Hey, back with another chapter. Hope you like this one. It's gonna be a far greater upset for the Separatists than the last three battles.
This one is going to start closer to the start of the battle than the last two chapters.
Chapter 13- Battle of California
Alarms blare across the flight line of NAS Miramar as US Navy fighter pilots race to their aircraft. While Miramar is usually just a training base, every military air base had been equipped with live ordnance over the last few months in preparation for the Separatist invasion.
Separatist forces had landed at several spots in California over the last half hour. A massive force of almost 250,000 battle droids and 2,000 heavy droid units had landed east of Los Angeles. A second force, comprised of about 75,000 battle droids and 900 heavy droid units had landed just south of Fresno. And a third force of about 140,000 battle droids and 1,500 heavy droid units had landed in between San Francisco and Sacramento.
However, as base commanders had pointed out to hundreds of pilots across the West, the Separatists had made a big mistake. They had chosen to land such a large portion of their forces in one of the hearts of American airpower. There were several dozen Air Force Bases, Air National Guard bases, Naval Air Stations, and Marine Corps Air Stations within air range of California. And of those bases, 18 of them were home to combat fighters and bombers. Over a thousand combat aircraft, in addition to attack helicopters from the Army and Marine Corps, are in position to unleash a firestorm on the droids.
At Miramar, Anakin smiles as he heads for the flightline, wearing an American flight suit. Given his skills as a pilot, President Bush had assigned Anakin to serve as pilot rather than on the ground in the coming battle.
Anakin hurries towards a parked F-14 Tomcat, the aircraft he has been assigned to fly. He was given his choice of aircraft to fly, and after reviewing the various fighters used by the US military, he chose the F-14. Despite the fact it was neither the fastest or most agile fighter the US had, there was something about the F-14 that just drew him to it. His F-14 he'll be flying today is one of a few that has had their internal cannon replaced with a small laser cannon. Only a few American fighters had yet received this treatment, and the military was still on the fence as to whether this was going to become standard issue among its fighters.
Anakin climbs up into the cockpit and settles down into his seat. Behind him, his assigned RIO, an Ensign by the name of Jack Halladay, is strapping into his seat.
Anakin straps in, then closes the canopy. He checks over the systems, then powers up the plane. He smiles as he hears the engines quickly rev up.
"General Skywalker, this is Miramar tower. You are clear to proceed to the runway. Take off as soon as your path is clear," the tower calls out over the radio.
"Copy," Anakin responds. He finishes his pre-flight check, then revs up the engines and starts taxiing towards the runway. A number of F-14s are ahead of him, and Anakin tries to remain patient.
Finally, Anakin taxis onto the runway with his wingman, and revs the engines into full power. Anakin's F-14, and his wingman's, streak down the runway and into the air.
The F-14s circle Miramar, waiting for remaining aircraft to join them. Finally, the rest of the 32 F-14s and 16 F/A-18s from Miramar able to fly are in the air. They all form up behind Anakin, then set off east.
"What's it looking like, Jack?" Anakin calls back to his RIO.
"I've got multiple contacts on long distance radar. It looks like the fighters from Edwards have already started engaging the Separatist fighters," Jack responds.
"How long until we're within missile range?" Anakin asks. 4 of the missiles that the Tomcat is carrying are powerful AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, with a range of 100 miles.
"We're be in range in 5 minutes. But remember, command has asked us to refrain from beyond visual range shots," Jack responds.
Anakin sighs a bit, remembering that part. All pilots had been told that if there were friendlies in the area, they were not to fire from beyond visual range.
"Right," Anakin says. He then gets on the radio and says, "Everyone, go to burners on my mark. 3, 2, 1…mark." At his command, every fighter in the force goes into afterburner, blasting through Mach 1 and accelerating even further.
Withina few minutes, the sprawling dogfight up ahead comes into view. A small force of F-15s and F-16s from Edward Air Force Base is currently engaging the Separatist fighters.
Anakin smiles to himself as he streaks forward. He spots a Vulture turning towards him, and calls back to Jack, "Lock him up, Jack!" Knowing what Vulture Anakin is talking about, Jack quickly locks up the Vulture.
"We have lock!" Jack says.
"Fox Three!' Anakin calls out as he pulls the trigger and launches an AIM-54. The Phoenix streaks forward and detonates just a few feet from the Vulture, tearing half of the fighter to pieces and sending the other half crashing down from the sky.
"Woo!" Anakin shouts in the cockpit before getting on the radio and ordering, "Engage all Separatist forces!"
Behind him, all of the 31 remaining F-14s from Miramar cut their afterburners and begin firing their air to air missiles. Given that they're still being engaged by the F-15s and F-16s from Edwards, the Vulture droids and Tri-fighters present find themselves caught between two large fighter forces. And within a minute, it gets worse for them as 28 F-4 Phantoms arrive from MCAS Yuma.
As the F-15s, F-16s, F-14, and some of the F-4s continue to engage the Separatist fighters, the rest of the F-4s and the F/A-18s dive towards where the droid forces have landed and are preparing to march on Los Angeles. Rather targeting the ranks of the battle droids, the Phantoms and Hornets target the army's anti-aircraft weapons. Streaking in at low altitude and at high speed, they fire AGM-65 Mavericks at some of the lighter AA batteries, and drop Paveway laser guided bombs on the heavier batteries. In a matter of a few minutes, the droids' ability to fight back against air attack from the ground has been crippled. The Hornets and Phantoms expend the rest of their weapons on AATs and Persuader before turning back towards their bases to rearm.
Meanwhile, in the sky over the battlefield, Anakin is having the time of his life. He's shot down 8 droid fighters, and still has three missiles left.
As Anakin is pursuing a Vulture droid, his radio suddenly crackles to life with the voice of a controller on an E-3 Sentry currently flying over St. George, Utah. "All fighters. Bombers are incoming. Keep the Separatist fighters off them!"
Anakin smiles. There's only a few Separatist fighters left, so that won't be a very difficult. Anakin remains focused on the Vulture droid off his nose. A moment later, he gains a good lock with one of his two remaining Sidewinders and fires it. The missile tracks right to its target and downs the Vulture droid.
Anakin smiles as he watches his ninth kill of the day go down in flames. He then levels his Tomcat before performing a Split S. As he pulls out of the maneuver, he spots another Vulture droid coming right at him. He ducks under the Vulture's laser fire. Then, the two fighters pass each other, just feet away. Then, they each start turning hard to get on each other's tail.
Anakin snaps the stick into his gut as the Tomcat's wings angle out to their minimum sweep of 20 degrees. The tail of the Tomcat swings around as he tries to pull behind the Vulture droid. The Vulture, not used to dogfighting against fighters like the Tomcat, doesn't utilize it's full agility. In a matter of moments, Anakin is on the Vulture's tail.
The Vulture decides the best choice would be to run away. However, Anakin still has one AIM-54 left. And as the Vulture tries to pull away from Anakin, Anakin calls back to Jack, "Lock him up!"
A few seconds later, Jack says, "Got lock! Take the shot!" Anakin pulls the trigger, and the Phoenix launches. A few seconds later, the Vulture droid is shredded by the Phoenix' powerful warhead.
"Bombers inbound. We're 30 seconds out," a voice calls over the radio. Anakin glances to the east, and smiles at what he sees.
Both Edwards and Nellis Air Force Bases keep a few bombers for training and testing purposes. And now, 5 B-1B bombers (which had undergone refits to give them greater conventional capability over the last few months) and 6 B-52 bombers are preparing to attack.
Several Vulture droids try to attack the American bombers. However, F-14s and F-15s manage to keep them away from the bombers.
The B-1s, being faster than the B-52s, make their attack first. Each bomber is equipped with 84 unguided 500 lb bombs in her bomb bays, with another 50 on pylons on her belly, for a total of 134 500 lb bombs.
Now, as the B-1s streak over the droids, they begin dropping their bombs hanging under their bellies. Within a minute, 250 bombs fall on the droids, destroying almost 8,000 battle droids and a number of spider droids.
As the B-1s pull up and circle back around so they can drop the bombs in their bomb bays, the B-52s make their attack. Each bomber is carrying 90 500 lb bombs. As the bombers fly over the droid army at 10,000 feet, they begin dropping their bombs in standard carpet bombing fashion. A total of 540 bombs rain down on the droids, destroying about 16,000 droids.
Their bombs spent, the B-52s turn back towards Nellis and Edwards. As they retreat, the B-1s come in for their second attack. Once again, they fly over the droids, releasing their bombs before turning to head back towards Edwards. The bombs rain down on the droids, destroying another 12,000 battle droids.
In a matter of minutes, the tide of battle has turned against the droids near Los Angeles. American fighters had destroyed all the Separatist fighters in the area. And in a matter of just a few minutes, the 11 bombers had destroyed 36,000 battle droids and a few spider droids and tanks.
As the bombers retreat, Anakin turns and heads back towards Miramar to rearm. Heading west on full throttle without going into afterburner, it doesn't take long to return to Miramar.
As Anakin touches down and taxis towards the flightline to refuel and rearm, the next wave of American aircraft arrives to attack the southern droid forces. Flying out of Luke and Davis Monthan Air Force Bases in Arizona, 40 F-16s and 40 A-10s arrive over the droid armies.
The F-16s make their attack runs first. Equipped with 500 lb pound bombs, Zuni rocket pods, and CBU-97 cluster bombs, they dive towards the battle droids at 600 mph. In their first attack run, the F-16s destroy over 1,000 battle droids.
As the F-16s pull out of their attack runs, the A-10s prepare for their attacks. They are loaded up with their max anti-armor ordnance load. And now, they descend on the droid AATs and Persuaders.
As they dive towards their targets, each A-10 pilot pulls the trigger, and fourth GAU-8 Avenger 30mm cannons spring to life, sending their depleted uranium slugs streaking down towards the AATs and Persuaders. The moment an AAT or Persuader is hit by one those rounds, the tank explodes.
The A-10s then pull up and circle around for their next attacks. As the F-16s continue their bombing and rocket attacks on the battle droids, the A-10s continue their attacks against the AATs and Persuaders.
In about 20 minutes, the F-16s and A-10s have expended their ammunition, and start heading for Edwards Air Force Base to rearm. Behind them, they leave the remains of about 6,500 battle droids and 651 AATs and Persuaders.
As the F-16s and A-10s retreat from the battlefield, Anakin returns to the battlefield, again leading the F-14s and F/A-18s from Miramar, as well as 12 F-4 Phantoms flying from MCAS Pendleton. At the same time, a formation of 12 F-4 Phantoms and 12 F-15 Eagles arrived from Holloman Air Force Base in Nevada, as well as 10 F-16s and 10 F-15Es from Nellis AFB.
Anakin smiles as he dives to the attack. Given that there aren't any droid fighters left, he's only carrying two air to air missiles. The rest of his ordnance racks are occupied by 500 lb bombs.
Anakin dives down towards a rank of B2 battle droids and drops a pair of 500 lb bombs on them. The bombs take out about 60 droids. Anakin laughs a bit as he pulls out of his dive.
All around him, the American fighters are having a field day. With no droid fighters around to fight back, they are free to attack the droids at their leisure. At the same time, submarines and cruisers just off the coast of San Diego fire a total of 102 Tomahawk cruise missiles, some with a single warhead, and some with cluster munition warheads. The Tomahawks destroy an additional 10,000 battle droids, and a number of droid heavy units. And about 15 minutes into the attack, the B-1 and B-52 bombers return, along with the F-16s and A-10s, and conduct another carpet bombing attack as the F-16s and A-10s attack the remaining heavy units and battle droids, destroying another 42,000 droids
Within another 30 minutes, the fighters have used all their weapons, and are returning to their bases. Things have been going very poorly for the Separatists. The southern force alone has lost almost 115,000 battle droids, along with 1,200 of their heavy units.
At the same time, the force near Fresno has not been doing much better. Vicious air attacks from aircraft flying out of Fresno Air National Guard Base, Tonopah Air Force Base, and NAS Lemoore have destroyed almost 50,000 of the battle droids, and 700 of their heavy units.
The northern force has suffered just as much. They've been subjected to air attacks from Kingsley Field and Portland Air National Guard Bases in Oregon, Mountain Home Air Force Base and Gowen Field Air National Guard Base in Idaho, and Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The aircraft flying from these bases, supported by cruise missiles from warships off the coast of San Francisco, have destroyed about 70,000 battle droids and almost a thousand of their heavy units.
Seeing the heavy losses his forces have taken, the ground commander of the California forces orders a retreat back to the fleet. C-9979s try to take aboard as many droids as they can, and more come down from the fleet to help. Some are shot down before they begin to load up, while some are shot down on their way back to the fleet. And a number of droids are destroyed before they can even make it onto the C-9979s.
Eventually, the last of the droid units are evacuated. The Battle of California is over, and it will soon be known as one of the most humiliating losses the Separatist suffered in the Terran campaign. The battle droids that were landed never even got the chance to engage any American ground units. The ferocity of American air attacks had prevented a ground battle and and alone forced the retreat.
And the losses were incredible. The Americans had lost just 28 aircraft. In return, they had shot down a total of 473 Vulture droids, Tri-fighters, and Hyenas in the air, and on the ground, they had destroyed 243,000 battle droids out of 465,000 battle droids landed, and 3,000 of their 4,400 heavy units.
As Anakin lands his Tomcat back at Miramar and taxis into his assigned spot, he smirks. This was a victory greater than any he had ever been part of. He knew that American airpower was great. But he had never imagined it had this kind of power.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked it.
So, yeah. The Separatist chose one of the worst places they could have landed. The area of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah is one of the main hearts of American airpower. At the top of their game, the droids wouldn't even get close to an city.
Next chapter will head to Australia, and another Separatist butt whipping! I probably won't be able to post that chapter until some time after Christmas, though. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned!