OK, so I said I'd work a little on the Night Rofugl, but got entirely distracted by the encounter at Nowa Avestia after she drops off Barcza and his spec ops team, seen here: 

 

 

There is a little foreshadowing I have not covered, and that's showing the Valkyrie LV-426, the Eland, resting on a landing pad the day before, so please bear that in mind. Nowa Avestia is the Resistance's headquarters. I know GSC cannot take the Valkyrie, but I think the model's great, so going to bend the rules on this one. This small excerpt is, essentially, two vastly different doctrines coming to blows.

 

I really like the Valkyrie models. I think it's such a shame the current game really nerfs fliers, but you can bet Barcza and his spec ops will make an appearance in my next casual game.

 

As always, thoughts most welcome.

 

=====

 

The red light bloomed without warning. No lock, just a thin, steady point crawling across the cockpit glass.

 

Anja’s head snapped up. “Laser. Low angle. Ground-based. It's Brutus."

 

Krzysztof felt it in his chest before he thought about it. The quiet pressure of being seen and of no longer belonging entirely to the night. “Range?” he asked.

 

“Transient,” Anja replied. “No firing solution. He’s lost it already.”

 

As if on cue, the red dot slid away and vanished. Somewhere below, Brutus’ turret would already be returning to neutral.

 

Krzysztof exhaled through his nose. “Nope.”

 

He eased the Rovfugl down, bleeding altitude a metre at a time, sliding her sideways into the folded dunes of the desert. Engines stayed tight, the cowlings keeping the heat held in. Discipline over impulse.

 

Anja watched her scope. “We’re not alone out here,” she said. “Single ping. Nine o’clock. Fractional return. Gone before I could classify.”

 

“Aerial?” Krzysztof asked.

 

“Yes.”

 

He nodded.

 

They held the line for two heartbeats, then the desert exploded.

 

LV-426, the Eland, crested a dune ahead of them like a predator announcing itself, engines screaming, multilaser already blazing. Fire stitched the sky where the Rovfugl had been seconds earlier. Rocket pods emptied in a savage arc, detonations rolling across the sand in overlapping waves. Flares bloomed white-hot, saturating the night in violent light.

 

For the first time, Anja’s voice sharpened. “That’s..." She cut herself off. Then, more quietly, "...very aggressive.”

 

The dune ahead rose long and steep, a single clean ridge breaking the desert in half. Krzysztof had already lined up on it without hesitation as Anja snapped herself out of the shock of the Eland bearing down on them.

 

“Flaps fifteen. Airbrake deploying.”

 

Anja swallowed. “I really hate when you do this.”

 

The Rovfugl climbed just enough to clear the crest then dropped to the deck, hard. The nose pitched up sharply as they slid down the far side, speed bleeding away with brutal efficiency. Sand rushed past beneath the canopy, almost close enough to touch.

 

“Terrain,” the computer intoned. “Pull up.”

 

Krzysztof ignored it.

 

“Ground speed oh-four-two,” Anja said, already recalculating. “Angle of attack oh-six-one degrees and holding."

 

The Rovfugl had bled off most of her speed, but she was now close enough to the edge to make the craft's physics nervous. Through the canopy Krzysztof could see only the boundless night sky as the Rovfugl hung in a near vertical position behind the dune.

 

“Five seconds to stall,” Anja continued. “Four.”

 

LV-426 screamed overhead. Multilaser fire tore the air apart above them. Rockets flashed past, detonating blindly. Flares chased nothing, blooming uselessly in the dark.

 

“Three,” Anja said. Calm, controlled, her voice tight. “Two.”

 

The Eland thundered on, committed, confident, already hunting for where the Rovfugl would be.

 

“Punch it, Krys.”

 

“Flaps one. TOGA," Krzysztof drove the thrust levers fully forward to the stops.

 

The engines roared. Stealth shattered instantly as raw thrust launched the Rovfugl skyward. She surged up and over the Eland’s flight path, rolling cleanly as Krzysztof hauled her through the turn. The desert fell away beneath them. For half a second, there was nothing but wind and fire and the scream of engines at full burn. Then the Rovfugl dropped back in behind her prey.

 

Anja’s hands were steady now. “Solution locked. We've got tone.”

 

Krzysztof didn’t answer.

 

The lascannon fired.

 

LV-426 ceased to exist as a single object. The beam cut her cleanly in two, white-hot and absolute. The Eland’s fuselage split apart mid-flight, debris and fire tumbling end over end as what remained fell burning into the desert below. Silence rushed back in to fill the space she left behind.

 

Krzysztof eased the throttles back, guiding the Rovfugl down into shadow once more.

 

Anja leaned back in her seat and let herself breathe.

 

“Eland is down,” she said quietly. There was no satisfaction nor triumph in her tone. Just fact. "Minor damage to engine cowlings, we're no longer running dark."

 

Krzysztof turned them away from the wreckage, already thinking in angles and exits. “Let’s not be here,” he said.

 

The Rovfugl vanished back into the dark, leaving the flaming wreck and questions behind her.