Read Jack of Harts 2: Angel Flight for Free Online

dead.  Jack was honest enough with himself to recognize that fact.  Then he put the thought aside and turned to examine the results of the rest of the Shang barrage.
    Atmosphere and wreckage wreathed the American task force, radiating from almost every ship.  The displays showed that every ship had taken at least one major hit and some appeared heavily damaged.  Flames spewed from Durango’s flank, the very oxygen in her air burning from the assault.  The air ran out as he watched, the supply either cut off or exhausted, and the flames sputtered away so he could continue looking at the task force.  They hadn’t lost any ships.  He frowned at the realization.  That many missiles should have killed ships.
    And then his mind caught up to his eyes.  The wave of missiles still lived, whittled down to a quarter of its original size.  But the thousand remaining missiles bore down on the four British dreadnoughts anchoring Third Fleet’s center.
    “Ah, hell,” Jack muttered as the British point defenses laid down a final wall of death that swept missiles away as if slapped by the hand of God.
    But there were too many missiles, too few point defense batteries even on those behemoths, and too little time for them to kill more than a few hundred.  The remaining Shang missiles entered attack range, the first hundred or so rending deflection grids in their last act of existence.  Another hundred poured in through the open grids to rip armor apart.  The final hundred or so missiles smashed into the heavy warships one last time, seeking any weakness their brothers or sisters had generated.
    Flames wreathed the wall of battle and Jack held his breath, hoping he’d done enough.  He almost prayed but doubted the man his parents believed in would have much time for someone suddenly asking for favors out of the blue.  He knew he wouldn’t and settled for licking his lips as he watched the dreadnoughts writhe in the grip of the Shang assault.

There are easy times in life.  There are hard times in life.  There are times of peace, and times to make war.  I like peace myself.  Always have.  But there’s no use in going halfway when it comes to war.  Win or lose, live or die, they’re just sides of the same coin.  And I will never toss that coin randomly.  I will stack the deck, I will use loaded dice, and I will do everything else it takes to make certain that the odds are ever in my favor.  Cause if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.
     
     

Los Angeles
     
    The explosions faded, the wreckage of shattered missiles drifted away, and Jack’s displays cleared to show him the British dreadnoughts anchoring the heart of Third Fleet’s wall of battle.  They weren’t the largest ships he’d ever seen, or even the most powerful.  That honor went to Columbia .  She was a true jewel of a starship, but the British built their dreadnoughts real tough.
    Jack knew Vanguard well.  He’d escorted her in battle multiple times during the Alpha Centauri campaigns and it hurt to see her torn armor.  Air and wreckage streamed from her flank, but the displays confirmed she was already beginning to stabilize her deflection grid again.  She had power, her point defense grid continued to fire at the main Shang attack, and she continued to maneuver.  Jack let out a long breath in relief.
    He didn’t know Valiant but still winced at the pair of dead engines and the open wound that had been her flank.  She’d taken the lion’s share of the missiles and she must have lost multiple reactors.  The displays showed her deflection grid beginning to lose cohesion.  If it kept up like that the grid would fail completely in less than a minute, leaving the behemoth hideously vulnerable to attack.
    Victorious and Victory were damaged too but their deflection grids began reforming as he watched, hazy shells of twisted gravity on his displays.  They moved to interpose themselves between Valiant and the Shang missiles getting far