Log:Black Squadron: Here Comes the Boom

Black Squad's mission to crush FO armor reinforcements

OOC Date: August 17, 2021
Location: Death Star
Participants: Ulani Kalgaav, Ektor, Jessika Pava, Lofty, Bors Thul, Suralinda Javos, Shemar, Poe Dameron, Black Squadron

Black Squadron follows low across the river toward the city of Tyrena, a key strategic location being fought over by Republic ground forces and First Order regulars. Black Squadron's mission is to take out the reinforcing element of armor coming into the city from the north, which /should/ secure Tyrena for the New Republic /if/ ground forces can clear out the garrison stationed there.

Poe Dameron flies Black Leader, a T-85 X-Wing which is currently in cruise form whilst they fly below the radar. <<"We're coming up on our mission now. Bring weapons online and check in for the log. We need to hit hard and fast. Snubfighters, protect our bombers.">> For a moment, Poe heard that last sentence in Tallie's voice, played back in his memory when they were above D'Qar fighting a dreadnought and the First Order fleet.

<"Black Two, checking in. Read you loud and clear, Black Leader. Prioritize bomber protection."> Jessika Pava doesn't take her hands off the the throttle or the flight stick despite Poe telling them to get ready for a fight. "Ailee, bring weapons up. Set sensors to battle range and topographical underlay. Altitude on my heads-up." Within seconds of relaying the orders to her astromech, the display on her yellow-tinted visor adjusts to display the relevant information and the sensor screen located forward of her position strapped into the pilot's seat displays something new. They're near a city, now. She needs to mind her height lest she plow into some buildings and end her own life and those of the citizens below. <"Try to blast 'em to pieces, Black. We don't want large chunks of debris raining on the city if we can help it.">

<<Black.. Three,>> Did Ektor need a second to remember his own squad number? Yes, yes he did. << I'm here, bombs are hot, and ready to blow some minds all over Tyrena. Or whatever city this is, yeah?>> The lead Y-wing is flying low on approach alongside the others, with cannon power diverted to engines in order to keep pace with the faster Xwings.

In the aftermath of the skirmish, Ulani is calming her nerves by madly flicking from screen to screen on her datapad. She's found the skematics for A-Wings and is madly scanning each screen as it passes. Suddenly she stops and with a exclamation of "Ah ha!" she hits flicks a switch in front of her and cheers. "I found! The chicken switch!" And later she will study what exactly it does, how it does it, when to use it, why....

Her celebration is cut short when Poe's voice fills her ears through the helmet on her head followed by Pava. <"Large pieces. Got it."> Ulani turns her datapad off and shovers it in the small space between her and the seat. With a few flicks of switches, the brings the guidance system online and blue eyes focus on the screen in front of her to prepare for whatever is coming. "I got you, Ektor."

<<"Copy, Seven here.">> Bors is precisely where he prefers to be, out front and ahead of the main squadron. The throttle gauge pushed up to the lovingly inscribed and enamel filled '11' and his sensor readouts filtering to his monocle while the Alderaanian noble cuts along the river at speed. <<"Four wings of TIEs incoming...">> ship slewing around a hump of rocks in the midst of the river, altitude lifting just so - to avoid a fan-tail of water in his wake before he continues.

<<"Armored column in sight, four tanks, five APCs and -break- port or starboard IMMEDIATELY. Quad of mobile AA. AA is preparing to engage! Go evasive!">>

Bors keeps thundering on though, for now, preparing to do what needs to be done to keep the bombers bombing.

<<"Black Six copies, over.">> Nugget, aka Shemar, is flying the X-wing he was assigned to though he's probably capable of flying a bomber if they put him into one. Not necessarily assigned as anyone's particular wingman yet this mission, he'll keep his head on a swivel despite his HUD to protect their bombers. He brings his shields up, weapons online as directed, and checks his sensors, prepping for whatever they may be about to encounter.

<"Knew I had a bad feeling about today!"> Poe calls out banking hard and immediately being intercepted by the eight (8) TIE/fo escorting the armored reinforcements. Tracer bolts began to fill the air as the four (4) mobile AA guns began to spool up and engage the Republic squad with anti-air salvos. "Rekking hell.. hold on, buddy!"

Thankfully, Bors' scan of the ground provided their sensors with the location of all major assets. Poe prioritized the four (4) tanks for the bombers, and everything else like the five (5) APCs were open game. <"Wow.. they brought their whole military down there..this isn't a stand up fight we have time for. Bombers.. do what you can against those ground assets. Black Two and Seven.. carve us a path through the TIEs. Let's go!">

Poe initiated the s-foils on his fighter and banked to intercept a fighter!

<"Break 'em up, don't let them stay together!"> Following Poe's directive, Jessika toggles her snubfighter's s-foils into attack position and pushes the craft's throttle to full. The power fed into the fusial engines is enough to push her back into the seat, and she vectors straight for the incoming First Order squadron on an intercept heading. The sky is blue until it isn't. Crimson lances bristle from the tips of her X-Wing and spit rapidly towards one of the eyeballs in the lead, but like any straight-up head-to-head, the pilot has the good sense not to play a game of who backs down first. Jessika's shots streak into open air, but the TIE is now out of position in formation and shaking things up like that will only help sow chaos. They want chaos. Black always picks fights where they're outnumbered.

<<Buh-Bors- when you say four *wings* do you mean like.. four groups? Squadrons? Or.. actual *Wings*, cause.. I'ma need more bombs for four wings. That's like.. drek, Techie? What's six times twelve? Times four? Eh, rekk it, I see the armor column, let's blow some drek up.>> Deflectors are lazily balanced, auxiliary power is diverted to shield generators, and reformed (?) pirate guides the light bomber on an aggressive approach. "Techie, see if you can light up the mark a bit, yeah?" And does she ever. Ektor drops his first proton bomb and annihilates a heavy tank, along with one of its accompanying troop carriers in a wash of blue energy.

Flick, boop, flick. A series of quick hand motions over her console later and the screen lights up in front of Ulani. A quick-study as promised, Ulani is navigating the controls faster now, eyes peering through her visor as she works on the lock. "Seventy-two." She answers automatically even as she is getting a bead on the first tank. Flick-flick... "Forty-eight." Hrnnnn.... "Or do you mean in order? Because then it's two hundred and eighty-eight." Beep beep beep. "Got it! Bomb's away, Tion!"

<<"Copy, lead. Mowing the lawn.">> well not really. This is an A-Wing - they're not known for their capability as far as blasters go, concussion missiles? Yes they have those; but probably not the best on a head to head run while Bors sprays fire into the oncoming craft - seeking to scramble them away from Ektor at the vest least before he tries anything like putting a missile up a TIE's exhaust port.

<<"Dipsy doodling little things it would appear.">> hauling over when he realizes the question, <<"Four pairs, Ser Tion. Eight of them...">> a second taken to look at his reflection in the side of his canopy, "I swear... Jess and I are the only professionals." shaking his head before turning his comms back on.

Shemar's X-wing breaks to port as Bors tells them of the AA batteries about to start firing and he rolls back around, keeping his fighter moving, throttled up. Manuvering slows his momentum somewhat but it's better than catching flak in his teeth if he can help it! <<"Tester, Black Six Wilco!">> He brings the nose of his X-wing back online and runs head on for one of the TIES, like playing chicken. As the range closes up fast and his target sights itself into his reticule, 'Nugget' fires away before peeling to starboard.

The shots are /good/, very good but the TIE pilot is better, quick to evade and just barely dodge the incoming plasma. <<"I've a miss and he got past me. Black Six coming back around, over.">>

It's a game of evasion and firing. It's also atmo with a river and forest below and lots of things firing up at them so altitude counts. As soon as he's able to bring it around, Shemar tightens up his pursuit curve to see if he can line up another TIE. It's an akk dog fight now!

The sky is filled with laser fire, and Black Squadron is smack dab in the middle of all this rekking chaos. Two massive explosions consume the ground though, bright blue lights constituting the destruction of tanks intended to help the garrison in the city. TIEs scream overhead, three chasing Jess, two after Shemar, and most split between the squadron with green bolts chasing the orange and black Republic fighters.

The fight is one that even Poe is a little surprised about. His wide eyed expression couples with a frantic twist of his head as he tries to track what's going on around him. He manages to tag a TIE in it all, chasing after it.

<<"A tank is gone, WOO!">> Yells Javos over the comms as she banked away from a TIE hot on her tail. <"Everyone holding up out there?"> Poe calls out, not sure on the status of the squadron. There's just so much going on!

Whatever chaos she meant to cause for the pilots of the enemy squadron doesn't last long. She's scant inches from being blown out of the sky herself when three eyeballs converge on her and try to put her down. Jessika's forced to twist on her horizontal axis and bank hard to starboard before completing the twist until her canopy is aimed towards the ground. She yanks back on the flight stick, nosing down and gaining a burst of speed as gravity helps drag her towards the ground. She grits her teeth at the weird strain between hanging forward in her harness and being pushed back by the interia of such a powerful dive. <"I got three on my six!"> While blitzing towards the ground, Jessika spies one of the TIEs passing across her line of sight. She angles up with a grunt and lets loose another volley. A resulting ping of a laser bolt knocks against the TIE's shield.

Ektor grimaces at all the math, "No, not- yeah, in order. Right, two hundred twenty-eight, thanks." It's all moot when Bors clarifies that eight TIEs are on approach. <<Ohhhhh, I got it. Like four Eyeballs and their wingmen, I get it, now. Haha, BOOM, baby! Coming back around for another pass..>> The bomber pilot does what he can to juke his tail, and avoids the worst of the anti-aircraft firestorm, but a pair of bolts do rock the Wishbone, sending R2-G13 into a mournful warble. "Well you wanna cry about it or fix it, Genius?" While bickering with his astromech, the Tionese pilot screams in low and targets a rank that had sought protection by passing near an anti-aircraft battery, rightly assuming any sensible pilot would be deterred by the prospect of flying at AA emplacements.

Xer naturally ignores this, the second proton bomb consuming both tank and quad-laser battery.

There is an awful lot going on. Ulani makes the mistake of looking up from her screen at the pure chaos all around her. TIEs screaming overhead. A laser-party of bolts streaking across the skies. Concussive explosions erupting in the wake of their Y-Wing. It all causes her to freeze up a moment in either awe, terror, or both. The PAP PAP! of twin hits to their flank snaps her out of it and Ulani looks back to the comfort of her screen to get the next tank locked on in time for Ektor to be a very insensible pilot.

Dipping and swerving through the onslaught of emerald fire, Bors can't help but duck and swing his own body in response to the bolts coming his way. <<"Yes. Fou-WOAH-HAHA!">> cutting off when he slips his fighter into a tight spiral that would have made him an adorable, yet also endearing, window rider were he not strapped in.

<<"That was a bit close...">> flicking over his systems to ordinance while he comes around, "Mother forgive my hand, for it is used for dire purpose and blood is shed for such that others needn't feel harm nor terror." swinging port to starboard, trying to get the lead TIE into the targeting brackets.

"Bugger it all." toggling his cannon targeting, drawing his lead up and thumbing the launch switch to put a pair of shooting stars into the sky. <<"Missiles away...">> barely a breath before they're away before the detonation, <<"Splash one.">>

There /is/ indeed a lot going on! Shemar is juking one way and the other to try and evade incoming fire but his shields take three successive hits rapidly before he's broken over and gets an all too brief breather as he comes back around, <<"Black Six taking hits but shields are holding!">> 'Nugget' is quick to tell his astromech to see what it can do about routing more power back to the X-Wing's shields. "Do what you can. We gotta go back in, buddy."

Throttling back up, Shemar can see Jess has three suiters pressing her with their affection. <<"Coming around up your Six, Tester. I'll see if I can distract'm, over.">> Indeed, as he closes as he completes his displacent roll, coming up and around inside of one of the TIE's vectors. He lines up the shot and begins firing his lazer cannons, striking the TIE's shields hard with three of his shots before it peels off.

Things are very busy and it's hard to keep track. Shemar keeps his cool but his heart rate is definitely elevated, flying by the seat of his flightsuit with no time to wonder if he's going to survive this engagement.

Behind him his R3 unit beeps and burples, having some sucess with diverting power back to the X-wing's shields.

Two TIE fighters rain down in fiery debris and hit the river full force creating giant waves of water. Another pair of massive explosions consume the remaining tanks from the reinforcement column of armor, leaving three (3) AAs, which have been firing non-stop into the air, and four (4) APCs which are closing into the city to offload several platoons of First Order troopers.

The Squadron they fly against bare the mark of Dirk Squadron, and seem to be holding their own despite the loss of their Commander and another pilot.

Poe's voice cuts over the comms, the heavy encryption making him sound like a robot. <<"Good work on the tanks. Someone drop the AA's and APC's while we stay on the fighters. If we can hold out a while longer, the Old Battleaxe will owe us a favor!">>

<"Thanks for the back up, Nugget."> She might not have a conglomerate of TIE fighters on her tail anymore, but Jessika has more than enough to deal with between trying to stay out of their guns and also getting too close for the anti-air batteries to open up. It's a chaotic confluence of fire from different directions, but Jessika points her nose towards open sky and pulls every bit of juice she can get out of her engines. She doesn't make decisions in these moments. She lets her instincts take over, because her instincts know that she needs to be erratic, and that means her hand is guiding the flight stick in sharp pushes and pulls towards both cardinal and intracardinal positions. Anything to keep her shields from being hammered by laser cannons. She tags another TIE flying by, but she doesn't have time to follow up.

Ektor cackles in the armored cockpit at the last of the heavy tanks are eradicated. <<Nice work, Bombshell. Tanks are gone, making a third pass to mop up the rest of the column.>> The light bomber avoids any impact to the shields in preparing its third pass, allowing the irritated R2-G13 to restore much of the lost shield capacity. Another bombing run rains further proton ruin on the First Order transports, consuming another of the anti-aircraft batteries in its blast, despite the small window, high speed and shaky targeting. "Really wanna finish these Hutt-suckers off in the next pass.. Come on, Bombshell, rekk em hard," he mutters, off comms.

"Old Battleaxe?" Ulani makes it a point not to look up from her screen this time, though with the tanks gone, finding the new signature proves to be a bit more difficult without actually seeing it first. Ektor is already blowing one up before she can even get a proper lock on. Next to her, the astromech beep-boops in Binary and Ulani shakes her head. "No no. I got it. Focus on repairing the shields. I'm sure Tion can pick up my slack." And he very much does, thankfully. "I'll get it back." If there is anything left on the next pass, that is.

Evading blasts from craft of similar speed and agility? That's his trade. Really. Hurtling through the dissipating flame of his target Bors finds himself in a serious of loops, turning end over end in one direction and then in a breakneck sequence of hard Z turns until finally clear.

"Ha! Nuts to you, cad!" Language.

Then the shriek of shield warnings mixed with the staccato clatter of white-hot metal barbs and needles flattening against the deflectors when the flak cloud opens up like a great bloom. A predatory flower seeking to catch the fly, "Zounds!"

LANGUAGE

<<"Seven, shield damage, still alright.">> a line of cannon-fire tracing through the sky in the wake of one of the TIEs angling in on Shemar. <<"Also, Nugget I can't quite get that one on your six. He's quite the bounder.">>

LANGUAGE. BORS.

Things are hairy in this furball and Shemar has little time as he hears Testor's thanks over his coms. Instead of replying and tying things up, she gets a quick double click for ackknowledgement even as he's speaking, "R3! Keep up the good work and see if you can give me a little more!" As he's speaking, Nugget is aware that he's got a lover on his tail so he pulls his nose up hard then rolls to port to do a wing over with a roll, suddenly reversed and dropping like a rock as his thrusters give him power, gunning his throttle to see if he can come up behind the very TIE that was on his Six that Bors was trying to get. Nugget fires away and nails the son of a gun on his way back down, <<"Splash one!">>

Then he's pulling and twisting his X-wing smartly back up and around looking for another target. <<"Thanks, Seven.">> Shemar brings his aeroframe back towards their bombers to resume his screen.

Lofty and his Sullustan co-pilot Stebbsare a little late, flying through clouds in their Auzituck gunship outfitted with a simple proton bomb dropper. <<"Snowball run on Ay-Ay,">> Lofty warbles through his snoot over the comm. Stebbs calls from the gunner seat "utanahinga kompyuta!" indicating there is a target lock. Lofty drops his glowing proton payload from above and it sizzles down to hit the anti-aircraft battery, causing a brilliant blue and orange THUUUUUUUUUM!

<<"Good shooting, Nugget!">> Poe calls out, passing by overhead and chasing a TIE. The fight is beginning to wind down as columns of black smoke rise high up in the sky from the northern part of the city. Much of the armored column is gone, and now an APC is hitting the city limits. The AA holds its course, using a firing pattern aimed at Shemar as he flies by overhead.

Snowball's arrival punctuates the destruction of another AA and one of the adjacent APCs. That leaves a single AA and APC left, and five (5) TIE/fo still haunt the skies. <<"Let's clean this up, team!">> Poe calls out, avoiding damage from a TIE hot on his tail.

"These guys are scrappy," Jessika mutters to herself while juking out of the way of another TIE hot on her tail. They've all got problems to worry about, though, and she stows the annoyance away where it belongs: where it's not getting in the way of her surival. Sighting up one of the fighters as it streaks by her viewport, Jessika banks to the side to follow along with it. She can't win a radial fight, though. Instead, she turns off and loops her craft so that she can nose-forward the fleeting eyeball and get her reticle in place on its lead. A quick squeeze of the trigger and her laser cannons light up again. The TIE lights up, too, as the destructive bolts pierce through it and tear its wings away from its central fuselage before sending it plummeting.

Ektor lazily drawls over his shoulder to Ulani, "General.. What's her face? Greystorm, yeah? She stole my booze this one time. Well, it was another guy's booze, but I had it at the time, so it was kinda mine. Pretty Boy calls her battle axe because she hit him with an axe, once or twice." She definitely did not. "No lie." He's lying. << See Pretty Boy, you say clean up and I hear *make a bigger mess*, yeah? Listen, I got one bomb left, and it seems like a waste to fly it all the way back to base, so gonna drop it off to keep the others company.>> The rear shields rock with a light impact, causing Genius to warble with annoyance and Ektor to answer tersely, "That's what the shields are FOR. What you want me to just let the shields do nothing, all day? NO. Shields gotta eat lasers, bombs gotta go boom. That's how the galaxy WORKS, Genius." Ulani, what have you gotten into? The last ground carrier is consumed in a short-lived blue plume of fire.

Ulani is listening to Ektor's story as she is trying so, so hard to focus. Trying to find that last target for this lonely bomb that has nowhere else to go buy down. She's just about to get the lock when her helmeted head shot up. "She hit him with a battle axe?!" Ulani can't help herself. She flicks her open comms up and sends towards Poe, <"You got hit with a battleaxe, Pretty Boy?!"> What in the hell is going on in that Y-Wing?

Back to inside the cockpit, Ulani laughs at the banter. "The shields are good, Tion. Genius just doesn't like all the extra work. Odd, that. For a droid. Incedible how often droids assume the personalities of their owners... oh!" Beep beep beep! "Locked on, Tion! Send the last one home!"

"Stop that! I'm busy here!" Bors instinctively ducks when the TIE's cannon blasts scream just over the bubble of his cockpit. <<"Let me attend to your wingmate, I'll be right with you.">> offered over general comms to the TIE pilot breathing down his neck. There might have been a hand raised to be seen through the canopy, trying to wave the other off.

Swinging his nose about to look for that TIE on Shemar's six still, brows popping up when the brackets go green and his instincts set in, flicking the launch toggle to put out another seeking pair of missiles after the black metal fighter craft.

<<"Nugget, he's a -dancing- bounder. I tell you.">> a moment of thought, <<"Or she. Could be a she.">> we must be proper. Even when he has choice words he'd like to say when the target wheels over, turning his ordinance into a spiral that tightens until they strike one another.

"Show-off..."

R3 does his duty and brings Shemar's shields back online up to full power. His pilot gives a whoop and heads off after a low flying TIE that's coming up to line a shot on one of their bombers. Before Nugget can get into position though he's suddenly struck by turret fire. There's a bright flash and a deafening pop even with his flight helmet's protection.

The X-wing is buffeted, taking the hit on the shields and keeps flying! Shemar bares his teeth, "Keep juking, stupid!" Get his ass killed if he gets too distracted going after targets. R3 burples an inquiry and Shemar shakes his head, "No, not you, me! You good." There's no time for more. R3's already back to work. <<"Thanks. Almost got nailed though, over.">> Nothing like getting a hit to remind one not to get too cocky!

The TIE climbs and Nugget has enough sense to stay inside of his arc, pacing him a little further back and trying to make himself a harder target as he waits for that TIE pilot to come back down and line up for a kill. Shemar's ready for him, pulling his X-wing's nose up, knowing it'll make him loose speed but lining him up to try and get a shot on the TIE before it can fire upon the bomber from above.

It's not fast enough and the TIE evades. Not his best moment, "Kriff!"

Lofty makes another circle in his Wookiee gunship, flipping a series of Bonshyyyr timber switches in the cockpit to arm his next bomb. Stebbs exclaims from the bombardier seat <<"Njogoo imwe nene!">> indicating that the last anti-air emplacement is one big rooster waiting to be plucked. The bomb drops from the launcher with a SSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM, rushing to the target and impacting like a giant exploding blue egg. The emplacement erupts with blue splashes of protonic lava.

Poe blasts apart a second kill of the night and follows through a long loop chasing another fighter, tagging it just enough to encourage it to flee. One TIE/fo breaks off, followed by another, then finally the last one. They dive low to scramble sensors and beat feet into the waning evening whilst smoldering ruins are all that's left of the reinforcement column intended for Tyrena and its FO garrison.

When Poe settles back into a calmer flight pattern, he answers Ulani, <"Wait.. what? When did I get hit with a Battleaxe?">

It seemed the skies belonged to Black Squadron tonight, and shortly after punching in the coords to return to base, Poe informed the Old Battleaxe that the reinforcements weren't going to make it. He could almost hear her smile.