Scene #4 – Three hours later, now early on Friday Brody got his spot ready, took a greenie and then donned his VR headset “crown” and checked his comms to make sure he could hear. He closed his eyes for a few minutes and relaxed his breathing until he felt the fa- miliar twinge as his blood pressure increased. Suddenly, he grew much more focused as the cockpit he imagined himself inside took shape be- fore his very eyes. To him, he was there, somewhere on a simple dirt air- strip, and he had a 360-degree view of the airframe he was flying for the mission – most any detail sharply rendered and owing to his understand- ing of the controls he could hit a switch or otherwise learn more if need- ed. He was given clearance from Kontrol, and he slowly revved the engine and got airborne. Since he was on a recon profile, he gained the desired altitude and once he confirmed his target, he flew in that direction. After about twenty minutes, he checked the digital map to ensure, heard the call from Kontrol saying he was cleared for action and then conducted several number “8”–looking passes over the terrain below. The sophisti - cated AI running the game gave him all the information he needed until he could visually confirm the specific targets below he was to engage. Then he kept up his lazy-8’s as he called them, waiting for the strike air- craft to arrive. He was the equivalent of a forward air controller (FAC), the first on the scene, and this time he used the callsign “BUHO (or OWL) 22.” Then a delay followed until he heard the strike lead come over the net: “BUHO-22, this is GRINGO-1…” Brody told the newcomer what he need - ed to know, how to divide up his four aircraft and then released them to attack. Owing to Brody’s preset personal choices, he saw his aircraft as an older radial engine fighter plane from World War II, in this case a late model P-51D Mustang, instead of the smaller drone it really was. Frankly, the two aircraft were very different, but the AI flawlessly rendered it how - ever the pilot wanted to see it. Brody had never asked many questions, either, nor did he care. He wanted to be a top pilot with his name in lights and this particular Korean-made game, (choego jojongsa) or roughly “Top Ace,” was easy for him. GRINGO Flight rolled into action, in reality, a small drone swarm, striking at multiple targets which Brody saw in real time and then could tell them
118
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator