| Farewell and Adieu - Half Blocking the Sky |
| Summary: | Fleeing Kilrathi occupied space, the Operation Yamamoto team find themselves suddenly faced with an unpleasant surprise. |
| Date: | 2658.159 |
| Related Logs: | Farewell and Adieu - Briefing, For We've Received Orders, Like Little Tin Turtles, And There We Lay Doggo, A Place Where Repairs Should Be Done |
| Players: |
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Despite expectations, there's nothing waiting at the jump point out from Tingerhoff. No Fralthi, no Ralari… not so much as a single Sartha on patrol. So it is that two broadswords and a corvette disappear unmolested into three blue-white flashes of light, popping back into space in the outer reaches of the Nexus system.
Where a Snakeir class carrier waits.
The KIS Caxa hangs motionless in space, with only a pair of long-range fighters deployed as it prepares to make the jump in to Tingerhoff to cover that unprotected jump point. For an odd moment, Lewis and the Caxa both hang motionless in space, an odd standoff of comically unequal ships. And then there's a flurry of motion from both sides, as each scrambles to take advantage of the situation.
« Bloody hell! » Cole calls into his comms, jamming his throttles forward and pointing his nose at the carrier. « Beagle, get on that goddamn thing quick before the flak tears us to pieces! Tsunami, Razor, we need you up /now/ ». Sure Cole's normally the rather reserved sort when it comes to giving orders, but he also doesn't normally find himself jumping in right on top of a heavy carrier either.
Kanani blinks at the sight that awaits as they jump into the system. And the sight of the Snakeir is certainly enough of a sight to get worked up about. With one final check of her systems, she radios. «Copy that, Lead. Taking off now.» Her slightly damaged fighter then lifts off of its perch, with its slightly damaged occupant, and she starts to speed up headed towards the fighters.
"Jesus!" There's a moment of shock, before Cole's orders kick Alec into high gear. Calling for readiness reports from his turret gunners and readying his bomber's payload, he slaps a hand on the comm switch. «Ro-roger! Breaking formation!» A Snakeir, of all things… he swallows, and swings his bomber into a semblance of an attack run.
It just doesn't feel right to Razor, sitting in a Stiletto that isn't sleek and streamlined. Instead, after the engineers did what they could to patch up the Lewis, they lent a hand to Cole and Razor to fix up the rather messed up Confed Light Fighter as best they can. To Kell's dismay, the chewed up and twisted nose was cut off and melted sensor parts removed, so a replacement module can be fitted in. The slagged Mass Driver Cannon was also removed, replaced with a new one. However, there is no real armor or thin plating covering these newly replaced parts, leaving the fighter looking rather ugly in the Lieutenant's mind.
However, any thoughts in regards to Razor's fighter's beauty immediately departs once the sensors pick up the hostile Capital Ship and escorts, along with Voodoo's exclamation. Slapping the button to unclamp himself from the fighter rack, Kell quickly kicks his Stiletto's throttle into full and blasts forward, shooting into space before banking towards the hostiles. «On our way, Voodoo, hang tight!»
« Moving in, going to try and take out the bridge to buy us some time » Cole replies simply. « Beagle, make your run for the flight deck. Between the two of us, we might be able to cripple her launch capacity before this turns ugly » He orders, watching as the range counts down on his target display, remaining willfully oblivious to the fact he has a Kilrathi fighter accelerating in towards his craft.
With superior speed, Razor closes in on one of the Krants that is latching onto the 'Swords tail and he quickly flicks to the more lethal Heat Seeker missile. As the beeping begins, the Lieutenant quickly calls out a warning to Beagle while he waits for a solid lock tone, «Beagle, watch your six, looks like a Krant is gunning for you. Gonna try to nail it before it gets to you, hang on!»
Kanani charges after the first of the Krant's, trying to keep it from getting any shots in on the bombers. As she pulls onto its tail, she gets a missile lock and quickly launches a heat seeker after the kitty. «Fox two.» She calls out as the missile zips off to do it's job.
«On it!» Alec flicks his eyes between the torpedo lock and his sensor display. «Blowing the asshole in the Krant is fine by me!» He grits his teeth, jinking as best he can while maintaining lock-on, face tight as he expects a firestorm…
Two torpedoes slam into the Kilrathi carrier, ripping substantial chunks from its hull. The carrier's batteries at first unleash their fury on the largest target, before quickly turning in a more sensible direction: The Confederation fighters. Similarly, the two Krant remaining in space both bank for the Broadsword which struck their ship, moving into position behind it for a missile lock.
Cole ignores the threat receiver buzzing in his ear, having perhaps expected to be taking a fair amount of incoming fire for this. He swings his bomber back around, moving in for another pass on the carrier. « Stilettos, I'd greatly appreciate getting these guys off my ass » he urges the escorts simply, unaware of the extra trouble that's come forth from the Kilrathi's flight deck.
«On it, Voodoo, the Krants are pretty chewed up, they should be out of your hair very soon.» Razor responds after watching his first Heat Seeker slam into the Krant's right wing, tearing a nasty chunk of armor and hull out of it. A quick glance to his sensors show that new Kilrathi fighters have entered the engagement are now after the Stilettos, «Tsunami, looks like we picked up a couple of cats on our tails, heads up.» Jinking and juking now, Razor flicks to Mass Drivers since he is unable to obtain a missile lock while trying to shake the Dralthi behind him, holding still just long enough to fire a burst off at the Krant.
«Lead, Tsunami. We're working on that, right now. There's a couple of Dralthi that just launched too, though. We need to get rid of that carrier fast, if possible." Kanani states over the comms, as she switches over to guns, and tries to finish off one of the Krants, while avoiding incoming fire from the Dralthi, that's now chasing her.
Laser fire ripples out from the Meriwether Lewis' batteries, slamming into one of the Dralthi and tearing it to peices. Both Krant are struck by fire from the Stilettos, but their sturdy hulls hold together despite the terrible punishment inflicted on them. The fire from the Caxa isn't nearly as accurate, and the carrier pays the price for it. A fourth torpedo launch is enough to doom the massive ship, slamming into the bridge… beginning a chain of explosions that ripple through the Kilrathi ship. Escaping just ahead of the blast is one more flight of Kilrathi craft, this time with a Grikath bomber among them. It would seem that the Carrier dropped just in time.
« One more for the Freiheit » Cole all but growls into an open channel as the explosions tear through the Kilrathi carrier. His brief moment of enjoying his triumph ended, he turns back into the fight… snapping off a Friend or Foe missile at the first kitty unlucky enough to cross his sights.
Kanani switches her target as she sees the bomber escaping just ahead of the Snakeir's destruction. «Nice shot there. At least that'll be one less fleet carrier we have to worry about.» Is all the congratulations she gives for the moment, seeing as there's still enemy fighters in the area. Once she gets a lock on the bomber, she fires off her missile, and hopes for the best.
Watching as his mass driver pellets zero in on the Krant, Razor is pleased when it plasters the Krant's cockpit and what looks to be some internal damage to the Kilrathi pilot. However, much to the Lieutenant's surprise, the Krant continues to fly for now while venting atmosphere. The new hostile blips coming out of the explosion of what use to be the Snakeir is noticed and with a frown, the Stiletto peels off of the ailing Krant.
Focusing on the new threat, the Grikath Bomber, Razor dives in on it, trying to intercept it before it can do some real harm on their ride home while trying to ignore the two Dralthis that have latched onto his tail.
The violence comes to an odd lull, a flurry of shots flying through space to no good end… only a single missile smashing into the front of a Dralthi. Nucefora's voice comes over the comms, giving the rather needless instruction of « Get. That. Bomber. »
Dodging more missile fire from those Krant on his tail, Cole seems happy to take what shots he can get. He moves to try and keep that Dralthi in front of him, hoping to at least distract the fighters that are engaging his escorts engaging the bomber engaging the Lewis. Isn't the chaos of combat fun?
The Heat Seeker goes wide, causing Kell to curse inside his cockpit. He notices that one of the Dralthi's chasing him gets nailed, «Thanks Voodoo, I'm going after that damn Grikath, the kitty has wings.» Luckily, the torpedo misses the Lewis but it was way too close for Razor's liking so he decides to take a gamble. Instead of doing some shake and bake to keep being blasted from the second Dralthi, the young Lieutenant decides to just zero in on the Grikath, knowing that he will be taking some nasty punishment for it by the Dralthis. With his last Heat Seeker, he launches it at the Kilrathi Bomber.
Kanani dodges the mass driver shots that were headed towards her fighter. Unfortunately her missile whent wide of the bomber, and she now tries to put her last missile into the engine of the Grikath, before it can do any damage to the Lewis. The other fighters, well, she'll just have to worry about them later.
The Lewis' gunners find their mark, laser bolts striking the Grikath's shields… leaving them flickering and dying just in time for Draygo's missile to race into the body of the craft and detonate it in a fireball that consumes its second torpedo shot. The Lewis, it seems, will live to fight another day.
"No you don't you little shit" Cole growls under his helmet as the Dralthi he'd been beating on survives another round of mass driver fire. He toggles back to his missiles in anger, snapping off a second shot at the pancake-shaped fighter. "Let's see you handle that"
Apparently, the Dralthis trailing after Razor did not expect the Stiletto to go still to fire off its last Heat Seeker and they fired their Mass Driver Cannons around the Confed pilot, somehow missing a sitting duck target. With a smirk and a silent thanks to whatever Guardian Angel is resting on his shoulders, Kell kicks his Stiletto back to full throttle and relocates the very wounded Krant that is hounding the 'Sword. «Gonna try to take some heat off of you, Voodoo, then you're next, Tsunami.»
Kanani sighs in annoyance, as her missile goes wide again, but at least the Lewis and Kell were able to finish it off. Switching back to one of the damaged Krant's that are chasing Cole, she moves into position to shoot at the cockpit, and opens fire once she gets a decent looking shot.
Without the support of their carrier, the Kilrathi fighters quickly begin to be overwhelmed. Laser fire from the Lewis tears apart one Dralthi, and Cole's missile blots out a second. One of the Krant finally goes down as well, though the lead Krant somehow survives… turning to engage the Confederation fighter that's torn it to shreds, not done fighting just yet.
« Just make sure I'm on your christmas card list, Razor » Cole tells the Stiletto pilot after that Dralthi dies. He turns his bomber in towards another target, rather absurdly making a head-on pass with guns at the Kilrathi medium fighter. Time to see who gets chicken first.
«I'll make sure that you are the recipient of a fat, juicy ham.» Razor comms back with a grin as his burst of Mass Driver fire slams into and breaks through the Krant's hardened cockpit, turning the interior into mincemeat, including the Kilrathi pilot. Pulling up into a climb, he does it in time so that the two Dralthis that were shooting on him misses by a wide margin. Instead of looping back to go head-on with the Dralthi that is still on him, he opts to help out Cole as he dives down on the unsuspecting Kilrathi who is going head-on with the bomber pilot.
Kanani gets a bit more agressive, as the dralthi switches targets, and she rockets towards the Krant, trying to finish the damned thing off. "Why won't he just die?" She ponders to herself, even as she pulls the trigger, and sends mass driver rounds heading in its direction.
Meriwether Lewis, Cole, and Draygo all pour fire into the unfortunate Dralthi… which quickly shuffles off this mortal coil in a little flash of light, with only a few small scraps to mark where it once existed. Kanani's fire batters the last Krant once more, finally putting an end to the craft. The last remaining Kilrathi apparently knows a hopeless fight when he sees it, turning away from the battle and running as fast as its afterburners will carry it.
« Take him out! » Cole orders sharply, swinging his broadsword around for a shot at the fleeing craft before it gets out of range. « Last thing we want is him playing tagalong later and reporting our position! »
With multiple energy balls colliding into the Dralthi, Kell knows that the Kilrathi has been turned to paste and another explosion at the side reveals that the remaining Krant has bit the dust as well. More Mass Driver fire lights up the side of his cockpit as it shoots by harmlessly and Razor pulls his flightstick back, going into a half loop so that he has reversed direction and is now chasing the kitty with its tail tucked between its legs.
«Copy that, Voodoo.» Kanani states as she swoops her fighter around to take a shot at the remaining Dralthi, trying to put it down, before it can run away.
The Dralthi continues to run, lobbing a missile behind itself to try and shake its terran persuit. As it moves along, the fight falls further and further away from the Lewis and Cole's broadsword, leaving the two Stilettos alone engaged with the Medium fighter. Which suddenly shows a renewed interest in resuming a suddenly more even fight.
« I can't catch up, it's up to you two » Cole tells the Stiletto pilots, his Broadsword banking away from the chase and moving to form up with the Lewis again. Better to keep providing it some cover, just in case more Kilrathi decide to play.
Kanani rockets towards the Dralthi, continuing to shoot mass driver rounds at the cat as it tries to escape. « Copy that, Voodoo, here's hoping we can finish it off, quick.» She remarks, as the persuit of the pesky Kilrathi continues.
Keeping pace with the Dralthi, Kell ducks the first blindly fired missile that the Kilrathi tosses at him, watching the vapor trail shoot by, which in turn screws up his shot at the Dralthi. Lining up for another shot, Razor is surprised to see the Dralthi doing an impossibly quick one-eighty and ends up staring a Dumbfire in the face. Firing off a quick, blind burst of Mass Driver fire, the young Lieutenant yanks hard on right on his flightstick, hoping to break away from the hostile missile in time.
Turning in for the engagement was, apparently a fatal mistake. The Kilrathi's missile sails wide from the nimble Stiletto's maneuvering, while mass driver fire walks straight into its front end, blowing through the cockpit and into the rector.
« Please tell me that was him, and not one of you? » Cole calls after seeing the flash of the explosion in the distance, unable to tell just which side that particular little bit of fireworks belonged to.
«Oh god, the great ace pilot Razor has been slain! We'll need to prepare a funeral parade when we return to the Majestic!» Razor exclaims in fake sadness though the chuckling is hard to hide, «Yeah, it was the kitty meeting his maker. Courtesy of Tsunami. We're on our way back so don't leave without us.»
Kanani makes a high powered turn back towards the Lewis after her shots blow the cat to pieces. «Hah, take that, furball.» She comments over the comm, performing a barrel roll as she once again approaches the Lewis. «Yeah, Voodoo. It was the cat that wiped out. Not us.» She adds along with Razor's statement.
« Don't worry, Razor. We'll be sure to hold a memorial for you in the head » Cole replies with a little chuckle. « Good shooting, all. Let's bring 'em back and get the hell away from here before the Kilrathi figure out their carrier made the jump to Hell instead of Tingerhoff »
Approaching their temporary home, the Lewis, at pretty high speeds, Kell scans the sensors one last time to make sure there are no other surprises waiting. «Understood, Voodoo, we're coming in.» There is a pause as a question is issued to the Lewis, «Control, this is Razor requesting a flyby.»
«Yeah, I doubt they'll be all that happy after this. First junction, then we helped the big kitty in the sector bought it. And now they lose another Snakeir. Seems like a good time to make our dramatic escape, doesn't it?» Kanani states with a snicker, as she brings her fighter in towards the Lewis. No requests for flybys from her, though. «Lewis, Tsunami here. requesting permission to land.»
« Permission granted, Tsunami » Nucefora replies to Kanani, before addressing Draygo. « And negative on the flyby, Razor. Plenty of time for the flight school crap when we're back safely at the fleet. »
« Guess that saves me the asking, then » Cole comments with a little amused chuckle from where he lazily orbits the Venture-class corvette, waiting for the lighter fighters to dock.
Tempted to do the flyby anyways, Razor finally decides against it since the Lewis is his ride home and the only ride in this sector that can be considered a friendly. Not to mention a flyby in space won't rattle the windows and whatnot. Instead, the Stiletto pilot just lines up behind Tsunami and waits his turn to dock with the fighter racks.
«Acknowledged, Lewis. Setting down now.» Kanani states, and she manuvers her Stiletto smartly into it's docking clamp with a loud clang. Once there she again calls out. « Tsunami here, I'm down safely, and signing off.» She says, before she starts to power down the fighters systems, so she can get back inside the corvette.
As Kanani's fighter settles back against the Lewis, Cole brings his around in a lazy arc to begin his approach towards what's temporarily passing for home. « Voodoo is making his approach now. » he reports simply, pausing for a moment and asking. « Hey, anyone seen a Kilrathi carrier around here? Heard they're missing one… »
«One Snakier Lost. If found, call 1-800-LOST-CAT!» Razor chimes in with a grin, the help poster images in his head already. Once the first Stiletto is docked safely, Razor follows suit as he gently gooses the engines so the light fighter inches forward and glides into the appropriate fighter rack gently this time, since he has more control over his fighter. «Razor touching down and signing off.» With that, he starts flicking switches in the cockpit, going through the power down sequence.
