September 4th, 2005
1334 Hours
“Hey, Three-Four, red alert!”
The sound of his commander’s voice shook Lieutenant Sylvester from his thoughts and back to the real world. He responded with an apology and checked in as asked, and looked over to the left to see the rest of Charlie flight from his plane’s spot in the formation. He kept quiet and listened for any new orders, wondering what the issue was as Elijah howled back at the Earth below.
“What’s the situation, over?”
“Be advised, we have leakers, aircraft type unknown, crossing the warning line bearing two-seven-eight at angels three-two. Eagle Three-One, your flight is ordered to intercept and direct them back across the border, over.”
“Tower, what’s the R.O.E., over?” Zeppelin asked, as if he had the same thought.
"Return fire only, do what is needed to ensure the aircraft return back over the line, over.”
“Understood, out,” he said, passing the orders on to his flight. “Charlie, we got bogies at two-seven-eight at angels three-two. We’re going to intercept and get them to turn back into their own airspace. No shooting unless they shoot first, you copy that?”
“I thought we were at war, we should have free reign. What are we doing going back to the restriction phase?” Sylvester thought.
Regardless, he answered in the affirmative along with the rest of the squadron. The fighters adjusted their heading to make contact with the invading squadron, and after a few minutes of flying they found them on their own radar. These were not unarmed pegasi, but actual fighter jets. All of them knew that the turkey shoot of the first battle was just luck and would not be repeated in the future.
“Alright, we’re closing in. Baker, Svenson, go trail and stay close! The three of us will go high and intercept the bogies. Three-Four, Three-Five, you guys are in reserve. Stay low and out of the crowd, copy?”
“Solid copy,” Cowboy replied.
He and Ramone, the fifth pilot in the flight, fell off as the other three climbed up. Before long they were able to spot the aircraft, and identified the eight as Bloc MiG-29 fighters, ‘Fulcrums’ as the N.A.T.O. name was for them. The Eagles and their AMRAAMs had a range advantage over the MiG's radar missiles in a fight, but now that the range had closed that advantage had been removed.
Zeppelin began to call over the open channel for the Bloc fighters to turn around. Cowboy, who watched them from below, noted that the Fulcrum formation was rather loose. Some were in the wrong position and the space between them overall was far too great. Zeppelin heard no reply, and ordered his three to get into a position behind them to threaten them while informing control and asking when they would be allowed to fire.
As the F-15s maneuvered, some of the MiGs began to shift, as well. The Americans near them could not quite tell what was happening, but Cowboy noticed it from below. Some of those tailing aircraft were drifting into position behind the three Eagles, giving them their own shots.
“Watch your six, Three-One!” he called, trying to alert Zeppelin to the trap.
This came a second before the leading MiGs began to maneuver more extremely, and two of the alerted Americans moved to follow, while another broke off when one of the tailing Fulcrums flew quite close and began trying to get a lock-on. Trying to intervene, Sylvester called for Ramone to follow him, as he pulled his bird up and charged towards the quickly-collapsing mess of planes.
The radio became filled with chatter as Cowboy dropped onto the MiG trailing the flight lead’s plane. The flying now evolved into rolls and sharp turns as Zeppelin did everything he could to shake the pursuer off, while the MiG tried it’s best to follow and Sylvester tried to follow. The shift in weight from gravity and the extreme pressure put Cowboy under heavy stress, causing his body to tense and tighten and his vision to blur slightly. There was a quick flash and a shake, and he banked left to keep up with the Fulcrum. The Bloc jet continued to evade and began to roll, with the American doing the same as the world turned upside-down and his stomach turned inside-out and he tried to figure out what was happening and survive it.
The two pilots walked away from the parked rows of aircraft, now being serviced by their crews. Both of them had a desire to go flying, but understood that it was not the right time and nothing good would come of it. Several matters had to be addressed first, and there was no point in stalling with them either.
“I’m sorry about this.”
“Not sure why you need to apologize, Captain. Sounds a little… misplaced.”
“It still needs to be said Lieutenant.”
Sylvester did not understand why the Captain felt a need to apologize sincerely; maybe he thought it was his fault somehow. It was not his fault that the Equestrians had decided to severely restrict the rules of engagement, nor could he have known that the enemy aircraft had planned an ambush to begin with. This was all on the higher-up’s level, but it would not change what had happened.
Lieutenant Elijah had been shot down first from a heat-seeking missile. One Charlie flight pilot survived the fight but crashed on landing. Another was killed in action high up in the clouds. Three people died because of command’s restrictions. Only Sylvester and Ramone were left now, leaving Charlie flight crippled and not suitable for combat operations, or much else.
“Are the two of you going to be alright?” Cole asked as the two walked down the runway.
“I think so,” Cowboy replied. “I mean, I can’t speak for Ramone, but I think he’ll make it. I’ll be ok, too. Just need some time.”
“I understand. Just make sure to get help if you need it, it won’t be a problem. Charlie’s going to be grounded for a while anyways so it can be fixed up.”
“I can still go up if you need, sir.”
“I don’t need you to be brave right now, Lieutenant. It’d just be foolish,” the Captain said. “The rest of the squadron can take over the duties for now.”
“I understand sir, just want to even things up, you know? And keep up with the rest of the guys. I don’t like leaving them.”
Cole stopped for a minute and checked lightly to see if there was anyone in earshot.
“Lieutenant, if you want, I do need you to do something, and you’ll have to be brave to do it.”
Sylvester shook his head once in the affirmative.
“I need you to take over Charlie flight,” Cole said in a forward manner. “You'll be promoted to First Lieutenant to mark it. You’ll be in charge of it from now.”
“Yes… sir.”
“Listen, you deserved to get a lead spot before, I just wish it hadn’t been like this. Taking over as a replacement leader to the deceased former is the worst kind of promotion. But I still think you’re the best one for it. We’re going to be getting replacements soon, and I need you to watch them, alright?”
“When will they be arriving?”
“Soon. Not sure when, but I can guess that it’ll be soon,” Cole assured him. “Do you think you can do this?”
“Yea, I think I can. Just… shaken up a little, a little scared, but I’ll be fine.”
“Come and talk to me if you need to, or to someone else if you want. I will be checking up on you, so don’t try hiding it.”
“Wouldn’t think of it, sir.”
“Good. Got any questions?”
“Not now, but if I think of any I’ll let you know.”
“Alright, I’ll fill you in with anything else, too. Right now I need to let the others know about everything.”
“Ok,” Sylvester said, stopping to ask him one more thing. “Captain… you think things might have gone different if we had done something?”
“Don’t start guilting yourself,” Cole warned, stepping ahead of him. “We’ll just have to learn from things and mourn when it’s time to, but don’t hold yourself back or it’ll only cause more harm. Elijah knew he was risking everything in this, we all know it. But he wouldn’t blame you or anyone else.”
“I know he wouldn’t, I just wish I could hear him say that.”
“If you know then that’s just as good. It’s like he said it already, you know? You understand he would have thought that, you don’t need to hear it.”
“That’s true… thanks.”
“And Lieutenant, let me tell you something,” Cole said with a small smile. “His nickname, he got it from the blimp. There was a training incident once where he stalled out and recovered, and when the control asked him if he was alright he said he felt like the Hindenburg for a minute. That’s how he got it.”
“Huh... thank you Captain,” Sylvester said, grinning lightly on his own at the knowledge.
The two headed off in different directions, with Cole heading into a nearby building and going to the briefing room for the squadron. Only Runner and Keno were there upon entering, and the situation was kept casual to stop any formalities, as there was no mood or need for them. The three waited there until Lieutenants Desser and Wilkes arrived, both taking a seat near the others.
There was a general air of gloom among those present, not much despair but a sadness that was noticeable. The loss of comrades in battle for the first time was always a brutal awakening. It did not help that this was the first time their vaunted Eagle fighters had been shot down in air-to-air combat. The mood and situation had to be addressed.
“So I guess I don’t need to explain what exactly happened at this point, but I’ll do it anyways to clear up any rumors,” Cole said. “Basically Charlie had to intercept a big flight of Fulcrums that crossed into our airspace. But the Equestrians gave the order to warn them and escort them out, and made it clear to me and the rest of the team they didn’t want to kill them. So they ended up closing the range and getting right into them, and come to find out it was an ambush. The Bloc aircraft were able to surround them and took out three of them pretty quick. Elijah, Baker, and Svenson.”
“Christ, why would they tell them not to shoot at this point?” Desser asked.
“Reduce bloodshed, I guess. But I think the possibility of that ended after today.”
“Yea? I hope they know just what we’ve lost for this. Our men dead now, for them, because they wanted everyone to hold hands and get along.”
“I’m not going to get angry with them now,” Cole stated. “I’ll talk to them about it, go against it, but I’m not angry with it.”
“Mind if I ask why, sir?” Desser asked, more confused than upset at this.
“'Cause they’re doing it to try and stop the war from happening in the first place. I doubt it’ll work, not totally sure, but I doubt it. I think we’re past the point of stopping it. Still, the Equestrians are thinking that now that they’ve got us backing them up, it’ll turn into a stalemate. A kind of Cold War, you know? Like how us and China have been in recently,” Cole explained. “Zeppelin and the others… I hate losing them, but they died following orders. They tried their best and stuck with it all the way through. But that won’t be happening again, cause an Airman that died sticking to that is still gone, and I won’t let that happen if it can be prevented, like today.”
“Alright… so where do we go from here?” Desser asked.
Cole leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath, sighing as he rested his eyes for a minute. The sun was starting to set now, and the angled rays still lit the room. He pulled himself up again, only to scrunch in the opposite direction and slouch forward, resting an arm on his leg and holding the other up, moving it as he talked.
“From now on we’re all going to be sitting at alert. If any aircraft from over there comes around, we’re going to assume they’re looking to pick a fight. We’re not letting them move around to set up the kills, we’ll act as needed.”
“But no shooting on sight?”
“Not yet, but not letting them get away with anything like they pulled today, either. We’ll need to be more aggressive. Let them know they can’t mess with us. If that means locking on to scare them off, then we’ll do it. And… well, if we need to kill them to get them out, we’ll do that. Shoot ‘em right out of the sky if they don’t listen. Hooah?”
“Hooah,” they replied in broken unison.
“One more thing,” Cole mentioned. “From now on me and Runner are going to be flying with whichever flight is on patrol. I don’t want any more intercepts alone.”
“Worried we might treat them too rough, Cap?” Lieutenant Desser joked.
“I gotta keep an eye on you guys,” Cole said with a slight grin. “Who knows what you’ll get yourself into.”
President James had received word of the incident late in the day, and had stayed up a good portion of the night going over the options. American blood had fallen on the soil of a foreign nation in their war, and it would be increasingly hard to say they were not a part of it. Yet they were going to be a part of it, the alternative could not be afforded.
Instead, he took the advice of Washington and decided the honest route. From now on, the official policy would be of America supporting Equestria to the fullest extent, no sugarcoating it to the public. This still did not directly equate to war, but he was determined to be prepared for when it happened.
This is where this important policy came in. The U.S. had already established one base there and had one fighter squadron under the Equestrian flag. More units were coming slowly to build up an actual force there, but it was not fast enough. It was clear a single squadron might not make enough difference to stop the Bloc in time. All their plans had to be accelerated as fast as they could.
“So how soon can everything else get there?” he asked the Joint Chiefs Chairman as they sat in his office.
“Just from initial guesses and estimations, I’d say it varies, sir,” the General replied. “The Navy can set out immediately and get there fastest. First few ships will arrive within a day if they go on their own; the Enterprise battlegroup will be the first formation to arrive, and that’ll take a couple days with the Equestrians getting the port ready. The other carrier groups will be spread out a bit more over time.”
“Why can’t the Air Force get there sooner?”
“We’ve only finished one base, and it’s only got enough supplies to support the squadron stationed there. We’ve got plenty of other units ready to go when they can be received properly.”
James leaned back in his chair a bit, trying to mask the mild disappointment.
“And the ground forces?”
“They're the most varied; they need proper transportation and they’re landing at different ports and areas to help spread them out around the country. The first of them will get there in about a week, but getting everyone over could take over a month and well beyond,” the General explained. "We also don't have many set units for such movement, so we're scrambling what we can. The first unit that can get there is the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Infantry in about two or three days. The 1st of the 6th could follow the day after along with the 75th Rangers, and a few others following that."
"Anything bigger than a regiment?"
"That's where the months come in. The first major unit we're planning on sending is the 5th Infantry Division, and that'll be towards the end of the month. The 2nd Armored and 1st Marines can follow about midway in the following month. Everything else is up in the air."
“Is there any way to speed up getting the big units there? The ground troops are most important,” James said. “If we get enough troops there, the Bloc think twice before launching an invasion.”
“I understand, sir,” the General replied, thinking for a moment. “The main problem we're facing is exactly where to unload these units. We wanted to land them on ports farther west but they're not quite ready to handle that. The closest port to the continental U.S. and Arcaia is one called Bostrot in the north, and a close second is one called Pensacolta along the axis of California. The latter is most ready to receive modern shipping, and we were planning sending the first units there already. We could redirect all traffic to head to that port. It’d cause a ton of clutter and some confusion, and the units that land will have to drive across the country to get to the front, but they’d be there in about a week’s time.”
“We’ll do that, then, and have the divisional units move individually, not waiting on others. As long as we make a big deal of getting a lot of troops there, and the Bloc knows it, it’ll give them something to worry about,” James decided. “Now, General, what’s the status of the MILL’s construction?”
“The secrecy of the project has kept it slow, sir. We can speed it up, but it would cause some disturbance in the area. We think the Bloc already think there’s something going on in the area, being so close to the front and having such different activity. We can expedite it, but there’s a good risk of them finding out. I’m not too sure what they would do, if they would bomb the site or just watch it, but they won’t let it be.”
“We’ll have to speed it up immediately. Get in touch with the squadron over there and give them the run-down on the project. We’ll get them to give some cover to it. Hopefully that’ll be enough.”