The 42nd are ordered to head north to Afghanistan. Will they prevail against the large scale offensive mounted by the UCC into it?

---

Afghanistan.

The land that is often called a graveyard of empires. Or, a gateway of empires.

Throughout my lifetime I never think that my country will one day fight here. People here mostly knew that country is a really messed up one thanks to groups like Taliban and later ISIL, and just going there, especially in years leading to the Civil War is a recipe for suspicion from the community and if it was religious related, government surveillance. But today, here we are.

"We have an emergency mission. Five minutes ago, the UCC had launched another multi-pronged offensive in a bid to regain control of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It turns out that their main axis of assault is here, aimed for Herat, Afghanistan. Codename; Halberd." called our battle manager Maj. Adam Abdurrahman, which we know well with his callsign 'Gandiwa' just four minutes after the 42nd are all airborne from Gwadar.

"It's clear now that they want this fertile valley for obvious reasons. Allied forces and tribal fighters in this area were hard-pressed by the battle-hardened Caliphate Army mountain divisions with air support from Iran. Alongside our air assets in the area, Russian and Chinese fighters are engaging the enemy so far. But the latest report had shown that 35% of Coalition air forces in the area had already been lost..."

"Emerald Squadron, be advised we are to have a rendezvous with an Indian squadron, stand by..."

"Emerald lead, this is Lightning". It's the No. 20 Squadron IAF, the first Allied squadron flew side by side with us in this war, when we're still stationed in Pune, India, proudly flying their indigenously-made HAL Abhaya.

Colonel Medi answered the Indian. "Roger, Lightning, It's an honor to fly with you again."

As we entered the airspace of Herat, we could hear the frantic radio call from both Allied and Pact pilots.

"There are too many of them!" said a pilot which I recognize, from his accent, as French.

"Talwar 2-3 is down! He was a good lad..." called an Indian.

"Mayday, mayday... Venom 4-2 losing all engines.."

"Where are the reinforcements??" asked another pilot in a heavy Chinese accent.

"Everyone" Our CO speaks to us from his Su-57. "It's time to dive into the fireworks, Let's show them the Wings of the Union Republic will prevail! Equatorial Emeralds!"

"Jangan Biarkan Musuh Masuk!" translated as Don't let any enemy pass; we replied to Lt. Col. Medi in unison.

"Let's do this!" said the Indian commander, which then followed our lead, diving to 5000 feet.

"Vegvankutobhayah!" (Swift and Fearless in Sanskrit) his pilots replied with their squadron motto.

---

I immediately merged with two UCC-copied Rafales in front of me. As I'm pursuing the French-originated fighter I overheard an Indian Abhaya pilot remarked on the open channel.

"I've never seen an aerial battle like this before. Even my own great-great-grandfather's battles back in 1965 and 1971 were not as intense as this one." In the meantime, we can see several Coalition battle-damaged aircraft had begun their retreat from the area.

"Be safe out there, Evy," I said to her, leading Emerald 3 flight, while I am commanding Emerald 2; while Major Rita is commanding Emerald 4 and Major Ahmad commanding Emerald 5.

"Watch yourself out there, Wise, and let me know if you need any help." Evelyn soon swerved to the right engaging another enemy fighter nearby.

I locked onto a Rafale, trailing it like a hunter after its prey. It swung around to the left, it swung around to the right, it went up into a loop, but halfway there I fired a 30mm which destroyed its engine. I moved my plane to the left so that it didn't get hit by the debris.

"Still no reinforcements from the base. If only they'd get here, we could put an end to this all at once," A Caliphate pilot stated.

"Those Allied bastards really messed things up with their seizure of Askhezar," said his wingman.

"Those people are nothing special. I'll take care of things!" my wingman for today, Captain Kuk Min-jae exclaimed. Even I was on edge in this battle, or at least more so than usual. No one should be that confident in a battle. You start to think you're invincible and that becomes dangerous. That's when enemies slip through your fingers and stab you in the back.

"Careful Cabbage, I appreciate your optimism but don't let it keep you from noticing the reality, okay?" I warned the Korean-Indonesian.

"Yes, sir!" I watched him latch onto an enemy Rafale attempted to flee from my sight before shooting it down with our newest weapon which had just been integrated last week along with the associated training, the Pulse-Laser System of PLS, a development of the Tactical Laser Pod. I know he is more than just a competent pilot, just like everyone else in the 42nd. As I breathe deep, I let go of my fear of him and everyone in the 42nd, including my CO and myself getting shot down.

"Activate PLS"

"PLS activated"

"They gonna feel the heat" I smirked to myself as I banked left towards a flight of UCC copied J-20s.

"Our support is here? Who did they send us?" asked a French pilot aboard his Dassault Esprit, causing me to question if he'd been so focused to survive the battle so he's unaware that reinforcements had arrived.

"IFF has confirmed it's Emerald from Indonesia and Lightning from India. The reinforcement team is Emerald and Lightning," another controller responded, with a Chinese accented English.

In the meantime, Ouddy zoomed in the left side of mine with an enemy hot on his tail. But before I can assist him, his wingman Nur has already dispatched a JF-20 with his 30mm.

"Look out, drones!"

Between the Chukars, I saw four Saegheh exploding suicide drones, ready to knock us out.

I divided the flight again, then rolled left and proceeded to dispatch three exploding drones with the PLS. But the fourth had maneuvered to strike.

"Dive, dive!!" Seconds later, the drone blew up by its controller's command. Thankfully no one from my own flight was caught in the explosion.

"Slash, slash, slash." Kuk caught a JF-20 which is maneuvering to went away from the explosion site of the Saegheh drone with his PLS pod, immediately turning the PAC-made aircraft into a fireball. But he can see his enemy managed to bail out.

---

On the other side of the engagement, as I lead my flight into the JF-20s, Evelyn looked around for her next target.

"This is Rider 2 to Emerald 3"

"Rider 2, Emerald 3 copy, we are full strength and ready to engage the next wave." she replied at the oncoming allied Canadian squadron, flying F-35Ds.

"This is Gandiwa, be advised we have multiple faint contacts, Angels 10, bearing 050..." The bandits soon detected as Turkish TF-1s with a flight of unstealthy F-15E behind them.

"Prioritize to intercept the attackers before they are in range to release their payload towards the city!" Gandiwa called again.

"Emerald 3, roger"

"Rider 2, roger that." said the Canadian leader.

She fired two R-75s at the Su-35 she'd been following then immediately switched targets to assist the Canadians engaging the strike formation from behind.

"Fox two" A barrage of AIM-10 and R-75 scattered the formation, but not after two F-15E and one TF-1 went down or rendered combat incapable.

"I got a lock, Emerald 3-4, Fox 2!" Kevin fired a second volley of AA-14 at one Strike Eagle, which soon dispatched it.

"Watch out, we're facing the Angel of Azrael here." A Caliphate pilot warned.

"You better watch out for us. The Angel of Azrael is not just him.." I caught Evy's reply on the net.

"Enemy cruise missile inbound!" the controller soon warned us. It means one of the F-15Es had managed to release their payload way before being shot down.

"I'll take care of that!" she replied, then with her wingman, Melissa watching her back, she negotiated the winding valley, looking for the cruise missile with her PLS active.

"Missile... missile..." Smart money it's from MANPADS. Evy soon flipped into a kulbit before pumping a couple of flares, and the missile soon lost track with her Sukhoi.

"You dead" Her laser sight had perfectly aligned with the oncoming locally copied AGM-84 SLAM-ER cruise missile before she pulled the trigger and as she pulled up there was a massive and somewhat unusual explosion with a massive blue-ish light radiating over the smoke and flame.

She immediately reported what she had just seen. "3-1 to Gandiwa, What on earth is that explosion???"

"Gandiwa here.. it appears that you are just preventing a microwave attack on this city. My God, how on earth the Caliphate obtained such technology?"

"Damn those goathumpers!" exclaimed Kevin.

---

For the 42nd, especially me, as we hearing the enemy are talking about us, I feel satisfied to know that the squadron already got themselves a reputation with those Middle Easterners as an enemy squadron that was not only one that was exceptional at flying, but dare I say it, even one to be feared by them.

It's better to be feared than be loved if anyone is dealing with fanatical barbarians like the Caliphate!

It was hard to rattle their pilots, especially Iranians or Turkish.

To hear them warning each other about me made all the hardships I'd gone through and that I'd put up with over the past few years worth it. If everything I'd been through facing the civil war in my country then facing the UCC military had led up to them being afraid of me, then I could deal with it. I believe that they had long realized that the so-called infidels they had mocked and underestimated were now on a level playing ground, if not one with a slight advantage. It was an ego boost for sure while I must admit that the Caliphate to some degree has managed to exorcise the ghost of "Arab military incompetence" during the first phase of the war.

With that in mind, I fired my guns at the enemy JF-20, hitting it multiple times before its engines went out. I decided to let him retreat safely and switched to a new set of targets. I was a fighter, but as hateful am I to the Caliphate and its culture, I began to realize that they are not completely barbarians, a label that was often landed by people in the social media into Middle Eastern and some African peoples; Arabs, Turkish, Iranians, Muslim Black Africans, and Pakistanis, in particular after the formation of the UCC.

Sure it's racist, but the Civil War is still fresh on most of our collective minds.

"This is Emerald lead, All flight, SITREP" It's Colonel Medi.

"Emerald 4 is going to re-arm, we are still full strength," said Rita.

"Emerald 5, engaging enemies, covering Emerald 4" reported Ahmad.

"Emerald 3, running low on ordnance, all aircraft accounted for," Evy called.

"Emerald 2, engaging enemies, but it looks like they will be the next wave so we could have a good backup to us and the Lightning flight here" I reported.

"Emerald 3 rearm, follow Emerald 4. 2, we're coming to your position. The American navy has come to our sector to take over the engagement." My CO replied.

Speaking of re-arming we are assigned to the nearby Quetta International Airport in Pakistan, managed by us as the Hadi Tjahjanto Air Force Base, but we prefer to call it Quetta.

After seven more bandits, mostly JF-20 and F-313s, were shot down. Emerald 1 and 2 were soon leaving the battle area to rearm, just in time as I look at the oncoming formation of Indian HAL Palaka covering Filipino F-35s mostly armed with air-to-ground weaponry from the opposite direction.

---

We're back in action.

"Great, drones." Kuk grumbled as our radar registered a ton of blips, Sofreh Mahi drones.

"Check six, friendly drones" Medi ordered. After radar blips, we can look in visual as an almost equal number of our own swarm of mostly British Taranis and Chinese Sharp Sword drones are racing towards the Caliphate drones. Soon the AEW piped in.

"Friendly drones have been pre-programmed to engage the enemy counterpart and provide support to the ground forces, All Allied and Pact fighters who can hear me, focused on manned enemy aircraft! We got confirmed reports that several enemy elite squadrons are on their way to exploit the expected opening from the drones!"

"Roger, Emerald 1 noted"

"Emerald 2, roger"

"Emerald 3 roger"

"Emerald 4 roger that"

"Emerald 5 roger"

The Abhaya-flying Indian Lightning Squadron had also returned.

We pushed forward and soon I locked on to a Typhoon off in the distance, trying to lure the other enemy planes and perhaps, some drones, over there and use the mountains to my, and my flight's, advantage. There was something to be said about being able to hide behind one mountain and pop up from behind another. It was the same with clouds. Great coverage when you needed it.

Furthermore, two of our short-range missiles load each plane are the new airburst variant with its technology recently supplied by Vympel in order to allow the said R-75 missile to be manufactured in the homeland. Good for bunched up drones!

Upon closing in on the Typhoon, I fired a standard R-75 at it, praying it would hit the engine. Although the aim was slightly off, the missile still hit and downed the craft. Flipping my Sukhoi upside down, I headed down towards the ground, with Kuk orbiting above and soon went into a turning fight with another Typhoon; back to me, I'm only pulling up when it was getting dangerously close to the mountains. Now I could see everything above me a little more clearly rather than being mixed up in the fray. I was trying to figure out where, or who needed me most, when a Caliphate went in on an unsecured channel, "I'll put that those infidels in their place. I'll shoot them down and make a name for myself and my family. Forward!"

"You'll have to catch me first," I snapped my plane up vertically, the AI helped me adjust everything to keep it safe so that I headed into the thick of it all. Then I caught two enemy Typhoons were ganging up on an Indian Abhaya who was struggling to stay out of their range.

"Fox two!" I announced as I fired a single R-75 into the closest Typhoon, it hit, disintegrating it, the second Typhoon attempted to flee, but the Indian he pursued before then rolled into the UCC jet and destroyed it with gunfire.

"Lightning 2-4 here. Thanks for saving me." The Indian pilot thanked me.

"You're welcome" I replied.

"Drones!" Then as I turned and roll I saw a swarm of drones approaching our position and the Indians. Aided by the AI I began computing the firing solution for the burst missile.

"Emerald 2-3 here, coordinate received sir, Fox two special!" called Ouddy, firing the R-75S airburst missile. Despite the evasive maneuver from the drones' AI the ensuing explosion destroyed two and heavily damaged two more.

"Good hit, good hit. That will teach those little buggers a lesson."

"Treader lead here. The enemy has broken formation. Take them out, Let's show what the US Air Force can do!"

There was a pause as the 42nd played a game of chicken with the enemy planes, including four copied Tu-22M bombers attempted to flatten the city of Herat, getting as close as we possibly dared before firing missiles supported by EW assets to overwhelm the notoriously strong ECM from those big machines and high-tailing it away from there.

"Reinforcements still haven't arrived! What is our country doing?!" A Caliphate pilot griped.

"Barbaric things," I said, not expecting a response back. It was always iffy if they ever heard us. I was kind of hoping they had this time but alas, luck was not on my side in that.

"Nice work! The enemy threat level has dropped to under fifty percent. Just a little more," Gandiwa announced. With that bit of information, it motivated me to get this mission done and over with, especially as we had refueled and rearmed.

Kuk and I tag-teamed an agile F-313, one that he was much closer to but one I had locked onto regardless. When the missile actually hit the plane and effectively neutralizing it, I was shocked. Not just shocked, but impressed after I managed to convince my wingman to let the Iranian made plane retreat. Meanwhile, another Qaher nearby soon fell to the combined effort of Ouddy and Nur.

"Emerald 2-4 to Emerald 2 lead"

"Come in, 2-4"

"My left engine is hit and losing oil pressure. Requesting permission to bug out."

"Granted, 2-3, cover him."

"Affirmative, 2-1" Ouddy replied.

In the meantime "This is Pulwar lead to all Pulwar flight. Here you see many of our fellow freedom-loving Muslims flying with the Indonesian Emerald Squadron. If you want to keep Afghanistan free, watch and learn from them," that's what I hear from a friendly flight leader which turned out to be one out of three Afghan-manned Allied fighter squadron under American command, equipped with Afghan Air Force-marked F-16Gs.

"With all due respect to what you have been experienced for decades, we're nothing special. We can do that thanks to our training," said Medi to the Afghan pilot.

"Dao lead to all Dao flight. We must not let our allies fighting alone. Let's show 'em why they should fear the China National Army Air Force!" another ally cheered. "Time to fire up comrades!"

"Those Indonesians, damn them! Along with the Indians, they are turning the tide of battle in their favor," snarled a Caliphate pilot from Egypt.

"They can't be human!" a Syrian remarked.

"They aren't angels, more like a demon... I've never seen anything like it."

"So those Indonesians are really what the Caliphate called Angels of Azrael..." an allied pilot explained.

"This is Lightning lead to all units. Caliphate's days here are over. Let's wrap this up!

I looped up and over to head towards the mountains, cruising high in the sky on the hunt for any stragglers.

"Emerald 2 here, we got a couple of F-16s, nothing we can't handle. Besides those guys are now decided to engage Rider flight." Evelyn called.

"Damn it, the enemy has the initiative. Where the hell is the reinforcements?!" demanded a clearly frustrated Iranian UCC pilot that my mike caught.

"Gandiwa to all units, multiple high-speed craft approaching! Something's wrong... stay alert,"

I glanced at my IFF to see almost thirty-five manned aircraft along with ten Saegheh drones approaching. These were the reinforcements that the Caliphate had been waiting on.

"Emerald lead to Gandiwa, we're running low on ammunition, requesting permission to rearm." We still have the pulse-laser pod but lasers don't win wars alone.

"Understood, any aircraft running low on ammo is permitted to rearm while the damaged retreat, we got reinforcements of our own, two squadrons from the Commonwealth; one Singaporean, one New Zealand..."

"This is Kestrel 1, we're ready to cover you."

It's those Singaporeans that once fly alongside us in Operation Chandragupta. I glad to see those people are going to fight again on the same battlefield with us.