"Speech/Intercom"
"Raido"
"Thoughts:
LOCATION-WALAPOLO MOUNTAINS
DATE-JULY-27-2019
TIME-1011
OPERATION-FLUSH
"Man this cloud cover is thick isn't it Trigger?"
"Yeah makes me wonder why they would put a radar site in an area like this but hey I also wouldn't give prisoners fighter aircraft so."
"I suppose that's fair so how do you feel about this mission?"
"There's something off I don't know what but my guts telling me somethings wrong just like Gunther bay and choppingburg." I said flipping through another run of system checks trying to keep my mind occupied. "I mean look right now we haven't had even a blip of enemy flights, you would figure they'd have CAPs around there biggest radar site."
"Yeah that's strange alright but at the same time they probably just rely on the sat/radar combo to take care of anything."
"Let's hope it's just over cofendice cause if not it's going to get messy real fast."
"Yeah yeah enough with the pessimistic thoughts what's the plan I saw you and Tabloid cooking up after the brief?"
"Ah that well we agreed to split up too risky to fly close together here so we just went with the old-fashioned wing it." I said just as Bandog came in over the net.
"Alright convicts your within the operation area remember keep below the clouds and there should be no missiles, now began operation destroy all radar sites."
The second he said that I flipped the master arm and dived lower into the valley pushed the throttle to full. As we headed toward the first radar I heard Count come over asking about the sites that were above. "Say Brownie keep the seekers on stand-by let try to get most of these sites with guns."
"Copy that Trigger but we're gonna have to fly out of the clouds for that arent we?"
"Yeah but look at the topography on the radar, they're all relatively at the same attitude just barely out of the clouds."
"Ok and?"
"Too late to explain I suggest you hold on." As I said this I pulled up hard and continued to leave the throttle at max and lined up my shot. The second I was on target I fired off burst and watched as the first site went up in flames. Once we passed the top of the mountain I put us in a roll till we were inverted and dived into the cloud bank once again.
"See Browine I had this all-FUCK!" I cut my self off as I leveled out and Immediately had to begin dodging AA and SAM fire from sites that covered almost the entirety of the valley floor. Weaving in and out of the fire was bringing back the familiar rush of adrenaline that just felt so right also on top of Brownie cussing me out in between warnings got me in my grove as Tabloid called out.
"Hey Trigger don't worry about the little things we got it covered just get the sites." He said as he splashed a helicopter and lining up on another.
"I hate agreeing with him but yeah we got this." Came Fullband as he took out an AA gun.
"Copy that guys and be careful there's not much dancing room down here."
The next few sites where simple pop up, pull trigger, dive, and repeat. Then we got to the halfway point and had to pop up and fly over two other mountains so we didn't waste time circling around. The only flaw to that plan was the almost instant missile lock on us; the fact the winds were kicking up making us almost over shoot that we barely corrected and managed to slip back into the clouds just as our warning tone went from lock to missile fired.
The second the lock cleared Bandog radioed in "Spare 15 stay in the clouds stay up to long and your ass is finished."
Hearing Brownie chuckle I keyed up the mic myself. "Aww Bandog you do care about little old me." I said as I took out another radar and set course for the last one.
"I still can have you shot down you know."
"And lose your source of income?"
"Just take out the last site so we can call it a day."
Not even answering I pulled up and over another mountain and dipped low along the valley for an attack run just like the first one and managed to pull it off again, as the final site went silent there was a moment of people arguing over how to test to see if we could safely clear the clouds. So being the as Brownie liked to put it adrenaline junky I brought my bird above the clouds and just sat there for a moment and waited, After no missile lock for a solid minute every one less decided to join me above the clouds and we were about to turn for home when Bandog noticed something on the radars.
"What the hell, I didn't know there were any allied planes in this area."
"Wait Bandog didn't know about others in the area, where are they Brownie?" I asked feeling the knot in my stomach from earlier come back in full force."
"There off our 9 o'clock looks like a flight of F-18s."
"Yeah I got eyes on but man that a lot of fighters behind enemy lines." I said as I faced us toward the wall of fighters heading our way.
As bandog kept trying to make contact with the fighters I heard the others debating over what squadron they were from, and Fullband even suggested they might be the mysterious barrier troops we were constantly getting threatened with. Moments after Fullbands remark is when their true nature was revealed.
"What the hell they got a missile lock on me." Count shouted, cutting over everyone else.
"Shit Trigger they got one on us as well and, shit the radar just glitched."
"Glitched what kind of glitch?"
"All the Ids for Spare squadron are gone, hell our IFF isn't even identifying us as Spare 15 riight now."
"Shit can you fix it or is this a AWACS thing?"
"Beats me I've never seen something like this before." Brownie said as she stated to work through the troubleshooting process. Unfortunately from what I could hear in the mess that was our comms everyone including Bandog had the same problem, and as if that wasn't enough the unknowns started to fire on us.
"Shit missile incoming Spare 15 dodge it."
"Fuck me sideways why am I just a lighting rod of hate hear lately?" I asked myself going into a left roll and dodging the first missile. What came after was an absolute shit show that no one could have seen coming.
"Sonava bitch that three people down and they just started firing who's who anyway?" one random pilot asked as another one of our fell out of the sky.
"Bandog any ideas cause i'm running out of dodging room here and not knowing friend from foe is getting old real fast."
"Run for the clouds."
"What good will that do they'll just follow us and we have hornets up here too you know.''Another Spare pilot said.
"Guys everyone form up on Trigger." Tabloid shouted out like he just came up with the game winning play.
"How will that help any?"
"Triggers flying the only tomcat out here that and his three sin lines make him the easiest person to spot without ID."
"And after that?"
"Brownie can help Bandog by visually relaying our positions so he can manually update our IFFs."
"Fuck it everyone form up on Trigger then." Counts reply as he slid in behind me,
Keeping myself as level and as straight as I could I noticed the unknowns circling us not firing but probably trying to figure out what we were planning. As Bandog and Browine quickly got the IFF updated I got a glimpse of the markings on the tail of the craft.
"Holy shit guys I don't know who they are but they definitely aren't Osean pilots."
"How can you tell?"
"Their tail markings are from the Albatross and It got sunk on the first day of the war with all its planes still on board."
"Triggers right It was stationed at Fort Grays and to think I almost got transferred to it."
"It doesn't matter who they are now they opened fire on Osean pilots so you're cleared to take them down." Bandog said as the last of the IFF signatures changed and the hostiles were marked as enemies.
'Hell yeah i'm not dying here."
"This is the peanal unit I decide when you die now take out the hostiles."
As soon as Bandog gave clearance I fired off two LAAMs at some of the farther targets and rolled behind another that I got with a burst of gunfire. "Hot damn Trigger where did that come from?" Brownie asked as we took out another one with the seekers.
"Oh that these guys messed up I've had a lot of aggression building up and I think i've found some volunteers to vent it out on.''The fight was going our direction once again until they started shooting these Helios missiles at us.
"Jesus don't they care about their pilots?"
"They're probably just buffer troops to slow attackers down." Fullband said as we started to finally mop up the rest. For all the trouble they gave us when the IFF was out they lacked in actual skill, which was rather sad as some of the Spare pilots that had never had a kill were getting them left and right. As I had just watched the last target on my radar dissipare I barely caught the radar display glitch and saw Fullbands Tag turn hostile.
"Count there's just one left get them."
"NO Count thats…." was all I could get out as me and Brownie watched the missile count had just fired impact Fullbands wing.
"What the fuck im hit."
"Shit how bad is it." Came Counts voice without the usual smugness.
"I'm not going to be able to make it back so i'm gonna bail out here."
"You can't."
"What do you mean he can't Bandog." Count said, sounding like he was about to find our AWACS and shoot him down, though if he had I would have helped at that point.
"He can't bail out, none of you can all the ejection seats are dissabled to keep prisoners from escaping."
"So that's why High Roller coulndt bail out."
"Wait the ejection seat is still in the plane right?" I asked suddenly remembering something I saw in the news a few years back.
"Yes why."
"Fullbands flying an older model of the Rhinos at one point before they updated them they had a bad problem about the ejection seat going off on its own if the emergency jettison for the canopy was used."
"Alright Trigger its better then nothing either way I'll catch you guys on the other side, and remember Intel is a life or death matter," was the last thing we heard from him as we watched him pop the canopy jettison and once the ejection seat kicked in and we saw his shoot we all cheered.
"Holy shit Trigger it worked, I guess you aren't so bad after all."
"Took you long enough, let's head home. We need to have a talk with Bandog when we land."
"You think Fullband will be fine on his own out here."
"Yeah the guys pretty resourceful in a way he's better off then us right now, but it's time to head back so settle in."