First Blood: Kill to Save Lives
Was That Really Necessary?
After two years of serving in the Navy, Terramar finally had his first actual combat mission! It all started a few months ago; A Hippogriffia Destroyer was patrolling near the coast border, everything was fine until they spotted an unidentified aircraft platoon coming straight at them. After giving them radio contacts and warnings, which ended up receiving no answers, the Destroyer immediately requested support and reinforcements. It turned out that the aircrafts were actually F-15E Strike Eagles, but not from the Equestrians; because there's an icon on each of their tails; Black Sun.
It happened so quick, they fired anti-ship missiles at them, without giving the Destroyer time to react. The Destroyer managed to intercept few of them before getting bombarded by the missiles. 20 minutes later, the Destroyer sank, no crew members survived.
After this was reported back, the ISIA (International Security Intelligence Agency) immediately sprang into action and began their search for the ones behind this attack. Soon, the result came out, it was the Black Sun. This is a country north from Equestria, no pony/creature made any contact with it ever since the Nightmare Moon incident. And for some reason, the Black Sun managed to get their hooves on the advanced technologies, no doubt there's a spy among the Equestrians.
Anyway, the United Nation and Hippogriffia/Seaquestria were angered by this act of war and immediately declared war on Black Sun.
The Hippogriffia Navy were immediately sent to the Coltific front, among them were six Destroyers, ten Cruisers, twenty Frigates, Nimitz Class Aircraft carrier USS Novo, and Sea Spray Class Aircraft carrier USS Neptune.
After two years of training and working hard, Terramar followed his father's footsteps and became the Captain of the Jolly Rogers, his squadron would be the first to encounter and intercept the enemies when the first contact was made. The newest carrier jet was introduced; F-35B, it can perform vertical take-offs and landings, however due to the small numbers, the Super Hornets would do the main parts. And Terramar is flying a Super Hornet. He'd rather fly a F/A-18 than the newest F-35B, due to some technical issues, he doesn't want to risk going up in a jet that gets its engine shut off anytime.
Back to topic.
Terramar and his squadron received their first ever combat mission; intercept an enemy fighter squadron that's protecting their bomber platoon; which were headed towards the harbor.
It took them about ten minutes to prepare for the mission. Terramar and his wing-griff, Trident Wave were the best of the Navy, they've won over many compilations before and some Golden Helmet games, no doubt that the Navy picked them first. The teammates were Skyfire, a young hippogriff who joined last year, his code name is Jigsaw 1. Current Sea, served in the Air Force before, he viewed Skyfire as his little brother, his code name is Jigsaw 2. Seastar Mist, the youngest of the squadron, and a smart-ass, code name is Sea Gull. Terramar's code name is Skyhawk while Trident's code name is Sea Falcon.
On the deck of USS Novo, the hippogriffs in Muti-colored vests are running around, checking the jets, guiding the jets, and taking them off. Another Super Hornet blasted off from the carrier, the roars of the afterburners rang in their ears. The next Super Hornet was guided by a middle-aged hippogriff in a yellow vest, he waved both his claws to direct the Hornet to line up with the runway. Terramar is the pilot, and Trident is in the other Hornet next to him.
After Terramar lined up the runway, the yellow vest hippogriff straightened both his arms and formed a "T" pose, signaling the pilot to reopen the folded wings. Both wings were slowly being placed down automatically. Then the hippogriff folded his right arms and waved it forward, which means to put down the ejection hook. Then another hippogriff in green vest came over with a Limit rod in his claws, he placed it behind the frontal landing gears; it'll prevent the jet from tripping over the runway during take-offs.
After that, the yellow vest hippogriff quickly ran off to the left side of the runway, then he motioned Terramar to move the jet a bit front, to let the ejection hook connect with the Catapult shuttle. With a light "Click", the jet was hooked.
Terramar took a deep breath, after the jet was hooked up with the catapult shuttle, then the next and final step will be launching off the deck. Though he'd completed many simulation, be fired off from 0 kilometers per minute all the way up to 250~350 kilometers per minute in least than a second is something tough to get used to at first.
The yellow vest hippogriff then lifted his left claws and began to draw circles in the air rapidly, signaling Terramar to start the engine. Terramar pushed the airspeed brake forward, the two F414 jet engine let out a loud and ear-piercing roar, orange gulf of hot gases lunged from the edge of the engine, which were blocked and reflected by the heat shield behind it.
After that, two white vest hippogriffs, who were by the side of the Super Hornet, double-checked it and gave it a confirmed thumbs up sign.
Then the yellow vest hippogriff nodded before doing a half-squat on the floor, with left hoof banded ninety-degrees and the other hoof bended low as well. His left arm then suddenly lifted upward into a straight pose with two claws pointed forward.
Take-off.
Terramar suddenly felt a hard force that pushed him back against his seat, the entire jet was suddenly blasted forward and reached 337 kilometers per minute. The Super Hornet then quickly reached the end of the deck, Terramar felt the jet shook a bit as the landing gears left the deck, then he pulled the jet up while folding back the landing gears.
His first take off was a success, one least thing to worry about.
------(~*~)------
"Jigsaw 1 and 2, see anything unusual?" Terramar's voiced filled the radio, the Jolly Rogers formed a triangular cruising formation, that was each of their search radar could cover up the areas around them.
"Not yet Skyhawk." that's the reply.
"Stay frosty." Terramar said, he could feel his sweaty palm, it's normal since tis is his first combat mission. He knew this day would come, but there's one thing he's still having trouble on; Killing.
From the day he joined the Navy, he knew that he must kill some creature one day, it's part of the job as military units. He did asked some advice from Sky Beak on that, but to actually take a life away... Terramar sighed, that's; gonna be helluva time to get use to.
Suddenly, he heard the rapid beeps from his radar, immediately he saw three red dots approaching them fast.
"Attention! I got the boogies on my radar," Terramar said, "Three boogies, two o'clock high! Coming in fast." Just as he finished, three black dots appeared on the horizon, it came straight for them. After gaining some distance, Terramar recognized the logo on their tails; The Black Sun Su-27 Flankers.
"Fuck! Flankers! Break! Break!" Trident shouted into the radio while breaking the formation. Terramar and the others did the same, because they all knew that Super Hornets aren't much good against a Flanker; they've got wider radar aperture and better combat thrust. The Flankers and the Super Hornets mixed into one chaotic bundle, dogfighting each other.
"JIGSAW 1 THERE'S A FLANKER ON YOUR SIX!" Terramar shouted, "SHAKE HIM OFF! POP FLARES!"
Jigsaw 1's Hornet did a barrel roll to the right while firing its flares towards every direction; just as he did, a infrared missile whooshed by and exploded into the flares.
"HOLY SHIT! CRAZY SON OF A BITCH!" Jigsaw 1 growled.
Trident's Hornet flew in behind the Flanker that's chasing Jigsaw 1, he fired the 20 millimeter cannon at the enemy jet. BLARRRD! The rounds whooshed by the Flanker, the enemy seemed to knew the situation he's in and quickly broke, with Trident on his six, roaring rounds.
Suddenly, Terramar found himself gaining a radar lock alarm, he quickly did two barrel rolls to the left while popping flares, two missiles missed, by a few inches. The totally scared the shot out of him; one small mistake and he's dead. Recovering from the fright, Terramar began to maneuver his jet twirls the Flanker, hoping to pass him and get on his six. That did worked, Hornets got better combat wing loading than the Flankers, after getting on the tail of the enemy jet, Terramar turned on the combat radar, a few beeps ended with a long flat-line beep.
Now all he needs to do is to press the trigger, an AiM-120 would fly at him at the speed of Mach 4, his enemy would be dead in least than three seconds. But Terramar felt his fingers trembling, this isn't in the simulation, he is going to kill an actual creature.
"SKYHAWK! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Came Jigsaw 2's voice, "SHOOT HIM!"
Finally, Terramar brought down his claw, "F-Fox 3!"
And there's his first splash.
------(~*~)------
The battle went swiftly, after Jigsaw 1 ended up with a dead engine, Sea Gull with a leaking fuel tank, and Trident with a broken wingtip, the Jolly Rogers took out the Flankers. Luckily they can still fly the broken jets back.
The Hornets circled and secured the areas around, after checking there's no more enemies, they returned.
"Terra? You look blue, got stuff in your mind?" Once landed back on USS Novo, Trident immediately noticed Terramar's gloomy doom face and went straight towards the question.
"It just... Was that kill necessary? I mean, can't I just wound the jet instead of blowing in up?" Terramar asked. Trident sighed.
"Oh, I know where you're headed. Trust me, I did that once."
"You killed a creature before this?" Terramar asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it was a five years ago. My sister and I were cornered by a bunch of gangs that threatens to rape her. I did what I have to do; I shot the gag leader and one of the members the tried to rape my sister. After that I was sent to the judge, luckily I killed them out of self-defense, so all I got was a warning. To be honest, I did hesitated too, but why did I kill? I kill to save lives. You see, if there's a murder with someone innocent as hostage, will you take down the murder to save the innocent? Exactly, in this war, we have to kill to save innocent lives. Though it is a bit hard to get use to." Trident said, Terramar is in deep thought.
"I... Guess you're right," he said, "though mom's not gonna be too proud at that."
"You're lucky, though I did the right thing. Sometimes you have to do what you must to save the ones you loved and cared." Trident chuckled while shivered at the "non-prideful" memories.
"Heh heh, that ws only my first splash," Terramar said, "say, how many lives you think we'll take until the end of the war?"
"Not sure exactly, but it'll be a lot." Trident said.
"We are doing the right thing," Terramar patted his back, "We kill to save lives."
