Child Soldiers of Blue Earth III

HOSTAGES IN THE AIR
“Samarinda Control Tower , this is flight SQ 141, we’re seeing two high speed aircraft closing in on us.”


“This is Samarinda Control tower to Singapore Airlines Flight 141, thre aren’t any other passenger planes inside your air corridor.”


“This is the Kalimantan Federation Air Defence Command to Singapore Airlines Flight SQ 141. You have two bogeys closing in on your tail, bearing one –one-zero, altitude, thirty six thousand feet , range two zero zero miles. Flight SQ 141, I recommend you change your course immediately and take evasive action.”

“This is flight SQ 141, what the F*** is going on?... A fighter jet trying to kill us all, YOU can’t be serious!”



Meanwhile, inside one of the briefing rooms of Palung Air Force Base , Major General Tony Sutomo, a sixteen year old pilot was sitting with the base commander , Colonel Spikes and several other teen pilots assigned to the base. “You have your flight plans ready , sir?” asked Colonel Spikes.“Yeah , I sure do… right, here’s what we’re going to do.” Tony replied as he stood in front of the briefing room, trying his best not to be distracted by all the other young pilots and cadets staring at him, which almost made him laugh. Suddenly the phone rang, Tony picked it up“Yes…WHAT ? Are you serious…roger, I’ll be right there.” Tony hung up the phone and said“We have an emergency. The Air Defence Command just asked us to scramble jets into the air right now.”

“What? Is thus this some kind of drill or something?”Asked Captain Ed Smith, a seventeen year old pilot.“No, it’s the real thing. There’s no time.” Tony said as he ran out of the room ,with the pilots all following him. He ran through a series of corridors and ran downstairs ,and slammed the hangar entrance door open, where two F/A-22C Naga Raptor Stealth Fighter jets were waiting inside with their canopies open and each of the aircraft were armed with four Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missiles on their underbelly internal weapons bay and two AGIM-10A Arrow missiles on the Weapons bay on the sides of the planes.The AGIM-10A was a hybrid version of the AIM-9X Sidewinder Air to Air Missile that could home in on both Air and Surface targets. Ed followed Tony into the hangar while the other pilots rushed to the other hangars. Tony immediately went through the pre-flight checklist and as he finished, he closed the cockpit canopy and pulled the Fighter jet into the apron and began taxiing into the runway“Attention all aircraft, this is Palung Air Base control tower. Tony and Ed, emergency launch! You’re cleared for takeoff.” Said the controller on the conrtol tower. Tony Sutomo entered the runway
“Hey, General Tony!Wait up!” Ed exclaimed
“Well, hurry up Edward! Time’s running out.” Tony replied as he pushed the throttle lever to full power, roared down the runway, pulled the F/A-22C into the air. Tony looked to the back and saw Ed flying behind him. He banked the Aircraft to the base and flew above it, where two other F/A-22Cs were taking off. He headed towards the city and could see the the tall buildings of Samarinda city , the capital city of the Kalimantan Federation , the highways and large rivers criss-crossing the city and could see the civilian Airport on the far side of the city. Tony , Ed and three others, Mandra, John and Jane flew into the low-lying clouds and high up into the air, where the sun was shining down on them
“Alright guys, listen up. Here is the situation. A civilian Plane flying South East of Samarinda City is under threat of being attacked by Republik Matematika Fighter jets. Based from our latest intel , Republik Matematika is planning a series of attacks on civilians as part of its terror campaign to bring Kalimantan back under control after the Kalimantan Vice-President , who allegedly is a puppet of Republik Matematika was overthrown. The Aircraft is flying at an altitude of thirty six thousand feet and is two zero miles away from our current position, bearing one zero-zero . Air Defece Command have ordered us to protect the civilian Airplane by any means necessary.”
“Roger that, let’s protect those innocent people.” Ed said. They cruised high above the city, flew past the civilian airport, where tha airspace above was filled with passenger and cargo planes swarming above the airport, varying in shapes and sizes, waiting to land or were making their way to their assigned cruising altitude. Tony was careful not to enter one of those air corridors above the airport to avoid smashing into one one of those planes. As Tony and his team flew away from the airport, far away from the ceiling and above the flooded rice fields and tropical forest area, they reached a clearing, where there were hardly any clouds. Suddenly, Tony spotted what looked like a large object on the radar screen. He looked to the front and saw what looked like a civilian B777-300ER flying in front of him. Tony began hearing further radio transmissions from the cockpit and the Air Defence Command.
“Flight SQ 141, this is the Kalimantan Federation Air Defence Command, please describe your current situation.”
“Kalimantan Federation Air Defence Command, this is Singapore Airlines flight SQ 141. Republik Matematika Fighter jets are closing in on us at thirty six thousand feet. Please do something about them!”
Suddenly, two more blips appeared on the radar screen. Tony swithched his F/A-22C’s Airborne Multimode Solid State Active Array Radar (AMSAR) system to Synthetic Appature Radar Mode and fired a narrow beam of radio waves towards the unknown airplanes, which turned out to be two F-16Cs flying towards the aircraft and both were armed with AIM-120 AMRAAAMs (Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles) and AIM-9s.
“Air Defence Command to Silver team do not declare your presence over this airspace, the enemy fighters will shoot down the passenger aircraft if they know that we’re making attempts to protect the passenger plane.Don’t hesitate to shoot them down. They’re Piloted by robots.”said the officer at the Air Defence Command headquarters through a secure radio channel.Then, the transmissions from the F-16s from the Republik Matematika Empire (RME) could be heard
“We are now holding hostage a passenger plane over Kalimantan Federation Airspace. This is our retaliation for the coup that you carried out against our patriotic servant, Jack Applemoore.Singapore Airlines flight SQ 141, change your course immediately. Head towards the east to Intigus Air Base. It’s only several hours away.”
“This is flight SQ 141, we don’t have enough fuel to get there.” replied the pilot. Tony could clearly tell from his voice that he was panicking. He began activating his weapons and fired an AGIM-10A on the F-16C leading the formation.
“Tony, fox two!”and the missile shot its way from the left internal weapons bay and straked into the F-16C, hitting it on its tail wing, shattering it. The nose of the F-16C began tilting towards the ground and plane took a steep dive into the ground, slowly accelerating past the speed of sound. The other fighter jet fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder, only to be turned into a fireball from a head on collision with Ed’s Arrow missile. However, three more blips appeared. Tony switched the AMSAR radar system to SAR mode again, which revealed the type of the five planes pursuing them, which turned out to be Eurofighter Typhoons from the Kalimantan Federation Air Force.The lone F-16C turned away from the passenger plane and dissapeared behind a nearby cloud. He checked them on his IFF transmitter and saw that they were friendly.
“Sir, friendly fighters are inbound towards that civilian airliner.” Ed said. The Air Defence Command officer said something unexpected
“This is the Kalimantan Federation Air Defece Command to flight SQ 141, we have sent a squadron of escort fighters to protect you. Return to your previous course and proceed to Samarinda International Airport.”
“This is flight SQ 141. Thank you very much for protecting us.” The pilot replied.
“This is Pedang team from Air Defence Command’s air force units. Flight SQ 141 you are now under our protection .” Said the flight lead of the Eurofighter Typhoon formation.
“Pedang Team, this is Tony, do you copy?” Tony asked.
“Silver Team, euh, Tony, …loud and clear. We’ve received orders from the Air Defence Command just to tell you that they would like your continued escort.” The five Eurofighter Typhoons began surrounding Tony and his team. He looked around man, they’re every where! Tony thought. Suddenly the radar spike warning alarm went off beep!...Beep!...Beep!
“This is Tony, I’m being spiked by radar, I didn’t spot any enemy planes!” Tony said.
“Sir…something’s not right. It’s coming from the lead plane of the allied squadron!Repeat! The radar spike beam is coming from Allied fighter jets.”

“Holy shivers! All Aircraft under my command , take evasive action immediately! Break formation and disperse!” Tony Sutomo shouted.
“ Don’t be stupid, little General . Do you really think you could escape just like that…Buddy?” The flight lead asked in a cold voice. Tony found the remarks “Little General” rather offensive but kept himself from fighting back verbally, knowing that doing such things under such circumstances would be a waste of time. He started a series of evasive maneuvers .The radar spike threat warning alarm stopped beeping for a while but then went off again.
“Holy shivers… holy shivers, they’re stalking us! They’re stalking us!” Mandra exclaimed.“Don’t worry, we’ll get throught this, Mandra.” Tony assured him.“Are you sure, sir?”asked the teenage Air Force Captain.“We’ll have to try no matter what!” Tony said.“Damn it! How the f*** can they see us when we’re flying stealth fighters ?” Ed asked
“I honestly don’t know.” Tony replied.Tony looked in the radar screen again and saw a radar spike coming from the lead Eurofighter Typhoon, which was directed towards “ Dear traitors of the Kalimantan Federation and traitors to the Vice President! This is your last chance for redemption. Abort your mission and let us shoot that civilian plane!We will not hesitate to use deadly force if you do not obey us. I’m sorry , mate, it’s no point flying your littler stealth fighters anymore. We can clearly see you. You have ten seconds to cmply.” The flight lead said.“You guys and the Vice President are the real traitors.” Tony said.
“This is SQ 141 to escort squadron. What’s going on?” asked the pilot of the passenger plane.Tony looked behind him and could see two Eurofighter Typhoons trailing behind him. They were about to fire missiles on him when they suddenly exploded. Suddenly, nine other aircraft appeared on radar and a second later five of them dissapeared.
“Tony, it’s me, Indra Widodo, Andy Potter just sent me here.” Tony recocgnised the voice. It was it was his commanding officer, General of the Air Force Indra Widodo.
“I’m with a team of Kalimantan and Free Redemption fighters. Don’t listen to them! Tony, Please don’t listen to them!” Tony saw a flight of Five REX-23B Stealth fighter jets flying in front of him and four Su-37 Terminator jets flying behind them.“Tony, focus on protecting the civilian plane! Leave the enemy fighters to us! Switch your secure radio to level ‘red’ encryption mode. They could hear us from other radio channels and and even a couple of secure ones too."
Indra warned. He said “Engage the Kalimantan Air Force Eurofighters closing in on Tony’s team and on flight SQ 141. Flight SQ 141, I don’t have time to explain the situation, but maintain your current heading and keep on flying. Leave the fighters to us!”
“You traitors…You stupid traitors… how dare you betray your leader…” Tony heard the flight’s seemingly angry voice over the radio.The remaining three hostile fighters rejoined to attack formation to make another attempt to shoot down the civilian plane but were taken one by one by Tony and Indra’s fighter squadrons.”
“All hostile aircraft confirmed down.” Indra observed.“Be careful, General Indra, we’ll be back.” He heard the flight lead’s voice from the radio.“Looks like you managed to bail out ,eh?” Indra said.“What’s happening, General?” Tony said.“Things are a lot worse than I thought.” Indra Murmured.“What do you mean, Indra.”Tony asked.“Republik Matematika is trying to destroy us from within. The Vice President may already be out of power, but he still has quite a few allies in the Kalimantan Federation Military.”

“So you’re saying that those fighters are spies or something.” Ed asked

“Maybe. Another possibility is that they’re Kalimantan Air Force pilots who were deceived by the vice-president.”

“So how are we going to fight Republik M atematika if things are like this?”


“We have lots of allies. But we’ll have to manage our war plans econmically. This could mean that we’ll use small amounts of resources to fight a much more fearsome enemy. We’ll have to find their weak points and bust them from there.Anyway, Samarinda is no longer safe. Come along to our hideout. Don’t worry if you or any of your wingmen are low on fuel, threre are lots of bases all over Kalimantan that are under our control. We can get an air refueling tanker plane over.”

“Thanks, Indra, but we’re okay.” Tony said.“That’s great.” Indra said.“What’s going on in Samarinda.”

“The Vice President still refused to give up his presidential authority when he found out that President Dimas Hermanto was still alive and has returned to the capital city. He is trying to overrule the President himself. He’s trying to convince the public that Dimas is traitor to Kalimantan and the people of Blue Earth.”

“But that’s not true.”Tony said. He paused and murmured “How are we going to maintain the chain of command if these things keeps up? ”“Good question, I don’t know to be honest.”

“What’s happening with the president ?”

“We asked him to leave to a secure location, but he refused.” Indra said.“The Vice-President is imposing a state of martial law on all districts of Samarinda. All Kalimantan troops who are not loyal to the Vice- President have been ordered to leave.”
“Man , this beginning to look like a civil war.”Mandra commented.
“Not quite…well, at least not yet.” Indra said
“But things can get a lot worse though.Anyway, did you know why those Kalimantan fighters were able to lock on you despite the fact that you flew a stealth fighter?”
"Tell me! General of the Air Force!"Tony said
"They're using your IFF Transmitter and then pinpoint the source of the transmitter. We'll have to reset our IFF code sets so that they wouldn't 'see'our signals. Anyway our gangs have developed some high-tech stuff to bust them off."

They flew away from the Kalimantan Federation Capital Territory , turned towards the east and into the sunset.