Cowboy Casanova

19

"Time is your greatest enemy," Dad said, standing in front of his students. I reclined in the airplane-style chair in our briefing room. My eyes were glued to the three minutes displayed behind dad. "Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two plane teams." The screen shifted as dad clicked a button on his remote, showing a canyon with a flight pattern going through it. "You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target." An image of SAMs popped up on the screen. The way they were positioned on the mountain was curious. They could shoot us from above or below. How the hell are we gonna pull this off? "Radar-guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area. These SAMs are lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below."

"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them." Bradley spoke up, making me look over at him.

"That's exactly what I'm gonna train you to do." Dad said confidently, looking at Bradley. I smirked, ready to listen to what else we were going to have to do for this mission. "On the day, your altitude will be one hundred feet maximum." That caused my eyes to go wide, surprised being an understatement. My eyes met Bradley's before I looked back at my dad. "You exceed this altitude, radar will spot you and you're dead." Dad explained further. "Your airspeed will be 660 knots minimum. Time to target, two and a half minutes." I was used to going fast, but it was when I was messing around. This made me nervous. It was such a tight space. The graphic changed on the screen, revealing information about our enemy and their jets. "That's because fifth-generation fighters wait at an airbase nearby." Dad continued. "In a head-to-head with these planes in your f/a-18s, you're dead. That's why you need to get in and hit your target before these planes even have a chance of catching you." Dad's eyes locked onto mine. If I was going to go on this mission, he needed me to prepare so I would die. I looked away, looking at Jake, but his eyes were already on me. "This makes time your greatest adversary." His voice was very serious as he spoke. He knew we had never gone through something like this. "You'll fly a route in your nav system that simulates the canyon... So for today's lesson, we're going to take it easy on you. The max ceiling is three hundred feet, time to target is 3 minutes. Good luck."

The first ones in the air were Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote. Coyote dragged his feet a bit causing them to be in a minute and 30 seconds. They increased their speed, but the simulation ended when Phoenix and Bob's plane went above the ceiling and they "died."

Next up was me and Hangman. I flew speeding through the canyon with Hangman close behind. "Speed the hell up, Banshee!" Jake's voice rang through the com set.

"No, we're going at the required speed any faster is too much of a death wish!" I shouted back, only speeding up a little. Jake cursed through the coms. We had made it to the site, but not on time. Less than 30 seconds off. Hangman gave me a look that said 'I told you so' and I mentally cursed at myself for letting Hangman be right about something.

Next was Hangman, Payback, and Fanboy. Hangman was already annoyed by the previous failure and my unwillingness to speed through the course. He pushed his plane faster, causing his wingman to fall behind and crash into the simulator's canyon wall.

Fritz, Harvard, and Yale were up next, but they didn't make it through the simulator - Fritz had clipped the simulator's canyon wall and caused Harvard and Yale to also fail. Coyote, Omaha, and Halo flew after and had just as much luck, flying a little too tight around the corners.

Then it was time for me and Rooster, with Rooster in the lead. "Rooster, you need to speed up!" I yelled at him through the coms. "If I didn't get there in time, neither will you!"

"We will make up time in the straightaway." I cursed at him under my breath.

"We have 5th gens on our ass now?!" I shouted back.