"Come on, where is he Brownie? I don't see him." I said as I put our bird into a hard roll to the right and watched as a missile streaked by just barely missing the nose of the craft.
"Shit I can't find him Trigger he's hiding in the clouds wait oh shit break left." was Brownie's panicked cry as our opponent popped out of the clouds and raked our craft with gun fire.
"Fuck are you ok Brownie? I asked as I barely kept us in the air just slipping past another missile I asked again "Brownie Are you good?" not hearing a response I quickly popped flares as I turned my head around to check on Brownie I froze as all I could see was Brownie slumped over and red everywhere. As I looked back in horror I didn't even register the warning tone of the missile alert as another missile hit the same time lightning struck causing me to jolt awake and try to get my breathing under control. Looking around my cell I could see flashes of lightning from the window in the distance letting me know the rainy season was around the corner. Watching the flashes I tried to make sense of my nightmare since I didn't have them often. After finally chalking it up to stress and the one day stent in soltare for engaging the bombers, deciding I would be better off with at least some sleep I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
01400 The Next Day
Making my way into the hanger I watched as the guard that followed me here went to a chair leaned up against the front of the hanger and proceeded to nap. Rolling my eyes I walked over toward Brownie who was leaning over some crates flipping through a book that looked like the manual for the Phantom we flew. "Really now proving you're the real nerd in this relationship."
With a huff she looked up to me and said "Please that's you mister anime lover, sides I needed to know what some of the fuses do since they aren't labeled."
"Yeah that's fair anyway it looks like you got your wish we get to use those bombs after all."
"Fuck yeah wait are we going up right now?"
"No tomorrow, we take off at 0400. McKinsey didn't want to wake up that early for a briefing so he did it today." I said climbing up on the wing to do some minor work that we could take care of without help from the local mechanic The Scrap Queen.
"Well at least we got the extra time to prepare, so what's the mission?"
"Ah well it's pretty simple we're to head to the Roca Roja and attack the bases they have dug-in there and soften them up so the regulars can limit their losses"
"Well I guess that's not the worst thing that we could be doing." she said as we continued to work, me testing all the gauges and warning lights and her relabeling all the fuses and switches.
"Yeah but I was talking with the others and apparently we are the only ones that have really any Air to Ground capability."
"That does complicate things quite a bit."
"Yup."
"So see if we can pack as many bombs as we can and do what we do best?"
"Yup improvise."
"Glad that's settled so finish this up before the guard wakes up and just relax together?"
"Fuck yeah."
July 4 0600
Operation One Pair.
"Alright Brownie Bandog just confirmed we're five minutes out, let's do final checks." I said leveling off at the front of our formation and I use the word formation loosely .
"Yeah fuel is in the green, all weapons are ready just waiting on the master arm."
"Copy, my radar is showing clear and IFF is synced, are flares ready?"
"Yup flares are ready and my radar and IFF are good to go."
"Alright lets both get on channel with Bandog so you can catch anything I might miss."
"Copy that I'll set my priority coms to Channel 5."
Listening into the AWACS channel again I heard Bandog talking."Alright convicts your entering the AO take out those bases so the regulars don't have to get their hands dirty."
"Holy shit that's a lot of targets"
"How the hell are we supposed to take on all this?"
"Stop your whining and just watch. I'll show you all how it's done." Count said cutting in over the other pilots complaining and basting past and making his way toward the base to the east that had a lot of valleys.
"Ok then this is Spare 15 in engaging the airfield." I said banking toward the airfield seeing two F-16s making their way to the runway. "Brownie were going to take out those fighters out first then hit the control tower hopefully that will kill their coordination, when we make our pass let me know what targets we should make priority."
"Got ya Trigger lets do it."
Lining up on the two 16s I locked on to the one farther down the runway and launched an AiM-9 ai it and let loose with a spray of gunfire on the other causing both to become smoking wrecks. Once they were taken care of I lobed a UGB on the tower and pulled up sharply as Brownie popped some flares to cover us as some SAMs tried to swat us out of the sky.
"Nice that's all three targets Trigger but i'm seeing three TU-160s pulling out of hangers and a good chunk of there AA guns are by those fuel tanks, If you bomb the tanks and hit the first 160 the all that's left will be two SAMs and the rest of those 160s should be sitting ducks."
"Copy that hold on tight." I replied pulling into a tight turn and making my approach on the fuel tanks and dropped one bomb on it making them and the AA guns beside them go up in flames, as I did that I dropped another one on the first 160 and destroyed it along with a good chunk of the runway leaving the others stuck.
"Solid hits on both now let's hit those…nevermind Tabloid just got the SAMs all that's left are the bombers."
With a quick thank you to Tabloid as he moved off toward some trucks driving away I quickly took care of the 160s and regained some altitude to see what was happening elsewhere. "Spare 15 I just finished off the last of the airfield."
"Copy that while everyone else was sleeping. Trigger just took out a base himself."
"So what's the situation Brownie?"
"Looks like most of them are harassing the base to the east and Highroller is just chilling out by the farthest base by himself."
"Well then let's do a quick pass by the others hit some of the SAMs and move to help Highroller."
"Sounds good I'll keep a lookout. I'm surprised we haven't seen any other Interceptors for a base this size."
"Yeah lets just hope its cause we caught them by surprise." I said banking toward the eastmost base dropping bombs on a bridge over the canyon and hit a couple of sam sites and a tank on our way threw, we were about to move toward High Roller when I heard Brownie call out a warning about someone trying to get on our tail.
"Break to the left, there's two more of them taking off."
"Shit why the hell do they even have Harriers out here?"
"I don't know but it looks like two are on us Counts entertaining the other one."
Now normally Harriers aren't that hard to deal with these ones where making use of the canyons by popping up behind us when we had the other in our sites, making it into an annoying game of whack-a-mole. "Damit why wont they stay still?" I said as the one I was tailing went back into the canyon as I dodged another missile from his friend.
"Trigger the other didn't go back down now's our chance." Brownie called out.
Making a hard turn to get a bead on the one still above the canyon, the second I got the nose around I let off a burst of gunfire knocking out one of the Harriers wings causing it to go into an uncontrollable dive.
"Hell yeah that's one for Spare 15." Brownie called out as I pulled us up higher to find the other one.
"Shit all craft we have incoming form the north Highroller there converging on you." Bandog called out as I continued to chase down the last Harrier. By the time we took him down, what we knew now was drones had taken out Highroller since no one could match the drones expert Tabloid and surprisingly Count but they couldn't get there fast enough to help.
"Shit let's drop the last of these bombs on the fuel tanks and SAM sites at the last base and see how this bird handels drones, yeah?"
"Alright I'll mark the targets that will do the most damage."
As soon as they were marked as priority on my radar thanks to Brownie I made fast and low passes while dodging missiles from the drone swarm. After we dropped the last bomb on a set of fuel tanks I put us right in the middle of the fur ball that was developing noting three or four other Spare fighters turning tail and running. We shot down three of the drones without any trouble, but then as if they were learning they started grouping up on us as if we were the main threat. "Fuck Browine any Ideas on how to shake these guys?" I asked as I dodged another missile from one of the four drones chasing us.
"I got nothing there- crap popping flairs."
Looking around as we flew over the mountain that split the base I happen to see a road lead straight at the mountain. Glancing at the map on my kneeboard I saw the road went through the mountain."Brownie I got a stupid idea." I told her and before she could even respond I pulled a 180 and flew along the road picking up speed as the tunnel got closer.
"Trigger you better not be doing what I think your doing." Brownie said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Sorry not sorry." I said zooming into the tunnel popping flares as the drones followed. The second they entered the tunnel they seemed to freak out crashing into each other and the walls, one even hit a Harrer that was parked in the tunnel causing a chain reaction taking out some trucks and AA guns in the tunnel. The second we popped out of the tunnel I made way to get some distance from the furrball to see where to help the most.
"Trigger I swear to god please nextime give me more warning then that." she said smacking the back of my helmet.
"Yeah that's my bad but hey It worked didn't it?"
"Sometimes I wonder why I like you."
"Its for my wonderful personality dont you kno-fuck flares now." I called out diving away from a missile as the missile alert cut me off. Looking around for the culprit I saw an F-14 with a digital desert camo coming at us. "There they at 11 o'clock high watch for smoke he's got Phoenixs on that thing."
"Copy that lets smoke this guy."
Dodging around two more Phoenixes I let off a burst of gunfire causing the Tomcat to roll away and come around on our six. Pulling a hard turn right I dodged the burst of gunfire he sent our way and tried to get a missile lock which to my frustration was a losing battle as he just had a little more turning ability then we did. Dodging a missile that Brownie called out popped more flares to give us some more breathing room and let off a loose burst as he flew past us barely nicking the left wing of the Tomcat. "Alright thats a small hit, lets see if we cant finish this up." I said Incessing our speed to match him.
"Try to get him to turn. I think you hit one of the ailerons."
For a few more minutes we went back and forth getting behind each other dodging missiles and gunfire until I finally got him to turn. The second he banked right I noticed I had indeed managed to damage his wing and finally was able to get a clear shot and with a long trigger pull I took out his engines and watched as he started losing altitude until he ejected and his chute popped noticing he didn't have a WSO. "Damn that would have been harder if he a WSO."
"Oh yeah looks like the last of the drones are pulling off as well."
As Brownie had just finished her sentence when Bandog came in. "All remaining Spare Squadron Aircraft your clear to return to base your done hear, those of you that left without permission you better enjoy all the time you have before you land."
Ignoring the arguments the others were starting with Bandog I just set us on course back toward Zapland. "Well that really could have gone worse."
"Yeah too bad about Highroller tho."
"Well we can't be everywhere at once lets head back and get some rest yeah?"
"Sounds good to me wake me up when we're close." Brownie replied as I heard her rest her head against the canopy.