Beyond the Horizon | Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

Part Eight - Two Miracles

Similarly to the past few days in briefing, we started our day in the classroom. The tension that was previously tangible between the team has since dissolved thanks to Maverick and Hondo's dogfight football on the beach yesterday. All of a sudden, everyone started to seem much more friendly, and much more comfortable with each other. Only time would tell if that same friendly behavior would still be present up in the air.  

Rather than Maverick running our briefing, Warlock steps in and sets his papers on the podium. "Morning. The Uranium enrichment plant that is your target will be operational earlier than expected. Raw Uranium will be delivered to the plant in ten days time. As a result, your mission will be moved up by one week, in order to avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation." At this news, everyone shifts in their chairs uncomfortably, suddenly aware of how unprepared we are for a mission so soon.

"Sir, no one has successfully flown a low-level course," Coyote speaks up.

"Nevertheless, you've been ordered to move on. Captain," Warlock steps away, calling Maverick to the front.

"We have one week to focus on phase two. It's the most difficult stage of the mission. It's a pop-up strike with a deep dive requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles. Two pairs of F-18s will fly in an welded-wing formation. Teamwork, precise coordination of these aircraft are essential to the mission's success and your survival." Maverick turns on the screen which depicts the Phase Two course. "As you know, the plant rests between two mountains. On final approach, you will invert directly into a steep dive. This allows you to maintain the lowest possible altitude, and the only possible attack angle. Your target is an impact point less than three meters wide. The two-seat aircraft will paint the target with laser bullseye. The first pair will breech the reaction by dropping the laser-guided bomb on an exposed ventilation hatch. This will create an opening for the second pair. That's miracle number one," Maverick states, holding up one finger. I make a doubtful sigh.

"The second team," Maverick continues, "will deliver the kill shot, and destroy the target. That's miracle number two." He holds up two fingers. "If either team misses the target, the mission is a failure. Egress is a steep high-G climb to avoid hitting this mountain."

"A steep climb at that speed? You're pulling at least eight G's," Hangman points out in a concerned tone.

"Nine, minimum," Maverick corrects. His tone worries me as he makes this statement sound as if it's no big deal. 

"The stress limit of the F-18 is 7.5," Rooster states.

"That's the accepted limit. To survive this mission, you will pull beyond that. Even if it means bending your airframe. You'll be pulling so hard, you'll weigh close to 2000 pounds. Your skull crushing your spine. Your lungs imploding like an elephant is sitting on your chest. Fighting with everything you have to keep from blacking out.

"And this is where you'll be at your most vulnerable. This, is coffin corner. Assuming you avoid crashing into this mountain, you'll climb straight into enemy radar, while loosing all of your air speed. Within seconds, you'll be fired upon by enemy SAMs. You've all faced sustained G's before. But this is going to take you and your aircraft to the breaking point."

"Sir, is this even achievable?" I ask, full of doubt.

"The answer to that question will come down to the pilot in the box." I gulp nervously.

"Pilots, prepare for take off. You've been briefed on Phase Two, time to give it a run," Cyclone says from the back of the classroom. We wait for them to leave first, before the rest of us head to the locker rooms to grab our things.

As per our usual flying arrangements, I'm flying alongside Phoenix and Bob. Since we're flying out in the desert, we lack the visual of the physical mountains that we'll be flying over when it's time. As for now, we sync up our nav systems which give us an outline of what we can expect, telling us the specific altitudes, speeds, and G's we should be reaching if we're doing it properly.