Lieutenant Commander Johann "Rhino" Von Brandt
"Solid copy Vulture, breaking off to engage priority target."
Johann throttled the thrusters to max, the one useful thing about space being able to get even a brick like the Secutor up and moving at high speed, and maintaining it, was far easier than in a gravity well. The situation was turning quite decisively in their favor overall, even with the Fafnir unit still highly operational and dangerous. Moving at maximum thrust, he was already calculating what his plan would be when comms lit up once again, Hex confirming that she was going on overwatch for him as he created the most overt signature out of the entire team, throttling the reactor to full power in the process to gain just that little extra bit of energy as he continued fine tuning power distribution. He had a plan building in mind, and that meant getting close enough to Fafnir to make a play, and fortunately he had some overwatch to help make that happen.
"Solid copy Hex, take your time. Secutor can take anything Fafnir thinks it can throw my way."
Throttle fully open, Johann continued burning towards the Fafnir, not even slowing down to attempt to line up a shot with his MAC-011, even as it pinged that loading sequence for HESH was completed and awaiting targeting sequence, which he toggled to manual as he continued burning headlong towards Fafnir. Alarms blared as the energy signature built, but Rhino put full faith in his fellow pilot to prevent the shot from going off, and when Hex sounded off, he felt an almost feral grin flash across his face, locking into a dueling mindset as he continued his approach. Undeterred by the energy signature, his faith was rewarded by the solid impact from Hex's Blackout, 90mm round tearing clean through the ESR Beam Cannon and disabling the building flare on view, and silencing at least a few of the alarms. Rhino kept pushing, alerts notifying of the drone deployments, though none of them pivoted to engage him fortunately. Unfortunately that meant the two pilots he was moving to support were the targets instead.
"WARNING: Entering minimum safe distance for MAC-011 operations, recommend securing weapon platform.""Good guns Hex, I'm on him. Rook, Commie, watch those drones."
Rhino ignored the minimum range safety on the MAC-011, turning to take the brunt of the incoming plasma enhanced 35mm on non vital parts of his frame, armor registering damage and several non vital systems flashing alarms on his HUD. Nothing worth writing home about, he treated most of his non vitals as fodder for wasting enemy ammunition and baiting them into less advantageous positions anyways. Sure enough Fafnir was closing in, plasma talons flaring to life as the Secutor's own Plasma Gauntlet lit up, glowing as it spooled up, and to all onlookers it looked like the Secutor would be too slow to catch the incoming blender of talons, but at the last possible moment the Class 3 shield flared to life, deflecting the incoming dive and Johann fired his maneuvering thrusters, putting the entire momentum of his Mech into a deceptively fast backhanded hammer blow aimed directly for the core of the Fafnir. A blow like that would be highly damaging even to a Heavy, and Rhino was gambling on the Fafnir taking the bait and using its own Class 3 to blunt the blow, though the impact would still create a narrow opening between the two of them.
"WARNING: Within minimum safe distance for MAC-011 operations...""MAC-011 safeties overridden, HESH on deck, standby."
Rhino kept the momentum of his backhanded swing going, cutting off the automated warning with an override, taking advantage of the momentum carrying him past the Fafnir and using the maneuvering thrusters to control his spin, positioning himself naturally to point blank the Fafnir with the MAC-011 as he snapped into a firing stance, hurtling backwards but still far too close for comfort for any official doctrinal use of his superheavy weapon. The moment the targeting reticule swung onto Fafnir the entire frame shuddered as the HESH shell launched, both energy signatures on sensors and visuals of the magnetic accelerators crackling to life as they caught the conventionally launched shell, sending the HESH shell straight for the core of the Fafnir. At this range he wouldn't waste time recharging another shot in the MAC-011, instead shunting all power from its charging systems to refreshing the Class 3 Shield as fast as he could, MAC-011 swinging back into its mounting on his back as the Rotary Autocannon deployed from his right hand instead, watching power steadily build on the Plasma Gauntlet as well.
"HESH away, standby for effect on target."