As First Dates Go, This One is Flying (Anija Ordo)

[Arrbi Betna]

"Just like that," Betna assured as he banked around for the next pass.

A road appeared on which mockups of various vehicles and armored tanks were set out. Wooden cutouts of human silhouettes stood out here and there, simulating a wartime convoy on the move. He dropped low down and lined up with the road, his intent to have [member="Anija Ordo"] follow him into the near perfect strafing run.

"Alright, fish in a barrel time," he called over the commlink. "Let's see what you can do!"

 

[Anija Betna]

Her eyes narrowing slightly in concentration, Anija tweaked the flight controls until she was lined up with the road. it definitely helped to have that as a guide. She blinked once, her HUD syncing up with the bes'uliik's flight controls again as she tightened her grip on the control yoke. Visually scanning the convoy, her senors denoted various vehicles, And she began to notice some weakness along the left side. There was a rather large gap in that side, and she settled her crosshairs over the figure near the rear of the convoy, blasting it to pieces before she began singling out vehicles on by one.

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Nice shot," Betna called over the commlink. "Missed a few here and there, but that would normally be for the fighter wing following you."

The young Mandalorian jinked the bes'uliik to the side and began pulling the fighter around. The next target came up to their east and began to rapidly come closer.

"Alright, An'ika," he said as they drew up to the target. "Enemy base camp up ahead. Tents, a few temporary structures, perimeter fence, and vehicles. There are AA emplacements, so keep on your toes. No live fire from the ground today, but if they get a hard lock on for long enough, the starfighter will confirm a kill against you."

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

'Right...' she thought, her fingers flexing on the control yoke again. 'No pressure..' She snorted slightly over the comm. "Sure, and I'll be nothing but floating atoms..." She laughed slightly and then turned her attention back to the rapidly approaching enemy camp. As they drew nearer, she thumbed her lasers, splattering fire across the group of temporary structures. Then, she began to pick off the anti-aircraft guns one by one.
[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"With this sort of thing, don't worry if you can't hit it all in one pass," Betna said as he saw the 'AA' emplacements zero in on Anija's fighter. "Big targets may need a few passes. Hit a few targets hard, then crank up the speed and blow past them. Get far enough away, then bank around for another pass. Better to take some time with it than risk it all in one go, especially when you have the air space to yourself."

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

Her fingers tightened pub the flight controls as she brought the fighter around. Bit she wasn't fast enough. The steady tone of a target lock filled her ears a second later, and she sat back with a sigh. "Should have gone for the AA guns first..." She said mostly to herself. "I'll get the hang of it." There was a moment of silence. "Again, or did you want to do something else?"

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Your call," he said with a chuckle. "You wanna try for another pass or do you want to move on to the next run through?"

Betna banked his fighter into a lazy turn back towards the mock military base. It wasn't so much to make another pass, but mostly to stay in the area in the event she wanted another go at it. If she did, it was an easy swap to align back to target. If not, they could easily move on to the next lesson.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She frowned slightly and chewed om hr lower lip for a moment or two as she thought about it. it had been quite some time since she'd had any kind of training in this area. And she could certainly use the refresher. Flexing her fingers on the flight controls, she made her decision. "I think I'll take another crack at it before moving on." Having said that, she banked her own fighter around, and aligned herself on the right heading. "Let's go.."
[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Alrighty, keep low and don't forget you can gun the speed at the last second if you need to. Throw off their aim a bit."

With that, Betna kept an eye on her starfighter and maneuvers. With luck, she'd hit the target solidly this time. No... Not with luck. With skill.

She knew what to do, it was just a matter of letting her use that skill and knowledge in conjunction. That was true mastery, in his opinion. Skill meeting knowledge meeting application. That was perfection.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Nodding to herself, Anija dropped her altitude slightly, feeling the inertia as the bes'uliik dipped lower. As she did so, she flexed her fingers around the flight controls and just breathed. In. out. And again. As with many things Ember had taught her, she found the sound of Arrbi's voice to be a good focusing tool. She tightened her fingers around the controls and narrowed her eyes as she suddenly slipped sideways, avoiding the simulated laser fire. And then she snap-rolled back on course, dropping her altitude still further. When she was perhaps fifty meters away, she snapped off a few shots with her quad lasers before pulling sharply up and away.
[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Perfection paid off. Betna watched as Anija's shots lit up the simulated base. A few fireballs went up from the targets and a few things lit on fire from the incoming fire. Overall, the base wasn't destroyed, but the guns were knocked out, the place was on fire, and the target was vulnerable to the wingman following behind. Betna didn't need to take the shot. What would follow was a certainty, not a question. That was good enough for him.

"Well done!" he exclaimed with a wide grin. He pulled the bes'uliik in behind and to the side of her's for the moment. "Ready for the next one?"

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

"I suppose so." she said after a moment. "I'm getting the hang of it, I think." She smirked a bit and tweaked the flight controls, sending her bes'uliik into a lazy loop before she straightened again. "What's next..?" In all honesty, she was eager to learn more, especially if it ment spending more time with [member="Arrbi Betna"].

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Next lesson," Betna said with a grin as he jinked the Bes'ullik directly behind hers. "Is dogfighting."

With that, he flipped on his own targeter and swapped his IFF over in the training module. He let the reticle rest on her engines for a moment until he felt that her sensors had alerted her to the target lock. After a second or two, he pulled the reticle up and to the side for a moment and pulled the trigger, sending a small spray of shots past her canopy.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She heard the alert tone over her internal helmet speakers and swore softly. [member="Arrbi Betna"] didn't play around. But that was a good thing. It meant she'd be prepared if the same occurred in battle. Chewing on her lower lip, she slipped sideways away from the hail of laser bolts and then flipped her own bes'uliik up on it's side and yanked on the stick, presenting her stronger dorsal shields for a moment before she rolled away and down. Her own lasers sprayed towards him, the crimson bolts narrowly missing the nose of his own craft.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna grinned as the lasers passed just off the bes'uliik's nose. He pulled up on the control yoke and flipped the starfighter on its back, then quickly flipped the bird over in a split S maneuver in order to drop onto Anija's tail. He let the targeter play over her fuselage a moment and let loose, the laser cannons spitting bright beams at her fighter, though they'd been dropped down to nonlethal levels.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She swore again as alarms shilled in her helmet speakers. Even at the low power setting, his shots still rocked her fighter a bit. Frowning, she rolled sideways and then looped up and around to try and get above him. it wasn't easy. It took a couple of tries, but finally she got the hang of it and settled in behind his bes'uliik, lighting up his own sensors with her own weapons lock.

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna grinned and decided it was time to pull a little stunt that prevented him from getting killed a little while ago. He heard the target lock tones in his ears and yanked the control yoke back all the way. At the same time, he killed the engines and thrust of the Bes'uliik entirely. The end result was the starfight standing on its tail and bleeding off a massive amount of speed to let the other starfighter blow past him.

Before the fighter could stall out, he kicked the engines back on and flipped the bird over in a short loop, landing on Anija's tail once again. He let the cross hairs flicker on and off of her starfighter once more, grinning all the while.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Swearing softly, Anija yanked sideways on the controls, sending her own bes'uliik into a sideways spin as she saw her own craft overshoot his. Gritting her teeth, she felt her bes'uliik skid sideways and then whip around on it's path of travel; until it was facing back towards [member="Arrbi Betna"]. When she was, she doubletapped her firing controls. Twin laser bolts lanced out towards his fighter.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna gave a cocked grin. She was learning and he hadn't expected that particular maneuver. That said, he wasn't totally caught defenseless.

He pushed the controls to the side and felt the starfighter begin to spin around its central axis. It was an age old technique, on that probably predated modern technology. The concept was simple: To rapidly spin the starfighter to keep the wings and outer fuselage moving. The idea was that shots astray of the central axis point had a higher chance of missing with the craft spinning as it was.

One shot passed over a spinning wing and the other spanged off the other as it spun. Arrbi nodded once in appreciation. It was a hard shot and, even if it was only luck, it was a good hit. On anything but a Bes'uliik it would've been a critically damaging blow. For the beskar clad starfighter, it only scratched the paint. That said, she'd given as good as she'd gotten for the mock dogfight.

"Did you wanna keep up or stop for the day and grab some lunch?" he asked with a wide grin.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She watched as [member="Arrbi Betna"] pulled almost the exact same maneuver she had. Only he was using it to avoid her shots. It mostly worked. One missed entirely, and the other glanced off the the wing's upper surface. A grin blossomed across her face. She'd managed to land a hit. Which meant she was learning quickly and adapting. Nodding to herself, she tapped the maneuvering thrusters to slow her spin. It was making her a tad dizzy. When she could see straight again, she nodded and tapped her comm. "I think, I'd like to stop for now and see about some lunch."