Jack of Harts

Epsilon Reticuli was supposed to be the finale of our Russian Campaign. We sent what was possibly our most powerful fleet to crush their largest fleet base, and Aneerin sent six of us Cowboys to support the assault. To protect the fleet. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing, you understand, and he told the Alliance they shouldn’t do it. They didn’t listen, so he trusted me to help the fleet if things fell through. Well, we walked into a trap, and I got everybody out that I could. It might have been the largest fleet battle I’d seen at the time. We could practically walk across the missile volleys. Louis Mattioli didn’t manage it. One moment he was guarding one of our best cruisers, the next he and the cruiser was an expanding fireball. We lost a lot of good men and women that day. And a lot of good ships. Though not all of them stayed dead. And some of their deaths were greatly exaggerated. But that is another story.

Procyon was the key to our first offensive campaign of The War. The Russians had decided to involve themselves in The War with the Shang and their Chinese puppets, and so the Western Alliance decided to show them how bad an idea that was. Louis Mattioli was right there at my side through most of that offensive. We argued about everything from politics to religion. Star Trek or Star Wars. Whether a proper sky was blue or red. You name it, we argued about it. But when it came to shooting Russians, we were always in sync. And one of the things he’d picked up on Mars was a fluency in Russian that was impressive. He could pass for a native speaker, and he used that more than once to confuse the enemy. Can’t tell you how many times he got onto their command channels and ordered some poor Ivan out of position before taking advantage of the momentary confusion. The man was an artist at confusing our foes, and it was a pleasure to watch him work.

Louis Mattioli actually lived on Alpha Centauri when The War began. He still had his practice on Mars, but had been building a new one in the Alpha Centauri Trinary System for decades. He owned a swift courier ship for taking trips back and forth between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Well, his firm did. Same difference. He could fly to Mars, argue a case, and then go to a party at one of the various governors’ estates to hobnob with the other rich and famous. Then he’d fly back to Alpha Centauri and do the same thing over there. He had one of the largest mansions in Landing City and hosted his own parties as well. Trust me. I’ve seen a few of them, and his was seriously amazing. Still is, I suppose, not that I’ve been there in a while. That kind of thing happens when a relationship gets as sour as ours did.