Dogfight!

by totallynotabrony

Pirates

Dash’s alarm clock didn’t go off in the morning and she was grateful. The longer she slept, the milder her hangover would be. Vegas was fun; perhaps too much so.

It was probably a good thing that the pilots were not told their mission until just before executing it. Otherwise, Dash and Dust would have been all over each other the night before trying to squeeze out information. That is, if either of them were lucid enough to remember it.

Before flying a mission, the pilots were supposed to get eight hours of rest. It was military regulation, and if that let her sleep more, Dash was okay with that.

By midday, she eventually woke herself up and decided to exercise. It would work the remaining alcohol out of her system. To avoid fatiguing herself too much before a mission, Dash settled for a mild low-level flight workout around the perimeter of the base’s running track. It might stop her wings from cramping while in the jet.

As the day went by, Dash met with Argyle, Eeep, and Fire for dinner. It was slightly frustrating not to be able to discuss the mission beforehand, but she knew that in a real situation, they might be getting little to no warning. In the end, it all came down to training. Dash knew she could trust her pilots to get things done. Red Flag was supposed to build trust among other forces and countries.

The sun was starting towards the western horizon when the Ninjas walked into the “red” briefing room. There was a group of Israeli F-15 Eagle pilots there. Based on the dirty looks Ensign Tidd was giving his foreign counterpart, it looked like he had gotten stuck with the brief again.

The Powerpoint presentation began with Tidd briefing. “Your role this evening is to destroy all enemy air targets. The number one priority is the E-3 AWACS.”

The Airborne Warning And Control System airplane was a four-engined jet the size of an airliner that had a large radar disk on top. It was used to get a good picture of the surrounding airspace and could control an air battle. While the plane itself wasn’t dangerous, it could help enemy fighters to be a lot more effective.

Tidd clicked to the next slide. “Also in the area are four B-52 bombers. These are your secondary target.”

The bombers were also large airplanes, but were only good for attacking the ground. They posed no danger at all to any fighter that wanted to take them down.

“Your third priority, and the most dangerous threat to you, are a group of four F-16D fighters of the Equestrian Air Force. They will be working closely with the AWACS.” Tidd clicked to the next few slides. “Here we have the position of all the targets so you won’t have to go looking for them. Also, here’s the weapons loadout of the F-16’s.”

Dash stared at the slides with happy surprise. The precise information would give them a big advantage so they didn’t have to go hunting for the targets. “Where did you get this information?”

Tidd smiled briefly. “Just doing my spy thing, ma’am.”

“Does the Air Force know that you know?” Dash shook her head. “Never mind, don’t answer that.”

“And now for the bad news.” Tidd went to the next slide that displayed the air plan.

“The parameters of the mission are stacked against you.” He gave a sympathetic look to the Israelis. “You gentlemen will be flying straight into the teeth of the enemy fighters, and with the AWACS using its radar, they won’t have to light up theirs. You won’t see them until they’ve already fired at you.”

“What about us?” asked Dash.

“You’re the striking force,” answered Tidd. “You’re going after the AWACS and the bombers. My advice is to hide behind the F-15’s until they get taken out.”

“You make it sound so certain,” the lead pilot from Israel muttered.

Tidd shrugged. “All I can do is give you the facts and wish you luck, sir.”

He turned to Dash again. “Ma’am, if it’s all right, I pulled physiology information from your file. I think it will help the group get a better understanding of pony pilots.”

Dash considered that and nodded for him to go on. Tidd cleared his throat. “Ponies overall tend to be a little more sturdy than humans, and—pegasi especially—can handle more sustained g-forces. With hooves, there is less dexterity, however, and that could slow a pony’s reaction time; for instance quickly selecting a different weapon on the control stick.”

Tidd consulted some notes. “While pony anatomy is generally more flexible than you might expect, the EAF aircraft were not expressly designed for equine body shapes and this restricts their movement in the cockpit. However, with two ponies per jet, that doubles the amount of eyes they have to look for you.”

“Lastly, we come to natural ability.” Tidd had to dig deep into his notes for this. “Pegasi are completely suited to being in the air, and have an incredibly developed sense of spatial orientation and direction; as close to a natural-born pilot as there ever was. Furthermore, I’ve observed that most of the wizzos are unicorns. There’s no telling what directed magic might do in air combat, so be on the lookout.

“In conclusion, I assess that tactics will be very important. It will probably be very difficult to beat the EAF on skill alone. In addition, their F-16’s are hard to match for aircraft performance.”

“Any good news?” Dash asked.

“You know things that the blue force doesn’t, and you’ll have the element of surprise.”

It was the old “fight smarter, not harder.” That was a lesson Dash had learned since joining the Navy. It wasn’t her natural style, but when outdone on every other front, tactics would have to suffice.

As the brief ended, Dash considered everything she had learned. Knowing where the targets were would save a lot of time and maybe they could complete the mission before nightfall. Dogfighting in the dark was not anyone’s idea of fun.

After coordinating with the Eagle pilots, the Navy crew went to their planes. Dash looked with pleasure at the armament mounted to her jet. There were ten Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles hanging beneath the wings and a Sidewinder missile on each wingtip. The AMRAAM’s, nicknamed Slammers, had radar seekers of their own built into each missile. A pilot could “fire and forget,” moving on to another target while the missile kept tracking the aircraft it was aimed at. The Sidewinders were shorter range and heat-seeking.

In terms of pure firepower, the Hornets had an advantage over the EAF Falcons. According to Tidd, the F-16’s would only be carrying six Slammers and two Sidewinders each. Furthermore, the Falcon platform put the weapons further out on the wings, increasing rotation moment.

In non-fighter pilot terms, that meant that heavier weapons further from the fuselage made the fighters slower to roll, decreasing maneuverability. Dash didn’t want to admit it, but they were probably going to need every advantage they could get for this fight.

She kept considering the situation as the formation of “red” airplanes launched. The Israelis knew they were probably going to get smoked, but they were polite about it and let the Navy jets tuck in close so that they appeared to be only four targets to the AWACS.

Dash carefully guided her fighter in the wash of the plane in front of her. She could see the pilot turn his head to check the rearview mirrors in his cockpit. She gave him a playful wave.

Every ear was turned to the threat receivers and every pilot kept careful watch outside the canopy. They knew where the targets were supposed to be and at what time, but it was a big sky. In an effort to cover more ground, the Eagles had pushed a little past Mach One, faster than the speed of sound. The Hornets struggled to keep up, heavily loaded as they were with missiles.

The AWACS radar turned on at the appointed moment, and the operators were probably surprised to see their opponents much closer than anticipated. The F-15 pilots turned towards the radar plane to get close enough to fire. With Slammers, that was about sixty miles, and wouldn’t take very much time to get within range.

The threat receivers lit up again, this time with incoming enemy missiles. Turning to engage, the F-15’s switched on their powerful radar to seek out the Falcons that had gotten the drop on them. Due to the unanticipated attack of the red forces, the distance was much shorter than anticipated, only about a dozen miles. There was no time to fire retaliatory shots before the Eagles were “destroyed.”

This put Dash’s formation of four planes front and center. With the Israeli jets down, her squadron would immediately attract the attention of the AWACS and the blue force F-16’s would be vectored to intercept.

The “dead” F-15’s pulled away from the fight to return to base. As the Hornets were revealed, Dash ordered targeting radar switched on. The screen on her dashboard was immediately painted with five large, long distance targets. Four much smaller targets were off to the side, about to disappear from the radar scope.

Checking the range, Dash quickly formed a tactical picture in her head. The most valuable targets were directly ahead and within missile range. The blue force fighters were directly to her right and beginning to turn towards the Hornets as the red force deception was revealed.

“Ninjas, five Slammers each! Fox Three!” Dash hit the buttons on her control stick and her jet ripple-fired a string of virtual missiles for the Red Flag telemetry to pick up. She called out the appropriate Fox code for launching active radar guided missiles.

With four Hornets firing that many weapons, surely they would hit something. The fire and forget capability of the AMRAAM allowed the fighters to disengage from the high priority targets and concentrate on the onrushing EAF jets.

The red force’s surprise had now worn off, but their position was much closer than the blue force had been expecting. After launching on the AWACS and bombers, the Hornets turned to face the Falcons. The range was far too short for radar missiles, and no pilot had time to get a heat-seeker in the air before the two squadrons merged into one piece of sky.

Dash’s mind raced, pulling in everything she had ever learned about dogfighting. Long range missile shots were the future of aerial combat, but the importance of close quarters battle was still stressed. Somehow, she had to maneuver her jet behind another in order to shoot it down.

That wasn’t going to be easy at all. Dash ran through the list of advantages the Falcons held. They had better acceleration and lost less speed while turning. The backseat pony provided a better view of the situation.

The Hornets had a few things going for them. The rails for their heat-seeking missiles were located in a slightly better position for turning shots. The wide twin engine intakes provided airflow even at high angles of attack—when the jet’s nose was pointed high, but the plane continued to skid along in level flight. Straight, flat wings would keep the Hornet flying slowly even when the Falcon had run out of lift and stalled.

The bottom line was that the Navy jets had an advantage at extremely low velocities, but if the EAF fighters were allowed any room to speed up, they could quickly turn the tables. Dash had a tough call to make. Splitting off fighter-to-fighter would keep more consistent pressure on their rivals, but any mistake could quickly grow. She made the call to keep her squadron together and work as a unit.

Dash yanked at the controls, pulling her Hornet through a seven g turn. She felt her inflatable g-suit squeeze her lower body to keep blood from draining away from her brain and leading to a blackout. She also held her breath while tightening her core, using her diaphragm and flight muscles to clench on large blood vessels.

The rest of the Ninjas were probably suffering while following her tight turn, but Dash knew they were capable. She tilted her head, spotting the first Falcon approaching. Dash grinned behind her oxygen mask. Let’s do this.

In the fading daylight, it was difficult to tell the enemy airplanes apart. Dash craned her neck, trying to spot Lightning Dust and Thunder. Some small part of her brain wondered how she had failed to notice the naming matchup of “Thunder and Lightning” before.

Dash checked her mirrors, spotting Eeep on her tail, with Argyle and Fire holding position in the area. They all turned hard to get out of the way of the advancing EAF fighters. Both sides were armed with the sensitive Sidewinder missiles, and trying to hold each other far enough away for protection but close enough for a shot was a delicate battle.

One of the Falcons banked hard over the top of Dash. Her eyes traced the plane as it rocketed over her canopy. There was a brief instant when she was staring directly at Dust. Dash was sure the other pilot had seen her, too.

Dash hadn’t been intending to play favorites, but being presented with such an opportunity was as good as a formal invitation. She slammed her control stick over to pursue Dust’s jet.

The Equestrian pilot had to know what Dash was up to. The Navy pegasus could see Thunder’s head turning to confirm that she was following. Maybe they’d even anticipated that Dash would want a one-on-one fight with her old acquaintance.

Unfortunately, both sides still had more jets left than that. Dash could still pursue, but she’d have to do it through a cloud of other activity going on around her. Dust was no fool, and was probably already taking that into account.

Using her training, Dash did her best to keep her target pinned down. She couldn’t let the Falcon get enough breathing room to use its superior acceleration. Another F-16 maneuvered close, trying to approach Dash’s right side. She didn’t look at it, concentrating too much on the jet in front of her.

Ahead, Dust wavered, as if unsure. A quick smile spread across Dash’s mouth at getting exactly what she wanted. The next thing, however, turned the whole situation on its head. The Falcon shimmered, a ripple of magic sliding over the jet’s aluminum skin. In an instant, the aircraft had been almost concealed. The setting sun shone right through it, although details were still visible. The transparency was imperfect, but still impressive. Had the battle taken place a little later, when the blue forces were expecting, the night would have easily concealed the Equestrian fighters.

Dash was so surprised and impressed that she nearly forget to dodge the Falcon off her right wing that had been setting her up for a shot. Dust had been leading her into a trap, but Dash had a little something of her own planned.

As she rolled sideways, Eeep was in the perfect position to slam a virtual Sidewinder up Dust’s tailpipe. The fighter that had intended to ambush Dash wasn’t expecting her to suddenly break off of Dust and Dash was able to reverse their positions, getting a heat-seeker kill of her own. Even with their magic cloaking, the remaining two fighters didn’t last long against four Hornets.

The mission was over, and the result was a perfect victory for the red forces. Dash felt a little bad about the deception at the beginning of the mission even though it had been the key to winning. Spying was to be expected in real war, but she’d have to apologize to Dust. She expected the other pilot to be surprised by the last-minute switchup. While Dash had wanted to be the one to shoot Dust down, she also knew that everyone was expecting her to do exactly that. Granted, with the surprise of the transparency spell, they were even.

Dash considered that for a moment. While she liked her small and agile Hornet, this was one of the few times she’d ever considered transitioning to something with a back seat. Now if she could only find a copilot with a shielding spell specialty… As a soldier, Twilight’s brother Shining was not very enthusiastic about the Navy or flying.

“That was some great work, Commander,” commented Fire as she and the other three Ninjas formed up around Dash.

Dash glanced out her canopy to nod to each of them. “That was a good job by all of you.”

“Any chance of you buying the drinks tonight, ma’am?” asked Argyle.

Dash chuckled. “We’ll see.”