Three Strikes [✓]

Two Birds, One Stone

Three Strikes seemed to have no face. He just had symbols. Mihaly wasn't afraid of him, but rather intrigued. Three Strikes was the only pilot in all of Mihaly's career that had managed to get a hit on him, with the exception of Yellow 13. However, that wasn't an official hit. Still, Three Strikes had skill, endurance, and obviously some sort of foolish courage to perform the stunts that Mihaly had either heard of or seen himself. The fact that already this pilot had made a name for himself instead of crashing nose first into the ground was surprising. Mihaly needed to learn more. And when the time came to face Three Strikes, he would be fully prepared. Nothing was going to get in his way at this point.

A knock on the door brought Mihaly out of his thoughts, but it didn't startled him. He turned to look at the door, figuring that it was one of his wingmen. Who else could it possibly be? Ionela or Alma, perhaps, but they had a distinct knock that was soft and had rhythm to it. This knock had nothing. It was just hard and quick. "Come in," he called out, neatly folding the piece of paper with the writing he needed on it. The door opened just as Mihaly closed the drawer in his nightstand, slipping the paper into it on top of the journal that he kept to document his sorties. As he turned around, he saw Wit standing in the doorway, a curious look on his face. Mihaly, ever patient with him, didn't allow Wit to bring up the scrap of paper or what Mihaly was doing. "I assume you came for something important?"

"Yes, sir," Wit said quickly in reply. "We need to prep for an operation. They don't want to send the drones in to intercept until they're sure of Osea's next move. Schroeder says they've taken too many losses recently. The IUN is launching another attack nearing Erusean territory." He stepped aside to allow Mihaly to exit, and shut the door behind him as the two quickly started down the hall. Mihaly barely glanced at him, picking up a brisk pace. Wit, ever confident in Sol Squadron's abilities, continued, "It should be an easy mission. It's that smaller squadron we've run into a couple of times before. All we have to do is chase them off and head home. No reason why there should be any complications."

"I know for a fact that I've told you never to underestimate your enemy," Mihaly said to him, withholding a sigh. "Their pilots are just as skilled as we are, if not lacking in any sort of teamwork. Ever since we came across them at Chopinburg, they've been more alert. It taught them a lesson as much as it did us. Expect complications and prepare for them so that you're able to counter or prevent them."

"Right," Wit said, almost seeming embarrassed by his own brief moment of cockiness. "Sorry, King."

Now Mihaly allowed a sigh. "I said not to call me that..."

|...|...|...|

New Arrows Air Base, East of Usea.
August 15th, 2019.
1027hrs.

Pixy entered Wiseman's office with the major, closing the door with a sigh once they were both inside. Although he had enjoyed spending the morning in the air again, stretching his wings so to speak and confirming that his Eagle was indeed still as maneuverable as ever, he hadn't been too pleased with other outcomes. He'd gone up with Wiseman, Jaeger, and Fencer as his 'wingman' for the training they had planned. Naomi, Count, Tabloid, and Tailor were the subjects of said training. Even odds, more experienced pilots against almost equally skilled pilots, all of them flying the same aircraft.

At first, it was all going well. Naomi led the other three well for most of the fight. In the end, they all started to make more and more slip-ups. Count and Naomi, flying as number two and one respectively, refused to cooperate with the other as the fight progressed. Count broke from their formation, ditching Naomi and the others to take on Jaeger and Fencer by himself. He 'shot down' Jaeger and after about five minutes of chasing each others tails, he was ultimately knocked out of the fight by Fencer. Tabloid and Tailor followed orders well, but Tailor had the most difficulty with his timing. Pixy was worried at first that he'd crash right into Tabloid. Thankfully, Tabloid managed to prevent that from happening.