Chapter 76 - Saturation Attack

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Pacific Ocean: 360 km west of San Francisco

"It's them..."

Just beside the clouds that hovered below, a number of wakes were visible. Thanks to Lieutenant Henderson's courageous efforts to keep in contact with the enemy fleet and to keep transmitting their positions, the attack group led by Commander Porter soon spotted the enemy fleet. The pulse of the SB2C Helldiver that he piloted, and the honor of being the pioneer, was seeping into his heart.

For some reason, he couldn't see combat air patrols in sight, but the Japanese fleet, now in possession of alien technology, must have a vicious arsenal of weapons. But beyond this point, there was only the mainland. For the sake of their beloved homeland, and by extension, for the good of all mankind, they had no choice but to attempt to destroy the Japanese fleet here, no matter the cost. Naturally, he was prepared to give up his own life as well.

"Commander, all the bandwidth is full of chatter from friendlies," Lieutenant Miller, the radio operator, cheerily reported. "And Canadian accents and King's English."

"Our allies from all over the planet are watching us fight."

Porter gulped and swallowed his pit as he spoke.

These were fearless, good pilots who have lived in the same skies. The smiling faces of these nameless men, regardless of their nationality or affiliation, kept coming into his mind, and they were unanimous in their appeal for him to join them in the fight against Satan's legions.

"Alright, let's go—"

"Commander, the enemy has begun jamming our comms."

"Hmph, now? Too late."

Of course, they expected the enemy to interfere with their comms. He quickly pulled out his signal gun and opened the window of his plane. He then extended his arm and fired quickly. The flare flew off and exploded in a bright red rose-like flower in the sky.

"You lot, let's attack!" Porter yelled.

The F4Us and F6Fs were the first to begin their power dives. The tactic was to suppress the enemy ship's anti-air armament with rockets suspended under the wings and then with a furious machine-gun barrage.

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Nevada: Las Vegas Army Airfield

Bombers such as A-26 Invaders and B-25 Mitchells lined the sides of the runways. Air groups of mainly single-engine planes were dispersed to air bases in the Pacific states, twin-engine bomber groups were deployed throughout the western mountain states, and large four-engine bombers were kept in reserve in states such as Colorado and New Mexico. At the second level of the three-tiered interception formation, they would use their signature skip-bombing maneuver to pound the sides of the enemy ship with their deadly 1.000-pound bombs.

"The Navy bastards would have already started fighting. I can understand that frustration."

The squadron leader addressed the stern-faced heroes in a clear and conciliatory tone.

"The most important thing, however, is to turn the coalition fleet of those Japs and alien SOBs into a sea of debris. We can only win if we all work together as one team, skillfully coordinate our efforts, and fight through the battle at any cost. So while there may be some frustration, for today, there is no such thing as a Navy Bastard or a Limey. Let's fight hard with them sailors and Brits and still come out on top!"

"I still can't accept those flying kangaroos took away our best shot!"

"We can't let them hockey jockeys beat us either!"

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