"Contact"
"Main Engine Start"
THUD.
Major Alus 'ARAD' Rodrie's body winced as the power from the two L-79s rippled through the aircraft, pushing it forward at blinding speed. The runway ahead disappeared in a blur as the airspeed rose. 140, 150, rotate....
The Arkbird screamed into the pitch black night around Dessert Air Force Base. The most secretive airspace in the Confederacy, Dessert was silent as a mouse save for the two orange streaks of light pushing the most advanced aircraft in the world into the night sky. Major Rodrie pulled back on the stick, executing his climb maneuver as ATC cleared him for Flight Level 650. As the nose pushed up, the aircraft passed mach 1 like it was a light breeze. No sonic boom could be heard from the cockpit as the aircraft pushed further into the sky.
Eighty seconds into the flight, Maj. Rodrie flipped the switch to initiate Closed-cycle operation of the Logi L-79 engines. Now operating well above 25,000m, he checked the onboard Ballistic Guidance system for expected altitude pullout. He selected Flight Level 580 as his cruise altitude, then continued to monitor engine readouts as the sky revealed its stars through the rapidly thinning atmosphere. The next fifteen minutes were spent correcting his altitude and downwind trajectory, and as he flew over the South Pole he pulled the engines to flight idle and his WSO began readying the mission payload bay. "Cameras Green" Captain Bouvinceau 'Buck' Yogril said from the back seat. A major course correction to take him west of Basil was performed, though it meant his flight path would leave him farther West after Baskay and over Irsmuncast and North Point as he left the target area.
The clouds over the Inner Baskay were roiling, with thunderstorms and high clouds that would threaten all but the most rugged airliners. Rodrie looked down on them from above, as he sped over his multi-spectrum cameras clicked away to the left and right, forward and back. The clouds parted over East hook, and for a moment his eyes stared at the majesty of the island from above. Then looking left, to the PVC, right to Basil, as the clouds cleared he could see below him the Basilian Peninsula rapidly approaching. His RWR began lighting up as dozens of search radars began tracking him. He knew he was violating their airspace, despite his best efforts to reroute west. His timer started - if they were over a foreign country for longer than two minutes he'd be getting a very angry phone call when he returned to base - if they returned to base. "That's a lot of SAM sites!" Yogril said - more RWR hits as their radars flicker on. "I have to turn down the volume on the RWR, gimmie a sec" Below, the cameras pick up roofed and open air depots, tanks and vehicles pressed track-to-track, wheel-to-wheel, in the thousands. Rail yards unload more tanks from trains from the East. A half dozen airbases dot the landscape, and hundreds of fighter jets sit out on the tarmac. Still more assumed to be in the large hangars surrounding the sites, and the radar anti-air defending them staring up as the Arkbird passed overhead.
His heart pounded as the cameras clicked away silently. Fourteen... Fifteen... Sixteen... the RWR stopped screaming. He was over International water once again. "They just tried to give us hell didn't they?" Yogril said from the back seat. Rodrie chuckled. He breathed a sigh of relief as he prepared for the next incursion. The process repeated as he flew over Irsmuncast. Below, he could see the cities and towns, and he knew there were more than a few people down there who wanted to see him shot down. More RWR pings, but nowhere near as many as before. He was out over the Tau sea in twenty seconds, and the cockpit returned to its eerie silence.
Two minutes after the incursion over Basil, he saw the lights of North Point in the evening sun glint off the spires of the skyscrapers. The UIF knew of the overflights and had been informed, but there were still a few hits on RWR as he passed over - just five seconds to traverse the island. Now he settled into landing procedures. With the engines shut down, the Arkbird coasted, slowly decaying its airspeed. He would be landing in twenty minutes.
The silence in the cockpit was drowned out by Major Rodrie's thoughts. Pre-landing checklists, tuning into the COMSAT in polar orbit to request clearance to descend from ATC, checking the health of the airframe... and reentry. The heat was slowly climbing, even before he crossed the North Pole. "Hey ARAD, we're the fastest Polar Explorers ever!" Yogril said from the back seat. Rodrie's eyes were glued to the Ballistic Guidance system, trying to put the nose on the safest route home. "We're getting a little hot back here" his WSO said in a less than cool voice. They were a few hundred kilometers from Dessert still, and they'd need more gas to get home. "Cactus, this is Speedbird One, requesting Drinks at the Debulist" was Rodrie's cool voice over the radio. "Roger, Speedbird, we have a bartender standing by at your Zero-Zero Four, 500 kilo." As they descended into the twilight over the Krator, the morse code indicating their onboard computer had successfully completed a handshake with their tanker. They'd be in range and speed in another minute.
Somewhere out in the dark, Standard Five Four was flying north-south holding patterns off Debulist, waiting. "Speedbird One we have you, care for a drink?" The Arcovdonian pilot's accent a fresh sound to the crew of the Arkbird. "I'll take two-zero, maneuvering to pre-contact" Major Rodrie said as he slipped the big black jet into position under the Stratotanker. Gingerly maneuvering the jet into the recepticle, the pair flew on over the water as the big tanks filled up. Breaking contact, Rodrie turned the big jet toward Dessert.
Fourty-Five minutes after takeoff and 8,000km later, Major Rodrie put the Arkbird on final approach to runway 36 at Dessert Air Force Base. It was just as dark as when he had left, the instruments dull glow the only guiding hand into home. Slowly touching down, the big jet rolled out onto the end of the runway and shut down, its mission complete. Four teams of ground crew came out of waiting trucks to perform post-flight inspections, collect the precious camera data, and de-planing the crew, which involved unstrapping them from their heavy pressure suits and relieving them with cold water and medical attention, if needed. Rodrie and Yogril hopped in the waiting Logi F-250 and began the drive back through the dark twoards the hangars, their mission complete.
