A Major Disaster - Kumo no Ami

[Stuffz]

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As the rest of his wing was moving upwards, Shouzou found himself busy with a small group of nomads that were fighting a group of Order pilots around the jumphole he had just discovered near the bottom of the alien structure.
>>Move ahead wing, I've discovered a jumphole and will secure the location until we're ready to leave. Be quick however.

He sighed and stopped for a moment to take a look around. For now the order was matching evenly with the nomad forces and he didn't feel inclined to help those terrorists. They've made enough trouble in Kusari in the past. He eventually decided to only interfere if the nomads would be overwhelming the order forces.

In the meantime the commlink to his wing had been cut off as they were now too far away to be contacted. For a while he contemplated leaving the jumphole behind and following his comrades, but losing what was probably their only way out was not an option either.
He sighed and did a thorough sweep of the area with his scanners. It seemed the other houses were getting ready to leave now. As their ships disappeared, more nomad and wild ships arrived at his position and the order was starting to get overwhelmed. It didn't take long for them to consider retreat too.
Yamada had in the meantime joined the fight and was now desperately trying to reach the Eikyuu on the comms and tell them to head for the jumphole.
>> Eikyuu? Where are you? The jumphole will be closing soon!

The order fighters had already left or had been shot down when the kusarian battlegroup finally came back into scanner range again. With a feeling of dread he realised that the Eikyuu was being shot already by nomads as well, taking heavy damage already.

>>Protect the Eikyuu! We'll have to make it to the jumphole!

He broke off from his current fight and immediately headed for the capital vessel, trying to take down the bombers before they could breach the hull of the battleship.
What followed was a fight for survival. He tried barking some orders, but he could feel the control of the situation slip from them. They were being overrun, their formation broke and there was nothing they could do but race for the jumphole. Then the Eikyuu stopped moving. Small explosions were visible on the outer hull as it slowly lost integrity and the mighty vessel broke apart, the deformed parts of the ship drifting apart. More and more of the remaining parts started disintegrate and explode as the ship got destroyed. He stared at the scenery for a moment, a feeling of hopelessness and anger welling up inside him. Finally he managed to bark another order as he turned his ship around. He took a moment to notice that it was only the KNI agent and himself now.
>>Run now! To the jumphole!

The wrath of the entire alien fleet came down on them now, their energy weapons pounding against his shield until it broke, his hull losing strength with every passing second. But the jumphole was close now. About two klicks more and they would be escaping this place. His shield batteries were all but exhausted, but the jumphole appeared bigger and bigger through his cockpit window. They nearly made it, when to his horror it started to pulsate faster and faster, shrinking down and devouring itself into nothingness. The collapsing jumphole was gone in an instant, leaving not a trace of his existence behind and his mind went blank as their dire situation had turned into certain death. "So.. that's really it.." He sighed and stared at his hands that were gripping the control stick. Slowly he relaxed them and let go, leaning back in his seat as he stared out into space. "It's a good death. Nothing to be ashamed of. I'll probably get a medal or something for it." He told himself and smiled slightly. From the corner of his eye he saw that the KNI agent was still struggling, but it was all for naught. He felt his ship shake as blasts of concentrated energy kept pounding the hull. A wing broke off soon enough and he steeled himself for what was about to come. Finally one of the blasts managed to pierce the hull and, as luck would have it, hit the mine storage in the back of the ship. The entire back half of his chimaera went up in the flames and the cockpit soon followed as his ship was ripped apart completely.