#003 | Rogue Nation
Staff Sergeant Wiley Nicholson blinked his eyes awake and looked at the clock next to his bunk. 0400. He was up early this morning to pilot the United States Air Force’s newest toy, the F35 Lightning II, the most expensive weapons system in history. After years of delays, and hundreds of billions of dollars over budget, the planes were finally declared “operationally capable.”
Wiley met his two Senior Airmen, Allison Shields, and Max DeSantaro, in the mess hall to get some food before they headed out on their training flight. At flight school, Shields had demonstrated a gritty and tenacious attitude, determined to make a name for herself and come out from under the shadow and legacy of her father, Rear Admiral Jonathan Shields. Her willingness to never give up, even against bigger and stronger opponents had landed her the callsign, “Badger,” after the animal, the honey badger. DeSantaro had a bit of a different upbringing. Born and raised in a poor Texas town, Max’s father flew crop duster planes and raised Max to be one tough son-of-a-bitch. Despite his rough exterior, Max had an innate fear of bees, and got stung one day while at basic training. He was immediately bestowed with the callsign, “Stinger.”
For Wiley, both of his parents died when he was very young, and he spent his youth living around the country with various aunts and uncles. His uncle Dennis Nicholson always watched old war movies with Wiley, and with that, came the desire to one day be a pilot. Wiley graduated at the top of his class, and was well-liked for his kindness and steadfast loyalty to his comrades. Shields and DeSantaro were family to him. Always on the move talking from one person to another earned him the callsign, “Hopper.”
Nicholson and company were stationed aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Bay of Bengal. In March 2026, the rogue nation of Trankovia, backed by Serbian nationalists, declared war on the United States. This marked the first official declaration of war since the Sinai Insurgency, when Egypt declared war on the Islamic State. The only nation to militarily aid the United States was England. In the flotilla was the USS Abraham Lincoln, one zumwalt class destroyer, two Virginia class submarines, and four other destroyers lead by the USS Arleigh Burke. Both submarines were twenty miles away from the flotilla, which formed a wide arc of surveillance. They were monitoring four Trankovian destroyers and one Serbian aircraft carrier that were 100 miles northwest of the Lincoln’s position.
Nicholson, Shields, and DeSantaro headed up on deck and jumped in their respective fighters. They were not given a strict mission for the day, other than to stealthily survey the area near the Trankovian flotilla. It was not intended as an act of aggression, but in the event the already volatile situation escalated, all guns were trained in the enemy’s direction.
The fighters took off and headed towards their target. About 2 minutes into the flight, Shields looked out his cockpit at the ocean. She spied what appeared to be a shimmer of a submarine just below the surface, with the nose aimed towards the flotilla.
“Hopper, take a look out your port side window, 10 o’clock. You see that shimmer? I thought our submarines were further out than this. Over.” Shields said.
“I copy, Badger. Over.” Wiley responded. “Bridge, this is Hopper. I see what appears to be a submarine 2 miles northwest of your heading. Over.”
“Negative, Hopper, we see nothing on our radar. Over,” the bridge responded.
“Bridge, this is Stinger. I don’t know what your radar is showing, but there is something down there. Over.”
The lookout on the bridge raised his binoculars out the port side of the ship and scanned the ocean. He turned to the radioman and shook his head. The Officer of the Deck stepped to the radio and took the receiver. He thought it could have been a glare from the sun, and was about to issue an order to continue on their instructed heading towards the Trankovian ships.
All of a sudden a transmission rang out from Hopper. “TORPEDOS IN THE WATER.” Two distinct torpedo trails exited the submarine and headed straight for the zumwalt class destroyer. Alarm bells rang out on the destroyer, and the ship turned to the port side. If they couldn’t avoid the torpedos entirely, they could try and avoid a direct broadside hit from the torpedos. It would be for naught, as the two torpedos slammed into the side of the destroyer, which opened a gaping hole on the port side of the ship and flooded multiple compartments.
Badger frantically called out, “I have five bogeys inbound on our location.” In the chaos, Trankovia had launched five fighters from their aircraft carrier, and they were headed directly towards the F35s. They broke formation and engaged the Trankovian fighters, which were Russian MiG-29s.
Badger immediately circled around and dropped altitude. She wanted to come on to the MiGs from below. Allison engaged the GAU-22/A Equalizer cannon and fired a volley at the trailing jet, which ripped a series of holes through the port side wing. The enemy fighter barreled towards the ocean. One down.
Down on the water, one of the English destroyers, the HMS Ricard, prepared to launch a Tomahawk cruise missile towards the Trankovian flotilla, when a third torpedo rocked into the starboard side of the ship. The first Trankovian sub approached from their port side, which meant there was a second undetectable boat, this one a Serbian sub. In addition to blowing a hole wide open in the starboard aft side of the ship, that torpedo disabled the ship’s vertical launching system, which rendered half the the missiles onboard inoperable.
Back in the sky, Stinger was being tailed by two MiGs, and tried every trick in the book in order to try and shake them. All of a sudden Stinger’s radar flared up with two R-27 heatseeker missiles headed straight for him. After several attempts to lose the missiles’ tracking, Stinger performed a textbook, picture-perfect Immelmann turn and changed course 180 degrees. The two missiles lost their tracking, and Stinger engaged the afterburners back towards the fray.
Hopper hailed Stinger on the radio. “Stinger, I need you to fly directly towards me, and bank hard right when I say so. Do NOT turn until I say so. Over.” Stinger had no idea what Hopper had planned, but he had never failed before.
“Good copy, Hop. Over.” The distance between the two Americans was closing, and fast as the F35s rocketed towards each other. When it appeared they were about to crash, Hopper yelled out, “Now!” and both the pilots banked to the right. The two MiGs behind them were unable to react, and crashed into each other in a fiery blaze. Three down.
Badger handled herself marvelously and she had the enemy fighter in her sights. She locked on to the jet and fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, which reduced the MiG to dust. Four down. She regrouped with her two wingmen, in an effort to overwhelm the final Mig.
Trankovia had ordered the final fighter to return to their flotilla. However, the F35s were not about to let the final MiG get away, and they were in hot pursuit. They quickly closed the distance, but out of nowhere, the MiG miraculously pulled off a Pugachev’s Cobra, an incredibly complex and acrobatic maneuver. The Americans now found themselves directly in front of the enemy jet. The pilot did not hesitate, and unleashed a burst from the 30 mm cannon into the tail of Stinger’s jet. Hopper and Badger immediately peeled off in opposite directions.
Stinger still had some control of the jet, but was now in dangerous range of the Trankovian destroyers. The enemy ships fired a volley from their anti-air gun towards the F35. The round hit the starboard wing of Stinger’s jet. He spiraled out of control and crashed into the ocean. The calls of, “MAYDAY, MAYDAY MAYDAY,” were haunting noises in the ears of Max, Allison, and the bridge back on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Wiley and Allison were silent, but were able to successfully circle around and re-engage the MiG. A burst from Wiley’s equalizer cannon put the MiG in the ocean.
Miles away, both American Virginia-class subs were heavily engaged with the Trankovian subs. It had been revealed the Serbs had developed stealth technology that rendered the submarine completely invisible to all forms of radar detection if traveling below a certain speed, which is how they were able to make it to within striking distance of the flotilla.
The zumwalt destroyer was almost completely sunk, and the HMS Ricard listed heavily to starboard, the power of the Trankovian torpedos on full display. Lifeboats were deployed and crew members were safely evacuated to the Abraham Lincoln.
The USS Arleigh Burke radioed Wiley. “Hopper, this is Captain Richard Johannson, do you read? Over.”
“Yessir, I read you. Over.”
“Hopper we have intel that three of those Trankovian destroyers are equipped with missile defense technology. We have enough firepower strong enough to blow those bastards to kingdom come, but with their defenses engaged, our missiles will be shot down before they hit their target. We need you to take out those defenses. We’ve dispatched five F22 Raptors to your position to provide added firepower. Take out those defenses, and we’ll throw the entire weight of the United States Navy at them. For Stinger. Over.”
“Understood sir. Out.”
Immediately after receiving the orders, the F22s appeared on Hopper and Badger’s six, guns hot.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, you know our orders. We take out those defenses, our ships can take out their destroyers. Hit them hard and fast, and do not let up,” Hopper told his wingmen. “Badger and Frosty, you two are with me, we’ll circle around and hit them from the port side of the flotilla. Rookie, Apollo, Sub Zero, and Dutch, you four take them from the starboard. Keep enough spacing, get the job done.”
“Yessir,” a string of calls echoed back.
Hopper lead his crew around and peppered the deck of the first Trankovian destroyer with machine gun fire, which scattered soldiers who were out in the open. Badger followed up Hopper’s barrage with a sidewinder missile that obliterated the first defense. Rookie and Sub Zero attacked the other destroyer in two waves. The first wave rained the equalizer cannon directly down on the bridge of the second destroyer, while Apollo and Dutch each sent a homing missile at the defense. Only one left.
The anti-aircraft guns threw everything they had at the American fighters, but hit nothing but air. On the next fly-by, Hopper blew an AA gun to smithereens, while Badger shot up the aircraft carrier’s radio tower. Onboard, the Trankovian command was at each other’s throats as to how they should take down the Americans. The distraction was all Rookie and Sub Zero needed, as each sent a sidewinder missile at the defenseless and empty MiGs onboard the aircraft carrier. Hopper, Badger, and Frosty circled around for one final run at the remaining defense.
With Stinger’s death still fresh in his mind, Hopper looked out at the port side window at Badger, who said nothing, but nodded back at her commanding officer. “Let’s blow this sucker and go home,” Wiley finally said. They each dropped a 2,000 pound MK-84 JDAM missile at the deck of the final destroyer, blowing up the final defense system. At same exact time, there were two explosions in the water about 5 miles back towards the American flotilla. A call came over the radio that the American submarines had blown up the Trankovian subs.
“Arleigh Burke, this is Hopper. Their defenses are down. Over,’” Hopper radioed back to the lead destroyer.
“Solid copy, Hopper. We are about to rain down hell on those boys, get out of there.” The American fighters hit supersonic speed back towards their allies, and away from the enemy flotilla.
Both Virginia-class submarines surfaced and fired an MK-48 torpedo. The Arleigh Burke and remaining destroyers unleashed their Harpoon missiles. The Trankovian destroyers and Serbian aircraft carrier were obliterated by the combined power of the U.S. and Royal Navy.
While Trankovia lost a tremendous number of resources, the U.S. did not escape unscathed. None more than the unit lead by Wiley Nicholson. The battle was won, but there would be many more to come.
