The world is now at war again... But would the Caliphate juggernaut be stopped in India?

---

Majapahit's air group commander Colonel Edi Suryawan kept his focus from inside his Kestrel tiltrotor escorted by KMQ-101s from Sumatera Timur while below him, the superstructure of frigate KRI Cut Meutia (FFG-377) began to list, with her surviving sailors abandoned her as she finally lost the battle against the effects of two hits and one near-miss from enemy Nasir-III anti-ship missiles.

In the meantime, her sister ship KRI D.I. Panjaitan (FFG-374) was still combat-capable but now bore large black stains and scratches on her port side. Armored cruiser Irian was also hit but showed less sign of damage thanks to its thicker composite armor.

On the other side, the missiles that hit those two frigates were the only survivor from an earlier, air-and submarine-launched, massive, missile barrage that got defeated by the escort's defenses.

Along with the ships above, the allied fleet had lost American USS Johnston, a Constellation-class frigate, Indian INS Talwar, Singaporean RSS Liberty, and Australian destroyer HMAS Sydney

In case of the Sydney, her magazine exploded after two hits by HD-2 hypersonic anti-ship missiles fired by a pack of J-31 fighters who managed to overwhelm its Aegis combat system. She sunk with only twenty of her sailors survived the worst single-ship loss by Australia since World War Two.

Furthermore, four allied frigates were damaged to the point of not combat capable; Japanese JNS Shirayuki, Korean UKS Gwangju and Mokpo, and Indian INS Niilgiri.

Pact forces lost two destroyers, Chinese Type 052D CNS Xiamen and CNS Qiqihar, and one Russian frigate get severely damaged by multiple ASM hits, an Improved Admiral Gorshkov-class RFS Admiral Yegorov. Allied and co-belligerent forces had also lost fifteen carrier aircraft in the effort to fend off the initial invasion in its first hour together with up to 45 land-based aircraft, mostly Indians.

As the American-designed tiltrotor hovered to pick up a group of sailors thrown overboard when the last missile hit broke Meutia's back, he'd come along to analyze what will the UCC do after the attack and how to proceed and change from the point. Sure, intelligence had pinpointed many things to do for the fleet, especially assisting the allied air forces in the area in ground support. Raid on UCC port facilities in Pakistan and Iran would also certainly be in the menu as well. But the new question went inside his head.

What is the Coalition need most for possibly, a month ahead?

---

It's hours after the memorial service for Capt. Azas and four other of our fallen comrades; two from 132 NAS, and two from 105 NAS. We also had collected some money for his family. Solidarity money, as we naval aviators called it. Then we have a little celebration for Major Theressa which became the ace-in-the-day of that battle, while Major Yanuar had also obtained his ace status after bagged two Su-34, one MiG-35, and two Sofreh Mahi drones, in addition of one F-313 he had shot down in the skirmish prior to the invasion. And last but not least. Me.

Now we sat in the briefing room and kill time by drinking some tea or coffee before Major Theressa went inside with a stocky, dark-skinned, man beside her.

"Everyone." She commanded. "Stand up."

All pilots stood in attention and saluted towards Theressa's voice and saw the major approaching. The newcomer's name tag identified him as 1st Lieutenant Ronny "Goalkeeper" Patinassarany. His high-and-tight and rigid stance made me look unkempt. I looked at the Sea Eagle patch, the eponymous animal holding its prey, a fish, and a number 120, on the man's chest, then the Major.

"Ma'am, is he one of our replacements?" I asked Theressa.

"The command had actually intended him to be one of the reserve pilots here, Lieutenant, but due to the circumstances, he is becoming the replacement instead. And to those who are uninformed, I and him have known each other for a few years. We met when we were training with some American contractors in an aggressor program at Kendari."

The Major's voice changed for a more serious one. "Make sure that he's accepted here in the 120, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am!"

We then offered him a hand.

"Yoel"

"Nice to meet you again, Ronny. Anyway; how do you feel to be in the carrier again?"

"This is my third cruise, I gotta admit, and I am excited. Especially as I had my second one also here in Majapahit. Initially, they picked me up as a reserve, but then, turned out that I am to be a replacement for you guys. Before that I was with the 177."

"Rattlesnakes, eh? Anyways guess you'll get to hit the ground running if you came straight from the Camp, then. Do any time over, like Barisan Mountain Range?"

Ronny seemed to appreciate that I knew the squadron's name.

"Between the first cruise in the Berdikari, I got a sweet time on it. In fact it's part of my training when I transitioned, then I've my second cruise here in Majapahit but in the Pacific. You were there too on your first cruise when you got your initial qualification, Yoel."

"Now the big question: the callsign."

Ronny flashed a humble grin before he chuckled.

"Bruh, how can you forget that we once played together in the Academy's football team? You're once playing as a midfielder and while I played goalkeeper,"

Back in the Naval Academy, he and I played together in its association football team and despite the hardship of the civil war, we managed to bring the Armed Forces Commander's cup two times.

I then led Ronny to his seat to discuss a few things before the briefing started. Normally I would've objected to having a new pilot go out on a mission like this, but he knew his stuff so far. Even better, as a qualified IF-34B pilot, which in this case is the "missionized" two-seater variant of the IF-34 aimed for ground attack, recon, and forward air control, he was well-versed in ground attack and nap-of-the-earth flying. Those kinds of skills were very relevant to the mission Colonel Alan was to brief them on when he came in.

"Good morning everyone. First thing first, under the PPDU Directive number 9, effective today, all operations in this theater will be under the code of 'Bharat Shield'."

Now back to the tactical situations. Today's mission is Iron Hand (countering air defense system) against UCC air defenses around the Sikh' holy city of Amritsar. The UCC airmobile forces, with the backing of collaborators and Fedayeen militias had largely taken over the city, bypassed by its armored forces, exactly two hours ago and currently "pacifying" it. With friendly troops bogged down by commando and Fedayeen raids further in-land, the Indians decided to execute a helicopter-borne evacuation operation mostly aimed for the remaining Sikh pilgrims and clerics trapped in the city."

The map showed that the city is situated on largely plain and flat terrain and along with its religious value, the city served as a crossroads for highways deep into the country, and also not much far from the nearest major UCC city, Lahore, used to be Pakistan.

With the UCC Navy somewhat inactive the focus is now ground support in conjunction of Indian Air Force, Navy, and our own Air Force unit deployed in India as part of our PPDU commitment.

"Reconnaissance has indicated that the UCC has deployed its locally made HQ-16 and short-range FB-10 and Umkhonto SAMs around the city limits, airport, and near the Golden Temple. We believe these missiles arrived only recently via air and only recently deployed..."

"...These will be backed up by PGZ-95 and -07 mobile AA systems, most of which are positioned with the more-numerous -10s and Umkhontos. We should be grateful as the Chinese had passed us the limitation of the former two along with South Africa for the Umkhontos. It's believed that there are six batteries of 10s, six batteries of Umkhontos, three of the 16s around the cities, and two batteries of PGZs. The missiles appeared to be positioned to attack aircraft attempting to come in high and fast, where they'll have the greatest chance of success of getting a kill. As such, the attack will come in low..."

He then showed us the waypoint, which is a normal medium-altitude flight passing the Indian-held Rajashtan and refueled above a town called Bikaner before beginning the low-altitude phase of the flight, alongside the Indira Gandhi Canal further northward before we were to destroy an early warning radar on Harike wetland. Then we'll head straight towards the Amritsar bypass road, where several forward UCC units had occupied various gurudwaras (Sikh temples) along the road. The objective was to destroy or jam any air defenses along the way while we're approaching the city straight ahead.

Six IF-34s from the squadron would go in with four EA-34s as well as four two-seater Flying Fishes from 132 NAS. The remaining element of 132 NAS were tasked for CAP in conjunction with the nearest carrier, the Indian Vishal.

In the meantime, two TNI-AU' stealth B-5 bombers from one out of our only two bomber squadrons, 46th Squadron, deployed to Madurai Air Force Station would launch decoys to confuse the Caliphate air defenses, one simulating an attack from the southeast and another from the east.

They'd have a strike from the Indian land-based manned and unmanned fighters and allied rotary wing assets for evacuation right on their tails, so the timing was going to be tight. I had a good feeling that Ronny was going to fit in just fine...

---

"Sea Eagle 1 is at IP, Cartenz."

"This is Assam, reporting in" called an Indian E-2F Advanced Hawkeye that will coordinate the CAP duty from the Vishal.

"Roger that Sea Eagle, conduct refueling operations". Three A330 MRTTs, two Indonesian and one Indian, were in the area and available, escorted by the Indian No. 31 Squadron with their stealth Abhayas. Unmanned wingmans were refueled using unmanned tankers.

Refueling went smoothly and then Cartenz piped up again. "Okay Assam, its time to start the music. Keris and Saturn, push to CAP station."

"Assam, roger."

"Keris, roger."

"Saturn, roger"

As their CAP, consist of the 132 NAS and the Indian INAS (Indian Naval Air Squadron) 311, pressed ahead at high altitude, our IF-24s descended from the grey sky towards the canal to began the lengthy northbound leg into Beas River, switching to the external tank in the process, followed by the jammers.

"Keep your altitude below 2000 feet, lower the better, otherwise the long-range UCC radars from both occupied Punjab and Pakistan will detect you. As remember, stealth does not guarantee you're being undetected... Radio silence is in effect. God be with us." radioed Cartenz.

The course has been uploaded to our aircraft, helped us to chart the best way to maneuver it as safely as possible in a harmonious man and machine interaction.

As we flying in utter silence, trees, farms, and small villages and religious places dominated the view, broken only by the birds fled when the fighters approached, and the not always straight feature of the canal itself.

My focus went up as the flight reached the Harike Wetland, which means turn right. Also, as a good part of the Indian state of Punjab, compared to Rajashtan, was occupied by the UCC, the radar net became tighter. We are facing an invisible ceiling that represented the line between safety and every SAM in every region we passed that could get a shot at us despite our stealth feature.

"This is Cartenz, we are breaking radio silence, destroy the early warning radar on the Harike wetland hill!"

"Sea Eagle 110, Magnum." Ronny took the initiative to fire his AGM-88G anti-radiation missile, the longer-range version of AGM-88E with a newer (and more environmentally friendly) rocket motor.

"Radar is offline."

"Hantu (Ghost in Indonesian) 970 executing mission!" called the leader of the twin-seat EA-34s, as his flight began jamming or spoofing most threatening UCC radars with false targets, electronically and physically with a swarm of mini-drones accompanying them to further distract the Caliphate as the Flying Fishes approached the Sikh city.

Our plane's load made it sluggish. Unlike the "light" weight when configured to do air-to-air, the combination of guided bombs, anti-radiation missiles, external fuel tanks (which have all been jettisoned), and jamming pod made for a notable drain on maneuverability. I can also listen to the RWR as it mumbled and buzzed as the B-5s' decoys tricked them into believing the Allies were trying more conventional routes of approach. As I and the others keep formations with ECM engaged. I constantly reminded myself that they weren't searching for my own jet; the sensors were just picking up what they were designed to, even if my plane wasn't being targeted.

Then from below. I looked back for not even half a second.

"Sea Eagles, heads up, got someone down there shooting at us, looks like they know the drones are a distraction. Looks to be either AAA or heavy MG." Raven radioed.

"Yeah, I see it, ma'am...missile launch, missile launch! Looks like an HN-16." Fransiska chimed in.

I tried to look back again but couldn't see anything. However, I am soon relieved as Fransiska reported again that the man-portable missile had gone ballistic. Then, as Ronny looked down he spotted several camouflaged vehicles along the road, trying to move back into the city. Figures were scattering from the machines as he passed overhead.

"Sea Eagle Lead this is 1-4, I've got a visual on Caliphate vehicles moving down the road. Looks to be APC and trucks." He radioed.

"Probably their scouts... okay Sea Eagles push it up before they can even get the word out," Theressa ordered.

More missiles arced up into the air; I instinctively broke right into one of the temples and deployed flares. The enemy missile, another HN-16, passed through my plane harmlessly. Then I increased the jamming output to full power, while my RWR had identified multiple airborne radars. They were moving away from me; I checked on the CAP to find they'd grabbed the jihadis attention. So far things were going well with reports of "splash" entered my mike three times.

"Goalkeeper, music on," I called.

"Roger that, Fishnet...be advised I'm coming up on your five, low." Ronny replied.

Ronny and I then turned to the left towards our target. Amritsar, right at the edge of my eyes, mostly consists of low buildings, with the Golden Temple distinctively stood among them.

Triple-As from the city including the temple complexes rose up to meet us and the Indian naval fighters behind our flight.

I said to myself. "I'm not a Sikh but there are few of them here in Indonesia, so I can understand the feelings of their heritage to be despoiled and ravaged." while one of my HARM's had sniffed out a radar among the city's post office.

"Goalkeeper, break right, and engage the second radar!" I called.

"Affirmative!"

A good lock tone went into my headset again, as the HARM is ready to fire. I pressed the trigger. "Sea Eagle 103, Magnum," I said calmly, thinking about Gloria while pulling up.

The missile fell away like dead weight until its rocket motor ignited. Even at day, the flame was brilliant, almost blinding to me. I pulled to the left and smirked as both radars went silent following his wingman's launch.

Mati kau (You're dead). I thought.

All the crew could do was run for their life. My path soon took me towards the Golden Temple itself, where the HQ-16s and FD-10s were purported to be. The RWR went crazy as I closed in, as the PGZs nearby were looking at us, firing with everything they got.

"Javelin 112, Magnum" one of the members of the second squadron had gained a lock and fired his own HARM.

The number of radar warnings decreased somewhat after the IF-24s broke off. Then, I can see the PGZ's went up in flames as two other twin seaters passed the temple complex and dropped JDAMs on it. Their planes nosed up, with chaff engaged as it rolled and weaved away from the burning vehicles below.

Left and right, Caliphate radar went off one by one as HARMs struck them, or turned off to avoid the missiles, despite the HARMs had the memory of an elephant, especially as the model we have are the latest, and final mark and still being used by the Americans despite they already operating their replacement, the loitering-type AGM-90 LARM. The commander of the missile batteries must've been either brave or foolhardy; the launchers were letting off missile after missile as their radars and supporting sensors made broad brush strokes across the sky, which exposed them to the HARMs.

The concentration of fire seemed to keep the raiders at bay for now. Whatever fighters they'd had on patrol were fully tangled with our allies.

"Goalkeeper... can you get a good angle on any of those Fire Domes and the RSR-350s?" I asked.

"It'll take a minute..." Ronny grunted.

I banked back to the left as one of the western-emplaced radars began to zero in on me and Goalkeeper before me and him both increase altitude to avoid any more HN-16s or PGZs that might be lurking below, just in time that Goalkeeper's plane confirmed that the radars were in the western part of the city directly facing the road to Lahore.

"Wall, be advised we've still got Fire Domes and -350s active in the port area." He reported.

"Roger, roger, I see 'em on the RWR...okay Sea Eagles get some altitude and engage those radars in the West part of the city," Theressa ordered.

Our RWR was busy, as we raced over the southern edge of the western part of the city which were mostly residential areas. Below, among the unappealingly basic single-family homes and some cheap flats, I caught a glimpse of a shape colored the same as the vehicles I've seen earlier.

"Got him" I immediately ordered the datalink system to transfer the enemy position into all allied assets in this mission. I also can catch a glimpse of Indian V-90 Molala heavy tiltrotors in action as they were evacuating stranded Sikh pilgrims and clerics still in the Golden Temple complex after defeating the enemy guards.

"Roger that."

I pushed towards the southern road and regrouped with Raven and her wingman, Kurniawan,

We then came around to pick up Ronny and Fransiska before we spread ourselves apart. Then, I switched to the GBU-55 JDAM-IIs hung from his wing pod. The jammer plane they were talking to pointed out another radar, this time the RSR-350, most perfectly opposite the Fire Dome. Theressa and Kurniawan pushed on the second radar while Ronny and I made a run at the first.

As the GPS guidance had locked on the newly acquired target, a Fire Dome radar. I began a shallow dive at the Fire Dome to ensure better hit and let the JDAM go with a quick "bombs away" call. Then Ronny released a second JDAM right after his lead. We pumped out an almost endless stream of chaff and flares as the Chinese copy of the Russian Buk sought to hunt us, has become the hunted.

"Goalkeeper, break hard!"