[RP/MM] Turn 45 Capellan Empire vs WHXS Sector 3030 Perkasie [Complete]

[Daemonknight]

Jerrod's eyes widened as he saw the first pass of the Militia's fighters, opening fire without so much as a simple 'heave too'.

"Max burn, we've got to end this before it gets ugly!" The FS forces punched in their thrusters to max, but it would still be a long 55 seconds before they would be in a position to affect the scene playing out before them...
**************************

The Militia fighters streaked over the fleeing Capellan dropship, the four Corsairs opened fire. The beams of the combined large lasers punched into the armor surrounding the thruster nacelles, slagging armor and shorting circuitry. It was obvious these were upgraded models, as two of the fighters opened up with missile packs, and of the dozen missiles loosed into the black, 7 impacted on the top surface of the dropship, scorring armor and causing warning klaxxons to start blaring in the mid-sections of the ship. The swath of medium lasers added more damage to the armor plating, but by the time they were triggered, the Corsairs had overflown their target, and most of the lasers' energy was wasted into space.

Not entirely without teeth, the Leopard's gunners letting fly with dozens of missiles, chewing into the armor of the attacking Corsairs, while the Large Lasers attempted to find their marks. The PPCs had better luck, 2 of them merging into the single wing on the rear Corsair, sending it spinning out of control. As it's allies attempted to change their vectors, the Leopard pounded the stricken fighter, medium and large lasers punching through the thickly armored skin of the Corsair, and eventually a Large Laser punched into the engine bay and the fighter's power died instantly.

It was now, however, that the Dropship's real problems began, as the heavy autocannon rounds from the Thunderbirds began impacting into the hull of the leopard. The Ultra-class autocannons pumped out a stream of high-explosive rounds, blasting chunks of armor from the drop's rear quarters, as the starboard main engine flared and died as the power feeds got damaged. The Thunderbirds approached to very close ranges, before opening up with their Heavy PPCs, burning into the Leopard's internal structure, melting internal walls and partitions, and venting several compartments to space, before going by and unleashing a parting barrage of LRMs, which failed to do much more that dent the frontal armor of the dropship.

Many more passes like that, and the dropship would be in dire straights.

[Cannonshop]

"come on you sluggish piece of shit roll...roll..."  The Leopard shook again...and again.  "Next time, we bring the fighters..."  the sensation of thrust abated.

A blue splash at the weapons console-electricty arcing into the gunner for the starboard weapons, the smell of charred meat, and incoherent screaming.

"put that fire out, it is distracting me." the Pilot muttered, and the armoured windscreen starred with a crackling sound.  "Roll you sluggish stupid bitch..."

Helena pulled the injured, writhing, incoherent gunner from his couch, and looked at the targeting systems-they were melted, smoking, and utterly useless.

"We're blind portside." she said.

"I know." the pilot replied, "Where is the medic?"

"Trapped in section three-I had two casualties from the ground action down there." she answered.

"There are three more coffins to fill, then." he replied, "Section three just loss press...did the signal get out?" he asked.

"You can't stop the signal." the comms tech said, "Whether OUR people heard it or not, I don't know, but it's out there."

The Pilot slid his seat back, and spun it around, "Nav Console's out." he said, "We have Aux air and lighting for now, but we're effectively dead in space...anyone up for a game of cards while we wait to die?"

[Daemonknight]

The Corsairs of the Perkasie Milita were about to make their second run, knowing that this would likly land them their prey, when a volley of lasers surged across their bow. Quickly checking sensors, they soon realized that they were being hailed on a standard FedSuns frequency by atleast a dozen aerospace fighters, with a number of hulking dropships only minutes behind.

After swift communication between the two flight leaders, the Perkasie fighters turned and made their way back to the planet's surface, while a number of small craft detatched from the lead Conquistador dropship, and made their way to the stricken leopard. All but a pair of the aerospace fighters from the fleet followed the Perkasie-bound milita flight, looking strikingly like an escort.
***********************
On board Capellan Dropship 'Sun Bear'

The sound of heavy thumping could be heard in the bridge, the reverberations of armored footfalls hitting the decking. It took only minutes for the forms of a squad of Davion IS Standard battle armored infantrymen to enter the bridge, weapons not quite held to the floor. Without a word, the squad of men stood and waited in silence , while the sound of armored footfalls continued. Two more armored infantrymen led a man wearing a PAL suit, and it was he who addressed the crew of the Sun Bear.

"It looks like you lot had an interesting ride. I'm Donovan, Jake Donovan, and I'm here to make sure you lot survive re-entry. The Duke is en route as we speak, and I've a feelin he'll be quite interested to see what a Capellan strike team was doing in his realm. I'd also send a message to your friends at that jumpship to put their droppers on the deck and not make any attempts to jump away. The Verde, that Fox-class out there? She has twitchy gunners, I've seen em. Drink to much, thats their problem."

[Cannonshop]

"Well...I'm sure the Duke will, Mister Donovan, but given that you've caught a bus-load of spies who know something your local governor really doesn't want out, I might suggest you bring someone from DMI to the interrogation-and maybe have a diplomat sit in, too." Helena said, "Everything is in the file."  she palmed out a datastik, "Assuming the current Detente is something your superiors would like to see continue you might want to have some good tech-heads go over the recorders in the 'mechs in the currently un-pressurized bay-assuming their recorders survived whatever blew the pressure out down there-in the meantime, First I thank you for rescuing us, and second, I assert my rights under the Articles of War as a Prisoner-that is, to be held in Regular Military Custody, where I can't have a convenient Accident or be shot trying to escape."

She watched his expression for a moment, "Means we're surrendering, just in case you're unclear on that-think of it as a Guiness Book moment-you just captured a Death Commando, and she didn't even try to bite the suicide pill first.  Even a graduate of NAIS could figure out what that means-it means whatever we found down there, we think you folks need to know it as much as our folks, and I'm willing to suicide my career to make sure you get it...as long as they do, too."

[Daemonknight]

Donovan just shrugged.
"Don't git yourself all worked up lady, I'm just the techie that's puttin your boat back together. You want to worry about getting shot, you're gonna have to deal with the Marshal, or the Duke himself. I'd be letting that jumper of yours know to let their charge dissapate though. Like i said, twitchy gunners." Donovan considered for a moment.

"As to your little accusations of 'accidents' and 'escapes'...don't think much of either is likly. Job like this, your people arn't expecting to hear from you again unless you got in, and got out. Prolly already wrote you off as gone. So I'd be pretty sure that any time we felt like gettin rid of you lot, wouldn't even bat an eye over in Cappie land. Just keep that in mind before you say something that sounds like another assertation, or demand, especially to the Duke." Donovan nodded and kicked himself out of the bridge and back down to the ruined decks to begin welding fresh sheets to the hull.

**5 hours later**

The 'Sun Bear' landed amongst the numerous AFFS dropships, and a host of troops: a full RCT had landed, alongside the REAL Perkasie PDF. The fakers, or atleast the aerospace fighters, were sitting under the wings of their fighters, looking very much like children who'd been scolded and told to sit in the corner.

Donovan led the Capellans out of the Leopard, to be met by 2 squads of armoured infantrymen, and a man wearing a captain's insignia. The Captain salutted and grinned.
"Getting your hands dirty again Major?"

Donovan cast a glance over his shoulder to see the Cappie leader's mouth hang slightly open at his rank.
"Right-o Cap. Lets get these few over to the mess, Duke Hasek should be arriving in about 14 hours."