When I was a kid, the only things that interested me were girls and partying with friends.\u00a0 We never thought about war.\u00a0 Who would ever attack us?\u00a0 The answer of course was the Shang.\u00a0 After that, we all volunteered, expecting a Short, Victorious, War against the alien menace.\u00a0 Instead, we got War Without End.\u00a0 You learn the measure of friends in times like those.\u00a0 True friends stand beside you, and you beside them, in the eternities of boredom and instants of terror that defined The War.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo pair,\u201d Swan said with a smile and dropped her cards on the table.<\/p>\n
Jack Hart scowled at the two kings and flung his cards down in disgust.\u00a0 The other four Cowboys groaned as well, scattering their failed hands on the table, and Lieutenant Dawn DeMarco gathered up her winnings.\u00a0 The bottle caps clattered against each other, and Swan bestowed a look on her opponents that reminded Jack of her namesake.\u00a0 She sat tall and erect, a true daughter of the Outer Colony world Camelot, and even her standard Marine duty uniform couldn\u2019t shroud the lithe beauty of her frame.\u00a0 She surveyed the field of battle before her, and then turned the eyes that were much older than her twenty-some year old face to challenge the other Cowboys.\u00a0 \u201cAnother hand?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Jack chuckled and swept the cards up with a deft motion.\u00a0 He began to shuffle, smiling as their eagle eyes watched to make certain he didn\u2019t load the deck in anyone\u2019s favor.\u00a0 He chuckled again and shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d Cat asked from her side of the table, peering at him suspiciously.\u00a0 He met her gaze, fingers flickering between the cards in a blur as they passed between his hands.\u00a0 Captain Kathleen Reynolds was night to Swan\u2019s day, unruly hair forever rebelling from any attempt to control it.\u00a0 She had the undeniable rumpled air of the young college student she\u2019d once been, stepping out of the Iowa barn she\u2019d grown up with.\u00a0 Her eyes were just as old as Swan\u2019s though, and Jack knew they had over a century of flight time between the two of them.\u00a0 Jack wondered again at the vagaries of the universe that left him<\/em> of all people in command of a pair of such veteran pilots.<\/p>\n Jack snorted and glanced towards the rest of his pilots.\u00a0 Fox, Crane, and Snake had each lived about as long as he had, though they\u2019d grown up a lot faster than he.\u00a0 Jesse James owned a farm in Kansas, though there was the hint of a rogue in his eyes set in his weatherworn face.\u00a0 The face of Buckaroo Banno was plastered all over the California surfing magazines, first as a surfer and then as the owner of surfing stores, but Ken was a Free Japanese through and through.\u00a0 When the time came to fight the Chinese conquerors of the homeland he\u2019d never seen, he and his people had volunteered with amazing determination.\u00a0 And while Louise Mattioli\u2019s long, slender limbs branded him a native Martian, his slick, back hair gave him the look of a lawyer.\u00a0 Appropriate since he was<\/em> a lawyer in his day job before The War.\u00a0 The Peloran had given them all very fitting callsigns.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just good to have the band back together,\u201d Jack said with a waggle of his eyebrows and the cards fluttered from one hand to the other.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just glad to have space to stretch out in again,\u201d Snake returned, eyes scanning the ready room as if looking for a lawsuit he could file.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Jack had to give it to the man.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t actually live up to the stereotype of the soulless lawyer, but everybody still gave him a hard time.\u00a0 He gave just as good as he got.\u00a0 But this time, he truly wasn\u2019t looking for a lawsuit.<\/p>\n Jack followed the man\u2019s gaze, eyes running over the snarling wolf symbol hanging on the bulkhead.\u00a0 It belonged to the Texas Marine Corps Fighter Attack Wing 112, renamed the Cowboys hundreds of years ago.\u00a0 His eyes flittered over to the flag of the United States of America hanging on one bulkhead.\u00a0 It was a familiar flag to him, thirteen stripes for the original Colonies that founded America, and forty-nine stars for the States that led America out of the Second Great Depression.\u00a0 Above it, the single star Republic of Texas flag had looked odd to him when he first volunteered, but the Lone Star flag had grown on him in the last two years.\u00a0 \u201cI do love Cowboy Country,\u201d he echoed Snake\u2019s assertion.<\/p>\n The other Cowboys stopped examining his hands to look around their ready room.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All but two hatches opened into the personal sleeping quarters pilots enjoyed onboard carriers, while everything a squadron needed to be ready to fly filled the room itself.\u00a0 A small wet bar on one wall gave them access to any drink they wanted, as long as it had no alcohol.\u00a0 A theater they usually used for playing movies, complete with amazingly comfortably recliners, filled most of the room, while the table they sat around was officially a map of the carrier deck, showing the location and readiness of the hundred-some fighters currently embarked on her.<\/p>\n It made a real nice poker table for a half dozen pilots who hadn\u2019t seen each other since the Alpha Centauri Campaign.\u00a0 Jack, Jesse, and Ken had met down in Texas after volunteering to fight the Shang, quickly becoming fast friends, and he could read them like a book.\u00a0 Swan, Cat, and Snake had joined the Cowboys during the Alpha Centauri Campaign, to fill out losses in the original Cowboy Squadron, which he supposed was why he thought of them by their callsigns.\u00a0 But he\u2019d learned to read them too, and he saw contentment in all of his people\u2019s faces.\u00a0 They were happy to be back together too.<\/p>\n Even if it meant taking the long trip out to Epsilon Reticuli.\u00a0 Jack suppressed a scowl at that thought, wondering again why the Alliance was gathering so many warships so far from the heart of the fighting.\u00a0 Oh, there were some good Chinese colonies to hit out here, but he couldn\u2019t think that any of them rated the entire Third Fleet to take down.\u00a0 But Western Alliance leadership wanted to show the Chinese and their Shang allies that they were still in The War to win all the marbles.\u00a0 Jack knew Admiral Aneerin had tried to talk them out of it, but they were adamant.\u00a0 Which was where Jack and his little half-squadron of Cowboys came in.\u00a0 Aneerin wanted someone he trusted on the spot if everything hit the fan, and if that was the excuse it took to get the band back together Jack would smile and run with it.<\/p>\n Which he did as he began to shoot the cards out to his pilots\u2019 waiting hands, angled so no one could read them, even him.\u00a0 The Cowboys gathered up their cards with supple fingers careful to keep the faces away from their fellow players.\u00a0 Eyes widened, eyebrows raised or lowered, and Jack smiled as he dropped the deck and pulled his own cards up.\u00a0 He pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, putting on a show of thinking about his cards.\u00a0 He could work with the two jacks.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Faking his people into thinking he either had nothing or everything was all just part of the game.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure you didn\u2019t load them?\u201d Cat asked in disgust and Jack gave her a smile that could have melted butter.<\/p>\n \u201cHow could I possibly have done something like that with you watching my every move?\u201d he asked her with practiced innocence.<\/p>\n \u201cCards could,\u201d Cat declared and aimed a finger at Jesse.<\/p>\n Jesse shrugged in response to her use of his old callsign and the cards in his hand seemed to teleport into his other hand after a mere wiggle of fingers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich is why you leave it to models of honesty like me,\u201d Jack said piously, picked up one of his few remaining bottle caps, and tossed it into the center of the table.\u00a0 The other Cowboys rolled their eyes at him, but he examined his hand as if he couldn\u2019t see them.\u00a0 It was all part of the game after all.<\/p>\n Cat was fingering her large pile of bottle caps in deep thought when an alarm filled Cowboy County with blaring dissonance designed to wake the dead.\u00a0 Jack froze for a second in complete and utter surprise.\u00a0 The alarm had only one meaning, but it was impossible.\u00a0 Nobody in their right minds would actually attack<\/em> a fleet as large as this one.\u00a0 Then the poker table exploded into motion as all six Cowboys came to their feet in unison.<\/p>\n Cybernetic intelligences flickered into existence next to each Cowboy\u2019s locker, and Jack aimed a quick glance at the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman standing next to his.\u00a0 Betty\u2019s Scandinavian features would have fit in perfectly with all the cousins and other girls he\u2019d grown up with in northern Minnesota.\u00a0 To most people she looked as real and solid as anyone else, but the improved eyesight that came with his very rare reaction to the Peloran Treatments watched small particles of air drifting through her body.\u00a0 That, and the sharp edges of her body were a dead giveaway as to the nature of her holoform.\u00a0 Once again, he wondered if the imperfections of the holoform were a limitation of the technology, or a clue the cybers left on purpose for their partners.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Shang are attacking,\u201d Betty said, her voice coming from his earbuds rather than her lips, and the locker opened on powered hinges.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re braver than I thought,\u201d Jack muttered in a voice soft enough that it would not bother the other pilots as they conversed with their cybers, and reached into the locker for his flight jacket.\u00a0 He slipped into the familiar brown leather, feeling it adjust to his body as the personal computer woven into it went to work.<\/p>\n \u201cNot really,\u201d Betty said with a shrug.\u00a0 \u201cAnother long range missile attack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust that?\u201d Jack asked with a snort and pulled the old-style metal zipper up, feeling the lining beneath it seal into an airtight bond.\u00a0 \u201cAny excuse to make us do a little work\u201d he muttered and pulled a pair of gloves on, which instantly sealed with the flight jacket to protect him from the vacuum of space that he really hoped to never feel.\u00a0 Jack reached in to pull the black Stetson out of the locker and lowered it onto his head, adjusting it with one final tug on the brim.\u00a0 He was aware that numerous State Guards from Canada to the Mexican States, and in fact the United States Armored Cavalry, wore the ubiquitous headgear, but he had a completely different reason for totally approving of it as he smiled at the reflection in the mirror.\u00a0 Girls loved a man in a fancy hat.\u00a0 A man had to keep his priorities in mind after all.<\/p>\n The air flickered between him and the mirror and he nodded in approval.\u00a0 The low powered force field linking flight jacket and the armored headgear was just powerful enough to keep him from breathing any vacuum he had the bad luck to run into.\u00a0 Pleased with the uniform\u2019s protection, and more importantly with just how good it looked while doing it, Jack stepped back from his locker to scan the other Cowboys.\u00a0 Every locker slid shut as the pilots of Jack\u2019s half squadron echoed his motions, and he nodded in approval.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s rock and roll, people,\u201d he ordered and strode towards nearest hatch.<\/p>\n \u201cOorah,\u201d the Cowboys returned the old Marine affirmative with relish.<\/p>\n Jack smiled as the hatch opened and they hurried into the short corridor running out of the ready room.\u00a0 The six pilots and six cybers filled the small area before the next hatch opened to allow the roar of engines to wash over them.\u00a0 To that familiar sound, Jack and his Cowboys stepped out onto the busy hangar deck of a fleet carrier in the United States Navy, the United States Starship Enterprise<\/em>.<\/p>\n It was an amazing sight every time he saw it.\u00a0 The far bulkhead was over a hundred meters away.\u00a0 He\u2019d actually seen football games played across them as publicity stunts back before The War.\u00a0 On either side of him, the hangar deck ran half a kilometer away, and fighters, shuttles, and repair bays were assembled across the entirety of that massive deck.\u00a0 The dull roar beating against his ears heightened to a scream and the Ready One squadron rocketed out through the energy screen in the carrier\u2019s bow.\u00a0 Jack\u2019s eyes followed the Hellcats out for a moment, then dropped to follow the progress of other Navy pilots spilling out of their ready rooms.\u00a0 They would be the other Ready Five squadrons.\u00a0 Technically his Cowboys were on Ready Five status at the moment, capable of launching within five minutes of the orders going out.\u00a0 Not that they ever took that long of course.<\/p>\n He turned away from the massive length of the hangar deck, nodded towards the other Cowboys, and strode over to where his fighter waited with Betty at his side.\u00a0 The F-12C Avenger towering above him was something like thirty meters of long, narrow nose attached to a ten-meter angular hull that housed the engines, weapons, and defensive measures designed to keep them all alive.\u00a0 Engines the size of buses glowed as they warmed up, and laser pods twisted in their sockets.\u00a0 A laser turret under the nose spun back and forth, testing to make certain it had full rotation, and missile pods twitched on each massive wing.\u00a0 Avengers were the largest fighters ever built, more a proof of concept for a hyper-capable fighter than anything else.\u00a0 Many considered them too large to be a proper fighter, but The War had thrown them into service and the Cowboys had been first to fly them.\u00a0 They\u2019d become a tradition since then, and the size just meant they could carry more weapons than any other fighter ever built.\u00a0 Jack liked that, and the cockpit originally designed for two people gave him plenty of room to stretch out in and feel comfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cBetty?\u201d he asked, eyes running up and down their fighter.<\/p>\n \u201cReady,\u201d she answered with a dry chuckle.<\/p>\n He flexed his legs and jumped up towards the fighter.\u00a0 He was still going up when the fighter\u2019s gravitic generator snatched him in midair.\u00a0 Gravity ceased to exist as far as he could tell and he drifted to the lip of the cockpit to land with a dancer\u2019s grace.\u00a0 He dropped onto his cockpit seat and looked up as Betty flickered into existence atop the main console, barely twenty centimeters in height now.\u00a0 They shared a smile as the cockpit began to close, and his hands secured his five-point harness with a series of rapid-fire clicks.<\/p>\n The canopy locked in place with a much louder click and Jack glanced up with a smile as Betty\u2019s uniform faded out of sight.\u00a0 In it\u2019s place, a decidedly un-regulation yellow sundress appeared and she smiled.\u00a0 \u201cThere.\u00a0 That\u2019s better,\u201d she pronounced in a satisfied tone.<\/p>\n \u201cMuch,\u201d Jack agreed, sparing a second to watch her sit down and cross her legs.\u00a0 At her upraised eyebrow, he chuckled and scanned the displays reporting their fighter\u2019s readiness.\u00a0 All displays showed green and Jack nodded in approval.\u00a0 Betty always was good at making them ready to fly.\u00a0 His eyes ran over another display and he nodded at the confirmation that the other five fighters of his small squadron were ready too.\u00a0 And it hadn\u2019t even been two minutes.\u00a0 \u201cSo much for Ready Five,\u201d he said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat can I say?\u201d Betty asked.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe best,\u201d Jack replied without pause and winked at her.\u00a0 \u201cHey, Christine,\u201d he said into the open air.<\/p>\n A blonde holoform flickered into the air before him and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cHello, Jack.\u00a0 How are you?\u201d Enterprise\u2019s<\/em> cybernetic intelligence asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the start of a winning hand,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we\u2019ll just have to see if we can make up for that,\u201d Christine returned, her head shaking with a wry smile.<\/p>\n \u201cSounds like a plan to me.\u00a0 Can you beam us out?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Christine answered with a nod.\u00a0 At her command, a holographic beam appeared on the canopy, showing him a course through all the fighters and assorted other equipment littering the fleet carrier\u2019s hangar bay.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re the first of the Ready Fives.\u00a0 Good luck,\u201d she finished, a serious expression on her face.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks,\u201d he whispered and gave her a nod.\u00a0 \u201cAll Cowboys, take flight and follow your beam,\u201d he ordered with a nod towards Betty.<\/p>\n Betty nodded at him through the murmured responses his Cowboys gave him, and their Avenger lifted off the hangar bay\u2019s deck.\u00a0 The fighter rose up to the beam, paused a second as the other fighters caught up, and then blue fusion flames lit the hangar bay.\u00a0 Jack leaned back as the six fighters rocketed through the bay, shooting past entire squadrons of fighters and scrambling figures in less than the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n And then they were in open space, utter darkness split only by stars.\u00a0 He turned to see the bright light of the Ursa Major Star Cluster shining on hundreds of starship hulls arrayed around him.\u00a0 It was an amazing sight, the largest fleet ever assembled by the Western Alliance.\u00a0 Hell, it was probably the largest fleet assembled by anybody<\/em> from Earth, and it was all here.<\/p>\n The displays came to life, showing icons belonging to the hundred ships of the Spanish Armada, along with another fifty British ships.\u00a0 One hundred fifty more ships showed up with the flags of the other Alliance member nations from Africa to America.\u00a0 Jack watched Enterprise<\/em>, Durango<\/em>, Arizona<\/em>, and nearly three-dozen smaller American icons fill the plot around him.\u00a0 Dozens of fighters flitted between the American warships, and beyond them hundreds more nearly filled space around the rest of the fleet.\u00a0 And they were still waiting for the Ready Five and the Standby Squadrons to launch.\u00a0 There would be thousands of fighters once every ship managed to launch.<\/p>\n Somebody was about to get a major pasting.\u00a0 They just had to wait a few minutes for everybody to come out and get ready to fight.<\/p>\n Jack smiled for a moment, and then the smile died as the plot continued to propagate out beyond the mammoth fleet to show the gigantic wave of missiles swarming in from all directions.\u00a0 Angry red dots filled the displays as the wavefront of destruction approached, and for a moment Jack\u2019s mind refused to accept the numbers they displayed.\u00a0 No one could fire that many missiles at once.\u00a0 No one.<\/p>\n But the displays refused to reset to more rational numbers and Jack swallowed.\u00a0 \u201cAh, frak,\u201d he muttered, realizing that someone really was going to get a pasting.\u00a0 And it might just not be the people he wanted.<\/p>\n \u201cAll Cowboys, form up and\u2026frak,\u201d he licked his lips as he failed to come up with a good idea.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d Betty whispered.\u00a0 \u201cI cut the transmission off before you ran out of words, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThanks.\u201d\u00a0 He swiveled his head to see the five other Avengers taking up position off his wings and let out a low whistle.\u00a0 The sight of nearly six-dozen more drone Avengers swooping in from above filled him with more relief than he cared to admit at the moment.\u00a0 The drones spent most of their time in space, only landing if in need of repairs or maintenance.\u00a0 The constant flight time took a toll on their systems, but it gave the fleet an impressive amount of firepower ready and waiting to react instantly.\u00a0 Now that firepower was all his.<\/p>\n Another holoform flickered into being next to Betty and Jack smiled at the new arrival.\u00a0 Standard procedure called for each pilot to be paired with a single cybernetic or artificial intelligence who would stay with him or her until death.\u00a0 It was a partnership closer than most marriages Jack had ever seen, and after nearly three years he understood the meaning behind Betty\u2019s every raised eyebrow, cocked head, or pursed lip.\u00a0 He might play stupid on the subject, but she\u2019d used them on him enough that he understood her better than all but two girls he\u2019d ever known.\u00a0 Though the jury was still out on just how much he truly<\/em> understood anybody of the opposite sex.<\/p>\n But the point was, he and Betty understood each other well enough that they could predict what the other would want to do before they did it.\u00a0 That synergy made a dedicated pilot and cyber team into the deadliest combatants to take fighter craft into battle in the known history of the human race.\u00a0 Cat and Blaze had killed six Shang fighters at the Battle of Fort Wichita in the old Hellcat they\u2019d flown at the time.\u00a0 Jack and Betty had accounted for far more Shang lives, but they\u2019d had an Avenger, so it wasn\u2019t a fair comparison.\u00a0 Drew and Jasmine had been there right beside him in another Avenger, and the dozen fighters of Cowboy squadron had torn apart entire Shang warships with their concentrated fire.<\/p>\n And then Drew died at Alpha Centauri.\u00a0 Most cybers died with their pilots.\u00a0 They always had backups and could survive even total destruction of their fighter by simply booting up their last backup.\u00a0 But few cybers wanted to live a life without the pilot they were literally born to be with.\u00a0 The brunette flickering into existence next to Betty wearing faded blue jeans and a grey tank top was made of far sterner stuff than most cybers though.<\/p>\n \u201cJasmine,\u201d Jack said with a smile as her eleven drone fighters slotted into position around him.<\/p>\n \u201cJack,\u201d the cyber returned, lips quirked.<\/p>\n \u201cStatus?\u201d<\/p>\n Jasmine\u2019s smile turned predatory.\u00a0 \u201cOh, we\u2019re so<\/em> green.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 He looked at Betty and she nodded back.\u00a0 \u201cWell then, let\u2019s rock and roll.\u201d\u00a0 He placed his hands on the controls, and spun seventy-two Avenger-class fighters and drones to face the oncoming wavefront of incoming enemy missiles.\u00a0 \u201cThis is Captain Jack of Hart squadron, Marine Fighter Attack Wing 112, to fleet command,\u201d he intoned with a nod towards Betty.\u00a0 She nodded, indicating that she was transmitting.\u00a0 \u201cThe Cowboys are ready for action.\u00a0 Where do you need us?\u201d<\/p>\n A fourth cyber appeared on his console, and Jack had to suppress an amused smile at just how crowded it was getting in the cockpit.\u00a0 She was brown haired, brown skinned, and looked like an extra from a Zorro movie.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t a surprise.\u00a0 She was after all the brain of the Santa Isabel<\/em>, flagship of the Spanish Armada, and by association the entirety of Third Fleet.\u00a0 \u201cCover the carriers,\u201d she ordered in Spanish-accented English.\u00a0 Not Spanish-accented American which sounded entirely different, but Spanish-accented English<\/em>.\u00a0 It was an odd mingling of foreign accents that almost confused his ears.\u00a0 But by God he could listen to her read the dictionary all day long and never grow tired of it.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to protect them while the rest of the fighters launch,\u201d Santa Isabel<\/em> continued, and Jack nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cWill do,\u201d he answered and turned back to Betty.\u00a0 \u201cCowboys, did you hear the lady?\u201d\u00a0 Betty smiled as his squadron-mates answered in the affirmative in rapid succession.\u00a0 \u201cAssume defensive pattern bravo,\u201d Jack ordered and returned his gaze to Santa Isabel\u2019s<\/em> cyber.\u00a0 \u201cGood luck.\u201d<\/p>\n Santa Isabel<\/em> smiled back.\u00a0 \u201cGod be with you, Captain Hart,\u201d she returned in a far more formal tone before fading away.<\/p>\n Jack turned back to Christine.\u00a0 \u201cSlot us into your defense grid, please?\u201d he asked with raised eyebrows.<\/p>\n Enterprise\u2019s<\/em> cyber nodded in agreement and one of the displays flashed to show the fleet\u2019s collective point defense grid reaching out towards the oncoming threat.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re part of the grid now.\u201d<\/p>\n Jack looked to Betty and she smiled in agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 Jack reached out to tap one control and his favorite T&J song filled the cockpit.\u00a0 Well, his favorite song for going into battle at least.\u00a0 He had other favorite songs for other times, but this one had driving rhythms and a good screaming melody that merged into the battles that often raged around them.\u00a0 He felt their twin voices suffuse into his bones, and for a moment he was a young man, plucking his silly little guitar while they sang the golden chords that would net them a major record deal.<\/p>\n He opened his eyes again, felt his heart pumping in time to the music, and was as much at peace as he ever was.\u00a0 He placed his hands back on the stick and throttle, breathed deeply, and scanned the displays.\u00a0 One showed a squadron of Hellcats leaving Enterprise<\/em>.\u00a0 Another showed the incoming wave of missiles.\u00a0 On another, the frigates and destroyers on the edges of the fleet opened fire.<\/p>\n Missiles, lasers, and gravitic cannons fired, and there were so many missiles in the attack that they couldn\u2019t dodge.\u00a0 Missiles died by the hundreds, but they kept coming.\u00a0 For a moment, Jack was watching the Shang strike on Yosemite Station again, the day his world ended.\u00a0 He watched Yosemite fall, ravaging the western United States, and he watched his father die.\u00a0 He stopped, the past and present colliding so completely he couldn\u2019t find his way out.<\/p>\n \u201cJack.\u201d<\/p>\n The one word snapped his eyes back into focus on Betty.\u00a0 She smiled, and he saw in her eyes she knew.\u00a0 She understood.\u00a0 And she would always be here to help.\u00a0 He held onto that knowledge as the music of T&J filled his ears and mind.\u00a0 They sang of roaring thunder, crashing lightning, and the end of innocence, and he felt the soundtrack of his life lift him up, back onto solid mental footing.\u00a0 The missiles came, and he flexed his fingers, knowing in his bones that it was time.\u00a0 \u201cYippie ki-yay,\u201d he said in a voice that was far too shaky for his wishes.<\/p>\n If the cybers heard, they ignored it and the seventy-two Avengers of Jack\u2019s little half-squadron opened fire with every weapon at their disposal.\u00a0 Missile pods ripple-fired scores of seeking warheads into space, laser turrets pulsed into the teeth of the enemy attack wave, and gravitic cannons stabbed deep into it.\u00a0 Around them, dreadnoughts, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, fighters, and even carriers added their own fire to the point defense grid, and he sucked in a deep breath.<\/p>\n It was an amazing sight.<\/p>\n Three hundred warships, and the better part of a thousand fighters faced the missile swarm, filling space so completely that outgoing missiles exploded from friendly fire.\u00a0 Normally invisible lasers stabbed through the gases of destroyed or expended missiles, fully visible to human eyes.\u00a0 The roiling wavefront of death filled the sky with light, and hundreds of Shang missiles hit the grid.<\/p>\n \u201cTake that,\u201d Jack snarled as the combined point defense grid of the greatest Alliance fleet ever assembled stopped the Shang missile strike cold.\u00a0 There would be no repeat of Yosemite today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was a kid, the only things that interested me were girls and partying with friends.\u00a0 We never thought about war.\u00a0 Who would ever attack us?\u00a0 The answer of course was the Shang.\u00a0 After that, we all volunteered, expecting[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2307-angel-flight-earc","uentry","postonpage-1","odd","post-author-jack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}