>["I've beat people like him before—in real life."]

"I've fought against pilots like that before. In real life, I mean. The way that fight played out, it felt natural. Like second nature, really. I'm used to it."

"You're telling me that boss in the game reminded you of a dogfight you've flown in? What kind of hell have you been through before you got here?"

"It's nothing so dramatic. The real skies may differ in many aspects from virtual ones, but the mindset remains the same. You learn how someone flies by just watching them, you wait for that one thing—that one beat in the rhythm where they screw up—and that's when you take the shot."

Then you glanced sideways at Erich, half-smirking. "Besides, you're a pilot yourself, aren't you? Use what you learned at the academy. Spatial intuition, pattern recognition, you can apply it to everything, even to something simple as a video game."

"Don't say stuff like that, Boss." He let out a groan and flopped onto his back, letting out a long sigh as he did so. "Now you're making me feel like I slept through half my classes."

"And now you have me wondering how you even passed." You smirked.

Erich chuckled, lifting his hand lazily into the air. "Family business; I've been flying cropdusters with Dad back home since I was fifteen. Tight turns, low altitude, dodging power lines! So when it was time for me to get into the cockpit of a jet, it felt like hopping from a bike to a motorcycle, you know?"

You raised an eyebrow, curious to learn more about your Lieutenant. "So, baptism by air?"

"Mhm, something like that," Erich replied. A wistful smile formed on his lips as he looked away from you. He missed home. "I learned more from actually flying than I ever did reading manuals. I guess it stuck."

>["Your father, was he a soldier too?"]
>["What was home like?"]
>["Family business still alive?"]
>[SAY NOTHING]
>[WRITE-IN]