Winged Defender

by Lt Rainbow Slash

Chapter 1: "Engage!"

Have you ever been bored? Like really bored. Like that time you were on an eleven hour flight and your tablet ran out of batteries leaving you with nothing to do. That type of bored. If you have you would know how I was feeling.

I should probably introduce myself. My name is Raina Moore. I am a Captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

I was flying a Avro CF-200 Super Arrow over the Arctic Ocean with the four other Arrows of my flight. Ever since the Ukraine crisis thirteen years ago we had been getting Russian planes coming over the north, probing our radar coverage.

It was really a dream come true. I had wanted to be a fighter pilot since I was five years old. Now at twenty-five, I was a flight commander already. The best part was the Arrows.

After the F-35s were deemed too expensive, they had decided to revive the Arrow. After a through redesign and modernization, we had an absolutely beautiful aircraft. Of course, it went without saying that the improved Arrow was even better than the original design. She was capable of reaching Mach 3.02 in level flight, the fastest operational fighter jet ever. They had delivered the first few three years ago in 2024.

"Nighthawk 2-1. This is Alert, over." Came the call from the ground controller.

"Go ahead Alert." I said.

"Bogeys are 140 klicks off your nose, count ten, assumed to be Russian fighters escorting a couple Bears. Your orders are to make contact and escort them out of our airspace."

"Wilco, 2-1 out." I said quickly switching to my squadron radio channel, "OK boys, we got ten Bogeys off the nose, 'bout 140 klicks. We're to make contact and kindly show them out."

"What exactly we dealing with Dash?" my wingman asked.

"No idea Flocho." I replied, using Lucas' callsign. I honestly never figured out how he got it.

"Shit." Was his only reply.

My radar then showed a contact on the very edge of it's scope. I looked out at my flight of four Arrows, silently hoping that we wouldn't get in a fight. Four CF-200s versus eight Su-50s? Considering that the planes were approximately evenly matched, it came down to pilots skill and numbers, which the Russians were at an advantage.

"Nighthawk 2-1 to Alert, we have the contacts on radar. Moving to intercept." I reported.

"Roger. Continue with objective. Out."

We continued towards the contacts, hoping they couldn't pick us up on their radar. When we approached the sleek Russian fighters began to take shape.

"Alert, Nighthawk 2-1. Tally eight Flamers." I reported, using the NATO code for the Sukhoi jets.

"Two Bears as well." I added spotting the large four engined bombers.

"Roger." Was his reply.

We fell into a loose formation around them as I tried to establish radio contact. Just before I opened a channel a panicked yell came through my headphones.

"FUCK! MISFIRE! MISFIRE!" came the yell from Nighthawk 2-3 as a AIM-9X Sidewinder zoomed past my cockpit before slamming into a Russian fighter near the front of the formation blasting it to smithereens.

After that all hell broke loose.

I immediately rolled right while slamming open my throttle and began a hard turn right as several cannon shells whizzed past my cockpit.

"WEAPONS FREE! Disengage as soon as you can!" I yelled to my flight.

"Nighthawk 2-1, what's going on?" Came Alert's voice over the radio.

I rolled and dumped flares as I spotted a missile's trail heading for me.

"We were escorting them out when 2-3's missile misfired and accidentally shot one of them down!" I reported quickly.

I let out a relived breath as the missile flew past off to my side. A glance over my shoulder showed a jet sitting behind me.

"Got one on my six! Flocho where are you?!"

"I'm on him boss!...Break right!" Said Lucas.

I did as Flocho instructed and tossed my jet into a hard right turn. I looked behind me to see the Su-50 explode.

"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Nighthawk 2-4 going down! I'm ejecting!" Came a panicked cry.

"Shit!" I cursed, realizing we were getting torn apart.

I spotted 2-3 off to my right going the opposite direction with another jet behind her.

"Talisman! Break Left!" I called, pulling right to help her.

Talisman complied allowing me to latch onto the fighter that was trailing her. I pulled the trigger, my gun filling him with lead, and shearing off this left wing. I looked past the falling fighter to see 2-3 flying before her plane exploded and a Russian jet pulled through the fireball heading the opposite direction.

"Nighthawk flight! Pull out! I repeat, pull out! The two of you wont last long against five of them!" yelled Alert.

"Roger Alert! Flocho! Say on my wing!" I said. Lucas came winging in beside me before I rolled my jet over on it's back and gave her full afterburner.

I dove to gain as much speed as I possibly could. I looked at my speed to see it rapidly climbing as I lost altitude. I heard my headphones go crazy as a radar guided missile came after me. I dumped chaff and levelled out 100 feet above sea level. The combination tricked the missile and it dove into the ice as we raced home.

---

We had flown back to base after outrunning the jets and were circling as we waited for a CC-177 Globemaster III to land.

"Resolute Tower, Nighthawk two-one, requesting landing clearance." I asked the tower.

"Nighthawk two-one, Resolute Tower, runway two two right, cleared for landing."

"Roger, Nighthawk two-one, cleared for landing, two two right. Flocho, you go first." I told him.

As he flew off ahead of me to land I lined up with the runway and began my approach. Right then, I began to feel light headed.

I shook my head to clear it and in the process, noticed the tip of my wing was glowing.

"What the?" I muttered.

I looked back at it and saw that it seemed to be dissolving by little pink particles. I quickly spread until it covered my entire plane as well as me! I watched in morbid fascination as my hand seemed to dissolve in front of my face.

Then every thing went black, but I could still feel and hear my plane.

Fuck! I cant fly while I'm blind!

Just as that thought formed in my head, my vision returned.

"What! How?"

Author's Note:

Have a Super Arrow! Yes, this is a thing! Look it up!

Oh and Su-50? Have one of those too!

Comments

[alfaq]

Finally! Thank you!

[AK47Productions]

You've certainly gotten better in writing.

[LunaScribbles]

5031258 I meant another chapter. Sorry, major typo.

[Boss_Hoss1]

Ahhhh MUCH better.

[shynight]

Good to see this is finally back, and better than ever.