Log:Array Consortium: Turtle Run
Turtle Run
Location: Sarkhai
Participants: David Ironside, Tamrae, Naldana, Samaya, Aola Ziveri
With the Children of Kespan in force around the Sarkhai system, vital materials for the repair of the Altiadan are being brought in from afar via the heavy transport Galamatha - but when the ship is set upon by Kespanian fighters, the crew will need to keep the ship together while Consortium pilots do their best to keep their attackers at bay.
With the mauling of the Atrax Guard's secondary flagship, the assault frigate Altiadan, and the proliferation of Kespanian patrols throughout the system, making the transport of materials all the more difficult for a group who is - at the moment - attempting to hide their presence. The base on Detara is as of yet unexplored, thanks to the planet's toxic atmosphere, but the combined naval fleet of the Atrax Guard and the Gray Legion cannot go near it or its repair stockpiles for fear of leading the Children of Kespan's own monstrous Star Destroyer to the planet. A single visit by that beast and its escorts might well end any hope of ending the corporatist faction's choke-hold on the system. To get around this, independent freighters are being dispatched from outside the system, to try and get in from nav buoys dropped at the outer edge of the system.
The /Galamatha/ is one of these, a massive Ghtroc Cargo Empress that is fully loaded with repair materials meant to get the Altiadan back in working order. Unfortunately, upon entering the system, the Galamatha has been discovered by a large Kespanian patrol, and now finds itself beseiged by a number of enemy fighters. Streaming from a number of sudden wounds, flame and toxic vapors surround the ship with streamers of glittering mist, causing the six angry fighters pounding the ship with their cannons to work overtime to ensure their shots land. On board, surrounded by danger lights and screaming alarms, Chief Tamrae - asked to oversee the traverse - finds herself the senior engineer on board, with the chief engineer of the Galamatha having been slain upon the first shots of the surprise assault.
It is upon this scene that a Consortium patrol arrives; led by Samaya the Vendetta, Gray Leader, the ships that follow her are crewed by Naldana in the Vendetta, Gray Two, and David Ironside in the T-85 he calls Bravado, listed as Gray Three for this patrol. Hearing just the slightest snatches of a distress call from the beleaugered Galamatha, they come...and have their work well and truly cut out for them.
The Galamatha must survive, whatever the result.
"...guys...GUYS! THEY ARE BREAKING MY SHIP!!!! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!" Yes, the little codruji is a bit distracted by, you know...attempting to keep the large ship's modest shield systems online to try and absorb at least some of the incoming fire. She's not a captain so she's letting that to the bridge crew, instead running around from system to system trying to siphon power back and forth from one side of the shield to the other to keep the ship together.
<Okay then, lead on. I've got your six.> Naldana speaks into the head set, as his eyes are moving over the stars taking it in, with his over sized helmet with a little snarl of pleasure, as he watches it all.<Okay then, whats your orders?> His hands is resting waiting on the commands as he watches it all, his narrow eyes taking in the scene.
Samaya is wearing her suit, cough not the power armor i'm wearing currently, as for the normal. But she looks at the scene before her and then growls over comms. "So, I have six marks, We'll call them claw one through six, Ironside, Nal target Claw six, The rear fighter. I'll target claw three." She murmurs softly giving her orders before flicking her scanners on.
David reports. <<Negative, Lead. There's too many fighters to pair us off against one each.>> he advises, gloved hands flying over the control panels. <<On your word, I can get there fast and lead off the attack.>> he suggests, releasing the latch that keeps the wings together, weapon systems coming alive in another display. <<Shields and weapons functional.>> he finishes.
So far, Tamrae's engineering crew is managing to keep the Galamatha shielded and moving...though the hyperdrive is going to be off line for a bit, because she's focusing attention on the shields first, followed by engines, hull breaches, and the hyper will be a thing if they manage to still be functional after the fighter battle outside. It's not like the lumbering transport is offering a lot to the fight, with its weapons offline. It's not like a single laser turret is going to add a lot to the fight, after all.
"Switch the number 3 conduit over to the secondary bypass, keep a steady flow into those shields! Tomlin, engine three is out, but feather five, it's still functional but it's having a firing circuit short, I'll bypass it!
Naldana pilots quickly towards his target his eyes are locke on it watching it all as he squeezes off twice quickly with his heavy lasers, as he rolls the ship now to try get out of the range of the attack back.
Samaya rolls her fighter over and follows the other two into formation, of course she isn't 'sure' the idea is a solid one so she takes her shots at the fighter she lights up but only dings it faintly.
David pulls hard on the stick, breaking the X-Wing out of the formation. One sweet barrel roll later, he's making speed towards the large ship being pummeled by the hostile fighters. Taking quick advantage of the systems embedded in the Array's flight helmet, he plots a course to intercept. Making sure his flight path takes neither him nor any laser fire directly into the Galamatha, he fires off a volley at the fighter deemed the most immediate threat. The bright red lasers fly wide, disappearing into space in the distance, but at least David made the other guy work for it, he notes to himself with a small smirk.
The Galamatha, a massive Ghtroc Cargo Empress, is under heavy attack from six Kespanian Preybird fighters and streams flames and smoke from a number of wound in her hull. While Samaya and Naldana - in the Vendettas Gray Leader and Gray Two - and David in his X-wing titled Gray Three, have drawn off three of the Preybirds, three more keep up it assault on the beleaguered transport. Aola has been dispatched to help with the patrol, becoming Gray Four upon arrival, and arrives just in time to see the everyone engaged in heavy combat. Naldana has just restored his blown shields, but Samaya and David remain unscathed!
Tamrae jumps as a power conduit in the engine room overloads and explodes, the engineering display showing the shielding energy for the entire ship dropping precipitously! "Get on those shields, we lose those it won't matter if we've lost the engines!" she shouts, hurring over to help tugging temporary conduit cables over to the damaged area as a damage control droid yanks out the burning conduit fitting then making room for the crew to start reattaching the power.
Naldana starts to work on his shields, his worried eyes on the disply and then he is moving power over. His skills not perfect but he now has half shields, with a little sigh of pleasure coming out of his mouth.<Shields at half, how id everyone else?>
David flips a switch in his cockpit, an alarm blaring about the x-wing being targeted by another fighter. "I get it, they're behind me." he mutters as he makes ready for a maneuver. He leads the pursuing Preybird away from the Galamantha, then suddenly pulls the brakes and turns around in place to head directly at the Preybird, unafraid. A volley of laser fire from each of the four tips of the X-Wing later, David is now in pursuit of a fleeing Preybird himself, and he reports. <<All good here, I turned the tables on one.>>
It wasn't Aola's normal ship, either TIE or her prefered E-Wing, but that didn't mean the Twi'lek wasn't here to lend a hand. As her patrol fighter came screaming onto the scene, the blue-skinned pilot immediately leaps into the fray, giving chase after one of the fighters that was peppering Naldana's ship. She needed to give him a window to get her shields back up. <<This is Grey Four, thought you guys might need a hand!>> she calls, her gaze flicking worriedly to the injured Cargo ship Tamrae was on before her gaze goes to the hostile Preybirds. "Alright, come and get me..." she hisses towards the hostile vessels as she blasts away with her laser cannons.
Samaya is so busy dodging to take the time and line up her shop. Thinking she has a shot she pulls the trigger, and growls as she watches her shots just fly off into space, there wasn't a star fighter where her shots where.
Laser bolts flash fast and furious as the fighters clash; as many fighters as the group can pull off, that much relief is given the beleaguered freighter and her repair crew. The remaining two attackers draw off for a moment, as if to determine new targets - whatever the comms traffic might be going on right now, the Galamatha gets a moment just to /breathe/.
The fighters outside at least give a temporary respite, long enough for Tamrae to get the conduit locked in place with a sharp crack of a circuit tripping, followed by glowing blue energy running down the conduit as the shields outside sputter back into life. Still charging, but at least some of the emitters are powered as Tamrae takes a deep breath. "Okay, let's get those engines up, we need to keep moving. Jrax, get that number 3 engine humming again!
The wolf-man is flying now towards the enemy his eyes are narrow as he picks one of the targets, the one closests too him the one that fired on him, to line it up and the laser is fired as he pulls it twice, with a wicked snort of pleasure.
Samaya rolls out of way shot only to feel it slam into the back of her fighter as she looks over her shoulder at the fighter following her and there is a growl coming over the comms before she slides left. "Anyone want to pegs this guy on my ass?" She calls out while lining up her shot on the guy she was landing the heavies but the turret misses.
David meanwhile has been flying on the Preybird's tail, occasionally shooting lasers at the preybird. It's not until later, when they manage to fly somewhat away from the other ships criss-crossing, that Dave gets a decent shot in, starting a small fire on the Preybird's hull before it's extinguished by science.
The melee is serious, and now the enemy fighters are starting to see that they might be a bit outclassed. Savaged terribly by the combination of Samaya and Aola's guns, one of the modified Preybirds breaks off and heads away from the field at top speed - far faster than the class should be capable of - its pale gray hull alight with the fires burning along the rents in its hull. Red and green flash everywhere, and the enemy ships now find themselves faced with real uncertainty. The freighter is abandoned, at least for the moment, as Claws 1 and 2 now break off and join the fight, hopefully to repulse the assault before the Galamatha can escape.
Meanwhile, the freighter's shields have been restored to half, and its wounds are closing thanks to the dedicated work of its engineering team; though power has been routed from the hyperdrive to restore them, now the shield generator's own feed will be enough to continue the work without all those lasers carving it up. Escape preparations can be made - assuming Tamrae and her team can get it running...
Waving her way through the fire chasing her, Aola's light fighter twists and chases after her own target. She might be lacking the armor, but the nimble craft manages to draw a line on her target, the Twi'lek's blaster fire rips into the preybird she comes after. She doesn't speak again, instead she's already chasing her next mark.
Samaya keeps on her target and as it starts to head out of the combat zone she lines up on him and as quickly as she can and torches him, the heavies ripping through the ass-end of the preybird and gut the ship as it explosed. Then banking to keep the fighter on her six from getting such an easy mark.
The fight continues. Lasers fly left and right, exploded ships throw debris everywhere as the tide starts turning in the favor of the Array squadron, and David is still chasing his prey. The Preybird, even. He just keeps landing hits on it, smoke flying off with every strike, until the puffs become a single column trailing behind the Preybird, causing the pilot to turn tail and fly off. But David remains on his tail. There will be no repairs made today.
With Samaya in the clear, Aola changes targets again to one of the newer fighters and grips the controls. She wasn't leading the squadron today, having been part of the other patrol, but in a way? That suited the fighter ace just fine. Twisting and chasing her way through the fray, she blasts her new target and begins to rip him apart with little more then a furrow of her bow and a slight curve of her lips to a smile.
Today she was just a combat pilot...and they were shooting at some very important people to her.
With their numbers starting to dwindle, it's clear now that the Preybirds are outmatched - and so they break, either to flee the field or to escape combat. Whatever they're up to, the getting is now officially good - assuming the engineering teams can do their thing. All the fighters have to do now is keep the bogies clear.
With the attackers breaking off, the engineering crew aboard the transport have time to actually focus on something besides patching holes in the hull or getting the shields up, meaning they turn their attention back to the hyperdrive and getting it on online. Once it is, Tamrae comes on the comm. "Okay, our hyper systems are back online! We're microjumping to th' target location...stand by..."
Samaya looks at her scanners, while she wants to chase she knows their objective. "Break off, remain on the transport." The Flight Leader calls while she looks around and her heart isn't in her thoat after that hard hit she took. "Keep your eyes open, they may not be the only ones out here and they could be baiting us."
<Okay then, I'll keep em off you.> Naldana is tracking down one of the fleeing ships, opening fire on them with a firing of lasers, and then the command to come back is given.<Coming back.> He then turns around quickly with the motions of the his hands and then he is floating around the transport.
Her target was limping, mostly dead and probably barely in condition to jump, but they were retreating. The last thing Aola wanted to do was chase too far and get swamped, or leave the damaged freighter unprotected. At first she opens her mouth to give instructions, but closes it again with a smirk at Samaya's own orders before sweeping her fighter back towards the freighter. <<Galamantha, what's your status?>> she finally calls, glancing back to her scopes readout in her array helmet. <<Are you good to keep moving?>>
The Preybirds are now pale shapes fleeing in the distance, streaming blood-colored ion wash and flames streaming from their wounds. The Consortium's forces have repulsed half a squadron of heavy fighters with little damage to themselves, and kept their target not only quite alive, but under Tamrae's instructions in rapid repair. She's going to need some time in a repair bay to get all the dents off, but all things considered? A better job likely could not have been done.
The gratitude that should be expected from the crew is clear in the voice that sounds over the circuit. << Defending ships, this is Galamantha, >> says the crewman, a serpentine voice with a faint buzz somewhere in its melody. << We're fine, I repeat, we're fine! No casualties. We're going to jump now -- many thanks, everyone, you've saved us. >> Not taking any chances, the ship now begins to buzz with energy as the hyperdrive collects its power...and then jumps away, blinking to another place in the system where further defenders can ferry it to its waiting charges.
Not bad for a night's work.
