0730
PARDO, RICARDO
ALMODAVAR PARK CENTER
Ricardo had spent most of his time away from the barracks in the morning, preferring the fresh air and rain to the mustiness of their shared barracks trailer. Most of his morning was spent in the company of his crew as they did their usual maintenance routine. Elías, his co-pilot from back in the army laid down on one of the seat rows in the Black hawk's troop bay reading on his kindle, oh what, Ricardo was unsure. Elías was never a big book worm so Ricardo found it unusual that his co-pilot of many years was suddenly glued to a digital book.
"You haven't stopped reading all morning, the most I've ever seen you read is maybe when we were in flight school. What's up parcero?"
"Arias recommended to me 'El Alquimista' so I'd stop bothering the NGOs whenever I'm bored. Honestly it's not a bad read." Elías replied without looking up. "Not that I don't like hanging out with you parcero, but I need to do something else."
The passenger compartment sat quiet for a few moments before a crackle over the radio broke the silence. Ricardo was glad as he was not an incredibly skilled conversationalist. Luckily, Arias, the team's Crew Chief was on the radio immediately, putting on his headset, meaning they had a job to do.
"Uhuh.... copy that." No one had to be told what to do as the crew hastily got to their feet to man their stations. The Chief didn't need to tell anyone to go anywhere. The only time they ever got called was for something urgent. The team had already gone through all their routine checks, making the Blackhawk ready as humanly possible for a fast take off. "Well we got a 9-line. You wanted something else to do Elías? You got it." Arias said as he tossed the co-pilot his headset. "Team 1's got a medical emergency at their Yahari village."
Ricardo and Elías went through a well rehearsed number of robotic checks as they clicked on all their electronics, warming up the the engine, the helicopter's electronics suites and more. As they'd already done majority of their checks in the morning, all that really needed to be done was plot their course and wait for the engine to warm up. All in all it took roughly two minutes for the crew to prepare for take off.
"MEDEVAC Seven Nine Four we need you wheels up ASAP. What is your ETA over?"
As the helicopter began to take off, Ricardo keyed his mic. "Seven Nine Four here. Copy that dispatch, Medevac is 12 mikes out, over."
"Copy Seven Nine Four, stand by for 9-Line."
"Standing by, over."
