As the bridge bustled with activity, the six AFUs were getting closer and closer with the enemy. Going close to the speed of sound, the two groups of fighters zoomed into a colliding trajectory.
“Fifty four… Fifty two… Fifty…” Ryck said. “Reaper 01, we’re in range, over.”
“Wait for my command, Reaper 03.”
The enemy AFUs appeared on Ryck’s heads up-display. At this distance, locking onto them was quite the effort, and a hit, although never a guaranteed hit, had much smaller probabilities to hit, so he waited. Not before long, they were twenty kilometers in range with the enemy. There had been no lock-on warnings.
These pilots aren’t new, and weren’t at all trigger-happy.
A patient enemy, Ryck thought. They went closer and closer, charging against each other. When it hit fifteen kilometers, the lock-on beeps began to be heard. “We’re in their sights.”
“Dammit, man, wait for it!” Jensen said.
Beep… beep… beep… beep… beebeep beebeep beebeep beebeep.
“Twelve. Eleven. Ten… shit.” Sweat began to trail down his forehead.
Beebeebeebeebeeeeeeeeep.
I’m locked on!
“NOW!” Jensen said over the radio.
“Breaking!” Sophie said. She turned over, rolling away into the distance. Ryck and Oakley followed suit. Ryck went high, Oakley went low, and Sophie went way to the left, full throttle.
Boosting himself above the charging Dominion units, he pulled the targeting visor down. Three enemy units, all three being of the ARC-TM-34 ‘ARCLIGHT’ multirole variant, were going after him, all of them charging with 40mm autocannons blazing. The shots were good and quick, but Ryck skillfully dodged left and right. He boosted himself higher, replying with shots from his own 40 mm autocannon. “Reaper 03! Guns guns guns!”
As he launched, he opened a small lid on his control stick. The HUD turned from a bright green to a low red, signifying the activation of the launcher system. The three enemy units were in his sights. He kept thrusting his unit away, but squeezed in his view of the three pursuing units in the targeting visor. Not before long, it started locking on. Beep. Beep. Beep. Three rings flew above the targeted diamonds (which signified the enemy units), trying hard to get into a good lock.
Beebeep. Beebeep.Beebeep. Bebeep.
“Locking on… shit!” One lunged towards him, its shield leading the attack. Ryck barely dodged the Arclight. Ryck fired his cannons. It was a good hit, but not enough to neutralize the attacking unit. Then the cockpit rang. Beeeeeeep.
Without second thought, he squeezed the fire button. “Fox three! Fox three!” He said.
Going from the shoulder-mounted missile launcher, he could see six missiles flinging themselves towards the three units. One of the missiles was deflected by one of the Arclight’s handheld shields, but the second one hit him right in the chest. Explosion. The next Arclight was hit twice by the missiles, not being fast enough to react due to the close range Ryck launched them at. After being struck, the Fighting Unit ignited, throwing space debris in his way.
The damaged Arclight, on the other hand, was smart enough to boost himself at the last moment, causing the two ASRAAMs to miss, exploding much further away.
“Fuck!” he swore.
Ryck aimed his 40 mm autocannon at him, but he was quick enough to dodge his barrage. Launching his boosters towards him, he disposed himself of his cannon, and, zig-zagging left and right, he pulled out his melee weapon – a laser-tipped axe – out of a slot in his shield.
Ryck continued firing, and jumped away just before the Arclight could make out his killing blow. Before he knew it, however, the barrel of his autocannon had been cut off.
“Bastard, you’ll get this.” Ryck said. He let his weapon go, and joined in the melee. He could’ve used his ASRAAMs again, but it was too risky. Melee combat involved high-velocity turns and maneuvers that made it impossible to lock-on enemy movements using the targeting visor. It took way more skill to operate AFUs in close quarters, and many aces–most likely also the one Ryck was facing now–had survived so long because of their skills in melee.
In replacement of his autocannon, Ryck pulled out a cylindrical-shaped weapon out of a ‘pouch’ on the AFU’s leg. He turned up the energy, and the beamsword, as it was called, lit up, forming a long beam that could cut through almost any metal. The two AFUs took a long pause, as the two pilots assessed each other’s units. Ryck realized that, on the pauldrons of this AFU there was a painted black spade, with the number ‘77’ on it. He could also see a good number of yellow stars painted upon its chest, signifying the amount of kills the pilot has had. Although he had no idea what that meant, he remembered one of the crewmen mentioning ‘SPADE-77’ and its fabled tales of improbable kills.
Something came into the radio. It wasn’t a voice he knew. “Alliance pilot, turn away now. There is no need for more killing. My men are only escorting supplies to Ghalzar IV.”
“Who are you?” Ryck asked.
“This is Lieutenant Gavin E.C.S Lauzier of the Arcturian Naval Forces. I suggest you pull out now. As you can see, your friends are being slaughtered.”
Slaughtered? Ryck thought. He looked away. The three of them had dragged Norican’s AFU away. He could see distant explosions and round tracers. A Dagger was shot straight through, igniting into pieces. On a different spot, he saw Jensen taking one Arclight out, only to be surrounded by two others, who quickly converged on him, and shot him up. 412Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkzY8oZrveG
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