Though Jean-Paul’s Rafale jet was slightly outclassed by the British Eurofighters, it was still an evolutionary leap above the F-16, and Lord Mantil looked on with a mix of jealousy and sadness as the fighter completed an impossibly tight turn. With the Agent at its helm the plane would fly faster and with more agility than its designers could possibly have dreamed of, and Shahim knew the aging missiles he had sent after it had little hope of taking it down. Lord Mantil’s only remaining hope was that Jean-Paul did not know that he was facing another Agent. And so, factoring in how beaten his plane was, he set his machine mind to a tactical analysis of the other’s flight path and response patterns, and began defining an intercept course.

Lightning One shouted as he registered the firing of missiles at the Dassault that had broken formation, reporting the incident quickly and cursorily to Allied Force Command. Their response was equally fast. An unidentified foreign plane had fired on an Allied jet. Their orders were clear. Take the unknown pilot down.

Jean-Paul’s own mind was offering up tactics at a blinding pace, and he selected them as they arose. The plane dropped decoys earlier than would have been tactically wise, but it was not to fool the missiles, but to throw off further missile lock from whatever had fired on him. As he spun his plane hard back down toward his pursuers, he noted the mangled F-16 coming up behind him and allowed his tactical computers to assess the plane’s threat potential, while he came nose to nose with the other three Allied jets.

Lord Mantil sensed rather than heard the alarm from his battered systems denoting missile lock on him, and broke right as hard as he dared, banking away from the returning Jean-Paul. His plane was no longer capable of much, but his sudden movement was fast enough to throw off the lock before the pilot could fire, and he followed his new course as his mind continued to look for tactical opportunities to defeat the powerful Rafale.

Lightning One followed the battered Pelishar Four as it banked outward, leaving Lightning Two and Balbuzard One to continue their burn upward toward Jean-Paul. But the other plane was now coming back down to face them, its agile design and inhuman pilot bringing with him four streaking missiles hot on his tail. Jean-Paul brought his plane on a downward arc to pass between the remaining two planes, and as he did so, Lord Mantil cursed the simple but ingenious maneuver. It was exactly what he would have done with a plane capable of such a sharp turn, and he and the other pilots watched as the seconds unfolded and the maneuver’s game changing results became apparent.