Mike had been put in command of his training flight for the scenario. Standard operating procedure dictated that the Naval fighters come in high, radioing a warning to the pirates in an effort to force them away without any fighting at all. But Mike had figured that, since this was a training exercise, the “pirates” would not be backing away, but would instead engage them with some of their fighters while the rest continued after the “freighter.” After all, the training cadre were some of the most experienced pilots that the UEN had to offer. Usually, the point of such an exercise was not to win, but to test reactions and dogfighting. Thinking quickly, Mike had ordered the rest of his flight to continue on as normal. Jerking the stick, he had peeled off towards the surface of Phobos at top speed, switching off every non-essential piece of electronics to mask his signature on the opponents sensors. As he thought, half of the “pirates” broke off from their attack to engage his flightmates. Throwing on his afterburners, Mike had rocketed his small Stargazer training fighter right at the terminator of Phobos. At just the right moment, he eased up on the stick, letting the gravity of Phobos slingshot him around right at the remaining pirate fighters engaging the freighter. Before they knew what happened to them, two of them noticed that their flight computers were registering that they had been hit and destroyed by a pair of simulated missiles from Mike’s Stargazer.