ABS FIESTA REDUX

[Qwepir]

Overhearing Rikard, Ash raises his hand and asks the Sky Marshall directly.
"Hey, Volk street isn't the only street we can take to the carrier, right? Aren't there other ways we can use to mask our approach?"

Bell checks for other streets on the map.

Tarkirov points one out.
: 12th Street terminates to the aft of the carrier, but you have almost no room to maneuver there. You'd be going through single file, and the slightest overcorrection would slam you into an apartment building at hundreds of miles per hour. It is theoretically possible to approach from this angle, but I could not in good conscience order anyone to brave that gauntlet.

"What I'm thinking is we send two, maybe three planes down in to Volk street at a time.
They'll be our strafers and should be armed with missile-range coaxials. One of them, or a seperate escort aircraft should run with them and carry a LAMS and a full load of countermeasures. It could be a fighter or a strike aircraft,"

He shifts his attention to the map.

"They could strafe the side of the carrier from missile range and then pull directly up and peel away. It'll attract missiles but we will have the GSCRAM, and hopefully the group will be dropping chaff while they do this to prevent locks. I would say we have our spare MiGs fly cover from farther out with some kind of air to air load,"

He shifts his weight again.

"I would hope that in the run the strafing group could take out the beam and dual turret. After that we wouldn't have to worry about much more than missiles. It's still a concern but at least they're not pouring PPC and laser fire down Volk. After that, if we saturate that side of the carrier, we could probably throw cluster bombs at it,"

: I agree, we should take out the beam laser and the particle cannons first. SAMs shouldn't be an issue if we're countering with chaff but from what I know they can manually target the larger gun emplacements. How to deal with the AMS though, that's the thing I'm concerned about. We can blow the heavy guns apart and counter the SAMs, but if we get funneled out two at a time the lasers are going to cut us to pieces. My first thought is that we could have some people volunteer to go above the skyline and bait the guns. I know Virvel would jump at the opportunity, Eremit and Frisk, not so much. Do you have anyone who'd be willing to risk it?

"That's disappointing."

Gus rubs his chin again and looks over the map.

"Well, unless you have any other suggestions, I think that's all for now. We need to discuss how we'll be approaching the carrier and whether or not we'll be using the reactor."

: Let us know if you need anything else rewired.

[Ad Bot]

[Mr. Hurricane]

"I was hoping that the strafers would pull up and out Volk street before getting in AMS range," Jaakko says, "In regards to any distraction, I think that Tippy and Gus would be the most likely to volunteer, but I wouldn't ask any of them to do it if I weren't with them."

Jaakko runs his hand through his hair and looks at the screen. His voice becomes much quieter.

"We're facing the possibility of stupid amounts of casualties in attempting this, but I'm sure the Sky Marshal rightly knows that destroying that carrier and liberating Kronovostok is more important in the long run,"

[Operator¹]

: We can use the Condottierro's drones as a part of the distraction. We might be able to drop some bombs to divert the attention of those LAMS emplacements, maybe seed some chaff with the drones or planes at a lower altitude. The Shinden is probably capable of flying through 12th at low speed, so I think we could have someone hit the launch silos from the rear without crashing on the way. Of course, we could deploy the Wyvern through there as well, but if the plane isn't at top condition I don't think we should risk it on that run.

[CypherX]

"Condottiero only has a handful of drones left. If you filled the bomb bay with as many bombs as you could fit, though..."

Gus walks over towards Rikard and the rest of Mjolnir.

"Could take off much of the LAMS heat for any approaching strike planes. Between a diversion flight and that, there might be a window for the heavy hitters to get in."

[Qwepir]

"I was hoping that the strafers would pull up and out Volk street before getting in AMS range," Jaakko says, "In regards to any distraction, I think that Tippy and Gus would be the most likely to volunteer, but I wouldn't ask any of them to do it if I weren't with them."

Jaakko runs his hand through his hair and looks at the screen. His voice becomes much quieter.

"We're facing the possibility of stupid amounts of casualties in attempting this, but I'm sure the Sky Marshal rightly knows that destroying that carrier and liberating Kronovostok is more important in the long run,"

: So the two in front blow away the heavy guns, and then what, the people behind them just lob cluster bombs at low altitude and hope that's enough to take out the LAMS? Seems like quite the gamble.

We can use the Condottierro's drones as a part of the distraction. We might be able to drop some bombs to divert the attention of those LAMS emplacements, maybe seed some chaff with the drones or planes at a lower altitude. The Shinden is probably capable of flying through 12th at low speed, so I think we could have someone hit the launch silos from the rear without crashing on the way. Of course, we could deploy the Wyvern through there as well, but if the plane isn't at top condition I don't think we should risk it on that run.

: She'll do fine. I'm more concerned about the pilot.

"Condottiero only has a handful of drones left. If you filled the bomb bay with as many bombs as you could fit, though..."
Gus walks over towards Rikard and the rest of Mjolnir.
"Could take off much of the LAMS heat for any approaching strike planes. Between a diversion flight and that, there might be a window for the heavy hitters to get in."

: Always with the bombs, why are you people so hung up on bombs? Flying a bomber high up like that would expose it to SAM launchers from both sides of the carrier, and they'd be a much easier target than our guys in the trench. Plus the timing for the bombs arriving and distracting the LAMS would have to be absolutely perfect. Even if we get the timing down, then what? By the time our guys arrive in range of the LAMS they're going to have to break off. I say we round up a handful of people willing to risk themselves and have them buzz the carrier to draw fire from the LAMS while another group fires on them with precise or heavy gunfire. No pissing around with the 20s and 30s, we either pick the turrets off with a Gauss or Particle cannon or smash it and everything around it with Plasma.

Kommandant snaps his fingers.
: The Skepna, that's it! We all saw what it did to those airships a while back, all we have to do is keep the fire off it and it should be able to slag the most of the LAMS battery by itself.

[Badger]

Kommandant snaps his fingers.
: The Skepna, that's it! We all saw what it did to those airships a while back, all we have to do is keep the fire off it and it should be able to slag the most of the LAMS battery by itself.

"I was planning on flying it down the street and hitting the central structure, but I was going to see what else you guys wanted to do first."

Walter looks at the size of the carrier and the positioning of the LAMS cluster

"Most of the SAMS and LAMS are conveniently clustered on the central structure, if there's not too much mass blocking the shot the plasma might take care of the ones on the other side at the same time. That will give me time to cool off the plasma and attack again while there's an opening for others to use AGMs."

[CypherX]

"I'll fly in the distraction flight. Any chance we can get two ablative charges?"

[Operator¹]

: Sounds like a good plan. Who's flying air cover?

[Mr. Hurricane]

"The Skepna could fly with the LAMS,"

Jaakko turns his attention to Gus.

"I'll look in to it, and I'll be flying distraction with you,"

[Badger]

"The Skepna could fly with the LAMS,"

"You should take the LAMS if you're playing bait. The skepna needs heat sinks prioritized towards the main plasma."

[NoZoner]

"12th Street terminates to the aft of the carrier, but you have almost no room to maneuver there. You'd be going through single file, and the slightest overcorrection would slam you into an apartment building at hundreds of miles per hour. It is theoretically possible to approach from this angle, but I could not in good conscience order anyone to brave that gauntlet."

Ash slouches back into his seat and sighs. He scratches his head as his eyes droop to the floor.

Bloody Ark, every which way, this is a forgetin' Self Delete mission.

Being the pilot he is and having no immediate access to a strike fighter that's built to fly low and slow, taking 12th is a pretty tall order. He wrestles with the idea and eventually comes to a conclusion.

"I'll fly down Twelfth Street if no one else is going to do it," Ash volunteers, "It's probably best if we take more than one approach going to the carrier." Can't say I'm too happy to do it, though.

[Qwepir]

Kommandant listens to everyone converse and eventually calls for everyone's attention.
: Alright, everyone, listen up! Here's the plan: Ashes, you'll take the Skepna and be tip of the spear coming down Volk street. Forward-mount our LAMS installation to protect those behind you from any SAMs that come your way, and be ready to fire on the point defense banks as soon as you have a targeting solution. Faw and Tippy will be right behind you, tasked with destroying the particle cannon and beam emplacements. I don't care what you two take to deal with those as long as you can shoot with it as soon as possible and not hit Ashes in the process. Aero and Letterman will bring up the rear with a load of AGMs to utilize once the point defense fire has been thinned out.
:  Virvel, Crash, Gus, Caesar; the four of you are going to fly higher up and ahead to draw point defense fire and give the strike group as clear of a shot as possible at hitting the carrier. Frisk, Eremit, you're with me. We're going to stay just above rooftop level and keep an eye out for enemy fighters or drones that might still be in the area.
: While we're making all this noise over here, Blackeye will infiltrate the park through the 12th street corridor. Point defense is weakest at the back already, and with the starboard side either destroyed or busy firing at us, he should have a clear shot to take out the vertical launch silos. If he can take a set of those out, and the rest of us the starboard defensive suite, neutralizing the rest of the carrier's weapon systems should be a whole lot easier. Does everyone understand their place in this?

[CypherX]

"Understood."

[Mr. Hurricane]

Jaakko nods.

[NoZoner]

"Crystal clear, boss man."