Chapter 1
Night had fallen and they were out on the runway, the noses of their jets lifting and pointing to the stars. “I have a bad feeling about this,” one of her men said.
“We’ve done this many times,” she said taking a deep breath and steadying her shaky fingers on the side stick. “We all have our NVGS? If any of you are nodding I can’t see it.” A cacophony of yes’ were sung over the radio, “good, I won’t be a laughing stock this time,” her eyes landed on the photograph of her grandmother and she gave it a gentle tap. “I’ll make you proud.” The roars of the engines raced across the starry sky. Georgina loved this time of the day when flying she always found it so peaceful.
“Please don’t tell me that the tanker is far this time either,” one of her men said disturbing her peace.
“No,” she said sternly. The soft clouds caressed their canopies as they flew close to one another but not close enough to touch. Their anti collision lights flashed brightly announcing their presence in the sky.
“They’re not going to know what’s going to hit them,” one of her men said.
“They never do,” she said and fidgeted with her NVGS. She looked over her instruments all was well and her fuel levels were high. She kept her jet steady with her hand locked tightly around the control column correcting it every so often, she gave a quick glance to her rounds that had been loaded into her guns only mere moments before they were due to take off, the weapons crew had been more than generous with her.
“We’re undetected for a reason,” another one of her men said.
“I mean we either fly too high or too low,” Georgina said.
“More like we just how how to stay off the radar,” another said.
“Yep,” she said popping the ‘p’, “not much longer now boys and we’re over the target, we will help the boys to return home.” They could hear the gunfire and explosions as they flew over, but these pilots were hardened to it and desensitised to it. “Reinforcements have arrived!” And with a clunk she loosed her rockets as did the rest of her squadron. The planes too fast to even be locked onto, and with the darkness of cover it made it even harder. The planes circled and circled dropping all the damage they could to help the ground troops.
“I’m running out of fuel!” one of her men exclaimed over the radio. Georgina rolled her eyes and called the nearest tanker.
“Six of you go and six of you stay with me,” she instructed and together they flew high into the sky, lost in the dark clouds waiting for their brothers to return to them. “Hurry up guys! They need us!” All united they dove again to deliver another lethal rain of rockets. Ammunition empty they returned to the nearest base to get ready for another round before the sun showed its face.
