Log:Resistance: Crucible Part I

Resistance: Crucible Part I

OOC Date: October 26, 2019
Location: Sienar-Janus Secret Research Facility, Indrexu Spiral
Participants: Tallissan Lintra, Karas Darkwing, Callax Dalso, Elrych Cometburn, Kryll Red as Dar Keedar, Ektor, Lofty, Poe Dameron, The Resistance

A space station in the middle of a vast nebula. Your mission: Fight through Crucible defenses, land 2 Courier Y-wings on the station, and hold out until the away team is finished. Then run like hell.

The secretive Sienar-Janus research facility known as the Crucible is the center of development and prototype testing for the deadly TIE drone project. Its location had eluded the best efforts of Resistance Intel for months, until a defecting engineer delivered the needed knowledge.

The news hadn't been promising.

In the depths of the vast nebula known as the Indrexu Spiral sat a heavily defended space station, with whole squadrons of fighters and a mighty Golan series space defense platform guarding the only stable hyperspace approach. The entire Resistance Fleet wouldn't be enough to hammer through that barrier, leading some to write off a raid, altogether.

But then someone had struck on the dubious idea of taking an *unstable* hyperspace route through the depths of the nebula, a course widely believed to be impassable. It would require pilots to spend entire days in their ships, charting microjumps through the nebula and inching toward the station to bypass the heaviest defenses. It would require a refueling tanker to accompany this risky strike force, as no fighters or shuttles had the fuel capacity to make so many consecutive jumps. And worst of all, there was the risk that a miscalculated jump could strand a pilot in the trackless expanse of the Spiral, forever.

So naturally, Black Squadron had volunteered.

Now, 27 hours later, with only scattered sleep in hyperspace along the way, they finally emerged behind the looming spindle-shaped station known as the Crucible, with the myriad gasses of the nebula blotting out nearly all the black of space, around them. Although the deadly bulk of the Golan platform is visible far beyond the Crucible, the raiders are safe from its guns, leaving only the complement and cannons of the Crucible itself to contend with. A half dozen TIE/x-1 Bizarro drones are executing intricate programmed maneuvers.

Poe Dameron's Black Leader, a T-85 X-Wing, streaks into existence at the annoying sound of the nav-computer warning. By the time Poe has turned the device down and yawned, he's looking at the facility behind a sun-visor on his helmet. He reaches forward to trigger his encrypted comms.

<<"All call signs, this is Black Leader; check in and plot an exit course in your fighters now. If you go critical here, we may lose you even with flares.">>

Poe follows his own advice and plots the course for exit, keeping that on stand by. "Yeah, I see them, buddy. This is going to be a nightmare." He answers a worried sounding BB-8. "Transmit all priority threat targets to the squadron. I'm taking us in." Poe throttles forward, the engines glowing a bright red as he sets a path ahead.

<<Black Five acknowledges, Black Leader. On your port wing, calculating.>> Exhaling, then breathing deeply through her nose, Captain Lintra battles the fatigue of multiple micro-jumps, "You heard the man, Fiver. Give me your best, baby. On the shiny credit when we punch in. Target acquisition on my left." For once Fiver has nothing sardonic to say. After touching the knot of her white scarf, verifying the clasp of her helmet, she touches the hyper control and the stars stream into multiple straight line converging on one. They jump.

Callax Dalso has a new mount. The sleek, heavily-armed escort fighter that he has been given, Black Nine where he once flew Ten, moves smoothly through space as he takes position in the formation. << Black Nine here, Leader, >> he says in his cool contralto, all business on the comms. << Acknowledged and calculating jump. >> Soon the course is calculated, and after a moment's closed-eyed meditation, he pulls the motivator lever.

But a new vessel takes time to get used to, especially when you'd been flying a bullet with angled wings the past few months; though weeks of simulator time have been booked on the E-wing to which he has been assigned, Black Nine's pilot still has ome issues divorcing his head from the rocket he owns to the merely very fast and maneuverable ship he has been assigned. But he is a professional, and he warms as he plots the course and leaps into hyperspace...all to the good, for the instability of the path and a few decimal places shy in his engineered brain nearly moors him in eternity when he approaches the mass shadows of the system at a strange angle. He's able to bring the ship into place for a smooth transition into realspace, but where he emerges? That he's not sure of. And so the guns are already hot when the cockpit chimes with the transition alarm, ready to see what trouble he's gotten himself into now...

Black 6 blurs into view after the long hyperspace jump. He didn't like that long trip at all but Karas just stretches and yawns in the cockpit of his fighter. His T-85 bristles for a fight, <<Black 6 reporting in.>> he calls into his comm. Karas has been been doing a lot of things on his own as of late but he wasn't missing out being with his squadmates. Hearing Poe, he quickly plots his exit vectors and hyper space jump as well. He moves into position as they close in, lining up with Black 5. "Alright Spark, I hope you got all of that." he hears his R2 unit tootle at him.

Upon getting the target info from Poe, "Alright Spark keep me updated, we have a bit of a record to keep." Karas chuckles at his droids protest stating that Karas has a record that has been overshadowed by everyone. Shaking his head, Karas feeds power into the engines and begins to move in with the others.

Elrych Cometburn is staying quiet as Black Squadron enters system. He brings up the targeting computer and flips through the contacts. He waits for.priority.targets to start streaming in, picks one, and moves in. "Get on that exit calc Eggsy."

Flying his Y-wing courier, calamari pilot Dar Keedar is hyper focused on his astrogation as they fly through the unstable hyperspace route deep in the nebula. Poe's orders come through the comms, and he completes his exit course on the fly with what to an observer would look like a casual ease. <<White two, confirmed Black Leader, exit vector set.>> Keedar does another check over all of his flight systems, making sure everything is prepared for when they come out of hyperpsace.

The Black Squadron strike fighters accompany a pair of Courier Y-wings, whose job it is to land on the Crucible in the middle of a dogfight and deploy the away teams. Each quartet of army and Intel agents are tasked with locating, uploading, and then destroying the station computer core. Just another day in the Resistance.

<<Arright, FINALLY,>> Ektor grouses over the comms from the cockpit of the lead courier Y-wing. <<Black Seven- uh, White One? Whatever I am, here I am, yeah?>> Signaling the younger pilot in White 2, <<Dar, you made it! Good charting- Lookit the big brain on this kid, yeah? Listen, hang a bit behind me on approach, understand? I'll pull fire, and then you come dancing in a second after.>>

All in unison, the half dozen Bizarro drones turn and accelerate toward the newly arrived Resistance fightercraft. A second wave launches from the Crucible- twelve more drones launches with the push of some panicked button.

Poe reaches up and pulls the lever to open his S-Foils. <<"Black Squadron, form an escort in front of our Y-Wings. These drones are targeting our White Wing. Xer, you and your boy go evasive if it gets too hot. We'll try to clear the way.">>

Poe increases his speed, taking the spearhead of the formation. "BB-8, scan that station and run a separate detection scan to see if the turrets are on the same frequency these drones are. Priority targeting seems to be something they focus on; maybe you can slice in through that freq, and adjust the target parameters on those turrets." While Poe is saying all of this, he angles his craft to intercept, blasting a TIE in the first pass. He passes by the resulting slag, spreading the fire of the explosion.

They flash into real space with the targeting computer yammering, acquisition showing six lovely drones coming out to greet them in an unfriendly way. "I have that, Fiver. We are going to boom the second drone on our starboard." The X-Wing's foils snap open and they roll and drop making their profile harder to target. <<Acknowledged, Black leader>> she replies, simultaneously twin lasers fire red streaks into the second target which disintegrates shredding pieces of TIE fighter in their path. Rising out of the debris path they hurdle towards the station.

Leaping back into realspace is a bone-jarring affair, but Callax manages to pull it off easily; the sight of the incoming drone fighters causes his long fingers to grip the stick with new determination, and he punches ahead to make escort formation with the squadron. << Black Nine, here, >> he says as the fighter settles into positon along the couriers, doing just what it was in fact designed to do. << Engaging incoming drones. >>

Black Nine's heavy guns open fire to sooner do the words leave his lips, lances of uncommonly bright crimson striking one of the machines - but the guns are heavier than he's used to, and the timing is still a question he hasn't /quite/ gotten the answer for. Thus does his target take a blow but its shields hold, unlike the mushrooming vessel that Poe has slan outright. "Right," Callax mutters to himself as he rolls his shoulders best as he can in the cramped confines of the fighter's cockpit. "Let's try that again, shall we?"

As the Bizzaro Drones move in to intercept them, <<May the Force be with us.>> Karas says into his comms as he targets one of the enemy Drones and fires. Red laser bolts stream from his wing mounted blaster cannons, though only two hit, he sees that they impact against the shields of the fighter. <<Keeping on the one I just attacked. Double up on fighters if need to, we need to take these guys out fast>> Karas calls into his comms as the S-Foils of his X-Wing opens.

Elrych Cometburn still hadn't been able to take down one of these TIE droids, and despite how clumbsy they might be they had a good maneuvering rate. He fires as soon as he gets a tone. Its a lucky shot that just splashed off the shields. "What donyou mean you cant calc out of here. That's literally your one job, man" To a protest from eggsy.

Coming out of hyperspace into almost an immediate combat flight, Keedar watches the x-wings break forward to engage, and then when one of them scores solid hits on a target, he breaks down and to the left, bringing the wounded target up in his scopes. Firing, he hits the TIE droid and does some hull damage but doesn't put it all the way out of the fight. <<That one is still in play, but he's feeling it.>>

<< I hear you, Pretty Boy,>> Ektor grins back to Poe's instruction, guiding the bulky fightercraft into an attack vector, and hammering the sixth X-1 with precise cannonfire that pierces the shields and non-cannon bearing ball cockpit, detonating it. He avoids the light turbolaser blast of another drone with visible ease, guiding the craft through a roll, as he answers, <<No worries, yeah? Easy as it- WHOA,>> He lost focus and took another blast to the forward shields. <<Still no worries! Okay, fewer worries, I got this.>> Hollering over hios shoulder, "Relax back there! Come on, you're distraacting me, or something- Genius, fix that shield, yeah?"

BB-8 announces that he has control of the turrets for now, and Poe chuckles. "Good work, pal. Keep an eye on them; they may have noticed." Black Leader is seen intercepting the next squadron by opening fire on their lead. He shatters the shield and leaves the exterior scorched with carbon scoring, then angles off for another pass. <<"Keep clearing the way, Black Squadron. Be advised, we have bombers closing as well.">> Poe glances out the starboard access of his canopy, watching the fight and preparing an approach back into it.

Karas isn't letting up on the TIE Drone he hit the last time, rolling with it as it tries to lose him. The T-85 rolls and dives as it tries to esablish a lock, Karas isn't allowoing this damn fighter to get away from him. He knows that he's spent too much time on this damn drone already, once he has a hint of a lock he fires damaging it now more than he had the last time.

Forging ahead, Lintra flies below Poe from the stations elliptic. "Punch that, Fiver." She hits the right rudder which rolls them to starboard in a feint that brings her in line with TIE that Poe just winged badly. <<Black Five, finished that>> The boards show eleven viable targets. "We never like it easy, do we. Let's do it."

It isn't long that Callax finds the timing; a slower rhythm, but with a strong beat, Callax turns the nose of his fighter to the ailing drone he had just hit and fires again. This time, the trio of heavy bolt meet up in the middle, spearing the ship at an angle through hull and wing alike, and with the alchemy of violence the drone is transformed into a cloud of gas and flames.

"Now then," Callax murmurs, preparing to meet the next wave. "Much better."

Elrych Cometburn flies. He tries to shoot, it really doesn't work. Barely misses. He keeps at it, finally his droid aknowledging there is a course set out of here.

Breaking up high after fighting at his initial target, and hearing someone else over comms finish it off, Keedar breaks over the top of the combat sphere and dives back down onto another TIE drone that had recently been attacked. Firing his lasers at it, he leads the target right into his blasts and splashes it. <<White two, another down.>> Keedar accelerates down through the engagement, breaking left and back towards the way they engaged, preparing to come back around and engage another target.

Ektor brings the Courier back onto target as they break through the initial screen of drones. A tight grin, another salvo of nose cannons, and the Tionese pilot checks on White 2. <<Arright, Dar: stick with me, we're starting our approach on the station. Gotta get the angle just right or we gonna bounce right off the shields..>> The Y-wing Courier rocks again, raising an alarm claxon to warn of failing shields. "That's normal," he lies over his shoulder to the quartet of passengers. "Just a normal 'everything is fine' alert. Say, Genius, how many of the gun drones is chasing us?" A flat honk answers him. "ALL of em?? What's the matter with the other guys?!"

Lofty is crammed in the back of Ektor's courier Y-Wing, which is like an uncomfortable Koensayr shuttle of some sort. He and the rest of the entry team are in their Rebel armor, though Lofty just wears a helmet and a vest in puke green camoflage color. "Oof. We is there yet?" he asks Ektor while sipping from a can of refreshing FizzyGlug. The shields fail and his can goes flying, spilling all over the entire. "Oh no!"

<<"Follow our objective beneath the shields of the station. If these droids follow, they may splash on the shields.">> Poe angles Black Leader ahead of White Leader. <<"Nice shot, Tallie!">>--

So begins the attack run, and Poe triggers the shields to focus front for the moment of impacting the shields. Timing is everything with these, and passing through them can be certain death if not done right. He tapers the speed, closes his S-Foils, and passes through just as sweat trailed down his cheek. <<"I'm throught. White Wing, follow us in. We'll clear the path.">> Poe yanks the lever to open the S-Foils once again and flies along the surface of the station. His first attack splinters a turret tower from the station's exterior, generating an explosion that the X-Wing is made to dodge in a practiced weave. Poe glances out his canopy to look for Tallie, trusting to see her on his wing.

Lintra snaps them into a roll so sudden that she will find bruises on each shoulder on their return, sipping breaths through the press of the G's: <<On your six, Black Leader>> She talks to her droid through clenched teeth. "We pass or we splash, Fiver. Shields forward. Let's do this!" Inside the shield, she guns for the opposing turret to Poe's, slagging it on the initial shot. A vivid fast image of Poe through the canopy sees their X-Wings part, though she knows she can't be seen, she makes a thumbs up.

The glow of his target's destruction is not yet faded before Callax aims his headsman's axe anew. Swinging around to meet the next wing of drones, Callax leaves the thrilling heroics to the professionals and goes out to play butcher. His eyes dart across the cockpit displays, pupils stretched into goatlike bars for maximum range of vision and his breath carefully under control.

One of the drones is brought into his scope, and the rhythm of death is played again - and under his fingers the red lances blow out the drone's shields, leaving it at his mercy at the next burst. Or so Callax hopes. << Black Nine, continuing to engage drones. >> Lots of meat to be prepared in this frosty abbatoir tonight, after all.

Karas hears the order and he is already moving in that direction but as he does he sees one of the damaged TIE's trying to manuver for a shot. Karas can't do anything easy and his own fashion, he kicks up his speed chasing the TIE. As he does this he does a barrel roll as he fires. He flips the switch to close his S-Foils because well he isn't wanting to paste himself into the shields. Red blaster bolts strike home on the Drone desstroyiing it. <<Splash 1.>> he calls as he slows his speed so that he can pass through the shields as well.

Elrych Cometburn keeps up the chase noting the new detatchment of TIEs launching but he really isn't making much of a dent, the rest of the Squadron vastly out performing him. Its probably the sleep deprivation. "Come on you useless turd. If you can't take something out tonight then at least hand the major your resignation if you make it out alive."

<<White two, confirm White Leader, on your tail>> And then Keedar brings the Y-wing around to trail Ektor's right wing and a couple of slots back to give him room on his approach. He calls back to his passengers, "Strap yourselves in tight everyone. We're making our approach now." he focuses completely on the approach, trying to make this a smooth entry to get the team onto the station in one pass, but maybe he sees something wrong, or he gets paranoid, <<White two, Aborting pass!>> he pulls the Y-wing up hard, attempting to break out of the run, the Y-wing attempts to come out of it, but he knows he can't break off at this speed, and quickly moves to jettison the boarding crew riding behind him in a last hope they can be saved. He closes his eyes, and says quietly as the party is jettisioned and the nose of his Y-Wing impacts the shields in what seems to be slow motion to him, "I'm sorry." and then there is one main explosion, followed by a second. Then just debris scattered off the shielding.

Ektors Courier rumbles as the craft passes through the deflector shield, a tight grin as he returns, <<Stick with me, kid, we're almost in->> He snaps aloud without looking backward at Lofty, "Was that you, Fluffy? Did you rekking SPILL in my-" Further browbeating is forgotten as Dar desperately announces he's breaking off his approach, <<Nonono, you're going too->> the young pilot's craft comes apart in a fireball on the surface of the station, followed in close succession by a pair of X-1 drones, which also crash and burn attempting the complex pursuit. Ektor's shields collapse under fire from the pursuing TIEs, sending cockpit lights to flickering, but the tough old wishbone holds together. His old commentary in reflection of the past handful of tragic seconds is, <<..damnit.>>

Poe listens to the last broadcast of another of his pilots and has the fiery urge to punch his console, but now isn't the time. They had a mission. <<"Stay focused everyone. I know it's hard right now, but eyes on the prize. Xer, dropping back to cover your tail, buddy.">>

Poe didn't see Tallie's thumbs up, but seeing her there made him nod. He slapped the lever forward to close his S-Foils and angled his nose up while switching his repulsors on with a loud grunt.

The X-Wing whipped back as if it had put on its handbrake. Ektor passed, then the two chasing him, and Poe growled while shoving the throttle forward. His gloved hand reaches up to trigger the repulsor lifts off in quick succession, then lowered to pull the lever to open his S-Foils again. The speed of his craft allowed him to close within the maximum effective range and his eyes narrowed a second before his gloved hand ticked from the tension of squeezing the trigger.

<<"Splash one, Tion.">> Poe says, swaying casually with the fighter to avoid another destructive blast.

"Objectives, objectives, objectives," Lintra chants to herself as she sorts through the targeting options. Fiver blats at her. "I know, I know, right? On Tion's tail, let's get the other one." Running over the surface of the station, mouth dry in the effort to match her flying with Poe's sudden drop in speed, she lets the targets out run her then lights the second TIE up with two solid hits. But the TIE is still flying despite heavy "Reorient. We have to let that team get on station." A hard turn brings her around to flying just behind Poe.

Lofty's special edition Jogan Fruit Blast FizzyGlug can rattles around the passenger compartment of Ektor's Y-Wing courier. "How long to land? Where shields?" he warbles at Ektor. The team is gearing up for a 'hot landing' already, and Lofty is no exception. He cocks the draw cord of his bowcaster. The orbs on either side of his bowcaster's barrel activate with a faint ZUMMMMM sound as their magnetic fields align, preparing to accelerate a bowcaster quarrel to supersonic speeds.

With one of the wishbones down, Callax punches the E-wing's thrust to max, aiming to catch up and remove the ships trying to clip Ektor's hellbound ticket. << White Leader, on your six. I'll try and shake him off of you. >> He tries to set the rhythm again, firing the heavy guns - but these are unfortunately dodged at the last minute by the pinwheeling drone. << ...eventually. Sit tight. >>

Karas is able to pass through the shields, as he does, he sees a Drone coming in to attack Poe and that isn't right. Moving in and engaging the S-Foils, his X-Wing fires off rapid laser bursts in rapid succession. One shot cleave through the right solar panel as another punches through the center of the cockpit destroying the TIE Drone. Breaking hard to the left, <<Engaging remaining fighters>> he calls into his comms.

Elrych Cometburn turns towards the TIE bombs as the last of the drones are finished off. His mental attitude isn't great as he whitnesses the ywing go up and the a bare miss as the bomb out maneuvers his attack. He was too frustrated to even say anything snarky or complain to eggsy.

<<Yeah. Yay for our side,>> Ektor returns to Poe's announcement of clearing one of his tails. "Fluffy, if you had a mouth that was capable of shutting, I'd be yelling at you to shut it right now. Hang on." <<Going in hot. Thanks for the cover, will let you know when the ground team- OH HOLY DREK, are you KIDDING me??>> The cause for his latest exclamation remains a mystery as the Y-wing vanishes into one of the Crucible's hangars and thus vanishes from the scopes of Black Squadron.

Gloved hands gripping the throttle hard, she frowns at Ektor's last exclamation. Fiver beeps and an update on the squadron's status comes on screen showing Poe being followed close. She watches his shields flare and then the 'the Poe, they know' pulls out of the firefight in the ascendant. "Poe, could fly a bantha, Fiver."

"Here it comes, Fiver." They fly at right angles to each other, Lintra chasing the second TIE landing solid hits but it flies on with shields nearly down but still fighting…

Following the murderous flow of things, Callax executes a smooth course to intercept another of the TIEs; though he has the beat, and pours death aplenty after the ship, it is light enough to jank through the storm, even as Callax dodges the fire of another in a way even more graceful. At least, tonight, the stick is with him, if the guns be not.

Adjusiting himself in his pilot seat. Karas allows himself a slight moment and as he does, he climbs and banks hard to his right and as he does, the TIE that he's been chasing goes up, oh he did kill that one. Oh well. He spots another fighter, <<Alright, I hear you Poe. Black Squadron let's do it!>> he calls over his comm and dives in over head at one of the Beta's. As he does this, he fires hoping to destroy it, but only managing to score a hit on the TIE. Still when it begins trying to run, the T-85 gives chase.

The corellian Jedi, who couldn't fly a bantha because he was aparently that bad, had decided he had enough. "Kriff these stupid drones... they're a distraction anyways." At least that would be the excuse he'd tell himself as he pulled back hard on the stick and brough his T-85 around for a pass on a Beta Flight TIE. His bots rips through the shielding as he gains an advantage. He passes by the TIE as it peels off. "About kriffing time..."

Beta Squadron can see their reinfircenents drawing near in the form of 6 Alpha Squadron TIEs (2 special forces models, and 4 line fighters), and they attack the Resistance craft with high confidence, but cannot replicate the success of their initial assault, failing to deal further damage, and losing one of their number in the bargain. Yet, as was warned, drek is about to get heavy.

The fight is just getting heated, and with one still training his stern, he felt the overwhelming pressure of this sudden pincered ambush. Poe angles his nose up again, killing his speed and engaging the repulsors once more. It's at an inopportune moment, and the TIE chasing and shooting has a split second to react, and does so by going straight up.

Poe slams his throttle forward and deactivates the repulsors once more. Black Leader hits high speeds almost immediately and Poe is planted back against his seat. When the TIE is within range, he engages with two vollies that conclude with the TIE going up in flames.

<<"Splash another. Engaging the SFs flying with Alpha.">> Black Leader breaks off then, squaring off with one and slamming cannon fire against its side. He flew by, angling about to get a sight picture for another pass. BB-8 announces the state of the shields and Poe grins. "Keep it up, BB-8. We're still in this fight, buddy!"

<<Splash one>> Lintra announces in an abstracted voice. Twice she they had flown straight for each other exchanging fire. "Fiver, get that fix on him." She is already pulling hard to port to give chase to another one of the Alpha Tie's who also decides that they are not giving the station up without a fight. "Just drek him." Three hits is not enough to take it down, she leaves him with shields flaring and does a roll over to return for to finish him off.

Explosions all around, indeed, and Callax is busy hurtling through space trying to pick out another of the TIEs to fire upon - but between Poe and Tallie, that list is getting /way/ shorter. "Right, then, my darlings," he mutters softly to himself, finally getting into position behind one of the rampant TIEs, "Let's see how this works for you." Again he fires, and again he fails to hit the mark - but only by a few meters, and the pilot of Callax's embattled target has a few stolen breaths to try and make up for in the moment.

The fighting is getting intense and with all the laser fire going on, one could get very confused, but still Karas is keeping on the TIE he had targetted from before. The damn fighter was able to weave through his shots effortlessly and he was looking like a kreffing jerk right now. Still he wasn't going to let this nerfed brain TIE pilot get away from him.

Back in garbage land, while the rest of the squadron is doing advanced maneuvers, Elrych is coming about to take one last shot at the TIE he had beaten down before. He gets a quick tone and without even a smidgen of hesitation, unleshes his quad linked laser bolts. They slam into it and the FO fighter explodes. "Kriff you..." He mutters to himself, <<"Splash One, Twelve">> he announces over the comms as he starts cycling through contacts on his targeting computer.

The sheer numbers of drones have given way to a spreading debris field and a sharper, more compact dogfight as the crack pilots of Alpha Squadron trade cannonades with the Resistance's elites. Hopefully, within the station there has been no catastrophe, and the embattled pilots will not be waiting forever...