Green sundown

[Sturmwind]

"All fighter wings, OPEN FIRE!" came the order from the Toyosato.

The pilots yelled syllables ranging from swear words to prayers into their communicators as they commenced the suppressing fire at the direction of the incoming hostiles. The battle started.

The first wave of Rheinland ships stood no chance against the numeric superiority of the Kusarian fighter wings, but they were not alone. More and more hostiles from all directions flashed up on sensors, moving in to attack without saying a word. They lost a few fighters at first, but that didn't keep the Rheinlanders from attacking head-on. They were not driven back by casualties of any sort. The peaceful, bluish sight of Osaka and its surroundings soon turned into a terrible mixture of a green and yellow rainbow, occasionally lit up by explosions of mines, missiles and downing fighters.

"Help, there's two of them on me, I can't shake 'em!"

"Hold on, Karasu 3. I'm coming in to pick them off you."

"My shields are down, taking hits!"

"Hostile down, kill confirmed!"

"For the Emperor!"

Shōi Kobayashi found himself pursuing a Rheinland fighter, which was on the tail of a wingmate of his. He kept squeezing the trigger of his Disinfectors, which took the shields off his target after a few successful hits. He shot a missile at the Rheinlander, but missed due to him dispensing countermeasures. Kobayashi felt sweat covering his forehead. Without thinking, he launched another rocket, this time successfully hitting the enemy vessel's left-side engine.

"Nice shot, Suneku 4."

The Rheinlander was obviously startled by the realisation that his engine was on fire. He tried breaking off and going for evasion, but due to a decent level of maneuverability he lost, he wasn't successful.

"Keep him steady, I'm going in for the kill!"

A Naval Forces fighter flew in from the front, ripping the Rheinwehr vessel to shreds with his Neutron cannons.

"Take that!"

Kobayashi felt as if the day was won already. He congratulated his wingman for the maneuver he performed, then started looking for another target.

"All wings, this is the Toyosato. We have detected two Rheinwehr gunboats appearing from nowhere. Switch your targets and take them down before they hit one of the Ushi transports."

The Kusarians broke off and headed for the approaching two gunboats, with a good number of Rheinlanders on their six. Shōi Kobayashi could feel the hits his shield took, loosing energy as it tried saving the hull.

"This is Tatsu 1, our wing will keep the hostiles distracted while you deal with the gunboats."

"Hai, Tatsu 1. Much appreciated."

The tactic worked. While the Rheinland fighters kept attacking Tatsu wing, the others swarmed the gunboats, dealing heavy damage to both. The first one had all its crew sucked to space by a hull breach, the frozen expressions of the helpless people floating in space was a sight the Samura workers who collected the debris and bodies would remember throughout their lives. The second gunboat was blown to pieces by a reactor core leak.

Realizing the loss of the gunboats, the remnants of the Rheinland assault team began to retreat. The samurais were not to pursue. Everyone was cheering on the comms, due to the victory they thought to be impossible to achieve. Shōi Kobayashi himself was shouting driven by euphoria, without even suspecting that everything he fought for no longer existed.