CARRIER 2: VIPER STRIKE By Keith Douglass

trying to break Tombstone’s aim.

Puffs of smoke appeared on the tail section, and bits and pieces of

metal began falling away. Tombstone kept the trigger depressed, firing

round after round after high-velocity round into the stricken aircraft.

The MiG fell.

0755 hours, 21 January

MiG 612, south of U Feng

Colonel Wu knew the aircraft was lost when he pulled back on the stick

and felt no response in the controls at all. The ground was twisting

crazily as his MiG began tumbling, and still the American’s cannon

shells were crashing into the plane, shredding hull metal and control

surfaces and electronic circuitry. His control console was lit with a

dozen systems-failure lights, and the fire warning light was on.

“Dragon, Dragon,” he called over the radio. “This is Dragon Leader.

Break off the attack. Regroup, then make for Fuhsingchen. Repeat, make

for Fuhsingchen.”

It was useless to continue. Half of his unit was destroyed or would

never fly again, and the Americans were on their guard. By ordering his

people to break off, perhaps some would survive. Perhaps General Hsiao

would be able to reorganize the unit back in the People’s Republic.

He felt a savage bitterness at the failure of Hsiao’s plan. It was the

American carrier planes that had broken the operation. The coup, he

thought, might yet succeed.

But it would fail or succeed without the help of his Dragons.

The American had stopped firing, whether because he was out of ammo or

because he’d lost a workable firing angle, Wu couldn’t tell. His

surviving pilots began acknowledging his last transmission as his MiG

fell toward the ground, now some eight thousand feet below. It was time

to abandon the aircraft.

He hit the canopy release, bracing himself for the blast of wind which

buffeted him full force as soon as the cockpit was open. Then he

grabbed the ejection handle and pulled.

The ejection seat’s rockets fired, rocketing him clear of the aircraft.

It was unfortunate for Colonel Wu that the canopy had not separated

completely from the aircraft, a defect in the original Soviet design

which had never been corrected by the Chinese engineers who’d reworked

the J-7.

Wu’s body slammed into the cockpit at two hundred miles per hour. His

chute opened and lowered him gently to the floor of the Taeng Valley,

but he was dead long before he hit the ground.

0755 hours, 21 January

Tomcat 201, over U Feng

Tombstone watched the stricken MiG fall into the jungle and wondered who

he’d just been facing. That guy had not been That, had certainly not

been Burmese. Chinese?

“He’s gone, Tombstone,” Dixie said. “And it looks like the other

bandits are breaking off.”

Tombstone didn’t answer. At Wonsan he’d led his men into combat,

knowing who the enemy was, knowing that they fought to save American

hostages held by the North Koreans. But this … this was different.

He found that, like millions of military men before him, he wasn’t

entirely sure what he was fighting for … or why.

“Tombstone? We’re bingo fuel. We’ve gotta get this bitch to a

Texaco.”

“Right, Dix. Whistle ’em up and let’s get a drink.”

There would be time for analysis later.

0800 hours, 21 January

U Feng

Once the remaining Q-5s turned away from the That LZ, the rest of the

battle was anticlimax. The RTAF Hueys and the Marine helos on loan to

the That airmobile forces lifted from the jungle clearing at almost the

same moment that the American Hornets were hitting SAM sites at U Feng

and along the Taeng River Valley. Ten surviving RTAF planes regrouped

at Chiang Mai as the last of the enemy aircraft vanished across the

border, and control of Thailand’s skies returned to the Thais.

Within moments, the A-6F Intruders of VA-84, the Blue Rangers, call sign

Thunderbird, roared out of the south, scattering antipersonnel bomblets.

On the airstrip and among the barracks at U Feng, Burmese soldiers, That

rebels, and drug lord militiamen died by the tens … by the hundreds,

cut down by shrapnel like wheat before a scythe. Orange flames leaped

into the sky, and a pall of smoke hung above U Feng like a shroud.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *