Alexander left the briefing room knowing they had flankers and a few advanced stealth fighters. The only concern was that he had to reach clouds if he wanted to flee their missiles. Alexander rushed over to his bunk to jump into his flight suit and quickly ran over to the hangers to see that his plane was ready to go. He climbed up the ladder and into his cockpit to familiarize the controls. [i]After all,[/i] he thought, [i]this is going to be a long ride.[/i] 
He started up his engines once the mechanics had left the hanger. The tow vehicle hooked up to his plane and drew him out onto the taxiway where he started his engines and prepped for launch.

"Delta-One ready for runway two-zero."