Chapter 84: Contact in the Sky
Engine wash flooded past Tony and Fury in twenty-four distinct trails in the night sky, the purple-orange expulsions of jet engines blazing past them at a Mach 2. Radar sourced from Tony's suit bounced off of them as the heat signatures were miniscule, the distinct lack of presence in such detection methods outlining the forms of F-16 fighters.
Jarvis began analysing them as they roared off ahead of his and Fury's path, their speed capped at Mach 1 due to the presence of Military assets in the airspace. Meanwhile the spy master was gulping, closing his only eye and trying not to look down as he was held in a princess carry.
"That's an ominous sign..." His voice was contained inside of his helmet as Jarvis agreed with him.
"Indeed sir. It seems that they are headed towards the location of Yggdrasil Interactive. We could increase out speed to Mach 2, if you wish." The stark looked down at his passenger who was already struggling with their speed's g-forces.
"Maintain current speed."
His eyes watched the distant trails grow more faint into the night, his suit providing an enhanced visual acuity to his eyesight, allowing him to follow until they disappeared completely from sensor range.
'Let's hope this all goes well, otherwise I would have brought Mr. Grouchy here for no reason...'
...
Instruments glowed in dim greens and whites within the cockpit of the F-16 as the pilot monitored the radar monitor, a haze of nondescript nothingness consuming the coming airspace before his squadron. A feeling of wrongness gnawed at the pit of his stomach, his experience almost screaming at him that something was wrong.
Checking the fighter's systems he found nothing out of place. Looking upwards into the NVG; Night Vision Goggle, a green landscape met his vision, the features of distant rolling hills below and trees subdued by the grainy static that tickled the edges of everything.
Looking to his right he noted the leader of the other wing of his squadron, his operational officer. His squadron was composed of 24 aircraft, F-16s, they were split into 6 flights, each having 4 aircraft. Each wing was comprised of 3 flights, his wing being the Spoke Wing and his second in command guiding the Rim Wing.
"Rim one, sweep wide"
His offsider's entire wing spread thin and began adjusting their individual flights into different altitude patterns, as he quickly commanded his own wing's flights to follow suit. The disturbance still clung to his radar screen as his night vision prickled with the fast moving country side. GPS was out due to something classified so they were flying somewhat blind and communication-less, the only signals being high frequency radio messages over encrypted cyphers. Not as efficient as he was used to, but it would have to do.
"Visual acquired!" One of the fighters on his wing shouted as he relayed the grid coordinates, the squadron leader's NVG picking the 'visual' out amongst the backdrop of various natural landscape as a massive black blob... The object hanging in mid-air and visually standing out as it blocked all of the star-light from behind it. It simply hung their like a void.
The formation the squadron was held in was a normal tactic if fighters were to get in a gunfight, the entire reason for a reconnaissance in force. EW warfare; Electronic Warfare, was normal in combat, the squadron leader immediately arming his ARM warhead and firing it off as his offsider followed in his tactics.
With the sparking of fuel and the beginning of chemical processes begun, the missiles launched from the ventral weaponry clamps and took off towards the blob of an object. These missiles, he knew, would explode and create an area where radar could penetrate, allowing their systems to ping what was behind all of that jamming.
'What the hell are you...?' His thought was choked out in but a moment as the entire horizon line of the sky began alighting in bright green fire. Hundreds of firefly-like emanations buzzed in the distance before they rapidly grew larger.
The sky thrummed with vibrations as the entire night sky was filled with omnipresent green energy... Thundering towards the squadron as if light itself had been weaponised.
*BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH* *BUUUUUUUUSVHHHHH*
Hundreds, possibly thousands of beams of light flew past the fighters in rapid succession. Adrenaline pumped through the leader's body as his instant instinct won out in the flurry of combat.
"SCATTER! SCATTER! SCATTER!" His commands vented out into the cockpits of...
"Rim 3 down!"
"Spoke 6 down!"
"Rim 11 down..."
The first shot had taken three of his men, the reality settled in as his voice radiated out and his entire squadron began to fly in different vectors. Rim 1 and his own fighter darted in opposing directions... His journey upwards whilst his second plummeted and started to dodge and weave side to side taking anti-AA countermeasures.
Chaff was discarded by all fighters at the instant moment and they took evasive manoeuvres through the sky. It was chaos.
Being the leader of the squadron he had very few moments until that AA started up again and he would have to make a tactical decision. His instinct yelled, begged, slammed at him that they had to retreat, whatever that was it wasn't normal AA fire... But his orders were to discover what the enemy had and they hadn't even done that.
All of the AA fire had disappeared moment ago, the pilots slowly recovering from extreme G-force evasive actions, himself included... He had to find another way or simply go back with the information he had now.
"BANDITS! 12 O'clock!!!" The scream from one of his wing-members blasted through the comms as every fighter immediately awaited my words... Which were instant.
"Knife fight! Dog fight them down boys!" Every F-16 rapidly readjusted to take whatever bogies were coming for them... But it was too late for many as 'H' shaped machines zoomed into us at Mach 2, green shots blasting out in twos every second.
Fire consumed ten of his men's fighters as the very man who called out the bandits screamed in pain as his entire jet was bisected and imploded from the explosion of ordinance. Fireballs fell from the sky as only a single jet from that first interaction didn't get destroyed immediately, the wing having fallen off and the pilot ejecting from the cockpit.
The bandits sped past, their engine roaring like some Aztec death whistle whilst they refocussed their formation and rounded upon the aircraft.
It didn't take long, two streams of these craft coming in at our flanks. Rim squadron which thankfully still had Rim 1 knifed themselves quickly in the 3 O'clock position, fast reaction missiles soaring out to meet the enemy head on... Unfortunately half of them were dodged as these craft exhibited the ability to fly sideways and dive at nigh-impossible G-forces.
Those that did hit were either deflected off of the outer hexagonal limbs of these craft or simply glanced them. There was one that was lucky however, striking the very centre connector of the craft and sundering it, the pilot of said aircraft dying horrifically, most likely.
*AEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRR*
The death whistle resounded again as the, what he could only describe as lasers, perforated the other segments of his squadron. 30mm cannons fired on full-auto, barely scratching the side of a craft he chased... They seemed impervious to conventional weaponry... Or he just wasn't using enough...
It didn't end up mattering however as a second craft he hadn't noticed was picked up on his close range radar, warnings flaring in the cockpit as an immediate ejection system kicked in... His entire chair exploding up into the open night-air, his NVG showing him the completely bizarre design of this enemy, whilst his chute opened and he witnessed the bright white flare of his F-16 as it crumpled down onto the forest and property below.
Not just that, he proceeded to watch his entire squadron gutted... The F-16s dropping like flies as some chutes made his notice. Barely 10% of his squadron had lived.
*AEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRR* *AEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRR*
Two of the craft moved over head, moving towards the large blob that was still barely visible using his NVG.
"What the actual fuck did command have us going against!?"
...
I was standing near the front gate as all of the members I had asked for of the X-men and Xavier's school appeared before me.
They were all shaken as they should be. News had been spread through SWTOR and social media, the government faltering to respond to Internet communication as they tried to re-implement their propaganda machine called the TV and Media. Mutants were a target like the force sensitives and I sought to also aid them... Using my status as a mutant to unite them all together in Australia after I cleansed the country of its government, a goal I would soon be undertaking.
"Sorry to have you all come to meet me during this, chaos..." I looked over all of them and noted their body postures being rather uptight or reserved. They were uncomfortable around me as the last time they saw me they fought with my summons, my people, and specifically watched me defeat the entity that took over Xavier with Kate's help.
"But I needed to ensure you that I am not your enemy. More than that, I want to save the people who are currently dying all over the world." Logan squinted his eyes as Jean breathed in and reached out with her mind, grabbing the scenes I wanted her to see. Cyclops, i couldn't care about his name, stepped forwards and looked close to speaking before Ororo, or Storm, superseded him and began speaking.
"Freya. You must understand that we have only been able to do missions because Xavier was there to protect the students. We can't aid this effort whilst they are alone." I nodded in understanding, doing my best to convey my empathy.
"I know. That is why I have brought you all here..." They stared at me collectively, awaiting my words as the star destroyer above began firing with an immense crack of lightning-like noise, Tie fighters roaring underneath the pounding pin-point defences as they went to meet the F-16s that were quickly approaching.
"Jean can convey the full scope of my plan, but, I will tell you this... I plan to make a country that all Mutants, Force sensitive and other powered people can live in peace." Explosions wracked the distance as the entirety of the incoming enemy was eradicated, Cassian looking off into the distance with some mild satisfaction slithering along the edges of his mind.
""""HUH!?""""
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