Chapter 9 - Escalation of Commitment, Pt.1
The 1st of January 1969 had began much the same way as any other day in the world of Strangereal. It was a cold, but otherwise pleasant morning, a crisp coolness in the air that shook away the cobwebs from the celebrations that had been the night before, with surprisingly little frost at Rechlin, though the snow from the evening prior still coated the fields around the base, as members of the 23rd Fighter Squadron's Twilight Flight checked over their aircraft, before their possible mission.
She thought back to the briefing that they'd undertaken before everyone either went to bed, or went off to celebrate the New Year...
''As you are all aware, Belkan radar trucks have been jamming our primary radar, and we've been using airborne radar to try to circumvent that for almost a week now. Needless to say, this is far from a permanent solution, and we've been given authorisation for a mission to destroy the radar trucks across the border. Targets have the codename Headache...'' Diavel explained, before pulling down a chart with the operation name on it... ''This mission will be... Operation Aspirin.''
Koharu hadn't thought it was possible for people to act in complete synchronization before that meeting, but she did after it - having watched an entire room of people place their heads in their hands and groan, all in complete unison, did tend to change your opinion on things like that...
''We'll be performing a surgical strike with only a small number of aircraft at dawn, to lessen the chances of them being aware of us.'' A map was placed down of the targets, and the timeline for it, and suddenly, she wondered if the radar trucks weren't the only Headache around. What was the saying about plans, and enemies again?...
''YAWWNN-Morning!'' Yuuki said, in her familiar cheerful tone. The twins had come up to her whilst she was off in her own little world, and no doubt they were as tired as she was. As it turned out, a base full of pilots, all of whom had a reason to celebrate - and quite a lot of alcohol - were more than slightly rowdy. She'd felt some sympathy for Asuna there, especially as she'd looked as if she was going to throw the nearest object to her, at the next person who disturbed her efforts to sleep...
''Yuuki... you did actually sleep, right?'' Ran asked, her voice conveying concern, and giving off the impression that she was older than she actually was. If not older, then certainly more responsible, she'd reminded herself.
''Of course I did! It's just...'' Yuuki defended.
''It is really early...'' Koharu admitted, fighting a yawn herself as she checked over her Hunter. ''And everyone was really loud last night...'' Koharu trailed off as she continued to check over the Hunter. Lisbeth had made some modifications for her over the Christmas period; not least to the weapons she could now carry. The two outer rails had been refitted to allow carriage of air-to-air missiles, namely Firestreak or Sidewinders. She knew from Asuna that the Firestreaks were... not exactly reliable, often deciding that the sun made for a more opportune target than the dummy aircraft in front of them, so she'd settled for carrying Sidewinders instead, alongside four 1000lb bombs.
The other major change to her Hunter was the colour scheme, the usual two tone grey and green camouflage replaced by a deep, all over maroon colour, one that could almost pass for champagne red in the right lights. The maroon was broken up by the 23rd's insignia on the nose, alongside the usual Osean markings and a newly added Black Blade insignia under her cockpit, with her information and her normal position as Black Blade Three. This morning though, she wasn't flying as Black Blade Three, but rather taking Siune's position as Twilight Four, whilst the older girl's Lansen was being repaired by Lisbeth.
Had it not been for the distinct lack of pilots around Rechlin, she wondered if she could be forgiven for forgetting what day it was - New Year's Day, the 1st of January 1969 for them. She couldn't help but find that a little unsettling, that she was about to fly a strike mission some 36 years before she was born, in a completely different world; one that felt like Earth at a first glance, until she looked at it more closely. During her few days off following the Kestrel incident, she'd taken the time to familiarise herself with the world she now found herself living in, and Strangereal certainly felt as if the name was justified. The planet Earth, but with the continents shifted, and different countries replacing the ones she knew... and yet, despite the different nations, war was still as prevalent. The World Wars had still happened, even though the circumstances had been very different on Strangereal, and...
''Oh, so you had a little tipple last night?'' Ran asked, an eyebrow raised in amusement, as she realised she was staring off into space again.
''Oh, no, just... it's a little odd, right?'' The sisters looked at each other with confused looks, before she continued. ''We're here, nearly four decades before we'll be born, and well...''
''When you put it like that, yeah, it's funny to think! We could be telling our grandkids about this... wait, wouldn't our grandkids be us though?'' Yuuki asked, looking up at the sky as if to try and draw the family tree in the air around her.
''No, but our grandkids would be the same age as us.'' Ran answered, before realising what she'd said. ''Maybe.'' She added, a slightly mournful look in her eyes, a look at complete odds with the smile on her face... ''Still, we should be getting ready. You never know when we'll be told to take off!''
''See you up there!'' Yuuki chirped, as they rushed away. Koharu waved at the sisters as they headed back over to their Sabres, before getting into her Hunter. She knew that Ran was right, and especially with their mission, time could be of the essence...
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The Black Blades had been the first group to take off that morning, with Kirito, Argo and Asuna taking the mission to locate the radar trucks and destroy them, the Phantom's refitted SEAD gear being the most suited for the job of locating the target. Alice and Eugeo were to remain on the ground, and fly intercept any aircraft that attempted to use the lack of radar coverage to sneak in. Koharu would fly in with the second wave, the Hunter carrying a potent payload of 4000lbs worth of bombs, just to ensure the trucks were no longer broadcasting... or existent, for that matter.
Still though, she would rather it be the case that they were on patrol instead of sat waiting on the taxiway with fuel bowsers plugged into their Mirages. At very least, there'd be less of a fire hazard! It had to be said though, Alice thought, that the very small scale operations - minor attacks on trucks - To say she wanted the chaos of a full on war was far from the truth - she absolutely didn't. A full on war would mean death, destruction and despair on a scale she would never wish for, but she would've preferred the occasional notable mission, rather than just combat air patrols and escort missions that they were undertaking frequently.
"Black Blade Three, Black Blade Four, this is Goldeneye. You are cleared for takeoff and exit to orbit pattern four."
"Black Blade Three, departing on orbit pattern four." She declared to anyone listening, as she opened the throttles of her ATAR engine, the lightweight delta rapidly picking up momentum as soon as the brakes were removed.
"Black Blade Four is departing, exit pattern four." Eugeo announced, his Mirage almost keeping up with hers, as if the fighters were in a drag race down Runway 10...
"Goldeneye to Twilight, enter the runway and hold position."
"Twilight Leader, moving to position." Ran called out, her flight of fighter-bombers moving onto the runway no doubt, whilst the two Mirages climbed to 5000 feet, beginning an orbit of Rechlin.
"Goldeneye, Twilight. We, uhh, we have a situation here. You are cleared for takeoff, but belay mission orders." The tower control called out, taking the swept wing fighters on the ground by surprise. No surprise, as even she wasn't sure what was going on... What type of situation would require delaying the execution of a mission?
"Black Blade Lead to Goldeneye, we're engaged with bandits, 50 kilometres north of Rechlin!" That was concerning to her, as that suggested that they'd been expecting the attack to come, and had their own fighters on standby...
"Goldeneye reads you, confirm how many?"
"We don't know! At least ten, probably more!" That caught Alice's attention, and no doubt everyone else's, listening in. Where in the fresh hell had ten aircraft come from!? There was no doubt in Alice's mind that they were not interceptors; they were an attack force that had stumbled on the pair of fighters...
"Black Blade, we're sending reinforcements your way. Blades Three and Four are five minutes out, Twilight are scrambling now." The tower called, before changing to the frequency of the Mirages. "Black Blade Three, Black Blade Four, new vector is zero five zero, at fifty kilometers, bandits are at angels two. Cleared weapons hot."
"Black Blade Four, Lead, we're on our way!" The two Mirages lit up the morning sky, and snow glistened below as their afterburners kicked in...
"Alice, if there's that many of them..." The tone in her wingman's voice could speak a thousand words - chief amongst them being "charging in will just get you killed."
"I know. We only have two radar guided missiles between us though, so we will have to engage them at visual range..."
In full afterburner, they'd need to be careful of their fuel range too - they still had drop tanks slung under their wings for an extended loiter, but this wasn't that at all. This was no doubt going to devolve into a chaotic melee against the blinding winter sun, jets roaring across the sky as they hunt their foes.
Beneath her oxygen mask, Alice felt a small smile come across her face...
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With every ounce of force he could muster, Kirito pulled the Phantom through an 8 G turn, jinking every so often to throw off the aim of the MIG-17s chasing them...
From a tactical standpoint, there was only a single conclusion that could be drawn - they were screwed.
On the deck, where the Phantom had found itself, the MIG could significantly out turn the Phantom, and it was only down to the slag heap that Kirito had found himself using for a small degree of cover, that neither MIG had dialed their guns in on him. He muttered a small thanks for the low muzzle velocity of those cannons, as arcs of 23mm and 37mm fire tore through the air a small distance behind the Phantom. Still though, there was only so much turning in circles could do, unless your plan was to make your adversary so dizzy they lost control...
A screeching noise soon got his attention; the sound of a radar guided missile heading straight towards them...
"Kii-bou, missile!" Argo yelled from behind him.
"Where from though!" He grunted, craning his head around against the forces on their fighter. Where the hell was that radar missile being fired from?! The Belkans didn't have much capable of firing radar guided weaponry - a few MIG-23s, sure, but they were almost mythical amongst the community. Everyone knew they had them, but no one had ever seen one. Some even argued that the MIG-23 was the game's super fighter... After all, if the reports were true, then not only did it have radar stealth seemingly, but optical camouflage too.
Alternatively, and more plausibly, they weren't stealthy at all, they simply weren't there. As for anything else, unless the Belkans happened to have Su-15s as well, then the only options were the extremely old hat AA-1 Alkali missiles, beam riding weapons that had a maximum range of under four miles. A range that he could easily see what had fired it in...
"12 o' clock! Headin' straight fer us!" Argo pointed past his head to a small white trail ahead...
"What the!?" Well, that threw out almost every theory! In desperation, he threw the Phantom into an instinctive left turn, hoping the missile would sail past them...
A distinctive white trail streaked harmlessly past the Phantom, before an explosion filled his rear view mirror. The lead MIG had disappeared, almost vapourised by a head on impact with the missile, only small shards of torn metal dropping into the slag below.
"Argo, where did that come from!?"
"Only blips are beh-no wait, two coming head on!" He braced for yet another high-G head on missile dodge... before the radio sprung to life.
"Black Blade Lead, this is Black Blade Four! Break, you have a missile heading towards you!" called Eugeo, the glint of another missile being fired in the extreme distance...
Well, that answered the question of the first radar guided missile - Alice's. Their Mirages had been set up for escort duties this morning, so they'd both got an R530 onboard.
"Blade Four, thanks fer the heads up this time! Last 'un nearly took our heads off too!" Argo seemed even less happy at them than he was.
"Blade Three apologises... I think."
The Phantom continued in its climbing turn, putting some distance between them and the MIG before the missile reached them.
Behind them, the snow shone orange again as the missile slammed head on into the second MIG. With a closing speed of over Mach 3, it didn't take a genius to realise that the pilot had stood no chance of getting out - there hadn't been a plane left to get out of! Just a burning tangle of twisted metal falling the short distance to the earth.
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For Alice, this had been exactly what she'd signed up for; a swirling World War One style dogfight, as pilots fought not only their adversaries, but the laws of aerodynamics too... and yet, she didn't find a thrill here. She watched as explosions shattered the noise of jets - and the jets themselves - and she didn't feel like a gallant knight of the sky, but rather a rage close to overflowing...
How dare they do this!
After everyone the Belkans had hurt so far, the cowardly attack on Rechlin, not aimed to destroy their ability to wage war, but to reduce their pool of pilots, and on Flight 668, the scarred ground where the airliner had been obliterated still clear, even against the snow - attacks that had left hundreds dead and injured, now they dared to attempt a sneak attack again, whilst everyone was attempting to rest!
She had no doubts that they would be taught the error of their ways... the first problem was surviving until then. Almost as if to prove her point, a MIG-17 blasted past her nose, in pursuit of Eugeo.
Not for long, she thought, as she snapped Osmanthius into a tight turn to port, to get on the attacker's tail, the vortices off her wing swirling around the upper surface as she did. Multiple times the force of gravity pushed her further and further into the ejection seat as the Mirage pulled into a position behind the fighter. With a rehearsed motion, the cage over the trigger was flipped up, and just second of pressure was applied to the trigger.
With just that second, 38 rounds of 30mm fire tore away from Osmanthius, 7 of those being incendiary rounds known as tracers, lit up against the rising sun and glistening snow, before slamming into the MIG ahead.
The smaller jet rocked against the punishing hits, sections of wing and fuselage coming apart as shells and shrapnel lodged into them, before it's pilot chose the wisest course of action - ejecting.
"Black Blade Three, one MIG-17 down-HELL!" She called out, before her canopy filled up with the image of a MIG-19 that had torn past her with just a few metres to spare... a scene reminiscent of her close encounter with Koharu's Hunter.
"Alice! Come in!" She heard Eugeo shout down her radio, his voice almost drowned out by the static crackling it generated...
"I'm alright - that was rather close though." She craned her head round, looking for anything else that might be in a position to turn onto her - a pair of aircraft she wasn't particularly familiar with. The swept wing, twin engines and tail were evidently those of a MIG-19, but the forward section was completely different. The large gaping nose, the intake for the twin Tumansky turbojets was replaced by an actual nosecone, whilst two, significantly smaller, intakes were mounted just ahead of the wing roots.
Either way, they were making a swift dash for Rechlin, so her attempts to identify the type would have to come later!
"Two bandits making a break for Rechlin, unknown type! Alice, I'm in pursuit!" She called, pulling Osmanthius into a position for a tail chase.
Having noticed the golden glint of her Mirage, the unknowns opened up their throttles, their afterburners lighting up the skies behind them. They were surprisingly fast, she thought, almost as fast as the Sukhois they'd faced when they were on the deck.
Still, she was faster!
The Mirage was no slouch, even in the denser air at low altitudes, but whatever she was chasing was considerably more agile at such altitudes, even if she was faster. The unknowns weaved through almost every single round she fired, and her opinions on missiles were being reinforced as the damned things failed to lock onto either aircraft!
If this carried on, she would have to do the unthinkable - attempt to ram them, at nearly 700 knots... It'd be instantly fatal, of that she had no doubts - ejecting from an aircraft at only 200 feet had serious risks when you could stabilise it, let alone when you'd lost a wing potentially, and were nearly upside down!
But she could not let them get through to deliver their deadly payloads...
"Black Blade Three, Twilight Three. Break away, I've got a plan!"
As uneasy as she was, she had had it drummed into her that flying, especially in combat, was a team sport. You had to rely on your allies, else you would soon find yourself in a situation you stood no chance of extricating yourself from. If Twilight Three had a plan, then she had to place her trust in the girl... ''Understood, Twilight Three, breaking now.''
''Twilight Three, firing!''
In front, she noticed the metallic shimmer of the other pilot's Sabre Dog, before it vanished amongst a cloud of white smoke. Oh, now that was ingenious! Optimistic, admittedly, but ingenious! The Sabre Dog that Twilight Three flew was almost unique amongst the aircraft of the 23rd (after all, no one flew an F-89 to her knowledge...) in that, not only did it mount a considerable punch in the form of four 20mm cannons, but it retained a tray of twenty-four 2.75 inch Mighty Mouse folding fin rockets, designed to provide far more punch in an anti-bomber role. Rockets that Twilight Three had just launched against the pair of unsuspecting unknowns...
In front of her, explosions and their shock waves ripped through the air; the Mighty Mouse rockets blasting shrapnel through everything in their path, including both unknowns. The first unknown had simply disappeared, no doubt having been directly hit by one of the rockets intended to take down far larger bombers, whilst the second, crippled by the barrage, banked sharply to the left, before it too disappeared amidst a fireball.
''Twilight Three, both are down.'' She said, watching as the white puffs of smoke started to clear away. Despite the successful engagement, she could absolutely understand why unguided rocket volleys had been considered a dead end in aviation technology - Twilight Three had released twenty-four rockets, and destroyed only two aircraft for that barrage. She had even read of pilots who had fired off 208 of the rockets, and failed to hit even a single target...
They had however, hit a car, a truck, a children's playground and a forest, starting a number of wildfires with their volley, in that situation. A darkly humorous thought occurred to Alice, which was that she should be thankful that all that surrounded Rechlin was a lake (currently frozen over) and a vast swathe of snowy fields. Nothing for the rockets to land on, in other words...
Still, despite the destruction of the two unknowns, this was far from over...
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Even whilst they were on the ground, Twilight Flight had worked out a plan amongst themselves - Merida and Koharu, the two members of the flight with the most firepower at their disposal and the superior weapons systems onboard, would join the furball, alongside Black Blade, whilst Ran and Yuuki, still reliant on their .50 calibres and a pair of Sidewinders each, would form a defensive circle around the base.
With any luck, the guys up front would be able to keep any aircraft from actually closing the distance to Rechlin, but if you were basing an entire strategy off a lucky outcome... then chances were, it wasn't going to end well! Still, despite that, the group up front were holding back the fighters well enough that only a single pair of unlucky Su-7s had actually broken through - and they'd soon been dealt with, the leader receiving a Sidewinder to the rear fuselage, whilst the second had chosen to run away; the most intelligent thing a Su-7 pilot could do against the older Sabre, as the Fitter was faster by far.
Unfortunately for them, they'd run away... back into Asuna's Lightning, and received a Red Top to the tailpipe for their mistake. There was something about that missile that made Ran think the British really had decided that whatever got hit by one of these things really wasn't going to escape; not when almost 70 kilograms of shrapnel had just been blasted into your aircraft...
''All aircraft, this is Goldeneye, no new bogeys on radar... hold on, we're seeing something.'' The ground control announced, and cut off briefly as they checked whatever was happening. A silence held over the members of the 23rd, as an explosion tore open a very unlucky aircraft in the distance - a MIG-17, by the looks of it. Eventually though, the radio crackled back to life."Goldeneye to all aircraft - count six additional friendlies entering the combat area from the south. Callsigns are Solitaire, Archer and Paladin. ETA is one minute, approximately 70 miles out. Repeat, aircraft approaching from the south are friendly."
"Roger that, Goldeneye! Looks like the Belkans have thinned down, only two aircraft left!''
"Solitaire Flight, bandits are mixed in with allied fighters. Watch your shots up there." A pilot instructed, no doubt the leader of Solitaire Flight.
"No problemo, bossman." Another pilot radioed back.
"Paladin, I have a radar lock. Request clearance to fire." One pilot called out, and had Ran had the time to look confused, she would've. They were still at least 60 miles away... just what the hell was Paladin flying to get a radar lock at that kind of range!
"Goldeneye to Paladin, you are weapons free. Watch for friendlies."
"Understood. Fox Three, volley two."
From across the furball, the last two Su-7s disappeared, engulfed in a fireball and vapourised by the impact from the radar guided missiles fired by Paladin, leaving only the soot covered, razor sharp confetti that had once been a fighter-bomber falling into the snow below...
The radio crackled to life with a few whistles at the sight, and even ground control sounded shocked at what they were hearing. ''Goldeneye, Paladin... both targets down. All aircraft, skies are clear. Repeat, skies are clear. Black Blade, what is your fuel state?''
''Blade Two here, could do with refueling and rearming.'' Asuna answered first, exhaustion unsurprisingly present in her voice. She had been in the fight since before they were even off the ground, after all...
''Blade Lead, same story here.'' Argo said. ''We're nearly on fumes up here.''
''Understood, Black Blades. Return to base if need fuel or weapons, we'll have a CAP in place in ten minutes to relieve you guys.''
''Solitaire Lead to Goldeneye, we're still fully armed and fueled up here, we'll stay on station and keep you guys covered!'' In the distance, she was fairly sure she could identify some of the arriving reinforcements - an grey and purple A-7 Corsair II, something that looked like Crusader, but with a second vertical stabiliser underneath it, a very colourfully painted Skylancer (seriously, who painted their plane bright pink and white in a combat zone...) and a purple tailed F-4 Phantom taking the lead. Still, that didn't answer her question as to where the other two aircraft were, nor what they were flying; especially since Paladin had scored two kills from at least 60 miles, well outside the engagement range of everything they'd seen this far...
''Twilight Flight, check in.''
''Still fully armed sis, could do with some more fuel though.'' Yuuki answered.
''Opposite story here, Ran. Plenty of fuel, but all I've got left is my handgun.'' Merida joked.
''Same for me, fuel state is fine, but I've got about ten rounds left.'' Koharu said.
So weaponry was the deciding factor then. She checked her own fuel gauge, and reckoned she had another 20 minutes left before bingo fuel. Plenty to circle with, but if a fight broke out again? A rather small amount... ''Understood, Twilight Flight. Hold position until Black Blade are on the ground, then head into land.'' She instructed.
With any luck, this morning's battle had been a decisive victory for them, and the Belkans wouldn't be back around here for a while...
''Goldeneye to Black Blade Lead?'' Ground Control called.
''Argo here, go ahead Goldeneye.''
''Were you able to destroy the radar trucks?'' They asked, clearly slightly troubled if the tone of voice was anything to go by.
''They won't be bothering anyone ever again, why?'' Argo said calmly, but with an ever increasing sense of anxiety in her voice...
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something slowly moving, and so, Ran squinted into the distance. A black mass appeared to be inching its way over the horizon, just north of the base. Definitely not fighters, the objects were moving far too slowly. Helicopters? Maybe amongst them, but not primarily...
Which left only one possibility then - ground forces. An ungodly amount of them, all closing towards Rechlin...
Ground control finally answered, with a much more serious tone. ''We have a situation then.''
{Author's Comments}
Well, this is Part 1 for a reason...
If you are enjoying ACES, I've put up another part to it, under ''ACES Offline''. This will be mostly short stories, set in the same timeline - some will even be parts of the story that I wrote for other chapters, but removed for brevity... or because they were far better standalone than as part of another chapter. So, if you do want to see more of this, then check that out!
Anyway, that's all from me for now.
Signing out,
Midland 2541.