Young Skies: The Black Acts

CH3

The remaining fighter came back to engage me. I turned around and allowed him to chase me. I had brought the throttle to level-3, flying at 600 knots. The enemy followed closely at about the same speed. You see, I had a plan. 'Pit-choo!' A smoky niner was fired at me. I barrel-rolled to the right, the missile shot by *WHOOSH!* A near miss! The enemy jet followed suit, and yet another missile was fired, which I skillfully dodged. I kept dodging and using flares until he stopped firing. He started firing bullets at me instead, as he appeared to have run out of missiles. As we swayed from side to side, my oppressor trying to shoot me down, and me doing my best to not let that happen, I suddenly looped, barrel rolled mid-loop, and retaliated with another Hell-Fire X. I didn't even wait for the target lock. *Boom!* He blew up, causing flaming metal to rain down all over the sky. I contacted Mission control.

"Jamo!? You survived!?" exclaimed the operator in shock

"Yea, I sent them to heaven," I shuddered as I said that.

"Well kid, you're even more talented than I originally thought," said General Bailey out of the blue.

"General! It's good to hear your voice again. I was downright scared to have had to face two fighters before even my official status as a member of the Air Force."

"I see that you must've handled it well. Tell ya what! Screw the flight test! You've already proven yourself in combat on the field. Now get your butt back over here so we can finish your paperwork by tomorrow!"

"'Hahahahaha.' Thank you sir! I'll be there faster than you left your ex!"

General Bailey could be heard roaring with laughter over the speakers. "You little joker! I'll see you when you arrive. General Bailey out!"

"This is mission control. Splendid job out there, kid! Now RTB."

"Acknowledged. Will be there shortly. Jamo out," I turned the jet around to face southwards and brought the throttle to level-6. The Wings swung backwards to 50 degrees as the jet sped up to Mach 3. An hour later, 40 miles went by and I arrived. I lowered the throttle to level-2, aligned the jet with the runway, applied the air brakes, and landed safely.
*****
February 2, 2006, 5:41 pm.

I was heading over to Tower 1 to have a talk with General Bailey, who had called me earlier that morning, 'said it was urgent.' He had then given me some paperwork to sign, including a contract. When he left, I mostly went over the data about the F/A-14F Tomcat again in my hanger. I further learned about the Sidewinder-54r AA (anti-air) missiles and the specialized laser guided AGM-72 missiles, which are both exclusive only to this fighter. Plus it has four scramjet thrusters on the belly. Cool huh?

Up the spiral stairs I climbed with a troubled spirit. It was about yesterday when I blew up those fighters. Taking lives is a burden, considering I've never murdered anyone before, not even some evil people I've faced in my past. One might even wonder how a 17-year-old such as myself may have ended up in the Air Force. I reached the top.

"Welcome Jamo! Ready for that talk we promised?" He spoke warmly.

"Well, my story is one I'd rather leave in the wind," I replied in a shaky voice.

"Come now son, don't get cold feet on me..." he sounded sincere.

Since he asked so nicely, I might as well have talked about it. "Two years ago, in my Caribbean homeland of Dominica, I was just another secondary school student. I was in, what was called at the time, fourth form. I had a wonderful group of classmates too. I rarely ever did my homework, and was in trouble for it a lot. But that didn't stop me from enjoying my school days. My family was nice too. I never got along with my sister though. Our sibling rivalry was legendary! Life was good all the same." I paused to take sip of the soda I had brought with me. Then I continued, "But everything changed one day when my country was attacked by terrorists. It was so sudden, so uncalled for. I don't know all of the details of the attack. But I do know that my country was ravaged, devastated. Even now I have no idea about the status of my parents and sister..." Tears started rolling down my cheeks. I could almost swear I saw tears welling in Bailey's eyes too. I continued, "All of the students in my school who survived a missile raid were all captured. For reasons unknown to me, I, six of my classmates and a few other students were separated from the others. All I knew was that we were taken as prisoners of war. The names of my classmates were: Marc, Jai, Liza, Nyomi, Cassie and Scarlet. My cousin Nikki was also taken with us. They took us away in a Chinook. It was the last time I ever saw Dominica, which had been reduced from 'the Nature Isle' to a burning wasteland. They brought us to some island in the Pacific ocean. I don't remember much about our stay, but we spent about one and a half years there. One day, a few of us escaped somehow. I remember Marc and I were trying to fly a stolen Chinook with, Scarlet and Cassie on board." I took a moment to catch my breath. "We flew over to one of the Hawaiian islands and got chased by Apaches, but we somehow managed to escape from them. With the Chinook we stole exploding above us! I somehow got separated from the others and the rest is blank."