Log:Resistance: All Aboard Part II

Resistance: All Aboard Part II

OOC Date: October 18, 2019
Location: Dellalt System
Participants: Tallissan Lintra, Elrych Cometburn, Callax Dalso, Snap Wexley (NPC), Ektor, Poe Dameron, The Resistance

The Dellalt System, a remote stopover point for Sienar-Janus Corporation convoys passing from Lianna to the rest of the Outer Rim. Spies have reported that a convoy carrying repulsor coils badly needed by the Resistance Army will be arriving at a certain time, and the Resistance has dressed up to go shopping.

Prepared as a 'pirate raid', an eclectic collection of six civilian fighters and armed transports have been prepared to ambush the convoy, ionize the bulk freighters, and secure the system while a boarding party seizes the target ship, effects hasty repairs, and jumps to the rendezvous point.

Say what you will about the Sienar Corporation's politics, but their convoys run on time. At the appointed hour, a trio of Mark I Heavy Transports (designations S-JBT 031, 032, and 107) arrive in system escorted by a light cruiser (the *Lady Phillipa*), and a half dozen TIE/fo fighters (Phillipa 1-6), all painted a rich royal blue.

With hoots and imprecautions shared over the comms, the handful of pirate fighters kick engines to full, and accelerate (some much faster than others) toward the convoy and its escorts.

Poe is seated at the cockpit where a single chair is centered at the console and yoke. Computer beeps and alarms herald the beginning of the operation as Poe follows the ambush party with a drek-eating grin on his face. He opens an internal channel to Captain Lintra, who is seated at the stern of the ship watching their tail, an especially important position to be in a ship as large as the Ghost. "Tallie, we are on the move. Strap in and hold on."

Golden engines glare against the backdrop vastness of void and space with a modified output that keeps this ship competitive against /most/ fighters, but not nearly as dodgey. "No, BB-8, keep the power up on the shields but go ahead and bring up weapons. Over the encrypted comms. <<"Ghost here, should I pop sensor jammers to mask our approach and keep them from communicating initially?">>

(Or rather) Coming out of hyperspace pops Tallie out of the little nap she was taking in the stern facing Phantom. Poe voices has her double checking her straps and reaching for the caf in its thermos by her side. Seat upright, watching scan, she grins at the chatter, "Roger that. Awake and strapped in." Behind her Fiver's head rotates adding his whistle over comm.

Thunderbolt 1 Elrych is flying along in that hot pink and white trummed Kimogila of his, Thunderbolt One. <<"I don't know. such a double edge sword, you know? I guess but if a big boy drops in, drop it so we can get torp locks. Assuming they ant got one too."

Ektor mutters into the comm as his old recon-bomber flares to life and fire control is set to ion cannons, <<Everybody eat up while you can, Iâ??m gonna light up them bulkies, yeah?>> Shaking his head, Ektor drawls to R2-G13, "Ysnno what I don't get? How come these Hutt-suckers try to save credits on shields. Don't get me wrong, I'm GLAD they're so stupid, it's just-" he's distracted as the first probing bolts of cannonfire begin to glitter in the void. "Oh, right. The thing."

Poe's question is answered by a feminine voice in the lead HLAF, <<Pretty Boy, if you rekk up my chance to kill a cruiser, you are un-invited from grilling by the lake at the after-op party.>> A few laughs greet the claim, before Ektor adds, <<Eh, let em holler, Ghost. No way they can gripe louder than Zap. Starting an ion run on the bulkies.>>

<<"Ha! I never come when I'm invited. Roger that, Elrock and Tion. Going dark. When it gets hairy, I'll lift it.">> Poe turns to look over his shoulder, nodding. "Alright buddy, do it now." BB-8 warbles an affirmative, and their jammer comes online. Poe angled the ship toward the cruiser. "Snap, get ready, pal. Tallie, you too!"

The Ghost dips sideways and begins its attack run on the cruiser. He squeezes the triggers, firing dual heavy cannons while Snap fires the blue lanced ion cannon. They impact the shields /hard/ creating a small ripple of energy. The Ghost is brought back up, now giving Tallie the perfect angle to start her attack. "Hahaha!" Is Poe laughing. "Bring us around again, Poe," Snap says, his voice deeper but not hiding the anxiety. "It's gotta come down quick if we don't want to get chewed up by her turrets."

"Already on it, buddy." Poe fires back.

The warning comes in good time though controls show her the ship's vector it is a little disorienting to not be the pilot even if its the best pilot in the Resistance the cockpit behind her. "Here we go, Fiver." Tallie and Fiver hang sideways in space the Gs pushing her back in her seat as she brings the dual cannons to bear on the cruiser. The red stabs of light ablate the shield on the cruiser and then they are reorienting."

Elrych laughs at Poe just as static sounds and the comms go down. "Alright, Eggsy. Just you and me bud. Give me some tunes to kick it to." His R2 unit whistles a reply and pipes a nice fast jazzy number through his cockpit speakers. "Alright... no bad." The Jedi Ace, pushes the throttle forward and angles in for a run on the Cruiser, straffing its shields with his heavy Canons. Scarlet death widdling away at the protective layer.

And lo, manifesting in realspace, the Dark Joy arrives; its drives burning bright and blue at maximum thrust, the flattened, angle-winged TIE screams through the void. As it also hits a wall of signal jamming, its pilot does not bother announcing its arrival over channels filled with squelching static - instead it dives upon the largest target available, the light cruiser being hammered by ships known to be friendly, and as Callax squeezes the triggers on the fighter's yoke its wingtips blaze and flare as streams of green light are spat toward the beseiged cruiser. Though by accuracy, surprise or some mixture of the two, Callax's guns all make their mark, and the ship's ailing shields seethe and buckle from the assault while shallow rents are torn through the vessel's armor.

Without word, Callax calmly hauls the yoke, bringing the ship around for another pass...

Ektor is objectively awful at being a professional soldier. But the man can do things in a Y-wing which border on the absurd. The Longprobe maneuvers such that he can line up a strafing run on each of the three bulk freighters in turn, and while firing a constant stream of ion energy that rapidly drains the power cells, manages to immobilize all three heavy transports. A dumb chuckle fills the cockpit. Of course, being so focused on the attack has a cost, and the Y-wing is tapped by a TIE fighter. "Genius, get that back up, yeah?"

Elsewhere, the sudden onslaught has hammered the light cruiser's shields and the *Lady Phillipa* begins to take hull damage. The TIEs trade blows with their counterparts, as-right on cue- the anticipated Broadstar ultra-light freighter *Ocilu* emerges from its microjump, carrying the strike team that will board and secure the target Sienar freighter.

"Coming around for another go, guys." The Ghost has casually avoided turret fire, circling about and centering on the cruiser again. Poe reaches forward, slapping down several switches to stop the beeping while he lines up his sights. "Opening fire!" Poe's double heavies slam into slightly refreshed shields and he angles hard port to circle about again. "All you, Tallie." Another series of proximity alerts earn more flipping of switches. "No, I got it, BB-8. Be ready on the shields, pal. I have a bad feeling.."

"Roger, that Poe!" The Ghost is pulling out and twisting as Tallie lines the lasers up. The targeting computers flashing orange and centering when she hits the laser fire button -- and misses. Fiver bleep, "..." Tallie responds despondently, "I don't know."

Elrych gets that all too familiar and somewhat welcoming tingle of danger through his connection to the force. "Oh... Oh?" He glances at his sensors and watches one of the TIE's turn towards him. "Ahhh... okay, I see how it is. Don't want to play with the Pirates." He jukes the Yoke hard and turns as the green lasers zip towards his Pink and White Kimogila. "Try again..." He says, engines roaring to life as he angles in on another strafing run on the Cruiser, smashing through the shields and eating into the Hull. He whistles along with the tune playing in his cockpit, "Ah... the boarding party has arrived."

With its initial raking of the cruiser successful, Dark Joy finds its shields buffeted by a burst of laser fire from one of its escorts. Its thick deflector envelope flickers with this relatively light attack, banking and rolling through the rest, and then Callax guides the ship into a sharp wingover so that it can return fire. The display of the targeter built into the Avenger's yoke is reflected in the tinted viewplate of Callax's helm, bright neon ghosts on darkened plastoid, and he returns fire. This time, his guns strike far truer, and the TIE's shields are shredded almost to the last. The *Ocilu* veers to approach the second of the three Mark I Bulk Transports, before rocking hard with the impact of laser blasts strafing its shields as a blue TIE fighter screams past, pursued by a Corellian Interceptor.

With the attacking fighters more scattered, the light cruiser *Lady Phillipa* is able to weather the destructive storm awhile longer, though its restored shields are barely clinging to solvence. The chaotic maelstrom of a sensor-blind dogfight rages on, as Ektor sends commands and instructions to the other pirate fightercraft, forgetting that they can't hear him, and then feeling pleased when they seem to obey, because the orders were that obvious.

The *Ocilu* has successfully docked with *S-JBT 032*. The boarding operation is underway.

"Third pass, guys. Ready on those guns!-- BB-8, give me some juice to the shields, buddy." The Ghost physically jerks in one direction as Poe is forced to readjust his course after a stunning hit to their shields. Thrusting the lever for speed forward, he entrenches their path toward the cruiser. "I'm ready, Poe.." sounds a determined Snap, who has centered his Ion turret on their target. Poe laughs. "Opening fire now; Tallie get ready!" Poe opens fire with dual heavy cannons and SHATTERS the cruiser's shields. They skim over the exterior hull in a display of classy flying while Snap tears up the ship with the Ion cannon, leaving a disabled husk for Tallie to take aim at when Poe brings the ass-end of the ship into targeting range for the ace stationed back there.

Poe and Snap are hammering the Cruiser as they come around, shields are down and the hull beginning to crumple under impacts. Guns locked in, Tallie (in the ass end) brings both laser cannons to bear as the Ghost lights out from hitting the Cruiser. They hit the ship hard as escape capsules leave the ship like fire works, shooting off in all directions. "Glad they got some pods off, you know, Fiver." Over ship comms, she yells, "The BEST IN THE RES," to Snap and Poe.

Elrych is moving in for another pass on the Cruiser but has to maneuver out of the way of a TIE that's got it out for him, likely the same one from before. "They're like the swamp bugs back on Rori. Annoying... gah..." He looks out his viewport to see the cruiser start to go up. "Huh... that wasn't so bad..." This leaves him free to come about and, even though he's slower, very patiently chase the TIE who was just firing at him. He lines up his own Retical, squeezing the trigger. Two scarlet bolts zip past the ball cockpit of the TIE, in between it and it's solar panels. "Awww man..." He keeps up the chase.

While other things explode hither and yon, Callax finds his sleek ship suddenly heavily buffeted with laser fire from another angle; the Avenger's shields are thick, but they flicker and fail beneath the stream of laser fire from the new attacker, and her port wing suddenly has new holes bored down the side like the ventilation of an air-cooled barrel. Alarms go off all around him as Callax finds his lethal vessel suddenly quite battered, and he punches the vessel's thrust to max once more as he works to restore power to its shields. He succeeds, but only to a point…

Unseen and unheard, the boarding action continues within a crippled freighter, while in the black, the bloody battle has swung firmly in favor of the ambushers. The battered light cruiser at last succumbs to the heavy cannonades and is ionized for a moment, escape pods launching from the crippled ship in the moments before the final blow ends it. The fighters have taken a pounding on both sides, though half the royal blue TIEs are damaged and flying evasively.

Ektor guides his Longprobe to dissuade a TIE from the pursuit of a stricken friendly, probably making some dubious quip over mercifully still-blocked comms.

The Ghost is seen speeding away from the scene as the cruiser goes up in flames, exploding in all directions before being swallowed up by the void. "Good damn shooting, team. /Good/ damn shooting." The Ghost crew is reminded they're in a battle because an angry TIE trains their stern, blasting the shield and rocking the ship, though not nearly as violently as it had when they were hit by the cruiser. "I think we have company behind us. I'm going to help our friends from Tion. Ready on the guns. Tallie.. I'll do my best to line you up-- if you miss, it's on me!"

The Ghost swoops into the dog fight, her cannons opening up from both sides. Two TIEs are caught in the initial assault, hopefully allieviating some of the strain their allies were experiencing.

BB-8 warbles that shields are near maxed again, and Poe jerks the craft. "Alright, let's cut the jammer and see what we need to do next, buddy."

THE JAMMER COMES OFF.

<<"Ghost here.. Cruiser is down. Give me a sit-rep?">>

Tallie's voice comes back cheerfully. "I'll remember that, Poe if I miss." Green laser fire had just rolled over the V-shaped cockpit of the Phantom, it is now her turn to fire back at the offender. Depressing the button laser, Tallie gives them everything she has - and misses. "Ah, Poe?"

Elrych is locked into a stalemate with the TIE he's chosen to chase. A Back and forth with both dodging each others shots as they dance around in an endless cirlcle in the deep black of space. The Jedi is oddly quiet as he manipulates the yoke, other hand making micro-adjustments to the throttle. His feet pressing the ruder thruster levels ever so slightly as he turns. Then, Poe is comming through the comm. <<"Ahhh... just chasing some Drek TIE's... Figure we can finish 'em off and lob a few torps in on those freighters.">> Given they had time.

Once restored, the comms blare with a <<WOO hoo hoo!>> Then the other voices start to filter in. <<Oh.. right, I was wondering why you all got so quiet.>> The request for a status update is delayed for a long moment as the newly restored sensors share a new arrival: the First Order Nebulon-K frigate *Ascendant* has arrived at ten thousand kilometers, and deployed 6 fresh Alpha Squadron TIEs flying in tight formation.

Ektor broadcasts to the Broadstar, <<Uh. Hey, so.. not to rush an artist or nothing? But.. we might wanna hurry this up, yeah?>>

"Sorry, Tallie, sorry.." He keeps the ship at a more reasonable course now. "Let's keep focused on the TIEs and give our fighters some time to breath."-- <<Roger, Elrock. If you want to break and work on those freighters; I just wasn't sure if we were smashing those or not.">> BB-8 warbles something about sensors. "What do you mean there's another-- Oh drek, we've got a frigate on sensors and fresh TIEs coming in." He informs the Ghost crew just as they go through another passing routine, blasting one TIE from the front guns, and leaving a straggler for Tallie. "Tallie, I popped the shields of one coming into your range." Announces Snap, his gruff voice tightening at the news of more TIEs coming in. <<"We got more company enroute, team. Get your shields up.">>

The Ghost maneuvers like a dancing girl and Tallie rocks in the tail, still unused to the passivity of being gunner in a fight as heavy this. "Fiver, we've got new company. Let's light them up and uninvited them." Over comms to Poe, "We got no sorries, Poe. None." Then drops the banter as she targets another TIE coming in from their zenith and lights it up with the double cannons.

Elrych moves in after the Evasive fighters now that the rest have been taken care of. It's like he's playing one of his video games, tongue out as he concentrates and tried to move his sluggish craft in ways that might get a good shot in on the nimble fighters. It doesn't quite pan out. <<"Herm? Oh, yeah. I wasn't sure but I figure if it's stuff the FO is protecting, least we could do is deprive them of what ever it is we didn't steal, yeah?">> It might be of contention that the Smuggler would think like a Pirate but, in the case of the state of the Galaxy, sacrifices had to be made. "Come one, do an explosion..." Then the sensors are going off the wall, bringing the Jedi's attention to them. <<"Oh... daddy. Didn't I say there was going to be a Big Daddy out there? Didn't I? Those freighters will have to wait now.">> He brings the Kimogila about, the ugly Hot Pink and Bright White trim sitting loudly against the dark background of space.

Stuck in the red-litten ball of Dark Joy's cockpit, Callax can do nothing but try and boost his defenses more - the hull damage and the flickering shields require him to try and put more power into the generator, which he tries still to do. He manages to get a bit more, but it still doesn't look good.

TIEs are a magnificently nimble craft, but even the latest generation of shielded superiority fighters are outmatched when they can't rely on a numerical advantage, and the swarming Resistance (in dusguise) and allied pirates are methodically hunting down the last of the convoy's evasive escorts, with the final shot being a punishing salvo from the Preybird that destroys Phillipa 6. <<Nice shot, Fecia,>> Ektor grins, answered by a musical babble of Sullustan. <<Bring it around, yeah? We gotta hold these Hutt-suckers while the Chief gets that bucket of bolts carrying our payday moving.>>

In an auspicious sign, the *Ocilu* breaks its mooring lock with the boarded Mark I, and employs thrusters to gain distance, as the first few running light on *S-JBT 032* begins a slow crawl forward, toward the hyperspace waypoint.

<<"And here comes the parade,">> Announces Poe, he orients the craft toward the incoming squad. <<"Follow me in, people, and let's light them up!">>

Snap chuckles. "This is where the fun begins, eh, Poe?" -- "Hang on, everyone.."

The Ghost is sent forward at full impulse now, her engines glowing bright gold as her shields shimmer to full strength. Right out of the gate, her double cannons light up the void showering red lances that smash into the squadron and split their formation. <<"Spash one..">>, the explosion is passed through, sparking up the dull blue glow of the Ghost's shields. <<"Splash two..">> Poe announces. Snap curses as he misses his opportunity, and the Ghost is peeling away, giving Tallie something to contend with now. "Tallie, got a whole mess of them back there for you!"

"Let's light some of them up," Tallie replies over coms. Grinning fiercely, she says, "Isn't that sweet, Fiver. We have company!" Poe pulses them into the pack taking down two in short order and veers out of the pack leaving Tallie full range to fire the stern facing Phantom dual cannons. Red light lances over two TIEs leaving them largely undamaged, the third target takes the full brunt of the cannons, <<Splash three>> she announces.

"Eggsy, give me that High Octane Drek.... and let's krif some drek up." That song he was blasting while driving around in his BN7 during the big land battle starts to play. The volume goes up, probably too much so. "Shields double front and once we run through the line, balance them again..." He pushes the THrottle full, past full even. His engines streak and the Pink menance starts to spin on it's X-axis. He bears down on a TIE streaming towards them, both his heavy Cannons eating through the shields and smashing into the hull violently. "Ohhhh, yeahhh... Baaaabyyyy." He sings, more likely shouts the lyrics to the song. THe only lyrics to the song. He terminates the spin as he passes the line and works on comming about, nodding his head to the beat.

Well, he's still there, Callax, floating in the void. Frustration boiling through him. He still tries to coax the ship's defenses to life...but it appears that the opposition is being destroyed, and he will have no part of it.

One can only imagine the sudden alarm of the unfortunate Alpha Squadron pilots as they scream forward, to drive off what appear to be a ramshackle handful of Outer Rim dregs, only to charge headlong into the teeth of the best pilots in the galaxy. Four of the TIEs don't even survive the opening joust, doing no damage to the 'pirates' in return.

The *Ocilu* streaks safely off into hyperspace, followed moments later by the *S-JBT 032*

An excited young man's voice exclaims over the shared channel from the cockpit of Janissar 2, "I got one- I got him!"

The Ghost maintains its course, slipping into the right vector to make the jump out. Poe has to turn in his seat to initiate the pre-programmed coordinates, and BB-8 confirms them before loading them into the computer. "We're prepping for hyperspace. Keep our tail covered, Tallie!"-- <<"All Callsigns, this is Ghost. Our objective is safely away. Push to your escape vectors. Good rekking fight tonight, people. I'll see you on the other side.">>

And she does just that. As they streak out of the system, Tallie lines up for a final farewell volley. The targeting computer gives them a fix, the alarm sounding in her ears as she presses the button to release the lasers. <<Splash one last TIE>> she says flatly but grinning from ear to ear. They are out of range. "I'm ready when you are, Poe."

"The Ass-End-Of-It. Write that down Eggsy, we can try to hunt it down later and scratch it off the list." Elrych says as he breaks off and turns towards the same vector as the Ghost. <<"Alright... coming about and dialing in on the old Navi-computer.">> When Eggsy had the solution, he'd pull back on the jump levers and rocket away into the calming blue and black of the hypertunnel for a little meditation.

And with a sigh, Callax grits his teeth and tuns his ship around to align with hyperspace exit coordinates. The shields now refrain from being vital, and he guides the ship out at high speed before following the rest in the exodus into the vast blue maelstroms of hyperspace. For Callax, it is an utterly disappointing debut - but this is war, and there is always another day, always another battle.

It is one very shaken and confused TIE pilot- Alpha 6- who is left flying among the wreckage of a convoy when the pirate craft streak one-by-one into hyperspace. For once, it seems all went according to plan, and the raiders left none of their own behind.