Angel War (Jack of Harts 4)

By Medron Pryde

In 2205, we learned the answer to one of the oldest questions of all time. Are we alone? They brought medicines with them that nearly wiped out diseases, and extended the human lifespan into the centuries. They helped us study advanced technologies, and expand our colonies hundreds of lightyears from Earth. It was a golden age that many thought would never end.

Then their enemies brought War to us all. We gave them a belly full of it. We drove them out of Alpha Centauri and assembled the largest, most powerful fleet that had ever flown under Terran banners. Third Fleet was our best hope to defeat them and bring a quick end to The War. It failed.

Now the last survivor of that doomed expedition sails for Alpha Centauri. Returning home is always the greatest wish of a soldier, but home does not always welcome their return. The heavy cruiser Los Angeles and her crew have made enemies, both foreign and domestic, and they have plans for her. But she is not without friends, and they have plans as well. Can she survive when all of those plans crash into each other?

First Printing, April 2016
Revised Second Printing, August 2017

• Language: English
• Publisher: Medron Pryde
• Release date: Aug 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370525270

Medron Pryde

Hello, my name is Medron Pryde, and I am the creator of Jack of Harts.Jack of Harts is a place I hope you like. It’s a place where we did things right, where we built a world we would be happy for our children to grow up in. It’s not perfect. There is conflict. But by and large, we made the hard decisions, and we did what needed doing. We made a good world. I know today that stories tend to go much more dark than that, dystopian futures where we have destroyed our world or enslaved our populations. Places where even the Good Guys are more dirty and hairy than they are clean-shaven and happy. Jack of Harts is not like that. It’s not a world where somebody takes a step forward to fix something and gets knocked two steps back. I don’t like those worlds. I don’t want to spend a lot of time imagining them.Jack of Harts is based in many ways on what I grew up wanting. I was raised in a Christian home, told to do onto others as you’d have them do onto you. I watched Bonanza, where the Cartwrights helped anybody who came along needing it. On Superman, I watched the Big Blue Boy Scout (even if he was in black and white) fighting the Bad Guys each week for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. On Quantum Leap, a man lost in time always found a way to make the world he dropped into each week a little bit better. On Star Trek, a bunch of people I liked traveled through the stars to go places that no man had been to before...because it was there. In Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and Star Wars, the plucky outnumbered heroes came back swinging with a smile, a joke, and a hearty laugh, and they never gave up hope that they could find or build a better world to live in. These are the stories I grew up with. These are what I enjoy, and these live on in my optimism.In Jack of Harts, I try to capture that. The characters of Jack, Charles, and Aneerin, just to name a few, are all people who lived in a world before The War came. When that happened, they aren’t the people who crossed the border to hide from the draft, the people who gave up hope and found a bottle or a needle to hide behind. These are the people who stood up, walked into a recruiting office, and volunteered to defend their ways of life. They may cover it up by saying they’re just in it for the money, or because that person over there just needed taking care of. But don’t let that fool you. They are the best of us, a reflection of the true Big Damn Heroes who grab a rifle, a pistol, and a bulletproof vest (or maybe a fireproof suit) to protect our freedoms and our lives everyday.Jack of Harts is a place where I like to think these people would like what they see. It’s a place I enjoy going to when I write, with people I’d like to share a beer with. I’ll keep it that way. I hope it’s a place you’ll enjoy reading, and I hope you come back each day or maybe each week to read some more.So have a good one, and I hope to see you again.Medron Pryde

Book preview

All ships, break and attack in three…two…one…now, Jack counted down and felt his Avenger’s systems come alive around him. T&J shifted into the drumbeats of war, and he slammed the throttle forward to send them accelerating towards the Shang. Avengers, Hellcats, and Blackhawks accelerated all around him, diving towards the Shang en masse. The warships came to life behind him, destroyers and frigates accelerating with the two heavy cruisers and a single light carrier.

The combined cybernetic intelligences of an entire small fleet went to work and he watched the plot come alive with targeting plans refined by lashing the Shang with full-powered sensor sweeps. A blind man could have felt them coming in his teeth, and the Shang were not blind at all.

They recognized the trap they’d flown into in an instant and reacted the only way they could. They turned from Thunderer and her battlegroup and began accelerating straight towards Jack’s tiny fleet. Betty brought their new path up on the plot and Jack recognized the slingshot maneuver that would spin them out the other side of New Earth’s Red Line long before his force could come around and chase them down. They had exactly one good shot at this.

Thunderer and her ships spun to fire full salvos into the Shang’s flanks. Deflection grids flickered and armor buckled, but the Shang had far too much acceleration for the British battleship to keep them in range for long. But it was bringing the Shang and Jack’s little force directly into each other’s best firing range.

Oh Lord, for what we are about to receive may we be eternally grateful, Jack whispered and flexed his fingers.

Amen, a chorus of voices said from the communications display.

By

Medron Pryde

###

Books

###

Forge of War

Angel Flight

Angel Strike

Angel War

Wolfenheim Rising

###

Short Stories

###

The Gemini Affair

ANGEL WAR

A Jack of Harts Novella By

MEDRON PRYDE

Copyright © 2016, 2017 by Medron Pryde

Smashwords Edition

Cover background designed by Stephen Huda under contract

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, April 2016

Revised Second Printing, August 2017

jackofharts.com

facebook.com/jackofhartsonline

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this story to everyone who has served in the Armed Forces. It is thanks to all of you that we are here now, to enjoy this form of entertainment in the safety of our homes. I would especially like to thank every Marine aviator of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, called the Wolfpack in World War II and the Cowboys in recent decades. The Cowboys in this story are named in your honor.

I would also like to thank everybody who has helped me write this story, from those who brainstormed with me, proofread it for me, edited it, created art to bring it to life, or simply declined to roll your eyes when I nattered on about this story I was writing. Whether family or friend, whether I have met you in person or only over the Internet, your help and support is greatly appreciated.

Angel War

Table of Contents

Serenity

Homecoming

Confrontation

Escalation

Reprieve

Intrigue

Incursion

Deception

Commitment

Author Afterward

Wolfenheim Rising Preview

Trouble is always waiting on the other side of the corner to ambush us. Or that’s how it seems to me at least. I never know when it’s going to hit or how hard it’ll be. I just know it’s coming for me. Sooner or later. That’s why I always take every chance I can to make a good memory. I spend time digging into warm sand on sunny beaches. I meet nice young ladies who like to party. I make every day as enjoyable as possible because when the hard times come, those good times will remind me there’s something worth fighting for.

Serenity

Sun baked his bare skin and burned away the early morning mist. The glow shone through Jack’s closed eyelids to the sounds of people laughing. Waves roared over the breakwaters and surfers performed extreme stunts to the cheers of the crowd. The waves continued on to crash into the beach, sucking sand out from under feet as they retreated. Boys shouted and girls screamed as they fell into the water and laughter followed as they came back up spluttering. Church bells echoed off every building again and again, and people had come and gone all morning. This late in the morning, on the trailing sounds of the bells, they told the tale of late arrivals finally escaping the stuffy buildings in favor of the sandy beaches.

It was a typical Sunday morning in Serenity’s Landing City a month after the Chinese attack that nearly destroyed them all. Jack opened his eyes to the bright sun and breathed in the smell of salty ocean air. He lay on a thick hotel towel that insulated him from the hot sand with its plush weave. It was a good towel, from one of the hotels that valued happy guests over cheap linens, and Jack luxuriated in its soft comfort.

He turned at the sound of a contented sigh to see Jasmine lying next to him in the sand. She was sunning her back in his favorite beachwear, and Jack had to admit it looked good on her. The skin she’d picked had bronzed beautifully under the bright sun, while his pasty white Northern Minnesotan skin wouldn’t know a sun tan if you shook a bottle of tanning lotion on it. He still loved lying in the sun though. Well, it might be more accurate to say that he loved watching all the pretty girls doing it.

Her head turned brunette hair away to fall over her far shoulder and large brown eyes met his gaze. A smile ruled the face that looked at him and he realized she’d caught him staring. Again. Well that was fine. She deserved to be stared at. He met her gaze without a hint of chagrin and she chuckled before lowering her face back into the warm sand. It was a good day for reinforcing a good tan and she intended to take as much time as she could to do that. Jack heartily approved of her choice.

Jasmine was a rare individual, a cybernetic intelligence born to fly a fighter who had lost her pilot. Two years later, she was still alive and kicking, and Jack had adopted her. Or she’d adopted him. He still wasn’t exactly certain on the particulars of their relationship. But she flew the fighter screen that kept him alive in combat. That was good enough to put her in the list of his top three favorite people in all the worlds.

Maybe four. No. Natalie was leaving.

So three people. There was himself of course. One had to have a low opinion of oneself to not be on that list, and Jack was happy to say that he had a real high opinion of himself. Then there was Jasmine. He couldn’t count the number of times she’d saved his life in the last two years. And there was Betty, the cyber that chose him as her partner before she was born. It was pretty much impossible not to put someone literally born to be with him on that list. That made three, and Jack was happy with that number. It was more than most people got if he was being honest, and Jack prized himself on being honest. When he wasn’t trying to hide something of course.

Betty’s holoform flickered into existence next to him on a towel of her own, lean legs disappearing under a thin yellow sundress. Long blonde hair fell down over nearly bare shoulders and striking blue eyes met his gaze. She gave him a sad smile and he knew what that meant. Sorry Jack, it’s time to go, she said.

Jack let out a long breath and shook his head with regret. This really was a nice day. It was a shame to cut it short.

Jasmine dug her toes deep into the sand and pushed herself up unto her knees. They sank in a few centimeters and she began brushing sand off her body with careful precision. The real body that could do that was new, and she couldn’t have picked a better one if he’d helped. He’d tried, but she’d been awful insistent that she didn’t want him staring as she tried on new bodies. That had been a shame, but he’d lived through the disappointment. Just as he lived through the disappointment of her turning her back to him now.

Jack waggled his eyebrows at Jasmine in an outrageous manner. Do you need any help?

Jasmine turned her head to smile and brushed another handful of sand off. I think I can handle this on my own.

Okay. Just saying, I’m happy to help if you need me.

I’ll bet you are.

If you don’t get dressed, we’ll be late, Betty whispered in his ear.

And that would be a crying shame, Jack returned in a tone that revealed his inner grouch on the matter. It just wasn’t fair that they should leave on such a perfect day.

Now don’t be like that, Jack.

Like what?

Betty crossed her arms and cocked her head at him in a way that said he knew exactly what she was talking about.

Jack sighed and shook his head. Katy? He turned to look at one of the very few people on the beach he’d known before coming the first time.

Kathleen Reynolds looked younger than he did, her body closer to the roundness enjoyed by college freshmen or high school seniors than his had been when he’d taken the last of the Peloran Treatments. Tattoos of flowers and butterflies ran up and down her right side from ankle to neck, broken up only by the thin strings of a bikini. Those tattoos would stay with her for the rest of her life. No one had figured out how to make an Ageless body forget how it was supposed to look. The impish smile on her face came and went in time with her moods though. It was a smile that belonged on the face of a college frat party veteran, and Jack Hart knew his frat party veterans.

But Major Kathleen Reynolds of the United States Space Force had flown fighters for over fifty years, and fifty years before that she’d been a blonde high school cheerleader when the Peloran made Contact. She was an old woman compared to Jack, with the entire experience of a Pre-Space human lifespan hiding behind those amused eyes. And those eyes told him that he was just plain out of luck.

What? she asked with a most unladylike snort. You think I’m going to argue with our cybernetic overlords?

Traitor, Jack growled.

Katy shrugged, rolled off her towel, and sat up. She grabbed a long white t-shirt and slipped it on over her head. It was built for a man and made her look even smaller than she was when she wore it. Then she swung her feet underneath her, dug her toes into the sand, and stood up in a single lithe motion. The shirt fell down to her knees, one shoulder strap fell down to reveal nearly half her arm, and she shook her head at the various people sunbathing. These people have no idea how good they have it, she said low enough that only Jack and the cybers could hear. Then she glanced at the bare shoulder that was the same exact shade it had been when she was twenty. They can actually get a suntan.

Jack chuckled. But on the plus side, we don’t have to worry about sunburn. Jack aimed a theatrical shrug at her.

Those are the worst, another voice said and Jack turned to see Ken Banno striding up the beach with a crowd of fans in tow. The small Japanese man had a body hardened by a lifetime spent under the hot California sun. Wiry muscles on his arms and legs bespoke decades of carving Buckaroo Banno’s surfing boards over and through the California waves, and his permanent suntan made network stars envious. He stopped several meters away, turned back to his fans, and drove his surfboard into the sand where it quivered in place. Then Ken spoke in his best California hippy surfer dude voice. Sorry dudes and dudettes, but it’s time for me to leave.

Katy scowled at the crowd and then gave Jack a meaningful look

Jack muttered a wordless grumble, but levered himself up to slip into his long, red, Hawaiian shirt that was almost as loud as Ken’s fans. He’d happily worn ones like it most of his life on the Northern Minnesota lakes he loved. During summer. He wasn’t one of those crazy polar bears that did New Years Day plunges into sub-freezing water.

Jack stood up and stepped off the towel as Ken tried to comfort his heartbroken fans. His toes sank deep into the warm sand and he let out another long breath. He truly loved the feel of sinking his toes in sunbaked sand. There was nothing like it in all the worlds. He looked around the beach and smiled at the sight of others enjoying the day. He paused for a few moments to enjoy some of the nice young ladies bouncing around Ken and had to admit he envied the guy sometimes.

He turned back to see Jasmine slipping a thin white sundress on. It swirled around long legs highlighted by the bright sky and she ran fingers through her long hair. The sun gleamed off the white dress so bright it hurt and he turned away to look at Betty. She stood next to him now, and his eyes picked up the edge of her holoform. It was a hard, digital edge against the soft reality of the world around them, a reminder that she didn’t have a real body. He could see it most of the time, but the bright morning sun made it starker than normal today. He wondered what it would be like to really sit next to her on a towel on a beach, to feel her next to him with every sense he possessed. To be able to truly touch her.

Betty cocked her head to the side in a wordless question as she caught the edge of his mood.

Jack smiled and tried to shrug the thought away. It didn’t want to