A force unbroken

There are people who say that the sky's the limit, and in most cases, they would be dead on. But when you say that to us, the only thing we do is laugh. If the sky is the limit, then we break that limit by ten-fold every time we achieve altitude from the runway! I’m Captain Matthew Galley, and im widely known as “Checkmate” when everyone saw that when I fly, nobody survives. I was once a basic Strike Eagle pilot, constantly bombing places for Marines and Army guys to go in. But after years of doing that, I needed more action in my Air Force career, and thats when I heard about the SOC-P, or Special Operations Combat Pilot, program. I knew instantly that I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t try. We trained ruthlessly from 5 mile timed runs and 7 sets of 50 push ups every morning to withstanding the gruesome effects of Hypersonic and inverted flight, and breaking the sound barrier multiple times, and we did it for 9 months straight. Out of a class of 50 Airmen who thought they could beat SOC-P, only 4 of us made it, and I was one of those 4. I graduated SOC-P on November 21st, 2015. The other 3 are now the Pilots I have been commanding since day 1, and it is now year 6. The Air Force put us through a series of tests that had us shooting down simulated combat drones that told our targeting systems that they were Mikoyan MiG-25 Foxbats, the fastest Soviet interceptor aircraft and the most aerodynamic as well. We flew together in a squadron of FA-22 Raptors, always in a diamond formation, and I always knew who was in what plane and where they were. To my left in his custom painted red and black tiger-stripe Raptor, and whispering a joke to himself, was Jester, the team comedian. He has this weird knack for comic dialogue, but it kept us entertained. He was a good Pilot as well, he used to be flying recon for TACP guys back in ‘09 before joining SOC-P in ‘15. To my right, holding a quiet conversation with himself, in his solid black Raptor with a white belly, was Wolf, who was a great Tactician, but he has a distinct inability to stop talking. If you needed your radio’s checked, he was the guy to go to. He often worked with TACP trying to sum up the location of the airstrikes that were being given during Operation Iraqi Freedom back in ‘10. Then, behind me, in his desert A-TACS painted Raptor, singing a very quiet, near inaudible song to himself, was Silence, and he is one hell of an Aircraft Repairman, and, unlike Wolf, he knew when to talk, which was almost never...except during the training exercises, in which case he had a good voice that sounded off about every 5 minutes. We took off from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, and flew off to the center of the North Atlantic Ocean, which is the area that was authorized for use by SOC-P, for Dogfight training. The drones took off about 5 minutes after us, when we switched on afterburners, and refueled mid-air from a tanker aircraft, which was well on their way back to MacDill. We have been chilling here for about 10 minutes, waiting for the drones to arrive. I felt as though the drones were closing in, so I initiated the start of the training exercise.

“Sentinel 1-1 to all Sentinel flights, radio check, over.” I begin.

Wolf, as always, was the first to come in. “Sentinel 1-3, good copy.”

Silence came after, “Sentinel 1-4, Lima Charlie.”

I didn’t hear Jester come in, he was probably playing some s****y joke on me. “Sentinel 1-2, you there?”

Five second delay, no reply.

“Sentinel 1-2, come in.” I ask again.

No reply.

“God d****t, 1-2, this is no time to f**k around.”

Jester finally comes in, “WELL F**K- I mean, Sentinel 1-2 had solid copy.”

“What the f**k were you doing all that time, 1-2?” I ask.

“I was busy watching porn, you guys gotta chill.” Jester bullshits.

I heard Wolf laugh his a*s off. His literacy was poor, and his words were very inaudible. I looked at him through the window of the cockpit to see him chuckling like a retarded walrus. I looked over to Jester, who gave me the bird. I returned the salute.

“Sentinel Flight, this is MacDill. You guys all set and ready to roll?” I heard over the radio. I know that the radio operator at MacDill was Colonel Quills.

“Roger that, MacDill. We’re ready to go.” I confirm.

“Solid copy, Sentinel. Drone feed shows twenty-two Foxbats coming in at Mach one point six-niner on your Six O’Clock, watch your a*s.”

At that moment I heard jet engines coming in from behind us. I looked over in time to see exactly 22 drones roaring over the cockpits, swarming around our flight like bees around a hive. They all were in uniform shape and size, all commonalities were precise and all movement was calculated. The drones looked like good sized RC planes, near triangular in shape, and were outfitted with cameras that projected a feed of whatever they were looking at onto a single pane of glass, creating a cloaking effect, making it very hard for us to differentiate the drones with the sky around them.

“Detecting increased hostile signatures. Twenty-two confirmed soviet aircraft. Proceed with caution.” The targeting computer analyzed.

“Enjoy your target practice, Sentinel. You are cleared to engage.” MacDill finished.

I flipped over the visor on my helmet, and saw Wolf doing the same. “You hear that, ladies? Get your big boy pants on, its go time!” I say into the radio.

“Sentinel 1-3 is moving to engage” I heard over the radio.

I looked over to Wolf, who banked hard to his right and broke out of formation to engage the drones. I looked to my left over to see Jester putting his phone away, then hard-banking to his left. “Superman, engaging” He says.

Silence roars in from behind me and flies overhead, doing a barrel roll and flying upward to engage the drones, red tracer rounds spewing out from the nose-mounted cannon on the aircraft. “Sentinel 1-4, moving to engage.” He signifies.

I look down to the joystick and arm the cannon to prepare to fire, and I turn up my thrusters to increase speed, then bank hard to my left to engage a small flight of drones, who flew in a diamond. “Sentinel 1-1, engaging.”

The HUD on my visor activates, and the targeting system shows a red square that sifts everywhere, scanning the area for hostiles. In the time that the HUD was booting up, I saw green tracer rounds coming in from above me, which caused me to slow the f**k down and fly around the green pillar of light. In turn, another drone comes in for the kill, launching a single AIM-120 AMRAAM, or Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, which is pretty much a fire-and-forget kind of weapon, very hard to shake off.

“Warning, hostile AIM-120 weapon system incoming.” The targeting computer identified.

“S**t…” I think to myself.

I bank hard and rip through the sky turning left, then up into the sky, shifting the thruster power to maximum trying to avoid it. My body felt like it was flattening in my seat, and I could almost feel the missile coming in closer. I look to the control panel to the right of the joystick and activated the chaff, pressing the countermeasures buttons and arming flares and ECMs. I shoved the joystick downward to tip the nose of the aircraft down, fully expecting the missile to follow me. I looked back to see a glint of light behind me, indicating that the AMRAAM was still there. I engaged the chaff and sped up as fast as I could. There were a few flashes of bright light behind me, showing that the chaff was released.

“Countermeasures, engaged. Standby.” The targeting computer advised.

“Yo, cap, you still got that AMRAAM on you, shake the b*****d off!” Jester speaks.

I saw his plane fly overhead, then activates the boosters and banks to his left, being pursued by a formation of drones, hardly visible. There could have been 2 or maybe even 4, I have no clue.

“AIM-120 missile remains intact, countermeasures failed.” the computer verified.

“F**k!” I yell.

“Captain, missile inbound on your six! Six O’Clock!!” Wolf yells in return.

I heard a close range missile engine getting louder, then a deafening detonation, followed by a very violent shake of the aircraft. My whole body was tense, and my senses were sharpened. There were bullets flying by, as there were 3 other drones that flew overhead. I checked the damage display indicator on my computer system, and saw that nothing on the aircraft was damaged, to my utter amazement. It was just the shock of the missile detonation that hit the plane. I didn’t turn for about a second or two,  just trying to get my head back in the game, I was off to a s****y start.

“Cap is hit, cap is hit!” I heard Jester yell.

“Aw, f**k! Captain, you good??” Silence spoke.

It took me a minute to recollect myself, as I looked up, I saw Jesters tiger-striped plane flying overhead, while barrel rolling to avoid Machine Gun fire from the pursuing drones. Jester acknowledged the others that my plane was still flying properly.

“F**k, got three on my tail!” I heard Wolf yell.

I saw his plane doing streaks of barrel rolls and avoiding gunfire as it was being chased by three other moving mirrors, and he seemed to be struggling with trying to shake them off. My time to shine.

“Support inbound on your three!” I respond

I flew in and cut left toward Wolfs direction, making sharp turns and constant sways only to end up about 40 meters from Wolfs plane, where the targeting computer spotted three bogeys behind him, and placed red diamonds over them on my HUD. I uncovered the red button on my joystick and armed my AMRAAM. The targeting computer placed another red square over one of the drones, indicating that the missile was directed to that specific target.

“Sentinel 1-1, fox three, fox three” I warn.

I slam the button on the joystick to engage the missile flight sequence, where I heard a soft “pssss” to my left. A small spark of light emerged from the missile bay of the Raptor, and flew swiftly towards the targeted bogey. In that period of time, I armed my equalizer Machine Gun and pitched my nose upward, where the aircraft quickly flew far over the drones. After about 3 seconds, I hear the explosion of the AIM-120 colliding with the targeted drone. I pitched my nose downward to fly towards the drones pursuing Wolf.

“Sentinel 1-3, evasive maneuvers!” I order.

After less than a second, Wolfs plane nose-dived after doing a few rolls and turns, where I engaged the drones with the cannon, a pillar of red light spewing from my nose cannon.

“BRAAAAAAP!”

The red light quickly consumed the other drones, disintegrating them in a ball of fire, then falling from the sky like dying angels, quickly making contact with the ocean below.

“Targets eliminated.” I confirm.

“I owe ya, Cap.” Wolf advises to me.

I heard Silence come in over the radio, “Sentinel 1-4, moving to assist!”

I look up to see an A-TACS painted bird ripping through the sky, engaging a final flight of drones with his Machine Gun and AMRAAMs, smoke trails of the missiles coming from his missile bay, and balls of fire not much longer thereafter that engulfed the other drones. Jester was engaged in evasive maneuvers while SIlence was taking down the last of the drones. There was constant  sound of sharp Machine Gun cracks in the distance, then soft explosions following soon after.

“All bogeys confirmed destroyed.” Silence confirmed.

“Alright Sentinel Flight, formations, lets go.” I order.

I saw Wolfs plane turn slightly to the left to fall into formation next to me, then Silence and Jesters planes bank to their left to fall into formation, Jester directly behind me, and Silence to my right. Silence confirmed that there were no more hostile signatures within the area.

“Sentinel flight to MacDill.” I request.

“This is MacDill, go Sentinel.”

“MacDill, Sentinel flight confirms all bogeys destroyed, over.”

“...Thats a negative, Sentinel. Your kill count is 21, over.”

Wolf and Jester gave a faint exhale of frustration. I could understand their feeling, I was upset we didn’t get ‘em all, either. I looked around the area for the last bogey that I might not have seen before, but I didn’t see anything other than the vast, blue ocean below us, and the yellow chemical coloring of the ocean to indicate where the downed drones were floating.

“Huh, my lock on warning is going off.” Jester advises.

“Now is definitely NOT the time to f**k around, 1-2.” I come back.

“No, cap, i’m serious!” He stresses.

I saw a faint flash of light out of the corner of my eye, when out of nowhere came another enemy AMRAAM heading for Jesters aircraft.

“Oh s**t, incoming missile!!” Wolf warns.

The missile almost collides with Jesters aircraft, and detonates. Enough to shut down the thrusting capabilities, but not destroy the entire plane itself. His plane began swiftly falling from the sky and towards the water below. Then we heard sharp cracks coming from behind us, as a stream of green light came from the same direction, taking out Wolfs plane as well. The thrusters on Wolfs plane began spewing a black smoke, then shut down completely in response to the smoke. Thereafter, a completely visible practice drone flew overhead at what looked like mach 2. I looked downward to see the planes floating in the water on large inflated sacks, surrounded by a yellow chemical coloring, and two black parachutes above them, which confirmed that Jester and Wolf safely ejected. Instantly, Silence and I broke formation and cut left to take down the drone that claimed two of us.

“F**k, breaking!!” Silence said over the radio, panting heavily.

“We lost Sentinel 1-2 and 1-3, i’m defending!” I advised into the radio.

I kept my eye on the single speck of black in the sky, as my HUD placed a red diamond over the target, and a red square over that to lock on to the target, signifying the successful lock on through a single high-pitched “beeeeep” sound. Instantly, I armed my AIM-9 Sidewinder IR guided missile and launched it from the weapons bay, as it sailed through the sky, on its way to colliding with the target.

“Sentinel 1-1, fox two, fox two” I announce

“Sentinel 1-4, fox two!” Silence also announced.

I saw another bright light flying quickly from behind me, on its way to the drone, who wasn’t moving anywhere. As the Sidewinders go closer to the target, they instantly started flying in random circles, eventually detonating in the air.  The drone used Electronic CounterMeasures, and they are extremely effective against missiles.

“AIM-9 Sidewinder weapon system failed.” The targeting computer announced.

“Cap, i’m going to fly in to the drone from its right side, and you come in to the drone on its left and take him the f**k out. Go guns!” Silence advises.

“Roger that 1-4.” I confirm.

Instantly, Silence barrel rolls and throws on his thrusters to maximum power, easily capping my speed. He goes a little bit below the drone, who still isn’t moving anywhere else. I throw my thrusters to maximum and cut left below the drone as well. I saw Silence cut diagonally upward to the drone from below, and unleash his cannons on the drone.

“Sentinel 1-4, guns, guns, guns” he confirms.

When the cannon fire started, the drone instantaneously cut to its left and levels out towards me in such a way that put itself in a position to collide with my plane if I didn’t move anywhere.

I felt a sinister chill shoot right through my chest, and yanked the joystick toward me. “F**k! Turning!!” I yell.

My nose banks upward and avoids a collision with the drone, my body pushing and pulling violently with every turn along with the plane. In the confusion and stress of trying to avoid the plane, I completely lost sight of the drone, and my targeting computer was showing a single red dot moving randomly about the area. Offensive ECM was equipped to the one drone we didn’t take down. I felt vigorous shaking as I looked back to see the drone had already turned completely around and started unloading its payload into my plane. The tracer bullets made small holes into the stabs of the plane, when the drone zoomed past me and began turning around one more time. The HUD in my helmet had re-booted and managed to put a lock on the drone, and confirm the lock-on with a red square.

“You’re right where I want you…” I whisper.

My thumb was just on the verge of engaging the AIM-9 when out of nowhere the drone was engulfed in a large ball of fire, followed by a visible stream of red light. I banked and cut through the sky to avoid it. I looked back to see Silence nose diving, then stabilizing his aircraft to normal.

“You took my kill, piece of s**t.” I say.

Silence only laughed.

Colonel Quills came in over the radio a few seconds after the final kill. “Sentinel flight this is MacDill, your kill count is twenty two, all targets confirmed destroyed. Bring it home.”

“MacDill this is Sentinel flight, good copy. Be advised, we have two airmen down, positions are marked with yellow chemical coloring.”

“Roger that, SAR is scrambling, good call Sentinel. MacDill out.” He finishes.

I looked down to my hand holding the joystick of the plane, then thought of why I did so s****y today. I looked out the canopy to see the yellow chemical coloring expanding out to 50 feet, and the pilots sitting on the wing of a tiger stripe aircraft floating in the water on inflated sacks. I saw one of them waving up at us, but we were too far up to tell who it was. I looked out the other side of the canopy to see Silence already in formation. He gave a thumbs up towards me out from his canopy. I returned the gesture.

“You plan on heading home, cap?” Silence asked.

“...Yeah...yeah we’ll be going home.” I slowly reply.

“What about 1-2 and 1-3?” Silence adds.

“SAR’s coming for them, it’ll be a while before we see the likes of them.”

I looked at the damaged stabs on the back of the plane, which seemed to be doing just fine, considering the damage they took from tracer rounds. The computer did a damage assessment scan of the aircraft, and came back with 24% damage, which was a bit much for just a Machine Gun and a rocket that didn’t collide. I turned to my right a little bit and headed back to MacDill, with Silence following close behind. I knew when we get back to base we would be put on standby until the next group of airmen f**k up over in Afghanistan or Iraq. In the mean time, we would probably be chilling out in the bases or at home. Either which way, we would probably be so bored that we would be asking to go on missions with the Air National Guard just to be able to do something.

“You know, I wouldn’t mind repairing your plane, Cap” Silence offers.

“Youre practically the only one who knows what you’re doing when it comes to that kind of stuff.” I compliment.

I push the thrusters to maximum power and fly back to MacDill, in hopes that Colonel Quills wouldn’t be too displeased by the results we produced. The last thing I needed was having some officer screaming at us for having a bad day. The entire flight home I sat in silence with the plane, moving and jerking around with the turbulence hitting the damaged stabs. In the distance I got eyes on MacDill, and saw a few Blackhawks flying from the base. They flew in a perfect triangular formation, no drones attacking them. I heard Silence inaudibly singing to himself over the radio, and thought he must have been getting bored.

“Yo, 1-4.” I call.

“What’s up, cap?” Silence replies.

“You want to do anything when we get back to base?”

“I heard theres a sniper range somewhere nearby. We can check that out if you want. Didn’t your old man teach you a thing or two about sharpshooting?” Silence asks.

“He did, as a matter of fact. I still have his M-200 if you want to hit that up later on.”

“Sure thing. I want to test your sniper skills, too!” Silence finishes.

I smiled a little bit, the only thing I enjoyed more than blowing s**t up in the sky was shooting on the ground, and I got a lot of practice on that from SOC-P training. I always carried an emergency handgun in a holster in case I ever went down in the middle of enemy territory. Sometimes I get a little practice at the MacDill weapons range, but other than that i’m not too bad of a shot.

“Cap, you might want to start landing procedures.” Silence advises.

“Oh, right.” I said. I switched the radio to the channel that MacDill air traffic control was using and started the landing sequence. “MacDill ATC, this is Sentinel flight coming in on your Two O’Clock. Requesting permission to begin landing procedures.”

A 5 second delay was all it took for MacDill to come back with “Roger that, Sentinel. You are cleared for landing on runway 2.”

I turned a little to my right to get in line with the specified runway, located at the far right side of the base. Lucky me. Silence slows down a bit, giving me the room I need to land. I lowered my landing gear, evident by the sound of the hydraulics working to position the wheels. I slowed down a little bit and dipped my nose slightly to the ground, as the runway was coming closer and closer to my plane. Eventually, I heard the plane getting very close to the runway, almost at ground level, then the hard slam of the wheels hitting the asphalt, starting to spin with the direction the plane is moving in. I maximized the engines to full power, and positioned the flaps and stabs to slow my speed. When the plane came to a full stop in the middle of the runway, with Silence only a couple of feet behind me, the guy up in the Air Traffic Control tower directed me to the nearest hangar, where we would store our aircraft. I taxied across the runway to the specified hangar, a bland and boring solid white with large gray doors. Inside was all the same, with a couple of red blinking lights on key positions. The repair and refuel crew rushed in and started working on my plane, as I opened up the canopy and jumped on to the ground, my boots making the loudest clacking sound upon contact of hitting the ground.

“Man, it feels good to be on the ground again.” I whispered to myself.

I looked over to see Silence also jumping from his plane and hitting the floor with his boots doing the same as mine did. Aircraft repair and refueling guys were crawling all over our planes like ants on an anthill. We met up at the door leading to the inside of the base, calling each other named out of respect. Silence tried telling me that I did good today, but we all know he’s just bullshitting. Hopefully the next time that comes I can do a little better than I did today. If it was a real mission, two of my men would have lost their lives, and i’m not ready to see that happen to them.

Gotta crawl before we can walk.

Author's Note

This is the first chapter of Iron Wings! Hopefully you guys will be able to enjoy it as much as I did writing it! Comments and ratings are appreciated!

Reviews

[Kristoff von Richthofen]

I think your story is very well written. I love the way you described the aerial combat. It was fantastic! I hope to read more when you write it.

[Omar]

Nicely written Austin. Looking forward to reading more :)