ACES Online

Chapter 5 - Bring Down the House

Lisbeth would be the first to admit that she wasn't exactly a girly-girl. Sure, she could get dressed up and enjoy herself like that - and she did, from time to time IRL - but she was also what her parents described as a tinkerer. She took a keen interest in technology, and more importantly, how that technology worked. What was connected to what, and how that related to another component, and how the fine balance of those components allowed it to function, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that... though possibly not to her parents, who still believed that her first phone had met its fate under the wheels of a car, rather than an improvised prying tool, as she tried to remove the back of it without heating the rear glass.

That interest had been narrowed down somewhat as she grew older, zeroing in on the world of aviation and the fine balance of engineering that industry demonstrated. How the specific components of a high-bypass turbofan worked, the intricate system of hydraulics and just how minute the tolerances were. Even the slightest of errors, and a perfectly designed aircraft could be left a smouldering wreck of twisted metal and scorched earth. It was a morbid thought, even when she wasn't in a game of death, but she'd found it kept her mind on the job at hand.

That job was fixing a number of cannon holes in an F-102A Delta Dagger, one of which had been where the remains of an unexploded shell had made its way into the J57, and was, at least according to its pilot, beginning to sound like a brick in a washing machine.

As it had turned out, that wasn't the only problem the F-102 had, given a 23mm shell was now lodged in the landing gear, and even more annoyingly for her, in the weapons bay mechanism. Lisbeth could appreciate a classic design when she saw it, but this Delta Dagger was turning into a massive headache for her, and the pilot of the craft had not helped with that. From the moment he'd stepped out of the plane, she'd known that he wasn't going to be an easy customer to deal with. The way he'd stepped out, his walk feeling like something you'd see from a Hollywood movie about ace pilots in the past, and the posture of someone who knew exactly what they wanted, and heaven be damned if they weren't going to get it. The sky blue hair, and arrogant smile had reinforced her expectations of the guy, and to paraphrase a song, that didn't impress her much...

He'd asked... well, it was more told, her what he expected, and that was to have his plane as good as new - or if she wanted the extra cash, better - before the next mission. She'd told him, in no uncertain terms, that she'd fix it to the best of her abilities and that he'd have his craft back when he got it as she was busy with other work...

Admittedly, that was a lie, but it wasn't as if she was going to drop everything to fix this tool's fighter. Unfortunately, that only works when you actually have other work, as Lisbeth had discovered. The past few days had been spent working on the F-102 out of spite, if anything - she would get it back in time, and it would be the best aircraft in the game, bar none, because she had made it so!

Which explained the headache she was starting to get, as she removed the missile bay door and the remains of a 23mm shell dropped onto the floor. Whoever said the life of a military mechanic was glamourous was not only wrong, but they were a complete liar too!

Deciding that the best option at the moment was to go and take a fifteen minute break, and then come back to it, Lisbeth put her tools down and walked to the other side of the hangar, to the vending machine. As she looked around though, she noticed an aircraft that hadn't been there earlier - a burnt out hulk of metal, in only the most vague outline of an aircraft. She could tell that the aircraft had once had a shock cone in the front, along with being a single seater, but that was as far as she could identify it. It was a sad sight to someone with an engineering mind, but this was the military, seemingly, and the aircraft looked as if it had been through every warzone imaginable...