Sebestian, a pudgy faced young pilot paced back and forth in front of his Gripen fiddling with the cuff of his flight suit sleeve and looking up at the sky. It was clear, for now but no one could be sure ever since Estovakia invaded Gracemeria, and conquered most of the nation except Khased, which was the emmerian militaries last hold out.
A voice broke the haze over Sebastian's mind "Hey kid!" The voice called out from across the motor pool "Quit pacin' and get over here we're getting briefed!" Sebastian looked up and realized his Kapten was calling him over "Be right there!" He called back and broke into a light jog across the small pool to the quaint briefing shack. Cool air blasted his face as he stepped in and took refuge from the august heat, scanning the room he saw that most of his squadron was already seated, and the flight operations commander impatiently tapping his finger on his desk. The best he could do was nervously chuckled as he felt all eyes shift onto him "Heh... sorry I'm late"
Slinking off and sliding into one of the metal folding chairs, the flight operations commander, Major Postin got up from his desk and walked over to the electronic projection table in the middle of the room and powered it on. The projection showed the western coast of sventska and a few way points plotting the course of the day's patrol. "Welcome Alk squadron" The meaty commander said with a kind of bite "As you all know Emmeria has faced an overwhelming invasion by Estovakia" The Major cleared his throat and pressed a button on a handheld clicker and the projection changed to a macro topographical map of the Gastra coastal region.
"The Emmerians have been reduced to khased island, which means we will have estovakians knocking on our door at any time. Even if we aren't in the war just yet it wont stop them from preventing us before we have the chance, So today Alk you will be conducting an air patrol along the gastra coast and twenty kilometers into the Khased straight." Major postin drew a line with his finger along the coastline, then out into the ocean before coming back around and back to their base forty kilometers inland. "Rules of engagement will be extremely tight, we cannot allow for an accidental shoot down. If you spot a bogey, you are to intercept, identify and attempt to direct it out of Sventskan air space. Any questions?" The major finally finished his brief while all the pilots jotted down notes about the operation. Kapten Locard raised his hand as he jotted down the projections for the weather. "Munitions allotted for the operation?"
The Major swiped up a notepad from his desk and shuffled through a couple pages "Kapten your plane will be loaded with two anti ship missiles and two sidewinders, the rest of the squadron will be outfitted with the standard Air to Air loadout." Locard nodded his head and looked around at the of the room, none of his pilots had a question, standing up he called for attention and all the other officers in the room got up. "Salut!" he called and everyone gave a short salute before shuffling out of the briefing room and back out into the heat.
Sebastian tugged at his collar trying to get some air circulating in his clothing as he walked to his plane with his wingman, Jay Pocca or 'Puck'. Approaching their aircraft the ground crew were finishing outfitting their aircraft with the high powered anti-aircraft missiles. Putting one foot on the boarding ladder he looked over at Puck. "I've got a really bad feeling about this"
"Oh now you've done it, just cause you said that we're going to get hit by the top stovie squadron!" Puck exclaimed jokingly exasperated, the two slid into their cockpits and began pre-flight check. Sebastian scanned the control panel, punching in three radio frequencies into the onboard radio system. Flicking switches and hitting buttons he completed the pre-flight check, ground crew approached and pulled the chocks off the wheels and wheeled away the pilot ladder. Finally Sebestian lowered the canopy of the aircraft and fastened the oxygen mask to the other side of his helmet.
"Alk-4 reporting, pre-flight complete. Awaiting further orders." He deftly said into the microphone buried into the oxygen mask. "Alk-1 copies" The voice of the lieutenant Kim, Kapten Locards RTO. Alk squadron sat on the tarmac for nearly half of an hour, and Sebastian thought that the patrol was going to be canceled when Locard came on the radio "Alk-1 preparing to take off". The special two seater Gripen fighter began taxing onto the short forested runway.
"There has been a change in the operation timeline, Alk squadron will be joining up with Orn squadron for this patrol" The kaptan said quickly, as the radio exploded with the chatter of pilots excited at the prospect of flying with the decorated Orn squadron. Sebastian, still anxious of what awaited them on this patrol, saw little reason to be so excited; they were just pilots like the rest of them in Alk, the squadron lifted off from their base in the Onstrin forest and carried to the east by the strong ocean winds.