[NSMC 309th/Aquila Mission 3.5] Terror Over New Bernese.

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

New Bernese Airspace.

"Seaweed copies all." The tinny voice of the AWACS operators voice stepped on all background chatter as its signal declared authority over all others. "Wouldn't know, Commander. Flight suits and jumpers for us year round, Dont take it for granted, We get flight suits and jumpers all year round."

As if waited for a que another voice barked in the moment the operator had let off the mic.

"Keep your finger off our triggers, Virus." The voice ordered in a husky baratone that implied less hostility than it sounded. The HUD on Edwards visor designating the source as one of the flight leaders from the 88th, A junior ace with the call-sign Belphegor. "If you do all the work for them the catfuckers in the 4th will take the credit for your kills!"

From this a series of jabs and jives seemed to play from the various wings as the aces and flight leaders of the 88th and 72nd traded playful banter with their counterparts in the 4th who spent more time insulting the intelligence and flying skills of the formers, Most commonly declaring them Backwater puddle-pilots. How much of it was true was left to the imagination, But left the impression that the 4th with their more heavily armed Zen Armaments supplied fighters and the tight unwavering formation they flew in compared to the rag tag bag of zen, origin, 3rd party, and planetary manufactured junkers of the first two flights that the 4th was likely one of the breadwinner units among the militias air corps.

Before it could get out of hand, Seaweed stepped on the channels again and restored order.

Nearby, In the massive Hornet bomber, Judiths appraisal of the spooks mysterious gift was interrupted by a local channel, Native only to the bomber itself as the other individual in the cockpit chimed in.

Judith didnt need to turn around after the banter from the pilots and Seaweed, Not that the action was permeable in the restraining flight seat to know that the weapons officer in the seat behind her had a good, If not perfect view of her from above and, By extension her famous assets that seemed to be the talk of most of the lance. Instead of joking about the view to his superior the ensign made a slightly uncomfortable cough and spoke up.

"Dexter Habbershan, Commander." the newly promoted ensign answered, The recital on Judith HUD moving ever so slightly to mimic the ensigns testing of some of the weapons movements in their pods as he ran an in-flight secondary check of the Hornets payload. "Most of the crew just call me Dex, No callsign yet."

With the ice somewhat broken and not being deterred the ensign pushed somewhat to keep his attention... Occupied... "What you got there, Commander? Shouldn't you have plugged in the ships JANE before we took off?"

Before she could answer the flight and the dozens of militia craft burst into a clearing in the clouds. Blue skies and even the sun greeted them as they cut into the peaceful eye of the storm, Temporarily blinding the darksighted pilots momentarily before the short lived reprieve ended as they entered the other side of the storm-wall and things became dark again. but instead of the raid and thunder shock of lightning before the craft had all changed almost at one into another biome as rain turned at first into sleet, And then hail, And finally snow. As they traded the dark blindness of a torrential downpour into the soft whiteout of a tundra blizzard.

"All callsigns this is Seaweed." The AWACS operator broke the din. "Task Force Whiteout is scheduled to begin in T-minus 7 minutes and counting. Shini will take point followed by Aquila in the center with the 88th and 7nd on wing-flank. If you have something you need to do or say do it now, No bathroom breaks when the boot drops..."

 

[Legix]

New Bernese Airspace

Over Bernese, the operator had his precious network intruded - specifically, Task Force Whiteout was put in the shadow of a much bigger presence arriving within Freemud's system. The initial warning signs however didn't fire - these weren't Bernese rebels or pirates coming to reinforce the damnation they would soon suffer. Instead, it was the shadow of a fleet in passing coming to the colonial system for resupply after spending months in the expanse of Lorath and unexplored space.

Large enough in their formation to mirror a planet with ease, the massive combined fleet of the NSN's Expeditionary Fleet was arriving one-by-one... and the brass within the 1st Assault Fleet had little choice when one ship in particular led out of the formation of navy vessels. The ship itself blended in among the fleet's assets but it was from a task force that marked it well to the informed members within the Navy.

A flagship-modified Orca Battlecruiser known as the NSS Safe Breadth.

The comm lines opened up and the voice of a not-so small-chested Admiral rolled into the ears of everyone - the voice of one of Nepleslia's few Admirals.

"This is Admiral Julia Brisk, commander of the NSS Safe Breadth and leader of Task Force Farthest Stride." The pilot's flight UI projected a simple and encoded quick-image of a silhouette with a blue-glowing line of doom. And a rack almost on par with Judith's. "My ship is underway for resupply and I will be joining you all to understand the situation with New Bernese upon arrival. I will be monitoring and supplying your operational command with my flagship's personal surveillance suite."

The sensory readouts for all of the flight floods for only a moment, re-engaging and lighting up with even more accurate detailing across the entire landscape of New Bernese. Whilst the Jackdaw were built partially with exploration in mind, those within the 1st Assault Fleet were kitted for combat; now they had the eyes and ears of a ship intended to navigate the worst conditions of the void in the search for the new and unknown.

"Seaweed will continue operational command and we will assume fire support responsibilities; our small-scale munitions are still in high supply and the distance of our ship will allow us to fire without worry for collateral within enemy territory. If you see anything you can't bust, Kraken will break it for you. Good luck pilots."

 

[Whitehart]

He enjoyed hearing the banter between the other flights, even laughing out loud at some of the real zingers. Edward was a light hearted guy and this was just his bag only wishing he had a similar connection to his crew. They were mostly business and he did not really mind, he knew that a group of ace pilots would be a tough jam. All he really knew was that Commander Branthese was really fixated on her suit, like overly so. He understood, the woman had rack for days but it wasn't his bag and just focused on other things.

Now Crux, Crux had been a glimmer of something. Their last interactions had not been great, Edward knew he had not made a good impression the first time around and reall hoped that maybe they could get past that and move on. Bring it aroun to the new addition, the Helashio, again, seems to be heavy up top but what intrigued Edward way more than that was how a being basically bred for subservience would fair as a pilot. Shit was about to go down, would she feel the need to stop everything so she could wet nurse the injured or try to clean up the battle debris?

It was all a lot to think about and a bit depressing so he turned his attention back to the local banter, he played a game of clicking his mic when he thought someone was about to answer to try and cut them off, it was all about intuition and when you felt that someone was about to talk.

 

[krisslanza]

Branthese chuckled softly to herself at the Seaweed's response to her comment, she at least got the impression they were a bit less serious then command.

The quick comms chatter that followed seemed to reinforce her earlier thought. From her limited time amongst pilots, she was getting the impression if you packed enough squadrons into the same airspace, they always did seem to have this kind of effect. Until the operation started in earnest, she didn't really see any issue in the more light-hearted mood.

"Ah, right Dex, my apologies. Let's hope for a smooth first day in the flight for ya, eh?" replied Judith smoothly, a tad embarrassed she had completely forgotten the name of the newest member of the flight already.

The flow of the conversation was interrupted by the sudden passage through the storm-wall, but it wasn't long before the scenery outside returned to is oh-so-inviting stormy conditions. It would seem they had traded the storm, for some kind of sudden blizzard. The planet sure had some interesting storms...

The busty officer lifted the flashdrive up a bit, using her free hand to fish around in the pouches on her Disrupter suit. "Well, I didn't find it until we had to go suit up. Not sure when it got slipped into one of my pockets, but I have a pretty good hunch... not a lot of people are bold enough to directly feel me up and slip their hands into my pockets like that." commented Judith with a chuckle. "I thought of checking my pockets after that incident, but everything kind of progressed pretty quickly. Then we were just shepherded out of the room right into this mission, so..."

As Judith was fishing around for her own personal JANE, she was caught offguard by the appearance of a familiar silhouette in her HUD. It had been sometime since she had personally seen Julia Brisk in person, but she was still easily able to identify her. The young officer found herself wondering what the NSS Dainsleif was up to while she was out here, and mused she could possibly inquire after the operation was done. For the moment, she had to stay focused on Aquila.

"Well, ah, let's just see whats on this thing, shall we? Let's see..." the brunette retrieved her desired object and took a moment to find out where to slot the flashdrive, before going to turn on the JANE. "I haven't used this thing since I bought it, I think... really haven't had the time to, I suppose. I guess that might change soon, I feel like with the proper captain back, I'm going to have a lot more paperwork..."

 

[SirSkully]

While the flight suit was slightly baggy, something the Helashio was secretly thankful for, the seat was a little too snug as it bit into her torso and hips - not so much that it would hamper her performance in any way but enough to remind Alyse she wasn't exactly tiny, it was a funny thing really, having always existed at this height and more or less this exact stature the curvy polar bear sometimes forgot that not everyone's view was from the same spot hers was. The Vat-born Helashio's brow did crease a little at all the noise over comms, less so the other pilots and such being vocal but rather the fact they kept getting cut off, but it was odd because her readouts weren't registering any problems as far as she could tell.

"I'm not sure if it is some kind of feedback error on my end or accidental hot-micing but Lieutenant Donato's feed keeps cutting in for me~ just a heads up~" the, up until recently, ship technician decided to bring to light - unsure if it was intentional or some hardware failure as a result of this being her first mission but not wanting to go against the grain of the other pilots this early regardless, something in her genes not wanting to start unneeded conflict.

That being said though, Alyse was no pushover, a gentle giant with a strong spine to hold up that hefty frame of hers - if you will.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

New Bernese Airspace.

There was a lengthy pause as codes and encryption where passed about with the handoff of the ROE. Unknown to the flight at hand a tense standoff had ensued as the four jackdaws of the first assault fleet squared off with the insurmountable and almost unnumbered ships of the NSN's 1st Expeditionary Fleet.

There was little chance of a fight. At least not a physical one between ships. The battle above had been one of politicking between a stubborn captain from the veteran first assault fleet and an equally stubborn admiral from the much younger first expeditionary. Rank had little place in the discussion as much the same as a general from one force trying to control forces of a colonel outside of his chain of command.

In the end both forces had to differ to the controlling force within the sector. Being the governess of the planet and her militia generals. Governor Abraham welcomed the mass of ships with open arms. And the Jacks of first fleet had reluctantly folded into formation and passed the proverbial flag to admiral Brisk with little fanfare.

Planetside however things increased dramatically. The wider array of sensor suites within the 1st expeditionary fleets vessels opened a massive cooridor of power to planetside operations across the board. And transmitted through seaweed the scope of the mission became clearer. huds expanded to show more of the allied wings on their peripheral and statistical data alloted screens throughout the whole task force. The optics and power of the fleet even pieced the storm.

In judiths hornet a small loading bar started on her hud as she inserted the drive. Her JANE came online at the same time and began monitoring the encrypted files downloading into the craft with some concern. It might have tried to warn her about some of the file names and seeds it was taking note of before a voice cut through the din of the net, Impossible for any of the pilots not to hear.

"Contact!" A the voice broke the quiet murmur of the net and then was abruptly cut off. First one and then ten and then beyond number red glowing target icons appeared on the hud before the taskforce, Turning the view of snow blinded cockpits red enough to light up the interiors of their vessels.

One by one craft from the shini wing started disapearing at an alarming rate as the forward veteran unit scrambled to avoid the wall of approaching enemies. The number of them alone looked to make the odds 5:1.

"Showtime!" one of the pilots from the 88th grunted. As the 88th and 7th wings aircraft first spread out and then swarmed inwards into the red sea, Leading a small buffer of space between them, The aquila flight, And finally Seaweed and its escorts.

"Begin combat operations" the calm voice of seaweed declared as the task force began, The distant icon entering the huds of the aquila flight of the the distant target airfield came into range, Albeit behind a wall of hostile fighters.

Hunk

The ambush of the red fighters had been a complete coincidence. As soon as the massive fleet had entered the system the reds like Callsign: Hunk had scrambled to get their craft up in the air. The entire airbase had been mobilized and sent east towards the militia lines. A mass air assault was thrown together in an attempt to hammer the wall and make a breakthrough to puckett under the logic that if they could damage the fort and its nearby airfield well enough they could delay the landing of whatever they suspected was coming.


Hunk and his flight, Along with two dozen others had burned east in formation when their first vanguard units had run straight into the first militia craft barely within view of their home airfield. The logic clicked right away through most of the flight leads before it hit the rest of the formation and how lucky they had been to be airborn before such a force hit them groundside. The order that came was instant and absolute, Transmitted from the veteran lead of the operation, Boots.

"All callsigns, Engage and overcome hostile taskforce." And that was it. Boots didnt speak much since Goose was killed and windchime was salvaged half dead in the wastes. Some kind of personal vendetta...

 

[Whitehart]

The sudden apearance of the enemy was as startling to Edward as it was to the rest, he was just about to respond to Alyse he picked up the contact. "Oh shit people, it's on. Remember one important my battle cry this day...Not in the Face," he said amongst his Aquila channel.

He slowed slightly to take up a more rear position to the flight and began typing in to his console. "Loading up a little white noise for the enemy Crux. What's your pick for today? A little most annoying sound in the universe? Some Rob Boss to really soothe their senses? Or my latest, me reviewing the latest episode of the Days of our Immortal Lives?"

He clicked open his ports for his array of missiles and rechecked the status of his turret and forward guns.

 

[SirSkully]

A strong exhale might've been picked up from Alyse's mic as her heads up display filled with red markers, an unheard gulp rolling down the beefy pilot's throat as she maneuvered a little tighter into their formation to compensate for Edward falling back - it was an odd sensation, some point between serenity and first-flight nerves getting the better of her but the Helashio thought of that as a good thing, hopefully enough confidence to keep her pushing on with a healthy bit of caution to keep the virgin pilot alive by the end of it all.

Alyse checked over her weapons one last time to be on the safe side while responding to the electronic warfare specialist's little query, "Last choice or first choice, they don't deserve to hear Rob's voice one last time~" she cut herself off with another shaky breath, muscles tensing under her uniform and making the previously slightly oversized uniform creak a little out of anticipation but through all this the woman's hands didn't falter in the slightest, as still as mountain.

 

[krisslanza]

Whatever curiosity about the contents of the flash drive would have to wait, the last cry of a doomed pilot more of a pressing concern. As the screen lit up red, the busty officer mumbled to herself as she steeled herself for the impending battle.

"That's a military operation for you, all fine in planning, and the second you actually execute the damn thing..."

Despite one of the worst case scenarios unfolding before her, Seaweed hadn't exactly called an abort on the operation. That airfield still had to get pulverized, even if its complement of fighters just so happened to be already be up in the air and engaging the flight of fighters.

"Well, it's going to be a much more interesting mission today. I'll try and keep us alive, and you make sure we don't get blown into a million bits of debris, alright?"

 

[Gunhand4171]

Crux smirked as total chaos broke out. This is where he truly felt alive. "Surprise me Virus." He said as his craft turned towards the enemy.

"Aquila flight, loose formation. Follow me in." As he said this, his fingers flew across his controls like a musician. "Aquila 1, moving to eliminate enemy targets." With that his craft preformed a roll and his engines flared with blinding brilliance. "Keep up Aquila!"

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

With some regard for their slowest craft being the hornet, The flight made a tight burn towards the larger, As of yet engaged mass of enemy craft. A large center pocket had formed where many of the militia and red craft performed well rehearsed feats of maneuvers trying to one-up their opponents. It wasnt uncommon for a chain to form of enemy and militia craft just trying to shoot one enemy off their allies tail before someone got on theirs, and so forth. The HUD was a disorienting mis-match of icons and colors as unseen craft, hidden by the snow and rain but not by optics zipped past and around in a horrible attempt at claiming their own zones of control without crashing into their allies, Or enemies.

Much of this clutter was filtered to proximity through Seaweed. The AWACs craft playing a fine line in the center of the fighting, Flying straight and true the massive new-bernese built craft was hemorrhaging flares, CHAFF's, And throwing punishing munitions of kinetic, laser, and plasma in every direction while its escorts fought in close knife-fight engagements with daring red craft that got too close for comfort before limping back to Seaweed to screen it once more.

Aquila moved unmolested through the fighting beyond this. In the center of the fighting was the high value target of Seaweed. And on the outside most pilots only had time to focuss on staying alive, Leaving Aquila a brief moment to select their targets. The group penetrating the circle of the fighting was consisting of five craft. Without the visual it was impossible to know their loadouts or armaments, But each one posed a potential threat to the flight and even the mission if left uncontested.

One of them, Seaweed had marked, Gave off a recognized indicator of a named pilot. An Ace. Idol hovered above the unseen crafts icon on the HUD at the front of the formation and was leading his flight straight at aquila. Caution lights blared in all the flights craft as locks where established and electronic countermeasures struggled to throw them off.

"Oh shit! Time to rock out with our cocks out, Commander!" Habbershan laughed behind judith as the slow progress bar from the drive slowly reached 90%. Whatever it was downloading would likely finish in the thick of the fight in a matter of seconds.

New Bernse Airspace.

Tens of kilomiters away and quickly closing, Three craft entered the AO just as blind as the others, but with an outside perspective and more time to react...


Like the aquila flights namesake, The flight was as much a testing unit as a unit of aces. New and developing airframes and weapons where routinely sent to the unit for live fire or even testing purposes and now was no exception. A veteran test pilot had taken a chance and a cut in rank just to join the unit. And had hitched his lot to grab a ride with the 1st Expeditionary fleet in orbit just to arrive sooner. And was even able to deploy with two 1st expeditionary pilots in the new craft from a shaika in orbit, The mission sanctioned by admiral brisk as soon as it came to her attention.

With the consent of his temporary acting CO, the pilot had been planetside within the hour and burning to join the mission at hand. By then the ambush had already come to light and his two wingmen cursed and jibed equally over the net. After all, Even a single craft could change the outcome of a fight when coming in from a blindside of a fight that was focusing internally instead of externally. And he had Three.

Through the blinding snow and sleet red and green and blue icons appeared on their HUDs as the three craft came in practically ontop of the formation.

 

[Alex Hart]

New Bernse Airspace.

It was a cold and snowy day today. The lead pilot of this new three-man formation spoke briefly over the radio to his compatriots. "Watch your flying boys, we've got a real furball on our hands down there. I want everyone weapons tight for now, as I'm sure you know we've got some playmates down there that I'm sure we'd all rather not hit." He waited a moment for the two wingmen to confirm that they understood before continuing.

"We're all loaded up for anti-aircraft operations, so we're going to be going in there to try and relieve local militia forces and the flight of bombers and attackers that are operating in this area. On my mark, we're going to dive down through the furball in the center and come out the other side. Then we'll link up with the attacker flight." The pilot could see the other two pilots in his flight through the canopy, apparently shaking their heads in exasperation.

"Three... two... one... mark!" The flight began to dive, twisting and turning, locking onto targets as they bled altitude. They had the element of surprise, and the time between lock and missile launch was so small that the targets barely had any time to react. Several air-to-air missiles were launched, two from each fighter, and then the flight was cutting through the formation like a knife, taking potshots with guns before they burst out the other side, now on their way to link up with Aquila.

 

[krisslanza]

"Just keep calm and let's not get over eager, alright? Not looking to getting tangled into a dogfight in this thing..." replied Judith, her gaze settling on the progress bar with a slight twitch of her eyebrow. "Just keep us alive, and let's finish the mission. Then we can figure out what the Seaweed has planned for getting us out of this furball in one piece..."

With the enemy force already up in the air, the destruction of their airfield did seem a bit moot, but without any standing orders to not take care of it... but best to take things one step at a time, finish the current job, then worry about the next step.

'I swear, everytime an operation is supposed to be considered a milkrun, its always a complete clusterfuck, isn't it?' thought the Commander privately, her eyes flicking towards the progress bar once more.

 

[SirSkully]

"Calm, right~" Alyse repeated as one ear flicked uncomfortably beneath the lining of her helmet, maintaining course with a gulp as the cockpit-filling Helashio forced her first-flight jitters to politely fuck off. It was going to be simple enough right? she'd been in dogfights with pirates before with much less at her disposal but the fact this was some super expensive nep ship and the enemy were trained pilots rather than privateers made her bull-sized heart pump rapidly as it lay cradled in her stout chest, the pale woman though further back, to her time as a nanny/wet nurse/chauffeur/bodyguard/maid the was designed to be... breathing beginning to even out as one of her large hands moved over to the weapon controls of her vessel.

Just pretend they're here, hell you know you did everything in your power to try and keep them alive, if you die then it's not something you could have prevented - besides, you're built like a brick wall~ the Marshmallow told herself, brow furrowing with determination as that ear calmed down too, she was ready.

 

[Gunhand4171]

New Bernse Airspace

Nero took in his sensor data as the flight entered the AO. "Aquila, this is what we like to call a target rich environment! We are clear to engage. Assist our ally's where you can, but don't overextend yourselves." Crux was in his element here. He took in the overall situation provided by his sensors and from what Seaweed was providing.

"Stick together and we will make it through this. Remember your training and don't get cocky out there. Any one of you that tries to bite it out here will be getting the ass kicking of a lifetime! Am I understood?!" He said over the squads comm channel.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

New Bernese Airspace.

"Baffle 1-1 intercept marked target, Mirage actual you're scraping the deck reform with mirage 2-1 and fill in the gaps of bane flight." The radio picked up near constant chatter from Seaweed as the controller maneuvered virtually the entire militia element while swatting craft from the air in a display of laser and plasma throwing might. All while sprewing forth flares and countermeasures in uncountable bursts that even the snow and rain blinded pilots could see dimly as the silhouette of the massive AWACs craft burned a literal hole through the fight with no signs of stopping let alone slowing down.

"Aquila-3 you're straying, fall in line. Aquila-2, Commander, You're hard locked." Seaweed turned a momentary and hypothetical glance towards the NSN wing as it too came into contact with the other flight. The lead element, The named ace locking onto the largest craft in the AO save for Seaweed in the form of Judiths massive hornet bomber and the threat it posed.

The red flight performed a rehearsed maneuver the flight would be all to familiar with from the past year of dogfighting as the craft each exploded into a different direction with a couple craft remaining on the charge. Before turning back towards aquila in a massive pincer like maneuver, Maximizing their killing field and forcing them to break formation. But no matter which way they evaded there would be a number of craft pointed right at them, And if they strafed too hard the aces in the center would be on their tails in an instant. Locks where exchanged one after the other and the red craft prepared to open up a devastating salvo on the veteran wing.

Inside the hornet the ensign in the gunnery seat swore and began priming countermeasures as a small loading bar reached 95%

Nearby

Falke's flight of three however had been anything on the defensive. A massive gap had been exposed in the reds flanks that the three craft exploited to an incredible degree. Quick locks and skilled gunnery saw four of the five nearest targets confirmed as extinguished with the fifth escaping just barely but not without damage as it seemed to bank and barely recover towards the airfield somewhere below.

Now in the ball of death, With dogfighting all around things had become more tense as onboard AI linked with Seaweed and plotted slow and winding paths through the fighting just to avoid collisions with friendly craft. Aquila was still deep in the center with the AWACs craft, And Falke and his borrowed flight where behind proverbial enemy lines as the thick of red armed craft banked towards them time and time again just to get caught with a militia pilot on their tail or a more prevailing target.

Yet the flight was anything but peaceful as, Like Seaweed, Another monster lurked somewhere in the snowstorm illuminated only briefly as the reds AWACs element revealed itself in bright flashes of kinetic and energy fire, Explosions keeping its position lit for seconds at a time as brave pilots took pot shots at the craft messuring between a large shuttle and a small ship only to be swatted away with incredible salvos of fire.

At the rate it was going, Like a knife fight between battleships the two AWACs elements would soon reach firing range between each other and begin trading blows as the most critical part of the battle to reach electronic and communications superiority began. But would involve more violence than just EWAR could provide. And falke and his flight couldnt reach the flight they intended to relive without crossing the paths of the two sky-kings...

At least not without some fancy flying or bold choices.

 

[krisslanza]

"Of course they'd go for us first..." grumbled Judith under her breath, her gaze flicking away from the agonizing slow progress bar on her HUD. "Going to be putting you through the ropes today Dex, just focus on getting us out of this in one piece."

The busty commander took a moment to toggle her comms to the entirety of Aquila. "Well, the Reds aren't going to make this easy, and Seaweed helpfully informs the Reds are already out to kill me. I hope we get a hell of an R&R after this SNAFU..."

The Hornet wasn't exactly a nimble craft, and she'd have to rely on Dex and the rest of the Flight to keep herself from getting blasted out of the sky. Not that she didn't trust her Flight, of course, but it wasn't exactly a comforting though for a supposed milk run operation...

 

[Alex Hart]

Larry took stock of the situation. Aquila needed backup in a bad way, and to get to them, Larry's flight would have to go past the enemy AWACS ship. And to top it all off, groups of Red fighters were on their tail. As the great lumbering ships grew ever closer, Larry made a snap decision. "We're gonna fly in between the two ships, the volume of AA fire coming from them should form a 'wall' and dissuade our pursuers."

"AWACS Seaweed, my flight will be flying between you and the Red ship, hold fire within this corridor." Falke tapped the console in front of him, sending over a flight plan with a 5-degree cone around it.

As the group of three fighters approached the two AWACs ships from different factions it was sure that shots would begin to fly, and if they were lucky this would deter all but the most stubborn of pursuers. They each began to move a bit more erratically in order to throw off targeting locks against them by the enemy ship, though this began to bleed some speed.

Larry, in particular, began making full use of the ability of the new fighter to vector its engines to point his nose towards the enemy AWACS as he slipped sideways at a slightly lower speed than the rest of his group. As he passed his guns flared and spat lasery death while he played the gun sight over the target, and against a target this large, it was hard to miss. Engines then rotated back into their normal positions, and Larry sped out from between the two AWACS elements.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

New Bernese Airspace.

Death from all sides closed in as the red flight continued unmolested and challenged. Three set of three craft came at the flight from different angles and unleashed a desitating salvo of early fire and forget missiles before banking into predetermined corridors.

Many of the locks where interrupted or scrambled through a combination of EMS, AMS, and the hornets robust countermeasure systems spewing forth from its CHAFF cores like a dazzling fireworks display. Some however had managed to make their mark and savaged against shields leaving some like Alyse to have their thin bubble of protection shattered and exposing them to the harsh reality of the situation at hand and the threat it possessed to their fragile frames.

But the first salvo was never intended as the killing blow. No veteran flight would ever rely on such a crude tactic to do anything but sheer the numbers and expose the vital weakness to drive the knife home. The Ace's flying directly at Aquila where that knife. As soon as the hornet exhausted its countermeasures in its desperate display for survival judiths gunner cursed and began firing the hornets turret in a wide arc to dissuade their attackers as one of them broke off towards the now shieldless scythe both ships experiencing locks and then master caution alarms as an unknown number of missiles where fired at them.

Alyse at least was forced to either risk evasive maneuvers and expose herself further to her attackers or risk a different approach. Judith and the hornet however winked out of existence from the perspective of the flight, Her death obscured from her comrades by the raging storm around them.

Nearby an ace, Ginger counted one more kill to his tally and changed targets to the other imminent threat to their home field, A hammerhead flown by one of the new pilots to the flight. With it gone Ginger and his flight leader could leave the mop-up of the fighters to their wing while they hunted more prevailing threats.

What neither Ginger, Boots or any of the other attacking reds noticed however was a new, Friendly IFF marker appearing in place of the formerly hostile hornet bomber now that their target fixation had locked to new threats. On judiths panels a small 100% had loaded completely as her JANE, A simple AI it was routed new information towards her about her new allies and the enemies she currently flew beside and recommend firing solutions to a confused Dex who was likely seeing the same change from his point of view.

"Uhh... Commander, Did we just change teams?"

Nearby.

"Negetive." Was the apprehensive response to Larry's request, Albiet after he had already performed his maneuvers, The time between orders and dispatch taking longer than the whole maneuver itself. "All craft clear AO around home. Knife fight, Knife Fight, Knife Fight."

The AWACs element deployed a significant bubble of EWAR disturbance around itself and its red counterpart was about to do the same until one of its flanks practically exploded in fire as Larry and his flight found a blind spot that struck the massive shuttle like craft in its flank. The damage was permeable at best as the fire died down from quick damage control but the damage had been done none the less as the AWACs element took notice of the flight too late to swat them from the sky it did some of the militia craft before.

Now on the enemies tail and gaining distance however there was a moment of quiet for larry to decide to either peruse his objective or push the advantage until master caution alarms started blaring a warning as a gout of a plasmic like lance burst mere meters infront of the red controlling elemt against its shields and blossomed around it in a hazzardous spray as Seaweed fired first. There was a pause as the heat practically blew away the snow and rain around the enemy before fire erupted from its flanks in a faux display of death as it too answered in kind, Instead spewing forth dozens of missiles as massive laser arrays on its nose burned holes the size of a human torso through the blizard to play at Seaweeds shields as the two began the dance of death that would decide who controlled the skies of new Bernese from then on.

Somwhere on both low and high priority channels encrypted and the alike, A steady guitar riff began from one of the AWACs elements as proof that only one of them with such powerful equipment could step on so many channels on both sides. Somwhere an operator whose actions could mean death in mere moments was smiling in their console surrounded chair as his flying home began its bare knuckle brawl with a hated enemy was smiling to himself with a grin that split from ear to ear...

 

[Alex Hart]

Nearby.

Aquila needed help; there were fighters all over them, one of the bombers was out of formation, and the metaphorical sharks were circling ever closer. Two enemy aces were closing in on the flight of bombers. The local militia pilots were busy fighting off the normal red pilots, but there were two that stood out. They seemed to be the biggest threats, and one of them would need to be eliminated.

Larry sent a transmission to Seaweed. "Seaweed, this is Lancer one; we're going to try to take some Pressure off of Aquila, give a holler if you need us, over."
He then spoke to the rest of the three-man flight; "I want this done clean guys, we're going to isolate the enemy closest to Aquila and take them down. This guy looks to be an ace, so stay on your toes."

New Bernese Airspace.

The group then began to move as one, avoiding the large furball and slipping quietly into position behind Ginger, with some of their ECM active to help hide them. The surrounding battle was so noisy on sensors that it wasn't hard, and before long they were in position. As ECM was lifted, Larry opened up a channel to Aquila flight. "Hey there friends, need some help?" He asked as they opened fire with guns from several different angles, trying to box the enemy in.