Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-7489529-20140906215813/@comment-24828824-20141021224146

The battle was dragging on, Merel had returned to Mobile Armor mode and was intercepting any gunship formations making a break for the shuttle, with the four CIWS machineguns in the wings and the dorsal beam cannon she tore apart any missiles heading for the shuttle.

Before Merel had a chance to even think another wing of four of the gunships made a run for the shuttle, catching on to the fact that the four mobile suits still used the open hangar for quick rearming. Merel pursued them, sending a hail of bullets raking across their tails, penetrating the armor and sending one spiraling out of control, having struck something vital with one of her slugs. A second quiclly succumbed to a beam from her dorsal and the other two began to lose their nerve and tried to evade the mobile armour on their tails, only to be caught in the machine gun fire from the shuttle, raking across both gunships and puncturing the canopy of the leader which then erupted in fire and exploded, catching its wingman which had tried desperately to get out of the hail of bullets the sleek turret of the shuttle had been steadily churning out since attack had begun.

“Good shooting there Echo Four-one-niner, we’ll make an ace out of you yet!” Merel called out on the radio to the pilots. She passed by the shuttle again making a wide turn to get on the flank of the enemy force again. Arcturus had returned with his Viking after a brief rearming and Faye had made his way to the shuttle now to resupply. Merel suddenly heard the alarm for new sensor contact. Something had entered the combat zone and she looked around her displays to find it. It had appeared that a small object had arrived on the fringe of the battlefield, and it was quickly recognized by the computer as a surveillance drone. These drones were usually used in groups to gather Intel or act as rudimentary communications relays in the battlefield. This one was quickly joined by two more blips on her screen approaching the outer fringe of the battle, slowing down to position themselves in a slightly tilted triangle formation just out of reach from the HA forces. Shortly after the drones settled themselves Merel could hear a transmission on one of the secure frequencies of the navy.

A female voice sounded with a tone of urgency “MS team Sigma, do you read? This is the General Norema. What is your status?” Merel wanted to reply but heard Halvard Kyland’s response already. The communications officer’s response carried an added tone of relief. “Have all your mobile suits establish a data link with the drones so we have a full picture of the battle. Stand-by for further orders sigma team, we’re almost in range.” The transmission was quickly cut off and Merel was already keying her controls to establish the data link with the closest drone. There was brief silence on their radios while Sigma team sent their data to the ''General Norema. ''

Merel again soared over the Jagged Creighton which was still dancing through the swarm of gunships, leaving crushed hulls and burning wreckage in his wake. They had all held their ground well but the end was still not in sight with still at least a good 80% of the enemy force intact. However thanks to the attacks within their ranks the HA forces were in disarray and too close to one another to get a good shot on the mobilesuits without risking friendly fire. Still with confidence in numbers the gunships continued to fight. They had no idea how brief this battle would become as miles away the Trident class General Norema prepared to engage the targets sigma team had sent them.

Captain Gilad Rosenfeld looked over the digital representation of the battle between the HA force and Mobile Suit Team Sigma. A brief consideration of his options went through his mind before he spoke to his commander and bridge crew. “Prepare Lancer beam cannons, we’re going to cut right through the enemy formation. Prepare three salvoes from turrets one and two on my command. Notify the mobile suits and shuttle to get clear of the line of fire, give them a countdown of 30 seconds between each salvo.”