One-six
“In position for chase,” Lenn's jumbled voice came through radio.
“Copy, accelerating to mach two-point-five," One-six answered.
They sped through the night at treetop level, One-six ahead and Lenn several klicks behind. This is the first part of their plan—to fool the Europeans into thinking that One-six is a friendly aircraft, fleeing from a hostile JF-200.
While the Europeans would definitely find it suspicious that an unidentified European fighter would be fleeing from an enemy, even though they should all be escorting the carrier, it would take a while for them to work out a solution. One-six hoped that the brief delay needed for the report to work its way up and down the chain of command would buy them enough time.
“Do you have the fleet on radar yet?” Lenn asked.
“Not yet…”
“We should pick them up any time now...”
Even though all European fighters are equipped with passive and active stealth, making them invisible to radar and infrared search at long distances, the large carrier aircraft does not. This means, while their radar can see the carrier, the fleet will not be able to detect them yet.
A blue dot popped up on One-six’s radar display as they flew over a slight rise in the terrain.
“Contact, twelve O’ clock, a hundred kilcks, hot,” One-five reported, quickly analyzing the tracking data. “IRST has lock, switching off radar.”
Though the radars of the European armada wouldn’t be able to detect them, their radar warning receivers would still recognize that they were being locked by an unknown source. To maintain stealth for as long as could, they used only passive infrared tracking, which does not emit signals of any sort.
“Tracking…”
As the two fleets closed, more and more targets began to fill One-six's radar screen. Soon the European aircraft would burn through their passive and active masking, and spot them on radar.
Just as the distance between them and the swarm of European aircraft closed to below fifty kilcks, the radar warning receiver in his aircraft began to beep steadily. A single incoming emission appeared on the receiver scope, then two, then ten, then a hundred.
“They have us illuminated,” Two-five mumbled, sorting through the data on her screen. “No lock yet, and no launch yet.”
“They must be confused,” One-six whispered to himself, then spoke on the radio to Lenn. “Do they have you on radar?”
“Affirmative, just got receiver warning a second ago.”
“Alright, launch on me, then go radio silent. We’ll follow the plan from there.”
“The missile with the dummy warhead right?” Lenn asked jokingly.
“…Yes.”
“Right okay, thanks for reminding me.”
Then the radio shut off, and the static turned to silence.
A moment later, another contact appeared on their radar warning screens. It was from behind, and it had them locked.
“Missile launched. Missile Launched.” The missile approach warning system spoke calmly in a mechanical voice. “Missile launched. Missile launched.”
A missile from Lenn’s plane was now chasing after them, quickly closing the distance. Of course, its warhead had been removed, just in case One-six was a little too close.
Far ahead of them, in the European fleet, confusion was spreading among the pilots.
“Contact, two O’clock, fifty klicks, hot.”
“IFF reports friendly.”
“Second contact chasing first ten klicks behind, IFF reports hostile.”
“Since when did we have a fighter that far ahead?”
“...We don’t...”
“…TWR on both, prepare to launch on command.”
“Copy.”
“Missile in the air from hostile contact, appears to be chasing friendly contact.”
“Alright, launch on hostile contact, do not target friendly contact yet.”
Dozens of missiles leapt off of their rails in trails of fire, darting orbs of light in the night sky, twisting and diving down towards the incoming targets. At around fifty klicks, it was stretching the range of the missiles a little bit, especially at such a low altitude.
Down below, in the cockpit of Lenn’s JF-200, the missile launch warning system began to sound.
“We got launches on us!” Kang called out. “Two… eight… a lot of missiles!"
“Press a little more,” Lenn said calmly. Having two dozen missiles being sent your way is in no way something to be calm about, so Lenn had to try very hard not to let his voice shake. “Ying, can…” He began, but quickly realized that Ying was absent. “Right… I’ve got to do the shooting myself.”
He tapped a few buttons on one of his displays, switching over to the targeting submenu. Then he selected some random targets among the incoming fleet, and began to volley off all the missiles he had in store.
“You know those missiles won’t reach,” Rei told Lenn.
“Yeah I know, just trying to get as much of their attention as possible.”
“Alright, Lenn, we should really start defending…” Kang said, his voice a little shaky as he turned his head around to look at Lenn. “Those missiles are getting real close.”
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“Got it.”
He rolled his plane to the right, and pulled a tight 180. Now they were speeding away from One-six and the incoming fleet.
“It’s all up to them now.”
“Yeah…”
"Goodbye, soldier..." Lenn whispered to himself.
“They’re defending,” One-five reported, looking at the rear-facing radar's display. “They have a lot of missiles after them. The guns are going to be turned on us soon.”
The fleet was flying at a little more than the speed of sound, while One-six and his team was speeding through the night at some two-and-a-half times the speed of sound. With the combined closure rate, they covered the distance between rapidly.
“Thirty klicks”
One-six held altitude and turned a little to the side, offsetting his heading slightly to the left. This way, he could hide his intentions for as long as possible.
The European fleet flew low, with the carrier being just five hundred meters above ground, and the highest escorts flying less than a kilometer above ground. The range of the plasma weapon is not quite far enough to place the carrier outside the range of New Asian early warning radar. So, by staying low, they can hide below the curvature of the Earth, and pop up at the last moment to fire upon the city. That way, there would be no way for the New Asians to react and mount any sort of defense.
But because the carrier flew so low, there were no escort aircraft below it, giving One-six a clear way in.
“twenty klicks…” Two-six reported as the swarm of European fighters closed in above them.
*****
“Friendly contact has turned west, now flying parallel to us.”
“Hold fire.”
“Copy.”
"Missiles approaching from the front."
"Defence matrix can take care of it. Proceed with primary mission.”
Radio chatter filled the communication network of the European attack fleet. The sudden appearance of a friendly aircraft being chased by a hostile one was unexpected to say the least. But nonetheless, the general decided to continue with the mission.
He sat in a large chair at the middle of an elaborate control room, surrounded by screens and control panels, all displaying various information about the fleet and the surrounding airspace.
As soon as the report of an unidentified friendly aircraft fleeing from a hostile came in, he had suspected what might be happening.
“You mad, mad people,” he whispered to himself, a wide grin on his face. “You’re not doing what I think you’re gonna do, right?” Then he got back on the radio to the attack fleet, and ordered the commander aboard the carrier. “Carrier, do not engage friendly contact.”
*****
Lenn
“Missiles are closing...” Rei announced to the rest of his crew.
Lenn looked down at his rear-facing radar's screen, and realized that Rei was right. The many missiles had been speeding after them for a good while now, and will soon catch up.
“We don’t have any defense matrix do we?” Lenn asked.
“Nope.”
“Damn…” He closed his eyes and sighed, “Guess we’ll be going back to the good ol' days.”
Back when the war had just begun, before active defenses systems became a thing, pilots had to evade missiles by draining them of energy, or by simply outmaneuvering them.
“Time to impact in seven… six…” Rei read out the numbers from his display.
“Lenn!” Kang shouted. “We won’t outrun the missiles!”
“I know! Lean back!"
Lenn yanked hard on his joystick, forcing the nose of his aircraft up into the air.
If you couldn’t outrun a missile, you better out-turn it.
In an instant, ten times the force of gravity was crushing down on the three. Even with a G-suit, Lenn could feel blood draining from his brain and his vision beginning to turn black. Under such immense acceleration, the human heart just isn’t strong enough to pump blood up to the brain.
He grimaced as the seat dug into his leg and his arms became pinned to the armrest. He could feel his spine compress, and the flesh on his face getting distorted downwards.
But alas, it was a worthy trade, because the missiles, having glided a great distance of air, simply didn’t have the speed to keep up with Lenn’s maneuvers. They simply flew past harmlessly some fifty meters from the tail of their plane
“There’s more…” Rei managed to squeeze out from between his teeth as he fought against the immense G-forces. “Dive…”
Lenn rolled his plane over, continuing with the turn, and began to pull towards the ground. By now, they had sacrificed a good portion of their speed to evade several missiles, and it meant they didn’t have the maneuverability to dodge those that still have yet to arrive. By diving, they force the missiles to change direction in order to intercept them, and also allowing them to recover some of their own speed.
“Closing still… five seconds to impact.”
“I’ll drag them into the ground,” Lenn said. He felt a little weird to be this calm, the sense of doom and panic he had just minutes ago has all but left him.
“You can’t judge accurately enough.”
“I’ll let the ground avoidance system do it.”
Their altitude dropped rapidly. eight hundred, seven hundred, six hundred…
Just five hundred meters above the surface of the Earth, the ground collision avoidance system kicked in, pulling them out of the dive with just meters to spare. Once again he and his crew got crushed into their seats as their plane kissed the top of the trees.
The missiles, having been diving along with Lenn and his crew, couldn’t turn hard enough to avoid hitting the ground, and ended up burying themselves into the hillside.
“Clear…” Rei breathed out a sigh of relief.
Their radar warning receiver had stopped blaring its alarm, telling them that they were no longer being tracked.
Lenn leveled out and entered a shallow climb. They have left the European attack fleet far behind them, and were now more or less out of danger. However, their mission didn’t end there.
It was time for the second part of their plan.
“Flight to control,” Lenn shouted into his radio, “European fleet approaching from the west. I repeat, European fleet approaching from the west. Hundreds of contacts in formation. Appears to be an all out attack. Please advice. Over.”
Static was all that answered their call for a several minutes, until a noisy voice came through.
“Copy. Standby.”
*****
Captain Yuki
Captain Yuki rushed down the narrow hallways, towards the flight control center. He had just been notified by an informant that the attack has happened earlier than planned.
“You really weren’t lying…” he muttered to himself as he went.
He too had been skeptical when Takeshi told him about the crazy weapon which the Europeans have invented, but decided to take his word. The Merchant’s Cabinet have been hard at work trying to spread this information around, and the government seemed to have taken some notice.
Yet, when the report of the attack came from Lenn and his team, the generals decided to ignore it. They didn’t believe such a weapon was possible, and it was just a bait to lure out their planes.
If they refused to believe it, he would have to do it by force.
He charged through the door to the command center, slamming the door open in the process. The controllers turned to look at him in surprise.
“You’ve all heard the report,” Captain Yuki announced. “I want every available aircraft scrambled.”
“Sir… with all due respect, higher authorities have commanded that only a few scout planes be sent out.”
Captain Yuki sighed, and drew his service pistol.
“I think I'm the highest authority here,” he smiled as he swung the gun around the spacious room. “You heard what I said.”
The controllers were all frozen in their seats, unsure of what to do. A few put their hands up, and a few ducked under the table.
“Come on, there’s no time to-”
“Hey! Drop the weapon!”
Armed guards came charging in through the open door, fanning out behind Captain Yuki.
“Drop the weapon!”
Then there was a gunshot, then another, and another. The sound of bodies hitting the floor resounded through the room.
Captain Yuki stood there, unhurt, just with slightly ringing ears. He tilted his head to look at the dead guards, then looked forward again to see who was responsible.
“Sister…”
“Captain Yuki,” the woman spoke curtly, clicking the safety of her pistol on, before sliding it back into its holster. “You can court martial me after the fact.”
Captain Yuki laughed. “We’ll both be court martial’d after the fact.” Then he turned back to the other controllers. “You heard me. I want every available plane in the air. Now.”
Maybe the controllers needed a little bit more persuasion, because no one did anything. Maybe it was the fright, maybe they just didn’t want to disobey orders.
But then, one person gasped, and another turned to look at his screen. Then, within moments, the atmosphere in the room changed from fear to confusion and panic.
“Understood sir, we’ll have every available plane in the air now.”
Captain Yuki looked at one of the radar displays, and saw hundreds of dots blotting out the far western sky.
They were here. The European fleet of destruction was upon them.