It takes a special kind of crazy to be a Starfleet fighter pilot. When a direct hit from a starship's phaser or disruptor banks can kill you in one shot, things can get insane in a hurry.
Lieutenant Jason MacKenzie was that kind of crazy, which was the main reason he earned the callsign "Friday". He seemed to have no fear of anything. His former academy instructors and fellow pilots were both impressed with his skills and scared to death of his implacable nature behind the stick.
Over NZ8-257, a lush Class M planet just on the Federation side on the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone, Jason pushed his Valkyrie's nose down as his target heeled over and dove, trying to avoid his phasers. His target, the last Falcon class heavy fighter in the flight he and Rash had chased down, was trying like mad to just survive. Its shields were gone and it was venting plasma from its starboard nacell.
The whine of the target lock sounded, and Jason fired his last Quantum missile. The missile struck, and the Falcon erupted. Jason smiled grimly, then looked over at his wingman, just off his starboard wing. "How'd you like that one, Rash?"
"Not bad, Friday. Heads up. We have a pair of Kestrels inbound! 5 o'clock low!"
"Roger that, Rash." He yanked hard on the stick and pulled the throttle all the way back, spinning in place and aiming his fighter directly at the lead Kestrel, pushing the throttle all the way forward. "Rash, you take the wing, I'm on lead."
"Tally ho, brother", said Rash.
Both Valkyries went full impulse in an instant, closing quickly. The Romulan wing broke to starboard, and Rash went after it. Jason stayed on the lead, and fired his pulse phasers as soon as he had a lock. The Kestrel juked left and his shots grazed the shields on the Romulan bird as it returned fire. Jason went into a barrel roll and barely avoided the volley.
"Friday! Need a hand, here!" shouted Rash over the comm. Jason squeezed off another quick burst and saw it connect as he snapped his stick left to assist his wingman. He saw the situation, and Rash was in trouble.
"On my way, Rash. Hold on." Jason hit his warp burner and zeroed in on his wingman.
"This bastard reminds me of you, Friday! He's fraggin' good!"
"Not as good as me, Roadrash!" Jason grinned, knowing that Lieutenant(J.G.) Ryan Rasher hated that nickname, which he had gotten as a result of a hovercycle race gone bad.
"Screw you, Jason! If I die here, I'm gonna haunt you!"
"Don't do me any favors, pal." Jason finally had the shot and fired an extended burst, just as the Kestrel's own burst hit Rash's starboard wing. The Romulan ship disintegrated.
"Man, could you have cut that any closer? Hey, what happened to your target?" Rash asked.
"He's back there somewhere. Your damage is pretty bad. Go ahead back to the Nimitz. I'll mop up here and head on back in a moment." Jason kicked his nose up and spotted the last Kestrel on his scope. He smiled and hit his warp burners.
"Roger that, lead. Skull Two is out. When you get back, beers are on me!" And with that, Rash warped out and was on his way back to the USS Nimitz.
"Now, you sonofabitch, let's dance!" muttered Jason as he accelerated directly at the last Kestrel. The Romulan pilot was still hitting his warp burner as well, and seemed determined to play Chicken with him.
Jason shunted all shields forward and locked his finger on the trigger. His burst slammed into the Romulan's forward shields as he saw the incoming green glow of a Romulan missile.
"Hell, this guy is as crazy as I am!" muttered Jason, as he banked hard right and barely missed being hit directly by the photon missile. Then the proximity fuse on the missile blew it and killed his engine. "Dammit!"
Caught in the planet's grav well, his ship slowly began to descend into the atmosphere. He checked his scope, and the Romulan was on his tail. Romulan fighter pilots always made certain of their kills. Jason smiled. "Good. Come on down, the atmosphere's fine." He kept juking and jinking his ship left and right, not giving the Romulan a solid lock.
He was deadsticking the Valkyrie in, but he had something nasty in mind for his killer. 'If I die today, I'm not dying alone', he thought to himself. As soon as he had enough atmo around him after the intial burn of superheated gases around his hull, he pulled the stick straight back, flipping his Valkyrie upside down and locking the trigger to his stick. The blasts of pulse phasers shredded the Kestrel's portside wing, and then he switched to the starboard side, shredding that wing also.
*****
On board the Kestrel, Commander Delaara couldn't believe what she was seeing. "He's insane", she muttered to herself. First he had risked himself to save his wingman while leaving his back to her, and then he had burnered toward her at top speed while firing his phasers constantly, depleting her shields. She proxed a photon missile and fired, knowing he would have to turn away. Her forward shield was gone, but the missile did its job and the Federation Valkyrie was dropping dead stick into the atmosphere.
Then the unthinkable happened. She followed him at a leisurely pace to make sure he burned up upon atmospheric entry, and was actually impressed that he had survived the initial burn. She smiled to herself and reluctantly rearmed her disruptors to fire on him when he heeled over upside down and shot both of her wings off with the last bit of juice in his phasers. She cursed profusely in Romulan as she tried to use her maneuvering thrusters to bring herself in. She followed the deadstick Valkyrie with her own now deadstick Kestrel, and made sure her repulsors were still working. At least she wouldn't die in a crash.
*****
Jason did a quick systems check and discovered that his repulsors were still working. At the rate they were falling, it was going to be a hard landing for both fighters. He checked his six and saw that the disabled Kestrel was following him in. "Great. Phasers are dry, I'm out of missiles, and now we're gonna have us a shootout on the ground. I salute you, sir." With that, he launched a middle finger behind him and made sure his phaser pistol was ready.
The impact of both fighters was pretty bad. The Valkyrie hit the ocean and skipped like a stone up onto the island beach. Jason popped his canopy as he saw the Kestrel hurtle by overhead, bounce off a giant pseudo palm tree, and flip end over end backwards into the ocean.
He watched in stunned bemusement at the sheer comedy of it, then realized that the floating Kestrel hadn't popped its canopy yet. It was capsized in the water, and Jason made a life-changing decision.
"Dammit, nobody deserves to die that way", he said to himself as he dove into the water and swam out to the capsized fighter. He dove under and saw through the canopy that the pilot appeared to be knocked out. He drew his phaser and burned the catches on the canopy off, holstering it and unlatching the pilot's safety harness. He dragged HER out of the seat and made for the surface as the remains of the Kestrel sank to the bottom of the sea.
