The Franco-British Union: The Trials of Time

Chapter 5: Peace Meeting, Potential Ally and the Upcoming War

A few hours later...

28th of April, 09:00

On the flight deck of HMS Ark Royal, 105 miles off the coast of Pais, the former Atlantic Ocean

     A roar can be heard as several Flight Deck crews ran to their positions. Several aircraft handlers wearing yellow coloured tabards can be seen exchanging hand signals before silver wings, a cockpit and fiery jet exhausts flash past them.

     A fifteen-ton monster launches at almost 180 knots as it's pushed electro-magnetically and pulled down the catapult until it lifted off the deck of the carrier. The carriage then returns to its starting position as the jet blast deflector is lowered to make way for another monster, the monster that is the Rafale FRS.4 (Rafale N) aircraft.

     Developed and built by Eurofighter GmbH, the Eurofighter Rafale was designed to be the European multirole fighter aircraft and although it was co-developed alongside the Eurofighter Typhoon with many similarities between the two, the Typhoon, unlike the Rafale, was designed specifically for the air superiority role, however, both were still referred to as "omnirole" aircraft by Eurofighter because they are both equipped with a wide range of weapons, suitable for all sort of roles the air forces of Europe and the RAF have for them.

(Author Note: The Rafale N is the proposed naval two-seater version of the Rafale M that was to be used on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier before it was cancelled due to budgetary and technical constraints, however, here, it was never cancelled and is currently in use with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and yes, the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers here are all fitted with CATOBAR and since there's no "France" or the "UK" but instead only the "FBU", Dassault Aviation still actively participates in the European Combat Fighter project which also means the FBU owns over 66% of Eurofighter GmBH.)

     Inside "Viking 2", one of the four Rafales from 802 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) flying today is Sub-Lieutenant Hugo Baugé, an athletic and confident pilot, and Sub-Lieutenant Cooper Carr, a calm and steady WSO (Weapons Systems Officer/Wizzo). Both of them have flown together since their Elementary Flight Training at RAF Barkston Heath, despite their differences.

(Author Note: And no, RAF and FAA pilots do not have call signs, well, other than nicknames at least. Instead, individual flights/squadrons are given call signs, for example, the call sign "Renegade 1/2/3/4" was given to the two Wildcat helicopters and the two Merlin helicopters from 815 and 845 NAS that participated in Operation Buckthorn.)

Hugo: "Cooper, you think we're going to encounter some strange magical creatures here?"

Cooper: "Bullshit, one-eye."

(Author Note: "One-eye" is naval slang for the word "idiot".)

Hugo: "Come on, Cooper, it will be like a dream come true." 

Cooper: "...Only for an otaku like you, Hugo."

Viking Leader: "A flight, this is Viking Leader, steer to 025 and maintain angels 13, over." 

(Author Note: "Angels" means the height of a friendly aircraft in thousands of feet as such, angels 13 which means 13,000 ft.)

Hugo: "Viking Leader, this is Viking 2, roger, out."

     Hugo slams the throttle forward, engaging the afterburner and manoeuvred his Rafale to the left, following the other three Rafales in a finger-four formation. That was until Cooper picks up a target on the radar and immediately reacts to it.

Cooper: "Unknown contact, 20 right at 13, 225 knots closure. Viking Leader, this is Viking 2, contact one bogey, 030 at 40 miles, 225 knots of closure, over."