Log:Resistance: Blackrock Down

Blackrock Down

OOC Date: January 25, 2019
Location: Ichren System
Participants: The Resistance, Eko, Ektor, Elrych Cometburn, Jessika Pava, Kaelyn, Kisaiya, Lofty, Miri Sakir, Poe Dameron, Tallissan Lintra

The Ichren System has been a bit quiet thus far this solar cycle. Black Squadron had been sent on deployment a week prior and in their absence, the majority of traffic are civilian freighters captained by Resistance friendly smugglers, including the Galaxy Spinner, bringing and taking precious cargos. Some are the last remnants of New Republic government, others are refugees, and still more are the pragmatic loads of fuel, arms, or munitions needed to maintain a legitimate military force. All is business as usual, today; until it isn't.

Lieutenant Danoma Smokeseer commands Rock Squadron; three of the old Z-95s are in the black on system patrol at any given time, and it is Danoma who first sees the arrivals, first feels the lump rise in her throat and first makes the fateful report to Blackrock Control: "Rock Leader to Control: The Supremacy has just come out of hyperspace with.. Eight- nine- ...Twelve Resurgent-class Destroyers, repeat *twelve*. Estimated distance of two hundred-eighteen thousand kilometers. Estimated time to first intercept: three minutes. They're here."

The alarm claxons begin in the Command center, where Kaydel Ko Connix sits abruptly upright, with eyes widening at the sensor readings. The general red alert is sounded immediately as she looks aside to the communication station, ordering with dread, "Signal the fleet- they found us. Scramble all fighters on the station, full power to the shields, and activate the defensive turrets." Blinking hard and swallowing against a suddenly dry throat, the young woman adds, haltingly, "Give me the station speakers."

Red alert blares throughout Blackrock Station, as outside in the void, the distant First Order capital ships begin their slow charge toward turbolaser range of the little rebel base, while TIEs scream into space by the squadron alongside larger, slower troop transports. The first shots in the Battle of Blackrock are probing, extreme range salvos against the station shields fired from the nearest RSD.

Kisaiya was asleep aboard the Galaxy Spinner, she has KiloMew curled up on her chest. If it was a comic or some sort of goofy holo, there surely would be a line of drool and a bubble emanating from her nose to signify how deeply she was asleep. Reclined back in one of the seats, really just napping between cargo being unloaded on yet another run that her sister dragged her on. ALL YOUR FAULT KAE! But in any event, she's reclined when the station speakers start blaring their warning and she lets out a shriek. Her hands flailing up into the air above her, Kilo flying off of her and landing on the controls, and the first things first, "WHAT DID YOU DO NOW KAE?!" She whips her head one way and the other looking for her sister.

Kae pauses mid counting the last of the crates after they'd been offloaded.. She sees red lights, sees folks standing upright and the white faces... She frowns a bit, and looks around, then back at the ship, then forward and frowns "Spazt.." She says, hardly ever one to use curse words, gone is the usual bright smile, instead is a dead serious dead pan...

Kae frowns, and slides her helmet on, activating the coms "R-Gee, Start warming up the Galaxy's main systems, Hatch, power up the weapons and shields, keep everything on standy." She says to her two droids, both of which on board snap to action. Meanwhile Kae can hear her sis, and yells up the ramp "They've called a red alert, the base is under attack!" she calls out and mutters... She then glances to her crates, and tries to grab anyone who will listen. "Hey I can help, I've got extensive engineering expertise, and I have a few ideas that might just help. I need a few volunteers, also, we can evacuate people, anyone wanting to get on the Galaxy, or help with the guns, tell them to report here now.. They can help me get these surprises together... Also grab me freighter captains, any willing to also give us a hand!" Yup, Kae's full serious...

Of course that kind of drops a bit as she turns and trips over a hydrospanner, landing with a thud while flailing, then rolls over and flails some more "Why today!!!!???!!!"

"This is Blackrock Control:" Connix puts effort put into concealing any alarm and keeping her voice level as she speaks over the stations comms; she is mostly successful. "The First Order Fleet has emerged from hyperspace, in system. Initiate full evacuation protocols, immediately. This is not a drill. Repeat: all personnel, initiate full evacuation protocols." Looking nervously between the sensor displays and the comm station, she orders, "Tell.. tell fire control to target the incoming shuttles. And begin wiping the database, how long will that take?" she asks one of the command techs, answered in turn, "I'm not sure. For a full wipe? Maybe twenty minutes?." Connix orders sharply, "Start it now. And send all troopers to Alpha Docking to delay boarders."

In Alpha Docking, it is already underway. Shuttles, freighters, and fighters are being taxi'd out of side hangars, and loaded with whatever of the most valuable cargo that can be thrown on in haste. Civilians and non-combat personnel are being evacuated first, but even that takes place only after the last four Headhunters of Rock Squadron launch, racing to join the rest of their wing mates in the face of the overwhelming cloud of incoming TIEs.

Lt. Smokeseer surveys the grim situation. "Rock Leader to Control: I count ten troop transports in the first wave, under heavy escort. Rock Squadron, form up on me. I read three enemy squadrons approaching range in the next few seconds, with more right behind them. Looks like one squadron is going after our Turbolaser batteries, one is screening the shuttles, and one is coming for us. Shields to double front, cannons live. Take it one shot at a time and dont be shy about going evasive when you get in deep, Rocks."

"ALL YOUR FAULT, KAE!" Kisaiya is yelling to her sister, Lil is bleeping a response that sounds like she agrees. She always is so loyal. Not to mention, Lil is already starting to power up the ship, plugging into one of the scomp ports and spinning it one way and then the other. She gives Kisa a report hat soon the Galaxy will be ready to close up. "Lil! Not right now! I don't need to hear about the joke between the Jawa and the Ithorian going to the cantina!" Kisa is terrible at binary. "KAE! ARE YOU ON HERE YET?!" The older sister is tabbing through different menus and noticing that Lil was indeed getting the ship ready for launch. She should probably check on those weapon modifications. Another few taps and she pulls those up next, looking over the readouts.

Kae's two droids go about other checkups to help ready the ship faster, Kae meanwhile glances up the ramp as a giant Talz runs up it. "Umm first we need to make some surprises so we can get folks out of here safely, just running won't' do any good!" She calls out... "Hey big'n furry, I need yer help, we're gonna pull the warheads off of these eight concussion missiles. Kisa! Get down here, I can use you too!" As she sees a number of personnel, and freighter captains crowd around.. "Ok, I need this... I need all of you to gather empty boxes, put as much metallic ribbon and shiny metal bits and just metal bits as you possibly can in them. We're gonna take those crates, and tie four of em together, in the middle will go a concussion warhead... Get to it, right now... Go Go Go.." She grabs a few others "You guys, start grabbing up as many spare transponders as you possibly can... I don't care how good they are they just got to last a bit. We're gonna strap these transponders to the missiles engine modules... " She then holds up well, tape, lots of tape.. "We'll attach it with lots of this... Put a comlink on each one for the power source, now go!" She says, and glances to others "Help me clear a space, get all the tools together we can. We don't have time... As we get these done, 2 of the bombed containers get strapped to freighters... or just pushed out air locks with air... We can also strap some to spare engines and move em out there..."

When someone asks her what she's going on about Kae grins.. "Chaff... We're making as much quick chaff with debris as we possibly can, we want clouds and cloud and clouds of chaf, the Transponders are to mask our ships and make it seem like there's alot of us going every which way,, now go!" She calls out..

Evidently, Kae's job on board a merc capital ship has taught her a thing or two about dealing with people, maybe... Kae looks back at Kisa and shrugs and gives a sheepish smile when Kisa's in sight.. "I guess so... BUt I could really use yer help here too..."

The initial joust goes badly for the outmatched Rock Squadron, multiple pilots report collapsed shields and failing subsystems. The Beta Squadron of TIEs has eradicated half the base's defensive turbolasers in a swarming first pass of spitting cannons, and only three of the first ten troop transports are struck down in the return volley of unprotected artillery. Seven continue to glide toward Alpha Docking, even as a fresh ten transports drop out of the nearest RSD. Within the station, the frantic piling of non-essential cargos are arranged into makeshift barricades to protect the handful of troopers who hastily dig in to defend Blackrock, while the hasty evacuation is ordered. It's looking grim, when a flash of hope is allowed the defenders: another dozen transponders emerge in the system: no great Destroyers, or fearsome capital cruisers, but a handful of Resistance fightercraft. Kisaiya is still fussing with the controls when she hears her sister calling for her. A toss of her head back, and she calls out, "Kinda busy Kae!" But she's pushing back from the controls and twisting in the seat. Her left arm snagging KiloMew as the Loth-Cat stares up at her with a flat-eared look. Probably because of the klaxons.

Mew-w-w-w-w.

"I know Kilo, I know. C'mon. I'm gonna put you in my room." Kisa moves at a quick walk toward the corridor leading back. "Lil, gimme a couple beeps when everything is set to go."

Beep. Beep.

"No! I said when everything is ready to go!"

Beep. Beep. And Lil is following along after Kisaiya as she drops off Kilo (and seals the room) before heading back toward her sister. Kisaiya sees her sister pulling apart missiles, "KAE! I swear! This... You can't be serious! WAUGH! I'm terrible at this sort of stuff!" She flings her arms up over her head and Lil speeds on passed her.

Kae glances up, as the floor plates rattle, and she frowns "Not going good for us.." As she finishes removing the warhead from yet another concussion missile.. She takes it over and sets it into a small box, after setting a remote activated timer on the thing... "Ok guys remote activated timer, it goes into a box, use those tie down straps to attach it to no less than two creates, preferably 4..." She says, having helped assemble several already.

Kae holds up a ratchet strap "Yer good with these though> Imma get these warheads in the boxes, you tie the boxes together... Ok? " She says with a smile... "I've got the tech bit handled!" Adds the younger Sephi... Yup, Kae's like all serious... Probably scared too...

Kae helps move another of the boxes out and when folks get the hang of it, she moves on to the missile engines. "Ok folks, this is easy... Pull this off." She tugs the base cap of a com link off. "Inside this is a power course, it attaches to these two wires.. Then wire it on, wrap it up with this, attach it to the missile... When it launches, the way we've got the link attached it's gonna activate the link, turning the power to the transponder and bam... Good to goo..." She says with a grin.

It's back yard, or outer-rim engineering, and definitely a trick Kae'd picked up from working freighters in the rim... When her helpers pick up, things start going quickly, other outer rim captains know the trick and as soon as Kae shows what she has in mind they really don't need any further instruction.

Transponder missiles are rigged in quick order, many of the 'chaff' bombs are also jury rigged, some with engines attached to them, some are attached to the docking clamps on the sides of the freighters... As things start to get attached and readied Kae pulls captains aside "Pass this down, we're gonna launch the engine-mounted chaff bombs first, then launch some of the transponder missiles, and then then launch our selves, then we're gonna launch some more as we go, and drop more chaff on the way... Ok?" She says to everyone as final preparations are made...

Kisa go grab the cockpit seat, we're gonna be leaving here shortly! Big furry! umm I dun know.. Oh yeah I heard you state it, Lofty, Grab the ventral heavy turret, I'll grab the dorsal heavy!" She says, then glances out the ramp "Anyone riding get on now!" She calls out as the last of the cargo is quickly put on the ship, and people pile in "Grab a wall and sit down, anyone who can shoot a turret, grab one of the single turret sand everyone get strapped in!"

Lofty is too busy fitting himself inside the bottom turret of the Galaxy Spinner to help with any transponder-missile business. "Rock Squad is dying! Fly ship outside to help!" he warbles angrily at Kaelyn, then flips several switches to power up the turret. He does take a FizzyGlug can from his bandolier and cracks it open with a claw, slurping the delicious carbonated beverage as the turret's targeting system comes alive.

A brief flash from hyperspace is the only sign that a small X-Wing has arrived initially, but the pilot reaches forward and shoves the accelerator that triggers red engines to come to life. As more blips appear on Poe's sensors, he sees that he is surrounded on one side by the friendlies that make up Black Squadron, then everything else... daunting. Taking ahold of the stick and rooting his nerves to do what's necessary, a hand comes up to trigger the encrypted Resistance channel. "Black Squadron is on station. All call signs report in and follow my lead in. This is an evacuation mission, so we need to clear a lane for our friendlies." BB-8 is stationed in the socket behind Poe's canopy, but his binary sounds travel through the speakers in the cockpit. "That's right, pal. We've seen worse.. We've seen worse.." The fighter Poe is in initiates an open wing formation, power building in each cannon preparing to engage.

"S-foils to attack position. Break--Break, Blackrock, this is Black Leader. We're going to buy as much time as we can manage, but you've got to hurry!" Leading the attack in, Poe engages with an entire volley of X-wing cannons. His initial attack tears through the shields for Delta 1 before splitting the craft in two that triggers a small explosion. Black Leader flies right through it angling for his next attack. "Stay close together." Poe's voice slightly robotic sounding over the comms.

Controlled chaos. From the initial scrambling of fighters to the arrival in system, where the larger picture of what's going on unfolds before her eyes, Jessika Pava feels as if she's in a thin bubble that barely protects her against the madness of being overwhelmed. That thin bubble is training and experience, and it suffices to keep her from moments of indecision when their windows of error aren't even measured in the most scant of seconds. The transition from hyperspace to real space jars her physically, but the mental check follows on the heels of spying the number of sensor blips littering her instrument panel's screen. Matching it to the visual in front of her cues a surge of adrenaline, and for Jessika, it's like waking up from sleep.

Her X-Wing maintains speed advantage by keeping its s-foils in cruise position until the last moment. Only then do they split into their iconic position, causing a brief jerk of speed that she's factored into her targeting reticle lead. Both it and the targeting computer read centralization of the squint in position, and a squeeze of her leather-gloved finger triggers a cascade of laser cannon fire from the quartet of cannons on her snubfighter. Three of those shots impact, while the TIE pilot's juke throws the fourth off. "On your wing, Black Leader."

The drop out gives Tallie that familiar moment of disorientation, stomach playing games with her head, vision blurred as optic nerves talk to her brain again in real space. Fiver, rightly so, gives her no leeway and has her screens live sorting and prioritizing targets as she deploys the wings. The droid has marked vectors for the incoming bogies, the sheer number of enemy targets available making her mouth dry in anxiety for those trying to leave the Rock. Behind the smooth transition into fighter mode, the young pilot carries a black knot of residual fear from another engagement.

"Black Leader, mark Seti Seven-A, as open for our approach. Targeting Delta 3. Engaging." Within a minute of their close approach, she engages cannons firing in a rolling volley that damages her target, the rainbow flare of dying shields is only momentarily satisfying as she rolls the X-Wing to avoid return fire.

"Black Leader. Loth Wolves responding. We're here to help. Following your lead. Wolf 3. Targeting Delta 4....Engaging." The first of the Loth Wolves have arrived in response, scrambling from having been nearby. Eko flies alone. That is, without the assistance of a droid. She zips the A-Wing off on a vector toward Delta 4 to get a bead on it before she lets loose. Glancing at her readout, she keeps an eye on her tail and punches her fixed cannons. A true shot isn't as true as it needs to be when Delta 4 breaks off from their attack vector. The shot narrowly misses Eko's target. "This is fucking rowdy," she murmurs with a breath, eagerly matching the new evasive maneuvers Delta 4 throws at her.

Elrych had been resting when Black Squadron got the call about Blackrock. The Jedi's heart sank, a million different reasons and scenarios as to how this might have happened running through his head . He probably shouldn't be in that cockpit as they squadron rocketed through Hyperspace towards the embattled station. He had only just recovered from grave injury, "I can like... hear the servos in my spine... it's a little disturbing." He tells his R2-Unit 'Kid'. "I'm still getting used to it." There's a series of beeps and whirrs from Kid which cause Elrych to sighs,"No I ain't told her yet. How am I supposed to tell her I got run through by a weird Lizard Monster and apparently now have two Turazza Children? You're lucky the had 3P0 Units available to baby-sit." Cut to back on Elrych ship as the two short but strong lizards are pulling wires out of the brand new 3P0 unit as it protests in screams in abject horror. "It'll be fine..." El says as the hyper-computer indicated they're about to revert. For the time being the Jedi's cockpit remains void of music. AS the battlefield comes into view, blue eyes scan around and ears open, "Black Eleven, here... vectoring on Delta..." His S-foils crank into attack position as he angles in on the enemy squadron. "Alright... Kid, give me some jams." And just like that the j-wailing begins and his scarlet bolts roar out in an attempt to find a TIE to smash. IT'll be a bit tougher than that as Delta Five manages to maneuver out of his killzone. "Five... sometime this century."

Black 7 emerges from hyperspace and into the suddenly crowded Ichren system. Twelve RSDs and literal thousands of TIEs. "So what is it called when you make a squadron out of Star Destroyers? Is that still a squadron?" Ektor wonders flatly over the comms. "Arright, Tenner. Just.. filter out anything further than ten kliks from the targeting computer, yeah? There's too many little lights, it's all just a red blur." S-foils locked into attack position, engines rocketing the snubfighter toward the besieged Blackrock and the green rain of cannon fire obscuring the black of space before him. "You got a priority target in mind, Black Lead, or is this gonna be one of them 'you take the thousand on the left, I'll take the thousand on the right' kinda things? Ooh- Ima blow up them fat ones, yeah?"

Six squadrons have now flooded space at the mouth of Blackrock Starbase, leaving little physical space remaining for maneuver, while still more TIE squadrons swarm around the perimeter of the station, greedily seeking a shot at any of the fleeing Resistance or civilian ships who blunder into their range in the course of attempting escape. Turbolaser batteries continue to rain upon the rock's defensive shields, as a second Resurgent-class joins the first in bombardment.

Connix receives the frantic report, "Shields at sixty-five percent- sixty- fifty!" A secondary power conduit erupts in a shower of sparks, as deep within Blackrock the first of six heavy power conduits fails with a distant rumble. "We're losing shields!" Connix looks to the database technician, answered grimly, "Only ten percent clear. We need more time." Swallowing hard, the Captain orders, "We may need to manually blow the core. Get me demolitions to the Command Center!" The arrival of Black Squadron draws a tight, "Blackrock Control to Black Squadron, evacuation status is at ten percent. Shields failing, and preparing to repel boarders."

The sudden slashing attack of Black Squadron buys only an instant of breathing room for the embattled defenders. The turbolaser turrets continue to roar, ripping into the line of heavy transports. In concert with the reckless run of Black 7, only two of the troop transports survive to attempt boarding of the station, narrowly avoiding a collision as the first of the Resistance transports- the Sheathipede shuttle Crawler- launches into the void.

"Ack! Ack! Ack!" Kisaiya is ratcheting down one crate and then the next before turning and running back into the ship. "Stuff it fuzzy! Bigger things to fry than just shooting! Like... Whatever the hell Kae has planned! I don't know! It doesn't matter!" As the sephi is yelling this all out she's flailing her arms over her head, hoping that people have loaded in as best they can. "LIIIIL!" But the droid is already right along with her, zooming along toward the cockpit. "Oh good!" She jumps over an armrest and slides into the pilot's seat. "Hang on!" Last check, green, green, yellow-flick flick green, okay. Throttle forward, how are my weapon-"KRIFF!" Kisa was too busy looking down at the controls and screens to see the enemy transport careening in. She squeezed the triggers on the concussion missiles as she rolls the ship hard to the side. The screech of metal as she scrapes a bit of the Galaxy spinner on the incoming ship with the heavy percussion of explosions following them out. A engulfing of oranges and yellows, the hints of blues toward the middle and out shoots the Galaxy Spinner from the middle of it, leaving a troop transport destroyed in their wake.

Kae is running to the top turret, and quickly climbs up to the thing, strapping in.. As the door to the Galaxy closes, Kae calls down "Okie Kisa, let's get ready for this... " She gets on her coms Tight channel to the resistance fleet.." Testing.. Oh yeah, right channel this time. This is umm, one of the freelance freighters, we've got several others of us and we're about to litter this place with a ton of surprises, don't direct active sensors in our direction right before launch folks, you can blind em..." She then calls out " OK captains, do it!"

And then well, yeah, as the various ships launch, large clusters of boxes being pushed along by strapped together missile engines surge out of the hangar bays first, these flying out a ways some spiralling off in different directions, but they do get distance from the base before suddenly they explode. Large clouds of filaments and debris are quickly scattered throughout the sector. " OK the transponders!" Kae calls and then more missiles are fired after Kisa's, these not bearing explosives these, give off various ship transponders and whatnot as they fly off, all taking different vectors.. And then the freighters come blasting out of the cloud of debris... " Here we go guys, soon as you can get together, we'll cover each other with our turrets" She then calls out " Black rock defenders, the independent captains are launching now with precious cargo! Sending our vectors now!" She does just that..

It's a complete scramble as many tramp freighters and outer rim smugglers now launch from the base like mice in front of a flashlight...

As soon as Kae sees a nearby fighter, She spins, flailing her arms briefly as she cuts loose with a barrage of heavy laser fire, these bolts blasting out of her turret in close succession, the stream looking like some kind of staggered solid line of lasers.. "HOly smokes! UUh yeah Kisa! they work!" she calls out, having not expected the rate of fire with her first burst, and then she sees the exploding transport.. "Woooe Kisa! Congrats, you hit em! Yaay!" Yup the silly's a little back... "Great shot!!"

Lofty puts on a communication headset as the Galaxy Spinner finally joins the fray. In an attempt to assist the beleaguered Rock Squadron, the Talz aims the underside turret at one of Alpha's TIE fighters and blasts away. A sudden jolt as Kaelyn jukes makes his laser burst go wide. "Hold steady!"

"A Murder of Star Destroyers, Tion." Poe corrects him while twisting hard to bank port with Jess briefly. Green lasers bite through space all around him, lighting up the contours of his face. Poe grimaces when he sees his sensors again. "That was a good run on Delta, Black 5. Great spot." Poe observes the Loth Wolves approach and nods. "Good to have you wolves. There's plenty of prey about, get to biting." Poe adjusts to take aim, firing at a target of opportunity and managing only a single hit. "Black Leader on Delta 11." Black Leader adjusts getting a good view of the station as the Galaxy is launching. "Freighters, this is Black Leader; you have Alpha squadron closing quick to engage, we're tied up with Delta. We'll adjust to open an exit vector as soon as we can. Hang in there!"

After nearly destroying the TIE fighter she engages, Jessika has to go evasive herself. Angling her flight stick to the left, a quick yank on the throttle and tap against her port pedal throws off the aim of Delta Two, whose maneuverability allows him a far tighter arc to get shots off in her direction. It's not enough to escape Delta Ten engaging her from the aft, and she's punished with the shuddering of her craft in response to the impact force of the TIE's cannon fire soaking into her deflector shields. Ali, her astromech, is already at work. While the droid focuses on a balance of shield strength and navigating power from non-essential systems to the more important ones, she focuses on flying. Delta Two is doing the same. And for good reason.

Knocking at death's door, the pilot's arrhythmic maneuvers keep her from landing a follow up volley that would have blasted it out of space.

Fiver whistles and bleeps incoming warnings, reflex takes Tallie into a starboard turn peeling her away from Black Squadron Leader after leaving Delta 3 worse for the wear. The return letter of love misses her as she straightens to bear on Delta 3 again. "Yes!" she whispers to herself. Another TIE has decided that they want to party as well and Black five is buffeted and skewed from trajectory as her shields take a hit.

"Wolf 4, this is Wolf 3. 2 Bandits on my 6. Can you help? Over." Eko reports when Delta 4 decides to peel back toward her. She flies by, exchanging fire with Delta 4 while she corkscrews Vanta to avoid incoming fire from Delta 8 as well. She pulls her bird around fast, gritting her teeth a little against the high G maneuver and now completely flying by sight. Her flight goggles glow like two perfect circles.

"Wolf 3, this is Wolf 4. Negative, got two bogeys on my ass. It's all evasive maneuvers until I get a better shot." At least this time, Miri's flying was as good as her talking, and Henibi works her little droid magic, trying to fix the shields. "Focus, Honeybee, just focus," she tells the R4.

"Come on..." Elrych says, his tongue sticking out just a bit as a concentrates and trying to nail Delta Five with his linked Cannons. He's able to easily avoid some incoming fire. He's starting to sweat a bit, still off from his injuries, not quite back to full readiness. He had to be here though, the Force told him so. He just wish the Force was better at telling him /where/ to point his reticle today. "Blast... Remind me to work on some Injury Reduction, Kid..." He whistles along with the fast paced tune playing through his cockpit. Eyes flick to his targeting computer and sensors now and again as he chases down the TIE.

The chaotic display of destruction continues to erupt around the mouth of Blackrock's main hangar, as a single troop transport of the Ten Xi heavy transports manages to land on Blackrock Station, but even that solitary transport carries more troopers than the entire security complement of Blackrock Station. And a fresh phalanx of ten Omicron transports are gliding through the void toward the besieged station.

"HA. A murder of Star Destroyers, that's good," Ektor returns to Poe, adding, "Good to have you, She-wolves. Stay nasty, yeah?" Avoiding the worst of the trio of pursuit fighters, Black 7 rocks with a minor impact, prompting him to mutter, "Tenner, you awake back there? Bit of a thing going on, up here." His cannons hammer the shields of a TIE- he's unsure of which designation, and the X-wing continues pinwheeling through the chaos.

Beta Squadron has turned their guns on the ships fleeing Blackrock, crushing the shields of the Crawler, as its hyperdrive prepares the little shuttle for flight into hyperspace, scoring the hull and damaging the Sheathipede. The Galaxy Spinner draws significantly more fire, though the unorthodox use of ... lets call it 'chaff' has a shockingly good effect on the big vessel's survivability.

Epsilon Squadron has joined the fight.

Transmissions from the embattled Rock Squadron are reduced by half, as a trio of the aged Headhunters succumb to the numbers and cannons of the First Order's first wave fighters. Lt. Smokeseer gives the order to her remaining pilots, "Full evasive, Rocks, full evasive!"

"Ka-a-a-ae. I'm sorry!" Kisaiya is looking over through the space glitter bombs to see the Crawler getting pounded by a group of TIEs. "Kae, I'm gonna get the Spinner scratched." Her mouth pulls off to the side as she rolls the freighter and pulls back hard on the controls. It's not the easiest bit of flying she's ever done, but if she can do this right, she can fly close enough to give the Crawler protection with the Spinner's Shields. "Crawler, this is the Spinner, don't juke for the love of the Force." Kisa's mouth is pulled off to the other side then, eyebrows pulled up and in with concentration. She does it though, flying in tight to get their shields around the Crawler of course that also means that she's putting the Galaxy Spinner in more trouble. "Kriff... Kriff... LIL! SHI-I-I-IELDS!" And that's when Lil starts making blats and noises that probably amounts to What do you think I'm doing? and "I think you're being useful." Lil pauses to swivel her head, Did you just understand me? "I SAID YOU CAN TELL ME THE JOKE LATER!" Thankfully, Lil's ability to redirect power is far better than Kisa's ability to understand Binary. "SORRY YOU TWO! Just... Try to hit something!" Kae frowns a bit.. "Oki girl, no more snap shots.." She then turns calls out "We gonn.. ooh good thinking Kisa! Yeah, we'll try and put out as much cover fire as we can!" She calls out, then brings her turret to bear on well ties.. Lots of ties.. She's cutting loose with that thing as fire just rips out of the turret, burst after burst after long burst, each staccato of lasers meant to try and push back the various incoming ties...

Kae frowns as one pushes in closer, and cuts loose with another blast after the Galaxy is peppered a bit... "Frigging ties! I just got those shields installed the other day! Go away!" As that long burst of fire rips out, and starts ripping away the Tie's shields, forcing it to duck toward the Galaxy's ventral side to avoid the hail of heavy laser fire. "Gettum Lofty!" she calls out, yup this is about as vicious as Kae gets.... it doesn't sound bad to most folk, Kisa might pick up angry-kae notes.... Probably a good thing Kae doesn't have control of missile launchers, she'd probably empty the magazines... again.

Lofty's gunner seat moves to the left as his targeting grid tracks a specific TIE fighter in Beta Squadron. "Rock Squadron very hard time," he warbles over the comm frequency. His lower set of eyes close as passing laser bursts light up the nearby Crawler shuttle. His laser turret's tracking software lights up a grid space, and he depresses the firing studs with his claws, striking a TIE fighter in the fuselage. "We nerfs-eye!" The TIE explodes.

Poe is sick of the tail, and it shows after a hard hit that rattles his shields. His flying pattern becomes erratic, and the TIEs chasing him see his S-foils close. Growling, Poe braces his arm against the canopy of his craft and jerks his stick in one direction just as the sudden burst of speed shoves his fighter ahead. The result of this complicated maneuver shoves his stern to one side causing his engines to sputter under the sudden strain. His nose turns to his opponents for a second before the craft continues in its 360 degree course, where Poe has now yanked the stick back and engaged his S-foils again. His position has traded with the pair of fighters in the blink of an eye, and with the sudden engagement of his S-foils, his engine power regulates and cannons come online.

Poe engages D11 first, obliterating the last of their shields and splitting the TIE into an explosion of shrapnel. The second, D12, is engaged as well their shields weakened and Poe hot on their tail. "Splash Delta One-One, going after Delta One-Two. Break, any call sign that's free to help our freighters, break contact and engage. It looks like they're positioned to take some punishment." Poe is chasing D 12, and by chance alone, heading in that same direction. BB-8 blarbs from behind as he resurfaces from the bottom of the socket. "Good work on the shields, pal-- What do you mean there's another squadron?" Poe adjusts in his seat to look. "We've got another squadron flying in!" Poe reaches out and flips the switch to his priority distress call. They needed reinforcements.

The swarm grows, and the tension thickens. A barrage of comm chatter chirps in her ear through the speakers in her helmet, but Jessika doesn't hear any of the keywords that take her attention away from the task at hand. She's still dancing with two, and while she can safely sweep her craft through a hard bank that turns into a half loop, the second TIE is always in a position to follow up before she can move into another evasive pattern. Below the danger threshold by a good margin, her instrument panel is flashing and her astromech is warbling in her ears at a volume that drowns out everything else. Especially because the continued cycle of fire is preventing her shields from equalizing out, and she's lost a lot of power to them. "Not now!"

She can't break her attention away long enough to look at the shields herself. This deadly ballet is balanced on the edge of a knife. Jessika jukes right, then almost cuts her engines off completely. The squint behind her has to bank hard away to prevent from smashing into her, and the way it screams past leaves a small window to engage her thrusters and get it into her targeting computer's sights. This time, the solid tone and the cascade of lights on her flight stick's screen aren't just an indication of a solid firing solution. The depression of the trigger sends another red quarter through space, and the injured Delta Two explodes as once red lance punches straight through it's engine and triggers a chain reaction that makes it explode. She immediately veers off to try to avoid Delta Ten's continued pursuit.

"Delta Two is space dust. Confirm another squadron. Black Two is moving to freighter support."

At a distance, green flares around a friendly as Tallie loops a high-G turn back onto the tail of Delta 3. Fussing at her like a mother bantha Fiver fixes targets on her screens. Delta 11 is no longer viable she loses all four cannons on Delta 3 and for a moment she is sure that it is a goner. The tell-tale of damage debris streams behind it but it looks like it is still flying."Black 5 reporting damage to Delta 3, but still in the game."

"Affirmative, She-Wolves staying nasty," Miri quips through clenched teeth, focusing on her breath as the G-forces bear down on her, scoring a hit on Delta 4. Too early to celebrate, though, and she dives right for the TIE fighter in a game of high-stakes chicken, guns blazing.

Elrych's X-wing shutters as a pair of TIE's angle in on him and one scores a decent hit, enough to lower his shields a good bit. "Kid, fix it..." Taking a deep breath he doubles down on Delta Five, controlling his breathing, putting the whining and grinding of the servos now in his back to the back of his head. The synthetic inflating and deflating of his new synthetic lung... all the synthetic muscle tissues and tendons now used to hold his whole center mass together. All of that falls away and for once, he can think. His attack hits, sending the Fighter's shields down. "Hah!" Just as the music switches from some J-wailing, to more distorted and brutal string accompaniment. "Ohhh... see, I think we found our rhythm, kid." Just as his droid reports the repaired shields. He looks over to See Tallie completely own, "Damn... she is so... rawr." Kids Whirs at him, "NO don't tell her that!"

The second phalanx of troop transports glide through the chaos. One is struck by a wounded TIE fighter, and veers off course, its flight controls visibly damaged, but the remaining nine begin landing procedures, adding hundreds of fresh troopers to the battle that rages unseen within the station. "I'm hi-" the transmission of Rock Leader is cut off abruptly, as only two of the Z-95s remain intact, both damaged.

"Yeah, I got... one of them. Yay for us," Ektor reports distractedly, as one of the many ships flying in pursuit hammers through the last of his rear shields. "Tenner, come on- shields, yeah? You're gonna piss off the Chief if we bring this thing in all shot up-" An indignant squawk is answered, "No it is NOT my fault. Shields are YOUR thing- eh, kriff-" "Black Lead, this is Seven, on my way, yeah?"

The Ocilu launches from the hangar bay, alongside a battered Ghtroc 720; one of the smuggling vessels which had been caught aboard during the fight, and now launches. The TIEs swarm, seeking to deny escape.

Another spat as the energy ripples over the shields. She's keeping herself in tight to the Crawler, the downside is that it's made her the target of like... EVERY TIE FIGHTER EVER. "Oh... No. Ohhh hold together. Li-i-i-il. You uh, do what you need to, please. YOU ARE THE BEST DROID EVER!" She starts breathing faster, "Jump. Jump. Jump." And then the Crawler pushed the levers forward and with a blink, the ship heads into hyperspace. "O-o-o-okay." Another deep breath let out, and she hears Lil saying something but she's too busy working on trying to bring them back around to the Ocilu. "Okay. Okay. I got this, just same as last time." She winces, as she hits the rudder and slides in over top of the next transport. "Ocilu, I swear, if you start juking and hit our ship, I will haunt you beyond the grave."

Lil was actually beeping away at her that she doesn't really have a good chance to get to some of the areas she needs to from up here. But that she needs to stay up here because she'll need to help calculate the jump coordinates soon. And I know you probably don't understand any of this, but she's contacting G8, and G8 can get to the relays.

R2-G8 wheels down the hallway at high speeds, fast enough that G8 almost skids to a stop with a yank of one cable and sticking the connector into a different one. Rerouting power from one section to the next to avoid the circuits that are being overloaded. If it wasn't for the droids, it'd probably be someone choking on the smoke trying to pull this off with how much the shield systems are being taxed. A wheedling noise and with a wobble and a flailing of droid limbs - SUCCESS!

"LIL! YOU'RE THE BEST!" Kisa quickly glances at her droid, then back out at all the instruments... if only she knew it wasn't Lil this time.

Kae squints as the Galaxy is rocked by all that incoming fire... "Kisa, keep on doing what yer doing, I have faith in our ship. SHe can take a ton of punishment, You do yer thing.. If I need to I'll jump off my turret and do some repairs myself!" She calls out, now flailing her arms some as she reaches over and flicks a switch, making her turret fire in linked mode. She squints and sights in a target, and as soon as the targeting computer starts chirping at her, she pulls the trigger. Thwoom Thwoom Thwoom thwoom... Dual linked bolts zip out of her turret, intersecting at the distance of the fighter as they trace in on em.. Two of the bolts puncture the fighter's canopy and the fighter is rendered into an expanding cloud of burning gasses and debris...

When she sees Lofty's shot, There's more flailing! "Nice job there Lofty! Great shot! 2 more down!" She calls out.. Now she hears R-Gee call out, squealing and stuff "R-gee? I don't think she meant it, she's focussed on flying, yer doing a great job!" She calls out, pretty soon she thinks Hitch will get in on it too..

Kae then hears the roar.. "Hey Hitch! Get the nice big furry guy a fizzy glug! He can have one of ours!" She calls out cheerfully... And well yeah, the BB droid goes to get one, and well can't, it's a ball.. Arms then wanders over, grabs the glug and moves to drop it into Lofty's lap as it chirps happily, and goes back to working on ships systems... Hitch chirps, and waggles a manipulator, before going back to working on the ship's systems as well, now all 4 droids working hard to keep the Galaxy from being rendered space debris...

Lofty is firing wildly but the laser impacts on the shielding of the Galaxy Spinner makes his FizzyGlug can fall over and start hemorrhaging sweetness all over the durasteel flooring. "Noooo!" Now full of rage, the massive Talz grips his heavy turret's controls and strafes a TIE fighter as it soars past the medium freighter. His shots strike true, impacting a wing and several times on the fuselage, causing the Beta Squadron fighter to explode and send debris flying.

Poe did not relent with D 12. His aggressive piloting kept him trained to the TIE's stern even as three others fell in on Poe's. Green bolts from all angles fired, the lances missing Poe as he twisted after his target, engaging as simultaneously. D 12 does not last during the trade off though because Black Leader triggered a chain reactive explosion that consumed the craft, encouraging it to explode a second later. Twisting away a moment later, Poe is pushing hard to follow Jess so she isn't alone. "Splash Delta one-two, with three training my stern. Black 2, I'm closing toward you." Poe was doing his best to be a tough target, but his nerves were growing more and more wary by the second. They were completely swamped with fighters here and the situation was going from bad to worse every second they stuck to it. Rock was abandoning the fight leaving the freighters and Black Squadron to fend for themselves. "Damn it!" He yells, hearing the Commander for Rock Squadron getting spaced. "Everyone hang in there! We can do this! Connix, what's the status station side?!"

Jessika wants to close the distance to the freighter and aid it in its fervent battle, but if the sensor readings have anything to say about it, the Galaxy Spinner is knocking down targets. She's still being pursued by a TIE of her own, and rather than give it free shots at her aft, Jessika banks her craft hard left, and then hard right. She bleeds speed each time, until a sudden increase in thruster power puts her hard into her seat. Knowing the TIE has to speed up, Jessika cuts speed right after, and reverses her direction until she's straining hard against the crash harness wrapped about her. The TIE streaks by, and Jessika rewards it with a cascade of fire that batters against its shields and leave them weak. The hunt begins anew, with Jessika speeding after.

The number of enemy TIES incoming have her targeting screens look like a snowstorm on Hoth. For a moment Tallie is aware of her heartbeat thudding and her accelerated breathing. Three on her now, "Count them. They are multiplying like amoeba, hit one and two appear. Drek." But Black holds its own and the civ freighter is pulling through the chaff and taking TIEs with them. Hope battles with that blackness that has gnawed at her since the beginning of the fight.

Pulling back on the stick and pushing herself into a jink that rattles the X-Wing like someone picked it up and was shaking it to roll dice, she veers to port and drops like a rock out of the vectors of D3 and D9, lasers stream overhead where she had been leaving her to deal with D10 coming from below her. Upending herself to present less of a target she throttles the X-Wing through the same position she had just left. No one wins, no one loses. "Fiver target D10, we want an end to this."

Kid whirls a warning at Elrych, but the Jedi Pilot is already violently pushing down on the Yoke and sending his ship into a whirlwind spin as three TIE's firs on his previous position. "Yeah, way ahead of you buddy!" He pushes the rudder and throttle to find his last target and bares down on him without any hesitation. He contemplates turning about to finish him off but thinks better of it as he notices he seems to be fleeing. "All life is precious, yeah? Well... I'm feeling generous anyways." "Delta Five is fleeing the field." He reports. Elrych then turns towards the freighters still trying to make it out and vectors in the on the TIE's after them. Kid reports some trouble with the shields, "Well keep at it. Reroute what you have to."

The last of Rock Squadron doesn't quite make it to hyperspace. Rock 5 is torn apart by pursuing TIEs of Alpha Squadron, leaving Flight Officer Balrit Breeqas briefly alone as the last of his squad. For a moment, he is nearly in the clear, hyperdrive spooling up and s-foils closing, before he too is shot down.

The Ocilu is screened from enemy fire by a deft maneuver of the big Galaxy Spinner, which is pounded by volleys of emerald cannonfire, even as the ships turrets take a toll in return. The old Ghtroc fares less well, its shields crumbling, and cannonfire scoring its hull, but the light freighter lives just long enough to vanish into hyperspace, followed a moment later by the Broadstar.

"This is Connix- were under heavy attack-" Static, before the signal resumes, "-estimated at ninety percent, all personnel, abandon the station, all personnel, abandon the station!"

The hits come in hard and fast this time and Kisaiya is biting her lip hard enough to taste blood, her eyebrows arching up and pulling in, "Ohhh Kriff. Ohhh Kriff. Hyper out, ya fool!" She's starting to breath faster as the ship starts to wail, the rapid beeping of the shields hitting their breaking point. A slower breath taken in, and then let out, "WHO EVER THE HELL ISN'T TIED DOWN, TIE YOURSELF DOWN!" And with that, Kisa kicks the ship over and starts doing her best to fly as evasively as possible. Her other hand is tapping away at the route that Lil has already started to plot. "Lil... LIL! Go, uh, go help out back. Please? I'll take it from here." She flashes her droid a smile, "Be good, girl." She jerks the controls a bit to the left (they say it's the best way to go). Her other hand keeps on tapping, finishing up the route, it's bad. Terrible even. But it's a jump all the same. Now all she had to do was make it clear. "Come on... We got this, Spinny. Kilo, I love you. Kae, you're amazing. C'mon, just a little more." She's jerking the stick one way and then the other, always a little to the left as she closes in on the edge of the gravity well angled in the right direction for the jump.

Not one to sit around and wait as the shields go down. Kae flails.. "On the shields, plot us out of here, any vector!" She shouts, then gets out of the cockpit, it's a mad scramble, but as she leaves the thing, she races her way to the engineering section. Quickly, she enters engineering, and looks around, before yanking the access port to the shields controls. It's not long, before Kae's reaching in there. Hitch joins in with Kae, whirring and plugs into his droid socket...

Kae smiles "Awesome buddy..." She says to them and a few adjustments later, the whirr of the shields snapping back online can be heard "We got the Shields back up at 30" she shouts, and then gets on the comms, and sends out to the 'escorting' fighters and all.. " Last freighter calculating jump to hyperspace, shields down to 30% and buckling, need all the time you can give us while we jump!" She calls out, then adds " Other freighters that launched are out, we took as many hits for them as we could! Forced to jump at this point!" Kae then runs back to the turret and climbs back into it.

Lofty is jiggled all around by the severe impact of TIE fighters strafing the Galaxy Spinner. The soda can in his lap falls out and goes rolling around loudly on the durasteel flooring. He uses his large white paws to turn his turret about, firing bursts of covering fire as his vessel starts to flee. One of the TIEs in the line of fire is hit and loses shielding.

"There's too many," Jessika mutters to herself. It's not something she relays over the net, but something that dies underneath the noise of her fusial engines rumbling. With Delta Ten injured, Jessika refuses to back off. The Epsilon TIEs attempting to rob her of her shields hit nothing but empty space while she follows Ten through its quick banks and turns. It's not enough to escape her. Jessika's patience pays off, too. She waits for the kind of sharp bank that steals the breath right out of her chest, because she's not worrying about what maneuver might keep her alive for the next few seconds. She's just worried about those flashing lights and the trigger on her flight stick. A trigger that's squeezed when the lights flare brightly.

Three bright red lances from her laser cannons pelt the last of Delta Ten's shields into oblivion, and then puncture through its wings and eye-like fuselage. It, too, explodes, and Jessika goes immediately evasive to try and keep from suffering the same fate. "Black Leader, Black Two. We can't wait forever." They're bitter words, but that's what Poe relies on her for. The numbers. The facts. And the fact of the matter is that they've got almost no time left.

If she thought her X-wing was shaking, rattling and rolling before it is nothing compared to the moment that her world turned green. Not the bucolic green of the farm where she grew up, no. This is the lurid green of algae on a dead lake and Fiver is having binary fits as their shield drops to 20 percent. "Fix it, Fiver, fix it!" And she reorients with the targeting chime playing its music in her ears. D9 is coming at her as though it was thinking of ramming her or dance. She takes the lead, firing all her cannon and connecting with three as a last shot takes all of her shielding down to zero. "Oh, Fiver, look at where we are now!"

If Anything, Elrych's main goal is to drive through the Gamma lines and disturb them from attacking escaping craft. His shots go wide but the X-wing barreling through their lines is not something that goes unnoticed. "That's right. Come at me you Gammorian Gundarks!" He turns hard to port and pushes real hard on the rudder. Kid announces some restoration of the shield, "Keep it up, that's not good enough."

There is no response from the station to Poe's appeal. Whether because Connix has obeyed and is no longer at the comm, or because she can't respond, those in the chaotic void can only guess. An infamous Corellian freighter has yet to roar out of the hangar, and so the starfighters hang on, already deep into a fight they can't win; they can only hope to avoid losing for long enough to escape. The weight of numbers continues to tell, even as the elite Black Squadron holds back the tide of five squadrons, and more. Yet, for at least one, Jessika's words of hard caution are all too true.

"Eh, drek-" Ektor curses as Tenner's efforts to restore the shields are feeble at best in the face of the wall of emerald cannonfire that continues to flood the space around Black 7. "These Hutt-suckers just don't die fast enough, yeah-" The X-wing is struck again, consuming the portside wing in a short lived blast, and Black 7 disappears from the Resistance targeting computers.

Kisaiya is nearing the edge of the gravity well, leveling out the ship for the last sprint so they hit the marker at the right speed going the right direction. "Come on... Come on..." The TIEs swoop down on them, all nine of them. Thankfully the space glitter bombs attached to the Spinner erupt into a mass of confetti that clouds up their scanners enough to make a few of them miss. The others though... The shots hit home, and soon the wailing is back, the shields are failing, and that turns into a bleating sound as they fail entirely. "SHIELDS DOWN! BRACE BRACE BRACE!" She saw the others still coming in on them. The shots stitched through the hull, her arms coming up and guarding her eyes as sparks shoot from one side of the cockpit as some of the lasers strike far too close to home. "DAMN IT KAE!" Kisa yells back, blinking, her hand reaching up to wipe at sweat, blood, and tears as she looks at the counter. The hand reaches down, grabbing the levers and smearing it with that mix of salt and iron, pushing them forward and - with a whump and a hum - the Galaxy Spinner makes the jump into hyperspace. "Oh Kriff..." Kisaiya leans back in the chair, her mouth pulling off to the side and then forming a frown, "KILO! I need a hug. Where are you, girl?"

Kae is well, yeah she's swearing up and down and well completely frothing at the mouth as the Ties damage the ship.. She's just about to shoot at some of them too, then the weapons turn off and lines draw out and well, yeah they're in hyperspace! It even takes Kae a while to calm down, and one of the droids closes the hatch to the turret well... Kae can still be heard, though what she's saying might be a bit muffled... After a few minutes, Kae is climbing out of the gun well, shakily, making her way to one of the tables and well sitting at it, sans chair... She pauses a moment,then well, she cries, maybe it's relief, or maybe she's upset about the trouble she got the two sisters in, probably a bit both but anyone in the room with her can hear the quiet sobbing.