Blair strapped himself in and as soon as he was ready he said, "Crusaders, are you ready to bag some furballs?"
"Ready, willing and very damn able," came the response from Maniac.
As soon as everyone in the squadron had replied they all blasted out of the hangar bay, just to be greeted by the sight of two corvettes, two carriers, a battleship and enough fighters to fill up space.
"Okay Crusaders, lets teach these kittys that it is not nice to attack us."
Just then a Dralthi flew past Blair's Arrow and he dove after it, Flint's Arrow behind it. The Dralthi was juking left and right, trying to stay out of lock up but Blair proved to be the better pilot and blasted the Dralthi's engines to pieces, causing the fighter to explode in front of him. He looked at his scope, "Flint, stop covering my ass and go and get some of those cats. The Victory needs all the help that it can get."
"At once Colonel," Flint said before she flew off towards the Victory which now had fighters swarming all over it.
"Scythe here colonel, ready to pile the road" accelerates his fighter to take Blair's wing. "I'm on your five colonel, we gonna teach these kitties that Humans are the warmasters?"
Blair looked at his scope and saw Scythe's fighter as it came up beside and slightly behind his fighter.
"So you want to plow down the cats do you Scythe, well then lets go into the main group and make them see their ancestors."
With that Blair accelerated towards the carrier, Scythe close behind just to see a Vaktoth as it lined up on attack on the bridge. He switched the frequency to that of the Kilrathi and shouted out, "You don't attack my carrier while I am here to defend it!"
The Vaktoth veered off at the point and Blair flew straight after it, using the little speed advantage that his fighter gave him to his best advantage. He maneuvered his ship to come straight behind the Vaktoth but as he did he heard a beeping sound and looked at his scope to see that another Vaktoth was straight behind him and now had lock.
Scythe verred to port, his cannons blazing a fierece music as their corruscating flames melted the hull of the Kilrathi ship. "first kill, our clear colonel"
"Thanks Scythe," Blair said before he lined up with the Vaktoth who was trying to get away and fired a HS missile which slammed into the back of the Vaktoth and destroyed it, causing the ship to explode in a brilliant fireball.
Just then he heard, "We could use a little help here." and turned his fighter to see that the Victory now had Kilrathi fighters absolutely crawling all over her.
Dima heard the plea. He swerved and sent an intercom to Blair."Less talking and more killing. Question. How many have you toasted? I've got 10", he said as an explosion followed. "Check that, 11", he continued and waited for the response, settling towards the carrier.
Blair looked at the comm and said, "Jesus, that is only my second....no wait," he blew the wing off a Dralthi as it flew by, "third. Where are you?"
Blair flew straight into the middle of the fire fight that was going on all around the carrier and fired on a Paktahn as it began an attack run on the Victory. As the Paktahn turned from its attack run it was hit with laser fire from Maniac's fighter before he went flying through. Blair then saw three Darket and went flying towards them, switching his guns to full.
The Darkets, seeing the Arrow flying straight towards them began to break away but two of them weren't fast enough and were hit by cannon fire from Blair, causing them to explode.
"I'm going in to attack the larger carrier", he said to BLair. "Death-dealers, to me! Crusaders to me!" he shouted, both squads flying to his side as he hovered there. "Okay, Terror, don't fail me now. I made you good and strong, so try not to get blasted", he prayed to his fighter. When the squads had gathered to him,"Attack!" he shouted and lead the charge. He dropped his bombs and sot his missiles and fired his lasers as explosions ripped through the hull of the carrier. The squads were giving it all they got and dealing plenty of damage. Two of the death-dealers were there just to take out incoming fighters. They did so with a full heart.
Blair switched his intercom to that of Dima's and said, "I am going to try something, something only Maniac or Scythe would try."
Without another word he flew straight into the carrier's main hanger bay and began to fire his full guns into it, blowing apart fighters and ordnance where they sat, causing huge fireballs to fly through the place and rocking his fighter. Blair then turned his fighter and began firing once again and as he flew out the way that he had gone in there was a hugs explosion that ripped through the carrier.
"Yeah, now let's try that battleship", said Dima. He flew at it at top speed and took out a few turrets. The rest of the squads flew in behind him and began to fire.
Blair watched as three Longbows flew towards the battleship and fired their torpedoes which slammed into the side of the large ship, visibly rocking it. Dima's squad, seeing that the ship was damaged began to fly over the ship, destroying everything that they could, trying to take out the battleship before it had a chance to fire on the Victory. Blair switched his comm to his squad and said, "Are we going to let them have all the fun....let's go and get them!"
Dima watched as both squads fired at the ship. He flew over the swirling mass of confusion and flew next to the Command Center. The Kilrathi watched him, terrified. saw them and grinned, giving them a wave of his hand. Then, he moved his hand to the joystick and shot off his rockets and lasers, ripping the room apart, and causing a chain reaction through the ship. Dima turned around and flew away, the fireball only millimeters away from him.
Blair watched as the command center of the battleship was destroyed and saw Dima's Arrow as it flew away, "Well, we can now scratch a battleship. Do you want to go for the other carrier or let someone else have the fun?"
"Why let someone else have all the fun, we got here first," Maniac said.
"I am going back in", said Dima. "I suggest you boys quit playing outside and head back home. Let the carrier flee. You can see it's already running. You wouldn't even be able to catch up to it once it goes into hyperdrive. Instead let's finish off the few remaining fighters and hit the showers", he continued. Flying into the hangar bay.
Blair watched as the Victory began to move away from them and knew that Dima was right. He then requested landing clearance and after it was acknowledged landed into the hangar bay, got out of his Arrow and stood there as he watched his squad land. Once they had landed and were out of their fighters Blair said, "Crusaders, attention."
His squad came to attention and when they did Blair said, "I am proud of you all, you all did a great job, dealt the Kilrathi a big blow and came back here safely. But I have to congratulate Scythe for downing the greatest number of cats in the squads. Congratulations Scythe. Now, everyone hit the showers!"
That caused the squad to break up and rush upstairs, leaving Blair in the hangar bay.
Scythe had held Blair's tail all the way through the fight blasting numerous Kilrathi and following the colonel into the Cuiser's hangar bay. He followed Blair into the Victory's dock and touched down softly.
Dima stepped out of the shadows. "Good job Scythe, Blair. I think today was a good day", he said. They all walked back together to the showers, comparing kills as the "grease monkeys" went to work.
As he was standing under the shower, the water going over his head he said, "Dima, what happened to make the Kilrathi attack us in such numbers. This isn't like them, well it is but why now. Surely after their last failed attempt to do something like this why send out a large armada again?"
OOC: Excellent, if you don't know anything about Maniac then here goes: he flies by the seat of his pants and takes huge risks, he doesn't listen to instructions and he doesn't like Blair because he has been promoted ahead of him.
"Like I said, they want to blow up Earth. They've also pumped up their fleet. They also have some new tech", explained Dima, stepping out ahead of everyone else with the towel wrapped around his waist. He proceeded to pick up a towel and dry his hair with it.