Log:First Order/Resistance/Waywards/Civilians: Abduction! Part 3

Sabella is rescued!

OOC Date: January 6, 2017
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Fuze, Triz Dermout, Gren Delede, Sar Yavok, Zhu Yan, Ambrosia Greystorm, Jax Greystorm, Sesti Gath, Rhani Aeternum, Morth Biddemgulp, Jansen, Karas Darkwing, Sabella Lockheart, Corr Waldin, Qadira Suuryet, First Order

The rain pelts down from the low, brooding clouds, lowering visibility over the spaceport so that the animated advertising billboards are bright against the gathering gloom.

People go about their business as usual; here, below, a freighter is being unloaded by droids and their human overseers, there a group of passengers are huddled in the gusting wind as they await final clearances before they embark on the right tram to take them to their ship. Lumbering cargo transporters, some of them converted troop transports from the previous era, pick their way across the puddles between hurrying messengers, droids, and the occasional awed tourist snapping pictures of the giant archway that leads to the Hutt district, the archway blinking bright with new advertisements for the latest must-have accessories for the dashing spacer. Pity the poor droids and maintenance workers who have to go up there to fix broken advertising hoardings; not for those without a head for heights.

The First Order base 'Ziro' is just to the east, under the arch and inside the transparisteel dome that shrouds the main Hutt palaces; so close is the First Order base, in fact, that there's a hangar opening onto the spaceport itself.

The Freedom Cry was, to put it bluntly, junk. At least, in Zhu Yan's esteemed opinion. It hadn't occurred to him that the ship he'd have normally flown wasn't much better. Still, the U-Wing that had been parked in a rather defensible berth was exactly what was needed for a quick infil and exfiltrate. Lots of armor. Side mounted gun. Or at least he hoped there was one. He hadn't checked. "Alright, ladies, gentlemen, Yavok, our way out of here is ready," he said over comms, running through pre-flight again and again and again. "Drop the word and I can get us out of here."

Morth tugs back the cocking cord as he brings the bowcaster up to bear. The weapon hums lightly with electricly charging anger.

Triz has done final preps on her Spark 4 X-Wing. Her non superstitious routine is observed as she gets ready for flight and fight cause who is taking chances, right? Closing the canopy she calls out to her R2 unit "Ready Date?" The R2 beeps happily as Triz brings the power up and begins flight. Climbing up she circles waiting for the rest of the Spark Squadron to form up <<Spark 4 checking in. All systems go>> she reports over the Resistance net.

"Allright, Alpha Bitch checking in, you pups read me?" A hooded head lifts from its crouch under a vendor awning, and turns to squint eastward. Over the last couple hours, this storefront's doors had locked, closed after the last patrons and workers vacated following a disturbing, anonymous tip. A couple neighboring establishments were notably UNbusy, as well, making this tiny patch along this fringe of port a /little/ less occupied than usual. Maybe it's a holiday? So she can say she tried.

One by one, voices buzz in her ear as the rain drums angrily around her squatter's perch. A grim smile draws out across Greystorm's face and she nods, seemingly talking to herself like the crazy, old woman she is. "Eyes, check in. You spot the box yet?"

"It's gonna be a while yet, Yan," Sar says, dropping out of the co-pilot's chair down onto the durasteel flooring. He walks back into the bulk of the ship and starts readying his things. An A280 is hefted onto his shoulder and his EE-3 is tucked into its holster. He squats down and rummages through a rucksack, producing a pack of cigarillos. "Y'all set?" he asks of Sesti and Gren, lighting one of his smokes and taking a few puffs from it.

It wasn't a long flight, of course. And Gren happens to share an opinion with Zhu, when it comes to U-wings. He's focused on the mission at hand. He didn't even complain about being a passenger. His own weapons seem to be limited to his usual DL-44, and whatever wits that he may possess. He crouches near the hatch, fully intending to be the first onto the tarmac when it comes time to get into the action. "I'm set. I've been set to get her back since they took her." A glance up from the hatch, before his eyes go back to watching the First Order's landing area.

Having gotten Spark 3 peeped and ready to go, Karas was climbing into his X-Wing as well, he looks to Triz studying her for a long moment before he climbs into the canopy. He checks out all the data streaming into the computers, and he looks back over his shoulder, "Alright Valk, we got a lot of work to do." he says to his astromech droid. He applies power to the engines and his X-Wing begins to climb soon he is flying in tandem with Spark 4.

Corr Waldin is not 'Eyes'. He's the robed vendor in the fez four stands down and across the street from the Major, little bells tinkling on his wrists as he settles back on his seat, one of the few 'merchants' still manning this little section of the street. His stall is jury-rigged out of duracrete road barriers, coincidentally, and he's got something shady shoved under the table, but on the surface this is just another Nar Shaddaanian trying to move cheap datapad imitations. "Just as good as name brand," he grunts in an entirely concocted accent to someone who's checking out his wares, with a leering smile. This doesn't seem very persuasive, and it's just as well, for the civvie moves on. The disguised soldier sits back on his stool with a satisfied grimace, one finger reaching up to touch the compiece tucked in his ear.

Jax had walked around the B-wing that he had been assinged. The pilot examining the air frame and the gyroscope. Then he climbs up the ladder and begins to strap in then start to adjust his sensors and boards. <<Bandit Lead to Bandit 2. Channel Check.>> Jax then comes the Restistance network, <<Bandit group is prepped. May the force be with you.>>

The medic of the group unclips as the ship comes to a landing, and does a final check over her med kit, her stun baton and her blade. The knives are already in her boots this time, and she's dressed in the medium combat armor with the leather tunic over it coming to her knees. She unclips the helmet from her belt and puts it on, toggling her coms link and checking the vision settings. She doesn't pull anything on, yet, though. She steps over to the turret, instead, and setting her gear next to settles into the seat and toggles the switches to bring it online. "Ready to cover, sir," she tells Sar, then gives a thunk the side of her helmet. <<Ready for covering fire,>> she repeats for the benefit of the pilot as well.

Blink and you'll miss it. The First Order hangar disgorges a single TIE. In just a few seconds it accelerates hard, zipping rapidly away, climbing steeply before disappearing into the low cloud cover brushing the tops of the transparisteel dome to the east. Dusk is still a few hours away, but there's a storm front rolling in, the heavy grey-black clouds building rapidly, boiling up.

Who has reason to be meandering about the Hutt District Starport at such a time as when big things are going on? Well, Morth Biddengulp of course, but as usually is the case for the young Mon Calamari, it isn't really on purpose. He is dressed in his modified set of Imperial Commando armor, the yellow and gray paint scheme setting him apart from any chance that he is even remotely related to the First Order soldiers that are in the area. He is simply shuffling around the starport, nodding his helmeted head in greeting to any who glance his way, the bowcaster hung diagonally across his back is almost forgotten, why would it be needed on such a beautiful rainy day on the Smuggler's Moon?

Kadi might not know there's anything going on. Cause you know folks keep trying to protect her. But if you leave her out, then she tries to find out what is happening on her own. So, tonight she's out here looking for information. Not that she's good at that, but really, she might not need to be. Instead it seems she's lucky. Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. The engineer, along with her two usual droids, is on the street, blinking at how quiet it is. "Do you think it's usually this quiet?" she asks the droids. They essentially beep or woof that they don't know, and Kadi shrugs. "Something doesn't seem right. I wish Ax was with us."

Cling a few coins in at least two different currencies drop into the panhandling bucket Ambrosia's got tipped out in the road at her feet. Aw. Selflessness in the Hutt District. Who knew? Better move along, kind hearts. Best move along. Greystorm babbles some wretched racial slur in bumbled Huttese at them for their efforts, then goes back to scowling at her feet and the world. "What's that?" she murmurs, eyes darting up and to the east again, but it's already gone. "Good work, Eyes. Pups, we might have a fly in the sky." A finger taps to change her frequency. "Yavok. Might be unleashing their beasts. Standby."

"Alrighteyo," said Yan, picking up his helmet from the other seat and pulling it over his head. The internal visors blinked on, showing solid indicators for night-vision mode and weapon-fire location tracking. Now, he looked like just another merc on a rough job. Every edge helped. <<Comm check. Two, three. Freedom Cry here. You hearing me up there Girlie?>> he said over the comms. And, because he was a jackass, he was pinging Triz Dermout. Zhu Yan stood to move back into the troop bay, grinning under his helmet. From his left hip he pulled the DL-54 Bunker Buster and hefted it. <<Ship is ready for exfil. We are good to go on your marks.>>

Triz does a scan to make sure that the Spark Squadron is ready, wiggles the X-Wing as her S-Foils go into attack position. <<Lets head to the holding pos, Spark>> she says over the coms before turning Spark 4 into the correct heading that will take the ships where they are to hold before providing cover. "DATE, balance shields for and aft, monitor the back end and I will watch the front" to which the R2 unit beeps. <<Climbing up to get to proper altitude>> and the X-Wing does just that.

"Alright Valk, balance out our shields, we are going to have to be hot and fast." he tells his droid. Karas rolls his fighter right and takes off as his X-Foils move into attack position. This was for Sabella they had to get her back home. No BS, the FO wanna fight they got one, and this would be his first time squaring off with them.

"Copy. Don't blow your load too quick, Amber," Sar remarks back into his comms. "Get ready," he says to the group standing by in the transport. He unslings the heavy rifle and readies it with one hand, as the other reaches over and grips the door release on the wall. "We'll bring her home," he offers reassuringly to Gren. "Make 'em pay for takin' her, too." His grip tightens on the release lever.

The B-wings of Bandit Group rise off the ground following Spark Squadron in loose formation. The crafts yet to extend their S-foils to appear and to take on their more alien appearance. Jax checks his sensors and lights. He takes a deep breath and exhales letting it go. << Girlie, I think Lover Boy is calling. I'm sure we'll be pinging their sensors too if we hang out here too long. This party about ready to get started?>> Jax says as he rolls thorough his weapons and grumbles to himself and not on channel, "I miss my Sith spawn A-wing."

Delede stands from his crouch, and pulls up the surplus Imperial helmet that he'd been taking a knee on. It's close in appearance to a Scout Trooper facemask. The old Scarif model is pushed down on his head, and he gives an affirmative nod to Sar. A glance to Sesti, and then to Zhu, and he's stacking up, prepared to leave the confines of the U-wing, as soon as it is time to go.

<<Copy that, Alpha, thanks for the heads up>> Triz responds to the ground team <<Sparks, watch out for a fly up here with us>> she warns before giving a smile <<Right here with you, Freedom Cry>> replying to the other forces. "Date, do a scan for any other fighters would you>>. Her R2 unit beeps back as scans are performed. "Let me know if you find anything". Going back to the job of flying she wiggles a bit settling into her seat. <<Spark three, keep an eye out, I'm not seeing anything here.>> A bit of laughter is heard over the coms. "I got it, Bandit Lead, thank you for that. We got your back"

Miles above, the lone TIE is approaching a rendezvous on the edges of the atmosphere, a rendezvous with a Upsilon-class command shuttle dropping abruptly out of hyperspace and almost immediately entering the tenuous skeins of the ionosphere. Encrypted communication bursts pass between the two and the ground, and the radar dishes circling on the hastily-thrown-together garrison must surely have picked up the Resistance forces mustering up around Triz, Karas and Jax. But, nothing further issues from the hangar, and the only other traffic around the Hutt spaceport are lumbering freighters and passenger ships moving around as usual.

Looking over from her position, Sesti gives Gren a firm nod in to concur with Sar about getting Sabella back, and the collateral damage they intend to wreak in the process. She expels a breath, setting herself, and looks through the scope to see what she can pick up. Her impatience is kept rigidly in check, scanning for enemies.

"Get it TOO deep, Yavok, ya got bigger problems." Ambrosia sighs and picks at a couple fingernails in boredom, waiting for 'Eyes' to call in. Her left hand fishes into a back pocket and pulls out a strip of nerf jerky to tear off a bite. Her face puckers. "Mm. Dammit, whose locker did I swipe this outta anyway? Tastes like shit." *Toss* Her jaw continues to work through it, glare refocusing on the rickety limbs of a security droid as it ambles along in escort of a hoversled. Crate full of...animals? Probably tomorrow's menu.

Zhu Yan let out a short, sharp laugh. "Hah, Lover Boy," he said, not over comms so only Yavok, Delede and the prettier Greystorm got to hear his amusement. That being said, he was getting antsy. The flyboy was best in action and it showed as he waited, fiddling with his armor and the back of one of the seats and a panel in the wall, anything to keep him entertained until all hell broke loose.

Morth looks up, glancing above at all of the ship traffic, and bumps into the hoversled full of animals Ambrosia had just noticed. This earns him a hearty push from a security droid and he stumbles backward a few steps, the imperial boots clomping on the ground as he struggles to maintain his balance. "Sorry! Sorry!" he says, the vocoder in his helmet causing his voice to squawk from the sudden increase in volume. He shakes his head and turns away, grumbling to himself as he says, "Everyone on this moon is so touchy."

Karas was starting to not like the name he given his R2, funny thing is, so was his droid, though he would have to wait to change the name. Still, upon hearing the chatter on the comms, "Alright Valk, keep me appraised of any hostiles in the air with us." he says to his R2, Valk beeps at him a few times. He rolls his shoulders a bit and as he does Karas looks out to the others, it is Triz running the squadron right now so he drops back and moves to cover her wing.

Not privy to the conversation, still Liya does catch sight of Morth, and she heds over that way. "Morth, what are you doing here?" she asks, curiously. "Are you looking for info? We can join forces maybe?" Seems like a good plan, at the least. "I am trying to find out what is going on with that poor lady! But I am not sure where to start. It seemed though that here would be a good spot." Wait, are there ships in the air, humming with power? Is that something that can be heard yet? "Wait - do you hear engines?"

Not privy to the conversation, still Kadi does catch sight of Morth, and she heds over that way. "Morth, what are you doing here?" she asks, curiously. "Are you looking for info? We can join forces maybe?" Seems like a good plan, at the least. "I am trying to find out what is going on with that poor lady! But I am not sure where to start. It seemed though that here would be a good spot." Wait, are there ships in the air, humming with power? Is that something that can be heard yet? "Wait - do you hear engines?"

Sar Yavok lets the heavy rifle dangle from its strap for a moment as he reaches over to grab his own helmet. Nothing fancy. Just your standard-issue Stormtrooper bucket. Well, apart from the Rebel Alliance Phoenix that's been hastily painted over the right eye. He slides it on and gives it a few smacks, before he re-grips his rifle and says, "You guys come here often?"

"This is Hutt Starport Air Traffic Control," crackles a querulous voice in cockpits across the area, "we have a full ground stop on all non-First Order priority traffic in and out of the Hutt Starport, I repeat, all craft except for First Order priority traffic are to hold their positions. No further traffic will be accepted until the ground stop is lifted." Far above, the Upsilon shuttle is making a combat drop, heatshields glowing a cherry red in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, buffetted by the increasingly dense air. As it reaches the towering cumulo-nimbus cloud pillars it simply drops straight into them, rain sizzling on the heated metal. The TIE is following, spiralling down around the descent track of the shuttle - and the two are picked up on Karas's scanners, but they're dropping through the storm so visibility is pretty much zero within those towering clouds. It can't be pleasant for those within the ships, buffetted and rocked by the turbulence within the stormclouds.

As the shuttle descends towards the landing pad, the doors of Base Ziro swing open off to the east. A First Order Reconnaissance Troop Transporter glides out on its repulsorlifts. The carrier's 'running boards' have three armed and armored First Order Stormtroopers each side, plus no doubt the driver, gunner, and commander inside - and whoever may be in the prisoner immobilization unit in the rear. The twin light blaster cannon atop the unit traverses from side to side as it heads towards the starport. It's proceeding at as rapid a pace as it can, flashing strobes and a yelping siren mounted hastily on the front clearing traffic before it. Behind it the gates swing closed. Just one shuttle (combat drop or not), one TIE, and one transporter? First Order arrogance or something else?

Ambrosia finally swallows the rancid meat and gets up to stretch her legs, turn in a half circle with more muttered nonsense, then squats back down, this time leaning her left shoulder against a shipping container 'delivered' earlier to this vendor's front pad, facing east. She plucks a coin out of the bucket after hooking it to her with her foot and studies the enscription. "Huh." The descending shuttle warrants a glance in the wake of that announcement and she nods once. Movement a block away captures her eye next - flashy flashy waily - approaching with all the trumpeting of Imperial arrogance.

<<Al...pha Bitch. Alpha Bitch? Eye confirms.>> A second nod issues from the Lt Colonel and she rotates the coin between fingers. "Copy, Eye. Come join the party..." her words trail off as something high up on that archway shifts in the stormy shadows. The hell was that? Movement. Definitely movement. "Pups, listen up..." she cautions. "I got a possible body up on that arch and it ain't mine. Be advised, do not expose to its line of sight." Which is probably like most of this starport. "Probably snipers afoot.

The arrival of the First Order forces, and the troop transport has Gren tensing up, and leaning forward, as if he's prepped to break into a sprint. Still. That really doesn't seem right. <<<There's no way that this is it. Not the way we tear through bucketheads on a regular basis.>>> This is his first statement over the comm system, this operation. A glance at Sar, but no verbal response to his quip. Not today.

<<Wake up Sparks, I have two incoming, on Tie and one Shuttle combat dropping, sending coordinates to you now.>> he says as he quickly transmit the coordinates to the other Flight groups. Karas starts to climb, <<We got our targets, but this is your call Spark 4.>> he calls into his comm granted Spark 3 is already climbing using the rain and cloud cover to mask his approach.

"Probable snipers afoot." Which, duh. Her right knee jostles in its bend, impatience rising as she counts down, tracking that transport. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon almost......almost there.

As the doors of the base swing open, Sesti straightens a little in her seat. <<We have a transport,>> she notes, beginning to sight in on the escort, but her fingers are currently not anywhere near the firing triggers. She relates the mounted light blaster cannons and number of visible troopers to the rest in the Freedom Cry, then waits for their cue.

Sabella Lockheart has been quiet during the whole trip in the back of that Trooper Transporter. Her mind racing with things as of late and none of it good toughts. She glances up sightly from her seat catching sight of a few things trough a bit of window so she has an idea of wher they happen to be. A faint breath escapes her, not to much longer now it seems.

"DATE, seriously, do you see anything?" The little R2 behind Triz beeps angerly "I know you would have told me but I'm just checking". She replies and mutters something about droids getting so sensitive. It is then that the coms fill with the message from Hutt Starport Control which she just ignores "We aren't landing anyway," again she mutters. Still at the holding point, waiting on orders to go in or to go after any craft that might be in the area, Triz is intent on her scans. "DATE, cut the dampners to point five, I like to feel what the ship is doing" she calls back as she keeps her hands ready on the throttles and stick. <<Does anyone have anything?>> she calls out over the coms as she knows it can't be this easy. If is then that Karas's call comes out <<Feed me your scan, Spark Three, I don't have anything here>>. Already the throttles are being pushed forward as she keeps the X-Wing in a gentle turn.

Jax watches the command shuttle come onto his scopes, << I got a bad feeling about this.>> He then comes across the Bandit Group channel, << Ion canons on the target on my mark. I will give the order for S-foils to deploy.>> Jax's wingmate agreeing a confirmative. Jax takes a few deep breaths. He adjusts computer feeds to update with Karas data. <<Alright time to get your game faces. It's about to get hot. Thanks for the data Sparks.>>

<<Roger that, Alpha,>> Corr mutters into his commlink, eyes wandering up towards the arch in question. That would be a good spot for it. The little tassel on top of his fez swings wildly as it hangs down the back of his head. Hm. Curious eyes turn to scan the view from his position, wondering what else they might have missed. There /is/ a cargo vehicle of some sort that's been parked just a little too long. Too non-descript, with no one loading or unloading, and it's almost out in the way of traffic where it's parked under the arch. <<Alpha, don't like the look-a that cargo vehicle neither, got my hair standin' up a little.>>

"Never normally for business!" Zhu Yan answered. The awkwardness in the cabin was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Then, sithspit started going down. "Trap," he said to the assembled U-Wing team, grip tightening around the bunker buster blaster in his hand. Whereas previously he was antsy, now he was still. The comm chatter had gotten his attention. "None of this looks good."

Kadi catches sight of something - white, down a side alley. She pauses, and draws her ion blaster. Yeah, yeah, Ax took away the lethal weapon. Do you blame him? She has a radio with her, but it's stuck on Waywards channels, and she does send a message back to their hangar. "Hey, there's stormtroopers and ships in the air over the hutt starport. It looks like big trouble going down." Meanwhile, she aims down that side alley, looking to see if there's anything more to be seen, and willing to give it a try, even if shooting things is not her strong suit.

As Kadi looks into the alley at the flash of white she saw, Morth gazes stubbornly in the opposite direction.... with his eyes closed. "Kadi," he greets her. "I don't see anything, but then again I am still getting used to this helmet. Hex tells me that I will get used to it, but I am not sure that I believe him." As if on cue, the helmet slips down crooked over his face, the black eye covering slipping down where his nose is and he has to raise a hand to push his helmet back upright.

The Troop Transport passes under the arch, leaving the Hutt dome and entering the outer environs of the spaceport, slowing to pick its way through traffic, siren yelping. The First Order goons riding on the running boards are watching attentively, but (aside from one or two exceptions) are the only First Order troops obviously in the vicinity. Over by the First Order hangar, however, the great blast doors start to open once more, as if ready to disgorge (or receive) ships. Down through the clouds come the plumetting Upsilon, accompanied by its lone TIE.

"Yeah, this all smells wrong," Sar remarks quietly to the folks inside of the U-Wing. The actual Corellian shakes his head and grunts. "Just pay attention when we're out there."

<<"Big Dog to Alpha, what's the situation? We gonna start this party anytime soon?">>

"Of course its a bloody trap, Yan. We expected that." Gren replies to Zhu, glancing at the non-Resistance pilot. A glance toward the sky, as if knowing that is where he should be, but then, he's focused on the troop transport. <<<Lap Yap, here. It'd be really nice if we just started shooting. I'm getting itchy.>>>

<<You don't think it just ran outta juice?>> Ambrosia wryly replies to Corr, though her brow just dip a stern glare in the derelict vehicle's direction anyhow. Course it didn't. BUT. Here comes the show. <<Baby, I thought you wanted me to take my time...>> she purrs back at Yavok as the coin spins again. Three....two....come hither, little transport. She watches as it creeps into range, a couple hundred meters from berth Aurek Five. Port traffic scurries out of its way, leaving a wide buffer.

The coin flicks high into the air, catching the light with a sparkle as her lips form the long awaited 'O' of "DOWN!"

BOOM!!! A sudden explosion casts vaporized 'crete and polysteel high into the air as a crate left hazardously in the way of the nearing transport erupts and blinds their line of sight. A second and third blast follow, immediately in the wake of the vehicle. As debris clatters down around, she unfolds just enough from her hunkering behind her mini fortress in the doorway to throw off her hooded cloak.

Pressing her nose closer to the viewport, Sesti tries to look up towards the arch, but she can't see that far. She shifts a bit, looking left and right, trying for eyes on the mentioned cargo vehicle that's raising the hairs on Corr's neck. "I have eyes on the cargo vehicle as well" she mentions. Two targets to hit, she sits back and waits for the door to open.

"Heck if I know. Maybe?" Kadi replies to someone. She grins at Morth, shaking her head. "It seems to be a bit big," is all she can offer, about the helmet. She catches sight of that white clad stormtrooper, takes a breath, aims, closes her eyes and fires her ion blaster. Then she opens her eyes to see what happened. "It - there's some ships that came out of Hutt space, that look like first order. Maybe a troop carrier."

Sar Yavok grins at Amber's response and grips the door release. He pulls it back, and with a loud 'KACHUNK' the door slides quickly out of the way, allowing a way off U-Wing, and a line of sight for the door gunner. "Light 'em up, Lieutenant!" he shouts at Sesti. "Go! Go! Go!" is shouted to the other two.

Having received Karas's scan Triz turns her fighter upwards and angles to head directly towards the on rushing ships. Spotting the two ships diving down <<Lets go Sparks! Bandit Lead you have the transport, Spark three and I will go after the TIE>>. She corrects slightly to get the TIE into her firing computer. It is just then that bolts come flashing down from the fighter right past her canopy causing her to jink and her own shots go well wide of the TIE fighter. She rolls her fighter so that she is up side down and then noses the craft over to pursue the Fighter. Again bringing the little craft into her target computer.

Hadn't not seen Triz pass him, Karas quickly throttle up his engines and moves at full speed, his X-Wing screaming as it climbs, going after the F/O Tie. Karas is actually excited, he's not tested his skills against the pilots of the F/O so this will be his first shot at it. Though right now as he lines up a shot he sees his error and as Spark 4 jinks, he goes left, the Tie and Shuttle both have more speed diving than they do climbing and his shot goes way wide, he has to quickly roll to evade the laser blasts being fired at him. <<Come on we are better than this, lets get'em Spark 4.>> he calls to his wingman, as he does a tight loop and goes chasing.

The Troop Transporter jerks to a stop, rocking on its repulsorlifts as the explosions rent the air before and behind it. The running board Stormtroopers dismount, dodging for cover and starting to shoot back at anyone shooting at them. Down Kadi's alleyway a sneaky Stormtrooper takes a blaster to the chest and goes down, his armor melting around him, but there are suddenly troopers trampling over him trying to shoot back at Kadi.

Above, Fuze's clear voice breaks silence over comms on the hailing frequency. "Babe, is that you? You bought a friend, too? Is this a double-date? Let's dance." She twists the TIE around, her ship's plasma bolts searing across Triz's ship's wake

As shit kicks off, as the saying goes, there's a sudden disturbance on the billboards. Advertisements for 'Dr Pox's Patent Cream (Guaranteed Results!)' and 'Sienar Intelligence Systems - Smarter Than Your Old Droid' are wiped away, and for a moment every advertising board is black, deepening the gloom on the Starport. Then every board (but one) erupts into white, red and black text that reads in a scrolling display preceded and followed by the First Order symbol, 'Gren Delede. Surrender Now Or Die.' Then, up on every board (but one) comes up with an old mugshot of Gren in his younger, dapper, shaven days - a mugshot from his old Imperial Academy ID, the head turning slightly from side to side, which then through the miracles of computers does an age-progression to the current time, albeit without the beard and somewhat fatter than Gren actually is. Some of the boards are combined to give larger projections, others simply scroll over and over, all synchronized Then back to the surrender text, cycling through text and image over and over. (The one aforementioned errant advertising board still proclaims Dr Pox's Patent Cream, Discreet Shipping To Any Address In The Galaxy. First Order techs must have missed that one).

As As word goes acorss channel to attack, << Bandit Group on my mark, going in hot.>> Jax giving the order for the b-wings to engage their S-foils unfolding into beatuiful alien ships. As he flyies into the storm, his ion canon firing at the Shuttle as the two duck and dive. Jax complaints, "I miss my A-wing."

You don't need to tell Gren twice, Sar. The starfighter pilot turned surplus stormtrooper is the first to leap out of the U-wing. There is a brief pause as he spots his face on billboards all about the spaceport. He tears off his helmet with his right hand, and tosses it back into the ship, barely breaking stride. His left hand is up, and he is firing a DL-44 at the stormtroopers who have dismounted from the transport. Five shots. Five dead bucketheads. He's pretty handy with a pistol. "All this for me? I'm bloody honoured! Come and get me!" He's apparently not surrendering. And he might be giving the finger to just about every First Order troop that he sees. <<<Do try and keep up with the old man!>>>

As Sar yanks open the door, Sesti swings the gun into place, and targets the light cannons on top of the trooper carrier. One of them won't be firing at any of the Resistance ground troops. She spares a glance to that stalled cargo vehicle, skimming the top of the vehicle but not quite taking out the second cannon, so she refocuses on the target.

"Well frack me..." Yan hissed as he burst out of the U-Wing like a coiled spring suddenly being released. Breaking out into a run right behind Gren, he whipped up the Bunker Buster at the first First Order (tricky to say) trooper he saw and pulled the trigger. Two bolts came out with a deafening BLABLAM, the first punching a hole in the trooper's armor while the second entered the gap and turned his torso into intergalactic salsa dip. He literally skidded to a stop behind a thrown-aside crate, literally landing on his ass as Gren ran ahead. Up he popped, firing two more BLABLAMs at enemy troopers. One carved an arm off at the shoulder and the second tore another trooper's head off. Actually tore it off. There was a reason he called this gun the Bunker Buster. <<Frack me dead, schutta! You move fast for an old man!>>

As the explosions go off, one fezzed warrior reaches below the display table for bootleg datapads and grasps the handle of a Sonn-Blas F-11D, getting ready for the inevitable storm of blasterfire that's bound to be unleashed. "Looks like it's time for the show," Corr mutters, pulling the rifle up over the countertop and sighting in on the poor blokes that drew the short stick of transport duty. Bad day to be a stormtrooper. Pew pew pew. Prophylactic armor isn't stopping this particular disease. Unlike Ambrosia, he doesn't bother taking off his disguise, so the tassel on the fez jostles to and fro with each blast, the bells around his wrists chiming cheerful jingles as he sends cracking bolts of death across the starport.

Morth whips around as he hears Kadi open fire. "Barnacle!" he curses under his breath as he reaches behind his back and pulls his bowcaster up and to the ready. He glances around before he says, "Did you shoot at the first order?" And then there is fire opening all around and Morth darts forward to aim down the alley as well. "Was there just one?!"

<<You know I wouldn't miss this dance for anything hon>> Triz replies over the open channel as she lines up the shot again. Blast come up at her from the TIE but go wide while her own shot does the same and the top most of a building feels the brunt of her missed shot. <<What ever we do we can't let that shuttle land and get Sabella on board>> She says over the Resistance channel as she continues to dive after the nimble TIE. Twisting and turning to keep it centered is not an easy thing <<Hon, you aren't making this easy>> she says over the open channel.

Sabella Lockheart would have to dumb not to feel or even see the explosions that rocks the Trooper Transport and she shifts in her seat with a glance around. The mechanic is up and looking out the little window once more. "Dammit..." Escapes her, the FO goons was right she didn't honestly think they would be right about anything but they are and her friends areout there attemping to rescue her.

HAHA nice mug, Gren. Too bad Alpha Bitch is too busy putting a buckethead in her sights to take a good, long gander. Specifically, the mound of helmet peeping up from behind the transport's turret. THere's ion pulses and plasma blasts and all sorts of death firing in all directions, but she adds one more burst to the fray with a twitch of her finger.

Karas grins, he flanks the Tie as they all dive, "I know you won't, which is why we are the best!" he says to her as he quickly snap off a couple of shots, but they miss. Watching the Tie Pilot move his ship with ease, he has to give him credit, the pilot is pretty damn good, but his luck isn't going to last long. Spark 3 roars as it continues to hurtle downwards chasing after the Tie and keeping it busy while Jax chase the shuttle.

Kadi opens her eyes after shooting, and looks more stunned than anyone as she actually hits something. "Oh. Wow," she manages, but then there are more trying to shoot, and she ducks down, before she fires again. On the wayward radio, "I think I hit something!" she crows. "But - oh crap, they're firing back." Yeah, that was NOT so bright, Kadi. But wait - she hit something! She grins at Morth, shrugging. "Maybe? Don't forget to duck!" Fluffy decides to jump into action, defending Kadi, and the robodog growls once before he takes off at a fast gallop right at that alley and the storm troopers there.

The Troopers unlucky enough to have drawn the short straw to ride on the side of the transporter are dead, sprawled in death with smoking holes in their torsos and helmets and limbs. The Transporter rocks on its repulsorlifts, the interior filling with smoke as Sesti's assault on the onboard cannons yields results. But not good enough results. The remaining gun traverses towards Sesti's ship, blasting towards the interior of the cargo hold through the open ramp. Ships generally are a lot better armored on the outside than the inside, right?

And suddenly there are (probably much to Sar's and Gren's delight) Stormtroopers everywhere. Spilling from the transporter stalled near the archway, emerging from alleyways, a gaggle bursting down the ramp of a passenger ship a few berths down. Hundreds of them. No, not hundreds, but certainly fifty or so. And right on cue, erupting from the hangar, comes another TIE/SF and two Strykers, the characteristic twin ion engines whining as they circle around, coming in the long way for a strafing run down the center of the Starport towards Sesti's ship. They aren't there yet, but they will be soon.

Above, the shuttle and the TIE burst out of the cloud, the shuttle's wings folding as it comes in for a hard landing on a vacant pad. The Troop Transporter, spewing vile black smoke from the damaged turret, lurches forwards again to meet it.

"Lieutenant, keep up suppressing fire," Sar remarks to Sesti, before he steps out of the U-Wing, flicking the safety off on his anti-vehicle rifle. The heavy blaster whines to life and Sar grunts. He spots the descending shuttle and follows Gren's lead; taking his own helmet off and tossing it inside. Stormtrooper helmets make it hard to aim, after all. He groans as he hefts the heavy blaster up and depresses the trigger.

The meaty rifle whines as it begins to build a charge, and the Lt. Colonel kneels down to steady himself. One blue eye peers down the scope and he releases the trigger, sending one bolt, and then another, towards the fast-approaching Upsilon.

And just like that, it's like raining troopers. They're everywhere. It's like a veritable lawnchair convention out there with all that white plastic. If anything, Corr and the Major are pressed for targets to choose from. It's a Resistance trooper's wet dream, and damn if that rifle of his doesn't choose this precise moment to malfunction. "Blast," Corr whispers quietly, as he pulls the trigger and there's just a spark. Must be a bad loading cartridge. It doesn't take him long to drop the cartridge out and slam in a fresh one, but it's long enough that none of those bucketheads are going down because of him this round. Sorry, Maj.

<<If it was easy, everyone would be doing it,>> Fuze laughs over comms as she zigs and zags. Karas's X-wing is ignored; she has a hard-on for Triz's ship, it seems, as she flings the TIE past one of those beautiful mugshots of Gren and whips it upwards once more. <<We need more pilots like you>> she adds over open comms. Conversating with the enemy in a dogfight, Fuze. For shame.

The shuttle's shields sparkle like a bad daytime vampire as Sar's projectile strikes it dead center, but there's no change to the shuttle's trajectory as it slows and flares for a landing, the laser-cannons swinging to focus on the Resistance transport ship.

There's a relative large amount of fire headed in Gren's direction, seeing as how he is charging out into the hellscape that is rapidly filling with blaster fire, stormtroopers, and chaos. He is fleet of foot, and lucky. And he doesn't fall down into cover like a certain Mr. Zhu. He also doesn't stop en route to the transport, either. He's going to get his bloody daughter back, or die trying. Or get captured, and interrogated, and reveal the location of the Resistance's two most important bases. That could happen, too. DL-44 is transferred to his right hand, and a grenade is pulled free with his left. His thumb twirls the timer, and then he's rolling it under Sabella's mobile prison's front end. Hopefully he can knock outs its repulsors. An explosion announces that, at the very least, he didn't get sold a dude. <<<Cover me. I'm going to get the fucking cage open.>>>

The Troop Transport's forward repulsorlifts explode in spectacular pyrotechnics, spattering Gren's legs with molten metal and fragments of plastic, and the vehicle crunches onto its nose with a grinding and sparking of metal. With the nose on the ground and the rear repulsorlifts still operational, it starts to swing towards Gren, tail first, the smoke pouring from the innards (and the Prisoner Containment Cage) becoming ever more thick and black and toxic.

<<SPARKS>> Ambrosia barks into her com while popping off a shot at another trooper. <<If you birds copy, somebody keep this shuttle pinned down!!>> Nevermind the many, many minions pouring out of everywhere, swarming their position. She shuffle-scoots back from knee to ass, leaning aside to aim over the other side of the crate as Gren blows the belly out of the transport. Okay. Too many bodies, too slow a weapon. Ditching the rifle behind her, she whips her lil pistol out of holster and gives the grip a loving squeeze. <<You got it>> she yells back and sends off a flurry of fire to SOME of the many boys and girls in white converging on Galaxy's Dad of the Year, then scurries to slide behind a rubble heap as a stray shot of TIE straffing gets too close for comfort.

Sabella Lockheart isn't able to see a lot from her little cage so to speak bu it is enough for her to look rather worried at everything going on out there. The Troopers everywhere, she catches a glimpse now and then of someone she might know and it just makes her feel a bit sick honestly. Then the Transport is getting blown-up? At least part of it. She grabs out at something with her hands, both being shackled and misses by a inch s she is tossed backwards on her butt with a slight yelp heard. She won't complain honesly, at is until the area starts to get smokey and is turning black. "Ah hell..." Is mutters out hile she scrambles a bit moving as best as she can and staying low as she watches the smoke barrel in and soon she is starting to cough. She did not want to die this way thank you.

And... that cargo transport predictably opened with a contingent of storm troopers. But, Sesti is still concentrating on the prisoner transport. She pulls the trigger again, but just as she shoots, Gren's grenade goes off, and it tilts, spinning, so her target moves out of her sights, taking damage, but not yet destroyed.

Rhani Aeternum comes running into the area, blaster drawn. She is quite possibly insane. Only the insane run toward a blaster fight, right? Right. Still, glancing around, she spots a pile of crates to snug up behind and a stormtrooper to target. Come on, Rhani. Drawing a deep breath, she pops up, aims, squeezes off a shot or two and ducks back down again.

<<Ground Troops get down!>> Karas calls as he breaks from the others, <<Spark 4, going to help the ground crew, I'm not going to lose anyone.>> he says as the X-Wing rolls and continues it's dive. <<Valk, target hostiles stormtrooper.>> he calls to his astromech, who gets him a good visual. Coming in fast and the X-Wing screams as Karas pushes it to it's max, as he gets closer to he ground, he pulls back on the stick and finds a cluster of stormies and he fires picking off a large group, including those with heavy armaments. Streaking past, the X-Wing twists and turns through the building, before climbing and going into a loop before getting ready for another pass. <<Paint me a target for heavy weapons for my next run.>>

<<Girlie, less flirting more killing!>> Zhu Yan was a flyboy and flyboys always had an eye on the skies, even when they were shooting for their lives on the ground. In two dimensions. Sithspit. Speaking of sithspit, the explosion rocked the crate he was hiding behind and he toppled on to his ass once again. He poked his head up and noted the smoke. Now he verbalized it. "Sithspit." Frack this. <<Keep their attention, old man! And keep pressure on that turret! I'm going for the package!>>

Zhu Yan popped up and broke out into a sprint towards the aft of the prisoner transport, firing wildly at any stormtroopers in his way. BLABLAM! BLABLAM! BLABLAM! He didn't process the three kills he made, as his overwhelming urge to get to that rear hatch was much like needing to go to the bathroom, but stronger. The cover from Spark Three's fighter helped, with the absolute chaos of high-power lasers tearing apart the ground keeping the hostiles distracted and/or straight-up pureed.

He skidded to a stop and slapped the control panel, causing the rear hatch to hiss open and reveal the coughing form of Sabella Lockheart. Just for identification purposes, Yan pulled up his helmet to reveal his characteristically grinning face. "Good news, beautiful! The cavalry's arrived!" Then he started coughing as he got a faceful of smoke. The helmet went down real quick! "I hope you can shoot because there's a gaggle out here." And on that note, he did the unthinkable, and handed his beloved Bryar to the rescuee. <<She's secure! Let's get our asses outta here!>>

Troopers are going down, it's true - a young fellow, barely nineteen, with short buzzed blonde hair and a angelic face, lays near Ambrosia, his helmet torn off in the fight, a trickle of blood leaking from his rosebud mouth and his baby-blue eyes staring sightlessly at the gray sky. And a female trooper is screaming, writhing on the ground with a stomach wound, shrieking obscenities into the storm as the first bolt of lightning crashes into an advertising hoarding showing Gren's face; it flickers into static before recovering. Karas's pass flings aside an incautious small group of Troopers...but that's the last of the soft targets, by now pretty much everyone on the First Order side are in cover, be it soft or hard, and it's a rough perimeter around Sabella's transport, enclosing the Resistance heroes.

<<Copy that Spark Three>> Triz replies to Karas as she stays on the TIE <<Just you and me now, hon>> She says on the open com channel as the TIEs shots barely miss her again. She twists and turns her ship following the TIE and as it briefly sweeps into her targeting pip she pulls the trigger but once more her shots miss. "DATE see if you can tighten up that scan will you?" she calls back over to the R2 unit who once more responds with beeps and whistles that seems unhappy.

As the First Order Shuttle comes out of the storm for a landing on the pad. Jax thumb flicks the toggle on his stick, <<Going hot with torpedoes.>> Jax says as he bursts through the clouds. His B-wing's airframe swing to the right side of his cockpit. He has the galaxy and the space port tuned out with his eye on the prize, the landed shuttle. He waits for his cross hair to turn gold and pulls the trigger at the shuttle as a proton torpedo goes rocketing toward the shuttle. Then pulling up at the last moment as his B-wing rolls away. He checks the scopes to see the state of the shuttle, <<Anyone chasing off those Tie Strikers before they chew up our ground forces?>>

"Definitely more than one," Kadi says as her second shot hits a second trooper and a blaster shot barely misses her. her eyes go wide, but then there's Fluffy getting right in there. The robodog takes a shot as at least one of the stormtroopers aims at him instead of Kadi. "Fluffy!" she screams as she sees the poor thing falter and go down. She catches herself abruptly, a frown on her face, and fires again, her eyes closing briefly every time she fires. Ready, aim, close eyes, fire! At least she's not jumping out from behind the crates she's found to go grab the dogbot. Yet.

The shuttle shudders under the impact of the proton torpedo, the shields shivering and crackling and dying, and the ship rocks heavily as the skids lower. Then, in response to whatever First Order comms traffic is buzzing in the bridge, the shuttle's engines flare and it starts to lift off once more, straining against gravity, the wings folding down into flight configuration.

Jansen was a nobody, he was just a shadow amidst the chaos, dressed in dark clothing he moved from cover spot to cover spot with the rain beating down on him. His goal was simple, with equipmenet at his side he'd move to anyone injured he could reach and he'd try to tend to their wounds. Currently, the middle-aged human male was crouched beside a random trooper who was near a bit of burning wreckage. "You'll be alright." Jansen said softly to them. "I've got you." While using his medical tools to tend to them, though the rain was making it far harder than he'd like.

Far above the scene, on an access gantry on the great archway, the First Order sniper stirs himself. With a smile, he loads up the blaster sniper rifle, sighting down through the rain, and brushes his finger over the hairpull trigger. The plasma bolt sears down from his position...

All around Sar, Stormtroopers are getting gunned down, Resistance soldiers are exploding, stray space cats are bursting into balls of fire. But the Lt. Colonel is concentrating. He takes a deep breath and hefts the rifle back up. He exhales slowly and squeezes the trigger two more times, sending red, howling bolts towards the shuttle.

Things are getting dicey, down here at the Hutt starport. The troopers are everywhere, raining red blaster bolts on the Resistance 'freedom fighters' *cough*, with the sniper perched above taking the occasional potshot. Corr Waldin, behind his duracrete vendor stall, is in the thick of it, and a heavy shot takes him in the shoulder, blasting a chunk out of his armor and searing the flesh beneath. With a yelp, he reels back, dropping his rifle and fumbling under the table for something a little more comfortable. When he comes back up, it's shooting, sending a barbershop quartet of redheaded stepchildren singing across towards the transport Gren is in the middle of fumigating, downing a few troopers over there.

The shuttle, with the shields down, is defenseless against Sar Yavok's vehicle-killing rifle. The rounds slam into the cockpit where the pilot was reaching for a switch...and explode, vaporizing the poor man in a heartbeat. Then, as he slumps over the burning controls, the shuttle banks, sliding to the left, and smashes right into Gren's face! Sadly for First Order morale, not his actual face, but one of the advertising hoardings displaying his unsmiling visage from thirty years before. More pyrotechnics, and the flaming wreckage tumbles down to crash into the spaceport below, a pall of black smoke billowing out of the debris. Dr Pox's Patent Cream sales will take a hit with the destruction of the hoardings, too.

Perhaps distracted by the destruction of the shuttle, Fuze's TIE slides unwisely through the burning pall, the shields clipping debrus and sparking and flickering...but as she emerges she has Triz in her sights. She squeezes the trigger with a surge of emotion, the bolts sizzling through the rain towards Triz's ship...but as she pulls up she's been too cocky, leaving herself open as well.

Delede was just hurrying toward the back end of the transport, but is slowed by a large bolt of sniper fire snapping into the vehicle not far from his head. The old man hears Zhu Yan explain that Sabella is clear...just about the time he skids to a stop a few feet away. His scowl turns to a smile, as he spots his favorite crew chief freed. He runs up, leans in, and plants an uncharacteristic kiss on her cheek, ignoring the blaster fire burning through the air all around. Something is whispered. "Get her the fuck out of here, Yan! I'll take care of the blaster turret!" And then he's leaping up the side of the transport, and leveling his DL-44 at point blank range. His shot misses the gunner by about a hair, and he finds himself really. Very. Exposed. <<<Spark, gets your dicks out of your hands, and kill these assholes after our transport!>>> One last fond farewell before he gets really tragically lit up.

<<Is our ride FLYABLE!>> *Pew*Pew*Pew*Pew....pew* In the wake of Karas' run, LC Greystorm cranes her neck back to peeeeer around with an eyeball at Gren - no - Zhu's progress in busting the girl out. She rolls out from her newest hiding spot, hops up to a knee, then lunges forward into a dead sprint for the trio behind deathtrap transport, firing mostly blindly behind her as she goes. 'Get off my ass' bolts that indiscriminately select the FO's bright young minds to die...or would if they weren't finally under sufficient cover. No sense in sticking around and wasting time!

<<Let's move, Waldin! Cover Delede!>> <<EYE!?>> 'Eye' is not responding. The Corporal lies dead, most of him sprawled out from a crater where some TIE straffing has made short work of...anything. Ambrosia positions herself opposite Yan to provide Sabella with one more body as cover as they start to hoof it back to the freighter.

Sabella Lockheart wasn't expecting the door to open like that, though she is still in a coughing fit during that whole moment while Zhu goes about showing who he is. Well this is a first. "Didn't know there was an ice contest around." She manages to croak out while she is getting herself up, hands still shackled in the process. The gun is taken a bit awkwardly and she smirks a bit while looking to him before glancing out of the transport, fresh air is good stuff! She catches sight of Gren and swallows slightly, that kiss to the chek is a surprize and she reachs out to grab his arm before his doing something rather Gren like. "Don't /die/... Please." Though she already has a feeling heis about to get in trouble. She looks back to Zhu and smirks a bit. "I can shoot..." Somewhat given how her hands are shackled but she will do her best. "Move it fly boy."

The blaster shots are filling the air with smoke, and both sides are strafing the area, when the light cannon on the prison transport that Sabella has been freed from manages to come back around and fire into the hold. Steam hisses and a sparking wire flings itself around Sesti's calf, burning through the fiber mesh before she yanks the leg free, lifting her arms to cover as bits of hot metal fly around her. One of those bits slices through the fiber armor at her hip, lodging in her skin which brings out Amber's favorite zabrak epithet over the coms.

<<Barely,>> she replies to the elder Greystorm's question as she pulls herself back around in her seat, ready to fire when she sees Gren leaping up for the same target just as her finger is squeezing on the trigger. <<YHASU!>> she lets out a little louder as she jerks the gun to the side, pulling away from him and just missing the cannon itself.

Lifting her head over the crates that give her some cover, Rhani spots the incoming blaster bolt and ducks down again. "Damn it." That said, she scoots around to try another shot from that side. That is a bad mistake as a sniper's shot scores painfully across her lower back and hip, "Ah!" So subtle, Rhani. Good job. Still, she steels her resolve, ignorning the sweat beading her forehead and upper lip. Lifting her sights, she turns to aim along the trajectory that the blaster had to have traveled to reach her. Breathing in, then out again, she squeezes the trigger in an attempt to take out that blasted (hopefully) sniper.

Weaving through the buildings and as Spark 3 climbs up and over the buildings and going back in to assist the ground troops, but as he does...<<Sparks when your done with your dance partners, I have three down here harassing our people, I'm going to take'em out if I can.>> he says. Karas blows out a breath and steadies his nerves, than he throttles up again, the four engine nacells open up wide as Spark 3's X-Wing gives chase to the tailing Tie Stryker, "Alright where you going?" he asks knowing there will not be a response. He lets loose a rapid stream of cannon fire and gets a nick, still he keeps on the Styrker, "Valk, keep track of the other Stryker and Tie/SF for me." the Astromech tootles at him with an affirmative

Zhu Yan was just about to say something to Gren when there was a loud BLAM and a searing sound! One of the stormtroopers had gotten lucky and shot off a protective plate on his armor! Unfortunately, it was one of the ones covering a fleshy, sensitive area... "Ow! Schuttas shot me in the ass!" Yan complained loudly and profusely as he spun around and fired at a random blur, surprising himself as the double-bolt punched through the turret canopy and turned the gunner's head into chunky salsa. Gren should be thanking Yan for the assist, since he was on fire today. Also literally. That bolt had seared him, and his jumpsuit, and he hissed in pain as he continued his escort with a brand new limp and exposed buttock. Trust Zhu Yan to indecently expose himself at the worst time. They were almost to the U-Wing, and he could see the whites of Sesti's eyes. <<Almost to the transport! One minute! Keep firing!>>

Now that the TIE and Spark 4 has gotten down amongst the buildings Triz had to weave between two buildings. Emerging right in the cross hairs of Fuze her X-Wing makes a perfect target. Fuze doesn't miss. Her shields light up and then fail as the X-Wing takes on damage. Slammed inside the cockpit Triz has to shake her head to clear the stun she sustained by the hits. She pulls up and does a loop and quickly takes a snap shot at the TIE seeing it's shields light up. <<Nice one, hon. But gotta do better than that>> she taunts Fuze as she dives lower to avoid the gunner's fire that is sure to come. <<Working on it, Boss>> she calls back on the Resistance coms to Gren as she notices life support failing along with her hyperdrive. At least she is in the atmosphere and not the vacuum of space as holes are opened up in her ship which now trails small wisps of smoke in her wake. <<Roger that Spark Three>> Triz responds to Karas.

The Striker that Karas clipped really didn't take much damage, the shields weakened a fraction. But the pilot decides to face this new threat and pulls the arrow-like craft into a vertical climb, disappearing into the low cloud ceiling...presumably he hopes that the X-wing will follow, but it has the advantage from the Resistance point of view that he aborted his strafing run on Sesti.

The shuttle explodes from Sar's gun. <<Alrighty then. I liked that picture of Spark Lead. Bandit's we're in a target rich enviroment primary objective achieved. Let's help our ground guys get out of here.>> Jax rolls his B-wing away in a lumbering way as air frame follows him around. His weapons toggled to his heavy laser cannon. He targets one of the Tie Strikers attacking the u-wing and his wife by chance and pulls on the triger firing destrectuive bolt at the Tie Striker. The fighter losing it's Shields and starting to take some hull damage.

Kadi moves up to fire again, hoping she can get to Fluffy to rescue the droid's robotic body. She concentrates hard on where her shot is going, and does not see the incoming blaster fire that scores along her armour, causing her to scream loudly. Her shot goes wild, unsurprisingly. Though she didn't close her eyes that time. "Lily, we have to get Fluffy," she says, and the R2 unit starts rolling that way. Ignored by everything and everyone, Lily gets over to Fluffy and an attachment comes out, hooking onto the robodog and pulling him after her. Kadi tries to get up, but ends up down again, swiftly, as the pain of being shot is too much for her to jump into action with. "I think we should get out of here," she mutters, and then repeats that on the waywards channel.

The rain continued to beat down on the lone medic as he worked on the trooper's wounds. Flashes of lightning struck against his form, clad in a black leather jacket with a canvas hood that was pulled up over his head to help shield his head from the rain. "Come on..." He muttered to the injured soldier. He had to get him out of this dangerous area so he started to tug on the troopers body and drug him across the rain soaked duracrete tarmac until the found some proper cover. "I'll be back." He reassured the trooper. "You're stable for now, just hold still." With that said, Jansen looked back out into the rain and he spotted what appeared to be injured civilians, trying to help one another. Collecting his gear back into his side-bag he crouched and darted out to aide them next.

Up on the archway, the sniper instinctively ducks as Rhani's bolt splatters into his leg. He snarls, huddling down, breathing raggedly as he composes himself to shoot again. This time his target isn't Gren Delede, but Rhani Aeternum. Pew.

"Colonel! You need to get to the dropship, now!" shouts an NCO, running up and grabbing Sar's shoulder.

The Old Man turns to look at the man just as a blaster bolt burrows into the young soldier's cheek and turns what was his face into a bubbling puddle of red. Sar is jerked back into reality by the stench of burning flesh, and the spattering of boiling blood on his own face. He watches as the poor soldier slumps to the ground, Sar's hand having just recently limply moved to grab his arm in an ill-fated attempt to steady him. The Old Man blinks a few times and looks over his shoulder at the nearly-crippled U-Wing.

<<Alpha, the package is retrieved! Get to the ship! Yan, get Sabella out of those cuffs and put her to work! We need shields yesterday!>> he shouts, hand moving to release the button on his ear-comm.

"Where's Gren?" he asks himself, looking around the battlefield and patting at his pockets as if that will solve anything. He shakes his head and blinks a few times more, exhaling sharply. At this moment, a First Order soldier manages the feat of their lifetime, and punches a bolt straight through Sar Yavok's torso. The Corellian flinches and exhales a staggered breath, reaching down to press a gloved hand to the open wound. He squints at the sight of blood.

A hand moves to rummage around in one of his ammo pouches and he fishes out a small red syrette. He pulls the cap off with his teeth and jabs the needle into his neck. A quick, ragged inhale and he tosses the empty stim aside. He begins marching angrily towards a group of Stormtroopers closing in on the transport that his BFF is standing on. He releases his grip on the A280 and lets the strap catch it, as he pulls his EE-3 from its holster. He grunts incoherently and levels the heavy blaster at his opponents, as he continues to march them down. He squeezes the trigger four times and lets a flurry of bolts loose, tearing the heads off of four different targets. Satisfied, he looks over his shoulder and begins to move back towards the dropship.

Running after the Major and her command, Corr follows behind, wielding his Quicksnap like a cudgel, apparently, because none of his shots have the good fortune of connecting. At least he doesn't take another hit himself. "Got your back, Alpha!" he shouts, putting down cover fire at the least, for Sabella, Gren, and Yan to get the heck out of Dodge. "Come on, get to the dropship!" They all need to do that, really. He's making a sort of tactical retreat himself, ready to rip off after them once they're away.

A second blaster bolt lanced through Zhu Yan's side and he fell to one knee. It didn't last, and he started his limp again. Being powered by concentrated amounts of fuck-you was a hell of a motivator. Swearing like Sar losing at bingo, he almost fell into the dropship, dragging himself to his feet once he was onboard. <<Copy,>> he hissed out, pulling a dinky little holdout blaster from somewhere on his person, pressing it to the centre of Sabella's cuffs, and applying an appropriate amount of laser bolt to sever the connection. The Bunker Buster would have blown a hole through the cuffs, Sabella, Sesti, the turret, and the engine.

Dragging himself to the cockpit on sheer grit, he collapsed into a chair and hit the GO button. The engines screamed to life, having been sitting there ready ever since he prepped the ship, and he hit the comms once more. <<Two lit! Last call to get onboard, schuttas! Someone get Gren or we are leaving him behind!>>

So, her shot did not kill that sniper even though it was a good shot. For her. Unfortunately, it did allow the sniper to pinpoint her location. Another shot hits her squarely in the middle of her armor. With a grunt of pain, she rolls away. Let the sniper think she is dead. It is a furvent hope. Almost a prayer, perhaps. Finding the crates, she struggles to a sitting position, then to her feet. Spotting Fluffy, she shambles that way. Fluffy, she knows. Then she spots Lily and sighs with relief. "Let's go, kiddos. Where's Kadi. We need to be outta here."

The remaining active Stormtroopers concentrate their small arms fire on the ship, blaster bolts spattering against the hull, a few even in through the open hatch, darkening the cockpit windows. The airborne fight seems to have moved away, however, which means the U-wing is pretty much free and clear to take off...if it's quick.

<<<I'm coming. Hell. This was just getting fun.>>> Gren complains over the comm, while he eyes the dead gunner. He seemed to have been mulling over hopping in, and cranking it up....but, the call to retreat snaps him out of it. The dead cadre of stormtroopers courtesy of Sar have him tipping a bemused salute. "Screw it..." the Captain mutters to himself, before turning atop the transport, and leveling his blaster pistol toward the arch way, and the sniper atop it. A pair of bolts tear into the structure, and into the Trooper marksman's body. Delede hops off onto the tarmac with a popping in his long-suffering knees(woe is me), and starts to jog back toward Sar's U-wing. He stops en route atleast twice, to execute wounded and writhing Bucketheads. He might even not be too far from the unknown medic trying to help the wounded, when he does so. A final blast over his shoulder at a Stormie that takes most of his head off, and then he's moving up the ramp into the exfil boat, turning to watch for Corr and Amber.

<<Huh,>> Ambrosia huffs into the com, her voice huskier than usual as she pumps those legs and lungs. <<Guess it's a good thing we got our mechanic back...>> Almost. Dammit, they are so close to the ship. But most accidents occur close to home! *SMACK* Like this one. The hitch in her step is barely perceivable, albeit a little bump forward into Sabella's shoulder as the younger woman is also hit. And Yan. So three gimps all haul/limp/skip ass up the scorched ramp and into the ship.

"C'mere," A raspy breath draws in with some strain through clenched teeth as Alpha Bitch becomes useful and with a wrench of her wrist, pops off a finger. Left index, to be precise. A slender filament of wire trails out with the phony digit and snaps to a more rigid form. Lock pick. Her reach back around to Sabella's hands though quickly recoils as Zhu blasts through it. Well then. A low-lidded stare is cast out the hold to where Gren and Sar remain. "MOVE YOUR ASSES"

Kadi is injured, holding her right arm at a bit of an awkward angle. She has that ion blaster in hand, and nearly is ready to shoot, but recognizes Rhani quickly enough. "Getting out of here sounds like a great idea," she says. She does scan a look around, and says, "I think that everyone else is doing that too. C'mon Morth! Let's run!" Wherever that poor fishface is, hopefully he manages to flee along with his team mates. And that said, Kadi suits her actions to her words, as the group of Waywards does their darn best to skedaddle.

The held breath is expelled as Sesti sees that she didn't hit Gren, and the turret is blown away by Zhu Yan. Blinking to refocus, she brings the heavy weapon around to bear as the command comes through for everyone to head for the cho- to the U Wing for lift off. The lasers streak out, clearing out a path, mowing down troopers that are blocking the way to the shuttle ramp. Then she powers down and leans back to pick up the med pack, readying herself to treat those with holes in them.

Now that the TIE and Spark 4 has gotten down amongst the buildings Triz had to weave between two buildings. Emerging right in the cross hairs of Fuze her X-Wing makes a perfect target. Fuze doesn't miss. Her shields light up and then fail as the X-Wing takes on damage. Slammed inside the cockpit Triz has to shake her head to clear the stun she sustained by the hits. She pulls up and does a loop and quickly takes a snap shot at the TIE seeing it's shields light up. <<Nice one, hon. But gotta do better than that>> she taunts Fuze as she dives lower to avoid the gunner's fire that is sure to come. <<Working on it, Boss>> she calls back on the Resistance coms to Gren as she notices life support failing along with her hyperdrive. At least she is in the atmosphere and not the vacuum of space as holes are opened up in her ship which now trails small wisps of smoke in her wake. <<Roger that Spark Three>> Triz responds to Karas.

Fuze is a good pilot. In her own words, 'a damn good pilot'. And she uses every ounce of training and intuition that she has to flip the TIE around on its axis, to the groaning protest of her gunner, so she's flying backwards. Triz's X-wing looms in her sights and she fires, the plasma bolts slamming into Triz's ship even as Fuze yanks her TIE up as though it was on a wire, out of the line of fire of the oncoming Resistance ship. "Gotcha, babe!" she yelps over the open comms line, punching the air exultantly.

Jax's Striker pulls a 'Fuze' maneuver, slamming on the airbrakes to let Jax overfly him, firing up towards the belly of the B-wing before dropping into pursuit.

Struggling with a damaged ship already, controls a bit sluggish, no shields, failing systems she is fighting the X-Wing as much as she is fighting Fuze. DATE is working hard to try to get her some better controls when Fuze flips her TIE around. Triz sees the move and yanks back on the stick to avoid the shots. But with her damaged craft it only starts to nose up when it's struck in the belly. Engines go out, flames trail behind her leaving a long smear mark of smoke behind. Getting slammed around in the cockpit, belts strain against her in an attempt to hold her in place. A series of grunts as her helmet hits the side of the canopy. She fights with the stick and key's the coms <<Spark Four is hit, Spark Four going down>> which ends in static as her electronics beging to fail as she noses the craft over in an attempt to try to bring her battered X-Wing down onto the street below. The craft disappears into the gloom of Nar Shaddaa the glow of the fire behind her may still be seen. She fights with the craft while her battered body and flying brick of a ship conspire against her. As she nears the street one wing rips off and another catches an awning sending her at first skidding along the street till the remains of the craft beging to tumble. For what seems like an eternity for Triz it really is just a matter of seconds when the craft comes to a halt with parts of her ship littering her path. Laying on it's side, Triz is out for a time, blood coating her lips and drips to the wet pavement under her making it even darker.

Jax lines up a shot on the Tie Striker, "I have you now." He says as the cross hairs turn golden. Then the Tie Striker sets him up for an over shot. The heavy cannon firing just past him. The alarm in the B-wing go off as rear shield get stripped away and go for green to yellow on the sensor in the back. Jax curses. "Come on you sith spawn, hutts move better than you." He says to the B-wing. He's not had time to register what's happened to Spark 4.

Fuze follows her down, the TIE shadowing the X-wing's descent until it's without any shadow of a doubt a terminal descent. "Hang in there, babe," she mutters to herself, but she doesn't broadcast that over open comms. For one, she doesn't want to distract Triz's attempts to fight the inevitable. She chokes back more words as the X-wing hits, tumbles, scatters across the grim concrete of Nar Shaddaa; her head twists to look down at the wreckage as the TIE whips over practically on top of the wreckage before she pulls it into a vertical climb. A pause as she gathers her breath. And then Fuze makes an apparent mistake. "All units, splashed one X-wing at coordinates seven three one by one niner five, Hutt District south of the Starport." Where's the mistake? She broadcast it over open comms, not on the encrypted First Order channels. A mistake? She kills the radio and looks down again, craning over her shoulder. "Come on, you bastards, get there first..." she mutters to herself, earning a curious look from her gunner as Edie wonders why Fuze isn't strafing the wreckage herself.

As the B-wing and the Striker jockey for position, the Striker's pilot takes his eye off the ball as a looming advertising hoarding, still bearing Gren's ugly mug, appears in his vision. He fires as he turns, the bolts just clipping Jax's B-wing, but he's lost all his kinetic energy pulling those G's, leaving him wide open for Jax's shot. He curses, "Aurek One, Aurek Four, need some help here..."

Triz hangs by her straps in the remains of her crumpled fighter, head laid over, arms dangling to where the hands rest on the street and her helmet is cracked. When the X-Wing came down parts were shed and an engine went into a shop killing a few civilians, another skidded on past her to crash into the side of a building. A wing has crashed into a speeder that killed the driver, others litter the streets. All down the long path of the narrow street are parts, DATE is scattered here, there, just about everywhere. No longer resembling anything like a droid. Fires from the crash start in a few places and begin to grow.

Jax cycles his shield evening out as the shields spark and go red. They're not much better but least they haven't collapsed yet. Jax gets his shot off ripping the tie striker and leaving it in a bad condition. He picks up the open channel communication and grins. Then broadcasts a tight beam for Fuze's ear's only on an open channel. << Tie/sf Lead. This is Bandit Leader. THough you probably remember me from the Callsigns Corsair Lead or Blue 2. Don't let me fly with Red 2 much any more. YOu know what I can do to the striker and probably the other Tie/Sf. Lets call this a day. I call off my boys and girls you call off yours. Pick up Spark 4 and tuck tail and run like a whiped Kath hound. You call it a win. We both lick our wounds and both get another day drinking with our comrades.>>

Fuze listens to Jax's voice in her helmet, her face expressionless as her TIE rockets up into the cloudbase, the cockpit bubble pelted with the ever-present rain. She says nothing, replies nothing, her lips pressed into a tight bloodless line as the images of Triz's downed fighter replay in her mind. Meanwhile, another drama is playing itself out a mile or so away...

...The Striker up against Jax waddles in the air, circling to try to make it back to the First Order base. It doesn't make it. As more cannon rounds impact it, the controls spark and smoke and erupt into flame. Fighting desperately against a craft he suddenly has no control over, the lone pilot stares helplessly as the Striker slowly rolls inverted, ploughing into the starport; solar panels splinter and disintegrate as it spins around on its axis, smoke billowing from it. Crash trucks race towards it.

The Striker engaged in a dog fight with Karas is in the clouds and in trouble. With visibility virtually zero, the pilot is twisting her head about, desperately trying to find her opponent...and then Karas's rounds slam into her ship. The shields flare and die, residual plasma spattering the hull and burning into vital circuits. She lets out a curse, unable to pull the Striker into a firing solution.

Karas had been busy with another ship but was able to get back after hearing his wingman having been shot down. Anger and worry flared through him and he wasn't going to let any further F/O fighters make it out of the sky alive. Banking hard, he was able to find one of the Strykers and take out the shields but still he was going to put this pilot down hard. With her having been confused with her position in the air, he was able to line up his shot, now though he keeps on her tail, <<Spark 4 can you hear me!>> he calls out hoping her comms work. He was going to finish this tie off and get to his wingman.

Jax gets no response from the lead Tie. He curse, "Black heart Sith spawn." He says to himself and not on channel. He lines up a bead on the Tie Striker switching at the last moment to autoblaster. They spray from his wing tips killing the Tie Striker by pin pricks shredding the wings and send the tie down hoping the F.O. will worry about their own first. << Sparks and Bandit, Disengange. I am going after Spark 4. Keep any Vultures off us. Once I have her. Down fighter formation and high tail it out of here. Something goes wrong destroy Bandit 1 and Spark 4.>> Then Jax breaks off and makes a bee line in a slow heavy fighter for Triz's position.

"Aurek One, Aurek Three, I'm taking fire..." the other woman pilot's voice crackles over comms, panic in her voice. Fuze, silent for long minutes, suddenly speaks decisively. "Aurek Three, Aurek One, disengage and return to base, that's an order. Aurek Four, do you copy? Aurek Four, what is your status?" Aurek Four's craft is still spewing thick black smoke, inverted on the blascrete of the starport, surrounded by crash trucks disgorging thick white foam onto the burning ship. Above, the remaining Striker dives for the First Order base, from which reinforcements are emerging; some to clear the scene of the earlier firefight, and a patrol of six dispatched to the last coordinates of the downed X-wing. The speeder skims through the streets adjacent to the Hutt starport, the Stormtroopers eager for some action. For some revenge.

Seeing the Striker trying to get back home, he shakes his head. "No running, you started the fight, I will finish it." he says more to himself. Spark 3 closes and soon red lasers streak from the fixed mount cannons of the X-Wing. Two of the bolts strike the Tie Fighter, and Karas glances at his sensors. "Shit." he mutters moving so that he is using the Tie as cover, knowing that he is coming in close to the AA guns. <<Bandit Lead, I'm coming in behind you once I finish this Tie. I'm not leaving my Wingman behind for any of these First Order bastards to take, we aren't leaving anyone behind.>> he calls into his comm.

Jax sighs as Kara's doesn't disengage. Then he breaks off to head towards Triz's coorinates. His B-wing swooping along the street following the speeder. He gets into a good straffing position. Then pulls the trigger as his auto blasters spray a rain of death at the speeder.

The First Order speeder swings round the corner onto the street where Triz's downed X-wing is burning...and almost immediately the driver, a young Trooper with the designation LE-1099, inevitably 'Ellie', yanks hard on the controls as she sees the incoming B-wing. A panicky reaction that simply results in the speeder slamming into a street vendor's stall, rocking up onto its side tipping out all the Stormtroopers but poor Ellie, right before it's hit by a glancing shot from Jax's B-wing. Ellie is flung out by the explosion, crashing heavily onto her back on the street as debris rains down about her, staring dazedly up at the underbelly of Jax's fighter as it skims overhead and her compatriots dive for cover.

The Striker, trailing black smoke as it's hit, belly-lands on the compound parade ground, scattering First Order troops as it skids towards the barracks, coming to a halt feet from the nearest building. The pilot yanks the ejector seat control and she's flung up, arcing into the air before her parachute blossoms; she's hanging limply from it as the 'chute swings down towards one of the buildings, and she lands heavily, slumping into unconsciousness as troops rush to her aid. The anti-aircraft batteries are sluggish to react, their heavy cannons opening up on the incoming X-wing but the bolts sear behind Karas. Still, they'll get another chance as he turns to flee...

Triz has regained some of her wits as the action closes in. She struggles with the belts that hold her in the destroyed cockpit and when they finaly release she gets dumped onto the street. A cry of pain fills the air as her ribs are clutched and her leg is at an odd angle. She rolls over onto her side and vomits as her head lulls "Oh crap," she lets out as she tries to breath.

Jax yells into the com, << Sprark 3, disengage and get the Emporer's Black Bones out of there. That is an order! I can only pull off so many rescues in a night.>> Jax continuing to fire his auto blasters raining quick flashes of energy like a chain gun at the storm trooper. He lets up as he gets to Spark 4. Then passes over the X-wing. Then comes in for an emergancy landing. The remains of the X-wing, Sorry Triz, would be cover for Jax and his B-wing from the bucket heads. Then he starts to unbuckle his straps and raise the cockpit.

Turning and burning, Spark 3 banks right and as he does the AA's begin firing and his cockpit sparks as his shields crackle around his fighter. Still nothing major was hit and his fighter is still fully operational. "Valkyrie get those shields fully charged again." he says to his astromech hoping he is able to them fully back up. Diving through the buildings, <<On my way, I will keep you cover as you get my wingman.>> he says as he starts looking for speeders and stormtroopers coming in at Triz and Jax.

Three of the stormtroopers are targetted by Jax before he lands and the explosion, the plasma bolt hitting the ground between them, fling them asunder; one disappears through a shop window, the other two are flung into walls with sickening crashes before tumbling limply, head and limbs sprawled in ways that heads and limbs shouldn't sprawl, the rain leaching their blood into the ground. Ellie is still staring helplessly at Jax's ship beyond the wreckage of Triz's, unable to move anything below her waist; she's crying inside her helmet. But the other two Stormtroopers are alive and kicking; one runs up and, seizing Ellie's arms, drags her into cover. The other produces his blaster and starts firing at Jax's ship.

As Karas's ship turns to flee, the AA guns find their mark and spatter plasma all over Karas's shields. And as he flees towards Jax's rendezvous, a lone TIE drops out of the clouds behind him. Fuze breathes softly into her helmet, her comms off, "Now I have you."

As the B-Wing of Jax fires debris rains down and lands on Triz. Covering her head as best she can "Really? Just f'n shoot me and put me out of this," she gets out through clinched teeth. Hearing the B-Wing land nearby she tries to rise but the pain in her ribs stops that rather quickly. Struggling one handed she gets her cracked helmet off and lets it roll away from her as she still struggles to catch her breath. A wipe of her hand across her lips comes away bloodied. "Well this ain't good." Totally unaware of the fight that is taking place above her.

As the incoming fire comes in against his B-wing. Jax pulls his blaster pistol firing three shots with almost the same unerring accuracy he has in at the controls of a star fighter. He aims center mass and the head striking hard. As the rain comes down. He moves to slide down his B-wing, "Hey Buckethead! You got woudned and I got wounded. YOu look after yours and I look after mine. Keep your head down I won't end you like I did the rest of your squad. It's been a hell of a day and I'm pissed off and tired of fucking around. " He doesn't wait for answer as he's already on the way to get Triz.

Karas brings his fighter in hard and fast, sending cloud trails behind him and using the buildings to keep any other incoming fighter come off him from the Tie behind him, he side slips left but is hit pretty good. "FUCK THIS!" he pulls up hard into a loop but does a reverse split-S coming over top of a short building and fires in on the Tie F/O fighter. The T-65c X-wing banks around another building as to start chasing the Tie. "Valkyrie does't let it get away, she is going down." he calls to his astromech.

Fuze pulls the trigger, bolts streaking towards Karas's X-wing as she whips the TIE around to avoid splattering herself into a warehouse. She pulls up, trying to disappear back into the clouds again, out of sight, but she's just too slow, or perhaps Karas is just too fast; she leaves herself open to his reply once more after his smart move, her shields quivering but holding, and she disappears up into the clouds.

The Stormtrooper firing at Jax is hit in the chest and head, a third bolt splashing harmlessly behind him, but two is more than enough to melt through his armor and his chest and helmet and his face, leaving him twitching on the ground. The remaining buckethead, cradling Ellie in his arms, stares nervously at the wreckage from the mouth of an alley, his blaster gripped in his hand but not firing.

Wet, hurt and looking at her wrecked ship Triz begins to slip. She lays her head back onto the duracrete, the coughing causes her to grimace. The body of the shot Stormtrooper is seen but really doesn't register. Closing her eyes "Sleep, that is what I need," she says sofly and closes her eyes.

Jax makes his way to Triz. His voice ringing out, "NO Sleeping on the job soldier. ON your feet Dermount. Stop your lallyganging and your goldbricking." Jax saying lifting her up and if she can helping her to walk, if not carrying her toward the B-wing. "That's an order. I ain't allowing you to be no fucking lollygagger. Wake your ass up."

(At this point Fuze and Karas lose each other in the clouds, and Jax rescues Triz, and the scene ends.)