Episode 17 - Star-crossed

[Lans]

- Hamburg Team –
- Chuikov vicinity -

In a blink of an eye Randy saw his shots scored on Gallagher’s Hizack. Not sure about the actual damage but confident that his target was crippled to some extent. He saw Gallagher’s unit turned around followed with the other three Hizacks. He trained his aim on the next Hizack but his opponents already retaliate happily before he was able to fire. Soon enough, bright orange-ish colors of incinerate bullets racing toward him, backgrounded by the black space. He was about to feel nostalgic when one of them fired a beam that lanced close below.

‘Green painted mono eye and machine gun, a Zeke design allright,’ he sighed at that thought while making no comment on the beam shots.

The incoming shots trailed on his approach randomly, scattered. He can’t really say he dodged them as he didn’t do much. The sheer speed and velocity of his charge were the one who did the job. He regained a solid lock and fired his last two shots at the Hizack next to Gallagher. Having done that, he turned his attention to his original target and was surprised that Gallagher didn’t open fire or stay idle from the damage, but assailed him in a wide loop.

The two units closing up rapidly, within seconds Randy tried to gained advantage from his opponent move by veered his unit more to the right, trying to make the rest of Ipswich team on Gallagher’s back. Randy gave the Hizack a generous burst of vulcan fire and threw away his empty rifle, a diversion trick, trying to obscure his opponent’s vision along with their targeting system.

In the finale of his charge Randy didn’t bother to slow down his Nemo, wielded the beam saber and circled around before decided to roll the dice. He slashed forward, aiming nothing in particular but trying to hit Hizack’s backpack.

(( Just to be sure, if this in any way considered 'bunnying' Gallagher please let me know, I’ll be more than happy to edit ))

[ScornMandark]

Dervish
- Mobile Suit Hangar -

Rem floated in with the rest of the team that worked on the top side gun. He gave Dr. Merkwürdigliebe a high sign and started to head towards him when he heard Sagar bellowing over the com.

"Now, dammit! I need a team on the engine mount now! I've already got a team on the starboard catapult !" He was apparently yelling at one of the personel coordinaters, who had doubled up a mechanic crew.

Rem looked around the bay, and saw that there were still no suits that had returned from the fighting yet. "Chief, I'm still game."

[wonton bob]

- Near Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Gamma Team -

Jason witnessed the lead Rick Dias (Eddie) fire at Grace's Marasai and then fire at his and Patrick's position. It is definitely made for speed but it also appears that this doesn't help its aim. Jason quickly taps his thrusters and slides left avoiding the hasty shots.

seems like he's keeping us busy while his pals hit the Kirov...well, they'd better hold on

"Three against one. Let's donk off this guy fast! Miller hit 'em up front I got ya covered!" Jason barks.

Keeping his distance Jason tries to get a lead on the Dias (Eddie) and fires two shots at it's midsection -where he thinks the pilot should be.

[Wedge14]

-Pan Heyden-
-Somewhere near the Chuikov-

As the Masarai unleashed a hailstorm of vulcan rounds Pan erupted with laughter as they struck his mobile suit sending a sickening pinning sound that vibrated into his brain.

"YOU'LL DIE HERE!"

He howled snapping his Rick Dias out of Ryu's follow up attacks. Pan followed up by closing the gap between the two mobile suits firing only once. Pan could tell Ryu wanted to close the gap. Pan didn't mind, might as well honour a dying man's last wish.

[Montague]

- Buxoro Team -

The Lieutenant couldn't help supppress the grin creeping along his thin face as he watched the AEUG in a frantic dance attempting to avoid the barrage that the Titans were providing. His foe in particular, a squad leader's Nemo, was overwhelmed by the amount of fire in his direction. M-Hover, who continued to astound Elijah, was relentless in his pursuit of their target as he sped toward the green and blue mobile suit.

With a flick of the wrist the Longbowmen's Hizack 'ascended', the term used loosely in the vastness of Space, so that his own mobile suit was angled above the Nemo. Sharp brown eyes watched a solemn reticule dance about his foe's suit before it came still just above its torso. With a press of the trigger the first shot was fired midway through the Lieutenant's ascent. The second, aimed slightly higher then the previous, came just a few moments later as the Hizack climbed higher.

Having fired the rounds a sense of caution swept over Elijah as he kept aware the fact that he had just distanced himself from Buxoro Team, the two Ensigns in particular. His eyes shifted to where the Hizacks remained, the pair were trained on the other Nemo which seemed to be teammates of the suit Picard and himself were dealing with. At the moment Buxoro Team was functioning like any well oiled machine should, and Elijah sought to it that they pressed on.

[Psyden]

--Titans Autonomous Task Force Echo--
--Proximity of Alexandria Class Heavy Cruiser Kirov--

As the shots come in, Grace puts her suit into a hard dive down and to the left of her original position to get down and under the volleys streaking towards her in a form that no body could charitably link with her name. The crudeness of the maneuver might broadcast to all of space that she was no seasoned pilot, lacking both the flare often seen in hotshot pilots or the subtle delicacy of highly skilled veterans, but it did its job… mostly. One of the trailing beam pistol shots sheers through the upper torso, between the head and shoulder. While the bolt does little damage to the internal structure, it peels the armor open, exposing those inner workings to space, and perhaps of more concern, to lighter weapons like vulcan or phalanx fire.

“This is getting me no where.”

Grace was in a tougher situation the last time she saw combat, so she is more than able to think calmly and rationally, but she is still youthful. Her near death against two-to-one odds against Federation traitors has taught her that she is not immoral. Even if her Hizack hadn’t returned to a barely salvageable ship in a Hizack that wasn’t more than a holed torso and arm, the death of two of her teammates and the maiming of her CO would have been enough, even without having to witness the carnage in and around the sick bay.

So, with her mortality as the scales, she quickly weighs her two option on how to proceed with her next move. The striped shouldered Rick Dias is armed with a beam rifle and a beam pistol, with another to spare and a single saber. She has a rifle and two sabers. While she much prefers an axe and saber combo, she can make do with duel swords. The options are to hold the range open and try and best her opponent with accuracy, or does she close range and force him to ditch his ranged weapons for his saber. At range, he can whither her down with a larger volume of fire, and if she closes the range, she will have to wade through that fire.

Then again, there is his wingman. Fortunately, he seems to be conventionally armed, which means he has a bazooka as his primary weapon (ah, a bazooka in this day-and-age!), which means that he won’t be able to use it in close quarters. However, that also means he has two beam pistols to use when she closes.

Unable to conclusively decide which option represents her best chance of survival, she opts for a middle ground. Instead of holder her distance open or rushing in to close the distance, she chooses to close the range at a slower rate while also flying “under” Eckardy’s, trying to get behind him so he cannot fire at both her and the ship.

Rolling her suit on its back, while flying in the Zeonic-Style Prone position which her suit was designed to fly in, Grace uses both hands to brace her rifle while she aims and fires a pair of beams, leading her target, relying a mixture of her suit’s calculations and training, rather than her own experience, which is somewhat disappointingly lacking for someone of her rank.

[The Loser Villain]

- Buxoro Team -

Aaron didn't realize it at first, but as soon as the Buxoro team had entered combat all the fears he had were pushed to the back of his head. He was, after all, trained to be a combat pilot and after hundreds of simulated battles, it only makes sense for that same instinct he had to kick in. Only now his life was on the line.

The Nemo dodged Warren's volley, but he was elated to see that his fire had impacted, well on the Nemo's shield. But it was a start. He was going to fire again as a follow up to keep the pressure up, but he saw the Nemo take up a 'stance' that he had been taught back when he was starting out. He watched an prepared to dodge as a rocket exploded behind his enemy and cause his shots to go wild.

"Huh? Where'd that come from?" His brief puzzlement didn't help because he would have noticed that Thibaut had half-aimed at him and fired. "Oh crap!" He dodged wide, overreacting since he hadn't paid attention. It had startled him a bit, but he was able to regain his composure as Warren once again went on the offensive.

"Lets get this guy DeRossi. If we keep pressing the attack he's sure to screw up." He hoped that Warren would be able to hear his transmission now that the comm. was sure to be messed up from the minovsky interference.

He aimed at Thibaut's Nemo again and pressed the trigger firmly, sending another five round burst at the AEUG Mobile Suit.

((Aaron fires on Thibaut))

[The Big Zabowski]

Hamburg Team
Chuikov Vicinity: Engaging Ipswich Team

Al was still busy trying to track M-Hover and his lackies when a loud whistle in his helmet tore him back into awareness of the whole field. It had turned out that his little plan had backfired, and not only did they have to confront the Buxoro team, but IPSWICH as well! If Al didn't have his helmet on, he'd be scratching vigorously at his scalp in fustration as tracer fire streaked every which way from behind his suit.

"Oh you little shit!"

Al wheeled his Nemo around and dove low, trying to get under Maeda as he continued his singling out of Al Izuruha. He looked skyward at the upper displays of his cockpit and spotted Randy as he started a charge at the one armed Hizack that he had damaged earlier. Al could only growl at his Commander's brash decision.

"Damn! Randy!"

Al continued below and behind Maeda, deciding to close on Harrington and his men as the Titan commander decided to concentrate his fire on his commander, relegating the MG toting Zack to dispatch his young wingman. It was a mistake that may as well made things easy for the AEUG pilot, as this was turning out to be much less exhaustive, but at the same time still more hectic than the fight against Lon Kou. Al decided to use this to his advantage and popped off a shot toward each of the two HiZack wingmen that were firing away at Randy as he charged Gallagher, hoping that they'd have target fixation by that point after deciding to leave poor old Al to Maeda, a f**k up to say the least.

[Xvlai]

- Near Salamis-Kai Class Chuikov –
- Beta Team –

Doing his best to keep an eye on Ray, who was probably the more experienced pilot, and should have been keeping an eye on Sven, Sven pushed his Marasai on a slopping downwards curve. These two versus one odds didn’t suit him, perhaps three versus two would be better. As he moved downwards one of the enemies Rick Dias he had engaged moved in a semi-circle path to intercept where he would have been. The heading downwards turned out to be to his benefit as a bazooka round flew by closely where he would have been.

Dam, that pilot is a crack shot with that Bazooka. I will have to faze him, and close with him.

A slow smile creeps across Sven’s face as he remembers his bygone battle days, and a plan formulates itself in his mind.

Continuing his downward path towards Ray and the brightly colored Dias Sven changed his course and thumbed his thrusters to launch himself at the enemy Dias. Putting his plan and multi-tasking skills to the test, he draws his beam saber but leaves it off for the time being, at the same time he quickly switches his beam rifle to his left hand and to keep the enemy rocking on their heels snaps off a shot at the Rick Dias.

Ill get you now, and if I don’t well now it is two versus two, until that other Dias makes its appearance, and I can’t die, the destiny wouldn’t allow it, yet.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Outside Side 2 -

- Sumitani & Sophie -

Ramon let out a short ‘aww’ when his shots missed, but his smile quickly returned as Kyle Roberts counterattacked. “Evading and shooting, foo~!” he yelled as he watched Kyle let loose with a trio of beam shots. Pressing his controls in precise order, his Nemo slowed slightly, tilted back so that it was on a more ‘normal’ heading, and fired all of its forward verniers. The maneuver rocked the suit back so that it was suddenly traveling backwards, its feet splayed out ahead of it from the directional change. One of Kyle’s beams clipped the left foot, piercing it and causing a tiny puff of an explosion that rendered it useless.

In Sumitani’s HUD, a warning came a split second before Cara’s solid rounds arrived. “Ooooh?” Hard AE shouted, slightly surprised for the first time this sortie. The cloud of bullets flew across his suit, the majority of them missing their mark. One of them neatly clipped the antenna off of his Nemo’s head, and another struck the side of the torso. One of the monitors at the edge of Ramon’s panoramic view abruptly went black. “Okaay~” Ramon yelled in his sing-song voice as he noticed the other Hizack. He continued moving in Kyle‘s direction and yelled, “You can select the intensity of my counterattack - hard or hard,”. From a more ’normal’ position, he fired another two beams at Kyle’s Hizack.

Still off behind and to Ramon’s right, Sophie smiled at her continued luck. Nobody had fired on her again, and now her eye was drawn to Cara’s Hizack by the pulsing flash of her machinegun. “Alright, one of you has to deal with me now! Ramon, let’s finish them off!” she shouted, firing three shots at Cara’s Hizack.

- Mello & Thibaut -

Thibaut’s thin façade of confidence was quickly evaporating as more and more 120mm rounds came streaming in his direction. “L-lieutenant Mello!” he yelped, crying out for help. He raised his shield and hunkered down as fire came at him from Lepak, DeRossi and Faraday. “Wait, no!” he panicked, mentally smacking himself, “I shouldn’t slow down so much!”. He hit his thrusters, jerking his Nemo forward roughly. He gritted his teeth at the sound of bullets dinging off his suit’s armor as he raced in Lt. Mello’s direction. One of the last bullets that reached him shattered his Nemo’s visor, momentarily filling his vision with static before his backup cameras came on.

Mello, who was still busy with his own problems, growled in frustration when he heard Thibaut’s cry for help. Despite his growing concern for his young teammate, a grin flashed across his face when he saw one of his shots scored a hit on the Hizack he was attacking. “I left Jupiter for this?” he complained as his eyes darted back and forth to keep track of both Kamek and Elijah’s MS. He accelerated to his right, still facing Kamek and Robin. M-Hover’s shot sailed past on his left, and his new heading made Elijah’s two shots come in at a bad angle and miss as well. “Thibaut, keep moving!” Mello yelled as he fired two shots at Kamek’s Hizack.

- Fritz -

Fritz’ HUD was filled with warning indicators and their corresponding alarms as Wolf finally moved to act. The beam launcher was raised again, and Fritz’ eyes widened when he realized Ritter was about to fire. As if that weren’t bad enough, his luck seemed to have run out as the new unidentified Titans MS that surrounded him took notice and diverted their attention away from the Chuikov and her Nemos. “Damn it!” Fritz hissed, the beginning of a quiet but steady stream of curses. His HUD wailed for his attention as Wolf’s launcher shot roared in, and Fritz hit his controls and dropped ’down’ letting it fly overhead. It passed by so closely that his monitors flickered and a rumble passed through his suit that made him wonder if it hadn't done damage.

The threat indicators grew more insistent as Delta Team began their attack, and Fritz’ cursing turned to stony silence as he concentrated on getting out of the situation he had foolishly put himself in. He moved toward Wolf for a moment before putting his suit into a roll that he intended to lead into a turn. Samantha’s beam reached him first while he was mid-roll; it lanced through the upper part of the left binder and Fritz quickly ejected the tank. Hands shaking slightly, Fritz stopped the roll and boosted forward in an attempt to get out of Delta’s crossfire. The ejected random binder exploded behind him in a pink fireball.

Gilliarme and Shin were up next, having split up into opposite directions after firing. Fritz tensed up as he used his extra verniers to slide to his left out of the way of Shin’s shot, and blew out the breath he had been unconsciously holding as Gilliarme’s attack screamed in. He tried to turn his Dias on its side to avoid the beam, but it struck home, drilling through the barrel of his bazooka and the left arm that was supporting it. Fritz yelled in anger and surprise as his Rick Dias reeled from the hit. He let go of the ruined bazooka and reached back for a pistol with his good arm. His suit’s left forearm was now a ragged stump that ended just below the elbow joint.

Feeling more and more foolish as things turned south, Fritz accelerated again, ignoring the rapid fuel usage in order to escape. He turned back to his left, where Wolf was, and quickly decided to get out the way he had come in. Streaking back in Ritter’s direction, Fritz fired a couple of beams from his pistol to make room.

- Michiko -

Michiko patiently waited and watched as Sven avoided her attack and changed his angle of travel. She was slightly confused when it looked like the Marasai was fumbling with its weapon, but decided to press her attack. Michi had to avoid a stray shot that came from the dogfight going on around the Chuikov, but quickly corrected her aim and fired another explosive round at Sven’s Marasai.

- Team 3 -

“Ah crap. Looks like things are rough out there and nobody is comin’ our way. Let’s take the fight to them,” Clute grumbled. He gestured out in the direction the New Yark unit had gone and boosted ahead, closely followed by Jack. “Don’t bunch up. Let’s help out the New Yark boys,” Clute ordered as they closed in.

[Kylern]

The crazed Nemo pilot continued his mad assault and Kyle was growing rather irritated at it all. The enemy pilot was moving straight towards him and there wasn't much else he could do besides move this to a straight forward fight. Two beams came at him from the front and and the Hizack did its best to pull to the side and try to escape destruction but the second beam ran right past his shield literally burning a line across it. The molten metal quickly cooled in the vacuum of space and his enemy continued at him.

"Alex take care of that second Nemo darnit!" He ordered after realizing his teammate wasn't doing much to help out. And Cara was being shot at while he stood around. Then the battle moved from between the two into close combat as the enemy was moving in close enough to use a beam saber. Kyle only had a heat hawk since the Hizack couldn't mount multiple beam weapons. That put him at a severe disadvantage but he didn't let that eat him. Instead he hit his own forward thrusters and went on a ramming charge into the enemy Nemo. Hard AE might have been an ace pilot but Kyle was desperate to win this fight and prove himself.

"I choose you death freak!" He replied in anger at the annoying Nemo pilots rantings. Using his shield as a battering ram he placed his beam rifle into the back of it and once they got close enough for melee he pulled the trigger and sent two point blank beams right through his shield at att the enemy Nemo. The first shot burned through the protective metal of the shield and the second through that hole at at the chest of the enemy unit. Then Kyle replaced the beam rifle with a heat hawk and prepared for the worst.

(Beam rifle shot at point blank at Hard AE)

[EfreetCustom]

"I'm trying!" Alex Shouted as he turned his targeting recticale towards the Nemo who is now going after Cara's Hizack. "Ha!" Alex boosted forward as he fired five rounds at the Nemo's right leg throwing off its stableization for just even a second.

Alex was at a small advantage with the Nemo turned away from him. With a bright flash Alex's Machine gun lead the Nemo into the heated metal.

[wonton bob]

-Ens. Bernard Korbel-
-Point Bravo-

Still in torment, Bernard desperately wants to run toward the safety of the Hamburg's hanger but something deep inside him kept him from running. Some small voice in his head that started as a whisper but has now grown into a mind numbing scream.

War is not new to him. He's seen it, been in it and lived through it before. But this is different as it has affected him so deeply. Angered, he ignores his instinct to run and instead scans for any sign of his team. Seems like all the action is near the vicinity of the Chuikov. Taking note of his propellant level he immediately speeds in their direction.

"Seems like this might be a one-way trip" he muses. Opening a comm to the Hamburg, Bernard hopes they receive his last known action.

"This is Ens. Korbel. I'm going to assist the Chuikov. Out."

[The Loser Villain]

- Buxoro Team -

Watching the enemy Nemo panic gave Aaron a boost of confidence.

"Alright, now he's going to start making some mistakes," he said to himself.

Unfortunately the boost to his confidence wasn't the best thing that could happen since he could now start to underestimate the enemy.

"Cover me DeRossi, I'm going in!"

With that said he charged after Thibaut's Nemo and fired his 120mm machine gun for another five round burst.

[King Monkey]

Jacob grew steadily tenser and tenser as he watched the battle unfold before him. Being in combat was terrifying. He had yet to develop that cool, fatalistic calm that many pilots had when the beams and bullets were flying. But, watching comrades fight was almost as nerve wracking.

He wouldn't break formation, however, or disobey orders. He had developed at least that much discipline since joining the AEUG. So, his hands just tightened on his controls and his teeth clenched as he watched the beams and tracer rounds and thruster flares and explosions in the distance.

So, when the command to move in came, it was a bit of a relief. He threw his suit forward, ready to prove his worth against the enemy.

"Stay close, Lieutenant and we'll show those Titans what for!" he radios to Celeste even as his suit jumps out ahead of hers and trails close behind Clute and Jack's suits. He does have enough sense to angle away from them, however, increasing the distance between them.

[ScornMandark]

Dervish
- Port Side Engine Mount -

Rem hated sweating in his normal suit. When you went out into space, you couldn't exactly wipe your forehead off when it beaded and rolled into your eye. It could drive you mad, just trying to concentrate on anything else when all you wanted to do was pop the visor and scratch at your skin. Gah...

Blinking, he focused again on the task at hand. He shifted position a little, the cable tether nearly taut as he strained to hold the repair cover in place with his left hand. He wore an additional pair of welding gloves over his work gloves to protect it from the slag fragments as he welded the plate down. Getting a spark on your skin sucked. Getting a spark on your skin because it burned through the air-tight seals on your normal suit sucked a lot.

Tensely he tried to keep his hand steady on the weld joint. Too fast, and the weld would be crap. Too slow, and he'd start burning through the metal around it and the hull would be weakened around the joint. Too shaky, and it would just be a mess. He was a pretty proficient welder, even in space (any engineer worth their salt ended up having to be). However, he had never done much combat welding before, and he wasn't really sure he was over the last job by the ventral gun.

One of the other mechanics tapped him and skin-talked, "You alright in there, man?"

Rem cut the welding torch and nodded jerkily. "Yep! Just a little..."

The other mechanic laughed. "Not used to combat fixin'? Happened to all of us. Keep goin', we're almost done shoring up the bracing on the mount. It'll hold up fine, as long as there's not another direct hit on the mount."

"Ok, I'll just be another minute here." With that, he turned back and kicked the welder back on. True to his word, within a minute he had finished the weld and started grabbing his supplies again. The other mechanics were another 3 minutes, then finished up the bracing. They had scavenged some support struts from cargo that were intended for replacement parts, so the fix was structurally sound. They didn't have enough curved plating to properly cover the strut, so they covered what they could. There were a few gaps in the plating, but overall the engine mount was back to spec.

Motioning to him, the mechanics headed back to the maintainence hatch. Gratefully, he joined them. Hardly holding off until the airlock repressurized, he tore off his helmet and scrubbed at his face. The mechanics all laughed a little and headed back to the hangar, ready to redeploy. Rem took a moment and looked out the viewport, staring at the battle raging around them. He had conciously tried to avoid watching while he was working, being nervous enough as it was. He shook himself a little and headed for the bay, hopefully he'd be there in time before any suits started returning for repairs.

[Cybaster]

Chuikov Vicinity

Julian sneered as the G-Forces of his own swerving manuever was beginning to slam him around, swerving underneath and around the Chuikov, separated from Jonas and Caroline by Samantha's manuever. Realizing that sooner or later he'll end up crashing into something if he didn't stop, Julian forced himself to take deep breaths and focused; taking one quick glance behind him to make sure he wasn't being threatened, Julian wheeled his Nemo around and slowed down, bringing it back to a more comfortable speed that allowed him to focus.

Quickly swerving the rest of the way, Julian's Nemo circled and emerged above the Chuikov's starboard side. He blinked; Delta Team had broken off from Jonas and Caroline, in unison, to attack Fritz. Julian did not fault them; Jonas and Caroline looked like they took beatings, and Julian's own left binder was punctured by one of Samantha's last shots. Even now, the Mobile Suit's automatic systems were sealing the binder shut, cutting it off from the main MS electrical systems to prevent a short or a spark setting the entire binder off in an explosion, and to show for it Julian's Nemo began feeling sluggish.

But where did that leave him? Unless Julian somehow broke Delta Team's synchronized movements, they were going to eat the Chuikov --- and him --- alive. However, Fritz Ashlyn was, at least for the moment, holding them off (or at least keeping them centered on him, as it seemed more like he was trying to run), giving Julian some breathing room, and hopefully Fritz's own wingmen would be coming in to reinforce him and get Delta Team distracted.

Then Julian caught sight of a Rick Dias/Marasai pair above him, duelling. Wasn't that one of Fritz's wingmen...? The name momentarily escaped Julian, but a blink brought it back. Michiko. Yeah, that was her.

Julian knew what he had to do.

Suddenly bringing his Nemo up without asking about how Caroline was, he centered himself on Sven's Marasai, swerved left, and fired off three shots quickly, attempting to alleviate some of Michiko's breathing room problems. With any luck, Michiko would be able to use this new breathing space to reinforce Fritz and keep Delta Team occupied for just awhile longer --- and if Delta *still* pursued him, Julian could circle around and sneak attack them from within the Chuikov's sensor shadow, assuming he could shrug Sven off quickly enough when that happened to do just that. "Ashlyn's in trouble, Lieutenant. Go help him," Julian reported matter-of-factly, closing in towards Sven from the Marasai's left flank. "I'll keep this guy occupied."

[hellbore]

Trask had felt the impact of the Nemo when it had smashed into the hanger. Wondering who it was, hoping, selfishly, that it was no-one he knew.

He glanced away from his radar screen and looked out the windows. Here and there he could see mobile suits dueling. From his perspective it almost looked as if they were dancing. Yeah dancing... a danse macabre. He felt somewhat alone in the emptiness of space.

Then a report came through from the hanger. Captain, we've got the pilot. Its not good sir. Everyone paled a little, but death was nothing new.

[Cardi Doorl]

- Near Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Alpha Team -

The incoming Dias units opened fire with bazookas and beam pistols. Stukov powered his verniers to make a harsh rightward bank and twist, so that he was still facing his opponents as he veered away from their attacks.

Making a wide arc, Stukov pumped three beam rifle shots toward Ian's Dias before sharply changing course for a more direct path at the AEUG pair.

-

Leandro continued tracking as his shot missed. He was about to take another shot at the wingman when he saw, from the corner of his eye, that Grace was apparently attempting to circle around the significantly well-armed lead Dias. It was time for Leandro to fulfill his support-unit job.

"Hey, cabrón," he taunted pointlessly, knowing the enemy pilot couldn't possibly hear his words through the M-Particles at this range, "Why don't you stop looking at Grace so much?" He punctuated the sentence with a beam launcher shot at Eckardy.

[mcred23]

-Team 2-
-Eddie and Cowboy-

Eckardy hadn't even watched his own shots results, expecting them to miss, and they did. The enemy suits, mostly Marasais, were still putting up a lot of fire at them, and it was getting hairy. However, they were getting close enough to the Alexandria, and those suits, that it wouldn't last for much longer, unless the Titans were crazy enough to risk hitting their own ship...

One pair of Marasais (Jason and Patrick) were hanging back, one firing, the other just floating there. The shooter (Jason) kept taking his time to aim and fire, almost as if he was aiming for a specific part of the suit, which, in this situation, was totally foolish. Eckardy saw the shots as they left the rifle and juked hard, the beams passing about twenty meters to his left. Eckardy had moved himself even closer to the Alexandria with the move, and blasted off a quick pair of beams from his pistol at the Marasais in response.

The loner Marasai (Grace) was moving around, but this one had done something logical; it had moved away from the ship it was trying to defend. "C***sucker..." Eddie growled to himself as he caught the suit rolling into the classic prone attack position, made famous during the OYW, but now an utterly basic move everyone knew about.

And how to counter. Eckardy's hands and feet moved to manipulate the MSA-099S and he once again blessed the fact that his Rick Dias boasted extra verniers. For a split second, the Rick Dias stopped all foward motion, throwing Eckardy against his seat's straps and causing his vision to tint red with the sudden shock. The suit had fired a pair of beams, which shot past his suit, but the second beam was close, skimming close enough to the waist of the Rick Dias to leave a black burn mark. The damage would be minor, some little holes caused by the Mega Particles, but Eckardy, like any sensible pilot, didn't like any possible damage. He pointed both his guns at the suit, fired a shot from each, and then slammed on his thrusters again.

Behind him, Marvin had caught up more than he would have liked. He was now far closer to Eckardy than he liked, and he was having trouble dodging the shots aimed at Eckardy. He spotted the Marasai that had cuased Eckardy to pull that stop, and saw Eckardy fire at the suit, and Marvin did the same. A single rocket and three beams from his pistol joined Eckardy's pair of beams toward the Marasai.

Which is when the high performance Hizack opened fire again. The shot was aimed not at Cowboy, but Eddie this time, and it suprised him. He rolled and juked at the same time, but not quite fast enough. The beam connected with his Rick Dias' grey left foot where it connected to the black part of the lower leg, removing the foot cleanly and tossing Eckardy further to his right, even closer to the Alexandria.

"Son of a b****!" Eckardy cursed to himself, as always, and pointed both his weapons at the Hizack. Eckardy fired three more shots from either weapon, for a brief moment not even letting his ammo worry that had floated around in his head since he'd first fired a shot come foward, and even tapped the vulcan phalanx guns, causing a two-second burst to leap from the head of the Rick Dias.

And then Eckardy was below the Alexandria, a fact that caught Eddie by suprise. Time is f***in' crazy..., He thought, as he rolled his suit, pointed his weapons so that it looked like his Rick Dias was aiming at it's feet, bounced his suit out, away from the ship, and snapped off single beam shots from either beam weapon. They were, again, poorly aimed potshots at all the Marasais (Grace, Jason and Patrick) that were now behind, and above, him. Eckardy made sure to try and keep the shots away from Cowboy.

Who had not been caught by how fast they'd moved. Marvin had been wanting to get below the Alexandria for what seemed like days. He'd seen Eckardy get hit and instinctively fired his last three bazooka shots at the Hizack Custom (Although Marvin didn't know that actually was the name of the suit), and quickly cursed to himself that he'd wasted his bazooka shots on the suit. He made up for it as best he could, he pointed his beam pistol at the Titan ship and fired a pair of beams at both of the beam cannons mounted on the ship's starboard side, and then another trio at the hanger on the ship's underside as he passed below the ship as well. Marvin kicked his thrusters to full again, as he tossed away his ammo-less bazooka and drew his second beam pistol as he now followed Eckardy on a course that would hopefully get them the hell out of this place.

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

-Ian-

Wes had thankfully heard Ian, and even pumped a few shots at the Alexandria. Before Ian could fire at either target again, his comm crackled. "H-BZZRT-ke care of the CR-ogey. You hand-BZZP ship-kill-RZZ". Wes' suit made motions, obviously to make the message clear, before he seperated and fired several shots at the incoming Marasai. Ian cursed, they might get split up like this, and the Marasai had easily dodged their shots.

Before Ian could voice his complaint about Wes' actions, the enemy pilot moved in on arc and fired three shots at Greydon. Ian dodged, he bounced away from the shots in a move that put him almost directly over the Alexandria, and further away from Wes. Ian muttered to himself as he quickly put three more bazooka rockets into the enemy ship, aiming for the hanger, before spinning to get a view of the Marasai. Ian was in a bad spot and needed to correct this ASAP.