“Roger that, Three-One. They won’t even see us,” the Gamecock lead replied, fully confident of the stealth technology with the Raptor.
“Gamecock Two-Two, SAM Two-One-Four. We need help here. We’ve got four fully armed F-16s on our wing ordering us to land at Batman. They’ve already shot a stream of tracers across our path and we’ve begun our descent from Angels 34.”
SAM Two-One-Four, Gamecock Two-Two. We’ve got a small situation. Looks like someone might be playing games with us. We’ve got a few bogies looking for us but we should be able to slip right by them but if they get lucky and detect us, we can take them out but that’d delay us a couple minutes.”
“Roger that. We don’t have much time.”
“Gamecock Two-Three, Two-Two. Head up to SAM Two-One-Four. I’m going to hang back and see if anyone tries to follow you. Lancer Three-One has my six.”
“Roger that. SAM Two-One-Four, Gamecock Two-Three, I’m six minutes out.”
“Colonel D’Agostino, we have a situation,” Lieutenant Jessica Abbott, the tower watch officer at Al Asad, advised the base commander rather excitedly. “Sir, SAM Two-One-Four has been intercepted by four Turkish F-16s. We have two Raptors and two Strike Eagles in bound to the SAM flight but they each have seven Vipers running after them.”
“Lieutenant. Take a breath, slow down and repeat what you just said, only slower.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, we have a situation up north. SAM Two-One-Four has been intercepted and ordered to land at Batman air base. We’ve sent two Raptors and two Eagles to assist but I don’t think they can get there in time. Whoever is going after the SAM flight placed a squadron of Vipers astride the rout of both the Raptors and the Eagles. They’ll each need to fight their way through the Vipers to get to the SAM flight, provided they don’t get shot down themselves.”
“Lieutenant, the Raptors should be able to fly right through the Vipers — they won’t even see ‘em on radar. The Eagles might have their hands full, though. Have we scrambled anything else?”
“Yes, sir. We’ve got four more Eagles already up. Whoever’s flying these Vipers sent a pair after the tanker as well. We’ve got two covering that and two more headed to the SAM flight but I don’t think they have a chance, sir.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, Leopard Three-Five. You are ordered to land immediately!”
“Leopard Three-Five, SAM Two-One-Four. I’m working on it. This is a passenger plane, not a fighter,” Marshall replied trying to buy some time.
“SAM Two-One-Four, not fast enough!” Three-Five replied as he sent a burst of tracers at the port engine of the C-32A.
“What was that?!?” Secretary Johnson practically yelled out. “Did we just get struck by lightning?”
“That wasn’t lightning! They’re shooting at us!” Axelsson hollered back over the unexpected noise in the cabin and suddenly finding McKenzie laying on the cabin floor with blood pouring from his chest and abdomen.
“Andrea, see what you can do for Mac! I’m heading up to the flight deck to see how Susan’s doing. Sergeant,” Axelsson said to the first crew member he saw as he ran up to the cockpit, “start destroying all classified material on board. Everything classified needs to be destroyed — hurry! We don’t have much time!”
“Where’s Mac?!?” Colonel Marshall immediately asked as Axelsson entered the flight deck.
“He’s dead. He was back with us when the second volley hit the cabin. How’re we doing?”
“You’re a pilot, right? I’m going to need some help here.”
“F-14s, but it’s been awhile,” Axelsson replied.
“Engine one is out — it was on fire but I think I’ve got it out,” Marshall replied. “Their first volley took out the engine and the second volley hit the cabin. Hydraulics still feel good. I can control it if nothing else breaks on this or if they don’t fire again. Can you do a quick checklist while I fly this thing?”
“Gamecock Two-Three, Two-Fourteen! We are under attack!” Marshall called out.
“SAM Two-One-Four, Two-Three what’s your status?”
“We’ve taken cannon fire to the port engine and through the rear of the cabin,” Marshall replied. “We’re single engine… rapid decompression, multiple casualties. We need to land!”
“SAM Two-One-Four, one minute out and firing. Fox-three, Fox-three, Fox-three, Fox-three!” Gamecock Two-Three repeatedly called out indicating he had launched four AIM-120D radar guided air-to-air missiles at the four F-16s flanking SAM Two-One-Four.
“SAM Two-One-Four, Gamecock Two-Three. What’s your status? You’re clear of the bandits.”
“Gamecock Two-Three, we need to land. We’re single engine. Engine one’s shot to hell and—Shit! It’s still on fire,” as the fire alarm went off in the cockpit.
“I got it,” Axelsson said as he hit the extinguisher.
“Hydraulics appear fine for now. The cabin’s all shot up and full of holes. We have multiple casualties including the pilot,” Marshall replied.
“Gamecock Two-Three, I don’t think we can even turn around and reach Mosul at this point. Thanks for the help but I need to get her on the ground.”
“Roger that, Two-One-Four. I’ll be with you all the way in.”
“Batman control, this is SAM Two-One-Four. What the hell was that all about? I’m single engine with a possible engine fire. I’ve got several killed and wounded on board. We need fire and medical assistance once we land.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, Batman control. We’ll have both standing by. The runway is 02/20 and is 3,048 meters, wind two one five at one seven gust two eight.”
“Understood, I have you in sight.”
“Stan, it’s Eric. We’ve just been forced down at Batman Air Base in Turkey.”
“What do you mean, ‘forced down’?” Kaufman asked hesitantly.
“Four F-16s jumped us shortly after we crossed into southeast Turkey. They ordered us to land, and we didn’t land fast enough for them. One of them raked us with cannon fire — took out an engine and riddled the cabin. We have several fatalities and several more injured. We’re destroying all of the classified material we have on board as fast as we can, though not sure if we’ll have time to get to everything or not.”
“You’re obviously okay. What about Andrea?”
“She’s fine but we both had staff that were killed and wounded. The pilot’s one of the fatalities. He was in back checking on everyone when we got hit.”
“Good Lord.”
“Yeah. I don’t have a total count just yet but we have at least seven fatalities and a dozen wounded. Have we been able to figure out what’s going on? It seems like everything’s gone to hell here in Turkey since late this afternoon. President Demirel and his cabinet have been assassinated, ISIS grabbed a plane load of our nukes and now this?”
“Eric, like you mentioned, it’s all happened in just the last few hours. We’re starting to get reports in from Izmir and a few other places that ISIS is trying to take over Turkey.”
“What?!?”
“You heard me. Reports are coming out of Izmir and Ankara that ISIS is trying to pull off a coup in Turkey. We’ve heard from the French and the Germans, both of whom have a contingent at Eskisehir Air Base, and the Turkish government has asked both of them for immediate assistance in putting down this coup. It sounds like they might be trying to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, though I haven’t heard anything formal about that as yet. It seems that most of the military, including whole air force wings in Batman, Diyarbakir, Erhac, Erkilet and Konya have sided with ISIS. They’ve made serious inroads at Merzifon and Incirlik though we’ve heard that half the pilots at Merzifon flew out and joined the government forces at Akinci air base to help secure the capital. The army’s in much the same situation as the air force. The entire second army that’s based in eastern Turkey has sided with ISIS along with the ninth corps of the third army. It seems the country is pretty much split in half geographically with the entire eastern half of the country in ISIS’s hands.”