Ace Combat: Broken Line (IC/Open)

[Relikai]

Shinden: <<Copy that, Flight Lead. Shinden, breaking off to engage ground targets. >>

She was thinking hard. Are the Saienese actually attacking? No matter. The island is a strategic target, whoever holds it could exert influence over the local territory, and Shinden is not about to let her people get bullied off it.

Angling her plane, the Thunderstreak dove at a gentle angle, just as Shinden received a missile warning. The beeping sound in her helmet grew louder as Shinden broke hard to the side at the last moment, her airframe shuddering as the stress of g-forces hammered into her small body as well. Keeping her breathing steady to fight off the dangers of 'red-out', Shinden leveled her plane as the enemy jet streaked past.

Shinden: << This is Shinden, I have a bandit hot in my area around the island. >>

She would have to ignore it for now, and rely on air-support as the island beckoned. She could see coloured smoke indicating allied positions, as well as Beiarusian vehicles firing at the Saienese patrol.

Aligning her plane, Shinden triggered her machine guns as they kicked off a storm of dust off the ground. She could see her machine guns impacting against a light vehicle, a humvee, just before it blew up. Turning, Shinden noticed a Beiarusian tank firing at the Saienese, as she again aligned her plane, toggling off a 1,000lb bomb near the vehicle.

Shinden: << Shinden, confirmed hits on enemy light vehicle, unconfirmed bomb drop on enemy tank >>

As she gave her report, a streak of AA rounds flew past her cockpit, forcing her to pull up.

Shinden: << Shinden, taking ground fire, coming from North of the Island. >>

Beeping again in her helmet, this time, Shinden could not see her attacker.

Shinden: << This is Shinden, I have a bandit on my tail, pulling up! >>

[Gvozdevsk]

Null: << All aircraft, you have been cleared to engage. Try not to cross the river if you can help it. Shinden. Reaper. Focus on aiding the ground forces anyway you can. Anyone with ground-strike ability should join them. Everyone else is flying top cover. >>

Panther: <<Copy, moving to attack ground targets with rockets.>>

Liora armed her weapons, then rolled her plane upside down and then pulled back hard on the stick, sending the Mirage V into a steep dive. Her aircraft screamed towards the earth, her cockpit filled with an electronic voice repeatedly saying "REDUCE SPEED. PULL UP." She knew her plane was just trying to protect her and keep her from becoming a flaming heap of metal on the ground, but she saw these warnings from her aircraft as more of a suggestion. As she continued to dive she rolled her plane over again, before pulling up to put herself on course to the enemy positions on the island. Now level again, she pushed her throttle to maximum power. As she closed in on the island she made fine adjustments to her aircraft and when she was confident she was in range and had a good firing solution, she pulled the trigger on her stick, firing all 38 of her 68mm rockets on the enemy position in a single burst. As she streaked over the island she could see tracers from anti-aircraft guns coming up around She then jettisoned her rocket pods. There was still some fuel left in them, so hopefully a stray shell could hit them and they could cause some damage. Besides, she only wanted the extra fuel in the even this was just a patrol mission. Now that extra weight would just be useless to her trying to dogfight. She felt her aircraft immediately gain altitude as she dropped the rocket pods. She then pulled back on the stick, climbing back to altitude at full afterburner. As was second nature to her, she popped flares as she climbed and pulled off of her ground attack run, in order to throw off any heat-seeking missiles that may be fired at her.

Panther: <<This is Panther, rocket strike is successful, moving to engage enemy aircraft.>>

As she was climbing, one of the other pilots from her flight came over the radio requiring assistance.


Shinden: << This is Shinden, I have a bandit on my tail, pulling up! >>

Panther: <<Shinden this is Panther, moving to engage the bandit on your tail.>>

This was it, Liora's first dogfight. She leveled out her aircraft, pointing her nose down slightly so she could see. Liora found Shinden's ancient F-84 Thunderstreak, being chased by an almost equally ancient MiG-17. Liora dived on the MiG, engaging it with her twin 30mm cannons. Her burst missed, but the MiG broke off to go after Liora's Mirage as she tried to maneuver back onto its tail so she could fire one of her Sidewinders at it.

[The United Remnants of America]

Aiden "Frosty" Kelly

Null: << All aircraft, you have been cleared to engage. Try not to cross the river if you can help it. Shinden. Reaper. Focus on aiding the ground forces anyway you can. Anyone with ground-strike ability should join them. Everyone else is flying top cover. >>

Alright then... Frosty pulled back on the throttle of his aircraft and levelled out, dropping his altitude to just above two-thousand feed. Perfect attack height. He angled himself towards the border checkpoint. As he neared, he saw and heard the engagement of Shinden ahead of him, who had beaten him to the first attack. Shinden nearly caught flak, and she was pulling out with an aircraft following her, but Frosty couldn't deal with that aircraft. Instead, as he shot over the burning wrecks that Shinden had started, he glanced and saw the tank burning as well at the bottom of a small crater, its wreckage scattered.

<<Shinden, Frosty, confirm tank kill. You got it overkilled.>>

Frosty looked ahead, looking at the point where the AA tracer fire had nearly scratched Shinden. A trio of black shapes on the ground showed themselves, and Frosty knew they were mobile flak cannon. Frosty put his thumb on his rocket pod's firing switch and waited until he'd closed to roughly eight-thousand meters from the three AA guns and then he depressed both buttons. Almost before he'd realized it, two Hydra 70 rockets from each pod, totaling four, had shot from their homes and stretched out on smoking tendrils towards their targets. Frosty immediately jerked right before the AA guns got a bead on him and he tilted his aircraft left so he could watch.

One rocket went wide to the left, hitting ground and exploding, but not affecting the AA guns. A second rocket flew short and hit the ground, probably causing dirt to hit the crews of the AA and maybe scratching paint, but nothing major. Finally, the last two unguided rockets hit in between two of the AA guns, and Frosty smiled to himself as he watched the explosion knock each AA gun away from the impact site, exploding them as well. Sadly, the last flak cannon had survived, but that was the accepted risk with unguided munitions.

<<Frosty. Scratch two AA cannon. One still up. Going around for another run.>>

Satisfied with his work, Frosty banked his aircraft into a hard right turn, spiraling skyward in a climb so he could wrap around and survey the field of battle on the ground and the sky before dipping down again like a mechanical bird of prey to pick off another target.

[Tayner]

Seccond Lieutenant Dan
Gunny
Tokage River Valley

Null: << All aircraft,you have been cleared to engage. >>

Gunny listed in, and broke formation like other pilots seemed to be doing left and right.

Gunny: << Breaking formation, going to assist allied ground troops. I'll be switching radio channels in one mile. Copy? >>

He would wait for the reply before switching over to the allied ground force's troops.

"Joker, arm the rocket pods."

"Aye."

After receiving a response from his squadron leader, he switched comms to the ground force's channel.

Gunny: << This is gunny of Morena Squadron, more than willing to provide air support to ground troops on a first come first serve basis. Copy?" >>

Allied-G: << Copy. There are two enemy tanks giving my guys hell from 1,000 meters north of my position. We're on the bridge. How copy? >>

Gunny: << Good copy. Moving to engage. >>

Gunny made a course correction to prepare for a strafing run on the target. He soon located two tanks that were shelling the Siean ground forces near the bridge.

Gunny: << Will hit targets in thirty seconds. >>

He aimed directly the tanks, and flicked the plastic cover off of his stick, revealing a red button. Once he drew within firing range, he pressed his thumb on the red button firing four rockets from each pod, and removed his thumb and banked back to the Siean side of the river.

Gunny: << What's the effect on the target? >>

Allied-G: << Maximum effect on targets. Two confirmed kills, thanks Gunny, we owe you a solid for that one. >>

Gunny: << Consider it on the house boys. Happy hunting. Gunny out. >>

Gunny soon swapped back to the Squadron Channel, and reported in.

Gunny: << Gunny reporting in, two confirmed tank kills, over. >>

[SaintB]

<<Alright 2nd Squad you know your wingmates and where the enemy is. Vampire and I are going to make a high altitude pass and get our eyeballs on the enemy fighters to see if we can ID them, Knots try to stick with the attackers, and Praeses cover us from afar with those long range weapons of yours.>>

Garret started to climb and open his thrusters up to gain speed a he rushed toward the island with Yuri hopefully on his heels; he had flown with Yuri as his wingman through most of the So-So war and though it had been a while he probbaly still knew how Garret maneuvered. <<Vampire, I'm climbing to 10,600 meters and pushing Mach 2. I know your brick is a little bit faster so if you want you can pull ahead and I'll follow. Lets see what we are dealing with.>>

[Ubaria]

<< Shots have been fired at the river crossing. >>

Noel wanted to be surprised but the fact of the matter was, the situation was a powder keg and the military exercises next to a contested border? That was just the match the Beiarusians needed to justify igniting it and mount a retaliatory attack.


<< Orders coming in from the Major. Morena is to intercept immediately. Allied units are going to seize control of that central island. Make sure they hold it. >>


The island was visible from the left side of the craft, a single highway bridged the two sides and also connected a central island to either side, Noel could see faint flashes of red and green tracers as both sides exchanged fire, a few larger flashes indicated explosions. However, Noel couldn't pinpoint any enemy aircraft with the naked eye and turned over to his radar to locate the bandits, surely enough a small flight of aircraft approached from the Beiarusian side of the border, the other members of Morena had noted this too and promptly diverted to engage.

<<Ok. Aguila here. Fenrir you're with me. See if we can't hold off their ground assault. I need you to have my back, keep any bandits off me>>

With that Noel pulled the visor down over his eyes and gave a little twitch of the wrist to bring the Mirage into a diving bank, the plan was to make a left hand sweeping turn and let loose with a rocket barrage, some of their less heavy armor had broke off to one side which provided a decent enough target. Most of the AA was concentrated elsewhere which gave a large enough window to make a rather close pass, slowly the sights lined up with the target on the ground, a couple of light troop carriers and their compliment, they were merely green specs on the ground at this height but the rockets weren't exactly used for precision bombing.

<<Aguila. Rockets, Rockets>>

A swift press of the trigger bought a hail of 68mm rockets bearing down with enough spread to saturate the area with fire, they flew down in a cluster of orange streaks and peppered the area with high explosive warheads, chucking up dust and smoke as they impacted. Noel pulled the Mirage back up and began banking to the right for a better look and sure enough the area had been ruined completely, it was hard to make out if anything was left but either way, the target was no longer present and he still had rockets to spare.

<<Scratch two light support vehicles. Making another pass>>

[Independent States of Tula]

2nd Lieutenant Vladimir Tula
Tokage River Valley Airspace

"Well...things got real hairy real fast..." Vladimir stated to himself as he dropped his F-5E down to 500 Meters and prepped his two rocket pods for use, he'd hit ground targets first before switching to engage the enemy air reinforcements, the outdated MiGs were going to be no match for Vladimir's F-5E Tiger II, that he was confident in.

Wolf: << This is Wolf, following you in Panther for rocket run, reducing speed to Two-Five-Zero KMH. >>

Before Vladimir could engage however several other friendly craft also completed their runs, however this bothered Vladimir not, he was coming in low and slow and the news that the AA had been taken out only bolstered his confidence as he came in sight of the enemy's position on the small island.

"Oh, you bastards are going to regret your decision to cross this damn river." Vladimir stated to himself as he aimed his aircraft's targeting crosshairs over a single enemy tank, it looked like a T-62 tank though Vladimir couldn't be too sure.

Depressing the linked button on Vladimir's flight stick he watched as 19 70mm HEAT rockets flew towards the MBT, he saw the multiple primary explosions from the rockets themselves before a secondary blast signaled the MBT's ammo cooking off. Vladimir then quickly switched to his HE rockets and fired all nineteen towards two light vehicles, they looked like trucks for troop transport, he was pretty sure he'd taken both out considering their close proximity and the impacts of his rockets. It was then that Vladimir punched forward the throttle to avoid going any further down in airspeed and stalling at his 230 km/h limit, he moved to climb and as he did he activated his radio again to announce.

Wolf: << Splash one MBT plus two trucks, rockets dry, switching to Anti-Air missiles. >>

However suddenly Vladimir noticed what looked like a MiG-17 coming at him up and to his right. It was then that he noticed the thing fire a missile towards him.

Wolf: << Be aware, Bandits have short-range missiles! I'm locked! >>

Vladimir was able to get that warning out before he banked hard right and decreased altitude even further to try and confuse and throw off the missile. He took a drastic measure and dropped another 400 meters towards a 100 meter altitude, that in conjuncture with his hard bank right had confused the missile as it crashed into the ground not far below and behind Vladimir.

"Must be IR, the heat of the jungles down there is confusing those missiles." Vladimir stated to himself, he looked behind him to see that the MiG-17 was lagging behind and so he banked left to get a better look at it.

"Oh yeah, you're a slower bastard aren't you? Well then, looks like I just have to outmaneuver you..." Vladimir stated to himself as he quit banking and instead angled his F-5E up, he needed to gain altitude on this guy and get away from the ground...this was going to be an interesting fight.

[Relikai]

Seeing her attacker, a MiG-17, break off as Panther came to her rescue, Shinden turned her plane to the side as well. Seeing that she was about to pass in between the lines of friendlies and hostiles, Shinden prepared to provide some assistance against the infantry.

Shinden: << Shinden, position just south of the island, attacking enemy infantry in the open. Bombs away. >>

Two napalm bombs struck the ground, erupting into flames, as Shinden toggled another two. Seeing that her squadron mates were making short work of the enemy, Shinden realised that she would need to be able to maneuver in the air soon. With the napalm cooking up ammunition and burning unarmoured infantry, the Saienese began a general advance along the line, their two tanks leading the advance. Shinden felt a wrench as one of the Saienese tanks erupted in flames, struck by a Beiarusian tank across the river.

Shinden: << Shinden, Enemy armour, across the river, I count two, hitting friendly armour hard. >>

Flying towards them, Shinden was about to release her bombs when a MiG-9 cut across her sights, forcing her to break just before crossing the river. Unfortunately, her finger has depressed on the bomb release button. Boom, boom, boom. Three misses.

Shinden: << Shinden, reporting about... two MiG-9s and one MiG-17 at low-level. Moving to assist Panther. >>

Come on... there! The arrowhead shape of the Mirage V was easy to spot, with the Star of David emblazoned on it's wings. The enemy MiG was trying to get behind the fighter, but the Mirage was holding out well. Shinden dove in at the MiG, anticipating it's movements, just as she let loose a hail of machine gun fire, forcing the MiG to break it's turn, presenting itself a clear target to the agile Mirage.

Thanks Panther, it's all up to you now...

[Beiarusia]

Capt. Aleksei Tallow “Null”
Tokage River Valley, Seian

Ally-G: << Move! Move! Move! Get across- >>

The radio feed cut out as the lead tank erupted in flames. Beiarusian armor was firing from across the river, having spread themselves to cover a wider area. The brief allied advance was cut short and was further hindered as a Fargo came in fast. It’s cannons made quick work of a APC, shredding the thick metal and its occupants. The small aircraft banked up and hard, moving for another run as another targeted the remaining ally tank. The MBT survived but was now pinned by the Beiarusian fire. Several infantrymen were not as lucky.

The three MiG-9’s were focusing solely on the ground units. Above, the MiG-17’s had broken off to engage the fighters. Two had already found themselves targets. The others wasted no time. Two broke off to engage the red F-16, the third made for the incoming F-20.

Creeper: << Allied advance has stalled. Reinforcements are currently en route. Don’t think I need to say this but you can expect the same from their side as well. >>

Null: << And the fighters? >>

Creeper: << Three aircraft on approach. They will be entering the combat area shortly. You may want to finish up by then. >>

Null: << ID? >>

Creeper: << If I had to guess, more MiG’s. >>

[Tayner]

Seccond Lieutenant Dan
Gunny
Tokage River Valley

"I got eyes on three light vehicles on the island that survived the other guy's strikes. Get the CBU-100 cluster bombs ready. Let's take 'em all out, how's that sound Joker?" Gunny asked. Even the enemy AAs were taken out, even making the the assault mostly risk free, besides the OpFor MiGs. He altered his course to go over the island at around 2,000 feet, preparing his cluster bombs. He would drop two onto the Light Vehicles and enemy ground forces.

Gunny: << Going in for a pass on the remaining light vehicles on the Island. >>

He flew over the Island at 250 km/h, that was a safe 70 km/h over his stall speed, and hit the fire button with his thumb, dropping two of his six cluster bombs on the enemy ground forces below, most definitely destroying them, although he couldn't get a clear line of sight to confirm the kills, he definitely saw the charred wrecks of two light vehicles that he couldn't identify as trucks or jeeps or IFVs. It was probably for the better that he couldn't make out what they were, they were just confirmed kills from up at 2,000 feet. "Joker, how many confirmed kiss you see?"

"Three."

"Good enough for me. Let's just take another pass to be sure."

"Aye."

Gunny did a 180° turn and flew over the island, seeing the third vehicle overturned near one of the MBTs that were destroyed earlier. "That's three, I'm calling it in."

"That's three, nice shot."

Gunny: << Gunny here. Three confirmed light vehicle kills,over. >>

[Rupudska]

Above, the MiG-17’s had broken off to engage the fighters. Two had already found themselves targets. The others wasted no time. Two broke off to engage the red F-16

Shinobu wasted no time in taking self-preservation measures. She braked and pitched the nose up - obviously not a cobra, the F-16 was incapable of it, but a sharp pitching-up that the MiG-17s could not possibly hope to match. She pitched her nose back down, and found herself in the perfect position to take them both out, if she was careful with her guns (or lucky with her missiles).

She decided to take the chance.

<<Hound, Fox Two.>>

Her remaining Sidewinder screamed from her wingtip and slammed into the MiG to her left, detonating near its wing. It promptly flopped over like a dead goldfish and dove for the ground, while the other broke away in a panic, or perhaps to find easier prey. Shinobu would not give it that choice.

<<Hound, activating ECM. I am black on air-to-air missiles. Requesting dope on ground targets.>>

[Kassaran]

First Lieutenant Pearsohn "Praeses"
Tokage River Valley, Seian

<<Copy that Null, forming up in overwatch position. Keep me posted, I'll be in touch.>>

After his first missile had struck gold at the onset of the fight, Markus had been itching to recreate that rush, that thrill. It wasn't that he liked killing people, no, that was far to maladjusted for the line of work he did. Rather, he became exhilarated when he put his life on the line, this fight was pushing him to his limits in patience more than anything. He remembered the dozens of sorties he'd flown in previous companies and campaigns, straight up and back interceptor missions. There had been the occassional dogfight, but nothing like the scrum down below, and knowing now that his opponents were pilots in far less than adequate aircraft almost made him feel like it was unfair. Sitting pretty at somewhere on the thicker side of ten miles up, he'd been just idling as it were.

Now, however, the Raven below had picked up something and was slowly guiding the two interdictors towards the inbound hostiles. No doubt they were reinforcements, but if he'd learned anything over his time in Mercenary air work, it was that often times the best were saved as the last. Sitting a little bit straighter in his cockpit as he focused on his radar, divining from years of experience the blips that were his flight-mates breaking out in a head-on attack. Sure the Sparrows were BVR-capable, but the main thing to consider was that they weren't just BVR-capable, they were nimble. They were deadly when used in dogfights all the same, it was simply that he didn't have enough to be wasting on scraps of junk like the ones below. No, what he was in for was the big game, that sparkling prize at the end of the line. He was in for the Ace.

Throttling up his engines, slamming down the afterburners to increase his speed and keep up with his flight-mates, he made sure to stay just up and far enough away to be beyond the range of any tracking stations. Right now they'd be highlighting themselves to any SAM installations along the river-valley, and knowing that the Beiarusians were the ones bringing in aircraft, he didn't put it past them to have the countermeasures to secure the airspace along with them. In fact, he knew it was almost a certainty that there were some sort of SAM sites down below, but for now they were quiet, probably for fear of getting their asses levelled in an all out assault like the force that had made the mistake of crossing the river. Pushing open the envelope as he skimmed along the maximum service ceiling for his craft, he found himself wondering, just what new Migs would they have sent in, if they had Eagles? They were obviously outgunned and outmatched, surely they'd have retreated and begun relying on triple-A by now, right?

<<Praeses, Null. Keep your eyes and ears open for any hints of radar tracking you, they most likely got SAMs down in that mess and I don't want to have to explain why my ass up here in the stratosphere couldn't save you from some Bear in the jungle with a MANPAD. Also, stay on your toes, I think they've sent in an ace.>>

[Empire of Donner land]

2nd Lieutenant Amabel Allard
"Knot"

The fight began quickly like a Aircraft it's self flying by at Supersonic speeds. Missiles and tracers flew before her eyes like glowing lightning bugs. The order to attack came into her ears and soon the formation had broke. The attackers had begun their bombing runs and explosions rocked the ground and air like earthquakes. Yet, the clouds passed by as if war was not coming and had never come. It was a travesty that the loss of enemy life had to happen today of all days, she thought. The radio was busy with communications of firing missiles, destroying enemy fighters and having those fighters on their tail. Her thoughts were interupted by her Callsign being called.

<<Alright 2nd Squad you know your wingmates and where the enemy is. Vampire and I are going to make a high altitude pass and get our eyeballs on the enemy fighters to see if we can ID them, Knots try to stick with the attackers, and Praeses cover us from afar with those long range weapons of yours.>>

<<This is Knot, I'm with you Praeses. Covering Attackers.

She engaged the Afterburner and the MIG-19 quickly got to supersonic speeds, the ghostly white clouds of air formed around her wings and canopy as she turned and her Radar now detected the enemies allowing the gun sight to now lock on to the aircraft. The yellow circle now floated around in the sight as she flew towards the engagement. She dropped altitude to just above where the attackers were operating watching for the slightest glint of light reflecting off metal fuselage.

Soon she saw that glint and she saw the Swept Wings of what she only knew was a Mig-17 approaching the six of Gunny. She immediately rolled her aircraft over and pulled into a dive to intercept. She didn't have missiles but she did have 30mm HEF-T loaded in guns. Soon she closed it counting the meters until she could fire as the Fighter got closer. The MIG-17 was still in a banking turn and the belly of his aircraft was exposed, It was the perfect shot. She closed in and the Radar Guided gun system locked on to the Aircraft. The circle floated around the Enemy and she maneuvered to keep it there. She pressed the trigger and the thunderous roar of the 30mm guns rang In from the sides and the front of the Aircraft accompanied with the bright flashes of light. She could see the tracers fly around the aircraft and the pilot was panicking until she saw a bright explosion directly on the bottom fuselage and then another on the wing. She passed by and pulled up at high speeds creating the mist on her wings again. She looked behind her as the MIG-17 burned and smoked. The Engine was what could only be described as "Fucked up" as it had recieved massive ammounts of shrapnel and could barely produce the power to be in the Air. The right wing itself could no longer hold its structural stability and broke off, flames spewing from where it was attached and the aircraft falling wildly into the River impacting the water just near the Bridge.

<<MIG-17 Downed into the river, confirm kill?>>

She flew back into the Air spending her energy to gain altitude. She had gotten back to the clouds in a 70 degree climb and orbited around watching for anymore fighters to show themselves either by the light reflecting off them or by shooting their weapons. She would be hidden in the clouds and could drop from above like a Harbinger of death unseen and only heard until it was too late.

[Independent States of Tula]

2nd Lieutenant Vladimir Tula
Tokage River Valley Airspace

As Vladimir and his F-5E gained altitude he looked behind him to watch the MiG-17 still giving pursuit before firing another missile towards him.

"Son of a-" Vladimir cursed as he once more pushed down on his flight stick and sent his F-5E plummeting towards the earth pulling up to steady at a little over 100 meters.

Once again the missile that tracked him was confused by the heat of the jungle below when it followed Vladimir's dive and once more hit the ground instead of Vladimir's jet. It was at that point that Vladimir realized he was going to have to turn fight his opponent and rely on his cannons if he wanted to win this fight. As such Vladimir banked right and began a wide turn towards his foe who's aircraft was too slow to follow, the two jets found themselves slowly having their roles reversed as Vladimir's faster and better turning jet slowly but surely was finding itself coming up around the MiG-17.

"Come on, come on, come on...almost...there!" Vladimir stated to himself as the high-g turn paid off and his gun-sights began leading the enemy jet...now it was Vladimir's turn to give chase.

The MiG-17 pilot suddenly went to bank left, knowing he was being followed, however Vladimir was able to follow easily and so he waited for the shot to line up as he closed in on the MiG-17. He waited until he was about 500 meters from the enemy jet before he began trying to guess the pilot's moves so he could get a good lead on his foe. Suddenly Vladimir received a good lead and he immediately depressed the trigger for his canons. The 20mm HE-I rounds tore through the air towards the MiG-17, the first two tracers missed just in front of the MiG and with them the next several rounds as well, Vladimir grimaced at that and immediately adjusted his aim, he was rewarded soon after as the next two rounds smashed into the MiG-17's left wing, they exploded and tore off the wing, sending the MiG-17 into a death roll towards the ground only about 100 to 200 meters away...the pilot didn't have time nor altitude to deploy his chute and escape. Vladimir watched the jet crash just before a fireball took its place within the jungle, his face gave nothing away as he turned back towards the fight and began regaining altitude for a better position in the next dogfight, as he did that he activated comms.

Wolf: << This is Wolf...splash one Bandit. >>

[SaintB]

At 40,000 feet and pushing the limits of twice the speed of sound the major's Tigershark roared through the sky like a comet. The G-Forces from such a high velocity pushed him far back into his seat and threatened too push the blood from his extremities and into his head making the corners of his vision turn red but it was nothing the Major wasn't used too. He breathed heavy, sucking air in through his nose and into his belly than pushing it all out through his mouth at once in one deep breath and hard push while his flight suit squeezed his midsection and kept the redout at bay and his mind sharp. From his lofty vantage point he could clearly see the MiGs far below and just like had been reported it seemed to be 9's with a handful of 17's as escorts, reports said the 17's had missiles on them but that didn't change that they were dinosaurs by the technology of the day and couldn't even break the sound barrier. A thought occurred to him that the Beiarusians were throwing old aircraft into this to make the Sianese look bad for taking out so many fighter jets. Could it be true?

He didn't have long to dwell on that before one of the MiGs turned up toward him. It wouldn't be able to catch him, not by a longshot, but it could climb to almost just as high as the Tigershark could and packing missiles it could get a shot at him and if those were K-13 missiles it could get a clear shot at him from 35 kilometers out. Right now at Mach 2 and heading in the opposite direction of the MiG it had no shot on him but in only a few second he would be beyond it and it would turn on him to get a shot while he decelerated and tried to turn. Fuck it, he had AIM-9Ms and could get a shot from the front of that MiG but not at his current speed so something would need to be done about it. He remembered pulling almost this exact thing over in Ameribad while flying for So-So...

He pitched the nose down toward the enemy fighter and cut the throttle while applying the airbrakes, breathing even harder through his nose and out his mouth as the constant surge of G-Forces hit him even harder. He switched on his left missile rail as his aircraft screeched and squealed under the stress of the maneuver and an alarm sounded in the cockpit to alert him that he the G-Forces were too high and he was in danger of passing out and loosing control of the aircraft. His world was red now and all he could hear was the shrill safety alarms and the intermittent beeping indicating the missile was trying to lock on its target. And then finally as his vision started to clear he heard the beep terminate and was able to see that the 17 had broken away rather than play chicken with a modern Osean fighter even if it was designed for export.

"Oh no. You don't get away from me that easily."

<<Shark to Vampire. I'm going after that MiG that tried to threaten me, engage enemies at will.

He inverted the F-20 in its dive and made a loop that brought him behind and above the MiG and tried to track it again. The instrument panel beeped first slowly and then more rapidly as the MiG-17's pilot tried to out maneuver him unsuccessfully. Finally the satisfying single tone sounded and Garret pushed the trigger button. <<Shark. Firing fox 2.>>

The missile streaked away from the left wing of his aircraft and rushed toward the MiG then in less time it took for him to take a breath his missile impacted the target just about center mass and blasted it into thousands of pieces. <<Shark here. Confirm another 17 is down?>>

This would be the twelfth confirmed kill of his career, first with Morena squadron, and he was pretty sure there would be more to come.

<<MIG-17 Downed into the river, confirm kill?>>

Shark had a moment to catch his breath, the island was a little ways behind him but when he craned his neck he could see the wreckage in the river, <<Shark confirming one in the drink. Good kill Knot.>>

He changed his heading back toward the island where the MiG-9's were reaping havoc on the friendly infantry. Two flight, elements 3 and 4 get after any AA you can see and knock out any targets of opportunity you can ID as unfriendly. Knot, Vampire, lets get those MiG-9's! We're taking this ugly little island!>>

*AA Kill: MiG-17 with AIM-9M.

[Beiarusia]

Capt. Aleksei Tallow “Null”
Tokage River Valley, Seian

Close air support had turned the tide of battle. It’s heavy armor obliterated, as well as their AA, the Beiarusian force was unable to maintain its position. The remaining forces (Tank x1 / Vehicle x2) began to pull out. Seeing the withdraw, the formerly pinned allied units moved to secure the island.

Ally-G: << They’re falling back! Get your asses over that bridge now! >>

The allied tank led the charge forward.

In the sky, however, the fight was still raging, but even that too was losing steam. The escort fighters were slowly being picked away, and the lightly armed Fargo’s were soon to be without top cover. A final run against the bridge. Cannons firing two allied vehicles were soon ripped to shreds. Unable to do more the three MiG-9’s moved to bug out, speeding northeast towards allied aircraft. The final MiG-17 broke off its engagement and followed after.

Creeper: << Aircraft are turning tail. >>

Null watched from where he lingered at just over 20,000 feet. The battle had been over before it began, and in a show of just how skilled his new squadron was, he and his wingman had been unneeded. Still, that could change at any moment. Aircraft were still approaching and there was no telling what could happen next.

*****

The MiG-21, callsign Castle, was speeding towards the engagement zone, the Fishbed moving at just over Mach 1. A pair of Su-9’s were on either side, keeping pace. The three aircraft had been on patrol further east when the fighting began. Now that they were arriving it was clear that they were too late to turn the tide of the battle. However, the pilot could not simply allow his allies to be engaged without so much as an equal payment made.

The R-77 achieved BVR lock on and was soon fired, streaking across the sky towards the CF-105. A second lock on and another was fired, this time bearing for an aging Super Saber. Two missiles remained.

Creeper: << Missiles coming your way. Evade! >>

The Su-9’s sped forward to engage, the MiG-21 pulling up to better find its prey. The MiG-17 soon joined with the Fishpots, the retreating Fargo’s continuing out of the operation area,

Null watched as the missiles grew ever closer. Soon his own alarms were blaring.

Null: << Got one on me. Someone take that guy out! >>

The Eagle flipped and dove for the earth, its wingman breaking off to come back around. Leveling out, Null continued low along the river, planning to pull towards the north once the missile drew closer. If he timed it right it would lose him in his turn.

He hoped he timed it right.

[The balkens]

<<Vampire Copies.>>

Yuri spoted a spec growing in size and ID'd it as a Mig-9

<<Im in position, engaging bandit at 2 o'clock low>>

he called out to shark as he rolled the lumbering phantom over to the right and pointed his nose down for the pursuit. Yuri's heart-rate shot up and he felt it in his chest. Pulling up, causing his eyes to blur and the Gs were taking a toll already. Leveling out, he regained his vision and low and behold; there was the MIG-9. The enemy bandit saw him coming and in a panicked maneuver, he pulled up in an attempt to escape. Yuri spotted this but was a half mile behind him, plenty of room to maneuver in for the kill. pulling back on the stick and easing on the throttle, he climbed and his nose pointed at the ancient jet fighter like a spear. Yuri activated his weapons radar and heard the familiar tone of a solid lock.

<<Vampire, Fox 2!>>

The missile released from the hard-point and streaked off towards its target.

"You're dead." Yuri said as he witnessed the mig being consumed in a fireball. <<one down. Shark, headed over to cover your si->>

Yuri was cut off by the call on the radio. <<Where did they come from?>>

[Gvozdevsk]

As she tried to keep track of the Mirage, Liora saw a burst of tracer fire , causing the MiG to break. It was friendly, Shinden coming to assist in her ancient fighter.

Panther <<Don't worry Shinden, I've got this bastard.>>

Liora was able to get behind the enemy MiG, approximately one and a half kilometers away from him. She followed the MiG's every move, waiting for a good lock. Soon she had the familiar tone of her Sidewinders acquiring a lock on target.

Panther: <<This is Panther, I've got good tone. Fox Two.>>

One of the Sidewinders launched from it's hardpoint on the Mirage's left wing and streaked towards it's target. The MiG tried it's best to evade, and Liora tried to keep up with it, trying to maintian lock in case the MiG did evade the missile. But it was no use, the Sidewinder's proximity fuse detonated, causing the MiG to loose control and fall to the earth.

Panther: <<Splash one bandit. Moving to engage other targets.>>

By now more aircraft enemy aircraft were starting to show up. Liora pulled the Mirage into a climb to gain more altitude, but kept the plane low enough that she could cover the attack craft.

[Relikai]

Null: << Got one on me. Someone take that guy out! >>

Shinden snapped her head as she saw the Eagle dive to the river, followed closely by a missile. Checking her radar, she could see the newcomers fighting at high altitude.

Shinden: << Incoming bandits! I- I got a lock on me! >>

Beep beep beep beep beep beep. The radar alert warning blared in her ear again, as an Su-9 saw an easy prey in her old plane. Shinden could see the smoke trail of a missile heading for her. Gritting her teeth, Shinden pulled her plane into a climb, intending to dive towards the river and hopefully lose it the same way as the Eagle. Sending her plane to maximum acceleration, the vibration on the wings increased as she dived, the beeping in her head getting louder and louder. Shinden could see the trail as the missile closed in, blinking away perspiration as she fought to maintain her composure. These missiles are much more persistent, and quicker than the one she avoided earlier

Shinden: << This is Shinden, trying to lose the- Aaa-.... >>

Shinden was keeping an eye on the missile which was chasing her from a higher altitude, when it suddenly dropped to chase her on a level altitude. Just as it drooped, Shinden pulled her control stick up, holding her breath, which was knocked out of her as the missile exploded. Fragments tore through the attack craft, puncturing holes in her wing as well as the fuselage. Shinden called out on the radio, only to realise that her electronics has been hit, leaving her with no radio and no radar. Her control stick remained responsive, as well as her engines. Feeling a sharp pain on her shoulder, Shinden felt a stinging sensation as she touched a small fragment which has shot through the armoured backseat. Clicking on her radio, Shinden tried to raise anyone on the net.

Shinden: << Creeper, this is Shinden, do you copy? Shinden is hit, Requesting vector to regroup. >>

No response. Not even static.

Shinden: << Creeper, this is Shinden, do you copy? I repeat... Null, do you copy? Angel? >>

Nothing. just silence as her plane leveled out, some 8,000 feet from the ground. Looking around, Shinden could see that her right wing was shredded, and that she was still in the battlefield. She could not depend on her radar, when she saw it coming. An Su-9, diving from the sky, headed towards her. It does not seem to be carrying missiles, but Shinden, in her damaged plane, was totally helpless to avoid it's next move...

[Rupudska]

*snoop zoop*

While Shinobu was certainly capable of taking on a Fishbed in a dogfight, it had anti-air missiles and she did not. A poor situation to be in a dogfight in.

<<This is Hound, switching to air-to-ground.>> Her Falcon immediately nosed down, flying towards the north side of the island and the remaining Beiarusian ground vehicles. A tank, and two trucks. Not much, but she only had two Mavericks anyway, and she wanted to use them up. She didn't like returning to base with unused weapons if she could help it.

<<Maverick.>>

The AGM-65 on her left wing dropped from its pylon and shot towards the tank, as Shinobu pulled up. She rolled her plane slightly over to the left to get a better view of her shot, and an explosion confirmed her kill. As she began to turn around for another run, she noticed Shinden take a hit.

<<Shinden is hit. Are you all right?>>

Nothing.

...

<<Morena One-Two to Morena One-Nine, are you all right?>>

Still nothing. The F-84 that was Shinden's aircraft seemed to be flying level at the very least, and Shinobu broke off her attack run to get within visual range of the cockpit. Sure enough, Haruna seemed to be... well not dead. Injured, but not dead.

<<Hound to Null, Shinden is hit and injured. Her aircraft's right wing has been damaged, and it appears to have lost its radio. Can we get someone to escort her back to base?>>

Even as she spoke, an Su-9 came in from behind to take out Shinden, who was most definitely easy prey. It was already lining up to fire.

[Beiarusia]

Capt. Aleksei Tallow “Null”
Tokage River Valley, Seian

A red F-16 sped by overhead, an explosion striking the enemy tank only moments later. By some chance it was not a fatal blow but the heavy armor was disabled, and its crew was unwilling to stay longer than needed, especially under threat of the aircraft coming back around. The tank was quickly abandoned. The remaining vehicles, a jeep and APC, continued north in their retreat towards friendly lines.

The remaining MiG-9’s continued north as well. There was little they could do without escorts, so retreat was the only option available to them.

Back on the island allied forces had moved in to secure the opposing bridge. With the enemy armor neutralized it was a simple matter, but despite this no effort was made to cross over the river entirely. The island had been their mission objective and they had achieved it.

Ally-G: << We’ve secured the island. >>

Ally-G: << They’re retreating? I don’t believe it. >>

Ally-G: << We won! >>

Several cheers could be heard over the radio. Far to the south an allied unit, previously a part of the drills taking place further on, was moving in to reinforce. Likewise a Beiarusian unit was coming down from the north.

Creeper: << Allied units had taken control of the island. Reinforcements are on their way. Ten minutes out. >>

Regardless of the apparent defeat, the newly arrived aircraft pressed their assault, the Su-9’s leading the charge with the MiG-21 providing missile support. One missile left.

Null was speeding along the river, the missile sent his way drawing closer by the second. He could see the trail of smoke as it plowed towards him. Pulling back, the nose of his plane ascended and he began to gain altitude, climbing several hundred feet. He banked and turned hard and into the missile’s flight path. As expected the missile turned to follow. Doing a complete turnaround, Null engaged his afterburners and pushed west back towards the island. The missile couldn’t follow the maneuver and soon lost track. It detonated harmlessly not long after.

A sigh of relief as the danger passed. It was short lived.

<<Hound to Null, Shinden is hit and injured. Her aircraft's right wing has been damaged, and it appears to have lost its radio. Can we get someone to escort her back to base?>>

Angel: << Haruna’s been hit! >>

Snapping back to attention, Null scanned the mess of planes fighting for the island ahead of him. Sure enough he could make out a thin trail of dark smoke as it limped up and away, an enemy Fishpot turning to follow. He barely knew the girl, but still, should she be killed he would feel the guilt, he being her squadron leader and all. But there was little need to worry. His wingman was already moving to intercept.

Angel’s F-15 was already flying high, higher than the Fishpot. By the time the enemy pilot realized it was being targeted it was already too late. A stream of tracer rounds erupted from the Eagle, tearing into the tail end of the Fishpot’s fuselage. The pilot pulled up, fighting for control, but it was a lost cause. He ejected just north of the river, his plane exploding as it hit the ground.

The Eagle had not followed after the Su-9 after its successful hit, moving instead to join the F-84F. Flying beside it Angel could see that Haruna was still alive if unable to communicate. The wing was also badly damaged. The plane was done. Angel waved at her friend, getting her attention and doing her best to tell her to RTB with hand gestures.

Null: << Hound. The situation is under control. Angel will escort Shinden back to base. >>

[Ubaria]

Before Noel knew it, the enemy was in full retreat, their morale shattered and formation broken, most of the initial fighting force remained as black charred wrecks amid pockets of craters and flattened foliage. As far as the mission was concerned it looked like a relative success, although the Seianese had taken multiple casualties as well as one of Morenas own pilots having taken a nasty hit, the Thunderbolt held together however and slowly limped from the AO with a trail of grey smoke in its wake.

Though the battle on the ground had been won, the air battle was still in full swing and Noel spotted a lone Su-9 making headway towards the pack, flying only a few hundred feet below his current altitude, Noel dipped the Mirage forward into a steady dive and began turning starboard as to bring the bandit into missile range. The bandit had also spied him and began diving and maneuvering as to bring his craft below Noels line of sight and underneath his craft completely, but he wouldn't have any of it and pitched forward harder and began rolling to the right, keeping the Sukhoi within his line of sight and within locking distance. Eventually the Su-9 had no choice but to level out or face flying dangerously low to the ground and that gave Noel the time he needed to bring the Mirage level and into the sweet spot, a flat tone confirmed the lock and without hesitating, he fired.

<<Aguila. Fox Two>>

A single Aim-9 sped off the starboard wingtip and blazed a glowing trail towards the enemy, the distance meant that the pilot neither had the time to pull evasive maneuvers or deploy flares because it was over before anybody could blink, the missile impacted into the starboard side of the fuselage engulfing the whole plane in a wave of fire that practically split the whole thing in two, a wing span off one way, the tubelike fuselage was just visible though the clouds of black smoke engulfing it as the wreck dropped like a stone towards the hard ground.

<<Scratch one bandit>>

Victory was to be shortlived however because Noels own missile warning system blared into life, a harsh tone reverberated his eardrums as he whipped his head from left to right in an attempt to spot the culprit. It was the other radar contact and it happened to be a MiG-21, a few kilometers behind him, the chase with the Suhkoi had bought him practically level with the MiG and several kilometers infront. Without thinking, Noel rolled the craft a harsh starboard and pulled back to pull a tight right hand turn to throw off the lock.

<<I've been locked. MiG-21 at 9000ft. I've got him in a pursuit. Someone take him.>>

Noel began throwing the Mirage in a series of erratic turns and maneuvers as to upset the bandits aim and began drawing him back towards the pack.

[Tayner]

<<MIG-17 Downed into the river, confirm kill?>>

"We got a MiG closing on our tail." Joker reported to Gunny after they have pulled off their bombing run on the island.

"Copy- Wait, what is that?" Gunny said as he saw another aircraft, Knot's aircraft, lay waste to the poor MiG, filling it with 30mm shots, and ruining some Beiarusian pilot's day.

Gunny: << Knot, that was fucking beautiful. I owe you one when we get back to base. >>

"Joker, we're just gonna fly low for a bit and take a breather. I think we attracted too much attention to us. How much of our munitions do we have left?"

"Well, both of the Mavericks, and the 2,000 pound bombs, as well as a little over half our rockets and 4 cluster bombs. Still no way to attack other aircraft, unless you want to fly directly at them, get really close to them, and fire all our dumb fire rockets at the enemy and hope at least one hits before he takes evasive action."

"Yeah, let's just fly around and look intimidating so we don't have to be saved again."

''Sounds good."

[Kassaran]

First Lieutenant Pearsohn "Praeses"
Tokage River Valley, Seian

Alarms in the cockpit went off all around Pearsohn as his craft's internal warning systems detected the lockon from the enemy ace. He smiled, so that's how it's going to be, and still smiling, he slammed his gloved fist down on his dashboard and urged his plane forward. If it was an enemy Mig and had a BVR capability, it was an R-77 that had been launched and it would be flying solely on inertial tracking until it entered a ten kilometer scanning range. It was autonomous, once fired it was on it's own, and he could evade it from this distance easily. While perhaps it was a more accurate missile, that was only once it's active radar locked on at a closer range.

However, this also meant that engaging at a closer range with the craft would be certain to end in Pearsohn getting shot down. In the end, it was going to come down to a high-speed game of chicken. The mid-course update system that would have to happen just before the terminal guidance system activated inside it's maximum detection range. Travelling into that range right now, he had to act now if he was going to do anything of use.

<<Praeses is locked. Confirm BVR launch. Going Evasive!>>

Slamming the stick back and left, the Arrow responded in kind as he pulled back into the turn and flipped the Arrow into a stomach-churning dive, a glint of sunlight in the cloudless skies. A single solemn teardrop, falling from above in the cloudless skies and powering towards the ground. From behind the flight mask and the respirator a smile was spreading across Markus' face as he knew the stakes. He'd always been one to play with death, he'd done so enough times in the past as a mercenary pilot, but perhaps this was one of the more exciting points. Waves of air rushing past his plane seemed to build up in a howling call across the skies, the features of the Beiarusian forest below only growing closer and clearer as he pushed the envelope of Mach 2. He'd done it before, he'd always known it was pushing the limits of his craft, but he did it anyways.

Slowly though, slowly he pulled back, and fighting against the world (as he admittedly usually did when drunk -just to different extents) he brought the craft level over the surface of the trees, trying to drown out the noise of the alarms in his cockpit warning him of his low elevation and apparently imminent impact that had yet to come as he slammed the rudder pedals back and forth in response to his sudden turns around the hills formed in the geography of the region. It took him a second in all of his moving to figure out why he was doing this still, and then it came, the missile proximity alarm. The radar began to highlight the approach vector and slamming his stick right and low, the CF-105 dropped below a hill.

It wasn't a valley per se, but it was enough, and the missile had been foiled. While perhaps it was the most accurate at actively tracking, it could only do so while it's target was still visible. Going low and using the terrain, he'd masked his signature against the natural rise and fall of the geography. The distance the missile had given him had been more than enough time to break for the ground and go for broke in a stunt that most likely would have cost most fighters their structural integrity. In being designed for supersonic flight however, the CF had stronger frame construction and better supersonic aerodynamics than Air-Superiority fighters.

Pulling back on the stick as he rapidly approached the edge of the valley, total traverse time less than four second, he suddenly wished he'd been paying more attention to his sense of direction as a sudden flash of silver alerted him to an incoming aircraft. Struggling to evade, he rolled hard port, flipping inverse in time to recognize a Mirage flash past him in a hurtling delta-streak. As the craft maneuvered, he counter-maneuvered and in less than five hundredths of a second blew past him moving opposite him and straight into the maw of the enemy Ace.

"Oh fuck me!"

Slamming the stick full up, maneuvering hard as the Mig-21 seemed to scream past in the opposite direction, less than two hundred meters from Markus, it broke into maneuvers as well. Rolling left, attempting to pull up and into the rapid climb that Markus had his own craft in, it would have him in less than three seconds, so he did the only thing he could, and prayed and pulled at the stick.

Arching his helmeted head as far back as he could, pressing it against the edge of the cockpit desperately trying to get a bead on his opponent, he finally spotted the craft fifty meters below him - and looking the wrong direction. While perhaps the Mig-21 pilot had maneuvered correct in breaking left and high, it hadn't counted on the portside corkscrew maneuver making Pearsohn's maneuver effectively a High Yo-Yo. countering the pitchback that the Fishbed below him had executed. A simple yet costly mistake all because of the information from but three seconds before.

Perhaps there was a moment in the ace's mind that suddenly put him at the same conclusion that his warning system did when the Sparrow jettisoned from the underside of the right wing of the Arrow as Pearsohn's HUD lit up with a lock. Perhaps there was a moment where perhaps he thought about just how little he'd actually been able to do in spite of his best efforts. It didn't matter though as the missile lock was obtained held, and acted upon. One and a half seconds later, the Sparrow's solid-rocket-fuel booster ignited, slamming the tracker into overdrive to home in on the target below it. Nevertheless, it was about as pretty a kill as anyone could have expected to see, if not for the sudden event that occurred to disrupt the maneuver.

Perhaps in the initial dive from the ceiling, something had happened to the missile's tracking system, or perhaps some form of interference suddenly caught the missile's attention. One way or another though, as it closed and reached the burst point under the Fishbed's belly, it failed to detonate and travelled off into the jungle below. As it slammed into the ground seconds later, the expanding single rod system sliced through the flora and fauna of the present area for a solid fifty meters and sending a ripple of smoke and debris high into the air. The Fishbed pilot, spared from his vital mistake, had now slammed on the airbrakes and suddenly was pulling up and behind the Arrow as Pearsohn raced by.

How in the-?

It didn't matter, he had the speed and thus energy advantage. Missile lock warnings however were giving Pearsohn a different story forcing him into a sudden and drastic maneuver as he heard the tone hit solid. An indication that a missile launch had occurred and slamming hard left on the ailerons and pulling back on the stick, Markus' eyes closed shut and he let loose a shout that perhaps would have shook the heaven's if not for the pressurized and sealed cockpit he was in. G-Forces pinned him to his seat, an almost certain deathbed from within the coffin that was his Arrow as the R-77 launched from the ace's own rack rushed towards the tailpipes of the Avro interceptor.

Yet, perhaps if not by divine intervention, so too did this missile fail to detonate as it rushed past the Arrow, or perhaps it just didn't expect the pilot to trip the airbrakes he had on his own, forcing a massed airspeed discrepancy that the ramjet had overcompensated for as the missile sped past and suddenly detonated before the Arrow sending debris into the sky around the interceptor and slamming a concussive shockwave into the plane's reinforced airframe. alarms blared even more so now and indicators read that one engine had suffered a flameout as debris had rushed in with the hot gases from the explosion and fried the starboard engine. Thumbing through his emergency compensation systems and ensuring he still had control of the aircraft, he pulled hard inverted with his altitude now at roughly two-thousand feet and fell into a stall that sent the nose up, over, and back down towards the ground. Trailing smoke from the flamed engine and appearing quite dead indeed, surprise and confusion were the first and last things running through the enemy Ace's mind as the missile lock indicator lit up, a tone sounded, and he cast a look over his shoulder to witness the Arrow pull up from its second death dive of the day and slot in behind him to launch a final Sparrow II.

If not to illustrate a more perfect kill, it flew straight and true, the surprise and confusion registering in the Ace's mind as the Sparrow concluded it's hundred-and-thirty meter race to the four meter detonation threshold at which it's 40 kilograms of High Explosive in its warhead detonated. A wave that was the continuous rod packed around the warhead rapidly closed the remaining distance between it and the Mig-21, slamming into it's airframe at the midsection and ripping into the engine and tail assembly. Shearing cleanly off, for a seemingly infinitely small moment it appeared like the craft had sustained no damage. The plane was still whole and then the structural integrity, compromised by the clean cut through the center of the craft's fuselage, failed to keep the craft as one.

An explosion rocked along the sides of the fuselage leading into the fuel tanks on the wings as injection lines and their failsafes utterly failed. Fires spread rapidly into the exhaust, but now split in two forced it away from the front end of the aircraft and discarding it like the booster stage on some of those space-capable rockets. Fire and smoke and oil spewed across the sky like blood in the water as the last shark remaining powered through overhead and watched its victim flounder for a few fleeting moments. Engine parts wreathed in fire broke off as the engine turbines spluttered and failed, fan pieces flying out like small firecrackers and the tail section itself seemed to split into several pieces as the vertical stabilizers and all of the mechanical sections failed. Hydraulic fluid mixed among the rest of the debris coated the jungle canopies below in the blood of the fallen craft as the front half lost control and careened, nose over bisected tail and slammed into the foliage only a few meters below.

Smoke billowing up from the multiple impact points of the wreckage now slamming into trees below, it let the rush of adrenaline flowing through the man named 'Praeses' think of something witty to say. Something that he felt had probably been left unneeded, but still to somewhat relieve his own stress gathered, he now opened up his channel to say. If only his communications system had been working and not been knocked offline as unwittingly he'd been narrowly missed being struck by a piece of shrapnel from the last R-77 fired.

<<Need I say, Fox One?>>

Silence was the only thing that filled the airwaves in response, and trying again to elicit some sort of reaction from his silent crowd, he said it again.

<<Need I say... Fox One?>>

The reality of the situation set in as Pearsohn suddenly suffered from an epiphany and looked down between his legs to see a small portion of metal jammed between them in the few centimeters of open space that had laid there during the last ten seconds of that engagement, a small curl of smoke curling up from them. Tracing it's assumed trajectory back towards where his headset was plugged in, he could see the hole in the space above the connection where the shrapnel had ricocheted through the nose assembly, somehow missing the radar and tore cleanly through a small portion of the connecting wires for the helmet mic set. Levelling out, making sure to compensate for the failed engine, he finally managed to get out the third, and finally successful message from before, but this time speaking tentatively and actually curious as to whether he could be heard.

<<Need I say - Fox One?>>

OOC: Yes, yes... I'm a cheeky cunt.

[Beiarusia]

Capt. Aleksei Tallow “Null”
Tokage River Valley, Seian

The squadron leader had caught the engagement from his position, the CF-105 going head-on against a Fishbed and emerging victorious despite all the odds stacked against him. Null couldn’t help but to smile. His squadron, his team, they were rough around the edges but capable nonetheless. And better still they all were alive.

Of course the dogfight hadn’t been without blows, and the Arrow would be limping back to base. After a moment the pilot could be heard over the radio.

<<Need I say - Fox One?>>

Null: << Good kill. Glad to have you on my side of things. >>

It was a true statement. Had Null gone against a pilot such as that during his rookie days in Sotoa, well, he may not still have his wings. He was good as an upstart, but not that good. Even Graves, leader of the 101st, would be impressed.

Null: << Enemy is pulling out. Reform on your flight lead and- >>

Creeper: << Uh… you may not want to celebrate just yet. Got enemy reinforcements coming in fast. And damn that’s a lot of them. >>

A grimace as Null looked skyward to the EF-111A lingering high above, its silhouette dark against the blue sky. Sewek was as arrogant as an AEW pilot could be but even he sounded a bit on edge. Never a good sign.

Null: << How many is a lot? >>

Creeper: << A lot. Count… twenty aircraft closing in. Bearing vector two-six-nine. Signatures match those of Flankers. >>

“Fuck,” Null muttered to himself. Morena had done extremely well, but that was against outdated fighters. In the rare instance that Sewek was right things were about to go bad. They were outnumbered and likely outgunned, as well as having already spent most of their ordnance in the previous fight. Holding the airspace above the island would be near impossible with those odds. He had to make the call.

Null: << Null to all aircraft. RTB. We can’t hold here. >>

Angel was quick to respond despite already being well on her way back to base.

Angel: << We’re just gonna let them win like that? >>

Null: << Nothing we can do. Just- >>

Creeper: << Enemy squadron has split. Changing vector. >>

A long pause.

Creeper: << Flankers are not moving engaging. I repeat, enemy aircraft are not engaging. New orders coming in from the Major. All aircraft are to RTB at once. Allied aircraft are en route to monitor the situation. >>

Sure enough two blips could be seen on Null’s radar approaching from Koga. Likely the J-7’s used for local patrols. No match for the Flankers, but if the Flankers were not moving to engage then they should be fine. And they wouldn’t be alone. A large detachment of ground forces were inbound from the south and the Beiarusian’s hadn’t yet made to retaliate. For now the battle was over and a ceasefire had begun.

A better ending than the alternative.

Null: << Null again. My orders haven’t changed. Form up and head back to base. >>

Null moved into a cruising altitude and waited for his flight to trail into position. He should be glad that he was going home, that they all were, but he couldn’t shake the bad feeling that had fallen over him. Things had gone bad and were likely to only get worse before they got better. His stay in Seian may well have just been extended.

Two J-7’s passed overhead. He wished them the best of luck.