Two, three, then four, Marie counted, from her perch on Palisade IV. Four long lances of fire leaving the runway, before the burners cut off and the steel blue PLAID fighters slunk away unseen into the night sky. If you squinted, you could see them turning northwest.
Just one flight, though of the twelve fighters remaining on the island Marie could see drop tanks and weapons being loaded onto all. More telling were the pilots sitting pensively in cockpits or lounging anxiously nearby. There wasn't much point, the barracks were just a half minute's run away, and the odds of being called up were effectively nil. Twelve more fighters could hardly add anything to the combined fleet sailing to Syx Island. Marie understood, though. She would have given much to be there with them, waiting the call to fly, but there were almost a hundred pilots on the island and barely more than a dozen PLAID planes. Next year there would be two dozen, and more the next, so for now she would content herself with watching the proceedings.
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Damned if Task Force 65 wasn't impressive, Felis-4 mused. It had been one thing to see the coalition fleet down at the Elevator, rearming and refueling under the guns of Fishenge, but from above the dozen warships looked like oh so much more, menacing shadows in the dark. Already Z-40s were leaving the flight decks, lighting them up- was that a Grak sitting there? He'd flown the one Desovo had shipped in for re-engineering, hadn't been all that impressed by it, and as far as he knew there were only eighteen of those. They were probably all committed somewhere to Little Fish, he'd ask about it later. Maybe one of the Z-40s he'd flown were down there too. He snapped a photo for Marie- she'd like hit, she'd been more involved in the foreign upgrade programs than he was, without her own Throngler to fly.
Then Felis Flight was past TF 65, turning north for Syx Island. They would be the first in and first out, jammers and radars screaming, hearing, finding. Then it would be up to the mudsloggers to get the bastard.
