Compromise-Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw-

Chapter One

"Stitch, hang left! Hang left!" My wing man's voice yelled in my ears. My instrument panel was flashing and beeping at me rapidly, as a missile was locked onto my jet.

"I'm out of flares!" I exclaimed, but still hung left as instructed. "Preparing for a defensive dive." I added, pointing the nose of my plane down, heading towards the ground. My heart was racing, I could feel sweat beading down my forehead.

"Negative, that's too dangerous!" My wing man said, the leader of our mission.

We were in the sky for one reason, and one reason only. To defend the long range crew from an attack. They were supposed to be taking out an entire enemy base, while myself, my wing man and four other pilots were to take out enemy jets.

"No other choice." I replied. I began dropped towards the earth. My altitude started to drop as I went below our flight line. 2000..... 1500..... 1000.... 500 feet.

"Stitch pull up!" My wing man yelled, his voice carrying over the beeping on my dash. I could see the green trees, practically looking into the birds nests. The beeping quickened, telling me the missile was about to hit. I lifted up. The missile shot passed me, barely missing my right wing. The ground was too close for it to turn around, instead it hit a tree and blew. "Stitch!!! Speak to me!" Crane, my wing man, exclaimed.

"I'm here." I confirmed, flying back up to our flight line. I pulled in beside him once again. He looked over at me, his green helmet, bright inside of his cockpit.

"That was too close." He warned. I shrugged, knowing full well he could see me.

"I'm alive. What choice did I have." I answered. "You were too far away to help." I heard him sigh, as he shook his head. "We don't have time to argue about this, the fight is still going." I added, nodding towards the rest of our team.

"Beta team, what's your status?" Head command asked, speaking over all our comms.

"Seven bogies keeping us busy." Crane answered.

"Alpha team is almost in position, hang tight." Command instructed.

My team was only here because we were disposable. Each one of us had extensive dog fighting skills, but limited long range. We were the best in our field, but some of the most limited pilots for that reason. The overall mission was more important than our lives.

"Crane, there's one on me, I've lost my wing man." The all to familiar voice of Wavern said. He sounded panicked.

"I've got one on me too, I'm trying to get back to you Wavern." His wing man, Hex, said. We could see them taking defence, swerving and spinning out of the missiles lock.

"I can help Hex." I said, as he was to my open left side.

"You're out of flares." Crane snapped. I looked at him, still coasting beside me.

"He'll die if I don't." I said. Crane sighed, but nodded, giving me leave to follow through. I quickly turned to the left and fell in behind the bogie. "I've got you Hex." I assured. I swayed with the enemy, before getting a lock, and shooting. A missile left the bottom of my ship and shot forward. The bogie turned up suddenly, the missile following, keeping Hex safe.

"Thanks Stitch." Hex sighed, then fell in beside me, tailing the bogie. The enemy shot his flares, escaping my missile, but that didn't stop us.

"Shoot." I said. Hex and I unloaded, hitting the jet in front of us. "Hit!!! Break! Break! Break!" I yelled, turned right suddenly as the jet exploded and flung back at us. Hex went left and we both got out of the way.

"Bogie one down!" Hex cheered over the comms.

"Bogie two down!" Fish, our youngest team member, said. He was 22, still a fresh recruit, with no previous mission experience.