"Orders read, Capitaine," Gerard said into the general comms as he cleared the hull, pushing a frozen corpse away as gently as he could, "but not understood..." he muttered into the squad comms. He suspected that a higher power was at work here but shut his inner thoughts off. He, Shanks and Alice were the furthest away from the Lincoln, and he would ahve to time it well if he was to avoid the blast of the wave motion cannon. Kicking his thrusters into gear, the Marauder started to jet forwards even as he started to take macrocannon fire from the turret arcs of the cruiser behind him. A couple of seconds later, the capital charge detonated, sending out a pulse of blue-white light followed by hundreds of smaller blooms where secondary explosions started to occur. With a final silent bang, the cruiser exploded, sending debris flying everywhere. With expert piloting skills, Gerard managed to dodge all of it save the tiny pieces that had no effect on the Marauder. A sudden explosion of force hit his MAS as he adjusted for it, letting it push him along as he rode it. He didn't look back at his teammates. He trusted them enough not to screw up a simple escape.
In a flash of light so bright that it forced Delacroix to cover his eyes even through the photofilter of the armorcrys cockpit, the Wave motion gun fired for a second time, tearing straight through the final cruiser in a brilliant lance of death. Delacroix would have been awestuck...if he didn't think of the lives on board the ship. How many people died to that vengeful spear of light? How many of them had wives, husbands, children? Howmany more would die to the core detonation to follow? These thoughts forced him to bite his lip hard enough to cause him to bleed a little before he let up. There was no helping it. They were his enemy...They needed to be removed for the greater good. Putting extra power into his thrusters, he turned away, lengthening his journey a tad as the cruiser finally exploded. Vaguely he recalled Maki's angry tirade pour over his comm net but it barely registered as he jetted towards home, dodging rounds and missiles as he did so.
"I've got your asses covered now move it, assholes!"
Maki's angry voice continued through the comms as Gerard neared the hangar doors, followed by Trapp's commanding barks. Then, Maki's classic line came through. "Calm, madamoiselle," he said, his voice considerably gentler and mellow than those that came before him before he switched to a private channel, "Folle est la brebis qui au loup se confesse, do not give the wolf more reason to act." As he said that, a Ferir closed, but the Japanese pilot put a round through the abdomen of the MAS, staggering it. Within a second, Gerard slammed the haft of his axe into the cockpit before cutting off its arm, destroying the HUD and gun arm but leaving it mostly unharmed. He had done enough killing today. Feeding more power to his thrusters, the giant maw of the hangar bay opened in his vision. He would be home soon.
As he entered the airlock, Gerard rapidly thrusted backwards, scraping the Marauder's feet against the floor of the bay, showering the blackened space with sparks. Coming to a rest as the hangar doors opened, he started to march the weakened MAS into its assigned space, letting the engineers and machinery taking hold. Altogether, the MAS was a wreck. Pieces of debris were jabbed through its chassis from the close range Ferir detonation, with some dangerously close to the cockpit. The left side was pitted with gashes and cuts while pitted holes dotted its surface, exposing servoes and cables. The formerly white paintjob had been seared off ont he front, leaving it its default gunmetal grey. All in all, he had gotten off quite lucky. Climbing out of the cockpit, he stumbled as he hit the ground, Lark having to hold him up as he once more had to become used to the static gravity of the ship. Thanking him, Gerard approached Trapp and Williams. "Well done on your first sortie," Gerard said with a small chuckle as he ruffled her hair, "I believe I can leave my back to you now." Looking up to Trapp, Gerard conducted a small salute, but his face became a little grim. "Is the retreat because of the Snake?" he asked in a small voice.