by Tom Jones
“Sir, we found some information which may be related to the MAV-29,” a CDI intelligence operative spoke to his supervisor. The supervisor approached the operative’s computer, and he looked at the screen, “A set of coordinates? Where do they lead to?” The intelligence operative replied, “Currently, they put us in the middle of the United States, but we already dispatched a UAV to do a flyover of the location. The UAV should be approaching the target location within the next couple of minutes.” The supervisor was skeptical as to how these coordinates would be related to the MAV-29, “How does this relate to the prototype?” The operative replied, “This location does not appear to be too terribly far from the CDI base which held the prototype to begin with. We asked the base nearest to the coordinates to dispatch a UAV, and they’ve already sent one.” The supervisor decided to stand by and see if the coordinates led to anything special or not.
The CDI Sukhoi S-70 finally approached the target area, and it flew over the zone where the coordinates led to. The drone’s sleek design prevented it from having a large radar cross-section, and this low RCS would allow for the UAV to come close enough to the facility in question without it being detected by any sort of radar equipment. As the Hunter-B flew over the target area, the camera picked up infrastructure on the ground which was blotted out from satellite imagery. The CDI supervisor was seeing a live feed of the UAV’s camera, so he was able to see the infrastructure for himself, “Shit… Those buildings didn’t appear on the satellite images, did they?” The intelligence operative replied, “No sir. The satellite shows absolutely nothing here. No buildings, no anything.” Though the MAV-29 was not visible from the drone’s perspective, the CDI supervisor was already convinced that the vehicle they sought was most likely contained within the buildings. After all, they looked large enough to house the prototype if it was there, “Those hangars look large enough to hold the MAV-29.” The intelligence operative reminded his supervisor that they had no confirmation on the location of the prototype, “We can’t be sure that it’s in there.” The supervisor decided to take a large risk, “I want to know what exactly is in that building. If it’s not the MAV-29, they’ve got to know something important.” The intelligence operative did not understand what his supervisor meant at first, “But sir, this drone cannot see --” The supervisor interrupted the operative, “I want a strike force sent to that location. Maybe this place is related to the base we attacked back in ‘28. That’s how we were able to develop the Arvak in the first place.” The intelligence operative gave a nod, “Yes sir. I’ll alert the nearest bases.”
Within the next couple of days, CDI members studied the images they obtained of the base, and they plotted their plan to take the base over. The attack on the facility was given permission relatively easily, and the CDI forces began to assemble for their attack. Since CDI was already suspicious that the same faction which they took on at Devon Island would be present at this new location, they made sure to assume that there existed another vehicle like the Dreadnought that could be present at this new location. Even if the Dreadnought was not there, there would still be a decent chance of encountering the MAV-29 controlled by the hostile faction. After all, CDI was trying to recover their advanced prototype vehicle after it had been taken from them. This time, CDI was not playing around at all: They were sending in their most advanced fighter squadron composed of Su-57s and J-20s to obtain air superiority, and they were also going to send in plenty of ground units to take over the facility. Many infantrymen within the ground units would be armed with a new CDI weapon developed from the Omega Foundation’s XMP-1: The Multi Munitions Rifle - 1 was the latest in CDI weapons technology. Featuring plenty of design cues from the XMP-1, the MMR-1 featured a lighter design than its predecessor, a better targeting CPU, and uncompromised airburst functionality bundled with a standard rifle. CDI was armed to the teeth, and they were prepared to take the battle right to the Majestic 12’s front door. Though CDI had plenty more men, weapons, vehicles, and resources than the Majestic 12, the secret society was still anticipating an attack, and they were at high alert. Both sides were poised for what could very well be the ultimate showdown.
Chapter 14
Castle Offense Industries
“This is Monarch 1. We are approaching the target location. Standing by for ROE. Over,” the lead pilot of CDI’s advanced fighter squadron spoke over the radio to the CDI Boeing E-767 that was a fair bit away from the immediate area of operations but still close enough to have radar coverage of the combat site. The AWACS spoke over the radio, “Solid copy, Monarch 1. We have your squadron on radar. Establish and maintain air superiority over the target area and hold it until the ground forces have finished their mission. The ground forces will be arriving shortly: Current ETA is ten minutes. Take out any anti-air emplacements that you can see. Over.” Monarch 1 pushed the flight stick down so that his Sukhoi Su-57 Felon would drop to a lower altitude that would allow him to have a better view of the facility itself. As the flight lead went down for a closer look, the rest of the aircraft in the Monarch Squadron followed, but it was not long before they diverted their course after seeing a railgun emerging from a hidden compartment on the base.
“Woah, break off!” Monarch 1 said to his squadron. The four Su-57 Felons and J-20 Firefangs dispersed their formation, trying not to be easy targets for the railguns. Since the railguns were still emerging from the ground, they were not able to fire upon the aircraft just yet, but the pilots of the Monarch Squadron knew that they would have to be extra careful so as to not get shot down by the railguns. By the time the railguns had finally emerged from the ground, the CDI fighters were out of the immediate area, but that did not stop the MJ12 from attempting to fire upon the craft with their railguns. As he leveled out from a roll, Monarch 5 saw a projectile speed right by the cockpit of his Chengdu J-20 Firefang. The pilot performed a sharp turn to evade another shot fired by the railgun, and he reported the railgun’s status over the radio to the rest of his squadron once he recovered from the g-force brought about from the turn he had just performed, “This is Monarch 5, a railgun projectile just flew past my plane. Be advised: Enemy railguns are now operational. I say again: Enemy railguns are operational.”
The CDI AWACS heard the pilot’s report and spoke over a radio channel that was used by all CDI callsign participating in the operation, “All callsign be advised: Enemy railguns have been confirmed to be operational in the AO. To approaching aircraft: Maintain your current course. To Monarch Squadron: Do what you can to either destroy the railguns or keep them busy until the ground forces can land. We cannot afford to delay the assault. Over.” Monarch 1 looked over his shoulder, and he could barely see the railgun rotating on its emplacement installation to target a different CDI aircraft. Since the aircraft containing the CDI assault team had not arrived yet, they were unable to be shot down by the railguns. Instead, the railguns were trying to shoot down the Monarch Squadron. Monarch 1 pulled the stick to the right and began to roll into a turn. Once his Su-57 was on its side, the pilot pulled the stick aft and felt the g-force as his aircraft made a turn towards the facility again.
Monarch 1 was now flying directly towards one of the several railgun emplacements, and he targeted the cannon with his aircraft’s integrated targeting computer before opening the weapons bay holding a few air-to-ground missiles. The pilot pressed a button that would launch the missile, and he announced the release of the Kh-38M over the radio, “Monarch 1, rifle.” After firing the missile, the pilot of the Felon pulled the stick aft again and activated the aircraft’s afterburners in order to fly away from the facility before the other railguns would be able to turn and fire at his aircraft. Luckily for the pilot, he was not in the sights of any of the railguns, and the missile he fired at the railgun he was aiming at was successfully able to destroy the railgun. Once the pilot was at a safe enough distance away from the facility that it would be hard for him to be struck by another railgun, he looked at the damage caused by the missile. Aft
er visually confirming the destruction of his intended target, the pilot reported his success to the AWACS aircraft, “Hammerhead, this is Monarch 1. One railgun has been destroyed.” The AWACS then replied, “Affirmative, Monarch 1. Continue to clear the area before the ground forces arrive. Their current ETA is now eight minutes. Over.”
Multiple MJ12 and Knights Templar operatives were running from the base to man their defense positions. When they learned that enemy fighter jets were flying overhead, some of them even went to grab FIM-92 Stinger launchers in order to have a sporting chance to shoot down the fighters. However, the FIM-92s would not be able to shoot down an aircraft that was flying too far away from the user, so the operatives would have to wait until the craft were coming in to attack the railguns before they would be close enough to be targeted. The combined ground forces of the MJ12 and the Knights Templar were wearing their Kryptek Obskura Transitional uniforms and were wielding a mix between weapons produced by Heckler & Koch, FN Herstal, Haenel Defence, Desert Tech, and even some of the XMP-1s that were obtained from the Omega Foundation before their demise. Unfortunately, it would be very hard for mere rifles and airburst launchers to take down fighter jets circling the facility.
Anticipating a full-scale attack, the Majestic 12 wasted no time deploying the captured MAV-29 into the battle: The prototype vehicle was powered up within minutes, and the hangar it was stored in opened its doors to allow the Arvak to join the conflict. The Articulated Tracked Armored Combat Vehicle was a bit slow, but it was able to get into a position to attack just as a second railgun was destroyed by one of the J-20s flying overhead. The operators of the MAV-29 immediately got to work, and they started by aiming the vehicle’s laser weapon system at the closest aircraft. Though the MAV-29 was armed with a main cannon as well as a vertical surface-to-air missile launching system, the operators of the Arvak wanted to conserve their ammunition for the other approaching CDI forces. Since the CDI aircraft were all painted in a flat dark earth color scheme, they did not blend in with the air too well, and the MAV-29 operators had an easier time targeting the aircraft. The first aircraft they targeted, an Su-57, was struck in the starboard wing by the laser. The laser burned a hole through the aircraft’s wing and cut upwards as the aircraft spun into a roll. By the time the aircraft exited its aileron roll, the laser had already done considerable damage to the Felon’s airframe. The laser even ignited some of the fuel inside of the fuselage, and the aircraft began to catch fire.
Inside of the Su-57, several warning alarms began to go off, and the pilot looked in the rearview mirror to see that smoke was indeed coming out of the fuselage. The pilot did not feel as if his aircraft was struck by anything in particular, but he still knew that his aircraft was severely damaged. The pilot remembered that the MAV-29 was mentioned during the mission briefing, and he looked outside of his canopy to scan the ground for the vehicle in particular. As the aircraft’s engines began to give out from the damage sustained by the laser, the pilot made visual contact with the stolen prototype vehicle on the ground, and he immediately reported his sight over the radio, “This is Monarch 4, I have made visual contact with the MAV-29. I say again, the MAV-29 Arvak has been spotted. Over.” Though Monarch 4 probably should have reported his aircraft’s damage first, he knew that the Arvak was very important for CDI, so he reported his sightings first. After all Su-57s were more expendable to CDI than the likes of a prototype vehicle such as a MAV-29. The AWACS aircraft heard the transmission over the radio, and he relayed the information to the transport aircraft carrying CDI’s ground forces, “All callsign, we have a report of the MAV-29 at the facility. Standby for confirmation. Over.” Though CDI would very much like to retrieve the MAV-29 in the best condition possible, they were still given orders to destroy the vehicle if a safe retrieval was not possible. After all, CDI still had the blueprints and everything that was required to produce another Arvak if the model in question had to be destroyed. Overall, CDI really did not want anybody but their own organization to be in possession of such a vehicle, so they were not going to leave with a different organization still controlling their advanced vehicle.
After proceeding forwards with a severely damaged aircraft, Monarch 4 finally reported his aircraft’s condition over the radio, “This is Monarch 4, I have sustained heavy damage from the Arvak’s laser, and I am going down. Withdrawing from the combat --” Before the pilot was able to complete his transmission, the MAV-29’s invisible laser struck the Felon again, and it tore through the cockpit, killing the pilot as well as destroying the aircraft’s radio. With the Su-57 no longer under control by a pilot, the doomed Felon practically dropped out of the sky and impacted into the ground, bursting into flames. The AWACS aircraft noticed that one of the aircraft blips had disappeared from the radar screen, so he alerted the rest of the Monarch Squadron, “Monarch Squadron, this is Hammerhead: Monarch 4 has gone off the radar. Fly into the clouds if you believe you are being targeted by the Arvak’s laser system.”
The Majestic 12 was activating even more of their defense units: Their own aircraft were now beginning to take off to combat the incoming CDI forces which the secret society now was able to see with their own radar equipment. There were the Bell AH-280s lifting off that were used in the previous mission to deliver the MAV-29, but the MJ12 had one secret trick up their own sleeve: Part of one of their hangars was connected to a hidden runway, and inside of the hangar were eight Lockheed Martin F/A-22A Raptors. The secret society previously had not had to use their own fighter jets before, but they were now putting all of their cards on the table. Even with the incoming CDI force being held at bay by the MAV-29 as well as the various emplacements, the Majestic 12 was not too confident that they would be able to keep CDI off of them forever. After all, in total, CDI had way more than eight fighter aircraft in their inventory, and they had thousands more ground units than the MJ12 and Knights Templar combined. The secret society was now focused on simply doing as much damage to CDI as they could before the private company took them down for good.
“This is Vulture 1, beginning takeoff sequence,” one of the MJ12 pilots flying an F/A-22A spoke over the radio as he taxied into the covered runway. Behind his aircraft were the other Raptors lining up to take off as well. The Vulture Squadron was practically the last bastion of the Majestic 12’s defense force, and they were the secret society’s only fighter jets. The aircraft used by the Vulture Squadron had a similar livery as the standard F/A-22A flown by the United States Air Force, but they were painted black rather than gray. The Raptors also had low-vis Omega Foundation roundels on their wings, their vertical stabilizers, and even underneath their cockpits. The vertical stabilizers displayed a smaller roundel compared to the roundels on the wings, and there were large gray letters underneath the roundel which read ‘OF’, similar to a base code used by USAF aircraft. Underneath the dark gray lettering was smaller lettering which literally read ‘Omega Foundation’ in bold capital letters. To the immediate right of the lettering was the aircraft number. Since the Majestic 12 only had eight aircraft, their craft were lettered from 001 to 008.
After obtaining clearance for takeoff, Vulture 1 increased his aircraft’s throttle and began to speed up while traveling down the runway tunnel until he exited the tunnel. By the time his craft exited the tunnel, he was going fast enough to gain enough lift to go airborne. The Vulture Squadron wasted little time getting into the air, and their scramble was expedited thanks to the next aircraft in the runway queue immediately beginning their takeoff sequence as soon as the aircraft in front of them was just far enough away that the afterburners would be unable to do damage to the next craft in the queue. The next aircraft were given clearance to takeoff practically instantly, and the pilots wasted no time beginning their takeoff sequences. It took less than three minutes for all eight of the Vulture Squadron aircraft to become airborne, and they were now going to enter the fight against the Monarch Squadron. The Vulture Squadron did have the advantage of not having a MAV-29 and railgun
emplacements shooting at them, but they would likely be overrun if they did not take down all of the seven remaining CDI aircraft before the bulk of their reinforcements arrived.
Monarch 6 was the first to see the new fighters emerge from the hidden runway tunnel, so he reported the Raptors over the radio, “Woah. This is Monarch 6, we have a flight of what looks to be F-22s emerging from a tunnel. Over.” The AWACS aircraft was unable to immediately see the new aircraft appearing on the radar since they had minimal radar cross-sections, “This is Hammerhead, we are unable to see the aircraft you speak of on our radar. Do you have visual confirmation on this flight? Over.” As the Vulture Squadron broke from their formation to attack the Monarch Squadron, one of the other Monarch pilots replied while trying to avoid being targeted by one of the Raptors, “This is Monarch 3. We have a confirmed visual on an enemy squadron. They’re black F-22 Raptors. Over.” Hammerhead asked for more information regarding the enemy flight, “Monarch 3, this is Hammerhead. How many hostile aircraft are in the air? Over.”
