Mobius Squadron: Operation Katina

Chapter 49: Project Wyvern

Mobius 1

<<Mobius 1, maintain an orbit of the area until told otherwise>> Sky Eye announced over the radio. Mobius gently banked the F-22 so that it would stay over the same area. 2 stayed a bit lower, keeping a lookout for any way he could assist Bravo Team in their part of the operation. Mobius smiled. The operation had gone off without a hitch, and that was mostly due to the support provided by the 118th. <<This is Delta 1-1. Delta Troop entering AO, sorry we're late>> the pilot of the lead MH-6M announced as he and the other helicopters came over and staged near the GHQ complex. "Seems this is going well" Razgriz commented. Mobius lost his smile. "You don't sound too happy" he said. "No, I'm not. There's something coming. Something bad" the demon added. Before Mobius could ask any further, there was a beep that came from his RWR. <<Mobius 1, spiked!>> he called out, redoing the oxygen mask he had undone and reaching for the joystick. <<This is Sky Eye. 6 unknown contacts approaching from bearing 045. North-East direct>> the AWACS called. Mobius turned towards that bearing. <<What do you mean unknown?>> 8 asked. <<I mean exactly that! There's no record of this airframe anywhere in ISAF reference databases!>> Sky Eye responded. Mobius kept himself pointed towards where the six unknowns were coming from, opening the throttle as he did. The MFD showed the distance to the contacts. They hadn't fired yet, despite having a lock onto Mobius. The distance closed. 10 kilometres. 5 kilometres. 3 kilometres. 1 kilometre. Mobius quickly threw the Raptor into a barrel roll, as six blurs passed by his canopy. Righting himself, he pulled into a climb. The craft were now directly parallel to him and continuing to climb. Mobius managed to get a good look at them now. They were obviously stealth fighters. Their nose was long and came to a point just forward of the cockpit. The body stayed the same, up until the wings. There were no horizontal stabilisers, the large delta wings obviously taking up the role. As Mobius watched, the vertical stabilisers sprung up from where they had been flat to an angled position. The wings seemed to be variable geometry, and they extended into a backward swept configuration on the inner joint and a forward swept configuration on the outer joint. Mobius was shocked at the amount of moving parts these fighters must have, including the weapons bays, folding wings and folding vertical stabilisers. Then, in perfect unison, the six turned and began to pursue Mobius. On the underside of the twin air intakes mounted beneath the wings, panels retracted and heatseeker missiles were shot off, a pair from each fighter. Mobius pushed the joystick all the way forward, straining his left hand to reach out and trigger the CM Dispenser. The flares and wild manoeuvres forced an overshoot, but some passed too close for Mobius' liking. "Raz!" he shouted out. There was no talk back this time. Black wings in peripheral vision showed that she was listening and responding. Mobius pulled out before he reached terminal velocity. He began to climb.

???

ZOE.exe MOTHERSHIP MODULE

ENTERING COMBAT ANALYSIS MODE

DATA AVAILABLE

TGT: M1/TRF

TGT STATUS:

0% DMG

EVADING ATTACKS

WARNING, WARNING:

TGT CLIMBING

SUSPECT MOVEMENT TO ENGAGE

TGT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE INITIATIVE

CURRENT APPROACH INEFFECTIVE

RECALCULATING...

RECALCULATING...

CALCULATION COMPLETE

NEW COURSE OF ACTION:

INDIVIDUAL UNITS ENGAGE M1/TRF AT WILL

X-02B CONFIRM?

Y/N