Everybody going on the mission launches from the Tordenskjold without any setbacks, while the Vaktare dispatches a CAP to protect the battlegroup. As you approach the mission area, you drop in on allied communications (though only Yui and Tippy are able to make any sense whatsoever of what's being said).
Mission Theme
: [Is anyone still up there? Those destroyers are pounding our position flat, we need those guns silenced now!]

: [Negative. Enemy drone presence is too heavy to risk an attack run. Find cover and sit tight.]

: [We
are in cover! They're bringing it down on our heads!]

: [Advise you seek out a new position.]

: [Seriously? Shut the hell up, I shouldn't have to explain why we can't do that!]

: [Acknowledged. Strike drones en route.]

: [...Negative effect, strike drones destroyed.]

: [Great, well, thanks for trying.]

: [Heads up everyone, Aesthian reinforcements are entering the combat zone.]
Mjolnir enters radar range, and everybody gets to see for themselves what the situation is. Sure enough, four Imperial destroyers are in the area. Their current formation has them operating in pairs, one destroyer ahead of the other, with the two groups spaced about eight kilometers apart. Protecting each pair of destroyers are squadrons of small drone fighters, around fifteen for each pair. The Kintharians are currently engaging the fighter wing and the rest of the drones, with around eight J-20 and two dozen drone fighters engaging one Hyperion, at least fifteen assorted Typhoons and Turkrebs, and three times as many drones.

: Far be it from me to criticize the brass, but this is
not what "skirmishing" is.

: You're damn right! This is
much better!
: Mjolnir, we're going to join the Kintharians and try to keep those fighters and drones occupied. Good luck with the destroyers.
Djuriskas begins diving towards the thick of the fighting, while Mjolnir's approach vector has you facing the front ends of the destroyers. No enemy forces have acknowledged your presence yet.
