It was well over a year ago when I wrecked my first fighter, and it’s one of the proudest moments of my life. True, I nearly got kicked out of flight school, destined for a civilian life, or worse, a pencil pusher. It was only after complaints about it made by high-ranking members of the TIE Corps that I was able to stay on.

We were on training manoeuvres, not to far away from the PLT Daedelus, but far enough not to cause any damage to the platform. The manoeuvres we were doing were a pretty old routine. There is an old Dreadnought sitting out in space, and one team of TIE Fighters must defend, while the other attacks. I was on the attacking team, Gamma, along with three others. It was our task to hit the Dreadnought with 10 ion hits, without being disabled ourselves in the process.

The Commander of our team was Vivian Walters, and what she lacked in flight skills, she more than made up for in leadership. We were pretty good friends, with her being one of the first people I met at the platform and usually hanging around in the same crowd of friends. “Gamma 2 and 3 go straight for the Dreadnought,” ordered Vivian, “while I distract the enemy TIEs with Gamma 4.”

“You always give me the fun jobs, don’t you Viv?” I replied, being Gamma 4, “…but do me a favour and leave Briers to me.”

“You got it!” agreed Viv.

Al Briers was the Commander of the enemy team, Delta. He was a good friend too, even though we had a bit of a rivalry going on. I usually spared against him, and knew his every move, as he did with me. In the end though, we were great mates, even if he wasn’t a good a pilot as I was.

“Let’s do my little variation of the A-Wing Slash,” Viv ordered, “Get directly behind me and Werdna, and keep on going when we’re under fire.”

Our flight moved into position, and the Dreadnought was only 3 klicks away. I used the sensor to find Delta Leader, Briers.

2.5 klicks.

“They’re heading our way.”

2 klicks.

“Get ready for attack.”

1.5 klicks.

“Delta Flight in site. Do your jobs, pilots!”

At 1.3 klicks my sites went green, and I let rip with dual fire. I didn’t have the time to see if it had connected, as I had to evade the fire, and lead the others away from the others.

I could see that the plan had worked, as two other fighters were following me, ignoring the others. I would have to get rid of at least one of Delta ships before they realised what we were doing, so I cut down to 1/3 power to the engines, to attempt to swing around and get a Delta quickly.

I pulled up on the joystick and turned 180 degrees and fired before I even got a lock. I hit one of them, with a spark of blue, and flew past it. My ship was already at 1/3 power, so it was then no bother swing around again to finish the unlucky Delta fighter. Flashes of blue lit up everywhere on the ship, showing that it was disabled. Just one more to go then…

“Gamma 4, Delta Leader is barring down on us. He’s worked out the plan, come and get him!” burst on the radio. I had taken so long with that other fighter, letting Briers get away. I moved some of the laser power to the engines, and went after him at full speed. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need many shots to disable him.

The Dreadnought got bigger and bigger as I approached it, but I knew that I had to get even closer as soon as possible when I heard, “Gamma 3 disabled,” over the radio, it’s only me left with five shots to go.”

“Don’t worry Gamma 2,” I reassured, “Delta Leader is in my sites.” I fired Brier’s direction, hoping to get his attention. Briers pulled up and started heading my way. As I evaded the radio came on again saying, “Mission complete, I’m now helping Gamma 4 with Delta Leader.”

“No, I want to take on Briers myself,” I shouted whilst evading his fire. I flew towards the Dreadnought with Briers on my tail. I thought that it would be a good idea to use the mini orbit of the massive Dreadnought to swing around and get some distance between Briers and me.

I was lucky that my fighter didn’t hit the hull of the ship, as there was barely any gap. Still, I stuck with my plan and continued on the orbit. At full speed, the acceleration chair was shaking, trying to control the G-Force. It was able to handle it for long enough, as I shot away from the Dreadnought with a lot of momentum. Briers was unable to turn and match the speed, so I was able to accelerate away, until I was at 1.7 klicks. I then cut the engines to 1/3 power, which was still fairly fast with the momentum working, and swooped around to face Briers head on.

I opened fire, and a dual shot hit Briers when we were about 0.5 klicks away from each other. Perfect! Now I would have time to slow down and get behind his ship. I flew past Briers in an attempt to do so, but he wasn’t going to have any of that and tried to turn me too.

I hate turning wars, as its just luck if you get a win out of it. Most of the time you collide with the other craft. I pulled away from the fight, and headed to the Dreadnought again. I couldn’t pull off the same stunt again, so I called to Viv, “Erm…can I have some help please?”

“I thought you were never going to ask,” Viv answered over the radio, “Delta Leader is nearly in my sites now.”

I continued to run. I was going to get a fair bit of mocking for this, as people can’t stand runners. I’ll just have to say something like I was lining Briers up for Viv’s shot.

“Delta Leader disabled,” Viv informed over the radio. Good, my arm was killing me. It’s much harder to be the pray than the predator that I was used to. I pulled away and headed back to the Platform, worried about what everyone was going to say when I got back. I thought that I was going to be the laughing stock of the sector. Then something happened that would change all of that…

“…all channels…mayday…” it was Briers over the radio, “…I’m drifting towards the Dreadnought, FAST!!!…”

I flew as fast as I could in his direction, not quite knowing what to do when I get there. By the time I reached him, instinct took over, and as dangerous as it was, I rammed his TIE with my own.

It was pure luck that it only wrecked the wings on each fighter. But it had the desired effect, with Briers being pushed around the Dreadnought, to drift past the other side. My ride was a little harder though, just being shunted straight in the opposite direction, The Acceleration chair could barely keep up with the change, and everything hurt for the whole second of collision.

The people in charge didn’t like my little act of heroics though, unable to see part the fact that I had messed up two of their TIE fighters, and risked my own life to do so. There’s some rule somewhere that says that you should never put yourself in danger for another pilots life, as one dead pilot is better than two. It’s safe to say that I don’t live by it.

I was kick out of IWATS. Told that I had a day to pack up my things and leave. I was so angry that I said that I would show them and join the Rebels. I didn’t mean it, but I’ve had Intel on my back ever since.

What saved me were a few Flag Officers hearing about what happened and demanded that I be reinstated to flight school. I don’t know who they were exactly; I just knew that they would have to be high up to hold any sway over the decision.

Even though I never actually left, there was a big welcome back party! Briers was still grateful that I had saved his life, although he didn’t show it. Claims of having everything under control were spat out every time someone mentioned it.