| First Impressions |
| Arc: | Hammer and Anvil |
| Summary: | Majestic's pilots attack a new type of Kilrathi carrier |
| Date: | 2658.255 |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Participants: | Cole Kanani Victoria James Walsh Draygo |
It's easy to tell how the Kilrathi were able to stay hidden out here… amidst the tumbling chunks of ice, the dirty snowballs that will one day likely end up as comets, the Kilrathi carrier would be tough to distinguish from one more piece of debris on long-range scanners. Still, caught they have been… and the forces of Kilrah prepare for war. Intelligence was apparently right about the Kilrathi carrier, the form that awaits the approaching strike is sleek and streamlined, rather than the boxy form of the snakeir. A single Ralari class destroyer moves out in front of the carrier, even as two transports scramble to disconnect from the carrier's sides and get clear.
« Horatius to Strike. We'll take care of that Ralari, then move in on the carrier. Just make sure to take care of any bombers »
« Copy that, Horatius. Showing none on scope at present » Cole replies. « Voodoo to strike. Looks like it's time to earn our pay. Rapiers, take care of those Kilrathi transports. Stilettos, you've got the fighter screen. Broadswords, one run past that destroyer and then we'll move on to the carrier. Everyone clear? » Cole asks, even as his broadsword angles in towards the waiting Kilrathi vessels, waiting for them to draw into firing range.
«Copy that, loud and clear, Voodoo.» Kanani remarks as her Stiletto starts to head towards one of the Kilrathi fighters. As she takes a brief look at the enemy carrier, she comments idly. «Looks like the cats have finally figured out how to make a carrier that isn't totally ugly, at least…»
James scans the enemy fighters and after finding no bombers he swoops around angling for a belly shot on a Drathli «A pity we can't borrow it from theminstead of blowing up but oh well.»
« Roger that, strike lead. 1087th on the transports, » Tori replies as she examines the situation and heads towards the combat. She takes a moment to select her weapons, starting out with her dumbfires, since she can, and it's fun to make things go boom, when it works. « Ready when you are. » Not like the Kilrathi couldn't see them coming after all, so here's hoping there's no attack rocks. Ships, that she can cope with.
Having drawn the short straw to replace the bomber pilot that had come down with illness, Kell had kept any jokes about the throttle lacking the afterburner segment and focused on getting re-acquainted with how this fat bitch flies. But tonight, on this mission, it is his fat bitch and he does not have on his beer goggles. «Razor here, I copy, Voodoo. On your wing as we hand deliver the Destroyer a present.»
Steering the bomber in the direction of the Zaga, he flicks a switch to torpedoes and gets them primed, master switch on now. His eyes are peeled though at the Kilrathi fighter package that can make a mess of things.
«Copy lead.» Walsh replies as he banks toward one of the Kilrathi fighter escorts. He's keen to see this carrier wiped from the map, considering the catastrophe that was the last attempt at taking it down.
The Kilrathi open fire at the end of their range, flak bursts exploding around the Confederation fighters. Harmlessly far away at first, but quickly starting to close in. The four Kilrathi fighters race out to meet the Confederation craft, looking to keep the fight as far away from their carrier as they can manage.
« No worries, Razor. This is the easy part. Voodoo to all craft. Give 'em hell. » Cole orders, letting his broadsword pull up until it's almost overtop the Ralari destroyer, then turning over sideways and 'diving' in towards the top of the bridge tower.
Kanani sets her sights on the lead Dralthi, as she twists and rolls her fighter out of the way of any incoming enemy fire. Once she's close enough to take a shot, she pulls the trigger, and unleashes a hail of mass driver rounds at the cat, hoping to take it out quickly.
Tori must look like a pushover to those Kilrathi. Hrmph. Ah well, she'll hope to be a wolf in sheep's clothing or some such. She hits the afterburners and takes off on a mostly straight course for one of those Dorkir transports, knowing full well that her dumbfires are just what they're called. But if she can land the sucker, it's gonna pack a punch. « Queen here, Tally ho,» she calls out in what's become usual for the 1087th, thanks to Pip. And as she gets a good angle, she hits the button, sending the whining dumbfire off out into space after its target.
As the flak begin exploding near him, Razor keeps his hand steady on the flight stick as he begins his approach vector with Cole with the high twelve o'clock dive approach. «So what's the hard part, Voodoo, not dying of boredom on the flight home?» He just couldn't help but make one crack at the speed of the bomber, his attitude still positive though despite his past experiences in a Broadsword. Flak seems mostly harmless to the Lieutenant, who usually flies Stiletto light fighters as he just zooms by them, but in the 'Sword though, they seem to be exploding closer. For now though, he is focused on keeping the reticule on the Destroyer's silhouette, waiting for the targeting system to slowly lock on.
James picks his target and is beginning his attack run when he notes one of the Dorkirs swinging it's guns towards him. He fires off a hasty shot and breaks into an evasive pattern.
As Walsh closes in on his target, he notices one of the hostile fighters breaking away from formation, heading towards him. Having been overly reckless lately, he decides it might be best to play it defensively this time. Standing off slightly, he waits for the cats to come to him, hoping to avoid some of the flak in the process.
To say the first exchange doesn't got well for the Kilrathi would, perhaps, be putting it mildly. Hit by a pair of torpedoes and a volley of antimatter, the Kilrathi destroyer tears apart in a spray of debris. One of the Dorkir transports meets a similarly grim fate, a dumbfire missile slamming into the hull and tearing it apart. Like any good carrier would do caught in this position, the Kilrathi carrier attempts to retreat behind its fighter cover.
« Nice shooting, Broadswords. Save some for us, will you» Comes from the Horatius' comms officer, but the man is all smiles despite it. « Moving into position to engage the carrier »
« Alright Razor, let's see what we can do to the big bastard » Cole comments simply, swinging his bomber around towards the carrier. « And in case you were wondering… this is the hard part » he adds with a little chuckle.
«Nice work with that destroyer.» Kanani remarks as she continues to go after the lead Dralthi, which has now decided to play with one of the Broadswords. As she prepares for her attack, something else catches her attention for a moment, and she calls out a warning. «Looks like they just launched a couple of bombers themselves. Don't let them launch any torps at the Horatius.»
The tone finally goes solid as the lock reticule moves into position over the Ralari Destoyer, Kell does the easy part and pushes the firing stub on his flight stick, sending out the heavy duty torpedo that streaks towards its intended target. Instead of hitting the bridge though, the torpedo is a little off as it slams into the area behind the bridge, exploding in the cargo bay of the Kilrathi vessel. It manages to set off a nice chain reaction in conjunction with the attacks from Cole's bomber and the Gilgamesh.
Releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding, Razor is momentarily elated before switching to the next beast that is giving birth to a pair of bombers, «Copy that Voodoo, is it me or does that Carrier have a lot flak cannons?» Could just be his imagination as he begins the bomber dive with Cole on the Shiraak as the targeting system begins to beep at him, informing him that a lock on is imminent though it feels like it won't happen until they die of old age.
Tori has a bit of satisfaction as the first Dorkir gets its hull ripped open. Excellent. Of course, now the second Dorkir realizes that it might be in trouble and aims her way, but Tori doesn't slow down. She just changes direction, zigs left, jukes up, and then lets her second dumbfire fly, aiming at her target. « Let's keep up the good work. Nice shooting out there. »
Flying evasively, Walsh has managed to tie up two of the Dralthi, at the expense of not landing any hits himself. After a few rounds of cat-and-mouse, they appear to lose interest, breaking off their attack on his Stiletto. Giving him the chance to fly more aggressively, he sets in on the tail of one of his former pursuers, trigger finger at the ready.
James cheers when the transport targetting him blows apart. The cheer dies though when he finds himself the target of two fighters and a bomber. His evasions grow all the more frantic as he struggles to avoid all the fire and his shot is even more hasty then before.
Struck by a torpedo and a volley of gunfire, a few rips appear in the heavy carrier's armor… though it doesn't attempt to be seriously reduced in combat effectiveness. It continues its attempt to run away, throwing yet more fighters into the fray. The shortage of spares available to the Kilrathi shows, however, as the latest two fighters to enter the battle appear to not have been fully repaired. The news isn't all good, however. Left unmolested, the pair of Grikath begin to line up for torpedo runs on the Horatius, distracting its attention from the Kilrathi carrier.
« Voodoo to Escorts. Get those bombers, or the Horatius is going to be in some real trouble! » He orders. Thankful to find the Kilrathi off his own tail for the moment, he angles in towards the Kilrathi carrier once more… looking to put that flight deck armor to the test.
Kanani switches her sights to one of the bombers, as her last shot went wide of the Dralthi. She also switches over to her heat seekers, trying to finish off her chosen bomber as quickly as possible, in order to protect the Confed Destroyer.
Second torpedo strikes true though it didn't do as much damage as the last one, Razor checks the status of his target and sees it is moderately damaged. While going for another lock on with his third torpedo, the young pilot spots a pair of red blips on his six and curses, «Voodoo, Razor here, going evasive, looks like I've picked up a pair of hungry kitties on my tail. Leading them away a little bit.» With that says, he banks left and begins pulling away from the his wingman as the pair of Dralthis follow before breaking back in the Carrier's direction. For now though, he is focused on jinking and juking the incoming flak and mass driver cannon fire instead of shooting his torpedo.
Tori grins as the second Dorkir gets hit by her dumbfire and ends up out of the combat, at least for the moment. Beautiful that. Too bad she's all out of dumbfires. She hears Voodoo's orders, even as she gets a warning that there are a couple of ships on her tail. "Oh sure, now they notice me," she grumbles. "Bah." She switches her weapons to full guns, ignoring the incoming midgets on her tail in favour of tailing one of the kitty bombers. « Roger, Voodoo. The Dorkir is out, switching to the bombers, » she acknowledges, before her targeting light goes green and she fires full guns.
Walsh pumps his fist as his feint pays off, one of the Dralthi reduced to drifting wreckage. His celebration is short-lived however, as he is alerted to the bomber threat. He switches to missiles, locking onto the heat signature of one of the Grikaths.
James weaves through the fire without taking a hit. He notes that one of the fighters stays on him but grits his teeth and boars in on a bomber switching to missiles as he goes and ining up for an engine shot «Cutlass Fox 2.»
A last-minute turn by the Kilrathi carrier saves it from a devastating impact… absorbing Cole's torpedo on the thick armor of its side, instead of the vulnerable flight deck. Firing from the carrier continues unabated, finally finding a target, tearing a piece away from the wing of Cole's broadsword. Both Kilrathi bombers are wrecked by the combined Confederation firepower, but manage to hold together… testament to the durability of the Grikath's design.
« Voodoo's hit, but holding together. Nothing to worry about yet » Cole reports as he brings his bomber around to make another pass on the Kilrathi carrier. Not about to give up yet, even if he does seem to have attracted the attention of a Kilrathi fighter as well.
Kanani is more than a bit surprised that the lead Grikath survived two nasty missile hits. But she doesn't do more than curse briefly to herself, before switching to guns, and unleashing a volley of mass driver fire, at the ship, hoping to tear it apart. "Come on and die, you stupid cat." She mutters under her breath, and then works at avoiding getting shot herself.
James breaks off from the barely flying wreck that is all that's left of his first targeted bomber. Noticing but not reacting to the fact that the aforementioned bomber is turning to engage him. He instead boars in on the second bomber aiming for another engine hit. «Cutlass Fox 2.»
With the Dralthi's attached to his tail, Razor pretty much gives them the figurative finger as he ceases his jinking and juking so that his targeting system can get a solid torpedo lock on the Carrier. «Razor going in for a torpedo run, cats still on my tail but they can eat my exhaust.» Which is something they may literally do, the only thing Kell can do is pray that the Broadsword's armor holds up against the Mass Driver cannon fire.
« Queen has taken a hit too, wing. Still holding together,» Tori reports in. She's got a little less maneouverability though, with that wing hit. And given the danger the two grikath might still cause to the Horatius, she sticks on her target, though she does at least try to stay out of the - good grief is that the Kal'rakh targetting her. "Huh. Guess I should be careful what I ask for," she murmurs, as she fires her guns at the grikath once more.
«Dunno how these Grikath are holding together, but I want some of it.» Walsh comments as both bombers take brutal punishment and remain unexploded. He fires again, hoping to break whatever spell keeps them going. «Fox two!»
Things located in the right wing root of the Stiletto: Power supply for starboard mass driver. Firing linkage for heat seeking missiles. Secondary controls for ejector system. It's the last of those that's the problem for Kanani, the shot driving through at the base of the wing… resulting in the pilot being flung clear by her ejector system from an almost perfectly functional Stiletto.
Struck by two more torpedoes, the Shiraak carrier is clearly in bad shape now. One end of the flight deck is blocked by a pile of twisted wreckage, three holes have opened in the hull from torpedo impacts, and where the bridge once sat is exposed to space by Antimatter fire. Still, the carrier fights on… continuing its retreat attempt.
« Voodoo here. I'm out of fish, turning to engage the fighters » Cole reports, as his broadsword banks away from the Kilrathi carrier. « She can't last much longer, though. » He adds, before his attention turns to his scope in a bit of confusion. « And did we just lose a fighter? » Cole wonders. After all, there hadn't been any real calls that anyone was in trouble…
If Cole is confused about the loss of one of the Stiletto's… It's nothing compared to the complete surprise experianced by the Hawaiian who was unlucky enough to be flying the fighter. One minute everything's just peachy, and the next, for no obvious reason, Kanani is hurtled out of her fighter, and into space. "What the fuck?" Is about all she can manage to say, as she tries to figure out just what happened, since -she- certainly wasn't looking to eject.
The Shiraak lives on, which doesn't sit well with Razor at all as he is now in pretty close range with the carrier. One of the two pursuers on his tail hits him but it only smatters the armor on the nose of his Broadsword, doing some light damage. Enboldened by how his bomber shrugged it off, Kell puts his focus entirely on putting down the Shiraak, "Fuck this bitch." He says as he braces for the hits that he knows will be coming as he presses the trigger stub, «Razor here, two cats on my six still, last torpedo launched!» The last one of his precious torpedo is fired from its weapon by, streaking out brightly as it homes in on the ailing Kilrathi Carrier.
Alrighty now. Transports - check. Bombers - check. Guess that leaves taking the fighters of the tail of the Confed bombers, right? «Queen here. Got a couple scratches and dents now, but still in the game. Going to try to help out Razor with those two kitties after his tail. » She keeps her full guns on and heads in, ignoring still the little Sartha that is darting about chasing her. She'll turn on it soon enough, if it keeps it up. Targeting comes up and then acquires a lock, so she hits the trigger, shooting full guns at the dralthi.
James watches Kanai go flying out of her Stilleto and mutters "What the hell?" even as he turns to engage the fighter that had been on her tail. He had heard stories about Kilrathi attacking ejectedpilots and he was not going to allow that to happen to his squadmate «This is Cutlass Tsunami has ejected I'm going to try to keep any cats who want to finish her off busy but I could use some cover fire if anyone is free.»
«So, uh, what happened to Tsunami just then?» Walsh looks on in bewilderment as a seemingly fully-functional Stiletto shoots off, sans pilot. Shaking his head, he gets back to the task at hand. «Razor, Ozone. Gonna see about those furry friends of yours.» He switches back to guns, saving his last missile in case of any surprises.
Another torpedo strikes the running carrier as it scurries into the blackness of space… running away as fast as its still-undamaged engines can carry it. Unfortunately, that's not a race it's likely to win. With only superficial damage, the Horatius races after the Kilrathi carrier. It's every capital ship commander's dream, really. An enemy carrier without the ability to launch in front of it.
Meanwhile, one of the Sartha learns the hard way about playing chicken with a broadsword, as a missile explodes inside its cockpit.
« Copy that, Cutlass. I'm coming around to make the pickup on her now, do me a favor and keep me clear if you can » Cole orders after James makes his report. Nope, not a bit of personal involvement for him in /this/ particular SAR mission. « If anything furry comes after me, I'm going through it, not around it »
James is opening his commline when he notices that pretty much every enemy fighter left is going after the Broadsword «I'll do my best sure but you are about to have a lot of company." This said he boars in on the tail of the Dralthi that he had already been targeting and fires.
Kanani glances around her escape capsule for a moment, grumbling to herself be for she radios out. «I can't believe my luck. That shot musta short circuted something, cause I definately did not want to eject.» She states with a growl, as she waits for one of the 'Swords to pick her up.
«Fuck! Razor here, I'm tapped out on torpedoes, that carrier just won't go down. Horatius, she is all yours, lots of open holes to choose from.» Kell can be heard gritting his teeth as he shoots in a report over the Terran Comm Channel as he breaks off from his bombing run after suffering a couple more hits that he shrugs off. Scanning the battlefield, he spots one of the Dralthi's looping around to attack Tori's rapier, «Watch your six, Highness, bogey coming in. Gonna light it up with an Eff-Oh-Eff.»
"You lucky son of a bitch!" Walsh yells, his target's cockpit perforated by mass driver but pilot still in control. He takes a scratch of his own, but not enough to faze him. "Gonna see 'bout that real quick!" His finger tenses, his fighter releasing a spray of metal.
Tori at least didn't get hit this time, but her guns didn't make it through the armour. Ah well, can't win them all. She hears Kanani's voice on the radio with some relief - hey, at least the other pilot is still alive and well over there. That's good, even if something screwy happened with her ship. Not that there's time to worry too much about Tsunami, as she hears Razor coming in to protect her, even as she flips around to target the same dralthi she previously shot at. « Continuing to target the dralthi. And they really do want your broadsword, Voodoo. What did you do? Flash some leg? » Ready, aim, fire.
TCS Horatius and the Kilrathi carrier continue their private, one-sided engagement. The Kilrathi ship twisting and turning as well as it can to bring undamaged sections to face the Horatius' energy batteries. The carrier absorbs one more volley of fire, before slowly turning around, leaving the two warships head to head.
Mass driver shots slam into the armor of Cole's broadsword, but for the moment he's not about to pay them any attention. True to his word, the Sartha which finds itself in his way is quickly blasted out of his path with the last of his missiles. Fire from his turrets comes to a halt as a blue beam reaches out from the bomber to pull in Kanani's ejection pod. « Voodoo to wing. Got her » he reports simply, before rounding on his nearest attacker with guns. The next part of it, of course, is surviving to return home.
James curses as his shot strikes it's target but fails to do any sigifigant damage. He pulls up and then dives back down on his target aiming to hit the cockpit from above.
«Mopping up the rest of the Dralthi's then. Let's see if we can wrap it up before the Horatius puts down that fat cat.» Kell says as he switches to the next closest target which is one of the Dralthis. Lining the Kilrathi up in front of his targeting reticule, he fires off the missile without needing a lock since it is a Friend or Foe.
«One Cream of Kitten soup coming right up!» Walsh throws out over global comms as his second burst obliterates what was left of the Dralthi cockpit. A moment later, a missile impacts its wing, explosions rippling through the stricken fighter. «Copy, Voodoo, that's a relief. Kitties aren't happy with you though.» He diverts course toward one of the remaining Dralthi, aiming to ruin its day too.
Hey, look. Now none of the ships are aiming at Tori. So now it's a matter of avoiding the debris and shooting kitties in barrels. Or something like that. « At least they're not flying quite so straight any more, » Tori says a little ruefully. Though she does continue her attack run, turning back to continue to engage the same dralthi as before, firing her guns in its direction once she gets the chance.
James curses as the kilrathi fighter slows slightly casuing the shot to plow into it's nose rather then punching into the cockpit. He performs a complicated snaproll and half-loop combo, setting up for a head to head pass with his gunsights still leveled at the other fighters cockpit.
The Kilrathi carrier continues to close on the Horatius, drawing closer and closer to the wedge-shaped destroyer… intent on ramming the smaller Confederation vessel. The Horatious, meanwhile, holds its fire… continuing straight on that collision course, not about to back down in the rather lopsided game of chicken. As the two craft draw near, the Horatius' batteries all swing forward and unleash a tremendous volley into the Kilrathi carrier at point-blank range.
The Kal'rakh staggers, for a moment looking as if it might hold together. It drifts closer to the Horatius still, as a line of explosions blossoms along its spine, splitting it into a shower of fragments. The Confederation destroyer's shields glow first blue, then shift to an angry red as it plows through the expanding debris cloud that was once a Kilrathi carrier.
Looking no worse for the wear, the destroyer emerges from the other side of the debris cloud, the glow from its shields fading. « Horatius to Strike. Scratch one flattop »
« Voodoo to wing, let's finish these two off and go home » Cole reports, contiuing his rather awkward attempt at dogfighting in a damaged broadsword, completely out of missiles.
When the call comes in that the Shiraak has finally fallen, Kell gives a cheer in his cockpit before maneuvering his slow bomber in for another pass on the Dralthi. Having spent all of his payload tonight, he switches to the trustworthy bank of triple Mass Driver Cannons and unleashes a burst at the same Dralthi knowing that the pair should be turned into paste very soon due to the combined fire.
«That's the shit! Nice fireworks, Horatius!» Walsh calls out as the carrier ceases to be. His own shots were somewhat less spectacular, mostly glancing off the Kilrathi fighter's armor. Determined to score better hits, he fires again. «I hear that, Voodoo. Bet you're -real- sick of this pair of clowns, right?»
Alrighty! That's worth several cheers, really. Tori's grin is probably from ear to ear, at that news. Hah, take that. And if those two silly Dralthi think they're going to take out any broadsword, well, they're mistaken. She doesn't hit the comm this time, since she did not take any additional damage, and well, she didn't do particularly much. Though she did hit her target, that's a good sign. She takes another pass at the now slightly damaged Dralthi, hoping to hit something in the cockpit maybe. Okay, right now, as soon as she gets a target-lock, she fires.
Whether it's the guns of the Confederation fighters or the point defense batteries of the Horatius that bring down the last two Kilrathi fighters is something of an academic point. They certainly go down fighting, but it's more with a whimper than a bang… blotted out of existence by enough firepower to leave only postage-stamp sized framgents behind.
«Voodoo to strike, good shooting all » Cole reports as the last two Kilrathi fighters simply go away. « Let's meet back up with the Majestic and pass along the good news » Cole clicks off his mic, swinging his broadsword back around on course for the Majestic… and only then allows himself to cast a glance back over his shoulder, in the direction of the broadsword's small cargo hold. Even if he knows damn well there's durasteel decking between himself and what he really wants to check on.
« Roger. Falling into formation for flight back to our pick-up point, » Tori says simply, as she does just that. « Nice work, everyone. »
With the red blips finally gone from the radar, Kell releases a breath of relief, he finally survived a battle in a 'Sword without needing to visit the medbay right afterwards or scrapping the bomber. «Razor returning to formation, scopes are clear of hostiles. Gotta say though, that Shiraak Carrier is one tough cat, I hope there isn't any more out there besides the sister ship that is out there.»