Chapter 3

As Fuzzy came to Bill's office door, he noticed a trio of other pilots waiting outside. He privately wondered what was going on there.

Bill opened the door and let Fuzzy in, before closing it again.

"Now Pawson, it didn't take much thinking for me to figure this out. Take a seat."

Fuzzy sat on the chair opposite Bill's. The older husky reached into a drawer and placed a pair of lieutenant shoulder patches on the desk. "These are for you."

Fuzzy's eyes widened. "Bill? Sir? You mean it?"

"Absolutely. I thought that given your performance in the last few engagements, plus your initiative with the shield generators and the counter-jamming technique was reason enough to have you promoted. Besides, since we need a new leader for Three flight, and since you were the only survivor, I think perhaps it's time you took up the reins. You've been waiting long enough. Do you think you're up to the task?"

Fuzzy stared in wonder at the rank patches. He knew that they bore both privilege and responsibility, but somehow, by gut instinct, he knew he was ready.

"Yes, Yeah I can do it." Fuzzy replied. "I'm ready."

"Then congratulations, Lieutenant." Bill said. "You are as of this moment designated Husky Nine, the new leader of Three Flight."

Bill shook Fuzzy's hand and attached the rank insignia to Fuzzy's jacket.

"Now, in your first role as leader of Three Flight, you'll be seeing in Three flight's replacements. Go on, let them in."


Francine glanced out at the oncoming fighter. It was bearing down far too swiftly for her to offload her bombs into the carrier and escape unscathed.
Of course, this also meant that it was traveling too fast to evade, should she decide to engage with a close-range attack. She turned into her opponent's line of fire, then up suddenly. A quick boost and thrust vectoring brought her onto her opponent's tail, but he had already spun away, down and below Francine's line of sight.
Her holographic display tracked the other fighter being almost directly below her and moving onto her tail, so she followed, turning down to try and get onto his tail.
His turn, however, was a lot tighter than she had expected. Francine belatedly realized that he had left his throttle at low power, and was not interested in getting onto her tail at all. Her move had brought her ship in line with his guns and while both ships were facing each other, Francine was aiming far too low of the mark and couldn't hope to pull up for a shot in time.
She accelerated downwards, but not in time. His lasers struck aft of the cockpit, blowing out one of her engines.
"I'm hit!" She cried. A quick roll to the right helped her evade some more shots, but now her chances of winning the battle were slim. By accelerating downwards, she may have evaded some of her opponent's firepower, but she had effectively put him on her tail by doing that, and with one engine gone, she knew she had no hope of losing him, having now seen his skill.
More laser bolts stabbed into all parts of her ship, effectively reducing it to a molten blob, before it exploded.

"Simulation terminated." Bill's voice said over her headsets. "That was a good fight, but he was all over you, Fran. Looks like you lost the bet- Oh wait…" There was a pause. "Har har. Now as the winner he wants to buy you a round. Get on out here."
Fran blinked in surprise. It wasn't Bill I was up against? But whoever it was, he was pretty good. Fox McCloud is still missing, and Old Ken wouldn't have his skills THAT polished, Sticks and Perry are still on leave, so who..?

Francine walked down the ramp of the simulator, still wondering who the other pilot had been whoever it was, he had to have been one hell of an ace.

Bill was waiting at the bottom to the ramp, with the simulation results in his paw. Beside him was Fuzzy, munching happily on a kebab.

Well, if he's eating then it wasn't Fuzzy in the other end…

"Geez, Bill! That was one mean battle!" Said Francine. "Who was in the other sim? He's one hell of a pilot!"

"Oh yes, he is." Bill said, smirking.

Francine waited for more, but got nothing else.

"So… Where is he? I'd really like to meet him."

Fuzzy chortled through a mouthful of meat and lettuce and Bill's smirk grew into a fully-fledged grin. "What, you haven't met him yet?"

Well that narrows it down to people I know, but…

"Was it Perry?"

Bill and Fuzzy glanced at each other in amusement and pointed back at the control room. Perry was seated at the controls, waving at her.

Bill shook his head and signaled to a figure seated near the control room. "You may as well take it now. You lost to this man."

The man approaching removed his helmet revealing the youthful face of the squadron's most rookie pilot.

Francine's jaw dropped. "KEELER?! I lost to KEELER?!"

Bill and Fuzzy began laughing outright. A bit of tomato fell from the latter's mouth.

"What's wrong, Fran? You look a little shocked." Bill teased.

"But… But he's not… THAT good!"

The three pilots around her all raised their eyebrows.

"…Is he?"

"Apparently he is." Bill said, checking the scores again. Fran was still gaping, and Fuzzy amused himself analyzing her expression.

"Don't look like that." Said Matt soothingly. "I've already beaten Benny and Blaze over the week."

"Matt is turning into quite a hotshot." Said Bill.

"Whoa!" Matt exclaimed, seeing Fuzzy's rank patches for the first time. "A lieutenant? Nice work Fuzzy!"

Francine had noted the golden triangles on Fuzzy's shoulders but had said nothing, after all, he had been the obvious choice to succeed Wallace, even before the war had begun.

Bill checked his chrono. "Hey, look at the time. I should have scheduled a squadron meeting by now." His brow furrowed in thought. "All right, we'll have one after dinner. Can I count on you two lieutenants to inform your flights?"

"Not a problem, sir." Replied Fuzzy.

"Sure, Bill." Said Francine.

"Good. You've got free time until then. Make it count, 'cause you won't have much after that."