1379/Naval Combat!

Naval Combat!
Date of Scene:	20 January 2015
Location:	Midway Fleet Base <MFB>
Synopsis:	An Elvari incursion on Port Darwin, Australia
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 112, 359, Neuroi Girl, 571, 596, Starbound Flotilla, 673

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Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
Port Darwin, Australia

    Once upon a time, a major military port, Darwin is now more of a trade city with a minor military presence courtesy of the Australian Navy. With the Stream Alert siren humming through the streets, however, civilians are already swarming their way into shelters or further inland. Traffic is kind of a huge mess, and many people have resorted to fleeing on foot.

    In the harbor, two fishermen and their barbecue refuse to leave. When asked to by a police officer, their reasoning for staying consists of "Fuck off, wanker" and "Get lost or grab a beer an' watch the fireworks."

    Out past the harbor, the sea's surface has begun to churn, a violent white foam in a wide circle that delianates the outlet of the mysterious Elvari 'Stream' technology. Five objects were announced, but as the sea churns, nothing has yet appeared in the midst of the boiling waves.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Flotilla can only really afford something like two of its own six ships deployed against the Elvari, and even those are more like gunboats than a proper, full-on battleship. That is, of course, why the others were asked to help. What descends from above is a strange pair of spacecraft: One is an ultramodern, shiny white, bristling with turrets and polished hull plating. The other is much more chaotic, wrought out of wrecked metal and baring strange plant growth and bone trophies on its surface. Albert has asked his allies to come to his aid on the white ship, which has a slightly cramped interior full of easily-understood interfaces for things like engine operation, auto-repair functions, weapons systems, shield operation, and things like that, as well as the monkeyman himself, operating one of the guns. Someone will need to handle helming this thing, once autopilot gets impractical! Both ships descend rapidly into short-range naval engagement distance above the water, and are moving rapidly towards the outlet of this Stream from the direction of the oceanic warpgates.

    The savage plant-themed one seems to be pushing forward much more quickly, and is much more agile, but only has one large gun, while Albert's craft, to which he's invited his allies, has several! The positions at the HELM, the WEAPONS, the REPAIRS, the SHIELDS, and the ENGINE are all available and unfilled, at this time. But with an interface like this, it's easy for even the unexperienced to help! Firearms experience translates directly into weapons operation, defensive experience right into shields, keen human reflexes make anyone able to operate the helm, mechanical knowledge makes the engines simple to figure out. Very convenient! And mostly enabled by the ship's onboard AI.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Biteblade may be a bit too much for Alexis' tastes, but Albert at least is more the cyborg's style, hence why Alexis has opted to ride along with the monkeyman aboard his vessel. The port itself's way behind the times in Alexis' view, she herself only having a vague memory of Australia back home...or what's left of it anyways, given how the Izunagi kind of took what was useful there while it made a power grab.

    The WEAPONS system is manned as Alexis sights down the targets via the gunnery interface. Her weapons experience ought to make this a natural position for her, as she awaits orders and observes the approaching enemy forces with curiosity.

    "Come on already..."

Elasaid Hood (359) has posed:
    Out of the local Warp Gate comes a Seaking helicoptor. Applied to the nose is the stylized motif of a goldfish with sharp fangs and an angry look. It's operation number: 119 can be seen printed clearly on the fuselage just behind the door. Standing in the doorway is a rather short human woman, red hair flapping wildly in the turbulance from the rotor blades.

    She's entirely normal, save for the fact she's half hanging out the side of a helicoptor in flight. SHe's got a windbreaker on, with a patch on the arm that has the World Fleet insignia, underwritten by First Fleet, Midway. And under that in golden threat. HMS Hood.

    "Take me down to the waterline and drop me off. HMS Hood is weighing anchor." The helicoptor descends, and as it comes to a hover over the harbour, the woman lets go and plummets downwards. "Ventis Secundis. The Hood sails forth On Favourable Winds." As she falls, she rotates in the air to land feet first, while becoming engulfed in a blue-white light. She strikes the water, producing a plume far larger than a woman her size should.

    What rises from the settling mist is a creature from nightmares! Actually it isn't. Blue velvet uniform, gold trimmed Tricorn hat, a mass of metal supporting four large turrets, and thick gauntlet bracers shaped like the hull of a ship mark Elasaid's new form. She straightens from the impact, and crosses her arms over her <span class=" bold_fg_x bg_n ++ hest.

chx"><Engine room reporting all green! Boiler pressure normal!></span>

<Gundeck reporting, cannons loaded, rangefinders calibrated! Torpedo deck reports all tubes ready!>

    "Ahead one third. Bring us into range." she states, beginning to wade towards the Emergence Point.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Normally, Zwei doesn't really have any particular interest in protecting civilian targets from whatever perils befall them, but it has dispatched both units for very particular reasons. One is to see the unique technology of the Elvari, and the other is to keep tabs on the 'Starbound', who are making all sorts of noise on the Syndicate channels lately, both directly and indirectly. Weiss has taken position aboards Albert's vessel as a matter of convenience, and also as a chance to map out the interior; stealthily scanning every system she lays eyes on, before taking position at the helm, where her superior reflexes and understanding of physics will serve much better than an autopilot. Asche is outside, joining the battle directly, though he can barely be seen as more than an arrow of white mist streaking over the horizon at an insane mach 8, circling in a large holding pattern over the city of Darwin as he gradually slows to a more reasonable, though still supersonic, combat velocity.

    "This ship is pretty fancy, but are you really sure it's a good idea to pit something this small against an actual warship?" Weiss says about the Starbound vessel, communicating silently and wirlessly with Asche outside to provide the ship's sensor data as spotting and triangulation.

Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
    Not far behind Elasaid, also emerging from Seaking 119, is a kind of ridiculously tall black-haired Japanese woman. She keeps her eyes down, observing Hood's Deployment and landing with a nod. Once the helicopter starts to move, Mikase herself jumps out and descends. Similarly surrounded by shining silver light, she impacts the water with a sound like metal striking concrete, hurling out a splash many times larger than her size would suggest.

    Hauling herself up to full height, wreathed in gleaming steel armor and the hakama of a Samurai warrior, Yamato accellerates forward, swinging wide of Hood's approach while the great guns of her main battery elevate and swing forward.

    "Senkan Yamato, setting sail! I will cover the harbor and bombard at long range to cover Hood's approach."

Neuroi Girl has posed:
     Following in the wake of the Seaking through the warp gate comes the sleek black form of Evangeline. She twirls and circles her way around the aircraft, then follows the Fleet Maidens down to the water's surface. As the two ships prepare for battle, the little Neuroi zips forward, creating a small wake in the water as she heads toward the bubbling turbulence beneath the water's surface.

     With no current target, she just circles the area, rising higher into the air to keep a better eye on the water and allow her clear sightlines for an attack. "...Evangeline reporting in...I will provide air cover..."

Staren has posed:
    There's a glint of light reflecting off of metal in the distance, which rapidly swells into a large, shiny fighter plane as it approaches from the warpgate at over two and a half times the speed of sound. It slows down to form up with the Starbound ships, and is thus preceded by the sonic boom before, in a whir of tiny moving parts, machinery under the fuselage reforms into arms and chicken-walker legs. It waves to the Starbound ships and to Evangeline as she passes by, a motion mimicced by the pilot. Staren's face can't be seen under his helmet, but who else wears a helmet with room for cat ears? The safety-orange-and-white flightsuited figure waves before the cockpit armor plating deploys over the canopy. <<I'm here. This is Staren of the Union, ready to engage.>>

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    SAIL, the shipboard AI, first responds to Zwei's Weiss, rather than Albert. "Tactically, the viability of this operation is unknown. Only two vessels have been deployed, and they will determine if more need to be deployed subsequently. This is the reason we requested assistance."

    Albert does speak up to reply, though! "We've few ships to deploy. That's why we've posted this job. We need something from these vessels if we're going to advance to the point where we can make tactically sensible decisions at all. This is why we've chosen a target with backup." There's a bit of rage in his voice for a moment. "The Apex Resistance Fleet once spanned worlds and numbered in dozens of massive warships. I will rebuild it from this pitiful boat if I have to." With a sort of strained anger he's jamming the weapon charging buttons on his own weapon station.

    Zwei will be able to detect that this is a stolen ship, with all its 'DRM', so to speak, force-disabled, apparently previously belonging to something called the Miniknog who seemed to have extremely efficient engineering ability. There's also a number of advanced technologies for manufacturing and research. The ship seems to be in the process of being turned into the seed of a much larger mobile industrial manufacturing and research base. For now it's kinda dinky though, and a hackjob of a Miniknog gunboat.

Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
    Two fleet maidens, two starships and their respective crews, a set of alien twins, a Neuroi witch, and a fighter jet congregate over and within Darwin's harbor. This does little to deter the boiling water further out to sea: It seems the enemy is still intent on making an appearance.

    The first shapes to emerge are somewhat small within the circle formed by the Stream. About eighty feet long, sleek hulls with streamlined structure on the top. Once the two vessels have emerged, they immediately accellerate out of the way while devices unfurl on their forward and aft decks.

    The next pair that emerge are very similar in shape, but notably larger in size. As these two Elvari turn and exit the Stream's footprint, weaponry unfurls from the slick white hulls. Due to their larger size, the cruisers sport more equipment, including an extra main gun on the aft deck and what appears to be a mortar cannon.

    The final thing to emerge... This one's new.

     It's easily twice again as long as the cruisers, vessels that had been encountered before, with a broad, flat-ish hull that slides out of the water at an angle and then crashes down even as the Stream outlet begins to dissipate. Once it's fully horizontal, the upper section of the hull lifts and then swings out to either side, forming a large, flat surface. Numerous weapon emplacements begin unfurling along the edges and around the centralized command tower. Panels along the flat surface also descend into the vessel's interior. When they return, they carry groups of delta-winged craft.

    "I am Captain Stolva of the Elvari Occupation Fleet," a woman's voice murmurs in a monotone over both loudspeakers and local radio frequencies, "Turn back now or be destroyed by my Skyhammer."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Aboard Alberd's ship, Rory has been running back and forth to familiarize herself with its layout. But it doesn't take long to build a mental map.

    She's tied into the whole ship's sensor network and so she settles in at the mechanics section! For show (apparently remembering more and more about expression these days!) she twirls a utilitool which shifts from several modes - screwdriver, wrench, grinder - throughout the display. She's ready to help.

    And if there are available controls for it over her Mesh connection, she'll Jam one of the unused guns too!

Elasaid Hood (359) has posed:
    Elasaid's advance doesn't abate, but as the Destroyers surface her guns swivel into place, emitting loud clanks as they traverse, then elevate. "FIRE!" Eight reports sound, shells dropping amongst the enemy fleet.

<Range found. Locking in on hostile Carrier!>
<Gundeck reporting. Reloading main battery. Secondary guns loaded with Type-17 airburst shells. AA Crew standing by.>

    Green eyes lock onto the enemy carrier. "You can bluster all you wish, /Captain/. But while I still float you shall not lay a finger on this city"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Aircraft make their way towards the gathered group of defenders, and Alexis begins to train the sights on her turret against a grouping of them calmly. Her neural implants synch to the targeting systems of the gunnery, and she begins to triangulate targeting data to ensure she won't miss her first shot. Alexis' hands grip the handles of her selected guns, and when the aircraft get into range, she pulls the trigger.

    "Firing solution away, engaging!" She calls out calmly, while making herself audible over the roar of turret fire, as it is no doubt ridiculously loud.

Neuroi Girl has posed:
     Evangeline watches the ships emerge from her holding patterns above them. Once all the ships are deployed and the Captain speaks up on the comms, Evangeline radios back, "...the last captain of the Elvari Occupation Fleet that I faced barely escaped destruction...you should turn back..."

     With no more warning than that, Evangeline holds her arms forward, aimed at the carrier, and the menacing red glow of Neuroi energy forms at their tips. "...Engaging enemy..." she radios before a solid beam of destructive energy is unleashed at the flight deck of the carrier. Wherever it hits it would cause massive explosions. How damaging those explosions are is yet to be seen...

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Momentarily satisfied with its knowledge of Albert's ship (though leaving mental notes to further research the organization that had left the 'DRM' in place, and follow up on mentions of a Resistance), Zwei turns its watchful eyes to the Elvari craft slipping from the waves below like white ghosts rather than any kind of conventional sailing vessel. Weiss mostly records everything that Rory is able to pick up through sensors, as watching through the ship's front window isn't terribly useful, but Asche is using the myriad sensor nodes over his body to blast the waters below with deep penetrating radiography. Though it is mostly interested in this 'stream' phenomenon, it does pay some attention to what it can find of the ship's weapon, propulsion and defensive systems.

    As Asche loses some of his excess velocity, he begins deploying a splitering trail of tiny black dots; recon drones that scatter about the airspace into a widely spaced matrix; capturing everything happening from several angles and distances to provide enhanced battlefield awareness. While Asche does seem to enjoy though provoking discussion, there seems to be none of that going on in this war zone, and thus he keeps his silence; pulling a ludicrously tight split-S maneuver with a sudden flare of rocket exhaust, and streaking high over the carrier's decks; locking onto each row of aircraft in turn and letting off a precise, dual-armed salvo of raiser fire set to full kinetic; bolts of energy that will penetrate armour as an infinitely hard object until they fully expend their energy and dissipate. The attack run is meant to test the defenses of the aircraft, and of the carrier deck underneath.

    Weiss meanwhile, sees a number of guns that would be a bad idea to charge into the killzone of while flying such a small ship. Disengaging the autopilot, she presses both hands to the ship's command console; forgoing the use of the stick, switches, and even the touch interfaces entirely, so as not to limit her input speed. She switches the ship's leftmost thrusters off first, allowing the imbalance to tilt the ship to the side, and increase wind pressure along its widest flank, slowing it down so it doesn't fly straight into the middle of the pack. She finely adjusts the pitch and roll to keep the nose pointed slightly down, and the guns angled to track the ascent aircraft escaping the carrier's deck along their entire range of vertical swivel.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches the first two craft surface. "They're not /that/ big." He comments.

    Then the bigger ones appear.

    Still, that's not going to deter him! His response to the 'captain' is <<Ha, I think not! /You're/ the one who should turn back... and now we'll show you why!>>

    Staren opens by trying various weapons to see what damages the big ship the most: A sweep with the gatling railgun on the right arm, followed up by a plasmaburst missile from under the wings and several shots from the RAISER rifle in the finger -- a deceptively-small energy projectile of solid light that, if not stopped by shields, usually discharges the energy of a large bomb in raw heat when it contacts and sinks into a target.

    He considered engaging in melee, but during his allies' opening salvos is probably not the time!

    Staren also spots what Asche is doing with the drones. <<Hey, Zwei! Can we share tacnet access?>>

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
So the land down under is being attacked? Okay she's in to help and given it sounded like Albert's needed some help so she's on board his ship and she'll be looking to which station to take. Alexis is already on gunnery, and the alien machine intellgience Zwei is on helm which honestly maker her a bit nervous. She however has other things to worry about she's down in the engineering section having hooked up a wireless link as she's also keeping an eye on the shields for the moment she might consider securing herself somehow but that likely isn't the best of ideas. For now she's focusing on keeping the engines running and the shields well from collapsing.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The available weapons on Albert's ship blaze into action as both Maaka and Albert light up the consoles. Rory may be helping here too, and Jamming one of the heavier guns will let her target some of the smaller craft below with heavy bolts suited to their size. The weapons, of course, are all energy weapons. Lasers, plasma, all that good futuristic stuff. Using firearms experience to calculate basic firing solutions on those aircraft is simple.

    Doing it while Zwei begins to technopath the ship into the equivalent of a space drift is maybe a little more hard, but they're tracking the aircraft primarily so they're still targets that the ship can focus on. The maneuver would normally be really damn slow! Fortunately, Kotone is helping regulate the engine output, making it speedy, ensuring they're in engagement position immediately. With three anti-fighter turrets blasting away, they will ideally cut through some of those aircraft taking off here! They'll need their shields up shortly, though! Once the fighters get on them, Albert's going to be moving from weapons to shields, cutting their firepower by a third to set up a bubble of defensive force.

    Meanwhile, the Floran ship is slowly diving low, its singular large gun intending to strike at one of the first two vessels that emerged from the stream, its large forward gun firing as what appears to be some kind of scavenged hackjob railgun. Just needing to test what defensive capacity these ships have now...

Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
    In the harbor, Yamato brings herself to a halt and wheels around, hunching forward. Her guns elevate, transversing for minor corrections. There's a moment when time seems to stand still, at least for her, before the igniter goes off. One by one in a rapid staccato, the girl's main battery goes off in six massive reports that fill the air in front of her with smoke and flame, hurling water to either side from the concussive blast.

    Further out past the harbor entrance, the two Elvari destroyers immediatley rachet up their speed and swing around in wide arcs, screening the carrier when Hood's guns open fire. Heavy shells impact the left-side destroyer's shield, sending spiderweb cracks across the invisible surface and downright punching through in places to blast holes in the superstructure. Yamato's volley does not have a chance to capitalize on the weakness, however, as the second destroyer passes in front of the first. Instead, the 46cm shells blast into fresh shielding, gouging holes through the glass-like barrier and tearing out a piece of the structure forward of the pulse lasers.

    Further back in the formation, the carrier is under fire from aircraft before it can even deploy its lethal cargo. Asche's cannon fire riddles into the barrier covering the deck, creating a webbed network of cracks and pinholes across what otherwise would be empty air. Staren follows up with his weapons, tearing holes in the weakened shield and destroying a number of aircraft while their engines spin up. A notable number are smashed to pieces or burn where they stand, while drones on treads shove them towards the edges of the launch deck and eventually overboard.

    Neuroi Girl's crimson laser carves across the water, slashing across one of the cruisers and sliching right through the shield. However, the shielding dampens the beam enough that it only leaves a nasty scoring mark across the hull. The visible edges of the pierced shields begin to regenerate, something the Neuroi is quite familiar with.

    "And so you have chosen destruction," the woman's voice murmurs. Her monotone is tinged slightly with a menacing undertone.

    The forward destroyers open fire first, their pulse guns hurling bolts of blue, kinetic light into the sky, directed primarly after Asche and Evangeline. Their main guns rotate, the dynamos on the sides spinning up with an angry orange-red glow. Behind them, arcing around in opposite directions as part of the defense screen, the two cruisers add their pulse cannons to the anti-air fire, contributing lances of blue to the larger threats such as Staren's fighter and the two Starbound vessels. Forward and aft, the main guns spin up their dynamos as well, directing themselves towards the Fleet Maidens and the harbor behind them.

    The carrier's craft also launch. In rapid waves with bursts of cyan exhaust, delta-winged aircraft take to the sky from beneath the Skyhammer's shield. Forming up into quartets, these small craft--too small to be manned--start making strafing runs on the flying gunships with weapons very similar to the AA fire coming from the fleet itself. It's only after all aircraft on the launch deck are deployed or pushed overboard that the carrier's own anti-air batteries open fire.

    Yeah it just got crazy in a VERY short time

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Just as shit escalates to a hellish degree in a very short amount of time, Alexis is quick to keep up the fire in even bursts at the aircraft. Her shots are well-aimed as she fires away, but eventually she notices the guns on the destroyers. Narrowing her eyes, she directs fire towards one of the guns, just as Yamato had explained earlier.

    Her shots blaze away, hammering upon the charging turrets on one of the destroyers when Alexis is confident ALbert can take care of the aircraft for the time being.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone's worrying about the engines for the moment while everyone else is doing hr thing she is keeping tabs on some of the shiep other feeds however it's easy enough for her to keep tabs on thing as the ship's making it's attack runs. She keeps curnching numbers ar a rapid pace starting to get to know the alien technology a bit better, still it's nice to not worry about it /frying/ her brain as she tries to figure out the best way to do things.

She's got to admit even in this state thie ship is beyond any vessel her world has so far as she knows.

Elasaid Hood (359) has posed:
    The Hood comes to a stop, setting her stance as the Destroyers and Cruisers start powering up their main guns. Hey eyes flicker skywards, prompting her Secondary Battery, along with the smaller machine gun nests to open fire on the strafing aircraft, bursts of Flak and streaks of yellow-orange pulse laser fire joining the suddenly very hectic skyline. She's attempting to provide cover for the air division. Her Main Battery reloads with a series of satisfying CLA-CLUNKS. "We'll see who's destroyed. EAT THIS!" she roars, aiming at the closest Destroyer and unleashing hell with all eight cannon barrels.

    Once they're reloading, the Maiden sets off again, wading through the water at a brisk 30 knots, looking to close to Torpedo range. Once there, her arms unfold and little ports open on the bra<span class=" bold_fg_x bg_n ++ ers.

chx"><Torpedo firing solution acquired. Target locked!></span>

    Elasaid then clenches her fists, and /punches/ four pulses of near-invisible magic out at the closest destroyer, looking to overwhelm it by sheer brute force.

Neuroi Girl has posed:
     Evangeline takes off after she fired her beam, her twirling and swerving making her difficult to hit.

     Difficult, but not impossible. Her hexagonal blue shield flares time after time as shots from those AA lasers impact her. She starts after the enemy aircraft, but stops when the others say to focus on the powering main guns of the cruisers. She looks toward the aircraft, the fires one shot in their direction. One, multi beamed, multi vectored attack that she hopes will deter them if not destroy them.

     Then, she dives toward the nearest cruiser and powers up another full energy Neuroi beam. As she dives, she fires, focusing her beam on the shield above the dynamos for the forward gun, and as she pulls up from her dive the beam lances across the water and the other ships.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Oh... incoming!" Instead of firing on the ships, Rory directs her lone plasma cannon with incredible speed. To her the world is in slow motion. The incoming plasma bolts are targeted and shot at using Bullet Time focus. Where the few shots she manages to get right connect, one magnetically sealed plasma package collides into another and both detonate into flares of wild energy that scorches and ionizes the air harmlessly... creating nothing but a lot of ozone, really.

    But her accuracy rate is only about fourty percent...

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Staren had requested access to Zwei's data feed over the radio, and so he gets it. The amount of information being processed and broadcasted by so many drones is potentially too much for the combat computer of a single fighter craft, and includes a lot of data that would be useless to him anyways, and so Weiss makes an effort of stripping it down to things that would likely benefit him and nothing else. Rangefinding, IR signature, energy spikes, and estimates of enemy vector change; that sort of thing. Said readings warn her just in time as the scathing salvo of anti-air fire comes towards the ship she's piloting, allowing her just enough time, between her superhuman reflexes and lack of need to manage a physical control system, to sharply buck the craft into a Pugachev's Cobra maneuver, aided by the ship's landing boosters on the bottom, suddenly turning the wide horizontal target into a thin vertical one. The forward momentum of the ship keeps everyone rooted against the floor during the few moments the aerobatics continue, but the G forces are extremely uncomfortable. The result should be that most of the broadside from below should miss. The rest she'll have to trust to Albert on shields.

    Meanwhile, Asche is taking stock of the enemy's energy shields. Rather than being the craft's main form of defense, they appear to function as something of a buffer; blunting enemy fire rather than completely absorbing it, but regenerating fast enough that they provide a constant, steady reduction in damage throughout the entire battle. The most efficient tactic would appear to be hitting them with sudden bursts of overwhelming firepower rather than trying to whittle them down with rapid fire, and so he retracts the forearm multi-weapons and instead rezzes in his full scale raiser rifle, over five meters in length. He charges straight through the incoming pulse laser fusillade, confident in his own defensive technology.

    Rather than impacting any kind of visible barrier, the pulse lasers seem to simply miss. Paying close attention, one can see them angling ever so slightly as they enter a certain radius around him; bending subtly in mid-flight to fly just barely past him. Making no effort to dodge at all, he bulldozes through the wall of fire and squeezes off a charged shot from his own weapon in turn. The short whine of the weapon cycling is drowned out in all the gunfire, but the white hot flash that streaks down towards one of the cruisers certainly isn't. He's specifically waited until Staren and Evangeline are well clear, because the ensuing blast has a danger zone of a hundred meters; cratering the water around the carrier as if punched by the hand of god.

    Waiting to assess the damage before choosing a new power setting or a new target, Asche sits straight in the middle of the crossfire without worry, hovering on a plume of fire. His drones are keeping an eye on any fighters that might try to surprise him, but he doesn't see any reason to avoid the beams that lance from the carrier itself, until a handful of them impact his back armour; scoring molten lines across the carbon black. Now how did that happen?

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    ANTI-AIR FIRE slams roughly into the weapons systems and some WOULD go into the engine. It's cutting capacity a bit, but not debilitatingly, since they didn't damage the shield systems. Rory's going to need to unjam from that gun, because she'll need to repair it, but the Starbound craft did manage to creatively use ANTI-PROJECTILE FIRE for a moment! Damaged control circuits all over. Kotone has no repairs to do this time, so her crunching will enable OVERCHARGED MANEUVERABILITY! Simple jerry-rigged bypasses on control mechanisms will serve enough to get the secondary weapons systems back online, though. Of secondary concern is the generalized hull damage that accumulates, but this is one hell of a sturdy craft, and it'll hold even with its hull integrity cut to some 85% or so.

    

    Albert handles the first wave of shots gracefully from his shield position, then it's right back to the guns, working in tandem with Maaka's focus on the destroyers, covering the aircraft for now. Rapid laser beams go after the swarm, and even several anti-aircraft missles are launched from SAM-like launchers of Rory focuses on the weapons instead of the hull!

    The shield station remains unmanned for a moment; Kotone may need to run there later, but EXCESSIVE and DEBILITATING ship damage shouldn't come up, as long as Weiss can pull some tricks with the maneuvering! Weiss slims out the profile, giving Rory her chance to do her repairs without things EXPLODING around her! It is extremely stylish too, but it overcomes the artificial gravity for a moment and may send the crew scrambling briefly! To say nothing of the heat and sparks flying from the infrequent strike of fire from the Elvari.

    Meanwhile, the FLORAN CRAFT is working on the smaller groups. It's trying to maneuver such that its main, heavy gun is able to deny paths from one ship to the other that it's screening, forcing them to take maximum damage from the allied forces who target them. They're already rumbling a fair bit though, and their shields go down and up rapidly. The ship's own shield systems have been punched through by some of the heavier anti-air.

Staren has posed:
    Staren takes note of their defensive technology. Good shields, but if you can take them out, it seems to be easy to deal damage. Okay, he can deal with that, he thinks. Right now, though, they're scrambling fighters...

    And shooting him with lasers! Which are, of course, impossible to dodge. The Star Hawk is pockmarked as flecks of armor explode, but it /is/ designed to take punishment like this, at least for awhile. Still, Staren turns to circle the ships, positioning his machine so the left arm's beam shield covers the main body, so it will hopefully start absorbing most of the hits.

    Fighters fill the air. Staren is probably the second- or third-most agile unit here, so he'd better help keep the skies clear for his ship allies! To do so, he begins by emptying one of the wing missile pods -- 14 plasma minimissiles launch out into the cloud of fighters, airbursting near targets. In the wake of that, Staren's machine dashes in, twin beam sabers drawn, and tries to fly right up to fighters and slash them!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
So here they are they are under fire as to be exspected and Kotone notices there's something up with the Shiel station she keeps her eye on it or the moment she knows she may need to get there at a moment's notice. She does keep alert of that, and then hello Zero G that was not that much she cna do but try to make sure she doesn't crash hard when everything is done.

<Well we're not dead yet, we're doing something right!>

Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
    The first Elvari ship to go down is one of the destroyers. Already hammered by Yamato's guns and unable to hide behind its equally-exposed compatriot, the pierced shield is further shattered by gunfire from above until beam shots pound into the hull and armor of the main gun's mechanism. Something jams and a part flies off with a shower of sparks. The whirling dynamo continues to spin, the orange glow turning a bright red until, with a world-shaking explosion, the entire front half of the destroyer disappears. The stern half, rapidly ascending as the vessel starts to sink, continues to fire its pulse guns even as the escape pod jettisons in a high arc. It clips the fantail, tumbles, strikes the water, and disappears.

    One of the cruisers, further back in the formation, swivels its guns towards Evangeline when she dives on it, all eight of its anti-air weapons fixated on a single target. This does little to dissuade the dive-bombing attack however. Focused light carves into the shield, penetrates, then is wrenched back by Eva's pull out of the dive, ripping a hole in the vessel's hull. The turrets forward of the gash all go silent, along with the main cannon's dynamo which loses its charge. Adopting a list, the cruiser itself starts to turn away, as if attempting a retreat while covering with its aft Anti-air weapons.

    The fleeing cruiser is suddenly pierced by Asche's new rifle, punching into the shield and, shattering through it, piercing the hull aft. The vessel shudders and then loses speed, eventually coming to a halt. The aft main gun's charge dissipates, and one by one the pulse lasers stop functioning. A moment later, a slim black pod ejects out of the superstructure and straight into the water.

    In the air, it becomes clear that the Elvari fighters do not have shields. It is also ABUNDANTLY clear that there are a LOT of them. Staren's missile salvo eradicates a good portion in a single attack, shattering attack formations and, right after, sending numbers of them spiraling out of control down to the water. Several more are shot down by defensive fire from the two star cruisers and the burst of red light shot off by Evangeline prior to her dive, and still more lose wings and engines to flak fire coming from Yamato herself.

    There's a problem, though.

    The elevators on the Skyhammer's launch deck have already raised back into position. Another wave of aircraft hurl themselves into the air, replenishing those that had been lost, reinforcing those that remain. And no sooner has the deck cleared that the elevators lower back down, presumably to bring up still more. Five elevators in all line the central launch deck, surrounded by laser turrets and buzzing aircraft.

    The remaining destroyer turns sharply to avoid the tail end of Evangeline's laser, its own main gun swinging around. A crimson lance of light fires from the forward turret, sweeping across the water towards Hood and the harbor beyond. The blast is cut short, however, when torpedos strike amidships--by avoiding Evangeline, they could not also avoid Hood's torpedo strike, which has just punched through the shield at the waterline and opened a hole large enough for Tony Stark's ego to walk through without ducking. The vessel slows to a stop, listing severely, while the command pod jettisons overboard.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Fire support continues to rain upon the Elvari ships, and Alexis takes the chance offered by the charging cannons with a wide grin. The first destroyer goes down, and for a moment Alexis Maaka's professional demeanor shatters as she punches the air and hoots with glee.

    "FUCK YEAH! I JUST SANK YOUR BATTLESHIP, BITCH!" She yells, grunting with satisfaction as she trains the cannon towards the remaining Destroyer next, the already crippled ship finding itself hammered with plasma fire before it falls in two pieces. "ANd that's two. Let's wrap this up, people!"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Well that takes care of the escort. They were already outnumbered by us to begin with, so it's not too surprising, though they were still a lot tougher than I imagined." Weiss chats over the howling roar of guns, explosions and fighter craft. "We've successfully prevented them from firing on the harbour-" As if Zwei cares. "-but now we have to deal with the fleet carrier. I think almost all of its hull space is dedicated to fighters. I'm not even sure how much of a crew there is, if any at all, besides that one woman." It's a good thing that the ship has artificial gravity, because as soon as Weiss has found out that's the case, she pulls the ship into a sharp Immelman turn, simply leaving it upside down so that the topside guns can fire at the fighters below, while still forcing them to climb if they want to pursue. It's anyone's guess why she insists on treating a space craft like an airplane.

    Asche meanwhile, rather than backing away, dives straight into the cloud of fighters, having silently singled out the carrier as the only thing present of bypassing his unique form of shielding, and thus choosing a place where it hopefully won't shoot at him for risk of friendly fire. He rezzes something that looks vaguely like a cylindrical grenade in one hand, twisting into an acelerating roll through the fighter swarm and tossing it upwards by hand rather than by launcher, aiming for where his drone network tells him is the direct center of the furball. At the exact moment gravity cancels out the device's inertia and leads it to hang in mid-air, the outer casing fragments, and then explodes into a blinding flash of light. Dozens of high powered fractal lasers shoot from the surface of the device, each directed by a microcomputer to strike through the vital points of any fighters within line of sight.

Elasaid Hood (359) has posed:
    Elasaid braces herself, crossing her arms in front of her as a pillar of blue-whtie manifests between her and that beam. "My Armour is Unbreakable!" she roars defiantly, the orange laser splashing across the hardened Active Barrier. Splintering cracks, much like those of the Elvari shields, form but thankfully don't buckle as the beam is cut short. "Your fleet is failing, Captain. Now I'm coming for YOU!"

    She gathers herself, then surges forwards again, firing shots from all her guns at any target foolish enough to get into range. The Main Guns CLANK as they reload again, before they split target.

    The port side train on the Carrier, while the Starboard rotate onto the remaining Cruiser, both sets loosing their deadly payloads.

<Torpedoes reloaded Captain! Ready to fire on your command.>

<Damage control reporting, major damage to Armour Belt, no breaches yet. Hull stress within tolerance.>

    "Press the attack, do /not/ let that Carrier escape!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren doesn't have time to parse all the data, but Zwei's effort to make it easy helps Dawn patch the feed into Staren's tactnet data.

    SO he can see all the quicker that the Skyhammer has plenty of replacement fighters. "Rrrgh..." Staren launches another salvo of missiles to clear most of them out, then turns on the ship, setting his sights on those fighter elevators. He flies to a relatively clear position, then points at one of the fighter bays -- the finger-Raiser-rifle firing repeatedly until the shield is breached, while the right back pack unfolds and extends into some kind of large, shoulder-mounted railrifle.

    The moment he successfully shoots through the shield, he grabs the sniper railgun's foregrip and aims. Panels with stabilization thrusters open along the barrel. And then... he fires without having to charge up, thanks to Zwei's gift of a high-powered futuretech capacitor. Stabilization thrusters fire all over the mech to counter the recoil of the shot and keep it aimed straight.

    Those who can sense such things might sense magic on the massive railrifle -- the entire weapon has been enchanted, magic joining science to pack as much power as possible and to exploit the weakness of the weapon's original target. Inside the chamber sits a warhead containing a bomb, not of chemical or nuclear power but of magic -- crystals charged with opposing elemental energies, that will explode with great force when combined. Not to mention the kinetic force of impact, nanoseconds before the explosion. On the front of the round is a laser drill, to vaporise a tunnel into the target so the bomb can blow it apart from inside. All that power is dumped in a tiny fraction of a second to produce incredible current and incredible force. The enchanted railgun transfers not only kinetic energy, but magically-enhanced power and accuracy to the warhead that's launched straight up into the air at several times the speed of sound. The round moves through the air so quickly that there is nothing to see but a streak of fire and smoke, like one long explosion, and a great boom. Of course, if the warhead operates as planned, there should be some impressive fireworks in that fighter bay!

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Ahhh--" The damaged circuits kick Rory right out of control. She wobbles back 'to life' from a seeming daze where she'd been standing, and immediately staggers into a dash towards some of the access panels...

    "We're lucky there's so many people for them to be shooting at. I might manage these repairs in time!" Because she has nanite REPAIR SPRAY on her side to rebuild obviously damaged circuits and her utilitool also becomes FRACTAL DIGITS, able to work with microscopic precision. She goes hunting quickly for breaks, scrunched down deep into the access panels. Good thing the utilitool can weld and solder and patch easily!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    SAIL is automatically engaging a tractor beam, trying to pull salvage parts out of the fighters into Albert's craft. Whenever Weiss manages to get particularly close to one of those destroyers, it'll try to pull out useful wreckage there too, anything with a functional power signature. That won't be for a while though.

    MEANWHILE...

    Fresh waves of fighters. There's too many guns for their shields or even their own Rory-powered reactive defense to handle! Hull integrity is plunging down to 65% or so, leaving them with damage, but it was a good exchange, MORE than worth the punishment! The hole punched straight to the outside is a little worrying, but they're in an atmosphere, and all it does is make a windy whistling noise when Zwei does somewhat slowed fighter maneuvers. A stray heavier shot from the dying cruisers manages to slam into the shield system, though! The shield's disabled for now, and will need repairs help from either Rory or Kotone. Thankfully, the guns are back on line with some quick help from Rory, letting Albert take command of more anti-air, or Rory jamming even more, and beating back the waves a bit to relieve the stress on the hull, an effort that's amplified by Weiss' very strategic maneuvering. This should let Maaka hammer the cruisers a little more with Albert's main heavier gun!

    Elsewhere, the call is given over tactical radio to hunt that Carrier! With the main fighter force caught up in fighting near the harbor, now the damaged Floran vessel seeks to use its superior mobility to circle around and attack from the sea-side. BITEBLADE has popped a hatch on the roof, yelling something about prey, and firing hefty, explosive arrows out of a massive ultramodern compound bow in their hands at any fighters that come near, while the massive forward-facing railgun next to them on their ship tries to blast again and again at the carrier specifically, where it can't be screened by the cruisers, and in a way meant to intimidate it off retreating in this direction.

Neuroi Girl has posed:
     The concentrated fire does not stop Evangeline's dive, but when she emerges from her dive, her legs are...gone. There is a silvery shimmer over the little nubs that are the remains of her legs, then her legs start to reform. But, while she is regenerating, she is unable to fire. So, she flies down to take cover behind the disabled cruiser until she is fully regenerated.

     When she is fully regenerated, she strikes out again at top speed. Her shield reforms and she presses the advantage against the carrier. Weaving through the growing cloud of fighters and staying low to the water to make the risk of hitting the Elvari as likely as hitting her, Evangeline closes in on the carrier, trying to get right up against it. When she is, she charges another full power Neuroi beam, then comes to a stop and aims her beam at the broad side of the carrier's hull. She tries to focus her beam on a single spot, hoping to punch through the shield and the hull behind it.

Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
    "Troublesome," the Captain states evenly, "But not insurmountable."

    While aircraft are blasted apart by anti-air fire and some particularly devastating examples of wide area anti-aircraft weaponry, the Skyhammer is already in the process of launching the third wave, formations of craft launching off the main deck and ascending in arcs, splitting off after respective targets. The seafloor outside of Darwin is going to be COVERED in parts by the time this is over.

    They don't seem to have any kind of technological control signal. True to their usual weapon doctrine, it's magic contributed by the warship's pilot that controls the weapons themselves, and the drone craft are just another weapon.

    Shells burst against the carrier's starboard shielding, spreading cracks. A moment later, larger shells strike in the same general area, hammering the shield for a handful of tense and loud seconds until, with a glassy sound, the barrier covering the carrier's hull on the entire starboard side collapses.

    Closer to shore, Yamato lifts her guns, billowing smoke, and offers a thumbs-up towards Elasaid much closer to the combat.

    The remaining cruiser wheels itself around with clear intent of coming up alongside the carrier's exposed side, its own battered shield meant to cover the bared section until it can recover. While the cruiser's pulse guns continue spraying into the air, the two main cannons open up. The first one sends its searing crimson beam across the ocean's surface, lancing across Elasaid, then further into the distance at Yamato and the harbor beyond. The second aims upward, carving a blazing trail through the sky with complete disregard for the Elvari aircraft caught in its attempt to damage the Floran spacecraft.

    The Skyhammer's elevators raise again, filled with more aircraft. Repeated shots shatter the shield over one, however, and then something Magical happens. A single shell is fired into the opening, opposing elements come into contact with one another. The launch deck immediately behind the comprimised elevator bulges upward suddenly, then bursts outward in a geyser of flames and steam. Fighter craft preparing to launch from the lifts behind the explosion are hurled off their gear. The blast is so violent that the two lifts immediately nearby it are blasted completely off their lift tracks. One slides down out of sight, never to be seen again, the other is hopelessly off-kilter. A total of three out of the five elevators are completely disabled just like that.

    Evangeline's beam carves right into the hull, as the shield had been brought down just moments ago. The properties of Neuroi beams render the carrier's armored hull a non-issue and the bolt carves right through until it emerges from the opposite side, where it splashes against the port-side shield's inner wall.

    Something inside explodes, smoke and flame billowing out from all five elevator openings.

    "Tch."

    Immediately, the remaining aircraft change tactics. They cease their firing and instead adopt an intense blue glow in the undercarriage, preparing their bomb payloads. And then they start crashing into anything they can get to, exploding in great explosive bursts of that same blue light.

    Amidst the chaos, a black command pod ejects from the side of the carrier's command tower, striking the water and rapidly disappearing. The remaining cruiser also begins to submerge, only ceasing fire once its turrets have actually disappeared underwater.

Elasaid Hood (359) has posed:
    Elasaid looks skywards, as the whine of a jet engine tells a tale of impending pain. Her AA guns swivel to intercept, but it's too late. The drone slams into the weaker upper Barrier, smashes straight through /then/ detonates against the Maiden herself, drawing a cut short cry as she staggers from the blast. Two turrets wrecked, a third completely gone and the fourth half shorn from its housing. Smoke billows from her backpack, and a look of shock crosses the Maiden's eyes, before she ejects the entire assembly. It splashes into the water, then erupts as something within detonates.

    <Deck armour penetrated, Number four magazine punctured. Fire in the powder magazine, jettisoning!>

<Damage Control! Hull breached below the waterline, bilge pumps being overwhelmed! Number Three boiler breached and leaking steam! We're sealing off the lower decks.>

<Radar and Sonar reporting hostile ships have either been sunk, or are retreating.>

    "Gnnnh... AND STAY OUT!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Now they just have to deal with the suicide bombers. SOMEONE NEEDS TO GET THOSE SHIELDS UP IMMEDIATELY! Kotone will NEED to amp up the power a lot on the engine for Weiss to be able to pull the requisite maneuvers to avoid a lot of these! Meanwhile, Rory's bullet-time-esque reactions are going to be necessary on the anti-air! "Maaka!" Albert calls. "Take my anti-air!" He rushes to the shields, intending to fix them ASAP! Everything is HIGH-PRESSURE, because this ship will definitely explode if those suicide bombers can reach them! Everyone's going to need to do their damndest, but there's a solid chance the group will be able to pull through.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Zwei double confirms the destruction of the fleet carrier with both units, resolving to ignore it while it sinks, until the fighters engage their suicide programming. "Hold on, this is going to get bumpy!" Weiss yells over the sound of the exploding ship, leaning forward over the console as she lets gravity momentarily orient the ship straight down, and then engages all of the rear thrusters simultaneously; diving at maximum speed on a perpendicular course to the fighters. Asche jukes the carrier's fire with nauseatingly fast and erratic rocket boosts back and forth, zigzagging through the air, like something out a stop motion video as he races ahead of the fighter pack and moves to interpose himself between Biteblade's ship and the fighters. His point defense cannons open up into a dizzying frenzy of fire, aiming to chew through each kamikaze bomber with hundreds of shots. He simply resolves to body block the few that get past, letting his personal interception field absorb the explosions instead of letting the Floran's ship be blown to pieces.

Staren has posed:
    "Yeah!" Outside, a cloud of vaporized coolant is vented from the back of the railrifle. In the cockpit, Staren pumps a fist in victory as the elevators go up (ha) in flames, his allies sinking other ships left and right and taking care of the rest of the fighter bays too! This battle is all but won!

    But they're not out of the woods yet. There are still some fighters left, and are they... going for /ramming/ attacks? Staren collapses the railrifle back into its pack, and starts sweeping some of the fighters headed for his allies with the forearm-mounted gatling railgun and some kind of weak homing beams from the leg packs...

    But then, there are fighters headed for /him/, too! As they approach, the Star Hawk points upwards and takes off into the sky, arms and legs collapsing in under it as it returns to regular fighter form. Another salvo of missiles is deployed to intercept the fighters, and then Staren just pours on the speed. He can fly at over mach 2.6 and he'll only get faster as the air gets thinner. "Hm. Like you can keep up with me!"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis notices the suicide bombers coming right for them, cursing under her breath as she immediately leaps from her seat. She sprints nimbly enough despite the cramped interior of the ship, taking a seat at the anti-air turret. Synching in, she takes aim and fires away at the flying aircraft. She doesn't even stop for long as she claps Albert on the back along the way, nodding to the monkeyman as she focuses her attention to the ships before this ship is blown out of the water.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is thinking they are over all making a pretty good team teally everyone seems to working together well enough to keep the ship going and his is turning into quite an adventure really. And given the repairs on the shiel she bolts from the engines and gets to work on trying to ge the shield back up and running, she's alsp pinning S.A.I.L for the specs so she has some idea of what she's working on here she's also pulling out the multi tool she got from Rory the other night and already putting it to good use here.

Neuroi Girl has posed:
     Evangeline punches through the carrier! And the black escape pod launches! She asks a question on the comm that...given the situation overhead...might be inappropriate. She realizes as much a moment later and takes back to the sky. She charges another beam, and starts firing her multibeam vectoring shotgun blasts, trying to take out as many as possible and taking several impacts herself.

     Upon hearing that Elasaid is in trouble, she banks that way and focuses on those aircraft that are headed toward Elasaid and Yamato, hoping her speed is enough to avoid further hits. "...I will cover your retreat..." the little Neuroi radios to the fleet maidens. Once she reaches Elasaid, she takes up a defensive posture above and behind her, shooting down as many suicide bombers as she can.

Mikase Yamato (112) has posed:
    What Elvari aircraft that don't manage to smash into someone for dramatically terrible damage are, instead, shot down by the efforts of the defending vessels. Within a few frantic, chaotic moments, the skies are clear and the carrier, listing severely and much lower in the water, burns violently through the openings of its elevators and the great hole punched through the deck by Staren's magitech rail cannon.

    The remaining cruiser, though damaged, makes its retreat underwater. The weapons fold in and, with an announcement from the Streat Detection System, dashes away beneath the waves.

    In the harbor, Yamato breathes a sigh of relief, lowering her Active Barrier. Setting out, she accellerates to her top speed and makes way for where Elasaid floats. The anti-air batteries on her shoulders and hips open fire at remaining aircraft, even those that are already destroyed, just to make sure they won't swoop her way on her course to aid her fellow Fleet Maiden.

    In the aftermath, the damage is clear. One heavy cruiser, listing severely and without power, but afloat. Two destroyers, blown in half and long since underwater. And the Elvari carrier, sinking slowly with its flight deck a blazing conflagration. One enemy managed a retreat with their vessel, the others via escape pods.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "THERE!" The damaged systems thrum to life, restoring power and control to the gun Rory was using just in time. She quickly jams it again, just going limp in the access hatch. The servos whine to reorient it and it's back to Bullet Time firing! Witht he precision only a machine could hope for (unless anyone else has a Speed Boost augment, that is!) she uses her sensor net to peg incoming fire and shoot it down!

    This tactic QUICKLy chnages when the suicide drones appear. She soon targets them and opens fire with everything she's got!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Shields go up as Kotone pulls POSTHUMAN DOUBLE-DUTY! By working in tandem with Albert, she can get them up in time to rush back to her engines and provide OVERWHELMING POWEEERRRR for a hard dive! The ship isn't the most maneuverable thing, but with superhuman reflexes it should be enough to let Maaka and Rory take out the remaining aircraft with a stream of brutal fire that's threatening to overheat the guns with how much sheer volume is required! Maaka's likely more familiar with the maneuvering, while Rory has the reflex advantage; the two gunners make for a very effective tag-team that lets Maaka handle swarms while Rory handles the remains easily.

    The hard dive also puts them within looting range of some of those sinking ships, so ideally Albert's ship will be able to extract some of the technology there. In the meantime? If those explosions from the fighters are big, they're likely to get close enough to cut the hull integrity down another few notches to 55% or so and add a nice window in the back, but with everyone putting their all into it, they manage to clear out the swarm before it takes them into the more critical zones. Albert's gonna need a while to be spaceworthy, but... Ideally, they've pulled it off just fine!

    And now, time for looting, hopefully. "Helmsman, take us over the sinking vessels. I've still got an objective here. SAIL, find the energy sources and pick them out if you can."

    Meanwhile, Biteblade is very enthusiastically grateful! The little plant thing will actually outright hug Asche if he gets particularly close, since he kind of resembles the Glitch, friends of the Florans. The rest of the ship's crew seem to agree, at least, that they'll be owing the pair a favor for that, since they were damaged pretty hard by that last cruiser attack -- not spaceworthy themselves at the moment either -- and will be spending a while doing repairs.

    Both craft have barely scraped through that fight. But they'll recover! And for now, they'll immediately set about trying to loot, if nobody interrupts, lashing tech with their tractor beams and pulling it aboard.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Gotcha~" Weiss responds to Albert, breaking out the dive with an unnecessarily hard turn, before settling the battered and rattled ship into a much gentler glide; rippling the water beneath it as she passes over the remains of the sinking carrier and its escort in order of which will sink completely first; giving SAIL plenty of time to pick them over with the tractor beam, and even being so helpful as to forward Zwei's shared scans of the ships' topography, hopefully isolating the reactor and any other high energy sources.

    Asche clanks down on the top hull of Biteblade's ship with the Floran clinging firmly to one leg. He lets his weapons warp back to their storage units with a brief bending of space, before sinking to one knee to more closely look at Biteblade on their level. His voice is far less harmless sounding than Weiss', but strangely, his words are far more sincere. "While you will owe me a favour, let it be said that I am impressed with your courage. Though it is perhaps for the best that you are not like the others of your race, your companions benefit greatly from what of it you can channel. Never feel ashamed for a warrior's spirit."