Parting Gifts

by gerald hall

  “Those are some big bastards for sure. Have we been able to contact any of them via radio yet?” Major Cohn asked.

  “No, Sir. We have been trying on all of the regular commercial air traffic control frequencies in addition to the emergency GUARD frequencies. We have not received any responses at all so far.”

  “Keep trying, Tiger. The last thing that we need to do is shoot down an airliner full of civilian refugees.”

  “Skywatch One Zero Five, this is Raptor Zero Four One. My wingman and I are approaching the first of the incoming aircraft. We can confirm that they are civilian airliners.” Major Cohn radioed the orbiting AWACS.

  “We need for you to come alongside one of the airliners and try to make contact with them, Raptor.”

  “Roger, Skywatch. Closing in on parallel course now.”

  Two minutes later, the pair of F-22’s had reversed course and were now flying alongside the closest airliner.

  “Skywatch, we have identified the aircraft as an Airbus A350 wearing Aeritalia colors. She is flying straight and level. We have not seen any activity on the airliner’s flight deck, Sir.”

  “Do you see any passengers aboard at all, Zero Four One?” The senior AWACS controller then asked.

  “Checking now.” Came the reply from the lead Raptor.

  “We see several people in the main cabin. They are looking out through the windows and are trying to get our attention. They all appear to be civilians, several older males are visible but I see mostly women and children, Sir. It doesn’t look like the aircraft has very many passengers aboard however.”

  “What the hell is going on here?” Colonel Anderson asked himself, especially after receiving similar reports from the other Raptors as they began to intercept and visually inspect the first incoming aircraft.

  “What are your orders, Sir?” The first Raptor pilot asked.

  “Stay close to that airliner. We need to find out where it is going, One Zero Four.”

  So the two Raptors flew alongside the huge airliner as it continued to close on the eastern coast of the Alliance. The pilots of the two stealthy fighters were so close that they could see the fear on the faces of the people in the Airbus’s passenger compartment as the latter looked out of the airliner’s windows.

  “That Airbus is flying very close to Washington, DC, Sir. We also have nearly a dozen more airliners nearing New York, Boston and other major coastal cities now.” Sergeant Simpson reported.

  “Keep them under observation. The second that they do something suspicious or threatening, I need to know about it. Otherwise, the National Command Authority has decided to wait and see what is going on first before making any firm decision. I have a really bad feeling about all of this however.”

  The urgent call from Raptor Zero Four One sent chills of terror down everyone’s spine a few minutes later.

  “The airliner has gone into a dive. It is heading directly for Langley’s main runway. It does not appear that the aircraft is attempting to land there either. What are your orders, Sir?”

  While the commanders on the ground attempted to decide what to do, the Airbus raced down at nearly 600 knots. The Raptor pilots helplessly watched as they saw the airliner strike the runway and explode in a massive fireball before orders from the Pentagon arrived.

  “That damned plane was full of explosives!” One of the Raptor pilots orbiting overhead at the mushroom cloud rising from Langley’s main runway. She could even see a visible shockwave emanating outward from the impact point. The blast reminded her of the footage that she had seen of the detonation of one of the US Air Force’s massive fuel-air explosive bombs. She also saw that the damage extended to far beyond the runway itself. There had to have been at least ten thousand kilograms of explosives aboard that airliner.

  There were fires burning everywhere within several hundred meters of the impact point. This included several parked aircraft on a nearby apron. Less than a minute later, there were reports of three other incoming airliners also crashing and detonating at Alliance coastal airbases. The damage being reported from these attacks was very heavy as were casualties on the ground. It was 9/11 all over again, only worse by several orders of magnitude.

  “All airborne fighters, you are ordered to immediately shoot down all unidentified incoming aircraft. Do not allow those aircraft to enter Alliance airspace.” Colonel Anderson grimly radioed to the waiting Raptors.

  “You want us to kill all of those innocent civilians, Sir?” One of the other Raptor pilots asked.

  “I’m afraid that they are already dead. They just don’t know it yet, or maybe they do. It doesn’t matter now. The damned jihadists obviously put those people onboard those airliners to act as human shields. There is no way that we can save them, not matter what we do. But if we allow those huge flying bombs to hit more of their targets, a lot more innocent people on the ground are likely to be killed unfortunately.

  We have no choice. You must shoot those airliners down before it is too late. I’m sorry that I have to order you to do this.”

  “I understand, Sir. It just really sucks to have to pull the trigger once you see their faces in the windows.” The Raptor pilot sadly replied before turning to engage the incoming airliners.

  A few seconds after the order to shoot down the airliners is given, missiles also begin to erupt from the three Land Aegis and Ballistic Missile Defense sites on the East Coast. These sites had appeared in the wake of the Second Event and were maintained by the Eastern Alliance of States as a critical part of their air and anti-ballistic missile defense. The missile fire from these sites was supplemented by more Land Aegis platforms that had been installed on barges along the East Coast. There were also similar Aegis barges along the Gulf Coast, but they were too far away to be able to engage the incoming aircraft.

  The F-15’s, F-16’s and other available fighters based on the East Coast were also being alerted to send as many aircraft as possible up to help intercept the massive armada of aircraft approaching. But to get those aircraft armed and in the air would take time. There would not be enough time for any of them to lift off and get into the fight before the first wave of intruders would cross over the first major coastal cities. The alert Raptors would be on their own during that critical time.

  Even though every available fighter in the Alliance had been scrambled to intercept the incoming wave of kamikaze airliners, it would not be enough. Many of the Alliance’s fighters were unavailable due to maintenance issues. The ones that did take off from their bases did not carry enough missiles to knock down more than a fraction of the attackers.

  The Land Aegis sites were now forced to fire virtually every missile that they had with the exception of the GBI ground-based interceptors and a handful of SM-3’s that were configured for anti-missile use only. These sites had to be very careful not to target the Alliance’s own fighter interceptors at the same time. In this battle, losses due to fratricide were simply not acceptable for a variety of reasons.

  First, the Raptors fired their six active radar-guided AMRAAM air-to-air missiles at the airliners to bring them down. Since the Raptors had only six of these powerful missiles each, the pilots could only allocate one of these missiles to each target. Several of the airliners were hit in the fuselage and erupted in a massive fireball that still violently shook the attacking Raptor from several miles away as a result of the shockwave.

  After the AMRAAM’s were expended, then the Raptors closed and fired the pair of short-range, IR-guided AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles. In spite of the smaller warheads, the Raptors still could afford to fire only one missile at each huge airliner. Once these missiles were gone, all that the Raptors had left were their 20mm Gatling guns.

  “Target the outboard engines on the airliners with your guns. If there is no one in the cockpits, it will certainly force the aircraft to slew around and miss its target.” The lead Raptor pilot radioed to the other flights. He was heartbroken after seeing the terror on the faces of the civilians trapp
ed inside of the burning airliners that he had already been forced to shoot down. He was also hoping beyond hope that if an outboard engine was damaged that some miracle would happen so that some of those unwilling human shields could somehow survive the crash landing.

  Unfortunately for the helpless captives on those aircraft, even that attempt in humanity was to no available. There was not a single survivor from any of those doomed airliners.

  Many of the radar operators and other personnel aboard the AWACS openly wept as they saw hundreds of those airliners falling from the sky and the lives of perhaps thousands of innocent hostages being ended. But the Alliance defenders had absolutely no choice.

  Each of the Alliance strategic missile sites had several of the airliners heading towards them now also. The automatic cannons stationed at the sites for point defense soon began to thunder, firing rapidly to try to knock down the huge flying bombs heading towards them.

  One after another, the large planes blossomed into flame and fell from the skies or detonated in mid-air. Although a couple of the incoming aircraft crashed within a few hundred meters of the missile sites, none of those aircraft hit their intended targets.

  “Sir, we have something coming in now. There are some aircraft mixed in with the last of the airliners approaching here, but our radar is indicating that they are something else? Their signature is different and familiar.”

  “What are they?”

  “The computer says that they are Bears, Sir.” The Tupolev Tu-95 Bear was Russia’s primary strategic bomber for many years. It was a large aircraft that was uniquely powered by four extremely powerful turboprop engines.

  “How many?” Colonel Anderson quickly asked.

  “I don’t know yet, but it appears to be six to eight aircraft though, Sir.” Sergeant Simpson reported.

  “We need to find out where they are heading. They can carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, unlike those damned airliners.”

  “It looks like those Bears are heading for Groton and Norfolk, Sir.”

  “Those are our main submarine and surface warship bases on the East Coast. Our fighters are either out of position or heading back to their bases to reload missiles. We are going to have to ask the Navy out in the Atlantic to engage those Bears.”

  “I’m sure that they will also want to defend their homes too. Who knows that those Bears are carrying?”

  The flagship of the Eastern Alliance Atlantic Fleet, the massive nuclear-powered trimarian aircraft carrier USS Enterprise sailed eastward about one hundred kilometers north of Bermuda. With her, sailed over fifty surface warships from nearly half a dozen former Western European navies that had taken refuge in the Eastern Alliance.

  Now, those ships served as a final barrier against a Caliphate invasion from across the Atlantic. On board them, were thousands of desperate men and woman hoping to break the Caliphate’s drive to conquer the last major bastion of freedom on Earth.

  “We just received word from Alliance defense headquarters. They expended all of their available missiles stopping that huge fleet of kamikaze airliners. Now, they are reporting that there are several Russian Bears en route to Norfolk and Groton. The fear is that they might be carrying nuclear weapons to hit our bases.” USS Enterprise’s duty officer informed the Commander of the Alliance Fleet.

  “We will have to launch our fighters a lot sooner than what we had hoped. Send the order to launch the Alert Five fighters from all of our carriers immediately to intercept those bombers. They are to kill those Bears at all costs before they hit Norfolk and Groton.” Admiral George ‘Kit’ Carson quickly ordered.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Less than a minute later, a pair of F-35C’s roared off of the Enterprise’s flight deck and turned towards the Jihadist bombers. Aboard the other US Navy carriers, the same scene was being repeated as the task force reacted to the imminent threat to their bases and their homes.

  Less than twenty minutes later, the Alliance fighters located and shot down the bombers before they could attack Norfolk and Groton. But the enemy attack still disrupted operations aboard all five of the Alliance supercarriers. They would need to recover the fighters and prepare them for their originally intended role as escorts for the strike force against the approaching Islamist invasion fleet. Fortunately, they would have time since the Islamists were still more than three days away from the Eastern Seaboard.

  “I wish that we could see more about this invasion fleet, Captain.” Admiral Carson mused as he watched the repeater on the bridge of USS Enterprise from his admiral’s command chair.

  “I know, Sir. We just don’t have as good a picture now because of the loss of all of our surveillance satellites. Those high altitude drones are helping. But it just isn’t the same as the satellite coverage that we used to enjoy. Plus, our drones are terribly vulnerable to enemy fighters and missiles. We’ve lost two recon drones already to enemy fire.” Captain Bruce Talbot, Enterprise’s captain, explained as he sat at a second chair nearby.

  “That’s why we have all five of our big trimaran-hulled carriers plus two of the British carriers with us. If the Islamists want a fight in the air as well as one on the ocean, we are more than ready to give it to them.”

  “I can’t help thinking that the enemy has a vote in this battle as well, Sir. They have to have something up their sleeve if they are going to so overtly send out so many of their warships to fight us. Our timetable has already been disrupted some by the recent air strikes against the East Coast. They launched those kamikazes far too early for a coordinated strike though.”

  “But they caused a hell of a lot of damage to our land bases. But we will make up the time somehow. The Islamists have a lot of merchant ships behind those warships, don’t they? They must have one hell of an invasion force onboard them.” The commanding Admiral grimly noted.

  “But we have to take out their escorts first, obviously Sir.”

  “I know. Send out the order to launch all strike and escort aircraft. Concentrate on the escorting warships. We will strike the invasion fleet itself after we have eliminated the escorts.”

  More than five hundred fighter-bombers of various types were launched within the next twenty minutes from the allied aircraft carriers. They were joined by more than one hundred and fifty land-based F-15E’s and FB-23’s that had survived the surprise attacks by the kamikaze airliners on their bases.

  The commander of this naval invasion force waited as the first reports of radar contacts from the Alliance AWACS and other surveillance platforms came in. He knew that his force was going to be hit hard by the Alliance as the lead element of the Arab Brotherhood’s invasion armada. But he was ready for martyrdom as were the men who manned the ships around him. It was after they reached a predetermined point in the ocean that one of his bridge officers walked up and gave his report. It was a message that the invasion fleet commander had been waiting on for a long time.

  “We have the infidels in range, Sir.”

  “Launch your missiles, Lieutenant. Allahu Akbar!” The commander ordered.

  A short message was transmitted to all of the ships in the lead force. At that time, every one of the merchant ships began to fire salvos of cruise missiles from their decks. The Islamists had installed scores of containerized Klub cruise missiles onto the decks of the merchant ships. Because the missile launchers were identical in appearance to a standard cargo shipping container, it was impossible for Alliance surveillance sensors to identify the threat prior to launch.

  “What the hell?” One of the AWACS radar operators exclaimed.

  “What are you seeing, son?” The senior controller quickly asked.

  “I am picking up many low-altitude, high-subsonic radar tracks coming from those merchant ships. They appear to be cruise missiles en route to the Eastern Seaboard and towards our warships, Sir.”

  The senior controller quickly sent a message to the outgoing fighter-bombers.

  “Change of target; intercept incoming cruise missiles then h
it enemy merchant ships. The merchant ships are armed with land-attack cruise missiles that are being fired on Alliance land targets and anti-ship missiles against our fleet.”

  The AWACS controllers immediately gave the outgoing strike group intercept vectors for the wave of jihadist cruise missiles. While some of the strike aircraft did carry medium range air-to-air missiles like AMRAAM for self-defense along with their bombs and anti-shipping missiles, most of the aircraft only had a pair of short range infrared-guided Sidewinders or the like for self-defense.

  Even so, all of the strike aircraft quickly turned and sped to intercept the cruise missiles. First, the AMRAAM’s screamed off of their launch rails and began to splash their targets dozens of kilometers away. Then, the other aircraft closed to within eight kilometers of the westbound missiles and began to fire at short range to bring down as many of the remaining cruise missiles as possible.

  A few of the strike aircraft lingered to try to down more missiles with their cannons, but the rest of the strike group turned back to the east to try to sink the ships that launched the missile strike against their homes. Because of the shortage of GPS guidance units and the earlier attack on Alliance GPS satellites, many of the bombs carried by the Alliance strike aircraft were completely unguided. They had to be targeted the old-fashioned way by the pilots using their onboard targeting gear. This also meant that they would have to get a lot closer to their targets than they were accustomed to.

  The Alliance fighter-bombers closed upon the westbound merchant ships and the amphibious warfare vessels sailing with them, intending to ensure hits and destroy them vessels before they could launch any more cruise missiles. What the Alliance pilots did not realize was that the ships of the Islamist invasion fleet did not merely carry cruise missiles on this trip.