Ejection by Illegal Eagle (f, qs) "Tiger Lilly, increase your speed to five zero zero knots and descend one hundred feet below radar, over," Major Sharp said over the radio. "Roger," Sonya said. It was a simple flight test in an F-14 Tomcat. Sonya was piloting over the Colorado River in Arizona. This was her first time in the cockpit of a real jet during a night flight. For the past three months, the Air Force was training her on the simulators. Last week was her first solo during the afternoon in the desert. She was head of her class in the piloting program and she couldn't wait until next week when she and her class were doing practice bombing runs and targeting each other in the air. It was only a matter of time before graduation now and Sonya was determined to set the standards for combat pilots. She dived down from three thousand feet at six Gs and soared above the ground. The night made the ground barely visible but she could see the moon reflecting off the river in the canyon. She was thirty feet off the ground, every rock and every cactus she saw were just a blur going by her. "This is a fucking rush!" she said, not realizing Major Sharp could hear her. "Maintain discipline, Tiger Lilly," he said over the radio. "Ascend to five thousand feet and head due North." "Roger," she said and pulled the control back. The jet soared up through the air and she pulled the control to the left, rotating the Tomcat into a small roll. She flew upside down through the air, turned back over and soared up to five thousand. "How are you feeling, Tiger Lilly?" Major Sharp called over the radio. "This is so cool!" she laughed. It was just then that Sonya noticed that she wasn't the only one up there. There were two white lights and one flashing red light in the middle heading towards her from above her ten o'clock position and descending. It looked like another plane by the lights, but Sonya couldn't identify what kind. "Base, do you have any traffic for me? Over," Sonya said over the radio. "Tiger Lilly, that's a negative," Major Sharp said. "The only traffic I have is a United 767 in your eight o'clock position heading north-northwest, range twenty seven miles. And a FED/EX MD80 in your five o'clock, heading due south range thirty-four miles, Stand by, I'll check broadband, over." "Base, I have traffic at ten o'clock, slightly above and descending, over." "Tiger Lilly, roger. I have an unknown target at that position. He's heading south-southeast. Can you identify the aircraft? Over." "Possible commercial. He's at my eleven o'clock now and still descending, over." "Tiger Lilly, begin to descend to three thousand feet and head southwest, over." "Roger, base." Keeping her eyes on the aircraft above, by mistake, she pulled the control back and the Tomcat began to rise. "Oh Shit!" Before she could compensate for her mistake, the nose of the Tomcat struck the bottom of the descending aircraft. Sonya watched in horror while the nose of her jet was torn off like a piece of paper. The control panels began to flash red lights and beeped. The Tomcat went into a nosedive. "Tiger Lilly, what are you doing?" Major Sharp yelled over the radio. "Ive collided!" Sonya shouted in fear. "The controls are showing a complete failure in the stats! The hydraulics have failed, I can't level out! The nose is gone! I'm going down!" "Eject, Tiger Lilly! Get out of there!" Sonya grabbed the lever for the ejection seat and pulled. The canopy blasted off the top of the jet and her seat shot out like a rocket. When the seat was clear of the jet, her parachute opened and Sonya went from five hundred knots to ten in a matter of seconds. Sonya felt as if her organs fell to her feet and bounced back to where they belonged. The shock of the action made her send her dinner down with her jet. She watched below to see her jet still spinning out of control come crashing down on the ground, exploding into flames. 'That could have been me,' Sonya thought to herself. 'Thank God for this seat.' The wind blew Sonyas chute closer towards the river and away from where her jet crashed. She could hear the sound of the water below as she began to float down alongside the canyon wall. This time of year the water was lower than normal due to the heat in the desert. 'Shit. I hope they can find me down here. It's a long climb up.' Sonya looked down at the ground below as her chair was about to land. The chair came down with a loud thud from the boosters and locking rails underneath, the shock hurt Sonyas back while the chute fell down behind the chair. Dazed from the impact on the ground, Sonya sat in the chair for a minute and collected herself. She pulled off her oxygen mask and took off her helmet throwing them off to the side. She unbuckled her harness and weakly stood up. She stepped out onto the soft mud in front of her and turned around. She began to pack up her chute but didn't notice her feet slipping under the surface of mud. The chute got caught on the back of the chair, and Sonya tugged harder on the rope. The she noticed that her boots were underground. She tried to lift her right leg out but only pushed her left one down to her mid-calf. She tried the left and her right leg sank in up to her knee. "What the hell?" she said. She let go of the ropes to her chute and began to pull on her legs trying to break free from the mud. She pulled back and forth, one leg to the other, but the mud just kept pulling them further under. She stopped moving when the mud reached her hips to catch her breath but she could feel the mud still rising over stomach. The mud wasn't rising, she was sinking. Sonya was frantic. "Help! Help me, I'm sinking!" She cried, her voice echoed across the canyon. There was no one in sight. She kept moving back and forth trying to break free with no avail. The quicksand pulled her down to her breasts. Then noticed although she was sinking, the ejection seat wasn't. It was on solid ground. She grabbed hold of the chute's ropes again and pulled. They were tight. She felt a wave of relief rush over her as she slowly started to pull herself out. Her stomach was now visible again and she could feel the rest of her body slowly rising out. She let go of one rope with her right hand and reached for the side of the chair. 'Come on, a little further.' Her fingers were almost in reach of the bottom rail when suddenly the rope came loose and she felt herself slip back into the quicksand past her breasts. "No!" she screamed. She tugged on the rope but the chute wasn't secured to anything. The chute started to come over the chair back as the quicksand slowly pulled her shoulders under. "Please God. Help me!" she begged as a tear rolled down her cheek. She grabbed the chute and pulled on it trying to get it snug enough so she could pull herself out again. The quicksand claimed her neck and she pulled the chute faster. Her chin touched the surface and she tilted her head back deafening herself as her ears and long brown hair went under. 'This is it,' she thought as the quicksand closed over her eyes. Her arms still tucked wildly on the chute. Then, when she thought all hope was lost, the chute went tight again. 'Okay, slowly, slowly.' she thought as she pulled. And then, her head reappeared from the surface. She sucked in a mouthful of air and continued to pull on the chute. The quicksand had coated her entire face so she couldn't see anything, but she could hear a loud humming coming from above. She ignored it and continued to pull. She felt her shoulders and breasts resurface as she reached for the rail of the chair again. The humming was getting closer as her hand grabbed the rail. "Yes!" she said aloud. Her stomach reappeared and she leaned over the seat and grabbed onto the back. Her hips and buttocks slipped out as she climbed up the back of the chair. With the last of her strength, she interlaced her fingers around the back of the chair and pushed it over. The chair fell over onto its back and the rest of Sonyas body was free. She took the parachute and wiped the mud off her face and finally found out what the loud humming was. The base had dispatched a helicopter to find her. It was right above her now and coming down on a winch was a rescue technician to pick her up. On the helicopter, she met up with Major Sharp. "You gave us quite a scare there, Tiger Lilly," he said. "Gave /you/ quite a scare?" Sonya said wiping the mud off her uniform. "/you/ don't even know. What did I crash into anyway?" "We don't know, it kept going. It didn't crash." "Then what the hell was it?"