Log:Black Squadron: Frozen Ghosts Pt II

Black Squad finishes what they started

OOC Date: September 23, 2020
Location: Hoth
Participants: Rey, Elrych Cometburn, Jessika Pava, Poe Dameron, Black Squadron

Black Squadron was quick to land following the bombing of the ship graveyard. The fallout of such a precise and deadly bombing had lasting effects beyond the towers of black smoke that mixed with the grey clouds above. Fires sprout all over the massive stretch of tundra that once was littered with ships and now was reduced to burning heaps of jagged metal and molten after-effects proton bombs and torpedoes.

The one section saved from the force of the blast had a capital ship to thank. An ancient cruiser sticking out of the ice like a long forgotten knife loomed overhead casting an odd shadow. Long and deadly ice spikes that once held onto the hull at its highest point have melted enough to fall, landing on the ground below and impaling it with explosive ice that was literally hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.

From a nearby hilltop, offset from the destruction, Black Squadron makes their way into the chaos of a blizzard fire storm to plant tactical nukes intended to glass the rest of the graveyard and eliminate the worry of every finding pirates here picking the bones of past wars.

It's Poe who has the bag of explosives slung over his shoulder, a mask over his face and a black wrap that's been oriented around his head to protect his scalp from frostburn or worse. He wears green goggles over his eyes, and has a breathing apparatus to ensure the icy air does not freeze his lungs. He carries an A280, and moves with the advantage of survival training across the ice and snow. <<"Everyone holding up good?">> He asks while walking toward the horizon of fire and snow.

She's the suffer in silence type. She has been ever since she was little. Solutions, not problems, are her preferred method of communication. So when Poe Dameron asks everyone if they're holding up well, Jessika Pava doesn't say anything. The thermal glove inside of her flight suit is rated for cold more extreme than this. It is, after all, the only protection she has in the event of an evactuation into space from her starfighter. But there are parts that the thermal glove doesn't cover, and while the mask and googles and the protective hood pulled up over her head help, there are parts of her skin that aren't quite so insulated, and the proximity to the cold-blasted surface leaves her skin aching with pain. It could be worse, though.

She says that a lot. It's a coping mechanism. A bit of false bravado that provides her with motivation she has no reason to have. Nevermind she's only a few feet away from being someone carrying a device capable of blasting the skin and muscle tissue off her bones and turning those into ash within mere moments. Her brain probably wouldn't even be able to properly assess the flash of light properly before no more brain. By the virtue of the fact that she's still walking through the snow and not currently being vaporized into atoms, Jessika's doing fine. As fine as someone can be in the middle of a blizzard in a planet covered in little else but ice and snow. At least the fires in the distnace look warm. She tries not to think about what might happen if they get caught in a secondary explosion chain as peristent flames find more ordinance to set off as the insides of ancient ship hulls are engulfed in heat and pressure. But for a science nerd, it's hard not to think about.

In the end.. <"I'm good.">

Rey hadn't gotten a new flightsuit yet. She still had the one that Leia had given her from a compartment on the Falcon. It had belonged to Luke, at some point, and remarkably fit her fairly well, a bit baggy in the shoulders, but they were roughly the same height, so that worked out well.

What Rey doesn't know, is that the flightsuit she's wearing has been to Hoth before, a very long time ago...

<"Never been better."> Rey's voice speaks up after Poe's. <"I'm glad I wore this.">" She adds, not carrying a weapon directly yet, though she has her blaster and saber attached to her suit belt, a white scarf around her neck and mouth, her flight helmet still on her head... she has to really work her feet to get through the snow, not exactly having a wealth of experience with snow traversal, after all.

<<"Sorry I'm late... I had to put out a fire.">> Came the voice of Elrych Cometburn over Squadron comms. Usually he wsn't late, but from time to time he had picked up the habit of another one of their comrades who displayed lateness far too often. Perhaps he had just been busy... or aqtually had to put out a fire. Either way he jumped into system /after/ all the fun had happened just in time to join his comrades down on the frozen surface.

Elrych had time to get a flightsuit so that's what he was wearing. He would have prefered his robes but his skills in Temperature alteration were lacking and had much more effort to be desired before it was an effective tool. So he was dressed rather similarly to Poe and Jessika. <<"This is like... the fourth time in Two years I've been to Hoth. I must be doing something wrong.">> He hadn't drawn the lightsaber that hung from his utility belt yet, not feeling the need to.

<"Hoth ain't so bad,"> Poe lies, but they didn't need to know that. He shifts the bag he's wearing to center more on his back, and pauses to look up at the towering capital ship and all the tall flames licking out toward the sky beyond that. <"This is the kind of drek you see in a holo or something."> It was a rare, and oddly eerie sight to behold.

Poe leads them through the wreckage passing some of the thick, thousand year old ice spikes sticking out of the ground. Some were large enough to be buildings in their own right. They looked moist, pellucid, and warmer than they should. That was thanks to the destruction and fire the team walked toward. Poe glances back at Rey when she indicates being glad she wore something. 'Checking' her out, he nods and looks ahead again. <"Looks like the older variant. The lighter orange gives it away.">

<"Or you're doing something right, Elrock! Hahaha."> Ever the chipper sort, Poe leads them to the outer exterior of the capital ship, just outside an opening that should lead further in. Rather than taking point and risk turning supernova from a stray shot, he puts his back to the hull and motions through the opened frame and interior. <"I think it may be wise I bring up the rear. Rear with the gear.."> There was a charming smile that followed that, but no one could see it.

The opening in the ship was actually much larger than it let on. The interior pans out into a great big open area. To the right, the hull buries itself, ceiling and floor, into the ice, and to the left, the ship angles upward, making it a slight climb to venture into the ancient vessel. <"Jess, where do you think we should plant these in here?"> Poe asks, more over comms than saying it out loud. He's being subtle and just sneaky enough to keep his voice from carrying (though that might be a feat considering the idle hum and roar of fire all around their landscape.

The second Poe mentions Hoth isn't so bad, Jessika wagers she could find somewhere to hide his body that nobody would find in the many thousands of years. She's been here more than once and every time has been a bad time. There's no question about it. Hoth is bad, and she hates it. Poe pauses, but Jessika's not as close to him as she used to be. The difference in heights has gradually changed the distance between herself and the other members. The snow is deep and there are better methods of transportation they unfortunately don't possess at the moment. Luckily, their communication devices mean the small discrepancies in distance mean nothing. Also, the blizzard has a tendency to howl, and shouting with severe winds is not a great way to talk.

Poe's boisterous voice makes her trigger finger itchy. The in-jest scenarios running through her head evaporate once they make it to the capital ship in question. Jessika doesn't bother looking up. In this kind of storm, she doubts she'd be able to see the top of it, anyway. The chance to shoot her leader in the back is missed when he suggests bringing up the rear, and Jessika knows what that means all too well. She doesn't hesitate to step in first, weapon raised so that the stock of it is against the pocket of her shoulder and her barrel is all the way up. There's no sense of being low ready right now. The only people ahead of her are going to be hostiles. Maybe she should let the Jedi go first, but... too late. Poe's question makes her hesitate for a brief moment as she scans the various directions available to her. "....Honestly? Right here. The interior of the ship isn't meant to deal with this kind of firepower. It'll go right through the walls. The strongest parts of it are the outside hall. Compared to that, the interior is thin. That, and I have no experience or knowledge about these ancient capital ships. I'd randomly be picking a direction and hoping we headed to where they kept all their bombs. I mean.. we could give it a shot, if you want." She hopes they don't have to do any shooting. Poe is kind of a walking bomb right now.

Rey's eyes go to Poe as he falls back toward her side to appraise her old flightsuit. "It smells musty too." She says through the muffle-providing white scarf she has around her mouth, thoughher eyes are visible behind the orange shield of her helmet's visor "I always forget to modernize..."

When Poe falls back to take the Rear, Rey glances to Jessika, then to Elrych, and finally to the big 'door' that they'll be using to get inside.

She doesn't hesitate to be the first to enter the hulking old wreckage. She's entered plenty of them in her life after all. Up out of the snow, and on to more solid footing, Rey reaches for a handhold, wrapping her gloved fingers around a metal scrap, she pulls herself in to the vessel.

"Hopefully there's a power generator we can access, putting them there might really go 'boom'. So long as we've gotten away first..."

<<"The Force is clearly punishing me...">> Elrych says with a bit of a huff as he hops in behind Jess. He takes a moment to look around, a light popping on. He reches out with the force, pinging for life signs. He doesn't sense any. <<Deader than a door nail.">>

The Jedi Knight and Ace Pilot Corellian take a que from Jess as the stalwart battle hardened veteran raised her weapon in caution, picking off his own cylinder from his belt yet not lighting it.

<<"Hoth has a smell? Weird... I don't...">> A pause, <<"Nope, wait... There it is. Like wet bantha hide, yup.">> He produces a sigh before commenting on Rey's last, <<"Some type of reactor though generally structual weak points are best... I think. I just heard that on a Holo-show one time." Clearly not an expert.

Poe is following after the others when suddenly a red bolt is sent across the bland, snowy distance to catch him against the shoulder. Poe all but falls into the opening, crying out suddenly from the attack. "Oh, what the hell!?-- Contacts outside!" Poe scrambles back up to his feet, chicken-winging his rifle under his good arm and moving 'up' the way Jess did not want to go. "We have people closing in behind us.. quick.. find somewhere to take cover. We'll have to fight it out here.. I'm going to go place these!"

Poe, despite his injury, moves ahead, slinging his rifle to his back to make the climb into the ship. He disappears behind a set of cracked doors leaving the trio to hold their ground.

The sound of voices is heard from outside. "THOSE HUTT SUCKERS WENT IN HERE! LET'S GO... LET'S GO!" Pirates began to pour in through the same way our heroes arrived.

COVER: There's ample cover in this room in the form of old consoles and thick, iced over desks. Lighting is poor, but it's good enough to see the pirates without issue. All in all, there are 18 pirates moving inside.

It's one thing to think about shooting Poe and another for Poe to be shot. His outcry has her ducking low and turning to address what is a threat from behind, because it is apparent from what's ahead of her that the enemies aren't coming from that direction. That and Poe yells out that the contacts are coming from outside. <"Are you alright?"> She didn't see him get shot, but the yell of pain is a giveaway. So is the way he goes to carrying his weapon with only his arm. Jessika doesn't have too much time to invest in trying to get a measure of his injury. The pirates aren't waiting for an invitation. As some begin to enter the ship after them, Jessika levels her blaster rifle in their direction and squeezes off a shot at one. It doesn't miss by much, but it does miss. At least the pirates will know they're not welcome.

Rey is still holding on to the metal grip she'd found when the shot rang out and she /felt/ it hit Poe, as it had a sickening *thump* sound to it behind her. She spins around, and draws her blaster up, aiming the barrel to the people she sees tailing them. "I thought we scared these monsters away!" She shouts.

With a quick glance to Poe, Rey's eyes focus on their enemies, and she returns fire to help cover Black Leader's entry in to the ship for cover. Two of Rey's bolts sizzle through the chilled air, and slap against targets, while the third flies off into the grey mist of Hoth's atmosphere.

"We can hold this point!" She shouts, side stepping toward better cover now, deepr within the ship they were boarding.

<"I'm hit, but it's not too bad,"> Poe lies as he places the second tactical nuke against a power terminal long since dead. He feels blood trickling down his arm underneath the black material of his suit, but he grits his teeth and uses the damaged arm to help steady the explosive.

Meanwhile, White Maw pirates (MONSTERS!!) file in through the entry way pursuing the others. Jess falls victim to their attention, as her bolt nearly takes a man out. Three lances of ruby red are sent her way, sparking off the bulkhead and showering her area with sparks. The sounds of the weapons discharging fills the massive room, echoing in an unnerving way. The two Rey dropped are still outside, in pain and not eager to rise up (for now.) 3 have made it inside, and 5 more follow making the total count 8.

<"Almost done, ladies. Everything good?"> Poe asks, concerned by the sounds of a firefight. He keeps his cool despite, years of training and experience in high stress situations like this keep him focused on the mission.

"What are you, Stormtroopers?!" Jessika yells as blaster bolts ping against the ship all around her. Two are so close that she can smell the burnt ozone through her face covering. It's a taunt, but it's one that's meant to insult them as much as it is to provide her a sense of invincibility, because the tight tension of her muscles and the flooding adrenaline through her body means her instincts are fighting against her training and she has to stop herself from diving deep down into cover. Jessika adjusts her rifle's aim and squeezes the trigger again. This time, one amongst those filing in goes down, joining comrades on the ground. She's not sure if she's killed him, but she hopes she has. The only people she hates more than the First Order is pirates, and it wouldn't even take a Jedi sensing her emotions to figure that one out.

Rey ducks behind cover, her free hand coming up to pull her scarf down off of her mouth so she can breath more easily. As she peers over her cover she sees Elrych's saber come on, and Jessika's blaster bolts land solidly against the target she fired on. "Nice shot!" She shouts over to the other pilot.

Taking a knee, Rey raises up, and aims her silver and black blaster over her cover!

She squeezes the trigger a few more times, sending more death gas into the Hoth atmosphere, and across the distance between them to smack in to two more targets. She'd had this blaster for awhile now... and it was becoming like second nature for her to shoot it, or at least that's how she feels in this moment! Maybe it's the cold? Who knows!

"Poe!? Are you sure you're okay?!" Rey shouts to where their Fearless Leader was last seen.

Cover? Who needed Cover. Erych was not the kind of guy to take cover. It just wasn't in his brazin and self assured personality. He turned rapidly, his light saber coming to life. With more human speed He sliced into two of the pirates breeching the door they had come through, as if seeing their appraoch before it even happened. <<"Come on guys, can't we just get along?">>

Poe finishes the final explosive, clamping it into place and setting the remote connection to a specific, encrypted signal. "That should do it," He mumbles to himself, dropping the bag on the deck and running back to join the team in their firefight. He had not heard back from them.

That is until Rey's yell over the chaos cuts through the loud noises, and he shows himself fitting between the cracked doors to slide through the threshold. "ALL SET!" He answered, sliding into cover nearby and lifting his rifle up in preparation for a firefight. Jess should be proud; he got all the explosives right!!

Five (5) more White Maw pirates emerge from the long corridor to join the three (3) that were pinned down by the trio (Jess, Rey, and Elrych). That makes (8) in total inside, and (3) more outside the ship, closing in.

As more pirates continue to file in, Jessika is both elated and troubled. On the one hand, that's more pirates to shoot, and Jessika doesn't get tired of shooting pirates. On the other... she has no clue how many pirates are going to come through the doors, and the others around her might not enjoy playing shoot-the-pirate as much as she does. Drawing her blaster rifle barrel to another target, she takes her finest shot of the day. This is no wounding shot or something hit off the side. This one punches straight through and leaves carbon scoring against the opposite wall. As the dead pirate pitches face-first into the snow, Jessika hears rather than sees Poe both sliding into place and screaming out at the same time.

She takes her eyes off the battle to look at him. Both Rey's question and Poe's lack of response compels her to make eye contact. "Poe?" It's a serious question for a serious moment. If things are bad for him, she wants to know now rather than later. Because the last thing they need is Poe toughing it out until they're in their X-Wings and then passing out from blood loss and never making the jump to hyperspace. Or worse.. making the jump to hyperspace and then never coming back out of it when its time to. "How bad is it?" There's no question about whether or not he's been shot. The thing that remains is how much he's been hurt. Rey's keeping a watch on Elrych, whose seemingly thrusting himself into the chaos face first. "Be careful!" She shouts out to the Jedi, who she's sure is doing his best to be, mostly sure at least.

Another glance is spared toward Jessika, when Poe strides in. "Now let's just hope this is all they've got, ground forces wise." She calls out across the distance between them.

Spotting movement, Rey raises up again and fires off more shots from her gifted blaster pistol, her saber at her side, but there's no immediate need for it at this point!

Looking over at Rey shooting with her blaster causes him a moment of thought. Perhaps he should try something else instead of just outright killing two people with his blade... Even though they were trying to kill him and his comrades and most certainly would not be anywhere as nice as him if given the option.

The Corellian reaches out with the force, trying to wiggles his sway of their minds with his powers. <<"you all should just drop your weapons and go back home where it's warm. THere's nothing worth a fight here!">> He really needed to finish some of the lessons on mind tricks.

Poe silhouettes his cover to align a shot just as Jessika is asking after his injury, much like Rey had earlier. Pivoting slightly, Poe displayed his soldier skillset after discharging a shot that caught a pirate center chest as they charged for cover. The shot impacted so hard their plasteel shattered in a concussive explosion of white. The bolt pierced their body, conceiving an exit wound from their back that decorated the air in a brief spray of pink mist. He fell to his knees and collapsed, dead before hitting the ground!

"I'm not /that/ bad off!" Poe assures, glancing down at his arm where its obvious he's been hit. Jessika may be near enough to see the fabric wet with blood. Poe just gives her a thumbs up, then goes back to shooting.

The last three (3) join the remaining three (3) inside the ship, forming a squad of six (6) in total. They do not seem motivated to give the fight up. From their perspective, they still outnumbered the small squad.

She and Poe have different definitons of what qualifies as bad off. Closer than before, she's able to see the dampened fabric where his injury has bled into his flightsuit. "That's going to freeze outside." She murmurs it to herself more than she says it to him, because her attention is fully returned to the other pirates rushing back in. For a second, she's not Jessika the Major of the Republic. She's somewhere else. Somewhere distant. Somewhere just in her head. Wherever she is, her aim isn't suffering for it. Instead, it only seems to get better. The first shot was solid. The second is as fine as they come. It smashes through her target so hard that he's knocked off his feet and into the snow. She has all of a second to enjoy that before the air is knocked right out of her. There's no noise beyond the hard, heavy exhale that escapes her mouth. It would be easy to miss that she'd been hit entirely, except Jessika crumples in a heap into the snow, smoke rising from her chest.

"You should listen to him!" Rey shouts over her cover as she tries to amplify Elrych's attempt to make the pirate flee. But it is futile, there's too much going on and there are too many minds focused on their demise for it to work in this moment. With her blaster held up toward the derelict's ceiling high above, Rey's drawing in a chilled breath of Hoth air, when she feels Jessika shot next. "Jess!" Rey calls out, her eyes going to the fellow pilot. With a grimace, she lowers her blaster pistol...

Stands up, and riases her lightsaber hilt. With a swipe of the activation ring, the blade of sunlight comes on, and the X-wing garbed Rey starts to march forward toward what's left of their enemies.

Elrych was not exactly a man of diplomacy. He was we versed in the art of Mediation thanks to Leia but that required two parties who wanted something. The only thing these pirates wanted was them dead, so it wasn't a skill that really applied.

Martial combat was another matter altogether. After Rey's failed attempt at doing similar to him, all other options were exhausted. Nevermind his previous attacks, his saber whispers a deadly hum as it moves quickly, slicing through two of the pirates with more ease than should ever be allowed in any kind of weapon.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, eyes widen. He swung his blade just a little too late as a blaster bolt slipped by him and into Jessika. He looks to her as she falls. He lets his breath out slowly, blue eyes falling on the remaining pirates, narrowing in stark determination. <<"Now, /that/ was a mistake."

"Don't put baby in a corner.

"Hey.. HEY! Come on guys, we killed like twenty of you already-- WOAH!" Poe calls out in a poor attempt of diplomacy that ends in more blaster fire. He dove off to one side, lowering his rifle and drawing the DL-44 cannon from his thigh rig. In processing the tantalizing display of sparks showering between he and Jess, Poe witnesses the impact she weathers and cries out in alarm. "JESS!" Sprung up instantly, Poe crosses the distance to reach her, sliding and folding over her body to orient them behind cover. Straightening up, he bites his glove off and puts his fingers to her throat, finging a way through the garb to feel for a pulse.

Concern for the fight fades as he hears the second SNAP-HISS of a lightsaber. Poe didn't have to tell them they made a mistake. They knew it now.

What remain of the three pirates begin to back track.

"Heyheyheyhey! Jessika.. you still with me? Come on! ComeonComeonComeon..."

The only reason her rifle is still with her is because it's on its sling around her torso. It's not in her hands, and the safety isn't on, making it a hazard. Poe doesn't seem concerned with that right now. Jessika's more a ragdoll than anything else. There's no resistance when she's grabbed and dragged into cover, and the reason why becomes apparent when she's rolled over. The cold weather jacket over her flightsuit is black, but the shot that's hit her is still darker. It's pierced straight through that and her flightsuit, leaving the lower right section of her ribs charred from the overwhelming heat of the blaster bolt. There's no blood. It's all cauterized and blackened flesh wrinkled up near the edge and red turning pink as it gets farther away from the site. She's alive and visibly so before he checks her pulse, because the sound of her breathing is an awful wheeze from how hard the wind's been knocked out of her. She doesn't really have the wind to reply to him.

Rey didn't take but a handful of steps out of her cover with her saber drawn, up at her side and aimed vertically beside her face, that the 3 remaining targets turned and fled. Her right hand darts out, her connection to the Force called upon, to feel the legs of one of the fleet pirate, and to yank upon them within the flowing energies around them all!

The pirate is sent flailing to the ground, down a metal ledge and into an old battered bulkhead, not dead, but... warned.

With a turn, Rey sweeps back i nthe direction of Poe and Jessika. She moves to help Jessika, at her side. "Are you okay?" She asks, her saber blade retracting as she places it back upon it's metal ring on her belt.

The wound is observed, a glance si shot over to Elrych. "We gotta get them both out of here, come on, El!" She moves to help Jess, to let Elrych help Poe.

At Poe, Rey's brown eyes look. "We're ready to complete our mission then?" She asks with a small smirk. "We better make distance fast, and... hopefully not come back here any time soon."

Elrych doesn't have as much luck as Rey, taking a cue from her and reaching out with the force. His hand raises as one of his now-famous thunder blasts form near the fleeing pirates, manipulating the monocules in the hair to condense the air pressure. It's loud, and showy but doesn't do anything more than cover the fleeing two pirates in snow... and probably the one Rey dropped too. "Yeah... take that..."

His thumb turns his saber off, replacing it on his belt before turning around quickly and moving towards Poe and Jess. "Alright you two... let's get out of here and blow this thing."

"She's alive. Of course she is," Poe says, amused, but mainly to himself as if reassuring himself. "Yeah, charges are set. Can you guys carefully carry her, I'll lead the way back to the ships." Poe seemed fine, on edge, but fine. When he reached the door way and looked out to the snow, he put a finger to his ear. <<"Tion, it's pretty boy. Testor is down. She took a blaster bolt that hit her hard. Get on the horn with Search and Rescue 1. We'll need a spare pilot to bring her bird back, and someone to get Testor back home. We're moving to our birds now...">>