Disclaimer: I don't own either of the Code Geass, Gundam Seed or Star wars franchises. This story is not written with commercial purpose in mind. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Chapter 6: The First World War
=ABKR=
Part 7
=ABKR=
9 May 2009 A.T.B.
South China Sea
A swarm of bombers shepherded by an equal number of escorts roared low above the waves illuminated only by a scattering of stars shining like tiny jewels from breaks in the cloud cover. Forty odd kilometres ahead, a screening force of fifty-three fighters flew in front of a Skyhawk AWACS from the Essex, ready to challenge the Chinese carrier air wing. To the west, yet more Britannian Eagles flew as a screening force ready to meet anything that came from the Federation mainland.
In another world, the enemy fleet would have been in range already – jamming and ECM simply wouldn't have been potent enough to make radar guided missiles moot. The chosen time of the attack took out of the equation the Empire's primary answer to that thorny issue – image-guided munitions, which unfortunately weren't capable of reliable operation at night time or bad weather. There were rumours of new electronics and avionics changing the status quo of naval and air warfare, however any such systems, if they actually existed, were still either on the drawing board or in prototype stage back in the homeland.
Nevertheless, there were always a way around even the best defence – especially if someone was willing to get close enough. It was just that any potential attacker aiming at a carrier, first had to run a gauntlet made of its air wing and escorts and the latter were very capable of detecting and engaging fighters and bombers far beyond their effective range, especially at night.
First to notice the approaching threat was an outlying Chinese picket – a Type 30 Frigate. The moment its CIC watch figured out exactly what was coming their way, the ship lit up all its sensors – though that was long moments after a warning to the rest of the CBG went out. Soon powerful radar located and logged in the incoming threat. In doing so, the ship nicely lit up itself for the Skyhawk trailing behind the fighter squadrons. While the fighters lacked the sensor capacity to handle the powerful jamming and ECM broadcast by the Frigate, the much larger AWACS wasn't so limited.
When all was said and done, there were both advantages and disadvantages to ship-borne radar arrays compared to those in land based installations. Even turbulent sea was usually a much nicer and easier environment to work than any mountainous region for example. Ships could move too, a not to be dismissed advantage when survivability was concerned.
Ships were quite large metal contacts with all kinds of reflective surfaces. In this particular Frigate's case – it couldn't afford to shut down its sensors – it needed to track the incoming enemy and watch for a follow up wave. Further, it needed to thing up the swarm before it could come closer to its charge – the carrier two hundred kilometres away.
Finally, all the jamming in the world couldn't hide it while its search and targeting radars were up and blasting at full power. Not from a Skyhawk anyway – the incoming fighters' radars were a fuzzy mess and would remain so until they got much, much closer.
Unfortunately for that particular Frigate, the possibility of those Britannian fighters running into a picked ship was considered and taken into account. While forty-eight of them were Eagle air-superiority planes, the rest were Falcons armed with anti-radiation and anti-ship munitions. Ten Cyclops missiles detached from the larger strike-fighters and followed the siren song of the Frigate's search and targeting radars.
There were a lot of ways to deal with the current generation of anti-radiation missiles – the simplest of which was to simply stop radiating those nice and obvious radio-waves and in the case of mobile installations – like ships for example, promptly displace. Really, that initial missile strike wasn't meant to actually hit the Frigate – merely force it to go blind for a time if it wanted to avoid it. That would buy the Britannian fighters time to come closer and give the Falcons an opportunity to deploy their anti-ship munitions without running a gauntlet of SAMs all the way in, until they got into the range of shipborne IR equipped missiles anyway.
The Frigate didn't shut down its radars and instead returned fire. A spread of radar-guided missiles, led by the ship's powerful on-board installations screamed into the night and headed for the incoming fighters. The fighters forged on, seemingly ignoring the danger and the following Skyhawk entered an electronic duel with the enemy Frigate. Shoals of false images flooded everyone's radars, got cleared only to be replaced by static that had to be compensated for. Back and forth the duel went, until the incoming missiles passed an invisible threshold where the less capable, smaller system carried by the AWACS could finally fight at even footing due to relative distance between the ordnance and the two EW platforms.
One after another the missiles began losing tracks after their data-link with the Frigate that launched them got disrupted. A few regained it only to lose connection again, others went into autonomous mode and now had to rely on their orders of magnitude less sophisticated and powerful on board radar. Only then did the lead squadron went evasive. A single missile somehow retained its data-link and went for the kill while another got lucky and its on-board radar managed to lock onto a real target instead of a false image projected by the Skyhawk. A pair of explosions lit up the sky and fifty-one fighters continued to fly towards the Chinese CBG.
The next part of the duel went for the Britannians – just a single missile was able to actually target an Eagle, however the pilot managed to get away through a reckless dive towards the sea; the pursuing weapon lost track and slammed through what it believed to be a nice juicy bomber but was in fact merely just a trick played by the Skyhawk's operators.
The third missile salvo was also the last made of radar-guided munitions. After it reached its targets, the Chinese frigates shut down its active sensors and went wildly evasive. Still, the Frigate made if count and the burning debris of five Eagles splashed in the waves.
Unfortunately for the Chinese, they cut it a bit too close – two of the Cyclops got close enough that on-board sensors could lock on the nice large metal contact trying to pretend it had never heard of radars. To add insult to injury, a crew-member messed up. No one ever knew or particularly cared if it was merely miscommunication or an honest fuck-up. What mattered was that the automated point defence was still online. It had radar of its own too – and that one did light up to engage the approaching threat. To its credit, it managed to splash the two closest Cyclops. However, at the same time, its radar acted as a siren song for the remaining anti-radiation missiles and they homed on it. Four more got blasted out of the sky, another flew just above the deck merely scorching the paint. A missile slammed into the PD emplacement turning it into confetti and the remaining two missiles slammed into the superstructure wreaking havoc and spreading even more burning fuel all over the ship.
Despite its wounds, the Frigate managed to splash three more fighters with IR seeking missiles before a combination of anti-ship ordnance launched by the Falcons blew it out of the water.
If its radar had remained on for a few more moments, the Chinese ship would have detected the sea-skimming bombers heading straight for the carrier it was protecting. Without that knowledge, Federation commander had to keep a part of its fighters behind in case this was just a diversionary attack meant to pull away its fighter assets. Still, fifteen Wyvern naval fighters and the rest of the escorts should have been more than up to the task of dispatching forty or so enemy planes...
=ABKR=
Part 8
=ABKR=
9 May 2009 A.T.B.
Sabre flight
South China Sea
Only the roar of the engines could be heard in the Falcon's cockpit. The opening move of the battle was over – ten fighters in exchange for a Chinese Frigate. It was a bargain too – from what I learned of naval vessels, such a ship should have been able to kill more planes before going down, though those estimates came from wargames where whole task-forces got hammered by air-power or so I was told. A lone picket Frigate outside of support range of the rest of the CBG against fifty fighters – I was just glad it didn't shoot down more. That fighter screen was going to get hammered even worse as it approached the main body of the enemy fleet and the Chinese CAP. They were bait to make the enemy expend missiles and planes and thus soften the CBG for the bomber strike, which we were part of. I didn't expect many of the vanguard to make it back and they knew it too.
However, there was something I could do to make their sacrifice count – and give a few of them a chance. It was time anyway.
"Overlord Actual, Sky-Eye One. Radars just lit up all over the place. We've got a tentative fix on what we presume to be the target – the jamming there's the worse. You're right on the money. Correct course five degrees to the west. Gods speed."
Essex's other two Skyhawks, along with their own escorts, were moving forward too in an attempt to level the field as much as they could. One was in front of us and we would soon overtake it and the other was to the east. A larger, more capable AWACS hung between us and the Chinese mainland in support for the blocking force screening our flank.
I closed my eyes and the lit up displays of the cockpit vanished. The drone of the engines became a distant, inconsequential thing when I opened my mind to the Force and let my perception expand beyond human comprehension. An intangible link formed between me and my grumpy pilot; our wing-mates followed a heartbeat later. I fed more and more power into the technique and it grew by leaps and bounds. Very soon the Force linked me with the crews of the whole sixty strong bomber force and their escorts. That's where I paused to gather my power and relish in the sensation of becoming one with my soldiers, my people. We were of one purpose, one will and we would not be denied!
Cold shivers went up and down my body as I channelled more and more of the Force through every fibre of my very being. The energy made me feel unstoppable – which unfortunately was a nice white lie by the Dark Side. I focused all that power channelled it back into the Battle Mediation. I groaned when my perception expanded further and further.
The Skyhawk in front of us was next. I could sense its crew suddenly moving as one, energized and aware exactly what each of them and everyone else already under the influence of my technique was doing.
I got a few seconds to brace myself before the next group of people got connected to the gestalt I was busy crafting – that was the other Skyhawk with its two escorting naval Eagles and then the pings came one after another. First the last carrier based AWACS, then the rest of the advance force – which was down to thirty four planes already due to long range SAMs launched by enemy cruisers.
A heartbeat later, Chinese ships – their crews, followed. A Destroyer, couple of Frigates, a Cruiser... A human mind shouldn't be able to process the thousands of connections that Battle Meditation established between friends and foes alike. Strictly speaking, mine didn't – not really. A lot of the heavy lifting got outsourced to the Force herself. She wasn't just a source of my power but what made most of the feats attributed to Jedi and Sith alike possible in the first place.
I knew that – intellectually, but it didn't really hit me until this time. Here I was able to concentrate just on the Battle Meditation, without the pressure of actually commanding a battle. I already gave my orders and all that was left was to play support through my gift. Somehow, that left a part of my brain free for such an odd reminiscenting, perhaps it was the relatively low number of people I was influencing right now, compared to what I did back with the 501st.
Those odd thoughts nearly broke my concentration when one of my people died – I perceived his plane blowing up through the eyes of her wing-mate. I felt the woman's death more clearly than any during the battle in Burma. It was as if I was paying attention on her in particular when a missile turned her and her Eagle into an expanding cloud of burning metal. I felt a moment of searing heat and shock, then Lieutenant Irina Myers was just gone but for an echo carried through the links I had with everyone under the sway of my power.
That shock shook me. I felt the Battle Meditation begin to unravel and I scrambled to keep it in place. I had to wrench at the Force for more power. Anger at myself for getting distracted by inconsequential thoughts, at the Chinese for murdering one of my people, Irina's own final shocked emotions – it all fuelled the Dark Side and I drank deeply from her tainted well. The temperature in the cockpit plummeted and the shadows deepened, accidentally making the control panels look like distant stars.
I felt Maya's shock when sudden and unexpected chill gripped her whole and sunk into her bones. She flinched and when I put the Dark Side's own power into the Battle Meditation and its cold embrace touched her very mind along with those of friends and floes alike for hundreds of kilometres around me. The plane shook when the Major flinched at the weird, impossible sensation, but she soon retook control – the same happened across my whole force.
The Battle Meditation held, which was the important part, even if it wasn't behaving as it should have had, but that was a problem for after the battle was won. The advance force hit their afterburners and separated to go after an approaching enemy squadron. An unanticipated benefit was that while connected by Battle Meditation, my pilots could perceive what the radar operators on the Skyhawks could see. While the jamming was fierce, my people could get glimpses from the enemies they were going to engage as well as those who were about to attack them – which was how the impossible uncanny coordination and response to enemy actions actually worked.
The one thing that my power couldn't do was make missiles see and target the Chinese planes before our own came into a knife range.
What followed was plain and simple bloodbath. It was just that thanks to my Battle Meditation it wasn't as one sided as it would have been otherwise.
Twenty Eagles got through a gauntlet of radar-seeking and IR missiles and reached the first enemy squadron launched by the Chinese carrier and at least half of them did it because the uncanny coordination and perception granted by the Battle Mediation. That by itself wouldn't have been enough – a launched missile didn't care for any of that. However, the people running every single Chinese ship were no longer cohesive groups of highly trained and motivated professionals. They weren't on the cusp of combining two CBGs and going to kick the nasty imperials out of the South China Sea.
Instead, every Chinese sailor – from the greenest enlisted man to the admiral in charge, suddenly found themselves alone, scared and wanting to be anywhere but at their posts. A handful – those with the strongest willpower and belief in their cause pushed through and continued to execute their duties with some ability. Those were few and far between, worse, they too acted as individuals able to handle just their own little corner of the world; the Battle Meditation wouldn't allow them any larger victory – the technique was insidious like that.
What should have been coordinated missile strikes meant to wipe out forty of our fighters out of existence, preferably even before the carrier wing could engage them, turned into ragged, uncoordinated affairs, guided half-heartedly at best...
=ABKR=
9 May 2009 A.T.B.
Thor squadron
South China Sea
"Thor's blessing is with us, lads! Have at them!" Hammer Two, more commonly known and Rico Jorgensen – who despite his family name had skin darker than the night outside, roared gleefully.
He hadn't felt more alive in his whole life! This night was proof that the Gods existed and the Empire had their blessing! Rico could feel power coursing through his veins. He knew what the rest of his squadron was doing – minus their CO, captain Mike Arik, who ran afoul of a Chinese missile. The lieutenant could sense what the enemy pilots intended to do, even better, he could practically smell their fear!
"Three with me. Four and five, go after that bastard on the far right. Six... One and Six, keep our places in Valhalla warm, my friends..." Jorgensen muttered a quiet prayer.
He was right! The enemy was disorganized and terrified! Instead, of acting as a proper squadron – as the days of combat that led to this night proved the Chinese could, each of the enemy pilots was doing their own thing! One was even running away at full afterburner!
Thor's blessing was really potent stuff then! Rico grinned and flew into the fray. The ensuring fight – if you can call it that, was at knife range and thus short and vicious. While three of the Chinese cowards went down without an issue and the forth ran away like a cur, the other two found their balls and managed to take out one of the two remaining Falcons before multiple heat-seeking missiles erased them from the sky. Three more Eagles died due to SAMs and only one pilot managed to bail in time – Rico could feel his comrades deaths and that only served to sent him into a frenzy! He was aware that the blessing affected the rest of the pilots too – he could vaguely feel them in the back of his mind and knew what they were about to do! With a sudden realisation, Jorgensen figured out that right now he didn't actually need to verbally communicate to coordinate.
He did so anyway!
"All vanguard elements, Hammer Two! Form up on me! We're going hunting!" Rico knew that what he intended was likely suicide – yet if it worked it was going to pave the way for the incoming bomber force. He could sense it approaching from behind – it was like a steadily growing ball of soothing light and Hella's icy grasp!
Thirteen Eagles and a single Falcon lived long enough to head for the enemy carrier and the rest of its air-wing, which was already in the air and approaching fast.
"Come with me! Valhalla awaits!" Rico was still laughing like a maniac when a radar-guided missile sheared off the rear third of his Eagle. He managed to punch out just in time to watch how his trusty plane turned into an expanding fireball below him.
=ABKR=
9 May 2009 A.T.B.
Sabre squadron
South China Sea
"Aesir One, Thor One, Overlord Actual – pull to the front and move to engage the CAP. The rest of the escort squadrons, maintain formation..." The last of the people I sent on a one way mission we fighting for their lives as I spoke in the comm. There was an angry edge to my voice – I felt each death re-vibrate through the connection and I was sure the same was true for the rest of my people. "Good soldiers died to give us this opportunity." Another Eagle blew up thanks to the AA of a Chinese cruiser. "They still are. Let us make this count!" I snapped more orders and they were followed even before the words could clear my mouth – I could perceive it through our connection.
Two bomber squadrons peeled off from the main formation along with appropriate escorts. They were going to clear our flanks from enemy ships – two modern cruisers, a battle ship, a battle cruiser and a scattering of frigates and destroyers. The rest of us were going straight for the carrier and once it was gone, we would peel off too and hammer the rest of the CBG while making our way out the area.
Originally I entertained thoughts of going for the second Chinese carrier tonight, however the odd way my technique behaved combined with the losses we suffered so far put a damper on that idea. We would get it sometime tomorrow, when we could have the benefit of TV-guided munitions during the day.
I dismissed any such thoughts and concentrated on the present. I could feel the vanguard dying – a combination of three fighter wings – no matter how disorganized and a constant attrition caused by the ships below saw to that. However, they managed to gut another Chinese squadron before the last remaining pilot had to eject moments before multiple missiles virtually vaporized his Eagle.
That left Aesir and Thor – who were intact, to face an equal number of shaken up, disheartened individuals. If it wasn't for the enemy ships that were already sending pot-shots our way, I would call it a wash.
"Orders, sir?" The Major asked.
This time there was no trace of doubt or thinly veiled disgust in her voice, nor the fear she felt when she figured out I was a Prince of the Realm TM. Maya's tone was all business – which corresponded to what I sensed coming from her. She believed that flying in combat was what she was born to do and she only felt fully alive when in the cockpit.
I could work with that.
"Keep guarding the bombers. We're going straight for the carrier." I smiled. "You could almost see it and the escorts that are in our way, couldn't you?" I asked.
"I... I have no idea what is happening, sir." She paused. I could feel her internal struggle.
"We're about to win. Just enjoy flying." I said and sent my awareness into the Battle Meditation.
There was no need for any-more words or verbal orders.
On our flanks, a squadron of Eagles flew close in front of two groups of six Gryphon bombers. Only the crew of one of the modern cruisers had the presence of mind left to target the real threat – that happened on the right flank. There half a bomber squadron died under a ragged missile barrages before the rest of the Gryphons avenged their friends. Six ship-killers detached from external racks and headed for the cruiser on the heels of ten lighter air-to-ground missiles launched by the surviving Eagle escorts.
The cruiser's close in defences were not hampered by my Battle Meditation – however they had to deal with a single anti-radiation missile sent by each escort fighter, the only one they carried. The PD did its best – it splashed down all but a single Cyclops, which took out one of the emplacements. Steel rain sheared through two thirds of the air-to-ground missiles before they could make contact and even if the modern cruiser was relatively thin skinned compared to the older models, much less the battle-wagons, it was still tough enough to survive just three relatively small hits above the waterline. However, the resulting damage was enough to shred sensors and take out more PD clusters. The remaining close in defences managed to detonate a single ship-killer a hundred metres away. The other five slammed into the cruiser just above the waterline. At least one found a magazine and the proud ship simply blew up.
With that cruiser gone, the most dangerous unit on this side of the carrier was out of the picture. I knew there was one more modern cruiser – which was sailing as fast as its propellers could push it our way, however it was more than forty kilometres on the wrong direction of our target to be any good. We were going to hit it once the carrier was done for.
Meanwhile, the Gryphons on the other flank had a field day. Despite some decent upgrades, the battle ship, two frigates and destroyer over there were less than a threat than the advanced cruiser that wiped out half a squadron of the best bombers we had – and that was when its crew was compromised to hell and back!
First to go was an unlucky frigate that found itself in the way of my planes. It managed to shoot down two fighters before the other four unloaded their limited amount of air-to-ground ordnance upon it. Close in defences thinned down the incoming barrage, but not enough to save the ship, which until just a few moments ago had been busy shooting at my vanguard force. I don't know if it was low on anti-air missiles or if the Battle Meditation hit its crew particularly bad, however after that initial strike the ship was left dead in the water and I could sense no hint of danger coming from that direction. The Gryphon pilots got that too and simply ignored the crippled ship.
The next target was a destroyer, which sailed in close formation to the battleship – just four kilometres away. It got the undivided attention of the bombers, which led to them flushing half their external ordnance its way – that made for twelve ship-killers and six Cyclops. The Chinese ship concentrated its attention on the fighters in front, which was where the battleship sent its attention too. The remaining escorts died fiery deaths and not a single pilot managed to eject. They were avenged moments later when half the ship-killers plunged deep in the guts of the destroyer and turned it into a burning floating coffin.
The battleship followed – the Gryphon unloaded all their remaining external ordnance upon it and then one of the two heavy missiles they carried in their internal bays. Meanwhile, someone on the armoured behemoth managed to acquire a single bomber and splattered it over the sea. Seconds later, multiple missiles pierced the battleship's armoured hide. Its number one turret became an inferno. Another missile tore a jagged burning crater into the superstructure and another one wrecked the rear VLS cells causing multiple sympathetic explosions when rocket fuel ignited. The last two ship-killers struck just above the waterline and left jagged holes and the South China Sea did its best to fill them.
A single frigate at extreme range managed to splash down yet another Gryphon before the remaining four could turn around and shoot what ordnance they had left at the crippled battleship. Only half that squadron made it home, however they did succeed in securing that flank.
Meanwhile, the air-battle if you can call it that, was already over. Two squadrons of naval Dragons were simply gone and unfortunately they took three of my Eagles with them with another four taken out by the battle cruiser and other close defenders around the Chinese carrier. The remaining five fighters managed to run away intact and turned to join us just as the main Gryphon body began its attack run.
There was a single capital ship, two destroyers and three frigates in effective range between us and our target. Not to mention the other modern cruiser approaching.
A Gryphon squadron went after the battle cruiser, another after the destroyers and a third for the frigates. That left me along with a much smaller part of the escorts covering the remaining eighteen bombers. A coordinated enemy fleet would have made a mincemeat of this attack, even if we could have reached the carrier, which was not out of the question – the ships in range did expend a lot of AA missiles already. It wasn't out of the question that even if everything went wrong at least one Gryphon squadron could have struck the juice target in the heart of the CBG.
Well, the situation was wrong – for the Chinese, even if they did shoot down an unacceptable number of my planes already. It was just now that I was beginning to comprehend just how disadvantaged fighters and bombers truly were when unable to engage targets from BVR but the reverse was true.
More of my people died underscoring that point. Every one was like a stab in my chest and left an echo of the fallen that carried through the gestalt created by the Battle Meditation.
I perceived an Eagle pilot desperately trying to screen his Gryphon charges. He flew fearlessly at a Chinese destroyer heedless of the incoming fire. He saw missile after missile coming his way and passing above a spread of ship-killers heading for the destroyer that was about to kill him. His name was Joyey Kubrick and his only regret was that he couldn't say goodbye to his sister. The last thing he saw was the Chinese ship going up in flames, then he tried to eject but was too late. A flash of fiery agony and all that was left of him was an impression dissipating among the minds of my people.
Ten seconds later, the battle cruiser got gutted by twelve ship-killers that struck in a single hammer blow. A moment later its front third simply disintegrated when a magazine went up and soon the broken ship would vanish under the waves.
The remaining escorts went up one after another, though they managed to reap themselves a small honour guard for Valhalla, then we were through. The Chinese carrier was futilely trying to run. Missiles streaked our way above it in ones and twos – too little too late to make a difference.
It was fucking worth it – that vicious thought consumed my awareness when three whole squadrons salvoed missiles as one at our target. Close in defences did their best and that was far from enough. I could actually see the carrier with my own eyes when Maya flew us above its burning gutted wreck – its deck was shattered, its island was virtually gone and it was listing, rapidly taking water. That sight warmed my hart. My people didn't die for nothing! And when did I begin to feel so possessive about these pilots!?
"Head for the cruiser." My words were superficial. The three mostly intact Gryphon squadrons with us already flew that way – it wasn't like we could get out of range fast enough not to suffer additional casualties anyway and besides that was one of the most modern ships in the Chinese navy. Taking it out now was, while its crew didn't know what the hell they were doing, was going to make our lives easier later. Five more planes went down – two Eagles and Three Gryphons, then the cruiser got swamped by ship-killers. When Maya flew us past it, there was almost nothing left above the waterline and from what I glimpsed, it the situation below wasn't much better.
It was done. I gently dismantled the gestalt formed by the Battle Meditation as we headed home. Only after carefully letting go of the Force I allowed myself a sigh of relief. Exhaustion held at bay by the sheer amount of power flooding my veins made itself known and I slumped in my seat held in place only by the straps and the constant acceleration.
Curiously, not a single Chinese fighter came at us from the mainland, though I would worry about that a bit later. First, I needed a bit of rest and time to figure out why the Battle Meditation got so weird this time around!
At lest we won, though the price... When my forces formed up for the trip home, only twenty-one Gryphins reported back – less than half of the number we started with. The screening force meant to cover us from a mainland sourced incursion was intact and that was the brightest news. The vanguard was gone to a plane, though the Skyhawk following them somehow managed to avoid enemy attention after I got my Battle Meditation running. That was true for the other two and their own escorts, which was another plus.
I grimaced. With the help of my abilities, we shouldn't have lost that many people and planes! Over eighty Eagles, all Falcons but the one carrying me, twenty five Gryphons... I seriously underestimated how outclassed small craft were. Veil's memories from his Earth or the one he found himself on later told me it shouldn't have been like that.
Why the hell did I concentrate so much on the carrier, considering how dangerous its escorts turned out to be? We should have gone for the rest of the CBG first – that might have resulted in lesser overall casualties on our side. Was it Veil's memories? They told me that the carrier was the most important piece in the CBG and taking it was essential. However, considering how good surface ships were at killing planes...
Damn it! I hoped I wouldn't be making any more such costly mistakes in the future.