Green Skies

Gentlemen, I have just been appointed interim commander

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Green Skies
by anonymous111.2
15-Feb-2010
 

Part I, Part 2, Part III

Sometime in the near future…

GHALEH MORGHI AIR FORCE BASE – 3:30 am

Inside a small briefing room six officers of the Iranian Air Force, dressed in flight suits, are awaiting the arrival of a senior officer. The room is messy and unkempt, as if no one has paid it any particular attention for a few days. Two officers are scribbling data next to a crudely drawn map on the whiteboard. A few others are looking out the window at the light snow falling on the runway.

In a corner, and away from everyone else, sits Maj. Reza Ahangar, a tall, dark haired man in his early 40’s. His head is resting on his crossed arms on a small writing chair that he is sitting on. It’s late, and he hasn’t had much sleep in the past few days. He is drifting in and out of moments of sleep. He suddenly has a dream. It’s of his last conversation with his wife Mahnaz before he left home to get to the airbase.

Mahnaz is worried. She hasn’t had much sleep either. She is pleading with him...

“don’t go…don’t leave us. We, the girls…me, we need you”. She begins to silently cry.

“I can’t. I must go.”

“But what purpose would this accomplish? You are in danger. We can go to my uncle’s farm in Shiraz. We will be safe there…”

He interrupts her. “Safe? From what? You think they can’t find me in Shiraz? I am an air force pilot. This is the time that my country needs me. I must do my part. I can’t be consumed with self interest.”

“You know that it’s beyond that…”

Maj. Ahangar is awakened by a friendly shake from his colleague, Lt. Ali Parsaa, a young, gregarious pilot in his early 30’s.

Parsaa is standing over him and smiling.

“Don’t tell me you were dreaming already!”

Ahangar sit up in his chair. His body is stiff from the awkward position that he has been in for the past…he can’t remember. How long has it been? How long has he been sleeping? He collects his thoughts.

“I was, as a matter of fact. What is it? Is anyone here yet?”

“No, do we even know who’s in charge?”

Ahangar looks up at the whiteboard on the wall. He pauses for a moment to look at the missing picture frames above the whiteboard. The pictures used to give him comfort and a sense of security. But they are gone now. Many things in his life have changed in the past few days. Is it hopelessness that he feels? Perhaps. But he cannot really tell. He collects his thoughts again so that he could respond.

”God knows. I was told to show up for duty. They said we were on high alert. So, I kissed my wife and kids goodbye, got in my car, drove through all the damn checkpoints, and got here...The last thing I remember is my wife’s teary eyes. She begged me not to come. She even said that half the base would be empty and no one will show up...”

”She had a point.”

”I know...but I had to come.” He is silent again, and looks down.

”You know that I have been here for more than a day now, and with the phone service being down...I haven’t been able to talk to my family.”

”The whole phone network was sabotaged. They say that it may be a month before basic telephone service is up and running again in the country.”

Before Maj. Parsaa can respond, a man in his early 40’s whose flight suit insignia show to be a colonel, walks in. All officers in the room stand at attention, and then take their seats at the Colonel’s signal. The colonel nods and begins his presentation with a surprising show of confidence.

“Gentlemen, I am Col. Nazemi from the 3rd fighter wing stationed at Shiraz Airbase. I have just been appointed interim commander of the base.”

Officers glance at each other. Colonel sees the apprehension in the men’s faces, but ignores them and carries on.

Ahangar leans over to Parsaa, who is sitting next to him. “Do you know this guy?”

”Never seen him before.”

”We just received news that a civilian airliner, an Iran Airlines Boeing 727, just took off from Mehrabad Airport. Our intelligence indicates that the aircraft is carrying the top five of the nations’ most wanted list.”

Sighs and whispers fill the room.

Parsaa is annoyed and throws out a frustrated question. “How can they get to a plane, steal it and then just take off? It’s not like they’re stealing a pair of sunglasses from a store?”

The colonel, annoyed at being interrupted, still takes the time to answer the question. “Apparently, they ambushed the airport with a highly coordinated, pre-planned attack using heavy machine guns and RPG’s. They then went straight for the aircraft, which they had prepared for departure well in advance. They obviously took advantage of the chaotic security situation at the airport.”

”Let me guess, they have fighter escorts too?” Asks one of the other pilots.

The colonel nods. “Two F-14’s, fully armed.”

Crowd sighs again.

The colonel carries on. “They had them at the ready in a couple of hangers, and with the situation being what it is, nobody bothered to look. The good news is that with the limited time and resources they had, that’s all they could get airborne. They damaged the rest of the planes on the ground by firing at them so they couldn’t be immediately chased.”

The colonel notices the obvious anger on the pilots’ faces and decides to capitalize on their fighters’ instinct.

”We don’t have much time. We estimate that they are probably in this area (pointing to an area on the map with a pointer). We are pretty sure that they are heading north, toward Russian Federation’s airspace. You have the upper hand in speed over the old 727, and their fighters have to maintain speed with that aircraft. So, at supersonic speed, you should be able to catch up with them rather quickly. We want these men alive, but at the same time, they cannot be allowed to leave the country at any price. You have to use your best judgment up there. Major Ahanagar will lead this mission. May God be with all you men.”

Ahangar is surprised at being put in charge of the mission. Did the command come from higher ups in the chain? Is this pre-planned, or just a coincidence, a result of the chaotic situation in the operations center? His thoughts are interrupted again by a pat on the back from Parsaa.

“You’re in charge my friend.”

Ahnagar nods and smiles.

The pilots quickly, but quietly walk to the locker room and rustle to put their gear on as fast as possible. Ahangar is silent and is fixated on the details of preparing his flight suit. Parsaa is anxious and seems annoyed at Ahangar’s silence. He slams his locker door, grabs his helmet and turns to Ahangar with frustration.

“So now they expect us to go up against F-14’s with what we have sitting on the ground out there?” He then quiets to a whisper…”plus, aside from you, I don’t even know any of these other guys. They were just called into the base. How can I go into battle with them?

“Relax. We have the advantage in number and speed” says Ahangar calmly.

Parsaa is not convinced. “We’ll be sitting ducks.”

The pilots begin to run onto the runway and toward their aircraft. A skeleton ground crew is silently putting the finishing touches on pre-flight preparations.

Snow is still falling, and the pre-dawn air is cold. Smell of smoke fills the air. Ahangar looks up at the sky. The sky is lit with Tehran’s lights. He can see a few spiraling plumes of white smoke against the night sky. The smoke is from the center of Tehran, the city that he loves and the city that he grew up in. So many memories…parks, ice cream with his two girls. Is he going to see them again? He reaches a single seat Mig-29. there are two of them next to one another. He nods to Parsaa and points toward the other one.

“You’re taking that one”.

“Do I have a choice, Sir?” says Parsaa sarcastically.

Parsaa then turns and looks at the other aircraft. The other four pilots are climbing aboard two F-5’s. He begins to climb up the ladder to get into his plane, but stops for a second and turns to Ahangar.

“They’re sending us to slaughter…pinning us against those F-14’s with these pieces of Russian junk and those two museum pieces.”

Ahangar is getting into his cockpit. He looks down at Parsaa who is waiting on the ladder.

“True, but they are scared, and they will make mistakes”.

A few minutes later, all four aircraft blast off the snowy runway and with afterburners blazing, they soar into the sky. Ahanagr looks down at Tehran. He can see a few fires still burning, but other than that, the city looks calm…but doesn’t it always look calm from this altitude?

Back at the airbase, Col. Nazemi is sitting behind his newly appointed desk at the Base Commander’s office. There’s a knock on the door, and two military policemen, one a lieutenant and the other one a major, walk in. Nazemi is taken aback. Are they here for him? One can’t be sure these days. The major is carrying what looks like an air force personnel file.

“Can I help you gentlemen”? Says Nazemi anxiously.

“I hope you can colonel” says the major, looking at Nazemi’s rank insignia. “Are you the commander of this base?”

“Yes, but I was just appointed interim commander a few hours ago.”

The major hands Nazemi the folder that he has been holding. It’s an officer’s personnel file. The major nods to the colonel indicating that he can open the folder, which Nazemi does. He sees the photo and the name of the officer. He recognizes him.

“Is this officer here on this base?” asks the major.

“Yes, but he just took off on an emergency mission. Why do you ask?”

Part I, Part II, Part III

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more from anonymous111.2
 
Onlyiran

Great story and great writing

by Onlyiran on

looking forward to Part II.  

And "sargord": this is fiction.  Get over yourself please. 


anonymous111.2

Thanks Fair

by anonymous111.2 on

for the kind comments.  

Putting warp enginess on F-5's...not a bad idea!  I may use that at some point in a story. :-))  


HollyUSA

Anonymouse!

by HollyUSA on

LOL what the hell was that?


Fair

Great writing, the suspense is killing me:)

by Fair on

Thanks for a nice story, left to be continued at a perfect point. Well done:)

 

As for the technical inaccuracies, waffen SS major, just relax, it is fiction. If you are worried about accuracy, maybe first you should get the name of TFB7 right- It is not Shahid Dastgheib, it is Abbas Doran Airbase. Shahid Dastgheib is the name of the civilian airport.

Furthermore, way before the problems you pointed out, there are other problems. For example the F-14's are no longer fully armed ever, it is fortunate that they can even fly. And even if they were fully armed, they could have been forward deployed to Mehrabad for special missions such as this one, and this sort of redeployment was done in the old days (and of course now for the parades) Second, the day the Islamic Fuehrer runs away, he will be long gone before any commander gets changed and any intercept mission gets ordered. 3rd, it is highly unlikely that the Islamic Fuehrer is overthrown given the appetite for blood he has demonstrated.

So all these things are unlikely. So what? It is still a great story.

In fact the most likely scenario for a getaway is that no fighters will
play a role because they will not be able to operate, especially with
the range required to get to Moscow, and in any case the Islamic
Fuehrer would make the getaway with a Russian plane like a Tupolev, and
he would crash anyway because the pilot was a drunk Russian and the
engine caught fire. That is just like another normal day in Iran. Boooooring....

So I am not going to be nitpicky about any of this, I am going to sit back, relax, suspend disbelief, and enjoy the story. You can put warp engines on the F-5's if you want!

 

Anon, I really appreciate your great storytelling and keep up the good work. Eagerly awaiting part II....

 

-Fair

 


Anonymouse

111.2, Sargord is a vagina nut and writes a lot of vagina poems!

by Anonymouse on

Everything is sacred.


anonymous111.2

sargord

by anonymous111.2 on

there are several things that you need to be mindful of when you read a piece of fiction such as Green Skies.  First, in any story, focus must be on two things: 1) characters, and 2) plot.  I personally believe that characters are the most important elements of a story, especially in my line of work.  Once the audience bonds with your protagonist and hates the antagonist, the plot really becomes secondary.  So, bearing in mind that those two factors are the most important elements of a story, one should not "drag" the story with minor details such as technical aspects of where aircraft came from.  You must consider that 99.9% of readers (including myself) are not only unaware of such details, but they are also unlikely to be concerned with them.  All we would want to see is the bad guys getting away and the good guys trying to catch them.  As far as the other 0.1% (such as yourself) we assume that they can just go with the flow.  In sum, focus must be put on characters and plot as opposed to obscure details.  Trust me, any studio will gut your gut your script (if not throw it in trash) if it sees any "drag" due to over-attention to details.  Think about it this way: most fighter pilots will cringe at the air to air combat details in Independence Day, and mots police officers will cringe at the "investigation" techniques in any given cop movie.   

Second, in this particular story, there's an element of chaos.  To that end, it is proper to have aircraft (and pilots) in wrong bases.

As far as why not intercept from Tabriz, that would be too easy.  There needs to be tension in a story, i.e., they are behind and they need to catch up.  Plus, I need these pilots in Tehran to convey  certain situational details, some of which are in part I (plumes of smoke and fires in the city).

as far as ground tracking, again, let's not get too technical.  This is a short story that has a different plot and different focus than technical military details.  They will become clearer in part II.

Like I said before, try to relax and indulge yourself in a work of fiction.  You will enjoy it more! 

 


Sargord Pirouz

Anon, I realize that. But

by Sargord Pirouz on

Anon, I realize that. But fiction relies on convincing the reader. So attempts at realism should be and are appreciated- are they not?

Anyway, I was considering this a little further.

Perhaps MiG-29s and F-5s should be scrambled to intercept from Tabriz TFB.2 (23 TFS and TFS 21). They actually might have a better shot at a successful intercept, given the fact that the 727 is already airborne and heading in northwest direction. 

Any ground based tracking being taken into account in the story?  


anonymous111.2

sargord

by anonymous111.2 on

this is fiction.  Let your imagination fly. :-))


Sargord Pirouz

There is a F-14 IACI

by Sargord Pirouz on

There is a F-14 IACI overhaul facility at Mehrabad TFB.1, but F-14s are not normally based out of there. Who armed the aircraft and with what? Mehrabad is a MiG-29 base (11 TFS) which uses incompatible AAMs.

Shahid Dastghaib TFB.7 near Shiraz is a Su-24MK base (72 TFS). Where did the MiG-29s come from? Same question: where did the F-5s come from? How are these two different aircraft being armed, and where is the accounting in the story for the time being taken to properly arm and fuel these different aircraft, that are not normally based out of TFB.7?

Wouldn't it make a heck of a lot more sense to scramble the F-14A interceptors at Isfahan TFB.8 (81 TFS and 82 TFS)? It is considerably closer to the target, and some of the F-14s with operable AWG-9s are maintained as dedicated interceptors at the ready.


anonymous111.2

Artificial Intelligence

by anonymous111.2 on

Thanks for the kind comment.  I write screenplays, not short stories. This is my first attempt in many years to write a short story, and it's very difficult to get my mind out of the screenplay format and put in the situational details and other things that are conveyed via action in screenplays, but must be explained in written form in short stories.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.  I'm working on Part II, and should be able to post it within about a week.   


Artificial Intelligence

Good read!

by Artificial Intelligence on

I want to know what happens. Very good writing!