too much sky for a pilot
Sft. Johr Stirflar gives his thoughts on fighting in an endless sky
"too much sky for a pilot" on https://aligot-death.space, available at https://aligot-death.space/projects/too-much-sky-en
That’s too much sky for a pilot: discussion with commended pilot Johr Stirflar
Giant clouds bigger than the earth are rolling in the sky. Weather fronts so big and slow we map them. The war still rages between the three nations in the sky of our Mother Elben.
« I was doing surveillance around Etra’s cyclones when two unknowns showed up: they were fast. planes that high usually don’t go so fast: I knew it was Etrenian high altitude interceptors ». Our hero of the day, Sft. Johr Stirflar, was aboard a BX-100 fighter, a versatile but aging machine. Unfortunately, high altitudes aren't its forte, unlike Etrenian 10-atm specialized fleet. « I knew I couldn’t flee, so I dove to get some advantage. I first thought they didn't see me, but they quickly banked right and shot long range missiles. I barely had time to dodge that my craft burst into flames.
I spent eight hours reflecting on my life, alone in that space raft
THEY CALL IT THE DEEP DIVE. Getting shot down is the bane of the grey skies’ pilots, even more so than the ones on our planet: you are left with no choice but to separate you cockpit from your plane, and to hang below a parachute for hours on end. your only hope is that the rescue team picked up your distress call, as the sky around you gets darker and darker. « It was a long wait. You’re looking downward, with your low frequency antenna reaching far into the depths. At times, it looks like a tether pulling you towards the core of the planet »…. War treaties prevent from shooting down rescue battalions and downed crafts, but those are just cordial agreements between countries which are formally at war. Nothing would prevent one from violating that rule, other than the risk that others would do the same. « I spent eight hours reflecting on my life, alone in that space raft. I was at -80.000m from one-atm, things were getting hot. Literally. […] All of a sudden I heard radio chatters, and then saw it: the “whale”, a large vessel, half-floating half flying, with its hooks on its belly. I was finally saved. »
TOO MUCH SKY FOR A PILOT. Johr long described how the sky feel there :
[…] I spent five years in the 3rd deployment battalion here on earth. We would launch on so called long range missions, flying for 24 hours at a time. The sky felt limitless: horizon on end. Except, it’s not: it starts at the ground, and stops however high conventional planes can go. On Elben, It’s just air all around you. Every time you sortie from the carriers, you leave what little ground you had: you better not look down, even if you don’t fear heights. Heights have meaning. Here, nothing makes sense. The sky really is, limitless. It’s too much sky for a pilot.
Since the start of the war two years ago, following territorial issues around the 3000km long Arl skywall which flanks the Sea of Felz, 32 pilots got lost to the depths.
Pilots love to tell stories at the cantina of how it feels crossing the Ash Line. But if they’re here to tell, they didn’t crossed it […] You automatically get a commendation for doing the dive. Not that its something to be proud, but the brass knows you joined the rank of a very special kind of pilot: one who fears what’s below and won’t get hotheaded.
Sft. Johr Stirflar is scheduled to go back to the frontline later this year: everytime you look at Elben’s gentle grey crescent at night, think of those pilots braving the dark depths for the glory of our nation!
— Jonathen Golduque, correspondent on Air Station Polm II.