circled to watch the results.
The top of the sail was already visible, a darker shape and peculiarly
stable against the churning water. Half of the sail had already slid back,
exposing the starkly gleaming launcher. A missile was already on the rails.
Rabies squinted. No sign of the torpedo or its telltale wake.
“She’s active-acquired!” the AW shouted. “Homing-homing-YES!”
Three short cheers echoed on the ICS, drowned out immediately by the
coldly professional recitation of the AW.
“Explosion-secondaries. Wait one-flow tones. Okay, that’s it. She’s
breaking up.”
Adrenaline surged through the pilot, making him almost giddy. For the
moment, he forgot about the eighty men below him, struggling against a torrent
of invading seawater, dying quickly in an explosion if lucky, drowning slowly
if they were not. Later, he knew, it would hit him, but for the moment the
sheer joy of the kill sang in his blood.
CHAPTER 26
Thursday, 4 July
1901 local (Zulu -7)
Tomcat 205
“Tallyho,” Bird Dog heard Batman call out, confirming contact on the
enemy aircraft. “Low and fast, probably counting on coming right out of the
sun low on the horizon.”
“You got them yet, Gator?” Bird Dog asked.
“Not yet. But I’ll take those JAST avionics on our lead anytime, if he’s
seeing them from this range!”
“Batman’s supposed to be as sharp as his bird. Not often we get to fly
wing on a full captain. Let’s just see if he’s still got it, after pushing a
desk in the Pentagon!”
The loose, orderly formation of Tomcats scattered. Bird Dog broke right,
following Batman to intercept the northernmost cell of enemy fighters. The
JAST bird was armed with four Sidewinders and two Sparrows, the weapons load
tailored to the lead’s preference for close-in kills. Five hundred feet above
and behind his lead, Bird Dog’s Tomcat carried the heavier and longer-range
Phoenixes, as well as an array of shorter-range missiles.
“Bogey to the north, Bird Dog,” Gator said. “No, wait! I lost him!
This little bastard pops in and out on my screen like a-hey, wait a minute!
You think this has anything to do with those ghosts we’ve been seeing?”
“Do I give a shit? Get me a goddamn target! You can’t hold that one,
pick another!”
“Getting contacts from the JAST bird now,” Gator muttered as the
targeting pip appeared on his HUD. “Damned tough to hold, though.”
“Take a shot, Bird Dog,” Batman ordered over the circuit.
“Fox one!” Bird Dog thumbed the switch and felt the aircraft jolt up as
the massive missile shot off the rails. Even if it missed, it lightened the
Tomcat, extending his time on station by decreasing his fuel consumption. He
held the Tomcat straight on in level flight, feeding targeting information to
the missile.
“Closure rate, one thousand knots,” his RIO said. Already, Gator had
ceased to exist as a separate presence, becoming instead a part of Bird Dog
and his aircraft, a voice feeding him information.
Aside from situations allowing the use of long-range missiles such as the
Phoenix, aerial combat was a battle for position and altitude. Aircraft
danced through the air, darting around each other and maneuvering for
position. Above and behind–the ultimate goal for position on an enemy.
Bird Dog nosed the F14 up, sacrificing a little airspeed for altitude.
With the enemy strike force approaching, he had little time to spare.
Altitude was something you could never have too much of.
1902 Local (Zulu -7)
Chinese F10
“Missile inbound,” the officer in the backseat howled. “Phoenix!”
“I’ve got it,” Mein Low swore. He cut the aircraft into a sharp turn,
heading nose-on to the missile to reduce their radar cross section. The F10’s
avionics examined the radar signal and radiated countermeasures intended to
defeat detection and targeting.
Mein Low scanned the sky, knowing the missile was too far away to see but
trying anyway. Over his tactical circuit, he could hear aircraft in the
strike calling out targets, dividing up the launching American fighters
between themselves.
No matter. He was flight leader, and the first aircraft they saw would
be his–As well as the first kill.
The long-range Phoenix missiles were not the ones that worried him most.