Skimming over the clouds, ten F-22A's and thirty F-35A's, apart of The 10th tactical fighter wing, are looking out for centaur jet fighters and on route to the town of Cape Hoof to eliminate enemy installations for the oncoming assault. To keep them safe from being detected by radar, the F-35's are all only armed with, along with a 25mm cannon, the few bombs and air to ground missiles that they can carry internally. The F-22's on the other hand, are armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM's and two AIM-9 side winders, capable of doing major damage to any unsuspecting enemy aircraft.

Leading the group is Wing commander James Bishop, a fighter pilot who, along with others in his wing, participated in the battle of Jefferson City and the Liberation of Joplin with over fifteen confirmed kills, making him one of the first Ace pilot since the 1980's.

"Contacts on radar, about two miles out." A pilot said over the radio.

"How many War Dog 3?" Bishop asked.

"About twenty bogeys, I don't think they even know we're here."

"All right," Bishop said, "War Dog flight, let's get the drop on them ."

"Right behind you War Dog 1." War dog 4 said over the radio.

"Dagger flight will stay behind and continue to escort Hornet squadron." Dagger one said.

War Dog flight then flew out of the formation and prepare to get the jump on the unsuspecting centaur fighters.

"Picking out targets now." War Dog 2 said over the radio. "Locked on."

***

Preforming routine combat patrol, even though the zebras are not capable of flight and all aerial resistance has been crushed, Dok still follows his orders to the letter. He participated in the opening invasion of the Griffin Kingdom, Saddle of Arabia, The Sheep Republic, and Cow Federation. Dok during his career has racked up over three hundred confirmed kills, Griffin tactics always involving rushing their opponents. Though now air strikes against convoys are the most common orders he is given, along with defense installations and soft targets to strafe.

He and his fellow wingmen have heard rumors of an other worldly race, called humans, have entered this world after an failed attempt by the 10th Armada to conquer theirs. He, along with other centaurs, felt the humans are a worthy adversary as none of the other races put up much resistance. Though the griffins continued to refuse defeat even after their military was utterly gone after the first month of the invasion, now all that remains of their is small unorganized resistance groups. Humans however were able to fight ferociously to the point where they turned the tide to their favor and claimed back their territories.

But before going turn back to base, as his aircraft was running out of fuel, something in the distance caught Dok's first wingman's, Voko, attention.

"There's something in the distance." Voko said.

But before he could reply, the unknown object launched six missiles took out six of his fellow wingmates along with Voko. Immediately followed by three more identical aircraft.

"They have self guided missiles that work!" Dok said through the radio. The missiles that the centaurs have developed were horribly unreliable as they could only lock on to objects that are detectable by their radar or emit a high heat source, even then they have a kill ratio of one out of two hundred.

But for the rest of the centaur pilots there was only panic:

"Where did those Bucking planes come from!"

"I've got nothing on my radar! What are they!"

"They're PHANTOMS!"

"There's no such thing as phantoms!"

"THEN WHAT JUST TOOK OUT SIX OF OUR FIGHTERS!!"

"Sword flight," Dok yelled through the radio to the remaining aircraft under his command,"engage all unknown aircraft. Shoot them down."

The formation soon broke up and engaged the "phantoms".

Immediately he banked to attack the unknown aircraft from behind and shoot it down. But before he could line up his gunsights to the aircraft, it flew upwards in an a maneuver that's considered suicidal and drastically reduced its speed then lowered its altitude to his and ended up behind him. Dok began to push the speed of his aircraft to its limits, but his pursuer still followed.

***

"Lock on." Bishop said as an loud beep came out of his headset. The side weapons bay opened and revealed a AIM-9 sidewinder ready to eliminate it's prey.

"Fox 2!"

The missile quickly left it's small temporary home and began flying faster than the aircraft that launched it.

***

A flashing red light on Dok's flight control immediately came to life, blinking rapidly. He searched for the deploy flares switch to throw the incoming missile off and away from his fighter. Within a second Dok found the switch and deployed the flares to buy him a minute. With luck on Dok's side, the on coming missile went after the flares and flew away into the ground far off into the distance.

***

"Bogey deployed flares, repeat bogey has deployed flares." Bishop said.

"That's going to make our missiles useless." WarDog 2 said.

Bishop then switched to his 20mm cannon and began to line up the crosshair on his HUD to the the centaur fighter. Once he got the crosshair covered the target, Bishop pulled the trigger and began to unleash a barrage of bullets on his foe. "Firing!"

***

Tracer rounds from the enemy aircraft began to tare apart Dok's aircraft, and could only watch. His dashboard soon light up as system failures and warnings alerted him of what he already knows. "Forgive me Tirek, for I have failed." Dok said as he accepted his inevitable fate. The right wing of his aircraft broke up and began to go into a violent role as it headed for the ground.

The G-forces soon became too much for Dok, as he began to black out. By the time he neared the ground he was knocked unconscious and saved from the inferno of fire that would kill him being his las memory.

***

Bishop looked on the port side of his aircraft to watch his foe break apart and begin it's decent to the ground. As soon it hit the ground, he made the call. "Target destroyed."

"I'm out of ammunition WarDog one," WarDog three said," I'm headed back to base."

"Copy that WarDog three." Bishop replied." Everyone else, from back up with the Rest of the wing, we still got a job to do."

"Roger that WarDog one."

The three remaining F-22's soon reform into formation and headed back with the rest of the aircraft.

***

As the wing approached Cape Hoof, Bishop began to direct each flight and squadron to what they're objectives are.

"Angle squadron will target key enemy positions that could cause trouble for ground forces. Lightning squadron will take out any enemy armor. Falcon squadron's job is to eliminate the battleships within the harbor. WarDog and Dagger flights will fly top cover and intercept any aerial threats."

"Roger WarDog one." Angle one said.

"Copy your last WarDog." Lightning one said.

"Let's give them hell." Falcon one said.

AA fire from the battleships and buildings began to light up the sky making it dangerous to stay in close formation. Flak clouds spud shrapnel To rip apart any aircraft that it struck. High caliber machine guns pointed up wards, firing wildly in the air to down the incoming aircraft. Lucky the aircraft that they use are smaller than the ones used to bomb cities during the Second World War, which made it harder for the enemy to easily shot them down.

Each squadron began to break of as they approached their objectives.

"Angle squadron breaking off. Let's show these bastards what devastation Angles can cause."

"Lightning squadron breaking off. Let's give them hell."

"Falcon squadron moving to eliminate targets."

The fighter-bombers began to unleash their payloads of bombs and missiles, decimating the centaur occupation forces. Cluster munitions wiped the floor against soft and armored targets. The bunker busters easily gutted the battleships parked in the harbors, along with any building with defensive value. Though only limited to 180 rounds, the 25mm cannon provide sufficient fire power in their strafing runs.

Radio chatter alerted the progress of each squadron's progress;

"Ground targets eliminated."

"Centaur sea-based battleships sunken."

"Enemy armor and fortified locations destroyed."

Fortunately, the centaurs did not send in any more aircraft. This slightly confused the pilots, as they expected for centaur aircrafts to come and intervene in their attack.

The sun began to set by the time all of the munitions within the F-35's were all but spent.

"Sorties completed WarDog one." Angle one said.

"Acknowledge Angle one," Bishop said,"the second wave should be here within half an hour. All aircraft head back to base, good job gentlemen first rounds are on me."

The F-35's soon formed up by the F-22's and began the flight back to the F.O.B to make the jump back to their world.

The final round of the eventual liberation of Cape Hoof is looming over the horizon.

Author's Note

Sorry for the Three months of waiting, had a conflict of what this chapter was going to be.