Log:Black Squadron: Black Forest Resistance

Black Squad arrives to help a friend

OOC Date: September 28, 2020
Location: Black Forest, Kashyyyk
Participants: Chewbacca, Rey, Ben Solo, Jessika Pava, Rose Tico, Elrych Cometburn, Ektor, Poe Dameron, Black Squadron

The first leg of the operation was a success. Chewie, and a squad of drek-kicking Wookiees, went on a liberation quest into the Black Forest, informing the squadron to 'wait for the signal'. What was the signal?

An hour passes, then another, and finally the radio crackles to life with an angry Wookiee.. (Wookiees). Chewie has managed to get his friends free from a slaver camp, and has stowed them all on a big speeder, following a game trail enroute to the sea. He relays that they need help. Slavers on speeders are pursuing his skiff and blasting it with their small blaster cannons, making life difficult for the passengers and making Chewie nervous. He transmits his location; the signal.

This prompts Black Squad to get on the scout speeders (like in Return of the Jedi) and close the distance to Chewie to ambush his pursuers. Poe is not among those on speeders, giving tactical command to Major Pava. Poe and Rose Tico are above in the Ghost, tracking the IFFs and providing tactical analysis so the squad know where they need to be.

<<"We copy, Chewie.. hang in there, buddy. Keep pushing toward the sea, we can do an extract there!">> Poe calls back to the roaring Wookiee.

Our team is in a clearing, though it's still relatively dark despite being mid-day. The sound of forest life is all around them and massive trees loom high above with a sea of foliage and canopy of huge leaves. There's more than enough speeders for everyone, or people can double up! Coordinates appear on each person's wrist-mounted datapad, and at a touch, its image is projected in holo form, taking on an orange hue.

Ektor quips with a crooked grin, <<I'm real glad you got a Wookiee ear, Pretty Boy, or I was gonna have to start guessing, yeah? Inbound, blasters live. Black- ..drek, which number am I?" Ektor, to his credit, is at least accelerating the old speeder bike at high speed toward the signal, and powering up the blaster cannon while wasting breath on the comms. Repulsor coils thrum into high output, echoing among the massive and ancient trunks.

<<"Right behind, Xer...">> Elrych announcs as he pushes the foot shifter forward. The old speeder bike glunks as more repulsor lifts fire and the speed picks up. He's wearing his robes, though the cloak was changed out for something with a bit more jungle camo than just his normal dark green... though it would have done in a pinch. His hair whips around in the wind as he maneuvers between trees and rocks at breakneck speeds. He pulls his lightsaber from his belt, holding it in one hand without ignighting it.

Rey had some experience with speeders like this, at least, though hers back on Jakku never went as fast as this one is capable of. On the back of Ben's speeder, she has her old scavenger goggles on her forehead, and reaches up to pull them down over her eyes. "I'm ready." She says to him, confidently, even if internally she might not entirely be.

When the vehicle starts to move with the pair upon it, she holds on to him in front of her with one hand while her other grips the blaster at her side. "You weren't kidding!" Rey's voice shouts over the wind as he applies even /more/ speed. "I might have to keep one of these." She adds with a momentary grin.

<"Don't worry, it's not like the First Order can count that high,"> Jessika quips to Ektor over their communications net. It's hard to hear, even with the voice directly in her ear, because the whine of the speeder bike and the hard rush of the wind by her head seek to block out all the other noise. Dressed in nothing that could possibly identify her as a member of Black Squadron or the New Republic, Jessika's dark hair whips behind her from the tail it's bound up in. It's kept out of her eyes, at least, ensuring there's nothing obstructing her view of the terrain ahead and the tracker she casts the occasional glance at. <"We're getting closer. Can you jam their communications from up there? The last thing we need is reinforcements.">

<<"Testor, it's Rose. We'll run the jamming sequence on your mark. We don't want to run it prematurely and Chewie's people shoot at you as you swoop in.">>

From high above, in thermal (black and white) view, Poe tracked the progress of Black Squad as they crossed the thick terrain below. They moved /fast/, and in closing with Chewie, they saw the terrain open up to something a bit more manageable driving wise. A game trail just wide enough for a skiff and a half to pass with a little elbow room to spare. Chewie's skiff was full bore, the massive transport clearly stolen from the slavers (because Chewie had not left with a speeder, nor did he have one hidden in his bandolier!) Chewie growls over the comms.

<<"NO!.. No, Chewie, /those/ are friendlies. They've just made it to you. Focus on putting some distance between you and those scouts.">> Poe calls out, a bit more urgency in his voice after hearing Chewie lament about more slavers to kill.

Chewie's skiff is up ahead, and behind him, TEN (10) speeders with two riders a piece give chase. Two have pulled up alongside his skiff, their passengers climbing aboard to fight the Wookiees on the main platform. The remaining eight are shooting at the back of the skiff, hoping to hit a subsystem to disable the transport.

<<"All concerned, we're jamming comms.">> Rose informed before comms transitioned to static.

<"Got it, Rose,"> Jessika responds back. Poe and Rose are right. They don't want to jam anything too soon. Jessika cranks the throttle on the speeder, encouraging the bike faster even while she weaves around terrain features that would be a little too much of a hard bump for the repulsorlifts to take. Finally, the skiff with Chewbacca and rescued Wookiees comes into view, and Jessika can see it's being swarmed with speeders. <"They're surrounded,"> She informs Poe and Rose more than the others on the ground with her. When she hears Poe confirm to Chewie that there are friends approaching, she waits for their conversation to finish. <"Jam it now, Rose!"> Even if reinforcements are on the way, the targets they're after right now won't be able to update them.

Jessika guides her bike into position behind one of the many trying to board the skiff. She rapidly glances between the fuselage and the target ahead, lining up her shot. The switch on the handlebar is bumped when she lines things up just right, and a loud cacophony of noise sounds as her speeder spits red bolts that smash into her target. Even Jessika has to wince when the passenger on board goes over, and she jukes her bike around the one no longer able to keep up with the group. "That's one down."

Ektor races in to one side of Jessika's lead bike, splitting rapidly from the Major as Chewie's escape boat comes into view, to give him an angle of fire on the other slaver speeder that was threatening to board. His blaster cannon screeches and strikes the speeder, doing minor damage, but raising a spray of sparks and scaring the damaged vehicle off of their boarding attempt. "That's right, Hutt-suckers, get rekked-"

As the terrain opens up, Elrych slows his speeder down a bit. Blue eye flick around, taking in the targets at hand. THere was no targeting computer like in his E-Wing. No selector. It all had to be done by sight. This caused him to smirk. A real challange. He angles in after one of the damaged ones, watching Ektor and Jess swoop in. They manage to pump the air breaks. Elrych zooms past. "Stang!"

There's a moment of apprehension from Ben when he hears the remarks in Shyriiwook, but they're quickly contradicted and the man in black and browns relaxes somewhat on his seat. "That could have been a problem." But there is no Wookiee problem, thankfully, and with a shove of the handlebars, he sends their speeder flying forward again.

Black Squadron is effective, and while the others engage the slavers directly, Ben hangs back, swinging the speeder from side to side amid the game trail like a pendulum that also happens to be moving forward at breakneck speed. Ektor blasts the speeder trying to board Chewie's skiff, and in response, Ben shoves those handlebars all the way ahead, threading through the others to emerge in a clear path of fire for his passenger. "Don't panic or anything, but this is a perfect shot!" he shouts over his shoulder, the wind stealing his words away.

Rey's covered eyes track the speeders zipping about. She spots Ektor's nimble driving lead to some direct hits to one of their enemies, which causes it to slow down enough for her to raise her silvery blaster up and take multiple shots at the driver and passenger on the speeder.

PEW PEW PEW!

Rey squeezes the trigger on her pistol repeatedly, the shots striking the driver of the vehicle in multiple locations, until the speeder sweeps over and smacks into a tree with a world-rumbling thundrous explosion.

Rey spins back around to peer over Ben's shoulder then. "This is madness!" She says to her driver in front of her! (Driving miss Daisy!?).

"I'm starting to panic!" Rey adds, sarcastically of course, becasue even with the wind whipping over them, she can hear his words anyway!

The battle is on now, with the backdrop of roaring engines and the static of jammed comms. Blaster bolts trade back and forth from the skiff's main deck as Wookiees engage a few of the slavers. One of the slavers is struck and the Wookiee responsible holds its bowcaster high and roars, its black and bright white fur a spectacle when the wind moves through it. Chewie grumbles and roars at the controls of the skiff, and finally begins to coax some more speed from the vessel to put distance between them and the slavers.

Meanwhile, Black Squad finds themselves tangled in a mess of slavers. It's dangerous, driving over the terrain, having to worry about dodging trees and dipping out of blaster range. The slavers are no pushovers.

Black Squadron is beginning to make short work of things. They've taken care of the targets trying to board the skiffs, but there are still some carrying passengers. Not wanting to give them a chance to get closer and try another boarding maneuver, Jessika sweeps in around towards another one of the bikes carrying two at a time. This isn't like flying. It's not difficult to line up the shot. The bikes ahead of them are concerned with keeping up with the skiff. Lining up another shot, Jessika watches her target's fuselage take a solid hit. Sparks. Smoke. She can tell the bike ahead suddenly is starting to bleed speed, and she adjusts her own so that she doesn't shoot past. She's going to try to take this one out of the fight completely.

Ektor weaves the speeder in and among trees at speed. He's lost sight of the skirmish for several seconds in the course of circling back toward the running battle, until visual contact is restored. He only narrowly avoids a blaster cannon shot, coming close enough to bubble the paint job, earning a dumb chuckle as he returns fire to greater effect.

Elrych makes a wide arc with his speeder, widely avoiding some return fire. He pilots back around the skiff and bearing down on one of the undamaged speeders. This time his mark finds true, crimson bolts sparking off the bike and cuasing it to smoke in a thick trail behind it. He looks around to get his bearing, to see who would come after him.

"Good, I worry you might lose your cool. That the skiff might suddenly explode with electricity," Ben remarks dryly, which here takes the form of yelling it loudly over his shoulder. The slavers attempt to return fire on them, but for the most part, anywhere they shoot, the speeder is simply nowhere nearby when the blast arrives. Other than a stray bolt that sizzles past his ear towards his passenger, drawing a frown from the driver. "That was my fault." Twisting the handles, Ben pulls the speeder into a sort of powerslide around a trunk, slingshotting around wide of the pursuing slavers and bringing Rey into line for another salvo.

With their speeder soaring around the base of a large tree, Rey turns her eyes look forward just as another speeder sweeps in on their right. The passenger board the enemy vehicle tires at her, two of the shots zipping wide while the third was aimed right at Rey's side! Her right hand snaps out and she holds her palm out flat, letting the beam collide with her palm, sparks fly out, splashing in all directions!

Rey's pistol comes up and she returns fire, blasting at the driver and passenger of the speeder repeatedly... hitting them both until they scream and vanish into the woods.

She then shakes her head that she'd dissipated the shot from, skin a bit sizzled, but no real damage to speak of. "That was uncomfortably close." She shouts up to Ben. "Are you trying to get me shot?" She adds, for flavor, and to annoy him a little of course too.

The trees are beginning to let up, and light from the sun is peeking through the gaps in the overbearing canopy. It's the first sign of the coast, and they're closing in quick. The Wookiees on the top deck continue to battle it out, trading shots back and forth. One slaver manages to hit a Wookiee warrior, but another Wookiee retaliates and blasts the shooter responsible right off the bike to promptly smash against a tree with a sickening THOOONK. The injured Wookiee, and their friend, celebrate with raised weapons and howling.

As the trees eventually taper, the sky opens up to a rich blue. Storm clouds loom ahead, out toward the sea and the seascape horizon. The ground changes to sand, and Chewie takes them along the coastline, following the shore for now passing beneath the bright sunlight and casting shade of ancient trees they pass.

The Ghost appears overhead, its olive-drab green hull a distinct darkspot against the sea of sapphire blue sky beyond it. Its golden hued impulse engines glow bright, propelling the vessel overhead in a quick fly-by to reach the extraction zone. The cargo lift along the ship's belly lowers, and a single figure is present, tethered to one of the cleats on the platform. It's Rose Tico! She chicken-wings a rifle under her arm and takes a knee, her hair going wild as the Ghost slows to provide her with a vantage. She dons a beanie cap to keep her hair out of her face, and finally shoulders her weapon, preparing to fire to cover her allies and close friends!

She knows they're starting to get closer to the dust-off point. The thinning trees and the rapid flicks of sunlight across the ground are enough evidence of that. "We need to hurry!" Is it possible for anyone to hear? She's not sure. Everyone's doing their own thing, and even she hasn't missed how Ben and Rey are trying to contend with the multiple shots that are pinging off their speeder. That, and there's a clear chance that the longer this goes on, the more the friends they're trying to save are going to continue to get hurt. Jessika adjusts the gear on her bike and rotates the throttle harder, trying to speed up around one of the bikes behind so she can get off a shot at one farther ahead. It's a glancing blow, and one that pings off into the trees.

Ektor cracks up laughing as one dead slaver gets high speed bag-of-crunchy-jelly slammed into a tree. "HA. That guy looks like a bag of crunchy jelly, yeah?" Mercifully for everyone, comms are still jammed. The reformed (?) pirate twitches the speeder out of the path of an enemy salvo, hammering the same target with a barrage of his own, flying through the resulting haze with a crooked smile. "BOOM, baby!"

"Hurrying!" Elrych shouts, just barely hearing Jess over the roar of their speeder bikes. He looks up, noticing the Ghost along with Rose atop it with ther gun. "Okay..." Looking back, his foot presses down on the clutch, the speeder speeding forward once more. Crimson bolts lance out one more from the Jedi's bike, slamming into the power housing of the slaver's speeder. It sparks and then explodes. THe debries fly every which direction across the opening beach front. THey explode again where they land, smoking heavily. "Sorry!" He offers, perhaps not completely genuine.

"If I was /trying/ to get you shot, you'd be shot," Ben assures Rey, shifting in his seat in a way that makes the speeder bob up and down while it hurtles along, the repulsors whining. He frowns in concentration, hearing Jess say something that sounds vaguely urgent, whatever the actual words were, and feels around on the controls. "Oh, that's where the guns are."

The revelation is interrupted as a shot across the bow nearly knocks the nose of the speeder into the dirt, jarring both driver and passenger in the saddle while Ben abruptly pulls back on the handles, kicking the foot pedals simultaneously. The speeder responds as if it were a rocket taking off into space, catapulting vertically.

"Hold on!" The toe of his boot nudges one of the pedals opposite, handlebars thrown sideways, and suddenly they're descending in a spiral, the underslung blaster chugging plasma down on a hapless, smoking slaver's vehicle, sending the long contraption pinwheeling off into the undergrowth in a haze of smoke and flame that Ben and Rey disappear into from above and come screaming out the side, the driver's mouth drawn into a thin line.

Rey's eyes go up to the sky when she sees the tree canopy start to clear away. She follows the clearing down to see the coastline up ahead, and then the Ghost as it swoops in from above, with action Rose wielding a big gun to help cover them.

Ben's shout to hold on, garners Rey's attention and she does just that, before she catches sight of another enemy speeding up along side them in a smoking and sparking vehicle. Her gun snaps up, out and the trigger is squeezed!

PEW!

The driver is shot, his body flops off of his speeder that is sent spiraling off to the side that its rider's flailing form vanished to!

Rose, who is under the belly of the Ghost, tethered to a lowered cargo lift platform, has taken a knee and lined up a shot. Although the contrail can't be seen in daylight, the laser marks the intended target before Rose fires her A280 rifle. The resulting lance hits with enough concussive force it shatters the protective plasteel the driver is wearing, and conceives and exit wound from their back, clouding the space around the driver and passenger with a pink mist. The bike veers off, buckling against a tree and exploding.

The remaining two speeders pursue to the beach, but the damaged one falls back when a ship passes by overhead. Leaving a lone speeder to pursue the squad and their stolen Wookiee merchandise!

Comms crackle back to life. <<"Testor, it's Pretty Boy. Gonna settle up ahead. Load up quickly, and when we're all aboard, let me know. We'll need to dust off quick!">>

<<"Chewie! It's Rose.. get your passengers ready to disembark! I'll cover you guys!">> Rose relays; the answer that returns is growls and roars!

<"I read you."> The radio silence is over. Juking around the bike trying to fall behind, Jessika sets her gaze on the last one pursuing the skiff. <"Let's wrap this up and go home. Are you two okay?"> There's only one speeder bike out of them that's carrying passengers, but Jessika shoots a glance towards Ben and Rey all the same, hoping that some semblance of eye contact might emphasize she's talking to them. She doesn't keep her eyes off the path for long, though. That's a good way to get killed. And there's still the one bike to deal with. <"There's one target left, Rose. We'll try to get it before we get there."> She's already taking a shot at it. It's not a bad one, but the driver's got the hindsight to not drive in a straight line, leading her to miss.

<<I'm with you, Jess, we got this Hutt-sucker.. Hey Rose: WATCH THIS," the Tionese pilot hoots, looping hard around a tree in the thinning forest to re-ambush the trailing ambusher. Jess forces them to juke one way to survive and drives the slaver squarely into a devestating cannonade. <<Arright, time to hit the beach; who brought their suits?>>

With the final speeder bike taken care of, Elrych pilots his own craft towards where the Ghost settles down. It's not long before he reaches it, speding up the ramp and coming to a stop in the cargo bay. Dismounting, he pulls off the helmet and lets it hand on the handle bars. Running at a jog, he moves to help the wookies out of the skiff as it comes in to make it's transfer.

<<"I mean... I wouldn't mind staying. Say... when are we going to blow those drekkin cruisers out of the sky up there.">> He chuckles.

There's a delay while Ben figures out that Jess was asking about Rey and him, attention mostly fixed on the skiff and the descending Ghost, but the word 'two' sticks in his ear long enough to get a response. <"Uh, yes. We're fine."> There's an explosion up ahead as Ektor takes down the last of the slaver speeders, and the whining ebbs slightly as Ben backs off the throttle. His eyes trail towards Jess's speeder, and he clicks the comm back on, clearing his throat. <"How are you?">

That doesn't sound right, and he frowns immediately, clicking the comm off and wiping self-consciously at the device for a moment. "Stupid," muttered darkly under his breath. The speeder whirs along behind the others, kicking up a short cloud of sand as it follows the skiff in towards the Ghost's eventual landing place.

ith the threats seemingly elinated, Rey slides her blaster pistol back in to the holster on the outside of her right thigh. "Well that was interesting!" She shouts over the sound of heir own speeder's rumbling engine. "Could've gone far worse." She scans the horizon for the others, then looks up when she hears Elrych's comment over the sky. There were First Order ships up there, she'd seen them on the way in, they'd had to take a long way around to get in to the planet without raising any alarms. <"Someday."> Rey's voice chimes up on the comms for the first time since the speeder chase started.

She looks to Rose then on the Ghost. <"Timely arrival, good piloting and good shooting, you two."> She tells those aboard the friendly freighter.

"Good driving." She says up to Ben then, after hearing him muttering something in front of her.

<<"Roger, Testor!">>

<<"Nice shot, Tion!">> Rose calls back to both, respectively.

The Ghost circles before adopting a general hover. Wing flaps flatten as repulsors come online, kicking up sand and misty water from the nearby shoreline. Beneath the Ghost, Rose holds her rifle with two hands and has risen to stand at her modest height. She waves the Wookiees on board, who have to duck slightly before climbing into the belly of the VCX-100.

Poe can be seen in the cockpit behind the canopy of glass. He's seated, wearing a headset, and watching a few of the monitors inside while the speeders approach. BB-8 is inside the cargo bay/hangar, warbling at the Wookiees who board. Chewie is the last of the Wookiees, and he jogs heavily to the ship, abandoning the skiff with a dismissive grunt. "Good to see you, Chewie!" Rose issues to the mighty Wookiee. Then it's time for Black Squad to board.

"Welcome back, guys! Great work!" Rose commends with a cheerful smile; genuinely happy to see them all safe.

When everyone is aboard, Poe receives the signal and the ramp rises up simultaneously as the Ghost's repulsorlifts increase their output. Pivoting with ease, Poe takes command of the vessel and adjusts the heading. His voice crackles over the intercom. <<"Hang onto something back there!">> No sooner had he warned, the Ghost's engines herald the sudden pressure that comes from blasting off toward the sky. The interior of the military craft rattles.

Mister Bones, the old eccentric battle droid that patrols the interior of the vessel, calmly clamps its shotgun to its back with a magnetic SNAP. <"A SHAME THERE WAS NOTHING TO SHOOT AT. MY INTERNAL PROCESSES DEMAND BLOOD. WHAT PASSES FOR THIRST MUST BE QUENCHED. PERHAPS, SOON! FOR NOW, THIS UNIT MARCHES ON! HUP--TWO--THREE!"> And so it marches on by, its spiky mohawk beak shaped head pivoting to regard the passengers briefly, as if considering bloodshed, but it continued on unhindered by the G's of exiting atmosphere!

When they cleared atmosphere, and the sky peeled back to the dark of space, Poe reaches over and pulls back the lever for hyperspace. The Ghost's view of space smooths into elongated lines of light just as the ship zips from view, its signature masked as it has always been!