Chapter 5: First Mission, Rachael

Rachael and Karen had become nearly inseparable over the last two years, there were few places one of them traveled to on base without the other and they had even met each others families. But today was the beginning of a new a chapter for their relationship, today was their first live mission, something both of them were nervous about. They waited in the briefing room with nine other pilot/gunner pairs to be informed of their mission. They seemed to be waiting a while, but eventually a man and a woman walked into the room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting ladies and gentlemen, the briefing for the utility pilots wasn't supposed to take that long..." The woman said.

The man spoke, "I think I've met most everybody here but in case I missed anybody I'm Sergeant Isiah Crockett, this is Second Lieutenant Kori Anders."

"Thank you Sergeant..." The Lieutenant began. "I understand this is going to be everybody's first mission, with that being the case I don't want anybody to feel they have to go above and beyond, there is an old saying in aviation, 'there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots, because they die,' while everybody here has accepted a certain level of risk there is no reason to increase that risk anymore than need be, does everybody understand?" Most nodded in agreement, some agreed verbally. "Good, now that that's out of the way..." She pulled down a white screen as the Sergeant dimmed the lights. "The mission is to escort and support a battalion of Marines as they take back the city of Tikrit, this is expected to be the largest battle of the war so far, you'll be sharing the skies with Blackhawk's, drone's, A-10's, Lancer's and a couple AC-130's, the skies are going to be busy to say the least."

"Ever since the inauguration of our new President four months ago we've been much more aggressive against ISIS, we're not just throwing rocks at them like we were with the last guy, this will be the first major offensive move on our part, and it's going to be big." Sergeant Crockett informed. "You have authorization to engage enemy combatants at will but be warned, unless the Marines paint a target for you it's going to be very difficult to tell friend from foe from the sky, do not engage unless you are absolutely positive you're shooting at the enemy."

Rachael was having difficulty digesting what she was being told, an entire class of newbies are supposed to provide air support for a full scale invasion of a city?

"Any questions?" The Sergeant asked.

Rachael wanted to question the wisdom of sending them on this mission but she held her tongue.

"Good, move out!" Lieutenant Anders ordered.

Rachael was going through her pre-flight checklist, there were quite a few more Blackhawk's than she had anticipated, she counted thirty of them, each being packed full of Marines, this was going to be a very large invasion. It was then that Karen climbed aboard. "Stop for coffee?" The pilot asked.

"Hell no, latte, I got one for you too" Karen replied sarcastically.

"Awesome, I'll get it if we get back..."

"If?" Karen queried.

Rachael paused and turned in her seat as best she could to face her friend. "A bunch of rookie pilots on a full scale invasion, doesn't that seem a little weird to you?"

Karen shrugged. "Something has to be your first mission I guess."

"Yeah but, don't you think a better first mission would be like... Air support for a team of Navy SEALs or something?"

Karen shrugged again. "Air support is air support."

Rachael turned around, shaking her head. "Buckle up, here we go."

The flight plan was very simple, a twenty five minute flight to the north side of Tikrit. The teams had been informed that the fixed wing aircraft were running behind schedule but the call was made to start the party without them. Late in the flight Rachael noticed a large convoy of friendly APC's heading for the city they were about to attack. "God Damn..." Rachael muttered, "How many Marines do we have?" The Blackhawk's descended to drop off their troops, some landing just outside the city limits while others dropped their teams on rooftops, the land based vehicles also stopped right at the city limit to drop off their soldiers. The top floor of a taller building near the insertion point blew up before the Blackhawk's got back in the air. "What the hell?" Rachael wondered out loud.

"I heard the Lieutenant telling the Sergeant that some buildings had been targeted as known enemy encampments, the drones are hitting them." Karen informed.

"Well the drones might want to do a better, job, there's still a guy standing in that structure!" Rachael said.

Karen zoomed in on her screen, since the area hadn't been tagged, no red diamonds appeared to expose enemy positions, so Karen was forced to find the enemy the old fashion way. It took a moment, but she did pick up on the surviving terrorist, she blasted him with the left minigun.

"Good catch Red Five" Kori said over the radio. Rachael banked right, turning the Apache around completely on a wide angle. She backtracked for a short distance before turning around again. On the second flyby Rachael flew low and observed the activity on the ground, there didn't seem to be much in the way of fighting, an enemy soldier or two here and there but little else, hardly something that constituted the amount of support the Marines had. Kori's voice came over the radio again "all units be advised, enemy heavy armor inbound!"

"Heavy armor?" Rachael queried just before a tank shell whizzed past just in front of her helo, the shot was so close it cause the chopper to yaw right. "WWHOA!" Rachael shrieked, she immediately increased her altitude and banked right again, heading away from the city.

"Hey Rae we got to get back there!" Karen yelled.

"I know, I know! but we have to get a bead on that tank!"

Sergeant Crockett came over the radio, "Marines are making their way further into the city, they've been ordered paint any heavy armor they come across, red team engage at will."

Rachael turned around once again. "Come on Marines, give us a target..." She mumbled to herself. She came in low using the buildings for cover, passing so low over them that anybody on the rooftops would almost have to duck. Before long, Karen's screen picked up a red outline of a tank.

"Rae, two-four-five, eighteen hundred yards!" The gunner said.

"Got it!" Rachael replied.

"Wait, scratch that..." Karen said as another outline appeared on her screen, this one much closer. "One-four-zero, eight hundred yards!" Rachael banked left to heading one-forty and climbed to two hundred feet. Karen had already locked on and was just waiting for an unobstructed shot at the enemy tank, as soon as it came, she fired a missile, destroying it. "Two-nine-five Rae!"

"Got it!" Rachael turned right and headed towards the other tank but before Karen could get a lock on it, it blew up. "Looks like the fixed wings are here."

"Better late than never" Karen added.

"Red Five we just had a call for some help from above and you're the closest, heading two-one-five, six hundred yards, Marines are pinned down and need you to thin the enemy numbers" Isiah called over the radio.

"Red Five copies, enroute to target, thirty seconds out" Rachael replied as she directed the helo in the appropriate direction. Karen could already see thirty or more red diamonds at the target area, they were spread out fairly wide, but still clustered together enough for a strafing run.

"Damn, got to cut those numbers down a bit..." Karen thought out loud. Rachael pointed the helo towards the enemy position and banked left to keep them moving, but also to give her gunner a clear shot. Karen hit both miniguns as the chopper passed, she noticed not all the red diamonds were disappearing but her training told her to focus on firing directly into the throng of enemies, changing point of aim would only serve to leave more enemies standing. Once Karen ceased fire of the miniguns Rachael turned the nose back forward and increased her altitude and speed. Karen could see that the majority of the red diamonds were gone. "They want another run?" She asked.

"Negitive..." The Sergeant responded, "heading one-one-zero, four hundred yards, more Jarheads need some help."

Rachael got the helicopter where it needed to be, a dozen or so red diamonds scattered throughout the area. Karen focused on one small structure where four diamonds were congregated, she fired a single missile at that structure and three of the diamonds disappeared. The remaining enemy ran into another structure where two others were holding up, Karen fired a second missile into that building as well, this time all three diamonds disappearing. Other diamonds had disappeared in the meantime, the handiwork of the ground troops, the Marines seemed to have this situation under control so Rachael broke off.

Throughout the time spent flying around, it became more apparent that this battle had escalated to a level reminiscent of Berlin late in World War Two, aircraft all over, street to street fighting and a generally chaotic atmosphere. Rachael and Karen could hear other Apache's calling in about low munitions and another which had taken damage from ground fire, thankfully none had been shot down. Those low on ammo and damaged were ordered to return to base, leaving Rachael's helo, along with five others remaining. "Rae I'm down to three missiles and less than four hundred rounds, We're going to have to head back soon" Karen said.

"We have enough for one more run" Rachael replied, banking left towards a new piece of heavy armor that had just been tagged. It was an APC that was on the move heading due east.

"Get behind it Rae, we'll hit 'em in the ass!" Karen said.

"I like the way you think!" Rachael said with a smile. She slowed her approach and allowed some distance to grow between her and the target vehicle, she then pointed the helo at it.

"Hope you like it in the butt boys!" Karen said as she fired a missile, which hit low, almost behind the APC and causing it to flip forward onto its roof. "Whoa! Nice hit!"

"Now that's going to be a story you want to tell your kids!" Rachael said just before radioing in. "Red Five is running low on ordnance, recommend return to base."

"Red Five return to base" Kori ordered.

"Yes Ma'am" Rachael replied, climbing to two thousand feet and heading north.

Rachael and Karen returned safely and were debriefed, they met up in the barracks right after. Rachael had got back first and in the process of changing into a more casual camo pants and tank top when Karen arrived.

"Hey Rae?" Karen said in a tone that cause Rachael to be concerned.

Still in her underwear, Rachael paused and turned to her friend, "What?" She asked, concerned.

"We took Tikrit back!" Karen yelled.

A wave of relief washed over Rachael's conscious. "Hell yes!"