Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter7 (section)

=== Part 13 ===

A number of explosive noises rang out above the Sea of Japan.

The modified MIG-21s were loaded with chaff and flairs, but there was simply a limit to what they could do. The cutting edge fighters prepared by Academy City were more than two generations more advanced. And the difference in numbers was simply too great.

It was impossible to fly such that the more advanced fighters did not get on their tail.

There was no way to escape a lock. 

Once a missile was fired, it was all over.

Even while taking special actions like quick rotations and using deceptive actions such as using chaff and flares, they could not continue to avoid the explosives forever while they approached with sharp angles.

“Klyuch Samolyot to Nochi Samolyot!! That’s enough!! Eject right now. Smoke is coming from your main wing where it was hit. If you stick with this any longer, you’ll just get caught up in the explosion!!”

“Nochi Samolyot to all crafts!! Not yet! As long as we aren’t all taken out, we win!! I’ll draw the enemy crafts to me!! While I do…!!”

The ocean was just too vast.

Academy City was just too far away.

The pilot of Klyuch Samolyot looked at a gauge in the cockpit with a burning feeling in his stomach.

Just a bit more.

The time was coming.

No matter how erratically he flew or even if he loop-the-looped, his cold sweating would not stop. He was being surrounded from all sides. He would not last long. Those were his simple feelings. He was of course outnumbered and outclassed, but his modified MIG-21 also had a giant weight hanging down from it. It was impossible to take part in a dogfight like that.

Machine gun fire started coming from one of the cutting edge fighters on his tail and a line of tracer bullets approached. Shortly thereafter, the unpleasant sound of metal being torn reverberated through the fighter.

“Shit!! My right aileron was taken out!!”

With that destroyed, he could no longer tilt the craft. Simply put, it was like having the steering wheel no longer work. And it was clear he would be shot down in no time now that another penalty had been added on in that already difficult situation.

But the pilot of Klyuch Samolyot smiled upon seeing what one of the gauges said.

They had won.

“Klyuch Samolyot to all crafts.”

With that, they had won.

“The time has come. There is no need to stick with this any longer! Let’s end this quickly!!”

After yelling that, the pilot of Klyuch Samolyot yanked on a lever which activated the ejection device. Tiny explosives detached the clear windshield covering the cockpit and it blew away as if it had slid back. Immediately afterwards, the seat and the pilot in it were ejected.

Prisluga Samolyot and Nochi Samolyot’s pilots also ejected from their old fighters and their parachutes opened.

“What?” said a bewildered Academy City pilot. “They just abandoned their hydrogen bomb. That was their last hope and their trump card. I doubt they can swim back to Russia once they fall in the ocean. They’ll just end up being recovered by one of our ships. It’s like they want to be captured.”

“…Look, dammit. There’s a submarine coming up to the surface. They were planning to recover the pilots here from the beginning.”

“Should we sink it?”

“We only expected this to be a dogfight. We don’t have any torpedoes.”

Meanwhile, the pilots that had fallen into the ocean were recovered.

One of the Academy City pilots clicked his tongue at the submarine that started to submerge.

“I guess we should be rejoicing that they gave up their hydrogen bomb. Contact the salvage ship and have them begin the recovery operation for the dropped hydrogen bomb as planned. Now that we know the enemy has a sub, you should tell them to make sure to sweep the sea for mines.”

The Academy City pilot took one last stubborn sweep over the area where the submarine had submerged.

“So in the end, what were they after?”