Chapter 38

 THIRTY-EIGHT

Trigger watched through the FLIR pod as the massive helicopter hovered over the target building. A wavering jet of exhaust from the turbines glowed white in the image before being thrashed around in the rotor wash. Almost immediately, Trigger could see the small grey blobs of Basilisk descend onto the roof and go about their mission, and as quickly as the helicopter arrived, it took off over the stadium across the street. He took a look at his watch and quickly jotted down the time.

“Lifting, five personnel inserted. Returning to holding area.” Lauren reported over the radio.

 

Even without the aid of the sensors, he could see the flood of people evacuating the building.

 

His job from this point was now more overwatch than close air support, and while important, was boring as hell to him.

 

He looked across the bay. He’d been to Anchorhead twice prior. First time was with the LRSSG to disrupt an Erusean staging area to prepare for the Farbanti invasion, and the following time was the ultimately fruitless escort of an Erusean General.

Intel screwed the pooch with that one.

 

The city looked different, now nearing a year since the fighting had subsided. No longer was the sky filled with anti-air shells and the ground being shaken by poorly aimed explosives. Trigger turned his attention to his radio; As far as the local air traffic control was concerned, the Longsword was no more than one of the dozens of survey flights that flew along the bay constantly. In the water, he could see the red lights of the navigation buoys outlining the sunken vessels. He couldn’t help but draw his own comparisons to his own experience years prior.

***
The air raid sirens blared in the distance below. Black smoke belched from the bay as hundreds of contrails filled the skies.

He looked through binoculars at the burning hulls, most of the ships didn’t even leave port before they were hit. Others had crewmen evacuating as their fuel bunkers lit aflame and exploded. One lone aircraft carrier, tucked away in the furthest portion of the harbor started to trudge its way forward, sidestepping her fallen comrades.

 

There was a deafening roar above him. A Tomcat shot past going impossibly fast, followed by another three smaller, sleeker F-5 Tigers.

 

He looked in vain to see the tail markings, possibly for any squadron of the Barbet, but the fighters were long out of sight. Taking a sigh, he set the binoculars down to watch the chaos unfold from a distance.

***

Trigger shook his head and checked his watch. Should be wrapping up soon. He thought to himself. The gunfire over the radio had subsided quickly, there was one minor injury but none of the Oseans were seriously hurt or worse. Trigger could see from all over the city as flashing lights descended on the entertainment district.

 

“Archer 15, Lancer. Do you have visual on the LZ?” The CH-53 pilot asked.

Trigger quickly slewed the pod over across the bay to the park. The small empty spot along the water in the industrial zone of the city. As expected, the minor police presence that patrolled the region had been called away across the bridge which would allow the CH-53 to land relatively unnoticed.

“Lancer, Archer, LZ is Ice, you should be the only ones.” Trigger reported.

“Copy Archer, will be nice to be able to stretch our legs for a moment or two.” Lauren replied.

 

There was the sound of squealing tires that filled the radio, “Magus has linked up with Assassin, we’re oscar mike.”  Fick replied.

“Copy Magus.” Trigger replied.

The plan was to fight their way onto the highway, and from there, head through the financial and industrial districts and exfil at Grunder Park. Triggers entire job was to harass anyone following the Marine’s vehicle. He frowned at the irony of the situation. Trigger tapped on the Longswords SA display until it highlighted their BLUFOR tracker, a small blue diamond appeared in his display as the FLIR locked onto their vehicle.

“Magus, Archer, be advised, two vehicles on your six, closing.” Trigger reported.

“Archer, Rider 1-3, Vehicles are local law enforcement. Will need a show of force pass. Inbound from the west” Morgans voice crackled over the radio. It wasn’t a proper nine-line but it was close enough for Trigger to get the idea.

“Understood. Archer inbound.” Trigger reported.

With the stick, he selected the GAU-19 gunpod on the right wing; rolling the plane abeam the fleeing Marines, he advanced the throttle. Building up speed he started a climbing right turn over the bay, before rolling the Longsword over to the left and descending towards the city. Swinging the Air Tractor wide, he set himself up two miles ahead of the Marines. The helmet display showed a small reticle for the gun target.

He took a breath and exhaled resting his finger on the trigger.

The Basilisk van shot past the reticle, then he squeezed the trigger for less than a heartbeat. A handful of rounds belched from the pod, erupting the asphalt between the police and the Oseans. Trigger pulled up on the stick and away from the city below.

“Archer, Rider, we have broken contact. Getting onto the expressway now.” Morgan reported.

It took them a moment before the car made the turn north into the towering financial district of the city.

 

“Magus, this is Lancer, be advised, we’re seeing a lot of movement around the LZ, all of it heading your way.” Lauren reported.

“Understood, if it’s too hot, depart and wait for our signal.” Fick ordered.

“Wilco.” Lauren responded.

Trigger keyed up his radio “If its OK with you, I can break off and take a look.” He offered.

There was a brief pause. “Archer your cleared off.”  Fick replied.

 

It was less than a minute before he closed the distance towards the industrial district. Like the Helicopters crew had indicated, there was a convoy inbound towards the Marines. Trigger locked the pod on one of the vehicles. It was a pickup truck, and a group of men piled hap hazard in the rear. Slewing to the second vehicle, he could see something mounted within the bed.

“Magus, Archer, have sight on unknowns. Look to be half a dozen technical. Do not appear to be law enforcement.” Trigger reported.

“Archer, you are -“ The radio clicked to static.

Trigger called over the radio “Archer did not copy, say again?”

 

Silence.

 

Trigger blinked. All markers in his helmet had vanished.

 

ECM? Trigger thought to himself as he tried to troubleshoot his equipment, all the while his eyes scoured the sky for any hint of the culprit.

 

Something glittering in a passing skyscraper window caught his eye. Turning over his shoulder he could see the long tail on an afterburner high above the city.

Throwing the throttle forward he nosed the Longsword into a dive towards the deck, levelling off at less than two hundred feet, racing past the small yachts and sail boats that filled the shallower edges of the harbor.

 

Hesitantly, he switched his MFD to the stores display. To his chagrin, the large X across his few weapons confirmed his suspicions. It was exactly the signature of the Colibris fighters that he had encountered in his escape from Farbanti, and who had costed dozens of pilots their lives.   

 

He sighed in frustrating as he flipped his kneeboard to the checklist, gently tucked into a plastic sheet, however ‘checklist’ was too deserving of a title for what Trigger had. It was a Post-it note that some mechanic had hastily scribbled the activation sequence for the Air Tractors direct fire control system. Using a small pen light around his neck, he found and pulled the breaker for the FCS, flipped the power switch to the box next to his knee and his MFD blinked, before entirely blacking out.

 

“Fuck!” Trigger hissed, as he hastily checked his engine gauges and controls, as he did, the Aircrafts avionics glowed with the Garmin logo, and slowly data repopulated across the display. Trigger laughed in astonishment. Banking the Air tractor into the man-made canyon of the financial district, he checked his weapons stores page.

 

Most of the engineering of the DFCS went over Triggers head, however he was able to understand the basics. By design it was a ‘dumb’ system, which meant that all he had full access to was the gun and any self-guided munitions. He would have to go without his FLIR, HUD or the CCIP for ordinance, as well as losing any of the aircrafts onboard support equipment for the weapons; However, he was not left entirely blind. Leaning forward he hit a button on the side of the HUD. Slowly a green circle with a dot appeared in the center of the display. He grinned as he dived towards the Marines vehicle racing down the expressway.

 

“Archer, Engaging bandits” Trigger called out onto the jammed frequency.

He squinted down to his Airspeed indicator; he was reading close to 210 knots. Screaming past the Marines, he started to close the distance on his target. Up ahead, starting a blockade, was the unknown technicals. To give the Marines fair warning, Trigger pickled off a few flares to the road below.  

 

It was another Show-of-force pass, but he wasn’t willing to tip his hand just yet. As he crossed over the blockade, Trigger pulled up and popped off more countermeasures in the off chance one of the hostiles had a MANPAD.

 

“Come on you bastards, take the bait” Trigger growled to himself as he climbed the Air Tractor higher into the sky.

***
The sound of the turbine engine was deafening as Trigger’s plane screamed over the van.

“What the fuck is he doing!?” Dennings yelled in astonishment as he struggled to keep the van on the road.

Morgan uncomfortably braced himself on the side of the van ripping open the pouch on his vest and retrieving a fresh magazine “Probably figured out we’re being jammed. Might be rolling in on those vehicles himself.” He said calmly as he seated the magazine into his rifle.

“Fuck my ears! He couldn’t do it quieter?” Dennings asked.

“Your fault for not wearing Ear pro.” Adams Chastised as he shuffled towards the back of the van.

“Hold it, he just popped flares right up ahead. Can we get off any sooner?” Fick asked.

Dennings shook his head “No, we just missed our last turn off for another mile or two.”

Morgan could hear the Lieutenant curse under his breath “Alright, we’re going to have to push through this.”

“Because us bypassing the ambush is what they expect us to do, right?” Kyle asked sarcastically.

“Exactly, They’re not professionals, clearly.” Haver replied grinning.

“Morgan, get the signal flare ready.” Fick ordered.

“Sir?” Morgan said hesitantly.  “Worse case scenario we have to rappel from the overpass and hoof it, I want the Helicopter in the air and giving us as much top cover as they can.” Fick explained.

Morgan nodded and quickly produced a bright red flare gun, popping the breech open he tossed in a shell.”

“Here it is! Get ready!” Dennings yelled.

***

Trigger searched the sky for the bandits, cursing the lack of visibility Air Tractor provided. He rolled the plane over and prepared for another pass, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw the rocket motor screaming towards his plane. Continuing the roll, he pulled back on the stick and released countermeasures, the airframe groaned as the added G forces threatened to rip the various pods from the wings. The missile passed through the flares, overshooting, and exploding on impact with the water below.

“That’s one” Trigger said to no one in particular.

 

Trigger leveled off and started his turn towards the Bandit. He had no hope in taking the Bandit on with BFM alone, but he had a plan. An incredibly stupid plan, but a plan none the less.

 

He watched the bandit’s afterburner roar as they turned in on Triggers aircraft. Screaming towards the merge, Trigger kept the throttle to the firewall and selected his Sidewinder missiles, rapidly warming without the argon agent to cool the seekers. A low growl filled his ears. To his frustration, the seeker’s tone remained steady, unable to lock onto the bandit. Trigger waited until he could see the silhouette of the bandit clearly and then pulled the Longsword into a rolling jink maneuver. The shock cone of the afterburner was blinding in the night as it passed by the windows of his aircraft. Leaning over his shoulder, Trigger could see the bandit had pitched up into a high yo-yo maneuver, putting the less agile Air Tractor onto the defensive.  Trigger grinned. Right where I want you, asshole.

Looking up over the hills that bisected the city, Trigger could see another afterburner trail burning in the night.

“So, your buddy’s staying out of the fight? Too bad.” Trigger remarked.

Trigger turned his attention over his shoulder, feeling blind with the lack of visibility and a disabled missile approach warning system. Losing sight of the bandit, he pulled the fighter into a high bank turning climb towards the city. It was a gamble since it bled off the little excess energy the plane could carry, but it would allow him a chance to return to the fight. A rooster tail of water caught his eye as he could see the bandit dive low to get a missile shot onto his aircraft. Trigger watched as the missile rocket motor flared to life and peeled towards his plane impossibly fast.

Only got one shot at this.

Trigger hit his stores release button, dropping the Sidewinders and few Hellfires he had attached to his hard points. Feeling the weight dissipate from the aircraft, he rolled the plane over and pulled hard towards the city below causing the second missile to overshoot. Trigger pulled up, his landing gear just barely missing the rooftops of the buildings below. He exhaled.

“That’s two.” He spoke.

***
“Was zum Teufel macht dieser Dummkopf?” What in the hell is that fool doing? Lauren asked rhetorically. From the Helicopters hiding spot in the park, She could see the entire dogfight play out, illuminated by the green glow of her night vision goggles.

“Ich glaube, er versucht aktiv, sich umbringen zu lassen” I think he's actively trying to get himself killed. Her husband remarked.

“wie lange bis zum bingo?” How long until Bingo? Lauren asked changing the subject.

“Zwanzig minutin mein Schatz.” Twenty minutes my darling. Ben replied sweetly, causing her to smirk.

Lauren keyed the radio “Magus, this is Lancer, what is your status?” she asked.

Waiting for a moment, she heard nothing.

“Scheiße! Diese Schwanzlutscher jammen uns immer noch!” Those cocksuckers are still jamming us! She hissed in frustration.

 

Suddenly, her crew chief Erwin rushed into the cockpit. “Shau da!” He yelled pointing out the window. Faintly over the rooftops of the crowded financial district, was a bright red burning flare that was rapidly descending.

It only meant one thing, the Oseans were in trouble.

“Zeit für Revy!” Lauren ordered Erwin. Nodding he rushed to one of the many duffle bags the crew kept behind the cockpit as Ben and Lauren lifted the helicopter off, racing towards the flares location. Over Erwin’s intercom, she could hear the Kerchunk, Kerchunk, Kerchunk, as he loaded the shells into one of the many parting gifts the trio had taken in their unannounced retirement from Belkan military service.

“Revy ist fertig!” Erwin reported as they descended into the financial district.

 

On the main expressway cutting through the heart of the city, Lauren could two blockades erected opposite each other. One one side, was the police, on the other the insurgents who had engaged the Oseans. In between was a shot up white van, and dozens of other cars. Tracers soared through the air as Police and another force dueled in the middle of the city. Lauren frowned as she pushed the thought of those trapped inside the vehicles out of her mind.

“Ich hoffe, wir sind nicht zu spät" I hope we’re not too late. She prayed to herself as she descended onto the scene, staring a pedal turn for the rear Cargo door to face the carnage.

She didn’t need to look over her shoulder to see what happened next.

 

Erwin calmly walked to the open door and took a knee. He shrugged briefly before he shouldered the M41 pump action grenade launcher, affectionately referred to as ‘Revy’ by the Belkans who used her.
He took his time adjusting the leaf sight at the front and gauging if the downwash of the rotor blades would affect the trajectory. Satisfied, he took aim and pulled the trigger, firing with a satisfying sound.

thump.

Too late, the Insurgants had only just taken notice of the helicopter over the gunfire when the first two-pound shell of high explosives hit their position. A large explosion sent shrapnel and debris flying everywhere, damaging the other vehicles in the blockade and killing many of the insurgents unlucky enough to be within the blast radius. Erwin racked the slide and took aim. Another thump and moments later another technical exploded. Seconds later, a group of insurgents exploded as Erwin lobbed a 40mm grenade into their formation. A final grenade sent the last armed technical exploding, fragmenting and shredding the unprotected insurgents. Sparks started to fly as some of the survivors had started to take aim against the helicopter. Calmly, Erwin walked back and returned with another parting gift. He clipped a bungie cord to a ring on the roof of the cargo Bay, he lifted the heavy M60 machine gun into place, Satisfied, he took his time and aimed. In large sweeping motions, Erwin raked the positions of the survivors until the ground fire had stopped. The Armor piercing 7.62 had cut through the aluminum and steel mercilessly.

“Du bist jetzt startklar” Your clear to land now. Erwin reported as he talked Lauren down, hovering just above the cars cluttering the roadway below.

Erwin sat with his feet dangling from the cargo door as he watched heads hesitantly pop up from behind the scattered cars.

“Eins, Zwei, drei, vier… Funf! Ich habe Funf Oseans!” Erwin yelled excitedly, tossing a small rope ladder to the beleaguered force.

 

Moments later, the Osean Marine Lieutenants head popped into the cockpit. “Damn, I never thought I’d be happy to see a Belkan!” He said smiling.

“Well don’t be happy just yet, we’re still being jammed, and we still have to get out of here.”

Fick nodded. “We have everything we came for, just get us out of here.” He replied.

 

“Fünf an Bord, bereit zum Abheben” Five on board, ready to take off Erwin reported.

 

As the CH-53 took off towards the North and out of the city, Lauren looked to the dogfight still raging overhead.

“Viel glück du verrückter Mistweib.” Lauren said quietly as they departed to safety.

***

Captain Samantha Harrison sat in the Gardos Air Base command post as the overnight officer on duty. It was a deathly boring assignment, but even those on the fast track in the Air Defense Force had to pay their dues occasionally. Absent mindedly scrolling through her emails, one of the bases phones rang. She hesitated in picking up, just incase it was another drunk looking for a pizza delivery and getting a military installation instead.

The Airman on duty sighed, put his magazine down and answered the phone.

“Gardos Air Base Command Post, Senior Airman Wilkerson speaking, how may I help you?” He asked annoyed.

Harrison noticed his demeanor changed as he heard the caller.

“Uh-huh… Yeah… Ok.” He muttered in response as he quickly jotted down notes on a piece of paper.

“Do you mind if I put you on a brief hold sir?” Wilkerson asked hesitantly before muting the phone.

“What is it?” Samantha asked.

Wilkersons facial expression was that of confusion “Ma’am, are you aware of any sorties tonight around Anchorhead?”

Samantha thought for a moment and shook her head. “None off hand. Why?”

“Well, that was the Anchorhead Police Department. They’re calling for Air Support.”

Samantha chuckled “They know we can’t get involved in a foreign civil matter.”

“Yeah… that’s the thing… he said theres a Dogfight happening right now.” Wilkerson said hesitantly.

“The fuck? Are you sure this isn’t a prank call?” Samantha asked.

“Didn’t sound like it ma’am.” Wilkerson replied.

 

Samantha sighed and pulled up the phone directory. She dialed out to one of the few people who would know what was happening.

A tinny voice came over the line “Fourth Fighter Squadron, Lieutenant May speaking, how may I help you?”

Samantha gulped “This is Captain Harrison at the Command post; I need to speak with the ops officer now.”

“Well Ma’am, Major Lehto has left for the evening-”

“Then fucking wake him up!” Samantha yelled.

There was a pause before another voice got on the line

“This is Colonel Hayden. What can I help you with?”

Without pausing, Samantha explained the situation that was passed through. The Colonel listened intently, only interrupting to clarify information.

“-So that’s the situation Sir.” Samantha reported.

 

There was a pause on the line.

 

“Let him know we’re enroute.” The Colonel replied before hanging up.

***

Based on the intel that Bandog had provided him, He was reasonably certain the unknown jets were limited on their ordinance, with the prevailing theory being that they only carried two missiles, but like with everything else on the jet, it was largely uncharted territory in fighting them. Starting a turn towards the waterfront of the city, he took inventory on what he had left. One gun pod and the FLIR pod.  Not great, not terrible.

He weaved through the buildings until he was over the freeway. Flying over he could only see billowing black plumes of smoke from burning cars that littered the roadway. He didn’t see any movement or gunfire.

Gotta get the jamming to stop. Trigger thought to himself as he pushed the other questions out of his mind. He climbed over the rooftops and searched for the bandits jets. A swift movement caught his eye as he watched one of the jets Diving down to position themselves for a shot at his airplane.

Now you join the fight. Trigger smirked, gently adding power he started to weave when tracer rounds danced across his canopy.

“Fuck!” Trigger yelled as he rolled the Air Tractor onto its side and yanked the stick back to jink away from the cannon fire, the nose pitched back then slumped forward, the stick vibrated as the plane stalled from the violent motion. Rapidly, he cut his throttle to idle and slammed the stick to the forward stop. After what felt like an eternity, the nose dropped, and he watched his airspeed indicator wind back up. “I needed a fucking AoA sensor Bandog!” Trigger hissed as he dived the Longsword away from the oncoming fighters. Doing the only thing he could think of, he got low to the ground, the top of the smokestacks of the industrial district passing above his plane.

Running out of energy, Trigger made a climbing rolling turn over his right shoulder. Rapidly losing their chance to shoot at him, a slurry of gun rounds flew towards Trigger from the closest bandit. Trigger looked up and watched the second bandit rolling in behind the first. Unlike last time, he wouldn’t have the chance to correct with a turn that easily.

 

It was the perfect shot, and the bandit took it.

The Missile ignited and raced towards the diminutive Air Tractor. Trigger slammed his throttle forward, pulling the stick to its rear stop. Straining with the sudden onset of G-forces he flipped open the red safety switch cover and depressed the button.

 

For a moment, the sky of Anchor Bay was illuminated as bright as the day when fifty decoy flares and glittering chaff rained from the sky. The dazzling sight was immediately interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the middle of the display.

 

The Longsword fell end over end towards the ground. Remembering his training, Trigger idled the throttle and kept the stick forward, praying he still had enough of an airplane left to fly. Within a second and a few thousand feet, the Plane arrested its cartwheel and returned to controlled flight.

 

Trigger did a quick control check before breaking out into jubilant laughter.

Can’t pull that trick off twice!

By his best guess, the Missile had only detonated just under his aircraft.

He looked out towards his wing and switched on his remaining weapon. He caught sight of one of the Bandits.

“Ok, you’ve had your fun. Now its my turn.” He said grimly. 

 

The Missile Bandit was pulling away at full afterburner, too fast for Trigger to catch up. He turned his attention to the first jet. He was in perfect position for what Trigger wanted.

Making a wide sweeping turn, He could see the Bandit roll in for his attack. Trigger knew that this time, the Bandit would wait until he was certain Trigger was in a position that he would not be able to jink away from. Trigger was counting on this reaction as he pulled the fighter over the water.

 

He grinned wildly in anticipation.

 

It didn’t take long before he saw the first tracer graze his Wing. He pulled the throttle back to the stop, then sliding it sideways, he threw the prop into beta range. With the rapidly decreasing airspeed, he yanked back on the stick; The nose of the aircraft lifted to almost straight up climbing slight. He pushed the throttle to full thrust and slammed hard on the right rudder pedal. Violently the plane snap-rolled over the right wing.  

He held down on the gun trigger as the planes nose arced towards the ground. The pipper’s dot resting on the nose of the enemy bandit.

While the 50 BMG lacked the generalized aircraft stopping power the 20mm Trigger was used to, the few hundred exploding armor piercing rounds the Longsword delivered made quick work of the bandit as the bullets detonated along the cockpit, wing spar and engine of the enemy fighter. The Fuel captured in the tanks engulfed the twisted and torn wreckage as it plunged towards the water below.

 

Trigger recovered from the dive and turned towards the second bandit, who had already turned back towards Trigger’s aircraft.

 

Trigger rested his pipper’s marker on the nose of the rapidly approaching airplane. It was a high aspect shot for both pilots.

 

Slowly, the radio crackled to life “Yokai Flight, Leads in. Two, cover.” A voice said over the radio.

Triggers determination rapidly fell into confusion as the Bandit broke off into a high climb. The Missile flew out from the belly of the aircraft before the jet exploded.

Trigger looked up over his left shoulder where bandit had fired towards and saw two silhouetted fighters. Trigger wasn’t sure what their type was but was glad for the help. He rocked his wings in thanks.

 

“Splash One, Two, engage second bandit.” The voice ordered.

Second bandit? Is there another one?

He was answered when one of the silhouettes dived on him.  

“You Schwanzlutscher!” Trigger yelled in frustration as he dived towards the city.

***

It was early in the morning when the two pilots of the 4^th Tactical Fighter Squadron “Raging Oni’s” had received the scramble orders. Led by Captain Daniel “Bear” Polarski with Captain Rick “Pickle” Lehman following in trail, the two men clambered into their lightly armed F-2A ‘Viper Zero’s and took off across the bay for the quick flight to the Anchorhead region. Once at altitude, it didn’t take them long before they could see the lights of the city along the shore. The Bay Tunnel twinkling as the lone strand connecting the halves of the city together.

“Local police forces reported three aircraft in the area, all who had fired on them. According to Air Traffic control, there’s no friendly fixed wing assets in the area, however there are some Police helicopters. Let’s bracket them for the ID.” Bear ordered.

“Two Copies” Pickle replied.

Bear turned on the Zero’s Air-to-air search radar, to his surprise, it showed nothing in the city.

Moments later Pickles voice was heard over the radio. “Lead, I’m unable to get a lock on anything in the area.”

“I’m seeing the same thing. Well, no matter, we’re only loaded with Sidewinders anyways. We’ll just have to get closer and-“Bear was cut off by a bright ball of light over the bay.

“Holy Shit!” Pickle exclaimed. “Focus! We need to get in there and secure that airspace!” Bear reprimanded his wingman.

“Two!” Pickle replied quickly.

Bear eased the throttle forward into afterburner. He could see the city in detail when the second fireball shot out from the sky.

“Yokai One-one, I have a fireball.” Bear reported

“Lead, I have two bandits, looks to be going for a merge.” Pickle reported.

“Yeah, I got it.” Bear replied.

Momentarily, the radar picked up the targets. “Ok I got one fast mover and one slow mover, I’ll engage the first one, and you get the second.” Bear ordered.

“Two!” Pickle acknowledged.

As he crossed over the Anchor Bay bridge he rolled into the merge on top of the fast mover, who had broke off towards the Viper. A dull growl turned into a high-pitched screech as the Sidewinders seekers locked onto the Bandit.

“Yokai Flight, Leads in. Two, cover.” Bear ordered.

“Smoke in the air!” Pickle yelled.

Bear hit the pickle button on his stick and dispensed counter measures. “Fox two!” he yelled.

Bear watched as the enemy fighter exploded. “Splash One, Two, engage second bandit.” He ordered calmly.

He watched Pickle roll in for a guns strafe onto the second slower target. He watched a quick belch of fire from the shoulder of the Zero as tracers descended on the Bandit. The slower target jinked away and flew towards the city.

“Let’s not let our quarry get away. Form up on me and we’ll re-engage.” Bear spoke.

***
Trigger swerved the Longsword between the buildings, attempting to terrain cover his aircraft from the unknown interlopers.

Lieutenant Fick’s voice crackled over the radio.

“Archer to Magus. Respond if you can hear this.”

Trigger chuckled “glad to hear your voice, what’s your status?”

“Fine, linked up with Lancer and have exfil’d out of the AO.”

One of the Interlopers voices crackled over the radio “Gardos, appears bandits are on secure channels, Switch to Cardinel Three.”

“No Fun.” Fick remarked “Archer, Disengage and rendezvous at the fragged location.” Fick ordered.

Trigger didn’t acknowledge but was aware of the next steps.

With the threat of the Cartel’s jets at bay, he turned his Fire control system back on. To his dismay, he was down almost all of his munitions. He had thrown away all his countermeasures his last-ditch attempt. Regardless, Trigger was painfully aware that his only chance was to break off his contact with the professional fighters.  

As Trigger flew through the city, he could see the jets shoot across the sky. They had followed him and were trying to box him in for an easy kill. From the tactics he narrowed it down to either the FCU or Osean fighters, with his money leaning on them being his countrymen.

As the tall glass skyscrapers passed by, dozens of feet from his Wingtips. Trigger got another idea.

 

He punched 243 mhz into the radio and called out.

 

“Hey, you guys wanna see what a dumbass is capable of?” He taunted as he climbed the Longsword over the safety of the buildings. One of the jets passed within a hundred feet of him and quickly engaged its afterburner and climbed away. Immediately his RWR started chattering as the Oseans had locked onto his aircraft with their radars.

 

He eyed his target and made a direct line towards it.

 

The chattering increased as he watched the two Osean fighters close on his position from his situational awareness display. He aligned himself over the express way past the Anchor Bay Bridge. A Rapid beeping indicated they had fired a missile at him.

 

Trigger squinted. The yellowed concrete entrance of the Anchorhead bay tunnel was his only port of safe harbor left. He took a sharp breath as he crossed the threshold.

Time slowed as the sound of the explosion was amplified across the tile interior of the tunnel. Debris fell and lights flickered as Trigger struggled to maintain control of the Longsword in the confined space. Any hiccup and he was dead instantly. The cockpit was filled with a strobing flashes of sickening yellow light as the plane roared underneath the sodium vapor fixtures at a break-neck speed. Anticipating the chicane in the road, he rolled the plane over onto its right, then rapidly to its left. He swore as he felt the wheels of the landing gear scrape the tile siding of the tunnel. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he rolled forward to the exit.

Within a heartbeat, he was free. The RWR Remained silent.

“Archer fifteen naked” he reported. “Enroute to fragged location.” He added as he flew north towards their planned airfield in Erusea.

Checking his fuel, he was astonished. Once again, he wouldn’t be landing on an empty tank, but he would only have moments of fuel to spare.

***

The flight back into Chopinburg from the refueling airport had been uneventful. As Trigger had anticipated, Arrangements for post combat maintenance was already made in advance when Fick reported what had happened to Bandog. After landing at the predetermined airport Trigger joined the Beleaguered team in the back of the Helicopter. The only one he could tell was awake when he climbed onboard was Fick, with the rest of the Marines secured to the net seating and fast asleep.

It was mid-day by the time the helicopter crested the hills to the compound. As the rotors spun down, Trigger could see Bandog already awaiting them on the ramp.

Trigger shakily stood up and walked out to greet him. “Of what do we have the pleasure?” Trigger asked sarcastically. Bandog tossed him a newspaper. It was written in Erusean, He was very rusty with the few words he picked up from

Cossette, alongside another man. Trigger made a mental note to read the article later but he was happy to see her smiling.

the Second and third articles Trigger couldn't make heads or tails of, however the fourth article caught his eye.

 

Le retour de Trois Grèves?

 

“Return of Three Strikes?” Trigger asked hesitantly.

Bandog remained stoic “Exactly. My contacts in Osean Military Intelligence are just about shitting themselves because they had written you off as dead; if not officially, Others think this was some daredevil copycat.” He reported.

"Where was this written?" Trigger asked, struggling to read what was written about the engagement.

"Axel Bay Gazette, But it’s been picked up by almost every paper in the continent, and even republished in Oured Daily and the Bana Press" Bandog explained.

"Wow, guess I get around. Kinda blows our cover though, doesn't it?" Trigger asked.

“We’ll see. If nothing else, it showed those bastards who bloodied their nose last night.” Bandog said, flashing a slight grin.

 

"Wait, I thought you said they had already lost aircraft?" Trigger asked

 

"Yes, I did, By our count about eight. Six of which were likely Erusean Pilots who just got the airframes that morning. The only victories we got, was either through pilot inexperience on their end, or sheer fucking firepower. It took a Carrier Air Wing to kill two of them with what I believe are experienced, if not sloppy, crews. In your case it was still a flight of F-15's to get them off your ass, so at a minimum for a victory we need 2:1 split with Gen four aircraft or better." Bandog sighed.

"But Last night? Last night you took on two, by yourself, in a goddamn glorified farm tractor and kicked their ass, but not only that, made a fucking spectacle out of doing it, after we had just kicked their front door in! Everyone is going to know Three Strikes is back, even if they don’t want to believe it, because there may be only half a dozen other guys as batshit enough as you are to try to do that. This was the first lopsided defeat they have had. We can only see if they’re going to learn from it.” Bandog said

 

“So, any idea who this Lisa Park chick is?” Fick asked walking up from behind Trigger.

“Who’s that?” Trigger asked.

“The only target we missed last night.” Fick said annoyed.

Bandog scratched his chin. “Nothing came up on what I was searching through when you called. Hopefully, there’s something in those hard drives you recovered to point us in the right direction.” Bandog explained.

“They’re all yours.” Fick invited, pointing over his shoulder to the bags secured in the corner of the helicopter.

***

Cossette stared at the picture attached to the document.

It was a grainy CCTV photo from inside the Anchorhead Bay Tunnel. It was some prop airplane, but adorning the tail was three white stripes. The document had been one forwarded to her by those sympathetic to her in the Erusean Intelligence Service. It was a detailed after-action report by two Osean fighter pilots who had encountered a mysterious dogfight above the city the night prior. Local police were stumped and chalked it up to a crescendo to a brash terrorist incident relating to a string of other events that occurred earlier in the night

What are you doing Trigger? Was all she could think about.

a knock on her bedroom door broke her from her trance.

“Come in.” she said wearily.

 

He walked in, adjusting the cuff link on his dress shirt. “Well, I’m ready for the announcement, are you Rosa?”

 

She scowled and folded the paper neatly back into the envelope. “Since when did you start getting so friendly?” she growled.

 

Alex made an over dramatized hurt expression “Well you did agree to the terms of the deal.”

 

“wasn’t like I was given much of a choice.” Cossette mumbled under her breath as she fixed her makeup in the mirror.

 

Alex smirked “That’s better. Media will love this.”