Obligatory Disclaimer - I own nothing and all characters mentioned are fictitious and not meant to represent any one person in the modern world, nor their viewpoints. This story does not reflect the morals and opinions of the Department of Defense, and all branches therein.
A/N: I ran the first half of conversations to that of by the paragraph, versus the second half of imbedded in the paragraph itself, do be so kind as to tell me which you prefer please.
Chapter 7 – Very High Napalm
October 9th, 2004 – 1645 hrs – Allenfort AB, Usea
Mobius 1 was in the air inside his Phantom, he was on a light patrol vector around Newfield Island. Following the successful attack on Rigley Air Base, things had been quiet around the island, and as such, he was allowed some peace of mind following the narrow fight against the A-10. Seeing that plane up close brought unpleasant memories of the battle at Rigley, yet he knew they would be needed for the coming evacuation. Tomorrow, the Allied Forces were going to evacuate out of St. Ark, or rather, the ruins of the once-called 'Jewel of East Usea'.
He was in a light left turn loop over Anderson Crater, truly, it was like nothing he had seen before. 'How could the city continue to thrive after being obliterated?' That question was running through his mind. The impact should have left the island uninhabitable, yet it was thriving like how a forest thrives after a forest fire. His radio pinged, halting his thoughts.
"Mobius 1, your patrol is complete, return to base, good luck tomorrow."
Johann turned his flight back to the air base, landing safely and taxiing to his hangar before disembarking. He then walked towards the mess hall, grabbed a tray of gruel, and sat down next to Omega 11 and his team. The two chatted over the strike planned for tomorrow, finalizing their plans.
"I agree," Johann started, "Taking your flight to the more Northern radar will make it easier for us to egress if things turn sour after we hit the radars. Do you have a plan for that, or are we going to wing it, as it were?"
"I don't think it'll get too bad, but if anything, we can fly out East and land on the Carrier group holding out there."
Joshua's reply made sense; they were all going to be flying in F-4s tomorrow, so they would have that advantage of carrier landings. The group of seven finished their meals and turned in, it was going to be a long day, after all.
October 10th dawned, or rather, the alarm heralded the day. Johann groaned into awareness, turning off the clock and staring at the numbers until they make sense. 'Ugh. 2:45 in the morning. Where am I? Basic?' He rose out of bed and took a quick shower before donning his flight suit and began his walk to the briefing room. He opened the door to the outside world, shivering the cool air away, and walked with Sergeant Ramirez, with whom he made small talk. The two made their way inside the briefing room, grabbing some breakfast stationed on the wall and manned by very tired-looking Airmen.
He sat down in his usual spot and ate as he waited for the rest of the squadrons to show up. He didn't have to wait long, almost all the pilots walked in together, only Sky Eye, and Rapier Squadron were missing. Major Rand walked in some minutes later and the room quickly stood to attention.
"At ease," he began, "The Allied forces are retreating, and survivors are gathering at the northern port of St. Ark. However, the radar facilities atop Mt. Shezna provide tactical support to the enemy."
The projector showed the area of operation, a very high mountain range blemished by several craters, the largest of which was highlighted as 'Krasinsky Crater'. The two radar points were highlighted, nine different dishes, antennae, and a helipad. The map also showed a confirmed patrol pattern in the middle of the two radar sites.
"These two radar sites must be destroyed in order to allow us to safely evacuate from the continent without too much of a difficulty. You may have noticed that Rapier Squadron is not present, nor is our AWACS. They are currently holding the air over St. Ark in order to allow our strike to proceed without interception. If our troops can successfully evacuate and regroup at North Point, they will become a formidable force in future battles."
The map recentered on the St. Ark holdout area, a short frontline only about 75 miles out from the city, arrows showing the retreat pattern currently happening as they get briefed. Rapier Squadron was shown as a holding pattern just behind the frontline.
"This attack is a two-fold operation, and both must succeed for any chance of victory in the future. First, the attack on the radar sites. Lieutenant Shaw, you will take your flight alongside Lieutenant Reale to the Fort Grace. Refuel on the carrier and flow to the AO. When you arrive, Sky Eye will take command. One more thing: our supplies are stretched thin for this attack, as such, you will be using our stores of napalm on the radars. They should work in the cold, but if not, you will need to hit the targets with your guns. Good luck dismissed."
Somewhat stunned at the revelation of being given napalm of all things, Reale and Omega 11s group left the room to prepare for the flight to the Fort Grace. Following the preflight checks, seven Phantoms took off and went off to the Northwest, flying in an arrow formation with Mobius 1 taking the rear point. Back in the briefing room, the other half of Omega Squadron, and all of Viper and Halo Squadron listened intently as Major Rand briefed them on their mission.
"While the radars are a critical objective, the evacuation itself must go off with minimal casualties. With that in mind, here is your mission. The other half of Omega will be taking off in our A-10s in order to destroy enemy armor attempting to cut off our forces. Halo Squadron, you are tasked with providing top cover for our ground forces still on the peninsula as well as protecting Omega from enemy air assets. Meanwhile, Viper Squadron, you will be protecting our evac ships from any ambush, as well as protecting the corridor to North Point. Good luck, launch!"
As one, Kai, Toaster, and the rest of the pilots left the room and ran to their planes. Omega took off first, heavy A-10s laden with bombs and AGMs slowly heading to St. Ark. Toaster in his Mig, and the rest of Halo took off in tandem, leading the mishmash of Tigers and Fulcrums was an F-15 Eagle, the pride of Halo Squadron. This was followed by twelve F-14s taking off towards the ruined jewel, quickly forming up with Halo and flowing to St. Ark.
The flight to the Fort Grace was uneventful, the pilots merely keeping to themselves or making small talk that kept dying out as the dark of morning turned ever brighter. The Phantoms found their target just after 0450, the stalwart aircraft carrier surrounded by a small picket fleet idling around her. One by one the planes landed on the carrier, coming in last, Reale slowly aligned himself with the carrier. Coming in from the East, winds calm, he made his final approach, and just before landing, throttled up just in case the winch didn't catch his plane. His landing was successful, and he spooled down the plane, letting it go idle once he stopped. As he got out, he saw the rest of Omega flight standing around chatting and looking up above.
"Hey 11, what are y'all looking at?" He said when he was within earshot of the group.
"Look up, it's the Arkbird!" His reply made Reale look up.
There it was, high above shining brilliantly in the morning glow. He had no idea what he was looking at, it was the shape of a triangle, yet the tail ends had stylized accents that arced upwards.
"What's the Arkbird? It's...beautiful."
One of the pilots spoke up as he continued to look up, "The Arkbird was used to destroy the fragments of Ulysses left in the atmosphere. Today it's a symbol of space exploration and peace between the Yukes and Oseans."
He grunted his reply, making a mental note to look up some more information about it when he got back. The pilots lazed around on the carrier, waiting for the maintenance to fuel the planes and double-check the ordinance. Once that was done, the pilots took off in tandem and turned West once all the pilots got off the carrier. They flew fast and hard, soon hitting the coast and foothills of the mountain range. One good thing about the Phantoms, Johann mused, was that they had a 30-kilometer ceiling. This meant that the planes, and pilots, should have no trouble maneuvering and fighting, barring any strange wind patterns that is.
Sky Eye contacted them once they entered the AO. "Listen up," his voice was patchy like it was being jammed. "This combat area is within enemy airspace. Keep an eye out for bandits. Omega 11, take your half and flow North-Northwest to Radar 2. Mobius 1, take the other half East-Northeast to Radar 1. Be advised that AWACS Battlenet is overstrained due to the operation down South. Mobius 1, Omega Flight, engage."
With that the flight split off from one another, 11 taking his half and descending slowly, to get cover from the radar. Johann thought differently and merely continued his path without a change in altitude, suspecting that they would be on the radar already. His radar soon pinged him two bandits ahead, they were flying perpendicular to him, at a descent as well.
"There's that patrol, I want you two to cover me, no doubt they've seen us." No sooner did he finish speaking did his radar ping a change in the bandit's direction. His cohorts clicked their mics in acknowledgment and moved to the defensive, one climbing right, the other left. Johann hit the throttle and sped towards the enemy. He was a bit out of range for his Sidewinders while he was checking his weapons over once more, 5 Sidewinders and 2 Sparrows plus 4 big tanks of napalm.
"Mobius 1, targets are Tigers." The static half-noise half-speech of Sky Eye was well received, and though he was well within range of the Sparrows, he elected to save them for emergencies. Leveling off, he could see the F-5s were clearly backline pilots, lazily heading to him with barely any distance between them. He got tone and shouted "Mobius 1 Fox 2" over comms as the two missiles detached.
On the Northern side of the range, Joshua easily evaded cannon fire from the few choppers that had just spooled up at the radar station. His dive, quite frankly, was nothing special, and his support felt like they were freshly graduated pilots, their missiles easily connecting to the choppers and bringing them down. "Omega 11, Pickle, Pickle!" His callout was unneeded for his cohorts, they were already climbing out of the kill zone. Quickly looking behind him as he climbed, the beauty that is orange aluminum salt and diesel burned through the cold steel of the radar dishes and barrack emplacements with ease. "Sky Eye, Shezna 1 is midnight." He called over the radio as he turned towards the Southeast.
Meanwhile...
"Why is it that we always get the fun missions?" The humor was rather dry from Tobias, and only got a few dry chuckles from his fellow pilots in Halo squadron. Far overhead, Sky Eye downed another cup of coffee like he was at a frat party, that is to say, quickly. He pinged Rapier Squadron silently, ordering them back to Northpoint to refuel and rearm. Though they were on patrol for close to 6 hours at this point, they were still going to be acting as reserves for the remainder of the mission.
He keyed his mic and spoke to the newcomers, "Listen up! the attack at Shezna has started, which means this evac has started. Viper, split up into flights of 3, patrol the peninsular split out into the ocean, maintain altitude differential and keep vigilant. Omega, St. Ark still has an airfield with ordinance, you may land and rearm there if needed, otherwise, use terrain masking by keeping low to the ground to avoid detection, the Eruseans know something is happening and have been trying with SAMs. I will assign targets as needed. Halo, provide top cover and act as needed. All flights, cleared to engage."
As he was going through his spiel, on the ground it was a chaotic scene of retreats happening in earnest. Across the 20-mile front, the units tasked as rearguard took their positions as dictated by General Howell. Knowing that the enemy would charge as soon as they realized ISAF was retreating, he elected for a defense in depth strategy. As each unit retreated, they would pass through various sapper works, trenches, and tank ditches, which had retractable bridges over each, the defenses would get tighter as they approached the ruined jewel, until the last defenders fought back street by street to the port. At that point, General Howell advised the "vanguard-rearguard" to make a mad dash for the last boat, abandoning defense for speed.
Omega's Warthogs were soon being given tasks by Sky Eye, half of the squadron heading off to the Northern part of the line to strike an armor advance by AMX 13 light tanks. Overhead, Tobias was watching the jets, taking care to check the radar for any enemy attack. On the ground, the unit who was panicking about the strange-looking tanks were firing wildly with AT sticks and their heavy weapons. The trenches and foxholes were being shelled, and some of the men were getting ready to retreat to the second line, several hundred meters away. Among this group of disparate troops, the regimental S6, the comms officer of all people, was standing and firing whatever AT he had, shouting words of encouragement. "A-10s are coming boys, keep calm and fire away!"
Suddenly, the sound of tank death sounded throughout the line with the BRRRT of Omega's Warthogs finally at range, and several bombs later, the Erusean advance was stalled. The crews retreating made for target practice on the now cheering defenders. Sky Eye pinged the S6's radio, "Targets suppressed LT, High wants your men to retreat no later than 30 minutes."
"Radar ping, Halo, intercept enemy helicopters attacking the Western Front." Halo 1 keyed his mic in affirmation and sped off to the west with his powerful engines, half of his flight following along. Tobias soon got tone in his own plane with his Sparrows, the helicopters making quite a ruckus with the 30s and rockets even from so far back. With the rest of his flight following their leader, he called out "Fox 3!" and fired off a missile. The 4 Sparrows made short work of the helicopters, exploding in a grisly fashion and showering the advancing Eruseans in shrapnel.
Meanwhile, the other half of Omega were being harassed on their attacks by ground fire. Tobias saw one of the planes take a nasty hit from ground AA, only to run straight into a SAMs view. He heard the pilot call out "Oh Sh-" before the Warthog exploded quite violently. Sky Eye overhead was aggressive in response, "Omega 12 lost. Halo Squadron flow to where he went down and destroy those SAMs!" Tobias pitchbacked, and sped towards the SAMs, targeting one with his Sidewinder, firing blindly and performing a gun run on the one in front of his plane. Not as satisfying as an A-10 it may be, but the HEAP does wonders the same, and he heard Sky Eye congratulate him over the din of battle.
Similar scenes played out across the front, though thankfully, no more pilots were lost. As the units retreated from the first line, the first convoy of ships carefully made their way through the valley, AA guns on a swivel, trusting in the Tomcats overhead to keep them safe. Kai was finding his side of things to be rather boring, it seemed their gambit was working, and soon the ships were able to reach open water, quickly speeding towards North Point to the East. He sighed, wishing he could have some fun on this mission, and returned to St. Ark.
Up North at Shezna...
"Mobus 1 defending" He jinked right to avoid the tracer rounds flying past his head. Who would have thought there was more than two fighters out here he grumbled to himself. The two Tigers were easily dispatched earlier, but now Johann found himself dealing with the rest of the fighters in the AO, three more Tigers. He made a Wingover maneuver, climbing high with the power of his engines to easily breakoff from the attackers, then he twisted his plane and dove back down, gaining the upper hand in the fight and being able to dive. His speed was increasing as he dove, and, knowing that its better to play it safe, he went for a leading attack in his dive. He called out once more, "Fox 2!" and launched his missile into the F-5 ahead, zooming past the doomed pilot and climbing once more, launching chaff and flares to break any target locks from his cohorts.
Joshua's flight soon entered the melee, the remaining F-5s were no match for the 7 Phantoms on their tails, and they both ejected after being hit with guns and missiles galore. Taking the welcome opportunity, Johann turned towards the now defenseless radar ahead of him and began to line up for his dive.
Back in St. Ark...
Sky Eye was carefully watching his radar screens, one of his airman noticed something a few minutes before, but the blips had disappeared soon after appearing. "Are we sure it isn't a glitch in the system, this bird has been up here for a while since last check?" He received a negative, clearly they were missing something.
The first airman spoke up again, "There! Hostiles approaching from the North! Looks like 7 Mirages." Another of the airman, the one in charge of ground observation, suddenly keyed in, "SAMs are coming online, enemy armor advancing towards the third line! Make up is mix of AMX-13s and the bigger 40s!" Sighing to himself, and downing another shot of coffee, he opened up a channel to the S6s across the Northern Front, and to his pilots.
"Sky Eye here, all available planes divert to the North, 7 ship formation inbound, SAMs are spooling up, and Armor is getting ready to charge, now's the time to throw what you've got in!" On the ground the various rearguard regiments steadied their lines of retreat and quickly set up TOWs and passed around the remaining AT. Up high, Toaster and the rest of Halo were circling just outside the combat zone, while the A-10s were hiding up in the clouds. At an unseen signal, the 13s and 40s charged across the ruined fields, among the 13s some had M811 autocannons pointed skywards to ward off enemy bombing runs. The Mirages charged across the line, firing at the scrambling Fulcrums and Tigers with missiles before breaking into single ship formations to dogfight. Halo Squadron broke formation, diving to avoid most of the missiles, flares firing to jink the rest. The radio was rife with callouts, "Fox 2! Splash one!" Tobias screamed towards one of the enemy planes, the delta wings unmistakable even from far away. "Halo 1 Splash one!" He launched a missile only to watch it miss thanks to a tricky maneuver the enemy pilot performed, he saw a chance to do a Low-Yo-Yo, so he pitchbacked right, "Halo 8 Fox 3", and rolled upwards to get behind the Mirage, who was turning right in a wide loop, firing missiles at his comrades as he went.
"Halo 7 Missile! Evade!" He called out as he finished his roll. His Fulcrum screamed in tone; he fired a missile at the now sitting duck. "Halo 2 Fox 2, splash." He turned towards Halo 7, aiming to assist. Taking the opportunity to engage, the Warthogs began to dive on the tanks, tracers from the autocannons flying past and into their wings as the 5 planes dropped bombs that were sequenced by Sky Eye's Battlenet. The RWRs onboard the planes were screaming of Missiles, but the Warthogs could do nothing but hope the altitude and chaff would break the locks from the SAMs they were screaming towards with guns firing. Overhead, Sky Eye heard the report of another ship leaving the harbor, only a few thousand more to evacuate. He was desperately trying to use his electronic warfare suite to break the target locks, but the launchers were ready to fire another salvo anyway.
"Sky Eye, this is fighter squadron, Shezna 2 is midnight, how copy?" The voice of Johann filled his ears, and almost immediately after hearing it, the EWS was able to break the lock. Sighing in relief, he signaled to the Shezna formation. "Sky Eye here, Radar Facilities confirmed destroyed. Take vector 180 South back to Base. Relieve Rapier Squadron when you get home after refueling. Well done!" He watched on the radar screens as Omega wiped out the threats from above, most of the tanks and SAMs exploding wonderfully.
On the ground, the officer was watching one of the enemy tanks with his sights, he shouted out, "Clear Back!" and launched the disposable into the side of the AMX 40. He cheered as it exploded and turned back to the fight, grabbing his rifle and jumping back into the trench as he fired back at the advancing infantry. Halo Squadron soon dealt the Mirages the killing blows, the loss of Shezna's superior radar forcing them to rely on their own skill was much to their detriment. Tobias circled around and fired his last missile at the Mirage, breaking it in half.
At Shezna...
Johann watched as his napalm burned through the radar dish and bunker emplacements with a ferocious appetite, he sent over a radio message to Sky Eye and regrouped with Joshua, whose planes had taken out the enemy during Johann's dive. They sped off to the South to hit the ocean and break towards Newfield. Along the way, the pilots were in much better spirits after a successful mission complete, and were playing jokes at Joshua for "Flying like his tail was burning from that napalm!"
Back in St. Ark...
Kai was watching the last of the evacuation ships pull out of port, eager for the mission to end. He was remaining vigilant now, the Eruseans were storming through the ruined city trying to get to the port but they were too late. Overhead, Sky Eye called out a general retreat for all the planes but Viper, who was now tasked as rearguard.
The Tomcats of Viper Squadron were in two-man formations, carefully spread throughout the peninsula and now joining each other as the last ship progressed. His battle buddy for the day was eager to rejoin the flight as he didn't particularly enjoy flying around the normally joking Kai. As the ship reached the ocean, the Tomcats spread out more, though they were somewhat more lax than they probably should have been. Still, the radar was clear, and they were going home.
Or so they thought. Suddenly, the rear plane had his RWR scream for but a moment before the missile broke his plane, and him, into pieces. "Viper 12 lost! Viper Squadron Break!" Kai's flight lead's voice was annoyingly high, though he obeyed instantly, breaking hard to the left and turning with engines roaring and wings turning in. His maneuver complete, he charged the Erusean fighters, Migs of some sort, with great success. His anger about being left to do nothing now forged into a want for revenge, he elected to forgo missiles and sped past the first '29 firing a full two seconds of guns into the plane. He quickly pulled up and dove down towards his next target, gunning him down much more efficiently. Finally, after realizing he lost his cool, he fired a missile at the lead plane of the enemy formation and sped past back to where his fellow tomcats were charging.
Sky Eye called out his and his fellow pilots' kills, ending with a "Well Done!" for Kai. The flight back had the other pilots in much happier spirits, and Kai's melancholy broke once he joined in on the laughs. His flight lead spoke to him on a side channel, "I thought Johann was the Golden Arm, not you. Don't do that again though." He ended sternly.
For both groups, the rest of the flight back was uneventful. Johann was barely able to get to Newfield before Kai was, so he was the last to land. After landing, the various pilots were called into the briefing room, and cheers were being given out by everyone present on a job well done. Major Rand soon brought the pilots to attention and began the AAR.
"With their radar out of commission, the Erusean command and control over the St. Ark area degraded significantly. The evac and regrouping efforts went off with very little casualties and no ship deaths after evac." The scene on the projector was showing off footage of the battle from a tactical viewpoint as he spoke. "Lieutenant Shaw, thanks to Omega and the efforts of Mobius 1, the radars were destroyed, what you don't know is that it was quite literally with seconds to spare, the other planes of Omega Squadron would have been hit or wiped out by the SAMs lock had their radar not suffered a loss." Behind Rand, the footage showed a play-by-play of Reale going into his dive while at the same time, the Warthogs were running through the enemy advance.
"With this in mind, I, and Lieutenant Salvatore, are both recommending you for promotion. Congratulations, Captain Shaw!" The cheers went out across the room from the now embarrassed Omega 11's fellow pilots, which Rand quieted soon after to finish his report. "Viper 9, excellent response time on the rearguard, Halo 7, your defense skills are something to be admired. As to what happens now, you all will be on rest and rearm for the next few weeks until we have a new mission for you. Well done all, Dismissed!"
With that the pilots left to go get a most-needed meal, the trio, and Joshua, sitting together and sharing their perspectives of the battle and comparing how it went. Sitting near the exit of the mess hall, Corporal Getty quietly paid attention, checking for any signs of stress from the pilots.
A/N: Right that took far too long to complete, Unslaad Krosis. I spent almost two weeks rewriting the middle bit, but I'm almost happy with the work, I know for certain the next chapter will be much easier to write and much quicker. Any comments or concerns or questions are welcome. Thank you.
-Jupiter Magnus