ABS FIESTA REDUX

[ZombiLoin]

Gaffe sighs as the missiles one by one blip off the radar as the G-Scram takes over. He clicks on the comms.

"You really saved my ass there, Zaman." His voice is shaky. "When we get back to base, we're gonna knock a few back."

Three missiles spike on Gaffe's radar. Then two. His pupils narrow, and he goes silent, contemplating what to do for a moment.

"You know, Lorens, it's a shame I never really got to know you. Maybe we'll buddy up a bit more some other day."

Gaffe exhales and lets the tension out of his muscles, loosening up his core and rolling his neck. He grips the flight stick firmly and vectors his aircraft towards the starboard engines of the airship. He takes a big, deep breath, filling out the bottom of his stomach and stares intently at the right-hand tailpipes of the bomber.

"I need missiles on the airship, starboard side! JSMs, HSMs, whatever. Doesn't matter!"

Gaffe maxes out the throttle and start to beeline towards the starboard engines aiming the nose of his jet specifically at the median between the two engines. He fires his last remaining HSM at them to try and distract the ballistic AMS systems, and starts to jink and spiral to dodge any incoming fire. He crunches his stomach and tenses up his legs, fighting g-loc as hard as he can as he accelerates into his death spiral.

[Ad Bot]

[Mr. Hurricane]

"forget! forget forget forget!"

Jaakko yo-yo's and attempts to fall on Pansar's tail. He drops flares to thwart any locks.

[Tayasaurus]

Tippy uses artemis on the four remaining planes that aren't Gaffe

(HSMs(2))  (VTMs(2)) [Random Allocation]

[NoZoner]

Lorens hears Hilbert speak over the radio and widens his eyes in dismay as the Fulcrum shoots straight for the engine of the cruiser. "Gaffe? What the forget are you doing!?"

His sense of time addled by Tachypsychia, Lorens' senses slowly leave him as the situation presents him with an ultimatum. With Shortsword and Skytracer down, he realizes he is the next one down the chain to take command.

What the forget am I doing?

"GAFFE!," He screams, mashing the button for one last ECM barrage, "DEFEND! I AM THE NEW ACTUAL! DEFEND, AND RETURN TO FORMATION! THAT IS AN ORDER!"

[ZombiLoin]

"GAFFE!," He screams, mashing the button for one last ECM barrage, "DEFEND! I AM THE NEW ACTUAL! DEFEND, AND RETURN TO FORMATION! THAT IS AN ORDER!"

"It was an honor serving with this unit." Gaffe's voice trembles over the radio. "I'm sorry Zaman. I have a seat at Miyesir's table tonight. May the gods be with you, Lorens."

As Gaffe zooms towards the airship's engines, he closes his eyes and accepts his fate.

[Qwepir]

Gaffe maxes out the throttle and start to beeline towards the starboard engines aiming the nose of his jet specifically at the median between the two engines. He fires his last remaining HSM at them to try and distract the ballistic AMS systems, and starts to jink and spiral to dodge any incoming fire. He crunches his stomach and tenses up his legs, fighting g-loc as hard as he can as he accelerates into his death spiral.

Lorens hears Hilbert speak over the radio and widens his eyes in dismay as the Fulcrum shoots straight for the engine of the cruiser. "Gaffe? What the forget are you doing!?"
His sense of time addled by Tachypsychia, Lorens' senses slowly leave him as the situation presents him with an ultimatum. With Shortsword and Skytracer down, he realizes he is the next one down the chain to take command.
What the forget am I doing?
"GAFFE!," He screams, mashing the button for one last ECM barrage, "DEFEND! I AM THE NEW ACTUAL! DEFEND, AND RETURN TO FORMATION! THAT IS AN ORDER!"

Scrambler rolls to disable missiles
AAM 1: 51 - missile destroyed
AAM 2: 81 - scrambler failed
HSM 1: 71 -penalty halved
HSM 2: 30 - missile destroyed
VTM 1: 37 - missile destroyed

AAM 3: 95 - scrambler failed
AAM 4: 26 - missile destroyed
AAM 5: 99 - scrambler failed
AAM 6: 31 - missile destroyed
Several of the missiles veer off wildly as Gaffe enters the point defense guns' sights.

"It was an honor serving with this unit." Gaffe's voice trembles over the radio. "I have a seat at Miyesir's table tonight. May the gods be with you, Lorens."
As Gaffe zooms towards the airship's engines, he closes his eyes and accepts his fate.

Ballistic AMS no.1 rolls to intercept missiles:
HSM 1: 51 - success
Gaffe's last seeker gets shot down mere meters in front of his plane as the four aft point-defense cannons light him up.
AMS accuracy 75
Test taken at 75
Rolls: 64, 7, 25 - successes by 2, 4+, 4+ degrees
Result: 10 hits to fuselage
Gaffe and his Fulcrum are torn to flaming ribbons by the 20mils. The erratic spiraling approach leaves most of the debris to miss the cruiser, and the two missiles left on his tail change target to the new, stronger heat signature of the cruiser's engines.

Walter aims briefly and fires off his coaxials again at Coma

LCB accuracy 55
Experience provides bonus of  2
Aim provides bonus of  10
Point-blank range provides bonus of  10
Test taken at 77
Roll: 65 - success by 2 degrees
Coma's cry of surprise is cut off as her plane is blasted out from under her. You pass over her plane as it catches fire and begins spiraling out of control, exploding in your rearview mirrors.

"forget! forget forget forget!"

Jaakko yo-yo's and attempts to fall on Pansar's tail. He drops flares to thwart any locks.

Pansar isn't interested in a lock, instead relying on an old 75mm friend.
: I'll see you in hell, Kirves!
UAC accuracy 40
Experience provides bonus of  6
Aim provides bonus of 10
Point Blank provides bonus of  10
Test taken at 66
Roll: 2 - success

The heavy cannon blows Jaakko's No.1 engine to scrap, and the rest of the plane feels like it's about to follow. Pansar fares far worse, however, as by aiming his final shot he submitted himself to be hit by the two missiles that weren't thrown off by Snowman's scrambler. His Superflanker is blown out of the sky as Jaakko passes in the opposite direction, hull on fire and engines trailing smoke.

Tippy uses artemis on the four remaining planes that aren't Gaffe

(HSMs(2))  (VTMs(2)) [Random Allocation]

The only two planes remaining are Frisk, Fang, and Snowman. One Vortex missile heads for the first, the other towards Snowman, and two heatseekers for Fang.
Pansar gets shot down.
Frisk evades the Vortex Missile. [Test: 88|Roll: 29]
Fang attempts to evade incoming missiles and gets hit. [Test: 65|Roll: 87] He starts trying to get behind Walt and fails. [Fang's Test: 75|Walt's Test: 70|Fang's roll: 62|Walt's roll: 50]
Coma gets shot down.
Virvel fires on Fang and shoots him down. [Test: 95|Roll: 94]
Xiaomei stands down.
Yamashiro stands down.
Yamashiro's Kaneda stands down.
Nagato can't watch.
: Whoa, hey, easy now! I don't want any more trouble with you guys, I'm done!

[Badger]

: .....Poor kid- Hold your fire on that flanker, I already gave him my word and he's cooperating.

Walter swap his communications over to the airship bridge

: Captain, has the ship been fully secured yet by the boarding teams? We've dealt with the strike team sent after you and your men, if all is well inside you should be in the clear.

[Gojira]

: [Wait, wha- Gaffe!]

Markus watches in horror as his former friend's aircraft is torn to shreds by the point defense, unable to take his eyes off the scene. He searches frantically for a chute, or, really, any sign that Gaffe might still be alive. Almost immediately, he's wracked by pangs of guilt.

Here I am, hoping with my entire heart that Gaffe survived, when I just tried to kill him in cold blood.

In this moment, ignoring the chaos unfolding around his ears, Markus finally figures out exactly what he is.

I'm a traitor, a hypocrite, and not ready for this.

Tears stream down his face. He turns off his radio.

[Qwepir]

: .....Poor kid- Hold your fire on that flanker, I already gave him my word and he's cooperating.
Walter swap his communications over to the airship bridge
: Captain, has the ship been fully secured yet by the boarding teams? We've dealt with the strike team sent after you and your men, if all is well inside you should be in the clear.

: The shock troopers are cleaning up resistance as we speak, we never had anything on board that would pose a threat to those suits anyway. Thank you for your- hmm?
: -I said we need your command codes, something's happened, the nukes are arming.
: Impossible! Noone else on this ship has the authority to-

There's a moment of silence as the realization sinks in.
: Everyone, get as far from the Brynhildr as you can! I'm taking it due north to get as far from the mainland as possible!

[Gojira]

Markus slams his fist against the side of his canopy before immediately vectoring his aircraft away from the cruiser and punching the burners, self-preservation overriding guilt.

: [forget!]
Markus switches his mic to an open channel.
: If you want to survive, GET CLEAR OF THAT AIRSHIP NOW! THAT THING IS GOING TO loving BLOW!

[Badger]

: Dammit-

Walter rolls his aircraft around and doubles back, pushing the tornado's engines to a steady burn

: Frisk, if you're still on the comms; the mutiny on the airship has armed the nuclear payload. the captain is taking it northwards. You can desert or come with us, up to you. Either way we are leaving.

[NoZoner]

Ash's eyes widen and his heart rate quickens. He quickly works the radio stack and tries to find Mjolnir's communications frequency.

"... Lorens! Lorens, can you hear me?! It's Ash! EGRESS SOUTH! Get away from the carrier NOW! THE NUKES ARE ARMING!"

The younger brother, still in shock from witnessing Hilbert's vain sacrifice, eventually tears himself away from the cruiser, dumps flares, turns South and pushes the Shiva's last engine as hard as possible. Ash himself turns around and puts the engines on reheat, intent on burning every last pound of fuel he has available.

[Mr. Hurricane]

"Scatter! All aircraft egress south! Don't worry about formation! My aircraft is going to fall apart, AWACS, what rescue is available?!"

Jaakko guides his aicraft away, diving and using his altitude to make up for airspeed lost without his second engine. He nervously checks his aircraft, hoping it doesn't fall apart on him. The master alarm beeps incessantly.

[Qwepir]

: Frisk, if you're still on the comms; the mutiny on the airship has armed the nuclear payload. the captain is taking it northwards. You can desert or come with us, up to you. Either way we are leaving.

: Alright, alright, I'm coming!

"Scatter! All aircraft egress south! Don't worry about formation! My aircraft is going to fall apart, AWACS, what rescue is available?!"

Jaakko guides his aicraft away, diving and using his altitude to make up for airspeed lost without his second engine. He nervously checks his aircraft, hoping it doesn't fall apart on him. The master alarm beeps incessantly.

: Search and Rescue dropships are standing by at Calvin Schulze Memorial Hospital to retrieve casualties.

All is quiet for the next few seconds, even as a blinding light manifests in everybody's rearviews and turns night to day. Those currently adrift in the Gaian Ocean see a second sun materialize in the sky as Sky Marshal Tarkirov detonates one of the Brynhildr's 300 kiloton warheads. The EM wave scrambles everybody's heads up displays and disrupts communications, and the ensuing blastwave rocks everyone as though they were flying through the wall of a hurricane. Even those several kilometers below and away from the point of detonation feel the effects of the detonation, though in a greatly neutered state that causes no physical harm. Crash's Tukreb is less fortunate- already critically damaged, the shockwave from the nuclear warhead delivers the finishing blow, forcing an ejection. The three transport VTOLs fare even worse, too slow to even escape the fireball.

[Badger]

: Communications still in check? Everybody still in one piece?