The first light of dawn killed the darkness of night, as the sunlight covered the runway of the Magnus Airfield, located about 20 miles Northeast of Mt. Canterlot; the geographic location has the airfield from enemy sights, plus the Northern side is just plain ice, the last thing in the diamond dogs' plan is to cross the Northern Mountains; however, the temperature around this region would drop below zero when midnight hits, and the maximum temperature during daytime is 27 degrees Fahrenheit. The pilots would have to heat up their jet about half an hour before their patrolling mission.
But this time, no more slow heating.
Alarm hit as the once lone airfield immediately flooded with pilots and ground supports, each of them, with flight suits on about twenty minutes ago scrambled to their hanger. The ground support crews got onto the Vipers first; heating up the electronic systems and the engine with the ECS. The external tanks were needed as their plan would be following a long-range bomb run. The pilots were already up two hours ago, with their mission briefed; their main priority was launching a ground strike on the diamond dogs' military facilities near the front. Gallus had a nervous look on his face, although it was not his first mission and his first blood, it was his first time leading a squadron; after Rainbow Dash retired, Gallus, as the second in lead, became the head. However, he's into doing things with as little hesitation as possible, the Griffon closed the canopy, turned on the HUD, and started the engine. The ground crew removed the obstacle as his Viper slowly gilded forward. He checked his flaps, then the engine status, last the weapon selection; Standard double 9x, two AMRAAM dash C, two sets of three GBU-39s, and two external tanks. The Super Hornets would be the lead of this attack as they had already destroyed the S-300s and their radars, then the A-10s would destroy the diamond dogs with their lead storm, and lastly, Gallus's squadron would knock out all the remaining enemy facilities.
"Tower, clear the runway, and began the take-off procedure." Gallus connected the radio, as he glided towards the runway, behind him were Archangel 2, 3, 4, and 5. Archangel 1 is obviously Gallus, 2 is a hippogriff name Seattle, 3 is a Pegasus name Lighting McRay, 4 is a Changeling name Clickbug, and Archangel 5 is an Abyssinian named Razor. Gallus's wingman is Razor, these two had been flying since the Equestrian-Griffon war, they together are two killing machines.
"Archangel 1, this is the tower, runway cleared, attitude restriction lifted, clear to take-off."
"Archangel 1 copy." Gallus then pushed the throttle to its max thrust, he felt the Viper shake as the fuel was being pumped into the turbofan engine as the afterburner roared. The viper advanced forward slowly, then upon reaching 130 knots, nosed off first, airborne. Gallus then maneuvered his aircraft towards his 3 o'clock, where the Archangel Squadron would form out and begin their operation.
Soon after, the remaining fighters formed behind Gallus, "Archangels proceed to the mission, Warthogs just finished their close air support, now it's up to you guys." Tower briefly acknowledged them.
"Wilco." Gallus responded, "Archangels form up behind me."
The formation continued to climb until they reached the attitude of Angel 45, Gallus gazed at the warmish orange paint on the clouds, and as the first rays of the sun cast his shadow on the control panel, they were heading South towards the Appaloosan Mountain range, where the front is located.
"Alright, listen up boys, we got some juicy targets to hit today," Gallus began, swallowing the nervousness as he remembered Dash's pieces of advice, "but don't go playing hero just cuz the Super Hornets knocked off the S-300s for us, there might still be some hidden Buks, Goas, or triple-A in the area." Gallus could still remember that time when he was painted by a Buk, he was a rookie at that time and barely notched the missile.
"Righto cap!" McRay replied, his voice still the same mix between cocky and confident.
"Better keep that fiery altitude of yours down for now," Archangel 2, Seattle spoke up, "We all know what happened at the Red VS Blue two months ago."
"Yea pal, don't wanna fly straight into the SAM again this time.", Archangel 4, Clickbug popped into the conversation.
"That was an accident, geez..." McRay murmured.
"Archangels, hate to break the fun but..." Gallus glanced at the data link, "We're about 5 minutes from reaching the targeted airspace, keep your senses sharp; it's a mountain range at the end of the day, plus it's known to be the paradise for the SAM sites."
Tension rose in the cockpit, except for Razor and Gallus, the rest of the squadron was on their first hunt, which made Gallus even more anxious.
Suddenly, five blue dots popped into the data link, MccRay was the first to jump, "Are these the bandits?"
"Hold on Archangel 3, that's the Warthogs returning from their mission." Razor sighed, "I believed I briefed it through already, but I'll repeat it since some of you knuckleheads still bears the risk of shooting down a friendly; On the data link, our allies are marked blue, the bandits would be red, and the bogeys are yellow. Copy?"
"Right, sir..." MccRay replied.
"Damn, I can already see the smoke." Clickbug noticed, "They sure wrecked the hell outta the pups down there."
"Well, that's war alright," Seattle replied.
"Archangels, precheck the payloads, get familiar with your targeting pods, we're going in." Gallus's voice rang as his plane ignited its afterburner and dived down. The rest of the squadron followed smoothly, well, almost, if we were to ignore MccRay's wobbling wings.
"I have the targets in the pod," Razor said, "ten in total; three ammunition storages, three hangers, and four unknown facilities."
"Drop the four facilities first, those might be where their leaders' are hiding." Gallus ordered, "We're now 43 nautical miles and approaching."
He then switched to Air to ground mode as he locked onto a facility, with the radar cursor showing a solid diamond shape; the target is being tracked perfectly. Gallus kept his eyes on the 'Time on Target' indicator, as the numbers shrunk rapidly, his talons moved closer to the pickle.
"Pickle!" Gallus lightly pressed the pickle as two SDBs jettisoned from the weapon racks, their foldable wings spread immediately as their GPS navigation system guided their way down.
The rest of the Archangels dropped their payloads as well, ten SDBs are gliding perfectly to their targets.
Meanwhile, down below, in one of the facilities; A diamond dog base commander is in fury, "Where the buck are our planes?! I thought our 'superior' fifth-gens were out!!!" The four lower-rank officers stood there with their heads down, but their trembling paws betrayed their emotion. It's a slap in the face of the Diamondia Caninia, before the war they were all out setting up propaganda and bragging about their newest 'Su-57' stealth fighter and their upcoming Su-75 Checkmate, and saying how they'd be Raptor killers and shit. Yet there they are, being bombed the heck out of and the Felons are nowhere to be seen.
Sure fits their role as 'stealth' fighters.
Suddenly, they heard a crack on the ceiling, before they could look up, they heard giant explosions as their world went dark forever.
"Direct hit!" Razor reported, "Good kills."
The ammunition storage went up with massive fireworks, hangers were crushed along with the remaining aircraft, and as for their leaders? Well, they're down at Tartarus having a tea party.
"Nice work Archangels, all targeted facilities are knocked out," Gallus sighed in relief, "check your fuels and RTB."
Now their jobs are done, however, Gallus's internal frown deepened instead. Where the hell are their SAMs at? They should've been shot at when they approached the airfield, yet none of them were painted. These SAMs won't kill themselves unless the Warthogs finish them... Or... they might be purposely leaving this area clear for...
Gallus's eyes widened, Plus there were fewer fighter aircraft than expected, where did they go?
Then, as if confirming his theory, his RWR began to sing a horrible song, "Shit! We're being painted! Archangels jettison all heavy load outs and began evasion!" gallus called out as he pumped the two external tanks and the remaining SDBs off while defending down. The Archangels followed as they spread out. The rookies were a bit chaotic since it was their first time engaging hostile missiles.
"Smoke in the air! Smoke in the air!" MccRay's call made Gallus's heart-rate sprint up, he looked to his five o'clock, a smoke trail was approaching them from the skies behind, seems to be coming from the mountain range. Ambush!
"Damnit..." Gallus gritted his beak, "Archangels attack!"