Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.In the southwest corner of the base, there are yellow tin houses, which are not large in size, and look like earthy yellow shipping containers on the ground.Captain Claire took the mission briefing folder and led Lieutenant Noor to the door of room A003, scanning the encrypted door lock with his ID card, and with a soft sound, the door was opened.She looked at the Hamilton watch in her hand, and it was half past ten in the evening.Today is a day that is both ordinary and unusual.Normally, this is one of Captain Claire's countless drone control missions; What is not unusual is that his old partner, Lieutenant Anton, has been transferred and replaced by a new partner, Lieutenant Noor.Lieutenant Noor was a young mixed-race officer, of mixed Asian and European descent, with impressive grayish-brown eyes and extremely deep eyes."
I'm in charge of controlling the plane, and you will be my deputy."
Claire hadn't yet pointed to the two seats that looked like game consoles, and she took the lead in front of the screen on the left."
Okay, I can also take the opportunity to learn from the old-timers."
Lieutenant Noor was very modest, much to Captain Claire's satisfaction, this young officer from a prestigious school did not have the unbelievable arrogance of those recruits, and always spoke very low, which made people sound like a spring breeze."
Actually, this mission is very simple, not very complicated."
After Claire sat down, she comforted Nur next to her softly.Noor put the guard on the joystick, tried the touch, and then looked sideways at Claire, "Don't worry when you say that, after all, it's my first time on a mission." ”"Tonight is just responsible for providing front-line fire support to the SEAL team, this kind of task depends on the situation, if they go well, maybe we don't need to come forward at all."
Claire said: "The previous mission in the Middle East was the most troublesome, those guerrillas always like to hide in ordinary residential areas, in fact, they are using civilians as shields, even if our guided munitions are well controlled, they are easy to be injured by mistake, and once they occur, it will make things very troublesome." ”The two of them said as they turned on various electronic instruments and screens.Drone pilots are pilots themselves, and they are also professionally trained in drones.Flying a drone may seem simple, as if using a joystick to simulate operating an airplane in front of a screen, but it's actually not that easy.Captain Claire, who sits on the left, is the pilot, and she is responsible for flying the drone and launching the missile.As the deputy, Lieutenant Noor is the sensor operator, who controls the camera and aims the laser at the target to guide the missile.Various electronic meters and screens were activated, and the two of them stared intently at the silver screen, switches, and buttons.This is not much different from the cabin of a modern fighter jet, as if it were just two pilots and co-pilots piloting the plane.However, being in it doesn't feel like you're on the battlefield.Traditional fighter pilots launch missiles and return to base, but drones continue to hover over targets for several hours after bombing to assess the extent of damage.The drone pilots saw images that were unusually clear, often reflecting the extent of the damage to broken limbs.If collateral damage occurs, the psychological impact can cause the drone operator to have a mental breakdown at the end.Under their control, thousands of miles away from the Port-au-Prince Air Base, a Predator drone slid off the runway and into the night sky.In silence, the two slowly navigated the drone to Mexico and flew over the town of Cavalón according to the various data and images obtained on the drone, with the most advanced GPS positioning instruments."
Enter the predetermined airspace."
Claire hooked the plane into a fixed cruise route, and she switched the channel to the communication channel of the command center."
The drone codenamed AZF113 entered the designated airspace and requested instructions."
Each drone will have a separate mission identification code when it is dispatched, because there is a two-person crew in each container iron house in this center, and they are like white-collar workers commuting to work, who come to the base when they receive the task, listen to the briefing, and then enter the designated room to start performing various tasks.The command center will give them instructions by distinguishing the nature and specifics of their mission through identification codes."
Rogered, enter the cruise procedure, stand by in the airspace, wait for the request of the ground team, over.""
AZF113 received, go to the cruise, over."
According to the instructions given by the center, Claire did not have to let the drone hover in the air for a while, collect all the ground data, and then wait for the SEAL team on the ground to send a request for fire support, after which the command center would ask the drone crew to fire.In order to maintain the continuity of firepower tonight, there will also be a drone that will take off while they are attacking, and take over the work of the two after they have completed their mission, continuing to provide fire cover for the ground detachment.It can be said that Captain Claire and Lieutenant Noor were the protagonists of the first half of the night, because the Mexicans did not know about the secret operation plan, because the locals were unreliable, and often this one exchanged messages with them, and the drug lords would disappear after a phone ring."
It's been a long night!"
Lieutenant Noor stretched, then said to Captain Claire, "Can I go out for a cigarette?"
”"I don't think that's a good idea."
Claire glanced at Noor in surprise, during the mission, even the toilet had to be solved in the bathroom in the room, and it was absolutely forbidden to leave the house until the task was completed, because of the need for secrecy."
I have a big addiction to cigarettes and I am not suitable for being a drone pilot."
As a senior, she felt that she needed to remind the hairy young man in front of her who had just graduated from the military academy not to make her future bleak because of the bad habit of smoking."
Uh......
All right. ”Noor seemed to give up his desire to smoke, got up from his chair, stretched, and began to pace slowly in the small space of the house, as if to relax his nerves."
Nervous?"
Captain Claire never took her eyes off the screen, she was in charge of the control of the plane, and Noor was in charge of shooting data collection, and before the battle began, Noor was much more idle than herself."
It seems that this job is really boring, I still like to be a Navy pilot on an aircraft carrier, at least fly a hornet or something."
He began to complain as he spoke.Claire smiled softly, she had seen more than one male pilot say that.Compared to women, men always can't sit still and don't have that much patience."
I said you big men......"
She was about to taunt Noor, but in the middle of her sentence, a sudden huge impact pushed her down, and the person suddenly tilted to the left, and finally lay limply on the ground.Lieutenant Noor looked at Captain Claire lying on the ground, the woman was dead, the bullet had lifted off a large piece of her Celestial Spirit cover, and blood splattered onto the wall.He glanced at the upper right corner of the house, where there was a camera, which was supposed to monitor the situation in the operation room, but this camera had long since been hacked by Noor's accomplices, and it was a repeating picture, and the center could not see what was going on in the room at all.He quickly put away his pistol and sat down in Claire's place.Lieutenant Noor's hands and feet have become very nimble and skilled, and he is not at all like a rookie who was unfamiliar before, he operates the drone alone, but he is calm.With control in his hands, Noor breathed a sigh of relief.He had to do this because everyone's position was fixed, and if it was useless to kill Claire before entering the room to turn on the system, the machine would have to be biometric to turn it on.He took out a phone from his jacket pocket, and quickly typed a line of English on it with his finger - predator in hand, ready to go.Then, he pressed the send button, and the message was sent.