[@Plank Sinatra][@GarlandDaHero][@GarlandDaHero][@Shiyonichi]

[b]Connacht Airspace, Earth[/b]

"Appreciate it, UTX," replied Maine 1, smiling wryly on the small screen. "Only dying here's going to be these bandits, eh?"

He casually saluted as the comms blinked off, the Irish team having made contact with the Divine Crusaders.

On the western half of the battlefield, responses to UTX's rapid assault varied amongst the wing of Lions. Before the fragments of Adam's unfortunate victim's soul could even fall prey to the uncaring grasp of gravity, one of the other Lions in the formation broke ranks in a sudden burst of incredible speed, Homing Missiles deployed immediately to meet the volley of fire from the mass-produced Huckebein's rifle. Explosions dotted the short gap between them, clouds of smoke and shrapnel blotting out the blue sky and obscuring Adam's view. Radar would tell that the Lion had charged straight into the plume of black, but the Divine Crusader was unwilling to let UTX's second-in-command take advantage of that information.

Vulcans strafed Adam from above as the Lion burst free at an upwards angle, the Armored Module refusing to let down its fire even as it dropped down from above the Huckebein, sunlight to its back. The motors of its blade whirred to life, the spinning teeth crackling with noise and energy as it entered close-range, cutting down at the Huckebein in hopes of sending him to the grave the same way Adam had closed the book on the other Crusader.

The Lion in Hazel's sights, on the other hand, was barely able to dodge of the path of the first burst, the flying frame having thrust backwards as the missiles exploded between them. It wasn't enough to stem the second set of shots however, with the projectiles from the TT's Burst Railgun crackling into its left "arm", annihilating it and the Assault Blade it was holding in a fireball that threw the Divine Crusader into a spin, thrusters puttering frantically to regain some semblance of control.

Before a shot from Corinne's G-Railgun disintegrated the entire lower half of its body, the entire machine erupting into a conflagration seconds later as a suited figure ejected out into the air.

So soon after initial contact, two of the Divine Crusaders' Armored Modules had been destroyed by UTX, yet rather than be demoralised by the loss of their comrades, the survivors seemed to advance with greater intensity than before. The Lion that had charged at Adam aside, the flight lead was very much on the ball, the Guarlion's rapid movements taking it safely out of Anju's line of fire before she could even press the trigger on her handheld railgun. It ducked and weaved through the sky, strafing past the former DC pilot with a barrage of Vulcan fire from its chest.

An attack accompanied by a surprising spread of M13 Shotgun shells.

The other Lion of the western wing instead turned its attentions upon the untagged R-Blade, firing off its own railgun in the direction of Corinne before following it up with a salvo of Homing Missiles from its inbuilt launcher.

On the surface of the water below, one of the Landlions had noticed Hazel's descent, and immediately rotated around, its treads continuing to carry it backwards along the river. However, it was ready to intercept - as was a comrade seconds later - the duo proceeding to fire off a blast each from their own Burst Railguns.

A quick check of the eastern half of the battlefield would show how Maine 1's flight was faring. One of DC's pilots had ejected from his Lion safely, and while three of the Federation's units were pursuing the survivors, the Guarlion lead was managing to keep up quite well with a combined assault by Maine 1, the F variant and another of the Irish Lions.