Warrior Cats: The Four Clans

Emili said nothing in reply to Dex's words. Instead she slowly banked to the left to avoid a particularly turbulent patch of air ahead. As she righted their coarse she felt through her sensors to make sure that there would not be to many of those patches. The crew and Emili continued on in silence. They had a good while to go yet and with everyone free to walk about the cabin again, Emili relaxed her mind and focused on completing algorithms and checking weather patterns. Her other sensors remained on but they were as distant to her mind.
The Panthera continued along its route with little to no interruption from gusts and turbulence. As Emili finished completing another check on the weather, one of her sensors began to flash a warning. She had been oblivious to it until that moment, since before it had only been an extremely minor warning. Yet now it was rapidly become a critical one. She checked the sensor, it was the one that detected incoming hostile crafts. Emili reached out with the sensors to the inbound ships. There were six small-one-man fighters inclosing fast. Emili was stunned for a moment, almost no ship in the world was as fast as the Panthera. Only NAGA had the ability and resources to build ships like these ones. She would have hissed a curse, but seeing as she was the ship and couldn't breath, she didn't.
Immediately she dimmed the inside of the ship and prepared to warn everyone. After a moment, the ambient light turned red and flooded the inside of the Panthera. The warning tone blared through the ship for a short four bursts before Emili's voice took over, "All hands on deck. Six hostile inbound fighters approaching at 5, 6, and 7 o'clock. All crew is to report immediately to battle stations!"

William had been taking his time relaxing in his room. His mind had wandered from subject to subject, though he avoided thinking about Dex. His brown eyes traced the underside of Shepard's bunk when the lights in the Panthera shut off and the battle lights flared to life. The annoying sound of the battle warning resounded within the ship. William immediately jumped up from his bed and charged out in the main hall of the Panthera. Emili's voice sounded above him and his heart began to pound. So this mission wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. at Emili's command, William turned and sprinted toward the back of the ship. He quickly jumped down through the hatch in the cargo bay that led to the controls of the Panthera's heavy weapons. The sounds of his boots pounded through the lower hull of the ship and the red lights continued to flash angrily.
William raced to the nearest weapons station, a large oval shaped dip in the floor that had a seat, control panel, a swivel turret and triggers, and a head set to contact the c0ckpit of the ship. William slipped in to the chair and powered up the turret. On the control panel was a loading bar as it came to full power. Grabbing ahold of the swivel harness, William locked himself in to position. He reached over and grabbed the headset and barked in to it, "William to Shepard, I'm good to go down here." There was another turret on the other side of the hull, directly adjacent to him but on the right side of the ship as opposed to the left where he was. Now William knew how to work just about any kind of weapon on the face of the Earth, but even these heavy weapons gave him pause. He was no expert on this machine but he'd do what he must. Just as he situated himself for battle, the Panthera jerked the to the right and made a hard right bank. The force of the turn made it to where William could hardly move. Soon enough, to William's relief, they pulled out of the maneuver.
Emili's voice chirped on the headset, "Moving in to attack position. All crew prepare to engage."

Emili's voice rang out to everyone as she turned the ship so they were charging straight toward the hostile ships. She activated the power to the main cannon on the Panthera and a few of the minor weapons they had. However, she knew that she could not run the systems for the weapons and hope to hit something while she had to take evasive action moving the ship. Emili's voice resounded from the dash in front of Shepard, "Lieutenant, I need you to take manual control of the ship. I will make sure the primary systems are running smoothly but I need you to maneuver the ship. This is not a request. Prepare to engage." With that Emili fell silent and focused her attention on the hostile ships.

OOC: Hurrhurr!

IC:
Emili had been so focused on turning on the weapons systems that when she pulled back from them she realized that the Panthera was moving according to how Shepard stirred. It felt weird to the AI to have her 'body' moving without her knowledge, but then again the Panther was not truly her body. She didn't really have one. The image of her host human body passed through her mind. She pondered calling that body her home, but pushed it off for later. Now was not the time to ponder the question that was her existence.
When Shepard barked out his command, Emili target the nearest enemy. She felt a surge in the ship and the main cannon under the ship launched. A startling white color burst forth in a straight laser toward the nearest ship. The fighters immediately began to take evasive action. They swerved in varying directions, but the one Emili had aimed at took a glancing blow from her weapon. Smoke billowed out behind it as he dodged to the right and tried to right itself.

William waited until they had drawn close enough. The hair on his neck stood up as the electric charge of the main cannon built up. When the laser fired he was blinded for a moment, but only for a moment. He watched as the fighters dodged their cannon, it was his turn. He took aim at the closest of the fighters that swerved to the left. Just like a heavy powered machine gun from the ancient days, the turret spewed forth bullets in rapid succession. He clipped one of the fighters across the wing, though it didn't do much damage. They dodged his barrage of bullets and maneuvered around the Panthera as to try and get behind the craft. William swiveled the turret so that it faced the back of the ship and continued to fire at his targets, "They're on your six Shepard!"

OOC: That's okay, you can bark out orders. And if you want, you can play James Foster ;D

IC:

William fired rapidly at the fast approaching ships. He felt the Panthera buck and dodge the bullets and lasers they fired at it. William felt his body press heavily against the turret as Panthera began a steep dive, the ships following behind closely. The ships danced and dodged around each other until the Panthera pulled out of the maneuver and made a sharp arch upward so they were rocketing back in to the sky. William now faced the Earth and saw the fighters struggling to follow after the sleek Patriot ship. William let out another torrent of bullets, one of the fire took a direct hit and exploded near its companion, making the other ship buck and falter away. It turned and right itself only to have William let loose another barrage at it. This time he didn't land a direct hit, only a glancing blow. Panthera tipped forward and banked to the left, dodging another two fighters. All the while William had been listening headset that linked him to the c0ckpit allowed him to hear Dex's panic attack. He growled heavily in to the mic, "Welcome to War Commander."

William had smirked devilishly when Dex yelled at him. He promptly reply with a snippy, "Aye, aye Commander." He then stopped paying attention to the com and started letting out another barrage of bullets at a rapidly inclosing fighter. It darted at them like a bee, though at the spray of bullets it veered away. He managed to lodge a few shots in to its tail before it spun away. The sound of the starboard turret made William jump a little. He pulled away from his gun and tossed a look across the hull. On the opposite side of the Panthera sat the newest addition to the crew. William's mouth twitched before he faced his enemies again. He said quickly in to his mic, "Welcome aboard Foster. Good hunting." His voice was not full of anger, as it had been with Dex. The fight had filled him with energy and excitement. His mind was not filled with the woman anymore, at least for now.

Emili targeted the various ships, helping to guide William and James Foster's turrets. She fired the main cannon at the other fighters several times, though she only managed a direct hit on one of them. The AI's voice chirped in the c0ckpit, "Commander Soot, if we continue to engage these fighters the time table for our mission will be gone. Your orders?"