7745. Whoever told Renaissance that the F-111B was one of the greatest carrier-borne fighters ever designed, we'll give you credit for a good prank. Then, we'll give you the bill for the resources spent equipping her with an entire air wing of them.
7745a. Jason, next time you're asked to build an aircraft that you've never heard of, Google it first. Please.

San Diego.

"So Medusa, what's the verdict on Renaissance?" asked Midway.

"Well, considering that design wise, she's some sort of cross between an Essex, a Forrestal, and a Nimitz, and that I basically need to draw up the blueprints from scratch, she's not actually that bad."

"I'm right here, you know." grumbled Renaissance.

"Anyway, her catapults, arresting lines, and elevators are already tuned for our aircraft. Which is good, because all of her aircraft need to be replaced minus the Vertibirds." said Medusa. "Even then, I'll still need to upgrade their avionics. And that's not even counting the rest of her systems."

"Just how much needs to go?" asked Renaissance.

"All of them." said Medusa. "Good grief, how many vacuum tubes do you have?"

"Anyway, so how long will it take?" asked Midway.

"And cost?" added Wright.

"To answer Midway, four weeks, at least because I have to gut all of her electronics, and as for the cost," answered Medusa, typing on her tablet. "wow."

Wright's face fell. "What does wow mean?"

"Four weeks!?" said Renaissance. 'I'm that obsolete?"

"Well, it could be worse. I remember when Iowa talked about her 80's refit."

"The good news is that when I'm finished, you'll have all the latest tech from the twenty-first century. EMALS, 3-D radars, SEARAMS."

"How much is "wow?" asked Wright despondently.

"Remember that windfall you were so happy about?"

"Why?"

"It's gone now."

As Wright collapsed into sobs, Medusa started to pat her head while finishing her conversation with the two carriers. "Anyway, how does Friday sound for a start date?"

Two weeks later...

"Hey, Jason?" asked Medusa.

"Yeah?"

"Could you do me a favor and work on Renaissances' planes? Alcor needs my help with Maddox."

"Sure, no problem. I'll ask Curtis for help."

"Good. She's already getting the A-6E+, so all she needs are fighters."

Jason left the docks and headed next door to the workshop, where she found Curtis in her usual place, passed out under her desk.

"Curtis, wake up!"

"Uhg, what?" the aircraft tender groaned.

"What's the best fighter for a supercarrier the size of a Nimitz?"

Curtis looked at the young repair ship and thought about her question. Her job as an aircraft tender meant that unless a carrier took enough damage that she couldn't repair her fighters internally, she basically sat around and did nothing. Which translated to boredom. Lots and lots of boredom. So, as she looked through the blueprints she had in her store, an idea came to mind.

"I know just the thing." she said, smiling innocently. "How does the F-111b sound?"

Jason looked puzzled. "I've never heard of it."

"It's only regarded as the best post-war carrier fighter in history." scoffed Curtis. "And here I thought you repair ships actually knew things."

"But, if it's so good, why don't any of the carriers use it?"

Curtis had to come up with something quick. "Well, if you must know, it was originally going to replace the F-4 Phantom in the seventies, but the Tomcat got picked instead."

"Wait, than how is it supposed to be good if it didn't get ordered?"

"Because Grumman was in bed with the Navy. The thing smoked that overweight kitty." lied Curtis. "Here are the plans."

"Thanks Curtis!" beamed Jason. "I'll get right to work."

This'll be worth a few laughs, thought Curtis.

Two weeks later..

Exercise Gate Guard was one of the happier products of the Abyssal War. Recognizing early in the conflict that the major navies in the Pacific had to work together in order to combat the Abyssals, a series of interoperability exercises between the USN, JMSDF, and the RAN had culminated in an annual wargame that included the PLAN, RSN, ROKN, and RCN off San Diego once that area of the ocean had been cleared. This year, the carrier Carl Vinson, in company with the half of CSGs 17 and 4, along with their escorts and about a third of the Pacific's fast battleships were to act as the aggressors, tasked with destroying the fleet defending San Diego to clear the way for a hypothetical amphibious invasion. On the defending side, the carrier Shandong and LHAs America and Khe Sanh were tasked with sinking the Vinson. Steaming alongside the Khe Sanh, Renaissance readied her planes. Her pilots had been practicing for the last week and a half with her new planes, and they were ready. She hoped so, at least, as she watched the last of her fighters take off to intercept the fighters that the cruiser Fujian had picked up on radar. The Corsairs from Saratoga(CV-3) and Franklin were dueling with the Hellcats and Dauntless' from Wasp, Oriskany, and Ticonderoga roughly 20 miles SW of her position, but now they had Forrestal's F-14's inbound from the north. Worried about a possible third strike, the Khe Sanh's F-35bs were kept in a five mile orbit of the task force while Renaissance's fighters went to deal with the new threat.

The commander of VFMA-121 looked behind him for the second time in as many minutes, checking to make sure the Intruder was still behind him. His squadron of Lightnings were spaced out in front of Forrestal's and United State's bombers to conceal them from the defender radar, while Forrestal's F-14's flew top-cover. So far, it seemed to be working, as his HUD showed a squadron of fighters rapidly closing on the Tomcats.Almost show time, he thought.

The leader of Renaissance's fighters readied his missiles. Both squadrons were in range of each other, but the Phoenix's performance at range was lousy to say the least, so neither was ready to pull the trigger. As the range narrowed to forty miles, he gave the order to lock weapons. Before anyone in his squadron could fire, however, the F-14's broke formation and reversed course, pulling several high-G turns. Suddenly, the cockpits of each of the F-111bs blared with warnings as they picked up enemy targeting locks.

The maneuver went off without a hitch. As soon as they were targeted, the F-14's peeled away from their positions, clearing firing arcs for VMFA-121. Their onboard computers simulated the launch of their AMRAAMs, forcing the F-111bs to break their formation, each aircraft pulling hard maneuvers to evade the nonexistent weapons. However, the F-111b's infamous unwieldiness was their downfall, as the computers scored seven clean kills, Renaissance's entire CAP. As the "dead" planes left the combat area, the Tomcats retook their place in front of the F-35s, with the Intruders still safely tucked behind them.

The Khe Sanh's F-35s sprang into action, immediately vectoring to intercept the bogeys, while the Fujian, Anshan, Benfold, and Farragut readied their own weaponry. As soon as the aggressors hit the thirty mile mark away from the task force, the Intruders dove down from behind the F-35s. Seeing the eruption of hostile signatures, the weapons crews and pilots immediately switched to attack the bombers, while the escorts attacked the F-33s. As Renaissance and the Khe Sanh turned away from the furball, escorted by USS Fort Worth, USS Coronado, and HMAS Anzac, reports came in from the Shandong's group, reporting that it and the America were also under heavy air attack. It seemed that aggressors were extremely good at keeping their force hidden, as all attempts to back track their plane's paths had come up short. Well,almost all attempts.

Approximately a hundred milessouth of the exercise.

{Where the hell is our carrier?"} asked the vertibird's copilot.

{I don't know. We should be right on top of them."} answered the pilot.

The vertibird had been deployed by Renaissance to search for any subs attempting to sneak in behind them, but now they were beginning to run low on fuel thanks to the load of torpedoes they were carrying.

{Should we break radio silence?}

{Hang on, I'm getting a signal.} the radio operator said suddenly.

{Our carrier?}

{Negative. It's a sonobouy. Not one of ours though.}

{I see it.} said the pilot. {I'll come in low, and you trace the signal back to its owner}

{You sure that's a good idea?}

{Better that ditching.}

The 'bird flew low over the buoy, the flight crew silent as the radioman worked. {Alright, I can't trace the signal, but it looks like however dropped it did it in a line that we can follow, but we'll have to skim the wavetops.}

{Just like Hansel and Gretel.} said the pilot.

{Let's just hope that nothing eats these breadcrumbs. We got about thirty-five minutes of fuel left.}

{If we don't find anything by the time we get to twenty-five minutes, we'll break silence.}

The 'bird continued on its flight, tracing the line of buoys for ten minutes. Just as the yellow caution light went on, the radioman spoke again. {Hey, I'm picking up some chatter. Sound's like aircraft vectors.}

{Where?}

{Can't tell the distance, but it's straight ahead through that fogbank.}

{Hope there's no cursed ghost ship in it.} said the copilot.

{You really need to get out more.} replied the pilot dryly.

The 'bird was enveloped in the fog, both pilots expecting to soon see daylight. Instead, they saw a grey mountain in front of them.

{Bank! Bank! Bank!} shouted the copilot as the pilot slammed the yoke to it's side, veering away from the Arleigh Burke that suddenly appeared in their windshield. Splitting the gap between it and a Zumwalt, the 'bird pulled a hard right. The pilots barely had a chance to catch their breath before an enormous 70 filled their windshield.

{Pull up!}

As the 'bird climbed, one of the coffee cups in the cockpit fell out of its holder, hitting the weapons switch. Thankfully, the torps still had their safeties on, but the computer simulated all four fish being deployed, and all four homing in on the loudest target in range.

Admiral David Chamberlain, commanding the Vinson and her strike group, barely had time to spit out his coffee when a vertibird buzzed the island before the sound of alarms rang throughout the compartment.

"Damage report!"

The Vinson's captain merely gestured to the display, still overcoming the shock.

"You've got to bekidding me." growled Chamberlain as he stared at the display, showing a red outline of his ship with the word "SUNK" blinking over it.

Three days later...

"So, let me get this straight." said Admiral Briggs slowly. "Your team was under heavy air attack, had lost about half of your Kanmusu and conventional escorts, both Shandong and America had taken heavy damage, when one of Renaissance's ASW craft manages to find, and sink, the Carl Vinson by complete chance? How?"

"Turns out, Vertibirds have a very small radar cross section from the front. Couple that with their low-flying, the fog, and the fact that the majority of the Vinson's task force was radar silent to prevent detection, they never saw them coming." said Midway.

"Rub it in, why don't you?" groaned Constellation.

"Ensign Renaissance's accomplishment certainly won us the day," said the Shandong's admiral. "but I do have one question."

"Yes, Admiral Shang?"

"What the hell happened to Renaissance's fighters? I'm aware that they were caught off-guard, but the AMRAAM's not that good."

"I second that." said Forrestal. "My pilot's never got a good look at your planes, Renny. What were you flying?"

"F-111bs" answered Renaissance, to everyone's surprise.

"F-111b's?" echoed Midway.

"Yes, why?"

"The "Not enough thrust in all of Christaindom to make a Navy fighter" F-111b?"

'Huh?" asked Renaissance. "But Jason said that they were the best carrier fighters ever developed."

"Try the worst." said Forrestal. "Coral Sea tried them back in the 70's. The only evasive maneuver they were good at was flying straight and level."

"Well, we're going to need some new planes." sighed Midway.

Curtis's workshop, later that day...

When Curtis heard the door open, she turned around to come face-to-face with a veryhappy looking Midway.

"I have hand it to you. Giving Renny those crates was a good prank." she said, smiling. "I'm never going to let Forrestal or Vinny live that one down. But that pales in comparison to what I'm going to do with you."

"What are you going to do to me?" stammered Curtis.

Midway reached into her hold, but instead of pulling out a weapon, she simply pulled out a sheet of paper. "The bill, both for the materials used for the F-111bs, and for their replacement Tomcats and Superbugs."

"Tomcats? Superbugs?" whimpered Curtis as the cost went through her head.

Midway simply smiled. "I told Renny to spare no expense. She earned it."

As the aviation tender sank to a crying heap, Midway placed the bill on her desk and walked out. Her team had won, and she had a party to get to.