So I'm scrambling to defend a base in LWO, and as I'm vectoring out on my climb I see three dots coming in, definitely hostiles. All the other friendlies are back at base dealing with a Nit tank rush, so I turn back for home, continuing my climb hoping to get above the bad guys and buy enough time to get some help.
Well, as I'm watching, something seems odd, as the bogies aren't coming straight in. Rather, it seems as if they were in the middle of a fight, which pulls them down to the deck. Curious, and handed an altitude advantage, I decide to check things out.
As I draw closer I pick up their cons. A Nit Spitfire and Ki-84, ganging on a Bish Spitfire. The lone Bish is now running out on the deck for all he's worth, and neither Nit con seemed to have any idea I was there as they're headed away from me.
As I'm otherwise clear, and with plenty of alt, I roll in targeting the Ki, which at this point is the trailer. I'm coming in hot, and either the Frank sees me, or decides to give up on his pursuit of the lone Bish, as he pulls off to the right and begins to climb. I have plenty of E at this point, so press my run on the Nit Spitfire, who is continuing his pursuit of the Bish (in retrospect, the two Nits at least must have never seen me coming, as the Spit made no effort to evade until I had already closed to gun range and lined him up). One quick burst is all it took to flame the Nit Spixteen, and as he went down I pulled off into a hard climbing turn to the left to regain my altitude while watching for the Frank, as I was expecting him to have tried to come to his wingman's rescue. There's no sign of him, however the Bish Spixteen, whose tail I just cleared, has apparently decided now was a good time to engage, as he has reversed and is climbing hard on my six.
Seeing as it was just the two of us, I enter a shallow diving turn to the left to regain some airspeed, then gradually tightened it up into a low-Yo until I had reversed. While I attempted to keep out of phase to dodge the HO (rudder and negative-Gs) the Spit made every effort to FORCE it, not only on the first pass, but EVERY time we came around on each other and I got guns on him the Spit tried to force a HO, at one point managing to land some hits that perforated my main tank and knocked out one of my landing gear (I was in my 1A, so still had my wing tank reserves. Good thing, too, 'cause he got my tank GOOD and it was empty only a minute or two later). Finally as we came around again, I had just enough angle that I could fire from slightly high on his front-quarter without him getting a shot in return, and shredded one of his wings.
Thing is, thinking that Frank was still out there--and now with altitude--I was perfectly happy to take my one kill and let the Bish bug for home after dusting off his six. What away to show one's gratitude.
Tell you what, sometimes it just doesn't pay to be the nice guy.
