• "Little Bear Five, this is home base.” a voice said over the helmet-mounted radio, "What's your status, over."

    29-year-old Nathan Rodgers cast a passing glance at the array of digital readouts and gauges spread out before him in the cockpit of his F300 Stormshadow, an experimental next-gen fighter plane that housed the latest and greatest in aviation technology. "She's flying beautifully, base." he reported, "All systems are operating at full capacity. Remind me to give those geeks at NASA a big round of applause, over."

    "Will do, Little Bear Five." came the reply, "I'm sure they could use it, over."

    Nathan grinned and looked outside the window at the expansive blue waters of the South Pacific Ocean. About a week or so ago, he had gotten a call from the COMPACFLT saying that he had been assigned to test run the United States Air Force's latest entry into the future of stealth attack aircraft. Being the ambitious young pilot that he was, he was eager to accept the position and was shipped out to the military base located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, leaving his wife, Sarah, of two years to pray for his safe return. He turned from the view of the ocean and gazed at her picture that he had stuck to the dashboard with a strip of adhesive tape, smiling as his mind replayed the memories that began the moment they first met.

    It was in the early months of summer and the California State Fair was in full swing, blazing hot temperatures and huge crowds galore. Nathan had gotten some leave time and was enjoying a bit of R&R with a few friends of his, blowing off some steam and just having a good time. He was leaving the concession stand when he accidentally turned around a little too fast and ran into a blonde haired woman, spilling his open can of soda all over both of them. During the cleanup, Nathan apologized profusely but was met with a smile from the woman that hooked his heart right from the get go. She introduced herself as Sarah Dawson and had just moved into the Sacramento area from her home in Sydney, Australia. Nathan introduced himself as well and, after a slightly awkward goodbye, they went their separate ways, but not before glancing back towards each other and sending off one more smile. It was a couple days afterwards before Nathan saw her again, but this time they exchanged their phone numbers. Their relationship continued to grow from that point on for two years, until the day when he got down on one knee and popped the question right in the middle of an Italian restaurant. They were married a few months later, setting off the happiest and the best days of his entire life.

    "Little Bear Five, come in please."

    The sudden voice ripped Nathan from his thoughts and placed him back into reality. "I read you, home base." he said, "Go ahead, over."

    "Be advised: There's an unidentified inbound bogie bearing down on your position dead ahead." the man informed, "Turn around and return to base while we dispatch fighters to intercept, over."

    Nathan frowned in confusion. Wasn't the military supposed to quarantine this airspace from any commercial aircraft? Obviously, someone hadn't had their coffee fix and wasn't paying attention to their job. "Rodger that. Returning to base." he said as he tilted the joystick to the left, causing the plane to rapidly turn around, "Over and out."

    He had just leveled the plane out and was headed back the way he came when a proximity warning suddenly blared out an alarm. Nathan's brown eyes widened in horror and he jerked on the stick hard, just barely avoiding the explosive shell of a missile as it streaked by. "Home base, this is Little Bear Five." he cried, bringing the plane into a tight barrel roll to avoid a barrage of heavy caliber bullets from his assailant, "I'm taking fire here. Not sure if I can shake him, over."

    "We copy, Little Bear Five." the man answered, "You just keep that bird in the air long enough for reinforcements to arrive, over."

    Nathan tried to reply, but his mind was currently occupied by the need to dodge the incoming fire from the attacker and survive for a few more moments. The two of them weaved in and out of the forest of white, puffy clouds at Mach 2 speeds as their game of cat-and-mouse dragged on. Thirty seconds into the engagement, a new alarm whined in Nathan's ear, the one signaling that the enemy plane's missiles were locked on. He swore and pushed the Stormshadow into full gear, hoping that his superior speed could outrun the missiles. That, however, was not the case as the projectile slammed into the stealth plane's right engine and threw Nathan against his restraining belts. Alarms wailed and gauges flew out of whack as the Stormshadow began to drop out of the sky like a stone, and it was all Nathan could do to keep the plane from going into a nosedive. "Mayday! Mayday! I've been hit!" he exclaimed, "I've been hit and I'm going down!" On instinct, he reached to pull the lever that would pop off the canopy and allow his seat to be ejected into the air, but to his surprise, it stuck fast and refused to budge. "Ejection failed, I repeat, ejection failed." he said, "I'm going to try to bring her down over the water."

    Whatever reply there could have been was drowned out by the sound of Nathan's own heart beating loudly in his ears as the adrenaline kicked in. Up ahead, he spotted a small jungle island and figured that if he managed to survive the water landing, he'd be able to get some help from whoever was on it. Another missile suddenly exploded into Nathan's last remaining engine, dramatically altering the angle of his decent from the water to the island. He tried to correct his course, but it proved to be futile and he closed his eyes as the ground rushed up to meet him, waiting for the end to come. The last thing that went through his mind when the Stormshadow hit was Sarah's beautiful face, and that smile that made you feel like you could face the world. The plane impacted the first grove of thick palm trees seconds afterward, and Nathan's world went black.