The Winter War

Chapter Seventeen

One hundred fifty miles behind the Malcolm Line

"My tanks are full. Disengaging."

Outside the fueling hose disengaged from Ann's plane and she pulled the gentle turn where she met up with Parker. The nimble F-16 shadowed her slow, heavy plane as they flew back towards the battlefield to provide whatever support they could.

Since almost all of the anti-air defenses were destroyed by F-15 Strike Eagles or recommissioned F-4 Wild Weasels, Parkers ECM pods were removed the last time they landed and replaced with a full load of air-to-ground missiles and air-to-air missiles. She still hoped he wouldn't have to use the latter as he wasn't exactly trained for dogfighting and she didn't want to end up on the receiving end of one of his missiles.

Visibility was low today with heavy clouds threatening a full on snow storm hanging only a thousand feet above the ground. If she had to fly strike missions now she had be very careful as Ann knew she didn't have much room to maneuver. Unless she wanted her legacy to be a smoking hole in the ground.

"Thunderhead to Asp Team, welcome back," The AWACS covering this sector of the battlefield greeted her.

"Asp One to Thunderhead," She said into her rubber oxygen mask. "What kind of customers do you have for me?"

"Well we've got a counter attack a few hundred miles away but we've already tasked a flight to deal with it. Right now it's pretty... hold on." The operator, whose name she never learned fell off the air for a moment. Extremely high above, and much further back than she was, the AWACS circled and picked up radio communications. A number had already been shot down by Druidth fighters despite the best efforts of the F-22s, but enough remained to keep a firm grasp over the skies. "Asp One have a priority call from a group of infantrymen facing tanks. Vector to one-three-seven and engage."

"Roger, copy, Thunderhead." Ann had already turned her plane in that direction and pushed the throttle to the maximum. If they were facing tanks alone then she had to be there soon. Sooner than she could get there.

Forty miles passed rapidly and, as the ruins of Sioux City came into view, she switched her weapons on. Parker remained high, only using his AGMs if she ran out but still had targets.

"Asp One to ground, Asp One to ground," She called out.

"Ocelot to Asp One," A slightly panicked voice came back. In the background she could here gunfire and explosions. "We have tanks at our twelve o'clock. Anything east, say again east, of the green smoke is hostile."

"Roger, Ocelot. I have visual on the tanks, can't miss 'em."

"Good hunting. Ocelot out."

She streaked over the battlefield once for reference before orienting herself north to south. With multiple pillars of green smoke firmly on her left side she nosed down and fired her nose gun in a long burst. A Druidth tank was nearly cut in half by the 30 millimeter tungsten rounds and Ann leveled out at two-hundred fifty feet. She climbed back to several hundred and came down again, this time dropping one of the Rockeye cluster bomb canisters. Hundreds of baseball sized bomblets scattered across the field and exploded three more.

It wasn't easy being the only ground attack aircraft to cover several miles of trench line. But she managed to keep an eye on the situation and cutting down any vehicle that got too close to the friendlies before climbing back up into the clouds so they couldn't track her. More than once she watched made a pass then watched with glee as a tank commander panicked at the ghost cutting down his men and back away only to be stalled by the ever moving line of vehicles.