"We have another on our tail." Asana called out while Jace finalized the repairs he was doing. "Are any of the maids pilots?" She called back while she flew. They had started to get noticed by enemy ships for a while now. They only had a few more minutes until the Warships arrived, but they would still have to hold off until then.
"I am." Head Maid Rook volunteered.
"Take up the copilot position." Jace ordered, then he looked over at some maids and Uti who were sitting at the side of the ship where a crate was their seat. "I need all of you to stand up. I need what is sitting under you." He ordered as he moved over to them.
They quickly stood up and moved out of the way as Jace pressed his hand on the crate and it opened up. Unlocking because he ran a small jolt of electricity through it. As he opened it even Uti whistled in appreciation.
"What in the pits is that?" Uti asked in exasperation as Jace pulled the massive modified MILD version of the Tri-Cannon out of the box. Officially it was called the Tri-Cannon S-3, it did not unofficially have a name yet since he was the only one that could use it so far.
"It is a Tri-Cannon and no you may not try it. It is not rated for normal people to use." Jace explained as he pulled out the large bag of ammunition and began attaching it while he put a metal chain that was attached to the cannon around his body. Normal fabrics would have been too easily destroyed.
"Then how are you going to be using it?" One of the maids asked as he stood up and started moving towards the back of the ship.
"Like a rear gun. Everyone, move towards the front of the ship." Jace ordered as he arrived near the panel that would open up the rear ramp. Instead of opening it he pressed a few different buttons. Then several layers of shielding appeared along with an environmental shielding layer.
He then reached up and pulled a magnetic harness from the roof and attached it to his back. His HUD notified him of the attachment while he activated the magnetic attachment on his boots. He could then hear a muffled noise coming from the other side of the shield. He tapped his helmet and then touched a few more buttons that would further muffle the noise and open the ramp.
"I asked how loud is this going to be?" Charlie asked again over the ship communication channel that Jace had opened so they could talk to him and he could talk with the pilot and copilot.
"Hopefully not that loud, but still be prepared." Jace declared as the ramp lowered and he walked out onto it. He could see the two fighter space craft were struggling to stay behind them as the ship swayed between several buildings.
He then aimed and fired a short three round burst. It was still annoyingly loud as it fired but as the massive cannon-bullets impacted the first of the fighter craft it went straight through and slammed into a building behind it. The next two shots barely did anything since the fighter craft was basically a hunk of metal now. But against the building it completely demolished it.
"Okay..." Jace sighed as he turned to the other fighter craft but it immediately veered off and out of sight. "That was not nearly as loud but it had a greater impact. Get higher up, I do not want to be the cause of civilian casualties if I have to fire downwards again."
"Yes sir." Asana answered, "also we could feel the ship slightly shake each time you fired that. It was not damaging but still it was off putting."
"Figures, it will get worse when we go into space. Wait for an opportunity to make a line for The Elysium when it arrives. Notify them and they will provide covering fire so we can get past the blockade." Jace informed them as the ship climbed in height.
When it was high enough he crouched down and could see a few ships flying down towards them. It was a unit of ships in a ’V’ formation. They are attack craft, likely sent specifically to shoot them out of the sky.
Jace crouched to get a better angle and fired two test shots. The first one flew wide and the second one winged the frontmost ship, by ’winged’ he meant it destroyed one of the engines and wings causing it to spiral out of control.
The other ships in the formation scattered as it went on a crash course with the ground. They moved to the sides, trying to get another angle on the Guardian where he could not shoot them down. But it would not matter as the Asana dipped its nose down and dove.
Just as she did, a beam coming from a ship in space flew past and hit the ground. More specifically it hit the direction of the Emperor’s palace. He saw it slam into the ground and then as a wave of heat and a shockwave spread out from the impact point.
"Shit, was that an orbital laser?" Rook asked over the channel.
Jace took advantage of their lowered position and fired several shots to his right where a group of three attack craft were coming at them. He destroyed the first two but the third managed to slide downward and the cannon-bullet only glanced off the side of the ship. It dropped to get out of his sight while he turned his attention to the other three ships which were in a better position for him to shoot.
But before he could, he had to grip the ship as the shock and heat waves hit them. Aside from heating up his weapon and shaking the ship, it did not do much to them. But he could see the crater that used to be the imperial palace.
"Do you know which ship fired the orbital laser?" Jace asked as he observed the attack ship’s fly under them at an angle he could not shoot at.
"Yes, do you want me to mark it for later?" Asana asked.
"Affirmative, we need to mark it and make a record of the event because that was a populated area. While as far as I can tell that attack was unwarranted." Jace explained he wanted to have a record for the future after the battle.