[*M]bzerkbzerk wrote:
[*M]bzerkbzerk wrote: It was a cold February evening when I arrived in the Misfits base of operation after a long arduous journey. There was a fine mist in the air, the kind that causes the glow from distant light to appear ghostly. I could hear the faint sound of laughter and music coming from a sparsely lit solitary building on the edge of the airfield.
Instinctively I approached until I stood in front of what could only be best described as a wooden shack held together with tacks and tape, above the eave it read ACEHOLE. I reached for the tattered rope handle and pulled the wooden door, which had seen better days as ordinance crates and entered. Directly across the small room in large print read, "Welcome to the Misfits everyone else can catch our lead".
Four pilots sat at the make shift bar, which was made from the remnants of the top wing of a downed enemy Spad, bullet holes included. Drinking spirits, although it smelled more of piss and vinegar from some home made brew in the dark corner of some tent. In unison, they all turned and stared directly into my eyes, each having the same cold hard as steel glare. What have I gotten myself into? I thought. As if rehearsed, they raised their mugs one by one until each held them above their heads and announced, "welcome to the Misfits".
I awoke the next morning, at least I think it was morning and the next day. In a deep voice I heard, wakey, wakey noob, time to see what kind of flying skill you have. I sat up and instantly felt a vice like grip on my temples and must have winced a bit as again that deep voice thundered in my head, yep, that's the kool aide effect he said as he chuckled and said, I'm foust you have 10 minutes to get your butt to the field.
Kool aide and who the, what the hell happened? vaguely recalling the events of last. Welcomed to the squad with my first drink of what tasted like turpentine stripping the layers away from my throat as I swallowed. Maybe I was a bit hammered, but I swear I recall a huge green flash across the room, followed by a large crash and, and then hulk not so smart followed by laughter. Yeah, I must have been hammered.
After splashing my face with cold water, I was surprised to see in the mirror that I still had my uniform on from the previous night, wow must have been a pour me into my cot night. What the hell is this, black and yellow stretchy pants, no time to ask, couple minutes to get to the field.
Walking (stumbling)towards the row of planes that sat at the other end of the field, near the hangar tents, I could see foust already mounted inside his Siemens. To his right with the prop spinning, sat an Albatros, assuming this is my ride I approached to find bzerkbzerk just below the cockpit. Again that deep laugh over the engine noise and foust yelling, you don't remember do you bzerk, tell you later, let's fly.
Quick familiarization of the controls, wheel brakes set, wave to have chocks removed and throttled up, following just to the right and slightly behind foust, we bounced down the field, wheels up.
We climbed to 500 and leveled off, I was able to see the lush valley below surrounded by hills on either side. After a few minutes, foust glanced over his right shoulder with his arm waving a follow me signal.
We rolled left and inverted, dove toward the valley, continuing the roll and leveling at 200 until we lined up on a sole tank in the distance. Again with the signal to follow and another to begin a run on the tank, I followed just above and behind him avoiding his turbulence.
Foust pulled up and rolled right as I pressed on towards my target, wanting to make an impression, I lined up on the tank. Centered in my gun sight I began my run, should be easy as it was stationary. I dipped my nose slightly as I approached and released my bomb, looking over my right shoulder I watched it's decent, at the last second the tank lurched backwards and my bomb exploded 30ft in front of it sending grass and mud in all directions.
Foust reappeared off my right wing frantically waving the RTB signal and I fell in line to return to base. I parked my plane and set the brake and shut her down. Climbed out of the cockpit to see that foust had already made it into the munitions hangar. His arms flailing around in the air like a mad man, while circling some young tech like a predator yelling some profanities that were barely audible from my location. Dumb A** something Bat terd sum of a box I think he was saying.
I decided it best to leave it be until he finished his rant and found a lone tree that had seen better days as it was scarred from many attacks on our base. It had a lonely branch, scorched by fire that provided just enough shade and a crater next to it, a comfy place to sit.
After a few minutes, may have been longer as I dozed off, I heard someone say, soo you're the new guy! bzerkbzerk. Heard you nearly got a tank today during an eval flight. I looked up to see this guy standing over me, his hair standing on end and held in place by dried mud, his uniform covered in mud from the waist up and his face obscured from the filth. I could barely make out a name on his badge, T-butt I believe it read.
Yes I said, if that tank had stayed in place it would be a pile of rubble right now. Yes it would he said and so would I, that was my tank and if I hadn't sneezed at the last second, pulling back on the controls, I wouldn't be standing here.
Listen T-butt I had no idea. T-butt he burst out laughing as he looked at his badge brushing away the filth and said, it wasn't your fault. Someone put a live bomb under your bird instead of a dummy bomb. It's T-built not T-butt, you're definitely a Misfit welcome to the squad. I nearly take this guy out and he's laughing and welcoming me, found a good home. Still have to get to this bzerkbzerk thing, that's for another day.