Weber ‘Web’ Darley heard Tac-Com’s traffic, and immediately reached forward to flip his MAS’s sensors from passive to active. Instantly the battlespace computer lit his HUD with a constellation of red-bracketed targets, with each representing an incoming Coalition Ferir II. His MAS, lovingly named ‘Old Crow’, used its enhanced radar and targeting suites to simultaneously feed detailed telemetry data to his comrades, which in turn would give the Wargods a hopeful edge against the Coalition MAS’s. 

[color=0072bc]“Targets painted,”[/color] Web said over the 3rd’s battlenet. [color=0072bc]“I’ll have range in a few seconds.”[/color]

Through the coaxed digital scope of Old Crow’s TUW-15 battle rifle, Web selected the Coalition MAS located on the far left of the incoming formation. With his crosshairs automatically adjusted for range, the target’s current heading and speed, along with a dozen other external factors, Web had only to maintain the boresight upon the enemy’s center mass to get off a clean shot. With the way the incoming Ferir II’s were maneuvering, their pilots seemed to have no knowledge that they were closing with a unit of highly trained and upgraded UEE MAS veterans.  

[color=0072bc][i]Too bad for you mother fuckers,[/i][/color] Web thought with a scowl of deep-seeded hatred. The battle for Ceros was all but lost--there was no way to get around that reality. All Web wanted to do now was take down as many of the Coalition bastards as he could, and if he lived to fight another day, all the better for it. 

Just then, Web’s target crossed into firing range. The crosshairs of the battle rifle changed from yellow to red, and Web instantly pulled the trigger. Old Crow bucked, its internal recoil compensators absorbing nearly every Newton of displaced energy, as the ultra-dense HEAA round exploded from the rifle’s chamber. The almost meter-long projectile was spurned forward at blistering speeds by the cartridge’s highly advanced propellants, and closed the distance to the incoming Ferir II in mere seconds. 

Web watched as the volatile tip of the HEAA round made contact with the Ferir II’s armored exterior. The head of the round exploded violently, working just as it was designed, and overwhelming the target’s protective barrier. This subsequently allowed the ultra-dense slug behind the explosive tip to penetrate undeterred into the body of the MAS, striking the machine just below the neck. Under the intense onslaught, physics won the day over the Ferir II’s armor, and a fatal amount of kinetic and heat energy was imparted into the frame. The blossom of violently erupting atmosphere came a moment before the entire Coalition MAS was enveloped in an expanding ball of fiery debris. 

[color=0072bc]“Splash one!”[/color] Web called to his team.

With the loss of the first Ferir II, the Coalition MAS’s instantly broke formation and began evasive maneuvers. Web’s targeting window was lost, and the klaxons of incoming missile launches blared within the cockpit.  

[color=0072bc][i]Well fuck…[/i][/color]

Web slammed the control stick hard right, sending Old Crow rocketing down and away from his initial firing position. This took his trajectory along the long axis of the underbelly of the Solace, just beneath the ship’s field of fire. The extreme g-forces of the maneuver made him grunt with exertion as the missile warning klaxons continued to blare.

A flick of his thumb sent a volley of chaff and flares rocketing outward from the shoulders of Old Crow. Two explosions of incoming missiles followed soon after, and Web had to brace himself as his MAS was rocked from the blast. 

[color=0072bc][i]Too fucking close.[/i][/color]

Web kicked Old Crow into a barrel roll just as his Matchstick point defense guns cycled to destroy yet another incoming missile. Yet, the warning sirens still did not cease: the Coalition Ferir II’s had him slaved in their targeting computers. Web knew exactly what had happened, and he could do little about it now. While his initial shot had been extremely successful, it had given the Coalition units a definitive sensor path back to his MAS. 

[color=0072bc]“This is Web, I am totally defensive…”[/color] Web said through gritted teeth, the strain from his continuous evasive maneuvers making speech all but impossible. [color=0072bc]“Could use a save here, Wargods.”[/color]