ABS FIESTA REDUX

[Gojira]

"Guys, the fleet's being rather quiet. Said something about a sub!"

[Ad Bot]

[Operator¹]

Ellie, out of missiles and heavily damaged, decided to try and evade, hoping that one of her squadmates would take out the Vespid before she was.

[NoZoner]

"AWACS, Snowman, airman down! Send CSAR!"

Fighting the temptation to chase down the Tukreb element bugging out, Lorens instead cues Vespid 3 and 4 and launches both all-aspects off-bore at each target. "Fox 2 ripple on the drones!"

[Mr. Hurricane]

"Letterman, put two JSM's on each of the Vespids!"

Jaakko takes a snapshot at the Vespid focusing on Ellie before evading hard to trash his own Vespid's shot.

"Walt- Snowman- Return to the fleet!" he grunts against the G's forcing him into his seat.

[Badger]

Walter attempts to swap communications directly to arkhip

" And what do you plan to do instead? Go off the grid until authorities drag you out? Defect? Arkhip, you can still come back and fix this."

Walter scans for kommandant's chute

[NoZoner]

Immediately after firing the missiles, Lorens knocks it off and turns hard.

"I'm going back East! Walter, forget Eremit! He's out of our hands!"

[Badger]

"He's carrying four thunderbolts and currently deployed in an interceptor. We could really use his help to destroy the sky subs Snowman."

[NoZoner]

"Leave it to his squadron and command, then! The fleet comes first!"

[Qwepir]

Walter attempts to swap communications directly to arkhip
" And what do you plan to do instead? Go off the grid until authorities drag you out? Defect? Arkhip, you can still come back and fix this."

: There's not enough left to be "fixed". Might as well start over somewhere else.

Walter scans for kommandant's chute

You spot it descending into the stormy seas below.

Ellie, out of missiles and heavily damaged, decided to try and evade, hoping that one of her squadmates would take out the Vespid before she was.

"Letterman, put two JSM's on each of the Vespids!"
Jaakko takes a snapshot at the Vespid focusing on Ellie before evading hard to trash his own Vespid's shot.
"Walt- Snowman- Return to the fleet!" he grunts against the G's forcing him into his seat.

Vespid base EV 55
Mothership Guidance provides bonus of 20
JSM 1 provides penalty of 20
JSM 2 procides penalty of 20
Test taken at 35
Rolls: 14, 94 - success, failure
Vespid 3 succeeds, Vespid 4 fails.
Letterman handles the drone before it can fire on Skytracer.

Virvel fires on Vespid-3
LCB accuracy 55
Aim provides bonus of 10
Test taken at 65
Roll: 7 - success
Result: Hit
and takes it out. She begins to take aim at one of the fleeing Tukrebs when Frisk calls her out.
: Uhh, Virvel? The fleet? Our fleet?
: What? Oh, right. Let's go!
: What about Eremit? We're just going to let him get away?

You can practically hear Virvel's teeth grating behind her helmet.
: I wanna put a bullet in that rat as much as you do, big guy, but we're never gonna catch him. Not today.

[Mr. Hurricane]

Jaakko thanks Letterman and Virvel for unsticking himself and Ellie. He proceeds back towards the home fleet at high speed.

[Badger]

"Even your friend in engineering?"

Walter lowers his speed and tilts the shikra downwards towards the water where the chute is heading.

[NoZoner]

"FUEL FOUR THOUSAND. BINGO FUEL."

Lorens ignores Bitchin' Betty and hits double reheat. Both the upstream and downstream thrust augmentors spit fuel into the exhaust flow, torching the engine to a bright yellow. The burner plume, now nearly as long as the fighter it protrudes from and laden with shock diamonds down its length, glows menacingly against the stormy skies.

[Operator¹]

Ellie sighs in relief as the drone is blasted out of the sky.

"Crash, I'm going to cover Walt and come in with him, that sound alright?"

[Qwepir]

"Even your friend in engineering?"

: She's strong enough. She'll do just fine without me.

He pauses for a moment before quietly mumbling a continuation.
: ...I wish I could have told her in advance, but you must know why that would have been a terrible idea.

Walter lowers his speed and tilts the shikra downwards towards the water where the chute is heading.

Despite the poor weather, you are able to follow Kommandant's chute as he continues to descend.

[Badger]

"I can tell her if you don't return."

Walter pauses as he slows down and converts the thrusters while watching the chute

"I'm going to ultimately leave it up to you, but I think you will have better chances turning back and helping us."

Walter continues making adjustments and realizes he has to give his full attention to the situation at hand.

"I'll see you on the other side Arkhip."