" Holy shit that's a lot of cloud cover."
"And we're supposed to fly through that?"
"Unless you want to deal with the missiles when their satellites see you, those clouds are your best friends now get to work." Bandog cut into the whining the other Spares had been doing for the past twenty minutes.
"Thank god I thought they would never shut up." I heard come over the intercom.
"Yeah they were funny the first five minutes but even Count got tired of it."
"Any way should we focus on the task at hand or leave it for our faithful companions to handle it?" Brownie asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Stopping to listen in to the radio chatter and hearing nothing but them arguing over who was going to attack the first radar sight I cut in. "Bandog this Spare 15 we're engaging the first sight." Angling up to enter the clouds, I readed the guns and had Brownie keep the AGM=88s on stand-by, we only had four of the anti-radiation missiles and I wanted to use the HARMs on the other sites.
"Alright Trigger im ready on the flares break cover when you're ready."
Hearing Brownie give her ready status I pushed the throttle to full power and pulled up sharply breaking the cloud cover sooner than we expected. "OH SHIT!" I shouted as every radar warning we had blared to life and almost as soon as the alerts started the missile alert blared out. "Fuck Guns Guns." As soon as I let off the trigger I dove straight down for the Valley and clouds. The second we entered the clouds again the lock and missile alerts stopped and I felt my heart rate slow slightly. "Was it just me or where the estimates about how far up that cover goes is off?"
Taking a deep breath Brownie replied "Yeah it's definitely lower than it should be, probably because we're an hour behind on the schedule the simulated cloud charts didn't account for the delay."
"This Spare 15 be careful the clouds don't go up as far as we thought." I radioed out after hearing Bandog insult us for getting radar locked. "Me and Browine are going to use the HARMs. Can you fine lads keep the ground sites and choppers busy?"
"I suppose I can take the easy targets. I was wanting a slow day." Count said as he pulled away from the main formation and dived for the gun sites that were sending flack our way and as he took out two targets more of the others including Tabloid went to follow.
As we made our way to the next target I asked Brownie a question "Hey what's up with Fullband he's just loitering around and he hasn't said much."
"Ah yeah he and Bandog are on an aux channel and i'd avoid it at all cost they're arguing up a storm and it's not pretty."
"Damn well sounds like he's going to get to know solitary pretty well, but anyways we're in range get ready on the HARM i'm going to pop us up…..Now." I said clearing the clouds and giving Brownie a clear shot on the radar.
"Good tone and…Maverick." Brownie called out as the HARM shot off the rails and unlike what we had feared the sites were apparently unmanned since the radars did not shut off the easiest way to foil a HARM shot and let the missile strike true as the site disappeared into a fireball as we dove back down.
The next three sites were about the same pop up fire and dive although the last site was a bit hairy as after we launched the missile and went to dive we almost plowed into a mountain side I had missed on the map and had to pull back out of the clouds to avoid becoming a pancake. The good side from that was as we were above the clouds there was a lack of warning alerts and missiles, to which Bandog declared the main objective clear as Count and his merry band of misfits had just cleared out all the other targets in the area.
"That wasn't the worst mission we've had." Count said as he and the others made to join us above the clouds.
"Yeah still that kinda feels to easy, like at Choppingburg." I replied and went to say something else when Brownie cut me off.
"Hey Bandog im picking up a flight of twelve to our north do you see them or is my radar fucking up again."
Once Bandog confirmed radar was picking up other crafts he tried several times to hail them since they were pinging friendly but they wouldn't answer. As Bandog continued on in the background I nudged us closer to where Count and Tabloid were flying and matched speed with them. "Guys i'm not liking how this feels."
"Yeah me eith- oh shit they've got a lock on me incoming." Tabloid called out, getting interrupted.
"Fuck Spare 15 im locked as well going evacive." breaking away from everyone else I listened as Brownie called out the different missiles that were coming as the now hostiles merged with Spare Squadron and started all kinds of confusion especially since we had a few Spares flying Hornets as well. "I cant tell whos who on the radar and I don't trust visual targeting in a fur ball like this."
"Yeah I know, shit two on the left." Brownie replied, practically flinging her head around trying to visually track some of the hostiles not being able to trust the radar. "Wait what the fuck."
"What's up Brownie."
"The Tail markings those are from the Albatross there AS-356 is the one that just buzzed us, they were all taken out at Fort Greys remember."
"Oh shit." I said and opened up the radio. "These aren't friendly's that are confused."
"Oh no shit, how can you tell?" came the sarcastic reply form one of the Spares.
"The tail markings are for the carrier Albatross it and its entire fighter complement were taken out on the first day of the war."
Before anyone else could say anything Bandog cut in "Spare 15s right I just got done with the data from our unknown they show the marking for craft destroyed at the beginning of the war."
"So what do we do?"
"Fuck I dont know, stay evacive and head for the clouds."
"They're going to kill us all."
"Guys I have an Idea get under the cloud cover and form up on Trigger." Tabloid said cutting in on the others panicked cries.
"How the fucks that suppost to help." one of the Spares responded.
"If we stay in formation with Trigger, Brownie can relay are positions to Bandog and they can sort out the hostiles and friendlies by doing a local IFF reset."
"How the hell do you know that?"
"Well before Zapland I was a radar operator on an P-8, but anyway do you think you can make it work Bandog?"
"Yeah I think I can but i'm going to need your help for sure Brownie since those guys showed up i've lost all TAC ids for you lot, i'll need a visual confirmation on who's who."
"Copy that Bandog I got you, Trigger you heard the plan get us under the clouds." Brownie ancered prompting me to dive for the valley from earlier and going into a straight and level flight path as the others followed suit. The next five minutes was filled with Brownie and Bandog relaying info and instructions to each other as me and the other pilots watched as the unknowns circled us from above.
A few moments after giving Bandog Fullbands position at the tail end of our formation I saw my radar completely blank out and then a new info link request from Bandog that Brownie instantly accepted and shared with the others. "Alright convicts you got your data now get out there and take down all hostiles."
"Shit you heard the voice of god guys Spare 15 engaging." I called out pulling up and lobbing two missiles at the first target I got a lock on and getting on the tail of another. The fight quickly turned into our favor and we quickly started to whittle down their numbers. I shot down another with guns leaving six targets left all together when suddenly Bandog called out there was a high speed contact approaching, and then the world turned blue as me and Brownie where the closest to the detonation we were buffeted by the shock wave and I barely got our F-4 to level back out, "Oh shit are you good back there Brownie?"
"How old do you have to be to avoid shaken baby syndrome?" she replied as she started to check over the instruments.
"Yeah you're fine that felt like that stuff from those transports from the oil refinery, and those cargo planes from the Schofields base felt the same as well."
"All aircraft listen up. I just got word from HQ those burst missiles are called Helios, they are from the arsenal bird so clear out those fighters and get out before UAVs show up."
"Fuck man they're lunching those in here with there own pilots in the way?" Count asked as another Helios exploded taking out two Spares and almost getting one of the hostiles.
"I was about to call it out before the first missile hit, look at the cockpits there's no pilots."
"The hell were fighting drones?" Fullband asked.
"Evidently so let's scrap 'em." I said dodging away from another explosion and lobbing off a wild burst trying to get a hostile of Tabloids tail. The fight went in a repeating pattern, dodge missiles, shoot at hostile and repeat. I had just fired off a missile and watched it impact the last hostile when my radar fuzzed out for a moment and came back on showing another target where Fullband was. Before I could say anything Brownie try to warn Count who was lining up a shot.
"Wait Count dont thats Fullband!" but it was too late as we watched his missile impact on Fullbands rear.
"What! He was marked as a hostile, shit eject Fullband eject."
"He can't Count." Bandog said, sounding somewhat somber.
"What do you mean he can't?" I asked, watching as Fullband slowly lost altitude.
"All your ejection seats have been disabled to prevent you lot from escaping."
"The fuck thats got to be ileagel prisonors or not thats fucked up." Brownie protested.
All we could do was watch in horror as Fullband fighter started to pick up speed as it descended until it looked like he finally lost all sense of control and ended up impacting on the mountain side. "Sonova Bitch what the hell happened Bandog?"
"I don't know, all our systems up here cycled themselves and once coms where back all we caught was Fullband getting hit, and it was like his radio wasn't even picking us up."
"Fuck." was all Count said as me, him and Tabloid flew in a loose formation with the only other Spare to make it.
"All Spares targets have been destroyed ... .head back to base." Bandog finally said after a few minutes. Looking at the smoking wreck on the mountain one last time I turned our nose to the south to meet the tanker so we could head back to Zappland.
I honestly don't like the mission Pipeline Destruction and I just couldn't find a good way to write it without just hating it so it simply happens "off screen" and I apologize for the wait.