Sabine 'Rabbit' Laurent
Sabine hummed a happy little tune as she watched the various radar pings on her sensors move off in different directions. The rookie, along with Commie were heading off to assist the beleaguered destroyers as the rest held the center where the bulk of the enemy force was. That of course meant that she was left to pick off the flanking Garmr before they got to the squad all by her lonesome- well, her with Hex's overwatch of course. "You heard the Communist, keep an eye on me." Sabine's voice called across their comms. Even behind her polarized faceplate, her wink could practically be felt over the tacnet, "I love it when I get attention."
In its folded flight mode, the Sparrowhawk rivaled regular aerospace fighters, the blur of alloy and thrusters flaring into the nearby debris field where the Garmrs were heading through. Sabine's head rocked left and right in her seat as she juked her way through larger chunks of debris, pulling straight to thread the needle through two halves of a ruined solar plate the size of a football field. Her shields flaring as microparticles impacted and ricocheted off its surface, and her vision dimmed as she began to hit excessive G-forces. Red lights from proximity alarms and G warnings were quickly nulled as she slapped some buttons and flicked some switches to shut them off, activating her mimetic paint while she was at it. The Garmrs were still forming up when a streak of bright pink streaked through their formation.
"Salut les enfoirés~" Sabine called through the unsecured 'open' transmission channel, broadcasting to anyone close enough to pick them up- in this case, the Garmr squad. Pulling hard on the stick, the Sparrowhawk shifted back to its bipedal mode, spinning in a smooth 180 as it did. Without even waiting for her computer to give her a proper firing solution, Sabine began pulling the trigger on her rifle. Lances of deadly, volatile plasma shot out, two slagging bits of solar panel and ship hull before a third struck one of the Garmr in the back shoulder. The resultant explosion ripped off the left arm and detonated one of its rear thrusters, sending the Garmr spiraling into the debris field only to be stopped in place by a large chunk of debris.
The remaining Garmr scattered in a panic, taking off in different directions as Sabine chose one to chase after. The Garmr were speedy- when compared to standard UEE Sentries, but the Sparrow- and Sparrowhawk had little difficulty keeping up with it, juking through the debris field in a deadly game of cat and mouse, thruster trails weaving in and out of broken steel. The Garmr Sabine chased after was loosing pre-emptive flares, which only gave away his position as the faster Sparrowhawk kicked off of a panel of solar panel, beam saber flashing as it cut through the darkness of space. Thick armor plating did little against plasma, as the Sparrowhawk shore its leg off, before bounding off of it. In a panic, the Garmr turned around, autocannons, missiles and even point defense laser firing off wildly as it attempted to get a bead on Sabine. Her shields flared as the laser danced across its surface, but had little effect as the Sparrowhawk leveled its barrel and fired a quick two shots into the flailing Garmr, the first shot taking out its head, the second hitting the machine square in the cockpit.
Splash two, Sabine called out, "Garmr are hardly a- Sabine's voice disappeared in a wash of static and warning alarms as she juked rapidly to the side, taking cover from a burst of autocannon shells behind a chunk of debris.
The remaining Garmr were less panicked than their squadmate, and were quick to begin chasing after Sabine as the Sparrowhawk shifted back into flight mode and boosted away, trails of autocannon tracers flying around and past her. The tone of missile locks rang through her ears as Sabine banked out of the debris field and dropped flares, sledgehammer missiles flying wide as they were intercepted.
"Two fans on my tail Hex, be a babe and take care of them for me?" Sabine called out over the comms.
<<Fuck! Fuck! I can't shake- Aaugh!>>
<<Get around him, box the bastard in!>>
<<I'm on him, hold him steady!>>
The Coalition comms were a mess as the Fenrir's realized they weren't going toe to toe with standard UEE pilots, their numbers quickly cut to pieces by the 7th. Of the original 8 Fenrir, only half of their number remained as the Watchdog caught up to the fourth Fenrir and made short work of it with his beam saber. To their credit, they were quick to react, using their remaining numbers to their advantage. As the one Vulture was shooting at executed evasive maneuvers, dodging through fire as best it could- its shoulder shield was slagged, and its rocket pod exploded as another shell punched through it- two more flew at the Watchdog at different angles. One hefted a belt fed Type 5, laying down its own suppressive hail of autocannon shells as the second flew at Sagan's back, broadsword pointed and ready to run mech and pilot alike through.
The remaining Fenrir broke away from the fight with the Watchdog to try and put fire down on the Secutor, 35mm shells ricocheting and exploding against the thickened armor as it let loose a barrage before launching a pair of sledgehammers to hopefully put the Secutor down. To add onto the incoming threat, the two Sköllr now had a bead on the Secutor, one of them opening up with its own heavy rotary cannon, bracing it against its shield as its thrusters flared, the heavy recoil more or less keeping it in place. The second Sköllr advanced more aggressively, its plasma scattercannon glowing as it charged, ready to slag the Secutor once it closed the distance.
<<7th Squadron. Notice from the Ronaoke.>>
Eva's voice cut into the 7th comms. <<INS Roanoke preparing to fire, clear firing lanes.>>
Across their HUDs, bright lines were painted to show where the Roanoke's cannons would fire, with enough notice for the pilots to not be in the way. <<Roanoke. Salvo away.>>
A quartet of plasma beams ripped through space, each beam practically the width of a truck as they flew across the battlespace. The heavy beams vaporized debris and one of the Sköllr who had the misfortune of being in the way, exploding in a ball of fire as its reactor went critical. The heavy beams struck at the Coalition frigates, one going up in smoke as a beam caved in its bridge, the other taking significant damage but remaining otherwise intact. The Coalition ships responded with their own wave of cannonfire, some of it caught in the debris field, others flying past the 7th to score hits on the Roanoke, its shields flaring as it took hits.
As the 7th and the Roanoke engaged each other center field, the UEE destroyers had made it to the edge of the debris field, though their escort wasn't faring very well, and one of the destroyers was leaking smoke from its engines as the Coalition forces harried them. The destroyer's defenses had been whittled down to a trio of Sentries, against a quintet of Fenrirs, though with the addition of Braide and Kilmer, they now numbered 5 to 3. The remaining Coalition Fenrirs were quick to reposition, taking cover behind the more damaged destroyer, its point defense weapons already stripped, one of them using the destroyer's bridge to make its opponents think twice before firing at it. From this new firing position they began to lay down fire against the 7th, loosing more sledgehammer missiles at the Shrike as they fired burst after burst of autocannon shells against the fancy Venator.
<<Man are we glad to see you!>> a helmeted face appeared on Kilmer and Braide's HUDs, the name plate identifying him as an Ensign Sorrels, as his Sentry flew up closer towards them. His faceplate visor was cracked and his Sentry was missing an arm, but otherwise intact. <<Coalies are tearing us up over here, we could use the->>
The transmission was cut short as the broadcasting Sentry was struck by a beam of plasma, punching a hole clean through its cockpit before clipping its reactor. The Sentry exploded a few moments later. High above the battlespace, well above the debris field, there was another glint and flash, followed by a lance of blue light cutting across space. A split second later, a beam made impact through the bridge of the forward destroyer, decapitating the ship. There was a bright flash and streak of blue thruster trails as the shooter rapidly flew towards the battlespace, a third plasma beam scoring a direct hit on the magazine of the headless destroyer, exploding in a tremendous fireball.
<<Alert. Coalition MAS entering battlespace.
Eva's voice sounded out across the 7th. <<Designation: Fafnir. Uploading unit specifications now.