Log:Resistance: Pirate King's Ransom: Part 1

Pirate King's Ransom: Part 1

OOC Date: March 22, 2019
Location: Utapau
Participants: Callax Dalso, Ektor, Elrych Cometburn, Karé Kun, Lofty, Miri Sakir, Poe Dameron, Sar Yavok, Tallissan Lintra, The Resistance

The long range tracking beacon placed by Intel has led Black Squadron to the Utapau System where- in one of the more remote caverns of the fourth planet's northern hemisphere- the pirate Terex has placed a stronghold for resupply of his brigand fleet and for fencing of ill gotten gains.

Yet shortly after the Valor arrives in system and launches fighters, the sensors report something curious: the subterranean fortress appears to be moving.

By the time the Resistance ships are close enough to verify the readings, there is no mistake; the rotation of the planet isn't playing havoc with the beacon, the signal isn't experiencing any interference, the pirate base has lifted off the planet, and quickly moved into the upper atmosphere.

Resistance sensors read it as the *Stronghold* and rate the craft as a heavily armed corvette.

'All pilots, board your craft and launch.' Yells the Valor's Captain as strobes of yellow hue rotate, shining bright flashes along the grated flooring of the fighter pylons. Thunking noises sound as the heavy footfalls of pilots sound their boarding, and engines begin to prep.

Black Leader is among the first to launch from Black Squadron's Bunkerbuster ship. Sensors initially read like the planet is messing with them, but it becomes clear that the base is not on the planet. <<"This is Black Leader, all craft sound off and form on me. Let's set up an intercept course for that beacon.">> Poe's S-Foils are locked to the open position just as his engines flare up, glowing a brighter red. "I know, pal. This isn't what we expected, but we should've known Terex would have something up his sleeve."

<<Black Eight watching your ass>> Miri sings out.

Launching out into space feels like the achingly slow beginning of a moment in time one has been waiting for forever. Kare is running through further checks on her system as she falls into position on Poe's right as they get closer. <<Copy Black Leader. Black Seven moving into position>> Her engine lights up as she hits her thrust and turns her stick to bring her up slightly back on his right wing. Her foils snap open with readiness, locking into place as she glances at the sensor readings that indicate what is coming up to meet them. "Well damn, welcome wagon," She remarks to Rev.

She keeps position but her hand begins to flex on the controls, rolling her shoulders to loosen up.

Heart in her mouth though she would never let the others know, Tallie scrambles from her bunk, pulling her gloves on and buckling her helmet at a run. Superstition, nerves, call it what you will, she wants out of the hangar and launches in a flurry of X-Wing departures. Scan reads strangely as she puts herself on Black Leader's port wing. <<Copy that Black Leader, Black 5 on you>>

Labeled late, leaving late, Cadet Delso's pale self braces himself in the cockpit of Black Ten as the fighter detaches from the launch ylons and soars off the join the rest of the strike group. << Black Leader, this is Black Ten, moving into position. >> And so does the ship in question take up formation as preordained, ready to dive into the jaws of whatever beast is made manifest.

<<Black 12, in formation,>> remarks Lt. Colonel Yavok from within cockpit of the T-85 he's been assigned. He flicks through a series of readouts before his eyes turn back to the viewport. A few moments are taken where he rolls his neck and stretches out his shoulders before he settles into his chair a bit more.

Black 11 <<Eleven here...>> Elrych responds over the comms, scanning his targeting computer for the surprise bogie. "Great..." Sfoils lock.into attack position as he forms up with the rest of his squadron. A free hand flicks through the music in his library trying to find the right feel.

Lofty the Talz has crammed himself inside Gold One's turret enclosure, commanding the ion cannons with their limited field of view. The alien has a simple flight helmet on his large head and a life support hose and monitor clipped to his fur. There is the sound of a FizzyGlug can opening as he accidentally depresses the comm button. Hot mic!

<<Gold Squad, good to go, yeah?>> Ektor drawls upon arrival in system, looking left and then right to verify the rookies flying Y-wings on his wings are where they're supposed to be, before his eye settles on the big brigand corvette. "Huh, lookit that. Hideout on wheels. That ain't a bad idea," he muses as the trio of light bombers move at maximum (for them) acceleration toward the *Stronghold*. "Damnit, Fluffy- your comm is open, again," he mutters over his shoulder at the Talz in his gunner's seat.

The pirate capital ship was clearly attempting to break orbit, slip Utapau's gravity well and escape into hyperspace, but upon realizing that outrunning the Valor isn't viable, the *Stronghold* comes about to offer battle. Launching a steady stream of starfighters from port and starboard hangars, its formidable double turbolaser batteries stab through the dark void at the Black Squadron home ship, while its 16 starfighters streak toward their Resistance counterparts. Targeting computers read Reaver Squadron (Imperial era TIE models: 2x bombers, 3x line fighters, 2x Interceptors, with a TIE Advanced flying lead) and Corsair Squadrons (3x Headhunters, a Cloakshape, a Dunelizard, and 2x V-wings, led by a Kimogila)

R2-G13 chimes in, informing Ektor of numerous new transponder signals. <<Ooh, here they come,>> a smile audible in his voice. <<Hey, Goldies: don't fly too tight through the joust, yeah? Leave yourself some room to juke without slamming into my nacelles. We can tighten up formation again once we make a run on the big boat.>>

Poe watches as fighters stream from the main vessel, and his instinct kicks in. A tactical mind analyzes the scenario quickly, and he recognizes that the formation the opposing pilots have assumed intends to occupy Black Squadron while interceptors from Reaver go after Gold. <<"Call your targets, people, and go straight through them.--">> Poe's craft angles after their Gold squadron, and the rookies being led by Lt. Apollyon see Black Leader soar ahead, engaging Reaver 2 just as he announces it over their encrypted channel. <<"Black Leader engaging Reaver 2. Opening the door for you, Gold. Give me a few to handle Reavers!">> Black Leader's blast is enough to chase the interceptor off its intended course! <<"Woohoo!">>

<<Black Leader, the Imperial fighters are heading for Gold Squadron, suggest breaking off three of Black Squad to offer cover for their approach.>> Kare speaks up as she notes the positioning of the fighters. She rocks her ship to the read as Poe opens fire and she wings in to help cover the Y-Wings which are about to be harassed by the incoming Imperial ships. <<Black 7 engaging TIE Advanced, lets watch our Golds>> She speaks up and then sweeps in face, closing that distance with a turn of her X-wing to try to shirk any return fire.

Red lances out of her foils and she lands a solid hit and lets out a breath. Her gaze narrows as she starts to prep for a quick come around.

Lofty was slurping some delicious sugary FizzyGlug from his can when the launch alert comes over the comm. He quickly pins the can between his hairy knees and brings the Y-Wing's ion turret to bear. "Deuce incoming!" Maybe he is referring to the TIE fighters that are giving chase. He lines up a shot, depressing the firing studs on the turret control and sneding two blue ion blasts toward the target. BZZZT. Electrical interference dances over the fighter, overwhelming its engines and sparking to ignite the fuel lines. A crackling chain of plasma explosions results and the TIE bomber blows up in space.

Drawing down on the ships pursuing Gold squadron - and from the look of them, perchance to be ready to tear open the Valor should they get the chance - Callax moves with liquid grace as he prepares to bring one of the lumbering bombers to an incendiary end. Alas, however, the pirate in the double-hulled bomber is no dupe, and manages to flit exactly like a brick with wings usually doesn't. "A sweetflower you are, then, darling," he murmurs to himself, banking and dancing his fighter's cruciform shape through anticipated fields of fire. "But I shall clip you yet."

Black 11 Elrych was too busy goddlong woth his music unable to find an acceptable tune yo get into the battle woth. He kept looking up and down while angling in on the TIE and blasting past the fighter acreen... shots going wide. He settles on a tune if only to reset his concentration... its really bot getting him in the mood though which cause him to grimace is discomfort.

The Imperial slash maneuver of the various TIE craft running at the Resistance bombers could have been deadly, but as Black Squadron quickly identifies the tactic, the greater damage is done to the TIEs, decimated by cross fire from the heavy hitting X-wings. Two of the eight Reavers are destroyed outright, and the volley of concussion missiles fired from Corsair Squadron- while visually impressive- fail in their intention of either destroying or driving off Black squadron from their attack run.

The corvettes begtin exchangeing fire and the initial volley is much to the advantage of the Valor, as the Stronghold struggles early with rangeing.

Gold 1 rocks lightly with a hit of TIE lasers, drawing a grin from Ektor. "I'm awake now, it's all good." Switching comms on, << I got a lock, yeah? Gold Squad, tighten up formation, and lets wreck this bastard's day, yeah? Gunners, get ready to follow up with the ions if we can knock out their shields in this pass.>>

<<"Good call, Black 7. I've already broken contact from Corsair squadron to engage. Let's split these guys down the middle and let Gold squadron do what they do best.">> Poe leans back against his seat as he watches the arc of a concussion missle narrowly miss him. "Woah! You alright back there, buddy?" Poe doesn't hazard a look because he doesn't want to lose Reaver 2. Unable to hit him though, Poe's shots go feral into the vast nothing of space. "Come on.. stop squirmin'..." His eyes narrow. <<"Black Leader still on Reaver 2.">>

Coming back around for her second pass on the TIE Advanced the incoming missile from the V-King is missed by doing a barrel roll, clearing the space where the pilot had been. Kare lets out a breath and brings her bird around tight, trying to get in on the TIE's tail, coming for a hook turn that has her momentarily pinned to the seat as the G's drive her back. She has a quick tight range to fire and off goes her foils as red sears the black void. As they impact she is passing just over it when it breaks apart.

<<Black Seven, Splash Target, moving on.>> She comes about to try to cover Gold Squad again, a slow smile, small and tight tugs at her lips.

With a chorus of whistles and a blurb of red Aurabesh spilling across the ship's interface monitor, and Callax shakes his head. "I see it, darling," he replies in answer to Fang's warning of an impending anti-capital launch. "Just you paint the battery so we can push that candle back from where it came, please." Fingers wrapping more tightly about Ten's yoke, Callax reduces velocity in preparation to try and play Space Stalingrad with the Fortress's missile battery.

S-foils snapping into position, Black 12 throttles up and breaks out of formation to begin tailing one of the TIE/lns. Settling into a pocket right behind him, Sar sends bolt after bolt toward the aft of the craft, but the TIE pilot's too nimble to take any damage. A missile whips by the cockpit of the T-85 and Sar pulls the ship into a tight spin to just barely escape the wrath of an incoming Dunelizard.

Finagling his way back behind his target, Sar fires another volley, detonating the small fighter's magazine and immolating the small fighter.

Black 11 Elrych concentration seems to pay off as his scarlet.bolts rip through one of the line TIEs. <<Splash a TIE...>> He glances to his screens to find his next tatget

Lofty downs one bomber! "Deuce down!" he warbles triumphantly as their Y-Wing makes a pass. "Second deuce!" He expertly manipulates the turret controls with his claws, bringing the ion gun to bear on the second TIE bomber, and fires a PEW-PEW. Unfortunately he misses. But his soft drink is expertly kept between his knees and does not spill.

The withering cover fire laid down by Black Squadron allows the trio of Y-wings to approach their target in tight formation, to maximize the effect of their linked proton torpedoes. In Gold 1, Ektor starts chuckling abruptly. "Hey, Fluffy.. wanna see how to piss off the maintenance guys in a hurry?" Another laugh. "Disabling the safety reload timers.. it'll burn out the firing mechanism, but.. just watch." Two toroedoes each streak out from the rookie Ywings, but from the lead wishbone, the entire torpedo magazine is emptied in rapid (and entirely unsafe) succession, making a full volley of ten toroedoes which smash through the Stronghold's fore shields, some few surviving to impact the hull, causing significant hull damage and a detonated shield generator. Gold 2 manages to follow up the devastation with a hit from the ion turret, crippling the Corvette. <<Ah hahaha! BOOM, baby!>>

The duel between fighters has been surprisingly one sided, as the numbers of the pirates are further whittled down, leaving only 4 TIEs and the 8 Corsairs.

Black 11 Elrychs search for a target doesn't come from his scans or his R2 unit finding one for him. It came in the tingles of danger the force gave him. The Headhunter angled up behind him. He dodge out of the way of both bolt befor engaging the air break and flipping his bird 180 degrees. Sure ue was now moving backwards at breakneck speed and the g forces pulled his eyes from their sockets almost but it looked cool and he wanted to impress the ladies. His guns flare to life and rip the head hunter apart before he repeatsthe maneuver and faces front again. There is a groan, "Shouldnt have had yhat heavy lunch." <<Splash a headhunter lead>>

Missiles stream in every direction as the fighters keep criss-crossing, and laser lances chase targets. Gold Squadron is launching their furious attack while the members of Black Squadron deal with the fighters trying to intercept and foil their attack. It isn't going to happen today. Poe watches in awe as Gold Squadron topples a corvette in a single run, Ektor's fly-by-the cuff technique betrays which craft he's in without Poe having to look at the holo designation. The Corvette is dead in the water and drifting. <<"All call signs, give Gold Squadron a cheer. One pass, and that boat is dead in void. Focus all attacks on the remaining fighters and wipe them out. We need to clear the air space before we begin Marine operations.">>

Poe takes a hit when diving after the Ace pilot working Reaver 2. They fly over the enemy corvette, sailing across her starboard bow and banking low in an expert twist. Poe gets a centered reading on the interceptor and squeezes the trigger for cannons, splitting the Imperial TIE in half just as its engines short and explode, consuming its cockpit.

Black Leader angles past the flickering engines of the pirate Corvette, closing his S-Foils for a moment to turn vertical and pass between a pair of strafing TIEs. Both miss their mark just as Poe grunts, yanking his speed to initiate reverse thrusters. He jerks the stick, swinging his tail about and causing his engines to sputter; G forces plant Poe firmly against his seat as BB-8 warbles in a worried tone. "HOOOOLLLD OOOOOOONNN BUDDDDDDYYYY!"

The X Wing manages a sharp turn tracing a semi-circle shape that brings the nose of Poe's craft to the sterns of both TIEs fleeing. That's when Poe slams the throttle forward against the G's, yelling out and placing his sublights back to full power! His craft springs forward, its frame, like the pilot, screaming as he closes the distance to the TIEs using cruise speeds. Just as it seems he intends to collide against their stern, his s foils open and the X-Wing dips backward immediately losing speed. Poe jerks forward, busting his lip. He looks up, eyes narrowed, and engages his cannons at close range. "BOOST SHIELDS TO FRONT, BB-8!!!" His cannons fired all four shots, but they did not have enough room to converge to the center. Poe engaged /both/ crafts simultaneously, his port cannons slamming into the back of the left bearing fighter, while Poe's starboards crushed the right bearing one. Both crafts ignite and explode just as Black Leader's S-foils close and he passes between them, spinning to go vertical at the last possible second to avoid damaging anything more than his shields. "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAH!" Fire trails off the back of his hull and BB-8 has ducked into his socket! <<"Three down! Let's give it to them!">>

Keeping out of reach of her attacker, Kare veers back around and as Poe scores three hits she pulls hard on her controls and drops low to loop back around and come up behind the V-Wing. Her engine light up and then she pulls back hard to give herelf room to fire - which is not enough. Her target curves too far to the right and her shots from her foils go wide disappearing into the darkness of space to do no harm whatsoever.<<Black Seven. Still in pursuit of V-Wing, can not get a bead on him.>> She does not pull away, rather keeps up with her target rocking her bird back and forth with it's evasive weaving pattern. Black Seven grits her teeth though as targets light up and Poe gives the go she grins and cheers in her own cockpit. <<Good shooting their, Poe! Leave some for us hot shot! Well done Gold Lead for paving the way.>> But she has a targe to keep and Kare won't be shaken free.

"So many nice booms, eh, Fiver? What can you bring up for me?" Tallie studies her target options and throttles down to drop below Black Leader. "You insisting on that Headhunter, baby Five? Then we are going for it." The young pilot weaves through incoming missiles and begins to chase the Headhunter who returns fire. The lovely rainbow of shield flare greets her and they both pull off to reorient for a new engagement.

<< Yes, hurrah, darlings, >> Callax calls over the link as the Stronghold is ionized and put dead in orbit; he's about to dial in a cannon lock on the remaining bomber when Poe plays Johnny Vibrowsaw with no less than three of the fighters in the field. "Gods above," Callax murmurs as his pupils shiver and shift into a narrow slits to compensate for the glare, and is about to get back into it when yet another stream of fire from that bloody relic from the Coruscanti Aerospace Museum, the Cloakshape, spits past, rather close this time.

"Oh, you need to go a-/way/," Callax mutters, rolling his eyes in a perfect rendition of an annoyed cheerleader; the effeminate pilot pulls back hard on the stick and brings Black Ten into a tight loop, which at its descending leg his ship on a direct course for the ship's dorsal side. All four of Ten's cannons scissor through the ancient fighter's hull, cutting it into pieces, hurtling through the spinning fragments as flames and plasma from its ruptured powerplant wash harmlessly over Ten's shield envelope. Through and past, and then back into another roll to track for fresh targets not yet bugging out.

Ektor is still laughing to himself as the formation of Y-wings bank away from the crippled corvette. Then, Poe and the rest of Black Squadron visit sudden and unexpected doom on the pirate fighters, halving their numbers in a matter of moments. "Yanno, Fluffy.. Glad I'm not a pirate, right now. Ouch." A fresh laugh bubbles up in his throat as Gold 1 adds his incisive tactical analysis of, <<WOO, BLACK SQUAD,>> to the battle.

The Corsair leader, an adept ace in a heavy Kimogila, at last sees his luck run out as Black 8 places a tight cluster of cannon shots cleanly through shields, armor, and cockpit, consuming the deadly fighter in a brief but impressive fireball. The surviving Headhunters and Dunelizard break for hyperspace vectors, leaving the V-wings and the lone remaining Reaver to seek escape in Utapau's atmosphere.

<<"That's all of them. We've sent them packing. All crafts follow me in. Valor, be advised, we're boarding the enemy corvette!">> Black Leader is seen closing its S-foils and locking onto the corvette left adrift. He angles for their hangar bay, and disappears from plain view, landing inside.--

Aaaand BAM. <<Boom boom>> Miri drawls over the coms. <<Roger that, boss. I'm pouring my good brandy when we get back to the barn.>>

It means disengaging from her target and Kare pulls back with a vexated breath, "Lucky day, lucky day," is what she says to the V-Wing who she has to let flee. <<Copy Lead, in bound.>> Black 7' s foils close and make it far less menacing as Kare directs herself to follow with the rest of Black Squadron, tilting her craft back into formation as the disabled enemy corvette allowing them to make a front entrance without so much as a peep.

<Copy that Black Leader, Black 5 inbound> A dance line of X-Wings, Lintra muses while she watches the targeting match for the hangar lock on its door and begin to flash. A first for her in this or any engagement to board an enemy. "Fiver, you are staying behind."

<< Ten, coming in. >> With a sigh, Callax closes his fighter's foils on approach to the floating, listless mammoth, and murmurs to Fang, "I wonder if I'll get shot. Good thing I'm not wearing anything lacy today, eh? Oh, la!"

He gets only a faint sputtering reply from the droid.

Black 11 Elrych closes his sfoils and angles towards the corvette. Hand idlely goes to his lightsaber as he prepares himself for whats to come.

Ektor hasn't stopped grinning since that torpedo stunt DIDN'T backfire and blow him up. << I hear you, coming around and in.. Mekil, you and Limia hang around outside, just in case, yeah?>> he orders Golds 2 and 3 as the lead Y-wing glides into the Stronghold with the rest of Black Squadron. Black 8 is echoed, <<Boom BOOM.>> with a crooked smile audible in the words.

Once inside the *Stronghold* the pilots of Black Squadron will face a wholly different world of dangers...