Kestrel down over Sector 2

At 05:52 this morning an HK-A Kestrel hit the ground in the Hornsey rail yards and did not get up. It burned until breakfast. I have been with the Front for six years and I have never heard a noise like the one Blackbird cell made when it went in.

How it was done

Blackbird spent three nights on it. They put a sacrificial valve transmitter on the signal box roof, broadcasting nothing but a loop of dogs barking, and strung steel cable between the two old gasholders across the approach, at exactly the height a Kestrel flies when it is hunting. Then they sat under a tarpaulin with Old Nell, a Bofors gun older than anyone's grandmother, and waited.

It came in at 05:49, low and fast, straight for the barking. It never saw the cable. The cable took its forward rotor, it slewed, and Old Nell put four rounds into the rear intake while it was still deciding which way was down. Corporal Ines Daly fired. She has been practising on pigeons for a year and she would like everyone to stop mentioning the pigeons.

It's not invincible. It's a very expensive kite with a bad attitude, and now it's a very expensive bonfire. (Cpl Ines Daly, Blackbird cell)

What we took

Once the fire was low enough, the salvage crews went in. Tinker_9 has the optic and is already swearing at it happily. The Chaplains have claimed two armour panels for a breastplate. The rest went to the Quartermaster, who wrote every piece down in a ledger, in pencil, as is right and proper.

Somebody brought an accordion. Somebody else brought tea. The Continuance will say tonight that a weather balloon was lost in high winds. Let them. Everyone who was in Hornsey this morning knows what they saw.

Every loop has an end. This one ended in the rail yards at 05:52, and it will not be the last.