"Toph Command calling Varran Aircraft. Come in, please." I was jolted out of my daydreaming by the voice in my headset. I fumbled for the frequency switcher.

"Toph Command, this is Varran Aircraft. I can hear you loud and clear." I said, automatically making sure I was speaking very clearly in case the connection wasn't great.

"Varran Aircraft, Toph Command. We have located the enemy dragons. They are currently 10 km northeast of the town of Berit, and heading towards the town."

I hurriedly checked my map for Berit, finding it and measuring out how far we were away. "Copy that. We are currently 190 km south of Berit."

"Do you have an estimated time to intercept?" The manacomm operator from Toph Command seemed quite tense.

"We can be there in 8 minutes," Matt called back over his shoulder. He then turned the aircraft and we started accelerating.

"Estimated arrival 8 minutes," I relayed.

"Copy. 8 minutes. Good luck." Toph Command ended the connection.

"Lyka, how's the terrain around Berit?" Matt asked.

"Mainly flat," I responded looking at the map, "there are a few small hills, but it's mostly flat forest."

"Alright. I assume it's right over these mountains up ahead?"

"Yes, it's on a very large plateau on the far side," I said, tracing topographic markings with my finger.

"Alright."

The next few minutes were tense, as we accelerated to about the maximum speed of the Super Hornet. We passed fairly close over the mountains, with a bit of turbulence.

"5 bogeys on radar, 10km out," Matt immediately called out.

I was confused, "What is a bogey?"

"US military code for unidentified aircraft, or in this case it appears to be dragons."

"Okay. How close do you need to be to fire missiles?"

Matt pulled the aircraft into a hard turn, then a turn the other way, bleeding off speed. "I could fire now. I am not allowed to fire until I make sure they are hostile, and give them a chance to retreat or surrender."

On one hand, I could see his point. Everyone needed to have a chance to surrender, and firing on unidentified targets would be bad. On the other hand, Toph Command had told us that the dragons were always here for hostile purposes. Also, I had never heard of a dragon being seen outside Dragon Council territories anywhere but fighting for Sarroc or Iridia. I had also never heard of a dragon surrendering.

While I was deliberating, Matt had flown us past the dragons, right in front of their noses. They sent long blasts of flame after us, but we were too fast. Matt pulled us back around, diving right in front of them again. This time, they anticipated out movements, and breathed fire right where we travelled.

Instantly, the engines cut out and started spinning down. I could hear multiple alarms come from up in Matt's section of the cockpit. I was mentally running through what Matt had told me about ejecting, when the engines started up again.

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"Well, that is kinda important information to know," Matt said calmly.

I relaxed my grip on my armrests, "what information?"

Matt guided us up away from the dragons. "One, the range of dragons breathing fire. I didn't think they could get that far. Two, 500 km/h wind sweeps the fire away from the aircraft really well. Three, because the flames use up most of the oxygen, it makes our engines flame out. Four, it's not hot enough to damage any critical components. Might need a new coat of paint if we do this regularly, though."

I let out a half chuckle half sigh, "if a Model 19 is hit by dragon breath, our engine is wrecked, and our control surfaces fused. Sometimes the canopy gets fused closed too, so we can't bail out. I'm glad it's not that bad for a Super Hornet."

"Well," Matt said, "They attacked us, so they are hostile. They also have been given ample opportunity to surrender."

I started to smile, "so, I believe that earlier you mentioned that we should 'introduce dragons to air-to-air missiles'?"

Matt pulled us into a hard turn back towards the dragons, and I took a moment to enjoy the feeling of being pushed into my seat by an invisible force.

"I did say that. And I meant it. Therefore, fox 2."

I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by "fox 2", but closed it as I felt a few clunks and heard multiple missiles fire. Matt banked to the right some, which I appreciated as it meant I had an unobstructed view of 5 trails of smoke shoot off. They each curved to target one individual dragon. The dragons saw them, and tried to dodge, but the missiles followed. A couple of the dragons tried to intercept the missiles with fire, but it was ineffective, and 5 fireballs erupted in quick succession. Bits and pieces of dragon started falling towards the ground below.

"Well," Matt said, breaking the silence, "that was fairly effective."

"I have to agree," I watched as the last smoke from the explosions drifted away and dissipated.

"Wait, one moment. I'm getting a new radar signature coming over the mountains to the north."

"Another dragon?" I wondered out loud.

"Nope. Radar signature is very different. I'll get in a bit closer for a better view." Matt guided us closer, until I could make out the exact model of aircraft.

"That's a DS-6," I identified, "I know that Sarroc has at least 3 or 4. It's the aircraft that jump started our aircraft program. We shot one down, and reverse engineered the systems. A Model 16 is almost identical to a DS-6."

Suddenly, multiple things happened at once. The DS-6 flicked it's nose towards us and started to fire it's thaumguns. Matt pulled us into an extremely hard turn to dodge and my vision dimmed from the unexpected high G forces. I forced my legs to tense, not allowing blood to pool in my legs from the accelerations.

I heard Matt call out "Fox 2", and felt the slight jolt as a missile flew off its rails. Something went wrong, though, and I watched as the missile flew off, not coming even close to the target.

"Fuck. Misfire, out of missiles, switching to guns." The enemy aircraft and us were circling around each other now, each spiraling downwards pulling 5 or 6 G's to try to get guns pointed at the opponent first. We started to win the turning battle, our crosshairs creeping closer the the target. Matt cut the engine, losing some speed in exchange for higher maneuverability. With a rumbling brrrr, our gun fired, the exploding projectiles ripping the enemy aircraft to shreds. Bits and pieces flew everywhere, the main body spinning down to the ground trailing fire and black smoke.

Matt pulled up, leveling us out. "Are you okay back there?"

"Yes, just a bit tired from the constant G forces," I replied.

"Good. Sorry about the sudden movements and hard G's."

I waved his concerns off, "you did what you needed to do to survive and win. You did very well in fact."

"It was quite a bit closer than I had hoped," Matt sounded apologetic, "the last Sidewinder failed to lock for some reason. It does happen occasionally, but it is really rare."

"It's OK. Things break, and you took charge when things went awry and got into a good position for using the gun."

"Thanks. You should probably tell Toph Command about all this."

"Ok, will do." I switched channels to the Toph Command frequency, "Varran Aircraft calling Toph Command"

"Varran Aircraft, Toph Command. Go ahead."

"We have eliminated the hostile dragons. After confirmation of the kills, a Sarroc DS-6 approached and attacked us. After a brief duel, we destroyed it too. The pilot did not bail."

"Acknowledged. Dragons neutralized, DS-6 shot down. We'll send a group out to examine the wreckage. Thank you."

"You're very welcome." I switched back to the in-aircraft channel.

"Ready to head back to base?"

"Yes. This has been enough excitement for today."