Aces High

Dirk firmly gripped the flight stick as he watched the nose of his fighter break through the cloud barrier. The morning sun pierced through his canopy momentarily until the sunshade automatically kicked in.

"You don't get to see this in space," Dirk said to himself.

The comms were unusually quiet for a training flight. Dirk suspected it was a mix of it being too early in the morning and the stunning cloudscape.

The flight to the island was short but enjoyable. As they approached, Louis addressed the entire wing, "Attention! Squads two through eight will land using GERWALK mode. Squad one will fly to the operation's area. It will be a tight squeeze on the island, so keep a tight formation. Good hunting all!"

Louis and his two wingmates drifted away from the rest of the fighters as they descended toward the island.

Dirk could see the Macross 10 wing approaching the island from the opposite side and had to resist the urge to break formation and race to the island.

Elise didn't feel the need to resist that urge and rushed forward.

Dirk quickly went full thrust as well. The Macross 10 pilots noticed and spurred their fighters on.

"Son of a b-" Helena's voice cut off when she slammed her thrust lever forward and felt her whole body press into the seat of her chair. Her fighter and the rest of the Macross 8 fighters began to race toward the small island.

Louis shook his head at the sight of this but didn't say anything. He turned his attention towards the three Macross 10 fighters that broke away from their respective wing.

They appeared to be standard VF-171 Nightmares, but Macross 10 let them use different paint schemes than the military standard.

"I wouldn't mind a White, Blue, and Gold one myself," Louis thought.

Elise beat everyone else down on the island and had her fighter do a small victory dance in GERWALK mode.

A Macross 10 pilot in a black VF-171 with red accents flew towards Elise, then switched to GERWALK mode at the last second. They kicked up dirt and dust on Elise's fighter and then landed a few meters away from Elise.

Elise was furious over the proximity comms and reached down with her fighter's hand to scoop a handful of the island's soil.

"Stupid b-"

"Stop it!" Dirk yelled, then held Elise back from flinging the soil.

A second Macross 10 fighter expertly landed between Elise and the fighter that covered Elise's fighter with mud and dirt.

"Captain Adam Hunt, reporting for drills. I apologize for our rude introduction."

"Second Lieutenant Dirk Millo, good to meet you. Very nice landing!"

Elise dropped the mud in her hand and said proudly, "Second Lieutenant Elise Maddox and I won the race!"

The fighter behind Adam stepped out from behind him, saying, "First Lieutenant Rayelle Venusia, I hope you enjoyed the prize I gave you."

More pilots from both Macross 8 and Macross 10 landed around the tiny island and fielded similar greetings and taunts at each other.

"Dirt and dust? I'll give you plenty of it to eat in the sky," Elise retorted.

Dirk felt that Adam must be making the same tired expression he was from having to deal with someone like Elise.

Friction between both sides was inevitable, but the pilots could keep themselves from throwing punches.

"Eye to the sky!" Helena suddenly cut in.

All of the pilots turned their attention to the two squadrons still flying. A small countdown timer finally reached zero on their screens. Cheering erupted from the pilots as the digitized voice announced the start of the dogfight.

"Begin!"

Louis was the current number-one pilot on Macross 8 during live drills and simulations. He was excited to face new competition for the first time in a long time.

"Simon, Dan, watch my back," Louis commanded, then pushed his fighter to combat speed.

Louis flew directly towards the Macross 10 formation.

The central Macross 10 fighter accelerated directly towards Louis while the two wingmen split off into the clouds.

"Get on them and hold them off, I'll join you once I take care of this guy!" Louis commanded again.

The Macross 10 pilot showed no signs of slowing down as Louis's fighter screamed toward it.

"Alright, chicken it is," Louis said with a hint of excitement.

"Heh..." came through the comms.

Louis watched the Macross 10 fighter intently, his fingers wrapping tighter and tighter around the flight stick. He fought his instinct to turn away since the first one to turn would lose.

Louis felt like time was slowing down as his adrenaline peaked. He heard the other pilot mutter, "Going right."

Louis trusted the Macross 10 pilot and broke right at the last possible millisecond. They flew so close to each other that sparks flew as their wing tips scraped together.

"Whooo!" Louis exhaled in relief and quickly returned to reality, continuing his turn to try and get behind the enemy he had just grazed.

Louis looked up to see that the Macross 10 pilot had tried to chase Louis directly instead of continuing to turn. The G forces shifted the blood from the feet and back to the brain of the Macross 10 pilot and allowed him to recover from G forces quicker. The problem is they lost a lot of speed by switching directions.

Louis clenched his whole body and fought the G forces. His vision faded slightly, and he started to become disoriented. Louis felt this would be a perfect time to get ambushed and spun his fighter to shift his position slightly.

"Dan, now!" Louis commanded.

Alarms blared in Louis's cockpit, then one of the other Macross 10's VF-171s appeared from within the clouds and flew past Louis as he broke the attempted lock on.

Dan responded and used the radar response from Louis's craft to track the VF-171 that had just missed Louis and tried to escape back into the clouds. Green lights lit up on Dan's console.

"Confirmed kill, nice one Dan!" Louis said excitedly.

Louis looked for the first pilot and spotted him trying to catch Dan to keep the kill count even.

"Dan, break left! Simon, drag the other one out!"

The first Macross 10 pilot began chasing Dan then Simon burst through the cloud cover towards the ocean.

Behind Simon, the third Macross 10 pilot chased Simon. Louis peeled away from Dan to take down the pilot chasing Simon. His heart raced as the lock on indicator turned green, and he shouted, "Confirmed kill."

At the same time, Louis heard another pilot say, "Confirmed kill."

"Damn it!" Louis swore to himself as he saw Dan's icon turn red.

Louis and Simon flew in formation together to double-team the remaining fighter from Macross 10.

"You guys are good, you win this time."

Louis was a little disappointed the remaining pilot chose to surrender, but it was good since it allowed him to relax slightly.

"Next squad in the air."

Louis returned triumphantly with Dan and Simon. While they had won, he didn't like losing Dan, even in a simulation.

"Great job, bud," Dirk said proudly to Louis over the comms.

"It'll be better next time, pay attention, they're good," Louis warned Dirk.

Dirk nodded and turned his attention to the sky again.

The next few dogfights were not as exciting as Louis' dogfight, but it was clear that the Macross 10 pilots were better after winning four of the next five dogfights.

"Looks like I'm next, wish me luck," Dirk said calmly.

Dirk, Alek, and Helena boosted off the ground. They switched to fighter mode and flew to the engagement zone after a few seconds.

Below, they saw Rayelle, Adam, and a third pilot that hadn't introduced himself take off with them.

"Looks like we're together, good luck," Dirk said, trying to keep it friendly.

Rayelle replied, "Damn, I wanted to shoot down that cocky one."

"Oh, our quiet one is Second Lieutenant Alek Lacreed," Dirk said, ignoring Rayelle.

"Ours is First Lieutenant Martin Payne," Adam replied plainly.

Dirk and Adam sighed when they both realized they were commiserating with each other having to deal with the same types of people.

Helena interrupted and said, "Cut the chatter, we're here to shoot each other, not make friends."

Dirk started to pump himself up and shouted, "Alright! It's time to burn 'em down!"

He heard Rayelle stifle herself after she softly sang, "Burn! Burn! Burning for you!"

Dirk grinned and said, "Hey, even if you're bad, don't stop yourself, just sing it out!" He wasn't trying to be mean. He just thought it was better to sing as you want to.

Rayelle felt a little amused that someone else told her how to sing her very own song, "Oh? Humor me, how would you do it?"

Dirk felt energy well inside of him, and he released all of it in his voice to start singing the chorus for 'Burning for you.' He released a loud "BUR-"

"CUT THE CHATTER!"

Helena almost screamed into the comms. She knew Dirk would lose all focus and start singing with his full attention.

Dirk couldn't help but grin. He really wanted to sing now.

Rayelle felt something from Dirk in that brief moment before he could sing, even if it was only over the comms. "Hey Lieutenant Dirk, I'll be gunning for you first."