Aquila Flight- Attack on Fort Sentinel

Flashback - Jayden's Past 10 Years Prior
Roger Wilco City, Planet Nepleslia
Solaris Manor, Upper Haven 0930 Hours Local Time

"... I don't understand why we keep codling him. He's 13 years old." Aisen Solaris spoke with a sharp tongue and an unwavering voice that commanded the attention of all present in most any room he found himself speaking in. It was the voice of a cunning businessman that seemed just as intelligent as he was charismatic, and yet was the last person you wanted to cross. It was obvious he was a bit annoyed, his voice not the only indication.

"Aisen, your son is doing the best he can. Shouldn't he be allowed to be a child once in a while?" Erena Solaris countered with an equally firm tone. The fiery redhaired socialite opposite Aisen may have been smaller in stature than her husband, but she stood with an equal presence in the large sitting room of their mansion. The look on her face was one of concern, not anger.

"My son is expected to do as I instruct him to, without deviation or fail. He is a Solaris, like his father before him and my father before me." Aisen chided swiftly at the mention of his son entertaining what he thought to be a waste of time and energy.

"Our son is has been through hell and back Aisen. He deserves better than this and you know it." Erena said with her arms crossed over a ridiculously expensive silver and white dress with her eyes narrowed slightly. "It took him years to finally recover. That virus nearly took his life, and left him completely crippled as a small child. Too much has been taken away from him even with all that we've given to allow him a second chance. You know this just as well as I do."

"I will not let our son become something weak just because he should be able to enjoy his youth as you say. As the sole heir to the Solaris empire, I simply cannot allow it Erena. If he grows up to hate me for it, so be it, but this is for his own good as well as ours. I must return to work. Make sure Jayden has all his studies in order and completed before 1300, I'll send for him to go for his combat training then." Aisen paused, half smiling to his wife despite their debate. "Erena, I love you dearly, and I need you to stand with me on this... not against me." With that he closed the gap between himself and Erena, capturing her lips in his then kissed her forehead softly.

Aisen turned and left, headed to go sit in another business meeting or get in some high ranking politician's ear. Erena stood there with her hand at her forehead and sighed. "How much did you hear Jayden?" She called to her son she somehow managed to hear sitting half way up the stairs out of sight.

"He thinks I'm weak. Nothing I've accomplished seems to be good enough." The teenaged youth replied to his mother, his voice tinged with anger.

"He doesn't want you to settle. There are those in this life that would rather sit back and take the easy way out. He and I both think... No, we know you are capable of so much more. That fiery spirit you possess, put it to good use Jayden. Don't be afraid, and don't second guess yourself." As she spoke, she walked over to the bottom of the stairs and looked up to her son.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Jayden asked as he stood up and ascended the step to return to his room.

Erena shook her head, but didn't follow. "It's really not fair to him to have been the only one of three children to have survived that brutal virus." She whispered to herself before walking away to tend to other matters that needed her attention.




Speedom - Tech N9ne

"Commander? JAYDEN?!" Lilith called to him, trying to jar him out of his momentary daze. "Snap out of it Jayden we..." Jayden cut Lilith off blurting out to her. "I'll show you all just how weak I am." Focusing once again he focused on two things that stood out to him in the few moments to past. Spirit and Bannings had need of his attention and in turn they needed to pay him mind.

paladinrpg said:

"I know a tactic that saved many lives in my encounters with the NMX and their superior numbers... Anyone in an Uno X, switch on your High Ground Gravity Projectors and match to incoming projectile trajectories. It should create localized interdiction fields that can nullify the FTL bubbles of the guns and missiles as they pass through, allowing more time to dodge and blunting the impact on our shields. We need to stay up in the air as long as possible to cover the evacuation."

"Aquila 2, that sabotage must be causing you to losing engine power due to overheating. Vent some liquid metal coolant out the rear ports and it may give you more time... and distract those missiles with false heat signature like a flare."

Click to expand...

"Lilith, go ahead and vent some of the coolant and see if we can manage enough power for the High Ground Gravity Projectors." Jayden said as he altered his vector and pushed his thrusters to max to bring him closer to Spirit's Hornet. Meanwhile Lilith enacted the file they received from Virus, adjusting power flow throughout the system using Jayden's PA as a psudo-capacitor, then jettisoned white hot liquid metal out, somehow taking missiles down with the searing hot coolant.

"Wow, that's quite the hot load you just had me release for you Commander~ It seems the temperature sensors are offline."

Jayden couldn't help but be caught off guard and blush a little at that last comment from Lilith. "Systems check."

"Power Systems - 38% and slowly rising, Auxiliary Power - 40% and rising, Shields - 20%, 30mm Rounds - 220, Missiles -Error/Jammed, Long Range Communications - Offline, 20mm - Offline, System - Warning."

Grey Library said:

"Aquila 6 here, I'm fitted with a ground-strike package here. Requesting orders, over."

Click to expand...

"Aquila 6, I want you to use Help and coordinate with Lilith and myself to gamble on a tactic using your unique loadout to punch a hole right through that bomber formation. I will target your rockets with my 30mm cannons and timed correctly we can blanket a large area with explosions and get them to break off. Then you'll target the fragments of the formation with your Pufferfish. Aquila 7, you will provide DESCO fire support on those areas targeted by Pufferfish. Any other Aquilas not engaged with Phantom Flight, keep them off us long enough to pull this off or pick off any targets you can with your missiles if you can spare any." Jayden took a deep breath to steady himself - his plan seemed sound, and definitely ballsy with an escort flight as good as Phantom Flight running a powerful offensive ahead of the bombers.

"Aquila 6, I want you to use Help and coordinate with Lilith and myself to gamble on a tactic using your unique loadout to punch a hole right through that bomber formation. I will target your rockets with my 30mm cannons and timed correctly we can blanket a large area with explosions and get them to break off. Then you'll target the fragments of the formation with your Pufferfish. Aquila 7, you will provide DESCO fire support on those areas targeted by Pufferfish. Any other Aquilas not engaged with Phantom Flight, keep them off us long enough to pull this off or pick off any targets you can with your missiles if you can spare any."

"Copy that, standby for Ripple." The screaming of the slipstream began to soften as the Hornet's acceleration began to level out, the craft reaching its maximum speed and settling on an intercept course directly towards the swarm of enemy bombers. "Help, arm all rockets and transfer targeting controls to Lilith." Miranda ordered, her voice hollow as she turned to look at the AI straight in the eye. The AI emitted an electronic buzz as its holographic globe whirled with frantic activity. "Munitions armed, transferring controls." Help's voice was tinged with concern, glowing eye mantaining eye contact with her all the while. "Pilot Bannings, we will be low on munitions after this maneuver and within missile range. High risk predicted."

"I understand, Help," Closing her eyes with a sigh, the young pilot broke eye contact and turned back towards the incoming horde. "but we can't let them through." The blue glow of Help's orb dimmed as pilot and AI stared wordlessly at the mass of enemy contacts on the screen, waiting in quiet anticipation as the Hornet closed in on the Reds forces. For a seemingly endless amount of time, the cockpit was silent save for the soft hisses of breathing and engine noise. Wait for it...

A small ping rang out as the Hornet entered firing range.

Now. Miranda's eyes snapped open into a focused glare, her index finger reflexively squeezing the firing trigger. With a stuttering roar, eight fat rockets spat forth from the two pods hanging from the Hornet's underside in bursts of flame, the disposable pods falling off with metallic clanks. "Rockets away!" As the last rocket cleared the bottom of the plane, Miranda immediately yanked back the joystick and sent the Hornet into a sharp climb , gritting her teeth from the strain to fight off her darkening vision and keeping her eyes glued to the radar display as the rockets closed in on their targets, the fighter-bomber's airframe rattling from the G-forces incurred. "Not yet, not yet..." Unconsciously muttering to herself, Miranda's mind raced with calculations as she mantained the high-speed climb, the Hornet's rattling increasing every millisecond.

"Now!" A strangled hiss erupted from the Aquila's throat as she reversed her climb the moment the rockets closed within 1 klick of the formation, the heavily-abused Hornet emitting a metallic groan as it pitched over in midair and dived upon the bombers from high above. "High G-forces incurred, Pilot Bannings! Structural damage imminent!" Help called in an electronic monotone laced with urgency amid a chorus of alarms, both of which went completely ignored as she fought to keep the ungainly plane in line. In a haze of semi-consciousness and adrenaline, Miranda was barely aware of her hands dancing across the dashboard as she flicked open the firing switches of the Pufferfishes, hardly hearing the dull clunks as said missiles detached and shot forth with supersonic screeches. "Pufferfish away." she heard a muffled voice say in a soft, flat tone.

In that moment, Miranda "Spirit" Banning's world consisted of a hand clenched around a joystick and a screen showing the tiny blips of the missiles' signatures as they raced towards the enemy. "Fire in the hole." she whispered as she pressed the firing stud.

Leo's attack run on the enemy Phantom was a nearly unsuccessful, as only a few rounds made contact. The rounds that did hit however, managed to strike vital spots near the engines crippling major systems within the craft. "Sorry Diomides, I can't stick around this fight any longer. Phantom 4, disengaging." Phantom 4 broke off and fled the battlefield leaving a trail of black smoke pouring from the defunct fighter craft.

"This little punk! Who does he think he is?!" Phantom 6 spat as he committed to a long slow arcing bank to put some distance between himself and Guard Dog's craft, "Phantom 6, Fox 3." He released a small salvo of 4 long range missiles toward Guard Dog with the intent of putting him down.

Following through with the attack Leo danced with his opponent only a short moment longer before observing that the enemy had decided to disengage him and appeared to be damaged; he only had a limited number of rounds so it appeared pointless to pursue a craft that was not immediately attempting to kill him, besides there was no honor in killing a man who isn't prepared for fair combat. Watching with pride as the enemy air craft bugged before his heads up display started to shift colors and audible warning sounds coupled with the ACE systems warned him that there was now a prevalent lock upon the craft.

"Enemy lock!"

Without bothering to reply Knight quickly registers the direction of the intended lock upon the information displayed between the lines across his heads up display, narrowing his blue eyes Leo banks the craft towards the left heavily now, however that wasn't enough to separate the lock before munitions had been rifled in his direction and the entire cockpit practically flashed red to warn him now instead of simply the heads up display. Facing away from the direction of where the enemy lock and into a defensive maneuver, it was strange; he previously intended to throw his life recklessly away for the sake of pride and personal honor yet he found himself prolonging it now that there was purpose to fight for again.

"Missile warning preform evasive action!"

Manually he released a custom preset deployable countermeasure program from the craft just a fraction of a moment afterwards as the long ranged missiles screeched in his direction at multiple times the speed of sound. Hyperspace tap flares coupled with chaff are released in sequence as he arcs away from the missiles and twist at that same moment; spreading the counters out in all directions for the short few seconds that served as the gap between when the missiles were fired and their time sailing through the air closer. When passing through the cloud of countermeasures they seemingly lost their intended target and direction only to sail harmlessly past Leo in the air while he twirls in the aileron roll through a cloud.

Appearing on the other side of the liquid droplets at more than two times the speed of sound after the missiles hissed by Leo again would shift the craft in an oblique turn as to not overly combat the effects of gravity upon the craft as he cut back into the midst of the combat, he first glances to make sure that nobody was in a direct exchange he could cover before decidedly turning towards the enemy who had just before fired the long ranged missiles, they still had to much range between them however. The enemy he wished to charge and do combat with directly had an advantage in effective weapons range and a close ranged burst of those missiles would undoubtedly destroy his craft; so he quickly came up with something to resolve the issue of speed and range for his missiles.

"Drop shields use the fields charge providing additional repelling force to couple with the vogel, focus the distortion just before our right wing as far as you can with a low bandwidth, after I rifle these projectiles follow them two kilometers with the gravity projector to increase their atmospheric velocity"

"Confirmed"

Lining up his craft with the enemy who fired on him and producing a lock to return for the one provided just moments before, once he got a positive targeting solution even from the distance away he would then launch a burst of missiles, first two anti mech missiles from the second pod on his right wing before launching another two to follow them in a tandem pattern so the second ones would follow up if he went defensive for the first rounds. However due to the increased speed of the projectiles and the fact that with the missiles velocity their going to accelerate through the distance unusually fast it was equally likely they could manage to slam the enemy air craft and detonate their warheads outright after the assisted streak through the sky.

"Fox!"

"Copy that sir," Edward replied as he punched in commands to his Dictator. "Happy, spool up the laser generators. I want energy spread through them individually. One per DESCO. These lasers were meant for starship damage so base strength should give us all we need. I want maximum spread. Let's keep these suckers inside the fishing hole."

"Fishing hole! Cause their Pufferfishes! Oh, classic. Spread is locked in for herding. In fact, one nut is trying to escape the tree kiddo."

"Great, lock on and let's boogey. "

The Dictator kicked forward and spun onto it's starboard side and laid down a three laser spread. The first three shots spread out to deter the bomber from turning out of the impact zone. A quick flip onto the ports side found the DESCO adding a steady stream of laser fire to the massed pufferfish explosions.

"Eat hot electric death evil doers," exclaimed Edward!

Smokey was in her zone. She finished off her round and was turning for another when the enemy started to retreat. She held back her excitment, for it did seem rather odd that they would do so. She said quietly to Jethro only, "This is not good. Something's wrong with that retreat. It was too easy."

No sooner had her words come out than more were on their way in. She narrowed her eyes and heard the call from the Flight Leader to retreat as well, but she'd be damned if she was going to just give up that easily. She didn't voice her opinion like the others, for she knew her actions would speak for her. She kept her flight pattern near the rest of the crew and waited. Lo and behold, she would get the call to join with Nero and she was more than ready.

She opened up the comms to say softly, "Right behind you, Aquila Leader." Soon enough, she had bogies of her own to try to mow down. "Jethro, get a lock on at least one of them. I want to try to get another missile fired. Aim for the center."

"Got it, Smoke. Aquiring target now." Once the AI indicated that the lock was aquired, Smokey hit the button and murmured, "Fox 2." She kept flying straight, playing chicken to see if they would try to divert or not. Either way, she was ready and soon she hit the trigger, "Guns." That was all she said as she fired at one of the remaining targets.

As soon as she was through, she banked left. Her thought was to turn around. "Smoke! They've got us in their sights!" Jethro informed her. She cursed under her breath and hit a few buttons, "Deploy counter measures. Let's try not to get blown up. I'm not called Smokey for going down in smoke!"

Jethro gave a mechanical chuckle and said, "Counter measures away." She growled a bit as she felt the ship rock some from the explosion of the long range missiles and the hyperspace tap flare so close, but so far she could tell that things were okay. "They're firing at us with guns. Shields holding, but you might want to try to shake em."

Smokey nodded and angled her flight trajectory up into the clouds, hoping to lose them in there.

Phantom 7 had her sights on Smokey and she was gunning for her hard. Though she should have waited a bit longer to get a bit closer with her long range missiles, it was apparent she was out for blood. "You Aquila scum don't deserve to be in the same skies as Diomides, I'm going to paint the sky red with your blood." For as fiery a spirit as she had, she let it get too hot and it really affected her aim leaving Smokey with nothing more than a few lovetaps to her shields.

"Smokey, this is Striker. Listen to me, because this is the only word of advice I have for you right now. Take a deep breath and keep calm. She's more experienced than you, but you can handle her. Scare her off with your rear cannons, then flip around and punish her with the mains when you can. Save your missiles unless you really can't get a lock on her. Show me what you've got." Jayden called to her via private comms.

"Aww... isn't that sweet~" Lilith chimed in, noting his offered advice. "Seems my Commander has a soft spot for the nugget~"

"Can it Lilith, I just didn't want her to get bested by some hot head." Jayden stated quickly.

Smokey smiled a bit when she heard Striker and nodded more to herself than to anyone else. "Alright, Jethro. Let's do this."

"Rear canons going off. One left and one right."

Smokey grinned and then, as soon as she could, she flipped around on her back and started firing with her main weapons.

It'd probably seemed like Virgil was taking a joyride of sorts. Those who'd taken the time to find him would see his Quattro bearing out and around in a wide arc around the enemy elements, banked smoothly and racing just outside of weapons range. As soon as he found he could pick whatever vector he liked, however; Virgil's tactics changed and he jetted up to the highest high, then dipped and swung down over each enemy formation with guns blazing. The odd angle he'd taken set him up with as many enemies as possible in straight line before him, and the youthful ace took full advantage of this with quiet, calm ferocity.

"Mom, please indicate the next closest formation on my heads-up." He asked, his voice strained almost to a whisper from the effort of fast math and even faster piloting.

"Yes, dear." The AI mocked back, obeying and allowing the pilot to drop from above upon each formation with blazing guns and turrets pocking the enemies. Sometimes this served to help his companions and the guns acted as little more than support and suppression. Other times, an unfortunate enemy pilot would look up to catch sight of his doom just before the rain of terrifying fire crashed through his cockpit and reduced him to slag. Virgil honestly had no idea himself, for the pilot was just concentrating on his strafe, his craft skipping like a stone over water as he bounced from tiny engagement to tiny engagement with a tense look across his features.

"Commander~ We have Airburst Targeting. I've calculated synced targeting data with Spirit. Shall we celebrate with some fireworks?" Lilith announced.

"With pleasure - we'll blow these fucking Reds out the sky." Jayden was counting internally and yelled. "Lilith now! Guns! Pound them to death!"


Between Spirit's Rockets and Pufferfish Airburst, Striker's Twin-Linked 30mm Cannons, Virus' DESCO Laser Assault, and Ermine's strafing cannon attacks, the Red's second Bomber wave had effectively been cut in half and were in a mass state of disarray.

Phantom 7 faltered in her defense, caught off guard by the aggressive push of Smokey's advised attack. On her heels, she had no choice but to try to evade and regroup with her tail between her legs. Phantom 6 was also surprised by Guard Dog's tactic and punched his thrusters to max while deploying countermeasures with a tight spread thanks to a focused barrel roll. Engaging his overboost however proved to be a terrible move as one of the missiles managed to target him and inflict critical damage to his shields.

"Aquila Flight, don't let up! Press the attack!" Jayden called out as he looked over his ship's status.

"30mm Ammo Low, 54 rounds remaining. Vogel Drive failure imminent. System Critical."

"Sir, target locked." Cipher said as Nero fought to keep a bead on Diomides. "Roger. Aquila 1, Fox Three!" He yelled firing two missiles from their racks. The missiles moved towards the Phantom Lead's plane, to no avail. Diomides began a climb and cut his engines. He dropped like a rock and corkscrewed away from the missiles.


"Come on Crux, you know better than that? Same old tricks from the same old dog that never learns. Really you're pathetic." Diomides engaged a single hyperspace tap flare to ensure the missiles were taken care of then rocketed his ship in a hard bank and roll aiming to put distance between himself and Crux.


"Oh, is that so." Nero said in a low growl. "You do remember that this old dog shot you down with that same old trick and killed your wing man." He said menacingly. "I made a mistake that day. I should have shot down the rest of your flight you bastard. I wont make the same mistake." He said with a scary chuckle. He targeted one of the phantoms following him. "Sir, target locked." Nero's AI said again. "Cipher deploy this missile but don't activate the engine until the Phantom passes it." He dropped the missile from the rack and fired another salvo from his cannon at Diomides. As the enemy phantom flew past his missile Cipher engaged it. It was to close to the enemy plane to stop it, and it slammed into the enemies cockpit.


"Oh ho ho, you can't have me so you'll take out my wingmen. It's no matter. You and your flight are running out of time, and your precious Oracle won't be able to save you." Diomides veered off hard and punched his thrusters to max using his altitude to give him extra energy as he dove and armed two air to surface missiles and sent them screaming into the Flight Tower of Fort Sentinel. Then seconds before slamming into the ground he engaged his Vogel Drive and pulled up steeply slicing through the atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. At the base of the nose of his craft, a panel slid open revealing a cannon of some sort that began to glow and crackle. "Ahahahaha... feel the wrath of the Excelsior Array!"


A violent pulse of energy ripped through the sky toward the Grunts that were just about to join the fray, detonating in a massive explosion of light and heat, frying electronics within a kilometer of the blast if anyone was unfortunate enough to be within it's range. There was no time for the drones to evade and those that weren't destroyed in the blast dropped from the sky helpless to recover from their fate.


"Excelsior depleted, 4 minutes to recharge."

Nero followed close behind, until Diomides decided to fly straight into a dive. Then the bastard blew the control tower to pieces. "You fucking crazy bastard!" He yelled. Then something even crazier happened. Diomides sent out a massive wave of energy into the incoming Grunts. "What the fuck was that?!" Nero punched it. "All Aquilas, watch Diomides. If you didn't see that massive energy signature, you're blind as a bat." Nero flew back into position to attack Diomides. "Damn it! Diomides, you'll pay for this you son of a bitch!"

"I feel like a bird watching a worm wiggle and squirm before me, just before I capture and devour it. Watching you struggle gives me such joy Crux!" Diomides cackled menacingly and brought his ship in a tight bank, grunting at the g-force exuded on him, then set his sights on Nero with 2 more long range fire and forget missiles. "Struggle more! Fight more! I'll take everything you have to give, then I'll dispose of you like the trash you are!" Diomides taunted, displaying his dominance of the battle.

"Aquila Flight, this is the NSS Oracle. You are outmatched and severely outgunned. We have no choice but to retreat and give up the base. All those left evacuating the base unfortunately are on their own."

"Oh, for fucks sake!!!" Nero exclaimed as the missiles scrammed towards him. He slowed down and let the missiles catch up, then activated the vogel drive and put himself in the path of Diomides. "Chew on this you little shit. GUNS!" He yelled unleashing a deadly salvo in his direction, and pulled up as the missiles were about to catch him again. Putting them in the Phantom's path.

Diomides read Nero like a book, having seen the tactic once before as the one to take down his former wingman all those years ago. He waited, pushing his shields to maximum to weather the Uno X's improved and equally impressive cannons while maintaining a collision course with Nero and ripping into his opponent with his own cannons. Both ships' shields took brutal punishment, and both failed around the same time leaving both Diomides and Nero trading glancing blows to each other's crafts. Maximum burn toward Nero, Diomides banked hard at the last possible second and deployed a field of flares just ahead of Nero as he passed. Minor damage to both rear ends of the fighter craft was the outcome of the exploding missiles with Nero and Diomides heading in opposite directions, however Nero's craft was tossed about harshly.

Nero cried out as the missiles rocked his craft. He felt a large surge of blood flow from his mouth. His vision went blurry. "Sh..Shit..." Was all that was heard as Nero's craft started losing altitude.

"Just hang on Nero, I'll get you out of this. I've started a large dose of combat pain killers to keep you up a little longer. I don't recommend this course of action any longer, you've done your best." Cipher chimed as he assumed control of Crux's craft and silently assessed the damage. It was simultaneously displayed to Nero.

"Rear Cannons - Offline, Power Level - 85% and dropping."

"Jayden, this is Cipher. Crux is hardly in this fight anymore and I can't see keeping him here any longer. Commander, Aquila Flight is under your orders now." Cipher then opened up comms to the rest of Aquila Flight. "Aquila Flight, this is Cipher. Aquila 1 is disengaging."

"No...no Cipher...I will not stop fighting. I can't leave my family to die..." he said accidentally letting everyone hear him. "I... I won't let that fucker win. I can't." As he said this Nero screamed as pain flew through his body. He then went eerily silent. Then alarms went out to all the Aquilas, that Nero had just went into cardiac arrest.

Jayden's eyes went wide as he saw the alarm in his HUD and was just about to open his mouth when the alarm disappeared.

"Jayden, I've got him, he's much too weak to continue. Aquila 1 is evacuating." Cipher pipped up.

"What's this? Nero is trying to escape? I'll have none of that!" Diomides roared as he punched his ship into action once again.

"Lilith, Nero's a sitting duck with Cipher trying to keep him alive and escape." Jayden's voice contained just a hint of concern that seemed highly out of character for him. "Already on it my lovely Commander~" Lilith cooed as she brought their wounded craft around to intercept Diomides.

Diomides had Nero's climbing craft in sight, then the system pipped up. "Target Acquired." He cackled deeply and maniacally as he fired his last two long range missiles toward Nero in a final attempt to rid himself of his long time nemesis.

"Commander?" Lilith asked, already knowing what Jayden was going to do.

"Looks like we're going out with a bang." Jayden said emotionless. "Guns." Both he and Lilith targeted the missiles managing to destroy one but there wasn't enough time. His craft groaned loudly as his Vogel drive activated one final time, putting his ship directly in front of the missile with just a couple hundred feet to spare. The explosion tore his ship in half, sending his cockpit down toward the earth like a stone.

"Aquila Flight, .... is Aquila 2. Evac... immedi... I ...peat. Ev... iately." Jayden grabbed Lilith's chip and jettisoned himself from the cockpit at the last second, barely avoiding death, but not avoiding a rough reacquaintance with the ground.

"This is Cipher, all units evacuate the combat zone and get to the Oracle immediately." Cipher called to all units.

Streaking directly into a hostile bomber formation was probably not the best idea for many pilots. It usually would be their last as well, judging from the sheer number of angry AA turrets pointing their way. Then again, the Hornet Fighter-Bomber was not like most planes, it was built to soak up sustained fire and did so spectacularly.

Furthermore, its pilot had an interesting history with flying in crowded environments.

"My, that was something." Shaking her head like a resurfacing diver, Spirit deflated with an audible gasp and shook off the remainder of her G-compression induced grogginess. "Pilot Bannings, we are under fire from the hostile bombers, damage minimal. Hard enemy radar spikes from three bandits, no launches." Help seemed to glow brighter and compress as it looked at its partner, giving off the impression of staring. "Our position puts them at risk of friendly fire. Excellent job." ...well, wasn't really expecting that, actually, Spirit chuckled to herself as she flexed her aching fingers around the controls, listening to the cacophony of tiny thunderclaps the incoming rounds produced as they slammed into the Hornet's heavier shields. Shooting the helpful AI hologlobe a weary grin, she rolled her shoulders and prepared to dive back into the fray. "Well then, let's finish up the job, shall we-"

Once again, everything suddenly went to hell. An annoyingly frequent occurrence in this particular operation.


May~ The Sun~ The Sun shine bright~ May the Sun shine bright on you~

"...oh, so bright. Wait, what?"

"Strategic Energy Weapon detected! Targeting systems are offline due to residual EMP shockwave, be careful Pilot Bannings!" All of a sudden, a gigantic flash appeared on-screen, briefly dazzling Spirit's vision before her suit's safeties kicked in and tinted the feed. The pilot herself just sat in a stupor for a few seconds, both the Hornet and the surrounding bombers halting their fire to watch the fading flare in the distance.

Crux's following transmission pretty summed up the thoughts in everyone's minds. "What the fuck was that?!"

Snapping out of her stupor, Spirit hastily grabbed the controls and put the Hornet into a hard swerve, narrowly dodging a stunned bomber as they drifted in and out of formation in a daze. "It's like rush-hour driving in Nepleslia Prime all over again!" she cursed as the Hornet danced around another of its fatter cousins, shield crackling again as the bombers started shooting again. "Aquila Flight, .... is Aquila 2. Evac... immedi... I ...peat. Ev... iately." the radio began to crackle even as Striker's IFF vanished from the radar. "Aquila 2 down, confirm ejection. Displaying course for NSS Oracle." the hologlobe chimed, its familiar monotone a reassurance in this stressful situation. "...we should go, Pilot Bannings." the AI quietly stated.

I really wish I could rub my eyes now. Some tea would be nice too, especially after this fracas. Settling with a long-suffering sigh, Spirit deftly guided the Hornet through and out of the mass of bombers like an insane taxi driver, hitting the throttle as soon as the plane was clear and rocketing off into the distance. "Aquila 6, breaking off. Heading to NSS Oracle, out."

I've just got here, but this place is wearing me out already. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that.

The sky lit with the telltale hazy light of some type of emp. Edward marveled at the sheer scope of the detonation and destructiveness.

"Ooooo, shiny..." Happy announced being as distracted as a computer could be.

"Happy snap out of it, " Edward exclaimed, " we have to cut all links to those drones! We already sent the handshake and we are gonna get the feedback!" Edward typed furiously to negate the in progress uplink before some serious damage could be done to his Dictator.

"Up-up-uplink drop-p-p-ped kiddo. Min-min-minimal feedback-k-k received," announced Happy with far too much pep.

"Aquila Flight, .... is Aquila 2. Evac... immedi... I ...peat. Ev... iately," came Striker's message.

Edward twisted and turned in his seat to catch sight of Aquila 2. He found him just in time to see the pilot eject and hit the ground. "Happy, spool up the Mesher and prepare a course as close to land as you can to Oracle," he said as he manually banked the fighter around and maneuvered down towards Striker's last known crash coordinates. His hands flying over his keypads unlocking the onboard Na-T2-E3200 Interdiction beam.

"Happy, engage Mesher to cover us with nearby terran formations," Edward said as he attempted to target Striker's Hostile and use the Interdiction beam as a tractor beam to scope up the fallen pilot.

"Am I dead...?"

Jayden was a mess - as was his Hostile PA that absorbed most of the impact with the ground. Barely breathing, his was a state of twilight, barely conscious and yet equally coherent. Thoughts and images raced through his mind as he fought to recover from trying to protect his CO. Darkness crept in, his mind fighting hard but seemingly losing out to a greater force. In all actuality, it was the over exertion of his mind causing him to slip further and further into unconsciousness.

"Where am I? What is this place? Why can't I see anything?"

It was completely dark, and worse yet, dreadfully silent. The kind of silence that unnerves you into thinking it's unbearably loud. Jayden brought his arms up along each other, rubbing along them, noting eerily that his Hostile was missing and continued with the movement to steady his nerves. The chill of fear set in, eliciting a slight shiver from his form as he continued to absorb his current situation.

"Deep breath, breathe, focus on your breathing Jayden."

Moments crept by excruciatingly slow, feeling like an eternity was passing by. There was nothing, except for what Jayden could feel of himself. Even then as time passed, he began to wonder if what he was feeling was real at all.

One fearful foot forward, followed by another shaky step, Jayden began to move with great uncertainty. It was the only other logical choice for everything that was illogical right now. Another step, then another, picking up confidence and speed until he broke out in a full on sprint in the nothingness that consumed his being. Desperate and defiant he pressed his body as hard as he could for as long as he could until he just couldn't run anymore.

Panting heavily, he fell to his hands and knees as sweat beaded on his brow. The only sounds around him were his own with nothing but the ground beneath him to reverberate off of. Frustrated, he balled up his fist and slammed it down on the ground causing cracks beneath him and splintering of the glass like substance underneath him. Eyes wide, he reached back and with both hands slammed the ground again.

*Crack* *Shatter*

Jayden fell through the shattered floor into more darkness.

Jayden winced expecting a harsh impact, having closed his eyes tightly and praying to survive the near endless fall. Instead he was greeted by bright light all around him and no such impact. Picking himself up off the floor, off in the distance he could see the form of two women. Long flowing dark reddish/brownish hair in silvery white dresses with paler skin. One a little taller than the other, they stood with their backs to him.

"Serra? Celeste?"

He slowly moved toward them, though it didn't seem he could close the gap between them. They turned to him, taking hold of each other's hand and looked to him. They were older than him, but it was impossible for them to have aged. They had died 18 years ago, how was this possible?

"Surely I have died. Am I not able to join my sisters?"

His face held confusion, displaying his inability to believe his eyes and the pain he felt in his heart. The pressure in his chest was unbearable, such sorrow to think this was the end.

"Jayden, you can not join us just yet. You're not dead, this is just a dream. We wanted you to know we love you and you have to keep fighting. They need you, Nepleslia still needs you." Both girls spoke in unison and smiled warmly to their younger brother then vanished before him.

"W-wait! Don't leave me again. I don't want to be alone..."

A blinding flash of light emitted from where his sister's stood.



Groaning, Jayden began to stir slowly becoming more and more aware of his pain and the overall condition of his body. Breathing hurt, shooting hot searing agony through his left arm. Looking to the left while his body shifted slightly he could see that his Hostile was very well damaged. Cracked armor, jagged where parts had broken off. He tried to move his left arm and was rewarded with a shot of lightning through his pain receptors. Broken? No, just badly dislocated.

Shifting his weight again, he used his right arm to hold his weight and push himself up with. He held his breath, wincing as the adrenaline in his system left him with the distinct realization that he was not invincible by a long shot. Jayden struggled to his feet, but was thankful the Hostile still had enough power to assist him.

In his right hand a familiar module miraculously wasn't crushed. Lilith was intact and ok, which drew both feelings of relief as well as a slight guilty feeling at having annoyance with the AI. The wreckage that was his Uno X cockpit exploded off in the distance, pulling Jayden back to realize his placement in the seemingly lost battle.

"I've got to get away from this base before it gets glassed." Jayden thought to himself, looking around. It seemed Hanger 12 was still intact but how to get there before the bombers complete their run.

"Vi...s, can y... ed me? Hos... is comp... Hanger 12... Trainers..." With that Jayden's comms fizzled and shorted out. He cursed silently, time was running out and his only hope of surviving and escaping to the Oracle was to get to Hanger 12.

Continued to persist in that relentless charge towards his opponent phantom six, the shields were down at that instant but he didn't bother with that just then as the distance was closed and their relative movement became a slight lag pursuit which was taken advantage of only a short moment after as the range of the main weapons system comes into play. After the explosion that tore the shields with visible ripples of energy snapping the eager pilot continued to keep his opponent in the midst of that lock when gliding past the counter measures and following a turn that forced the blood to begin to drain from his cranium, his vision fading and the heft of a locker set upon him in the weight of gravity before he tightens the turn from lag to lead while the sliding metal port opened to reveal the 30mm cannon with a snap.

"Guns range"

"Die!" roars Knight

The cannon opens fire with a vogel assisted burst at that instant but the momentum of the enemy craft proved to great as he yanked back and the tracers streamed past his craft only for the fused rounds to explode in the near distance from his intended target. Angrily Leo spun his craft while encroaching on his enemy at great speeds, twisting the Uno abruptly in an upwards oblique aileron roll which soon shifted into a full high yo yo as he turns back around and expended the unnecessary energy while rolling the nose back into place for his next lock; the tone rang through his ears and he decided to take another spray with this time 20 rounds in whole that appear to be in line with Phantom 6 in addition to closer proximity, when coupled with the vogel assist the rounds were nearly sure to detonate close to the enemy craft at less than a 800 meters range from point of origin to the Phantom.

"Energy pulse detected, heading 255 nearly a kilometer in size"

His attention briskly shifted over towards the exchange of combat yet again as things go from bad to worse; he cursed the fact that one of their only hopes of succeeding in the conflict was now apparently shot down in the midst of combat, he nearly let his anger get the best of him yet again till a sort of calm washed over him just a short moment before the pulses wave passed over his ship, the problem of course in this situation was that he had disengaged the shields moments before to ensure that the missiles would garner longer range and had not engaged them again; a terrible mistake as numerous systems were destroyed as the energy rippled across the standard uno with a few notable sparks of light before he nearly lost control of the craft as the entire interface was shorted, even the basic controls of the aircraft were now lagging well below par and he could no longer use his ACE to assist directly in the midst of combat. The monotone voice urgently conveyed the extent of the ships damage; weapons were essentially useless. And if it wasn't for tapping into the auxiliary it would be nearing the end of It's main power supply.

"Be advised user interface offline, ACE flight assist disengaged, critical damage to key hardware components, subspace radar, gravitational sensor, thermal sensor, and full spectrum radiation sensor. The only sensor array still operational are the camera and magnetic. Please use caution Ensign Knight 35% main power remaining. Locate the war vessel NSS Oracle by command of your superior. Bulls eye has shifted"


Leo hesitated to so much as even acknowledge the artificial intelligence before starting an aggressive clime up towards the atmosphere of the planet, in truth he hated those deserts below almost as much as he hated this damn machine reminding him all that garbage, but more importantly; the taste of the enemy really infuriated the rookie pilot. Although as he desperately tried to get his machine back in fighting condition from inside the cockpit a short few attempted resets of the combat interface forced him to accept that his targeting software was beyond fried and even if it wasn't. The craft was half shot and getting low on energy from sustained combat.

The faster he could find that ship the faster he could return and kill the rest of the enemy, deploying a short series of countermeasures to break any locks prevalent as he rises up gradually next to the hornet from Aquila squadron as he remarks over the communications line evenly with his gravelly tone of voice.

"Roger, Guard Dog here, my craft is damaged and no longer remains combat effective. I'll follow six up."

"Shields three percent and rising"

Grumbles within the power armor at the necessity to disengage "Pieces of shit..."

♫Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua - Mighty Wind♫

Sayoko was not close to quitting the fight yet, sticking to her chosen prey with dogged determination as her Uno X and that of Phantom 5 danced in an aerial ballet as graceful as it was deadly. Her forward gun arrays blazed an arc of tungsten tipped death that just could not seem to hit the enemy craft directly, as it was always seemingly one step ahead of her targeting and rendering them only grazing blows at best. Meanwhile, she was taking her own hits from it's rear unguided 20mm cannons for her efforts, and one made a direct hit on a shield cluster that had been weakened by the risky scraping against Phantom 10's wings a moment before. It sparked and sputtered, and fell to earth, and with it went a large part of her bubble's protection.

"Sis, we've just lost the forward shield array!... you might be getting in over your head here."

"Shiori, I'm not quitting... if we can still fly, we can still fight. Ready the countermeasures," retorted the green haired Jiyuuian to her ACE, as she pulled up on a diagonal course above Phantom 5's flightpath and its bruising rear guns and suddenly came into his radar, pulling into a displacement roll. The enemy took the bait and locked onto Banshee, firing it's anti-mecha ordinance in force at what seemed to be an easy target. Shiori deployed the hyperspace tap flares as planned and managed to block the missiles' advance, while Banshee then targeted the projectiles with her guided 30mm guns and blew them up. This was combined with a release of sensor disrupting chaff, resulting in a momentary smokey haze that obscured to the pilot's systems exactly where his pursuer had gone...

"Aquila 4, Fox 3!" punctured the momentary silence as Banshee's Uno X came suddenly from below Phantom 5, having cut her engines to drop altitude, and now presenting the enemy with a full cluster of anti-mecha missiles launched from her nearly empty pod. The barrage was so sudden, that the enemy's tap flares did not all get ejected in time to stop the missiles; one or two did connect with a gratifying explosion. However, the skilled enemy ace had been able to take enough of an evasive maneuver at the last second that his shields took all of the abuse but the critical systems and armor remained undamaged.

And then a sobering realization struck just as a huge burst of energy lit up the sky from Diomedes and his Excelsior array. She was close enough to the area to have her visuals flooded with light, dazzling her senses momentarily until the systems of the Hostile and Uno X could modulate it. Sayoko cursed lowly, "Shimatta!" as the truth started to set in. She realized now that she was not the one leading this aerial dance... she was the one desperately trying to keep up.

"Diomedes has just discharged an extremely powerful energy pulse weapon on the battlespace," warned Shiori the AI as suddenly critical systems started lighting up red on the display. "Residual energy has entered the hole in our shields. High ground system has just overloaded, and the forward 30mm guns are not responding!"

The situation had suddenly become desperate, as the call went out for a full out withdrawal as Nero lost his battle with the Red ace, and Striker went down in flames and ejected. Without her commanding officers and bereft of the gravimetric system tactic aiding her survival, Banshee knew the chances they could do anything more were slim and moved to disengage as per orders. However, Phantom Flight was not going to let her flee so easily, not after killing one of their own and nearly taking the life of a second. The predatory enemies sensed the blood in the water and raced to intercept her Uno X, cutting her escape route off up above. "Sis, Phantom 2 & 3 are locking onto us. They are obviously out for your head... multiple launches detected from both craft!" warned her ACE, as the wingmen both launched their long range missiles at Aquila 4.

Sayoko started to sweat now, feeling the sense of death creeping up her spine. But the former Nekovalkyrja had been in worse fights, and she was not through yet. "Can't retreat. Being intercepted," she communicated to the rest of the team, and she then pulled her craft into a dive towards the doomed base instead of spaceward, trying to outpace the twin missiles that were gaining ground. Her rear gun, still functional, rung out in desperation, trying to tag the deadly pursuers. Shiori also sent out the last of her tap flares, and together they removed one of the deadly projectiles. Banshee tried to do a yo-yo maneuver on the way down, but the other missile would not break lock, driven seemingly by killing intent.

That malice soon detonated at the rear of Banshee's Uno X, throwing her forward in the cockpit from the force. She grit her teeth underneath the metal skin of the Hostile, as the first sting of real pain made itself known from a hard gash across her forehead. Alarms rang out along with Shiori's frantic voice, "Not good... last two shield arrays destroyed... main power offline... vogel drive inoperative... we're losing altitude! I think it's time to punch outta here, sis!" The Jiyuuian listened to the synthetic voice of her sister filled with concern for her safety, but did not immediately take the advice, trying to regain her focus as she still gripped the nearly unresponsive controls, the fighter craft starting to receive high G forces as it dropped like a rock towards Fort Sentinel. The near free fall seemed to pass in slow motion, black smoke trailing from the rear of her craft mixing with the streaking of bombers drawing ever closer to deliver their destructive payloads.

In this moment of celerity, Sayoko picked out the form of Jayden's Hostile limping towards one of the last intact hangars on the base and what could be his chance to regain a place in the skies. One of the NRF bombers at low altitude was on a direct course to put it over Hangar 12, and if it completed its bombing run, it would likely be the real end of their XO. "Nngh... those bastards...," growled the green haired pilot as she yanked harshly on the controls, trying to adjust the angle of her descent to put the crippled Uno X on a final collision course with the bomber. "You wanted my plane destroyed so much? Take it, then, Red scum! Aquila 4, punching out..."

Sayoko then disengaged her Hostile PA and hit the switch to blow the canopy, taking only the barest of seconds to grab Shiori's ACE chip out of its slot before the ejection fired, as the computer copilot buzzed angrily "You're always so dramatic with your exits..." The experimental fighter craft's final sortie ended violently as its Nerimium nose punctured the hull of the bomber cleanly as a Yamtaiian samurai blade, sending up a huge ball of flame that lit up the sky as the two jets spiraled earthward with another explosive crash. Against this backdrop the former IPG agent activated the PPG system of the armor, and attempted to cushion her rough landing. The momentum was still great, however, and it left a huge circular crack where she plowed downward fist first into the tarmac near Hangar 12, momentarily stunned and breathing heavy.

"Striker, this is Virus I copy. Get to the hangar, any Aquila's left in the air I could use a hand. The trainer's in hangar 12 can't stand up against these kinds of enemies. Set up a hard perimeter while Banshee and Striker get in the air. Once airborne I will use my Mesher to cover their signatures," Edward said with a surprising amount of confidence. "Happy, get your tail out of your ass and bring the ship low toward the hangar. I want to track their progress, let's bring them home."

"Ooo, so confident, so brave, my little boy is all grown up. Loving your 'nuts half full' attitude boss," said the annoyingly chipper Ai.

Jayden had mixed feelings to say the least about seeing Banshee downed as well, but it seemed he had a lot more to be thankful about given his current situation. Had Banshee not taken out the bomber, all hope of escaping would have been lost. Moving hurt, a lot more than he was ever willing to admit, but he fought through the pain he felt in places he didn't know he could hurt and continued limping along to get to the tower.

Lieutenant JG Mochizuki shook off the stars from her hard landing, thankful for the tough construction of Nepleslian armors on the left arm side, and immediately moved to join up with Jayden who was in close proximity. "Striker, we can do this. Just a bit farther." Sayoko said, as she slipped an arm beneath his and engaged the Push Pull Guard system once again to draw both of them towards the hangar more quickly via a powerful tractor field, lessening the impact on her XO's damaged armor. Time was not on their side and worse yet, Phantom Flight knew this was their moment to strike. Like sharks, they could smell the blood in the water, and began to zero in on the last ditch effort to take out as many Aquila's as they could.

"Ahahaha! Is that a little escape attempt I see? We can't have that! Phantom 2! Take the rest of Phantom flight and kill them all. I will keep tailing my old friend." Diomides called as he rocketed after Crux.

"This is Phantom 2, roger that boss. All Phantoms, it is time to go hunting. Now that they lost the Southern Cross they are doomed. Time to finish them off! Everyone engage!" Phantom 2 yelled as she screamed into the fray.

"I want whatever that one is." Ermine's flight recorder heard the soft tones of his voice, just a hint of strain in it as Aquila 5 banked hard and tore through the skies directly for this new participant in the combat. He seemed to always appear again right when things were getting tough, through nothing but the virtue of letting himself get tangled into prolonged dogfights with single enemies-- leaving him far from the closer engagement zones and screaming back into the fight just in time to run into the new hostiles.

"Akeela Five, I'm engaging the new target, sensors mark it as OPFOR Delta Two." Virgil announced, calling his target as his superior angle brought him down from the heights of the last prolonged engagement. His thoughtful eyes darted quickly over the arming controls and he flicked a few switches to arm his smart ordinance as he closed in.

Virus replied, "Copy that Ermine, you and Smokey are the point defense. I suggest disabling and moving on. Once Striker and Banshee are airborne we are bugging out. You two look out for each other up there." Virus banked hard to avoid the nearest outcropping. He was ready as a last line of defense should anyone strive to go after the two on the ground.

Things are going from bad to worse, Smokey thought to herself as she flew through the skies. "Smokey, they did a massive charge that wiped out our support! We're being called back! Let's go!" Jethro practically yelled at her, though the AI had no feelings whatsoever. Jo nodded and banked around, but then came the call for her to defend. She said softly into the comms, "Smokey on the way. Let's get the birds into the air and head out!" Up to this point, she had been doing a small aerial ballet with the Phantom that had tried to target her, but neither one could get a really good bead on the other. Her only hope was that she could get back to help the others in time.

There was a good bit of quickened breathing through clinched teeth as Sayoko propelled both herself and Jayden using the Push Pull Guard. While it lessened the strain on his body as a whole, the inertial stress to his dislocated shoulder was unfortunately extremely difficult to ignore. "H-here's the last Trainers we have left. Hopefully one isn't dismantled for repairs or maintenance." Jayden hated feeling weak, and his voice betraying his status seemed to be a bitter pill.

The Jiyuuian eased up on the power of the attractor as they reached the entrance seeing his pained reactions, and set Striker's Hostile down near the entrance back to his own power alone. Sayoko gave the door to Hangar 12 a hasty shove open and continued on inside, quickly checking what remained of the Trainer Quattros. Much like her XO said, there were several in various states of maintenance or tear down for decommission, and she frowned as it seemed none were serviceable. Biting her lip, she however finally managed to find one at the far corner that was still relatively untouched. "Striker, this one still looks airworthy," she communicated back, sliding open the central canopy to reveal the controls of the jet. "Room for two."

Meanwhile, the aerial ballet between Smokey and the Phantom was seemingly like a game of chess with each Ace trying to feel the other out with feints and counters, but some how Smokey would gain an advantage in a simple yet devastatingly decisive mistake made by her Phantom rival. They didn't seem to keep track of their munitions as well as they should have and their front cannons were completely depleted.

"Smokey, that bogey we were against. They're out of ammo. If my calculations are correct. You're able to take advantage. Go for it!" Jo heard her AI inform her of the disadvantage of the other and smirked as she nodded, "Alright, Jethro. Let's take care of that one, then. You know they're gonna try to target those below." She maneuvered back around once more and waited until just the right moment. "Now, Jethro! Let's get 'em!" She fired her forward cannons, but only just enough shots to be sure she got a direct hit.

As Diomides's craft tore through the sky, something strange happened. He quickly began losing altitude. "Argh! How did Nero do that? I am losing all power." He growled as his engines shut down.

As he spoke, a very familiar voice came over Diomides's speakers. "That was pay back for the Captain you fucker." said Cipher finishing off a cyber attack. "Aquila Flight, this is Cipher. I have taken Diomides out of the fight. I have made it out of the atmosphere and am headed towards the Oracle. Please get up here safe. Cipher out." Nero's AI finished.

"D-Damn it!!" Phantom 7 cried out as her foolish mistake left an opportunity for Smokey's cannons to punish her craft. As the shots pounded against the seemingly strong shields of Smokey's enemy craft, it wasn't long before they broke through and damaged the rear cannons and one of the engines. Smoke started pouring out from Phantom 7's frame and they fought hard to maintain control of their craft while breaking off. "Tch! You got lucky today. When we meet again, I'll personally send you to hell." She called to the newly christened Ace.

Jo snorted softly, hearing the parting shot and responded back, "Not if I send you first." She then broke off and started looking for any others that were trying to keep the rest of her team from escaping. She knew that it was only a matter of time for the two on the ground to get their Trainers up into the air and towards Oracle.

"They're talking to each other." Mom explained, in response to the silent furrowing of Virgil's brow beneath his helmet. The young pilot looked over his shoulder and made a jealous frown at the retreating form behind him. They'd talked to each other, just like in his video games or Yamataian cartoons.

"That is so cool." He muttered, pouting that he hadn't been exchanging banter with his intended rival. Then, it was back to business and Virgil returned his attention to the form of Phantom 2 screaming ever closer as he swooped in from above and thumbed a button on his flight stick. "Akeela Five, Fox Three." The call was out, and a blazing streak of auburn hellfire issued forth from the snout of his steel bird; zipping off with belching white smoke and a hail of gunfire behind it as Virgil added, calmly, "Guns, guns."

"Right, get her spooled up and ready to go. Sounds like we have a few angels outside fighting for our lives." Jayden took a deep breath and focused his strength into getting over to and managed to get up into the Trainer, taking the back slot. With any luck, the Aquilas would all make it away in relatively one piece. That is, if they could fend off the Phantoms.

Sayoko nodded, "We have a good team, next time it will be different." She then began warming up the engines of the Trainer as instructed, seeing that it was very similar to the standard loadout of the ones she had flown back in the IPG Naval Detachment, however she also knew that most of the places for weapons such as the DESCO were scaled down to target painters or dummy controls and monitoring equipment intended for new pilots of the air frame. The prospect of going up into the war torn skies in a barely shielded and unarmed craft was a little bit unnerving for the former commando, but by the sounds of it their fellow Aquilas were running air cover admirably and they still had their opening.

Seeing the two grounded pilots make it into the hangar allowed Edward the relief he needed. He pulled up the Quattro and looked for the closest circling Phantom's. He was by no means a combat pilot but today, he earned his spot. "Happy I want fast and loose locks my favorite friendly furry tailed rodent. Let's show them that lasers are mightier than the sword," Edward stated as he typed in a complex spiraling pattern designed to cover many different angles as he climbed. "Um, of course lasers are mightier than the sword. They are lasers," Happy reminded Edward. Despite the comment Edward soon found himself spinning behind a dodging Phantom. He lined up his DESCO and intended to drive off the Phantom with 2 beams of fire. He knew he only had to hold while the trainer's took off then they could group and get out of this quickly overwhelming fire from the Phantoms.

Phantom 2 didn't expect any of the Aquilas to turn to offense, and had to shift most of their power to their shields just to survive the attacks of Ermine and Virus. Aquila Flight may not have been able to go on the offensive effectively but it seemed in a defensive fashion they could coordinate much better than their Phantom rivals. This however was at the cost of the last bit Virus's DESCO array could muster as he burned the array with it's final use.

From out of seemingly nowhere two more missiles struck Phantom 2's shields hard, shattering their defense and sending their craft reeling. "Sorry about being late to the show, Dead-Man here. That first wave may have broke off the bombing run but they were trying to pick off the shuttles as they were fleeing. I couldn't let that happen. Lets get the hell out of here."

Sayoko heard the voice of Dead Man over the comms and could not help a small smile, as it seemed this time he was going to be protecting her escape instead. "Roger, Dead-Man. I'm glad you're alright." It was rare for her to have such a thankful tone, and it helped embolden her to throw herself into the skies again, regardless of the risks... even as the weight of the battle was falling heavily on her fragile psyche, with a situation all too familiar to the desperation of the past.

Jayden took a moment to connect his ACE module into the Trainer, mostly to make sure the system was still intact. "Advanced Command Executive AI system online. User Verification Initiated. Awaiting Identification." The monotone voice of the system came to life.

"Jayden Alexander Solaris, Lieutenant Commander, XRX9277485A." Jayden said as he punched a few commands into the system to assist Sayoko.

"Verification Complete... Commander? What did they do to my lovely commander??" The voice evolved from the monotone program to that of Lilith's.

"Lilith, enact COMMAND Protocol Echo X-ray Indigo Tango. We need to pull out of the combat zone now. Sayoko, Lilith... will assist you in getting us out of here." Jayden said as he began to run out of energy.

"EXIT Protocol acknowledged, awaiting second authorization..." Lilith said, accessing the ACE Protocol Overrides.

"This is Virus. I confirm Command Echo X-Ray Indigo Tango. Let's blow this popsicle stand," Edward replied as he was swerving this way and that to avoid both collisions and enemy fire.

Sayoko was a bit surprised as Lilith the ACE started taking over various flight controls. "An emergency escape protocol? Well, Lilith, let's get your 'lovely' commander out of here together then..." Sayoko proceeded to interface her Hostile with the monitoring sensors and software on-board, using them to enhance awareness and evasion while dialing up the power as high as it would go on the target painting lasers to make them into a makeshift dazzler. With the Phantoms above in disarray, hopefully it would be enough to slip by to freedom. The green-haired pilot then started taxiing the yellow and red painted Quattro out of Hangar 12 in a hurry and onto the tarmac with an emergency VTOL style takeoff. "Aquila 4, Aquila 2, returning to the skies. Everyone, keep the bogeys off our backs and retreat to Oracle together."

"Lovely? You don't get to call him lovely!" Lilith said with an obvious jealous tinge in her voice. It was quite apparent that her AI was a bit more sophisticated than the standard ACE, hence the more realistic sounding voice. Grumbling could be heard quietly as she enacted the EXIT Protocol.

From each Aquila in the sky, each Advanced Combat Executive AI chimed at the same time. "COMMAND Protocol EXIT initiated. Priority one evacuation activated." Regardless of the status of each ship, all power was diverted and shunted into the thrusters, rocketing each ship at maximum attainable atmospheric speed to break away from the combat zone. The inertial stress forced on all of them would be equal to a rocket launching to reach space. Those severely injured would be rendered unconscious if they weren't already.