Being one of seven pilots from a pool of twenty-four felt weird, but to Grimm he shook it off as the unfortunate circumstances of war. It was a surreal thing to think about. Almost thirty people, gone in the span of a week.
Presently, Grimm was laying back in the cockpit of his F-16 on the Wardog side of the flight line. The aircraft shelter he was set up in was sitting opposite of what remained of Captain Shapiro's hangar. The roof had been almost totally caved in by a bomb blast, and the forward section of what used to be an F-16C was visible under the rubble. The patch of Wardog Squadron was displayed on Grimm's chest and shoulder instead of the Vampire Squadron patch he normally wore. In his eyes, a fair call. Hamilton and a lieutenant were taking the reins of Vampire for now. Grimm and Pops had been transferred over Wardog to bolster their numbers.
Grimm had an earphone in one ear, listening to a country track that had been released in the eighties on repeat. He was on the verge of falling asleep when the radio crackled to life. Somebody was contacting him, but he didn't hear the details over the music in his ear. Grimm popped out the earphone.
"Previous callsign, say again your last?" Grimm asked the transmitting callsign to repeat their transmission.
"Wardog 1, Wardog 2, this is Control, report to Briefing. Acknowledge, over." Sand Island Control was on the other side of the radio. Grimm raised an eyebrow.
"Wardog 2, wilco, out." Grimm paused his music player and jumped out of the cockpit. He walked past the hangar directly adjacent to his. Chopper and Zoomer were the other crew on the alert rotation at the moment.
"Hey Chopper, did you catch the radio?" Grimm asked his immediate wingman.
"No, why?" Chopper hadn't heard anything.
"We're needed at briefing, sir." Grimm informed his immediate senior officer.
"Oh shit. I'll go grab Wolf." Chopper replied, standing up and rushing over to the nearby restrooms. Grimm carried on from the flight line to the main building. He made full stride into the briefing room, where apparently he was the first person to arrive. Grimm took a seat closest to the speaker's stand at the front of the room and waited for Chopper, Zoomer and whoever was conducting the briefing. A minute later, Chopper and Zoomer arrived.
"Are we early, or is Colonel McChicken late?" Wolf asked as the duo entered and took seats next to Grimm. A minute after the crew of Wardog 1 had walked in, Nagase and Kitagawa walked in.
"Are you two holding the briefing?" Chopper asked as the two women of Wardog entered.
"No?" Nagase answered, somewhat confused by the question. "We got told to come down here over the phone."
"Colonel McChicken is definitely late." Wolf stuck to his previous theory.
"Colonel McChicken?" Kitagawa asked, snickering at the nickname Wolf had given Colonel Perrault. Nagase and Kitagawa took seats next to the rest of the group. All five pilots and wizzos were left waiting for the next five minutes until Master Sergeant Chaeny walked in wearing the issued physical training uniform. He was sweaty.
"Sorry about that, I got called on short notice." Chaeny apologised for making Wardog wait. He powered on the laptop at the front of the room and turned on the projector. Once Chaeny signed in, he opened a map of the Ceres Ocean region and then zoomed in on a tiny island roughly a thirty minute flight west-south-west of Sand Island. Grimm recognised the land mass. Arkhalis Island. A prison colony that had been shut down in the mid sixties.
"NAVSAT imaging revealed the presence of Yuktobanian forces on Arkhalis Island, an abandoned tungsten mine in the middle of the Ceres Ocean." Chaeny began the briefing. "We believe they are setting up a presence using the island's runway as a forward air base. Your mission is to target and destroy the island's runway, as well as any surface-to-air weapon systems."
Nagase raised her hand. "Should we be expecting any enemy air cover in the area?"
"An assault ship is believed to be within combat radius of the island. It's possible you may encounter Yak-141s." Chaeny answered.
Chopper raised his hand next. "How big of a SAM threat are we looking at?"
"The intelligence we have is inconclusive, but we believe it'll be short-range platforms like a Tunguska, Tor, Buk, anything along those lines." Chaeny answered as best as he could.
"Alright, well…" Chopper thought about it for a few seconds. "Durandals are a no-brainer. Grimm, do you know how to fly SEAD?"
"HARM package and all." Grimm could indeed fly as a Wild Weasel.
"Cool. We'll sortie out at Angels 10. Nagase, you and me will dive down to Angels 1 once we're within thirty klicks of the island. Grimm, stay at Angels 10 when we commit, watch out for anything that goes live." Chopper laid out the details of the mission for his wingmen.
"Sounds like a plan." Kitagawa liked the sound of that.
"Awesome, let's go." Chopper ordered. The five members of Wardog flying out stood and left the briefing room.
"Hey, Samurai?" Nagase asked Kitagawa as they were on the way to the hangar.
"Mmm?" Kitagawa made a noise of confirmation.
"ブレイズとは仲が良いのですか? [How well do you get along with Blaze?]" Nagase asked in Kitagawa's native tongue, taking the latter by surprise.
"You speak-" Kitagawa bit her tongue. "ソトアン語が話せるんですか? [You speak Sotoan?]" Kitagawa replied.
"Do I sense shit talk back there?" Wolf asked dryly.
"Yes, but not about you." Kitagawa answered honestly in a language that Wolf could understand.
"Well?" Nagase pushed Kitagawa for an answer.
"仕事上の話なのか、個人的な話なのか? [Are we talking professionally, or personally?]" Kitagawa needed clarification.
"個人的に [Personally.]" Nagase clarified. Kitagawa thought about her answer for a moment. They got along very well as friends. Perhaps a little too well.
"私たちは仲良しなんです。一日中、彼女の後ろにいるから、仕方ないんだけどね。[We're good friends. I'm behind her all day, I don't have much choice.]" Kitagawa answered, ignoring the connotations that she suspected Nagase wanted to know about.
"じゃあ、あなたは- [So you're not-]"
"私はゲイですが、アッシュはそうではないと確信しています。[I'm gay, but I'm pretty sure Ash isn't.]" Kitagawa cut Nagase off. Nagase seemed to squint at Kitagawa, probing for any kind of a lie, but when she couldn't find one based off facial expression or body language, Nagase relented.
"Fair enough." Nagase let the topic slide. They were arriving at the hangars. As they approached, Nagase noticed the weapons mounted on the underside of her Mudhen. Long green cylinder-like weapons. The BLU-108B Durandal, a purpose-made anti-runway weapon. While any regular bomb could put a crater in a runway and put it out of action for a few hours, the damage done by them was easily fixable with a dozer and a truck load of concrete powder. The Federal Erusean Air Force had come up with a solution to this in the early seventies with the development of the Durandal. It had a primary charge in its nose that would detonate upon impact, but in addition it had a rocket booster and a secondary booster charge that would be driven under the runway surface, explode and displace the concrete slabs themselves. That kind of damage was much harder to repair on the fly.
Noting the weapons she would be carrying, Nagase put her helmet on and went to climb into the pilot's seat. Kitagawa turned around to make sure Grimm was still following them. He was, and he moved past to get to his Viper, but Kitagawa noticed an opening in the blinds of the second floor of the main building where the squadron rooms were. Kitagawa smirked and waved at the woman in the window before moving on and mounting up into Nagase's back seat. For once, Wardog 3 had an active F-15 crew member as her WSO.
WARDOG 1 / CHOPPER, ZOOMER / F-15E
WARDOG 2 / EDGE, SAMURAI / F-15E
WARDOG 3 / ARCHER / F-16C
Ash watched as her squadron left. It was ironic. Promoted to captain specifically so she could take over Wardog's reins from Major Bartlett, yet she was unable to get out there with the squad since her Mudhen was down owing to maintenance and a need for repair. With any luck, she'd be able to get back in the air later in the day.
"Wardog, check in." Thunderhead instructed.
"Wardog 1, check." Zoomer answered for his aircraft.
"Edge, check." Nagase.
"Archer, loud and clear." Grimm.
"Loud and clear from all. Proceed with the mission."
"Yeah, thank you, Thunder Fuck Head." Wolf mused, fortunately off-comms. Chopper snorted.
"Keep it cool, Zoomer, keep it cool." Chopper sarcastically rebutted his WSO.
"Always." Zoomer was as chill as ever.
The trio turned west-south-rest, climbed to ten thousand feet and settled in for the journey to their area of operations. The sun was out in force today, shining bright over the Ceres Ocean. It would have been a nice day for a beach visit, but like hell that was happening in the middle of a war, on which they were often on the receiving end of. Chopper spent a good amount of time looking at his radar warning receiver. They were running with their radars silent, but the only way they'd get picked up was via radar, which would give them a warning that they had been spotted.
Beep. Beep.
"Oop." Zoomer muttered at the RWR sound.
"Tally Tor, eleven-o'clock." Grimm was the first to call out the presence of a SAM. "We're still a hundred klicks out, there's no way it sees us yet."
"Hey Archer, do you think you could knock it out from here?" Chopper asked.
"It'd be pushing the range, but I could loft it from here." Archer said. "Want me to try?"
"Wait until we're at the attack marker." Chopper decided. The trio soldiered on. In theory it was safe to get that close without the risk of being fired at by a Tor. The upper estimates for the range of the missile fired by the Tor were roughly fifteen kilometres, depending on weather conditions and the elevation of the launcher. Wardog Squadron crossed the attack.
"We're live." Chopper stated. In the back, Zoomer was triple checking that the flight computer had the correct target data in it.
"Target confirmed." Zoomer said to his pilot.
"Edge?" Chopper looked to his left towards his wingwoman.
"Ready." Nagase and Samurai were ready to commence the operation.
"Alright. Wardog, weapons free." Chopper ordered. "Wardog 1, entering point alpha."
He slammed the throttle all the way forward and dived in towards the ocean. Nagase followed close behind him. On the other hand, Grimm tipped his nose up and gained some altitude. He pitched down on the island. Zoomer spotted bursts of smoke appearing from under the wings of Grimm's Viper as he got a missile off.
"Archer, magnum." Grimm fired a HARM at the Tor that had been lighting up the sky with its radar emissions. Chopper and Nagase levelled out their dive to arrive rock steady at one thousand feet. Grimm's HARM easily outran both of them and would hit its target before Chopper and Nagase entered its range. The Tor's radar went offline and suddenly the RWR was clear of all hostile radar emissions. The launcher had probably seen the HARM approach on its radar and had gone dark to avoid being tracked by it. Unfortunately that was a surefire way to getting obliterated, since the newer AGM-88E version of the HARM had a radar seeker implemented into it to counter this exact action. As they approached the island at Mach speed, Chopper saw a brief flash towards the base of the hill that formed the centre of the island.
"Splash." Grimm reported. Beep. Beep. Another radar emitter, this one marked Z23. A ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled anti-air gun.
"Archer, I've got a Shilka on our approach vect-"
"Archer, magnum." Grimm got a missile off at the ZSU before Chopper could finish his sentence. The kid worked fast, that was for sure. They were fifteen klicks out and closing fast, but the HARM was faster, diving down towards the roof of the Shilka, penetrating and exploding within. "Splash."
"What's next, an Igla?" Zoomer joked.
"Don't say that." Chopper retorted. Him and Nagase were approaching the island at breakneck speed. They came in at a parallel angle to the runway on the southern side of the island. Zoomer worked the target guidance pod.
"That runway's real run down." Zoomer commented on the state of the island's runway. It was clear the island hadn't seen any maintenance at any point in the last few decades. Chopper flicked a switch on his end of the cockpit.
"Master safe off." Chopper declared.
"Weapons hot." Nagase was ready to bomb a runway to oblivion and back. The duo committed to their attack path. Chopper lined up the bomb predictor impact sight with the runway. He pitched down slightly on the attack run and released the Durandals as he moved along it at high speed.
"Chopper, pickle four." The moment Chopper had gotten his weapons away, he was pulling up and away from the island at full burner. He did not want to catch an Igla, a Strela, or any number of ZU-23-2 rounds. As he was pulling away, Chopper looked over his shoulder. The runway-displacing bombs were rocketing into the runway surface and exploding.
"Edge, pickle four!" Nagase released her bombs and took the egress approach of pulling hard to the south to get as far away from the island as possible, as fast as possible. Her Durandals cratered and displaced the runway. Chopper came around for a high altitude pass, not looking to cause any additional damage, but to make a bomb damage assessment, or BDA for short. On top of the erosion caused by fifty years of neglect, the impact of no less than eight Durandals had blown through and then lifted up virtually the entire stretch of runway, rendering it completely unusable for any kind of aircraft.
"That's a money shot right there." Chopper said aloud the state of the runway. They had most definitely completed their primary mission objective.
"Hey, I see two Candids on the taxiway." Zoomer spotted a pair of transports. The Candid was Osea's designation slash nickname for the Il-76 heavy airlift aircraft, the Yuktobanian equivalent of the C-17 Globemaster.
"It'd be a damn shame if those went up." Chopper mused. "Hey Archer, you still with us?"
"I am." Grimm was indeed still in the area, monitoring the situation from afar.
"I've got a couple of grounded transports for you to target. A hundred metres away from the main runway." Chopper gave Grimm a target.
"Two transports, roger that. Coming in." Grimm lowered his altitude by a couple thousand feet and approached the island. Chopper and Nagase's only air-to-ground munitions had been the Durandals that they expended just a minute earlier. In addition to the HARMs that he had been carrying, Grimm was loaded with a pair of CBU-87 cluster bomb units, a one thousand pound bomb loaded with two hundred high explosive submunitions used for anti-vehicle, anti-structure and anti-infantry work.
"Need a lase?" Zoomer asked the youngest member of the squadron. In theory, the CBU-87 could be guided via a laser.
"Nah, I'll guide it on." Grimm was electing to do the guidance himself. Chopper watched as Grimm descended from above the clouds and pitched off two bombs. From that altitude, they'd take a minute to fall eight thousand feet. Standing off some distance away, Chopper was following a racetrack pattern to the south of the island, keeping the Mudhen stable so Zoomer could observe the bomb impact. The two Il-76s he was keeping an eye on disappeared in clouds of dirt, dust and smoke. A large plume of flames and black smoke kicked up from where one of the transports had been. When that smoke cleared, one of the Candids had been totally destroyed, and the other was filled with so many holes that there was no way it would be operational in any capacity.
"Splash two transports." Zoomer called out to their resident Viper pilot.
"Winchester, air-to-ground." Grimm was now out of air-to-ground munitions. "If we encounter any Yukes I might have fuel issues too. Can we get out of here?"
"Thunderhead, primary and secondary objectives complete. Returning to base." Chopper elected to take Wardog Squadron back to Sand Island.
"Acknowledged, Wardog, RTB." Thunderhead acknowledged Chopper's call to return to base. Chopper and Nagase climbed back up to Angels Ten, where Grimm joined them as they made themselves comfortable for the trip back to Sand Island.