Aces From Hell

Chapter 4 - Vengeance from Hell

The Saudi monarch was deep in thought. The stunning attack on Shoaiba oil terminal had revealed that the Saudi lifeline was extremely vulnerable to Yemeni air raids. His greatest worry right now was another attack on yet another oil terminal. That would send oil prices shooting up and Saudi Arabia would not be able to withstand the diplomatic pressure of America and Europe. It would also cripple the Saudi economy and the riots in the streets of Riyàdh would represent the most serious threat to his government.

Just then, the defence minister entered and informed the monarch of the "spectacular" and "successful" attack at SMAB. With great confidence, he informed the king that Saudi Arabia need not fear anymore air raids on oil terminals as the enemy air force was totally destroyed. This seemed to relieve the monarch and he felt that a great load had been lifted off his shoulders. He immediately decided to check the news to get more details of the attack on SMAB. Instead, much to his horror, he saw that the news channels were mentioning the attack on yet another oil terminal, this time at Jizan. The Saudi monarch slumped in his chair. His worst fears had come true. "But how? SMAB was attacked and the planes were destroyed, yet how did they do this?" Thought the king. The defence minister was equally dumbstruck. Just when the Saudi monarch thought that this is the worst thing that could happen, the attendant entered to inform the monarch about the American president on the line. This meant trouble. The monarch picked up the receiver and greeted the American president. But the American president was furious. The news of the second attack on oil terminal had sent the oil prices shooting up to 90$ per barrel and stock markets across the world recorded their worst performance in decades. The American president demanded that Saudi Arabia offer a ceasefire, but that would mean that Yemen had won. The Saudi monarch would never approve of such a huge blow to his ego. Instead he suggested that the American aircraft carrier USS Independence which was refuelling at Bandar Abbas port be brought into this war to bomb SMAB to end this war in favor of the Saudis.

The American president realized that this was an easier alternative than convincing the Saudi monarch to offer a ceasefire. He immediately ordered the aircraft carrier to move towards Yemen to bomb SMAB and destroy that base completely. The American aircraft carrier was docked at Bandar Abbas port to participate in a naval exercise with the Imperial Iranian navy which was to start next week. But because of this new crisis, the aircraft carrier had to move towards Yemen and the exercises were called off. The Iranians realized that the sudden departure of the aircraft carrier from the port had something to do with the Saudi Yemeni conflict. The Iranians realized that the American president wanted to end this war quickly and in favour of Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia were not the best of friends as Saudi Arabia considered Iran to be a nation of infidels. The Iranians were deeply suspicious of the Saudi regime and sensed an opportunity in this new development. The Iranian ruler informed the Yemeni president of this new development and the Yemeni president passed on this information to the chief of military operations in Yemen. This information proved to be extremely useful and the chief immediately changed the plans. Vladimir and Lightning were instructed to go back to Karora without any delay. They were told that whatever ordnances would be needed for the mission would be delivered at Karora ASAP. Storm would stay back at SMAB to carry out the SEAD mission on Khamis Mushait air base. Storm chose a MiG-21PFM for this mission as Yemen had a good stock of kh-66 GROM missiles. By now, there were 21 hours left before the American aircraft carrier would position itself near Yemeni waters for bombing SMAB. After performing all the preflight checks, Lightning and Vladimir took off in their F-4E phantom II and MiG-23M respectively. After 40 minutes flight, they both reached Karora airstrip. To provide the ordnances required for this mission, an An-24 plane which was undergoing maintenance and repairs in a hangar was brought back into service and two more hours later, the required ordnances was delivered at Karora. By now, there were 19 hours left before the bombings would begin. Time was ticking fast...