Creative Team
Script: Larry Hama, Pencils: Rod Whigham, Inks: Andy
Mushynsky, Lettering: Rick Parker, Colors: George
Roussos, Editor: Denny O'Neil, Editor-in-Chief: Jim
Shooter
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| Long Summary
At McGuire Air Force Base, Ace is taking Lady Jaye up for
a flight on a newly upgraded Skystriker. At
Springfield Municipal Airport, Wild Weasel is taking
the Baroness up on a newly upgraded Rattler. Little
do they know, their paths will cross.
Early on, Ace shows Lady Jaye how the Skystriker's radar
filters out civilian aircraft and vehicles. They
easily avoid a civilian passenger jet. At the same
time, Wild Weasel shows the Baroness how the Rattler
can fly extremely low to the ground and automatically
avoid obstacles. They follow along a highway and
dodge overpasses. While along the highway, the
Baroness sees a blip on the radar, looks up and sees
the Skystriker flying far above. Luckily for the
Cobras, they are in the Joe's blind spot. Ace's radar
detector senses the radar blip, and he realizes
someone is in his blind spot. Wild Weasel initiates a
firing sequence and launches two missiles. Ace shoots
out two Electronic Counter Measures infra-red flares
which destroy the missiles, but the Skystriker still
gets a little damage. The right tail plane is
burning, and the transmission antenna is destroyed.
The Joes pull a three-gee turn and come up underneath
the Rattler. Ace fires the Vulcan 20 Mike-Mike
cannon, and shoots up the cockpit of the Cobra jet.
No one is hurt, because of the aircraft's titanium
steel armor.
Wild Weasel flies over neighborhoods, canceling Ace's
ability to fire missiles. The Baroness swivels around
the Rattler gun-turret, and blasts the Skystriker's
cockpit. Ace survives but his helmet is ravaged.
Lady Jaye is forced to take the controls until he can get
his helmet off. Wild Weasel flips around behind the
Joes and opens fire. Ace throws off his helmet and
hits the afterburners. The Joes rocket into the air.
The Cobras decide to take cover in the ground clutter
and stay low. Unknown to them, the Joe's new radar
can still see the Rattler while it flies in the same
direction. Ace flies up behind the Rattler, chasing
it out to sea. Just before Ace can fire his
missiles, Wild Weasel hits the brakes, causing Ace to
waste four missiles. The jets end up turning around
and facing each other. The Rattler fires four of its
missiles. The Skystriker plows into a hard right
turn, the missile's servos go out of whack, and they
miss.
The Rattler hugs the ground again, but makes a
ninety-degree turn, throwing it out of the
Skystriker's radar. Ace flips a coin to determine
which way to go. Luckily, he goes right. The Joes
find the Cobras flying over a junkyard. Ace figures
it'll be okay to fire missiles at a junkyard, and
pulls the trigger. Wild Weasel sees the missiles
coming, and fires all of his remaining missiles into
the ground. The huge explosion causes Ace's shots to
miss. The now missile-less aircraft are forced to
come head-on to each other and fire their rapid-fire
cannons. Unfortunately, neither one manages to finish
off the other. The two pilots realize that there is
nothing more that they can do except salute each other
as they fly by. Lady Jaye and the Baroness are enraged
that the two men are just letting things go and
returning to base. The pilots say nothing.
By Jeff Edburg
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