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angel-0f-verdun · 2 months

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7 Missile Lock

Authors Note:

Everyone, I appreciate your continued support, I am so sorry it took so long to get this going again. I have moved and life is a bit messy at the moment but I wanted to get this out. For those waiting for Desert Umbra I am working on it, I promise. Right now my heart is set on Top Gun, but I will be putting out another chapter for Desert as soon as I can. I appreciate you all.

AngeDeVerdun

Previous chapter

I started my walk around the plane, making sure to check every inch of my metal beast. Everything seemed to be in order on the outside, I jumped inside and checked all my switches, ensuring they were in the right positions. I turned on the master switch and waited for a second as the indicators started working, plugging the connections of my helmet into the plane. Then turned on my avionics switch, and listened to the fans kick on. When I knew they were in working order I moved on. I proceeded to input the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) frequency and turned up the volume so I could hear it without putting on my helmet. I adjusted the other volume knob for Doe, using my muscle memory to determine what she liked. I input the sea level pressure into the altimeter and wrote down the letter that this hour’s weather corresponded to and any airport notes I may need. I also input the numbers for the fuel I had until bingo. I didn’t worry about my weapons counters as this was a simulation/training flight, nothing was going to be active. I looked at the switch for my hook bypass and switched it to field instead of carrier. Then turned on all my lights, I first looked around myself at the wings and tail to see if I could see all my lights. I could see a majority of them but decided I needed to get out of the plane and make sure they were all indeed working. I wouldn’t want our team to be patronized because I didn’t check the lights.

As I made my way down the ladder, I could feel the skin on my hand ripping more with the movements I had been putting it through. I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth as I moved it more to loosen it up before the flight started. I watched the bright lights through my peripheral vision so as not to hurt my eyes when I finished I climbed back inside the cockpit, moved my helmet aside, and set it on my lap. The last thing to do was to flip the lever on the hydraulic transfer pump to shut it off. I tuned into the ground frequency.

“Miramar ground, Reaper, would you connect our ground electric power?” I asked them. I then hooked up my mask to the oxygen tube. I covered my face with my mask and flipped the switch and inhaled, feeling the air hit my lungs. I watched the instruments come to life, closing my eyes and listening to the hum, uncaging my standby instruments. I reached up with my left hand and closed the canopy, I watched Doe give me a thumbs up in the mirror above me as she covered her mouth and nose with her mask.

“Comm check, Doe, can you hear me?” I asked her.

“Loud and clear Reaper” She replied as she continued her own checks, including arming the ejection seats. I cranked my left engine and powered it up watching my RPMs, then let it go to idle and tested the other one.

“Copy,” I told her as I continued my flow checking our lights inside the cockpit, and the fire detection system, which ignited the sounds and warning lights.

“Miramar ground, this is Reaper you can disconnect us.” I told them.

“Disconnecting, you are good to go.” I watched the ground personnel clear out of the way as I bumped our throttles a little and held the brakes.

“Miramar ground this is Reaper with November, at hanger 3 requesting a northwest departure for a training exercise, run up is complete.” I told them.

“Reaper continue to runway two four right via golf and papa, then hold short of runway two four.”

“Taxi to runway two four right via golf and papa and hold short.” I abbreviated their language happily as I revved the engines and taxied to where we needed to go.

“You ready Reaper?” I heard Doe ask me as I made the first left turn. I smiled looking at my surroundings, glancing back in the mirror at her.

“Yeah, I think so. We’ll see how we do and how we compare to the rest of the group. Don’t be nervous, it’s the first flight, they can’t be too tough on us.” I told her, my eyes locked on a plane coming in hot and low to the right near the tower as I turned onto taxiway papa.

“Is that?” I heard Doe ask briefly. I knew exactly who that was, Maverick and Goose. I held short of the runway tuning into the tower's frequency. I rolled my eyes, Maverick was not going to make it easy for me to get out if he did what I thought he was doing, buzzing the tower.

“Yes, our two idiots. They always have to make a scene.” I breathed out annoyed with the showmanship of Maverick.

“I guess this means they did well.” Doe sighed out. I was starting to get annoyed with her lack of confidence, I brushed off the comment and waited til Maverick and Goose had blown my ears out with their inopportune flyby.

“Miramar tower, this is Reaper holding short of runway two four right. Think we can get a departure in before Maverick lands?” I asked them.

“What’s wrong Reaper? Jealous?” I heard Maverick’s voice come through the frequency, I rolled my eyes I would tear him apart the next time I saw him.

“Reaper, no delay, fly straight out runway two four right cleared for take off.” Tower cleared us to go as they also ignored Maverick and his bullshit.

“No delay, fly straight out runway two four cleared for takeoff,” I confirmed, as I taxied out to the runway and gradually put in full power. The plane lurched beneath me, the power throwing me back into the seat. I maintained the center line with my rudder and waited for my speed to climb to what I needed for us to get off the ground. When I reached take-off speed, I pulled up slowly taking us into a climb at a few knots faster and lesser angle of attack. I put my gear up happily getting rid of the drag that accumulated over the wheels. Immediately I felt the plane pull us forward.

“Maverick do a right 360 and set yourself up for a downwind entry landing,” Tower advised him as I tried to tune him out.

“Copy that, right 360 for a downwind entry to land.” He repeated the instructions to the tower.

“Reaper, you’re cleared to turn right to heading three one zero, frequency change approved, tune into practice area frequency 125.3. See you later, and good luck.”

“Cleared to three one zero, changing frequency 125.3, thank you, see you soon,” I told them, lifting my finger from the push-to-talk button. As I dialed in the frequency I heard Doe exhale. When we were in these kinds of training exercises she had a stressful aura about her. It put me on edge but I tried to ignore the tense air between us. I suppressed the urge to start a conversation and instead busied myself with getting to our altitude of 13,000ft. I knew we were far enough from the airspace of Miramar to get up to altitude as soon as possible.

“Ladies, this is your first hop, the gen 2 you are flying against are smaller, faster, and more maneuverable just like the enemy MiGs. The clock is ticking and as of now we are keeping score.” I heard Jester say to us.

“Left and low, they’re coming up fast, get ready,” Doe replied reading me the closing altitude between us. I forced our throttles forward immediately feeling the plane react to the movements almost instantaneously as I pulled us into a straight climb, looping around so that Jester would be in our forefront, however, my efforts were in vain as the plane had already disappeared by the time I was in position.

“Where’d he go Doe?” I asked her as she was frantically looking around, no doubt.

“I– I don’t see him, he must be to our left and just out of my sight.” I nodded taking her note into account, I banked hard right weaving us around and putting us into a slight dive so Doe could have better visibility.

“I see him. Off our right, still low and behind.” She advised me.

“So even though he’s faster he’s lagging behind us on purpose.” I thought out loud so Doe would know my process. Even though she was my RIO, we worked together as a team through situations such as these. It’s what I would want my pilot to do if I were a RIO.

“Doe, I’m gonna hit the brakes, he’ll fly right by, hopefully we can get a missile lock on him,” I told her.

“Let’s do it Reaper.” She confirmed my plans. I set my plan into action turning off the burners and lessening the throttles I pitched down to gain a little speed and have Jester fly by us. He did, I put the power back in and cruised behind him chasing him for once. I got him in my sights attempting to lock on him with my targeting system. However, the little bugger moved too quickly for my reflexes, my hand was pulsing in pain at this point with how much I pushed the threshold.

“Fuck. I can’t get him.” I said to Doe, upset that I wasn’t performing my best. He curved around behind us and I put the burners back on attempting to get away, but that lack of acceleration for a split second caused him to get a missile lock on us. The alarm blared in my ears and immediately my perspective changed.

I was flying in the mountains in Bosnia. The views were to die for, flying in this place was like a whole other world, I had never experienced this before. It was calming and beautiful with the pine trees, mountains, and crisp winter air. The snow that covered the area was pure and untouched. Why we were in the area was unimportant to me, all I knew was that we were here for reconnaissance, nothing more. My RIO and I had decided to divert from our original plan and take a detour against our better judgment. I was more like Maverick back then, uncalculated in my decisions and rash. The world was against Jax Taylor and I at this very moment. I felt the cold metal of my ring against my finger smiling as I looked down at the scenery. A happy memory was born, my fiancé and I were flying together with little to management’s knowledge.

“Where are we?” I asked him.

“301506.5 1150 confirmed, sectors have been confirmed.” He told me the numbers, but it didn’t make any sense.

“Are you sure, Casanova?” I asked, confirming what he was saying on my map and looking out the window.

“I’m reading it right here Dice.” He said to me annoyance slipping into his voice. I sighed knowing that this was not where we were.

“Well, we’re flying over a lake,” I said to him.

“Goddamnit, well one thank you goes out to the U.S. intelligence community.” He said saluting in the mirror looking at me.

“Yet another useless mission for the American taxpayer.” I quipped.

“Wait, hold on I’m getting something in sector 4.” He told me.

“That doesn’t make any sense, that’s a demilitarized zone over there. We’re not supposed to go there either.” I told him as I started mindlessly turning the aircraft about 10 degrees and back, my eyes focused on the area he was talking about. The area was shielded by trees, but you could see there was a bit of deforestation taking place just north of the tree line.

“When has that ever stopped you before? But my scope doesn’t lie, Dice, there’s something there.” He told me, adamant to get over to that sector. He never really understood my struggles as a female fighter pilot and I was already on thin ice with the brass. It was only one mission where we would deviate.

“Hey, we’re on recon, let’s recon something.” He argued with my judgment.

“See with that logic I can’t possibly argue with you, plus we have a shiny new camera to test out.” I easily agreed, not even thinking about the consequences of doing so.

“There you go. ECM is cleared, GPS is synced, putting in the coordinates, steady up zero three four, and fly the director.” He replied as I banked to the left to get us over the area he had pointed out.

“Standby for roll… Now.” I told him as I got closer, turning on the burners in case we needed to get out of there fast.

“Rolling digital.” He confirmed the camera's action. I maneuvered us to get out of the area, straight ahead back into a safe zone, also known as the lines we were supposed to be flying. Little alarms distracted me as I asked Casanova what was happening.

“What’s going on??” I asked him as I knew his eyes were on the radar more than mine were at the moment.

“Holy shit, we’re being painted!!” Casanova yelled at me, and my mindset quickly changed from complacent to tactical.

“What?!” I asked him out of pure shock from a simple flyby.

“Shit they fired, scoop it now,” he instructed. I did as he asked, quickly throwing the plane into a straight climb feeling the G-forces hit me.

“Okay, I don’t see it, call my turn. Where is it?” I asked him frantically trying to figure out which direction to go.

“Hard right. We’ll try to break the lock.” I immediately threw us into a right turn, not daring to dive below our current altitude fearing the missile would hit us. “Golden Eagle Arc Angel, we have been engaged!” I heard Casanova on the radio immediately trying to alert command.

“Put out the decoy flares” He instructed, I flipped the lever to deploy the flares. After that, I dove a little while looping us around our previous circle. “Got it… No joy.” He informed me as I continued flying in another direction not caring about how erratic the flight had gotten, I circled us around a mountain pass, trying to let Casanova get eyes on the missile.

“Where is it? Where is he?!” I yelled at him, trying to get him to talk to me, we needed to communicate better in this aspect especially when we were being targeted.

“Casanova, I have a second missile in the air, 3 miles, and closing,” I informed him as I knew he was now watching outside trying to spot the flying fireballs.

“Pull up!” He yelled again. I did as he requested and threw the plane into a straight climb.

“We need a bigger heat decoy.” He said, my pass around the mountain peak hadn’t worked. There was a leveled-off area near the top of the mountain. I watched my altitude as I got lower for a pass near the trees, the snow toppling off the branches as we passed.

“Where do you suppose I go for that? We’re in the middle of fucking winter!!” I yelled at him.

“Drop the fuel tank and pull up!” He yelled as I came to a slope. I released the tanks, listening for the boom as they hit the ground, immediately pulling up after I had dropped them.

“That’s it one down one to go! Where’s the second?” I asked him as I heard the crash from the missile hit.

“No joy, I don’t have it in sight!!” He said as I tried to get us out of the smoke banking hard right.

“He’s back on us, push over, hard left!” Casanova replied as we finally hit clear air. I watched where I was in comparison to the mountains, then made the turn flipping us around as I did so.

“I’m going for a head-on pass,” I told him as I barrelled toward the incoming missile, attempting to move my wings to the right so it wouldn’t clip us, but it was too late.

“He clipped us. He’s coming back. Turn left!” Casanova yelled.

“Fuck.” I released a breath and listened to the airplane, we had multiple caution lights on and master alarms, I would have attempted to do an emergency landing but there was no telling what would be waiting for us on the ground. We needed to get out of here.

“I’ve got no turn left Jax! The flight controls are shot.” I told him as the realization of the damage finally hit my brain.

“Then break right!” I had already started that turn but it was too late, the missile hit us dead center. I could feel the metal of the plane ripping apart before I saw Jax out the window. He went with the back of the plane floating for a second then diving down, my half took a nose dive starting to spin uncontrollably now.

“EJECT, EJECT, EJECT!” I yelled at him, pulling the two ropes above my head as I braced for the cool air against my skin. I heard the rivets on the canopy pop and the glass remove as I sailed through the air at the highest speed I’ve ever been outside of an aircraft. The chair was proving to be a problem and I needed to get out of it as soon as possible. Right as I had that thought Jax and I collided in midair, bouncing off each other effectively giving me a headache.

When the chute finally pulled I released my seat by pulling the lever on the side towards the sky. It dropped near a broken angel statue. I curiously watched it for a minute. Its wing had broken clean off and its face was mangled. It was beautiful and creepy at the same time. I brushed the thought away as I tried to navigate the chute and land in a field near Jax, however, I was dropping too fast to do anything. I was going to end up in the trees.

I fell through the branches feeling them each cut through my uniform and into my skin until my chute got caught up on one of the larger branches. I looked down taking in the fact that there were about five feet between me and the ground.

“Fuck.” I exhaled and took a breath in before I released myself from the chute, making sure to bend my knees upon impact so I wouldn’t break my legs on the fall. I stood, checking myself over making sure nothing was innately broken, just a few bumps and bruises. I started running in the direction I saw Jax go.

“Jax!! Jax!” I yelled as I saw him on the ground in the valley, I started to sprint my heart going fast as I ran up to him to check him over as well.

“Are you okay?” I asked him, worry breaking through as I saw him lying down propped up on his right arm. He had cuts all over his face from the fall.

“Yeah I’m alright, you look terrible.” I scoffed at his sarcasm as I slid to him on my knees and embraced him in a hug.

“Be serious, now’s not the time for bullshit,” I told him as I started to do an initial assessment of his leg. He had already applied a tourniquet, but it was already soaked through its color now crimson with his blood.

“Oh my god. I have to change this, now.” I said as I sniffed, my nose starting to run as it was freezing. I rummaged through my flight suit looking for a new tourniquet.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I love you, it’ll be alright” He said to me, grabbing my face to look at him, he started to wipe my tears away. I didn’t even realize that I had started to cry. In times such as these I tended to push through until I couldn’t anymore.

“I love you too, I’m fine Jax, let go of me. Let’s just get this patched up, okay?” I told him practically prying his hands off my face. Now was not the time to break down and he wasn’t helping me keep my emotions in check. If I allowed myself to feel we would be in way worse condition. I finally found a tourniquet and whipped it out. As I observed his wound I realized that I didn’t want to remove the old one and cause more damage so I placed it on top covering it up. I then pulled the ends as tight as I could and tied them together Jax whimpering in the process.

“I’m sorry” I whispered out. He nodded his gaze not leaving my eyes. As his hand searched for mine.

“Where are we?” I asked clearing my throat, as I held his gloved hand in my own. I was trying to distract him from the current situation, but it wasn’t working.

“In the mountains north of Miciovic. Do you think they saw us eject?” He asked me, not wanting to beat around the bush, I did love that about him.

“We won’t be here when they come looking. But the Navy is going to be wondering what happened to their 40 million dollar plane, so that gives me hope,” I told him pulling out my radio.

“I already tried, you need to get to higher ground.” I looked around at the pine trees that surrounded the valley.

“Do you think it’ll work up there?” I asked him pointing to the hill in question.

“Yes Maeve, just make sure you get high enough.” He told me. I sighed letting myself catch my breath, dropping his hand and bracing, putting my arm back to push myself up.

“Okay,” I took a deep breath, standing up.

“Wait–” Jax uttered, catching my wrist with his hand and pulling me back down to a squatting position in front of him.

“Yeah?” I asked him as the moment of silence stood between us.

“Promise me that you’ll move on if anything happens.” I started to shake my head and say no but he held up his hand to stop me from talking. Not normally an obedient little girl I stopped looking into his eyes that were starting to tear up. I wanted nothing more than to hold him.

“If something happens, I want you not to dwell on this moment, I want you to be happy. Try not to think about me too often but just enough. You cannot let grief control your life. I don’t want you to quit the Navy either. You love it here, you love flying. I know, you’ve got to be one of the best pilots out here. Don’t let those boys push you around, you’re a fantastic person and I know you’ll do great things when you get out of here. Once the assignment changes it will be worth it, I promise. This opportunity led me to you and I can’t thank whatever higher power is up there enough for that. I love you Maeve Scarlett Ford. Don’t you dare come after me, I want you to promise me that.” Before I knew it the tears were streaming down my face yet again. I hated him in this moment, it ripped me apart, but I knew that I would do the same thing in his position.

“I love you, Jax, I promise, but if we get out of here together we’re getting married immediately,” I told him as he brought our foreheads together and wiped my tears away.

“Immediately my love, I promise.” He smiled looking into my eyes and leaned in. As his lips touched mine I knew I would never move on from him, not fully at least. It was a wholesome and lingering kiss that would put me on my ass in a normal situation. But this was far from my definition of normal. The potential of becoming POWs was very real. But if I didn’t have to walk away from him now I never would. I ripped myself away from the love of my life and set my sights on the hill in front of me. I didn’t get very far before I stopped in my tracks.

“Babe, I should’ve dodged that fucking missile,” I said as I turned back to him.

“Yeah, yeah you should’ve, you blew it and you took me down with you. I thought you had great reflexes, what happened to you?! I used to have a good pilot, you’re slipping. You need to watch it.” He sarcastically replied with a smile on his face. My laugh penetrated the sad air that lingered around us. I walked away from him, continually looking back to make sure he was okay as I made the trek up the hill.

The sound of treads, tires, and footsteps startled my thoughts as I heard them cut through the mud and grass near Jax’s position. I stopped near a tree and pulled my miniature binoculars out. He was surrounded on all sides.

“Fuck.” I breathed out as I watched the army of men walk up to him and step on his newly dressed and now bloody wound. The men formed a circle around him, we were vastly outnumbered, and there was nothing I could do but watch. A car pulled up and the two men inside stepped out one with a navy blue beret on and the other in a blue sweatsuit. I watched as another man in the squad retrieved Jax’s handgun that was in his chest pocket and threw it to the man in the sweatsuit. I saw Jax give him a card that we carried in our pockets that is used in case we were shot down, the man threw it to the side not bothering to look at it. I watched as the beret talked to him and then touched his comrade in the sweatsuit's shoulder. The men filed away it looked like we may have gotten lucky, and my heart swelled with hope as sweatsuit man lit up a cigarette. I knew better than to go running back down the hill to him even though that’s all I wanted to do in this moment. The sweatsuit man helped Jax stand up. Jax glanced toward the treeline at me shaking his head no, he knew me well enough to know I would try something. My heart froze. The man in the sweatsuit inspected Jax’s flight helmet behind him just before he pulled Jax’s handgun and shot him in the head.

“NO!” I cried out realizing my mistake almost immediately, I covered my hand over my mouth as the tears started again. I quickly got up and started to run, I sprinted as they started to open fire on me with their tanks and guns, the ground exploading around me. I ran as fast as I possibly could away from everything I knew and loved. Now it was my turn to stay alive when all I wanted to do was give up. My body was not giving up.

Eventually, I reached the peak of a far mountain so that they would not find me. But I knew I would need to keep fighting, tomorrow was a different story. I pulled out my radio when I reached the top,

“Alpha Whiskey, this is Archangel 06 over.” I tried the radio sobbing uncontrollably as I tried to get an evacuation going.

“Damn, good attempt ladies. I’m impressed! Get back on the ground, we’ll debrief on the way back since you are the last flight of the day.” I heard Jester say to us but the words were muffled. I was stuck, I made no movements to the plane and kept it as we were straight and easy flying.

“Reaper?” I heard Doe ask me but I couldn’t snap out of it.

“Standby Jester,” She said to him over the frequency.

“Copy? What’s going on? Reaper, Doe? You alright?” He asked her confused.

“She’s fine, just give me a minute with her.” She replied, attempting to preserve my decency no doubt.

“Hey look at me.” She said sternly trying to get my attention in the mirror. My eyes flickered over to her but for a second I thought I could see Jax, his blue eyes sparkling at me as I took a deep breath. I blinked hard, attempting to get my eyes to focus and my brain to get back in the game.

“We’re okay, we did fine. It was a bit fast, but we’ll get it next time. I’m sure no one passed.” She said to me. I didn’t reply, thinking about the last time I saw Jax the gunshot echoing in my head. She tried again.

“Maeve, Jax isn’t here with you it’s me, Crystal, we’ll talk about it more once we’re on the ground but I need you to snap out of it now. We’re not in Bosnia, it’s not winter. It’s actually really fucking hot outside, so I’d love to get in some air conditioning. Can you do that for me, please? I know that missile lock sound probably set you off. But you're okay, you're here with me.” She said, I blinked again, tears forming in my eyes. I blinked them away looking around and seeing Jester on my wing.

“Fuck, he’s going to rip me apart,” I said to no one in particular.

“We’ll see, I’m hoping he lets this one slide,” Doe said to me.

“Jester, lead us back in,” I said over the frequency. He proceeded to bank left, and I banked left with him on his right-wing all the way. I focused on my landing, and how much different it was going to be from the aircraft carrier. I plugged in the frequency for ATIS and listened to the wind direction and speed, what runway they were using, and the alphabetical letter they assigned to the current ATIS.

“Reaper, Doe, we’ll debrief later at 19:00, get your showers in and see me in my office.” Jester said.

“Copy. Thank you sir” Doe replied.

“Miramar tower this is Reaper with Oscar coming from the northwest full stop”

“Copy Reaper overfly the airport and enter on the downwind for two four right, you’ve got Jester in front of you.”

“Enter on the downwind for two four right,” I replied to them. I veered to the left then when I felt a good distance from the runway I turned right entering the downwind.

“Reaper do a right 360 for spacing” Tower advised.

“Right 360” I replied as I entered a 30-degree right turn waiting for my clearance as I straightened up for my downwind leg. I put the landing gear down. Looking down I watched Jester land and clear the runway as I entered my base. I put in 20 degrees of flaps and reduced my power waiting for my airspeed to drop and then tilted my nose down turning into my final approach. I watched as the runway started to come up faster than I was expecting. I threw in 30 degrees quickly and dropped my power bringing us into a flatter attitude. Tilting the nose up as I did so I felt the ground beneath the wheels. I listened to the taxi instructions and forced myself to do the rest of the movements until we were parked on the tarmac in our spot.

“You okay?” Doe asked me, knowing I was more than likely going to have to explain this to the guys.

“I’ll be alright, I need a shower,” I told her as I shut down both her and the aircraft, popping open the canopy. I couldn’t wait to feel hot water against my skin to wash away the memories I had today.

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