July 31st, 2009
"Aww shit..." The veritech pilot swore to himself as the radar on his VF-1A picked up a trio of inbound contacts. The veritech's onboard computer identified the contacts as alien Tri-Thruster space fighters vectoring in to intercept his VF-1A and the RC-4B Rabbit Rescue Shuttle he was escorting.
The only good piece of news is that they were not firing missiles. Still the three alien space fighters would intercept the two craft long before they could rendezvous with the UES Macross, which was now speeding out and away from Saturn after making a slingshot maneuver around the gas giant.
The veritech pilot knew what he had to do in order to give the Rabbit, which was carrying a few downed pilots who had been recovered a chance to make the rendezvous, but it would mean he wouldn't make the rendezvous himself.
"Thumper Two-One, I'm going to try and slow down our three inbounds." The veritech pilot didn't wait for a response, Thumper Two-One was unable to transmit.
Flipping his VF-1A around and switching to guardian mode, the veritech pilot quickly attained a weapons lock for his last two Firebird missiles and launched them. It took a minute for the missiles to intercept. One missile hit, destroying one of the alien Tri-Thrusters. The second missile was evaded. The veritech pilot looked at his remaining cannon ammo, seventy 55mm shells in his GU-11, and one hundred 20mm rounds for his twin M39A4's. The single head mounted nose laser was the equivlant to a peashooter and would be useless...
Staying in guardian mode, the veritech pilot increased his VF-1A's velocity to attain a max burn and lined himself up for a head on pass on one of the Tri-Thrusters, and allow him to fire on the other with his GU-11
He fired two bursts from his nose cannons, at the target to his immediate front and a pair of bursts from his GU-11 at the other target, hoping to either hit one or both Tri-Thrusters in the nose or alternatively to get them to break off.
He swore again as one of the two nose cannons jammed, and the first Tri-Thruster to his direct front broke off, venting something from its side as it was hit by 20mm shells. A burst from his GU-11 hit the second Tri-Thruster as he jinked out of the way of several particle beam blasts.
The veritech pilot quickly maneuvered to get behind the second Tri-Thruster, acutely aware that the first Tri-Thruster would be trying to get on his tail. Once behind the second Tri-Thruster he fired a combined burst from his GU-11 and still functioning nose cannon into the alien crafts massive three engines. The shells must've hit something important as the Tri-Thruster exploded into a cloud of debris. The veritech pilot flew through the loud of debris and heard/felt the vibrations as a number of pieces hit the VF-1A.
Turning his head to look behind him the veritech pilot saw the first Tri-Thruster as it opened up with its particle cannons. Jinking in an attempt to avoid the particle beam blasts the veritch pilot heard several warning alarms go off indicating he had been hit as he spun his VF-1A around and fire his GU-11. The burst went wide, but the veritch pilot managed to line himself up and expended the last of his nose cannon ammo into the side of the Tri-Thruster.
Lining up behind the Tri-Thruster, the veritech pilot then put a burst from his GU-11 into the Tri-Thruster, causing one of the three engines to cease functioning. With only a few shells left in his GU-11, the veritech pilot made sure he was lined up for a shot before firing. As the last of his 55mm ammo hit the Tri-Thruster and caused the last two engines to cease functioning the veritech pilot screamed to no one in particular:
"Got you mother fucker!"
As the Tri-Thruster speed off on its heading into deep space, the veritech pilot got his bearings. Off in the distance he could see the UES Macross leaving the Saturn system.
It would be close but the veritech pilot had just enough reaction mass to make the necessary course and braking maneuvers to reach one of nearby moons that had a base on it.....
OOC: I always wanted to do a 'cold open' before a big battle, I hope you like it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:32, Thu 31 Dec 2020.