Chapter 19: A Little More Than Emotional Support

Location: Somewhere above Central California

Unit: The Winged Hussars

Date: July 21th, 2021 CE

"So they're Delta eh, over?" Firework called over the radio.

Kalinichenko responded, "So you saw the badge as well?"

Wolf joined in, "That Operator did drop the badge in front of all of us."

The six aircraft flew together in an arrowhead formation. MiG29s alongside F35s and an F22. But below them flew several heavily armed A10s equipped to take on columns of tanks, in total there were six of them. Bringing the convoy escort to twelve aircraft and thirty-two Delta Force Operators.

A call came in over the radio, "Hotel Squadron, this is the convoy escort unit, long-range scanners have picked up several Bogeys at our 12 o'clock. Break. Can you handle them? over."

Wolf received the warning and replied in kind, "This is Hotel-1, we hear you loud and clear. Break. We will need to conduct our own investigation before we strike."

Hotel Squadron was the cover name given to the Winged Hussars to prevent them from being targeted and found. It was also only used on escort or Close Air Support missions to protect those who the squadron was defending.

Wolf changed his channel back to squadron only before speaking, "Ghost, apparently, we have an enemy aircraft in proximity to our position."

Ghost checked his onboard radio, "I can't see anything..." he paused, decreasing the size needed for entities to show up, "Found it, doesn't look to be an aircraft, drone maybe?"

Wolf bit his lip, "What's the chances of it being armed and looking for us?"

Ghost thought for a second, "High, very high."

Wolf turned back to call the convoy, "Convoy, this is Hotel 1, we believe that the aircraft you picked up may be an unmanned drone, we advise you to hold back while we check it out, over."

A reply from an American radioman came through, "Understood, halting here, over."

Wolf turned back to his squadron, "Right, Firework, Rockslide, with me, the rest of you continue the escort."

Ghost called out, "Understood," changing to air-to-air missiles.

The two F35s and an F22 broke formation and headed towards the target.

Wolf called out, "Go in slow, if it's a drone we don't know its capabilities, it could be able to hover and change its angle while hovering."

Wolf wanted to kill it on his first run, a drawn-out fight with a computer program would only result in disaster.

The jets continued forward. Ready for combat.

Rockslide spoke, "I can see it on my radar, it's close."

Wolf nodded, "We just passed over the crash site as well," looking at his instruments he noticed the dot stop, "Bogey has stopped moving It may be hovering."

"I have sight!" Rockslide called out, "No cockpit, it's a drone."

Wolf was the fastest to the trigger, "Fox-1! Fox-1!"

A missile flew off the side of his aircraft. Its sleek white warhead flew forward propelled by the rocket attached to its back.

Wolf was silently watching the missile.

The drone floated there... what was it doing, the pilots wondered.

At the last second, it flipped dodging the missile. Shooting off it started to speed forward. Towards the incoming F35.

"Shit," Wolf yelled, yanking the stick to the left he narrowly dodged the drone, "It's a damn suicide drone!"

The other two pilots' eyes widened.

The drone immediately flicked around and went back to chasing the F35 narrowly dodging the attacks, "Firework, confuse its sensors and get it off me, Rockslide, hit it with everything you got!"

"Understood, starting the firework show," Firework called out, flipping open a pad on his dashboard.

Coming behind the drone, Firework looked through his gunsights at the suicide drone, "I really hope this won't cause a detonation."

Pressing a button something under his wing launched, a device, painted red and yellow it said the words, 'Kaboom!" in a cartoon font.

The red and yellow item flew through the air like a missile but it was different...

Just as Firework diverted off, the device exploded letting off streams of red and yellow flame as well as confetti.

Immediately Firework put his aircraft into full throttle to escape.

BOOM!

The drone inexplicitly exploded, causing shrapnel to cover the air.

Both Firework and Wolf looked over their shoulders confused as the wreck slowly fell to the ground.

Firework scratched his helmet, "What the hell, I used minimal gun power though?"

"C'mon, I wanted a kill though!" Rockslide remarked with a chuckle.

Wolf spoke next, "Its sensors may have been set off by the heat," Wolf paused speaking to himself, "The NZA are employing heat-seeking suicide drones."

He realised this could be detrimental to many pilots, the Winged Hussars were some of the best and even their leader was nearly taken down by one.

Wolf spoke again, somewhat shaken, "Let's get back to the convoy," changing channels back to the squadron channel he filled in the rest of the pilots about what had happened.

Ghost was the first to speak, "That's worrying, I'll need your footage later, if we can discover a problem in their pattern we can exploit it, "But that also means we've been detected."

Wolf bit the inside of his cheek, "Yes your right," he paused changing to the channel to which both the pilots and convoy had access, "Convoy, this is Hotel-1, go to phase two."

Phase two was the backup plan in case they were detected.

Each vehicle started to spread out from each other with the A10 pilots put on high alert for enemy aircraft and hidden ambush locations. The Hussars increased their scope sensitivity and turned up the sound in their helmet's headphones.

The radios went dead silent. Everyone just waited.

Rockslide finally broke the silence, "I think I have something, unusual shapes forming a few Kilometre east, he paused looking again, "Wait, there seems to be movement, over!"

Rockslide was assigned a unique type of radar, for something to be picked up on most normal radar it has to be moving slightly. But Rockslides sensors were aimed to locate settlements and ground anomalies, it works by a three-stage detection system; first, it aims radar, if unnatural shapes are picked up it employs thermal sensors, then it will compare the shapes and heat signatures with human records, finally, the system reports its findings to the pilots, putting it as a point of interest it will be marked for the pilot to see, mostly they are odd rock formations which disappear once the aircraft gets more accurate readings.

"Convoy this is Hotel-1, one of my pilots has picked something up, I request permission for an A10 to hit it, over," Wolf asked.

"Negative Hotel-1, that is a no go, they are outside of firing range, over" the convoy radioman reported.

Wolf attempted to protest, "I think you'll find an estimated accurate range for the NZA Railgun is in close to our position, we may even be inside it."

His protest fell on deaf ears, "There are no active Death Squads in the area, it is not happening, over."

Wolf cursed, slamming his fist against his cockpit, "Shit," he whispered to himself, "But what if it's an artillery position? There are buildings in the area."

The Convoy leader sounded more irritated, "No, I'm not risking A10s on some half-proven technology which isn't always accurate, over."

Wolf gave in, "If we lose any personal today, I'll have your career served on a dinner plate."

"Understood," the convoy leader replied sarcastically.

They continued forward, with the aircraft circling the convoy at low speeds.

Ghost was next to give the update, "We seem to be coming up on the site, I should take an A10 and scout it out."

The convoy responded to this request with approval.

No more than a few minutes later the area was cleared and the trucks started to roll in.

The soldiers quickly got out and set up several defensive positions, surrounding the crash site with regular patrols.

Ghost was circling, looking down upon the scientists examining the crash. Sadly he couldn't convince his own scientist to come out here, that scientist was stuck in Ukraine attempting to create new weapons and defences that would win the war. This man, Ghost was thinking about, was the one who supplied Ghost's antics and helped develop several advanced systems. Having made his money when he was young from Arms dealing old Russian technology, this scientist attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he got several offers from the US Department of Defence but declined them all in favour of protecting his home country, Ukraine.

Suddenly, snapping Ghost back to reality he saw a sudden flash of light come from the forest. He silently observed as it grew brighter.

Then he realised what it was...

A beam of what seemed to be light shot out of the huge ball and straight into one of the A10s. Within a millisecond the aircraft evaporated.

Ghost's eyes widened, "Shit, they have an AA position, roughly a Kilometre east!"

Wolf's eyes widened, "Fuck! We lost an A10!"

Another beam shot out shredding two more A10s. The remaining A10s broke formation trying to escape the anti-aircraft cannon.

They were being picked off... one by one.