Three Strikes [✓]

The Calm Before

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Calm Before

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Sierraplata, Erusea.
September 2nd, 2019.
1012hrs.

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The flight to the mountain range that morning had been quiet to the point that it actually frustrated Naomi. She didn't like the quiet and yet none of her wingmen seemed interested in a conversation, at least not with her. Count had been upset ever since the briefing the day before and had been unusually quiet, Lanza seemed bored without Skald to talk to, and Jaeger seemed content not to say anything to any of them. The only good thing to come from the quiet, in Naomi's opinion, was that it gave her time to think about their strategy and who she might have doing what. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to bring her shiny new pulse lasers along on the mission, which is why Avril had made some adjustments to allow them to carry more missiles than they normally would be able to. All of that was perfectly fine, but the pulse lasers were a lot more fun to use and did more destruction. But she couldn't really complain.

As the four of them made their approach, a few AA guns showed up on their HUD and there were a few blips on the radar marking where the targets were. Far overhead and trailing slightly behind them, a B-2 Spirit bomber was waiting for them to reach the first silo and send the coordinates to them. So with the added pressure of being without Wiseman and having to keep an eye on everyone else without any help, she also had to make sure that the bombers stayed in the air and they managed to get all of the silos. Taking a deep breath and making sure to keep her voice steady, she radioed Long Caster, "Alright, Long Caster. This is Strider 1. We're entering the AO now, so just before we get started is there anything we should know?"

There was the sound of what Naomi guessed to be Long Caster chewing on...something crunchy. Probably potato chips, if she had to guess. As always, he was quick to swallow his snack and respond to her with his usual, lighthearted tone, "Actually, yes, now that you mention it. Erusea only has five IRBM silos in total, so they made a number of fake silos to try and throw our bombers off the scent."

To everyone's surprise, Count spoke up for the first time all morning. "Whoah, hold on a minute," he said, taken aback by what Long Caster had just told them. "Did you say 'fake'? How the hell is that supposed to work?"

"An optical illusion. A pretty damn good one, too," Long Caster replied without hesitating. "They're painted to look like the real thing from the sky, and unless you get way down low then you can't tell the difference."

Naomi nodded. "We'll find a way to figure it out. With how important this is, I don't want to waste any of the bombs if we can prevent it," she said. As they lowered their altitude below the clouds and just above the mountain range, she figured now was a good time to give everyone their orders. She remembered Wiseman mentioning that Lanza was better at air-to-ground fights, since he liked to fly low. So that gave her the answer to her first problem. Making herself as authoritative sounding and sure of her orders as she could, she called out, "Alright, Lanza, I want you to scout ahead and take out the anti-air weaponry. Count, Jaeger, for now you two stay with me. Any complaints?" She got none, and Lanza gave a quick confirmation that he understood his orders before he broke off from the squadron, picking off the AA guns that were along the way before he picked up speed and flew ahead of the rest of them.

As they approached the first missile silo, the B-2's two pilots began to chatter amongst themselves, one of them expressing doubt about the operation actually succeeding before his commander silenced him and said reassuringly, "Relax. It's the wing of the LRSSG that brought down the Arsenal Bird. Three Strikes is the leader. Solo Wing's daughter, remember? The one with the red wing?" Naomi was flattered by the reputation she had, but Count didn't share her sentiment and let out an audible sigh of annoyance. The B-2 commander finally addressed them directly, "We've got the bombs. We're counting on y'all to do the terminal guidance, so don't let us down, alright?"