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Bombing Run
Posted By: Useful Dave<smokedtopcat13@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: 4 May 2008, 10:15 pm
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1351 Hours, November 18, 2553 (Military Calendar) / UNSC FFG-341 Manchester, Moving into station over Tyranos IX.
Luck, it all came down to luck.
And he'd been one of the bloody idiots who had the luck to get into the advanced flight training. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, everyone knew how to get a Pelican down on the ground safely or back to base. But jumping in the hot seat of a Pelican or Longsword and launching it into battle? No chance.
"Fighter reserves report to hangars one through three for pre-flight preparations."
That had been the moment when Corporal Jim Ralension had realised that the advanced training may not have been a good idea. When the naval pilots got KIA'd, they would still want fighters up in the air, and so they turn to the ground-pounders with wings, figures.
All you could do with a call like that was grab your kit and leg it to the hangars, of course. I got to hangar two in time to find the loadies still filling the 'swords with AGSMs. Meaning that unless you trod carefully, you'd get at least one of them 'politely' telling you to avoid coming too close to the ordinance they were loading.
Thankfully for my ears I managed to avoid stepping too close to them. Although I saw one interesting thing, several of the 'swords had HAVOC warheads on the missile racks. A frigate might carry a large number of AGSMs, yet the number of HAVOC warheads never totalled triple the number of longswords onboard. This was done to ensure that even if a longsword was shot down with a HAVOC loaded, there would still be some warheads remaining for those that made it back. So loading HAVOCs was something that didn't make the situation look good.
The rest of the marines turned pilots filed in over the next few minutes as the loaders stowed the missiles away in their bays, then heading away in the direction of the other hangers. They still had work to get on with while we were briefed. And so we all headed into the briefing room when the light turned green, finding the chairs facing a simple projection on the board and an officer standing by it.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k12/Useful_Dave/BriefingPlot.jpg
Get them orientated with the forces they're working with, then deal with the enemy. That way you don't find yourself wondering where the hell that Longsword that just caulked your target came from. Once we were in the officer, clearly the planner for this operation, began to speak.
"Now, I assume you all know the reason you're here. You all took advanced aerospace training. So you all know how to handle a C709 Longsword. I won't beat about the bush any longer, you're here because the pilots are currently unavailable. Their quarters are on Deck C, and as you know Deck C is currently inaccessible due to battle damage. We were hoping we'd be able to get it cleared in time, but as you can see. It hasn't been, now if you will turn your attention to the projection."
He gestured to the board with a slight movement of his hand. "You will see the current forces at our disposal. The 202nd and 303rd are in the general area, yet they will be unable to assist for the initial stages of the engagement. Once they have their objectives done we'll have their support to count on. Although, by then your objective should already be complete."
And so the ops officer droned on. Put simply, the objective was that of complete and utter destruction. The target was a point of Covenant landfall upon Tyranos IX being used as a supply depot. A division of UNSC armour had been holding it back at the Galan Heights, yet that division was now down to breaking point. It'd break in the next day, that was for sure. In order to prevent that, the 202nd, 303rd and the 213th would break through the Covenant battlegroup and use HAVOCs to destroy the supply depot.
The attack would begin within the hour. More than enough time to suit up and pre-flight check his Longsword, designated Foxtrot-Two-Two. Second fighter from the Foxtrot flight of this frigate. As he went through the required checklist before suiting up, Jim noticed one unfortunate fact. His longsword wasn't armed with the usual ANVIL II AGSMs. In place of the four AGSMs, there was two HAVOC tipped missiles. Damn, looked like he'd be one of the ones shooting down to the ground and hitting the depot, rather than clearing up Seraphs and returning to the Manchester for re-arming while 'swords from the Helios in the 202nd would take over in covering the bombers.
Although, the 'swords from the Helios probably had the hard part. Whacking the Covenant AA guns in order to allow us through. Once they were done, it was right through to the launch point and wham, Covenant BBQ. With the pre-flight checks over there was the simple task of suiting up in a vacuum proof suit, not all C709 crewmen went through with this of course, but as soon as their fighters got a puncture, they were dead. Living beats dieing in my opinion, any day.
1507 Hours, November 18, 2553 (Military Calendar) / UNSC FFG-341 Manchester, Moving to engage Covenant Battlegroup over Tyranos IX.
"Ansible, we are Launching Foxtrot and Echo flights, Foxtrot Two-One, Two-Two and Two-Three have the packages."
"Confirmed Manchester, London and Dublin will provide cover for the fighters."
Lucky us. We had a whole two frigates supporting the attack, with the elites we wouldn't have had a chance. They would have manoeuvred two of their lighter craft into the way and obliterated us, leaving their heavies to take on the destroyers and cruisers bearing down upon them. Of course, the elites wouldn't have their fleet in one sickle formation, they would have it in a single group, forcing us to tangle with them all at once, where as with these brutes we can take them in parts, allowing for a much easier time chewing them up.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k12/Useful_Dave/BattlePlot.jpg
A quick look at the recon information on the enemy fleet told me that we'd got a better deal than the 202nd, being pitted against a CCS that the cruisers would deal with and a pair of destroyers, unfortunately though, this meant that on the route in we would be engaging one of the destroyers while our destroyers dealt with the other. Not a pleasant fight to be caught up in.
"Depressurisation in one minute, all personnel clear the hangar bay."
Along with everybody not in a fighter exiting the hangar, that also meant for me a quick last check of the seals. Having the escaping atmosphere blowing me into a wingman wouldn't help. All the seals were tight and well, sealed. Which was a good change from spending the rest of the minute frantically trying to seal it, or dumping the atmosphere.
The hangar doors opened, revealing the blackness of space, only broken by the quadruple pinpricks of light visible from the Dublin's engines. The first Longsword, Foxtrot-Two-One, slid out from the bay ahead of him, thrusters on the front of the fighter firing to slow its forward motion down soon after it exited the bay, then rotating using side thrusters. A complex series of counter bursts of thrust being provided by the computer program converting the stick movements into thruster bursts.
It didn't take much to get a Longsword out the bay once it was prepped and the gear up, just move the throttle up a tad to bring her out the bay without roasting everything behind, a short burst on the front thrusters to slow yourself to neutral and turn the stick to face forward with your flight leader. With that done you put the main thrusters back on to catch up with the rest. Getting the flight out only took a minute or two, we didn't want to risk losses from inexperienced pilots ramming each other.
Ahead we could see the glow of Echo flight's engines as they got into formation, heading in just ahead of us to damage the enemy Seraphs severely enough to allow Foxtrot through and down to the ground. All we needed was that damn destroyer out of the way.
We formed up on the Manchester's starboard flank, with the Dublin and London ahead of us in a V formation, Manchester taking the part of the middle depression. Over to port, the rest of the 213th were preparing for their part of the attack.
"Foxtrot, this is Echo-Two-One. Keep with the 'Chester, we're going in with the London's 'swords to sweep out some Seraphs."
"Foxtrot-Two-One here, confirmed Echo-Two-One. Splash as many as you can, we don't want any spilt milk."
The light of Echo's engines increased, then began to diminish as they sped towards the London, up ahead we saw the almost toy like shapes of the Covenant ships, the sides beginning to glow with thin yet powerful lights.
"Incoming fire! Get dancing boys!"
Dancing was the nickname given to the process of throwing your C709 around space like you were a bravo-kilo with an itch he couldn't scratch. If done correctly you'd throw off their aim, although your formation would be non existent. Jim watched the miniscule specks of Echo's engines begin to go wild, narrowly avoiding colliding at one point until-
A cyan beam lanced past his cockpit for not even a millisecond. He barely noticed it anyway, his eyes focused on one of Echo's longswords as its wing burst forth in a fireball which simultaneously expanded and froze as fuel and oxygen tanks were penetrated and their contents ignited, freezing in the vacuum of space.
There was no pause for the crew of Echo-Two-Three as its ruined hull span out of control past the accelerating forms of Foxtrot and the Manchester, the attack hurtled on without it. With the initial Covenant salvo out of the way, it was the UNSCs turn to strike.
Missile bays on the remaining longswords in Echo flight popped open, the fighters jumping slightly as the atmosphere in the bays was vented. The first salvo of AGSMs dropped free from their shackles, chemical motors kicking in and sending them on their way towards the brute piloted Seraphs.
The Octuplet of explosions lit up the Seraphs for a moment, three of their number adding to the fireworks. The remaining damaged Seraph being mopped up by the combined fire of Echo flights 110mm and 120mm cannons.
"Manchester, Echo flight is Winchester and returning to re-arm. Seraph screen is clear."
The bravo-kilos had messed up when they placed their fighter screen ahead of the destroyer, yet just out of range of its weaponry. Too far out to be protected by the destroyer's weaponry, yet just in range for us, thankfully we had AGSMs to kill their shields from maximum range rather than getting ourselves roasted.
Echo had barely made it to the safety of the 'Chester's hanger when the destroyer's weapons started to charge. Bursts of light flared from the side thrusters of the frigates as they began a series of pre-planned manoeuvres to throw off the aim of the Covenant vessel. The twinkles of light grew to an unbearable degree and Jim looked away as the lights shot across the vacuum, impacting with the Dublin's bow.
The concentrated barrage of plasma burned through the frigate's thin 60 centimetres of armour within seconds, turning the Dublin's prow into a flaming torch. One which steadily made its way back along the hull, airlocks ahead of its length opening and venting atmosphere as secondary explosions shook the vessel. Yet the measures taken to fight the flames were not enough as the archer pods began to cook off, tearing open the frigates port side and causing it to veer off, atmosphere pouring out as the crew took to the escape pods.
Once again the tactics of the bravo-kilos, although devastating to what they hit, lacked the strategic planning of the Elites. Where the Elites would of divided their fire and damaged the two foremost ships in the V formation, putting weaponry out of action and giving them time to fire a second salvo in order to finally put the two ships out of the fight for good. Where as the loyalists had taken one out in their first salvo, but left the firepower of the remaining two frigates intact.
This was shown when the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon aboard the London sent a six hundred ton slug of metal on its way towards the destroyer, the shields blazing white for a second as they withstood the impact of the round. Had the London been a single ship on its own it would have been fried by the return salvo before the MAC was able to deliver a second shot. Yet that was not the case as the Manchester delivered that second shot into the destroyer's shield, which shimmered and fell.
At this point in the plan the third frigate would of sent its MAC round into the now shieldless destroyer. Unfortunately for the plan that frigate was somewhere behind the group burning. So instead both the London and Manchester 'flushed' Archer pods A through D, over a hundred of the anti-ship missiles spewing into space and converging upon the Covenant vessel.
The salvos of Archers were spread out between the two frigates due to the space separating them, Manchester being several kilometres behind London, this meant that when the Covenant point defences fired and obliterated the first wave of Archers, Manchester's wave remained. Slipping past the defences as they recharged and detonating against the destroyer's hull.
The destroyer was a sturdy vessel, yet the high explosive warheads mounted upon the Archers was enough to blow through and shred the occupants of the compartments breached with hull turned shrapnel. The damage sustained would have been enough to hamper the ship, yet not fully cripple it. This was changed however when several Archers used the breaches to penetrate the ship before exploding, shredding the interior and beginning a chain reaction which gutted the vessel, the few remaining survivors heading for the hangars to escape the ruined destroyer.
"Foxtrot, this is Manchester. You're clear to move into the atmosphere, Echo will be assisting shortly."
"Foxtrot Two-One confirms, holding for support from the Helios."
"Unfortunately that's a negative Foxtrot, Katana, Dagger and Sabre flights are engaging Covenant seraphs to keep them off the ground, the fights not over up here you know. Echo will have to knock out the triple-A guns."
Jim sighed as he continued listening to the radio. First the Dublin got slagged, now the fighter cover was caught up in the vacuum. What would it be next? The nukes failing to go off? Taking a plasma torpedo to the face? Neither of them hopefully.
"Foxtrot flight this is Two-One, move into atmosphere and provide CAS for the 51st armoured. Covenant are launching another attack, we'll hit the depot once Echo takes out those guns."
"Foxtrot Two-Two confirms Two-One. Moving into atmosphere and engaging Covenant armour."
Jim swivelled the control column around, performing a braking burn before he then began to enter the planets atmosphere. As he watched the vision slits begin to gain their orange-red glow he was glad that once he was safely down a hull breach wouldn't mean death if his suit was torn. But a large enough hit, like a Wraith's could be enough to force him down anyway. Not a pleasant thought.
1549 Hours, November 18, 2553 (Military Calendar) / UNSC C709 Foxtrot Two-Two, Providing close air support for UNSC armour in the Galan Heights, Tyranos IX.
"UNSC Armour, this is Foxtrot Two-Two, I need your position."
"Foxtrot-Two-Two this is Hammer-Six, good to see you. We'll pop green smoke to indicate positions."
"Confirmed Hammer Six, keep clear of the Covenant armour."
Although the UNSC had perfectly good IFF, it was always good to make sure of your targets via other means. As far as he knew the Covenant didn't carry green smoke with them to mark themselves as friendly, so they were fine using the century's old system.
He banked the Longsword to one side as he flew over the line of Scorpions marked by green smoke, several burnt out and smoking in their defensive emplacements. Only five of the tanks remained. Not enough to hold off an attack of any size, let alone ten inbound Wraiths. The Foxtrot flight had deployed to one section of the line each, Jim had drawn one of the more heavily defended sections. He didn't want to see the others.
"Foxtrot Two-Two this is Hammer-One. We've got inbound Wraiths from the west, coming out the canyon."
All it took was a peek out the slits to see the blue shapes emerging, weapons unfurled and ready to rain down plasma upon the UNSC. And he couldn't just sit there and let that happen, could he?
"Hammer Six, keep your tin cans clear of that valley, I'm about to fill it with one-hundred and twenty mike mike."
He banked the 'sword in a sharp turn and levelled out, settling the targeting reticule upon the first Wraith and holding down the firing trigger. The C709 Longsword was armed with a pair of 110mm rotary cannons in a swivelling mount along with a pair of 120mm rotary cannons in a ventral mount. This gave it firepower far beyond any main battle tank, and it showed.
Within the first fire seconds of continuous fire from the four rotary cannons, two Wraiths had already fallen to the hail of high explosive shells. A mere ten seconds later, all save the final two Wraiths had been obliterated in the deadly rain, the 'sword having a reach longer than that of the slower plasma projectiles of the Covenant armour.
"Hammer Six, scratch eight Wraiths. The final two appear to be caught behind the wreckage in the valley. No trouble to you."
"Confirmed Foxtrot Two-Two, thanks for the assist! We'd be cooked if it hadn't been for that."
As he passed over the line of scorpions again he waggled his wings in a show of victory. A motion that brought more than one wave from the machine gunners aboard the tanks, all grateful that the sword in the sky had cut down the Wraiths before they or their comrades had been fired upon.
"Foxtrot Two-One, this is Two-Two. Covenant armour destroyed, what's the status on Echo?"
"Two-Two, Echo is inbound upon Covenant triple-A batteries along our insertion route. Rendezvous with the flight at the location I'm sending you."
"Confirmed Two-One, Two-Two on the way."
1612 Hours, November 18, 2553 (Military Calendar) / UNSC C709 Foxtrot Two-Two, Moving to engage Covenant Supply depot in the Galan Heights, Tyranos IX.
"Foxtrot Two-One this is Echo-Two-One. We've eliminated two of the Covenant AA guns, only one more to go."
"Confirmed Echo Two-One, status?"
"There's only me and Two-Two remaining. But with you we should have enough to bring them down, Two AGSMs apiece."
"You require us to run interference?"
"Correct Foxtrot Two-One."
"You do know that we have the packages."
"Yes, but spreading the fire over several targets has more chance than two."
"Alright, Foxtrot. Move into formation behind Echo. Be ready to dance when they open up."
Jim moved his C709 into formation on the left of Two-One. Two-Three taking the right and the remains of Echo flight moving into position in front of them. To his left he could see the remains of a Covenant AA artillery piece, next to the shattered remains of the Longsword which had killed it. You could get the AGSM off, but that didn't mean that the gun wouldn't shoot you before it took the hit.
"Two-Three in formation."
"Two-Two in also."
"Confirmed Foxtrot, this is Echo Two-One. Keep an eye out, we should be coming up on it."
Should be wasn't right, we were directly on top of it. The mike-foxtrots had hidden it in an overhang, completely hidden to anyone coming in the opposite direction. We didn't even know it was there, all we knew was that three triple-A guns had been spotted in this area. And this one wasn't spotted fast enough for Foxtrot-Two-Three.
"I'm hit! Foxtrot Two-Three going down! Jettisoning the package!"
The missile bay doors were blown off by explosive bolts, then the two HAVOC missiles dropped free, parachutes opening and allowing them to gently float down. The safety locks in place preventing any detonation of the warheads. Unfortunately for Two-Three, the same wasn't true of the ammunition for the rotary guns. Which cooked off soon after the Longsword smashed into the ground, its crew having abandoned it mere seconds earlier.
"Its behind us! Foxtrot, get in and nail that depot while we deal with the AA!"
Jim kicked in the afterburners, as did Two-One a moment after. The two remaining 'swords of Foxtrot flight accelerating towards their target while Echo flight dealt with the final Covenant anti-aircraft gun. I heard the 'beep!' of the targeting program as it began to move into range for the HAVOC launch.
"Two-Two, synchronise systems for launch and hold your vector."
"Confirmed Two-One, syncin' now."
Synchronising the weapons systems between the two 'swords would allow the four HAVOC tipped missiles to be launched simultaneously, removing the margin for error due to a pilot hesitating or refusing to fire. The shrieking tone that comes with target lock started up for a few seconds, even during the dull whirr of the missile bays opening. It only ended as the HAVOCs dropped away and rocketed forwards, two pairs of smoke tipped with blazing fire and metal soaring upwards away from the fighters.
The four warheads tipped over from their ascent seconds after their first stage burn was completed and the stage jettisoned. The second stage of their propelling chemical motors kicking in and sending them screaming down upon the Covenant supply depot. All four warheads detonated within the same second, turning the Covenant supply depot into a patch of radioactive wasteland with their combined 120 Megaton impact.
"Two-Two, you read?"
"Two-Two reads, slight interference on your end."
"Confirmed. Supply depot hit and destroyed. There's no question about that, is there?"
"Certainly not Two-One, called in a SAR for Two-Three?"
"ETA is twenty. The 51st is sending up a pair of 'hogs to hold back any infantry remaining from the depot anyway."
"And the downed birds?"
"The 51st pulled 'em out already, that's why they took the warthogs off the defensive line."
"Roger that, good to see not everyone got KIA'd."
"Affirmative, set a course back for the 'Chester, they might need the 'swords for mopping up."
"Two-Two is on it, Two-One."
The two Longswords remaining from Foxtrot flight began their climb out of Tyranos IX's atmosphere, escape velocity easily reached by the powerful pairs of engines upon the fighters. Holding geo-synchronous orbit above Tyranos IX they found the remains of the 213th mopping up the parasite craft from the Covenant Carrier the 202nd had torn to pieces.
"Manchester, this is Foxtrot Two-One requesting hangar clearance for Foxtrot flight."
"Foxtrot Two-One this is Manchester, clearance approved, confirm objective completed?"
"Objective is completed Manchester, the bombing run was successful."
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