RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 1.1] Defense of Ryou

[Nashoba]

Atsui lead the members of 2X-F21 following her on a course that followed the mountain range that run northwest along the continent.

Flying at high speed at such a low altitude, the ground was little more than a blurr. It was only by following her instrumentation that she could avoid hitting anything.

She monitored the sensor data provided by the Heitan tracking the battle pods.

Four fighters against twenty-four battlepods, not exactly my kind of game. We need to use our advantages to our favor. she thought. "Diamonds, we are approaching the IP. On my mark we will execute a 90 degree turn to the west and climb over the mountains. The enemy craft are on the other side. When we clear the terrain accelerate to mach 4 and pick a target. We are going to blow through them hopefully before they can react. Stay in groups of two, after the first pass we will dive back down and fire to scatter the battle pods."

 

[SSharp]

Kail finally caught up, with her EWO Akechi-Hei. Or "Doc" as the case may be. She slowed her Kawarime down to match the rest of the squadron as she took to formation.

"This is Tarrim-Juni. I'm joining formation."

 

[Nashoba]

"Cutter here, all EWO's check your gear and stay sharp. Use your Streamers cautiously, you only have 20 charges. Use your active defense unit and jamming when possible. Also talk to your pilot, keep them apprised of what is coming up on you." Yoshi said over the EWO channel.

 

[Gabriel]

"Yahoo!!!" Cried Yaeko as she punched the throttle to keep up with the rest of the group. "Who's ready for some fun?" She didn't understand why she was so excited about this, usually she wouldn't think of hurting a fly, but the thought of flying out into combat and shooting down enemies was exhilarating.

 

[Jimmy]

Silic leaned back in his chair “I'm in the cockpit with a maniac!” his eyes widening, eyebrows raising “Was I really comforting this person earlier?” he asked himself. Quickly he rechecked his systems, and waited tensely for the 'fun' to begin.

 

[Anfortas]

As the Kawarime slowed to take formation, Minoru was reminded of just how much he disliked high speed flight. Already he was feeling a little green around the gills from the accelerations the craft had pulled, and he kept his eyes firmly on his instrument displays. He didnt think his stomach would appreciate the sight of the scenery being nothing but a blur over 100 meters below him. He was certain Tarrim-Juni would not appreciate it either...

He double checked the locations of everything, sensors, ADUs, ECM, ECCMs, emergency controls. He really wished he had spent a little more time in the simulator. He also wished that his first true combat flight wasnt a desperate sortie in defense of a civilian population. Well...if wishes were riches as the saying went.

Still he was nervous, conflicted, and to be honest a little apprehensive about flying into battle. Maybe everyone went through this in their first sortie? He really hoped so. There was still a couple of seconds left until they reached the city. So Minoru close his eyes and attempted to calm his nerves and his stomach, reciting his oath under his breath as he did so.

"Here I swear to walk the path of the Physician..."

 

[Ira]

Ira’s fighter was already locked into formation as the other pilots and their craft pulled in and check in. He began cycling his systems and running a quick glancing check over them. His first bout with the NMX had nearly killed him, and had killed several people in his squad. His Tenshi was back in the hanger with a large white tarp draped over it and was getting ready to be repaired. But for now, at a reluctant request he was back in action with the 21st fighter squadron. Unlike Minoru, Silic, and Yaeko who seemed to be anxious…terrified or utterly mad (respectively) Ira was utterly calm and relaxed. His heart rate was not even up. He merely ran his system checks and looked over his scanning suite.


“So we are defending a city?” He said calmly with his raspy voice. “Ryou? What is it like?” He said out of curiosity. He figured if he was going to be putting him self in a position where he had to defend a city he would at least like to get to know it before he got blown to hell and back.

 

[Nashoba]

Atsui could not believe her ears, "Ryou is the settlement the SSS established towards the end of last year. There are over 10,000 men, women and children there. I haven't been there yet, but I flew over it a few days ago. Looked like a nice place; let's keep it that way." She sent over the radio.

The squadron was streaking up the side of the mountain range, "Okay Diamonds look sharp, going weapons hot." she said taking her weapons off safe. " The battlepods are unmanned craft, so they can out turn us simply because there is nothing squishy inside. Talk to each other, and stay with your wingman. Munkata-Hei you are with me. Ramirez and Kail you two stay together. We'll have a few seconds once we clear the peak for the battlepods to sense and respond to us, let's make the most of them. Going to Mach 5 she said throttling up."

Her Kawarime streaked forward, vapor trails of condensation spinning off her wingtips. As she cleared the mountain top her radar painted the enemy. She picked her target and started firing as she streaked towards it from the side.

Yoshi scanned the enemy force as soon as they cleared the mountain. There are a lot of blips, too many blips... Fuck. he thought. "Solitaire, All Diamonds be advised the data from the Heitan was off. There are 36 not 24 battlepods; that makes the odds now 9 to 1." he said as his threatcon started pinging.

 

[Jimmy]

“Switches on. All weapons cleared and active.” Silic reported from behind Yaeko “Looks like they used our own trick against us.”

 

[SSharp]

Kail paled as she heard how many battle pods there were.

"I have your wing, Ramirez-Shoi Kohosei!" She called over the radio.

To Akechi she said, "Be ready, Akechi-Hei. Things aren't looking too bright." With that, she came out of formation to form up with Ramirez. She would stick to his wing like glue.

 

[Gabriel]

"Hai!" Yaeko called out as she took up a position along side the Chui and accelerated. When they reached the enemies she glanced at her targeting computer to see who Atsui had locked on to and chose a target right next to hers. "Fighter 0039, firing." The Kawarime started firing at the enemy battle pods as she lined up her path with her target.

 

[Nashoba]

Atsui's first volley caught the battlepod in the side before it could react. With a brief flash of satisfaction she watched it explode. That was the easy one, now we work for them. she thought. She selected a second battlepod and cut loose with a volley of four mini-missiles. They struck the battlepod inflicting some damage, but not enough to destroy it. Her fighter streaked past it and the battlepod pursued, and fired two missiles of its own. Meanwhile Atsui was trying to get a lock on another battlepod. Her plan now required that they inflict as much damage and chaos as possible in the first pass.

Yoshi watched as Solitaire handily destroyed the first battlepod. After that his attention was only on his screen. He had multiple targeting pings alerting. "We got two missiles on our six, Solitaire." He targeted the first missile and fired the Stream. A thread of aether streaked towards the missile and it exploded. Switching to the second one he dispatched it as well. "Got them Solitaire, wait... I have several four more inbounds. Deploying Streamer."

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Yaeko's aether cannons made quick work of the battlepod which had only just started to react to their presence. Silic's threatcon started flashing radar hits as several of the battlepods were trying to get a radar lock for their missiles.

 

[Ira]

“Copy that.” Ira said immediately in response to Kail. Ira throttled up to mach five and was racing out of formation behind Atsui and her Kawarime. The contrail that the fighters were giving off had to be getting noticed by the population as well as the sonic boom that was to follow their sudden and fast acceleration.

He held his fire as the battle pods opened up sending a pair of missiles at Atsui’s fighter. She dispatched both of them, and at the second explosion Ira opened up with his Aether cannon onto the battle pod Solitare had damaged with her missiles, cleaning it up with out even slowing down.

His fighter then sharply banked hard to the right as he formed up and started getting a lock the group of pods that were attempting to get a lock onto Atsui’s fighter. Ira opened up on them with his Aether cannon once more. “Are you still there Tarrim-Juni?” Ira said calmly as he began initiating evasive maneuvers.

 

[Jimmy]

Thirty-nines countermeasure pod reacted immediately, two chaff canisters launched from the fighter towards the group of battlepods and exploded as a sharp po-poof, releasing thin stripes of aluminium to disrupt the enemy radar lock. Inside the cockpit Silic looked up from his sensors and twisted his head around his seat, looking first right, then snapping to the left “Four contacts, moving 4 to 6!” he shouted as he spotted a group of battlepods trying to get on their tail “Break left, break left!” he cried in panic, he still craned to keep them in view.

 

[Nashoba]

Having made her first blow through the battlepods, Atsui throttled back to attack speed. At high speeds any craft takes too much space to turn.

Yoshi chimed in from behind her, "Solitaire, we have two targets trying to get on our six."

"Okay Cutter, let me know when they are about to get a lock on us." Atsui replied as she started scissoring to get a lock on another battlepod. Firing her cannons she reduced the enemy to fragments. A battle pod flew across her flight path and she pulled hard right and dove. Damn, this is a target rich environment, unfortunately the Mishhu are probably thinking the same. she thought.

 

[Anfortas]

36? No one said anything about 36!

The doctor was in a slight panic. Flying at supersonic speeds in atmosphere, at least nine battlepods all armed to the teeth just itching to turn him into an expanding ball of plasma along with Kail-Juni. He would simply have to trust her piloting skills. After all, he knew he certainly wasn't up to snuff on being an EWO. He kept his eyes on his instruments. He knew just looking out the canopy at the vanishing and reappearing horizon would just do wonders for that knot currently sitting in his stomach.

He fired off a trio of aether-flares from the Countermeasure pod, trying to at least confuse some of the sensors on any trailing battlepods.

 

[Nashoba]

Yaeko watched with satisfaction as her shots destroyed the two battlepods that were attempting to target her squadron commander. She quickly adjusted her Kawarime's speed and countered Atsui's scissor maneuver to try and get a clear shot at one of the battlepods while breaking the lock the ones were trying to get on her fighter.
"Solitaire, you have two on your tail, I'm taking the one of the left." she accelerated and fired on the one she targeted, as she cut across the other battlepod's path she said to her EWO "Vas-Hei see what you can do to distract that other battlepod from Solitaire."

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Tarrim executed a series of evasive maneuvers to shake of the first group of pods. She watched the enemy missiles detonate short of the fighter distracted by the streamers. "Good going Doc, just stay frosty and keep them off our tail." he said firing on another pod.

 

[Jimmy]

Silic turned back to his screens as Yaeko dodged, but looked back up at the unusual request “You want wha-” he asked, before ducking back down “Fine.”

Under their left wing, the countermeasure pod swung around and aimed it's slender barrel at the other battle pod, waited until it had a clear shot from the body of the aircraft and fired a long burst, the tiny aether bolts streaking towards the enemy. It was unlikely they would do much damage, but it would probably make a sufficent 'distraction'.

"Never thought I'd be doing this..." muttered Silic, watching to see what happened next.

 

[Nashoba]

The battlepod Yaeko fired upon broke off from Solitaire and began evasive flying. Silic's harrassment succeeded in getting the other battlepods attention.

"Good job Vas-Hei, now hold on to your stomach." Yaeko said as she prepared to do something that was not recommended. She shifted the Kawarime's CFS from just shields to propulsion and shields. Yaeko then literally shoved the Kawarime into CFS reverse and shot behind the battlepod. With an exhaultant yell, she reconfigured the CFS and the Kawarime promptly stalled and dropped precipitously. Yaeko fought with the controlls and increased the plasma engines to create more thrust to help regain lift.

 

[Ira]

Ira and his wing mate had moved off in a flanking maneuver to try and divert some of the battle pods their way and to keep them off of their allies. It was not a hero move in Ira’s head, but rather one intended to ease some of the pressure off of the team and allow them a little time to regroup. He began banking to bring his craft about. He then used his instruments to lock on to the battle pods that were in hot pursuit of his craft. He fired.