Chapter 15
Interception, Part 1
Dispute
February 1, 432 AC
"Vanguard, I want you in the air as soon as this briefing is over," Commander Mckay said, "so I'll make this quick."
The briefing software powered on and zoomed in on the air corridor between the Cascadian and Federation mainland border.
"You are to patrol an area around the Cascadian border and divert all incoming civilian flights away from Federation airspace," Mckay said. "We cannot allow civilian or PMC interference from the outside, and a strong Federation needs to stand together." He rubbed his eyes. "To combat the flow of misinformation, the Solana Communications Array is now in Federation control and is now being used to jam any outgoing communications or anything not on Federation frequencies, civilian or military." He sighed before continuing. "Also, in an apparent mishap, the Federation cargo freighter the Meylinx had been captured by a band of pirates known as the Burlok Privateers."
"Did we get anyone scrambled to deal with that scum?" Katrina said, eyeing her boot like someone had coated it with mud.
"No, unfortunately," Mckay said. "The rest of the Federation airpower is heavily occupied with the encroaching Cascadian forces and local militia fighters. We, do, however, have an alternative method: We had reached out to a private mercenary group called Sicario who is, up until recently, operating in the Creole Republic, and they specialize in aerial warfare. They got the job done pretty easily."
"But why mercs?" Twister asked.
"We couldn't spare any forces to deal with the pirates, and we can't risk international fallout," Mckay said simply. Katrina nodded and sat back in his seat.
Mckay cleared his throat and continued. "We'll have tankers spaced out on the way to the patrol zone, so don't worry about long loitering times. Other than that, do not engage any civilian aircraft unless explicitly told to. We cannot have our image ruined on the international stage. Dismissed."
X
"Vanguard, this is Argonaut," came the AWACS operator through the comm. "You're on station. Start the patrol now."
"Roger, Argonaut," Katrina said, powering on her radar and IFF systems. For this mission, she was back to her usual loadout, with her 4 gunpods occupying each of the 4 wing pylons, alongside an accompaniment of MLAAs and standard missiles. "Alright, Vanguard. Let's go make some scratch."
"Copy all," Twister said. "I have a playlist ready in case this damn thing gets boring." Earsplitting rock music blasted through the comms, and Katrina winced and put a hand to her headset.
"Ow, my ears!" Peppermint cried. "What the fuck, Twister! You actually listen to this shit?!"
Katrina choose not to respond, instead of shutting off the comms as the first round of lyrics kicked in. It was painful enough to listen to her missile warnings, but it was grating enough to listen to rock music through her headsets. It felt like someone shoving nails in her ears.
They flew back and forth for a while, picking up nothing of interest, until a transmission from Argonaut interrupted them.
"Vanguard, we have a C-8 breached the airspace. Intercept and divert them away from the airspace immediately!"
"Roger, Argonaut," Katrina said. "Vanguard, let's move."
"You got it, chief," Twister said. He had thankfully turned off his rock music.
The C-8 quickly came into view: A dark green stripe ran across the spine of the white fuselage, and it had a Cascadian flag on the tail. The thing that imminently had Katrina's suspicions was that all the windows were tinted.
"Hmm," Twister said, eyeing the transport. "Nothing suspicious here."
"Nothing suspicious until we can confirm it," Katrina said. She opened a radio frequency and started her communication. "Attention unidentified transport," she said. "As of today, all flights into Cascadia have been banned from this airspace. You are violating Federation protocols by intruding into our territory. Set your transponder to our beacon and follow us to the nearest airfield. Lower your landing gear if you-" She was interrupted by a buzz in her headset.
A missile lock warning.
"Enemy fighters on our six!" Argonaut cried. "All planes, break!"
Katrina slammed her fighter into a dive and rolled her fighter on its back and dumped flares. The two missiles that were targeting her streaked by the transport and detonated harmlessly in the distance.
"Argonaut, what's the sitrep?" Katrina demanded, spinning her fighter around to confront the adversaries. "Who the hell just jumped us?"
"Checking," Argonaut said. "Contacts confirmed. 6 Cascadian F/C-16s. You are cleared to engage."
"Vanguard, let's make some scratch," Katrina ordered. "Take the bastards out."
"Righto," Twister said, splitting off from Katrina and taking on two of the Vipers. Peppermint didn't respond, instead opting to take on 2 other Vipers. Katrina was left with 2, spinning around and locking one up. She fired 2 of her standard missiles, both of which connected with the F/C-16, and disintegrated it. The other one tried to bait her in a chase towards the ground.
"Heh. Got you now, Dragur 1," Katrina said, smiling at the memory. Fortunately, the other Vipers were more occupied with Twister and Peppermint on their heels, so Katrina took the liberty of blasting the Viper out of the sky with her guns.
"How are you two holding up?" Katrina asked.
"I'm fine," Twister said, nailing his two Vipers with a well-timed MLAA salvo. "Finished dealing with these pests."
"Same here," Peppermint said, shooting down his Vipers with a combined gun and missile salvo. "What's next? I say we go after that transport and make it reconsider its place here."
Hold that thought," Argonaut suddenly said. "I am detecting another group of Cascadian fighters inbound: 8 F/D-14s with 4 additional F/E-18s. Cleared to engage."
"Really?" Katrina said, switching to her MLAAs. "What could make this cargo so enticing?"
"That's for me to find out," Argonaut said. "I'll be running something while you keep the fighters at bay."
The enemy fighters came into view: 8 olive-green Tomcats flanked by 4 Hornets, all of them armed for air-to-air work. Katrina felt a slight twinge in her body as she locked up 4 of the Tomcats with her MLAAs. It was a beautiful aircraft to her, growing up in a country that she was now fighting against, but her duties came before some long-gone memory. She slammed the trigger and 4 missiles rocketed out from under her Agile Eagle, followed by 4 rapid clicks as each of them vanished off of the HUD. The rest of her squadron followed suit, with Twister and Peppermint firing off a salvo of MLAAs. However, the Cascadian pilots were smart this time, with the remaining fighters breaking off and evading some of their missiles, though 2 Tomcats took a hit. One of those damaged Tomcats, in turn, unleashed a semi-active missile at her. She dumped flares and used the AOA Limiter to swing around the Tomcat and get on its back. The pilot attempted to evade her by climbing up and leading her into a stall, or allowing one of the Hornets to get on her ass and fire a semi-active, but the massive Tomcat suddenly banked to the right in a futile attempt to evade Katrina's guns. Once the pipper was lined up, it was only a matter of pushing the trigger and letting her gunpods finish the job. The Tomcat careened to Earth in a flaming wreck, while the canopy blew and the pilots ejected.
"That was a tough one," Twister said, firing his guns into a pair of Tomcats.
"Yeah," Katrina said, singling out a Hornet and blowing it up with a pair of STDMs. "They were probably an experienced pilot. Looks like the Cascadian Air Force isn't all just nuggets."
"Agreed," Peppermint said, taking down 2 Hornets own an MLAA salvo and the final one with his guns. "I had to tangle with one of these bastards for a while. Hornets may look pretty, but get too relaxed around them, they will sting you in the ass."
Katrina laughed, locked up the last Tomcat, and fired a pair of MLAAs. The Tomcats attempted to evade her missiles by dumping flares, but they were too late. Both missiles impacted the engine block of the Tomcats and both hapless machines spiraled down to the ground in flames, all the pilots ejecting.
"Argonaut, all resistance has been eliminated," Katrina said, forming up with Twister and Peppermint. "What next?"
"I've been trying to communicate with the transport since it had slipped away during the fight, and we have confirmed its manifest," Argonaut said. "This plane is carrying supplies vital to the Cascadian war effort. You have permission to shoot it down." A targeting box appeared around the transport, and the targeting computer locked the C-8 up. But Katrina refused to pull the trigger.
"Argonaut, I'm not sure," she said.
"Do it. That transport violated Cascadian airspace and is supplying the rebels. Take the shot, Vanguard 1."
"But Federation protocol dictates-"
"Take the shot, Vanguard 1. I'm not going to ask aga-"
"Sir, it is Federation protocol to escort an intruding aircraft to a local airfield and detain the crew, and that's what this interception was-"
"Take the shot NOW, Vanguard 1!"
Katrina sighed. There was no point in arguing with an angry AWACS. She held her fire for a few more seconds before she pressed the button.
A single MLAA detached from her fighter and streaked forward. The Cascadian transport stood no chance as it took the full force of the blast. Katrina and her squadmates watched the smoldering remains shrivel up and fall to the ground.
"The transport is down," Argonaut said, that dangerous leer back in his voice. "The traitors are dead. Vanguard Squadron, RTB."
X
After a hurried debriefing, Vanguard was gathered in the mess hall, reflecting on the mission and Argonaut's brash decision.
"It was standard Federation protocol," Twister said, taking a large gulp of coffee. "A transport violates Federation airspace, and we were supposed to escort it towards a nearby friendly airbase, not completely blow it to dust."
"What about High Command's orders?" Peppermint said. "It's their call after all."
"Goddammit!" Katrina snapped, chucking her empty coffee cup into the trash can. It hit the bottom of the bin with a sharp clang that made Peppermint jump with fear, with a face that said I'm so happy/scared that my flight lead is my girlfriend. "This is war! We do what Federation High Command does, but morality comes as well." She glanced at Peppermint, who had recovered from her apparent outburst. "I do not agree that disobeying an order was okay. I just need to make the Federation a more effective force by not committing war crimes."
"Or what?" a sudden guant but sharp voice said. They looked up to see a man Katrina assumed to be Argonaut march up to them. "The only way the Federation would be able to achieve true victory is through overwhelming force, not with petty laws and morality," he said, leveling a finger and pointing it at Katrina. "The next time that I give an order, you obey it! That's the mission." He glanced at the rest of the squadron. "The same goes for all of you," he said, adjusting his dark sunglasses. Katrina caught a glimpse of his dark yellow eyes. She felt like they were boring into her eyes and trying to uncover her deepest secrets. With another threatening glance, he left.
"Ignore him," a familiar voice said. They turned and saw Alamo standing there, a sandwich in his hands. "He's one of the more radical members of the military. He does that a lot."
"Alamo!" Katrina said. "How did the raids go?"
"They went rather smoothly," Alamo said, taking a bite out of his turkey ham sandwich. Those Cascadians are tough sometimes, but hit 'em where it hurts, which is to say, their Air Force, and they fall like dominoes." He took another bite.
"Well, better get some rest, Vanguard," he said. "I have an important sortie tomorrow with another squadron, callsign Molot. Hopefully, this mess will be over very soon." With trust, he chucked the remains of his sandwich and the wrapper into the trash can. "Too dry," he said to no one in particular, before storming off.
Katrina leaned against the wall, feeling every sore joint in her body. Her hand suddenly felt warm.
"Hey," Peppermint said, his deep baritone voice soothing in her ears. "You alright?" He pressed a small kiss on her head.
"Fine," Katrina said, leaning into Peppermint's warmth. Twister didn't mind. He was just staring at the wall, bored. "Just a little tired." This is why she liked Peppermint: A loyal wingman who respected your decisions but still wanted to do the right thing. They had started dating shortly after they were transported back to the Federation mainland. At first, it was just hanging out in each other's quarters, until they were confident to sleep in each other's arms. She enjoyed every second of it.
Now, it looked like their loyalty to each other was being tested again.
Twister's loud sigh brought her back to reality. "Jeez," he said, tossing his coffee cup into the trash can. Katrina heard a thunk. He probably had an apple core in it as well. "Looks like not everyone shares Argonaut's sentiments."
"And that's a good thing," Katrina said, eying the clock on the wall, still holding on tight to Peppermint's hand. "Because I think this is just the tinderbox. All we need is a big enough match, and this war will burn the world if it has to."