Someone else already mentioned it, but i'll say it too: Honor in some pilots does exist, but you can never expect it. Let people off the hook if you really want to and you think they've deserved it somehow, but NEVER expect someone to do it to you.
IMO, letting someone off the hook gives them an opportunity to become a threat to you again. Once you have someone on the rocks, only a sentimental fool lets them go. Of course if they can not be a threat once you let em go, eg they're on fire or engine stopped etc, then thats a different mattter and letting them go/ditch becomes an option if you really want. A smoke trail just means you didnt do your job properly.
It seems you bought this situation on yourself anyway. You go into a hot zone, out-numbered, out-E'd, and get tagged then turn tail and try escape and fail. Not to mention how you got tagged. I never understand the people who say 'i wont fire on a HO if they arent firing'. Thats just weird. Firstly, most of the time its over too fast to make those sort of decisions - if you see them firing, you've left it too late to retaliate anyways, so you've opened yourself up to getting hit with nothing to show for it. Secondly, some people (like me) fly with tracers off, so you wont see it anyways. Thirdly, why the hang are you flying straight at another aircraft till you pass HO anyway??? You're giving up valuable maneuvering time. When i see these "cold-merger" types in the MA, i give em a good squirt as they fly by. It aint the DA, we aint dueling. If you don't defend yourself at all times, then you're asking for it, IMO.
