[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAJM3DatBJY[/youtube]

The battle wasn't going great. McKnight knew better than to simply charge an elite Coalition MAS. No doubt he wanted to keep Ariana safe and shield her from having to engage a veteran. Then she noticed the warning for all of the 101st's ships to clear the line of fire of the wave motion gun, something Alexis would never do with the Lincoln still in proximity to the Ulysses unless she was desperate. The orders for two members of the 7th to escort some big shot's ship didn't make sense either.

[color=00a651]"Rookie! Don't worry about McKnight and keep the Fenrir busy! I'll assist you once I've cleared up my own backyard."[/color] Maki yelled through the comms to make sure Ariana heard her. [color=00a651]"You can't do anything else for him except keep the bastard off him."[/color] The 7th got the worst assignments because of their skill, which meant getting hit and taking damage was part and parcel of the job. Most of the time they lived through it, some times they didn't. The important thing was that the rest of the squad could not stop and afford a distraction when it happened. Distractions cost lives.

[color=00a651]"Cap, if I don't think about where my head is going to be later, I won't have one."[/color] Maki replied to Alexis as she committed to her insane plan to mop the two Fenrirs. The Hellcat was stealthy and there was no way the Mark IIs would pick her up unless they used visual identification, and they were too busy trying to down the fighters to scan the horizon.

Tunnel vision will get you killed every single time.

She closed in on the first, drawing her energy sword again. By the time the Fenrir noticed her closing in on him, it was too late. At her speed and approach, there was no way he could have stopped her from bisecting the machine diagonally, from the Fenrir's "hip" to shoulder. Some ammunition or a power core must have detonated for an explosion rocked her Hellcat.  Though the Fenrir did manage to swing his leg around to kick the Hellcat in the side. The impact was jarring and dented the hull, but did no real damage except piss Maki off. The concussion from the sound of the impact rang through her cockpit and gave her a jarring headache on top of ringing in her ears.

There was no time to stop though, and the Hellcat's autocannon was trained on the second Fenrir and opening fire.Maki had targeted center mass, but the explosion threw the Hellcat off. A round impacted one of the legs, where the thrusters were, and caused a small fireball as the jets leaked through the new holes her round opened up. A second shot managed to hit the Fenrir's gun arm, and it seemed to slow its movements down, though not by much. Maki definitely had the enemy's attention now. 

Unfortunately, she hadn't even slowed the Hellcat at all during that maneuver, and the Fenrir was never going to be able to bring its gun to bear with a damaged leg and arm. Firing solutions worked themselves out and Maki pulled the trigger five more times, this time hitting the Fenrir's other two limbs and disabling them as well, while the fifth buried itself in the gun's magazine and detonated the ammunition. Reducing the Fenrir's firepower would by the fighters more time to escape if the enemy pilot decided that he would kill them instead if he couldn't get the Hellcat.

Maki opened fire again, this time aiming to kill. Firing at the Fenrir's back, it was easy to hit the thrusters and force the Fenrir immobile, traveling by inertia alone. That meant he couldn't dodge the Rapier Maki fired. She didn't even bother to stay around and confirm the kill. The guy was dead. The Fenrir had already stopped all functions she could see when she stopped firing her autocannon. The Rapier was just insurance. The Hellcat turned and moved to assist the Astelion, confirming the kill only from the sensors.

[color=00a651]"Hunter has two more kills confirmed. Minor hull damage, all systems still operational."[/color] Maki reported, turning around and not bothering with a flank maneuver this time. She set a course straight for the Mark III to help Ariana. [color=00a651]"Cap, I will be very cross if you tell me to guard some fat ass's ship so don't bother."[/color] She growled directly at Alexis, unhappy that their firepower was being diverted from actually pushing back the enemy to just babysitting some idiot admiral's ship. An idiot who had decided that bright colours in space was a good idea, and obviously thought his rank allowed him to just commandeer forces to protect his exposed ass.

She did a quick check on her current ammunition. Five Rapier missiles left. Sixty rounds in her autocannon. Enough to kill a Mark 3 if she was careful and Ariana did her job. Not enough keep fighting as an escort and useless information if she was going to sit on top of the admiral's ship.