Sun Jun 25, 2017 1:03 am
Angels. Angels in the sky.
This was how she always felt after she had made her climb and was soaring high above the distant ground. It was still; and so beautiful with the sun shining above the giant white cloud banks. She was soaring above the world.
Elra's Archangel was at low cruising speed as her interceptor wing swept ahead of the transport group which they were protecting. Their sleek, dagger shapes cut through the clouds, bright darts in the sunlight.
Three full regiments had been scrambled and were inbound on their targets, carried by dropship transports. The sky was filled with shapes to her distant rear, strung out for kilometers to either side. Ugly, functional Condors loaded with underslung battle tanks and APCs. Big, fat Albatross heavy dropships carrying full tank squadrons in their clamps. And the smaller Ravens mostly loaded with special forces and infantry but some carrying Longbow light artillery. It was a Drop Armada, nothing less.
Her wing was out front with the other advance wings. Their mission was to clear the skies ahead of the transport groups which were also protected by close escort wings. Every air base on this continent had been emptied and most of the space carriers too. Almost the entire Fleet Air Arm for this part of the planet had been committed. This Op was a big deal. After waiting for months to get some kind of space superiority here, Operation Northern Thunder was underway. Fleet assets had been assigned to provide space bombardment while a surprise attack was dropped from the sky.
Altitude 4000 meters. Radar showed everyone in their positions. She smiled. Her wing were good, and they knew it. Joker was on her left: he was her wingman. She feathered the stick and her Archangel banked left a moment before straightening, bringing her very close to him. Dangerously close the instructors on Aurum would've said, but she was laughing inside her helmet. She had the Touch. She knew what she could do and what her bird was and wasn't capable of.
Joker looked up, she could see his helmet turn to her through his canopy as she came aside. Their canopies were clear right now for maximum visibility, though they'd darken once the fight started. They were only a few meters apart. Conditions were great, the computer would correct any small turbulence. She flashed a casual salute to him.
He held up his hand, covered his fingers with his other hand then slowly lowered it. Revealing just one middle finger extended.
Prick. She'd get him back when they got back to base. She was his wing leader, she deserved some respect!
She laughed and pushed her throttle. Her Archangel shot forward, contrails flowing out from the sharp, forward swept wings. Leaving Joker to eat her trail. God, the Archangel's turbines were powerful! She never got over that. She could pull 10.3 gees if she really wanted to.
Anyone who could've seen inside that cockpit would've seen the huge smile on Elra's face. She was honestly happy. This was what she'd always wanted, ever since she saw those Air Arm vids when she was six years old. Being a fighter pilot, soaring high in the sky, higher than all the birds; it was all she'd ever wanted to be. And here she was, leading her wing in the skies over one of the Core Worlds as they finally launched the Reconquest. No drug could beat that, she felt like she was on the best high right now.
“You right, Boss-Girl?”, Haymaker said over the comm, his voice mock serious. “We've got work to do here.”
“Yeah, just teaching Joker how to fly again. Thought he was asleep at the stick... ”
“I was only resting my eyes,” came his cheeky reply. They all laughed over the comm.
Morale was great. She felt invincible.
Just then, a tone sounded in her cockpit. It was the radar contact warning signal. She looked down at the screen and saw an amber blob ahead and to the left of her wing. Enemy jamming. They had contacts.
“OK people, look sharp. Our birds are going to hunt today.”
She zoomed out for satellite link. There were multiple blobs ahead of the broad front of the drop wave. The Scourge weren't going to let them come without a fight. It was time for the lead fighter wings to clear the way in a head on fight. Ten wings in lead spread across many klicks, six hundred UCM fighters were ready for the Scourge.
====
The Scourge were all over her wing. The comm was filled with urgent calls. Where did they hide their damned airbases? Fleet Command had said that most of them should be knocked out by orbital strikes by now.
The sky was spinning wildly, shadows playing across her cockpit instruments, as her bird rotated through a short barrel roll. She was bleeding speed and changing her angle of attack to get the bogey trailing Nova.
They were all dropping altitude as they spun and wheeled through the sky but she'd counted for that. She knew she'd make the turn to get on the bogey's six but it would be tight.
There were a few blue strobing bolts outside her canopy as Scourge fighters fired their plasma cannons. She saw the bolts pass her but then quickly flash out. Short ranged, like her Gunfighter. That was the Archangel's nickname: the Last Gunfighter. In the era of modern war and the Missile Halo, it was often impossible to score a missile hit in aerial combat. So the Archangels had been built with pure kinetic auto-cannons, hence the nickname. The Scourge plasma rounds burnt out very quickly so they were even more short ranged than the Archangels.
So modern Air Combat was all about dog fighting, just like on ancient Earth in the prop days.
The Scourge rate of fire was slow but then again, one bolt was enough to completely wreck an Archangel; or even a UCM main battle tank. Scourge Corsairs with their powerful plasma cannon had a dual role: air intercept and ground attack.
“Nova, keep that bogey on your six. I'm coming round,” as she turned her interceptor into a sharp bank.
It was the classic UCM bait and strike. No Scourge Corsair could out-turn an Archangel at this altitude, even though Corsairs were nimble and had alien technology, but they often tried. This Scourge pilot was green. Last mistake it'd ever make, but it was going to be tight. The angle had started out all wrong and she was passing them by when she'd decided to chase.
Her turbines screamed and her bird strained as the dagger shape of her Archangel darted to the right, the ground now vertical and filling the right side of her cockpit view. The whole airframe was straining under her as she started to pull serious gees. The computer controlled the ailerons and flaps to keep her flight stable. The icons were moving across her HUD and the bogey's icon started to come around.
The flight suit had pressurised to keep the bloodflow to her brain. “Nnnngh... nnnnggh...” she grunted like she was trained to help keep the blood up. Her face was pulling very heavy now from the g-forces. So heavy, hard to move at all, her cheeks were pulling but she kept control of the stick. The HUD read 9.5G as she drove her bird towards its maximum envelope.
She was bleeding speed fast but she would get on her target's tail soon. She was Best in Class in dogfight energy management in Flight School. She'd already been tapped on the shoulder to join the Pathfinders soon.
She flicked her eyes up through the polarised canopy to the right and could see the bogey was banking too, trying to get on Nova's tail. She had the lead though and was turning inside it, thanks to the earlier roll. The angle of attack was looking good now, very good.
Her cannon crosshairs were straining towards her prey as it came into the HUD. “Come.... on... nngh” she said through clenched teeth as the Scourge Corsair came into view, its alien, organic lines always disturbing. Nova was also staying in her turn to keep the bogey chasing after her while Elra closed. Elra's crosshair reached the bogey, then started creeping past it towards the firing solution icon.
Almost had it, almost had it. “Come... on... nnnghh...” She was blacking out. Her body was so heavy in the G force, it was crushing her and she couldn't keep her head up. So heavy... her vision starting shrinking to a tunnel but the crosshair was almost at the firing point. She was fighting her own body now.
She had already pulled the trigger as the lock tone rang out. The Archangel shuddered violently as the cannons fired with that tearing sound, shells spewing out death at hundreds of rounds per minute.
The almost solid line of tracers sprayed ahead of the Scourge then intersected it. It disintegrated, the 40mm HEAT shells ripping it to shreds. Then it exploded in an incandescent fireball as its reactor shields went. Elra levelled out, the gees and weight suddenly lifting, blood returning to her head. She saw stars and spots in her eyes and she was light headed as she flew straight for a moment and eased the throttle back.
“Nice one, Boss-Girl,” came Nova over the comm.