Chapter 4 - Hold Back the River...

Sat in the rec room, Argo watched over the new gal as she recovered from being knocked out. The girl in question was a fair bit taller than she was, but still shorter than Kii-bou, with similarly messy black hair ... though she reckoned the helmet and the crash landing hadn't exactly done wonders for her hairdo. All in all, Argo thought she was pretty cute, in a kind of girl-next-door way. Her helmet had been pretty badly banged up, to the point where a large crack was now running along the left hemisphere, over the standard Osean markings.

After about ten minutes of being away with the fairies, the girl snapped back to the land of the living, and almost immediately bolted upright, nearly throwing Argo to the floor in surprise... ''Where am I?! Y-Who are you!?'' she looked around frantically, attempting to back away from the small woman in front of her.

''Steady now, ya had a nasty bump. What was tha' last thing ya remember?''

''Landing, I remember touching down, then a noise, and then just now.'' The girl answered, slightly confused as she tried to piece together what had happened to her.

''Ah, ya landing gear gave way durin' that emergency landin'. Went straight off the end'a the runway too... ya really lucky, ya know? Coulda been far worse fer ya! Jus' glad we got there when we did...'' The fire surrounding the Hunter had engulfed it in less than a minute, and with her rendered unconscious... it didn't really bear thinking about.

''Oh, umm, thank you for saving me!''

''Nah, ya don't need ta thank me fer that, that was all Kii-bou's doin'. What happened up there tho? Ya seemed ta have stirred up a lotta attention fer just a routine flight?''

''Coper - uh, my flight leader - said that he remembered there was an airbase out here, and that we could hide out there. I followed him without thinking, and the first we knew was when ground fire started to come up at us, and both our missile alert things went off. Then the fighters appeared, and Coper ran off, and then I ran into you guys.''

''Hol' up? Ya found another airbase? Where was it?'' Argo bombarded the girl with questions, realising that their impromptu intervention might have just been in the nick of time...

''About fifty miles south of here... why?'' asked Koharu, confused at the relevance of their accidental reconnaissance flight, whilst Argo slapped her hand to her face in a slightly theatrical manner.

''What's ya name?'' Argo already knew the answer, given the girl had it printed onto a patch on the shoulder of her flight suit.

''Koharu?'' She answered, almost unsure of herself as she did.

''Well, Koharu, ya may have just set off the entire campaign...'' Argo stated, a tone of seriousness in her voice that was betrayed by the expression on her face, a small grin on her face as she stood up, and hit the button on her radio... ''Kii-bou, we're gonna need both our craft refuelled and rearmed. I'll be with ya in a few...''

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Hours had passed since the emergency landing, and Kirito found himself very bored, yet very anxious. He'd already refuelled the Phantom and the Freedom Fighter, as Argo had asked, especially now there was the distinct possibility of Belkan air activity. Given that they were already probing Belkan airspace on a daily basis, he was a little bit surprised that it had taken Koharu and her flight lead stumbling upon the forward operating base at Rhinemartial, to generate any form of response.

That was another thing that Kirito didn't like the sound of - her flight lead. Whilst he hadn't seen the guy, and Argo had only briefly tracked him, he'd made haste to escape the combat area, and left his wingwoman to what he'd probably assumed was her death. Whilst Kirito couldn't speak for what would happen to him had he been in any military IRL, he certainly found it to be a rather shitty act, especially if he knew what he was doing. How that person could live with themselves, he really wasn't sure.

As his thoughts returned to the radar set in front of him, he noticed four dots heading north at around 2000ft and 400kts, with no transponders detected. The dots were clearly quite a large return, so that meant they weren't fighters or fighter bombers, but rather something considerably bigger. Whatever they were though, they were moving fast through the area, and looked to be on a course for the base at Rechlin... the home base for everyone else.

Kirito, without a moment's hesitation, raced down to the stairs once again to get to the Phantom. He really hoped this wouldn't be like the beta test, where the Belkans threw multiple waves of aircraft at Rechlin, in a time on target strike, with aircraft from across Belka taking part in the strike. The first wave, he remembered, had been formed of tactical bombers, loaded with cratering munitions in order to knock out the runways of the base, before a veritable mass of heavy bombers approached from altitude. The radar hadn't appeared to show anything at altitude, which did a little to help his anxiety there, but it was the low level attack that concerned him... those aircraft were far too high for such an attack. He couldn't help but think - were they just a decoy?

If the plan they'd worked out was correct, the radar blips would pass overhead at Fort Pleasant, towards Rechlin, and they would be able to intercept the main bomber force from behind, thinning them out before they reached Rechlin, and allowing the players there a small window to form up after the strikers had been dealt with.

That was the plan, anyway. Somehow, Kirito expected circumstances not to stay within the confines of the plan...

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At Rechlin, a fight of aircraft, numbering about eight, had made their way onto the taxiway, ready for the usual early evening Combat Air Patrol mission, after the false alarm earlier. At the front of the formation was a two ship element, formed of an F-8C Crusader, and an F-4E Phantom. The Crusader had been customised somewhat, its usual ghost grey and white colour scheme being replaced by a two tone blue one, with bright red hinomaru on the wings and fuselage, alongside an unusual choice of weaponry. On the fuselage missile rails were two AIM-9C Sidewinders, the radar guided version of the Sidewinder, and two standard AIM-9B, and alongside the quad Mk12 20mm cannons, the F-8 certainly looked the part of an interceptor...

The Phantom, the much larger aircraft of the two, also wore the same two tone blue scheme with hinomaru in positions on the outer wings and just ahead of the J79 exhausts. Loaded up was a full weapon load - four standard Sidewinders, and four radar guided Sparrows in the under fuselage recesses, whilst two large drop tanks were equipped on the outer pylons.

In the cockpit of the F-8, its pilot was getting slightly anxious, as they'd been told to hold short of the runway, due to a developing situation. As they stood waiting for news of the developing situation, a radio call came in from the Phantom besides him. ''Boss-man, you reckon this is the start of the campaign?'' crackled his radio with the voice of Harry One, coming from the back seat of the F-4.

''Fuurin Flight. Liberator Flight. Rivet Top has reported contacts approaching from the south. Heading 330, at 2000ft, estimated speed of 500kts.''

Klein, for the first time since he'd gotten into the Crusader, gave the mission a thought. They'd been told to expect a flight of bombers heading in at low level, and at least if the tower had been right, coming in relatively fast. That meant that they weren't going to have a lot of time, especially if the bombers hugged the ground as he believed they would, and they would likely have difficulty in detecting them with their airborne radars - the ground clutter returned from that altitude would likely negate any clean Sparrow shots, and the radar guided -9C's equipped to his Crusader were an equally unknown variable, a weapon that no one else that he knew of used.

''Fuurin Lead, Fuurin Two. Cleared onto the runway, await take off clearance.'' Came the call from the ground controller, as Klein looked outside of the F-8, into the afternoon sky. Now with permission, the Crusader and Phantom rolled onto the runway, and lined up for a formation take off. They'd need to get airborne as fast as they could, and with that in mind, Klein deployed the Crusader's party trick - the variable incidence wing, a way of increasing lift on take off and landing, by pivoting the entire wing assembly upwards to around 7 degrees from the fuselage. In coordination with the leading and trailing edge flaps, and the thrust generated from the afterburning J57, it was more than enough to get the aircraft into the air quickly.

''Fuurin Lead, Fuurin Two, you are cleared for take off.'' The tower controller called, and without hesitation, the roar of J57 and J79 engines echoed across the base. The Crusader and Phantom hurtled along the runway, the Crusader becoming airborne first, with the Phantom following a few seconds later, less than twenty seconds after the engines roared up to full power.

As the two ship formation climbed to 5000ft, the next two aircraft - the other two members of Fuurin Flight, flying another Phantom, and unusually, a Mitsubishi F-1. Klein had briefly wondered why Dale had picked the F-1, given its main role as an anti-shipping aircraft... which had a drawback, given that Rechlin was at least a hundred miles from the coast, and the Belkan Navy even further away. At least he had, until he realised that the F-1 could carry a sizeable amount of ground attack ordnance, mainly in the form of 500lb Mk82 bombs and a number of pair of 70mm rocket pods, alongside a pair of AAM-1 infrared air-to-air missiles, and quite quickly changed his tune.

Behind the Phantom and F-1 were the other flight - Liberator, their flight being formed of an F-104J Starfighter, a pair of F-102A Delta Daggers and a single F-11B ''Super Tiger''. Unsurprisingly, the Starfighter was last in the queue for take off, given its very short range on internal fuel, a range only slightly increased with wingtip tanks, and probably not aided much by the twin Sidewinders under the fuselage.

''Boss-man, I've got contacts. A lot of 'em!'' Klein cursed the Crusader's comparatively poor radar, and having to rely on the two Phantoms in Fuurinkazen for their long range information.

''All aircraft. Targets are 50 miles out, confirmed as bombers of the Belkan Air Force... wait, no. There's fight-'' The call from Rivet Top, the Airborne Early Warning platform to the south ended abruptly, and it didn't take a genius to work out what had happened. Rivet Top was down, and the bombers were not the only Belkan aircraft in the sky that evening...

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Climbing through the twilight sky, Kirito felt a sense of dread. He couldn't explain why, but he was concerned that they'd arrive too late to do anything, or that they'd find the base in ruins, pulverised by multiple waves of unimpeded bombing raids.

He could only hope that they'd been able to get at least a small contingent of aircraft up before the first wave of strikers arrived to soften up the base, as even at top speed, he doubted they'd be able to reach them in time to assist. The larger bombers, on the other hand...

''Umm, Kirito? I think I see them... four blips, uhh, straight ahead.'' Oh, and that was his other concern - Koharu. He understood that throwing her into a completely new aircraft with absolutely no warning not training, then expecting her to fight for her life - again - wasn't a good idea in the slightest, but he did have to wonder why she was now flying as his back seater. She wasn't terrible at it, a small mercy today, but she was no Argo either, often calling out simple directions rather than more detailed information. Luckily, Argo had given her a very brief crash course on how to operate the Sparrows, so they could at least fire on the targets from a distance... a capability that was about to become very useful, as four specks came into sight...

Though vague, Kirito, the gamer and aviation geek he was, recognised the targets - B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers. It was hard not to recognise them, really, with just how iconic the BUFF was. Developed in the 1950s as a nuclear bomber, and an evolution of the earlier B-47 Stratojet, the B-52 was one of the longest serving aircraft in history, with modernised versions continuing with the USAF even in the present day, not expecting to be retired until 2045, with the aircraft expected to be over ninety years old at that point! It's eight engines, mounted in four pods under the large swept wings, putting out truly unmistakeable contrails behind the bombers, and with four of them in formation... well, Kirito couldn't help but by slightly awed by the sight of four of the bombers, even if they were the targets.

''Kirito? Should we fire on them?'' asked Koharu, flipping switches that (she hoped) would arm the long range Sparrow armament. Evidently the advice Argo had given her had worked, as a growl came through the cockpit of the Phantom. GRRRRR... Missile lock.

''Fire when ready, Koharu.'' Kirito stated, and Koharu nodded from the back seat. Within seconds, a dull thud came from underneath the aircraft, the noise of the Sparrow leaving the aircraft, before a plume of smoke passed in front of them. Another few seconds passed, and the twilight sky lit up ahead, a black cloud now taking the place of the third B-52 along the row, whilst a fiery trail tore towards the ground below, all that was left of the once behemoth of a bomber.

GRRRR. ''Firing again.'' Again, the thud of the missile leaving the aircraft was obvious. This time though, no smoke trail in front of them and evidence that they'd even fired a missile. A second missile released, this time the rocket motor lighting, and the Sparrow streaked through the sky...

...and completely past the B-52s, before detonating about a mile ahead of them. It was turning into one of those days, Kirito thought to himself, as he checked his position. Argo, flying the slower Freedom Fighter, was considerably behind them and wouldn't be here for at least another three minutes, and they'd soon be within Sidewinder range of the bombers.

''Firing.'' Koharu called out, the final of the four Sparrows detaching from the aircraft, and streaking towards the bombers around 30 miles ahead. As if by some miracle, the final missile hit home on the lead B-52, its right side pouring smoke and fuel as the aircraft listed to the right. Unseen to the crew of the Phantom though, the listing bomber was about to demonstrate the dangers of formation flying, as the vertical stabiliser of the damaged BUFF slammed into the cockpit of the aircraft trailing its right wing. The cockpit of the second aircraft was severed from the bomber, and the rather impromptu redesign of the aerodynamics, pushed the plane into a steep dive, the wrecks of both aircraft intertwining in the fading light...

Even Kirito, who'd once managed to score an air-to-air kill with a 500lb bomb of all things, seemed amazed at the shot. The momentary speechlessness aside though, they still had a job to do, as the final B-52, now realising that it was in serious jeopardy, began to turn and run back in the direction it came from - a wise choice, given the circumstances...

Not that they planned to let it retreat though, as the Phantom now closed into Sidewinder distance. Kirito threw the aircraft into a turn to position themselves behind the lumbering B-52, and pulling out about eight miles behind the bomber. In their headsets, a growling told them that they had missile lock, and without a word between them, Koharu hit the trigger on her joystick to fire. A Sidewinder detached from the underwing pylons, dropping into the slipstream, before its rocket motor ignited and the missile raced towards its target at Mach 3.

The heavy bomber didn't stand a single chance of evading the missile, even with the release of countermeasures, and the proximity fuse warhead blasted shrapnel into the horizontal and vertical stabilisers of the B-52, tearing sizeable sections off both control surfaces. The damaged bomber, now out of control, plunged towards the ground, before the crew of the Phantom saw the final moments of the aircraft - the wings detaching from the aircraft as the fuselage was engulfed by the flames from the failed fuel tanks...

Kirito winced as he watched the fiery display, and just by looking in his rear view mirror, he could tell Koharu wasn't taking that display all that well. He couldn't blame her, really - it was the first kill she'd witnessed up close, and it had certainly been one of the more unpleasant to witness. Still, they'd dealt their blow to the incoming bomber force... now, it was time to hope that Rechlin would stand against the incoming force...

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The battle above Rechlin was nothing short of continuing chaos. Aircraft dashed around in every direction possible, and without the control and coordination from Rivet Top, everyone had selected their own targets, making the chaos even worse at times... ''Liberator One, I have a-rragh!- kill!'' The pilot of the F-104 called out, straining to pull a tight turn in the fighter, the stubby wings proving a less than ideal planform for the mission at hand...

''Where'd all these guys come from!?'' called another pilot, this time flying an F-102, as he dodged a missile launched from a MIG behind him.

''Liberator Three, ya've got one behind ya!'' the F-11s pilot called out to his ally in the Delta Dagger, just moments before a MIG-19 tore past his nose at break neck pace, the F-11 breaking to pursue the Farmer.

Klein had found himself engaging the strike fighters, alongside the rest of Fuurin Flight, whilst Liberator took the fighters that had came with them. So far, they'd done a pretty good job, with not even a single scratch on the airbase,

In the briefest of reprieves during the intense furball, Klein pulled his mask away from his face and cursed whoever had modelled the masks to be this damned uncomfortable. They did not need to be able to hear themselves breathe constantly, and for the mask to become covered in sweat! There was realism, and then there was that!

His brief moments of rest were interrupted as an aircraft raced away beneath him - a single Su-22 Fitter, approaching the airbase's accommodation. They'd made sure that everyone who wasn't in the air was being moved to safety away from the base itself, and now, the bastard was about to take advantage of that... no chance, he thought.

Without replacing his mask, he threw the Crusader into a dive and pushed the throttle to the afterburner position, the extra fuel dumped into the J57 providing an extra kick to chase the Fitter down.

Having noticed the blue Crusader diving on them, the Fitter's pilot decided that even if he couldn't kill his pursuer, then the concrete below him could... the aircraft descending to below fifty feet, only barely avoiding scraping the taller buildings with its bombs as it tore through the base, strafing whatever appeared in its path with its twin 30mm cannons, the few remaining players on the ground racing for cover as the Fitter tore up everything in sight...

The heights involved meant that using his remaining Sidewinders was out of the question - the missiles would simply hit the ground before the motors ignited, and at these heights, he simply couldn't depress the guns enough to get a clear shot on the seemingly suicidal Fitter. With no way to stop the Fitter, Klein began to wonder if the only way to stop this guy was to ram him... but then, a split second opportunity: the Fitter had to climb, to avoid becoming a high speed bunker buster itself. Klein seized the opportunity, pulling back his trigger three times in quick succession...

Those three pulls sent over 250 rounds of 20mm fire into the Fitter, and the aircraft shuddered, as its control surfaces appeared to jam in the nose high position. The large Lyulka turbojet, once capable of providing nearly 25,000lbs of thrust, was now spluttering as smoke and fluids trailed behind the damaged Fitter, the aircraft shuddering again as it dropped to stall speed and began to drop like a rather aerodynamic brick. Klein, sensing that keeping low was going to be a very bad idea, slammed the J57 into its afterburner position, and the Crusader raced skywards again. He watched over his shoulder briefly as a tremendous explosion tore through a thankfully empty section of base's apron, the damaged Fitter, plus its payload of bombs and fuel providing a spectacular fireworks display...

Now back at 2000ft, Klein quickly checked his ammunition - all four cannon were now empty, and he had just a single radar guided Sidewinder left on his left cheek rail. His fuel state wasn't looking any more healthy either, with only about ten minutes of fuel still in the tanks. ''Fuurin Lead, I'm bingo fuel.'' He called out, deciding that he needed to return to the runway ASAP.

''Fuurin Lead, we still have bandits over the field. We cannot guarantee a safe landing...'' That much didn't need to be said, Klein had eyes of his own after all. Fortunately though, the situation had cleared up slightly, as he was no longer constantly on alert for any aircraft that may collide with him at any given moment. ''Boss, we'll cover you.'' called Kunimittz, his Phantom passing overhead as he did so.

''Fuurin Lead, I'm coming straight in.'' The Crusader approached with its wing extended, and the touchdown was as smooth as could be. The landing itself was a textbook affair, even despite the rather less than textbook scenario, and the F-8 rolled onto what was left of the apron. Klein, now seeing the damage to the base from ground level, realised just how much of a mess the fighters had made. One hangar was now completely out of commission, the tail section of a MIG-21 now lodged into the roof, whilst the fuel tankers were nowhere to be seen...

''All aircraft, bandits are retreating. I say again, bandits are retreating.'' The tower called the remaining interceptors, before giving them a chance to land. What had happened here today, it would signify the opening salvos of the war to come...

{Author's Comments}

The first mission is done, and the players at Rechlin will have to sit down and look at just what the hell happened during it, and where they go from here...

Next Time: Bring Down the House.

If you're enjoying this, feedback is always welcome, along with follows and favourites!

Signing off,

Midland 2541.