Take My Breath Away

Chapter 11 - HMS Elizabeth - North Sea

Notes from Author: Harry begins his career as a full fledged Naval pilot aboard the HMS Elizabeth.

Mood Music:

Wings - Birdy

I'll Fight - Daughtry

Drag Me Down - One Direction (epic get ready to battle song)

Superpower - X Ambassadors

Parachute - Train

Rise - Katy Perry

A Real Hero - College

Stand By You - Rachel Platten

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RealityBetterThanFiction's Crash-Course to Aviation:

Squawking 7700 - An emergency code indicating distress when a pilot cannot communicate over the radio, usually due to mechanical failure. Basically, it's a "Mayday" code that's set by the pilot in distress on the plane's transponder to alert the nearby air traffic control facilities that help is needed.

Story starts below...Enjoy!

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Harry had never felt G-force like this before. All he could do was stay conscious as his F-14 ripped through the clouds in pursuit of the bogey in his sights. He clenched all of his muscles, trying to keep the blood to his head as he'd been trained, with his hand gripping steady on the yoke. Behind him, Ginger chattered back and forth with the carrier's tower letting Harry focus on the pursuit. He stayed on his target while the pilot in the MiG sliced the sky in front of him, just out of range.

The pilot was good. But Harry had faced better. He'd beaten better.

Is that all you've got, Pigeon ?

He viciously jammed the thrust forward and got his bandit on lock, and then the bandit was bugging out, zooming off to the North and away from Harry's missiles.

Harry heaved a sigh of mixed relief and frustration, his finger still on the trigger. With some effort, he peeled it back and then pulled at his face mask.

"Ghostrider to tower," he called over the radio. "Target no longer a threat."

"Did you get a close look at the aircraft?" the Air Boss asked.

"Close enough to see that it didn't have an allegiance to any recognizable flag. It was a MiG, alright. But it didn't advertise itself that way," Harry told his superiors.

"That confirms other reports. Return to the carrier for debriefing."

"Affirmative," Harry said, already easing the yoke back toward the direction of the HMS Elizabeth.

It had been just another in a long string of episodes involving the mystery fighter jets that continued to toy with the Royal Navy's finest. Since joining the Mighty Wings squadron four weeks ago, Harry had become privy to the knowledge that he had been denied as a Premier Delta recruit. Apparently over the past four months there had been a series of aerial attacks on planes and ships stationed around the North Sea. There didn't seem to be a pattern to the attacks at first, as no single government had been targeted. The only similarity had been that all the attacks were mounted by what looked to be the same type of plane, Russian crafted MiGs. Russia had adamantly denied the incidents, which was thought to be largely political posturing, but then Russia sent aid in the form of battle ships and surveillance planes to figure out who was trying to use their name to start trouble. After a real Russian fighter jet took out one of the false MiGs, no one questioned their alliance any more.