Firestorm of the West

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

(July 29, 0810 local time)

On the flightline of Whiteman Air Force Base, ground crews are racing to finish their duties. Inside the specially built hangars at the base, six of the base's precious B-2 Spirits are being armed for combat.

Orders to execute the Bravo Contingency, along with news of the nuclear attacks in Ukraine, had reached the base at 0724 local time, only seven minutes after President Biden had officially issued the orders. The ground crews assigned to the B-2s were immediately roused from bed, and the men and women had rushed to the hangars to get their charges ready to fly.

Whiteman was one of only several bases currently in an uproar. At Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, small forces of America's other two strategic bombers, the B-1 Lancer and the B-52, were also being readied for battle. At the same time, at Langley Air Force Base on the east coast, 28 F-22 Raptors were being prepped to fly fighter escort for the bombers.

The bombers were a key part of one of two objectives of the Bravo Contingency. As had been previously stated as a possibility, one of the US' initial targets in their retaliation was the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The bombers were to destroy the Black Sea Fleet and cripple the usefulness of Crimea to Russia. The six B-2s from Whiteman were each assigned to carry 16 AGM-158 cruise missiles. Their target was Crimea. Four of the B-2's were to bombard Sevastopol with their missiles, while a fifth would destroy the Crimea Bridge, and a sixth would strike a major airfield on Crimea.

Meanwhile the B-52s and B-1s were to strike the Black Sea Fleet itself. The B-52s would target Russian ships closer to Ukraine's coast with Harpoon missiles, while the B-1s would target the rest of the Black Sea Fleet, which was currently in and around Novorossiysk, with LRASM missiles. At the same time as the attack was carried out, an American attack submarine tailing the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich, a ship assigned to the Black Sea Fleet but currently in the Atlantic, would attempt to sink the frigate.

In the hangars at Whiteman, the hangar crews are hurrying to get the last of the missiles into the bombers. The base commander had issued orders that the bombers be ready for takeoff 20 minutes from now. The pilots are just finishing their final briefings in their ready rooms, and will be arriving soon to begin their pre-flight checks.

In the hangar of the Spirit of Missouri, a small ordnance cart comes speeding into the hangar, bearing the last two cruise missiles to be loaded into the bomber. The cart stops under the body of the bomber, and the ordnance crews hurry up to the cart. With great care, the crews remove the missiles from the cart and maneuver them over to the bomb bay to fix them in place.

As the missiles are being moved to the bomb bay, a door into the hangar opens and the pilots hurry into the hangar, their helmets under their arms. The co-pilot begins the walk around to start the walk around while the pilot walks up to the crew chief. "Everything ready?" the pilot asks.

"Yes, Major. We're getting the last two missiles secured in place," the crew chief responds.

"Good," the Major replies simply before joining his co-pilot to do the walkaround.

In 20 minutes, all of the pilots have finished their walk around and are in their cockpits. After finishing their checks, the pilots finally start their engines.

The Spirit of Missouri slowly taxis out of its hangar, the other five Spirits following close behind. One by one, the B-2s taxi to the runway, where they await the takeoff clearance. Clearance comes almost immediately, and the Spirits take to the sky. Around the base, a handful of civilians living near the base take notice of the B-2s taking off, but pay it little mind. News of the nuclear attack is only just beginning to hit the news, and most civilians are still unaware of the attack. The takeoff of six B-2s, each one departing five minutes apart specifically to lower suspicion, does not draw much attention.