Call-Sign? Wolf.

Dogfight

Third Person POV

"Good morning aviators." Pete Mitchell announced to the eager group of pilots before him.

"This mornings training I will be putting you into two teams. Your planes will be marked with a blue or a red sticker. Your objective, keep your entire team alive, while also eliminating the opponent."

The pilots got excited, murmuring among themselves and already forming hopeful team alliances.
"Hey what's the prize if we win?" Payback asked. Some people groaned a little as apparently he had come up with the punishment last time.

Pete thought for a moment, bringing his finger to his chin and stroking it thoughtfully.
"How about, losers buy everyone a round?"

The pilots cheered, loving the idea as they stood up and started arguing with one another, saying things like; "you're going down" and "I hope you brought your wallet."

Pete laughed at their excitement, but had to get stern with them after receiving a look from warlock that told him to do so.

"First up, Wolf, fanboy and payback, hangman, Team red. Rooster, Coyote, Pheonix and Bob, team blue. Let the fun begin."

The pilots quickly made their way to the planes. The plane directors allowed the blue team to fly into the air first, the red team would follow in five minutes. The red team watched as the blue team soared off one by one into the air.

"Red team this is Wolf, ready for take off."
"Payback and Fanboy, ready for take off."
"Hangman, ready to kick some ass."

The red team was then shot into the blue morning sky. Clouds laced themselves thick and dense across they sky, allowing for plenty of cover for the Red team to hide. The Red team lowered their planes to glide along the bottom of the cloud cover. The blue team was flying below in a single file line, far enough apart to make any quick and necessary decisions.

"I'll dive down to break up the group, be prepared to split off and chase. Sound good?" Wolf asked the group, checking a few switches and then gripping her joystick, readying the plane.

"Copy, lead the way." Payback answered, preparing his plane himself.
Hangman rolled his eyes, checking his plane and then looking up into the sky.

"Hangman, I need a copy or another idea." Wolf urged him, not wanting to cause a wreck between the pilots from miscommunication.

"You go, I've got my own idea." Hangman pulled the plane off, disappearing back up into the clouds to be unseen again.

"Hangman! Damnit." Wolf hissed, anger flashing in her voice. She then remembered that this was what hangman did. She could only hope he came around later.

"We're behind you wolf, on your go." Fanboys voice rang into the headset, making wolf smile.
"Copy, thanks Fan, I'm going in."

Lower in the skys, the blue team was formulating a plan of their own. Rooster led the pack in the front, Pheonix and Bob in the middle and Coyote in the back.
"We're too close to the hard deck for them to attack from below, they've gotta be above us." Rooster advised his team, unofficially becoming the group leader.

"Bob watch that radar and yell the second you see anything. I'll break left, Pheonix and Bob break right, Coyote you go straight forward as fast as possible. We can play chase and try to get our trailers into the line of others fire."

Back at base, Maverick was eating breakfast and listening to the radio. He couldn't help but feel pride for Rooster taking the lead on this one and instructing his fellow pilots. He had grown so much as a pilot these last few years.