"The sword has been pulled from the stone, it was Ustio's flight lead who did it!"
Ustio's flight lead. That was what the Yuktobanian pilot had referred to him as. Not the Allied mercenary, not the Galm Team, but the Ustio flight lead. Cipher liked it. It sounded like he belonged here at Ustio, at Valais Airbase. But deep inside him, he knew that staying in one place wasn't an option. His belonged in the skies and constantly on the move. He was a mercenary by heart, and that wasn't going to change that.
"Cipher?"
He couldn't imagine remaining here at Ustio. After the war was over, what would happen then? A life of patrolling endless skies deterring enemies who were never to come? That wasn't Cipher's life...
"Cipher!?" Foulke jolted his flight lead out of his deep daydream. "Yo buddy, late night?" he laughed.
"Sorry, you were saying?"
The mercenaries were eating a very late breakfast, seated away from the regular Air Force pilots. It had become a standard spot for the Galm Team to seat, and it wasn't rare for a few regulars to come and try to stir up small talk and get them to tell stories of past combats. It was nice sometimes, but on mornings like this when Cipher just wanted to lose himself in deep thought, such pilots were often turned away without a tale.
"I was saying that we need to finish up quick, the Lieutenant General wants us in the briefing room by quarter past eleven." Foulke said after scalding his tongue on hot black coffee.
"What time is it now?" Cipher yawned.
"Time you got a watch."
"Time you got a new joke." Cipher countered.
"Time you got a new comeback." Foulke retorted and raised an eyebrow as if to challenge Cipher to come back with another comment.
"You win, now what time is it?"
"Time you got a watch." Foulke grinned.
"Larry..."
"Okay okay! It's eleven."
Cipher made a quick mental calculation. "We've got five minutes to spare." He said as he took a long sip of coffee and finished his cold bacon slice in one. "But better to be early."
The mercenaries took their plates to the kitchen and made their way to the empty room, arriving five minutes before the briefing was due to start. The door was unlocked and so they entered, spending the next five minutes discussing the possible courses the war could take until the Crow Team entered with the intelligence officer behind.
"Orders have come in for an emergency sortie!" He said hurriedly as he quickly loaded up the Axe and Hammer briefing programme. "A major air engagement is taking place as we speak between Belka and the Allied Forces near the border, in the B7R airspace which Belka is committed to defend at all costs."
The map came up and zoomed in on B7R as the officer continued talking. "B7R, commonly known as the 'Round Table' has long been a symbol of Belka political, military and industrial might. However just fifteen minutes ago, along with a lightning-quick commencement of Operation Battle Axe, the Allied Forces officially announced the permanent abrogation of it's non-aggression treaty at the Assembly of Nations and simultaneously attacked B7R with a massive fighter squadron."
Cipher noticed a second window open and show the two Osean squadrons numbering eight F/A-18 Hornets each labled 'Wizard' and 'Sorcerer'. A few minor squadrons were also shown. However, a mercenary unit caught his attention. The squadron was labelled as "Ghost" but that was all he saw before the window was shut.
"This mission may be our chance to finally end the Belkan War once and for all. I wish you luck."
Cipher felt cheered up as he left. A true air to air engagement. Just the thing he was born for. Although he hadn't been counting his kill score over the past few months, he was sure that he had surpassed his father's record.
"You're looking happier now Cipher." Foulke was grinning.
"Let's show the Belkans that we're not just a misfit group of mercenaries!" He replied before dishing out orders to his ground crew to arm up his fighter with as many missiles as it could carry as well as a drop tank on the under-fuselage pylon.
With Foulke ready to go, and Cipher was happy, the Galm Team began to taxi to the runway and took off one at a time with the Crow Team not far behind.
"Incoming message from Allied Forces HQ." AWACS Eagle Eye sounded calm and professional despite the mayhem happening below. "Forty percent of Allied air forces are already lost."
An Osean F/A-18 came out of a dive and levelled out, only to find itself in the sights of a Belkan MiG-29. He pulled a hard bank to avoid a missile shot and a wild burst of gunfire. "Dammit, there's too many of them!" he cried. "We can't handle them all!"
"Where are the reinforcements?!" Another demanded seconds before he fell to a well placed missile shot from a tailing Belkan Su-27.
Cipher jettisoned his drop tank to allow him extra mobility. He rolled upside down and looked up to gaze down into a deadly game of cat and mouse, with small explosions signalling the death of another fighter aircraft.
"Time to dive into the fireworks!" Foulke muttered as he imitated Cipher's actions and pulled back on the stick, angling their Eagles towards the fray and diving out of the sun. Cipher rolled out the right way up and instantly set his sights on a MiG-29 dead ahead as it engaged one of the Allied Forces' attacking fighters. His HUD picked up two Su-27 Flankers not too far behind in formation as well as the MiG and outlined them in green squares.
"Galm Two, cleared to engage any and all targets." he said. "Stay near me though."
"Copy that." Foulke replied.
"Another plane's been shot down!" Someone reported. Cipher looked at the MiG as it pulled away from it's kill and swung round to engage without a second thought. He had picked up a lot of speed in his dive, and came close enough to the Belkan to easily make out the green, brown and grey camouflage pattern on the aircraft. He quickly switched to guns and riddled the fuselage with bullet holes, causing it to spew smoke and tumble out of control.
"All damaged aircraft, return to base." An Osean flight lead ordered.
"I've never been in an aerial battle of this scope before!" P.J exclaimed.
Cipher's missile tracking system went berserk and he pulled a sharp turn to avoid an R-73 missile fired from an attacking Flanker, one of the two he'd seen earlier. Foulke had also seen them, and quickly engaged and shot it down with a sidewinder.
"Still no reinforcements from base, If only they'd get here, we could put an end to this war at once!" A Belkan complained.
Cipher swung round onto the tail of the second Flanker and used his gun again to tear off the wing.
"The Round Table's nothing special, I'll take care of things!" P.J said. Cipher looked briefly for him but gave up. There were too many aircraft in the sky to accurately pick out a single pilot. His vision snapped to his wingman.
"Galm Two, there's one on your tail!" Cipher warned Foulke of the lone MiG-29 attempting to line up for a missile or gun shot.
"Shit, how'd he get there!" Foulke pulled a sharp split S and went straight into a hard turn to shake the enemy fighter. Cipher tried to engage and managed to force the MiG to abandon his prey, allowing Foulke to focus on a separate enemy fighter.
"Our support's here?" An Osean questioned the AWACS. "Who'd they send us?"
"IFF has confirmed it's Galm." Another answered in place of the AWACS. "The reinforcement team is Galm."
Cipher chased the Fulcrum as it entered a high speed vertical dive towards the desert below, shedding off altitude to rapidly gain airspeed before pulling back on the flight stick hard and pulling off at an angle. He had underestimated the capabilities of the mercenary and his Eagle, who was easily able to keep with the smaller fighter which was now easy prey.
"Galm One, Fox Two!" The pilot ejected before the sidewinder smashed into the fighter, blowing it to pieces.
Cipher urged his blue-winged fighter on, applying afterburners and pushing his jet up to five thousand feet. A pair of Flankers caught his attention and he faced them head on. They split before he was able to switch to AMRAAMS and he cursed, following the right banking aircraft.
"The guy who pulled out Tauberg's sword is here. Be careful!" A Belkan flight lead warned. Tauberg's sword must be Excalibur, or what remained of it. But the mercenary had little time to ponder the comment as a missile streaked over him and blew his target apart.
"We've still gotta get the job done." Foulke stated as he rolled over Cipher and banked off to deal with another enemy fighter. Cipher strained his neck around to locate the second Flanker. He saw it, seven o'clock coming in below his wing. If he hadn't been banking, it would've been invisible to him.
"I'll put that Ustio mercenary in his place!"
A missile alert. Cipher popped flares and looped, evading the missile. He gracefully came out of the loop into a smooth left turn, the Flanker still coming in at his six. It loosened a burst of gunfire which was too low, which prompted Cipher to snap-roll right and pull sharply. The surprised Flanker was late to react, but by the time it began to move, Cipher was already coming about to fire a AIM-9 and claim another kill to his name. He climbed and levelled out at seven thousand feet with Foulke with him, observing the fight.
"Don't give up, it's not over yet!" An Osean pilot urged his colleagues on.
"I'll shoot them down and make a name for myself!" The Belkan was young by the sound of his voice.
From Cipher's vantage point, he spied a pair of Belkan Su-37 Terminators detach from a formation and head their way. "Heads up Galm Two, we've got company."
"Seen, I'll take the one on the left."
Cipher aimed his jet at the incoming pair of fighters, ignoring the warning sounds of attempts to lock a missile onto him and singled out his target, a silver and blue terminator. The super-manoeuvrable Su-37's were smart enough to stay together and continued to charge at the diving mercenaries who each launched sidewinder at their respective targets. Only then did they break and abort the attack.
"Missiles off target!" Cipher growled.
"We're passing between them!" Foulke exclaimed. The two Terminators rushed by each on afterburners sending loud rumbles through Cipher's cockpit.
"You don't have what it takes to fly in the Round Table!" The Belkans taunted as the mercenaries tightly pulled back on their flight sticks, forcing their fighters to turn sharply and gave chase to the pair of Su-37's, drawing sharp white contrails in the sky. The formation wasn't far ahead, so Cipher switched to AMRAAMS and fired two.
"Fox Three Fox Three!" the deadly projectiles were accurate, and both Terminators were destroyed seconds later.
"The enemy threat level is down, continue to engage." AWACS Eagle Eye ordered.
"There's so many of em'!" Foulke exclaimed.
Cipher glanced at his radar. They were at the edge of the fray, so he twisted and turned his F-15C Eagle towards the fight. He applied afterburners, injecting fuel straight into the inlet and felt the g's push him into the seat.
"Wizard One here, the enemy has broken formation. Take them out."
Cipher pulled back the throttle leaver and came out of afterburners, quickly decelerating. He saw a lone MiG and dived to attack. The unsuspecting pilot barely had enough time to register the mercenary and the incoming sidewinder before said sidewinder blew his jet apart.
"Larry, can you read me?" Wizard One asked.
"Looks like you've still got the touch." Foulke replied from Cipher's wing.
"It's happening, just as you thought." The Osean said. "It's about time we got out of this dead-end job."
"Not just yet." Foulke answered.
Cipher spied another lone Fulcrum and locked onto it with an AIM-120. But then he saw a closer Belkan fighter on his radar and pulled out if his level flight to latch onto the back of it. A few bursts of gunfire and it too joined the many plane wreaks on the ground under the Round Table.
"Dam, the sky is too crowded!" Cipher overheard the Belkan pilot's remark.
"Heeya!" Crow Two was obviously enjoying himself. "Get a good eyeful of this flying! Let it sink in!" He gloated to his team mates.
"Reinforcements still haven't arrived, what is our country doing?!"
Cipher looked for his wingman, and saw him chasing an Su-27 across the sky above him. He turned to intercept and increased his airspeed, but Foulke easily dispatched him with a round of gunfire.
"Well done, the enemy threat level has dropped to under fifty percent!" AWACS Eagle Eye congratulated. Just a little more."
"Galm Two, ammo check." Cipher reformed with Foulke in level flight.
"Galm Two, I have me four AIM-120 and three AIM-9." He replied. "And you?"
"Two AIM-9 and two AIM-120." Cipher answered. "There's still a few left, don't use them all up in one go."
"Understood."
"Sorcerer One to all units. That's the Galm Team. Watch and learn." the other main Osean squadron's flight lead said in awe.
"Galm Two to Galm One, lets show them how we roll!" Foulke said.
With that, the Galm Team entered the battle once more. Belkan after Belkan rose to challenge their place in the sky but each fell before the might of the two pilots who almost forgot about missiles and used their equally deadly 20mm cannons to cripple the defenders of the Round Table in their futile attempts to hold off the attack. The amazing display of superior aerial combat was noticed by friend and foe alike
"Galm's not fighting alone! Let's show them what the Osean Air Force can do!" These words of encouragement were enough to replenish the depleting morale of the Osean pilots from the shrinking squadrons. The Allied Forces aircraft renewed their assault on the defenders with a new urge to win.
Cipher sent another Flanker to it's fate below the battle. As he did so, an F/A-18 shot by with a MiG firmly attached to his six, and the Ustio mercenary came about and locked onto him with a sidewinder which was sent flying towards the Belkan, homing in on the hot exhaust and connected with a bang and a cloud of fire and black smoke.
"Time to get fired up, boys!"
The Galm Team formed up behind Crow Team briefly before splitting to go their separate ways. Cipher noted a pair of two more Su-37 Terminators incoming and informed Foulke.
"I'm on it, Fox Three!" Two missiles dropped from the underbelly of the red-winged Eagle and destroyed one, leaving the other to be dealt with by the mercenary pair.
"The commander's plane is gone! Confirm our chain of command!" The remaining Terminator pilot yelled.
Foulke was the first to get his plane into an optimum firing position behind the jinking Terminator, and took the shot without a second thought.
"They're attacking without mercy, do they plan on burning everything?" The Belkan pilot sounded angry and confused.
"That Ustio mercenary, damn him!" Another cursed. "He's turning the tide of the battle in their favour!"
Cipher glanced at his radar and saw that the Belkan was right. The number of enemy fighters had dropped considerably, and it looked as if things were finally going in the direction the Allied Forces wanted it to. By the sounds of the excited chatter on the radio, he wasn't the only one on his side to notice.
"Galm's revived our front line!" Someone cheered.
The blue-winged mercenary found himself head to head with an enemy Flanker, who'd just finished shooting down an Osean Hornet, and immediately launched a short ranged missile at him. As if he'd practised the manoeuvre time and time again, Cipher popped flares and barrel-rolled over the missile and overshot the grey and black Su-27.
"He can't be human!" The pilot cried in panic as Foulke came about from a previous combat and used guns to tear the left intake and engine apart. Vomiting unhealthy smoke, he turned to disengage and escape the battle. "He's like a demon, I've never seen anything like it!"
"Let him go." Cipher ordered, bringing his jet into level flight. "He's no threat to us now."
"That kind of a pilot..." An Osean said. "...They call a Demon Lord."
"Wizard One to all units, Belka's days are over. Let's wrap this up."
Cipher looked over his shoulder and saw Foulke on his wing like a faithful hound dog who never left his master's side. He sighed and wiped the sweat gathering on his forehead under his visor with a leather-gloved hand and prepared to continue with the engagement.
"Those mercenaries are going to get all the credit again." Someone grumbled good-naturedly.
"I fight for peace." P.J said. So he hadn't been shot down yet. "That's what I'm up here for."
"While you're up here 'fighting for peace', tons of blood is being shed on the ground." Foulke was quick to comment.
"Some 'peace' kid." Cipher added.
"And I'm here to put an end to that!" P.J retorted to Foulke.
As Cipher listened, he saw a target flying low and fast. He pointed his nose at it and launched an AIM-120 at it, quickly adding one more to his kill score.
"You think you can stop bloodshed by shedding more blood?" Foulke sounded like he was about to snap. "Flyin' with all those ideas swimming around in your head is gonna get you killed."
In more than one way. Cipher thought. There were no real threats from Belkan fighters anymore. The Osean squadrons were up against a more reasonable sized enemy, thanks to the efforts of the Galm Team. So Cipher flew a lazy arc, calming the adrenaline. Foulke suddenly dived and twisted around, coming up behind a Belkan fighter and easily blowing it from the sky with a missile shot.
"Galm Two, I've bagged a bandit!"
"Galm Team, multiple craft approaching!" AWACS Eagle Eye warned. "Something's wrong...stay alert."
On Cipher's radar, he saw a pack of five incoming aircraft from the north west corner of the combat airspace. As Foulke returned to his position, his radar went dead without warning.
"I'm jammed!" He reported. "Radar signature's dropping."
"Me too...must be an escort plane with ECM's affecting the radar." Foulke sounded concerned.
An unknown voice came over the intercepted radio communications. It was obviously Belkan, as Cipher could tell by the faint accent but their manner was calm and cool, not panicky and stressed like the defending squadrons. "Target is in firing range." It said. "Schnee One to all units, release your missiles!"
"Galm Two, I'm spiked, evasive manoeuvres!"
"Break! Hard left!"
The Galm Team broke apart as four long range AIM-54 Phoenix missiles appeared in the sky and carved a path through where the two F-15C Eagles of the Galm Team had once been.
"Schnee Four to Schnee One, target confirmed on radar, it's him!"
"Galm Two to Galm One, I'm not sure we have enough missiles to take them on." Foukle expressed his concern.
"I'm sure we can handle it." Cipher looked at his radar but the jamming continued. "The Allied air force is still dealing with the remains of the Belkan defenders. We'll have to do this ourselves."
"36th Mercenary Fighter Squadron 'Ghost' to Galm Team, do you read me?" another new voice on the radio, but it sounded like an Osean pilot.
"This is Galm One, go ahead Ghost Squadron." Cipher replied as he came back around to engage the new threat, still out of AMRAAM range.
"Ghost One to Galm One, need a hand?" the flight lead asked casually.
"I suppose we could use some help."
"Stay on guard, those guys can fire long range missiles." Foulke advised. As if on cue, Cipher's HUD went red to alert him of incoming missiles.
"They've got a lock, break!" Eagle Eye ordered. "Ghost Squadron, you are cleared to engage."
Cipher dived, releasing flares in the process to escape the lock. When he pulled up, he jinked to avoid colliding with two blue and white F-14D Super Tomcat fighters. He pulled hard onto their tails, locked on to one with his last AIM-120 missile and fired. The heavy fighter was unable to evade and burst into flames.
"You've gotta fly faster!" A Schnee Squadron member growled.
"This is Ghost Four, radar should now be working, I've jammed the Prowler." A new voice with a new accent, this one sounding like a drawl from a country in southern Osea, possibly Leasath or Aurelia. "I should get a bonus for that."
Cipher checked his radar and sure enough, it was online. "Ghost One, could you deal with the jammer aircraft?" He asked as he closed the gap between him and the Tomcat he was chasing.
"Already on it Galm One."
"Galm Two fox three!" A medium range missile streaked overhead and shot down the Schnee Squadron member Cipher was chasing. "Got 'em."
Cipher looked at his radar and saw two more at his six, who promptly fired more long range missiles. The mercenaries split and evaded.
"My squadron will bask in the glory if we get through this alive." Schnee One said.
"Ghost Two, the Prowler is history, courtesy of..." Another man whooped with a weird accent Cipher hadn't heard before.
"Spare me the announcements Ghost Two." A woman interrupted.
"Ustio mercenary...nice shooting." The Schnee commander said.
"Break right! Break right!" A Schnee member creid out to his wingman. Cipher's head snapped over to where the Super Tomcats from the Belkan ace squadron had been seconds before they had turned hard to evade a short ranged missile fired from an F-22 Raptor bearing the IFF signature of a friendly craft. It was joined by a second and the pair passed overhead.
That must be Ghost Squadron He thought to himself. But now, the Schnee aircraft had been forced into a position where Cipher and Foulke could continue the offensive. He rolled and came about onto the tail of one but they dived before he could release a burst of gunfire. Cipher however, wasn't about to lose his prey and quickly dove to keep with him.
"This one's fast..." the Belkan ace muttered. "His flying is unpredictable!"
"Demon of Ustio...!" The weapons systems officer cried.
The variable-geomety wings of the carrier-borne heavy fighter were swept back to minimise drag and maximise speed, soon pulling out of sidewinder range.
"I'm following the captain's lead..." Cipher saw the second Tomcat dive as well onto Cipher's tail. The mercenary came out of the dive fast to avoid being targeted by the short range missiles the enemy were sure to carry.
"Don't be too hasty." The Schnee flight lead said. "Just fly as you always do and we can win this."
Foulke was back with Cipher, and the Galm Team turned to face their enemy who had regrouped and turned to attack once more. To his left, Cipher's radar picked up a single aircraft but when he looked, he saw three. Two Raptors flanking a single EA18-G Growler.
"This is our turf, we'll fly how we please!" Ghost Two taunted the Belkans. A missile streaked from one of the flanking Raptors and hit the right Tomcat, blowing it is wing off and causing it to tumble out of control.
"Another aircraft...?" Schnee One said in disbelief. "Who shot it down?!"
Cipher's systems went on alert. "Radar spike, the enemy's tracking me on radar." He pulled up and banked away to evade the missile soon to come, and saw Foulke do the same. The breaking mercenaries passed either side of the lone F-14D who gracefully turned around in the direction of Ghost Squadron, who loitered the area.
"So that pilot is the Demon Lord?" The woman from Ghost Squadron asked.
"More Ustio mercenaries, this is going to be fun!" The Belkan ace said as he launched his remaining Phoenix missiles at the other squadron who effortlessly evaded. The action allowed Foulke to get on the tail of the F-14D and fire his last missile, an AIM-120. The projectile was dead accurate, and blew the tail of the last fighter to pieces.
"That's a kill!" Foulke sounded pleased.
"The Demon Lord of the Round Table..." An Osean pilot said in awe.
The Galm Team formed up, and Cipher looked across to where the Ghost Squadron flew nearby. Their aircraft all bore a while outline on dark grey, with black tribal designs covering the top of the aircraft. One flanking Raptor had yellow wingtips. Cipher admitted it looked cooler than his blue wings.
"All targets in the combat airspace are down, operation complete." Eagle Eye reported.
"Guess we'll see you around then Galm Team." Ghost One said before his squadron banked away towards another airfield elsewhere.
Foulke whistled. "Yo buddy," He said. "You still alive?"
In case you're wondering, the 36th Mercenary Fighter Squadron is a made-up squadron who I decided to add in last minute. This chapter took me at least five hours to write with near constant corrections and changes, but it's finally done :) next chapter up soon