Chapter One - part seven

   The only force left close enough to assist was a small NATO unit many miles away. They started for the facility and ran right into an ambush. They were trapped inside a small town. They were in serious danger of being overrun and captured themselves. Unless they could avoid that and reach the weapons facility it would fall and then most of that region of Turkey would fall as well. If the rebels took the facility they would also have access to enough anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to become a very real threat to any of the main military forces. It would prove nearly impossible for the government to avoid a total civil war.

   That was where the United States became involved. They had been providing air support for the government, but now they were going to try and break the NATO relief force out and help secure the weapons facility too. It was becoming clear that all of this had been a well planned attempt to gain just such footholds all across Turkey. The real goal had been to destabilize the entire government enough for those who favored government by Muslim law to take power. That would be a total disaster for the United States and all of its allies. The jets in Squadron 77 were being spread out to cover a lot of areas all at once. They were broken up in groups of four with four jets sitting on standby, ready to go wherever they were needed as fast as possible. They were all in the air except those four jets when the NATO force drove into that ambush. As soon as they realized that they had been set-up and trapped the NATO commanders called for air support.

   The last four jets in Squadron 77 took flight. They were the only ones that could go. The others were either getting ready to come in for refueling and re-arming or were engaged where they were. Those last four jets were under the direct command Lt. Colonel Wilson. This time the F/A-48's were heavily armed. They carried four, air to ground rockets each and they had 'bullets' loaded for the pulse cannons. They had both explosive and smoke rounds loaded. The two F-35's had been armed heavily, but were loaded up more for air combat than ground support. Together the four jets could handle anything they were likely to face. It was only a few minutes flight to the battle and once they arrived it took only a moment to see how bad things were. The rebels had managed to get their hands on a couple of the heaviest armored vehicle the Turks had. Those two vehicles were hidden from the NATO forces, but they were still able to pound the NATO forces with heavy rounds. The spotters for them were located on the rooftops of apartments, so the only way to get to them was to risk injuring or killing civilians. It was a perfect trap.

   The tiny town was in a small valley with houses packed too close to allow the large NATO vehicles to use side streets. The one main road had been blocked with carefully planned explosions that took buildings down. The NATO vehicles could have pushed past those, but not without major casualties while they were still under fire. They were holding, but it was only a matter of time until they ran out of ammo or were slowly destroyed by the heavy armor pounding them or the handheld rockets being used by the rebels. Either way would spell disaster. The only good thing here was these rebels didn't seem to have any air support. Some rebel units had small drones that carried rockets. Those drones could give ground troops and air support for the ground troop's lots of trouble. They were hard to spot and could easily bring a jet down or take out a heavy armor unit, without ever being seen before they fired. However, just because you didn't see them didn't mean they weren't there waiting.

    It was an easy decision for Lt. Colonel Wilson. He left the F-35's to fly high cover and try to spot and destroy any possible drones or rocket launch locations. He had James were going in low to take out those heavy armor units that were pounding the NATO units. Then it would be a matter of locating and destroying or discouraging the remaining rebel ground forces. The plan seemed simple enough. They went in and took out the first armored unit easily enough. Two rockets were more than enough to take it out. They swung around to hit the second unit and got a very unwelcome surprise. Four hand fired rockets came streaking up at them from four different locations. They were forced to break and run before they could get a lock and fire on that second unit. It was pure luck that allowed them to evade those rockets. The F-35's had been watching and fired on two of the four positions, but they received fire from two different locations. It was a pitched air and ground battle for nearly half an hour before the rebels simple withdrew. They hadn't been totally beaten, but they would have been if they had remained much longer. The NATO force was weakened, but with continued escort from above they made it in and secured the weapons facility.