“Fortress Two is defensive Patriot!” Annie Dewey shouted. They were penetrating from the southwest of Osan, the most heavily defended sector. She suddenly found herself bracketed by two Patriot missile batteries that had opened fire simultaneously.
“Fortress Two, Fortress Two, be advised, I show a fault on your defensive system,” Patrick McLanahan radioed. “Decoy launchers, towed decoys, all jammers are faulted. Get out of there!”
“We’ve got two Patriots opened up on us!” David Luger shouted. “We’re trying to get away!”
“Annie, break right, let me have a shot at them!” Rinc shouted on interplane frequency.
Rinc Seaver and John Long had released all of their Wolverine cruise missiles from maximum range, but they had not hit their targets yet. Seaver started a fast climb. “What are you doing?” John Long asked.
“Just get a fix on those Patriots, Long Dong!” he shouted.
Long zoomed the supercockpit display out, and sure enough the laser radar was tracking the inbound Patriot missiles. “Bring it all the way around to the north, Annie,” Rinc said. As they watched Annie make her turn, the incoming missiles started a right turn of their own. The missiles flew a ballistic flight path and aimed not for the aircraft itself, but for a “basket” of airspace where they predicted the aircraft to be when they arrived.
“What in hell are you doing, Seaver?” Long repeated.
“I’m going to shoot down those Patriots and get them off Annie’s tail,” Rinc said. “Get a couple Scorpions ready!” The supercockpit display showed Annie’s predicted flight path as well as the Patriot missiles’ predicted path. As the Patriots turned, Rinc pointed his Megafortress’s nose at the intersection of the two flight paths, waited until they were within AIM-120 Scorpion missile range, then shouted, “Shoot! Annie, break left, now!” John Long fired their last four Scorpion missiles at the Patriots.
Annie turned hard left. At that exact moment, the Patriot missiles had activated their own onboard terminal guidance radar and began tracking. All four Patriots made a direct hit — right on the Scorpion missiles.
“Got ’em!” John shouted. “Nice going! Now let’s get this attack under way and get the hell out of here!”
“Fortress One, missiles away,” Rebecca said, and Paul Scott launched their last two remaining Lancelot missiles — not at any ballistic missiles, but at the set of coordinates for the Osan Master Control and Reporting Center that he had received from General Samson at HAWC.
“Fortress Two, missiles away,” Dave Luger radioed.
“Fortress Three, missiles…”
At that moment, they received a MISSILE WARNING advisory on the supercockpit display and a slow-paced deedle deedle deedle warning over the intercom. “Missile tracking and height finder pop-up threat!” John Long shouted. “Looks like an I-Hawk, eleven o’clock, six miles, within lethal range! Hold heading! Hold heading! Missile counting down! Jammers active, towed decoy is alive.”
“Withhold the launch! Withhold!” Rinc shouted. “Let’s get out of here before that I-Hawk tags us!”
“Hold heading, dammit!” Long said. “Twenty seconds and we’re outta here! That’s an order, Seaver! Hold heading!”
The rotary launcher had moved the first Lancelot missile into launch position and was counting down to release just as they received a MISSILE LAUNCH indication and a rapid-fire deedledeedledeedle tone. “Missile launch!” Rinc shouted. He looked out the left cockpit window and could see the first Hawk missile, an American-built air defense system, lift off on a column of fire and speed toward them. It looked so close that he thought they had flown right over it, although it was over five miles away.
The Lancelot missile left the bomb bay, ignited its first-stage motor, and pulled ahead of the Megafortress. “Now! Break right! ’’ Long shouted.
But it was too late. The Hawk guided unsteadily on the tiny radar cross section of the Megafortress until the Lancelot missile left the bomb bay, and then it guided on that larger target. When the Lancelot was only a thousand yards in front of the bomber, the Hawk hit. The plasma-yield warhead did not detonate, but the nine hundred pounds of solid rocket fuel did…
… and the Megafortress flew directly through the fireball.
“Shit! We’ve been hit!” Rinc shouted. The cockpit seemed bathed in fire, and it quickly started filling with smoke.
“Rinc! Can you hear me?” It was Patrick McLanahan. “If you can hear me, break left now! Another Hawk missile launched! I’m activating your counter-measures! Turn left now!”
Rinc started his turn — but then he noticed the supercockpit display. The Korean Patriot missile systems had successfully attacked and destroyed every other Lancelot missile launched against the Osan command center. Rinc had the last one.
Fire lights started illuminating on the instrument panel one by one. “Two… no, three fire lights!” John Long shouted.
“Eject, Long Dong,” Rinc ordered. “Get the hell off my ship.”
Long looked at Seaver through the thickening smoke. His eyes widened, as if to apologize — then he straightened in his seat and pulled his ejection handles.
Rinc twisted the knob on his ejection mode switch from AUTO to MANUAL just before Long ejected. He wasn’t going anywhere until the last Lancelot missile was gone.
At that same moment, the I-Hawk’s tactical control officer saw the target still flying after missile detonation and immediately commanded a second launch.
Rinc watched as the attack computers commanded the bomb doors to open partially — since the Lancelot missiles launched one by one from the rotary launcher, the doors did not need to open fully — and the last Lancelot missile was ejected into the slipstream. It dropped away from the bomber, its fins unlocked and stabilized the missile in the slipstream, the first-stage motor ignited, and the missile shot past the bomber and flew off into space on a ballistic trajectory.
“Rinc!” he heard a voice call out. It was Rebecca. “Get out! Eject!”
“I still show you in there, Rinc!” Patrick radioed. “Get the hell out, now! Eject! Eject!”
The smoke in the cockpit had cleared as soon as Long’s ejection hatch blew off, so now he could see everything clearly. He saw the second I-Hawk lift off — and this one began tracking the last Lancelot missile too.
Nuts to that, Rinc thought. He started a rapid climb, swept the Megafortress’s wings full forward, dropped the gear, and lowered full flaps and slats, instantly destroying all the bomber’s stealthy characteristics and increasing his radar cross section about 10,000 percent.He couldn’t see the I-Hawk missile anymore, but it didn’t matter — he had done all he could.
“Rinc, what are you doing?” Rebecca called out. “Eject! What are you waiting for?”
The mission was over. Time to get the hell out. “I’m with you, sweetheart,” he radioed back. “Pop open a cold one for me.” He reached down to his ejection handles…
The I-Hawk missile hit the Megafortress’s vertical stabilizer, blowing it and most of the tail section off. The bomber nosed over into a gentle descent, then started a slow roll.
Rinc was halfway through his second roll when he saw a shining silvery globe erupt just a few miles in front of the Megafortress. The inside of the silver orb looked like swirls and billows of liquid fire, but the surface of the globe was perfectly smooth, flawless. He pulled the ejection handles and shot out of the stricken bomber, out into the artificial marblelike sun growing before his eyes.