ACES Online

Chapter 10 - Escalation of Commitment, pt.2

For Shino Asada, the 1st January 1969 had been the distant past; some 39 years before her birth and a time during a cold war that threatened to consume the entire world...

For Sinon however, it was just another day. Sure, it was New Year's Day, but other than that, it was just another day in Strangereal for her... at first. Her WF-105 Arrow had been loaded up for a routine patrol from her home base at Kelstedge, the large delta winged interceptor being given the task to patrol the southern Great Lakes, a patrol area that took her over the frozen Lake Jubilant at 25,000 feet and at 400 knots - far from the Arrow's maximum speed or altitude, but just enough to be a more economical use of the Arrow, an aircraft that really wasn't designed for loitering.

The WF-105 was a large, delta winged interceptor designed to climb fast, release every missile it could at an enemy bomber force - those missiles even including nuclear warheads, if needs must - before said bomber force could get anywhere near allied territory.

What it wasn't however... was a strike fighter. Which was a pity, because that was what she really needed right about now.

"That is a lot of tanks..." Someone stated in horror, at the amassed columns of armour and support vehicles advancing across the frozen lakes below her.

"That looks more like a swarm of locusts!" One pilot exclaimed, clearly horrified by the ever-increasing mass of armour and helicopters coming through the frozen forests.

"Most locusts aren't packing HEAT, boss." Someone said unhelpfully.

"Solitaire, Archer, Paladin; this is Goldeneye." Her radio crackled, alongside a beeping noise from her in-game HUD (sadly not her actual HUD, the WF-105 lacking such an amenity), indicating a mission update. "Any assistance you can provide against those ground units is much appreciated!"

"Solitaire understands, Goldeneye. We'll do what we can to thin them out till assistance arrives." The pilot of the Phantom in the flight agreed. "Zeliska, you bought rockets, right?"

"Bombs, and nowhere near enough to handle that many targets." The pilot known as Zeliska answered. The woman flew an A-7A Corsair II, a tactical strike aircraft designed to be more survivable, with a bigger bomb load and significantly greater range than the smaller A-4 Skyhawk, as well as at a reduced cost, compared to more sophisticated A-6 Intruder. All of these features made the A-7 a pretty good bomb truck, but a thoroughly subpar fighter – though it at least carried a pair of guns; the standard Naval fit of Mk12 20mm cannons – which was more than her Arrow carried.

Eight AIM-4 Falcons might have sounded like a strong punch to the uninitiated, but as she'd found out, the smaller missiles had some utterly appalling characteristics that made it very unsuitable for air combat that wasn't simply hunting bombers – the extremely limited seeker function on the IR guided variant, and both variants of the missile lacked a proximity fuse, meaning they required a direct hit, unlike the later AIM-7 and AIM-9 missiles that most aircraft carried.

"Solitaire, this is Goldeneye. Assistance will be on station in five minutes, callsigns Liberator and Samurai.''

"Much obliged Goldeneye, we'll hold them back till then.'' – "Cap, what's the play here? Our guns are gonna be next to useless on those tanks, and Zel's bombs aren't that powerful...''

"Archer, Paladin, are either of you loaded for bear?''

"Negative, purely air-to-air.'' She responded. Her AIM-4s had been used as air-to-ground weapons in a pinch during the Vietnam War, when the theory that the IR seekers could be used to track trucks moving in the dense foliage had been put to the test – it hadn't been a massive success. The missiles were far too small to be effective in anything more than a truck killer role, and the launch aircraft was inevitably too fast to gain a solid lock before overshooting the target.