12+1

The flight deck sprang to life at a moment’s notice, the planes flew one by one before grouping with one another. Their mission is to clear the airspace in the valley near Haytham.

The air group is composed of two squadrons, thirty planes in total. The first one, fighter group A is led by Caius. The second one, fighter group B, was led by Jupiter. Though they only have an enemy of 12 planes, they know their capabilities enough to worry. Their first course of action is to split and attack from the flanks, the goal is to separate the 12 Angels into easier numbers. They would be supported by both flak fire and SAM sites that are placed on the hill by the valley.

But even then, they feel their chances of winning are slim.

Fighter group A is in position, they flew on the left hand side of the flank. This is where the ground support would be thinnest as they would focus most of their fire on the right hand flanks with fighter group B. Caius felt his nerves, but it’s nothing that a bit of candy couldn’t fix. As he laid his eyes upon the blue horizon of the sky, he saw them. 12 ominous figures flew in a vast V formation, they gunned for him.

They sought to decapitate the formation before it even formed up on them, immediately, Caius was alarmed by the plane’s internal communications that he had been locked on by six different enemy air. Over the distance, he saw the orange glow and the white misty trail of a missile fast approaching him.

He remained calm, even through the deafening noise of the alarms so loud he could not hear his heavy heart pounding. He charged head on with his crew, flicked on his flares, and dove down. His crew followed along, with the smoke and fire of the flares it seemed like they were the angels that descended to the battlefield.

They were still on the sights, being followed, they tried to stick to one another. Then, a furball. They split, and the enemy split, and now they chased one another. A madness of missile trails that lined white along the blue sky. Caius flew through the smoke, out of it, inside it. He could not hear himself think with all the dials flashing at his ears.

For every one they fell, two of their own fell as well. He gripped the stick tightly, maneuvering through hoops, through enemies, through his own men to such a point that even he started to feel dizzy. From all the missiles he evaded, from all the missiles he flared out, he felt invincible. He found himself behind an enemy fighter and chased after them, no matter what they tried to do, no matter what maneuvers they do, they can’t shake Caius off. They accepted their fate.

Planes fall from the sky, their parts drop to the battlefield like rain. Fighter group A pulled up and Caius contacted the carrier, “Fighter Group A clear, status check?” He declared.

“Good job, Fighter Group A.” Said Agrippa, “Fighter Group B is still out of contact, 5 klicks east give them support, over.”

“Affirmative, hear that? Head east.” His squadron flew east, in the distance they saw another dogfight happening. Something to the tune of 20 missiles flying through the sky all at once, Caius flicked on his radio, “Come in, Jupiter. What’s the status?”

“Not as well, I got ten guys down and I only got three of them.” She struggled, they were a superior foe but it seemed that they were avoiding her in particular. They were fast, yes, but they targeted her allies and not her.

“Spread out.” He ordered, his squadron spread out in a huge formation, they sought to engulf the remaining 3 in their fiery missiles. It’s a risky maneuver as they may hit each other along the way. But they did it regardless, one by one, the people beside him fell.

They struggled to shoot down the remaining three, but eventually, they did it. It only took a significant portion of their group to do so, in fact, of the original 30, only 9 remained. Caius sweated all over, his heart was pounding, his fingers were shaky and cold.

“This is Command,” The carrier radioed in, “There is a bogey coming in 10 kilomters away, from the north, we are still identifying it but it is advisable to check it over.” The fighter groups linked up and went north to face the last remaining enemy.

They felt confident in their numbers, but not in their skills. Caius felt it, despite being on an enclosed plane, despite being high up in the air, there was no wind. No noise, only the dead silence of nervosity.

Then, they see it. Like a black demon that charged straight for them, its wings akin to that of a raven yet despite such complexities it flew faster than they anticipated. Its glass cockpit was tinted to the point that they could not even see if there’s a pilot inside, it could be AI-manned for all they know, but its movements were too natural for any AI to be. Its tail bore a frightening insignia, the Cross of the Eternal Kingdom and a crown.

Instantly, Caius’ radio sparked to life, “ALL FIGHTER GROUPS RETREAT, THE ENEMY IS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL!” But it was too late, the aircraft was fast approaching. They were like convicts that still flew in the air, no escape, they were all locked simultaneously as if the aircraft could lock and fire at all of them all at once.

Armed with conviction, perhaps desperation, Caius grabbed tightly to his stick, flicked on a switch and yelled to his group, “FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!” the missiles flew. And a sense of horror washed over all of them, as if their time was nearly up.

It was all too sudden, there wasn’t even a lock, or a missile alert, but even then Caius felt he was hit. He jostled his stick to no avail, “Losing control! Losing control!” He declared as he plunged quickly towards the ground, his heart pounded louder, it raced faster than he could ever catch. In the heat of the moment he pulled the ejection tightly then? He was gone.

The parachute opened, and he witnessed the rest of his group be destroyed along with Jupiter, in the pressure, he passed out.

*

“Oh fuck!” Decimus yelled out, “LABIENUS! THE RADIO!” Labienus ran towards a radio commander, grabbing it and giving it to Decimus. Decimus handled it, dialed the carrier. Agrippa answered.

“I know.” Said Agrippa, “We already have a foothold, we’re figuring out where they crashed. If you can spare a squad, I want you to extract them.”

“Agrippa, Agrippa,” Decimus felt himself in a panic, “rearm your pilots for air to surface, I can spare a squad only if you can free us a bit more.”

“It would take us a while to rearm, we’ve lost a lot of men, Decimus.”

“And so have I! We can’t go to their crash zone until we can make them stop for a bit, do you not understand!?”

Agrippa sighed, “I understand. May the gods save their souls.” The call is dropped. It was a moment of weakness for them, he heard their radios. How they felt leisurely, locked onto the enemy for long seconds but never taking the shot. Agrippa smacked his desk in frustration, frustration upon himself, frustration upon their arrogance.

He doesn’t know what he would say to Julius, he ordered for the rearmament as soon as possible. He wanted that expedition party out as soon as possible, he wanted it all done as soon as possible. He would go there himself if he had to.

And now, he had to.