As supporting fire flowed in, allowing Gerard a moment of respite, he cast the blackened, pockmarked husk of the Ferir aside, even as a sudden draft of force alerted him to his last target's fate. With a hiss of static, Alice's voice filtered through on a private channel, speaking his native tongue in a toneless, robot voice. In a rare lull of combat, Gerard stared towards his enemies as his finger depressed the communications button. Static filtered through into Alice's channel followed by a breath, but it closed after a few more seconds of silence broken only by static. He could not bring himself to say it to her. Lives...were not only spent in war. They were spent playing, learning...loving...that was what made them...human after all. Gritting his teeth, Delacroix thrust a lever forward, pelting the Marauder into action. No...he would never tell Alice his inner thoughts. She was imple in that everything was black and white to her, everything was clearly defined...just like a child in her innocence. He could not ruin that for her...

As he once more became a moving target, gunfire switched towards him, pelting him with slugs as his shield absorbed them. Being a medium model, he was not as maneouvrable as some of his teammates but he compensated for that with a shield and heavy armor plating. As fighters zoomed past him, peppering Ferirs with autocannon rounds and missiles, Delacroix closed in towards his target, the cruiser that was slowly moving into place. A particularly heavy round smashed through his shield and clattered off of his armour, leaving a blackened dent on his shoulderpad but the Frenchman ignored it as Sokolov moved to engage the offender. In a burst of smoke, a Ferir disappeared and Gerard could almost feel the uluations of victory from the pilots. He smiled. Let the pilots have their fun...but that disappeared a moment later as the Ferir appeared  like a vengeful wraith, destroying two of the Naginatas, the last one pulling back. Holstering his axe on his back, Gerard pulled out his scattergun and pulled the shell chain tighter into the chamber as he closed. The wounded Ferir turned to try and take down the remaining fighter but instead received a much more painful payload. In a flash of light, searing white hot shards of iridium tore through his armour leaving scorched, melted holes in its blackened surface. A second later, his shock was increased tenfold as shards after shards peppered him, though after the first volley the pilot had already beed slain, sevel of the shard having seared straight through the cockpit. Searing hot iridium cooking off the remaining cores, the Ferir detonated into oily black smoke even as the Marauder burst through it. He would save lives where he could...but a UEE life was worth more than a Coalition's. [color=00746b]"...Kill confirmed, Capitaine,"[/color] he said sadly as he continued speeding through the wreckage, shoulder barging past the remains of the Ferir's upper half.

[color=00746b]"Confirmed, moving to target,"[/color] Gerard said in response to Gallant as he dived to avoid a macrocannon shell from the cruiser. [color=ed1c24]"I will stay at range and provide artillery fire,"[/color] Sokolov said to him through comms, the HUD showing him staying at extreme range of the cruiser, [color=ed1c24]"Centurion is like flying fridge, not good at moving."[/color] 
[color=00746b]"Understood camarade,"[/color] Delacroix replied, [color=00746b]"Which means you will be my main support Alice."[/color] Even as they talked, Ferirs continued to move in to halt their forward progress. Rapidly pulling the trigger of his scattergun, Guillotine sent ineffective pellet rounds towards their attackers as they returned fire with their autocannons, stitching patterns of gunfire over his shield as he tried to shake their fire. A sudden voice brought his thought process screeching to a halt. [color=0054a6]"McKnight, whats your status!?! Can you right yourself?! Do you need help!?"[/color]
[color=00746b]"What happened to Gallant!?"[/color] Gerard immediately cut in, his concentration broken by the thought of losing another longstanding member of the 7th. Almost immediately, he regretted it. 

[color=ed1c24]"TOVARISCH! EYES FORWARD!"[/color] Jolted back to reality by Solokov, he would have been thrown out of his seat if he weren't super securely strapped in, one of the belts ripping as Gerard's head snapped forwards. Despite the pain in his neck he looked up to see a Coalition Ferir's pilot staring at him through his armorcrys cockpit, his eyes wild as his own machine drew back an alloy combat knife. "Merde!" Gerard shouted audibly into comms as he acted on reaction, dropping his scattergun and pushing the arm aside, causing the blade to jam into the left armoured flank of the Marauder, the light armour plating giving way under the overclocked strength of the Ferir. With a silent screech of metal, Gerard saw sparks flying away as the pilot withrew the blade, bringing it in for another stab. Turning the chassis, Guillotine let the blade slide off of his right side as he removed his anti-capital charge and threw it vaguely towards his comrades. The two tumbled erratically through space as their thrusters pushed them in different directions. Both sides were afraid to shoot in case of hitting their own teammate but the two combattans were pitting servo against servo as they sought to outmuscle each other. In this case, the Ferir had the advantage since the Ravager was a mid-range poleaxe and it showed as the blade tried time and time again to sink into the cockpit, but every time Gerard foiled it through either superior piloting or deperate hand movements. His right hand tried to grasp hold of the Scattergun as it floated just out of reach, connected only by the thin belt of ammunition. Giving up only a second later as the knife blade deflected off of an armor plate, Gerard rolled with the Ferir, reaching back and grasping the ravager near the head. Drawing it off the maglock, he glared at the Coalition pilot as he made another stab. Quickly, Gerard interposed the Marauder's left arm between it and the cockpit and let the blade sink deep into the forearm, alarms and lights ringing even louder as damage accrued.  With a twist, Gerard ripped the blade out of the Ferir's hand which made a desparate attempt to grab at the weapon again, leaving a large gash over the arm. Less than a split second later, he smashed the hooked end of the Ravager into the back of the Ferir and pulled, disabling its main thruster for a second and dragging it off in one fell swoop. Like a blooming flower, the hook emerged from within the machine and ripped a tangle of wires with it causing a flurry of sparks to emerge. in less than a second, the Marauder revered the head of the axe and smashed the blade downwards in an awkward but vicious arc, the plasma edge cutting straight through the Ferir like butter. 

Righting himself as he retrieved his scattergun, Gerard was breathing heavily but remained on the move. [color=00746b]"Guillotine. Kill confirmed. Some damage sustained,"[/color] he keyed through the comms as he read through his own damage report. His left arm was less responsive than before and chassis turning speed was down but overall he was still within operational limit. Bursting upwards, he grasped the handle of the anti-capital charge and relocked it to his hip. There was no rest for the wicked. As the wave motion gun powered up, Gerard thrusted out of the way, joining Sokolov and Alice before Captain Marquis' message rang through his cockpit, Delacroix having disabled all the blaring lights and alarms. "Orders read and understood, Capitaine, moving to rendevous with Brick with Alice." True to his word, he began to move under the arc of the WMG behind Alice like a dog licking its light wounds. 

[color=00746b]"Looks like you get to carry this one too, Monsieur Shanks,"[/color] Gerard said as he slapped the second anti-capital charge onto the Disposal's back, racking his Scattergun as he drifted into proximity.