Date 02/29/2120.
The night was clear and, one would think, cold. At some point, Major Somerset noticed that the picture of the starry sky was supplemented by two rather bright stars hanging next to each other in the south. The bright dots slowly moved toward the horizon and came closer.
"Anti-missiles again," he said and glanced at the screen with the interlink.
Due to the small scale of the map, the shooting from some distant terminal did not come into view.
This was already the second launch on this night, the fourth since the start of the local confrontation. The first was also not a single one - it took three anti-missiles.
At that moment, a red beam struck the sky from beyond the horizon. It was obviously directed in the direction where the anti-missiles were rushing, to the south, but visually it looked like it was going up.
In its upper part the beam somehow indistinctly broke off and it was obvious why - there, in the airless space it was invisible - only in the air it had something to illuminate and due to this it could show off for many tens of kilometers. The beam illuminated and sometimes even exploded the air itself, so that the observer saw only secondary scattered radiation.
Meanwhile, the man-made stars went out one after another - the fuel in the booster stages burned out.
The second pilot tore himself away from one of his screens, looked into the darkness ahead and again delved into reading - now, on these and the previous days, they began to send a text summary of the theater of military operations every hour.
Despite all the information content of the interlink, the summary gave a much more understandable overview. Thus, the "Crusaders" - the raiders who played a decisive role in the start of this local Military Process were knocked out by seventy percent.
On the first and second day, Somerset observed their desperate raids visually. From the second day of localization, the Military Process in this quickly formed theater of military operations was built around two enemy arsenals. More precisely, it was already three - one, having fired and bombed, went away, somewhere into the inner space of the Asian Bloc, from where another was already flying to replace it, hanging over the South China Sea.
Suddenly, right on course, there was a flare and immediately a barely noticeable light line stretched upward. There, fifty kilometers away, was the terminal. One launch was followed by two more.
Very quickly, the exhaust tracks melted into the darkness of the night sky, and the missiles turned into bright lights - they also went south. This launch was already in the field of view of the map and the layers superimposed on it.
- @enemy escalated for the umpteenth time, - said the second pilot. - I agree, it's high time to kick their asses for real, - Somerset answered, - Otherwise, we've been hanging around here doing nothing for a long time, it's already starting to irritate us.
In the sky, in the direction where the first two anti-missiles went, a flare began to flare up. A miniature man-made sun shone for about ten seconds, only slightly managing to highlight the contours of the winter cumulus clouds hanging low above the horizon, probably a hundred kilometers from the place where the B-1001 was currently flying. There were many hundreds of kilometers before the flash itself.
It was difficult to say for sure whether it was a selective detonation or a nuclear anti-missile.
In general, after the second launch of three missiles, two lasers were immediately activated. This inclined to the conclusion that it was an interception, that is, the nuclear version of these GBA sys.520 or sys.580 was used.
Somerset had no time to think - he had changed course once again, heading west - the route and waypoints were constantly changing. And now the flow of tactical data inclined some headquarters computer to decide to adjust the route.
Local time was three thirty - Somerset's watch was just beginning. Once again he imagined how the mission would end, end with a landing somewhere in Europe or even home, on his American continent. And then, either way, he would get drunk in some bar. But that would be later, and now it was the darkness of night and the occasional lights.
Although his shifts also included the beginning of the day, Somerset described such polar missions to himself as "flying from night to night".
There were certain advantages to this - for some reason time flew by unnoticed. This was pleasing - valuable flight hours were being wound up. The realization that in a few days the mission would be over was inspiring. After all, someone had lived here, in this asshole, all their lives. Although they might not have lived in the "from night to night" mode.
As always, the signal from the communications node was unexpectedly heard. The small display turned black and yellow - these were the colors of the introductory text inscription indicating the arrival of a message. The previously blocked voice communication channel immediately came to life and the cabin was filled with an indifferent female voice. This was not a computer, but a person.
The waypoint displayed on the central display blinked, changed its letter designation and moved to the right, plotting a course to the south-southeast. Somerset glanced at the navigation mark, and then began to look at it more closely - at first glance he did not believe it at once.
Finally, the plane was ordered to gain altitude, rising to a level of fifteen thousand feet above sea level.
Judging by the table that appeared on the communication display, targets were assigned to each of the sixty-four GBA sys.1500.
There were several modifications of these cruise missiles on board - there were anti-radar loitering ones, there were concrete-piercing anti-bunker ones, and there were cluster ones. Five of the sixty-four missiles were electronic countermeasures, jammers.
The strike was aimed at the frontline and near rear. This was somewhat atypical, since the main purpose of the B-1001 ammunition, as well as the main tactics of using the bomber itself, was to strike in the middle and even deep rear.
However, there was no time to think about or discuss such oddities. Now it was necessary to open each pair of six large and four small compartments in turn and unload the entire arsenal.