Log:Resistance: Returning Tide
Resistance: Returning Tide
OOC Date: February 27, 2020
Location: Saari Ha Sector
Participants: Ektor, Evie Leven, Nova Korell, Tallissan Lintra, Zhu Yan, Zandra naMuriel, Merek, Elrych Cometburn, Jax Greystorm, Sesti Greystorm, Poe Dameron
The planet Danuta in the Saari Ha sector is a terrestrial body composed largely of barren badlands, it's face littered with the deep scars left by centuries of mining. Only ten percent of the planet holds standing water, concentrated largely at the poles. It had been a wholly unimportant place for many years, until the occupation of Calamari by the First Order. Then, this out of the way sector became a key stopover for Mon Cal and Quarren ships fleeing the occupation, and now- with Dac's liberation- it is the last stop for many refugees in their long awaited return home.
But the road home for this civilian convoy has grown treacherous. The Resistance forces in the Calamari System had received a desperate distress call: they were under attack by three gunships and a number of fightercraft, and were unable to escape without rescue.
The hyperspace jump was short, but upon arrival the rescuers quickly discovered that they were not fast enough: the largest refugee ship- a Vakbeor cargo frigate- had been destroyed, its half-kilometer hull broken by volleys of proton torpedoes, and dozens of escape pods streaking through the upper atmosphere of Danuta. Three more freighters of Calamari manufacture (a Clearwater, a Simiyiar, and a Deepwater) are under fire by the guns of a Corellian frigate (the *Guardian*), an Action VI (the *Salvation*), and a smaller YT-2000 (the *High Culture*), with thirteen HLAF interceptors in close formation veering through the void on strafing runs against the Calamari Deepwater vessel *Star Tide*.
The word 'pirates' had been used, but no effort to capture the convoy was being made, and simple destruction seemed to be their intent. This operation had the look of an extermination.
The VCX-100 named Ghost, appeared in real space with a sudden flash of golden engine hue and a blue contrail. It takes a moment for the alarms in the cockpit to calm while Poe is engaging the impulse engines to carry them forward. He stands to initiate the shields, then sits back down to push the throttle. Over the encrypted alliance channel, Poe's voice is heard.
<<"This is the Ghost. All craft check in and form on me.">> Information began to stream over Poe's holo-readout and he sighs, spooling up his hardpoints. "Jess.. Kare.. you two set?" He asked over internals, BB-8 warbling about something in the background. Something about Jess+Other_designation=Great_Destroyer.
"I'm here," says Kare, her smirk evident in her voice. Jess follows. "Poe, tell your droid to come back before I space it and give truth to this name he's given me." Poe and Kare chuckle.
Target priority for bombers go to the frigate, and Poe has indicated his target is for the Action VI.
Merek finishes up the drink he kept with him, which looks like a nice milkshake, then he places that into the trash unit, while he speaks on comlink, <"This is Thunderbolt 2, arriving in system.>" He then speaks to his two gunners, "Sarmick, Taluka, if you would, please keep on the enemy. Gadget, you're on repair, if we need to switch on to full repair, you three take that, I'll be evading. I wouldn't want that Comet to think I'm playing with his things for my own peace of mind."
It looks like the Thunderbolt 2 an ARC-170 arrives from hyperspace, the engines switching from hyperspace to the thrusters, bringing them forward into combat. The weapons begin to charge while the targeting computer brings up information. The man is wearing his nice black gloves along with the black attire, as are both the ones on his team. The fighter still looks like Republic tech, though the transponder looks like it's civilian at least!
Zandra drops into sublight, and she's on the throttle on her a-wing. Her own system alarms are bleeping like nobody's business, so much so she can hardly hear Poe over them. So she adjusts volume and then moves to take position as requested. <<Black 10 forming up, and taking position, >> she says. << I do have jammers if needed, and am going to start aiming at the fighters otherwise.>> Which ones? well, whichever catches her fancy at this point, unless Poe has other ideas. At the moment, she's sizing up the baddies, and frowning at all those escape pods. <<Gonna need to get someone down to the planet to rescue quite a few.>> Note to self. She takes a deep breath, meditating for a quick moment, and there is a calm look on her face just a few moments there after. <<Let's rumble.>> Now who taught the young ace pilot that line?
<"Just what do these monsters think they are doing? They give pirates a good name.> Captain Lintra's gloved hands clutch the yoke of the X-85 as she gets the first in-system status on her holoprojector. A system run amuck and streaked with the traces of escape pods.
"Are those transponders names for real? Fiver, give me a fix on the nearest target we hit! I want the Simiyiar but we will back Poe up on the Action VI." Targets are pinpointed red with a commentary beeped and whistled on the number of fighters deployed by the droid. "Alright, missile lock, my friend." She touches the white scarf knotted at her throat for luck, opens the S-foils on the X-Wing and zooms into the fight.
On board the Deepwater, the Mon Calamari pilot Karbin is doing his best to keep the ship moving to avoid any serious damage. <<Repeat, this is the Star Tide, under heavy attack! We need immediate assistance!>> he shouts into the comms, his long floppy fish hands slapping at alarms to turn them off, and hoping to get a little more power to engines to avoid becoming space debris. "This is the second time I've been attacked in this system. If we survive this, we are /NEVER/ coming here again." he continues trying to keep everyone alive, but is certain that may not be possible for long. "Give me all power to shields and engines, and pray to whatever gods you believe in, we are going to need a miracle to get out of here."
From the surface into this mess comes Jax Greystorm in his Helix Interceptor, the Painted Warrior. The pilot was busy taking off and minding his own business when the R5 in the cabin behind him beeps and squwacks at him. "What do you mean Pirates? Also stop calling me, Commander." Jax's hand reaches up to adjust his shields, "I don't care what you called people in the clone wars." The droid lets out an sound simulating a a sigh. "I am not a Padawan." Then the droid says something, " Oh no we're not calling me, General Greystorm. Fine I'll go with Commanders. Yeah I Know there's an Arc-170 out there. You told me about the clones." Jax sighs, "I can't believe I'm saying this, I miss Exine." Then he opens up a general broadcast, <Resistance forces, this is the Painted Warrior. Looks like these Pirates are pros. Where do you want me?>
She's got an awful lot of red in her ledger.
That's definitely one of the reasons that the Empress of the Void is here. She knows that some of the orders she's followed in the past weren't the most noble. It's easy to see clearer when looking a) from the outside and b) in hindsight. The other reason? She was /asked./ In truth, that's the main reason. She was asked. If a friend tells her they need her help... she's there, no question. If a stranger has credits that spend well and doesn't want her to do something she won't be able to look herself in the mirror after? She's there, too. Right now, 'there' is in the cockpit of a classic (don't call it old!) Z-95 Headhunter, with her droid, another relic to days gone by, manning the socket behind her. /That's/ going to take a little getting used to. Flying /with/ help. Automated help.
<< "Empress on site, boys and girls. Let's see if the sequel's as good as the original, shall we?" >> ...it's the second time, now, that Evie's flown on the same side as members of Black Squadron. It's also the second time that she's flown when this very /particular/ Deepwater has been under attack.
We won't mention who's side she was on that time, though.
A flash of light and the sleek form of a T-85 X-Wing in black with an orange trim appears not far off from where the Ghost reverted into real space. <<"Black 12 here...">> Report Elrych, his usual groove setting music playing in the background. His droid, Eggsy, wih him as always, <<"Be careful with that collectable Spooky cloak... she cost more than a wishbone.">> He angles in towards the fighters, shifting his shields appropriately and locking s-foils into attack position. Taking a deep breath, he reaches out to the force for guidance.
FWOOMP. The reversion to realspace when crammed into a tiny lil fighter was starting to get a bit unfamiliar to Zhu Yan (what a man!), who'd been sitting in freighter cockpits and Space Whale bridges. He may be tiny but that was never a free pass for full movement in an X-Wing. "<<Heartbreak One on standby,>>" he commed, and flipped a toggle above his head. The swIRRRRH of S-Foils opening was music to his ears. "Empress?" asked Yan to his droid, falling in behind the Ghost in escort. "Where did she get that name?"
Reddie the R3's response was far too impolite to ever grace text.
Another T-85 drops into realspace, strike foils already locking into attack position and deflectors springing into existence. <Black 11, standing by,> comes Nova Korell's businesslike tones over the com. <That's... a lot of ugly around those refugee ships. I guess Goons 'R Us had a clearance sale. Volunteering to thin out those fighters, Lead. Those light vessels won't last long under all that bombardment.>
<<Black- uh.. Gold? Black-Gold Seven here. Leader. Whatever, I'm here,>> Ektor rambles when prompted, the nacelles of his battered light bomber glowing orange as he accelerates the Y-wing toward the unfolding fight. Noting Poe's instructions, he sets course for the big Corellian Gunship, the *Guardian*, and arms proton bombs. <<On approach to the frigate, gonna wreck some face, baby. ..Not for nothing, Moonbeam, Corellian boats are just the worst, yeah?>> A dumb chuckle and clear smile are audible in his voice as the bomber pilot notes, <<Evie! Good to see you, yeah?>> A cheerful reunion. Despite the ongoing war crimes.
A number of pirate fighters break off pursuit to engage or delay the new arrivals, while the point defense turrets to the larger Corellian made ships flare to life.
<<"Some of you split off and punch those fighters in the face. Those of you up for a heavy fight, follow me after that Action VI. We're going to rekk it up some!">> Poe says, angling the Ghost into an intercept course. With shields at full capacity, the only alarms sounding in the cockpit were proximity and target locking sounds. "Ladies, we're going in!" Poe informed Kare and Jess; Kare giggled as she began to open up with the Ion cannon. Poe blasts the Action VI with two dual heavies, and angles up, leaving Jess to tag them HARD for a third time. "Good hits, Poe, let's get another pass!" Commands Jessika, who seems eager to make something hurt. "Coming around," Poe indicates, twisting the ship!
Merek brings up the targeting while he begins to lock protons onto the frigate with Poe's orders. That lock is placed upon the ship, while he nods a bit, then speaks to the comlink, <"Targeting acquired with the frigate."> Meanwhile, Taluka along with Sarmick fire on the HLAF fighters, with one of the cannons swinging into the side of their shields. "Nice firing!"
Zan hears the expected orders - some of them really aren't going to do much against the heavies, check. <<with you, Black 11. Let's start in on those fighters. Black 10 engaging HLAF designation 'whatever 1' >> She throttles up and the A wing leaps forward, the zippy little fighter zooming into the combat zone with extreme prejudice. She's got the jump, she's got good lasers and she's not happy with folks killing refugees. She screams in, lets loose with all lasers and drops to evade, as she spins to come back around for another pass.
<"Black 5 with missile lock on the Action VI. Rekking it up with you, Poe!> The Ghost under Poe's able hands has already started to lay hurt on the freighter. The droid riding behind Tallie sends the missile lock alert to her boards. They come in on Ghost's starboard, engines flaring blue, ready to do harm to the pirates.
In the heat of battle Jax doesn't get a response, "Alright, Well lets hope they figure out, I'm on their side." The Corellian enters the fray as the Resistance gets to work. The Corellian targeting the yt-200. The heavy cannons of his Helix aimed at the YT-2000 as he goes to target the top of the ship. The R5 droning on behind him and Jax goes, "Wait, what? Yo did what over Mygeeto?" Then realizes he missed the shot.
<< "Right back atcha, Pirate King." >> Evie replies, grinning under the helmet of her armor as she hears Ektor's voice. Heck, there's a lot of voices that she recognizes coming over the comms... it's almost a little mindboggling for her to realize just how /quickly/ the voices are becoming familiar to her. << "I'll see if I can't pick off some of those bugs /before/ they hit your cockpit, Ghost. Y'all make me proud over there!" >> Evie calls out, before breaking off to follow Thunderbolt 2, Black 10 and 11 into the crowd of HLAFs. Evie's always been her best when she's dancing, and this seems like a great opportunity to do just that.
Flying /behind/ 10, she's in a perfect position to watch as Zandra's A-Wing tears into the HLAF... and likewise to follow up with more of her own. Poor, poor, little glass bird. The HLAF that gets double-teamed by the lazor-equipped women explodes in a bright display of righteous vengeance. << "That's what I'm talking about! Great shootin', Ten!" >> she chirps.
Elrych can feel it, he can really feel it. "It's like fire!" He sings to the jamming tune wailing through his cockpit. Shades forms up on the flight moving into to head off the fighters and give them something to think about other than protecting their flotilla of armed freighters and the gunboat. He angles in on Guardian 2, at least that's what his computer is identifying it as. "Guardian, really?" Getting a green tone, he links his cannons, spitting crimson death towards the HLAF. IT hammers away the shields and rips into the hull. He rockets past, and starts a maneuever to come back around, either to finish it off or pick off another target it someone else came in for the kill.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
That time between beeps was too long and it was not shrinking and Zhu Yan said something in Huttese that would make mothers and children both cry. Pressing a button he flicked his weapon systems back to laser fire. That at least stopped the beeping. Joy. "<<Heartbreak One, engage,>>" he reported in, flipping the T-70 on to its side and banking after one of the HLAF fighters. His laser fire was good, but this guy was better. "<<Does something seem off to you, with names like Guardian?>>" Not (nor ever) being military, Yan didn't know comm protocol. In fact his comm protocol was usually swearing.
Nova opens fire on one of those HLAFs... with predictable results. Sighing disgustedly at the random unfairness of the universe, she keeps on the thing's tail. <Hope you guys are having better luck than I am...>
Karbin continues to focus as much as possible on flying his ship, while space around him is gone to the galactic toilet. "What do you mean there are people shooting the pirates?? WHY ARE YOU CHEERING? Do we LOOK safe yet?" he flails an arm that he can spare from the controls. "Focus on your duties! They may be fighting for who gets the rights to blow us up, we have to get out of here!" As another wave of ships come for a run against him, he tries to keep his most armored and shielded sections towards the danger, trying to extend the life of his ship and its crew.
"Forget about Mygeeto, Fives, stop distracting him," Sesti growls from the co-pilot position as she lines up on the YT Jax has targeted. She tags the freighter, putting some damage on the shields. "Shields are damaged... Commander," she pauses before she says the title with a little smirk. "See if you can maybe finish them off, now?"
<<Heh. Pirate King? I like it. Arriht going in close to blow some miiiinds,>> Ektor drawls, guiding his liht bomber on approach to the Corellian-made frigate, weaving between bolts of defensive cannonfire. One of the turrets lands a hit on his forward shields, but the reformed (?) pirate just grins. "Oooh, they wanna play. I like it."
Shortly after missile lock alarms begin to blare on the bridge of the Action VI *Salvation*, the captain shouts for the "Jammer!" and the sensor officer activates the black market comm jammer. Missile locks are lost for ten kilometers. The frigate?s heavy guns largely miss the bi Calamari Clearwater transport, but even the glancing hit wracks its shields. Although the bandit fighters aren?t holding up well against the stronger rescue craft, they still might buy enough time to see more of the refugees gunned down.
A hard hit rocks the Ghost, and Poe bounces in his seat as one of the control panels overloads. He glances to BB-8 who looks back at him. "Who's fixing that? Am I fixing it? Are you fixing it?" BB-8 begins fixing it, --IT-- being the shields. "We're coming around for another pass, ladies!" Poe centers up, engaging the Action VI with cannons while Kare opens up with the Ions. It's a beautiful sight, to be honest.
"BB-8 says he has the shields back up to a comfortable level, but that we're being jammed!" Poe says, flying them past another series of red flashes. "Worry more about them shooting us and less about comms!" Jessika says, experiencing a bit of disorientation after blasting from the aft cannons.
Merek looks to the computer screen while he thinks about it, then he notices that the target lock has been snapped away from the frigate. He nods a bit while one of the foes fire on him, then he does an aileron roll, the wings spinning around while they maneuver expertly away from the cannon blasts that come from the HLAF. The gloves shift a bit upon the control stick while he maneuvers about into turn, his fingers clicking the trigger which fires both heavy laser cannons clean into the Action IV Tranport, a little piece of the hull blasting away, disabling the weapons system. He forms up with the Ghost, a thumbs up offered to the viewport. <"Action IV weapons are offline!">
Taluka along with Sarmick begin to fire on the enemy, with the HLAF managing to clean away from the two. The Thunderbolt 2 looks like it's doing well though. Is that really Corporal Black in the fighter.
Zan does get shot at, as one of the Guardian HLAF types tries to hit her, but she dodges it easily. She targets back, shooting, but these pilots are indeed pros and they know what they're doing. "Guess that's how much he liked shooting at me," Zan mutters, scowling at her systems. <<Black 10, still firing, nice shooting Empress!>> She doesn't know who Empress is, but hey, that shooting works for her.
Targets brackets are beautiful pulsing green, Tallie's thumb taps next to the firing mechanism when a screech makes her wince, gritting her teeth. Fiver screams binary disapproval as their targeting fails and they lose missile lock. "Drek this, drek them. We are going to light up one of the HLAF." Reorienting they head into the dogfight with the HLAFs.
Black 5's cockpit flares a lurid red, even with the special shielding on her helmet Tallie squints and flinches at the close call. Flipping the X-Wing into a loop she double backs on the attack fighter that tried to give her hair a makeover and fires leaving it with half shields.
Jax shoots Sesti a look, "Nice shot, Princess. Don't start with me, you missed him calling me General Greystorm." Jax says as his lets the force flow through him and dodges the shots of the High Culture, <So who named these guy? Is this supposed to be Ironic?> He says coming around with another joust. His cannon scoring on target. "Better us than some civillians?"
<< "You gotta loosen up, Eleven!" >> Evie giggles over the comms. A real professional, the Empress of the Void is. But that's a number that she just... doesn't associate with /other/ people. For it to be the person in question, it's even more amusing to her. << "Just /feel/ the void around you, the stick is just an extension of your hands. Don't be too stiff, you'll offend your bird." >> She sways her own stick as she flies normally -- now, she makes it a bit more pronounced. Swaying hard as she flies, almost reminiscent of a leaf on the wind.
Fortunately, the pilot that's decided they can't get her out of their sights -- and really, she can't blame them -- is not keeping up with the Kuati's 'dance' as well as he'd hoped. Laser goes wide, and Evie's unscathed. << "See? Just like that!" >>
Then Ten's going out for another kill, and Evie's hoping to take advantage of the situation to space another HLAF -- the less of /them/ out there, the less lasers there are coming the way of the Calamari. Really, that's Evie's main priority here. It's not only the group's mission, but her personal one, as well. << "Think they're Guarding the /big guns,/ Heartbreak." >> That voice sounds familiar, but she can't /quite/ place it. << "Thanks, Ten! These boys don't stand a chance with us flygirls on the case!" >> 'Ten', Zandra, is one of the stranger voices in the field... but frankly? The best way to make a new friend, in Evie's book, is to help them out in a dance -- and that's just what she'll be doing!
Elrych comes about, twisting the stick so his T-85 rolls out of the way of light canon fire from one of the Guardian Squadron. <<"Yeah... it is weird that they're named Guardian...">> It didn't matter though. They were attacking refugees and if any survived his mess, they could be questioned by Republic Intel. The Corellian shivers at the thought of dealing with the beurocratic mess that would involve. Or it could be as simple at Evie's explination. It was probably that.
"Alright... focus..." Taking a breath, he sights in on Guadrian Two, chasing down the speedy Corellian Fighter. He gets a green tone for just a second, letting of vvolly from his linked cannons go, but his adversary jukes out of the way early, having seen it coming. "Alright... you want to make this hard for me... I'll make you want to give up at life."
Splashes on shields sent cold water running down Yan's spine. "Schutta," he hissed out, smacking his stick to the left, cutting thrust abruptly, then jamming the throttle so far forward he almost broke it. This caused the X-Wing to do a half-pirouette and promptly rocket off and away from Yan's target and towards empty, safe space. Was he heavily damaged? No, but Zhu Yan's first priority is Zhu Yan at all times and thus it made him hilariously impotent in a fighter, some days. But he wasn't dying! "Are you gonna boost the shields?!" he complained to his backseat mother, sorry, astromech.
Reddie's response was something along the lines of 'why should I', and made Yan seriously reconsider not wiping her memory a long time ago.
Nova winces at the telltale com-squall of a sensor jammer and continues her fruitless pursuit of that slippery HLAF, wasting energy while the enemy wastes fuel narrowly dodging. And frankly wondering why she bothered showing up. Surely there was some boring doorway to guard someplace... some task she could be useful at. <If somebody else could flatten this clown while he's busy laughing at me? I'd definitely appreciate it. He ought to be plenty distracted.>
"I did not miss it, but I agree that that is just not right. It is almost as bad as 'princess'." Sesti replies, still focused on the target as they swing around. "Not being shot at by the good guys so far," she murmurs as she waits for just the right moment to let loose on the YT, bring their sheilds down to "about one quarter shields left," purple eyes checking the sensor readout.
The Star Tide, Karbin continues to fly like a drunken Twi'lek with their lekku on the controls. "Someone give me a status report! Have those new contacts shot at us? Has anyone identified them? And why haven't they decided we are not a threat and to shoot someone else first!" he breaks hard right, avoiding a run from one of the hostile pirates. "And while we're at it, someone delete this system from our star charts. If anyone asks me to fly through here again, I give full permission to punch them!" he makes a big floppy fish hand fist and shakes it in the air, then quickly puts it back on the controls trying his best to break any weapon locks someone may be trying to get on his ship.
A pair of glowing blue proton bombs plummet from Ektor's Y-wing to detonate on the frigate *Guardian's* shields, while the Tionese pilot almost lazily evades volleys of turret fire, making the old warhorse of a light bomber prance like a show pony. "One more volley oughta do it.."
The fight grows desperate on the part of the attackers, as several vessels begin to vector toward hyperspace escape routes. The weapon systems on the Action VI are briefly knocked offline, as heavy cannons rip into the armored hull, dealing crippling damage. Shields fk cjer back online, but the *Salvation* remains in need of its namesake.
Kare smirks as her face lights up with the blue of her ion cannon shots. "I love it when he does this." Said more to Jess than Poe, despite Poe being on the internal line. Jess grunts, reaching out to flick a few switches in the docked fighter to enhance her targeting parameters. "Hang on back there!" Poe warns. The view from the cockpit shows a holo-flight path being ignored for something crazier. The Ghost spins by slowly, avoiding the fire of a passing HLAF, then dips downward to bring the Action VI in view. From an outside perspective, the Ghost begins to open fire at the cyclic rate. Red lances paired with the blue of Ion go in split directions.
Poe flies the Ghost toward the Action VI, carving right through the hull before it begins to flicker and combust. Meanwhile, Kare and Jess have started to hammer the frigate, which Poe is now flying over attempting to draw its attention! <<"Tion.. we busted her up for you! Drop those torps and call it a day, buddy! Hahaha!">> The Ghost is heading toward the open void now, her golden hued engines leaving a glaring contrail before it curves back around. Poe flips down a series of switches. "Yeah, I hear 'em, pal.." He says offhandedly to BB-8.
Merek looks to the Action IV when Poe looks like he's finishing the fight, with a nod while he begins to shift attention back to the frigate, while he looks to the missiles that fire into the hull. Then he's taking a moment to place his targeting computer away, looking to the viewport while he begins to lift up both hands to the control stick. <"Trust in the Force, we won't let them take anymore refugees. We work for a free galaxy, one in which the civilians can be safe.">
The pilot begins to shift into an aileron, only to swing that ARC-170 into a path that brings the guidance position of the frigate into view. He then places a hand upon the stick, his finger shifting to the trigger, <"For every man and woman, that whose family you took from them, you pirates. I put every bit of their fury into this."> Then he launches the proton missile, without guidance system. The thing that those that see might notice, it is straight and into the hull of the frigate. It's about perfect, he then nods a bit while his droid as well as gunners get back to work as well.
Zan dodges easily, her a wing still flying circles around the hlaf that is shooting at her. She grins at aall the good shooting going on around her. Lovely to see, even as she misses her own shooting. She lights up the cockpit of the guy she's shooting at, though, giving him a clear warning. She zigzags and rolls that a wing around, hot on the tail of that HLAF. Unless of course someone else shot it. If nothing else, she's having fun flying.
<"Whew, Ghost. Show them some muscle, Poe!"> The breakup of the Action VI has Tallie dodging pieces and yelling into coms. Still grinning to herself she focuses on her targeting projections, looping back to starboard to avoid having her hair mussed.
She finishes the fight with the HLAF Five and opens throttles to race after another that she lights up, separating the port wing from the cockpit breaking it into pieces. Her third shot is returned splashing her canopy bright red. "Fiver, you on that?" <"Splash HLAF 5 and HLAF 6">
"I love you." Jax says to Sesti as she gets the shields on the 'High Culture' down to under 25. The resulting joust causes the Shield to go below half. "Fives, Put some of that Clone War's wizardary to work. Get the shields back up and running." Then the little droid starts working. Jax takes a shot on the yt-200 and the pilot proves Jax's not the only freighter pilot with fighter pilot moves. This one just happens to be good. He looks at Sest and gives her a smile. "See if you can send these guys running?"
Ship is rocked. Shields go down. Evie's nose wrinkles. They. Touched. Her. Ship. Well, technically it's not her ship, it's a loaner... but she's in it, which /makes/ it hers. Which makes that shot a personal insult against her.
This. Means. WAR.
<< "Alright, Black Squadron... you boys some of the rumors true about /y'all/, it's time to show you why they call me the Empress of the Void." >> she declares, breaking off from Ten's wing and pulling back hard on the /Classic/ Z-95, Getting a view above the battlefield. Eyeballing targets, and feeling the void take her as she starts to complete the loop. "It's showtime!" she declares, voice echoing in her cockpit as fingers squeeze triggers. Lasers tear through the emptiness and into not one, but two of the enemy HLAFs... and /through/ them.
Inside the cockpit, Evie smiles. That is /exactly/ the ego boost she wanted. Not that /her/ ego needs a boost.
Elrych is locked into the dog-fight with Guardian Two, each twisting and turning through the now burning wreckage of the Action IV it had been charged to protect. "No, no, no you don't..." He gets a solid green lock with his canons, letting them rip. At least one of the deadly crimson bolts smash into the damaged HLAF, causing it to sin violently and then smash into what's left of the Action IV's hull. It explodes in a violent fireball. Shade's pulls away, up and back towards the fighter screen the rest are making short work of. <<"Black 12, splash Guardian Two... he didn't want to give up.">> The Jedi was known not to pursue evasive craft who gave up fighting... as a question of morals. <<"So does this mean that Merek is Spooky-fury now?">>
The sudden restoration of the sensor board combined with the visual rippling of torpedo impacts caused Zhu Yan's Opportunityometer to go off like a land mine. His head snapped upwards and eyes locked on to the stricken Corellian Frigate. "Mine," he said as he flipped the fighter around, his head replicating his interstellar gymnastics to never lose sight of his target. "Mine mine mine mine MINE MINE MINE!" he was ranting, setting engines to full and weapons to as full as they could go. Aiming towards the smack bang middle of all the sparky bits, blowing straight past the ARC-170 that did all the hard yards, Yan emptied his laser banks straight into the most damaged bit.
The Frigate, having dealt with far too much stress for one day, straight-up checked out of life as Yan's X-Wing rocketed past at a speed beyond 'attack', past 'HELP ME', and somewhere in the realm of 'Poe Dameron take the wheel'. "<<Heartbreak One, frigate down,>>" was his cool as a lothcucumber voice, because CLEARLY he was the hero here. "<<Don't all praise me at once.>>"
Oh Yan, one day you'll learn that the other people in your life aren't just NPCs.
Others seem to be taking over the job of taking down the HLAFs. Nova knows that Helix, and shifts targets to back up Jax and Sesti.
And even the /freighter/ manages to dodge, in spite of the True Gunner patch on her shoulder. Just one more nail in the coffin of this ridiculously bad night. At this point, she'd welcome the darkness.
"I know," Sesti replies with a fond smirk. "You just keep us from being hit, flyboy." She's focused, never losing sight of her target, or aim. She takes a little longer with this one, and almost misses her shot, but it's good enough. "Leave the scaring to me, you are too cute to be scary." She turns in her seat and winks towards him, watching fives get to work. Karbin is still flying evasive, not taking a chance to look at anything to see whats happening in case that move is his fatal last. One of the crew comes up behind him and taps him on the shoulder. "What! What is it!" he slams the ship into a hard left turn, "Karbin, the pirates are leaving, we're safe." Karbin corrects course and speed, bring the ship to a stop as soon as possible. "Oh. Oh. Good. Someome thank whomever came to help us." he stands up and walks away from the controls. "Don't interrupt me for a while, I think I haven't taken the time to blink since this started." and with that, he walks over to a large water tank, opens the hatch and flops into it, his hand reaching up to seal it shut while he relaxes submerged. "I hate this system. Hate it. So much hate."
<< I hear you, Pretty Boy: one big boom coming->> Ektor begins, as a pair of torpedoes from Merek's ARC streak past and inflict heinous damage on the dying frigate. Also Yan is there. <<Holy drek.. Spooky-cloak.. you did *good*, yeah?>> With a chuckle that breaks off into a wince as the Headhunter loses shields, <<Evie, can you maybe *not* get blown up? The paint on that thing's fresh.>> No it isn't. And then a riot of competence breaks out. <<Uh. I mean, ah.. yeah. Uhn. That'll.. that'll do.>> With a sharp exhale he mutters, "Shut up," to his astromech as R2-G13 titters that a civilian is outflying him. Cannons go live, and the Y-wing tracks down a pair of the nimble Corellian interceptors, anticipating their evasive courses and tearing them apart in quick succession. <<Boom, baby.>>
The bandit fighters had lasted for a long time losing only one of their number. But when the dogfight turns, it turns fast; the Action VI, Corellian Gunship, and seven fighters are destroyed within moments of each other, leaving the remaining quintet of HLAFs and the *High Culture* to flee in haste, leaving the damaged Calamari ships behind. They will linger long enough to recover the escape pods of the destroyed Vakbeor, before completing their return home.
