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Akemi muttered a curse off mic at the appearance of the battlepods, Knew it was not going to be that easy. she thought. She executed the same maneuver as Yaeko and opened fire at the closing battlepods.
Kayo performed the same maneuver, but once turned around she kicked her lateral thrusters which gave her fighter sideways movement. So when she fired her cannons cut a swath through the wave of missiles.
The other shots from the squadron took out more of the missiles but also three of the battlepods exploded into blazing spheres.
The electronic counter measure efforts of Anne and Elisto caused a good number of the inbound missiles to malfunction. It also hampered the battlepods targeting as well. Any hits at the moment were more due to chance than skill.
Akemi watched for a second as Yaeko gave the order to go through the battlepods. With a thought she kicked her engines to drive her towards the enemy. She started selecting targets and strafe them as they crossed her flight path.
Errowyn flew through maalstrom of missiles and debri of destroyed battlepods as she manuevered tightly, sacrificing speed for tighter turns as she brought her leathal aether cannon fire to bare on the Battlepods.
"Meeeerrrrrrroooow!" Yowled within the confines of her cockpit as the stars, aether fire streaks of energy, kleidiscoped around her as she spun her Kawarime through it paces to keep up with the ever changing moment. Feeling the slight thumps of minor debri bouncing off her hull as she flew through them to get to the Battlepod that still remained, forgetting about the bombs on the belly of her Kawarime as she wwhipped the fighter around after another Battlepod.
Anne smiled as she saw the missiles being affected by her Wavefront module. She left its setting the way they were. It seemed they were effective enough at that moment. There was something else to check on. Her eyes quickly looked at her medical screen, but it seemed everything was within norms.
Next was her sensor suite. Her lean fingers went to the touch-screen as she started to play with it. She wanted to check how much communication was going between the battlepods. To see if there was even reason to jamm it.
Anne's systems would show minimal communications going on between the battlepods. The few surviving ones scattered. Sensors then showed two larger objects closing on the Diamonds from above. A pair of Shredder Gunboats were targeting the squadron.
Elisto banked, firing on the battlepods as they closed in, his cannons not letting up. He continued to rotate his jamming frequency, not giving the enemy even a second's time to adapt. "Not happening," he muttered under his breath, glancing off one side toward some debris of one pod that had been blown to pieces before turning his attention back forward.
Hael's breathing quickened as the deflected missiles sped around his fighter. Without trying anything fancy, he dodged his way through the incoming missiles, enemy fire, and the blinding explosions of the destroyed pods as he pursued the scattering pods. Waiting until he was within range he finally opened fire with his Aether Canons.
Yaeko sighed with relief as she saw the last of the battlepods scatter. She was about to order the squadron to angle back towards the objective when her IFF alerted her to the incoming gunboats.
"Heitan, 21st. Heitan, 21st. Requesting fires in vicinity of current coordinates. Two enemy gunboats incoming. Over."
Shaking her head a little she switched back to the squadron channel. "Alright Diamonds, we've got two big-hitters incoming. I've got fire support requested. Shields full, dodge and buy time until we can get some help."
"Out of the frying pan, into the fire.." Errowyn muttered when her attention was brought to the newest threat that hadn't registered on her threat board yet as she made her way to rejoin the squadron after the violant incounter with the battlepods.
When they did finally register, Errowyn watched to see which way the gunboats will go before committing herself, delaying in reforming up with the group.
The two gunboats unleashed a torrent of destructive energy after the Diamonds. Several of the fighters took a single hit to their shields. However, 0129 flown by Kayo took multiple strikes. Her Kawarime's shields flared and failed under multiple strikes and she executed a hard evasive roll to the port. The fighter had multiple holes in the wings and fuselage and plasma was venting from its engines.
She sent a message to her squadron mates. "0129.... crackle.. systems damaged... crackle... returning .... Heitan..."
A Yamato-Class ship in the 2XF group fired a volley at the lead gunboat. It was sliced in half by destructive energy. It could not fire on the second one due to its proximity to the Diamonds.
Spinner's monitors for the squadron showed an expected spike in the Diamonds vitals in response to the threat. But Kayo's after the attack showed a drop in blood pressure and increase in pulse and respiration.
"Assault the gunboat," Yaeko cried out as she banked toward the gunboat and immediately started firing here cannons. She hadn't even looked at the damage to her fighter yet, she had more important things to worry about.
Alright Yaeko, you've got this, just keep calm.
As she flew she took a deep breath and unleashed a small handful of her torpedoes to follow her cannon fire.
Elisto banked his fighter, following Yaeko from behind to cover her six. He blasted the area, attempting to keep the jamming field active to give the NMX gunboat issues in targetting them.
As he closed in on the gunboat, he looked for a good target and pegged the ships targetting system and began to open up with a stream of Aetheric fire.
Akemi was following the other Diamonds as they turned to confront the Gunboat. Her shields took two hits and were reduced to 40%. She followed Yaeko's example and opened up with her cannons.
The Gunboat's shields protected it from most of the first round of shots from Yaeko and one of Elisto's. Her shots slammed into the ship's hull tearing deep holes in it that started venting. The Shredder started veering and its closing speed dropped as its engines dropped to a lower power setting.
Anne's fingers danced on the dashboard as she programmed her Wavefront. Sending a large amount information to the enemy ship, trying to jamm its targeting systems. She wanted the ship to think their acceleration was faster then it really was, causing them to traverse too much and overshoot their position.
"Kayo-san calm down, have you been hurt? I have noticed a drop in your blood pressure. Just calm down and focus on getting to Heitan." Anne tried to at least verbally help Kayo to get back to ship. Even though death was not permanent thing for them, it still would be bad if they would loose the beautiful pilot.
The Gunboat started moving erratically, and then executed a hard turn to starboard and started diving into the atmosphere. The craft's descent angle was too sharp and it started super heating as it entered the atmosphere.
-----
Kayo's vital signs continued to fluctuate for a minute or two. Finally Kayo's voice came over the comm with a lot of static. "I... will.. be okay... got hit by shrapnel... at least three wounds... could not ... reply... sooner, had to patch suit.... was losing air."
Kayo's vitals while staying low stabilized as the Neko got back on course for the carrier.
Yaeko gave a grin as she saw the gunboat begin spiraling towards the atmosphere.
"Looks like we're getting lucky today, Diamonds. Everyone back on course."
As Yaeko said this she readjusted her trajectory back towards the objective and switched comms channels.
"Heitan, 21st. Heitan, 21st. 0129 currently inbound with severe medical injuries and a heavily damaged craft. Requesting escort for 0129 back to the Heitan. Over."
"21st Heitan 21st Heitan, this is the CAG. Understand 0129 returning. The 26th Blood Rubies are returning to the Heitan. We are advising them to escort your wounded pilot safely back. They will take good care of her. CAG out."
"Diamonds leader, this is Fujiwara commander of the Rubies. We have a fix on 0129, we will keep her safe."
Errowyn manuevered around behind the Shredders, but time she gotten in position, one was being sliced open by the Heitan and the other sent spiraling towards the atmosphere.
She growled fustrated as one of her mates had to be excorted back to the Heitan. She sent a parting Aetheric cannon fire after the departing Shredder.
As the squadron regrouped from the Shredder attack, their sensors shows a large mass moving towards them. It was identified as a NMX Line Battleship. The ship was heavily damaged, large sections of the hull were twisted open gashes. Plasma venting was happening all over the craft. Its main Aether Plasma drive was running out of control. Sensors showed that it was building towards an overload. As it flew past the squadron sensors showed a debris trail following behind the ship.