First Lieutenant John Hardy was tired. It was a Saturday, and instead of being out, enjoying a day off, he pulled the short straw which landed him communications detail for the night. It didn’t help that he had to duck out of a date with the cute waitress he'd been making eyes with from Al's. Chances of him getting laid this month dropped from slim to “no way in hell” , but then again, that's life for you.
He scanned the various screens in front of him lazily, not paying them much attention, the beeps and buzzes of the machines in Com-Room 1, drowned out as he silently contemplated and cursed his luck.
He was close to sleep, the humming machinery lulling him, urging him to close his eyes and dream when a blip on the radar screen hooked him back into reality. It wasn’t very big, about the size of a fighter jet, but according to his flight logs, none were cleared for flight tonight, besides it was moving to slow to be a jet.
He double checked his data, and radioed in “..unidentified aircraft, this is Holloman Air Force Base, identify yourself and state course..”. The only reply he received was static, but yet he swore that the moment he attempted contact the bogey seemed to respond in a course change.
He repeated himself on all standard frequencies. The craft seemed to be picking up speed, having done all he was authorized to do he picked up the phone.
***
He was heading upstairs, to where he knew his wife would be waiting when his phone rang. With an audible sigh he reached for the phone The air force never sleeps he thought to himself as he picked up the receiver.
“Major, we've got a crash”.
Oh God that's all I need now he mumbled. “Well hurry up man, the details?”. “a bogey, about 5 minutes ago sir” a voice hardly out of his teens answered back in a hurry. “
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