Slow Them Down![]
“Third Regiment; open fire! Take down any dropships you can, we have a straight shot at the engines, be ready for their response! Fighters are already coming about to face us!” Director Gustavo Virtanen ordered his formation.
Director Virtanen’s preferred combat was up close and personal dogfighting, he was able to physically handle G-forces that even some Snow Raven clanners could not handle. He thrived in environments where he was flying like a madman, dodging, barrel rolling, and any aggressive maneuver he could use. The only downside was his shorter range weaponry, but his Slayer’s autocannon was able to assist the other fighter’s waves of LRMs and Large Lasers piercing into the invasion fleet they were quickly catching up to.
Like a swarm of hornets, at maximum velocity, the 4th Air Wing 3rd Regiment approached the much slower dropships, even though they were pushing 2G’s and more. However, the invasion fleet was punching back as some of the fighters were coming about at angles that seemed like they would sheer a fighter’s structure in half.
As he approached the bright lights of the rear most dropships the weapons fire began impacting; cutting off a number of the engines as explosions and flames ripped apart the engines. With their little maneuverability left, they began rotating, bringing their various munitions up to return fire, there was no way they would be able to maneuver with the fleet itself.
By now, the first Blakist fighters were emerging from the formation and going head to head with the waves of the 3rd Regiment. Flashes of light happened where fighters detonated, their debris flying off into space, other fighters dodging if it wound up in their path. One Snow Raven Hydaspes caught fire from multiple Spectral fighters, sending it spinning, flames flashing from multiple gouges in the armor. Virtanen caught a glimpse of the fighter change course, a truly skilled pilot to pull off after losing control, as the 95 ton fighter slammed into one of the dropships that had lost 3 of its engines.
The collision of a 95 ton fighter turned the dropship into a fireball, in fact it was cut nearly in half as decompression threw Blakist bodies and equipment into space. A Malak and a Thunderbolt Battlemech were ejected, fighters dodging around the machines.
Virtanen was on the tail of a Rusalka, his lasers carving off molten armor, he was specifically targeting potential Manei Domini pilots. A full blast of autocannon fire found the cockpit of the Rusalka, sending it out into space as a dead heap. He barrel rolled and found the tail of another Blakist fighter pursuing another officer from the regiment. The enemy fighter dropped following his first target and pitched hard upward and around a dropship. Calling the Blakist’s bluff, Virtanen followed along the hull, passing cannons firing off at other fighters battling in the distance. Flashes from lasers and autocannon fire in his cockpit did nothing to distract him.
As he came about and followed the fighter, he rolled and opened fire. His lasers carved multiple holes in the armor. Lining up his autocannon for another kill shot he pulled the trigger to find his fighter shake and his shots went wide. Quickly looking to find what happened, he could see his HUD showing orange for 75% of his fighter. Panning his head and looking at the battle unfolding he caught a glimpse of the disruptor and all of his friends.
A swarm of fighters arrived from the battling forces at Pirate Point delta had just arrived. His HUD had gone from a significant number of green IFFs to a blanket of red. This was made worse by what he was sure were dropships, including assault dropships approaching from Pirate Point Delta as well.
“Keep giving them hell 3rd Regiment! I am drawing up a perimeter to set, try to disable any dropships you can!” he ordered 3rd Regiment. His plan was to bring all of his fighters into a perimeter around the rear dropships. At least take a couple of them out of the fight and let the invasion force move on, with the new escorts, otherwise his unit would likely be wiped out.
He rolled 90 degrees and pitched up to return to the Nav Point he established and began chasing a new target that was part of a couple Level II’s protecting an Overlord dropship they had been able to wreck the engines of. This one however, was putting up a helluva fight. A small debris field was forming around it, it almost looked like it single handedly brought down at least a lance of Raven fighters. Every single hangar door was wide open with Battlemechs firing at the swarming aerospace fighters to supplement the devastating volume of fire from the ship itself. He watched as an Archangel blew the bottom of a Wusun out, sending it tumbling to its death.
Another hangar had an Atlas hanging out of it, firing away at Ravens passing by. Repulsed by the gall of these fanatics, Virtanen gave some parting shots, ripping a wing off his target aerospace fighter and took aim at the Atlas that had not yet seen him coming. He unleashed an alpha strike, tearing a leg clean off the machine, then passing by below. As he looked up, the machine was already being pulled back inside by a mechanical arm.
Doing another hard turn he looked over his HUD to find out what had changed in the seconds that passed. The invasion fleet itself had already moved on, a couple kilometers in distance by now and a major portion of the aerospace fighters were moving to keep with them. Any reinforcement dropships from the pirate point had changed course to merge with the invasion fleet. It was clear the orders had been given to leave behind the crippled dropships.
None of them even made an attempt to surrender and there was no way to hail them as any attempt failed. The Blakists in the crippled dropships fought to the last, taking out a handful more Raven fighters. When the shooting was done the formation was hurt badly. 40% of the formation was still capable of fighting with 10% in critical condition, however, 3 dropships were destroyed, one of which was an Overlord.
Recognizing they would get pincered between the Delta fleet and the invasion fleet, Director Virtanen ordered the survivors that could still battle back to the Zenith jump point to support the fighting there.
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