Enjoy another round of combat!

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The 42nd had tasted blood for almost four months, yet our hearts yearn for more, or like the Indians once said, yeh dil maange more!

"..Please be seated" Another briefing from the Colonel.

"...You're supposed to be part of escort mission with American bombers in a raid into Iran. Unfortunately, we have a situation up north. Here, in the Afghan-Tajik border. We've just received reports that the UCC has knocked out some of our satellites with ASAT missiles after being unable to hack them. GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou have all been affected, so get ready to use old-school techniques to do things for a while as replacement satellites are being launched as I speak."

"This facility here" pointed Medi. "in the Afghan-Tajik border is one of the known UCC facility housing those missiles. Your order is simple. Reduce it to smithereens. Expect heavy resistance including laser weapon usage as well."

"Who will be flying today, Colonel?" Asked Capt. Hendrikus.

"As we are having two missions, this and our routine patrol above Karachi, we're going full force. Major Paulus" he pointed at me. "And Major Evelyn. Choose among your fellows who will fly with you into Tajikistan. The rest will follow Major Pongoh, Major Diana, and Major Ahmad to Karachi. But I assured you which will be in Karachi, our forces inside are still often being raided by UCC fighter-bombers and drones, so you will get your prey there, too."

"...A worth mentioning fact is about one of our support, the 13th Squadron. Remember, unless their AEW permitted you are not authorized to contact them during the mission and when he gave you order, it will override any existing order."

Everyone understood why the 13th are such special.

"...Other than the 13th, the Commonwealth's No. 401 Wing will send two of its squadrons, which are British No.6 Squadron, callsign Kingdom, with Tempests, and Indian No. 225 Squadron with Abhayas, callsign Chariot... We also will coordinate with the Pact forces, in which they will come down, full force, with up to three squadrons will be involved. They don't tell us exactly which unit but it's certain that there will be a Chinese J-31 squadron and Russians flying MiG-39s and Su-45s. We also had called the navy, and the good news is, the HMS Prince of Wales is in range and available."

"..Payload, mostly anti-air, but also a couple of LGBs, as our satnav are currently degraded. Furthermore one aircraft from each flight will carry TLP in this mission instead of bombs..."

"Do your best and let God do the rest!"

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Not all things went sour. For the last two weeks our planes are being upgraded for a new life-support system with an advanced G-suit and neural chips on our helmets that allow us to sustain a much higher G-force, something that we human pilots badly needed in the era of drones. Thankfully our birds were designed with such upgrade in mind.

We head for Tajikistan from the south from Delhi and rendezvoused with our allies above Srinagar. Strict radio silence were enforced and after tanking, we hug the ground to further reduce detection. Then we split up from the attackers and climbed as the AEWs had detected enemy fighters approaching them, and because we are above mountains a timely detection is particularly important, so we can avoid being engaged in the narrow confines of the mountains of Central Asia.

Then we began to have a degradation of our radar from jamming towers installed by the enemy on the mountainside. The jamming lasts almost three minutes before the 13th which basically our meatshields finally neutralized the ECM.

"Be advised Sipir reported that the 13th had provided us with a safe corridor that are being uploaded into your systems. He specifically called us to eliminate the power stations nearby to wreck their power supply, so the ASAT silos will be offline and easier to penetrate. The position of the power stations had also been transferred to your aircraft as we speak." called AWACS Archer from the Indians.

"Roger, we'll turn them to smithereens." said the Japanese squadron leader, Major John Tomori, 119th TFS.

"Striker lead to all escort fighters, please watch our backs!" the Japanese continued before the formation head towards the power stations.

"Look out, something is going to fire..." Then I saw a crimson blue light radiating from the mountainside.

"Kuso!" Two Japanese strike fighters went down from a previously unseen laser turret.

"Striker 3-1 and 3-2 went down, I say again, Striker 3-1 and 3-2 is down, no ejection!"

"The power stations are being protected by laser defense turrets. Take out the turrets first!" called AWACS Archer.

"Roger that" I decided to take a left turn just in time for the laser to fire again. This time every nearby aircraft managed to evade the beam, however.

"Target in range, bombs away!" I dropped a P-500L, which is basically an Indonesian made KAB-500L Russian laser-guided bomb, from my outer weapons pod on the starboard wing and it immediately penetrated the apparatus' protective outer shell, blowing it all over the place.

"One laser down, we have a clear shot for this power plant." I called AEW again.

"This is Striker 3-3, missile away!" Said a Japanese FB-4 pilot miles away as he released his ASM-7 hypersonic LAM (land-attack missile) directly into the generator assembly.

"Direct hit, first power plant confirmed offline."

Seconds later, a cold voice called us. "This is Sipir reporting to all units, the second power plant has been knocked out, the third and fourth plant are being uploaded to your systems as we speak. Expect more lasers. Out!"

As I escorted the remaining FB-4s into the third power plant, Archer called us. "Be advised, multiple contacts are heading towards the facility, bearing 120, angels 12, at high speed! Protect the strike package!"

"Yes sir!"

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Sixteen Turkish-made TF-25 5th generation multirole fighters approached the facility from Tashkent.

"They managed to damage some of its silos, but they won't go any further, Tawakalna squadron, hunt them down!" commanded the leader of the 77th TFS, Lt. Col. Berkay Cihan. His kill score against Allied aircraft was 13 kills and six more probable, with callsign "Bounder". His deputy, callsign "Driller" was an Indonesian supporting the UCC cause, Major Abu Sulaiman, with the same number of kills.

Following the Turkish aircraft were two squadrons worth of MiG-35s.

I soon ordered my flight along with Evy's one to jettison our bombs and go full air-to-air, followed by two flights of British Tempests.

"Be advised, Sipir reports that a flight of the 13th is being rerouted to engage the elite enemy squadron. He has granted the flight a rare exception to interact with regular squadrons. They will call you soon." AWACS Archer piped again.

"Understood"

Just as the AWACS said, the prisoners piped us.

"Padlock 2 reporting in." said the said 13th Squadron flight leader, 1st Lt. Joseph Limanto "Scale".

"Kingdom 3, we hear you loud and clear" an RAF flight replied, followed by the second British flight, Kingdom 4.

"This is Sokol 3" this time a Russian MiG-39 Flatpack joined us from the east relative of our position.

"Emerald 1 here. And to Padlock 2, I hope your squadron proved your worth here." I called back.

"Emerald 2" Evy piped.

As instructed by their AEW, Padlock 2 is leading the assault with their remaining missiles.

"Padlock 2-4, Fox three!"

"Sokol, opening fire."

The first barrage of radar-guided missiles destroyed six fighters and a couple of hostile wingman drones, but only one is from the Tawakalna Squadron. Soon the enemy ace squadron proceeded to close at the Allied formation for WVR.

"Emerald 1-3, fox two!" Bachtiar was the first who locked on one of the Tawakalna TF-25s, 75 degrees off-boresight, and released one of his AA-14s. To his displeasure it missed. He then switched to gun, but it needs a temporary loss of peripheral vision from extreme maneuvering and evasion from four separate missile launches before he gained a good shot and pressed the trigger, destroying the said Turkish fighter.

"1-3, this is 1-4, I'm activating my TLP, stay out of my way." called Melissa.

Bachtiar designated the target; a group of Fulcrums, in which Melissa will destroy it with TLP.

"Fox four... Splash four bandits." Melissa reported.

"Fox three!"

"Padlock 2-3, I'm going down.."

"Padlock 2-2 here, mayday.. mayday.." static.

Forget those people, they are expendable anyway and you can't do shit. I said to myself as I danced with two TF-25s who tried to flank me.

"About time 1-2," I said in relief when my wingmen for today, Kuk, which had splashed one Tawakalna fighter and one drone, has called me and then regrouped near my relative position.

"Yes sir, just get down one miscreant which wants to separate me from you." The Korean replied.

"Fox two!" I got another good tone, almost 90 degrees relative to my position, and fired the AA-14, it hits.

"Emerald 1 to Archer, Splash one bandit, another one soon."

"Nice shooting Emerald 1, maintain your position and continue engaging the enemy"

As me and Kuk continue our fight with the single TF-25 in our sight we hear a radio call "Padlock 2-1, Fox two!!" We can see a small explosion on the horizon and then a call of "splash". My spirit soared sky-high as we are flying high (pardon the pun). Suddenly the TF-1 executed a Kulbit and now in my rear, but he forgot I have a wingman.

"Say goodbye, Fox two!" The said TF-25 disintegrated.

I soon ordered my flight to went into Evy's flight, which I heard were in a bloody fight against both UCC TF-25s and MiGs.

"Archer, any updates from the others?"

"Kingdom flight had lost three of their own along with one from the Prince of Wales. Along with that, I regret to inform you that Indians had lost Chariot 1 flight including their commanding officer. Meanwhile, Sokol is dealing with the Fulcrums and two flights of Firebirds sent from Kabul. Keep your eyes peeled. We are still try to call for reinforcements. In a good side Padlock and Striker squadron have rendered the facility offline. Sipir has ordered the 13th to go home. Half of their number has been wiped out while the rest went low on ammo or gas... We're to cover the strike package."

The moment the AWACS said it I began to further understand the horror that which prisoners from the 13th squadron have had seen, despite most of them were assigned on it as result of serious crimes during their military services, such embezzlement and other forms of corruption, along with sympathizing with the enemy, the parlance for being sympathizers or even supporters of banned organizations such as, but mostly, "violent Islamist organizations" along with drug dealing and crimes involving lives such as assault.

"42nd, regroup on me."

Meanwhile, sensing their enemy are grouping, Berkay led his remaining Tawakalna pilots, including Abu, to charge straight ahead, supported by two flight of Fulcrums that will occupy his enemy's attention.

"Infidels and traitors" he growled as his enemies appeared on his HMD, starting the engagement which he hopes will be decisive. "Don't think that you will leave this area alive after what you have done to it?" he said again in the open channel as he dodged a missile from Evelyn.

She's engaging the Turkish, which already lost two men from his flight by laser strike from Maulana, while I'm dealing with his Indonesian second-in-command.

"BOOM!"

"Mayday.. mayday.. Emerald 2-3 here... all engines are gone and ejection seat busted.. NKRI harga mati!" The patriotic sentence was the last word from "Referee" Captain Muhammad Hamdani, had killed seven enemies before.

"We belong to God and to Him we shall return!" exclaimed Hamdani's wingmen, Nur "Nozzle".

Evelyn maintained her composure, despite her flight was hit by the demise of her element leader, as she pursued the squadron leader, confident that her remaining pilots are watching her back, battling the remaining Tawakalna pilots and MiGs.

"Damn, Bounder has been hit?" asked a MiG-35 pilot from his flight's vantage point as he saw Evelyn's Sukhoi had landed a couple of 30mm into the TF-1.

"We should help him, sir!" said his wingmen.

"Don't you know what they've done to the other flight?" Another Fulcrum pilot attempted to object before being silenced by his leader, which dived into the furball below.

"This is Emerald 1-3 to Emerald 2-1, we're on the way to engage the MiGs, focus on the lead, Raden!" Paulus's element leader called her.

Then, as Tawakalna 1 broke away from her and attempt to gain a good lock, she executed a bell maneuver and gunning the Firefox past an IRIS-T fired at her, straight into her enemy, and a good lock tone is the only thing she needed to fire her last R-75 straight into the Turkish portside wing, ensuring his demise.

Meanwhile, near her, my enemy is more interested in taunting me later than engage.

"You can't get me." Abu mocked as he try to flee. I'm out of radar-guided and not in range for my R-75s.

"Arm laser" the female AI voice command responded "TLP activated"

Suddenly he executed a Kulbit but I countered it with several yo-yo maneuvers that ensure I stay behind him. I'm quite hesitant to use the laser pod as the AI had warned me that some friendlies are still in it's firing range. After almost four minutes of pursuit, it called "Clear to fire"

I pretended to let him bug out before taunting him on the mike. "Say goodbye, traitor!"

Abu replied "What??" Seconds later with a Fox 4 call I vaporized his jet.

Soon the enemy transmission burst into a cacophony of rout.

"Tawakalna squadron has been destroyed, we're doomed. Run for your lives!!"

"Bounder and Driller are dead... we can't hold this area anymore, save yourself!" the remaining Tawakalna pilots turned their back and left the battle area in full military power.

"Scimitar lead to all remaining Scimitar unit, leave the combat area, I say again, retreat! High command has ordered us to abandon this facility..." said a MiG-35 squadron leader.

"Archer to all units, enemy anti-satellite missile facility has been destroyed. We've just had an update from higher up that replacement satellites were now in orbit and will be active soon. Excellent job, all units, you're cleared to return to base."

The loss of "Referee" is worth the result. I said to myself as we regrouped for the journey home.

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