Enemy Ace: War in Heaven - Part 2 of 2

[espanolbot]

Previous part,
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5227136.html

The timeline skips forward to 1945, with Hans' unit having been transfered back to a dying Germany some time ago in a vain attempt to stop the American and British bombing of German cities. This happens to be something of an impossible task for Hans and his people, as they're not only getting out produced by the Allies but they're also starting to run out of fuel, spare parts and food as the War rolls on...





Later in a fire fight against some American fighters, Hans is shot down once again... causing him to land directly within a part of the Nazi regime that he'd managed to remain ignorant about until this point...








Pieter explains that, unlike Hans, both himself and the German people had lived through the fallout of the First World War, with the rest of the world seemingly taking out their hatred on them. Then Hitler showed up, claiming that what they had lost had actually been stolen from them by an enemy within... and this allowed him to turn some of them into his curs while the rest just looked the other way... Which Pieter says means that they're all guilty, in one form or another.

And yet, Pieter says how can he surrender while the creature in Berlin still lives, with their German dead littering the streets, while he still has a weapon like the jet to defend them? The mark of a soldier, says Pieter, is someone who fights for his people and his comrades, NOT for an ideology or for his leaders. This makes Hans remark that he always fought because he thought that it was the only thing he was ever good at.

Pieter says that he knows, and that he used to have nightmares of someone working out how to mass produce people like Hans von Hammer. Thousands of "perfect killers" as if on some kind of production line. A view seemingly changed by Hans' reaction to the horrors he's seem over the past few years.

An alarm sounds, another wave of bombers is coming, so Pieter and Hans depart with their unit. In the resulting air battle, Pieter dies, and in his anger Hans shoots down some more of the bombers, until he sees the actual men inside. Wounded and patched up to the best of the abilities of those inside.

He flies back to base, where after a while his head mechanic tells him that they've run out of parts for their jet fighters at last, but he might be able to scavenge compotents from the thoroughly damaged craft to repair the others... Hans thanks him for his hard work, then hands him a bottle of wine and orders him to go and get drunk.

He goes out into the airfield, once again seeing his "black dog" lurking in the nearby woods. He tells the thing he doesn't want to do this any more, and the creature slinks off into the darkness. He mutters to himself that he can't surrender before the German people... not yet.

Later, he has his men and their aircraft arranged out on the converted piece of autobaum that they've been having for an airstrip and await the Americans.

Comments

[ozaline]

I'm not quite sure why he went from wanting to turn over his plane, to destroying all the planes...

But this seems like a good story, and not as cynical as I expect from Ennis.

[espanolbot]

He originally wanted to surrender in order to stop the Nazis, to deciding to go with Pieter/Peter's reasoning that turning over the planes to the Americans would lead to more civilian deaths. Could be argued that helping the war end faster by handing the jets over would have made more sense, but he was following the wishes of his recently dead best friend, so logic probably didn't play into it.

[cainofdreaming]

If they didn't have the parts to keep them in the air... well, the Americans would have to reverse engineer, create new assemblies, deliver those parts and new planes and all kinds of other logistical stuff. I doubt that at this point of war there would be enough time for the planes to affect it.

[dcbanacek]

By this point just about everybody already had jets. It was just easier to keep using the prop planes.

[cainofdreaming]

There's a bit difference between having the tech and having an operational plane, though. Most of the Allies' tries at making a jet didn't reach that stage until '45.

[janegray]

Ok, I laughed out loud at "oh my God, what a terrible accident" :D

[drtechnobabel]

Yeah, I can't imagine that line being delivered in any way other than the driest, most sarcastic deadpan possible.

[glprime]

Yeah, that got a bit hammy, but it fits with Pieter so damn well. He keeps the gallows humor going, doesn't he? Poor von Hammer. Last of the Old Guard stuck serving the New. Just doesn't know how until it's too late how damned they truly are.

[shadur]

Perfect example of the "Oops, sorry sir!" rule in action.

[tugrul]

Ennis wrote this? This is so…… composed. o_0

[espanolbot]

He generally is when he's writing something that interests him. :)