"Hey Lieutenant Dirk, I'll be gunning for you first."
Adam cringed slightly and said, "We're here to win, Rayelle, no need to show off."
"No! We're here to win AND show off!" Rayelle countered.
Rayelle pushed her VF-171 to full thrust, breaking the formation. She felt the G forces press her back into her seat and commanded, "Go play with the other two!"
"Copy leader," Marty concisely said.
Adam wanted to blurt out that he was the leader, but given that Rayelle was the lead in their band, it felt natural for her to be in charge.
Helena saw one of the Macross 10 fighters approaching fast from behind. While their dogfight hadn't started yet, it didn't mean she could trust the other side to play fair.
"On our six!" Helena shouted.
Dirk broke left, Alek quickly broke right, and Helena pulled back on her flight stick.
The VF-171 had a decent stealth package, and Helena learned to use it well. By ascending into the clouds, she could hide for a bit. She planned to get the drop on someone tailing Alek or Dirk, similar to what Louis and his squad did.
"What's going on?" Helena thought.
An alert on her console indicated that the dogfight had only now begun, but the Macross 10 fighter that split them up was lazily chasing Dirk while the other two seemed to be passively trying to keep her and Alek away from Dirk.
"Heads up Dirk, looks like she's coming for you!"
Dirk initially broke away to avoid a collision with Rayelle. He watched in dismay as she was now trailing behind him. Dirk had to admit her timing was perfect since he couldn't break her tail.
"Either she's amazing or I just suck as a pilot," Dirk said to himself.
"I am amazing," Rayelle said over the comms, "Now, hold still so we can talk privately."
If she tried to tight-beam him to talk privately, she could also get an easy target lock if he slowed down enough.
"No, I won't go down without a fight!"
Rayelle rolled her eyes and said, "Have it your way!"
Hoping they could talk on the way back, Rayelle flipped on her targeting system to lock on to Dirk.
Alarms blared in Dirk's cockpit when his fighter detected lock-on attempts. He remembered how long it would take his VF-171 to lock on to an enemy, so he would juke hard to one side or another to break the lock momentarily and stay alive in this simulated dogfight.
Dirk squinted after the last juke when Planet Aquillane's sunlight momentarily blinded him. Ironically, his momentary blindness made him want to try something.
Dirk pushed the stick forward, diving his fighter down.
Rayelle's craft followed closely behind. She whispered to herself, "Left, right, up, right, left, down and he repeats. Does he really think he's trying to perform a QM-69? He'll roll left next, then I'll be waiting for him!"
Rayelle nosed her craft down and left in anticipation of Dirk's pattern.
Much to Rayelle's surprise, Dirk suddenly pulled back on his stick and then rolled to the right. Dirk felt his vision start to fade as the blood left his head. Rolling after pulling up against the planet's gravity nearly knocked him out.
"Damn it!" Rayelle shouted. She pulled up and turned harder than Dirk to try and catch up when he went opposite where she predicted he would be. Rayelle felt her pilot's suit contract to try and counter the g forces, but her vision completely faded momentarily.
"I'll... get..." Rayelle managed to keep herself from passing out, but she couldn't hear the alarms blaring in her cockpit. She regained her vision, but the planet's sun blinded her again.
Dirk killed his thrust and extended his flaps to use the air resistance to slow his craft instantly.
Rayelle was still disoriented and only saw the outline of a VF-171 slip behind her.
"Rayelle!" Adam suddenly blared through the comms, turning towards Dirk.
"Burning for you!" Dirk triumphantly sang as he heard his console confirm a solid target lock. "Target locked!"
"I lost? To him? That imecile?" Rayelle said in disbelief. Her disbelief quickly changed to rage as she angrily flailed her arms around the cockpit.
Helena was relieved when she saw Adam lose his cool over Rayelle. She had to admit that he was close to taking her or Alek out. Helena chased after Adam and shouted, "Alek, hold him off of me."
"Hey, your boyfriend is coming to rescue you," Dirk said teasingly. He rolled his craft out from behind Rayelle and headed back toward Helena and Alek.
Adam cursed himself for losing his cool as he was tailed by Helena now. His wingman was held down by the third man in the other squadron, so his only option was to try and shake Helena.
Helena did her best to stay on Adam's six, but she knew he could break free soon. "Dirk, help Alek!"
Dirk didn't hesitate and turned his attention towards Alek and Martin, watching them try to get behind each other.
Martin heard alarms in his cockpit when he saw Dirk's craft approach and start to get a lock on him. Instead of submitting, he stubbornly turned towards Helena and Adam.
Dirk lost his chance to lock on to Martin, but Alek picked up where Dirk left off.
"Target lock," said Alek unenthusiastically.
"Ahh... you got me," Martin said equally plainly.
Even though he was technically shot down at this point, Martin's fighter still came between Helena and Adam and allowed Adam to break free.
Adam dove into the clouds but wasn't confident about a three-on-one situation.
"I surrender," Adam seethed through his teeth.
While Helena would've preferred to have all three of the Macross 10 pilots shot down, she was satisfied with two since they didn't lose any.
The Macross 8 pilots cheered when Adam surrendered since they needed a win to save face.
"Excellent flying, Dirk," Helena said with a smile.
Dirk blushed slightly and thought Helena looked cute when she wasn't yelling at him or all serious. He stuttered somewhat and said, "Th-Thanks."
"That was what you call pure Beginner's luck!" Rayelle said, still angry at her own mistake.
"You were too confident that you could've taken him down any time. My mistake was that I let my emotions get the better of me," Adam said plainly.
The six pilots flew in a single formation on their way back to show they had no hard feelings for each other like the rest of the pilots before them. The next two squadrons had already taken off and headed towards them.
Dirk was still riding his high from winning and felt he had to do one thing... Sing!
"Running through a city that never sleeps."
"Searching for my one 'n only salvation."
"The night burns on when I reach you."
"My only escape is your touch."
Helena didn't mind and let him sing as he pleased. She figured he earned it this time.
Rayelle was fascinated hearing Dirk sing her song his way. Not wanting to interrupt, she closed her eyes to block out everything else.
"Keep me warm."
"You're my fire."
"Let me burn."
"With desire."
Rayelle felt Dirk's technique was awful, but his energy and spirit made her whole body heat up. Dirk's kind of energy is what she was missing!
"I want to let it burn let it all burn!"
"Burn it up burn it up"
"Burning for yooouuu!"
"Burning for yoooouuu!"
"BURN BURN BURNING FOR YOU!"
Rayelle was clenching her body in excitement when she suddenly exclaimed, "Yes! That's it! Just like that! Give me more!"
Hearing Rayelle make that statement in her excited state led to much confusion, especially since everyone else had heard it.
Rayelle blushed in embarrassment, then coughed and added, "I mean, your skill is lacking, but you have this energy that... I can't describe it!"
"Uh, thanks?" Dirk said in confusion, "I'm a huge fan of Miss Rayven and the Night Hawks. I'm sure she would say much worse about my singing if she heard me."
Rayelle grinned, then said, "Who knows, maybe she'll get to hear you sooner than you think."
__________
Deep below the ocean, a sleeping entity slowly regained some consciousness.
"Spiritia! Anima... Spiritia!"
A set of glowing eyes glowed through a massive crystalline boulder. The tiny amount of life at the bottom of the ocean had its life force absorbed into the crystal boulder.
The eyes went dark, then an orb of energy formed outside the boulder, and a body of pure energy began to coalesce inside the ball of energy.
A small male devil-like gradually appeared inside the ball of energy. He had dark blue skin, slanted cat-like eyes, and a small set of wings protruding from his back.
He stretched his stubby arms and legs out, then looked at the giant crystal boulder in front of him.
"I need more spiritia to wake up completly. Still, beware Protoculture, Illuzo has returned!"