TFA3 4.3 – Shit in the Last Moment
After Makai Guard’s ground element retreated from east cliff, the night in Jack Sparrow went in a calm mood. Element who was on night duty carried their task calmly but vigilantly.
As for the element that was on break, they just stayed put in their barracks. Initially, some of them wanted to hold barbeque party and enjoyed their stash of alcohol to reduce the pent up they built when defending Jack Sparrow in the day. However, they instantly canceled it after Major Alfred told them he would skin them alive if they didn’t rest peacefully in their barracks.
Major Alfred was famous for having relaxed approach towards BBQ and alcohol gathering. He would even joint the fun sometimes, putting aside any form of formality and happily shared his alcohol stash. Therefore, when someone like him forbade the gathering with a dead-drop serious expression, everyone couldn’t help but obeyed the order.
And so, after a good night rest, the personnel who were part of daytime operation started to wake up at 4:20 am. After some personal hygiene activity, they went to mess hall, tried to chow as much protein and carb as they could, and washed it down with lot of coffee. Then, they went to their station and reporting for the duty.
The first element who left underground barrack was Ripper Station crew and Tuscan bowman who were being attached to them. In a calm steps Captain Martin led his men and Tuscan bowmen entering black pine forest.
A moment later, the group saw some fully-loaded 15-tube Multi-Mission Launchers that were positioned in black pine forest, along with loading crew and piles of spare missile. In an instant, the Ripper Station crew had a big smile in their lips.
Currently, only 21 Ripper Stations were still in operation. Those Ripper Stations also couldn’t operate in full-auto, bypassing the IFF protocol for lightning speed reaction, and formed integrated air defense network. The crew had to operate it individually using remote control. It meant the Ripper Stations couldn’t automatically guard each other flank and rear, and multi-directional attack would defeat it.
Therefore, the presence of mid-range air defense would boost the Ripper Station crew’s moral up to the sky. Most of all, when they arrived at the center of Ripper Station formation, they found a pile of Stinger missile guarded by a Sergeant and three personnel from Logistic and Support Group.
The sergeant from Logistic and Support Group immediately walked over to Captain Martin and handed over a document. “Captain, we are here to handover the Stinger package.”
“Yeah.”
Wasting no time Captain Martin took the handover document, signed it, and returned it to the Sergeant from Logistic and Support Group.
“Sir, I think you should check the package before signing the document.”
“Well, if later I find we have discrepancy between the package and the document, I will just ask my men to beat you,” Captain Martin calmly replied.
“Understood, Sir.”
“So, can you tell me how many Stingers we have in total right now?” Captain Martin curiously asked.
“137 missiles,” The sergeant calmly replied.
“And the distribution?”
“84 missiles to your unit, 4 missiles for each Ripper Station. The rest are being split between defender in Rocky Field and Net-centric Tower.”
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“I see.” After slightly nodded his head two times Captain Martin asked another question, “What about the other missile?”
“Around 200s, mix of A-1-20 and A-9.”
“Finally, we have a means to nail opposing Rider far before they can harm us.”
“Aye Sir.”
“Well, you may leave Sergeant. Thank you for your hard work.”
“Sir.”
Without further ado the Sergeant from Logistic and Support Group left with his men. As for Captain Martin, after giving his men a short brief, he let them to set their Ripper Station, along with the new arrival Stinger to replace the Talon laser-guided rocket.
A moment later, the Ripper Station popped up amid the tree tops on black pine forest one by one.
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Around 130 km south of Jack Sparrow, a pair of AH-1Z Viper flew in full speed to the west. For the whole night, this pair of Viper had conducted visit and destroy to Cloud Hawk’s pen up to 200 km radius from Jack Sparrow, delivering six deathly sorties and destroyed 14 Cloud Hawk’s pen in total.
This long duration hunting could be done because of two factors. First factors, the Viper had undergone heavy modification to enable such hunting style. Second factors, both the flight crew and the ground crew were capable of bringing out the Viper’s maximum capability after the modification.
One of the most striking modifications that could be seen by naked eye was the implementing of wing-tip Longbow radar. This fire control radar enabled the Viper to locate 200 stationary targets and track 98 moving targets up to radius of 50 km, in various scenarios including adverse weather condition.
The statistic was slightly below from what the mast-mounted Longbow radar on AH-64E Guardian could reach, but it’s still quite impressive. Not to mention, the modification also included the package to maximize Viper’s capability for littoral and naval operation, which gave it the capability to carry and fire AGM-65 Maverick for anti-ship operation.
In short, the fleet of Viper under Air Combat Group was the first of its kind, and compared to other attack chopper in its class it was a little bit too veracious honestly. Of course, for its crew the Viper was nothing more than adorable beast they doted so much.
Now, after the hunt that took place from sunset to sunrise, the Viper’s flight crew only had one thing in mind. They wanted to return to Jack Sparrow as fast as they could.
The morning sun was already in full glare, so they had lost the cover of darkness. Not to mention, even if they already destroyed Cloud Hawk’s pen in the area, yesterday visual observation from IDG personnel had spotted some Riders landed on Makai Guard base in Makai Royal City.
No one knew why those Riders didn’t return to their pen and chose to land in closest base. Maybe it’s because their Cloud Hawk was too tired or maybe it’s because they just wanted to land as soon as possible. One thing for sure, whatever the reason was, right now those Riders could pose a threat to Viper’s return flight.
Unfortunately, the scenario that bothered the Viper’s flight crews came into reality. Without any warning, four blips suddenly appeared in the radar screen. They were only 45 km in front of them, right in the middle of return flight to Jack Sparrow.
‘They really know how to pop up at the wrong place and wrong time,’ Captain Russell muttered to himself before radioed Captain Reyes, “Black Duck 0-1 to Red Duck 0-1, do you see what I see?”
[I do.]
[People keep saying hero will show up at the last moment to save the day, but experience show me it’s the shit who always pop up in the last second, and we have to rely on our own to safe our dear butt.]
[Fortunately, we carry Longbow radar and still have six Hellfire combine.]
“Yeah, otherwise we are goners beyond saving.”
[This is Black Duck 0-2, to Black Duck 0-1 and Red Duck 0-1, sorry to interrupt you, but can I ask you to maintain the course while you have your happy chat, I and Red Duck 0-2 will take care of the rest.]
“Red Duck 0-1, you heard them, let’s proceed as they requested.”
[Copy.]
Normally, Longbow radar was used only in operation to hunt a massive number of moving target such as armored column. Due to its weight and high operational cost, Longbow radar had almost never been used in operation to hunt stationary target, escort mission, or close air support. That’s why in Afghanistan, US Army’s AH-64 Apache almost never carried its mast-mounted Longbow radar.
As for tonight hunt, ACG wanted the pair of Viper to test the wing-tip Longbow radar in real combat scenario, and as expected it did a very good job in marking the stationary target and perfectly guided the Longbow Hellfire to kiss it. And now, the pair of Viper had the opportunity to test its true capability against multiple aerial targets.
In full speed the pair of Viper flew head on. Then, at distance of 8 km from the incoming Riders, they launched 4 Longbow Hellfire simultaneously. A moment later, four explosions occurred in the distant sky and the four blips in the radar screen gone without a trace.
Without slowing down the pair of Viper continued their return flight, and arrived at Jack Sparrow without encounter other opposition.
*****