Three days later
Task Force 129 and Task Force 121 were now halfway across the Atlantic Ocean on their way to begin the offensive against Akael.
Under the surface, Equestrian Royal Navy Seahorse-class and Arcadian Navy Aquadog-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarines raced ahead of the surface ships, silently hunting for enemy ships with their advanced sonar systems.
In front of the fleet, a line of Unicorn-class destroyers were leading the formation carrying out an ASW screen against enemy submarines.
On board the ERNS Twilight, Sonar Technician Third-class Sound-Wave spotted a distinct signature on her passive broadband display.
"Sonar sup, I have a broadband contact bearing zero-nine-eight!" she called out. The sonar supervisor, Sonar Technician First-class Pulsar, trotted up to Sound-Wave's console.
"Hmm, we don't have any surface ships along that bearing, track that one, it could be a hostile." he said. Sound-Wave then set up a tracker on the contact.
After the contact was confirmed as an enemy submarine, the ship went into general quarters, as did the other ships in the fleet.
Suddenly, Sound-Wave's display began showing the signatures she had hoped she wouldn't see: the signature of an incoming torpedo!
"Sonar sup, I have hydrophone effects bearing zero-nine-nine!" she called out. Pulsar acted fast, reporting the situation to the bridge.
At the same time, in CIC, the fire control operator set up a counter-shot with the ship's Mk 32 torpedo tubes.
"Emergency warning torpedo starboard side, emergency warning torpedo starboard side, commence evasive actions!" came the report over the ship's general announcing system (1MC).
The ship, along with all of the other ships in the area, began carrying out evasive maneuvers to avoid the threat. Before the Twilight began her evasive actions, the starboard torpedo tubes fired a Mk-46 torpedo using a blast of compressed air.
"Weapon away!" the fire control operator called out after seeing the torpedo leave the tube.
The Mk-46 torpedo began to swim towards the source of the incoming threat, a 53-65 torpedo: an Akaelian Navy Challenger-class fast-attack submarine.
The enemy torpedo ran on, headed towards one of the ships in the screening force, ERNS Midnight. All of the ships had their Nixie torpedo decoys in the water, and now they were transmitting in an attempt to cause the torpedo to run out of fuel without hitting anything.
Unfortunately, the enemy torpedo struck the Midnight amidships, tearing the destroyer in two. All hands that survived began to abandon ship.
The aircraft carrier AFS Aquaria, the nearest carrier to the area, scrambled a flight of MH-60S helicopters to conduct rescue operations.
The doomed ship began to sink quickly as the surviving sailors got into the deployed inflatable lifeboats.
The Mk-46 also found its mark, blasting a massive hole in the enemy sub's hull.
The sub began to go deeper into the water as severe flooding took its toll.
The sub attempted an emergency blow, but only managed to poke the conning tower out of the surface before it slipped back under.
As the sub passed its crush depth, the hull began to implode, destroying everything within. The enemy sub had been sunk, but one allied ship had been lost.
The group continued on while rescue efforts saved 86% of the crew, the rest having been killed when the enemy torpedo hit.
Four days later
An Arcadian Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye was on station 50 miles ahead of the massive joint fleet, scanning for enemy aircraft or ships with its powerful radar.
Just then, one of the on-board radar operators spotted several signatures on his screen: an enemy surface action group (SAG) was on the move, most likely to intercept the Equestrian-Arcadian naval force.
"Watch house, this is Watchdog One, we have multiple surface contacts bearing zero-nine-one, one hundred fifteen miles from your position." the operator reported.
"Roger, can you ID the contacts?" the air controller on board the Kestrel asked.
"Affirmative, IFF is picking them up as Akaelian warships." the Hawkeye operator replied.
"Roger, confirmed hostile warships." the controller replied.
The enemy fleet was a strike group composed of four Talon-class guided missile destroyers, and two Eagle-class heavy battle cruisers escorting a Gryphon-class aircraft carrier.
A second fleet, which was out of radar range, consisted of five Invader-class amphibious warships escorted by another pair of destroyers and a pair of Raven-class guided missile cruisers.
Seconds later, the general alarm went off as the Kestrel, along with all other ships as they became aware of the threat, set general quarters and prepared for battle.
At the same time, the Kestrel began to scramble a flight of F/A-18Es loaded with Harpoons. Robert and his flight were strapped to the catapults ready to launch.
Robert gave a quick salute as his plane's afterburners blazed, unleashing all their fury and power.
Seconds later, the Superbug was launched off the deck of the carrier, Vidal just behind him.
The other two launched and the whole flight formed up on their way to engage the enemy ships.
"OK, Shadows, our mission is to thin out the enemy fleet before our guys get within cruise missile range." Robert said as he and his fellow pilots armed their Harpoons and switched their APG-79 AESA radars to sea-search mode.
Sure enough, a minute later, the first group of enemy ships appeared on their screens.
"Tally, multiple hostile ships detected on radar, request clearance to engage!" Robert said. "Shadow flight, Watchdog One, you're cleared hot, engage and sink enemy warships." the Hawkeye controller said.
Robert and his flight plugged in the afterburners to close in on the enemy. He targeted the nearest enemy ship, an enemy destroyer, and locked on.
His finger rested on the trigger as he closed towards launch range.
"Almost...there!" he thought out loud as he got closer. "You're toast!" Robert said as the missile locked on and the SHOOT indicator lit up.
Robert pressed the trigger and the jet shuddered as the missile fell away.
A second later, the rocket motor ignited as the missile streaked towards the target.
The missile's turbojet sustainer motor allowed it to maintain its airspeed up until it impacted the enemy ship, blasting a large hole in the hull.
Robert watched as the ship listed, her entire midships area engulfed in flames. He targeted another enemy destroyer and fired a second Harpoon. The result was similar to the first, except the missile had hit near the forward magazine.
Robert and the other pilots watched in awe as the damaged destroyer exploded in a massive ball of flame.
The entire bow was gone, and the ship sank in seconds.
Vidal targeted an enemy heavy battle cruiser and fired two Harpoons at it.
The first was destroyed by the cruiser's defensive weapons, but the second one struck the stern, damaging the engine room and rendering the huge ship dead in the water.
Megan took out the carrier group's other heavy battle cruiser with three of her Harpoons and another destroyer with the forth.
She then headed back to the Kestrel to re-arm. Angelo fired all of his Harpoons at the enemy carrier, two of which hit their target.
Two flights of Su-33s had taken off before the bow was hit, destroying the ski-jump ramp used to launch aircraft.
Robert closed in and locked up the bandits. "I've got good tone...fox three, fox three!" he called out as he fired an AMRAAM at one of the Flanker-D's.
The missile struck, causing the fighter to explode.
Vidal fired an AMRAAM at one of the other Su-33s and got behind Robert, ready to cover his six as they sped towards the merge.
In the rush to scramble, the Su-33s were only armed with R-73 Archer heat-seekers. Vidal's missile hit, and now only six Flanker-D's remained.
Robert and Vidal fired again, Angelo fired both of his AMRAAMs in quick succession against the bandits.
All four missiles closed in, but only three of them hit, the fourth being evaded by the enemy aircraft that was being targeted.
"Shadow One, fox two!" Robert called out as he fired a Sidewinder at one of the three remaining bandits, which was trying to get on Vidal's tail after the merge.
The missile struck the side of the fuselage, right behind the wing, tearing the plane apart.
"Yeah, looks like a good kill, Blaze!" Vidal said as he gunned down another bandit with his aircraft's nose-mounted M61 Vulcan cannon.
Angelo took down the last remaining Sukhoi with a Sidewinder and the three F/A-18Es returned to the carrier.
At this point, the allied fleet was now in range to attack the remaining enemy ships.
The Bridle-class guided missile frigate ERNS Crusader detected the enemy ships on its radar and the target data for each hostile was entered into the ship's fire control computer.
A BGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile was loaded onto the ship's Mk 13 launcher.
A pre-set missile track plan against the disabled enemy heavy battle cruiser was programmed into the missile's computer.
Upon the order, the sailor in control of the launcher pressed the LAUNCH button, causing the missile to be fired from the launcher.
"Bird away, engaging track 0023!" the TAO reported in CIC as the Harpoon was launched.
The missile streaked towards the enemy cruiser. The missile hit amidships, tearing a twenty-by-twenty foot hole in the side.
Another Harpoon from the destroyer AFS Conqueror went into the hole and detonated, causing even more damage and even ripping a hole in the bottom of the hull.
The surviving crew members began to abandon ship as the doomed vessel began to quickly take on water and sink.
Beneath the surface, an Aquadog-class submarine, AFS Stalker, was targeting the enemy aircraft carrier for a shot.
"Go to periscope depth." the sub's CO, Capt. Jacob Hanson, ordered.
"Go to periscope depth, aye!" the dive officer replied.
"Make my depth five-five feet, two degrees up bubble!" the dive officer ordered.
The helmsmen made the adjustments to the hydroplanes to bring the sub to the ordered depth.
The sonar operators tracked the carrier on their displays while the fire control-men calculated the targeting solution for a shot with a Mk-48 ADCAP torpedo.
"Up periscope!" Captain Hanson ordered. The periscope was raised and when it was up, Captain Hanson looked through it at the enemy carrier.
The firing solution was programmed into the torpedo's targeting computer as the torpedo tube was flooded. After the flooding process was complete, the pressure was equalized and the muzzle door was opened.
"Launch tube one!" Captain Hanson ordered. At that signal, a burst of compressed air shot the huge torpedo out of the tube and into the water.
"Weapon out of the tube!" the fire control-man who carried out the launch reported. The Mk-48 swam out towards the enemy carrier.
Seconds after it began its search pattern, the torpedo's acoustic sensors acquired the enemy carrier and the torpedo went into attack mode as it shot towards the ship at top speed.
Captain Hanson stared at the enemy carrier through the periscope as the torpedo closed in.
A minute later, the torpedo struck the enemy carrier amidships, the pocket of air created by the explosion causing the ship's keel to buckle and snap.
The carrier was torn in two as it succumbed to the destructive effects of the torpedo.
"Conn, sonar, loud explosion on the bearing of Sierra Ten!" the sonar supervisor reported.
"It's a hit and kill!" Hanson announced in an excited tone as he watched the carnage through the periscope.
"Down periscope!" he ordered. The periscope was lowered as the crew celebrated their first kill on an enemy ship.
The last enemy destroyer in the carrier group was sunk by a pair of Harpoons from the Arcadian guided missile cruiser AFS Liberator.
Now, only the enemy amphibious fleet was left.
The two enemy destroyers were sunk by Mk-48 ADCAP torpedoes from AFS Stalker, while the cruisers were sunk by Harpoon missiles from Angelo, after Robert's flight launched back into action.
All that was left now was the enemy amphibious warships. Robert targeted one of the ships and fired a pair of Harpoons.
One of them struck the area between the well deck and the interior of the ship. The gryphons on the other ships watched in horror as the stricken ship went down stern-first.
Angelo flew in and targeted one of the other ships and fired a single Harpoon.
The missile hit the hull just above the waterline, penetrating deep inside before the powerful warhead detonated, creating severe devastation.
Megan finished it off with her own Harpoon.
Vidal fired a Harpoon at a third ship, which struck the bridge and detonated in the superstructure, tearing it apart.
He circled around and fired a second Harpoon from the side. The missile hit the side of the hull, just under the damage from his first missile.
He watched in satisfaction as the ship listed heavily to port.
Robert took out the forth ship with his remaining Harpoons while Megan struck the last one with a Harpoon that took out the ship's engine room, rendering it dead-in-the-water.
Vidal used his third Harpoon to finish off the last remaining enemy amphibious assault ship.
The massive allied fleet formed back up after weaving around the floating wreckage of the sinking enemy ships.
Robert and the other three pilots landed back on the Kestrel and took a well-deserved rest as the massive battle group sailed on, headed for the Akaelian coast.