Chapter Text
The next morning had been a surprising wake up call for the players of ACES Online. Mainly as that wake up call was at just after sunrise... or around 04:45 in the morning, after a night of celebrating.
As was to be expected from about twenty pilots, many of whom were still in ''high spirits'' from the night before, as Diavel had euphemistically described them, the meeting that morning had not been a stellar example of airmanship. Between them, only Kirito's small group, Fuurinkazen and Liberator Flight had reported for training anywhere near on time - and even then, Fuurinkazen were still late. Just nowhere near as late as some of them, as players continued to walk into the briefing over an hour late. Asuna honestly wondered why they'd even bother turning up, when they would have absolutely no idea what was going on.
At the suggestion of the base commandant, two days of training sessions would be held, to ready the elements of the strike force and the decoy force for the mission they were about to undertake. The first day would be spent teaching Basic Fighter Manoeuvres, and fighting against opponents on a similar level to them.
To ensure there had been no favouritism in how the fights would go, twenty pairs of lots had been put in a bowl, and the players who drew the pairs would go head to head with each other. It also meant that no one would have too much chance to strategise before take off, and thus, have an information advantage. Kirito and Argo had drawn the short straw of the lot, and would be engaged with Diavel - an interesting fight, and one that he may have been looking forward to, in a weird way as his Phantom was more than a match for the fast flying, but slow turning Starfighter that Diavel flew...
Asuna had drawn her lot, and would be engaging with Liberator Two - Lind, if she remembered his name correctly. She had reservations about that situation, not knowing an awful lot about the F-102 he flew, other than the details that Lisbeth had mentioned to her, after she'd had Wind Fleuret revealed to her. It was an interceptor designed for speed, much like her Lightning, and with a similarly awkward weapon load out, in the form of the AIM-4 Falcon, but as for how it flew? She couldn't answer that one, other than saying that it was, at least on paper, less agile than her Lightning too, and probably slower as well.
Koharu's lot hadn't been much more reassuring, seeing her go toe to toe with a player called Alice. Unlike the others, who'd at least had the faintest idea of who they may be facing, she had no idea of who, or what she may be facing. Kirito had given her some tips on how to fly the Hunter in a fight - the advice being to keep her opponent in a turning engagement within visual range, where the Hunter excelled against most things. Whilst her Hunter had been modified by Lisbeth, the modifications were mostly cosmetic, such as the new crimson fin flash. What hadn't been modified yet, was its air-to-air armament - it still had none, bar its cannons and if she was a very lucky shot, unguided rockets. She really hoped she was fighting someone in a similar aircraft, rather than going head to head with something far superior to her Hunter...
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The first group of players had all taken off together, which had been quite a sight to behold, even for the pilots involved, as a wide variety of fighters from many nations climbed into the morning sky, two by two.
''All aircraft, once you've completed your engagement, break away and head west to rendezvous with tanker support. Callsign for the tankers is Whale.'' The controller in the tower called, as the first players approached the area marked for the BFM training.
Before too long though, the majority of players had reached the marked area, and the tower controller called the first lot of players to the area. ''Lot 1, you're up.''
The Phantom turned away from its orbit, and headed into the area. As they'd circled, it had been decided that, whilst Kirito scanned the sky visually, Argo's head would be firmly on the radar scope. She had a hunch that Diavel would use hit-and-run tactics, releasing Sidewinders from his F-104, before heading to relative safety. No matter what happened though, the Starfighter was at a disadvantage in a dogfight against the Phantom...
Still though, Diavel had put in a good show against the attackers last week, and had managed to down two far more agile MIG-19s in that Starfighter - at least according to the few people she'd talked to - so underestimating him was a very bad idea.
''Liberator Lead, Kirito. Fight's on!'' Liberator Two, acting as a referee called out. That was her cue, as she scanned the radar scope - if she could spot Diavel on her scope, she could volley off a pair of Sparrows and put some pressure on Diavel. The more pressure she could put on him, the more likely he would be to make a mistake, and that would be when the pair could pounce...
A small green spot came on the scope... ''Ah ha!'' She realised where he was in relation to them. ''Kii-bou, he's on our six!'' She shouted forwards.
A grunt came from the front cockpit, as the Phantom was wrenched from horizontal flight into a climbing turn to starboard. Pushed back into her seat, Argo remembered the breathing exercise she'd taught herself during the beta, and after the blackout incident, so as she could at least keep her eyes in the fight. The more eyes they had in the fight, the better! ''Drat! Kii-bou, he's movin' fast! Looks like he's closin' fer a Sidewinder shot!'' She frantically flipped switches, arming their weapons systems, ready for the first ''kill'' of the training round...
''Argo, tell me when he's approaching us, I'm gonna break left, try and get on his tail.'' Kirito called back.
''You just worry about gettin' us there, I'll get tha' shot!'' She replied, watching the radar scope intently, despite the energetic manoeuvring that the Phantom was currently doing.
The aircraft snapped from its climbing right turn, into a descending left bank. Argo scanned the radar, as they reached the top of the turn, and took a glance outside the cockpit as they passed over the apex of the altitude curve. She caught a glimpse of the F-104 racing past them with its afterburner on, the flame trail lighting up the sky around it. Head back down again, she worked on getting a lock with the Sidewinders - with that big of an infrared signature, it'd be hard to miss from their current position...
''Kii-bou, level off! I've got a Sidewinder lock!'' She called, handing off the firing to Kirito...
''Kirito, Fox Two!'' He called over the radio, and Argo could tell that there was probably a cocky smile on his face right now.
''Kirito from Liberator Two, that's a kill, fight's off. Head towards the tankers.''
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Some time later, and Asuna's turn for training came around. ''Lot 5, you're next in the queue. Move to the training area, and await the signal to begin.''
Moving into position, Asuna considered how this fight would go. Wind Fleuret was the faster aircraft, easily outperforming the F-102 in a climbing fight, and should she get behind the F-102, her Lightning had cannons fitted, something the Delta Dagger didn't have the luxury of.
''Liberator Two, Asuna. Prepare for engagement. Hard floor is angels five, weapons hold.'' Diavel called from his F-104, watching from a distance.
Asuna turned the Lightning onto a head on course for the Delta Dagger. If Lisbeth had been right, the F-102's sole armament was the rather poor AIM-4 Falcon, a very early type of guided missile, developed mainly for destroying bombers with limited manueverability, and that had been found to have had abysmal performance in a dogfight situation similar to the one she was about to find herself in.
The first threat was of the AIM-4s locking onto her from head on, as she hadn't considered which variant of the Falcon that Liberator Two could use. Whilst his infrared guided Falcons were next to useless in such an engagement, the radar guided ones certainly weren't. Closing the distance rapidly, Asuna awaited the Fox One call that would tell her she was dead...
No such call came through, and the F-102, still in full afterburner, tore past her and continued straight and true. Thrown for a moment, Asuna wondered exactly what Liberator Two was doing - he wasn't fleeing from the mock dogfight, was he? No, that couldn't be it, he'd have been called back by Liberator Lead, surely? Asuna disappeared into her own thoughts briefly, before snapping back to reality.
''Damn it!'' Asuna cursed for letting herself get lost in her own thoughts as she pulled the control stick to the left. The Lightning immediately began to bank, and she pulled back on the yoke as close to her lap as it would go. Pulling five to six times gravity in the turn, Asuna felt herself pushed against the seat as her vision began to fade. She felt her breathing begin to become erratic, her G-suit constricting her legs and pushing blood back towards her head...
Still with a massively reduced sense of sight, Asuna noticed her attitude and the Lightning began to level out as it completed the turn. She felt the force exerted on her reduce massively, and even felt her head jolt forward slightly as she regained her breath, her vision returning to nearly normal.
BEEP. BEEP. ''Liberator Two, Fox One.'' As if to snap her out of her recovery, that call spelled trouble... a radar guided AIM-4 was in the air, and almost certainly on a collision course for her - or it would've been, had it actually been a live fire, but Asuna took this seriously, throwing the Lightning into a barrel roll.
''Liberator Two from Liberator Lead. That's a miss. Continue.'' Asuna sighed in relief momentarily, and readied her guns. Between her Lightning, at 550 kts, and the F-102, approaching head on at about the same speed, they'd have a closing rate of nearly 2000km/h, approaching twice the speed of sound... She'd have a very brief window, but any window was good for her. The Delta Dagger came into view, and her gunsight lit up, beeping as the reticule hovered over the fighter...
''Asuna, guns!'' With no hesitation, Asuna wrenched the nose of the fighter up, and slammed the throttles to full afterburner, the two aircraft passing each other barely a hundred feet apart. She could even clearly make out the light blue hair coming out from the bottom of Liberator Two's helmet, and the look of complete shock on his face as they passed by...
''Asuna from Liberator Lead. That's a kill. Return to base if you're low on fuel.'' ''YES!'' Asuna congratulated herself as the two aircraft disengaged from the dogfight, and began to head back to Rechlin. Adrenaline pumping through her virtual body, she ran through her battle again in her head. She'd won her fight after all, but much like an exam, it didn't hurt to revise where she'd felt she was weakest.
She'd lost sight of Liberator Two halfway through the fight and had to hope he would play into her hands, which admittedly was exactly what had happened, but she knew that she couldn't rely on every opponent to make that same mistake.
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Koharu cursed her luck sometimes. As they'd formed up, she'd caught a glimpse of Alice's aircraft... a Mirage III. Fast, agile and deadly in a skilled pilot's hands, having been used in the Six Day War, and Yom Kippur War to deadly effect, and at times against aircraft like her Hunter. The Mirage came out on top the vast majority of the time...
''Koharu, Alice, this is Liberator Lead. Commence engagement.'' called out Diavel, returning to the fray after his refuelling stop.
''Alice, to Koharu. May this be a good fight.'' The other pilot announced, her voice having the faintest hint of a German accent in it. The kind of hint that would still be left, even after becoming fluent in a language...
''Same here.'' Koharu answered to herself, scanning the skies around her. Alice's Mirage had the edge in speed, avionics and weapons systems, but should it come into a turning fight, it would take an exceptional pilot to be able to keep up with her Hunter, she reminded herself.
Lacking any form of advance warning that she was about to receive a Magic through the tailpipe, and with little by way of tracking Alice, she maintained an approach that could best be described as ''fly as unpredictably as possible''. Ninety degree turns every few seconds and alternating between climbing and descending in equally random intervals.
Taking a glance over her shoulder, she spotted the Mirage bearing down fast on her from six o'clock high. Briefly she wondered whether her radio was broken, as she couldn't recall hearing a Fox Two call from Alice, and yet the Mirage was only a couple of seconds her, if that. Just what was this girl's plan!?
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Alice would admit she had spent more than a little time as a child reading up on stories of ace pilots. The knights of the air, as they had once been thought of - noblemen, their steeds no longer flesh and bone, but wood, metal and cloth, whilst their swords and lances were replaced by machine guns. Fights that were true tests of skill, as gallant adversaries fought in ferocious melees well above the trenches of a horrific war tearing apart Europe.
That was why she'd logged into ACES Online after all. Granted, she may not have gotten her wish of becoming the next Manfred von Richthofen or Georges Guynemer, fighting in the era of wood and cloth biplanes, but she was certainly going to prove herself as tenacious in combat.
This belief in her own skills went some way to explaining why she had chosen to score a gun ''kill'' on her opponent, rather than relying on her Magic heat-seekers, and she held resolute in the Mirage as she tore through the sky like a falcon descending on its prey. This would be a relatively easy victory, in her mind, as the slower Hunter stood no real chance to detect her, nor evade her as she dove on it...
Cue her prey suddenly snap rolling to the left, having seen the gleaming metal finish of her Mirage barrelling down on it and almost perfectly ruining her shot in only a single manoeuvre. No matter, she thought to herself, rolling the Mirage to the left, ready for the left hand turn...
The Hunter snapped back to the right, and before Alice could do the same, she watched as the tailpipe of the Hunter became visible briefly through the top of her canopy, before she could no longer see the craft. Without hesitation, she pulled back on her stick, pulling the Mirage back into a zoom climb. If she couldn't hit the Hunter on the way back up, she would set up another diving pass...
That was until she spotted the nose of the far slower Hunter pointing towards her, whilst her radio crackled to life... ''Koharu, guns!'' She sighed a breath of relief, almost certain that her shots would miss, and that she could keep up the fight.
''Koharu from Liberator Lead. That's a miss.'' In a moment of overconfidence, Alice let a smug look take over her face. This Hunter pilot certainly had the makings of a fighter pilot, even if they weren't quite there yet - that cannon shot, despite it missing her, was easily done on instinct rather than any form of strategy..
With ease, Alice pulled back on the Mirage's control column, the delta winged fighter nosing up to nearly sixty degrees above the horizon before zoom climbing back to altitude. The Mirage was, without a shadow of a doubt, the superior climbing aircraft - the ATAR 09B providing an additional 4000lbs of thrust in full afterburner, compared to the Hunter's Rolls Royce Avon, and when coupled to the lightweight airframe of the Mirage, the aircraft easily out climbed the Hunter.
Something the Hunter pilot knew, she realised, as the swept wing fighter turned beneath the path of her right hand turn. She would have to snap towards the left, before commencing another diving pass on the fighter below, something that would require a tighter turn than before and would risk her overshooting her prey...
The Mirage snapped to the left, its wings now vertical to the horizon, before she pulled the nose around to reach 45 degrees below the horizon for a diving pass. With her nose in position, the delta winged fighter was now almost inverted, leading to Alice rolling it back to a position where the blood was no longer rushing to her head. She reached down for the switches for her Magic missiles, and armed the missiles, the heat seekers growling into her headset as she approached the tail of her opponent...
GRRRR... ''Alice, Fox Two.''
She shouted, as her Mirage raced to within five hundred metres of her prey. Realising just how close she was, she pulled back on the stick, her fighter responding only moments before a collision that would, without a doubt, have killed her and very likely taken her opponent with her too...
''Koharu, guns!'' In the adrenaline rush that came from such a near death experience, she hadn't heard the call out from her foe over the radio.
''Uhh, okay then... umm, fight's off.'' The sense of uncertainty in Diavel's voice was surprising to her - she had surely won that fight, she thought... ''Right then, you both killed each other, but I suppose Alice fired first...'' He confirmed the kill, and decided to ask questions about whether he should've later.
''Roger, we're heading to the tankers.'' She announced, as she turned away from the engagement, the Hunter following her on her course. A few moments passed, before she mustered her courage. It had been her fault that they'd both nearly died, and so it was her responsibility to apologise... ''I owe you an apology for my conduct during that engagement. It was unbecoming of a pilot, and had luck not been on our side, we could both have perished...''
''Apology accepted... It was Alice, wasn't it?'' The girl flying the Hunter seemed to be accepting of her apology, a sign of a good airman/airwoman in her eyes...
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After landing, the players who'd been involved in the mock dogfights had been called to the planning room, to go over the results of the simulated fights. Kirito had watched the majority of the fights from the ground, and he'd been proven right with some of his hunches. Asuna was a very tactical pilot, but seemed to think first, and fly later - evident when she'd continued to fly on the same course, almost aimlessly, as she tried to search for Liberator Two. Koharu had clearly taken the lessons that he and Argo had given her onboard, but her opponent, Alice, was the definition of a steamroller pilot - hit fast, hit hard, don't let up on your opponent, and don't give them a chance to think. It had only been through good luck (or overconfidence, possibly) that she hadn't been took out on the first pass, especially as the Mirage pilot had almost inexplicably decided not to use her missiles. The near collision had certainly reinforced his view of her as a steamroller pilot - that type of attack certainly hadn't been planned, so much as it had been instinctive, that much he was sure of.
His assumptions about the leader of Fuurinkazen had also proven right. His dogfight with Kibaou had proven to be a spectacle, the Crusader and Tiger being almost evenly matched for nearly four minutes, before Klein had eventually found a weak spot in Kibaou's defence. The trash talk between the opponents had certainly been quite funny in retrospect too, considering Kibaou had been claiming just how easy this fight would be in an upgraded fighter like his...
Klein had shown him why the F-8 had gained the nickname ''The Last Gunfighter'', as a burst of simulated 20mm fire cut through his ego, much like it would've his aircraft. The ranting from Kibaou afterwards had been quite something to behold... or at least it had, before the realisation that he was broadcasting on an open channel, and everyone had heard him. He had soon quietened down, after a burst of laughing interrupted his ranting.
Quite possibly the most impressive of the fights he'd seen was between a Mirage pilot, Eugeo, and his opponent, Yuuki. As Koharu had discovered, the Mirage was a fairly good dogfighter in the hands of the right pilot, but Eugeo had drawn an even shorter straw than Koharu. Yuuki's aircraft, the swept wing F-86 Sabre, from a technological perspective, was almost ten years older and 500mph slower, but the Sabre was an exceptional fighter that, in the hands of a skilled pilot, could easily hold its own against aircraft of a completely different generation.
It had been a battle between a thinking pilot, in the form of Eugeo, his manoeuvers calculated in his to put him in the best possible position, against an instinctive pilot, Yuuki throwing her Sabre around with little care for such a thing as G-forces, sticking with the faster Mirage in the turns, but being easily outclassed in the vertical arena. That fight had lasted nearly seven minutes, an excruciatingly long time for a dogfight, much less one where both combatants could've turned the time at any moment. In the end, Yuuki had won, but it had certainly been a hard fought victory for the tenacious Sabre pilot...
''Why do you think we're being called in, Alice?'' The blonde boy, Eugeo, asked.
''Perhaps we are being given our orders?'' So that was the person flying the Mirage earlier, he thought to himself. Still, he had a suspicion as to why they'd been called in - to form the squadrons officially. Some of them had already formed squadrons, so they'd still be in their groups, he reckoned, but for people like himself, Argo, Asuna and Koharu, and the many solo players still out there, they'd be assigned into squads, and given their callsigns. All of this was purely ceremonial, of course, but it was the first tangible sign to the players that the campaign had truly started.
''Ah, pilots. I'm glad to see all of you made it through the training exercise in one piece.'' The commander of the base commented, before looking at a board behind him. The board contained all of the information that you would want for planning an operation - specifications on the base's air defences, be that guns, fighters or missiles, a number of weapons systems that could be of use, maps of the terrain and ways to mask their approach from Belkan radar sites. ''Tomorrow, at 0530, you will begin Operation Operatic Society. In addition, we have been designated as part of the Osean Seventh Air Force, as the 23rd Fighter Group. As for the mission, I will leave the actual plan to Diavel, but I want you to know that this specifically is not a revenge mission. We are sending the Belkans a warning shot, a display of Osea's airpower.'' Somehow, he doubted that many people would listen to that... much less the Belkans!
''Alright, thank you commander. The first call, will be our order of battle, and for this we'll be assigning you to flights, if you weren't already part of one. Liberator Flight will consist of myself, Lind, Kibaou and Morte - our callsign is Knight. Sleeping Knight Flight, consisting of Ran, Yuuki, Merida and Siune, your callsign will be Twilight. Our teams will be operating as their air cover, and it'll be our job to keep the Belkan fighters off the pathfinders and strike team.'' Diavel turned to face Klein and his team. ''Fuurinkazan Flight, consisting of Klein, Dynamm, Harry One, Dale, Issin and Kunimittz, your callsign will be Samurai. Your flight will form the bulk of the strike team.'' The group agreed with Diavel without even a single word spoken, before he turned to face the unaffiliated players. ''Kirito, Argo, Asuna, Koharu, Alice and Eugeo, your callsign will be Black Blade, and you'll be the pathfinders for this operation - in other words, go in, and make it easier for Samurai to disable the base. Kirito, you are flight leader for this one.'' Kirito felt like pointing out that he was in no way fit to be leader of a conga line, let alone a flight of fighter pilots, but decided that was one to admit privately rather than in front of everyone. Diavel continued to assign pilots to squadrons, whilst Kirito tuned out slightly, thinking of a possible plan...
Now with their assigned tasks, the group continued to listen to Diavel's plan intently. The base they'd be striking - Rhinemartial - was heavily defended, with SA-2 ''Guideline'' missile batteries defending the base from high altitude bombing, whilst combat air patrols were active every hour of the day, and that didn't even begin to cover the myriad of types of anti aircraft guns watching the skies around the base.
All of that meant they'd absolutely need the element of surprise, and an obvious entrance and egress point were visible on a map - the Martial River passed not far from the base, and it was an open secret that Belkan pilots used the valleys nearby for high speed, low level training in the summer, which ensured their planes wouldn't find themselves slamming into the sides of the valleys because the passes were far too small.
''Those SA-2s, even if they can't target us in the valleys, they'll just target the fighters... won't they?'' Eugeo pointed out.
''Hmm, I might 'ave an idea on that one.'' Argo hummed, as she thought something through in her head. ''Kii-bou, reckon we can carry SEAD gear?'' He nodded, realising what Argo was planning... and reminding himself exactly why the motto of the Wild Weasel pilots was abbreviated to YGBSM...
It stood for ''You've Gotta Be Shittin' Me'', which he thought was an apt response to being told your new mission was to point yourself in the direction of the nearest missile launch site, and dive bomb straight towards it. It was pretty much what he was thinking, and he had a feeling that once Asuna and Koharu understood what Argo was getting at... it would be their reaction too, though maybe somewhat less profane.
''Okay then, the Black Blades will be on Wild Weasel duties around Rhinemartial during the operation, allowing Samurai, Twilight and ourselves to enter and egress the combat area safely. Does anyone have any questions?'' If anyone did, they kept them to themselves, and Diavel finished the meeting as the sun began to set.
As the pilots went to get some food, before settling in for the night, Kirito felt something on his face that he hadn't felt in a while - a light but cold speck against his cheek. It was snowing, he quickly realised, and sighed. Not only were they going to need far more time before the mission now, which meant even less sleep, but they'd be doing a run through the valleys in the snow.
Talk about a baptism by fire, he thought idly.
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The canteen was much larger than almost anywhere else on the base, with it being designed to house thousands of players at once. It had clearly once been a hangar, the arched roof that raised significantly above even the third floor being a dead giveaway from an architectural standpoint, whilst the benches had been bolted into the floor, apparently for everyone's safety... whatever that meant.
''Umm, Kirito? What Diavel said, what did he mean?'' Koharu asked, looking over her food, a relatively simple cheeseburger. ''The Wild Weasel bit, I mean.''
''We'll be dealing with the Belkan air defences, so it'll be our job to suppress any AAA guns and SAMs that try to fire on the rest of our forces, as well as stopping any interceptors from taking off.'' He answered, deciding to omit the acronym for the sake of not causing any of them any more distress. The SAMs fired straight at them tomorrow would be enough for that, without him adding any more dread to the mix.
''In other words, we've got the difficult task.'' said Asuna, finishing her meal.
''I believe the saying is ''nothing ventured, nothing gained'', is it not?'' Alice asked, finishing her meal. ''I must admit, I am quite looking forward to the challenge tomorrow, especially if the weather stays as it is.''
''Both of you fly Mirages, right?'' Kirito asked, looking over at the two blondes.
''Indeed, I find it a more... civilised aircraft. A refined balance of power and agility, in a lightweight airframe.'' Alice explained, looking out to the flight line through the window, to her Mirage in particular. Hers was by far and above one of the most distinctive on the field, equalled only by Klein's ocean camouflaged Crusader, the aircraft having been painted in a metallic gold colour, with blue streaks across the Mirage, mostly around the leading edges of its intakes and flight surfaces. In contrast, Eugeo's Mirage was almost tame - the same blue streaks ran across the leading edges, but the airframe retained its natural metal finish.
''I watched your dogfights earlier. You both seem to know your stuff; that Sabre pilot was no easy fight...''
''Certainly! I found myself wishing that had been me, if I'm honest...'' Alice agreed, almost wistfully and with a sense of jealousy in her voice, before realising how insulting that sounded to her new flight mates. ''Of course, you performed admirably Koharu. You certainly have the makings of a fighter pilot yet.'' The way this girl spoke, Kirito couldn't place what it was in her voice that sounded... strange. He'd almost have called it condescending, but that suggested Alice knew that she was doing it. No, instead he'd have said it sounded more like she had a very different notion of this situation to everyone else - almost as if she viewed herself as a knight of the air...
''I just remembered what Alice taught me. I kept calm, and anticipated their next move whenever I could. No unnecessary risks either, not if I could help it.'' Eugeo explained, and his flying style became clearer - his Mirage could easily control the tempo of the battle against aircraft like the Sabre and Hunter, and he would make them dance to his pace, instead of changing his pace to keep up with his opponents. He did wonder whether that more cautious style would really be effective against aircraft with superior performance than the Mirage, but that was a hypothetical for another day...