This III was certainly not a pushover, that much was sure. It was much slower than the Astelion, so it hadn't landed a single hit, but Ari had only managed to drop its shields despite its much slower maneuvering speed. This pilot was definitely better than her, and it was showing rather uncomfortably. McKnight warned her to watch her power out-put and, with a slight sigh, said over the COM "[color=0072bc]Acknowledged Gallant. I'll keep a lid on unneeded energy consumption.[/color]" Her acknowledgement rattled off, she went back to work, now focusing on less flashy dodge work to conserve her energy, exploiting inertia wherever possible.

Astelion and Sokolov were quickly picking up the pace, and with the IIs popping off they were able to take more and more of the pressure from the III off Ari. Before long, she was even forced to pick up the pace of her shooting to keep it focused more on her than on any of her comrades. Thankfully, shortly after McKnight called out that it was time to go planetside, and Ari once again acknowledged "[color=0072bc]Aye aye Gallant, Williams commencing atmospheric entry.[/color]" She sent the Astelion down next to the Shrike, but on the inside Ari began to feel that same fear from her first battle bubbling up. She'd received cursory training on atmospheric entry, yes, but that was mostly in the event of an emergency, not a planned entry. She dropped the power output to everything except her shields and the X-50s, including her tesla coil and the eye mounted PD lasers. With reduced power to even her sensor systems, she was almost blind to what was happening around her. The only set of her sensors still on full power was the bank located at the bottom of the Astelion, and she watched that particular set of data nervously. The number indicating her altitude kept getting smaller and smaller, and she had to keep watch for that magic number, and try to call it right. She became distantly aware that she was beginning to hyperventilate, and specks of black were beginning to appear in her vision. Thankfully for her, her training kicked in and her breathing began to fall back under control.

She found that firing off her thrusters, and even her X-50s, to slow her descent was easier than she thought. It was nothing more than pressing a few buttons when a number came on the screen. She was thrown around, her body being protected from the worst of it by her flight suit. She was able to brace properly, her High G training coming back to her and guiding her actions. In that moment, she was glad for the seemingly superfluous training her father had pushed her to sign up for, as without it she'd probably have freaked out and blacked out. As the Astelion rapidly bled off speed, she was able to slowly start re-shifting her power where it belonged. When she'd finally reached an appropriate in-atmosphere cruising speed, she paused and asked "[color=0072bc]Gallant, I hate to be a downer, but are we sure that Echo and Guillotine will be able to tow out the Hellcat and the Eagle and still keep moving? The Marauder isn't too heavy I guess, but Sovereign is a big girl on its own, let alone with another unit in tow.[/color]" With a mute shrug at that, she checked the data from her scanners and her own visual data, along with the data provided by the Lincoln, until she'd finally found the enemy base on her scopes, before saying "[color=0072bc]Well, enough of that. Williams, moving on target.[/color]"