The sound of the engine was all that could be heard that night in the sky. Each man within the plane was lost to his own thoughts, his own fears. Hoping, praying to reach the ground and eventually return home safe.
Beside his buddies Bill sat, consumed in thoughts of his family, wondering when he would see them next.. If he would see them or become another life lost like his brother.
Shaking himself from those distracting and dangerous thoughts he scanned his surroundings. He could see from where he sat the men he had trained with, his comrades, who he had shared blood, sweat and tears with before they had even left America. Many of them looked lost in such thoughts as had previously occupied him but a few met his eye and gave him their best attempt at a smile, weak that it was.
He could see Lt. Winters by the plane exit talking to the British SOE agent that decided to tag along on this merry adventure. Bills lip curled into a snarl when he remembered hearing the news that this poser would be jumping with them, the pure shock from the boys when Winters had admitted very reluctantly at mess that morning that the newcomer didn't have any experience jumping from an airplane and the pure contempt when five minutes before they were to takeoff that evening the agent finally joined their stick.
He recalled with a smile the ruckus the boys had made with the announcement and with a strange sense of unease remembered how Lt. Nixon, now of Intellengce, advised to give the newcomer a chance and they might surprise them. The company fell silent at Nixon's proclamation, knowing him long enough to have seen on multiple occasions how he loved to torment the newbies. What made this one so special the boys wondered? What made them more capable in Nixon's eyes?
A loud thunder clap nearby started Bill out of this thoughts, looking though the jump door he could see the clouds below lit up with lighting flashes. When more thunder rolled though Bill came to the conclusion that this wasn't thunder but anti-aircraft weapons firing on the battalion. The confirmation came when one shell exploded so close to them that Lt. Winters and the SOE agent were sprayed with the blast. The concussion that followed jolted all the boys from their own minds and firmly back the present.
Artillery exploded all around them as the boys tried to stay firmly within their seats, Bill could hear the pilots yelling to each other as they swerved the plane to avoid it. Suddenly there was silence in the cockpit as a large bang echoed through the plane. Bill looked at Winters and saw the same realization flit across his face, the cockpit crew were dead and the lives of the men now on the plane were forfeit. He couldn't dwell on this thought long as the plane gave a terrible lurch and started its decent to the ground, men screaming and praying all around him, some begging for their mothers as they plummeted to earth. From the corner of his eye Bill say a flash of blonde, turning his head to the side he saw a person with blonde hair struggling to stay upright, traversing the path to the cockpit. It took him a moment to realize this person was the clueless British agent they had all dreaded taking on the flight and several more moments to realize that said agent was female.
His slow brain addled his usually thoughtout sentences and his mouth yelled the one thing rolling around in his brain "holy shit its a Broad!"