AEROSPACE POWER
Hello, and welcome to today's operational field exercise at the Annual TSAB Areospace Superiority Expo.
Those attending will be interested to find out that today's combat demonstration exercise will be between a high capacity air combat mage, and a modern combat starfighter piloted by our most decorated vehicle combat instructor.
Our Air Combat Mage for today will be Captain Fate T. Harlowne of Riot Force Six, utilizing the Intelligent Magical Device, Bardiche.
Her callsign today is Lightning.
Our pilot for our starfighter is Captain David T. Hawkins, piloting a model A SF-36 ATASI 'Raptor Interceptor'. A crowd favorite since its introduction to the TSAB Navy.
His callsign today is Ranger.
Monitoring the battlespace today and providing real time high resolution imagery for the audience is Agressor Squadron Combat Instructor, Captain Takamachi Nanoha. She will be giving us an uninterrupted view of the action through the use of multiple tracking spells known as the Wide Area Search.
Information handling for both combatants will be provided by a split communications crew operating out of Riot Force Six's headquarters, callsign Longarch.
Today's demonstration will take place over the ocean west of Cranagan between a Hard Deck altitude of five-hundred feet, and a ceiling of eighty-thousand feet in a 100 by 100 mile box. The Raptor has been forbiddon from shutting its intake manifolds and switching to full stardrive power for safety reasons, and Fate has been prohibited from using cartridges offensively. Our combatants will be engaging with safe magic attacks in the case of Testarossa, and training weapons for Hawkins.
Looks like they're about to get started. Captain Hawkins has already moved his fighter to his start position of eighty thousand feet on the far west end of the battle space to simulate a recent atmospheric entry. Let's listen in as Longarch dispatches Fate to Investigate the target and assess the threat.
"Longarch, Lightning.... Unknown spacecraft entering area at vector zero nine zero, altitude angels eighty and dropping. You are instructed to intercept and assess bogey. Over."
"Lightning, Longarch... Roger, on the way. Over."
/
"Longarch, Ranger. Surface target rising to intercept you. Close and identify. Be advised, recon indicates high level mage a possible threat."
"Ranger, Longarch... Roger that. Closing at Mach ten... Proceding with S turn to reduce speed for ID pass."
Please note that after entering the atmosphere at orbital velocities, the deceleration distance of a starfighter like the SF-36 is several hundred miles long without the use of retro-thrust. In order to slow down for a clear ID pass without looking too agressive, Ranger is taking his fighter through a series of tight S turns to bleed off speed.
As the two combatants close with each other. Their combat management systems, Bardiche for Fate, and the ORACLE onboard targeting computer for Hawkins, monitor all active channels for broadcast emmissions or potential hostilities. Though they are not within' visual range, they are monitoring each other with surgical precision.
At ten kilometers range, and twenty thousand feet altitude, Bardiche makes a positive identification on the SF-36's engine signature. The information is networked directly back to Longarch while the AI informs its master of the situation. Meanwhile, while Hawkins has been able to identify his opponent as an air combat mage, individual mage signatures are unique, and identification is not exact until visual contact is made, or the mage is well enough known by the opposition to have their signature data stored.
"Ranger, Longarch, have a visual... Over."
As you'll note here... Hawkins makes a ninety degree counter-clockwise roll as Fate passes him along the left. Not only does this give him a clear view of his opposition, it allows him to take pre-fight initiative as he immediately brings the nose around.
"Ranger, Longarch... Target is blond mage, black battle dress, black device, looks to be a close combatant. Over."
"Longarch, Ranger... target is hostile. Be advised, triple A combat ranking. Engage with caution. Over."
As Hawkins gets confirmation from his communications to engage the target, Fate, who's still trying to identify the opponent, must make a decision quickly on how to procede. By coming around hard and fast after the pass, Hawkins has telegraphed potential hostility by turning to take up a tail position.
"Lightning, Longarch. Target has engaged me in tactical manuevers. I'm going to assume he's hostile."
"Roger that Lightning. You are authorized to engage."
Now that both combatants are cleared to engage each other. Fate will waste no time in trying to break away from her opponent's sights. Luckly, at close range, Fate is able to easily snap to the side using a method known as a Sonic Move, causing Ranger to overshoot her.
Hawkins realizes the danger of a Combat Mage in close proximity to his fighter, and immediately makes an outside turn and drives his engines. In an open ranged air battle, the SF-36 has a significant advantage over a mage. The fighter is both larger and faster with a technically unlimited altitude range to play with, and under normal circumstances, would be equipped with extremely powerful standoff weapons designed for engaging capital ships.
Fate, while unable to sustain more than maybe mach two or three, and incapable of operating beyond thirty thousand feet for more than a few minutes at a time, has the advantage in agility and attack diversity, and is a very small and hard to hit target. She also has attacks that can be steered, and are capable of chasing her targets more persistantly than missiles.
"Ranger going high... Need room to move."
As you can see, the first phase of the fight now well under way, Hawkins opts to utilize the range and speed advantage of his fighter by accellerating and climbing for the upper atmosphere where Fate can't follow. However Fate knows that at such ranges use of his main guns becomes difficult against her small size, and that missiles are in limited supply.
Rather than chasing and attempting to engage the fighter from behind as is a traditional tactic in air combat, Fate instead abruptly breaks off persuit and dives for the hard deck. If a missile shot is taken, it is better to have the ground itself backstopping her so that it cannot have the space to turn around. It will also force Hawkins to either slow down, or break off early if he goes for gun based attack against her, keeping him at more of an arms length.
Hawkins recognizes the maneuver while still climbing, and executes a sharp roll onto his back, and pulls his nose into an Elongated Split S turn. He knows the same things Fate does about his attack position. By performing an elongated Split S, he will maintain distance from his opponent while putting himself in a better position at low altitude.
Fate does her best to maintain her counter by surface skimming the ocean. This is easily possible for a mage, but dangerous for a combat fighter.
"Ranger, weapons free, going for Crusader Lock."
Hawkins is attempting to engage with an SIM-11 Crusader missile. Normally, he'd engage combat targets with an SIM-7 Shuriken. But Fate doesn't put out a thermal, magnetic, or ionic emmission strong enough for it to track. The Crusader's tracking system is a target profiling computer that allows it to recognize the target even by visual shape and color asside from normal emmissions. While not optimized for fighter-fighter combat, it is suffient to be used as a general purpose missile.
"Missile Lock... FOX TWO!"
Please remember that for this demonstration, all magic is in safe mode, and all weapons onboard the SF-36 are training equipment only. The Crusader missile that has just been fired is only a dud. Were this a real battle situation, the weapon would contain a mark seven directional plasma warhead capable of penetrating several meters of starship plating.
"Lightning Longarch! I've been fired upon! Returning fire!"
"Roger that Lightning. Hostile Fire Exchanged."
With a persistant anti-ship capable missile bearing down on her, Fate has to act on the defensive to defeat it.
"Arc Saber!"
Fate is utilizing a magic attack custom to her only, A three foot arc of magically contained plasma. The attack is launched by a swing and steered by her device towards the target. Our mage has opted to engage the weapon directly to destroy it before it can close the gap.
This time it appears to work. The attack slices right through the middle of the missile, cutting it in half. Right now the ORACLE combat computer on board the SF-36 will be cataloging the attack so that the next missile fired will be programmed to attempt to avoid it.
While Hawkins was intending to knock his target out with that missile shot, he didn't bank on it, and accellerated his fighter almost as soon as he fired. Closing on Fate at high speed, he performs a sweep of the target with the rapid fire mode of his twin switchblade cannons. At this range, Fate is forced Evasive to avoid the bulk of the fire, and defends against the rest with a barrier.
As Hawkins doesn't want to be in range for Fate to utilize close combat, he breaks off his attack prematurely to maintain his distance. Fate capitalizes on the situation by returning fire.
"Plasma Lancer!"
Watch as Hawkins weaves to evade the attack. Although he only needs to turn once to avoid being hit, he continues to curve back and forth to prevent Fate from getting a clear shot.
Fate takes advantage of Hawkins' tight turns and chases him down by aiming for an area ahead of him. Anticipating this move, Hawkins quickly reverses and crosses over, causing Fate to overshoot.
As you can see by the crisscross fashon in which the two play out here, this maneuver is known as the Scissors. In Scissors, the more agile combatant has the Advantage, in this case, Fate.
"I can't stay here, she's too sharp..."
Knowing this, Hawkins has a choice, he could choose to roll inverted and Dive on the outside of the Scissors to break the stalemate, or continue until Fate gets the advantage. But instead, going outside the usual air combat scenarios, and too low to execute the correct disengagement, he chooses to straighten out a bit, presenting Fate with a clear shot. Then turns hard. Fate clearly has the advantage in turning radius, but is caught off guard when Hawkins suddenly begins rolling the opposite direction of his turn.
Thanks to this high G barrel Roll, Hawkins has fallen behind Fate and is in position to fire if he has time. But as you can see, Fate wastes no time in breaking, attempting to put her tighter turn to her advantage.
Hawkins... Here, is prepared and executes a sudden shallow climb, and rolls inverted along the inside of her turn. The Hi Yo-Yo allows him to stay inside Fate's turning arc and bleeds off a little speed.
"I'm having a hard time losing this guy..."
Observe as Fate is forced to take more drastic measures, pulling into a steep climb.
She executes a sharp roll during this climb to attempt to burn off some speed without being an easy target.
"She's going vertical, so am I..."
Hawkins follows suit quickly, resulting in a set of reversals known as the Vertical Sissors.
If Hawkins had not been on the ball a moment ago, Fate would have been in a position to attack. However, his skill in piloting has thrust them into another stalemate. This particular stalemate will only last as long as Fate can climb. The superior climb rate of the SF-36 and higher combat ceiling means that Hawkins will have the advantage in the long run.
If Fate were merely an inferior aircraft, she would eventually stall. However, her limitations in altitude aren't born of a lack of engine power, as she uses flight magic. Her limitation is lack of atmospheric pressure at high altitudes. Beyond thirty thouand feet, the air is too thin to breathe. It is too dangerous to continue a climbing persuit where the SF-36 has all the advantages. Fate opts to break away, but not before launching a harassment attack.
This time, it's a variant of the plasma lancer she used earlier, multiple shots, with homing ability. Though slow to react, and a bit problematic at range, they are none-the-less effective.
With Fate descending, Hawkins is presented with his own dillema. He could continue as he is and out climb her attack, and then pull into an elongated Split S like before, and repeat the entire cycle. Fate will of course, be prepared for this method of attack and ready to counter much more quickly.
However, Hawkins has more up his sleeve to continue this fight.
"Popping flares, reversing..."
Hawkins cuts almost all his engine power as he launches a series of EM Shockflares, using the flashes to hide his craft as he slows down and yaws the nose hard around. By turning his fighter almost flat in mid air at the top of his climb, he effectively reverses in place, offsetting to the side only just enough to avoid the plasma lancers as they pass through the shockwaves of his flares.
Once his nose is pointed downwards, Hawkins pushes the throttle and gains speed dramaticly. With as much raw thrust as the SF-36 has, he's determined to get to the Hard Deck before Fate does. At the same time, he goes for another missile shot while she presents him with a latterally stationary target.
"FOX TWO!"
The attack forces Fate to break early, buying more time for Hawkins to get in below her. Hawkins want's to herd her upwards and away from the ground, where his advantages outweigh her own.
Fate knows Hawkins is trying to keep her away from the surface where she can use the ground to limit his maneuvers. And with him bringing his guns to bear, it's difficult to reverse on him and attack. Running out of maneuvering options to shake the starfighter, Fate begins turning hard and diving as best as she can.
Hawkins decides to persue Fate and as you can see here, the fight has devolved into a classic Spiral Dive. He's too close to safely break away without presenting Fate with an easy target.
As you note, their dive loses altitude with each revolution. At some point, someone has to give.
Fate cuts her speed suddenly, allowing her to drop back, and forcing Hawkins to overshoot. She snaps quickly back in to slot herself up behind him.
Now it's Hawkins' turn to defend once more with Fate right on his tail, he quickly applies his air brake and retro while picking his nose up hard while simultaniously popping flares. The sudden drop in speed, and his angle to climb causes Fate to misjudge the maneuver, causing her to slip right past him as he rolls inverted. Hawkins quickly dives away from Fate using a Split S to disengage from the situation.
Diving low and hitting the throttle, Hawkins quickly out paces Fate before she can set up for another attack. With two combatants of this calibur, this fight could continue for some time. However, Hawkins, being the attacker in this scenario, would not be left to fight Fate alone forever. While Fate has kept a solid stalemate with the starfighter, she has also bought time for other defenders to join her.
"Longarch, Lightning, be advised reinforcements inbound."
"Lightning, Longarch, roger that."
/
"Longarch, Ranger. New contacts at vector two seven zero. Counting five, potentially enemy reinforcements."
"Ranger, Longarch... Roger that. Extending on vector two zero zero, and climbing to Egress Angle."
Faced with six to one odds, Hawkins has decided that discretion is the better part of valour. He selects an escape route that gives him a strong off angle against his new opposition and accellerates. In thirty seconds, he will pass to the southwest of the stands at a distance of six nautical miles while climbing to his egress altitude.
"Lightning, Longarch. Bandit is bugging out. I'm not going to persue."
"Roger that Lightning. Attacker successfully repelled. Good job."
*THUM-THUMP*
The sound you just heard was the sonic boom generated by the SF-36 traveling at four-thousand miles per hour and climbing. Though over six miles away, the strength of the concussion has been known to damage glass and other brittle materials. As such, supersonic flight is strictly controlled near inhabbited regions.
"Longarch to All Pilots. Knock it off, Knock it off, Knock it off..."
That last full channel broadcast signals the end of this exercise, and was addressed by Lt. Colonel Hayate Yagami, commander of Riot Force Six, and safety liasson for Today's demonstration. We hope you enjoyed this brief, but impressive display of capability from two of the TSAB's most skilled combatants. Be sure to join us later for our afternoon demonstration of high power magic attacks and the tactical employment of confinement barrier dimensions. If you wish to get a closer look at the SF-36 Raptor Interceptor, Captain Hawkins will be landing shortly on surface helipad B. Please stay back behind the safety ropes until the Captain has broken his cockpit seal. Engine exhaust may present safety issues.
Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.
2009-08-10, 01:59
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