Centaria Palace
July 7 2024
08:10 hours.
Tirek had just finished his breakfast when his aid came in with the morning report.
"So how were things yesterday?" he asked.
Not real good along the mountains. The dragons bombed troop areas on the in the north and center passes, and took out 60 percent of our anti aircraft. Plus we lost 59 planes.
"WHAT?" Tirek jumped up. "How could we lose that many in a day?"
"Surprisingly most of the losses appear to have been from mercenaries. One squadron of them took out the entire 14th fighter wing."
Tirek was shocked. "How many were there in that squadron?"
"Ten from what we gathered," the aid replied.
"Any idea which one it was?" he asked.
"No but we can try and find out."
"Very well." Tirek sat down. "Update me if you find out."
"Yes your highness." And the aid left.
"This better not be an omen," Tirek muttered to himself.
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Tantagel AFB
06:00 hours.
The day's mission briefing had been bumped up to 7 AM, so everyone had to get up early, which wasn't popular with the group. Instead of juice, coffee was flowing for breakfast.
"From what I heard, O' seven hundred will be the new normal," Redwing said.
"Lovely," replied Rover.
"It could be worse. Remember 6AM was the mission briefing time in the LoD," added Sunset.
"Don't remind me," replied Rover.
Like before the mess hall was divided into dragons and mercenaries. Neither chatting to each other. Only amongst themselves except for a few instances, some of which weren't friendly.
"I'm really starting to get disturbed by this," Sunset said before finishing her toast.
"I know. They communicate decently during a mission, but once it's over it's back to silence," added Helia.
"Not surprisingly they talk to us more than anyone else," replied Alvinar.
All too soon it was time for the briefing. 7AM came, and everyone was there except Omar. He finally showed up six minutes late.
"If I had known you were going to be late I'd have slept in longer," cracked Ember, getting a few laughs.
"Sorry. I'll do 25 after the meeting," he replied.
"It's obvious the Centaurs aren't going to heed our ultimatum to get out tomorrow so it is on. To accomplish our plan, we will do a hail Mary play. We will focus our attacks on the center pass and make them think that's where we're going to come in at. Once they're satisfied with that and we eliminate their eyes along the mountains, our actual main forces will go through the northern pass and kill every Centaur between there and Agrabah. An area that they haven't put much attention into. Once there we will meet up with the Equestria Marine corps and head south to Tafuji and cut them off. The southern ground force will consist of half of our army and Marines plus the Yak and Griffon armies. The other half will consist of ours plus Equestria's."
"Damn I almost feel sorry for the Centaurs. The Yaks will turn whoever our army doesn't get into roadkill," cracked Garble, getting a few giggles.
"Won't it be difficult getting the troops across the Dasht Desert?" Ember asked.
"We've taken this into account. It shouldn't be a problem," he replied. "Most importantly this plan requires we have total air superiority over the area so thay can't conduct recon on us." Needless to say that comment got a react ion from the crowd.
"Had a feeling all of you would respond to that one."
"What about their spy satellite?" another member of the Lancers asked.
"What spy satellite?" he replied with a wink and smile.
"Our country did something about it didn't they?" asked Indigo.
"Yep. Your little space birdie has already pecked it's eyes out."
"HA HA!" she replied.
"Can you make us one?" cracked Ember.
"Anyway for today's mission you will once again be bombing their troops and armor in the passes and near the foot of the mountains. Razgriz and Bengals: You will provide cover for the Lancers and handle any anti aircraft and other ground targets of opportunity. There will also be a squadron of our B- 52's and one of Equestria's with you along with an Equestria fighter squadron. Screamers: You will head to the northern pass with Wolfpack and the 88's. You will focus on bombing troops, 88's will handle anti aircraft, and Wolfpack will handle air threats. The train leaves in 90 minutes so get ready. And good luck."
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Mountains east of Bonita
11:34 hours.
"Getting a faint radar spike," Ember announced.
"88's with ARMs take lead. It's time," Saki announced. And that portion of his group sped ahead.
"I'm sure they've already spotted us," Alvinar said.
"Oh well. I wasn't expecting a cake walk anyway," replied Sunset.
About ten minutes later they called in.
"Thor to flight lead: Radar and three SAMs taken out."
"Roger. Good job," replied Saki. Then AWACS came on.
"Sentinel One to all planes: 20 bandits 90 miles out on your twelve at angels six."
"Damn they're early," Ember said.
We're gonna' need some help," Redwing said.
"Flight lead to 88's: Redskies, Viper, Silversnake, join me to support Wolfpack. The rest of you go with the Screamers and Razgriz."
"Roger. Thanks for the help. Let's go!" replied Sunset. And they broke off and headed for the approaching planes.
"Gonna' do a long shot Blossom?" Sunset asked.
"Oh yeah," she replied.
"Count me in too," replied Redskies, who also had a Phoenix laden Tom.
"Nice of the Dragons to supply us with these. Otherwise we normally can't afford them," commented Helia.
"Tell me about it," replied Redskies. "I got a couple once, and I had to eat ramen for almost a month afterwards. And don't get me started on the fuel cost."
It didn't take long to get within range of them.
"Lock em' up and let em' rip," announced Sunset. The two of them locked up eight bandits and fired. Just after that Nightglider and Shadow fired four AMRAAMs, and Sunset two Adders. The bandits began to take evasive action, but it was impossible for them to tell who the missiles were heading for, and five of them fell victim to the Phoenixes, and three to the other missiles.
"Nice job. You've disorganized them. Now divide and conquer," announced Saki. The planes split into two groups and engaged the bandits.
"J-10's. Keep on your toes," announced Sunset.
Meanwhile the Screamers and 88's came across a troop and armor staging area, plus a column of supply trucks.
"Take out the ack ack 88's," Ember said to them. They rolled in and fired their last anti radiation missiles. Taking out four ZSU's and two Tunguskas. As they pulled up a couple of shoulder fired SAMs were fired at them.
"Flares!" yelled Thor. They kicked some out and banked, losing them.
"Let's get em' Screamers!" yelled Ember.And they dived on them. Half of them were carrying CBU-97 cluster bombs. They each dropped 6, which decimated the armor. The others were carrying the Mk. 20 cluster, which they used on the troops.
"Hell yeah that's how to do it!" yelled Screamer Three.
The 88's went after the supply trucks. Flying down the road and dropping some Mk. 82's then coming in from the side and strafing whatever trucks hadn't been hit.
"Rockin!' exclaimed one member of the 88's.
"Fox two!" announced Spot as he fired a Sidewinder at a J-10, bringing it down. The Centaur commander tried to get behind Fido as he chased one, but had to break off when Sunset got behind him. He braked and did a snap roll and got behind her along with another. Sunset responded by hitting the brakes and doing a lower split S to get away. At that moment saki fired a Sidewinder and took out the 2nd one.
"Not bad Blaze," he thought to himself.
Redwing shot one off Serana's tail just as Sentinel came on.
"All planes: 15 more bandits inbound from the southwest! Seven appear to be splitting off and heading for the Screamers."
"Blaze to Sentinel; us and some of the 88's are still tied up with these bandits," replied Sunset.
"Grimm to Sentinel: We've dropped most of our ordnance and will be ready for them," replied Ember. Without the additional weight of the bombs, the Screamer's Mudhens were fully capable of air to air combat.
Back at the main furball, Saki and Silversnake had downed two more. Alvinar came to the aid of Viper, who had one on his tail.
"Break now Viper!"
He banked sharply left, and Alvinar raked the J-10 with his cannon, sending it down.
"The others are here," announced Sunset. She fired a couple of Adders at them and brought both of them down, which also broke up their formation. She shot straight through the middle of them.
"MiG-35's everyone!" the yelled.
"Big deal," replied Silversnake as he took out another J-10. Redwing then trashed one of the MiG's before it could get a lock on Shadow.
Spot acted like he was having problems and lured in one of each bandit. The trap worked, and he hit the afterburners and pulled straight up, allowing Rover and Shadow to take the two of them out.
Meanwhile the Screamers had shot down three of the MiG's, and the Razgriz got two more. The last pair tried to run, but Ember fired off a couple of Sidewinders and another member of the 88's a couple of AMRAAMs. Both of them getting a kill.
"We got em'!" yelled the 88 pilot.
"Blaze do you need any more assistance?" Ember asked.
"Nope we're good," replied Sunset.
"Roger. Back to bombing everyone! You can join back up 88's." And they returned to drop the last of their bombs on the ground forces.
Sunset now had the commanders of both squadrons on her tail. Saki and Redskies dived in behind them to assist, but before they could do anything she rolled down into a dive, then rolled back up and hit the breaks, then rolled down again, getting behind both of them. They tried to split, but she locked her Archers on them quickly and fired, blowing them out of the sky.
"Amazing," Saki said to himself.
Rover nailed another J-10, at which point the rest tried to run. but they ran straight into the rest of the 88's, whom had snuck around to cut off any retreat. They got three of them while Saki and Shadow got the other two.
"Sentinel One to all planes: Scope is clear. Grimm is your group done bombing?"
"Affirmative we're winchester on air to ground," she replied.
"Very good. All planes return to base." And the squadrons formed up and headed home.
"I think it's safe to say that was a successful mission," Helia said.
"That goes without saying," replied Redskies.
"I can't wait to see how Garble did," cracked Ember.
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Tantagel AFB
18:30 hours.
The squadrons assembled for the debriefing by Omar.
"Congratz pilots. All of you did some outstanding work today. The Centaurs are starting to take the bait, and we now have air superiority over the mountains, which means we can start sending troops to the northern pass." He then went over each squadron's kills.
"Lancers: you destroyed 35 pieces of armor, several hundred troops, plus shot down ten helicopters and four planes. Razgriz: You destroyed 12 SAM sites and AA, two radar sites, and shot down seven aircraft. Bengals: you shot down 14 aircraft."
Garble grumbled to himself a bit.
"Screamers: You destroyed 46 pieces of armor, eight AA, and who knows how many troops, plus two choppers and nine planes. Finally Wolfpack: You destroyed 18 aircraft."
A few pilots conversed, and Garble put his paw over his face and shook his head.
"Hey leave some for us!" cracked Zap.
"That means amongst Dragon, ally, and mercenary forces: the Centaurs lost 83 fixed and rotary wing aircraft today."
"Now that's gettin' it done!" exclaimed Wildfire amongst some cheering from the dragons.
"Congratulations to all of you, and we'll see you tomorrow." And the meeting broke.
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Centaria palace
20:33 hours.
"So what's the damage?" Tirek asked his aid.
"Severe. As of right now we've lost 89 aircraft, and around the same amount in armor and AA, and several hundred troops. Plus we've lost air superiority over the mountains so we've had to pull back a bit."
"Dammit. Are we still reinforcing our lines?" Tirek asked.
"Yes. In fact we will be at full strength on the southern one soon," he replied.
"Good. Let's go ahead and try to take Gas Town."
The aid was a little shocked. "The Dragons have an airbase there and additional defenses were brought in."
"Nothing our guided missile cruisers can't handle. Go ahead and launch a two prong air attack on the base and level it."
"Roger. I'll pass down the order immediately," replied the aid.