Chapter Two
OFS Bana
Somewhere beneath the Cascade Ocean
After coming back down from periscope depth to receive the latest batch of messages from Fleet Command, Commander Rogers ran over from the communications terminal to the boat's C.O. Captain Maria Olsen with a tablet in his hands.
"We have the new messages from FLEETCOM, ma'am. One of them is an update to our mission orders."
"Thank you, XO. I'll read that one first." After receiving the tablet, she scrolled down to the message titled OPERATION BLIZZARD UPDATE and tapped on it with her finger to open it.
OADF BOMBERS ARE INBOUND TO THEIR LAUNCH POINTS.
TARGET SET FOR TLAMs AND LAUNCH TIMES REMAINS THE SAME.
"This is great," Olsen commented. Our Air Force friends are inbound to their launch points and we're still on schedule to kick off before they do."
"Do we have any additional targets, Captain?"
"Negative, XO. But I wish we did so we could give Erusea a full serving of Two Hundred TLAMs instead of just a hundred and fifty-four. Weapons, spin up TLAMs one through one-fifty-four and set them for simultaneous launch at 20:59 hours. I intend to be well clear of this area before any Erusean subs or other ASW assets come sniffing around."
"Aye aye, Captain. Spinning up TLAMs one through one-fifty-four now."
Executor One
50,000 feet.
8:54 PM.
Major O'Grady returned to his seat after taking an in-flight nap just in time to see the F-22s jettison their four drop tanks and shoot off into the distance ahead of them and the other B-2s.
"It looks like I got back just in time, sir. Did I miss anything?"
"Negative," Colonel Underwood replied. "All is quiet on the datalink."
One minute later, Colonel Underwood received a message over the datalink."
"Our B-1 friends are almost at their launch points. It looks like we will be on station at the same time."
"Great. The Eruseans are going to be in for quite a shock tonight when our missiles rain down on them," O'Grady replied.
In the days following the sinking of the Kestrel Two CSG, life in Farbanti had returned to some form of normalcy for the citizens of the city and the Erusean leadership was confident they wouldn't have to worry about any further attacks on their capital. Especially with the Osean and International Union Peacekeeping Forces struggling to hold their defensive line on the other side of the continent.
When the clock struck 20:59 on the OFS Bana, the Tomahawk missiles erupted from their vertical launch tubes and shot for the surface. With its part of the job complete, the Bana returned to deep water, went hard to port, and sped away at thirty knots.
A minute after that, it was showtime for the bombers and Major O'Grady broke radio silence to give the attack order.
"Cell One, release the greyhounds."
The four B-2s opened their bays and one by one, the JASSM-XRs dropped out, extended their wings, and headed for their targets as Cell Two continued into Erusean airspace with their Raptor escorts flying ahead of them to clear out any threats on their way to their targets.
Erusean Royal Palace Situation Room
Farbanti
9:03 PM
Erusea's Monarch, King Carmelien sat at the head of the giant table along with other high-ranking members of the Erusean government and military as they listened to the head of the Erusean high command, General Felix go over today's events on the eastern battlefront.
We are still locked in a stalemate with the Osean and International Union Peacekeeping forces. Fearsome ground and air battles raged all along the line and despite the losses we inflicted, our divisions haven't been able to gain new ground. Thankfully, the Osean and their IU friends haven't been able to push us back either despite the beating they gave our forces too."
"We have several divisions on the front and we still can't push these imperialist forces off of our continent," King Camelien said in dismay.
"Within a few days Your Majesty, Our divisions will be backed by more reinforcements, and with them will come our automated drone interception system which will further enhance our ability to repel any enemy air attacks coming over the line. The plan remains the same, Your Majesty. We keep bloodying the enemy forces until we can break through their lines and then we will force them off of our continent once and for all."
"But how much longer will it take. General Felix? I prefer to end this war before public morale dries up. I know my daughter is doing a good job of keeping it going but as they say, nothing lasts forever."
Before Felix could respond, his senior aide, Colonel Adar burst into the room looking like he just ran a marathon.
"Your Majesty, General. Forgive the intrusion but I just received word that our Coastal Defense Force HQ along with several of their radar sites have just gone silent."
"What?" the king shouted.
"Coastal Defense HQ was giving me another SITREP then the line turned to static."
Suddenly, the room began to shake after a loud boom rocked the building.
"Everyone to the emergency bunker now," Carmellien ordered.
The boom was the result of one of Osea's JASSM-XRs slamming through the roof on the palace's western side and detonating its two-thousand-pound warhead and more explosions erupted within Farbanti itself.
For the first time in weeks, Osean munitions were once again raining down on the city and air defense units were once again firing wildly into the sky.
Guillotine One
Ten miles from Charles Martel Air Base.
Commander Claude and his wingman were on their back to base after completing an uneventful thirty-minute combat air patrol over Farbanti. The rest of Guillotine Squadron was back at the base and were probably resting in their quarters for tomorrow, they were scheduled to fly out to a forward base near the frontlines.
"Guillotine One, what kind of missions do you think we will be given after we arrive at our FOB?" Guillotine Two asked.
"Since we're the squadron that sunk the Kestrel Two, we'll probably be tasked with flying behind enemy lines to conduct interdiction missions against their supply lines."
I still can't believe our army still hasn't broken through the Osean lines."
"They are a strong country like us Pierre. Did you really think this war was going to be over within a week?
"No, sir. But our country had all of mainland USEA under its thumb during the first Continental War."
"And then that Ribbon showed up and ruined everything," Claude replied.
"Guillotine flight, this is the control tower. Welcome back from your patrol. We have you on radar at four miles and the runway is cleared for you to land."
"This is Guillotine One, roger control tower. We'll be touching down in a few minutes."
At the two-mile mark, Claude lowered his landing gear and continued towards the base with Lieutenant Commander Pierre following from behind and off to his left.
But just as they came within visual range of the base, Claude saw something fall out of the sky and strike at the base of the control tower. The tower and the adjacent building were consumed in a massive fireball.
"Abort landing, abort landing," Claude shouted as he retracted his landing gear and went vertical. Pierre quickly followed.
"Sir, I see more explosions erupting on the base."
"We're under attack. Level out and search for targets."
"Roger."
Claude and Pierre leveled out their Rafales at 2,000 feet and began searching with their radars. It didn't long for Pierre to find something.
"Guillotine One, I got dozens of contacts approaching the base from all directions but I can't get a lock on them because they keep flickering on and off my screen.
Claude knew exactly what this was."
The Oseans are launching a stealth cruise missile attack on our base just like we did on their carrier. We need to-,"
"Sir, the HQ building was just destroyed along with the fuel and munitions bunkers. Now the other base facilities are getting blasted."
That did it, their base was toast," Claude quickly switched radio frequencies to contact the High Command in Farbanti.
"HIGHCOM, this is Guillotine One currently over Charles Martel Air Base. Our base is being bombarded by Osean stealth cruise missiles and it's unsafe for us to land. Requesting instructions
"This is HIGHCOM, we're under missile attack here in Farbanti too. There is a small airport used by sightseeing planes seven miles west of your position. Go there and hunker down until further notice."
"Roger that. Guillotine Two, change your heading to zero, seven, zero, and follow me."
Roger, sir. I can't believe we're letting our base fall like this."
Claude was angry about this mess too, but even if they fired off their Meteors and MICA-IR missiles right now, there was no guarantee they score any kills against the stealthy attackers, and by the time they got close enough to try and engage them with their thirty-millimeter cannons, the missiles would've already hit their marks which would've made the entire exercise pointless.
The base was history along with a good portion of their squadron and those that joined them on the mission against the Kestrel Two CSG.
"Enjoy your victory, you Osean bastards. Once we get new members, Guillotine Squadron will be back with a vengeance," Claude said as he and Pierre headed for the airport.
Superstar Flight
Somewhere near UGSS 309
Captain Louis and his wingman, Second Lieutenant Madoc never understood why they were always tasked with flying CAPs over this area. Below them, there was nothing but dirt as far as the eye could see. When other squadrons went up on combat air patrols, they were usually over or near areas of high importance like Farbanti, the borders, or some critical installation. But what did Louis and Madoc always get? A pointless CAP flight over the middle of freaking nowhere, Erusea.
"Superstar One, I got absolutely nothing on my radar. How does it look on your end?"
"I got the same empty picture too."
"You ever wonder what we did wrong to get stuck with a CAP mission like this?"
"There is really nothing to wonder about, Superstar Two. Air Command tells our base commanders where they want us to fly, then they tell us and we go and that's it. I don't like getting posted over this same damn spot either but it is what is. Continue to watch your sector. We only got one more hour of buzzing around and then we'll be free to RTB."
"Roger, Superstar Two out."
As much as Captain Louis hated this assignment, he couldn't argue with being able to see the stars overhead. It was such a majestic sight, one could almost forget there was a war going on.
Almost being the operative word.
"Superstar One, this is Superstar Two I think I saw something flash on my radar."
"Do you still have the contact?"
Negative, but it appeared to be heading north right between our cap sectors."
"Travel down its last known heading and see if you regain radar contact. I will join you shortly."
"Roger that, I'm moving to intercept."
Just as Louis pushed his throttle to max to go and catch up with his wingman, his missile alert starting blaring then he felt something slam into the back of his Mirage like a truck and his plane started falling like a rock.
Knowing he only had seconds to act, Captain Louis pulled the ejection handle, and the rocket beneath his seat ignited and propelled him out of the plane.
Shortly after clearing his stricken fighter, he was able to see that whatever hit him disintegrated the entire back end of his jet. He knew it was a missile, but where did it come from and how did his warning system not pick it up until a few seconds before impact? Oh well, he had plenty of time to ponder over it as he drifted to the ground in his parachute.
Several miles to the west, Lieutenant Madoc was caught by an AIM-120D AMRAAM that came down on him from a ballistic trajectory and slammed into his plane right behind the cockpit. Unlike Louis, he didn't get the chance to eject.
Executor Six.
As First Lieutenant Wheeler continued the flight to their target, Captain Cortez was reading the message he just received from the Raptors over the in-flight datalink.
BOTH MIRAGES HAVE BEEN SPLASHED. NO OTHER THREATS BETWEEN YOU AND THE TARGET DETECTED.
"Excellent," Cortez said.
"What happened, sir?" Wheeler asked.
"Our Raptor friends took care of those Mirages. Now there is nothing else between us and the target."
"They splashed them just in time Captain because we are now ten seconds out from our drop point."
"Aqui Vamos," Cortez said. He was the son of Sapinish immigrants and he would speak in his native language every now and then.
At the three-second mark, Cortez opened the bomb bay doors then two seconds after that, Wheeler pressed the pickle button twice and the two thirty-thousand pound bombs were released then the bomber executed a sharp turn to the east, and then to the south to begin its egress from Erusean airspace.
Thirty seconds later, the MOPs punched through the dirt and bored their way down to the underground garage. They reached the steel-reinforced concrete roof and punched through it like it was a sheet of aluminum foil.
Workers and soldiers scattered in panic at the sound of the collapsing roof as the bombs landed in the center of the floor. A few seconds later, the two fifty-three-hundred pound warheads of the bombs detonated. Vehicles and personnel were consumed by the flames and the containers containing fuel and missiles for the launch trucks were heated up to point of their contents helping to create an even larger explosion.
To a random person passing by, it would look as though a dormant underground volcano decided to erupt. Louis touched the ground fifty feet away from the big bang and quickly stripped off his parachute.
"So that's why we were tasked with patrolling over this area. To protect an underground facility," Louis said to himself as he looked at the plume of smoke rising from the crater where the underground facility used to be.
AN. IRL Aqui Vamos means here we go in Spanish.