Aces High

Chapter 6

"I can assure you; my flying is nothing like this." I said, puffing my chest out a bit.

"Then I believe we will get along just fine." He extended his hand out to me. "My name is Georgio. Most know me as Falco." I shook his hand.

"Nice to meet ya. Names Jerome, although you may hear me go by Lightning in the air." We both began chatting, and I learned he's from Greece originally, and found his way into the program much the same as I did.

"Wait, why not the Hellenic force?" I asked, a bit curious.

"Because I didn't want to get stuck flying something I didn't want. Like an F-16 or even an F-4." I scoffed a little when I heard that. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just know a Viper would thrash a Mirage in a fight." I finished off my lemonade, tossed the cup and looked over at the now stunned Mirage pilot. "Did I say something?"

"And I've thrashed your precious vipers many times, cowboy." He retorted.

"Same here with the Mirage." He raised an eyebrow to that. I knew I was talking out my rear, but I couldn't let him say what he said about the viper slide. "You'll see soon enough."

"Ah, Jerome, this is where you're hiding! Who's your friend here?" I recognized the voice. "I'm glad to see you can still socialize." There stood Steven, who was being tailed by a woman. She stood tall next to him; hands interlaced with a bright smile. Even in the low light, one could tell she seemed to be in good mood.

"Oh, it's you..." Steven looked bit hurt at the greeting he got from Gerogio. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just here to make sure my wingman here wasn't spoiling his chances tonight." I chuckled at that.

"Seems like you work pretty fast." I said. I had to say, I was a bit jealous he had managed to catch someone so fast, but I couldn't let that bother me too much. I turned to face the girl and extended a hand.

"Name's Jerome, pleasure to meet ya." She shook it gingerly.

"Khatia. The pleasure is mine. Your friend here talked about how you and he took down a bomber raid heading for your base. Pretty impressive." I gave a look to Steven, and his eyes spoke volumes. The low light couldn't hide that he had exaggerated the sortie a bit.

"Yeah, it was a tricky situation. But we made it through." I said, much to his relief. "Anyways, I think I'm gonna bounce, I wanna be well rested for tomorrow."

"I'll catch up with you." Steven said, giving me a wink. I nodded at the two of them and made my way out of the building.

It was just past midnight, which meant that the first sorties were just taking off. As I was walking, I could hear the whining engines of an AWACS aircraft spooling up in the distance. By the time I was reaching the first of the common areas, it had gone airborne. I checked my watch to see the time, 0030 hours, I had made some good progress towards the quarters I was assigned. Some cars rocketed down the road, heading for the hangars. I honestly felt bad for them, knowing they had to be up at this hour to fly. But sometimes, that's what it took. I was lucky to catch a ride with some of the other pilots staying near our building, but they only took me as far as they were going.

The building I was in wasn't too far, fortunately. As I walked, my mind began to wander. Mostly it was about the mission later in the day. I didn't know what our mission yet, but I guessed it could be one of two things. A standing combat air patrol, or a reconnaissance strike sortie. Either way, just the thought of it somewhat excited me.

I guess I was too caught in my thoughts to hear someone sneaking up behind me, because when I felt a tap on my shoulder, I let out a yelp and spun on a dime to see who had just scared me half to death. There, standing before me was that same pilot I had met during the initial briefing. She just started laughing, I'd assume at my reaction.