“You lying son of a –“ a right cross cut the sentence off.
A cloud of dust kicked up around two tussling figures as they barreled out of the tent. Curses and shouts attracted pilots and mechanics alike. Roland, dropped his razor and rushed over, soap and stubble still covering half of his face.
Roland saw Joe get up and circle the sprawled figure of Gordon. Roland blinked, but the sight was unchanged. What were the two doing fighting? It was hardly like them at all!
“Tell me you didn’t sell those boys out!” spat Joe to the recovering Gordon. “Tell me that you didn’t fly then right into a trap!” His face blazed red through the dust and dirt smeared upon it. Gordon mumbled something. “What?” yelled Joe.
“They would have died anyway!” Gordon shouted back. His upturned face was defiant. “No one is getting out of here alive, don’t you see? All we do is shoot them down, they shoot us down. They would have died anyway! And more will be sent to replace them! And they will die too!” This halted Joe.
“So you took German money for their lives because you have lost the nerve to fight?” Joe intoned in a low solemn tone. A nod to two other pilots, and they entered Gordon’s tent, emerging with a footlocker. They dumped it on the ground and Roland felt like he had been punched in the gut. German marks. Hundreds of them.
“How many did you lead to their deaths? How many of our boys did you sell to the German!” A kick to his ribs cut Gordon off before he could respond. It didn’t matter. One was too many. And by the amount of money in the footlocker, the answer wasn’t one. “And if it weren’t for Ernest surviving, how many more would it have been?” Joe mused. “Well, that money was your ticket out of here, huh? I’ll give you a ticket out of here you louse!” Joe pulled Gordon to his feet and shoved him. “You go get in a plane. You go get in a plane and I’m going to show you what it felt like to those men you let die!” Gordon gaped at him, then a glint gleamed in his eye and he broke into a run towards the hanger.
Roland felt the world spinning underneath him. Men ran back and forth, shouts rang out. He kept trying to put it together in his head. Earnest had survived a crash, made his way back to the aerodrome, and incriminated Gordon in the loss of the flight. Possibly more than just one flight, who knew? And instead of turning Gordon over to the RFC for his treachery, Joe was going to dual with him. It was ludicrous! Joe’s silver Nieuport roared by, bouncing and jolting as it taxied too fast. Far above it Gordon had almost disappeared in the triplane he had leaped into.
As all eyes were on Joe, a cry of shock erupted from the crowd of airmen as Gordon swooped down behind the still climbing Nieuport.
20150630_101042cropped by btbted, on Flickr
Roland knew that the warning shouts from the ground couldn’t be heard above the roar of the one hundred and thirty horsepower Le Rhone engine hundreds of feet above the ground. Joe must have seen the diving triplane as well. He pitched the Nieuport over on its wing and climbed as steeply as the plane could handle.
20150630_101346 by btbted, on Flickr
The two planes circled, climbing steadily as they eyed each other.
20150630_101811cropped by btbted, on Flickr
Suddenly, Gordon straightened his tripe and pulled the nose skyward, reversing back to meet the Nieuport!
20150630_102126 by btbted, on Flickr
With a deafening thunder, the planes jousted above the aerodrome. The cries of the airmen were drown out by the roar of motors and blazing guns.
20150630_102602 by btbted, on Flickr
Roland winced as he saw debris fly from Roland’s plane. Joe’s bullets tore through the air where Gordon has been a moment ago, failing to hit the corkscrewing tripe. (Gordon used Ace ability to ignore 1 card)
IMG_2859 by btbted, on Flickr
The agile triplane immediately banked sharply as Joe strove to climb.
20150630_103035cropped by btbted, on Flickr
Roland groaned as the Nieuport was outflanked by the tripe. Joe must have known he was in a tight spot, and the Nieuport threw itself into a dive.
20150630_103841 by btbted, on Flickr
More bullets tore into the silver Nieuport as it twisted and turned to evade the blazing death of steel and tracers. Only Joe’s keen instincts kept him one step ahead of a killing shot. (Gordon ignores green Jam)
IMG_2860 by btbted, on Flickr
IMG_2862 by btbted, on Flickr
Banking away, Joe tried once again to gain altitude.
20150630_104020 by btbted, on Flickr
Then, just as Gordon was banking around, The Nieuport arched itself up and over back into the fray.
20150630_105411cropped by btbted, on Flickr
Roland squinted against the sun as the two plane hurtled themselves at each other, coming within inches of each other. Engines roared and guywires screamed as the planes crisscrossed!
20150630_105550 by btbted, on Flickr
Instantly, Joe had his plane pointing towards the sun again, flipping over and reversing direction to place himself right on Gordon’s tail! Joe marveled at the nerve and skill, to fly so close, then instantly be able to perform such a maneuver took his breath away. Even from the ground, the smell of cordite tracers reached Roland’s nose. Joe laid on the trigger and shot after shot tore into the triplane! Bullets tore holes from the tail to the cockpit as the tripe lurched like a drunkard at dawn.
20150630_110113cropped by btbted, on Flickr
IMG_2865 by btbted, on Flickr
Twisting away, the triplane recovered, but bullets zoomed all around it, harassing its escape.
20150630_110326 by btbted, on Flickr
IMG_2867 by btbted, on Flickr
The bullets cut off the triplane at every turn. Left, right, back again. The triplane couldn’t jink away. The message was clear, even to Roland on the ground. “Turn around and fight me.”
IMG_2867 by btbted, on Flickr
And that is precisely what Gordon in the triplane did. Shooting with such intent and fury, Joe was like a boxer against the ropes, ducking and diving to survive the onslaught.
IMG_2868 by btbted, on Flickr
However, once again the skill of pilot flung the Nieuport into an immelmann to face his opponent.
20150630_110924 by btbted, on Flickr
The nimble triplane did the same, but Gordon’s turn was sloppy. With his speed gone from the climb, he couldn’t bring the plane around in time to get a shot, or to avoid the oncoming stream of lead.
20150630_111303 by btbted, on Flickr
IMG_2870 by btbted, on Flickr
Throwing the tripe into a dive, Gordon made a break for German lines.
IMG_2871 by btbted, on Flickr
Joe saw this and entered a dive of his own. He couldn’t beat the faster plane, but his bullets could. Leading the yellow plane like a hunter leads a quail, Joe let fly one more burst.
20150630_112344 by btbted, on Flickr
IMG_2872 by btbted, on Flickr
Roland saw the yellow triplane wing over. Then there was the sickening crunch of canvas and wood. Another Icarus meeting the earth. Roland was sick.
20150630_112502 by btbted, on Flickr
-FIN
Gordon Macpherson / SD ET / WIA – Severely injured in the crash. Captured and escaped miss 2 scenarios. (I treated him like he was in enemy territory. Didn’t expect the escape, can he defect to the Eagles side?)
IMG_2874 by btbted, on Flickr
Joe Davis / RTB / 1 victory
IMG_2875 by btbted, on Flickr
Notes:
I had played mission 11 and not gotten around to writing it up, so when I saw this mission, I knew what the storyline had to be. Joe had to dual the traitor over the aerodrome. So I wrote up mission 11 to serve as the prequel to this mission.
I have been using my phone’s front facing camera a lot for work. It is really handy for taking pictures of the cables behind servers or inside computers for serial numbers and such. So I had the idea to shoot the AAR from underneath, like it was from a ground observer’s point of view. I had to put them each up on 12 or so pegs just to get both planes in the picture. I used altitude rules as well, but they didn’t seem to affect the outcome. I decided to play outside so I could just use the sky as the background, but I had to take regular photos from above to keep track of the action and the damage. I fear my photography isn’t the best, it was hard to see the screens with the bright sun, but I hope you all enjoy it.
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