WesWorld

Cue Music:

Duuun dun duuun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun BOM BOM dun dun dun dun dun dun doo dedoo doo dedoo dede doo dede doo dededoo

:D

Lieutenant Kiersereau consulted his gauges. The HD.790 was at full power now, and it didn't feel like he was gaining any more on the intruder. He reported this fact back to the tender.

"Just keep him in sight," the tender's air officer replied. "Go ahead and use your water injection if you have to. We've got some friends outbound from the mainlaind."

"Affirmative," Kiersereau replied. He judged the distance to the twin-engine plane again. I'm not falling behind, but I'm definitely not overtaking anymore. Time to get a bit more... power... He stopped trying to climb to altitude and focused on keeping up, opening the throttle further, pulling the handle through the thin metal wires that served as the full power stops. With the throttle past all the stops, the Hispano-Suiza engine started injecting water through the derichment valves, cooling the engine and providing an extra hundred horsepower. It wasn't an ideal solution - the engine would need to be overhauled on Kiersereau's return to make sure it hadn't been damaged by the time at full power.

In a normal D.525, Kiersereau would have overtaken the recon plane in another minute or two; but the HD.790 still had all the drag from its floats. "Well," Kiersereau reported, "Engaged water injection and I'm keeping up. But I've only got four minutes before I need to drop power back to normal levels again. Are these outbound friends going to be able to catch up by then?"

"Yes," the controller replied cryptically. "Just report any course changes."

Lieutenant Kiersereau watched the suspicious aircraft start drawing ahead of him, and he clicked on the radio. "Flight Control, he's picking up speed again. I'm not going to be able to maintain visual much longer."

"We understand," Control said. "We're picking him up out of Da Nang, now. Two fighters from the Operational Training Unit should be in sight momentarily."

"What's the Operational Training Unit?" Kiersereau asked. He'd never heard of them.

Control ignored the question. "Switch to channel seven and report course and speed."

Kiersereau switched radio channels. "Tramontane Three reporting as requested - still in visual range of bogey."

Another pilot answered. "Affirmative. Current vector?"

"Course two-seven-zero, altitude seven steady, three hundred fifty knots estimated."

"Two, check your eleven o'clock..." the OTU replied. "Tramontane Three, you can drop pursuit when you wish."

"Affirmative," Kiersereau answered. He looked west and saw a flash of silver wings in the distance - maneuvering aircraft, winging over to swoop around behind the intruder. What drew his attention were the contrails - the newcomers were moving fast...



"I've got him on visual, boss," Two reported. "Eleven o'clock low."

Lieutenant Colonel Matthieu checked his visual, hunting until he saw the intruder. "Right, spotted. Two, go ahead and drop in on his port wingtip. I'll take position on his six o'clock." Matthieu's wingman was a captain in the Indochinese Air Defense Force, and given the tone of conversations around the pilot's cafes in Da Nang, the colonel was leery of putting him on the tail of a Chinese aircraft.

After all, Matthieau's two jet-powered VG.640 Graouillys had live ammo loaded. Accidents might happen.

The two Graouillys turned in, banking to swing around on the recon aircraft's tail. They'd built up enough altitude and speed to bleed it off during the turn, and so even as Matthieau came out of the turn, he had just matched speed with the intruder.

"Identified as Chinese Gangchuan A-6," Matthieu reported. "We're going to shake him down, Control."

"Maintain rules of engagement," Da Nang replied.

"Yes, Mother," Matthieu replied sarcastically, charging his twin 23mm cannon.

Da Nang sounded vaguely alarmed. "Moineau One, report."

"Don't worry about it, Da Nang," Matthieu replied. He dropped in on the tail of the Gangchuan, settled his gunsight on the fuselage, and closed to a paltry twenty meters range. Turbulence from the larger aircraft buffeted the smaller jet, but Matthieu had twenty-three years of experience in some of the most challenging aircraft in the French inventory.

The second Graouilly slid past, taking up position only ten meters off the A-6's wing - positioning himself so that the Chinese pilot and any crewmen in the glazed nose would have a hard time seeing details of his plane, even though they'd know he was there. It was a pretty bit of formation flying; but Matthieu really hoped the Chinese were professional enough not to crack. At such close ranges, a careless maneuver on the part of the Gangchuan's pilot might result in a midair collision.

Quoted

"Maintain rules of engagement," Da Nang replied.

"Yes, Mother," Matthieu replied sarcastically, charging his twin 23mm cannon.

No, not the "shoot first, ask questions later" rules of engagement, the other rules of engagement.

Quoted from "Rooijen10"

No, not the "shoot first, ask questions later" rules of engagement, the other rules of engagement. :D

The only question we need to ask is "To whom do we send flowers?" :P

(Matthieu's RoE, incidentally, is "Don't shoot first/cause an international incident", but it gives him the authority to fire warning shots in certain situations.)