Old Witches Don't Fade Away

October 1990

King Khalid Air Force Base Saudi Arabia

23rd Tactical Fighter Wing

HQ 74nd Tactical Fighter Squadron "Flying Tigers"

The paperwork headache was finally getting to Audrey. In frustration, she pounded her desk.

Sergeant Bowers stuck her head in and asked, "Is everything okay, Colonel?"

Audrey sighed. "I'm fine Sergeant, just got a headache from all this paperwork. Could you get Major Simmons in here? I think she may be on the flight line."

Sergeant Bower saluted. "Sure thing, Colonel!" she tossed over her shoulder as she headed out of Audrey's office.

Audrey signed the last of the requisitions on her desk, and gazed in slight wonder at the empty in basket. Taking a gulp of the cold coffee in her mug, she wondered how full it would be tomorrow morning.

The squadron had flown into King Khalid six weeks ago as part of the Desert Shield build up. It had been chaotic, with a lot of the local population torn between admiration and respect for the witches as soldiers and pilots and the tenets of their religion about a woman's place in their society. Being witches that wielded magic as a weapon of war didn't help. But once they showed that magic could be used for beneficial purposes, much of the conflict eased.

Getting the squadron personnel settled down, all of the striker units and aircraft housed properly and then all the ammo, fuel, parts and all the other associated parts and pieces of a tactical fighter squadron ready to fight was a huge task, one that Audrey relied on her staff and personnel to get done. Now that everything was finally in place, a kind of routine settled in.

A witch wearing an A-10 striker rolled down the runway with a thunderous roar and took off on a training flight over the Arabian desert. Audrey watched her climb and turn with sharp pangs of envy. She knew she was well past the age for combat, but it still hurt watching young witches flying after all these years. She leaned back in her chair, and remembered.

Summer 1971

Davis-Monthan AFB Tucson AZ

355th Tactical Fighter Wing

357th Tactical Fighter Squadron

Audrey came back from Vietnam, lauded as one of the heroes in the fight against the Neuroi in the jungle. She was sent to Davis-Monthan, in hope that she would get qualified on the new A-7D strikers, that had replaced the old trusty/rusty A-1Es. She found that they fit and flew even better for her than the old Sandys. Finally, she'd get to fly jets!

It wasn't until her second flight physical after returning, that she started to become concerned. She was almost 20 then, and had found herself struggling to muster enough magic to both fly and put up credible shields at the same time. She knew she was coming to the end of her combat flying career and it terrified her. The Air Force, flying, fighting was all that she had known and grown up with. Giving that up was unthinkable. She had heard the rumors of witches who had flown and fought well into their 50s, compensating for the waning of their magic with a combination of experience, skill and a rigorous physical training regimen.

So, Audrey tried, she really tried. Soon, she was running 20 miles a day and lifting weights for 3 hours a day. But, after a while, she was so exhausted and physically broken down, that she was down to 120 pounds from her normal weight of 150. Finally, the flight surgeon confined her to bed and put her on a 5,000 calorie a day diet. It took four months before Audrey was certified as fit for light duty. The next hurdle was the flight physical.

For the most part, the physical showed that she was in the best shape of her life. Her cardiovascular activity was at its highest point in her career. Same went for her reflexes, stamina, and almost every other physical attribute. When the flight surgeon began testing her magical utilization and capacity, Audrey began worrying. She felt herself straining, that it felt like the magic just wasn't there like it was when she was younger. The flight surgeon spent more minutes going over Audrey's test results and scribbling notes almost furiously in her medical folder. She finished her notes and stood up. "Come with me, Captain" she said as she went back into the corridor and turned right. Being addressed by her new rank was still a shock to Audrey. She had just received her promotion last week, with Brigadier General Cassidy, the wing commander, doing the honors of pinning on her new bars.

The doctor led her to a door at the end of the hallway. She opened it, gestured to Audrey to go in. "I'll be back soon" the doctor said as she closed the door. Audrey looked around the room. It was totally featureless, with a hardwood floor, reminding her of a handball court. Two hidden doors at waist level opened on opposite sides of the room and began firing tennis balls at her. To her credit, Audrey's reflexes were excellent. She dodged the first volley of the cross fire and threw up her shields, her fox ears and tail appearing as she connected to avatar, a red fox. Two more hidden doors in the remaining walls opened up and began firing more tennis balls at her. She threw up more shields trying to summon more magic, but the tennis balls were starting to leak through. After a minute more, her shields failed, pelting her with tennis balls. Once her shields fell, the onslaught stopped, leaving Audrey standing amid piles of tennis balls, sweating and gasping for air. The door opened, and the doctor appeared.

She said, "We're done with your physical today, Captain. I'll be reporting my results and recommendations to General Cassidy when I'm finished. Take the rest of the day off, and report to your squadron CO tomorrow morning."