[color=gray]
[center]
[h1][color=blueviolet][b][u]Silence[/u][/b][/color][/h1]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rfxZSa2-c4&list=PLViGk6vfmU-XLfh9A9Oip92QiglkqYXxZ&index=3](Mood Music)[/url]
[/center]

Leah watched as the coalition front crumbled under the combined might of the 7th and the Helldogs. From the flanks, coordinated and networked fire support, and brute force, what would have been a rather powerful counter attack was reduced to a chaotic field stretched wide where no position was strong against any direction. Her job of immediate fire support had come to a close as the Secutor and the Venator got into the mix. Too much risk of friendly fire while he rounds travelled through the air. She turned the LR-90 to the outer periphery of the skirmish to make sure no new threats joined the fray. She heard over the radio that an elite MAS had entered the battlespace, and that the commander himself had moved to tangle it up. Not that Leah would ever admit it, but she was glad Sabine wasn't crossed out in the opening engagement either. She liked the little shit, but filling the comms with well wishes in the midst of battle served no one. Better to win the fight and mourn later if someone was truly lost.

Leah listened to the low hum of the Blackout's reactor as she kept her overwatch. It was relaxing even during a huge planetary invasion. The scale of the battle was so large that her little slice of space within the cockpit was tranquil and serene despite the view of distance explosions and streaks of long range missiles. She spied on her optics as the Rook took down two more fenrirs. A smirk played at her lips. He was pretty good for a new guy. How many had he already scratched in just two sorties? Her thoughts were cut short though as an alert pinged on her scanners. Two heavy transports flying at low altitude and at speed directly toward the Secutor and the Venator. Leah turned her optics toward them, zooming into see each quad-rotor lifter carrying what looked like Skollr units outfitted for close assault. Leah brought the LR-90 to bear on the first of the two transports, her firing computer already getting to work on working out a complex firing solution to figure out the distance and target lead necessary. Their low altitude had their cross sections disappearing behind terrain several times, forcing the computer to restart to try again. Leah gritted her teeth. [color=blueviolet][b]"Got two heavy tran-"[/b][/color] [i]SCCRRRRTCHSSHHH-[/i]

The Blackout rocked from a small explosion connecting cleanly to the head. Half of Leah's displays went dead and several alarms sounded off in her cockpit. Leah recovered her MAS' stability and pivoted on one foot, searching for the threat with the remaining optical sensors on the other half of the Blackout's 'face'. Her radio had turned to static, muffling out any sort of call from her team to verify her status. Leah's HUD highlighted a threat, the glowing blue optical lenses of her MAS turning down to spot a lone coalition infanteer with a shoulder mounted AT weapon.

Corporal Klaussen had been in hiding since the Blackout landed in the firebase and wreaked havoc. After coming to grips with his situation and seeing that the Blackout had turned its attention to the wider battlefield, he took his opportunity to make up for her earlier cowardice and try to disable what appeared to be a very valuable piece on the board. His AT weapon was still billowing out smoke from its shot as the Blackout turned its cold gaze down onto him. His grin faded away as he quickly dropped the launcher and made a break for it. But the pilot of the Blackout was out of mercy for a sneak attack like that. It reached its hand down to the heavy MAS pistol at his leg, drew it, and fired a single airbursting shot at the soldier. Once the dirt had settled, the Blackout's remaining sensors had lost all sight of any immediate threat in the vicinity.

Leah ran a quick diagnostic as she tried speaking over the radio, [color=blueviolet][b]"This is Hex! Took a hit to my unit's head. Optics are damaged."[/b][/color] she said, only to see that her comms had also been knocked out by that hit. She cursed under her breath and committed the Blackout's AI to try and find a solution to rectify the comms outage.

She took up her firing position again, bringing the LR-90 back to the direction she had spotted the transports. She saw the rotor blades of one sticking just out above some low ground. No shot. She kept tracking the movement until one came into view. Her HUD acquired the target, but several errors came up on her HUD that the advanced FCS in the Blackout's head had also received damaged and needed a tech. Leah instinctively switched to manual aim and began tracking the fast moving rotorcraft transports. They were in the AO now. With gravity and an atmosphere, manual aim became so much harder. Her HUD was going all over the place with only half of the Blackout's optics functioning. She was about to squeeze the trigger when she saw the transports both begin to fade from view. Optical camouflage?! These things were going to deliver two close assault heavies right on top of the Secutor and Venator without them even realizing! [color=blueviolet][b]"Rhino! Rook! On your four o'clock! Two-"[/b][/color]

[b][code]"ERROR: Comms systems disabled. Continuing to rectify."[/code][/b]

[color=blueviolet][b]"Fuck!"[/b][/color] she said out loud to vent. That random coalie came out of the woodwork at the most inopportune of moments.

With the optical camo now activated on the transports, there was no chance that Leah was going to handle the problem at range. And without her comms, there was no chance that neither Rhino nor Rook would have time to react to two heavies dropping on their heads! She couldn't see them yet, but she knew where they were headed. Leah locked the LR-90 into its shoulder pylon and fired her main boosters, blue flames jetting out behind the MAS as it launched forward toward the thick of the fighting. Leah maxed out her throttle, large drive plumes blasting out behind the Blackout as it skimmed over tree lines and some remote buildings. At one point, the Blackout was close enough over a homestead to shatter its windows, flip a car, and rip apart the homestead's rooftop. She was sucked back into her seat from the G-Forces to close the gap as quickly as possible at full burn. More warnings came up on her remaining displays that she was going over safe g-force tolerances of her MAS. More systems began to report errors, including her IFF transponder which went dark. That'd have to get rectified once the 7th was able to consolidate after this engagement, but for now she'd just have to trust that the rest of the 7th remembered what the Blackout looked like with its DCA active.

Her scanners pinged. Leah saw a report on the rotorcraft's new position, nearly right on top her team mates now. It was likely they'd be showing up for the Secutor and Rhino at that point too. She burned hard toward them, and was only a few hundred meters away when the transports lifted their optical camouflage to reveal their deadly cargo. The Blackout drew its pistol and knife before pulling up and twisting through the air. The transport nearest to the Blackout unlatched its Skollr just moments before the Blackout crashed straight the rotorcraft feet first. The transport split in two and wreathed the Blackout in fire and debris as it streaked out of black smoke and carried on with its momentum. Already the Blackout was pivoting to land feet first into the ground. Mud splashed out in the Blackout's wake as it skated backward, pistol already on the other transport. Three shots were fired, blasting one of the four rotors off before blowing out the cockpit and sending the transport into a fiery, smoky spin. Its passenger Skollr was still fixed to the clamps, bringing it along for the crash.

The Skollr that did managed to detach hit the ground with a heavy boom. It had extra armor plating, a heavy canister shotgun, and a bladed shield mounted to its other arm. It lumberingly turned to face the sleak, battle-scarred Blackout as a heavy gatling cannon pivoted over and onto its shoulder, the barrels already beginning to spin. With a deep, thundering vibration, the gatling cannon let loose on the Blackout's position. Leah quick boosted left, blowing through a small copse of trees to evade the gatling fire. The Blackout returned with its pistol, but the Skollr had raised its shield to cover it while the gatling cannon roared. Leah launched into the air, quick boosted forward, and raced over top of the Skollr, trying to get behind it before closing in with the combat knife. As she landed behind the Skollr, Leah quickly switched to her mains, feeling her body shift and get sucked back into her seat as she closed in for a knife strike. As she rushed past the wreckage of the second transport, the other Skollr burst from the wreckage and flames, a heavy mechanical hand reaching out to try and grapple the surprisingly nimble Blackout.

Leah cursed and quickly boosted away, decommitting to the knife attack on the first Skollr to evade behind pinned by the second. The gave the first time to turn and line up its canister shotgun. It fired too soon, most of the pellets trimming back a treeline while some large pellets connected with the core of the Blackout. The armor held, but it did destabilize the Blackout enough to causing it fall and scrape across the ground. The second Skollr threw off the transport wreckage that was pinning it down and began to stand, its red optical sensors pointed directly at the Blackout as it too righted itself.

Leah looked at her options. Without comms or a working IFF, her drones had switched to a passive state, and her SFCC uplink would not be verifiable for orbital support. Unless she got backup, it was her against two specialized close assault heavies.

The Blackout got to both feet and faced the two Skollrs, knife in one hand as the pistol in the other ejected its first magazine. Leah did a skillful one-handed reload for the pistol before switching to the Blackout's loudspeaker. [color=blueviolet][b]"We just going to stand here all day?! Come on!"[/b][/color]

[hider=Skollr-CA Spec][img]https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/086/570/435/large/vincentius-matthew-miggy.jpg?1743522442[/img][/hider]
[/color]