Braved the icy winds and fire…
Braved and beat them on my own…
Yet I'm helpless by the river…
7 November 2010
Dama Jungles
Once more leaping into the fire and flames, Wardog Squadron was on another ammunition depot attack mission. Unlike their last two missions, where the first had been against a target buried in a mountain and the second had been an attack on a production facility in a savannah, this mission was taking place in a jungle.
"We have discovered the position of a secret facility in Yuktobania used to store ammunition." Blaze recalled Chaeny's briefing from earlier. "According to our information, the base is located deep in the jungles north of Lake Dama. The facility is massive, with twelve underground storage magazines, and contains enough ammunition to supply a full Yuktobanian division for a month of combat operations."
The facility was a big target, but it wasn't anything Wardog hadn't dealt with before. That wasn't to say the mission was going to be easy, no mission was ever easy.
"Note that there is a very high number of anti-air teams in the area with shoulder fired SAMs in the area. You will need to watch out for these SAMs on your attack runs… good luck."
So the area was a death sentence for helicopters and low flying aircraft. On the upside, it was anticipated that the threat from enemy fighters would be minimal over the jungle. A recent strike had knocked out a nearby airbase and many Yuktobanian fighter squadrons were occupied elsewhere in the country attempting to counter Osean operations.
WARDOG 1 / BLAZE, SAMURAI / F-15E
WARDOG 2 / EDGE, ZOOMER / F-15E
WARDOG 3 / HUNTER / F-16C
WARDOG 4 / ARCHER / F-16C
As it had turned out, the slight bang Chopper and Zoomer had felt during the last operation had been one of their rudders taking a hit and getting jammed in position. Their Mudhen was still flyable, but on the timescale required there weren't any available parts to get the aircraft fixed and up to full operational capability again, so while Pops and Chopper had been sidelined for the mission, they had been replaced by Zoomer and Hamilton in their respective roles.
"How long has it been since you've been in the trail position, Hunter?" Blaze asked Hamilton as they made the trans-continental flight.
"At least a couple of years." Hamilton replied. "It's not too bad. At least I won't be the one getting shot at first."
Blaze scoffed. "Smartass."
"Guilty as charged, captain. Guilty. As. Charged."
"Look at it this way, Archer has somebody he can keep up with now." Zoomer quipped from Nagase's back seat, which elicited a chuckle from Grimm.
"I do what you and the captain do, just slower." Grimm retorted, eliciting a chuckle from Zoomer in return.
"Cut the chatter Wardog." Thunderhead spoke up on the radio.
"...And no matter what we still have to put up with him." Samurai mused to herself off-comms as they crossed the line from feet wet over the ocean to feet dry over Yuktobania. Wardog Squadron quickly met up with an OADF KC-135 aerial refuelling aircraft before pulling away and proceeding towards the AO.
The Dama Jungle, as the name implied, was a large jungle. Water erosion over millions of years had created a river that formed a T if viewed from above. The bulk of the facility Wardog was targeting was located at the fork of the T, where the storage tunnels were dug into the bases of the cliffs and hills and where the majority of the facility's supporting infrastructure was located. Wardog approached from within the confines of the river that made up the long stretch of the T.
"Alright, Wardog, split up into pairs and circle around in opposite directions to get these caves." Blaze organised Wardog for their attack. "And for fuck's sake, watch out for MANPADS!"
"Copy." Hamilton responded. "Archer, on me."
"Yes, sir." Grimm answered, merging with Hamilton as the latter broke away from the body of the squadron to pursue the munition bunkers on the south and east sides of the facilities in their F-16s. Blaze and Nagase in their much more heavily laden F-15Es would hit the tunnels and bunkers on the north and west sides, as well as attack some of the surrounding infrastructure. An example of some of that infrastructure was a bridge that spanned four hundred metres from hilltop to hilltop, over the river.
"I'm targeting that bridge." Blaze decided, pulling up and then rolling down so she could get the bombsight lined up with the bridge.
"Are we sure that bridge isn't also used by civilians?" Nagase asked as Blaze committed to her line.
"Would it matter if it was?" Blaze shot back at Nagase. "Wardog 1, pickle."
A single one thousand pound bomb streaked out towards the centre point of the bridge. The bomb penetrated the surface of the road atop the bridge before exploding, blasting out a massive chunk that severed the bridge perfectly in twain. The asphalt, concrete and steel that made up the supporting trusses fell into the river below with a large splash.
"Splash one bridge." Samurai remarked. Blaze scoffed.
"Hey Edge, care to get the second bridge?" Blaze asked her wingman.
"Hold that thought, Wardog 2 defending!" Nagase declared, breaking high out of formation. Blaze turned around, initially uncertain what was going on, but spotting a smoke trail rushing out of the jungle chasing after Nagase made the cogs in her head turn. Nagase was accelerating upwards to get up above the Igla's effective flight ceiling, popping flares and turning evasively as the Mudhen climbed. Blaze saw an explosion.
"Edge, safe." Nagase reported. The SAM had exploded harmlessly behind her. Blaze breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Hunter, Archer, watch out, MANPADS are definitely in play." Blaze warned the Viper duo.
Grimm grunted as the shockwave from the near-miss of a SAM buffeted his aircraft. That had been far too close for comfort.
"Yeah, we noticed." Hamilton retorted to Blaze's statement as he grunted from pulling a defensive high gee turn. "Wardog 3, safe."
"Wardog 4, safe." Grimm cracked his neck and looked around for any signs of other MANPADS launches. Not seeing any additional missiles, Grimm knuckled up and proceeded for his first target, one of the large tunnels that led into one of the munition bunkers. It was a fairly forgiving target, the opening being just slightly bigger than two plane widths. Grimm lined up the bomb predictor sight on the tunnel entrance and tossed one bomb into it.
"Archer, pickle!" Grimm declared, pulling back and to the side on the stick to avoid slamming into the hill. As he was pulling away from the tunnel, somebody with an Igla near the entrance to the bunker fired a missile at him. Grimm dropped flares, drew back on the throttle and really pulled hard on the stick to get out of the way. He damn near over-gee'ed the aircraft as the nine gee turn pinned him into the seat, but the brief moment of pain paid off when the Igla lost its track and self-destructed.
"Oh my." Hamilton remarked. "Bunker just lit up like a volcano."
Grimm looked over his shoulder as Hamilton came in for his attack pass. The tunnel of the bunker he had just struck was spitting out a violent jet of yellow flame that charred the concrete and melted the asphalt surrounding it. Hamilton made a low level pass towards the tunnel a couple of hundred metres down the hill from Grimm's target and tossed a one thousand pound bomb into the opening.
"Hunter, pickle one." Hamilton declared, flying up and over the hill that the bunker was buried in. Grimm saw smoke waft out of ventilation shafts and the tunnel entrance before both were overtaken by a great ball of fire.
"Good effect, Hunter." Grimm made a BDA for his element lead. Hamilton shook his wings and circled around back over the south-eastern side of the target area. Grimm was already lining up for a second strike, lining up on a high speed attack run against a bunker on the south face of the hill facing the river. Pushing the sound barrier, he got a brief sliver of the interior of the bunker, lined up his bombsight on that sliver of target and dropped a bomb on it.
"Archer, pickle!" Grimm called out, pulling out of the dive. Even pulling out of a shallow dive angle at high speed was enough to put considerable strain on Grimm's abdominal and leg muscles as he strained against gravity. Pulling up and slowing down, he circled above the bunker to observe his own bomb damage. The bomb he lobbed at the bunker slid into the opening and exploded within. This time there was no massive rush of flame, but a considerable amount of smoke did start pouring out of the entrance. "Shack on the target."
Blaze and Nagase, while briefly delayed by being shot at, were still on their way to their targets.
"Mark and designate all those tunnels." Blaze ordered Samurai. "Knock them out all at once."
"Doin'." Samurai replied. Blaze flew along a path perpendicular to the muntion bunkers at middling speed while Samurai swung the targeting pod around and used the laser to mark GPS coordinates for the four bunkers they passed by.
"Designated." Samurai said, inputting the target coordinates into the JDAM guidance kits for four of the eight GPS guided bombs they were carrying. "Target package loaded, on your trigger."
"Copy." Blaze replied, pulling up and gaining some altitude and distance from the target for the flight path she was going to have to take to get all four bombs on target. Nagase was following her on the climb up. Blaze glanced up at the mirrors mounted around the metal ring of the canopy.
"Got your targets set, Edge?" She asked.
"Six targets of concern, keeping two in reserve just in case." Nagase replied, to which Blaze smiled as she pulled north before turning around a hundred and eighty degrees.
"Good, fire as you get a solution." Blaze said to Nagase, pushing the throttle forward and zooming off towards the tunnels. She pitched down and put the bomb predictor sight roughly in the area of the bunkers, the GPS guidance on the JDAMs could do the precision guidance on their own provided Samurai had inputted the correct data.
"Blaze, pickle four!" Blaze let off four JDAMs, levelling out and breaking off to the east as her bombs tracked towards their targets. Samurai observed their fall via the targeting pod.
"Boom, boom, boom and… boom." Samurai quipped. "Shack on all targets- oh my god."
"What?" Blaze asked, switching one of her displays to show the target pod display. "Oh. Oh…"
All four bombs had slipped into the tunnels and exploded within, but one of the bunkers in particular had gone off so violently that the soil and rock directly above the bomb blast had blown out and then had collapsed into the void where the bunker used to be. If anybody was inside, they were almost certainly dead, either as a result of the explosion or as a result of being crushed by the debris that followed.
"Wardog 1, shack four bunkers." Blaze stated, looking around for Nagase to clear the thought from her mind. "Edge, how are you looking?"
"Lining up now, Blaze." Zoomer answered for Nagase, setting up coordinates for her load of JDAMs.
"Edge, pickle six!" Nagase made the brevity call for a bomb drop, six GBU-32s dropping from the underside of her Mudhen towards the fuel depot, rail hubs and a pair of riverine cargo ships alongside the pier adjacent to the river. One by one, these targets went up in flashes of flame and smoke as the JDAMs found their marks. The first of the two cargo ships was hit amidships and went up in a colossal ball of flame, her cargo holds evidently loaded to the brim with munitions of some description.
"Good effect, good effect." Samurai spotted Nagase's drop for her.
"Archer, Hunter, how are things over there?"
"One second!" Hamilton said, clearly under the strain of gee forces. Blaze looked over in their direction, spotting Hamilton's flare trail before she spotted his aircraft. A black cloud of smoke and debris appeared in the distance well clear of the Major's tail. "Safe."
"You alright?" Blaze asked just in case.
"All day, every day." Hamilton retorted. Blaze was almost certain he was smirking. "Archer's dealing with the last two bunkers on our side now."
"Archer, pickle, pickle."
"There we go." Hamilton chuckled. "We're on our way over to your formation now."
"Belay that, Hunter." Thunderhead cut Hamilton off. "Picking up two bandits low on the floor, 205 for 200, Angels 2, hot. Wardog 3, Wardog 4, vector to intercept."
"Wardog 3, wilco. Disregard my last, Blaze. We'll be back in a jiffy." Hamilton declared. Blaze watched as both he and Archer broke away from the vicinity of their targets to go off and intercept the incoming bandits. Blaze and Nagase continued to roll along the valley and designate targets for bombs.
Grimm leant back as he and Hamilton picked up both speed and altitude to get on top of the approaching fighters. Judging by the radar signatures they were putting out as well as their speed, they were most likely MiG-29 Fulcrums. Grimm could see them on the datalink but not on his own aircraft's radar set. As of yet the reverse appeared to be true. The Fulcrums decreased their altitude before disappearing from the datalink.
"Thunderhead, Hunter, do you have eyes on the two bandits to our south?" Hamilton checked in with Thunderhead to make sure there wasn't a system glitch.
"Negative Hunter, both contacts have faded from radar." Thunderhead replied, implying that the two MiGs were below the radar horizon of his Hawkeye's radar set.
"I'm pushing them." Grimm informed Hamilton, turning in towards the last known position of the Fulcrums and beaming in on them. The latter said nothing and followed Grimm's lead, clearly trusting in his instincts. Grimm set his radar to scan amongst the terrain ahead of him. The Viper's radar didn't have the best look down shoot down capability, but it could serve the role well enough against this particular foe. Fifty kilometres out, closer than he would have liked, Grimm got a radar hit.
"Tally one bandit, 191-" Grimm spoke but the contact faded before he could finish. "Last seen, 191 for 49 on the deck."
"Copy, get after him." Hamilton replied, turning into Grimm's callout heading to give chase. Grimm turned to 191 to close the remaining distance between them and the Fulcrums. At twenty kilometres Grimm got another radar hit, this time on both of the bandits. He rolled slightly and looked down at the ground. A river had formed a canyon through the jungle in which the two Fulcrums were flying to avoid detection.
"Tally bandits, one o'clock low in the canyon!" Grimm called out their visual position to Hamilton. "Moving right to left!"
"I don't see them." Hamilton replied.
"Follow my lead." Grimm instructed, burning and turning towards the two bandits. Ordinarily at this point he would have fired AMRAAMs at both Fulcrums and at this range a miss was incredibly unlikely, but on this specific mission neither Grimm nor Hamilton were carrying AMRAAMs, forcing them to close the distance to Sidewinder range. The two Viper pilots slid in over the canyon and approached the Fulcrums. As they crossed over the canyon edge, either one or both of the Fulcrum pilots realised they were there and popped up out of the canyon to turn around and engage the Vipers.
The fight was on.
Now flying straight into a head on fight, Grimm loosened up the formation and started waving slowly from side to side. He knew from previous experiences fighting the Fulcrum that the MiG-29 could beat the Viper in a nose to nose fight, but the F-16 could beat the Fulcrum in a rate fight. Wishing to deny the enemy their main advantage, Grimm selected his gun and got ready for the merge.
"I've got the bandit on the left." Grimm told Hamilton, focusing up on the Fulcrum directly in front of him.
"Copy, I've got the right guy." Hamilton replied, posturing for a fight for the Fulcrum on the right. They were a couple of seconds from entering the merge.
"Archer, guns guns guns!" Grimm called out, putting the gunsight over his target and firing a short burst. The Fulcrum saw the rounds coming and turned to evade the first burst, but Grimm had correctly predicted which way the Fulcrum was going to turn and put a second burst into the sky where the Fulcrum was going to be. This second burst caught the aircraft perfectly in the engine block, tearing metal and turbine blades apart. The Fulcrum spun out of control, resulting in the pilot ejecting.
"Archer, splash one." Grimm declared calmly, turning high and right to assist his element lead in his fight against the second and final Fulcrum. Unlike Grimm and his bandit, Hamilton and his bandit had actually gotten into the merge. Hamilton had dragged the Fulcrum into a rolling scissors that was proceeding down towards the jungle canopy. Grimm readied a Sidewinder and dived down on top of the two.
"Hunter, break left." Grimm advised Hamilton to move to his left and get out of the way.
"Breaking left!" Hamilton replied, pulling away from the rolling scissors and moving out of Grimm's line of fire.
"Archer, Fox 2!" Grimm called out, firing an AIM-9X down at the Fulcrum. The Fulcrum pilot broke out of the scissors intent on chasing Hamilton's tail. The Sidewinder that slammed right into the spine of the aircraft, breaking it in half in a fancy display of flames, put an end to that aspiration. "Archer, splash two."
"Thanks for the assist, Archer." Hamilton thanked Grimm, levelling out from his retreat and slowing down so that Grimm could catch up.
"Thunderhead, Wardog 1." Blaze spoke up. "All munition bunkers have been destroyed. We're winchester on air to ground weapons."
"Copy that, Wardog 1. Wardog 3, Wardog 4, state weapons status." Thunderhead replied to Blaze, in turn directing his attention to Grimm and Hamilton.
"Thunderhead, Wardog 3. Two Sidewinders."
"Thunderhead, Wardog 4." Grimm cleared his throat. "One Sidewinder."
"Copy all." A fifteen second period of silence while Thunderhead presumably called up the chain to get directions. "Wardog Squadron, you are clear to RTB."
"Roger, Wardog is RTB." Blaze confirmed the order. "I wonder how bored Chopper is right now."
Zoomer chuckled. "Nah, I reckon he's in the squaddie room rocking out with that fuckin' Face of the Coin song playing."
"Pffft. Yeah, true." Blaze admitted Zoomer had a point. Grimm and Hamilton orbited around the area where they had shot down the two Fulcrums waiting for Blaze and Nagase. Once the Mudhen element met up with the Viper element and Wardog Squadron was regrouped for the first time since the start of the operation, they exited the area of operations and flew heading east for home.
Before making the trans-continental trip, the squadron needed to refuel. Right now there were two methods of refuelling on Yuktobanian soil. There was Bastok Forward Air Base, the very first airstrip that Osea had established in Yuktobania that didn't require weeks of engineering effort to make operational. The second was via in-flight refuelling from either an OADF KC-135 Stratotanker or a KC-10 Extender tanker aircraft. Wardog was assigned to meet up with a KC-10 over Osean-controlled airspace.
Meeting up with the tanker at twenty thousand feet, Blaze ordered Grimm and Hamilton to refuel first. The Viper could carry roughly four thousand litres of fuel, which took just under four minutes for the tanker to supply. By contrast, the much larger Mudhen could carry nine thousand litres of fuel, which would take almost ten minutes to refuel per aircraft. Grimm hooked up to the KC-10's boom first, while Blaze, Nagase and Hamilton flew formation with the tanker. Once Grimm was topped off, he pulled back from the boom and opened the space up for Hamilton. Hamilton hooked up with the boom and started refuelling.
Blaze looked around the skies, making sure that no enemy fighters were sneaking up on them.
"We're in friendly-controlled airspace." Samurai spoke up from the back. "Thunderhead will see something coming well before you do."
Blaze shook her head. "Tell that to the Felons who jumped us the other day."
Samurai scoffed. "Whatever you say…"
Once Hamilton was done refuelling, Nagase hooked onto the boom.
"Hunter, Archer, punch out back to Sand Island." Blaze ordered her Viper-flying squadmates. "We'll be twenty to thirty minutes behind you."
"Roger that." Hamilton complied with Blaze's order, taking Grimm with him and turning east for the flight back to Sand Island. Now it was only Blaze, Nagase and the tanker left in their airspace.
"Wardog 1, Thunderhead, state time until fully refuelled." Thunderhead said out of the blue. Blaze looked up to the belly of Nagase's Mudhen.
"Edge?" Blaze asked Nagase, referring to her fuel status.
"Five minutes until we're full." Nagase replied to Blaze.
"Thunderhead, Wardog, estimate fifteen minutes until we're green on fuel." Blaze answered Thunderhead's query. "Do you need us retasked?"
"Uncertain, wait, out." Thunderhead abruptly cut himself off. Samurai scoffed.
"Okay." The Sotoan-born WSO remarked. "I'm betting there's somebody up the chain of command that thinks we still have bombs."
Blaze chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised."
"Emergency transmission from command!" Thunderhead spoke up with urgency. "Ballistic track detected, estimated impact point over Bastok! Withdraw at all speed east!"
"What?!" Nagase expressed shock at the news.
"Oh for fuck's sake." Blaze muttered. At this point news like that didn't phase her. "Nagase, get off the hose!"
"Moving!" Nagase cut off the fuel flow from her end of the boom, breaking away from the tanker. Blaze cleared the tanker and slammed the throttle into burner mode. Nagase followed en suite, the two Wardog Mudhens rapidly picking up speed and rocketing away from Bastok. They broke the sound barrier at Mach 1, breaking Mach 2 no later than a minute after that.
"Thunderhead, how long until that missile makes impact?" Blaze called up to Thunderhead.
"Thirty seconds!" Thunderhead called back.
"Where the hell did it come from?!" Nagase was concerned about the presence of a ballistic missile and whatever the hell had launched it.
"Worry about that if we survive!" Blaze urged. She looked over her shoulder. The coastline was quickly disappearing into the distance.
"Impact in five, four, three, two, one… now!"
In hindsight, looking over her shoulder right at the place where a ballistic missile was about to impact was a bad idea. Over the horizon, there was a flash of white so bright that the light burned into Blaze's retina.
"Fuck me." Blaze swore through grit teeth, squeezing her eyes shut and raising her sleeved forearm to block out the light. When she opened her eyes, the centre of her vision was the imprint of the bright light. "Kita, your stick, I can't see."
"My stick." Samurai replied, taking over control of the aircraft from her pilot.
"Nagase, still with us?" Blaze asked. She knew from muscle memory where the radio push to talk key was.
"Still here, Captain." Nagase replied. She was still alive, at least. "What the fuck was that?!"