The "old man" came out of boss' office and lit a cigarette. He looked at Hazel sitting outside and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the open door.
"In there"
And walked off down the corridor, blowing smoke out of his nostrils like a dragon.
"Oh, OK then" said Hazel to herself as she got up. She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her.
"Was it fun today?" She said to Boss. He was seated behind his desk, the room was barely lit by the single bulb of the desk lamp. Boss reached down to the left hand bottom drawer and pulled out a bottle of "Rabbit Punch" and two glasses. Filling them both to the brim he said
"Sit." knocked his glass back in one and then "Drink!"
"But I could be flying tomorrow if every thing is.."
"Drink the damn drink girlie" He watched her as she sat and took a large sip of her drink. "What did you say?" he asked as she set her glass down.
"Was it fun today?"
"Well if it was, that was a definition of fun I am not familiar with. Bastards. Jamming our missile systems. Clever bastards."
"Well at least they could not use there missiles either and.."
"Hazel. You saw how many planes came back yes? They were carrying extra cannon and loads of ammo. Stripped bare of missiles, targeting computers and all the other gubbins, they were lighter than us even with the extra ammo. We had a load of useless missiles and not enough ammo for more than 30 seconds of continous fire. That, my dear bunny, is just not on."
Boss poured another full glass of Rabbit punch and sat back in the shadows behind his desk.
"Well you and Peter, I mean "Flyboy" got two of them." she said.
"Yes but there were six of the buggers. Snowy got careless. Target fixated. Didn't watch his tail. I tried to get over to him." he paused and had another large slug on his glass. "If we hadn't out flown them it would have been bad. And we were only one on one, the other three...well you know more about that than I do, which is of course why the Old man sent you here."
"Snowy? is he..."
"Oh the medivac chopper dropped him off at the med centre a half hour ago. He will live, but he'll have more scars than Skit. At least he will have learned a lesson. You know, no matter how many computers you put in a fighter, it's only as smart as the pilot. And now he is a smarter pilot. If he's not - well next time he really won't come back."
Hazel finnished her drink. This sitting around on the base was driving her nuts what whith her being one of the first pilots to go into combat. She had a nasty feeling that she was going to pay for her rash disobedience today. Oh well.
"Right. You. Now, you were told to stay on base. By me. And while I was trying to stay alive and protect those two fur balls AND kill the other buggers while worrying about where the other three were off to"
He sat forward and leaned on his desk looking hard at Hazel.
"YOU, picked Bunt and Ruby, decided they were combat ready, and took off to intercept the other three fighters. Now I am not going to comment on the pure blind luck that meant you got to them outside the jamming feild of that bastard AWAC flying around over the border, or the rampant disregard of my orders" Hazel thought she saw the faintest hint of, what? was that a smile!
"but you probably saved some lives today. Soooooo. The boss says, and I do actually agree with him, that you and Skit are to get your own sections."
"Whu? You mean I, me and Skit too."
"Yes. Tomorrow we get to pick your pilots. Congratulations" with that Boss stood up and held out his glass to clink with Hazels. She rose and as she did the door behind her burst open. Standing there was the Doc, looking shocked.
"Jeezus doc come on in a bit faster next time could ya, I think there is still some paint left on that door frame!"
"Boss, you not going to belived this. We have recoverd the four of the five downed Monkey pilots bodies."
"Oh good. What do you want me to do. Sing at their funeral?"
"Boss. One of them was a Rabbit."