Early the next morning, the squadron is scrambled. In the emergency briefing, given by the base commander to every member of the 499th, they're told that a massive force of enemy bombers, fighter mechs, and various strike craft is incoming, and seems to be heading towards the capital. If even 50% of the bombers make it through, there's a large chance the Emperor will be killed, along with the rest of the Imperial line, and the Empire will be forced to surrender unconditionally. Obviously, this cannot be allowed to happen, and so every combat craft capable of engaging the enemy force is being scrambled to engage.
The pilots are instructed that time is of the essence, and that they must take off as soon as their mechs are fitted with the extra fuel tanks to make the trip to the intercept point. Even some of the wounded pilots will fly, and every mech of the 29 the squadron has will go.
Taking off in ragged groups, the stragglers catch up to the lead mechs by using their afterburners, where they're instructed to form echelons. With two wings to an echelon, the squadron is a few mechs short of three full echelons. The lead echelon is lead by Col. Hannemann, the third by Ophelia, and the second by Paula.
Their callsigns are Boreas 1 for Col. Hannemann, Zephyr 1 for Paula, and Notus 1 for Ophelia. Under Paula, Zephyr 5 is Miyu, Zephyr 6 is Sophia, Zephyr 7 is Xan. Under Ophelia, Notus 2 is Kycilia and Notus 7 is Millie.
They climb, and on the way they join with several other large groups of mechs, also scrambled to intercept the massive assault force. As the sun peeks over the horizon, a call goes out - enemy spotted, dead ahead. The pilots ready themselves, some of the more superstitious ones beginning personal good luck rituals.
Then, before the sun has passed the horizon, the two huge formations meet, and the sky is clogged with smoke, steel, and flames. Almost instantly, the battle turns into a chaotic struggle, where despite the hundreds of craft everything becomes a duel. Commanders become simple pilots, and rank is meaningless. Only skill and luck matter now.
Alice Hannemann loses herself. She doesn't black out, exactly, but everything becomes a blur. She's in the zone. Maneuvering, firing, evading, it's all a blur until a jarring shock rattles her in her mech and all she can see is reddish-orange. In an instant, her vision clears, and she realizes she was too close when something exploded. Quickly checking her mech's diagnostics, she sees that it's crippled and cannot fly anymore, and then checking the altimeter and artificial horizon reveal she's tumbling down from the battle. She decides to wait for a clear chance for a safe ejection, and absentmindedly hopes she gets one before she hits the ground.
Ophelia, unlike Hannemann, does not lose herself. Instead, she is hyper-aware of herself and her surroundings. Time seems to go in slow motion as the tracers fly and the battle begins. She gets on the tail of an enemy mech, and pursues it relentlessly until it's pouring a deep black smoke from its' engines. Then, she switches targets to another enemy, and does the same. In her cockpit voice recorder, her voice quietly repeats "I am a leaf on the wind" time and time again. Then, after a while, silence.
Kycilia waits until others begin firing, and then starts firing too. During the initial head-on pass at the enemy, she doesn't manage to inflict noticeable damage on any enemy, but she doesn't get hit either. She loops around, trying to get on the tail of an enemy mech, but finds that they've done the same, and so she immediately begins turning some more, hoping to be able to get behind them this time. She's hit, and one is on her tail, but she gets on the tail of an enemy, and does her damnedest to take the mech down. Luckily, before she takes too much damage from the enemy on her tail, he explodes. She shouts out a thanks, and then devotes her entire attention to the enemy in front of her. When it vanishes, she switches to another. Then another. Then she doesn't.
Close to the nose of their formation, Paula is one of the first to begin firing. Remembering their mission, she targets the bombers, and manages to destroy one's left hand engines during the initial head-on meeting. Continuing through the bomber formation, engaging every bomber she can, she's almost certain she gets smoke from several, and may have even downed one or two. Right as she passes through the last of the formation, an enemy mech begins chasing her. She tries her best to shake him, but can't quite get rid of him.
Xan, still bitter from last time, takes up a position near the edge of the fighting, looking to swoop in on already damaged or crippled mechs or bombers and finish them off, hoping for a lot of kills. This seems to be working fairly well, and with each victory she gets more confident. After several 'kills', she decides to go in and get a few all to herself, and goes in and makes attacks from below several bombers. She even manages to shoot down two or three before two enemy mechs begin pursuing her. After ten seconds or so of pursuit, one has disappeared, but she can't shake the other.
Miyu tries to cover Paula initially, but after Millie nearly crashes into her she decides to go after the bombers instead. She makes several attacks on several different bombers, badly damaging several, before a combination of escort mechs and defensive gunnery makes her position untenable, and she's forced to flee back into the main fighter battle, where she hopes that a friendly mech will help her out.
Sophia, not quite recovered from her memories of her own death, isn't quite at her full ability. She doesn't shoot quite soon enough, and only damages an enemy she could've destroyed. She doesn't evade quickly enough, and takes hits she could've dodged. She still makes them pay, and gives worse than she gets, but in such a battle it isn't enough.
Millie, determined to do better this time than in her first battle, ends up climbing too rapidly, stalling out, and diving down on the enemy as they turn to re-engage her allies. She fires at several enemies, spraying and praying, but soon decides to focus on a single enemy mech. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't notice a second enemy mech with an intersecting flight path until it's too late. She glances forwards, rather than at the enemy mech she's chasing, just soon enough to be aware of the imminent collision before it happens.
With the sun well into the sky, the last of the Imperial mechs retreat from the attacking formations. They've fought hard, and given as well as they got, but it just wasn't enough, and over 70% of the enemy bombers are still there, on their way to the capital city. Less than half of their escorts remain, but with the intercepting formation as badly mauled as they are they're relying on the enemy's ignorance of their lack of backup to avoid being completely annihilated.
As the battered remnants of the 499th returns to their base, the highest-ranked officer left flying, Ophelia White, asks everyone left to please sound off. Confirming her worst fears, she doesn't hear Col. Hannemann. This has a major, obvious effect on her. She clearly cared for Alice quite a bit, and the presumed death of the Colonel is a massive blow to her. It's slightly lessened as she hears the voices of other survivors, but she's still audibly upset.
As the remaining mechs sound off, wing by wing, number by number, the pilots realize how many friends and comrades they've lost. Most of the squadron is gone. Of the 29 mechs that took off, 9 sound off on the way home.
Of the named pilots, only Paula, as Zephyr 1, and Miyu, as Zephyr 5, survived the battle. As they fly, two of the surviving mechs, including Paula's, are forced to break formation and make emergency landings due to battle damage. From their safely-landed mechs, Paula and the other pilot radio that they'll be back to the airfield as soon as they can.
Arriving back at the airfield, the mood is grim. Not only did most of the mechs and their pilots not return, it all may well have been for nothing - there were other squadrons on the way to intercept the formation later, but as it is it seems quite likely that they'll be forced into an unconditional surrender, making today's efforts pointless.
The survivors, not having much else to do, wait anxiously in the painfully empty briefing room for news on their comrades. In the evening, a truck arrives, and when it parks two people get out of the back - Paula and the other pilot. Then, all nine survivors wait in the briefing room for news.
Late that night, the base intelligence officers enter the briefing room and begin speaking.
"We've analyzed all the flight data recorders we could get from the battle, and from what we gathered, we're almost certain that the following information is accurate. We will be detailing the fate of the missing pilots, alphabetically, beginning now. If anybody does not want to hear this, there is a casualty list outside the barracks that will be updated with the most recent reports from recovery teams and medical units."
"Adams, Millie. It is believed that she inadvertently struck an enemy airframe and was killed in the ensuing explosion."
Other names follow, of course, butt of the named characters, the following was said:
"Hannemann, Alice. It is believed that her airframe was critically damaged by an exploding bomber, and it is considered likely that she managed to eject before her airframe struck the ground"
"Hulthar, Xan. It is believed she was pursued and fired upon by an enemy airframe until her own airframe was no longer flight-capable. Considering the damage taken, it is considered unlikely for her to have ejected before her airframe struck the ground."
"Minovsky, Kycilia. It is believed that she was shot down by an enemy airframe. Judging by the damage received, it is considered likely that she ejected before her airframe struck the ground"
"Secura, Sophia. It is believed that her airframe was critically damaged by a number of enemy hits over time gradually wearing down her airframe's capabilities. Judging by the damage received, it is considered unlikely for her to have ejected before her aiframe struck the ground"
As the night goes on and turns into morning, the fates go from 'Missing' to a more concrete 'Killed' or 'Wounded'. There are a lot more of the former than the latter.
Of the named characters, here's how they ended up:
Millie Adams: Killed (Collided with enemy aircraft)
Miyu Dojima: OK
Alice Hannemann: Wounded [Discharged] (Damaged by explosion, ended up losing all of her left leg and most of her right leg)
Xan Hulthar: Killed (Shot Down)
Kycilia Minovsky: Wounded [Discharged] (Shot down by enemy, was severely burned on her left torso, left arm, and portions of her face)
Paula Ortega: OK
Sophia Secura: Killed (Shot Down). This was displayed for almost an hour before the relevant officers were informed of Sophia's situation, and it was then changed to OK (Shot Down)
Ophelia White: OK
The squadron is also informed that, due to casualties, they will be moving by truck to Harnam Airfield, where they will be merged with the remnants of several other squadrons to form the 921st Interceptor Squadron. The war will continue, as two members of the Imperial Family survived.
What, exactly, the shattered Air Corps. is supposed to do against any further large formation raids is unclear, but the new Emperor's orders aren't - "Bleed them for every inch, never surrender! Make them pay for everything they've done!".
I hope everyone's alright with how this went! I gave everyone some more freedom with how exactly their characters final moments were (If they had final moments), so I hope you're all OK with that!
