Speech/Intercom"
"Raido"
"Thoughts:
LOCATION-ZAPPLAND
DATE-JULY-03-2019
TIME-0700
Hanger 3A
The next couple of days felt more like I was at my first base instead of an inmate, all we were told to do was basic maintenance on our birds. Which most of the other inmates took to sleeping and other activities and only working when the guards came around to check on us. Myself and Brownie decided to actually work for the most part and none of the others can prove where we disappeared off to after lunch yesterday, but we did work and that's what we currently doing, The others said they were going to leave it to Brownies roommate the Scrap Queen who i'll amite can pull some magic but with my luck I wasn't taking any chances.
"Hey lower the flaps I'm gonna check them while I'm over here." Brownie said up to me from the ground.
"Alright lowering the flaps and bam there you go." I said while continuing to mess with the HUD trying to get it to resync to my helmet while also working on one of my side projects. When I looked into getting a way to charge my mp3 Full Band also managed to get me another somehow so my Idea was something I stole from Counts constant complaining, I was trying to attach it into the cockpit so not only was it out of my way I also had a spare if anything hapend.
"So what's taking so long is there something wrong with the HUD?"
"No I just can't get my helmet to sync and I can't figure out why."
I heard Brownie climb up the ladder to look in the cockpit and give a sigh. "That's because that's my helmet you dipshit."
"What no I grab-" I started until Brownie grabbed it off my head and showed me the B painted on the left side. "Oh so that's why I had to adjust it."
"Go get yours before I see how many hits it takes from a helmet to give someone a concussion."
"That won't be necessary Brownie the commander wants us in the briefing room yesterday." Tabloid said sticking his head through the doorway.
"Ok let's go see what fresh hell he has for us today." I said climbing out of my seat and getting on the ladder.
"Yeah lets get it over with." Brownie added as we made our way to the exit.
"Oh come on you two it shouldn't be that bad."
As it turns out it could be an full out assault on an Erusean base in Roca Roja with only what our planes can carry, the only good to come out of the news was that we had a day to get our craft ready to go and prepare ourselves not much time but still better than no time at all.
"So you think we should fix the climate control finally."
"Brownie if we don't get it fixed before takeoff im gonna blotch the takeoff, because the hell I'm going to a desert in the middle of July with no A/C ok."
"Well I guess we should get to work then shouldn't we."
LOCATION-10 MILES SOUTH OF ROCA ROJA
DATE-JULY-04-2019
TIME-1300
OPERATION-ONE PAIR
'Oh god why did I agree to this operation again?"
"Maybe because we didn't have a choice."
"But im so bored not even music would help with this."
I would have continued annoying Brownie over boredom if Bandog hadn't decided to come in over the radio "alright convicts your almost in the zone of operations, remember you try to run we will shoot you down."
"Well with that lovely thought Brownie let's do a weapon check, GPBs?" I said while double checking the instruments myself.
"GPBs are all good to go and so are the standard seekers good as well."
"Alright go ahead an arm all weapons hot and get the GPBs up first, we're going straight for the AA first then we'll hit the fighters at this first base if that intel the commander had was right that should be there main airfield." After I said that I added with a sigh. "Now I sound like Full Band."
"Yeah you do don't ya, but do you want to try and see if the others have any plans?"
"I doubt it after the mess they were over Zappland but I can see." I said and keyed up my mic. "Anyone got a plan on how to do this without getting killed."
"Yeah we just go in and blow the shit out of everything." Champ said, bringing his MIG-29 closer to the front of our pack of fighters.
"Ok then I got an idea then it's simple but should help, pair up with someone and watch each other's backs and focus on the clustered targets then get the leftovers." I proposed.
"What are you squadron leader or something I'm gonna stick on my own." came Counts' reply which most of the other pilots mirrored.
"Alright Trigger I'll stick with you what we hitting first."
"Ok we'll hit this first base. I'm gonna go in and hit the AA then after I finish my run you come in and hit the fighters sound good Tabloid?"
"Yeah lets do this sick with the best if you want to make it."
"Alright you're in the AO begain the attack we don't want the regulars to dirty their hands with this so clear the area."
With that I put my Tomcat to full throttle which Tabloid followed and lined up on the first base. As I lined up on my attack run I saw three bombers getting ready to taxi and Two F-16s lining up on the runway. "Tabloid change of plans follow me in and get the fighters before they get airborne then let's hit those bombers.
'Copy that Trigger lets get them."
"Alright let's go." I said and switched back to the intercom. "Brownie get the GPBs locked on the first two AAs that should get the oil tanks too and swap us to missiles for the one in between the runways."
"What about the last one?"
"You'll see." was all I said as we began our run the first two went up in flames thanks to the overkill of bombs meant for fortified targets and the third met the same fate thanks to an AIM-9. Slowing us down I aimed up on the oil tanks the last and mobile AA had just moved beside and let off a burst which sent the tanks and AA up in flames, and as soon as I let off the trigger I throttled back up and out of the way of the no doubt pissed off enemy fighters i'd just buzzed doing that.
Their revenge was short however as moments later their blips disappeared off my radar and Tabloid came the rest of the convicts arguing over chasing down trucks. "Spare 11 splash two fighters and Trigger drop one of your bombs in front of the bombers should slow them down enough to make this easier."
"Copy that I'm turning for my second run, think you can get the control tower, might make it harder for other enemy fighters to coordinate." I said pulling a hard G-turn to line back up on the base.
"Yeah i can hit it and i'll hit that last bomber as well." Tabloid said sounding a lot more confident than he normally did.
"So Brownie Ideas on how to pull this off?"
"Dive bomb it the GPBs are just really expensive UGBs when there not locked to any thing." Brownie said bringing them back up but leaving the targeting off.
"Alright let's see how well this goes." I said as I pulled up to a reasonable height and angled back down and pulled the air brakes. Once I was lined up best I could I dropped two and Brownie was right they fell practically straight where I wanted only slightly off. I couldn't be mad about the slightly off part because not only did it take out a chunk of the runway it took out the first bomber as well.
"Spare 15 splash one bomber."
"Spare 11 splash one bomber as well."
The last bomber we took out with two missiles from tabloid and a quick strafe from my guns. "Looks like Trigger and Tabloid took out one of the bases while the rest of you were asleep get to work or it's solitary." Bandog added as the final blip disappeared from our radars.
"So Tabloid second verse same as the first."
"Yeah I'm game, let's do this."
The next twenty minutes were spent with me and Tabloid diving in and out of the canyons the next base was in and even with the Harrier 2s they surprised us it was a simple job of dive fire and pull up and fly along the rim of the canyons to avoid missiles and repeat. We were just moving to the last base letting the others pick off the stranglers we left when the UAVs showed up and I may not have known him very well but watching High Roller get picked off by them hit a little too close to home after Choppingburg.
"Sonva Bitch High Rollers down"
"Fuck this shit im out of here." It really didn't help when the other pilots turned tail and ran. By the time me and Tabloid had made it to the last base it was just us and Count who was coming from the return line, and Bandogs permission or not I wasn't taking the chance of solitary.
"Brownie, how's our ammo stores looking?" I asked pulling behind one of the MQs they sent and taking it out with a burst of the gun.
"Well missiles and guns are still in the green but we are down to our last two GPBs."
"Tabloid, how are you looking on munitions?"
"I'm still loaded on my GPBs but I'm almost out of missles." He said while pulling an impressive attempt at my signature move and bagging himself a UAV.
"Alright here's my plan, I'm gonna dump my last two bombs on the oil tanks and start pissing off every UAV I can while you focus on the base sound good?"
"Got it, I'll wait till you start the fireworks. Remember not all of us have the devil's luck though."
"Don't worry I'll keep em off your six just focus on the ground targets and AA." With that I took out the two oil tanks on the back side of the base and started being a pest to any thing in the air that wasn't friendly. The UAVs had a trick to taking them down. Brownie pointed out to me fire a burst to the side of them and they flew straight into your missiles so they were actually easier to take out than I expected after the Arsenal bird and Gunther Bay. The real problem came when I pulled one off Tabloid and three joined it chasing me.
"Any Ideas Brownie these guys seem to be learning."
"No try flying low and pull up right before they fire they might not expect your brand of crazy."
"Brand of crazy ha I got a plan." I remembered seeing a tunnel earlier when I had taken out the oil tanks so I did the only natural thing and took it at full throttle and certainly didn't laugh at the sounds of cussing coming from my co-pilot. In all the insanity of the plan it did work and the UAVs hit the sides of the tunnel with one taking out some fighters that were stashed away. Once on the other side I saw Count finally doing his job and helping with the few scattered UAVs so I took a moment to catch my breath and play damage control.
"So enjoy the ride?
"Im going to murder you when we land…, but I do have to ameit that wasnt to bad."
I would have continued to rub it in that she might have enjoyed it if my instincts had not kicked in moments before the missile alert went off. "FLARES NOW." I shouted as I pulled into a hard roll right and barely dodged a missile.
"Bandog I know you hate me but where did that come from?"
"Spare 15 you have a bandit approaching from the west."
I turned my head to see the fighter off in the distance and could barely make it out as a Tomcat just like mine. "Shit that's a F-14 they must be using LAAMs prep the flares and ready up the missles."
"Copy that bos- Roll left incoming." Brownie cut herself off with popping flares as we tried to close the distance.
After several more long range attempts we finally got close enough that the LAAMs wouldn't be as effective and I noticed not only was it a Tomcat It had a digital desert camo paint job. Once we were in range I fired two missiles head on but they dodged with a roll and a dive which I followed and fired a long burst from the gun at the fighter but still landed nothing. We continued swapping missiles and bursts of gunfire when Brownie noticed something. "Hey that pilots got an AI for there WSO you know what that means right."
"Yeah this is something I remember from the acaddamy you can overload the old AIs in fighters like the F-14s by firing missiles and the guns at the same time right?"
"Bingo and once it does that they'll have to manually deploy flares."
So that's exactly what we did and once the AI was out of the way our opponent finally slipped up and took a missle straight to their left wing and went into a spin that forced them to eject.
"Man that guy was good." I said after catching my breath,
"It could have been a girl you know."
"Really you're gonna start this now?" I said with a tired sigh.
"Nah just consider it payback for the tunnel."
Shortly after Bandog declared the operation over and ordered us back to base while also busting Count in the balls over his exaggerated kill count. I do have to give him some credit he could fly if he could just control his ego, but that was for another time I was just ready to get back and get some sleep and get out of the goddamn desert.