Chapter 3 - Eyes on the Road...

The past ten days had been boring, if he was entirely honest. Of course, ''boring'' was a subjective term, given that the pair were flying Mach 2 capable jets on a daily basis, but the missions had been very simple. A small number of intercept missions, to force a number of aircraft to turn away, or a simple interdiction mission, to engage a tank column about 50 miles away, were the most interesting of the missions they'd undertaken over that time. The very small rewards from the missions allowed some modifications to have been made to the Phantom...

The first of these was a modification to the twin J79s, allowing a not insignificant increase in the aircraft's dry thrust output, and giving it a boost in its stats, especially in regards to its Speed and Agility. The second was a modification to the weapons systems, which allowed the Phantom to carry an internal cannon, the same M61A1 that was mounted in the stock gunpod, which was now mounted under the nosecone, and an improved array of air-to-ground ordnance, rather than just the unguided 1000lb bombs that equipped the stock aircraft.

The final modification was a purely cosmetic one - the aircraft now wore a four tone camouflage scheme. This scheme consisted of a gloss black underside, with dashes of red for the stencil data, with a brown and two tone green camouflage pattern across the rest of the airframe, with various sections towards the rear of the aircraft left in bare metal, due to their proximity to the extreme temperatures produced by the twin J79s. Admittedly, the scheme was more than a little bit of a compromise on Kirito's side - he'd wanted an all over black airframe, before Argo pointed out just how much that would defeat the idea of camouflage in the daytime.

As part of their attempts to ration the fuel until they could find a way to bring the base into full use, they'd decided to take turns flying the Phantom, acting as the RIO, or acting as ground control. Today, Kirito would be flying the Phantom, whilst Argo directed him from the ground, the Phantom's onboard radar needing work done, and thus, out of commission for the time being. Onboard for today's sortie were four Sidewinder heat seeking missiles, and a full load of ammunition for the 20mm cannon, but no Sparrow radar guided missiles, due to the radar's earlier failure and Argo being on the ground, meaning Kirito was reduced to Within Visual Range combat rules.

Climbing through ten thousand feet and passing 400 knots, Kirito undertook a brief control check on their Phantom. All systems looked clear, and he informed Argo of his status up there, ''Everything looks clear Argo. Just going to get a feel for the boosted controls, the skies are clear, right?'' He didn't want a repeat of the other day, when he'd narrowly missed someone deciding to go for a joyride in their F-104... it was only so long before someone died because of the lack of any degree of air traffic control, in his view. Admittedly, he hadn't planned on nearly being the person to prove that point, but the universe did work in mysterious ways sometimes...

Meanwhile in the control tower, Argo pulled herself from her reclined position on the seat, and tapped the aging radar set. One green dot, Kirito, and that was it. ''Yer clear, Kii-bou, skies look clearer than the water.''

Kirito muttered to himself about that not being difficult with their water supply at Fort Pleasant, but acknowledged Argo's description of the situation.

The first manoeuvre he planned to pull off was a simple barrel roll - nose up, roll the wings around 360 degrees, nose down, and return to level flight. Beginning the manoeuvre, Kirito applied additional power to the engines, bringing the throttle up to 80%, the maximum setting without putting the thirsty J79s into reheat, which enabled the afterburner and wasted a tonne of valuable fuel, and raised the Phantom's nose, before quickly pushing the stick to the left, the wings rolling as he did, whilst the nose began to drop too.

Pulling the stick back, the Phantom soon levelled out and Kirito began to consider his next manoeuvre. Considering his altitude, he decided on using a Chandelle, a fairly simple manoeuvre where the aircraft rolls into a climbing turn and turns back 180 degrees on itself.

The Phantom nosed up, and Kirito pulled the aircraft into a 45 degree bank, the aircraft climbing into the turn and levelling out at 14000ft, when his radio crackled into life... ''Kii-bou, got summat. Looks like four bogeys, heading 358 at 50 nautical miles. Altitude is 6000, and descending... fast, by the looks of it!'' Kirito pulled the Phantom back into a banking turn to put him on the correct heading, before putting the Phantom into a 20 degree dive towards the forest below...

Gravity would do the work of ensuring the Phantom accelerated, allowing him to leave the jet at only 80% power as he dove down to 6000 feet. With no functional onboard radar, he'd be relying on Argo's callouts from the ground and his own eyes to determine the situation. With what he already know, it was potentially a flight of four aircraft, and given the increasingly low altitude they were flying, he took an informed guess and assumed strike fighters of some kind.

His assumption was soon shattered however, when Argo made her next callout ''Kii-bou, one of 'em's broke off. Looks like it's climbing fast! The other-'' Without warning, his radio screeched with static, before another voice came over the frequency...

''Is anyone there!? Please?! My flight lead's abandoned me, and they're gonna kill-'' Violent thuds came over the radio, as the panicked girl tried to finish her distress call, the sound being one that Kirito knew all too well - the sound of cannon fire.

''New gal, can ya give me ya heading and altitude?''

''358, and uhh, 5600 and dropping! I'm... my plane's hit badly!'' The girl panicked, as Kirito scanned the sky near the area of the bogeys. Descending through the cloud cover, he could see a grey trail off his 1'o'clock, which was almost certainly smoke of some form, with two contrails behind the smoke.

''Help is on the way, don't worry! Kii-bou, ya heard all that?''

Closing in, Kirito could finally see the planforms of the three aircraft. One swept wing aircraft, being pursued by two tailed deltas, both firing their cannons at the leading aircraft whenever the opportunity presented itself. ''I see them, one Hunter being chased by two MIG-21s, Argo.''

''Good, go bring 'er home!'' Argo called to Kirito, before switching to the distressed aircraft. ''New gal, ya've got an F-4 bearin' down on ya, he's friendly.''

''Th-thank you!''

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Putting the Phantom into a dive to reach the stricken Hunter, two thoughts crossed Kirito's mind. The first was just how real this was, and how little room for error he'd have here. If he messed up, someone was going to die, a burden he'd not really felt yet. The second was a far more selfish thought to him - he was enjoying this, the thrill of the hunt and the adrenaline rush it bought about. The heavy Phantom dropped fast, and was soon in firing position against the MIG trailing to the rear of the Hunter, a fact that Kirito had noticed only a split second later than he should've, but now raced to get a lock with the heat seeking Sidewinders.

GRRRRR... Growled the missile seekers, as Kirito hit the trigger to release the missile. ''Kirito, Fox Two.'' He called out, confirming his firing of the missile. Within milliseconds, a missile screamed off the underwing rail, a white smoke trail following the missile as it accelerated to Mach 2.5, and in just under five seconds, the missile's proximity fuse warhead tore through the unlucky MIG, the rear fuselage and its stabilisers disappearing entirely, obliterated by the blast. The doomed MIG began to spin wildly, flames and fuel pouring from the destroyed Tumansky engine, before the wreck impacted the dense foliage below and scattered itself into thousands of pieces, and in every direction...

''Kirito, splash one MIG!'' He called out, as the surviving MIG realised the situation - he was now alone, and outnumbered two to one. The fight had suddenly become a very lopsided battle for the MIG, who now had two options. The first was to apply full afterburner, and exit the combat area as fast as possible, hoping the Phantom wouldn't give chase. The second, and the option the pilot went for, was to throw the MIG into a steep banking turn and use the aircraft's superior turning performance to try to turn the tables on the Phantom.

Kirito, having anticipated the MIG's next move, quickly armed the Vulcan cannon and positioned himself as best as he could to lead the target. With the Hunter still in front, he'd have to be very careful with the 20mm fire, to avoid friendly fire...

''Kirito, guns.'' He positioned the pipper onto the MIG, and pulled the trigger. Less than a second, the trigger had been pulled for, and in that time, a hundred rounds poured out of the cannon's six barrels, as a stream of fire befitting of the name Vulcan, impacted the remaining MIG. Unlike the previous MIG, the aircraft didn't simply explode, but rather rolled back to level, shedding parts of the wings and fuselage, before attempting to climb, the pilot clearly fighting for any semblance of control that the crippled airframe would offer. His attempts would not last long however, as Kirito saw a sharp metal wedge fly back off the airframe, only narrowly avoiding striking the Phantom.

That wedge had been the MIG's right wing, and the now fatally wounded aircraft began to plummet towards the forest below. The last anyone saw of the aircraft, it had buckled towards the centre, and split in half, each section engulfed in flames, before it too met the same end as its wingman.

''Kirito, splash the other MIG. Argo, are we clear?'' He asked, as he scanned the skies around him visually.

''Both of ya are clear. Scope's clean.'' He breathed a sigh of relief, as he checked his fuel state, and almost immediately regretted his previous action. Less than a quarter of a tank left, and still 80 miles from base... this was going to be tight, he thought to himself. Now trailing behind the damaged Hunter, he could see the damage that had been done to the aircraft, as holes from cannon shells seemingly outnumbered rivets on the Hunter now. The grey smoke he'd used to identify the aircraft had begun to become an acrid black, and left a visible deposit of soot on the Phantom if he came too close.

''New gal? Ya still with us?'' Argo called to the Hunter, with no response. Another attempt to reach her went unanswered, and at Argo's request, Kirito flew in formation with the damaged Hunter, relaying what he saw to Argo. The girl was still alive, and she was trying to get in contact seemingly, although her radio appeared to have been destroyed by cannon fire.

Through some creative use of hand signals, Kirito had told the girl to follow him back to Fort Pleasant, which was the closest airfield available to land at from their current position. As they approached the runway, Kirito took position ahead of the Hunter, allowing him to guide the stricken aircraft in, without the risk of having to land after a potential crash.

Flaps set, and airspeed reduced to around 160 knots, and Kirito was set for landing at Fort Pleasant. ''Ya cleared ta land, Kii-bou. Make it snappy tho', dunno how long the new gal can hold it on the approach.'' Argo confirmed his landing clearance, and after twenty or so seconds, the Phantom touched down and began braking.

The short runway at Fort Pleasant pretty much ensured that every approach made would require them to use the braking parachute, and today's were no exception, the chute deploying behind the Phantom to bring it to a halt, before the aircraft taxied off the runway. Leaving the runway, Kirito shut down the two J79s, and got out of the aircraft as fast as he could, before he sprinted as far away from the taxiway as he humanly could. If that Hunter was as badly damaged as it looked, there was a very real chance that it could careen off the runway, and although losing the Phantom would set them back, he'd rather it be that than he lost his life instead...

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In her life, Koharu could say with absolute certainty that she knew exactly what muscle strain felt like - she was a gymnast after all. This though? This was something else entirely, she thought as she only barely managed to hold the Hunter's nose above the horizon. She remembered her lessons from the beta and the few lessons Coper had given her, on landing the plane she'd come to consider hers. ''Ne- scrrrrr - ca- grrrr'' Her radio, badly battered from the cannon fire, attempted to come to life before failing with smoke. That really was all she needed, a cockpit filled with smoke as well as a shattered front windscreen and bullet holes through a number of major instruments...

She looked around the damaged pane of glass in front of her, peering around the side in the hope that she could see the runway in front of her. Somehow, she was able to identify the runway, and began to descend towards it, hopefully in a somewhat controlled manner. The Hunter was rapidly losing hydraulic pressure, and the engine was probably damaged given the constant spluttering and very low power it was now putting out, although she couldn't be certain on exactly how badly as the gauges were amongst the casualties of the gunfire.

Her altimeter was another casualty, meaning she would have to make an almost completely blind landing, as the smoke began to fill the cockpit further. Despite the heat in the cockpit, Koharu had never felt such a cold sensation as the chills now running down her spine. A quick glance outside the cockpit and she saw the runway far closer than the previous speck it had been.

In that moment, she decided on what could well be her last course of action - she was landing the Hunter, rather than ejecting.

She lowered the landing gear, as she passed over the forest at the end of the runway, and watched as she the Hunter began to feel as if it were floating down the runway. She refused to have come so far, only to fall at the last hurdle! The last of her strength was used to push the plane's nose down, the nose wheel making first contact with the tarmac...

CRUNCH

... Before almost immediately disappearing, crushed under the weight of the aircraft as it charged down the runway at nearly 200 miles per hour. Koharu felt her head jolt forward, smacking against the destroyed gunsight ahead of her, before everything went black. Outside, T=the careening Hunter, now almost standing on its nose, with its left wing digging into the grass next to the runway, continued down the runway and off the end, the fighter coming to rest in a sand filled area around a hundred metres from the end of the runway, as its fuel tanks ruptured and sprayed fuel into the still hot engine...

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Watching the unfolding crash from the tower, Argo raced to get back down to ground level and over to the resting site of the Hunter. Unlike Kii-bou, she'd only actually crashed once, after her Tigereye had been torn up by triple-A fire on a recon run over a suspected Belkan V-Force base in the beta, and even then, she'd chose to eject from the plane rather than risk a fatal crash landing.

Either this girl was very brave, very overconfident... or she'd had no other option.

From what Kii-bou had told her, the Hunter was badly shot up and some of the cannon shells had clearly done a number on the plane's communications systems, so it wasn't unreasonable to think they could've damaged the ejection system too... Regardless of what had happened, Argo sprinted down the staircase that connected the tower to the base itself, before coming out into the twilight sky. The sky looked brighter tonight than it had on previous nights, but that was only as it was lit up in part by the blaze of twisted and torn metal, jet fuel and grass at the end of the runway that had once been a Hawker Hunter.

As she sprinted over as fast as her legs would carry her, Argo could only hope that Kii-bou had gotten there before her, and was working to free the new girl from the wreck, or that she'd been able to free herself and escape from the molten mess at the end of the runway. Parts of the Hunter's landing gear were lying on the runway, torn apart by the violent touchdown and scattered as if it weighed nothing at all, rather than the veritable mass of metal it was, whilst a deep trench had been dug off to the side, where the Hunter's wing had torn through the grass before it came to rest.

Approaching the site, a sense of deep relief came over Argo, as she saw a figure coming through the flames - Kirito, who'd got something, or more accurately, someone, over his shoulders as he ran from the crash site. The two met about 400 metres from the wreck, before continuing to run back towards the apron and well away from the scorching blaze at the end of the runway.

Argo was the first to speak, as Kirito placed the girl down and the pair began to tend to her wounds. Remarkably, despite the mass of cannon fire that he torn her Hunter up, not a single shell had hit her... probably for the best, given the high explosive shells used in the GSh cannons, which would've ensured she hadn't survived long enough to crash land. Even more remarkably, despite the cannon damage to the cockpit, she didn't appear to have any shrapnel injuries either... Somehow, other than being knocked unconscious in the run off, she was relatively unscathed, a fact that got a mirthless laugh out of Argo, who suggested they paint a four leaf clover on her next aircraft, just to show how lucky she truly was...

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Whilst the events at Fort Pleasant unfolded, a two tone grey F-16 Fighting Falcon was climbing into the twilight sky, on course to home base. Inside the aircraft, its pilot thought hard about what had just happened. Scanning his radar, he could only see two radar returns... almost certainly the MIGs that had bounced him and Koharu. Some may have called him a cynic, but Koharu was... not a good pilot, to put it mildly. When the MIGs had found them, she'd rather conveniently given them a good target to shoot at - after all, the Hunter was cannon fodder for a skilled MIG-21 pilot... the F-16, well, it was almost certainly the other way round.

Just because she'd been a poor pilot though, didn't mean Coper didn't feel some degree of sympathy for her, and her unpleasant demise. He'd not meant any ill will towards her, but when it came down to it, he wasn't willing to sacrifice his life for just another pretty face, like so many others would've done.

Continuing along at around 20,000ft, Coper scanned the skies around him. No visual contacts whatso-BANG!

With no warning, the F-16 spun violently around all three axis, going through the motions as he struggled to even understand what had just happened. His vision was almost completely impaired, the G forces going from positive to negative and back to positive again with little chance of recovery between, throwing him around the cockpit as if he were a ragdoll, his body going from weighing six or seven times its normal weight, to less than a third of its weight as he tumbled around the F-16...

With the greatest amount of difficulty, he pushed the side stick forward, an attempt to get the Falcon into a more controllable position. His attempt failed, as the F-16 failed to respond at all, the spinning becoming even more chaotic, before Coper heard a noise amongst the alarms that made his blood run cold - a ripping noise...

''I don't want to die! Help!'' He cried at the top of his voice, the F-16 continuing its fatal spin, almost as if it were spiting its pilot, before the final alarm he'd hear began to blare throughout the cockpit... WOOP. WOOP. TERRAIN. TERR-

Several miles away, and on the ground, observers reported a smoke plume rising above the forest, with little indication as to where it had come from...