Plotted starter for @truthbinds!
It had been routine as it got, when Bart went over the plans with them yesterday. “We’ll hit them fast and hard,” he’d said, “and then get out of there before it gets too hot. Remember: we’re the distraction, not the mission.”
That had been before the anti-aircraft guns. Before the washed-out bridge that delayed the ground team. Before it turned out there was a secret hangar at the target location full of bristling prototype jet fighters that weren’t supposed to be functional.
They weren’t. Not enough to get more than a few shots off – but in the surprise and confusion, a few shots was all it took, and now she is fighting for her life miles above the ocean, the horizon vanished in a fug of clouds, and no one is answering her increasingly panicked calls for help. It’s as if the Blackhawks have simply vanished into thin air and she can’t explain it but she can’t waste time wondering about it. The needle on her fuel gauge is dropping fast; a few of his lucky bullets must have punctured the tank. She glances over her shoulder: the enemy is in even worse shape than she is. Black smoke billows out of its engines; its speed falters. It’s just enough for her to turn the tables and finish the job with a well-aimed burst of bullets directly into his nose –
But as he begins to fall, so does she, engine coughing to a stop, and she yells into her comm as she wrestles with the controls:
“Mayday mayday mayday! I’m goin’ down! Bart –”
Just before she hits the water, she thinks she sees an island that isn’t supposed to be there, but then there’s the impact and she can’t see anything at all.