AN: only the operations would be labelled as chapters, other parts would have more abstract titles.
Valais air base, Ustio, 2/04/1995, 12:45, Weather: light coverage, risk of snow.
Iskanda had the time to meet the other pilots in those three days, but it was just simple talk. She did not talk about her past at all, not liking it and truly not ready to share so much darkness that would cut with the white mountains all around here. She was more of a care-about-the future and the present person than a mourn-about-the-past one. The pilot she found the most interesting was not Pixy, but Thesermeister. She was truly surprised how a physics teacher had become a merc.
" And you even use your physic knowledge in battle? I mean, I remember some lessons, but I don't see the concrete applications" She asked, curious to know what application had physics on battlefields.
" Mainly fluid mechanics, but yes I do. For example, every plane has an angle of incidence, which tells how much it can tilt on the pitch axis before increasing the risk of stall at average speed due to the loss of lift. But not every pilot knows it." Valentin said, trying to vulgarize his knowledge.
" And it's how many for my X-29A?" She asked, willing to know if the instability she liked so much had its advantage.
" Well forward swept-wing fighters have a very great angle, compared to conventional ones. I would say around sixty degrees." He answered, trying to figure the unorthodox flow of air around that kind of shape.
" I do not think it would have such an angle given the number of holes there's on its wings and canopy." Halo 7 said, who had seen from very close the damaged fighter when they almost collided three days ago.
" Same for me. And Steller said composites wings were a pain in the ass to repair. Until we gain some ground and supplies, I do not think you will fly it again." Pixy added, knowing that they could not use the same stuff to repair a forward swept-wing fighter than a ripped left wing on his F-15C.
" That's sad for you." Viviana said, understanding the frustration pilots could have when they saw other pilots taking off and not themselves because of maintenance issues.
" I remember that there's a couple of very old prototypes here from the sixties or seventies. They were brought here while some are in the technical museum in Directus. Maybe you will be able to borrow one of them?" Fred tried to cheer up the Erusean who was not happy to be grounded while all the six air Unit's pilots would fight Belkan attackers.
" It would be fun, flying some old brick of steel against duraluminium three or fourth generation planes." Iskanda said with irony filling her neutral voice.
They were about to talk about the different kind of prototype when the alarms blared. It could mean only one thing. An attack was incoming. All went to the briefing room, where a worried Koenig, Johnson and a little man with grey hair and brown eyes were waiting for them.
The pilots quickly sat, waiting for the briefing to begin. They almost knew what it would be: interception. Since the fall of Directus they were on the defensive.
" Listen up! We have got a situation on our hands. A major squadron of Belkan bombers has crossed our borders and made its ways here, to Valais Air Base. Apparently, they intend to attack our base to gain hegemony over the entire Republic of Ustio. Valais Air Base is our country's last line of defense, and if our base falls, no one will be left to stop Belka from taking over Ustio. Your mission is to destroy the squad of bombers and defend our base. Belka's invasion must end here!"
Koenig described the situation, emphasizing the last three words. As he talked, a map of the Valaisian Alps was displayed, with red triangles representing the Belkans forces, and another arrow consisting of blue dots representing their scattered forces. The Belkan bomber squadron was mainly composed of Bm-335Ns Neue Lindwurm. Its characteristics where displayed: Mach 0.8 bomber with four massive engine and a twin part fuselage, with the lower part refitted with the "Nachtigall'' radar, able to identify even stealth tanks and fighters in a fifty kilometer radius, using phase modulated waves, a tech only available in the Belkan air force yet. And of course, its incredible rear turret who could now not just damage fighters, but even intercept missiles with ease.
" But we have something new today, and even if you have all got to know her those last three days, I will introduce her to our unit officially now." Koenig said, before showing a picture of miss Rayien.
"Our new pilot of the mercenary unit is Iskanda Rayien, a pilot from the flight academy of Farbanti, born in San Salvation. She has demonstrated some skills over Bayes and against the Widowmaker squadron, so we can hope her skills will be useful today. She will replace your leader, Pixy, I expect you to take care of her."
" Ich werde." Pixy responded with confidence, determined to never lose another flight lead.
" I know you will. But be careful up there everyone."
After this short officialization, he turned to the little old man, and spoke again, ready to tackle the subject that would not be very pleasant to hear for the young Erusean lady:
" Everyone gets to your planes; we have some details to discuss with Iskanda and Herr Steller."
The seven pilots went out of the room, running across the runway that had been de-iced through an unorthodox method: flamethrowers. Even salting wasn't enough to melt the huge amount of snow that fell every day.
" Well, Herr Steller described to me the state of your X-29A."
" I will not repeat myself; your plane is not even capable of rolling on the tarmac. And if composites are great, have good elasticity and air resistance, they are very difficult to repair, especially the ones your craft is made of. So, with our current supplies my teams cannot fix your damaged fighter." Herr Steller described, with a bit of sadness in its voice. He hated when he cannot achieve something, but he could not do anything without the proper resources.
" So, I am grounded, but you said I could be useful today?" Iskanda asked curiously, quoting the word of Koenig.
" Well, your flight mates were not incorrect when they said there were some old steel-made prototypes here. In fact, there's only one that's capable of flying yet. I will show you this old piece of art." Steller said, inviting Iskanda to follow him.
They walked to a hangar just next to her and Pixy's, but unlike the latter who had a fresh painting this one had almost no more paint on it. The door slowly opened, like if they were entering some kind of old tomb, like some peoples searching for a mysterious old powerful artefact. But this one had a power, the power of Wende (change). Covered by a Ustian flag, which his white turned yellow through time, there was a fighter. Steller pulled the cover of tissue dramatically, like he was awakening someone. This fighter had small delta wings, canards alongside its cockpit, but there was a distinctive feature she never saw on other fighters: a massive air intake. Over it, with a little inclination was the nose of the fighter. It had a single exhaust port, but it seems way too big for a conventional engine. The fighter had two guns just between the nose and the air intake, allowing it a great fire power.
" This is a Nord 1500 Griffon, and before you say it, it has nothing to do with the Gripen series, this is the old rival of the Mirage III. Equipped with a conventional jet engine and a ramjet engine, it can achieve Mach 2.7 without problem and even without post combustion. It had never seen usage in combat, but I think you can change the tide today with it."
" It's beautiful. Old, rusty, but I think I will handle it quickly." She said, as she came closer to the old shaped steel craft, analyzing its structure, an old one, before composites and even duraluminium.
" Then climb in it, we will fuel it. Aber, I want it back in one piece, understand. Or the ghost of my grandfather, who worked on it, will definitely haunt you forever. Verstanden, Fraulein?"
" Crystal Clear." As she climbed on a ladder which seemed as old as the steel-made craft.
" Do not forget to turn the radio on once you are fueled and your batteries charged. I will guide you for the take off."
She analyzed the old instruments, altimeters, old gauges who might have waited for forty years beneath a fine layer of dust. All was analogical, with very few screens. The only modern feature was a radar with variable radius. And the HUD, it was a head up display, but without the "display" part. Just a simple target finder to see the point of convergence of the twin guns. "Next time I will end up flying a plane with props." She mocked, as the fighter was moved away from the hangar by a little tractor. The tractor seemed maybe far newer than this plane. There was another feature that surprised her: this plane has two throttle sticks. What was the aim of having two? She had to wait as her aircraft was refueled, seeing her wingmates taking flight with a simple thrust of their afterburners. She didn't know if this old junk would take off without falling to her death three seconds later. She cleaned a bit the dust, seeing old Belkan switches such as Hilfsdrucksmittel or a gauge indicating "Strahltriebwerks-mindest-Geschwindigkeitsgrenze". She did understand the first was referring to the fluid this aircraft needed to maneuver, with such a plane possessing no fly-by-wire control for sure, but for the second indicator she could recognize only two words: Geschwindigkeit for speed and Grenze for boundary.
Five minutes later her batteries and tanks were full, she could finally put her aircraft online. Putting her helmet, but not her oxygen mask, as it wasn't needed for middle altitude interception, she heard again the voice of Herr Steller:
" I'm in the control tower. Turn on the conventional engine. The Grenze indicator will show you when you had to go in ramjet mode or when to return to normal mode."
" Very good. Galm 1, taking off!" She said as she pushed the throttle stick to its maximum. The old reactor buzzed a little but came to life shortly. She disengaged the brakes as it was online, letting the speed rise on the old counter: one hundred, two hundred. Even if it was old, this aircraft surely packed some punch.
" Gut. You will have to reach Mach 0.8 to go in ramjet. Try to maneuver a bit until then."
" Well, what about my weaponry? Do I have just guns or something I can lock on?" She asked, while doing some turns, even a few high-g ones. It was good to feel some g after being grounded for three days.
" This aircraft was not intended to carry IR-guided nor radar guided missiles and cannot be fitted with a targeting pod for semi-active missiles. You have just some high velocity rockets and twin mounted 37mm cannons. Those HVRs were designed to penetrate bunkers but they should do the job fine against Lindwurms if you shot them head-on on the cockpit or the Nachtigall." Steller quickly responded, hoping this sortie will not end in a disaster and a loss for aeronautical history.
" So, it's gonna be HVRs time. Passing in ramjet now!" She yelled joyfully, as she turned off the normal engine slowly and activated the ramjet one. In a matter of seconds, she passed the sound barrier, causing her plane to shake a bit but it was fine. And the acceleration was not stopping.
She quickly reached Mach 2. At this velocity, she was going to rejoin with the other Ustian craft in no time. She could already see seven white dots on her radar in long range mode.
Valaisian Alps, Ustio, 02/04/1995, 13:00, Weather: little fall of snow.
Pixy heard a loud sound that was coming from the base, and a quick look at his radar indicated to him that a supersonic airplane was incoming. As it was sending no IFF, he was cautious. But he quickly recognized the shape of the old steel-made airplane. He did not think the Griffon would fly one day, and above all that someone would be crazy enough to fly it.
" He really made you fly the Griffon?" He asked his new wingmate, a bit astonished by the speed of the forty-five years old fighter.
" Yes Pixy! And I love its astonishing speed already." She said, as she was pushed on her siege by the terrific linear acceleration.
" This is the base command. Guess all you guys and girls manage to get up." Henri said, surprised like all the other to see the unusual radar spot of the steel-made Griffon
" Well taking off with the Griffon was not the easiest thing to do, but now that I am in the air, I can face anything." Galm 1 said, confident in the speed of her aircraft. Pixy on the other hand was forced to use his afterburners at their peaks to stay lined up with the Griffon which had achieved a speed of Mach 2.5, which was the maximum speed of his F-15C.
"Galm 1, Galm 2, Komyeta 1, Komyeta 2, Halo 5, 7, 10 and 12, maintain present course." Koenig ordered, even if he obviously knew no one would turn back. The merc were well enough paid for that, and even without it, their contract was considering retreating as a betrayal. Anyone retreating without the authorization would endure a fate worse than death for a pilot, as no one would hire them ever again.
" This is Galm 2, roger that." Pixy agreed with the order, followed by other "Roger that" of the entire aerial unit.
" Bearing 315 Belkan bombers approaching." Henri indicated.
The huge spot in this bearing was fairly visible: Bm-335Ns were no stealth plane at all, and their escort was not composed of such planes, but of full batches of F-5Es and F-4Es.
" Nobody wants to bail out over a mountain of ice. We are counting on you, flight leader." Johnson said, hoping they will not have to lose time searching for downed pilots in such a hazardous environment, which rendered Search and Rescue operations very dangerous for their simple SA342 Gazelles.
"You'd better have our money ready and waiting." Pixy grinned, playing a bit the money thirsty mercenary.
"That's only if we both make it through alive." Koenig specified.
" Be ready to pay up. We'll be back before you even know it.'' Pixy rejected the whisper of failure that the tragic souvenirs of the fall of Directus were reminding him.
" And if the Fraulein keeps the Griffon in one piece." Steller added.
" I will. Try to keep with your new three and fourth generation fighters, the others. Because I will not wait for you to steal my kills." Iskanda retorted, pushing the ramjet engine throttle stick to its peak, outrunning the Sukhoi 33s and the F-14Ds. Although Pixy managed to stay close to his leader for a time, he and the other Eagles were quickly outrun, even with full afterburner on.
Over the Valaisian Alps, Ustio, 02/04/1995, 13:05, Weather: cloudy, light fall of snow.
With the archaic radar of the Griffon on long range mode, she could see all the Belkan Bm-335Ns approaching, but the fighters were too little that she could not identify them properly. But whatever the plane they were piloting, she had already figured out what they would need soon: more a snow speeder than a fighter if they wanted to survive on those iced valleys and mountains that were forming the Valaisian Alps.
" Belkan Bomber approaching, bearing 315. all planes, intercept." Koenig repeated, even if the Belkan could only come from the west.
" Roger. I have already a lone F-5E in my sights." Iskanda said, with her ramjet engine allowing her to arrive in the combat zone first. Without even slowing down a bit, she just curved a bit her plane trajectory, lining it with the future path of the F-5E.
The F-5E pilot was unable to identify the craft, he fought that it was maybe a Migalev 31 to achieve such speeds, but even before he could relay this to the bomber he was scouting for, two twin guns shattered his fuselage and engine. The first plane of this squadron was down.
Then, without noticing Pixy who was still five hundred meters behind her, she rushed toward two Bm-335Ns, attacking them head on. She fired three of her HVRs on the left one, before doing a barrel roll to the right and quickly firing three others as she passed just over hit. She thought that with three rockets hitting the bomber its rear gun would be offline, but she was wrong. She was forced to make a vertical climb to evade the close-range anti-aircraft fire.
While she leveled up her plane after a five hundred meters ascension, she saw that Pixy had already caught up with her. Being equipped with more than a dozen of XMAAs and QAAMs, he quickly dispatched the F-4Es that were escorting one bomber with a volley of three XMAAs, before downing head on the Lindwurm with two QAAMs, the first destroying the Nachtigall and the second detonating inside the enemy craft. Three other F-4Es tried to attack him from the side, but a volley of XLAAs destroyed them. The F-14Ds were the first to catch up, with their geometrical wings fully closed.
" Eh, do not act all alone, the Erusean." Halo 14 said, trying to catch with Iskanda as she was on his way to the second wave of bombers, composed of 6 Bm-335Ns, with 6 F-4Es and 8 F-5Es as escort.
" Sorry, tourists first." Galm 1 answered.
" Fox 1, Fox 1." Halo 7 said as he released two of his SAAMs toward a pair of enemy bombers, which had just taken hits from the Griffon's HVRs. They were the two in the middle, and their destruction opened a gap in the formation.
" I hope we will have finished this quickly, so we could drink some Glühwein after it." Halo 5 said, as he locked three escorts, but only one F-5E was destroyed, while the two others escaped.
" Why not, I've heard that this spiced hot wine is the only peaceful Belkan achievement. But we still have some job to do here." Iskanda said a few seconds after she had passed right between the falling bombers, she could see some fighters engaging her, but they seemed a bit reluctant in their attacks against this unknown craft. And its speed made it almost invulnerable to their futile shots. After she avoided some SAAMs with two sharp turns, she managed to get behind a F-4E who tried to outrun her, but it was no use. She finally gunned him just below a Lindwurm, after ten second of course. As the fighter exploded, some parts collided on the Nachtigall, disabling it.
" This is Otto 5, Radar is offline, I'm retreating." The pilot complained, but he did not for a long time. His bomber was struck by two of Valentin's Sukhoi 33's XMAAs and fell in flame to the iced ground.
" They killed an aircraft that was unable to fight. Filthy mercenaries!" A Belkan cursed, as he left the formation to head toward Komyeta 1. But as he was just one hundred meter from locking range when he heard the loud sound of the Griffon, who accelerated at what seemed an unrealistic pace to the Belkan pilot, and a second later, his reactor exploded, hit by a burst from Galm 1.
" Thanks, Galm 1." Valentin said, as his and Iskanda's plane crossed.
" You're welcome" She said while returning into the fire ball without going below the sonic barrier. The 6 bombers had fallen due to the Ustian fighters, and the escorts were now only fighting for their lives.
The last of the wave was dispatched by two XLAAs from Viviane's F-14D. A F-5E tried to shoot her down but at the risk of being hit she opened the geometrical wings of her Super Tomcat making him overshoot. He then tried to run as the F-14D had lost quite a great amount of speed, but she locked him with her XLAAs. She launched one, and one second after Galm 1's Griffon just flew right past her, outrunning the long-range missile and stealing her kill. The F-5E was ripped apart by the Griffon's bullet, but he also took the XLAA with him. The fighter didn't even have the time to burn, he exploded immediately.
" Come on, miss Deadpool, do not steal my kill with your old junk." She complained, trying to catch the Griffon but the ramjet powered fighter was already heading to another airplane.
" Well, at least her plane is not a Junkers, or it would be even funnier." Halo 5 joked, referring to the first full metallic plane.
" Sorry, I have a killscore to maintain." Galm 1 retorted, as she was firing a HVR on a F-5E she had attacked head on, firing the rocket with her plane inverted to avoid the F-5E's bullets.
" Well, at least I have 60 kills shared with Morgana." Halo 14 compensated, knowing that this Griffon had only good results because it was solely against F-5Es and F-4Es. Against more mobile dogfighters such an interceptor would be in trouble.
" I sank two cruisers and an Aegis with my X-29A on my way here. They were stuck for some seconds in some sort of ship elevator, and I destroyed the system with two of my FAEBs." Galm 1 said, going a bit overboard, but she did not keep this competition for long: she had seen very tiny blimps on her radar, at a 10000m altitude.
" If we had to attack the Futuro Canal I would do better!" Morgana snapped back, while firing two XLAA on the fighters in front of her. The closest was not locked, but the two further were shot down. But as he lost speed, avoiding missiles that were not for him, he did not have the time to recover before the conventional missile of the Super Tomcat struck him down.
" Galm 1, Nothing else to say?" Halo 5 asked to Iskanda, who was silent since she had rushed toward the bearing 285, from where the stealth blimps seemed to be coming.
" Just doing some scouting, I believe I've spotted some stealth but I'm not sure."
" How could she see stealth and not us?" Aleksei asked, wondering how an older plane could perform better on this field than his.
" Old planes have not the same wavelength of radar, and stealth of today are made to be stealth for actual tech, so it's not unusual if she can see a F-117A for example." His brother Valentin explained while gunning down a F-4E he just made enter a stall.
" Thanks for the physics lessons. I've definitely 4 F-117As, I can handle them, I let you the third wave." Iskanda said while heading for the stealth. Pixy has just killed the last F-4E with a QAAM fire at his ten o'clock, and the seven planes headed toward another six Bomber formation.
The Belkan pilots of the stealth squadron were not happy at all: their plan had been discovered. They intended to bypass the Ustian fighters, but they did not expect to be found that quickly. Although, they knew they were not the only Trojan horse that was trying to slip through the Ustian forces. So, the leader, when he saw the Griffon rushing toward them at Mach 2.6, did try to evade. He needed to buy some time for the others.
"Schwarze Falke 1, delay the attack and proceed evasive maneuvers. Give the Valkyrie the time to begin the Ragnarök!" He ordered, trying desperately to dive to go out of the line of fire of the Griffon's twin guns, but he knew deep inside he would never manage to get out of her line of fire. She was too fast, so fast he had not even the time to make her overshoot.
" Strange" this was the least that Galm 1 thought as she heard the order of their leader.
" Roger." The three over members replied, diving to get a bit of airspeed, their aircrafts being tortoise compared to a ramjet powered one. As they just ended their replies, the Griffon was firing on their leader, tearing the fragile stealth into pieces. Then a confident Galm 1 did a great curve, outrunning them for a few seconds before going back to hunt them.
" It's no use! Try to take this one down with you if you had to!" The number three said, as he just saw his wingmate going in flames.
When he saw the delta wing aircraft coming toward him, he climbed, trying to get followed. Then, doing his best to evade the fire with the very little maneuverability of his plane, he stalled, falling right on where the Ustian was supposed to be. But his maneuver failed, as Iskanda made a quick Himmelman, letting the F-117A spiral to his death, its weak engine not powerful enough to counter the fall.
On the far northern side of the map, the Ustian fighters were destroying the enemy squadron easily, having destroyed the bombers head-on with pairs of XLAAs, XMAAs or SAAMs according to their respective ordnance. The Belkan fighters fell quickly before them, having just an advantage of two to one. There were just a few survivors when Iskanda came back from her stealth killstreak. She managed to bag a kill, but it was not a glorious one: a lone F-5E, who had evaded one SAAMs from Halo 7, but as he lost too much speed doing so, it did not take much time for the Griffon to close the gap and tore the fighter apart in a twin burst.
"- This is Valais Air Base, only the rear guard remaining." Johnson said, looking on his radar to see that only two Bm-335Ns and four Migalev 21s were left. But still, the word "Valkyrie" stayed stuck in his mind, trying to figure out what was the last order.
The response was given by Komyeta 2. As he climbed to escape the last bullet of the already downed last Lindwurm, he got a read at very high altitude, coming up at high speed. There were no stealth crafts, but a group of XB-70 Valkyries without escort. They were at more than 20000 meters, making this an unreachable altitude for his Sukhoi 33s, so he reported this new data asap:
" Komyeta 2 here, I've got some bandits very high, too much for my engines."
" The Osean satellites have confirmed this. But none of our fighter can reach this altitude in due time." Johnson complained, hitting his desk hard with his fist in rage.
" Keep your cool, major. The ramjet engine of the Griffon can theoretically perform flights at 30 kms." Steller said, quoting the capacities of the very good ramjet engine.
" This is Galm 1, I understand that. I'm climbing right now." She indicated, putting the throttle stick of the ramjet engine to its maximum, and adjusting her oxygen mask needed due to the very low pressure at the altitude she was going to achieve.
Mach 2 was reached in less than ten seconds, during which she was pushed on her siege by the sudden acceleration. She saw nothing that could prevent her from dealing with those 4 Valkyries.
Valaisian Alps, Ustio, 02/04/1995, 13:20, Weather: little fall of snow.
It was not very difficult for the Belkans to see the rushing Griffon. Its steel-made structure was the least stealthy stuff ever, and its current speed gave it a very big thermal signature because of air friction. They had received a special paintjob for this bombing: white on the top and with a dark blue below, as the sky usually darkened when it snows. Their emblem was a dark snake with two big blooded fangs that seemed to be escaping out of some kind of grave.
" Ragnarök 1 to all, we are followed." Their leader announced, as the Griffon had just reached 18000 meters on his radar. Their XB-70 had very good ECM systems and chaff dispensers to help counter long-range missiles such as the XLAAs a MiG 31 - the king of interceptors- would be carrying. But against rockets and guns, their six output engines had very low resilience.
" Ragnarök 3 roger. Readying the Vogel. Hans, Abtrennung!"
The said Hans, who was sitting where the radio and intelligence officer would be, was next to a remote-control panel. He was ready to give this Erusean merc a very bad day.
Iskanda understood what this "Vogel" was when she reached 19 kilometers. The third XB-70 did not have a bomb bay, but a big drone strapped on it. It was not some kind of recon drone, more of a fighter kind of. It had a dagger shape with what seems to be two closed geometrical wings. As the word " Abtrennung " was confirmed by a Belkan, the drone was released, falling right on her path. The two geometrical wings expanded in a curious fashion: they were now oriented backward, while the pinkish light of its afterburners highlighted the sky.
The drone rushed on her. Its gun was placed in an internal bay, a bit like the F-22A's, but this stealthy feature allowed Iskanda to know one second before it was firing. Doing a barrel-roll to the left, she evaded the gunfire, without turning away from her path toward the bombers.
But, using twin air brakes, the drone turned extremely sharp. A pilot would have fallen unconscious due to the G-Forces, but drones could make 20 G turns without any issue. In less than five seconds it was in her six.
" Verschlossen!" The Belkan said, as two QAAMs were launched from an internal bay.
" I'm not done yet!" Galm 1 retorted, not willing to abandon against some big remote-controlled toy.
Pulling as hard as she could, Iskanda escaped the two missiles by a hairpin bend. Then she resumed her turn to get on the six of the UAV, making a horizontal loop.
But the UAV managed to avoid her twin guns by making a small barrel-roll which made it arrive just next to her craft. If she decelerated, the drone would use its air brakes, and the drone seemed to be capable of keeping up with the speed of her ramjet-powered plane.
For two minutes, they kept flying very close one to the other, each of both trying to outmaneuver for some seconds the other one to get a lock, the skills of Iskanda and of the drone controller seemed to be equal. But after a streak of very sharp turns, the backward swept-wing drone stalled a bit. Iskanda decided to take this opportunity, and reducing greatly her thrust, she managed to get on its six while it was recovering from its loss of speed. Two well-adjusted gun bursts cut the right wing of the drone.
" I got you!" She finally said, as the drone tried to climb, but only to be met by two other gun bursts, as she followed the path of the Vogel.
But as she was on the verge of victory, she did not watch carefully enough her gauge of speed, as it was not on her HUD. And the indicator finishing by "Grenze" turned to a bright red. Her commands began to feel sluggish, as the fluid was submitted to the intense vibrations created by the stall. And she fell, the air not entering at a speed high enough for her ramjet engine to produce thrust.
" Viel Glück!" The Belkan drone controller laughed at her as she was falling, trying desperately to level up her plane or to reactivate the conventional jet engine.
" You're right Hans. Even if you have lost the ability to pilot a plane by yourself, you're still a very good pilot." The pilot of the bomber said, while looking at the man on the remote system, who had lost a limb after being shot over Directus by none other than Pixy's former leader.
" I did not get the first Galm 1, but I got the second one!" Hans enjoyed his almost kill. For him, the Griffon had no chance to recover from this fall.
The fall, and the G-forces induced by it, caused a ten-second blackout to the pilot who was not used to falling from such heights in such a short time. After painfully recovering from it, her eyes making her suffer like if some maniac shoot her small needles in them, Iskanda tried desperately to get back online the conventional jet engine, but she was met here by the flaw of the Griffon: a weak jet engine for a very powerful ramjet, this being the factor that made its creators abandon the project.
" Is there any solution to recover from this fall?" She asked, worried by the situation and the thrill of near-death experience that usually got her a pleasant adrenaline surge induced only a great headache instead of the sweet exciting sensation. She was definitely going to need some painkillers after this flight.
" Use the Hilfsdrucksmittel switch to recover the fluid pressure, you should regain a bit of your maneuverability." Steller guessed, fully aware of the maybe-fatal design flaw of the Griffon.
" Do not try to recover. Fall full head-on to the ground, you should gain enough speed to reach the minimum speed for your ramjet engine." Komyeta one added, his mind trying to quickly figure a basic fall of object with gravity and drag.
" I will follow you both, I trust Thesermeister for the physic part of my future path, and Steller for the technical part." She agreed with both advice, and with a cooled spirit, dived toward the iced mountains.
" Well if we both failed, it will mean we have achieved theory and practice: something does not work, and we do not know why." Valentin said, trying to draw some irony out of the potentially tragic situation.
Valaisian Alps, Ustio, 02/04/1995, 13:40, Weather: medium fall of snow.
Ragnarök 1 was confident. His lead XB-70 just needed only five more kilometers to be in effective range against this little skiing station they dared to call a base.
" Are you sure she cannot recover?" The number 4 asked. He had not seen the aircraft crashing, but it could be due to the cloud of snow below them that were hard for his radar to penetrate.
" It's physically impossible, I assure you." The number 2 responded, a bit overconfident.
As they were chatting over Iskanda's probability of survival, she was effectively trying to survive. She had followed both advice, and after a five-kilometers fall, was already back at Mach 1. Her ramjet engine was usable again, but she had only four kilometers to reverse her path, and less than five minutes to intercept the first bomber. Slowly tilting her plane around the pitch axis, she decreased a bit her speed, but her plane was already leveling up. All Ustian pilots were watching her recovering from her almost eight-kilometers fall, as her failure would mean a success for the four XB-70 they could not intercept.
And after one minute under very high stress for both her and the aircraft, she was finally back to her interception duties. Ignoring the pain of the G-Forces, she was already climbing at Mach 1.5.
" Ragnarök 1, only one minute before dropping!" The leader already enjoyed, overconfident. Lost in his future pride he was going to gain; he did not focus on the very reduced thermal signature that was closing by. Indeed, if Iskanda was very visible in the open sky, the heavy lead-colored clouds of snow were masking her approach.
" I don't think our defense will be able to intercept their ordnance." Johnson said, worried after the dramatic fall and recovery of Galm 1, but he lost her both on radio and radar when she entered the heavy cloud.
" Well, she's our only hope to survive now. But I know from experience that men and women usually give their best after very close near-death experiences." Koenig said, keeping his cool and thinking a bit to his son that was exiled in Osea, which at this very moment he did not know if he was going to see him again in this life.
" Thirty seconds. Opening bomb bay." The Belkan leader ordered his wingmate.
" I will never be able to shoot the first before it dropped its ordnance." Iskanda mused, quickly analyzing the situation that was not going well. She had only ten HVRs left and 200 rounds of gun ammo. So, in her mind only one very hazardous idea emerged, and she was going to follow it. She knew that Steller's ancestor would accept that his creation took one or two shrapnels to allow a base, and more than a base, an exiled nation in its own territory to survive.
" Only twelve seconds before dropping. Zehn, neun..." The Belkan leader started to count down.
" We are going to do one hell of a score.'' His copilot added, already looking in the bomb bay view the buildings of Valais Air Base.
" I have a better suggestion: let me settle your score in hell!" Iskanda rudely interrupted them, climbing right under their bomb bay.
Suddenly worried by the arrival, and furthermore, the survival of this foe, they had the time to drop a handful of bombs, but Galm 1 had already launched all of her rockets but one toward them at the same time. And one of their heavy penetration bombs suffered a direct hit from one of her high velocity rockets, exploding fifty meters below them, obliterating every other bomb they just dropped. And flying through the cloud of small metallic parts in suspension, the Griffon rushed toward them, launching its last rocket in their bomb bay, before another array of bombs was ready to be dropped.
The two pilots did not suffer, as a part of their ordnance was composed of napalm bombs, whose explosion plunged the XB-70 into hell instantly. Without hesitating a single instant, Iskanda flew right through the flames that were spreading in the air. A few alarms as well as Steller's voice screamed, but she did not notice them. She then did a great loop, climbing five hundred meters to extinguish the nascent flames on her wings, before doing a split-S toward the line of three Valkyries ready to drop their payload. The steel-made wings heated a bit, glowing in a very dark red, but due to the very cold external temperature at this altitude the heat dissipated very quickly. However, the wingtips were now shattered due to the deformation caused by high-g turns at near-melting point. The second was still one kilometer from the base, since the Valkyries did not fly in a tight formation due to their great speed, to avoid collision if one was shot down.
" I will shoot them all, and I think I will enjoy seeing you burn to your death in hell." She said, the strange mixture of stress, near-death experience and the adrenaline surge driving her a bit mad at the Belkans. But even without all those factors, she would have said the same thing, willing to spread fear in those soon-dead Belkan pilots.
She rushed at full speed head-on to the second one. Firing her gun right on its cockpit, she first saw the canopy exploding due to the pressure difference, and then it somehow caused an inner explosion that engulfed the entire craft in flames.
On the radio, she could hear the cheers of the Ustian on the ground, rejoicing at the sight of the first and the second bomber being blown up in the sky high.
She decided to let the third live a bit and went for the fourth one instead. It met the same fate, being set on fire by its incendiary payload. But like for the second XB-70 the burning was short but violent and deadly, the lack of pressure combined with the explosions themselves.
" This is Ragnarök Drei to HQ, I am sorry to announce the surprise attack has failed due to the engagement of an unknown Ustian prototype." The pilot solemnly said, as he saw the Griffon closing, and all the rest of the Valkyries that fall to the ground.
" Don't be that sorry, your intervention proves that the Nord 1500 Griffon was a good design despite a flawed jet engine." Pixy said with a huge amount of sarcasm.
" Why are you not killing us right now?" Hans demanded.
" Yeah, finish us." The pilot asked, wanting his dead to be quick and painless.
" Because I wanted you to be alive. I wanted you to know that I succeeded." She said after removing her oxygen mask to have a clear voice, while closing the gap between the two crafts. "Auf Wiedersehen!" She mocked their now inevitable death, filled with the sick joy of seeing her foes going into oblivion.
" At least I will have met my end after a dogfight." Hans concluded, as the sounds of guns burst echoes around them.
" Ragnarök squadron confirmed destroyed. Few, that was a bit too close." Johnson said, a bit hyperventilating.
" Take deep inhalations, Johnson. Inhale, exhale." Francis said, as he was turning back to base, followed by all the other Ustian pilots.
" Last time I heard someone saying that it was when my sister gave birth." Johnson chose to laugh from his stress.
" So what should we conclude? Is Johnson pregnant?" Fred added, laughing more than ever.
" Komyeta 2 to Halo 5 and 7, do you think we should call her Jannieson then? Or Johndaughter?"
" Did you forget this is an open channel, guys? I can hear you; you know?" Johnson tried to calm the situation, but it was no use. A massive burst of laugh spread among the waves, and even Johnson died laughing.
" Hem, if you have finished laughing up there, you are cleared to land," The control tower announced, as the runway had just been cleared from the recently fallen snow a minute ago.
Valais Air Base, Ustio, 02/04/1995, 14:30, Weather: light fall of snow.
They all have landed carefully, as the snow began to recover the tarmac once again. Especially for Galm 1, it was a tough landing, as her plane had a very low stability at low speed, and it had been reduced even more by the shockwaves she went through while destroying the XB-70 and their deadly ordnance.
As she was climbing down the ladder next to the Griffon, she could hear Pixy and Aleksei talking nearby, Komyeta squadron's Hangar and Galm's were just as close as her's and Pixy's. They talked about the mission, a bit about the new upgrades on the Lindwurms that they discovered today, as the attacking force over Directus was comprised of standard Bm-335s which their rear guns were not capable of shooting missiles in midair, but already capable of inflicting serious damage to airplanes.
But soon Aleksei mentioned a subject she was much more interested in: her own flight.
" So, now that you have seen her in action, how do you gauge her?" He asked the Belkan merc. Aleksei on his part had been pretty impressed by her resilience to such high-G after her multi-kilometer fall.
" Well," he began, sweeping away the snow that started to cover his oversuit, adding white dot to the hydrophobic piece of clothes, a bit embarrassed to compare a new flight leader to his former one. " Her flight was reckless, rash, unorthodox, hazardous, almost borderline suicidal at some point."
Iskanda was not very pleased by what she heard first, feeling a cold rage growing in her mind against Foulke, as cold as the snow falling all around the base's buildings. But soon the rage was cooled by the final words of Pixy:
" But also, selfless, careful about the others, ready to put her life on the line to save the ones who cannot fight. Nobility and recklessness at the same time, it's my final judgement."
He had tried to be honest, but he could not, as he had misjudged his flight leader to be better than she was due to the sweet feeling he felt about her. He had thought her to be almost unbeatable and yet she had fallen from the sky like all the others that fell that day. He needed to move out, but it would be a long way.
" I can say she has potential." Pixy concluded his judgement, seeing her flying the Griffon was not a good way to see her dogfighting skills as the Nord 1500 was a plane made for hit-and-run tactics.
'' If she had some differential of potential with you, I fear there will be some tension between you two." Valentin said in some ambiguous manner.
" What? Verdammt you're going into your physical Witzen again." Pixy cursed, not willing to undergo a five-hour lesson of Thesermeister to explain his strange kind of joke.
" Why are you suddenly smiling, Francis?" Pixy asked, changing of subject after the try of Valentin to be joking, as the said Ustian pilot was approaching him with a smile too big to be honest.
" Oh, nothing. I think you forget something in your judgment." Halo 7 said, who was almost bursting in laughter for no reason.
" I did not understa… Gott Verdammt es ist kalt" Pixy screamed, hit at the back of his head by a snowball launched by no more than Iskanda herself.
" You forget the "I can be stealthy even when I'm not in stealthy conditions" part." She said, while playing with another snowball she threw the second after right at Pixy's face.
" I don't like snow, it's cold, it's humid, and once it melts the water gets everywhere." Pixy complained, as he was rubbing the snow away from his face.
But it was just a mere ruse, as he crouched down the second later, avoiding another snowball, and just after having created a small ball of snow, launched it right at Viviane's torso. He quickly got up to evade the retaliation of Halo 10, and soon an all-out snowball battle began, as the pilots relaxed from having avoided total annihilation.
Briefing room, Valais Air Base, Ustio, 02/04/1995, 15:10, Weather: fall of snow.
The battle had lasted for a good forty minutes. They were now exhausted and wet, as snow went through their sleeves and collars, but it was a sane exhaustion, easier to recover than high-g forces. It had required all the seriousness of Koenig and Henri to stop laughing from the radio room at the top of the control tower and send the order :" All pilots, cease hostilities, we need you to the briefing room for a debriefing."
" Thanks to you, Belka's attack on Valais Air Base has failed. Your efforts will not go unrewarded. Your actions may well decide who wins the Belkan War. I, for one, will be counting on you." Koenig congratulated them proudly for their victory today, which had allowed Ustio to survive for some time.
" We are just doing our jobs or following our contracts for the mercs." Viviane humbly responded. She knew that just shooting a bunch of bombers wasn't going to turn the tide of war.
" Do not underestimate the consequence of their defeat. The loss of those bombers will remove some pressure from the western front and allow Osean and Sapin forces to regroup so we can launch a counterattack." Koenig resumed a bit of what could be the incoming operation. Now, after this victory, he was again confident in a turning of the tide.
" Ahem, just allow me to say one thing, Koenig." Steller intervened, a bit worried, sitting on the edge of a table in the meeting room. He had not said anything since the beginning, and waited his arm crossed, as if some details were disturbing him.
" We are all ears. What's up?" The admiral wondered, hoping it was not some bad news.
" Well, I checked the arsenal a bit during the operation. We do not have much here, only the amount of weaponry for one, maybe two missions." Steller described the situation that Johnson quickly showed on the screen of the room. Indeed, there was only a bit less than what each aircraft required to be at full charge, without taking into account the unusable X-29A and the weaponry for the Griffon.
" Damn It, we cannot go like this. Are there any solutions?" Aleksei complained, saddened by the uncertain future they were facing now.
" Gebet and Recta have ceased their supplies since last week, you know, when you had to intercept those Tu-160s and their Su-32s Strike Flankers. Belka sent a massive squadron of 24 Foxhounds to intercept both shipment and escort, and to make an example, use these XB-70s Iskanda shot today to wipe half of their air bases. And we cannot wait for Oseans supplies, our lines are too far from theirs." Johnson said, while displaying the destruction in those two allied countries that were also born from the secession of oriental Belka like Ustio was.
" So, are we doomed to an attrition war we will lose anyway? We have no weapon factory here at Valais." Pixy said, turned upset by the situation which seemed irresolvable.
Koenig could do nothing but agree with these arguments. They had to survive alone. The powerful Osean federation was still regrouping after a deadly submarine attack in which 4 of their seven aircraft carrier were sunk. This reduced greatly the strength of the Osean Navy, and by such the strength of the allied forces.
"What could we do?" was the question on which every pilot and officer was focused on for a good fifteen minutes, which gave to all of them the time to dry up the melted snow that had set their flight suits wet.
Finally, a solution came, but again, like the arrival of Iskanda or the use of the Griffon, it was a fully unexpected one.
" This is the control tower; I have received a message from a private person." Henri said, with a bit of astonishment that a civilian had access to an encrypted line.
" Share with us anyway, it could not be any worse news than our level of weapon supplies." Johnson said, shrugging as he was a bit reserved on his future fate. Since he fled from Belka, he had not been the more optimistic guy. And the situation wasn't helping either.
" That's weird, because the sender used some kind of code I do not recognize." Koenig said, as an indistinct streak of letters and numbers was displayed, with no patterns of apparition.
" I want every analyst or anyone that can decipher this working on it. Especially you, Thesermeister." He ordered, but this time he had a good feeling about this message.
" Excuse me for changing the subject, but can we have the score for this mission? If it's going to be our penultimate one, I want to celebrate it." Iskanda asked, after Thesermeister got his lead pencil and went writing the full message on his draftbook to study it later.
" I show the mission scores or the ones of the following Schneeballschlacht?" Johnson rhetorically asked, even if the scores of the snowball battle were much harder to get than the real mission ones.
" The Schneeballschlacht!" All pilots said in unison, willing and ready to know who got the most his ass kicked on the ground.
" Sorry for this time Pixy, you need to improve your accuracy. Even if there's more snow in Belka than in San Salvation you have fallen way behind your leader." Valentin quickly analyzed the chart of scores that display each of their "kills" in this friendly battle.
" Don't worry, as I have ended as the ace of this battle with five kills the drinks are on me today." Iskanda smirked, happy to best for once the Ustians who had the advantage of being here since way longer than her, giving them a theoretical edge in killcount.
" Great. But just Glühwein for everyone, and do not drink too much. I do not want to have sick pilots because they got too warm with the alcohol and went outside at 2 hours without oversuit, Verstanden, Fräuleins und Herren?" Koenig warned them, not willing to send half of their pilot to the medics like last time.
" Don't worry Vati I will be the teetotaler today, you told me to watch for my flight lead, and I will." Pixy retorted to the admiral in quite a childish way, but he knew the old Belkan had some humor in his old bones.
" Pixy, next time you try some Witzen you will shovel all the snow on the runway alone. Now get out, pilots, we have an encrypted message to decipher." Koenig retorted back with a good dose of Belkan sarcasm.
" Maybe I will stay here. I did not like drinking during student fest, and I did not as a teacher later. And I will be more useful here at deciphering this message." Valentin pointed out, putting his chair next to a table to work more properly.
" All right brother. Have fun with your nonlinear equations." Aleksei said while leaving his older brother to his field.
" Leave the jokes to us.'' The twins said to Pixy as they crossed the now covered in snow runway.
" At least I did try." The Belkan merc defended his poor joke.
The snow had covered the mountain that surrounded the base and all its buildings. So much that they could not even see the remains of their little snowy battle. And the lead cloud coverage did not help seeing either, as it reduced greatly the luminosity. It was only 16:00, and they could have thought it was the middle of the night as the Sun was nowhere to be seen.
" Jeez, the weather is truly cold here." Iskanda noticed, drinking a sip of Glühwein, heating herself as the warm beverage touched her lips. She was at her third mug and so began to feel a bit dizzy but hopefully Glühwein was not a strong alcoholic drink.
" Was it ironic or not?" Morgana asked, not knowing how to judge Iskanda's intonation due to her unnatural neutral tone the Erusean merc did not manage to get rid of yet.
" Not. Is there a day in the year without snow or ice here? Or at least a bit more sun. Cold is not my concern, but I do not like humidity." Galm 1 replied, she has shown good resistance to cold by not using gloves to make the snowballs but her naked hands.
" Well, from June to August the snow is replaced by green grass and local mountainous flowers, that's a nice thing to see." Viviane answered, trying to remember the short summer here that was not perfect either as there were often thunderstorms in the area due to the mountains.
" I discovered your resilience to the cold just yesterday." Pixy added, but he seemed a bit troubled to talk about it. " Because you put the water of our common shower on ice cold."
" Come on... Would the humorlos fierce and proud Belkan mercenary be cold-sensitive?" Viviane smirked just at the idea that they discovered Pixy's weakness.
" I'm not! But if Iskanda wants to bath in cold water I can get her a bath of snow for free." Galm 2 tried to restore his image of unwavering fearless merc but failed epically.
" Jerk! Be ready to be awakened by some snow tomorrow then!" The concerned wingwoman threatened him, pointing a threatening finger in his direction, very serious on her threat.
" Guess' I will sleep in my plane tonight." Pixy resumed this little friendly bickering, which lasted for a long time until the evening, when a slightly deceived Valentin joined them, having not deciphered one simple word of the message.
"Our future is uncertain, but our fate is ours, our choices only belong to us." The merc wrote down along with his other thoughts in his notebook when he finally came to his bed after checking numerous times that Iskanda did not introduce snow to awake him in a very un-warmly manner. And her, a bit of her past had been reminded to her when she saw her now cleaned personal stuff on her bed. It was going to be hard to finally share it with someone, even with mercs with pasts more or less dark than her, but she will, in due time. But even with all the confidence and the trust she gained from the other pilots in those three days, she was not confident if they were going to still trust her once she spoke of her entire dark past.
End of chapter.
I do add a plane never featured in an ace combat game, but I wanted to add some French Touche to the Strangereal universe.
Soon I will begin to talk about the first part of Iskanda's past. It's going to be a dark one, so I must warn there may be some violent scenes later in the story (not gore but with a bit of blood). There's a little Star Wars reference hidden somewhere...
Feel free to review, like, follow. I accept constructive complaints, and I do hope you will like the way I will change the Belkan War...