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Morrigan Against a backdrop of Saturn's rings, the GTD Carthage lies trapped.

    The Orion-class destroyer is an old warship with an old spaceframe, albeit one that has been upgraded with the newest technology - advanced armor, sprint jump drives. And Admiral Lopez is a hero to the GTVA, a legend of the Second Shivan Incursion, and admired by the men and women under her command.

    Today, her legend runs out.

    The Indus and her wings of fighters - Laporte, Simms, Durandal, Karen, Blitz - alongside the cruiser Insuperable jump in at extreme range, on the edge of Saturn's gravity well. The Carthage has withdrawn deeper into the well, to force any Federation forces to come to her and, in the process, run into the destroyer's entire air wing and battlegroup. It's a daunting prospect.

    But the Wargods aren't known for being daunted.

    The Carthage immediately launches fighters - heavy attack fighters and strike bombers, screaming up out of the well like a nest of enraged hornets.
Zephyr Windstar     It's not a new feeling, being in charge of a group of combat personnel. It /is/ a new feeling when those other combat personnel are inside star fighters that make their flight lead look tiny in comparison, as she floats amongst the fight craft assigned to her. "Delta, tighten up formation. We'll catch them in a crossfire by swinging out wide on the starboard flank. Low power, lets get them nice and close before we drop the hammer."

    She peels aside, breaking the picket slightly... likely trying to bait a group or two to go for the opening. She's using Windshear form for her Device, likely a tactical decision, as Mistral, while stronger at close range, also puts more pressure on her Linker Core... this isn't going to be some quick skirmish, it's an all out battle line.
Alexis Maaka     "Durandal, ready."

    he Ulhan strike fighter enters from FTL, following the Indus loyally while Gamma follows the Uhlan in turn. Maaka's set up, gripping her controls firmly while she begins to pick up speed. "Let's get this done, Wargods. Time to punch back." She broadcasts to all points, already hovering her crosshairs over the torrent of fighters. "Wait for it. Let them come, Gamma." She says, not about to take the bait. Her ship begins to move towards the opposite flank as Delta wing, directing her wing to follow suit as they take port.
Yulia Koslova     From her position on the perimeter, Yulia takes a steadying breath and tries to not dwell on the thought of how much simpler this all was when her only enemy was completely alien, incomprehensibly fixated on wiping out humanity, and more often than thousands of times her size.
    Immediately flanking her purple Jagd Doga are two Geara Dogas in the usual Zeon-standard green. Her wingmen, there as much to protect her as they are to attack the opposing forces. Targeting systems are up, weapons are hot, but they're holding fire until the GTVA fighters are close enough to make it worth spending the ammo.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone wasn't the best combat pilot in this sense what she was good at though? Was boosting capitol ship systems by jacking into them and acting like a support AI for them. So here she was in actfual full dive gear. Not the sort like you might see in Alexis nose art but something still quite strange to those who are not used to it, Kotone was on the brige in the elecronic warfare operative station and had already plugged her self into the ship's computers. Not just the normal cables that went out of her neck everal into her back and the odd helmet she had on were worn as well. She was going to push her body's hardware as hard as she could and for the moment she was focusing on sensors and electonic warfare support.

<<I'm all wired into the system.>>
Rory White The Cognizant Odyssey's WARP SIGNATURE is somewhat different from the UEF and GTVA ships, but it drops out of FTL nonetheless at extreme range... from, seemingly, both of the fleets. In high orbit 'above' the GTVA fleet, and far from any of the UEF ships, one might wonder just WHAT exactly this poorly-armed, lightly armored vessel intends to accomplish. At the moment it remains completely silent save for its IFF signal.

    Really, what DOES she aim to do by this?
Morrigan The Carthage's strike wings slam right into the Wargods. The Indus throws up a flak barrier as Simms and her subordinates throw out a volley of Slammer missiles - dumbfire warheads that throw shrapnel and fire over a wide area - to break up their formations.

     The Tev bombers scatter, giving Zephyr and her Delta wing a prime position to leap in on their tails. They run right into Gamma and the rest of the Wargods, and almost all of them seem concerned with nailing the Indus. Not many of them actually manage to loose their warheads, but some do.

     Luckily, Kotone is there on the bridge. While Captain Sorensen and Indus' Tactical Officer relay commands, she is able to fire up the Indus' point defence batteries and swat down the incoming missiles.

     Yulia, for her part, gets a good look at what seems to be a hell of a maneuver from Lopez. There are bombers jumping off her destroyer's deck - and emerging behind the Indus, simply dumbfiring their torpedoes!

     If the GTVA notices Rory's Odyssey, they give no sign.
Alexis Maaka     And then the trap is sprung. Maaka grins wolfishly under her helmet when the enemy fighters head straight to her wing. "Guns guns guns; Let 'em have it, Wargods!" She lets off a fierce burst of vulcan fire towards the bombers, blazing away at this blatantly rich opportunity. It's too much to resist for Maaka, and she definitely feels good about being on the offensive for once, much more her style.

    After a second battery of vulcan fire, she launches off a dumb-fire warhead into the thickest concentration of them, deftly avoiding enemy missile fire and not paying mind to grazes of vulcan rounds on her ship's hull.
Yulia Koslova      There's far too much to keep track of to bother with anything resembling chatter, even to herself. Behind her seat, Rose warbles as it takes over defensive maneuvering so that Yulia can concentrate on targeting.
    Bombs and torpedoes are coming in, and the trio of mobile suits move in to intercept, laying down defensive fire in the form of particle beams. Even if they can't bring all of the incoming munitions down, it's still that much less that the Indus has to worry about.
Zephyr Windstar     "Got you. Delta! Fangs out!" she calls, turning and unloading a seeking swarm of magical projectiles. Like really insistant little missiles. They don't do much damage alone, but there's dozens of them, and they don't just hit and explode. They hit, rebound then strike again, transfering their energy in multiple locations in rapid succession. Likely to overwhelm shields so the other Wargods can shred hull without having to whittle down the defensive barriers first.

    "Clever girl..." murmurs Zephyr, as Divine Wind flags jump nodes from bombers forming at the Carthage, and exiting behind the UEF formation. "Delta, form up. We've got some uninvited guests. Gamma give us a one-two on these bastards. Delta will handle the torpedoes, you make sure those bombers can't return to reload."
Kotone Yamakawa A stray thought comes into Kotone's mind she'd had no idea she's be doing this or able to do this. The data is coming at her at a rate that unaugmented she'd be unable to handle. ow it was getting to be like breathing she gets the point defence batteris online and they are shooting down the incoming missiles. She'll keep an eye on the scanners looking for more enemy units at this point. She wouldn't put it past the enemy to have operatives on board the ship like before, so she is keeping a eye for oddities on the ship's network as well and she'll form a link with Rory if her long time friend will let her.
Morrigan      It's... hectic, to say the least.

     The Wargods cut the rest of the bombers down as the pair of Deimos-class corvettes - Leander and Legionary - come roaring up out of the node, green plasma shining over their forward beams. Unfortunately, they're still out of range.

     The Indus isn't. She opens up with her forward railguns, turning so the Leander is caught between the ship and the Legionary as she passes. The Insuperable sits on the far side of the Indus, throwing out torpedo after torpedo.

     And, just like that, Captain Kyrematen's Yangtze comes roaring out of a jump vortex, already firing. Explosions blossom over the Tev corvettes.

     Meanwhile, Zephyr and her Delta wing, alongside Yulia and her mobile suits, pick off the last few bombers harassing the Indus. Not a single one makes it back to the Carthage. Might be time to help out the frigates with the two warships.

     On the bridge of the Indus, Captain Sorensen is giving Kotone an order, but with the sheer amount of data coming in, he seems so far away. Try to jam their beam weapons, seems to be the gist of it.
Rory White The Cognizant Odyssey is almost as silent within as without. All of the drones are in battle stations, ready to leap to the forefront in response to a boarding or emergency repair request. They do not speak.

    The AGI known as Rory White exists in a state almost akin to meditation within the ship's main computer, having completely abandoned her body. The parts of her mind that would have normally mapped to arms and legs, eyes and ears, directly connect to the ship's thrusters, sensor arrays. With its full computing power housing her mind she can expand her awareness and focus drastically, thinking many times faster than would be accounted for.

    Although definitely talented, it isn't as though Rory White is 'super-smart' beyond the realm of human ken. But when you have six subjective seconds to everyone else's one second... patterns emerge amidst chaos, calm can persist through trouble. It's the closest thing to a state of zen-focus that computers can induce... and in it, she hatches a plan.

    PHASE ONE BEGIN
    The Cogizant Odyssey's comms arrays begin broadcasting spoofed radio waves on the GTVA frequencies. She isn't sending DATA, however. By flooding 'doppler radar' systems that use radar waves to map the relative location and velocities of objects, she hopes to create a storm of false signals, the impression that an enormous storm of SOMETHING has appeared in space between the GTVA fleet and the Odyssey, and it's going STRAIGHT for them at massive speeds.

    She doubts this will do more than annoy or mildly distract them. It's a childish trick. This is intetional.

    There's an old story, after all, about a boy who cried wolf.
Zephyr Windstar     "Good job Delta. Lets go defang us a corvette. Formation Delta, check the Frigate's firing solutions and for Saint's sake, don't block a railgun or beam shot. I don't want to be sending you guys home in an envelope." sends the young Mage to the fighters as they form back up around her. "Priority targets, beam cannon emitters. I'll try and suppress the AA screen, you guys get locks and nail those beams so our ships don't get cut to pieces."

    She gestures with her axe, and a tight beam spread goes to the other Delta fighters, marking the Leander at primary. The Legionary as secondary. Hopefully the fighter wing will be able to do a sweep across the Leander, then pounce on the Legionary so both get crippled.

    "Alright Dee... trajectory trace the AA batteries. Cyclone Driver, Spin on." <YES! Acquiring targets. All coordinates are specific. CYCLONE DRIVER. SPIN ON. CYCLONE BUSTER HURRICAN SHIFT!> The head of the axe cracks open, drawing energy into the crystal at the top of the haft, before they start to spin rapidly counter-clockwise. As she locks down the AA batteries, a homing blast of purple energy lances out, seeking to jam itself straight down the barrel of the offending weapon before exploding.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka leads the Gamma wing in cutting down bomber after bomber, furiously unloading on them as Maaka herself goes after the bombs personally. "Priority target, hammer the the beam cannons now!" She commands, heading towards Leander and letting off a barrage of missile fire upon the warship.

    While she does this, she also makes a note to target AA while she's at it, stopping her assault on the beam cannons to engage the turrets with a strafing run.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa does hear the Captain Calling out an order to her and she will follow it, he trusted her to plug her selfintothe ship after all and that's not something she wants to betray tht. She does act on it. She moves to bring the proper systems on line several counter measure launch to hopefully mess with the beams and she's going to try to ge the jamming system to mess with their beam weapons, butwill it be enough?
Morrigan      The Indus and Yangtze slip past the Leander and Legionary with what must be only meters of space. They each land good hits - green beams slash down the length of each frigate while railguns and torpedoes blast huge holes in their Tev counterparts - but, once the various fighters and Elites get involved, it is like watching a pack of wolves bring down a lion.

     Lopez has a flaw - it's that she won't risk the lives of her crews needlessly. Steele's people would stand and fight, such is their fear of the man. But Lopez views her people as people, not as things to manipulate. And so she gives an order and the corvettes, Legionary and Leander both, exit the field.

    Lopez's fleet is moving to engage, the remaining two corvettes and the four cruisers, forming up into a loose formation. Any remaining fighter and bomber she has is streaming from the Carthage's flight decks. This might be the last opportunity to catch one's breath before the full fleet action commences, as it becomes clear that the rest of the Wargods are about to jump in.
Zephyr Windstar     And that's two corvettes out of the fight. Delta Wing forms back up, Two and Four looking a bit beaten up, Four even trailing smoke from a flaring, half functioning engine, but still combat worthy. "This is it. Hold formation! All points, all tactical... Brothers and Sisters in Blood. Today, we strike a blow against the GTVA. We avenge our fallen and we mark a turning point. Today, we do not cower in fear. Today, we stand and fight! For Mars! For Earth! For March and the Saints!"
Alexis Maaka     "HOOYAH! That's how we do it in the UEF, boys!" Maaka hoots triumphantly, watching the fighters turn back and run like hell. She drops another missile onto the AA batteries, strafing the turrets ruthlessly while she leads Gamma to do the same. "We got this in the bag, let's show 'em what we're made of, don't whiff this now!"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa watches the two enemy ships depar the battle and she will leave them to depart. That's two less things to worry about at the very least and she's now trying to reach out and jam as many of the enemy's beam weapons as she's able to. She'll also do what she can to aid the gunnery crews, they are good that is true. Still help is help when everyone's lifes are on the line and Kotone frantlicly is working on all the data feeds she has comming her way.
Rory White SUCCESS! Rory White's efforts are being willfully ignored.

    "That was a mistake, captain." Rory declares in the solitude of her systems, and initiates the second stage of her plan. The Odyssey's cargo bay doors open and disgorge what very much looks like a missile? A missile that's crawling with several dozen drones no bigger than the average dog. The strange rocket fires its main engine hard and fast in a carefully calculated burn that lets it approach at high speeds, only a SLIGHTLY-more-coherent signal than the junk the Odyssey's still sending.

    If the GTVA is clever and decides to blow it out of the sky right then and there, well, that's not TOO hard to do... but the entire structure is radio quiet, all drones on standby until the exact last minute.

    Of course, their real purpose becomes more than obvious if the collection of drones reaches their destination. The drones SCATTER from the rocket's surface and fire their own thrusters.

    These drones are boxy, crude-looking whatevers of little importance but plenty of important gear. They have all they need: A comms array, on-board AI controls, and a very minor weapon!

    And these drones have been programmed -specifically- with information on the GTVA turrets. As they boot up their tacnet software, the DRONE WEB establishes connect with one another and begins spreading out.

    These crudely-repurposed Automechs putter around on miniature thrusters, able to change velocity and thus direction at freaky speeds. And now they spoof non-existent UEF Fighter IFFs, all their systems coming out of standby at once.

    They've 'gone hot!'

    The Automechs exist purely to be a nasty, possibly lethal wrench in the GTVA's sides, because their tactical network software is more than capable of predicting weapons fire. Statistics like tracking speed, tracfting response, effective range, and firing rate...

    Rory White makes AIs for a 'living.' And she knows how they're made and think... definitely knows how to break them.

    In this case, her numerous drones aim to gather attention from every AI-controlled turret and cause incidents of friendly fire by moving off to the side the MOMENT her software says a turret's likely to fire!

    If all goes well, the result should be COMPLETELY unmitigated chaos for the GTVA leadership of the day.
Morrigan      In front of the Indus and Yangtze, the second strike elements of the Wargods jump in. The frigates Katana and Altan Orde, much like the Indus and Yangtze, have worked together for years. They're already firing, mass drivers and torpedoes seeking out any target they can find. The battle-space becomes thick with flak.

     In the midst of it all, the two cruisers Insuperable and Kyoto, begin hitting the Carthage directly. But she's a big ship with advanced armor plating. With the Hanuman sitting with the Indus and Yangtze, blocking Lopez's beams, she's a big sitting duck. For their part, the Indus and Yangtze sit behind the Katana and Altan Orde and throw round after round into the Tev battlegroup.

     It's a furball, a mess. There are explosions everywhere, beams flying in seemingly random directions as Rory's ECM strike nails the Tevs. GTVA fighters descend on the Wargods and on the Elites, held in reserve until now. The Carthage's last remaining bombers go for the frigates while her warships try to find some targets - but they're not doing well. They might counter it, eventually, but not yet - it should give the various Wargods, honorary or otherwise, enough room to see off the fighters before needing to worry about anti-fighter beams.
Alexis Maaka     "-FUCK!" THis is what you get for being charitable, Maaka. The cyborg growls in anger as she attempts to save Karen, only to have a bandit targeting her from behind. Her Uhlan breaks left hard to evade the Erinyes' fire, while she goes to engage one of the fighter's buddies in the process. All that bravado doesn't go away however, it's just a lot saltier than before considering the offensive of fighters.
Zephyr Windstar     It's a furball. Chaos. Blitz dances through it with the grace of a ballerina. Barely dodging massdriver rounds, laser bolts and missiles. A sight to behold for sure, such a a small thing, a normal seeming human girl, just floating out in space. The one oddity amongst all the military hardware.

    And that's when she turns, unfolds the head on her axe, and fires a dark purple beam at the Deianira, raking it across the corvette's hull from bow to midships.

    Zephyr Windstar, Blitz, The Winddancer of March, is a human-sized cruiser. She turns then to engage the fighter tailing Ng'mei. "Bring him about three degrees port." she transmits, then sweeps her axe in an arc to her left, forming a fusilade of magic bullets, which then blast out as the fighter zigs instead of zags. The bullets are individually not a threat, but there's dozens of them, and they're not letting up until the shield fails, and she's nailing the engines and other vital systems... and then it explodes in her face.

    Her vision is blast white, ears ringing from the concussion wave and she's spinning off into the blackness, thankfully away from the planet below.
Rory White Success! In Cyberspace, Rory can't help but feel a little pleased. Oh the damage being incurred is atrocious, but some satisfaction at a ploy working is unavoidable. If she had a mouth she might be frowning at her own conflicted emotions on the matter though. This kind of thing is becoming too common.

    The Automechs continue to flit around at carefully-calculated intervals. Many of them end up eventually making a mistake when multiple turrets target them and their timings are thrown off, but for every one that makes a fatal error two more continue to harass the capital ship guns by leadig them to fire on other ships in the fleet... by not being there when the shot's fired, evading by a matter of split-seconds and often losing chunks in the process...
Morrigan      Lopez has nowhere to run and her aging-but-upgraded ships are up against the wall. The cruisers were old and obsolete twenty years ago. It's a credit to her crews that they're still able to put up a fight, but it becomes incredibly clear as the Katana's forward guns snap the Systema in half that they are unable to hold against larger, more advanced ships. And that's to say nothing of the Elites, who pack so much more powerful in so much smaller things than the GTVA is used to.

    They're breaking. Lopez has evidently given the order for her escorts to flee, to not waste their lives defending her. The GTVA warships are breaking, looking for jump vectors, as the Wargods and Elites mop up the last of the Carthage's air wing. Laporte, Simms, Ng'mei, Levi, Olefumi - they've all made it through. The Wargods have taken casualties - Beta, Gamma and Delta wings have taken losses - but the price paid for those meagre lives is a cataclysmic one for the GTVA's 2nd Fleet. One might assume that the sheer level of debris will form another ring around Saturn.

    Captain Sorensen, on the bridge of the Indus, stands by Kotone. "All units," he says, "Hold fire. Let's give her one last chance to surrender."

    And then things go wrong. In moments, the bridge of the Indus is no longer a well-oiled machine. People begin to panic.
Morrigan      The Hanuman, lit up by some target acquisition missile, is utterly vaporised by one of the Carthage's beams. And she begins firing with abandon, just as Captain Genady shouts for everyone to hit the Carthage with everything they have.

     And, sitting out beyond the Oort cloud, never actually having left the system, having been lying in wait for just the right moment, Steele's prized hunter-killer destroyer recieves an encoded message.

     The GTD Imperieuse - Titan-class, still showing the scars from the Blitz - joins the fray, fighters swarming from her hangars like enraged hornets.

     And more, jumping in, maybe from the Atreus. The Indus and Yangtze are turning and burning, running for the edge of the gravity well, while the rest of the capital ships form up - and prepare to sell their lives to cover their friends.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka's ship is pretty banged up. There are holes in her ship the size of pizza pies being sealed up, and her engines are trailing smoke from all the abuse from what furious skirmish. She's been working to try and minimize the damage, but there isn't much she can do without a convenient R2 unit or some such ported in to handle that.

    And then all hell breaks loose, and the Wargods take one to the coconuts.

    Maaka tries to fire upon Carthage with missiles, but she can only get off a couple shots before she's forced to break away, taking enemy fire and then some with terrifyingly close calls left and right. "SHit shit shit shit, Gamma, break off break off! We need to bail, /now!/" She commands over comms.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa may end up getting an reptuation with the enemy for her electonic warfare but Rory certianly is putting her to shame but that's all right. She's halts her combat assaults on the enemy shipt as Captain Sorensen gives the order to hold fire, pending a final chance for the enemy to surrender and she's morew than willing to give them that chance. The battle's been pretty crazy but so far theenemy has pulled out or taken quite a pounding so far.

This seems to have been a set up for a trap she does what she can she starts deplpying counter measures as the order to pull out is given. Things are not looking good and she'll do what she can to mess up enemy fire as it comes and she'll divert most of her attention to keeping the beams jammed and doing what she can for the ship's engines because as the captain said? They need to leave /now/
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr shakes herself out. "... ow..." A pulse of magic arrests her momentum, and another sends her back towards the fight. She's far enough away to see the jump vortex of the Imperieuse forming, and sets up. She's still groggy, she's still shakey from the explosion, but damned if she isn't going to support these people with everything she has. "Divine Wind. Drive Ignition." The Device complies, shifting to Mistral form and deploying the support Bits. "Gear Second." A third Bit deploys, and she stands upon a great, shining platform of purple mana. <SHIFT TO BOMBARDMENT MODE. MISTRAL SYSTEM TO STORM RING FORMATION. RECOIL DAMPENERS AND ANCHOR POINTS LOCKED.> Energy gathers, forming a massive sphere before the Mage as she pours everything she can muster into one final assault. <LINKER CORE PRESSURE IS RISING NORMALLY.> "Oh Saints. Forgive thy child her sins." intones the Mage. "I call upon the great Daemons. Seethe and Growl. Howl and Sunder." pressure begins to radiate from the Mage as the Bits form up and fire their supporting beams into the energy ball. "I summon forth the great conflux, the howling abyss and the broken Eikon. Come forth and deliver unto me a Perfect Storm."

    <STORM RING HAS BEGUN REVOLVING. STORM BREAKER. DAEMON SHIFT.> "FIRE!" The sphere erupts, lashing a massive beam down onto the Carthage. She's not even aiming for anything, merely bathing a good third of the Destroyer in the destructive purple light. Sheering forces within the beam slicing into the hull at random points, tearing off anything that pokes out from the hull, ripping at the plating and throwing fragments around at hypersonic speeds. "You win this battle, but I take the blood price for it."
Morrigan      The Carthage falls, engines spluttering and fading, burning and venting oxygen as secondary explosions rip through her magazines and safeties. Zephyr's colossal fusilade takes out the remaining cruisers in the process and sets the corvettes adrift. Who knows if Admiral Lopez survived, but it's clear that most of her crew - if not her beloved vessel - hasn't.

     But as the Carthage falls, the Imperieuse rises. A sleek thing, it resembles nothing more than a shark with three glowing eyes, and everything it looks at dies.

     The Katana goes first, burnt from stem to stern, followed by the Altan Orde. The Kyoto is sliced into four pieces, while the Insuperable continues onwards, ignoring the smaller cruiser.

     Until, almost like an afterthought, it snuffs those Wargods, too.

     The Indus and Yangtze have a head start, but Steele isn't going to let those thorns in his side get away. More bombers appear, jumping in, and descending on the fatigued, demoralised Wargods and their charges.

     They're almost there, and the Wargods set up a fire perimeter. Much like Zephyr, Simms is going to make them pay for every inch. These are their ships, and they'll kill anyone who tries to take them.
Alexis Maaka     "BLITZ, do /not/ make me chain you to my ship! BLITZ!" Maaka /screams/ into the comm. "GET OUT OF HERE!" She roars, slamming her seat before she begins to intercept the bombers, furiously trying to minimize any sort of damage they will unleash on the Yangtze while hailing the ship personally.

    "Durandal to Yangtze, /get the fuck/ away from here. NOW." The message is terse but very much emphatic, while she can still do something about those bombers.
Kotone Yamakawa There's a strange detachment in Kotone as she's wired up to the warship she's dealing with all the data she's not going to be hit with the human cost of things till after this fight is over. She knows people she knows are dying but more people will die if she loses her shit here. She start diverting power from the heavy weapon systems to the engines, she'll divert everything she can even for a bit life support because if they don't get out of here it's not going to matter. She does leave the point defences on line however to try and deal with any enemy fire that's coming in.

"Diverting power from all system save point defence systems to the Engine's captain."

She only hopes this will be enough...
Zephyr Windstar     Panting, weakened from drawing that much power... but Zephyr is /seething/ with rage. It's not the burning, white hot from the Akula, or the set up with the Elder. This is cold, laser focussed and that laser is targetted at the Imperieuse. <Master.> "I know." <Master?> "We're going... Blitz formation." <YES. BLITZ FORMATION. SHIFTING POWER TO STRIKER DRIVES. HURRICANE THUNDERCLAP. GET SET.>

    The chains that bind the Mage to her firing platform shatter into motes of light. THe great green wings dissolve into burning white jets, and the axe blade glows white-hot, as the Mage LUNGES towards the monsterous space shark of the Imperieuse. "I am Zephyr Windstar. I am the Wind Dancer of March. This area is mine and you are NOT WELCOME HERE!"

    She streaks in like a missile, jinking and rolling, barely shifting her course to dodge any incoming AA fire, skimming beams, grazing kinetic slugs, and powering through Flak with cracked shields. "SHIPPU JINRAI!" she cries, before slamming axeblade first into the side of the Destroyer, trying to cut her way through into the engine room.
Morrigan      The Yangtze's engines splutter. They flare brightly, and then she's adrift.

     The Indus is still accelerating, just reaching the edge of the gravity well. Simms gives the order to land.

     Zephyr strikes the Imperieuse dead on, and her axe rips through the metal battleplate - only for the Imperieuse's squadrons to descend on her. The engine room is so far, and their missiles and blasts so near...
Alexis Maaka     Maaka looks back.

    "FUCK." She turns back, going after Zephyr to back her up as she unloads upon the Imperieuse's squadrons with vengeance. She isn't going to let a friend go out on her own, like HELL is that going to happen on the cyborg's watch.

    "You're fucking crazier than I am, Zephyr...but like hell am I gonna let you die alone." She transmits, before firing upon anything in sight.
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr keeps pushing, pouring power into her attack. Divine Wind, even while pushing so hard in, pushes back OUT too. Pulses of magic shooting down incoming missiles and harrying the incoming fighters. Size matters not. The Destroyer will break eventually... even as the Mage takes hits that break through her admittedly token defense. Her barrier jacket tears and shatters in places, but she presses on. Blood is drawn, but she presses on. She transmits and ultimatum to the Destroyer, but presses on. If she can only... get... a little... further.
Morrigan      The Indus jumps with the surviving Wargods and Kotone, course unknown.

     The Yangtze holds there in space, as warhead after warhead descends upon it. Olefumi and Ng'mei do their best, fighting like they're never fought before, but their icons blink out, one by one, and then the Yangtze follows.

     The Imperieuse is a hotbed of activity as Zephyr struggles onwards. Debris from GTVA fighters spalls around her, clattering off the hull soundlessly, her axe leaving a great scar down the side of the destroyer, ruining Steele's prize and ensuring that he'll know who did it. And then there are marines sortieing from airlocks, Steele having decided that he can't ignore the threat of boarding any longer, only adding to the never-ending storm of GTVA military hardware that's falling upon her.

     But the Indus is saved.

     They have Rory's teleporter. It might be time to go, and to leave Saturn to the dead.
Zephyr Windstar     It's a valiant effort, but Zephyr is no Vita. The things before her axe will not break no matter how many times she smashes at them. Fighters launch missiles, Marines descend on her, earning blasts of purple magic to the face for their trouble... but the Mage is hurting. A missile breaks through her defenses, explodes against the hull beside her... and she's done. <REACTOR PURGE!> That final, desperate gambit to protect the Mage, the Reaction Purge. Blasting raw energy out to counter a single strike. It throws her clear of the Destroyer's hull, floating limply. She'll be in firing arcs for the AA batteries before long unless she gets help.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka does something stupid, but necessary.

    She ejects from her ship, letting it float free while she begins to engage the thrusters in her suit. Boosting herself towards Zephyr, Maaka gives the mage a hug while she's mid-swing, and draws her EM-GASH coilgun.

    The marines sent their way, Maaka fires upon them while she activates a device, and she whispers 'Hold on tight' to Zephyr, before they disappear in a flash of light.

    They'll wind up aboard the Crimson Spectre, the ship well out of engagement range, but also still safely in teleporting range as well, just in time for Kaz to rush over to them with medical equipment.

    "Help her." Maaka snaps before Kaz can even try to treat the cyborg's wounds, and he nods as the two of them carry Zephyr to sickbay.

    After that, they bail with the hopes of reuniting with the Indus later.

    The two of them have been lighting up radiation sensors the entire trip, which leads Kaz to just let that handle itself. Maaka will treat Zephyr before she undresses, and she takes the longest nap she's ever had in weeks in the repair tank. She won't be coming back out for a while.
Morrigan      The Indus falls into the sun for hours.

     Laporte never leaves Simms' side.

     At what seems like the last moment, a voice sounds on the bridge of the Indus. The Masyaf, a first fleet frigate, has arrived to save them, like a bolt from heaven.

     But it's not a simple mission of mercy, they say. They want to know if Noemi Laporte is aboard.

     Because they are not Fleet, the Masyaf.

     They are Fedayeen.

     And they have come for her.