Log:Black Squadron: Through the Looking Glass
Two thieves try to jump system, Black Squad intercepts
OOC Date: December 07, 2020
Location: High Orbit, Aurea
Participants: Black Squadron, Jessika Pava, Bors Thul, Lofty, Ektor, Poe Dameron
Aurea had no fleet like other New Republic worlds, and its system was patrolled by a limited detail of security forces ill-equipped for the scenario that was currently unfolding. A distress signal was sent to Black Squadron, which was known to be in the sector for random patrols. The message detailed a pair of flagged light-freighters of CEC design fleeing the planet. They have been marked by the satellites currently orbiting the world and Black Squadron is able to intersect. Poe's voice crackles over the comms, sounding slightly robotic given the encryption. Lofty is reinforcing the squad as a volunteer.
<<"Black Squad, two bad guys hot-tailing it into low orbit. Let's intercept and disable them. Locals want the ships intact so they can get what they're carrying, back.">> Poe puts his craft, Black Leader into full impulse and adjusts heading to intercept. His shields shimmer to life and BB-8 pops up from his socket to look around.
<"Two copies. Moving to intercept."> Using the sensor suite on the display before her, Major Jessika Pava angles the nose of her snubfighter towards the two signatures heading for low orbit, marked by Black Leader, and feeds power into her engine with the push forward of her craft's throttle with her left hand, angled as it is and lifted to rest on the handle. Her right rests firmly grasped around the flight stick, thumb off to the side near the multiple switches necessary to toggle between her weapons and index finger slack around the trigger on the opposite side of where the hook of her thumb curves around the contoured grip. The fusial engines of the starfighter flare bright in the vacuum of space, and Jessika's tinted visor keeps her eyes safe from the distant start's brightness. "Ease the power back on the cannons, Ailee. We're looking to disable, not to destroy." The shields on her craft shimmer into existence, signaling she's protected herself as well as she can.
<<"Seven copies, By your leave, Lead.">> Bors comments as he makes adjustments on his board, hands flipping back and forth between which is on the stick and which is working commands - one might think he was a codru, beselisk, or one of a multitude of other species with four or more arms. Adjusting sensors and throttle while speaking again,
<<"Lead, Seven - permission to buzz and run scans?">> already feeling the A-wing bucking impatiently around him as he pats the console. "There there, all in due time darling." two fingers kissed and pressed against the board before both hands on the stick.
Lofty got the Clone Wars-era 'WHORRWAARR' at a discount after the destruction of his blastboat at Yavin. The engines needed replaced, and it creaks a lot due to the Wroshyr tree interior, but Wookiee craftsmanship is surprisingly sturdy. And with eight Wookiee-sized seats, it makes a respectable anti-slaver support vessel for Black Squadron's patrols. <"Snowball copy."> His vessel is slower than the fighters so he brings up the rear while activating the front cannons. Stebbs the Sullustan is in the lower gunner seat. <"ny ndyroona mwici mwaganu!"> the Sullustan says in Sullustese, roughly translating as 'I see a naughty thief.'
<< I head you, Pretty Boy: switching from boom to fry,>> Ektor drawls lazily to the report, accelerating the NR-2 Y-wing toward the marks, and reaching up to activate the light bomber's ion cannons. "Here we go, here we go..."
Black Squadron speeds into an intercept path, closing the distance as quickly as their crafts will allow them. To feed back valuable data, Poe replies to Black Seven. <<"Push up, Seven and give us a good reading.">> Poe flips a series of switches within his cockpit to bring the targetting computer online. Adjusting his heading slightly, he closes the distance until just the right moment to open his s-foils to attack. "Hang on, buddy!"
Their foes consist of two light-freighters: One named Maximum Void is a YT-2400, the other named Cinder Ender is a YT-1500, slightly slower but sleek looking. Their shields shimmer to life and increase their engine output finally free of the atmosphere to glide across the void.
<<"Seven, lead - engaging.">> pushed back in his seat the Alderaanian lord grins like a maadman when his fighter surges forward. Foot pedals pressed to adjust ethereal rudder and his throttle pushed up to his own little '11' mark on the console. <<"YT models both have two double cannons - ventral and dorsal.">> the A-wing streaks past the cargo craft like a comet, trailing red engine flare as Bors twists it into a tight loop. Cutting thrust and utilizing directional thrusters to swing the ship around on its fore axis as he continues, as if nothing was happening...
<<"Eletrum and other mineral stores being hauled. Move to visual targeting and watch sides and sixes. Engaging jamming on enemy sensors.">> at least if the jammer works this time. It could happen.
IT HAPPENS!!
A flick of a switch and the A-wing does it's secondary job. Electronic warfare.
<"Attention. This is Major Jessika Pava of the New Republic Defense Fleet. You are in possession of stolen goods. Halt or you will be fired upon."> Jessika's message is broadcasted to the two freighters still blasting for atmosphere. Neither are modified enough to outrun Black Squadron's craft. All she receives in response is static over the general line, and Jessika takes that as the answer to her offer. "Shame," she murmurs as her targeting computer identifies a solid spot on their aft shields. The squeeze of the trigger is all it takes to send a quad salvo of laser cannon fire stitching through the dark of space. The multiple impacts hammer home, forcing the emitters to oscillate in an attempt to keep the protective bubble up and operating.
Upon turning, Lofty spills his can of discontinued Wroshyr Sapwater Splash Fizzade given to him by the caseload with his purchase of the WHORRWAARR. The drink failed to capture the market on Kashyyyk because why not just drink real sapwater? <"Poodu!"> he toots through his snoot. <"Ni ninyonaga!"> Stebbs complains, suddenly unable to see anything on his sensor panel. Lofty wrangles the ungainly Wookiee gunship toward the YT-1500 and locks on his cannons. Then he fires at the shields! The rapid-fire Sureggi cannons spit lasers with a high-pitched PENK-PENK-PENK-PENK-PENK-PENK-PENK sound, tearing the YT-1500's shields to shreds.
Ektor grimaces as comms and sensors go out. "I'm torn.. On one hand, I can't hear nobody telling me not to do anything- which is pretty much the same as them saying I can do whatever I want, yeah? On the OTHER hand.. I can't hear that special 'what the rekk is wrong with you' edge in Jess's voice, yeah? ...And I'm talking to myself. Drek." The wishbone dives in on the Yt-1500 in the wake of Jessika and Lofty, the coursing blue energy of his ions completing the cracking of the freighter's shields and starting to ionize the fleeing vessel.
Freighters had teeth, and when they sank them in, fighters felt that.. to their core. While the YT-1500 went down without much of a fight, the YT-2400 lives up to its reputation as it slowly corkscrews by and its cannons lock to its rear. The pilot, while not overly skilled, knew the quickest way to get free from the gravity well was to fly straight! It was up to their gunners to keep the fighters at bay. Red lances of nasty cannon fire bite at the squadron closing on its stern.
Poe lands the first hit on Maximum Void, causing its shields to shimmer from the abuse, but the ship seemed unfazed by the notion because it fired its cannons at the cyclic rate. If comms had been up, though they're not because of the jammer, Poe would've ordered the group to focus fire and finish this freighter like the other. All he could do now was shoot and hope the squad got the idea!
With the YT-1500's shields cracked open and carbon scoring marking its hull along where the shots from Lofty's freighter have punched through it, Jessika swings her snubfighter out of that engagement to vector towards the YT-2400. A determined look sets on her face as her craft blitzes towards it. She used to fly one of those. She knows the heavy double laser cannons can pack a nasty punch. As dangerous lances of fire stitch around the squadron, Jessika angles in on an intercept course that gives her plenty of time to line up the lead reticle on her heads up display with the craft in question. Even her targeting computer attains a solid lock quickly, assuring her that this is the way. A squeeze of the trigger unleashes a salvo of return fire, and Jessika doesn't just hit the aft shields: her shots hammer along the fore, port, and aft array, demanding the system scramble to try to even out the strain that's suddenly put on them.
Shields flare cerulean and his systems begin shrieking warnings of potential collapse while alert lights begin flashing rapidly. "I know... I know." reaching up to flick a toggle while hoping having to rely on visually tracking his craft will buy him some time to get his shields back up to something tolerable before he tries to make an attack run.
"Asleep in the pines in the valley of the mountain... Nex' to you I'll lay my bones, when I've reached my prime... Beside the Brandywine, where I finally find my rest..." the snatch of song matching the steady motion of his hands, like a blue-navy sailor with a work shanty.
Tap tap tap... "Darling?" a click and then a whirring buzz as indicators on his console light up with growing pulses, "There there! Now hold steady." a pat and he is banking to come around and hopefully make a shooting pass on his next.
Lofty yanks his Wookiee gunship away as the enemy turrets open fire. The thing handles like a giant bantha, much like its namesake, but nothing vital is hit. The YT-1500 is taken care of so the YT-2400 is the target. <"Ugly ship,"> he warbles through his snoot. He lines up his underside cannons while the forward gunner lines up his own turret. Then there is a rapid-fire stream of whining YEEP-YEEP-YEEP-YEEP-YEEP-YEEP-YEEP-YEEP-YEEP as all six guns pound the freighter's shields, leaving them barely there.
Ektor is quite content to play space chicken with the burly freighter, wagering that his wingmates and ions will knock out the Corellian vessel before his Y-wing implodes, but R2-G13 is less cavalier and struggles to restore some of the lost deflectors. The target shields are on the edge of collapse... "Come on you Hutt-suckers," he mutters.
The YT-2400 Maximum Void is giving everything to its engines, and the gunners continue to fire at the squadron, but they're not having the same effect. Shields shatter after a hellish pursuit, but they promptly go back up as their engineer works some sort of space voodoo to reinitialize the shield emitters almost immediately.
"Huttsuckin'!" Poe curses from his cockpit as he watches the shields shimmer back into place. He has to pull his craft off to one side to avoid being shot and swings wide to achieve another angle of fire. They are nearing the exit point of the gravity well, something this freighter is relying on. It was now or never! "Come on, guys.. let's do this!"
"The longer this drags out, the more chance they have to escape.." Jessika watches multiple impacts from the squadron's concentrated fire pepper the freighter's shields, but the ship continues to power forward for an escape vector. She's not about to let it get away if she can. The static in her ear has persisted this entire time, letting Jessika know that the earlier attempt at getting the one freighter to surrender was because of a communications jam. There's no sense in trying to talk this one down, either. Jessika speaks the only other language she knows: a whole heap of laser cannon fire threatening to obliterate the freighter if it doesn't halt. A squeeze of the trigger sends another concentrated salvo of fire that hits, hits, hits.. and then punches right through the bubble to scorch the freighter's hull. "Hit it now!" No one can hear her, especially Ektor, but the Tionese pilot's chance is ripe and open.
Twisting around a staggered line of coherent light, Bors watches the second set of shields drop and bumps a toggle to release the jamming field, only for the kriffing... damned... "How... How?! Damned" pronounced Damn-ed - so hoity. So toity. Such fance-pantsery going on inside that cockpit as the Alderaanian curses the equipment. "Fixed the jammer, she said. Should work fine. She said. Nay! Fie on that blasted machine. For I have found -my- nemesis! Vengeance shall be felt from both hands mine and Lady West's for thou hath vexed me too oft now!!"
Slapping the control box with a snort, Bors looks up to see the 2400 coming up fast and, with the shields down, makes a calculated risk and opens dire. Offset scores of blackened and melting durasteel tracking to the dorsal cannons that had so made concern for him, Bors inverts as he passes the cockpit - a rude gesture made... A -CHALLENGING- gesture, to the cockpit of the freighter.
"Fie on thee and those whose rutting spawned thy horrid and tawdry form, knaves!!"
Such language!
Lofty pulls back slightly on the throttle and allows the faster fighters to continue their strafing runs. He doesn't want to blow up the YT-2400 laden with precious electrum and other metals and gems and crystals, knowing the wealth of Aurea. <"Hold fire,"> he says to Stebbs, but Stebbs already knows the shields are down. <"Gutiri kindu gitigarite"> he chitters in Sullustese, 'there is nothing remaining.' The wooden interior of the gunship creaks as the maneuvering thrusters fire. He'll have to return to Kashyyykk soon for some more Wroshyr-sap bonding agent.
"I'm hitting it, I'm hitting it!" Ektor cackles in the cockpit. No one can hear him, but the idiot hollers anyway. The stream of ionizing energy rakes the heavily armed craft. "Hell yeah, I hit that. I hit that good, and I'd hit it again, baby." A short sigh. "Drek, it ain't the same when nobodh rolls their eyes at how rekkking witty I am."
The jamming field came down shortly after the second freighter was ionized. Its momentum carried it out of the gravity well, but they weren't going anywhere thanks to that hail of ion fire. Poe's voice crackles over the comm as a chuckling noise. <<"Well, that's that. Well done team.--">>
<<"Aurea Security Forces, this is Black Leader. We've stopped your two runaways and they're eager for pick up. I'll transmit their coordinates.">>
<<"Uhh, roger Black Leader. We have two riggers enroute now. Do you mind staying on station until they arrive?">>
<<"Not at all. See you soon. Black Leader out.">>
Another happy mission!
