[center][b][h1][color=#4682B4]Scott Valentine[/color][/h1][/b][/center]

Scott was relieved and in admiration as he saw three of the Silent Eagles go down in the space of mere minutes, and then Sparrow tearing a Mirage 2000 out of the sky with almost contemptuous ease. He'd already been impressed by what the men and women under his command had done in the scant few days he'd known them; their skills and talent matched up to that feeling by what he'd seen. The remaining Silent Eagle was still angling in for a run on Fuka's F/A-18, and Scott was about to throw himself into the attack, but Freyja was there before he could take action.

[quote=@Damo021]
[color=00aeef]“Cobalt 6, Fox 2”[/color]
[/quote]

The gunmetal-trimmed Silent Eagle had already been shaken by Valkyrie's lock-on to his plane. As she let loose with her Sidewinder, Titan 9 punched out flares, and pulled a hard, abrupt bank, one that had him on the edge of a red-out. Heavier and larger than the Gripen, but with much more power and wing area, the F-15 was - on paper - evenly matched, but in close like this, the lighter jet could keep more energy. He had to break away and use his power and speed. 
Even as those thoughts went through his head, Titan 11's panicked and strained voice came through his helmet's earphones. 
[color=aqua]"Basilisk to Hellhound; we just lost Gorgon and Banshee punched out! These mercs are better than we gave them credit for. Even with the lasers! They've got us outnumbered, over"[/color]
[color=lightgray]"I know, Basilisk. But we can still hurt them. Hit your target, and then break contact. All we need to do is buy time, and we're doing that. That was the mission, remember? Just do what you were told"[/color]
He was more curt with her than he was happy with; the younger pilot was less experienced. He felt a moment of regret for it, but the battle he was in took the priority, and the mission above that. And with that in mind, he fed the engines more power, getting the speed and energy he needed to put distance between himself and the Cobalt Haze planes. He pulled the jet around in a smooth climbing roll after he had a few miles of vertical and horizontal distance, and cued his helmet-mounted sight, tracking in on both the F/A-18 and the Gripen alike. He bracketed each with an AMRAAM, and as soon as they was a positive tone, snap-shot off a missile each apiece, before continuing the dive, and levelling out down low, using the ground clutter and his planes' reduced RCS to try and hide in the clutter and aim to pop-up from below if the missiles didn't hit as planned. 

[quote=@Damo021]
[color=f7941d]“Hold that thought”[/color]
[/quote]

The remaining Mirage 2000-5 sliced through the night sky toward Brightspark and Sparrow. The seeking radar snapped a lock onto both the Typhoon and F-16 alike, and the bold Libyan pilot rippled off a MICA radar-guided missile apiece at them both from medium range, while still boring in to close the distance and press the attack with their shorter-range Magic IR-Guided missiles if need be. 

Hellhound in the Aqua-trimmed Silent Eagle was still set on tangling up with Yuna and her deadly Sukhoi. The first missile had spooked her, but surviving it had only strengthened her resolve and her confidence in her skills and her plane. Her radar warning receiver sang at her as Calico's radar hunted for a lock. She needed to reverse the situation and get the big, heavy, and powerful Su-35 off of her tail and get back into a position of advantage. Especially hard, when the Super Flanker had its' trademark impressive manoeuvrability. Still, Basilisk's words rang in her head and still stung her pride. She nosed down, gaining speed and putting on power, luring the Sukhoi and it's pilot to follow her low, before pulling up and hard into loop, using her jets' lesser mass and the power she'd gained to try and roll inside the their climb and put herself back on their tail.
Just as Jefe's hunting radar locked onto her plane, and she cursed, now faced with two powerful, advanced enemy jets hunting her down. She gave a frustrated yell as she punched out chaff, breaking into a tight bank that left contrails streaming and a giant standing on her chest, pinning her back into her seat and choking air out of her lungs, before she violently pulled a reverse to the motion, hauling the nose around in the opposite direction. She knew the second plane was stealthy; it wouldn't show up [i]as[/i] well on her radar, but at this short a range it wasn't 'invisible'. Added to this, she had the LANTIRN pods under the fuselage and the Sniper pod of the pair could hunt with infrared, TV and laser-guidance. 
And the Sukhoi, well; that wasn't stealthy. Her helmet-mounted sight helped too; anything she could see she could lock onto or track - but that only worked for her missiles. 
She craned her neck, as she strained to get one of the pair into her sights. She switched over to short-range, selecting her lasers even as her vision tunneled, and the sleek shape of the F-22N came into view and she pulled the trigger as tight as she dared, the beam lashing out and drawing a line across the shape of the swing-winged jet for the brief heartbeats it was in view, before she rolled inverted once more, feeding power to the engines to extend and break away, putting distance between them to reattack.

[color=violet]"Kitten to Heartbreak; the airport is out of action. Nothing is going to be flying out of here anytime soon - or landing here, over"[/color]
Scott orbited the airport, a few miles distant off his port wingtip. The place was aflame in various places, and the blaze was only growing. 
[color=#4682B4]"Skywatch, this is Cobalt One; primary target is down. We still have hostiles in the area and are engaged. What's the situation looking like, over?"[/color]
There was a brief pause before the always-calm AWACS operator aboard the distant E-2 Hawkeye replied.
"Cobalt One, Skywatch. Seems like the enemy are in disarray; patrols are vectoring to your location, but are miles out. Primary radars are down, recommend you proceed to secondary objective, over".
[color=#4682B4]"Skywatch, Cobalt One; roger. Will proceed to phase two as soon as our noses are clear, over"[/color]
Like any fighter pilot; Scott was possessed of a particular mindset and skill that was necessary for the role and it's responsibilities: being able to sum up a situation in the blink of an eye, and make judgements and decisions quickly. Jets travelled so quickly, and moments were all it took to be past a target, and to miss an opportunity in combat. Moments were all you had to make decisions, and command added even more pressure to that equation.
[color=#4682B4][i]We have another ground target to strike; it's a smaller one but still vital. I've got most of my ordnance, Kat has expended most of hers, Myk is running low. Ayvee hasn't loosed a shot, Freyja is still loaded for air to ground, Ximena still has air to ground ordnance, and so does Amelia. We still have enough air-to-air to protect ourselves. We can do this, if we can lose these bandits.[/i][/color]
The remaining Silent Eagles were extending, trying to get better shots on the four aircraft they were engaging, and the remaining Mirage 2000 was likewise trying to punch above their weight. The Cobalt Haze squadron outnumbered the three bandits, regardless of skill and even if some of Cobalt's planes were damaged.
[color=#4682B4]"Cobalt One to all aircraft. Let's ditch these losers; there's three of them and nine of us. Team up on them, and let's bully them out of [i][b]our[/b][/i] sky, and get that second target. All aircraft, engage the bandits!"[/color]
[color=violet]"Cobalt One, Cobalt Seven. Already ahead of you, chief"[/color] 
Kat's voice was tight as she spoke, and it was only as Scott saw the flare of gunfire in the night sky that he saw the A-10 climb from down low. The GAU-8 in the nose was roaring, and the line of tracers intersected the course of the Mirage 2000 bearing down on Mykhailo and Amelia. The massively powerful anti-armour 30mm rounds were overkill for the thin-skinned combat aircraft, and for a moment it looked as though nothing had happened, before the engine tore itself apart and the delta-winged plane exploded in an angry red fireball, Kat pulling inverted to avoid the cloud of shrapnel and flame. 
For his part, Scott pulled a heavy wing-over, and poured power on, homing in toward where Fuka and Freyja were tusselling with the silver-trimmed Basilisk, and switching to his remaining sidewinder. 
[color=#4682B4]Cobalt One to Three and Six, I'm heading to join you. Three, break off and go help scratch Eight and Nine's backs, over!"[/color] 
It was time to get this over and done with, and move on to the next target. They'd been side-tracked too long.

[@AvaP], [@Smike], [@Letter Bee], [@Finetales], [@Damo021]