Avalanche

| the dogfight |

The sun began to peak over the horizon, it was early, too early for this.

My nerves doubled because with every passing second, I was closer to this test.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Three squeezes on my central flight stick.

"Mission Control, this is Avalanche. Requesting Runway 1 for take off."

"This is Dive from Mission Control. Access granted for Runway 1. Good luck Avalanche."

Fake it until you make it.

I smirked, "I don't need luck."

I steered my plane to the runway, and made sure all systems were running properly. I didn't want a repeat of yesterday.

It felt weird in this cockpit, I had to use another plane because mine wasn't fixed yet. And it would be bad luck if I used the plane that blew out an engine only the day before.

But it would all be okay.

I just had to pass this course.

Commander Metcalf was too old to actually fly, so he sent in Vice Admiral Beau Simpson in his place, he's better known as Cyclone. His wingman however, was Warlock, or our main instructor, Admiral Bates.

They had the best scores on the base, and they were both my direct superiors.

"Avalanche this is Warlock. You understand the rules of this dogfight?"

"Yes sir."

"The hard deck is 4,000 feet and we stay in Sectors 1 through 4. The only way to get out is to go below the hard deck or to be shot out. It's a basic two on one." Admiral Bates repeated.

I nodded, "Affirmative sir. When do we start?"

Vice Admiral Cyclone says, "Now."

He suddenly descends from above, from his hiding spot in the clouds.

Warlock starts to curve around and I realize that I'm in major trouble.

I take evasive maneuvers.

Cyclone is above me, and I'm trapped between him and the hard deck. Warlock is coming from my right, in an aggressive manner of piloting.

So I do what I do best.

I pull my central flight stick and go up and around, so I'm the one chasing Cyclone.

Warlock speeds right past us, so close I was worried that we would clip each other's planes.

I'm so close that my finger hovers over my trigger, but Cyclone knows my style, so he banks to the left.

I follow, and Warlock is directly behind me.

I'm sandwiched between the two.

I have to take one of them out, they were playing me like a fiddle at this point.

Breath, Zoe.