First thing I noticed was 'hanger'.

Hanger

Noun
-A person who hangs something: "a wallpaper hanger".
-A shaped piece of wood, plastic, or metal with a hook at the top, from which clothes may be hung.

Hangar

Noun
-A large building with extensive floor area, typically for housing aircraft.

Verb
-Place or store in a hangar.

Remember the difference

Second of all is your manoeuvre - to send one of your flights to cruise above you until your mark. It's a clever tactic, aye, but one that was first invented in WWII (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong). With the level of technology in Star Wars - especially the sensors - it stands to reason that the cruising flight would be easily detected. That is all well and good, but what I don't get is why the X-Wings simply ignored said flight. Why didn't they mirror your tactic or better still, counter it?

These are simulators which have pretty much every combat manoeuvre in the VEN's database downpat and while they wouldn't be on an extremely hard difficulty, they'd be able to counter such a basic tactic. Feel free to explain your thinking here, but if you don't convince me I'll have to get you to edit your post to reflect my comments. This is not a pass or a fail, it's a request for an explanation.

That said, I did enjoy your post - though the ending seemed somewhat brief.

Alright. I'll go with that, for now, but take into account that if you can see your enemy - he can most likely see you too. 1000ft is not a big distance in space, so maybe change your post - just a little - to register the X-Wings noticing your second flight seconds before you met them head to head?

A paragraph or more covering something to that extent, yes.

No. You've passed if you make the necessary edit. If I'm not satisfied with the edit, I'll get you to edit it again - but I'm sure we'll have no need of a second edit

It was back to the simulators for Grent. He had made it his mission to become the best pilot possible, which meant being able to lead, as well as fly. The only way to practice, however, was to use the simulators. Not as good as the real thing, of course, but they were pretty damn close. The new upgrades had shown that it was indeed possible for the computer to think like a pilot. Grent and his fellows disagreed: a computer would never be as good as flesh and blood. But, he couldn’t deny that it was pretty good.

He strapped himself into the cockpit, and waited for the sim to load. When it did, he found himself in the hanger of an ISD. Crew were running about everywhere, and pilots were scrambling into their craft. Warning alarms were blaring, and lights were flashing. Instinctively, Grent started powering up his TIE Interceptor, getting it ready for a rapid response. He knew what was happening: he had chosen this sim, after all. The story was that the ship he was on, the ISD Frontline, had come under fire from a New Republic cruiser. The opposing ships were a fair distance apart, but the New Republic forces had deployed an X-wing squadron. Grent, designated “Bravo Leader” for this sim, was in charge of the squadron being scrambled to engage them. He had approximately five minutes to prepare, before the enemy fighters reach them.

00:04:32 remaining before contact …

Grent was the first out of the hangar, speeding away to give room for his squadron to exit as well. They came out in pairs: two, four, six, eight, ten. There were meant to be eleven others.

“This is Bravo Leader,” he called on the comm, “All fighters report in.”
“Bravo 2, standing by.”
“Bravo 3, standing by.”
“Bravo 4, standing by.”
“Bravo 5, standing by.” And so it went on, until Bravo Eleven finally appeared out of no where. A message from the sim control desk appeared in the corner of his HUD:

[System Message: The sim glitched up on us. Should be no more problems.]

Great, thought Grent, Less than a minute in, and already there are problems I can’t solve by blasting them!. It wasn’t the greatest of starts, but it wasn’t a problem. He turned his fighter around, and ordered his squadron to form up in a V-formation on him, before leading them to a direct intercept with the oncoming fighters.

00:02:45 remaining until contact

The glitch had cost him precious time, but Grent wasn’t the sort to give up easily. From what he’s read in the pre-flight brief that came with this sim mission, these pilots were meant to ‘have experience of combat situations’, meaning that they weren’t the best pilots in the Navy, but they also weren’t the worse. He would be able to let them think on their own, and not micromanage everything they did. This was a good thing, because if Grent spent too much time concentrating on getting his fighters organised during the fight, he would probably get killed, which wouldn’t do anyone any good.
00:01:25

“Bravo Two, this is Bravo Leader, over.”
“This is Bravo Two, go ahead, Leader.”
“Take your flight, and climb about a 1000ft. Stay above us, until we make contact, then engage.”
“Roger that.”

Using his side viewport, Grent watched as the six craft to his starboard side peel off, and climb above them, the black paint that was standard on VE TIEs blending in well to the pitch black of space. Only the occasional star getting blocked out, revealed any sign that they were there.

The area of space that had been designated as their battle zone, was just like most of space: empty. No … anything. No asteroids, no space junk … nothing. All that was there, were the two large ships, and the two squadrons they had sent against each other. This would make the fight easier, in one sense: they had full manoeuvrability. However, so did the enemy fighters. The only way one of them could gain the upper hand, was through skill and tactics.

00:00:40

There they were. Grent could just make them out, his eyes catching the movement of their S-foils locking in attack position. He checked over his systems: all good. He ordered his 5 remaining wingmen to enter a staggered formation.

“Remember,” he said to them over the comm, “Don’t break formation until they pass us. Stick together in your pairs. Bravo two? Lead your flight in after they have broken formation. Reduce your speed a bit so that you can flank them.”
“Roger wilco, Bravo Leader.”
“My flight: fire when you see me fire. Pick an X-wing, and head straight for it. Force them to break formation.” A choruses of ‘roger wilco’ came back, as Grent cracked his neck in an attempt to loosen himself up for the upcoming fight. Relaxing was the key.

It was time.

As soon as the enemy X-wings came within range, Grent locked onto the leader, and sent a hail of laserfire his way. He saw streams of green come from his wingmen as they did the same. The X-wings returned fire, their red lasers mixing with the Imperial green. Several of their fighters peeled off from the main group, and ascended towards the second flight. They were all moving too fast to do any real damage, and the VE pilots held their course, forcing the X-wings out of their flight pattern, and into evasive manoeuvres. It was textbook flying. With the X-wings now scattered, trying to turn around to regroup, the second flight descended upon them, the X-wings that had split off following them. They tore through the New Republic squadron, taking two out, and damaging a third, before they could perform any counter manoeuvres. However, the X-wings pursuing the second flight opened fire as well, forcing the second flight to stop their attack earlier than planned to perform their own counter manoeuvres.

Whilst the second flight began their attack, Grent reformed his flight, and re-engaged the X-wings. His men split off, trying to pick off some of the outlying fighters, their laser canons firing green death, as another explosion lit up the area. Grent let loose with his own canons, resulting in the death of another New Republic pilot. However, the X-wings had recovered slightly from the surprise attack, and responded viciously, killing at least two VE pilots before the second flight managed to return the tailchase.

It was mayhem. Everything was a blur. Grent was acting on pure instinct: dodging laserfire there, shooting off some here, responding to calls for help. Several times he had to request help himself, as X-wings locked onto his six. It was a tense moment. But salvation came in the form of Bravo Three, who came roaring in, missing the X-wings, but making them loose their fix.

The numbers were close, but the VE squadron had the upperhand. A clever tactic Grent employed, was for one pilot to set himself up as bait. An X-wing or two would soon attack them, upon which, the other pilot’s wingman would scream in behind quickly, and blast the living daylights out of them. They grew wise to that tactic after a while, but it was very effective.

Soon, the X-wings were down to three men. Grent had only lost four, due to last second manoeuvres pulled by the NR pilots that led the unfortunate VE pilots into a trap. The New Republic squadron tried to turn tail, and flee. A few of his men tried to follow, but Grent soon called them off. They weren’t coming back anytime soon.

As Grent flew his squadron back to the Frontline, he thought about the tactics used by both squadrons: his age old death-from-above attack, and the X-wing's wait-to-the-last-second stunts. It was interesting to analyse, to say the least. He would enjoy watching the replay, and learning on his experience.

OOC:

WC: 1,351

Note: I've added in a part about x-wings peeling off to attack the second flight, and interrupting their attack. Also edited the end slightly.

For certs as well? I did not know.

And thank you.

Well spotted, Gurlanin. Yes, you're right