by Brad Carlson
“Mahdi flight. I’m picking up an airborne tracking radar,” the ISIS flight leader said to his command. “We need to assume we’ve been discovered. Light ‘em up!”
“Archangel, Desert Hawk Two-Six.”
“Desert Hawk Two-Six, Archangel, go ahead.”
“Archangel, we’ve located Raid One. Forty-two aircraft located at twenty-nine degrees thirty-eight minutes north, forty-two degrees six minutes east. Angels forty-three, course two-nine-five degrees at 770 knots and increasing. They’re moving!”
“Desert Hawk, if I’m hearing you right, they’re currently about 430 miles east, southeast of Jerusalem.”
“That’s affirmative, Archangel.”
“Stay with them as best you can, two six. They’ll outrun you soon, I know but hopefully, we’ll have someone else on them at that point.”
‘Roger that.”
“Gamecock Two-Six, Archangel,” Admiral Fischer called to the Raptor squadron commander.
“Archangel, Gamecock Two-Six, go ahead.”
“Gamecock Two-Six, what’s your current status and position?”
“Archangel, we’re at about fifty miles due north of Al-Qa’im. Four of us in this flight.”
“Gamecock Two-Six, come to course two-three-zero degrees. We have an in-bound ISIS raid consisting of forty-two aircraft, currently 420 miles east, southeast of Jerusalem, angels forty-three supersonic at 770 knots and accelerating. It is believed this is a nuclear strike. Firewall it Two-Six. We’ll have tanker support standing by. Weapons are free.”
“Lancer Three-Six, Archangel.”
“Archangel, Lancer Three-Six. Go ahead.”
“Lancer Three-Six, what’s your current position and status?”
“Archangel, we’re about halfway between Raqqa and Palmyra, six of us in flight, air-to-air config, eight Slammers each. I got wind that some of the Turkish Vipers might try to intervene and I figured we had enough close air support so I told my guys to go with the Slammers.”
“Excellent. We’re tracking an inbound ISIS raid of forty-two aircraft, now roughly four hundred miles east, southeast of Jerusalem on a heading of two-nine-one degrees at roughly 790 knots. This is believed to be a nuclear strike. I need your flight down there to intercept them just as fast as you can get there. I’ve also dispatched the Gamecocks as well but not sure who’ll get there first. Tanker support will follow behind you. Firewall it Three-Six. Weapons are free.”
“General Kaufman, Admiral Fischer at Centcom. We’re tracking an inbound ISIS raid currently about four hundred miles southeast of Jerusalem. We believe this is a nuclear strike. I’ve dispatched a Raptor and an Eagle flight to intercept them. ETA is about fifteen minutes.”
“Good Lord. Are you sure of this?”
“Yes, sir. We’ve also recovered all of the hostages. Secretary Johnson and Colonel Marshall were the last to be rescued. We don’t have all of the details but the Secretary sustained a broken leg in the rescue. We don’t have any word on wounded and casualties, and this was bloodier than we expected. At some point, Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv assumed command of the rescue operation.”
“Bloody hell. Okay, I’ll let the President know. Go ahead and brief the Israelis.”
“Will do.”
“General Eitan, this is Admiral Jack Fischer of US Central Command. We’re currently tracking an ISIS raid that’s roughly four hundred miles southeast of Jerusalem. We believe this is a nuclear strike aimed at Israel.”
“My God!”
“We currently have an Eagle and a Raptor flight in bound to intercept them and I fully believe we’ll take out the entire strike force before it even gets within a hundred miles of Israel. However, if any of them manage to get through, we expect them to be on a heading of two-nine-one degrees and well within range of David’s Sling.”
“Thank you, Admiral. We’ll be watching.”
Al Asad Airbase, Iraq
8:33 PM Local Time
“How’s everyone doing?” Stonewall asked Arielle as they approached Al Asad Airbase.
“Monty’s the worst right now. We’ve stopped the bleeding but he’s at least lost the one leg. We’ve done what we can to try and save the other one. The Secretary’s in a lot of pain with her broken leg. Her body armor stopped another round so I’m sure she’ll have some sore ribs but she should be okay. There’s a few others but you and Monty are the worst.”
“How’re you doing?” Stonewall asked as she removed her body armor, leaving only her Under Armour sports bra on for a top.
“Oh, you know, I took two rounds in the chest and another in the back, but not all at the same time. The lungs are good this time,” she added with a grin. In their previous engagement, she suffered a collapsed lung after taking two rounds simultaneously in the back and the chest.
“Well, you do make a sexy target.”
“You think so, huh? Too bad you won’t be seeing any action, of any kind, for a few weeks anyway, Cowboy,” Arielle replied with a wide smile on her face. “You’ve got one badly mangled leg.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” Stonewall added as he tried to sit up. “Oh, Jeez that hurts!”
“I told ya. Now lay still. I don’t want you losing any more blood than you already have.”
45,000’ above Jordan
8:38 PM Local Time
“Gamecock Two-Six, Lancer Three-Six, I’ve got forty-two bandits at one-six-seven degrees from me, bearing two-nine-one at eight hundred knots, distance ninety-five miles.”
“Three-Six. I see ‘em, range 125 miles. Looks like you’ll get to them first.”
“You’ll need to do some cleanup for us. We won’t be able to take’em all.”
“Understand, Three-Six. We should be able to get’em all between the two of us.”
“Lancer flight, we’ll close to fifty miles before we engage. I don’t want to get within their missile range.” The Lancer Eagles carried the advanced AIM-120D air-to-air missile which had a decided range advantage over anything previously supplied to the Turkish air force.
“Mahdi flight, move to intercept. We need our brothers to get through.” And with that, thirty-two F-16s left formation and changed their heading to intercept the approaching Lancer flight. The active electronically scanned array radars in both the approaching F-15s and the F-22s picked up the shift in the ISIS formation.
“Gamecock Two-Six, you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Roger that, Lancer. You’re closer. You going to try and take out the escorts or are you going to bore in for the eight on the far side? We’ll be able to pick them up if you want to take the escorts.”
“Gamecock Two-Six, we’ll take as many of the escorts as we can. Not sure that we can get all of them but we’ll try.”
“Lancer Three-Six, that’s fine. Doesn’t look they can see us anyway,” the Raptor flight lead replied, indicating that the stealthy nature of the F-22 completely hid them from the ISIS Vipers. “Looks like they’re all headed towards you guys.”
“Lancer flight, fire on my mark: Three, two, one, mark!” For even the experienced pilots of the Lancer flight, the visual display of the mass missile launch was impressive as thirty-six AIM-120D missiles suddenly leapt off of the rails of the supersonic Eagles in the night sky. The counter measures launched by each of the Eagles further enhanced the nighttime fireworks. “Lancer flight, break and let’s go find Texaco. Gamecock, we’re Winchester and heading to refuel. The bandits are all yours.”
“Roger that. Looks like you guys did pretty good. I’ve got eight remaining escorts and the eight special targets. Gamecock flight, doesn’t look like they can see us so ignore the escorts and go right for the last eight. We’ll pick up the escorts once we’ve eliminated the primary targets.”
The four F-22s of the Gamecocks flew to within twenty miles of the last of the ISIS F-16s. The Viper pilots never had a chance with the stealthy Raptors—they simply couldn’t see the threat on their radars. Each Raptor fired six AIM-120D missiles at the eight t
arget aircraft—three missiles per target. It was all over in seconds.
“Archangel, Gamecock Two-Six. The targets have been eliminated. Hitting the remaining escorts.”
“Roger that, Gamecock.”
XLII
Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC)
San Antonio, Texas
Three days later
“Hey, big brother, you’re looking a lot better than the last time I saw you here,” Tanya said announcing her entrance into Stonewall’s hospital room. His last visit to BAMC occurred when he took an Iraqi mortar blast to the face and chest.
“Yeah, really don’t care to go through that again.”
“Tanya, nice to finally meet you,” Dani said.
“Oh, sorry,” Stonewall apologized. “Tanya, this is Dani. I know you’ve talked on the phone quite a bit but never really had the chance to meet each other face to face.”
“Not to worry,” Tanya replied. “Dani tells me they think they’ll be able to save your leg. That’s wonderful!”
“Yeah, that’s a huge relief! It’s going to be a long recovery, though. Everything from the knee down is pretty much torn up.”
“Well, if the docs think you’ll have a decent recovery, and they don’t even know you like I do, you’ll be on your feet in no time,” Tanya added. “And, I’m sure Dani will do what she can to motivate you!”
“That won’t be a problem,” Dani replied with a grin.
“Did you happen to bring that little package I asked if you could pick up for me?” Jackson asked his sister.
“I sure did,” Tanya replied with huge smile as she handed it to him.
“Awesome!”
“Dani, you know, what I’m about to ask you generally requires that a guy get down on one knee but, obviously, that’s not going to happen.”
“What!?!” she gasped as she opened up the small jewelry box Jackson handed to her. The box contained a three band, Black Hills Gold ring set featuring a one-third carat diamond within a rose, accented by green and rose-colored gold leaves. The flanking bands each featured two groups of three smaller diamonds accenting the center diamond. “Oh, my GOD!!! Stonewall, it’s GORGEOUS!!!” Dani exclaimed as she slid the ring on her finger.
“Congratulations, Dani,” Tanya said as she gave her a big hug. “And welcome to the family!”
“YES! I’m . . . stunned! Yes! Stonewall . . . Tom, you never cease to amaze me!” Dani added as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a very passionate kiss.
“Hey, sounds like I got here just in time.”
“Tamir! What are you doing here?” Arielle said as he walked into the room.
“I got wind that you might have something special going on here and I see I’m just in time. Nice rock, Arielle,” Tamir said as he winked at Stonewall.