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| - Round 3, the fights never end. Krieg was starting to feel as if he never left the simulator, but this time he was rested up from the last and the surge of adrenaline was still in him from his last win. Unlike his last two fights, Chance was not someone you lured into a trap. She new the proper form of aggressiveness and unlike his other opponents could be quite deadly if you let her any chance. Keeping on top of his sensors he doesn't detect her ship any faster, but senses where she is going to be rolling in from and at high speed has his craft in position. Getting a good tone from the HUD he targets her craft and opens the fight with the first volley, green lances dashing across the open space. It's one thing to be up against a pilot who you've helped train, someone whose skill set is pretty darn close to yours - if not right on the money - it's something else to be up against the person who trained YOU. Dante is, however, as calm as ever, at least at the onset of this match, keeping her eyes on the sensor display and working to keep her fighter both light and maneuverable and avoid being a stationary target. Bringing her fighter into a steep climb she narrowly avoids the incoming fire, brings her fighter into a 180 spin and returns fire almost as soon as she's fired upon. The opening rounds were just that, an opening round. However, as one could see the other fighter getting the jump on the other it was something that both ships could easily avoid. However, this was only for the first round. Krieg takes his craft and ducks under Chance's craft, to dart around to the other side and bring his guns up again. Her 180 turn does put her behind him but that is not something that he takes lightly. Kicking his fighter hard over again and doing a simple reversal he lines up his next shot, taking her moves in stride as their fight was just forming a delicate ballet. Dante chuckles quietly, the pace of this contest already markedly faster than her first run through on the simulators, her shields down by more than half at this point and her fighter shuddering briefly in response. The delicate ballet, or the killing dance, both are true, both are good descriptions, and she guides her fighter again in a swooping arc that carries her down and around; not retreating, ever, but bringing her fighter into a better combat vector, or so her sensors claim. Painting Krieg's fighter with her sensors she opens fire as soon as the target log sings out, keeping her fighter moving as lightly and as unpredictably as possible. It was another exchange of the two titans, and Krieg knew that Dante was just as dangerous as Liza. However, what made her different was her overly aggressive tactics that Krieg was all too fond of. What needed to change here was the fact that he needed to be a bit more conservative at times, to draw her craft out into a line of fire that would doom her. However, that was a tactic that was easier thought of than accomplished. Moving now out of her fire arc and knowing that she was trying to be random he feints a move to one direction and then quickly snap rolls in the opposite direction to get a good target lock on her craft. Leading and lagging at the same time he fires several quad bursts into her anticipated flight path. Even in the attempt to be unpredictable, Dante knows that she's too aggressive, knows that her 'in your face' combat style has gotten her into some iffy situations in the past. This is no exception as she guides her fighter right into the incoming path of Krieg's return fire, her shields failing entirely with that volley, sensors tallying up the damage to her hull a bare moment later. Dante silences the series of warning sounds that begin to beep in that ever annoying fashion. The controls are not, as of yet, terribly sluggish or unresponsive, but she also knows this will come soon. Instead of breaking away she pushes the envelope and dives her fighter straight towards Kriegs, opening fire as soon as she's within good target lock and strives for a close-pass to skim right past him and fire a strafing volley. When it all came down to it, there were certain movements that could either give you a big win or a big loss. Krieg was flirting with the line as Chance was taking every opportunity her callsign afforded her. Taking his craft around once more after another shudder to his shields Krieg sights in Chance and opens up, but then quickly moves away for another line of attack and opens up once more. Taking her on once more Krieg looks for a way to avoid her fire this time around as he finishes his attack run. Concentrating he takes his craft through its paces and around the incoming fire that he knew he was just about to receive. Dante reminds herself, mentally then mutters it aloud, "over confidence is never a good idea" as her fighter again shudders from the impact of weapons fire that she simply did not get out of the way of fast enough. Choices, so many choices, so few of them good. A wise man once said, 'so many good ideas have to be discarded because they simply won't work'. So again there's that twitchy instinct to use her ship as a battering ram, and for a brief moment Dante is tempted - so very tempted - but manages to battle it back long enough to take stock of the state her fighter is in, calculate the remaining damage points the fighter's hull is capable of withstanding, then decide what to do next. Guiding her fighter into a steep climb she waits a few moments then rolls another 180, fires from that position before banking sharply and veering off in yet another direction. The latest round of fire did not help Krieg in the slightest as the shields flicker out and the computer registers a critical hit. It was then that he realized she was taking the drop on him and that there were probably several different things that he was missing now. In order to buy himself time and get the jump back on her he takes a moment and executes a move similar to what he did to Slush, and a complete course reversal to engage her once again. This time he becomes erratic like the computer has failed a system, luring her fire in one direction as he take the drop on her, opening up from her starboard wing. Executing a rollout that a wounded fighter would never make he kicks the power in full, jinking his craft away. Dante can see the maneuver that Krieg is performing, knows enough to bet that he wouldn't be making a 'wounded fighter' ploy if he didn't have something already up his sleeve. She works the controls of her fighter, jaw set in a calmly determined line as the computer simulates sluggish response and wounded fighter, much like what Krieg had just portrayed. Taking more damage makes her fighter slower, harder to control, more systems warnings going off. But she, too, will not yield or take herself out of the battle until the computer itself declares her to be well and truly toasted. A faint laugh escapes her before she brings her fighter around, tracking Krieg's fighter with her sensors, painting his fighter with her targeting computer then firing slightly ahead of his trajectory in the hope that he flies right into it. This time around Krieg was able to evade Chance's shots, getting clear of where she was firing. It would appear that his tactic worked, and it gained him enough time to regain the jump on Chance. Darting out and around from her line of fire he dives back again, sighting in her craft and making the HUD turn from neutral tones to a solid green. With the good lock he leads Chance's fighter, the trigger being gently squeezed by his hand. It would seem that she had the best attack strategy against him, but it was time to change all that around and soon. Again, Dante's fighter recoils sharply from the attack volley that adds further damage points to what's left of her hull rating. Silencing the warning sounds, again, she allows her own momentum to carry her away from Krieg long enough to get a good bead on his position in relation to hers. Setting course again she brings her fighter around, lining up for just the right approach vector and kicks her thrusters into full power and dives at Krieg's fighter with every ounce of power that can be slaved to the thrusters themselves. She holds off on her fire until she's close enough to Krieg's fighter to see the simulated 'battle scars' on the image the computer projects. She opens fire, a fierce grin on her face, attempting to goad Krieg into a game of chicken. Turn or collide. Having drawn Chance into an attack that she wouldn't have normally wanted to bring upon him this soon in the fight, Krieg takes her on further. Now knowing full well what her attack plan would be in those few moments before of regrouping and thinking ahead, Krieg takes his time thinking ahead of each move and kicks the power to its maximum setting. Coaxing all he could out of the fighter he moves down in on her craft, angling from varying directions as she fires upon his craft. Ducking under in a new move and something he learned from the Admiral Krieg snaps back up and over to blast her craft from above. Dante was not someone to mess with and her point had been proved so far. Now it was time to seal the deal as he moves closer to engage once again. He knew theses last shots were critical as the stakes were that much higher, the end was near. Dante had made her point, and had also made Krieg turn away from her chicken-run challenge, which was a mark on her side of the imaginary board, but not enough to win the battle. She tracks Krieg's path as he snaps up and over, firing on her from above and taking out the last of her hull points in one solid maneuver. She doesn't need the computer to tell her that she's done for the moment, but glad to have given Krieg a run for his money. In his final move Krieg takes Chance's craft out, for another win on his side. It was a great moment for him as he knew Dante could have taken him even farther down the path of losing, and embarrassment. Again in another victory movement he takes his craft up and around in a grand victory roll before shutting the simulation down. He wasn't sweating nearly as much as he had against Vapor, but he was concerned there for quite some time that she could bang him up farther than he wanted, and near the end it was those last few points that really drove a match to its conclusion. In the end, however, he was proud of all his pilots for stepping up to the challenge, they all were getting better.
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