Aquatica

Chapter 4:  Death From Above

Mark Rescroc (Callsign “Hornet 1”)

Aquatica Air Force

Home Fleet Close Air Support Group, 2nd Squadron

Off The Coast Of Virginia

February 13th, 2019

“Hunter Squad, this is Hornet 1. I’m entering your airspace, and am on standby to support, over,” I announced over the radio as my F/A-18E Super Hornet soared towards Norfolk.

For me, my one day off from duty had been rudely interrupted with orders to remain on standby. Apparently, an unknown ship had been detected by the fleet, and as one of the best pilots of the fleet, naturally they would fall back on me to save the day—if anything tried to attack. In the end, the object had been declared ‘Dealt with’ and new orders were relayed to me to provide CAS to a Special Ops team that had been surrounded by zombies at Norfolk.

The radio was silent for a few moments before a crackling voice came over the speaker. “Good to see ya, Hornet 1. We’re holed up in the Air Traffic Control tower here at the Naval Air Station, and we got zeds coming in every direction. Lazing first target now, over,” announced one of the soldiers on the other end.

I smiled to myself, then quickly flipped the switch to arm my aircraft’s weapon systems and adjusted the bearing of the aircraft a tad bit so that it was heading towards the Naval Air Station. Soon, a laser designation confirmation popped up on my HUD as the NAS came into view, and I quickly locked onto it with an AGM-65 Maverick.

“Alright, I’ve got confirmation of your laser designation. Maverick away, over.” I announced, pressing the button to launch the missile.

The rocket shot forward, taking only a few seconds to hit its mark on the field before exploding in a brilliant fireball. I looked down to see a large amount of bodies go flying, before returning my attention to the controls. The radio crackled, before the soldier from before came back on the radio.

“Good hit, zed horde neutralized. We’re designating another target, an old fire station near the runway. Hit it with a GBU-12, and that’ll deal with another horde, over.”

I took a mental note of the soldier’s orders, and then started banking to line myself up for another attack run. Soon enough I was in position, quickly finding the designation, and locking on the signal with a 500 lb GBU-12 Paveway II bomb.

“GBU away, over,” I announced as I pressed the button, releasing the bomb. A few seconds later, the fire station was obliterated in a huge fireball. The blast sent chunks of bricks and other building material flying in every direction.

There were a few moments of silence until the radio crackled to life again.

“Good effect on target, nice hit. There’s another horde near an old fuel tank just south west of the Air Traffic Control tower, we’ll laze it for a Maverick, over,” exclaimed the soldier.

I took another mental note, and then started to circle around. A few minutes later, I received confirmation of a lock, and then switched to my remaining Maverick.

“Maverick away.”

The Maverick smashed into the fuel tank, causing the tank to detonate, engulfing the nearby area in a massive fireball, scorching any unlucky horde that had been close by.

I smiled to myself as I waited for the guys on the ground to congratulate me, only to receive a burst of static, and a panicked voice.

“The fucking Sun Horse! It’s on the runway! We’re lazing it, drop a GBU on its ass now!” shouted the soldier.

I quickly pulled my aircraft into a sharp bank, lining up with the runway. Within moments, I got the lock notification, and dropped the bomb. However, as soon as I had released it, something completely unexpected happened. Something hit my aircraft hard, causing a loud bang to ring out, and damage alarms go off. I swore loudly as I checked my instruments to see what the damage was. Whatever had hit me had destroyed both my engines, rudders, and had severely damaged my tailerons. I quickly looked up, and noticed that I was still aiming for the runway after my bombing run.

“Shit, going to have to put this puppy on the ground.” I said quietly to myself, before flipping the switch to lower my landing gear.

After my landing gear had been lowered, I deployed every speedbrake that was left on the aircraft, and braced to hit the runway. The aircraft hit the runway hard, causing the landing gear to snap violently from the impact. I let out a string of curse words as the aircraft shot down the runway on its belly, sending sparks flying everywhere.

The aircraft continued to skid down the runway for a few moments before it went over the edge of the crater that my final GBU-12 had made in the runway and stopped moving. I felt incredibly dazed, but otherwise fine. After taking a few moments to recover, I tuned my radio to fleet frequency, and cleared my throat. “Aquatica Control, this is Hornet 1. I’ve been shot down by unknown persons, and have crash landed in Norfolk Na-” I began, just as something tapped on the cockpit.

I looked over, and saw a white horse’s muzzle up against the glass, its eyes were red and mane tattered. I screamed as the thing shattered the glass with a hard bash from it’s head, and frantically reached for my pistol. “Shit, not the sun horse!” I shouted, before the thing growled. Then to my surprise, the thing talked. “Twilight… I’m coming for you”