The Dog Who Flew

Who's Halo?

It was 0500, exactly, and there were tons of other aviators in training here already. There were tons of rumors about a new training pilot coming to NATS this summer, but nobody except for Bravo knew who she was. Apparently they went to BMT together, even though he was a whole class above her. Bravo was giving me the rundown on her.

"Yeah, she's cool. She's like, super smart too. I was a whole class above her but we ended up doing BMT together because the trainer suggested her to our group. She was just too good, far more than advanced in her training and skill levels. She passed every BMT test with flying colors, and then when it was over, she got bumped back down. I think it was because she got a low score on her Air Combat Training test, but she hardly talks about it so I really have no clue," he explained, as I took this all in. Damn, she must be good.

"What position is she applying for?" I ask, hoping it would be something like a Radar Intercept Officer. I'd kill to have her be my RIO, she sounded like a good one.

"She wants to pilot, but she'd be better off as a RIO."

"Ah, okay. Thanks. She's running a few minutes late... Is she really as good as you say she is?" I chuckle jokingly, not seeing any females anywhere on the training site.

Bravo chuckled, folding his arms over his chest and looking up into the sky through his blue (and polarized) aviator sunglasses, "there she is." He points to the sky, a grin spread across his face as a tiny little plane lands on the airstrip a few miles away. This land was pretty much all flat, and the training camp was on flat ground as well, so yeah. You could see for miles and miles.

As it lands, I cringe at the poor flying skills. I couldn't fly a plane, so I couldn't say much, but if I could I'd be flying way better than that. Bravo said that this was the myth, the legend, Halo, but I wasn't too sure. These were some interesting flying skills to say the least. I did not want to be paired with her. I'd much rather prefer Bravo, but he would be graduating before I even got in the simulator. Bravo was good, really good.

He was a whole year older than I was, and he was also the top of his class. I think he got a request for TOPGUN, in Miramar, California. It was where the best of the best went - and Bravo was definitely the best. He was a whole class ahead of everyone, and he was the same age as most here. Except for Halo and I, we were the middle aged class. Bravo said she was about 24, and I was going to be turning 25 in a couple of months, so we were definitely some of the younger pilots in training there.

My attention snapped over to her almost immediately, seeing a dog by her side. One of the rules was that there were absolutely no animals allowed on the premises - ever. So why was she bringing a dog to NATS? The commander is gonna flip when he sees this. This was gonna be good.

I watched her bring all of her stuff over to where all of the other pilots were standing, ready for instruction. After she had everything sat down, her dog sat patiently next to her, and it almost looked like they were sharing a look. A look of nervousness. Commander Spiteri walked out, as we all dropped everything (literally) and stood in our formation. "Attention on deck!" his clipboard guy called. I called them clipboard guys because for one, I don't know their official names, and for two, they are always carrying a clipboard around, following their commander. Most of the time they're annoying. They just bark orders all the time, following around their commander because that's what they do best.

"Cadet Halo!" Spiteri barks, immediately turning in her direction and looking down at her dog. I was wondering at first, who's Halo? And then I remembered. She's the one with the dog. "Yes sir!?" she stood straight up, not looking at him and keeping her jaw set. "In my office now," he orders through gritted teeth, as she clicks her tongue and walks off to the building, following behind Commander Spiteri. Her dog was following behind both of them, panting. It looked thirsty.