Sadly, Slider was tragically killed yesterday when an AAA site locked onto his aircraft while he was egressing from enemy territory. We took off from Yavr airbase at 0700 sharp and attempted to incur into Russian airspace around their considerable nuclear stockpile. Flying at 300 feet over the rolling hills, we evaded enemy early warning systems and SAM designators. 10 miles from the nuclear stockpile, I ordered the flight of myself and 3 others to begin the bombing run for their designated targets. We raised to 2000 feet in unison, locked up our individual targets, and configured our bombs at the last moment. And that's when all hell broke loose.
Mercury 6 2 was the first to go down. SAMs all around the area locked onto us, and as the missiles started to launch, I ordered everyone to hit the deck and get that music up loud. We dove back down to 500 feet, jammers hot, aluminum clouds periodically ejecting from the rear of our aircraft. 2 was hit from a SAM-10 at his 8 o'clock. His left engine burst into flames and his altitude dropped quickly, and he was plastered into the dirt before he could eject. 3 was the next to get wiped out, but not before he dropped both his PGBs directly on two targets. He was hit twice by SAMs and managed to punch out before he crashed his Hornet into another bunker, effectively taking out a third target.
It was down to myself, Mercury 6 1, and Slider, Mercury 6 2, to complete the mission. We had no idea of the fates of our teammates; 2 was most likely dead, since we did not see him eject, and 3 was not responding after a minute from his crash. I dropped my bombs on the final target, made sure it was in flames, then ordered 3 to RTB. We lit the fires and burned off the hair from some Russian prairie dogs, being so low to the ground, and that's when the Sukhoi fighters dropped in on us. Two SU-37s on our six, no reinforcements, and we're low on fuel. Our afterburners made the IR missiles happy, so I popped a flare and disengaged the ABs and the Sidewinders bit. I did this once more, and it worked. Then the Russians got smart; they switched to radar guided missiles. Thanks to this development, I lost my entire left engine and caught it on fire. I checked my last surviving wingman, and his situation wasn't much better.
Slider was trailing smoke from his right engine, and falling behind quickly. More Sukhois were inbound, so we were more or less SOL. I hooked left, got in behind the SU-37, and took him out with my gun. His wingman disengaged from Slider and got in behind me, then switched to guns and ripped through my right engine. I get a bleed air warning, ignore it, and spiral around until I finally squeeze off a Sidewinder and take out the Ruskie.
I head back towards Yavr, and just as Slider comes into view, I see his fighter burst into flames and almost simultaneously a bonfire showed up on the ground. I try to limp back to base on my last failing engine, engaging the afterburners despite the knowledge that doing so would likely set my fighter aflame and bring about my untimely demise. I declared an emergency, entered final, and my engine let go no more than 10 feet above the runway. The sudden jarring was enough to slam the right wheel into the ground and crash the plane. I ejected the moment I saw the FIRE warning light up, and saw my beloved airframe burst into flames.
Of course, I could've been a sissy and hit the Escape button right after the mission was over, but I'm too cool for that.