KABOOOM
The thunderous boom from the exploding bay door was even more deafening than usual due to them being in a tight space.
"Thanatos to Temple, requesting FED codes followed by permission to go hot over." The Major requests to the Temple despite given the situation one would assume he could go hot on his own, and while he could, without the FED codes which designated Friend from foe he might accidently end up downing teammates along with the enemy and he didn't want to risk.
"Temple to Thanatos, FED codes request approved, transmitting now. Once codes have been fully transferred and confirmed, permission to engage at will is authorized. Happy hunting Thanatos." Comes the reply followed by a holographic button that simply said RECEIVE TRANSMITION. Figuring it was the codes for the Friendly Enemy Designator, he accepts it and sure enough it is what he thought it was. A little timer popped up stating 2 minutes remaining, followed by a short bar that had a light blue spiral slowly making its way to the other end.
He begins prepping all the weapons as the codes download. The chain guns begin their spooling sequence, his plasma cannons liquid cool down sequence was started and he watched as the plasma began to reach its peak temperature of 5,778 K. He glances up at the timer and sees there's 45 seconds left which was more than enough time. Both of his main guns would be ready in the next 40 tops. He looks over his shoulder at the sound of an electronic buzzing and sees that Crystal had begun the loading sequence for the head turret.
A small smile cracked his lips as he realized she was learning from watching him. He was sure she was just going to go straight into combat and fire the gun cold but to his surprise here she was doing her best to set it up properly and not mess it up. He pushes the throttle forward and they rumbling forward. He increases their speed and soon they zip out of the hangar bay and are in the begin to join the fray.
They begin arching right and into the sky just as the last couple of seconds on the download status ticked off and soon his HUD is filled with green and red dots. "Blast everything in red once it's within your range got it?" He asks over his shoulder as the coordinates for the first evacuation site loads.
"Got it." She says swiveling around to the rear.
"If they get within 50 meters, make sure you destroy them completely or keep firing to ensure they don't kamikaze into the evacuation transports. We don't want them taking out the transports." He adds as they begin hovering over the designated site. There was three evacuation ships and one defensive gunship. It seemed to be holding out decently fine. It's single barrel heavy anti-air turrets were firing relentlessly at everything that got to close. He sends a radio request using the proximity comms and it's answered almost immediately.
"This is Crackle. Are you my backup?"
"Correct, this is Thanatos. Hope you don't mind me being late, had some departing difficulties." Asus says as they descend into a hover in the opposite direction Crackle was facing.
"Hey, better late than never my friend. My guns were reaching their overheat point so your help is much obliged." Crackle says as their once fully automatic guns begin firing in the standard burst strings as Asus's chain guns which had been in spooling mode, is switched over to free fire mode and they begin firing at and partially destroying everything that got within their range. They hover from various positions as they adjust fields accordingly.
To Asus's surprise Crystal was doing pretty well in her turret. Their had been multiple occasion where he had become worried as a ship or two would breach his blind spots and slip past him but Crystal who was diligently doing her absolute best was currently flawlessly defending their otherwise, defenseless topside. For almost an hour they relentlessly shot down ship after ship, and soon both ships guns, aside from Thanatos' turret gun which was firing at a slower rate, began to overheat and shut down as their numbers rapidly began to increase.
"Thanatos, just got word from below. All transports have been successfully loaded. Our new objective is to safely escort them to the fortress and then we'll be in general support of all other units." Crackle relays just as it seemed like their position was going to be overrun.
"Understood Crackle, coordinate received and ascending now." He says confirming what Crackle had said. The other ship follows immediately after and that's when Asus noticed the small smoke stack that had appeared on Crackles right rudder. "Hey uh, Crackle. You all good?" He asks as they reach thep height.
"All good here Thanatos. This only a flesh wound. We'll be fine." Crackle answers as they wait for the evacuation ships to get between them. Asus wanted to question him but decided not to waste his breathe. Even if he wanted to break off an head to a nearby hangar it wouldn't guarantee he would be able to receive any maintenance. There was probably plenty other ships who took the brunt of the invasion and were now in dire need of repairs themselves.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. MISSILE LOCK IMMINENT. BEGIN EVASIVE MANEUVERS OR POP FLARES IMMEDIATELY
POOMF, POOMF, POOMF, POOMF
The muffled bursts of flares fill the cockpit as his HUD flashes the missile lock warning he immediately pops flares. The sound of whizzing missiles zooming inches away from the ship caused Crystal to "Eek" in fear as she pretty much watched them skim past her. He would have preferred evasive maneuvers however, if he did that then the three evacuation ships would be put in harms way.
KABOOM
The airspace around them rumbles lightly as something explodes and as their both looking around the radio crackles to life.
"Crackle to Thanatos, were hit over. Losing altitude fast. Carry out the mission, we'll be fin… on..our..ksssssh" Midway through the radio crackle into silence.
"Thanatos to Crackle come in over? Crackle you still with me?" He asks and no matter how much he tried to hail them back all he received was static. "Hang on ma'am." He says shoving the underside boosters throttle all the way forward and yanking back on his joystick. There's a loud squeaking sound as the ships screams in protest as it lifts up backwards and two missiles stream by as it flies in reverse to slightly past the middle rear area.
"Oh my god, I thought we were done for." Crystal gasps and holds her heart.
"I can also pull off manual plasma shots if need be." He tells her and she sees why he was called "Trick-shot" in his old fleet. Being in their new position gave them absolute coverage of their cargo, however their was only one of them, and three easy targets for their enemy.
Soon, Crystal who was rocking and rolling on the head turret takes off the console and sways as the amount of maneuvering flare releases in conjunction with the plasma gun and chain anti-ballista interception's he was doing began to make her nauseas. "Please bear with me ma'am. We have just less than a kilometer to go." He tells her and she just nods while groggily swaying back and forth in her seat.
After another 15 or so minutes of intense evasive maneuvers soon he receives a proximity request which he promptly accepts.
"This Wolfburn 1 over. Thank you for escorting everyone here safely. We can take over from here. You all good in there? We have a hangar set aside specially for those on escort assignments." Comes a calm female and soon nine ships appear before them.
"This is Thanatos, Wolfburn 1. Negative on repairs. Crackle went down roughly 3 kilometers behind us, status currently unknown. Requesting a rescue team for them if possible." He says politely declining repair services.
The other eight ships break off and continue to escort the evacuation ships into the fortress and there's a moment of silence from Wolfburn 1. Then just as he was about to break it she gives the reply he was somewhat expecting.
"That's a negative right now Thanatos. Our current priorities are the civilian populace at the moment." She says and he nods to himself. He figured that was going to be the answer but, he choose to make the request in lieu of Crackle who couldn't make it themselves.
"Understood Wolfburn 1. Didn't expect it to get approved, I appreciate the thought you took though. I'm going to break off and continue my escorts." He says as he belly thrusters roar to life and he begins to flip around.
"Sounds good Thanatos. Thank you for the selfless support. Without you not all three of those ships probably would have made it." She says in thanks as they go their separate ways.
He switches to the open coms channel and puts out his services. "All stations this is Thanatos over. I am general support of all stations and will assist all in a first come first serve basis." He says to everyone and just as he begins making his way back towards the tower his first request comes in.
"This is Crackle to Thanatos. Requesting immediate evacuation, how copy?"