[color=lightgreen]“Gallant. Weren't you ever taught not to draw a weapon on a superior officer? The Captain is going to have you peeling potatoes until you become an old man like me"[/color]

[color=lightblue]"Fucking christ Trapp."[/color] McKnight grunted as he lowered his weapon. That was the last of their pilots, McKnight keyed the all clear signal on the comms, which would signal the marine team to begin recalling back to their assault craft. Now that they had all their pilots back, McKnight allowed himself a moment to relax, only to be brought back to alarm has his proximity sensors began blaring red. His rear view camera sprung up, allowing him the view of the glowing muzzle of a Coalition plasma weapon before his machine was roughly shoved aside by Trapp in his new craft.

However, what should've been a fatal shot seemed to have been rendered null, as where a pile of slag should've been stood an undamaged coalition machine, its shields still standing strong despite taking a direct hit from a plasma bolt. Whatever that machine was, it must've been mounting a shield unit with at least a level 4 rating. McKnight righted his Shrike, pulling it off the ground, and running a quick impact diagnostics. Other than some rubble getting stuck on his unit's shoulder, there wasn't anything particularly wrong with his unit luckily, MAS were typically built to withstand physical impact and combat shocks.  

Trapp unslung a laser rifle and downed the offending machine, whilst he handed the reigns over to McKnight for the remainder of the mission. Offering quips that seemed to denote that none of them had been subject to any amount of torturous interrogation. Grabbing a spare booster pack, McKnight handed it to the coalition machine, and hoped that the hardware would sync. 

[color=lightblue]"Negative on that, Maki. We're getting the hell off this rock."[/color] McKnight replied as he shouldered his weapons. They had spent enough time on this god forsaken rock. Not to mention, the fleetwide general tac-comms were blowing up with the space battle up above. If anything, they were more needed up there than down here. Luckily for them, since they had finished destroying most of the base's defenses, short of their remaining infantry, they could exit the battlefield relatively unchallenged. They just had to keep a lookout for shoulder mounted rocket launchers and surviving coalition MAS.

Miraculously, none of their booster packs had received compromising damage in the battle, due to their rapid strike. Settling in his seat and securing his straps, McKnight activated his boosters, also preparing to trigger his own thrusters to aid the rocket pack. With a rumble, the Shrike burst into the air, the booster expending the rest of its fuel to get out of the planet's atmosphere, the Shrike's own thrusters bursting occasionally to supplement the take off. He shuddered in his seat as the machine punched itself out of the atmosphere. Luckily Jehan was comparable to earth planetary settings, so they didn't have to spend a long time readjusting their systems. 

Switching his OS back to zero-g combat mode, McKnight and the rest of the 7th MAS exited the planet's atmosphere to find themselves back in the remains of a battle. As they entered space, they were greeted with the sight of a wounded Lincoln with its two escorts, as well as the debris from a gutted and destroyed Coalition cruiser, and the remnants of its escort ships. Despite the fact that there was no sound in space, the battlescape seemed eerily quiet, as the remains of half active Ferir II's and aerospace fighters floated between the ship corpses, pilots dead or dying. McKnight's sensors were littered with distress signals of both UEE and Coalition origin. Several signals were close enough to inspect, though McKnight was saddened to find that several of the pilots had already expired before anyone had been able to reach them. The void was a cold and lonely place to die.

Shuddering, McKnight muttered a short prayer for the dead souls, but kept his eyes on his sensors regardless. The last thing they needed was an enemy to reactivate and pop out of the graveyard to attack them. Phantom heat signatures from leaking engine cores, burnt out shield generators, and residual heat from plasma weapons littered their sensors and played havoc, though the AI would still be able to pick up enemy contacts via sudden movement in the debris field. 

[color=lightblue]Lincoln command, this is Gallant. Mission is complete, returning to base.[/color] McKnight called over the comm as prepared to enter the hangar, just in time to see Sokolov's Centurion and Astelion's Sentinel pulling the corpse of a Ferir out of the hangar. The hangar was a mess as McKnight and the rest of the 7th landed. Aside from the mess that was already there before the 7th had engaged in their mission, was the results of a relatively large firefight in the hangar. Bodies of coalition soldiers and UEE soldiers alike were currently being moved into separate places in the hangar, the remains of sheets and cloth being pulled over the dead men.

The Shrike landed and walked to its spot in the hangar, and McKnight finally allowed himself to slump in his seat. 

[color=lightblue]"Goddam."[/color] McKnight managed to say as the cockpit opened for the first time in what seemed like ages, and the artificial light of the hangar spilled into his cockpit.