RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 9.2] Charging into uncertainty.

Seeing the T7 shuttle finally launch from the Heitan, Akemi smiled and thought. 'Moment of truth.' She checked the position of the other fighters, everyone was where they were expected.

"All right Diamonds, here we go.... see you on the other side." she sent across the radio. She fired the Aether engines for a moment and surged towards the tube's opening. The burst of acceleration sent a brief surge of adrenaline into her system. She activated her SPINE interface to allow optimum response time to the myriad changes that were to be expected.

She cut off the aether thrust as she passed into the tube. Rather than feeling the acceleration forces subside she was pressed even firmer into her seats padding as the Kawarime was sucked into the tube. Her shields flared as they reacted to the forces of the tube. She focused her attention on the flight path and the count down time that started.

K5 -> Tube

Errowyn waited for her turn, watching the others disappear into the event horizon of the wormhole tube. She waited a split second too long and then fired her Aether thusters shooting her Kawarime up to speed, the cutting them off as her momentuem took her the rest of the way into wormhole tube. Feeling the weight of the acceleration against her pushing her even farther into her seat.

Shields flared as she flew with ease. Once getting the rythem of pattern of the Wormhole, She put her Kawarime in a slow spin along the axis from front to back , finding it much easier to navigate the tube that way. With the com's dead, she put on music. As she purred softly.

"Oh, the com is down... Maa, I guess that's what happens when you're in the tube..." Kawane looked around, noticing Errowyn behind her and Kayo in front of her. Soon, she would have to head towards her commander's port wing, and then... "Then we'll attack whatever's there," she murmured quietly.

"I have to get serious." Kawane took a deep breath to calm down, and focused on the flight path. She will have to prove herself, and damn it to hell if she botches things up because she got too nervous. She continued monitoring her breaths, in through her nose, out through her mouth, as she navigated through the tube.

K1 Tube

Akemi was buffeted by the variations in the gravity forces within the tube. The turbulence was a bit higher than the sensor probe had indicated. She was uncertain if the reason for the increase was the larger size of her fighting. She continued to make micro adjustments to her trajectory. Staying as close to the flight path indicated. She noticed that there was a minor variation in the width of the passage but fortunately thus far wide enough for her fighter.

She spared a moment to check the time, the countdown timer read 1:45 and still counting.

Errowyn eyes sparkled with concentration as she flew the ship with her mind through the SPINE interface. Her subconscious making billions of corrections to the flight of her Kawarime as the information flow both ways. She was purring softly as she was enjoying the kliediscope of colors beyond description. Her hands lay at rest on her thighs completely at rest as if the Kawarime was flying in normal space on auto-pilot. She could see the black dot of Kawane's Kawarime ahead of her.

Weland was slightly confused on exactly what he would expect on his first assignment, but he had orders. Weland piloted his craft behind the squadron, He was a bit on edge to what he would encounter, but his orders were orders. Upon entering the tube, he activated his SPINE interface and made periodic changes to the crafts flight plan. He looked down to his right hand, stretching it out and retracting it back in idleness. He did what he could to keep up with the squadron's movements and maintain a good tail.

Akemi kept her attention focused on the trajectory through the tube. The sensor data provided by the SSS was good but she noticed that there were some fluctuations in the passage. A few areas the tube was narrower that expected, it was close but there was enough of a margin that using her SPINE interface she was able to make the micro adjustments with just a thought.

Finally the eerie swirling energy of the tube winked out and her Kawarime was back into normal space. She switched the shields to tactical configuration. She did a quick scan of the area. The sensors clearly picked up the NMX Shipyard, and a short distance away moving away from the shipyard was an NMX warship. She waited to see what the system would identify the target as. Meanwhile she kept an eye on her six to see if her squadron made it out clear.

Wormhole- K5

Errowyn looked worried at the timer and the fast growing dot of the Kawarime ahead of her. She couldn’t slow down without those following her to plow into her, yet she was gaining on the Kawarime ahead of her. It was speed versus time left in the wormhole.

When it came her turn to exit the wormhole, she was almost breathing down the neck of the Kawarime ahead of her. Errowyn whipped her kawarime upside down just in time to streak over the Kawarime ahead of her, her tail fins barely scraping the cockpit canopy of Koto .. Likewise with her, but she could see it coming. The miss was by a few millimeters How she ended up ahead of the others was a mystery, But dang good flying by the seat o pants!

Errowyn purred softly, switching to tactical shields and bring her weapons to hot. She maneuvered around quickly as her tactical unit took a look at the target rich environment. She waited for the rest of the unit to appear. It didn’t look good for the two of them…

Kotone barely had time to gasp when she noticed Errowyn flying (upside down!) right above her Kawarime before the pilot righted herself after passing her and some others. Well, what's done is done, she supposed so didn't bother thinking more about it in order to focus on her orders. Soon, she was flying next to Akemi's port wing and awaiting the next set of orders.

Kayo's heart went into rapid pulse when Errowyn's craft passed her in the tube. Her own fighter was pushed out of sync and appeared several seconds further back in the tube. When she finally saw stars she sighed a breath of relief. She moved back to proper position and signaled. "K4 clear of the tube. All systems nominal."

Akemi looked at the sensor data. It appeared that the squadron had emerged without serious incident but somehow the order was scrambled. The tactical system pinged the warship that was moving away, and a second object.

"Heads up Diamonds, our target is the NMX Destroyer, lock your weapons and prepare for you first run. Once we fly past we will swing around for a second pass. Also sensors show the wreckage of the Tenba is docked to the station. So there may be prisoners to assist. Meanwhile let's create enough chaos to keep the NMX off their game." Akemi sent across the channel.

K-5 NMX Controlled Space (Soon to be Diamond Territory)

Erroyn with made a breif tact call when Akemi was done, grabbing the newest member of the team to add to K-9. Then, "Canine, slave your Kawarime to my ship. Noob on my tail right side,' to the other one that joined just before the shuttle launched. To the nessie pilot and then to the other one by Kawarime number. She hit her afterburners.

The three of them shot forward as she manuevered her group around behind the NMX Destroyer in its scanner deadzone, Aiming 1 of her anti-ship Aether torpedo. When she got in range of the missle. enhanced her sight through the ship's optic, hit the laser targeter right betweeen the exhaust ports of the NMX Destroyer on the left side. If her strike was was successful, it would cause just enough delay for the NMX pilot to correct the overpowering thrust from the rightside, turning the Destroyer into the second object that was parrelling the Destroyer.

When she got a definite lock and good tone from the torpedo recognizing its target, she fired it. "Listen to me roar"..... "meia...ow?!" Watching the torpedo do its designed job as she came up on the opposite side theNMX Destroyer was turning as she began raked the side with Aether cannon fire. She released the slave connection from her two wingmen, so they could make their run..."Wingmen! Hellcat!" To the both of them, "save your missiles and just rake the hell outta of the Destroyer with Aether cannon fire! Go for gun emplacements, anything protruding out the side, anything that looks like missile launch ports!" There was a soft underlying purrrrrr along with her voice transmission.

It felt good to be in the mix of things again, She now had two look after, And drew the NMX to her as she was experienced on what the Kawarime could take in terms of punishement. She just hoped that her newest Kawarime was just as good as her old -053. But that was back on the Heiten being rebuilt still.

She realized that her tactical shields weren't on, just her flight shields. She just added the tactical shields as she poured heavy Aether Cannon fire into NMX Destroyer, hopefully slagging the hull plating as she and her team were within the shielding and the NMX Destroyer.

If any NMX Personnel survived, they was gonna fear the Kawarime with the snarling Sabertooth Tiger and the markings of the 21st squadron. She was blasting over the airwave, Wagner's Ride of the Valkeries. She was going for the Awe and Shock of her vicious attack against the NMX

When Errowyn asked "the noob" to follow her tail right side, Kawane assumed it meant her. She panicked a little because she still didn't receive any orders from Akemi to do anything, but acquiesced when the other pilot she asked for attached to her left. 'It'll be okay,' she reassured. 'Errowyn will know what's she doing and maybe I can be helpful in some way...'

Kawane gaped as Errowyn jumped into the fray. "She's certainly in her element..." she whispered. She was released from the slave connection earlier, watching her fellow Diamond blare Wagner and wreak havoc. That's right. She had to do that too--the wreak havoc part, not the Wagner. She prepared her Aether cannon and aimed for any gun emplacements, as Errowyn said. Once she had a lock, she set fire to the NMX Destroyer, and quickly left to search for more guns or missile launch ports.

'I'm doing stuff. Whoo...' she thought dryly before remembering something. 'Akemi said something about the possibility of prisoners, right? I wonder... can I help them too?

'I guess I just have to wait for another set of orders.'

Akemi swore to herself when Hellcat surged ahead. She made a note to speak with her about attack run protocol. She signaled the pilots with her and hit full thrust.

The Errowyn's torpedo detonated just short of impact enveloping the aft of the warship in a sphere of aetheric destructive force. The flare of the ship's shields showed that some of the force was being mitigated. After Errowyn streaked by the turrets on the war ship started to activate and starting firing streams of deadly energy after the fighters.

"Oh Crap!" Errowyn swore , having been shot at before, it didn't phase her as she had weathered it before. But dang it.. she hated to lose a torpedo of that caliber. She whipped her Kawarine around and dove, firing her Aether Cannons at the turrents to take the heat of her new squadmates, hoping they whont panic and get themselves killed.

~~oh this is sooo not like you, Erry,~~ Voice of the past spoke up. ~~Since when did you care what happens to them nobodies?~~

Errowyn growled, diving into the fray between the turrent fire, some hit causing her shields to flare, but she still came on firing at the turrents that her guns could hit. "They are my squad mates!" She spit out as she continued her barrage against the NMX Cruiser. She got her squadmates in trouble and now she had to get them out and by that is sacred, she was going to do her best. Or die trying!

These NMX'ers must've heard about her as she was in a hellstorm of NMX turrent fire. Hoping to give the others time to get their act together. She lived for these moments, She felt alive as she jerked her fighter all over, while rasing hell on the Cruiser. There was no retreat on this mission till T7 gave word they was clear and running before it was her turn to split and she was determined to raise as much hell as possible.

Though he had a grip on flying, Weland was behind the group. He knew that he needed to exit quickly and get into the action, or risk watching his squadmates die in front of him. Weland guns his Aether engines and aims his craft towards the NMX Cruiser. When he got closer, Weland flipped the switch-guard on the wepon arming system and armed his cannons. This would be his first real combat role, but it still worried him that someone was about to die horribly. Weland filed ion for a attack run on the cruiser.

Weland spoke over the Comm, keeping it brisk and thinking of attack patterns,"Sorry I'm late, still trying to get used to the thought being in combat. I guess I get to find out what its like."

Akemi closed on the Warship armed her torpedo. "Kayo, on my mark you fire your torpedo at the same time. My torpedo should knock a hole in the shield long enough for yours to penetrate. Hrolfrson-Hei stick close to your wing man. We are going to target the battlepod bay. We take that out the warship loses the advantage of numbers. Remember Diamonds Team work. No grandstanding." she said across the comm. When she had a lock on the battlepod bay, "Torpedo away." she called out firing.

Kayo kept her fighter in position to the right and one fighter length behind Akemi. When she heard the fire order she launched her salvo. "Torpedo away. Engaging guns."

Weland pulled off and edged his fighter back towards his wing man. He hadn't been thinking correctly since he got out of the tube. He needed to fly by the books. He began to get a feel for his craft and swung in the right side of his wing man, he still wasn't good with names, but he knew the craft. He started to look over the Warship for potential weak points to gun down with his cannons, when he was given the order. He kept his craft level and stretched back into his seat.

Weland eased off his edginess and spoke over the comm with a calm voice. "Ready for Combat orders, standing by for them." After speaking he checked his oxygen and fuel gauges.

Kawane managed to avoid getting too injured by the enemies' counterattacks (thank goodness for tactical shields!) as she maneuvered to Akemi's side. Really, it wasn't her kind of thing to jump into the fray like Errowyn, and she knew that acting without official orders in this situation would be too reckless, not to mention dangerous--even if she technically already did that by joining Errowyn. Right now, she needed to stay by her team's side.

Errowyn took note that Kawane made it to the safety of the others, and forgot about her as she now put all her attention on avoiding enemy fire as she stung the NMX Cruiser turning one turrent after another into slag. Subconsconsiouss was keeping track of vital stats of each of the syustem, sent a warning that her Kawarime shields were getting dangeriously low.

She saw that Blade and her wingmate make their attack and the others were lagging a bit to get into the fray as she flew skimming the NMX Cruiser, to give her shields time to rebuild back to strength, under the turrent guns ability to track her.

She popped over the top of the NMX Cruiser to see what was the second strange object, getting a tactical view of the Object. She ran quick scans to see if it was shielded in any way shape or form....

She just realized there was another new pilot in the group. When she came back and flanked Akemi, Kawane saw the unfamiliar fighter; he might have been some ways behind her if she hadn't seen him before.

Earlier, she heard Akemi announced their plan to attack the battlepod bay first--did that apply to her too? She guesses it wouldn't hurt too much to ask... "Akemi-Juni, do I target the battlepod bay as well?"