7 Chapter 7: Bright Wings in the Dark Space

Cheq's voice carries all around the ship through the intercom.

Cheq (Intercom): "Angel Vanguard spotted at Sector C-3. I'm moving the Motley in that direction right now."

Knight sits in front of Titan and me as he goes over several figures tacked up on the corkboard behind him. He points to one that illustrates what a proper flank looks like. Another shows quick callouts that Paxes uses during a heavy gunfight on the field. What's most important to me are all the things he says that can't be taught in an academy; these are anecdotes coming from just learning what it's like to be on the battlefield.

Titan stands up after about an hour's worth of teaching. "We're probably pretty close to Sector C-3 by now. I'm going to check on Cheq real quick. You two should get ready for a departure soon." His tone is low and serious, the fun he usually carries in his words is gone.

"Sir," Knight says.

"Sir," I mimic.

He leaves the room first and I lead Knight to the hangar bay in silence. I get to my Ucello and see that Faiyoh's ship is already gone. Knight hangs around me waiting for an alert.

"Do you really have the jitters to take on the Angels?" I ask as I open up the small fuse hatch on the outside of my ship to check for last-minute adjustments.

"No seasoned veteran is going to be completely fearless going against the Angel Vanguard."

"It's strange to see you spooked, Knight, you've always been the bravest of us. I guess it rattles me as well to see you so cautious. By the way, thanks again for telling me to keep calm on Bouncer's ship. I thought my nerves would've killed me that day, but your voice was just what I needed to get out of my own head."

"If I can teach you anything, it'll be to control your emotions. That's one of the biggest factors in a victory, and you'd do well to remember that."

"Paxes really shot themselves in the foot losing you as a soldier."

"They didn't. I...wasn't the best soldier there, just a great warrior. I did things that gave Paxes enough reason to send me away and lock me up for almost a decade."

"Oh, I didn't mean to open up old wounds. I know the story, and I'm sorry for bringing it up."

The intercom blares through the hangar as Titan's voice reverberates off the walls and ricochets around the near-empty room.

Titan (Intercom): "We've spotted Angels scouting the sector. Mount your jets and get ready to launch!"

Knight quickly hurries to his ship as I open the hatch to mine and climb in. Once my door is shut, I engage the engine and prepare all of my programs for a serious dogfight. I watch Titan and Cheq enter the hangar and jump into their own jets wearing looks of ultimate determination.

Titan's ship roars to life and is the first to leave the Oxy-Gate, letting the rest of us follow his brave lead and trail behind him. I get in line on the left of Titan in deep space and hover above him slightly to get a clear view ahead. The moment I see all-white, sleek, and powerful jets floating around ahead is when my stomach starts doing gymnastics. I count three, we outnumber them. Why am I not comforted by this fact?

Me (Group): "I've never seen an Angel Vanguard ship before."

Titan (Group): "Nor have I, and I thought I'd die the day I did."

My screen shows that Titan's broadcast has just become public, he plans to talk to the Angels directly.

Titan (Public): "Heaven is a long way from here, boys. Need help getting back?"

A foreign voice clicks into my ship.

Angel Vanguard Pilot (Public): "You've occupied the wrong space, scrap heaps. Sorry, but I can't let you leave knowing our location."

It's just English, but the words are wavy and incoherent in my mind like something greater than me is speaking. Just calm down, Knight taught me this, they bleed just like I do.

Titan (Group): "All right, guys, circle them and watch out for friendly fire!"

Titan's ship darts straight up and the leading Angel decides to chase him. The two other Angels dart in opposite directions as Knight and Cheq chase them down. I choose to help Cheq with his prey and fly along the bottom of his ship.

Me (Personal): "Cheq, I see a panel beneath his ship, back off!"

Cheq (Personal): "Flying upwards, watch yourself!"

I watch Cheq raise his position and take his place. The Angel begins to deploy a bottom-mounted automatic photon blaster and begins taking potshots at me. I turn my ship into a spiral and begin following a loop pattern to dodge each blast.

Me (Personal): "He can't aim with the turret! Maybe we could use that."

Cheq (Personal): "How? You can't even get a shot in with all that suppressive fire!"

I fly upwards with Cheq to get a break. My transmission shows a foreign broadcast as a voice plays through my speakers.

Angel Vanguard Pilot (Public): "You fly like you want to die. Hold still and I'll make it true."

Me (Public): "Nice turret. Are you gonna let it do all the fighting for you?"

The Angel's thrusters begin to ignite brightly as his ship zooms forward at a speed I've never seen before. They aren't 10X-Thrusters, just really capable battle thrusters. We lag behind him, and he manages to get far ahead enough to turn around and head straight for us.

Angel Vanguard Pilot (Public): "Nice jets, you find them at an antique auction?"

His jet's nose glows a bright red, and before I know it, photon blasts are heading our way at a rapid rate. Cheq flies up while I go down. We both avoid any damage, but now we're separated.

Titan's voice hits all of our ships.

Titan (Group): "This is getting dicey, boys. I'm marking my target for salvage, eliminate your targets lethally, we'll take mine in for dissection."

All (Group): "Understood!"

Cheq (Personal): "Nev, try using the new counterstrike spikes we put in. You'll have to fly under him somehow to use it."

Me (Personal): "The spikes? Seems risky to get that close to an Angel."

Cheq (Personal): "I know, but it'll take him out in one hit. At least I hope it will."

Me (Personal): "All right, but watch my back. I'll be cutting it real close with that turret under him."

I fly around to reset my position and see that Knight is being chased down by his target. I fire a few photon blasts to discourage the course the Angel is taking, he stops chasing and lets Knight reset.

I see Cheq setting up for another flight formation and I join his side quickly before the Angel can give chase to any of us.

Me (Personal): "Where is he?"

Cheq (Personal): "Bad news, his signature is gone. He's cloaked!"

Me (Personal): "Cloaked!?"

A blast hits my rear right thruster and shakes my cockpit harshly. I look down at my console and see a critical hit has just been done to my exterior shield.

Me (Personal): "Sneak attack, scatter!"

I yank my throttle close to my chest and perform a quick backflip and head straight down. I'm not sure where Cheq went, but I hope he didn't follow. My rear camera shows dark space and shiny stars, but no assailant. Suddenly the Angel's charging red glow for a blast appears behind me.

"What!?"

It fires at me and narrowly misses. I twist my throttle to the right and activate a strafe to quickly get out of the path. The blast somehow still lingers right behind me, and I think how good of a tracker he must be to stay on me after a sharp turn like that.

Me (Personal): "I can't shake him, he's got me locked!"

Cheq (Personal): "I'm gonna shoot a stasis at him! Watch your rear!"

Me (Personal): "Don't bother, you'll miss that shot! He's invisible and way too quick!"

Cheq (Personal): "I'm going to wait until the blaster lights up, then I'll track his path. Fly straight and trust me!"

I shake my head but stop spinning and turning. It would only take one second of flying straight for me to get blasted out of the sky. I check my rear camera and see the photon blaster charging up for a strong hit. I tense my whole body, but let go once I see the blue light begin to surround the Angel's ship.

His speed drastically slows down as he's forced to take the effects of a stasis hit on his ship. He fires, and even the photon blast travels at an incredibly slow speed.

Angel Vanguard Pilot (Public): "I should've known mercs would have dirty tricks for fair fights."

I fly far enough ahead and turn around to face him.

Me (Public): "It's almost as if playing dirty gives an edge."

I engage my throttle fully and speed towards the slowed ship. I aim to fly right below his underbelly and see the turret below desperately attempt to charge up a shot. I reach the point where I'm just below him, merely a few feet apart, and launch the counterstrike spikes.

My Ucello's top wings open holes all around it and shoot out numerous small spikes that rip right through the Angel's ship. The metal stands no chance and is cut up into several small pieces. I race out of there in time to escape the small explosion erupting behind me.

Me (Group): "That's one Angel sent back home!"

Cheq (Personal): "Good flying, Nev. You gotta teach me those dodging maneuvers someday."

I fly around and see that somehow Titan's and Knight's squabbles have become a brawl as they both switch targets excessively and nearly miss each other's friendly fire. You can see the difference in our ship's performance when watching them turn; the Angel's ships are much tighter and effective at quick maneuvers.

Me (Group): "Does anyone still have a stasis?"

Cheq (Group): "I'm all out, and nobody else had room to pack one."

Titan (Group): "We have to split them up!"

Knight (Group): "Titan, what are your shields levels?"

Titan (Group): "Fourteen percent...(14%)."

Knight (Group): "Bail! Any more damage and we'll be searching for your floating corpse in space. Nev, take Titan's fighter, Cheq, help me eliminate mine!"

I dive my Ucello into the fight and begin furiously harassing Titan's pursuer. As Titan dodges and turns, the Angel has no problem keeping behind him. I shoot around them, mostly concerned with not hitting Titan rather than hitting the Angel. It works as Titan slips away as the Angel shoots straight down to shake me off.

I follow closely and hone in on aiming a good shot. I fire three times and see one blast hit a rear thruster, the jet hardly fidgets.

I broadcast my voice to the public.

Me (Public): "How about I turn you into a real angel?"

Angel Vanguard Pilot (Public): "In the next ten seconds, you and your ship will be floating among the stars!"

As I feared, the Angel shows off his tight turns and eludes me by rolling back and nosediving at the apex of the flip. My eyes dart for the camera feed and I see him flying below me, his jet begins to form a blue orb circling all around it.

I try to pull away, but the circle explodes on both of us, and my entire cockpit goes dark as my systems shut down at once. My thrusters turn off and my Ucello begins to lazily drift in space. I open my mouth but don't say anything when I realize my comms are no longer functioning.

"An EMP? I'm frozen!"

Using the windows of my cockpit is the only way I can try to track him. I look left, empty, I look right, only some stars in view, I look up and see his nose charging up another red flare of photon blasts.

Before it can shoot, a blast on its side connects and forces the shot to miss me by a hair's worth. My siding turned black after being singed from the blast. With my shields relying on power, that blast connecting with my cockpit would've fried my hull with me inside.

Titan fires more shots as he comes in from the side forcing the Angel to pull forward and ignore me completely. The lights in my cockpit flicker on and I immediately jump to connect my comms with Titan's channel.

Me (Personal): "Nice save, but you gotta get going. You can't take much more damage."

Titan (Personal): "Distract him, I'm loading my retractor program."

Me (Personal): "I'm on it!"

I see a red light brighten my ship for a second. My camera feed shows an explosion happening behind me, and I count two Ucellos leaving it and heading for us. Only one Angel left.

I catch up with the spiraling chase that Titan initiated and take his place as he pulls out and hangs around to the side.

I talk to the Angel.

Me (Public): "You should've called in sick today."

Angel Vanguard Pilot (Public): "I guess I'll settle for worker's comp after this next move."

His ship begins to illuminate in red lighting all over the decorative lines of his hull. They glow brighter and brighter and eventually, the entire ship begins to shake as he slows down and waits for me to catch up.

Me (Group): "He's self-destructing!"

Knight (Group): "Aren't you ready yet, Titan?"

Titan (Group): "Out of the way, I'm loaded up!"

I break away from the chase and allow Titan to take over. His nose fires a different colored photon blast, a bright green stream instead of the usual blue ball. It touches the Angel's ship and instantly the red lines disappear as the EMP effect takes over. If he had the power to broadcast, I'm sure he'd be cursing us right now.

The ship is held in place and is forced to stay at a fixed distance from Titan's ship.

Titan (Group): "We caught a live one today, fellas, let's take it back to the Motley and crack this baby wide open."

Knight (Group): "All ships report."

Cheq (Group): "Shields at thirty-two percent...(32%)"

Titan (Group): "Shields at three percent...(3%)"

Me (Group): "Shields at twenty-five percent...(25%)"

Knight (Group): "We nearly lost this one. I hope never to see another Angel spread its wings again."