An AH-1z Viper Pilot and Gunner are recruited to rainbow. After the Outbreak incident with Jager being downed by a smasher the previous six began looking for a pilot to provide air support for Jager and the rest of the operators. Almost 2 years late...
Your POV We sat in the Briefing room waiting for the Admiral to finish his pre-mission speech, I leaned over to Eliza "can i have some hot cocoa after the mission?" She chuckled quietly "why do you need my permission?" I looked at her quickly "Well you told me I wasn't allowed hot cocoa after The Incident plus Monika gave Zach permission so.... can I?" She nodded softly "When we get back you can have one cup of hot cocoa" I leaned over to Zach "Aftermission is a go" he nodded slightly as it fell quiet and we listened to the admiral. 15 minutes later we were on the deck and doing our walk around checks on the chopper in the pre-dusk light, the white lights lovingly bathing our viper with the glow.
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I sighed as I laid down and crawled under the helicopter double checking the flare dispenser before crawling back out and looking at the maintenance crew they looked excited "How did we do sir?" I nodded "Well done boys, she's almost perfect. Go ahead and load it, don't forget my specialty ammo." They ran to get the missile brackets as I put on my helmet and climbed up into the cockpit I put on my harness and tightened it I spoke into the radio "Sorry for the wait everyone, we wanted to double check everything after the ammo dump of a mission yesterday. They're loading our rocket pods now, we'll be set for the mission in 3 minutes" I heard the admiral "Saber, your Viper is faster than any other helicopter we have on this mission. Would you be comfortable with them going ahead and you catching up?" I thought it over "Rog' we can make it work" he spoke "All units, mission is a go. Rainbow, Valkyrie 1-1 will move to catch up go on without them." I heard Jäger "Sir, I'm not sure how comfortable I feel flying into this hot of an LZ without my escort" the admiral spoke "Jäger, they said it'll only be around 3 minutes, even if they had more technical difficulties and that went to 20 minutes, their helicopter is way faster than yours. They'd be able to catch up before you reached the LZ, trust me son.... Saber won't let you get to that LZ without him" I spoke "Jäger, I'll be there before you land... I promise" he sighed "I'm holding you to that saber" I chuckled as I saw them lift off I leaned out my door "How're we looking?" The crew member spoke "Almost done, we've got 5 more rockets to put in, then it's the hellfires which will take a minute before the last checks" I gave a thumbs up as I leaned back I heard Zach "All my gears clear, we're just waiting on you" I nodded "as usual, my gear takes forever" as I glanced at my watch. After 2 minutes I heard the crew member "All armaments on board, begin weapons checks" I started moving through the tests "Hellfires... clear, hydras.... hot, heatseekers are clear. All weapons clear" the crew member spoke "Preflight checks" I glanced over my shoulder "Left flap, good. Right flap is good, flares?" Zach spoke "Clear, ECM is ready as well" I gave a thumbs up as the crew member gave a salute "Clear for take off" I returned the salute as I quickly lifted off and hit redline as we tried to catch up with Jäger. After 5 minutes, I saw the task force ahead of us I kept it red line until we got to being in line with Jäger's blackhawk "Hello everyone, good to see we aren't late to the party" Jäger chuckled as Jess spoke "Saber, you're never late when there's a chance to play with your Viper" I nodded as I replied "Well Monarch, it's not my fault this beast is amazing" she chuckled before it fell silent on comms as we all tried to calm our nerves before we hit the field, it was a huge mission. After 45 minutes, we saw the target appear on the horizon. I spoke into the radio "Game faces everyone, time to go hunting" I heard Ryan Valor 1-4's pilot "Must you say that every time?" I chuckled "Yes, yes I must" everyone laughed as I sighed mumbling "I hope everyone makes it home" Zach spoke "What?" I looked up "Nothing" he nodded slowly as I heard the gun spin and him cackle slightly. I sighed as I heard Jäger "Beginning descent, make ready Rainbow" I watched as their blackhawk gently came to a rest around a klick from the target. I spoke into the radio "Call ya when you need fire support, Mark with IR strobes. We'll be in the area waiting for the call, stay safe" I heard Eliza "Rog' see you in a bit" I moved off hovering behind a small mountain. I looked out at the night sky as I flipped up my NVGs "hey Striker, are you as worried as I am?" He spoke softly "You mean about IQ and Ash don't you?" I confirmed his suspicion before he spoke again "Yeah, yeah I am... but they're the best, they've survived so many missions and Ash is an amazing leader, she'll get everyone home" I nodded "they've got a lot of ground to take, lot of places for a mission to go wrong" he sighed "(F/n), just trust in her abilities. Besides the moment we get called on station, we're going to be the primary target." I grew quiet and after 45 minutes I heard the call "Valkyrie 1-1 we need air support, enemies are dug in we threw a strobe but I don't know how close to the target it is" I quickly lifted as Zach replied "Rog' we're on our way" we started heading towards their position when I heard Zach "I don't see the strobe, do you?" I looked around "No... no I don't." He spoke to Eliza "We cannot see the strobe repeat strobe is not visible, throw another one" ash sighed "Alright, throwing second strobe now" I watched as it landed next to a building "Confirm that is the target?" Eliza replied "Confirmed, target building is marked with strobe" I heard Zach "Rog' .20mm is on the way" before he started cackling as the gun spun and the helicopter vibrated. After 10 seconds, I heard Zach in my headset "I had minimal effect on target, hit it with a bunker buster" I spoke into the radio "Rainbow, get your popcorn and helmet cams because I'm gonna make it the best 4th of July that's ever happened in March" they chuckled as I spun the chopper heading away from the target before turning back towards it "Hydra sent" the rocket hit before disappearing, we waited and nothing happened. I sighed "I guess that's a fai-" I was cut off as the bunker turned to rubble as the delayed detonation finally occurred
