War changes fast in the matter of a few months, it was like everybody blinked and the landscape of the conflict had completely changed. Estovakia deployed a cruise missile on the Capitol Karlsborg, and destroyed a majority of Sventska's industrial capacity in one fatal swipe. Then came the bombing raids, they bombed villages and the few middling cities of Sventska wounding thousands civilians, and lastly the ground occupation. A few battalions of estovakian naval infantry were unleashed on the shores of Helvet and quickly swept over the major civilian centers, air cavalry flew over the forests hunting for the once thought invisible forested air bases. In a last ditch effort all available sventskan troops were ordered to the port of Kali where they were loaded up into the LHDs and the airforce, while not equipped for carrier landings and take off, were forced to retreat to the two supercarriers and set off into the unknown ocean of the future.
Sebastian, In the past three months had begun to prove himself in the skies as he defended transport aircraft from vulturous estovakian squadrons. Overall the man had hardened too, before the war started he was baby faced and soft, a matter of months changed that now he was leaner, his face tightened and the once anxious young pilot had become the victor of over a dozen dog fights out maneuvering the nimble sukhoi fighters employed by the estovakians in his Gripen fighter. His fellow pilots graced upon him the nickname 'Jäkel' which was now his new callsign, they said he was like a devil in the air with the ferocity and way that he fought. Now this changed man leaned on the railing of the HMS AsterGotland lower deck and watched the waves, feeling the ocean breeze flow through his hair. They were bound to make port call in Nordennavic, supplies were beginning to run low.
A man of great stature walked up behind Sebastian and took a deep breath of the sea breeze "How's it going Sebs?" the large sailor had been sebastian's closest friend outside of his squadron since arriving on the Astergotland. "No matter how much you wish we were in port already, standin out here isn't going to help"
"It's not that Tony, I want to be back in the Onstrin… I never knew how much I would miss those woods" The pilot casted a glance back at his sailor friend and shook his head "Not like you'd understand, you little semen"
"Hey it's sea-man, not semen you turd!" Barked the sailor giving Sebastian a strong pat on the back that might have sent a smaller man overboard. "Hey, watch it!" The pilot protested, gripping the rails so that he may avoid that very unfortunate fate. "Well then quit talkin like that, that's no way for the great Jäkel of Ungeist to be talkin. Don't you think so?"
"I was only doing what any other pilot would have, those C-6s needed to get out so I got them out." He protested anytime that he was praised as the hero of Ungeist, it had been a routine mission all things considered. Alk squadron was sent up to escort the flotilla of transports when they were attacked by one of estovakias Ace squadrons, Tula squadron descended upon the transports but were intercepted by Alk. Sebastian and his wingman puck fought like hell with the sukhoi fighters, shooting down two of them before the rest of Tula decided to retreat in the face of the two pilots. "Puck should share the name with me you know, he did just as much as I did"
"Maybe he was there but he didn't do nearly as well as you, even he admits it, he saw you put fear in those stovies Sebs!" The big sailor sighed and clicked his tongue "Come on, lets get chow before it goes cold". Reluctantly Sebestian went along with it, hocking up a loogie and spitting overboard before leaving his stalwart post on the railing. The pair wandered the hallways and corridors of the ship to reach the canteen, as they crossed the threshold to the canteen alarms began to blare and orders were shouted across the ship wide intercom. "Christ we can never catch a break huh? Well you better get going Jäkel" Tony gave a parting chuckle as he left the canteen himself to run to his position in the Close In Weapons System control center.
"Fucking hell…" Sebestian muttered to himself amidst the chaos of the ship around him, unplanting his feet from the ship's hull he broke into a jog through the corridors, leaping through the pressurized bulk heads that were meant to stop compartments from being flooded if the ship was hit. The bulkhead to the ready room was swung wide open and most of the aviators on the ship were getting prepared, wrapping and securing their G-Suits tightly around their muscles and checking the pressure on the U shaped flotation device that they all wore if they had to ditch their aircraft.
Sebastian joined the speed race to get their equipment on the fastest, strapping down the excess of his G suit, pulling on his survival vest with the airline for his mask attached to it. In a hurry he followed the rest of his squadron out while pulling on his nomex fire retardant gloves. The group of pilots rushed into the hangar below the deck, above them they could hear the launch of the Sea Gripens that had been out on deck when the order to scramble had been given. Sebastian patted the three crown roundel on the side of his aircraft, pulling out the two safety inserts that were placed in the intakes of the aircraft when not in use. "Come on triumfvagen" He crawled his way up into the cockpit of the aircraft by putting a foot up into the air intake of the aircraft and boosting himself into the plane.
Slamming into the seat he slid his helmet on and let the oxygen mask flap against his cheek as he ran through pre-flight faster than he had ever done before in his life. Now the unharmonic rip of the CIWS guns could be heard cutting through the roar of jet engines and steam catapults shooting planes off into the fray of battle. The first two planes of Alk squadron were taken up to the deck by the port side elevator while Puck and Jäkel loaded onto the starboard side.
On the deck they finally got to see the extent of the battle, aircraft were zipping all around the two carriers, weaving past the beams of anti aircraft fire and trying to shake off SAM missiles. The catapult system on the AsterGotland had to be modified to allow the normal Gripen fighters to take off and it was a very anxious moment as it was now Sebastian's turn to be launched into the aerial battle. He braced himself for the launch, as much as it helped, it was still a violent shock as the aircraft went from sitting still to flying forward at over one hundred miles an hour. Fumbling for the stick he pulled back hard as the plane grasped for airspeed and control surface authority.
Everyone on the deck held their breath as they saw Sebastian's aircraft dip below the bow of the ship and not come back up right away… triumphantly the aircraft came shooting upwards in full afterburner and headed straight for the fight.
Immediately Jäkel flicked the master safety off and let the seeker head on his sidewinder blare as he picked a target. Rolling to the left with a bit of yaw in the maneuver he came up behind a MiG-29 that was lagging behind the rest of its unit. Not to be picked on so easily though, the MiG dived right down towards the ocean surface, dragging Jäkel down with him. Taking every advantage of the maneuverable airframe the bandit took a wide circle and extended the airbrake more than halving its turn radius and put its nose precariously in front of the MiGs devastating 30mm cannon. Jäkel knew what lie ahead in the MiGs wing mounted machine gun, quick thinking led him to pull up on the stick and roll to the left then coming down right on top of the older airframe, too dangerous to fire a missile at this range he let out a burst of 27mm cannon fire and ripped the MiG apart.
One kill under his belt in this battle he ascended higher into the sky to get a better look at the battle in its whole and where he could best apply himself. In a high orbit around the yarn ball of battle he could see the wide extent of the battle, attack aircraft were harassing the escort cruisers and frigates while the main force of fighter aircraft attacked the central supercarriers, HMS AsterGotland and HMS Karolean. Jäkel's HUD was blotched with colors, blues indicating who was friendly and greens who were hostile but they were all so intermingled at this distance it would be impossible to safely fire a long range missile into the battle.
With a short quiet prayer he dove back into the fray with his sidewinders and two AIM-120 sparrows. Furiously the Gripen weaved through the combat, coming up just in front of several aircraft and letting out a mighty rip of cannon fire, slicing them out of the sky and moving on undeterred. His moves were inhuman the way he was able to out turn and dramatically pull vertical loops on opponents. Twenty minutes into the battle Jäkel had enough kills to constitute at least two Aces, all by himself. It seemed like this unfettered killing spree would never end when an enigmatic voice reached through all the radios in the battle.
"All estovakian aircraft leave the area of operations at once… leave this to me" Said a sneering hostile pilot as a new aircraft joined the battle, flying straight at Jäkel before suddenly rolling to the right and cutting right by the Gripen. This wave of jetwash sent the fighter into a spin as he lost control authority, hurriedly Sebastian powered his engine down to idle, leveled out the ailerons then pressed hard on the pedal to yaw right, countering the counter clockwise spin the enemy had put him in. With the final step in countering the spin, he pulled back up and pushed the throttle on the engine forward again and searched around in the sky for the hostile aircraft. From what he saw before the enemy almost made him fall out of the sky was a distinctive inverted swept wing.
Up high and to the right he spotted it, an SU-47 soaring through the battle and clipping the wings of Sebestians comrades with the ease and agility of a well trained ace. This would be like no fight Jäkel had been in before, and it would take everything he had to fight this Ace with only his radar guided missiles that were meant for long range and his 27mm cannon. Switching to the radar guided missiles and began sloughing in the HUD for the SU-47, locking on he waited several seconds watching as the nimble aircraft slid through combat. Finally Jäkel depressed the trigger and watched as the Sparrow missile flew off the rack and tracked the moving target, breaking the tension as the missile impacted the aircraft but the bandit came flying out of it just fine.
Like an enraged beast the Berkut spun around fired a barrage of inaccurate cannon fire that was easily evaded and the two came into a merge, going into a two circle dog fight each pilot watched each other's movements with tense anticipation. Sebestian pushed his gripen to the absolute limit, almost reaching nine G's as he pulled hard to beat the superior berkut in this turn fight.
"What do you think you are doing little buck? Roll over and die already!" The bandit engaged his airbrake and made an extreme turn, letting out another barrage of cannon fire, which in a quick maneuver from Sebastian raked the underside of the Gripen. It was only nominal damage to the engine and landing gear, rolling to the left he regained his view of the enemy. The enemy Ace did not expect that Sebestian would have already recovered from the attack, and was moving right in front of the nose of the gripen. Without any hesitation another press of the trigger sent a burst of 27mm rounds into the fuselage puncturing the armored tub of the Berkuts cockpit, one of the rounds passing through the enemy's leg.
Watching the bandit fly off to the east for a minute as the Ace writhed in pain, the berkut took off as fast as possible and at last the remainder of the estovakian forces limped away, wounded but in all sense, victorious. The AsterGotland had been damaged by multiple impacts and crash landings, with plenty of holes from gun fire. The Karolean fared better in the combat, only one friendly F-18 had crash landed on the deck after it had been disabled in combat and only minor damage from strafe attacks. The escort ships took the brunt of the damage, the fleet had been at a dozen ships strong in total and now the escort cruisers numbered only in a handful.
Taking in a deep breath he examined what could only be considered as the corpse of the country's proud fleet. "Uh… This is Alk-4 where can I come in for a landing?" The radio was silent for several minutes, he saw a few doen surviving aircraft, where there might have been closer to one hundred in the beginning, in a similar predicament orbiting around the two ships. Through heavy static they began to get a response from the ship "...Karolean… all aircraft for now… north to Nordennavic." What Sebastian surmised from the conversation is that the karolean would take on the surviving aircraft, which it would be able to handle easily with what looked like only two squadrons of aircraft remaining in the sky.