Operation Blue Sabre [private]

[Lauzanne]

Northern Lauzanne Wilderness, Oisijek Province

The men were on the look out for any more planes. They could hear one departing, out of the sight of the Tunguska which was a disappointment, seeing as the Republic dogs were fleeing with their tail tucked between their legs. However, they heard the sounds of rockets firing, and the man with the binoculars kept eyes out for where this other aircraft would be. The last thing he saw was the flurry of rockets and the JL-9 as he was cut apart by flechettes, one of the 5" rockets hitting the Tunguska and obliterating it's right side track. The improvised napalm bomb fell short, but still igniting a huge swathe of the open area in front of it in searing flames.

Of the entire contingent, the Tunguska was non-operational at best, the crew were shaken and smoke was entering the fighting compartment, two soldiers that were shielded from the flechettes by the Tunguska were shaken, their light transportation vehicles were perforated and their wheels deflated, and the now five-strong group were left stranded.

"Shit. These LAF bastards got us. Go find a radio and report to base." The crew commander ordered to the two disoriented soldiers, who nodded and started making their way towards the vehicles, hoping to find a working radio.

Igrane Airbase, Oisijek Province

With the Hurti soldiers getting into their own Mi-8, the Airborne Reconnaissance team of 8 had loaded into their own Mi-24VL. The rotors were spinning up and the team was ready to go. The team would be changing their mission from a training Crew Search and Rescue to the real deal, and they had brought their armaments to bear; AS-14 rifles, an FZ-8M marksman's rifle, and a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle for heavy fire support.
"Right lads, we're searching for a Hurti pilot, a prototype AI the size of a minifridge, and a Froxian ace with pink hair and cat ears." Sergeant Pearce said over the intercom to his squad as the Hind lifted off the ground.
"... Is this going to be another Teddybear Hunt Incident, Sarge?" the marksman of the group asked, causing a snickering among the group.
"Probably going to be more gunfire involved. Reds apparently caused this shit, and you can bet they're probably already gunning for the pilots as we speak. So keep your wits about you, let's get them home."

---

Lyun made her way across the flurry of activity at the tense, readied base. Dodging various ground crew personnel and soldiers to make her way to the central command building, she was let in without incident, directed to a room away from the press of people. Within she saw two pilots, no doubt wondering what was going on.

"Lieutenants Dupont and Dumitru, sorry to barge in, but I must ask you some questions..." Lyun asked, causing both of them to inspect the newcomer. Full combat gear, yet she looked younger than both of them, especially the mysterious smile.
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything, what happened, how it happened." Lyun stated.

[Monfrox]

"Voskhod 2 on final approach for landing."

It was hard to leave the AO, and Anna had noticed that the Hurti jet had not yet landed either. In fact, it wasn't anywhere on the radar scope from how far out they were. For now, it was no longer up to her to protect Scarlett. In standard practice, contingencies and fallbacks had been put in place for "What if?" scenarios such as this. As she touched down and taxied to the ramp, she noticed an MD 500 Defender II on the tarmac with its rotors going. The Froxian roundel was emblazoned on the side of the fuselage. No doubt the angels were being sent out, and they wanted to waste as little time as possible. Anna parked the F-15AIM on the ramp and went through the shutdown procedure, taking her helmet off and sighing heavily. It was the first time she had ever seen her flight lead bite it, but she was still out there at the very least.

Disc 1, Track 02 - Combat Search And Rescue
Then came the angels. They were decked out in their kit with their SCALE plate carriers and dragon flight digi camo, and carrying CZ-806s. The 6 strong team took to the side benches of the MD500 as the pilots hopped in. In less than a minute, they were off the ground and heading towards where Anna had just left.

"Alright ladies, due to the nature of the situation you will be getting an in-flight briefing." The General, Lieutenant General Draguta Covaci, said as the chief commander for Froxian air forces in Luzanne. "Just about ten minutes ago, our training exercise was cut short when two jets went down. Both a Hurti jet and Voskhod 1 were splashed by unknown enemy forces. Your job is simple. Rescue Voskhod 1 and blow up the wreckage of the plane that went down. Under no circumstances is there to be anything left to take of value from the jet. Make it scrap. Voskhod 1 is Lieutenant Colonel Scarlett Wiske, also known as "Maverick". She'll be expecting you ladies to come get her. Challenge is "torch", countersign is "stable". You unit will henceforth be referred to as "Redfang" for this operation."

"Roger that, Redfang copies all."

"Good luck, ladies. Base out."

The MD500 had taken off and, ignoring all in-place flight traffic rules, was already gone off the runway and out of the airspace with asking for clearance being an afterthought. With the briefing concluded, Colonel Toss took to checking her equipment. All of them had different variations of the CZ-806 between the accessories they had on them, and also had HK45 Tacticals as sidearms. Eight thirty round magazines and enough medical supplies to keep a walking wounded platoon going for a day more made up the bulk of their gear. The SCALE inserts, trademark Froxian "move when you move" armor that was rated to withstand up to 50 caliber at least once, were standard now among all Froxian special forces units. The Colonel briefly lamented the absence of Indigo Squadron, as some top cover would be nice. But no one really expected this entirely, so here they were.

"Here's the plan, squad. We'll split off into threes. I'll lead my side to search for the pilot while Sergeant First Class Dragojević takes hers to demo the crash site."

"Roger that, ma'am." The SFC replied.

"We're at target altitude for drop. I'm not getting closer lest that Tunguska lights us up." The helo pilot called.

"Squad, we are go. Command, Redfang is dropping into the AO now."

They were not just angels in name, but also in practice. Each of the six operators fell off the side bench of the helicopter and into a freefall for a slight amount of time before spreading their white feathered wings from their backs and going into a glide. This provided ample time to survey a landing zone and the surrounding area from above before moving in on foot. The helo turned around and made for the tree tops to avoid getting whacked out of the sky as it headed back to the airfield. In a few minutes, Colonel Toss and her squad touched down on the dirt and tucked up their wings behind them.

"Alright, let's move out." She ordered.

[Hurtful Thoughts]

[Needed some motivation]
Using this approach, they'd jump at 8:35

Punching full afterburner, Tsu went high as fast as it could to avoid any retaliation from the Tunguska before it could recover... It still took nearly 30 seconds of hard climbing with the engine throttle run past the firewall before they decided to resum level flight and survey the damage. As the only aviation still on-scene, they now were the acting senior Forward Air Control on-station. Thankfully, their plane was outfitted with enough laser designators and FLIR to perform their job adaquately as they heard Lt MArtinez going over their radio-check in an Mi-8 for the snatch crew.

Martinez of course, was wasting no time getting to a rolling takeoff, the large heavily armed assault-transport picking up speed rapidly as the Froxian MD-500 took off behind them and soon overtook them, before dropping off their forces a bit short of the objective. Not to be outdone, the Hip pressed onwards, deeper into contested territory while Marcus was franticly trying to keep the large whirlwind one step ahead of itself and out of too much trouble. Spotting a none-too-friendly unidentified concentration, he gave Martinez a clock-bearing and told him to unload on it with HE-Frag and WP rockets to screen their final approach.

After unleashing a volley from the door-guns, the helicopter began to shudder violently as it trasitioned sharply into a hover; that was the Alfa-team's cue to jump. They still were at nearly treetop altitude, but the legs of their exoskeletons were there precisely to break their falls, and to assist in getting any wounded pilots back safely. Many of them maintained their momentum and used it to pick up their tempo as they bounded rapidly through the forest, their movements not matching anything the Lauzanni rebels were even capable of.

Further ahead, Kobe had pulled out his SINGARS radio and made an effort to contact Marcus and get the rescue team relayed to his position as he loaded a green identification-flare into the underbarrel 12 gauge of his pistol.

However, unknown to him was that several of the Hurties had a stake in rescuing the Froxian before the Froxians could. A matter of pride more than any desire for espionoge on the part of their F-15SE-Experimental. As such, Schwartz was being sent to see about rescuing Voskod-1 on his own while the others focused on securing, containing, and protecting their Hurti assets until exfiltration. Failing that, Schwartz was to return to the primary mission if taking the Froxian would prove to become a liability.

[Lauzanne]

Northern Lauzanne Wilderness, Oisijek Province

The RSM troops had gotten a message to move out, and the platoon-size element stalked through the forests towards the massive smoke plumes and sounds of explosions. Their mix of cold-war era gear and Soviet weapons would pick them out as irregulars any day of the week, and they were caught flat-footed by a helicopter showering them with rockets followed by machinegun fire. The cloud of white phosphorus scattered them, the soldiers caught in the cloud running as the ones still alive returned fire at the helicopter even as it lurched to a stop.

Another platoon was on it's way to the second smoke plume, briefly stopping to hear the gunfire before continuing onwards. AK's, PKM's and RPG-7's were all part of their arsenal, their goal being to secure the pilots to leverage against the LDF dogs. Each man was determined, hard bitten and ready to go, stalking through the green of the forest to collect who they thought was a Lauzannean pilot...

---

The Mi-24L came to hover over the ground, the Airborne Reconnaissance troops jumping off in pairs. As soon as all 8 soldiers were off, the Hind took off back to base, the troops getting up into a crouch as Sergeant Pearce got his bearings, flicking his rifle to 'SEMI' and pointing towards the commotion.

"Rangers, move out."

The team began to head towards the developing situation, spreading out and keeping their weapons up.

---

Lyun had returned to the hangar, now converted into a makeshift briefing area as the platoon of Airborne Reconnaissance troops mingled with her own Razvedka team. She approached Mladic, nodding as he turned to the platoon.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to get to business." Mladic started, all of the soldiers instantly becoming attentive to the board. Mladic stepped to the side, showing a full view of a map of the area, with some markings attached to the map, with a last one getting added by Lyun.

"Roughly thirty minutes ago, a Hurtian JL-9 and a Froxian F-15 have been shot down by anti-air fire from the Red Star Movement. They've scrambled CSAR teams, and we're going to give backup." Mladic started, turning to Lyun.
"According to the intel, the unit has both guns and missiles, most likely putting it at being a 2K22 Tunguska. Also noted is a nearby base which is likely the RSM's FOB. We don't have the forces to do it now, but a follow-up mission is on the books."
"Get in, get the pilots out, ID the launcher, get out."

The briefing carried on for a few more minutes, mostly callsigns and protocol work to be told. However, within 15 minutes the platoon was piling into a handful of helicopters, some thirty soldiers of Lauzanne's special forces ready to go. The pair of Mi-17's and a single Gazelle started to take off towards the hot zone, alreaady seeing the oily black smoke clouds from here...

[Monfrox]

Anna hadn't barely put down her flight helmet and stepped off the ramp before she was storming down the hall of the building that the Luzanneans had given them to set up the HQ. She barged into the main room and caught the gaze of General Covaci.

"Have a seat in another room, Major."

"General, I-"

"That's an order."

Anna noted the tone of the short woman with three stars on her shoulder boards and horns coming out of her head and sighed. She turned and went for something to eat to take her mind off of her flight lead for now.

---

Colonel Toss checked her equipment on her vest rel quick before engaging her TAC display on her wrist. Six small blips indicated the squad's positions. Three were already heading off to an area, and thanks to overhead satellite coverage, it had its own topography of the map. The SFC's job was easy. The plumes of black smoke were an easy marker, but that still meant they had to be careful. The enemy surely would also be moving in. Or...would they? Only two aircraft shot down. Assaulting an airbase wasn't exactly the smartest idea. Nevertheless, the squad kept guns up. Someone out here wished them ill-will and harm and they weren't gone as far as they knew.

"Move out. Three meter spread. Line formation." Toss ordered.

As they started, she quickly switched over to start frequency scanning. Among the standard SERE equipment was an emergency transponder for quick location, and a short-range radio. Hopefully, one of those had survived the ejection. The frequency scan would pick up one or the other, if not both. They had to be turned on manually, though. Toss let the TAC do it's thing and maintained visual on the heading towards the spot where she ejected over. A small beep alerted her that her frequency scan came up with something. The registered signal was making small beeps over her headset, indicating it was the transponder.

"Bring it in closer."

Toss vectored in on the frequency, a line showing up on her small map.

"Shift heading and let's pick up the pace. Back to three meters. Triangle formation."

Her squad nodded as she hit her radio.

"Redfang Actual to Redfang 2, how's it going, over?"

"Redfang Actual, this is 2. We're still making our way towards the crash site."

"Roger, 2. Let's not be out here any longer than we have to be. Keep your eyes open. Out."

The Colonel made for the signal with her team, hoping that they weren't going to end up finding their pilot bleeding to death.

[Hurtful Thoughts]

Soon as the men were clear, the Mi-8 nosed-over to quickly transition back to forwards flight, as the first shots came inbound, the rear-gunner immediately swung-out on a tether with their GShG and let loose a torrent of 7.62x54R at a rate of 100 rounds per second as it quickly absconded from the scene; seemingly leaving the Hurties to their own devices.

Boomer, Schwartz, and Rosenthal each stacked up behind a suitable tree for cover; with Schwartz having bounced a bit higher and landing in the crotch of a low tree as Boomer leveled his CMG-3 and let a carefully measured pull of the trigger to make the unholy stamped-metal buzz-saw bark in return with a plethora of tracer-rounds mowing the treeline before them. From his vantage point, Schwartz was already glassing and getting a rough lase for range on their welcoming party.

"300" Was all he needed to say, as Rosenthal nodded and loaded a WP grenade into his underbarrel HM-320, Schwartz meanwhile popping off a red hand grenade slightly behind themselves as Rosenthal fired, hailing Marcus over the radio:

"Mark, this is Bravo-One-Actual, requesting gun run on white, perpendicular and outside of the red, how copy?"

There was a moment of static, but then the radio crackle in response, "We read. Wear your caps tight, student driver onboard, heavy rain inbound."

In the air, Marcus had been going through pointing the billowing-smoke out to Tsu, and directing him to make a precision gun-run with the trainer's 23mm cannon, while in a steep dive, brakes out and with a hand on the throttle to re-engage afterburner as he made a J-hooked strafe-run around the perimeter of the Hurti troops before making a treetop RTB.

"Bingo weapons and not too much fuel after that airshow, guess we'll be out until the real CAS shows up. Happy hunting."

"Roger. Good luck finding one when you get on the ground."

As soon as the gun-run had passed, Schwartz and Rosenthal were already busy flanking their would-be ambushers, fire and movement was the name of the game but a little shock and awe never hurt a hurti.

[Lauzanne]

The normally peaceful forests were now playing host to the battle that was now unfolding, the RSM soldiers taking cover and returning fire at the trio that landed. The PKM's drowned out the other firearms, briefly drowned out by the returning MG fire. Shouts in Russian had the soldiers start to spread out, right until the gun-run hit. A few of their group were felled, several more wounded.

More shouting as the group spread out enough, the PKM's spreading their targets out to try and suppress the flankers as the group fairly evenly split their firepower between the three encroaching soldiers.

---

Sergeant Pearce heard the gunfire, seemingly closer to the F-15. Seeing the Hurti helicopter flying over his head, Pearce surmised that the Hurtian pilots were likely in the most danger. He pointed out to his squad to divert to the right-hand smoke plume, the squad efficiently changed direction, weapons up and scanning all around for Reds. The fact that the animal chatter had died down was never a good sign, as it robbed the team of a valuable method for detecting if humans had entered the area recently. Pearce was normally a more patient man, but given the situation and the current threat of Reds capturing the Hurti pilot, there was no time to waste.

After a few more minutes of creeping through the underbrush, the team stopped. The sound of the flames was barely audible, with Pearce reaching for his radio.
"Kobe, this is Lance 1-3. Approaching from the Sierra-Echo, over."

[Monfrox]

Scarlett had managed to salvage what she could from the ejection kit but she hadn't been able to get the radio working. Luckily the emergency positioning transponder was. For all her effort, she was no worse for where thanks to not ejecting at supersonic speeds. Her body would get whiplash effects setting in later but for now the adrenaline would do. Speaking of, the sound of gunfire made her perk up. It was close. Too close for comfort. She only had her 9mil with her for protection, not for extended fighting. With that in mind, the Lieutenant Colonel made a break for it to in the opposite direction. She stayed low but fast until she felt far enough away for safety.

"Gotta hide somewhere, though...can't be moving so much or they'll have a helluva time finding me." She said to herself.

Scarlett looked around before a though occurred. She holstered her weapon and found the perfect plan. Quickly, she scaled her way up the largest tree she could find, far out of sight of normal patrols.

---

Colonel Toss stopped and signaled a halt at the sounds.

"Gunfire. Firefight."

"Right where we're headed." One of the other angels remarked.

"Pick up the pace. I don't want our pilot getting more holes than she already may have."

The team moved into a light jog after shifting their heading again to home in on Scarlett's new location.

---

The SFC whistled as she came upon the wreckage of the F-15AIM. It was largely intact, and that was what they were here to solve.

"Alright, I'll cover. You girls get the thermate charges planted. Make sure the avionics and radar are covered before moving to the rest of the plane."

[Hurtful Thoughts]

Kobe painfully managed to fetch some of the more substantial survival-gear from the ejection-seat crash-pan, and used one of the provided claymores to booby-trap the seat against any souviner-hunters as his radio's earbud squeaked out of the silence. Apparently te Lauzanne crash-team was arriving ahead of schedual... a bit too convienently ahead of schedual. A firefight that was decidedly very Hurtesque could be heard not too far in the distance, which is odd, that a recovery-group wouldn't be concerned about that.

So he surmised that the team over the radio was a deception, and maintained silence while he splinted his shattered ankle best he could; essentially crafting a stilt from his kneecap to the ground to take pressure off of it.
-----
As for the firefight, Foyt had stayed aboard te helicopter for some time as a ramp-gunner as the insurgents were now being distracted by the commotion his comrades had committed in their combat. The Mi-8 doubled-back to make one final pass as Foyt made a rather risky jump while at speed and altitude, using various branches and tree-trunks to redirect and delay his fall while relying upon his exoskelton to prevent anything from being broken or dislocated. Needless to say he landed in the midst of the rebel-group with a smack upon the ground like a gigantic armor-plated sack of omleat MREs wih extra hot-sauce.

With everyone finally in position, final protective fire was given with Schwartz and Boomer shifting their fire to their right of Foyt, letting Rosenthal pepper the nearest sliver with a few well placed rifle-grenades while Foyt let his hands do most of the persuading of any surviving rebels to quickly surrender before seeing what the insides of their brain-cavities looked like.
------
Grable had made a low pass over the airfield, performing a barrel-roll while deploying airbrakes and flares to both slow-down and protect himself from any manpad-traps waiting by the apron. The Centripital force was also enough to dislodge the landing-gear should a hydraulic isssue have existed. Once on the ground, a Hurti supply truck was already sprinting out to the taxiway to refuel and re-arm the jet to provide close air support for everyone's safe extraction.

[Lauzanne]

The platoon of the RSM arrived at the crashed JL-9. Even with the plane in it's gutted state and in pieces, the leader examined the roundels.
"This isn't an LDF plane. Igor, call it in. Everyone else, fan out." The leader ordered, a grizzled man with scars adorning his face, a glare in his eyes.
The platoon spread out, stalking through the greenery to find the pilots.

Sergeant Pearce saw the RSM soldiers combing near the crash site, cursing mentally as he gave hand signals to his squad. Next to him was the RR-8 team, with the machine-gunner off to the left and the riflemen on the flanks. Everyone was ready to go, and Pearce started the ambush by hitting the gunner on the shoulder.

The RSM soldiers heard a loud bang, and one of the groups nearest to the aircraft were hit by the HE projectile as the forest came alive with gunfire. They scattered to cover, attempting to return fire even as another HE blast went off, taking out a couple more of the insurgents.

Kobe would hear a second gunfight happen a lot closer to his position, with the AS-14's of the LDF contrasting with the firecracker sound of the AKM's firing back.

---

The RSM rebels fighting this strange group were holding their own, a few more injured by the HE grenades going off. Someone else dropping in behind them and shaking the ground let them know the jig was up, and the gunfire died down as they surrendered to the massive exoskeleton-equipped man behind them. Their leader, with part of his arm missing looks him
"You're not with them, who the Hell are you?"

Foyt could see the rebels had mis-matched gear, either old LPA camouflages, OD clothes or more civilian attire. They looked rough.

[Monfrox]

"Redfang Actual, this is Redfang 2."

"Go ahead, 2."

"Charges on the aircraft have been planted. We're making out way back to you, over."

"Roger, we may have to drag her out of the fire. Stay sharp."

"Affirmative."

Dragojević looked to her team and signaled to move out before detonating the charges, sending the wreckage up in flames and destroying everything that made the plane special. It would burn well into the night and be nothing but scrap metal by the time it was done. The three-strong team now headed in the Colonel's direction.

The Colonel herself was closing in on their pilot's location. Curiously enough, the distance from the transponder wasn't reading how she thought. Her team was right on top of it, but it still had distance remaining. She signaled for the other two to fan out while she tick-tacked on her TAC display. The rustling of leaves caught her attention, making her stand back and look up. Sure enough, Scarlett was looking down on them from her perch. Toss smirked for a split second before keying her radio.

"Actual to 2, we got her. Head back and locate an LZ. Signal for extraction."

"Affirmative, Actual."

"Corporal, get our ace down from there, would you?"

"Yes ma'am." One of the angels replied, jumping up and using her wings to get up higher to reach Scarlett.

"Redfang to Base, we've got the package. Will mark LZ for extraction."

"Copy, Redfang. Helo will orbit until you're ready."

"Roger that, out."

Toss looked up to see the Corporal slowly helping Scarlett down from the tree and shook her head with a smile. Of course they ran the cat up the tree. But they got her down and checked her out. Except for a few bruises and scrapes, she was fine.

"Can you walk?" Toss asked.

"I'm not crippled yet." Scarlett said back with a smile.

"Good enough for me. Form up. We'll walk you out."

"Gonna take me out to dinner next time?"

"Only if you're paying."

Disc 1, Track 03 - Extraction
The team shared a laugh before forming a triangle around Scarlett and moving to egress as quick as possible. None of them wanted to be around when hostiles came calling.