Read Double Eagle for Free Online

harness. Heckel wanted Sixteen down before it died, and he wanted Darrow down as quickly because he was most likely flying on empty.
    “After you, Hunt Sixteen,” Darrow voxed, allowing the Wolfcub to come around ahead of him. The Cub’s streamer of smoke pulsed clear then white, clear then white, like a ticker tape.
    The knocking grew yet more insistent. Darrow began his approach.
     
    Theda MAB South, 07.47
    “Your fighter wings,” Ornoff told them, “are five of the first to arrive on station here along the southern coast. In the next seventy-two hours, a total of fifty-eight wings of the Imperial Navy… and its affiliates…” he added, with a nod to the Phantine, “will be deployed at airfields along the entire littoral. Forty-two fighter wings, sixteen bomber flights. To say that you will be supporting the local Commonwealth squadrons here is a misstatement. You will form the front line in the air. The stalwart Commonwealth forces who have, let me remind you, been fighting this theatre for months now, will take a supportive role. God-Emperor willing, this may allow them precious time to repair, refit, recrew and rest.”
    He turned to the chart behind him. “I don’t need to tell you to familiarise yourself with the topography, channel use, and the location of friendly fields. Encryption codes will be changed on a daily basis. The Archenemy is listening.”
    Ornoff paused and slid his open hand down the chart pensively. “The situation here is grave. Lord Militant Humel’s land forces, ably supported by the Commonwealth armies, almost succeeded in driving the Archenemy off this world. However, in the last two months, fortunes have reversed disastrously. The Archenemy, whose remaining surface stronghold is around the Southern Trinity Hives—here—has resupplied in great force as part of the counter-offensive launched last year through the Khan Group as a whole. The Lord Militant’s land forces are now in harried retreat northwards through the Interior Desert… this region, here. Some have already reached the Makanite Range, and are struggling through the passes there. Our task—your task—is to help as many of them reach the safety of the Zophonian Coast as possible. We are to supply comprehensive air cover to the retreating columns of armour and infantry. That means denying the enemy airspace, and prosecuting their land forces with aerial strikes. Enothis will only be saved if sufficient portions of allied land forces can be brought back to the coast intact. There, with resupply, they can make a stand, a counter-attack to meet the Archenemy invasion.”
    Ornoff looked back at them all. “Expect to be flying sorties round the clock. A thorough strategic plan will be executed as soon as all the wings are on station, at which point your wings may be reassigned to other fields. In the meantime, you will be flying ad hoc missions at the discretion of Operations to supply cover until we are at full strength.”
    Ornoff raised a hand and beckoned one of the staffers who had entered the hangar with him onto the stage, an older man in the flight kit of a Commonwealth pilot officer. “I’ve invited Commander Parrwood here to brief you on climate and terrain peculiarities. Before he does, any questions?”
    Godel, the Sundogs’ flight commander, raised a gloved hand. “What are we to expect here, admiral?”
    “Superior air power,” Ornoff replied crisply. “Hell Razor and Locust-class fighters, Tormentor and Hell Talon-class fighter-bombers. The Archenemy is flying a large number of locally-made machines. There are also reports of heavy bombers, of a type yet undetermined. Many of their planes exhibit extended range, which may indicate mass carriers in the desert.”
    “When do we get in their reach?” one of the Apostles asked.
    “Unless you deny them, Major Suhr, at their present rate of progress, the Archenemy wings will have range enough to begin attacking these coastal bases within the month.