Chapter Thirty Nine- Death From Above
Combat Systems Officer, Samuel [REDACTED], 711th Special Operations Squadron.
Eagle One.
Fire Mission- Fracture Jaw.
Objective- Provide close fire support.
"Alright! Let's get this shit done boys!" a wolf in Air Force uniform shouted as they walked down the aisle of the AC130 Gunship.
As the massive aircraft lifted itself off the ground with its four large propellers, the combat systems officer, a cougar by the name of Samuel, looked out the window.
The cougar looked at the wolf as they spoke, "when we reach the AO, it's going to be considered a war zone! We are hunting a terrorist who want's to blow up this city, so no bullshit!" they said loudly as they walked down the plane.
Samuel made his way over to the control station commanding the Gunship's armaments and sat down on the seat, spinning the chair to face the control systems.
Several minutes later, he was joined by a hyena, the second combat officer he knew relatively well.
"Alright Sam, once we get in the air, we'll be looking for a convoy of vehicles, it's our job to soften them up before the cavalry comes" they said as the cougar nodded.
"Got it" He responded, looking through the live monitor in front of the AC130's weapons. They had already climbed a significant altitude, and were almost high enough to start scanning.
He had a clear view of "The Loop", the inter-district highway connecting every district in Zootropolis, it was a multi year and multi million dollar project, and that was what Rouen Fyodorov was going to use to transport a large bomb to Central Square.
Samuel looked into the monitor for a few more minutes until his shoulder was tapped.
"Alright, we're at altitude, contact Bravo Six."
He leaned back and grabbed the radio from the control interface and spoke into it.
"Bravo Six this is Angel One, how copy?"
"Hard copy, send traffic." They responded.
"Bravo Six, Angel One is in the air and in the AO" he said back as he looked at the screen again.
"We're awaiting orders," He added.
"Copy, Angel One, we are Oscar Mike to The Loop, scan that highway for any activity."
"Afirm, we'll notify if we see anything" he responded.
Samuel glanced at the hyena beside him and gave him a nod, before looking through the monitor in front of him.
"Anything?"
"No, I don't see shit . . ." He responded as the camera outside the Gunship, only empty highways was what he could see.
Several minutes passed as they thoroughly searched, coming up with nothing, no vehicles at all in sight.
"Try switching to thermal view, see if we get anything" they said beside him as he obliged, switching the mode made the whole screen turn black and white, white signifying heat signatures.
He continued scanning the highway for any signatures, but nothing notable was coming up.
"You get anything?"
"Negative…"
"Shit…"
"They might've gotten past us…" was said as Samuel zoomed out, immediately catching something on the left hand corner.
"Wait a minute, I think we've got something" he said and moved the camera over to the left, and there he saw it. He switched back to normal visual to see it in full color.
On the main road of The Loop, was what looked like a large semi truck speeding down the road, behind it was a whole convoy of vehicles.
"That's our target, sir! We found em!" the hyena beside him shouted, as the wolf that debriefed them hurried over.
"This is Angel One to Bravo Six, we have eyes on the convoy, I repeat, we have a visual." Samuel said into the radio.
"This is Bravo Six! Hard copy, hold your fire. Give us a description."
Samuel squinted and zoomed in on the truck.
"A large semi-truck in front, looks heavily armored, it's armed with a big gun on top of the cab…" He was interrupted by Bravo Six on the other end.
"Is the semi carrying cargo?"
He looked at the semi and nodded to the radio, on the back of it was a large blue shipping container.
"Affirmative, a blue shipping container-"
"That's the gas! DO NOT open fire on that truck!"
"10-4,multiple vehicles are escorting the semi from behind." Samuel reported as he scanned to the long convoy that followed the large vehicle in front.
"How many are there? Give an estimate."
Samuel looked at the convoy and counted in his head, or tried to.
"In short, one hell of a lot, I'd say around fifty or so, all of them look armored and armed" he reported as he glanced at the hyena and wolf next to him.
"What are they armed with?"
He took a closer look at the convoy and squinted.
"Drivers and passengers look armed, a few vehicles have mounted weapons, light machine guns." He reported as the swerve of tires was heard on the other end, accompanied by the sound of car horns beeping.
"Where are they on The Loop?"
"Not far from the ZPD checkpoint, about a half hour from the exit into Savannah Central."
Even more swerves were heard on the other end as Bravo Six responded.
"Hard copy, Angel One, standby and continue circling, we're on our way there!"
He looked at the wolf leaning over his seat, monitoring the screen.
"You two keep eyes on that damn convoy, relay any new information you see to Bravo Six" they ordered as Samuel nodded.
"Yep yep" they both said as he leaned forward and looked at the convoy.
. . .
Rouen Fyodorov sat in the front passenger seat of the behemoth of a semi truck as he made his way towards his target, Savannah Central.
On the back of the truck was a large shipping container, housing the large gas bomb he had planned for and constructed for weeks.
The payload was massive, enough to cover the whole city, and to him that was all that mattered.
They had seen no resistance so far, but Fyodorov was well expecting it, but he wasn't expecting what the ZPD really had in store for them.
"What the HELL is that?!" One of his right hand mammals, Maxwell Balgair shouted suddenly, making him jump a bit.
"What is it that you're yelling so loudly about?" he asked irritably, turning to the fox, who looked at him with a worried face.
Maxwell pointed outside of the window and moved for him to go see, the panther went over to the opening and looked outside, quickly spotting what the fox was yelling about.
To their right, up in the cloudy sky was a large aircraft circling around them, Rouen's eyes widened immediately upon realizing what the aircraft was. The Angel Of Death, otherwise known as an AC130.
"What the hell is that?!" Maxwell asked again as Rouen looked at him with a seemingly composed face.
"That . . . Is an AC130 . . ."
The calm and composed way he spoke those words was juxtaposed by what was going on in his head.
Why was an AC130 here? The ZPD didn't have any such weapon at their disposal, not even close.
Yet . . . He realized very quickly after remembering what happened when he seemingly had the ZPD right where he wanted them.
Only something like a gunship could kill that many of his men, which meant . . . He drastically miscalculated.
Was the military involved? Maybe because of word by that SWAT Team and the SAS about his terror plot?
But no, that wouldn't explain why there was a gunship three days prior . . .
He didn't want to dwell on it for long, at least right now. He needed to get to Central Square and put everything into motion.
"What the hell is that doing here?! If they shoot us then we're fucked!" his driver said as he looked at them.
"It won't shoot us. That would be idiotic. We have a gas bomb with us, if they shoot us it will detonate and cover the city." He explained, keeping his composure.
"So we keep going. Increase our speed, do not stop this truck." "Maxwell, get on the gun." He ordered as he kept his eyes on that damn gunship.
This whole time he was going to prove that the ZPD had underestimated him, he already did it once, but now he realized how drastically he miscalculated. Now he was the one who underestimated the ZPD, not just them, but the scale of all of this.
That didn't stop him, didn't make him falter, he still had the upper paw in this. He was going to finish this no matter what, even if he has to make sacrifices.
. . .
Combat Systems Officer Samuel [REDACTED] watched as he saw a fox get on the mounted gun atop the semi truck in front, and look up at them.
"Shit, we've been spotted"
"Doesn't matter, they won't have anything that can touch us" the hyena beside him said in response.
Still, he grabbed the radio on the control table and spoke into it.
"This is Angel One, Bravo Six how copy?"
"This is Bravo Six. Hard copy Angel One, send traffic."
"10-4, Bravo Six we've been spotted by Rouen's men, they might try to open fire."
The wolf behind him spoke up "[REDACTED], request for fire order."
He nodded and spoke into the microphone.
"This is Angel One, requesting Fire Order."
"Negative Angel One, standby until we get into the AO." Bravo Six responded.
"This is Central Command to Angel One, give a description of what our men will be facing down there" a female voice said through the radio.
"Affirmative, we're counting at least fifty vehicles behind the semi in front. Almost all of them have armed personnel, a few have mounted guns."
"Bravo Six, how far are you from the AO?"
"We're almost there, Team One should be on their way there, check in on them."
Samuel kept eyes on the fox manning the gun on top of the semi truck, and noticed the other mounted guns aiming at them as well.
"This is Angel One, the convoy might be about to open fire." He reported as he tapped his paw pad on the controls.
But there was no response.
"This is Angel One, hostiles are preparing to open fire, Bravo Six do you copy?"
Still no answer.
"Bravo Six! Do you copy!?" He said louder this time, sitting straight and looking at the wolf next to him.
"This is Bravo Six, hard copy. SWAT is just about to enter the AO."
There was a few seconds of silence before Bravo Six spoke again.
"This is Bravo Six, Angel One you are Cleared Hot! DO NOT open fire on that semi truck, the gas bomb will detonate if you do!"
"Also be advised, pick your targets wisely, we have an operative that may be inside one of those vehicles."
Samuel leaned forward and gripped the fire controls, "we're cleared hot" he told the wolf as they nodded.
"Hard copy Bravo Six, what armaments are we clear to engage with?"
"10 and 30 millimeter only right now. We can't risk blowing up that semi."
Samuel nodded to the radio and switched the armament to the 10 millimeter, "10 and 30 millimeter, got it…"
He glanced at the hyena beside him and picked up the radio again, "Bravo Six, what're our targets here?"
"Any vehicle that's heavily armed, excluding that semi, soften those bastards up for us up there but don't destroy all of them, 141 and Team One will take care of the rest."
He nodded again and glanced to his side.
"Hard copy Bravo Six, Angel One, weapons free in thirty seconds" he said and began preparing to open fire, there were multiple shouts and calls as the rest of the crew armed all of the guns.
Samuel leaned forward in his seat and rested his paws on the trigger.
"Alright [REDACTED], let her rip" the hyena beside him told him as Samuel nodded.
He looked at the screen in front of him, zooming in further to identify ideal targets, his eyes fell on what looked like a red pickup truck with a 50 caliber mounted on the back.
"Use ten millimeter for that one, one burst should do it…"
He aimed at the vehicle in question, leading his shot before squeezing the trigger for a few seconds.
The sound of the AC130's gun could be heard from the outside, as he watched the projectiles hit their mark, the pickup truck went in flames as it was hit, and rolled onto the side of the road.
He watched as all of the vehicles in the convoy began to scramble, trying not to hit each other after the pickup was dispatched.
A paw was pointed at the screen in front of him, "there, SUV on your left, looks armored…" the hyena beside him pointed out as he panned over to it.
"Good eye…" he said before squeezing the trigger.
The gun sounded again as a concentrated burst of lead hit the SUV, causing it to swerve back and forth before crashing into the barriers on the edge of the road.
"Good effect on target, next one."
Samuel spotted what looked like a humvee and sedan driving beside one another, the humvee was heavily armored, the sedan less so.
He noticed the vehicles in the convoy were attempting to spread out, which was perfect for them.
Switching to the 30 millimeter cannon, he aimed at the two previously mentioned vehicles and opened fire, the large projectiles slammed into them, and he watched the two cars explode on impact.
"They're out of commision."
"Serves them right, next target!"
Switching back to 10 mm, he panned over to his left and zoomed out, searching for more.
"Angel One this is Bravo Six! Be advised SWAT is now in the AO! If you see two SWAT trucks, they're friendlies." Bravo Six said through the radio.
"Copy Bravo Six, tell them to link to us" he replied as he scanned for another target, eventually spotting a white van and two other civilian vehicles, all rigged with makeshift armor.
He aimed and then squeezed the trigger in one long burst, taking out the van and another one of the vehicles.
"10 millimeter is empty! Reload!" He shouted to the back as the crew loaded the weapon.
"Angel One, this is SWAT Officer Grizzoli, how do you copy?" A voice spoke through the radio.
"Hard copy, SWAT, where are you in the AO?"
"We're a good ways behind the convoy, but we have eyes on it"
"Hard copy, keep closing in, we'll thin them out best we can."
He aimed at the remaining vehicle and fired a single burst at it, watching the car swerve and roll onto its side upon impact.
"Good hits, next target, over there, another humvee"
He panned over to where his attention was being pointed to, and spotted an armed humvee next to a large pickup truck.
Switching to 30 mm, he led his shot before pressing down on the trigger.
The explosive projectiles hit their mark, the two vehicles exploding as they were hit, leaving the burning carcases on the road.
The other vehicles behind them swerved around the two burning vehicles and continued following the semi in front.
"Target neutralized…" He said and glanced at the hyena beside him.
Switching to thermal for a moment, he spotted small streaks of white flying toward the camera, which were undoubtedly bullets.
"This is Angel One, Tangos are opening fire on us with light machine guns" he reported and panned over to the source, a bundle of five vehicles, all armed with machine guns that were shooting at the gunship.
"Thirty millimeter is out! Reload!" He shouted as he switched armaments.
"The 108 millimeter can take those bastards out in one shot, should I use it?"
"Negative, 10 nd 30 millimeter only"
"Angel One to Bravo Six, we've got armed vehicles opening up on us from the ground, permission to use 108 millimeter?"
"This is Bravo Six, What's their distance from that semi, Angel One?"
"They're separated Bravo Six, near the middle of the convoy"
There was a moment of silence from the radio before there was a response.
"Your cleared for one shot, Angel One, remember, we have an operative in that convoy, we can't risk friendly fire"
"Hard copy, using 108 millimeter now" He said and switched to the howitzer armament.
Samuel led his shot for a few seconds, before squeezing down on the trigger, causing a loud crack to emit from outside the Gunship.
He watched the giant projectile accelerate towards it's target, before a loud explosion rocked the ground.
The five vehicles in question were burning wrecks immediately upon impact, the vehicles coming to a slow stop after they were destroyed.
"Ka-boom."
"Any more?" The hyena asked beside him.
Samuel looked along the convoy and shook his head, "negative, all clear…" He said, grabbing the radio
"This is Angel One to Bravo Six and SWAT, heavily armed vehicles have been dispatched, you're free to move in."
"Much obliged Angel One, stay in the AO, we might need you again here" Bravo Six said from the other end.
"Ten-Four, Angel One is standing by." He responded and leaned back.
"That was some damn good work [REDACTED], let's leave it to the boys down there to clean up" the wolf told them as Samuel nodded.
For now it was up to SWAT and 141 to clean up this mess and stop Fyodorov.
AN: Whew! That's one hell of a chapter isn't it?! I wanted to focus on the AC130 quite a bit, because I feel like I did it a big injustice in "Extraction Point". So hopefully this sufficed! I also wanted to focus on Rouen, because obviously he wasn't expecting a Gunship to appear. However! This is the final quarter now folks! Only a few more chapters left! Lots of action is to come! As always, any feedback or reviews are VERY MUCH appreciated! It means a lot to me whenever I see it! And I really wanna know what y'all think! Truly!
Anywho, that's enough rambling from me, so till next time, peace!
A Laughing Wolf.