Into the Bombardment

Russian Bias

It was a few months that have passed by, and Autumn had been promoted to fly jets. However, she wouldn't be flying any modern jet. Instead, she was given a Korean war era Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. It was another scorching summer day in South Africa about nine o'clock in the morning, and the barometer hit about seventy degrees fahrenheit outside, without a cloud in sight.

The MiG had its silver paint job from when it previously served in Korea, but its Soviet roundels were replaced by the Atomic Venom Mercenaries roundels on the sides of the jet's fuselage. It also had its twin twenty three millimeter cannons and its signature thirty-seven millimeter cannon; as well its original Rolls-Royce turbojet from when it first flew in 1950.

Before Autumn could go flying in the plane, she was watching a video on YouTube. Upon finishing the video, she was ready to head into the bombardment, she slipped off of the wing of the MiG; and did a walk around inspection of the plane.

On her walkaround, she opened the weapons bay of the thirty seven millimeter cannon and the twin twenty three millimeter cannons, checking to see how much ammunition she had in the cannons' magazines, seeing that there is enough ammunition to fly into the bombardment.

Autumn checked the tire pressure, seeing that the tires needed to have some air put into them. She walked down to the maintenance building, requesting air in her tires, and a refueling.

Thirty minutes passed by, and the MiG was ready to fly, and Autumn was ready to head into the bombardment, as a lone wolf. She slipped her body into the cockpit of the MiG, feeling slightly cramped, and requested a ground power startup, as she switched the fuel lever into flight mode.

As the ground power unit was hooked to the plane's battery, the generator started up, first turning on plane's auxiliary power unit, and then the avionics; as the turbine ignited for the first time since in sixty seven years, letting out it's whistle. During the dawn of the Korean War, when it was flown by a Soviet ace named Boris N. Siskov.

Autumn slipped her oxygen mask on her face, and put her flight helmet on; feeling anxious, she signalled the ground power unit handler to unhook the generator from the plane, to which the man unhooked the generator, signalling Autumn she is clear to taxi to the runway, doing a quick hydraulics systems test, to see the airframe in general is in airworthy condition, and ready to dogfight once again, she disabled the plane's parking brakes, and gently applied ten percent throttle while feeling a slight tremor, feeling the jet slowly move forward.

As Autumn turned the nose wheel, she lined up with the yellow line, and the blue lights on the taxiway, taxiing past an F-86 "Sabre" and a Supermarine Swift, stopping, and activating the MiG's parking brakes to let a Hawker Hunter get in front of her, waiting a few minutes to let the Hunter line up with the blue lights and yellow line of the taxiway.

She then turned to the left, getting in line behind the Hawker Hunter, as well as a Grumman F4F "Wildcat" checking her six to see a P-61 "Black Widow" park behind her, followed by multiple other aircraft.

Autumn took off her oxygen mask, and took a breath in, waiting for the traffic to take off, she took a deep breath in and let it out; turning on the radio in her plane to listen to air traffic control grant the other mercenaries clearance to land and takeoff.

Thirty minutes passed by, and it was Autumn's turn to take off. She contacted air traffic control, requesting clearance to takeoff, to which air traffic control granted Autumn clearance to take off.

Autumn lowered the plane's flaps, and disabled the parking brakes, and applied ninety six percent throttle, to which the MiG jolted forward, rocketing down the runway. When the airspeed indicator hit about one hundred twenty nautical miles, Autumn gently moved the joystick backwards, lifting up the nose wheel of the plane, eventually taking off, raising the MiG's landing gears, and flaps, climbing to twenty nine thousand feet, and flying over the South African terrain.

Feeling free from the ground, Autumn let out a sigh of relief; feeling jovial that she is gracing the skies once again, looking out on the wing, to see she is flying past an airliner; she took her hands off of the MiG's joystick, and let the jet fly freely; as she looked ahead, seeing a dark brown haze, signifying she is closing in on the bombardment.

Deciding to go into the bombardment, she entered a shallow dive into the brown haze, diving onto another MiG-15's six, firing a burst of her cannons, ripping the tail off of the MiG, and recklessly flying through the wreckage of the MiG. Feeling her instinct again, she looked over her shoulder to see a Lavochkin La-15 hot on her tail, she dove steeper, eventually entering a boom and zoom corkscrew, countering the Lavochkin's speed. She fired her twenty threes, and a single thirty seven, ripping the wings off of the Lavochkin, entering a turn to evade a Hawker Hunter, rolling to dodge the hunter's thirty millimeter bullets as she pulled a Split-S maneuver to shake the British jet.

Checking her six once again, she saw the Hunter get blown out of the sky by an FJ-4 "Fury" firing guided missiles, suddenly; the world was in slow motion; she entered a Split-S maneuver again, hopefully outmaneuvering the Fury, checking her six once again, to see an F-86 "Sabre" shoot down the Fury, deciding to go low profile and climb out of the bombardment.

Upon reaching twenty eight thousand feet, she dove once more, onto a Fiat G.90's six, firing a few thirty seven rounds, and a two second burst of the twenty threes, causing a flameout onboard the G.90, corkscrewing to dodge another FJ-4 "Fury" and ripping the wings off of the Fury, flying low over the South African terrain, to leave the bombardment before the other pilots begin to gang up on her.

Upon rounding a plateau on a low level nap-of-the-earth route, and a few hills; Autumn climbed to ten thousand feet; changing heading back to base.

Upon entering her base's airspace and the pattern, she contacted air traffic control to request clearance to land; getting instant clearance to land. She decreased the MiG's throttle, and lowered the flaps and landing gear, bringing the MiG's nose wheel up; flying over a B-57 "Canberra" bomber, softly touching down on the white lines at the end of the runway, she activated the plane's air brakes, and brakes to slow the MiG down, lining up with the yellow line, leading to one of the taxiways; Autumn turned the nose wheel, turning to her right, and entering the taxiway, taxiing to her designated parking spot.

As she taxied into the parking spot, she turned on the plane's parking brakes, and killed the power going to the turbojet, and opened the plane's canopy, climbing out, and taking off her flight helmet and oxygen mask.

After she climbed out, she took off her flight helmet, and walked to her barracks.

Upon arriving to her barracks, she unzipped her flight suit; revealing her denim Manku jacket, and her black shorts, she opened her drawer, and pulled out a pack of newport cigarettes, and her trusty zippo lighter, as well as her phone.

She then walked out of her barracks, back to her jet, and sat down on the wing of the MiG, crossing her legs; and lighting the cigarette, breathing the nicotine in, and holding the smoke in her lungs for a split second, letting out a white smoke cloud, feeling a nicotine rush in her head, feeling relaxed by the buzz she was feeling. She then pulled her phone out of her jacket, looking at Instagram; and then looking up at the blue skies, listening to the sounds of the bombardment, which wasn't too far from the base.

Taking another breath in, and letting the smoke leave her mouth, she felt more relaxed; watching another MiG-15 taxi past, followed by a Grumman F9F "Cougar."

She then finished her cigarette, and put it out, sliding off of the wing of the MiG, walking to the PMC's rec center, watching a Messerschmitt Me-262 "Schwalbe" taxi past her, watching the pilot wave at her, to which she waved back, and winked at the pilot as she walked to the company's rec center.

Upon opening the door of the rec center, she was hit by a cool breeze from the building's air conditioner. Inside the rec center, there were many amenities, and it was spacious inside, and well lit. As she entered the rec room, she was greeted by her fellow pilots, to which she greeted them all back, and sat down on the couch, and turned the television on, looking down at her phone, while listening to the news, putting her glasses on to read an instagram post, eventually putting in her earbuds to listen to some punk rock, stretching her legs and arms, and crossing her legs. She then thought about how lucky she was when the Sabre saved her from getting shot down by the Fury, pondering if she would encounter that same exact pilot again in combat, she then reminisced to first enrolling in the company, remembering how easy it was to be a rookie mercenary.