Free Enemy One (Epic Book 5) by Lee Stephen

the missile lock alarm shifted.
    “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” Travis screamed.
    “What the hell is that?” Scott asked.
    Travis was hysterical. “They’re firing! They’re firing! We’re dead!”
    With one hand on the joystick and the other on weapons, Tiffany watched the four tiny streaks approaching from the distance. The blonde’s eyes narrowed.
    “What are you doing?” Travis asked. “Why aren’t you doing anything?”
    “I need them to get closer.”
    Travis blinked. “You need them to get—wait, the missiles ?”
    Slamming the joystick down, the Pariah rolled into a high-angle dive. The troop bay occupants collectively gasped as inertia tried to fling them to the ceiling. Despite the force of the dive, their harnesses held.
    Staring steadily at the fast-approaching earth, Tiffany said, “We’re closing the gap, taking away the missiles’ ability to correct fast enough to avoid hitting the ground. It’s one of the ways Couriers avoid getting hit.” As the missiles drew within strike distance, diving down to intercept the Pariah as it neared the ground, Tiffany pushed the throttle to full blast. The Pariah ’s engines erupted, their thrust pinning the two pilots into their chairs. Leveling off just before impact, Tiffany squeaked the Pariah beneath the downward-soaring missiles. They collided into the ground behind the transport, exploding in a series of four fiery plumes.
    Yanking the stick back up, Tiffany sent the Pariah screaming back to the Superwolves’ altitude. Thegap between the Superwolves and the Pariah was closing rapidly. Only seconds before the aircrafts would have merged, Tiffany jerked the stick to the left just before the leftmost Superwolf pulled the same maneuver. As their trajectories crossed, Tiffany tapped the trigger, sending a burst of nose-mounted cannon fire right into the center of the Superwolf’s hull. The Superwolf zipped past the Pariah and out of view behind it. She pulled the stick again, swinging the Vulture around to pursue.
    Beside her, Travis was going nuts. “How did you do that? How’d you know he was going to do that?”
    “Because it was exactly what he was supposed to do!” As the Pariah leveled off, the Superwolf she’d shot could be seen spinning toward the earth in smoky twirls. “He was going for an outer circle flow relative to his wingman, it’s basic. I just cut him off.”
    “But how do you know that?”
    Her blond strands soaked with sweat, she glared at her counterpart. “Because I’m a fighter pilot.”
    Travis blinked right back at her. The pilot had no words.
    The other Superwolf completed its turn first; the advanced tactical fighter was beading straight for the Vulture. “Hold on!” Tiffany screamed over the speakers, dropping the Pariah ’s nose and spiraling the aircraft downward just as the Superwolf opened fire. Bullets peppered the Pariah ’s underbelly as it fell into a downward defensive scissor.
    Scott was on the verge of puking, and by the look of it, so was everyone else. Their bodies slamming back and forth like harnessed ragdolls, they stared at one another wide-eyed as the Vulture entered full-fledged dogfight mode.
    “Follow me!” Tiffany screamed at the Superwolf. The moment the EDEN fighter began its downward turn, Tiffany hit the brakes and swung the Pariah ’s nose out of its scissor. Overshooting the slower aircraft, the Superwolf came out of its first turn right in front of the Vulture. For a second time, Tiffany turned to pursue, kicking the thrusters into full speed as the Superwolf straightened out—moving out of firing range within half a second. Turning on the comm, Tiffany addressed the EDEN pilot on his own channel. “Hey, thruster-jockey, you’re getting whipped by a girl!”
    “What are you doing?” Travis asked.
    “Taunting him.”
    The other pilot shook his head. “But why ?”
    Seconds after the insult went through, the Superwolf looped back. “To draw him back in.” Leveling