Mercenaries and planes

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Unknown
RPG published by
Steve
No. of Players 2+
First Publication 2010 (We hope)
Essential Books N/A as of yet


This totally unknown homebrew gave me faith in /tg/ "Holy Shit! Planes and Mercs! - Product promotional tagline.

First post on /tg/

"Our GM has said that our new game will be set up as a mercenary air squadron. We've been given an initial account, and he has lists of stuff to buy. Now he's been pretty generous with our allowance, since short of a F-22, or most modern bombers, we can afford stuff. The downside is paying for maintenance on some of these planes, as well as ammo, etc. I'm not worried about the aircombat, our GM has always rocked vehicle combat, but I know nothing about planes or helicopters, other than a few names."

The Squadron:

Baron

  • IAI F-4/2000 Phantom II
    • Min Speed: 5
    • Max Speed: 25
    • Power Class: High Power
    • Accel 1 and 2: +3 / +2
    • Decel: -4
    • Maneuver Class: Medium
    • Gun: 7d6
    • Gun Ammo: 7
    • Bomb Computer Rating: +4
    • Damage Points: 8
    • Chaff: 8
    • Flares: 8
    • ECM: -
    • Radar: 3+L
    • Size: +0
    • Spot: +1
    • Load points: 32
    • Year Introduced: 1989
  • Typical Loadout: 4xPython, 4 AIM-7

Biscuit

  • F-4 Phantom

(no details posted)

Hugs

  • Su-27 Flanker-B
    • Minspd: 5
    • Maxspd: 27
    • Power: HP
    • Accel: +4 /+3
    • Decel: -4
    • Maneuver: H
    • Gun: 6d6
    • Ammo: 5
    • Bomb Computer +2
    • Damage: 8
    • Chaff: 8
    • Flare: 8
    • ECM: -1
    • Rdr: 3+L
    • Size: +1
    • Spot: +1
    • Load: 31
    • Built: 1984
  • General Loads: 6xAA-10 4xAA-11

Sandman

  • F-111D Aardvark
    • Minspd: 4
    • Maxspd: 25
    • Power: MP
    • Accel: +2 /+2
    • Decel: -4
    • Maneuver: M
    • Gun: 7d6
    • Ammo: 20
    • Bomb Computer +6
    • Damage: 9
    • Chaff: 8
    • Flare: 8
    • ECM: -1
    • Rdr: 6
    • Size: +2
    • Spot: +1
    • Load: 39
    • Built: 1971
  • General Loads: None

Scotch

  • Mirage F1E
    • Minspd: 5
    • Maxspd: 23
    • Power: MP
    • Accel: +2 /+2
    • Decel: -4
    • Maneuver: H
    • Gun: 6d6
    • Ammo: 7
    • Bomb Computer +2
    • Damage: 6
    • Chaff: 8
    • Flare: 8
    • ECM: -
    • Rdr: 5
    • Size: 0
    • Spot: 0
    • Load: 18
    • Built: 1974
  • General Loads: 2xMagic

A word on game mechanics

Turn

There are two 'phases' in a turn. The phases were broken down into 4 stages.

  • 1 Planning
  • 2 Movement
  • 3 Firing
  • 4 Speed

The first part you change your engine power, declare maneuvers, roll for initiative. You also do spotting, either radar or visual. Movement is pretty simple.

Firing involves achieving missile locks, or bombing solutions. if you fire a missile, it goes 'in flight', and the next phase they hit potentially.

The speed section is all about dealing with stalls and stall recovery if you stalled out. You can end up stalling if you pull a maneuver that reduces speed below minimum. Overspeed is also dealt with here.

Stats

  • Minimum speed in blocks/inches.

(if it's speed drops below this it stalls and may crash).

  • Maximum speed in blocks/inches.

The distance moved in each of the 2 phases in a turn. Aircraft suffer damage if they exceed this maximum speed.

  • Power Class

The raw power generated by the aircraft’s engines, allows ability to perform some maneuvers.

  • Accel 1

Acceleration the engine can produce in phase 1 of a turn. This is the maximum amount the aircraft’s speed can be increased at the start of the phase.

  • Accel 2

Acceleration the engine can produce in phase 2 of a turn. This is the maximum amount the aircraft’s speed can be increased at the start of the phase.

  • Decel

Mmaximum amount the aircraft can reduce speed in either phase of a turn, by cutting the throttle, opening airbrakes, etc.

  • Maneuver Class

The aircraft’s maneuver rating, a measure of its ability to turn and perform maneuvers.

  • Gun

The base number of dice when making a gun attack with internal guns.

  • Ammo

The number of units of gun ammo carried by the aircraft for it's internal guns. Each unit represents one second of fire.

  • Bomb comp

A modifier reflecting the capability and accuracy of the aircraft’s bomb sights and computer.

  • Damage Points

The damage value of the aircraft; the aircraft is crippled when the number of damage points suffered equals at least half this value, and it is destroyed when the number of damage points suffered equals or exceeds this value.

  • Chaff flares

Self explanatory

  • ECM

Modifier. Baron has none Radar modifier, for spotting and missile locks. the L is for long range

  • Size

Is how big the plane is for people trying to see me

  • Spot

Is how good the plane is for visual spotting other aircraft, in this case I get a bonus for the extra crew member.

  • Load points

Ordanance on the wings

  • Year

Easy

  • Missile load

Typical carry.

My Phantom has no notes, although vertical take off and stuff would go in the notes section.

Mission 1 "Horse Therapy"

Briefing

  • BlackFlag Internal Document
#100298
  • Mission Briefing

“Horse Therapy”

  • Deployment

Kisangani

  • Pancake

Kisangani

  • Alternate

None (We are still negotiating with the provisional government)

  • AAR

None

  • AWACS

None

  • CSAR

MI-24 Hind + Jaeger Flight. Eight Million Sortie Fee if utilized

  • Contract Employer

Ministre de Sécurité Externale, France

  • Objective

Destruction of suspected Sudan terrorist training camp and airfield located at the old Marida airfield, just inside the Sudanese border. Primary targets are the airfield runway, fuel dump in the southeast, and the command bunker to the north northwest.

  • Background

These guys have been a thorn in the side of France's efforts to pacify the region. Due to UN regulations as well as their own civil government issues, the French have not had the ability to simply remove this training camp. That's where we come in. Taking out the command bunker will most likely remove some key leadership positions, and with the airstrip gone, will force the OPFOR to move on the ground, where the French security force has a presence and a good chance of catching and stopping them.

  • Intel (HUMINT free)

OPFOR likely disorganized, undertrained. Equipment status rated at no better then barely serviceable. Most equipment unmanned unless alert given. OPFOR operates off grid, and does not benefit from outside intel, support, elint.

  • Air Assets

Two MiG-17s, One MiG-21, Two Bell Huey Gunships.

  • Surface Assets

SA-2 system, 4xZSU-23 at objective.

  • Intel (Remote Imaging free)

Attached you will find the latest keyhole pass. We've marked off targets and defences. We could not find the fourth ZSU-23, and suspect that the OPFOR has begun camo-netting the emplacements, or simply placed it inside for maintenance.

  • Threat Assessment

Very Low. The biggest threats will be from the MiG-21 and the SA-2 system, neutralize them first, and the rest of this mission should be a cakewalk.

  • ROE

No limits in Sudanese Airspace. Return fire only in DRC airspace.

Recap

We decided that a dawn time on target would be best. The strike guy had been reading up and figured that if they had any shifts at all, that would be prior to a fresh shift taking over, and at the end of night shift, so lowest possible awareness. We then decided how to handle the strike package. We figured that the Flanker would hang back until the SA-2 was down.

I was given the mission of taking out the SA-2, while a simultaneous strike from the F-111 would take place at high speed over the runway using runway cratering bombs. Then the Mirage and the other F-4 would sweep in, taking out the ZSUs and the fuel dump, while the F-111 climbed and circled back to the bunker. Following that, we agreed we'd stick around for 5 to ten minutes maximum, looking for targets of opportunity, while the Flanker gave us overwatch, then head back to base. That was the plan anyway.

Steve handed us out aircraft data sheets, sort of like the one's in that MAS but different, there were some other things he add on them. We got to draw our weapons loadout (which was way cooler then it sounds) and Steve walked us through the basic mechanics, which, to his credit, weren't overly complicated, but I still ended up asking tons of questions druing the game.

I need to set the scene here, we're sitting around a table, and Steve whips out these massive poster size papers, and lays them down in his living room, moving the tables out of the way. He's got the Google earth map printed out on four of them, and on the other he has a larger scale map, which is labeled “BVR Strategic Map”, and gives us our plane markers, which we place on the strategic map, roughly 100 miles out. We'd been coming in nose cold he told us, and said that it was now entirely up to us what happened. He then flipped on some mix cd on which he had audioslave and some other songs, but overlayed with 'radio chatter' from I'm guessing combat aircraft. I didn't think it would be cool at first, but having that in the background just took things up a notch.

I decided to go to mid altitude for my run (10000 to 28000ft) The Aardvark dove for the deck, and prepared to make a high speed run. The Flanker began to loiter, and the Mirage slipped back, still closing, but not as quick as me or the Aardvark. I closed to eighty miles, my RWR started to go off, and I made my detection roll, so I thought I was good. But then Steve put the source marker on the BVR map, and it wasn't where the SA-2 was. And in the next turn, at fifty miles out, Steve told me that not only had the source narrowed the search pattern to a track, but the source was moving.

Before the mission, we had all agreed on radio silence, and Steve said that the Aardvark could also 'see' the radar source. Which meant it must be airborne. I turned away, and jammed on my afterburners, to go faster towards the airbase. The Flanker, having also spotted the emission source, turned towards it, as well as the Mirage and F4, following behind. Then all hell broke loose, the SA-2 radar lit up, and I was told* that it progressed from search to track to fire control within about ten seconds. Which meant (again, asking steve what it all meant) that most likely an SA-2 was in the air heading towards me. Steve said my backseater would be telling me all this anyways.

I figured waiting would be stupid, so I dumped two AGM-78s immediately, since I was inside firing range. The bad thing, was that Steve passed me a big book of missiles, and I saw this, which I hadn't considered. The SA-2 flies at mach 3.5+, whereas my AGMs do maybe Mach 2. So there was no time for the radar to go down. I dove, and at Steve's reccomendation, started ejecting chaff.

The Flanker decided enough was enough, and turned on his radar, which meant that everyone could now see him. However, when his radar went on, the airborne radar source turned towards him, away from me. The bad news was that two new targets went on the board, one just off the runway, the other apparently 'climbing and turning' off the runway. The plan was going to shit. Luckily at this point, the Aardvark was just cresting the final small ridge, and flew a straight line down the runway, pumping off Durandals “left and right like fucking rice at a goddamn wedding' to quote the strike player. As he made his run, Steve told him that he could see dead ahead coming off the runway, a heat source, and on the runway, a moving shape, but that was it.

The Aardvark peeled out low, to the left, away from the climbing aircraft. I leveled out just above the ground (barely made my roll), and travelled on the worst intercept line. The SA-2 must have lost lock, because my backseater called out that he had two missile trails pass above us, a little ways back. At this point we broke radio silence, and the Aardvark called off secondaries from the radar site, so I pulled back up to sniff around again.

The other F-4 and Mirage now were turning to line up with the field and were coming in very fast, the mirage trying to find the ZSUs. The flanker achieved a lock and let loose two Alamos at it's target, and a few tense moments later, saw a small flash on the horizon. The target track became erratic, and then broke up, and considering that a kill, the Flanker began a quick zoom climb to try to gain altitude. The Durandals absolutely shitkicked the runway, and also produced a large fireball, but I'll get to that.

Without warning, well, other than the radar detector screaming, two new targets popped up just as the Aardvark and I were coming in on the base, and the F-4 and Mirage were about 30 seconds out. A flurry of tracers reached out, and one of them found the F-111 briefly. I asked Steve if the remaining Harms had a lock, and he said there were two sources, so I rattled off the last two at one of them, rewarded by one hit and secondaries. The Aardvark headed outbound to assess damage, it didn't sound good, power was down in one engine, and he was losing oil pressure fast.

Then the Mirage and the Phantom came to play. The Mirage roared in, Brimstones roaring out towards the remaining ZSU like the fingers of an angry god. And they hit like a haymaker to the testicles, setting off the internal ammo and fuel, propelling the remains of the turret into the air.

The F-4 went nose hot approaching the airfield, and immediately picked up two targets, one headed towards him, the other still climbing off the departure end of the runway. There was no chance at a shot on the closing aircraft, the F-4 passed well underneath, but he did switch to AIM-9s, and Jan shouted FOX THREE and sent them both at the heat source. Again, one of them missed, but not the first one, which flew true, and scored a proximity kill, the aircraft was losing pieces of airframe and spewing tons of smoke, beginning a shallow descent. The backseater also called out with a shout that there was a destroyed MiG-17 on fire inside a five meter crater on the runway. The Mirage continued racing outbound, close to the ground.

The Flanker, having completed their climb, leveled out, and quickly called out to me that the enemy target was turning in my direction. I applied full military burner, but it was too late. Steve, acting as my backseater started shouting FLARE FLARE FLARE, and I complied. It partially saved me, along with a hard jink. However the heatseekers chasing me still detonated close to me, and my panel lit up (Steve started writing out warnings on it), slight engine problem, and my AIM-9s were reporting faults across the board, so essentially I now had no air-to-air. My backseater was shouting at me now, telling me the MiG-21 was settling in on my tail, and probably getting ready for a cannon shot.

I'll never know, because out of fucking nowhere, two missiles dropped at 70 degree angles down onto the MiG, the last of the Flanker's payload. The fishbed didn't have a chance, it was blown into a thousand small pieces by the heavy Alamo missiles. I figured it would be best to evaluate my situation, and the Aardvark called in saying he was down to one engine, and was climbing about 20 miles away, preparing for a higher altitude bomb run.

We figured we had done it, but then two more ZSUs opened up on the Mirage. They must have seen the HARM strike, because we didn't see any radars. It showed, since they both had trouble tracking the hard maneuvering Mirage as it bore down on the airfield, launching the last Brimstones. It was almost anti-climactic, as the ATGMs slaughtered the mobile anti air guns.

However, Steve, being a dick, threw another curve ball, and told us that another SA-2 style search radar was operational, and looking for targets. It was off to the east of the base, the F-4 was already on a run at the fuel dump and couldn't correct in time, so he abandoned his run and turned slightly, and began dumping rockets at the SA-2 launch area. Unfortunately he couldn't count fireballs, but he certainly tore into the launch area, and probably bought the mirage the time it needed to make the turn, and come over the area, pickling off 1000 pounders and also sending a volley of missiles at the new radar

We later found out it was a mobile radar, parked next to the local village. The radar truck did not survive, and the Flanker pilot, who was well within the kill zone for the SA-2 breathed a sigh of relief. After that, we did a few more strafing runs, although I didn't bother, with my semi-buggered engine. As we turned to depart, the F-111 sent a final “Fuck You” with two GBU-15s on TV guidance at the bunker complex.

We all made it home, although the Aardvark suffered multiple hydraulic failures on the return flight, and was forced to dump all remaining ordnance, and belly landed (no crash though, airframe recoverable).

Summary

  • Mission Success.
  • - Air Kills -
    • Hugs: 1 MiG-21
    • Biscuit: 1 MiG-17
  • - Air Incidentals -
    • Hugs: 1 J-7 (Sudanese Air Force)
  • - Ground Kills -
    • Sandman: Runway, MiG-17, Command Bunker
    • Biscuit: 4 SA-2 missiles, 1 Barracks
    • Scotch: Three ZSU-23, Fuel Dump, 1 Mobile Radar
    • Baron: SA-2 Radar site, ZSU-23
  • - Ground Incidentals -
    • Scotch: 3 Houses, local food market, 2 Trucks, 1 Car, 6 bicycles
  • - Damage Taken -
    • Baron: Minor Engine, Minor airframe
    • Sandman: Major Engine, minor airframe
    • Scotch: Negligible control surface.

Mission 2 "Footloose"

Briefing

  • BlackFlag Internal Document
#100301
  • Mission Briefing

“Footloose”

  • Deployment

Kisangani

  • Pancake

Kisangani

  • Alternate

None (We are still negotiating with the provisional government)

  • AAR

None

  • AWACS

“Watcheye” flight R-99A available for 10m, on request.

  • CSAR:

C-27J + Jaeger Flight. Ten Million Sortie Fee if utilized

  • Contract Employer

Ministre de Sécurité Externale, France

  • Objective

Destruction of bridges located at +3° 59' 37.61", +16° 7' 3.23" and +3° 59' 41.12", +16° 7' 35.43". Escort of FFL AN-12 to target area, followed by Close Air Support if required.

  • Background

The French foreign affairs ministry appreciated your efforts in Sudan, and have asked for you on another strike mission. Over the past six months, they've been fighting a proxy campaign in the Central African Republic, using foreign regulars to combat the growing insurrection against their puppet ruler they instated. They've recently suffered setbacks, as armed technicals and stocks of ATGMs and RPGs have been making their way north into the country, as well as a growing rebel movement. They've identified a point of entry however, and have come up with a way to hopefully neutralize the shipments and earn the local population's support. By eliminating the bridges, the weapons shipments will be delayed. The French expect that the bridge destruction will make the rebels attempt to make a decisive strike on the town north of the river, especially when the radio transmissions will make it seem like the CAR army is preparing for an assault and is staging in the town, when in reality only a token garrison is present. The French ministry has arranged for a detachment of the French Foreign Legion to arrive in the “Nick of Time” to stop the assault. You will remain in the operations area, providing close air support until the FFL authorizes termination of air cover.

  • HUMINT (Free)

Unavailable. The public supports the rebels in the area and the French have been unsuccessful at securing a reliable field operative in the region.

  • Air Assets

None.

  • Surface Assets

Unknown number of Towed BOFORs guns, SA-7, RedEye MANPADS.

  • Remote Imaging (Free)

Next overflight at 1438 local. Analysis and Imagery available for standard rate of 3 million.

  • Threat Assessment

Very Low. Primary concern is on time delivery of fire support missions as called in by FFL ground troops.

  • ROE

Visual Id/Defensive Fire ROE applies. Targets called in by FFL are considered valid for weapons release. You are not authorized to engage rebel targets until the FFL is on scene, even if the town Garrison is overrun.

Recap

Ok, so here's how it started. Before we started, Steve told us all what the range to the target was. I suggested buddy tanking (Thanks Guys!) and he told us this was probably the smartest idea. We agreed to minimize the use of the tanker, the Flanker took a belly tank, so wouldn't require any tanking for the entire mission. My F-4 took two Ferry tanks two rocket pods, 4 AIM-9s, and four GBU-12s, the F-111 took four tanks, with the buddy system, as well as two GBU-15s and a bunch of GBU-12s. The other F-4 took the same loadout as me. The mirage had two BLG-66EC cluster bombs, and four GBU-12s, 2x Aden gun pods but no tanks. I also bought an upgraded IR detector, so with luck I wouldn't get toasted by a stupid heat seeker.

We decided against any satellite intelligence, or other sources. Our plan was to stay high, out of the way of ground fire, and then come in at ridiculous speed when called by the FFL. At my suggestion we asked and were told that the FFL would communicate with us via secure UHF, and would enter the area when required. The plan was that the flanker would investigate air threats, while one of the F-4s did full power long range scans in a racetrack, looking for enemies, and directing the flanker nose cold to them. Ground attack would be the mirage first, the F-4s if needed, and the F-111 if absolutely necessary. The F-111 was to stay out of combat, because it was the lifeline back to the base.

We took off uneventfully, no one used burner, and with some of us being pretty heavy, we had to make a few skill rolls to make sure we didn't fly into some low level trees. Luckily we all made it out ok, and settled into a high altitude cruise. The Mirage tanked once, and the Phantoms were fine all the way to the target. We went in nose cold except for a single F-4, which detected nothing other than standard airliner traffic. We had one close call initially, an the Flanker peeled off to investigate, about 20 miles out he called tally ho and told us we'd panicked over a South African A340. We talked and said that we wouldn't investigate radar returns unless they were above a certain speed and/or on an intercept course. With that in mind, we had no problems. When we got there, we hit a small snag. We hadn't asked for a weather briefing, and it was cloudy. Two cloudy in fact to use our original high altitude bombing plan. However, we talked to Steve, and suggested that since the GBU-15s were tv guided, and we knew where the bridges were.

The F-111 flew a pattern, and released the bombs in the 'basket' as Steve put it, and then became very focused on making sure the things nailed the targets. The clouds were at 3000' AGL and that meant the Aardvark operator would have very little time to make course corrections when they went through the cloud ceiling. Our backup plan had the mirage circle low, and prepare to make a run at the bridges should the Aarvark miss. We were really tense, because it would really suck to miss now, we'd be short on ammo for the assault portion, and we weren't sure if 500lbs could take out a bridge. Turned out we were worried over nothing. The bridges were wood and metal rickety things. The first GBU-15 punched right through the first bridge, detonating just underneath it. The second GBU-15 missed by about 28 ft, and hit the river. The good thing though, is that missing by a few feet with a 2000lb bomb doesn't make much of a difference. The Mirage confirmed this as it completed its pass, both bridges were now mostly smoldering toothpicks, with pieces of them still raining down from the sky.

Now, shit started to hit the fan. We called the FFL, who said they were inbound, and gave us some coordinates. Since I was in the radiating Phantom, I flew with the Flanker towards the Antonov. The flanker hugged close, we were hoping to make the Phantoms radar return block out the Flanker's. We asked steve, and he said this was pretty smart, and told us that the Phantom RCS is almost 8x bigger than a Flankers. Anyway, we found the AN-12 on Radar below the cloud cover but the weird thing was it was orbiting. We told them again the bridges were down, and they acknowledged, but kept orbiting. At this point, we thought things were going well, until the Mirage pilot decided to dive down for another look. He flew another pass, and called up to us saying there were more than two dozen boats crossing the river with men aboard, “Like some sort of ghetto thrid world D-Day”, and there were small explosions from the village (we found out later this was mortar strikes). He was about to strafe the boats when the other Phantom pilot shouted about the ROE and he held off, and climbed out.

We relayed this new info to the FFL, and they asked us to take another look, but not to fire unless fired at. The F-4 decided to take a look, and began a descent. Now we had plotted the area beforehand and were flying a safe track relative to elevation, that gave us the shortest route but with the most visibility to the target area. We all thought that this was a really smart idea. The bad thing is that we forgot we'd already flown the path twice with the Mirage, and didn't realize how dangerous this is. The F-4 got down below the clouds and began making his run. Then, without much warning, his own IR detector went nuts, and the treetops below him exploded and a flurry of SAMs blasted out of the undergrowth on trails of acrid smoke like Medusa having a bad hair day. There were also tracer rounds blasting aruond everywhere, as a few Bofors opened up on the flight path. The pilot threw the f-4 into a hard climbing right (no burners, was relying on momentum) and his backseater was probably breaking the flare dispense switch. This stopped a lot of the SAMs (the guy was reading the missile book Steve gave him and found that if you can see the smoke trails in front of you, they probably don't have a lock, especially SA-7s and Redeyes. There were no stingers though, because he got away clean from the missiles. He did take a few Bofors hits, but nothing seemed affected as he made his way out of the area. He was fucking pissed though, because he hadn't had a chance to shoot back.

Other than confirming there was some serious anti-air down low on the south side of the river, we realized that we had no clue what the village or river looked like now. We told the FFL, and they finally turned to head towards the village, although a one legged turtle on diazepam would have been faster than the POS russian trash hauler they were in. They really did seem like they were taking their time. The other strike aircraft were staying high, and keeping an eye out for any missiles, but none appeared. As we approached, I began picking up a target, but it was very faint, very slow, and very low. I told the Flanker pilot, and he descended to check it out. Based on the position though, I figured it was setting up an orbit over the town, and the Flanker pilot agreed to keep his distance, since we knew there were man carried anti air in the area. The Flanker approached to about 10 miles, and then called out that it was a single engine plane, and had tracer rounds coming from it, firing into the village. The FFL was told, and they simply told us to kill it. The flanker pilot figured he wouldn't need to waste a missile, so went to guns, high power, and blasted towards the target, intending on a quick kill and speedy overflight. The first part went well, the plane never saw what hit it, and according to steve, the Flanker's internal gun ripped the little thing in half like a buzzsaw. The Flanker flashed past the village, dumping a few flares pre-emptively. Without a IR warning, we don't know if anything shot at him, but Steve said there were no tracer rounds. By this time, I was low, circling the slow moving Cub, and had just come back in line with the village, when two new targets popped up on my radar, about 3 miles behind the flanker! I was 14 miles away, and I didn't think, I just hit my burners and switched to sidewinders.

The targets firmed up, and I eased off the Burners, since I was still carrying a/g ordanance, and Steve told me going supersonic would be tough, and rough on the ordanance. I got tone just as I saw a flash from one of the targets, which I could now see was some sort of helicopter. I told the Flanker and he dumped more flares, and climbed hard. The missile followed the flare, and I got to use the phrase “Missile trashed”. My own sidewinder scored a direct hit, and the helicopter blasted to pieces. I got off a snapshot with my cannon at the other helicopter but I don't know if I connected, since I blew by too quickly. The backseater though called out that I had “Splashed” another one, and there were some impressive secondaries coming out of the jungle as we climbed out. We then all recieved a call from the FFL that they were landing and debarking, and to stand by for support missions. They had laser designators (we had asked earlier, but forgot about clouds) so are GBUs wouldn't be completely useless. The other F-4 had done a systems check in the meantime, and apparently, despite a smallish hole in his wing, there were no problems. Things were looking better, the bridges were down, we'd taken out what little air support these guys seemed to have, and with varied attack runs, the Bofors weren't posing much of a threat. Are flare supplies were another issue, since we did not know how long we would be needed to stay.

We began an orbit above the cloud layer about ten miles outside the village area, and the Flanker climbed and lit off it's radar, since it was the most potent, and decided it would simply scare off anyone who came for a look by targeting them with Fire control instead of basic search. The F-111 continued it's slow orbit at altitude. That was when we got our first fire mission call. There was a large mass of troops heading towards the Antonov and the FFL who were still getting organized. We were told to suppress them and the few technicals. The gave us a grid reference, and we found the street. The Mirage maneuvered, then dove for the deck, in a high speed pass. He roared in, heading down the street, and dropped one of his cluster bombs. The result was devastatingly glorious, as the submunitions ripped apart a good percentage of a village block. The FFL called in that the strike was successful, and the Mirage guy was ecstatic, because he was already climbing out, no hits taken. But this was short lived, since a call came in for another mission almost immediately. The FFL was advancing now, clearing pockets of resistance, but one set of insurgents had become nested in a building. The couldn't designate the target yet, but they told us to call 60 seconds out from the village and they would mark the target with smoke. I rolled in, with the other Phantom following 30 seconds behind.

We came in from the west, since the FFL were to the north, and we figured this way any strays would probably not hit them. We called, and then Steve put the smoke marker on the map, and I was able to make my turn towards it. I rippled off 2 GBUs in dumb fire mode, and a small part of me was thinking about the price of the laser systems. Still, I hit with one of them, the other hit too early and took out something (I found out what in the after action report). Just before passing over the building, I noticed it was white, and had a red cross on it. I don't know why, but I winced when Steve told me this, but there was nothing I could do. The other Phantom reported the hits, and then followed it up with a rocket attack on the structure. The village and area was in chaos, with tracers and fire in the streets everywhere. Lots of people and vehicles moving, but at our attack speeds, nothing we could really identify with certainty. We didn't get the warning of an IR, but Steve told us there were some straight smoke trails. RPGs he said, but you'd know in a jet, that it was pretty much an empty threat, and indicative of how poorly trained the OPFOR was. We peeled out dropping a flare every so often just in case, escaping back to the relative safety of the cloud cover.

The FFL called in, saying our strike was a success, and that they were pushing the enemy back, and had identified two temporary chokepoints, and a staging area. The would designate the chokepoints, and mark the staging area with smoke. We decided that putting one aircraft down below the cloud cover just focused the fire, and the Mirage, myself and the Phantom circled around for another low pass. We broke out of the cloud cover at speed, coming in low over the burning village and hellish firefight like avenging angels transporting the sword of Damocles. Both myself and the Phantom dumped two more GBU-15s at the chokepoint barricades/firebases, while the Mirage turned hard to line up with the smoke. The last second turn affected his aim, and while our GBUs nailed their targets, the cluster bomb went a bit wide. It took out part of the staging area, but from the resulting fireball, probably a gas station on a corner and a few shops/buildings around it. The French still called all three strikes a success. On our way out, the Phantom beside me couldn't evade yet another SA-7, and took a proximity hit. I called out that he was smoking quite badly, and he climbed out preparing to shut down the engine. As he climbed, Steve told him his ailerons were not very responsive, and that a lot of control surface was gone from one wing. We all climbed and told him to tank, and go home. The aardvark came down, and gave him a drink, before he turned for home. Then the FFL made another call, saying that the insurgents were being forced across the river, and that anything in the river was now a target. We lined back up, and prepared for a quick run, we knew that now the Bofors would be a threat again, along with the Sams.

We dropped below the darkening clouds, on what we expected would be our last run. The scene greeting us was awesome. Half the village appeared to be on fire, with thick black smoke roiling upwards. The river was again full of boats, but heading south, to the other shore. I switched to the rocket pods and just held down the trigger, sending rockets rippling out in a sustained salvo of destruction. Plumes of water, mud, wood and metal arced into the air as the rockets played their way up the river. I saw some tracers begin to make their way up, and felt a few bumps. I angled towards the largest stream headed towards me and dumped my remaining bomb payload before spewing flares and staying low, heading out of the area at speed. The Mirage simply flew down the river, gun pods blazing away and tearing through anything that got in the way. He evaded a few last SAMs and began a slow climb. Steve reported that my plane was fine, but that the mirage had lost it's air to air radar capability. The Flanker joined up wth us as we climbed, calling out visual damage reports. One of my engines was smoking more than usual, but not severely. We both had substansial cosmetic damage to the undersides of our craft, but other than that, nothing horrible. The FFL called in, saying that they could deal with the stragglers, and that we were cleared out of the area. I bit back a 'fuck you assholes' since I figured I'd save that until after I got my cheque. The remainder of the mission was uneventful, we all landed safely, the most severely wounded aircraft being the other Phantom.

Summary

  • - Air Kills -
    • Hugs: 1 Cessna 208 “Technical” Gunship w/M197 Gatling
    • Baron: 1 MD500w/Stinger, 1 Kaman KMAXw/Gsh-23 Cannon mount
  • - Air Incidentals -
    • None
  • - Ground Kills -
    • Sandman: 2xBridges
    • Biscuit: Entrenched Infantry (Hospital), Chokepoint
    • Scotch: 2x Infantry groups, 4x Technicals, 8 x Boats
    • Baron: Entrenched Infantry (Hospital), Chokepoint, 13x Boats, 1x Bofors
  • - Ground Incidentals -
    • Scotch: Gas Station, 2 Shops, Market square, 7 cars, Churchfront, 2x Civilian Refugee boat
    • Baron: Hospital, 5x Civilian Refugee Boat
    • Biscuit: Hospital
  • - Damage Taken -
    • Baron: Cosmetic airframe, Minor Engine
    • Scotch: Cosmetic airframe
    • Biscuit: Catastrophic Engine, Significant control surface.

Mission 3 “Aluminium Crow”

Briefing

  • BlackFlag Internal Document
#100323
  • Mission Briefing

“Aluminium Crow”

  • Deployment

Kitona

  • Pancake

Kitona

  • Alternate

Luanda (Angola)

  • AAR

None

  • AWACS

Unavailable (Currently supporting Jaeger Flight)

  • CSAR

None

  • Contract Employer

Liberian Government

  • Objective

Redeploy to Kitona Airfield. Intercept Moroccan Falcon 50 and escort it to Kitona.

  • Background

We're not entirely clear on this one. We received advance payment from an account we backtracked to the Liberian government. They're trying to cover this one up, our intelligence section is working to find out more, but as of now we only have the mission parameters. A member of the Moroccan government is onboard the Falcon 50. We've acquired their flight plan, and figure they will pass close to the DRC coast at roughly 0300 local. However flightplan database investigations also noted that a formation of six Mirage F1s will be flying a ferry mission to Namibia and will be in the operational area. If we receive any further intel, we will datalink it to you immediately. This mission is a short notice tasking, and you will be compensated accordingly.

  • HUMINT

Formation of Mirage F1s will be in the target area, Flightplan says they are armed.

  • ELINT

Radio intercepts and triangulation have identified that an Osprey-55 patrol boat is cruising within roughly 250 miles of the flightplan's proposed track.

  • SATINT

None

  • Air Assets

Falcon 50, 6xDassault Mirage F1

  • Surface Assets

Osprey-55 Gunboat

  • Threat Assessment

Medium. Based on flightplan distance, the Mirage's will most likely be equipped with drop tanks, limiting their payload and air to air effectiveness. The Moroccan Armed Forces are adequately trained, but are by no means top tier. While the Osprey patrol boat poses no direct threat, it does present a relay station should the Falcon 50 broadcast an emergency transmission.

  • ROE

Visual Contact unless fired upon.

Recap

So we ferried ourselves out to the Kitona airfield. We weren't sure what our basing facility would be like, so we loaded up with a variety of weapons. We arrived in Kitona uneventfully, although a bad roll for the Mirage pilot meant his GPS/NAV conked out mid flight, and he had to follow one of us to Kitona. On landing we found out that Kitona had halfway decent facilities. We talked about the mission in a ready shack near the flightline, as well as called the mercenary company for some more intel. We bought flight plan information, and the Flanker pilot did a bit of work figuring out time and distance. Based on where the Falcon was going to be.

The Vark pilot told us he was going to get the ground crew to take off the buddy tanks, and we agreed. Internally, the Vark pilot had a single AGM-84, as well as his M61 Cannon with a retarded amount of ammunition. Externally, the Vark was clean. The Flanker pilot loaded up with six Alamo missiles and six Archers. I chose to mount 4 AIM-7 Sparrow and 4 AIM-9. The other phantom had spent a bit more cash to acquire 2 AMRAAMs and 2 Sparrows, as well as the same AIM-9 loadout as me. The Mirage had four Magics, and 2 MICAs. Other than those, we were all 'clean' no drop tanks, no air to ground. We had asked Steve about C3, but he told us that an upgrade like that, while purchasable, would take time to install on the aircraft, since this was a short notice tasking we couldn't have it up and running yet. I also decided to take a skill/feat in 'Burner Bastard' allowing me to gain an extra unit of move in an accel phase if I wanted. With all that settled, we discussed our plan one more time, and headed for our planes.

The fighters departed first, rumbling into the night. We told Steve that we were circling the airfield, and joining up on the Flanker in formation. We then departed south, climbing to altitude. Twenty or so minutes later, the Vaark tore off the pavement, headed out over the Ocean, and settled in to a hard mode cruise 200ft over the surface, quickly punching through the sound barrier, on his way to one and a half mach. Meanwhile, we had turned north again, and were heading towards our calculated intercept point, all of our noses were cold, although the Flanker had his IR tracking system running. The Flanker was the lead aircraft ahead by twenty miles or so. The rest of us were formed up, trying to be as radio silent as possible.

Fourty miles out from his target, the Aardvark enabled the search radar in his aircraft, supplementing the terrain following one. Within 20 seconds he had a radar match on the patrol boat, and his FLIR confirmed it. Since he was moving at 20 miles a minute, it didn't take him long to cross the patrol boat, clearing it by 150ft, at close to mach 2, with full burners. Radio traffic on the Guard frequency spiked soon after, and we heard that the boat was in chaos, windows blown out from the shock of the Vaark passing by it. But that wasn't enough, so the Vaark made a turn (took a while at his speed) and came back for another pass. Although this time, he opened up with his cannon, in a supersonic strafing pass.

The gun pass had the desired effect. We got distress traffic about 15 seconds later, some half crazed person shouting in french that they were under attack by unknown aircraft. Steve said just below the crackle of the radio we could hear the aftershocks of the F-111s engines in the transmission. Our radar warning receivers started to go nuts, and we were all getting slammed by search radar. The Flanker however, had drifted further away from us, and was not getting hit by the tracking radar, but we radio'd him and told him where they were relative to us, and he changed course slightly, and soon called back to us that he had several IR targets on reheat angling down towards the patrol boat, heading for the deck.

The Aardvark pilot meanwhile, was making a beeline for Angola, at full military power, hugging the sea surface, and trusting in his speed advantage and being lost in the radar clutter to make a good escape. The Flanker pilot decided now was the time to let loose our secret weapon, and rattled all six AlamoETs off his rails, one every five seconds. The afterburning mirages were excellent targets, and since he was a good strata or two above them, the Alamos also had a kinematic advantage. But the biggest advantage is he was behind them, launching BVR heatseekers, so he (hoped) remained undetected.

They didn't notice for about 25 seconds, then they started dumping flares, lighting up the sky for miles. Didn't do much good, our Flanker pilot scored two immediate kills, one Alamo took out a Mirage instantly, another two slammed into the next unfortunate F1, and the final Alamo severely damaged a third Mirage, who's engine flamed out. The remaining two AA-10s lost track and fell into the ocean. The Mirages stopped their rapid descent, and began arcing back around to face this new threat to their rear. The Flanker, for his part, was turning hard away from them, and hitting full military burner, his threat reciever going wild, but no locks detected (Apparently the russians, for all their vaccum tubes, built one of the easiest to read and most accurate RWRs available today.) The remaining three Mirages were clearly now chasing the Flanker.

I'm guessing at this point you are wondering why the Mirages were not coming at us, despite all the radar hits we took. It was all part of a brilliant plan, the final piece of which we decided to now implement. Myself and Biscuit broke out from underneath the wing of the South African Airways A340-600 we had been flying with, and our burners fired up to max, probably scaring the daylights out of the cockpit crew who suddenly had two Phantoms shoot out from underneath their plane. When we were clear, Biscuit flipped on his search radar, and spotted the four Mirages, three climbing up towards the Flanker but now going away from us and the patrol boat. The fourth was moving much slower and was much lower. We figured this was the damaged one.

With the sniff complete, Biscuit shut down his radar, and we launched all our Sparrows, which were not the SA/RH variant, but the passive anti-radiation kind. However, one of mine faulted out and simply fell off the rail, the other three ignited fine. Biscuits Sparrows both fired well, and rocketed out into the cold night sky. Along the way another one of my sparrows shorted out (goddamn american piece of vietnam era shit), but four missiles still found their way to the targets. I scored a kill, with both of mine slamming into a Mirage, one scoring an impact hit on the radome (according to Stece). One of biscuits also decided to impact my Mirage, and just added to the utter destruction. The other one missed wide when they switched off their radars when the first missile hit.

It must have been clear to them that they were not getting the Flanker anytime soon, so both Mirages vectored back in towards us, but by the time they'd turned, we were in Sidewinder range. And then I paid for all the good luck. I'd cheaped out on AIM-9s, buying the lesser model. Which, I realized as I read the datasheet I'd had in front of me for the past two sessions, could not lock on from the front. And then I started getting hit by the radar again, and my IR detector started yelling at me.

Biscuit had no such problem, and rattled off two more missiles into the Mirage's heading our way. This forced them to evade, and they didn't get a shot off. Biscuit didn't score a hit though. I was popping flares like a son of a bitch, and went to full military, using the speed advantage to rocket out of range. Biscuit formed up. When the Mirage's began their final turn, our own Mirage lit off his search radar, as did the Flanker who was now coming back at them. The Mirages realized this was a lost cause (not knowing that the Mirage (Scotch) south of them was out of range, and the Flanker was bluffing, since he had no BVR left on his wings). They decided the safer choice was to bug out, turning away from both our planes and heading outbound on a North Eastern course. The flanker pilot then tracked the wounded Mirage, as Biscuit and I headed towards the incoming Falcon, which was turning towards land, but they weren't going to outpace us.

We pulled in behind them, and since we didn't try to communicate over the radio, we did it the old fashioned way. Biscuit fired a warning shot of cannon shells across their nose, then pulled ahead on burners. I pulled beside the Falcon, and flipped on my formation lights. They got the picture, and I told them to follow the Phantom in front with hand signals, they rocked their wings, and then followed Biscuit as I slipped away to join up with Scotch. Scotch and Hugs had done the same thing, cannon shot across the front of the wounded and smoking Mirage, and then pulled alongside. However, they waited there, until I formed up on the other side, before pulling ahead, as I slipped behind, so that if he took a cheap shot at Scotch, I'd ram a sidewinder up his ass.

Hugz peeled off and climbed, turning, keeping his Radar on to look out for threats for us. There weren't any, surprisingly, and we took the Mirage and Falcon back to Kitona. We arrived there, and circled the field with our gear down. The Flacon and Mirage took the hint, and landed, followed shortly after by us.

As we taxied in, we saw a black Cadillac on the tarmac, and two military Gaz trucks. There were a lot of ragtag looking assholes beside the trucks, and as the Falcon shut down, they stormed the plane. We weren't sure, but we saw them drag two people off the Falcon and shove them roughly into the Caddy. The car peeled off with the trucks in trail as we were shutting down. Scotch investigated the Falcon, and found both pilots and the purser shot dead inside.

The Mirage pilot got down, and Hugz went to see him, as he put it “Grinning like a motherfucker” with a flask of whiskey. The mirage pilot was a bit surprised in addition to being confused and pissed off. We called up the Merc outfit and told them we had a mirage. Turns out, we get bonus cash now for bringing back a damaged plane! Although, I have no clue what/who the Liberians took or why. Steve ended it there, saying we got a call from the Vark pilot who was down and safe in Angola, and that the Mirage pilot would be offered a merc job.

We spent more on intel this time, the Flanker pilot came up with the idea to pull the Mirages around the sky, and we planned the airliner overflights in the area to mask our advance. Steve loved the initiative and had about six civilian airliners in the air during the game.

Summary

  • Mission Success.
  • - Air kills -
    • Hugs: 2.5 Mirage F1
    • Baron: 1 Mirage F1
    • Biscuit: .5 Mirage F1
  • - Air Incidentals -
    • None
  • - Surface -
    • Sandman: Damaged (Combat ineffective) Osprey 55
  • - Surface Incidentals -
    • none

Spinoff Writefaggotry

Mission 2

Jean Claude in St. Claire by NF

Jean Claud had been living in the village of St. Claire for a few months, reporting on the increasingly unstable situation. He had heard word that the rebels were going to make a push, but hadn't expected them to move on this scale. As the mortars began to land he ran to the home of the family that had been hosting him in his time here. The roof was partially collapsed, Kanna, the father, was staring at a crater with parts of his wife in it. Jean Claud arrived in time to scoop up the family's two girls, 10 and 11, before they got a good view of the carnage.

"Kanna, we need to go NOW!" nothing "Kanna, your Daughters!" his grasp of the local dialect was rusty, but it shook the large man loose of his grief. Jean Claud handed him the older of the two girls, careful to cover her eyes. Kanna spoke, "To the boats, quickly."

They rushed from the still smoldering house. Jean Claud fumbled with his camera, taking shots as they ran. they hugged the alleys, waited for a few tense seconds when a technical swerved past, spraying machinegun fire into houses at random, and broke for it when it looked like the vehicle wasn't circling back.

Jean Claud heard a distant thump and turned, a pillar of flame was rising from the hospital that Doctors Without Borders had set up no more than a year ago. He snapped a photo of the acrid column and kept running. They cut out the side of the village, he swore, /swore/ he say aircraft overhead. The rebels didn't have this kind of advantage that he knew of, what the hell was going on? There was a force pushing into the village from behind them, apparently attacking the rebels. He could have sworn he heard distinctly clipped mother French.

They ran for the docks, anyone who had made it out of the village were now piling into the boats that had moments before disgorged a horde of killers into their homes. The boat was full to capacity, over flowing. He lost Kanna in the jumble. He clasped tighly to the man's daughter, Mary was her name, holding her close as the boat pulled away.

He turned back to the village, still snapping photos, and then pulled his satellite phone from a bulky thigh pouch. The jets were still strafing, multiple blooms of fire erupted from the heart of the town, he thought he saw the church go up.

He got the phone on and running, nervous fingers misdialing the home office twice. He wasn't getting a connection, the flimsy sheet metal covering of the boat was messing up his antenna, he leaned out the side for a better connection.

He got dial tone as a rocket scored a direct hit on the boat in front of him, turning it into a red hued fireball with a potpourri of limbs decorating the fringes, plopping into the water with sickening plumps.

He heard the receiver on the other end pick up when a cannon round severed his arm at the shoulder. The phone and the arm dropped into the river, hand clutching the shorted electronics all the way to the bottom. Jean had enough time to turn and throw himself over Mary, to shield her eyes and block out the screams of explosive shells disintegrating everyone around her, before he bled out.

Mission 3

Osprey encounter by Skyhawk

It was a thankfully peaceful night in this particular stretch of the South Atlantic and Ensign Kamal Benayache of the Royal Moroccan Navy was glad of it. Any dog watch was a pain in the rear at the best of times but at least quiet ones didn’t leave you feeling like camel dung the next morning.

Kamal had dealt with rough nights on watch before. The Atlantic was not a forgiving place and many a night had found him concluding his watch in the middle of a raging South Atlantic storm. The placid seas outside the bridge windows tonight were a blessing and he offered up yet another prayer of thanks as he got up from his seat to stretch his legs. Not that there was much room to stretch in on the cramped bridge of the RMNS PV-7.

The Osprey 55 class patrol boat was one of the smaller warships in the Royal Moroccan Navy but the four vessels in the class were coveted posts for young officers looking to gain command experience. Not only were they at sea a good deal of the time but they were also known for allowing ensigns more opportunities to stretch their fledgling command authority in duties that weren’t just training exercises. There was a lot to do on a fifty-five meter vessel with a crew of only thirty-six after all.

Finishing his stretch Kamal circled the bridge. The man at the wheel was obviously tired but he’d straitened himself up when Kamal had gotten up to stretch and was even now looking much more awake than he had moments before. The ensign nodded to him and stepped up close to give the radar screen a brief scan. Nothing...’Just as it should be,’ he thought contentedly. But even the powerful surface search radar wouldn’t pick up everything. Small rafts, bits of garbage, and even modern zodiacs wouldn’t show up as more than a flutter on the radar screen...and just one missed contact could ruin Kamal’s night. That was why, even with modern technology, the Mk-1 Human Eyeball would never fall out of use.

Kamal left the radar screen and stepped out onto the tiny starboard side wing platform where one of the pair of duty lookouts were posted. It was a cramped space, meant only for one, but often occupied by many more on certain occasions. The seaman on duty didn’t seem to mind the intrusion in any case as his attention was elsewhere. The huge pair of night-binoculars he held looked like they’d been glued to his face. Kamal wasn’t sure how the man did it but whenever he came out here the binoculars were there...attached to his face like some strange limpet that never came off.

“No sightings?” Kamal asked, even though he knew the answer.

“No sightings, sir,” came the man’s reply; The same reply he’d given dozens of times and would probably continue to give even after Kamal was long gone from the PV-7.

Kamal nodded and opened his mouth to reply when the world turned itself on its ear.

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