54 |

Somewhere over the Atlantic

 

“Echo Flight Leader, ParkRanger. We have four new bogies entering your airspace, heading two-nine-zero. We believe they’re Russian Sukhoi Su-33 fighters from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. Their intent is unknown. Give them a wide berth, over.”

Apocalypta checked her instruments, the four new targets just coming into view. The tanker was less than a mile from rendezvousing with the Il-80, and her own flight was due for replacement shortly as their fuel was running low. When they had been deployed, it was to check out a curiosity. They would have left long ago, but something else was going on, and she had no clue what it was.

We don’t exactly have CNN or Google up here.

If she needed to know, command would inform her—after all, she was responsible for six airframes and half a dozen pilots including herself. Keeping her in the dark could put all of them at risk. The fact she hadn’t been informed, meant she had to trust she didn’t need to know.

But four Sukhois, dispatched into the middle of the Atlantic from a Russian carrier? Those things were almost never in the Atlantic, which probably meant it was in transit from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, or farther. Her initial thoughts were that the Russians were pissed because she had buzzed their plane, but now she wasn’t sure. If the Russians were pissed, she wouldn’t have been ordered to just give them some space. Giving them space meant their focus was the same plane they had been watching. If the Russians were a threat, she would have been ordered to bug out, or prepare to engage.

The very idea had her heart hammering. The only time she had ever engaged something in the air was over Georgia, and it had been Russians then, as well.

I seem to attract them.

She had been the talk of the Air Force, despite what had happened being declared top secret. A lot of smiles and back slaps had been sent her way, without anything said. She was a hero, though she was careful not to let it get to her head. About all she took away from the event was that she now knew she could pull the trigger when necessary. She had always wondered.

Her lady balls were big.

“Okay everyone, let’s back off and give our Russian friends some space to do whatever the hell it is they’re here for.” She banked left, away from the plane they had been shadowing, the rest of her flight breaking away with her as she made a slow loop that would bring her parallel to the new arrivals, but heading in the opposite direction with a wide enough berth that they wouldn’t perceive her as a threat. Her system started beeping and flashing at her, indicating weapons systems on the incoming birds were active.

Okay, Rooskies, who’s your target?