Log:Black Squadron: Shock Combat

Black Squadron bombs key staging areas for the FO

OOC Date: January 21, 2021
Location: Codru
Participants: Rey, Jessika Pava, Ektor, Magni, Suralinda Javos, Bors Thul, Poe Dameron, Black Squadron

The Republic fleet arrived in bulk on the other side of the planet. Whether that was planned or not will only go down in a stroke of momentary brilliance. Wasting little time to invade Codru to find the coordinates Admiral Antilles marked, Poe ordered Black Squad to scramble and 'follow him' to make an effort to make use of their surprise arrival. Black Squadron launched in force, angling toward the atmosphere with engines pushed to max and everything screaming. They had one shot to disrupt operations on the surface, and more importantly, distract the First Order enough that Havoc Platoon could deploy their scouts and get embedded with the local populace to get a more accurate 'lay of the land'.

<<"We got one shot at this, Black Squad!">> Poe relays in a tone that has been missing since the battle of Crait. <<"Each target needs to be shelled with EVERYTHING we got. The more damage we cause, the more they're set back. Check in and stay close.. we're gonna be swarmed soon.">>

<<"Black Nine checking in,">> says Lt. Suralinda Javos from the cockpit of her Y-wing.

"At least he didn't say he's got a bad feeling." Blurted out of the speakers of her helmet, Ailee's response to Jessika's murmured sentiment is curt. She takes it as curt, anyway. It's difficult for warbles and beeps to possess any kind of emotion she doesn't anthropomorphize onto it. "No, I didn't jinx it by saying it," she contests, voice strained as the T-85 X-Wing begins to meet with the atmosphere of the planet and pierce through it. All that resistance generates the kind of heat that turns everything outside her transparisteel viewport into raging fire. <"Black Two, checking in."> Succinct, not curt. Another series of beeps. "Why are you asking me? You're the one with access to the New Republic's database. I have no clue what we're up against. There wasn't an invitation card and a manifesto when it came to this."

One shot at this. A common enough phrase that Bors has no choice but let fly his gilded tongue, <<"Seven, reporting! A single such, Pretty Boy - would that we one day find that our chances stand doubled if nary tripled!">> giggling to himself once he's not on comms, Bors flips down his helmet visor. Swarmed, fanciful that.

<<"Ready for forward scouting at your command.">> Adjusting his throttle and checking systems. The personally marked '11' on the control gazed at, lovingly. Soon. So very soon.

Unless he is kept in formation, of course.

<< I dunno, Pretty Boy, I got a whole lotta boom to drop, yeah?>> The smile is audible in the bomber's voice as he hears Jess and the others check in and is reminded, <<Oh yeah, Black Three here.>>

Magni checks his sensors and focuses on the task at hand. One shot at this, its now or never, well than let it be now he thinks to himself. "Dive make sure all systems are go. Shes freshly repaired If like to keep her that way." He says as Dive beeps and whirs and warbles at him. "I am not, it wasn't my fault, my piloting got us out of that mess." Magni shakes his head now. <"Black Six checking in.">

Rey hadn't had time to put on a flightsuit, she'd just bounded up the side of the T-85 and was handed her helmet by one of the deck officers.

Helmet. On.

With the arrival of the squadron in the system, the young pilot raises a hand up to adjust a few settings on the cockpit environment controls. "Why does this always get reset?" She mutters, only to hear Artoo's chirps and beeps explain the answer. "Well, tell them to stop." The droid blurts out a series of 'It's not my fault!' binary responses to that.

<"Black Four is flying."> Rey's voice says over the comms, her eyes covered over by the orange visor of her helmet. She looks to the planet outside, having not been here before, but well aware of its close proximity to Mon Cala, thusly making it important to the Republic...

The engines of Black 4 flash bright red, hot, and pushing the fighter toward battle!

<<"Transmitting target data now. Our priority is to safeguard Three (Ektor) and Nine (Javos) while they shell the objectives with heavy ordnance. Two (Jess) and Four (Rey)stick to them and make sure they don't have a tail. Six (Magni) and Seven (Bors) are with me. We're going to try to make them angry at us.">> Poe says, his voice robotic over the encrypted comms. They break through the atmosphere and arrive during a state of daytime. The crafts are already moving at supersonic speeds and break the sound barrier. The targets Poe transmitted appeared in the targeting computers, they were closing quickly, but not as quickly as they might like.

<<"Got a squad of bad guys DEAD AHEAD!">> Poe yells as the dark shapes of TIE/fo fighters come screaming toward Black Squadron to intercept. <<"Let's LIGHT IT UP!">> Poe shoves the throttle forward engaging the afterburner of his X-Wing to fly RIGHT at the FO squadron labeled 'Suffer Squadron'. S-Foils open and weapons prime as Poe adopts a narrowed gaze and grimaces.

<"Two acknowledges. On your wing, Nine."> It's not the first time Jessika has flown with Suralinda and it'll doubtless be the last. Glancing at the Y-Wing once they've transitioned to the planet's sky, Jessika recalls, briefly, a long trip in which she'd been cramped into the cockpit of one with Javos. She'd gotten shot shortly after that, so the memory itself doesn't come with any particularly positive feelings. Thankfully, Jessika's not in that Y-Wing with Suralinda. She's in her own snubfighter, weapons ready to go, speed far more preferable than the armored boat meant to go one direction at mediocre speed. The enemy craft are blitzing at them and Jessika feels the itch to dash into the mix right back, but it's one she suppresses. Right now, the more important thing is keeping Suralinda's back clear so she can focus on putting the hurt on.

She gets that opportunity. The squints know that they need to take out the bombers, and that makes Suralinda a prime target. It also makes the TIE approaching her the target of all of Jessika's hate and discontent. She answers its approach with a hail of laser cannon fire that doesn't just encourage it to turn away. It almost destroys the craft, ripping straight through it's shields, puncturing through its hull, and leaving the craft bleeding thin black smoke into the air. They're still too high up for it to properly catch on fire, but the pilot doesn't need to be on fire to know their craft has been turned into flying scrap.

<<"Seven, copy lead, Cultivation of venom it shall be">> the mark two A-Wing slides in at Poe's starboard wing and matches throttle while within the bubble canopy the Alderaanian Lord - A quick thing as well when ship lasers erupt all around him, causing shields to flare to opaque cyan, small tears in the field forming and attempting to reconstruct themselves as his hands move rapidly across his controls,

<<"Lead, shields holding - sort of. Need to see about getting them restructured while I draw their attention.">> another tap of the keys while his systems spark for the power re-routing being done under duress. <<"Think I have them stable enough to be of use to you on our pass, Pretty Boy.">> lips a hard line as he flicks on his combat systems,

"Or I shall splatter thusly and be made a sight for all to see as my pyre burns momentarily." a short bark of a laugh, "Oh me, I kill me."

Ektor cackles with anticipation as his forward shields are pounded in the opening joust, his light bomber shuddering slightly as it burns through atmosphere at speed. Eyeing the distance to target, he activates nose cannons for a moment and hammers the TIE's shields in return, before tilting to scream past the First Order screen, ditching the dogfight to drive toward their destination. <<Arming proton bombs...>>

Magni takes a breath and locks his Sfoils into attack position and punches it. <<"Copy that Black Leader I'm with you.">> He says propelling forward faster. When Suffer squadron appears he lets out a whooping shout. Magni lines up his targeting system and fires on one if the ties. He hits them hard enough to rock them but not take them down and he snaps his fingers in disappointment.

The commands are heard over the comms and Rey's chin dips down as her hands grap the yoke of her fightercraft. It's serious mode time now! <"Copy."> She says over the team comms before the sense of the incoming danger streaks through her mind, sensing the laser blasts before they come, her fighter is sent in to a downward thrust before she pulls back on the stick and hits a bubble of air that launches her back up high again!

The incoming bolts of energy sweep past her X-wing, before she twists the craft in to a spiraling turn that has her coming up behind Jess' fighter, off to her port side! With Suffer 3 blazing up on her, Rey's fighter's nose angles in its direction, before unleashing a volley of return fire at the enemy ship!

A flash of lights signal a powerful explosion that buffets Black 4 before its pilot flies it up out of the way of the resulting explosion!

KABOOM!

Poe twists his craft, expertly avoiding the fire from Suffer Leader and trading off before passing on. The exchange is so quick, Poe is prompted to twist in his seat to look over his shoulder. <<"Okay, Bombers.. we're in range. You have two covering you while we slug it out up here. Make it fast and make it quick, we have another target to make after this!">>

Poe's X-wing makes a wide loop as he takes a position near Bors to help cover the pilot while he repairs, a silent acknowledgement that Poe had heard his call and reacted to it.

<<"Be back soon, /pretty boy/,">> Calls Javos, who then grins after hearing Jess is covering her. <<"I'd say it's like old times, Testor, but you're over there.">> The blue skinned pilot brought up her targeting computer after angling her vessel down to line up with one of the staging area targets. She makes a funny face, using the targeting computer with one eye and flying.

Suffer Squad is coming back around despite suffering the loss of two, technically. One TIE begins to limp away, its teeth shattered in the first trade off while another was shot down and plummeted to the surface in a fiery black smoke spectacle.

<"I'd say you could ride with me again, but it's a little more cramped in here than that Y-Wing."> The logistics of such an arrangement wouldn't be safe for either of them, and would make piloting damn near impossible. She needs to be able to right now. The First Order squadron is bearing down on them hard, and it takes Jessika's quick reactions to weave out of the way of a target intent on taking her down. Cutting through space is nothing like the atmosphere. Jessika feels that telltale sluggishness of the starfighter fighting against air resistance and gravity, but the lucky thing is that everyone's slowed down. Rather than pursue the craft she almost outright destroyed, Jessika quickly pans her gaze around for anyone trying to hone in on Suralinda.

Two TIEs didn't get the message. Jessika feeds more throttle to her engines, spending a moment of burning excess fuel to maintain speed through the somersault that puts her in place behind the two squints trying to gun down Suralinda's Y-Wing. Her next warning salvo isn't as effective as the first, but the shimmering of shields around the enemy craft spells out the pilot knows Javos is not going to be some easy target they can just harass without an answer.

<<"Much appreciated.">> Directed to who? Likely the X-Wing at his side while Bors gets a wavering green light on his board. It'll be enough he hopes. "Mother let me find my center. Father sharpen my focus." alone in his cockpit, no droid to chatter with. No wish to issue distraction over comms. The Alderaanian twists the yolk and drops his foot onto an ethereal rudder pedal to swing his craft into a tight spiral that weaves him around Poe while anticipating for Black Leader's loop and dropping speed with the hope of helping the newest member.

Or not - as it would stand as the rapid-fire crimson bolts swing wide. A shake of his head coming and a gritted tooth uttering, "Or I can simply be the fool to this new member and stand like rank amateur." but that's not the Mother's fault. Or the Fathers... Or is it.

"Am I grounded?" Bors loos up into space, "This is a poor time to find myself shackled!"

<<Bringing the thunder, baby,>> Ektor drawls lazily as he and Javos dove toward the designated drop zone. His scarred lip curls in a lazy smile as the range finder ticks down, down, down.. The Wishbone noses up just as he drops the first proton bomb to devestating effect on what appears to be a guest order supply and staging station. "Y-wings is just the best, yeah?" he decided aloud. <<Appetizer down, moving on to.. Drek, what's the second thing they serve at fancy food joints?>> He notes a slightly larger explosion resulting from Suralinda's first run. "...oh, it's on now."

Magni quickly maneuvers to get out of the way of the next shot. Lining up for his next shot, he fires at Suffer 4 but this time misses due to fancy piloting.

"Brrrp-a-drrrt-doo-beep-a-brrrrt!' Artoo chimes over the internal comms inside Black 4's cockpit.

"I see them, I see them." Rey replies to her backseat pilot. "Lets make them reconsider their choices, shall we?"

With a flash of green sweeping past her X-wing's hull, Black 4 twists around and comes up behind the screaming engines of Suffer 5. All four cannons light up on the X-wing's s-foils, and all four splash across its shields, some of the spewed energy breaking through to tear apart pieces of the black and white fighter's hexagonal wings!

With a deep black jet of smoke pouring out of the fighter, and the licking of flames across its hull, Black 4 sweeps up out of the smoke only to watch the enemy fleeing toward the sky. "Disengaging that one, hopefully they stay gone, for their own good."

The X-wing sweeps back around toward Black 2 to stay close, stay on her wingmate's wing!

<"I'm not a fan of cramped spaces.. like back in that one cave.."> Javos says back to Jess, referencing their last major mission together to find allies for the Resistance. Javos aligns her shot despite being fired at and suffering a hit, and drops a bomb, like Xer's, onto the surface. The area of impact for both expand when the bombs splash, mushrooming upward as gusts of kinetic energy sweep out and bend/break nearby trees and stir up dust. Whatever had been there prior to the bombing was reduced to slag, ash, and disappointment. The fiery hot cloud stirs up the air around the atmosphere, making it a bumpy ride for the pilots having to navigate the suddenly changing environment.

<<"Dinner, Tion. The main course..">> Poe answers the reformed pirate as he blasts a TIE out of the sky and angles to help Bors, who has a tail (not a very good one).

BB-8 relays the next set of targets, a good distance from where they were meaning they had to fight it out until they could hit the next key points. <<"Start pushing for the next targets, we're right behind you all!">> Poe encourages, flying low with a tail on him, but the pilot just can't contend with the obstacle of staying with Poe to shoot the damnably handsome ace pilot. It must be the hair.

It's a real fray now. Jessika sticks to Suralinda's flank while the Y-Wing, along with Ektor's, makes a run at the designated targets. The payoff is worth it. Jessika doesn't even need to focus on the resulting detonations to tell that something has exploded. <"Good runs, Three and Nine."> The strain in her voice is more than just the inertia pulling her against her harness. There are two eyeballs trying to blast her out of the sky, and Jessika refuses to give them an easy shot. She jukes, weaving left and then right, but with two craft trailing her, that just means one of them has to wait for the right opportunity. So she changes plane, quickly banking upwards and rolling onto her horizontal axis to bank hard on a whole new level, leading a trailing stream of laser fire to blast nothing but empty air. She doesn't say anything.

She doesn't need to. Ailee descends into the nook of the astromech slot to make the minor adjustments that'll hopefully help the shield oscillation restore to full strength. Jessika focuses on getting around and putting some attention down range to make sure the bombers stay safe. The fray leads her back to being in position against Six, and Jessika goes knocking on the door a second time, hammering the shields with the kind of solid hits that leave them visibly less detectable than before.

Detonations set by comrades, sparkling cinders and flashing chaff caught in errant starlight and blaster fire. Bors has found himself without chase and focuses himself to task,

<<"Magnet, moving on your six's six.">> Jessika should be proud, clear and concise. She should highlight this day, for it should become a new holiday for her. Bors lacking in jabber day. Ship slaloming side to side while rotating on axis to keep lateral movements fairly erratic and shifting.

Firing stud pressed another fusillade of blaster shots pepper over TIE shields - slicing through them and sending fountains of molten armor plating spraying into the void and forcing the craft from its pursuit of four,

<<"Magnet! Jubilation, your dance card is clear - I appear to have a friend would that you attend?">> FANCY TALK RETURNS!!!

Ektor banks his light bomber up to rejoin a loose formation with Suralinda and Jess. <<More like a good start, yeah? Dinner- really, they just call it dinner? Hey, Buh-Bors, what do you call a fancy dinner? I bet there's some long Hutt-sucking name for it..>> While rambling terribly on an open combat channel, he blasts the shields of a TIE, as an afterthought.

With the sky lit up with laser fire and explosions, the sounds of roaring fighter engines creating a cacophony of noises through the planet's atmosphere, REy catches sight of a TIE sweeping low beneath her! She sends her fighter in to a tight spiraling dive, activating her lasers and creating an arching spray of cannon fire that eventually clips the body of the TIE, severing its starboard wing!

The First Order fightercraft summarily starts to spin out of control on its way down toward the planet's surface, the pilot ejecting toward the cover of trees below.

"That got him." Rey says in a dry tone of voice, followed by her trusty droid's confirmation when the TIE's remains collide in to the earth, explode and spread across the surface of Codru!

Black Squad is moving fast, their fight taking them all over the countryside as more members of the Suffer Squad are routed, or simply shot down. A loud beeping noise announced they were close to the next set of targets, and Poe's voice cuts over the comms. <<"Break off bombers and start your run! We've got it up here!">>

Poe twists his craft through a roll, chased close behind by a TIE that's still trying to hit him. Poe laughs. Four TIE fighters remain where nine used to be, making the fight far more desperate for them than it was for Black Squadron. The targets marked were construction sites for generators and pre-fabricated buildings intended to be used to make a command post. While ships were not parked down there, vehicles like troop carriers and other materiel were, making it a prime target indeed!

<<"Let's go, Tion!">> Calls Javos, eager to release the final wave of bombs and head back to their ship to rearm and await the next fire mission!

No matter what Suffer Squadron pulls out to bear against Black Squadron, the TIE pilots just can't get an edge up. The squints are dropping out of the sky one after the other, and the Y-Wings get more and more breathing room to begin the run on their next target. Jessika maintains air space near Suralinda, knowing that the most vulnerable time for the bomber is that critical moment where she has to maintain as straight a flight path as possible in hopes of delivering her payload accurately. She's traded shots with this TIE for too long for her tastes, and the closer they get, the more immediacy she feels is necessary in dealing with it. Jessika takes a moment of opportunity to get lined up on the TIE. Lined up with her targeting reticle flaring, Jessika doesn't hesitate to squeeze the trigger on her flight stick, spitting destructive laser cannon fire from the tips of her X-Wing and chewing through the enemy craft in the blink of an eye. <"Black Two, splash one."> There's a pun there, but she just focuses on the fight.

No no. Not -again- throttle is cut and his ship is sent forward on inertia - twisting madly before the THUNK and rumble of his thrusters re-engage and almost literally throw the smaller craft out of the way of incoming fire.

"Not today!" haha!! Bors turns into a lazy sort of loop that tightens up the higher the nose of the A-wing lifts until he is banking into a hard Z-turn. Again his shots peel away hull, destroy shields. But no lives are claimed by the Alderaanian.

Conscious clear.

<<"Another running.">> If the man has ever ace'd in his life, probably only Poe, or Jessika, in Black Squadron know it for certain. But Bors continues to harry the foemen, to sweep the pieces from the board.

<<Girl, I am already GONE, that's how going I am, yeah?>> Ektor answers Suralinda, guiding his Y-wing on the big run. As for the results? ...Well, Ektor blows things up good, in general, but this one is special even by his usual regulation bending standards. <<Oooh, you like that one? Haaaha..>>

Magni taking some time to get dive to recalibrate his targeting computer. "Dive you got it honed in again? Good good." He says before quickly pursuing suffer 8. He fires the shot and it hits solidly but doesn't break through the shields. "Damn so close."

Black 4 soars back up in to the sky, bursting through a low hanging cloud bank where the pilot tracks another of the First Order TIEs. Red lasers light up the tops of the clouds as the TIE is using them to their advantage, weaving up out of them, and back down in to them to get the X-wing to chase them!

"Blasted." Rey mutters as the misty puffyness sweeps over her ship's hull.

The X-wing bursts back through the bottom of the cloud cover and the pilot's helmeted head sweeps left, and then right, looking out of her canopy to try and visually track her foe. "They can't all go down without a fight, can they?" She speaks, getting a whistle back from Artoo.

Poe is flying alongside Magnet, rocking slightly from side to side only to take up the firing pattern Mag had with Suffer 8. The damage is insignificant, but enough to prompt the fighter to break away and beat feet from the fight. The remaining two TIEs follow in the wake of a second explosion that consumes the rest of the staging area in a pair of massive booms. Before the flames have even stretched toward the sky, or the clouds parted, Poe is angling for high orbit.

<<"Were it so easy, Blue. We got lucky they sent a rookie squad.. but.. we did good work. The Admiral will be pleased.">> Poe didn't risk mentioning whether or not the scouts and recon patrols had landed over the comms. He'd wait until the team was back safely aboard the Pantheon as the Battle for Codru began.