Log:Rebel Plans - Insertion
Rebel Plans - Insertion
OOC Date: January 03, 2024
Location: Space
Participants: Julia Teldan, Tessa Velt, Sloane Azarin in Savage Flight
"Savage Leader to Savage Flight, the beacon is two five zero clicks dead ahead," Sloane said over the comms, keyed in to the encrypted channel shared by the TIEs. "Expect resistance. Savage Two, I want those doors open. Savage three, form up on my six and let's keep Three safe while she does her run. Priority targets are turbo laser turrets followed by whatever's in the sky." Officer Azarin consulted her instruments, checking around them for trouble. "Shuttle Omega Three, once the door's open, emergency dock and disgorge your payload. In and out as quick as you can. They may try to blow the base."
Three TIEs flew in a wedge formation around a Cygnus Theta-Class shuttle through a black segment of space. Chunks of rock were growing thicker around them, necessitating greater deviations from their straightforward course to keep from being hit by asteroids that were a testament to a dead world. A world the Rebels had taken on in memory, a symbol, and made into a base. In one of the thicker asteroids, there was a base, sealed behind thick blast doors and buried into floating metal. Supposedly the base housed old fightercraft that were being refurbished for active use and still held in their computerbanks the location of other Rebel bases. At least that's what the intel said.
Surrounded by the comforting darkness of her TIE Bomber cockpit and space, Julia was at home. All she needed was her red flight suit and the scream of twin ion engines. "Acknowledges, Savage Leader. Doors will be opened," Savage Flight's second-in-command said over the comms. "Target in two-four-zero clicks...mark.' The distance sped by and the TIEs were not even at max, they were still coasting along. "Savage three, EWAR package at ready. Jam when in range. Whisper free."
Julia adjusted a control and felt the familiar tingle in her stomach as the thrill of preparing concussion missiles for flight began to grow in her. She checked her payload, going ahead and arming the missiles as they came up closer. A sudden rock twice her size coming at her made Julia break formation and veer off, climbing around the asteroid and settling back to the other side.
It was not Tessa's first time wearing the red flight suit of a Sith Pilot. Nor was it her first time seated in a TIE Whisper. It was, however, her first time doing these things in a live mission and not just for practice. She was a little nervous and could feel the sweat beading on her palms under her gloves, and her mouth, annoyingly, kept going dry. "Acknowledged, Savage One," Tessa said over the comms. She marked the distance to target on her instruments and double-checked her flight path.
Adjusting her path, Tessa rolled the TIE to the port side to avoid the same asteroid that Julia so nimbly dodged. "On your six, Savage Leader," she came back after rolling again, this time coming in to the backside of Sloane's TIE. "Scope's clear."
The distance clicks off, read over the comms by Sloane as it goes. "Two Zero Zero clicks...One seven five clicks.." and so on. It's around "One zero zero cli -- We have company." Her voice remains calm. This is what they train for, and Sloane's a very experienced pilot. "Three Cloakships coming in at eight five mark one eight two. Savage Two, strafe on your way but do not stop. Take Omega to target. We'll handle these." Two on three seems like fair odds to Sloane.
With coordinates called out and her plan put into motion, Sloane pushes her advanced TIE into a "dive" relative to her current position. She heads for the Cloakships and squares off against one of the rectangular ships. Red lasers lash out against the antiquated figters, but even antiquated deflectors and good piloting can be effective. She manages only a glancing hit against deflectors.
"Acknowledged, Flight Leader," Julia says. She adds speed to her TIE, really kicking in the scream. "Omega Shuttle, let's do this. Head to the base, I've got the door bell." She puts puts the TIE into a spin, sending a few thick bolts of red energy across the nearest Cloakship as she passes by, but it's nothing more than a distraction as she, too, finds that the pilots are too good to fall too quickly to such tricks.
Coming out of her spin, Julia locates the asteroid with the rebel base on her scope. She switches from laser cannons to concussion missiles and squeezes the red trigger on her stick. Two missiles drop from the TIE and goe hurtling toward the thick metal doors.... only to hit the nickel and iron ore of the astroid instead, blowing up harmlessl in a shower of rock and metal instead.
With her own acknowledgment given, Tessa does what she was trained to do and stays with Sloane. She keeps... not tight, but close. She flies not exactly on Sloane's six, but a little offset, giving herself room to pop up and fire off some of her own lasers. She has no more luck than anyone else in this regard.
Tessa flicks over to the EWAR screen and presses a button, engaging the electronic jamming systems after selecting her targets. The TIE Whisper is good for this, at least. "They're fast for antiques!"
TIEs have maneuverability and the strafing run soon turns into a second with Sloane pulling up, doubling over, and turning some serious g-force into a second attack. Once more Savage Leader sends heave laser bolts slamming toward the old fighters, and once more the deflectors manage to disperse most of the energy and leave the rest to harmlessly dissipate across the metal. "C'mon!" she shouts inside her helmet, not bothering to key the comms. She has a reputation as a calm officer to keep after all. When the cloakship sends its own green energy back at her, Sloan spins to the starboard and dodges out of the way.
A quick look at the scope ensures that they aren't attracting any other attention. "No one else is joining the party just yet, but let's not keep these guys around for too long," Sloane says over the comms this time. "Just like we practiced."
It may be Sloane's plan to engage the three Cloakships with just two TIEs but no one told *them* that. One of the rectangular ships is on her tail and Julia's having to adjust course a lot. She goes into a lose corkscrew that she hopes the other pilot can't follow and then releases two more missiles at the heavy blast doors. This time she has more success and the missiles impact their target with two explosive BLAMs. The doors are wrecked and shredded, leaving an opening for the Omega shuttle.
Julia holds course as long as she can and pulls up at the last moment. It proves too much for the cloakship following her who doesn't manage to pull up. The small vessel slams against the asteroid and explods in a spray of shrapnel, the first one to go down.
"Yes!" Tessa exclaims at noting the barn doors opening. She doesn't even bother to double-check that she wasn't keying her mic, but luckily she wasn't. That was a private, one-word party. With the EWAR activated the other ships are having a harder time locking on, and the faster TIEs are getting out of the way faster. Now it's just a matter of getting their heavy cannons in place to blast the ships out of the sky.
Tessa swings her TIE around and opens fie on her target the moment she hears the locked-on tone. "Dammit! These guys are good," she mutters again. Clearly skill makes up for having shitty equipment. Her lasers were deflected as the cloakship spun off, out of the way. The TIEs are keeping the Cloakships busy, at least, which is half of the mission. With Julia successfully opening the base, the shuttle has been able to land and is now working on gaining access to what's inside. Out in space, Sloane slams her TIE into some real acceleration, seeing if the ship that's on her tail can keep up. She doesn't flip up to the top, but does the reverse and dives down, twists, and comes up behind it. Blam blam! Two heavy laser beams slam into the cloakship, exploding it. The TIE flies through a fireball and comes out the other side.
Turning her ship, Sloane seeks to pincer the remaining cloakship so that Tessa can get it. "Come in at angle three one three mark eight two, Savage Three. Savage two, you come in at..." SLoane calls out another angle, seeking a three-way squeeze on the enemy ship. The Rebel stands no chance! "Acknowledged," Julia says, adjusting her heading to do as Sloane has commanded. She comes at the Cloakeship from the side and fires her lasers, though they dance harmlessly off the deflectors, it seems to be the last energy the defensive fields have in them. Sparks begin to dance along the hull of the fighter, indicating a deflector failure.
Tessa follows Sloane's greater experience and is soon taking a new angle on the fighter that's been frustrating her. She waits for the lock tone again and opens fire. This time it's not all frustration to go with her light show, but an explosion of fire and metal set off by the catalyst of laser. She whoops inside her cockpit and veers off before colliding with another TIE.
"Good job," Sloane says over the comms. "We'll make a TIE pilot of you yet, Savage Three. Now let's keep station and wait for our friends to get their job done." Three Dead Rebels is a good day, and now there's nothing but debris left in the sky. Sloane calls out coordinates for orbiting the asteroid and sets her team to keeping watch for the success or failure of Omega.
