military segment of the bay. The Eruseans clearly hadn't repaired the various complexes from when Captain Torres had bombed the place into oblivion. Blaze performed a gun run on the gunboat in the rear of the formation. With virtually no armour, his cannon's shells had no problem turning the boat into swiss cheese and sinking it. Blaze came around and did the same to the second boat, snapping it in half and sending the crew members into the water.
Further along the highway, Grimm happened upon an Erusean tank column of T-90s. They didn't last for long, Grimm firing a four-missile group of ATGMs at the line of tanks. All four missiles entered through the turret ring, compromising the ammo compartment of all tanks involved. A fire burst out of the commander's hatch, shortly followed by the turrets being ripped out of the body of the tanks by the sheer force of the ammo exploding. Grimm looked along the highway for more targets. He didn't find any more until an enemy Su-34 fired a missile at him. Grimm evaded, turned around away from the nose of the Fullback and got on its tail. In return he gave the Fullback a Sidewinder up the tailpipe. That damaged it but didn't destroy it. Grimm fired his cannon at it, and that was the catalyst needed to make the Su-34 explode mid-air. There was a second Su-34 nearby that reached out and attempted to fire at Grimm. Grimm beat the pilot to it by firing a brief and precise cannon burst into the cockpit of the aircraft. The pilot and WSO both turned into a red paste, leaving the aircraft to spin into the ground below.
'So you're the guys we heard on the radio. We don't have a directive. Give us orders!' An Osean tank commander on the ground requested orders from Long Caster.
'We don't have orders, but we do have IFF data. Check your TAC terminal.' Long Caster replied to the leader of the three-tank strong group of M1A2s. Blaze looked around. The tanks were too far out of the fight to have any effect on the operation.
'Osean AWACS, this is Argent Actual, platoon commander for the general's escort. I've got some IFF data for ya. Forces loyal to the general.' The leader of the men escorting Labarthe and Karl to the RV reported on a secured Osean channel.
'Send it, Argent. I'll update our tracking data.' Long Caster answered. Exactly ten seconds later a significant number of previously unknown or hostile tracks turned to blue to indicate they were allied. A small text line under each if looked at through a tactical terminal or HUD specifically designated them as Erusean. However, there were still other Eruseans out on the field that were still tagged as hostile. One such target were a pair of AH-64Ds flying through the buildings looking for an enemy to harass. They were dangerously close to the VIP. Blaze dived down on the two Apaches. He fired a missile at one, catching it in the rotor area and swatting it out of the air. He used the cannon on the second, tearing off the tail rotor and sending the helicopter into a fatal spin.
General Labarthe and his escort were about two-thirds of the way to the exfil. The convoy had managed to get past a lot of unknown or hostile contacts without armed resistance. Blaze found that both impressive and offputting. Things were going well. Too well. The pace slowed down however when the convoy got to an intersection on the main highway. They were parked just below a dip in the highway. Blaze saw why when he flew over. Three tanks, an APC and an anti-infantry configured ZSU. Blaze moved into position for an airstrike with Hellfires. He gained a solid IR lock on all five, and fired. The anti-tank missiles came off the pylons and shot down into the roofs of the armoured vehicles down there. A few flashes later and all five vehicles were gone, destroyed.
'Osean aircraft, thanks for the assist.' Argent Actual thanked Blaze. Blaze didn't reply, and went further down the highway looking for obvious hostiles. Through a tunnel that went through a mountain to near the exfil, there was a platoon of tanks waiting for an enemy to come through. He didn't have a shot when he came over the hill, but Blaze went out to sea, turned around and launched four Hellfires from a stand-off range of eight kilometres. As had been the result many times before, all four tanks suffered catastrophic damage when they took Hellfire hits. Even from the distance he was at, Blaze saw the turret of one fly off and fall into a street below the highway. A few minutes later, the VIP's vehicle column passed by the burning tank carcasses unfazed.
Further away out of the combat zone, Trigger and Avril were doing circles around the region looking for anything that could be marked and positively identified.
'Jeez, this is uncharacteristically slow for you Trigger.' Avril poked fun at Trigger. Trigger scoffed.
'Welcome to the military. Thirty percent cool stuff, seventy percent boredom.' Trigger replied jokingly. He noticed something prod up on his radar. Some sort of large cargo aircraft. It was very far away, well out of weapons range and even more so out of identification range. 'Long Caster, large aircraft spotted moving towards Anchorhead. Vector 340, range 110.'
'Leave it be. Probably just an airliner trying to get out.' Long Caster directed Trigger against intercepting the cargo aircraft.
'Copy.' Trigger accepted the decision. He sighed and turned back towards Anchorhead.
'Osean AWACS, do you have the means to record this conversation. I wish to disclose to you the situation inside Erusea.' General Labarthe popped up on the radio, to everyone's surprise.
'Clock's going. Say what you have to say.' Long Caster started recording this particular conversation.
'The open declaration of war, expanding the front lines. It was all the work of some young Erusean officers. They were referred to as the Radicals, but there was an unseen force guiding them. It was technology borrowed from the Belkans.' Labarthe explained.
'Fucking-' Blaze half-yelled some expedive, but cut himself off before it went any further than that.
'When they actually went to war, the performance of the attack drones exceeded their wildest dreams. And they were incredibly clean. Which got public opinion and the opportunists within the military on their side. They even manipulated the princess. The Belkan technology advanced drone research within the EASA by at least ten years. They used flight data from an ace pilot to create the drone system's AI, but…' Labarthe further explained. Blaze's suspicions from the start of the war that he had originally dismissed as a joke - the thoughts that he had voiced to Lance during his short time on the ground after being shot down - were confirmed. That annoyed him to a great degree. Blaze quickly regained his composure and continued to fly overwatch for the convoy.
'UAV advancements weren't the only thing the Belkans provided us with. They also provided us with fake IFF codes, with which we used to mask drones as Osean fighters.' Labarthe was still talking. That raised an eyebrow from Trigger. He remembered the event over the Waiapolo Mountains, with those "friendly" OMDF fighters. All a trick. Trigger was almost impressed. Something that actually impressed him was the fact that the general and his escort had already arrived at the exfil point.
'Crosswire, Razgriz 1, VIP, his escort and allied Eruseans should be arriving at your doorstep within the next ten seconds.' Blaze pointed it out to the rescue team.
'Rog, we see the convoy pulling in. We'll handle it from here, cheers for the assist.' Crosswire thanked the LRSSG for their help. Labarthe and Karl were transferred from the Erusean Humvees to an Osean MV-22. Crosswire's Osprey didn't spend more time on the ground than was needed. Once the two VIPs were loaded, the VTOL's dual propellers spooled up and within a minute the MV-22 was pulling away from Anchorhead. Blaze, Trigger, Grimm and Lanza grouped up on the Osprey as it gained speed and headed towards a ship that would take them back to Osea.
'Long Caster, requesting permission to escort Labarthe out of the area and to the carrier?' Blaze asked. The Osprey didn't have an escort, and if anything found it out there…
'Granted. Get them out to the Exeter, and then return home.' Long Caster granted the request. Blaze settled in his cockpit for a long flight to the OFS Exeter, and then back to Cape Rainy. A beeping informed Blaze that Grimm was trying to contact him privately. Blaze connected to the call.
'So, about the Belkans…' Grimm mentioned. He had heard what Labarthe said.
'Deal with that when we get there.' Blaze suppressed that train of thought for the time being.
Meanwhile
Cape Rainy Air Force Base
Count grunted in his seat as he made a high-g turn to evade an Su-33. An RWR warning went off warning him to a missile lock. It went away before the attacking pilot fired, the Su-33 that had been chasing Count being shot down by Jaeger. Below on the ground, SAM sites and AA guns fired up into the skies at the attacking fighter aircraft and helicopters. Cape Rainy was under heavy assault.
'Count, if they keep this pressure up-' Huxian brought up urgently. This fight was drastically draining their ammo stockpile.
'I know Huxian, just focus on pushing them back!' Count answered, launching an AMRAAM at an approaching bomb-laden Rafale M. The missile connected with the carrier-born aircraft and destroyed it, also detonating the warheads that the Rafale had, completely destroying it.
'New wave incoming, 0-4-0, same vector as last time!' Skald pointed out. Count wiped the sweat out of his eyes and turned to face the new fighters. Huxian, Jaeger and Skald formed up with him to take the new wave on.
'Swordsman, any luck finding that carrier?' Count called out to the F-14 patrol looking for the mothership of these attackers.
'No joy, I'll let you know when I do!' Swordsman replied. He, Mythic, Tailor and the FCU F-35A squadron were out looking for the ships.
'Cyclops, head on and engage!' Count ordered. He hoped that Trigger and Blaze were on the way back. They desperately needed their help.
