Rena levelled off at 10,000ft and held the aircraft steady as she transitted towards the test range. Given that she was wired up to the COFFIN control system to her it appeared as though she were flying freely through the air. It was always a sad realisation for her that this was the closest she would ever be able to get to experiencing what it would be like to go outside without her suit. Maybe that's why she loved flying so much? It was a short journey to the test area and she dipped the nose of her SU-37R to begin a descent into the valley. The test would effectively be a time trial event through the valley. Eighteen rings would be projected onto her HUD and she would have to fly through these 'checkpoints' in the quickest time possible. To make things even more difficult she would have to destroy eight designated targets along the route. Once she entered the test range she radioed to the range controller, "November-Papa Control this is Dove 1 ready to proceed."

"Roger that Dove 1. The clock will start the moment you pass through the first checkpoint. You may proceed at your discretion!"

"Roger!" A small green ring appeared on her HUD at the base of the valley and Rena began her approach towards it. The closer she got to it the larger it got until finally she passed through it. This was it! She was in the gauntlet! She pulled up the nose and opened the throttle as she began to climb towards the next ring which appeared at the top of a nearby mountain peak. The ring got larger and larger until again she passed through it. The next one appeared on the valley floor and Rena rolled her SU-37R onto it s back and with its canards and thrust vectoring nozzles working hard to control it she threw the plane into a steep dive, white vortices streaming from her wingtips as she cut through the air. Rolling back over she applied her airbrake and tilted the nose upward to achieve maximum drag to help slow her aircraft down as she again passed through a checkpoint.

A target now appeared on the side of the cliff face and Rena pulled around to the right as hard as she could. She selected her missile and designated the target before releasing her weapon in its direction. She had no time to watch it impact because she was already turning for the next checkpoint which hung in mid air almost directly over the target and Rena had to perform a thrust vectoring loop to pass through it in time. Although she didn't know it her missile had successfully struck the target and she was well on course.

Ross and Tomlinson watched her progress on the small laptop that sat on the desk. A blue arrow indicated her progress and it was making excellent time through the valley. Both Ross and Tomlinson were extremely agitated but for different reasons. One wanted her to succeed. The other wanted her to fail. For the next eleven checkpoints they watched as Rena made excellent time and had successfully destroyed all six targets that she had encountered thus far. Ross was quick to note however that her progress didn't appear to be too dissimilar to the AI controlled test but they wouldn't know for sure until the end.

On the test range a missile struck an old truck that had been strategically placed under an overhanging cliff face destroying it completely as the SU-37R raced overhead like an avenging angel. Rena knew she had only one target left as she raced up into the fifteenth checkpoint. Pulling a hard 8G turn towards checkpoint sixteen she realised that she had been bleeding a lot of energy in her turn and so she opened her throttles to make up time. She roared through mach 1 as checkpoint sixteen's ring passed over her. But then to her horror she realised that she was out of position and travelling too fast to attack the last target that passed underneath her. She had only seconds to react or risk missing it altogether. She knew that it would cost her valuable time to turn around and attack and so with only a heartbeat to react she rapidly dcreased power to her engine and using the canards and thrust vectoring nozzles she pulled the nose up so sharply that the aircraft seemed to slide as it's nose now turned away from the aircraft's direction of travel. Within the same time that it takes to blink Rena's SU-37R suddenly appeared to be flying backwards! Now facing the target, a burned out old tank, she designated it and released a missile from her port wing before applying full military power to her engines as she turned the aircraft back towards the direction of the last checkpoint. She knew that the manouver had drastically bleeded energy from her aircraft and once more she had to make up time. Fortunately the next check point was on the valley floor and she used the opportunity to increase speed as she dived towards it. Pulling up through the checkpoint she pulled up near pure vertically into a 12G climb as she thundered like a God of War through the last checkpoint. She had completed the course.

Relieved that it was over Rena climbed up to 10,000ft and began her transit back to the test base. It was an incredible contrast as she sat there, serenely, above the white cloud base that sat below from a few moments ago. The violence of the excessive G-force was gone and she sat back to enjoy the calmness of this type of flying. Her SU-37R was an extensively modified one with increased strength of the airframe to cope with the extreme G-forces it would encounter and yet right now it appeared as though it were gliding through the air like it was born in the sky. Rena loved her aircraft like it was her brother. It was everything to her and so was the project. She wanted it to succeed or she knew that her days of flying would be over and for her her that would be a fate worse than death.

General Ross was walking silently back to his car after viewing the test results. He hadn't said anything when the test score appeared on the screen at the end of the trial. Major Tomlinson couldn't help but keep staring at the number that flashed at the bottom of the screen as Rena's whole flight was repeatedly played out again and again. He looked up as he heard the approach of a pulse jet engine and watched in awe as Rena passed overhead performing a series of perfect barrel rolls along the length of the runway before pulling up and racing back into the heavens.

"You did it!" he said as he watched the aircraft climb like a proud father. "You did it!"

Flashing on the screen was the number 97.2. She had beaten the AI controlled fighter.