The Flin Wars Ch. 14

I bring you the next chapter in the Flin story line, as always this is a work of fiction, and I alone am solely responsible for the content and any mistakes contained herein are by my own hand. As always, any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. If you enjoy reading my works, please remember to like and follow me and as always remember to vote and if you leave a comment, remember to be respectful.

A few more definitions for some of the acronyms that I used in this story.

HMFWIC: Jesus Christ, if you need me to spell this one out, from under which rock has your ass just crawled out from? It means Head Mother Fucker What's in Charge. It has a brother of HMFWTHIC, that's the idiot that thinks he's in charge, usually its some peon that has a overactive view of himself, and delusions of grandeur.

FMP: This is Full Military Power and usually the last stop before the throttles is pushed into after burner mode in military fighter jets.

HUD: This is the Heads-Up Display, this provides the pilot multiple pieces of data such as altitude/vertical velocity, speed, turn/bank, weapons aimpoint and other pieces of information so that the pilot doesn't need to look down and loose his visual lock on a target.

Mach: This is a named after Ernst Mach who discovered it 1929 and is achieved by taking the aircraft faster than 767.2 MPH or 1234.8 KPH at mean sea level. The higher you go the less speed you need to achieve the speed of sound.

Now on with the story.

Date: 230512.12

Time: 1235.02

Location: Sector 64, Gliese 163

I was returning to base after spending a night at Ice Station Kelly at the South pole, I had flown one of the base doctors down to give everyone a quick check up. It was needed before the old crew came back after 6 months of over winter isolation, I had flown this mission before as a flight student, usually one of the kids flew this mission, but they were all out on a long range Navex.

Right now, I had the Doc flying us with Sam's help, I wanted him to be able to at least hold the ship steady and have a working knowledge of the instruments so if something happened to the pilot, he could help hold everything together. 'How you feeling back their Doc?' I asked looking at the top right MFD in my cockpit.

'Uhhh, not bad now Stalker, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this flying thing, I was never very good with the flying video games as a kid.' LCDR. Davy 'Doc' Jones said. He was the Asst. Chief Medical Officer and would be going out to a fleet posting in a few months. 'I liked the mystery games more, wasn't much of FPS gamer either.'

We both laughed as he took us home, at the present time we were over sector 64 better known as the badlands. If you went down here and survived walking out wasn't really highly likely unless you were close to edge, it was thousands of klicks of rocks, canyons, washed out gullies, and sand, sand, and sand.

I sat back and checked the Nav screen, we were on the blue line and would be back at 1627 hours, I had already updated my report and would have very little to do once we landed except turn in gear and head home. I knew that Karen and Flower where at Karls place as Lori had gone back to her ship a few days ago and would be back just after the 25th. I had purposed and she had said yes, it would be after the new year before we would marry. I had called my mother and let her know the happy news and that she was now a grandmother, she said that she would be here soon and hung up.

I smiled at that thought and checked my position yet again and called in. 'Uh, Castle Control, Castle 02 position 13*23'25.6" North by 142*54'11.0" West, estimating base by 1627 over.' I said and cracked the throttles open just a little more. 'Castle 02, Castel Control roger that. Be advised that your guest has arrived and is at the boss's place over.' They replied.

I was glad that I wasn't hot miked, I spent several minutes swearing up a storm, I just knew my mom had arrived and right now was probably making all kinds of plans to take Karen out to the most expensive stores she could find. No matter what I had told her as a kid, she never seemed to hear that I didn't need the top of the line or most expensive of clothes or whatever it was she wanted to buy me.

Doc Jones was sitting in back listening to my rant and laughing his ass off, I glared back at him. 'You do know Doc; you can walk home from here.' I grumped causing him to break into another fit of giggles. 'I'm always so glad that people find my pain so entertaining.'

After a few minutes he seemed to get himself together and took a couple of deep breathes, I had taken back over the flying while he regained his composure. 'I'm sorry Stalker but listening to you rant and rave is funnier than hell, does your mom always do this to you?' He asked as I tried to keep my temper under control. 'She does bring out my anger.' I said and cracked the throttles open even more; I was half tempted to do a suborbital skip but that would only save me less than 15 minutes, so I just held my course and grumbled under my breath.

I noticed a blip on my main screen and asked Sam to ID it, she came back saying that it was Castle 01. I wondered what the hell Karl was doing out here? his AI was Rhonda. She had been with him sense basic flight school, just as Sam had been with me. '01, 02 with you here, ya got a copy on me Joker? over.' I called out. '2 this is 1 go with your traffic Stalker.' He quickly replied.

I quickly brought up the flight schedule, it was one of the things that Instructors could do to keep an eye on things. 'Who you got in the back seat bub?' I asked looking the listings over and seeing the line, I banked to my left to close the distance a bit. 'Oh, just giving Axe a spot check, I want to be sure he's not getting any preferential treatment or is getting moved on just because of who he i........' He was saying then a loud burst of static cut him off.'

'Joker come in... Joker come in; do you copy?' I said as his icon went from green to flashing red. 'Joker come in do you read me? Sam.' I said. 'Rhonda is reporting a massive electrical surge John she is attempting to restore emergency control to Captain Murphy.' She told me as I watched him lose altitude at a rapid rate. 'Castle Control, Castle 02, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. 01 is going in, launch CSAR assets to my location.' I said and read off my exact location.

'Joker, eject, get out, Axe if you read me eject, eject, eject. Punch out kid.' I said loudly, telemetry told me he was now at 3500m and dropping at 295mps, he didn't have a lot of time left. 'Rhonda 8411 initiate Alpha 23 activate, over.' I said and hoped she'd heard me. I watched my screen and suddenly there was 2 blips, and we heard the emergency beacon start transmitting. I breathed a large sigh of relief and reported it.

'Castle Control, Castle 02, 01 has ejected, status unknown we are 12 mikes out.' I gave them my location and Joker and Axes location; I had Sam bring up the Terrain Following Radar (TFR) to get a better look at where they might land. I wasn't thrilled at what came back, they were going down in a bad area. 'Castle 02, Castle Control state fuel status and time remaining over.' I looked down as Sam brought up the pertinent info. 'Control, 02, 10.4, time on station 4 plus 15. Requesting Texico assets scramble. over.'

Within a few minutes I could see the remains of Jokers bird and quickly there after found his pod, luckily it was not down in a gully or on a cliffside. I slowed and circled around looking for a place to try and set down, I spoke with Angle 23 and gave them an update on what I was seeing. I vectored my engines and opened the VSTOL engine vents and dropped the gear. 'Get ready Doc, I'm going to try and put us down as close as possible.' I told Doc Jones. 'I'm ready back here Stalker." He replied.

I activated several switches that I hadn't used in a while and used my downward looking cam to see where I was going to touch down at. I let Sam handle the throttles during our descent and I tried to keep one eye on the screen and the other on the damaged escape pod. I hoped they weren't injured to badly; they should have at least tried to open the canopy by now.

We finally touched down after what felt like hours of descending, I gave Sam flight autonomy in case something started happening that would result in her possible damage or destruction. Doc and I climbed out and I opened the travel pod and pulled out his bags, we quickly hiked over to the pod, and I noticed all the scorching on the exterior of the pod as I opened the access door for the emergency canopy release, and it's pull 'T' handle.

'Watch it Doc.' I said and yanked hard on the handle. The small explosive bolts fired and a 4000kps tank then pushed it up and away, I heard it hit and we both moved in. I checked Karls's status on his wrist gauntlet, is showed that he had leg and back injuries, and I opened his face plate and then my own. 'Karl, Karl wake up asshole and report.' I called to him then looked at the back cockpit where Doc J was checking Axe over.

'Doc what's your status?' I asked keeping one hand on my friend. 'The kid has back and leg injuries according to his gauntlet, he's pretty much out of it. How's the boss?' He replied. 'About the same injury wise, do what you can to stabilize them both, I'll go report in.' I said and released Karl as I headed for Sam. I plugged into the external comm cord and contacted Angle 23.

I gave them a quick update on what we had found and were doing to help

stabilize them even further prior to them arriving. I went back to the downed pod and helped Doc J lift the kid out and to gently set him down in the shade. We were lifting Karl out when he came to and let out a loud scream then dug hid fingers into my armored shoulder.

'AHHHH FFFUUUCCK... Jesus John what the hell, shit, shit, shit, fuck'n hell.' He yelled at me as we sat him down finally. He sat back and groaned in pain as I popped his helmet off and then his gloves. 'Fuck, Angala is going to kill me, that is if you and this other hack don't do the job for her first.' He told us. I just laughed and opened up the survival vest he was wearing and pulled out some water for him to drink,

'Angi will kill me if I let your dumbass die, ya jackass, besides you think I want to be running this 3 ring Tadmor swinger circus? Oh, hell no ya silly shit, you still have 11.5 months left in the front office.' I told him knowing that for at least the next 30 days I was going to be the HMFWIC while he was healing up. Depending on how long he took to heal up it might be 45 to 60 days, FUCK! I thought to myself.

CSAR arrived on scene 90 minutes later, Axe was awake and in pain in the same locations as Karl was, Doc J had stabilized both of them the best he could with the gear he had on hand. Both were placed on spine immobilizers and lifted into the shuttle which quickly lifted off, I waited for the recovery crew to arrive. They were on scene 45 minutes later and quickly hooked the pod up, I had pulled Rhonda's module and placed it in with Sams to receive power I had already reviewed what had happened and the possible causes.

Doc had gone with the CSAR crew to provide additional medical support; the recovery crew helped me mount up and I quickly lifted off and powered for home. I snuggled up behind a tanker bird and sucked in 11,000 kilos of fuel, after breaking away I went to FMP in order to make up for lost time. Looking at the HUD I could see that I was pushing Mach 2.7 or over 3333 KPH.

I contacted Castle control and was informed to report to Intel for an accident review. FUCK ME, I told myself knowing that I would be there for at least 2.5 to 3 hours as they asked me the same questions over and over again. Luckly no one had died, or we'd be there half the night and I might never get home.

It was 1924 hrs. when I finally shut down and crawled out and handed Sam over to Billy and his sidekick Cindy, we spent a few minutes talking about what had happened and that Joker and Axe would more than likely be back flying in a few weeks. I told them to spread that around through the troops and not to add anything to it.

I hopped into the van after the crash investigation officers had pulled Rhonda's module from its spot, upon entering life support the pilots started asking questions as to what had happened, I had to shut them all down. I did let them all know that both were alive, and I hoped to have them back in a week or 2. Walking into my office, Knuckles was sitting in my chair smoking a cigar waiting for me, I laid down on the couch.

'You look like shit Stalker; I looked the data over you sent me.' He quietly said. 'Once the pod gets here, I'm going to take it apart one screw at a time to find out what happened. If any of my people were involved, I'll string their ass up from an engine hoist and beat the crap out of them.' He got up and headed for the door. 'I'll give you what's left Stalker, once I'm finished with them.' He stepped out the door as Karen, Flower, my mother and Heman stepped in.

"John is that any way to greet your mother?' Helen Bishop, my mom asked. I looked up at her as Karen and Flower knelt down and hugged me tightly. 'Daddy, we expected you home hours ago.' Karen said. 'Then we heard someone had crashed and Fower and I were so scared, but Grandma said if it was you that you'd be okay.' I had had to eject twice before, and it put a huge strain on our relationship. She felt this was too dangerous of a carrier for me to pursue, I knew that she'd be much happier if I got out and went to work on the trade floor with her firm.

I hugged my girls to prove to then that I was alright, then got up and hugged my mom and kissed her forehead. 'Hi mom, nice to see you again, have the girls been keeping you on the run all day?' I said as 2 officers came in and nodded to me. 'Mom, I need you and the girls to leave, I have to take care of this debrief, I'll be home as soon as I can. Dev, take them home for me please.' I told them and gave each a quick kiss then shuffled them out the door.

The next 2 plus hours were a pain in the ass as we went over each step over and over again in detail to make sure that we missed nothing. Sam's data module showed everything from her point of view and Rhonda's showed the same right up to the point of the power surge. The voice recordings kept up showing the confusion in the cockpit and finally my override order and command to eject came through.

The time stamp showed that only 57.913 seconds had elapsed between the loss of power and my commands to eject was recorded by both modules. Rhonda's module was being fully analyzed by the base AI Allan; he had found several anomalies that were passed along to the maintenance office which had assembled an investigation team. Knuckles reported that the pod had arrived and was being imaged and inventoried as we spoke.

We went over to see the pod and I was asked several questions as to what I had done and seen at the crash site. Knuckles directed a team to start removing panels and to have each module removed, inspected and tested. Each was watched by 2 other officers and all test results sealed along with the piece in question until the investigation was completed. the suspect pieces were removed and subject to multiple tests and again the results sealed as was the repair logbook and all data

regarding tail number 22-2319, AC serial # 724602319.

It was nearly midnight when I finally got home and flopped down on the couch in the living room. I was exhausted but I was relieved, I had talked to both Karl and Adam in the hospital, and they would remain there for at least 2 to 3 days. I quickly raided the fridge and then hopped in the shower and around 0100 finally crawled into bed with Flower who curled up tightly to me as I fell asleep.

'John, John, wake up honey it's 8:30, time to get up.' Helen said tapping my foot. My eyes popped open, and I looked around trying to get my bearings, Flower came in holding my coffee cup on a tray and sat it on the nightstand next to the bed. 'Morning Master, what would you like for breakfast?' She asked as my mom pulled out a uniform for me to wear.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and set my feet on the floor, God I felt like shit, I knew I had gotten 7 hours of sleep, but it wasn't restful sleep. I'd had dreams of finding Karl and Adam both dead in their pod and having to tell both Angala and the Admiral that they were dead, needless to say it had been a shitty night. I took a few sips of coffee to help jump start my heart and get my brain up and running. My mom was giving orders for breakfast as I quickly got dressed and walked out into the dining room.

I found Adm. Klingman sitting there drinking a cup of coffee as I came in, my mother was sitting next to him, and they were chatting away like old friends. I sat down and Flower brought me over another cup of coffee and a plate of food, I quickly chowed down as both my mom and the Admiral watched me eat.

'John you're not flying today; I've called a 24-hour safety halt for everyone to take a break and a breath.' He said. I swallowed what I had in my mouth and looked at my watch, it was after 0900 and right now the 2 top dogs were nowhere to be seen. I knew I could rely on the other instructors to keep the wheels on the track, but ultimately it would be Karl and I who would find our nuts on the chopping block if something went south on our watch.

'How's your son Sir? I talked to both of them last night and they were in pain but from what I was told they would be out tomorrow, day after latest.' I said and filled my mouth again. 'According to the SMO, both will be released tomorrow and are being given a 15-day mandatory recovery stand down.' He said and sipped some coffee. 'Then they'll have to pass a flight physical and review board.' I nodded knowing what a pain in the ass they were.

30 minutes later I was in my office and pissing on several fires that Karl should have handled, but seeing how he was in the body shop still, I was the designated fire fighter for the next few weeks. 2 hours after that I was out in maintenance as Knuckles show me the spots where the surges had started that had knocked out the primary and secondary comms systems, most of the flight systems and several other systems.

I asked the 64 billion credit question, could this have been an accident, bad maintenance, a general overload or something else? He looked at me and told me he didn't think it was an accident or a general overload, to many separate systems had failed at just the right times to cause a cascading failure. He couldn't say that it wasn't sabotage. but there was that possibility still on the table.

I told him to go through each fighter with a fine-toothed comb and find if someone was playing for keeps. I left knowing that what would happen to that person when Knuckles got ahold of them would not be pretty, I'd learned long ago, not to question his methods for getting things done.

I left and called base security stating that I wanted 24/7 checks done on the flight line and roving patrols checking everyone who came and went and what work was being done. As far as I was concerned there was just too much free foot traffic through the flightline and hardstand areas. I called the Admirals office and asked for an appointment today to speak with him. I needed to get more security around the birds, I didn't want to lose anyone during training.

I called an all-instructors meeting for just after lunch and laid out my plans for the next few weeks before the Christmas break. I wanted the kids pushed hard and anyone who was lagging behind would be staying here on base, I would speak to the Mess Officer to make sure that the enlisted who were staying had a good meal for both Christmas and New Years eve and New Years Day. The students were assembled in the ready room and given the low down on what would be happening over the next few weeks, I gave everyone a chance to put forth an effort so that they wouldn't be stuck on base over the holidays and incur my wrath, I wanted to relax and play with Karen, Lori and Flower.