Episode 12 - Operation Apollo

[Wedge14]

Pan and his young wingman had slowed down and gathered their two nemos in a spacy crater. Pan put his Nemo's hand on the Ensign's suit's shoulder.

Pan's voice reverberated through his comrades cockpit. "We let the Gela team hit first kid...They'll draw the fire and we'll go out there and keep the tombstone engravers in business.."

The Gela(Richy) leader started opening fire. "Let's move!!" Pan said erupting from the crater like a shooting star. He was a bit behind the pilot from the Gela but he could see the squad of Titan's mobile suits. He kept moving..but kept the Richard infront of him. Instinctively he opened fire unannounced his shots streaming close by to the friendly nemo infront of him and towards his target. The exact same suit Richard had fired at...the one that appeared to be a sniping model.

[Cybaster]

"Just do what the Lieutenant ordered and we'll be okay," Julian answered, his Nemo following suit with the rest of his team away from the Chuikov. "We'll perform long-range support, mainly. Stay close to me, and if there's a target that requires attention, I'll point it out. Otherwise, fire at any Titans you see, but don't close into melee unless they do --- these Nemos are sturdy enough, but there's nothing that'll protect against a well-placed Beam Saber, so don't try until it's needed."

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

"Thank you, Captain, I would at that,” came the reply from the doorway behind Abbey. Gates frowned and crossed his legs as Celeine stood at Abbey’s right. "I've never been on hand for a fight in space, Captain; besides the obvious, is there any significant difference between fighting here rather then on Earth?" she asked as she watched the fighting.

Abbey’s hands rested idly at the end of his chair’s armrests as he searched for an answer. He cleared his throat and replied, “Having seen combat on Earth and in space, I’d have to say this is much more difficult. What most people don’t understand is how fragile these battleships really are; they imagine us floating around in zero-G versions of the big steel seafaring vessels of old, plugging away at each other’s armor. The truth is, this is much more akin to submarine combat. One solid hit will decompress and sink a cruiser the size of a Salamis if it doesn’t cause a catastrophic explosion. I wont bore you with tactics but suffice it to say the difference is huge and at the same time infinitesimal,”.

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

Loweno sucked in and held a breath from the time the missile salvo was launched until he confirmed the hit on the Kirov himself. As soon as the projectile made it through the enemy’s CIWS cloud, he pumped his fist in triumph and his grin returned. “There! What did I say? That’s why we get sent out as a picket, men!” he crowed, feeling a slight adrenaline rush. After being forced to back off his attack on that Alexandria-class in the 4th’s last engagement, he was glad to have a shot at another one so soon. “Keep up our forward barrage. Missile team, stand by for–”

**GA-WHOOOM**

If the gravity had been any stronger, André would have been pitched head-first into the bridge window. Thanks to lunar conditions, the jolt was slow enough that he had time to let go of his binoculars and brace himself with both hands. “What the hell just happened?!” he demanded, looking back at the harried bridge crewmen. The helmsman gulped, “Captain, a mega particle blast just missed our starboard side by meters. I suggest we adjust our position or fall back now, sir,”. Loweno brushed it off and huffed, “There’s no need for that yet. I’ve got Carl at my back with the rest of the fleet. He’ll know when to step in. Hold position,”.

- Dixon’s Nemo Squad -

Dixon gritted his teeth and quickly shoved Tulowitzki to the back-burner as the Marasai continued to give him trouble. He mumbled a curse as Stukov boosted off the lunar surface, and he watched his return fire fail to track the Marasai’s path properly. “Damn thing’s not leading him!” he complained, backing away from the cover he had been behind. The first two shots Stukov sent down at him were off the mark, but the third connected below Dixon’s right knee, severing the leg from the joint down. “Aaagh!” he yelled, struggling to maintain control. He gained some altitude and tried to find a small crater or ravine to regroup in. “Tulowitzki! On Me!” he commanded, hoping he could be heard through the Minovsky.

The two shots Mercedes fired at Tulowitzki sailed wide as the young LTjg continued her panicked evasive. Without having seen or heard Dixon’s predicament, she desperately tried to find her lieutenant’s machine so she could at least have some backup. She fired back at Mercedes wildly as she gave up ground.

The trio of Nemos from Von Braun City closed in on the Herakles team. One of their opening shots found McMullen’s mobile suit dead center in the torso and it keeled over instantly, neutralized thanks to a stone dead pilot. “Oi! Told you guys I’d get one!” one of the pilots gloated, his Nemo’s toes touching both of his wingmen. As 120mm return fire began closing in on their position, the other two broke away to find cover. “Whatever. Let’s go for 2,” the victorious member said to himself as he looked for a place to advance on the enemy safely. Just as his computer alerted him to the presence of another enemy mobile suit, Leandro’s beam launcher shot tore his Nemo’s head clean off at the shoulders, burning away the stump and peeling paint away. With a surprised curse, the pilot hit the deck and moved closer to his two wingmen who were returning fire on Lepak and Brown.

One of the two Hamburg Nemos that remained closer to the ship narrowly avoided Alpha’s fire thanks to having one eye glued to his targeting computer. His companion floated closer to him and the two opened fire on the Kalinin team as rapidly as they could with two beam rifles.

- Mello and Sumitani -

The two New Yarkers poured on speed until they passed straight under the Hamburg, not slowing down until they reached the area of the craters where Gamma team was advancing. “Stop them here! Keep that striped one occupied!” Mello ordered through touch contact in the brief second his Nemo’s shoulder brushed Sumitani’s unit. As the duo opened fire on Nick, Ramon yelled, “Tacky decorations, FOOOOO~!”.

- Fritz and Michiko -

As his Rick Dias cannonballed across the battlefield right into the teeth of Echo, the lingering memories of the last war actually gave Fritz a rush instead of conjuring up worries and regrets. This was how it felt to charge Solomon. Michiko’s unit rushed onwards close to his, and he reached out and touched her binder with his bazooka. “Michiko! Stay near me but don’t bunch up. Strafe ships and avoid a stalled engagement with their mobile suits!,” he said. A strong “Yes sir!” came the reply. They passed the Hamburg, the ship a long green blur, and headed straight for the Kirov’s starboard side to pass it to get to the idle ships at the back of the Titan formation. As soon as he hit the edge of firing range, Fritz loosed a couple of bazooka rounds at the Kirov as discouragement as they turned to move on the Hades.

- Ltjg. Abendroth -

Using his Rick Dom’s verniers to turn his suit away from his comrades, he began scanning the surrounding Titan ships and units. “Whatever we’re going to do, let’s get started. These Titans need something to occupy them while they wait to fight,”.

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

While Filmore and Wade kept him abreast of the Nemo teams’ advance, the captain pulled his sleeve back to look at his watch. After a few moments, he brushed the sleeve back down and cleared his throat. “Jungst, launch a single ‘advance’ signal flare. Capt. Loweno has done brilliantly, just like I expected,” he ordered. Gates leaned forward in his seat as if trying to figure out what Abbey could see that he couldn’t. “Exactly what is it that’s different now, captain? Why didn’t you just advance to the Hamburg’s position when we arrived?” he asked, managing to hide a great deal of his impatience.

Abbey crossed his arms and replied, “I was waiting for our MS teams to tie up their advance. It wouldn’t have done André or the rest of us any good to fly five more huge targets right into their line of fire without cover. Now that we’ve got a line we can push them back from, they’ll have to either commit to it or their smaller advance unit is going to have to fall back to where the rest of their fleet is. Either way we should be in position first,”. Gates rested back in his seat and stroked his chin. “And Capt. Loweno knew about this?” he asked. “He knew why I chose the Hamburg as our picket ship, Mr. Gates. And I knew he wanted a second chance at a stand-up fight,” Abbey responded.

[Gambit01]

-Dervish-

"I see," Celeine said in gratitude at the captain's answer. She was going to ask another, when he immediately thrust himself into the middle of things. She settled back in and stayed out of the way.





-Gamma Team-

As the two Nemos directly ahead fired, Nick's somewhat garbbled radio picked up the rather childish insult.

“Tacky decorations, FOOOOO~!”

Hmph

Nick decided to pull what he called...'an oldie but a goodie'. It was a manuver that would require expert timing, some space around him, and above all else, no one behind him.

Nick waited as the Nemos fired; waited as the beams came in fast; waited until the last possible moment....

Then hit his emergency-upper body thrusters in reverse while still maintaining forward lower thrust; the result was a backflip, causing the two beam shots to pass harmlessly overhead, though it was close; if the armor wasn't bured-let alone the paint job- then Nick would honestly be shocked. For a split-second, from the Nemos perspective it would look like the beams had connected, but the lack of pretty explosions would quickly convince them otherwise, Nick knew, so he had to act fast.

The backflip brought him horizontal facing his enemies, and he outstretched his ignitied beam sabers, intending to skewer both Nemos at once.

"Insults should best saved until after the opponent has been defeated, 'Foo.'"




-Dervish-

Celeine didn't exactly approve of sending soldiers into battle without them knowing what was going on, but she wasn't here to judge Abbey's decision or blind faith in his subordinates; she was simply here to record, satisfy her readers, and find someone.

Celeste, A**-hole, Celeine silently prayed, please find him.

[EZero8]

--Wes Curren--

Seeing that Jim was pretty much lagging a bit, he took the lead and continued to speed towards the battle. He grits his teeth as they quickly approach the skirmish.

"Stay close Zeke... we dont want your idiotic antics to get yourself killed." Wes says over the COM. They were right at the edge when the first few Titans ships appear within firing range.

[King Monkey]

Dervish Outer Hull

Markado waits as long as his young nerves will allow, sweat beading on his brow and rolling down the sides of his face as well as soaking the absorbent padding inside his helmet. He manages to return Celeste's thumbs up and almost keys his microphone before remembering it would be pointless.

Being IN a battle was terrifying, being this close to one and having to watch while comrades fought and risked their lives was nerve wracking. Seeing a trio of enemy suits drawing in towards the Hamburg, his nerve finally breaks.

He has no idea if the Rick Dias' bazooka will even reach the target at this range, having little familiarity with the weapon. Nonetheless, he takes careful aim at one of the incoming Marasai's of Alpha Squad and squeezes off a shot, little realizing there is a young, female pilot within the Mobile Suit.

[Imperial]

Randal's eyes bugged out at his superior's fancy handling. He had to hand it to the other pilot; that was some amazing piloting.

"You're not half bad, you know what?" He chuckled darkly as he moved in to flank a Nemo as he fired three beam pulses while Nick rushed another.

[Cardi Doorl]

OOC: Herakles/RoZ/AEUG RPs coming soon

IC:
- Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Combat Bridge -

"Herakles Team just lost a unit, sir," called out Sergei.

Trent gritted his teeth. A man just died for a diversionary attack.

Then sensors went wild with incoming enemy mobile suits, including a pair of red ones (Rick Dias?) that bore down on the Kirov in particular. One of them fired a bazooka, resulting in mild shudders throughout the ship as the shells impacted, but nothing compared to what a warship-scale weapon could do. As CIWS shifted to fire at the new targets, Trent intoned, "Looks like they took the bait after all."

Trent wouldn't have shed a tear had the AEUG decided to withdraw rather than take said bait, but it was no longer his choice in the matter. Now that the prey had come, he had no choice but to see if they could be reeled in.

"All units," he ordered, "Fall back to the initial point."

Signal flares were sent up immediately.

- Alpha Team -

Stukov noticed the retreat signals just as Dixon's Nemo lost a leg. The AEUG mobile suit apparently tried to pull away from the fight, but Stukov, in spite of a withdrawal order, wasn't about to let that happen. He angled his Marasai forward to bear down on Dixon. Not one to fall victim to tunnel vision, Stukov kept his senses in check as he fired his beam rifle two more times at his target.

-

Leandro hardly expected to become a target so early in the fight. His threat indicator blared like mad as several Nemos assaulted him. Only two opened fire.

It was time to stop crawling along, then. Turning in any direction would've taken too much time, so Leandro hit his thrusters to propel himself straight forward. The beams intended for him slashed into the ground. In the back of his mind, he noted that he was thusly putting himself deeper into the fray, but it wasn't as if he had much choice when suddenly assaulted. Really, his only other option was to take the hits. Only an idiot would take that.

Leandro thrusted forward in a way put the body of his Hizack Custom at a 45-degree angle to the ground. He rotated the entire machine so that it was still at an angle, but thrusting "backward", then fired a shot at the nearest Nemo (Richard).

-

Mercedes was about press on against her clearly panicked target when a bazooka shell screamed in from seemingly nowhere. It forced her to halt so it would slam into Lunar surface instead of her Marasai. She glanced around quickly, but couldn't immediately identify a source. Not about to waste any more time on a heated battlefield, and having lost track of Tulowitzki's Nemo, Mercedes pulled away to find Stukov. In doing so, she spotted the Von Braun Nemos ducked behind some cover and casually sent a duo of beam bolts at them.

- Kalinin Team -

Not one to put much stock in fancy moves, Bate put his Marasai into a wide strafe to evade the Hamburg Nemos' return fire. It was then he noticed the retreat flare. He couldn't simply retreat his team all at once and suddenly, though, or Gamma Team would fall victim to vicious enfilading fire. They'd have to fall back gradually then-

Bate was then suddenly aware that half his team had been cut off by a high-altitude attack. One of the machine gunners had to stop suddenly in his tracks as beams lanced down from the sky. The "third" Hizack was left with a large scorch in its chest as it just barely swerved it time to evade Bernard's beams. As the assailant took cover behind a rock formation, he fires two last times at the "fourth" Hizack. The targeted Hizack practically fell to the ground in its attempts to roll away from the sudden shot. bate knew the guy was damn lucky.

"You guys see the flares; fall back! With Gamma Team!" he shouted. He maneuvered his Marasai away from the bulk of the fighting, firing twice in at the Hamburg Nemos so they would keep their heads down. Runnels and the two machine gunners fired at Bernard, hoping to keep him down.

[Ascension]

((Silly EZero8... Jim never lags! He's been right there in the thick of it this whole time, you just didn't notice him due to his stupidity!))

-Jim MacAlpin

Jim, following close on Fritz's tail, accompanied him past the Titan mobile suits and as far as the Kirov. There, however, he stopped, rather than following Ashlyn on to the Hades.

"Lieutenant Ashlyn! We should go for the big one first! It's gotta be their flagship!"

Jim didn't think his transmission would make it through the thick minovsky, but he made it anyway. He knew the suit's black box would record it, and it would look at the hearing like he at least tried to get his superior's approval before acting on his own instinct.

He dropped below the big ship, hugging the lunar landscape. He knew most ships had fewer AA guns on their bellies. When he was almost directly under its main engines, he boosted upwards, flying towards them while firing his bazooka.

((Firing at the Kirov's engines from underneath the ship...))

-Nathan Dombrowski

Captain Dombrowski's mood brightened when he saw the Dervish's advance flare.

"Gunners! We prepare to join the battle! Be ready! Helm, forward!"

He half-rose from his seat, caught up in an anxious excitement. He hadn't felt like this during battle for quite some time... but this battle was different. It was a race against time to see if the main fleet would be able to relieve the Hamburg before its destruction.

((Just moseying on towards the battle at Salamis-speed...))

[wonton bob]

Bernard's plan to catch the four titan suits (Kalinin Team) in a crossfire with the two Hamburg Nemos did not come to fruition. As flares pierce the Lunar black sky, machine gun rounds pelted the ground on either side of Bernard. The safeguard that was a rock took a nice blow from a beam round and Bernard lost a good chunk of protection. His Nemo takes a knee and prepares for any further attacks from them.

Withdrawal flares? Well then, why don't you be good little soldiers and follow orders. I did my part holding the line. Now hopefully they leave and we'll start round 2.

[Wedge14]

Richard reacted smoothly tapping his thrusters just slightly and gracefully the shots streaming past him towards Pan.

Pan snarled and reacted jerkily the shots just barely wincing by his Nemo's right shoulder. He gnashed his teeth with anger as he propelled his Nemo forwards himself forwards, almost tearing off Barrique's shield arm in the process.

"Worse part about these scum***** is that you can only kill them once!" Pan mumbled to himself as he met the challenge.

Pan answered the custom Hizack back with a quick barrage of three shots. While Richard only fired once. Only 1 shot of Pan's was an actual shot. Using the recoil from the Nemo's rifle the two other shots where off target...but he was hoping the Hizack would throw himself into him.

(3 love kisses from pan and 1 from richard towards Leandro)

[Cardi Doorl]

- Chuikov Team -

Jonas felt the shudder as his Nemo made contact with the surface. Once again taking advantage of the weak Lunar gravity, Jonas activated his thruster to a low setting and skimmed across the ground like a Dom from the One Year War.

The battle ahead was clearly intensifying. He knew his team would be jumping into a hot zone. Scanning the area for any units that needed support, Jonas noted the Von Braun Nemos. Of all the Nemo teams out there, they were the only ones that didn't outnumber their enemies, being that they were three against three. Jonas liked those odds, so he motioned to Caroline with his shield, then propelled himself toward the Von Braun team. He was still somewhat at a distance, but he fired at a Hizack (Constantine) over the heads of the fortified Nemos.

* * *

- Dooparalamoore Tri-Stars -

Dieguez smirked as Radice and Abendroth continued the banter. Like him, they weren't exactly eager to fight the Titans' fight, but they wanted to be doing something, at least.

"Well, we're not cleared to advance and engage the enemy just yet, but we can always bother our good Federal friends here some other way. Perhaps we can warm up with some buzzing?"

[Folken Fanel]

Vantz followed Jonas across the surface, mimicking his way of hovering over the lunar surface. As he moved over the surface, Vantz spared a glance up at the battle above.

When Jonas moved to engage a group of Titans, Vantz followed, knowing that the best way to survive was to stick with someone with experience. Vantz wasn't gonna end up as barbecue.

[mcred23]

- Team 2 -

They were still racing foward behind the main force, although Eckardy had slowed the team down somewhat. Several flares had gone up from the Titan forces, and all four men had thought it ment a retreat, but the fighting was still going on and looked like it might for a while.

Eckardy slowed slightly more. "What say we f*** 'em from behind, eh kids?" He said, his voice barely covering the short distance in the Minovsky Interference. Again, the men simply followed as he shot out the crater they were in and raced low and fast along the Lunar surface.

The other members of Team 2 followed Eddie for several minutes before he made a hard turn to his right, still going at full speed. The chest of his Rick Dias was just meters off the surface and the team had to spread out into a line to keep out of the dust he was tossing up.

It quickly became apparent what he was doing, as the distant shape of the Titan shapes was spotted. All made sure that they had their weapons up and ready to fire as they rocketed towards weapon range.

===============================================

OOC: For reference, here is a map of the movements of Team 2, based on the one Fritz posted earlier.

===============================================

- Dooparalamoore Tri-Stars -

"Well, we're not cleared to advance and engage the enemy just yet, but we can always bother our good Federal friends here some other way. Perhaps we can warm up with some buzzing?" Carlos inquired.

Ron grinned and played with the controls of his MS, making one of it's arms move as if the MS was stretching. "Ya know, I'm quite content to just float here, but if our glorious leader, Lieutenant Dieguez, thinks the Tee-tahns need a buzzin', I'll gladly go along with it." He finished with a goofy grin.

[Cybaster]

Julian's own sentiments were otherwise with Vantz; he had a feeling that even with Lieutenant Anderson's orders, Vantz would be more comfortable near their team leader than with him alone. Hence, as Jonas and Caroline advanced, as did Julian, moving only a bit behind Jonas beneath his Nemo's legs.

"Right. We'll still stay close to the Lieutenant. Let's engage that other Mobile Suit."

Bringing his Nemo across into strafing position towards his left, Julian raised his Nemo's Beam Rifle and fired two interdicting shots at Brown's Hizack to follow Anderson's suit, in an attempt to cut Brown and Pendragon off from each other and prevent them from concentrating their fire at Jonas and Caroline.

[Psyden]

Pendragon, upon seeing the incoming fire seemingly from the crouched Nemos, shoves Dante’s Marasai down and away from the bolts and dodges to the left. The shots go wide, but that can be attributed to the distance and because Constantine never dropped his guard while talking. Had he not kept an eye out, he’d most likely be dead. But such thoughts are at the back of his mind as he returns fire at the sheltered Nemos. The 120s won’t punch through the Lunar rock, but it’d make for good suppressive fire.

But keeping those Nemos’ heads down drops sharply on his priority list as more Nemos arrive to try and cut him off from Lt. Brown. As much as he despises the man for cowardice, he can’t sit back and let the man die, if not merely for that fact that if he did, Pendragon will most likely be punished for dereliction of duty. It is actually funny, in a sort of way. The ‘courageous’ Lieutenant wanted to stay out of the battle, but the battle found him anyway. Kind of like fate, no?

As the young Ensign boosts full throttle, flying just above the Lunar surface, he uses both of the Hizack’s manipulators to level the machinegun at the nearest Nemo (Julian) and pulls the trigger, sending a spray of bullets at him, intent on tracking him with it, but weary of Brown’s position. It won’t do to kill the one your trying to save, now will it?

[Fritz Ashlyn]

(OOC: The VB trio's actions will come at 2 am if there is no post from EfreetCustom or Agent Fisher)

IC:
- Mello and Sumitani -

If Nick’s move had fooled both men, it would have been the death of them. Luckily for the two (in hindsight), only Ramon was taken in by the maneuver. “Hit!” Sumitani shouted as the Hizack backflipped, but Mello instantly realized what was happening and tried to move out of the way; as Ramon put his Nemo into a celebratory pose, Corey put his MS into a hard evasive to the left. Mello’s Nemo collided with Hard AE’s, his shield striking his wingman’s arm and sending Ramon’s suit into an unwanted spin. One of Nick’s beam sabers sheared off Sumitani’s shield, taking a good chuck of the forearm with it, and the other passed closely in front of Mello’s Nemo without landing a hit. “Say! Say! Say!” Ramon protested as he reversed the spin and backed away from the Hizack, “Such dishonesty!”. Mello hit his backpack thrusters and escaped straight up away from the lunar surface. The two were momentarily split up, but at least they were out of Nick’s immediate range.

- Fritz and Michiko -

Fritz wasn’t actually looking at the Kirov when his bazooka rounds hit, but a tap from Michiko brought his attention back to the Alexandria. It was just in time, too, because the big ship’s CIWS teams filled the lunar sky like it was the end of the world. “...zurück am Solomon!” Fritz exclaimed as he concentrated on weaving through the cloud of AA fire. Michiko managed to keep up for the most part past a few peeps of surprise at near-misses. Thanks to the bright and dangerous distraction, Fritz neither heard nor saw Jim as he moved to the Kirov’s underside. While in a safe pocket between gun positions, Fritz grabbed one of Michiko’s binders long enough to say, “Move past it when you have the chance! We’re going to focus on the ship to the Alexandria’s aft-starboard!”. Michiko replied, “O-okay!” and continued along near Fritz as they danced their way through the streams of fire to the rear of the flagship. Up ahead of them, the Hades loomed.

- Dixon’s Nemo Squad -

Tulowitzki was grateful for the bazooka round that got the Marasai off her back, and she didn’t care where it came from. She immediately took the opportunity to disengage so she could find Lt. Dixon. At that moment, Dixon was focusing on Stukov and his parting shots. Just as he was about to put his one-legged Nemo into an Evasive, Tulowitzki landed next to him and clamped a hand on his suit’s shoulder. “–tenant Dixon! We need to back off and regroup!”

“Let go! Lieutenant, let go of my shoulde–” he ordered angrily at the distraction, but his words were cut off as the last of Stukov’s shots lanced down through his Nemo’s chest. Tulowitzki screamed in surprise and fear as she instinctively boosted away from her CO’s mobile suit, and she clamped her eyes shut as they began to tear up. Her linear seat filtered out all but a tiny rumble as the shockwave of Dixon’s MS exploding washed past her.

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

“Captain, we just lost a mobile suit,” someone called out. Loweno’s jaw set as he turned to the nearest operator for confirmation. From the window, the helmsman somberly said, “I think it was one of ours, sir. Dixon and one of the others headed in that direction,”. Loweno growled a curse and folded his arms. As he was thinking of a properly vengeful course of action, one of the spotters announced, “Titan flares up. Looks like it might be a retreat signal,”. Loweno smiled grimly and ordered, “Prepare to advance. I want to chase them right off Luna,”.

- Nemo Squad -

The pair of Nemos that stayed close to the Hamburg tried to track Alpha with their fire to no avail as the leader of the Kalinin’s team put his suit into a strafing move. Because they were both already focusing on Alpha’s Marasai, they moved away from each other and allowed his parting shots to pass between them. Just to be sure the enemy really was falling back, they continued firing at the rest of his squad to force them further away.

- Ltjg. Abendroth -

"Well, we're not cleared to advance and engage the enemy just yet, but we can always bother our good Federal friends here some other way. Perhaps we can warm up with some buzzing?" Carlos offered. Ron flexed his Rick Dom’s arm and said, "Ya know, I'm quite content to just float here, but if our glorious leader, Lieutenant Dieguez, thinks the Tee-tahns need a buzzin', I'll gladly go along with it,”. Abendroth smiled and replied, “That’s all I need to hear. Sounds like I can interpret an order from that. All I need is an excuse for an explanation,”. His MS boosted away from his comrades as he headed in the direction of the Buxoro.

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

When the flares went up from the Kirov, Abbey’s eyes narrowed as he tried to interpret the enemy's intent. “Accelerate us to full speed. Gunnery teams stand by...”

[EZero8]

--Wes Curren--

As he had expected, Jim had gone off to do his own thing, leaving Wes alone. He caught sight of Fritz and Michiko aiming at the front running ship, the Kirov, so it didnt take Curren too long before he also began taking his shots at the Kirov. While sniping it with his bem rifle, he noticed something large come within view...

"Holy s***..." Wes muttered as the area around him was riddled with AA fire from the Alexandria-class. He quickly weaved through the heavy firepower before making a passing through to attack the side opposite from Fritz and Michiko's position. After sneaking one more potshot at the Kirov, Wes swerved to the left of the ship, passing over to the right side. The Kalinin is ahead.

"This is gonna be more interesting than I thought..." he muttered as he sped towards the enemy ship.

[Ascension]

-Chuikov Team

Caroline matched Jonas's actions move for move... Well, okay, she attempted to mirror him... but clumsy thruster handling almost sent her face-first into the lunar dust... Recovering fairly quickly, she caught up with him shortly after he opened fire on the Hizacks. She followed suit, raising her beam rifle and firing twice in the general direction of the Hizack team. Her aim, as you can imagine, nearly matched her piloting in its inelegance, but at least she made an effort.

[Agent Fisher]

"@&$#!" Said Brown, as the shots cut in front of him. He was out in the open and had no choice but to plow through the fire, his Hizack weighted down with the beam rifle. Finally, he reached the friendly lines, just as a bolt of energy hits his left arm, tearing off the hand. Alarms started ringing in his cockpit. He raised his machine gun with his right hand and used the left arm to support it as he fired at the Nemos.