His Majesty's Dragons: The Battle of Britain

[rhoenix]

Almost automatically closing ranks to make up for the losses of Frostfell and Hermeticus, Veritas' sharp eyes kept tabs on the smaller dragons; his crew were ready at a half-moment's notice to spring into their roles.

Due to his sheer size and his shocking agility in spite of it, he and his Captain had either been placed on offensive as well as defensive roles quite a few times during his tenure with the British Air Corps. Admittedly, he felt the temptation to dive after one of the smaller dragons during this exercise, but his mannerisms and way of flying didn't betray this urge.

Instead, he kept up the unspoken charade that a heavyweight is necessarily slow; keeping his movements carefully sinuous, his wingbeats slow and precise. He would hold formation as he had done during the past three hours, and burst out with exacting ferocity and speed for one so large when the time was right.

Besides, he was taking this time to watch the others of his new squadron, to see how they moved, fought, and thought.

[General Havoc]

Æquitas had further to fly than the others did, and Rankin let him take it at his own pace, watching through binoculars as the lightweights and Godfrey initiated their attack run on the four heavyweight dragons. He couldn't help but smirk as the Australian lightweight baited the Wendigo into breaking formation, forcing Hermecritus to follow in support. To an untrained observer, it might not have looked like much of one, but Rankin mentally scored this as a victory for the assault force. Breaking up a formation was no mean feat for a pair of lightweights, indeed that was exactly what an experienced lightweight was supposed to do, even in the face of galling fire.

It did not escape attention though that Frostfell had broken formation to chase the lightweights long before that was made a necessity. Hermecritus was covering him as best he could, but the Wendigo had lost all sight of the rest of his formation and was operating independently, and being drawn hopelessly out of position by Kunja and Jeb. Of course the lightweights paid for this effort with simulated blood. Kunja took a series of bursts of 20mm fire down his flank which might have been fatal and might not. Rankin tried not to remind himself that it was in fact quite possible to do the right thing in battle, and still get one's head blown off.

Still, it was time to proceed with the exercise, and he signaled for his radioman to fire off a flare, a pre-arranged signal to the middleweights and to Capricorn that, with the formation broken, they should engage and destroy such heavyweights as they could. Steering Æquitas towards Veritas, Rankin gave the signal to engage.

[Charon]

Jake cursed, he'd forgotten how damn good Frostfell was, and how fast. As the paintballs impacted all around him he dared not look back. It wasn't until the fire stopped that Jake looked back while Kunja continued his dive. "Hell, Kunja slow the drop."

Kunja turned his wings and turned the rocketlike dive into a wide circular drop, burning momentum and slowing his descent as Jeb rocketed by, followed by Frostfell. "What is it? Were you hit?"

Jake shook his head as he looked around. "Nah, but your wings got a bit beat up. Not too bad, still flyable."

The pair were still dropping as they spoke. "Then why'd we stop?"

Jake stared down at Frostfell who was after Judith. Kunja followed his gaze. "Ah, I see." With that Kunja flapped his wings hard once before closing them in at his sides, regaining much of their lost momentum. Jake got on his radio again. "Judith, keep Frostfell away from the rest of the formation. I'm right behind you."

Kunja glanced back at Jake. "You just want to be the knight in shining armor." Jake grinned under his scarf. "And you just want a piece of Frostfell."

Kunja chuckled darkly as the pair dropped faster and Jake flattened himself against his dragon, eking out just a little more speed. The Australian pilot already had his paintball gun loaded in one hand, and his other reached around down and grabbed one of the balloons that simulated grenades.

[LadyTevar]

Judith looked back, and really wish she hadn't. "White Bastard on our tail, Jeb...," she called out, spraying the air behind them with paintballs. "Godfrey hit Hermeticus, so we're clear there." Absently, she wondered how pissed Frostfell would get if one of those paintballs actually hit his face. It was not something she wanted to find out, really. Frostfell was living down to the Wendigo reputation as it was.

"Ah'm a-wishin' fer Gauley River righ' bout now," Jebediah answered, jinxing as best he could to avoid getting hit, but paint from Frostfell's guns was already starting to stain his sides. "Ah'd giv' my right wing fer a rock cliff ryght now." The problem with a lightweight versus a heavyweight in a dive? Weight and wingspan will win in the end. Frostfell had both, and Jeb was running out of diving room. Once 'on deck', Frostfell would have the advantage of faster straight speed, faster climbing, and far better guns.

"Wahl... Ah was gettin' tired of doin' this, Jeb. When Frostfell gets us, maybe Rankin'll let us land an' rest." This was the Hillbilly version of Looking On The Bright Side.

"Ah've still got a few tricks," Jeb promised, slowing down from the 'hits' on his body and letting FrostFell close the distance. The heavyweight had speed and size, but SmokeDevils were bred in a place where a quick turn was the only protection against hitting a mountainside at high speed. Even Virginia Emeralds, the dragon of choice for Revenuers, would admit that a SmokeDevil could turn on a dime and give back change ... and swear some of the Devils turned cartwheels on their wings.

Now, to just hope Frostfell was arrogant enough to get close, and dumb enough to ignore his captain in doing so.

[Cynical Cat]

"Tail guns if you please Mister Linley," said Nathan as Frostfell dived after the Smoke Devil. "I know the range is shit poor on the paint guns, but do what you can."

Frostfell was diving after the smaller dragon. "Keep some distance until you have him cold," said Nathan. "Remember how maneuverable they are."

"Yes mother," responded Frostfell. "Do you want to show me again how to snatch polar bears off an iceflow?"

[LadyTevar]

Jebediah wasn't a polarbear, and he'd gladly point out to Frostfell that even the larger black bears in the Appalachians could pull a trick or two, like climb a tree faster than anything that big has a right to move.

Tweren't no trees in midair, and Frostfell was being more cautious than Jeb thought he would be. Time to fan the flame. "Ya might'n got me dead ta rights, Frostfell," Jeb roared, winging over into a hard left turn he hoped Frostfell couldn't follow easily. "But ya left yur wingmates wide-open, jis' as we knew ya would, ya hot-headed hatchling!"

"Jeb! Do you -want- him to et us up?" Judith squeaked, holding tightly to her seat.

"Nah, Jude... jis' wantin' him mad 'nuff not ta think." Jebediah was already plotting the next three maneuvers in his mind, wondering if he could get Frostfell zigging instead of zagging and give Jeb enough time to get some much-needed altitude.

[Cynical Cat]

Matching that turn was hard. The flour bombs played merry hell with Frostfell's maneuverability. "Rot this garbage," the dragon growled in annoyance.

"Steady on, old bean," said Nathan. If he had known about Jebediah's thoughts on black bears he would have laughed. Canada had far more black bears than West Virginia and they couldn't hold a candle to polar bears when it came to fast and sneaky. "We're hunting seals, not tussling with an orca."

There were several reasons why Nathan was aiming for the wings. One, they were big targets. Two, hitting them decreased speed and maneuverability, making the kill easier. Three, a rubber bullet could still kill a man if luck was bad. He wasn't going to send any of these boys and girls to the boneyards faster than he had to. He dropped the iron sights in front of Jebediah's opened up.

[LadyTevar]

"Dammit ta hell!" Jeb cursed as a couple rubber bullets bounced off his skull. What he did next was as hard to describe as it was to believe, as the SmokeDevil hunched his forequarters and dove nearly straight down, twisting 180* as he did so. Now facing the opposite way from Frostfell, Jebediah pulled out of the short dive and went for all the straight speed he could, flashing under the larger dragon's belly well out of reach of claws.

Judith had ducked as the rubber bullets flew, and could only hold tightly as the world spun. It didn't mean she didn't have the presence of mind to splatter Frostfell's belly with practice fire from her tommygun as Jebediah made the break for it.

[Cynical Cat]

Frostfell turned hard. "Little bastard has some moves, I'll give him that," said the big dragon as he strained hard to get back on the Smoke Devil's tail. "But he's pissing me off now. I'd have had him without the damn dummy bombs."

"Keep cool and grind him down. More guns and can take more punishment and we're on his tail."

[LadyTevar]

Luckily for Jebediah, Frostfell needed time and room to turn, which gave the much smaller dragon time to put more distance between them. Unfortunately, Jebediah had to play along with his 'wounds', so he wasn't able to put his full speed into running. He gained the lost altitude back, but was still in the range of Frostfell's main guns. The rubber bullets might not reach Jebediah, but real bullets would have been a real danger.

[Charon]

Kunja had only gained on the pair slightly as they'd all continued their fall, now that the chase had turned upwards again though Kunja was gaining on Frostfell quickly. Opening his wings Kunja shifted his dive to the right, putting him into a lazy spin that put him behind Frostfell. Coming down on directly on a dragoncrew that could see him and had lots of guns was more suicidal than Jake felt like being right now. Kunja easily levelled out behind and slightly below Frostfell, out of the firing arcs of most of his guns, using the speed of the dive to close the distance.

Jake sat back up in his saddle, gripping the paint balloon that signified a grenade in his left hand and his paintball gun in the other. He fired a few shots towards Frostfell to keep the gunners heads down, or maybe manage to get the larger dragons attention.

[General Havoc]

The chaos nearer to the ground surrounding Frostfell, Kunja, and Jeb would have to take care of itself. The two lightweights had baited half the heavyweight attack force into ducking and chasing them into the deck. With a full scale Wendigo after them, their simulated "damage" would no doubt be extreme. Such was the price of war at times.

"Prepare to engage."

Æquitas increased speed and loomed up into the air to come in over Veritas' port shoulder. Off to the starboard was Fulminatus, who appeared to be hanging back slightly as he determined where the best place to strike would be. The remainder of the unengaged dragons were behind.

"Signal Fulminatus," said Rankin. "Enfilade from both flanks and cut off the target."

"Sir," said the radioman, who fancied himself a tactician. "Against an Angel, wouldn't we be better served with a plunging..."

"We're not alone up here, corporal, nor do I intend to fight as though we were. Enfilade and bring us along side. All gunners engage at will. Weapons free."

The Vickers .303s began barking as Æquitas pulled into range, aiming to come up right alongside Veritas even as Fulminatus crossed over to do the same on the other flank.

[rhoenix]

It appeared that Veritas' choices had been narrowed down satisfactorily, as he saw Fulminatus and Æquitas dropping onto either side of he and his crew, guns beginning to spit from Æquitas' flank.

Watching both dragons critically, Veritas gauged both their speed and distance, as well as tracking the distance to the encroaching dragons further away.

Æquitas, of the two, was the more dangerous foe - therefore, he must be the first to fall before the others arrived. He would stand his area here against all of them, and he would do it by taking his foes down one by one in order of tactical need.

After only a few seconds of being flanked and making no change whatsoever to flight path, and allowing Fulminatus and Æquitas the time to drift closer, Veritas suddenly erupted at Æquitas. The forward heavy gun was spitting large paint rounds directly at the middleweight, his claws clenched and unclenched visibly with anticipation, and his great maw slowly opened as he rapidly closed the distance.

[Dark Silver]

"He's pulling far and fast Herm. We'll get that spitting bastard another time.."

The dragon snorted at those words, wanting to crane his neck to look at Thomas and shout something, but he was better trained than that, he kept ahead, "I'm gonna get that Spitfire on the next run..."

"Agreed, let's help Frostfell."

Hermeticus winged about, going slow at it for now so they could spot out Frostfell. Luckily, the look outs had a sharp eye, and shouted out the location of the Wendigo and the two lightweights.

"May as well finish this off, so we can help Lydia and Veritas..." Thomas muttered, before giving the signal for the Longhorn to engage at full speed.

Without even a whimper or hiss of breath, Hermeticus straightned himself out, set his course, and beat his wings as hard as he could - the great flaps allowing him to pick up a great deal of speed in a short time, course set to hit the Aussie dragon winging with the Smoke Devil.

Kunja was going to get a beastily surprise if they didn't notice the near-heavyweight flying right at them.

[Cynical Cat]

"Aussie's closing with us from behind, but the Longhorn is coming up on in his blind spot," said Hitchens.

"Good," said Reynolds. A dragon didn't really have a blindspot, just places that were akward to get a good look from and in those spots it was possible to sneak up on dragon if he wasn't careful. Big ones were less vulnerable to this because they carried extra eyes in the form of more passengers.

"Keep on the Smoke Devil," said Nathan. "The lightweight knows if he steps wrong we'll be all over him like a Frenchman on brothel. He's not going to be spending much time watching his back.

"Big wyrm, catch me that Yankee."

"My pleasure," rumbled Frostfell as he continued to pursue Jebediah.

[LadyTevar]

Kunja might not see Hermeticus coming, but Judith was looking back that way, trying to judge distances from Jeb to Frostfell to Kunja. "Kunja? Hermeticus is movin' up," she radioed, just in case he'd not see the LongHorn. It had to be him, the other two dragons weren't that color and were all but invisible in the distance. Frostfell was so far out of position it would take several minutes to find and return to the squad. "Jeb, he's closin' fast," Judith said, leaning close to the SmokeDevil's neck in hopes of avoiding the rubber bullets. "Wha's yer plan now?"

"He's got us," Jeb admitted bluntly. After three hours in the air, he was finally running out of steam. "But Ah ain't goin' down wit'out a fight. Ah'm gonna do him lik' Ah did that Bavarian."

The Bavarian had made a traditional pass at them, sliding to his belly to protect his captain. Jebediah had snagged him with a wingclaw and held on. It wouldn't quite work with Frostfell, who was much larger and better armed, but what the hell. Might get them a bit of respect.

"Let 'em get closer... then pull the reverse, Jeb."

[Cynical Cat]

"He's slowing," said Nathan.

"Burst flier," growled Frostfell. "No heart for this." He was in a lousy mood. Frostfell was usually gleefully savage, but today he was sullenly vicious. Admittedly, being able to tell the difference between which bloody minded mood a Wendigo in was a rare skill.

His shoulder ached from the wound, although it was mostly healed. Now he had been dragged up here to play tag with idiots and hauling a fake bomb harness and the little bastards wanted to play dodge and keep away games. He was not happy.

"He's going to try something," said Nathan. Frostfell was eating up the distance. "You saw that move."

"Won't save him, whatever it is. Maybe buy him a few seconds." Frostfell closed. Maiming and killing smaller dragons was his favorite sport. They always tried something desperate at the end, before his jaws closed and his teethed rent. This one was just a little trickier than the rest.

It wouldn't save him.

[Charon]

Kunja didn't look away from his target as the radio came in, he entrusted Jake as his eyes in the sky. He was much more focused on how he was going to close to combat with Frostfell.

Jake glanced behind him, getting a quick look at Hermeticus incoming before turning back again. He didn't want to give away that he knew Hermeticus was on his way down. Jake replaced the paint balloon with the fake sticky-bomb that he'd grabbed for just such an occasion. Then he leaned down lower on Kunja and the dragon dived slightly, picking up that little bit of extra speed he was going to need to do what he needed to.

Jake fired at the ball turret on Frostfell's belly as Kunja turned and charged the creature's bottom. As the turret got the dragon in sight Kunja rolled over so his saddle was facing the ground and Jake clipped his carabiner to a new cable, sliding down Kunja's back towards his dragon's tail, hidden by the bulk of his dragon.

Before getting within range of Frostfell's vicious claws the lightweight turned sharply, swandiving back towards the ground, his tail lashing upwards. Jake, halfway up the tail, knew that the whiplash was going to hurt, and that in all likelyhood this was going to hurt if it worked. But this was the only way to get the job done quick.

As the tail whipped up and the dragon began it's fall Jake was given a much closer and more open shot at the dragon's bomb-laden underbelly, while Frostfell's claws were given a target of only the tip of Kunja's tail. Jake played the odds, knowing just how long he had until the whiplash hit him, throwing the tar-covered square up towards the bombs Frostfell was carrying moments before the force of Kunja's fall hit him and Dragon and captain dropped like stones, Jake feeling the air being forced out of his lungs.

[Dark Silver]

While Kunja and Jake where busy doing their aerial acrobatics, Hermeticus kept his speed, never deviating from his course.

All of the crew had their weapons out, even Thomas had shouldered a carbine, and as Kunja dropped, Hermeticus did the same. Tom felt like his stomach lept into his throat for a moment, but everyone resettled themselves, and in the short time the two dragons where near even, a full broadside from every rifle, carbine, and mounted on on Hermeticus peppered the air about the Aussia dragon.

With the broadside complete, Hermeticus angled himself back upwards, his wings beating rapidly to gain his momentum and speed to see about helping Frostfell.

[Cynical Cat]

The plan worked. There was just one small hitch. Frostfell was not a flying cow.

The plan required closing and matching speed to Frostfell and then striking while Frostfell did Kunja was whipping his tail up, Frostfell was already pouncing. Gravity and Kunja's own need to get very, very close and right under Frostfell.

He struck and held. The fake sticky bomb splattered paint on the bags of flower as Frostfell gripped the smaller dragon, his wings deliberately fowling Kunja's. Frostfell was probably a "kill", the victim of of sympathetic explosions among his ordinance, but since the only effect in the war game was to splatter paint on gear Frostfell wasn't paying attention to at the moment. Kunja's own status would also be up for debate, but that was latter.

Frostfell's fangs closed on the smaller dragon's neck as he momentarily extended his wings and yanked savagely to the right. The entwined dragon's half glided, half fell towards the ground in a rapidly spinning mass as Frostfell death rolled his prey.

[LadyTevar]

Judith had been counting down the distance between Frostfell and Jebediah, hoping to time the last trick perfectly. Jebediah was planning one last reverse, hoping to swing himself around too fast for Frostfell to compensate and slip under the larger dragon's stomach again. But not just to flee... this time Jeb was wanting to hook Frostfell's armor and cling like a burr. Frostfell would probably shake him free easily, but at least Jeb would get a bit of satisfaction knowing he'd tagged Frostfell first.

When Jeb judged the time right, he stalled himself into a sudden reversal ... and found Kunja already under Frostfell, slinging Jake up like a fishing lure as the Aussie dragon dove straight into Hermeticus' broadside. The SmokeDevil did his best to swing wide in the sudden confusion, joining his captain in cursing Jake for never warning people when he was about to be a durn fool. Frostfell's sudden counter-attack, snatching Kunja and rolling with him left Jebediah in the clear but Kunja and Jake in a lot of trouble.

"Jeb, follow them down!" Judith called, having a bad feeling about this.

[Charon]

Jake was hanging around his dragon's aft-quarters on his line as Frostfell completed his grapple. He rapidly moved his way up his dragon's flank, almost getting to his saddle by the time Frostfell got Kunja's head in position. This was something both dragon and captain had seen before.

"Aw hell."

Kunja was alright, he was used to spinning rapidly. The dragon closed his eyes as he tried to position himself better, his neck twisted painfully before he managed to get one claw in position to latch onto Frostfell, gaining a little control over the death roll, enough to keep it from shattering him and his unseated captain.

Jake had less easy of a time. Strapped only by a carabiner on a length of steel cable Jake was now seperated from both dragons bodily and spinning just as fast, occasionally crashing into the rockhard sides of one dragon or the other. Jake was beginning to feel dizzy, but that was mostly from the impacts.

[Cynical Cat]

Frostfell unhooked his claws from the smaller dragon and released his maw. "Taste like chicken," he chuckled as he broke apart from the smaller dragon, his wings catching the air. "That's half speed. Full is funner. The other guy tends to disagree though," he laughed as he pulled away, oblivious to the paint splotch on his flour-bomb rack.

[Charon]

Kunja caught the air himself as Frostfell let go, battered some, and a little bruised, but alright. The smaller dragon laughed as his vision cleared moments after the rolling stopped and he spotted the dark blue splotch on Frostfell's bombs. "I'd like to try it some time. But in the meantime you're done Frostfell. We stuck your bombs and took you out."

Jake, meanwhile, was crawling back into his saddle, dizzy, sore and spitting blood from a broken lip. He patted his dragon on the side. "Good flyin' buddy."

[Cynical Cat]

"Bullshit," said Frostfell. "I had you cold."