Fleet Command: Squadron Leader.

[lostclause]

Tom dived into his ship. He'd delayed launching his bombers until the last minute because of fuel considerations, the bomber's armour meant that they could only make a couple of flights before refuelling and having to go alone to the training grounds would have reduced that even further.

"All ships, leave the hanger. A-3, you're first the rest of us will follow. Weapons officers, arm your lasers, we'll be repelling the enemy first then we'll think about a sortie. Ready A-3? Right, launch!"

The hanger doors slide open elegantly and, two spaces over from Tom's ship, A-3 began it's departure and the rest formed up in a V-shape behind.

"Captain, our lasers will have minimal impact on the incoming hostiles, where do you want us?" Tom asked as his ship left the confines of the Venture's hanger.

 

[jad4400]

"Sabre Squadren, assume line formation and present a broadside to the interceptors"

"Roger that Mila"

Mila felt her ship rumble slightly benieth her feet as the thrusters moved her ship into the new formation. She checked her combat scanner and observed her formation move into postion, presenting their broadsides to the interceptors. This ment that all three turrets on the corvettles could independiently target and destroy a fighter in the interceptor squadron.

"Mila we have a firing solution on the lead squadron"

"Open fire men"

The corvettes turrets fired in perfect unison and the lead interceptor squadron dissappered off the scanner

 

[MasterSqueak]

Spoiler: OOC

Glad Mila values my orders so much.

Eric sighed as his holo-display showed Mila rushing into action. He really needed to talk to his squadron leaders.

"Calliope Flight, target those bombers. Terra Squadron and Alpha Wing, move in for a bombing run on the enemy cruiser."

He smiled.

"Lucy, bring us around and hit that Buster with the cannon."

 

[jad4400]

Spoiler: OOC

Glad Mila values my orders so much.

Spoiler: OOC

Sorry, I'm still trying to figure out how to play this game

 

[Lord Harrab]

The Squadron Mila targeted lost a pair of fighters from their shots and scattered, leaving the corvettes staring down the bow of the oncoming cruiser.

The Cannons fired, and warning lights flashed into life in the cockpits of two of the craft, they didn't need Lucy's condescending voice in their headsets to tell them what they already knew.

"You're out of the fight boys, next time think again before challenging something so far out of your class, RTB."

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The Errant Venture came about, it's fighters keeping station as it brought it's own cannon to bear,

"Locked on target," Lucy announced, "firing."

The bow cannon flashed as the magnetic rails sent a shell the size of a small car flashing across the void to impact against the cruiser's shields. The AI frowned

"It's a hit, but we need to down it's shields before we can damage it, and we need to do it soon, they've got one gun up on us. That won't be a problem for the bombers though."

 

[lostclause]

"Rodger that Captain." Tom's eyes glanced away from the enemy movements to the status readout on one of the panels around him. Mila was on her own, and most likely on the verge of retreat having lost her two companions.

"Terra Squadron, we'll form up behind you. Lead the way guys." The bombers arched over the top of the Venture and came to where Terra Squadron and Calliope Flight were giving the incoming drones a hard fight.

 

[ZapperX]

--- 10 minutes ago ---

Devon woke with a start at his desk from the orders to launch. It seemed that while he was waiting for Lucy to answer him, he dozed off! He leapt from his desk and rushed to Terra Squadron's hanger, managing to beat the six other piltots there. One by one, the pilots arrived and entered their respective fighters. Devon closed the cockpit as his weaspons officer, James Dirge, hopped into his chair. He did a routine scan of all of his fighter's systems, and all his reports came back green.

"Terra Lead, here. All systems are green, ready to launch," he said through his comm. "Terra Squadron, report in." His pilots reported back one by one.

"Cullen and Arduas, here. Terra 2 is ready to fly."

"This is Hideki Jiroshi and Vladimir Zolo! Terra 3, ready for launch!"

"Ricky and George Rogers, strapped in and ready to go. Terra 4's alive and kickin'."

"Sal and Junior, all ready. All's good with Terra 5."

"Lt. Damia and Lt. Forza, reporting. All reports show no problems. Terra 6, awaiting orders."

"Amy Lens and Becky James, in Terra 7! We're ready to go!!"

"All right," Devon flipped his comm to a private channel with Captian Davidson. "Terra Squadron is ready to go. Permision to launch, sir?"

"Permission granted," he responded. "Good luck out there."

One by one, Terra Squdron left the hanger, ready to begin the mission.

--- Now ---

Devon saw the next wave of incoming drones. 'Damn,' he thought. 'They're stalling us here! We can't spend the whole battle here!' He hailed Alpha Squadron on his communicator. "Alderson, I want your squadron to advance to the ship! I'll break off, and some of Terra squadron will support you! We need to take down this ship ASAP. GO!"

He then contacted the rest of his squad. "Terra 2 & 3, come with me. We're going to support Alpha Squad on their bombing run. Terra 4, 5, 6, & 7, you are temporarily part of Calliope Flight. You are to obey Clohmur's orders like they were my own. Understood?"

"Roger that, Commander," the squad responded in unison.

Devon broke away from the fighting, and moved towards Alpha Squadron, closely followed by Terra 2 and 3.

 

[MasterSqueak]

Eric nodded.

"Siphon extra power to shields, we need to buy our bombers time."

 

[lostclause]

"Roger that Devon." Tom switched his comms link to his squad. "Okay men, support is on its way. We'll head for the enemy's main ship and Terra will catch us up. Skirt the fighting, make sure you don't get tangled up with Calliope's fight."

Tom took his bomber into a dive, skimming just above the Venture's point lasers until the were well past the main fighting. Checking his radar he saw three of Terra squadron approaching from behind, as well as Mila's craft which was moving away from the enemy capital ship. "Mila, could you intercept any fighters who try and break off from engaging Calliope? Last thing we need is an attack from behind."

"Alphas, ease off the throttle, we're going to need Terra if they send another wave at us, give them some time to catch up." As one, the squad's speed dropped to allow the interceptors to close the gap.

"Good to have you with us Terra," Tom said as the interceptors flew into view. "All weapons officers; lasers off, begin preparing for a bombing run. Pilots, we're approaching from the rear, disable the shields first then use any remaining ordinance on their heavy cannons. That should help even the odds with the Venture."

 

[jad4400]

"Copy that Tom, I'll try to keep them off your bck, but I can't promise anything, I'm operating at one third capacity here"

As she menuvered away from the enemy capital ship intio a better position to watch Calliope, she wondered if her men were able to activate their escape pod. Basically the escape pod was the cockpit that was ejected from the corvettes incase of emergenty. However the attack may have suprised her men.

"Venture this is Mila, can you give me a relay of the enemy interceptors positions, I need to be sure where they might come from to get the drop on Calliope."

After a moment she added "When you get a chance can you run a scan of where my guys ships went down, I'm not sure if they were able to escape or not.

 

[Lord Harrab]

Armored shutters slammed down across the Venture as Lucy diverted power into the defensive systems just before the hostile cruiser fired again,the rival ship using it's maneuvering thrusters to try and slip around the flanks of it's weaker foe. The venture turned with it, slightly slower due to the power imbalance, but such action was justified when the two shells were stopped by the stronger shields.

"Shields are holding, stable at 60 percent." Lucy announced, "returning fire."

The ventures own shot went wide of it's target, earning a stream of muttered curses from the AI, but Eric ignored her, there wer more important things to worry about.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Calliope squadron was faring better than it's counterparts, the bulcky strike craft staying within the Venture's own shields to avoid the cruiser's fire, while firing their own shots out at the stream of fighters that were closing on their command ship, assisted by members of Terra squadron.

Together they finished off the damaged interceptor squadron, then turned their attention on the approaching bombers.


vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

"Look out! Incoming!" one of Alpha Squadron's pilots yelled, "Interceptors headed straight at us!"

the oncoming drones flashed past in a stream of Grey bodies, two bomber pilots swearing as they were given the RTB order as both "Died".

"friendlies under fire, Commencing support." Lucy announced, as the Venture's point-defenses opened fire on the interceptors, swatting the offending squadron from space in trails of bright plasma. "Aplha squadron is clear, i say again, you are clear to attack hostile cruiser."


vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Spoiler: Lucy's Status update:

"-the Venture is in good shape, all hard-points undamaged, shields are holding, Defensive orders underway.

- Mila squadron has suffered heavy losses, recommend immediate withdrawal.

- Terra squadron is all green, no problems.

- Calliope squadron reports confirmed Interceptor squadron kill, assisted by Mila and Terra squadron, they are awaiting further orders

- Losses confirmed for Alpha squadron, they can't take much more.

- Another interceptor squadron down courtesy of yours truly.

- Two squadrons of Hostile bombers inbound, requesting an intercept from any squadrons available. They'll be starting their attack run soon."

Spoiler: Tactical advice

"The Hostile Cruiser is vulnerable from the rear, attack from that direction to avoid the majority of it's defenses."

The hostiles are firing dummy rounds, but you are handling live ordinance, as long as your careful, no one will be KIA.

 

[lostclause]

Spoiler: OOC

What a coincidence, I was just going that way myself As soon as I get a reply from Lucy I'll post the full bombing run.

Tom cursed as the laser fire raked the right side of his squad taking out A-4 and A-5. "Terra, we need you to hold those interceptors while we finish our run."

"Lucy, this thing has similar shields to the Venture, right? How many bombs would it take to destroy the shields? How many would we have left to take out the heavy cannons?" The remainder of Alpha wing dived towards the enemy cruiser, flying above the engines.

 

[jad4400]

Mila saw that as the two large ships moved closer, she would not "survive" the action. Her two other ships were dead and now she realized that she was going to do more harm than good if she stayed out here too much longer

"Venture, this Mila, I'm not gonna do to much more good if I stay out here any longer, requesting permission to withdraw."

Spoiler: ooc

If I'm allowed to withdraw, where do I go?

 

[MasterSqueak]

Eric nodded, even though Mila couldn't see it.

"Permission granted."

He then updated orders.

"Calliope, stop those bombers. Terra, get Alpha to the target."

Spoiler: OOC

The Venture, I assume?

 

[lostclause]

Spoiler: OOC

Problem is that you can't receive squadrons when you're on 'Brace for Impact', though by the time you arrive jad that may have changed.

 

[jad4400]

"Copy that, permission recived" Mila responed to Eric. she was somwhat upset about having her wing "killed" this early in a fight, but humbled her and gave her a stark reminder that she was now working with groups of people against sophisticated oppenents, not just her and her boys defending feighters from rag tag pirates.

She reflected more on this as she menuvered back to the Venture, even thought it could not recive squadrens at themoment, she figured she could protect herself inside the sheild.

 

[MasterSqueak]

Eric watched as the blip representing Mila approached the ship.

"Lucy, lower shields to allow Mila to land, then commence evasive manuevers.

Spoiler: OOC

Will that work?

 

[Lord Harrab]

"Roger, Stand down from defensive orders," Lucy barked, her avatar still standing ramrod straight beside the captains chair, "Power control, more power to engines"

"Power control here. Roger that, transfer underway... power re-distributed, you're good to go."

"Bridge, this is Flight-Deck, Mila has returned safely, repairs and rearming underway, Estimated time to completion eight minutes. I Recommend she stays in her berth for now, losing squadrons will count against us in the final score."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Aboard his bomber Tom's ear pierce crackled, then Lucy spoke, sounding unusually professional now that battle had been joined

"Don't worry about the shields, You can fly straight through them, just focus on reducing that ship's damage output or speed, anything to tip the balance in our favor."


vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv


The Buster fired again, one shot causing the shield to flare brightly for a second, then the second punched through it, hitting the Venture just behind the bridge before Lucy could avoid it.

"Shields are down and we've taken damage, radar output has decreased, I've lost eyes on those bombers."

Spoiler: Ship update.

The venture has taken minor damage, and as a result is unable to track the inbound strike craft. making the point defenses useless.

Mila has returned to the ship and is currently being re-armed, for one turn she must remain on board. I'll let her know when she can rejoin the fight if the captain wishes it.

 

[lostclause]

"Roger that Lucy. A-2 take the port side cannon, A-3 take the starboard. I'll follow behind and finish off any that aren't blown in the first run. If they're both gone I'll go for either their shield generator or their engines. Then you guys head straight back to the Venture, understood?"

Tom and his bombers raced to the front of the ship, just too late to prevent them from firing at the Venture. "Damn it! Prepare to drop. Weapons officers, fire!"

As the two bombers swooped over the cannon each discharged four bombs, resulting in massive explosions around the cannon. Tom couldn't see whether or not they'd been destroyed. He called to the retreating ships.

"Weapons officers, confirm kills, repeat; confirm that you have destroyed the target."

 

[jad4400]

Mila waited in her berth, she was wondering where her "dead" ships were.

"Probably back at the station having drinks" she thought.

She was going over how the battle was progressign in her mind at the moment, thinking of how she could improve her squadrens performance in the future and avoid similar situations like the one she was in presently.