“Damn,” Bunny said. She started tapping her keys, but the screen stayed black. She jabbed her touchscreen and dragged a finger across it. “Breaking off!”
“What?” Rodriguez asked. “Did we lose the feed?”
“No,” Bunny replied, her voice ice cold and angry. “We just lost a damn Fantom!”
Perri Tungyan shivered uncontrollably. He needed to get warm, but that would have to wait. He was watching an invasion unfold right in front of him. He’d scurried up the hill to the old gas station and kicked in the door. It wasn’t locked, just stuck. He’d been up there with other kids a few years back, looking for anything that could be salvaged and sold, but the place had been stripped clean. There was a shop and cashier area with broken windows looking out and down on the town, and Perri crouched behind the cashier desk with his wet blanket around him, his body heat warming the seal fur just enough to stop him going into shock.
The clutter of buildings that was the village of Gambell hid from view what was happening down there, but he could clearly see the military transports and soldiers down at the airstrip unloading crates and vehicles from them. As each chopper was emptied, it would take off and head West, and a new helicopter would fly in and take its place.
He almost missed the Verba ground to air missile leap into the air and zoom toward the horizon.
From the corner of his eye, at the far end of the runway across the bay, he picked up a flash and then a blossom of white smoke. A finger of light, almost like a laser, flashed across the sky and disappeared in a second, leaving a trail of wispy vapor in the air behind it, showing where the missile was headed. Looking at where it had come from, Perri saw soldiers standing around some kind of tripod by a small trailer, struggling to lift another missile out of a crate and fit it to the rails of a launcher mounted on the tripod and connected to a small antenna.
Suddenly he saw them look up, and then punch their fists in the air. They began clapping each other’s shoulders until one who must have been their officer slapped one across the head and they bent to the task of reloading their missile launcher again. Whatever they had shot at, they must have hit it.
“Shit’s getting real now!” Perri heard a voice say behind him, and he spun around.
“ANR my systems are reporting the destruction of one of my drones by possible enemy fire over Gambell!” Bunny said. “Can you parse the data and check for Russian ground to air missile radar signatures?”
“Roger NCTAMS, parsing,” came the reply. “Pull back to your former waypoint.”
Alicia Rodriguez had her eyes glued to the video feed from the remaining Fantoms. They had dropped back down to wavetop level and were pulling out to sea south of the Island.
“Acknowledged, ANR, completing egress,” Bunny said. “I’ve got enemy flight B moving down through 20,000. They’re wide awake now, it must have been a missile strike.” Her threat display was not showing either ground or air radar with a lock on her remaining three drones but that couldn’t last, with a flight of what looked like at least nine Mig-41s headed her way.
“Got your feed NCTAMS, copy your analysis,” the air controller said. “We are showing a ground to air missile launch at the time you lost contact with your bird. Break off one bird and give us a high-speed pass over Gambell please, we want to get a sniff of the ordnance Ivan has on the ground there. We’ll have a satellite in place in 20 minutes, but for now, you are the only eyes over that island.”
“Roger ANR, do we have any assets in the ops area capable of jamming Russian anti-air systems?” Bunny asked.
“Negative NCTAMS,” the controller said. “You have the only electronic-warfare capable platform in the operations area.”
“Request permission to suppress enemy air defenses if identified,” Bunny asked. “I have already lost one bird.”
“Negative NCTAMS, you are not to open fire on Russian ground or air units, understood?”
“Understood ANR. NCTAMS out,” Bunny said through gritted teeth.
An alarm sounded as one of her Fantoms parked south of the Island reported a radar sweep by one of the Russian fighters bearing down on her. Rodriguez expected Bunny to react, but she ignored it, staying focused on the one drone that was fast approaching Gambell.
“Your Fantoms are being hunted by the Russian fighters,” Halifax said.
“Yes sir,” Bunny said. “But all they’re seeing are ghosts right now. If they had a fix, you’d see them light me up for real. And as soon as they light up their fire control radars, I’ll have a solid Cuda lock. See if we can bluff them into breaking off.”
“Don’t push it Lieutenant. It’s too soon in this little catfight for us to be throwing more hardware away,” Rodriguez cautioned.
“Yes ma’am,” Bunny said, pushing her master throttle forward. “Fantom 1–3 going mach 1.5. Feet dry in five!” she murmured, then a few seconds later, “I have eyes on the target. Jamming.” The Fantom had limited radar jamming capability but it wouldn’t help at all against optical or IR guided missiles.
Six eyes glued themselves to the video feed as the Fantom popped up, swept in over Gambell airstrip and banked hard, curving over the village itself.
“Missile launch!” Bunny called. Her combat AI deployed flares and chaff then threw the Fantom into a wrenching 180-degree turn sending it out over the sea again. After a couple of seconds it was clear the missile would miss, and Rodriguez caught her breath again. Bunny spooled the recon data backwards on a screen.
“NCTAMS to ANR, I am showing multiple aircraft on the ground, A.I. is calling them rotary winged heavy transports. From the vision, I’m going to guess more Mi-26s.” She replayed the video from the overflight, “At least five, with two more inbound, one moving west, about ten miles out. I have ground target heat signatures, probably motor vehicles, mostly stationary… and… bingo. I got an optical and electronic signature lock on a Russian Verba ground to air mobile missile unit. Probably networked given the range at which the swine brought down one of my Fantoms. You got enough ANR or do you want another pass? I’m showing those Migs moving in for a closer look.”
There was a moment of static before the controller came back, “Reviewing now… NCTAMS we need another pass, further east. Sending you coordinates.”
“Damn,” Bunny said to herself. “One dead Fantom not enough?” Her console chimed as another short-range air search radar swept across her machine. With every passing minute headed north out to sea she was increasing the separation between the patrolling Russians and her recon bird, but they were decreasing the separation to her two drones orbiting uselessly in the south.
“Coming around. Lighting burner. Four minutes to objective,” Bunny announced, her eyes flicking from screen to screen as she monitored both the threats to her two parked fighters and the ingress of the recon drone. The newly enhanced Russian Verba man-portable missile system was now able to link up with other ground and air radar data sources to track its targets, turning it from what had once been a nuisance, into a deadly threat.
“Air or ground radar will pick you up at that airspeed.” Rodriguez pointed out.
“And that Verba will swat me if I go in subsonic ma’am,” Bunny replied.
Rodriguez had to leave the mission execution to her pilot, but she couldn’t help pointing out the obvious. The Russian fighters had begun moving with intent toward the two orbiting Fantoms.
Rodriguez looked over at Halifax and caught his eye.
“If those Russian fighters engage Lieutenant, you are to evade and withdraw,” Halifax said.