RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 4.0] - Breaking the Dam

Ira sat silent as he listened to the radio chatter concerning Elisto's plan. The idea was risky, almost too risky. But if they did not try then those gunboats would get slaughtered and this engagement would be a bust. But at the same time, these were members of his squadron, and if they died it would be his fault.

Ira inhailed. then sent a message to Elisto in a stone cold voice. "Elisto, do it, we don't have the time to debate it. If you think this will work then make it happen." He said calmly. "Anne-Hei, you make a good point, but those gunboats are much more important then we are. EVERY BODY ELSE!" Ira said loudly. "We are going to provide cover to those broken ships so lets get to it people!"

"Aye Ramirez, turning about." Yaeko turned her fighter around and flew back towards the gunboats. Being the closest since she had been lagging behind, she was the first to arrive. Getting into formation on the left side of the gunboat she steadied her fighter and then chimmed in. "Everyone, back to your wingman assignments. If you don't know where your wing went, find a new one." When she was done speaking she flipped through some of her comm settings and worked her way back into communications with the gunboats. "This is the XO of the 21st Squadron, we'll provide cover for you until you reach your checkpoint."

"Aye Sir, also, in response to your previous question. The Gazelle is badly damaged, her hull is banged up and the port side cannon is completely gone. Her plasma drives are showing damage as well, smoke venting from the sides. Sadly, the Lightning didn't fare any better either." Elisto stopped and glanced down at his sensor display as he read the incoming data from the suite.

Then he looked up from his display and addressed. "Anne-hei, thank ya for reminding me about the missile in my tail, but I'm more concerned about those gunboats than I am about this missile. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he spoke in a calm tone, there was no fear nor sense of nervousness in the tone, just calm. Then, he engaged his thrusters and boosted toward the gunboats. "Also Anne-hei, no idea what's going on with my wingmen," he banked his fighter as he spoke, using one hand on the control stick and the other that was typing in commands to his sensor suite. A plethora of information was scrolling across his display, he was scanning the signatures of those mines to try and figure out a way to detect them.

"I'd suggest we hook up, with both of our fields near enough we'll be able to blanket those gunboats and make life difficult for the NMX Targetting systems," he glanced up from his display, his damage display was still blinking red on his left wing but he also had damage to his undercarrige and and right wing tip as well. Glad I'm not flying in an atmosphere. He kept his speed toward the gunboats, the targetting jamming field expanded from his fighter as he went.

As the Fighting Diamonds started heading back towards the Gazelle and Lightning, the tactical systems showed FTL activity behind the Gunboats. Then eight small teal spheres started to form behind the damaged Gunboats. The tactical system identified them as NMX Battlepods coming out of their burst FTL.

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After hearing Ira give the go, Akemi did not have to be told twice, she pirouetted her Kawarime on its axis as nimbly as a dancer, and then kicked her engines to full thrust. "Shit... Murasaki-Hei, you still with me. Looks like we have more squids coming to party." she sent a mental command via her SPINE to bolster her shields to forward for the moment.

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Meanwhile Emiyu was flying along with the squadron, and wondering why they were turning around. She sent a brief telepathic message to Akemi. "Tereane-Hei my Kawarime got cut up pretty good, my comm system is completely shot. Which means I do not have a functioning IFF. My targeting is also on the fritz. I'm returning to the Heitan."

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"Diamonds, Tamahagane hear, Arinori-Hei's fighter has no communications, or targeting, she's returning to the Heitan." Akemi sent to the squadron.

Elisto gave a blink of the eye and glanced over his shoulders. "That explains the lack of communications, but why didn't my systems register the damage to his fighter?" he asked himself as he ran a systems check to see if he potentially had damage to his sensor suite that he wasn't aware - or was even being reported.

"Roger that Emiyu, I was wondering what was going on, sorry to hear about the damage. Becareful on the return flight, we have pods in the area now," Elisto sent telepathically as he tagged Emiyu's fighter so he could keep an eye on him while he was flying toward the now present battlepods.

"I'm giving you a bit more power to the engines... be careful of an overheat, Lover Boy," Lynn said to her pilot.

She realized with a small snort that she had been managing the power for most of the battle, and there had been no cyberattacks to deal with. She wondered if she would need to fire off countermeasures soon.

Yaeko gave another one of her energetic yells as she banked towards the enemy battle pods and put engines to full. Being the closest to the damaged gunships she was also the first to the battlepods which meant that she got first dibs. Once she was almost in range she changed to attack speed and had the computer choose a target. After the computer responded that it had targeted the nearest pod, she put in a command for her missile to fire automatically once in range. She then chose a secondary target and prepped her cannons.

Once the enemies were in range she began blasting her cannons at the secondary target. Meanwhile, her aether missile deployed and streaked towards the primary target. Once she was too close to the fighters to continue firing her cannons she accelerated to full speed. Making sure to dodge through the battle pods, she waited until she was outside of the enemies' range before slowing and u-turning. As she sped back towards the battlepods she could see the rest of the squadron approaching from the other side. Terrific! Now we can flank them and pancake them in.

As Yaeko was preparing to turn her fighter about, her threatcon went crazy. Something had a firing solution on 0048. The IFF identified it as a bomber like those they fought earlier. It had apparently been using the battlepods as a screen to mask its arrival and approach.

It opened fire on 0048 with two of its plasma turrets. The Kawarime shields stopped most of the destructive force, which she felt expended against the hull. But the shields were now down to 60%.

A moment later it unleashed a pair of torpedoes which streaked after the the two Gunboats.

As Silic managed to get some of their engine power back he slumped back and closed his eyes as a mountain of tension left him. Then he started hearing the chatter from the rest of the squadron, his snapped open again. “No...” he murmured to himself with the comlink closed.

It got worse, Ramierez was ordering them back to the fight and Yaeko had spun their fighter about “Nononono!” Silic grabbed the corners of his section of the cockpit as they flew by the new battlepods, eyes squeezed shut.

The threatcon did it's thing as the enemy bomber hit them, he finally spoke up again. “That's it, you've killed us!” he shouted.

Elisto scowled as he banked his fighter far right, boosted his engines, started toward Yaeko's fighter. He shunted more power to the jamming system in an effort to spoof guidance system of both the bomber's turrets and the torpedos.

Then, when he was in range, he shouted, "Get off my XO!" and opened fire on the bomber, knowing that the range was still a bit wide he still hoped his shots would be enough to get its attention if not disable it outright.

Yaeko swore as she didn't even have time to get in range of the enemies before the bomber decided to get in the way. Once the enemy torpedoes were away she screamed before flipping on her comm. "Silic, be quiet and get some god damned countermeasures on those torpedoes!" Turning her fighter to face the bomber she had the computer reset its target before firing her aether missile at the bomber. As she streaked towards it she unloaded the cannons, firing everything she had. "Let's dance, you vermin!"

Ira took advantage of the boast to his engines that Lynn had handed him "Remind me to buy you some flowers!" Ira said as he and the rest of the squadron jumped back into the fight.

"Yaeko! Tell Vas-Hei to shut up!" He called out over the channel. "I can feel his bitching from over here." Ira said with a smile. With the XO under fire the CO took up formation on her other side and Support Elisto's defense of Yaeko by opening fire with his own Aether Cannon. "You guys look good! Keep it up Diamonds!"

Ira's aether blasts slammed into the bombers shielding which flared as a result, but no damage to the craft was visible. Yaeko's torpedo struck the bomber amidships, the detonation causing the craft to vanish briefly in the ensuring fire ball. It unleashed two torpedoes of its own which streaked towards the two closest fighters.

Elisto spun his fighter and took several pot shots at the incoming torpedos while throwing his targetting jammer into full power. He then pulled on the yoke and before his first two shots would even hit he fired on the other torpedos that were headed toward the gunboats.

"Anne-hei! Need some coverh ere please," spoke Elisto as he continued up a volume of fire.

"I see them Tamahagane-hei -- eight new hostiles coming out of FTL -- moving to intercept."

Kenshin moved his ship to join Tamahagane's fighter in the defense of the two crippled gunboats, Lightning and Gazelle. The Yamataian pilot acquired a target lock upon one of the eight battlepods closing from the far side of the damaged ships, and as he gained proximity he redistributed shield power to his Kawarime's fore quadrant.

He arrived in time to see Yaeko engage the enemy pods first, only to be retaliated against by one of the massive bombers of the same design that they had engaged earlier in the mission.

"Holy-- Where did that bloody come from?" Kenshin turned his attention to his sensor feeds. He saw that the bomber had launched torpedoes towards the gunboats-- so he instructed his ships Starfire to make the attempt to shoot down one of the torpedoes as it came into range. Meanwhile, Kenshin turned the majority of his focus to thinning out the bombers battlepod escort, firing his main guns at the nearest of the battlepods to his own craft.

"Banzai! Time to suck hot aether you tentacled sons-a-bitches!"

“What do you want me to do? Spit at them?” Replied Silic. The counter measure system was only designed to intercept missiles coming towards the fighter, it wasn't fast enough to deal with ordinance going the other way unless it was close. Real close if Yaeko wanted him to down the ones going after the gunships.

Instead the countermeasure pod targeted the two torpedoes coming after them.

"Well do something besides sitting there like a whinny little girl!" Turning the fighter around and aiming at the bomber she unloaded her cannons again, accelerating once she was too close to get an effective shot and then banking around on the other side for another pass.

Yaeko's second pass pierced the temporarily weakened side shields of the bomber. The shields of 0048 flared as one of the bombers cannons got a lucky shot.

As one of the torpedoes streaked past Elisto the Takedown engaged and fired at it destroying it. Elisto's volley on the bomber resulted in the shields flaring and then collapsing leaving its hull vulnerable.

Anne trained her countermeasure system onto the torpedo that passed Elisto. It was satisfying to see the missile begin to move erratically as she overwhelmed its guidance. With a quick salvo from her main cannons the torpedo was obliterated.

Kenshin's full barrage at a battle pod shredded it in a satisfactory manner, doubly so as the last shot of his barrage passed through the debris and struck another pod.

Akemi seeing Kenshin's battlepod disintegrate targeted a battlepod that just flew over the bomber trying to catch Yaeko and Silic in a broadside. Her cannons flared and the battlepod exploded some of the chunks peppering 0048.

Silic's quick actions caused the two missiles chasing their fighter to be destroyed exploding harmlessly behind them. An explosion occurred off to the right of the fighter, and seconds later the craft was struck by chunks of debris. One struck the side of the canopy next to him causing it to spiderweb, and a low hissing sound could be heard in his helmet.

Ira looked at his scanner and was getting the details of what was going on. "Sweet cream on an ice cream sandwich!" Ira said over the squadron channel. "You monkeys almost look like pilots! " He said with a smile.

It was one big dance party and Ramirez was apart of it as any of the others. Ira got aggressive and suddenly his fighter flipped around and he dumped his Aether cannons into the now vulnerable bomber

Yaeko jumped as she felt something slam into their fighter. "What was that? Why do our friendlies always have to blow stuff up next to us." All of the sudden one of the sensors start flashing. "Damn it! Silic, there's a crack, pressures dropping. Let's hurry, finish this up and GTFO. Try and stabilize what you can back there." With that Yaeko double-checked that her helmet was on properly and did another pass at the bomber, carefully aiming and unloading her cannons, just barely pulling up at the last second.