Forged by Fire by Kevin Ikenberry

Author:Kevin Ikenberry [Ikenberry, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2024-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

[ 22 ]

Bolt 503

Over Strongpoint Athena

Llewelyn flexed her fingers, one hand at a time, as the Osprey turned north again toward Athena and points beyond. She’d flown three circles waiting for Comanche to authorize a strike forward. When the radio crackled, it took every molecule of restraint she possessed not to push the throttles forward to their stops.

“Bolt 503, Comanche. Priority target identified, close approach with multiple passes authorized. Bearing zero-one-two from current position, armored forces in contact.”

The HUD updated with the new target off her nose at twenty-five kilometers. A narrow mountain valley to the southeast of Strongpoint Hades. She pressed her transmit button. “Comanche, 503. I have the target illuminated. Flight of two moving to target.”

“503, Comanche. Additional support en route—estimated on station five mikes. Acknowledge, over.”

“Comanche, Bolt 503. Confirm five mikes to support. Will take charge on their arrival. Confirm my target. Over.”

“503, Comanche. You have the target. Comanche, out.”

As a command-and-control, or C-2, platform, Comanche flew a pattern well south of the area of operations and monitored sensor feeds and relayed information to incoming aircraft. For its Strike mission, Comanche coordinated attack runs from supporting aircraft but could not get an immediate assessment of bomb damage, nor could they tweak the attack runs to better hit the targets on the ground. Over the target, it was best to identify an aircraft “in charge” of pursuing that particular target and coordinate with Comanche as necessary. By identifying the Buzzer formations as Llewelyn’s target, Llewelyn had control over the aircraft supporting the fight—including her own squadron. With only six aircraft remaining in flight, there would be ample opportunity for repeated attack runs, and it was Llewelyn’s responsibility now. There was nothing she wanted more in the moment. Proving her mettle as an operations officer motivated her, but the troops in contact meant far more to her than performance. Mike Sandhurst and his regiment were far forward of the friendly lines near Strongpoint Athena and would take the brunt of any enemy assault. Trying to prevent that focused her thoughts until the radio crackled.

“Bolt 503, 505,” called Lieutenant Commander Fujita from the sky ahead to the north. “We’re Winchester over the main engagement area. RTB at this time. We’ll reload and be back by sundown.”

Llewelyn checked the local time. Sunset would be in roughly forty-five minutes. For the hypersonic Osprey’s to get to Darwin, refit, and return was possible. Hitting the Buzzers as they retreated might convince them not to come back. She wanted to believe it was possible, but her gut told her the Buzzers would be back in the morning with more forces, more air cover, and more mimicked weaponry. The fight was going to get progressively harder the longer it took to clear the planet like the GTF intended.

“505, 503. Roger, sir. We’ll be here.”

Click-click.

She flipped back to the Strike frequency. “Comanche, 503. Clear the kill box and hold orbital fires. Thunderbolts rolling in.”

“Bolt 503, Comanche, orbital fires on hold. Your target. Out.”

<<Private communication from Bolt 511.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.