Sky King

Part Four: Night Of Two Stars

Hopping into the cockpit of his Hellot Fighter, Ace finished setting up his goggles and breath mask, pulling down the glass door and starting the engine. The propellers slowly spun to life, the pilot double checking his fuel and ammunition gauges. Both were full, head mechanic Garret having filled the fuel just before his arrival with Carrington, who was across the airfield in a Syncaire B-13, the dual wing main fighter of the Air Force.

"Can you hear me Islander?" Ace heard over the interior communications radio next to the ammunition gauge. Thomas's voice was crackled and garbled by the static of the old radio, but clear enough to understand.

"Yeah," the pilot said loudly, pressing a button on the radio that made sure his voice would always be heard when talking.

"Good. Let's stay close by to one another so I don't mistake your plane for theirs," Thomas said, Ace watching the veteran's plane begin to make its way to the center of the air strip. He followed, keeping just enough distance to take off without trouble. Up above Karris city, the two scanned around them, Ace keeping to the left of Thomas.

"There were six reported bombers and three fighters with them," Thomas explained over the radio, "the smoke and clouds sure aren't helping in finding them,"

Ace couldn't agree more, the moonlight obstructed by overhead cloud cover and the excess smoke from bombed out buildings below. That still didn't stop him from seeing three of the Hellot bombers to his left, flying in a horizontal line and preparing to let loose another barrage of destruction upon the city below.

"Nine o'clock, three bombers," Ace said, adjusting his course to intercept, the veteran following close behind. The black haired pilot increased his acceleration, hoping to reach the planes before they could unleash more metallic shells of explosive fury. He squeezed the trigger of his pitch lever, .308 tracers flashing across the sky and slamming into the hull of the nearest bomber, igniting the explosives ready to be dropped on the city, the plane being engulfed in a ball of fire. Rear gunners on the remaining two bombers of the small group opened fire on the pilot, sending him in a spiral to avoid the retaliation, causing enough of a distraction for Thomas to tear into a second one with a stream of 5.56, aiming for the hull just as Ace had.

As the pilot was about to turn around to destroy the third bomber, a green biplane dropped from the clouds above on a collision course with Ace, taking a chance on shooting while descending. He saw the maneuver just quickly enough dodging right and pulling up until he was upside down, watching the Hellot fighter go for Thomas next, who had already readjusted his course to take down the third bomber. Ace, while still upside down, followed the Hellot biplane's flying pattern from above, tipping the nose of his own plane down when his enemy straightened out. He made sure his crosshair was perfectly leading the biplane's path, opening fire just before the Hellot fighter could take a shot at his partner in the sky. The booming .308 machine guns ripped into the fighter's cockpit, blood spraying onto the glass and rending the biplane useless.

Ace rolled over, seeing Thomas blow the third bomber out of the sky.

"I don't see the last three anywhere," the blond haired pilot said over the radio, Ace pulling his biplane up to the left of the dual wing vehicle.

"There's still two fighters around too. Let's check above the clouds," Ace suggested, Thomas making a thumbs up gesture and following the Hellot born pilot into the black clouds, visibility reaching to only a few meters in front of them. They pushed on, escaping the darkness and seeing the star filled night sky above. Bright moonlight shined on the two Syncaire pilots, also exposing the last three bombers seemingly heading towards the Garrus ocean to return to the Hellot Islands.

"Eleven o'clock, last three big ones," Ace told Thomas, the two keeping below the line of sight of the back gunners, pulling up and opening fire on all three. Their bullets struck each hull accurately, the three bombers exploding in orange fire. All that was left were the two still concealed fighters.