OP's Games

Post that started the Planefap /tg/
"Our GM has said that our new game will be set up as a mercenary air squadron. We've been given an initial account, and he has lists of stuff to buy. Now he's been pretty generous with our allowance, since short of a F-22, or most modern bombers, we can afford stuff. The downside is paying for maintenance on some of these planes, as well as ammo, etc. I'm not worried about the air combat, our GM has always rocked vehicle combat, but I know nothing about planes or helicopters, other than a few names.

''What should I take? Our group is based out of an airfield in remote Laos, all weapons will be black market."''

Baron

 * Callsign: Baron


 * Country of Origin: Germany


 * Pilot skill: Multi-Role


 * F-18D


 * IAI F-4/2000 Phantom II (Backup)


 * Min Speed: 5


 * Max Speed: 25


 * Power Class: High Power


 * Accel 1 and 2: +3 / +2


 * Decel: -4


 * Maneuver Class: Medium


 * Gun: 7d6


 * Gun Ammo: 7


 * Bomb Computer Rating: +4


 * Damage Points: 8


 * Chaff: 8


 * Flares: 8


 * ECM: -


 * Radar: 3+L


 * Size: +0


 * Spot: +1


 * Load points: 32


 * Year Introduced: 1989


 * Typical Loadout: 4xPython, 4 AIM-7

BearHug

 * Callsign: BearHug, Hugs


 * Country of Origin: Unknown


 * Pilot skill: Air Superiority


 * Su-30 with TVC


 * Su-27 Flanker-B (destroyed during Ardent Gardener)


 * Minspd: 5


 * Maxspd: 27


 * Power: HP


 * Accel: +4 /+3


 * Decel: -4


 * Maneuver: H


 * Gun: 6d6


 * Ammo: 5


 * Bomb Computer +2


 * Damage: 8


 * Chaff: 8


 * Flare: 8


 * ECM: -1


 * Rdr: 3+L


 * Size: +1


 * Spot: +1


 * Load: 31


 * Built: 1984


 * General Loads: 6xAA-10 4xAA-11

Scotch

 * Callsign: Scotch (Never Scotty)


 * Country of Origin: Scotland


 * Pilot skill: Multi-Role


 * Mig 23 with upgrades


 * Saab Viggen (Unconfirmed stats from the rulebook)(currently damaged)


 * Minspd: 5


 * Maxspd: 23


 * Power: HP


 * Accel: +3 /+3


 * Decel: -4


 * Maneuver: H


 * Gun: -


 * Ammo: -


 * Bomb Computer +2


 * Damage: 7


 * Chaff: -


 * Flare: -


 * ECM: -


 * Rdr: 7+


 * Size: 0


 * Spot: 0


 * Load: 27


 * Built: 1972


 * General Loads: 2x AIM-9


 * Mirage F1E (Destroyed during "Steel Crow")


 * Minspd: 5


 * Maxspd: 23


 * Power: MP


 * Accel: +2 /+2


 * Decel: -4


 * Maneuver: H


 * Gun: 6d6


 * Ammo: 7


 * Bomb Computer +2


 * Damage: 6


 * Chaff: 8


 * Flare: 8


 * ECM: -


 * Rdr: 5


 * Size: 0


 * Spot: 0


 * Load: 18


 * Built: 1974


 * General Loads: 2xMagic

Keith "Judge" Buhay

 * Callsign: Judge


 * Country of Origin: Canada


 * Pilot skill: (not yet posted)


 * Mig-29 Fulcrum (version not posted, stats unknown)


 * Minspd: 5


 * Maxspd: 26


 * Power: HP


 * Accel: +4 / +3


 * Decel: -4


 * Maneuver: E


 * Gun: 6d6


 * Ammo: 4 | 5


 * Bomb Computer +2


 * Damage: 6


 * Chaff: 8


 * Flare: 8


 * ECM: - | -1


 * Rdr: 4+ | 6+ L


 * Size: +0 | +1


 * Spot: +1


 * Load: 14 | 17 | 20


 * Built: 1983


 * General Loads: Russian AA

Biscuit
(Judge's 1st character.)

Perished ejecting with a damaged parachute attempting to land his badly damaged jet in Luanda during "Gold Rush".


 * Callsign: Biscuit


 * Country of Origin: Iceland


 * Pilot skill: Air Superiority


 * F-4 Phantom 2000

Sandman
Deceased. Lost control taking AAA while NOEing through Tblisi and embedded his SU-24 into a building that failed to yield during "Teal Sundown".


 * Callsign: Sandman, Sandy


 * Country of Origin: USA


 * Pilot skill: Air to Ground


 * F-111D Aardvark


 * Minspd: 4


 * Maxspd: 25


 * Power: MP


 * Accel: +2 /+2


 * Decel: -4


 * Maneuver: M


 * Gun: 7d6


 * Ammo: 20


 * Bomb Computer +6


 * Damage: 9


 * Chaff: 8


 * Flare: 8


 * ECM: -1


 * Rdr: 6


 * Size: +2


 * Spot: +1


 * Load: 39


 * Built: 1971


 * General Loads: None


 * SU-24 (Backup)

A word on game mechanics
Steve is using a custom mod of the modern air combat tabletop simulation Air War C21. Mainly he added a role playing aspect and included the pilot skill system in the simulation.

If you plan to pick up you/rs/ just remember that Flankers Rule and Raptors Rock.

Turn
There are two 'phases' in a turn. The phases were broken down into 4 stages.


 * 1 Planning


 * 2 Movement


 * 3 Firing


 * 4 Speed

The first part you change your engine power, declare maneuvers, roll for initiative. You also do spotting, either radar or visual. Movement is pretty simple.

Firing involves achieving missile locks, or bombing solutions. if you fire a missile, it goes 'in flight', and the next phase they hit potentially.

The speed section is all about dealing with stalls and stall recovery if you stalled out. You can end up stalling if you pull a maneuver that reduces speed below minimum. Overspeed is also dealt with here.

Stats

 * Minimum speed in blocks/inches.

(if it's speed drops below this it stalls and may crash).


 * Maximum speed in blocks/inches.

The distance moved in each of the 2 phases in a turn. Aircraft suffer damage if they exceed this maximum speed.


 * Power Class

The raw power generated by the aircraft’s engines, allows ability to perform some maneuvers.


 * Accel 1

Acceleration the engine can produce in phase 1 of a turn. This is the maximum amount the aircraft’s speed can be increased at the start of the phase.


 * Accel 2

Acceleration the engine can produce in phase 2 of a turn. This is the maximum amount the aircraft’s speed can be increased at the start of the phase.


 * Decel

Maximum amount the aircraft can reduce speed in either phase of a turn, by cutting the throttle, opening airbrakes, etc.


 * Maneuver Class

The aircraft’s maneuver rating, a measure of its ability to turn and perform maneuvers.


 * Gun

The base number of dice when making a gun attack with internal guns.


 * Ammo

The number of units of gun ammo carried by the aircraft for it's internal guns. Each unit represents one second of fire.


 * Bomb comp

A modifier reflecting the capability and accuracy of the aircraft’s bomb sights and computer.


 * Damage Points

The damage value of the aircraft; the aircraft is crippled when the number of damage points suffered equals at least half this value, and it is destroyed when the number of damage points suffered equals or exceeds this value.


 * Chaff flares

Self explanatory


 * ECM

Modifier. Baron has none

Radar modifier, for spotting and missile locks. the L is for long range


 * Size

How big the plane is for people trying to see me


 * Spot

Is how good the plane is for visual spotting other aircraft, in this case I get a bonus for the extra crew member.


 * Load points

Ordnance on the wings


 * Year

Easy


 * Missile load

Typical carry.


 * Notes

Baron's Phantom has no notes, although vertical take off and stuff would go in the notes section.

Missions
Mission 1:

They bombed a terrorist airfield in Sudan killed a SAM-site, several AA tanks, the runway, fuel depot, command bunker and all terrorist plane. Also, one Sudanese Airforce jet and a few collaterals from blowing up a mobile SAM radar in the middle of a nearby town. Light damage to some of them.

Mission 2: They bombed a few bridges and gave CAS to the FFL, including bombing a hospital and a few barges full of civvies.

Mission 3:

They sunk a Moroccan patrol vessel and shot down a few Mirages and kidnapped another Mirage and a Learjet carrying the Moroccan crown-prince. Light damage to a few.

Mission 4:

They escorted a small convoy carrying the crown-prince from a storehouse to a ship in harbor. The Mirage got shot down by an Avenger, it was a clusterfuck and they ended up napalming and cluster-bombing the entire dock area, causing a couple hundred incidentals.

They took a job from an arms smuggler to distract a UN blockade...and wound up sinking a cruise ship and a Danish frigate. Total bloodbath. The British government struck back in the next mission, in which they faced off against a flight of Tornados from some island and a full wing of Harriers from the HMS Ark Royal, while their base was evacuated.

Lately they've been working for the FSB in Russia, fucking over Georgia and apparently engaging other merc pilots hired by the Georgians. They knocked out a hydroelectric power station and sprayed herbicide on a significant percentage of Georgia's farmland.

Now they are apparently completing Russia's revenge on Georgia for giving them Josef Stalin, by giving everyone in Tblisi the galloping shits.

Briefing

 * BlackFlag Internal Document


 * 1) 100298


 * Mission Briefing

“Horse Therapy”


 * Deployment

Kisangani


 * Pancake

Kisangani


 * Alternate

None (We are still negotiating with the provisional government)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

None


 * CSAR

MI-24 Hind + Jaeger Flight. Eight Million Sortie Fee if utilized


 * Contract Employer

Ministre de Sécurité Externale, France


 * Objective

Destruction of suspected Sudan terrorist training camp and airfield located at the old Marida airfield, just inside the Sudanese border. Primary targets are the airfield runway, fuel dump in the southeast, and the command bunker to the north northwest.


 * Background

These guys have been a thorn in the side of France's efforts to pacify the region. Due to UN regulations as well as their own civil government issues, the French have not had the ability to simply remove this training camp. That's where we come in. Taking out the command bunker will most likely remove some key leadership positions, and with the airstrip gone, will force the OPFOR to move on the ground, where the French security force has a presence and a good chance of catching and stopping them.


 * HUMINT

OPFOR likely disorganized, undertrained. Equipment status rated at no better then barely serviceable. Most equipment unmanned unless alert given. OPFOR operates off grid, and does not benefit from outside intel, support, elint.


 * Air Assets

Two MiG-17s, One MiG-21, Two Bell Huey Gunships.


 * Surface Assets

SA-2 system, 4xZSU-23 at objective.


 * SATINT free (SATellite INTelligence)

Attached you will find the latest keyhole pass. We've marked off targets and defenses. We could not find the fourth ZSU-23, and suspect that the OPFOR has begun camo-netting the emplacements, or simply placed it inside for maintenance.


 * Threat Assessment

Very Low. The biggest threats will be from the MiG-21 and the SA-2 system, neutralize them first, and the rest of this mission should be a cakewalk.


 * ROE

No limits in Sudanese Airspace. Return fire only in DRC airspace.

Recap
We decided that a dawn time on target would be best. The strike guy had been reading up and figured that if they had any shifts at all, that would be prior to a fresh shift taking over, and at the end of night shift, so lowest possible awareness. We then decided how to handle the strike package. We figured that the Flanker would hang back until the SA-2 was down.

I was given the mission of taking out the SA-2, while a simultaneous strike from the F-111 would take place at high speed over the runway using runway cratering bombs. Then the Mirage and the other F-4 would sweep in, taking out the ZSUs and the fuel dump, while the F-111 climbed and circled back to the bunker. Following that, we agreed we'd stick around for 5 to ten minutes maximum, looking for targets of opportunity, while the Flanker gave us overwatch, then head back to base. That was the plan anyway.

Steve handed us out aircraft data sheets, sort of like the one's in that MAS but different, there were some other things he add on them. We got to draw our weapons loadout (which was way cooler then it sounds) and Steve walked us through the basic mechanics, which, to his credit, weren't overly complicated, but I still ended up asking tons of questions during the game.

I need to set the scene here, we're sitting around a table, and Steve whips out these massive poster size papers, and lays them down in his living room, moving the tables out of the way. He's got the Google earth map printed out on four of them, and on the other he has a larger scale map, which is labeled “BVR Strategic Map”, and gives us our plane markers, which we place on the strategic map, roughly 100 miles out. We'd been coming in nose cold he told us, and said that it was now entirely up to us what happened. He then flipped on some mix CD on which he had Audioslave and some other songs, but overlayed with 'radio chatter' from I'm guessing combat aircraft. I didn't think it would be cool at first, but having that in the background just took things up a notch.

I decided to go to mid altitude for my run (10000 to 28000ft) The Aardvark dove for the deck, and prepared to make a high speed run. The Flanker began to loiter, and the Mirage slipped back, still closing, but not as quick as me or the Aardvark. I closed to eighty miles, my RWR started to go off, and I made my detection roll, so I thought I was good. But then Steve put the source marker on the BVR map, and it wasn't where the SA-2 was. And in the next turn, at fifty miles out, Steve told me that not only had the source narrowed the search pattern to a track, but the source was moving.

Before the mission, we had all agreed on radio silence, and Steve said that the Aardvark could also 'see' the radar source. Which meant it must be airborne. I turned away, and jammed on my afterburners, to go faster towards the airbase. The Flanker, having also spotted the emission source, turned towards it, as well as the Mirage and F4, following behind. Then all hell broke loose, the SA-2 radar lit up, and I was told* that it progressed from search to track to fire control within about ten seconds. Which meant (again, asking Steve what it all meant) that most likely an SA-2 was in the air heading towards me. Steve said my backseater would be telling me all this anyways.

I figured waiting would be stupid, so I dumped two AGM-78s immediately, since I was inside firing range. The bad thing, was that Steve passed me a big book of missiles, and I saw this, which I hadn't considered. The SA-2 flies at mach 3.5+, whereas my AGMs do maybe Mach 2. So there was no time for the radar to go down. I dove, and at Steve's recommendation, started ejecting chaff.

The Flanker decided enough was enough, and turned on his radar, which meant that everyone could now see him. However, when his radar went on, the airborne radar source turned towards him, away from me. The bad news was that two new targets went on the board, one just off the runway, the other apparently 'climbing and turning' off the runway. The plan was going to shit. Luckily at this point, the Aardvark was just cresting the final small ridge, and flew a straight line down the runway, pumping off Durandals “left and right like fucking rice at a goddamn wedding' to quote the strike player. As he made his run, Steve told him that he could see dead ahead coming off the runway, a heat source, and on the runway, a moving shape, but that was it.

The Aardvark peeled out low, to the left, away from the climbing aircraft. I leveled out just above the ground (barely made my roll), and travelled on the worst intercept line. The SA-2 must have lost lock, because my backseater called out that he had two missile trails pass above us, a little ways back. At this point we broke radio silence, and the Aardvark called off secondaries from the radar site, so I pulled back up to sniff around again.

The other F-4 and Mirage now were turning to line up with the field and were coming in very fast, the mirage trying to find the ZSUs. The flanker achieved a lock and let loose two Alamos at it's target, and a few tense moments later, saw a small flash on the horizon. The target track became erratic, and then broke up, and considering that a kill, the Flanker began a quick zoom climb to try to gain altitude. The Durandals absolutely shitkicked the runway, and also produced a large fireball, but I'll get to that.

Without warning, well, other than the radar detector screaming, two new targets popped up just as the Aardvark and I were coming in on the base, and the F-4 and Mirage were about 30 seconds out. A flurry of tracers reached out, and one of them found the F-111 briefly. I asked Steve if the remaining Harms had a lock, and he said there were two sources, so I rattled off the last two at one of them, rewarded by one hit and secondaries. The Aardvark headed outbound to assess damage, it didn't sound good, power was down in one engine, and he was losing oil pressure fast.

Then the Mirage and the Phantom came to play. The Mirage roared in, Brimstones roaring out towards the remaining ZSU like the fingers of an angry god. And they hit like a haymaker to the testicles, setting off the internal ammo and fuel, propelling the remains of the turret into the air.

The F-4 went nose hot approaching the airfield, and immediately picked up two targets, one headed towards him, the other still climbing off the departure end of the runway. There was no chance at a shot on the closing aircraft, the F-4 passed well underneath, but he did switch to AIM-9s, and Jan shouted FOX THREE (sic) and sent them both at the heat source. Again, one of them missed, but not the first one, which flew true, and scored a proximity kill, the aircraft was losing pieces of airframe and spewing tons of smoke, beginning a shallow descent. The backseater also called out with a shout that there was a destroyed MiG-17 on fire inside a five meter crater on the runway. The Mirage continued racing outbound, close to the ground.

The Flanker, having completed their climb, leveled out, and quickly called out to me that the enemy target was turning in my direction. I applied full military burner, but it was too late. Steve, acting as my backseater started shouting FLARE FLARE FLARE, and I complied. It partially saved me, along with a hard jink. However the heatseekers chasing me still detonated close to me, and my panel lit up (Steve started writing out warnings on it), slight engine problem, and my AIM-9s were reporting faults across the board, so essentially I now had no air-to-air. My backseater was shouting at me now, telling me the MiG-21 was settling in on my tail, and probably getting ready for a cannon shot.

I'll never know, because out of fucking nowhere, two missiles dropped at 70 degree angles down onto the MiG, the last of the Flanker's payload. The fishbed didn't have a chance, it was blown into a thousand small pieces by the heavy Alamo missiles. I figured it would be best to evaluate my situation, and the Aardvark called in saying he was down to one engine, and was climbing about 20 miles away, preparing for a higher altitude bomb run.

We figured we had done it, but then two more ZSUs opened up on the Mirage. They must have seen the HARM strike, because we didn't see any radars. It showed, since they both had trouble tracking the hard maneuvering Mirage as it bore down on the airfield, launching the last Brimstones. It was almost anti-climactic, as the ATGMs slaughtered the mobile anti air guns.

However, Steve, being a dick, threw another curve ball, and told us that another SA-2 style search radar was operational, and looking for targets. It was off to the east of the base, the F-4 was already on a run at the fuel dump and couldn't correct in time, so he abandoned his run and turned slightly, and began dumping rockets at the SA-2 launch area. Unfortunately he couldn't count fireballs, but he certainly tore into the launch area, and probably bought the mirage the time it needed to make the turn, and come over the area, pickling off 1000-pounders and also sending a volley of missiles at the new radar

We later found out it was a mobile radar, parked next to the local village. The radar truck did not survive, and the Flanker pilot, who was well within the kill zone for the SA-2 breathed a sigh of relief. After that, we did a few more strafing runs, although I didn't bother, with my semi-buggered engine. As we turned to depart, the F-111 sent a final “Fuck You” with two GBU-15s on TV guidance at the bunker complex.

We all made it home, although the Aardvark suffered multiple hydraulic failures on the return flight, and was forced to dump all remaining ordnance, and belly landed (no crash though, airframe recoverable).

Summary

 * Mission Success.


 * Air Kills


 * Hugs: 1 MiG-21


 * Biscuit: 1 MiG-17


 * - Air Incidentals -


 * Hugs: 1 J-7 (Sudanese Air Force)


 * Ground Kills


 * Sandman: Runway, MiG-17, Command Bunker


 * Biscuit: 4 SA-2 missiles, 1 Barracks


 * Scotch: Three ZSU-23, Fuel Dump, 1 Mobile Radar


 * Baron: SA-2 Radar site, ZSU-23


 * - Ground Incidentals -


 * Scotch: 3 Houses, local food market, 2 Trucks, 1 Car, 6 bicycles


 * Damage Taken


 * Baron: Minor Engine, Minor airframe


 * Sandman: Major Engine, minor airframe


 * Scotch: Negligible control surface.

Briefing

 * BlackFlag Internal Document


 * 1) 100301


 * Mission Briefing

“Footloose”


 * Deployment

Kisangani


 * Pancake

Kisangani


 * Alternate

None (We are still negotiating with the provisional government)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

“Watcheye” flight R-99A available for 10m, on request.


 * CSAR:

C-27J + Jaeger Flight. Ten Million Sortie Fee if utilized


 * Contract Employer

Ministre de Sécurité Externale, France


 * Objective

Destruction of bridges located at +3° 59' 37.61", +16° 7' 3.23" and +3° 59' 41.12", +16° 7' 35.43". Escort of FFL AN-12 to target area, followed by Close Air Support if required.


 * Background

The French foreign affairs ministry appreciated your efforts in Sudan, and have asked for you on another strike mission. Over the past six months, they've been fighting a proxy campaign in the Central African Republic, using foreign regulars to combat the growing insurrection against their puppet ruler they instated. They've recently suffered setbacks, as armed technicals and stocks of ATGMs and RPGs have been making their way north into the country, as well as a growing rebel movement. They've identified a point of entry however, and have come up with a way to hopefully neutralize the shipments and earn the local population's support. By eliminating the bridges, the weapons shipments will be delayed. The French expect that the bridge destruction will make the rebels attempt to make a decisive strike on the town north of the river, especially when the radio transmissions will make it seem like the CAR army is preparing for an assault and is staging in the town, when in reality only a token garrison is present. The French ministry has arranged for a detachment of the French Foreign Legion to arrive in the “Nick of Time” to stop the assault. You will remain in the operations area, providing close air support until the FFL authorizes termination of air cover.


 * HUMINT (Free)

Unavailable. The public supports the rebels in the area and the French have been unsuccessful at securing a reliable field operative in the region.


 * Air Assets

None.


 * Surface Assets

Unknown number of Towed BOFORs guns, SA-7, RedEye MANPADS.


 * Remote Imaging (Free)

Next overflight at 1438 local. Analysis and Imagery available for standard rate of 3 million.


 * Threat Assessment

Very Low. Primary concern is on time delivery of fire support missions as called in by FFL ground troops.


 * ROE

Visual Id/Defensive Fire ROE applies. Targets called in by FFL are considered valid for weapons release. You are not authorized to engage rebel targets until the FFL is on scene, even if the town Garrison is overrun.

Recap
Ok, so here's how it started. Before we started, Steve told us all what the range to the target was. I suggested buddy tanking (Thanks Guys!) and he told us this was probably the smartest idea. We agreed to minimize the use of the tanker, the Flanker took a belly tank, so wouldn't require any tanking for the entire mission. My F-4 took two Ferry tanks two rocket pods, 4 AIM-9s, and four GBU-12s, the F-111 took four tanks, with the buddy system, as well as two GBU-15s and a bunch of GBU-12s. The other F-4 took the same loadout as me. The mirage had two BLG-66EC cluster bombs, and four GBU-12s, 2x Aden gun pods but no tanks. I also bought an upgraded IR detector, so with luck I wouldn't get toasted by a stupid heat seeker.

We decided against any satellite intelligence, or other sources. Our plan was to stay high, out of the way of ground fire, and then come in at ridiculous speed when called by the FFL. At my suggestion we asked and were told that the FFL would communicate with us via secure UHF, and would enter the area when required. The plan was that the flanker would investigate air threats, while one of the F-4s did full power long range scans in a racetrack, looking for enemies, and directing the flanker nose cold to them. Ground attack would be the mirage first, the F-4s if needed, and the F-111 if absolutely necessary. The F-111 was to stay out of combat, because it was the lifeline back to the base.

We took off uneventfully, no one used burner, and with some of us being pretty heavy, we had to make a few skill rolls to make sure we didn't fly into some low level trees. Luckily we all made it out ok, and settled into a high altitude cruise. The Mirage tanked once, and the Phantoms were fine all the way to the target. We went in nose cold except for a single F-4, which detected nothing other than standard airliner traffic. We had one close call initially, an the Flanker peeled off to investigate, about 20 miles out he called tally ho and told us we'd panicked over a South African A340. We talked and said that we wouldn't investigate radar returns unless they were above a certain speed and/or on an intercept course. With that in mind, we had no problems. When we got there, we hit a small snag. We hadn't asked for a weather briefing, and it was cloudy. Two cloudy in fact to use our original high altitude bombing plan. However, we talked to Steve, and suggested that since the GBU-15s were tv guided, and we knew where the bridges were.

The F-111 flew a pattern, and released the bombs in the 'basket' as Steve put it, and then became very focused on making sure the things nailed the targets. The clouds were at 3000' AGL and that meant the Aardvark operator would have very little time to make course corrections when they went through the cloud ceiling. Our backup plan had the mirage circle low, and prepare to make a run at the bridges should the Aardvark miss. We were really tense, because it would really suck to miss now, we'd be short on ammo for the assault portion, and we weren't sure if 500lbs could take out a bridge. Turned out we were worried over nothing. The bridges were wood and metal rickety things. The first GBU-15 punched right through the first bridge, detonating just underneath it. The second GBU-15 missed by about 28 ft, and hit the river. The good thing though, is that missing by a few feet with a 2000lb bomb doesn't make much of a difference. The Mirage confirmed this as it completed its pass, both bridges were now mostly smoldering toothpicks, with pieces of them still raining down from the sky.

Now, shit started to hit the fan. We called the FFL, who said they were inbound, and gave us some coordinates. Since I was in the radiating Phantom, I flew with the Flanker towards the Antonov. The flanker hugged close, we were hoping to make the Phantoms radar return block out the Flanker's. We asked steve, and he said this was pretty smart, and told us that the Phantom RCS is almost 8x bigger than a Flankers. Anyway, we found the AN-12 on Radar below the cloud cover but the weird thing was it was orbiting. We told them again the bridges were down, and they acknowledged, but kept orbiting. At this point, we thought things were going well, until the Mirage pilot decided to dive down for another look. He flew another pass, and called up to us saying there were more than two dozen boats crossing the river with men aboard, “Like some sort of ghetto third-world D-Day”, and there were small explosions from the village (we found out later this was mortar strikes). He was about to strafe the boats when the other Phantom pilot shouted about the ROE and he held off, and climbed out.

We relayed this new info to the FFL, and they asked us to take another look, but not to fire unless fired at. The F-4 decided to take a look, and began a descent. Now we had plotted the area beforehand and were flying a safe track relative to elevation, that gave us the shortest route but with the most visibility to the target area. We all thought that this was a really smart idea. The bad thing is that we forgot we'd already flown the path twice with the Mirage, and didn't realize how dangerous this is. The F-4 got down below the clouds and began making his run. Then, without much warning, his own IR detector went nuts, and the treetops below him exploded and a flurry of SAMs blasted out of the undergrowth on trails of acrid smoke like Medusa having a bad hair day. There were also tracer rounds blasting around everywhere, as a few Bofors opened up on the flight path. The pilot threw the f-4 into a hard climbing right (no burners, was relying on momentum) and his backseater was probably breaking the flare dispense switch. This stopped a lot of the SAMs (the guy was reading the missile book Steve gave him and found that if you can see the smoke trails in front of you, they probably don't have a lock, especially SA-7s and Redeyes. There were no Stingers though, because he got away clean from the missiles. He did take a few Bofors hits, but nothing seemed affected as he made his way out of the area. He was fucking pissed though, because he hadn't had a chance to shoot back.

Other than confirming there was some serious anti-air down low on the south side of the river, we realized that we had no clue what the village or river looked like now. We told the FFL, and they finally turned to head towards the village, although a one-legged turtle on diazepam would have been faster than the POS Russian trash hauler they were in. They really did seem like they were taking their time. The other strike aircraft were staying high, and keeping an eye out for any missiles, but none appeared. As we approached, I began picking up a target, but it was very faint, very slow, and very low. I told the Flanker pilot, and he descended to check it out. Based on the position though, I figured it was setting up an orbit over the town, and the Flanker pilot agreed to keep his distance, since we knew there were man carried anti air in the area. The Flanker approached to about 10 miles, and then called out that it was a single engine plane, and had tracer rounds coming from it, firing into the village. The FFL was told, and they simply told us to kill it. The flanker pilot figured he wouldn't need to waste a missile, so went to guns, high power, and blasted towards the target, intending on a quick kill and speedy overflight. The first part went well, the plane never saw what hit it, and according to Steve, the Flanker's internal gun ripped the little thing in half like a buzzsaw. The Flanker flashed past the village, dumping a few flares pre-emptively. Without a IR warning, we don't know if anything shot at him, but Steve said there were no tracer rounds. By this time, I was low, circling the slow moving Cub, and had just come back in line with the village, when two new targets popped up on my radar, about 3 miles behind the flanker! I was 14 miles away, and I didn't think, I just hit my burners and switched to sidewinders.

The targets firmed up, and I eased off the Burners, since I was still carrying a/g ordnance, and Steve told me going supersonic would be tough, and rough on the ordnance. I got tone just as I saw a flash from one of the targets, which I could now see was some sort of helicopter. I told the Flanker and he dumped more flares, and climbed hard. The missile followed the flare, and I got to use the phrase “Missile trashed”. My own sidewinder scored a direct hit, and the helicopter blasted to pieces. I got off a snapshot with my cannon at the other helicopter but I don't know if I connected, since I blew by too quickly. The backseater though called out that I had “Splashed” another one, and there were some impressive secondaries coming out of the jungle as we climbed out. We then all received a call from the FFL that they were landing and debarking, and to stand by for support missions. They had laser designators (we had asked earlier, but forgot about clouds) so are GBUs wouldn't be completely useless. The other F-4 had done a systems check in the meantime, and apparently, despite a smallish hole in his wing, there were no problems. Things were looking better, the bridges were down, we'd taken out what little air support these guys seemed to have, and with varied attack runs, the Bofors weren't posing much of a threat. Are flare supplies were another issue, since we did not know how long we would be needed to stay.

We began an orbit above the cloud layer about ten miles outside the village area, and the Flanker climbed and lit off its radar, since it was the most potent, and decided it would simply scare off anyone who came for a look by targeting them with Fire control instead of basic search. The F-111 continued it's slow orbit at altitude. That was when we got our first fire mission call. There was a large mass of troops heading towards the Antonov and the FFL who were still getting organized. We were told to suppress them and the few technicals. The gave us a grid reference, and we found the street. The Mirage maneuvered, then dove for the deck, in a high speed pass. He roared in, heading down the street, and dropped one of his cluster bombs. The result was devastatingly glorious, as the submunitions ripped apart a good percentage of a village block. The FFL called in that the strike was successful, and the Mirage guy was ecstatic, because he was already climbing out, no hits taken. But this was short lived, since a call came in for another mission almost immediately. The FFL was advancing now, clearing pockets of resistance, but one set of insurgents had become nested in a building. The couldn't designate the target yet, but they told us to call 60 seconds out from the village and they would mark the target with smoke. I rolled in, with the other Phantom following 30 seconds behind.

We came in from the west, since the FFL were to the north, and we figured this way any strays would probably not hit them. We called, and then Steve put the smoke marker on the map, and I was able to make my turn towards it. I rippled off 2 GBUs in dumb fire mode, and a small part of me was thinking about the price of the laser systems. Still, I hit with one of them, the other hit too early and took out something (I found out what in the after action report). Just before passing over the building, I noticed it was white, and had a red cross on it. I don't know why, but I winced when Steve told me this, but there was nothing I could do. The other Phantom reported the hits, and then followed it up with a rocket attack on the structure. The village and area was in chaos, with tracers and fire in the streets everywhere. Lots of people and vehicles moving, but at our attack speeds, nothing we could really identify with certainty. We didn't get the warning of an IR, but Steve told us there were some straight smoke trails. RPGs he said, but you'd know in a jet, that it was pretty much an empty threat, and indicative of how poorly trained the OPFOR was. We peeled out dropping a flare every so often just in case, escaping back to the relative safety of the cloud cover.

The FFL called in, saying our strike was a success, and that they were pushing the enemy back, and had identified two temporary chokepoints, and a staging area. The would designate the chokepoints, and mark the staging area with smoke. We decided that putting one aircraft down below the cloud cover just focused the fire, and the Mirage, myself and the Phantom circled around for another low pass. We broke out of the cloud cover at speed, coming in low over the burning village and hellish firefight like avenging angels transporting the sword of Damocles. Both myself and the Phantom dumped two more GBU-15s at the chokepoint barricades/firebases, while the Mirage turned hard to line up with the smoke. The last second turn affected his aim, and while our GBUs nailed their targets, the cluster bomb went a bit wide. It took out part of the staging area, but from the resulting fireball, probably a gas station on a corner and a few shops/buildings around it. The French still called all three strikes a success. On our way out, the Phantom beside me couldn't evade yet another SA-7, and took a proximity hit. I called out that he was smoking quite badly, and he climbed out preparing to shut down the engine. As he climbed, Steve told him his ailerons were not very responsive, and that a lot of control surface was gone from one wing. We all climbed and told him to tank, and go home. The aardvark came down, and gave him a drink, before he turned for home. Then the FFL made another call, saying that the insurgents were being forced across the river, and that anything in the river was now a target. We lined back up, and prepared for a quick run, we knew that now the Bofors would be a threat again, along with the SAMs.

We dropped below the darkening clouds, on what we expected would be our last run. The scene greeting us was awesome. Half the village appeared to be on fire, with thick black smoke roiling upwards. The river was again full of boats, but heading south, to the other shore. I switched to the rocket pods and just held down the trigger, sending rockets rippling out in a sustained salvo of destruction. Plumes of water, mud, wood and metal arced into the air as the rockets played their way up the river. I saw some tracers begin to make their way up, and felt a few bumps. I angled towards the largest stream headed towards me and dumped my remaining bomb payload before spewing flares and staying low, heading out of the area at speed. The Mirage simply flew down the river, gun pods blazing away and tearing through anything that got in the way. He evaded a few last SAMs and began a slow climb. Steve reported that my plane was fine, but that the mirage had lost it's air to air radar capability. The Flanker joined up wth us as we climbed, calling out visual damage reports. One of my engines was smoking more than usual, but not severely. We both had substantial cosmetic damage to the undersides of our craft, but other than that, nothing horrible. The FFL called in, saying that they could deal with the stragglers, and that we were cleared out of the area. I bit back a 'fuck you assholes' since I figured I'd save that until after I got my check. The remainder of the mission was uneventful, we all landed safely, the most severely wounded aircraft being the other Phantom.

Summary

 * Mission Success


 * - Air Kills -


 * Hugs: 1 Cessna 208 “Technical” Gunship w/M197 Gatling


 * Baron: 1 MD500w/Stinger, 1 Kaman KMAXw/Gsh-23 Cannon mount


 * - Air Incidentals -


 * None


 * - Ground Kills -


 * Sandman: 2xBridges


 * Biscuit: Entrenched Infantry (Hospital), Chokepoint


 * Scotch: 2x Infantry groups, 4x Technicals, 8 x Boats


 * Baron: Entrenched Infantry (Hospital), Chokepoint, 13x Boats, 1x Bofors


 * - Ground Incidentals -


 * Scotch: Gas Station, 2 Shops, Market square, 7 cars, Churchfront, 2x Civilian Refugee boat


 * Baron: Hospital, 5x Civilian Refugee Boat


 * Biscuit: Hospital


 * - Damage Taken -


 * Baron: Cosmetic airframe, Minor Engine


 * Scotch: Cosmetic airframe


 * Biscuit: Catastrophic Engine, Significant control surface.

Briefing

 * BlackFlag Internal Document


 * 1) 100323


 * Mission Briefing

“Aluminium Crow”


 * Deployment

Kitona


 * Pancake

Kitona


 * Alternate

Luanda (Angola)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

Unavailable (Currently supporting Jaeger Flight)


 * CSAR

None


 * Contract Employer

Liberian Government


 * Objective

Redeploy to Kitona Airfield. Intercept Moroccan Falcon 50 and escort it to Kitona.


 * Background

We're not entirely clear on this one. We received advance payment from an account we backtracked to the Liberian government. They're trying to cover this one up, our intelligence section is working to find out more, but as of now we only have the mission parameters. A member of the Moroccan government is on board the Falcon 50. We've acquired their flight plan, and figure they will pass close to the DRC coast at roughly 0300 local. However flight plan database investigations also noted that a formation of six Mirage F1s will be flying a ferry mission to Namibia and will be in the operational area. If we receive any further intel, we will datalink it to you immediately. This mission is a short notice tasking, and you will be compensated accordingly.


 * HUMINT

Formation of Mirage F1s will be in the target area, Flightplan says they are armed.


 * ELINT

Radio intercepts and triangulation have identified that an Osprey-55 patrol boat is cruising within roughly 250 miles of the flight plan's proposed track.


 * SATINT

None


 * Air Assets

Falcon 50, 6xDassault Mirage F1


 * Surface Assets

Osprey-55 Gunboat


 * Threat Assessment

Medium. Based on flight plan distance, the Mirage's will most likely be equipped with drop tanks, limiting their payload and air to air effectiveness. The Moroccan Armed Forces are adequately trained, but are by no means top tier. While the Osprey patrol boat poses no direct threat, it does present a relay station should the Falcon 50 broadcast an emergency transmission.


 * ROE

Visual Contact unless fired upon.

Recap
So we ferried ourselves out to the Kitona airfield. We weren't sure what our basing facility would be like, so we loaded up with a variety of weapons. We arrived in Kitona uneventfully, although a bad roll for the Mirage pilot meant his GPS/NAV conked out mid flight, and he had to follow one of us to Kitona. On landing we found out that Kitona had halfway decent facilities. We talked about the mission in a ready shack near the flightline, as well as called the mercenary company for some more intel. We bought flight plan information, and the Flanker pilot did a bit of work figuring out time and distance. Based on where the Falcon was going to be.

The Vark pilot told us he was going to get the ground crew to take off the buddy tanks, and we agreed. Internally, the Vark pilot had a single AGM-84, as well as his M61 Cannon with a retarded amount of ammunition. Externally, the Vark was clean. The Flanker pilot loaded up with six Alamo missiles and six Archers. I chose to mount 4 AIM-7 Sparrow and 4 AIM-9. The other phantom had spent a bit more cash to acquire 2 AMRAAMs and 2 Sparrows, as well as the same AIM-9 loadout as me. The Mirage had four Magics, and 2 MICAs. Other than those, we were all 'clean' no drop tanks, no air to ground. We had asked Steve about C3, but he told us that an upgrade like that, while purchasable, would take time to install on the aircraft, since this was a short notice tasking we couldn't have it up and running yet. I also decided to take a skill/feat in 'Burner Bastard' allowing me to gain an extra unit of move in an accel phase if I wanted. With all that settled, we discussed our plan one more time, and headed for our planes.

The fighters departed first, rumbling into the night. We told Steve that we were circling the airfield, and joining up on the Flanker in formation. We then departed south, climbing to altitude. Twenty or so minutes later, the Vaark tore off the pavement, headed out over the Ocean, and settled in to a hard mode cruise 200ft over the surface, quickly punching through the sound barrier, on his way to one and a half mach. Meanwhile, we had turned north again, and were heading towards our calculated intercept point, all of our noses were cold, although the Flanker had his IR tracking system running. The Flanker was the lead aircraft ahead by twenty miles or so. The rest of us were formed up, trying to be as radio silent as possible.

Forty miles out from his target, the Aardvark enabled the search radar in his aircraft, supplementing the terrain following one. Within 20 seconds he had a radar match on the patrol boat, and his FLIR confirmed it. Since he was moving at 20 miles a minute, it didn't take him long to cross the patrol boat, clearing it by 150ft, at close to mach 2, with full burners. Radio traffic on the Guard frequency spiked soon after, and we heard that the boat was in chaos, windows blown out from the shock of the Vaark passing by it. But that wasn't enough, so the Vaark made a turn (took a while at his speed) and came back for another pass. Although this time, he opened up with his cannon, in a supersonic strafing pass.

The gun pass had the desired effect. We got distress traffic about 15 seconds later, some half crazed person shouting in french that they were under attack by unknown aircraft. Steve said just below the crackle of the radio we could hear the aftershocks of the F-111s engines in the transmission. Our radar warning receivers started to go nuts, and we were all getting slammed by search radar. The Flanker however, had drifted further away from us, and was not getting hit by the tracking radar, but we radio'd him and told him where they were relative to us, and he changed course slightly, and soon called back to us that he had several IR targets on reheat angling down towards the patrol boat, heading for the deck.

The Aardvark pilot meanwhile, was making a beeline for Angola, at full military power, hugging the sea surface, and trusting in his speed advantage and being lost in the radar clutter to make a good escape. The Flanker pilot decided now was the time to let loose our secret weapon, and rattled all six AlamoETs off his rails, one every five seconds. The afterburning mirages were excellent targets, and since he was a good strata or two above them, the Alamos also had a kinematic advantage. But the biggest advantage is he was behind them, launching BVR heatseekers, so he (hoped) remained undetected.

They didn't notice for about 25 seconds, then they started dumping flares, lighting up the sky for miles. Didn't do much good, our Flanker pilot scored two immediate kills, one Alamo took out a Mirage instantly, another two slammed into the next unfortunate F1, and the final Alamo severely damaged a third Mirage, who's engine flamed out. The remaining two AA-10s lost track and fell into the ocean. The Mirages stopped their rapid descent, and began arcing back around to face this new threat to their rear. The Flanker, for his part, was turning hard away from them, and hitting full military burner, his threat receiver going wild, but no locks detected (Apparently the Russians, for all their vacuum tubes, built one of the easiest to read and most accurate RWRs available today.) The remaining three Mirages were clearly now chasing the Flanker.

I'm guessing at this point you are wondering why the Mirages were not coming at us, despite all the radar hits we took. It was all part of a brilliant plan, the final piece of which we decided to now implement. Myself and Biscuit broke out from underneath the wing of the South African Airways A340-600 we had been flying with, and our burners fired up to max, probably scaring the daylights out of the cockpit crew who suddenly had two Phantoms shoot out from underneath their plane. When we were clear, Biscuit flipped on his search radar, and spotted the four Mirages, three climbing up towards the Flanker but now going away from us and the patrol boat. The fourth was moving much slower and was much lower. We figured this was the damaged one.

With the sniff complete, Biscuit shut down his radar, and we launched all our Sparrows, which were not the SA/RH variant, but the passive anti-radiation kind. However, one of mine faulted out and simply fell off the rail, the other three ignited fine. Biscuits Sparrows both fired well, and rocketed out into the cold night sky. Along the way another one of my sparrows shorted out (goddamn American piece of Vietnam-era shit), but four missiles still found their way to the targets. I scored a kill, with both of mine slamming into a Mirage, one scoring an impact hit on the radome (according to Stece). One of biscuits also decided to impact my Mirage, and just added to the utter destruction. The other one missed wide when they switched off their radars when the first missile hit.

It must have been clear to them that they were not getting the Flanker anytime soon, so both Mirages vectored back in towards us, but by the time they'd turned, we were in Sidewinder range. And then I paid for all the good luck. I'd cheaped out on AIM-9s, buying the lesser model. Which, I realized as I read the datasheet I'd had in front of me for the past two sessions, could not lock on from the front. And then I started getting hit by the radar again, and my IR detector started yelling at me.

Biscuit had no such problem, and rattled off two more missiles into the Mirage's heading our way. This forced them to evade, and they didn't get a shot off. Biscuit didn't score a hit though. I was popping flares like a son of a bitch, and went to full military, using the speed advantage to rocket out of range. Biscuit formed up. When the Mirage's began their final turn, our own Mirage lit off his search radar, as did the Flanker who was now coming back at them. The Mirages realized this was a lost cause (not knowing that the Mirage (Scotch) south of them was out of range, and the Flanker was bluffing, since he had no BVR left on his wings). They decided the safer choice was to bug out, turning away from both our planes and heading outbound on a North Eastern course. The flanker pilot then tracked the wounded Mirage, as Biscuit and I headed towards the incoming Falcon, which was turning towards land, but they weren't going to outpace us.

We pulled in behind them, and since we didn't try to communicate over the radio, we did it the old fashioned way. Biscuit fired a warning shot of cannon shells across their nose, then pulled ahead on burners. I pulled beside the Falcon, and flipped on my formation lights. They got the picture, and I told them to follow the Phantom in front with hand signals, they rocked their wings, and then followed Biscuit as I slipped away to join up with Scotch. Scotch and Hugs had done the same thing, cannon shot across the front of the wounded and smoking Mirage, and then pulled alongside. However, they waited there, until I formed up on the other side, before pulling ahead, as I slipped behind, so that if he took a cheap shot at Scotch, I'd ram a sidewinder up his ass.

Hugz peeled off and climbed, turning, keeping his Radar on to look out for threats for us. There weren't any, surprisingly, and we took the Mirage and Falcon back to Kitona. We arrived there, and circled the field with our gear down. The Flacon and Mirage took the hint, and landed, followed shortly after by us.

As we taxied in, we saw a black Cadillac on the tarmac, and two military Gaz trucks. There were a lot of ragtag looking assholes beside the trucks, and as the Falcon shut down, they stormed the plane. We weren't sure, but we saw them drag two people off the Falcon and shove them roughly into the Caddy. The car peeled off with the trucks in trail as we were shutting down. Scotch investigated the Falcon, and found both pilots and the purser shot dead inside.

The Mirage pilot got down, and Hugz went to see him, as he put it “Grinning like a motherfucker” with a flask of whiskey. The mirage pilot was a bit surprised in addition to being confused and pissed off. We called up the Merc outfit and told them we had a mirage. Turns out, we get bonus cash now for bringing back a damaged plane! Although, I have no clue what/who the Liberians took or why. Steve ended it there, saying we got a call from the Vark pilot who was down and safe in Angola, and that the Mirage pilot would be offered a merc job.

We spent more on intel this time, the Flanker pilot came up with the idea to pull the Mirages around the sky, and we planned the airliner overflights in the area to mask our advance. Steve loved the initiative and had about six civilian airliners in the air during the game.

Summary

 * Mission Success.


 * - Air kills -


 * Hugs: 2.5 Mirage F1


 * Baron: 1 Mirage F1


 * Biscuit: .5 Mirage F1


 * - Air Incidentals -


 * None


 * - Surface -


 * Sandman: Damaged (Combat ineffective) Osprey 55


 * - Surface Incidentals -


 * none

Briefing

 * BlackFlag Internal Document


 * 1) 100324


 * Mission Briefing

“Steel Crow”


 * Deployment

Kitona


 * Pancake

Kitona


 * Alternate

Luanda (Angola)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

Unavailable (Currently supporting Jaeger Flight)


 * CSAR

MI-24 Hind “Beartrap Flight” if required, no cost.


 * Contract Employer

Liberian Government


 * Objective

Protect the Liberian Convoy (Three Trucks, one Cadillac)


 * Background

The Liberian situation just got more complicated. Those bastards didn't go after some low-level minister, the crown prince of Morocco was on that flight. The prince's personal guards were found this morning, both tortured and with the backs of their heads caved in, amongst other things. The King of Morocco is furious, and is putting serious pressure on local governments around here to find and rescue his son. For their part the Liberians haven't exactly been subtle so far, their convoy was identified at the border and to make matters worse, once that happened they shot their way into the Congo. Currently, they are holed up in a small warehouse in Pointe Noire. Their ultimate destination, as you can see from the satellite overflight, is the Bonne Aventure, a freighter flying under a Liberian flag. The Republic of Congo isn't stupid, and they've already impounded the ship. Partly due to the Moroccan pressure, but primarily from the fact they have 9 dead border guards on their hands, the Congo has been fortifying the only approach to the ship, and has increased searches and patrols in Pointe Noire. The Liberians are getting restless, and have called on us to clear a path for them to the ship. Normally we'd decline due to the circumstances, however they have threatened to reveal our original contract to the Moroccans. We will make them pay for this blackmail, but at present they have our nuts in a vice. You will have no radio contact with the convoy, when you arrive on scene they will begin making their way to the boat. Due to the rushed nature of this operation we have not yet had time to stock Kitona with weaponry, and have therefor tasked our two C-27Js to support you, however all munitions purchased will have an added fee. This mission is a short notice tasking, and you will be compensated accordingly.


 * HUMINT

The Congo troops may not be superbly trained, but they are not green. The Liberians haven't given us much, as usual, just a map with a line drawn on it, so we're guessing that's their route. Not very subtle either, just the fastest route to the boat. Because the Bonne Aventure is currently impounded, it is imperative that at least two of the three Liberian troop trucks survive.


 * ELINT

Radio intercepts have picked up increased military traffic from the Congo, the Liberians expect to make a high speed dash, but they're going to have a tough drive. Several outlying garrisons have been brought in overnight, including some armor assets.


 * SATINT

Unavailable


 * Air Assets

None


 * Surface Assets

Unknown number of MBTs, IFVs and Anti-Air Guns.


 * Threat Assessment

Medium. While the threat to your own aircraft is considered minimal, the light nature of the convoy is vulnerable to pretty much everything that the Congolese can throw at it.


 * ROE

Any threat to either the Liberian convoy or yourself is a valid target.

Recap
So we weren't sure about how to loadout our aircraft. I took two HARM missiles, since I had some left in my personal inventory (no charge!). I put on two SUU-23 Pods, two rocket pods, and four BLU-10s, and two sidewinders. Biscuit loaded up pretty much the same, but no HARMS, four rocket pods. Scotch had two ADEN pods, Two Magics, Two rocket pods, and two Brimstones. The F-111 had it's internal gun, 8 CBU-87s, 4x AGM-65As. Hugs put on two Alamos, kept 2 Archers, and then added 4 SPPU-22 Gunpods and Two Fab-500s. We figured that between us, we could deal with threats as they came. We took off, and headed for the target area, all of us limited in speed due to our loadouts.

We approached at high altitude, well, the Flanker and F-111 did, using their IR pods to find enemy locations ahead of time. The rest of us loitered about 10 miles away, getting target info, and coming up with a by the seat of the pants style plan. From the air, they had spotted two troop concentrations, a tank, and three IFVs, as well as a few jeeps. We turned in, as the F-111 began its run, Hugs staying high to provide Air Cover as well as an eye on things on the ground. He called out no ground based or air based tracking radar, which was a relief. One less thing to worry about. Sandman started off by dropping four Mavericks during his descent, one for each vehicle he had spotted initially. They rocketed down, and speared every single target he had pointed them at. Four cans, popped in one salvo, we were ecstatic. Then Hugs called, telling us the explosions had obviously been heard, the Liberians were beginning their run. He counted three trucks, a car, and 4 motorcycles leaving the staging area, heading north as initially planned. Sandman pulled out of his dive, roaring out towards the ocean, spotting nothing but the burning vehicles. So far, so good.

Then we get a call from our eye in the sky, apparently he's got tags on two police cars moving at speed through the urban area, apparently moving towards the Liberians, who, in their bid to escape, have decided to shoot at everything on their way, with small arms fire, and the M2 .50 they have on a pintle mount on two of the trucks. So much for them sneaking around. Biscuit and I start talking, do we really want to shoot up police cars? Biscuit, not missing a beat, “Well, we are speeding already, what's another ticket? Guns Hot.” He lined up on one street, and did a low level strafe with a quick burst from his internal cannon, scoring a kill on one of the cars. I came in behind, but the other police car turned off the street and drove through a small shack, fence, lawn, so I didn't have a safe shot. We both roared low over the city, and we got a spot check. I found a BRDM leaving a garage, headed to intercept the Liberian convoy, but we zipped by before we had a shot. We were out over the bay, and began our turn to come back. The Mirage flew a route to take him down the planned route the convoy was taking, and didn't spot anything on his pass. He was out of position on the BRDM as well, and began his turn around in the bay.

At this point, it seemed pretty simple, and then it went to shit. Out of nowhere, four HMMVS drove out of garages attached to civvie houses, and the north block surrounding the road leading out of the village erupted with small arms fire and a few RPGs. The Liberian convoy wasn't there yet, but a motorcycle was killed in the initial fire. The only aircraft in position was the F-111, pushing towards the area hard. The HMMVWs moved to the main road, and formed a roadblock. The Vark rushed over the air, and left behind the only effective ordnance he could, two cluster bombs. The effect was pretty dramatic, it took out a quarter of the block and suppressed all the fire. As the smoke cleared, Hugs called down to say that the Hummers were toast, except for one that hadn't made it to the target area yet, and had now diverted, heading west across the open plain at speed. The Liberians roared through the carnage, as Biscuit and myself came in from the North. I lined up with the BRDM, and took it out with a rocket salvo, which also nailed an abandoned bus (there seemed to be a lot of people running away from all this, as well as cars driving fast in the opposite direction. Biscuit put his rounds off target with the police car, chewing through a lawn and a house. The police car got the hint, and stopped, the officers jumping out and running for their lives. We finished our run, and began to make our turn south of the area.

The Mirage did a slower pass, and called out target hits, then turned west to engage the departing HMMVW. Turned out it was just in time, since he saw a flash, and something streaked out towards the convoy. Scotch nailed the HMMVW but spent a lot of ammo from his internal gun doing it. The missile (A TOW) lost command input, and shot in between the Cadillac and the truck following, trailing its wire. It detonated on the side of poorly (or fortuitously) place water pumping station. The Liberians were now in the open, just making the turn onto the port access road. Hugs began to get radar hits on something low and fast, but it was sporadic, about five miles east. Scotch turned to investigate as both Biscuit and I began to loiter south, waiting for a call to come in. We were joined by Sandman shortly.

Scotch flipped on his air to air, and picked up the target, and we found out why it was moving so 'fast' it was two different targets, heading towards the convoy, spaced out, and so low the radar in the Flanker was only getting sporadic hits, and treating them as a single target. The Mirage blasted by the targets, calling out to us that they were helicopters, unknown type. I made the turn to investigate, and scotch also turned, switching to his magics. I made my pass first, but didn't get a good lock with my sidewinders, so I went guns, and opened up in a long burst, which reached out and tore through the (relatively) stationary MD-500, which exploded in a fireball before crashing into the ground beside the highway/main road. Scotch came in, and loosed his two magics (better missiles than my shitty sidewinders) at the other helicopter, also scoring hits, blowing the MI-8 gunship out of the air. The downside was, he shot down an MI-8 over the main road, which had lots of cars stopped on it to look at the crashed MD500, so when the gunship went down, it went down into a traffic jam, and its on-board ATGMs and air to Air point defense missiles went off. Scotch wasn't very happy when Hugs told him that, we hadn't been paying attention to what they were flying over, and this kind of sucked big time. Then, Sandman called out that over the bay there was a small flotilla of about four small boats heading across the bay, in the direction of the Bonne Aventure.

Sandy made a hard turn towards the bay, which overstressed his wing mounts, and rendered his Mavericks unusable, so he dumped them, which freed him speed wise, and went to full burner towards the bay, about 400ft off the deck he said. He passed over the Liberians like that as well, who were now about halfway between the urban area and the dockyards. Sandy, unsure of the best method, asked Steve about submunitions, then loosed another two bombs. He passed over the area, and even though he was far south of the position, Biscuit still called out that their was a massive fountain of ocean thrown up from the strike, destroying three boats, and sending the fourth a good 200 ft into the air, and snapping it like a twig. Sandman began to slow and turn, setting up a small racetrack north. Scotch was now flying a line towards the industrial port, and spotted a small roadblock. He was already on rocket pods, so he fired them off, punching a massive hole in the guard house, roadblock, and about half of a nearby warehouse and several train cars filled with diesel, which ignited, sending a plume of black smoke into the air. Pretty much most of the entrance to the port was destroyed or on fire as Scotch passed over it.

Biscuit turned towards the inferno, prepping his rocket pods for any further roadblocks. He didn't find any on his pass, but he did take cannon hits from something, punching through his engine, setting it on fire. I was already inbound, and had seen the tracers, so Steve put down the ZSU marker in between the warehouses, and said that I could see a lot of troops in the area, debarking from trucks. I made my pass, emptying my rockets (no HARM lock) into the vicinity. I'm not proud of that, since I wasn't very accurate, I took out the ZSU, but nailed more of the train, both warehouses on either side, and the explosions from all that and the rockets took out the trucks and infantry, or at least, I doubted they'd survive down there.

Biscuit shut down his engine and Hugs called down to say that he was still smoking, but no fire anymore. Biscuit began a climb and we agreed that unless it was really needed, Biscuit was out of the fight. We bit the bullet (and our pride) and called for Beartrap, just in case he had to punch out, figuring it was better to have them in theater for a quick pickup. Scotch had circled around, as the Liberians were just arriving at the port. They had slowed, making their way into the compound, when Sandman called out that two HMMVS had just emerged south of the Liberian position by about half a click, and were headed north. They had come out of a warehouse in the south. Scotch was already in position, so he lined up heading towards the Hummers. He decided on a gun pass, since they were travelling one after another, heading straight at him up the road. Steve told him as he approached that the second Hummer looked slightly odd, and two flashes could be seen from it. Scotch continued on his approach, lining them up, trying to limit collateral damage.

That was when Steve told Scotch “You see twin smoke trails now, dead ahead, and two more flashes” Scotch broke off his run and tried to turn hard, and Steve passed around a book as we were all looking intently at the Hummer. Turns out there is a variant called an Avenger. Anyway, Scotch tried hard, but took it up the tailpipe, ripping his F1s engine to threads. Steve hit his remote and the stereo started blasting warning horns and sirens and shit, and I fuck you not Scotch's face was white and shouting EJECT EJECT EJECT while he quickly rolled the die. We all held our breath as we saw the flaming wreckage of the mirage tumbling down towards the southwest edge of the industrial zone.

Steve told Biscuit, since he was closest and climbing “Canopy just blew, seats out!” and we're all wondering “did he make it” and then Steve says “CHUTE, you see a Chute!” We begin a quick radio call “who has distance anti-tank guided munitions” and realize that no one has any left, the two brimstones on the crashing mirage were the remaining ones. The mirage arced slowly left and crashed into a warehouse, which promptly exploded. Then, on the radio, we heard Scotch who had been passed a note by Steve, calling us on freq from his rescue radio “ICE THOSE FUCKERS”. Biscuit, who was in the best position (high), asked Steve something, then did exactly the opposite of what Scotch wanted, dumping his four BLU-10s. It took a turn, but the hit, not on target, but close enough. Biscuit, the one engined Phantom, with airframe damage, napalmed about one sixth of the port, having checked to see where Scotch was relative to his aim point. The Hummers did not survive, nor did much of anything else. The Liberians were through the gate, heading north, and approaching the spot I had rocketed. The southern portion of the port was on fire, and black smoke was filling the sky there.

Sandman started reporting movement in the Northern part of the port, and several warehouses now had a few hummers and a lot of Infantry moving out from them, as well as two BMP-2s. We had the quickest discussion. We're down a plane and half, there's unknown elements down there, are intel is crap, and the Liberians are stupid enough to keep trucking since they think we are some sort of Guardian angels. And we agreed, the mission had gone to shit, no more trying to avoid casualties. I formed up behind Sandman, and we began a run, passing over the Liberians. When we were clear, Sandman began triggering his remaining cluster munitions, dumping them in a line, saturating the north roadway with submunitions, buildings, vehicles, train cars, everything and anything caught in the rolling wave of destruction was going up in flames. I followed thirty seconds later, making a long gun pass into the devastation, expending all the M61 ammo in the pods in one pass. The Liberians continued north, the ship now in sight, when the final attack occurred. The first truck detonated on the road, obscured by dirty smoke and dust. The convoy ground to a halt.

Another one of the trucks ventured forward, then troops debarked. They marched forward, past the burning truck. I was circling, and saw some puffs, and the infantry were gone. Fuck. The others ran back to the convoy. It took us a second, but Sandy said “What if it's mined?”

We looked at each other in silence. We hadn't thought of this... And we had just dumped all our bombs, my rocket pods were empty, and gun passes weren't going to help. And then Hugs, looked down at his sheet, and back at us. He told us to run a gun line in front of the Liberians, and angled in at high altitude, moving slow. We did, and the Liberians backed up slightly, since we were running really close to them on our pass. Hugs flew over, and dropped his two iron bombs we had forgotten about, sending 1000lbs worth of Russian explosive into the minefield area. The explosion of his weapons was highlighted by all the mines detonating in a flurry of secondaries. The trucks and convoy began to move, heading towards the boat, through the still burning debris and craters. And then Steve threw his last curveball. A single lone RPG on the boat, in addition to the soldiers stationed there. Steve did a roll in front of us to hit the truck. Needed a 18+ to hit he said. Rolled 20. Truck exploded in horrendous death. We were devastated.

And then Scotch chimed in over the radio chatter. “Just support the g'damn 'astards in their assault on the boat” Steve nodded, “Sure, the limit on truck kills was to ensure enough soldiers could assault it. I'm fine with this.” We we're back in the game, and hugs decided to be the Hero of The Night, pulling a ridiculous turn (we envied how fast he can turn, since we've been stuck in our iron pigs) and came in at the ship head on, as the Liberians were debarking from the remaining truck, taking heavy fire. And then Hugs plane exploded. Not from Damage, but he held down the triggers on his four gun pods and main gun, putting tremendous amounts of lead on target. The entire front of the bridge on the ship was blasted, glass and shrapnel blown everywhere, anyone unfortunate enough to be on the deck was converted to bloody mush. I followed with my guns, and Sandy observed from altitude. The Liberians ran up the plank as we loitered, circling the boat. About two minutes later we saw water churn at the back of the boat, and they pulled out of port. To the south, the CSAR Hind arrived, and with a quick operation, extracted a rather watered down Scotch from the Atlantic. We all headed back to base as the Liberians pulled out of the port, extremely happy to all be alive, royally pissed at how the mission had gone, and asking Steve when we could go to Liberia.

Summary
Mission Success.


 * Air Kills


 * Scotch: 1 MI-8 Hip Gunship


 * Baron: 1 MD500 Gunship


 * - Air Incidentals -


 * None


 * Ground Kills


 * Sandman: T55, 5BMP, 4 Harbor gunships, 3 Hummers


 * Biscuit: Hummer, Avenger


 * Scotch: Hummer, Guardhouse, Roadblock


 * Baron: BRDM, ZSU, 1 Infantry Squad


 * Hugs: Minefield, 2 Infantry Squad


 * - Ground Incidentals -


 * Sandman: 7 Houses, 18 Warehouses, 12 civilians, 86 dockworkers


 * Scotch: 9 cars, 4 train cars, warehouse, 23 Civilians, 7 dockworkers


 * Baron: Bus, 2 Warehouses, 3 Civilians, Police Car, 32 dockworkers


 * Biscuit: House, Lawn Gnome, 4 warehouses, 2 civilians, 52 dockworkers


 * Hugs: 6 Dockworkers


 * Damage Taken


 * Scotch: Destroyed, Ejected Safely


 * Biscuit: Catastrophic Engine Fire, Significant Airframe, Landed Safe

Briefing

 * BlackFlag Internal Document


 * 1) 100329


 * Mission Briefing

“Ivy Serpent”


 * Deployment

Kitona


 * Pancake

Kitona


 * Alternate

Luanda (Angola)


 * AAR

Il-78 Midas “Conoco” available


 * AWACS

R-99 “Bird Dog” available


 * CSAR

C-27J Available on request


 * Contract Employer

Viktor Bout


 * Objective

Locate and divert or render the UN fleet combat ineffective.


 * Background

This one's pretty simple folks, we've got a request from another mercenary, arms dealer really, who needs to get some heat taken off his operation. I know you're all itching to go toe to toe with the Liberians, but we need to stay focused and generate liquidity. We're putting the Liberian situation on back burner, and letting the intel guys sniff around what's left of Pointe Noire, see if we can find out who hit you and why.

In the meantime, Bout has asked us to help him get some cargo through a joint UN/Interpol blockade. Currently, they have numerous small ocean going ships off the west coast of the continent, investigating all merchant traffic. Naturally, Bout is worried his latest shipment to some godforsaken hell hole is going to get snapped up by them. Your job will be to locate the main blockade, and draw it away from Bout's ships until they are clear, or disable the vessel's ability to pursue Bout's ships. On a side note, Bout asked for your squadron personally, you should consider a name for your flight so our marketing team can begin whipping up sale's proposals.


 * HUMINT

The UN/Interpol blockade is a matter of public record, so our force analysis should be fairly accurate. The patrol is operating in a box roughly 400 miles off the coast, covering area that the local navies of the African coastal countries cannot secure.


 * ELINT

Available on request


 * SATINT

Sporadic cloud cover has rendered satellite intelligence useless.


 * Air Assets

Lynx Helicopters


 * Surface Assets

HNLMS Van Amstel (Dutch Frigate), HMDS Niels Juel and Olfert Fischer (Danish Corvette)


 * Threat Assessment

High, these aren't third world warriors, but professional naval crews onboard modern weapon's platforms. They are highly skilled, and proficient. It may be best to attempt to divert their attention, rather then engage in open hostilities.


 * ROE

Engage at will.

Recap
So, we figured it would be a good idea for everyone to load up on anti-ship missiles. We weren't sure about the air threat either. I took two Exocets, Scotch loaded two Sea Eagles, and Sandman went apeshit and spent tons getting two AGM-142s and four Bofors RBS15s. Biscuit loaded two AGM-142s. Hugs figured he'd be doing anti-air, and took nothing but missiles, six Alamos and four Archers. I took two new Sparrows, as did Biscuit and Scotch, in addition to new AIM-9s. We paid for the AWAACs and the tanker, so we wouldn't need buddy refueling, and someone could watch the skies. We also bought Elint, which turned out to be a boon, since we were able to determine that two of the ships were operating together, while the third corvette was separated, conducting boarding operations. We also found that there was a fourth UN ship, a hastily converted cargo ship, being used as a light helicopter carrier. We wanted to use the airliner thing again, but we were off the beaten path in terms of airliner flight paths, so that wasn't an option this time. Shipping wise though, there was a lot of traffic in the operations area. We departed, a bit wary, and flew out over the ocean, topping up our tanks with the Midas (we earned extra experience for that at least) and entered the operation area, with Hugs flying high, Scotch Biscuit and me huddled close, and Sandman loitering, prepping to drop to the deck.

When we arrived we were all cold, except for the AWAACS which loitered back about 150~200 miles. We had nothing on our threat receivers except from sporadic hits from surface based traffic avoidance radar. Within a minute we had a pretty good picture of where ships were, but we didn't know which was which, except for Bout's on their routes. We then got a call from the AWAACs, saying it had detected two targets, probably rotary, over the ocean. One was headed for the second of Bout's ships, and Bird Dog said ETA was about 10 minutes. Hugs turned and began a pursuit, but not cooking too much. The rest of us were in a heated discussion about the surface targets. We didn't want to fly to close to any of them, and we still had the element of surprise, since none of them had lit off their air radar yet, apparently content cruising on a simple anti-smuggling op. It also helped that we were doing this near dawn, so it was dark, and crews would hopefully be at their worst, prone to mistakes. Bird Dog called in, telling Hugs that he'd be in range for a missile shot about 3 minutes before the helicopter made it to Bout's ship, and did he want third party fire control (he'd upgraded the C3 on his flanker) because if not, he'd be too late intercepting the helicopter. On the other hand, fire control radar would wake up even the sleepiest of crews.

We waited, tense, for what seemed like a lot of turns, and then the ground situation was updated, and steve placed small lines on the map to show us the track of ships. Surprisingly, this helped, a lot of the traffic was North South, with only a few ships appearing to be going east west. Hugs called us on satlink (another upgrade so we could be even quieter with emissions) and asked us what we wanted, he was approaching Alamo range, but he could close further if we wanted. We decided to keep monitoring the ship positions, and told Hugs that if he could close, that would be better. The Sandman had a great idea, and maneuvered down to sea level, heading towards Bout's first boat, subsonic. The rest of us kept together, flying a slow line, watching events and listening on the radio that the AWAACs was patching to us via Satlink. We actually got a lot of useless transmissions (strips of paper that steve had in a box that he handed to us.) but eventually got one from the helicopter crew, telling their base ship they were overflying a random ship and dropping a flare, since their first transmission had no effect. Hugs was about a minute away.

Hugs saw the flare, highlighting the ship on the horizon, but also revealing the helicopter. Since he didn't particularly trust a heatseeker with massive search flare descending, he switched to guns, and did a long gun pass to try to ensure he nailed the helicopter the first time. He actually slowed when he heard the helicopter transmitting again, telling a Corvette they were boarding the frieghter. Their transmission stopped just in time, because Hugs came in, gun blazing. The heavy pass had the desired effect, apparently a Lynx doesn't deal with anti-aircraft cannon shells from a high cyclic gun very well. The helicopter detonated as it was ripped apart, dropping out of the sky into the sea beside the freighter, just before Hugs ripped over the deck, already turning in case he needed another pass. We heard some radio chatter, some ships were calling out they had heard what seemed like an explosion. The Corvette then began to try to contact their helicopter.

And then something unexpected happened.

Apparently Bout's people had been briefed that they had friendlies in the area, and let loose a broadcast on an open frequency that a low flying helicopter with no running lights had impacted one of their masts, destroying itself in the process. This got an immediate response, with the Corvette demanding details, and the “Slightly Russian” sounding smuggler replying that an 'incompetent crew flew into my radar mast, attempting an illegal boarding of my vessel.” The things started to get heated, as we noted one of the surface targets changing course drastically and speeding up, headin towards an intercept with the smuggling ship. ETA wasn't for a good 30 minutes though, although it was clear this was not good, especially when a Captain got on the radio from the military ship, as the smuggler kept up his rhetoric that the UN fleet was a bunch of pirates of the open water with no legal justification for their searches. The Captain didn't seem to like this, and ordered the freighter to stop and prepare for boarding.

Sandman decided that the time was right to try out what he had been thinking about doing (and not told us because he's like that) and triggered his radio. In his best slavic accent, he said over the open frequency, “Niels Juel this is Russian Cruiser Ustinov, that cargo ship is under the solemn protection of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia. Any further threats against him will be met with force of arms. You will reverse course immediately.” Stunned silence followed.

Then our threat warning receivers went crazy, as the Corvette lit off everything it had, as did the other two ships. We figured we were ok, since we were heading away from both groups, and were in tight formation, at altitude. I even popped on my transponder to further simulate an airliner. We were out of missile range since they only had sea sparrows, but still worried. Sandy wasn't though, he was low, and slow, creeping up on the lead ship in Bout's convoy. The Captain of the Niels Juel came back on, sounding slightly shocked, but firm “Ustinov, we are operating in accordance with joint UN/Interpol mandate 8920, which grants us authority to search and seize merchant vessels operating in this area. You will not threaten this vessel, or any other vessel in this task force as we conduct this operation. You can request more information and file a formal complaint with the UN through their mission in Angola” Sandy apparently didn't feel like doing the paperwork though, since he popped up over the freighter and pumped off his two Popeyes as he crossed the deck of the freighter, beginning a hard turn back the way he came, scarcely 100 feet off the ocean surface, while his right seater began flying the rockets toward the corvette.

Steve told us that the Danish captain was still talking about mandates over the radio when all sorts of alarms started in the background, along with calls of 'Vampires!” The radio cut off. The AWAACs called us, telling us that their was massive boost in ECM from the ship, as well as tons of passive 'chaff' that they were pumping into the air. The ship began launching Sea Sparrows in clusters, trying to take out the low flying missiles as they rose above the horizon. One of the sparrows downed one of the popeyes, but even last ditch stingers couldn't hit the other one, and it nailed the ship, Sandy's bombardier driving it right into the forward section. It caught something, probably a magazine, because at altitude, we saw the flash. It all happened quick enough that they hadn't had a chance to get off a return shot on Bout's freighter, which was now in the clear, as was the second. Sandy was heading outbound now, laughing like a madman, as we all discussed what to do next. There was a lot of encrypted signals that the AWAACs bird was trying to process, but, to our relief, the other two ships turned away, apparently not wanting to tangle with a cruiser captained by a lunatic who apparently had no qualms firing on other vessels.

Bird Dog then called us, saying the surface target south of us had just launched a helicopter, which was bad news for them since we now knew where the light carrier was. The helicopter was heading towards the burning wreckage about 60 miles south of it. We decided to leave it alone since it seemed to be on a rescue mission, but the light carrier was a threat, or more specifically, the helicopters it had. We agreed that I'd run the attack, and I broke off, turning to set up a quick exocet run. I wasn't too worried about detection, since the target wasn't radiating, and we were fairly far north now, near the edge of the task force coverage. I still dropped down, and then dumped both my exocets, before turning and climbing out, heading back to the group. Hugs was forming up with us as well. Sandy was loitering around to the east, as we relayed what the task force was doing, which seemed to be running parrallel to the convoy. And then it hit us, we weren't going to succeed, the ruse would be discovered, the UN force was simply shadowing the convoy now, and would doubtless note any course changes. Then the AWACS called saying it was detecting another helicopter, and Steve put down another marker. But this one came off another surface contact, not the one I had shot at. This one was far west, beyond the task force. The helicopter target also seemed to be heading towards the wreckage, but wouldn't arrive for over an hour.

That's when I got another transmission 'slip' from Steve. It was a helicopter from a luxury cruise ship, investigating the burning wreckage. I got a sinking feeling, I had no recall on the exocets. Fire and forget has downsides, this appeared to be one of them. No defensive fire came out of the ship, and both exocets raced into the stern, blowing massive rents into the Queen Victoria, a 90,000 or so ton cruise ship. Hugs, to his credit, separated from our group, and lit his burners, and began to make a beeline for the real carrier, going nose hot once he was clear from us. Then the bad news started to flow, with distress calls from the crippled cruise liner, stating they had suffered a tremendous explosion, and were on fire. Hugs plane almost melted from the amount of radar juice the task force was throwing at him. He got a firing solution on the enemy helicopter, staying away from the task force. The converted carrier was now turning away, and the task force was turning hard to rejoin with it. Hugs kept playing that game, keeping the helicopter locked with his massive radar, but not firing. He then proceeded south, at speed, as we circled to the east, staying clear of the task force which was rushing west now. The Queen Victoria continued to broadcast, stating the fire was spreading and they were abandoning ship. Several surface targets were turning to lend assistance, except for Bout's ships, which were leaving to the south east, essentially in the free and clear.

The radio transmissions were flooded with calls, but as we loitered, the task force turned again, heading back towards the cruise liner, to assist most likely, as their helicopter changed course for the cruise ship as well. We remained on station for another hour, cycling out to the Midas to sip a bit before returning, but Bout's ships were safe and beginning another turn to throw off any hopes of the task force catching them. We left the area, and returned to Kitona. When we landed, I told Steve that my cut of the mission pay was going to whatever charity was going to be set up for the cruise ship victims. Scotch did the same, as did Hugs.

Steve did the debrief as usual, but mentioned some things about what happened after. There was an investigation, but the Russians denied any involvement, since the Ustinov was tied up in port. Because of the ranges, there were no radar tracks of Russian surface search radar, nor of russian missiles. Several airborne targets were tracked, but none corresponded with the missile launch. Subsequent satellite overflights found nothing but merchantment in the area. The SU-27 radar however was logged, and posed a large question, what was a Flanker doing out over the ocean, and where did it come from? Again, fingers were pointed at the Russian's who denied it, donating hefty sums to victims of the cruise ship tragedy, and offering to supply ships to supplement the UN taskforce. The Queen Victoria caught fire, and eventually sank. Analysis of the wreckage will be difficult, due to the depth of the sea floor. The British are reviewing not only the radar tapes, but the safety and security procedures of the Cunard Cruise line. A charity was set up, which received international support, for the victims that died. Oh, and Viktor Bout's cargo got through, which apparently is good, since one whole ship was full of stuff for our merc outfit. The other stuff got dumped into hellholes, supplying third world bush wars and genocides. Steve really hammered home the point that though we succeeded, this wasn't really a 'win' in any sense of the word.

Summary

 * Air Kills


 * Hugs: 1 Lynx (Maritime)


 * Air Incidentals


 * None (the civil heli landed on the task force carrier deck.)


 * Surface Kills


 * Sandman: 1 Corvette Niels Juel


 * Ground Incidentals


 * Me: Queen Victoria Cruise Liner (482 dead, 1076 injured)


 * Damage Taken


 * None

We asked Steve about repercussions, and said that a lot of intel groups will be looking into it, but our PMC does a lot of work with friends in high places. We operated deceptively, and after the confusion, the investigation will continue, but most likely lead nowhere, with most theories being dismissed as 'conspiracy at best'.

Briefing

 * BlackFlag Internal Document


 * 1) 100337


 * Mission Briefing

“Gold Rush”


 * Deployment

Kitona


 * Pancake

Kisangani


 * Alternate

Luanda (Angola)


 * AAR

Il-78 Midas “Conoco” available


 * AWACS

R-99 “Bird Dog” available temporarily


 * CSAR

None


 * Contract Employer

Internal Emergency Tasking


 * Objective

Cover our withdrawal from Kitona.


 * Background

Seems like we aren't out of the woods yet. Airfield security picked up a suspicious person who had been hanging around for several days. After a brief interrogation, we found he was an informant for the United Kingdom, and it seems like he's been documenting when our aircraft have departed and arrived. Our intel sources confirm that there has been a lot of traffic in their Ministry of Defense, so most likely our spin control will not enable us to keep this incident contained, and the British will be launching a reprisal strike soon. We're not taking any chances. As of 0300, we began evacuating our temporary facilities here at Kitona. All available air transport craft have been diverted to assist in the airlift. We suspect that the UK's Invincible class carrier, the HMS Ark Royal is currently moving into position at best speed, although they've apparently been enforcing strict radio discipline and cloud cover continues to negate our satellite overflights. We've been lucky, it looks like the Royal Navy is playing their cards close to their chest, and have decided to not stir up a public furor about the MS Queen Vic, maybe trying to put us at ease while they prepare to hit us. In any case, on first contact from Bird Dog, intercept and delay the strike package for as long as possible. We should be completely clear of the airfield within the next six hours, but every second you buy us counts. Protect the transports to the best of your ability, and then withdraw to op point Baker and meet up with Conoco for refueling and escort to Kisangani.


 * HUMINT

We couldn't get much more out of the informer, he died before the interrogation was over.


 * ELINT

Nothing yet.


 * SATINT

Cloud Cover has hindered our data collection.


 * Air Assets

Unknown. Protect the 4x C-27J, 2 AN-12s, 2 IL-76 and 1 AN-22.


 * Surface Assets

HMS Ark Royal, Unknown escorts.


 * Threat Assessment

Unknown. Royal Navy doctrine will require them to have visuals on targets before firing, but once they've established that they're not shooting at a civilian airliner or airfield, you can expect the strikes to begin. We're expecting a cruise missile strike on the airfield no more than 15 minutes after their initial strike force confirms our presence.


 * ROE

Engage at will. Aircraft attacking the transport planes are priority targets.

Recap
Steve started by asking us all if we understood what we needed to do, as always. We then picked our gear. Hugs didn't have anything to do, since he was already loaded. I took 4 AMRAAMs and 4 AIM-9s, as did Biscuit. Scotch took 6 AIM-9s. We had asked around prior to the flight, and found out the base had no anti-air guns, they had been packed away already. We had also talked about alternates, and figured that if needed, an escape to Angola would be our best bet if we couldn't make it to the refueler or Kisangani. We talked to the weather briefer, and he told us we could expect an overcast at 9000 ft, so that might be an issue. The cloud layer was thick, extending 3000 or so ft higher, and there was drizzle in some areas, outright rain in others, the beginning of a storm system that was developing. We still had no idea where the fleet was as circled above the clouds. We tanked with the Midas, which then began proceeding to the rendezvous point. We were told that the final personnel were now on their way to the waiting aircraft.

It was pretty clear to us that the company didn't have a lot of faith in our defensive abilities, since we found out that the Midas and Bird Dog were being escorted by some of Blackwood's Hussars. It was still cool to imagine us tanking on the Midas with its MiG-31 and F-18 escort. We didn't have a chance to find out what was flying with the R-99 because Bird Dog called and told us we had some contacts closing from the Northwest. It was at extreme range for them, so they weren't sure, but their track path was going to put them over the airfield in about 30 minutes. Just three targets, although there were other targets 200 miles from the airfield, although it seemed that our airspace had been sanitized. The company had told us before we launched that the flight plans of major airlines seemed to be filed around our airspace, probably due to interference by the British MoD. We began to talk strategy, when Steve put down additional markers, three more in fact, south and to the west of the original three. Both were headed to Kitona. I joined up with Hugs to investigate the northern group, while Biscuit and Scotch remained over the airfield. We were then told that Bird Dog would begin a withdrawal soon, to keep distance between it and these contacts.

As we headed out, we flew in tight formation, talking about strategy. We both had our radars off, still 200 miles from the contacts. We figured that we'd pound on them with our search radars, (well, really, Hugs radar) try to scare them off, maybe force them to reconsider this approach. Since we'd be closer, we were also hoping to find out a bit more about the group then Bird Dog could tell us. Our engagement plan was pretty simple, fire at range, see if we could break the formation. Hugs decided we were close enough, and powered up the big radar on his jet. Steve let us move another phase, and then dropped seven more contact markers on the map where before there had been three. Hugs looked at me, and then said through his “mask” (he always muffled his voice with his hands, which while stupid, sounds cool) “Multiple contacts, on the plus side, we know you're not shooting down an airliner today.” We moved towards the contacts, changing our plan to 'shoot and run'. And then Steve dropped another four markers into the mass flying at us.

Then things got worse, since a big search radar hit us, and locked on almost immediately. Hugs was shouting something so I dumped chaff and began a hard turn back the way we came. Hugs did the same thing and began to push back towards the base. As Hugs turned, he scored a radar spot on the other group, which was lucky considering his Rwr was going crazy. Steve put three more markers down on the southern group. Just so you realize, we now had 14 contacts in the North, and 6 in the west, all heading towards us. Steve also put down three surface based radar sources, one of them dangerously close to us. We were heading away, and I asked for a book on UK missiles. Another 20 miles and we would have probably been shot to pieces by a destroyer/frigate of some type, that apparently had been hiding/running cold until Hugs blasted his radar openly. We needed a new plan, we were now restricted to certain airspace, since we didn't feel like going up against ships with an itchy trigger finger. We decided to still make a long range strike, but from a bit closer to the airfield. Since we were allready heading back anyway, Scotch and Biscuit turned to join up with us, as we changed our intercept course towards the six aircraft south of us. Bird Dog figured they'd be arriving at Kitona first anyway, and if we took a long range shot, we might be able to take them down cleanly. But right now we wanted to get together to maximize firepower. Steve started to put down another contact, but this time it was flipped over, and coming off the airfield, so we let out a breath. The first transport was off and climbing out.

As we flew south, we were told by birddog that some of the northern targets had changed course, and were now tracking to a point south of the airfield. It looked like they were going to try to stay between us and the group they were leaving. We all decided that this was the fighter wing escorting the main strike package. None of the contacs over there were changing speed or course other than that. Then the bad news, about 100 miles ahead of us, the six we were tracking suddenly rocketed forward, heading towards the airfield, and because of their position, Biscuit and Scotch as well. The contacts were doing Mach 1.5 now, and Hugs and I turned to intercept, pushing our jets faster then we had anticipated. Scotch called, saying he was getting hit by a radar, but not fire control. We had no clue what these aircraft were, and they were still accelerating. Hugs didn't like it, so we all decided, this group was going down in flames, no point holding back. Bird Dog started giving us tracking information, while Hugs did his own thing. He was going to hold fire on his big missiles until he was about 35 miles, ensuring a high kill probability.

We continued our approach, watching all the contacts closing on the airfield. Another transport crawled into the air, this time an Il-76. Then Hugs opened fire, FOX THREE, FOX THREE, FOX THREE, FOX THREE, four missiles arcing off his rails, pushing ahead and up, getting kinematic energy. The missiles tracked in towards the targets, who were now diving for the deck, pushing up near Mach 2 at this point. Biscuit got ready to cold launch his AMRAAMs, as did I, while Scotched started to set up for a close intercept since he only had short range weaponry. Sandy decided now was a good time to take part. He told us “I cover my nuts with my hand, and tell my WSO to light it up.” His Aardvark's massive Jammer Pods roared into action, sending out “waves of jamming radiation” according to Steve. Biscuit rippled off his AMRAAMs, and I sent two of mine into the fray as well. The aircraft were pushing downwards, jinking, so they obviously knew they had incoming.

Scotch circled into a reverse turn, Biscuit following, so that the planes would pass underneath them, and then they'd light the burners chasing them. The question was how many would they be chasing? And how much faster were they going to go? Our missiles merged with the contacts, we held our breath as Steve rolled some dice, and then began to pull off markers. The force lost four aircraft to our ten missiles. We didn't know who had hit what, but that didn't matter. A two on two was something Biscuit and Scotch could handle, and as it was Hugs and me were out of position to chase them, since they had a speed advantage and we could at best, match their speed. So we turned north east, and pushed hard, racing towards the other massive force coming at the base. Scotch and Biscuit completed their half loop, their burners sending plumes of brown smoke through the sky as they began their dive as the two remaining aircraft roared underneath them at mach 2.1. Scotch made the spot “TORNADOS!”

The second IL-76 climbed off Kitona, heading away from us and the developing air war. The Tornados must have spotted Scotch and Biscuit, since they popped a few flares as they kept pushing hard toward the airfield, getting low and very fast. Scotch got a lock and let loose a sidewinder, but Biscuit didn't get anything on the two he tried to launch, failing both rolls (followed by much swearing). Scotch's missile raced after the Tornado, and locked on to the afterburners, detonating aft. The Tornado continued on, trailing some black smoke, and quickly exiting sidewinder engagement range. Scotch and Biscuit were fucking furious, going to full burner and climbing to meet us. The Tornado's were a lost cause now.

Sandy provided a last line of defence, lighting up his radar, and having one of his Jammer pods imitate a SAM launch, which caused both Tornados to pull hard south, dumping chaff. Steve made a few rolls, and then told us, that as the Tornado's pulled away, the one trailing smoke suddenly began to pour smoke from one of it's engines, and panels were blowing away, flames pushing out from the damaged engine. He told Scotch that as he looked over, the plane burped flamed, then disintegrated into a Mach 2+ fireball, before crashing into the Atlantic. The other Tornado began a slow turn, heading towards the airfield again, but at least we'd delayed it, it would arrive at the same time as the Harriers now. We were told that a C-27J was pushing into the air off the field. Biscuit Scotch joined up behind Hugs and me by a bunch of miles. The four targets between us and the main force began closing on us, turning slightly to try to keep us away from the strike formation. We looked at the distances and hatched a quick plan, and then went to full military burner, racing headfirst at the defensive patrol. We all hit our Radars, figuring we may as well try to scare the shit out of them.

We all broke the sound Barrier, although I will admit that Hugs was kicking the crap out of our tubs, blasting forward like some angry goose necked harbinger of death. He dumped his last two Alamo's at 50 miles, which gave them a pretty good energy boost from his own aircraft's speed. The rest of us were pushing up in speed, and I will admit, the distance I covered in a phase was pretty awesome, I had not had the Phantom up this fast ever before, and even on the table top I was thinking “For a 40 year old plane, this thing can haul ass!” I pumped off my AMRAAMs as I crossed the 25 mile line, with Hugs about 5 miles ahead of me. His two Alamos impacted, wiping out one of the Harriers (Made his spot check). Well, one of them missed, but the other didn't. My AMRAAMs came down, also knocking out one of the Harrier's, this one turning towards Hugs. Hugs roared through the formation at Mach 1.7ish, and asked Steve something. Steve was moving both remaining harriers in an impossibly tight maneuver, apparently they had slowed, using vectored thrust to help pivot to slap into a rear aspect shot on the Flanker. Both of them launched, Hugs pumping out flares, and cut burners. And then Hugs told Steve he was using his hemet reticule to launch an archer. So, flying through a loose formation of Harriers in a Flanker at almost double the speed of sound, Hugs launched a missile sideways off the rail towards one of the offending Harriers.

Another C-27J took off the runway at Kitona, the remaining Tornado quickly closing on the base. Hugs archer missed, but the follow up from Biscuit did not. The rest of us couldn't get locks, so we dumped flares and roared past the three flaming harriers falling towards the Atlantic, the fourth shooting, but missing at Scotch. Our momentum, like the Tornados, was an advantage. We were cutting into our fuel, but we had a lot, and now the other Air to Air Harrier was in a tail chase towards us, and it wouldn't win. We were now banging away with our Radar, despite having nothing BVR to shoot. The strike force accelerated a bit, but not much, but descending down below the clouds near the coast. We'd have a very short time after intercept until they were over the base.

Sandy angled towards the base, lighting off his own cans and going to maximum sweep. We approached the main strike package, but were not going to have much time to do anything, and there was still a lot of aircraft on the ground, despite the AN-22 getting into the air. We were then told that Bird Dog was bugging out, but that a gift was on the way. We had no clue what that meant, all we knew for certain was that our AWAACs was leaving us, so it was our own eyeballs. We dropped below the clouds, emerging into the darker lower altitudes below, our plains pelted by rain as we came off the burners, still on our supersonic intercept towards the mass of what we assumed were Harriers closing on the base. And then the lone Tornado made its run.

The Tornado passed low over the base, having slowed to make it's attack run. The canisters on it's wings flew open, and it flew the length of the runway, dispensing runway cratering munitions, and in the process wiping out the C-27 on it's takeoff roll, first by popping off a wing, and then the flaming craft dropped into a crater and rolled, tossing men and equipment into the air as it completed its flaming death throes. The Tornado began climbing, chasing after the large AN-22 that was slowly climbing out. We on the other hand, were just entering attack range, when three harriers almost stopped in mid air, disappearing behind Hugs and me in a blur of navy gray. Hugs couldn't get a lock, and I didn't have the aspect to do so, I did have a shot ahead of me, so I launched a sidewinder, switched targets, and launched another one. Both planes jinked, dumping flares, and whatever ordnance they were carrying. Small victory I suppose, and then both my missiles missed. Hugs meanwhile was cartwheeling sideways through the air, trying to manage speed so that he could get a lock on the Harrier's behind him. Then they launched.

I took a near hit, my hydraulic pressure dipping immediately. I checked the engine gauges, punched into burner, and climbed out of there. Hugs was still trying to get a lock, finally getting one, launching an archer, but yet again the damn thing missed. Luckily Scotch and Biscuit came in, both launching two missiles, ripping one Harrier apart, before zooming by towards the rest of the force. The Tornado was closing on the AN-22, and also launched two sidewinders, one going wide but the other impacting the cargo harrier, setting an engine on fire quite badly. Sandman roared in from behind, having finally caught up, in a supersonic gun pass, stitching rounds across the sky, and hitting the Tornado. He saw some smoke and an ejection. Unfortunately, based on his angle, a few stray shells hit the antonov hull, causing some more damage, but nothing too serious luckily. Figuring he's be less than useless in a dogfight with Harriers, Sandy burner climbed, ECM still pumping out, although since everything was degenerating into a dogfight it seemed pointless.

Hugs finally had turned, just in time to see two sidewinders closing on him. He took a direct hit, which blew off a chunk of his tail and wrecked one of his engines. His return fire silenced the Harrier though. He also disengaged, climbing to meet me above the clouds. Biscuit and Scotch were now engaged, until their sidewinders ran dry. They took out one more Harrier, but the rest were getting through, and Biscuit paid for it, getting into a turning fight with one of the British pilots, and losing, suffering a heavy hit that almost smashed his aircraft out of the sky, and sending shrapnel through him and his backseater, killing the backseater. There really was no winning at this point, Scotch was fine, but heading back into that pack was murder. The gift didn't help, four Phoenix missiles arrived on scene, and missed every single Harrier they were aimed at. The harriers overflew the base, dumping there iron and cluster bombs, obliterating the remaining aircraft on the ground, the hangars, barracks, fuel dump. We climbed out, hoping that they wouldn't pursue, since we no longer had a speed advantage. They didn't seem interested in us, so we tailed the AN-22, noting that the fires had been extinguished, making sure none of the UK jets continued at us. We learned a big lesson, going toe to toe with superior numbers in a dogfight is a bad idea.

As we climbed out, the Antonov told us it wouldn't make Kisangani, and was turning south towards Luanda. Hugs broke off with Biscuit to provide what cover they could, since they also planned to land in Angola. I formed up with Scotch who did a visual on me, telling me that I'd lost some control surfaces, and had some light smoke, but nothing major. We decided to head to Kisangani, and met up with the tanker. As they approached Luanda, Biscuit rolled poorly, and his remaining engine failed. He started a glide, but wasn't going to make it. He ejected over an open area, close to the main city, punching out, trying to keep the aircraft pointed away from the city. He didn't make it. His Phantom augered into the ground, followed by Biscuit tangled in a faulty parachute deployment. That REALLY sucked. Hugs rode what remained of his Flanker in to the field, sumping his munitions and fuel, and then having his leaft gear collapse on landing. His aircraft was damaged, but recoverable. Scotch, Sandy and myself landed at Kisangani with no incident.

Summary
Steve, if you're reading this, please fill in the blanks for us.

Further developments
Now, it seems that your actions at Kitoma shook up some of the chaps at Main Building. Our local assets have been meeting with the required members of the UK governing body, and have convinced them to simply sweep the entire incident under the rug. The official explanation for the Queen Victoria disaster will be attributed to being struck with a misfiring harpoon from the Danish Corvette that was operating in the area, and had suffered an uncontrollable fire. It's tenuous, but we're paying off a research tank, and funding a Discovery channel special, so we think the public will bite, and forget about it within a week or two. In any case, we shouldn't have any further problems with the UK regarding the incident, and they'll be working hard to cover up the bloody nose you gave their rushed response.

Unfortunately, we didn't recover our entire deployed force, so while we work on rebuilding that, we're going to hire you out to nation as privateers. You'll operate under their flag, but retain control over the logistics of your operation, as well as some initiative for planning and execution of tasks. Now, we've had two parties come forward, and surprisingly it's not some two-bit tin pot dictator in a banana republic. The People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation have both expressed interest in hiring your flight as an auxillary air arm of their respective Air Force.

They're both keeping their operational requirements and objectives secret. We suspect that Russia is considering action against Georgia, as a follow up to the war of 2009. Intel has not been able to figure out the Chinese intentions. Contract terms are favourable. The Chinese are offering top dollar, in addition to on-mission incentives. They are also willing to open their armoury to you, providing you with Chines built weapons at zero cost, however they will not be added to your personal stocks. All weapons not utilized are returnable to the People's Liberation Army Air Force. The Russians are still suffering economically, and as such, after the BlackFlag standard rate, their per mission bid is significantly lower. That being said, they have extensive stocks of soviet era technology, and are willing to sell it to you at discount. Corporate decided that they'd let you choose final contract, the files are free for you to examine. When you've made your decision, call OPS, and they'll begin the necessary preparations for your unit deployment.

"Hugs and Scotch want to do the Russian stuff, while Sandy and Biscuit want China. We don't know if Biscuit gets a say, since his character joins up with our wing, as biscuit is dead."

Briefing

 * BlackFlag External Document


 * 1) 100357


 * Mission Briefing

“Granite Fulcrum”


 * Source

FSB (Russian Federal Security Service)


 * Deployment

Gyandzha (Azerbaijan)


 * Pancake

Gyandzha (Azerbaijan)


 * Alternate

Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

None


 * CSAR

Spetznaz Team Omni, detached from Vympel (Vega Group)


 * Contract Employer

Russian Federation


 * Objective

Destruction of Khrami hydroelectric station #2.


 * Background

My name is Sergei, my rank and title are unimportant. I have been tasked by the FSB to act as a liaison between your squadron and Central command. While unorthodox, central command believes that hiring “Hell's Black Aces” to perform the initial stages of our ongoing Georgia operation will significantly enhance the Maskirovka we are aiming to produce. You will be informed of your missions by me, and me alone. Ongoing operations in theatre will not be discussed with you, unless required. Adherence to operational security protocols is essential, from this point forward assume everything you say is monitored. Should you be captured, the Russian Federation will deny all knowledge of you and your actions. Failure to comply with the regulations outlined in the documents before you, as well as the instructions of your liaison officer, will be considered an act of treason while you are operating under contract to the FSB and the Russian Federation. Understood? Good. Your first assignment is simple. Take out the Khrami hydroelectric station. This is the first step in the Maskirovka. We have prepared special air dropped munitions, built with low-grade explosives designed to simulate a typical IED or saboteur strike. We believe that dropped in sufficient quantity, they will adequately cripple power production while being untraceable. You will be operating out of Azerbaijan, which has provided and airfield for your use throughout the duration of this campaign. Our aim is to ensure the world community believes that an internal faction is beginning terrorist acts as a precursor to civil war. It is of utmost importance that the Russian Federation not be involved in these initial operations, and as such, any penetration of Russian Sovereign Airspace will be considered penetration by hostile forces, and Air Defense will respond accordingly.


 * HUMINT

None.


 * ELINT

None.


 * SATINT

Yantar-4 pass and Bars confirmation shows the hydroelectric station is located in the depths of the Khrami river valley. While no obvious defensive stations are present, the area surrounding the complex is heavily wooded, providing cover for mobile air defense. We are still going over the radar imaging data, but current analysis has not located defensive positions or equipment.


 * Air Assets

Unknown


 * Surface Assets

Unknown


 * Threat Assessment

Medium-Low. The Georgians are still reeling from their conflict with the Russian Federation. The morale of their military forces is at an all time low, and their air-defense forces are in shambles. Maintain a stealthy approach, and we believe you will be able to slip in and out with minimal risk.


 * ROE

Do not fire unless fired upon, or if operational security would be compromised.

Recap
We started by asking a lot of questions. We found out the base we were stationed at was pretty well loaded for air defense, although we would be on our own in Georgia. We were under strict orders to stay within the base, and to not be seen or heard, as part of operational security. Purchasing western gear would be more difficult, but the Russians could manage, for a price. We all decided to spend a week (of game time) upgrading our aircraft to be compatible with Russian tech (except Hugs who was laughing) so that we could take advantage of the heavy discounts on it over other armaments. Our new pilot, the Judge, chose a MiG-29, an earlier model, but not too old. We asked about the munitions, and found out they were manufactured to leave chemical traces, not mechanical. We also talked about dropping truck parts, but in the end decided against it, there were too many ways it could remove from the ruse. We armed all the planes except Hugs with the bombs, and a few other atg stuff, and some point defense for air. We all took countermeasures pods as well. Hugs just loaded his Flanker for air to air.

We decided to plan our flight south of Georgia, and come in from Armenia. Hugs told us an idea, and we asked Steve about the viability, and suddenly, I had a new job. It would require some luck, but it might pay off. I changed the loadout of my plane, and took off with Hugs, towards the south. Sandy, Judge and Scotch all took off about thirty minutes later, when they got the call from us, and took off towards Armenia, planning to angle North once they got the signal from me. Hugs and myself were hugging an airliner, which was oblivious to us. So far, everything was going well. Our airliner (we knew) was flight planned south of Georgia, landing Munich. I told my backseater to start the plan. About a minute later, we knew this was going to work.

We were suddenly getting hit by a lot of radars. We kept following the aircraft above us, and I relayed some information to Hugs, who copied it down, and turned south slightly. I got the ok from my backseater, and shifted to follow hugs in close formation. The airliner continued on it's flight path, now heading towards Georgia, thanks to the GPS exploit my electronic warfare pod had done on it's autopilot/nav system. My e/w pod was jamming the radio frequency used by ATC. Meanwhile, Hugs had turned on his IFF, set to the same code as the Airliners transponder, and was now flying towards the original flight plan route. We started tracking all the search and fire control radars that were hunting the off course airliner, as we flew, mostly unmolested by that same tracking system.

Hugs called, telling me that he had two heat sources approaching the airliner, at speed, from the rear. His IR system punched back an image, and he correctly identified them as F-16s. We continued on our way, with Hugs watching the intercept. The F-16s spent some time behind the airliner, but then one drew up beside it. He lost tack at that point, as they moved out of range of his IRST system. Our last track on them put them in the right spot though, so we called to the ground strike force, and told them their mission was now a go. They were very low, and began their run towards the hydro plant, with Sandy in the lead. Ten miles out, Sandy executed a sharp pop-up maneuver, and his RIO turned on the FLIR pod strapped to the belly.

Sandy made his roll, and illuminated a truck sitting in the parking lot near the hydro building. Scotch was first over the target, and dumped both his Laser guided Russian special bombs. Next over the target was Judge, who actually missed with about half his strike, wasting a lot of ordnance on the reservoir. The other half peppered the hydro building. Sandy had rolled over, completing the maneuver, aimed at the hydro building (on fire now) upside down. He rolled out, and released his payload, raining destruction over the damaged building. All three of them continued down the valley, turning five miles later, heading around towards Armenia again. Hugs and myself started blowing chaff from our countermeasure packs, and started a fast dive towards the ground. That's when Sandy paid for skimping on maintenance. On his high speed run, his engine broke down, with oil and temp warnings blaring in his cockpit.

We were still a ways out, Sandy throttle back immediately, and changed course, heading straight south. He started a slow climb, so if his other engine failed, he could glide for a while. The other two strike aircraft rocketed back to base, while I followed. Hugs flew to Sandy, and began escorting him, using his IR tracker instead of his Radar to search for problems. They both turned left towards home base once they were in Armenia, Sandy nursing his remaining engine, (essentially paying little to no attention to his other instruments). Hugs then spotted something on the IR track, fairly hot, moving towards them at speed, from Georgia.

Hugs kept an eye on it, but it became clear that they weren't going to escape it. Sandy altered course a bit, but it did as well. It was still unknown, since Hugs didn't have the altitude advantage for his ir track (higher, colder air improved it apparently) but it wasn't radiating. The only radar was ground based, search radar, no actual fire control. Hugs wasn't sure, so he descended to ground level, and Sandman decided to play it cool, flipping on nav lights. The target closed, looking to arrive behind Sandy. As it pulled in closer, Hugs got a good look at it finally, it was an F-5. Hugs relayed this to Sandy who wasn't too happy about it. They quickly decided there was only one course of action. Sandy hit his radio jammer, and Hugs looked up, targeted the F-5, and blasted two Archers at it. The F-5 was caught by surprise. No flares, nothing. It took both Archers, blowing itself to pieces. Hugs stayed low, and Sandy continued on. We expected something else, but nothing ever showed up. We all landed safely. We asked Steve, and he said that the mission would have been a lot harder if we hadn't messed up the airliner's nav system. He didn't tell us how much harder though. We do know where a lot of Radar sites are though now. What we don't know is where these planes are from, they're not Georgian air force.

Summary
Mission Success


 * Air Kills


 * Hugs: 1xNorthrop F-5


 * Air Incidentals


 * DLH983 flight diverted and force to land in Tblisi after violating Georgian airspace and being intercepted. Pilots detained by Georgian Intelligence service, plane impounded by Georgian Air Force pending investigation.


 * Ground Kills


 * The Judge: Hydro Facility


 * Sandman: Hydro Facility


 * Scotch: Truck (Hydro Facility)


 * Ground Incidentals


 * The Judge: Family of ducks, gardening shed


 * All three: Hydro workers (34)


 * Damage Taken


 * Sandman: Failed Oil Pump, minor engine overheat damage.

Briefing

 * BlackFlag External Document


 * 1) 100359


 * Mission Briefing

“Ardent Gardener”


 * Source

FSB (Russian Federal Security Service)


 * Deployment

Gyandzha (Azerbaijan)


 * Pancake

Gyandzha (Azerbaijan)


 * Alternate

Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

None


 * CSAR

Spetznaz Team Omni, detached from Vympel (Vega Group)


 * Contract Employer

Russian Federation


 * Objective

Seed the targeted farms with Agent Amber.


 * Secondary Objective

Destroy the railway bridge at +42° 1' 56.03", +43° 51' 20.59"


 * Secondary Objective

Conduct a low level recon pass of the suspect airfield at +41° 37' 41.48", +45° 1' 54.30.


 * Background

Let me start by saying excellent work on your previous outing, our satellite followups show that the station was heavily damaged. Intelligence and damage assessment believes that the station will not be operational for 18 or more months, if they can repair it at all. So far we have received no indications that the government has been able to figure out what happened, the official party line is a terrorist action. This has given them the freedom to further crackdown on the populace, heightening discontent. In addition, this further drain on Georgian power supply has decreased available power on the grid to the point that several low risk air defense radars are being cycled off during peak usage hours.

Moving on to your new tasking, we require you to distribute a chemical over these farmlands. The chemical agent is air dispersed from canisters that will be loaded onto your planes in a manner you decide. Maximum effectiveness demands a dispersal altitude of 3000 feet above the fields. Our technicians have informed me that while not optimal, lower release altitudes can be used, but will not achieve full dispersion. The canisters are multistage, and can be activated multiple times, spraying for preset bursts. I can tell the look on your faces what your questions are. No, the agent is not toxic in most cases to humans, with a less than 5% fatality rate when ingested or aspirated in sufficient quantity. It is a simple herbicide, that is all I am authorized to tell you, so no further questions as to why it's dispersal is required.

However, in addition to the chemical dispersal, we have secondary objectives. These are optional, but completion incurs a large bonus, paid in cash, to an account of your choosing. Firstly, we require you to weaken or destroy this railway bridge here, preferably shortly before the daily passenger train crosses it. We have placed our specialized 'chem trace' explosives at your disposal, should you choose to attempt destruction. We suspect that more perceived terrorism will escalate discontent amongst the citizenry.

Secondly, we have identified this airfield, as having recently come into operation again. As you can see, the runway is being resurfaced, and several aircraft bunkers appear to be undergoing renovation. Unfortunately, that is the extent that our satellite recon has been able to identify. A low level pass with 360 degree cameras should allow us to gather valuable force reconnaissance, and would be invaluable in our campaign. Again, this is purely a secondary objective, but you would be amply rewarded for it.


 * HUMINT

Our agents have acquired the schedule of radar shutdowns, and have identified entry and exit points as well as times.


 * ELINT

The train has been seeded with our version of a GPS locator. Via secure satcom, we can tell you the vehicle's eta to the bridge.


 * SATINT

Limited. Air Defence garrisons are being mustered, training status progression unknown.


 * Air Assets

Unknown


 * Surface Assets

Unknown


 * Threat Assessment

Medium. The Georgians are still reeling from their conflict with the Russian Federation. The morale of their military forces is at an all time low, and their air-defense forces are in shambles. Maintain a stealthy approach, and we believe you will be able to slip in and out with minimal risk. While the farms are most likely unguarded, we are not aware of secondary target preparedness.


 * ROE

Do not fire unless fired upon, or if operational security would be compromised.

Recap
We were allowed to choose how many of the chemical pods we carried, most of us took four, since they weren't super heavy. I flew my new F-18, and put a centerline fuel pod, two aim-7s and two aim-9s, as well as the pods, and four of the Russian special bombs. Scotch loaded his Viggen in much the same way (and apparently pays less for maintenance now) although he didn't need the extra tank of fuel and put two AA-10 (IR) instead of AIM-7s, where I used the last of my crappy ones. Judge put a centerline on, as well as four canisters and four AA-8s. Sandy loaded six canisters, and several of the special chem neutral bombs, as well as two AA-8 jury rigged. Hugs loaded two of the Special bombs, four AA-10s (IR) and four AA-11s. Our ingress point would be close to the Azerbaijan border, but our egress was over turkey, which had us nervous. We knew that we could go through Armenia safely, and we also had several landing airports available in Armenia thanks to bribes. The turkey bit worried us, since it would be a quick sprint through Nato airspace. As predicted, the peak hours when the shutdown would occur was in the late afternoon, so we wouldn't have darkness on our side. We took off and headed towards the first waypoint.

Over the country we had to hit around 18 farms. We had plotted out routes. Sandy had the longest one, the furthest to the North, since he could do his run very quick, slowing for the sprays, and still have fuel. Hugs and Scotch had medium routes, and the short routes were done by me and Judge, since our planes had range issues. The plan was to try to come back together before the egress point, and make the run on the bridge. We had decided against the airfield, just one too many things to do, and it seemed the riskiest of the two. We monitored radar returns as we made our approach, low over the ground. The radar went down early, and we punched it, looking to get in and underway quickly. We crossed the border with little to no incident, but Hugs called to tell us he was getting some intermittent hits from an airborne target, maybe two. Judge didn't have anything, nor did I, but Sandy was getting hits, from the northeast. We aimed at the first farm field, with Judge doing the honors, as the rest of us peeled off, to let him fly both his run and his route. We watched with some curiosity as he popped up, and the back of his plane disappeared in white smoke/vapour. It didn't take long, but he did have to slow to make the run, after which he descended and proceeded on course, the vapour drifting down across the fields. I was next to leave the formation on my flight path, turning westwards, with the landscape of Georgia passing underneath me.

We got about halfway, with intermittent hits from airborne sources, we were too low/behind mountains for the land based radars in most cases. We had mapped out a lot of them in our previous raid over Georgia, and we were noticing that some were not active, while some were. Seemed our strike had caused a bit of a shortage, or something. I had been doing my runs, popping up actually was useful, since I quickly got a radar hit strength so it was refreshing to know I still hadn't been confirmed as a target. Steve told us that popping up for 8~12 seconds is fairly safe, provided we disappear quickly. For the most part, our route was pretty quiet, but just north of us, Hugs and Scotch were not so lucky. They had just told us they were heading towards two radar emitters, airborne. They were not sure how much longer they'd be staying undetected or ignored, since they'd lose the low level ground clutter soon. Then Sandy called us, saying the northern border with Russia was crazy. Things had just gone hot, on the electronic spectrum, with multiple high power airborne radars blasting out from behind the Russian line. There were two radar sources moving at high speed from the south east towards the border, and Sandy's threat detector was chirping constantly as all this energy was washing over his plane in spurts and bursts.

Sandy told us, somewhat relieved, that the sources behind him were heading on a track that would pass well behind him, towards Russia. Our guess as a team was that the Russians were holding some form of exercise to piss off/distract the Georgians, while we did our thing. Which was nice of them, although we would have preferred to have been told about it before hand. Then the jamming started and we lost contact with Sandman. Scotch called, and told Hugs he was dumping his bombs and would be climbing to engage the targets ahead. Hugs wasn't entirely happy, but didn't have much of a choice, if worst came to worse he would also climb and engage. Scotch called that he was dumping his weapons, but he didn't want to waste them, so he dropped his entire cache as he passed over a high voltage power line, collapsing a tower, and then a second one, as the steel buckled under the detonations from the quasi-ied weaponry.

Hugs figured he had enough chemical remaining to do the required farms enroute, so Scotch also emptied his tanks, and dropped them into a small stream, as best he could. Scotch then lit his burner, and raced ahead, still low over the ground, heading towards the contacts. For our part, we were going slower, to save fuel, but hit a snag when one of my chem bottles failed. We would still be able to make our run, but I couldn't miss any of the passes, which meant, I was slowing down even more. Although we didn't know it, Sandy had given up on trying to do the mission properly, since if he popped up he'd be spotted, so he began spraying at low level, and at speed. This mean that more often then not, he sprayed only a small part of a field, in heavy concentrations. Sandy also dumped his IEDs to allow him to go faster, but did it over a small pond on his route. Scotch meanwhile was racing faster now, when he suddenly shouted that he'd been detected, and locked. Both radiating targets were now turning towards him, about 45 miles out.

Scotch pulled up hard, changing his aspect (apparently) and quickly got a lock on one of the fighters, hot against the sky. He slapped off his two Alamos and banked up and away from the incoming shots, pumping out chaff. His opponent spotted the incoming alamos, and also turned away, pushing out flares, turning perpendicular to the missile. Hugs finally got a spotting roll and figured that from the EM sig they were Mig-21s. Scotch was turning back to engage, as the missiles fired at him missed when the lead aircraft lost lock. But the second aircraft had stayed high, and was now coming around on Scotch's tail. Scotch however was in a good position, and began pursuing the lead MiG. The other MiG had stopped radiating, and Scotch didn't have a spot on him, so he lost track of where it was. Hugs continued below, focusing more on the upcoming farm then the fight above, but taking his Flanker up in speed. Scotch turned hard in a break turn as his quarry tried a hard maneuver to cut inside of Scotch. Scotch had a firing solution, and pulled the trigger, sending two more heatseekers out. And then he lost about ¼ of his left wing, blown off as the pursuing MiG landed a hit of their own, first blood in the conflict.

Scotch was in a world of hurt, all of his MFDs (one) dropped offline, as did his radar (it went from standby to fault) and all of his electronics, as the system failed catastrophically. Luckily the Viggen ran on 'steam gauges' as Scotch said, and he began looking hard for the fighter that had shot him. The MiG-21 ahead of him took one of Scotch's missiles in the rear quarter, causing it to smoke quite badly, and begin to head down. Scotch didn't spot the MiG and so threw his Viggen as best he could into an immelman. Tracer rounds flew past Scotch's cockpit, and he got a quick peak at his opponent, flying in close behind, apparently out of missiles, or usable ones. Scotch decided to risk it, and pulled a hard turn, hoping to capitalize on the closeness of the engagement. Unfortunately, he lost too much speed, and began a shallow stall, with the MiG closing fast. Hugs had seen all this, and had just finished spraying the farm, and was nearly underneath the fight now, watching Scotch turn, his pursuer, and the other MiG heading outbound trailing smoke. Hugs decided that a shot at the departing aircraft was more important, and loosed off two big Alamos at the practically sitting duck. One failed in flight, curving off in a lazy arc to the right. The first missile homes well, and blew what remained of the fishbed out of the sky. Hugs had passed underneath the fight, and was now heading away, still on flight plan, as Scotch saw the remaining MiG coming at him.

Scotch was on full burner trying to recover from the stall, and straightened out, but the MiG also made a high turn to come back down on Scotch's tail. Scotch maintained visual as he dove for the floor, jinking as he did so, still flying 'blind'. The MiG fired some very short bursts, but missed, as they began to enter a scissors maneuver, Scotch trying to get rid of the pursuing MiG but he kept 'reading' the moves Scotch was doing. And then Hugs pulled a Pugachev. He flipped up, and backwards, while still flying forwards, and punched off his remaining AA-10s in a snapshot situation. The MiG pilot landed a gun salvo finally on Scotch, but next turn was hit by a near explosion, and Hugs (having returned to level flight, barely 200 ft above the ground) saw the fishbed pilot punch out of his flaming aircraft. Scotch for his part was now leaking fuel from his right wing and had control difficulty. He turned south, staying very low, and was on a direct route to an emergency airfield outside of Georgia. Hugs' maneuver had jammed wrecked the canister system, so he dumped them as well, and began to head towards our planned exit point. Judge and me were coming up on the rally point as well, and we finally got a hold of Sandy as he emerged from the wall of electronic jamming. Unfortunately, he was being chased by at least one aircraft, which was pursuing with active radar. Sandy had no real defense other than speed and low altitude, his air to air weaponry was very short ranged and essentially 'snap shot' only. Both judge and myself, having finished our runs, turned north to help, dumping our A/G weaponry as we did.

Judge began to pick up speed, closing with Sandy, and climbing. Sandy told us he'd been shot at several times already (Four missiles, two SAMs) and had taken some damage, but no system problems yet. I also began to climb, but didn't speed up, falling behind Judge. Judge was climbing, trying to be at the same elevation or higher. Sandy also called that we we're going up against an F-16, his right seater having identified the radar signature. My back seater also confirmed, as we closed. I figured that it was worth the risk, and flipped on the radar. Unfortunately, I soon found out we had two closing aircraft, not one. I quickly relayed this to Judge, who was still too far to get a lock on his IRST. The Falcons began to attempt jamming, with ECM systems, but my backseater was on it, and we got a lock, sending two Sparrows on their way! Chaff flew everywhere, as both Falcons maneuvered, which allowed Judge to begin setting up on one of them. And true to form, both of the Sparrows missed wide, blowing up and killing thousands of pieces of airborne tinfoil.

Hugs, the only member still equipped with bombs, was making a beeline for the bridge, we were late at this point, and he had no clue where the train was, and no time to call for info. Sandman let off the engines somewhat, since the Falcons were now engaged with Judge and myself. Judge had twice the loadout I did, so my plan was to make my shots count as best I could. Judge didn't feel the same way, he was closing way too fast, and couldn't follow the Falcon, but did manage to get an off boresight shot off, but it missed, losing lock after two or so seconds of flight. I did manage to get behind my falcon though, and began tailing, waiting for a good growl from my sidewinder. The Falcon could turn harder, but not by much, and being in the rear aspect was an asset for the tailing. The other falcon however got behind me, I only spotted because of my backseater, who called it out. Flares spewing we began evasive maneuvers, dropping the Falcon chase. Which is when Judge came in from above, inverted, in the middle of a high yo yo, AA-8s spewing off his wings like angry wasps. He struck one of my pursuers, who disintegrated shortly thereafter. No chute. I pulled up hard, throttled back and pulled the speed brake, hoping the other aircraft would shoot past me. On the positive side, he did. The downside was I stalled out. Judge was out of missiles, and trying to line up a shot, and I was falling out of the sky.

I attempted recovery, but failed, so I punched out more flares and kept trying. Judge tried a hard gunshot, but missed despite using a sustained burst. I eventually recovered, rolling out with burners lit, making a turn back towards the fight. I finally got a good shot, mostly thanks to Judge pulling the enemy Falcon through my gunsights, and I launched with tone. My air to air package pushed off, quickly chasing down the falcon, although one of them also veered off between the Falcon and some flares. The other detonated near the falcon, but finally my luck turned, and I rolled a golden BB, taking out the pilot with the explosion, the Falcon spiraling down into the ground in an uncontrolled banking turn, but we did see an ejection. Just wounded, not killed. Then judge and I realized that we had won! No damage, no hits, no incidentals. Two clean, confirmed kills, we were on fire! And then Hugs wrecked our mood. Let me try to explain, Hugs can't do air to ground, his pilot is air to air specialized, his air to ground is crap. And he was on a bomb run against a bridge. Easy for anyone in the group. Except Hugs.

Anyway, Hug lined up with the Bridge, he didn't see the train coming at it. He approached, and dropped his weapons, turning up and inverting to see his effectiveness. He got to see his strike nail the bridge, taking out a support column and part of the deck. The deck of the bridge slumped to one side, before the weight caused it to slowly collapse partially dragging more of it with it. Unfortunately, he took out the road bridge, not the train bridge. We began our run for the border, everyone shedding anything extra. We were trying to figure out how many farms we'd done, and what was going to happen about the bridge. We were low, waiting for the Radar to drop offline. And then, we started to get hit by airborne search radar, early warning class, from the East. After a minute, it appeared it was getting stronger, and the ground radar wasn't shutting off either.

Finally we decided that the intel must have been bogus, and the Radar wasn't going off anytime soon. We also figured it would be safer to just push out then find out who or what was with the AWAAcs platform. We had no clue where Scotch was (radio electronics still dead), so we figured we'd leave at speed. We all pushed up in speed, and aimed southeast. It was working fine, Sandy rocketed across the border, with judge close behind. Unfortunately, then the fire control radar lit off, and my board went red with radar warnings, as did Hugs'. My backseater called out SAM and I moved off, Hugs wasn't so lucky. He turned into the SAM, spotting it when he did so, but too late to avoid. His Flanker suffered catastrophic damage, both of his engines damaged, one on fire, most of his tails gone, one elevator gone, draining fuel, hydraulic fluid and oil pouring out. He made it to the Armenian border when his damaged engine also caught on fire, and detonating heavily. Hugs rolled on the punch out table, since he'd ridden the Flanker longer than he should have, and it was basically breaking up around him at this point.

Hugs made it though, straining his arm and his ankle on the landing, but other than that, alive. Sandy, myself and judge all made it back to our departure point. When we landed we skipped some time to find out that Hugs had been picked up, and Scotch had made it back to an emergency alternate, flying debris more than a plane. (One damage point remaining) We're not sure what to expect next.

Summary
Mission Status: Unknown.


 * -Air Kills-


 * Hugs: Partial Credit MiG-21, Full Credit MiG-21


 * Baron: F-16


 * Judge: F-16


 * Scotch: partial MiG-21


 * -Air Incidentals-


 * None


 * -Ground Kills-


 * Farms Sprayed: 12 full, 3 partial


 * -Ground Incidentals-


 * Hugs: Highway Bridge (3 civilians)


 * Scotch: Power Cable tower


 * -Damage Taken-


 * Sandman: Cosmetic


 * Hugs: Catastrophic Engine (x2) Catastrophic Airframe, Catastrophic Systems- Aircraft Destroyed.


 * Scotch: Severe Airframe, Catastrophic Systems

Briefing

 * BlackFlag External Document


 * 1) 100361


 * Mission Briefing

“Teal Sundown”


 * Source

FSB (Russian Federal Security Service)


 * Deployment

Gyandzha (Azerbaijan)


 * Pancake

Gyandzha (Azerbaijan)


 * Alternate

Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan)


 * AAR

None


 * AWACS

None


 * CSAR

Spetznaz Team Omni, detached from Vympel (Vega Group)


 * Contract Employer

Russian Federation


 * Objective

Deploy the Russian chemical in the Tbilisi water supply at Op Point Able (+41° 53' 43.73", +44° 44' 2.26")


 * Secondary Objective

Conduct a low level recon pass of the suspect airfield at Op Point Baker (+41° 37' 41.48", +45° 1' 54.30)


 * Secondary Objective

Destroy the Communication Tower at Op Point Epsilon (+41° 41' 44.52", +44° 47' 4.74")


 * Background

Central command was disappointed in your performance on your last outing. We've been monitoring production levels in Georgian agriculture and haven't seen the decrease our analysts predicted. However, having reviewed the footage from the operation, are analysis unit believes that the spraying was done to an adequate level for our purposes. Central was also aggravated that the road bridge was taken out, and not the more valuable rail bridge. They've still managed to play it up as further unrest and domestic terrorism, but it will have less impact compared with having a train, nevermind, its not important.

What is important is the next stage in the Maskirovka, we are beginning active ground operations, specifically around the capital region. Central has tasked you with seeding the Georgian water supply at op point able. As you can see their are several settling reservoirs in the area, multiple passes will be needed. Specialized munitions have been developed, I won't bore you with the technical details, all you need to know is they function like a standard gravity bomb. And before you ask, again, no, the chemical is not lethal, it simply produces the bouts of incontinence in those who ingest it.

We're still interested in the airfield at Op point Baker, especially considering the air assets you encountered on your last mission. Again, a low level pass would prove invaluable, the recon package can be modified to fit the aircraft you may task to completing this objective.

As a final note, I mentioned ground operations. Several Spetsnaz teams have begun activity around the capital. At 0245 local, group Vega will disable the main power distribution and relay centre, taking down radar coverage. Group Cestus and Finch have been stirring up dissent, and will organize local insurgent sells into riots. To aid them, they've put in a request to have the communication tower at Epsilon taken out. This will add confusion and delay the local response, allowing the riots and Spetsnaz teams to be more effective. As before, these objectives are secondary.


 * HUMINT

Local Garrison troops are on alert status, patrolling the streets, some in mechanized equipment. Once the element of surprise is lost, expect heavy blind Anti-Air fire over the city, as well as some targeted fire.


 * ELINT

The Georgian government has been broadcasting 24/7, trying to calm the populace, and insisting the domestic incidents are under control.


 * SATINT

Confirms mechanized air defense, but cannot pinpoint locations as they are roving on civil patrol duties.


 * Air Assets

Unknown


 * Surface Assets

Local Air Defence Garrison is on alert.


 * Threat Assessment

Medium. The Georgians are still reeling from their conflict with the Russian Federation. We believe the morale of their military forces is at an all time low, and their air-defense forces are in shambles, however recent events had shown aircraft operating inside Georgia, suggesting external aid. While the majority of Georgia's air defence is weak, the units in the capital have been mobilized, and will not hesitate to fire if you are detected.


 * ROE

Do not fire unless fired upon, or if operational security would be compromised.

Recap
Before we started, we had a few housekeeping things to do, mostly involving Hugs and Scotch. Scotch had to buy another plane, but was a bit short on cash. He was hoping to get another Viggen, but in the end it was cheaper to get a MiG-23. After he did some research, he actually seemed pretty happy with it. He was going to do Air-to-air again, but installed a centreline camera pod with sat upload. He also mounted eight Aphids. He had no time to repaint his aircraft either, so it was painted in desert brown, the color it was put into Russian storage as. The engine was apparently 'new' as was most of the plane. Hugs on the other hand, took a step up, and got a SU-30, but not the basic, he got the thrust vectoring two-seat version. Both aircraft arrived four hours (or so) before the mission started. Sandman decided to take his Fencer this time, instead of the F-111, since he seemed worried about losing the Aardvark. I was tempted to take the F-4 but decided against it. Judge didn't have too much work to do either, he put on four Archers, two bio-tanks and a centreline fuel tank. I had two AMRAAMs and four sidewinders, as well as two IED simulator bombs and two bio tanks. Sandy loaded four Bio-tanks and four IED weapons. Hugs followed the Scotch plan, and loaded eight Archers, and four Alamos.

We took off, 15 minutes prior to the Spetsnaz activation times. We began heading towards the border, with myself and Sandy low, the others sniffing a little bit but not much higher. As planned, the few remaining radars that were up suddenly dropped, apparently the special forces mission had succeeded. We turned, and began our run inbound. Our plan was to do both the airfield and the water reservoir at the same time, and take out the tv tower on the way out if we could have time to do it. After the last mission we didn't want to spend much time over the target area. None of us had our Radars on, since we were supposed to be 'stealthy'. We were banking on coming in with minimal time to prepare on the other side, and being gone before they knew we were there, especially given the short flight time. We crossed the border, and were about 30~40 miles out when all our radar warning systems went off! There was an airborne search radar, two fighter radars, and about five ground search radars that all went active at the same time.

We quickly looked at the locations, the fighters were a ways off, northwest of the city, as was the AWACs. The ground based radars were all SAM radars, located inside the city, and one on the airfield. We quickly decided that the airfield was a no-go, since a pass over it at low altitude was a guaranteed disaster. We decided to proceed as a group towards the reservoir, dump all our cargo, and then head back as quick as we could. Hugs and Scotch got ready to go after the two airborne targets, with Hugs trying to get an IR lock. We turned slightly towards the city, and went to max burner, all of us pushing close to the ground. We could see parts of the city illuminated, but not by lights, by scattered small fires in the street. It would seem that the riots had started. We began to see tracer rounds in the streets as we drew even closer. We hoped that the SAMs couldn't get a lock on us at our altitudes, and flew hard, our RWRs becoming even more persistent with their squeals. My RIO called out that it appeared to be Crotale systems, so out came the reference books for us.

We crossed the city boundary quickly, ripping across the night sky, when the anti-aircraft fire started. Luckily it wasn't directed, yet, but we saw a line of tracers pop up, followed by another, and another. Steve told us that within about five seconds there were too many to count reliably. Our RWR began picking up fire control radar from within the city, as the air defense units began activating, trying to find us amidst the clutter. We rolled every phase to avoid random fire, as well as the ground/buildings. Hugs got a lock on one of the airborne targets, calling out it was MiG-21. He was too low to launch, so he performed a manoeuvre to pop up and drop some missiles. He pulled it off, letting two Alamos loose, and heading back down, but not before getting pinged by radar sources, his RIO screaming about SAM launches and tracking issues. We saw the anti-aircraft fire shift, now firing in our direction, or as best they could. Steve explained that one of the problems with putting them in a city is that they have limited fire angles due to buildings being in the way close to where they are parked. Didn't reassure us much though, since we had a pretty good idea of how dangerous this fire could be. The aircraft in the air turned towards us, and began hammering us with their onboard radars, and a phase later we had missiles inbound towards us, with Judge and Sandy being targets.

Both the missiles rocketed towards Judge's Fulcrum and Sandy's Fencer. There really was no room to manoeuvre, based on our altitude and speed. Judge didn't have a problem for long, since Hugs missiles blotted the Fishbed out of the sky in a flash of light and fire on the horizon. The odd thing was that this caused some of the anti-air fire to turn towards that part of the sky. Unfortunately the other aircraft's missiles were still coming in at Sandy, we could actually see their contrails racing in to meet his Fencer. So Sandy pushed his plane lower, essentially rocketing at supersonic speeds underneath the roofline of the larger buildings of the city down a large avenue in Tblisi, his wake/sonic boom blowing out windows on either side of the street and on the few cars parked on the side. The tactic worked, the missiles lost guidance in the street clutter and smashed into the city near, but not close enough to hurt the Fencer. Hugs finally got a lock on the other aircraft, calling it as a Delta wing, probably Mirage, and popped up again to launch his Alamos. Unfortunately the Air Defense crews were ready, and immediately put six Crotales into the air from various points in the city.

Hugs ducked back down, and a few of the missiles lost tone, but one launchers angle was such that it managed to maintain a lock, keeping two missiles heading in towards the chaff dispensing Flanker. As a last ditch measure, he flipped his jammer on as did Scotch. That seemed to do the trick, since the missiles suddenly spiralled out, passing over Hugs without detonating. It did however cause the anti-aircraft fire to shift again, pulling back towards us. To make matters worse, the enemy aircraft had evaded the Alamos and was heading back towards us, popping a few flares as he did, I guess Hugs had at least scared him. We crossed out of the city, heading north towards the reservoirs, leaving the hellish triple-AAA behind us, but still staying low, as the Crotales were still hunting. And then Scotch hurled back on his stick, rocketing his MiG up into the sky, sitting on a pillar of flame.

Hugs also began a climb to assist Scotch, making it a two on one engagement. Scotch couldn't get a lock, and then I realized why and handed him the weapon sheet, pointing to the missiles he had. They couldn't lock from the front aspect. The front of the Mirage blossomed in fire as it launched two missiles at Scotch. Hugs was about to launch two of his multi-aspect heat seekers, but then he got locked on by a lone Crotale, and he was again dodging and jinking through the air as the rocket powered death reached out towards the massive Flanker. Hugs was yelling at all of us at this point, asking loudly why we hadn't brought any anti-radar missiles with us. Based on the situation, I can't say I blamed him. I figured Scotch would try to evade the two missiles headed at him. He didn't, he just said “I've lost two planes already, I'm not losing a third. Switching to guns.”

Scotch popped flares, and then simply raced towards the missiles and enemy fighter, staring down the missiles, seeming to dare them to hit him. Maybe it was the flares, maybe it was the head on angle, but the missiles raced past Scotch's Flogger, disappearing into the night sky. Scotch didn't even blink, holding down the trigger, gouts of flame pouring from the GsH-23L twin-barreled cannon. Despite the hard angle, he still landed four hits, enough to severely cripple the enemy plane. The enemy tried a short shot, but only landed a single hit before the blew past each other at over 1500 miles per hour closure. Hugs had successfully evaded the Crotale again, and was trying to get into position to engage, but Scotch told him no, “This one is mine, go help the others” as he banked around to get at the enemy fighter which was heading towards the city. The rest of us were just approaching the reservoir at that point, and had spread out for our run, between the three of us we could cover it in one pass.

We came in just above the treetops, racing over the pools, pickling our weapons. I unfortunately got a fault, causing all my air to ground weapons to deploy, I still hit my target, but in addition to the chemical agent, I also sent two of the IED simulators into the reservoir, with predicatable fountains of water from their detonations. Sandy had no problems, Judge missed his reservoir, sending his weapons short of the desired hit location. It was a nearly impossible miss too, since he was aiming for a lake, but they still landed short apparently. Now came the hard part, we had to turn around, but were essentially travelling down a valley. We decided to come around to the east, bypassing the town for our exit out of the area, and staying away from the AWACS plane as much as possible, it was further out than 80 miles, but since we were all running with our radars down we didn't know more than that. Scotch had already completed a turn, and was closing in on the wounded Mirage. He finally had a good look at it, and realized it was a Kfir, it didn't matter much to him though, he fired a burst, scoring a multitude of hits, enough to finish off the aircraft, which lost a wing and began tumbling from the sky as it broke up. There was an ejection, but Scotch was already turning away from the city to join up with us as was Hugs. We figured it would be a quick dash to the southeast to exit Georgia. And then more markers started showing up, a single air search radar active, moving, climbing off waypoint Baker.

As we crested the hill of the Valley, the AWAACs finally connected with us, but we dipped back down, it lost a strong lock, so we were safe for now. Unfortunately, we were out of escape options, we were carrying enough speed to make a run, but passing over the airfield seemed like a bad idea, and pushing further to the east would take more time. The fastest route, unfortunately, was back through the city, and all the ground fire. We decided to risk it, as much as we didn't want to do it again. Hugs and Scotch moved to the left side of our flight, and we began pushing our speed back up, heading towards the city, sporadic tracers whizzing into the air from its streets. Hugs was busy, as was Judge, trying to get a solid track on the airborne target, when another one appeared, also apparently off the airfield at Baker.

We all switched on our jammers, since there was no real point in hiding our exact position, we just wanted to make it out of here with most of our aircraft in one piece. My backseat called and said the contacts radar looked like it was from an F-104. Another token was placed on the airfield as yet another aircraft was climbing out. We crossed the city limits, barreling through the anti-aircraft fire again. Sandy turned, and headed toward a tracer series, and dumped all his IED simulators as he blazed past, two low and fast for them to hit him. From the cloud of orange fire that burst from the street, it was obvious that at least one of his weapons found its target. By this time there were four targets off the airfield, with another placed on the board as we pushed past the city center, taking hits from Crotale radars and the starfighter's occasionally.

Our flight kept going, each of us trying to get to our maximum speed, in a hard sprint for the border. The Starfighters were having a tough time tracking us, but they did angle towards us, and it became apparent we were going to end up in a tail chase scenario. A sixth plane departed, and like the fifth had a different radar sig then the other four. It was quickly apparent that these new planes were advanced fighters, they had much bigger radars then the starfighters. Our hopes dropped even further when a seventh plane appeared off of Baker. And then Sandy took fire, getting hit with AA. It was only a few minor hits, but because he was at such low altitude he had to make a roll. He failed, his Fencer losing stability long enough to blast it's way through a low rise building, ending Sandman's life in a blaze of fire. It all took us by surprise, since once he'd survived the anti aircraft, we figured he was in the clear. To make matters worse, an eighth plane had come off the runway, and Hugs RIO had narrowed it down to F-16s, so we were being chased by eight fighters, four relics and four modern warplanes.

We continued our flight towards the border, leaving the city behind us as we pushed further east. The F-104s were slowly gaining on us, but none had taken a shot yet, the F-16s weren't catching up, but holding their distance. We were more worried about the Falcons, since we knew they probably had BVR stuff, the F-104s apparently didn't or were not getting locks with them. We crossed the border a good 25 miles ahead of the F-104s, but we realized (late) that they didn't seem intent on stopping, and shortly after, crossed into Azerbaijan, still closing on us. We were now in serious crap, we didn't want to engage, since turning would put us close to the F-104s, and let the Falcons catch up, but at the same time, leading them back to the base wouldn't be a smart idea, we decided to turn straight east, putting as much distance between the Falcons and us as we could. Then Judge picked up aircraft to the north, closing on our position at high speed. He tracked three, but a quick scan aided by Hugs showed that there was a good 12 aircraft heading south towards us. We started wondering if we should broadcast a surrender on an open frequency, when the targets north of us opened fire.

The missiles raced towards us, but headed for the starfighters behind, destroying them to a man, a series of small fireballs marking their ends. We got a transmission at this point, from a Russian sounding voice, calling in with our mission code name, and directing us to land at a field in the Russian controlled territory. The planes north of us had turned to go at the Falcons, and lit off their radars, showing them to be a mix of Flankers and Fulcrums. They quickly rippled off more missiles, again, punishing the falcons, who's radar signals disappeared one by one. We slowed, and climbed some more, as the (apparently) Russian squadron rounded on us, forming up around our tired warbirds. Our RWRs were going wild, and as we headed to the Russian airstrip, we flipped on our own radars, seeing dozens of planes heading into Georgia. We landed without incident, and taxied as instructed to covered hangars before shutting down.

I don't remember exactly how the next bit went, so I'll try my best to paraphrase what Steve said. As we climbed out of our planes, we were met by our handler, who told us that thanks to us, the pacification of Georgia's corrupt and unstable regime would be accomplished without outside interference in 'Russian Affairs'. The FSB would ensure that stories of Georgia's internal collapse, from it's problem with domestic terrorism, to it's aggresive violation of neighboring airspace, in this case Azerbaijan, would paint the picture of a despotic regime struggling to maintain power at the expense of its population. The recent food shortages, and the 'appalling' intestinal disease sweeping the country, especially the capital, were just further proof of this neglect. (Apparently the Russians had lied about the compound in the canisters, it was fatal, to a segment of the population, particularly the elderly and the very young) The final master stroke was our dragging of the PMC into Azerbaijani airspace, and 'cleaned' tapes would show an unprovoked intrusion, followed up by the Russian craft responding in accordance with Commonwealth of Independent States joint security treaties, to interdict the offending aircraft. As we were talking, a full scale airborne invasion was underway, utilizing the darkened skies and riots in the streets as cover. And that is where we ended, with Georgia in flames, us in a cold hangar in russia, being offered Vodka by the most cold hearted son of a bitch we'd met so far.

Summary

 * -Air Kills-


 * Hugs: MiG-21


 * Scotch: Kfir


 * -Air Incidentals-


 * None


 * -Ground Kills-


 * Sandman: ZSU-23


 * -Ground Incidentals-


 * Sandman: Furniture Warehouse/Factory, Bakery, Butcher Shop


 * -Damage Taken-


 * Sandman: Catastrophic, KIA


 * Scotch: Minor

Briefing

 * BlackFlag External Document


 * 1) 100368


 * Mission Briefing

“Verdant Mace”


 * Source

FSB (Russian Federal Security Service)


 * Deployment

Mozdok (Russi)


 * Pancake

Mozdok (Russia)


 * Alternate

Khankala (Russia)


 * AAR

Il-78 Midas on station at Gamma if required.


 * AWACS

A-50 Mainstay orbiting over Epsilon.


 * CSAR

Spetznaz Team Omni, detached from Vympel (Vega Group)


 * Contract Employer

Russian Federation


 * Objective

Support the 42nd Motor Rifle Division's advance.2.26")


 * Secondary Objective

Eliminate any remaining mercenary aircraft attempting to flee to Turkey.


 * Secondary Objective

Destroy Georgian militia staging area (+41° 43' 22.17", +44° 47' 22.66")


 * Background

Our operation is going smoothly, last night our first peacekeeping units crossed the Georgian border under new orders from an emergency parliamentary session. There have been a few complaints in the UN but the US is keeping quiet about it for the most part, since our Maskirovka has worked quite well at swaying world opinion. That was some good work on the last outing by the way, our air assets mopped up most of the hired air defense units in the initial sweep. Intel has identified the group as Guardian Air Services, a small mercenary air arm that is covertly funded by the American CIA. We'd like to send them a message about interfering in Russian internal affairs, so if you find any stragglers, you are authorized to terminate them.

That being said, your prime objective is to support the advance into Georgia by flying close air support missions for the 42nd Motor Rifle Division. There was a mixup with operations, and the squadron that should have been deployed here was not notified until yesterday. They are in transit but for the time being we still have you under contract so you will take their place. Targets will be called in by forward observers, and will be marked by lasers if possible, smoke if not. We expect some strong ground resistance but with their lack of air support we should make quick work of them.

One final note, central has noticed that militia units in Tbilisi are staging here, at op point Able. A strike their would greatly hurt their ability to police the city and reduce their fortification against our advance. If you can spare the manpower, hitting the staging area would be of great financial benefit to your organization.


 * HUMINT

None available.


 * ELINT

The Georgian government has been broadcasting 24/7, calling pacification operations an 'invasion' and inciting the populace to violence.


 * SATINT

Confirms mechanized air defense, but cannot pinpoint locations.


 * Air Assets

Several SU-25s are currently operating from dispersed locations, keep an eye out as they present a serious threat to the Russian advance.


 * Surface Assets

Unknown.


 * Threat Assessment

Medium. The Georgians are fully aware of the pacification efforts by Russian forces, and are currently engaging in ground hostilities. The Russian Air Force has run several SEAD missions but we are still getting the occasional air defence unit popping up.


 * ROE

Engagement of military targets authorized. Minimize civilian casualties.

Recap
Well, at the Russian base, we loaded up for our ground support mission. I took six Mavericks, two AMRAAMs, two sidewinders, and a centerline LAU pod. Judge took four AA-11s,, and a centerline fuel tank. Hugs took two AA-10ERs, four AA-11s, a centerline Novator K-100, two 80mm Rocket pods, and four RBK-500 cluster munitions. Scotch took two 80mm pods, two AA-8s, and four FAB-500s. We figured that between us we had enough close support firepower to deal with any threats that might pop up. All of our planes were AtoA refuelable, and while I couldn't use the AWACS other then radar vectors, everyone else had C3 links to them. We were not planning to do anything special, just the main mission, since we didn't want to lose a lot of money and material. We also decided to not take the optional “Baker Betrayal” that another merc corp was offering us. We just didn't think it was a smart move, and after taking off and entering the combat zone, we realized we'd made the right choice.

The sky was full of Russian aircraft, there were several formations of Russian Bears, Fencer strike teams, Backfires, all performing heavy raids. Cubs, Candids and Condors were flying along protected corridors, dropping paratroops and landing heavy equipment at Georgian Airfields. From the sky we could see several plumes of black and grey smoke, as fighting along the front lines erupted sporadically. Major cities and towns were also burning in places, victims to the Russian strike campaigns. We were vectored in by a Mainstay operating over the area, and told that we would soon be handed off to the 42nd Motor Rifle Command vehicle, for close air support. They had so far not met with much resistance, although most of the spearheads of the assault had not either. The odd militia unit, maybe a field gun, but nothing that could put up a serious fight. The skies were fairly clear, there was a scattered cloud layer near the ground, but nothing like the blanket we had on the Africa mission. It was going pretty smoothly until the Mainstay reported that it had intermittent hits on two fast movers near one of the Fencer groups.

Hugs and Judge turned to go investigate, while Scotch and myself approached the 42nd. Suddenly, the radio leapt from silence as a Fencer pilot started shouting in panicked Russian. None of us spoke the language, but when one of the Fencers disappeared off the board, we kind of figured it out. Hugs and Judge lit off their Radars, but were still too far out to get a significant lock, but they did pick up the enemy aircraft. The fencers were duelling with them, but getting swatted out of the sky. Within a couple of turns the entire Fencer force (six aircraft) were gone. The 42nd then called us, saying they were beginning to meet some resistance, they'd taken out a few T-55AMs but were starting to come in on some entrenched infantry. Scotch told me he'd do a first pass, and call out targets as I came in for a second sweep. Hugs and Judge were just entering outer engagement range when they got hit by western radar in track mode. The two aircraft that had engaged the Fencers were turning to engage them as they closed.

Scotch made his first low pass at high speed. I was coming in behind him, with my IR system looking for targets. Scotch reported that off to the side of the road there was some entrenched infantry positions, and as I came down for my run, I saw a flash and puff of smoke, as a missile raced towards the approaching Russian BMPs and BTRs. A half second later one of them erupted in flames and smoke as the ATGM blasted it. I aimed for where I had seen the flash and put ten or so rockets into the forest before pulling up. Heavy suppression fire from the Russians helped since both Scotch and I didn't get any manpad shots as we passed by. Hugs and Judge were descending on their bogeys and finally had an ID on the radars, APG-68s, but nothing else. Hugs dropped two Alamos at 60 miles, in SARH mode. One failed on launch, the other flew true, but only got a proximity hit. Both targets remained, but turned and began accelerating away, with Judge and Hugs in pursuit, still closing.

Suddenly, the A-50 called out that there were multiple targets approaching our column, as well as a flight of TU-95s operating North West of us. Scotch stayed low while I climbed a bit, flipping on my radar. As I made the turn my RIO called out that he had six fast movers and four slow moving air targets approaching our area, at very low level, many of them kept being lost in clutter. Because of their chase, Hugs and Judge were way out of position. And then, to add insult to injury, mobile air defense radar systems lit up, my RIO shouting out their names as the Russian Fencer SEAD teams started shouting on the command channel. SPYDERs BUKs and OSAs systems popped online, and within a half minute, tons of missiles were in the air, heading toward Russian transports, bombers, tactical aircraft and roving fighter patrols. Judge turned back towards us first, and Hugs followed, keeping an eye on the probable F-16s before disengaging.

Command confirmed that I had no friendlies in the area, so the moment I had a lock I let loose an AMRAAM at the lead aircraft, and the other one at the aircraft in trail. My RIO was now engaged in active jamming as much as possible, and swivelling looking for any missile trails, since the countryside was basically lit up with these very mobile SAM systems. My missiles both hit, since I saw an explosion on the horizon, and another smoke trail followed by an explosion on a hillside. My RIO called out that there was a formation of T-72s charging toward the 42nds position, and relayed it to Scotch as well. I finally got a positive id on the aircraft ahead, there were four SU-25s moving in, hugging the floor of the small valley, and just overtaking a flight of Mi-24s heading in the same direction. The SU-25s were punching out the occasional flare, and bundles of chaff as I approached, but I still got another hit with a sidewinder, but saw a chute before I roared over the Su-25s and began turning for a second pass. Scotch made a run on the T-72 formation, dropping heavy rockets into the column, hitting a few and causing them to slow. He pulled up, turning to help me with the air assets, when an airborne search radar flicked on, western origin, and suddenly my RIO was screaming about incoming missiles, I looked off to the three oclock and spotted a trail, heading up from the landscape it appeared, with no aspect change. (Steve told me this meant it was tracking me.)

Scotch turned on his radar and found but couldn't track to more targets burning hard towards us. No emissions were coming from them, but they were launching BVR. Scotch dropped his radar since it was useless. I turned hard and jinked, and the first missile flew by, followed by a second that detonated near me but did negligible damage. I continued my turn and got a sidewinder lock, pumping off my last two, when I saw four flashes of smoke from the enemy aircraft. I pushed down and my RIO nearly emptied our flare dispenser, but we still took a hit from one of the enemy missiles, reducing my manoeuvrability and causing a hydraulic fault (the backups kicked in). My RIO called out that Scotch had just sprung up from the countryside, and was firing his Aphids from a rear aspect at the remaining aircraft, the other apparently having been crippled and making a long slow turn over the valley, smoking and gliding down. Scotch's victim was not so lucky, the AA-8 detonated near the engine (F-16s we now knew) and the turbine chewed it's way out of the fuselage before the fuel stores went. The surprise attacks were pissing us off, but then Hugs launched the Novator, a nearly 8 metre long rocket that accelerated away, blasting into the stratosphere to cruise at Mach 4 towards the offending AWACS.

The AWACS was apparently too busy dealing with other stuff since they kept their big radar on. The TU-95s reported they were under attack by fighters, unknown type, and two of them were losing altitude, engines on fire as they dumped their payload and began to head back towards Russia. We couldn't help though, cause our sector was going to shit. The Fencers were starting to hit a lot of the SAM sites, so at least we didn't have to worry too much about that for the moment. However, the frogfoots were cresting the hill towards our column and the Hinds were following. Scotch turned to form up with me, we were both out of missiles but we could make a gun pass. We crossed low, with Scotch's Flogger's cannon blasting a wing to shreds and my own vulcan peppering a frogfoot before we started our high climb to turn back. My Rio called out that the three frogfoots were beginning their run, and the one I had hit had apparently ridden through the cannon fire. Rockets and cannon fire lanced out from the SU-25s to smash into the 42nd, followed by a smattering of larger explosions as they dropped their iron bombs. Our attack had at least ruined most of their run, scattering their munitions, and apparently my cannon run finally had an effect as the SU-25 I had shot augered into the field, unable to pull up.

As we began to make another turn a low-level radar popped on, then another, followed by a third. Tracer rounds blasted out of the forest as three ZSUs opened up on us. They missed me, but Scotch took a few rounds, and got a fault on his wing sweep indicator, locking his wings in the tactical mid range position. My backseater had already tagged up the anti-air tanks and I squeezed the trigger, the AGM-65s sliding off the rails heading towards the anti-air tanks. Five seconds later my F-18 roared over the burning anti-air tanks, with Scotch following up, releasing his FAB-500s into the forest edge, blasting huge fountains of earth into the sky with their impacts. As we climbed, our RWR went silent, as the AWACS went off the air. The remaining two frogfoots were coming around for another pass but then disappeared as the AA-12s from Judge wiped them out of the sky. As Hugs and Judge appeared on the horizon, ripping across the sky towards us, Hugs relayed to me that the A-50 had last seen the enemy AWACS trying to dive towards the ground, apparently the K-100 had finally appeared to them. Hugs descended on the enemy tank line, releasing his entire bomb payload, the heavy mixed cluster munitions playing havoc with the T-72s and supporting BTRs, not to mention infantry. Judge did a gun pass with his pods, spraying the treeline to suppress any infantry as the 42nd advanced across the field.

I turned, heading back towards the T-72s, and released the remainder of my Mavericks, before peppering the survivors with my Rocket pod, then dumping it. Hugs and Judge blasted through the Hinds, which managed to get an AA-8 shot off at them, before being blown out of the sky by a flurry of AA-11s. Judge's entire elctronics system failed as the missile peppered part of his wing and fuselage, and cracking his canopy. He slowed and began a turn, heading back towards our lines with me beside him, since we were both effectively combat ineffective. Hugs made another 80mm Rocket run on the Georgian positions, mopping up as Scotch provided cannon fire as suppression until his 23 clicked empty. The 42nd called and told us to cease fire, as they had now breached the defenders position and our airborne support was landing dangerously close. A Russian strike element of SU-27s arrived 5 minutes later, supported by two Flankers and we were cleared out of the area. The surprise strike had shaken the advance, but we'd kept it from being a total loss, although quite a few bombers and strike platforms were downed before the SEAD missions quieted the air defense. Surprisingly, since we were not heavy ops (bombers/transports) we actually weren't targeted by that surprise attack. We cruised back towards our base, nursing our damaged planes along. As we headed back we could see (with our eyes) more flights of transports and bombers, escorted by MiGs and Sukhois heading towards the lines.

We continued to the airfield, but had to hold as operations was pushing a strike into the air, which almost caused Judge to run out of fuel. He went in first, and landed safely. Hugs followed, landing without incident. I was going to land, but got a fault on my gear system, the nose wheel would not deploy due to a failure. I did a flyby and the tower said all my gear was down. In the meantime, Scotch turned and began his approach, his gear warning system shouting as he came in on a hot approach. He made his piloting roll, right on the numbers, and slammed the flogger down in a cloud of blue smoke, deployed his brakes and parachute, and then hammered on the brakes. It all seemed good until one of his brakes caught on fire, and his wheel detonated from the heat. His plane apparently dragged itself off the runway into the grass, brakes on fire, with pieces of shredding tire following. I wasn't looking forward to this. I lined up and landed, touching down gingerly, and I thought that my roll had been good enough. Apparently it didn't matter, my nose gear collapsed and the front of my plane smashed into the concrete, ripping off the nosecone and destroying the radar. My head also bounced off my console, so now my pilot has a concussion (-1 to all rolls on next mission if it is within a certain timeframe.) Scotch was sitting beside his plane at this point, as crash crews turned from his still smoldering brakes to the new wreck blocking the runway.

Summary

 * -Air Kills-


 * Hugs: F-16 (Combat Kill), Saab 2000 AEW&C, 2x SU-25, 2xMi-24


 * Scotch: F-16, SU-25


 * Judge: SU-25, 2x Mi-24


 * Baron: F-16 (Combat Kill), 2x SU-25


 * -Air Incidentals-


 * None


 * -Ground Kills-


 * Hugs: 2xT-72, 5xBMP-2, 3xOtokar Cobra, 27xInfantry


 * Scotch: 3xT72, 6xBMP-2, 42xInfantry


 * Judge: 3xOtokar Cobra, 17xInfantry


 * Baron: 4xT-72, 3xZSU-23, 2xBMP2, 31xInfantry


 * -Ground Incidentals-


 * None


 * -Friendly Losses-


 * Ground: 3x BMP-3, 1x T-80, 37xInfantry


 * Air: 9xSU-24, 4xMiG-27, 3xTU-95, 1xTU-26, 3xIl-76, 5xAN-12, 1xSU-27, 3xMiG-29, 5xSU-25


 * -Damage Taken-


 * Scotch: Airframe (Moderate)


 * Hugs: None


 * Baron: Airframe Minor, Radar catastrophic


 * Judge: Airframe Minor, Electronics Catastrophic

External links

Archive

And possibly even a new thread at the bottom of this page. - Note, shamlessly stolen from the 1d4chan page. all credit goes to the talented merc that made it.
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