Top Gun - The Outsiders

One

The whistling of the wind could be heard from inside the cockpit as the fighter pilot, Machine, chased after a MiG-28. Meanwhile back on the Uss Enterprise, Jerry Wood, call sign "Stinger," was handed a paper. He immediately frowned upon reading it. "Who's up there?" Stinger asked, more of a demand.

"Excalibur and Nightfall and Machine and Sunshine." The radio monitor responded.

"Great. Machine and Sunshine."

"Contact, 20 left at 30 miles. Nine hundred knots closure." The RIO of Excalibur, Nightfall, informed his team.

"I'll get a visual, Excalibur you hook 'em." Machine told the other fighter pilot. "Rodger," Excalibur responded simply.

"And I'll clean 'em and fry 'em." Sunshine piped in from the backseat of Machine's plane. Machine peeled off towards the right, his altitude rising in the process.

"Anyone notice a trailer?" Nightfall asked from the cockpit of his plane.

"Negative. It looks like he's a single." Machine responded, after taking a few glances around.

"Hang back and watch for him. Here comes... MiG one." Excalibur instructed, falling into a tight roll and diving after the enemy plane. He soon rockets after the plane.

"Shit there's two of them!" Sunshine yelled into the radio after spotting a MiG-23 plane.

The MiG-23 sped off after Excalibur's plane, which was still on a wild goose chase with the first MiG-28. "Machine, get your ass in here and get this bogey off me!" Excalibur shouted with a worried tone.

All four planes enter a power drive as Machine attempts to get a lock on the second MiG-28. A loud and sudden beeping sound comes over the headsets of Excalibur and Nightfall. "Jesus, I think he has a lock on us!" Nightfall exclaimed into the headset, obviously alarmed.

"A MiG-23 ain't supposed to have missile radar. They're just trying to piss me off." Excalibur responded quickly to his RIO. Excalibur fishtails back and forth, trying to break the lock on. "Dammit, I can't shake him!"

"Get a lock on the other MiG, try to scare him away." Machine told Excalibur, who followed instructions. After a few minutes of the MiG-28 being on missile lock, it turned away, heading home.

Excalibur presses forward, in a final attempt to get the MiG off his trail. "He's still on you, Excalibur! Excalibur, break left. Try a high roll underneath and go from the bottom." Machine spoke in an attempt to help.

Excalibur's tomcat breaks left, diving into a dense cloud. The MiG still follows. The MiG breaks out of the cloud, the pilot looking around. There's no f-14 to be seen. He feels a presence and looks up, and there he spots an f-14 sliding into an inverted position with the MiG. The f-14 moves closer, the canopies practically touching. The MiG pilot acknowledges Machine and Sunshine by giving them the bird.

"Say hi to the birdie." Machine laughs, flipping the pilot off while Sunshine takes a polaroid of the moment. "Jeez, I crack myself up." Machine chuckled, pulling the plane out of the inverted dive. The MiG sped off in the direction the other MiG had fled in.

"This is a great shot. I think I should be a photographer, Machine." Sunshine laughed, tucking the polaroid away for safekeeping. "Now let's land this son of a bitch. We're getting low."

"See you back on the ship, Excalibur." Machine nodded at the plane beside him, then took off back to the USS Enterprise.

"We're running low on gas. We've gotta get out of here." Nightfall warned Excalibur. Excalibur inhaled sharply, beads of sweat dripping down his face. He glanced at the picture of his wife and kid. He hadn't gotten to meet his kid yet. "Excalibur. We're on vapor, Excalibur." His RIO warned. The warnings didn't snap him out of his trance, unfortunately.