How to Tell the Difference Between the Branches of the US Armed Forces!
If you give the command "SECURE THE BUILDING", here is what the different services would do:
The NAVY would turn out the lights and lock the doors.
The ARMY would surround the building with defensive fortifications, tanks and concertina wire.
The MARINE CORPS would assault the building, using overlapping fields of fire from all appropriate points on the perimeter.
The AIR FORCE would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy the building.
"Alright Trigger, we need to secure that airbase."
"Oh geez, why didn't you say so? I could've saved saved us the trip and just called my realtor."
Interlude
0700 16 May 2019
Fort Grays Air Base, Fort Grays Island
7º58'25"S 9º25'50"W
James stood above his bed, checklist in hand, the contents of his foot locker organized neatly on top of the sheets. He marked off each item, going through the list three times, top to bottom, bottom to top, then top to bottom again. Satisfied, he set the checklist down.
Grabbing the duffel bag at the foot of his bed, he made to place the items within it, but his packing was interrupted by a knock at his door. When he moved to open it, he quickly snapped to attention upon seeing who had come.
"Captain Mendez, good morning, ma'am."
Brownie seemed to find this amusing, as she simply laughed and waved him off.
"Good morning to you as well, First Lieutenant," she said, a grin still present on her face as she leaned against the door frame. "No need to be formal on my behalf, James. I only made Captain a month before you came on, so the feeling of someone standing to attention for me is rather new."
James smiled at this, and mirrored her position.
"Still can't believe we got assigned to the same unit, Emily," he said, "and I'm glad I'll be able to watch your six, now that I'm here. Though that only goes for in the air; after last time, I'm not pulling rear guard for any of your drunken shenanigans on the ground anymore."
That earned him a laugh, as well as a solid punch. He rubbed his now sore shoulder, but his shit-eating grin remained.
"That was one time!"
"Which nearly got both of us arrested, and kicked out of flight school."
"You got off easy-"
"-because I was some poor new guy the older cadets roped into one of their plans."
The glare he received at this was as effective as cutting through steel with a plastic spork.
"Feigning innocence, really?"
When he failed to be deterred, she gave up, and seemed eager to move the conversation on to less incriminating topics.
"Anyways-," she cleared her throat as he raised his eyebrow at her entirely unsubtle topical maneuvering. "Anyways, Knocker sent word at breakfast that our departure's been pushed back a day, and asked me to take the opportunity to get you more familiar with the Super Hornet since you and Clown are due any day now for your upgrades."
James followed her down the hallway of the barracks, nodding to a few of the other Mage squadron members as he passed their rooms. He got an interesting eyebrow waggle from Clown at the end of the hall, but merely shook his head at him.
"Clown must have some weird fetish for flight suits if he thinks we're going to be doing anything other than flying right now," he replied, when he saw Brownie's look of confusion.
She pinked at this, and looked away without response. James frowned, and reached out to stop her in front of the hanger door.
"Em, wait up."
She didn't immediately turn, but she also didn't throw off his hand.
"Em," he repeated, and after a few moments she looked back towards him, though she didn't quite meet his eye.
"Yeah?"
"Does Knocker know…?"
"...about us?"
She reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear, and he removed his hand.
"Kind of," she quickly held up her hand when he moved to comment. She quickly continued. "It only came up because he knew we went to school together and must've seen something when I said we were friends. All he asked was whether or not we would be able to fly together."
"And?"
She finally met his eyes, and she reached out to his arm. Speaking softly, she continued.
"And I told him that the past is the past, and that no matter what happened, there's no one else I'd rather have on my wing."
He smiled softly at this. She returned it, and briefly squeezed his arm before dropping her hand and gesturing towards the door.
Seeing him nod, she opened the door to the hangar, and turned to offer him a wicked grin
"C'mon, the birds are waiting for us, and I can't wait to be able to show you up."
1930 16 May 2019
Erusean Air Force Weapons and Tactics Testing Base, Kingdom of Erusea
[LOCATION REDACTED]
"Bark, bark!"
"Jemma fetch!"
"Bark!"
With a swish of her golden tail, Jemma stole down the tarmac. The red-gold rays of the Sun's dying light shown magnificently on her beautiful coat, its sheen marred only by the remnants of dust and ash.
Cossette's smile fell. She was glad that Alma stood in front of her and could not see her face, as the younger girl had always loved Jemma and was overjoyed to see her again. She felt a hand rest on her arm, and looked to find Ionela, her classmate and good friend, as well as Alma's older sister, standing by her side.
The princess extended her arm, and the pair fell easily into a one-armed embrace. The two had lived together when they were younger, moved apart when her father took the throne, then reunited in secondary school, only to be torn apart once more by the death of Alma and Ionela's parents two years before. They had moved into the care of their grandfather, and had expected them to have moved somewhere quiet and peaceful, suitable for retirement.
Instead, she found them now where they had been for two years, at a top secret air base in the middle of the desert that had become the evacuation point for high level military officials and the royal family following the day's earlier attacks.
At this, she stiffened. Though the attacks had occurred only this morning, standing on the tarmac watching Alma play with Jemma made it feel as though it were already a distant memory.
Jemma, running with the ball now back in her possession, dropped the ball at Alma's feet and moved past toward her charge. A nudge and a soft whine was all it took to convince Cossette to kneel down and embrace her closest friend and steadfast companion - not that she ever needed convincing to do so - and once more, she found her worried melt away as the two sisters joined her embrace.
0700 16 May 2019
Fort Grays Air Base, Fort Grays Island
7º58'25"S 9º25'50"W
"So all of Golem Squadron's aircraft were F/A-18F Super Hornets that were upgraded late in their life cycle to the Block III upgrades, making them on par with the newest Advanced Super Hornets," Brownie explained. "I'm a little jealous, since Mage will be getting Advanced Super Hornets fresh off the factory line."
James smiled, then gestured back at the plane.
"What kinds of upgrades are we talking?" he asked.
"Conformal fuel tanks on the shoulders; a 9000+ flight hour airframe; upgraded Infrared Search and Tracking capability; integrated advanced network infrastructure; three enclosed, conformal, and cross-section reducing ordnance pods with four hardpoints each adapted from the F-22 program."
"Anything in the cockpit?"
"A twenty-one inch touchscreen display to replace the old tri-display and physical controls, and combat systems AI to replace the Combat Systems Officer in the two seater variant. They moved the stick and throttle to the new standardized position from the F-16, F-22, and F-35 of stick on the right side, throttle on the left side, leaving the center clear. Supposedly makes it easier to cross-train on different platforms, but I doubt they had you in mind when making that statement," she jibed.
James threw her a glare, but otherwise was too engrossed with the cockpit. He stepped inside and sat down, as Brownie perched herself on the ladder outside.
"Ready to put it through its paces?" she asked.
He smiled and nodded.
"Don't worry, give it a short time and I'll be back to shooting you down before you even knew I was there."
Author's Note: So I'm finally back with another update. Big thanks to Koburakilla for the review they left, and if you wanted to see this story continue, you should thank them as well. Their kind review was both a reminder and encouragement to keep working. As this chapter is titled, it is an interlude, but I do intend to continue with the main story as well.
The upgrades I described for the Super Hornet are very much real, either in actual form or working prototype form. The exceptions are the stick/throttle configuration, as well as the AI for combat systems; neither of those are real. If you would like to see the concept art someone made based on Boeing's Advanced Super Hornet model, head to my profile where I have provided the links.
Also, the joke at the beginning of the chapter is not mine, I heard it elsewhere. The two lines with Trigger are mine.
