The White machine continued pursuing Gallant and Guillotine, right up until a flash of light flared by, a solid, luminescent stream of plasma. Noticing it at the last moment- a near superhuman feat- The White machine added an extra kick to its engine as it jerked to the side. The tight line of plasma pierced the back of the mysterious machine and exited where the equivalent of the human armpit would be. The resulting explosion sent the White machine spinning, but it quickly regained control of itself and began to fly back towards its own mothership- its EKP cannon sending a burst of fire in Wizard's direction. A trio of the remaining Ferir's moved in front of the White MAS, their bodies overlapping one another as to block their commander from the Mosquito's line of sight- they too sent autocannon rounds in his direction in attempt to suppress the light sniper.  

[color=lightblue]"Thanks Wiz."[/color] McKnight called through the comm. [color=lightblue]"Follow us back to the barn, we're pretty fucked right now."[/color]

As the damaged Marauder and Shrike careened into the refit bays, a set of tension cables caught the machines and slowed them down, eventually releasing and allowing the damaged machines to drop onto the refit floors. Already, maintenance crews had cleared some of the floors and were bringing in replacement parts to fix up the machines. Looking over to his right, McKnight saw Astelion and Sokolov landing as well. They two were being fitted with replacement parts. Powering down his machine and opening his cockpit, Mcknight slumped in his seat, pulling off his helmet, to wipe the sweat off of his brow. From his seat, he could clearly hear the voice of Astelion complaining.

[color=darkorange]"Where were all these replacement parts when we [i]started[/i] the fight? huh?"[/color] yelled a moody Astelion.

[color=tan]"Well we weren't expecting to get our asses pulled out of fracking warp space, now were we?"[/color] countered an equally moody technician, [color=tan]"we were under the impression that we had enough time to repair your reckless damages instead of completely replacing parts. Because news flash micro-brain, these parts aren't cheap!"[/color]

McKnight shifted in his seat slightly as his machine was jostled by a pair of Ultra-Light maintenance MAS's, lifting his machine up so they could begin replacing the destroyed parts on his machine.  Taking this as his cue to climb out of his machine, he landed on the metal floors with a light clank, and made his way over to his diagnostic stations, where he could start looking over damages.

[hr]

[color=FFDAB9]"Williams, head back to the barn"[/color] came a soft, feminine voice over the comms. Williams would notice a pink Sparrow approaching the fire base, a quartet of Naginata Aerospace fighters drifting slowly behind her. [color=FFDAB9]"Me and the flyboys will watch over the base for a little while."[/color]

[hr]
[color=lime]Roughly half an hour later.[/color]

[color=lightblue]"Alright team, check in, gather round,"[/color] McKnight called, motioning to gather the remaining members of the 7th team. [color=lightblue]"We're in deep right now. We're three pilots down, one of our destroyers is crippled, and the Lincoln isn't doing so hot either. Normally, we'd cut our losses and pull out- typical protocol. But even if we wanted to, one of our AI units decided to get itself trapped down there. High Command has dictated that we [i]cannot[/i] allow AI units to fall into the hands of the enemy- the information the AI holds is too critical to let them just take. 

Now typically, AI are designed to wipe themselves in the event of imminent capture, but for some reason, Alice has failed to do that. So, good idea or not, we're going to have to go down there and reclaim Alice before she falls into enemy hands. While we're at it, we might as well see if we can find out what happened to Maki and Trapp."

"Briefing in 20 minutes. Go. Eat, drink, smoke. Do whatever."[/color] McKnight waved them off. 

[hr]
[color=lime]On Jehan.[/color]

At one point or another, sacks had been thrown over Maki and Trapp's heads. At another point in time, they had been forced to stand and moved around. Next thing they knew, the sacks were pulled off their heads, their hands were unbound, and the two were shoved into a cell- a thick shield of glass slamming shut behind them. Further inspection of the glass would reveal that it was coated by a small shield. The cell itself was fairly expansive, and held the basic necessities, a single bunk, and a toilet. Aside from the white metal floor and the wall that the bed and toilet were attached to, all other surfaces around them were the same, energy covered glass. Looking through the glass, they couldn't tell where they were- but they saw no natural lights. There were a few other similar cells across the hall as well, as well as individuals inside of them.