Episode 17 - Star-crossed

[Kylern]

- Herakles Team -

Beams seemed to be targeting him an Alex from what appeared to be a Nemo team. There wasn't any more time to be indecisive. He separated his himself into two people at that moment, the first was the one afraid of being team leader of the Herakles team. This was the one that felt the pain of Pendragon's comments and stares and also the side that wished to just disappear from the battlefield and go back to the Federation normal forces. Then a new side appeared determined to survive this battle. It wasn't a split personality type thing but a temporary defensive strategy to keep him and his team from being killed here. He refused to die here in the cold depths of space.

"Alex lets get these clowns!" He ordered as he took aim and fired two shots at the crazed Nemo that had attacked him. He had kept an eye on it after shooting at it so he hadn't had a hard time at dodging the incoming shots. His Hizack's first shot was at the chest and the second shot due to recoil was aimed just at the tip of the right shoulder. Meaning his weapon dragged a little but that was easily adjusted. He would keep that in mind for future references. For now he hit his verniers and pulled sharp to the left after he fired to avoid any incoming beams that was aimed at him. The enemy ship Delta team was attacking seemed to be aiming at all them too. It needed silenced because it was making concentrating rather difficult.

"Hey Alex lets pick a target and attempt to surround it. These Nemos seem to possess better agility than us. We will have to stop that advantage if we want to finish this." Kyle called this out as he danced a bit with the Nemo who had fired at him and he fired back at.

[Psyden]

--Titan Task Force Echo--
--Chuikov Proximity--

Pendragon takes Roberts orders for solely Lepak to move as an implied order for him to be released from the formation with Cara.

“Cara! Follow me!”

Pendragon boosts up above what was Herakles Team’s formation (but not too far away as to abandon his time) before firing 2 three round bursts at Hard AE. The pilot of the machine is obviously insane, judging from his introduction on an open com, but he is also a skilled pilot, which makes him all the more dangerous.

“Focus fire on the suit doing the Sing and Dance number.”

While he waits for Cara to catch up, he begins scanning the area for any more threats, for this is his plan in motion. While Cara will be the one doing most of the engaging with Hard AE, he will keep his eyes peeled for any other threats. Cara might get target oriented, but he will be there to watch her back and keep other enemies from sneaking up behind her.

--Kirov Proximity--

Grace slides to the left to avoid the opening volley.

A beam rifle? I thought that Rick Dias only carried bazookas and beam guns!

More beams, from the much smaller beam guns, streak past, but they lack the accuracy of the larger rifles.

The leader’s wingman seems armed with weapons more befitting his Rick Dom knock-off as a rocket leaps forth from its tube towards the Kirov.

Grace fires off another beam at the pair lead by the Rick Dias with the painted shoulders before diving down on a course to head off the projectile. Here, she takes greater care in her aim, letting the computer track the projectile and tell her how far to lead it. She fires once and then again. The first narrowly misses, but the second burns right through the explosive round, detonating shy of its target.

Leandro has already received her message and taken action. Thankfully, she won’t be in this alone, especially when it seems that Gamma team might be in a position to help her.

[Lans]

- Hamburg Team -
- Al and Randy -

"Randy, hold for just a second..let them lock on us then split. Don't ask why, just do it. Make sure you have some of those Ipswitch guys behind ya.."

Emington heard it and draw his unit in rather straight line between Ipswich and Buxoro Team. Instinctively he know what Al was going to do, with one Hizack team on the back and another one at their front they should hold back from friendly fire.

Heck it's even good if they shots at their own.

A warning sign flashing, quickly he knew from the sound it's not from his adversaries' lock-on but the arrival of another unit nearby. His console acknowledge them as friendly units. From there it seems that their pursuer switched target and disengage from their tail. Randy hit the line for Al, "Leave the trick, they read our reinforcement."

Randy gained the needed speed and closing into the Ipswich Team, he care less whether they already notice the fighting on their back or not. "I'll take the right Hizack. and Al, don't let them get you," he smiled dryly when saying that.

Blackened left screen, lost of the suit's shield arm, and shattered glasses drifting in the cockpit didn't bothered him. It's him and only himself with his target, a moment of silence broken by the sound of acquired lock-on target. He fired three shoots at the far right Hizack. He waits for nothing and charging in into his target, trying to finish his opponent if the shots failed. He know he only got two charge of beam shots left in his rifle.

((Fired 3 shots at one Ipswich team Hizack ))

[wonton bob]

- Near Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Jeriden Kai -


Jeriden's bravado soon evaporates as Ryu's Nemo signature disappears from his monitor. Meaning Takeda's Nemo has been neutralized and since no other friendlies have been picked up by his sensors, Jeriden is alone.

Reality has slapped him hard. Awkwardly stopping his momentum, he turns back not giving a second thought on conserving propellant. The Kirov's smaller guns reacquire their target as Jeriden desperately tries to get out of range. Forgetting about any maneuvering techniques he amazingly avoids most of the enemy fire except one hit which strikes his Nemo in a freaky angle in the back. Unflinching the Nemo continues it's steadfast escape.

After passing out for a few minutes, Jeriden opens his eyes to reveal the cockpit glowing red with alerts. The sides of the monitor are filled with updates on the mobile suit's damage. As the info is scrolling up, Jeriden turns off all alert systems. His attention must be on getting back to the Hamburg to reload his nearly empty rifle as he's no use to anyone in this state. He starts to notice that his movements have begun to slow down. Puzzled, he continues on.

-few minutes later-
-edge of Hamburg's range-

Jeriden forcibly opens his eyes gasping for air. Noticing pain beneath his chest, he feels around with his hand. It's damp and he feels a large piece of metal. Fear grips him and quickly his hand grabs for a control. Breathing heavily Jeriden checks his location. Not too far now. With communications down Jeriden reaches over to fire a flare but his arm seems way to heavy to lift.

-few seconds later-

Jeriden wakes up coughing. He sees that the lower half of his visor is caked with blood. Scared, using all of his might, he fires his thrusters to full. Soon realizing his rash action could cause his Nemo to plow into the Hamburg. Jeriden tries to cut all power and allow the Nemo to drift but before he could change course his hands fall on his lap. As the color drains from his face a tear streaks down his right eye. That button is just too far.

...I...tried....

[The Loser Villain]

- Buxoro Team -

Aaron's initial idea to give covering fire to the rest of the team had to change because they were now taking fire from another direction. A second Nemo team had moved in on their flank and had a good chance at possibly over taking them.

He was quickly surprised by how fast Picard had reacted to the new enemies, perhaps the man wasn't all talk. He wouldn't be able to think much about that now since he also had to act fast.

Deciding to follow suit with Warren, Aaron targeted the same Nemo and fired a slightly more controlled burst of five rounds. He wasn't sure, but from the way he was sticking close to Elijah, Warren seemed to be panicking.

"Common DeRossi, pull it together!"

((Aaron fires at Thibaut Chareux))

[ScornMandark]

Dervish
- Dorsal Hull, Starboard Main Gun -
- (At least what's left of it...) -

'Man, there were a lot of holes. I guess when a large M-Particle gun gets nailed by a large M-Particle blast, there's a lot of flying slag. Yeesh...' Rem finished welding plates over the holes and turned to the other 2 mechanics. They had been pretty fortunate, all told. After the initial shooting, the Dervish herself had been largely left alone, letting them complete their jury-rigging and repairing in good time. Joe waved and pointed back at the access panel. Rem nodded and picked up his toolbox again from where he had magnetically clamped it to the hull. The gun port was now sealed over and airtight. It would be a bugger to fix when they got to port again, but for now it was as good as it was going to get.

They headed back into the ship and returned to the mobile suit bay, waiting for the next assignment.

[Montague]

- Buxoro Team -

"I suppose they won't be taking the bait." Only after one of the Nemos had fired toward M-Hover did the pair turn and return to their original plans of suprising Ipswich Team, and Minovsky interference was too great to warn the team of their approach. Hopefully they will soon catch on to their stalking prey.

His 'satisfaction' in watching the Nemos turn and retreat was abrupted quite suddenly by a presence off to their left. A pair of Nemos were heading in their direction, quite obviously wishing to engage. Once more M-Hover was the first to react as he rather gracefully dodged incoming fire and snapped off two beams of his own. Elijah's respect for the man grew as he watched him skilffully manage the situation as any seasoned Veteran should. Perhaps if Elijah had spent some time himself in the space front he too would garner such ability.

Pushing thoughts of self-evaluation out of his mind the Lieutenant took aim with his rifle and fired off two precise shots of his own toward one of the advancing units. Aaron's cautions toward Warren made Elijah aware of the Ensign's Hizack proximity to his own unit.

Making sure his voice was both calm yet assertive the Lieutenant spoke out to the Ensign. "DeRossi, if you have any will to live then I suggest you not group so close together. Any Ace would gladly take this as an opurtune moment to take down two units with one shot."

(Two shots fired at Mello)

[wonton bob]

-Hamburg Team-
-Point Bravo-

Bernard's Nemo drifts along while he's inside trying to get a grip. Something tells him that Jeriden didn't survive the encounter. His vision has returned only now to be hindered by his tears. This is a second time he has run in the face of the enemy. It can be argued that the first time he was outnumbered 3 to 1 but it is the second time he abandoned a mate to his own demise. And it's not the first time he's been so close to death so why? Could it be that war in space differs so much from fighting on Earth? Is it the cause he's fighting for or have the machines of war been greatly improved since the OYW that has him rattled so. Has he passed that point everyone has where he can no longer function in combat?

The shell of a man now lies with his head in his hands wondering what his body and mind are telling him that he's not understanding and asking for forgiveness from Traubel and Kai from whichever place they are looking down on him.

[EfreetCustom]

Herakles Team

"Crap!" Two beam shots wizzed by Alex's Hizack as he narrowly avoided them. Alex was now facing the enemy Nemo team and was quite anxious to take them down. Takeing up his machine gun he dragged the gun across a horizontal arc across the enemy team, not clear if he struck them or not. That was just a distraction for Alex to quickly fire a rocket from his rocket pods located on his hips.

"Sir! lets go for the nemo in the front of the formation and work our way down!" Alex called while watching his rocket explode.

[wonton bob]

-Gamma Team-
-Kirov's Port-side-


"Hey, newbie, retard!" Nick barked, "It's time for some team action; incoming boogies above the Kirov; rendezvous with Alpha and help take them out."

"Bah. I was near there when you told me to go back." Jason mutters.

Jason fires up his thrusters and waves over to Miller's suit to follow. He picks up several enemy suits as he approaches Alpha team who seem to be scattered on the Kirov's top side. It appears that both members have already engaged their targets. Hitting the comm he organizes Gamma team's defense of the Kirov.

"Miller. Form up behind the lead Marasai.(Grace) We'll triple team her target."

[Xvlai]

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

Using the initial thrust of his thrusters Sven continued to fly backwards and upwards to the perspective of the enemy suits. His eye sight wasnt quite back to what it should be but he easily saw one of the enemy suits accelerate forwards and fire its bazooka. Throwing his weight to the controls he rolls his Marasai 360 degrees to the right, putting his stomache in a vice grip.

I need to conserve my fuel, and not make so many sharp manuvears it has been to long since I did this.

Blinking as his eye sight finally returns he begins to travel perpendicular to the enemy.

Wincing as the bazooka round flys by in spite of himself. Sven reorients his beam rifle towards the enemy and waits for the enemy to close distance.

[Cardi Doorl]

- Near Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Alpha Team -

Seeing the lone Nemo chewed up by the Kirov's point defenses, Stukov's mind immediately wrote the enemy off as a non-factor.

"So Russie, how exactly do you want to do this? One team in while the other covers, pairs, or just charge the crap out of them all at once?"

It was the red-eyed madman in charge of Gamma Team.

His eyes never leaving the incoming Rick Dias units, Stukov replied dryly, "Our subordinates chose for us."

Stukov had drifted closer to the Kirov - close enough to kick off it once again. The Cossack brought his thrusters to life and propelled toward Ian and Wes, considering Grace, Leandro, Jason, and Patrick were all converging on Eddie and Cowboy.

-

Leandro licked his upper lip as he visually tracked the Rick Dias units. They were getting closer; soon enough, they'd make clear targets. Leandro saw, out of the corner of his eye, at least one of the rebel's bazooka shells perforated by the Kirov's point-defense.

Once again targeting the wingman's Rick Dias, Leandro's beam launcher thundered.

[Cardi Doorl]

OOC: I have only this since all my other characters' actions await the actions of others before they can be written.

IC:
- Near Salamis Kai-class Chuikov -
- Beta Team -

Ryo dipped "under" Pan's pistol attack, but maintained his general plan of closing the distance. With the pink Rick Dias growing uncomfortably close, Ryo squeezed down the triggers for his head vulcans and, while keeping those held down, fired twice again from his beam rifle.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Outside Side 2 -

- Mello & Thibaut -

Corey Mello muttered a few choice words under his breath when he saw the sheer volume of return fire that greeted his team. Bursts of machinegun rounds spat back at the advancing Nemos alongside beam rifle blasts that made him feel like his mobile suit was suddenly a lot more fragile. Somewhere to his right one of the Titans got trigger happy and a long sustained barrage snaked out from a 120mm. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated on his original target. He knew from experience that a combat pilot had to walk a fine line between developing tunnel vision and failing to block out distractions that would get him killed.

His opening potshots at Kamek’s Hizack were way off their mark thanks to his foe’s reaction time, and he had to put his suit into a sharp dive to keep his enemy in his forward field of vision. “You’re just delaying the inevitable,” he grunted, turning his suit on its side as Picard returned fire. A couple of flashes at the edge of his vision were his only warning that Elijah Robin was also trying his luck against the jaded Jovian. “Damn it!” he complained, raising his shield and speeding up in an attempt to avoid being hit.

One of Kamek’s shots blasted the top of his shield off under the two prongs, and the others thankfully missed him. A couple of machinegun shots pinged off his rear armor from somewhere else but only managed to ruin the paint job. “Stop screwing around,” he demanded, annoyed, as he fired another two shots at Picard. Thibaut would be somewhere behind him, and he wanted to make sure at least one of the Hizacks toting a beam rifle was concentrating on him.

Thibaut, meanwhile, was just as jittery as Mello was annoyed. As soon as his presence was obvious to the enemy, he was swamped by 120mm rounds. DeRossi’s burst got to him first, and he fought back a gulp as he instinctively raised his shield and hit his verniers. His evasive maneuver turned him to the right and got him out of the way of the first five rounds, but Aaron Faraday’s follow-up bit into his shield causing his Nemo to rock back from the impacts. “D-darn it!” he exclaimed, gritting his teeth at the sound of hits. He took up the “GM pose” the vets had taught him and prepared to fire back at Faraday, but his aim was thrown off when a rocket exploded close behind his suit.

His beam rifle went off twice, the shots sailing uselessly into open space. “What?! No!” Thibaut protested aloud as his computer began to point out several spots of damage on his Nemo’s back, including a non-functional vernier and an inhibited knee joint. He pounded a fist on his controls before quickly realizing he was still in the middle of combat. Jerking his suit back onto a relatively useful course, he let off a hardly-aimed snap shot at Faraday’s Hizack.

- Sumitani & Sophie -

The first response to Ramon’s charge was a wimpy three-round machinegun burst, which he promptly glided around, still singing:

“Hard AE since I defected, hoo~♪ / Called Hard AE since I was 31, hoo~♪ / Hard AE like a knife♪ / Can’t touch this, Hard AE, hooo~♪!”

The less than stellar first response to Sumitani was backed up by a better attempt from Kyle Roberts, whose two beams were aimed well enough that they caused Ramon to pause his song as he rolled his Nemo upside down again to let them pass beneath. They came close enough to his suit that Sumitani responded with an enthusiastic “Haaa!”. With his Nemo still ’prone’ in relation to the Hizacks, he aimed at Cara Shiranui and fired back two shots from his rifle.

Sophie, who was close behind him, managed to come through the Titans’ reaction fire completely ignored. She didn’t mind, though, since she was still getting used to the differences in how the Nemo handled from a GM II. Noting that her strange wingman seemed to have drawn all the local attention, she slid to her right to keep him out of her field of fire before squeezing off a shot at Roberts’ Hizack.

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

Loweno stood at the bridge windows, dumbfounded, with a hand pressed against his forehead. He gets an entirely new team of pilots, a couple of which were veterans from within the fleet, and four brand new mobile suits for them to pilot, and what happens? They charge into battle and get shot to ribbons in their first sortie as a team. “I feel sick,” André muttered as more damage reports rolled in. He let his head come to rest against the cool glass. Lt. Stalvern leaned in from the captain’s right and whispered, “Sir, we can’t confirm it but it looks like Ltjg. Emington’s Nemo has been severely damaged,”.

The captain shut his eyes for a couple of seconds and then stood up straight. “Somebody see if we can’t get a confirmation. I want to know if Emington is injured,” he ordered, gesturing in the direction of the comm station. “And tell the hangar,” he added after a moment. “…uh,” someone behind him stammered loudly, causing the captain to turn around. One of the bridge crew was looking past Loweno, his eyes wide. “Sir!” he insisted, pointing behind the captain.

“Captain! One of our Nemos is headed this way,” Stalvern piped up from where he was leaning over one of the stations as André spun around to see what could cause a reaction like he had just seen. His eyes similarly widened when he realized what was happening out in front of the Hamburg. “Uh, yes lieutenant, I can see that…” he said, grabbing his XO’s shoulder to spin him away from the comm station to look. Jeriden Kai’s Nemo was still on collision course with the Hamburg at high speed. Nobody spoke for a moment until Loweno snapped out of his stupor and began barking orders; “Reorient us! Tell the hangar crew to put up our crash netting and get ready for a crash landing! I want us to catch that mobile suit!”.

The bridge erupted into a frenzy of movement and noise as orders were relayed and the helmsman went to work. “That’s Ens. Kai’s unit,” Stalvern said in a half-shout over the din once it was close enough for identification. “The mechanics have got the nets up, sir, but they’re telling me it’s coming in too fast,” one of the techs announced nervously. “The ensign is going to land. Tell them to get ready for a rough ride,” Loweno responded angrily.

- Hangar -

With alarms wailing at full blast and every layer of crash netting raised, the main space in the hangar was evacuated while the mechanics and medical teams waited for Jeriden’s Nemo to land. “He ain’t slowing down…” hissed one of the techs as they watched from one of the protected control rooms. “No sh*t,” his companion retorted, “Looks like the damn kid’s trying to plow all the way through the ship,”.

Jeriden Kai’s Nemo came in at an alarming rate of speed, oriented at a slight tilt compared to the ship’s deck. Everyone within sight of the ’landing’ winced as the mobile suit collided with the crash netting and burst straight through. It slowed slightly as it hit and snapped the backup nets, and finally the suit's backpack gave out and the thrusters cut off as the giant robot rammed headlong into the rear of the hangar.

- Bridge -

“Sir, the hangar is reporting severe damage! The deck o--”

“I felt the damn thing crash into us just like you did,” Loweno cut off his subordinate, “For God’s sake get damage crews down there and keep it from getting any worse!.”

- Fritz -

Once he was in amongst Delta Team’s Barzams Fritz turned his controls and slammed his foot down on one of the pedals, forcefully spinning his Rick Dias around and slowing his forward momentum. Grunting at the Gs, he spotted Wolf’s Marasai still erratically following him. “Take your best shot,” Fritz mentally encouraged Ritter as he tapped his verniers and slipped closer to where Samantha was flying. He held his fire, waiting to see if Wolf was impulsive enough to endanger his own comrades. Fritz’ eye darted to the part of his HUD that showed remaining ammunition and propellant, and he slowly began to regret his choice to burn up so much fuel on speed and maneuvers so early in the fight. Growing impatient now that he was dwelling on his remaining propellant, Fritz fired another scatter round at Wolf.

- Michiko -

Michi watched intently as Sven rolled out of the way of her shot and changed course. It took her a moment to realize she was waiting to react to return fire that wasn’t coming before she decided to press the attack. She put her Rick Dias into a wide turn that would change their perpendicular path into a long semicircle and fired another bazooka round at Haksson.

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

“Titans are changing orientation, cap,” Wade spoke up, pointing above his head as the computer display began to change based on observer reports. Abbey looked up and watched as two of the enemy’s ships appeared to begin a roll onto their sides. Before he could ponder the enemy’s new tactic too deeply, incoming missile warnings snatched his attention away from the large overhead display. “They’re firing off a few missile barrages,” Jungst said, explaining, “Probably covering a course change or a position shift,”. Wade and Abbey nodded, recognizing a familiar Federation combat technique.

The Dervish’s smallest guns, which had been all but silent throughout the battle due to lack of enemy MS attack, suddenly awoke and filled the area around the ship with anti-missile fire. A few of the missiles streaked through the barrage and slammed into different parts of the ship. “Minor damage to the starboard catapult… port ventral engine mount damaged… minor damage to armor at the base of the bridge tower,” Filmore announced, rattling off the report. Abbey had gone back to studying the computer image of the enemy fleet and gave a wordless affirmative.

“Keep our current course,” he finally ordered after a few moments of consideration, “When we get closer roll us all the war onto our starboard side…”

[mcred23]

-Team 2-

Even through his pilot suit and other features found in a modern combat mobile suit, Eckardy could still feel the speed as his customized Rick Dias raced along at combat speed, jinking and shaking around as he moved to avoid the shot that came at him, this one from the same mobile suit that had fired on him before. It was a Marasai, that much was clear. Two others were moving to join it, and that other MS, Eckardy guessed it was a high performance Hizack to be using that kind of beam launcher, fired again, a shot that easily missed him but again came close to Marvin, although not as close as the first shot, who continued to juke around in a random fashion.

They both saw the flashes from the Alexandria and for a brief moment both pilots thought it was opening up on them, but the sudden pair of flashes from below them and the stoppage of the fire told them what it was; the ship had seen and killed Marvin's pair of rockets. Things were getting crazy and for a blink of an eye, Eckardy was worried.

But, as always, that passed. They were closer now, so much so that they'd pass the big ship in a few seconds, a lifetime in battle. Eddie pointed his beam rifle and pistol at the first Marasai (Grace), aimed as carefully and quickly as one could in a battle while bouncing around, and rapidly snapped off three shots from his rifle at the Marasai, along with another three from the pistol. Moving his MSA-099S's left arm, he made a circular motion with it and fired off a spray of five shots from his beam pistol at the other incoming MS as Eddie kept his MS moving as fast as it could.

Marvin slipped slightly further behind, partly due to his manuvering, and partly due to his MS being less powerful than Eckardy's. The distance change was minor, but to Marvin, it seemed huge. Marvin had seen his pair of rockets get shredded by the fire from the enemy ship, and resolved to hit it again. They were getting closer, and Marvin knew he didn't have much time to fire, see if they hit, correct and fire again. That probably was how things would go down, his mind raced.

During his bouncing around, Marvin slipped sideways for a brief moment, allowing him to face the enemy ship. He fired off another pair of rockets, leaving him half a clip left in his bazooka, and a half dozen shots from his beam pistol at the Alexandria, not knowing what damage they might do as he shifted back to the cone he'd been in before.

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

Furhter off, Ian had seen Marvin's first volley fail to hit the enemy ship as it was swatted down by enemy AA, as well as the incoming Marasai. Ian keyed the Team 2 channel, knowing Eddie and Cowboy wouldn't hear him, but hoping Wes would. "Open fire on that incoming."

Putting action to his words, Ian fired a rocket from the bazooka in his unit's right hand at the enemy ship, before firing another and a beam from the pistol in his left at the Marasai, knowing full well that neither of his actions were likely to draw blood.

[EZero8]

--Team 2--
-Wes Curren-

"Open fire *static*"

That was all Wes managed to hear from Ian before launching off a couple of rockets from his bazooka right at the Alexandria. It definately wasn't a beam rife; even the slightest difference in recoil was noticeable. But no matter... a rocket can be just as destructive on a ship, but there were more pressing matters on hand.

"That Marasai..." Curren muttered as he struggled to get a better look at it. He couldn't tell if it had the custom markings like the the one from the previous battles.

And there it was. The custom marking embrazoned right on the unit. The enemy... that annoying Titan who made battles difficult for Curren to find success.

"Hey, I'll take care of the bogey. You handle the ship-killing..." Wes said, then motioned with his Rick Dias in case Ian didn't get the message from the slightly dense jamming. He manuvered his Rick Dias again and approached Stukov at a similar speed.

"Care for another round buddy...?" Wes muttered angrily as he fired off a rocket at the custom Marasai. He followed that with two bolts from his pistol. Curren vs. Stukov III is on...

[Kylern]

-Kyle Roberts-

"Blast it..." Kyle muttered as the enemy evaded both of his shots but he didn't let that get to him. Because as he pulled to the side to keep his eye on the prize another beam was fired at him. This was was from a Nemo to the side of the first guy and it seemed there were two. He hadn't noticed the second Nemo and had to choose between what to do next. The beam shot shot across the space he had previously been at while facing off with the nutcases MS. He turned his beam rifle on the crazy guy again and decided he was going to destroy that guy.

"Alex get that second MS please and help me split these two up. I'm going after dancing boy... Since their isn't much distance between the two we can provide support fire to each other." He then went after the dancing Nemo with his beam rifle trained. He had seen the almost flawless moves it showed and it irritated him to no end. He trained his fire on the enemy while it was prone and focused on Cara and fired a slightly wide pattern of fire using the calculated drift of the shot. Three shots, two at the sides and one down the center to help stop it from moving. He had even fired the second shot at the side to prevent if from escaping in that direction and the center line shot to take it out.

"Cara be careful there, this guy is dangerous!" He ordered as he noticed it targeting her with its last barrage. His own shots were meant to take advantage of that moment and he hoped to do something this time to it.

(three shots at Hard AE. first shot to the side, second to the other side, and a center shot at the midsection)

[EfreetCustom]

His rocket missed the Nemo's frame but exploded behind it.

"Sir!" Alex franticly exclaimed as he fired a couple 5 rounds bursts at the second Nemo. With all the extra training Alex has done he actually saw how well he was improving. He felt more comforatable calculating his shots and was really anxious to take out the Nemo.

"Divide and conquor eh? Well lets just see how well you do!!" Alex charged forward after the Nemo guns blazin'.

(minor rocket splash damage on Thibaut's Nemo)

[Cardi Doorl]

- Near Salamis Kai-class Chuikov -
- Chuikov Team -

Jonas was violently startled when his monitors went black. When they were replaced with the backups, he realized his Nemo had taken a headshot, but he didn't realize it had come, rather unforseeably, from Shin's Nemo.

He had no time to investigate, of course, with Gilliarme's Barzam bearing down on him.

Delta Team's leader in fact fired at Jonas once again, forcing the overworked suit team CO to violently weave around the bolt. The heat from the beam seared the Nemo's backpack and elicited a stressed grunt from Jonas.

-

Whereas Sam reversed her roll direction to close in with Shin once again, Julian continued in his direction, though at a higher velocity. In spite of his linear seat and pilot suit, Julian could feel the increased torque, but considering his most obvious alternative option was to let the Titan's beams score hits...

[Cardi Doorl]

- Near Salamis Kai-class Chuikov -
- Beta Team -

Wolf dove as Fritz fired that scattering bazooka again. The Lieutenant Commander didn't seem particularly perturbed that the action resulted in his sweeping awfully close to the Chuikov's hull.

Bringing me into a friendly-rich environment? I see your game. You grossly underestimate me.

Wolf swept his beam launcher up to target just above the blue Dias' head and fired.

- Delta Team -

A Rick Dias, being, rare as it was, highly recognized among Titan pilots as one of the AEUG's most formidable machines, tended to attract attention. Doubly so when painted in an oddly Titans-like blue. It was no surprise, then, that Sam took notice of Fritz's very own example of such.

"Oh, just die." Sam didn't even realize she'd muttered the words as she twisted her Barzam's orientation and swung her beam rifle up to snap off two bolts at the interloper.

-

Shin intended to move in to finish Caroline with a melee attack, but found the Chuikov's small guns forcing him back.

That turned out to be a windfall, in that he noticed Sam dealing with a blue Rick Dias. Gilliarme was right on the ball, too, regrouping with Shin after swatting away Jonas. Without a word to each other, they moved in, Shin on the right, Gilliarme on the left, and each fired once - Shin first, with Gilliarme firing a heartbeat later - at Fritz before breaking away simultaneously into opposite wide arcs.

- Ipswich Team -

Lt. Harrington lead his team into the fight. They were close to the Chuikov - so close they could practically feel the heat from Delta Team's thrusters.

Then Gallagher let out a disturbingly high-pitched howl, made all the more grating by the crackling static of Minovsky interference, over the team channel. An eyeblink later, Maeda came over the comm. "Back attack, Lieutenant! We have Nemos on our six!"

Just perfect. A rear attack. Gallagher had been hit in the opening shot, with his Hizack's left arm severed halfway through the upper arm.

With a snarl, Harrington wheeled his Hizack around while having the left hand give the signal for his team to engage the new threat. With the beam rifle-wielding right hand, Harrington took aim and fired at Randy's MS.

The other three Hizacks did likewise, except with three-round machine gun bursts, and with Maeda targeting Al instead of Randy.

Gallagher, meanwhile, made a wide loop around to engage the new enemy rather than using an AMBAC spin. He didn't fire quite yet.

- Buxoro Team -

A grin spread across Picard's face as it grew clear the Nemo leader was working frantically to survive the deluge of weapons fire from the Titan suit teams. He figured keeping it up would eventually make the bastard crack.

Still on the move, M-Hover spun downward, pushing his Hizack to its limits as Mello managed to return fire in spite of everything. A Hizack's limits, however, aren't very far, and thus most of the spiked left shoulder was sliced away. M-Hover, not about to miss a beat, angled his machine to advance toward Mello and fired once again from his beam rifle to keep the rebel on his toes.

-

Warren shook his head as Elijah commented on his following too closely. "Yeah, uh, sorry Lieutenant."

He immediately found himself embarrassed. Not because he'd followed so closely, but how obviously green he'd sounded in his response. Trying his best to push those thoughts out of his mind, Warren cut his thruster output slightly to allow more distance between the two mobile suits.

Warren had to dart his eyes around for a fraction of a second to find his target again (all the while he cursed himself for losing track for even a moment). When he'd located Thibaut's Nemo, he trained his machine gun once again and let it chatter off a thee-round burst.

- Herakles Team -

Constantine ordered Cara to concentrate on the gyrating Nemo. That, ironically, prompts Cara to notice that there was a second Nemo. She'd been so concentrated on the bizarre movements of the Nemo at the front that...

Regardless, Cara yelped as the insane pilot abruptly popped off a pair of bolts after his nonsensical song, the bulk of which Cara had heard through the M-particles. In a partially-controlled panic, Cara unconsciously obeyed Constantine's command and followed her senior's wide arc up "over" the incoming rebels. Nevertheless, the first of Hard AE's beams did bite into her Hizack's left form, deforming the appendage as it passed through and ruined the innards. The second beam sped off into empty space.

Taking a hit, minimal as it was, Cara let out a brief shriek. Her instructors had hammered into her skull that the machine gun was best used in controlled bursts to maximize accuracy and precision, but that lesson went out the window the moment real warfare offered her the slightest half-glimpse of mortality. She pointed the 120mm gun at the flamboyant mobile suit and kept the trigger squeezed down, spraying off a dozen barely-controlled rounds.