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August 2024 Author Spotlight

First of all, thank you to all those who submitted for our September Author Spotlight. If you’re interested in submitting for October, click here.

This month, we’re proud to feature an excerpt from author, actor, and dancer Simon Brading’s book The Battle Over Britain. This steampunk revisionist World War II novel features aerial dog fights, a great female pilot hero, and thrilling action.

Look out for Simon’s episode of the Moxie Press Podcast this Thursday, September 5th.

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Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

The Battle Over Britain

by Simon Brading

Gwen resumed her scan of the sky, moving her eyes along the horizon from one side to the other, then completing the circuit by lifting her head to look overhead, avoiding the sun so as not to blind herself. The movement was not nearly as automatic as it should have been yet, she still had to tell herself to do it, but she knew that it would come, if she survived long enough; the more experienced pilots said as much.

In the middle of a scan she hesitated, blinking, as her mind tried to tell her something.

Had she seen something? She retraced her scan, going back the opposite way. There!

Was that a dot or just a speck of dust on her canopy?

She was about to slide a magnification lens down over her goggles to take a better look when she was interrupted by a call over the radio.

“Close formation, please, Patin Three.”

A quick glance to the side showed that while she had been searching for the dot in the sky she had let a gap open up between herself and the squadron leader’s aircraft, in turn forcing “Patin Four” to move over with her.

A few soft nudges on her rudder pedals was all it took to put her aircraft back into formation and she cursed Berty Withers silently before keying her microphone.

“Apologies, Leader.”

Gwen’s attention had been elsewhere for less than ten seconds, but when she lifted her eyes to seek out the dot overhead it had grown into an aircraft and spouted fire.

“Break!”

She threw her spring into maximum unwind, simultaneously pulled back on the stick to try to get out from between the two Harridans flanking her.

Her warning came far too late as tracer rounds were already penetrating the small formation.

The effect was instantaneous as the armour piercing ammunition of the Prussians ripped half of the squadron leader’s wing off and he spun and went into a dive, narrowly missing Patin Two. Her own aircraft didn’t come through unscathed either and it shuddered as at least two rounds struck it, opening up gaping holes in the metal of her left wing and damaging the frame beneath.

She had no idea how the other two aircraft in her flight fared, though, and she had no time to look for them as she threw her machine onto its wing and turned sharply after the Fleas.

There were four of them, Muhlenberg MU9’s, agile fighters that had accounted for far too many pilots and aircraft over France.

Gwen had a few of seconds before they closed back into range and she used one to glance over her shoulder and look for the rest of her flight - there was no sign of them, but she thought she saw a flash of white far below, possibly from a glidewing.

She had no time to keep searching for them, though, because the MU9’s were fast approaching.

Instead of climbing back into the sky they had banked and were coming around to get another shot at their victims, obviously supremely confident in their advantage and intending to turn fight.

Gwen grimaced; the Harridan was a wonderful gun platform, stable and capable of accurately delivering a weight of metal that rivalled the Frigates of the Napoleonic Conflict and was more than enough to take down bombers and heavy fighters. It was also fairly manoeuvrable and could out turn even a Spitsteam under certain conditions, but the MU9’s were reportedly far more nimble and under normal circumstances she couldn’t possibly hope to take on four of them.

Fortunately, though, she had an ace up her sleeve - she reached under her seat to a hidden panel, feeling the four switches there and flicked the one on the far right, praying that the modifications she had secretly made to the wings in the dead of the night over four long weeks hadn’t been damaged by the two hits her machine had taken.

She was relieved to hear a high-pitched whirring sound as the small springs uncoiled, extending panels from the wings and altering their configuration. Now she just had to hope that having the odds in their favour and better machines would make the Fleas so sure of their victory that they would become complacent and make a mistake.

Whether they hadn’t been expecting such a quick reaction on her part or they were just as inexperienced as she was, the enemy pilots had already made their first mistake by turning the way they had; instead of banking to come around behind her they had turned the other way and her increased rate of turn meant that she was inside them.

One by one the four aircraft came into range. She was unable to get all of them in her sights because they were at different altitudes, but two of them lazily crossed through her sights and she thumbed the button on her stick, holding it down for almost two seconds.

For the first time ever she fired in combat. The first of her rounds passed harmlessly in front of her intended target because she had overcompensated and led her target too far, but then the Flea obliged her by flying into the stream.

The enemy aircraft disintegrated, literally coming apart in the air.

Stunned, Gwen froze.

She had just killed someone.

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Moxie Press does not own the work showcased in our monthly author spotlights, nor does Moxie Press make any commission on the sale of the author’s work. All works are the sole property of their authors.