Hi, this is my first story so helpful criticism is appreciated. More chapters to come

'Oh Hell', Flight Lieutenant Billy 'spider' Webb thought as tracer bullets whizzed past his cockpit. He could see the black outline of the fighter jet that had just unleashed a hail of fire in his direction climbing at his 9 o'clock high.

Spider was flying the tough and nimble F-15 eagle on a routine patrol over Northern Ireland when mission control told him to intercept a Lear-jet that had diverted from its flight plan and wasn't answering radio calls. He had just turned his plane around to begin to head for Great Britain when tracer flashed past him. He yanked hard on the control column and the jet began to turn in a wide arc in the direction of the enemy fighter, the force of the turn pressing him into his seat as he faced the other plane.

He saw the other pilot clearly through the canopy as he ran through the five different types of weapons he had in his arsenal. His options were two AIM-7F/M Sparrow missiles, two AIM-120 AMRAAMs (advanced medium range air-to-air missiles), two AIM-9L/M Sidewinders and an internal 20 millimetres M61 Vulcan Gatling gun. All these options flashed up on the heads-up display attached to his helmet. He selected one of the heat-seeking sidewinders and flipped the firing control from safe to fire. He pulled the trigger attached to his control stick and waited for the tell-tale plume of smoke as the rocket booster on the missile fired. Nothing happened. In the time Spider had readied another Sidewinder from his HUD the other fighter had looped around and was coming into the attack!

The tone of a missile locking on to him was deafening in the enclosed cockpit. For a second Spider just looked numbly at the flashing light on his control panel labelled 'Incoming Missile'. He snapped out of it and quickly flicked a switch to deploy Flares, balls of white hot magnesium designed to lure a heat seeking missile off the tail of the fighter that deployed them. Again, nothing happened. 'What the hell?' He could see the flash as the other jet deployed its missile straight towards him.

He had two options, one of them was to try to evade the rocket until the booster attached to it burned out and it exploded by itself. The other option, well, that didn't even bear thinking about. He had no choice, his jet was too slow and he couldn't risk going into after-burner this low down – the terrain would confuse the missile. He sighed and gave a shout as he pulled back on the stick into a backwards loop in order to gain some altitude, then turned the plane nose down in a dive towards ground. Looking in his rear view mirror to try and spot the chasing rocket, he saw the other fighter jet roll on its side and shoot away from the area.

He could wonder about that later, now he had to concentrate if he was to have any chance of succeeding. The ground was approaching fast and he could see the warhead behind him, he aimed for an empty field and just before it was too late, he pulled up on the stick and the plane rocketed skywards. The Missile however, crashed into the hay bales as it tried to follow.

He chuckled, wondering what the farmer would think when he came to collect the hay in the next few days.