Airstrike!


"Red leader, red leader this is base. Turn to course three one zero and proceed to target"

Sergeant Devlin keyed his mike twice to confirm the message before banking the Blood Angel landspeeder to port. His wingmen red six and seven followed suit, maintaining formation behind their leader.

The three ship combat air patrol settled onto the new heading. They flew at tree top height, following the terrain to avoid detection and enemy fire. Each ship mounted an assault cannon on the gunner's station, and a multi-melta under the nose.

The patrol was searching for a scout bike squad that had lost radio contact an hour earlier. The recon unit had been looking for the advance guard of the ork invasion force. The greenskins were keeping to the jungles in an effort to avoid a direct confrontation with the Blood Angel force - a confrontation that would result in their defeat by the superior marine army.

Devlin scanned his instruments. The artificial horizon swayed in time with the speeder as it rose and fell over the jungle canopy. He glanced across at his gunner, brother Lerad, the assault cannon he manned looking like an extension of his arms. Devlin and Lerad had flown together for over a decade, and their polished teamwork and intimate understanding of the landspeeder's capabilities made them a natural choice for wingleader.

The sergeant returned his eyes to the scene in front. The green sea stretched out to the horizon in every direction, broken here and there by grassy clearings. The orks had arrived after their space hulk fell out of the warp and into the planets gravity field. Unfortunately for the greenskins, not only was the planet uninhabited, but it was positioned close to a Blood Angel garrison world. After months of boredom the warlike aliens now had more opportunity for battle than they could manage.

"Red leader this is six" The transmission burst into Devlin's headset "Smoke sighted bearing two three three"

Devlin looked past his wingman in the direction indicated. A thin finger of smoke rose from a clearing several kilometres away.

"This is red leader, turn on that mark and scan for targets. Attack formation, watch for ground fire." Devlin's training and experience clicked on like a switch as he gave the commands. The three ship stick fanned out into a loose arrow head formation. He keyed his mike on the command frequency.

"Base, base, this is Red Leader. Smoke sighted at loc 23456741. We are investigating. Request radio sweep of this area."

The Blood Angel command base situated at the rear of the operational area came back almost immediately.
"Red leader, this is base. Radio sweep initiated. Patching to your net now"

The powerful scanners of the marine command centre locked on to the area, searching for friendly transmissions and feeding them into the patrol's headsets. A burst of static was replaced by an excited voice.

"Mayday, mayday this is recon three. Enemy contact. Two bikes down. Enemy force of four light vehicles and infantry plus unknown ordinance unit 250 meters north of my position. Radio being jammed. Request immediate support. Mayday, mayday"

The transmission began to repeat as the stranded marine tried to break through the ork jamming. A constant roar of small arms fire could be heard in the background.

"Recon three this is red wing. We have you on scanner" Devlin transmitted "Four targets identified and locked. Keep your head down three, we are rolling in hot"

The speeders weapons systems picked up the ork vehicles in the clearing and designated a target to each of the patrol's ships. Devlin took two for himself. He keyed his mike.
"Red Wing this is red leader, increase to battle speed. One run over the target and then break left and re-form for a second run. The vehicles are the priority."

The whine of the speeders engines rose in pitch as the ship accelerated towards the distant clearing. The jungle would hide the patrol's approach until they cleared the edge of the jungle, hopefully catching the orks by surprise.

"Time to target 15 seconds. Fourteen. Thirteen." Lerad counted down as the patrol skimmed across the trees. Devlin watched the scanner and listened to the shouts of the scout patrol as the orks closed in. His hands were steady on the controls as the ship hurtled mere inches above the jungle. This was his birthright, his very reason for being. To fight for the Emperor and the glory of his chapter. Under his helmet, Devlin smiled.

At five seconds to target Devlin gave the command. "Weapons free redwing - let the wrath of the Emperor cleanse the ork filth from this world!"

Moments later the three landspeeders burst over the edge of the clearing and into the battle.

Devlin's enhanced vision took in the scene before him instantly. Directly below their ships two scout bikes had been overturned to form a barricade. Behind the bikes two scouts knelt, firing their bolters to the front. The upturned faces of the scouts looked upward at their saviours. To the front a third bike lay smoking at the edge of a crater, it's rider laying brokenly some distance away. Less than two hundred meters in front of that, the orks came. Two wartracks and two ork transport vehicles lurched forward, firing wildly. Ork troops charged alongside the vehicles. The ork driving the lead vehicle was looking straight at Devlin, its fang filled maw an O of surprise.

"Engage!" Devlin roared as he thumbed the firing button on his joystick. The air in front of the speeder turned opaque as the multi-melta fired it's superheated ray. The lead wartrack disappeared in a fiery blast, pieces of burning wreckage setting several ork warriors on fire.

The thumping roar of Lerad's assault canon vibrated through the airframe as the weapon blasted heavy calibre shells out at a massive rate. Devlin watched as his gunner walked his rounds along the ground and into the side of an ork trukk. Sods of flying earth were replaced by pieces of torn metal and green flesh as the vehicle and its occupants were ripped apart.

Red six and seven demolished the other two vehicles as they swept along the clearing, weapons blazing. Their gunners mowed down ork troops as they tried to flee the carnage amidst burning and exploding vehicles. Spent shell casings rattled as they bounced off the speeder's hull before being whipped away by the slipstream.

Devlin pulled back on the stick and rolled his ship away to the side for another staffing run. The clearing was littered with burning wreckage and dead orks. Billowing smoke drifted across the trees. The two rear ships were following Devlin's lead when a stream of tracer stabbed out of the smoke.

"Ground fire ground fire!" Devlin shouted as he jinked wildly. Lerad fired a burst at the unseen gunner as the ship lurched violently. Behind, red six and seven began to take evasive manoeuvres. A second line of glowing shells snaked out of the smoke. Devlin watched the deceptively slow shells drift upwards before hurtling past at terrifying speed.

"Where's that fire coming from!?" Devlin shouted "Not seen, not seen!" Lerad called as he frantically scanned for the source of the tracer. The smoke filled clearing obscured the enemy gunner.

"Red six, I'm taking hits, I'm taking hits!" Devlin turned his head to look behind as the shouts of his wingman filled his helmet. Red six seemed to stagger as the tracer stitched along the side of his fuselage, before exploding the port engine.

"This is red six, I'm going down, mayday mayday" Devlin and Lerad watched helplessly as red six struggled with the controls. The stricken ship clipped a low rise and ploughed into the earth, it's crew being thrown violently against their restraints.

"Base, base, this is red leader, red six is down. Request urgent extraction" Devlin transmitted. Below him red six was enveloped in a cloud of dust and smoke from the impact.

"Negative Red leader, friendly units en route already. Maintain combat air cover and remove any heavy armour"

The remaining two ships banked again for a second run. "Brother sergeant, I have movement at the crash site" Lerad transmitted. Devlin looked to the crashed speeder in time to see the crew struggle from the wreckage and make their way toward the scouts. Moments later an enormous explosion tore the downed speeder apart.

"By the Emperor what was that!?" Red seven called.

"That was no secondary explosion - scan that smoke" Devlin ordered.

As if on cue, the smoke in the clearing parted to reveal a huge squat shape. Tracer burst from the coaxial heavy bolter as the gobsmasha fired again at the patrol.
"Base this red leader, ork heavy armour sighted. Commencing attack run" Devlin called as he threw his ship around the sky in an effort to avoid the hail of ork fire. Lerad was forced to brace his weapon as the violent manoeuvring made firing impossible.

The speeders roared across the clearing again as the ork tank began to bear down on the beleaguered scouts and red six. Devlin watched as the battle cannon began to track towards his men. They would not get within melta range before the orks fired, and the hastily constructed barricade of bikes would not withstand a direct hit from the gobsmasha.

Glowing balls of tracer whipped past Devlin and red seven as they raced toward the black tank. Both ships jinked wildly as heavy bolter shells spewed from the gobsmasha.

"There's no future in this!" Devlin shouted as part of his ship's sensor array was sliced off by enemy fire. The gobsmasha almost had a bead on the bikes. He keyed his mike.

"Red seven this is red leader - GIVE THOSE GREENSKINS THE GOOD NEWS!"

"Wilco red leader - red seven FOX ONE!" Red seven rose slightly as the hunter killer missile leapt from its under-wing mount. The weapons rocket motor fired as it accelerated away from the speeder. The gobsmasha came to a halt as it drew a bead on the scout bikes. The huge main gun traversed slightly as it made final targeting adjustments.

The hunter killer flashed across the clearing at near supersonic speed. At the last moment it popped up before performing a half roll and knifing downwards through the thin top armour of the ork tank.

Time seemed to stop. The scouts and the crew of red six stared down the gaping barrel of the tank. Red leader and red seven hung above the grass, blurred streaks of tracer flashing between their ships. The gobsmasha sat like a huge black beetle under the burning afternoon sun.

Then, with a deafening roar, the ork tank exploded. Hatch covers were blown high into the air, and flame jetted from every opening on the vehicle. A huge fireball rose from the wreckage as the ammunition cooked off.

Devlin banked slightly as he passed over the burning gobsmasha. Below, the scout sergeant gave him the thumbs up.

"Red leader this is ironhand one. We are approaching your position. Status report over." The transmission crackled in Devlin's ear.

Devlin looked to the jungle. The reinforcements had arrived. The day belonged to the Blood Angles.

"Ironhand one this is Red Leader. All enemy armour neutralised. Scattered infantry retreating into the jungle to the south. Red Wing is on station over"

Two clicks in his earpiece confirmed receipt of the transmission. Devlin lifted the speeder to patrol height and began lazy circuit over the clearing as he scanned for any further enemy activity. Red seven took up station on his wing, it's gunner sweeping the tree line for targets.

"They can run, but they cannot hide. We have them now brother sergeant." Lerad transmitted as he patted the assault cannon.

"Yes, it would seem so. A good days hunting I think." Red Leader looked over the side of the speeder and across the jungle canopy at the setting sun, as the first red-armoured figures began to emerge from the jungle below.


End



By Gordon Armstrong 1999