Phoenix Wings

[Soul Reaper]

"Alright Junker nice turn nice turn, Splash, let's see if you can do better, I want a perfect one-eighty flip and a beam turn 10 meters off my starboard and end with a muzzle flash. Remember to watch out for the asteroids."
"Yes sir, getting into position."

It had been going on a for a while, Kyle was now serving as a "part time" flight instructor for the 49th, apparently he was good enough both in combat and smart enough to beat in basic combat into nuggets fresh out of the academy. This latest batch of 3 had been one of the good picks, most of the nuggets Kyle was sent really had no idea what was going on. They were flying in Nyxes deep in asteroid fields. He had been covering advanced flight and 23's asteroid belt was the perfect place to do it. They were far enough from the usual routes and somewhat safe from any pirates, Outcasts or the Royal Navy. The nuggets were just that, nuggets, not even warrant officers and had no combat experience. He watched as the sole female pilot of his wing, callsign Splash, came up to his starboard side and killed her main engines, using her maneuvering thrusters to do a perfect 180 flip and turned on her beam to course correct and finished off with an energy charge to her weapons.

"Nicely done Splash, you lot might actually become proper Colonial pilots...in a million years if you keep up like this. What the hell was that? I said a one-eighty, not a one-ninety. You wanna spin in place all day while the 'casts shoot the living shit out of you Splash? Do it again."
"..yes sir."
"Don't give me that lip, nugget, I said do it again. You know what an order is?"
"Sir, yes sir."

Again Kyle watched as Splash repeated the maneuver perfectly again. He saw her course correct even after she had started the turn in order to evade an upcoming asteroid. Kyle grinned and wondered just how much he could push her until she flipped out on him. He was about to give another maneuver for the nuggets to do when his scanner gave out a shrill alarm, his eyes darted to his instruments, it showed 4 red blips on his scanners at 14 clicks and closing, Outcast IFF.

"Sir..."
"Oh frak me, cease training, weapon safeties off, shields and reactors to full power, now."
"This is Patriot to Athena, come in Athena."
"This is Athena actual, are you done with the recruits, Patriot?"
"Negative sir, I have a full 'cast Sabre wing closing in on us fast, requesting immediate support. I'll intercept the hostiles and hold them off while the nuggets get back to 37"
"Roger that Patriot, Colonial forces within the system have been alerted, we're moving to your position right now. Sit tight."

The Sabres were closing in now, 9 clicks, they had already started taunting him over the local comms, Kyle hadn't thought there wouldn't be any hostile patrols at all this far away from usual flight routes, these Outcasts seemed to be the exception. The Athena was inbound but was too far off, he doubted he'd last that long, his nuggets wouldn't even last a minute.

"Nuggets I want you to engage cruise and RTB to Falkland at best speed, now."
"Sir, they'll catch us anyway."
"No they won't Junker, just move the frak out of here right this instant, that's an order. Reinforcements are inbound, I'll hold them until then.
"Sir..."
"GO!"

Kyle had already been moving towards the Outcast group at thrust speed, he saw his nuggets activating their cruise engines to fly off. Kyle targeted the five Sabres and launched a volley of cruise disruptors to make sure they weren't going after his nuggets. He clicked open local comms.

"Well here I was, sightseeing, and now you retards show up out of nowhere, oh well, looks like I'll have to kill the lot of you first to get some peace around here."
"A Colonial with a death-wish? Si, this is going to be fun."

The Sabres opened up the moment they were in range, a red wall of fire moved towards Kyle's lone Nyx with blinding speed. He fired his maneuvering thrusters to max and swerved away, the wall of fire followed him as he maneuvered behind an asteroid which took the hits for him. The moment he left the asteroid's shadow Kyle cut his engines and turned around banking into a slide while opening up on the first Sabre he saw, its shields went down after a few shots and the Outcast strafed and swerved away to dodge, his wingmates opened fire on Kyle again, forcing him to stop his slide and give full power to his thrusters, evading the angry red tachyon weaponry, his comm unit buzzed and Commander Anders' voice piped in.

"Patriot what's the situation?"
"Not looking so good, I got four bogies on my ass and they don't look like they're going to give up."

An alarm blared as Kyle's Nyx's shields went down and he felt his hull getting puckered by gun shots, he cursed as he tried to find more asteroids to use, although it wouldn't really help that much, these guys were good.

"Frak, yeah this really isn't looking any good, where the hell are those reinforcements Athena?"
"Two strike wings have been deployed and are en route to your position at full speed now, they'll be there in six minutes."
"Six frakking minutes? We both know I don't have that long sir, just make sure those nuggets get back home safely. Oh and, if you can, tell Susan I'm sorry that I wasn't able to make it to Curacao."

For a few moments there was no reply, Kyle only heard the sound of his reactor running at critical power and the shots that were blasting into his armor, the Nyx's nanobots were trying their best to repair damage but it wasn't going to be enough, Krakens were tearing through his armor.

"I'll make sure she knows, Patriot."
"Can't believe I'm getting shot down in a freaking training exercise."
"You won't."
"Who the frak is on this secure channel?"
"This is Commander Randy Orbit of Vanguard Special Operations, callsign Reaper, I'm coming up on your six now Patriot, check your strafing and turn them around to me."
"What the hell...roger that, get ready to take them in."
"Weapons online."

Kyle knew of the infamous Vanguard ace, he had been one of his father's top pilots. But even with Reaper they were still outnumbered, but Kyle felt confident, the Commander's voice had been cold, lacking any emotion yet reinforced and sure. Kyle spotted an asteroid and used it as a shield while he accelerated to full speed and turned around back the way he came, he saw the Nyx moving in front of him, closing the distance. By then the Sabres had completed their turn over the asteroid and were headed straight for them, Reaper wasn't slowing down, he roared passed Kyle's own Nyx, heading straight for the Sabres. Kyle killed his engines and spun around, following Reaper head on into the Sabres. He was expecting the Commander to slide to the sides and strafe while shooting and was prepared to do the same, but Reaper's ship wasn't slowing down and kept on a collision course with the Outcast wing. The moment the Outcasts were in range they opened fire, a wall of flame buzzed towards Reaper, he still didn't slow down and instead started a sharp roll to the right while using his maneuvering thrusters to strafe his ship. In the split second of fire, the Sabres had cleanly missed the Nyx just before Reaper's guns erupted with a flash of purple fire and speared through one of the Sabres without any resistance. The Outcast's shields were down instantly and the Sabre torn to pieces as the Nyx flew through the wreck at blinding speed, which had also dropped a mine, taking down the shields of another Sabre that hadn't been fast enough to swerve away, the Sabres were flying in random directions trying to turn around while Kyle shot down the unshielded Sabre that was heading straight towards him, easy.

The fight had ended quickly after that, the Outcasts had tried to flee after the initial contact with this new enemy. Though nothing they did could change change the outcome, Reaper and Kyle followed the last two and shot them down. Reaper had then promptly and ruthlessly gunned down the Outcasts' escape pods. Kyle didn't object.

"This is Reaper, is Athena still on this line?"
"Yes, we're here, 2 minutes from your position."
"Negative Athena, hostile targets have been downed, Patriot's Nyx looks fit enough to RTB"
"Patriot confirm."
"Yeah..yes sir, we're clear, all hostiles destroyed, my engines and reactor are undamaged, I can make it to 37 for repairs...but where the hell did you come from?"
"I was in system tracking communications for a mission, I was in close proximity when I heard your distress call while tracking Colonial communications."
"Right..spying on our comms is considered a hostile action against the Republic..but uhh, I guess it shouldn't be a problem."
"I don't care either way, Kyle. Look out for yourself, your old man wouldn't want you dead on a training mission. Good hunting."
"Right..thanks by the way."

Reaper didn't reply as he charged his cruise engines and quickly disappeared into the asteroid field. Kyle activated his own cruise engines and plotted a course for Falkland, by the time he made it to the 37 hole he was still trying to wrap his head around how Reaper had basically disintegrated four outcast ships under two minutes, those guns weren't your standard class Vanguard or Colonial weaponry. Kyle couldn't help but feel that he'd be seeing Reaper more often in the Taus.

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