His Majesty's Dragons: The Battle of Britain

[Cynical Cat]

"I said 'heavies,'" said Reynolds. "Plural. As in evening the odds. But with that formation and those bombloads, those Kampfritters won't be lured off. On the other hand, it does nicely tie them down and slow them down even more. We'll take one of the Swabians, tear him up enough to put him out of the fight and then work on doing the real damage."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"You will be surprised what I can keep up with. But I will oblige. While you are up there keep an eye out for one of theirs trying your own trick" Walwanderer replied while moving back into position by folding his wings a bit to drop speed and altitude.

Richard kept his eyes on the german formation to see if anyone broke off, and tried to think of a way to take out the Kampfritters with their bomb loads

"Aequitas. Do we have anything that may be able to prematurely detonate those bombs?"

[SirNitram]

"Encouraging the explosion of bombs over sovereign British territory does not strike me as a sensible strategem." Semmemnon rumbled as he continued. "For those unaccustomed to war.. I recommend you aim for the wings. You'd never punch through the torso's scales with anything but light artillery, but shredding wing-leather will inconvenience anything."

[Charon]

Jake and Kunja had still not moved from their position. Kunja spoke up however. "Premature detonation usually means you're gonna be next to it when it does, but if worse comes to worse making them drop those bombs over the countryside is better than on the citys or our airfield." Jake glanced towards the two rookie lightweights that were about to go diving into an enemy dragon formation. Sure he'd done it more than once, but he had more experience with dragons than those two probably did combined.

"If you two are gonna do this you might want a little more experienced backup covering you. Diving into an enemy formation green is on the list of suicidal things."

Kunja glanced at Jake with a grin, keeping the radio that he was connected to off. "You mean kind of like jumping off your dragon in mid-fight?" Jake looked away from the skies long enough to mock glare at his dragon. "Hey, just because I know the list because I've done damn near everything on it doesn't mean they should."

[Cynical Cat]

"Start worrying about the dragons and stop trying to be clever with the bombs," snapped Reynolds. "This isn't a comic book. Taking the specials and heavies head on is going to get one or more dragon's killed. The heavies will take us head on, the mediums and lights hit us from the flanks, and the specials will pick their shots. We don't have the weight for that to work."

[General Havoc]

"The bombs will be safetied," said Rankin into his microphone, "and even if they aren't, setting them off will kill you and your beast together. The RAF can't spare any of you, not even in exchange for one of the Jerry heavyweights. Concentrate on repelling them by any means necessary, even if it means forcing them to jetason their payload over the countryside. Better they waste the bombs there than drop them on whatever their targets are."

The Germans were approaching fast, and there was little time. "Waldwander, don't even try to take a heavyweight on yourself. Kampfritters will crush you without noticing. Concentrate on whatever damage you can do. If you can force more than one German beast to engage you, then you're doing well. If you can occupy something outside your own class, you're doing very well, but do not take on something you can't handle, or we'll all feel the loss next time."

"Jebediah, Frostfell, try a vertical attack if you feel it appropriate, but watch out for the Aufsehers, and don't get caught by a heavyweight unless you're prepared to take one on. Keep the radios clear unless absolutely necessary, and don't hesitate to call for aid from Capricorn or Godfrey if you have a dragon pinned." He left it at that, then on second thought, opened up his channel once further. "Good hunting."

The Germans had spotted the Allied formation, and were begining to react, the Kampfritters both sliding around to place themselves between the Aufsehers and the enemy, while all four Middleweights began to claw for altitude, the lightweights doing the same. A few germans tried bursts from their machine guns, but the enemy was too far out yet for them to be of use, and the five lightweights and four middleweights began trying to match the enemy dragons' rate of climb. This they could do, but the British, Canadian, and American dragons had a headstart, those who were actually climbing, and with their heavy support laboring under bombs, and their special weapons support maintaining position on the opposite side, a gap was begining to open between the middle/lightweight screen, and the heavier and more valuable dragons they were supposed to be screening.

[Charon]

Jake saw the gap spreading, and decided to do something different. Kunja was fast and maneuverable, more so than some would say he had a right to be, it was the trade-off for loosing much of his mass without loosing much of his strength.

The Victorian dived towards the trees, letting the ground act as a semi-mask to his presence as he planned to come from the german formation from below and behind.

[Cynical Cat]

Frostfell swooped towards the Swabian, breaking from the cloud cover and streaking for his target. The swift heavy was able to trade height for speed, while the German was doing the reverse. Frostfell intended to close and hit the smaller dragon in the wings, tearing and shredding it to knock the German dragon out of the fight.

Nathan dropped the sight of the 20mm onto the back of the other Swabian, leading his target slightly. Dragons were tough, but the men who rode them were all too vulnerable. Nathan pulled the trigger.

[frigidmagi]

"Stay in formation! Hold fire until we're at effective range!" Paul ordered in a great bellow. Lydia maintained her position growling at the Kampfritters.

"Lydia, dearest, I want you to keep in formation until we get a good shot at one of their big boys, the Kampcritter or whatever it's called. Let the others worry about the lightweights, the big'ems are ours." he said to her.

[LadyTevar]

There was no sound but the whistle of air rushing over wing membranes as Jebediah dove, falcon-like, towards the Bavarian that was slowly rising to meet him. They'd given him too much time, he'd already reached 2000ft. -- the perfect height to obtain the speed he needed for the strike. Blue-white wings tucked in close, his tail giving him nearly precise control of his attack as he swept down out of the sun, aiming for the point where wing touched shoulder.

Judith was nearly laying down on Jebediah's neck, the tommygun in her hand, safety off, yet she did not fire. Part of it was fear of how fast Jebediah was falling ... an irrational fear that he'd fly into the bullets. No, she'd save it for after they struck, when Jeb was able to swoop underneath the Jerrys and she could fire upwards, protecting his back as he tried to climb again.

Then there was no more time, for Jebediah or for the Bavarian and his Captain, who saw the strike far too late to call out a warning. The SmokeDevil hit the Bavarian with both claws, Jeb's speed and mass delivering a damaging blow to the wing joint. The strike spun the Bavarian on its axis as Jebediah continued past him, trying to turn the remaining speed into a climb for altitude away from the nearest dragons.

Judith straightened up, tommygun in hand, frantically scanning above in hopes of preventing a return strike as Jebediah recovered.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Walwanderer and Richard winged forward, and down, toward one of the Leuchtkafer, the fast, agile little beasts that would be the most trouble in terms of interdicting the british special weapons dragons. The dragon was small, smaller than even the Bonetail. The two intended to try to catch the rider off guard and rip his wings to ribbons and give him a good bashing with a 150 kg bone club.

[General Havoc]

The German middle and lightweights clawed for altitude, pressing on towards the British and Allied squadron, heedless, it appeared, of the danger to their larger squadmates. Indeed it was a different danger altogether that they appreciated first, as several members of the allied squadron turned on them directly.

The Swabian Lightning Bolt that Frostfell and Reynolds had targetted saw the beast coming, indeed they could not have failed to given the size even had it not been arcing 20mm cannon rounds towards them, but they saw it late, the clouds masking its form until the beast was already diving at them. With a cry, the Swabian winged over and prepared to dive, ducking under the stream of waspish high explosive projectiles, which missed high, but Frostfell was descending too quickly to evade that. It was all the Lightning Bolt could do to pull its wing up and out of the way, exposing its flank to long, rending slashes that ripped appart its side-armor and sliced through its side down to the ribs. The dragon squawked and cried even as Frostfell dove past it, spinning out of control as the Wendigo blew past, no more than a couple dulsitory shots winging Frostfell's way from its back, none of them even close enough to graze the crew.

The Swabian's crew scrambled to deal with the injuries as the dragon tried to right itself. Its counterpart pressed ahead, aiming straight for the other Allied heavyweight, as a pair of Leuchtkaffers and a single Prussian Bluejacket dove after Frostfell. One of the Leuchtkaffers however caught a shadow above itself and managed to abort the dive as Waldwanderer descended on it, the captain unlimbering an MP-40 and firing at Richard even as the light dragon fell back towards its larger allies.

Meanwhile, both Speckled Bavarians, the remaining Lightning Bolt, and the other Bluejacket were pressing ahead, or rather they were until a Smoke Devil landed without warning atop one of the former. Pulling up sharply at the last second, the Bavarian took the blow on the shoulder, a ripping, tearing slash that ran down the foreleg, prompting the Bavarian to cry out in pain and bite at Jeb's tail, a second too late. Bleeding from the gash, the Bavarian however did not lose coordination, and dove after Jeb, its captain firing a submachine gun back down at Judith, though at this range, without much hope of success.

*----------------------------------------*

Three dragons, two of them mid-weights, flew alone towards the Allied formation that still consisted of enough firepower and weight to atomize them, yet still their heavyweight brethren made no move to support. Rankin frowned, tapping Æquitas on the shoulder and gesturing towards the Bluejacket. Æquitas nodded in mid flight and increased speed to intercept, even as the gunners swung around. There was no glory, or not as much perhaps, in dealing with the escorts, but his job was to ensure the squadron was victorious, not to seek personal vainglory. If he could tie them down, he could

"Æquitas and I will engage the escort. Capricorn, Godfrey, and Lydia, press through them and attack their core formation. Try to force them to jetison. Semmemnon, engage at your discresion whatever targets present themselves." He set his radio back down, not giving precise orders to Fulminatus, who he assumed would take care of himself. That was at least what Uxbridge had said...

... now to deal with as many dragons as he could.

The Bluejacket had apparently resigned itself to hitting Æquitas, and the two dragons approached one another like jousting knights. The remaining Speckled Bavarian flashed past, and the topgunner fired off a burst at it, but to no obvious effect. It was aimed for Capricorn and Godfrey, but there was no helping that now. Rankin turned back to face forwards, and then the dragons hit.

Æquitas ducked at the last second and slammed his shoulder into the Bluejacket's foreleg, bruising it, but did not manage to break it, and the Bluejacket lashed at his flank, fortunately lacerating only the armor hanging off his sides. With a wrenching heave, Æquitas managed to grab a large sheet of the german's armor with his teeth and rip it off its harness, spitting it out to spiral towards the ground. It would not help for this pass, but it would greatly expose the german for the next one. Meanwhile the gunners on both dragons blasted away at their targets, the excess crews taking cover on the far sides of their beasts. Two germans were not quick enough, and were cut down by one of the midwingmen's .303s, and Rankin added his own Thompson's fire to the ball turrets, even as Æquitas gave a shudder as the german's hind leg caught him in an unarmored spot above the base of his tail. The medic scrambled back and signalled a light hit, nothing worrysome, and then as quickly as it had begun, the dragons were past one another, and winging about for another try.

"All well?" asked Rankin, reloading his Thompson.

"I should've gone over the ruddy bastard," snarled Æquitas, annoyed with himself. "Didn't want to expose the bellygunner. Should've..."

"It's all right, we'll get him next pass. Try to cut inside his turn and go for his unarmored flank."

"Got it," said Æquitas, and he turned to re-engage, as the battle errupted all around them.

[SirNitram]

"You heard the gentleman! Engage whatever looks like it might need a good lesson!" Semmemnon called, adjusting his flightpath slightly. Æquitas had annoyed one Bluejacket, and forced it to continue around for it's pass. This would leave it exposed as it made a sweeping turn. A careful adjustment of flight...

The Vicker's gun opened up. It lacked the raw killing power of the biggest guns now airborne, but it's sheer volume of fire meant it was a threat. Anyway, Semmemnon had drilled into Phil's head, over and over, never aim for the dragonscale... Instead, the bullets lanced towards the wings, to shred and rip leather and force the beast down.

[LadyTevar]

Meanwhile, both Speckled Bavarians, the remaining Lightning Bolt, and the other Bluejacket were pressing ahead, or rather they were until a Smoke Devil landed without warning atop one of the former. Pulling up sharply at the last second, the Bavarian took the blow on the shoulder, a ripping, tearing slash that ran down the foreleg, prompting the Bavarian to cry out in pain and bite at Jeb's tail, a second too late. Bleeding from the gash, the Bavarian however did not lose coordination, and dove after Jeb, its captain firing a submachine gun back down at Judith, though at this range, without much hope of success.

Judith had hoped for a better strike on the Bavarian, but first blood would have to do. She didn't really bother aiming, just pointed the tommygun in the direction of the Bavarian and opened fire. "JEB! Up! Up! Gotta get back UP!"

"Ah KNOW, Jude... Ah KNOW!" Jeb answered as he used the excess speed from the dive to slingshot him back upwards. Back home, this was second nature, as missing a dive down into a holler meant hitting the mountain ridge at high speed. A more experienced Aerial Captain would call it a 'Split S', a u-turn with a twist to have him facing the Bavarian and beating his way upwards for what could be a normal passage at arms. Usually the Split-S was done horizontally ... but this was an angled vertical, swinging a bit wide so that the Bavarian wouldnt' be on top of him.

As Jeb completed the maneuver and winged upwards at weapons-range-length from the still diving Bavarian, Judith swung the tommygun to the side and fired towards the Captain as they passed. She didn't expect to hit; Judith was merely hoping to distract the Jerry Captain and make him keep his head down. "Iffen he follows us up... wanna see if Cap'll mistake 'em fer a cow?"

[Charon]

Kunja saw the two falling dragons and immediately launched upward as fast as he could. The dragon's wings turned sharply and beat down, Kunja himself twisted, lending momentum to the sharp turn, making it even faster. Facing up now, the dragon beat it's wings fast, trying to build up to a ramming speed. Kunja was fast, not Swabian or Smoke Devil fast, but pretty damn fast. "Judith's got the Fucker, move in on the Lightning?"

"Yeah, let's bring down the midder." Was Jake's reply as he leaned down, making himself as small as possible as they closed in from below. Kunja aimed at the Swabian's belly, just behind the wing, cut those muscles, possibly shatter the bone itself, and there was no way it could keep in the air. Jake unlimbered his Thompson and prepared to fire on the crew as he passed.

[General Havoc]

The crew of the Bluejacket had taken cover on the far side of their armored beast, aparently none the wiser that Semmemnon was also in the air. With a screach of metal gears whirring, Semmemnon's guns opened up into the packed crew of the german, sending a shower of sparks flying off the dragon's harness and causing several more of the jerries to scream and fall, dangling from their carabineer straps before being cut loose by their fellows. Now under fire from both sides, the Bluejacket winged over as quickly as it could and turned towards Semmemnon, aborting its attack run on Æquitas, who scrambled to catch up, but could not intercept it before it moved around to strike at the other Malachite. Keeping it's armored side towards Semmemnon, the Bluejacket pivotted and pushed forward to overtake the Malachite Reaper, all four claws flexed to rip his hide to lacework.

*------------------------------------------------------------*

Bullets sizzled and cracked through the air, but no marks were scored, as the Bavarian instinctively spun its dive such as to keep its captain out of the line of fire as much as possible, which of course meant that the captain's shots were just as unlikely to hit Judith. Jeb was clearly more agile than the Bavarian, though smaller, and the Bavarian did not even attempt to replicate the vertical split-S turn that the Apalachian beast performed. Instead it looped back, disengaging out of range, pulling up to claw for altitude. Unable to match Jeb in aerobatics, its stronger wings could climb faster than Jeb could, despite the headstart, and by the time it came about to re-engage, it was even with Jeb once more. Focussing on Jeb and Judith, the Bavarian thrusted forward with its wings, as its captain changed out his clip, aiming to strike the Smoke Devil head-on.

*-------------------------------------------------------------*

The Swabian lightning bolt did not see Kunja coming, but the Lightning Bolt didn't need to, for the bellygunner was watching for threats from below, and a Queen Victoria's Reaper, even a small one, was clearly visible. The bubble-like Pespex canopy swivelled around, and the belly-gunner's MG-34 machine gun burst to life, aiming not at Kunja, whom the bullets were unlikely to meaningfully injure, but at his captain.

[LadyTevar]

Unable to match Jeb in aerobatics, its stronger wings could climb faster than Jeb could, despite the headstart, and by the time it came about to re-engage, it was even with Jeb once more. Focussing on Jeb and Judith, the Bavarian thrusted forward with its wings, as its captain changed out his clip, aiming to strike the Smoke Devil head-on.

"Jeb, he's turnin'..."

"Ah see 'em," Jeb answered, adjusting his own course to meet the Bavarian in a traditional dragon pass. "I a-thinking he's ne'r seen a Devil's Reverse."

Judith's answer was a huge grin and wicked laughter. "Bank left ... Waldy's tha' a-way, an' he mighten be able ta help us."

"Bank nothin'... Ah'm a'landin' on his spine!" Jeb roared, putting on a sudden burst of speed, twisting to his side to protect Judith as they passed nearly belly to belly with the Bavarian --

-- only to lash out with the wickedly hooked wingclaw as if the Bavarian was a rockcliff. The wingclaw, evolved to clutch near-shear cliffsides, dug into the Bavarian's side and gave Jeb a pivot for the Smoke Devil's unique ability to reverse his direction instantly around that pivot point.

Without warning or expectation, the SmokeDevil and his captain were now on top of the Bavarian, as close as a lover, and in the perfect position to dig in with all claws.

[frigidmagi]

"Paul I have a clean dive!" Lydia hollered.

"Let's do it then. All hands rig for Dive!" Paul ordered. Lydia took a wing flap or two to orient herself and then threw herself downward at the enemy arrowing right for a heavy that had exposed himself. Her gun crews opened up at the enemy as she fell through the sky.

[SirNitram]

"Oh bugger." Phil muttered, having gotten far too much of the Bluejacket's attention. "Hang on!" The Vicker's continued to roar it's disapproval of the invading dragon, even as Semmemnon turned to close with the other dragon. The Malachite had gained one half of it's name for the rending, flensing claws it carried, and backed up by experience, they became lethal. The two dragons came together, even as the machinegun continued to fire whenever a shot was presented that would hurt or wound the other Middleweight. Semmemnon was internally counting the seconds he had until he'd have to break the grapple to avoid impact with the ground.

[Charon]

Jake quickly attached his carabiner to a new line, then released himself from his saddle, sliding down the back of his dragon as it charged forward into the fire. Jake was now almost completely hidden by his dragon, and watching the 'fall' of the captain might have convinced the gunner that he'd hit his mark. Regardless Kunja continued his climb, an arm reaching out to smash the ball turret as they passed, just as his mouth reached out to grab at the Swabian's wing muscles and crush them. Assuming this went according to plan, Jake would begin to climb back up towards his saddle so as to not leave himself open to return fire at the tail.

If Kunja couldn't break off the attack he would be in a position to grapple with the Swabian from above it, avoiding it's claws and being able to smash it's crew with little retribution.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Waldwanderer shifted position to protect Richard even as he sped up to catch the Dragon firing at him. He may have to disengage if uit could outdistance him and get closer to the larger dragons, but it was a risk he and Richard were willing to take. He drove forward on powerfull wings, trusting his momentum and inertia. That dragon had to abort a dive and then accelerate, the Advantage belong to the Bonetail who did not need to change directions

[Dark Silver]

Hermeticus was flying under light combat rig, ever since being transferred, Thomas had never allowed them to even go for a downtime flight without being in some form of protective gear. A simple transfer like this should see no combat, but Thomas always felt it better to be prepared than not.

The crew were all tightly bundled in cold weather gear, knowing Hermeticus would be flying as high as he could stand, in order to make better time.

"Thomas," Hermeticus spoke in his loud rumbling bass to his Captain, "We are nearing our new posting. Shall I set us down?"

Thomas was about to answer when he heard the screech of static then the voice of Captain Rankin over his earphones.

"Don't think so, Herm - listen to your ears," was the black man's reply, as he signaled to his First Lt, adjusting his carabiner straps to a more battle ready tightness, as he shouted over the wind, "Prep the gunmen and bring me a extra clip for the 1911. We got Jerry."

Garny nodded to the Captain, even as he began the walk back and below to tell the men.

"I think I see them Thomas," came the rumbling voice of the dragon, as his the thick muscles beneath the captain's seat flexed, Hermeticus angling his head back to look at his Captain.

"Bring us in up high Hermeticus, give the belly-men a good opening shot, before we engage close."

The Dragon nodded, as he climbed, changing his direction towards the pitched battle.

[Cynical Cat]

Jack Collins loved neither his captain nor his dragon, but he did love his life and so he stayed with the crew of the White Bastard. The tail gunner trained the dual Vickers just in front of the pursuing Bluejacket and sent a stream of bullets into the dragon's flight path.

"Looks like the pursuit has thinned out," said Reynolds to Frostfell. He reloaded the 20mm with practiced motions. "And none of them have your size." Frostfell broke his dive, turning to the right and beginning to climb angling towards the Bluejacket. Frostfell roared at the small dragon, ropes of saliva spilling off of his fangs. Reynolds brougth the 20mm to bear on the Bluejacket and squeezed the trigger.

[General Havoc]

Of all the things that the Speckled Bavarian had been expecting, this was evidently not among them.

One instant it was bearing down on Jeb, mouth open to bite, claws extended to kill with, and the next Jeb ducked and slammed a claw directly into its breastplate armor, hooking it like a fish, swinging around, and landing nearly atop the Bavarian, or more like atop its side, for the Bavarian cried out and rolled away from Jeb as he swung, diving inadvertantly towards the ground in a largely uncontrolled spin.

Larger than Jeb by a margin, the roaring Bavarian could not sustain both of them in mid-air, and with Jeb hooked by one wing and draped over the dragon's side, suddenly everything was chaotic. The German dragon captain, unsure of what had just happened, as he was unable to see the hook stuck in his beast's chest, reacted automatically, spinning halfway around and opening fire, point blank, with his submachine gun, aiming for Jeb's head.

*--------------------------------------------------------------*

Lydia winged over and dove, and the single remaining unengaged dragon of the German escort, a Speckled Bavarian, let her go by. It had no chance of stopping a dragon of that size, and there were far bigger fish to fry, so to speak. Pumping its wings forward, the Bavarian aimed itself at Capricorn, whose small size and position within the squadron led it to believe, rightly, that he was a valuable target. The Captain of the Bavarian opened fire at long range with his MP-40, and the Bavarian hove to and charged, nearly twice the Tasmanian Venomspitter's size, and considerably better suited to close-range fighting.

Capricorn did not see the Bavarian coming, but Captain Kelly did, and he tugged on the guide-ropes attached to the dusty-yellow dragon's neck. Capricorn was used to obeying his Captain's orders instantly, and winged over into a dive, the Bavarian shooting after him, even as Captain Kelly fired a burst from his own submachine gun over his shoulder, and shouted into a radio microphone.

"Will someone get this Jerry Bastard off me?"

*----------------------------------------*

The Kampfritters had seen Lydia coming. They could hardly fail to, and both of them swung around to get between her and the Aufsehers. Only now did all four of the centerpiece dragons get into the action, as it became clear this British squadron was not going to let them merilly along their way to their target, whatever it was. Guns opened fire on all sides as Lydia dove, but the Kampfritter that was her target did not panic, and instead pulled up to receive her dive, even as its mate clawed for more altitude. A common tactic with German Heavyweights was to double-team a british one, but this was not their game here. The second Kampfritter moved to cut off Lydia from re-enforcements, even as the Aufsehers began to position themselves for a strike on the Amberback. The Kampfritter would take galling damage in the interrum, no doubt, but Kampfritters were built to take it.

*-------------------------------------------*

The bullets careened off of Kunja's armored hide as the Australian dragon lunged upwads towards it, but unfortunately, the german beast had no intention of remaining around long enough to kill. Larger than the miniature Victorian, the Lightning Bolt was still considerably faster on a straightaway, and with Kunja still climbing towards it, it had no touble simply bursting away from him long before he was within bite range. The Swabian had no interest in a grapple, not even with a lighter beast. It would come about and core one of the more vulnerable britishers.

Or rather that was the theory.

The Lightning bolt made the unfortunate mistake, born no doubt of inexperience, of looking back at Kunja to see that it had made good its escape. That was all it took. By the time the crew called out that there was another target incoming, it was far too late, and an instant later, a crewless American Reaper landed atop the unsuspecting Lightning Bolt. The German's top gunner was killed instantly as Fulminatus crushed his turret with a foreclaw, and dug his claws into the Swabian's armor. The Swabian screamed and howled and lashed at Fulminatus with its teeth, but Fulminatus was not here to grapple with the Swabian. Once all four claws had dug into the enemy dragon's harness, Fulminatus simply stopped beating his wings and allowed himself to fall over backwards.

American Reapers had a lot of weight.

Harnesses were built to take a lot of weight, of course, and to come apart in sections, if push came to shove. Fulminatus however had, with the knowledge that came with a century or more of warfare, landed atop the Swabian with all four feet and grabbed at four different sections of the harness. With screams and the rending of metal, the entire harness gave way, and the Swabian's crew was torn off of the dragon's body, along with its armor and guns, all save for three or four german crew who managed to detatch in time, and the captain of course, locked into a different carabineer point outside Fulminatus' reach. And then, without further ado, Fulminatus released the harness he had torn off, and allowed it, and the germans still attached to it, to plunge a thousand feet to the earth below.

The confused Swabian was now well above him, but Fulminatus did not try to re-engage, for he knew the german to be faster than he was. Instead he turned away, leaving the now unarmored German to Kunja, who was rapidly catching up to the stunned and inattentive German beast.

*-----------------------------------------------*

Waldwanderer and the Leuchtkaffer he was chasing ducked and wove through the sky after one another, the Leuchtkaffer hampered by its inferiority in altitude, though helped by the fact that it was somewhat faster than the Western Canadian forest dragon. It and its captain had plainly never seen a Bonetail before, but it did not take a stroke of genius to decide against grappling with a beast that held a wrecking-ball in its tail, and so with a whisper from the captain, the Leuchtkaffer dove for cloud cover, intending to lose Waldwanderer in the mist.

Unfortunately the nearest cloud was some distance away and it had to pull sharply out of a dive to get there. It might be possible for Waldwanderer to get a single pass off before the Leuchtkaffer arrived, if the Canadian beast was fast enough.

*---------------------------------------------------------*

Hermeticus' approach did not go un-noticed, but at present, nobody had the means to do much about him, on either side. A lookout shouted his approach to Rankin, but Rankin did not hear the report, for he was too busy redirecting Æquitas towards the Bavarian that was chasing Capricorn. He should have liked to follow the Bluejacket attacking Semmemnon of course, but Semmemnon was in the same weight class as the Bluejacket and the most veteran dragon in the squadron besides. He would have to trust to that to hold his own, for Capricorn plainly could not grapple with even a Bavarian and come out intact, and even if he could, Capricorn's specialty would soon be required for dealing with the heavyweights.

*---------------------------------------------------------*

Bullets screamed towards the Bluejacket persuing Frostfell, and more bullets screamed back from them. As the 20mm opened fire, the Bluejacket made no attempt to avoid the shots, closing its eyes and lowering its head and flying straight into the storm of fire that rose to meet it from the snow white dragon. Barely two thirds of Frostfell's size, the Prussian could not possibly hope to survive a prolonged melee with Frostfell, and yet this appeared to be precisely what it was attempting to get into, and the flashes of yellow light and the snarls of the dragon as shots slammed into it did not disguise the fact that it was neither slackening its persuit nor attempting to shield itself.

Nearby flew a Leuchtkaffer, so far undersized compared to the massive Wendigo as to make it a ludicrous match, and yet it was faster than either Wendigo or Bluejacket, and it avoided the main stream of fire, swooping down to dart in and out and slash at vulnerable targets whenever they presented themselves. The sheer volume of fire from the Wendigo kept it at distance, but the more guns were turned on the Bluejacket, the fewer would be available to hit it.

As the Bluejacket approached however, anyone with a modicum of sense could see that it was tempting suicide with this assault. Any moment now, Frostfell would round on the Bluejacket, and when it did so, no single Leuchtkaffer would be able to stop Frostfell from doing roughly whatever he wished to the smaller German Middleweight. A beast of Frostfell's class could easily handle them both at once if need be.

So what were these Germans up to then?

[LadyTevar]

Of all the things that the Speckled Bavarian had been expecting, this was evidently not among them.

One instant it was bearing down on Jeb, mouth open to bite, claws extended to kill with, and the next Jeb ducked and slammed a claw directly into its breastplate armor, hooking it like a fish, swinging around, and landing nearly atop the Bavarian, or more like atop its side, for the Bavarian cried out and rolled away from Jeb as he swung, diving inadvertantly towards the ground in a largely uncontrolled spin.

Larger than Jeb by a margin, the roaring Bavarian could not sustain both of them in mid-air, and with Jeb hooked by one wing and draped over the dragon's side, suddenly everything was chaotic. The German dragon captain, unsure of what had just happened, as he was unable to see the hook stuck in his beast's chest, reacted automatically, spinning halfway around and opening fire, point blank, with his submachine gun, aiming for Jeb's head.

Sky Ocean Sky Ocean: they swung sickeningly about each other as time slowed down, the ocean getting bigger and closer. Jeb's body hunched up, back claws raking and digging like a captured cat ribboning a man's arm. Something whined around Judith like angry hornets, and her arm suddenly burned, even as Jeb's neck jerked back in annoyed pain, his mouth bloody. There was a loud, ear-jarring RAT-AtAtaAtatAtatAtaTat as the Tommygun in Judith's hand emptied its canister clip down at the German dragon and its captain. Then with a jerk and a lurch Jebediah was free and straining his wings for upward lift.

Judith was shaking, adrenaline coursing through her body like the river at high flood. Jeb was panting... she should ... she should.. what should she do? Oh... yes... that would work. "Jebediah to Flight... Regrouping wit' th' Specials.." she reported, hand shaking on the mike. It was still open as Jeb rumbled something, his mike destroyed by the brief fight.
"Wha dya mean, am Ah bleedin'. I'm jis' ... ... "
"Oh. ..."
"... Daymnashun. He did get me ...."
The bemused wonder in Judith's voice was clearly audible, before the mike clicked off.