Closed Cases - FSF Archives - F-699 First Call Green 0-19
Closed Case
FSF Archives
First Call Green 0-19
July 27th, 2014
Third-Person Account
Officer Reynard Loustaunau of Surten - F-699
Officer Arthur Francis of Lariss - M-40F
Reporting Base: Lariss City 5
They were talking. It's always boring when you're waiting for a call. Hell, you can go weeks without a call. When you sit there for your four hour shift, there's simply nothing to do but wait. So, they talked. Officers Loustaunau, F-699, Francis, M-40F, and Jonas, W-57A, were talking while at the helicopter pad. They were the new pilot, the training co-pilot, and the flight controller. Reynard Loustaunau, the new pilot was sitting in the cockpit. Behind him was his co-pilot. Arthur Francis, a seasoned gunner. They always paired up new pilots with veteran co-pilots. In an attack helicopter, the co-pilot's just as important as the pilot.
Outside the helicopter was Jonathan Jonas, known affectionately as Jo-Jo. He was the flight controller. A relatively easy job compared to everyone below. His job is basically to order everyone else around and make sure the helicopters are in perfect working in order when they're needed. It's only difficult aspect is remembering to check everything and replenish all the ammunition.
That's when it happened. "That's the great thing about buying new!" Officer Francis was saying. "When it inevitably breaks, you can just..." He stopped speaking as all three officers heard the very same transmission through the radio. "Units 13 and 14, 0-19 in progress, one minute, location on map, target is W-8FB." "10-4!" All three said at once as Officer Jonas pushed himself off the stool. He picked it up and ran to the hangar. Officer Loustaunau sat down at the pilot seat, Officer Francis sat in the co-pilot seat at the same time. "Let's go rookie," he said to Loustaunau.
Engine start. Close glass. Remove arm. The first three buttons you only ever use once before takeoff. The cockpit's left open and the engine off to keep the fuel from running out. The arm is an electric motor attached to the helicopter rotor and the hangar. It keeps the blades spinning with the motor off so that there is virtually no takeoff delay and the gas tank's always full. "Taking off," Loustaunau said after putting on his helmet. He pushed the acceleration lever forward and the helicopter lifted from the ground. "Liftoff," Francis said into the radio. "Seven seconds, not bad. Goal is five to eight, so keep it up."
"This is 14-1," Loustaunau said. "Moving to 0-19, ETA fifty seconds, com switch to target, W-8FB requesting fire code." A low whisper came through the radio, "fire code scorpion, 10-16 R 1-50." The radio confirmed it to be Officer Jeremy Frenensi, W-8FB. It also relayed, "14-3, dropping sniper one," and "14-4, dropping sniper two." The first combat helicopter reached the destination. "14-1 in position," Loustaunau said. "No eyes on target." "Six o' clock, low," Francis said. "Eyes on target, one hostile."
After turning the helicopter, Loustaunau saw what Francis saw. There was a large wolf dragging away a slightly smaller wolf wearing the FSF street standard patrol uniform. "Hands above your head!" Francis said over the loudspeaker. Until now, the man had been pretending not to hear the very loud blades of the helicopter as it hovered above him. He drew a pistol and put it to the officer's head and screamed something. "He says to leave of he'll shoot me," Officer Frenensi said.
Loustaunau and Francis were gonna try and make some decision as to what to do, when they heard a transmission. "Unit 13 standing by." "14-2 standing by." "14-2-1 in position, standing by." "14-3-2 in position, standing by." "14-4-2 in position, standing by." "14-3-1 requesting fire code." There were always so many numbers when dealing with air support. The two helicopter transports with unit fourteen, 14-3 and 14-4 had dropped the sniper teams, 14-3-1 and 14-4-1, and then moved and dropped their close support teams, 14-3-2 and 14-4-2. It got confusing at times, but training included dealing with these numbers so any officer involved in air support could handle it.
As the pilot of the first unit within the highest numbered unit, Loustaunau had command over the mission. Success depended on him, and failure would be his fault. He responded, "14-3-1, scorpion." Scorpion was a fire code. It meant fire-at-will with caution. It was used when someone had a shot to let them know to take it. And so, the sniper fired the first shot. The large wolf's gun flew out of his paw as blood sprayed from his palm. "Fourteen, take down," Loustaunau said and both the support teams from unit fourteen moved in. Two men took the downed officer while a man and a woman cuffed the suspect and dragged him away.
You never realize the support the force has for each officer until you see something like this. Code 0-19 means officer unresponsive with active heartbeat. It usually means the officer was hit from behind and knocked out. The response is code-green, helicopter general support. Two units are sent out. Each unit has two combat helicopters, each with pilot and co-pilot, and two transport helicopters. Each transport helicopter has a support unit of sixteen officers, and a sniper unit consisting of two snipers, a spotter, and a guard, plus the crew: pilot, co-pilot, two door gunners, and six assistants. In total, when an officer is unresponsive, a total of one hundred and twenty-eight officers fly in, usually within a minute of the radio sending out the notice. This is in Lariss city, smaller cities send in less units,, but they have far less crime usually.
It was a mission success."Package retrieved," Loustaunau said. "All units return to base." He pushed the accelerator lever and began rising, it was best to travel at a higher altitude to bother the citizens of the city less. 0-19's are usually resolved at this point. Suspect apprehended and officer rescued. But there's always an exception or two. "Negative," the freshly rescued officer transmitted over the radio. "The building he was taking me to, the blue one, it's a bunker. We need to call for more support and infiltrate. There's about fifty hostiles in there and they have armored vehicles. If they get out we could all be in real trouble."
"10-4," Loustaunau said over the radio. "Requesting two more units for infiltration, code green, standing by." Just then, an alarm went off within the cockpit of 14-1. "4-5, 4-5!" Francis said over the radio. 4-5 was the code for an officer's vehicle being targeted. Loustaunau accelerated the motor as the panels in the cockpit turned yellow. Accelerating the motor was done when expecting to need evasive maneuvers. "4-6, 4-6!" Francis said as the panels changed to red and Loustaunau quickly jerked to the helicopter to the left. 4-6 was code for an officer's vehicle being locked on. A rocket flew to the side of the helicopter and began to turn in the air as if trying to return. "Remember your training!" Francis said to Loustaunau, hoping not to get blown up with a pilot on his first flight.
"Deploying countermeasures," Loustaunau said, clicking a button with his right paw and pushing the throttle to max. The helicopter responded immediately, lifting the helicopter like a mortar shell into the air and leaving behind a cloud of flares and reflective powders. "All ground units fall back!" he said as the rocket turned back towards the helicopter. "10-4!" a cloud of voices came through the radio. The missile took the bait, as expected. The flares and chaff leave behind a much bigger heat and radar signature than the helicopter itself. As it hit the same building it came from the alarms turned off and it felt like peace was finally restored, but something had to be done about the building the rocket came from.
Just then, the panels turned yellow once more. "Dammit! 4-5, 4-5!" Francis said again. "14-1, this is Lariss 5, Relay from Center Base, destroy that building immediately." "10-4, confirm code," Loustaunau responded. "C-3B5," the base replied, the radio on the cockpit shining a small green light showing the validity of the code. "Going hot," Loustaunau said over the radio. "Ground units fall back, danger close. Fire cannon."
"Taking aim," Francis said. "Going hot." He had control over the helicopter's nose cannon, the most versatile tool in the combat helicopter's arsenal because it could fire on absolutely any target below or in line with the helicopter. The cannon fired at the building and dust filled the area, causing the targeting alarm to turn off. "Switching to n-IR," Loustaunau said. Applying the n-IR filter allows officers to see through dust and see the area they are firing on with more clarity, with the downside being that the view becomes grayscale. After a few hundred rounds, Francis stopped firing and the same voice passed through the radio.
"Confirm target destroyed," the radio transmitted. "Stand by," Loustaunau replied. "No visual." "Negative," Francis said. "Target intact." "It really is a bunker isn't it?" Loustaunau said. "It must be," Francis replied. "4-5, 4-5!" "Dammit!" Loustaunau said as the radio transmitted. "Code black." This was exactly what they had been looking for. Code black was a code used solely for combat vehicles. It was only used when something very large needed to be destroyed quickly. It was typically used for destroying large groups of hostiles, bunkers, or rampaging macros. Basically, code black was like saying to fire every bullet if you have to.
"10-4! 13-1, 13-2, 14-2, fire code dragon, code black, all units danger close," Loustaunau said as Francis locked the hardpoint missiles to the target. Small green and blue squares began to show up on the helmet's display pointing to parts of the building being locked by 14-1 and the other combat helicopters. All at once, the three non-lead helicopters transmitted "target locked, standing by for fire." That simply meant that they'd fire when the lead fires. "Going black," Loustaunau said as he began systematically clicking the buttons to fire all the weapons he has access to as the pilot.
At the same time, Francis fired all the locking weapons. To make firing easier, the pilot controls non-locking weapons and the co-pilot controls locking weapons and the nose turret. It was fortunate that the pilot could focus on piloting since the vibrations of the very plentiful explosions were rocking the helicopter in the air. "Firing blank," Loustaunau said after his helicopter was empty of all ammunition except air-to-air missiles and the turret cannot. Air-to-air missiles are reserved for anti-air combat, which is extremely rare in the city, and the turret reserves half its ammunition (if the co-pilot knows what he's doing) to ensure the helicopter can defend itself if needed after "going black."
"Target destroyed," Loustaunau said. "Ground units move in, clear the area and confirm all equipment has been destroyed. 14-1 returning to base." "13-2 returning to base." "14-2 returning to base." "13-1 returning to base." The combat helicopter's mission was complete at that point. The helicopter took light damage from the pieces of the bunker flying up and hitting it, but they hit almost every inch of the machine.
Jo-Jo: "What the hell did you do my helicopter!?"
Written January 23rd, 2011 by Pedro "Reynard" Loustaunau.
2011 © Pedro "Reynard" Loustaunau - pedrolerenard, all rights reserved, do not use without permission