The gardens of the Achilleon

Eurynome: principium

Squadron 540 was flying reconnaissance... either the most eventful mission ever or a task that required much focus not to fall asleep during... then, a flash of red reflected in their rear vision, the soldier that was busy yawning and rubbing an eyelash out of his eye quickly stopped his action and got his head into battle.

"Armstrong! 4 o'clock, come on Baronet, prove yourself, kid!"

The young Master Sergeant got his head back into the game and dove away, hearing the whistling of bullets and the cracks of a machine gun pass him as he manoeuvred through the air. He cocked his guns and pointed them at the giant flying red target as a shot hit his fuselage...

Armstrong took aim and got a nice shot at the Baron's red plane not before taking another hit himself, his plane started to sputter... if anyone could hear him, you could have caught a noble Brit cursing like a sailor in a language that was everything but English: "Γαμώτο! Γαμώτο! Ο ηλίθιος Κόκκινος Βαρόνος και το κόκκινο γαμημένο αεροπλάνο του, μαλάκα!"

Armstrong squeezed in another shot to the Red Baron's plane before his engine gave its last sputter and the Rolls-Royce engine fell silent not an immediate death sentence... more like a death via carbon monoxide poisoning, easily avoidable but when it comes there's no way to avoid it...

And Lord knows Montgomery will do anything to avoid death so early.

His brother is marrying his sweetheart and his sister is expecting her second child...

He hasn't gotten his driver's license yet... or his master's degree...

No way is he going down.

Montgomery tried to keep his plane stable as his engine shut down and he started to lose altitude... he tried to steer with whatever control he could keep and crash-landed his plane in the mud right behind the frontline trench of allied territory.

As he stumbled from the plane and realized that his two arms legs and head were still attached to his body... he let out a sigh of relief he had to get somewhere, he was in friendly territory but friendly territory doesn't keep him safe from artillery...

He stumbled onwards to God only knew where he quickly realised his walk was sluggish... if he were to get a look at himself he'd realise one pupil was dilated and one wasn't but the only look of something he got was at the approaching mud as he lost his balance and fell into Flanders' mud... a grisly mixture of water, piss, shit, other bodily fluids, junk and if you're really in bad luck... human remains. Montgomery looked in front of him watching as the red triplane tumbled to the ground and a figure also escaped from the flying machine...

Montgomery fought to get to his feet but the world around him spun rounds and rounds he almost started to think he was on the carousel at Brighton Pier... that's when he felt it... a force picking him up to his feet... Montgomery took two seconds to blink and then looked at who was before him with wide eyes... all of a sudden he felt like he could stand up on his own without any aid. An unarmed Manfred von Richthofen stood before him, his shoulder appeared to be dislocated but he appears to be in a better state than Montgomery.

He tried to take a step back but his concussion was still pounding in his head... "Wh-what-? Wh-why?" He blurted... Manfred took a look at Montgomery's uniform, beyond the mud, his family crest was visible, embroidered in gold on the front of his coat "Armstrong? Scottish or English?" Manfred asked... "English... Rittmeister". Montgomery responded and the Baron could only nod.

"Ah, I see... Fred Armstrong?" He then asked, "My uncle". Montgomery answered...

"Ah-... so Baronet Wilbur Armstrong and Baroness Lydia Theotokis?" He asked and Montgomery nodded, "My parents". He said with a confirming nod...

They stood there for a second until a rogue artillery shell landed nearby and shook the earth, spraying more mud and shrapnel around... the two stumbled around a bit before finding refuge in a crater nearby Montgomery's wrecked plane, the war machine was salvageable but it had fallen on its side and it would be an impossible task for two wounded men to get it back in working order.

The two of them sat there in silence... "are your men coming?" Asked Manfred breaking the silence that started to brood between them... Montgomery gave a feeble response something that resembled a "Yeah"...

Silence yet again, between them, besides the symphonic cacophony of the artillery and the distant noise of machine guns and plane engines there was nothing.

It was almost peaceful...

"So... a Baron aye?... shouldn't I be courtesying you?" Asked Montgomery and Freiherr von Richthofen looked at the feeble-minded concussed noble that was laying down a foot or so away from him. "These are... special circumstances to say the least, sir Armstrong... I think we have a mutual standard of respect and honour... I'll let it slide, just this once though". Spoke Manfred and Montgomery swore he saw him grin, maybe he was also going a bit delusional?

Damn... was he really joking around with the enemy?

They tried to kill one another an hour ago and now... they were joking around.

Montgomery looked up at the red sky as his concussion seemed to come to a point of stability where his world wasn't spinning as much anymore and he could at least make sense of his thoughts.

"You are-... the nephew of Georgis Theotokis right?" Manfred asked and Montgomery nodded softly... "yup, that's my uncle... and godfather". He spoke as he looked up at the sky, not wanting to face Manfred, it made it easier to talk without seeing he was talking to the Red Baron himself.

"Not everyone can say that their godfather is an ex-Greek prime minister". Manfred said, matter-of-factly and Montgomery finally turned his head to look at him. "Not everyone can say that they're the most feared pilot on the globe". Montgomery said and Manfred just looked at him with a look of:'touché'.

Then silence again... Montgomery groaned, "God how long can it take to spot a bright red plane? Are they sending out imbeciles to come find us?" Montgomery exclaimed after 5 minutes of silence, his concussion making his emotions all that much unstable... but Manfred couldn't disagree with him, it was taking a long time of just sitting around before anyone found them.

Finally, almost at the same moment, two planes touched ground, from the one with the British flag on the side ran Sergeant Thomas Freeze... a man that hates everyone and anything with a burning passion, but for the ones he can stomach... Tommy is formal enough.

Out from the one with a flag of the German empire stepped a tall man with a scar on his cheek, Montgomery recognized him immediately as a noble but couldn't put a finger on his name.

With mutual hostility, Montgomery was dragged from the crater hole by Thomas Freeze... "Thanks, Tommy-". Montgomery slurred as he still struggled to stand on his feet. While Manfred's shoulder was simply snapped back into location and he was helped up and out of the shell crater.