The Yastreb shuddered as it banked hard to the right, avoiding a Pilum round. Ivan held onto the side rail to keep himself still within the transport. The Orlov's undercarriage cannons rained death and destruction upon the ground anti-air units. Most of the EU forces were concentrated in the Niger river basin, and in a strategic strike, the PAC has turned its eyes upon the Horn of Africa, more specifically Mogadishu, location for one of the three biggest food production facilities on the continent.
"Hold on to your lunch!" The pilot barked into the mike as he banked away from a second Pilum round.
"LZ's too hot!" The copilot yelled, "we need to clear those flak guns!"
On the ground, three anti-air cannons were blasting the sky with brilliant flashes of blue and red.
"Dammit," The pilot cursed as he saw an EMP missile lock on to his transport's heat signature. "Deploy countermeasures!"
"Still recharging!" The copilot yelled.
"Not the active defense, the goddamned flares!" The pilot yelled as he pulled the Yastreb into a steep climb.
"We have three left, not enough to fool those EMPs," The copilot yelled as the missile impacted into the engine.
The Yastreb shook in the air as it spun out of control, its engines temporarily disabled. In theory, EMP missiles can't do much physically, but as the Cold War escalated, both the PAC and the EU has upgraded their EMP missiles to do more than temporarily disable the enemy's fighting abilities.
Now, these missiles were designed to disable and kill.
"Shit, we lost engine one," the pilot cursed. "This is going to be trouble."
"We can drop here," Ivan offered.
"No can do," the copilot turned around, "See the ground below you? If you drop now, the EU will be all over you. There may not be much of them, but it's their damned allies that'll get you."
"Transport YSB-118 to Orlov, requesting orbital strike in grid eight," the pilot dialed in for an orbital strike.
"Negative YSB-118," the commander's voice crackled over the radio. "Orbital strike unit is still recharging. Give me another minute."
"Sir, with all due respect, we don't have another goddamned minute!" The pilot yelled as he pulled the Yastreb into a barrel roll to avoid another pilum shot.
"We can offer you a Geosynch strike," the commander suggested. "Be warned, provide us the coordinates accordingly, you will be within range of the strike."
"We'll take anything you got!" The pilot yelled back into the mike.
"Very well, we'll need coordinates," the commander replied.
"X coordinates 34.45, Y coordinates 12.24," the copilot read off his display.
"Coordinates received, back yourselves into grid seven and watch the fireworks. Geosynch strike ETA ten minutes" the commander's connection clicked off.
"Shit," the pilot breathed, "I busted an engine coming in, and now I got to hustle out?"
"Looks like it," the copilot responded, "let's get this puppy out."
"I can probably do some preliminary repairs on the engine," Viktor suggested.
"Do that, we'll need all we can get to get this thing out of here," the pilot consented.
Viktor strapped himself to the railing and attached the magnetic disks to his gloves that would keep him on the hull of the transport. Once outside, the squad trained their guns on the ground, providing indiscriminate fire to keep the EU soldiers on the ground from harrassing their engineer. Taking out his HOFF-3000 Repair tool, Viktor engaged the screwdriver and began removing the large screws on the engine plate. Once he took out all four screws, the engine plate came off easily enough.
"Damn," he breathed, "engine integrity's shot to hell, I can see through this hole to the other side."
"Can you do something about it?" Ivan asked as he mowed down an EU SAM personnel who was stupid enough to try shooting at the Yastreb.
"Not much," Viktor responded, "I mean, I can re-magnetize the coils so we can direct some energy into the engine, but I don't know how long that'll last."
"Just do something!" The pilot yelled, "the geosynch strike is due in another six minutes!"
"Alright, alright," Viktor yelled back as he took out two paddles, attached them to the HOFF-3000, and placed them next to the now demagnetized coils.
"Five minutes," the copilot noted.
"Dammit, shut up so I can work!" Viktor muttered, "damned zoomies."
"I heard that!" the pilot yelled as the Yastreb shook from a nearby flak round.
"Zacroy rot!" Viktor barked at the pilot as he charged the HOFF, three seconds later, it released 4000 volts of electricity at twelve amps, remagnetizing the coils.
"Engine funciton restored, good job," the pilot yelled.
"Yeah, yeah," Viktor muttered as he welded the plate back on to the engine and climbed back into the transport.
Heads up, enemy gunship!" the copilot yelled.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" The pilot groaned as he pushed the Yastreb into a steep dive.
The Talon immediately pursued, bristling with firepower.
"Line me up for a clear shot of him!" The copilot said.
"No can do," The pilot said through clenched teeth, "If I turn around he'll smear us with those air-to-air missiles.
"Dammit," the copilot muttered. "Hey, one of you ground pounders take a shot at that damned thing following us."
"On it," Tanya replied as she swung the undercarriage machine gun toward the Talon and let loose a stream of hot lead.
The Talon's pilot, evidently expecting this, bank slightly and placed himself out of the sights of the Yastreb machine guns.
"How long until the Geosynch strike?" Ivan asked.
"Thirty seconds, we're still too close!" the pilot replied as he gunned the engine with the Talon in hot pursuit.
Sergeant Patrick O'Donnel smiled to himself as he watched the Yastreb speed away from his Talon. There must be a damned large number of personnel on that transport, otherwise they would've bailed by now. Either way, it didn't matter to him as the targeting computer on his HUD showed that the Yastreb was locked on. Looking to the picture of his family taped next to him, he silently promised. Daddy'll get revenge for you John, he'll kill the people who dared to harm you.
"Good night," O'Donnel whispered as he fired his ordnance.
"He fired!" The copilot yelled.
"Deploying countermeasures,' The pilot replied and engaged the active defense. A jade green field emenated out from the transport. The active defense system wasn't one that stopped physical weapons, rather, it was merely a bubble shield of energy that causes the sensitive fuses in a projectile to malfunction and blow up said projectile at a safe distance from the transport. Even so, that didn't stop soldiers from calling active defense a shield, and as a result, countless soldiers have taken refuge underneat a walker flaring its active defense only to be shot by a simple assault rifle.
"Dammit," O'Donnel cursed as he saw his missiles explode prematurely. He had fired all twelve missiles, and the Talon needed at least ten seconds before he could fire again. But he didn't get a chance to fire a second salvo as a thin rod fell from the inky blackness of space and pierced the ground, releasing 5 kilotons of energy into the surrounding area. The EU defensive position in grid eight were pulverized into dust, the surrounding trees became wood shavings. As his gunship succumbed to the concussive roar from the heavens, O'Donnel could've sworn he saw the face of his wife and child smiling at him in the sky.
"Holy shit," Tanya stared out the transport. What were once trees and soldiers, there was only a giant empty pit.
"Why don't we just use those to take out the enemy Titans?" Heliang asked.
"You didn't think we tried?" the copilot asked back. "We tried to do just that at Minsk, worked bloody well for the first two days, then the EU got smart and realized all they needed to do was rout the energy from the Titan engines to the upper decks and create a magnetic field that'll slow the projectile enough so that when it does hit the Titan, it just sort of bounces off."
"Why couldn't they just do that here?" Heliang asked.
"Not enough power," Viktor replied, "a Titan engine is basically a nuclear reactor, very condensed but still manages to put out about twenty gigawatts of power. To take that technology and move on the ground is tantamount to suicide. You ever wonder why when Titans explode, we try to get the hell away from it?"
"I figure it was from the exploding Titan," Heliang replied.
"Well, partly that," Viktor nodded, "but also because of the sheer energy released from it. Titans are tough, their hulls are designed to withstand nuclear explosions, and when the reactors blow, they can rip through a Titan. Just imagine the amount of energy it packs."
Heliang whistled and went back to watching the empty crater. Viktor's becoming more and more friendly as he learned to get along with the squad. Occasionally he'd trade a few remarks with Tanya, but as far as Ivan could see, it was more flirting than actual hostility. All of which was fine, since the squad didn't need to be more fractured as they're now beginning the full scope of Operation Motherland.
"Alright, since we've cleared out that pocket of resistence," the pilot announced, "we'll be dropping you lot off toward the center of the city to rendevouz with the main assault group."
"Understood," Ivan replied, "Squad! Prepare for combat, check your gears, eyes on me. We go in quick, we go in hard. Once we link up with the rest of the assault teams, wait for my orders."
"Sir yes sir!" his squad replied in unison.
"You damned groundpounders are some weird motherfuckers," the copilot chuckled.
As the Yastreb cleared the area and buildings came into view, Ivan looked down at the ground and he could already see the Nekomata tanks barreling down the street, firing their cannons. He looked over the Zhang Yi and saw the tanker-turned-sniper's hands twitch as if they were at the controls of a tank.
"Miss your old job?" Ivan asked as he checked his Voss.
"You're damned right I do," Zhang Yi replied as he tested his decoy.
"Maybe one day you'll find yourself back in a tank," Ivan suggested as he watched the chaos unfold in the streets.
"No way," Zhang Yi replied bitterly as he saw a Tiger explode in a fireball.
"With that attitude, of course not," Ivan laughed as the Nekomatas formed a triangle and charged down the streets.
"Damn, those Nekomatas are flexible," Zhang Yi remarked. "I wish the Type-56II's were as flexible. If we had two columns of Nekomatas, we would've taken Treblinka, and I'd still be sitting in a tank right now."
"Don't worry about it, things happen for a reason," Ivan reassured him, "hell, when I was a kid, I fell while skating and broke both my front teeth. I was depressed for about a whole year as I went through treatment, but in the end, if it weren't for those teeth, I would've joined the Novgorod division, the ones that are trained to fight on ice. I remember when they nearly got wiped out during the Religious Wars taking Belgrade."
"So what's gonna be for me?" Zhang Yi asked, his eyes still fixated on the triangle of Nekomatas tearing up the streets of Mogadishu.
"Dunno," Ivan muttered as the Yastreb began to slow.
Just then, a Mitchell SAM slammed into the cockpit, shredding the heavy duty glass as well as ripping the two pilots into bloody ribbons. The Yastreb spun out of control into the streets below. Gunfires erupted from the surrounding buildings as PAC traded shot for shot with the EU and their Afrian allies.
"Brace yourself!" Ivan yelled to his squad as the world around them turned into a dizzying display of colors. Viktor was cursing fluently in Russian while Heliang was doing the same in Chinese. Tanya gripped her medical hub tightly to her, but the most stoic of them all was Zhang Yi. He simply stood where he sat, his hands resting on his Park rifle as the world spun away from him.
The Yastreb flipped in the air, tossing the five soldiers about within it. Its joints creaked and groaned like a man being tortured. Around them, explosions rang out as the war in the streets raged. The tail snapped away with a sickening crunch and the Yastreb's descent became even more erratic.
"Ivan, we need to jump, now!" Zhang Yi calmly turned to his squad leader.
"Dammit, we don't know what's down there!" Ivan yelled, betraying the fear in his voice.
"Trust me, once this thing hits the ground, we'll all end up with sprained ankles and broken bones," Zhang Yi advised, "we'll be sitting ducks."
"Alright then," Ivan agreed, "Squad! On me!"
The five soldiers grabbed the side rails and bailed from the falling transport. Deploying their parachutes, they turned and saw as the Yastreb fell away into the streets in a ball of fire.
"Alright, I'm marking a suitable landing zone with my NetBAT," Zhang Yi said.
Ivan couldn't disagree with the soldier. As the squad landed on the ground, he wondered just who was really directing the squad this time. But before he could say anything, Zhang Yi turned to him and said:
"Your call sir."
"Right," Ivan hesitated. "Spread out, let's take that building."
The five soldiers moved toward a dilapidated building and paused at the door. Viktor approached it, attached a small device on the lock, and backed away. Ten seconds later, the device exploded, allowing the squad to breach the door.
"Fspishka!" Viktor yelled as he tossed a stun grenade inside. The concussive roar was followed by the sound of men yelling in a language that didn't sound like English.
"Go, go, go!" Ivan yelled as he switched his Voss to shotgun mode. Heliang took point, spraying the room with his Shuko, cutting down the disoriented African soldiers. A man came down the stairs, his gun raised.
The Voss rang out and lifted the man off his feet.
Two more men came down the stairs and was greeted by a storm of bullets.
"Granata!" Zhang Yi yelled as he flung a grenade through the stairs.
The panicked voices of men was muffled by an explosion.
"Toss another stun grenade!" Ivan ordered. Viktor unscrewed a second stun grenade and tossed it through the same spot where Zhang Yi's grenade went through. The defeaning bang shook some plaster loose from the ceilings.
"Folow me!" Ivan yelled as he stormed up the stairs, his Voss at the ready. When he got up to the second level, there were only dead bodies on the ground.
"Heliang," he ordred, "scan the room."
"Yessir," Heliang replied as he took out the DysTek Pulse Meter. After scanning the room and no positive signs were set up, he gave the all clear signal. The entire squad lowered their weapons.
"Alright," Ivan informed his squad. "We're still a good distance away from the main battle group, we need to find a way to link up with them and continue on to the assault on the city."
"Can't we just call the commander and ask where everybody is?" Heliang asked.
"We could, but that'd run the risk of detection by the EU." Ivan replied. "You've seen the condition in this building, they have the place locked down. Calling for help is tantamount to suicide."
"So what are we gonna do?" Tanya asked.
"Well, before we jumped," Zhang Yi said, "I saw a silo about eight klicks from here. We could try and move through the buildings until we get to that silo. Once we're there, we could radio in for backup."
"Seems like a good idea," Viktor asserted. "I say we do it."
"So does the title squad leader mean nothing to you guys?" Ivan asked, exasperated at his team's apparent insuboridination.
"If it meant nothing, we would've already been on our way," Viktor responded.
"Fine, we'll go through the buildings," Ivan said, "Heliang, pass out supplies. We'll start moving at night."