Angel Flight
The Angel Flight, (PROSE: Indestructible) also called the Angel Strike Command and (PROSE: Catfight) commonly referred to as the Angels, was the air force division of the security organisation Spectrum. Led by Destiny Angel, it was entirely made up of female pilots. (COMIC: Traitor Black Gives In! et al.)
History
Formation and first missions
In September 2089, Action 21 printed their account of how the Angel Strike Command was formed. (PROSE: Catfight!)
In September 2067, while Spectrum was still a secret organisation, Destiny took off from Cloudbase in Nice for Glenn Field in Miami to meet Captain Black upon his return from the Zero X mission to Mars he commanded. However, TV 21 reporters Pete Tracker and Lens Sharpe spotted her departure and followed in their own craft. After at least a day, Destiny told Colonel White of their persistence, resulting in him advising her to contact the World Air Force in the Bahamas to help stop them. Although she got away while Tracker and Sharpe were temporarily grounded, they still managed to track her course to Glenn Field and follow once their questioning had finished. (COMIC: SPECTRUM)
The Mysteron War
Early days
In 2067, the Angels attended to the Mysteron threat on London, with three craft including one piloted by Destiny observed as Captain Scarlet travelled through Cornwall with a H-bomb in Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle 7. The Angels cleared a shipping area two hundred miles west of Land's End to provide the bomb with a place to detonate harmlessly.
Shortly afterwards, the Mysterons threatened to destroy Unity City and three Angels including Destiny and Rhapsody or Harmony were launched to provide air cover. (COMIC: We Will Destroy Unity City [+]Loading...["We Will Destroy Unity City (comic story)"]) While two Angels made it without issue and set about patrolling the city's air limits, as reported on the front page of TV Century 21 on 7 October, one was rumoured to have been claimed by the Mysterons. The article suggested if this was true the Earth was in deadly danger and only Captain Scarlet could save it. (PROSE: Captain Scarlet Our Only Hope) Captains Blue and Scarlet did indeed observe the Mysteronised craft, with Scarlet ejecting forcibly Blue from their jet and ramming it into the Angel once he had confirmed the Mysteron presence, destroying it. (COMIC: We Will Destroy Unity City [+]Loading...["We Will Destroy Unity City (comic story)"]) The front page of TV21's 14 October edition reported on this, describing Scarlet's actions as being performed "in 20 seconds of skill and daring". (PROSE: Indestructible) Both articles, as well as the one from 21 October which noted Cloudbase's disappearance, were accompanied by pictures of Angel craft. (PROSE: Mysterons Destroy Cloudbase?)
Later, the Angels searched for Captain Scarlet after he alone had disappeared in the aftermath of the D17 poison gas on Cloudbase, though were wholly unsuccesful. Destiny, Harmony and Melody subsequently investigated a radio call for help from Captain Black wherein he gave a position in the Fijian islands and claimed to have a live Scarlet with him. Destiny rescued Black and Scarlet from their impending deaths-by-crab while Harmony and Melody hung back in case of a trap, later joining their colleagues on the beach as they waited for Cloudbase to fly overhead. During this wait, however, the Mysterons activated Black's audio-field which produced a high frequency noise and incapacitated everyone on the beach, allowing Black to carry Scarlet into the sea without any resistance from the Angels. Captains Blue and Magenta were sent to investigate after they failed to make radio contact and found them still dazed on the beach. (COMIC: We Will Destroy Unity City [+]Loading...["We Will Destroy Unity City (comic story)"])
More threats
In 2068, when World President T.J. Younger disbanded Spectrum following the apparent conclusion of the Mysteron War, the five Angels and their craft joined the World Army-Air Force. Spectrum was later reformed after it became clear the Mysterons' defeat was actually a clever ruse. (COMIC: Traitor Black Gives In!)
The 2080s
According to the accounts which dated Spectrum's creation and the beginning of the Mysteron War to the 2080s, the first Mysteron threat to Unity City occurred much later in the conflict (PROSE: Rogues Gallery) when compared to the 2060s accounts, which presented it as one of the first acts. (PROSE: SPECTRUM is Green, Captain Scarlet Our Only Hope et al.) These accounts instead posited that the attempted destruction of Unity City happened around a year or two into the War. (PROSE: Thunderbirds Ready for Action!, Send For Stingray!)
In an account dated to August 2088, Kylie Walker reported that Captain Scarlet was missing and presumed dead following a "spectacular" mid-air crash. Eyewitnesses saw Scarlet's jet make a deliberate turn into an Angel aircraft seconds before the crash, seemingly leaving no chance of survivors. (PROSE: Captain Scarlet in Death Crash!) However, he was later confirmed to be alive. (PROSE: Zero X: Four Crew Missing) In March 2089, Harry Dobermann reported on the rumours sweeping Australia that Captain Black and the Mysterons had surrendered. This was fuelled by a local news service picking up a signal from Cloudbase to Black in which Spectrum agreed to send Angel aircraft to a location chosen by him. (PROSE: Captain Black Surrenders)
