The Overwatch team from the Imperial Secret Police had gathered at the rendezvous point near the gate leading into the city. They hide among the shadows of the forest, while waiting nervously for the planes to arrive to kick-start the whole operation. The members constantly checked their watches and fidgeted around with anticipation hanging in the air.
Riley glanced at his watch, seeing the seconds counted down away to 2300 hours. He peered up at the dark skies, waiting for the signal that would initiate the mission.
"Any time now boys."
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The bomber planes had been stripped of all onboard weapons and unnecessary crew, leaving only the pilot, co-pilot, and a navigator-radio operator.
The extra weight removed allowed it to carry more ordinance and fuel for the trip to the city and back as the travel time was roughly five minutes to the target and another five minutes back.
Hardpoints on the wings carried extra fuel tanks to give the planes more flight time and internally, they carried a mixture of napalm canisters and 250 kg high-explosive cast-iron bombs.
Each of the three bombers held six napalm canisters and twelve 250 kg bombs internally and each was assigned to a specific target that they had all been briefed and tasked on before beginning the mission.
The pilots all wore night vision goggles inside the cockpit and they easily saw the glow of the city as they approached from an altitude of 1,200 meters above ground level. The planes slowly dropped their attitude till they reached roughly 500 meters above ground level and the bomb bay doors cranked open, ready to unleash their deadly payload.
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"What is that?" Riley suddenly jerked up as sirens started blaring in the city. "Did they find us?"
"No..." his squad mate said as he peeked out of their hiding spot. "I... I think they spotted the bombers!"
Riley frowned. "Damn it!"
They could see dozens and dozens of rebel soldiers rushing out from the barracks and other dwellings as they ran to manned their defensive posts. Flares shot into the sky, casting a harsh, flickering light over the city.
The siren grew in intensity as more of the city became alert. In the illumination of the flares, Riley finally saw what had made him feel uneasy about all this time.
The covered up and tightly guarded weapons turned out to be some sort of anti-aircraft guns!
A rebel soldier climbed into the seat and pulled the gun mounts to rest against his shoulders. Two long, thick barrels pointed skyward as other rebels loaded thick boxes of shells into the gravity-fed bolt mechanism of the AA guns.
"Oh shit," one soldier of the Overwatch team cursed as they stood up from their hiding spot and stared at the closest AA gun on the roof of a building. The gun roared and spat bolts of yellowish beams towards the sky at some unseen target which the men knew must be their bombers!
"We need to take out those AA guns!" Riley shouted urgently. "Move out and engage!"
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One of the pilots frowned when suddenly he noticed his night vision appeared to be glowing brighter and brighter as he approached the city. He pulled his goggles up and cursed as he saw the city had flares over them and suddenly, what seemed to be streaks of light flickered towards his plane.
"Shit! We are under fire!" his co-pilot screamed as a couple of holes appeared in the hull next to him. "They've got anti-air guns!"
"Blue Viking Six to Omega Point! We are under AA fire! Repeat under heavy AA fire!" the pilot yelled into the radio as he pulled the bomber up. "FUCK!"
"We are in the bombing range!" his co-pilot yelled as he poked his eye on the bombsight, seeing the infra beacons blinking away on the ground beneath him. "What do we do?"
"Fuck!" the pilot cursed as the AA fire knocked him off course, "We line up again and complete the damn mission!" he barked, gritting his teeth and maneuvering the bomber back into position.
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"Give me more 20mm shells, you buffoons! Now!!"
A rebel soldier sat on the pedal seat of the anti-air gun and yelled at the rest of his crew who handled large metal blocks each containing 20 shells of 20mm ammunition to hurry up.
The support crew shoved the ammo stacks upside down into the feeding well of the dual cannons, and the rebel manning the weapon pulled the bolts back to load both cannons, aligning a crude wire sight made from two 'O's, and he stepped on the pedals to rotate the turret with the squeak of poorly oiled gears.
Resting the 'C'-shaped gun butts over his shoulders, he swung the guns upwards into the night sky that were illuminated by dozens of flares.
Suddenly one of his support crew yelled and pointed to the sky. A pale 't' shape could be roughly seen against the pitch black of the night as the aircraft had its belly lit up by the flares.
Distant roars of the other AA guns could be heard as they too, targeted the aircraft. Flicks of glowing darts of tracer fire arced into the night skies, chasing after it.
The rebel swung his guns towards the fast approaching aircraft as the night sky appeared to glow with hundreds of flares. With his arms stretched out under the 20mm cannons, he squeezed the trigger on the pistol grips and the whole gun roared deafening with the recoil hammered painfully against his shoulder.
"Take these Imperialists down!" the rebel roared as he held down the trigger, watching the huge muzzle flash spitting out from the cannon muzzles.
"DOWN TO THE IMPERIALS!!"
Just a short several seconds later, the bolts of the cannons locked back as the magazines ran dry and the support crew snatched away the emptied magazines and replaced them with fresh mags, allowing the rebel to continue blasting away into the night sky.
"Yeah! Get so-"
Bang!
Before the rebel could react, a bullet struck his head, sending him flying out of the AA gun and slammed into the ground along with the lifeless bodies of the support crew.
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"Break! Break! Break!" the pilot on one of the planes yelled into the squadron comms, "Break up and reform up for bombing run! It's going to be a hot run!"
The three bombers split their formation and broke away from each other as fiery bolts of tracers chased them. The tracers appeared to move so slowly from the ground before flickering past the bombers, which had climbed to higher altitudes.
"Shit, we can't do a low-level bombing run!" the pilot cursed as he left the dangerous airspace filled with flying lead. "Our accuracy will drop by a lot!"
"Just get me over the target, and I will do the rest!" his co-pilot bomber yelled. "You worry about keeping us afloat, I'll worry about the bombs!"
The three bombers, surprised by the presence of AA guns, had managed to escape the AA net over the city with a few torn holes in their fuselage.
This time, the bombers knew what the enemy had in store for them and they rose to an altitude of 750 meters above ground level before heading back into the fray.
With his eyes glued to the bomb-aiming device, the co-pilot of one of the bombing planes mentally calculated the distance and height and gauged the proper timing to release the bombs from experience gained from bombing the demons back in the New Year Tragedy.
He saw the pulsing glow of the beacon appearing on the bomb sights among all the flickers of tracers and flares. He adjusted the targeting crosshairs and said.
"Keep the plane level and speed constant! Bombing run lock in!"
"Got it!" the pilot replied as he calmed his nerves and kept the plane as level as possible while keeping his airspeed constant. He tried to avoid watching the glows of the tracers darting up towards his plane, knowing behind those tracers were more bullets following behind that were invisible to the eye.
The plane shook slightly as a few shells punched holes through the left wing, but the structure held.
"Shit!" the pilot cursed as he fought the controls to keep the plane stable. "Anytime now!"
"DROP! DROP! DROP!" his co-pilot suddenly yelled and flicked the bomb release switches.
Almost instantly, a rolling crank could be felt throughout the bomber as the bombs in the back dropped off in series. The bomber suddenly lightened, rising up as the pilot quickly applied power to the throttles and pulled the plane controls up, bringing them out of the danger zone.
His co-pilot pressed his face against the side windows and waited for the fiery mushrooms to appear in the city.
"Think we hit what we were supposed to hit?"
"Who knows?" the pilot growled. "Let the Imperial Secret Police sort them out. We delivered the package, and it's time to run! We've got our own problems to worry about."
He rapped the fuel pressure gauge of the left wing and said, "Those rebel bastards have damaged our fuel lines. Pray that we can make it home in one piece!"
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The MK II low drag general purpose bomb spun slowly on its axis as it left the bomb racks. It has a nominal weight of 250 kg but its actual weight with the fuse was closer to 257 kg. It arced beautifully with the rest of its brothers and sisters towards the ground, and just before it touched the ground, its extended-nose fuze slammed the fire runes together as it touched the ground first and ignited the 122kg of high explosive filling moments before the bomb touched the ground.
Instantly the building which the bomb impacted against vapourised from the blast for the sudden explosion. The concrete, wood and stone disintegrated, barely able to withstand even a split second of the force of the explosion.
Barely seconds later, the rest of the eleven Mk II GP bombs rained down in a vertical spread barely two hundred meters apart and everything in their path was turned to fire and ash instantly.
The six napalm canisters spun wildly as they descended, their high-drag design causing them to wobble from the shockwaves of the exploding Mk II bombs before hitting the ground seconds after the initial explosions faded.
The thin-cased canisters smashed apart and spewed a thick reddish liquid across the area before a fire rune ignited and set the whole mixture into flames, transforming the surrounding terrain into an inferno.
This catastrophic sequence repeated itself over two other locations, turning the city into a sea of fire.