One of Three

[Toaster]

The Sichel shook violently as it rocketed towards its targets, buffeted by the mountainous region's strong winds. Olivia didn't pay them any heed, clutching her controls tightly and waiting for her ship's targeting computer to provide her with a missile lock on Dareios' freighter. Detecting her approach, the two escorts - a pair of Titans - broke out of their formation and came about in wide arcs to face her, their heavy frames struggling to maneuver through the turbulent atmosphere.

A long, high-pitched tone rang out through the Sichel's cockpit. Olivia squeezed the trigger and a missile shot out of its launch tube atop the vessel. It streaked through the sky, leaving behind a swirling trail of vapor and exhaust fumes, closing the distance to its target in a matter of seconds. The freighter deployed countermeasures, but too late. The missile struck its aft, the ship's shields flaring as a ball of fire and shrapnel spilled across them. Then they faded, failing. The freighter dove away as its escorts closed in on the Sichel, bristling for a fight.

"Here we go," Olivia grunted, putting the Sichel into a roll to avoid a burst of incoming fire from the lead Titan. The nimble craft - its avian form lending it maneuverability in even the densest of atmospheres - easily avoided the neutron bolts. Reversing her roll, Olivia sent the ship into a loop, diving into the cloud cover below, ostensibly chasing after the larger prey. As expected, the Titans followed, chasing blindly after her.

The Sichel's afterburner roared to life, followed by a sonic boom resonating across the surrounding mountain tops. The fighter tore out of the clouds at a breakneck speed, then immediately pitched upwards, and looped back up into them before its pursuers could regain sight of it. An instant later, the TItans streaked out of the clouds, blasting the air in front of them with bolts of neutrons. Noticing their target was nowhere to be seen, they ceased fire, confused.

A small, dark canister plummeted out of the clouds above. The mine's tracking and maneuvering thrusters were rendered useless by the atmosphere's air resistance; gravity, however, provided an alternative. It fell between the two ships, flying side by side, and detonated on proximity. The powerful blast washed over the vessels, stripping away their shields, and sending them on uncontrolled plummets towards the planet's surface as what lift their stabilizers could provide dissipated.

The Sichel came screaming after them, erupting from the clouds above like a falcon diving for its prey. Olivia let loose a stream of laser bolts, tearing into one Titan, and launched a missile locked onto the other. The barrage of photon bolts shredded its mark's left stabilizer, sending it into a flat spin that it would never recover from. The other Corsair loosed a barrage of flares, narrowly avoiding the chasing missile. Recovering from its tumble, the second Titan broke off, leaving its partner behind to helplessly fall towards the ground.

Olivia gritted her teeth, letting the Corsair go, and continued her dive towards the surface, picking up as much speed as she could without tearing off her own ship's wings before pulling up, chasing after Dareios' freighter - now only a small speck on the horizon, racing towards the mountains. She watched as it crested a summit and disappeared behind the mountain's peak.

"Not getting away," the mercenary growled, and reignited her afterburners. The Sichel leapt forward, steel groaning as it struggled against the increasing air resistance. Seconds later, it shot over the peak and dove down, racing mere meters above the downwards slope on the other side. Ahead, the freighter grew larger as Olivia closed the distance. Bolts of energy streaked past the Sichel as the freighter's turrets opened up on it, peppering the mountainside and launching clouds of vaporized snow and molten rock into the air. Olivia inhaled sharply, weaving in and out of the stream of incoming fire. Her finger hovered a hair's breadth over her own trigger, waiting for the perfect shot to line up as she drew ever closer to her prey.

Suddenly, the Sichel shook violently as something struck its right wing. The scream of metal on metal resounded through the ship as the stabilizer deformed and tore off from the ship's hull. Olivia cursed as the surviving Titan shot past, its gun barrels glowing red hot. The Sichel trembled, fighting to remain airborne, Olivia struggling with the controls to keep it from crashing nose first into the mountain. She screamed, pulling the trigger and loosing a barrage of lasers and missiles at the freighter ahead, desperate to score the hits she needed to bring it down.

And she did. The freighter's barely regenerated shields flashed under the laser fire, popping like a bubble. Two missiles struck its hull, launched from too close for flares to distract them. As Olivia lost control of her ship and pulled her arms close to her body, she watched with a wry smirk as Dareios' ship lurched and fell out of the sky. Then the Sichel followed suit.

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Olivia Sable