Near Victory
Chapter 5
Visily kept his eyes open for aircraft, "All gunners get ready, we're about to fly through hell!" Sam watched her scope to find the last carriers, 'according to my Intel they should be popping up.' It was oddly quiet at first, there was nothing. Visily heard Sakura yell, "Bats! Bats! 12 o'clock high!" then there was Gwen, "Bats! 2 o'clock low!" It was a hail of messages, "Bats! 7 o'clock high!" "Bats! 6 o'clock low" "Fighters! 9 o'clock low!" "Enemy aircraft! 6 o'clock high!" Visily held the Marauder steady, "You guys better get ready and fire up those guns," He said as the first fighter flew by. All of the guns in every formation lit up. The gunfire was so loud no one could hear each other. Visily flew straight and steady keeping his eyes forward. Suddenly the front turret of his marauder stopped firing, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Sam, check at the nose gun!" Sam acknowledged and ran to the front. She gasped as she saw Nitaliya's limp body. Blood covered the windows and guns. Sam turned Nitaliya's corpse over. Nitaliya was dead, three shots to the torso and one to the neck. Sam yelled back at Visily, "She's dead! Nitaliya is dead! We have no nose gunner!" Visily cursed, "Sam, get back to your station I think were almost near our bombing area!" She ran back to her spot and peeked through her scope, "three…two…one, bombs away, repeat bombs away." The two carriers exploded in a huge fireball, engulfing anything within a ten kilometer radius. "Our jobs not finished yet."
The fighters were swarming all over the bomber formation, even though the carriers were history it seemed as though these guys never had an end. Shots flew in all directions, with no nose gunner and an injured ball-turret gunner; it seemed as if he had no hope of returning home. All of a sudden about three formations of lightning fighters flew by gunning down at the locusts and hell talons that still remained in the sky. "Bomber leader this is 42 of Avalanche Lightning wing, we've come to escort you home." Visily heard loud cheering on the vox set as 6 thunderbolts flew by, "Bomber leader this is 24 of Snow Fall Thunderbolt wing we've come to assist." He smiled and turned to Sakura who smiled back at him.
They made it safely onto the ground, every person in the airbase ran to meet their comrades, cheering and laughter filled the air. People congratulated Visily on a job well done. But it all stopped when Colonel Lerno Chenkov stopped face to face with Visily. "We haven't won yet. We have an opportunity to strike at the heart of the enemies' air military forces. Gather your best pilots and crew Visily, it's a top secret operation." Visily looked at him as he was handed the folder, "What's this about colonel?" He shrugged, "Don't know, ask Captain Dominic." Visily watched him leave, Sakura and Alicia walked up beside him, "Who?" Sakura asked, "Dominic? Haven't seen him since training." Alicia said, Visily nodded, "Yeah, if it's him, it must be important."
Captain Dominic stood before a gathered group of pilots and crew to man 24 marauder bombers. They stood in a formed line before him. "The mission I'm asking you to volunteer for is very dangerous." He looked at them sternly, "Take a look at the person beside you, it's a good bet that in the next couple of weeks, you are one of them, will be dead. Anybody brave enough to except these terms, step forward." There was an odd quiet which followed his last sentence. Then, in unison, every man and woman on that line stepped forward. He smiled and led them out to the airfield. "I'm pretty sure you can take a marauder off of the ground in 1,200 feet, but I'm gonna teach you how to do it in 610 feet. Because at 611 feet you'll be dead."
Alicia walked with Sakura, Gwen, and Visily, "610 feet! Is he crazy! That's impossible!" Visily watched her, "It looks like it is," He said as they watched marauder, after marauder roll past the 610 foot marker. Captain Dominic threw his hat down, and said to one of his senior officers named Jack Stalin, "They just keep rolling past that damn line." Jack saluted, "Maybe this operation is a bad idea." Dominic looked at him, "No, get every person on the line." Everybody lined up on the runway's edge. Dominic looked back at his crew, "Let's show them how it's done." His marauder, Whirling Dervish, lined up along the end of the runway. The marauder took off at top speed lifting off six feet from the 610 marker. Every body jumped up and cheered as it flew off into the sky.
Dominic gathered everyone into the briefing room aboard the sea-based carrier The Emperor's Fury, "Well, now I can tell you where we're going. We're going to the chaos headquarters in Hive Herdin on an island across the Great Sea, and we're going to raze it." They cheered wildly, "The sea navy is going sneak us a couple of hundred miles from the coast of the island and we'll launch from there." Gwen, who'd been practicing her lingual skills and no longer had an accent, asked him, "That has never been done before, launching long-range bombers from sea-based carriers." Dominic nodded, and Sakura asked him, "Is it possible to land a marauder on a sea carrier?" Dominic responded to her, "That won't matter; once we're in the air, the carriers will return home." He turned to everybody, who had questioning looks on them, "Well, if the carriers head home, where will we land?" Visily asked. "On an island, Dreshdae, controlled by the 506th Valhallan, there is no airstrip there, so we'll have to perform an emergency landing when we get in." "But the half of the island we'll be landing on is overrun by cultists." Alicia said with doubt, "Yes, I know that. When you land, do your best to avoid capture. This air war is almost won, once this base is cleared out, its clear skies to victory."
Hey guys! Sorry, it took me so long to update, been way busy! Hope you enjoyed it
eldarranger :P
