There was no response from the Iron Jackson and the Long-Dive continued its climb as the newest uninvited party guests exchanged words with Lungfirst’s boss.  They apparently decided that it was a good day for them to die.  He continued his climb as he already had quite a bit of altitude on the rest of the planes by the time the bounty hunters broke formation.  They were also right in the center of his optimal targeting zone for his rear AA missile launcher.  Even better, if any of them tried to line up a rocket with him they’d have to get on his six and that would put them squarely in the sights of his rear rocket launcher as well.

Upgraded engines or not, it’s always been a pain to dodge during a rapid climb.  Though, they did have one advantage over the Long-Dive.  They could dogfight.  He could not.  He made a mental note to not sacrifice his altitude advantage next time, even if he was ordered to.  But, for the present moment, he called Pandora over the data link with a simple text message.  

“Tag any special targets – Long-Dive.”

If the enemy planes had a scanner or any other dedicated equipment on one plane or another then he would target those as priority marks for missile strikes.  Until they picked their targets and became predictable he would hold off on targeting them.  Missile lock alarms can get almost anyone’s attention and he needed more altitude before he actively attracted attention.  In the meantime, he held his climb, watched, waited, and kept track of the Iron Jackson’s flight path.  He knew that it would look like he was running away.  That was part of his plan.  Hopefully it would work.  If they headed for the Iron Jackson's six o'clock then he could easily adjust his angle of ascent to free up some Air-Ground missiles.  They might not be well suited for hitting air targets but they would be about as fast as rockets and explode with twice the area of effect if the hunters failed to react in time.

[@ShiningSector][@Dynamo Frokane]