Take My Breath Away

Chapter 4 - Premier Delta - Week Two

Notes from Author: A lot happens in week two at 1D...a lot.

Oh boy...this is a long one! Nearly double the length of the others! Hope you enjoy because my fingers are aching from typing so much!

Trigger Warning: Very mild description of racist and homophobic violence. Read with caution, or message me if you would prefer to know what happens without reading.

Thanks and enjoy!

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RealityBetterThanFiction's Crash-Course to Aviation:

MiG - a single pilot Russian designed fighter jet that is very fast, highly maneuverable and not something you look forward to seeing up in the skies

Bogey - no, not something that comes out of your nose...it refers to an enemy aircraft on the radar

Story starts below...Enjoy!

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By the time the first week at 1D ended, Harry was so exhausted that he pretty much slept the entire day on Sunday - the only precious day off they were given during the week. Even then, he still had coursework to catch up on when he finally awoke from his eighteen hour hibernation late Sunday afternoon.

With the sun setting across the horizon, he sat with Niall on their back porch, each shirtless with a beer in hand, while they went over an assignment for Aerodynamics on tactical maneuvers best used to deal against the faster, smaller and more responsive MiGs that the Russian forces were using. Dr. Smith had spent an entire two hours on Friday lamenting on the frustrating lack of information they possessed on the aircrafts considering that intel out of Russia was pretty much nonexistent. The Russians liked to play things pretty close to the chest, it seemed. Very few pilots even had the opportunity to see a MiG in person, but their threat in dogfights made it imperative to always be prepared. That's why at 1D they were training the pilots to specifically engage this type of fighter jet by using smaller A-4 models that were similar, yet not quite as speedy as the MiGs. They were wicked difficult to fly considering they were a single-man jet and very sensitive when it came to steering, so there was really only one pilot in their group of instructors who flew the A-4 with skill sharp enough to mimic the MiG pilots...and of course that was Lt. Tomlinson.

Harry had yet to fly up against him yet, but from what the other pilots in their recruit class had said based on their experiences with him, he was every bit as lethal as advertised. Harry wasn't sure if he was looking forward to his chance at the infamous Rogue or dreading it.

"I don't think Georgia Rose's thrust to weight ratio can support this, Sparrow," Niall said, sipping his beer and tapping his pencil against his notepad. He was looking over Harry's breakdown of a thrust reverse to gain a better attack position with a frown on his face. "She's a spry little thing, don't get me wrong, but against the A-4 - against a MiG? - it's not going to work. Too aggressive and too risky. Lt. Tomlinson will tear this apart."

"Aggressive is good...aggressive shows ego," Harry retorted, standing by his decision. It had been his motto for the entire rest of the week since the little hallway chat with Lt. Tomlinson last Monday. Niall hadn't been too pleased with Harry's sudden change of style.

Niall shook his head. "Yea, but sometimes aggressive is just plain stupid. Don't go wild up there on me, mate. First priority is to keep us alive, then worry about the other guy," Niall warned.

Harry sighed and looked back down at his schematics, now seeing the fault in his arrogance. Niall was right. This whole situation with Lt. Tomlinson was really fucking with his head. He was trying to find the balance between who he was and who he wanted to be as a pilot, but it wasn't easy. He flew too safe and he got chastised...he flew too dangerously and he got chewed out. The rest of the first week had been better than the first day, sure, and Harry's flying was showing improvement day over day, but it wasn't there yet. It wasn't nearly good enough yet. Harry was getting impatient...and he was getting reckless.