wintersoldier
BurnDaWitch
TokyoPewPew
Bork Lazer
Noctis
vietmyke
GingerBoi123
Izurich
Ithradine
Theyra
Leah was positioning her MAS alongside Sabine's when the rookie sounded off on the net, making her wince a bit and pull her head to the side as if that'd distance herself from the speakers inside her helmet. She was about to comment on his enthusiasm, but once again, Sabine had beaten her to it. She smirked, finding it funny how there always seemed to be one person Leah always shared brain cells with. Perhaps that's why they made such good partners in action, and why they were always trying to outdo each other in wilder and wilder competitions. Sabine launched first, followed shortly after by Leah since they were the first two on the line. The launch sucked Leah back into her seat, making her grip her controls tight before the inertial dampeners in her MAS kicked in. She let out a breath and immediately sucked it back in when she saw what Sabine was dodging right out of the launch bay. Leah pulled a stick hard, kicked in on one pedal, and yanked her other stick back, causing boosters to fire on three axis to spin and burn out of the incoming cannon shot's path. She rolled inward where Sabine went outward. Her MAS flipping sideways over the top of the Roanoke's hull.
She quickly levelled out with the Roanoke's plane and brought her MAS' feet down onto the hull of the ship to arrest her moment, causing a rumble throughout the ship and surely making a few of the crew think they had just taken a hit to the hull. Sparks flew as the Blackout scraped a few dozen meters along the surface of the Roanoke's outer armor. She fired her boosters and skated along the surface, leaving two wonderful streaks along the ship's paint as she boost-skated along the length of the ship. Her onboard AI quickly back traced the source of the cannon shots she and Sabine were forced to dodged, her sensors quickly picking up on the Coalition frigates and their MAS escorts. She saw more incoming cannon rounds heading for her wingman, and the ever present humor that usually followed from such intense brushes with death. "Stay evasive, Rabbit! I'll return some of that hate back to sender."
The Blackout's retro thrusters fired as its feet scraped along the Roanoke, bringing the MAS to a complete halt neat the prow of the carrier. Stabilizers lowered down from the calves of the MAS, flattening against the hull and engaging their magnetic locks to keep the Blackout in position. Raising the LR-90, Hex scanned the debris field for targets, spotting a Fenrir aggressively burning through the debris to try to get through it as quickly as possible. The pilot was bloodthirsty, and no doubt inexperienced. Its position was ahead of the rest of its squadron, and its aggressive maneuvering past the debris made it very easy to predict where it was going to be. Hex's visor changed into a targeting HUD, reticle sights projecting over the visor directly in front of her eyes. "Target: Fenrir II on my LOS."
"Target acquired. Fenrir II, distance: 6 kilometers and closing. Relative speed: +345 meters per second.""Switch aim pip to lag, compensate for drift."
Leah watched as the Fenrir became highlighted on her HUD, and a small dot with a line tracing the LR-90's boresight zipped around her field of view. She nudged her controls, making adjustments in the Blackout's arms while the FCS did most of the legwork to track the Fenrir.
"Warning: Significant debris may interfere with maintaining a target lock. Recommendation: Hold fire."Leah rolled her eyes. "Switch to manual."
She could immediately feel the controls become more touchy as the Blackout ceded control directly to its pilot. Leah squinted as her focus intensified. The display on her cockpit magnified with a picture-on-picture window showing a much more high definition view of the Fenrir. Her targeting pip overlayed on the Fenrir's body. She breathed deep, keeping her hands steady as she continued to track the Fenrir's evasive maneuvers through the debris field. "Come on... Just show me that pretty waistline of yours..." she said out loud as she aimed.
The Fenrir flipped sideways to dodge a solar panel, then it boosted down hard to avoid wrecked hull. Seeing that there was only more wreckage below, the Fenrir flipped back, firing its main booster to slow itself fast before making impact. Leah's sensors pinged as they detected the spike in thermal emissions from the over boost. She watched the drive plume blast out the Fenrir's back. The unit bled speed fast to avoid a reckless collision. It was a well executed maneuver, but unfortunately for the rookie pilot, it left them completely defenseless. Speed was everything, and now they were a sitting duck and totally exposed to Blackout. The line between her boresight and lagging pip closed to nothing, and Leah pulled the trigger.
The LR-90 fired, the mag-stabilized legs keeping the MAS in place as the recoil was absorbed in the MAS' knees. In atmosphere, a sabot round would've shot a flat trajectory for several kilometers. In space, the tungsten dart may as well have been sent by a railgun. It covered the distance fast. Faster than one could react without realized they were being targeted. The sabot round connecting with the upper right quadrant of the Fenrir's torso, ricocheting up and to the right before punching into and out through the back of the Fenrir's shoulder joint with a line of sparks and debris. The impact sent the Fenrir into a spin as the shoulder was torn about by the sudden centrifugal force. The Fenrir's arm came off, spinning away with its heavy rifle still hand.
"Target hit.""But not dead. Keep tracking."
The large bolt on the LR-90 drew back on its own and fed another round into the chamber. Leah could hear the hiss of pistons through the vibrations in her MAS as the bolt went forward and locked back into place. The Blackout corrected itself and kept the LR-90 on the spinning MAS. Its boosters were firing wildly and only contributing to its loss of control. The shot had disabled some of the boosters, making the confusion more intense for the Coalition as they tried to figure out how to regain control of their MAS. Leah remained calm in her seat and kept her hands on the controls, continuing to make her adjustments while manually aiming the sniper cannon. She was tuned in, listening to the rhythm of beeps and tones in her ears that assisted her with aiming while her eyes worked with her hands to close the line for another shot.
The line closed, and Leah heard the flat tone in her ear. She squeezed the trigger again, the round quickly travelling the meager six kilometer distance and connecting with the underside of the Fenrir's back plating. The round went in, severing the main booster from the Fenrir and punching out through the neck. The head of the Fenrir detached and span away as the Fenrir's thruster plume went from a vibrant blue to a dark, rusty orange. Smoke billowed out, leaving an inky black trail of wisps in the hard vacuum of space that cocooned around the spinning, dying MAS. The spin only intensified, causing the centrifugal force to increase even more. The pilot inside would have likely blacked out from the spin if not from suffocating in smoke inside the cockpit. As the spin increased, more parts and debris broke off from the MAS, until eventually the booster pack exploded and broke the MAS apart in the flash of an orange fireball.
"Target destroyed." the AI announced, even though it was obvious.Leah tracked her optics right, sighting in the other Coalie MAS units in the debris field as they scattered and slowed to take cover from the precise cannon fire. Leah chimed in over the net, "Hex," Leah started, "One escort Fenrir destroyed. The others are going to ground in the debris. You've got your window to advance, Rabbit. Get in close and-"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Missile. Missile. Missile."Leah clenched her jaw and cursed under her breath. They back traced her shots already? Impressive, but that also meant she had to move right now! Leah fired her retro boosters to max and disengaged her maglocks to detach from the Roanoke. She boosted backward, skimming along the carrier again and likely causing more flight violations in the process. But it wasn't without a reason! As the missiles screamed toward the Blackout, they flew into the Roanoke's defense umbrella. Several point defense turrets locked and tracked the missiles as they approached, opening up with a brrrrt! brrrt! brrrrrrrrt! that vibrated through the hull of the ship. One by the one, the saturation of proximity bursting rounds intercepted the incoming missiles until none were left to harass Leah and the Blackout.
As she backboosted, Leah found herself headed straight into the launch path of the rest of the 7th. She twisted her stick and overboosted laterally, causing her to spiral around the hull of the Roanoke and pass along the edge of the launch window. It was a close shave, and one that'd certainly make the next pilot out have a minor heart attack. As she passed, she faced the Blackout toward the outgoing MAS and did a cheeky salute with the Blackout. She noticed it was the shiny new MAS that had just recently transferred to the Roanoke. As the Blackout sailed past into open space, Leah spoke over the net, "Welcome to the 7th, Rook. Get used to the chaos. It's all we ever do here."
Her comms then pinged from an incoming transmission from the Roanoke's flight control, "Hex. Tower. How many times do we need to tell you that the Roanoke is not a jungle gym?"
"My bad, tower. But in my defense, I had to evade somewhere!"
"Do it again and I'll let the captain know you volunteered to repaint the hull instead of the EVA crews, Hex. Tower out."
Hex clicked her tongue as she took the scolding from flight ops for the umpteenth time. That was one thing she missed in the infantry, the distinct lack safety officers in the heat of combat. But the Roanoke was used to the antics the hot-shots of the 7th got themselves into. It certainly wouldn't be the last time one of the pilots did something wild and mostly got away with it. At least this time wasn't just for theatrics... like every other time...
Blackout fired her main booster again and headed toward the newly discovered squadron of Garmr units set on flanking the Roanoke. She could see the drive signature of the Sparrowhawk in flight mode speeding to intercept them. "Rabbit. Hex. I'm overwatch. Set 'em up and I'll knock 'em down!"
She levelled her LR-90 on the garmr units as slowed her MAS into a slight drift. Her armor darkened in color to match the void of space.
"DCA activated. Reducing emissions."
