RP: Setareh Wing [Mission Three] A View To A Kill

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Lanranr Naak Behea chewed on the soft flesh of her inner cheek, deliberating as the wing and herself fired on the ships.

Finally, she spoke, "We will stay focused on creating a boundary between them and the colony. We will hold formation, Zoren and Akjit. We will remain immovable and we will crush them. This is not a fair fight, but it will be a fight we will win!"

She then asked, "Ishtar, what are my choices?"

She had ideations of how to win, but it seemed Ishtar knew for certain the ways in which to do so. Naak wanted to know, no, she needed to know if it was simply against this type of missile-toting ship or against this type of ship in this situation. They couldn't necessarily rely on what she had relied on before, with the Astarte.

Another eighteen missiles rocketed from the ships, flying fast towards the colony and, thus, the wing.

"Again, Setareh! Only this time, don't let any hit!" Naak boomed. "Continue to target the ships after the missiles are cleared."

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

"Roger that Boss." He said changing targets. "You heard the lady, everyone! Not a single missile gets through! Comence Barrage!" He yelled as he began firing salvo after salvo of his own missiles towards six of the incoming missiles, which were in his cone of fire. He also followed it up with sniper fire from his cannons.

"Enigma, keep up the fire!" He ordered his VANDR, who continued to give the doctor firing solutions.

"What do you take me for? I got this doc!" Enigma replied, as she continued to mark targets for Zoren.

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

"Create a chain reaction within the ship's launcher systems, causing the warheads aboard to detonate. Thus far it has not fully utilized its capabilities. When last one was sighted it opened. Much like a commercial communication device into two halves with a central hinge. If it were to do so, we could be looking at anywhere from sixty, to seventy five simultaneous launches."

"It would require precise targeting, and necessitate getting fairly close should missile ordinance be used. Otherwise point-defense systems may shoot down our projectiles."

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Clarifying, Naak said, "Once those hinges open and the launches begin, we have a window of opportunity to fire into the opening from which the missiles are coming from, correct?"

It all seemed so simple if the timing worked out just right. She was already forming teams of who would stay and protect the colony and who would go in to the mouth of the beast and slay it.

Zoren's ability to masterfully take out missiles was exemplified when he downed the six he shot at, ending their trajectory in fiery balls of light.

Altair despaired. Let the shots hit the colony? Could it take that kind of punishment? However much he hated it, it wasn't his call to make. The responsibility fell to Naak, so why did it feel like he was responsible too?

Altair gritted his teeth and followed orders, staying in formation and opening fire with his long range missiles, attempting to shoot down the missiles as soon as they left their tubes, and shock sting cannons to take out those that closed the range.

"Are we sure that the colony can take those laser hits?" He said, worryingly. "Shouldn't we tell them to evacuate any areas likely to be affected?"

Karuah took a breath and examined the situation. She could deal with a few missiles with no problem, and she did so, several shots from her Storm Ray point defense system raced across space towards their targets. But according to comms chatter these things could fire a much larger salvo and easily overwhelm them. She needed a way to deal with it. However as she grew more frantic, Saeid sensed her distress and displayed the schematics for portions of the arsenal that Karuah had forgotten about.

The pilot smiled and then spoke up over the comms. "Lanranr, I believe we can use the regenerative canister missiles to stop them from shooting down our own missiles."

It didn't take long for the FIOMNI to respond with an affirmative to Naak's clarification. "The launch tubes have armored shutters which open before launch. When closed, I estimate it would take a concentrated barrage of fire from VANDR-scale weaponry for approximately thirty to forty-five seconds to breach. Their plating is comparable to the Erla VANDR II's armored plate. Only much thicker."

Irfan was laughing inside her machine as her payload landed. But, of course, there was a catch that had the cheery and exciteable gal pause. The order to carry out an attack after clearing a new wave of incoming ordinance. Raising both arms and aiming her weapons to their entirety, Irfan opened up with smaller arms and her sniper-like weapons to peck out her own part of the incoming projectiles.

"Ugh! Stupid missiles!"

Her head looked far to one of the same shutters identified, training her missile and mortar strike at full force. Even the mortar could hit and potentially cause a chain reaction... and in space, firing such a weapon was definitely rewarding if it proved to win the void conflict. It also meant her traditional weapons could be focused on following orders!

Zoren smirked as the missiles were destroyed. "Good work Enigma." His cannons swung around, and he marked his next target. One of the enemy ship's weak points. "My target is marked. Commencing bombardment."

"Enigma, reroute power from engines to the cannons." He ordered

"Roger Doc! Here comes some extra juice!" Enigma replied. His display showed the power output of his weapons sky rocket. "Ready to fire! Make it count Doc!"

"Fire."

His sniper cannons let fly two massive energy blasts towards the weak point.

As Akjit kept up the barrage, dread nagged away at the back of his mind.

In this head-to-head game, the enemy had the clear advantage, firing who-knows-how-many missiles at their disposal at the frame runners. Meanwhile, they were forced to sit here and defend every oncoming shot aimed at the station. In the end of the day, it boiled down to who had more stuff to throw, and chances were that the Wing simply had less. Already, Akjit was even improvising his mortars to try and intercept missiles and save his own countermeasures for when they were needed most, but that was likely not good enough.

"Some of us are firing more than one countermeasure for the same missile - I'm having Nightmare coordinate our NI's for better firing solutions!" the Ivuori pilot quickly spoke up. He just hoped it bought the time they needed.

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Altair was able to take down the missiles he shot at, whether with long range missiles or shock string cannons while Karuah's point defense did its job exceedingly well. Irfan's sniper-like weapons brought down missiles headed for the colony.

What Irfan and Zoren did not take into account was that the missiles were coming from the squadron of ships and not the main missile launcher of the mobile missile platform that Ishtar was speaking about, which hadn't yet opened its missile shutters. Not only had it not shot yet, but they were not close enough to hit the meaty center.

Naak said to those of the wing that had spoken out, "Karuah! You're absolutely right! Employ that tactic! Altair, while you destroy incoming missiles, contact Ki Lea and have her warn potential disaster zones. Akjit! That's quick thinking on your part. The rest of you, take notice of the paths Nightmare has laid out!"

"Time to take over back here, Zoren!" Naak said to her NCO. "Direct Akjit, Altair, and Ekia! The rest of you —Irfan, Sanjaya, and Karuah— are coming with me and Ishtar! Let's get in close!"

"Ishtar, do me the favor of directing those moving towards the missile platform, which we must take out under any circumstance! The lives of many depend on our single ones, Setareh Wing!"

Naak received an affirmative. However Ishtar had her own ideas in addition to fulfilling the Lanranr's orders. Transformed as it was, her VANDR looked very much like an ancient Saali fighter. It was, however incredibly well armed in comparison.


It was an encoded message sent over laser as her own VANDR began to make its move toward the target. She, however had engaged the Sink and Muted Shroud systems, wrapping her Sahti in a veil of nothingness. Sensors had gone to passive, yet she maintained a steady lock with those intent on striking the New Veyrin missile destroyer.

Karuah smiled as she received her orders and then transformed her VANDR into it's ARMS form. "Saied, ready the canister missiles, and begin calculating firing solutions to maximize effect." Mere moments after speaking, Karuah's display had new information on it, constantly updating with new firing arcs for the missiles. She sent another message to the wing commander once she was sure things were moving smoothly.

"I can handle firing the canister missiles, and everyone can follow up with their missiles, so there's minimal delay."

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Irfan wasn't worried. Her large payload of both missiles and slower-moving mortars was mixed enough that she'd likely hit something even with the closed shutters and score some devastating damage. Heck, by the Saints' blessings it would probably help that the mortars were going slower and likely to crash in after it HAD opened! But, all the same, her attention focused on a new goal. While her craft was optimized for being further back, getting to rush in with the boss was something Irfan willingly could do. Her craft lurched forward, Lucidity making its moves to take up the upper left flank of the commanding officer as she unloaded more of her payload toward the targets.

"Boss," Irfan's voice cut in even over some of Ki Lea's relayed information and own recognition of the orders and began carrying them out, "Let's get the biggest one first, yeah? I bet they'll scare the smaller ones once they look like a fireball!"

Altair was doing his job, taking out the waves of incoming ordinance, calling out locations to warn in case some got by him.

A few missiles were slightly apart from the larger clusters, and so escaped immediate destruction. When the last of the immediate threats he was aware of were taken care of, Altair did a quick scan and saw the small group. He aimed his shockstings and fired, but to his surprise, no rounds came out. The guns were malfunctioning.

His complement of missiles had been expended by the defense, and he was left with one choice, to intercept the hostile missiles with his VANDR.

As he streaked towards the colony he radioed Ki Lia in case he didn't make it in time. But he did. The missiles wracked his frame with explosions and threw him into a spiral headed towards the colony.

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Zoran let out an angry snarl. "Son of a bitch." He said as his sniper shots missed their targets.

"Hey uh Doc... you missed." His VANDR added, as if to add insult to injury.

"...Shut up Enigma..." He retorted as he listened in for his new orders.

"Roger that Boss. Akjit, Altair, and Ekia form up in line formation. Designating lane assignments now." The three would see a marker designated for them, denoting there lanes of fire. If it crossed into there zone, they were to execute with extreme prejudice. "We must defend this colony! Continue defensive barrage!"

'Yay!' Akjit mentally squeaked.

"Copy that, forming up," the Ivuori replied over the comms. Berated by his NI, the man quickly fell into line and began targeting anything that came into his line of fire - they had to conserve ammunition and bring them down as efficiently as possible. Time was not on their side in this battle of attrition, and it all counted on the frame runners at the tip of the spear. Weapons hammering away as he improvised some of them for a role they were never intended for, he hoped they wrapped this up quickly.

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Altair's VANDR had, in a word, become disabled. No longer able to maintain power systems, the entire thing became seemingly lifeless around Altair, who had been safe from the missile impact from the squadron of fighters, and not the missile platform, —which still had not yet shot— only because of the beating Soaring Hawk had taken for him. Despite that, he would have been able to feel a pressure akin to 'growing pains'. It felt as if his bones were pushing forth from the inside out for the longest second of he had likely ever experienced.

And then, nothing. Soaring Hawk was too incapacitated to remain conscious for him. Too far gone to maintain anything but the trajectory it had been flung on after impact with the missiles, towards the colony. It flew until it made contact with the colony, landing on its flat surface in an uncontrolled and hazardous ending to Altair's heroism.

It was just Akjit, the doctor, and Ekia, now, to protect against the missiles that were about to try to barrage the colony again. The fighters had pulled up and some had been downed by Setareh Wing, namely by Akjit's weapons array. But, now, they were headed back towards them from the opposite direction they had come and they pushed out the last of their missiles. As the missiles flung themselves towards the colony, the three fighters angled themselves to be in line with those headed for the missile platform and began to shoot out laser arrays at the grouping of the Setareh Wing that were on their way to extinguish the New Veyrin's ultimate plan of attack. They shot out and, though the Setareh Wing was nearly invisible to them, their blind shots were too close for comfort. It was up to Karuah, Naak, Irfan, Sanjaya, and Ishtar to end the enemy pilots' lives in order to take down the missile platform itself.

Naak was the first to react, shouting, "Behind us!" She shot out at the fighters, hitting one with a salvo of missiles from her rear thighs from Victory, most of which made contact, before Sanjaya could swoop in and take her prize by destroying the fighter with a salvo of his own from Siege.

"Thanks," was all that Naak had the time to say as she had to evade fire from the fighters while also readying her VANDR to shoot again.

Upon consideration, she replied to Kaurah's plan of attack, "Sounds good, Karuah! Sanjaya, Irfan, take care of these fighters! Karuah, go ahead with cannister missiles. Ishtar, we'll be right behind her!"

Space Outside of the Dahbi Class Colony

Karuah was glad that she has already convereted Saeid into ARMS form, the shots strayed too close for comfort and some tight maneuvering was required to keep herself and Saeid out of harm's way. At the orders to prepare to fire the canister missiles Karurah had work to do. Up until now she had Saeid's Phantomaa Sink activated, but had been riding along in the other muted shroud bubbles. If she wanted to fire it would be best to do it from an alternate location as the rest of the group.

She activated her own muted shroud and disengaged from the rest of the group before she accelerated to quickly get out of line of sight. Next were movement's too complicated to perform alone, so she had Saied run an evasive algorithm to try and get behind the enemy squad while avoiding being seen by eye. In order to keep tehm from predicting her movements she threw her own forced course alterations in as she made her way within 3km on the flank.

Another affirmative from the FIOMNI, who would be following suit as they began their run on the enemy vessel. Her own VANDR, while also capable of taking on a more humanoid shape had remained as it was. A sleek, streamlined fighter craft. All of the speed and maneuverability with a more slender silhouette against their sensors. Her unit's Missile Launcher ports opened; cycling through ordinance until finally the Cannister Missiles were selected. Loaded, her HUD primed itself and increased resolution while displaying a topographical map of the area around them in one corner. Coasting along as she was, her Sink system engaged, and the Shroud wrapped like swaddling about the Frame she was a predator. One who would unleash a blinding display soon enough.