ABS FIESTA REDUX

[NoZoner]

(pageloss)

"God dammit why didn't I notice them sooner?! Turtle, Gladiator, form up on me!"
No response. I slam my fist against the bulletproof bubble of the roosterpit.

I look at my radar. Gladiator and Turtle are lazily circling about the edge of the map view, as if they were brain dead.

"Both of you should be court marshalled. We just lost a billion-dollar sky-carrier and you two have been loving each other's butts for the last fifteen minutes. I guess they loving call you Turtle for a reason huh?"


Upon looking at the roster we really do have a bunch of inactives.

Alright, that probably wasn't the best idea I had all day. I break off from the airship, exit the canyon and stay a few hundred feet off the desert floor to terrain mask.

"AWACS, Sabre, is COMRO still malfunctioning?"

[Ad Bot]

[Qwepir]

"AWACS, I've spotted out a good landing spot, how many people do you have on board?"

: Seventeen.

"AWACS, Sabre, is COMRO still malfunctioning?"

: Affirmative. COMRO is still on the fritz.

The helmsmen of the carrier manage to salvage the dive in the last few hundred, "merely" crash-landing and skidding to a halt after a good half a kilometer. It looked really bad from where you're all sitting, but at least it looked somewhat survivable, unlike the crashes of its' escort.

[NoZoner]

I could only watch as the carrier descends onto the desert. As it skids across the surface, huge clouds of sand and dust shoot upwards, making it even harder to see from my relatively low view point.

The thought of letting those forgeters waltz away after wrecking our stuff is enough to make my blood boil. There's no way in hell I'm about to let that happen.

I turn back to the AWACS and regain altitude, eventually pulling up behind.

"AWACS, Sabre, rearmament pre-contact established. You think you can give me just one of those duds? I might be able to carry it in my weapons bay."

[Gojira]

"Lutefisk, what's your status? Any casualties?"
I circle the downed skycarrier. stuff. After a few seconds of that, I decide it might be better to eliminate the forgeters who decided to try to shoot the thing down. I dive on the center of the cloud and spray some flak at the retreating skysub.

[Qwepir]

"AWACS, Sabre, rearmament pre-contact established. You think you can give me just one of those duds? I might be able to carry it in my weapons bay."

: Uh, alright? We're going to head for the nearest airbase though. Advise you all to do the same, unless you want to run out of fuel in the middle of the desert.

They give you a single dud.
: I don't know what you're planning with that, but good luck.

I dive on the center of the cloud and spray some flak at the retreating skysub.

You have no idea if you're doing any damage.

[Gojira]

I wait to see what Sabre does with the dud.

[Operator¹]

Bell heads to the nearest airbase.

"If you guys are going to stay here, find a place where you can land but contact the crew to see if they have anything left first."


I'll take the inactive guys with me if that's okay

[NoZoner]

"Much obliged." I pull away from the AWACS and ascend. Along the way, I bring up the stores management page on an MFD... these things don't even register as weapons. I lift up my visor and manually bring up a CCIP bombing reticle onto my HUD.

At around 30000 feet, I open up my weapons bay and start a full-power dive. The Widow starts picking up speed a little faster than what I'm used to. I look for the cloud in the canyon and head towards it.

Boom. A condensation cone briefly flashes over my aircraft as I hit Mach 1. stuff, I don't even know where to aim. My heartbeat quickens as the fighter continues to accelerate. I bring the CCIP piper just a little ways ahead of the cloud to lead the target.

... Mach 2. I hope this stuff works. Around 6000 feet, I hit the emergency jettison stores control, pop my airbrakes, cut the power, bank to the side and pull back on the stick, hanging on for dear life, hoping somehow that the canyon would give me just enough space to recover from the dive.

[Operator¹]

I don't think you're going to see what damage you dealt with that. Maybe you should check to see if the carrier's weapons systems are still operational and use a relative position offset from your plane to indicate the location of the skysub. With GPS, that shouldn't be too tough.

[Qwepir]

Everything goes silent as you concentrate entirely on your dive and the trajectory of the dud bomb. You see it disappear into the fog below. Then, you finally hear it, even over the din of the wind and your thrusters.

*donk*

: [What the drokk was that? Did they just drop a fuel tank on us?]

Apparently it was merely a glancing hit, because there's no tremendous explosion or change in the sub's course. The sub is now well outside the operational area, with the carrier about a dozen miles away. Continuing this pursuit much longer could very well mean you will run out of fuel and be forced to abandon your craft in the middle of nowhere. The AWACS is already leaving for the nearest airbase.

[Operator¹]

Bell makes a landing at random allied airbase with the AWACS.

[Gojira]

I give up and turn back towards the same friendly airbase as Bell and the AWACS, defeated. My first mission as squad leader and I've already loving failed and let a $24 billion aircraft become worthless. I notice that my fuel is low and I barely have enough for landing, which, unsurprisingly, goes without incident. However, while taxiing to a hangar I run out of fuel and have to be towed.

[xxxxkill]

Upon looking at the roster we really do have a bunch of inactives.

We've noticed. Some people made characters and then just never did anything, others just kind of fell off at some point and didn't get back on the funride. For some people I can understand the whole "not being on 24/7" thing but it becomes a problem when you literally make two posts in the thread then leave.

[Qwepir]

I give up and turn back towards the same friendly airbase as Bell and the AWACS, defeated. My first mission as squad leader and I've already loving failed and let a $24 billion aircraft become worthless. I notice that my fuel is low and I barely have enough for landing, which, unsurprisingly, goes without incident. However, while taxiing to a hangar I run out of fuel and have to be towed.

to be fair, the mission wasn't a total wash
the carrier's superstructure is mostly intact, and the crash was definitely survivable for the crew
it'll take a while to get it back to fighting strength, but since you drove off the sub before it could find out it merely crash-landed mostly intact, odds are the imperial fleet has assumed the whole group destroyed and ceased their pursuit

also:
blockguy
mlockha
swat 3

if you don't post to confirm your activity then i'm just gonna remove you all from the roster

[Operator¹]

Bell is typing a report of the mission while her Flanker is refueled and rearmed.