“Fuck it, Norican, I need a fucking hand here!” it was Jensen’s voice. Surrounded by two Arclights, he was dodging enemy fire, but to no avail, he was not fast enough. One shot hit his shield, and it was blown away. “Shit!” he yelled. He launched himself away, only to be shot again through the left arm, breaking it off. Much to his dismay, another shot struck his leg, blowing it off and kicking him into an uncontrollable spin. “Jesus christ!”
Jensen fired off a couple wild shots as his unit spun. The two Arclights charged him, but before they reached him, a Dagger came in with a beamsword and cut through one Arclight, then tackling the other away using its shield. The struck Arclight exploded not long after she passed. The inscription R-02 was on the unit’s pauldron. “You owe me one, Jensen.”
it was Sophie.
“Dammit, Deschamps.”
Ensign Sophie Deschamps moved quickly to follow up her attack on the blown-away Arclight. She boosted her unit towards it, dodging several shots as she did, and stabbed the Arclight straight through with her beamsword. She quickly pulled out and launched herself away, as the cockpit’s lock-on warning system started beeping profusely.
---
“What about you fuck off, huh? Go back to your fucking system. We just want to live our lives here.”
“I’m a naval officer, killing you and your comrades is simply a notion of giving and following orders for me. You see,” his Arclight assumed a striking position. Ryck could see his engines firing up. “It’s just business.”
His Arclight then launched away, disappearing. However, before Ryck knew it, he had launched downwards, going into the storm of AFUs engaging each other.
PO2 Oakley and Ensign Floyd ‘Blondie’ Meyers were engaging their own targets until they saw a fast-moving Arclight heading towards their position. They decided to disengage and confront him, charging with guns blazing. But this pilot was quick. Despite having visible damage over his left arm, the Arclight swiftly got away with each shot the two pilots fired. They tried to pull out, but they were too late.
The Arclight – the one with the black spade – stroke his axe right through Oakley’s cockpit. The last words of the young pilot was a loud, terrified shout. Then it went silent. Visually, his craft ignited into pieces of metal, going to every direction.
Meyers managed to dodge, but he as well, was too late. “No, no, no!” Changing direction towards him now, the Arclight crashed towards him using his shield, which threw him off balance. Using the advantage, ‘SPADE-77’ drove his axe right through the Dagger’s centerfold. “Jesus, no!”
Ignition. Explosion. With a single blow, Meyers was dead and forever lost.
“Bastard!” Sophie yelled and launched towards him. The rest of the enemy force had either been destroyed or too heavily damaged to proceed. However, SPADE 77 remained an intimidating presence. A few parts of his armor blackened by the blast, the Arclight turned around, and faced the two remaining Alliance Daggers.
Ryck Norican, surprised by the swiftness of Lauzier’s attacks, quickly retaliated. He went straight towards the Arclight, full throttle. The two fighters clashed. Ryck stroke first, but his downwards blow was avoided by Lauzier’s quick reflexes. He got an elbow to the head, and almost went off balance, only to launch at him again using his shield.
Sophie came in from the right, charging at Spade-77. He quickly ducked and hit Sophie’s shield, but she was quick enough to reply with a punt to the face. Spade-77 launched away.
Ryck clenched his teeth. He launched after Spade-77 and the two AFUs traded blows. The duel ended however, when Ryck mis-stepped and had his left arm cut off above the elbow. Not only did it negate his fighting capabilities, but somehow it screwed up Reaper 03’s electronics. Paralyzed, Ryck was over. One more blow from the Arclight and he would be over.
To the enemy’s dismay, however three flares appeared in the distance, in the direction of Ghalzar IV. A recall signal.
“I’ll see you again, Alliance pilot.” Lauzier said. Spade-77 fired away towards the position of the flares, along with what Arclights that still remained.
What remained was a sorry sight. 187 Squadron had lost half its strength, and only two Daggers remained operational. On the other hand, five enemy AFUs floated lifelessly. A victory or not, the three enemy ships had escaped, and their mission succeeded, while 187, at a terrible cost, had failed. Meyers and Oakley were dead, and nothing could bring them back.
Ryck cursed himself. Recovery crew was coming in now, scavenging what they could from the remains of Meyers’ and Oakley’s units. Jensen’s crippled unit was dragged back to repairs by the recovery gunship. As he looked upon the iron coffins of his dead comrades, Ryck’s earpiece crackled. It was Commander Kelly. “All Reapers, all Reapers, this is Tiger Charlie. Maintain a defensive perimeter until the recovery is complete. When it’s done, proceed to the hangars and get some time off. Outstanding job holding off those Arclights. We’ve lost good people today, and I promise you their sacrifices will not be in vain. Tiger Charlie out.”
***
ns 15.158.61.48da2
