Equestrian Air Guard

Chapter Seven:

The Wonderbolt Gambit

By the time morning came; none of the trio got much sleep. While they slept in turns, it was too little as none of them could shake the fact they were onto something big. Dash had found a small poker table in the crew quarters and brought it and three chairs into living room for them to do their work. Alice was asleep on the couch, as she had done her shift for about two hours. Maggie had slept previously, and Brian before that. It was basically the shift system they had worked all night. Brian’s Radar charts provided decent information, but none of it made sense. Every single missile seemed to be launched from the sea. But instead of being first registered at Sea level, they we’re first detected at thirteen thousand feet. By that point in the morning, they had plotted out the three missile launch paths on three different maps.

“I don’t know what we’re missing,” Brian lamented.

“You got me too,” Maggie agreed.

“It just…it just doesn’t make sense, three different launch points from three random places over the ocean.” Brian grieved, “And each from over thirteen thousand. I know my sentry, if those things were sea launched it would’ve picked them up just after they broke the water.”

“Yea but they weren’t sea launched.” Maggie heard Alice sigh as she rolled out of the couch, “Your charts detect that.”

Maggie rubbed her face; she was tired there was no denying that. The rains over Baltimare weren’t supposed to begin until tomorrow, so there was no telling what command would do today. She and Alice really needed to get to sleep so they can at least by combat ready for tomorrow. Though the system they had was working, she knew they didn’t nap enough. For probably the umpteenth time, she looked at the three charts they mapped out. They told her the same thing they had the past night, nothing.

Then, she noticed something. The three points they had, despite being on three different maps, were in a semi linear route. Not only did she have that, but the initial altitude of the Dominion Squadron was the same altitude as the burst missiles. There had to be a connection. Quickly acting on this thought process; she grabbed the maps and the pen.

“See something?” Alice asked.

“Yes, we forgot to put these on one map.” Maggie explained as she began hunting down the coordinates for the other two points. Once she determined them, things began to become clearer. Two of the points were in a straight line, just inches apart, and Dash marked them X-one and X-two respectively. The third point, which was taken during the fall of Baltimare and named X-three, was slightly above and a few inches back of the first two. Dash calculated the inch differences to the map key. When she got that part done, the total distance between X-one and X-two was three hundred feet. The third was a thousand feet from X-one and one thousand five hundred feet from X-two, drawn slightly above the two points.

“It’s a flight path,” Dash said softly.

“A what?” Brian asked.

Before he could respond to his question, Maggie asked one of her own, “Do you have the charts that registered the first contact of the Dominion squadron?”

Brian looked over his radar charts for a moment before pulling out a sheet of paper, “Yes right here.”

“Hey Dash I know I can read your flight movements by now but I’m not a mind reader and neither is Brian. Can you tell us what it is you see?” Alice asked.

Dash didn’t answer; she was too busy looking for the point of launch for the Dominion squadron. Soon she got it and marked another X along with a 4. It was perpendicular to X-one. Connecting X-one, two and four, Dash could see a flight pattern form. She continued the line towards X-three before circling it around to X-two. The answer came to her and she presented it to the others. “It’s a flight Path!” she said proudly.

Brian and Alice looked at it with awkward faces. “Are you sure?” Alice asked.

“I mean I can see it, but…” Brian agreed hesitantly.

“I know it’s a stretch, but there’s too much coincidence for there to be anything other.” Maggie said proudly, if not tiredly.

Brian leaned back in his seat, “Well the only way we can find out is if we go there and look.”

“And to do that, we’ll need the General’s blessing. And I doubt he’ll give it to us in our condition regardless of our low evidence.” Alice sighed.

At that exact moment, the General walked in and was quite shocked at the trio being awake. “Oh so that’s why you guys haven’t been answering, I was wondering. What are you doing awake?” he asked walking in.

Maggie looked at both Brian and Alice before turning back to the General, “Sir?”

“I was going to tell you that you guys have the morning off, command is certain that the Vertainians aren’t going to try anything today with the rains due.” The General said, “Still haven’t answered my question in regards to why are you awake.”

There was a moment of silence before Maggie answered, “We couldn’t sleep sir, the launch points of those burst missiles were bugging us.”

“Our best intelligence boys are looking into it now.” The General answered walking up to them.

“Yes sir but we have something they don’t,” Maggie lied meekly, “Eagle Eye’s Radar maps.”

Unconvinced, the General looked right at Brian, “Brian I thought you gave your charts to the intelligence bureau?”

Brian gulped, “Yes sir I did, but honestly sir you and I both know how long they take.”

The General nodded, “Well I can’t argue with that, what you found?”

“Well Sir….after a long night of working, we found out that the burst missiles and the Dominion Squadron had been launched from the same altitude: Thirteen thousand, five hundred and twenty feet.” Maggie explained, “After marking the points on initial contact on this map, we discovered that the points link up into a flight path.” To prove her point, she rose up the map and handed it to the General.

He looked at the maps before looking at the three of them, “This is very circumstantial evidence at best. Not only is one of these points outdated by a week, but I’m guessing you guys haven’t gotten much sleep either.”

Maggie kept her focus locked on the General while Alice proved his point by yawning.

“Yea I figured as much.” The General sighed. Maggie could tell he wanted to dismiss it, but he just couldn’t. Either he saw what she did, or he was close to seeing it. Either way, he sighed and said, “Alright I’ll review this work. Right now I want you three to get some rest. Morning bell’s going to be at eleven today, and right now it’s five, so sleep well.”

The three got up and began to move towards their barracks.

“Oh and don’t worry about the table, I’ll have some guys clean it up.” The General called as they all headed to bed.

After taking a good five hour nap, Dash woke up again. This time she felt more mentally cognizant and together. A good shower made her feel even better. She knew that General Johnson would give their work last night a full review before making a full decision. The only thing was, whether or not he’d accept the plan. And that made Maggie nervous.

Her nerves reached a fever pitch when the General summoned both her and Cassie to his office. On the way over, Dash informed Cassandra of her idea and how she got there. Cassie stayed stoic but was intrigued. Finally when they got to Johnson’s office, the duo sat across from him. He was still looking over the documents when they sat down. After an awkward silence, he looked up. “You know Dash. I’ve been looking over your work last night, well yours, Alice’s, and Brian’s; and I have to say from what I can tell you guys are stretching the information quite a bit. And everything is telling me that the Intel boys are gonna say the same.” The General told them, “However I just can’t dismiss it. Even if this was coincidental it’s too good. I’ll admit, there is something out there but hell if you three couldn’t figure it out from a table and an all-nighter I know I can’t.”

Dash kept her face stoic, but inside she was doing backflips. There might be a chance at them going out to take a look.

“But again, I cannot authorize a deployment of our best squadron based on a hunch.” He said standing up and turning around to face the windows.

“So then what would you like us to do General?” Cassandra asked.

The General was silent for a moment and he didn’t turn around. Then he spoke, “Spitfire I’m leaving the decision on you.”

“Sir?” Cassandra asked.

“I can’t authorize this mission, so I’m turning it over to you. Do you think this is warrant to launch an investigation?” he asked.

Maggie looked at Cassie with worried eyes. When the decision fell to General Johnson, she knew she’d won him over by the work they had done. But Cassie was a different story, she only knew of their work by Maggie’s mouth. Worse yet she didn’t review the material. But the Squadron Commander took no time in answering, “Would be worth a shot to put to rest any information. Honestly the threat those missiles put to us as well as that squadron’s threat is pretty high. We won’t be able to safely take back Baltimare without dealing a blow to them. I’d say let’s go for it.”

“There is one thing though,” the General added turning around, “The location they pegged to investigate takes you awfully close to Vertainian Airspace. You could have swarms of planes on you in moments.”

Cassandra scoffed, “Sir the Reapers are Mach Six capable, eight if we push them. If the Vertainians do mobilize fighters we’ll just race out of there, they can’t catch us.”

The General nodded, “Very well, I’ll have the ground crew load you guys up with full air-to-air missiles. Go out there and find out what’s out there. If its Vertainian, destroy it, dismissed.”

The two pilots nodded, saluted, and left. The moment Dash walked out of the General’s office, she squealed, “I can’t believe he said yes.”

“Easy Kid, we don’t know what we’re going to run into. I think it’s best to save the squealing until after we land.” Cassandra told her.

“I know I know, but still this day just got twenty percent cooler.” Dash smiled.

Cassandra laughed, “Well I’ll be, the kid’s got a catchphrase.”

“Yea, just haven’t found a good time to use it.” Dash smiled.

Cassandra nodded, “Good noggin kid. Come on let’s get suited up.”

By three pm, the eight Wonderbolts were airborne and over the southern Atlantic ocean heading East. The target search coordinates were still twenty miles away and whatever was out there was well out of sight. Big, puffy, white clouds filled the sky around them thanks to the massive weather system occurring several miles off the coast of Hayseed swamps. This weather system was planning on going north towards Horseshoe bay to fill the bay. However that trip wasn’t until tomorrow, so it simply hung out there providing clouds for the Wonderbolts to hide behind.

The Squadron also hadn’t taken a direct route to get to their location, as the other storm over the Horseshoe River as well as Baltimare being a no fly zone had forced them to fly over the water for most of their flight. Rainbow was a little nervous that they might’ve gone off course, but Eagle Eye had kept them on track so that was quickly dampened.

Now there was only looking for whatever was out there.

“So what exactly are we looking for again?” Fire Streak asked.

“Yeah, we’re loaded to the gill Blue Jays, Sidewinders, Sparrows, and Stingers so obviously it’s something big.” Fleetfoot added.

Fleetfoot wasn’t kidding when she said ‘Loaded to the gill.’ Today the Wonderbolts were hauling not only their complement of Blue Jays, Sidewinders, and Stingers, but also at least twenty Aim-7 Sparrow missiles. In total they had just over one hundred missiles each plane, enough to bring down an Aerial convoy.

“Honestly,” Eagle eye answered, “We don’t know. We assume it’s the carrier of those burst missiles the shape shifters call Odo’s and the carrier of the Dominion Squadron. But what’s out there….hang on…”

Rainbow looked around to see if she could spot anything, but nothing could be seen. Then she glanced at her long range X-Radar.  Two massive black circles appeared.

“Hey guys.” Derpy called in, “I’ve got Radar outage.”

“That’s not outage Wonderbolt Eight,” Eagle eye answered, “Those are jammers.”

“What the hell could be producing a jamming signal that strong?” Soarin asked.

“Or that big,” Spitfire included.

“Maybe the Radar coverage is incomplete?” Cloud Kicker asked innocently.

“No those are Jammers,” Rainbow answered, “And Eagle Eye; they’re right along out flight path.”

“Confirmed,” Eagle Eye agreed, “Wonderbolts you are cleared to investigate; if it had Vertainian markings, shoot it.”

“Roger that!” Spitfire answered.

Rainbow beamed as she hooked up her oxygen mask. Soon all eight pilots eased power into their engines and raced towards the Jamming circles. They burst through a puff of clouds, and then another, and another as they drew closer. Just then a radio transmission came through.

“Dominion One to Harvenger,” Dominion One called out, “Patrol complete returning to base.”

“Roger that Dominion one you are cleared to land, caution turbulence and jet wash.” The Harvenger responded.

“Well looks like we found the base for the Dominion team.” Lightning said.

“Yea and this time we ain’t turning back.” Rainbow beamed.

Just then they burst through another puff of clouds and came upon their target.

“Is the distance to our target correct…..” Soarin began checking his Radar, and then he looked up, “HOLY SHIT!”

Fire Streak looked forward, “Holy shit that fucker is huge!”

“What is that?!” Cloud Kicker cried.

“It’s landing those MiGs!” Lightning shouted.

“It looks like a raven!” Rainbow exclaimed.

They were all looking at a massive black bird. With a wingspan of five hundred and fifty two feet, length of three hundred and seven feet, and what looked like a height of eighty eight feet, massive was an understatement. Enclosed in twelve black pods running through the massive wings were the engines, grouped six to a wing. The body of the aircraft was like a large, rounded box with two trapezoid openings in the front and rear. These openings led to a runway, as long as the bird and as wide as a two lane road, running down the middle of the craft. On the tip of the plane was a bulge that appeared to house the missiles. There were two tails, positioned apart from each other at the tips of the rear horizontal stabilizers.

Rainbow could see a small slit of glass indicating a cockpit about forty feet up from the top of the front trapezoid. She could also see anti-aircraft defense turrets all around the plane. Worse yet, this massive bird had massive escorts. Four other manta-ray shaped planes were around the big Harvenger but not as big. In fact all four of them looked like they could fit on this bird. The two inner ones seemed to be the Jammers, but Rainbow had no idea what the other two were.

“That must be the Harvenger,” Derpy said.

“AWACS we found what it was you guys were looking for: five massive aircrafts.” Spitfire called in.

“Confirmed, Wonderbolts cleared to engage, take that thing out of our skies!” Eagle Eye called out.

Rainbow switched on her missile guidance systems and automatically her display lit up with squares and diamonds indicating targets. The targets were all along the massive Harvenger as well as along the birds escort. Thinking quickly, Rainbow switched over to her Aim-75 and locked up four targets. The other seven did the same as they drew to within optimal firing range. Despite the radar maps being jammed, the X-Radar and missile guidance systems were unaffected. The missiles may not be as accurate as they usually are, but they’d be good enough.

Once they got good tones, all eight Wonderbolts fired at once into the formation of aircraft. Some of the missiles struck the Harvenger, knocking out a few defense guns and missile ports. Some punctured holes in the fuselage. Others nailed the aircraft’s wings damaging the engines. But somehow that plane was still fling. Other missiles slammed into the defense craft; one actually blew right through one of the jammer planes knocking out part of the jamming. However none of the Stingers downed any of the big planes. After their missile impacts, the Wonderbolts tore past the formation before pitching back around and engaging.

“What the hell! We’re under attack! Man your battle stations everyone the Equestrians have found us. Dominion Squadron, cancel landing clearance and engage those fighters! Vipers knock out those planes with your missiles and guns!” Harvenger Command called out, “Vertainian Command this is Harvenger we’re under attack! Scramble all fighters!”

“I got Radar tracking for half the battle zone. And a positive ID on those other two craft. They’re missile platforms; you’ll be in for a world of hurt if you don’t take them out!” Eagle eye called.

“Roger that, Fleet and Fire take the left one. Derpy and Lightning the right. Rainbow you and Cloud move on those fighters. Soarin and I will deal with the final Jammer.” Spitfire called out.

No one responded as the flow of battle quickly called them back in. The Wonderbolts split into the groups Spitfire wanted them too. Just as they went back into the fray, the Defense guns on the Harvenger and the duel Vipers opened up on the planes. But the Wonderbolts cruised through the fire, returning some of their own. Rainbow watched as Derpy’s missiles struck the engines of her Viper while Lightning took out a row of defense turrets with her guns. But she couldn’t watch them for long, as the Harvenger raced towards her. Quickly she rolled underneath the massive bird to attack the launching Dominion planes. Cloud Kicker kicked right and flew along the starboard side of the Harvenger.

MiG-41s were launching out of the mouth and turning to engage the Wonderbolts taking out the Harvenger’s defense force. But both Rainbow and Cloud Kicker lined up a spread of Stingers on them. With due haste, they opened fire knocking out three and making four turn to evade. Still above the sound barrier, Rainbow raced past the bow and tore after a Shark that flew further out.

“Who are these guys!” shouted the Harvenger Commander.

“They’re the Wonderbolts, repeat the EAG’s seventh air wing is attacking us!” a Dominion pilot answered.

“Launch everything we got! Get rid of them!” The Commander said.

Rainbow lined up a good tone with her Sidewinder and fired. The missile went right up the plane’s engine and detonated taking the plane and pilot with it. As she spotted another plane trying to turn back into the force, she rolled in after it. But then her missile warnings went off. Acting on instinct, she fired her Sidewinder blindly and then pitched up. Her air speed instantly bled off as flairs and chaff fell from her Reaper, the back of her plane began to slide. The attacking Shark roared by her, and as it did, she peppered him with bullets. Her aircraft then fish tailed as she swung it around to re-engage.

Cloud Kicker barrel rolled over a wing of two Dominion Craft before locking missiles and taking them both out. Rainbow switched her command back to Blue Jays and fired on another Dominion craft. As the missiles hit, Derpy and Lightning’s target exploded in a massive fire ball.

“AWACS, one Viper down!” Lightning called.

Just then fire from the second Viper ceased. “Same goes with the other one AWACS!” Fire streak called.

“Good job, the Enemy’s on the ropes. Keep up the pressure!” Eagle Eye called out.

“You incompetent bugs!” the Harvenger commander shouted, “They’ve taken out the Vipers! Dominion Squadron, what’s taking so long, take them out!”

“We’re trying sir,” a Dominion pilot called, “But these pilots are….” His transmission was cut short by Rainbow’s bullets shattering the cockpit.

Rainbow then looped around and fired on his wingmate before banking back into the combat zone. Smoke, both black and grey, now filled the sky around the Harvenger, which was banking right to try to get back to Vertainian Airspace. The second radar jammer was then blasted out of the sky by Spitfire and Soarin. Rainbow swung in on the Harvenger, seeing an opportunity in its bank. She lined up Stinger missiles on four of the engines on the right wing and fired. The missiles went right into the engine cells and detonated. Quickly switching to her Sidewinders, she fired two more missiles into the last two engines before pulling out.

The Harvenger began to slide to the starboard as its nose dropped. “Recover now!” the Harvenger commander bellowed.

Just then Cloud Kicker knocked out the last of the Dominion planes. “AWACS, Dominion planes destroyed.”

“The Dominion has been whipped out! How is this possible?!” the Commander screamed as the Harvenger slowly rolled wings level. Soarin helped it by knocking out the engines on the port side. The Wonderbolts all began to plug away at the massive Harvenger as fire and smoke began to bellow from it.

“Launch the Odo Missiles, fire up the backup rockets! We will not be taken out this easily!” The Commander bellowed.

Just then hexagons on the roof of Harvenger opened up and six missiles were launched from it.

“Harvenger launching Burst missiles,” Eagle eye shouted, “WONDERBOLTS THEY’RE HEADING YOUR WAY!”

Rainbow banked right as her missile alerts began to blare and six orange circles appeared on the Radar chart. She just managed to clear the attack zone when the missiles detonated. Amazingly the damaged Harvenger was unharmed by its own attack. Rainbow didn’t have time to figure it out. She was acting on pure instinct as she raced in with Lightning and Derpy to take out the launchers. Using the last of their Stingers, the trio blasted away the missile launchers.

But that was done after three more rounds were fired away. Quickly slamming the throttle forward, Rainbow flew her Reaper right out of the battle zone. Derpy and Lightning followed suit just as the second round detonated. Panting at the extreme rush of adrenaline, Rainbow looked back to see two sets of engines right at the stern of the craft light up and push the Harvenger. But just as it built up speed, Fleetfoot tore in with Guns blaring and took out both Engines. Now the Harvenger began to dive shallowly as its speed was dying off.

“Impossible, DAMMIT HOW CAN THIS BE?!” The Harvenger commander shouted in anger.

“Wonderbolts, the Harvenger is on its last legs. Take out the command bridge and this will all be over.” Eagle Eye called.

“I’m on it!” Derpy shouted eagerly. She pitched over and tore towards the bridge of the Harvenger. Lightning and Rainbow followed, but held back to give Derpy her due. As she flew in front of the dying bird, she lined up the last of her Sparrow missiles right at the bridge of the bird. “This is Wonderbolt Eight, Fox One Fox One!” she shouted as she pressed the button. Two Sparrow missiles flew from their rail and right towards the bridge of the Harvenger. The commander didn’t have time to call for help as the missiles impacted. The explosion tore through the bird and continued all the way to the stern of the massive craft.

Now dead, the once mighty Harvenger began to nose over in a dive as explosions tore its insides apart. With little energy left, the massive craft slammed into the Atlantic Ocean and exploded. The fire ball reached several hundred feet before turning to black smoke. The Wonderbolts all formed up and looked down at their kill.

“May you rest in pieces,” Fleetfoot said softly, “Never to harm anyone ever again.”

“Image faded from Radar kill confirmed.” Eagle eye called out.

“Two threats knocked out for the price of one.” Rainbow said, “We did well today.”

“I hate to rain on the parade, but swarms of enemy craft are approaching your position at high speeds. Wonderbolts I recommend you vacate the battle zone immediately.” Eagle Eye called.

“Quite right AWACS, let’s go team!” Spitfire said.

In rapid succession, the eight F-95 Reapers throttled up until they roared out of the area at Mach 6.

*                 *                *

When the Wonderbolts got back, their ground crew had filled the hanger and were applauding them as they approached. Dash slid her cockpit back and pumped her fist at the cheering crew as she pulled in.

Once she reached her spot, she angled her Reaper to allow her crew to push it in tail first as she shut the engines down. Albert was too ecstatic over their victory to wait for her to stop and quickly climbed up shouting, “Good Hunting Kid!”

Maggie laughed, “Thank you Albert, it was an awesome experience.”

“I’ll bet it was.” He said helping her unstrap.

“By the way thanks for the checkup, this plane did very well. I owe you another.” Dash smiled.

“Think nothing of it honey, I treat all my ladies correct.” Albert smiled.

Maggie laughed, “Well she thanks you just as much.”

Later on, after getting her gear off and heading back into the lounge, Maggie and the other Bolts treated themselves to a celebration with some champagne. After toasting too many different topics, the General walked in with Brian in tow. Cassandra poured them both a class and said, “Well sir, looks like the rookies gambit paid off.”

“Yes it did Spitfire that it did.” General smiled, “You can’t believe how many calls of congratulations I’ve been getting over your accomplishment today. But I’d like to take one last moment to congratulate the woman who got the final hit, to Ellen!”

“To Ellen!” the crowd cheered.

Ellen blushed as she giggled, “Awe thank you guys, that means a lot. But hey cheers go to Alice, Maggie, and Brian for figuring out where that monster was. If it wasn’t for them that monster still be alive!”

Another round of applause followed. Maggie laughed at this; she was feeling very good with herself over this. And for good reason. She and her squadron just changed the course of the war. The balance of power was now on the Side of Equestria.

After the celebration died down, the General spoke. “I also have some news to give. The Royal guard, Equestrian Guard, EAG, and our close allies from the Crystal Empire have massed enough forces outside of Baltimare to take back the city. The D-day has been set on Monday, when the storms die down enough and conditions will be right for us to engage. Captain General Shining Armor has personally requested that the Wonderbolts lead the charge for the Air Guard.” He told them.

Silence fell among the group. It wasn’t a somber silence; it was just a normal silence as the pilots let it all sink in. Dash’s pride increased after hearing those words. They were ready to take back Baltimare. Even Ellen’s cheerful demeanor increased. The Vertainian days on their land were numbered.

“To the Wonderbolts!” Cassandra toasted.

“To the Wonderbolts,” they all said raising their glasses.

After they all took a long drink in their glasses, Johnson smiled. “I’d also like to say that thanks to this time table, you all have the weekend off. Have a fun time.”