Hikaru Horaki raced through the fireball of a exploding enemy craft, guns blazing as her wingmen followed her in. "Aida, cover left," she ordered them, "Kyle to the right!" "Aye aye," Lynn Kyle answered crisply, Aida silently obeying as they accelerated towards the waves of enemy fighters and cruisers. The ships had appeared on scanners descending from the Zentradi fleet in orbit, the few space defenses that Earth had barely slowing them down. In response the SDF-1 had launched all of the on-duty fighter teams and was holding other volunteers in reserve, just in case things got nasty. 'I hope this guy is as good as he seems,' Hikaru found herself thinking as the wings of Evangelion fighters peeled off to their assigned positions. Kyle had only just been assigned to the ship yesterday, for gods sake, but they needed Toji's spot filled.... Her heart lurched in her chest as she thought of Toji, then she ruthlessly pushed it away. Aida launched missiles, picking off another battlepod as they raced forward to intercept a group of enemy forces. "I don't see the enemy Angels," he reported, shifting his fighter to EVA mode, a humanoid robot with a dangerous looking cannon. "There are officers pods though," Kyle warned, the young man following Aida's lead, "we'd better be careful." "Those are words to the wise, boys," Hikari grimly agreed, the three of them laying down streams of high velocity fire as they bobbed and weaved through enemy attacks even as she watched Kyle fighting thoughtfully. Kyle battled the enemy with precision rather than force, pumping out just enough of his precious fire power into each foe, yet seemingly aware of the whole battle around him. With just small bursts of thrust he dodged all enemy attacks without bothering his aim, cutting down the pods with almost frightening ease. "I'll be damned," Aida murmured over the radio to her privately, "he is good." "He'd better be," Hikari growled as she saw another wave, "incoming!" Then, off in the distance they saw a disturbance in the enemy ranks, a rapidly spreading wave of fireballing craft as something tore through them ruthlessly. Then they reached them, three familiar fighters: Skull One, Asuka's Red and Shinji's Blue trimmed planes, the fighter pilots who had come to be known as the Angels of Death. "Holy crap," Kyle murmured in awe as they swept by him, only leaving the flaming wrecks of dead battlepods in their wake. Across the way, following the fighter wings in his officer's pod Khyron the backstabber smiled ferally as they drove forward towards the enemy. The Micronians were fierce, worthy foes for the glorious Zentradi armada, and he was looking forward to the coming battle. "Lord Breetai is hailing you," Khyron heard his lieutenant repeat it tentatively and the commander grit his teeth. Keeping his tone falsely pleasant Khyron smiled as the familiar face appeared on his viewscreen, "Yes, m'lord?" Neither of them were fooled by their good manners, of course. Khyron knew that Breetai wanted him dead,, even as Breetai was well aware that the younger man was ambitious, dreaming of taking his role. Ideally by striding over his still warm corpse, of course. "The enemy's aces have joined combat," Breetai informed him, "as we expected. Destroy them, Khyron, for the glory of the Zentradi." "Of course," Khyron smiled, bowing exageratedly in his seat. "Follow the plan, Khyron," Breetai warned him coldly, the light shining ominously off of his metallic cowl, "you would not want to see the consequences if you don't." "Yes," Khyron snarled then cut the connection. "M'lord?" his lieutenant asked warily from his nearby battlepod. "Deploy the pods to screen the cruiser as we discussed," Khyron bit out. Connecting to the cruisers he gave the order, "Best speed to Zor's fortress, we're going to ram them." "Aye, lord," the pilot gave him a mad grin. 'He's not wound too tight,' Khyron noted with amusement, though in truth much of his attacking force was similar. Breetai used his unit for disposing of those officers that.. shall we say were discipline problems? Still, Khyron found such rabble useful, for they feared little even the Angels of Death themselves. As their pods raced towards fire and death Khyron smiled, "Today is a good day to die." Maneuvering through the enemy ranks and cutting pods down left and right Asuka Langley was glad her helmet kept her orange hair out of her eyes or else the sweat would have plastered it to her face. 'Are they throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink today?' she thought irritably, squeezing the trigger to scrag another battlepod. Her view screen lit up to reveal Maya Ibuki, staring out at her calmly from her place at the bridge. "The two cruisers are moving on a direct collision course with the SDF-1," she informed her calmly, "and there's too many of our own fighters out there to use the main gun." "What about the Deadelus maneuver?" Asuka asked tersely, zipping through a exploding pod, shifting to EVA mode and hovering among them as she mowed down multiple pods. She was referring to using the ship mounted as a 'arm' of the SDF-1 and ramming it into a enemy craft before unleashing a wave of missiles. "We'll use it if needed," Maya said, "but stop them if you can." "Understood," Asuka nodded then shifted over to communication between fighters, "Rei, Shinji, form up on me." The two fighters slid into place beside her, then Asuka's view screen lit up. "How do we reach the cruisers quickly enough through the fighter screen?" Rei asked calmly, yet her eyes showed tenderness as she gazed at Asuka. Shinji came on, the black haired young man smiling grimly. "I can get some pilots together and plow the road," he offered, "I know Hikari and her team are out here." "There's an officer pod out there," Asuka cautioned him, "can you handle him while we disable the cruiser?" Shinji gave her a look, "Of course." Asuka flashed a grin, "Good luck." Shinji smoothly peeled off, forming up a wedge with Hikari and several other wings, the group racing forward to tear into the screen of battlepods, burning a hole in their ranks. Asuka and Rei darted forward to the cruisers, dodging and weaving through tracer fire till they reached the bumpy green surface of the vessels. Sensor ports, weapons, critical vents all fell to the twin pilots' guns, the skin of the ships dancing with explosions. They darted away from the vessels then swung around, flights of missiles soaring in to the less armored and vulnerable engines, more explosions blossoming there. Reactors went as energy backlashed, explosions growing within each vessel, then they each went up in a blast of light and fire. "No!" Khyron cried out his fury, racing forward with the officers' pod heavy arm cannons coming up to blast at the two of them. He snarled rage as they danced away from his shots, moving like some phantom across the blue skies, their own weapons unable to penetrate his armor. Then, luckily, a shot landed. "Damn it!" Asuka growled as her Evangelion spun, gyroscopes off line and her stomach heaving. Quickly she trigged the transformation, the EVA mode stabilizing the plane's systems as boot thrusters slowed her fall. With an inarticulate cry Rei raced in, the blue haired girl's red eyes glowing like some kind of demon as she attacked. Using a unearthly speed she zipped around him peppering the pod with fire, dodging in and out as Khyron helplessly tried to strike back. Tasting blood in her mouth Asuka followed her in, using her fellow pilot as a distraction. Slipping underneath the flying pod she opened up at the junction where the main pod met the leg units, emptying a chain of high density slugs there. The pod jerked wildly, the armor stressed to it's limits, then she finally broke through. BOOM! "Are you all right?" Rei demanded as she swiftly flew to Asuka's side. "Banged up and I bit the inside of my mouth," Asuka confessed, "but yeah, I'm fine." The remaining pods swiftly broke off, the scattered survivors racing back to the safety of their fleet. The Evangelion pilots were too tired to chase after them, feeling satisfied that they had broken off the attempt to attack the ship. "Hey, I thought I was supposed to get the officer's pod," Shinji gently complained as he returned to the wing. "We'll let you have it next time," Rei said deadpan.
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