155 First Air to Air Dragon Comba (1/2)
*Recommended music Sabaton - Aces in exile*
Blue Thunder gave a grunt, as he lined his body straight at the approaching Empire dragons, ”They are splitting up!” He roared over the wind as he noted the dragons had split into two groups.
”Yes! I see them!” Stamford yelled. ”Two of the mid-weights are holding together with the single heavy and the other three are vectoring in for an attack!”
The single heavyweight dragon with silver trimmed blue banners and streamers beat its wings rapidly as it sought to gain altitude, together with its two escorts. Blue Thunder could just barely see dark figures clinging onto its back as it rose higher.
”They are going for a pincher attack!” Blue Thunder growled, ”The heavy looks like its going for height advantage, while the other three distract and harass us!”
”Ignore the heavy, we take out the trio first!” Stamford yelled as he gauged the distance and speed between the enemy. ”We do a high-speed fly pass, followed by a turn circle port side! All guns to fire as they bear!”
”We let the heavy come up from our aft, most likely they will do a swooping dive down at our tail,” Stamford twisted in his seat as he looked to the rear, ”Dek, make sure you give that heavy a good dose of lead!”
”With pleasure, chief!”
”Alright! Let's do it!” Stamford yelled, ”Let's show them ground pounders what the Airforce can do!”
Blue Thunder accelerated, pulling his wings strongly, forcing more wind against its serpentine body and gliding through the air like a fish in the sea. The dotted figures in front of them quickly resolved into three silver-black scaled Razorback dragons with streamers tied to their legs and wing tips, boldly displaying the Empire colors.
They broke their formation and aimed for Blue Thunder in three different directions, aiming to rake their claws against his flanks with the lead Razorback distracted him head-on. ”Dive down now!” Stamford yelled as he clutched his shotgun tightly against his chest.
A sense of gravity disappearing sent the men whooping, as Blue Thunder dived under the reaches of the dragons who tried to box him in, and the machine guns fired, raking the underside of the confused Razorbacks.
Stamford gave a wordless yell as he pumped shot after shot at the underbelly of the lead dragon who cried out in anger at the missed ploy and the rear machine gun fired, and Stamford caught sight of a line of tracers sparking off the underbelly of the dragon before it vanished from view.
”Did we get them?” Stamford yelled, checking left and right making sure everyone was still in place while digging into his pouches for shotgun shells.
”I think so?” Someone yelled back.
Blue Thunder craned his neck back as he turned a loop back towards the action, ”I can't see the heavy and its escorts!” He yelled as he looked around in panic.
”7 o'clock high! Coming in fast!” Dek yelled as he spotted a shadow against the sun. ”It's coming from the sun!”
”BREAK LEFT! BREAK BREAK BREAK!” Stamford yelled urgently, and Blue Thunder did a sharp tilt left, and a swooping shadow burst out from the skies, barely missing Blue Thunder, the force of its passage sent Blue Thunder struggling to keep balanced. ”HOLY FUCK!”
”GOT NO LINE OF FIRE!”
”CAN'T SEE SHIT!”
”INCOMING LEFT FLANK!” Barkley yelled as he spotted a silvery shape darting in from the left side. He twisted his body, trying to bring his MG-1 to bear on the target, but the Razorwing cunningly stayed out of his line of sight, using the flapping wings of Blue Thunder as cover as it inched closer.
”I GOT HIM!” Dek yelled as he swung his gun over, his wire sights hovered over the dragon where three of its crew could be seen firing and loading crossbow bolts at them. He angled the gun slightly forward and fired, bright tracers ripping out from the barrel and into the path of the dragon making it swerved away in panic. But before it disappeared from sight underneath Blue Thunder, Dek saw his shots landing on the crew members, their body turning limp as the dragon dived away. ”I got its crew!”
Stamford leaned over the back of Blue Thunder to peer at the disengaged dragon, ”Damn, we need some guns at the bottom!”
Blue Thunder gave a dismissive snort and Stamford felt its body bellowing up, followed by a roar and a smoking ball of fire rained down towards the diving dragon, and surprisingly hitting it square on its back. ”Ha! Take that!”
”What a lucky shot...” Stamford shooked his head, to which Blue Thunder snorted again.
”There is no such thing as luck!” Blue tilted his head up proudly. ”I just good!”
”Watch your front you dumb beast!” Stamford yelled, ”Praise yourself later, but we still got five dragons to go!”
”Make it three!” Dek yelled from the back, ”I just saw one crashing into the trees, and another limping away at five o'clock!”
Stamford grabbed his field glasses hanging on over his neck and quickly scanned the horizon, seeing a dragon laboring its way across the sky, with what appeared to be large drops of blood raining off its body. ”That dragon won't make it, gauging by the amount of blood it's leaking!”
”Tally ho!” Luth yelled and pointed. ”3 o'clock high!”
”Blue get us some attitude!” Stamford commanded as he turned his glasses over to the direction Luth yelled seeing the remaining dragons have regrouped and were coming back for another pass.