So to digress a few years.As we all know the little people and
Vladimir Lenin had reached a agreement in 1921 whereby the fairies
sprinkled fairy dust about in order to keep Lenin's dream afloat.In
exchange the proletariat devoted some of that factory and farm work
to making goods and services that cranked a little person's heart.
The arrangement lasted decades,till in 1986 the little peoples
got involved in various civil global spanning wars that tore apart
fairy society.Not surprisingly the USSR fell apart shortly thereafter.
Now back in 1990 a brownie who styled himself as a
Napoleon Bonaparte,and called himself Emperor Diablo,had sent his
armies to finish off the remaining defeated forces of the Polish Free
Allied Coalition Gremlins,and the gremlins and the Allies were stuck on the
beaches of Dunkirk,waiting for Diablo's dragon air corp to crisp them and their
wives and kids.
There was no "citizens navy" of motorboats around to rescue the wee
folk this time round.
Back in 1987 the future Commodore Furball had been a unassuming gremlin
who'd got caught in a pixie dustbomb explosion that had left him with a excess of hair
growong out of his scales,a loss of voice,and a raging desire to get his revenge on
Diablo.After all,Mrs Furball had dissolved in that dustbomb,leaving Mr Furball to raise
the kids.
So when the higher up gremlins had asked for volunteers to check out the condition
of a fleet of WWII aeroplanes that lay hidden near a mothballed Inglis plant in the
hills and swamps of Scotland,Mr Furball,the gremlin with a hair problem,joined up.
It seems the little people had also done work for the British mortals who'd ferried
spies,sabateurs and secret agents into occupied France.The wee folk were listed in
the records as "maintenance crew" and spent their time winging over B17's ,Norsemen
Nordyns,C47's etc sprinkling them with pixie dust to give the secret operations
air base that extra bit of luck that kept them running and in flightworthy condition.
Then in 1944,the spy ring that Inglis Air Base serve,Archdeacon,was infilitrated by the
Abewehr and shortly thereafter the British Army mortals had had the wee folk give one last
good pixie dust 'oil change' to the mothballed air fleet.
Since then the woods and heather had concealed the Inglis factory and the IAB
and the mortals had forgotten all about the secret hidden by the green cover,except for
Scotland Electrical Networks,which still puzzled over the drain in the electrical grid and
customer account 33-999 .
So it was that Mr Furball and the other gremlins had finally hacked their way through
the Scottish thorns and ivy,to come apon a most beautiful sight,a pristine airfield of
aeroplanes just needing fueling,pull the chocks and take off.The pixie dust had held out
all these decades.
By this time Diablos forces were poised to wipe out the Allied-Coalition
and the countless refugee fairies huddled by the beach head.
So those aeroplanes were desperately needed,to rescue the wee folk on the
other side of the Channel.
All looked fine and promising,and soon the gremlins with the most aptitude
for flying these mortal aeroplanes were assigned their craft.
Mr Furball,to his surprise,found himself promoted to Captain Furball,
pilot of a generally avoided Fokker trimotor named "Silly Willy",which was
parked at the end of the row.
Naturally all the gremlins wanted a nifty B-29 Superfortress,but Captain
Furball walked with his assigned crew of gremlins,gnomes and assorted wee
folk to Silly Willy.
The aeroplane got its name from a image painted on its nose of Kaiser
Wilhelm slipping on a banana peel and shoving a booted foot into Adolph's nose.
The aeroplane looked bad.The paint was peeling,the puddles of oil under the
engine and the half flat tires said Silly Willy hadn't got a full quart of pixie dust decades
earlier.
Now Mrs Furball,on their wedding day,can given Mr Furball a heart shaped locket
filled with pixie dust,to give him that extra bit of pixie luck.
Captain Furball decided the aeroplane needed the pixie dust more then he did.
So he dumped Mrs Furballs parting gift to him down the oil spout and heard the
chiming pixie noise as the dust settled into the oil.
Then he and his assigned wee folk started harassing the other gremlins for
aviation fuel,tire pumps etc as they gave the Fokker some TLC.
All the other gremlins did was sit in the Officers Mess and trash the kitchen,
except for a few who bragged and gloated to each another about the warrior prowess
of their mortal aeroplanes.
Then over the airbases PA system came the Gremlin General telling them
the folks on Dunkirk Beach really needed to be rescued,and thousands of foot tall
gremlins,gnomes,brownies and wee folk streamed across the tarmac to their
aeroplanes and the thousand plane armada was ready for takeoff.
Now the General had already found himself a Super Fortress to take
charge of,and so as he swept his sword forward and shrieked "Charge"
about three hundred or so starters were engaged and soon the air was deafened
with the shriek of seizing engines,blown oil pumps,disintegrating tires and sagging
airframes.
The pixie dust keeping the secret airforce in pristine condition was
past its " Good To" date.
In a manner of minutes hundreds of mothballed aeroplanes lay in rusty seized
ruins.
Except for one.Silly Willy.The Ugly Duckling.
Captain Furball and his crew had been still studying this mortal contraption
and in all the cacophany of dying aeroplanes,lay in frozen terror.
Suddenly thousands of wee folk eyes gazed at the Fokker.It was time
for Captain Furball to wreck his charge.He blinked his reptillian red eyes,and gazed
fearfully at the main engines starter lever.
His co-pilot,a gremlin,squawked "No" and pointed at the emergency starter
tube and the shells that were bound in the webbing near the first aid box.
<Lets not repeat everyone elses mistake> was the understanding.
So Captain Furball slid a cartridge in the starter tube,signalled <Contact>
and struck the firing pin with a wrench.
There was a bang and then the Fokkers main engine began to putter and
sputter and bang away.
The gnome assigned control of the Choke1 and Fuel 1and Magneto 1
levers shrieked as the cockpit began to shake as the engine began to speed up
and he realized "We've Got a Live One"
Soon everyone was jabbering away as they frantically got about their
assigned tasks and soon Engines 2 and 3 were also up and running as the
Silly Willy's systems warmed up.
Captain Furball looked out the window,to see a jeep racing towards
his aeroplane,with the jabbering General aboard,eager to take command
of his mortal aeroplane.
<Sod You> thought Captain Furball,as he barked orders for his engine
crew to open up the throttles,and soon the Silly Willy was
weaving and bobbing down the runway,engines roaring as it sped along,
gaining speed,with the jabbering General's jeep in frantic pursuit...