Log:Resistance: Knock Knock

A pair of mercenary starships test the Resistance defenses.

OOC Date: March 9, 2019
Location: Naboo
Participants: Callax Dalso, Ektor, Elrych Cometburn, Fiora Diaz, Karas Darkwing, Karé Kun, Lofty, Merek, Miri Sakir, Nova Korell, Poe Dameron, Sar Yavok, Tallissan Lintra, The Resistance

Civilian traffic has boomed in the weeks since the Battle of Naboo, and if pirate activity has also spiked, so too have Resistance and Royal starfighter patrols of the space lanes. The Resistance capital ships remain near the sun, the solar radiation keeping the mighty Acolyte Cannon charged and ready to fire at all times.

One of the precious Blue Squadron A-wings is on constant sentry, above the light cruiser Warhammer, while a quartet of Black Squadron T-85s cruise the perimeter of the Resistance formation in pairs, as a picket line of defense. At present a trio of Gold Squadron Y-wings are on a training flight to the Royal Way nav buoy, and no fewer than a dozen civilian freighters are filing in orderly columns to and from the planet, below.

One- a smaller example of the freighter class, the Skipray *New Fate* has reached the Royal Way Navigation buoy, but has not yet jumped into hyperspace. Perhaps a problem with the hyperdrive.

<<"This is Ghost, requesting permission to enter the Resistance perimeter.">> The voice of Poe Dameron comes over the encrypted Resistance channel as the heavily modified VCX-100 'Ghost' is seen approaching the small fleet. Her golden engines are an odd sight against the dark void of space, and stick out even in contrast to the star nearby. Dark armor plating refract the lighting as the ship slowly twists a small spiral, aligning with the Flurry.

Having squeezed himself into Gold 1 for the training flight, Lofty the Talz is on turret duty. His massive white paws grip the controls of the BTL-S3 Y-Wing's ion cannon. It isn't quite as mobile as a YT-1300's laser turret, or as roomy, but you take what you can get. Lofty has a borrowed flight helmet crammed on his head but he cannot quite find a way to fit an opened carbonated beverage inside the turret. He peeks over Ektor's shoulder at the simple sensor display of the Clone Wars - era fighter.

The Warsong moves to space and into the lanes from Naboo, while Merek pilots the ship. With it repaired, he has joined with the patrols as he brings up the shields, moving to escort a freighter which is on its way from the planet. He has taken his time to configure his ship to have all power from the hyperdrive to be put into shields, as he doesn't travel a lot with it.

Leading the patrol is Lieutenant Kare Kun, noting the trouble the skipray seems to be having she opens comms <<Gold 1, do you copy? It seems the Skipray..>> pause she feeds the transponder number and indent through from her astromech. <<New Fate, seems to be having trouble. Can we get a confirm on the problem?>> Her voice crackles over to the current patrol with her. <<Keep formation.>>

She directions her squad towards the buoy which is still further away from them than the Y-Wings currently running their training.

In the turret of the /Ghost/, Nova works the controls, checking the ion cannon's systems. "Hope they're in a good mood. What with those probes we flushed out a bit back, could be some well-intentioned paranoia setting in," she opines via the ship's intercom. There's a *snap-click* over the comm system. <Ghost Secondary, linking into the tac net now.>

<Blue 1 to control, Ghost on scan> With a whisper touch to the rudders Tallie feels the A-Wing respond to her, she has been flying sentry rotation for the last hour now, still accustoming herself to this new souped up version of what she learned to fly in. The cockpit control screens light her face green and blue as she runs scan checks in response to Ghost announcing itself on the encrypted channel. A holoprojector gives her an image of the ship as he comes into scan range. It's a surprise missing the droid. No Fiver with her to fuss at or to argue with - it makes for no downtime for her, either; she can't pass targeting over to the droid. Systems green, the system busy but no threats detected, she begins to turn make a turn back towards base for a flyover in the other direction.

Miri is on patrol, flying in formation with the other Black Squadron X-wings. <<We gonna go check it out, Black 3?>> she asks. Because patrols are /BORING/.

<<Looks like they're having some trouble jumping out? Try hailing them.>> Says Elrych from black eleven flying in patrol pattern. "Kid... run a scan if you can."

Black 12 is tucked into the cockpit of Black 12, Lieutenant Colonel Sar Yavok flips through a few different sensor readouts, following along in the patrol, because, well...there isn't a lot to do groundside on Naboo. A man's gotta keep busy.

The lone E-wing in the patrol is cruising along in Black-8's wake and gives a side-to-side wing tip of a waggle as she settles into place. As the question has already been asked, Diaz puts her cynical-cap on and starts scanning the system in a series of methodical sweeps. Why? Because. Reasons.

<< Acknowledged, Three. >> From the cockpit of Black Ten, Cadet Dalos keeps his vision split between the scanners and the great darkness of space outside; this is made much easier for him, owing to the way his pupils have changed. No longer simple dots, behind the tinted lenses of the helmet visor his pupils are flexible bars, like some horrible goat's, and the broad, ultrasharp panorama given affords him great latitude in watching the world around him.

Meanwhile, the ship keeps formation, moving in lockstep with the other ships, its pilot's gloved hands working with near-mechanical precision between the throttle and the stick.

"Lofty, no lie: you better not spill that drek back there-" he snickers at the crack of an opening canister. His eye catches on the Skipray, and grunts once. <<Huh. We got a slacker, yeah? Nobody worry, master diplomat Apollyon has this..>> Ektor drawls lazily over the Resistance comms, before switching to the unencrypted channel to mangle military protocol, <<Gold One to... you. The guy in the Skipray. Or girl, whatever. Your engines out, or what?>>

The response is a sudden volley of the three linked forward cannons, that Gold One manages to avoid the worst of, but the forward shields do take a light hit. Gold 2 is hammered by heavy laser turrets, as the New Fate accelerates suddenly banking toward the Resistance Fleet at full impulse. <<OH you Hutt-sucking son of a- or daughter of a- WHATEVER. Gold One to Patrol Leader, they running for the big guns, yeah?>> To his gunner as the light bomber banks to chase, "Shoot him, yeah?"

Lofty hadn't quite opened his can of Fizzy-Bip YET. When the blastboat shoots their Y-Wing the aluminum can slips out of his paw and starts rolling around the cramped turret emplacement. "He shooting us!" The Talz grabs the turret controls and cantors it up and to the right slightly, letting loose a blue-green salvo of ion cannon blasts at the belligerent GAT-12. There is a faint sparkle as the ion blasts hit the vessel's shields.

Poe witnesses hostile action and toys with the idea to intervene. When no answer comes back from the Resistance, it means comms for 'civilian crafts' are silenced in lieu of defensive action. <<"Ghost is altering approach to assist the patrols.">> Poe switches off his comms from broadcast to intercom. "Nova, get ready. Priority target is marked, light that hutt-sucker up!"

Poe has to stand up partially, flipping the switch to lock the Ghost's pair of heavy dual laser cannons forward, then he seats himself again. A headset is fit over his head, messing his hair up further. Throttles are pushed forward and the golden engines for the Ghost glow brighter. He orients the ship to an intercept course, twisting a slow spiral and increasing speed as he does so.

The moment he has an opportunity to engage, he opens fire sending slow-light lances of blue from each double cannon. A series of beeps sound in the cockpit, and the view is constantly twisting, but the Ghost has centered the attack.

<<Gold group is closer, they are in range to determine trouble. We are heading inbound to help and once we are in range feel free to scan.>> Kare reports to the group at large and then turns her head a moment as the Skipray suddenly opens fire on the Y-Wings training. <<We have hostile on Skipray New Fate! The ship is opening fire on Gold Squad. Black Squad keep formation and prepare to engage. Shoot to disable and cover Gold Squad only if the Skipray does not stand down.>>

She opens up local comm unit and calls out. <<Skipray New Fate, cease fire now and stand down or steps will be taken to disable your ship.>>

Back on Resistance Comms she speaks up. <<Black ten, Zenith five, form up on me. Black twelve take lead of Black eight and black eleven, take the left pass and we will come up on the right. Gold Squad engage if they do not stand down we are sweeping in on two sides.>> The skipray is given a chance to stand down an Karas is moving with her half of the squad and coming in hard on the starboard side of the ship. As her foils open she flips over to lasers and releases a red volley.

Merek brings up his comlink and speaks to the squadrons that are engaging the ship, "Warsong is moving in to assist," he tells them, while he shifts the cutlass to the side of the ship he was escorting, then he fires the cannons at the boat. It doesn't hit, while he changes his position also.

"Major! Did you /see/... oh. Guess you did. Ranging him in now," Nova replies over the intercom. She brackets the Skipray in the sights and opens fire... with predictable results. "He's a slippery one!"

<Blue One to Black Three, activating scan jammer in 5 seconds on my mark, we have Skiprays firing on Gold 1, running calculation on Skipray heading towards fleet> She is pulling up holoprojections of the Skiprays and the relative positions of the X-Wings and Gold 1. <Black Leader - bogey heading will penetrate deep scan range of War Hammer in 4 light seconds, over. Mark 5-4-3-2-1>

Tallie pulls back on the throttle and has reversed directions heading in the direction of the Skiprays, her gloved hands moving quickly over the diagnostic board. The G's push her heavily back into her seat as the slim arrow of the A-Wing flies toward the Skipray that started this shooting match. Acquisitions orange lines color her face as she fires both cannons, the comforting rainbow of shields under stress greet her.

<<Roger, Black Three. I'm on your ass, old man>> Miri sings out as she peels off on Sar's wing. She takes a shot at the Skipray as she heads around the port side.

Black 11 <<Copy lead,>> Elrych confirms over comms forming up on Miri not that she notices. He stays with her and the pair vector in on the skiprey. He lets loose a volly but the nible craft easily dodges.

<<Uhh...whoever and whoever come with me, I reckon>> Sar comms to...whoever. Sliding back the lever to his left, the S-foils pop open and Sar's banking Black 12 to the side, before making a quick turn and heading back towards the Skipray, letting a burst of plasma fly toward the boat. <<Eight and eleven. That's the ones,>> Sar finally remembers.

Keeping her sights set on the Skipray that's the current focus of the concentrated fire power of the entire patrol, Diaz takes a pot shot at the Skipray and mutters as the pilot nimbly avoid the blast from the trio of IX9 laser cannons she's working with. "Damn, nice flying, ace," said in a tone of genuine appreciation, regretful appreciation, but it's honest all the same.

<< Acknowledged, Three. Engaging now. >> These words are said as almost a whisper throught the circuit, cold and flat - like a chip voice, matching the iron focus of its possesor, as the lovely shell that Callax's brain animates responds to its master.

The ship's foils lock open, and Ten banks with Twelve to close on the errant skipray - but the field is lit up like an overloaded power relay and slowlight laser burst and plasma fill space before the fighters at all angles, throwing off the shot as targeting computer and pilot are desynchronized by a fateful moment longer that for the fighter's roaring guns to connect with the ship. Callax's eyes tighten in faint frustration, but prepares to squeeze another salvo without fail...

Having launched late, there was an issue with his snub fighters engine motivator, so he was delayed. Still with the way Karas flies, the pilot is able to get to the combat zone pretty damn fast. Though he's been tracking the situation and now with the Skipray dancing around taking hits and evading. Spark his R2 unit plots an intercept course and quickly without even opening the S-Foils, banking to his left, Black 4 turns hard and gets a lock on the Skipray and fires. Two of his cannon do connect. <<Sorry for being late, Black 4 here.>> he says.

"OH no you don't, I see it coming, now-" Ektor mutters to himself as he weaves the Y-wing expertly around the Skipray's rear turret fire. In return, Gold 1's nose cannons hammer through the blastboat's rear shields, carving deep into the deftly handled ship's hull. <<His shields are down. Or hers, whatever.>>

The crew of the New Fate are extremely good. Turrets, missile and torpedo control, and engineers all do their jobs and the abused shields are coaxed back into being, fire lashes out in all directions, and the pilot keeps the craft alive. This may not be a fight they can win, but the blastbost has tied up the whole of the Resistance's fighter screen.

It is then that a single HLAF interceptor bearing the civilian transponder *Red Arrow* emerges from a microjump, on the opposite side of the capital ships from the ongoing skirmish.

Poe has just avoided a torpedo, jerking the Ghost in one direction which has it listing to the left. The torpedo sails on by. "Torpedo has gone by.. let's stay focused on this Skipray." He tells Nova over their internal communications. Poe attempts to line up a shot with the dual heavy laser cannons, but the ship is fast and nimble, resulting in the slow-light blue laser lances missing all together. "Damn it!"

He adjusts his course to follow the larger ship, the Ghost staying plastered to the Skiray's stern. When his sensors beep indicating the presence of another civilian fighter near the fleet, he realizes they've been dooped. "Clever, clever.." <<"All callsigns, there's an unauthorized civilian craft near the fleet. Someone needs to break contact from the Skipray and intercept. They cannot reach the Warhammer.">> Poe says, his voice intense.

Lofty repositions the awkward ion turret of Gold 1 as they move in for an attack run. "She have many teeth," he warbles, refering the enemy vessel's many guns. The Talz uses his claws to depress both firing studs and send bright ion blasts into the skipray. Electrical interference dances over the ugly ship's hull as the shields go down despite its engineers' best efforts. His lost can of soda pop rolls toward the front of the Y-Wing cockpit.

"Copy, Major, I see him. Can you get us there?" Nova intercoms, trying once again to ion-blast the Skipray. Again, the results are all too predictable. "Not that I'm likely to be any help at this rate..."

As the Skipray lets out another volley Black 3 is screaming in as fast as she can to close distance as she lines up to fire again. One of those incoming strikes lands hard on the underbelly of her port side sending short lived sparks into the void of space. Kare tilts her joystick back down to dip her nose and getting a lock she hits her trigger for her lasers only to have her console spark and spit at her. <<This is Black Three. I have been hit and weapons are not functioning. Pulling back. Patrol continue to engage.>>

Kare draws her x-wing back and speaks with her mech. "R8 see if you can bypass the foils that are shorting. Otherwise we are no good." Reaching a hand out to check the underside of her console a few more pops happen and she yelps as they hit her chin. "Not good R8..."

With Black Three hit and robbed of fangs, Callax punches ahead, pouring fire into the Skipray's aft quarter; this time the genes are with the androgynous pilot, bar pupils twitching as the flash from his fighter's guns mark more tracers that rake the warboat's hull. Torn in many places, its systems fading fast, Callax prepares another salvo should the blastboat further frustrate the pilots of the Republic's defense forces.

Jamming works both ways, Blue 1, drops the jamming sequence to do a scan imagining every enemy bogie within striking distance of the Resistance capitol ships. A HLAF winks into existence. "Drek, what is that?" Old habits die hard as Tallie talks to the droid that is not there. The conversation does not last long. <Black Leader, HLAF bogie in range> is all that she announces, voice distant and crackling.

A-Wings carry twelve concussive missiles. On pure instinct she brings up holoprojections for firing one straight into the heart of the intruder. The crackle of the com in her ears, the light of her boards tattooing her face with green and orange, she fires. It takes minutes for the missile to reach its target moving at slower than light speeds. The young pilot has time to feel the cold of the cockpit through her suit, be aware of her racing heart and the stabs of light in the battle around the Skipray. The missile connects and there is a bloom of fire that dissipates into a black void and a trail of debris.

Miri manages to get a good hit on the Skipray, knocking out her shields. <<I'll try to draw fire away from you, Black Three. Are we going to try and disable her and take her in so we can find out what the hell their deal is?>> And then the ship blows. <<Or... that.>>

Throttling down her space speed slightly, Diaz is falling back to link up with Black-4 as she keeps a wary eye on the new arrival. "Diaz to .." is as far as she gets when the new arrival is let up like a bonfire and turns into so much drifting debris. "Nix that," her E-wing sliding into place at Black-4's wing as she trades pot shots with the Skipray. "No Joy, seriously, where did these people train?" Even as she's altering trajectory again the forward view ports are full of the view of the ship breaking apart and life boats, so few, attempting to eject to safety.

The intruders had a plan; it was risky but sound and it nearly worked. The blastbost draws off the fighter cover, while the interceptor- fastest ship available on the civilian market races in to scan the suoerweapon before running for it. And it was working.

Right up until the Blue Squadron A-wing came about and loosed the mother of all blind-fired concussion missile shots.The HLAF tries to avoid, but takes the missile squarely in the engines and detonates spectacularly. Without any other Resistance fighters being drawn off of the New Fate, the Skipray remains the focus of concentrated fire, and as it tries to flee for distance, it is finally hit one time too many, and comes apart under the onslaught, a single escape pod launching off the wreckage before the reactor containment fails.

<<Sunshine, can- can we frame that missile shot? Thing of beauty, yeah?>>

<<Oh, Ektor, you really know how to talk to a girl,>> comes faintly over the com. Tallie smiles.

The Ghost was witness to the destruction of the Skipray, its violent explosion projecting orange and green shade upon the black armored Ghost. <<"This is Ghost. Good work, Resistance. I'm moving into position now to scan for escape pods. Blue Leader, excellent kriffing shot, that was one in a million.">> Hovering above the twisting, carbon scored debris is the Ghost. Search lights come on, and idle scans begin to search for signatures that are tied to life boats.

When Poe finds one, he stands up and triggers the intercom. "Nova, I need you up here to help with this tractor beam. We have some new friends we need to deposit in the brig." He begins to position the freighter in place..

Merek looks at the readout as the ships are blasted from cannon fire. He maneuvers back to his escort position, <<Warsong back to its position.>> The Warsong keeps with the ships of the civilians also.

<Two down... nice work, folks!> Nova comms, relieved. <Let's hope that's the last of them.> She unstraps from the gunnery chair, toggling the targeting system off, and heads for the cockpit, dropping into the co-pilot's seat. "On it," she says, looking for the pod. "I think that's our new guests now, high and starboard. Can you scan, see how many canned bad guys we've got?" She activates the tractor beam and begins hauling the pod towards the forward hold. <We've got them, Resistance.>

Tallie automatically brings the A-Wing's sleek wedge around towards the remnants of the Skipray and watches the operation for recovering the escape capsules underway. Ghost has it well in hand. Her mission to patrol still in operation, <<Blue One to base, systems nominal, resuming patrol, out>>

<<Nice shooting, Blue One. I'm buying you a drink for that.>> Miri sighs and rolls her head from side to side. Back to boring patrol...

Black 11 "Well that was underwhelming aye kid?" Elrych says to his droid as the baddies are now yaken care of. He turns up his yunes and comes about towards the fleet. <<Eleven vectoring back into patrol pattern.>>

With the threat neutralized, such as it is, Fiora Diaz turns her E-wing back to the patrol that was so abruptly interrupted. Maybe that pirate-escapee will prove a useful source of intel. It could happen!

With the blastboat downed and its surviving pod reclaimed, Callax frowns, but pulls Ten back into formation with the remaining ships of the squadron. << Ghost, this is Black Ten, >> he says over the comms in his detached contralto, musical but cold like the sound of a faraway radio program. << I'd like to speak to your captain on ship-to-ship, please... >>

Having not needing to open the S-Foils on his fighter, Black 4 peels off and tags along with Zenith 5, <<We will keep up a perimeter just in case there is some late comers.>> he calls into his comms.

<<Gold One, resuming patrol- wait..>> Peering at the navcomp, he hollers, <<What the reck are you two doing waiting back at the beacon? You ain't even moved since the shooting started! Whaddya MEAN no one gave you any instructions??>> Reaching down to fumble blindly around his feet, Ektor grumbles to Lofty, "Can you believe that? I mean.. sure I probably could've said 'shoot the guy' but that kinda drek goes without saying, yeah?" The Y-wing veers slightly to one side as he bumps the flightstick in searching. Coming back up a moment later, he hands the drink canister backward to the Talz, with the muttered reminder, "Don't spill it, yeah?"