for goings on, on Nivar.

   The Fighters began to sort themselves out.. frans when Ahead towards the furthest 'gun site'...

  Howe  Broke off  , diving and curling back  towards the  south the that Gun site.

.. Shadow's Flight  Veered off to the  east towards the Capitol

 Ravens  Flight  veer  southeast, towards that Gun site

  the Morningstar was left in  the middle to choose.. The Ironwood veered towards the Capitol


 Flicking on all COMs   Shadow said,...Foster?.. things get hairy..or you thin they are getting hairy, come down and  start making a mess.. Fighters  first.. keep them off the  heavy hitters....Torpedo ships.. drop your eggs when you're  ready, then go reload...., by then the others  will be coming too...

 Foster comes on....others?

 ..Yeah... Admiral is putting   every torpedo ship  in the fleet in the air.. half  are following Bornberry, the other half are going to rain  the 9 hells on Nivar....should  be a good time...!

 9 hells  LC... when  did this happen...

 about a minute  after he threw the discs out the static field.....Now?..Beth?.. Lets  have   some entry Music?

Already done LC... its flooding the COMs and thier Vid stations.... we're  feeding Gun cams into thier feeds too, so they can see how much fun you guys  are having...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31AGv-hToE0

 a second or so  After  the Music  came on, the Vids   over 90% of Nivar were hacked with  vids...of their own doom...

 Frans flight swooped down  shooting upt the AA  Guns on the    approach to the first Gun site.... The site was  immense  a 'barrel' of sorts about  a halfmile  wide , but fixed into the Ground.. powers  stations ringed  the   'weapon'

  NIvarians  died   without ever knowing what hit them, vehicles   exploded..  AA guns were  silent, and why wouldn't they be..this was nivar?..who would dare attack?

 Shadow's Flight   came up on the City.. large ,  and sprawling. perhaps like New York or LA, if  Nature had been allowed to be a part of it... Shadow opened up of   a Tall skyscraper  that had a  sign in Nivairan...whether it was a  Business building, or   hotel, or an fancy apartment..shadow didn't  even thing ..he just fired.... Flores  and Kat opened up as well , windows  Burst Metal flew off,and a few bodies that were two close to the Holes fell  a few 100 feet down.....alright? B-flight?..break off.. shoot anything that looks rich.. if you want to test yur skills?   try fling the 'canyons' of the Building... just..watch for AA and fighters.....

 Howe's  group was just approaching his  Site.. there were  military vehicles on the  road... and they dove  done in a line..shooting up the road on the way to the Gun Site.. yellow  figures   were trying to scatter, but   the 37 MMs and  energy weaposn were carving up a wide  swath .

 Raven could see the tall building lighting up, even as  her flight  dove  for her target... again, the   Nivaians had  no thought, they would be attacked.. as  the harvester's fighters  tore into the AA  sites and Buildings.

 Only the Gun site to the west was not being attacked... because of the change in plans.

Karl watched the fighters fan out and start laying into the ground stations on Nivar.  Absolute chaos reigned...the Nivarians hadn't seen them coming, had no one in any position to resist...it was prime shooting time.  "If only there could've been four of me," he sighed aloud.  Hitting all the gun emplacements at the same time would have been ideal...but not possible.

"Okay, Ed...set fuses on the first ion round...detonation for dispersal at fifty feet altitude."  He rolled into a firing approach on the west gun...he had concerns that hitting any of the others would leave the ion dust in the air...and that would be bad news for the fighters.  "Target...here."  He highlighted a point above the center of the muzzle for the gun...the air-burst should sprwad the powder across the whole gun, he figured.  And if it didn't, he had at least one more round to try something else.

The targetting reticle flashed, then went solid red as the AI locked on.  "Send it..." Karl said quietly, as much a prayer for success as an acknowledgment he was firing.  The howitzer roared, spitting the highly-specialized round at the target kilometers away from the plane's current position...and Karl held his breath, waiting to see the results.

Justin acknowledges Shadows directive, then started firing at towers.

   Frans' flight Circled the Gun site.  they   peppered anything they even , remotely looked, like a AA gun... and  anything moving on the ground was  hit, if they could.. the giant Maw of the   barrel Looked like a small black lake.


   Howe's team  came up towards the  base..a whole column  laid in ruins , bodies and parts of bodies  scattered.. fires  starting  in the   brush,..a few brave   Niavrains  were firing small arms  at the  fighters , with no hope of hitting the  fast aircraft

 Raven's   people  wee lighting up the base  where she was there was a column of  troops  headed there as well...and?  Like Howes'..none of them  were going to make it...Damn Shadow? this is like cheating!

 ...yeah? well keep hammering them..sooner or later the sundrops are going to wake up...

 even as he  said this  wrapped  around the  smoking   Tower, but  shot a few power rounds   into the neighboring buildings .. Then he saw what he though he wanted, to the east of the   tower we hit.. abiut..5 Miles?...  that  walled palace  with  the smaller towers.... Let;s  hit that... shoot up the city on the way through... have fun...

 The Music  was still playing  as the ripped though the City.. By Now the Ironwood was closing  in.. the  two torpedo plans   peeled  off... firing their   weapons    to be used for tracers as they launched their  torpedoes ... the  12 foot  log missiles    hissed towards   the large tower... the Impact shook the Building.. the second   Impact  had it shudder... fire  was Blowing through windows sending  debris  and Bodies to the  streets below... as the Hermes  torpedo craft  banked and rose towards  the sky... some  25 others  were  just    screaming  down on their approach... 25 more torpedoes   fell from the   sky  shattering  Towers,  or Homes.. or  Blowing  Holes in the  streets...  that group peeled off as well, so they  could reload...

  fires  began to   Burn in the city.. smoke was rising from the ..once  beautiful city....

Still there was no   response as yet, from the  Nivrian fighters...

 Fran chimed in...anyone see an air base..let us know... be alot of  fun to  torch those  tincans  on the ground!


  Karl watched..  the agonizing slow fall of the  weapon,  there was a blue-red  flash as the  Dust blossomed  over the    Barrel..... he could  see some tower lights   blinking and going out as the wind spread the  dangerous dust.

Karl nodded with satisfaction.  "Ed, take ten seconds to check energy readings...see if we shut them down, or just turned off the lights."  He grinned fiercely, and added, "Either way, we've got two rounds per big gun, no sense being stingy.  After you done the energy scan, set another shell to detonate in impact...and send it to the bottom of the barrel-shaft."  Even if the aerial burst hadn't disabled the weapon, a whole cloud of that ion dust in the barrel of an energy weapon would create allkinds of problems for the operators, he figured.

The AI scanned, and even as it was processing the information, the barrel angle shifted slightly, and the howitzer roared out again, the whole plane dancing sideways from the recoil.  Karl watched the projectile arcing down, the computer highlighting its path and the course all the way into the barrel.  Karl banked slightly, maintaining distance and setting up a new course, to the next gun, as he waited to see the results of his secong round.

  the second  round reached the bareel, though slightly to the east of center, and  dropped  down.... there was a very long wait.... how deep was the barrel?


  the enegry reading  before the shot showed  systems  'shorting out' and otherwise  not working..including   their COM station.

  with  the Music  blasting through the COMs  Shadow's  smile grew.. Nivarian Flags  all over the place.. , outside the agtes were  troops running around  trying to secure the gates, not know  there were no  troops...yet... the Capitol behind them was  still blowing up as the last few torpedoes  fell to the ground...

 one  Lucky hit, Split on of the thinner towers, like   chopping a cap piece of  wood.. the t wo sections fell away, leaving    a burning  stub in the  middles, and causing even more Damage as the slammed into  smaller  building below.

  Shadow  said,Alright, B-Flight.. split up..no wingmen..everyone  find targets and shoot them up..watch for the fighters... then he  dove towards  the court yard of the massive Complex, the screaming  dart chewing up   ground, guards and  paperpushers  alike,  when he  pulled back on the stick, his  weapons stitched  a row of holes and blasted  Glass up the   Biggest tower, shadow's   skids  Caught one of the flags and it  wrapped  around .

 .................

 Frans  COMed.... there is a wave of something coming  from the  east Shadow..has to be fighters...

  Foster?.. you catch that?

 ..you bet LC..  well  come from the Sun....


 B-flight?.. keep chewing things  up with Power   weapons, cave your cannon rounds  for when the   Sundrops   get here...until then, chew this place up...


  Howe called,..hey?... Nilsson? This   gun site here?..looks  quiet.. but... all the power isstill one, cept for some of the Buildings we chewed up.... you maigh wnat to swing by here?

 Raven COMed......i thing  we killed   every one of the bananas  in the column that was ehaded to  the Gun site here... working on chewing  up the building  now...

Justin acknowledges Kray's directive. Separating from the Flight he wove a path of destruction through the city. Targetting the lower levels of the larger structures, pulse rounds pumped into these wrecking havoc with the building's foyers starting fires; smashing lifts and in several instances destroying the buildings power generator.

"Roger that, Howe...on my way..."  Short of flying directly over the barrel, there was no way to know how far the shell he'd fired needed to drop before hitting bottom...and, equally, no way to know what the precise reaction was, if it was deep enough.  It was an insurance shot, basically...the necessary systems had been disrupted on the surface, so they weren't actually reliant on the shot down the barrel.

But Karl liked to be thorough...

Still, there were three other large targets he had to hit.  And, fast as the Morningstar might be, to travel in space, it still took time to cover distance.  Time he couldn't afford to spend circling over a single target in hopes of a really satisfactory light show...because that was time that an intrepid fighter pilot could spend locating and zeroing in on him.  But he wanted to know...

"Ed, keep a camera and sensor array focused on this thing until we're halfway to our next target.  If it goes up, I want to know."  That was probably the best he could hope for...he banked the plane and took up a new course, heading for Howe's location.