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 Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:55 pm
Siberia grunted in annoyance as the enemy's legion-like swarms of fighters came bearing down on his squadron. As the Red Leader executed a sharp turn to avoid a barrage of incoming fire he flipped his comms on, making sure to include the one that connected him to Steven's Saber.
Siberia's voice, as always when in battle, was calm and unwavering as it came across the squadron radios. “Our operational leader is currently occupied with an intense dogfight – as we all currently are.” Lights flickered across Siberia's shields as one of the turreted fighters clipped his Saber with a quick burst of fire. Once again Jan was forced to make a gut wrenching turn, but this time it left the enemy ship exposed to his wingman. Poland fired a missile at the enemy fighter, blowing off a chunk of armour close the engines. “We must hold what little of a corridor we have made though, take your time boys and do it right. It won't be long now anyway,” Siberia smiled as he looked down at – perhaps for the fourth time – the message informing the Saber Squadrons of they're impending reinforcements. “we got a few more surprises for our scaly friends yet.”
–
Hungary found him for the first time – out on the field of battle at least – wishing that he didn't have gods-be-damned Aleksander Frasheri as his wingman. A nasty little criminal he might be back in quarters, but everytime before when they had sortied the man had been a level-headed and at times astonishing pilot.
Today was different.
Today he was flying like an academy addled, glory seeking fool. Which, considering today was also what amounted to the most important mission they had ever executed, was a very bad thing.
Frigg! Jek Ambrus cursed over and over in his mind as – for the second time without any real reason – his wingman broke way out of formation. Albania was flying jerkily and in erratic spirals, almost is if he was attempting to herd as many enemy fighter's as he could around him.
And it is damn well working. Hungary thought as he found himself astonishingly staying loyal to his wingman for the moment, following the crazed pilot and blasting at a few of the lizards that had began to crowd around his blindspots.
–
Red Ukraine swerved as a burning Rex rocketed in between his and Ruze's Saber. The young pilot was thankful for his goggles keeping the sweat out of his eyes as he checked over the various instruments in the Saber's cockpit.
One caught his eye in particular, it was politely informing via a series of pulsing red dots that five enemy fighters – mostly likely Rex's by the size of the dots – would soon be swooping in on him. As the group got closer they began to split slightly, three of them maneuvering themselves closer to Ruze while the other two came for him.
Flipping on his comm-unit and sending a direct beam to his wingman Jimmy's voice was only tinged by a bit of nervousness as he spoke. “Ah, Ruze, we got five of them to our six, looks like their splitting up with a pair to me and the rest in your ballpark.” Turning to meet the enemy the young pilot set his jaw, he could only thing of one more thing to say to Ruze before his mind became completely focused on the upcoming dogfight. “Good luck.”
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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 9:26 pm
Steven was more than a little irked to see his formations wavering, and even more so by the two new enemy fighters that had singled him out. He kept his frustration under control and funneled it towards reworking his plan. Before he could even glance at the whole battlefield again though, he would need to dispatch his pursuers.
“Two, think you can pull yours guys towards me? As we cross paths we can dispatch the bogeys,” Steven called to Fred as he tried to regain the upper hand.
“That is a negative Green Lead. They have me on the defensive big time right now,” Fred responded curtly, his attention obviously focused elsewhere.
Steven noticed he was biting his lower lip. “Hmm, that could work,” he mumbled to himself.
The veteran pilot began to push his fighter into a roll to the right side in order to bait the fighter into attacking his now vulnerable rear-left side. To Steven’s pleasure, as soon as he started into the maneuver one of the enemy fighters rushed his flank. Just as the enemy fighter got within firing distance Steven revealed his feint by jettisoning flak right in to the face of his pursuer. Steven then quickly juked the controls hard to the left, pushing the saber to the limits of maneuverability and himself to his own limits of physical endurance. He was pushed back hard into his seat as his high-G turn reached its peak, and he felt short of breath as his lungs compressed under their own weight. Similar G-forces would have killed a 20th century pilot, but Steven found himself thankful for his improved constitution and his ability to withstand extreme forces without passing out.
The whole maneuver took less than three seconds from start to finish, and Steven was now in position on his prey’s rear flank while the lizard was still passing through the flak cloud. He checked his vectors in his mind to double check that the flak had been accounted for in the targeting system before opening fire. Steven fired away on the enemy, but it began to evade him before he could finish it off.
“Damn, these things are stronger than their other fighters,” Steven thought as he began to chase his prey. Just as he was about fire again his Saber took a hit from the left side. Steven growled as he confirmed that his second pursuer was the culprit. “You will get your turn soon enough, now back off!” He then pushed his Saber in to a barrel roll and fired a missile cluster after the enemy he was following. He confirmed a direct hit before breaking off to engage his new target.
“This is taking too long,” he mumbled as he tried to get away from the enemy ship that was hot on his tail. His options on how to do this were limited however as he didn’t have a lot of wiggle room between the ship’s main guns and its mounted turret. He cocked his eyebrow as an idea came to him. He cycled his weapons and dropped two of his cluster missiles without igniting them so that they would fall behind him.
Mere moments after he dropped the clusters he got a notice indicating that the missiles had successfully detonated on target, but as he looped back around he was mildly disappointed to see that they had only crippled the ship. “At least it did something,” he thought as he finished of the enemy.
With a chance to finally catch his breath he set about finding his squadrons again. He winced as he saw how much his pilots had drifted apart, and his scimitar reinforcements had all but vanished. “Green Leader to all Saber pilots, we are separating far too much and we drifting too far off course. Try and reconvene on my position ASAP,” Steven said calmly as he tried to save the deteriorating situation. “I have dispatched mine, and will be pulling around to lend assistance.”
Steven surveyed the dogfight to see who needed a hand. He then set his sights on an enemy and shot off once more. He came in from above and swooped down on one rex and one of the new fighters that were terrorizing Green Ten. He unleashed a volley of cluster missiles and gauss rounds on the exposed flanks of his prey. Steven grinned menacingly as fire and shrapnel erupted from the bodies of his targets.
“Gracias, much appreciated Green Lead,” Green Ten said.
“Go help out Green Nine now,” Steven responded. “We need our formation back, so let’s see if we can get a waterfall effect going to take out these enemies.”
Steven and Pablo parted ways to try and liberate more allies, so once more Steven shot off. He began an approach towards Red Nine. “Green Lead to Red Nine, I am approaching high on you nine. Make a hard left and I can broadside those fighters."
“Roger that Green Leader, pulling left now,” Red Nine responded. As Red Nine turned, his pursuers followed suit. Steven threw fire down upon the transgressors. He took out two of the three then flew his Saber into a role around the third so that his cockpit canopy was within feet of the enemy’s. In the brief moment he was there, Steven flashed the drathonian salute that many would say resembled a feathered animal downing a summersault before grabbing the controls again and pulling away. Steven didn’t know if the enemy fighter pilot saw him or if it was just mad that he had been caught off guard, but the remaining enemy fight whipped sharply around to pursue him. Steven was content to give himself a mental pat on the back and fly straight, for as the enemy moved in on his apparent blind spot Red Nine was coming back around. Red Nine opened fire on the remaining enemy and finished it off. Without anything further the two parted ways to go help others.
“Hmm, this is actually working,” he thought to himself. Before long Steven was alerted to three fighters trying to get a missile lock on him. “Looks like they are catching on to me,” he said as he began evasive maneuvers to try and overtake the incoming enemies.
Steven was able to evade the missile lock, but unfortunately for him, he now had more enemies on his tail and he was stuck in a similar position to where was before. With two enemies on his six, and one on his three trying to get him with its mounted turret, Steven was effectively back on the defensive. The new enemies we on his tail and he could not shake them, and the backup fighter to his right was limiting his options.
“Somebody told me we had a Pay It Forward thing goin’ on here,” said a voice over Steven’s comm. A moment later the backup fighter erupted into flames; the two behind him did as well. As Steven peered around he saw Green Two, Green Seven, and Red Seven flying in high.
“Much appreciated Fred,” Steven said.
“Don’t mention it,” Fred replied.
Without anything further, the pilots went back to helping out the other Sabers.******* Sean watched the holograms wearily. It had reached the point in the battle where Sean needed to take a step back and watch to see how the battle played out. Every now and then he would go in and cycle ships. “Loses are at acceptable levels, progress is remaining steady. Between my strategies and Evelyn’s insight, everything checks out,” He thought to himself.
He glanced over towards Evelyn as she relayed the news. When he heard the status of Operation Tunguska, he smiled inwardly, otherwise his appearance was pensive and stern as his eyes became cold and distant. Sean looked back at the holographic battlefield, marking positions, and calculating in Tunguska’s location. After a while of looking at the display Sean raised his arm.
“Launch Operation Tunguska on my mark,” Sean said calmly. More time past as Sean stared at the continuously evolving battle. Suddenly Sean cocked his eyebrow and swung his arm down like a sword.
“Activate Operation Tunguska!”
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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:01 pm
Arcadia grimaced, two lizards hot on her trail. With a quick spin she got off a few shots and a quad of missiles, and then Pilot Langdon was on the run again, doing more than her fair share of spinning and twirling. "Emma, arc around, we'll come at each other nose on and lend each other a helping hand." Arcadia was already initiating the plan, and hoped Emma was following suit.
Pilot Ivlivanevya likewise had a very "srs faec" on. Being triple-teamed, while a compliment in its own way, was also an extreme pain in the a**, no space-pun intended. "Yes, Ukraine," he responded with a tinge of irritation, "I'm well aware." As he spoke these words he cut the main engine and slammed reverse thrusters. The sensation was jarring to say the least, and if it'd been any faster he would have blacked out. As it were, only one managed to stop as quickly as he, one kept on going, and the third slowed, but failed to keep behind his target. Dilshod gunned it forward, deploying a full barrage on the nearest Drathonian before barrel-rolling away from likely targeting. Then he was on the second fighter's tail, the first behind him. A good ol' fashioned space-sandwich. If things were a bit lighter, he may have passed a joke about how he was the "meat" of things.
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Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 12:45 am
That first Rex ran face first into the fire and died. Still, John was not amused, as he was quickly set upon by roughly 18 or so Scourges. A squadron. If it was just a few fancier fighters like the Rex series, hell, even that new one, he wouldn't mind so much. In fact, he would even have some fun from the challenge; bar luck, they wouldn't be able to kill a Saber and a good pilot. The nameless Saber jetted away while darting about like a squid on cocaine. Its erratic moves threw off their aim, save for a few random bolts. When the expanding range between them just started to deteriorate their poor accuracy further, the chase was turned upside down as he flipped the Saber about and rushed at them, veering off to the side in a series of zigzags. The various cannons on his ship rapidly depleted the shields on a Scourge, but by then, he flew by, the group behind him once more and chasing.
"Ah, here it is." a single command put a marker on the fighter he fired at last on the HUD. The Saber flew off again, dodging, and then came back, this time finishing off the Scourge. It was boring work, killing Scourges this way, but it was safe, and he made sure each pass still made progress on meeting up with the rest of the group. So long as nobody interfered, he'd have his way with them.
"3 down. More to go." He gritted his teeth. Somewhat boring, time consuming, but safe. The exciting things were saved for the important ones, epic showdowns, and such.
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Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 4:19 am
Despite the first few successes of the groupof fighters, the enemy pressed on, seemingly unperturbed by the prowess of these new Terran fighters, and using their normal tactic. Swarm. Where there had been two enemeis were now four, three enemies replaced by six, and so on. Steven's call to action had managed to get about half of the fighters back toward him, and they began flying in a much more defensive posture, though they were still being picked at and the enemy fighters were doing their best to draw people off from it. Steven himself was set upon by double the number of turreted fighters as before, as were fred, and each of the other fighters in the little ball was attacked from various angles by other fighters, continuing to frustrate Steven as they did so.
Steven's enemies made the first move: The turrets began spraying fire in cones, herding Steven where the pilots wanted them to be, while they began firing their main laser weapons at him.
******
The Damaged enemy snapped around, its shields jumping back to life rather more quickly than Drathonian shields were thought capable of, and the thing turned on him, blazing away recklessly. It turned out, however, that this was simply a distraction, as the lead wing pair of red squadron was set upon by more of the same fighters from either side.
******
The fighter in front wasn't useless however, and served as more than bait- that turret snapped around and began firing at Dilshot, while the ship's partner fired at the Red pilot from behind- the sandwich, it seemed, had quite a bit of spice to it.
******
"I'll try..." Green four muttered thrugh gritted teeth, as she tucked her fighter into another glut of dizzying manuevers. The young pilot boosted forward at one of her enemies, whom became taken by surprise and was the first to fall to her guns this battle. The other five followed, obviously angered by this fact, but Emma had kept her momentum- the direction hadn't been chosen at random- and flipped her fighter backwards, scooting in Arcadia's direction, as she jigged and jinked to avoid the incoming fire, popping off fire of her own to keep them from becoming too comfortable with their position.
Arcadia's foes, had gone into some hopscotch defensive-offensive posture, the rex hiding behind the Scourge's heavy shields, popping out to fire a few shots at the Green pilot, but, for all the play, it was very easy and predictable for Pilot Langdon- she had it fairly easy so far this battle.
******
Very boring, and very predictable is what Johnathan got himself into. The Scourge pilots were not novices, and new their fighters, and also quickly learned their target's pattern. Leading, even with Flandre's prodigious speed, was possible, and laser fire began blossoming all over his shields, a warning sounding informing him that it would go out unless he did something- nearly 75% of his shield grid panels were at 50% or less.
*******
"Acknowledged." Evelyn answered, and, about a 45 light-seconds away, Sensors suddenly registered the activation of a number of large starship shields. Travelling at .9c, they would hit in approximately one minute.
This had two effects- first, The station defenses went crazy, and began reorienting themselves to deal with the threat, firing wildly in an attempt to stave off what appeared to be another fleet of ships hurtling at them at high speeds, and, secondly, it caused a number of the reinforcements to divert course, heading for the new targets, their attention now split. Third, a large number of the fighters broke off, shooting away into open space to make micro-FTL jumps closer to these new 'ships'. Finally, this now diverted attention suddenly eased the pressure on the attackers, and the Scimitar Screens became that much more effective- although they were not able to get at those locked in combat with the Saber squadron, they were now able to prevent more enemies from getting into range.
What the Drathonians would discover, were Asteroids. About thirty five, each at least a kilometer in length, with a number of power sources and shield generators planted all over their surfaces, inside craters, cracks, crevices, what have you. They were, effectively, enormous Kinetic projectiles, which were covered in shields, allowing them to cancel out the Station defenses, allowing for direct hits. The Drathonian fighters swarmed like angry bees, trying to find as many of the power generators and shield units they could and destroy them.
(( TURNS TILL IMPACT: 4))
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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 12:33 am
Arcadia was on the run for the most part, luring her enemies into some degree of comfort. Then she crossed paths with Emma and unleashed a storm of lasers and missiles upon Green Four's assailants. As soon as her missiles were away, pilot Langdon cut down and looped to face those that had been following her and delivered another seizure-inducing attack before breaking away in Emma's direction.
Ruze smirked wryly, feeling as though the cosmic powers that be had delivered a sharp retort to his sandwich joke. It was hard to find a come-back to that one. He began a corkscrew pattern, firing his lasers occasionally to add to the confusion, but the core of his plan was to deploy missiles periodically, and from all angles. Six was the most he was willing to spare, though, and once those were sent, he cut the crap and dove right in, lasers blazing. This turreted space-devil simply had to go.
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 7:35 pm
Johnathan grunted. Which, in this situation, actually meant the same as a sigh, namely for a few reasons, all fixated on the fact that the Draths wouldn't just simply die so he could get back to base and watch the new episodes he recorded. Because they wouldn't just die like a crowd of noobz, it meant the battle would last longer, and he would have to work harder. These were exactly his sentiments, summed up and neatly put into comprehensive words; in actuality, the thoughts were loosely constructed of feelings, as there was no time to properly use grammar, considering his fighter had rotated ninety degrees and shot off at a right angle in a literal blink, the skin on his face pulled back taught with the g-forces.
Though the enemy was now properly fixing their cannons on him, they forgot to do something else. It was the same exact problem if a whole bunch of kids in a space fighter simulation were all aiming and flying full throttle at a single target. They were bunching up dangerously close and getting tunnel vision. Johnathan's nameless Saber cut back, zigged, zagged, and finally slid right under the 'formation' in hopes that some of them were stupid enough to keep pitching the nose of their fighters after him, running into each other in the process. Veterans or not, there were always FNG's, himself a prime example.
Regardless of the result, as his fighter slid under the group, Johnathan angled the nose up at the nearest fighter and let off a burst of missiles and cannon fire before lancing right into the group to partially hide in their own numbers. The Saber started juking to and fro in order to cause chaos when they would instinctively continue to try and turn to attack him, all the while hunting down those he weakened in his prior passes.
Johnathan absolutely knew that there were some veterans in here, and they were the ones smart enough to break contact and draw back to make a proper pass. Those were going to be top on his hit list.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:10 pm
Steven ground his teeth as his shields began taken several direct hits and he tried desperately to evade the enemy in the limited window of space he was given. “Heh, I was wondering when they would catch on. A bit sooner than I woulda liked, though,” he said to himself as he tried to find an opening in the wall of fire that was beginning to close in on him.
His options however were more limited than his maneuverability at the moment as the group of elite fighters was leading Steven right to where they want him. He would have to think of something quick if he wanted to get out of this intact.
Up ahead he noticed a piece of debris drifting along that he could use as cover long enough to break away. “These guys aren’t new; they would be expecting me to try something with that, but I gotta do something,” he mumbled as he ran through his depleting options.
“Well, Mother watch over me,” Steven said quietly to himself as he began the countdown to action. The instant his fighter drew close to the debris he pushed hard on the controls and shot his Saber in to a quick roll towards the debris, but at the last second he tucked the Saber into another split second roll and shot straight down in an attempt to pull another feint and get around behind the enemy fighters.
“Now! Push forward and press the attack while they are vulnerable. Lay down heavy fire on the cruisers and battleships still focused on us. Adjust speed to seventy-five percent full, and adjust headings to X(597.162) Y(816.332) Z(-245.129),” Sean announced quickly as several openings were presented on his holodisplay, “Now would also be a good time to use the Solaris, Admiral Evelyn. I leave that to up to you.”
He now refocused himself on his displays and went about directing the bulk of the Hymn battle group to press the offensive on the enemy weakened front. He found himself for a moment wishing that he had complete control over each of the battle groups, but he quelled this thought as the other Admirals proved quite capable of following leads.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:45 pm
Ira kept in line as he watched pilot after pilot get their ship destroyed around them... They were like bait... ******** bait. He was pissed, this whole idea was stupid, he was suppose to just keep the guys behind him safe while they waited for him to get shot out of the sky? The kid wanted to go out with a bang if he had to go out at all, and he didn't want to go out. To his right was Magenta 1... He was holding ground just as the rest of them were, sure it was a loosing battle but the leader of his squadron was a guy Ira had always looked up to and he would continue to try and do his best for the guy.
It was only two minutes after this thought passed though his brain that an enemy ship literally plowed right though Magenta 1... Yeah they shot at it, but it shot back and the thing had come out of no where. Ira shouted profanity and watched the pile of debris drift apart not to far away. He felt his eyes well up with tears and hated himself for caring. That man had been a friend of him though and no matter what he would never forget what he tried to do for them all by being bait...
"Magenta 1 is down... I'm still here though. Everybody else good?"
The kid couldn't help but sniffle, the lights in his ship twinkled and illuminated the tears streaking his cheeks. But he didn't want anyone to know he was upset.
"Stay in formation, We want a tight pattern... Remember, Tight."
Ira was taking the lead, he was going to have to... No one else in his squadron had any balls, at least not by his standards. They were all weaklings, a last resort team. None good enough to get on green or even blue. They were the newbies, the kids, but they had heart. What experience they didn't have they made up for in pure will. Unfortunately, Will didn't bring back Magenta 1... and Ira didn't know what he was talking about. It wasn't long before Magenta 3 was also out of the picture and it was only Ira and Magenta four left in the squadron....
"Magenta four... Sorry... A-Are you still good?"
For a long while there was no reply then he head his teammate reply, the man sounded as upset was Ira was he said he was fine and that they just had to keep up. Ira's sight was blurred and he doubled checked that his mic was off before letting out a sob.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:24 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:49 pm
Thanks for having hosted this great game here for so long, best of luck in your new home!
Keep in touch!
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