Death on White Wings

Razorback

Ko'ah settle his banshee into position on Altas's wing and followed him through a wide circle as they waited for orders. Icey had brought four of them up for a training flight: Icey, himself, Altas, and Razorback. Glancing at his radar, he saw two contacts.

"I have one flight with Razorback, Altas you lead two flight. Engage hostiles at will," Icey called.

"Rog," spoke Altas in his flat voice.

Ko'ah followed Altas through another gliding turn, leading to a head-to-head pass with a pair of enemy banshees. A light blue Banshee leading a white one. Both sides fired passing shots, but none came close and Ko'ah was forced to go into a series of evasive maneuvers as the blue banshee fell in on his tail.

"Engage the enemy one-to-one," Icey called, "All restrictions are removed."

-----

Icey pulled in on the tail of a yellow banshee and followed it through a quick series of turns. The pilot was just beginning another turn when Icey's proximity alarm began blaring. Hitting the alarm shut off, Icey scanned his radar display searching for the cause. There it was...the white banshee had dropped in behind him. He rolled up on his port wing in preparation for a sharp left-turn, but instead immediately broke and rolled right, chopping back his throttle to shed altitude. As he looked back he saw the white banshee finishing a leisurely turn to drop in on his tail again. Icey jerked his nose up and slammed the throttle home, then nosed down into a long glide that he abandoned for a corkscrew dive. His opponent pulled a loop, coming over the top, then letting his ship fall through Icey's corkscrew, and snapping up to glide in on Icey's tail again.

Icey broke left and began a combination right-turn barrel roll. His turn speed was reduced to about a third, but he was harder to hit. It was also very difficult to follow. His opponent began his own turning barrel roll around Icey's roll again coming out at the end above and behind Icey. Icey pulled a tight loop, waiting until he was inverted to push the stick forward, resulting in an odd S-shaped maneuver. The white banshee, cut back throttle and climbed, waiting until Icey had finished to fire. The shots cut through Icey's ship, and with a grinding whine, the cockpit sheared off from the rest of the ship. The engines began a lazy decent downward, but the cockpit fell quite rapidly. Icey stared out the main window at the on-rushing ground until he met with white oblivion.

-----

Altas saw Icey fall and used the opportunity to drop in behind the white banshee, checking his radar as he did so. Three left: himself, his target, and Ko'ah. In his split-second of preoccupation, the white banshee made its move. The pilot cut his throttle back to zero, letting momentum carry him, then used maneuvering jets to swap his ship end for end, and finally gunning his ship again, it was a modified drop-kick maneuver. Altas reacted immediately, jerking his stick to the right and back, peeling his banshee off. His enemy dropped in behind him. Altas pulled his banshee up into a loop, waiting until he was inverted to break left, then finished his loop. His pursuer was unshaken. Altas dove steeply, carefully calculating the point of no return, and jerking his stick up as he reached it. The white banshee held his dive for a moment longer, then pulled up barely missing the rocks below. He couldn't shake enough momentum to climb and sped off in a long power-glide. Altas dropped in behind him, knowing that the pilot could not have made such a high-g maneuver without partially blacking out. His opponent spotted him as he was drawing a bead and broke left. Altas followed. The white banshee crested a small ridge, then pulled his nose up and cut thrust. The banshee fell backward as Altas sped past overhead. The pilot goosed his throttle and dropped in on Altas' six. Altas saw a flash in his rear display - and the void took him.

-----

Ko'ah's maneuvering had taken him far from the fight and as he sped back he saw a pinprick of light, which quickly blossomed into a full-fledged fireball. Scanning his radar he realized that only two pilots were left: himself and the white banshee. He cruised in low, using the terrain for cover, hoping to surprise his adversary. Popping over a ridgeline he found himself right on the tail of the white banshee. Lining up his sites Ko'ah waited for the lock-on tone to fire his missiles. Maria usually fired without a lock, but shooting a speeding banshee down was a little different that blowing legs off Adjus.

Getting his tone, Ko'ah fired and finally noticed that the other banshee had not moved since he had appeared. He feathered his throttle forward edging up to watch. When his missiles reached the fifty-meter mark, the other banshee finally moved. And it really moved.

The white banshee took off like a scalded bat, working into a steep dive. The missiles momentarily lost track, finally finding their target again and following. The white banshee did another crack-the-whip at the bottom of the dive and pulled up into a leisurely loop. The missiles ran into the rock below and exploded impressively.

As the white banshee rolled over the top and came to face Ko'ah, he received another missile lock and fired. The white banshee flew straight for Ko'ah oblivious to the missiles. Just before the missiles hit however, the banshee rolled on its axis, neatly spinning out of the way of the missiles without actually changing course. These missiles managed to track their target's direction before they lost contact and began to spin.

Ko'ah executed a sharp dive to get out of his opponents line of fire, and the white banshee followed. The white ship fire once, obliterating Ko'ah's comm package. Then it dove sharply down so that the two banshees were belly to belly. Ko'ah was distracted for a moment by a keening tone on his console. Missile lock. Quickly glancing at his radar he checked to see who had arrived with missiles. All he saw were the two missiles he had fired. They shouldn’t be locking on to him because they were set to avoid his IFF frequency. That line of thought ran smack into a brick wall as he realized his IFF transponder had been in his comm package. Giving his ship more throttle, he sped toward the ground and repeated the white banshee’s earlier crack-the-whip maneuver, managing to shake the missiles. Pulling up he saw a dual flash and before he could identify it the shots had ripped through his cockpit. Whiteness erupted in front of his vision.

-----

Razorback sat contemplatively in the cockpit of the white banshee. This had been a most interesting mission. "That will be all," a voice came over the comm. Reaching up Razorback flipped a switch and the world shut off. Climbing out of his simulator pod he glanced around the room.

"Good job," Icey called over to him, "Where'd you learn to fly like that?"

Razorback stared at him quietly for a moment, until Icey began to get uncomfortable.

"Right," Icey muttered under his breath as he turned away.

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