[@Krayzikk][@Letter Bee]

[B]ENEMY TURN[/B]

Despite the upgrades the pirate HFVs had underwent to differentiate themselves from the standard Rook, not even its beam-treated armour could hold up against the relatively high power of the Rising Star's next-generation prototype. The pilot of the unfortunate Rook, back turned to the G-Valkyrie, was unable to react in time even as it noticed the incoming attack, his body vaporised alongside his cockpit as the shot tore through his HFV's body, leaving a massive hole in the machine that now floated helplessly through the void. However, in the second that it took for the Beam Shot Launcher to prepare another blast, the next Rook had already begun to react, dashing away from the G-Valkyrie as the shot passed harmlessly through empty space.

It was worth noting that said Rook was the same blue one that had evaded Lumen 3's strike, as well as chopping off one of the Yukine's arms.

Rising Star's missile swarm failed to impact it as well, the azure Rook immediately diving 'below' the twenty-four projectiles before they could strike it. Yet the test pilot's plan to distract her enemies was successful, the cloud of munitions forcing the pirates surrounding the Yukine to retreat, as well as disrupting the formation of those further away. Five of the missiles were even fortunate enough to reach their targets, with one Rook sacrificing its left shoulder shield to the blast, another knocked away from the scrum by the shock of another missile detonating, a third emerging from the cloud noticeable damage to a leg, and a rather unlucky fellow losing an arm and its missile launcher. For another, however, while the missile had clearly impacted its body, it had prepared for the blow, and its armour had taken barely any damage.

A sixth missile, unfortunately, exploded near the Yukine's head, cracking the cranial unit of her ally's broken machine (although doing no damage whatsoever to the cockpit where Henry was still safe within).

Like the pilot of the G-Valkyrie had planned, this definitely caught the pirates' attention.

Her machine had barely dropped below the crowd when the ringing of alarms alerted her to her first pursuer. The Bradley, coloured in orange, was already upon her, firing a rocket anchor from arm towards the 'midsection' of the G-Valkyrie. Behind him was the azure Rook, as well as the Rook that had been knocked away by her missile, only now rerighting himself for battle. Two more pirate Rooks were following too, meaning that Rising Star was being pursued by five machines.

[U]BATTLE STATUS:[/U]
Yukine: cockpit intact, missing two arms and a leg, cranial unit cracked
G-Valkyrie: pursued by four Rooks (one is blue) and the Bradley
[i]Rooks destroyed:[/i] 1 (cockpit and large part of torso vaporised, currently floating through space)
Rooks with noticeable damage:[list]
[*]Left shoulder shield missing
[*]Decent damage to one leg
[*]Lost one arm and missile launcher[/list]