>>6348204Lyra Banfield was having the time of her life. Sure, her domain was ravaged by war, her people were suffering and even if the Pact won, the aftermath of the war would haunt the system for a generation… But damn this new Knight Frame was awesome.
As the Pact’s most prolific Knight Pilot, Lady Banfield was the recipient of the first new Knight to be manufactured in centuries. It had a slew of advanced features: particle shields, tactical jump capability and a built in battle intelligence.
She had been a bit iffy about that last one, joining your mind with what -no matter how the techs tried to downplay it- was a simplistic AI. Initially it didn’t seem to do much, but the more she fought the more she felt it subtly reacting, a slight correction on the thrusters here, a change in angle to better deflect incoming fire there. Her mind felt sharper and faster too.
She had just finished bisecting an Imperial Knight with her plasma blade when new orders came through the tactical net: Destroy the dreadnought fire control tower.
Pushing the throttle to maximum Lyra made a beeline straight for the dreadnought. Warnings flashed on her HUD as the frame's sensors registered a wall of point defence fire coming her way. There was no way she would survive… if it actually hit.
Just as it looked like her frame would be shot down, Lyra initiated a tactical jump and translated her frame just a few metres above the FCS tower and lowered her plasma blade. E-drive translations preserved a ship’s momentum so she was still going full tilt as her blade cut deep into the tower, leaving a giant glowing gash down the middle. To finish the job she cut her thrusters, flipped her frame around and unloaded two pods worth of micro missiles into the remains of the tower. Her frame was already well on its way back to Pact lines before the rest of the dreadnought’s point defence network could even turn around to re-engage.
>cont 