Dead Midnight
Note: All events you are about to read are true, and have not been altered in any way to protect the authenticity of this document· Names have been changed to shield the persons involved. This document is property of the United States Navy. There will be criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of this official document (Title 17 U.S. Code, Section 501 and 506). All illegal events are investigated by the FBI and may constitute a felony charge with a maximum of a $400,000 fine and/or up to 20 years in prison (Title 17 U.S. Code, Section 506).
C/A Air Force Base, China
“Tower, this is Echo. Ready for take off on go,” I said in an even tone after strapping into the seat of Mitternacht. The old girl was purring like a cat that was well taken care of. Of course, it was more like a constantly purring, 15 foot tall thunderstorm then a cute fuzzy little animal. Well… I really have never heard a thunderstorm constantly purring, but if I ever did hear one, I am sure it would be similar to what I was hearing now.
“Echo, this is Tower, you are cleared for take off. Smooth skies and clear horizons. See you when you get home.”
To me the voice was oddly clichéd. Perhaps I had been watching too many war movies. You never know. But when I thought about it, the Tower always had a male voice, deep in tone with the scratchy sound of a crappy radio transmission. Ah well. So much for hearing the soothing voice of a female. I gunned the gas forward, while simultaneously releasing the brakes. My hand took hold of the stick and worked various panels, as the A-10 Thunderbolt II began to roll forward. By Air Force standards, it was an old design, but well worth its weight in gold. And that would be hell of a lot. It wasn’t nicknamed the “Warthog” for no reason. And it sure packed a punch! Any ground target would shiver in fear when hearing the roaring engines of Mitternacht! Especially since the Air Force had upgraded the beast with a LASTE, which in case you do not know, stands for Low Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancement system. With it, the bombsight and thirty millimeter, seven barreled, tank killing GAU-8 “Avenger” Gatling gun has a very deadly aim, as well as an autopilot and a chic inertial navigation system. Of course that doesn’t mean I am free and clear. As the pilot I am responsible for steady aim as well. This wasn’t the age of robots. Well, that and I had added my own personal touch to it. The body was painted a dark grey, nearly black, and the nose had an ethereal greyish touch up to it. As the wings caught the air, Mitternacht took to the sky. “Like an angel of judgment, in all its sound fury,” I cooed poetically. That isn’t to say I enjoyed killing. On the contrary. I believed that my actions were to prevent further killing in the future. Or so I thought, as well as most of the pilots in the 243rd Tactical Fighter Squadron. Mitternacht’s speed slowly increased to 375 knots, and there I held it steady. I climbed higher and higher into the darkening sky, evening out the altimeter when it reached 6,000 feet. I gave her a 185 degree turn, slowly. There was no rush to get where I was going. It was, after all, just another patrol.
“Echo, this is Ace-man, coming up on your tail and entering slot right.” Another A-10 came up on my right side, slightly behind and low.
“Ace-man, this is Echo, I copy that. Glad to have you on board. How is life these days,” I asked merrily.
“Oh, you know. Just the usual. Dropping ordinance here and there, having fights with the woman, seeing the kids every so often, drinking, smoking, and partying with the boys in the sky,” Came the other mans slow drawl.
“You make me glad I’m not married Ace-man,” I replied sarcastically.
“You’ll see,” Ace-man replied in an equally sarcastic tone. “One day when you get old enough to marry, you’ll see your entire life flash before your eyes, and you’ll realize that your life sucks.”
“I doubt that,” I stated with a emphatic chuckle. “So when yours flashed by, what did you see?”
“Junk food and women,” came the simple reply.
“Sounds amazing,” I responded. “Now let’s get back to work.”
“Yeah. Talking about my wife scares me,” Ace-man agreed a little too whole heartedly. I had never met the man or his wife before, but from what he often talked about over the radio, it must be depressing. Marriage I mean. The whole idea sent shivers down my spine. Anyways. There the two of us were in flight, engines deafening, though our gear made it easier to hear. Thank god, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to hear the comm. as it crackled to life about 15 minutes later.
“Echo Patrol, this Ground Command. Do you copy?”
“Ground command, this is Echo Patrol. We read you loud and clear. Nothing on radar and all shows green,” I stated as I looked at my HUD (Heads Up Display).
“Echo Patrol, this is Ground Command, reset your course for Oh, Two, four, niner.”
“This is Echo Patrol, Any reason for the change in plans?”
“Open war declared from the government of China. Chinese Government has requested United States support. Dissident movement in the Guangxi-Zhuang Autonomous Region. Radical forces are heading north east in vicinity. Mission, stop and destroy the insurgent forces armor before it reaches outlying province. Confirm order Echo Patrol.”
“This is Echo Patrol, Command confirmed. Are proceeding to location,” I replied, tone dead serious as I turned the plane into the right heading with a little more urgency then before. I still could not hold back the smile that clung to my lips. The Chinese superpower was beginning to crumble under the weight of its own distraught people. Open war had broke out. “And so it begins…”
Approaching the Guangxi-Zhuang Autonomous Region
“Climbing at 500 fpm, holding steady at 430 mph,” Ace-man drawled in a bored tone. And yet as I listened to him, it seemed to have a cutting edge to it. “Leveling at 20,000 feet…now. Hey Echo, you read anything yet on your HUD?”
I scanned my TV. That s what I called it. It was more like a camcorder though. A camera sat on the nose of Mitternacht and transferred a visual image onto a screen in the cockpit. Nope. Nothing there. “Either these guys travel fast, or command lied to us. Gotta be the first. Command never lies.” I tapped the screen just to be sure it was working. Of course tapping it wouldn’t really do much to help it. Don’t judge me.
“Bull s**t,” Ace-man retorted. “I never got that pay raise they promised.”
“They promised,” I asked doubtfully.
“Ok ok. They said that they would look into it.” There was a pause. “Echo…what do you think about this mission?”
“It’s a mission. We have our orders.”
“Yeah yeah I know. But I can’t help but feel that something ain’t right.”
“You over think these things Ace-man,” I clucked.
“I still don’t know man.”
A very human chill ran up my spine. This is wonderful. He even had me worried.
The Skies above the Guangxi-Zhuang Autonomous Region
We still hadn’t seen anything. And we lowered ourselves to 10,000 feet. We had to put on our NVGs(Night Vision Goggles) to see things around us. I was beginning to think we were too late. But that wasn’t going to be much longer. A few moments later my pilot’s eye caught sight of a caravan of vehicles moving toward our position at a rapid pace. “Hey Ace-man! Wake up. Found them moving directly for our position. So far they look cold, but after we hit them it’ll be getting pretty hot. As of now I see… four troop carriers, A jeep, and four … God in heaven! They have Tigers, man!” Of course any pilot would know that Tigers were the animal reference to the most heavily armored tank that the Far East provided, with over 280mm of metal protecting its soft innards. Of course any decent pilot would know that this was only frontal armor, and its weakness would be assaulting them from behind. However, in this situation they would waste precious time trying to get behind.
“Finally some action,” Ace-man replied mordantly. “s**t. This is gonna be a toughie. Lucky these are just rebels and don’t have any air forces.”
“Don’t even joke about that,” I replied as my hands flipped the safeties off my weapons. You have already heard about the Avenger, but did I tell you about our ordinance we were packing? No? Didn’t think so. Each of us was fitted with four Mavericks a piece, a popular anti-tank missile, and four AIM-9 Sidewinder air to air missiles. We also had a ECM (Electronic Countermeasure) Pod so that we would be harder to track. For this mission we would be sticking with Mavericks and out guns. “Remember, only hit the armor. The transports aren’t our responsibility. Set down to 6,000 feet and strike the forward tank, then break right. Hit the one just behind it on your second pass. I’ll be 1,000 feet above you and hit the one in the rear to prevent a swift escape, and then hit the remaining Tiger on my second pass. Simple Dive bomb passes. After that, head for the high ground and off home we go.”
“Will do Echo. Primed, hot and ready.”
Our planes came in quick, as the distant specks became more visible. Slowly I eased on my stick to a 35 degree dive bomb maneuver. I slowly got my target and with the simple press of a button chaos ensued. I kept the tank in sight to ensure a swift and successful glide for the Maverick. The night sky lit up as the target exploded in a fiery mess. I jammed my stick back and to the left. Rising into the air and turning at the same time. I noticed a second fire burning some 500 feet to my left, and smiled. Ace-man had sunk his own teeth into the prey. I sped off and saw little flashes from around the Troop Carriers. Those little rice pickers would have to do better then that to knock the Mitternacht out of the sky! Then again, they might get lucky and hit me, and that was a cause for worry. I made a deeper pass this time, a 45 degree angle on the second tank. Luck seemed to be the word of the day as I had managed to spin behind the Tiger, and switched to guns. keeping the plane steady, I centered the reticule on my target. I heard a resounding boom and saw the tank lurch. A very poor shot, but I always preferred to minimize unnecessary risks. As the Mitternacht entered range I laid in on the tank, fired 30 rounds in a half second burst. My speed lowered in that half second from 400mph to 360 mph, and made me feel that much more vulnerable. Lucky for me, I had hit the weaker backside of the Tiger, and it seemed to implode. I felt sorry for whoever was in the damn thing. I began a solid climb and met up with Ace-man. I looked down and noticed all four fires retreating as we sped away.
“Mission is a success. Let’s get to HQ (Head Quarters) for some Rest and Relaxation.”
“Yee ha,” I said mockingly. “More like college homework for me, and a bitchy wife for you.”
“Come on man, loosen up.”
A sudden beeping noise caught my attention. “s**t! Someone’s trying to lock! Break hard! Go!”
“********! ********! ********,” Was the only response as we each broke off in separate directions. I swear I was close to hyperventilating, but then my warning light flickered off as I twisted and turned erratically. However I knew we weren’t out of the water yet. “Damn! They are on me! Attempting to evade! I can’t see them! ********! Get these guys off me!”
Ace-mans frantic nagging got me spurring into action as I searched for his plane and saw what was giving chase. It didn’t make me feel better. “Ace-man, I have point on two SU-27s! Keep them busy, I’m going to slip behind them and see if I can get a shot!”
“********! What are the Ruskies doing here! Two SU-27s?! And he tells me to keep them busy?! ******** you man!”
“Good boy,” I cooed as I set up to chasing the Russian Super Fighter. Something any sane man wouldn’t do. But what did he care. He couldn’t outrun them. The A-10 was a ground fighter, and got 450 mph max. The SU-27s were known to reach Mach 2.35, which for your information is 1,460 mph, thank you very much. We didn’t really stand a chance, but lucky for me, these wise guys wanted to play around first, following Ace-man doggedly. That was enough to get me in position, still on my guns so I didn’t warn them with a lock. I didn’t fire. I didn’t know whether the Ruskies were up to their usual cat and mouse game, or if they were here to kill us. I got my answer soon though, as the lead SU027 fired upon Ace-man, who narrowly escaped the shot with a sharp turn. Free from my sight and now having reason to fire, I bore down on the leading SU-27s wingman. Though the Gatling was normally used for anti-tank warfare, I felt like punishing the foolish Ruskies. Well, truthfully it wasn’t really foolish. Even one of them had a better chance of surviving then both me and Ace-mans A-10s. I saw the opposing aircraft get shredded in the hailstorm of bullets, and it made me proud. No one at home was ever going to believe that an A-10 destroyed a SU-27. The cocky leader broke away from Ace-man and flew in an inconsistent pattern, as if to wag his tail at me. He wasn’t speeding off for a long range pass, which surprised me. I had no doubt that would have been his best choice. I saw his engines flare suddenly, as the nose of the enemy fighter began to pull back sharply. I wondered what in gods name he was doing, but suddenly my missile detection system lit up and I understood what the damn thing had done. It was known as a Cobra strike, wherein the SU-27 had snapped the forward part of the plane back, to get a shot at his follower from an almost upside down position while still moving forward. After the shot he had snapped back forward like a snake striking out. Thus the Cobra designation. I flipped on my ECM and launched the pod, hoping it would catch the missiles eye and get targeted instead. I heard a boom, and I was still alive. My ploy had worked. But that was the only pod I had, and the Enemy had returned to chasing Ace-man. Suddenly the Ruskie veered of, increasing its speed dramatically. But it seemed too late as a missile streaked into range and obliterated the remaining fighter. That is when I looked back and saw a F-15 Eagle streak by.
“Echo Patrol this is Foxy,” The female voice cooed teasingly. “Thought you could use a hand.”
That wasn’t my main concern though. I twisted the nose of my plane and searched for Ace-man. “Hey Ace-man, you ok,” I called out. “Where are you?”
After a few moments of terrifying silence I heard the crackling sound of a bad radio. “Echo, thi … Ace-man. I’m hit, bu… I’ll make it back. I am… 10 miles south of your position and mov… to base at 260 mph. Don’t want to… the old girl. I think sh… seen her last days.”
I swung around and tailed him, and Foxy came back to escort us. “Hey Foxy, How did you know we needed the help?”
“Oh, I was in the neighborhood,” she replied in a bored tone. It was obviously a lie. And I thought I could hear the ‘Harrumph’ from Ace-man, but I couldn’t be sure. “Actually we just got word that Russia is ‘lending’ planes to the rebels and their cause. It is likely because the United States is siding with the Chinese Government. The rebels have been getting limited training from the Russians and aren’t the best pilots in the world.”
“I doubt that,” I replied in a serious tone. “That SU-27 pulled a Cobra on me. Whoever the hell they were, that lead plane was a first-class fighter. You can’t just invert your plane like that any old day you feel like it.”
“Well I don’t know. Anyways we are all alive,” She stated happily. There was the brief moment of silence before she spoke up again. And I didn’t like the flirtatious tone her voice carried. I knew this couldn’t turn out well. “So, what are you doing Friday night?”
“Er…nothing really. Finishing some homework and that’s it,” I managed to stammer in reply.
“How about going out with me since I saved your a**,” she cooed playfully. I swear I could hear Ace-man laughing at me. But only one thought entered my mind.
Oh s**t...
I was regretting wishing for that female voice.
Snohomish, WA, United States
Today was the day. He stepped from the shower and dried his lithe frame with a nearby towel quickly. A he walked into his bedroom he tossed the towel aside and slipped into black cargo pants, a Black skeleton and rose t-shirt, Skull leather belt, A black and crimson Chopper wristband, and a silver chained necklace, with a ring hanging from it. He was now officially ready. Picking up the phone, he dialed an assortment of numbers and heard the other end ring twice before a female voice picked it up.
“Hello Jeremy,” the voice said knowingly.
“How did you know,” He asked back wryly.
“God, are you that dense? I’ve only been waiting since yesterday night,” the voice said in happy, yet sarcastic tone.
“That long, huh? So when should I pick you up Vivian?”
“Whenever you want too. I’ll be waiting, Jeremy,” She replied smoothly before hanging up.
“Sure,” Jeremy muttered irritably. Putting the phone back on the hook. “Hey Jake, I’m going out for a while. Don’t you be out too late either, ok?” He opened the window just enough for Jake to get through. He tossed a leather jacket over his shoulder and took his aviators and keys. As he was about to close the door behind him, Jake squawked at him.He turned with a smile. “Yeah, Thanks Jake.” He closed the door and walked out to the 2003 Chevy SS convertible. He hopped into it and started the engine, peeling out to start his journey.
((To be continued))
