Portland ANGB, August 21st, 2017
Joshua was a normal guy, to some extent. He was fresh outa flight training, and stationed here as part of the Oregon Air National Guard. He was on his way out to look at a coming solar eclipse, but today was a day he will never forget. His wingman and friend, Brian, walked up to him.
"Hey, Josh. We're taking off in twenty." He said. Josh just looked at him and nodded before returning to look at the sky. Is it really possible? Can one just simply disappear without a trace? He was thinking this because he was reading about a flight of naval bombers that disappeared off the coast of Florida back during WW2.* He then got to the changing room and headed to the briefing room. After about a 4-minute briefing He and those heading out on the patrol with him were sent out to their waiting aircraft.
"Hey, Joshua!" He turned around to a woman pilot who was flying #3 in his flight. "Glad we're gonna get flying again, And on the day of the long-awaited eclipse too!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, sure…very exciting." He responded sarcastically. They walked onto the tarmac and climbed into their separate F-15C's. Within minutes they were taxing to runway 28L.
"Portland ground, Eagle, flight of 4 requesting takeoff with unrestricted climb."
"Eagle, you are cleared for takeoff, runway 28 left, unrestricted climb is approved. Good day"
"Cleared for takeoff, runway 28 left, good day." The 4-ship group of Eagles lined up on the runway and got into standard takeoff position.
"Parking brake throttle to 50." The two F100 engines increased in noise, Joshua did the final checks, before giving the go ahead. "Full mil, brake off." He shoved the throttle into the afterburner setting before letting off the brake. The four eagles took flight and did a near vertical climb to FL290.
"Hey 1, look!" His number four said. His head turned and there was the eclipse, they were in totality. "Eagle flight, turn right heading 045. Descend to 9,000."
"Turning right to 045, descend to 9,000." The totality was still occurring, so they almost didn't see the cloud that they flew into. Something seemed off about this cloud, they were in it too long. Then they hit a big pocket of turbulence. Jesus, this is heavy.
"Pretty rough isn't it Joshua?" Said his #2 wingman. He just clicked his mic twice, which meant "Affirmative." "The hell? My heading indicator just went haywire!" He heard. Joshua looked at his own to see if they had the same issue. That's when the flight of four emerged from the clouds, nose down over a forest.
"PULL UP!" Joshua ordered. The flight of 4 pulled up hard, just barely clearing the ground. What the hell? Where are we? He thought. He looked up, they were still in totality of a different eclipse.
"Hey boss, my GPS is gone." He heard number 4 say. "Judging by this area, this looks like somewhere over Eastern Washington. Either that or we somehow got to the Midwest." Brian said.
"Try contacting any tower over the radio." Joshua said. He waited for a result, but nothing came. Not one thing. "Sarah, Mark, you guys getting nothing two?" Joshua asked.
"That's a yes from me, WATCH OUT!" Joshua snapped his focus forwards and saw a giant landmass looming in front of the aircraft. He pulled up, shoving the throttle into full afterburner. The other Eagles followed suit, going vertical. Then they saw something that was hard to believe.
"Keep going up!" Joshua said. The eagles nearly didn't make it up all the way. Joshua's aircraft didn't make it all the way up, and he stalled.
"JOSH!" The three eagles disappeared into a cloud, just before Joshua's F-15 turned nose down to regain airspeed. That was the last communication before they headed back. He powered back the engine, just as the eclipse ended. He kept looking for the rest of his flight, but to no avail. His radar still worked, but he was the only aircraft shown.
About an hour passed before he hit bingo fuel. "Gotta find a place to land…there a nice flat field" He said. He began a traffic pattern approach, lowering the flaps and the gear. "Prelanding check, flaps, down. Gear, down and locked. Alright, just gotta put 'er down gently." He put the eagle into a high alpha, using the ground effect to slow him down to a speed slow enough to, hopefully, keep the landing gear intact. He touched down softly, thankfully the tanks were light enough to allow the safe landing of the eagle.
"Sigh well, where ever the hell I am, I know one thing. I'm alive." He said.
Portland ANGB
The Eclipse was long over and the flight of eagles that had taken off over 8 hours ago, were finally on approach, low on fuel. One thing was wrong, one of the eagles was still missing, the flight leader. The three eagles that did return were greeted by crowds of military and civilian's alike. But the story they told was unbelievable, and even better is that they had video proof.
"See, look. Here is when we entered the cloud. At around 9:06 am."
"Which is exactly where your flight went off the scope." We spent 6 hours sending out search aircraft looking for you. Every air traffic control cent and tower kept their eyes on the radar and the sky to see. Soon it made the news: 'Four jet fighters missing'" Said the base commander. "But, we're all glad you're back." The three saluted and left the room. The base commander sat back in his seat and looked out his window towards the sky. Where are you? He thought.
Tristain
Joshua walked through the field, but an F-15 brought a lot of attention back home. People came out to the from over the horizon, slowly coming over the horizon. He saw these people and ran back to the jet hid behind the nose landing gear. He couldn't climb in and takeoff, he was too low on fuel. What do I do? I wasn't trained for this! He thought. He heard the people coming towards the jet, speaking a weird language. He reached for his side arm, and came out of cover, face to face with a red haired girl.
Ladies and gentleman this is Jayjet777 speaking, hope you guys enjoyed chapter 1 of the story!