Log:Resistance: Hammer and the Anvil

Hammer and the Anvil

OOC Date: February 16, 2019
Location: Naboo
Participants: Dann Lodrish (NPC run by Merek), Ektor, Elrych Cometburn, Finn (NPC), Lofty, Miri Sakir, Poe Dameron, Rey, Sar Yavok, Tallissan Lintra, The Resistance

The mission briefing had been intense and detailed, making use of the Renegade's conference room. A full fleet deployment, the Renegade battle group (five capital ships with 22 fighters flying support, in all) will enter the Calamari System in a synchronized hyperspace jump, chained to the operation flagship RAF Renegade's NavComp. No individual calculations, it was explained; arriving in perfect unison was essential. A hologram had displayed the battle plan as it was explained: The fleet would emerge from hyperspace an estimated 500,000 kilometers away from the planet Dac, which was orbited by a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer. Black, Gold, Red, Blue, and Green Squadrons would create a picket line against enemy squadrons, while the capital ships formed a defensive perimeter around the Warhammer, which will immediately begin charging its primary weapon.

"Protect the Warhammer at all costs, until it can fire. If that ship is lost, immediately retreat; without the Acolyte Cannon, the battle group stands no chance against a Resurgent-class warship," was how the mission was outlined.

The hyperspace jump goes off without complication. The frigates Renegade and Merciful streak into real-space out in front, the corvette Survivor and the bulk carrier Flurry in the second line, just ahead of the Calamari light-cruiser Warhammer. On the bridge of the Renegade, its Barabel Captain orders, in hissing Standard <<Thiz is Renegade. All wingz, report in.>>

Still far outside weapons range, the sinister profile of a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer breaks orbit of a blue-green planet, vomiting out TIE fighters by the squadron as the dagger-point of its prow is slowly turned toward the quintet of Resistance capital ships.

Appearing beneath the Capital ship formation with a blue streak is Black Leader manned by Poe Dameron. His faithful droid companion and pal BB-8 is anchored in the socket behind the fighter's canopy. Poe initiates a cruising speed taking the lead in the formation of fighters, angling them close to the belly of the Renegade to emerge within the forward visual scan range of the fleet. At the transmission from the Renegade, Poe reaches forward to activate his encrypted communications response. <<"Black Leader standing by.">>

Black Leader's engines are bright red, and his craft smoothly navigates ahead forming a defiant defensive line, a tactic that mirrored the older Rebel Alliance. "I know, buddy. Seems like every where we turn, there's another TIE squadron waiting for us. Stay sharp, back there, alright?"

Merek was on the Renegade, to watch as the ships move to place, working like any member of the crew would be. But he isn't the one that will be in the pilot's seat today, instead it is the rookie pilot Dann Ladrish, who has put him self into the seat of one of the many X-Wings that will be on escort to assist the Squads. Dann does all his pre-flight checks, while he speaks to his squad, "Ready," he says.

<<Black 3, standing by,>> comms the voice of Lt. Colonel Sar Yavok, sitting snug in the cockpit of a fighter for the first time in a few months. He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss the leg room of the Jawa right about now. "Rolie, keep your eyeball open for them eyeballs, alright?" he asks of his R2 unit who chirps in acknowledgement. "I should probably learn binary at some point," Sar muses.

Routine as coming out of hyperspace has become over the years, Tallie's heart still speeds as they make the transition. She pushes through the stomach flipping disorientation enough to focus on the scans. <Black Five, group leader. Green.> she checks in as she begins flight checks after reentry. "Fiver - bring up scans. Where are the rings?" She narrows her eyes leaning forward over the scans. "Weird, weird, weird. What are they not telling us. This isn't Mon Calamari!" After flipping open the com, she hesitates, <Black Leader. Ahhh, it looks a bit different out here. Do you copy?> "Oh, Fiver. This is...as paranoid as they get. Bets on the system? Starts with an N."

<<Black 4, standing by.>> Karas calls into his comms. Hands moving deftly along the controls of the snub fighter, Karas looks upon the scene with a bit of trepidation. It's wierd for them to be using a heavy weapon like this, but then again it's like the General said. She's fought over and over against weapons like this, it was about time they fought back with one. Knowing his orders, Black 4 moves into position.

S-Foils still closed keeping the controls steady and using the speed of the X-Wing to help get them into position. Karas glances out of his cockpit at the others members of his squadron and the other squadrons. <<May the Force be with all of us.>> he calls out to everyone as he gets ready.

The Millennium Falcon had been called upon again specifically by Leia, because of its resilience and powerful quad cannons. Rey, Finn and other Resistance members were assigned to the ship's crew today, the cockpit seats filled with people as the light freighter was originally intended it to be... plus with all the quirks the Falcon comes with its nice to have more hands aboard it to take care of any said quirks should they arise.

When they come out of Hyperspace, Rey doesn't even think to look to the planet in-system, her focus is on their orders and all their ships coming out of system with them.

<<Black Twelve, in-system and ready.>> Rey chimes in over the comms, she glances over to her two gunners and nods to them. Finn raising up from his seat rush back to take a gun-turret. "Just like old times." He says to Rey with a sly grin, who gets one in return from the Jakkuan native at the helm. "No locking up." She quips back at her oldest friend before her eyes return to the front viewport.

<<"Lead... this is Eleven... pretty sure thats Rori over there. I hope there wasn't a computer glitch.">> Says El over comms, his music playing in the background. He had saw the same thing Tallie did. Being a smuggler he had been to Naboo plenty of times. He locks his sfoils in attack positiom and takes a calming breath reaching out to the force.

Lofty finishes off a can of BubbleZap and crushes it, tossing it on the floor of the Millennium Falcon's cockpit as the hyperjump ends. He lifts a massive paw and flips on the stabilizers, then goes about the co-pilot's job of angling a deflector shield. His lower set of eyes blink slowly as he peers out the viewport. "This don't look like Dac system. Too many moon," he warbles at Rey through his snoot. Once the enemy's alert fighters start launching the Talz stands up and lumbers to the access corridor, climbing up to the topside quad turret and beginning its powering sequence. He uses his claws to delicately place a comm set on his head. There's a porg on the AG-2G quad laser cannon's control stick, and it squawks when Lofty swats it off.

With Black 7 dead and still unreplaced, Ektor finds himself once again in the armored cockpit of an old Y-wing. <<Gold Squad is good, yeah?>> Ektor mutters, voicing off comms to his new astromech, "Hey, T- ahh. Droid. Drek, what's your name, again?" answered with an indignant bleep, the Tionese pilot mutters, "G-13, sure. Right, whatever it is, throw shields double-front for the first pass, then balance them out once we get in deep, yeah? And Mekil-" he looks over his left shoulder to address his gunner, "Just.. you do you, yeah?" The new astromech offers a warble as Ektor flexes the fingers of his stiff right wrist in the flight glove.. <<Arright, Wishbones. Fall in and lets blow some drek up, yeah?>> The rookies in Golds 2 and 3 spread out to either side of the lead Y-wing as the nacelles flare to orange life.

The Renegade transmits, <<Light the torch, Resistance; fight them to the knife and may the Force be with uz,>> as targeting computers register no fewer than six full squadrons of TIE/fo craft on intercept course at maximum speed. Turning aside to his bridge crew, Captain Hellmund bids "Clear the flight deck, prepare to receive damaged fighters, divert half the power of turbolasers into shieldz. Point-defense gunnerz may seek prey as they find it." Across the fleet, similar orders are being given as the capital ships watch for the results of the opening joust between opposing starfighters.

The odds were always against them, but Poe never looked at the numbers. That was Jessika's thing. Reaching out calmly to bring up his shields, Poe lets out a slow sigh and glances along the line. The squadrons were set up in a manner that was to force friendly lines to go too thin, or get boxed in. Poe's craft takes an immediate bank to port, and his engines expand with speed. <<"Our mission remains the same regardless of where we are. We protect the Warhammer at all costs. -- These squadrons are attempting box us in, or spread us out. Their approach is uniform and formationed, but if hone our attack to one side, we'll encourage the fighter screen to collapse one way making it easier for cannon fire to chew them up and turn this into a hornet's nest.">>

Poe's S-foils open once he's in weapons range. <<"This is a big bar fight. Our mission is to grab everyone by their collar and punch them in the face. Call your shots and targets. Let's do this!">> Black Leader rocks from side to side. <<"Black Leader engaging Alpha two and moving down the line of squadrons to disrupt their flight pattern.">>

Dann checks on his comlink and speaks to Red Leader, "Copy," he tells him, when he's ordered to take the fight to Gamma. He moves that way with his X-Wing and takes a shot at one of the TIEs, managing to take its shields all the way down with three cannons. The Rookie moves to take a position to follow while the S-Foils trail lines through space.

Throttling up, Sar's eyes move to the sensors. It's all...very strange to the Old Man. He was used to flying Clone Wars and GCW-era ships, so all of the fancy accoutrements that the T-85 has to offer are foreign to him. He even missed the cup holder that would have allowed him to bring along his own can of Jedi Juice.

<<Engaging Gamma 1. It's a miss,>> the man comms, his shots flying wide as the enemy TIE whips out of the way.

"Bar fight," Tallie repeats with a humorless grin. "Fiver we are duking it out like those old space pirate movies, let's get a move on then." The four engines light bright blue as she swerves to port following Black Leader. <My mark, Alpha 3, Black Leader> she reports, then settles further into her seat as they move into the engagement.

<<Going after Alpha Leader.>> Karas calls. The s-foils on Black 4 engages and separates into its X pattern. Carrying the speed with him, <<Everyone, heads on a swivel and cover one another.>> he calls. Having adjusted his controls so that they sit just a bit down in the cockpit, Karas has a lot more control. Quickly as he, Black Leader and Black 5 move to engage Alpha Squadron, the sleek snub fighter pulls in quickly doing a wing over and firing on Alpha Leader who was able to dodge and give Karas the finger, "Thats the last time you give me that." Karas says as Black 4 breaks left and begins chasing his query.

<<"Copy that lead...">> Elrych pushes the throttle hard slamming into Alphas screen his quad lasers splasing lightly against a TIE. He comes about looking for his target once again. He turns up his tunes, the force coarsing through him.

<<Wolf Four on Beta Three>> comes Miri's voice over the comms as she tangles with the enemy TIE. She chews the fruity gum in her mouth, focusing on the berry flavor as the G-forces slam her. Whatever gets you through another dogfight.

Finn goes with Lofty down the turret corridor and gives him a light fist bump to the furry one's shoulder. "Come on, Lofty. We got this!" He encourages the big Talz before he takes the ladder to his turret and gets setup.

Inside the cockpit, Rey watches her fellow squadron mates take to action, the flashing of weapon fire illuminating the interior of the Falcon's cockpit. <<On Alpha One.>> She says over the comms.

Finn takes control of his turret grips and sets into super-serious-concentration mode. "Here we go!" And when the Falcon spins around and a TIE fighter crosses his pathway his cannons light up!

Lofty brings the Millennium Falcon's topside quad turret to bear, using the pedals to move it left-right and the control sticks for vertical movement. When Rey brings a TIE into the 'wedge' zone where both the top and bottom turrets can fire, the Talz takes Finn's lead and tracks Alpha One, firing in near-unison to obliterate the TIE's shields and smash its unprotected engines. The TIE fighter is left helpless as the Falcon zooms past. "Hit!" he warbles excitedly over the comm channel. He belches up some of the carbonation from his soda pop and it tickles his proboscis.

The opening clash of fighters goes rather well for the Resistance, given the significant disparity in numbers. Though dozens of TIEs swarmed past the outnumbered snubfighters and roared on to threaten the capital ships.

Ektor brings the ponderous light bomber around, landing a solid hit on one of the nimble TIEs and avoiding damage in turn, while hollering, "No- Mekil, don't shoot at the same one I am, yeah? Shoot at ANOTHER one so we keep more of em busy, yeah?" The new droid honks, prompting an annoyed "Well thanks Genius, yes that is some thing the other Wishbones oughta hear. Send it, already!"

Poe is flying like a madman, moving through the lines of TIEs as they fly, disrupting their approach thanks to the focused attack of the Resistance squadrons. The fight is happening everywhere and the glares of the laser bolts being traded light up a portion of his face revealing a really focused expression. His craft takes a hit, and Poe's pursuit encourages him away from the main fray whilst evading fire.

Black Leader's S-foils close giving him a much needed boost in speed, and it's Epsilon squadron he's engaging now. He opens fire at E2, trying his best to draw the squadron off from the frigates. Even though his shot misses, the intended target has adjusted course. Poe is already evading at this point setting an intercept course for Omega. "Come on, come on. We just need more time." He says to himself just as BB-8 relays that his shields have recovered from the earlier hit.

Dann takes cannon shots from one of the TIEs on him, and it looks like smoke is coming from one of the ports. The droid begins to work to repair it, "Thanks," the man says to him, while he brings his X-Wing around to take another shot towards the TIE. It avoids, but at least he is still in combat.

Jerking his head around to check over his shoulder, Sar sees the duo of TIEs gunning for him. Jamming the foil lever forward, his S-Foils slap closed and the mans kicking in a solitary rudder pedal as tips the yoke forward and to the right. Whipping the X-Wing out of danger, Sar's back on the tail of another TIE. The S-Foils snap back open and light up once more, sending a flurry of bolts towards Poe's target. <<I'm with you, Black Leader.>>

Alpha 2's shields had flared with a hit from her earlier. Now, she really has their attention."They just love us! Look we have two on our dance card," Tallie's voice is strained as she closes the wings and nearly stalls them out as they drop out from under Alpha 3 and 4's line of fire and pulls into a large loop. Canny pilots in Alpha, they split going to either side of her, flying evasively, she wings Alpha 3 and watches her shields flare and protect her from the green lance of fire that Alpha 4 zaps her with.

"Mother of all galaxies. Look at Poe go! Fiver into Epsilon we go, give Three on my mark. She pulls back hard on the throttle and punches them towards the line, cannons blazing, they have an immediate hit, Epsilon 3's shields failing spectacularly and the fuselage taking damage.

Having missed the first time, Black 4 corkscrews through space. Knowing he would probably be best where he is, still Karas jinks left than right as he manages to break the locks of two other TIEs from Alpha squadron. The bright red glow from his engines are easily seen, and he quickly vectors from his current position as he misses yet again.

Elrych Cometburn rocks as his xwing takes a hard hit. One he didn't see coming while maneuvering out of the fire of another attacking craft. "Kid work on thos shields." The droid hoes about his work with an affirmative chirp meanwhile he bares down on A7... even before getting a lock, he fires. The craft explodes in a violent ball of orange and yellow before fizzling out into debries. <<"Lead... Eleven. Splash one Alpha Seven.">>

Miri's next shots don't connect, and she swears under her breath. Henibi beeps at her helpfully, but Miri waves one hand at her to try and shut her up so she can focus. "I'm just staying alive and wasting their time, Honeybee. You heard the brief. If they're not on our big guys, we're good." So that's how she flies: like a mosquito, buzzing in their ears, darting in and out of enemy range like a lunatic.

The Millennium Falcon whirls around in a fast circle, zipping through the green streaks of TIE Fighter lasers that are pining for a piece of the old freighter. Rey keeps her eyes locked forward and she tries to stay mindful of her gunners, she knows they're both on Alpha One, so the Falcon tries to keep that target at a readily available angle for them.

When Finn sees the TIE Squad Leader come back around after Lofty's strikes against it, he squeezes the trigger on his turret controls and lights it up! The TIE is ripped to shreds in a ball of molten slag!

"Wooooo!" Finn shouts triumphantly over the headset. "Good team work, Lofty, my friend!" He shouts back over his shoulder to the Talz.

Lofty grips his turret's vertical control sticks for dear life as Rey goes pirouetting through a maelstrom of green laser fire, bringing the 'Falcon out unscathed somehow. He pivots to line up a fatal shot on the disabled Alpha One but Finn does the coup-de-grace. "Nice shoot!" One of the TIEs, Alpha Two, is coming in fast for another strafing run. Pressing his feet hard into the left pedal the Talz swings his turret round and, with the sensor grid flashing madly he drills a quad laser blast into the TIE.

"Don't you try that tired old Tallon roll on me, Hutt-sucker," Ektor sneers as he anticipates the maneuver of Delta Leader, placing a pair of cannon blasts squarely through the enemy's cockpit. It becomes the third TIE to die in the expanding dogfight. Black Squadron's bold gambit has drawn most of Alpha and Epsilon squadrons away from the capital ships. The handful of other fighters in the black have occupied Beta, Gamma, and Delta, though at cost.

As the Resistance vessels begin firing turrets at the swarming TIEs, the Warhammer broadcasts, <<Progress: fifty percent charge.>> The looming RSD Fallcrest moves at it's slow but ominous pace toward the little fleet.

Dann's ship takes a few more shots while the shields are down then, and it seems like smoke is trailing from one of the wings fully. He isn't able to take a good shot though his droid seems to manage the shields alright, "Red 2, requesting some assistance," he calls to his squad or anyone else on the comlink also.

<<"Copy Black 3.">> Poe says in response to Sar, who has followed him to Epsilon squadron. Poe's focus was toward Omega though, and despite having a tail, he's managed to close the distance. Poe only has a second to react and engage, but he's hit from the stern just as he takes the shot, and it's rattled his craft and made his shot go wide. "Damn it!"

Black Leader comes about now, intent to engage Omega squadron if only to draw their attention away from the Capital ships. <<"Black Leader engaging Omega Squadron.">> He calls over comms, just alerting the other squadrons where he's feathered his nest for now. He adjusts course, flying along the exterior of the Renegade and twisting low. BB-8 informs him that his shields have been restored, but Poe gives no response. He's angling for a second attack. <<"All call signs, focus your attacks on their squadron leaders. Lop the heads off their leadership and give them a fear factor.">>

Gliding the T-85 out of the way of another duo of TIE attacks, Sar shuffles a bit in his seat, eyes flicking down to the scanner readouts. Spying his previous target, Yavok makes a few course adjustments and presses in on his firing nubs. A myriad of bolts tear into the enemy fighter's hull, but the eyeball keeps goin'.

"Dancing, dancing, dancing," she sings to herself as the three TIEs light out after her. Fiver screeches as she comes back around to starboard as though running for the protection of the Resistance capitol ships. The three fighters spread out behind her making it harder to fire. In frustrations she watches the red bolts miss both of her targets. <Black leader, Epsilon and Alpha engaged.>

Green laser fire steaks in towards Black 4, the T-85 X-Wing dives and rolls but only one of the blast from the two TIEs from Alpha Squadron thats now dogging Black 4. Grunting within the cockpit, Karas keeps his interia compensators turned down so that he can bare the pressure building up against him. Pulling back hard on the control yoke, and using the vector thrusters Black 4 spins within the space he's in as well as keeping his speed. Karas presses the trigger and rapid fire shots spear into Alpha 6. Pushing the throttle to full, and pulling back on the control yoke, Black 4 dives just as Alpha 6 and 12 crash into him. He smirks a little as he pulls up and tries to bring his fighter around to give chase to Alpha 12 now that Alpha 6 has broken away.

Elrych Cometburn is hit again. There is too many of them and even if he felt it before it happened he didn't have much room to maneuver. He grumbles at Kids negative report in the shielding. Shaking his head he redoubles hus efforts to get sweet revenge on alpha eight

"Get on it, Honeybee, our shields are rekked!" Miri spins and weaves, swearing loudly as her droid fumbles. Deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth. "You wanna dance?" She says under her breath to the two fighters on her tail. "Let's dance."

The Falcon's ability to dance through the green laser fire isn't going to be quite as elegant throughout this engagement as it had been in that first wave fly-through, that much is clear as a series of three blasts land against the hull of the light-freighter.

Internally the crew within the cockpit are already trying to deal with the side effects of that. One of them moves toward to take Chewbacca's place at Rey's side since Chewie is still on the injured list. This Resistance crewman starts to adjust shields to try to get them back up.

Rey, meanwhile, lines the forward mandibles of the YT-freighter up with a TIE on the back of the rookie's X-wing and she releases a warehead that zips through the space between them and detonates directly against the First Order fighter's ball-cockpit. The ship resultingly detonates in a firey explosion that causes its hexagonal wings to go fluttering off in either directions of the darkness of space!

The co-pilot cheers the explosion and Rey's efforts with the missile with a fist pump in the air.

Finn, lights up with the turrets as they strafe past the fighters taking on the poor rookie's X-wing.

Lofty shakes and rocks with the ship as they are again strafed by what seems like half a squadron of TIEs. "They all over us!" he warbles into the comm headset, obviously alarmed. When sensor data comes in showing the heading and Finn's target, the Talz brings his topside AG-2G cannon to bear. He takes advantage of the 'Money Lane' wedge where both the top and bottom turrets are able to fire on the same target, and as they approach Dann's wounded ship he depresses the firing studs and lights up Gamma Five's hull in conjunction with Finn. The TIE's shields collapse and its engines flame out.

Ektor's Y-wing had woven through the cascading cannonfire with deceptive agility or remarkable luck before rocking with a first hit. "I see it, I see it-" Gold 2's shields have crumbled. <<Hey, Gold Two, go evasive, I got your guy, yeah?>> Mekil grunts in protest. "I KNOW," the pilot barks back.

The efforts of the SFC this far have been remarkable, all five capital ships have maintained or restored full shield integrity, as the first in a furious fusillade of turbolaser fire is loosed from the Fallcrest.

Poe's craft is hit again and sensors indicate he has three tailing him now, but this was where Poe made his stand. Poe flex across the bridge view of the Renegade, angling down as he cut his stick hard to port. His S-foils closed and his engines began to sputter as he carried his craft through a sharp turn.

Black Leader turned vertical, passing through the Alpha pair that had chased him across the stretch of the battle. The squadron leader for Omega wasn't quite sure what to make of the sudden course change for Black Leader because now they were at a stand off. Poe opened the S-Foils and immediately fired at TIE. The first salvo was a glancing blow and the pilot managed to pull low, but Poe was on him.

They twisted magnificently, the fleeing squadron leader trying to lead Poe into the Alpha pair, and Poe flew between them again! A second and third salvo saw Omega Leader's ship beyond its capability to repair. Its engines tried to carry it further, but the central piece exploded outward and Poe flew by the wreckage. <<"Splash Omega 1.">> Poe calls over comms, informing the battle group that he had just killed one of the squadron leaders. He was looking for Omega 2 now.

Dann weaves through space while he continues to shoot at the foe, then he is being assisted by Rey. "We can do it, we will win!" he exclaims on the comms. That is all that people will remember from him, when the TIE that he was fighting shoots through that X-Wing which causes the ship to break apart as it rolls through the sky in flame, quite beautiful.

Zipping between plasma bolts, Sar's T-85 continues to hum along. Lining himself up behind another TIE, Rolie gets to work on firing solutions. Shots are fired, and a few of them smatter into his target's shields, but do no lasting damage.

'There's so many of them...' Rey can't help but think to herself, but she has to stay focused and keep their odds on the evening-out side of things. She'd tried to help that rookie X-wing pilot out, but she can hear his final comm message before his fighter is destroyed. She grits her teeth and continues to try to pilot the Falcon around for another missile attack.

The concussion warhead is launched but its easily evaded by the TIE Fighter. Finn's turret lights up again but he too is avoided. "We're in a rough patch, but we can get outta this!" He shouts over the comms within the ship.

Artoo rolls through the Falcon's corridors squealing loudly, two Porgs are riding ontop of his domed head as he moves to the engineering console to get the shields back up higher! The porgs eyes are HUGE!

"Pea soup, Fiver," Tallie's voice is oxygen starved as she rolls and then climbs straight up relative to the Fleet behind her. Green laser fire lights her world, Black Five shudders and Fiver reports shield damage. "Could be worse, could be /much/ worse. Let the Hammer charge and rain all the hells of the galaxy on that ship," she prays under her breath.

"We are going hunting," she flips the ship and later will find bruises on her shoulder as the X-Wing goes from 1 G to inertial to a full punch of 4 Gs to face head on one of her pursuers. Under the red fire of her lasers Alpha 4 disintegrates. <Splash Alpha 4> she manages before having to weave a maneuver to avoid the Epsilon TIE.

Lofty feels the 'Falcon jerk and buck as half of Beta Squadron lights up her shields. "They all over us!" he wails on the comm. He awkwardly pivots the slow-moving quad turret to face fore as Rey bears the ship down on the squadron. Her missile goes awry but Lofty's THUNK-THUNK-THUNK with the cannon manages to skim Beta Eight's shields.

This isn't going well, still having the Alpha 12 trail him and now one of Gamma Squadron having broken off to join its squamate. Still Karas wasn't allowing this to shake him, he check his sensors. "Spark hows the rest of the fleet doing?" He asks his astromech as his X-Wing rolls and climbs up and away getting hit again in the process. The X-Wing shields flashes blue slightly from the hit. Breaking away and quickly engaging Alpha 12, he tries to get a lock but the damn pilots from Alpha Squadron is pretty damn good. Shaking his head a little, he quickly pushes his fighter hard and as he does, Alpha 6 joins Alpha 12 but both misses.

Elrych's T-85 is still holding together. Kid chirps as the corellian Jedi manages to dip and dive, dodging his way through enemy fire. "Ten percent? Twn Krifing PErcent? You need to give me more then Ten Percent, you were doing SO well before." He's still chasing after Alpha 8. If he could take out this TIE he could move on to the leader like ordered. He gets a lock and it feels good to him, two of his linked canons connect, the shields collapsing on the TIE. "One more, come on." His music is at least helping him concentrate, the swinging fast paces music giving him a rythm with his piloting.

The sheer volume of turbolaser fire a Resurgent-class Destroyer can bring to bear is shocking. The five Resistance capital ships are in a good state, until the wicked scythes of the Fallcrest's forward batteries flood the void with fire. The smallest ship- the Survivor- avoid notable damage, but the Quasar-fire Carrier's shields collapse even under a fraction of the Fallcrest's fury. On the Renegade, where the forward shields begin to buckle, Captain Hellmund roars for all power to the forward shields. "Forget the cannonz- throw everything into shieldz!"

The frigates clearly were the focus of the First Order's opening salvo, the smaller Calamari light cruiser escapes whole, but the Merciful is less fortunate. Focused volleys rip through failing shields, tear into the Nebulon-K's hull, and start a critical series of alarms, hull ruptures, and panicked transmissions from the stricken and dying frigate.

<<Warhammer at eighty-six percent charge!>>

It was time for the squadron XO to die, and Poe flew right toward them. There wasn't much warning as Omega 2 was taken out whilst it made a pass on a surface cannon. The TIE exploded, and Black Leader flashed by, spreading the flames from the sheer momentum of his pass. <<"Splash Omega 2.">> Poe says over comms. He adjusts his course for the next intercept route, but has a moment to watch as the battle proceeds. Cannon fire from both sides seem to pace back and forth as explosions triggered from fighters periodically dot the void. Everything is cast in an eerie, dangerous glow that makes Poe marvel at the beauty of it all.

For those moments, the sounds of his comms faded out and he just watched, flying through instinct as the Resistance fleet began to take devastating blows. Poe returns to his senses and focuses back onto the task at hand. His gaze narrows on his sensors, and he adjusts his course to track Omega 3. <<"Keep fighting, everyone! We're going to push through this! Just keep fighting!">> Poe echoes their fallen pilot, Lt. Dann.

A trio of TIEs end up on Colonel Yavok's tail, but the man shakes them off easily enough. Then the big boys are trading shots, making the petty little squabbles that the fighters are having seem, well...petty.

Watching the Merciful tanking massive amounts of damage, Sar throttles forward, slipping out ahead of the rest of the squadron and doing a series of aileron and rudder rolls to avoid incoming fire. <<Missiles away,>> Sar says, pressing the firing nub on the opposite side of the stick. Then he does it again. And again. And a fourth time.

A quartet of mean-looking missiles spew forth on a beeline for the Fallcrest.

Jockeying for position to take out the Alpha 4 TIE left Tallie vulnerable. The shielding crackles and produces lovely colors as it fades under the onslaught of Epsilon 3's lasers. Her droid beeps the bad news, "Fifty percent only," she quips. "Repair while we return that handshake, Fiver."

She makes a run lateral to the line of capitol ships firing and jinking right and left. Four cannons are fired and two connect returning the favor to the TIE pilot in pursuit, his shields seem to expand and then disappear.

This has not been a good fight, still Karas is tracking the others of his squadron and is keeping on the fighters he's engaged with. Black 4 weaves through the pair of enemy fighters, and cutting off Alpha 6 and is on Alpha 12's tail. He isn't phased or scared of what he has to do, lasers erupts from the four cannons of his X-wing, but the shots miss.

Elrych is busy doging fire from all over the place but he doesn't loose his focus on Alpha Eigh. He drills his canons into the craft, sending it reeling and smashing into the Hull of it's own Star Destroyer home. <<"Splash Another, Lead. Alpha Eigh. Comming about for Alpha Lead or what ever lead is left.">> He had a lot of questions in his head, like... what happened after they blew up the start destroyer. How would they hold Naboo... or would they just retreat back into hiding and widdle the FO fleet down one by one until they grew more support. He didn't know... and those thoughts would cloud his judgement. He let the force enter him and focused on the task at hand.

Finally Miri's droid gets her head out of her charging port and gets the shields working a little better. "It's about time," she grumbles through her teeth, wrinkling her nose in satisfaction when she downs her target. Now just to worry about the two clowns on her tail. <<Wolf Four, still tangling with these Betas, one down.>>

With the Porgs on his silver domed head, Artoo's manipulator arm successfully raises the shields of the Falcon up again, enough to make them flicker more brightly across the display screens. One of the porgs hops down off of the droid's head and starts to walk across the console, adjusting dials and stepping on buttons... thankfully the console is locked at the moment!

Another missile launches from the Falcon's nose, but again it soars wide and detonates off in space. Rey winces in frustration and shakes her head from side to side but the piloting is too important to dwell on missed shots right now.

Finn continues to pour on the cannons as the TIEs keep buzzing around them, the Falcon successfully rolls through their laser fire again and makes an arching pass around some of the Resistance capital ships, with the TIEs hot on its tail!

Lofty is firing a blazing line of reddish-orange cannon blasts at the pursuing TIE fighters, having turned his topside turret around to fire aft. BRAP-BRAP-BRAP it goes. Unfortunately the porg in his turret is spooked and starts flapping all around, forcing the Talz to swat it away, and he misses Beta Eight.

Ektor makes his old warhorse of a light bomber dance like a showpony as his forward cannons rip through the shields of another Delta Squadron TIE, angling the otherwise sluggish fighter so that the stream of fire can be turned onto another at the first TIEs destruction. "Bet you wish they'd just killed me now, yeah?" the Tionese mutters through bared teeth. It's an empty bit of bravado, as winning the skirmish between starfighters is worthless, if the Resistance capital ships fail.

Escape pods begin to jettison from the Merciful, as the spreading destruction wrought by secondary explosions causes a slow, ominous break between the smoldering forward head of the frigate, and it's long spine.

Captain Hellmund roars on, as if reptilian resolve alone could power the Renegade's forward shields. The flagship holds fast, but all know that they cannot weather many more volleys.

Then, it begins.

A gathering green glow from the aft-mounted superstructure known as the Acolyte Cannon. The target had been fixed and locked in, the weapon finally charged and- moments after a quartet of proton torpedoes impact the Fallcrest's forward shields, causing a bridge officer to smirk and comment, "Shields remain at 97 percent, sir.." the Warhammer drops. An energy beam of such intensity that concussive force rattles the canopies of the starfighters within a hundred kilometers of the emerald bolt that lances through space, through Resurgent-class shields, and through the center mass of the Fallcrest, consuming the mighty warship in a vast, short-lived fireball.

This isn't the first major ship Poe has watched in the throes of its final death. Just as Omega squadron jumps to safety, Poe is left to watch the chain reactions of varying explosions consume the massive First Order vessel and a surge of overwhelming relief fills his soul.

<<"WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!">> He celebrates over comms. This is shortlived though as he sees their own vessel, the Merciful, begins to fall to pieces. With no care to remain distracted by their major victory, Poe brings his fighter about for an intercept course for the Flurry. <<"Black Leader heading back in to grab the Ghost, and begin collecting our escape pods!">>

Dann doesn't get to see the completion of the assault, but he assisted in making it possible. Merek meanwhile watches from the Renegade when the weapon takes on that Fallcrest. It would seem that this battle is won, though he has to think, what kind of a weapon is this.

The heavens open; every shade of green from Tallie's memories as a child bloom around them. She was fortunate to be facing away from the barrage when it ripped the First Order ship apart. With a deep breath to steady herself, grinning fiercely, as the TIE scuttles away, she says, < Copy that Black Leader. Escape pod recovery detail>

This is overwhelming, the dog fighting has been intense from start and until now. As Karas keeps on his target, the Warhammer has finally gotten into range and he like the others see the green energy spolling up and as he maneuvers back with his squadron, he watches as the Fallcrest is destroyed from a direct hit. He doesn't know how he feels about this, still it's a victory for them, << I will keep an eye out just in case we have someone wanting to start shit after this.>> Karas calls.

Elrych watches on in abject horror. The FO Star Destroyer felled in one swoop. What more could this weapon do? Was it really in better hands with the Resistance than the First Order? He looked to see the TIE Squadrons fleeing in terror. He wanted to be happy, but the ammount of Life he just felt lost... it affected him and if injured. A bit of blood ran down from his nose. He'd wipe it off with a gloved finger before glancing off towards Naboo and Rori. "This isn't the victory we're looking for. This is far from over." He turns his t-85 and starts back towards the renegade and flurry, <<"Eleven heading back to pick up the Spike and join the Ghost in salvage and rescue operations.">> Much weighed on the Jedi's mind. What echoed with him most was Leia's words. Not Justice, Not peace... Revenge... Revenge.. Revenge. What were they doing?

The Millennium Falcon is coming around the starboard side of the Renegade with its turrets firing at the TIE Fighters trailing behind it. Rey pulls the ship hard upward and dips up over the nose of the Rebel Assault Frigate, hoping to force the TIEs to into a more easily targeted 'line' behind the YT-freighter.

Its then that the Warhammer's laser weapon comes online and its then that the whole cockpit of the Falcon is bathed in a wash of brilliant bright emerald light. Even Rey has to stop for a second to watch that display, to see it upclose and personal like that...

"Wow." She mouths the word, but doesn't actually vocalize it. When she refocuses on her flying the Falcon turns in time to see the Star Destroyer in ruins, ripped apart by the laser beam. The others inside the cockpit are cheering now, one of them reaching over to wrap an arm around Rey's shoulders in a hastey hug!

Finn can be heard cheering himself over the headset from his turret. "Yeah! THATS HOW YOU DO IT!" He's shouting into the comms.

The Falcon levels off as the TIE Fighters peal away from it and flee. Rey slows the ship's speed and leans back in her chair... and sighs softly, her eyelids closing shut as others around her continue to celebrate.

Lofty's lower set of nighttime eyes clench shut as the stars suddenly turn bright green. The Acolyte Cannon has fired! "What that?!" he asks of Rey and Finn over the Falcon's comm system, appearing dazzled. But when the Talz sees the enemy warship in shambles he trumpets through his snoot. "Yea!" It's a celebration. He takes a can of soda pop out of his bandolier and cracks it open.

<<They gonna have to rename this whole PLANET after that, yeah? Hey- hey, who wants to guess what they gonna re-name it?>> Ektor doesn't leave much time for guesses before filling in, <<NaBOOM, baby!>> His gunner gives a long, porcine groan.

In space, the surviving First Order fighters scatter, as if all laws of nature had reversed themselves. Panic, fear. First by ones, then twos, then dozens, the TIEs flee into hyperspace. Within moments, all First Order transponders are gone from the system, leaving only wreckage, behind.