automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

fifteen.

THE NEXT DAY, SKYE AND KATIA WERE SORT OF PREPARED TO GIVE THEIR PRESENTATION ON what had gone right and what had gone wrong in fang, rooster, and phoenix's exercise. they'd agreed that skye would do most of the talking, and so she stood in front of the group of pilots with katia on the other side of the board that displayed the moves the pilots had made the day before.

"now, this move is really clever." skye said as it showed them stop and turn, rounding panther and taking him by surprise. "you probably recognize it because havoc and i do it so much." she then shook her head. "but it's pretty risky. if you overuse it, it loses its element of surprise. and if panther was in one of the fifth generation fighters, then.. you're not going straight past him, you're just making a fool of yourself." 

katia nodded. "so, if you're asking me, i would say you just split up about.." she paused the display. "here. rooster moves up to take the shot while phoenix and fang keep him distracted." 

"exactly. then you avoid the potential of them already knowing what you're about to do." skye agreed. "plus, it's a bit less risky."

hangman moved a toothpick in his mouth. "and you know how to fly risky, don't you, riot?"

she ignored him. "what this group did perfectly correctly was effective communication. when fang had an idea, he expressed it to the group and cleared it before carrying it out. that's why they succeeded in the exercise."

panther nodded. "excellent presentation, riot and havoc." he folded his arms across his front before stepping over to them. "now, you're going to demonstrate it." both girls looked at each other. "you've just displayed the way you think this exercise should be fought, so now pick a wingman and get geared up."

skye looked to katia, and they were both thinking the same thing. "rooster." the blonde said. 

he stood up, following them to get their gear over their flight suits. "this'll be a nice redemption." skye joked, excited that she and katia would get to prove themselves after the fiasco that had happened with hangman. 

they were all up in the air in no time, and skye was adjusting to the seats of the new plane, which were less broken in than the previous ones had been. "don't spin out this time, okay, ri?" rooster said on the comms, smiling as she glared over at him. 

"any eyes on panther?" skye asked, hearing katia shift around in her seat.

"nope not- oh, no, yep, he's right there." 

skye laughed, increasing her speed to get away from the admiral. "rooster, what did you guys do yesterday when you were at this point?"

he thought for a moment. "uh.. we were just trying to get him off of our tails for a while."

she nodded. "okay. we're gonna do a lap around and then we're gonna go through what we demonstrated, sound good?"

"yeah, sounds good. i go up and you distract." 

"you betcha." 

skye took a lap around the canyon before doing a spin in the air, steering clear of panther's weapons system as best she could. she then did another flip, looking for rooster out of the corner of her eye. 

"okay, rooster. you ready?" 

"yeah, i'm ready."

she made a sharp turn, listening to katia describe where rooster was moving. he soon was lined up with panther, and let out an excited cheer. 

"great balls of fire!" he shouted happily.

skye laughed, holding up a hand for katia to high five. "and that's how you do it!" she said.