RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 7.2] Operation Payback - Fighter Launch

Yaeko sighed and took a moment to gather her thoughts as they finished off the last of the Shredders. She was starting to get agitated at all of the distractions from the mission, and was eager to finish up. When her sensors warned her of the the NMX ship incoming she glanced over at it and noticed it's heavily damaged state. Checking some sensor data, she began to worry that the cruiser's aether core would melt down or explode, which would result in a release of a large amount of energy that she didn't want her squadron anywhere near. However, she also thought it might be best for them to take it out before it causes any damage.

Deciding that something like this was outside of her experience range, she switched over to the carrier's command channel.

"Heitan, 21st. Heitan, 21st. We have a heavily damaged NMX Line Battleship in our vic. It is venting large amounts of plasma, releasing large amounts of debris, and is in danger of an aether core overload. Please advise. Over."

"Diamonds this is CAG. Understand the situation. We see you have two options, you can divert to a secondary target; or you can have two of your fighters make a run at the NMX ship and arm and release two of the torpedoes, and get the hell clear. Decision is yours, advise what you choose."

"Roger that CAG. Going after the Battleship. 21st out."

Banking her fighter towards the Battleship, she slowed to allow the enemy ship to reach her maximum missile range before she released.

"Alright 21st, we've been advised by command to have two craft fire a single Ke-Z2 at the Battleship. I need one volunteer to stay up here with me, everyone else fall the hell back. This thing is gonna do some damage."

As the squadron members watched the burning hulk fly by.

Elisto's sensors detected a brief radio signal, and then detected a number of detonations coming from the planets moon. The sensors identified them as anti-matter in nature, and there were more going off within the moon.

Elisto was on the verge of speaking up; he still had some torps left, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sensor warning which he turned his attention to. "Hunter, getting some rather disturbing readings on the moons surface. Multiple anti-matter explosions and they are increasing," said the operative as he switched his sensors to scanning the moon for possible reasons for the explosions.

Akemi considered Yaeko's suggestion, her wingman was heading back.

"I will go with you Hunter." She said moving her fighter into position. Launching a bomb in space was going to require precise targeting to hit their desired target. she thought.

-----------

The adjustment of the sensors showed that the detonations were not from the surface of the moon. Rather they were coming from within the moon. The detonations were happening in a pattern. A rapid succession of explosions caused the moon to fracture. A massive debris field was spewed out from what remained of the moon heading towards the surface of the planet and the 21st. Some of the chunks were several kilometers across while most were the size of a Kawarime or smaller.

Yaeko nodded as she got a response from Akemi, even though she knew that Akemi wouldn't be able to see the motion. Banking her fighter in the proper direction she waited for Akemi to catch up and then sped towards the cruiser.

"Hold fire until my mark," Yaeko called into the comm.

She set her IFF to alert her when she was within firing range with her Ke-Z2 and the moment she heard the beep she called out into the comm, "Missile away!" And then launched her missile. Rotating her craft 180 she hit the thrusters, putting all power into the engines.

"Diamonds, get clear! Move!"

"Heitan, 21st. Missiles away at previously mentioned craft. Advise all friendlies in the area to clear out. Second, please advise on situation with nearby moon."

Errowyn growled as the ruined NMX battleship came floating by heading to the planet. Seeing that two of the diamonds heading towards the cruiser and elisto muttering somethings about the moon.

Then she was running away from the NMX Criuser at the command of "Hunter". "Meow!" She mutters as she manuevered, finding her self skimming the planetary's atmosphere.

The damaged NMX ship was rocked by the detonation of two Ke-Z2 bombs which triggered an overload of the starships power system. The craft became a miniature sun in the upper orbit. When the detonation was over the warship was chunks of twisted red hot metal plummeting to the surfae.

Meanwhile the detonation of the explosive in the moon reached at crescendo and the stream of debris spread out from the satellite.

"Diamonds, this is Heitan CAG. Detonations on the moon are antimatter in origin. Intelligence has no reports of any NMX installations on the moon. Fracturing of the moon seem to indicate that it had been subjected to some sort of extreme gravitational force.

You proceed to tertiary target, drop your bombs according to flight plan and return to the Heitan." came the response to Yaeko's call.

"Roger CAG. Munkata out." Yaeko responded. Banking away from the floating hunks of glowing starship, she pointed herself back towards their target and put full power to the engines.

"Alright Diamonds, we've been out here too long. Let's drop load and head home."

Akemi fell into position after altering her course to match Yaeko's. There trajectory was taking them to a part of the planet where a massive storm was visible from orbit. It was impossible to tell if the storm was natural, or a result of the massive destructive energies being unleashed on the planet.

"Forward Diamonds." Yaeko called out as she eyed the storm curiously. "And can I get a scan on the surface?" As she flew she ran a systems check to make sure that everything was still operating up to par. Her fighter had taken quite a few hits since they had departed and even with the short repairs she was worried about it holding up.

The standard Kawarime sensors were showing that the region ahead was a mess of electromagnetic interference and debris. The Teisatsu's sensors showed more detail, there were Coriolis force winds in excess of 200 miles per hour. In the storm was a mixture of dust and metal carried aloft by the cyclonic forces. To make matters worse, the winds were not consistent at lower levels. Which would make bombing problematic.

"We're just not getting any luck today, are we?" Yaeko muttered to herself. Eyeing the storm, she sighed as she start to accept that the squadron might not be able to make it through that storm.

"I'm getting sick of having to call higher," she muttered again before switching channels. "Heitan, 21st. There's a large magnetic storm planet-side that's preventing atmosphere entry. Sending sensor data. Please advise." As she finished up talking, she packaged all of the squadron's sensor data and sent it along the end of her transmission.

The RADAR on Yaeko's craft and the others showed the storm intensifying.

"Diamond Leader, this is the CAG. You are on site. This is your call, either make your run or abort and return to the hanger."

"Roger, going in." Yaeko replied.

"Alright guys, we're continuing with the run. The Diamonds never back down! Ready munitions."

As she spoke, she double checked that all of her systems were functional, armed her bombs, and accelerated towards the storm.

Akemi paused a moment to ensure she heard Yaeko properly. She adjusted her power distribution, putting most of the available power into the shields to protect the fighter from the destructive energies of the storm. She also diverted the power from two of her cannons, in that mess trying to shoot at something was beyond problematic.

"Scrapyard, I don't suppose that you have information on any targeting beacons we can use. Once we enter that mess, we're pretty much flying by dead reckoning." She said across the comms.

--

As the Squadron changed trajectory and headed for the storm and their target below. From space the cloud mass was illuminated by brilliant electrical discharges that turned portions of the cloud to plasma brightness.

It had been a while since Emiyu had seen the inside of a Kawarime that she wasn't trying to fix up. The firm hug of her flight suit, the sound of her own breathing in her ears as she slid her helmet over her head, preparing to be launched into space to fight again.

"Here we go."

She could feel the rumbling her her engines under her. She had forgotten how much power this little craft had. That was one thing she liked about flying, so much speed and power at her fingertips. The only problem was that being shot at wasn't one exactly on her list of pleasant pass times.

" Arinori to Heitan,Arinori to Heitan, Pre-flight checks complete. All systems green. Moving to reinforce Fighting Diamonds. Wish me luck."

Awaiting the green light for her launch, Emiyu's fingers curled and re curled around the controls of her fighter, her heart beat rising as the tension grew, awaiting clearance to launch. The moment she was cleared to launch, her fighter would surge forward, hurled into the vacuum of space. Gritting her teeth slightly, Emiyu would bank hard towards the planet surface and the rest of the Fighting Diamonds.

She was a good distance behind and the fighters were already heading towards their target so she had some distance to cover before she was within range of their sensors. That and there was the small issue of the raging battle taking place between her and her squadron. Emiyu's white ears flipped back against her head..not the best situation, but she had a job to do.

Diverting power from her blasters into her engines, she made a dash across the battlefield at full speed while trying to avoid debris fields, even using the remains of some of the capital ships to cover her approach from peering eyes. With any luck, she would approach the planet's surface and the Fighting Diamonds below.

Emiyu grimaced at the sight of the immense storm brewing below " Well..that seems rather..problematic." she murmured to herself before hailing the squadron leader

Arinori to Hunter, Arinori to Hunter. Santo Hei Arinori Emiyu reporting for duty. Orders are to re-enforce Fighting Diamonds. Request permission to join formation."

Emiyu was coming in very quickly on their location, hoping to fall in formation before they were swallowed up by the storm and her sensors were all but useless. If she was too late, she would have to pull up and out, rather then fly blindly in that maelstrom and potentially slam her fighter, as well as all those high explosives, into her comrades.

Elisto moved and stared at the data. "Winds are presently in excess of two hundred miles per hour, sensors show them to be of coriolis force. I'm seeing metallic fragments and other peices of debris being carried by the wind but the most worrisome is that these winds are not being consistant at the lower levels."

He waited a moment and focused more of his sensors on the spot. "Bombing won't be easy...."

Yaeko was pleased to see everything was operating smoothly. Everybody had armed munitions, they were in formation, and there didn't seem to e too much complaining about the obstacles ahead.

"Going in," she called out as her fighter entered the atmosphere.