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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2915031" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 355Jyren was definitely alright. It was hard not to be alright when in a mock dogfight where he was the only one with any actual combat experience. Not that the rookies were bad, but it was quite obvious they were simulator trained. Despite the fact that he was following to the side of his wingmate, Zephyr Four, the two of them had already taken down one of the other pairs...Six and Eight. It had been Four’s choice to lock onto those two first, simply because they had come straight at them first.    The remaining two were playing it safer, looping down while the four others ‘fought’ it out and trying to get under both groups. When both of their targets were ‘killed’ it took all the willpower that Jyren could manage to not maneuver to away and get a lock on the next oncoming targets. Somehow, though, he managed to hold himself at Rea’s wing, waiting for her to maneuver so that he could follow her lead.    A series of annoying beeps began to sound in his headset as Zephyrs Ten and Twelve attempted to gain a target lock on him...which forced a smile on Jyren’s face. They were focusing fire on the most dangerous target. Not always the best tactic, but it at least showed that they could think a little different...as Six and Eight had simply attempted to take on the two others one at a time, allowing for Four and himself to take them down one at a time with relative ease.“Below us, Four,” he said quickly over his channel with Rea. It was as much as he would say at this point, knowing that this was not his training, but theirs. He was, however, not going to lose to a bunch of rookies if he didn’t have to, and alerting one’s wingmate to possible problems was just something that was always done.    It was why he’d lived as long as he had...thanks to Liz Mare’s sharp eyes on his tail engines while he dove straight in like the rookie he used to be...    “Break right and wrap around,” the soft voice of Rea snapped him out of the old memories, which was, of course, a good thing.  Even though she was using rather interesting terminology, it got the point across and he had little trouble staying on her wing.    But as they made a long turn, Jyren decided it was time to show the rookies just why they were still rookies. It was a bit cold, true, but his old commander had done it to him more times that he liked to count. So, halfway through the turn in which the two other pilots would have had a clear shot at their flanks, Jyren cut his main starboard sublight drives for a few milliseconds...just long enough to whip his X-Wing completely around to face the two oncoming X-Wings.    The most obvious result of the maneuver was that the target locks attempting to be made on his own X-Wing continued to drift off to where he should have been, giving him the precious few seconds Jyren needed to ‘shoot’ down both of the remaining pilots...and without even using the Force to help out.    The second that their HUD displays read them as kills, a series of groans echoed through the comm channel.    It wasn’t long before the voice of a young human male, which Jyren was able to identify as Zephyr Ten with the help of his HUD display, cut off the groans, “Sir, that wasn’t fair.”    “No, it wasn’t,” Jyren replied, doing his best to not sound too insulting.    The comm clicked off, and then the voice of Rea sounded on the comm again, but this time on the open channel, “How did you do that, Two?”    “Something I don’t recommend any of you attempt until you can make a quick turn without it,” his response was simple enough, but he made sure to add, “That, I can show you how to do. Form up on me and I’ll give you a quick run through of that while we head to the moon’s surface for some real target practice.”    “Sir...”    Jyren glanced at his HUD display again as the other five X-Wings fell into a very loose formation around him, “Yeah, Eight?”    The voice was a bit more distinctive than the others, due to the fact that Zephyr Eight was one of the two Mon Calamari pilots in the squadron...meaning than an already gravely sounding voice got extra help from the not-too-clear comm system, “I’ve heard...stories...about the Vong ships eating laser fire. How are we supposed to get through that?”    Jyren did not smile at that, only because he normally would have expected to have eyes on him. This was one of the more important parts of the briefing he had received earlier in the day. Freeing up a finger from his stick to hit the comm switch, Jyren said, “We’re about to get to that, Eight. Once you power up your weapons you should see that there is an unusual setting present. This will stutter your laser fire so it will get through their ship’s defenses. Its just a matter of spreading out your fire, and once you get that down its simple.”    “...doesn’t sound simple,” that was the relatively bland sounding voice of Zephyr Six, who Jyren was fairly sure was one of the other humans in the squadron, but wasn’t all that sure. He really did need to get to know these kids better...    “You’ll get it,” Jyren answered before any agreements could be voiced over the channel, “But one thing at a time. Lets get to that maneuvering while we head for the targets, and then you can worry about that technique.”</blockquote>

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