@Letter Bee

ENEMY TURN

Although the base Rook model had been in service for over twenty years, it was still a common sight amongst the HFV forces of numerous organisations, particularly military allies of its original operator, the United States of America. In the period of time that it had been considered the backbone of armies, the OS Type 2 had given birth to hundreds of variants, and those still in use had been upgraded with the latest technological advancements and in order not to be rendered obsolete. While the performance of refitted units varied (ranging from the slapdash improvements to the OSDT Specification to the complete and utter overhaul underwent by the "Rook II"), there was one thing that was common to most of them: their abilities were generally capable of staying relevant against the current generation of HFVs.

In his haste to prove himself, Henry Yatogami had overestimated the performance gap between his Yukine and the customised pirate Rooks, nor had his choice of tactics been effective in dealing with the many enemies before him. His attempt to kick a Rook's rifle from its hands was the first of his mistakes, the positioning of his prototype machine's body highly inefficient in doing any harm to the pirate. Indeed, the bulky enemy mech was easily able to dodge the wild kick, and in response immediately grabbed hold of the leg with one arm, twisting it (and thus the Yukine) around roughly and opening fire with the rifle in the other arm.

The entire left leg of Henry's HFV was thus annihilated in a burst of heat and light. It appeared that the rifle of the Rook he had attempted to fight was in actuality a beam rifle rather than the weaker, projectile-based weapon that the original ground model used in its early years.

Unfortunately, the consequences to flying straight into the crowd of hostile pirates would not end there for Henry. Even as he attempted to dash away and cut at another Rook's sensor, he would be met with another blast from a beam rifle, this time the shot vaporising one of the Yukine's forearms, and its beam saber along with the rest of the hand. The other limb soon followed, cut off by a saber wielded by the blue Rook that had earlier dodged Lumen 3's cannon shot, leaving the prototype mech completely 'armless, if one were to excuse the pun.

Yatogami's machine had, within less than a minute, been utterly crippled. One leg was gone, as well as its arms, leaving it incapable of utilising any weaponry whatsoever. In fact, the Yukine was a sitting duck, especially when growing increasingly surrounded by pirates. The only reason they had yet to finish him off was likely because of its prototype status; they were unaware of whether or not it could be a valuable piece of loot.

So they'd been upgraded. She could tell even before Lumen-1 even delivered his warning, and for the same reason as Lumen-3; her shot had missed as well. A Rook should not have had the capacity to dodge such a shot in space, not without forewarning. It was a notoriously slow unit, and one that lacked in mobility within zero-g environments. Such a weakness was not in evidence, to her mild irritation, but refits could only do so much. The units were still fundamentally Rooks. Refits could mitigate the issues caused by their weight and age, but they were still old HFVs. And they were still outmatched. No upgrades would ever make them as fast the G-Valkyrie, and that would be their downfall.

Project Paper Tiger was not just for show, after all.

That’s not to say that things were going smoothly, not at all. The Type-X had charged ahead into the fray and before Rising Star’s very eyes it was punished for its recklessness. It was crippled too quickly for her to take action, but her flanking maneuver had brought her into a prime location; the Rooks were gathered to her right, moving to envelop the downed Yukine, and had taken no action against here. They were too fixated on their prize. Yatogami would not survive without aid; he could not defend himself, and the pirates weren’t likely to take prisoners. Not even if they took the Yukine for salvage. The G-Valkyrie was fast enough to close in, maybe even carry the downed HFV out of harm’s way, but it had no arms… It wouldn’t be able to cling to the Waverider. She’d have to carry him with the G-Valkyrie’s arms.

It’d almost double the G-Valk’s mass, and its humanoid configuration already had only half the thrust of its Waverider form. With this many enemies, it would make her far too slow. It’d get them both killed.

But she couldn’t leave him, it wasn’t her way. She needed to break up the Rooks, get them off of the Yukine so he could be rescued… Which meant she needed to give them a new target. A more imminent threat.

She could do that.

Her thumbs flipped the covers off two buttons near the tops of her joysticks, depressed both buttons and slammed the controls forward. She felt the increased resistance and the satisfying clunk of the mechanism engaging, her console confirming Cross Change in its bright red lettering. She felt rather than heard the motions of locks disengaging, parts rearranging and locking into new formations, but the process lasted only half a second. Even that brief span was not without action; in order for her maneuver to work, she needed to slow down and alter her orientation relative to the targets.

So even while the G-Valk transformed she was firing the appropriate thrusters, decelerating the mech rapidly and twisting it sharply to the right. The feedback was immediate. The forces Rising Star experienced spiked instantly, the conflict between her inertia and her intended alteration. Another pilot might have been taken off guard, found it harder to breathe or concentrate, but she expected it. She had trained for it. Whatever G-Valk dished out, she could take. She would take. Her HFV was facing east by the time it finished transforming, the cluster of her enemies filling her viewscreen. Fifteen opponents, fourteen modified Rooks, one Bradley. She needed as much attention as possible.

Her Beam Shot Launcher came up, aimed at the center mass of a Rook with its back to her. A second shot followed less than a second later, aimed at an ally to its right. The G-Valk’s momentum was minimal, she was not concerned about its drift impacting her aim. These were mere strikes of opportunity, however, not the primary focus of her assault. The container on the G-Valk’s left shoulder sprang open, firing its full complement of eight missiles in between her shots. They didn’t have a specific target, in fact they weren’t intended to; the eight followed a broad spread, splitting midflight to become a cloud of twenty four incoming submunitions intended to blanket the cluster of her enemies. Only the handful of Rooks closest to her were in any real danger, any that passed them were too spread out to be much of a threat unless she was very lucky, but it wouldn’t be wise for the pirates to just ignore them.

Standard Rooks did not possess vulcans, and she was wagering that these ones didn’t either. They’d be forced to evade or move to interpose their shields between them and the assault. Perfect for scattering their formation and for getting their attention.

The flash of the G-Valkyrie’s visor, suspended motionless for the briefest of instants in plain view, seemed designed just to taunt them.

Then her thrusters flared, sending her rocketing ‘below’ their cameras, before she reoriented to fly north and continue her clockwise flanking maneuver. She moved quickly, keeping her evasive maneuvers erratic, but she didn’t use the XC|PT-01’s full speed; she didn’t want to leave them in the dust. She wanted them to go after her. A next gen prototype was a valuable prize indeed, and she was willing to bet they’d take the bait.

She could deal with a few pursuers, and Paper Tiger could deal with the rest while they rescued the Yukine.

“Engaging the enemy. Drawing them away from Yukine.” Rising Star said into her comm, keeping her eyes on the sensors. Watching for pursuers. “Father, engage with railguns at your discretion. Yukine requires immediate extraction. We should capture the Bradleys if we can, the techs would love to get a look at them.”

@Plank Sinatra @Onarax @Silvan Haven @Letter Bee @Crimmy

@Krayzikk@Letter Bee

ENEMY TURN

Despite the upgrades the pirate HFVs had underwent to differentiate themselves from the standard Rook, not even its beam-treated armour could hold up against the relatively high power of the Rising Star's next-generation prototype. The pilot of the unfortunate Rook, back turned to the G-Valkyrie, was unable to react in time even as it noticed the incoming attack, his body vaporised alongside his cockpit as the shot tore through his HFV's body, leaving a massive hole in the machine that now floated helplessly through the void. However, in the second that it took for the Beam Shot Launcher to prepare another blast, the next Rook had already begun to react, dashing away from the G-Valkyrie as the shot passed harmlessly through empty space.

It was worth noting that said Rook was the same blue one that had evaded Lumen 3's strike, as well as chopping off one of the Yukine's arms.

Rising Star's missile swarm failed to impact it as well, the azure Rook immediately diving 'below' the twenty-four projectiles before they could strike it. Yet the test pilot's plan to distract her enemies was successful, the cloud of munitions forcing the pirates surrounding the Yukine to retreat, as well as disrupting the formation of those further away. Five of the missiles were even fortunate enough to reach their targets, with one Rook sacrificing its left shoulder shield to the blast, another knocked away from the scrum by the shock of another missile detonating, a third emerging from the cloud noticeable damage to a leg, and a rather unlucky fellow losing an arm and its missile launcher. For another, however, while the missile had clearly impacted its body, it had prepared for the blow, and its armour had taken barely any damage.

A sixth missile, unfortunately, exploded near the Yukine's head, cracking the cranial unit of her ally's broken machine (although doing no damage whatsoever to the cockpit where Henry was still safe within).

Like the pilot of the G-Valkyrie had planned, this definitely caught the pirates' attention.

Her machine had barely dropped below the crowd when the ringing of alarms alerted her to her first pursuer. The Bradley, coloured in orange, was already upon her, firing a rocket anchor from arm towards the 'midsection' of the G-Valkyrie. Behind him was the azure Rook, as well as the Rook that had been knocked away by her missile, only now rerighting himself for battle. Two more pirate Rooks were following too, meaning that Rising Star was being pursued by five machines.

BATTLE STATUS:
Yukine: cockpit intact, missing two arms and a leg, cranial unit cracked
G-Valkyrie: pursued by four Rooks (one is blue) and the Bradley
Rooks destroyed: 1 (cockpit and large part of torso vaporised, currently floating through space)
Rooks with noticeable damage:

• Left shoulder shield missing
• Decent damage to one leg
• Lost one arm and missile launcher

With all the blood that had been shed without provocation in the name of the Lord...Joan had to believe that she would be forgiven if she fought to defend Him.

Her teammates on Paper Tiger, the bridge crew, even her family back home...those dearest to Joan Heidenreich knew her as a gentle woman, tender-hearted, empathetic to the point of exhaustion and prone to wincing at the slightest displays of agitation. She was a woman of God, and had not nursed a single regret since the day she first went through her parents' windshield.

All she had ever done was try to prove that there could be good in the world - good without cause, good without reward, good without compromise.

OSDT did good work for humanity. Thankless work. Without the promise of reward or adoration, they meandered through space, ready to field underclassed death traps against the forces that sought to do God's children ill.

And they...they had been attacked. Unduly. By these wretches. By this...this...unholy legion, these ten tons of wicked Antediluvian shit in five ton bags of flesh and steel.

They were attacking Rising Star.

Souls burned in Hell for less.

"Affirmative, Rising Star." The voice was crisp and carried easily over the Paper Tiger private network, with the same uncanny echo that often trailed a powerful sermon. "Sword Shroud, please move to intercept and extract Yukine. Providing railgun cover to get these primordial...brigands," the word was used as coarsely as possible, "away from G-Valkyrie. G-Valk, I am leaving the Bradley in your hands. Return it safely. The spoils of Jerusalem should never be tarnished when presented to a queen."

G-Valkyrie was currently engaged with at least five pursuers, including the Bradley; though the pilot inside the transformable acquitted herself well, Joan knew the situation was tense. The lion did not become God's chosen predator through dumb strength; she waited until the moment it seemed her cubs could fare no longer before striking hard. Decisively. Bravely.

"But when you had had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me. So now I will attack you like a lion," she spat into her comms, Judah turning to align both fearsome railguns at the cluster of pirate HFVs behind Rising Star. "Like a leopard that lurks along the road. Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away. I will tear out your heart. I will devour you like a wild lioness..."

Rising Star performed a banking maneuver that would have dazzled at any propaganda-laden air show or sales demonstration, safely steering her out of any possible blowback from the twin railguns But the Bradley and the Rooks were still clustered together, banking to continue the chase.

"...and mangle you like a wild animal."

She struck hard and true, without hesitation, firing both railguns into the tight-knit cluster of pirates.

"You have ten seconds to repent," she declared haughtily, though none outside of the Paper Tiger comms could hear this declaration. "Ten brief seconds to throw down your arms, chart a return to your rock, and thank God for His mercy. But you would never choose to seize them...so I do not choose to honor them."

She fired again.

They're trying to protect me... Henry thought. They're trying to protect me!

Yes, he knew it was part of military training; never leave a person behind. But to see them doing it so enthuiastically, without any sense of regret, well, it enlivened him.

I'm sorry, guys, I'm sorry for getting myself in trouble. But after this, I am going to pay you back. I will fight for you, I will fight for the OSDT. Because I do not forget my debts.

"Not that I'm going to stop trying to get an observation post set up here, though..." he whispered to himself in the cockpit.

Was Getting Caught Part of Your Plan?

They had taken the bait, but Rising Star knew instantly that they’d taken it a little too well. The warning bells, the flashing alerts, told her that much. She hadn’t had as much time to pull away as she would have liked. Her adrenaline spiked, every instant feeling like an hour, but she did not worry. For all of the unknowns in this fight, for all of the ways it had already gone wrong, she knew one thing for certain.

She was inside the fastest damn machine on the battlefield. That they thought they could corner her so easily was an insult.

Evasive maneuvers had already begun when she heard the alert, so she fired her thrusters a little harder than planned and sent the Valk rocketing forward and aside. In atmosphere, the anchor would have rushed past her left with a quiet whiff. That was one problem down, but she still needed to work out how to deal with the five units following her. The azure one was special. Rising Star knew, in her heart of hearts, that it was. It was the same unit that had evaded Lumen-3’s initial attack. It had evaded her own. And now it was closing it.

She had found their ace.

"Affirmative, Rising Star. Sword Shroud, please move to intercept and extract Yukine. Providing railgun cover to get these primordial...brigands, away from G-Valkyrie. G-Valk, I am leaving the Bradley in your hands. Return it safely. The spoils of Jerusalem should never be tarnished when presented to a queen."

Spoils? Queen? She wanted to claim the Bradleys! A little voice in the back of Rising Star’s head voiced its enthusiastic agreement at the opportunity to examine one, and resolved to thank the Father for the chance later. But now she needed to focus on how to-

"But when you had had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me. So now I will attack you like a lion, like a leopard that lurks along the road. Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away. I will tear out your heart. I will devour you like a wild lioness..."

…

Oh.

Oh Jesus.

The primary guns of the historic American Iowa-class battleship was the sixteen inch Mark 7 chemically propelled turret. The battleship possessed nine of them. These guns could fire two rounds a minute at a range of up to thirty eight kilometers with a muzzle velocity of 2,500 to 2,690 feet per second depending on the shell. These sixteen inch shells were, in metric terms, of a 406mm caliber. The XC|PT-003 Judah was armed with two high velocity 460mm caliber railguns and they could fire a lot more than two rounds a minute. And as the Father was indicating, in no clearer terms possible, they were aimed in her general direction to engage the enemy at her discretion.

Though she was reasonably certain that she was out of harm’s way, Rising Star elected not to take the chance. The G-Valkyrie’s thrusters fired on command, sending her banking ‘up’ and around mere instants before the Judah opened fire. In atmosphere, she had little doubt the barrage would have been deafening; in space, the sight alone had to suffice.

"...and mangle you like a wild animal."

Jesus Christ, Joan.

Still, the Father had given her an excellent opportunity. The fire from the rear would draw their attention, and draw it away from her. The Valk’s bank was sharp, changing her orientation to face the enemy units from an angle on roughly the same plane. The Judah’s fire came from the ‘south’, while the Valk faced them from the ‘northeast’. The mech was on its back, at least from the perspective of the pirates, presenting them a top-down view of the machine. In the process, Rising Star was presenting them with the smallest target area possible.

The remainder of the Valk’s missiles rocketed towards the group from the opposite direction of the Judah’s fire, catching the Rooks and Bradley between the railguns’ munitions and the twenty four submissiles of the G-Valkyrie. She ignored the azure Rook, for now, and instead directed a shot from her Launcher towards the Rook she had previously knocked away with the scrum from one of her missiles and fired the thrusters on the back of of the Valk, sending her shooting ‘up’ from the perspective of the enemy pirates. She engaged the Cross Change mechanism again, returning the G-Valk to its Waverider form, since she had no need of its humanoid configuration and every need for the Waverider’s reduced target silhouette and increased maneuverability.

Tag, you’re it.

Beneath the mask, The Persian watched the chaos unfurl. Unfortunately he'd been far too slow to protect his comrade from charging in recklessly, but if nothing else at least that showed the kid had guts. It was a step, although now probably wasn't the best time for him to illustrate such a feature. The Persian was already certain that some long training lay ahead for the pilot of the Yukine.

Of course that meant that the Pilot would have to survive.

As if on cue, his playlist switched forward. The hard beats of his previous song, replaced by a much gentler theme.

Fitting for his current mission. Of course before he could perform any such action, he'd have to rely on Rising Star to remove the obstacles between him and the boy. Which of course she performed splendidly, not that he expected anything less from the Pilot of 001. He had full confidence in her abilities, not to mention she wasn't alone.

As if on cue, Father Joan brought down the fury of God.

Beneath the mask, the Persian's grimace grew to a large grin. "Woman of God," returned his voice via Paper Tiger's comms, "to tell a man to rescue his comrade is like telling the father to save his children. My heart has already moved me to action."

And indeed, even as the Judah was charging it's shots, the Sword Shroud was in motion. The Persian would not allow for one of his own to die on his watch. He was the shield of his team, what kind of shield failed to protect it's wielders. Still, as great as his confidence in his teammates was, The Persian was not untouchable without a reason. Caution was a key combat, and thus both his assault rifles were in his hands, ready to fire at any target that got to close on his journey with the Yukine.

It didn't take long to arrive at the Yukine's position, and The Persian was quick to wrap his left arm around the remainder of the cockpit. The left assault rifle was still in hand of course, albeit his aim was a little restricted as a result, and thus the majority of shooting would have fall on his right arm. "Fear not young man, I appreciate the courage you have shown, and when this is over we shall refine you into a mighty pilot, but for now allow us to lend a comrade our support."

"JACK THOR!" The Persian bellowed as he switched over to the private comms, "I bring a package your way. I trust you shall see it to safety."

The plan for extraction wasn't a crazy one, carry the Yukine over, but in the event he came under attack a simple push in the direction of Jack should suffice. The Persian was confident in his ability to provide cover in such a scenario.

The rest was up to his comrades.

@Krayzikk@Letter Bee@Plank Sinatra@Crimmy@Silvan Haven

Teamwork

It was as if the cold void has spit his words right back in his face. The battle had barely started before a fellow pilot was almost killed. And no matter how much his instincts screamed for him to dive in and rescue the boy Jack knew it would only mean death.

But that was what teammates were for.

The rest of Paper Tiger quickly burst into action, drawing away and distracting the pirates swarming the Yukine enough for the Sword Shroud to swoop in and rescue the beleaguered HFV.

He was already swooping towards the pair when The Persian's voice reached out across the emptiness on electronic waves to sound within the cockpit of The Ball.

"WITH PLEASURE!" Came the resounding call as the spherical combat repair vehicle matched speeds with it's fellow team member. The magnetic grabber arms clasped onto what remained of the Yukine and The Ball's considerable number of thrusters opened up to full, adding to their previous speed and sending Jack and his new charge even faster into the protective envelope of the Jannah's guns.

@Silvan Haven@Onarax@Krayzikk@Letter Bee@Plank Sinatra

ENEMY TURN

The Rook rapidly dodged out of the way of the G-Valkyrie's beam shot, the many refits undergone by the pirate HFV giving it the manoeuvrability to try its best at keeping up with X Corp's transforming prototype (although admittedly, there was little it could do in regards to sheer speed). As noted by the Lumen Team earlier in the battle, the performance of the machines that the Jannah's complement of pilots were fighting were far superior to what was expected of the usual space variant of the United States' second-generation workhorse. In fact, the quality of their upgrades seemed to be far beyond what mere pirates could acquire.

However, not even improved specifications could prevent the pirate from suffering another unlucky roll of the die. The Rook's pilot barely managed to eject safely as one of the Judah's railguns suddenly ripped a hole through the HFV's lower body, and while in most situations that wouldn't have been enough to totally destroy a well-armoured machine like a Rook, the projectile had managed to strike a reactor in process. It was in the split second before the machine's reactor overloaded that the unfortunate pilot managed to pull himself away from the Reaper's scythe, cockpit instead spinning through the void of space as the shockwave buffeted him.

Poor guy. This was the second explosion he'd been subjected to in the same battle.

The blast cloud had engulfed the area behind the G-Valkyrie, but it was immediately quite apparent that despite the sheer firepower behind Joan's attack, she hadn't managed to catch every single one of the machines on the Rising Star's tail. Indeed, a familiar blue shape immediately broke free of the dust like Andy Dufresne from his cell (albeit with a lot less intrigue or spoons, which really kills the simile the same way Dufresne killed his wife, but anyway ...), single eye flashing red as it sped up after the G-Valkyrie. Even the fact that the OSDT machine was in Waverider mode was not deterring its pursuit, and the flurry of beam shots fired at the prototype from the azure pirate's machine was testament to that fact. Of course, he was not the only one intent on bringing an end to Rising Star.

Had space possessed an atmosphere, all would've been able to hear the screaming of the Bradley's Messer Drone as it sped towards the front of the G-Valkyrie, harrying the Waverider with weak beam attacks.

Of the other two Rooks caught in the explosion, they were not as lucky. As the dust cleared, it was clear that while they had taken less damage than the one whose pilot had ejected, their proximity to the explosion had done quite a number of them. One was floating aimlessly through space, missing its entire lower body and right arm. Its pilot had yet to eject, although whether that was because he was unconscious (or dead) from the impact, or because the blast had caused his ejection system to malfunction was a mystery. The other was in slightly better condition, in that it was still twitching despite lacking pretty much everything but a leg.

Of course, just because they had been utterly disabled didn't mean that the pirates were unwilling to counterattack. Indeed, three of the other Rooks in the battle, having hung back rather than confront the G-Valkyrie directly, had chosen to make use of the chaos to attack other participants in the battle, and were flying towards the Jannah and the Judah. As they rapidly closed the distance, two of them immediately fired their 550mm Missile Launchers towards the OSDT's artillery machine, while the third chased after the Ball, launching a fast-moving shot from its 90mm Linear Railgun at the pod.

Meanwhile, three more Rooks, these ones untouched, had decided to go after the tanky Sword Shroud. One fired a missile at the OSDT mech from a short distance away, while the other two chose to batter it with beams from their beam rifles.

BATTLE STATUS:
Yukine: leaving the battlefield
The Ball: being chased by a Rook with a railgun
G-Valkyrie: pursued by the blue Rook and the Bradley
Judah: being attacked by two Rooks and their missiles
Sword Shroud: Two Rooks attacking it with beams. One Rook with a missile launcher.

Rooks destroyed/disabled:

• Cockpit and large part of torso vaporised, currently floating through space.
• Totally blammoed, pilot ejected.
• It's a cockpit in a torso with just a leg, bruh.
• Aimlessly floating through space, lost its lower body and right arm.

Rooks with noticeable damage:

• Left shoulder shield missing
• Decent damage to one leg
• Lost one arm and missile launcher

The Persian was a shield.

The Sword Shroud was his tool.

The ingrates before him, he could care less about their worthless attempt to attack him, that was not what made the man's blood boil. Those shots were child's play for the untouchable man to avoid, and even a direct hit was unlikely to do much to his tool. No, the bastards had made one unforgivable mistake, they attacked his friends and worse than that they attacked the ball and its patient.

Those crimes would not stand under The Persian's watch.

"VILLAIN!" Came the booming voice, as the Sword Shroud dashed to its side and into the path of the rook pursuing his friend. In the process it had been easy enough to dodge the incoming shots, cowards who took pots shots from such a range had no hope of hitting the untouchable man, even when his HFV of choice was the 002. Of course The Persian was not about to let up on the monster in front of him. From the moment his voice had boomed, he had been firing at the Rook's right shoulder, the gun shoulder.

"Have you no honour!" As the Sword Shroud came into position in front of his enemy, its right rifle continued firing at the rest of the Rook's right side. Meanwhile his left hand holstered its rifle to prepare for his next gambit. He was not about to let up and allow the surprised Rook anytime to retaliate or reacquire its bearings, The Persian was on a warpath right now.

"ATTACKING THOSE THAT CAN'T FIGHT BACK IS THE MARK OF A TRUE COWARD!"

Now it was his left arm's turn, even as the right rifle continued to tear apart the Rook in front of him gradually shifting towards the center to give his left hand the room it needed to reach for the linear railgun aimed at his comrades. The shots at the right side had been for a very clear purpose: disable the arm and the gun was his. Even if the rook had somehow managed to hold onto the railgun during the onslaught it was an easy grab for he was not afraid to rip it out. Of course that wasn't the only package his left hand was delivering.

"I may not be my pious comrade, but nevertheless I shall call forth MY JUDGEMENT!" As the left hand moved forward, the wrist sword mounted on sprang to life. As the Sword Shroud acquired his new weapon, the blade was sure to puncture some part of the Rook in front of him. The most likely outcome would be severing the rest of the arm that had already been aimed at by his bullets.

There was one more outcome that occurred as a result of the Sword Shroud's sudden attack, now the cowardly Rook blocked the line his enemies had at him before. As soon as the Rook in front of him was disabled, his right rifle would start laying fire at the two beam using Rooks, and, if he had his new toy, the railgun would seek and destroy the missile launching enemy.

"NO ONE SHALL TOUCH THEM!"

"Saints of God, come to their aid. Come to meet them, Angels of the Lord. Receive their souls and present them to God the Most High."

There was little left of the three HFVs caught in Judah's beams of holy love; none of the wreckage that remained of the Rooks could be used to raise a hand against the Lord Jesus, Joan, or Rising Star. This was as it should be. None should exist that raised a hand against the Jannah's contingent. At the very least, a page needed to be torn from the storied playbook of the Holy Land - a page that dictated the very removal of any hand the infidels dared to raise.

But pirates were God's children, too. And since Father Joan Heidenreich had cruelly robbed them of their own breath, it appeared she would have to expend a few exhales of her own on their last rites. She had taken them out of commission within ten cruel seconds; equal prayer time was the least that men deserved, be they of God or otherwise.

"May Christ who called you take you to himself. May Angels lead you to Abraham's si-AIIII! Whoa!"

Missiles!

Judah, instinctively, banked to the right to avoid the twin projectiles. It would have been more difficult from within one of the enemy Rooks, or even a GT-011, but Judah was built for quick and heavy assaults - though not as fast as G-Valk, its evasiveness was within the same class, and Joan had little trouble with outwitting the clumsy forward attack of the two Rooks. The counterattack would prove to be more satisfying.

They had bungled, phalli first, into the prayer for their own deceased or dying associates. Oh well. Now their souls would just have to burn in hell for eternity and dance on the prongs of Satan's fork, all because of the careless machismo of their buddies. But no one could say Father Joan didn't try!

"Seriously!? Where's your fear of God!?"

As the Rooks swiveled to their left - Joan's right - to ready missiles again and hit either her or the Jannah behind her, the Great Lion bellowed to life again, cutting a diagonal path until she was floating alongside the two Rooks, forming an impromptu - and unwanted - right flank for the two pirate HFVs as they floated parallel to Jannah, still aimed at the pocket of space Joan's prototype had occupied two seconds prior.

This was the quick.

"No prayers for you, assholes~!"

And now the heavy.

The railguns spat God's love towards two men who now found themselves in dire, dire need of it.

@Plank Sinatra@Onarax
"W-why ... th-they're so loud ... h-how?"

Clouded blue eyes stared in shocked confusion at the tactical console from behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. Her mouth was agape, barely able to utter her befuddled responses to what she was hearing from the HFV communications channel. The blonde-haired bridge officer, hair tied neatly into a bun, was far from the picture of professionalism she was attempting to convey, the strange ... antics ... of the Paper Tiger team they were escorting having left her utterly flabbergasted. Indeed, her pale hands were gripping the sides of the console tightly, trying to comprehend how in Saint Patrick's name the pilots could be so ... so ... hammy.

"Don't diss their enthusiasm, Ó hEachthighearna," responded Mr. Riley casually from his station at the sensors, one hand slicking back his fiery red hair. "It's entertaining stuff. Really makes up for these two lost weeks of CBS All Access privileges."

"I'll never understand your taste," commented another one of the bridge officers, this one a muscular fellow of possible South-East Asian descent. His black hair was styled into a crewcut, and he had a prominent goatee. "Do you really enjoy watching every bloody episode of The Price is Right?"

"It's a fun sh-"

"Eyes and ears on the battle!" interrupted the captain exasperatedly, clearly having had enough of his crew members' antics. They were still an overly undisciplined lot, and no matter how much protocol he attempted to teach them, it did not require too much stimulus to provoke them into such behaviour. Increased closeness with one another and a healthy work atmosphere would improve efficiency, true, but he did not believe that the middle of a battle was an acceptable time to engage with one another in the overly casual manner they had just displayed. There was a time and place for everything, and a conflict with an enemy demanded professionalism.

He would have to extend the ban on Riley's streaming access for another week to get the message across.

"Mr. Yasuhiko, send a message to the hangar to prepare for the Ball's return," he commanded, glancing at the quiet Japanese man at the front of the bridge, who nodded in acknowledgement. "Mr. Huỳnh, provide cover with the autocannons! Ensure that no harm comes to Pilots Thor and Yatogami!"

"Yessir!" replied the goatee'd South-East Asian, readying the Jannah's guns to fire.

"Miss Ó hEachthighearna, run an analysis on those Rooks and send as much information as possible to our pilots."

"U-understood!"

His crew was truly undisciplined and unprofessional, but he knew that they were capable of performing their duties to the best of their abilities. However, they still needed protocol. They could not simply assume that acting in such a manner was acceptable on the bridge.

The captain made a note in his mind to reinforce that message at a later date. One day, they would be able to act as a well-oiled machine. He would make sure of it.

---

ENEMY TURN

Unfortunately for the Persian, the Rook was in possession of shoulder shields, and thus the stream of fire did less damage than he would've wanted to the heavily armoured machine, the intense burst of gunfire from the assault rifle instead riddling the shield into scrap metal. However, with its famous durability, the Sword Shroud's attack only managed to dent the armour on the pirate HFV's arm when it continued firing, especially as the Rook's pilot had already begun to move, its thrusters activating and taking it 'up' and away from the OSDT's HFV to avoid the attempt at grabbing his weapon.

However, despite having broken free of the Sword Shroud's range, the sudden flurry of gunfire from the Jannah gave the pirate second thoughts in regards to pursuing the Ball. The opportunity costs were really too high, and he was not a fan of the sunk cost fallacy. Thus, the Rook's pilot decided instead to fire his railgun down at the Sword Shroud, the high-velocity projectile moving immediately towards the OSDT machine's head.

And the other three Rooks were still firing at Husam.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Judah had taken advantage of sudden lull in the two missile launching Rooks' motion, spitting Newtonian death towards them with its twin railguns. Dodging was essentially impossible, but the closest pirate immediately deployed both its shoulder shields as sacrifices, sending the large hunk of metals flying towards the projectiles even as his thrusters tried to move him as far back as possible. The explosion was immense, the railgun shells impacting with the shields in a large cloud of shrapnel and dust.

The second of the Rooks weaved around the cloud, having been protected from Joan's attack by his compatriot. It was already in motion, firing another missile towards the prototype artillery machine as it dashed forth, but this time, readying itself to dodge if the Judah were to launch its attack once more.

Its brother, however, had damaged its right arms thanks to the explosion, having failed to move away from the shrapnel in time. It spun through the void for several seconds thanks to the shockwave, missing both its shields and possessing a torn right arm, before righting itself. The relatively-intact Rook had survived the attack, but in the process had suffered a relatively severe blow.

BATTLE STATUS:
Yukine: leaving the battlefield
The Ball: leaving the battlefield
G-Valkyrie: pursued by the blue Rook and the Bradley
Judah: being attacked by one Rook and its missile.
Sword Shroud: Two Rooks attacking it with beams. One Rook with a missile launcher. One Rook with a railgun.

Rooks destroyed/disabled:

• Cockpit and large part of torso vaporised, currently floating through space.
• Totally blammoed, pilot ejected.
• It's a cockpit in a torso with just a leg, bruh.
• Aimlessly floating through space, lost its lower body and right arm.

Rooks with noticeable damage:

• Both shoulder shields missing, right arm torn, floating near the Judah
• Slightly damaged right arm, lost right shoulder shield, attacking Sword Shroud.
• Left shoulder shield missing
• Decent damage to one leg
• Lost one arm and missile launcher

The pirates, in their fumbling attempt at defense, had merely created another opportunity for Father Joan. The massive plume created by the contact of shell and shield commanded the attention of one Rook, waiting to see if his missile had struck true, while the other pilot desperately fumbled to regain control of his shell shocked HFV. The projectile disappeared into the enormous cloud.

80mm Vulcan rounds returned fire in due course, but no accompanying HFV followed them; this far out of range, the rounds pinged uselessly off of the undamaged Rook's armor.

Nothing emerged from the cloud after the Vulcans stopped, either.

The lion had gone quiet...

(Railguns moved into position.)

...and then yawned from underneath the cloud, both over-the-shoulder railguns positioned to fire squarely through the "groins" of the two HFVs and up through the cockpits, where no shield or return fire could protect them.

The screaming alerts were Rising Star’s warning not only of her pursuer, but also of the shots he was firing. Not for the first time she was grateful for the G-Valkyrie’s sleek, narrow silhouette; without its narrow target profile, she never would have evaded even with the Valk’s speed. She slammed on the verniers, sending it darting sharply to the left while it continued to shoot forward and immediately took up evasive maneuvers. Sharp moves left, right, up, down, and any combination of the two planes. She would have been stuck within the blue Rook’s optimum range, unable to escape her predicament, had she been in almost any other machine. Having caught her with her back to him (or her), the ace put Rising Star in a position from which she was unable to retaliate or force him to break off his pursuit. The Bradley’s Messer, she realized abruptly, was flanking directly for the nose of the Valk as well. Under traditional conditions, Star would have no choice but to bank to evade the drone, thus giving the blue Rook a much wider target area until she could escape his line of fire. No doubt they believed that this maneuver ensured that all possible evasive maneuvers opened her up to attack from one of them.

They were thinking too linearly. Clearly their souls were still weighed down by gravity.

The Valk had not come out of the Rook’s initial barrage completely unscathed, one of its beams had stripped several layers off of the Valk’s right fin due to its proximity, but the fin did not play a functional role in outer space. Its functionality was unimpaired. But they had hit her, however lightly. She had been careless. That was just her ego. Things were heating up, her opponents were upping the ante, and they expected her to fold under the pressure. They didn’t know who she was. They didn’t know how her blood boiled, how her adrenaline climbed higher and higher, how every maneuver reminded her that she knew this. That she had practiced off of this before. Every passing second, every breath of air that filled her lungs, every contraction of her furious heart, every bit of feedback that the Valk gave her reminded her who she was. She was Rising Star, not by choice but by decree of her peers. She had been Sasha Mackenzie for so long she had almost forgotten. But she was awake, and she felt alive. It was time to hold nothing back.

Her thrusters roared, sending her accelerating forward far faster than even a refitted Rook could possibly keep up with. She didn’t need them to follow her, she already had their attention. There was no need to let them keep up anymore. This was her element, and they would learn. The drone could do nothing for the moment, she was too quick to keep up, but she still had her back to the blue Rook. He would still get his shot when she turned around to engage. She superior speed was putting distance between them, but unless she chose to cut and run entirely she would still need to bank to face him.

Or so he thought. There was a certain prevailing belief, based upon their use, that Waveriders would dogfight in space much the same way a fighter would in atmosphere. At the speeds fighters moved, the effect of gravity planetside was negligible already. The true danger came from the forces their maneuvers would produce. A Waverider produced much the same forces, making it too dangerous to truly take advantage of the lack of a zero-g environment. In theory, the prevailing wisdom was correct. Certainly most people weren’t willing to risk testing it. Rising Star, however, was not most people. She was a test pilot. Pushing limits was her job, and she knew that at this moment, conventional fighting wasn’t going to win her the day.

With a good buffer space between her and her pursuers, she killed her rear thrusters and let her inertia keep her moving at that speed. Then she fired her verniers, fore and aft immediately; in opposing directions. Blood rushed instantly to her head, her entire body pushed hard against the harnesses keeping her in her seat, while the Valk’s nose shot down and its rear shot up to flip it in place without ceasing her forward motion. The entire rotation lasted a mere fraction of a second, its rapidity causing the ill effects Rising Star was currently experiencing, but she was now facing towards her pursuers and the battle behind them. Her head hurt and she felt a little of something wet below her nose, but the grin behind her mask was feral. She had done exactly what she wanted, and more importantly, her opponents wouldn’t expect it; the maneuver would have gotten her screamed at by any traditionalist. If she had gotten it wrong, if she hadn’t completely cut her primary thrusters, the rate of deceleration their newfound opposing orientation to her inertia caused would have fractured bones. If she was very lucky.

Despite the discomfort, she was ready. Her 100mm vulcans fired immediately at the Messer now in her line of fire, and at the Rook behind it, accompanied simultaneously by a shot from her Shot Launcher that lanced towards the blue Rook. She would have liked to capture the Messer intact, but she needed it off her back. If she hit then whatever was left could be salvaged later. If it dodged, or she missed, then it would be forced to less bold in its assault and the shells would fly past to the Rook behind. Much the same applied to her beam; while she would be ecstatic if she hit the Rook, and there was a good chance given the element of surprise, it would buy her some time if it dodged or blocked.

They weren’t her primary targets, anyway.

The X Corp Beam Shot Launcher required three seconds, after every shot, to sufficiently condense the particles necessary for the next one. Though an eternity in close quarters, that wasn’t where the launcher was meant to be used. It was meant for mid-to-long range engagements, and in that role, three seconds was a mere blink. Still more than enough time for her specialized comm equipment, shared by all of the XC|PT series units, to receive target acquisition data from the Judah to augment her own. Her maneuvers, besides putting her pursuers back in her line of fire, had given her one additional benefit; she had a view of the whole battle from ‘above’. Nine Rooks, not counting the blue one, remained operational. Six were attacking her compatriots. The remaining three? Sasha had already made their acquaintance, from the business end of her missiles. Three damaged Rooks. Perhaps they meant to flee, seeing as they were not engaging her fellows.

“Targets acquired.” Rising Star growled, the low, anticipatory threat of an eager predator. The sound came forth shockingly easily from the until-now-calm pilot, one that would have raised hackles if her enemies could hear it. On the encrypted Paper Tiger channel, however, it was only her allies. Thrusters fired to carry her horizontally left, away from where the Rook knew her to be, while she drew a bead on her target. The Rook and drone both stayed within her field of view, but she would deal with them in a moment. The first shot from her Launcher lanced down towards the unprotected back of the Rook that had lost its shield. She reasoned that as the unit with intact maneuvering capabilities, it had the most chance to evade if it was given any warning. So he would receive none. Until that moment, Rising Star had not even been a factor in its pilot’s mind. She was too far away, occupied by its allies, to engage effectively. He could not have known how precise the shared targeting data would make her. She doubted he would see it coming in time to evade the shot to his center mass. “Eliminating opposition.”

Three seconds. The Valk shifted position as soon as the shot was taken, preemptively moving to ensure the Rook and Messer didn’t get the chance to line up a good shot. At no point did she cease moving; the Valk’s agility was second to none, and she didn’t need to be still in order to line up an effective shot. Not with the aid of targeting data from the rest of Paper Tiger, differing perspectives that could be parsed to give precise refinement to her aim. The other two damaged Rooks would react to her shot, that she knew, but it would take time to discern where the shot had come from. Especially with her changing position. By the time the launcher was ready, she was prepared to fire upon the unit with the damaged leg. It was the second most mobile target.

As her second shot flew at her target’s new location, after ‘seeing’ from multiple views how he reacted to the first, she elected to postpone firing upon the third. He was unlikely to successfully leave her range, and after six seconds the blue Rook would be prepared to engage her again even with her evasive maneuvers. It was important she not underestimate him.

@Plank Sinatra @Crimmy @Onarax @Silvan Haven @Letter Bee

Jack Thor-WE NEED TO GO FASTER

The shriek of an alarm alerted Jack to the incoming piece of of high velocity metal. Burdened as he was by the Yukine and it's pilot his options were limited. The more extreme evasive maneuvers the large man would have otherwise utilised usually required more G forces than he was comfortable putting his cargo through.

The added mass hardly helped matters either.

With a grunt he shifted the Ball and it's cargo onto a vector that had them roughly half a kilometer from their previous course before the railgun round screamed by. A tiny distance in the vastness of space that was nonetheless enough to avoid a very sudden and nasty death.

As he began a series of random darts and curves Jack switched from the exclusive Paper Tiger network to a direct line with the boy he was carrying.

"Just hang in there kiddo, we're almost home."

@Silvan Haven:

"Thank you," spoke Henry Yatogami. "Thank you for everything."

So, this is what a Nakama feels like. I can get used to this.

"You know, I never truly had comrades like you in the OSDT Gugnir," the nineteen-year old boy said. "All I had were people who kept pushing me to 'lay off the delusions'." A sigh at that.

"But now, I have a second chance." Then a thought came to him.

"Also, we might need to salvage some of these Pirate Mechs; they're acting above expected performance."

"EYES ON ME!"

The Rook, despite its magical ability to shield damage in an area the shield was not covering, had made one fatal flaw in it's retreat from the Sword Shroud. The foolish pilot had somehow assumed that The Persian would just let him escape. The moment the Rook began its upward ascent, the Sword Shroud followed in pursuit. The fire from the other machines once more remaining obscured by their rail gun wielding ally.

The enemy Rook had made another mistake in its attempt to flee, it had diverted its attention away from the Sword Shroud and towards the Jannah. Those few seconds would prove costly as the Sword Shroud had already closed the distance as the Rook tried to ready its weapon at the 002's head. Which was in and of itself another mistake on the part of the Rook, for the head was far too small of a target to waste it's time on. All The Persian had to do was thrust a little to right to get out of the line of fire while its left hand reached up from below to grab the barrel of the gun.

Yet even as it did, the rifle in the right let loose another flurry of bullets aimed at the torso of the enemy Rook. Considering it was highly unlikely the Rook could avoid another grab for the weapon at this range, the only real hope the pilot had of escape was to abandon his weapon. This time the Sword Shroud would have its new toy.

@Plank Sinatra@Krayzikk@Onarax

ENEMY TURN

Last words in fiction are usually of a suitably dramatic nature. The heavy hitter vowing to his comrades that he'll handle the mooks before pulling off some suicidal attack (heavy hitters and Sailor Mercury, that is). The romantic rival begging the protagonist to protect 'her' in his stead. The old geezers sacrificing themselves to ram an entire fleet and extolling the virtues of the next generation as they do so. The ace pilot fulfilling his early boast that he can make the impossible possible. Audiences eat it up.

Everybody assumes last words to be meaningful.

Unfortunately, that's only if you're a named character.



The last words of James McDonald and Susan Heidmark, the two Rook-piloting pirates who had attempted to bring down the Judah, were a far cry from the beautifully dramatic utterances made by fictional characters. In fact, despite being humans with perfectly workable names, they didn't even get to finish their lines, for their bodies had been immediately torn apart into scarlet goop and crushed between their destroyed cockpits by Father Joan's divine reprisal, before being vaporised in the explosions that followed. Luck had not favoured them today.

All that remained of their existence on this battlefield were two, barely-recognisable corpses of refitted Rooks, mangled beyond belief.

Thankfully, cremation was not against their spiritual beliefs.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Sasha's attack against the Messer with her vulcans missed, the drone darting out of the way of the bullets with rapid, irregular motions, while the blue unit behind only deployed its left shoulder shield into one hand to block the shots, before pulling off an incredible burst of speed to fly 'upwards' to dodge the beam shot, a motion that seemed almost impossible for even a refitted Rook. It may not have been as agile as the G-Valkyrie, but it was definitely appeared to be on par with the current generation of HFVs.

Her immediate follow-up attack on the retreating shield-less Rook, however, was more successful. Her attempt at taking him by surprise worked, but just at the last moment, the damaged HFV was able to notice the incoming shot, barely moving its torso out of the way, but losing a leg and the associated thrusters, the beam of the G-Valkyrie tearing through the limb. The second Rook was not as fortunate, but the pilot managed to eject just before his machine exploded like the Parthenon after the Ottomans turned it into a gunpowder magazine that ended up being struck by artillery. In fact, the metaphor was quite fitting, given the presence of the Rook's ammo-loading backpack.

And the third damaged Rook immediately decided that cowardice was looking like a pretty good idea, and nabbed his pal's cockpit before flying as fast as he could away from the battlefield, a decision that the other Rook Sasha had struck was making as well.

The flurry of beam shots flying at the G-Valkyrie, as well as a long beam strafing across its form, however, were signs that the Bradley and blue unit were yet to fall back. The former had already closed in, one arm outstretched to fire off the repeating shots, while the other arm swung forth to grab her with a rocket anchor. And the Messer was already following, peppering Sasha with rapid-fire attacks.

Although Husam may have expected the upgraded Rook to abandon its weapon, it instead acted in a manner that seemed more befitting someone who was quite suicidal. The heavily armoured, highly-agile skirmisher unit allowed Husam to grab onto the railgun, but didn't let go, and immediately burst forth with frightening speed, taking advantage of the close of the Sword Shroud to swing itself into the OSDT unit. The flurry of bullets tore away at layers of its armour, but the pirate refused to stop, moving past the range of the weapon and into the Sword Shroud.

And within seconds, it followed up the sudden action with the deployment of the beam saber in its other arm, buzzing blade of particles in a reverse hold stabbing with great heat and power down towards Husam's machine.

And the other three Rooks were already upon them, with one pirate firing a beam from its rifle into the Sword Shroud's right, while the other two were flanking it from the top and bottom, their weapons at the ready.

---

BATTLE STATUS:
Yukine: leaving the battlefield
The Ball: leaving the battlefield
G-Valkyrie: pursued by the blue Rook and the Bradley
Judah: free
Sword Shroud: One Rook attempting to stab into it. Another Rook shooting it in the side. Two Rooks flanking it from above and below.

Rooks destroyed/disabled:

• Cockpit and large part of torso vaporised, currently floating through space.
• Totally blammoed, pilot ejected.
• It's a cockpit in a torso with just a leg, bruh.
• Aimlessly floating through space, lost its lower body and right arm.
• Literally space wreckage
• Literally space wreckage
• Exploded, cockpit ejected

Rooks with noticeable damage:

• Slightly damaged right arm, lost right shoulder shield, damaged frontal armour, attacking Sword Shroud by stabbing it.
• Left shoulder shield missing, leg missing, running away
• Lost one arm and missile launcher, running away

---

LUMEN TEAM

A highly energetic beam of particles passed carelessly through the void, barely missing a Rook that dodged out of the way, only to run straight into the blade of Francis Betrand's personal, light-green OSDT Rook. It was a clean blow, one that stabbed deep into the pirate's cockpit, vaporising the pilot within almost instantly, and Francis quietly pulled his weapon out, his beam saber dissipating with a hiss as he disengaged from the intact, but now deceased, Rook.

"Ten dollars, Lumen 3."

"Chief, bets don't work like that," said Lydia in a defeated tone, having obviously been affected by missing a second time with her GT-010's Mega Beam Cannon. "And you can't just refuse a bet only to take it when it's looking good for you!"

"Consider it a motivation to miss no further shots then, Lumen 3," replied her leader casually as he deployed one of his Rook's shoulder shields, grabbing hold of it to block a glancing blow from one of the pirates' railguns. "The more of our foes you neutralise, the better off your financial situation."

"Is that really a motivation?" asked Buddy Wang, whose own Rook had lost a leg in an attempt to slice apart a pirate. Two beam sabers were being held in his hands, sizzling with energy. "You can't force her to give you her wallet, can you?"

One of the pirate Rooks loomed behind him, only to receive a kick to the face from Lumen 2's M5-改, landspinners immediately activating to grind apart the armoured enemy's cranial sensors. Barely a second later, the familiar light of the Mega Beam Cannon flared past them, annihilating the poor Rook in a wave of exotic particles as the M5-改 bounced away.

"Well, whether or not Francis has the ability to do so, it looks like it's working," commented the Italian, whose voice did little to hide the fact that he was obviously smiling. He was already in motion, his highly agile machine already flitting past another enemy Rook and peppering it with vulcan fire. "Keep it up, Lydia. Don't allow an initial string of bad luck to keep you down."

"Gotcha!" was the reply from the GT-010's pilot. The next shot was already charging in her massive cannon, exotic particles swirling around and building in density, before erupting forth into the black void and into another of the pirate's Rooks. No matter how well-armoured they were, the sheer firepower of Olympus Arms Company's artillery unit was a threat that one would be remiss to underestimate.

Five pirates in total had already fallen to the Lumen Team despite the relative inferiority of the OSDT's own machines. One of the enemy Rooks had been disassembled into pieces, the result of Buddy's wild beam saber swings, while another had lost several limbs to Francis' attacks, contrasting the intact nature of the pirate he had killed mere moments before. Two other Rooks were barely existent, bodies nearly entirely vaporised by the GT-010's Mega Beam Cannon. The rest of the pirate machines were still capable of movement, but each and every one of them, including the Bradley, had taken some damage.

Three were missing all their shields, while another two had lost a leg each. A sixth had lost its cranial unit and an arm.

However, they seemed to moving away, joining up with the surviving units that had attacked Paper Tiger. However, they had taken up a more defensive position. What was their plan now ...?

"All units, the pirate forces are regrouping," announced Francis. "They may be attempting to retreat."

Regrouping?

Retreat or no, more pirates were coming. She had no idea what kind of damage Lumen Team had done to them, nor did she particularly care. Up to fifteen more HFvs. And they were still working on cleaning up the left flank. They were still working on...

The chaplain growled.

"Rising Star, the Bradley awaits you. Allow me to dance with the Blue Danube."

As she turned, Joan was unable to suppress a satisfied smile. Truthfully, she couldn't have put herself in a better position if she'd tried. Rising Star had led the Blue Danube and the Bradley far to the left of of her railguns, while the two now-deceased pirates had tried to pin Judah between Jannah and their rockets. Her flanking maneuvers - right, then left, then down - had left her in much the same position as she'd started. When she turned, she saw Rising Star execute a maneuver that made Joan's eyes widen; G-Valk was only now beginning its next pass around the battlefield, firing on wounded Rooks...

...but the Blue Danube hadn't followed her. It was flying up to avoid her beam fire - and, unaware of the defeat of those who had come for Joan Heidenreich, had turned its back on Judah.

She grinned.

Said a prayer for the ace's soul under her breath.

And fired two 460mm rounds, directly at the explosive-packed ammo backpack of the blue Rook.

One and a half successes, Rising Star noted with mild satisfaction. She wanted to bring that up to three successes, a perfect ratio, but she had more imminent issues. The harrying shots from the Messer heralded the approach of the Bradley, and necessitated a few quick evasive maneuvers. Her Wavrider wasn’t quite the appropriate form for this, so she triggered the transformation system in time to interpose the G-Valkyrie’s shield between the mech’s bulk and the source of the shots. The Valk lay on its ‘stomach’, top of the mech toward the enemy, so the shield did effectively guard it from the enemy’s fire.

But it didn’t really solve the issue. The blue Rook’s performance was on par with a modern HFV, and by all signs, piloted by someone with experience. Rising Star could have handled him one-on-one, but this… She had to deal with the Bradley, too, and she couldn’t damage it. Joan wanted it intact. The Messer drone only complicated things. That was three potential vectors of attack, one of which couldn’t be destroyed, and another of which was close to on par with her own unit’s specs. Sasha didn’t know what to do; she was out of missiles, there were two more seconds until her launcher was ready to fire, and she didn’t dare turn her back to put some space between her and the opposition.

Too far for Sword Shroud to cover for her, too close range to get a shot from her launcher off, no chance to run, squaring off against a high-performance close-combat machine, an ace Rook with unknown retrofits, and an attack drone. Sasha was as pinned down as you could get in space.

The chaplain growled.

"Rising Star, the Bradley awaits you. Allow me to dance with the Blue Danube."

In an instant Rising Star’s hesitation was swept away, her resolve bolstered. Joan had her back. No more was she outnumbered. It was two on two, and they were Paper Tiger. The Lion of Judah and the Chooser of the Slain. She was never in it alone, and even if she were, it was the strongest will that decided the battle. It was shameful that she had doubted for even a second. No pilot could match their resolve. Not together. If the Father wanted a Bradley, she would have it.

“He won’t wait long. I’ll finish this in one hit. Then we can finish this fight together.” Steel had returned to her voice, and conviction with it. Her eyes narrowed behind her mask, mind refocusing to crystal clarity. The oncoming Bradley. Her own position. And how she would finish the enemy unit without destroying the machine. He wanted to get closer? Alright then.

She stayed hunkered behind her shield while he approached, maneuvering just enough to give the impression that she wanted to get away. She drew her Launcher in close, parallel to the Valk’s body, and waited while her foe closed in. Her verniers fired, trying to put some distance between them without opening herself up to attack, but with her primary thrusters facing the wrong way the Bradley had no problem whatsoever closing in. No doubt he believed he was in luck; his rocket anchor closed around the Valk’s right shoulder, the one spot her position left open enough to grab, and he had ensured she couldn’t escape to long range again.

Then her shield swung out, knocking the Bradley’s gun arm aside to reveal the G-Valkyrie’s green visor in time to watch it flash mere feet from the pirate’s main camera.

On some level, she understood the Father’s prayers. It was unfortunate that their foes perished in such numbers. It was unfortunate that such lethal measures were required to deal with them. It was unfortunate that she had to be the one to kill them. But if their positions were reversed, they would kill her. They would kill the Father. They would kill her friends.

Rising Star regretted that it was necessary, but she did not regret killing this man. He chose his path, and there was no changing that. Before its pilot could grasp that he had been lured in, that closing to range had been exactly what Rising Star wanted, she jabbed her launcher forward with all of the force the G-Valkyrie could muster and drove the heat spike on its tip into the pirate machine’s cockpit. To be certain of her foe’s elimination she pulled the spike back out and fired her Vulcans into the hole she had created.

As she promised; one strike.