Beyond the Horizon | Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

Part Five - Test Runs

After the 200 pushups I wake up the following morning with sore arms. I can only hope for today that our mission training won't turn into even more excessive exercising. I climb out of bed, put on my flight suit, and fix my hair into another tight bun.

Rather than sitting in a hanger the way we did yesterday, today's briefing is to be held in a classroom on base. On my way out of the dorm, I grab a muffin that I slowly snack on as I walk in a few minutes early. I see Phoenix and Bob sitting together with an empty row beside them, and I go join them.

"We finally get to know what our mission is. You ready?" Phoenix says with an eager smile. She's almost bouncing with excitement. Part of me is wondering if she's had more caffeine than she can handle, or if she's just that giddy about the mission. In stark contrast, Bob sits beside her still as a statue. The only perceptible emotion on his face is one of pure worry.

"Always am, wingman," I say calmly. I look up to see who else is in the classroom. My sight reaches Hangman, to which he responds by winking at me. An uncomfortable chill is sent down my spine. I clench my jaw before dragging my eyes away from him. I continue to look around before my attention is brought to Rooster who is seated in the row behind me. Seeing that he's in better spirits than when I left him yesterday, I give him a curt smile (which he returns), and I sit down.

Punctual as ever, Maverick walks into the classroom, notebook and pen in hand. "Morning, aviators," he greets us with a charming smile. He turns to face the three screens on the wall behind him, all three brandishing the shiny logo of the US Navy. The emblem disappears as Mav turns on the screens. What appears is a map of what looks like a mountain range and a timer set to three minutes.

"Time is your greatest enemy. Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams." He presses a button on the remote sitting on the podium he stands at. The screen changes to a zoomed-in map of a canyon. "you'll fly along this low-level canyon in approach to your target. Radar guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area. These SAMs," he pauses, "lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above the canyon. Not below."

"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them," Rooster chips in. Maverick turns to look at Rooster with a sharp glare. 

"That's exactly what I'm going to train you to do." I can hear from behind me, Rooster lets out a troubled sigh.

"On the day of the mission, your altitude will be 100 feet. Maximum." I draw my eyebrows together in skepticism. "You exceed this altitude, radar will spot you and you're dead." The screen shows an animated F-18 flying above the altitude line and getting hit by a SAM. "Your airspeed will be 660 knots. Minimum." With every detail Maverick adds, this mission steps even further out of the realm of possibilities. "Your time to target, two and a half minutes. That's because fifth generation fighter jets will be waiting at a base near by. In a head-to-head with these planes in your F-18s. You're dead.

"That's why you need to get in, hit your target, and be gone before these planes even have a chance at catching you. This makes time your greatest adversary." He pauses, looking at all of us with an intense stare. "You now know the parameters of this mission. ATC has arranged for you and your teams to go up and run through the course. Your nav system will simulate the canyon that you'll be flying through on the day of the mission. The faster you navigate this canyon, the harder it will be to stay under the radar of these SAMs. The tighter the turns, the higher the force of gravity on your body multiplies. Compressing your lungs, forcing the blood from your brain, impairing your judgement and reaction time.

"So for today's lesson, we're going to take it easier on you. Max ceiling of 300 feet, time to target, three minutes. Good luck." And with that, Maverick leaves us to get into our teams and prepare for flight.