Ari breathed a sigh of relief as the shots from the Hellcat crippled the one about to put a few rounds through her. Truth be told, that MAS probably could've killed her. Maki had one on her six in return though, so Ari couldn't afford to spend the charge the 50s had built up on the crippled one. She sent the Astelion straight at her target and extended her blades, ready for a close in kill. The blades on her wrist were stabbed into the plating covering the cockpit, stabbing in and opening the cockpit to space with an explosive decompression, all while the blades in the lower part of the Astelion anchored her to the enemy MAS. Retracting her blades, Ari put the barrel of her arm auto-cannon right to the cockpit and fired one round, a quick Coup de Grace. She could see the pilot's face, or at least she thought she could, as she depressed the firing stud, and watched the shell burst through the cockpit, she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt coming over her. "I'm sorry...really sorry." She said to herself as she whirled around to assist Maki, watching as instead a blast from Tom speared the MAS, freeing up Ari and Maki.
The next situation she became aware of was Trapp and Alice's issue, and she looked over to find Trapp in a decaying orbit and Alice trying to recover. Maki was the first to respond, darting over and affixing a mag-lock to their TL and beginning to pull him to safety. She released a sigh of relief at this, glad that Maki had it covered. If the Astelion had been the only one around to push the bigger MAS to safety, she would've had to physically push him, possibly anchoring herself to his MAS with her melee weapons. That would be a messy solution, and could backfire explosively if things went bad in the middle of combat. The next pressing issue presented itself very shortly after when she heard Gerard and Yuu's COM traffic. It seemed they'd engaged the enemy experimental MAS, and thus far they hadn't made much headway. The Astelion was fast, possibly fast enough to keep the white MAS in its sights, but was Ari good enough?
She hesitated, but again she heard Tom's lesson in her mind "He said not to hesitate, and not to be scared...but I can't help it Tom. I'm so scared, I don't wanna die....but I don't wanna let the Lincoln die either...." She was frozen stock still at the prospect, and nearly payed the price. Her sensors suddenly pinged a warning, and she was made aware of a Mk. II shooting at her, her already depleted shields folding quickly underneath the barrage. She flipped around, halfway in a panic, and loosed her shots the moment her targetting AI had a solution. She was lucky that solution was accurate, striking solidly center of mass and sending the Mk. II flying away. This was just another painful reminder of what fear did on the battlefield, she supposed. She was lucky the shots hadn't hit anything important, but she did notice with a grimace several new armor penetrations were flashing on her screen. Consulting the same screen, she found she still had 50% hull integrity left, she was only half dead.
With a smile she definitely wasn't feeling, she keyed the COM and croaked nervously "E-Echo, M-Marauder, Williams..enroute." With these final words sealing her fate, she keyed her X-50s into boost and shot towards the field of battle, near the hull of the Lincoln. Her auto-cannon still had 50 rounds in her, not much but maybe enough if she caught a few lucky breaks. The standard operating procedure for engaging a foe that was faster than you was to try and account for that movement, using your own as much as possible to make that easier. Yuu was slow, Gerard not much better, but the Astelion was a speed demon. She may not be able to match its speed, but just maybe she could get fast enough that the speed difference would be small enough to make a shot. So, she changed course, and mumbled to herself "Probably gonna get one shot at this. That pilot is worlds past me, if I miss...." Ari shuddered and very nearly reconsidered her little plan at this, but forced herself to keep moving. She adjusted course so that she could get parallel to their battleground with the white MAS and accelerated to top speed with the X50s. She'd only have a few precious seconds to get charged and shooting, so she had to replicate her earlier stunt.
Everything was running on increased power consumption so, while with the Astelion at full steam she may've been able to skid by with dropping only non-essential systems, as it was now she had to drop almost everything. Flying parallel to the battle at her full top speed, she began acquiring a solution on the MAS, and dropped power from everything except Nav and targeting to charge the X-50s. She wasn't calm enough to hold her breath, and her ragged breathing was consuming her supply of O2 quickly, so she had to be fast. Around the time the solution was deemed ready, Ari immediately had to depress the firing stud, unleashing fast moving plasma towards the White Knight (A good name for that MAS, she figured). She was already beginning to feel light-headed by the time she was rebooting life support, and she was careening towards the edge of the battle zone pretty fast. She turned her MAS around and flipped the 50s into boost to begin rapidly losing speed. She'd be able to get back to the Lincoln fast, but she wouldn't be providing anymore help from out here, so she could only hope she'd done some good.
The next situation she became aware of was Trapp and Alice's issue, and she looked over to find Trapp in a decaying orbit and Alice trying to recover. Maki was the first to respond, darting over and affixing a mag-lock to their TL and beginning to pull him to safety. She released a sigh of relief at this, glad that Maki had it covered. If the Astelion had been the only one around to push the bigger MAS to safety, she would've had to physically push him, possibly anchoring herself to his MAS with her melee weapons. That would be a messy solution, and could backfire explosively if things went bad in the middle of combat. The next pressing issue presented itself very shortly after when she heard Gerard and Yuu's COM traffic. It seemed they'd engaged the enemy experimental MAS, and thus far they hadn't made much headway. The Astelion was fast, possibly fast enough to keep the white MAS in its sights, but was Ari good enough?
She hesitated, but again she heard Tom's lesson in her mind "He said not to hesitate, and not to be scared...but I can't help it Tom. I'm so scared, I don't wanna die....but I don't wanna let the Lincoln die either...." She was frozen stock still at the prospect, and nearly payed the price. Her sensors suddenly pinged a warning, and she was made aware of a Mk. II shooting at her, her already depleted shields folding quickly underneath the barrage. She flipped around, halfway in a panic, and loosed her shots the moment her targetting AI had a solution. She was lucky that solution was accurate, striking solidly center of mass and sending the Mk. II flying away. This was just another painful reminder of what fear did on the battlefield, she supposed. She was lucky the shots hadn't hit anything important, but she did notice with a grimace several new armor penetrations were flashing on her screen. Consulting the same screen, she found she still had 50% hull integrity left, she was only half dead.
With a smile she definitely wasn't feeling, she keyed the COM and croaked nervously "E-Echo, M-Marauder, Williams..enroute." With these final words sealing her fate, she keyed her X-50s into boost and shot towards the field of battle, near the hull of the Lincoln. Her auto-cannon still had 50 rounds in her, not much but maybe enough if she caught a few lucky breaks. The standard operating procedure for engaging a foe that was faster than you was to try and account for that movement, using your own as much as possible to make that easier. Yuu was slow, Gerard not much better, but the Astelion was a speed demon. She may not be able to match its speed, but just maybe she could get fast enough that the speed difference would be small enough to make a shot. So, she changed course, and mumbled to herself "Probably gonna get one shot at this. That pilot is worlds past me, if I miss...." Ari shuddered and very nearly reconsidered her little plan at this, but forced herself to keep moving. She adjusted course so that she could get parallel to their battleground with the white MAS and accelerated to top speed with the X50s. She'd only have a few precious seconds to get charged and shooting, so she had to replicate her earlier stunt.
Everything was running on increased power consumption so, while with the Astelion at full steam she may've been able to skid by with dropping only non-essential systems, as it was now she had to drop almost everything. Flying parallel to the battle at her full top speed, she began acquiring a solution on the MAS, and dropped power from everything except Nav and targeting to charge the X-50s. She wasn't calm enough to hold her breath, and her ragged breathing was consuming her supply of O2 quickly, so she had to be fast. Around the time the solution was deemed ready, Ari immediately had to depress the firing stud, unleashing fast moving plasma towards the White Knight (A good name for that MAS, she figured). She was already beginning to feel light-headed by the time she was rebooting life support, and she was careening towards the edge of the battle zone pretty fast. She turned her MAS around and flipped the 50s into boost to begin rapidly losing speed. She'd be able to get back to the Lincoln fast, but she wouldn't be providing anymore help from out here, so she could only hope she'd done some good.