Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Avril was seated on her table checking over a fuel gauge from one of the base Hercs when Trigger walked in, Hey Avril did you hear?"
"Yes dumbass, I heard Shilage restored its monarchy," Avril said.
"Although Mihaly isn't doing too good I heard." Trigger said.
"Don't you mean former Grand Duke Mihaly?" Avril said pausing the work she was doing.
"Yeah, his health is on the decline." Trigger said as he leaned against Avril's workbench.
"I don't know if Ionela is ready for such responsibility."
"I believe you mean Grand Duchess Ionela. A. Shilage and Lady Alma. A. Shilage, Rosa told me that Ionela had her sixteenth birthday months ago," Avril said.
Later on, Avril was in the hangar when Huxian and Trigger arrived.
"So is it true Trigger that Avril is getting a new tattoo at some point?" Huxian asked.
"Yeah, can you show the design you were going for?" Trigger asked the Scrap Queen.
Avril showed them the design, "So I can think of where to put it." Huxian remarked.
Huxian quietly excused herself, "You should have had her bird tattooed on Trigger down below to even it," she said quietly but Avril heard her.
Her hand slipped into his pocket pulling a silver chain out. Avril placed the chain around his neck, patting the dog tag as it rested against his chest. "Better." She told him.
Trigger looked down at them, puzzled. "My tags?"
Suddenly, her hand clasped the metallic disc at the end and pulled his face down and closer to her level, an inch away from her face.
"I've found a better use for them. You keep them on all the time got it." She told him in a soft voice, tugging him closer.
She hid them under his shirt. "They're blank by the way, the marked ones are in your shoes."
the base intercom sounded calling Trigger and Serpentina to the briefing room.
"Trigger, Serpentina we have received reports of a ship off the Rocky Island coastline we believe is a decommissioned Kiev class carrier of the Erusean Navy that has fallen into the hands of a penal unit."
"What? How? That wouldn't be operational?" Trigger asked a little confused.
"Well Trigger, several years ago, Yuktobania converted their Kiev Class Aircraft Carriers to a Vikramaditya configuration which meant they lost strike capability in exchange for a Short-Takeoff and Barrier-assisted recovery flight deck which from what was known at the time, it helped the Yukes bolster their carrier fleet up to 9 carriers…"
"I believe they had two Ulyanovsk Class, three Admiral Kuznetsov Class and the four Kiev Class Aircraft Carriers back then Sir," Laura said.
"They did until the Admiral Tsanev was sunk in the Battle of Ceres Ocean on the 29th of December in 2010, A Wednesday I believe and the war ended on Friday." the briefing officer said. "Intel has also reported airbases on Rocky Island but we aren't sure what their air combat capability is. Find this carrier, and destroy it at all costs. that is all."
Trigger and Serpentina left the briefing, "So what will you take?" Serpentina asked,
"The Purgatoro Electromagnetic Railguns." He replied reaching for his radio "Got that Avie?"
"I'll get them in now," she said over the radio.
They arrived at the base changing room, quickly changed and ran out to their aircraft.
Avril pulled the covers off the air-intakes, slipping her ear defenders on.
Trigger started up the engines, he taxied the plane out followed by the Super Kai.
Lining up on the runway, the two jets took off.
Minutes later.
As they approached the far side of Rocky Island, there was a hive of activity below.
On the ground
Two grey and green camouflaged F-1 Kaisens were taxing to the runway quickly, they were armed with two AAM-1s on their wingtip rails. Under the wing were five BRU 42 Triple Ejector Rack-9 with 6 500ib Mark 82 LDGP Munitions.
Behind the F-1s was a lone grey MF-10B Skyknight that had four AIM-7A Sparrows.
Behind the Skyknight was a single silvery-grey Mirage IIIS carrying two AIM-4C Falcon and the larger AIM-26B Falcons under its wing with a lone belly fuel tank.
Further down the building aircraft line were a pair of two-tone marine blue F-104J Starfighters which both had two AAM-1 on their wingtip rails with their belly catamaran launcher housing two AIM-9E Sidewinder missiles, Its wing had four underwing fuel tanks.
A pair of grey MiG-21PF Fishbed-Ds had just left the hangar taxing in the opposite direction with a lone F-84G Thunderjet following behind.
The Fishbed-D only had two AA-2 Atoll missiles and a belly tank while the Thunderjet had a single belly fuel tank with four 12.7-millimetre Browning M3 Machine Guns in the nose and two more 12.7-millimetre Browning M3 Machine Guns in the nose.
The wing had two Tiny Tim Rockets and two 1000ib M65A1 Unguided Munitions attached to the end of the wing were two Wingtip Fuel Tanks.
Just starting up was a lone white X-29A that had two AIM-9E Sidewinder and AIM-7D Sparrow with one External Fuel Tank.
A solitary grey Mirage F.1C was next to move carrying a pair of R.550 Magic 2 Missiles on its wingtip with two R.530FE and Super 530F under its wing.
A black and grey MiG-23M Flogger-G was following behind with two AA-8 Aphid and four AA-7T Apex. The final plane was a single desert grey Q-5D Fantan with four PL-2 and six PL-5 missiles aboard.
The two F-1s callsign Macra 1 and 2 pushed their two TF40-801A Turbojets into full afterburner shooting them down the runway and quickly becoming airborne, they were quickly followed by the MF-10B Skyknight which was called Macra 3 as the two J46-36 Turbojets slowly got the Skyknight airborne.
The Mirage IIIS was quicker to get into the air thanks to its Atar 09B3 Turbojets, the two J-Model Starfighter were both skyborne very quickly with their J79-11 Turbojets.
The MiG-21PFs quickly joined them followed by the X-29A.
The Mirage F.1C, MiG-23M Flogger-G and Q-5D Fantan were all airborne shortly after.
The lone Mirage IIIS, two F-104J Starfighters, and the lone MiG-21PF Fishbed-D climbed to high-altitude ready to swoop in from above and pounce on Strider and Valkyrie 1.
The other aircraft were scattered about the airspace.
Trigger and Serpentina took off flying towards the location of the carrier.
Laura scanned the sky looking for enemy air defence fighters but saw a small dot seconds ahead of Trigger's jet ″Trigger watch out!″ She shouted over her radio, unfortunately by the time Trigger looked ahead it was too late, the bird flew straight into the number 1 engine.
He heard the sound of bangs as engine no.1 rolled back to idle, Laura observed a puff of flame and smoke out of the nozzle as Trigger followed the shutdown procedure.
″Long Caster Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, hit birds, am turning back towards Fort Greys," Trigger said over the radio as his jet wheeled around.
"Trigger, what happened?" Long Caster radioed back,
"Bird strike number 1 engine.″ Everyone on the AWACS plane knew Trigger was in trouble.
"Strider 1, Serpentina abort mission and RTB, Serpentina protect Strider 1 till he returns to base.″
"Wilco," Serpentina responded calmly.
Macra 3 in his MF-10B Skyknight, accelerating the J34-36 Turbojets to full power trying to close the distance for his AIM-7A Sparrows.
Trigger seeing him coming, threw the plane into a left banking turn, the Skyknight continued closing as Trigger bringing the jet around, deployed the Purgatoro Electromagnetic Railguns.
Squeezing the trigger, the railguns let out a loud clack, the Skyknight exploded killing the pilot.
He turned around and Serpentina then looked up to see Macra 4's Mirage IIIS diving and firing its two 30-millimetre DEFA 552 autocannons but Serpentina pulled a post-stall manoeuvrer, the Mirage sped past her Shinden II, it slipped onto the Mirage's six.
The Shinden II's single 20-millimetre M61A1 Vulcan roared to life, shredding the right wing of the Mirage, Serpentina watched the right wing break off sending the plane down in a flaming spin until it hit the water.
Onboard AWACS Long Caster
Long Caster watched as the two-tone marine blue F-104J Starfighters appeared on the radar, closing fast, "Two F-104 Starfighters approaching! They're fast, these guys are interceptors! Bearing 180, altitude 4000!"
Macra 5 and Macra 6 punched off their four external fuel tanks, Macra 5 rolled inverted and began to dive, firing his first Sidewinder but Serpentina decoyed the missile with flares, Macra 5 fired his second Sidewinder but again it missed.
Breaking into a right turn, Macra 5 tried to break away from Serpentina to reposition for an AAM-1 launch but Serpentina fired her first Hyper Velocity-Sparrow, the missile struck the tailplane, the tail broke away sending Macra 5's Starfighter down towards the water in flames.
Trigger dropped to low altitude as Macra 6 screamed in firing both his sidewinders and AAM-1 but Trigger popped flares, and the four heat-seeking missiles missed.
He saw the Macra 6's Starfighter ahead of him, he was about to use his guns when the Starfighter popped its airbrakes and pulled up, "What the!?" Trigger exclaimed.
Closing in quickly, the nose-high Starfighter dropped, the pilot inside added power to his J79, but as he retracted his airbrakes, the jet hit the surface of the water, and disappeared in a column of water.
The pair of MiG-21PF Fishbed-Ds rolled in, Trigger looked over his shoulder as they roared past, "Ground you have bandits!" he shouted.
"Don't worry boss, they are already toast," Count said as the other 3 Strider jets were taxing.
The pair of MiG-21s prepared to fire when a missile from a base SAM struck the Fishbed breaking it in half, Macra 8 fired his missiles but missed, and then the pilot inside advanced to full power.
Bandog watching from the tower saw the Fishbed flying over the field when the left wing struck a lampost breaking apart and sending the MiG onto its back and straight into the ground, bursting into flames.
Macra 9's slow lumbering Thunderjet began its bomb run with its pair of ancient Tiny Tim Rockets and 1000ib M65A1 Unguided Free-Fall Munitions however all the nearby Anti-aircraft guns were on him with 20 millimetre rounds tearing into the aircraft which quickly broke apart and exploded.
Count, Huxian and Jaeger were now airborne, "Strider squadron, you know your orders," Long Caster said to them.
"Affirmative," Each responded.
Macra 11 in her Mirage F.1C, an ex-Eursean Air Force jet was trying to position for a missile shot but Huxian already had Macra 11 in her sight, pressing a button, she fired an AMRAAM knocking the ageing fighter clean out of the sky.
Macra 12 in his MiG-23M Flogger-G ripple fired all of its AA-7T Apexs but they missed, Jaeger selected his AMRAAM, and he fired his first which struck the tailplane setting the aft section ablaze, he watched the plane nose over and crash into the sea.
"Hey Avril, this seems like a worse bunch of penal jets than we had,"
"Yeah Thunderjets seriously, how did they find those relics?" Avril responded.
"Good question," Count murmured as Macra 13's Q-5A Fantan screamed in, Count prepared an AMRAAM and fired, the missile hit the Fantan which quickly crashed into the sea.
The O.F.S Oured Bay having been docked up, its single 5-inch Mark 54 Naval Gun and two 12-inch Mark 8 Naval Gun were raised as high as they could go and opened fire blanketing the sky with flak but Macra 10's X-29A and its highly efficient F404-400 Turbofan had allowed it to loiter away from the action
A missile alert screamed in Macra 10's cockpit as a Hyper-Velocity Sparrow struck the aircraft tearing it apart.
The waiting F-1 Kaizens Macra 1 and Macra 2 formed up, but as they broke formation, Macra 1 took a SAM hit exploding as Macra 2 passed Trigger's EML sight, pulling the trigger, the EML round obliterated the Kaizen.
"All Bandits down, clear skies all round," Long Caster announced.
On the ground
Avril raised binoculars as Trigger's jet approached, the plane was shaking as it lost height, and she watched as the gear dropped.
"Come on, girl," Trigger said to himself as the plane nosed up slightly, and the wheels touched down, Trigger kicked the rudder hard trying to keep the plane straight as the air brake deployed, grabbing the only working throttle, he pulled back the power and slammed on the brakes, the Warwolf veers off the left.
Trigger pushes the full opposite rudder as the plane goes off the runway running across the grass, the jet drops past 60 knots as it enters the ramp, Trigger holds the rudder but resists the urge to reach for the ejector handle as the plane continues slowing down.
The Warwolf finally stopped, Trigger exhaled as he shut the rest of the plane down, he lifted his foot off the rudder pedal, hearing sirens, he disconnected his oxygen mask, lifting his canopy as Avril pulled the ladder and climbed up.
"Trigger, you okay dumbass?" Avril asked.
"Yeah I'm fine, not sure about the engines, I think the number 1 engine is fubar'd," he said as she sighed.
"God dammit, Dumbass, do you break everything you touch." Avril bemoaned.
"I might, if you would help me out, I need to get to the briefing room." Trigger said as Avril helped him out of the plane.
In the briefing room, Trigger and Serpentina gathered, Long Caster entered as the screen appeared.
"Unfortunately the air attack was a failure."
"The carrier managed to slip away during the battle with those penal squadron fighters."
"Our forces also suffered damage with Trigger's Warwolf being badly damaged however the penal carrier suffered heavy damage."
"We're planning to launch a second strike tomorrow."
After being dismissed, Trigger went to the medical room for a check by the doctor then returned to the hangar finding Avril looking at the number 1 engine.
"Well dumbass, this engine is fucked up beyond repair, I'll have to order another one but it's be weeks before it arrives," Avril told him.
"I'll order it later, right now how about lunch," Avril suggested.
"After you clean up," Trigger said.
As they walked, "So a Starfighter tried to cobra me," Trigger said to her
Avril turned to him, "seriously!"
"Yep Mara 6 tried to cobra in a Starfighter, it went as well as you would expect." Trigger said touching her back.
"Dumbass, let me guess Mara 6 hit the water," Avril said feeling his hand on her lower back
As they reached the hangar entrance, "straight down like a rock into the drink," Trigger responded as they left the hangar.
To Be Continued.