TFA3 3.3 – Preparation for Retaliation
Right after Makai Rider ceased their air raid, medic personnel immediately started their work. They treated the wounded personnel and evacuated the body of the fallen. In total Jack Sparrow suffered 112 fatalities. They mostly were member of MG squad and Tuscan bowman who had been stationed at Rocky Field.
The medic personnel also properly evacuated and stored the body of fallen Riders. As for their Cloud Hawk, personnel from Logistic and Support Group would cremate them. After stripping its armor, they moved the death Cloud Hawks to a natural basin in the north side Penna Hill, and then poured in some fuels and set the huge pile of Cloud Hawks into fire.
Surprisingly, some Riders survived the crash landing they had gone through. They were barely alive, but not quite death yet. Without second thought the medic personnel properly treated them and managed to stabilize their vitals.
At the same time, the engineer platoon carried out damage assessment for Net-centric Tower. It took a whole hour before they grasped the tower’s condition to the smallest detail. Then, Lieutenant Norma held a technical meeting in the rooftop of 7th floor, and invited every squad leader under his command.
With solemn tone Lieutenant Norma opened the meeting, “The Multi-mission 3D AESA Radar lost its entire panel and we don’t have spare component to fix it. So, we will employ Plan B.
Using 2D Air Search and Surveillance Radar for early warning, while Weapon & Fire Control Radar and Fire Support Radar will be used as radar interrogator.
As we all know, Plan B will eat more power and we have to reboot and calibrate the whole system every eight hours or two times more often than the Multi-mission 3D AESA Radar, but it will satisfy our need to detect and track aerial threat far enough before it can harm us.
Now, if any of you have technical issue to carry this contingency, say it now.”
Engineer Powel immediately raised his hand and waited until Lieutenant Norma nodded at him before saying, “My squad has no technical issue for this contingency, but may I confirm a few things.”
“You may,” Lieutenant Norma calmly gave his consent.
Without delay Engineer Powell said in concerning tone, “Up to this moment, we still can’t integrate Plan B with Ripper Station.
Will Command Center satisfy with this condition, considering that Ripper Station is our primary air defense, and when it’s not working as integrated air defense network its effectiveness is too low to be useful?”
“Before we came here to carry damage assessment, Major Alfred personally said to me that Plan B is more than enough,” Lieutenant Norma firmly replied. “He also told me that last night, after a long pause, first armament shipment from earth finally arrived.
Within this package, Harley Quinn received 730 combinations of AIM-120C5 and AIM-9N, along with 400 Stinger.”
“We have standardized our A2A missile to AIM-120C7 and AIM-9X, so why did we receive stuff from older generation?” Engineer Powell curiously asked.
“It’s a shipment from Central Africa Federation,” Lieutenant Norma casually replied. “I don’t know why we didn’t get it from the State, so don’t ask me about the detail.
One thing for sure is that an hour ago, the missile package from Harley Quinn and six spares 15-tube Multi-mission Launcher from Davy Jones, has arrived at Woodpecker and tonight Ospreys will airlift it here.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
So, let’s get back our means to detect, track, and identify aerial threat, and then Command Center will be able to effectively use the new firepower we will receive.”
“““Aye Sir,””” The squad leaders replied simultaneously.
“Other question?” Lieutenant Norma waited for a few moments before continuing, “No, let’s get the work done then.”
Wasting no time the engineer platoon carried out their work.
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The bustling activities in Penna Hill did not take place only at outdoor area. In the underground hangar, since morning, the ground crews were busy preparing AH-1Z Viper for tonight show. First, they made sure the Vipers would be in best condition to fly. Then, they installed the wing-tip Longbow fire control radar, followed by 4-round dispenser rack loaded with Longbow Hellfire on each wing.
To maintain and flew their fleet of choppers, ACG didn’t recruit only former USAr and USAF personnel. They also recruited ex-personnel from USN, USMC, USCG, military branch from other country, and even from private sector. The concept was pretty similar to Air America, the infamous CIA’s covert airliner, which recruited personnel from any source they could reach and then kneaded them into a single cell organism.
The advantage of this recruitment model was that ACG would be able to recruit veteran rich with operational experience in shortest time possible. However, while Air America adopted it only for limited amount of recruitment, ACG employed it to enable mass recruitment. As the result, lot of ego conflict, pissing contest, and even mass brawl happened in the initial phase of ACG formation.
And it was not surprising that the biggest incident was a mass brawl between former ground crews from USAr and USMC. For the record, the flight crews were also participated in the brawl actually, but the higher-ups in Harley Quinn were pretending they didn’t see it and so no official report mentioned about their participation.
Initially, it was only a bar fight between two squad of ordnance crew. However, the friction between former ground crews from USAr and USMC had piled up in the air for a while, and finally it erupted. In a blink of one eye the fight turned into mass brawl that involved more than 200 men from each side. It was also so wild, to the point General O’Neill had to put Harley Quinn in high alert only twenty minutes after the brawl broke out.
When the CO of Military Police arrived at the location with every man he could gather at short notice, his first reaction after witnessing the mass brawl was, “Are you kidding me? I ain’t separating these savages. I don’t want to accidentally get killed.”
Colonel Patricia then made a call to Brigadier General Rayden and asked him to send immediate assistance, and it took three whole companies of light infantry, one CQB Company, along with Frogman Platoon who had just arrived from earth, to stop the fight.
Then, after both sides were subdued, separated, and neatly sat in the football field with black and blue face, pressing lips, and hands tightly tied with double-reinforced plastic zip lock tie, precisely like prisoner of war, Colonel Patricia immediately stood in the middle between the two sides.
“Who the fuck started this shit?” Colonel Patricia asked in solemn tone
A former USMC mechanic immediately looked straight to Colonel Patricia and curiously asked, “Who is this middle-age chick?”
And in a casual tone a former USAr mechanic who sat across the former marine replied, “A former chair force chick it seems. Let’s just ignore her until the real adult arrives to give us the lecture.”
“Roger that Dude,” The former marine calmly expressed a mutual consensus.
In an instant killing intent flashed in Colonel Patricia’s eyes, and it intensified further after a moment later she found out that no one knew the exact reason why they joint the brawl. People from both sides just joint in at first sight, and all they knew was that they didn’t want to lose to the other side at all cost.
Without second thought Colonel Patricia then sent everyone who participated in the brawl into unforgettable and unspeakable hell, she personally designed with passion as for the first time in her life she could show her dark side as a true sadist without restraint.
But what was in the past was in the past. Now, every member of ACG could operate and function as a single cell organism no matter what their background were, as if they were a zealot cult.
And so, just a few minutes after the sun fully downed in the west, the Vipers were fully ready to launch the retaliatory attack. Swiftly, the ground crews installed the helitow cart under each Viper, and then connected it to Humvee.
They tunnel to exit the underground hangar was very steep, so it would require Humvee to towed the Viper.
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