“Lucky I’m not behind the wheel right now,” he muttered with a grin, not concentrating anywhere near enough on what he was doing. His ground speed increased, and it was only as the F-35E drew near to take off speed that he realised he’d misjudged his run and was headed directly for a small tanker truck and trailer parked at the end of the taxi lane. Well beyond the point of no return, Thorne could only jam his throttles fully forward and haul back on the stick as hard as he could in the hope there was enough runway left. The wheels lifted from the concrete — finally — and he immediately lifted his port wing slightly, all humour gone from his tense features as it cleared the rear trailer of the tanker by scant metres.
Even over the roar of his own powerplant, he heard and felt the faint rumble behind him as Davies’ Raptor accelerated down the runway at a tremendous rate and lurched skyward, immediately entering into a steep climb under full afterburner and vectored thrust. The Galaxy and Extender were both taxiing now, but it’d still be several minutes before either made it into the sky and even longer before they reached a safe altitude. As Thorne took the F-35E past 300 metres and pushed into a shallow bank to the west, he cast his eyes over his left shoulder with real concern: either of those big jets would be an irresistible target for an attacker, and both were irreplaceable and vital to their mission.
Most of the important cargo had been unloaded and dispersed about the base to keep it safe, however what couldn’t be unloaded quickly were the computer systems stored at the rear of the Galaxy’s upper deck. Within those processors’ memory banks and hard drives were vitally-important technical drawings that were the equivalent of millions of pages of blueprints. If they were lost, there was a more than fair chance Germany might be able to conquer the entire planet… or at the very least become the unassailable master of all of Europe.
The gruppe of fighters and bombers reached the coast quite close to the emplacement at Rora Head and skimmed low around the western heights of Hoy as they roared past, just a few dozen metres above Berriedale Wood. They were less than ninety seconds of flight time away from the Hindsight runway and surrounding buildings as the B-13As and their escorts reached the crest of Ward Hill and finally became visible to AA gunners and radar tracking systems alike. With the guns and bombs at their disposal, the pilots fully expected to inflict serious damage on the targets they’d been assigned: four special aircraft that they expected to find sheltering at the base ahead
Flak began to burst around them as the bombers flew within range of the nearest of the heavier AA guns, a few of the Home Fleet’s warships at the near end of the anchorage also letting fly with their larger DP gun mounts from the far left of the aircraft as they flew on. The bursting shrapnel was initially high and off target, but gradually grew closer as gun crews got their range. A few more seconds, and the northern-most quartet group of fighters lost one of their flight to some well-aimed 3.7-inch guns, while a second was destroyed completely by a direct hit from a four-inch anti-aircraft shell fired from the battlecruiser HMS Renown in the anchorage further north.
It wasn’t long before the heavy AA fire began to fall away however. As the range between the guns and aircraft narrowed it became increasingly difficult for the gun-layers of the heavy 3.7- and 4.5-inch guns of the naval base and airfield to keep up with the constant changes to fuse settings. The guns were primarily intended for high-altitude use after all, and as the black clouds of bursting flak began to fall behind the formation, the battle was taken up by a pair of 40mm Bofors medium batteries to the north- and south-east.
The flight plan had been devised specifically to take them between the firing arcs of the two batteries, the positions of which Luftwaffe Intelligence was quite aware of, and they were firing from the very extremity of their own effective ranges. Even so, three more aircraft fell prey to their direct fire: one fighter was destroyed, and two bombers were damaged to the point that they were unable to press home their attack. The stricken B-13As peeled up and away to the north, both trailing smoke.
At a distance that was now less than five kilometres, all could see Davies’ F-22, its broad wing and fuselage surfaces flashing in the morning sun as it hurtled along the runway and launched itself into the sky at an incredible rate. Some of the pilots also spotted the F-35E banking around at low altitude a moment later.
“Enemy aircraft airborne, Herr Hauptmann!” The gruppe-leader’s wingman observed excitedly over the radio “Circling over the hangars to port of the runway and turning onto our position…!”
“Shit on that!” His superior snapped with equal fervour, momentarily losing his professional attitude as they also caught sight of the Galaxy and Extender on the taxiway beyond the main hangar buildings, moving out to line up for take off. “Look at the size of those bastards parked at the end of the runway! All units — primary targets are in sight: two large aircraft at the far end of the main landing strip. Drop tanks and weapons free. Watch your altitude, gentlemen: anything that big is liable to go up with a big show!”
Empty auxiliary fuel tanks fell away from the aircraft as they prepared for attack, but the commander’s words were his last as the western Tunguska opened up on one aircraft with its twin 30mm cannon from the flight’s starboard flank and simultaneously fired a pair of 57E6-E missiles targeted on two others. The second 2K22M flak on the far side of the base loosed two missiles also, although it was still too far away to engage with its cannon. A two-stage missile with a boost phase during launch, they quickly accelerated to a speed faster even than the shells from the Tunguskas’ own cannon and arched across the distance between their launchers and the nearer targets in less than four seconds.
The flight commander and his crew died instantly, their aircraft disintegrating in the blast of a direct hit from one missile’s 20kg warhead as three more around it met a similar fate and a fifth was shredded by an eighty-round burst from the nearer Tunguska’s twin cannon. Five more fell a moment later, leaving the flight down almost half its entire strength within ten seconds of firing. Wreckage was strewn all about the western perimeter of the base, starting small spot fires here and there as each site released trails of black smoke into the sky.
The anti-aircraft vehicles might well have dealt with the entire formation within a few more seconds had both units’ tracking radars not registered the presence of Thorne’s F-35E as it flew within their firing arc. The Tunguskas’ missiles were guided by radar and her guns aimed optically, and both were incredibly accurate with a 70-90% hit probability, but a cannon shell or missile warhead were indiscriminate all the same and nothing would save any aircraft that strayed into either’s path inadvertently in the desperate throes of air combat. The IFF transponder inside the F-35E’s fuselage was recognised instantly, and the automated safety overrides on both vehicles immediately shut down their firing systems in response so as to not endanger a ‘friendly’.