"Are you ready, Swara?"

"Excuse me! I'm not just Swara now."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, my bad. Are you ready Ms. Flight lieutenant Swara Harold Raichand?"

"That sounds better... But your question itself is stupid, just like you. My first active mission as a Commando, and how can I not be ready? Air force was neither a dream nor any infatuation for me, rather it was my one and only goal. This is the only life I've really ever wanted . "

"If I'm stupid, then you are blind. Tell me one thing, won't you miss anything? Don't you think you're leaving someone behind?"

"No! I won't! I have no one to look behind. I do not have anyone to care for me. "

"But you do have a family."

"Family!" Swara had a wry smile as she looked at her reflection on the restroom mirror. "No one will even notice that I'm gone."

Her cellphone rang suddenly, breaking the silence of the lone female restroom of the IAF Delhi Air Command.

Damn! Dracula calling.

"Gran Dracula" was the name flashing on the screen of her Samsung smartphone. Swara groaned in frustration. After that draining battle with her so called imbecile heart, last thing she needed was her grandmother Mrs Savitri Raichand and her endless bickering and whining.

After avoiding four calls she slid that green icon rather grudgingly. "Hello Gran."

"Hey Swara, I didn't disturb you, did I? After all my granddaughter is a busy bee." an overly chirpy voice came through the speaker. "And I am so proud of her."

Wait a minute. Something was wrong. She had missed, actually ignored four bloody phone calls. Still no shouting, no hissy fits, no death wishes. And those golden words... Disturb... Proud... Wow.

"Excuse me Ma'am. Are you really my Gran?"

"Oh my Krishna ji! My own granddaughter has failed to recognize my voice. Please take me to the heaven, O lord!" Savitri' s loud hysterics could cause almost anyone's ears to bleed. But Swara was fortunate or you can say rather unfortunate to have been accustomed to the high threshold of volume level by now.

Nope. No room for suspicion. She really was Savitri Raichand.

"Actually I was wondering, from when your utter disappointment on me had turned into beaming pride? From last night I guess?" Swara snorted loudly. That lady was certainly hatching some devious plan in that convoluted head of hers.

"Ah, forget all that. You know Mrs Khanna, my kitty party friend, right? Her brother's sister-in law' s colleague has a son. A fine, rich, well mannered young man he is." Swara sighed. This was going down the old route, same boring marriage crap. Same nagging. But wait a minute. What was she expecting Swara to do? Did she really think her granddaughter would dance to her tunes just like that?

"What the hell, Gran? Are you freakin' out of your mind?" her tone was low as she unleashed steaming wrath through her words. The lady on the other side could realize she would not get chance to say her goodbye this time as well.

"Tell that son of yours to stay away from my life, just the way he has done till date." thriving chagrin changed the color of her eyes to the darkest shade of violet - blue. While her face was resembling the cloudy sky of the early stormy days of summer.

Like a stratovolcano she had cynicism as her cinders. Ashes were born from her endless inner wars. Her intense drive to conquer the sky was her lava flowing above all the cinders and ashes. As it travelled higher, her core become cool and hardened and the outside roughened by crust, ready to scratch or burn with molten heat if anyone tried to be near her.

Well, that was Swara Harold Raichand for you.

And that was the demonstration of abrasion offered by her outer crust.

*********************************

Flight lieutenant Karan Ahuja was waiting impatiently in the corridors. After six long months he was going to meet his course mate and one of the most intriguing characters he had ever met and at the same time considered as a close friend.

He was not sure whether the feelings were mutual or not, for the other person had hardly displayed any sentiment for anyone so far.

Karan met Swara for the first time four and half years back in IAF academy in Dundigal. Their batch was a special one because for the first time Air Force had been opened for women to be trained into fighter pilots.*

Each of the ladies present there were special, but she had an added mysterious aura around her. At first he thought her unusual amethyst iris did the trick. Otherwise what else could have made a girl of twenty with a pretty face and zero cut hair look like that intimidating and almost impermeable?

Day by day he saw her climbing the ladder of success, soaring higher and higher. Eventually she marked her place into the world of spins and dogfights. Later she earned the transition into olive drab camouflage uniform of Garud cadets from usual sky blue and navy ones.** And she was the only girl who had made it from flying branch, barring other four female ground officers.***

Nope, he couldn't make it till the end of the training. He with his girlfriend Vinita Joshi had dropped out of the strenuous training due to an unfortunate incident. But that incident made the couple see Swara in a different light. He could still remember her careless retort.

"No need to thank me. I didn't save you, rather saved myself from the depressing melodrama of some lovesick nincompoops. "

"How dare she? I would meet that moron when I've only six hours to leave? What did she think? Does she think it's a bloody airport?" And that familiar angry voice brought Karan back from the state of nostalgia.

He had a genuine broad smile looking at her face. "Hey, girlfriend! Who made our sleeping volcano pissed off this early?" At last Swara was here, in her maroon beret and olive drab camouflage uniform of an Garud commando, long hair done in a sleek military donut bun, face flushed in trepidation. "Let me guess, Dracula strikes again. Right?"

" I told you thousand times. Don't call me that! I don't know what kind of treasure Vini sees in you." Swara huffed while he chuckled. "You are right about that lady by the way. She is vying for my blood as usual. But this time that invisible man decided to show up too."

Twenty four years! After twenty four long years suddenly Mr Indravardhan Raichand remembered he had a daughter, he had some fatherly duties. So he shoved a groom towards her, not thinking what it would do to her career. Who gave him the damn right to decide her life?

"Easy babe, chill! You're not going to meet him anyway." A girl with pixie cut hair and light brown eyes joined the duo. "Aww! I'll miss you, Swara."

Karan's face lit with a 440 volt smile as he hugged his girlfriend cum fiance Vini. "Won't you miss me, darling?"

Her smiling face turned gloomy within a minute. The next few minutes were spent by exchange of thousands of lovey dovey endearments and promises between Karan and Vinita while their friend kept rolling her eyes.

"Ugh! You people sicken me!" Swara scrunched her face and turned to leave.

Salt, cheese or sugar- excess of anything was harmful for health, she believed it with her heart. She didn't wished to be a diabetic or blood pressure patient for those extra doses she had already.

Emotional melodrama... Check.

Mushy romance... Check.

Now she badly needed some spicy action in her life.

"Sir!" she gave a salute, as a senior officer in maroon beret was seen nearing them. She noticed the badge- three narrow blue band over wider black bands.

A wing commander.

The man looked too young to be in such a higher rank. His number of badges showed his high caliber as an officer. Appearance wise he was about six feet tall, had broad shoulder yet lean frame. Light 5 o'clock shadow covered the area between his perfectly chiselled jaw and prominent cheekbones. Raven black manes being groomed into vintage style Ivy league haircut complimented his charming yet rugged appearance with a preppy aesthetic touch.

She didn't find the colour or depth of his eyes, for she didn't try to. Eyes were that territory in human she used to avoid like plague. Instead her eyes travelled to his chest where his name was embroidered in golden letters over the black badge. It said-

Sanskar Shergill.

================================

"Hey, girlfriend...", the guy had a teasing grin.

"I told you thousand times. Don't call me that." Sanskar could heard the girl replying back. Her tone had ire of controlled kind, surprisingly with a musical ring. His eyes fell on her uniform. So that's the woman to be deployed under his Wing. Raichand or something like that was her name.

Then suddenly another lady joined the scene. He watched that 'boyfriend' hugging the second girl.

Ouch.

"You people sicken me." This were the only words Sanskar could hear further from them.

So this Raichand girl was scorned by betrayal, just like once he had been.

"Oh don't be so butthurt, baby! It's not like you have ever loved me,Sanskar ." She, his fiancée was trying to straighten her dishevelled appearance after being caught in the middle of a steamy make out session with his childhood best friend, Ankur.

Betrayal still hurts.

"Just shut up Sanskar! Before blaming us, ask yourself. Have you given her the attention she deserves since your engagement?" Ankur shouted as his once upon a time best friend hurled words of accusations towards the infidel duo.

Sanskar still could not forget the next set of scathing words, even if four years had passed since then.

"When you fly away to the glory, do you think of anything or anyone else? People like you should never marry."

Sanskar was drawn out of his mind trip by the salute offered to him. He raised his hand to acclaim the same, while his head lowered to give a curt nod.

His eyes stuck on one place. Those eyes. They were like a pair of purple garden heliotropes rimmed by shade of fully ripened blueberries. He was sure he wouldn't ever forget them.

No, not for any romantic notion. That deadpan, emotionless look had already thrown him back to another one of his parchments of memories.

Six wolves in sheepskin with the aid of traitorous sleeping floodlights had sneaked inside Pathankot Airbase that night. Mortars and grenades blasted, guns fired between the fake and true fighter birds.

There were darkness, smell of gunpowder, splattering of blood everywhere. And a lot of noise and movements tore the tranquillity of the night. Angel of death had descended down the earth and did no discrimination between the good and the evil.

Sanskar closed his eyes as that particular vision hit him.

"Leave me, buddy. You are needed there to fight them." Squadron leader Gaurav Singh smiled through his blood stained face. "Anyways, time' s up for me. You can't rescue me. GO!"

Sanskar laid his heavily wounded body over the grass. "I'll be back." he promised.

The wounded man whispered, " Goodbye, Shergill!" and he was not wounded anymore.

He was way above pain, conflicts, earthly emotions. Still his eyes had forgotten to shut down the world.

That nonchalant, vacant look had managed to stab Sanskar hard. This time his another friend had stabbed him from front by leaving him forever.

"Listen, Raichand." he stopped her as Swara was about to leave. He didn't notice the other two who had passed after saluting him.

Swara turned back towards the handsome senior with questioning eyes, "Yes, sir?"

"Always remember, you are a commando. I have a piece of advice for you. " He covered the distance of metres in quick long strides. He shot his glance straight into her eyes.

"Never say goodbye."

==========================
Facts versus fiction: (Creative liberty alert)

*India's first women fighter pilots- Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh- were commissioned in June, 2016, entering a world which was thus far only reserved for men.

**Still now female officers don't have access to Garud Commando force.

***Garud Commandos are usually chosen from airmen or ground crew. Flying officers can join in limtied number as well, but only after fulfilling some specific requirements.

**** Career for female flying officers in IAF is comparatively short. They can join after graduate after clearing AFCAT exam.
After initial three stages of training, pilots are trained further for flying fighter planes , choppers or transport aircrafts . After getting commissioned they have a mandatory service time of 10 years, which can be expandable upto extra 4 years . This type of recruitment is called Short Service Commission (SSC).

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Author's note:
☆Here I am, with first chapter of Fallen Phoenix. This time I'm experimenting with my writing style, story and the characters.

☆Do let me know your feedback. Bashing will be welcomed too😅😂.

☆Hit vote and comment if you like.

S. Dyuti