Episode 26 - Operation Maelstrom

[blind_dead_mcjones]

-team 3-

"came all this way out here only to flash them and run back.." wales grumbled to himself as team 3 fell back to come to the balrampur teams' aid, slightly put off about being caught by that axis pilot and the fact that they weren't able to perform one run at the endra class ship like planned, not that it stopped him firing a couple of bazooka rounds at it out of spite and venting some frustration.

before long a beeping sound dragged him back to the taks at hand, the targeting computer had picked up something but it couldn't identify them at the distance they were at, hitting a few buttons he had the main camera zoom to its maxmum setting, what he saw made his stomach sink a bit, only 4 suits could be seen, two of which were identified as nemo's amongst the debris, niggling on his mind further was the other two mobile suits, they looked reminiscient of marasais, however he never recalled them ever being blue, or being able to move that quickly, also despite what they looked like the rick dias'es computer labeled the suits as >>>UNKOWN.

"guys..." he began on the team channel, feeling slightly uneasy for the first time in his life "question. since when were marasai's insanely agile and painted blue?"

-debris field-

"That would be a lot easier. If you're sure your suit hasn't been breached then I'm all for it. I was just worried that from the damage I can see that you were in one hell of a bind." kite replied over the comm, paris sighed with relief as she finished patching up trhe last of the tears in her suit, having used up nearly all of the repair patches that come in the emergency survival pack

"thanks" she replied, beforehssing in pain as she moved to the hatch

"Are you sure you can do this without any problems?" kite said in concern

"yes..i'm sure" she responded, before trying to open the hatch, when it wouldn't open normally she went for the emergency release handle, blowing the front hatch off completely, wasting no time she floated out, grabing hold of the left chest vent of kites nemo when she was close enough, waiting patiently for him to open the hatch and let her in.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Near Gryps 2 -

- Beta Team -

As the pair of Rick Diases came to a near-stop beneath him, Wolf's intense glare darted between the targeting bracket hovering near them and the ammo counter in his HUD. Ashlyn's curt, insulting reply to his mistake caused his blood to boil as he made an agonizing decision between engaging him further with dangerously low ammo or withdrawing without satisfying his desire to see the traitor dead. His Barzam drifted as he lined up a shot at the two Rick Diases, his thumb trembling over the firing stud. “Daren, stay with Wolf!” Sven commanded suddenly, diving to engage the enemy. “Perhaps Traitor your death will fulfill my duty?” Haksson said over the open channel as he rushed to meet them with guns blazing. A small smirk found its way onto Ritter's lips as he was handed a more acceptable way out. "Daren, come with me. We'll begin our withdrawal - let Sven cover us," he ordered, verniers blossoming to life at his suit's feet and backpack. The young pilot quickly adjusted his controls and dropped his feet down on the floor pedals beneath his chair to gain some raw acceleration in order to catch up to Wolf, who was already speeding away.

"Sir, Ltjg. Haksson may be overwhelmed by the AEUG and Te'Litha if he's left alone," Daren said, glancing back at the scuffle behind them. "He can handle himself," Wolf said coldly, "This is his purpose,". Nwosu frowned slightly at Ritter's bluntness and muttered, "If Haksson is to be treated as a tool, perhaps he could be put to better use,". Wolf bared his teeth in a snarl and snapped, "Sven is content to play his part unquestionably. I demand the same of you!". Daren's brow darkened and he answered, "I'll play my part, sir. Do not doubt that,". The two missile-toting Barzams boosted into a wide turn that would take them back towards the patch of debris, their pilots flying in icy silence.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Gryps 2 Space -

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

"I'm not sure, sir. Capt. Keaton doesn't have much info and their spotters are having a hell of a time at it," Lt. Stalvern said with a frown. He kept his voice down so that only Loweno could hear him. "Something is going on past the Balrampur. Even our boys have seen the explosions. Either an Axis unit slipped past our forward line of mobile suits or those Titans haven't been totally driven off and I'd like to know which is the case," André quietly said back as he folded his arms. The captain clucked and shook his head. "We can't get IFF data from their Nemos, and ours are either onboard, too beat up or not in position to tell us anything about it," he grumbled. Stalvern chuckled hollowly, "Or not from our ship,". Loweno blew out a breath between clenched teeth in a hiss. "Find out what you can and keep me informed," Loweno said, nodding his head to dismiss his XO.

- Team 1 -

"This guy sounds like Nick's babysitter," Fritz grunted, struggling to keep his damaged suit near Michiko as she avoided Jackson's harassment fire. "I don't care who he is, we need to get out of here!" she cheeped, opening up a little more from the stress. They managed to weave their way back closer to Celeste and Jacob before the first of Sven's sudden attack arrived. As Haksson took the initiative, firing his own spread of missiles, Michiko found herself in position to take the brunt of the attack unless she could very rapidly change position. The first missiles began to detonate around them as Fritz realized Wolf or one of his cronies wasn't content to let them escape. A bazooka round screamed past him, narrowly sparing him from taking a face full of shrapnel. "Michi, bug out! We can't slow down here!" he yelled, wrenching the controls to send him into a dangerous, high speed spinning turn closer to her to keep his MS roughly between her and the source of the firestorm. "Where are all of these Titans mobile suits coming from?" she asked, her voice wavering as she realized just how much danger they were in.

They screamed forward at nearly full acceleration, blowing past Nick, Jacob, Jackson and Celeste. "Incoming! Jacob, Celeste, break off and regroup near the Dervish! Things are too heavy here!" he ordered, pulling into another turn to stay nearer to his other two subordinates once he was satisfied Michiko was safely on her way. "Nick, if you're still listening, I'd get out of here while the getting's good. Ritter and his creeps aren't the kind to practice adequate trigger discipline with you and I around if you know what I mean, and Celeine would be pretty angry with me if I had to kill you to keep you off of my friend Jacob there," Fritz candidly warned Nick over the open channel, hoping he could hear him and would be willing to listen. With an arm missing and low propellant, getting into a serious fight with anyone would be a mistake. Michiko had been smart enough to keep him from going after Wolf, but if he had to wade in after Jacob he would. There wouldn't be another Jim MacAlpin on his conscience. "Celeste, it's time to back off for a breather. Tow Jacob out of there if you have to," he said, firing a few beam pistol shots up at Sven in the hopes of slowing him down or landing a lucky hit.

- Team 3 -

The four Rick Diases from Team 3 fell into a loose formation as they sped towards the location of the Balrampur Nemo unit's mysterious plight. Thoughts similar to those of Wales ran through Wes' mind as he got his first magnified look at the Griffins. "The HELL is that?!" he blurted under his breath, echoing Ingleshard's question. "Guys... Question. Since when were Marasais insanely agile and painted blue?" the ensign asked, causing Wes to shake his head. Something about the suits seemed familiar in a way that deeply frightened him... "They're not. Something about them--". One of them dipped into a turn and the two Titans seemed to be communicating with each other, giving him a glimpse of glowing green eyes. "I, uh," Wes said, scanning his computer display again with a stammer, "I'm only picking up two Nemos here. Something is wrong,". He adjusted his weapons controls, pulling both beam pistols as they closed in. "Fan out and be careful. I don't like this one bit - these guys shouldn't be here," he said, lining up a shot at Stukov at long range to get their attention. He fired twice, wanting to see how the blue suits would react.

- New Yark Team -

The pair of surviving Nemos from the New Yark, freshly refueled and rearmed, rocketed towards Stukov and Pan from a direction that was nearly directly opposite Team 3. "Say, say, say! Supporting our allies!" Ramon said authoritatively. Thibaut was taking at long distance look at the pair from Alpha and wondering the same thing as Wales. "What am I looking at here? A pair of aces?" he asked, showing Hard AE the fuzzy picture from his monitor that he was puzzling over. The Nemo was even worse off than the Rick Dias, it's older system only providing an obvious >>>????? TITANS label. "They are two aces, we are three of a kind! Hooo~!" Sumitani asserted, speeding up. "I... what?" Thibaut said.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Gryps 2 Space -

- The Bindra -
- Bridge -

The bridge had erupted into a flurry of activity after M'Quve had verbally admitted they were on the verge of retreat. As Pizal was still trying to rationalize the disparity between his image of the Axis fleet as undefeatable under Haman-sama's leadership and what seemed like apathy on M'Quve's part about giving up Gryps 2, his operators continued to keep the ship running ahead of the advancing 4th Squadron. "Chief Reyes," Wald croaked, finally finding his voice as he turned to the helm, "I want us ready to make any necessary maneuver to leave our current heading to join the withdrawal...". The connection to the Trammel and Mandra was still open, and he could hear chatter from the bridges of both ships, mostly dominated by the frantic babbling of orders from Capt. Bacon. The noise dulled a bit as M'Quve began to speak again. "Capt. Wald, I'm in contact with the flagship - this unit has been approved to join Princess Mineva's escort as we leave Gryps 2. We'll be guarding the Gwanban as she retreats," he explained, still sounding almost as if he were tired with dealing with the bore of running a battleship. "Retreat? We're retreating with her highness?" Pizal thought, getting a little sick to his stomach.

"We're nearly prepared to leave this field, sir. We've taken damage to the ship's hull structure amidships, but it seems to be under control now," he explained robotically, still trying to process what was happening. He didn't really listen to M'Quve's response, and he found himself staring through Gina as she tried to give him another report. "Sir!" she said, finally tugging at his wrist, snapping him out of his thoughts, "There are defense units falling back from every major defense field around the laser...". "Y-yes," he said, acknowledging the report, "We have to stay organized..."

- Spach Team -

"Enough of this nonsense, Spach. We need to get out of here now or our goose is cooked," McCoy grunted, slowing to keep his eye on what seemed like an ever-growing group of enemies. "I do not know what waterfowl have to do with our circumstances, lieutenant. I have identified what may be our best chance to break this line and escape to the Trammel or one of her sister ships," Spach responded, his voice still dead calm despite their dire situation. His fingers danced across the keypad at his side, sending a set of information to his sole remaining wingman. In their HUDs, the spot where Jacob and Nick were engaged in a slow melee was highlighted. "We shall attack there at full acceleration and attempt a breakthrough. If this is not successful our chances of escape are low," Spach said, leading the way still in MA mode. McCoy tried to slow his breathing as he felt like he was beginning to crack from stress. Their whole team, One Year War veterans and good men and women, was dead and Spach still sounded like he was giving a lecture. "Damn it!" he growled, opening fire on Nick, Jacob and Jackson from afar as they rapidly closed in.

[The Big Zabowski]

-Jackson-

With a brow raised and picking up enough of the retort from Fritz through the static, He looked over his shoulder at Te'litha's machine and at Sven who was still coming in hot on the AEUG units. This was truly strange, but he didn't have time to think about it as he dodge some stray fire himself form Sven, a missile meant for Michiko and co streaming pretty damn close to his shield.

"Hey, Aeoog!"

Jack called out over the open commline himself interjecting as Fritz warned Nick of the dangers ahead with Ritter in the area.

"Watch your ass out there and get back to your ship. I mean it.."

It was then that Jack's pang of conscience began to tug more at him. Somehow.. for some reason he felt he had to stop Sven not just for Nick, his commanding officer but for (tangentially) Friday (as per his orders) and.. ironically Fritz and his wingmen.

"I have a feeling we may meet again after this, Aeoog!"

With that, he ran his monoeye over to Nick and sent a morse message; if Nick was all there like Fritz had hoped with his message.. maybe he'd be able to get through to him.

"El Tee, retreat and get back to the Kirov. I'll clean up Sven here for ya.

~Friday.. I'll make it look clean and obvious but I'll be back for ya if you make it out of here alive this day.~

With his rifle raised, Fritz would notice a change in the attack pattern of the Marasai that had just 'shooed' them off moments before.

And then the unthinkable.

"Hey, Sven! I got a present for ya! You want help Ritter? Take this damn orange Zaku out form under my dumb, hick ass!!"

The Marasai then began to fire off a trio of mean shots aimed at Sven, a clear violation of pretty much every rule in the Titans Clubhouse manual.

As McCoy came in for a run on the remainders of the the combatants in the area, the Marasai howled a warning horn in protest as several shots went wide before one took off the top of the shield on Jack's Marasai.

"F**ker!"

The Marasai juked and continued to pump a pair of shots at Sven's suit now essentially sharing targets with Fritz Ashlyn. What it meant would be up to him.. and whether or not he'd heed Jacks sacrificial call for retreat or stick around to find out just what the hell was going on with the Titan pilot.

[Kite_Ishma]

-Debris Field

Kite wasted no time in opening the hatch and reaching out to pull her in. "Well you're a sight for sore eyes." He smiled softly before closing the cockpit and moving away from the damaged Nemo. He kicked off the old remnants of what was assumed to be a ship because of it's size...or maybe part of one he figured. The Nemo's thrusters kicked in sending it back toward the Hamburg. "What happened to you guys out here?"

[King Monkey]

- Team 1 -

Jacob was not so far gone that he could not listen to reason. Especially now that the source of his obsession was gone. He hardly cared if any of these other Titans lived or died if he couldn't get his hands on that beast in the blue Mobile Suit.

"I'm fine. Let's go," he replied to Fritz's commands, pushing off of the Titan's suit before him and taking another swipe at him with his beam saber before applying some throttle.

Before they got too far, though, more enemies came blazing at them. He juked to avoid one of McCoy's shots but another hit his Rick Dias in the lower leg, burning off the armor and leaving a neat hole through it.

"You lunatics just can't help yourselves can you? You can't stop until you make someone kill you!" he shouted over an open channel as he turned to face the new attackers.

He fired two shots from his remaining shoulder cannon while tightening his grip on his beam saber as he waited for the Gaza C to get close enough for him to use it.

[mcred23]

(OOC: Bunny'ing Sophie a hair to move things along a bit quicker)

-Team 2-
-Eddie-

The pair of non-standard Rick Dias moved along quickly, towards the line of Axis ships in the distance. The flight wasn't too long, but they weren't there yet, and as they drew closer, Eddie began to notice the fuel gauge dropping rapidly.

So did Sophie. "Eddie, I'm starting to get low on fuel..."

Eckardy frowned as he keyed his comm. "S***, me too. We may only be able to pop a few long shots before we need to run." He grumbled slightly. In the distance, they couldn't make out an Axis mobile suits yet, so maybe they would get one good chance at decent shots on those ships...

[Cardi Doorl]

- Balrampur Team (or what’s left of it) Vicinity -

Kou’s shots sailed wide as the raw muscle of the Griffin’s verniers hurled Stukov rightward and “down” relative to his own POV. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Wes Curren’s warning shots.

With Alpha in danger of encirclement, Stukov took his suit into a hard AMBAC spin, then stabilized with his verniers and kicked the thrusters to full once he was facing Curren, but fired the heavy beam rifle twice at Ingleshard while threading the sea serpent through the Griffin’s left hand without yet activating it.

[Wedge14]

[Pan Heyden]

"Shut up, and start shoot'n then!" Heyden barked back at Stukov like a disobediant dog.

Heyden pulled his machine sharply and violently, his antics had caught the attention of alot of AEUG pilots, and he was not going to be caught flat footed. Heyden oriented his thrusters, twisting his machine 180 degrees before he took off and went off flying towards the machines from Team 3.

Pan didn't even think of who exactly he was about to kill, He was thinking about the people he would be killing after. It was obvious to him that the looming ship in the distance was most likely the <i>Dervish</i>. And even so, he did not flinch about firing on his former comrades. With a quick scan of the four rick dias variants he took a crack shot at the Rick Dias S amongst them, all the while taking note of the two Nemos that were trying to keep up.

[Kenneth Graden]

Graden glanced at his timer, there'd still be a minute before his team could resortie, and there was two AEUG rick dias types heading towards the ship.

"I don't think so..." He muttered before taking off on his lonesome. "Time to show those kids how this is done"

Graden was sucked back in his seat as the Gaza-C urged forwards, and he launched the first strike firing a salvo of three shots at the two AEUG suits as he tried to push them back.

[Leandro Alvarez]
[Kirov Hangar]
Leandro was flustered, things were not going as well as he planned, and it seemed like setback after setback was holding him back. Now that his machine was ceasing to function properly just threw him over the edge. He tried to wave down one of his subordinates but to no avail, the hangar was a mess right now and it didn't look like he'd get his comm system working in time.

"Goddamnit!" He mumbled slamming his fist on the deactivated console.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

-team 3-

"They're not. Something about them--". Wes replied, sounding somwhat unsure of himself "I, uh...I'm only picking up two Nemos here. Something is wrong, Fan out and be careful. I don't like this one bit - these guys shouldn't be here."

"should've known sods law would kick in sooner or later." Wales replied snarkily, following wes' orders he stopped advancing and boosted to the side, keeping as far as he practically could from the mystery mobile suits while trying to maintain some rough formation with his teammates

when stukovs griffin pulled off its spin he accelerated backwards, a move that saved his life as the titans suit opened fire, the first shot missed but the second tore through the right leg, leaving a large hole in both the front and rear armour plating, despite himself he refrained from returning fire, after seeing it move wales knew he had no chance of hitting it at such long range

"i spoke too soon.." he muttered

-debris field-

"Well you're a sight for sore eyes." kite said by way of geeting as paris made her way inside the nemo's cockpit, she returned a similar soft smile to him as the hatch closed and they made their way back to the hamburg, clutching the side of the linear seat during the journey

"What happened to you guys out here?" he then asked, catching paris slightly off guard, she froze for a second, her first combat experience was hardly pleasant and she didn't feel like talking about it at the moment, and she was tired, but she didn't want to snap at the guy

"I..I don't know." she lied, "it was all kind of a blur...." after that she tried to relax, she could feel herself going to sleep but didn't fight it, briefly looking down at the cyclops team patch she had scruntched up in her hand, al...did you make it out alive too? before long she eventually drifted off into slumber.

[Kite_Ishma]

-Debris Field; Approaching the Hamburg

Kite shrugged accepting her answer as he made his way through hte debris filed back toward the Hamburg. He continuedto keep an eye on his surroundings noting the flashes in the distance around him, nothing close he had to worry about. He just hoped it stayed that way.

Without spending too much time on worrying about getting shot in the back Kite instead worked his way along the course he was given for the time being. His first battle wasn't all that great either considering his Nemo had jsut been hastily repaired and his whole team and ship were gone now... Almost made him wonder what he woudl be doing from then on. As far as he figured he would just hitch with the Hamburg and go from there.

Kite turned slightly looking back at Paris to say something but noticed she had fallen asleep and was starting to drift a bit. He made no attempts to wake her, instead kept his focus on the situation at hand as he closed in on the Hamburg. He opened a comm line sincehe was close enough now.

"This is Ensign Ishma, just wanted to let you know that I found your princess. Should get a medic or something ready for when I land. She doesn't seem to bad off but I'm sure she's in pain. As for her current status, she's out cold right now." He paused for a moment, looking back at her as he lined up with the AEUG ship for the second time that day.

[Attomoku]

Gamma

Lt. Te'litha

Surprising things were happening around Nick so fast he was a little stunned: The first surprising thing was that he wasn't shot full of holes instantly when he crashed into the AEUG team. He was doubly surprised when he heard Celeste and Fritz's voice and was about to give a snarky reply but was cut off when Wolf made his 'grand entrance.' even Nick had to admit it was a very flashy spectacle to see Wolf use practically every single explosive on hand available to take out a single hapless Gaza and draw the attention of almost every unit there. Then Nick was surprised again when Jack showed up to try and extract him, taking on Fritz and Michiko.
The unit he was currently locked with, (and had been ignoring, he had to admit) then laughed and said something a little stupid and preachy as he tried to rush his left side, but that was his saber hand and with a single upwards motion he deflected the slash to his chest and continuing the move he prevented Jacob's second swipe at his side/back with an over the shoulder block. Nick laughed back, this entire situation was getting ridiculous.
Suddenly Fritz and Michiko blew by, being chased by Sven and he listened to the AEUG Commander's warning as he and Jacob circled each-other. Now he had half a moment, Nick hit the command to un-spool the belt of left drum and letting go of his saber for a split second, with his now free left he quickly grabbed it and slammed the end home in the receiving port of the High Power 120mm Machinegun still in his Custom Barzam's right hand. The bolt again automatically cycling once to load the initial tracer as he snatched back the saber back from floating in front of him; His time without a melee weapon only just around 2 seconds, but the brazenness of what he did in the face of the enemy was probably the only thing that kept him from being instantly diced by Jacob, the deed already done by the time it registered.
Nick acknowledged Hepburn's message about Sven as it came in, but hesitated about complying before being forced to slide laterally to avoid Jacob's last pithy swipe as he boosted into an arc to follow his wingmen while the first of McCoy's fire came in. Nick saw his 'subordinate' get tagged and gladly figuring he should do something about the Zeon dickheads who would screw this up too, Nick opened up full-auto directly in the path of the incoming blue Gaza's, aiming to destroy them and prevent them from overrunning Jack as he tangled with Sven.

Delta Team, Kirov Hanger

Ltjg. Kelborn

Grace had landed back on the ship without incident, and though she hadn't seen much action, she was still tired. After she had run through the shutdown procedure and double checked to make sure her suit was still in top shape she took off out of the hanger. She wanted to find Jason, fall asleep in his arms, and just forget about this clusterf**k of an operation for now. So, now step one of her masterplan: Find Jason.

[The Loser Villain]

-Gamma Team, Kirov Hanger-

Shaking his head Aaron looked on as the mechanics serviced his Barzam. Hepburn hadn't returned yet after going after Te'litha. So far everything he'd heard about Te'litha seemed to be right. The man launched without his team, flew off into the battle alone and decided to start raising holly hell. Now with Hepburn out there trying to get him back, who knew what would happen.

"This is just f***** up," he said to nobody in particular.

----------------

-Team 2-

(OOC: not sure which Axis ship would be in range, so I'll just call it an Endra class for now)

"S***, me too. We may only be able to pop a few long shots before we need to run."

"Eddie, I'm almost in range," Sophie watched the target range grow closer, but she could also see her fuel gauge continue to drop down. "Just a little bit more... THERE!" With the nearest Endra class ship just in range she popped off three shots from the shoulder mounted cannon

-----------------

-Team 3-

"The HELL is that?!"
"Guys... Question. Since when were Marasais insanely agile and painted blue?"
"They're not. Something about them-- I, uh, I'm only picking up two Nemos here. Something is wrong. Fan out and be careful. I don't like this one bit - these guys shouldn't be here."

Terrace felt a tingle run down his spin. The way Wes was talking didn't sound all that inspiring and he couldn't help but notice how different this enemy unit moved and acted. They were almost like a pack of sharks, circling about and picking AEUG mobile suit off. At the same time he felt a rush, he'd already taken down a few Gaza-C's during the battle, why shouldn't he be able to hold his own.

His thought patterns almost cost him his life at that moment as Pan's blast came right at him. "Shoot!" he yelled juking right to avoid the incoming fire. "We need to take these guys down now, before they can get anymore of us!" Without thinking he took off after Pan's Griffin. He was fully confident that his level of piloting and the S-type Rick Dias he was flying would be more then enough to take this guy down.

Aiming his Clay Bazooka he fired off his last round and threw the weapon away as he continued after Pan, drawing a beam pistol into the left hand and a beam saber in the right. "Lets have a go at it!"

-----------------
-Bindra team, Bindra hangar-

"Hurry up!" Nikolai screamed as his Gaza-C was being refueled, "The Lt. Commander needs us out there!"

"It will be another few minutes for your unit sir," one of the crew responded, "We're going as fast as we can."

"Fine!" he said in a huff as he pushed off the floor of the hangar and headed for the cockpit, "Just let me know as soon as I'm ready!"

[Xvlai]

-Beta Team –

The traitor and his wingman weaved through the missiles as they fell back past the other AEUG units. Sven did not hesitate as he accelerated his Barzam, he knew he was overextended without support, but if he could just land a blow on the crippled traitor’s Dias the destiny would be slightly more secure. In a fluid motion he crooked the clay bazooka into the left arm as he slide a beam saber from its sheath. Sven had no intention of engaging in close combat, but he had to be prepared. Nearing Nick and the other AEUG Suits Sven kept a wary eye upon the unpredictable Te’litha.

Suddenly Ashlyn’s all too calm voice erupted through the open channel, “Nick, if you’re still listening, I’d get out of here while the getting’s good. Ritter and his creeps aren’t the kind to practice adequate trigger discipline with you and I around if you know what I mean, and Celeine would be pretty angry with me if I had to kill you to keep you off of my friend Jacob there,”. Sliding through the beams fired by Ashlyn, Sven thundered past the interlocked Mobile Suits of Nick and who he assumed to be Jacob. Taking aim at the retreating Ashlyn, Sven slowed his Barzam to gain optimal accuracy with his clay bazooka, as he did so he coldly broadcast a message to the surrounding enemies, “You might jest Ashlyn, but there are none here quite as capable of misplacing trigger discipline then Te’litha, or perhaps you hadn’t heard about the late Ritter Senior?. Too bad, you can discuss it with Te’litha when he joins you in hell.” Punctuating his threat Sven began to fire the rest of the missiles ordinance towards the two Rick Dias’. Firing his clay bazooka, Sven’s first round was on target, but his second went wide as his Barzam was violently thrust forward and engulfed in a small explosion.

The first of Jackson’s beam rounds had connected with the right missile launcher clipping it off and detonating the remaining ordinance. As it happened Jackson had taunted Sven just as Sven had spoken to Ashlyn causing him to miss it entirely. Luckily the explosion had pushed Sven away from the remaining shots. Emerging from the cloud of Debris Sven’s Barzam largely remained intact. Most of the paint on the torso formed a sick pattern due to being incinerated. Rolling his Barzam so as to keep it faced towards Jackson Sven maneuvered it in tight semi circle away from the AEUG and Titan Units. The Barzam’s largely incinerated arm was still operation and still gripped the Clay Bazooka but it was in no condition to continue fighting. Knowing his time was up and the odds were not in his favor Sven quickly decided to attempt to rejoin Beta Team or at least retreat from all the hostiles in the area. Shifting away from the fight Sven communicated on the Titans frequency, “Hepburn, right? I hope Black made it worth your while, when this is all done, I WILL kill you”

[Ziryab]

-aboard the Bindra -
-hangar-

"Not good," Pris repeated to herself as she tried to ignore Nikolai whining.

She continued to busy herself by using a pole along the catwalk above as a substitute striking bag. "Too soon to fight again with just minimal repairs," sweat floating off her face while striking the pole over and over again to keep from coming down her current high.

"Like the old days all over again," gritting her teeth.

[mcred23]

-Team 2-
-Eddie-

"Eddie, I'm almost in range," Sophie said as various sensors in Eddie's Rick Dias Custom began beeping, alerting him to an incoming Axis unit in its mobile suit form.

"Just a little bit more... THERE!" Sophie quickly ripped a trio of shots at almost the same moment the Axis suit did the same. The incoming shots would come closer to Eddie, who instantly stood on the pedals and opened his thrusters up, pulling up to barely clear the shots, one of which slagged the tip of the left foot and knocked the MSA-099S to its left, but Eckardy kept the machine from spinning.

"Lets finish this quick, Sophie..." Eddie grumbled as he aimed his weapons and fired a pair of shots from both the rifle and pistol at the incoming Gaza.

[Rob DS Zeta]

-Arc Sunoue-

Arc had his Marasai sitting pretty on the bulkhead of an old Salamis in the debris field, watching other Titans suits fly in from the battle. It was more fun than flying circles around the Kalinin, though it was still boring enough to cause the young pilot to yawn.

"This sucks..." he groaned, almost wishing that a random AEUG or Axis unit would fly in so that he could shoot at it. Unfortunately, sitting still was not the way to run down a mobile suit's battery. It was, however, a good way to keep alive. The fleet was behind him, and he could see everything in front of him.

Not that anything out there made sense to him.

"If you can hear this," he said to the general channel. "Fall back to your ship. Stop thinking you're a hero and fall back to your ship. Situation is FUBAR..."

[Inferno]

-Kou-

Seeing backup arrive, Kou found himself faced with a choice. He hadn't been hit yet, he could still fight. But he also knew he could be the only member of his team remaining. And the Titans suit, the blue Marasai, it was definatly superior to the Nemo. If only he had Unit 3...

"LtJg Kou Uraki, pulling back." She silently cursed himself for letting the titans get the drop on him as he jetted back to the Balrampur.

[The Big Zabowski]

-Jack-

"IT AIN'T OVER YET SON! YOU GONNA CUT AN' RUN NOW!"

Jack gunned his engines and took after Sven, popping off a total of 6 shots from his rifle as the Barzam attempted to escape.

"I betcha never knew this but Black was just as much a dick as your friend Ritter back there. You may still have something left back home on Earth now.. but just you wait. We'll all get our reckoning some day."

The beams would target the main thrust assembly at the back followed by the thighs and 'groin' thruster in a tight grouping. Even if he missed he'd get Sven out of there.

"I hope you burn in hell, Sven! You and Ritter!"

As Nick attempted to shoot down the Gazas, Jack would finally peel off of Sven as he pulled out of the combat zone. Turning on a dime, he popped off a quartet of shots again from his rifle at the advancing suits while they were sprayed with high caliber ammo from Nick. From his distane, Jack called out to Nick even in the midsts of the fight.

"NICK! Go! Sven's bugged out! High tail it back to the Kirov and don't wait for me!"