RM Side Story 9: 8492nd (Part 3)

RM Side Story 9: 8492nd (Part 3)

"That was..." Bryn tried to get the word on her tongue but fail to bring forth any.

Yuki, hearing the confusion in her voice, giggles. "Swift? Smooth? Anti-climatic? Be honest, you had expected more bells and whistles when Yggdra said she would open a portal to another universe for us, no?"

Sighing, Bryn replies. "Well, you're not wrong. Instead of an instantaneous traverse portal, I thought there would be much more mystifying magical jargon to it. Granted, the amount of energy I felt was absurd, but still... My disappointment was immeasurable."

Yuki, now laughing aloud, flies over Bryn's Aria while flipping her plane upside down. "At least your days aren't ruined yet! Anyway, it's time to put our game faces on. I am picking up a lot of blips on the radar, exactly like the intel Yggdra provided."

Bryn nods on her end. "So we fly in, provide CAS, and help take out the anomaly in this universe?"

"Yup," Yuki emphasized the P. "To reiterate, do not target the colorful bunch. While I'm not sure what sort of instruction was that, let's just keep our eyes peeled. The best bet will be for us to do a flyby at high altitude, using the targeting camera to scout the AO, before proceeding to bomb what's down there."

"Copy that, Morgan. What did you say again?" Bryn asked over comms, prompting Yuki to reply. "Let's go dance with the Angels!"

Yuki then flies the Morgan ahead of Bryn, leading the formation. They are five kilometers above sea level and are supercruising at Mach 2, less than a minute later, they have arrived at the designated AO.

"Ok, looking through my targeting pod now." Yuki, now temporarily dubbed as Morgan, announced. Bryn, taking up the callsign Aria, flies coverage for Yuki while she's analyzing the battlefield raging below them.

Yuki then whistles. "Now that's a lot of automatons and androids. The majority of them, in the color of dark purple and anything near that color spectrum, are assaulting what seems to be a military base. I also spot the colorful bunch, hard to miss them considering that they're using antiques and wearing pop clothing. Colorful females are young, similar to the androids on the other side. I wouldn't be surprised if they're androids too. On closer inspection, OPFOR is mostly using energy weapons and high-tech kinetic armaments. While I'm not seeing any dedicated AA or Radar equipment, best be careful as I see what seems to be biped railguns. Pay attention to your energy warning receiver, I have a feeling we will be tagged a lot. Pinging non-hostile party's locations on your feed now."

Having said that, Aria's targeting data is updated by Morgan with the latest intelligence. Picking her targets and choice of weapon, Bryn nods to herself while calling out to Morgan. "Enemy Infantries has encircled a fighting position atop a hill. I'm heading for a dumb bomb drop to clear out the majority of them."

"Copy that, I will deal with the leftover. Happy hunting, Aria."

Without any further exchange, Aria breaks off from the formation. Currently, each aircraft has the same loadout consisting of:

Primary internal weapon bay: F-3 Fenix Long-range Active radar homing, electro-optical, AA missile x 8.Dorsal secondary weapon bays: F-2 Iris Short-to-medium-range all-aspect heat-seeking AA missile x 4.Ventral secondary weapon bays: Joint Air-to-Ground Missile Medium-range, JAGM-MR, with semi-active laser, electro-optical, and millimeter-wave radar guidance x 4.External hardpoint 1-2: Mk500 Snake Eye, 500kg dumb bomb with Tail Retarding Device x 6.External hardpoint 3-4: Joint Standoff Weapon, JSOW, 500kg bomb with infrared-seeker, millimeter-wave radar, laser, Inertial Navigation System coupled with Global Positioning System, as guidance x 4.External hardpoint 5-6: DAGR, Direct Attack Guided Rocket, with semi-active laser guidance in 19-tube rocket pod x 6.External hardpoint 7-8: F-2 Iris x 4, JAGM-MR x 2.Internal gun: 30mm Mk103 four-barrel Gatling. Electrically controlled, hydraulic-driven, with 800-round in a linkless feed system.

Armed and dangerous, the experimental Arias will be dishing out judgment onto cold-blooded machines today.

Aria breaks past the cloud, flying in supersonic and dropping off her Snake Eyes at the base of the ally fighting position. The Snake Eye tails perform their jobs, slowing down the falling 500kg bombs and giving Aria enough time to egress out of the impact line. Aria may have been unable to see the explosion but Morgan sure as Hell does not.

"Good bombs, good bombs. Numerous infantries are wiped at the base of the hill. Stragglers are stunned but are recovering. Going in for a follow-up."

"Copy that, Morgan, will cover you." Aria responded. She then circles her plane around, overlooking Morgan drops her altitude for a close-up of the enemy.

"Gun. Gun. Gun." Aria then watches Morgan paints a line of red 30mm tracers damn near the flustered non-hostile females. The HEDP shells carve another line of smaller craters near their position, proving to be extremely effective on soft-skin enemies as mechanical body parts are flying everywhere.

"Good effect on targets, Morgan." Aria then scans for additional hotspots. "Heads up, spotting a sizeable group of foot mobiles charging the main gate. Coming in for a rocket strike."

"It seems like our sudden arrival has made them desperate." Morgan said as she leveled her aircraft. "They're disregarding their losses, charging under a crossfire."

Aria lowers the nose of her aircraft while lasing the most concentrated swath of enemy, she's just about launching a portion of her rockets when Morgan and her sensors warn. "E-warning! Break! Break!"

Twirling her aircraft to the side while dumping chaffs, Aria avoids the incoming hypersonic projectiles by a fair margin. Still, she can feel the shockwave left behind by the high-speed dart washing over her plane. "Close call! What the Hell was that!?" Aria huffed out while gaining altitude at the best speed.

Morgan, doing the same thing as her, replies. "It's their mobile railguns. Though they don't have radar, they probably can still track us visually even with our EW suite." She then adds. "Locking onto the Triple-As, JSOW off the rack."

Aria turns, barely in time to see the glide bomb colliding with a dense formation of biped railguns. "Good hit. Good hit." She reported before scanning the AO for anything else like that. Scrolling through the blips on her sensors, Aria fails to come up with any target of the same visual identifications. "Unable to lay eyes on additional railguns. They either have them in reserve or you just wiped them all out, Morgan."

Morgan then follow-up by saying. "Echelon 1, this is Avalon 1-1 checking in as fragged. Flight of two Arias holding South, 15km at angels five five. Available precision call-ins: 7 guided bombs, 12 AGMs, 20 rocket salvos. Unguided: 6 bombs and 1300 rounds for the section. Abort code Delta. Ready for your work."

Hearing that, Gentiane directs SCAR-L. "You heard the lady. I'm temporarily giving you the ability to coordinate fire support. Point them where it hurt!"

"On it, Commander!" SCAR-L answered with an audible big grin. She then quickly directs Avalon. "Avalon 1-1, this is Echelon 1. Type 1 is in effect, advise when ready for 9-line."

"Ready."

"Hasty IP, Kilo Mike two-two-three-four. Two two zero - right. Nine point one. Elevation two three zero. Twenty army green individuals. Kilo Mike seven eight one... seven zero four. Laser. Friendlies West three five zero. Egress West. Advise when ready for remarks."

"Avalon 1-1 to Echelon 1, ready for remarks."

"Final attack heading 180-270. Immediate time on target. One guided bomb. Report IP inbound and heading."

"220, KM 781704. Final attack heading 180-270."

"Read back correct. Advise when ready for lasing."

"Ready for lasing."

"Do you see the laser?"

"Tally on that lase."

"Avalon 1-1, push when ready."

"Roger, push when ready."

Avalon 1-1, Morgan, then positions her aircraft to turn in at the Initial Point. "Avalon 1-1, in with heading 220."

SCAR-L responds. "Avalon 1-1, Cleared hot!"

Flying overhead of Echelon 1, Morgan announces. "Off, one away."

A few seconds later, the laser-guided bomb impact the middle of the towering Aegises formation, reducing the twenty heavily armored automatons into scrapped heaps that fly everywhere. The shockwave from the JSOW can be felt even at Echelon 1's fighting position.

"Avalon 1-1, good hit, targets destroyed."

"1-1 to observer, reassuming holding pattern. 1-2 is ready for immediate tasking." Morgan reported. SCAR-L is quick to follow up on another request, this time to Aria, Avalon 1-2. "Avalon 1-2, advise for 9-line..."

Finally, Gentiane can sigh in relief. With the sudden availability of CAS, the situation has turned a complete 180 in favor of Griffin&Kryuger PMC. At this point, most of Sangvis' offensive force is either routed or destroyed. Air support has clipped of the half of Sangvis' attack when they first bombed near the fighting position.

Slumping down on her commander's chair, the pink-hair lady can't help but slump down, massaging her tired eyes. Trusting that Echelon 1 and the rest can clean up the remaining rogue T-Dolls, Gentiane calls out for her adjutant.

"G36, is it an opportune time to request a cup of coffee? I have a feeling that today will be a long day."

After all, Gentiane still has to deal with foreign pilots.