Re: [Pre-Phase: Mission 3] Ghost on the Silent Line
ON, VSV Astarte
High Orbit Over Mazerin
Bukor 11, 936
16:39, Commonwealth Standard Time
With the destruction of the first cruiser, the VSV Astarte and her Bahram Wing had succeeded in gaining a decisive advantage in the battle. Now, not only did they break the enemy's defensive perimeter and blown their flank apart, but now had them effectively outnumbered. Even with automatons acting as ad-hoc shields, the number of piloted units in the field was now 3/2.
At the fore of the attack were Bahram's 1st squadron, blazing a path for the 4th to attack the core of the enemy battleship directly before it delivered its deadly payload to Mazerin. The blazing fighters of the 5th and 6th were in fast approach, cutting down defenders as they deployed with a barrage of particle missiles and sniper beams. If they could hold long enough and stave off the remaining units attacking their formation, Bahram Wing might be able to secure victory for their vessel.
After a few delays whenever her squadron would have to break off and avoid defenders, Chanda's unit was now in range to attack. With the battle still raging, the veil of sensors distortion had grown thicker, and charged particles spewing out into the void caused large gaps in view. But despite this, it was easy enough to get a lock on the distant battleship.
"On my command...." Her commander gave the order, bringing his two laser cannons forward. "FIRE!"
Switching back into frame mode, she brought her two MACD units to bare, as well as her own ranged weaponry. Bringing them to bear against the shields of the enemy ship, she triggered their fire as soon as the command came to her ears. The MACDs let go of their charge, as did her Raevr's Shockstings, attempting to pierce the enemy defenses and strike the hinge.
In effect, Malik's unit struck with the offensive power of a tank round, caused by the combination of powerful distortion fields and the incredible physical strength of his Erla VANDR II. However, he'd forgotten one of the major features of this unit that had been so off-putting before, during his initial battle. At that range, the Nahoda's sub arms were able to maneuver in, applying the ends of their concealed fusion pistols against the interior of his VANDR's arms.
With a single volley, it had completely chewed out the tissues lining the upper arm, and left both limbs limp and useless. He'd succeeded in destroying the enemy's head, however, and forced the enemy pilot to jettison as soon as she'd finished her counterattack. The enemy had been fighting entirely blind with her last attack, and gotten just a bit lucky.
Zulfiqar stood triumphantly, Malik having avoided being reduced to atomic dust by forcing himself into the clinch with the enemy. Though both of Zulfiqar's arms were now useless, their sacrifice allowed Malik to force the NVR pilot to eject. In the course of this engagement, Malik had: damaged his extremely expensive new unit; destroyed multiple enemy units; and gained revenge for his embarrassment over the capital.
For once, Malik could honestly say that he did good. He hadn't been shot down, shot in the back by his wingmates, or overextend his VANDR to the point that it blew up on itself. Malik Ibn Rashidan, for the first time in months, was proud of his achievements. Breathing heavily, the dark skinned runner began to cool off, regaining clarity with his victory.
Shaking himself out of his daydreaming, Zulfiqar scanned the surrounding areas for the NVR Pilot's escape pod, sending a message back to the Astarte as he moved to try to carry the girl's pod back to the ship with him.
"VSV Astarte, this is Vaybalri Rashidan. I've done all I can out here. I'm coming back, and I'm bringing in another guest."
"Roger, we will have a military escort standing by as you land." one of the operators aboard the cruiser responded.
Malik responded with a curt understood, moving Zulfiqar's arms to see just how badly he had messed them up. While they could still move, somewhat, they were in no state to be put under any stress. Using the remaining VT Fangs, the NVR Pilot's Escape pod and Zulfiqar's VT Blade were drawn into the EVII's arms, Zulfiqar using a VT Jump to shorten the time.
Bringing Zulfiqar into land, Malik, if he could've smiled, would have had a wide and cocky grin on his face. Not only had he managed to be useful, he had captured four NVR pilots.
Mu'Tasim charged valiantly into battle, cutting down three Soono with his first volley of missiles and particle beam fire and damaged many more, drawing the attention of the enemy onto himself to free Nenetl up. At the same time, he'd also reduce the density enough that his sensors could adequately locate the area in which the controlling unit was situated. The ersatz Famasir advised him against jumping in directly, as the unit was completely surrounded by Soono.
The Temple Guard grunted in the best way he could being represented through a VANDR. He raised up his shield and began another barrage of MCPA and right-arm RCPA fire. Famasir's other arm raised it's shield to counter any enemy fire that would come upon him.
"Zeltzin, thin the ranks of Soono, wear them down and then we will strike at their controller together." Mu'Tasim ordered mid-fire.
The enemy frame went on the defensive, using the wide arc of its fusion cannon to destroy incoming missiles, albeit messily and attempted to evade attacks Zus made with her ARMS Mode Raevr VANDR. Neither combattant could be said to have gotten a complete victory during the initial confrontation, as the humanoid-type frame was clipped by one of her blasts and forced to drop its weapon, but Zus had managed to miss most of her initial strikes. But the distance between them was still quite great and the enemy only returned fire with a quick screen of micromissiles.
Judging by the speed of the enemy and the accuracy of their attacks, it appeared that Zus' lucky shot had caused the enemy to slow down even more.
Zus' imaginary brow was forrowed in concentration, though physically her face was serene. Her Raevr fired off LEMB lasers and PASD missiles as an anti-missile measure, and boosted toawrd the enemy, carefully aiming her SCPA's for a surgical strike on the enemy unit's chest, her RCPA's pattering fire around the enemy to keep them confined within a small killzone.
The Eyr ranr was entirely focused on her enemy, and all distractions had phased from her mind. the Raevr's NI gently reminded her that she should try to focus on the rest of the battle, and Zus assured it that she would as soon as this enemy was taken care of.
Alia's voice popped into Malik's cockpit. "I'd say something choice to you, but you kept most of that Frame from getting too badily damaged." She said, "Shut it down and my crew will get it fixed for you."
Malik shut Zulfiqar down as ordered, climbing out of the Erla VANDR II's cockpit. Reaching for the towel handed to him by a member of the hangar crew , he smiled down at the Head Mechanist, toweling off his orange-ish hair.
"I honestly feel like I could've done better. Thanks though, Alia. It's good to see you again." The Cohronl grinned down at Alia, then started looking around the hangar for any familiar Mechanists from Jarizas.
"You did better then normal Malik, I'll give you that." Alia said as she walked past him and gave Zulfiqar a look over from where she was. "Hm, seems only the arms took any serious damage...Wait, are there pods in your frame's arms?"
"Hmm?" Malik's eyebrow peaked. "Oh, right. Captured enemy pilot. A security detail was supposed to show up and take her into custody. They should've been here by now." The Cohronl shrugged, continuing to towel the prajna off of his face and hair, currently trying to get the stubborn gloop from behind his horns.
"Ah," Alia murmured, "hm, you're right. Security's being a little slow today."
Resting the towel on the back of his neck, Malik shrugged, then rubbed his chin, thinking. "Well, she is a pilot. What's the worst that could happen if we opened up the pod? There isn't any way she can cause any trouble."
Alia gave Malik a dry look. "Don't make me rethink my praise Malik, she's a pilot so she more then likely is carrying a sidearm." Alia said as she places her hands on her hips.
"I'll try to listen to your advice from now on. Waiting for the security detail sounds like a good idea." Malik smiled at Alia, then glared at the pod.
"I wonder, what are the NVR pilots like?"
With a number of frame wings bearing down on it, the battleship core had gone on the offensive now, holding back a direct offensive by the lighter 'Raevr' units with heavy point defense fire and pressing the attack towards the Astarte. If it could maintain the attack long enough and keep the Astarte busy, it might be able to release its payload and send thousands of radiation warheads hurtling towards Mazerin, unimpeded. The battleship had put up its shields to maximum and advanced, just barely avoiding the very worst of the pincer attack carried out by the 4th and 5th squadrons.
Shields were impacted by swarms of missiles, and lasers sheered through the gaps presented after every volley. Although hits on the more heavily armored regions of the vessel were limited, the joints, where the core of the formerly much larger vessel had hinged and opened to expose its missile payload were significantly more fragile. Where the beams of light fire by Chanda and many of her wingmates had struck, the chassis had melted, buckled and snapped, causing an entire section of ship the size of a Vayu to break off. The action was not sudden, either. As it pressed forward, the weakening structure snapped in places and seemed to tear away as it attempted to accelerate.
At that instant, the battleship lost control, its shields compromised and maneuvering gone completely haywire. Losing control and veering for a vessel that would be able to eliminate it in a second, the battleship fired its missile payload. Every single warhead from the compartments still attached were launched and scattered all around. It would only be a matter of tens of seconds before the volley would pass the Astarte.
Chanda resisted giving a cheer as the battleship started to fall apart. She did, however, gasp as the evil warheads were launched. She swiftly moved, doing her best to intercept and destroy any and all with in range of her armament and the MACD Units. "We need to stop those warheads!" she yelled, weapons firing on any and all she could lock onto.
Her VANDR started to heat up with the constant firing, NEns releasing energy as needed to keep the assult up, the pilot working her frame hard to stop the horrible payload from getting too far out.
The launching of the warheads disrupted the original plans to assault the battleship and forced the units still active in the field to react quickly and attempt to destroy as many of the projectiles before they could reach the world bellow. Much of the 4th continued to attack the battleship, further damaging it and halting some of its bays from firing. Others attempted to shoot down the missiles themselves as they flew, destroying hundreds as thousands passed them by.
In an attempt to attack some of the warheads up close, a few of the runners who were advancing from the back lines triggered their targets prematurely and were hit iby the ensuing blasts. The massive release of radiation caused many of the reinforcements to be crippled, and some units seemed to have been completely seared from the inside out by the detonations. Those who had hung back and tried to diffuse them with ranged weaponry had stayed far safer, avoiding the lethal blasts entirely.
Naveed ordered his ship to advance, while the XO gave strict orders to not use VT Blade weapons to disarm the warheads. The vessel and her escort of Vayu moved forward and encircled the swarm of missiles, firing a screen of defensive laser fire to cut down as many as possible and contain their spread. The Astarte fired continuous volleys of particle wave missiles to counter, triggering nearly a thousand missiles within the initial seconds after its first volley. Struggling to hold back the tide, the Vayu began to retreat as some and taken hits and were seeing critical failures across essential subsystems.
In the ensuing havoc, the Astarte stood firm, weather the storm. The vessel took a number of hits but did not falter, as mechanical teams in decontamination units were already dispatching to clear out the damaged areas and contain the damage. Breach shields held the void out long enough to prevent any major disasters, and most of the gaps were being sealed as quickly as they appeared. It seemed, that by the point where the Astarte was no longer able to hold out against the continuous waves of irradiating warheads, the storm had passed and the remains of the battleship, surrounded by a sea of debris and particles glittering in the darkness of space were in view.
The remaining NVR ship made itself scarce during the hail, and fled on its Fold Drive to parts unknown.
Sensors from the various units in the fleet confirmed that there were no longer any vessels in the area. All of the frame units remaining received a communications from the bridge, relayed from their XO by the Missions Operator. "Attention, Bahram Wing. All New Veyrin Republican vessels have been neutralized. Proceed to clean up remaining units, and return to the Astarte."
