"Alright, all squadrons, diverge!"
At Ari's order, the three separate flights of Fantine aircraft split up to carry out their specific tasks. The Eagle flight leader steadied his Double Eagle as his squad fell in line behind him. As soon as they were on the warpath, he typed in several coordinates on his plane's navigation system. He felt the plane shudder as it prepared to fly automatically onward to the targets he had listed. All he had to do was to keep his eye out for any signs of danger, that included enemy anti-air fire as well as what few enemy aircraft were still patrolling the occupied airspace. He heard a woosh as several aircraft shot past him, afterburners glowing bright red in the night sky.
Well, it seems that Strygar and Thunder flight have the enemy aircraft under control. That makes ones less task for my team to do.
As they came upon the occupied nation's southern border, Ari lowered his aircraft in an attack run as he glanced between the few lights that dotted the dark grounds that led up to several islands of bright lights that marked cities. The Habsburh citizen had deduced the small pockets of lights in the darkness were villages and towns and the larger glowing islands were major cities, the biggest being Kittyopolis. As Ari took took a brief respite from the line drawn on his radar, bright green and red flashes streaked from the corner of his eye. Thinking quickly, he yanked back slightly on the controls, resulting in him gaining a bit of altitude to stay out of range of the lasers, and ordered his squad to follow suit.
I forgot that turrets, cannons, and other large arms fire is impervious to the Caterpillar bug. I entrust Adlan and his team to remedy those issues.
Sure enough, his lieutenant and his best friend led his own squad to the sources of the opposing fire and pockets of flame soon blossomed from them. Meanwhile, Ari was lessening the distance between his first target and once he was several seconds away from it, he gradually swooped down like an eagle and squeezed out the button embedded on top of the controls with his thumb, emitting several bursts of green laser fire. He was greeted bright yellow flames shooting up in the sky, as blinding as the sun. He must have struck an ammunitions cache or some weapons storage depot located on the depot, igniting a chain reaction seen as far as the Capital.
"Burn, baby, burn!" Meysa, a Meteor pilot in his squad, shouted.
"Next target!" Ari ordered. "You all take out the rest of the targets you are assigned. We are only getting started, you know. If we divide the work, we can end the terror army's occupation of the Kithar homeland sooner. The bases and comm lines aren't going to destroy themselves, you know."
"Straightaway!"
Twisting and turning to stay out of sight of enemy lasers, Ari and his crew flew off to finish the job as the squadron's heavy hitters. After repeating the same procedure a couple more times amid weakening resistance fire which ultimately died down, Ari had put a warehouse that stored weapons and armor as well as an enemy communications tower out of commission. Before long, munitions depots, enemy command and control operations centers, communications towers, airfields, enemy training camps, armor garages, Heli and gunship hangars, floating aircraft/troops carriers, Survivalist media HQs, as well as factories and other agricultural/industrial establishments used as an asset to the Survivalist war machine . It was all thanks to the intel they received on the resistance forces on the ground.
Why would any of the Kithars collaborate with the enemy that stole their nation and ruled them with an iron fist? Maybe it's out of fear for theirs or their loved ones that they feel like they have to?
Seeing that his squad was still intact, he decided to check in on the others.
"Thunder and Liberty flight, what's your status? Have you suffered any casualties?"
---
Take that, you Survy scumbags! You lack the most basic sense of honor! Burn, you dirtbags! Burn!
Adlan's fingers pressed down on the red button on the side of the Lightiningbolt's control stick, spraying burts of green lasers that turned the enemy anti-aircraft armor and vehicles to mangled and burning wrecks. He followed suit about a dozen times, congesting the streets or rooftops with the burned out remains of enemy military gear that included missile launchers, turrets, APCs, tanks, and troop carriers. The advantages of the Lightning fighter-bombers were that they had bombs onboard that could be dropped without having to tip the nose of the aircraft downwards. These variants of Fantine fighters in Adlan's groups were essential in demolishing Hydra,Ghidra, and Patriot surface to air missile launchers as well as flattening grounded aircraft and their airstrips at Kittyopolis's skyports and air bases being used by SFF aircraft or even new bases carved up by the enemy.
"Let the fire of our fury burn in the night as a warning sign to the Survies and anyone who supports or affiliates with them that their fate will be sealed!" Adlan raised a gloved fist at his proclamation. His team of mostly Lightning light fighter-bombers responded with positive feedback.
"You know, you should have been a poet instead of an aviator," Aryanna, a pilot hailing from the island of Barini in the Giltar sea, suggested.
"And why do you say that?" Adlan inquired as he zigzagged and wove between enemy anti-aircraft fire to approach the few Wasp and Stinger helis as well as a pack of Xystarr gunships that appeared as dots as small as insects on Adlan's radar. Evading the ground to air fire wasn't a challenge as most of the turrets used by the enemy were taken out early in the game.
"Because you have a way with words."
Before Adlan could reply or fire on the enemy close air support craft, two of his targets disappeared from the radar. Glancing up, he saw two fireballs blossom through his visor.
"Aryanna, did you try to outdo me?"
Adlan came upon a couple fleeing gunships, the trademark SFF skull emblem with rifles crossed on their gray and ebony design glistening like a fresh tattoo in the galaxy light, and let out a burst of his laser cannon. Soon, both air support vehicle were sent into a flaming spiral toward the concrete surface where bright flashes indicated their termination.
"Oh, is that what you think? Then perhaps I'll keep it up and replace you as Ari's other lieutenant." Aryanna giggled. "I'm just messing with you. I'll never try to shame my flight leader. Well, at least intentionally."
"Cut it out, you two." There was a brief pause as Sven turned an SFF dragonfly heli into a gazillion flaming pieces. "If anyone deserves to be promoted, it is I."
"Oh please, I have more flight time than you do, not to mention more kills." Sven's twin sister Svenja had decided to join the banter as well. Two bright green flashes reached the ground and a turret was silenced by a couple of flames blossoming into the sky. "If Adlan promotes anyone, it is me!"
The leader of Liberty flight just smiled. "I am flattered you all are trying hard to please me or even outdo me, but make sure not to lose sight of our mission. Did we miss any enemy armor under our watch?"
Suddenly, Ari's announcement cut through their comms. "Thunder and Liberty flight, what's your status? Have you suffered any casualties?"
Adlan decided to speak out. "Negative. Despite having a Lightningbolt having some mild laser damage to its wing, we have more or less clogged up Kithan's streets ad countryside with twisted piles of flaming metal."
"I see," Ari murmured. " Thunder flight, what is your status?"
The comms crackled. " Sorry for the delay, we have been preoccupied with this new force of aircraft that has appeared out of nowhere. Maybe they were the remnants of a previous patrol or perhaps they were the ones that survived our initial bombardment. Who knows? Maybe our intel failed to indicate a base or we overlooked it-Look out! A small contingent of Essies bearing down on your position!"
Through the left side of his cockpit window, Adlan spotted a few raptor-like shapes of SFF aircraft-either cobalt blue or jet black-swoop down upon the invaders, desperate to draw some blood despite not being enough for a counterattack to drive them out. A cobalt blue Viper shot toward Adlan and sprayed him with lasers. The Lightning pilot pivoted to the right and shot earthward in order to shake off his attacker as he felt his aircraft shudder.
Uh oh, I think one of the cannon strikes hit my left exhaust port. I'll have maintenance check it out later .
Adlan dove toward a nearby foothill, trying to shake off his pursuer, but soon his alarm bleeped as his radar showed a streaking cylinder that was the Viper's Electro-missile speed toward him. Adlan glanced ahead and took a deep breath as he spotted the hill below him that was studded with various vegetation and pushed on the throttle, streak toward the hill with the missile in pursuit.
It is a matter of the correct timing now. I am sure that Ari and Strygar could pull this off well, but now it is my turn to prove myself.
As soon as he cut the distance between him and the hill by many yards, he yanked hard on the stick, his eyes bulging with the zero gravity pull. Below him, the hill exploded with dirt and pebbles intertwined with green vegetation as the enemy missile made contact with it. As he flipped his plane upside to position himself toward the Survivalist craft, he noticed that all that was left of it was raining parts. He had wondered what had befell his foe when a green Double Eagle with the the emblems of a two-headed eagle on each tip of its wings shot across his viewport.
"No need to thank me, I was just displaying my flying skills," Ari chattered. "Let's get back to work."
---
"These few pissants aren't even fit to lick our boots! We can put them put them out of commission, right?"
"Right on!"
Strygar's crew then focused on the few Bats that were making a last ditch effort to defend their airspace to the last aviator from these Fantine meddlers. Strygar had to give them credit for their prowess although it did chill him to the bone to think of the damage a whole squad of these fanatic Feddie aviators could wreak upon them instead of the few that were caught flat-footed by their assault.
"Who wants to take down those old Bats? Anyone who scores a kill wins a free drink at the bar from me. You don't want me to gain all the credit now, do you?"
A chorus of responses from his vox had indicated that everyone under his command had affirmed his challenge and eagerly accepted it in order to reap the benefits.
"Then let's go!"
"The sky trash on the right is mine!" Briyan, one of Strygar's wingmen called out from his Comet.
"Not if I can get to it first!" Hiram, in his Thunderbolt, retorted.
"Hey guys, relax! There will be plenty of kills to go around. Just-"
The Thunder flight leader was cut off by the red lasers streaking through the night, one barely scraping by his nose cone.
That I can't forgive! That was too close for comfort. I will send that one to the surface in flaming debris.
Strygar yanked the controls of his Thunderbolt as he spun out of range of his enemy before shooting up a few hundred feet in altitude in order to come down upon the enemy.However, just as he was closing in on the enemy's blindspot, the bat-shaped aircraft flew up to meet him in combat.
Dammit! It seems that he is on the same page as I am. He must be one hell of a flyer. Nevertheless, I will end up victorious.
Strygar exchanged fire with the aircraft and made sure to dip out of the range of his foe's reach as well. The dance continued for a bit until the Veronian was able to sneak up behind the plane that was blacker than the night and with a burst of his cannons, sent it careening down to the volatile ground. The Bat trailed smoke until it completed its descent with a bright flash down below.
Boo-yah! Score for me! Did the others dispose of the bastard's comrades?
Sure enough, his radars revealed no sign of the other two. His pilots must have done a fantastic job against them.
It is going to take more than a Bat to sate my appetite for air kills. Oi! Those helis and gunships will do. We can disrupt their carrying operation as they could have contraband items that could be used against is onboard or we can prevent them from providing air support to their forces against the resistance or our ground forces.
As Strygar swooped down to blow the close air support aircraft out of the sky, he encouraged his squadmates to emulate him.
"It is essential to hinder the enemy as much as we can. I will still buy drinks for anyone who downs the most helis or gunships."
Once they had gone around the borders of the land, Strygar noticed several aircraft approach from all sides of the land and tried to radio to them to identify themselves. Once that had failed, he decided to warn the rest of Thunderflight.
"Squad, we have several unidentified aircraft ganging up on us. Treat them like hostiles until further notice."
Strygar levitated his Thunderbolt to get a clean sweep of two of the aircraft, nearest to him. Two dark shapes, red and blue lights flashing on their wings, came into view as they made a beeline toward Kittyopolis. As soon as they passed within range of his viewport, he recognized their shapes as those of SFF Goblins and Cobras.
Definitely hostile. It's show time!
The Veronian pilot then twisted his aircraft to tail the enemy and squeezed off a missile once he got a target lock.
---
2:35
Southern Tip of Kithar
"Sir, we have arrived at the Kithan border. Things may not be as secure as they seem. You sure you want to do this?"
Inside the Laevus, Mikhail turned to face the courier dressed in a salmon-colored uniform.
"I am positive, young man. My Air Corps have worked hard to pave a safe path for us into the besieged land and I intend to join my ground forces in liberating this land. What kind of leader would I be if I stayed back and monitored the whole situation like a has-been behind a desk? Ready my shuttle at once!"
"Understood, it will be done at once!"
As the courier scurried off to the hangars of the large aircraft, Mikhail glance doutside the trapezoidal windows into the slightly cloudy yet bright night. The stars shone not just a bright white color, but some shined red or blue among the purplish galaxy light. The sight would have been lovely under different circumstances, but the Director of Operations knew that an important military action was taking place and he could enjoy a night like this at a later moment.
Hmmm, we have some high winds with gusts as high as 170 Parhertz, but that won't be an issue for me.
It took a few minutes for the green light to shine in the display board above the panels, signaling that the time to make the jump was ripe. Mikhail, escorted by Tarkhun by his side, made his way to the hangars toward a green and orange shuttle that would ferry him to the surface. Inside, he gripped a handle alongside Tarkhun as a few of his security detail, their helmets similar to aviators with the exception of the lower half being removed to reveal the face, take their spots across from him. Seconds later, they flew out into the chilly nocturnal air and were on their way to the surface. The Director toggled with his comm as he tightened his silver and blue Beshikani armor.
"Sentery, how is the situation back at home?"
"Everything is going like clockwork," the PR woman spoke. "Aleia and I have shown Assistant Director Calhoun the situation from the Night Ninja and based on the look of things, Ari and the crew have rained hell onto the Essies. Also, we couldn't help but test the Ninja's combat capabilities in the Survivalists as Aleia and I assumed that the time was right. "
"And how did that go?" The shuttle landed onto the ground with a jolt and the side doors opened, letting in the nocturnal chill.
"Let's just say that it is has come to our knowledge that Night missiles are the best at liquidating SFF vehicles and personnel."
"That sounds promising." Mikhail clutched his 1.21 Slugthrower as he exited his shuttle with his detail. "Are the Infantry Core and Shocktroopers in position?"
"It seems that your question can be answered if you just glance at the gates."
Bartleby the Kithar soldier then appeared beside the Director, clad in similar armor and a 0.312 laser rifle. Mikhail glanced toward the border of the lands across the dense vegetation to see laser shots, maybe a few slugs, being exchanged amid burning vehicles and corpses before glancing back at the Kithar. The sounds of weapons, vehicles, aircrafts, explosions, and shouts filled the air as the battle for Kithan raged on.
"Bartleby, I am glad you decided to tag along." Mikhail smiled. "Although, my mind would have been at ease with you safe with your female companion at the safehouse."
Bartleby just smirked as he readied his weapon and started to make his way to the battlefield, crouching. "I would feel better being on the frontlines with the resistance rather than sit back and take no action while my nation suffers. I hope to link up with my troops and liberate the prisoners from the camps. I'm sure they would make great additions to our forces as SFF keeps all the high-ranking or other valuable military assets locked up unless they have a change of heart and join their forces, which is unlikely to occur."
"Very well, you convinced me." Mikhail also crouched alongside the Kithar and the Fantine force as they approached the nearest building. "I can't deny anyone their right to partake in battle, especially if their mind is made up."
"I appreciate that." Bartleby made dash to a burned-out truck and motioned for Mikhail and Tarkhun to mimic the same maneuver. "I intend to link up with my sister and her kits after I make sure to execute Jorji the collaborator for the suffering he brought upon our people."
Before Mikhail could respond, he heard voices shouting and glanced over to the burning building adjacent to them. A group of Kithar firefighters were trying to put out a fire with a chemical mixer attached to the back of their red and yellow vehicle as several SFF patrolmen bearing gas masks supervised them.
Either that building was used as a base by the Survies or it had contained chemicals that were to be enriched into one of their lethal weapons, but I can't let them have it.
Motioning to his companions, Mikhail rose and fired a slug round toward the SFF troopers, downing one with a headshot to the back of his head. The firefighters ceased their work as the rest of the SFF patrolmen, seeing their comrade's brains spilled over them, turned to face the threat. Mikhail, Bartleby, Tarkhun, and the rest of his detail fired onto the enemy. Mikhail heard a shout of pain and turned to see one of his troops clutching his left shoulder while his comrade lay prone on the ground. Hearing a loud bark, The Director turned to see Tarkhun charging at the nearest SFF soldier and grab him from behind. Letting out a grunt, the hulking Mayhan broke the enemy soldier's bones against his massive furry knees. As the Kithar firefighters cowered against the wall, Mikhail saw that the remaining Survivalist, who had the red armband of a squad leader, raise his weapon to shoot Tarkhun, but the Skymarian quickly downed him with a headshot to the gas-masked head.
"Nice shot!" Bartleby patted the Director's broad shoulders as he ran over to the firemen and started to chat with them. Mikhail heard his companion inquire about the locations of high value prisoners as well as resistance cells as he approached his Head of Security.
Only one dead and one wounded from our side. Not bad. Could have been worse.
"Come on, I know where my people are being kept!" Bartleby shouted.
"Let us regroup with my Infantry or Shocktrooper brigades and maybe we can gain more numbers to face off the paratroopers guarding the prison camp."
"We shall see." Bartleby looked pensive as he pondered the offer. "Come, we have no more time to waste!Let's move it! The liberation of Kithan awaits."
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