Out of Space

Chapter 660: Aces

The majesty of the coastal line stretched out before Brendanus's eyes as he rode on his Soarer. A yellow band was painted on the rear hull of the tear drop shaped Protectorate ornithopter, marking him as the Sky Leader of the several other ornithopters flying in formation alongside him. Dozens of symbols arranged in neat rows, depicting a chained tome or a burning scroll, further marked his accomplishments and kills.

A chained tome indicated the destruction of a military airship and Brendanus had three such tomes painted on his hull, meaning he had sunk at least three enemy airships of a destroyer class or larger. Another forty small symbols of a burning scroll, indicated that he, as a Soarer flyer had at least forty confirmed enemy flyer kills.

These markings, translated to Terran standards, would make him a highly decorated ace pilot on Earth and Brendanus was a top notched flyer. He was proud of his achievements and it showed in his cruel competence against the lawless. He had also scored the most captures of civilian airships and most of the time, those prizes were void of the crew as he tossed everyone overboard except the ones he fancy.

As he was lazily admiringly the cloudy skies which break in the cloud layer caused rays of sunlight to shine down like the heralding of Ramuh's blessings, a sparkle in the far off distance caught his eye. In his experience, such a sparkle was most likely caused by the reflection of the sun's ray on crystal or metal. Excitably, he leaned over the side of his saddle and yelled over the wind to the pair of boilermen below, "Make more steam! I want more speed!"

The boilerman squeezed inside the small boiler room rang a bell in acknowledgement and started stroking the flames. The other started shoving loads of coal into the open furnace of the boiler causing the heat to flare up.

Brendanus nodded in approval when he checked the steam gauge, seeing the needle raising. He changed gear, switching the cogs of the tail aerial screw and the speed of the spinning screws increased. He raised one hand over the protective crystal panels of his cockpit and made a gesture to the rest of the formation who followed his lead, as he turned towards the open waters of the ocean.

His original mission given by the Inquisitor himself was to scout out a force of heretics that were suspected to be along the coast, heading along to the disorderly demi people of the Cartel lands. He had so boldly led his flyers into the Cartel as he knew the majority of the Cartel were tied up fighting the Judgement Day forces of the Protectorate and would not spare his small flyers any attention.

Spotting that light reflect was the only thing so far they had, as they have not encountered any airships for several turns of the sandglass. While it might turn out to be just a harmless merchant vessel, Brendanus won't mind having some fun with its crew to ease his boredom.

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"Skull Lead, This is Beholder One Four," The cool female voice of the sensor operator onboard one of the Vector wing ships cruising high up above the skies spoke into the speakers of Flight Lieutenant Foy's helmet. "Redirect your flight to sector Lima Seven. Multiple bogeys spotted. Good hunting, Lieutenant!"

"Roger that," Lieutenant Foy let out a chuckle as he checked the map strapped on his left thigh. He switch comms and said, "Skull Squadron, you heard the lady, redirect to sector Lima Seven."

Return calls of confirmation came back from the comms channel and Foy's grin widened. He leaned his head up to the skies and tried to spot the Beholder One Four in the skies and recalled the pleasant night he had with the female operator that was currently flying onboard the wing ship.

He gave his controls a gentle push and the agile F/A - 2 Viper leapt to his command, breaking into a smooth roll as the other three Vipers of his Skull Squadron followed along. Painted in a two tone blue grey scheme, the F/A - 2 Viper had rows of tiny painted images of dragons, blimps, sails and even dragonfly like insects, just under the bubble cockpit.

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"Sky Leader!" The second sky flyer saddled behind Brendanus suddenly cried out. "Above us!"

Brendanus frowned as he craned his head up to see what the fuss was and he was startled. The cloudy skies had dispersed slightly, allowing patches of blue skies to be seen. What startled him was a small group of flyers was actually heading towards them above the clouds!

If it was the sharp eyes of his second flyer giving the warning, having spotted them between the clouds, they would not even know an unknown enemy had sneaked up upon them! Brendanus quickly called out to his second who was in charge of observation, navigation and communications, "Call the wing to battle!"

His second quickly furled out flags and waved them frantically at the rest of the formation. Seeing the call for battle flags, the other eight Soarers went into high alert, venting steam into their nose cannons and repeating bolt throwers.

"What kind of flyers are those?" Brendanus felt a sense of unease as he went into a counter loop against the flyers above. "How are they able to fly so high?"

"Here they come!" His second cried out a warning. He had sat up and mounted the swivel steam powered repeating bolt thrower and aimed at the diving flyers. "They are not flying our Holy Colours!"

"Attack!" Brendanus cried out a split second later. He continued keeping his Soarer in a yawing loop, wanting to force the unknown flyers down to their level and even hopefully, throwing them off course due to the speed of their dive, allowing him and his wing to go on a tail chase.

The hiss crack of the bolt thrower answered him as his second made ranging shots at the diving enemy. Four against nine, Brendanus broke out into a small smile as he thought to himself. It would be their victory. They must have forced themselves into flying so high up just to make a high speed dive attack and hope to knock down a few of his flyers to even the odds.

"But they are too naive!" Brendanus laughed as a bell rang, signalling that his forward mounted steam cannons were fully charged. "We are the Just! We are the Lawful! We are the Order!"

-----

"Guns! Guns! Guns!" Foy cried out as he held down the trigger. He felt the entire airframe shuddered as he send a long burst of deadly 20 mm projectiles downwards at the flight of ornithopters flying in a looping circle. Almost instantly, the target he was aiming at disintegrated into pieces and his Viper tore through the enemy.

His wing mates mirrored his actions and in the opening engagement, four out of nine Protectorate ornithopters went down in smoke and flames. He pulled his Viper out of the dive and glanced at his rear mirror, seeing that enemy had attempted to go into a tail chase but were far too slow to match his speed.

Grinning, he brought his fighter into a loop and came behind another Protectorate ornithopter that attempted to chase him, but were instead out manoeuvred. Another burst and shuddering of the airframe and another trail of debris of smoke and flames dropping onto the ocean's surface. "Scratch two!"

Quickly, the aerial combat turned into a mad skirmish, as ornithopters buzzed around dodging and weaving through the air while fixed wing aircraft chased after them. The Vipers pilots even had to pull the distance between each other as the ornithopters flew at a much slower speed compared to them, which made the skies very dangerous for head on collisions.

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Brendanus gritted his teeth tightly as he threw his Soarer into a sudden hover to his right just in time to avoid the brush of death in the form of fiery lines that made sharp whizzing sounds. He twisted his head left and right as he tried to make sense of the battle, only seeing trails of black smoke everywhere.

The enemy flyers were something he had never seen nor experienced before. Their speed, agility, and destructive weapons of sorts totally turned everything he knew upside down. Standard tactics against this unknown opponent were all not working! And now, he could only desperately keep himself alive by using every ounce of his abilities.

"More steam!" He yelled down at the two boilermen as he focused all his attention to escape. He could still hear the hiss crack of the bolt thrower manned by his second, meaning that an enemy was coming close behind them.

"They are coming!" The desperate cry of his second made him jink his flyer to the side, once again narrowing dodging death. The enemy flyer came roaring loudly passed and he finally managed to get a good look at the enemy.

The short glimpse of the enemy's flyer made him dumbstruck as he had never seen such a steam flyer before. Instead of beating wings to keep the flyer afloat, it had a wide flat wing on each side. The person flying the flyer appeared to be seated inside a bubble made out of clear crystal and the aerial screw at the tail spun so fast that seemed impossible.

The sleek lines and curves made him distracted as he admired the smooth way the flyer turn and roll its way back towards him. Suddenly realising the danger he was in, he quickly turned his attention back to piloting his Soarer while thinking of a way to escape such a frightening flyer.

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"Last bogey still on the run," Foy heard his squadron mate report in. He turned around in his cockpit and spotted Skull Five and Skull Six on the Protectorate's tail. "He's good."

"Skull Two on me!" Foy ordered his wing mate and he followed the chase, watching the crimson red ornithopter with a yellow band on its tail weaving here and there, dodging tracer fire from the rear. "Damn... He IS good!"

"Skull Five and Six, box him in!" Foy ordered as he rolled his Viper. "Coming in high!"

Bursts of flickering tracers could be seen as both Skull Five and Six fired from both sides, forcing the Protectorate ornithopter to keep its course. The glowing reticule overlayed over the ornithopter and Foy gave a good squeeze on the trigger, not even bothering to lead his target much, due to the distance and top speed of the travel. 20 mm shells spat out in a short burst and flew through the air raining down on the unsuspecting ornithopter.

But as if the pilot has eyes on the back of his head, the ornithopter suddenly went into a hover, its nose pitching up as its wing beat the air furiously. Seeing the tracers dart through the space where the ornithopter would be if it haven't gone into a hover, Foy was surprised. "Goddamn, he's good!"

He turned his Viper around and went after the ornithopter that had changed direction. He could see a small figure on the back of the tear drop shaped ornithopter and steam venting out from the armpits of its fluttering wings. He knew the co pilot was shooting at him, but at such speeds, it would take a God to hit him.

The enemy pilot was good, very good in fact to pilot an ornithopter till such skills. He would make random darting moves left and right like an insect or suddenly hover to make the Vipers overshoot him. After a moment of observation, Foy shook his head as he thought to himself what a pity such an outstanding pilot was with the Protectorate.

Foy lined his Viper up and tilted the controls as he fired his 20 mm cannons. As expected, the enemy pilot darted to the side, right into the sweeping tracers. The powerful shells shattered the left wings and punched head sized holes across the hull. The ornithopter seemed to freeze in space for a moment before its shattered wings stopped beating and dropped like a bomb down to the ocean, throwing a massive plume of water into the air.

Foy circled his aircraft over the crash site and seeing the debris on the water, he gave the fallen a salute, "It was a good fight."