[center][h2][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzHkijrSuMs]J-Jesus Christ, Father Joan![/url][/h2][/center]

With all the blood that had been shed without provocation in the name of the Lord...Joan had to believe that she would be forgiven if she fought to defend Him.

Her teammates on Paper Tiger, the bridge crew, even her family back home...those dearest to Joan Heidenreich knew her as a gentle woman, tender-hearted, empathetic to the point of exhaustion and prone to wincing at the slightest displays of agitation. She was a woman of God, and had not nursed a single regret since the day she first went through her parents' windshield. 

All she had ever done was try to prove that there could be good in the world - good without cause, good without reward, good without compromise.

OSDT did good work for humanity. Thankless work. Without the promise of reward or adoration, they meandered through space, ready to field underclassed death traps against the forces that sought to do God's children ill.

And they...they had been [i]attacked. Unduly.[/i] By these [i]wretches.[/i] By this...this...unholy legion, these ten tons of wicked Antediluvian [i]shit[/i] in five ton bags of flesh and steel.

They were attacking Rising Star.

Souls burned in Hell for less.

[color=a0410d]"Affirmative, Rising Star."[/color] The voice was crisp and carried easily over the Paper Tiger private network, with the same uncanny echo that often trailed a powerful sermon. [color=a0410d]"Sword Shroud, please move to intercept and extract Yukine. Providing railgun cover to get these primordial...[i]brigands[/i],"[/color] the word was used as coarsely as possible,[color=a0410d] "away from G-Valkyrie. G-Valk, I am leaving the Bradley in your hands. Return it safely. The spoils of Jerusalem should never be tarnished when presented to a queen."[/color]

G-Valkyrie was currently engaged with at least five pursuers, including the Bradley; though the pilot inside the transformable acquitted herself well, Joan knew the situation was tense. The lion did not become God's chosen predator through dumb strength; she waited until the moment it seemed her cubs could fare no longer before striking hard. Decisively. [i]Bravely.[/i]

[color=a0410d]"But when you had had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me. So now I will attack you like a [i]lion,[/i]"[/color] she spat into her comms, Judah turning to align both fearsome railguns at the cluster of pirate HFVs behind Rising Star. [color=a0410d]"Like a leopard that lurks along the road. Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away. [i]I will tear out your heart.[/i] I will devour you like a wild lioness..."[/color]

Rising Star performed a banking maneuver that would have dazzled at any propaganda-laden air show or sales demonstration, safely steering her out of any possible blowback from the twin railguns But the Bradley and the Rooks were still clustered together, banking to continue the chase.

[color=a0410d]"...and mangle you like a wild animal."[/color]

She struck hard and true, without hesitation, firing both railguns into the tight-knit cluster of pirates.

[color=a0410d]"You have ten seconds to repent,"[/color] she declared haughtily, though none outside of the Paper Tiger comms could hear [i]this[/i] declaration. [color=a0410d]"Ten brief seconds to throw down your arms, chart a return to your rock, and thank God for His mercy. But you would never choose to seize them...so I do not choose to honor them."[/color]

She fired again.