Lost Little Girl
A dark figure blended against the hull of the fighter jet that Jack was to fly that afternoon as a patrol passed by. As soon as the patrol was gone, the figure attached a small bomb to bottom side of the fighter. Sergeant Major Melivenski was going to die today. . .what a shame. YEAH FUCKING RIGHT! Quickly, the tall, dark figure bound away from the jet. Today she would die and he would have his money.
The operative shot one last look over his shoulder towards the jet. 'Good bye Jacquelyn Melivenski, may you burn in hell!'
*********
Jack stepped before her troops and sighed. She hoped she'd make it through this part of the training. Today she and her troops-along with Corigon and Michaels-would be flying fighter jets. Jack looked up to the sky and silently begged that she get through today without giving herself a heart attack or someone else giving her one. It wasn't likely. She could already see each and every guy's eyes lighting up at the sight of the jets. They were going to try and hot rod the flyers or try to be cool and fly like a bat out of hell. Well, she had news for them. . .only one person could do that and that was her! Okay, so she really shouldn't even do that but damn did it feel good when she did. Jack sighed again. At least they weren't flying the Black Hawks, today they were flying Blue Ravens. The Blue Raven wasn't any where near as powerful or as fast as the Black Hawk. Guess there was a little good about this whole deal.
"Okay, troop. . .here's what's going to happen: go to Staff Sergeant Corigon over there and he has a list of who you are assigned to fly with and then headed to your fighter. Once inside, strap in and then I'll let you know what happens from there. Also, only half at a time so if Staff Sergeant Corigon doesn't have an assigned partner then you are headed to the command tower to see how things are done up there."
*********
Riddick walked over to Corigon and awaited his turn to find out his partner and jet. He hoped he wasn't one of the ones stuck on the ground.
Finally, Riddick came to stand before to Corigon, "Francis A.Duval," Corigon smirked at the name they'd given Riddick for security purposes, what a fruity name. He had no doubt that Jack had picked it out. "You're up in the tour today Duval. Enjoy." That was probably Jack's doing as well. Corigon didn't know the tie between Jack and Riddick but he had no doubt that if he asked Jack she'd tell him. Hmmm. . .he'd have to talk to her about that.
Riddick walked away from Corigon, just his fucking luck. Stuck in the damn tower. That was EXACTLY where he wanted to be! Like hell it was! Riddick let out a frustrated breath and headed over to the group that was headed up to the tower. Wasn't it always his luck to get stuck with the shitty job?
*********
Jack walked around to each individual fighter jet and made sure that each man was strapped into the cockpit properly. Thank goodness they all were. Maybe she'd been wrong about today, after all if they didn't pass this they wouldn't become Black Knights. Well, this and 'The Challenger' which was basically a three day outing in which every man would be tested in everything he'd learned over the course of his training. Maybe they were finally shaping up. . .
"Hey. . .Marcus bet I can fly this bitch fast than you!" One of the guys yelled.
Or maybe not. "Troop! Listen up! Now we are going to head out onto the run way, once in the air, head straight area markered in front of you. It is the training lane which will take us straight to the moon. There we will unload and do some training exercises on the moon and out in the open space."
Jack jumped into her fighter jet and strapped in. She would take the lead of the group, Michaels would take the middle and Corigon would round up the end of the group. This day should be interesting to say the least. Jack started up her engines and in no time the group was off.
*********
"Today has gone pretty damn good wouldn't ya say Melivenski?" Corigon looked over to Jack as they were all to start loading up in their fighter jets.
"Yeah, not too bad at all, Corigon. Not too bad."
"Let's just hope they don't get all excited and fly like little pricks on the way back in."
Jack looked over to her troop, who were all already strapped in and ready to roll, she laughed as she stepped up to get into the cockpit of her fighter, "Now, you do know when you say stuff like that, you jinx it all."
"No I don't, I'm just preparing us for the worst."
"Listen to you!" Jack strapped into her fighter and fired up the engines.
Corigon smiled and got into the cockpit of his fighter and closed the top over him. He loved flying. Looking over to Jack, when a small metal piece stuck on the belly of her fighter caught his eye. What in the hell was that? Was that a. . .? No, it couldn't be. Just then a light flashed from the under side of the fighter. MOTHERFUCKER! That was a fucking bomb! Corigon jumped out of his fighter almost falling face first on the ground.
"JACK GET OUT! GET OUT OF THE FIGHTER NOW!"
*********
"Tower this is Blue Raven One heading in from training. Are we clear?"
"You are clear Blue RavenOne, fire those birds up and come on home!"
"Roger that tower. See ya back on base."
Riddick sighed as he heard the confirmation that Jack was headed back to the base. All day he'd had a bad feeling that something was going to happen today but he guessed he'd been wrong. Thank goodness. He watched on the radar screen as the huddle of dots came closer to base. Then, suddenly. . .the dot signifying Jack's fighter turned into a red dot and a alarm started going off. Holy shit! Jack's fighter jet just blew up! The entire control tower came to life. There must have been fifty different people milling about the room trying to figure out what happened.
"Tower we have a raven down." It was Corigon's voice.
"What happed Blue Raven Two?" The guy in charge in the tower, Sergeant First Class Rodriguez, grabbed the microphone and radioed to Corigon.
"Blue Raven just blew up."
"Are you under fire Blue Raven Two?"
"No Tower, Blue Raven One just blew up! No fire, no missiles, no nothing, it just went into flames."
"Where's the Sergeant Major, Corigon?"
There was a long pause of silence. "In Blue Raven One."
"Can you see if she managed to escape."
"Negative on that Tower. Sergeant Major Melivenski is presumed dead."
"Get back to base before something else happens, Staff Sergeant. I don't want any other Ravens going down."
Riddick watched as Sergeant First Class Rodriguez switched off the microphone and sat back in his chair. He watched as the man's hard façade came crumbling down. Apparently, Jack was liked by everyone. Holy shit. . .Jack was dead. NO! NOT TRUE! It was a fucking lie. Jack couldn't die, not like that. Not from some freak accident. She wasn't dead! Riddick watched as the Sergeant First Class slowly sat up again and radioed for a rescue crew and then fell back into his seat. It couldn't be, it wouldn't be.
The tower began to fill with the murmuring of the men inside. The Rodriguez stood, "All of you head back to your bunking units. Today's training is over. You are dismissed."
Quietly everyone exited the tower, no matter how much the troop disliked Jack it was still a loss and as suddenly as it came. . .everyone was in shock.
*********
The operative heard and saw the confirmation of his handiwork. It was all over. One less bitch to the world and one more pay day to him. The operative smiled snidely, 'ding dong the bitch is dead, the bitch is dead!' rang out in his mind.
Jacquelyn Melivenksi was dead. . .it was all over.
*********
Riddick walked back to Jack's housing unit. On the way back he saw Mandol training with a unit, he thought about telling him but decided it was better if he didn't. Jesus fucking Christ, Jack was dead. Why wasn't he crying? Riddick wanted to throw himself in front of one of the vehicles driving by, he couldn't cry. Jack was dead and he couldn't shed a single tear. Maybe it was the shock but he doubted it. Finally the housing unit fell into view. Riddick sighed heavily, he'd go in there pack up and head to Captain Bortelli's office to let him know he was resigning and that he'd give him all the information he needed to nail Moran.
Riddick sighed again, Jack was dead. . . it was all over.