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>>393182
>Short Range (x4 AIM-95 Agiles, x4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs)
>Medium Range (x2 AIM-95 Agiles, x4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs, x2 AIM-54 Phoenixs)
>Long Range (x2 AIM-95 Agiles, x2 AIM 120 AMRAAMs, x4 AIM-54 Phoenixs)
>I'll make my own! (Choose a mix of AIM-95 Agiles, AIM 120 AMRAAMs and AIM-54 Phoenixs. You have 10 missile hardpoints)

>>393192
>Medium Range (x2 AIM-95 Agiles, x4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs, x2 AIM-54 Phoenixs)

>>393192
>>Medium Range (x2 AIM-95 Agiles, x4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs, x2 AIM-54 Phoenixs)

>>393192
>Medium Range (x2 AIM-95 Agiles, x4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs, x2 AIM-54 Phoenixs)

Keep it flexible

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As you approach your tomcat, the crew chief walks over to you with a clipboard in hand.

"So what do you want sir? We're loading training ordnance for the mission." He said as he pulled a pen from his pocket.

"Give me a medium range load. A pair of Agiles, A pair of Phoenixes and 4 AMRAAMs." You say as you continue walking, the chief taking notes as you talk. He nods when you are done and walks off to get it sorted as you and Zeus make your walk around, looking for any fault that could bring the plane down. You find absolutely nothing. In fact the only thing you can fault is that they painted over your nose art, not that it matters, you weren't particularly proud of that art.

You finish your walk around and climb into the cockpit as the ground grew loads the training Agiles onto your pylons. The training Agiles were essentially a plastic tube filled with concrete so that it matched the size, weight and shape on an actual agile. It could be jettisoned to simulate a missile launch and was otherwise completely inert. As you bring the comms online you find yourself in the middle of a conversation.

"Well if you had actually read your briefing file, you would see that they are using F-16s to simulate later model MiG-21s and MiG 29s." Durendal said almost sarcastically from her tomcat.

"That's not the point. The point is that we have our own aircraft that can mirror the MiG-21. And we get to actually shoot them down. The air Force doesn't need to be here." Rekker said absently, you were surprised that he was even talking. RIOs had a lot more to do in pre-flights than pilots, and as such didn't talk as much.

"Your analysis?" Dread dread said in his characteristically emotionless voice.

"Either this is part of the endless Air Force VS Navy shit-fest. Or the Air Force has a unit similar to us and this a test to see who is better. Or there is something else that is going to flip the test." Rekker summed up as the ground crew cleared the hanger. A few seconds after the ground crew left, Dredd started his jet's engines, with the rest of the squadron doing the same.

"Or they want to give us an even fight." Durendal suggested. "A few of us have very few flight hours in these aircraft."

"That is true. You, Striker, Rekker and Miller haven't flown Tomcats before." Ahab said as he pulled away from the line, with you following a few seconds later.

"Hey Razor, what do you think?" Zeus said over the internal comms.

>"I think it's just a training session for those guys who don't have that many hours in the 'cat."
>"This is just part of the continuous Air Force VS Navy shitfest."
>"We could be up against an Air Force equivilent to us."
>"Rekker is right. The odds are far to much in our favour, there's going to be something unexpected."
>[] "I think it's something else..." (write in)

>>393722
>>"Rekker is right. The odds are far to much in our favour, there's going to be something unexpected."

>>393722
>"Rekker is right. The odds are far to much in our favour, there's going to be something unexpected."

Never trust something that looks like it is going to go well

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"Rekker is right. The odds are far to much in our favour, there's going to be something unexpected." You say as you bring the Tomcat out of the hanger, realising only too late that you had forgot to switch the comms channel back to the internal channel.

"Nice to know that there's actually a brain in there pilot. What do you think the surprise is?" Dredd said as he turned onto the runway, you stop and wait for him to get airborne before moving onto the runway.

"It could be a number of things sir. We could be facing more OP-FOR aircraft than expected, or they could have EW aircraft to negate our long range advantage and draw us into a dogfight. Or it could be something else, we really don't know." You summarised as Dredd and Ahab both took off, once the runway was clear you rolled onto the runway with Scorpion following behind you.

"Tower, Freelancer 2-1 requesting takeoff clearance." You transmit to the guys in the air control tower.

"Freelancer 2-1, clearance granted. CINPAC is in the tower, so remember not to buzz us." The tower controller responded sarcastically, a quick glance up to the tower reveals a man in dress whites standing with binoculars. Obviously CINPAC.

"Affirmative tower, the more you remind me the more likely you are to make me do it." You said as you pushed the throttle forward and picked up speed down the runway, Scorpion followed just a second behind you.

"All freelancer elements, form up at angels 25." Dredd ordered. You brought the tomcat into a steep climb on afterburners to eat away the separation.

"I see you're trail Razor, you sure climbing so aggressively is a good idea?" Ahab asked as you levelled off 100 meters away from Dredd's element.

"We'll be getting refuelled on the way there. It'll be fine." You shrug off before switching to the internal channel. "Zeus, can we switch off fuel intake from the external tanks?"

"Had that fuel flow shut off before you had even brought the engines online." Zeus responded smugly, you know he loved being able to predict your moves.

"Then keep the flow off then until after we re-fuel. I want to go into that fight with full tanks." You respond as Slider and Durendal climbed up opposite you in the formation.

>Talk with your comrades? (write in)
>Keep quiet until you get yo the engagement range.
=================
If you want more information regarding the engagement, then you can just ask you comrades.

>>394006
>Ask Scorpion what she thinks this engagement is going to be.

Also maybe just a tiny bit of flirting. Not enough to warrant an arachnid in the flight suit though.

>>394006

Check in with our wingmate, she how she's feeling and what she thinks the set up is

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You switch your channel to the wing mate channel and talk to Scorpion and Vampire.

"Spider, Vampire, how are you two doing?" You ask, you remember that both of them had been the targets of Miller's relentless flirting, and that had to be grating.

Then again, you know that Scorpion's pet had gone missing and that it was apparently a female. So Scorpion might be making an army.

You can't help but shudder at the thought.

"We're doing good Razor. We were just going over tactics." Vampire responded. You look over and see that unlike Zeus, Vampire was reading a map rather than a comic.

"Care to tell?" You say as Kenji and Miller's flight formed up between and behind you and Slider's element.

"We've been looking at the topography of the area. And we think that the enemy might try terrain masking to negate our radar advantage." Vampire started as Freelancer squadron changed direction as one and headed towards the flight range. "Looking at the setup we'll be facing. We're facing 4 F-16 and 4 F-15s, simulating a mixed group of MiG-21s and SU-27s. But we're planning to be facing up to tripple that number."

"You really think that we'll be facing that many?" You ask, outstanded at their planning.

"Possibly, we could be facing similar odds if we are operating behind enemy lines." Vampire said, you watch her shrug in her seat.

"So what do you recommend then?" You ask as you look at their payload, from what you could tell they had a very different payload to you, she had 4 dummy Agiles on their glove pylons with a dummy Phoenix on her jet's nacelle mounts.

"We recommend keeping high with our heads on a swivel. Our radars have superior range and we have the high advantage, and the sun to our backs. We have a number of long range weapons that we can use to our advantages." Vampire explained fairly well.

"Understood, how's your load?" You inquire, their setup was abnormal to say the best.

"We have 4 Agiles on the gloves, 2 Phoenixes on the nacelles and 4 AMRAAMs on the centerline hardpoints." Scorpion explained, rolling her cat to the side and showing you the belly of her jet.

"Understood." You go to switch channels, but add. "First time you've showed me your belly, I like what I seeing." You add slyly.

"Smooth one Razor." Zeus said sarcastically, Distancing himself from you to avoid a potential scorpion to the flight suit incident.

"I bet you do. Though if you do well then I might show you some more... intimate parts." Scorpion responded seductively. Attempting to trick you into getting yourself a scorpion.

"I bet Miller would be annoyed, considering how much he flirts with both of you." You changed the course of the conversation, dodging a potential scorpion attack. But this only made Scorpion laugh.

"He'll have a lot more to worry about soon." Scorpion replied darkly before cutting the channel. You shudder as you wonder what she might have in store.

>Talk with your comrades? (write in)
>Keep quiet until you get to the engagement range.

>>394533
>Talk with the Brits.

May as well see their strategy too.

>>394533
>Keep quiet until you get to the engagement range.

I think we've covered all of our bases, make sure Zeus is awake back there and get the show on the road

We'll need a tie-breaker to see who wins.

>>394590

I'm down for talking to the Brits as well, just not sure how much they'll have to add. Feel free to surprise me though Thunderhead

>>394683
I'm saving the surprise for later, there are very little surprising things that can happen when talking to someone other than them saying that they have a terminal disease. And none of my characters have terminal diseases.

Anyways, writing.

>>394729

I should hope not, though I wouldn't be surprised if a stressed military medical system missed it

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With your chat with the Germans finished, you decide to check in on their old foe, the British. As such, you flick your radio over to the squadron channel just to see if the boss is planning anything.

"And that's why I'm not into anal." Miller said, causing you to pause and wonder what the fuck was going on while you were gone.

"Thank you Miller. For telling us about your past sexual experiences." Dredd said with a serious hint of disgust. Making you glad that you were gone.

"Hey, might as well tell the girls what they're getting into!" Miller said smugly, so sure that he would be able to sway any of the girls.

"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you were a virgin." Kenji spoke up, his relatively calm voice indicating that he was either late to the conversation or had seen some even more messed up shit.

Considering that he was Japanese that was a very real probability.

"Hey! Shut up Sudoku. I've banged many women." Miller said defensively, obviously trying to sound unfazed, but was doing a terrible job.

"Miller, if you have had sex then those women must have been desperate. Hell, knowing you you're probably into fat women." Slider said wrathfully, obviously angry at having to listen to his disgusting story. You on the other hand are just trying to stop yourself from laughing.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he drugs women in order to sleep with them!" Durendal said disdainfully, garnering only shocked splutters from Miller.

"He probably uses a lot of roofies, and laxatives. I have no idea why people used to call you 'the man'." Vampire added, only further causing him to splutter.

"They used to call him scatman you know?" Ahab added nonchalantly from the front.

This revelation caused everyone to burst out laughing, obviously excluding Miller, you even heard Dredd chuckling.

Once the laughter subsided, you switched over to the channel to the Brits, who you could still hear chuckling.

"So, how are ya'll doing over there?" You ask as you suppress your own chuckles.

"We're doing good." Mags said as she stifled her own laughter. "It was really good to see Miller get what was coming to him."

"Well from the sounds of it he isn't out of the woods yet. Scorpion and Vampire have a little something in store for him." You say as you remember back to what Scorpion had said earlier.

"Yes, we know and we're coordinating with them and the other girls on that matter." Slider said smugly. Only adding to your sense of worry, if you crossed any of these girls then you would be screwed, and not in the nice way.

"In any case. What's your plan for this?" You ask, dragging the conversation away from the topic of Miller's impending doom.

"Our plan is to wait for them to come to us. If that doesn't work then we'll try and flush them out." Slider said as freelancer flight rendezvoused with the refuelling tanker. The unit began shuffling into an angled line with Dredd at the head.

>CONT

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>>394949
"What's your load?" You asked as the line finally took shape and Dredd started refuelling.

"4 Agiles, 4 AMRAAMs and 2 Phoenixes. What about you and the Germans?" She responded calmly.

"I've got 2 Agiles, 4 AMRAAMs and 2 Phoenixes. The Germans have 8 Agiles, 4 AMRAAMs and 2 Phoenixes." You respond, exciting a low whistle from Slider.

"Did they really think that they would need that many?" Slider asked, unfazed by the possibility that she was unprepared.

"Yep. Though it could also be that they are worried about the missiles not tracking." You say as Dredd disconnected from the refuelling tanker and dropped back, the line shuffled up as Ahab took position behind the tanker and extended his aircraft's refuelling probe.

"How are they even carrying that many missiles?" Mags asked from her place in the RIO's seat.

"She's got her Phoenixes on the wing glove mounts and triple racks on the nacelle mounts, where she's storing the other 6 Agiles." You report calmly as you wait for Ahab to refuel.

"Do you think we'll need that many?" She asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"No, but it doesn't hurt to be over-prepared." You respond as Ahab finished refuelling.

>Talk with your comrades? (write in)
>Keep quiet until you get to the engagement range.

>>394954
>Keep quiet [x]
Save the chatter for after the battle, in my opinion.

>>394954
>Keep quiet until you get to the engagement range.

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You refuel a short while after you finished talking with the Brits, and return to your position in formation. The rest of the flight is thankfully quiet until about hundred miles away from the range airspace, when Dredd started making plans. First he asked for everybody's load outs, before deciding that the squadron would split by their flight numbers. Flights 1 and 4, the Boss and Kenji's flights would go in low and try to smoke the enemy out if they tried to attack from below. Meanwhile flights 2 and 3, yours and Slider's would split and provide top cover. He also explained that if an aircraft was "shot down" then the range commander would call the kill and the aircraft would egress north under radio silence. Breaking radio silence was an automatic loss for the aircraft's team.

At that, everybody split up. with Dredd and Miller diving while you and Slider spread out, keeping your wingmate's close.

As you crossed into the combat zone, the voice of the range commander spoke over all channels.

"All aircraft are in the combat zone. The fight may begin. Good luck to both teams." As soon as he'd finished you turned on your radar and spotted 6 targets. 2 were diving while the other 4 were heading in your direction.

>Take out the 2 diving aircraft! They're harder to hit but if they get in the weeds you'll loose them.
>Engage the 4 coming at you! Thin them out before they enter AMRAAM range.
>Other (write in)

>>395167
>Engage the 4 coming at you! Thin them out before they enter AMRAAM range.

Hopefully Dredd and Miller can take the ones at low altitude.

>>395167
>Engage the 4 [x]
The divers will lose energy advantage, making them sitting ducks. Besides, we're tasked with holding the top cover and we cannot sacrifice altitude!

>>395167
>Engage the 4 coming at you! Thin them out before they enter AMRAAM range.

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"Zeus, Lock up some of those incoming bandits with the Phoenixes." You say calmly, unlike back in the fleet and in the aggressor squadron, you knew that Zeus was actually paying attention.

"Phoenixes, your trigger. Be advised that the Germans have data linked to us, you have their Phoenixes too." He responds less than a second later.

"Understood." You switched your comms to the squadron channel and called the launch. "Freelancer 2-1, Fox 3, Fox 3!" You press the fire button and are instantly rewarded by the feeling of the bulky Phoenixes dropping away. The only thing lacking from it being a proper launch was that the dummy missiles didn't rocket away at the target. Instead the missile's tracking and flight profile was simulated by computers on the ground.

As soon as the missiles left your aircraft, the targets blurred away into interference as enemy jammers came online. But unlike the standard AIM-54, the ones you were carrying were modelled after the upgraded D model, featuring both the improved electronics of the C model and the AMRAAM's seaker. So ultimately it was a mean little missile.

You counted down the seconds and ginned as the jamming dissipated and 2 aircraft broke away, heading north.

"Garruda 1-2 and 2-2, killed." The range announcer confirmed.

"Uh, Razor?" Zeus said with very real worry. "We have a target detected on the IRST. But the radar isn't seeing it. It could be a glitch, but should we lock it up just in case?"

>Lock it up. Just to be sure.
>Leave it. It's probably a glitch.
>Other (write in)

>>395251
>Lock it up. Just to be sure.

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>>395251
>>Lock it up. Just to be sure.
They're trying to play that stealth game on us.

>>395251
>Lock it up. Just to be sure.

>>395251
>Lock it up. Just to be sure. [x]
Leave nothing to chance. Do we have Mk. 1 Eyeballs on this target?

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"Zeus, lock up that target. We'll engage when it enters range." You respond, and a moment later you see the tracked target appear on your radar MFD. Showing it at a much higher altitude than you.

"Uh, Razor. What are we locking?" Scorpion asked, you suddenly realised that she was still datalinked to you.

"Zeus found a target with an IR signature but no radar signature. We're tracking it on IRST and will attempt a shootdown." You respond beofre switching to the squadron frequency.

"Freelancer 2-1 to all elements. Unidentified flying object detected at angels 60. Target has an IR signature but no radar signature. We'll engage but keep your eyes on your IRSTs. Freelancer 2-1 out." You switch off your comms and check your targeting MFD. The 2 enemy fighters from before had just entered IRST range. Meanwhile the unidentified target was just about to enter AMRAAM range.

>Engage at range. The AMRAAMS might not be able to track it very well but if it's an enemy it might send it evasive.
>Hold off. Wait until it's in visual range. At leas then you can hit it with the Agiles that will be able to hit it.
>Other (write in)

>>395349
>Hold off. Wait until it's in visual range. At leas then you can hit it with the Agiles that will be able to hit it.

>>395349
>>Engage at range. The AMRAAMS might not be able to track it very well but if it's an enemy it might send it evasive.

Also we should try climbing to gain an altitude advantage on him.

>>395349
>Engage at range. The AMRAAMS might not be able to track it very well but if it's an enemy it might send it evasive.
Part of me thinks this is a waste of AMRAAMS but I can't think of a better solution. Climb, climb, climb. If it closes to range go to guns.

>>395349
>>Hold off. Wait until it's in visual range. At leas then you can hit it with the Agiles that will be able to hit it.

Need a tiebreaker.

Also, you can use a write in option in conjunction with another option, provided that it is something that you can do while performing the other option.

>>395349
>Engage at range. The AMRAAMS might not be able to track it very well but if it's an enemy it might send it evasive.

We're just probing anyway.

>>395393
Do we have any longer ranged missiles?

>>395399
You and the Germans had a pair of AIM-54 Phoenixes each, you fired them at the incoming enemy fighters and scored 2 kills.

Considering they had jammers and likely went evasive. That's actually pretty good.

Anyways, writing.

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You wait for a few seconds as the unknown target entered your range. And just as you expected, a slight radar signature popped up. As your RWR went ballistic.

"FREELANCER 2-1, FOX 3!" You call out as you release an AMRAAM at the target before pulling straight up and releasing chaff as your missile warning receiver started screaming. You pull straight up as the Germans break left.

"FREELANCER 2-1 TO ALL ELEMENTS, UNIDENTIFIED CONTACT IS HOSTILE. ENGAGE ON SIGHT!" You yell over the comms as you dump more chaff and pull your aircraft over it's back and horizontal. Your missile warning receiver shuts off but your RWR stays on as the 2 other enemy fighters lock you up.

The unknown enemy was still coming at you, having dodged the incoming AMRAAM. And launched another missile at you as level out. You pop more chaff and dive away. Bringing yourself way past Mach 1.7 in the dive before dumping more chaff and reversing the motion, pulling up again on full afterburners as he fired another AMRAAM at you.

As you level out again, the 2 other enemy fighters enter AMRAAM range.

>Keep evasive! The AMRAAM may be better than the older sparrows, but they have roughly the same kill probability. If you keep this up you can lure them into Agile range.
>Turn the tables! Launch your AMRAAMs at the incoming fighters and hunt that damn unknown down!
>Other (write in)

>>395477
>Turn the tables! Launch your AMRAAMs at the incoming fighters and hunt that damn unknown down!
We have enough mid to close range toys to bring them down if we miss, and they'll be taking evasives anyway if the AMRAAMs don't outright kill them.

>>395477
>>Turn the tables! Launch your AMRAAMs at the incoming fighters and hunt that damn unknown down!

>>395477
>Turn the tables! Launch your AMRAAMs at the incoming fighters and hunt that damn unknown down!

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As the 2 enemy fighters enter your weapons range, you decide to be proactive and put those incoming fighters out of commission. You quickly swing your nose around and lock the enemy fighters.

"Freelancer 2-1, Fox 3 Fox 3!" You announce as you release all of your AMRAAMs. Partially to ensure that you kill those enemy fighters, and partially to reduce weight and drag for the upcoming dogfight.

As the missiles drop away, you wait a second before going inverted and diving again. As the mystery aircraft fires another AMRAAM at you. You narrowly avoid the dummy missiles as they fall to the ground, their purpose served. While you dive the comms crackle into life.

"Freelancer 4-1 and 4-2, killed. Garruda 2-1, killed." The mission announcer read out. This wasn't good, while Miller was an admittedly bad dogfighter, Kenji was good. The only way you had been able to take him out was by making him surrender after almost running out of fuel.

But on the plus side, one of those incoming bandits were down. So that was nice.

"Freelancer 2-2 to 2-1. We're here and ready to play." Scorpion announced over the comms. "What do you need Razor?"

>"Suppress that incoming enemy fighter while I deal with the mystery aircraft.
>"Deal with the mystery fighter. I'll take out the incoming enemy fighter."
>Other (write in)

>>395559
>"Suppress that incoming enemy fighter while I deal with the mystery aircraft.

>>395559
>>"Suppress that incoming enemy fighter while I deal with the mystery aircraft.

>>395559
>Suppress that incoming enemy fighter while i deal with the mystery aircraft.

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"Engage the enemy fighter! I'll deal with the mystery aircraft." You order as you hit your afterburners and streak towards the mystery aircraft, the enemy aircraft dives down at you in response. The pair of you keep heading towards each other until you both fire your missiles. He breaks hard left to avoid the Agile and you follow him. Only having to dump some flares and roll to dodge the AIM-9 that he fired.

You barrel towards him but mess up the gun run, instead you take the chance to observe the enemy fighter.

It's black with a V-tail and no obvious weapons or engines. The only marking on the underside that you can see is a red hourglass painted on the centerline. As you pass over the aircraft, you see that the pilot is mounted high with great visibility, meanwhile the engines are both traditional jet engines, recessed further into the air frame than normal, possibly to mask it's IR signature?

As you ponder this, you bring your Tomcat back over the top of him and line up another gun run, only for him to roll away at the last second. Causing you to barrel past him again.

"He's behind us!" Zeus calls out as you pull around. You needed to reverse this before he got a sidewinder lock.

"Hold onto something!" You yell as you break hard right, slamming your Tomcat into a spin. But no matter what he stays on you. No matter the turns and breaks you try.

"He's still on us. Fucker's playing with us!" Zeus calls from behind.

Oh great, the playful kind.

>Drag him into the weeds! Let's see if he's so good in a canyon run.
>"I'm gonna hit the breaks, and he'll fly right past us!" What? It worked that one time.
>Get Scorpion's help! How hard is that bloody fighter to take out?
>Other (write in)

>>395647
>>Drag him into the weeds! Let's see if he's so good in a canyon run.

>>395647
>Drag him into the weeds! Let's see if he's so good in a canyon run.

>>395657
+1

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You roll inverted and make a rolling spiral as you dive, keeping him directly opposite you as you plummet. Only when the radar altimeter reads 5000 meters above the deck do you level out and dive into a canyon. You don't even bother looking to see if he's following you, instead opting to just get the hell out of dodge.

"He's still on our ass!" Zeus reported from the back as you take what evasive action you could, dodging around pillars and screaming around bends. Putting anything and everything between his missile and your jet's red-hot engines.

You follow the canyon for a few desperate miles before turning the corner and making a startling discovery.

Around the bend in front of you steaks a Tomcat, with another mystery aircraft behind it. You immediately reduce your altitude until you are mere meters above the ground. The other Tomcat increases their altitude until just before the 2 of you meet. Then you spring the trap.

You arm and fire your last Agile at the new mystery aircraft, switch to guns and pull up, using your momentum to drag your boresight just in front of the enemy aircraft. You hold down the guns trigger as the enemy aircraft flies through your boresight, you haul over and position yourself over the enemy as you are rewarded by the voice of the range officer.

"Ghost 1-1 and 1-2. Killed." As soon as this is said, the mystery aircraft hit their burners and fly north, leaving just as mysteriously as they came. Leaving you and the other Tomcat alone for now.

>Get back to Scorpion. She could be in danger!
>Form up with your stray comrade and hide in the canyon.
>Other (write in)

>>395757
Forgot my trip.

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>>395757
>>Get back to Scorpion. She could be in danger!
Now we must rescue best girl.

>Now we must rescue best girl.

It begins

>>395768
>>395780

Only 3 threads since her arrival and Scorpion is already best girl?

I should step my game up with the other girls. I wanted a waifu war.

>>395786
She is the one who has engaged us the most, and flirtatiously at that. What do you expect?

>>395792
I know.

The most I had for her initial draft was "Sassy German who flirts and puts scorpions into people's flight suits." And I've done more with it than the other girls. No matter. I think I can solve this with the token beach episode If not then I have backup plans.

Anyways, we're still waiting for more votes.

>>395792
And in any case, the only reason she's been given so much engagement is because anons vote to see her.

If they voted so much to talk to the Slider, then she would have as much screen time as Scorpion. And could potentially be best girl.

>>395796
To be fair, I was mostly just being silly. We haven't really been around the other girls enough for me to form an opinion on them as of yet.

I'm completely down for the beach episode though.

>>395796
If that is the case it is because we saw something interesting and went for it. Scorpion has a great attention grabber. It's kind of like writing a paper in that way. Give us a reason to explore the characters and we will. If you don't, people will be content with what they have

>>395799
You may have been being silly, but you helped open a conversation that has allowed my to get some feedback from the anons who are following the quest. But in any case, character progression will happen as the quest continues.
>>395802
Scorpion's attention grabber is her sassiness and the scorpion thing. But you only get to see her sassiness through talking to her. Same with Slider and many of the other characters. So talk to more people and you'l be able to see that character's appeal.

>>395757
>Get back to Scorpion. She could be in danger!

>>395807
This makes me want to talk to the Brits more now.


For the record, I like Vampire more.

>>395809
Why do you like her more? Curiosity here, nothing else

>>395811
Onions are generally less dangerous than scorpions. Plus he used Prinz to represent her, and Prinz is top-tier.

>>395816
Well said, though with greater risks come greater rewards

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As you watch the mystery aircraft rocket away, you realise that you left Scorpion alone with a fighter, and a chance that there was more of these mystery aircraft around.

You don't even wait for your ally to form up with you, you turn back towards where you came from, hit the afterburners and rocket back towards where you had last seen Scorpion.

"Freelancer 1-1 and 1-2, killed." The range officer reported. Kindly informing you that all of your assets in the weeds were KIA. That left only the top-cover assets.

"Freelancer 2-2 to 2-1. Where are you?" Scorpion's voice crackled over the radio through heavy interference.

"Got chased down into the weeds. En-route to your location." You say as you spot the contrails from her dogfight. "How are you holding up?"

"This bastard knows how to dance." She said rather clearly, the comms becoming clearer as you got closer. "He's been able to shake my Agiles with liberal use of flares."

"Inbound supersonic, I'll strafe him as I pass." You say as you fine tune your pass, Scorpion gets the hint and coaxes him on the straight and narrow. You line your gun-sights up, only for him to jink at the last second and spoil your aim. You scream in front of him at close to mach 2, and cut your engines. Waiting for the airspeed indicator to lower down enough for you to be able to maneuver around for another pass.

"Garruda 1-1, killed." The range officer announced as you pull back over, spotting the enemy F-15 in position right behind you, Scorpion behind him. He pulls away as you level off, Scorpion flying up to take her spot just off your wing.

"I got him!" She practically squealed. "I finally got that fucker!"

"Freelancer 3-2, killed. 3 Freelancers remaining." The range officer announced. The fact that he hadn't said how many enemy aircraft remained troubled you the most.

You switch your comms to the squadron frequency with the intention of contacting the only other surviving Freelancer, Slider.

"Slider. You reading me?" You say as you switch your radar on and take a sweeping shot of the testing range. You spy 2 large splotches of interference in your sweep and a large radar transmitter, obviously the remaining enemy aircraft, including an AWACS.

"I hear you loud and clear. I'm heading over to you." She said almost cheerfully. You take a look and see a tomcat bolting up at you from the deck. "Looks like you're the boss now Razor, what's the plan?"

(PICK 1 FROM EACH SECTION)
>Keep low and use terrain masking, only popping up directly underneath a target.
>Fly in as fast as possible, g too fast for them to keep up.
---------------
>Head after one of those large jamming contacts.
>Take out that AWACS.
>Hunt for some enemy fighters.
>Other (write in)

>>395835
>>Keep low and use terrain masking, only popping up directly underneath a target.

>Take out that AWACS.

>>395836
This sounds like a good option. We need to get rid of that AWACS.

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"There's an AWACS out there. And we need to kill it." You decide. Chances were that you would be able to kill that AWACS easily, even if you had only 3, barely armed fighters.

The 2 other groups, you weren't sure about, but you decided not to talk about them for a reason.

"We'll go in at low altitude and dash in. Keep afterburners and radar off unless we have a dogfight." You add as you dive, Slider and Scorpion keeping at your 4 and 8 o'clock respectively. As soon as you reach tree-top level, you banked hard right. Away from the AWACS. But also away from where enemy fighters were likely to approach from. Your efforts were rewarded when a pair of F-16s lance up from the deck and climb towards your previous perch.

"Razor, do you want me to hit them? I've still got spare AMRAAMs." Slider asked as you changed course directly towards the AWACS.

"No. Save 'em for later Slider." You instruct as you continue on. And less than a few minutes later, the lumbering behemoth of the AWACS filters into view, and the contrails of it's 4 massive engines.

Surprisingly, it's not flying with an escort flight. Making killing it much easier.

>Have Slider shoot it down and go after something else (EW/fighters)
>Fly up there and hit it with guns.
>Other (write in)

>>395858
>Fly up there and hit it with guns.
And keep a lookout for enemy fighters. This smells like a trap.

>>395858
>>Fly up there and hit it with guns.

We'll need to be ready to fight those two F-16s though. They'll probably be right on us once we take that AWACS out.

>>395859
This. Have her cover our ass

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"It's alone?" You say with surprise. It was common for AWACS to fly with escort aircraft. Where the hell were it's escorts?

"Maybe it's escorts are looking for us?" Slider suggested.

"Maybe. But this smells like a trap." You pause for a couple of seconds before deciding your course of action. "I'll fly up there and hit it with guns. E-3s have a blind spot below them.If I stay in that blind spot during the climb then I'll be able to take him out before he squawks. You two will cover me and take out any hostiles that come looking." You explain before heading off alone.

Once roughly underneath the E-3, you pulled directly up and hit the afterburners, sacrificing what little fuel you had left to close the distance.

You snap up the distance in seconds, and rake the gun-sights across the E-3's wing-roots as you get into range. As you rocket past the E-3, the range officer speaks his verdict.

"Gatekeeper, killed." You smile as the E-3 lumbered north, but your happiness was cut-short.

"RAZOR! Fighters inbound!" Slider yelled as your RWR started screaming. You flipped on your radar and saw that there were 4 fighters. 2 were flying high while the other 2 were coming in from tree-top level.

>Order the girls to engage and go evasive.
>Tell the girls to wait and go evasive
>Accept your "death". You're running low on fuel anyway.
>Other (write in)

>>395873
>>Order the girls to engage and go evasive.

>>395873
In real combat, there is no accepting death. Go evasive and hope they can win a 2v4

>>395873
>Tell the girls to wait and go evasive.
Baiting time.

>>395873
>Order the girls to engage and go evasive.
I'm guessing the girls are still at tree-level. Continue our climb and try to bait the two up top into chasing us. Hopefully we can keep them distracted while the girls win their 2-on-2.

There's a chance one of the two will break off to hit one of the girls from on high and turn the fight below into a 3-on-1, but I doubt they will since I would think it's more tactically advantageous for them to take us out 2-on-1 while maintaining altitude or so I said, as someone with no experience in the subject matter whatsoever.

There's also the chance we might all get shot down, but that's always a risk anyway.

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The moment your RWR started screaming, you rolled your aircraft inverted and dived for the deck. Letting gravity do the work for you.

"Take them out!" You order Slider and Scorpion as you descend, dumping chaff and flares all the way. All you can do is sit back and listen out for the range officer to call out those who had been killed.

"Valkyrie 1-1, killed." He began, so far so good. "Stalker 1-2, killed."

As you level out, you look over to the furball. Both Slider and Scorpion were both dogfighting their F-16s, at the moment you would say that things were balanced. While the F-16 was more manoeuvrable, the Agile only needed a solid lock and it would have a kill.

"Valkyrie 1-2, killed." The range officer announced as one of the F-16s broke off and headed north. This sealed the fate of the final aircraft, which tried to break out of the dogfight and head for a canyon. All it succeeded in doing was presenting it's tail to the waiting Agile. "Stalker 1-2, killed. All USAF combat aircraft have been eliminated. USN wins."

You cheer over the comms at the announcement, along with the rest of VF-21. Proud that you and the rest of the unit had won, in spite of the odds.

"Freelancer 2-1, 2-2 and 3-1. This is CINPAC." The smug voice of the CINPAC came over the comms, everybody shut up out of respect. "Hell of a good show you put on out there, we have a tanker coming in from the north to refuel you. Refuel and return to base, I need to talk to my air force associates about their conduct today. CINPAC out." As the radio crackled off you felt rather happy. In spite of the air force sticking as much as they could against you, you and your unit had managed to win.

Now that was something to celebrate about.

==================================
I'm going to end the thread here, writing such a large battle isn't something I have much experience in, but then again I'm new to the whole QM thing as a whole. If you have any feedback then tell me and if you have any questions relating to the overall world then do ask. As while it's similar, it defiantly isn't the same. I might not be able to answer all of them in a timely manner, but I will answer them before archiving the thread.

That being said, I'll leave the thread for a while before archiving it. Just so that anons who took part in the other threads, but missed out on this one can ask their questions and give their feedback.

In any case though, thanks for keeping with me for roughly 4 threads of pilots and pilot accessories. Next thread will be linked here and on my twitter (which you can find in the OP0

>>395898
That was kickass. Also, something to consider if you plan on making another thread in the next 24-36 hours. I'm pretty sure you can only have three threads up at once on this board, so it might be best to just update on this thread if the other two haven't gone to archive yet by the time you plan to do your write-up.

iirc we havent gotten a good physical description of any of the characters. mind writing some for us?

>>395901
>>395902

I'm probably going to update this one anyways, I need to lay the groundwork for the inevitable beach episode that will probably come in the next few threads. Though I'm probably going to spend a bit of time getting the bios for all of the characters finished. Right now all of my notes are spread across 5+ different documents, so I need to merge them, go through all of them and arrange everything and integrate everything together. This will include character descriptions and getting a stockpile of photos of similar looking characters. That should be ready for the inevitable beach thread in 2-3 threads time.

how long do you expect to run this quest?

>>395917

Thanks for running man, you have a pretty good grip on this whole business and I liked the fight

>>395898
>end the thread
Reading up on this quest: It's very enjoyable to read. (The Anime pictures surprised me a bit - in combination with all the plane porn) Thanks for writing!

Thunderhead, you still with us? Not trying to pester you or anything, just curious.

>>408329
I'm still here. I'm going to archive this thread and start a new one soon as we're already at a good place to leave off.

Next thread will be the run up to the inevitable beach episode (which I want to get out of the way before the combat starts).

>>408649
>beach episode
:)

I really enjoyed reading the battle scenes. You seem to have a knack for those!

Wondering why there're no dice rolls though: Or do you have a more tactical approach (choices are what matters) for winning/losing in mind?

>>408649
Also: You don't use your twitter?!

>>408877
I'd prefer to keep dice rolls out of it for now. I'd prefer to have a more tactical approach to help decide wins/losses.
>>408879
I will be using my twitter to announce when the next thread is up, in addition to putting up a link to the next thread in this thread.

Testing
something
don't
mind
me

>>413882

NEW THREAD