Dogfight Part Two: Big Ooopsie!

Posted on Fri Jul 22nd, 2011 @ 8:17am by Lieutenant James Holbridge

Mission: In Our Time of Need
Location: en route to SHOOTEX
Tags: TAG:Smith.

VAMPIRE ONE

Jim kept his ship in a loose, outer orbit of the starbase, along with the rest of the squadron. In the backseat, Politician Leeds skillfully worked the radar and other detection gear as well as calmly painted targeting solutions on the "enemy" ships, despite their retreating to the exercise area. Jim looked down at his master situation display and saw what his WSO was doing and chuckled. "You're gonna piss those fighter jocks off, Pol!"

"What's your point, Longshot?" asked Leeds, paintingt another interceptor with a targeting bullseye. "Just want 'em to get used to that sound!"

"Tolerance, Mr. Leeds!" Holbridge said, adjusting his ship's inertial fix.

"Fuck that, we aren't on the sharp end to tolerate targets, we are there to knock 'em out of the sky!" Pol replied with a laugh

=^=Vampire One, Tower; Bounty Hunter One signals ready and told me to tell you to bring your ass to the turkey shoot!=^= the tower controller said over the radio.

"Tower, Vampire One copies. Okay Vampires Listen up! This is a for real SHOOTEX, they enemy will be shooting at you with powered down phasers and blank torpedoes. They think we're gonna be comin in hot and heavy. I want Slider to take his element east and Whiplash and his boys to go west; I'll take my element in shooting and tear up their formations. Then when they recover and focus on us, you guys close in and tear 'em up!"

The twelve fliers in Vampire Squadron all replied affirmatively to their leader's plan. "Okay boy, peel off now! Politician, find me some Bounty Hunters!"

On Jim's wing, the extra piece of equipment suddenly lit up and began a countdown. In the cockpit, Jim was focused on the upcoming furball....

BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM

Holbridge's fighter began to roll lazily to the right and would not recover, no matter how much thrust Jim fed in. The fighter-bomber began to spin, violently shaking as it did.

"Skipper, we don't have a right wing!" Politician called.

"Shit! Mayday mayday mayday! Bounty Hunter One with catastrophic damage, explosion on starboard wing of unknown origin. Im in a spin!"

=^=Tower to all SHOOTEX, knock it off, knock it off! Your signal is RTB, buster! Vampire One, advise your condition," came the calm voice of the controller.=^=

"I have catastrophic damage to the entire starboard section of the ship! Controls are unresponsive! This thing is a rock and we're bailing out!" Jim called.

"We're what?!" Politician shouted in surprise.

"We're punching out! Say good-bye, asshole!" Jim said, yanking on the ejection handle between his legs.

"Goodbye, asshole!" Politician shouted as they blasted clear of the crippled fighter.

=^=Hang in there, Longshot, CSAR has launched and will be with you in a few minutes!=^= the Tower controller called.

MARINE COMMAND CENTER/ OPS AREA

"Major! One of the Redemption-class fighter-bombers just exploded!" called a young corporal from the MSD.

"What's the status of the crew?" Kamarov asked.

"Both men made it out safely, sir! Tower launched a search and rescue craft, ETA to the fliers is 95 seconds."

"Kamarov to Smith, keep me in the loop on this!"

=^=Will do, sir! Smith out!=^=