Ace of The Duck Pond The Good Doctor.

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred jumped out, rolled along the ground cursed then ran for his hanger door firing in an attempt to shoot off the padlock. He ran strai for the door and with what could be called good luck, hit the door, falling into the hanger in a pile of rotted splintered wood. He rammed his guns back into there holsters, ran across the shed to the work bench, "This damn thing better work the way I think it should." he flicked a switch and the thing hummed to life, the clear panel started glowing and he turned just in time to see guns being raised towards him. without a second thought, he squeezed the trigger and blue lightning flashed out, frying the shooters. He ran over to his plane, popped the hatch in the bottom and threw the gun inside. He ran into the office grabbed his bag which he always kept packed, emptied the safe and shoved them into the hull before slamming the hatch closed. Climbing onto the wing, he started the engine up and ran to the main hanger doors and dragged them open. he turned in time to avoid being shot and ran back to the plane. Dropping into the seat, he released the safties and fired the guns at the army of attackers firing at him. It was a slaughter and anyone or thing in front of his weapons turned into a bloody mist. One of the guns clicked empty and he cursed. "Damn I knew I forgot something. that damn browning was half empty." He reached behind the seat and pulled out a box of ammunition, jumped out the cockpit, pulled open a hatch in the wing and swapped the ammo box's. slamming the hatch closed, he jumped into the cockpit, threw the empty behind him, pulled the canopy closed and opened the throttle allowing the plane to roll forward under its own thrust.

[Ranger Reid]

Even as they were calling it, Liam fired a 3 round burst.  The first two missed but the third shattered the lock.   He said quietly "shouldn't have needed three."   and frowned.   A slow trickle of blood began to seep from his shoulder.

[Stella Gaslight]

Greenie was easy to start. A few turns of the prop and she was purring like a tiger.  "Have a seet in the gun pod doc, it is the safest bit I have on offer at the moment."   She ran the pre flight checks with a quickness that showed how in tune with her machine Jace was.  "Alright only touch what I tell you and only when I say so.  Greenie is a sophisticated lady and some of her systems are a bit fiddly."

"I will treat her like a princess fraulein."  Girard smilled and was hoping to see more of the Aussie in action.  He had a few theories he wanted to test.


"We will have to get you to a real doctor soon Liam.". The chicken under her arm clucked happily.  " I think Miss Hen likes you."

[MWBailey]

"Alright Jace, you lead out, Greenie's faster'n Blue Duck," Al called ove rthe radio as he yanked the lanyard that pulle dteh block away from the wheels. He gunned the Duck's engine and kicked the rudder, the action making the flying boat turn almost 90 degrees, putting her in line en echelon* with the other two planes, and waited his turn, finally getting his channce and openingthe throttle.

The Duck, far from being the ungainly juggernaut that she appeared to be, took to the air almost before she had cleared the hangar doors, which was fortuitous as just as she did so a german officer ran forward with a schmeisser, and was swept up on the leading edge of the main float, where he dropped the weapon and hung on for dear life, screaming bloody murder. The weight made the Duck nose-heavy;  Al was having none of it. He kicked the ailerons and the biplane turned over on its side in a wingstand, dropping the officer down on top of one of the roadblock autos. Al righted the Duck and went after one of the autogyros, the twin .30s on the nose of his ship chopping the blades and the tail section into splinters, making the hapless craft plunge into the warm waters of the Pacific, just past the edge of the airstrip float. His elation at the kill was short-lived, however, as the air was suddenly full of german aircraft, and the dogfight began in earnest...

[Stella Gaslight]

The Screaming Green lived up to it's name as Jace launched herself in to the sky.  She relaxed manning the controls as an extension of her body.  The Doctor watched her looking closely for more signs of a power hidden inside.  There was an elegance to her movements he had not expected for all the brashness she had on the ground in the air she was a grand lady.  "Duck I think we better run that big one off the station that last bomb got way to close to home."

"Liam I think we had better get up there soon we are exposed down here and I don't want you to get any more hurt."  Donna could not fully explain why she felt so close to the mechanic but he was realy growing on her.  She would have to ask him about the almost fainting spell he had she was sure there was something more to it than just nerves.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam nodded and followed Donna's lead.    Once situated on the plane he let himself feel the energy flowing around him.  Something was off about the doctor.  And he wasnt sure of the chicken's intentions.   But the plane was humming nicely.  There was no issue with the fuel.  Liam smiled.  He was more proud of the thing he fixed by hand than the things he used energy on.   
"Should I man a gunport?" he asked Donna.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Yes please."  Donna said hopping in to her seat and beginning the start up.   She pointed Liam in to the gunners seat that was covered in dust. "It's been a long time but everything should work.  Don't you dare shoot my dog!" Angrily she taxied down the runway upset at the plains taking pot-shots at her,

[Ranger Reid]

Liam climbed in and true to Donna's claim, the seat and turret mechanism worked smoothly.    He wasted no time singling out one biplane that seemed to be the most accurate foe.   Twice it had strafed the runway, both times hitting true on the car and hanger.   Liam started humming, held his aim, and squeezed.   With a short burst of noise and flame, the plane streamed off ruined.

Liam counted out loud  "one."  and went back to humming.

[Stella Gaslight]

Donna laughed as she manoeuvred the bulk of the cargo plane with a deftness that none of her opponents expected.  "Dog may be big but she is light on her toes she can dance a salsa almost as well as I can."  She noticed the shadow below them on the tarmac and swung around sharply.  "Looks like we got two on our back side trying to cut in.  Wanna punch their dance cards for me?"

[Ranger Reid]

Liam spun his seat, the gun tracked along.  Within seconds he was unloading a stream of fire on the lead plane.   Immediately it flashed into flame and exploded.

As the wreckage spun sideways, Liam continued firing.   Suddenly the fuel tank he had repaired exploded and drove the burning wreckage of the lead plane into the trailing biplane behind.   The runway was well and truly fouled.

"I don't think any more will get off the ground, but there are a lot up here already."

[Stella Gaslight]

"I know.  I wonder where they all taxied from.  I mean the tower men usually won't let a whole swarm go up unless they have a good reason."  She wheeled around avoiding a burst of fire and caught a glimpse of something that made her eyes go wide.  "Or they didn't launch from here at all.  Dog to Duck and Greenie do you see what I see?   Just on the edge of what my scope can make out I can see a big floating runway. "  Donna had never heard of something like that being used as a transport before.

[MWBailey]

Al finished the the flying coffin he was gunning down , and then called in, "lemme go up and take a look-see." he did so, climbing 1200 feet above the dogfight's mean altitude, and took several quick glances through the naval artillery binoculars that he kept mounted to the inner bulkhead of the cockpit. "looks like one of the experimental Jap flattops," he reported. "They've been experimenting with putting airstrips on top of big ships and launching military craft form them and accepting them back and landward traffic as well. I've rescued a few of their pilots recently. I thought I told you about it; I guess I didn't, sorry." He paused, then added, "I didn't know they were hiring out to other countries, though," he had to break off to deal with a particularly tenacious sidewinder German craft that kept peppering him with small-caliber gunfire. Soon that  target joined the mounting toll of ruined aircraft in the water as Al returned to the general fray.

"Maybe we ought to pay 'em a social call," Al suggested with a wicked note in his voice. He had been wanting some aerial grenade target practice for a while, now...

[Stella Gaslight]

"Oh hell yes."  Jace was in rare form twisting through the sky like a tornado while the doctor was lucky to get off a few rounds of fire from the secondary guns as she zoomed past.  In the brief moments where blood was not rushing to his head he catalogued her reaction times and was amazed.  He had seen some of the best German pilots but this was wild and naturalistic.  Jace fought in the air like she had on the ground acrobatics and all.  He has lucked on to something that was dammed valuable. "Duck we need to teach them some manners.  Like how rude it is to come around uninvited."

"I have a good complement to bombs but the controls are sort of odd.  I retooled them so Hen could fire them ."  Liam could see the panel with strings instead of buttons   "They are easy enough to use though."

[CPT_J_Percell]

Blue Fangs engine growled as the fighter plane tore down the runway after the others. Before its wheels had left the ground it had scored its first kill. An enemy fighter plane had dropped in low without watching the ground and had ended dead in the middle of Wilfreds cross hairs exploding. the remains crashed into the ground but the pilot scrabbled out throwing his burning jacket on the ground.
Wilfred pulled back on the stick and Blue Fang was flying.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam looked at Donna and nodded his head.   She couldn't understand his affinities for mechanical things.   The string mechanisms were easy and obvious.


"Let's go.    It seems there is a mini control tower on that rig.   I would like to do a fly by, pass it on my side.   Keep high enough their batteries can't hit us though.  I will see what I can do with the tower before we blow the rest up.   Might be nice to target whomever is controlling them."

[Stella Gaslight]

Donna grinned wheeling the dog around.  "I like the way you think.  Let's  give them hell."  She nodded her head to music only she could hear and set course.  "Dog to Duck and Greenie. I am going in for a run."

"Greenie here I think it is time to let Thor out to play.  I have your back."  Jace  laughed in a not entirely wholesome way and flipped a row of switches.  "Your going to want to use those green goggles hanging near your ears doc.  Thor is a bit flashy and if you want to see anything other than sparkly light now's the time."  He had given up on logic and was holding on for dear life.  Whatever she said he would go along with if only to see what happened.

[MWBailey]

Al Followed along, at a somewhat lower altitude than the others; he'd seen what looked like coal smoke billowing out of the starboard side of the odd vessel, and wanted to see if he could find a way to put a grenade down the flue; burning coal tended to create coal gas, which could explode violently in the stacks of the Japanese experimental flattop ships because of the way the stacks were built. HE was disappointed the find thatthe flue on the Aces target was pointed downward at a slight angle toward the water; that made simply dropping a bomb in problematic. He noted the angle of the mouth of the stack, however, dodging flak and heavy machinegun battery fire as he hove in close, and had an idea.

"Dog, Greenie, Duck's gonna drop me an egg in the smokestack." he radioed to the others, and banked off to Starboard, climbing in a long spiral. "This'll take a power dive to get it in, though; I'll just be a minute. Go ahead with your deliveries, I'll be along in a sec."

"Captain Imahara, we have three aircraft approaching from the Pond; two heavily-armed fighter-bomber types, and one biplane flying boat of the rescue variety," the young lieutenant informed the captain of the flattop. The captain looked in the indicated direction with his field glasses, and saw the three aircraft.  "Those are the Aces," he said, noting the insignia. "The two big seaplanes are the real threat; the little biplane rescue craft is probably just a spotter." He watched as Blue Duck flew in close, nimbly avoiding antiaircraft fire. "Yeeesss... He has some small guns, but he's not firing, he's not a threat. Those other two, though... Break off attention on the flying boat and concentrate it on the seaplanes, Lieutenant Araragi..."

[Ranger Reid]

Donna was an above average pilot.   Add to that she was flying a bird she knew intimately.   The run was fast, furious, and flawless.   

As she careened past the tower, she began to wonder what Liam was about.  He was simply humming and staring out the glass.

Suddenly there was a brief staccato of fire.   Donna couldn't help looking back at the tower to see the damage. 

She saw a clear line of broken glass, and even a spray of blood on the back wall.   There was no movement inside.


"We can go to bombs if you like."                Liam said.

[MWBailey]

Lieutenant Araragi delivered the captains instructions, but something kept nagging at him. An itch between his shoulder blades  caused him to turn around and look up. There, 'way up in the clouds, just visible and climbing, was a gray speck. He whipped up his binoculars and saw through them the craft that the captain had dismissed as a noncombatant "spotter." What in the blazes is that idiot doing? Araragi wondered mentally. Does he not see his comrades getting shot up -! his reverie was  interrupted by the rattattatt of heavy machine gunfire, screams of injured and dying men, and the cacophony of ricochets and shattering glass. HE whirled back around, and saw that the bridge had been demolished by one of the aircraft; it could have been nothing else.

"Medics! To the Bridge, NOW! Rescue Personnel, save the captain!" he shouted into the ship's squawkbox that resided on the bulkhead at his shoulder.

A whine from above a minute later grew into a screech, then a sirenlike wail, and he turned back around to see the "harmless" little "rescue" flying boat swooping down at a speed which should have been impossible for such a craft, as she began firing twin synchronized machineguns through the propeller, dipping down below the level of the ship's deck and then back up again, neatly undercutting all AA battery fire, and then ... something ... fall away from the cockpit.

Into the squawkbox the lieutenant shouted, "ALL HANDS! INCOMING BOMB ON STARBOARD SIDE--!" he broke off as the object disappeared from view into the smoke from the exhaust flue. He relaxed. It will miss, after all, he thought. Then, he realized what must have happened as panic gripped his chest. "ALL HANDS!" He shouted again into the squawkbox. "BRACE FO-!" he never finished the sentence, as a relatively small explosion inside the flue was suddenly followed by a much larger one whose shockwave threw him over the side and ripped a gaping hole in the side of the ship, which began to wallow in the water as if something were very wrong with her keel - which it was, in fact - as a giant ball of fire and soot rose skyward, and steam from the ship's ruined boiler began to billow up through the hatches in the flying deck and control tower. Alarm klaxons began to ring and damage control crews rushed all around.

The shockwave caught Al completely by surprise, and stood the Duck on it's nose briefly in midair before her pilot managed to right her. As he climbed and the aircraft slowed, Al tapped irritably at the airspeed dial, which was stuck at it's maximum dispayable reading. "Uh, Jace, I need our new mechanical whiz kid to take a look at Blue Duck's airspeed dial and pitot linkage when we  get back, if he feels up to it, I think I knocked something loose on that last dive..."

[Stella Gaslight]

Donna scanned the deck and frowned.  "Looks like we stirred the pot pretty good.  We have seven on our tails and at least one trying to hide in the sun and drop on us.  The only ones that aren't getting their own personal fan club is duck and maybe fangs."

"Let loose the thunder." Jace shouted and started humming Wagner and luring two of her sleek pursuers closer.  She pulled her goggles on and threw a small switch  He could feel a strange vibration growing stronger until they could both feel it in their teeth.,  "Now you poor bastards are in for it."  She said and turned a dial in to the red.  There was a thunder clap that much to his surprise did not move the greenie a bit.   He suspected that was more due to Jace's piloting than any softness  of the weapon.  The screaming force of electricity cut through the other planes like they were made of paper.  "And that is why you don't mess with the Aces. Duck we will get you all patched up soon I promise."

[MWBailey]

"I've got Sundoggy," Al said, and diverted his attention to the weird collection assemblage of periscope, prisms, refractive spotter scope and remote mechanical mount manipulator that served as the rear gun's sighting system when Al was alone or for some other reason had no rear gunner. He thumbed the alt wheel until the gun was almost at eighty-five degrees to the vertical, and then using as little bank as  possible, brought the Duck around until the sun showed up in the crosshairs; since he had lowered the sunproof filter over his left eye, the scope was actually almost black or seemed to be until the sun's disc, dyed a weird shade of green by the filter, swung into the crosshairs, the silhouette  of the attacking aircraft following suit. al elbowed teh remote firing lever for the rear gun, and the enemy never knew what hit him as he flew nearly straight downward, head-on into Al's bullets, and changed into a mass of fire and wreckage that rained down around the Duck as the debris plunged down to the deck of the flattop.

"Well, that's one dead sundoggy, and one seriously pockmarked runway," he said sardonically.

But now the flak gunners and the last of the defending aircraft had noticed him, and he had ample further use for both fore and aft gunnery as he fought back with half-mad ferocity.

[CPT_J_Percell]

"Count again sparky!" Wilfred shouted over the radio, "One of them is me and oh scratch one more!" he finished and he sent another on a one way trip to the sea.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam said quietly   "We should close ranks.  I could pick them off more easily if the others would draw them in."   He didn't offer this to be heard, so much as thinking out loud.

[Stella Gaslight]

Donna looked back at him and smiled..   "You are not bad at running a squad.  I should take you dancing to see if you do as good on the ground.  Dog to Duck and Greenie  Liam says we should circle the wagons and I think he is right. We can whip them good and get home for lunch."  She had not realized how long ago the dinner after the club really was.

There was laughter over the radio from Jace.  "The ladies belly has spoken.  Aces lets give it all we have."

[MWBailey]

Roger Dodger, Al replied, tucking in to port of Jace; looking at the aft machinegun through the pilot's in-cabin rearview, he saw that the level of teh ammo belt in the box that hung on the side of the Vickers-Browning gun was still about half-full. "I've still got half a box of ammo on the rear gun," he added, so I can set 'er up for flank coverage."

He did so, setting the interruption gear so that the gun could not be turned to starboard unless he pulled the release lever that controlled the stop for that side. The gun was mounted so that it could not quite fire in the exact direction of teh Duck's wings or fuselage; the azimuth gimball was simply not made to do so, which was a good thing, Al had always thought. It was capable of shooting just aft of the trailing corners of the biplane's wings, though, which feature he had used to nastily surpise several attackers who thought they were safe if they stayed in the forward oblique positions; a shimmy to the opposite side from which the gun was pointed had often taught an unwary opponent the error of such tactics.

"Fire away, kid!" He broadcasted.