| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <shadowtk@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | A Grim Debrief |
| Date: | Wed, 27 Aug 1997 01:07:30 +0100 |
>>>>>[TO: SIGANet Archive
Still no sign of Beamish or Baker. Still no sightings of the Ghost. Just
more Lurker wreckage.
+++++begin video
The mood in the briefing room is sombre. Two chairs sit empty.
"I'll summarise." Luttwidge says shortly. "The whole unit was flying
south. McGee and Luzzi were the intercept team, at angels fifteen.
Romulus was twelve miles back, and a thousand feet higher. Psychopath
and Talley were two miles behind the interceptors, a thousand feet below
and ten miles ahead of Romulus. Pinkett and Arashi were at two thousand
feet and directly below the interceptors. Bellman was level with Psycho
and Talley, but displaced east."
The Colonel draws breath. "Bellman. When Dark Shroud shut down, you were
behind Romulus. How?"
Bellman offers an easy smile. "I turned in when Romulus reported a
contact, headed in to check it."
"You must have been really moving." Pinkett says sharply. "You were
level with us and five miles east, and you were there so much earlier?"
"I figured something like this might happen. So I dropped back a little.
I was maybe five miles behind you." Bellman folds his hands behind his
head.
"Five? Ten? Fifteen? Where the hell were you, Bellman? Did you actually
know?" Arashi snaps.
"The point is, Bellman positioned himself correctly for the situation."
Luttwidge cuts off the debate. "Meanwhile, Psychopath and Talley turn to
assist Romulus, beginning on the second call. Correct?"
Lynch nods, as does Talley. The mercenary looks calm, the CAS pilot
exhausted and ill.
"Talley made a horizontal turn, descending to thirteen thousand in the
process: hoping, I imagine, for an infrared lockup of the Ghost against
the cold sky. The jamming ceased: did you see anything? You were facing
the right way."
"No." Talley's voice is firm. "I was heads-down checking IRIS and my
warning gear. I didn't see light shine in, but I was flying through the
cloud tops. Maybe that's why."
"Mr Lynch, you threw an Immelmann, to try and pincer the Ghost between
you and Talley. Coming over the top at eighteen thousand, you saw a
flash of light from the north. Any extra data?"
Lynch shakes his head. "No, I just saw the reflected light on the canopy
frame as I rolled level. I held the roll until I was inverted again, but
there was nothing there to see."
"I figure it for the Lurker." Luttwidge says with finality. "Blew apart
in one big explosion. Bellman, did you see it?"
"No. The jamming died before I cleared the clouds. I was just turning in
trail onto their position, a few miles back. Saw what had to be the
Ghost, got a weak tone, fired. Long shot, but I didn't want the son-of-
a-bitch to get away clean."
"And then Arashi pulls that damn fool, not to mention futile stunt."
Luttwidge turns and gives the Ares pilot a piercing look. "Just what
were you thinking when you ditched your wingman and pulled that burn
they probably saw all the way to Miami?"
"I wasn't thinking, sir," she responds flatly. Luttwidge manages a
harumph before she continues. "I know Lynch, uhm...Psychopath, well
enough that, if he has to swear on an open channel, then I know
something is seriously wrong. I reacted instinctively, which is to say,
get to Romulus as soon as I could. I'm sorry I had to leave Pinkett, but
he's flying a MiG-57, and I didn't have much choice. I'll probably catch
hell from my superiors for not keeping the Valkyrie stealthy, but unlike
them, I happen to value the lives of those airmen more than a little
secrecy. My only regret is that I didn't react when they first called
bogey. They might still be alive if I did." Arashi lowers her chin into
her hand and looks distantly distracted.
"Maybe." Luttwidge's tone is mildly accusatory. Returning his attention
to the other pilots, he continues. "The Ghost was close enough to
register on Romulus' rear-looking IR. Probably a missile: a heatseeker,
or a home-on-jam weapon. It couldn't be gunfire: too slow, there would
have been a warning cry and it would be very difficult to destroy the
Lurker so totally and quickly with guns. A missile shot puts him two
miles behind and a thousand or two feet below." Luttwidge begins to
pace. "Which is right where Bellman and Talley saw him. Major Talley?"
Talley seems startled to be called on, but after a moment continues the
tale. "I had IRIS on the HUD. I cleared the cloud, and saw an aircraft
dead ahead and on my flight level. It was right where the Ghost would
be, if Romulus's call was correct."
"Did you get any detail on the aircraft?" Wizer asks intently.
"No. IRIS doesn't have the resolution and LoLite was crapping out. I
just saw the aircraft and the smudges of its decoys. I figured it fired
decoys either because it saw me and wanted to pre-empt my attack, or it
was trying to deal with Bellman's missile from astern. If I passed it
I'd lose it, a stealth aircraft in cloud at night: so I went for the gun
shot head-on."
"And that's where you fouled up," Luttwidge interjects.
Talley looks like he's been stabbed in the heart: his face shows stark
terror.
"You didn't have your cameras running when you fired. Otherwise we'd
have footage of the Ghost." Luttwidge continues.
The CAS pilot almost collapses with relief at that.
"But you weren't given the time to think, and you concentrated on going
after an enemy aircraft that had killed one of ours. You reacted
correctly, you did it right. Just like the Austin incident."
Talley should be glowing with pride, if Bellman is a guide to pilot
etiquette: instead he's shrinking into his chair as the Colonel goes on.
"Talley fired fifty-three rounds of thirty-millimetre AP and HE, two
seconds' worth of fire. Even if every one missed, that's got to be one
scared Ghost. Before you broke clear, did you see any evidence of a
hit?" The pilot shakes his head and Luttwidge looks disappointed. "Pity.
Bellman, did you see anything?"
"Nope. I was turning into the engagement, trying to get visual contact
on the Ghost. All I had was a fuzzy LoLite picture of a tailpipe glare
and the decoys, the clouds and the flares was giving it trouble. IRIS
was completely useless. I didn't see Talley Boy, but he was turning wide
by then."
Wizer interjects. "When we've finished analysing the AWACS plots, we'll
have a clearer picture of what happened."
"It should fit." The Colonel resumes. "The Ghost knows he's killed
Romulus, couldn't miss the explosion. And with the jamming gone, he can
see McGee and Luzzi by secondary illumination. Probably Lynch coming
over the top towards him, and definitely Talley right in front. He
throws decoys and dives for cloud, through Talley's gun attack. By then
he's got a heatseeker on his tail from Bellman too. What range did you
fire from, Major?"
"Maybe two miles. I had a weak lock, no better solution. Figured it was
worth a try." Bellman shrugs. "No radar, no clear imaging. Hard to be
sure. I hit cloud a few seconds after I fired and lost contact
completely."
"We have to figure you missed. Poor lock, uncertain range, and a lot of
decoys out. Plus a target aware it's under attack. Which means, people,
that the Black Ghost has gotten away clean with killing Todd Beamish and
Jake Baker. There's no reason for them to do that, except they're Aztlan
with a secret to protect and we threaten that. Now we know they'll kill
to defend it. Eleanor, any word on survivors?"
"No." Wizer says softly. "No beacons, no rafts, no sign of the crew."
"Very well. Any questions?" Luttwidge surveys the room.
"One." Lilith holds his eyes. "Where do we go from here?"
Luttwidge takes a deep breath. "We keep looking. We go back to Quiet
Sky, because it's all we have for now, and we find the Ghost. We get him
filmed, taped, analysed and checked. Then we blow the god-damned son of
a bitch clean out of the sky."
+++++end video
Like I said: this could escalate a long way in a short time. ]<<<<<
-- 1Lt J R W Lynch <07:26:13/08-27-58>
Strategic Intelligence Gathering Agency
*****INTERNAL: SIGANet
>>>>>[TO: 1Lt J R W Lynch, 1Lt L R W Lynch
At the risk of mouthing platitudes, hold your position, keep reporting
and try to keep the CAS hotshots from starting the next war.
This does not fit expected Aztlan behaviour, which may mean much or
little. Even if you can't find out what's going on, get all the
information you can for the postmortem.]<<<<<
-- D J H Coppinger <07:53:47/08-27-58>
Director
Strategic Intelligence Gathering Agency
*****INTERNAL: SIGANet
>>>>>[To: D J H Coppinger, Director
Yes, sir.
I agree, it makes no sense for Aztlan to do this on the evidence. We're
carefully exploring some avenues, but Colonel Luttwidge has already made
up his mind.
And I can think of some reasons why the Aztlanis might have downed the
Lurker... none of them good.
We'll stay with it. At least Lilith's MiG is airworthy again as of this
morning.]<<<<<
-- 1Lt J R W Lynch <08:01:25/08-27-58>
Strategic Intelligence Gathering Agency
