Angel Flight

Los Angeles

There are easy times in life. There are hard times in life. There's times of peace, and times to make war. I like peace myself. Always have. But there's no use in going halfway when it comes to war. Win or lose, live or die, they're just sides of the same coin. And I will never toss that coin randomly. I will stack the deck, I will use loaded dice, and I will do everything else it takes to make certain that the odds are ever in my favor. Cause if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.

Los Angeles

The explosions faded, the wreckage of shattered missiles drifted away, and Jack's displays cleared, showing him the British dreadnoughts anchoring the heart of Third Fleet's wall of battle. They were not the largest ships he'd ever seen, or the most powerful, but the British built them tough.

Jack knew Vanguard well. He'd escorted her in battle multiple times during the Alpha Centauri campaigns, and it hurt to see her torn armor. Air and wreckage streamed from her flank, but the displays confirmed she was already beginning to stabilize her deflection grid again. She had power, her point defense grid continued to fire at the main Shang attack, and she continued to maneuver. Jack let out a long breath in relief.

He didn't know Valiant, so didn't care about her wounds as much. But he still winced at the pair of dead engines, and the open wound that had been her flank. She'd taken the lion's share of the missiles, and she must have lost multiple reactors. The displays showed her deflection grid beginning to lose all remaining cohesion. If it kept up like that, the grid would fail completely in less than a minute, leaving the behemoth hideously vulnerable to attack.

Victorious and Victory were damaged too, but their deflection grids began reforming as he watched, hazy shells of twisted gravity on his displays. They moved to interpose themselves between Valiant and the Shang missiles getting far too close for comfort, and he saw their point defense batteries going to rapid fire. They would do their duty, giving their wounded sister time to repair her shattered systems, or die trying. Jack nodded his head in respect towards the two ships before looking back to Vanguard. The displays showed she was moving the wall of battle forward into a wedge formation, taking the point herself. That took serious courage.

The punishment those leviathans could absorb and keep fighting was truly amazing, but even they were not indestructible. And their smaller escorts were far more fragile. Five destroyers and eight frigates were dead, including all of Valiant's dedicated escorts. Several dozen close in fighters were done too, though only two pilots had died with them.

He shook his head and scanned the displays concerned with matters a bit closer to home. He was down two Avengers, all of them drones. Thank God for that. The Cowboys in total had lost eleven fighters, but all of his pilots remained. It could have been worse. Much, much worse.

He tore his eyes away from the displays to look at Amparo. "How are you?"

Durango's cyber winced. "I've been better, but I'm alive." Her smile took on a forced appearance, and a quick glance at the display showed the torn armor down the American battleship's flanks.

"I like you alive," Jack said. "It beats the frak out of the alternative."

"It sure does." Amparo sighed and shook her head. "Can I ask you to do something for me?"

"Your wish is my command," Jack said with an expansive wave of a hand.

Amparo pursed her lips, as if worrying about his answer. "I need you to run away."

Jack almost growled. He did scowl, and his eyes narrowed. "Like hell," he objected, his tone belligerent.

Amparo smiled at the response and nodded. "I hoped you'd see it that way."