Wing One's Baptism

Scintilla Fleet dropped out of hyperspace on top of the picket line before the last wing had finished forming up, Halo's opening barrage lighting the void where three fighters had been a half-second before. Wing One broke formation on instinct rather than order, scattering into a wedge instead of holding line, and answered with a scratch of fire meant only to make the enemy destroyer flinch. On Heaven's Gate, Angelus watched it happen without moving from the rail. "They're supposed to. Wings hold formation. Continue the engagement. Do not press deeper than the flight allows."

Akul's Teeth and Resolve tested Heaven's Fury next, cannon fire scattering harmlessly across a shield barrier that didn't so much as ripple. Neither side pressed the opening. Then Halo changed the shape of the fight: patient ion bursts worked one Wing One fighter loose from formation, engines guttering from a scream to a cough, exactly the separation a picket line couldn't afford. Angelus's composure cracked for the first time that afternoon. "Pull them back in. Now. Apolion, close the gap."

Angelus answered by converging Wings Two and Three on Halo's exposed flank, and then again on Resolve's firing arc as it lined up on Heaven's Fury's engines — too late. Akul's Teeth found the seam it was looking for, and the drive on Heaven's Fury stuttered under a shot that punched clean through the engine shielding. "Fury, report," Angelus said, all patience gone from his voice. "Wing Two, break off, get eyes on that engine damage. Everyone else, hold formation — do not let this become the opening they're waiting for."

The exchange that followed was the one that decided it. Wing One and Three returned to the same scorched seam on Akul's Teeth twice in a row, denying its shields the moment they needed to reset, while Heaven's Fury's own battered plating held through a follow-up strike by a margin thin enough to worry the whole bridge. Akora's side broke off an ionic pulse meant to catch two squadrons in the open — and missed clean, both fighters peeling apart a half-beat early. "Don't let that read as luck. Back onto that ship, finish what we started before they can rotate the shield again."

By the time Scintilla Fleet's crews finished compensating for the last hit, the round had already gone to Angelus twice over, evening a fight Akora's opening ambush had, for a while, seemed to own outright. On the encrypted channel, Akora conceded the note without conceding the war: "Our opponent demonstrates sound force. Though we've earned new marks, we will hold."