O'Neill was a great bomber, but was probably least skilled in dog-fighting. The fact of the matter is that few jet fighter pilots get the opportunity to engage in an actual dog-fight. So it was something that wasn't valued as much as bombing skills. As previously noted, O'Neill's bombing skills were second to none.
The three bandits seemed to focus their efforts directly on O'Neill's plane. I am not sure if they targeted him out of random or if he had been tagged from below, based upon the damage he had done on the ground thus far.
Two of the bandits approached him from behind and the third just off to his left-hand position. He jerked the fighter jet from left to hard right, then pushed the jet into a barrel roll and pulled back hard on the flight stick to try to shake the enemy.
When he leveled with the horizon, he heard the missile lock alarm sound. He immediately dumped all the CM that he could, but it was too late.
The missile hit and destroyed his left engine. His plane was going down. Psycho saw the hit and watched the plane disappear out of sight. There was certainly no recovery for the fighter. O'Neill would certainly need to eject to safety. However, ejecting to safety was targeted right in the middle of a huge Korean People's Army (KPA) stronghold.
Psycho received word from JSOC. O'Neill's plane had crashed less than a few miles from his position. Sierra 2 was down. Still no word from O'Neill yet.
Emerson from JSOC indicated that the camera aboard Sierra 2 snapped some interesting intel photos prior to the dogfight.
The photos stopped downloading shortly after the missile strike to the engine of the fighter. However, it appears some action was taking place at a harbor near by.
It was unclear who was involved in the action, but there appeared to be some heavy fighting going on. The heat-thermo reading on the image centered on the blast shows an explosion the equivalent of about ten C-4 explosive packs. Things were certainly heated in this area.
The pictures did not tell enough about what was going on. However, the remaining photos inside the camera of Sierra 2 may tell more of the story.
Psycho wanted to find out the status of O'Neill. He wanted to rescue him as a first priority. However, his orders were to secure the camera.
In the back of his mind, he wondered the fate of his fellow soldier. He wondered if they had chatted for the last time, during the battle for the beach resort. Had he acted better or quicker, would Sierra 2 still be high above the skies? Psycho could not help but try to place some of the blame on his own shoulders.
Time to head towards that camera.
