Log:Black Squadron: Long Arm of Justice Pt I
Black Squad crosses blades with Red Claw Terrorists
OOC Date: October 12, 2020
Location: Rishi Atmosphere
Participants: Rey, Elrych Cometburn, Ektor, Poe Dameron, Black Squadron
Black Squadron emerged from hyperspace near the green and blue planet, Rishi. Engaging impulse speeds, Poe led them into the atmosphere, a very particular location in mind. At present, the crafts are working their way toward the planet, well above cloud cover.
<<"This is Black Leader, everyone check in for the log.">> Poe said, after flipping the switch to begin recording. He glanced at his chrono, pulling the flap of his glove down long enough to see it.
Below them, stormy clouds make like a dark sea, with flashing of lightning. It's evening time, which makes the sight all the more ominous. It reminded Poe of Pamarthe, his mother's home planet.
<<"Black Six here for the crystal clear ocean beaches and a sweet martini.">> Elrych comms as he maneuvers his agile E-Wing in formation with the rest of the flight. Eggsy whistle from behind him. "Of course I'll only have one. Do you know how old and untouched all my bottle of hooch are?" He shakes his head.
<<"Black Four, ready to roar,>> Ektor reports in, sounding proud of himself. << See, I remembered my number that time! The rhyming helped. Too bad no number rhymes with 'rekk' cause I'd request that ID real quick, yeah?>> His long suffering droid R2-G13 objects to Ektor filling a live combat channel with his chatter. "What? That was key operational.. info data. Also, shut up."
Rey's X-wing pops out of hyperspace behind the others own, she sees their engines ahead of her, glowing and lighting the way. Her eyes scan over the sensors in the X-wing cockpit and she reaches out to adjust the climate controls inside of her ship.
<"Black Fou-- Wait, I thought I was Black Four?"> Rey's voice chimes in. <"Well, either way... I'm quite ready to hear all about Six's extensive alcohol collection."> She chides her fellow Jedi with a slight smirk.
Behind her, Artoo's silver domed head is sweeping side to side, he beep ssomething to Rey who glances at the translation on the ship screen.
"I'm not terribly excited about being back here myeslf. This place was a narrow escape last time we were here.." She tells the droid back.
Poe massages the bridge of his nose with Ektor's reporting in, then just chuckles. <<"You're /three/, Xer. Not four.">> Just as Poe says this, eight blips appear on their sensors, rising up to intercept. <<"Looks like Talya has sent her Red Claws. Named after the large reptilian creatures on their island.. let's lock and load.">>
The signatures were unmistakable, because each craft broadcasted their name: Redclaw one, two, etc. At night, it was difficult to make out the shapes of the ships, but it appeared to be a unique arrangement of vessels. Scans revealed an E-Wing at the head of the bunch, followed by a Headhunter, three Mankvim, and three Dunelizards. The initial skirmish was just lining up and Poe reaches up to initiate his S-foils. <<"Tion, you and Elrock pair up. Blue and I will cover each other. Remember, these guys are terrorists, and they know we're tracking them.">>
Elrych chuckles at the banter, even as the Red Claws climb to meet the four fighters of Black Squadron. <<"Hey... that Super Nova... Red Nova... Red Dwarf? I don't know what it is. It's been sitting on the shelf for like two years now. I don't even remember who gave it to me.">> He really didn't drink, those here likely heard tail of his father and the drinking he used to do so the Corellian stayed away from the stuff.
He flips through the targeting computer, <<"Look it here... put up enough scratch for an E-Wing... Six on the heavy guns... there can be only one!">>
He pushes the throttle hard and zips ahead of the Y-Wing, lining up the other escourt fighter approaching him. HE gets a tone and lets his canons rip. They eat into the shields and slam into the hull. THere's an explosion in the engine and the craft starts to smoke. It peels down, losing altitude in a spin. <<"Anything you can do I can do better...">> He whistles, his music playing over comms in the background.
Someone else is Black 4? He's Black 3 <<...You sure? Black Three, how am I supposed to remember that? Nothing good rhymes with 'three'," the reformed (?) pirate complains, slipping into formation behind the much faster E-wing. << I got you, Elrock, let's roll, yeah?>> The Y-wing takes advantage of Elrych's destructive salvo to land a hard pair of cannon blasts on the second ship in the Red Claw squadron, an unfortunate Z95, which loses shields and takes heavy hull damage. One if the (bad) pirate interceptors tries to pounce on Ektor's bomber in retaliation, but the former Resistance ace manages to make the heavy fighter look graceful in dodging the blasts.
Rey watches the fighting coming for them. <"They definitely don't look happy to see us."> She idly comments before flipping the switch on the ship's s-foils to bring them open with a mechanical reverberation throughout the ship's hull.
Her targeting computer pulls up one of the Dunelizard craft, she causing her to adjust the nose of her ship to intercept it, waiting for it to get within range before her cannons open fire!
Three of her four shots go zipping past the enemy ship before the last collides with a shower of sparks!
Poe's initial engagement came at the tail-end of Rey's. He followed her closely; dangerously close, which is what triggered the Dunelizard's pilot to jump with surprise when what they thought was one fighter, transformed to two and Poe's lasers impacted until the craft engulfed and exploded. Under the pressure of the atmosphere and gravity, Poe was put back in his seat when he engaged the afterburner to pass the wreckage by before its explosion expanded.
The fight was on, but the Red Claw's best fighters were already slagged. The Headhunter was tucking tail, and an E-Wing led a fiery descent into the sea, followed closely by the Dunelizard. Now crafts weaved and danced for the dominant positions to establish an appropriate firing vector. Unfortunately for the Red Claws, their clankers were no match for well-calibrated and maintained New Republic fighters or the veteran pilots controlling them. <<"I feel bad for these guys..">> Poe says in a 'bless their hearts' tone.
Elrych watches the E-Wing splash into the the sea. There's a disapointed sound in his voice, <<"Black Six, Splash One... what a waste of a perfectly good Fighter.">> There's a tsk and a sigh as he turns hard and comes around on another target, swapping the targeting computer subject to one of the three Manks. He comes in hot, a little too hot for the older craft. Only one of his canons hits but it's enough to take out their shields. <<"Set you up, Xer!">>
Ektor can't keep pace with the much faster E-wing, but the Tionese pilot has flown with Elrych so long, he is able to fall back in on the interceptor's wing when Elrych loops back into the dogfight. <<Kid, you get me the nicest drek,>> he grins, putting both nose cannons into the ovoid pirate fighter. <<Boom, baby,>> Ektor grins.
<"Fancy flying, Poe, as ever."> Rey comments back to her wingmate on this mission when he pulls that shadow manuever from behind her.
In the atmosphere now, Rey checks her shield output power and adjusts it accordingly before shunting all energy to her engines... atmosphere flying is always more bumpy than in space, it's good to feel the engines having full thrust power to keep the fighter off the hard deck below...
She pulls to starboard, aiming her ship southward on the planet's poles, then unleashes a volley of lasers at one of the damaged dune lizards, which sends it spiraling out of control before detonating.
<"One more down. They're not ready for us!"> She announces while bringing the fighter back around to the group, craft buzzing all around in the sky today!
<<"Thanks, Blue.">> Poe calls back at Rey, his craft opening up with a bit more speed to transition from escaping the explosion of the Dunelizard he had been responsible for to intercept a Mankvim ahead. Hitting supersonic speed, Poe's craft created a thunderous noise, with the red lances intended for his target the only detail moving faster than he was. Three lances connect, the first two shattering the shields and the final combusting fuel cells that immediately engulfed the fighter. <<"Splash another,">> Poe calls, then banks about. <<"How many we got left?">>
There weren't many. Two crafts in total, a Dunelizard and a Mankvim; the Headhunter had dipped into the storm clouds below, disappearing into the random flashes of lightning that lit the sky up from below. Elrych chances a quick glance to his scopes as he cycles through to another target, <<"Two, a Dunelizard and a Mankavim. Man what a classic!">> Reguardless of his feeling on the ship type, his scarlet bolts lance out towards the clone wars erra fighter, slipping past it's sleek form as the Pilot out maneuvers the Jedi. <<"Uht oh, thick skulls have been cracked and learning has occured.">>
<< Shells, kid. Crabs got shells, not skulls, yeah?>> Ektor cackles to Elrych as the bomber slashes back across the field, hammering through the shields and chewing into the hull of the remaining enemy medium fighter. <<Arright, this lizard's limping. Pretty Boy, sweep.on in and make this Dunelizard into a BOOMlizard, yeah?>>
As Black FOUR ascends up away from the flickering thunderclouds, the Mankavim in the sky sweeps past her and right into her light of fire. She doesn't hesitate, Rey snapping her guns to life and trailing the nose of her X-wing lighting it up with the cannon fire1
A cloud of black smoke, follows a powerful explosion!
<"One with the Force, be at peace."> She says with regard to not just that pilot, but all of the ones they've downed today. They made their choice in attacking them after all. Self defense is self defense.
<"Rishi is a little safer today."> Rey adds tot he others in her squad.
Poe sweeps beneath the bomber Xer is piloting just as he breaks off and his opponent goes into a sharper bank. Poe suspects the pilot did not anticipate the seemless juggling of opponents from one fighter to the next, so when they faced off there was little to be done. Poe's laser lances chewed through their hull, reducing it to fiery scrap that fell into the clouds below. <<"And another joins the force.. ">>, Poe tags onto Rey's comment and closes his s-foils. Looking over the sensors, he nods. <<"Bee-Bee Eight says that's all of them. He was able to trace enemy comms back to an island nearby and has marked it over our net. Let's set a course and see what else this terrorist group has been up to.-- Good work, team. Careful about navigating this storm.">>
Poe dips beneath the clouds and sets a course. He has a clenching moment when lightning flashes across his view. "WOAH!"
Elrych had never been shot down. Ever. He'd come close, but he still had never been shot down be another living pilot. Storms on the other hand?
Sparks flew as a lightning bolt struck the E-Wing, the scopes glitching out and turning to static. Eggsy whistles as he blew his top, smoking coming from the dome. "Eggsy?" There was a wimpered responce, "Eggsy? Can you get a handle on this?" The droid was in the process of rebooting himself and so he couldn't access the ships own shutdown protocols. The ship went dark. Engines cut out. Forward momentum stopped and the E-Wing started to free fall. El dipped the nose down, treying to glide the clunky craft but the invention of repulso lifts made for the use of aerodynamics in the esign of space craft unnessecary. While perhaps more aerodynamic than other craft it was still heavy and clunky. <<"Blac Six in the dark. Droid and systems are friend, I'm rebooting.">>
Would this be the day Elrych Cometburn crashed his craft?
Nah, kriff that. He had a reputation to uphold.
The Corellian cranks the power level to the magnitors several times, the ship coming back to life merely feet before hitting the ocean. The repulso lifts turn on and send him flying forward and evenly on his horizon. <<"Nevermind... I'm back in it...">> He moves to gain some altitude.
A dumb laugh follows Rey's benediction, paraphrasing: <<Fly against Black Squad, be in pieces, yeah?>> The Y-wing banks through atmosphere in passable formation with the other three, until abruptly, Ektor exclaims, <<FREE. Black Three, cannons free. THERE, *now* I can remember it-oh drek, angry sky. ANGRY SKY.>> The Y-wing is buffeted hard by the power of the storm, a d it's only his droid- poor, poor Genius- who keeps the craft operational. <<Rekking lightning! AGAIN. First Hexagon->> Exegol, <<Now THIS. REKK the lightning, yeah?>>
Rey hears Ektor's response to her and just smirks. "Pilots." She says quietly as they move down in to the storms together.
Which quickly turns into chaotic nightmares all around!
<"This storm is rather intense!"> She announces over the comms, seeing Poe very nearly getting zapped by electricity from a close-miss bolt. Rey's own X-wing starts to spin, wildly, corkscrewing through bolts of lightning that are zipping all around her, Artoo starts to scream (as he's prone to do).
"We're okay, we're okay!" She tries to comfort her co-pilot whose having NONE of it!
With rain pelting the cockpit canopy, the T-85 narrowly avoids catastrophic damage, only to sweep back up above the ground. <"Did we all make it? Check in! And use your real numbers!"> She's concerned! She gets bossy when she's concerned…
Poe manages to level out and takes a safe altitude while on approach to the island. He boosts his encrypted signal to inform the other pilots of his location. Elrych's sudden disappearing act left Poe worrying, but when the pilot's voice crackled back over comms, Poe knew the Corellian had nailed the reboot in time. He heard Rey, and there was Xer cursing the lightning.
<<"Black Leader here, systems are still green. I'm pushing toward the objective now.">>
Eggsy comes back around, whirling about something fried in him, "It's alright buddy, Chief will look at you again when we get back. Maybe you can make those googly eyes at nine line. Aye, aye?" Was Elrych wagging his brows. Yes he was. <<"Black Six in the green. A bit hairy there for a moment but... ah. Yeah, sorry to disappoint my detractors.">> He flies back into formation with the rest of the squadron.
<< I'm here, yeah? Correct number and everything,>> Ektor claims, while not managing to actually USE the correct number. Black Squadron's solitary bomber whispers through the charged atmosphere with its brethren.
Rey's X-wing is kept level with the terrain now, it visibly soaring past her ship on her console display, keeping the readout level with the horizon now. She listens to the voices check in on the comms as she adjusts her eyes side to side to visually look at the other fighters joining up with her. There's a sense of relief, an exhale offered even.
<"Black Four then, ready to go."> She adds over comms, Artoo speaking up behind her, his blinking lights brighter in the darkened skies beneath the storm.
The droids beeps out a series of comments.
"We're fine, I said so! Don't be cynical." She tells him back.
<<"Bee Bee Eight says there's a cavern we can safely land in. Let's head that way.">> Poe calls back, his tone robotic because of the encrypted comm systems. His X-Wing's engines glow brighter as he banks and heads for the dark shape of the island!
