First fierce battle

Planes that took off from the same airport reached their destination. Each of them flew for its own set course. From which the airport itself, although it was almost completely clogged with air transport, but any plane that reached its destination could always land on the runway. Sometimes, of course, there were various costs, but this did not negate the fact that this process worked like clockwork. However, the last 19 aircraft failed to reach their destination. Their route ran through the territory, which had a degree of increased danger. In this area, which was designated by the B-3 square, hostilities were fought between the regular armies of the three countries. Of course, although their battlefield was located near the border of the designated sector, the range of the imaginary air defense theoretically covered a certain part of the sector.

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The aircraft from the Quiet` group was slowly approaching a sector with a high degree of danger. Almost reaching the border, a rocket fragment flew into one of the aircraft's engines, which appeared almost out of nowhere. An indicator light flashed on the dashboard indicating the loss of one of the engines. In the cockpit, the cries of the pilots instantly sounded.

— Loss of the 3rd engine! Carcasses! — after which one of the pilots pulled a special mechanism towards himself, which was located exactly under the burning indicator.

The indicator went out, and the move that succumbed to the fire was extinguished by a special composition, which was located directly above the turbine. And, although the fire was extinguished, the engine could no longer function, and the fire damaged the flaps that were intended for landing.

— Damn, damaged fuel pump. We may soon lose the left wing as well. Call the squad leader, you need to notify him of an emergency landing. In the meantime, I'll contact the rest of the Delta group, — the pilot said to his partner, and he himself tried to contact the Delta group by radio, which included nineteen more aircraft, but no one answered.

— Who is the squad leader here? Climb up to the cockpit, — the pilot said, standing on the ladder, after which he and Quiet climbed back into the cockpit.

— What's happened? — asked Quiet, on whose face was wearing a special black mask, capable of stopping small calibers.

— We have lost the 3rd engine and will soon lose the 4th. We'll reach the middle of the sector on the remaining 4, and then we'll have to walk to the destination, — the pilot said, after which one of the many walkie-talkies, whose purpose was to listen to frequencies, began to transmit conversations over different channels.

— Get your ass to the airport, Ivan! Take gasoline ... Brin` more ammunition, — the frequencies quickly changed one after another for some unknown reason.

After that, all the equipment began to go crazy all over the cockpit, and the indicators either rose immaculately upwards, or circled clockwise without stopping. Abruptly, all engines shut down, while the turbines continued to run at high speeds due to heavy air flows. No one could understand what it was, whether it was the latest means of electronic warfare, or some kind of magic. But, soon, all doubts disappeared, as they saw a moving cyclone of unprecedented strength in the north and everyone concluded that it was the cause of everything that was happening. They quickly made the decision to prepare for an emergency landing. The plan to use the remaining engines to fly to the middle of the square was ruined with a bang. Another one came to replace him. Using the force of inertia, fly as far as possible, then land the plane on the sand dunes and use the equipment that was in the cargo hold to reach the destination.

Quiet descended into the cargo bay and began explaining the situation and the subsequent plan of action to his comrades. At this time, the pilots, coping with all the difficulties, managed to open a special mechanism that was located on any aircraft under the bottom in the center. It was a relatively small screw that, using the power of air, fed the most necessary devices that did not depend on any electronics. The most necessary in any situation is the height indicator.

— Ready? I know it will be difficult, but keep the helm as level as possible, — one pilot said, referring to the manual use of the helms no longer subject to electric hydraulics, which made them steer like elephants harnessed to a team.

There were mere hundreds of meters before the emergency landing, and everyone was already ready for incredible shaking and huge overloads. The plane systematically lowered its altitude, reaching the bottom of the sand. He crashed hard into the sand dunes. Under a huge layer of sand there was solid ground, which caused the aircraft body to experience a huge load both outside and inside. The upholstery was badly dented, almost falling apart. Soon the plane finally came to a stop, and the giant footprint that followed it began to slowly crumble with sand again. Noticing this, the group immediately disconnected the vehicle from the mounts and began, sitting in the vehicle, to leave the cargo compartment. In less than 2 minutes, they, with terrifying difficulty, got out, and the once huge plane took the sand with it underground, whose body was finally torn apart, and it finally fell apart. The only thing left of him was his crew, which was sitting in an armored car and transporter. Everyone went outside.

— Bitch, well, the attraction ... So, here is the Ken al-Bad airport. A dictator who brought Syria to where it is today. We are here, — Quiet pointed to the 3rd square to the left of the border of sector B-3, — We are about ten hours from the airport. If we don't meet anyone... The fuel should be stored in the armored personnel carrier, there for 2-3 days in total. The main goal is this town – Lastrouk. Suburb of the capital.

— It's going to be too long, — Pie muttered under his breath.

— Somewhere around here, approximately, Delta disappeared from the radar — one of the pilots pointed to an area that was marked as a place with a high degree of threat.

— We do not have time to search for the missing, even if there are about 2 thousand of them. They leave at midnight. Until this moment, we must have time to get to the airfield, — said Quiet, slowly folding the map, — we are moving out.

The group got into a car, as well as an APC, and headed straight for the airport. For more than an hour they drove without any delay, until they met soldiers of the American army. Fortunately, it was only infantry with small arms and they successfully slipped through them. But they already understood that from now on such meetings would be regular. They couldn't slow down. There were about 8 hours left to the airport, and no more than 10 hours until midnight. The time was so limited that they simply burst into small skirmishes of regular armies or mercenaries, even if they involved a heavy military vehicle, and flew over them at high speed, indirectly affecting the outcome of these battles.

It was less than 3 hours drive to the airfield, and the dusk gradually embraced the desert views. They were not allowed to turn on the headlights, so they turned on the identification lights. The car was driving ahead using the night spectrum, and the APC was following a trail of small signal lights. It was less than 30 minutes to the final destination, and about an hour and a half until midnight. So they would have gone forward if they had not met a detachment of dead British soldiers and burning equipment. Two people came out to check what had happened - Quiet and Date.

— What the? — asked Quiet, holding the hand of one of the Britons.

— Hey, you need to take a look at this. — said Data, shining somewhere with a flashlight.

Quiet approached the illuminated area and, squatting down, began to carefully examine the illuminated area. There lay a hand, the skin of which was blistered from burns, and partly peeled skin was visible from the palm, which had frozen due to the cold temperature. There was only one single place that remained intact. The area between the middle finger and the little finger, or rather, what is left of all this. There was a red petal that was literally fused with the skin and emitted a small scarlet glow. Quiet pulled something between a balisong and a three-bladed knife from its scabbard and decided to cut out a petal. However, the knife hardly cut the skin, it literally parted it, as if the hand had lain there for centuries and had already decomposed. He calmly picked up the petal with a knife and pulled it out of his hand, after which it instantly withered, ceasing to emit any glow.

— «What the hell…» So, so what do we have here? — Quiet raised his head and saw a sheet of metal that mercilessly disintegrated under the onslaught of a scarlet hue — not a word about this to anyone, okay?

— Fine. «What's going on…» — thought Data and returned to the car.

Forgetting about the incident, they quickly reached the airport, where they were met by the commander of the Delta group, who got here before everyone else. He told them that everyone else was dead - killed in battle with the British. Soon, a voice came from the loudspeakers, which spoke of an hour and a half rest and an instant departure after it. The Quiet` group managed to sleep for about 30 minutes so that they, although not completely, recovered.

Soon, after the expiration of the designated time, the entire group was ready to set off to storm the city. True, out of 10 thousand, only about seven survived. The rest either died or went missing. They plunged into a huge column, which was covered by both aircraft and a heavy vehicle.

On the way to their destination, they had to face in battles with the regular armies of the three powers, as well as witness massive accumulations of corpses with armored vehicles. Passing through another such pasture, they came face to face with the British army. They had to quickly disperse and engage in a fierce battle. Aviation not long before immediately entered into battle, sowing a minute, but still, panic among the enemy soldiers, after which they entered into battle with enemy aircraft. From armored vehicles on both sides of the conflict, improvised barricades and shelters were built. The gunfight began.

— Cake, sit down at the machine gun, cover the rest! Pie and Pillar, follow me! Date takes the packs, go in their back! — Quiet gave orders as he engaged in combat with the rest of the groups.

The road that had become a stumbling block was now divided in two by barricades of armored vehicles from both sides. The darkness that first enveloped her was dispelled by the light of headlights, explosions and tracers that constantly flew in both directions of the enemy.

Saboteurs tried to covertly penetrate into each of the parties, and aviation now and then helped each of the parties, then fought among themselves. Burning fragments of hulls fell to the ground, and blood flowed like a river. No one peered, but inside the cracks in the asphalt, lines of scarlet color were visible that absorbed the blood, transporting it somewhere.

Soon, in the rear of the opposite side, an explosion of unprecedented power occurred, which illuminated the battlefield and claimed many lives with it. It was Date, despite being injured, who managed to attach the C-4 to a truck that was transporting fuel for armored vehicles. Taking advantage of the turmoil, she managed to safely return to her, where she was immediately given first aid.

The battle lasted about an hour and a half. During this time, the road was strewn with corpses, and many vehicles were burning around. While the first side completely collapsed, the second escaped with only the loss of a third of its personnel. However, she lost a huge amount of aircraft, which meant inevitable death in another similar clash in the open. Although from the British side the sounds of the explosion of another ammunition were still heard, they could not drown out the groans of the wounded, who were injured to varying degrees. Those who had already crossed the boundary line of the approach to death could see red flowers everywhere, blooming scarlet petals. Nobody wanted them to suffer, so they were shot in the head. Having spent more than 2 hours on treating the wounded and burning all those, even their opponents, who accepted the embrace of death, they set off again, where an hour and a half later they drove outside the city limits.