Aces Of The Skies

Scramble

Alert!  Alert!  Unknown enemies approaching our base.  All aircraft scramble!  I repeat, all aircraft scramble!

We sprinted to our planes.  Explosions rang out and the ground shook.  Bomb impacts had taken out sections of runway and the port was in flames.  The mechanics had my F-22 ready by the time I got to the hangar.  I quickly climbed on the cockpit ladder and climbed into my seat.  I threw on my helmet and strapped myself in.  The mechanics moved in a blur, opening the hangar doors and removing any obstacles in my path.  I skipped the preflight and closed my cockpit.  The engines whirled, then came alive with a roar.  I made my way out of the hangar and towards the battered runway.  The tower came over the radio and cleared me for takeoff.  I centered myself on the runway, locked my brakes, and blasted the engines.  The afterburners shot at least thirty feet behind my plane, burning the tarmac.  I released the brakes and the plane shot forward, pushing me into my seat.  I watched my speed closely, and the second I got takeoff speed I yanked the flight stick towards me, lifting the nose of the plane.  The jet arced up, and suddenly, I was completely vertical.  I raised my landing gear and rolled my plane to a level point.  I assessed my surroundings closely.  I looked back down at the runway and noticed that my wingman; Goldo was lining up to take off.  I also noticed that there were three flights of bombers and escorts hammering the base.  The situation looked grim.  I tuned the frequency on my radio until Goldo's voice came through.  "...Roger tower, clear for takeoff.  Hey Arke, you get in the air yet?  Cause I'm coming up."   I watched him tear down the runway, then arc up and climb to meet me.  He flew up close on my wing and leveled his nose and speed with mine.  "I see three flights of bombers and at least half their number in escorts.  Goldo, see if you can't get through the escorts and take down enough bombers to scare the rest off, I will deal with the escorts myself."  Goldo cut formation and rolled out below me, I increased thrust and charged the enemy formation head-on.  My plan was to draw the escorts to me so that Goldo would be free and clear to knock as many out of the sky as he can.  I screamed past the bombers at full speed, I watched as my plan began to work, the escorts, which were all flying Sukhoi 27s, turned their crafts to intercept mine.  The instant the missile lock warnings blared into my HUD I grabbed the throttle and pulled it towards me as hard as I could, doing the same with the flight stick.  In an instant, I had gone from being chased to facing the enemy once again.  I flicked the switch the the doors on the bottom of my plane which held my missiles within.  I locked on to three of the interceptors and squeezed the trigger.  I felt a weight leave my craft and three gray trails split the sky before me.  I closed the bay doors and dove towards the ground.  As I brought my plane around, I saw that all of my missiles had connected, and three escort fighters were going down in flames.  "Woohoo, three down, God, my blood's boiling!"  I cheered out over the radio.  "Roger that Arke, two bombers down, the rest of this flight is at least retreating."  I went vertical once again to engage the remaining escorts.  "Base command what happened to our forces, confirm, are we the only craft airborne?"  I questioned over the radio.  All I got back was static.  "That isn't very good."  Goldo exclaimed over the comm.  I fell in between two of the enemy craft and began pursuing the plane in front of me.  Knowing that someone was on my tail at the same time, I refused to keep my craft steady, meaning it was probably going to be harder to line up my own shots as well as making it harder for the enemy.  I hit the high G's several times while pursuing the enemy, nearly blacking out in the process.  Suddenly the Sukhoi rolled and dived for the ground.  Knowing it was probably to bait me into flying steady I broke off and began to climb.  As I climbed I saw the other Sukhoi line up on my tail.  For a split second I gave him a perfect shot, using his aggression to my advantage I rolled my plane and began to rapidly decelerate.  As I planned he shot directly past me, almost smashing our cockpits in the process.  I flicked the firing switch, locked on, and sent a missile into the fuselage of his plane.  I then used my plane's immanent stall to whip my plane around and face the other Sukhoi who had been out of the fight for a few moments.  The maneuver nearly blacked me out as I had probably hit near fatal levels of G's.  I threw the throttle forward and shot toward the target.  "All bomber wings downed or retreating, I'm coming to support."  Goldo's plane appeared on the horizon and shot towards my target.  He was directly in front of the Sukhoi, and I had dropped in behind it.  "Your too close to the target, Arke.  I'm gonna come over him and you roll under to take him out."  I inverted my craft and Goldo flew right over both me and the target.  The target panicked, as planned, and leveled out momentarily.  As I came out of my roll I flicked the switch and fired a missile.  The Sukhoi didn't even have time to dodge as the missile tore his plane in half.  Goldo flew up tight on my wing as we circled the base, checking for straggling enemies.  Over the comms came the familiar voice of the flight commander.  "Cage squadron, I've gotten me and my squadron in the air, we're thankful that you two made it up when you did, but the tower is toast and the base is still on high alert.  If you need fuel then land, otherwise stay on high alert."  We acknowledged and prepared to land.  We touched down one after another and trucks rolled out to refuel us. 

By the end of the day the base had regained basic function and no further enemy activity was seen on radar or by us.  We landed back at base and taxied back to our respective hangars.  Goldo walked in as I climbed out of my cockpit.  "Hey man we put in good work today, that gives you five more kills and four more for me, and we saved everyone's ass."  I took off my helmet and walked towards him.  "Heh, yeah I guess we did, didn't we."  As we began to walk away the flight commander ran up to us.  "I can speak for all of us when I say I'm grateful for the both of you, but Cage squadron, right now I need you to get your asses to debrief, considering you were the only ones engaged with the enemy today."