Nightingale: Combat

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Title: Nightingale: Combat
Classification: Harm/Mac; Skates/Other
Type: Crossover – West Wing & Aero Girl’s story – Clearing Skies
Rating: 13 (Adult Situations, Language)
Spoilers: Up to True Callings, Everything Afterwards Never Happens
Disclaimer: This is for entertainment purposes only. These characters belong to CBS, Paramount and DPB.
Author's Notes: This is my opinion and not to offend any other writers but I consider Aero Girl and Startrails68 in the top 5 of all the JAG fan fiction writers available today. (One of my other top 5 writers, is semi-retired.) So, this series (I hope) is totally dedicated to them.
Author’s Note 2: Thank you Soleil and Kate for giving up your time to ‘Beta’ read my work … Give that I write as I talk sometimes – it makes your job awhole lot more difficult.

10 September 2004
Somewhere over the Sea of Japan

“Strike three, this is Red tail 1,” Commander Gary Erickson called over the radio.

“Go ahead, Bart. This is Hammer.”

“Shrike One and Two are feet dry. Only half the usually dance partners on scope. I’ve got a bad feeling their tactics have changed.”

“Copy, Bart. Will keep eagle eye’s open.”

Harm switched to the intercom. “Beth, bring the squadron tac system on line. If Bart’s right, we’ll see some dancing partners.”

“Nights, this is Night 1. Combat mode … activate squadron tac system and private com freqs.” Beth got four ‘Rogers’ from the other flight leaders.

The F-14 Echoes had equipment in them that no other fighter in the world had and the other two squadrons had failed to utilize the two new systems they carried. First was the second radio transmitter/receiver installed to allow the RIOs to communicate to each other without tying up the main radio channel with them passing targeting information to each other. The second and most important addition was a flight and squadron data link imbedded into the second radio transmitter/receiver, which let each RIO know which targets the others selected for their AIM-120 and AIM-54 missiles, so they wouldn’t be targeting the same target.

Beth changed her radio to the squadron’s private communication frequency and her secondary frequency to Alpha flights channel. All the RIOs in the squadron had done the same with Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo, using other channels for their flights.

“Radio Check. Alpha 1 is up.” Skates used her secondary channel.

“Two’s up,” Sweets replied.

“Three’s up,” Tex replied.

“Four’s up,” Dino replied.

“Alpha is up. Flights check in,” Skates said on the squadron net.

“Bravo Flight is up,” Go-Go replied.

“Charlie Flight is up,” Slick replied.

“Delta Flight is up,” Sack replied.

“Echo Flight is up,” Kane replied.

“Nights activate data links and report in,” Beth requested.

Beth turned her attention to another screen as the bottom line started to fill up with letters and numbers. When everyone had finished activating their data links, their bottom line on the screens read:

A1A2A3A4B1B2B3B4C1C2C3C4D1D2D3D4E1E2E3E4

All the new squadrons would use the same alphanumeric combination since the NG engineers had used the Nightingale information to hard code their program for the data link and there wasn’t enough room on the screen to program actual aircraft tail information in it. Once all the squadron’s aircraft tail numbers were finished displaying on her screen, Skates said, on her secondary channel, “Alpha 1 is good.”

“Two’s ready,” Sweets said.

“Three’s ready,” Tex said.

“Four’s ready,” Dino said.

“Alpha Flight is ready,” Skates said on the squadron net.

“Bravo Flight is ready,” Go-go replied.

“Charlie Flight is ready,” Slick replied.

“Delta Flight is ready,” Sack replied.

“Echo Flight is ready,” Kane replied.

Skates activated her intercom. “Harm, the squadron is combat ready.”

“Good, we’re feet dry.”

“Lookout, this is Strike Three. Feet Dry,” Harm called to the AWACS plane that was their long-range eyes. The AWACS was flying with the biggest bomber force that the Nightingale had escorted so far. It contained thirty bombers and four F-15C Eagles, who were the AWACS’ escort. The AWACS and Eagles would turn back as soon as they picked up enemy fighters and they would join up with the six KC-10s out over the Sea of Japan.

“Roger. Strike Three. Scopes clear so far.”

They were flying towards a base that was about a hundred miles from the coast, which was located close to Sunch’õn. When they got within fifteen minutes from the base:

“Strike three, this is Lookout. We picked up approximately 288 airborne targets at vector 348 at angels 45 – 188 miles. Our system indicates 192 are Fulcrums and the remaining to be Floggers. Good hunting, Lookout departing area.”

“Roger.”

“Nights, turn to port 12 degrees … we have targets bearing 188 miles at angels 45.”

The entire squadron turned to meet the enemy. Harm switched to his intercom. “Beth, Lookout reports targets bearing straight ahead – angels 45 – range 188. Over half of them are Fulcrums, which carry the AA-10 missiles, so lock them up first before the squadron takes on the others with remaining missiles.”

“Got them on the scope.”

“Ok ladies, let’s lock them up. Go for the MIG-29s first,” Beth said on her radio.

The data row above the bottom row on the data link screen started to fill up with the same information as the bottom one showed. When it was filled, Beth let Harm know they were ready to fire.

“On my command Nights,” Harm said.

Beth let Harm know when they got to the 120-mile mark.

“Fox-3s,” Harm said on his radio as he pulled his trigger four times.

Soon there were eighty AIM-54 missiles in the air heading for the North Korean planes, while they continued to close the gap between the two forces. Beth called over her radio to start locking the AIM-120s onto targets and soon a third line of data started filling up. The AIM-54s came within attack range of their targets and enemy icons on her screen started disappearing. A message came up on her data link screen that told her eighty targets had been destroyed.

“Harm, eighty confirmed kills … coming up to AIM-120 launch range.”

“Nights coming up on 120 range, on my command,” Harm announced.

“Now, Harm.”

“Fox-2s,” Harm said on his radio.

Another eighty missiles departed the Nightingale squadron and within minutes, eighty more North Korean planes disappeared from their screens.

“Nights. Combat spread. Take out the remaining MIG-29s first if you got a shot,” Harm announced.

The Nightingales broke into sections, lead and wingman, as they closed head-to-head with the enemy fighters to use their sidewinders and onboard guns. There were still 32 MIG-29s among the 128 remaining inbound fighters. Harm saw the enemy fighters as they closed head-to-head and he selected his guns to use if the North Koreans didn’t break off since the AIM-9s didn’t do well with head-to-head shots. He angled towards a pair that didn’t look like they were going to break off and got a solid lock-on tone. He pulled the trigger and one of the planes blew up while the other couldn’t maneuver to avoid the debris from the first plane; its engines ate some of the wreckage and went down into a mountainside.

A furious air-to-air battle ensued as the North Koreans forgot about their primary mission to shoot down the inbound bombers as they went after the more dangerous foe, the Navy fighters they were against. They shot a huge number of missiles at the Tomcats only to have their missiles out maneuvered or maneuvered into acquiring one of their own planes. After close to an hour of very heavy dog fighting, the twenty Nightingale planes headed out to sea, leaving none of the North Koreans remaining in the air. They were extremely lucky that day; everyone survived the encounter still in flying conditions as KC-10s and Vikings met them just as they went feet wet to give them the needed fuel to return to the carrier. Six planes suffered battle damage and were the first planes recovered.

The members of Alpha Flight de-planed and Harm was greeted by Gunny Ingles stating that the Captain needed to see him in his day cabin before he went to debriefing. The plane captain for each plane was busy pulling the battle tapes from the planes for the debriefing personnel to review before they met with each crew.

“I’ll see you in debrief, Skates. Great job up there today.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Harm got to the Captain’s day cabin and knocked on the hatch.

“Enter.”

Harm entered the cabin and came to attention. “Captain Rabb reporting as order, sir.”

“Have a seat, Harm. We received the AWACS’ long-range battle tape of your squadron’s dogfight with the North Koreans. What did you do differently than the other Echoes squadrons did before?”

“Sir, we used the ‘new’ equipment installed in the Echoes. From our review, their tapes told us that they either didn’t know about it or didn’t trust it.”

“What equipment is that?” Captain Pike asked.

“Sir, the Echoes have two complete radio transmitter/receivers installed in them, which allow the RIOs to talk to each other without clogging up the main radio channels. The pilot sets his/her primary frequencies on the regular radio. During non-combat situations, the RIOs use the same radio as the pilot but, during combat, the RIO activates the second radio, which is also Electron-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) protected. It contains a data link built into it that allows instant targeting information between the planes up to a squadron of twenty planes and up to four squadrons. When we fired our AIM-54s and AIM-120s, there were eighty different targets selected by the squadron to be taken out with each wave of missiles since we were carrying out maximum load out.”

“So, you’re telling us that before you got within 30 miles or so, that 160 enemy planes had been shot down?”

“Yes, sir. We took out the remaining 128, if I remember correctly, with our sidewinders and guns without losing a single plane to them. We have six slightly damaged planes but our maintenance crews will have them back to fighting shape within 24 hours.”

“If the North Koreans don’t launch an attack on us within that time, they will have a harder time getting to us than before. The USS Seahawk and USS America Battle Groups have just exited the A Perouse Strait and should be here within that time frame.”

“Before you ask, CAG. My RIO instructor’s briefed and showed all the Raptor and Howlers RIOs this ‘new’ equipment after they returned with their Echoes. They even gave them a demonstration of how it worked and what the ‘new’ data linked screen looked like when they are all connected, etc. Communications between the pilots and their RIOs is essential.

“We asked the commanding officers from the two squadrons to pull each flight’s planes onto the deck after they returned to allow our radio maintenance people work with theirs and marked each data link screen with an alphanumeric combination, which is A1 to A4, B1 to B4, and C1 to C4 since they only have twelve planes each. That plane data code is the only item that can be readily changed in the field by the maintenance personnel since planes swap positions within the squadron.

“Basically, the other crews just need to put some trust into the systems that are installed. It works well and the Nightingales debugged the system before it was installed on the ‘new’ improved Echoes.”

“Why wasn’t this brought to our attention before?”

“Sir, we just didn’t have the time to review the battle data tapes until our down day yesterday. After we saw the tapes, we had to run our desktop simulators to come up with the answer. We talked about it and finally realized what the answer was after we passed the feet dry point today.

“If those other two Battle Groups get here before the next strike, I recommend that we take another down day to allow the other two Echo squadrons to see the battle tapes of our mission today. It will show them the advantages of trusting this new equipment.”

“Agreed. Outstanding job up there today and head for debrief.”

“I give all the credit to the ladies and Sam for what we accomplished today, sir. I’m lucky to be commanding an exception group of aviators, sir.”

Each plane’s battle tape was review and every single crew was credited with at least thirteen victories apiece. A3’s tape gave her fifteen kills; A2 and A4 was credited for sixteen apiece; and A1’s tape gave them eighteen victories, which was the most anyone was credited for. B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1, and E2 were credit with fourteen victories. B3, B4, C3, C4, D3, D4, E3, and E4 were thirteen.

Harm was exhausted by the time Beth and he had finished their debriefing. By the time they finished and entered their cabin, the other members had already had time to eat, shower, and jump into their bunks. Harm let Beth use the shower as he sat down on his bunk to watch Mac sleeping. He saw Beth exit the head and he quickly got cleaned up and crawled under the blanket with Mac. In her sleepy state, Mac sensed him getting into bed as she pushed his arm up over their heads and she snuggled onto his side. Harm kissed her head and slowly started his relaxing routine. He was almost asleep when he felt a draft as someone lifted the blanket and crawled in with them.

*******

0500 Zulu 11 September 2004
Communist Party Headquarters
P’yõngyang, North Korea

“Wan, what in the blazes happened over the skies of Sunch’õn?” General Bae asked his Air Force commander.

“We’re working on what happened? The early reports that I saw from our surviving pilots are that they ran into a squadron of Blue painted F-14s that was escorting the huge bomber force that leveled the air base at Sunch’õn. They report that their first two waves of enemy missiles all went after different targets. There wasn’t a single plane targeted by more than one missile unlike the other encounters with the American Naval planes. My experts state that this is impossible for anyone to be that precise with their target selection.”

“Did you say they were blue F-14s?” General Bae asked.

“Yes, sir. Why you ask that?”

“I was stationed in Washington DC a few years ago and they had just formed a new Naval fighter squadron that flew out of the military base there. They were F-14s that were painted blue and they were crewed by females. I hope that our pilots don’t realize that the crews aboard these planes are all women. It could cause problems for our pilots when they need to pull the trigger and will know they will be killing a woman,” Jin replied.

“They are all women?” Admiral Son asked.

“Yes, all of them except for two pilots but both of them were combat ‘Aces’,” Jin answered.

“How badly was we hurt and please give us the truth, not what we’re going to release to the public?” Admiral Son asked.

“From the first portion of the attack, we lost thirty aircraft while shooting down only four. The final portion of the attack is what hurt the most. We lost half of our available MIG-29s and two squadrons of MIG-23s – a total of 288 planes and they didn’t shoot down any of theirs.”

“288 planes to ZERO?” General Bae yelled.

“Yes, sir.”

“Do they have any more planes equipped like these blue planes?” Jin questioned.

“Unknown. We’re not sure if these blue F-14s have anything-visible differences from the other F-14s. They are too far away anyway to get a look at them to see if they have a different appearance or not until after they have already fired their first salvo.”

“I’ll get our intelligent agents in the US to work on finding out how many of these different planes they have. We’ll have to stop trying to destroy the two remaining land airbases and take out the more dangerous carrier. So, come up with an attack plan to get rid of this carrier. Have it accomplished by the time we met in the morning,” Jin ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

*******

8 Hours Later

“What’s your plan?” Jin asked.

“It got more complicated about two hours ago,” Wan stated.

“How?”

“Tai’s aide sent over two messages they received this morning. The first one was from the KNSM Wan Song, which said that the carrier moved another 100 kilometers away from the shore. The second one was from the KNSA Ho-Che Main, which is close to the name of a famous Communist leader in North Vietnam. The class that the Ho-Che Main was part of, it was the Communist leader class and thus named after famous Communist leaders no matter what Communist country they were from. She picked up two more US Battle Groups moving into position where the first one had departed from. With these two other carriers involved, it will take another twelve hours for my staff to come up a workable plan since the first carrier is at the limit of our attack range unless you want the to lose whatever we send there.”

“WHAT? You’re telling me that we have three full size Battle Carrier groups off our coast? No, we cannot to throw away our planes because we need everything we have since there are still two usable land bases as well that you cannot seem to get rid of.”

“Understood. We have to make a decision which one, the land bases or the carriers, is the worse poison for us. So we can eliminate one of them. If we go after the carriers, it will take everything we can throw at them if they have more that one squadron similarly equipped with those ‘new’ F-14s, when we do that – it leaves the door open for the land base planes. If we go for the land bases, again it will take everything we have – it leaves the door open for the carrier planes. So, chose General Bae – which will it be?”

“Contact the Song to let us know if that first carrier moves back closer to the coast?” Jin ordered. “I’ll have my answer in twelve hours to that question.”

“Yes, sir.”

********

Harm woke up but couldn’t move nothing but his arms and head. He looked to his left and saw Mac was still asleep. As he turned his head, he saw Jen and Beth lying on top of his body. When he looked to his right, Kathy was there. He couldn’t figure out when the other two joined him during the night, for he assumed that Kathy was the first one. There was no feasible way for him not to disturb anybody if he tried to get up, so he just lay there looking up at the ceiling. It seemed like forever before he heard a noise coming from the side of his bunk and turned to see three smiling faces looking down at him.

“Are we always going to find you in bed with more than one woman?” Kate asked jokingly.

“Morning, Kate. I don’t have a clue to how to answer that question.”

“I tried to join you last night but they beat me here and there wasn’t anymore space left to join you.” Anna smiled. “So, I went and hopped in bed with Meg.”

“Was I the only one sleeping alone last night?” Kate asked.

“No, just the only one in this cabin,” Meg quickly said as she smiled.

“Can you three please help me?” Harm asked.

“How?”

“Can you gently move two of them to allow me to get up? I cannot move otherwise without waking someone up.”

“I don’t know about that … we should just let them enjoy their sleep,” Meg teased.

“Please?”

“Only if you promise to take a nap this afternoon if we’re not flying to allow us the same privilege to get some peaceful rest,” Meg said.

“I don’t know about that Meg. The last time I was in bed with Harm, I don’t recall getting much sleep.” Kate jokingly said.

“I don’t want to be beaten within an inch of my life by Mac if that happened without her permission … I didn’t sleep well even with Anna to hold. I want and need to be held myself. Yesterday was a living nightmare to live through.” Meg looked downcast when she talked.

“I agree with Meg … it was nice to be held by her but,” Anna said.

“I didn’t sleep well either and agree with you Meg about what Mac would do … so Harm do we get your promise or do we leave you like you are?”

“That’s blackmail but I promise.”

Meg, Kate, and Anna gently picked up Kathy and placed her into another bunk. Then, they picked up Beth and placed her beside Kathy. Once that happened, they moved into each other arms not realizing they had been moved. Anna picked up a blanket and covered her two friends up as Harm slowly moved himself from underneath Jen’s body. He was no longer pinned by another body and gently got out of bed to rush into the head. Jan and Mac went to embracing each other once they unconsciously realize they weren’t holding someone.

Harm exited the head and got his flight suit on.

“Well, ladies since we’re awake. Could I interest you in joining me for breakfast? Afterwards, we’ll see what’s on the agenda today for us. If it’s clear, we can return to retire for a few more hours. I feel like I didn’t get any sleep at all.” Harm yawned as he spoke.

“Sure, breakfast would be nice. I will be more comfortable trying to relax with a full stomach versus a empty one.” As if Anna needed to say anything more about almost feeling starved, her tummy grumbled loud enough for all to hear.

“If I didn’t know better if I wasn’t looking at you, Anna, I would have called you Mac. Your stomach sounded like hers when she’s hungry.”

They quietly exited the cabin and returned about an hour later to find everyone still in the same positions they had left them in. The ladies removed their flight suits and put their tee shirts back on. They used Meg’s bunk since it was the widest bunk remaining and they settled down to return to dream land … where they remained for the next couple hours until someone yanked their blanket off them. They looked up to see four very mad looking roommates.

“How did you transport you six from our bed to over here, flyboy?” Mac asked.

“We would like to know the same answer ourselves. It was agreed that if we have nightmares that we were welcome to join Mac and you in bed. Well?” Jen asked.

“Hold on one minute everyone. More than one irritated lady has awakened me up this morning, not once but twice. This is all that I know: Beth and I finished debrief last night and got cleaned up to go to bed. She in her bunk and me into the one I share with Mac. Just before I got to sleep, someone crawled into bed with us. I woke up needing to use the head sometime this morning but couldn’t move anything but my arms – sometime during the night two more people got into bed with us. I got bored staring at the ceiling and dozed off until these three woke me up. Without going into details about needing to use the head, I asked them to kindly move two of you so I could get up. They blackmailed me into making a promise if our schedule was clear after eating breakfast that we would come down to grab a nap.” Harm had said the entire thing without taking a breath and was starting to turn blue in the face for lack of oxygen. “Yesterday was a living nightmare for everyone to live through. I’m truly blessed that I don’t have to sit down and write one of those letters that begin with ‘I’m sorry to report …’ because we were fortunate everyone return home safely without a scratch. Frankly, I was scared to death myself … not for myself but for everyone else … the ones that I love and ones that I care for. If you’re mad at me for giving comfort to the ones that I… — then I’ll gladly take any punishment that you want to give me Sarah.” Tears were running down Harm’s face. He was thinking that he somehow messed thing up and didn’t have a clue how to fix it. “If you want to kick me out, I’ll understand.”

“Whoa there flyboy, hold your horses. Nobody said anything about you moving out at all, we were just wondering how you transported yourself into another bed. I must have been super tired last night because normally even when I’m asleep, I know when you get into or get out of bed … usually I don’t have another person to hug if you get up, which was …” Mac paused. “Anyway after we woke up, they told me that they had trouble getting to sleep, so they got in with us and they slept like babies once they did. We just have to figure out a way to make this work if more than one or two have trouble sleeping if you all will overlook me in not giving up my spot.”

“You’re not mad?” Harm shyly asked.

“No, someone move over.” Mac asked as she gently got into the bunk. “Since we’re all awake, let’s see how to work this without pinning someone down.”

They were all laughing by the time they figured it out and they hoped that they didn’t need to use the bunk rigging to prevent the person on the outside from falling out. Most of the bunks aboard smaller ships had a safety net or rigging to prevent a person from falling out of the bed during heavy seas or if the ship was hit by enemy fire. On a carrier, this rigging was seldom needed or use and it was stored in a special locker inside each cabin.

“Are we agreed this is the solution?” Mac asked to see the others quietly agree.

“Good. The CAG wants us to be available to the other two squadrons to answer questions after they have reviewed our battle tapes…” Harm checked his watch. “…about an hour from now. Did I hear any suggestions of what we can do in the mean time after we notify the others?”

“Eat.” Kathy, Mac, and Kate said at the same time.

“Ok, grab a partner and locate Claire, Sam, Christie, and Julie … we’ll met at the chow hall in ten minutes.”

********

They had just sat down at a table to eat, when Captain Ingles walked into the chow hall and straight up to their table.

“As you were.” Tobias said as he saw them starting to stand. “Captain Rabb, we’re having a Battle Group Commander, carrier Captain, and CAG meeting within the hour in my conference room. Your present is required while your squadron answers questions about the equipment. You still have time to finish your lunch.”

“Yes, sir.”

********

“Welcome to the Patrick Henry. If you would take a seat, please,” Captain Ingles solemnly said. He felt uncomfortable talking to the two Admirals in the room as if they were equals, which they were only in command responsibilities. Since he was still the AOR commander, the War Room ordered the other two to come aboard to get the situation report face-to-face. “Let me introduce my personnel, to my left is my CAG, Captain Christopher Pike and to his left is one of my Tomcat squadron commanders, Captain Harmon Rabb Junior.”

The introductions continued: From the USS Seahawk; Rear Admiral Luke Michaels; Captain Eric Ross; Captain Donald Peterson the CAG; From the USS America; Rear Admiral Boyd Bailey; Captain Michael Brown; Commander Steven Mills the CAG.

“Sirs, we have launched a total of four ‘Alpha Strikes’ while escorting heavy bombers from the Air Force after the North Koreans launched an attack at the Kitty Hawk Battle Group, all eight ships were sunk, over 6700 personnel missing and presumed to have perished in the attack, and every plane of the Kitty Hawk was lost but eleven, which we recovered aboard here.” Tobias paused to give a prayer over the men and women of the Kitty Hawk Battle group

“During our first three ‘Alpha’ strikes, we shot down a total of 436 aircraft while losing two Hornets and the bombers were successful in knocking out the three air bases from being used in the near future. Our last ‘Alpha’ shrike was just as successful in knocking out the air base but we shot down 308 aircraft while only losing four more Hornets. The Patrick Henry has 86 fighters still mission capable with sixty-eight Tomcats and eighteen Hornets.”

“Captain Ingles, did you just say that your last mission — your crews shot down 308 planes?” Admiral Bailey asked.

“Yes, sir. The enemy actually lost a total of 315 planes … our plane’s battle tapes only show 308 confirmed kills … the AWACS and the aircrew’s reports indicate that seven enemy planes were downed by either their own missiles locking onto them or from eating flying FOD.”

“Holy Jesus,” Commander Mills said.

“Is there something you left out Tobias?” Captain Eric Ross asked.

“Yes, sir. That one squadron accounted for 281 of those confirmed kills.”

“Impossible! There’s no way in h-e double hockey sticks that one squadron did that,” Admiral Bailey said.

“Sir, it is unbelievable but accurate and has been verified by the battle tapes of the mission,” Tobias said.

“Which squadron of yours was it?” Admiral Michaels asked.

“Captain Rabb’s Nightingales VF-213. Sir.”

“You got to be mistaken about which squadron accomplished that … they’re nothing more than a bunch of squatters gathered together to generate good publicity for the Navy and commanded by someone that shouldn’t even be able to fly at all,” Captain Peterson said.

Chris saw Harm getting ready to say something in response but beat him to the punch. “Captain, how many ‘Top Gun’ trophy winners do you have in your squadrons? Did you get the memo that they changed how the last mission the school was going to be done?”

“None. I haven’t felt that I didn’t have any crew exceptional enough to send there in the past two years and yes I read that memo.”

“Well, meet the only person who has gone undefeated in that last mission and he’s the person you said that shouldn’t be flying at all. Before arriving for this deployment, every crew from the Nightingales went through the course at ‘Top Gun,’” Captain Pike angrily said.

“Another publicity stunt, I bet,” Don snickered.

“CAPTAIN!” Captain Ross warned.

“Sorry, sir.” Don didn’t look like he was sorry about what he said too much.

“No, it wasn’t a publicity stunt as you applied put it … each crew took home THE Trophy.” Chris strongly said.

“You got to be joking, aren’t you?” Don was amazed.

“GENTLEMEN, ENOUGH,” Captain Ingles yelled.

“Sir, may I be excused?” Harm asked before he got mad enough to drop kick Don off the fantail.

“Stand down Hammer,” Tobias ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

They heard the telephone ring and Tobias picked it up.

“Sir, we have a telecommunication transmission from the War Room coming in for you.”

“Patch it onto my screen here in the conference room.”

“Aye. Aye. Sir.”

“Sorry about the interruption, sirs, but there’s a telecommunication feed from the War Room coming in that I need to take.”

“Do you need us to leave?” Harm asked.

“No. I will probably have to brief it to everyone anyhow. I’ll just let them know who’s in the room with me.”

The screen lit it as Admiral Magnum appeared on it.

“Captain Ingles.”

“Sir. Before we begin. In the room with me are: My CAG and Captain Rabb, Seahawk BG commander, Seahawk’s skipper and CAG, America’s BG commander, America’s skipper and CAG.”

“Good, I was hoping to catch everyone still aboard the Henry. Captain Ingles, you’re temporarily bumped to the rank of Vice Admiral and the Navy’s AOR commander until Admiral Boone is well enough to resume his duties.”

“Aye. Aye. Sir.”

“Captain Pike?”

“Sir.”

“You’re the Regional CAG of all Naval aircraft with Captain Rabb as you’re vice commander.”

“Aye. Aye. Sir.”

“Admiral Ingles, we feel that the North Koreans will launch an all out attack at either the two remaining land bases in the south or at your carrier force. We estimate they will use at least half of their remaining air wings for this purpose. Your squadron’s action against them yesterday has made them take a step back to figure out which force poses the greatest danger to them. We want you to stop all ‘Alpha’ strikes until they make the next move and plan on that they will be coming after you.”

“Will do, sir.”

“Harm.”

“Sir.”

“Outstanding job your squadron did. We saw the battle tapes and everyone here is glad that all the Nights safely survived that fur ball. The President will be speaking to the nation today and announcing what happened over there, so warn your ladies about it. We know you shy away from any honors by saying and thinking you’re just doing your job but in this case you’re going to have to live with getting whatever is decided about it. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Harm looked dejected because it’s something he has always hated.

“Very well, good hunting gentlemen. Magnum out.”

Tobias sat back and looked at Harm. ‘He looks dejected about receiving honors from yesterday’s action but he’s never been a glory hound anyway, which makes his one of the best pilots that I’ve ever seen fly or had the pleasure of flying with.’ “CAG, how are we going to plan this?”

“We estimate they should have up to 50 wings still in flyable conditions … if the attack comes our way and if the Washington is correct with their assumption … we’ll see up to 1200 planes attacking us,” Chris said.

“Captain Peterson, what does your air wing consist of?” Harm asked.

“Twelve F-14s and thirty-six F/A-18s,” Don answered.

“F-14 what?” Harm asked.

“What do you mean? They’re D models, sir,” Don said as he thought that was the stupidest question ever asked. Everyone knew that the A and B models had been retired to the scrap heap and very few C models were part of any the Pacific Fleet’s air wings.

“Commander Mills?”

“Twenty-four F-14Ds and Twenty-four F/A-18s, sir,” Steven replied, as he knew something that Don didn’t know about the way Harm asked that question. He had just taken over as the CAG on the Midway last year after serving as an instructor at Fallon.

“That gives us eighty Tomcats and seventy-eight Hornets available. Hopefully they will use the flying structure that they used against the Kitty Hawk. They split into three forces: low, middle, and high,” Chris said.

“Harm, correct me if I’m wrong … the Henry’s Tomcats will now be able to take out 400 before they get within 30 to 35 miles of you.”

“Correct.”

“Huh? There’s only forty-eight Tomcats aboard the Henry and if they carry their full combat missile loads … they only can carry 192 AIM-54s if they go maximum air-to-air and the AIM-7s are not effective that far out,” Don said.

“Don, there are fifty-six Tomcats aboard the Henry. Hammer’s squadron is over sized. I know everything about the Nightingales and their Tomcats carry the AIM-120s. I got waxed enough at Fallon by one of their crews to know that,” Steve replied. “They are flying the ‘new’ F-14 Echoes if you haven’t heard the rumors about them.”

“No, I haven’t.” Don decided to shut his mouth before it got him in more trouble from the looks his Admiral and Captain were given him.

“Now, the other Tomcats will be carrying 144 AIM-54s.”

“Yes, but we cannot yet interface with them just like it is with the Blackjacks. We would have wait to fire after their AIM-54s has taken out it’s target or they will have to wait for ours to take out it’s target … either way someone will need to hold fire before selecting targets. But they will need a whole lot of communications between each other so they won’t target the same targets like we experienced in the first three missions. So, if the Koreans come low, medium, and high … have one squadron on each level … firing off one missile at a time until they’re out of AIM-54s … then let the Hornets in to engage at the medium ranges before we close to the shorter ranged missiles or guns.” Harm brought up what was going through his mind.

“Agreed.”

“They will be coming after the carriers … I recommend that we layer our escorts to allow them to encounter anything that gets through the fighters,” Admiral Michaels said.

“Agreed.”

“Ok, gentlemen, we will go with that battle plan for the fighters except we will keep eighteen Hornets out of the main action and station them forty miles in front of the escorts for their protection. After the Echoes have exhausted their medium and long-range missiles, a flight will return to re-arm with AIM-120s and AIM-54s — two planes to one while a single goes to the other two carriers.

“Harm, give the CAGs the information they will need to brief their missile techs where to attach the missiles aboard the Echoes in case they end up landing on them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Admiral Michaels, you will be in charge of where to stagger our escorts and the eighteen CAP planes.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Admiral Bailey, you will be in charge of our submarine forces, anti-submarine forces, and surrounding escorts that Admiral Michaels don’t utilize for the advance screen.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ll keep two E-2Cs airborne at all times. All fighters will be on ready alert-10 status. After they have launched, all Vikings will be launched. They will be stationed to refuel the inbound Echoes to give them enough fuel to reengage the enemy.”

“Any questions? Let’s hope the War Room is wrong about an attack coming our way.”

*******

Everyone was nervously waiting for the shoe to drop. It had been two days since the last ‘Alpha’ strike and nothing had happened. The entire Nightingale squadron was parked on the flight deck on alert five. All they had to do was start their engines, hook-up to the shuttle, and finish running their checklist. Since they were on alert five, they had to sleep in their flight suits.

“General Quarters, General Quarters! All hands to their battle stations. All crews man their planes. Launch the alert five aircraft immediately.”

The members of Alpha flight were the first to barge out of the superstructure flight deck hatch and run up to their planes. The quickly put on their gear and checked each other before climbing into the cockpit. Harm started their engines while closing the canopy. The checklist was finished and Harm saluted the cat launch officer and was quickly launched down catapult #1.

“Alpha 1 is airborne.” Harm called over his radio.

“Copy Alpha 1, this is Watcher 243. We have multiple boogies inbound at vector 340 at 350 miles. Their attitude ranges from angels 5 to angels 30. So far we have counted in excess of 1200 targets.”

Harm switched to the intercom. “Skates, get the wing into combat mode. We’re going up to angels 45.”

“Already on it … All Nights are online … Raptors are being launched now.”

As the minutes passed by, Skates had picked up the massive enemy force on her radar and the Nights, Raptors, and Howlers started selecting targets for their four AIM-54 missiles.

“Skates, take a look at your LRHA screen?” Sweets called over as she looked at her Long Range – High attitude radar screen.

“Ok, Sweets. What do you have?” Skates asked as she selected her LRHA screen.

“I’ve got four targets hanging back seventy miles from the main attacking force at angels 70. The info my LRHA and IFF data is telling me that they are MIG-29s,” Sweets replied.

“I’ve got them, too. They are MIG-29s,” Skates answered as she toggled her intercom. “Harm, Sweets picked up four MIG-29s on the LRHA, which are hanging in the back from the main force.”

“MIG-29s, you say?” Harm asked.

“Yes, it is unusual to see a single flight of them and so far to the rear of the main force. The only time we have seen or heard about MIG-29s is when there was a bomber force close by. Something’s fishy.”

“Agreed,” Harm said. “Watcher 243, this is Alpha 1.”

“Go ahead, Alpha 1.” Watcher 243 was an Air Force AWACS plane that they had called in to help with radar coverage of the area.

“Watcher 243, we’re picking up four stragglers behind the main force on our LRHA radar. Can you give them a scan and tell me what you can about them?”

“Stand-by.”

“Standing by. Break. Alpha 2, this is 1.”

“Go ahead 1.”

“You might need to take over the wing because I maybe going after those four late comers we’ve just picked up.”

“Hammer…”

“Big Red, you can handle it or you wouldn’t be flying Alpha 2. Understand?”

“Yes, sir. I do.”

“Alpha 1, this is Watcher 243.”

“Go ahead, Watcher 243.”

“We’re showing four MIG-29s and they are super hot.” ‘Sh….! They’re carrying nukes!’ Harm thought.

“Roger. Advise all aircraft not to get within 10 miles of those MIG-29s and prepare to engage if I happened to miss one of them. Break. Alpha 2, the wing is yours … have someone hold a couple 120s just in case … I’m going high and after the lagers. Break. Alpha 4, join up on Alpha 2.”

“Roger.” Harm heard coming from Big Red and Natural. He toggled his intercom. “Beth, re-select the AIM-54s for those MIG-29s. They are super hot. We’ve gotta take them out before they launch.”

Harm slammed the throttles into afterburner as he pulled back on the stick to gain altitude.

“Harm, AIM-54s reprogrammed for the new targets. The Wing has just launched at the middle and high flights. The other two squadrons are launching at the low flights. Our targets are still 250 miles away.”

“Good. Pray that I missed my hunch about what is happening here. The enemy should be turning away from the fleet and the four late comers have picked up speed.”

“Your guess is correct. Why are they doing that?”

“The MIG-29s are carrying nuclear loaded air-to-surface missiles and hoping to get close enough to the carriers to launch them, which they would have if Sweets hadn’t been checking her LRHA radar.” He switched to his radio. “Watcher 243, this is Alpha 1.”

“Go ahead Alpha 1.”

“Watcher 243, keep your eyes on our missile tracts with your radar. When they’re a minute away from the MIGs, announce over the fleet wide band for everyone to turn away and not look in the direction of the MIG-29s in case we happen to hit one of those missiles. Have them prepared for an EM pulse and shockwave if we do … it might get hairy up here for a few minutes.”

“Roger.”

“Harm, when do you want to launch?”

“Twenty miles inside the maximum range.”

“Get ready then … 8 … 6 … 4 … 2 … launch.”

Harm pulled his trigger four times and banked to port to turn them away from the MIGs. The Phoenix missiles flew straight and true to their targets. When the fourth missile impacted with its target, it looked like the sun exploded and lit up the sunny day with a furious extra bright white light. Inside the cockpit of Alpha 1 neither Beth nor Harm could see the instruments due to the brightness the explosion gave off. Harm felt the shockwave reach them and it knocked the multimillion-dollar plane around like it was like a leaf being blown by the wind. Both Harm and Beth were knocked unconscious from the shock wave as it took them along for the ride.

When Watcher 243 gave the orders for all to turn away from the MIG-29s, most of them had turned and gained altitude. The twelve Hornets led by the Seahawk CAG, Captain Don Peterson, only turned away and didn’t grab for more air. When the EMP hit them, they lost all electronics and flamed out. When the shockwave hit them, it drove them straight into the ocean. When jumping or landing into a body of water from anything over 1000 feet, you must ensure that you either point your toes or use something on the plane to break the surface tension of the water. If you don’t do that, it’s like falling on a slab of concrete. Only two of the pilots of the Seahawk’s CAG flight survived the extra hard landing on the ocean. Later they would find out that their flying days for the Navy was over.

The F-14Ds and the other Hornets were able to re-start their engines and safely recover aboard their carriers. But the Electron-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) did not affect any of the F-14Es. They were only slightly bothered with the shockwave since they were farther away from the blast than Alpha 1 had been.

The North Korean planes were not as fortunate as the American were because none of the planes had any EMP protection built into any systems aboard. The only option the crews had was to eject from their doomed planes and 480 pilots took that option.

Aboard the Patrick Henry

Kathy, Mac, and Meg ran into CIC after safely landing their planes aboard the Henry and saw Admiral Ingles, Captain Pike, and Kate looking at one of the radar screens.

“Sir, any sign of Hammer and Skates?” Kathy asked since Harm put her in command of the squadron.

“No, Big Red. The radar is still fluctuating and we cannot get a good read on it yet,” Kate answered.

“Sir, permission to re-launch the squadron or part of the squadron to look for them. Our planes and radars weren’t affected by the EMP.”

“Denied. You need to have your maintenance crews check your planes out very well and reload for combat just in case the North Koreans return,” CAG answered.

“But…” Kathy started to say.

“Lieutenant, I want to approve your request but we have to prepare for the possibility of another North Korean air attack. I know that your squadron is over size but they still have over 1200 planes remaining. We will need every single one of you in order to survive another force that large and not waste the second chance Hammer and Skates gave us. I’m just as worried about them as everyone in your squadron probably is.” CAG gave the order he didn’t want to give her since he was just as conflicted with his emotions as she apparently was.

“Yes, sir.” Kathy came to attention, fighting the tears that was trying to fall and turned to lead the others out of CIC.

“Harm put a lot onto her shoulders. I hope he made the correct call in making her his #2 pilot,” Chris solemnly said.

“CAG, I have confidence with his decision. She has three very strong supporters covering her back. They will not allow her to fail and she’s a Marine as well. They never give up,” Tobias said.

“So, very true but I’m not worried about the Henry’s crews accepting her as their group leader, it’s the other two wings that have me worried.”

“Don’t worry about that … IF she has any problems with anyone, I’ll drop the fleet on them and they will wish they had never been born.”

********

Two Hours Later

The remaining members of Alpha stepped into their quarters and shut the hatch. As soon as the hatch was closed, Kathy collapsed on the deck. They carefully picked her up and helped her to a bunk.

“I… I can’t do this … I …” Kathy tried talking but couldn’t speak due to crying so hard.

“Yes, you can. Harm put his faith in you.” Jen softly said. “He wouldn’t have put you into the position if he didn’t feel that you couldn’t handle it.”

“But … But….”

“There are no buts there, Marine. We’ve got your back,” Mac said. “Harm is not dead, he’s out there somewhere and still alive … I still feel his presence here.” Mac placed her palm on her heart.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Kathy stopped crying and trying to believe that Mac still could feel Harm was still alive. “Can someone give me a hug, please?”

They all gathered around Kathy to hug her and stayed there until they heard someone banging on the hatch. Kate got up and opened the door as Gunny Ingles quietly spoke to her.

“Ma’am, The Admiral request that Big Red, Dino, Tex, and yourself to come to the bridge ASAP.”

“What for?”

“Don’t know Ma’am. I was in the Admiral’s day cabin when dad got a call and he sent me after you.”

“Ok, we will be with you in a second,” Kate said as she turned. “Kathy, the Admiral needs us on the bridge ASAP.”

“Let’s roll, Nights,” Kathy said with a stronger convection than she felt but would do what was required of her.

They ran as fast as they could through the corridors on the carrier and arrived on the bridge almost out of breath.

“Sir, Nightingale’s reporting as ordered.”

“Lieutenant, about seven minutes ago … we received a radio call from Alpha 1 … they are alive and still in the air … we have vectored the KC-10 that was escorting the AWACS and her escorts to his location. If the KC-10 arrives in time to refuel them, they should be recovering aboard in about an hour.”

“Sir, where is he?”

“They are about 800 miles north northeast of us. Apparently, they were caught by the shockwave and it blew them way out there. They were lucky they were as high up as they were when they were caught by it. I thought that you might want to know that they are alive and that Hammer still has his guardian angel protecting him.”

“Yes, sir. Permission to hug the Admiral.”

“Granted.”

Kathy stepped up and hugged Tobias. “Thank you, sir for bringing our Hammer back to us. Permission to leave the bridge to inform the rest of the squadron and then retire to Flag Bridge to await their recovery.”

“You may retire to the Flag Bridge.” Tobias smiled as he picked up a phone and punched the all-hands button. “This is the Admiral. Tem minutes ago, we had reestablished communications with Alpha 1. They are alive and still airborne. A KC-10 has been vectored to their location and should be recovering within the hour. That is all.”

“Thank you sir.” Kathy proudly stood at attention, saluted, and left the bridge for the Flag Bridge catwalk.

********

“There they are!” Someone yelled on the Flag Bridge catwalk. Everyone turned to watch the Tomcat fly down the portside of the carrier before it turned into the landing flight pattern. They held their breath as the Tomcat touched down on the deck catching the ship’s number three wire. It was quickly surround by personnel wearing yellow anti-radiation suits as they sprayed down the aircraft with solvent to decontaminate it from any radiation residue remaining on the aircraft to allow the crew to exit or allow maintenance/medical/rescue personnel to assist the crew if they couldn’t deplane. Once the spraying stopped, they watched the canopy open but the crew made no effort to exit the plane … maintenance stands were quickly pushed up to the plane and their wheels were locked to prevent it from rolling away as medical/rescue personnel quickly climbed the stairs.

Harm and Beth were gently pulled out of the cockpit and rushed to the infirmary. Kathy, Mac, Kate, Meg, Jen, Cassie, and Anna quickly left the catwalk heading to the infirmary to see how their two friends were in. They were stopped at the hatch leading into the infirmary by a nurse and were told that the doctors will let them know as soon as possible on their conditions.

They took turns pacing up and down the corridor waiting to hear anything about Harm’s or Beth’s condition. During this time, Chief Petty Office Thompson arrived from the hanger to give Kathy the status report on the squadron and on Alpha 1.

“Yes, Chief.”

“Ma’am, all the birds check-out in A-1 condition but the Captain’s. They have been refueled, re-armed, and re-spotted on the flight deck.”

“What’s the condition of the Captain’s plane?”

“Ma’am, she checks out in A-2 condition and we’re working to bring her up to our standards. The blast peeled all the paint off her underside. We’re currently repainting the lady and she will look as fine as she did when we picked her up. She will be ready to fly in twelve hours.”

“Chief, when you have her repainted and remarked … please add four more stars to her side.”

“Yes, Ma’am. That gives them a total of 22 total stars. He told us not to place any of their previous victories on her.”

“Yes, it does Chief and understand his point of view about that,” Kathy asked.

“Understood, Ma’am. Hammer doesn’t even want to talk about it. By you leave, Ma’am.”

The doctor came out and briefed them about Harm and Beth. They both suffered mild concussions and were slightly dehydrated. He was releasing them from the infirmary if he had reassurances that they would lay around and rest for the next forty-eight hours.

“Doc, I guarantee that they will follow your instructions even if we have to tie them down to their bunks especially that thick-headed husband of mine.”

“Very well, Colonel. I want to see them in forty-eight hours for a follow-up. They have already asked how long before they could return to duty. I can’t truly justify what I want to do for those ‘heroes’ since we’re on the front lines and just in case someone really needs my services. So, Ladies, go inside and get these two out of my sight before I change my mind and do something stupid.”

“Ladies, let’s get the Captain and Skates and go,” Mac said over her shoulder as she walked into the infirmary. “Hey sailors, you ready to blow this pop joint?”

“We sure are … we’ll need help navigating to the room,” Harm answered.

“Sure no problem there,” Kate answered.

Cassie, Anna and Jen went over to help Beth, who was now wearing surgical scrubs since they had to cut her flight suit off to examine her when she entered the infirmary.

“Thanks … I wasn’t sure how we were going to get to our quarters since I had a irritating time just getting into these stupid scrubs.”

“Just trust us to get you there,” Anna said.

“I do,” Beth said as she stood up and almost fell before Anna and Jan grabbed hold of her.

“Ok, squid. Get the lead out unless you want to remain here,” Mac teasingly said as she saw that Harm had put on his scrub pants but hadn’t been able to put the shirt on yet. “Oh… what happened here?” Mac asked as she seen the bruises on his shoulders.

“It’s where the harness kept me in the seat as we were tossed around like a rag doll.”

Kathy and Meg stood by to lend him their shoulders to help him to their quarters since they were the closer to his height. They exited the infirmary led by Mac and trailed by Kate to ensure they wouldn’t be hindered on their way there. They got to their rooms and got them settled into bed.

“I’m glad that you two are well and safely back aboard … truly you two scared the be Jesus out of me … don’t ever to that again, please,” Cassie suddenly said.

“Sorry, Cassie. We had to do what we did or otherwise…”

“I know … Colonel, let me know if you need help keeping these two in line … there’s sixty-four more ladies wanting to help out. I’ll get out of your hair for right now and go tell the others about their status.”

“Cassie, never ever think that you’re in our hair … you’re part of our family and a vital member of Alpha,” Mac answered.

They watched Cassie leave and shut the hatch. There was an awkward silence in the room afterwards as no one could think about what to say.

“Mac, come here please.” Harm requested and watched her walk over to the bunk. “Sit down.” She complied without saying anything. “I’m sorry for scaring everyone and you about what Beth and I had to do. We did what we had to do …”

“Shush … I know that but we thought the blast had gotten you two and were gone. I still felt you here.” Mac indicated her heart. “But it was two hours and thirty-four minutes of not knowing anything, I… we…” Mac burst into tears, which got everyone started.

“Come here ninja-girl.” Harm pulled Mac down on the bunk as he hugged and kissed her until she moaned. “I see your learning new tricks from Kathy there.” Harm smiled.

“I think everyone needs a hug to reassure them that this is real,” Mac slyly said as she was coming down from the warm rush of emotions she had just felt.

“Only if everyone gives Beth a hug and kiss as well.” Harm teased as he thought they would balk at that idea. He was quickly surprised as Mac got up and went over to Beth’s bunk to give her what he had requested. Kate was the next one to hug/kiss him followed by Meg, Anna, Jen, and Kathy. Harm then tried getting up from the bunk to see how Beth was doing.

“Whoa! Where you think you going to?” Mac placed her palm in the middle of his chest preventing him from rising.

“I’ve got to see how Beth is doing … they wouldn’t let me see her with my own eyes to see that she’s ok … I know everyone has told me that she’s fine but…”

“Kathy and Meg, help this stubborn old man over to Beth’s bunk … if he doesn’t see for himself that she’s ok … he will never let us leave him alone.”

“Who says we’re going to leave them alone?” Jen asked.

“Good point but he’ll never get the proper rest or stop worrying about her until then.” Mac gave him one of those looks that said you shouldn’t be doing this.

They helped him over to Beth’s bunk. “Beth, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine physically – I guess. Not sure what will happen when I try to go to sleep … there’s so much more that I want out of life …”

“I understand … I feel the same way.” Harm solemnly answered.

“Can I give and get a kiss and hug from you?” Beth asked.

“Anytime, sis.” Harm answered as he leaned down to hug and kiss her. As soon as his lips touched hers, she wrapped her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss she was receiving from Harm. When he tried to withdraw, she opened her mouth and probed into his with her tongue. She felt a warm sensation building within her body as she intensified the kiss until this sensation exploded within her and it felt like it washed all her fears away. Everyone had looked away as they saw their kiss deepen until they heard her moan while still in the mist of the kiss.

“Kathy was right about your lips being a dangerous weapon to womanhood.” Beth looked over Harm’s shoulder to where Mac was standing. “Sis, I’m game with your idea if you still want to go through it.”

“Yes, I want to but…” Mac paused since she hadn’t talked to Harm about it and didn’t have a clue if he would agree with it or not and this wasn’t the time to bring it up to him yet.

“I’m in as well.” Kathy said as she carefully turned Mac around to face her. She, then, shocked everyone when she started kissing Mac with everything she had until they both moaned, which made them both weak-kneed and caused them to break apart as they slowly sat down on the deck. “Oh! My … that was interesting!”

Sometime during the night, everyone sneaked into Harm and Mac’s bunk.

********

During the next two days, Harm and Beth were only allowed out of their bunks to go to the head. Their roommates had agreed to allow the other member’s of the squadron to baby sit Harm and Beth in order to allow them to see that they were going to be just fine, which included Admiral and Gunny Ingles. Harm and Beth reported to the flight surgeon to get clearance to return to duty but he added another twenty-four hours to their forced recovery time and added a twenty-four hour period where they were allowed to wander around the ship under escort.

~~Ring Ring~~

“Rabb.”

“How are you doing handsome? Beth?”

“Just fine, CJ … we got banged up a little bit. We’ve been on quarters for the past three days and are required to have escorts today.”

“When are they going to release you two for duty?”

“If everything goes as expected today, we should be released tomorrow morning after seeing the flight surgeon.”

“You really had me worried about what happened to you.”

“Sorry … we were just doing what we had to do.”

“I know …”

“Don’t worry so much … we all will be coming home as soon as we finish up here … I promised. The new planes are working better than advertised.”

“Speaking of which … I talked to Claire earlier this morning … she sends her love to all of you and a message that there’s another batch waiting to be picked up. Tom knows and asked me to call you first with the information since he has made you the Navy’s point man for the Echoes … if you ‘all can spare the time to make a switch with one there, everyone here will be feel better.”

“Ok, I’ll ask the Admiral about it.”

“Ok sweets, I’ll tell Tom that I should hear back from you shortly about it … More importantly I wanted to see how Beth and you were … news here about what happen was too sketchy for me.”

“Sounds like Tom’s starting to be an important person in your life. Is he?”

“Maybe … since Mac took you off the market … a women does have needs that needs to be taken care of one way or another.”

“Ok … with that I’ll go wander around the ship. Talk to you soon.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Harm got dressed and stepped out of his quarters to see Gunny Ingles standing guard.

“Gunny, what are you doing here?”

“CPO Thompson and myself were given orders to provide escorts for Commander Hawkes and yourself. We made things fair and placed everyone’s name in a hat and then had the Colonel draw two names for the escorts. Chief and I were picked to our amazement, it’s what we wanted to do in the first place but followed your example when more than the required number volunteers for an assignment, sir.”

“I guess the Chief is with Skates then.”

“Yes, sir. She is.”

“Let’s go see your father about something before we stop by the hanger to check on our planes.”

Harm and Melissa walked to the bridge to locate the Admiral but he wasn’t there. Commander Russell informed them that the Admiral was in his day cabin.

~Knock~

“Enter.”

Harm opened the door. “Sir, you have a few minutes to talk?”

“Sure come on in and have a seat.” Tobias saw his daughter standing by the hatch. “Gunny, come in as well since you’re obviously the Captain’s escort.”

“Thank you, sir,” Melissa said to her father as she walking into the cabin and shut the door behind her.

“What do you want to talk about, Harm?”

“For some reason, I’ve been appointed the F-14 Echo manager as in deciding what squadrons will get them first. My contact says that there is another squadron ready for pickup and that the Chairman would like to see us get them here. I was asked to see if we could spare a squadron to send to Florida for swap out, sir.”

“If the Seahawk and America hadn’t arrived when they did, we couldn’t afford to send our only D-model squadron back but now, we have three additional squadrons. Which brings up another matter the CAG wanted your opinion on.”

“What was that, sir?”

“You do know that the Seahawk doesn’t have a CAG anymore, he wanted your opinion on Toy if he would be suited for that job.”

“Yes, sir. Ken’s a good stick and he held the Blackjacks together after the first knife fight with the North Koreans.”

“Good, I concur with your assessment of his abilities. Which squadron do you recommend that we send?”

“The Blackjacks, sir. When they return from Florida, they can recover about the Seahawk to bring her up to almost full strength. While he’s in Florida, he can get an update for me when to expect the next call. I would like to continue switching out our remaining squadrons to the Echoes.”

“Agreed. Inform the CAG of what you’re intentions are and to get the Blackjacks on the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, go get some exercise and stretch your muscles.”

“Aye. Aye. Sir.”

“Melissa?”

“Sir.”

“Make sure he doesn’t over do it … we need him in the air and not stuck here on the ship.”

“Will do, sir. If I let him over do, I’ll have a very angry Marine after me as well as numerous squids.”

“Very funny, squirt. Now, get out of here.”

19 September 2004
USS Patrick Henry
Somewhere in the Sea of Japan

“Attention on deck.”

“As you were.”

“The Army and Marine ground forces will start their ground offensive in three hours … the other squadrons will be flying as ground support for them while the Nightingales have been assigned to fly CAP. Questions? No, Let’s fly.”

Admiral Ingles allowed Captain Pike to bring the F/A-18 squadron they left in Hawaii back to the carrier since they had lost six to enemy fire. The North Korean air force had been cut down to forty percent of their former strength, the war was moving towards a ground operation.

“How’sit going back there, Beth?”

“Good. The squadron is up online and ready for action. Scope is clear right now … Sweets and Dino are keeping an eye on the LRHA radar screens.”

“Night 1, this is Raven 1. We’re feet dry.”

“Roger,Raven 1 … we’re 2 mike behind you … scopes clean.”

“Nights, this is 1 … proceed to assigned protection areas, now that we’re feet dry.”

The Nightingale squadron was dispersing to provide the maximum CAP they could supply due to the other planes would be heading for the barn once they had expended all their munitions on targets called by the ground forces. Each flight had two Vikings with them to add more time covering their areas, which was fifty miles apart. Alpha flight’s area was 250 miles from the coast when Beth’s radar screen started picking up enemy fighters.

“Harm, we got major company coming to visit us?”

“How many?”

“Looks like 240 different contacts … all MIG-21s and MIG-23s … bearing 352 at angles 22 … 300 miles.”

“Contact the others and have them buster over here.”

“Roger.”

While Beth talked to the squadron, Harm called Strike 1. “Strike 1, this is Night 1”

“Go ahead, Night 1.”

“We have major contacts 300 miles away … there might be a few that get through … so have your 120s ready for action.”

“Roger. I have my ‘cats get rid of their ground pounders first. Good hunting. Strike out.”

“Skates, have Woody and Bear engage at maximum ranges. Cece and Ace should have enough time to get here before we’ll launch.”

“Roger.”

“Snow geese, time for you to pull back to the coast.” Harm called over to the leader of the Vikings.

“Roger, Night 1.”

Minutes passed by as the North Koreans got closer to the action. As soon as Woody got within range, her flight selected their targets and passed that information onto the rest of the squadron. The attack computers aboard each plane updated its information as soon as it was received.

“Harm, Echo flight has fired its first wave … Delta is firing now … our targets are selected for the remaining flights.”

“Fox 3.” Harm called over the radio and twelve Phoenix missiles slide off their railings towards the incoming MIGs.”

“Beth, where are Echo and Delta?”

“They are five minutes away and above us.”

“Roger. Start selecting the next wave … we’re launch them all at the same time.”

Beth passed on the order and watched the 3^rd line on her screen starting to fill up.

“We’re ready. Eighty enemy planes hit and going down. Four minutes to launch.”

“Roger.”

“3 minutes … 2 minutes … 1 minute … launch.”

“Fox 2.” Harm calmly spoke over the radio. “All flights combat spread.”

“Harm, they’re disengaging.”

“Nights, do not attempt to re-engage the retreating MIGs … it maybe a trap.”

“Why do you think that Hammer?” Ace called over the radio.

“It’s a trick the Serbs and Iraqis pulled on us awhile back and they were Russian trained. We’re not sure who trained the North Koreans. So, I’m going with my gut feeling something is wrong with this picture. They still have a four-to-one ratio over us and they are disengaging.”

“Alpha 1, Dino just picked up twenty-four targets on the LRHA radar.” Natural called over the radio.

“Roger.”

“Strike 1 … we got more company and out of medium/long sticks … release your ‘cats.”

“Roger, ‘cats on the way … ETA 12 minutes.”

The last of Shrike 1’s Tomcats just released their Mk83s and gained altitude to join the Nightingale squadron.

“Harm, when are the boys in blue supposed to show up?” Skates asked to be sure.

Harm looked at his watch. “Twenty minutes ‘til they show to take-over our places … they only have a handful of Eagles remaining and needed us to clear the skies first.”

“Looks like the guys high don’t want to play … they’re just staying outside Phoenix missile range.”

“They must have picked up the ‘cats from Strike 1 coming to join us.” Harm suggested.

“They could have but it’s probably the forces that I just picked up to the south of us … IFF shows they are friendly … looks like forty-eight Eagles high and 120 Falcons low.” Skates reported.

“Roger. They could have picked up both.”

“Echo 1 and Delta 1 … head for the coast … our relief is here.”

“Roger.” Bear and Woody replied.

Beth kept her eyes on the radar screen … the North Koreans was still not coming within Phoenix missile range even if they still had them available to use. ‘Don’t they know we only carry four long range missiles?’ Soon the Strike 1 Tomcats joined up with them and waited to be relieved.

“Night 1, this is Pirate.”

“Go ahead, Pirate.”

“Sit rep before we relieve you.”

“There are forty-eight staying outside missile range … they tried pulling a Russian disengagement trick on us … we didn’t fall for it … one six zero destroyed.” Harm stated.

“Ok … you guys get all the fun … wished we carried what you do … good hand-off … we got your backs covered … we got the next three shifts on watch.”

“Roger. Break. Strike 1, Pirate has you top covered … they and your ‘cats will cover you until feet wet.”

“Copy, Night 1.” Tuna said on the radio.

“Nights, lets break for home.”

They were ninety miles from the coast when they picked up two flights of MIG-29s on their radar, which was probably from their air base in Õrang.

“Harm, we got eight MIG-29s closing in on us … vector 274 … angels 30 … closure rate 1300 … 200 miles.”

“Shoot.” Harm said as he started running numbers through his head. “Ace, we got bandits closing in a hurry … pour on the coal before they get within 75 miles. Alpha and Bravo will hang back some.”

“Alpha 1, this is 3 … we got a slight problem here … have a engine coolant problem with our port engine.”

“Roger. Take over Charlie flight. Break. Ace drop back into Alpha 3 slot.”

“Roger.”

Harm watched Cassie pull up to lead Charlie Flight and saw her trailing smoke. Charlie started to pull away from Alpha and Bravo as they turned towards the on rushing MIG-29s.

“Combat spread. Watch our for AA-10s”

“Roger.”

When the MIGs reached 74-mile point, they shot off one AA-10 each. All eight Nightingale started jamming the radar guided missiles and they all lost radar locks. It became a knife fight between the two groups. Unlike the previous five missions the Nightingales had flown over the North Korean soil, they heard ‘the call’ from one of own over radio.

“May Day … May Day … this is Charlie 1, we’ve been hit … we’re going down.”

“Can you make it to feet wet?”

“Maybe if you can get this guy off my six.”

“Hold on there, bro. I’m headed your way … your boggy is the only one left.”

“I’m trying to shake him but we’re too damaged to maneuver very well.”

“I’m on his six … break now.” Harm watched Sam put his plane into a starboard dive as he got a solid missile lock tone and squeezed the trigger. His sidewinder missile disappeared a few seconds later in the port engine of the MIG-29, which exploded.”

“Sam, your six is clear … try to gain some altitude … Break. Snow geese, this is Night 1.”

“Go ahead Night 1.”

“We’re sixty miles from feet wet … have a very sick bird … need Jolly Green and fuel ASAP.”

“Roger, Night 1. We’ve been listening to your transmissions … Jolly Green is thirty minutes out … four chicks inbound to you … Echo and Delta has re-armed and re-launched to provide cover for the group … their ETA is ten minutes after Jolly Green.”

They were at angels 28 and losing 900 feet per minute and would clear the coast at 1000 foot if nothing else went wrong with Sam’s plane. As they closed on the coast, Harm received more bad news.

“Harm, we cannot eject. Slick’s unconscious.”

“Get rid of all your remaining missiles … dump as much fuel as you can … land on the beach.”

“Roger. Dumping fuel and missiles,” Sam replied. “Here we go.”

“Don’t put your wheels down and jettison the canopy just before you touch down.”

Sam turned parallel to the coast and started his descent onto the narrow beach. The remaining Nights watched as they saw him jettison the canopy and saw him land tail first on the beach. His or her view was obstructed by the flying sand and water the plane come in contact with as it slid down the beach.

“We’re down … let me check on Abby.”

“Roger. Break. Jolly Green, this is Alpha 1 … ETA”

“Ten minutes out.”

“Someone call for a pit stop?” Cowboy’s voice came over the radio.

“Roger. Seven very thirsty ‘cats.”

“We’re at angels 15 … ETA 2 minutes … hoses deployed.”

“Bravo 1, go get some juice and head for the barn.”

“Roger.”

“Night 2. I’m going high to contact Home plate.”

Harm pulled into a vertical climb until they reached angels 70.

“Home plate, this is Night 1.” Home plate was the USS Guadalcanal’s CIC call sign.

“Go ahead. Night 1.”