Log:Resistance: Party Crashers
Party Crashers
OOC Date: January 5, 2019
Location: Syngia System
Participants: The Resistance, Ektor, Elrych Cometburn, Fiora Diaz, Jessika Pava, Karas Darkwing, Merek, Nova Korell, Poe Dameron, Sapphira Solari, Tallissan Lintra
The Syngia System is an obscure stop midway along the little-used Shaltin hyperspace tunnels of the Outer Rim; these tunnels linked the Wild Space fringes of the Corporate Sector with Lianna in the Tion Cluster. Lianna: headquarters of Sienar Fleet Systems, purveyors of fine TIE products. Syngia Station is a frontier within the frontier, largely depopulated, in orbit above an ominous dark blue planet. The tap on subspace communications is functioning correctly, giving the waiting ambushers a steady series of updates as a Lambda shuttle and an escort squadron arrive and are given clearance to dock, followed shortly by the arrival and approach of a larger ship hailed as the Prosperity. By the time the signal comes and the Resistance (and friends) emerge from their microjump, the decrepit little spindle-shaped space station hoves into sight, as does a patrol of nine brilliant white and sky-blue TIE/fo fighters (Throneguard 1-9). Docked with the station is an Etti-class Authority Lighter, a bulbous 125 meter corvette bristling with ten quad-laser turrets.
The pirate forces arriving in system with the Ghost amount to a half dozen mismatched Starchasers, Corellian Interceptors, and Preybirds. Rather than flying as a disciplined squadron, they better resemble a spaceborne gang, with the (not) Resistance landing shuttle screened by the trio of heavily armed freighters.
Know who's not on a gunner seat? Sapphira Yavok. Dressed in her normal choice of tailored black shadowsilk, any laser blast that comes her way will likely sting. But at least she's hard to see, right? She's made it very, very clear that she's not going to be on any turret. Something about shooting herself in the foot if given the opportunity. So what does the Intel Agent turned Black Squad commando do while they're micro-ing into position? She knits. She's got about two-thirds of what appears to be a black knit-cap on her lap, metal needles click-click-clicking away as she works. Until someone says go for boarding team, there's not much that she can do. So knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl....."How big do you think the Major's head is? I mean as far as heads go? Medium head, large head?" she asks no one in particular on the U-wing.
Merek is with the U-Wing for boarding, his rifle shifted about so that he can work on it while the ships are moving to their position in the system. He looks then a little towards Yavok and nods a bit. He is checking his helmet while he places the visor downwards.
It's not bragging if it's true. And Diaz can pilot anything that can lift off of the deck and (reasonably, possibly, higher probability than single digit variables) land or dock again in mostly once piece. Dressed in a vest and shirt, trousers and boots, the pilot doesn't look like a resistance fighter. She looks like what she is, a spacer who spends more time in the dark between the stars than someone who enjoys living in the bottom of a gravity well (aka: Dirt side). "Big enough to be a factor when it comes to navigating doorways, not to big to fall over and leave arms and legs waving in the air like a cartoon," is her reply as she deftly guides the U-Wing towards it's ultimate destination, this being (at the moment) an appealing looking hangar.
The Ghost is the largest of the trio of freighters and naturally takes the center of their gaggle. Covered in plates of sensor refracting exterior armor, the Ghost has a habit of of appearing and disappearing off sensors. This is by design. Initiating the engines from the cockpit is Poe Dameron, who has reached out to gently move the levers forward, bringing to life the golden engines at the freighter's stern. The Ghost is armed with a pair of devastating dual heavy laser cannons, and an ion cannon all locked to face ahead, and is supplemented by the Far Rider, the auxiliary ship that's docked at its stern. The Far Rider adds an additional dual laser cannon locked to the stern, and a 360 degree laser cannon turret that's positioned with a view above the ship. Poe has not activated any sort of signal/sensor jammer, but he has started the approach. "Ghost checking in, all systems reporting operational. Any issues?" His voice a bit more clear over the encrypted comms.
Hyperspace. Real space. The transition is faster than the blink of an eye, but it takes longer than that for Jessika to get her bearings. Before her, above her, and almost everywhere but behind her, the instrument panels of the heavily modified Corellian freighter offer her an almost endless array of switches, sensors, and screens. It's the same thing for her co-pilot. "Leebo, extend sensors to maximum range. Monitor incoming traffic and keep an eye out for any encrypted messages that match known First Order frequency signals. We may not know their encryption codes, but we can try to keep an eye out for any outgoing messages." Reaching above, her hand nudges by a green kyber crystal dangling from a leather necklace to flip another pair of switches.
The sublight engines on the Outrider flare as one bright beam of light along the back of the vessel's saucer-shaped hull. Both of the dual heavy laser cannon turrets are locked into the forward position, giving Jessika control of them from her chair. It's these she focuses on ensuring are ready to go, but that doesn't take her eyes completely off the corvette. A low whistle sounds from her pursed lips. "That's a big boat with some big guns." Beside her, Leebo makes some dry comment about being unimpressed. "Nothing impresses you. You'd have probably told Darth Vader he looked more like a rusty bucket than a tyrannical murderer." The Outrider matches cruising speed with the Ghost.
"Yeah, I got an issue. How come you never bought me a ship like that one over there? I thought we were friends."
Elrych Cometburn jumps the Spike in, relabled as the 'Lysterfeind' for the time being. He just had her hull waxed and painted. The corellian Jedi pilot pushed up his thick rimmed and dark tetan eyeware up the bridge of his nose. "Gunners stay sharp." "Lysterfiend, aka The spike is ready to go." He takes a calming breath, reachung out to the Force to lend him aid.
Gunner's seat are the epitome of war: hurry up, hurry up, adrenaline and then wait. Wait till your eyes are drooping or you can seriously get into a book on your datapad. Tallie has double checked the seat, the turret, the ammo, the software, the targeting acquisition and is now head down getting into a Corellian fantasy novel called the Dark Towers. She hangs belted in her seat, appearing to be half in space sitting in the turret eye and reads with the calm of little girl curled up in her favorite nook dressed in a nondescript flight suit and helmet.
Flying is just something Karas enjoyed, it never really mattered what he was flying to a degree, still he enjoyed just flying. Though he is in a HLAF, the controls slightly different from what he is used to, but still it doesn't take him long to get familiar with the controls. Looking out the canopy as he transition from hyperspace to real space. Listening to the chatter and seeing the other fighters forming up with the freighters. The HLAF moves into a rear position and moving above the frieghters so that he is able to see all of them. He is quiet just listening to everyone.
Strapped into the U-Wing's copilot seat, Nova Korell holds the armrests tightly to resist putting her hands on the controls. There's a better pilot in the command seat, after all. She focuses instead on watching the sensor readouts, looking rather out of place in her urban digicamo S2 armor. "Get ready," she says, looking back into the passenger bay. "We're approaching our target now. Somebody this important probably has a lot of security."
Ektor is in the cockpit of a heavy Preybird, with lopsided grin bending his lip as the targeting computer lights up with enemy contacts. A low chuckle of anticipation rattles in his throat as he flips the comms open, "Good to go here, yeah? Heavies, lets lock onto that big corvette, yeah? YOU GOT NO SHIELDS WHILE YOURE DOCKED, HUTT-SUCKERS," he hollers, as if they can hear him. The heavy Preybird dodges nimbly in and among the lances of green fire as a pair of Throneguard TIEs scream to intercept him. On his wing, the second Preybird takes a hard hit, a voice reporting in Sullustan that shields are weak.
The Throneguard Squadron are clearly the elites of the Lianna System Defense Force, promptly driving in three wedges at the greatest perceived threats: three drive after the Preybirds, three more at the U-wing shuttle, and the final three driving in an attempt to keep the freighters occupied.
But now, it is the rebels turn.
Sapphira blinks once, then twice at Fiora's words, then she looks down at her working-hat. She tilts her head, considering it, then she shrugs. "It'll stretch," she decides, and the clicking continues as she knit-purl-knit's again. She seems content with that until the ship takes a dramatic maneuver. It's not enough to make her drop the knitting, but it is enough for a hand to shoot out so she can hold herself up against the nearby wall. "Heyyyyyyyy now," she says, looking up as though speaking to some divine power, even though it's likely only the ship's internal comms. "Don't do that again," she warms. There's another jumble and this time she drops the sewing project, or nearly does. One hand shoots out to catch it. "I'm serious! There's vomit in your future if you don't-" whatever she was going to say is cut off with either another manuever or a hit. Sapphira can't really tell the difference.
Merek lifts up his rifle to both his hands, but with the ship taking hits, he rolls with the butt of his rifle accidentally catching into Yavok's knitting, "Sorry," he says, while he shifts the weapon and speaks to his comlink, "Frost ready," he says, noting he has made his preperations with the team he is with.
Someone this important probably has a bunch of trigger happy..." Diaz wears a brief, rather fierce, grin as the first of the TIE's takes a potshot at the shuttle. "There we go, that's what I was expecting," she shares that brief grin with Nova. "Hold on to your hat, this is going to be fun," she tosses a burp bag toward Sapphira, just in case, as she guides the shuttle into a series of abrupt turns, dives, juking the flight path over and around the expected trajectory while still aiming for the open hangar. The first hit to the shuttles shields was enough to get the adrenaline rush going, making her reaction time sharper, not enough to evade the incoming fire, but the shields hold.
"Maybe one day, Outrider, when the war is over." Poe says, a hint of mirth in his voice. He glances over to see the Outrider matching his speed and nods. Targeting sensors began to issue alerts as Poe looks ahead again. Poe initiates the combat system and the lights dim in the cockpit, simultaneously the pilots console comes to life with various colored buttons and controls. Poe moves over them quickly. He doesn't have time to comment about their formation, but he knows he must stay his current course. With warnings blaring, Poe twists the Ghost, diving downward just as a fighter swept past him, missing gloriously. "You awake back there, Tallie. Your day just got interesting!" Poe's voice comes through the intercom and into the docked Far Rider, where she's working the turret. Adjusting his angle, Poe follows Ektor's advice in targeting the Corvette. Passing over it, he fires the Ion cannon, striking true to the docked vessel. Bolts of blue energy spread over its hull, the tell-tale of good effect on target. Poe follows the momentum of his ship's turn, taking him over the station to come back for another pass.
The TIE/fo fighters break off into typical attack wings, but Jessika expects as much. It makes sense, even if it doesn't. They're fighting a ragtag group, and some of the TIEs are isolating two of themselves to one fighter while not doubling down on some of the bigger ships. She has no remarks for it, because one is zipping straight for the Outrider. There's no avoiding it. The TIE is a faster, more maneuverable fighter. Jessika's tactics are simple. She doesn't try to outrun it. She breaks off to approach the ones engaging with the transport carrying their boarding party. "I'm gonna help out the transport, Ghost." She doesn't know the likelihood of them needing to board, but she knows they can't do it if the personnel for it are drifting in space.
Jessika's focus? Shooting. She goes after the head of the snake by targeting Throneguard Leader. The discharge from both ventral and dorsal turrets flash far brighter than they would from a starfighter, and it's only the TIE's nimble movements that save it from being hammered to near death or obliterated outright.
"Oh, I'm awake, sir!" Comes the immediate reply with a happy note in her voice. The data pad is slid back into a side pocket of her seat. Tallie's seat swings and pivots as the targeting acquisition beacon drones in her ears. A finger goes to the the white scarf knotted at her throat, the one giveaway that adrenaline has begun to flow. She smiles fiercely as hands on both controls she swings to port. The targeting signal climbs till it sings in her blood. Double laser cannons splash over the TIEs and solid hit is taken by one.
Well shit just got real, and with smooth motions of his hands and settling more in his seat, Karas is pushing the throttle forward coaxing the HLAF-500 to pour on the speed. It's not as fast as his X-Wing but still it has its own potential. "Alright, people, lets get this done." he calls as he brings the patrol fighter towards the PReybirds. Locking onto the one that was on Ektor, having a lock, the HLAF fires rapid shots from it's twin laser cannons, but misses as the TIE breaks from Ektor, "Prey 1, you clear, I will get the other in a sec." he calls to his brother.
Nova winces as the U-Wing shakes under bursts of cannon-fire from two TIEs. "I'd say their welcoming committee's very enthusiastic," she mutters, hastily opening fire on one of the slower-moving TIEs with the ship's forward weapons. It's a close miss, but it gets the bastard's attention off of the easy target and more on the need to save his own hide. "Diaz, can you get us into that hangar? We've got a lot better chance of surviving this in there than out here!"
Ektor takes a strong pair of blasts to his rear shields, muttering, "Always on my ass, these guys.. Thanks," he mutters to Kara's, before the target lock note sounds and he sees Poe ionize the docked Etti Lighter. "Heheee," he cackles as a barrage of four linked concussion missiles streak out and slam into the big ship. Even with the other Preybird losing its lock, the damage is enough to cause catastrophic localized damage to the Prosperity.
The Resistance shuttle has broken through the TIE screen, and although the Throneguards have dealt and avoided the most damage, the attackers are nearing their objective.
"Oh for kriffin' sake..." Sapphira groans at Merek, reaching forward to untagle a bit of yarn from his rifle. Another jolt of the ship and she gives up, throwing the work down and rising to her feet to make her way to the cockpit. It's not a long way in the U-wing (at least I assume not) and she is soon sliding into a seat beside or behind Fiora. You know, whatever. She steps over BB-8 as she goes. "Get yourself strapped, little ma. Anything happens to you and your Daddy's gonna skin me alive," she informs the droid before settling it at a console. Buttons are pressed, beeps are heard. "Alright, reangling the deflectors. I've hat it with this shakey nonsense."
Merek stands up when they arrive as the shuttle settles. He seems not to mind all of the hits to the ship, and he looks to Yavok with a nod as he checks his comlink and pulls up the HUD which his visor shows to him. "On you," he tells her, while he shifts his rifle up and moves with the boarding team.
Exhaling a laugh, "Better in than out?" Diaz wonders of Nova in return even as she's nodding and goosing the speed just a bit more. "Any landing we can walk or stagger away from," and so what if they come in a little hot. After all, no speeding tickets out here and she won't have to scrub away any scorch marks on the deck. "Nice shooting," said with another of those sidelong grins aimed at Nova as Sapphira takes control of a console, her help keeping the shields angled and the shuttle from turning into a twisty-turvy-rolling-ride. "Can you listen in on any comm chatter or see if they're squawking out a distress signal?" asked as she sets the shuttle down, the shuttle rocking to a halt, hovering briefly, then settling in place with a hum and whir of sound, metal creaking, heat radiating off as it begins to cool.
"Roger, Outrider. We'll hold space over this Corvette and see what we can do." The Ghost rocks violently from a solid hit, but Poe avoids a subsequent attack by adjusting his course into a diving motion. Proximity alarms are switched off from a switch when he brings the vessel about, obtaining a bearing on T-7 and blasting his shields away. Sublight engines grow a brighter gold as Poe stays on a steady circuit that gives them multiple angles of fire, and keeps them moderately evasive. Poe looks as if he's going to say something to the Co-Pilot's seat only to find his buddy mission. BB-8 was on the troop transport. He grimaces. "Stay with them, Tallie. This is getting hairy!"
The Outrider's deflector shields take a smattering of damage, but Jessika isn't worried about those. Leebo, the LE series repair droid, has a minor few of his processes focused on the subroutines accessed from his co-pilot's chair. He reroutes auxiliary power from tertiary systems to help boost shield strength, and then continues monitoring communication bands and sensor reports. Jessika continues to guide the Outrider through its paces. It's fast for a freighter. Faster than some starfighters, and by a good margin. It loops and twists, and while Throneguard Leader might have evaded her one time, it's not going to evade her again. The freighter's targeting computer calculates all the relevant data, and Jessika follows the lead reticle.
Patience is a pilot's most important virtue. She waits to line up, and waits through the TIE's jukes and maneuvers. It's only when she feels it, in her gut, that she puts the Outrider's dual heavy laser cannons to work. They discharge another series of powerful lances of destruction, and the recently-banked TIE cannot orient or change directions fast enough to avoid the super-heated tibanna gas from punching straight through its shields and through its wing panels to leave a trail of debris drifting through space. "Ghost, this is Outrider. The transport has landed inside the station." Updating the other freighter, Jessika maintains her pursuit of the lead TIE/fo.
Great minds think alike, TIE designated 7 is lit up like a celebration with everything the Ghost and its rider can put out. Tallie pours it on, riding the turret mount like a seesaw, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. But unshielded as it is, the TIE still comes in on them firing with everything it has. The Ghost out fires it but neither of them damage the other enough to score coup though the TIE is sufficiently harried by them to be off target.
After the initial exchange of laser fire, Karas focused in on his enemy fighter after clearing Ektor. What Karas didn't see was his wingman split as well, though the enemy TIE was able to climb an dod a reverse pivot spinning and firing in on the HLAF Karas is flying. Karas no slouch in the cockpit, saw the shot go wide, quickly speaking to his wingman, both climbed and spiraled in a twin barrel roll, and pulling further back on the stick into a loop. The Thorneguard lost the two fighter pilots and Karas straightens out and fired hitting the TIE and diving past the TIE pilot, who began to give chase, but as it does the second HLAF fires down upon the TIE and as the laser bolts hit, the shield on the TIE go out leaving the fighter shieldless and now between two skills pilots.
"Keep him between us, I will lead him towards the others and I will break and take him out hopefully, if I don't yo finish it, and we go hunting the others." he gets an ok from his wingman.
"Much better in!" Nova confirms, watching that hangar approach at a rather alarming rate... to somebody who hasn't done a lot of hot insertions, anyway. Then the landing gear touches down with surprising precision. "Nice ride," she replies, unlocking and turning the copilot's seat. "Now it's time for us to do our jobs." Squeezing past Sapphira, she pulls her carbine from a wall rack and checks its charge, then takes up a covering position at the side of the sliding side door. "With you, Sapph."
Ektor howls with delight as a second quartet of missiles streak toward the ionized Lighter. This time, the detonation is spectacular, enough to rock the station, as the Prosperity's fuel tanks ignite, ripping the vessel apart. Breaking off the attack run, Ektor vectors back toward the ongoing dogfights, veering toward the TIE that is hammering the pair of Starchasers. "I gotta get the Chief something nice. Somebody remind me to get the Chief something nice, yeah? Bad Day incoming, Janissar Four."
Within the little habitation ring of the station, an evacuation is underway. To the left, a hurried procession of troopers uniformed in elegant white, blue, and gold braid are securing another hangar. To the right, a band of brown uniformed and armored troopers are recoiling from a suddenly absent airlock in shock, several are sucked out into space, before the dilapidated safety systems kick in, preventing further damage or loss of life.
Sapphira flicks a few more switches on the U-wing computer system, and then she's swinging out of the chair. "Sorry, duty calls," Sapphira says, blowing Fiora a kiss before she's heading for the airlock. "Why's everyone following me?" she asks teh question to Merek and Nova, but removing her DL-18 she moves to step into the lead. She pauses just before the airlock. "Alright, stud-apple and I here," she jerks her head toward BB-8, "will lead in. We're heading for bridge first, then sweeping. Priority is intel, so any computer terminals you see don't keep 'em to yourselves. Secondary is VIPs, so ... anyone that we don't have to kill, we can ask if they're VIP's." She pops a fresh clip into her DL-18. "We can kill them after, if they're not, yanno. But we'll ask first." Sapphira is not saying it to be tough. It's more informative. Matter of fact. Almost like she's trying to be helpful. With that, she slams the button on the airlock and steps through.
"... What if they are telling us they are VIPs but they aren't?" Merek asks, while he checks the safety and moves with Yavok. While his face can't be seen from the HUD of the visor, he doesn't seem too happy about the situation, at least the concept of killing even those that might not be with the Order, but duties are his duties.
Having shut the shields down as soon as the shuttle was absolutely positively in the hangar that she'd aimed it at, Diaz spends a few moments checking over all of the shuttles systems and tinkering with the shield systems while everyone else is grabbing guns and preparing to roll out. Tinkering, not actually improving, but absolutely sorting out what's wrong. Knowledge is power! Only then does she unfasten the safety harness, slide to her feet and follow Sapphira (and her BB droid), and Merek and Nova, to the hatch. "Non-lethal shots and interrogate the remains?"
The Ghost streams close to the station again, firing just about everything at T-7, but the pilot is in a craft that is 100% faster than the Ghost, and far more manueverable. "Yeah, yeah.. flaunt it why don't you." Poe mumbles, missing his own fighter. "Keep it up, Tallie, we're doing good." Poe begins a system's diagnostic, feeding more power into his shields to increase the output they were rebuilding. Hearing Jess over comms, Poe flips the switch. "Copy that, Ourider. Corvette is off the line up."
The TIE squadron they're tangling with is full of good pilots, but they're not flawless, and they don't know who they're up against. What they believe to be are a bunch of disorganized pirates mounting an attack against a well-defended target are far from it. The hulk of their corvette should have been evidence enough. Jessika adds to the litter of destroyed defense force ships by sending another salvo from her freighter's dual heavy laser cannons. They punch through what meager shields have managed to shimmer in place over the craft, and rather than adding some new holes in the shields, the red beams of light from her ship's guns pulverize the center eye of the TIE. The disconnected panels are forced apart by the centralized explosion.
"Throneguard Leader is down."
This fight isn't going well, though it's nice being able to go against pilots who have skill. Still Karas knows he has a job to do, pushing the throttle forward, poring on speed he cut power and slam the stick sideways to do a half spin so that he is lined up with the incoming TIE, he fires but the damn TIE pilot drops down in a dive. Still Karas wingman is on the TIE, still he fires and his shot misses as well as the TIE rolls. Both pilot dive and give chase after the Thorneguard TIE.
The Thorneguard pilot wasn't finished, he knew he was going against some damn good pilots himself. Pouring on the speed having seen that the TIE's natural speed could outpace the outdated HLAF's, so that's the the pilot begin doing. Once fully out in front, it climbs and rolls the signature ion-engine scream echoes through space as it pulls into a roll and straighten out. Once that is done, it takes aim at the lead HLAF which is Karas and rains green laser fire down upon him. "Tck" is all that comes from Karas as he manages to roll through the volley sustaining a few hits, his shields drop still this tells him what he has to do next.
"Hold..." Nova says, catching at Sapphira's shoulder and pointing out an almost-hidden door. She reads the label quickly. "Security office. If it has holocamera feeds, we might could cut our search time in half." Except, she can already hear doors hissing open not too far away, to the left. "Frell..." she mutters, hurrying to catch the source of all the noise. "Guess it'll have to wait!" She toggles open the hangar door, brandishing her carbine as menacingly as she can. "Grab some deck plating NOW and we won't have to blast you!"
Ektor is so intent on unloading heavy cannons at the TIE that had been victimizing the R-41s, that the Tionese mad bomber nearly makes a fatal error, wheeling out of the strafing cannons of Throneguard Four at the last of possible moments. "Hey, I just welded that!" Ektor complains. "Right, right.. one TIE down. I dunno the number."
Within the station, the frantic evacuation continues as a trio of LSD guardsmen in white are ushering a middle aged officer in a significantly more elaborate uniform toward a nearby hangar. Powerwalking: it's how rich people run away without running. That is, until mysterious and heavily armed intruders blast apart your secret clandestine meeting, causing your personal guards to freeze, and one guard to comment to you that "Perhaps we should cooperate, m'lord.." THEN, even the stuffy proud rich ones might permit running. As the trio in white and gold braid are doing their best to avoid being shot (lowering to a knee, setting down a blaster, etc) the older gentleman in the fancier uniform breaks into as full a sprint for the nearest ship- another of the Throneguard TIEs, and seeking to climb the ladder.
"Kneecap him," Sapphira says in no uncertain terms to Merek, pointing to the gold-braided floozy making a hasty retreat. Sapphira herself is already up from her crouch and hurrying down the hallway. "C'mon studmetal. Hollar if you need me!" The last bit is toward Nova and Merek. Particularly the former seems to have matters under control since her voice alone just sent the guards fleeing. It frees Sapphira up for the short jog to the security office, which appears blissfully empty. "Grab anything that looks remotely useful. Or, honestly, not useful. The HUMANINT guys will pee in delight if you can tell 'em a target's favorite flavor of caf, so...." The redhead trails off as she begins to work on her own terminal. "I'm sending your terminal everything I pull from here, so start downloading as soon as you're in," she advises the little round droid.
Merek looks to the men that move to surrender when Nova speaks, then he nods to Yavok. He lifts up his rifle while he switches to stun, then he shoots at the man that's moving to the ship. He hopes that it at least slows the man even though that doesn't hit him.
Checking over the blaster pistol that she's holding, Fiora Diaz listens intently as Sapphira and Nova decide which way they're heading. "If your droid can link to the ship, we can back up any data you guys find and dump it into the ships computer," she suggests even as she takes up a position just inside the shuttle's hatch. "I'm guarding our ride, no sense getting this far only to have to walk home."
The Ghost chasing a TIE is a funny sight, especially as contrails from the various weapons going off simultaneously alludes to the fact the pilot is firing everything the ship can muster in an effort to hit the opposing craft. Alas, it is all in failure, but it must have been an awesome sight. The Ghost is adjusting its vector away from the station. If he can lead the fighters away, the shuttle will have a chance to PUNCH IT without much in the way of opposition. He's already plotting a course to leave the system as well.
Having destroyed the defense forces squadron leader, Jessika turns her attention to the other TIE/fo that has made a nuisance of itself in its attempts to take the Outrider down. The squints may outnumber them, but that just gives the freighters and the other fighters a target rich environment. Space is seemingly endless, but that still doesn't give Throneguard Two enough room to avoid the payback coming for it. Jessika guides the Outrider through a banked curve that should have let the TIE sweep in behind her. "Disable the inertial dampeners on my mark." The sensor blip indicates it's already starting to commit to a run against her. "Mark!" Leebo hits the switch, and the Outrider no longer attempts to pay attention to its flight assist compensators.
The result is the saucer-shaped freighter whipping around and putting the TIE in its sights. "Cut power to sublight engines!" Leebo throttles them down to zero, meaning the Outrider is no longer fighting against the vector it was traveling in before. Now it drifts backwards, but the twin dual cannons are aimed right at their target. From this distance, it doesn't take long for the targeting computer to acquire a firing solution. Jessika opens up the second it does, and much like the first TIE the Outrider had introduced itself to, Throneguard Two finds its shields are no match for the heavy, modified weapons. Its shields fail under the assault, and while it's not an outright kill, one of the streaking lances punches through the fighter's ion engines.
A shower of debris, superheated for the brief seconds that temperature can affect it in the vacuum of space, erupts from the TIE, and it begins to drift. Right towards the freighter that injured it so terribly.
Elrych had spent the better part of the last few minutes keeping TIE's off the others, or at least trying. He couldn't do much with the current fixed canons he had, the real hitting power was that of his two Quad turrets on the top and bottom of his YT-2000. So the majority of his focus was on maneuvering the ship so they could lay cover down on the TIE fighter screen and cause a bit of mayhem in the process. He had managed to hit the TIE that was chasing down Jess earlier before he got into the circling hell of suppressive turret fire. His R2 Unit beeped from the engine room over the comm indicating the shields were back to full. They had been taken down earlier in the fight by a TIE, the racketing of his ship a good indication that a solid hit was made. All attacks had evaded his patented Danger Sense he had honed in his training a sappy do-gooder even though he felt a strong connection to the Force on this day, apparently if you used it to enhance certain functions, others lessened in a trade off. He'd have to remember that. He finally comes back in as he sees a prime target for the picking with his low powered laser, T6... but even as crippled as he is he can't make the bolt connect. "It is not may day today... great job Ingrid... Flam, keep up the fire."
Karas and this damn Elite is having a duel along with Karas wingman, still the dance continues and sweating a bit, Karas is being pushed hard, but he and his wingman are also pushing the TIE pilot, jockeying for position to be able to get that finishing kill shot. Watching as green laser fire streak past his canopy, "Oh hell no you're shooting that green shit at me." he says as he pulls back hard pushing the HLAF to it's limit and glad that the old fighter is able to respond to what he wants, though this fighter will need some time in dry dock at how much pressure Karas is putting on the fighter. As the fighter slips right, Karas has a dead on shot and he fires watching the fighter take the full hit, than another salvo hits the TIE from behind and "BOOM!" the fighter erupts. Nodding too his wingman as he peels off, "Splash 1." he calls. and signals to his wing man to join up with the others so that they can finish off the others.
"And the big guy doesn't listen," Nova mutters, taking aim and letting fly with a three-round burst, tracking the bigwig up the ladder. The first lands low, striking sparks off the ladder, but the second and third smack the man like a pair of runaway Tauntauns. She steps forward to check on his now-prone self. "I forgot to say that we'd put you on the deck, if you were too dumb to find it yourself. We're helpful that way."
Finishing off the others turns out not to be so simple. Relayed to the Resistance spacecraft by Fiora in the pilot's seat of the landed U-wing is a panicked communique from the LSD personnel still trapped on the station: "His Lordship has been captured. Repeat: Lord Santhe is taken!" The transmission went directly to the Throneguard squadron upon whom it has an unexpected effect...
The remaining TIEs which had warred so hard with the attackers abruptly break off vectors and engage whichever courses were pre-programmed into their hyperdrives. With their patron taken, the pilots quit the field en masse.
"...Huh," Ektor grunts. "Didn't expect that. Hey, sound off, yeah? We good to get outta here?"
"All call signs, it's time to pack up and jump out before something else shows up that we can't contend with. Set your vectors and jump, I'll remain to ensure the transport makes it. Bad Day, inform the shuttle where they need to jump to." Poe was certain that they weren't brining the esteemed Lord back to a hidden Resistance base after all. The Ghost comes about and adopts a very casual cruising speed watching the station from afar.
There's not a moment of hesitation from Jessika. The TIE continues to drift towards the Outrider, and it responds with another salvo of fire from its dual heavy laser cannons. The fighter is obliterated in a shower of destructive force that leaves little evidence behind once its power plant explodes and all the pieces go rocketing off in various directions. Through careful guidance of the flight controls, Jessika gets the Outrider pointed back in the direction it was traveling before. "Dampeners on and engines to full." Leebo complies with the practiced, familiar movements of reversing the actions he'd taken moments ago. The Outrider speeds ahead of the swirling debris, though it would have bounced off its shields had it ever made it that far.
The sensor blips around them start to coalesce into one area, and then disappear. "What the.." Jessika brings the freighter around towards the main cluster that was once swarming around them, only to discover the fighters are vanishing in rapid leaps to hyperspace. "Outrider to Ghost," Jessika toggles the communication channel on. "Doesn't this seem a little.. easy to you? Shouldn't we be worried they just gave up so easy?" She doesn't like it. She's never known craft to abandon a fight like this. Not when they outnumber their opponents. She's more surprised they didn't turn on the station to try and destroy it, rather than letting someone like Santhe get captured.
"I don't like it. Just suggesting we be extra cautious." Leebo pulls up the preset navigational data for their rendezvous point as she speaks, and Jessika guides the Outrider away from the gravity well of the planet. Once the coordinates are configured and the navicomputer is sure they're not going to jump into some celestial body, Jessika and Leebo reach forward to the levers on the freighter's console and send the Outrider into hyperspace.
"Yeah it's a little too... well, even if I was paid I wouldn't run this quickly." Elrych says over the comm and he sets the Navi-computer. "Ready to jump on your mark, Ghost..." The 'Lysterfiend' maneuvers so it's on the proper vector to jump but turned just right so the turrets can pepper the running TIES as they flee.
The HLAF forms up with the others though, "HLAF 1 and 2 are here and good." he calls figuring he will use the name of the fighter. Still it's good to see everyone still here, upon hearing the command to head home, already having preprogrammed destinations for them to follow, "Alright we are heading out, everyone get home safe." he says and he and his wingman hypers out.
Nova nods to Merek, thumbing her weapon over to Kill with a loud *SNAP* of the mode switch. She looks back to the three guards. "Keep hugging that deck and count to a thousand. Be good boys and girls and do that, and I won't have to come back and hurt you," she says, backing out of the hangar and letting the door shut behind herself and Merek. "BB-8, I hope you're through with those downloads, because we have to move!" From there, it's a dash back to the hangar, and the waiting U-Wing. "Fiona! Get us out of here!"
The emergency klaxons continue to blare throughout the station as an automated voice warns all occupants to refrain from accessing breached sections and to immediately contact their nearest Sienar Corporation hazard containment team. Syngia station is still in one piece (or at least no more pieces than it had been after the Etti Lighter exploded while docked) when the last of the TIE squadron have vanished into hyperspace, to be followed soon after by Fiora's borrowed U-wing, and the array of other Resistance and pirate craft.
