The airship S.S. Stormcloud and its carried 'Thunderbolt' Squadron was only a day away from its goal of reaching Sumatra after 6 days of crossing the vast Pacific Ocean when the pilots of Second Flight; on routine patrol that afternoon, suddenly saw half-a-dozen appraoching aircraft. The aircraft didn't respond to radio hails and as they got close enough; the rag-tag color schemes and lack of national markings meant they probably belonged to a Pirate band.
The aircraft were small, stubby and quite fast and were on an Intercept course to the Zeppelin. LT Jean-Claude Oulette, leading the Flight knew that the 3 fighters of First Flight, whom his own Flight had relieved of Patrol duties a mere 10 minutes before, would need more time to refuel before they could be launched to aide them; so his mind began to race furiously about how best to handle the situation. It raced all the more furiously after Squadron Leader Chalifoux called out over the radio for crewmen aboard the Zeppelin to man the machine-guns on the engine nacelles and front and dorsal turrets and then assigned Second Flight to do thier best to protect the Stormcloud until First Flight could help them out.
Che Curador called excitedly over the radio; "Those planes are I-16s! The Russians make them and sold a bunch of them to the Republicans in Spain to use against the Nationalists. They're quick, agile and tough…but are only lightly armed with a couple of Light machineguns firing through the prop."
The half-dozen Pirate I-16s split into 2 groups of three planes; one headed for Second Flight while the other split out and appeared to be attempting to go around Second Flight to make an attack run on the Zeppelin. It was turning out to be an interesting day….
