"Yeah, I know we don't have to," Ashley said. "But each one we shoot down today is one less that can come back to hurt us tomorrow."
"Exactly my thoughts, One," Isaac agreed. "I'll get up into the clouds and perch there for a moment when you get yourself tangled up with the escorts, then make a move for them or the bombers when I find the right moment."
"Sounds good to me, Two," Ashley replied as they got close enough for the Erusian aircraft to start popping up on Will and Isaac's HMDs (Helmet-Mounted Display) and in Ashley's visual picture that her eyes gathered. Each aircraft was marked by a green square around it, accompanied by a name for the aircraft's type. The dozen TU-95's were also highlighted by red text that read TARGET, meaning they'd been marked as priority. "Ahh shit..." she muttered as she got a final tally on their numbers. "12 Bears and 8 escort fighters. Looks to be 4 MiG-21 bis' and four F-5E Tigers. That's a bit more than I would have preferred..."
"What's the matter? You wanted to start off playing on 'Easy' not 'Hard'?" Isaac teased.
"Not at all," Ashley shot back as she started analyzing the situation further. "Let's just hope that now they're more likely to get in their own way a bit more."
"Mobius One, Mobius Two, you are both cleared to engage any and all targets," Skyeye chimed in, earning a grin from Ashley.
"Acknowledged, Skyeye, I am engaged," she replied, Isaac confirming the same for himself as Ashley started trying for a RADAR lock on the lead Tupelov for her AIM-7 Sparrows and Isaac did the same for the number Two.
"There's the Newfield Islands," an unfamiliar voice said, apparently not to them. "1 o'clock low. Adjusting heading, keep the formation tight."
"Roger Grey One."
"Roger that Grey One."
"Just remember, this isn't the mainland; be careful about sharks if you go down feet wet."
"I'll be glad just to finally get these tenacious ISAF bastards and just end this stupid war..."
Ashley scowled a bit as she waited for the lock to become more steady, then grinned when she saw the red diamond within the green square over Grey One become sharp and crisp and the whole square turned red, accompanied by an angry, electronic growl sounding both for her and in Will's headset. "I've got tone," she said, briefly pausing to make sure the lock wasn't fleeting, then finishing with "Mobius One, Fox One!"
"Mobius Two, Fox One!" Isaac's voice chimed in as a pair of the big Sparrows dropped from the belly of each Phantom, the automated reloading systems already working on replicating replacement missiles to flip out onto the pylons from inside the aircraft. (That's the best I can do to validate the absurd but necessary number of missiles the aircraft in the game carry, lol. I guess think of them as Star Trek Replicators of sorts.) The four missiles all seemed inert for about a second as they fell away from the planes and their pilots started trying to lock up their second targets, then the solid rocket motors ignited and the AIM-7s streaked off and upwards towards the front of the Erusian bomber formation.
"Missile lock, we've got incoming! Who the hell's shooting!?"
"Must be some ISAF interceptors, can't tell where they're coming from though!"
"Punch chaff now! Initate evasive maneuvers, but don't stray far off course!" By now the two F-4's would be close enough to see the glints of light as the chaff launchers fired off on the lead pair of bombers, the effects of the strips of aluminum interfering a bit with their attempts to get a lock on their second pair of targets. The formation then started to split up, with six peeling off to the right and six to the left, but neither group diverting very much. Ashley watched as their missiles bored in towards the Bears, all four hesitating for a time as they tried to differentiate between the clusters of chaff and the bombers. One of Ashley's bought the diversion and veered off low and to the right before detonating harmlessly when it lost lock completely. The other only took the bait for a moment before knifing back over towards the lead Bear, but it was too little too late and it couldn't make the turn in time to get close enough to do any damage. Isaac got a bit more lucky, only one of his missiles was distracted by the chaff for long enough to miss, and his second missile drilled up into the belly of the number Two Bear. Someone shouted "Grey Two, what's your status? Are you hit?" when nothing seemed to have happened, then just after those words left his mouth there was a huge explosion that completely engulfed the aircraft, nothing more than a rapidly expanding cloud of hot gasses and marble-sized pieces of shrapnel remaining of what was once a four engine strategic bomber. "JESUS!!" someone cried as Ashley and Isaac got their second set of target locks and fired again, then hit the afterburners and gunned it.
"FUCK!! This is Four, there's more of them! They just fired at us this time!"
"Grey Three, we've got incoming as well! Where the hell are they!?"
"Stop worrying about it and leave them to the escorts! Blue group, find those damn interceptors before they take us apart!"
"Roger that, Grey One, we're doing our best but we can't find them right... Wait, there they are!! Five o'clock low, coming up fast, there's two of 'em!"
Again, the two bombers that had been attacked spewed out chaff and broke into the direction that the missiles were coming from, but this time neither of them could manage to avoid both of them. Both bombers had a missile streak past close enough to one wing for it to detonate, one of them losing a fair bit of the end of the wing and the other having a fire break out in the inboard engine and a catastrophic propellor self-destruction occur on the outboard one. Both aircraft started spiralling downwards, one on fire and trailing smoke, as desperate transmissions crackled over the radio.
"Grey Four, we're hit!... Dammit, still have a payload to deliver!"
"Three here, we're going down! Shit, it's not working... Okay, everyone abandon the bomber! I'll try to minimize the spin for a moment, now go!" One of the aircraft started leaving behind a trail of parachutes as it plumetted towards the sea, though was ever seen to get out of the one that had lost its engines, likely because it was just spinning too fast. The entire crew of the other aircraft was accounted for via the number of parachutes before the aircraft had even dropped below 30,000 feet, all except for one, most likely the pilot who'd sacrificed himself to save the rest of the crew.
As Ashley and Isaac sliced right through the middle of the bomber formation from behind and below, the startled gunners on the Bears quickly started spraying long, inaccurate bursts of machine gun and cannon fire at the Phantoms as they streaked up and into the clouds. "Alright guys," Ashley said as she looked down at the mildly scattering Erusian bombers, still able to see them through the clouds thanks to the RADAR data provided by their 'Skyeye' E-767. "Time for us to go tussle with those escorts, Will?"