RM Side Story 22: 8492nd (Part 16)

Author notes:

I'm back! Ace Combat 7 drones are intensified in this chapter! Though they aren't the spotlight for this trip to GFL universe lol. There's no Latin in the sky, yet. :D

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Knowing that a Sangvis train is just about to arrive at any moment now, the whole of Echelon 1 has set up a sort of hidey-hole in one of the many ruined buildings. It's close, but not too close, to the train station. When the chance arrives, Echelon 1 will try and board the train, hopefully without encountering any resistance on Sangvis' part. SCAR-SC has managed to download the security protocols of the train and the rest of Team FN is counting on her to pull them through.

A minute later, the sound of a barrelling train can be heard reverberating from one end of the railroad. Team FN pops their heads over a nearby window to see a dark purple behemoth bursting through a dark tunnel. The train is ten carts long, but it takes almost no time at all for it to break into a perfect stop at the Sangvis terminal. When it's perfectly aligned with the station, ramparts are deployed from a few carts, off-loading rows of Sangvis drones and infantries. Most notably, the train appears to carry modified Jaguars. Instead of having a mortar system on their back, they now sport a four-tube short-range AA missile system.

SCAR-H, utilizing a laser designator as her binoculars, asks her leader. "You reckon we should call this in? From the look of it, Sangvis is catching on to the fact that we now have air support and is responding accordingly."

SCAR-L shakes her head. "Let's not break radio silence just yet. Morgan briefed us on the ability of their Arias, I highly doubt a few heatseekers will throw them off. Better yet, they will actually enjoy the challenge."

P90 muffled a giggle that escape her lips. "I can just about imagine Morgan's excited expression, dancing under flaks right now."

SCAR-SC adds. "What you said reflects the sentiment of everybody here, P90."

The rest of them nod while scanning for a leak in Sangvis' newly deployed formation. During such, Sangvis troops start to march to the front with impeccable movement, courtesy of their hive-mind. Said hive-mind, however, has the tendency to treat these units as cannon-fodders. Their combat capability can only be boosted if a Ringleader is nearby. And from the look of it, there isn't any right now, much to the delight of Team FN.

Very soon, Sangvis units have already marched out of the terminal, prompting Team FN to start their approach and onto the train. Before that, however, HiPer spots weird movements on half of the train carts. "Wait, what's going on with the train?" HiPer alerted her team through the local Zener Network.

Taking cover in an alley with a good line of sight to the locomotive, Team FN watches as a dozen containers angled upward to 45 degrees. "What are those they're deploying?" P90 questioned, prompting SCAR-SC to analyze the containers with her tactical visor.

"At first glance, they're just material containers. Yet, we haven't seen Sangvis unload anything of such from those things." After a few seconds, her visor returns the analysis results. "So my guess is that these things are not containers. They're launchers, but for what I have yet to understand. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pull the listed cargo of the train to cross-reference it. Never thought we will be needing it in the first place. Either way, I guess we're about to find out soon enough."

They all fell silent at that, awaiting the next development from the train carts. A few seconds later, the covers for the containers are opened, allowing Team FN to catch the pointy tips of the objects hidden inside. "Are those... Missiles?" HiPer said with dread.

Fortunately or unfortunately, SCAR-SC is quick to refute that initial assessment. "No, most fortunately not cruise missiles. But in a way, this is much worse."

SCAR-L nods, identifying what's inside. "Those are drones. To be more specific, the MQ-99 Barracudas. It seems like Sangvis has been developing and producing these without us knowing."

Suddenly, with multiple bursts of flame, the drones are launched from the container with speed, their engines operating at full capacity to gain altitude. Seeing that, SCAR-L bites back a curse. "I'm breaking radio silence!" She then signals the rest to immediately board the train while she reports. "This is FN 1-1 to Avalon Squadron, you have UCAVs coming in hot for a dogfight, twelve in total! Over!"

"This is Avalon 1-2, comms link is secured. 1-1 is overseeing a CSAR op and is unavailable. 1-2 is tasked with overseeing the AO as of now. I've received your report and will be dealing with the drones momentarily. Thanks for the head-up, over." Aria's voice was heard over the long-range Zener Network. She seems non-flush about a small swarm of dark purple drones coming her way with murderous intent.

"Good copy, 1-2. Echelon 1 will be boarding a Sangvis train to infiltrate the enemy base. Will be radio silence till further notice. Over." SCAR-L reported, glad that Aria sounded confident.

"1-2, copy all. Bon voyage, Team FN. Over and out." The comms link went silent with SCAR-L immediately terminated the line for fear of detection. By the time the talk is over, they have reached the autonomous train and are now boarding a cart. SCAR-H helps her SCAR-L up and together, they lend their hands to the rest of their sisters. Once safely on board, SCAR-SC immediately operates her EW suite at full capacity, fooling the built-in security measures of the train with the aid of the stolen protocols.

Turning to her teammates, SCAR-SC says. "As long as we don't get spotted by the patrols on the train, we should be in the clear till we reach our destination. Once we're there, this train will be docking at a mostly unguarded terminal and will be departing at 9 pm. This should give us ample time to get what we need, hopefully."

SCAR-L nods. "On the off-chance that we encounter a patrol, can we take them out without raising an alarm?"

"It should be ok? But when we reach Sangvis' base, our cover will be blown for they will do a headcount of the Rippers stationed here." SCAR-SC answered, prompting SCAR-L to nod. "Ok then, let's pick a room and hunker down, girls. It will be much preferred if we pick a place we can hide."

"In that case, I now just the place." SCAR-SC then points at the empty drone containers, earning raised eyebrows from the rest of her team.

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Even before SCAR-L warns Aria of the incoming bandits, Aria has already detected the train when it came out of the tunnel. Aria is surprised, however, to see that Sangvis has been able to launch drones from containers. To say that the ability to deploy armed drones with minimal setups like that is an Air Force's wet dream will be an understatement. Aria will need to have a talk with Morgan later, the potential to have air support piggy-backing of an army truck is too good to pass up on.

Having thought of that though, Aria takes her aircraft very low to the ground, operating its electronic warfare suite at maximum setting. Thus, in the eyes of the drones, Aria is virtually invisible. And when the drones start flying in one big group on a search pattern for her, Aria is swiftly sneaking up on their behind. Funnily enough, by sending out drones to counter Aria, Sangvis has literally given her free kills. The prototype aircraft she is using has such an impressive EW suite that Aria can even seize control of the mindless drones. Yet, Aria has chosen not to do that, well, at least she won't take all of them. This is because Aria will like to have a bit of a challenge, for once. She has been awfully bored flying in circles, it's about time she puts her missiles to good use.

With a few taps on her MFD, Aria usurps the ownership of four drones, sending them out to support Morgan. As for the last eight, Aria disables the safety of her missiles, locking onto four targets with her Iris SMRM. As a matter of fact, Aria can lock on to more than four targets, however, she will like to see the capability of these drones up close and personal first. It's why when she hears a good tone, only four Iris are launched at supersonic speed, destroying half of the enemy drones without much warning.

Now noticing that eight of their allies are now destroyed or subverted, the other four drones dispersed in a fan shape, surrounding and locking on to Aria's aircraft at all angles. By launching her missiles, Aria has given her location away. Yet, she is not flustered one bit even if her alarm keeps giving out warnings. Preemptively deploying chaffs and flares to scramble their lock-on, Aria flies head-on into an incoming drone, forcing it to go in for a gun attack after its failed attempt to get a lock.

Maneuvering her ailerons and rudders, Aria dodges the autocannon tracers from the purple drone. She then retaliates by sending out a short but accurate burst of 30mm shells at the target. An unknown number of HEDP shells impacted the drone's fuselage, obliterating the fragile UCAV. Her taking one of them out in a head-on dogfight, however, leaves the other three to swiftly chase her tail at full thrust.

Noticing that one of the three drones is lagging behind the other two, Aria suddenly banks her aircraft to the right, using her helmet-mounted display to cue the missile seeker at a high angle off-boresight. Getting a good lock, Aria launches another Iris. The missile performs a sharp, half-moon turn and, ignoring the deployed chaffs and flares from its target, detonates beneath the drone's left wing. The numerous fragments from the Iris shred through the Barracuda UCAV's wing and fuselage with impunity, causing a big explosion as its internal munitions are detonated.

Now down to two drones, Aria breaks left, deploying another burst of chaffs and flares to scramble the sensor of a missile that is sent her way. Due to the nature of the Aria as a stealth aircraft, the heatseeker launched from the drone is unable to maintain a good lock and chase the flares instead. The evasive maneuver does cost Aria a bit of speed, however, and because of this, one of the drones rushes in while the other trails behind it.

With them gaining on her and soon getting a good lock, Aria, instead of running away, slows her aircraft down by lowering the thrust output, letting the first drone to closing the distance. And just before the drone is able to fire its missile, Aria deploys her airbrake while pointing the nose of her plane upward, forcing the drone to shoot past her with its maximum thrust. Not letting this chance goes to waste, Aria lets loose another Iris in an off-boresight manner. Though the missile easily hit the engine of the UCAV, destroying it entirely.

With that one down, Aria only needs to deal with the last one. Unlike its predecessors, this drone engages Aria with its autocannon while trying to acquire a missile lock. Aria, of course, doesn't want a scratch on her beloved warplane and starts doing evasive horizontal maneuvers. And as the two combatants draw closer, the UCAV is able to get a lock, thus launching a missile. As the enemy missile leaves the rail, Aria also deploys her countermeasure while pulling her control stick back, performing an extremely tight loop. Due to Aria's sudden post-stall maneuver and the deployed chaffs and flares, the missile harmlessly flies past below her aircraft while the drone itself is directly placed in the crosshair of Aria's Gatling.

*Brrrrrrrrrtttttt*

*BOOM*

With a short trigger pull, the last drone is decimated from head to toe, dying without an intact corpse. Through the residue smoke cloud left behind by the drone's detonation, Aria flies back up to a comfortable altitude. The sudden encounter in the air has been a short one, merely five minutes at best, but it does alleviate the boredom of Aria dancing solo in the air. The Valkyrie can focus on leading the ground war now, and she intends to fully focus on her task until Morgan has returned.

And speaking of her lover, it appears that the drones Aria sent over are put to good use. Morgan has slaved them to her aircraft, sending over a heart emoticon on her multi-function display. Understandably, they will make the extraction effort of Super 6-4 much easier thanks to their ability to strafe enemy ground troops.

Aria can't help but smile when she sees the emoticon, wondering just how was Morgan able to send one over in the first place. There's no way the Arias are installed with a chat app, right?