Chapter 9

Day 3: 2221 hours

No change in location

The entire base was in a panic. Warning systems were going off everywhere. SAM sights and AA systems came online. Mobius 1 was beginning take-off procedures; a piece of falling debris almost hit him while he was starting his engines. Latching on to the take-off platform, he held on as it catapulted him to flight speed.

Now in the air, he immediately turned and headed straight for the enemy. As he came closer he realized this would be a tricky battle; just by studying the battle and the owl's maneuvers. He had to admit, the owl was good. Yet I feel like I know that flying style, but from where? He thought. He pushed it aside for now; he had a job to do and a base to protect.

As soon as he was in range, he fired a MRAA. The missile dropped out of his special weapons bay and tore after the enemy in a trail of white, thick, steam. The owl glanced at him and the missile, before evading it by going into a barrel roll. Mobius 1 knew it wouldn't hit even before he fired it, in his experience he knew when dealing with aces sometimes you need to not just go at them head on. Most of the time, you would need to see how they react. Study their flying style and find a weakness, exploit that weakness and then eliminate the target.

The two owls approached each other head on. At the last second, they both banked to the right and barely avoided clipping each other's wing tips. Why do I suddenly feel Deja Vous? He thought as they began to circle each other. They kept staring at each other, both trying to get an upper edge. Mobius 1 adjusted his course and began to climb while maintaining the circle. The owl didn't even notice, and soon Mobius 1 reached a height above the enemy to begin a maneuver he discovered. He called it the 262 take down.

In WWII when the first jet called the Storm Bird Me 262 was first created by Belka, it was fast but it had one major flaw. When a P51 is at a high altitude, and when it dives from that height it goes as fast as the jet. It can keep up with it now, and not only that but the jet has terrible maneuverability. What they did is that they made the exoskeleton stronger and bigger, and then they strapped the 2 jet engines under the owl's wings. This made it extremely difficult to roll. The P51 could just fire his AMCs ahead of the jet, and there would be nothing the jet could do besides fly straight into the flaming arrows.

Mobius 1 used a tactic similar to this when dealing with aces one on one. By hitting the speed brake at a higher altitude, it would slow him down and he would make a quicker, tighter turn. There for he would be able to fire his AMC at/ahead of the owl and take him down or at least do some damage. If the owl avoids this and tries to escape, Mobius 1 being at a higher altitude would be able to chase it down quickly.

Confident he was ready, he began the maneuver. The maneuver was perfect, he had the correct amount of power, he hit the speed brake just right, he ruddered just the right way, and had his shot set. With a short circular rotation, he fired…

And missed.

Whoever this owl was knew that maneuver, and knew just how to counter it. Mobius 1 wasted no time wondering about how; he opened the throttle as wide as he possibly could and gave chase. Having the altitude advantage, he was able to catch up quickly and he hoped this would end now.

"Approaching gun range," said a recently taken off Sky Eye, observing the battle from afar.

Just as Mobius 1 was about to fire, the owl suddenly pulled up hard. His engines were at minimum power, and for a split second he seemed to be just hovering there.

What the… Mobius 1 began to wonder. Before he could do anything else, the owl rushed right over him and Mobius 1 realized this owl had just preformed a maneuver he instantly reconized. It was a Yuke maneuver known as the Pugachev Cobra… or just Cobra for short. As the owl flew over him, Mobius 1 actually got a good look at him. All the feathers on his body were died silver, besides the right half of his wing, which was painted blood red. Again, he felt an overwhelming sense of Deja Vous from this owl. This distracted him long enough to for him to not render something.

The owl was now on his six (directly behind him for those of you who know nothing about air combat).

He screamed in pain as his right wing was shot with 4 flaming mini arrows. His breathing was hard; he turned to his right side to look at the damage. His right wing was smoking but wasn't on fire… yet. Because of their size these arrows are actually designed to inflict as much pain as possible to the owl. The owl would lose his will to fight and will most likely return to base.

He then turned to the owl now flying beside him. The owl had a smile on his face, and they kept staring at each other until Mobius 1 closed his eyes to wait for the final blow…

It never came.

Deeply puzzled, he turned back to the other owl. The other owl then said something that shell-shocked him. After saying it the owl turned and headed back to base. Those words kept bouncing in Mobius 1's head. Those same words that could only have come from one owl.

"Yo buddy, ya still alive?"

A/N: sorry it took me a while to update. What just happened? All will be revealed in a later chapter. Until next time, this is ashipnerd signing off.