Log:Resistance: Battle of a Thousand Generations Pt I

Resistance: Battle of a Thousand Generations

OOC Date: January 25, 2020
Location: Exegol, Unknown Regions
Participants: Merl Cobben, Miri Sakir, Ektor, Tallissan Lintra, Callax Dalso, Snap Wexley, Zandra naMuriel, Ben Solo, Dreman Bryce, Oran Arcantael, Elrych Cometburn, Karas Darkwing, Poe Dameron, The Resistance

An intricate plotted course had been transmitted to the Resistance from the Rebellion-era T-65c X-wing Red 5. This course lead deep into the Unknown Regions, past the point where charted stars offered any points of reference. Command had concluded that Rey was showing them the way to Exegol, and once again the full force of the Resistance was mustered for a swift takeoff. This time, rather than scrambling in desperation to escape the First Order fleet at their door, they were mustering every craft worthy of battle to bring the fight to the Final Order. Hours in hyperspace gave time- perhaps too much time- to reflect on the knowledge that the Resistance needed to prevent the launch of a vast fleet of mighty planet-killing ships, a task they lacked the strength to accomplish, alone. The call for help had gone out, as it had at Crait, and just as before they lacked the time to wait for help, before fighting. If the Final Order fleet escapes Exegol, hundreds of worlds could be wiped out within a day.

Hyperdrives had only taken them so far, before an enormous nebula disrupts their progress; a vast crucible of crushing gravity, contracting clouds of dust, minerals, and unstable gasses. Within those trackless depths, a protostar has begun to burn, casting the swirling mass in an ominous red glow as the fleet (the *Tantive IV*, three dozen fighters, and the troop transport *Fortitude*) winds and batters through clouds of crimson debris, until after one last microjump the shadowed grey sphere of the hidden Sith world of Exegol looms in a pocket of black space at the center of this elaborate maze.

Upon arrival, sensors show the First Order RSD *Steadfast* and the Siege Dreadnaught *Devastator* with dozens of deployed TIE squadrons in high atmosphere above a formation of Xyston-class Star Destroyers almost beyond reckoning. Hundreds of dagger-shaped capital ships comprising the Sith Eternal Fleet, all rising in eerie unison through the dark planet's atmosphere. Defensive cannonfire greets the Resistance immediately, sending fighters veering and the CR-90 maneuvering for sudden survival.

"Hang on, R2. I know you're not used to my flying, but.. WOAH!"

The end of Poe's microjump is met with a green hue of cannon fire already aimed toward them. Poe angles low beneath the stream. <<"This is Commander Dameron in Black Leader. All call signs, all crafts, follow me in. We HAVE TO SMASH that relay quickly if we're going to have a chance. Full throttle, GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU GOT!">>

Poe slams the throttle and his craft responds, rattling slightly as the engines reached their peak. "Artoo, get me shields to the front, buddy. This is gonna hurt!" Black Leader takes the head of the spearpoint.

One by one, the members of the Copper Hawks B-Wing group began popping out of the maze of the nebula. At the lead of Hawk 1, Merl Cobben adjusts the sensors on his craft now that they're back in real space. "That was interesting." He mutters as he then calls out on the group channel for the others to check in. A quick reach up and Merl adjusts to wide Resistance comms <"Hawk One here. Copper Hawks are with you, Poe."> Is all he says before he focuses back on the task at hand. All six B-Wings begin to unfold their S-Foils and form up into a V-formation.

"Keep it together Eggsy," Elrych informs the droid as he ducks and weaves through the nebula in close proximity to his fellows. His music is tuned down a smudge, a chill tune, just so he can concentrate better. The Jedi's tongue sticks out as he focuses, blue eyes darting from the sensors to the cockpits canopy in order to take stock of where he was and what was around him. The force helped and he drew it towards him in order to add to his ability. He felt it swell in him, pupils dialiting, and hairs standing up on end. It was a rush of energy and hyper focus... Like lightning. Finally his T-85 emerged, engines streaking pink behind him as some of the nebula's gass swirls out in an attempt to swallow him back in. He's too fast. <<"Black Tweleve with you, General.">> He reminds Poe of his new title, not that he neeed it.

They have come so far, through trakless stellar wastes - and then...this. The crucible. Hell itself, or what might as well be its material analog. Behind the stick of Black 9, Callax Dalso closes his eyes for just a moment as the ship manifests on the other side of the microjump, and into the balefires of countless firing guns.

Babo's low whistle of alarm causes Callax to grit his teeth nd nod. "Just see to the shields, Babo," he replies to the astromech further back in the fighter's hull. "I trust you. Trust me not to get us killed." /But of course,/ he thinks to himself, /I have to trust in myself as well./

<< Black Nine, Leader, following you in. >> Weapons hot and engineered reflexes tuned to maximum, Callax prepares to fight the battle of his short life.

On the bridge of the massive Siege Dreadnaught "Devastator" stands a short man dressed in black, with his arms clasped behind his back, feet shoulder width apart as he studies the view out the screen, the monitors nearby blinking the status of a mind-boggling number of TIEs and other ships. What he does not have status on is all those Xyston-class Star Destroyers, looming like sharks ready to emerge from unknown seas.

A man with this much firepower on 'his' side should be feeling pretty glorious, right? Apparently not so much for Oran; the Knight is radiating a low-simmering rage one does not need to be Force Sensitive to pick up.

An officer hands him a datapad which he reviews briefly before handing it back and remarking, "I mislike all of this." Oran draws in a breath, and lets it out. "One enemy at a time, I suppose."

Lofty, the chief petty officer, was on the YC-123B transport hauler FORTITUDE in his rebel trooper armor. But unfortunately the Orbaks were dropping manure and becoming restless during all of the jumps. Having been born with a sensitive snoot, the massive Talz lumbers up to the cockpit where Captain Konunda and Lieutenant Dyun are piloting the large troop transport. "This nebula so thick," he mutters to himself. Then they lurch out of hyperspace into enemy fire. "Ahhh!" He stumbles back into a jump seat as the transport takes evasive action. Though he is a veteran of the Rebellion, he had never seen so many star destroyers assembled for battle.

Some people have droids, some people have just themselves. Zan in her A-wing zips along with nobody to talk to, only herself. It's a very long trip through hyper, up, down and sideways. As she pops out of hyper and into the area, she blinks, gulping a bit. "this is - what is this?" she asks herself, before she hears Poe's words. <<Black 10, forming up in position, >> she says on the comm, as the zippy A wing avoids whatever fire is coming their way and settles in where she's supposed to be. Just like the plan, so far. Then she gets a chance to look at that fleet, and the enormity of it all presses in. She takes a breath, reaching to the Force as she always does, automatically. <<Let's give these guys the fight of their lives.>>

Why yes, Percy DOES hate flying. The mere thought of it twists his stomach, while the follow-up action of actually being on a ship is a guaranteed way to bring up any food that is rumbling about in his gut. And yeah, he also HATES the humidity, meaning that his recent stays on these damned tropical forest locations have really messed with his pores. Do you know how much it sucks being sweaty while you sleep? A lot. But you know what the Doctor hates more than those things put together? The Final Order.

It didn't even take Percy a moment to consider the notion when asked if he wanted to be on board one of the frigates. Though he was re-considering whether he made the right choice as the ship weaved and cut through the gasses of the Unknown Regions, his grimaced expression falls to a blank look when they finally arrive. "...goodness." He breathes, silvery-blue eyes widened at the scene of it all.

As Poe and his crew begin the attack, the crew upon the frigates similarly launch into action. They communicate loudly and clearly, making way only as required. Everyone is busy - everyone has a job to do, whether it be charting the nav, piloting or even running diagnostics on everyone. Stumbling a bit, Percy rolls up the sleeves of his flight suit as he heads for his designated station in the medical bay. After all, he was a member of Black Squaron too. Flicking up a screen, he brings up all of the vitals for those in his squad. Eyeing them carefully, he starts to collate the data.

How many large scale battles has the Resistance been in? How many was Karas in, a lot all within a few years of joining the Resistance. This all floated in his mind as Karas navigated his T-85 X-Wing through the nebula, the pilots skill has grown quite considerably in those years. Having plotted his jump and coming out and following the rest of Black Squadron through the nebula, the pilot flies as if he was apart of his fighter. Something that Karas has never thought of doing.

As they come out of the nebula, he quickly pulls up his sensors of the fleet, he glances around, <<Black 6 here with you General.>> he calls. He sees his brothers Y-Wing within the formation, he smiles and just hearing Poe and seeing Tallie's X-Wing, he settles in his seat. "I know I don't have it, but May the Force be with us today." he says not into his comms.

Merek lifts up a hand while he places that onto the railing in the troop transport, next to what there still is of the rebel ground forces. The Final Order, which might be their final fight. He has snapped each piece of his white and black armor on, while the helmet keeps a face plate upon him, the orange bringing up a holo readout of details. He looks from the viewport to the fleet as they come into the system of Exegol. He has a nice glaive on the back, while he shifts a hand to pet his space horse.

He looks then to Percy, "I won't pretend it is the best situation, but we'll do all we can to win." There's a maneuver while he checks the pack in all his weaponry. He speaks then to General Finn, "We're on you, General." The man protected him before, he will follow him anyplace, even into the midst of the Sith Fleet. The Sith World.

"Black Eight standing by. Got a visual on the... holy shavit, that's a lot of..." For once, Miri "She-Wolf" Sakir doesn't have snappy comm chatter. She clears her throat. "Black Eight standing by," she repeats, sobered.

The immensity of the fleet facing them stuns the ace pilot into silence. Only a moment that seems to stretch into an eternity till Dameron's voice galvanizes her, <<"Black Five copies that. On your six, Black Leader. Full throttle on to the relay.>>

"Fiver this is the time to tell you that you've been the best droid. Just gonna say it once. Keep us on target." Captain Lintra checks on the tracking screen for the positions of the others in the squadron then punches the T-85 full throttle towards the target.

<<Gold Squad standing- annnd we're already shooting,>> Ektor begins to sound off, before taking his Y-wing into an abrupt roll and re-engage maneuver. Gold 1's nose cannons spit at one of the enemy fightercraft driving at their YC-123B transport, the orange glow of his light bomber's nacelles as bright as they get. <<Guns loose, yeah?>>

The *Tantive IV* almost appears to lose power, so swiftly does it drop into Exegola??s gravity well in the wake of the charging rebel fighters, placing itself between two Destroyers, in a bold bid to limit the volume of fire the little corvette is exposed to. The troop transport *Fortitude* had been barreling toward a navigation beacon on the surface of Exegol, before the guiding signal of the Sith fleet is transferred to the heavily shielded flagship *Steadfast*. Alas, it won't be as easy as blowing up signal tower.A

"What do you /MEAN/ the signal's changed?!" Poe argues with Artoo. Moving his head slightly, Poe observes a sea of TIEs intercepting their squadrons. He grimaces. <<"The signal has changed. Our priorities have changed. General Finn will take his troop transport to that flagship, where the signal is coming from, and the rest of us need to focus on keeping these TIEs off Copper, Gold, and Green squadrons so they can begin their bombing runs. CALL YOUR TARGETS and look out for each other. WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT NOW!">>

Black Leader weaves from right to left, avoiding enemy fire before engaging a regular TIE. His cannons spit red lances that criss-cross and pound into the ship's shields. "Hang on, Artoo!" And they're going after them.

<<"Black Leader on Alpha One!">>

The B-wings of Copper Hawk group sweep in behind Black Squadron.

<"This ain't a fleet. This is a colony!">

<"Cut the chatter, Hawk 03"> Merl says over the comms. <"Move in on that big boy there, Devestator, get your torpedos ready. Lets say hello to them!">

The flight of B-Wings start waving around, avoiding incoming fire as best as they can, one shot clipping Hawk 01's shields. Concentration is on the bearded Merl's face right now though... pure concentration!

Elrych reaches a free hand forward switching shields to double front and they slam into the TIE picket. It's just as quickly changed back to an even spread and he turns sharply and pulls back on the stick to look around, avoiding fire from the incoming assult. He picks out a TIE/fo and angles in. His rectical goes green and he presses the trigger on his linked cannons. Scarlet streaks reach out and barely miss their mark. "Stang..." His blue eyes go to his readouts, checking on the others.

Flying through the enemy formations at top speed, Callax is busy trying very hard not to be obliterated on the first salvo. He manages this only barely; twisting through a tunnel of gleaming green death, Black Nine manages to escape all but a single hit, though the heavy guns are more than enough to shred the interceptor's shields to less than half their strength. "Damnation," Callax hisses as the ship's console rings out alarms, "Babo! Get those shields back up, or this is going to be the shortest sortie ever seen!"

Banking left and right under enemy fire, Callax targets one of the Daggers closing with Merl's ship. << Moving to defend Copper Leader, >> Callax calls over the comms through gritted teeth - but his ship's guns are too slow to connect with the ridiculousl nimble new TIE model. "Or not..."

"Good luck." Percy replies back to Merek at the brief exchange. "...you're gonna need it." As the ship rattles, swerves and dodges, Percy stumbles sideways and crashes into the wall with a thud. "Hells bells!" The Doctor hollers, arms flailing around to try and gain some sort of balance as his stomach churns. "Can't you drive a bit more smoothly? This isn't a fighter craft!" Getting back to his feet, the Doc takes his seat on his chair to begin to assess the numbers on display. Heart rates, oxygen levels and more... All being assessed on the fly. Naturally, these are all sort of exploding. <"Remember to breathe, folks."> How good are those obnoxious pieces of medical advice when you're in the thick of it?

Meanwhile, the transport ship he is in is hauling ass. Dodging laser fire, skimming other ships and just generally being badass. Alarms and red lights 'whrrrr' as they're fired upon, but a fully sik bank manoeuvre renders them safe for the moment.

"HELL woman, you can fly!" An older pilot groans, feeling his organs begin to resume their normal placement as he flicks a few controls to disengage some proximity alarms. The woman responsible for pulling off that sweet move, a dark-skinned lass with deep brown eyes named Susan, smirks casually. "Keep up with me, old man. If you can do that we'll be fine." The ship shudders and groans under the immense pressures and forces. It's as if the very hull is protesting being here.

Oran surveys the ship readouts in his immediate vicinity aboard his station on the 'Devastator', observing as the brave Resistance fighters enter the fray. "This is a desperate hour," the Knight remarks in a tone that suggests desperate for them, not for him. "The Corvette is our preferred target, but not to the extent that I'm willing to destroy a Xyston to get to it. Terrible lot of datawork to be answered for if I do that. Engage the approaching B-wing squadron and cut them apart,"he directs.

Merek looks to the viewport while the transport begins to maneuver along with the fighting. He then looks to Percy, while he notices they are changing position in the fight, "Well, it looks like the mission changed." With that, he begins settling up onto the space horse of his, while he takes a moment to check his weapons. "Mounting up!"

It's a bit of a chaotic mess, and really Zandra's tactics are not the best. So she picks a target and goes after it, totally intending to just try to remove some of the excess fighters if she can. At least starting with one. "Target acquired," she murmurs, as she gets that feeling at the back of her neck. She zigs right, lets her a wing drop and then peel up, until there's a good shot available. So many targets, not enough shots! The young Jedi knows this is the fight of their lives, and she's determined to make it good one. As she gets the chance, reticule showing green, she takes the shot, and tries to keep following that target, hammering its shields.

As the dogfighting begins in earnest, Miri rolls and dodges TIE fire. "Sunshine, I'm gonna steal one of your dance partners. Not fair that you get to hog them all," she sings out. Focus on what's in front of you. The massive fleet of doom isn't your problem right now. That's how she stays in the zone, firing and getting a couple of good hits on one of the TIEs, who peels off. She doesn't give chase. It's running. She's staying.

They've dropped almost directly into a sea of TIEs. S-foils opened into attack position, Lintra plummets the X-Wing into an Immelmann and corkscrews through the three that are immediately on her.

<<"Copy that Black Leader. Interference that they won't forget.">>

"Like shooting fish in a barrel, right Fiver." The captain's gloved hand squeezes the laser trigger her eyes fixed on the targeting brackets ratcheting towards the moment to kill. Green streaks of laser fire are met with red and she finishes Alpha 1. <<Black 5, splash Alpha 1>>

At 9 o'clock she sees Miri drop in on one the TIEs trying to persuade her to stop flying. <<Good one, She-Wolf. Get 'em.>>

The fight started and as they began their attack, Black 6 was moving to cover the Y-wings and B-Wings as they began their attack run, but as their plans are found out, the call for the target was changed. Flipping the switching the S-Foils into attack position. <<Keep it tight everyone. I'm With you Black 5.>> he calls to Tallie. With that , he catches one of the new TIE Daggers. Quirking a brow, "Found a dance partner. Spark keep those tracked for us and where Black 5 is." he says to his astromech who toodles at him.

Incoming laser fire rains in towards him. Karas charges the laser fire, weaving in and out of the laser fire, not fearing the consequences of his actions. As he shoots past the TIEs, his HUD lights up with a lock on to the TIE Dagger. Red laser fire grazes teh fighter, but Karas climbes and does a loop around trying to re-engage as he keeps his eyes on Tallie just in case he has to break off.

Ektor guides Gold 1 through heavy salvos of emerald cannonfire, the scattered formation of Gold Squadron trailing after him. <<So, I never wanna hear drek about how 'you don't need that many bombs, Xer', again. Cause we could really use about..>> He stops trying to count. <<A LOT more bombs, right now. Follow me in, Wishbones. Proton bombs arrrrre live.>>

Even the few turbolasers able to threaten the Tantive 4 are enough to deal significant damage to the infamous corvette's shields, though the crew get a modicum of satisfaction as every shot that misses them Sears past and slams into the shields of a star destroyer behind them.

Black Leader is chased by two TIEs while engaging Alpha One. That is but a glimpse of the true fight that is unfolding with the small Resistance force, and the colossal Final Order/First Order/Empire/Sith/(Whatever they're calling themselves now.) Artoo communicates that the shields are back up. Black Leader breaks off course then, engaging Alpha 2 and slagging them in a cheap pass. <<"Splash Alpha Two. He should've stayed home!">> Black Leader's engines glow brighter as he flies above the chaos a moment to get a look over the battle. <<"Sitrep on our bombers! How are we looking?!">> The B-Wings of Copper group rush the Devestator and what few of them that are capable of launching, send a volley of torpedos rocketing out of their midsections toward the capital ship! Merl pulls up and along with him the rest of Hawk group. <"Watch your tails, team!"> He shouts over the comms.

<"Black Leader, we're facing heavy fighter interference, getting a full bombing run isn't going to be easy!"> As if Poe needed to be reminded. The B-Wing group splits apart in 3s to try to take TIEs with them, one going to the port and the other group going to the starboard, hoping to come back around for a figure-8 bombing run on the Devestator now!

Elrych is in the middle of a pitched Dog Fight, swarmed around on all sides but... he's calm. The Force courses through him like the blood in his veins. He's too busy though, dancing with the TIE/Dagger on him and avoiding those heavy canons to attend to the TIE/fo who's fire cone he's now entering. "Wait..." He says, too late as his ship rocks from a green energy blast. Eggsy reports on the shields. "Well fix it..." He commands, reaching forwards and turning his music all the way up just as it starts to play a much more up tempo and loud tune. He angles in on the closest TIE (there were a ton of them.) And lights it up with a barrage of scarlet death, three of the linked cannons connecting and stripping away most of it's shields. <<"There's too many of them for us to babysit well">> He mentions over comms, his music blasting over the FRQ.

Merl and his Coppers have succeeded their pass; Callax turns his attention toward the Y-wings, prepared to do a great deal more potental damage on their pass. << Moving to support Gold Squadron, >> Dalso calls out, picking out one of the fighters harassing Ektor's the fighter-bombers; opening fire on one of the Sith daggers, his fighter's heavy guns manage to pierce the squirming fighter's with two red bolts, knocking down its shields and damaging its painted hull. The shield gauge set into the console surges green once more, and Callax nods once and firmly. "Well done, Babo," he calls over the link, "Just keep at it. We need to do everything we can to make sure these monsters do not leave this place."

Aboard the Devastator, Oran grimly watches missile fire batter the shields on the reports and snaps, "Hit. Them," as though the gunners perhaps need extra incentive to figure out what they should be doing here. "If you don't, you're going down with this ship. And if you miss, at least miss badly enough to take out Sith craft. What is the point of you?"

Zan does note there's a couple ships firing at her but is in the zone this time, dodging them easily. She tries to mark their assignments though, for reference in the near future. Maybe she's learning? She continues to chase the one she's on, becaue it seems to be at least something to do. So many - like a cloud of giant mosquitoes, but at least one less will be one less. Was this one, designated A9, one of the ones targetting the b-wings? She isn't sure though at least she hears Callax and that gives her the idea that she should be protecting the bombers. But there's this x wing who probably shouldn't be left to shoot at anyone, and he's not giving up yet. She fires at her target again, taking its shields down and scoring the hull. If it's not targeting the b-wings, it will be soon enough, unless it can't. Grimly, Zan turns her A-wing with a precision turn and hits her throttle, zooming back into the fray.

Seeing his TIE destroyed, Karas pulls his flight up and out of dive. Again he is attacked, pushing the throttle forward, he feeds power into the engines, the X-Wing rockets forward and up as he climbs, rolling wing over wing evading the incoming laser fire of two TIEs. He had to do his job and take these bastards out, letting a calm breath out, he manuvers his fighter towards a group of TIE Daggers and as he does, again he gets that lock on indicator and fires. The red lasers of his T-85 streaks off scoring two hits on the Dagger.

"Tallie, you've got to stop wearing your nice perfume in your bird," Miri grouses as she tangles with one of the TIEs trying to put Sunshine down. "Come on, hold still," she grumbles under her breath.

<<Copy that Black 6. Nice dancing. Round and round we go.>> Lintra's voice crackles over coms. Another TIE joins the deadly rondo they pirouette through. She pops the throttle off stopping forward momentum and the TIE flying at her bypasses at full speed as she fires on him. Pulling hard to port the young captain avoids the full brunt of more laser fire pouring from the two TIEs chasing her, but the actinic green of laser does damage to the shields. "Fiver - you know your business. Get those shields up for us."

First pass of the bombers laying damage down with Black Squadron darting to all degrees on the horizon to protect the bombers as they strafe the destroyers has another squadron flying in on their zenith. Fire is exchanged and the TIE leaves the fray with half his shields. <<"You know me, She-Wolf, perfume and a white synth silk scarf. Styling.">>

Hyperspace stretches around an ancient TIE fighter that expands into existence from the void into the middle of the fighting, its Imperial-era greys a not-so-sharp contrast to the jet black of the First/Final Order fighters. For a few moments, it sails along through space, minding its own business while the engines ramp up to full speed.

Then the comms start broadcasting on every channel the ship's array has.

<"All ships, this is Ben Solo, flying the..."> There is a sound of rattling electronics. <"I don't know what it's called. Some old TIE."> Inside the cockpit, his pale face is set with determination, jaw clenching and carving a line through his cheeks. <"I'm going down there. You can help me or not. Just don't get in my way,"> he warns, cutting the comms out and gripping the yoke so tightly that his knuckles turn white. "Let's see what this thing can do."

The aging fighter veers sharply to the right with a scream of the engines, and the H-shape of it blurs as he spins the yoke so hard the plastoid creaks, pinwheeling behind one of the ace squadron TIEs. Spits of green plasma lance out in twin pairs, blasting through the shields of one of the shiny new TIEs and sending it up in a cloud of fire before strafing across the next, the pilot knowing /exactly/ where it will be in that formation.

Aboard the Chirikyat, Bryce watched with piercing eyes. Captain Fornoth had kept formation with the other destroyers, per orders, and all he could do is watch from his position as they coralled any straggling ships that wandered too far. Which were few and far between. But, then, there was a voice he recognized.

Could it be? Bryce pushes a communications officer out of the way to slam a heavy finger onto the console. Communications open. "Unidentified pilot. Repeat designation at once," is all Bryce says. It was targetted at his friend, but, the challenge was exactly as it sounded: who are you, now?

Gold Squadron deploys the first of their proton bombs, the blue payloads glittering in the dark of space before detonating against one of the rising Xyston Destroyers. The superstructure takes visible and grievous damage, but continues to rise. One of the light bombers is torn apart by cannonfire, Ektor in Gold one is rocked hard by a TIE and another pilot declares, <<Gold Leader's hit!>>, before Ektor mutters, <<That barely even counts as a hit- Drek, the direct approach ain't working, here- uhh... Did. Did that TIE just go nuts and start->> Ben Solo? "I dunno, Genius, but I'll take it," he quips to his droid. "Get them shields back up, we gotta try and keep the squad together-"

The battle begins to get bloody, as the weight of numbers, combined with the more expert TIE squadrons now converging on the outnumbered rebels. Snap Wexley in Blue Leader reports a hit to shields. He is not alone.

It's overwhelming. The sheer number of everything they're up against, and all of the transmissions are starting to carry the weight of this decision behind them. Did they arrive too soon? Were they ready for this? Poe's inner fight is jarred when his X-Wing takes a huge hit. Artoo berates him for this oversight, and Poe shakes his head. "I know.. I know.. I'm sorry! Work on the shields, buddy..and HANG ON!"

Black Leader spins, that's a nice trick, and dives downward, back into the fight. When Ben Solo announces himself, Poe glances up to look at the sensors and considers for the moment.. revenge. Revenge for Leia. Revenge for everyone.

Then Snap's voice sounds over the comms, and Poe drops the notion of revenge to help his brother. <<"Hang on, Snap. I see you, pal!" Snap is being chased by a TIE and pass quickly. Snap's doing his best to evade. Poe helps when he flies past Snap and engages the TIE behind him, splitting the craft in two before it combusts. Black Leader passes by the explosion before it expands. <<"I got you, Snap. Get your shields fixed, buddy and stay with me.">>

Merl's transmission about Copper Squad having a tough go of it makes Poe grimace. They're all having a tough go of it.

<<"COVER each other, and let's clear the way for our bombers, people. They're getting eaten up!">>

As Merl is coming around in Copper Hawk 01, he sees the 3rd in his trio get hit hard. <"Hawk Three. Watch your tail! Bank to port!"> But it was too late. Shasa Zaro, the group's graphic artist, his friend, has her B-Wing ripped apart and slagged outside his viewport with only the shortest comm'd sound of her scream before its silenced to sign her off. Merl only sees it for a moment before his B-Wing soars past the explosion.

<"Hawks, cross formation, lets keep hitting them! Go for their rear sheilds!"> Merl says to his group, not at all running the numbers in his head here about which side has more and which side has a better chance at this. The five remaining Hawks launch another salvo of torpedoes at the enemy capital ship!

The TIE/sf's now in play add a bit more worry to the situation. Not only was there a billion Star Destroyers, but there was squadron upon squadron of TIE/fo and Daggers to deal with. El was doing his damn hardest to keep up and the green death off his T-85. The Force helped, it really did.

As Ben's voice comes over the general comm FRQ, the Jedi's face is overcome with shock and surprise. "Wait what... what?!" He looks down to his sensor read out, then out his canopy to see Solo rip through the squadron of sf's. "I don't believe it..." He starts to laugh, joyful laughter. Over Black Squadron coms he cheers. <<"I don't kriffin' believe it. She did it Violet, Rey did it!.">> He could cry right now... Punching a few buttons with a diligent finger, a hammering beat starts with electrified stringed instruments. The Jedi's head starts to bob to the rhythm. Just as the heaviest part of the song hits, he pulls his Fighter up and around to head towards the SF squadron, the TIE he was after before forgotten for now. Priorities have changed. <<"Assisting Solo... and the bombers...">> Literally anything he did was just assiting at this point with the sheer number of fighters the enemy was fielding. The Ace Corellian pushes his throttle all the way forward and rockets towards the Ace Squadron. He felt it in the Force, this is what he had to do... this was the way it was supposed to be. Though despite his renewed enthusiasm, the TIE he chases down from the fresh ace squadron is quick and avoids his linked canon fire. He presses on, even though things seems to get worse and worse all around him. His calm remained and so did his control.

"Ben Solo?" Oran's low-key simmering rage lightning-strikes into fire; he knows that voice, knows that presence. He yells at the hapless bridge crew, "BEN SOLO?!" The B-wings are forgotten, the Resistance, forgotten, Sith, forgotten... the 'Devastator' is on its own. Oran stabs a finger at the view screen, "Send the vector coordinates of that BROKEN down BUSTED up damaged, defective, INSULT of a TIE and its bloody turn-coat yellow-livered mouth-breathing snake-hearted APOSTATE of a pilot to 'Invective,'" he orders, "I'm going after him."

"But sir," one officer ventures, and Oran replies, "YOU'RE IN CHARGE," while reaching out to telekinetically throw him against the station the man had been occupying.

Little too hard. There's a sick 'crack' and the officer slumps to the floor. Everyone stares for a moment while explosions flare outside, then Oran decides, "Someone else is in charge," and leaves the bridge.

Zan hears that voice, and her eyes widen. Wait. What? Elrych confirms it, just as Zan's fingers hit the trigger, and she can say, <<splash one Tie. At least one anyway. >> She might not get another, but well, that's one. Now she slips her A wing around, turning to find another target. There's a couple firing at her, and so she takes a moment to dodge, before she hits the thrusters, throttling the a wing up again. << I heard that, Elrych, >> she replies, feeling a slight rebirth of hope there. If Rey could help there - yeah, no, this is still a losing proposition. Hope wars with the sure knowledge of overwhelming odds. << Looking to help out the bwing squads - if I can figure out who to target. >>

The odds are terrible, suicidal - but the lamp of freedom needs only a spark to keep its wick burning, as the Rebellion demonstrated before. And so does Callax bob and weave among attacking fighters, banking and rolling away, to find one of the marked aces from the new squadrom menacing Ektor's bombers.

<< Black Nine, supporting Gold, >> he calls out, then whispers a quiet thing that is /almost/ a prayer, or as far as Callax gets: /I am the sword of liberty,/ he whispers, targeting one of the new expert TIEs between his triple heavy guns. "I am imperfect steel, low and unworthy, but my edges...are sharp." Squeezing the triggers on the yoke, the trio of heavy red bolts that are loosed from the fighter's cannons intersect perfectly at the enemy ship's rear, and split it apart in a blossom of fire.

"Hold... STILL." Miri forgets her comms are still on. She doesn't care. She lets out a wordless roar of frustration as the crafty TIE dodges her fire. "Rekking /DIE/!" "I'm at your 3 o'clock high, Grip," Miri replies to Karas through clenched teeth.

Karas is notified by Spark that they have new comers coming in and as he looks to his sensors, "Guess they figured they needed their best huh." he chuckles to his droid, <<Alright we are wearing perfume in our ships now Black 6?>> he asks as he disengages from the Dagger he was chasing, <<There is a Dagger I'm diesngaging from, someone pick him up, going to greet our new guests.>> he calls into his comms. A few of the regular TIEs fire on him as he breaks away, shaking his head and rolling through the laser fire. "Bring up the data on these new TIEs Spark, track three of them for me." once three of the new targets are targeted he smiles, and he begins his hunt.

Seeing laser fire erupting from the laser cannons of Black 5, Karas angles his ship and he too fires the same target, <<Come on Black 5, lets' get'em!" he calls out to her, <<Were you at She-Wolf!>> he calls to Miri.

The number of spacecraft on Lintra's tactical tracking screen blur into streaks of solid color. "Pull back on that image so I can see what is in the immediate vicinity, Fiver." Screening the fighters going in for the kill on their bombers has the entire squadron juggling two and three targets at a time.

<"I have another TIE/sf on my dance card. Whoa there, Miri. Don't scare them now."> The two fighters make a running strafe at each other. Several hits leave the other TIE leaking atmosphere and rolling without control out of the fight. <"Splash G2, coming around running screen for Copper. We see you, Copper Leader."> A fierce grin can be heard in her voice. <"Copy that Black 6.">

Ben's TIE banks hard around, curving through the air in the only way a ship like this can, really, while the pilot grits his teeth at the inferior, outdated controls and the underpowered armament. "Less than half the cannons," he's muttering under his breath as he lines up a shot on the next TIE in the formation, blasting away before pulling the ship into a dive. There's an opening towards the planet below, and while the odds are against the Resistance fighters up here, there's not much he can do about it in this dinky old toy.

The shriek of the engines fills the space around him as he rockets through the opposition, twisting around return fire and hurtling past chunks of debris and other TIEs as he descends. There's no response to the hailing from the Destroyers, either, focused instead on his goal.

Ektor brings his NR2 Y-wing in low over the damaged Xyston, heedless of the failing shields claxon that results from another pair of laser blasts to his rear arc. "I sure hope there's real people on that thing and not just ghosts," he mutters, as the last of the squadron's proton bombs rip the planet killing capital ship apart, even as Gold Squadron loses another of it's dwindling number to the swarms of pursuing TIEs. Gold 5's alarmed call for help is cut off abruptly. <<Well. We got one,>> he mutters. <<Gold squad, go evasive. I got this idea that's kinda stupid, but it ain't the kinda stupid you bunch can pull off.>>

Snap Wexley barely had time to broadcast his thanks to Poe, when another pair of TIEs loop in. Forgoing the attack to try and restore his own downed shields, the recon ace looks fast and wary over bother shoulders in turn, a note of rising dread in his voice as he exclaims, "Where-"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Poe screams in utter despair as Snap goes down. The explosion tears his heart in two, and his eyes water as another of his original Black Squadron go down. Anger follows, and Poe twists after the TIEs responsible for killing his best friend. Red lance after red lance is fired, and although one gets away, Poe blasts the second one, tearing the vessel apart and screaming as he did it!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

They're not even making a dent, and things are getting out of hand. As the waves of anger subside and the sound from comms filter in, Poe begins to realize his biggest fear. He's led them into doom.

The Copper Hawks sweep past the capital ship as they drop more torpedos down upon its surface. Merl sweeps his ungainly starfighter right and left, up and down, attempting to weave and dodge through the green TIE laser fire. But his missile run sets him up for relatively easy target practice and his shields are pelted by enemy fire into non-existence. He curses as his hull takes damage too. "I miss my A-Wing." Merl grunts out through strained and tensely clenched teeth. <"Hawks, come around, keep fire on their aft! Don't let u--">

Copper Hawk 5, Enanan Supa, calls out Merl's name over comms just before her B-Wing is torn apart by enemy fire. Merl banks hard to port to avoid colliding with the swirling wreckage of her starfighter. He can hear other voices on the comms, the other groups. He can hear Tallie's voice specifically through it all.

<"Black Leader. Hawks down to Four."> Merl's confidence sounds shaken, but his resolve holds true and he keeps flying as he knows his fallen wingmen would for him. The remaining Hawks swoop in over the Devestator for another delivery of torpedoes across its aft sections! "Come on... come on!" Merl's eyes sweep from his viewport to his B-Wing's readouts. <"Its on its knees! Lets finish it off, Hawks!">

Elrych attracts a pair SF's as he tails behind another of the Squadron's Aces. He's weaving through debris and ducking around laser fire. His spins on his axis, twisting the yoke which ever way he needs to go. He grits his teeth as he manages a light hit, but not enough to do much of anything other than to give that Pilot in the TIE something to worry about on his rear. All the things going on at once, he checks his sensors and listens to the comm. "Snap?" It distracted him a moment but he couldn't think about the dead now, which were mounting. The Attrition was too much. Eggsy starts to warble off statistics. "Uht... don't you dare. NEVER tell me the odds, Eggsy... but you're right... we can't keep this up for much longer. There's too many. What ever it is Rey and Ben are doing down there... they better do it quick." And where the heck was Lando?

The sound of his squadron leader screaming in anguish causes the blood to freeze in Callax's veins - he brings the ship around toward the the /Devastator/, now bleeding flames and atmosphere from a number of wounds. << We're still here, Leader, >> he calls over the link, the first time his over-dramatic arse dares to do so. << We're still here! >> Hoping to help pull Poe from his moment of despair so that their commander doesn't join his friend, Callax says these words - and then pulls off to dive through the massive dreadnought's shields.

Which Callax manages, believe it or not, the showboating bastard, but even as large as the dreadnought is, the bridge which he targets is still a small target for a starfighter - his laser cannons break through the hull in other sections around the bridge, but he isn't the misericorde he sought to be. Yet. But he's coming around again.

Zan finds another target, dodging any bolts, rays or anything heading her way. She winces at the sound of Poe's scream, takes a breath, and zooms in on her new target. She's trying hard, to not let desperation sit in. Calm. Tranquil. She can do this. She flies with as much speed and precision as she can, and lets the tie in front of her have both barrels from her guns. There's a set tight look to her face, as she is hearing the terrified and cut off sounds of her compatriots. Nightmares are made of less.

<Damn they're good.>> he hates complimenting enemy pilots, but here he ahs to give it to them. Still Karas isn't a chump, keeping with his wingman. He heard the scream from Poe as Skip was taken out. Still they had a job to do and he wasn't going to skimp on that. As he gets into position, keeping on Black 5's wing he fires on the TIE/SF they were chasing and he watches as the pilot evades his laser fire, but hopefully this setups Tallie up to take him out.

Miri Sakir grits her teeth as Snap goes down. "Stay with us, Black Leader. We need you. Poe. Hey. Come on, man. Stay in the fight. Do it for Snap. Do it for Leia." This TIE she's tangling with is slippery. "Tion, is it a stupid idea that could use a crazy X-wing? Say the word and I'm there."

Fiver bleeps mournfully, rotating Lintra's tactical display so that she sees Snap's demise. A TIE/sf is on her giving her no time to process what happened. Abruptly it dawns on her that this may be Black's last fight. Really. <Black Leader, coming about on your six. I saw it. If we join him let's do it in high style."> Playing tag with several TIEs aces at once, Black 5 takes a hit but jinks out from under the other bolts of green. <"Holding our own, Black">

Ektor curses at his droid as R2-G13 fails to restore shields in the midst of a mournful wailing, but the profanity tapers into a flat chuckle as he diverts power from guns to restore just enough shield power to absorb the latest TIE salvo. He avoids the others, but it's not a dance he can sustain for long. <<Still here. Anybody wanna trade droids?>> he cracks in a wan joke, while careening through the dogfight, instinctively trying to stay alive under heavy fire. "I really stepped in it today, girl," he mutters. << I think we're all crazy, She-wolf. Only idea I got left is- drek->> Commentary cuts offas focus on evasive flying is needed.

Poe spins through another volley avoiding damage and intercepting another TIE. He smashes its shields and veers off, leaving the rest for those fighters with him. <<"I'm here..">> Poe says with a raspy voice, broken up. As he hears all the screaming of pilots making their last stand, Poe stares ahead. <<"What.. what do we do.. I . . I thought they would have answered our call by now. I'm.. sorry.">> Poe watches, looking out one side of his canopy then the other. Despair weighs heavy upon him and he reaches up to hold the necklace/ring around his neck. "..I'm sorry.." He says again.

Copper Hawk 01 is pulling around for another run when the TIEs converge on his aft. he sees it coming before it happens. He reaches for the emergency lever to eject, but it doesn't pull. His cockpit starts to light up with sparks and smoke as it begins to come apart. <"Hawk One.. damage too great! This is for Freedom. This is for OUR FREED--"> His voice is cut off. The last things that run through Merl's mind are standing on a hill on Corellia with his father. His B-Wing starts to come apart. The engines burst into flames and the ship starts spiraling out of control toward the foggy mountains of Exegol below!

Elrych rocks in his cockpit as the TIE/sf's chasing him down score a hit on his shields, bringing them down a bit. Eggs beeps and is on it though. Things are looking grim and the Ace Pilot forwns slightly as more and more friendlies on his scopes blink out of life or indicate damage. The sounds over the comms are chilling. As Poe strikes at an SF, Elrych angles in on that same TIE and attempts to take it out but... misses the mark. "Stang..." He whispers, one last knife in his ego. Eggsy gives him an affirmation that shields are coming back up to full. <<"Hang in there, Violet... need me to cover you for a repair?">> Asks the Jedi of his fellow space wizzard. <<"Xer don't do anything crazy, I don't know wh...">> Then Poe is coming in over comms. There is silence from the Jedi as he takes one last look at the screens. <<"Yeah... me too...">> He takes a deep breath and lets himself become on with the Force, seeking guidance... What do we do... what's next?

He comes around, tempting fate again - there is so much death going on all around them, and they suffer so little, these treacherous, wizard-spawned creatures. Wizards again, in their time. Always bloody wizards. Callax brings the ship around hard, aiming to do what he did before; fingers vise-tight on the yoke he executes a roll through a sheet of enemy fire, and while he does not take a hit from the fighters swarming the ailing dreadnought in its defense, it's enough to keep him from his goal - and Black Six bangs hard against the warship's shields, and sparks shower from the ship's consoles as its shields scramble to absorb the impact and keep the ship from breaking in half.

<< Drek, >> Callax rumbles, << Bloody drek! Keep with us, Leader, we aren't dead yet! Let's make them pay in fire for every ship they down, sir! Keep faith and keep firing! >> Babo whistles in alarm as Callax breaks from the damaged ship, trying now to right Black Nine and keep it from spiralling away to join Cobben's broken fighter. "Get those shields back up! We can't die like this. We -have- to keep it going."

But even as he says these words, there's little heart in them; Callax knows that, short of a miracle, he's going to die. They're all going to die. Poe. Miri. Elrych. Tallie. Even Tallie, sunshine that she is for them all. Even Ektor, bastard pirate that he is, pirate that Callax likes despite himself. They're all going to die without a miracle...but if there's black magic, there's also white. And miracles can still happen. They just have to make enough sacrifices till the time can come, paid in blood. That's how the stories go.

Black 6 sees the TIE he and Black 5 were dancing with go up, he quickly rolls to avoid the fireball. As he does, Karas manages to bank hard left coming up under Black 5 to engage another of the SF TIES. Spark his Astromech droid is busy, but Karas is focused on the battle, he quickly engages the fighter, trying to concentrate, but as he let's loose a lethal barrage of laser fire, he watches as they all miss. "Drek!"

<<"What do we do? We fight. We fight until the fight is done or until we're done. We--">> Two TIE fighters get good shots on Miri. Sparks fly in her cockpit, buring her exposed skin and starting to fill the air with acrid smoke faster than the environmental controls can get rid of it. <<"Rek me, my shields are fried. Come on Henibi, fix me up. And--">> She gets in a good shot, one of the damaged TIEs going BOOM. <<"Taking one of those slimeballs out with me, at least.">> Her coughs, gasps and sputters are audible over the coms as she tries to beat out the fire with one gloved hand. But she's still flying. She's still in the fight.

Zandra's shields get hit, as she doesn't dodge one of the attacks, aimed her way. As her a-wing is rocked, she grumbles under her breath, but her shields hold. She promptly fires again at the tie she's chasing, and then pulls off to go evasive. <<I'm Black 10 - shields are hit, still holding, going evasive to try to keep them functioning. Thanks El. Watch your six. >> And she's trying to keep in the battle, to keep her head in the thick of things. << There are so many of them. >>

It has happened to Tallie before. It doesn't matter that if it is over the course of a dog fight or if it is the explosion of two well aimed torpedos. Too many people that are the anchors in her life, her new life, the one she wasn't supposed to have are dying. Face pale, she grinds her teeth as she takes the X-85 into another high-G turn wanting to batter the TIEs shooting at Gold and Copper. A beach walk she may never have flashes through her mind obliterating the scene of carnage for a brief second. Then, Merl's Y-wing goes, her last tie to her old Blue Squadron, her hands tremble on the throttle.

In the next second she yells over coms, <"Tion, I will personally kill you if you die. You copy that?"> It would have been comical if her voice didn't break. A TIE gunning for her receives an abrupt lesson as first one of its horizontal wings disintegrates then then the cockpit explodes. "Woooo, you drek, take that." <"Splash G6"> she announces and targets the next fighter.

Ektor gets just enough of a sliver of deflector shields back and balanced to go back onto a desperate attack in a frenzied effort to clear a TIE off the tail of Gold 2. He succeeds, though the respite looks temporary at best, as two more fresh squadrons of TIE fighters move into position to replace those lost to the dwindling force or rebels. <<Right, Sunshine. I'll take the two hundred on the left.. You take the two hundred on the right.>>

Far below, unknown to any, powerful eyes have turned to the sky.

Poe sighs. <<"There's too many of them...">>