Ben quickly sculled a coffee that he had rushed over to the cafeteria to get while he was waiting for the ground crew to refit his Rafale with more anti-ship missiles. When he had been on Alert 5 earlier the base hadn't been very busy. Now King's Point was buzzing with activity. Ground crews were rushing from aircraft to aircraft sorting out fuel and weaponry. Pilots who had freshly been woken up were appearing out of ready rooms to get ready for a sortie. Other Alert 5 squadrons were launching, presumably to intercept incoming airborne and seaborne threats.

Once he was done with his coffee, he binned it and left the crew room for his squadron's hangar. Ben was met with surprise when he saw the pylons of his aircraft. He had been expecting a lot of Harpoons. Instead there was a mix of laser-guided GBUs and CBUs; cluster bomb units. Not the conventional loadout for an anti-shipping mission. Ben looked for Sebastian and saw him hovering around his personal Rafale. Ben decided to approach him.

'Hey Lips,' Ben called out to his squadron leader. 'What's the deal with the bombs? I thought we were going after the Yuke surface group.'

Sebastian cracked his neck. 'Retasking. We've been given the mission of launching an attack on the facilities at Archansk.'

Ben almost sputtered. 'The naval base? Heavy anti-air presence around there.' Ben didn't care about the implications of attacking one of Yuktobania's largest naval bases. It was the SAM and AAA net surrounding it that bothered him.

'That's where we come in!' Someone shouted out from behind Ben, which he barely heard over the commotion in the hangar. What caught his attention was something light hitting him in the back of the head. Ben whipped around on the spot. A styrofoam cup. Ben picked it up and threw it back at the person who had thrown it, a pilot from another squadron.

'Shouldn't you be with your guys, Rich?' Sebastian asked the pilot, Commander Richard Steiner. Richard was the leader of Paladin Squadron, one of the other units attached to their carrier air wing.

'I've got five minutes spare. And yeah Vamps, my guys'll be running SEAD for you and Blizzard.' Richard explained to the younger lieutenant.

'Sixteen man ship? I dig it.' Ben was down for a strike mission with two other squadrons in support.

'Damn right you should.' Sebastian agreed. 'Mount up, we're gonna be airborne in ten mikes.'

Ben said nothing, leaving the two commanders to their devices to board his aircraft. The cockpit was lit up, the Rafale having been connected to an external generator. Ben slid his helmet on and waited as he had been instructed. The ground crew finished mounting GBUs and CBUs to both his and the rest of Werewolf Squadron's aircraft.

'Check, check.' Kirra, Chimera, said on their radio net.

'I hear ya.' Ben replied. 'Hear about the new mission?'

'Yeah. Let's hope they're still asleep up there.' Kirra said, not out of the compassion of human life, but out of the hope that the soldiers and sailors weren't at their action stations. Somehow, Ben had his doubts.

Ben waited in the cockpit for ten minutes while the other pilots mounted their aircraft and the ground crew finished resupplying the squadron. Once everybody was sorted, the operation was ready.

'Werewolf, roll off, head out at bearing 0-3-0, angels 5, 300 knots.' Sebastian's orders were clear. He lead the squadron out. Werewolf followed in their respective positions in the squad, Melody second, Pounder third, Ben fourth and Chimera last. At 8PM, it was darker than it had been an hour ago, if that was even possible.

'Oop, squadron hold.' Sebastian suddenly ordered. Ben pumped the wheel break and his Rafale came to a stop. Ben leant to the left and saw that from the hangar adjacent to theirs, the aircraft of Paladin had rolled out. A glint in one of the mirrors caused Ben to turn around where he found out Blizzard's aircraft were taxiing behind them as well. Once the squadron in front of them had moved up far enough, Werewolf started moving again. The sixteen aircraft of all three squadrons eventually made it to the runway.

'Paladin Squadron is rollin'.' Commander Steiner announced, he and his squadron picking up speed and rolling down the runway. After a few hundred metres they all started lifting off and roaring up into the night skies.

'Werewolf, let's go.' Sebastian ordered. Werewolf was next. One after the other, the five members of the squad moved forward and up. Ben was the second-last in the squadron to get wheels up.

January 28, 2019, 2010 Hours

Operation Saber

Archansk Naval Base, Yuktobanian Pacific Coast

'Being at high alert's done us a favour, we managed to catch the Yukes before they could tighten the noose. It's our time to strike. Fleet Command has authorised an air strike on logistical stations at naval bases on Yuktobania's Pacific coast.'

'Our area of responsibility tonight is Archansk, the small ship base up to our north near the border. I know what you're thinking, there's not much there that poses a threat. Our focus is the fuel storage, repair facilities and drydocks. Cruisers, destroyers and frigates are our secondary objective.'

'Paladin Squadron will be running SEAD and DEAD operations in conjunction with an Air Force electronic warfare squadron to eliminate anti-air around the base. Werewolf, Blizzard and another Air Force squadron will be the ladies and gentlemen dropping bombs.'

AIRCRAFT

Werewolf 1/Lips: Rafale M F.4

Werewolf 2/Melody: Rafale M F.4

Werewolf 3/Pounder: Rafale M F.4

Werewolf 4/Vampire: Rafale M F.4

Werewolf 5/Chimera: Rafale M F.4

Paladin 1/Shield: Rafale M F.4

Blizzard 1/Frost: Rafale M F.4

Aegis 1/Numeon: EF-111B Raven

Sicario 1/Kilo: Rafale C F.4

'Here comes the Air Force.' Ben pointed out once they reached the designated rendezvous point. In the distance, only visible through the BLUeFORce display, was Aegis Squadron and Sicario Squadron of the Verusan Air Force. Seeing them wasn't a big surprise, the Navy did cross-operations with the Air Force frequently, especially for strike operations since the Navy didn't operate its own dedicated jammer aircraft.

'Hello Navy, Aegis and Sicario Squadrons clocking in.' The squad leader of Aegis checked in with the three Rafale squadrons.

'Welcome to the party. Form up and we'll head out.' Sebastian welcomed the Aegises and Sicarios in. As a combined formation of thirty aircraft they started climbing and soon were on their way to Archansk.

Radio chatter was quiet, both on their intra-squadron channel and on the strategic channels that he wasn't supposed to have access to but did anyway. Not sure if that was indicative of anything, Ben decided to switch off the strategic channel and focus on the mission at hand. At their speed they would have about an hour's worth of flight to get to Archansk from King's Point considering the latter was on Versua's south-eastern coast. Ben settled in for the long flight.

Elsewhere

Airspace east of Mukbang, Yuktobania (forty minutes north of Archansk)

Flying combat air patrols for border defense was never a exciting job, even in wartime, but she understood its importance and as such didn't complain. For Brigadier-General Jasmine Asper it wasn't like she had anything to complain about anyway. At her age, managing g-forces was a chore.

'Come south to 1-1-5.' Jasmine ordered the three members of her squadron.

'Rog.' The clear voice of Jasmine's wingman and second-in-command, Colonel Henry Svenson, rang through. Jasmine looked over her shoulder and saw that all three of them were following her tightly in their two-tone green MiG-35SMs. An upgraded variant of the normal MiG-29 or MiG-35, the Super Fulcrums as they were called were very capable aircraft. Unfortunately, there weren't many of them. Only highly prestigious squadrons had access to them.

'Hey Angel,' Svenson asked the general. 'If the Verusans are ready for us, do you think they could halt our advance on Gaulle?'

Jasmine shrugged. 'Verusan soldiers, sailors and airmen are some of the best out there. If there's anyone that could do it, it'd be them.'

'Right on.' Svenson agreed. The squadron flew on a southerly bearing for five minutes without any chatter. Jasmine sighed. She wondered how her son was fairing as an Intruder pilot on a carrier. Raising Fredrick, Jasmine had kept her service life and her personal life separate so it came as a surprise to her when he had joined the Navy, let alone as a pilot.

'Emerald 1, Dagger, new tasking.' Dagger, one of the air traffic controllers in charge of the Mukbang air defense zone, contacted Jasmine.

'This is Emerald 1, ready to receive tasking.' Jasmine replied quickly. Something interesting was happening.

'Early-warning arrays have detected multiple large aerial groups coming from Verusan airfields and carriers. We need you to transit to Archansk and provide air cover.' Dagger transmitted Emerald Squadron's new objective.

'Understood, moving to Archansk.' Jasmine received and was going to comply with the order. 'Fresh orders from Dagger, move to 1-3-0 and bump speed to 500 knots.'

'What's the deal?' The third wingman in Emerald, Captain Keith Kipling, asked.

'Incoming aircraft, and a lot of them.' Jasmine said, quick to the point. The formation of four two-tone green MiG-35s turned for Archansk at a rapid pace.

The Yuktobanians must have not been paying attention, because Ben's particular strike group was five minutes away from the naval base in Archansk. Off to his left, Aegis and Paladin Squadrons were splitting off from Werewolf, Blizzard and Sicario to begin their attack against radar and SAM sites. A minute later Ben's RWR started beeping, but it quickly went silent again.

'Werewolf has the fuel depot. Let's go, ladies and gents.' Sebastian directed the squadron towards the most important aspect of any warmongering army; the fuel. Looking through his targeting pod, Ben could see the Yuktobanian coast very far in the distance. Archansk wasn't in view yet. He pressed on with his squad.

'One SAM battery is down.' Aegis's leader reported. The Rafales closed in on Archansk.

'Sicarios, weapons free against designated targets.' Sicario 1, Kilo, said to his wingmen. In response the Air Force Rafales started firing off their primary munitions; Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Big, chunky weapons, they had a long range and a large explosive filler. Perfect for the mission they were on.

'Two more SAM sites down!' Numeon called out. A bright glow in Ben's peripheral vision made him realise that Sebastian had kicked in his afterburners and was suddenly zooming towards the base.

'Kick it into sixth gear Werewolf, c'mon.' Sebastian beckoned the other four to follow him. Ben happily obliged. Archansk was coming into view of the TGP. The naval base was almost lost in the backdrop of the city that surrounded it. There was a ship, a corvette judging by its size, making steam attempting to get out of the port. Ben saw tracers erupt from a CIWS mount, cut short by a missile slamming into and exploding in the corvette's radar mast.

'One ship's radar eliminated.' Commander Steiner, from Paladin Squadron, said. He must have fired a HARM at it. Ben's RWR warned him of a radar lock again, and again it went silent a second later.

'Splash one radar!' A member of Aegis reported. The EW aircraft were doing work.

'Hey Aegis, can you gents jam the radars while you're blowing them up?' Frost, leader of Blizzard Squadron, politely requested.

'Ah shit, my bad.' Numeon went quiet for a few seconds. 'Done.'

'Appreciated!' Frost thanked the EF-111 pilot before going quiet again. Sebastian chuckled.

'I see the fuel depot.' Chimera said. 'That's a lot of storage tanks.'

'And they're all about to go bye-bye.' Pounder joked, much to Ben's amusement.

'Form an arrowhead on me, and follow my bearing.' Sebastian gave an attack order. 'When I give the order, start dropping your clusters.'

Ben complied and took the far back left spot in the formation. Sebastian turned to a bearing that would give them a good run on the fuel depot, and slowed down to give them some more time on target. They flew over the entrance to the port. Down below there were a few ships. Mostly corvettes and supporting ships, but there were one or two frigates in that collection. Ben heard some dull-sounding pops below him. Ben leaned and tried to see if he could spot anything down below. In the air a few hundred metres below their altitude, there were black puffs of smoke. Flak coming from anti-aircraft artillery.

'Standby for run.' Sebastian said, catching the absolute attention of Werewolf. In a few seconds the order would come to drop. 'Drop. Drop. Drop.'

Ben pressed the button on his stick and the Rafale slightly tipped as a CBU-97 was let off its pylon for the industrial fuel tanks far below. He let each CBU off in a line to get the maximum effective coverage from each bomb unit. The flak was getting lighter. Aegis and Paladin Squadrons were systematically eliminating each individual gun. Crude, yet effective. Elsewhere on the base, Blizzard's Storm Shadows slammed into the warehousing and cranes that surrounded the drydocks of the base. Metal shattered, screamed and groaned with fatal structural instability, bringing down even the largest of cranes. The warehouses that were hit exploded outwards spectacularly. When all of the cranes and all of the warehouses had been destroyed, the remaining cruise missiles directed themselves towards the doors of the drydocks.

In the chaos that was the cruise missile attack, Werewolf's CBU-97s struck. Each individual unit contained forty bomblets. Each charge cut through the quarter-inch steel of the storage tanks with their shaped penetrators. Dozens of molten copper rods being forced into the gasoline and diesel was enough to ignite the two and rupture the fuel tanks. A moment later the entire fuel depot was covered in smoke, which was then catalysed by a massive fire erupting.

'Holy shit.' Ben muttered. The fire had fucked the thermal imaging on his TGP, it was that big.

'That is some premo gas going up.' Melody spoke, amazed by the burning.

'Can't see shit, but I think we got the fuel depot.' Sebastian announced that Werewolf Squadron had eliminated their target. In one fell swoop all of their primary objectives had been completed. Now it was time for their secondary objectives, the ships in port.

'That corvette's still moving.' Sebastian pointed out.

'I got it.' Ben volunteered himself, pulling out of formation to go attack the corvette that had been hit by a HARM. He spotted it a few hundred metres upstream trying to escape. Ben cycled to his GBU-12s, marked the corvette with a laser designator on the TGP and dived in for his attack. He released at four thousand metres and levelled out. The GBU-12, a five-hundred pound laser-guided bomb, spotted the laser and followed it through its descent. It didn't take long for the bomb to reach ground level and slam into the corvette. Being a small ship, the hit crippled her and stopped the corvette in its tracks. Secondary explosions finished her off.

'Splash one boat.' Ben said, satisfied with his work. He looked around for other targets. There was a cargo ship, a fast replenishment vessel, moored on its lonesome at a pier. Seeing that his squadmates were targeting other ships, Ben lased the replenishment ship and dropped a bomb on it. Through the TGP Ben saw the single GBU skip through the air and slam precisely in the middle of the ship. It must have been carrying either fuel, ammunition stores or both because at that moment the entire vessel had a spectacular explosion that threw up a massive amount of smoke and fire. It consumed the pier and even the buildings near that pier before settling down. When the smoke cleared, the cargo ship was gone.

'What was that?!' A pilot from Blizzard Squadron exclaimed, having seen the massive explosion.

'I, uh.' Ben wasn't sure what to say. 'That ship must have been laden with munitions.'

'Good hit. Keep at it.' Melody said to Ben. Sighing, he turned to the west and looked for more targets. There was a Krivak III-class frigate that had managed to slip her mooring that was trying to get away. One of Blizzard's Rafales shot past it and there was an explosion on the frigate's bow. Ben dived in at a high angle of attack, designated the frigate's smoke stack and dropped two GBUs before pulling up to regain the altitude he had lost in that short dive. Both bombs flew down the smokestack, penetrating through several decks before exploding in the frigate's engine room. This shook the ship and brought her to a grinding halt in the channel that led out to sea. The frigate was effectively done for.

'I got two bombs left before I'm winchester for air-to-ground.' Ben reported to his lead.

'Make 'em count, and keep an eye out for enemy fighters' were Sebastian's instructions to Werewolf 4.

'Understood.' Ben did what Sebastian said and looked for something of particular value. Considering that the strike force had effectively destroyed everything they were there to destroy, Ben decided to use his GBUs on the base's headquarters building. Coming in from the sea at a flat angle, he dropped his remaining bombs.

'Vampire, winchester air-to-ground.' Ben called as he watched his bombs spiral towards the base HQ. Even with its reinforced concrete construction, the area the two GBU-12s hit stood no chance against the blast. There was solid material and dirt thrown around on impact, before dust and powder was thrown up from the collapse of one corner of the building. Anything living inside that section of the building was no longer living. The strike force had been there for fifteen minutes and already much of the vital sectors of Archansk Naval Base had been eradicated.

One thing that Ben was only now just noticing was the lack of Yuktobanian air cover. No fighters or interceptors, and the anti-aircraft establishments in the area had been destroyed or were being jammed. A full 360-degree search revealed no approaching fighters, at least not within Ben's considerable radar range. He had expected a greater response against an attack on sovereign soil.

'Lightning Keep, bogey dope?' Ben asked the AWACS assigned to their mission for a report of any and all air traffic in the region.

'Vampire, four ship at 0-3-0 for two hundred, Angels 2, believed to be hostile.' Lightning Keep reported a single contact. Are you shitting me, Ben thought. There was no way there was only one squadron coming after them.

'Are you sure that's it?' Ben wasn't convinced.

'That's all I can see. For all I know the YAF's entire Su-57 inventory could be descending upon you.' Lightning Keep was sure.

'Roger that. Vampire, out.' Still not convinced, Ben kept a vigil eye on the airspace over and surrounding Archansk while the remaining Rafales with air-to-ground munitions finished expending them on viable targets. The base HQ was hit five more times by Blizzard and Werewolf. Checking the tactical display Ben saw that Sicario Squadron were doing circles around the region. He assumed they were also on air cover since they had expended all of their cruise missiles.

Still a long way away from Archansk, Emerald Squadron were moving at high speed trying to get there. In her MiG-35SM, Jasmine doubted that they would get there before the Verusans returned to their own airspace. But that begged the question; where the hell were the interceptor squadrons close to that area? From what she could see on a BLUFOR tracker screen she had access to, there was close to no friendly aerial activity at the border.

'Dagger, Emerald 1, what's the status of interceptor squadrons in the vicinity of the border?' Jasmine confronted the local air traffic controller on this.

'Foxhound squadrons are performing intercepts on strike groups, Emerald. Why do you ask?' Dagger responded. Jasmine frowned.

'My tactical display's busted, I can't see any friendly air traffic.' Jasmine explained her situation.

'Understood. My recommendation is that you RTB, don't want any friendly fire.' Dagger suggested that Jasmine, and Emerald Squadron by extension, return to their base to get the problem rectified. The brigadier sighed.

'Affirmative. Emerald, pull it in and let's return to base.' Jasmine ordered her wingmen. The four aircraft slowed down to a more economical cruising speed and turned back for their base.

There were plenty of fires to be seen at Archansk. Everything that was of any significance to the Yuktobanian Navy was in utter ruin.

'Lightning Keep, relay a message back to HQ for us. Archansk primary and secondary objectives have been completed.' Sebastian transmitted a message to the AWACS for him to relay to headquarters back at King's Point.

'Doing, standby.' Lightning Keep started relaying the message. In five minutes of flight, Ben still hadn't seen any Yuktobanian air. He suspected that there had to be stealth fighters somewhere out there coming for the strike force.

'All squadrons, mission complete. Return to base.' Lightning Keep declared. Ben was relieved. Once they were out of the area they wouldn't have to worry about any Su-57s or Su-75s. Ben formed up on his squadron in an arrowhead formation as they were turning south-east out to sea. Blizzard Squadron was right behind them, while Paladin formed up to the left of and above the two squads. The Air Force Rafales and Ravens took their own path home. There wasn't much chatter on the hour-long flight back to King's Point.

Ben craved a mug of coffee. Although he had only been active-duty in the Versuan Navy for three years, coffee was practically his lifesource. Unfortunately he would have to wait until they got back to base.

'Oi, Ben.' Kirra called him out by his name, which meant she had opened a private channel between the two.

'That's my name.' Ben replied dryly.

'First proper strike mission. How are you feeling?' She asked. Ben rolled his eyes in amusement. Chimera was always looking out for him.

'Second technically,' Ben corrected her. 'And honestly? I'm mesmerized by that cargo ship going up, in some kind of sick, horrifying way.'

This earnt a chuckle from Kirra. 'Always with the semantics.'

'We wouldn't be friends if I didn't argue them.' Ben joked, again getting a laugh out of Werewolf 5.

'Touche.'

Werewolf, Blizzard and Paladin Squadrons continued on their path.

While the Verusans were on the way back, a lone destroyer was providing advance warning for its task force.

The Belarus was a Zibo-class guided missile destroyer. Identical in capability to the Osean Arleigh Burke-class, they were the mainstay of the Yuktobanian Navy's destroyer force after the majority of the Sovremmney-class had been retired.

On the bridge of the destroyer, Captain 2nd Rank Joseph Solemny was observing the deck crew and the open ocean ahead of him from the captain's chair. They were currently sitting at EMCON Condition Bravo, no sensors running but still communicating with the task force commander and other ships in the group.

'Bridge, TAO, ground-based radar is painting sixteen bandits at 3-2-0 for sixty miles. Their current bearing would bring them to within twenty of our position.' The TAO, Tactical Actions Officer, reported to Solemny. He grabbed the handpiece above his chair.

'Airframe type?' Solemny asked.

'Rafales.' The TAO replied. Solemny kept the handpiece close to his chest and thought. If they weren't on a direct bearing for the Belarus, those fighters probably didn't know they were there. But if they did detect the destroyer, it wasn't going to be pretty for them even with all of their air-to-air weaponry.

'Standby.' Solemny changed the channel he was transmitting on. 'Eagle, this is Picket Romeo. We have a sixteen-ship flight approaching off our 3-2-0, range sixty with a bearing that'll bring them to twenty of us.'

'Picket Romeo, acknowledged.' There was a pause from Eagle, the task force commander. 'They're probably coming back from a strike mission. You are free to break EMCON and engage.'

'Understood, Eagle. Picket Romeo will make manuevers for air-to-air, out.' Solemny changed back to the CIC circuit. 'CIC, captain, you are weapons free anti-air. Get me a solution on those fighters and bring them down.'

'Bridge, TAO, wilco.' The TAO complied. The captain looked back towards the officer of the deck, currently over at the navigation board.

'OOD, set general quarters.'

'Aye aye, sir.' The officer of the deck went to the back of the ship. Alarm klaxons started ringing around the ship.

'Uh-oh.' Ben said to himself. His RWR had made a loud double-ping noise which meant that there was a new radar emitter somewhere. Specifically, the RWR was designating a sea-based radar which probably meant a destroyer or cruiser.

'Ah fuck that's not good.' Sebastian said calmly. His next sentence wasn't calm. 'Oh fuck that's definitely not good! Dive, DIVE!'

Ben wasn't sure what his squad lead was on about at first, but the rapid beeping of the RWR telling Vampire that a missile was coming for him gave him the idea. He popped chaff and flares and dived rapidly for the ocean surface. Pushing the throttle to engage afterburners and diving got Ben below the radar horizon and the RWR stopped alerting him that he had incoming. However that didn't encourage him to slow down, all sixteen aircraft kept a supersonic pace and moved to get away from the shooter.

'I think that was a Zibo.' Shield mentioned.

'Which implies S-300s. Keep the pace up, those SAMs are definitely after us!' Sebastian wasn't reassured by the identification. Ben was constantly checking over his shoulder for the glow of a rocket or jet booster. Ben wisely decided to drop down to five metres above the water to reduce the chance of a missile getting a good lock on him. A minute later there was no sign of the incoming SAMs.

'Are we clear…?' Kirra asked with some uncertainty in her voice.

'Keep on your toes, their SAMs have predictive tracking.' Melody answered the younger pilot.

After another minute, Ben thought he was safe and lightened up a little. Indeed he was safe, but the others weren't. As Melody and Sebastian had been saying, Yuktobanian S-300s could predict where their targets went when they dropped off radar, and they had predicted exactly where they would be. Sixteen S-300s dropped in from high above on a ballistic trajectory.

'Break and chaff, break and chaff!' Frost shouted at everybody. The strike force all split directions, dumped their chaff reserves and climbed to get out of the way. Most of the sixteen aircraft in the force evaded. Ben saw a missile that had lost tracking zip a couple of hundred metres in front of him and explode in the water, startling him. All of Werewolf Squadron had successfully evaded the missiles targeted at them. However, Paladin and Blizzard Squadrons weren't so lucky. Paladin 2 caught a missile straight to the spine and exploded into a million pieces, while Paladin 6 wasn't directly hit but did cop a lot of shrapnel. Blizzard 2, 3 and 5 all took direct hits and were blown out of the air. The remaining missiles all exploded harmlessly.

'Holy FUCK that was too close!' Pounder exclaimed, two S-300s narrowly avoiding him.

'Paladin 6, hit.' Paladin 6 mentioned in his young but calm voice. 'Lost one engine.'

Ben looked around and saw the wreckage of Blizzard 3's broken aircraft slamming into the ocean surface at high speed. There was no parachute, so the pilot hadn't been killed by the missile impact, he had definitely been killed by hitting the water.

'Paladin 2, Blizzard 2, Blizzard 3, Blizzard 5, lost.' Lightning Keep reported what he had seen on his radar.

'Oh you are fucking kidding.' Blizzard 1, Frost, was annoyed and angry. He had just lost half his squadron.

'All aircraft, keep following the flight plan, do not break fifty metres above the deck until we're in friendly territory.' Sebastian ordered. At the front of the new formation, Ben sighed. He had thought something bad was going to happen, and there it was.

Now composed of twelve aircraft, the three squadrons stuck to the ocean surface like glue and kicked it into overdrive to get back to King's Point.