"Captain Dash! I specifically requested you keep your boots off the desks!" shouted the briefer.
Dash, who had been leaning back in her chair dozing off, snapped to sitting attention. Shaking dreams of little pastel Pony's out of head. Her Rainbow bangs fell in front of her eyes and she brushed them aside.
"Our Marine boys on the ground are requesting heavy air-support. We have a Specter Gunship inbound but it will not get there fast enough."
"Damn slow, those C-130's," Lieutenant Lane muttered from the back of the class.
"You will be scrambling immediately," went on the briefer as though no one had said anything. That was the best part about being in Wonder Bolt squadron, we flew how we wanted in what we wanted. No one cared as long as no one got hurt and the job got done quickly.
"You will be flying A-10's loaded for close support action." No surprises there, the F-35's they usually fly were still having system updates. Plus, no other plane could do this job as effectively and efficiently as the A-10.
"The Marines you are supporting are elite Marine Recon units that were on an intel recovery mission, needless to say, they been exposed." The mission briefer pointed to a red circle on a map of South America. "They are here and have already been engaged," he pointed a little north if the circle, "These are heavy vehicles moving to there position." Dash nodded happily with a grin on her face, heavy vehicles usually involved easy potshots.
"You will have two F-22 Raptors as an escort for any airborne threats," he said.
"So the Chairforce wants a little glory in this mission?" pipped up Captain Fire behind her. The entire room was filled with sighs and mutters about how useless the Airforce was.
The Briefer ignored them and circled three spots positioned around the Marines, "These are confirmed SAM sites, you will have to stay below 250 feet to avoid being engaged." A lot of "Yes!"'s sounded around the room. High speed low altitude barely brushing treetops, great fun.
"Dismissed," the Briefer said.
"Let's go get 'em!" said Captain Dash to the rest of her squad of six top flyers.
She walked out the door onto the tarmac while putting her aviator shades on, heading for her customized A-10. Lieutenat Lane ran up next to her and said, "Man, you look good in that flight suit,"
She look over at him, "You should know by now that petty comments about my bode' won't even get you a second look," she said smiling.
"Hey, never hurts to try," he responded with.
"With other women it doesn't," she said, not so lightly punching his shoulder.
"Ow! I need that!" he exclaimed rubbing his shoulder while she laughed. They were getting close to her bird which was parked at the end of the line, closest to the runway.
"God she's beautiful," said Lane. She looked at the decals on her bird and nodded. It had the traditional shark mouth on the nose, but at the cockpit was a long piece of rainbow lightning. The base started at both the front and back of the cockpit and stretched down and back at 45 degrees, tapering down a little. Before it reached the bottom of the plane it jagged back up before tapering to a narrow point at the base of her wing. Dash knew from being with it that the same was repeated on the other side, both being colored in strips going down the length of it. On the right wing, there was a 4 foot wide stretch of rainbow colors starting at the tip and coming towards the cockpit. The colors were in rows in when looked at from the cockpit.
"See, that's how you get my attention. You compliment my bird." she said.
"I'll remember that next time," he said.
"Next time? Good luck with that," she taunted.
He stopped and held his arms out, pretending to be hurt. "This cold hearted mistress will not return my feelings! Why!" he shouted at the sky.
She turned around and started walking backwards. "Want me to make you jealous?" she called. He looked at her confused, "My heart belongs to the plane behind me!" She ran over to her plane and pretended to make out with the shark face decal He held a hand over his heart as if he'd been shot. She turned and ran to the other side of her plane, and vaulted herself into the cockpit. Completely ignoring the service ladder set aside for her use. She stood in the cockpit hunched and picked up her helmet out of the seat and sat down. She gazed at the helmet. It was cyan with a rainbow thunderbolt greatly similar to the one on her plane. She slid it on and checked the mic.
"Wonderbolt squadron, this is your Captain speaking," some predictable snickers sounded in her helmet."We will be proceeding to runway soon, I assume you all know the basic operating procedure for clean take offs. Once airborne head to primary objective immediately." she signed off. She buckled herself in and started up her engines. She then checked her flaps to make sure they all moved properly and closed the hatch. The giant twin turbines behind her growled and roared. "Oh, listen to the big baby purr!" she said to herself. She throttled her engines slightly edging forward. With a deft hand, she centered the plane along the taxing lane eerily dead center. Dash checked behind her and saw Lieutenant Lane behind her in his dark grey A-10. Behind him, 2nd Lieutenant Forth was in her bird with vine decals along the fuselage. Second flight, led by Captain Fire and consisting of the remaining three pilots, would wait until First flight was airborne before beginning their taxi to take off.
Captain Dash completed her last turn and then stopped a little way away from the last turn. Lieutenant Lane Call-sign; ThunderLane, formed behind her and to her right. 2nd Lieutenant Forth Call-sign; BlossomForth formed up behind ThunderLane and waved her flaps to signal she was ready. "Tower, this is RainbowDash, requesting permission for take off for me and the rest of flight one."
"RainbowDash, this is tower, permission granted. Take off immediately." Dash had been waiting for those last three words. She slammed the throttle forward and accelerated quickly past 160 knots. The plane started jerking and slightly bucking from the non-perfect tarmac.
She reached 200 knots and pulled the yoke slightly towards her and felt the nose of the plane barely lean upwards. She pushed the throttle down harder, rocketing toward the end of the runway. She glance at her speedometer which read at 250 knots. She whipped her eyes back to the runway, getting as close to the end as possible. The planes jerking and bucking became more pronounced. The end was racing towards her, she forced herself to calm down and concentrate. Ten feet from the end she jerked the yoke into her stomach and felt the G-Forces from the sudden pull up, push her down into her seat. She strained to keep her head up and forward. She pulled her head over to her altimeter that read 250 feet. She pulled the throttle back to keep from accelerating. She leveled off and thirty feet behind her and ten feet to her right, ThunderLane formed up behind her and behind him, BlossomForth.
"Adjust heading towards point 163 degrees South. We will be arriving on site in less then 15 minutes, I say let's make it 8. This is only a bunny hop flight guys and gals, push your birdie past 350 will ya?" without waiting for an answer Dash pushed the throttle back down and blasted off.