Log:Jedi Order: The Third Site

The Jedi investigate another lead.

OOC Date: November 7, 2022
Location: Near Asteroid A3 in the Halmad System, Quelli Sector, Outer Rim Territories
Participants: Ax, Chani Tahn, Rey Skywalker, Ruur

Rey had sent out a message to others within the Order for more pilots, and their ships of course, to join them at a designated set of coordinates in the outer rim. It's a little traveled edge of a trading route where pirates often nest to lay in wait for unsuspecting shipping convoys, though lately it hasn't had much activity in the way of pirates due to a variety of different reasons, from nearby law enforcement picking up patrols, to cargo shippers getting wise and hiring better escort pilots, or arming their ships up better who fly through here.

Either way, the 'Tangle Weeds System' or TA-16 is not known for anything but being a sleepy hollow of sorts.

Rey's X-wing pops out of hyperspace on the edge of the route, far enough away to get a visual look at the egress points combined, and these were the coordinates she'd sent to other members of the Jedi Order.

Artoo speaks to Rey through the comms within the cockpit and she glances at the control board where it explicitly translates binary for her. "I know, I know. I shouldn't be out here. But we're getting close, Artoo... I can feel it." She says, bundled up in warm Jedi-style robes that she has adjusted to allow her hands full range of motion within the control cabin of the ship.

"Besides, this is a quiet place. Even the asteroid belt seems to be one of the less intimidating ones we've come across lately." She says further to the droid who beeps and whistles, swiveling his silver domed head around behind the cockpit.

Off to the starboard side, beyond the trade route arm, there is an asteroid field, but it's mostly dormant with quite a lot of space between the visible asteroids floating out in space.

"Scopes show nothing though." Rey says while eyeing the scanners on the controls in front of her. "Can you broaden the range?" She asks her faithful companion who beeps affirmatively, and starts up a sensor strength booster to spread the fighter's range out further.

"Mmm... still nothing." Rey quietly comments. "Maybe the others will have more luck in their ships..."

Appearing in real space not far from or long after Rey and her X-Wing is an Eta 2c Actis-class fighter bearing the markings of Saber Squadron. Sensor reports ping it as Saber 08 and in the ball of the cockpit one might be able to make out the rather cumbersome and large form of Ruur Cedid, the latest and newest member to the Order.

Red eyes glance from his systems read out and instruments to the space they've arrived in. "Visual scanning, Iba see if you can pick up anything else." Asked of the R2 unit sitting snugly in the ship's droid socket.

<<"If I may posit, what is it we seek Master Skywalker?">> Asked over comms, voice jumbled and scrambled with encoders.

"Of course I haven't heard of the Halmad system. Or Halmad. It says here it's a trade hub, and that its most major export used to be alcohol. Failed mining industry.." Chani's attention wanes from the information pulled up on her datapad to the view outside the transparisteel port of the Theed-built Naboo starfighter that emerges from realspace. She feeds power into its Nubian engines and the crash harness loosens around her shoulder when the inertia change presses her body back into the pilot chair. <"That is a huge asteroid.."> Speaking over the comms, Chani's voice trails off much like her attention does when regarding the massive rock her sensors have a lock on. "Sky, run sensor sweeps of the area. Max range scan."

Just because he hadn't flown it in a while, Ax made a trip to the Eravana to pick up Saber 3. The sleek little Aethersprite was one of his favorite ships to fly, and unlike his other favorites, didn't require a specialized flightsuit. Buster, his BB-series droid, was locked into the droid socket and the Echani was sitting in the cockpit trying to gather his calm so that the jedi starfighter was more of an extension of his mind and body than just a ship he was flying in.

When his fighter exits hyperspace, shortly behind the others, Ax takes a deep breath. "Alright Buster, be on your proverbial toes. No telling what we'll run into out here. Likely nothing good."

<<"Ax checking in,">> he says over comms to the others in the formation as he brings his ship into position. <<"Awaiting orders.">>

When the others start to pop out of hyperspace nearby, Artoo is quick to announce each ship showing up when they do. Rey's eyes look over out of the canopy of the old X-wing to see the ships from Saber, and the familiarly colored Naboo fighter.

"I'm not sure." Comes her voice over comms, equally distorted by the wonders of space outside their ships. Her eyes go forward then out the main viewport and she shakes her head side to side.

"The Imperial officer. WE calmed his mind after what the Sentinel had done to him, and he'd volunteered some information. He said that there were Death Star projects in the works for the whole of the galaxy, just as Veers had indicated, and he said that if there were materials going to it, the Empire kept its plans so compartmentalized that he wasn't sure, though he did say that a lot of cargo was still shipped through this system, and often on these days... because fighters from his asteroid base would get tasked with coming here to escort the shipments... We might have to hang around for awhile though, so I hope you brought some snacks--"

Rey can barely get the word out before the spark of exiting hyperspace ships starts to flash out in the distance, quite a ways away from where the Jedi ships are now, six of them in total, and the ships are so far away it's hard to make it out visually what any of them are.

"Or not..." Rey adds.

"Can anyone get a read on those things from this far out?" She asks, trying with her old limited scanners ranges...

The Actis 2c was a bit older than the T-65c that Rey was in, the sensors not likely any better. Ruur squinted at the small objects moving at a great distance from them. <<"Can't make out much from here with just visual scanning.">>

He fiddles with the sensor computer, trying to boost the range, his clawed fingers flipping switches and turning knobs. If all else failed at least he looked like he knew what he was doing. "Can you boost this any higher, Iba?" He asked his Astromech.

The droid returned with a rather disappointing binary tone that sounded more like a bantha passing gas. "Forget I asked..."

<<"I'm not getting anything, so I'm going to track and move closer.">> He turned towards the six craft and pushed his throttle forwards, the ion engines whining to life and flaring at the back.

The astromech socketed into the back of the Naboo fighter runs a series of scans separate from the ones Chani pulls up using the starfighter's systems. Their conclusions are small pieces of the larger puzzle. "Too far out to tell?" Chani's distant murmur of the question is idle self-reflection. "Keep an eye on them." Chani adjusts her thumb around a toggle. <"I'm getting bulk freighters and fighters. Can't tell what they are on my sensors. They might be eyeballs, or they might be something else. I'm not making any assumptions, but this is a strange coincidence if it is one. What's the plan?"> Chani's question precedes the bright flare of engines from one of the starfighters in their retinue. Ruur, she recalls the name, begins to move away from them.

Ax's Aethersprite was based on an old design, but the new Arisnar models had some improvements over the old ones. Modern sensors being one, as well as an internal hyperdrive instead of the reliance on an external ring. As requested, the Echani pilot starts looking at his scopes. "Buster, see if you can enhance," he says to his droid.

<<"Got four of the BFF Bulk Freighters, each with external TIE racks, and what might be a couple of YZ's, but I can't get a solid read,">> he says over the comms. <<"If we're not planning on running, I'd suggest hitting the BFF's with torps or missiles hard and fast before they can get off their fighters. We could quickly get outnumbered here.">>

"Confirming." Rey says over the comms. "Artoo says those are TIE fighters on the racks. We can't tell if they're First Order, or old Imperial though." She says to the others before her eyes look up to see Ruu starting to head out to get closer. "Be careful, these convoys are apparently used to pirates, of which we likely resemble..." Rey warns before she looks to the others, and then sits up a little more in her flight chair to put her hands on the controls. "Do we have enough to disable all of these ships?" She asks the others, since she's a pilot for sure, but most of them likely have more actual combat experience than she does in these things.

The red flare of the quad engines on the back of her ship start to glow brighter though, as Silver Leader starts to push forward and fly on the wing of Ruu's ship.

The comms crackle though, and a voice speaks up over them. "Unidentified ships. This is Convoy Alpha-Sixer. Please avoid our flight path, or we'll consider you hostile and be forced to launch our escort craft."

Artoo makes a low whistle at this warning over the public frequency.

<<"I am not entirely sure. I would defer that judgment to Saber Three, Lead.">> Ruur responds to Rey, glancing over to her inside her old T-65 as she comes up to fly as his wing. Red eyes glance down towards the sensors as more information starts to pop up as they get closer. When the warning over comms comes, the Shistavanen Jedi raises his brows in a bit of interest. Then, changing to the general frequency they were contacted on, really brings out the deep growl in his Lupin voice. <<"This is the Axxilan Anti-Pirate Fleet Squadron... We are on a routine inspection flight of the system. What are your goods and destination?">> A bold move indeed. He glanced over to Rey on his wing, waiting for the response.

The Naboo starfighter tilts up on its horizontal axis and banks along its vertical, bringing Chani around in a glide prompted by the angled output from the craft's Nubian sublight engines. It rights itself on the axis it was on before, using the other craft around it as a gyroscope to set a fake horizon in a place where no horizon exists. Chani adopts a position near Rey's starboard s-foil. <"I only have the mag-pulse warheads. I can try to disable the escorts that aren't on the racks."> Of those present, the Naboo native is not the choice for a torpedo or missile run that is likely to result in the destruction of the bulk freighters. There is that small, teensy tiny detail about her origins and an extremely heavy helping of a trait called pacifism.

<<"I lack any explosive ordnance,">> Ax says. He was in an interceptor craft, not a heavy hitter. Against other fighters, he'd be fine, but against heavy freighters, the little aethersprite lacked.

When the opposing ships say what they're doing, he keys up his comms to the others, sticking to their encrypted private frequency. <<"We'd probably do better to heed their calls and just hang back and observe rather than engage. They know we're here, and I don't think we could take out the carriers before they launch, and I'm still not sure what those other ships are. We've not fought enough together to anticipate our wingman's actions to be efficient as a fighter squadron.">>

With that said, Ax banks his ship to the side, <<"Regardless, we're now an anti-pirate squadron, so everyone form up and act like one. Keep twenty meters between each of us, but no more than forty. We've gotta at least play the part we just told them we were.">>

Rey affords a look over to Ruu's ship after he sends that message, then she just looks down at her scopes and takes up a position as Ax had advised. "I think---"

Rey is cut off then as that convoy transmission voice speaks on public freqs again. "A second group?" The male voice questions. "This is an ambush. Launch the fi---" His own comms are manually cut off then, and from the complete other side of the trade route from which the Jedi fighters are on, three old Y-wings, and three Z-95 headhunters come swooping in out of the asteroids and start opening fire on the convoy. The Y-wings launch ion torpedoes at the first two bulk freighters, as strobe alarm lights start flashing across their hulls.

The last two ships in the convoy can be better seen now, and its clear that they're some kind of Corellian Engineering Corporation ship, but they're an odd looking make and model, like they're handmade from a bunch of CEC ship parts. They start to fire their engines to push them forward, gliding over the convoy and spreading out to either side.

"I think we weren't alone out here." Rey's voice says over her team's comms. "Should we.... get involved in this?" She asks the others. "And for which side?"

Splashes of ion energy dash across the first two bulk freighters, while the last two start to detach their TIE Fighter escorts....

<<"I have four concussion missiles in a single rack.">> Ruur informs Rey over comms in conjunction with Ax and Chani. Though as the new group arrives and his R2 unit whistles with each new sensor contact, Ruur's eyes dart from visual to instruments and back to visuals. <<"That is a loaded question.">> The Shistavanen says over their private channel, <<"Currently I see a flight of pirates flying Uglies, trademark Pirate craft attacking a peaceful convoy. If we defend the convoy they might give us more information. Information we might need. If we wait and then scan the remains. We might get that information as well. If we join these pirates then, we might get information through spoils of the battle.">> He is rather blunt and matter of fact as he lists these options.

Chani's gaze and sensors track the arrival of new fighters getting into the engagement. Rey asks if they should get involved and Chani's breath catches in her throat after a slight inhale. Ion weapons from the wishbone fighters start smacking into the bulk freighters. Chani doesn't sound sure of the question that comes out of her mouth. <"Eyeballs are bad guys? Ruul could be right. The new fighters might be trying to disable the bulk freighters to capture them and take whatever's on board. We should try contacting the other squadron and see what response we get. If we're working on little information, let's try to figure out what we can before we make a mistake."> Chani feeds power to the Naboo starfighter to keep pace with the rest.

"Well, this just escalated," Ax says to nobody other than maybe his droid. <<"Rey, it's your call in the end. My advice, though, is either stay out of it and just observe, or we play the part of anti-pirate hunters. Still likely to draw fire from the BFF's. If we were all in matching ships, we might be alright, but with the assortment we have, it's too easy for us to be seen as just more pirates.">>

Ax does take a moment to power up his shields though, if whoever is being pirated decided they were a threat, then he didn't want to get cored.

<<"I'd suggest asking them if they want assistance, and inform them if not we will stay clear but do not wish to engage with their fighters or escort craft. Even if we do, it's probably not a good idea to let them know that. Maybe even ask them for identifiers before we can dedicate forces to assist?">>

With the pirates laying their fire down upon the two forward bulk freighters, they are both disabled within moments, facing that heavy of an initial wave of attacks from three Y-wings? It's a lot for three old bulk freighters. They don't even manage to launch their TIEs before their engines putter out and the ships go dormant.

The TIEs in the back two, however, do launch, and instantly open fire, trading blasts with the Z-95s. Red and green lasers start to flash through space,and one of the TIEs takes a hard hit to its port side solar panels, causing it to spin a bit awkwardly out of control away from the convoy!

"They have two of the lead bulk freighters disabled." Rey announces over comms, the Jedi fighter team staying out of the fight in front of them for the moment.

"Ruur, you set the table for us. You get to try and reach out to this pirate team, see... if they'd be friendly toward us." Rey says, her voice absolutely, and entirely, laced with disbelief that a group of pirates would help them out here.

There is a pause from Ruur, his face falling flat with some sort of grumpiness as he's now slightly regretting his possible folly in his bluff. "Right then..." The Shistavanen clears his throat. "Convoy do you require assistance? Y-Wings assaulting the Bulk Freighters. Why are you attacking this convoy? Stand down immediately." He does his best to sound commanding, which isn't hard for someone with his deep voice and size but it was more than just pitch and timbre that mattered. He also had already made up his mind, if they were just even slightly mean to him he might just shoot them.

"Well, I don't think that's going to make them very friendly," Chani murmurs to herself off their communication net. Mindful of the direction provided by Ax, Chani adjusts the position of her Naboo starfighter and puts some distance between herself and Rey's s-foil. Her gaze snap-checks the distance, ensuring that it hovers between twenty to forty meters at the Echani's suggestion. Chani changes plane, moving her Naboo starfighter higher in position so that she's not on the same line as Rey in case the fighters attacking the freighters decide to turn their way and pick another fight. Chani's fingers relax and readjust their grip around the Naboo fighter's flight handles. She takes a deep breath in, and slowly lets it out.

Ax signals to the others, <<"Decrease speed to 10 MG until we get word from opposition.">> He decreases his speed, mindful to keep the others in formation. Right now, it was either a waiting game, to see if the others were going to engage or not, or maybe ask for assistance. <<"Shields up at full, but don't engage your targeting computers yet. We don't want either side getting targeting alarms from us yet,">> he adds.

The voice from the comms that spoke up first is speaking again now, more frantically. "Watchers! Engage with these pirates and aid us and you will be rewarded!" He says in a stern voice, though one drenched in anxiety and stress.

Another voice chimes up, crackling through the comm lines. "Sorry, we got this group first. These guys are not the kind you want to barter a deal with, if you catch my drift. They're old Imperial roaches. They'll just stab you in the back, and take what you have." The comm voice says, also a male, though it sounds much older and gruffer.

"Keep outta the fight and we'll leave you one of the freighters once we've cleaned it out." The pilot of that Z-95 says before his ship is sweeping low over the convoy now and blasting at one of the TIE fighters that is trying to vector in on him.

Rey adjusts her throttle to the speed Ax indicates and she glances to the right and left at the other ships with her. "Ruur, see if you can haggle a computer core out of them from each freighter. We're not here for cargo, we're here for information. We need navi-records and the like."

A bright flash bursts in the darkness of space as a TIE Fighter is engulfed in flame, leaving 3 more to still be swarming around the convoy and firing off bright bursts of light.

"Ax, Chani, make sure you have your sensors locked on them in case they do try and seize us too. Track that lead fighter, the talkative one." Rey suggests.

Ruur drops the speed of his Actis 2c and brings the shields up. He angles away from the fight but only enough to indicate he, and the rest of his team was keeping out of the fight for now... but could pounce in at any moment. "I really hate putting on the sleazy cheese..." He grumbles to his droid who whistles sympathetically. He clears his throat.

<<"He... interesting bargain... throw in a computer core and you might just have yourself a deal."

Of course, an old Cometburn maneuver like this tended to end up in chaos and unintended consequences. "I've got a bat feeling about this."

The voice of the Paragon over the communication net prompts a needless nod -- a gesture that goes unseen -- from Chani. <"I got it."> Chani's sensors are channeled forward in a tighter cone towards the two groups of ships just ahead. "Keep an eye out, Sky. With our sensors focused, it'll be tougher to catch anything trying to sneak up on us, but we need to be ready." Chani doesn't try to target any of the craft on her sensors, but she does switch from laser cannons to the missiles with the mag-pulse warheads just in case the confirmed pirate group decides to break off their current engagement and get greedy about grabbing whatever they can from all the parties involved. <"Master Skywalker, we should ask them to leave the crews alive. Have them all transfered to the freighter the pirates want to give us for not intervening. We can get the information we want, save the lives we can, and send those individuals on the way. There's no need to let them die..">

<<"Roger, boss,">> Ax says over the comms to Rey. <<"I'm not a fan of consorting with pirates, but I like old Imperial remnant forces even less,">> Ax says. <<"Maintain speed and spacing for now. This can go south in a heartbeat, so be aware. This is their show at the moment, don't try to ask too much. Expect some of those TIEs to head our way.">>

Rey listens closely to the comm traffic and she draws in a light breath through her nose before she reaches a hand up to switch something on the control board above her head. "I agree, Chani, but they may not wish to go to that much trouble on our behalf." She responds before she glances over to Ruur. "Good try, I suppose." She tells the furry one out her port window before she looks starboard to where Ax's ship is.

"Have you had much experience with this kind of thing? Would you be up for trying to talk them in to piling all of the convoy crew in to one of the disabled bulk freighters and giving that one, and its navi-core to us?" She asks of the Echani now, since Ax has a supposed wealth of experience as a smuggler, this could be right up his alley, right?

More flashing outside in space, the Y-wings are headed toward the third and fourth bulk freighters now, while those two corvette-like CEC ships are lining up alongside them, and now opening fire on the Y-wings, having hid their cannons for the right moments. This causes the Y-wings to spread out and around to try and get away from the sudden onslaught of new opposition.

The three TIE Fighters are sweeping around the convoy and coming after the Z-95s, one of them scores a hit on one of the Z-95s and causes its right wing to burst into debris!

"We're about to be neck deep in this either way, I think." Rey says this.

The Gruff Z-95 pilot's voice chimes in. "Look, strangers, we're a bit busy for a negotiation here. Let's say you just stay back, out of the fight, or take out those gunships and help us out. We'll be sweeter on you if you give us a little help here."

"No!" The male convoy voice then shouts in. "Take out these blasted bombers, and we'll supply you with the best equipment that we have onboard. We are a weapons and science convoy, we have all manner of high end technology and equipment to offer."

"Keep sweetening that pot for us, Imp." That Gruff Headhunter pilot speaks up again to taunt the Imperial.

<<"I don't think they will be inclined to accept those requests, Miss Chani.">> Ruur responds over their shared comms, only after hearing their response to his own attempt at haggling. The Shistavanen was not the most charismatic person and that bulking monotone deep growl he called a voice didn't help him either. He continues to cruise with shields up, watching the fight go on and off in the distance. <<"I say we wait... and then if they don't give us what we want...">> He let them fill in the rest of the blanks.

There's not much hesitation from the young Naboo native. <"Then I think we have a duty to intervene. Imperial or not, I don't believe we can just sit here and let defenseless people be murdered."> Her starfighter doesn't break formation with the rest, but her thoughts on the matter are made clear, no matter how the bantering between the convoy and the pirate group might attempt to sway them. Chani's gaze floats to the starfighters she can see in view, slipping from Rey's X-Wing to the pair of Aethersprites piloted by Ruul and Ax. <"It might be dangerous, but the right path isn't always easy. That's how I feel about it."> Her side of the communications net goes quiet, leaving her opinion on the table for the others to digest.

<<"I grew up amongst pirates and smugglers on Socorro, but from how these pirates talked about the Imperial dogs, they're not likely to do that. Best we can get is likely the crew of that particular freighter. I can try, but it's going to be a tough sell. Might get them to allow the Imps to...">> He lets it trail off as the freighter captains try to sweeten the pot. "Nope, they're damn sure not going to go for it. If these are remnant forces, their science and weapons department use measures that likely created these pirates. Might be able to recruit them into resistance forces if we offer them a hand. Up to you, Rey, but I know which way I'd swing in this. You want me to try to negotiate for hostages, that's fine. Chani and I can fire magpulse warheads into the corvettes and maybe disable their weaponry.">>

Ax sighs. This was a no-win situation, their actions just determined whether they could walk away with more information than they came in with. <<"With any luck, the corvettes will evacuate once their weapons are knocked offline, but there's probably already reinforcements on the way.">>

They're all three right, this is a nasty situation with a 'no win' feeling to it. "I don't want anyone here to get hurt, Chani, but we're in it up to our necks, and the clock is ticking...." Rey hears Ax's words and she sighs, then pushes the throttle forward on her ship, and the S-foils pop open.

"Attack the weapons of the Corellian ships. We'll help them disable the ships, but if they try to kill any of the crew... well, we'll stop the pirates then." She states before sending her fighter out at full speed toward the new found enemies of this seemingly random Imperial fleet!

Artoo whirls and whoops from the co-pilot position as the X-wing gains ground on the Corellian freighters that are firing on the Y-wings now, successfully keeping them from making any real efforts of disabling those last two BFF freighters.

The TIEs and Headhunters are still locked in a heated furball all of their own, and some choice words are being spoken over public comms now as all parties get a sense of what is coming next...

There is a moment as Ruur considers Chani's words as a call to action. If it weren't for Ax's words and his own experiences and age allowing him patients and a lack of brash decision making he might have charged in head first against the Pirates. When Rey makes her decision, he turns his sleek Actis interceptor about and cycles through the targeting sensor computer, stopping on one of the corvettes. He pushes the throttle forwards, readies the shields, and switches his weapons to Ions. <<"Saber 08, understood Lead. Engaging Corvettes with Ions.">>

THHHHHWWWWAAAPPPP

The blueish purple bolts of the Eta's Ion cannon lances out and splashes into his target. Ruur pulls up to gain distance before coming about again."

The order to engage comes. <"On it,"> Chani quips over the comm. <"I'll follow your lead, Ax, like last time."> Last time had been an ambush that allowed Chani to catch a couple of fighters by surprise, not making a bold-faced run on a corvette with bristling weapon platforms. Chani searches through the adrenaline and nerves for the calm, serene surface of the pool that is the Force and seeks to dip into it to steady herself. Chani bleeds speed to let Ax get ahead of her and then twists the flight handles of the Naboo starfighter so that it drifts to port and lines up with Ax favoring that side. Her targeting computer engages and she sets her sights on the turrets sending bright red lances bursting from their barrels to assault the swarming pirates. A solution and tone are acquired quickly and Chani's thumb depresses the switch on her right flight handle. Rather than a proton torpedo launching from the Naboo starfighter, a missile platform races free. It rapidly approaches its target across the void, and once it reaches arming distance, the rocket section comes apart and the warhead propels forward. Piercing arms lock back around the warhead's nose and the mag-pulse device blitzes through the corvette's shields. It impacts against the turret in question and sends an immediate pulse through its subsystems that power it down. The arms lock in, and a virus uploaded directly to the ship's computer seeks to wreak havoc and drain power from its weapon subsystems. <"Got a hit!">

A couple years ago, Ax's daughter gave him her sippy cup for luck. He glued a magnet to it and kept it filled with whiskey sitting on the control panel of his ship. That little cup was amazing, and right now he was grabbing a quick sip to get into character before keying up his comms.

<<"Salvage squadron, we'll disable the gunships. You screw over the deal though, then I know dark places in the galaxy where you'll rot forever. Cargo is all yours, we want flight computers and hostages. One of those junker freighters loaded with surviving crews would be fine with us,">> The Echani says in his sternest voice as he's punching the snub-fighter to its limits, lobbing a magpulse warhead directly into the lead gunship's weapons array. His familiarity with gunships might have given him an edge, because it was the perfect hit to cause electrical sparks to light up nearly every turret on the corvette.

"That's the spirit." The gruff male voice says from the Headhunter still engaged with the TIE fighters. IT's a 3 on 3 furball there off to the side of the remaining BFF freighters.

Ax's well placed shot, along with the shields being heavily weakened by Ruur, has the first gunship breaking off to the side. Its thrusters flare to life and it rolls away from the convoy as it seems to be making a break for it! The 2nd of the two gunships holds its position and its two remaining laser turrets swivel as they line up shots on the incoming Jedi fighters. They start to open up with a salvo of blasts that sizzle through space past the nimble starfighters, but the 2nd gunship seems to be reluctantly following the first.

Are they abandoning their convoy? Possibly!

The Y-wings are continuing their efforts with the 3rd bulk freighter now though, and have peppered it with ion torpedos that now have it disabled like the first two, leaving just one poor BFF freighter to continue on its way toward its hyperspace exit point, but even it seems to be altering its plans as it starts to turn toward where the gunships are headed, maybe taking an alternate course.

"Get that last freighter before it goes! We need all these damn things, not any excuses!" The gruff Headhunter pilot voice barks out over comms, perhaps having left his comms on public frequencies.

"Nice shooting." Rey says. "But that second gunship is still guarding the last freighter, we better eliminate its guns before it gets away." She warns, her X-wing coming up now to fire some shots at the 2nd Gunship's shields to weaken them for the disablers to get through better!

Ruur has to break off again as one of the TIE's lances out at the nimble Actis with green streaks of superheated energy. They pass harmlessly into the seeming emptiness space, the shots placed where the fast interceptor had been and not where it currently was. The Shistavanen Jedi pulls hard on the stick, coming about sharply. His targeting reticle goes green on top of the TIE. Another bolt of Ion energy zips out, but catches the space between the TIE and continues on harmlessly into space much like the TIE's own thwarted attack.

Ax was raised in the cockpit of a ship, and in these moments it showed. His Delta-7c juking and jiving, the sippy cup not spilling a single drop. The Echani couldn't help but smile, this was his element for sure.

Another magpulse warhead fires from the Aethersprite, though due to all the fancy piloting, it didn't strike that absolute perfect mark like his previous one did. <<"Expect the doublecross. I hope it doesn't happen, but never trust pirates.">> Ax says over the group's private frequency.

One more cannon is taken off of that last gunship before the first lunges back into space, and the second one charges its engines and vanishes into hyperspace right after it!

The 3 Y-wings assaulting the last BFF freighter make one more pass over it with ion torpedoes before the ship starts to list and its lights flicker. All 4 BFF freighters are left floating in space, and their TIE escorts are left to handle what remains.

Ax's aggressive assault is met with two TIE fighters appearing in his aft, both of which get shots at him, sizzling laser fire past him before one of them is heavily damaged by the red lasers coming in from Rey's X-wing. It twists into a firing position, and lets loose with a quad blast of cannon fire that rattle the old TIE fighter and mortal enemy of her T-65, until it spirals out of control toward the asteroids on the edge of the system.

"You did good." The gruff Headhunter pilot's voice says just as two more ships come in from hyperspace. These two are light freighters, and they are moving at a casual clip now toward the disabled convoy. "Look, we'll meet you aboard the first freighter, and talk this through, sound good? You helped us, and we aren't going to forget that..."

The Headhunters are still fighting the last two TIEs, but the TIEs are quick to signal a surrender, their pilots even returning toward the disabled freighter they launched from, and the Headhunters don't stop them, and do stop attacking them, which does suggest some level of honor amongst thieves here tonight.

Rey looks at her scopes and considers their options. She comms to her wingmates. "This sounds like the best chance we have here." She quietly comments.

Ruur checks his scopes, making sure he really is clear of attacking craft before rejoining Rey on her Wing. He settles into a cruising speed, slowing down to keep up with the not as fast X-Wing. <<"This isn't over yet...">> He remind Rey, <<"The hard work has just begun.">> Of course referring to whatever is going to happen once they board those freighters. <<"Ready to start docking procedures on your mark, Lead.">> He starts to prepare the ship. "Iba... keep the engines warm while we go about these... negotiations. Just in case." The droid whistles in affirmation.

Letting out a slow exhale, Chani loops around from the runs that have been raced at the corvettes. <"I think we shouldn't agree unless all of them come aboard, or until we agree how many of us will stay outside. I don't like the idea of just boarding a ship while they lurk around out here. That seems.. unwise."> Chani sets her heading to bring her around closer to Rey and Ruul. "Sky, change from narrowband to wide range on the sensors. Let's make sure we're keeping our eyes open while we figure this out. If some of them came from that asteroid.." Chani trails off. <"On second thought, maybe we should only agree on the stipulation a couple of us stay outside. If they came from that asteroid belt, who's to stay there aren't more?">

<<"Just keep your head on a swivel,">> Ax says. <<"We don't know these guys yet and they don't know us. They might be resistance types who didn't fall into the Republic, or they might be opportunistic pirates. Rey, you especially. Your bounty could fund a lot of endeavors. Not that the rest of us aren't worth something, just... And Chani has a point. I'm not going to say who lands and who doesn't, that's not my call. Just remember, the more of them on the ship, the more danger we're going to be in. I'm fine with a fight, but I am even more fine with not having to go against overwhelming numbers.">>

Switching comms to open source to the pirates. <<"Affirmative. You don't know us, we don't know you, but maybe we can remedy that and leave here on better terms. We might be leaving a fighter or two out here just to keep an eye on things.">>

The situation was tense as the four bulk freighters just sat there in space, the people aboard them likely in a frenzy with anticipation for their own safety being put at possible frayed ends... But the Jedi were here, the people aboard the freighters didn't know they had at least that much going for them...

"Ax, take Ruu and go aboard, see if you can't get the computer cores off these freighters. Just make it clear that we're all just here for their navi data. I'd go, but... you're right about the bounty. Plus, I think it best that my X-wing stay out here versus their Headhunters, if things go south."

She says this while those two Ghtroc light freighters that the pirates summoned come gliding in toward that first BFF freighter that was disabled, the furthest one back in the disheveled convoy line.

"I'll be hoping for the friendly variety of pirates, if that wasn't obvious." The sound of Rey's voice adds.

The TIE fighters redock and the headhunters take up some of the extra docking ports affixed to the top of the heavy ships. This leaves four open for the Jedi, but only two needed.