[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/8FL6cLn.png[/img][/center]
[right][b]Interactions:[/b] [color=7ea7d8]Shrike[/color], [color=darkgray]Carrion Crow[/color], [color=ec008c]Magpie[/color]
[b][color=f9ad81]The Beach[/color][/b][/right]
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	Of course, they were right. There was little to be concerned with on the initial contact, and [color=darkgray]Crow[/color] alone packed enough firepower to bring down a dropship like that. He figured maybe reconfiguring Barn Owl well enough, he probably could too. It wasn't his preference. Skillfully, he tilted the Shell backward in mid air to align his high-powered horizontal jump jets to the ground. A big display of his current power over regenerative rate was displayed on his heads-up, giving him a good idea of how much height he could get off this silly maneuver. He still had distance to make up before getting into Fire Support's radius, but he didn't want to be utterly useless until then...
	His jets flared, pushing him upward higher into the sky like a rocket. The g-force would've knocked an untrained pilot unconscious, but he'd been around speed and gravity before; and a few augments in his body made the experience practically normal. As he crested the height of the boost, one of the enemy jets made it within engagement range on a lucky draw. Once more, Barn Owl applied a small boost that almost cleaned out his generator, but put him on track to fall back down in the least dangerous way possible.
	As he hung for a moment, the jet inched closer and closer. Its defensive guns rattled off, but the flowing cloak made manual aim a bit of a crapshoot. Thirty millimeter high penetration slugs ripped through the anti-thermal cloak and buzzed a section of it into ribbons, but totally missed Barn Owl as it approached the danger zone. Barn Owl could feel his right arm move practically without his consent, the flicking motion having occurred over and over and over again in his long career: The massive hundred and two millimeter "shotgun" that the Shell used as its only form of weaponry struck out at full length. With the CQBFCS and his own internal processing units working at full tandem, he snapshotted the jet just as they passed on a near collision. The twelve tungsten flechette projectiles that a single shell contained were more than enough to demolish the small vessel as they ripped through fuel-laden fuselage and flesh filled cockpit alike.

	And then it was mostly quiet again.
	[quote][i][color=ec008c]"Owl... RELAX... you're acting like we haven't been through worse."[/color][/i][/quote]
	He wanted to bark back, [i][color=fdc68a]like that makes us invincible?[/color][/i] But, in truth, he could do nothing but smile and nod along. [color=fdc68a][i]What must happen will happen[/i][/color], he said to himself as he shifted his gaze to the burning wreckage of the carrier below him. In the instant, he thought about the hubris of mankind and the courage of youth. The idea that one may feel totally invincible and all powerful so long as they didn't feel the strain of age. He only wished that he could give them more... More of that vainglory, more power, better reactions. He didn't want them to ever feel the sting of defeat, or the potential of death that he had.
	[i][color=fdc68a]You are my Sunshine... My only Sunshine... You make me happy, when skies are gray. You'll never know, Dears, how much I love you. So, please don't take my Sunshine away.[/color][/i]
	The nursery rhyme echoed in his head. Involuntarily, a tear fell from his left eye and dripped down his bearded cheek to disappear in the mass of gray hair. Many of them were quick to forget that all he had left was them. Overprotective, sure... But not without reason. Losing even one of the precious chicks was a dagger to the soul.

	[quote][i][color=7ea7d8]"Keep moving. Crow's alone. Move to support. Watch the skies."[/color][/i][/quote]
	[color=7ea7d8]Shrike's[/color] voice on his personal comms broke his concentration slightly. Typical [color=darkgray]Crow[/color], always where you'd least expect her to be.
	[color=fdc68a]"Roger [color=7ea7d8]Shrike[/color]. I'm coming down to you now, [color=darkgray]Crow[/color]. Hopefully I grabbed their attention, I'll try and pull some heat out of the sky on the way: Kill anything on my tail!"[/color]
	He tapped his break jets, impacting the ground with force enough to make a small crater. His seat compensated, gyroscopes keeping him level inside the core and preventing any strong rattling from unseating him. The Shell's systems reacted in kind to hitting the ground, the massive hydraulic legs releasing their payload instantly and sending him flying forward again like a giant bunny rabbit to hop along the ground at incredibly high speeds en route toward [color=darkgray]Carrion Crow's[/color] location.